tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-357064142024-03-05T16:36:52.924-08:00Diary of a BeergeekOn Brewing, Beer as Cuisine and the Appreciation of Real BeerJeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-7228500848701276572015-01-24T10:27:00.000-08:002015-01-24T10:27:41.205-08:00Mic Check 2015
<a href="http://youtu.be/EuNnbiRmX0A">Yeah, is this mic on?</a>
Fank yeeeeewww!Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-19259026969939124802013-08-18T18:14:00.001-07:002013-08-18T18:14:54.770-07:00Psychotic Extraction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUN54bZW2u-Iby0JPg3t9sZxovPaUzgitomQtPg85TcGpY3aI526qFEN4yXvPKuRH0hMIj_Tg4qgxNDgZp_H7FkvRXX1j_7K_u5fBRnfDBzJsYpRheJvgQzNOKXu46-EhzQm_mg/s1600/PSYCHEX_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUN54bZW2u-Iby0JPg3t9sZxovPaUzgitomQtPg85TcGpY3aI526qFEN4yXvPKuRH0hMIj_Tg4qgxNDgZp_H7FkvRXX1j_7K_u5fBRnfDBzJsYpRheJvgQzNOKXu46-EhzQm_mg/s320/PSYCHEX_002.jpg" /></a></div>
So we've got a Coffee + Beer event coming up at the Lab in September. I'll be brewing up a batch for the show. I'm not much of a coffee + beer aficionado so the challenge was to think of a way to avoid using coffee as an adjunct - which is the approach most people would take. Planning the flavor profile of a dark beer and using coffee in place of kilned or roasted malts is perfectly reasonable. I want to do something different, that being the use of cold extract coffee as brewing liquor. I figure 3 pounds of fine grind medium roast will produce an easy 10 gallons of coffee that I'll use to make a 5 gallon batch of Strong Ale - mid 1.070's, mostly pale malt, some caravienne/munich, a little Special B, a pinch of Brown malt, mash a little hot for residual sweetness, firm balancing Cascade bitterness, and ferment with the Chico yeast for a good attenuation. See how it goes...Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-27173530578322089702011-06-25T11:05:00.000-07:002011-06-26T09:56:32.636-07:00Culture Media - Lime Bitters FlavorWelp, my Uncle Mac liked to say "You always go to school on the first one". The Lime Bitters is finished and what we have is a solid gelatinous block of bittersweet citrusy goodness. Following the <a href="http://www.make-martinis-at-home.com/bittersrecipe.html" target="_blank">"Regans' Orange Bitters No.6"</a> recipe; I separated the booze from the botanicals, boiled & steeped the solids in water, and left that to soak. The final step is to combine the two steeps and sweeten. The bitter alcohol portion was wonderful - pure lime bitters excitement. The bitter water portion was a little challenging - weird, semi-solid, and slimy. It passed the "Looks OK & tastes OK test" so I proceeded to finish. Pint of bitter lime rum, pint of runny slightly gelatinous goo, and a cup of invert sugar syrup hardening in a small non-stick saucepan - check! Got it mixed together, glopped into an empty fifth bottle, and into the fridge. Fixed us a round of vodka tonics with lime bitters as taste test and the result is very good. This batch of lime bitters doesn't score very high on appearance but the flavor is exactly what I had in mind; an herbal spiciness, resinous bitterness, and a bright lime citrus flavor on top of it all. Next time I'll forgo the extra water steep, sweeten that second pint of water, and expect a slightly milder bitters. Now on to the next batch...<br /><br />Update: So after a little sleuthing, we've decided that boiling the botanicals with the fruit for the hot water steep set the <span style="font-weight:bold;">pectin</span> in the fruit. And well and truly set it is, I've got a fifth of lime bitters that ain't goin' nowhere.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-33746391088219201302011-05-11T21:21:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:46:56.715-07:00Lime BittersSo we've been doing a bit of cocktailing lately. Or rather moving on from our comfortable Classic Martini, Gin & Tonic, and Whiskey Sour when-we-want-a-cocktail routine and getting better acquainted with the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, and the Negroni (as a start). Yeah, I'm still a 2nd level Cocktailist, but my AC and saving throw against cocktail ignorance are coming up. I thank you. Part of my investigations into quality cocktails has been a lot of reading up on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitters" target="_blank">bitters</a>, the patent medicine-style infusions and tinctures that are used to add depth and dimension to cocktails. Angostura and Peychaud's are examples of classic aromatic bitters and there are a ton of contemporary bitters producers replicating long lost commercial examples; orange bitters, celery bitters, etc. So, in keeping with the current "F*ck it, I'll make my own" motif that I've been operating under I've decided to make my own bitters. After I've already stocked up on Angostura, Peychaud's, and Regan's Orange Bitters, of course. So I decided to start with lime bitters, "I don't know, maybe it'll turn out OK and we can use it in G&T's". Now "<a href="http://www.make-martinis-at-home.com/bittersrecipe.html" target="_blank">"Regans' Orange Bitters No.6"</a>" is out on the internet so I used that as a starting point and replaced the orange component with fresh lime. That was a week ago and OMFG!!! this sh*z is teh deelizious!!! I'm never buying commercial bitters again. Just having the ingredients on hand putting this batch together has given me enough insight that an excellent aromatic bitters is right around the corner. Thank you Mr. Angostura, thank you Mr. Peychaud, but your services will no longer be required.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-62585586837672002332011-05-11T20:14:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:46:56.747-07:00AquavitHad a great beer dinner a while back at Brandon's and had a spot of Aquavit as a digestif. Very very nice finish to the evening. Spicy, earthy notes behind a very firm and floral anise flavor with a lingering sweetness. Very nice indeed. So along with that, we've been watching episodes of "New Scandinavian Cooking" over and over. One of the recipes that the Norwegian food writer/chef Andreas Viestad (though I like the Dane, Claus Meyer, better - I get the feeling that his cuisine is a lot closer to the Danish culture, closer to the place it comes from, and I like the simpler, "cooking by hand" feel of it) has shared is for Aquavit, the ubiquitous Norse schnapps-style liquor flavored with caraway, fennel, dill, and anise. Aquavit has always held a certain charm for me, even though I've only come to it very recently. When I was a mere 'Tween I had a stack of cookbooks that were in the same rotation as Tolkein, Herbert, Heinlein, and Stephen King, one of which was the Time-Life book "The Cooking of Scandinavia". Very appealing to me to read about the food and associated culture of part of my heritage, with the one thing making the biggest impression on me being the mention of Aquavit and the traditional "Skål" that accompanies it. Illustrated by a very suave Max von Sydow; hold your aquavit glass in front of you, look your company in the eyes, "Skål" is cheerfully offered as you raise your glass, down the hatch, and you return to look your company in the eyes. Very civilized, very convivial, and bad ass. So fast forward a bit, and lately I've been getting more and more interested in expanding the kinds of food products that we make for ourselves. Getting better informed and pointed toward making more charcuterie, pickling food, cheese making and baking. Anyway, I put some Aquavit together. Took a bit of an experimental approach to it for the first pass, put together a base mixture of caraway, fennel, and dill seed along with star anise and whole clove (all traditional ingredients). Picked out a 2 liter bottle of middling vodka and put that spice mix into 4 separate splits. In three of those splits I added a larger proportion of caraway, fennel, and dill for a more pronounced flavor, and in the fourth split I added crushed black pepper and strips of fresh lemon zest. My thinking was to let these sit, filter them, and go through a convoluted program of blending small portions of each to get a nice result. Pffft, whatever! So after 3 weeks rest I got all the filtering done last night, the result being a beautiful golden hued, intensely aromatic, and inviting infusion. And after a few samples, the well considered attempt at blending was decidedly unnecessary. The black pepper & lemon peel stands on it's own; intense Lemon Pledge aromas upfront, very lively interplay of fennel/anise, black pepper spice, and resinous citrus through the middle palate finishing with a modest heat from the black pepper lingering very late. For the more "traditional" style 'Vit, I'll bottle one part each of the caraway & dill portions with two parts of the fennel portion. After a bit of sampling (ha, ha), I feel the base mixture of spices is probably a bit fennel/anise forward (which I like). On their own, each portion shows the extra ingredient very well (as I expected); the caraway is grassy & spicy, the fennel is very floral & intensely licorice-like, and the dill is very herbal with interesting fresh cut grass/floral notes. The "house" Aquavit should end up with a nice caraway/dill character backing up a pretty firm fennel/anise flavor. Some of the Aquavit recipes I looked at required that it be sweetened, which I'll take a pass on. So far at least, this first attempt doesn't need it. I think that I should have enough of each split after putting a big bottle together that I can put another bottle together and rest it on some sour mash whiskey flavored oak cubes that I have somewhere. Or maybe I should soak some oak cubes in some Sherry. Hmm....Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-84065580404123967492011-04-20T22:22:00.000-07:002011-04-20T23:01:23.792-07:00The East Marginal Way South & South Spokane Street Fraternal Order of Wayward BrewersHappy New Year! Well I've moved out of the house. Moved all me brewing equipment that is. I've gone in with a couple homies on a little brewing space down in Sodo/Georgetown. Lotsa room and brewing under cover rules. Haven't hit my full stride yet, I'm looking at getting up to brewing once a week, but getting back to brewing feels really good. Got a couple things under my belt; 5 gals. of Sierra Olympus (my SN Pale clone with Citra, Simcoe, and Amarillo - very good drinking indeed), 5 gals. of Belgian Bland (low gravity batch to prop up some of the Wyeast Westmalle strain), 10 gals. of botched IPA that is being served as a Northwest-style Bitter (actually pretty nice, lots of subtle hop character), 5 gals. of an ashy Foreign Export-style Stout using the Pacman yeast to prop up for 5 gals. of Infernal Libation (a Black Wine that I've been "planning" on brewing for about 2 years) that still has to package, 5 gals. of Czech Plz (a beer I've brewed a few times with various tweeks; this batch uses Sterling hops for the first time for me, still a bit green at this point but should come around), 5 gals. of an attempt at a Westmalle-style Tripel with a West Coast hop profile (I abhor the whole "Belgian IPA" affect and refuse to use that term) that is a few weeks shy of going into the keg, and freshly put up tonight: 5 gals. of Berliner Weisse. WAHA organized a lecture with Jess from Wyeast about that style of beer with a lot of great information. I'd brewed a Berliner Weisse before with stomach turning results (no boil, a week on Lacto, then pitched with yeast = ugly, sulphury mess) and have wanted to try it again. The Wyeast advice was to brew, pitch Lacto, and two days later pitch Sacchromyces to clean up. Still wanting to take advantage of a short boil, I chose dried malt extract instead of all-grain thinking that a lot of the sulphur compounds inherent in malted barley would have been driven off during the malt extract production process resulting in a cleaner wort. The wort after knock out and chilling was clean and bright tasting but we'll see after we get into the ferment. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to a lot more brewing; got a couple weddings this summer to brew for, need to fill Darrel, my home brew club North Seattle Brewers has a barrel project in the works, and with all the brewing gear out of the house there's finally room for a kegerator! Wheee!Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-69455611183991503432011-03-13T19:39:00.000-07:002011-03-13T21:34:03.849-07:00The Hardest Liver To Liver '11Ahoy True Believers! So being about 4 months behind on the blog; nevermind the Christmas Mule, moving into Beer Lab, and "Hey, hey, now I can afford to brew me own beer!" - I'll jump into 2011 with a bit on our Brouwers' Cafe Hard Liver Barley Wine Festival ex-beer-ience. Went down on Saturday to judge (thanks Bonney!), which was pretty cool. Sat with Megan from <a href="http://www.beerwestmag.com/" target="_blank">Beer West</a> and Brandon (a local beer Illuminati) for our evaluations. Good times had by all; just a few "not so much" beers on hand. The big problem (as if) were beers with just a bit of a nasty chloro-phenol thing happening, which I attribute to overuse of a certain hop variety. Not that the specific hop variety is important, but using too much of any hop can lead to some "challenging" flavors. Anyway, sat at the bar for lunch with Mr. K & Mr. S, and had a nice time tasting and talking trash (lots of trash talked) waiting for the judging results. Seemed to take a looong time, but we ended up with '10 Anacortes "Old Sea Bass" taking 1st (deservedly so; perfect malt character, just a tad sweet, low hops with a nice port wine-like finish), '09 Anderson Valley "Horn of the Bear" taking 2nd (a bit too candyish/strong Imperial IPA for my taste), and '10 Glacier Brew House Old Woody (full bodied with big maple/vanilla "rested on wood" flavors) taking 3rd. Very nice indeed. Had a hearty bowl of potato soup for lunch and managed to escape without blacking out. I thank you.<br /><br />Went back down on Sunday, with me Sweetie, for a few. That Anacortes beer is simply wonderful. Showed the best among the 30-odd Barley Wines we managed to get to. Interesting balance across the lot; for the most part very hop forward, just a few seemed to firing on all cylinders. We liked the Rogue '08 Old Crustacean and the '09 Speakeasy Old Godfather the best; both very nice, with firm malt flavors finishing just a bit sweet, big rosy alcohol flavors, and pleasant hop character, with the Rogue beer leaving the palate with a big resinous hop note. Very, very nice indeed.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-55824851716712806922010-11-21T18:58:00.000-08:002010-11-21T19:21:59.804-08:0015 Points of SatisfactionSitting down with a pint of the Robopo after spending most of the day out shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner. We're hosting, so that means collecting lots of turkeys and mass fixin's. Got the scoresheets back from Novembeerfest last week. I entered McChief (first place, Belgian-style Specialty), Fled (3rd place, Belgian-style Sour), the Bride's Ale (meh, too clovey), the Witch (meh, too anise-y), and the Robust Porter which scored (on average) 15 points. That made me laugh out loud! Now I'm not proud and I think that at the <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> least it's a 28 point beer (ha, ha, ha), but these "judges" blew it. Harumph! I'll take it to the next North Seattle Homebrew Drinker's meet and see what Russell and the Joy's think of it. Anyway, I'm enjoying it.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-62621076314911005552010-10-24T22:32:00.000-07:002010-10-24T23:17:43.517-07:00Schönweisse and Bonus Kettles10/10 - Brewed a 5gal batch of my German-style Wheat Beer, Schönweisse. Got a pitch of the Wyeast Weihenstephan yeast from my Doctor and I want a Weizenbock for Christmas this year, so I figured a batch of my weissbier was necessary. I really like this style of beer; really, really like it. I'm partial to Fransiskaner but I like the Schneider biers best. Schneider Original has a great balance of yeast character; nice spicy phenols just edged by banana esters & great balance of grain character; the texture of malted wheat combined with a rich malt flavor for an excellent toasted bread-like quality. I've brewed my Weiss over the years with varying amounts of malted wheat trying to find the sweet spot; always figuring more was better anywhere from 50% to 100% of the grain bill. Pretty decent results, but as I got closer to the high end of malted wheat I liked the beers less and less because of a heavy milkshake-like texture. The current version is 30%-35% wheat with the balance made up of equal parts Vienna and Dark Munich malt; great for nice deep toasted bread flavors and just a bit more color than most commercial versions. I schedule for 18 or so IBU and ferment at standard ale temps for a relatively mild yeast character. My preference is for a more refined flavored Weissbier, yeast flavor should be just moderate for a well balanced flavor profile and drinkability. I had just finished Stan Hieronymous' new "Brewing with Wheat" book; I mashed in at 90F to hydrate and the first rest was at 113F for a ferulic acid rest in order to promote clove phenol production during fermentation & I split the 5 gal brew length into two 5 gallon carboys thinking that a shallower fermentation would promote ester production. The gravity sample wort was very tasty but I haven't been into the beer since. I had planned on brewing the Weizenbock <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span><span> weekend but couldn't get it together, oh well, another week in the tank isn't fatal. The Weizenbock is just a bit short of being a Double Schönweiss; same base grain bill but with the addition of Cara-Munich, Chocolate malt, and Special-B. The Wyeast 3068 yeast flavors compliment the rich dried plum & chocolate malt flavors of those specialty grains <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> nicely. Alcohol just a bit on the high side for style and a robust terminal gravity will make for a very festive bier indeed.<br /><br />So, I couldn't get a brew in this weekend but there was an interesting development in the home brewery. An old North Seattle Homebrew Club-mate posted to the list that he was selling his setup. Boom! I'm all over that and now I'm the proud owner of 2 converted keg brewing vessels (work done by Bob at Bob's Homebrew Supply; killer, high quality work), the goods for HERMS-style brewing (March pump, copper manifold, copper coil, hoses, etc.), a high efficiency copper counter-flow chiller (with the convoluted interior for acres of surface area), another 20# CO2 tank, another burner, and another 6.5 gal carboy. Yay! This will all come in handy for plans I've been mulling over to get equipped for two 10gal batches at a time. We'll see, if I'm feeling frisky next weekend I'll roll two batches at the same time. Really need to get on the ball with the rest of the Christmas beers.<br /></span>Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-26252239138790547472010-10-07T20:30:00.000-07:002010-10-07T21:27:46.091-07:00Fives A Crowd9/22 - Marathon kegging session. Put away the Czech Plz, Bride's Ale, and Robopo from the latest brewings & the McChief and Fled from the cellar. The Czech Plz went into the tank with an ounce of Saaz dryhops, the Bride's ale blended the Wyeast Wit & Trappist High Gravity splits, and the Robopo was showing way too much sulfur. McChief is a Belgian-style Strong Scotch from earlier (dig the archive) and I think the Flanders-style Red predates this blog.<br /><jump><br />McChief is a piece of work, TG at 1.044 but just boozy and flavorful enough to balance. I really like the Scotch Silly, lots of sweet malt, tropical fruit ester, and rummy booze. My little friend the 'Chief is close enough to that to satisfy. And how. Now Fled on the other hand is simply beautiful; deep malty red, still just a tad sweet, with a wonderfully well balanced sourness. A touch of vinegar, broad lactic sweetness, and a soft pineapple-like Brett note through the finish.<br /><br />Czech Plz is showing moderate bitterness, a moderately strong earthy-herbal hop flavor (which keeps coming on stronger), and a bit of estery sweetness that I'm not sure about. I pitched just a bit warm because the ground water temp was still high and the finished Czech is just a bit fruity. Not fatal but just short of "crisp & clean". I'll still pitch it forward into a "proper" Czech Pils and then a Pale Bock. The Bride's Ale is super nice; lots of spice, just a bit of bitterness from the citrus peel and a firm milkshakey body from the raw grains. A good start on a beer I'll brew again for the wedding party later. The Robopo at packaging was showing a LOT of sulfur, I was sure that getting some CO2 in there would push that out. And yes! We have a palatable Robust Porter! That touch of sweetness and sulfur (*touch*, not "Ew, who farted!?") that I was looking for from previous experience along with a nice coffee with cream & sugar and minty herbal hop flavor. Thank you very much!</jump>Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-51230274133414497352010-09-06T19:13:00.000-07:002010-09-14T19:33:30.346-07:00Robopo ThreeJust got 5gal of my Robust Porter put to bed. A recipe that I'm well pleased with that I wanted to go back to. My version is inspired in part by Anchor Porter; terminal gravity a bit on the high side, firm chocolatey malt flavors, moderate bitterness, and moderately strong hop aroma & flavor. I think the commercial version uses the same yeast that they use for the Liberty Ale; top fermenting, clean tasting, and to my palate very lightly mineraly. I go in a different direction, I like to use the Wyeast California Lager strain; yes, the supposed Anchor Steam yeast. With a not quite 1.080 OG terminal gravity should finish off in the low 20's, leaving a fair amount of sweetness that compliments distinctive and complex chocolatey malt flavors. As I'm thinking of it, maybe Nutella would be a good comparison. Another aspect of the Cali Lager yeast that I enjoy, is that bit of sulfur that this yeast strain produces. Adds a pleasantly appetizing touch in the finished beer. Bittered with Columbus & Magnum, finished with Amarillo & Cascade for firm bitterness and a lightly citrus-like hop character. Nice balance of flavors along with the chocolatey malt. Hmm, Robopo!Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-30212572362833977972010-08-29T19:26:00.001-07:002010-08-29T21:34:49.608-07:00Cobwebsare gone! Just finished a long day in the home brewery. Spent an hour and a half cleaning, organizing, and battling cobwebs before I cracked the kettles. Two of my favorite people in the world are getting married next year and Homebrew Club has decided to hijack the beverage concession for all the festivities. I'm going to contribute a batch of Bride's Ale (among other things) and wanted to get a test batch going to tweak a previously brewed recipe. The first Bride's Ale was a pretty straightforward Belgian-style Wit flavored with coriander in the mash & kettle, dried lemon & orange peel, and chamomile. This batch starts with that recipe, adds just a bit more grain, some honey in the kettle, and a more ambitious approach to spicing with coriander in the mash & kettle, fresh lemon & grapefruit rind, sliced fresh ginger, cloves and twice the chamomile as last time. In tasting the gravity sample, everything is way overdone. Not fatal, but just too much. Mostly what I expected though, this batch will give me an excellent starting point for the next one. The first batch was fermented with the Wyeast Wit strain. For this batch I got curious about mixing two strains, the Wyeast Wit strain and the Wyeast Trappist High Gravity (Westmalle) strain. I'd initially thought that I would mix them both into one fermenter and roll with that. But in a slight "Aha!" moment I decided to split the wort, pitch for primary seperately (both splits will get mixed together later), and then keep each type of yeast on hand for repitching later.<br /><br />Second batch that got put up was 5gal of roughly Czech-style wort that'll ferment with the Wyeast Czech Pils strain for repitching into a few more carefully considered batches of Czech-style beer. Bohemian Pils, nice soft Dunkle, and some pale Bock for Christmas time.<br /><br />Oh and just a bit of that Czech-style wort was kept aside for a starter of the Wyeast California Lager strain. That will go into a batch of my Robust Porter and repitch from there into some Baltic Porter. Yum. Mee.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-40695784494806591022010-03-27T13:24:00.001-07:002010-03-27T13:53:42.467-07:00Darrel the Feral Barrel<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKejRkADtJjSBsZruu6ezffFesN4QwBNQJLCRgNvvlcZLW6kse1w3r7iLoqm3TMvY6G_wisSGPciIAKyHAAMJlPRFrPd8Fl3Gawsq47Eh6sO54CG1TFwFHxgX20S1LJdqAEbdN5g/s1600/IMG_2089.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKejRkADtJjSBsZruu6ezffFesN4QwBNQJLCRgNvvlcZLW6kse1w3r7iLoqm3TMvY6G_wisSGPciIAKyHAAMJlPRFrPd8Fl3Gawsq47Eh6sO54CG1TFwFHxgX20S1LJdqAEbdN5g/s320/IMG_2089.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453412442552374754" border="0" /></a>Say hello to my little friend! Meet Darrel, as soon as I get him in shape he's going to get filled up with delicious sour red wort. I'll introduce him to Roeselare Blend and they'll get nice and friendly too.<br /><br />A bunch of the lads scored a half dozen spirit barrels from Lost Abbey. This one is a former Heaven Hill bourbon barrel that the Abbey used for spicing up some Angels Share. We got these in pretty rough shape, bone dry with the stave bands falling off. I got Darrel home, jammed the hoops further up the barrel a bit to secure them, and popped the bung out. Took a whiff, nothing. I expected something from it's previous life, a bit of whiskey or rich strong ale aroma. No dice. Oh well, not too disappointed really, I want the real estate for sour beer not necessarily for ze bourbon.<br /><br />First step: Rehydration! Standing on end and hosing down, water just leaked through between the barrel head and the stave ends. Bummer. Nice sieve though. Layed him down and did the best I could to fill him up. Which was the routine for the next week, each day gaining a little ground on tightening up. The picture here is Darrel at the end of the first week after holding water down to about 4" from the bung. Good enough to get on him on end to get the heads soaking from the inside. Maybe a couple days on each end and then I can get him cleaned and sulfured in preparation for a marathon brewing session.<br /><br />Interestingly though, when I siphoned the water out so I could tip him up, I found the bourbon. Smells like a tanker of whiskey crashed in my backyard. May end up with a bourbon barrel red after all.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-29031683035598910372010-03-18T15:45:00.000-07:002010-03-27T21:06:41.193-07:00Honorary Irishman '10This year's batch of the annual Honorary Irishman Irish-style Dry Stout went into a keg over the weekend and into my belly last night. I really enjoy cooking up a big dinner for St. Patrick's Day and this year was no exception. Cured my own corned beef, house smoked trout, pan roasted cabbage, boiled potatoes & carrots, and home made soda bread. All washed down with lashings of me home brewed stout. This years version came a little closer American Stout than a strictly considered Irish Stout, I'm no Style Queen, so it's fine with me. 7 1/2 #'s Gambrinus ESB, 1 # flaked barley, and 1 # Black Barley; single infusion for just a bit under 5 gallons of 13.5P wort. In pounds; 7:1:1 of pale, flaked barley, and roasted barley is the standard grist bill. My preference is for Marris Otter & a British Roasted Barley, this year I used Gambrinus ESB and the Briess Black Barley, both for the first time. The Gambrinus is OK, I guess, maybe not the same fine, juicy quality of flavor that I like in the the MO. I'm feeling stronger about the Briess Black Malt though; "No thank you!" Likely a matter of perception, but I think the British roasted malts are of a better quality and quite a bit smoother. Very slightly higher gravity this year with the addition of 3/4# brown sugar in the kettle, just thought "Why not" & 15 more BU's, bittered with Cluster and Domestic Goldings. My first use of Cluster in any beer, I like it, with a pleasant evergreen-like resin with citrus character. Reminds me a bit of Northern Brewer. Increased hop flavor, the 60 BU & a firm 5.5% abv are where I get the American Stout aspect. I rushed this batch to service just a bit, but it drinks very nicely; smoothish, very dark chocolate roast malt flavor, firm lingering bitterness, warming a bit after the finish. I get an interesting very light tang through the finish too, like the acidity in coffee, perhaps a bit of a cidery character from the brown sugar contributes also. I "powderized" the black malt in this years batch, maybe it's a flavor effect of that. I imagine that right as the flavor profile comes together, it'll run out.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-70343482253454727822010-02-06T17:33:00.000-08:002010-02-07T13:08:57.000-08:00Mic CheckQC'd the Milds the middle of last week. The beer is drawing a bit clearer. Volume of CO2 is juuust a bit too high, made a correction for that & we're real close to a nice creamy pint already so it didn't take much. I think there's just a bit too much Sulfate showing too, low gravity beers finishing relatively dry leaves a bit of space in the flavor profile so water quality stands out. We'll see how they hold up to "judging".<br /><br />One thing I'd failed to post earlier is getting 10 gals. of cider from Fox Island Farms last October. So, got the goods at the end of last October, pitched some Safbrew s-33 (looks like this is turning into the house dried yeast), and just let it go. The 10 gals. went into two 5 gal. carboys with one getting a fair amount of apple gunk. Thiefed a bit of each to taste and I'm well pleased with the result. One carboy was showing a bit more sulfur than the other, not sure if it's the apple gunk or not, but in any case the sulfur will clear during conditioning. Really nice, dry and tart cider. I had thought to bottle condition and try for a very tight effervescence but I believe I'll keg it, maybe push the CO2 to the high side, and just serve it on draft. It really needs to get to drinking.<br /><br />Thiefed a bit of the McChief too. Oh man! This is sooo good! Malty sweet, big dark dried fruit flavors and sweet warming alcohol. This one will need to go under corks and cages, I'm thinking I'll prime with some fresh yeast only and let it go. I'd rather have this without enough gas than with too much gas. I'm looking forward to deep goblets of this one.<br /><br />Update: So I put this post up and then spent the rest of my evening having a few of the Milds. There's been some nice changes going on in the last week or so since the initial sampling. The all-malt Mild still seems to show too much Sulfate, but both adjunct versions are tasting better balanced. The AK in particular is very nice; toasted malt flavors, very fine fruity esters, and finishes with a lingering nuttiness that ends crisply. A very nicely drinking beer. The Dark Mild seems a bit rough still, maybe a bit more time will help the flavors round out better; lots of bitter cold coffee and dark chocolate, nice but a little at odds with the water quality. The Ruby is quite a bit brighter than the other two and is tasting cleaner for it; very light "juicy" malt flavors, moderately strong dark dried fruit flavors compliments a subtle fruity yeast character. That pound of Crystal 120 really stands out. The finish is just a bit tooth coating and slightly over bitter, which I'd attribute the calcium sulfate levels that I've been complaining about. Still pretty nice but not quite that amazing soft pint either.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-525092069713603032010-01-18T22:04:00.000-08:002010-01-24T15:30:58.370-08:00Born To Be MildBrewed three 5 gal. batches of Mild last Sunday and just got done puttin' them to bed in some kegs. Impaling Alers are hosting the AHA Club Only Competition for February, "The Session Challenge" featuring English Brown Ale which includes Northern & Southern English Brown Ale and Mild. I had planned on brewing a Ruby and a Dark mild. I broke out my copy of "Brew Your Own British Real Ale", a good reference featuring recipes based on commercial beers. I surveyed the Dark Mild lists and came up with a recipe based on the average amounts of grains used, which I tweaked a bit with an addition of brown malt. Love the brown malt. Then onto Brewing Classic Styles "Mild" for something ruby-ish. Decided on the AK, more a light tawny brown in color than ruby which was fine. The Dark and the AK use a fair amount of adjunct, both with brown sugar in the kettle and the AK with a bit of flaked maize in the mash. Mark made a comment calling the quality of adjunct Milds into question, saying that a low-gravity style like this will thin out too much. Perfectly reasonable observation. So what the hey, I'll brew an all-malt version too, and we'll see what's what. So the Ruby Mild is all-malt; 5 1/2 pounds Marris Otter and 1 pound Crystal 120 in five gallons for 8.5P. Ruby, Tawny, and Dark. Boom, boom, and boom.<br /><br />So after racking into kegs; the Ruby terminal gravity is just a bit higher than the beers with adjunct as expected, and shows that nice juicy Marris Otter malt character very nicely. The AK and the Dark are nice but definitely drier, interesting combination of higher kilned/roasted malt flavors and low terminal gravity. All three are still a bit dusty, I'll have a better idea of the final result after we drop bright and condition.<br /><br />The AK<br />5 gallons 8.5P wort<br /><br />5 pounds Marris Otter<br />1 1/4 ounces Chocolate Malt (Powderized <tm>)<br />1/2 pound flaked maize<br />1/2 brown sugar (at end of boil)<br /><br />The Dark<br />5 gallons 9P wort<br /><br />5 pounds Marris Otter<br />6 oz Crystal 120<br />4 oz Brown Malt<br />3 oz Chocolate Malt<br />1 oz Black Patent Malt<br />8 oz brown sugar (at end of boil)<br /><br />All three were bittered with East Kent Goldings for 22-24 IBU's and pitched with the Safbrew S-33 (Edme-style) dried yeast.<br /></tm>Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-64571034632057921362009-09-29T19:41:00.000-07:002009-09-29T20:13:15.133-07:00Yo GABF GABF!Man, I just flew in from Denver and boy, are my arms tired! Ha, ha! I can't resist. So the brewery closed down for a long weekend and sent us out to the Great American Beer Festival. Thank you Al and Noelle, truly! Our first time at GABF and a great experience. A great chance to tour the US via beer. Two things: 1) tons of breweries from smaller markets all offering the same f*cking thing (pale, porter, IPA, stout, and some cheeky attempt at something "cuh-razy"!, 2) The best part of GABF is having the chance to try beers from breweries that you'll read about but have no chance of ever getting to. Ballast Point, Russian River, Cambridge Brewing, New Glarus, Jolly Pumpkin, Southhampton Publick House, and Marin Brewing; all worthy, all there right in front of you thank you very much. Thursday afternoon session; started in on the Southeast section with a sample of each brewery. That lasted about six tastes before we figured out that we were sure to get sick from either stale beer or tons of diacetyl. So we held off for stuff that just looked good, waaay better strategy and much happier with the result. Friday spent away from Denver touring New Belgium and beers at Odell's, Oskar Blues, and Avery. Loved the Lychee Tart at NB, the 90 Shilling at Odell's, and Moloch at Avery (blend of their Samael and Old Jubilation). Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning up at all the places we didn't get to on Thursday. Interestingly, the crowd seemed a bit thinner which was nice. Maybe everyone standing around at the far end of the venue for the award announcements had something to do with it? Anyway, lot's of Californian strong n' hoppy beer went down, thank you very much. Kinda funny though, for all the plans we made for extra-beericular activities, we pretty much festivaled, napped, ate, and slept. Didn't really make it out to anything else, which was fine with us. Relaxing weekend catting around drinking beer? Count us in anytime.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-11662071464222929062009-09-13T13:53:00.000-07:002009-09-13T15:04:33.039-07:00(Just Like) Starting OverI am an Artist; a Poet, a Musician, a Cook, and a Brewer. This last year and a half, I haven't been paying close enough attention to some of the things that are most important to me. Living less than paycheck to paycheck is a shitty excuse for not pursuing my Art, so fuck it. Time to get back to rattlin' the kettles, playing with fire, and searching for those peak experiences.<br /><br />Got 10 gals. of Dunkle-Weisse and 5 gals. of Kitchen Sink bubbling away after brewing yesterday. The Dunkle wort smelled and tasted great; 7# each dark malted wheat, dark munich, and german pils. Had to settle for the pils malt because Vienna malt wasn't available. I brought the color up with 2 ozs. Carafa II that I ground to dust in the spice grinder, more color than simply cracking it. Very nice, deep amber brown. Perking away nicely with the Wyeast 3068. The Kitchen Sink is the goods for a Wit and a Dark Strong that's been siting around, hopped with all the odds and ends that I needed to get rid of, and steeped with a pound of wet Cascades. OG 1074 and the dankest batch of beer I've ever gotten close to. Pitched the 1056 and there's still 2 ozs. of '07 Amarillo to go into the keg for dryhopping. Intensely hoppy wort; kinda moderate bitterness but huge hop resin and flavor. Really won't get a true sense of this one until the yeast flocs. It'll be interesting in any case.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-66092617928241506962009-03-24T13:04:00.000-07:002009-04-12T19:42:30.791-07:00The Hardest Liver To Liver3/21: Hard Liver Barley Wine Festival at Brouwer's Cafe. Got to sit at the Best of Show table this year. Great time! Finally got to sit at the table with the adults; a couple of high profile beer writers, the owner of a well known Philadelphia Belgian-style cafe, a couple of the organizer's cronies, a BJCP Master Judge, and me. A couple of photos <a href="http://www.brookstonbeerbulletin.com/hard-liver09/" target="_blank">here</a>, scroll down a bit for the group shot. I'm in the upper left looking red faced and sassy under the flat cap. Interesting process; the wood aged beers were dismissed out of hand, the good hop forward beer didn't seem to get much respect, and I wasn't finding much depth of complexity in many of the beers where some other judges were. Did the usual "Brouwer's Cafe/Hard Liver Find a Place to Sit Boogaloo" afterwards. My sweetie showed up and I pulled some strings to get her in ahead of a bunch of people who had been waiting in line awhile. Very Rock Star, ha, HA! We went through a good 18 or so. Overall quality this year was really good (even the Redhook BW was impressive). Standouts were the '07 Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws and the '06/'08 Lagunitas Gnarleywine. Doggie Claws; real firm sweetroll malt flavors with moderate bitterness and big resinous hop flavors (still!). Really good stuff. 'Claws always makes me think of shopping for Christmas trees with it's piney/minty resin-like qualities. Gnarleywines were both big and alcoholic; all the best qualities of Barley Wine right up front. The '06 seemed just a bit more refined. These things age really well. Comparing the beers on the Best of Show panel against what we were having at table was a bit of a head scratcher. I liked some of the beers we had better than what we had to judge. Even on strict style considerations. Oh well.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-45679252807033036352009-03-15T22:33:00.000-07:002009-03-15T22:48:27.766-07:00Citra TuTuSpent the afternoon with some of my favorite people, putting down some good beer and snacking a bit. The Citra Pale being part of it, ended up very nice. Something to consider is that the 5 OUNCES of steam hop extract in 5 GALLONS of beer really doesn't show very strongly. Altogether the beer is really good; firm malt with strong bitterness and lots of herbal/fruit character over a really firm bitterness. Going forward I think that using the steam extract method for adding some edge to the overall hop profile will require ALOT more hops. Oh well...Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-18783249174427886282009-03-14T17:46:00.000-07:002009-03-14T18:01:56.699-07:00Belgian-style Strong Scotch AleRacked the McChief down to one carboy. Gravity is a firm 10P. The beer is strongly sweet with nice banana/plum esters and a ton of sweet alcohol. According to my measurements the alcohol content is around 11% which at this point is a nice counter point to the sweetness. The beer isn't worty sweet but more like eating a caramel hard candy when you start getting it to melt across the palate. Actually pretty nice. I'll see if I can get another percent or so alcohol out of it before I call terminal. I have half a mind to simply bottle it as is without primings just to see what happens. So far it's fuller bodied and sweeter than McChouffe but not quite as intense as Scotch Silly. Shaping up to be a really nice beer. Definitely one to put down.<br /><br />That 1.200 OG starting gravity wasn't that hard to pull off. Got me thinking about planning a whole 1200 series. October Ale, Barley Wine, Imperial Stout, Baltic Porter, a more straight forward Belgian-style Quad, Dopplebock, hmm, what else...Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-56876943191000898942009-03-14T17:02:00.000-07:002009-03-14T18:01:14.335-07:00Citra TooJust finished kegging the Citra Pale. Was a bit concerned with the gravity sample right off the bat; picked up a bit of papery tang. Thought it might be a bit of spoilage, the initial primary ferment climbed up and out the airlock and maybe we picked something up in my effort to clean up(?). But coming back to it later with the hydrometer a lot of the nasty stuff had volatilized away. What's left is simply some stale hop notes. Not fatal. Other than that the beer is nice; firm bitterness with peppery herbal, light candied orange, and catty flavors over a nice light malt flavor. <br /><br />I dosed the keg with 5 ozs. of Citra Steam Extract. Which leads to two things: 1) A correction and 2) A statement. The correction; the counter top espresso machine I have is a Braun, not a Krups. The statement; Holy Fuck! Steam extract through pellets appears to be way more intense than the same volume of whole leaf hops. The result is just simply intense. Intensely bitter, intensely aromatic, and intensely flavorful. The Citra extract is orange blossom herbal perfume, lightly sweaty, and leaves a sticky film across the palate. Imagine a dog working peanut butter off the roof of their mouth and you'll have the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qcv1dLniP0s" target="_blank">right idea</a>. Steam extract won't replace dry hopping here in the home brewery but it's definitely part of the playbook. I'm anticipating some over the top hop character out of this beer. Stay tuned.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-33055231968896408852009-02-28T17:55:00.000-08:002009-02-28T18:03:55.177-08:00McChief2/8: 5 gals. OG 1200 Strong Scotch Ale.<br /><br />Somewhere between a Quad and McChouffe is McChief! Marris Otter, a little Aromatic, a little Special B, a pinch of Roast Barley, and 2# Brown Sugar. Goldings just a little short of balance. And a ton of the Chouffe-style yeast. Colin racked 10 gals. Belgian-style Blonde and brought his carboys over. I split my five gallons between the two, each with a substantial yeast cake. Signs of fermentation were nearly immediate. Over pitched for sure, we'll see if by forgoing oxygenating, some kind of yeast character was forced out. If it's too clean or comes up short in some other manner, I'll brew it again and blend it out.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-67208702061022065972009-02-28T17:41:00.000-08:002009-02-28T17:55:46.076-08:00Citra2/8: 5 gals. OG 1060 SNPA-style Pale Ale with Citra hops.<br /><br />The Citra are an experimental variety that some of the WAHA kids each got 3 ounces of. High alpha Hallertau-type with a real firm grapey citrus Cascade thing happening. We're supposedly brewing our own batches of beer with this hop and planning a tasting to get a feel for it's character. For a 60 minute boil, I added ounces at 60 & 40 and .5 at 20. Beer Tools Pro called out 109 IBU, which I'll take with a grain of salt. I'll pull the last .5 ounce through the Krups and add the resulting hop extract straight to the keg. This method of steam extraction is good for at least 4 fluid ounces of the sickest bitter bong water goodness you could imagine. Way beyond a simple hop tea, you get bitterness along with the flavor and aroma. All part of an effort to get the most out of what few Citra hops I had on hand. I'm shooting for the one beer out of the group that shows what you get when you over bitter. We'll see.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35706414.post-29151794572229462492009-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:002009-01-01T22:08:06.116-08:00Make Mine MeadJust started a batch of Mead. Five pounds Clover honey in 4 gals. water. Sulfited. I'll run out for some 1056 tomorrow, dose it with some DAP, and pitch. I've been working on the idea of making mead by starting at a low OG with less expensive honey, maintain a high krausen with careful doses of a nice varietal, pushing the alcohol content up, and finishing with a real firm honey flavor and aroma. Plus it's New Years Day and getting some Mead going seemed like the right thing to do.Jeromehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01519951157645604216noreply@blogger.com1