Snowblower Saison

Decided to brew up some sort of belgian that will act somewhat like a saison. Sure, everyone has lawnmower beers, but when it is the middle of winter, you need a snowblower beer.

I love Czech Saaz, so I made modest additions. I was hoping that the hops add a bit of flavor and aroma, but I didn't want it to dominate either.  I used some Candi Sugar to help dry it out a bit, and the smaller amounts of specialty grains to just give it a little something.  I wanted to use Pilsner Extract, but the LHBS didn't have any. I am sure it won't be that big of a deal.

This was also my first time using my immersion chiller. What a great addition to my equipment. Along with the 40 degree weather, the chiller took my wort from 210 down to 75 in about 20 minutes. That is so much better than the old waterbath. I lost a little more due to boil off and also lost a third of a gallon due to a hose malfuntion. I have now decided that my next equipment upgrade will be a brewpot with a valve to make it easier to transfer to my fermentor.

Here is my recipe:

7 lbs. Light LME

4 oz. Belgian Aromatic

4 oz. Honey Male

4 oz. Belgian Biscuit

1 lb. Light Candi Sugar

1 oz. Czech Saaz (60 minutes)

1 oz. Czech Saaz (10 minutes)

White Labs Belgian Saison I (WLP565)

Some call it the End of Summer

Labor Day weekend is a celebration of those who work hard to put food on the table. It also marks the unofficial end of summer. The beaches are packed for the last time. People have picnics, family reunions, and get one last swim in.

For me growing up, it meant that we had to start getting the farm equipment ready to harvest- usually no day off. With the harvest season, I also got the start of soccer season. Now that my playing days have mostly passed, I have found a different hobby to take up my time. It is no longer too hot to sit next to the boiling pot of hops and sugars. I now look forward to the cooler months.

So to celebrate this change of seasons, I thought I would brew a nice cooler weather beer. So what is it? Hopefully, it will be the perfect Maple Porter for Halloween and Thanksgiving. This weekend, I created a base porter, and I will add maple to it in secondary.

My Recipe:
8 lbs. Light LME
8 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Roasted Malt
4 oz. Caramel 60 L.

1.5 oz Willamette (60 minutes)
.5 oz Willamette (10 minutes)

WL013 London yeast
OG- 1.062

I went light on the finishing hops in hope to keep the aroma from the maple to be added.

Also, Labor Day weekend has now been dubbed my homebrew weekend. Last year, we brewed a double batch (American Wheat and Oktoberfest Ale) for my wedding. I look forward to brewing next year as well.

The Worst Part of Homebrewing

If you questioned homebrewers what they thought the worst part was, you might get a variety of answers. From bottling to clean up to infections, the answers could go on and on. 

For me, it has been the wait after the beer is bottled. I have no problem with bottling (sure I have made a bit of a mess, but that cleans up) or clean up/sanitizing (you have to clean in your everyday life, so clean up is not too bad) and I haven't had an infection (fingers crossed) yet. 

But having the Amarillo Armadillo in bottles, waiting for it to carbonize is killing me.  One day after I bottled, I wanted the beer to be perfect.  I have had to sit on my hands, drink more of the Sierra Marietta Pale Ale, or other stuff.  And just keep myself busy trying not to think about it.

The people with kegging systems can say. "Ha. We just put gas on it and it is carbonated in half the time." But I don't have the space (yet, bar in basement is a project for the near future), nor cash to get started with kegging. Hopefully soon.

Brew Day Beer Review

Today, the ice disrupted my trip to work, so I gave the Wife a ride to her work, waited for her (she was only a couple of hours), and then stopped at the homebrew shop.  I am getting low on my first homebrew, which was awesome.  So I decided to use a similar recipe, but switch up the hops. 

The hop that I went with was the Amarillo; I am hoping for a more aggressive hop bitterness.  A post will be following my brew night.

Tonight, I also thought that I would pop the cap on my Dogfish Head version of the Dogfish Head/Stone/Victory Saison du BUFF.  It is great to think of summer on a cold winter night by drinking my favorite summer beer, a saison.

After getting past a crazy pour, the head exploded, as did the aroma of sage and lemon.  The sage scent starts to dominate as my nose got closer to the glass.  The brew pours a nice cloudy straw color.  The head remains strong, nice and full.

First taste is exactly what is expected.  The sage has a dominant hold on the taste.  Maybe a little lemon, and a slight teaser of hop bitterness.  The wheat malt backbone is prevelent, but is overrun by the sage.  Even though the sage dominates the taste, it is not dominating in an annoying way.  It would make a very nice compliment to a herbal meal (I am thinking Peruvian chicken).

The carbonation is well balanced with the malt.  The 6.8 percent alcohol does not push though, and it is barely there- if you want to look for it.

Overall, this was a very nice beer.

The Homebrew Experience results

I was finally able to pop the cap and try my first solo homebrew.  It was not the first time I brewed, as I have been the helping hand with my brother on multiple occasions, including brewing beer for my wedding.

I finally was able to find time to start my new hobby.  While the brew day went well, there are many factors that you cannot oversee.  I was worried about contamination (even though I did my best to stay clean), improper storage (I thought my basement was a good place) and low/high carbonation.

I am proud to introduce you to my pale ale- Sierra Marietta.  (Marietta is the town that I live, the beer is a Sierra Nevada clone.)

The beer came out with a more malty sweet taste to it.  I was thinking it would be a bit more bitter, but it is still very good.  The cascade and centennial hops are present, and no where near overpowering.  This is very drinkable, and enjoyable (I had 4 last night while friends were over).

What would I do different?  I forgot Irish Moss, which will help clarify it.  Maybe add more hops to the boil, but not too many more.  I am also kicking around the idea of brewing an exact replica and adding a little herbs to it (maybe sage, rosemary or the like).

What I do know is that the beer is very enjoyable, and I am looking forward to another brew day. 

A New Hobby Begins

Sunday, October 31 was Halloween, it was also the start to a my new hobby- homebrewing.  After the success that was my Wedding Beer, I decided to take the plunge and become a solo artist.  This does also have a duel purpose, hopefully lowering my beer costs, while allowing me to increase my beer knowledge and understanding.

I chose to brew a simple pale ale, based on a Sierra Nevada clone.  I used both Centennial and Cascade hops, hopefully giving it a slight bitterness.  I wanted to brew something that would appeal to not only me, but to anyone that would want to try my beer.

Here are a couple of pics of the beer:

my brew partner

The Wedding Recap

After the fun of brewing and kegging the beer for my wedding, the day came for our guests to experience it.  We used forced carbonation for the kegs, thinking it was more reliable than natural carbonation.  More reliable as in easier to control. 

When we woke up on Saturday morning, took the kegs to the reception hall and picked up a couple of jockey boxes (one for the homebrew kegs, one for the Yuengling), we found that the homebrew tasted a bit under carbonated.  The beer tasted good, but the lower carbonation didn't make it as drinkable as we were hoping.  My brother called his homebrew buddies, seeing if they had a quick fix.  With no solution in sight, we just went with it, ordered a macro light lager to make sure we had drinkable beer, and continued our set up.

The jockey boxes came set up for macro half kegs.  Not being the same as our homebrew connections, we tried multiple fixes, but had to settle on one jockey box, and the homebrew being poured from our simple taps.  The gas on the Yuengling and Bud Light was screwy all day, but we settled on filling pitchers and pouring (which probably made it go faster for the guests) and the homebrew from the tap.  All in all, it was very successful.

The homebrew Oktoberfest Ale was tapped first.  We had multiple people come up to us to say how well it tasted.  Once the beer was on ice, the carbonation really showed up.  It became the super-drinkable beer that we knew it would be.  After the Oktoberfest kicked, the Wheat (with coriander) came on tap.  This beer was also very drinkable, and it was enjoyed by those who favor Blue Moon.

I was extremely happy that the wedding and reception went so well, and couldn't be happier.  I feel we turned a lot of people's head with our homebrew.  I think they came into the reception thinking it would be some "cooking lager", but came away knowing that people can brew great beer out of there home (this is something that beer geeks know, but I feel the general public doesn't believe).

I rate my beer an A+.

I didn't take any pictures of the bar (full bar, two friends were bartenders), but here is our favor (chocolate/caramel apples) and the room all set up (we had to do everything, way too much work).

Wedding Brew Day

Our simple setup.

What does a beer geek do for the beer selection when getting ready for his wedding? I pondered that question for a long time. Then while talking to my brother (an experienced homebrewer), we decided to brew for the wedding. Then, what style do we brew? The answer came in the form of when the wedding was taking place (October) and what can we make (ale)... this turned into our own Oktoberfest style ale (we also brewed a basic Witbier to give another option for the reception).  Because of time and simplicity, we chose to go with a partial malt recipe, we didn't have and entire day to devote to the beer.

The Lighting of the Kettle

BYOW

My brother lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a couple of years.  Down the street from where he lived were a group of guys who love beer, and all brewed together.  This helped my brother out trremendously, as their knowledge helped develop his skills.  He, in turn, is helping me learn the art.  (It was great having someone who knows what is going on, and why everything works- as well as his equipment.)

The day turned out to be a nice brewday.  A bit chilly in the morning, high in the mid 70's, with little breeze.

Sometimes you have to wait

My brother and I started the day by both grabbing a variety pack from the distributer.  He showed up with Troeg's Anthology (one of the greatest mixed packs out there- in my opinion).  I decided to give the Magic Hat variety pack a whirl.  

Magic Hat's beer is good, but I always thought it was somewhat basic.  Their #9, very popular with many of my friends, is good, but I can't get into it like others.  I always thought that Blind Faith was very good, and loved buying a pint, but then they stopped making in (yes, I am happy they just brought it back). They just released Vinyl, which is a Amber Lager, something you can drink all night, but not go out of my way for.  What I do appreciate, is their Odd Notion series.  Not always my favorite beers, but sometimes they bring on a great beer- the American Sour was absolutely amazing.

In the two mix packs were:

Troeg's- HopBack, DreamWeaver, Pale Ale, and Java Head.

Magic Hat- #9, Hi.P.A., Hex, Odd Notion (Green Apple Wit)

The Hex (and Oktoberfest) and the Odd Notion made alot of sense on the day, as we were brewing both (although no green apple).  All of the Troeg's were delicious, as usual.  The Odd Notion had a strong Green Apple smell, but was very mellow when drank.  All the beer was very drinkable, and perfect for an early Autumn/late Summer day.

Some of the other guys came around for the brew, one guy (my former roommate and Max's drinking partner) brought his leftover 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA- can't go wrong.

We decided to get spring water, chosing to avoid the hard water found at the house.  After firing up the kettle, we were able to use the first of my brother's toys that he brought along.  The 7lb. Barley Crusher grain mill ripped the malt apart for us.  The chocolate malt and pale malt then went into the pot.

Exact amounts

We were originally going to feature only Hellertau hops in the Oktoberfest, but instead chose to use the Hellertau in the boil and help it out with some Saaz towards the end.

The Witbier used wheat flakes as well as some pale malt flavored with coriander.  We also utilized Hellertau and Saaz hops for the witbier to match the Oktoberfest.

It just smelled so good.

We will be kegging the beer into corny kegs after the fermentation in complete. Overall, we are looking for these beers to be enjoyable by both craft drinkers and macro drinkers. The fact that remains is: it is a wedding, people will drink whatever is available.  Maybe one of these people will say, wow, this has more flavor than Bud Light.  Then the next time they are out, they order something new.  Who know?  It could happen.

Boil, Boil, Toil makes trouble.

Waiting isn't a problem when you have beer.

Detailed conversation.

Fun with Hops

Must Love Burgers (we needed to eat too)

The Session #41- Homebrewing

This month's issue of The Session is hosted by The Wallace Bros. at Lug Wrench Brewing Company.  They asked bloggers to write about how homebrewing has influenced Craft Beer industry.

I am sure that many craft brewers started out as homebrewers.  I love the homebrew competitions that breweries hold, whether it is Sam Adam's homebrew competition or Heavy Seas (the Letter of Marque Hop Rye Porter was amazing).  But homebrewing means something different to me.

To some people homebrewing is their live. To me it is the start to a new life.

Now that I moved out to the country from Baltimore, one of the things that I am looking forward to is homebrewing. Yes, I could have done it in the city, but space was an issue. I have already decided to brew some of the beer for my upcoming wedding in October (with the help of my brother), and we have been going over recipe ideas. Will I keg or bottle? Big batches or small batches? Lager or stick to ales? These are the questions that vo through my mind on my hour and a half drive every morning.

The final question that goes through my mind is what style my first homebrewing will be. I though about doing a saison-it is my favorite now. Or maybe an IPA- my longtime favorite. I do love Belgians though or something safe like a basic pale ale. These questions burn me up and give me things to contemplate. What I know I can't wait for is to make these decisions. I also feel fortunate to know that I have build a good core of people who I know can answer any questions that I may have about homebrewing. So if you have any answers to the above questions, or any good advice, please let me know.