Stillwater Cellar Door

I recently brewed my first Belgian styled beer. Powered by that fact, I decided to tell the guys that the Thursday night get together would be fueled by Belgian beers. They all obliged. Unfortunately the evening got off to a late start and ended early; the long week took its toll on me. I was tired. We only made it through three beers (in the order we reviewed):

• Captain Fantasy a Saison a collaboration brew by Half Acre Beer Company and Short’s Brewing Company
• Cellar Door a Saison by Stillwater Artisanal Ales
• Red Poppy Ale a Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin by The Lost Abbey

All three beers were good. Both Captain Fantasy and Cellar Door were first timers for the group as a whole. Both were easy to drink, dry, and effervescent. Captain Fantasy didn’t seem to pull it together 100% while Cellar Door had a bit more sweetness than I expected. I like a very dry, phenolic, and peppery Saison. Captain Fantasy was a bit more fruity with the green grape (almost similar to a white wine flavor in the middle) and pear highlighting the beer. Cellar Door was a bit more straight forward: phenols, pepper, and dry with only the sweetness pulling it down.

Red Poppy was the finisher: tart, vinegar, oak, and cherries give complexity to this beer. I have had it before and, if it wasn’t the for the price, I would have it much more often. Rich and Chuck took pours of this beer like it was coming out of a gallon jug. Alas, I was only afforded the last ounce, if I was lucky. Yeah, dregs for me. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: The honeybee kill more people each year world-wide than poisonous snakes.

Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter

My first official American craft beer from Nebraska: Dark Side Vanilla Porter by Empyrean Brewing Company. This has been down in the cellar for a few months and comes by means of my transactional buddy on the west coast, Jordan.

Now I am down to the following states:

1. North Dakota
2. West Virginia
3. Wyoming

Dark Side Vanilla Porter made my mouth salivate for vanilla; one of my favorite flavors/aromas in an American craft beer. Alas, I couldn’t find any trace of vanilla in Dark Side, which was a bit of a let down. The aroma and flavor were both on the muted end of the spectrum, making me think of this as a “light porter”. Roasted malt is the forerunner characteristic of the beer with coffee and smoke coming in the taste but that’s where it ends. The body is helped out by an ample carbonation that can’t hide the light body, but this does make for an easy drinking porter.

A very sessionable porter that is average for the style: nothing takes it up a notch but, overall, nothing is wrong with it either. Enjoy!

Aroma: 6 (25%), Taste: 6 (25%), Look: 9 (15%), Drinkability: 8 (35%), Overall: 7.2

Useless Fact: The animal with the largest brain in proportion to its body size is the ant.

Yeast starter

Brew day. I look forward to each one, increasingly so lately. The five hours spent home brewing takes my mind off everything else, focusing my minds eye on the process at hand.

Backspin Belgian Pale Ale is my first attempt at any type of Belgian style beer. Putting together the recipe took me to many websites, a few magazines, and a book or two. I noticed that the style is all over the place but that Belgian Pilsner malt was the base grain for the style. Yes, some use 2-row or others but 90% or more stayed along the Belgian Pils route. Recipes ranged from one specialty grain to as many as five. Typical suspects were Munich, Vienna, CaraMunich, CaraVienne, Biscuit, Aromatic, and even some sort of straight sugar. Some of the American centric ones used Caramel/Crystal malts as well. Hops included such types as Willamette, Goldings (U.S., East Kent, and Styrian), Saaz, Perle, and Fuggle.

This gathering of information aided in formulating a recipe. I shared the recipe with Michael Tonsmeire, who continues to be a huge help while putting up with my constant barrage of questions, and Dave, the guy that works at the local Brew & Grow. Mike mentioned that he thought my recipe was going to be too sweet, Dave backed it up and let me taste a Belgian Pale Ale he brewed with only eight ounces of CaraMunich for a five gallon batch: too sweet is right.

Grain bed after 2nd sparge

From those constructive critiques, there was one issue that I thought about the rest of the day: I had already mixed the grains, had them in my car, and was going to mill them on my way home from work, how was I to adjust my grain bill? Throw out the grains and start over? That’s a waste. Mike gave me several ideas, including using a low mash temperature to allow for the beer to finish dry. A counteractive measure to the large amount of sweet malts. I mixed that idea with the fact that I knew I placed all the specially grain in the bottle of the bucket. I carefully pulled the base malt and a bit of the specially malts from the bucket into the grain mill, added an extra pound of Belgian Pils, and placed the excess sweetness to the side.

What does this mean? Two things: first, I have no recipe to share as I am embarrassed of my original. Second, I have no idea what the final recipe was after pulling off some of the original grains. I have ideas, that will help me make the recipe so I can do the next one on all Brett.

Overall the recipe formulation was much worse than the brew day, which went off without a hitch. I did mash at 148 degrees for 90 minutes with a 60 minute boil. A yeast starter of 2L was made using WLP500 Trappist ale yeast. I pitched the yeast around 3:30pm and it was going great the next morning. Fermentation has the temperature around 63 degrees because it is in the basement. After three days I will bring it upstairs and let it rise to ambient temperature of 67 degrees which is where it will sit until it is time to bottle. Mike helped here with the fermentation schedule.

I don’t have high expectations for this beer, especially since I don’t know the final grain bill, but I feel like I did my best to pull something good out of it. More to come after bottling. Enjoy!

2012-02-07: Brought the busy fermenting beer up from the basement, where it was holding at 62 degrees. Approximately 52 hours after pitching the yeast (pitched on 2012-02-05 around 3:30pm).

2012-02-08: Temperature up to 65 degrees with three bubbles or so every two seconds. I am hoping this will aid the yeast in finishing fermentation.

Useless Fact: There are 5 million different species of insects in the world. The insect population of the world is at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. The weight of the world’s insect population exceeds that of man by a factor of twelve.

I recently mentioned the tug-o-war that is going on in American craft beer at the end of the line: people buying the beer. This time around it is time for a bit on the retailers. It might not be a perfect assessment of the situation but at least it is my perceived notion.

There are two major areas that I am aware of to this point:

1. Larger retailers (chains) getting clout over the one-off mom-and-pop shops.
2. Price gouging.

There is a chain in my area that gets every release but there are many releases that they corner the market. I have heard from someone that used to work there that they actually put pressure on the distributor, because they move so much product, to only sell certain short releases to them. This kills the fair market. This chain is usually higher on beer prices than other beer stores; strike one. This cornering of the market creates an unfair advantage for the store as customers will look to them for not only the rare beer but start using them for more of their needs; strike two. Usually the head beer guy at the store will promise people the beer, they won’t even put it on the shelves, limiting those who have exposure to the beer; strike three.

Don’t be niave to think that similar activities aren’t happening in your own area. I stay away from this liquor chain at all costs. I am too the point that certain releases are ridiculously difficult to get to begin with so why bother.

Price gouging is a shorter but sicker story. This practice centers on short releases, of course, and the price jumped up $5, $10, or more over the normal retail price. I think this is more in smaller shops (they aren’t saints either) as they are more aware of the happenings on the gray market of reselling beers for ridiculous amount. It is awesome how it is all related. I don’t know what is worse, the retailer raising prices and/or people paying the prices.

Both of these point are troubling to me. I like the small stores as they are more customer oriented rather than bottom line. They get to know you and you know the people will be there for a long time. There will be more goofiness coming, I just hope it doesn’t drive me to drink. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: A grasshopper can leap over obstacles 500 times its own height. In relation to its size it has the greatest jumping ability of all creatures.

Zombie Dust has quickly gained a following as most American craft beers from Three Floyds Brewing Company. I don’t remember the exact timing of the original release but it only became available in bottle format six months or so ago.

The original release in bottles made it to local stores but the subsequent releases, if they made it to beer stores, have been short lived, gobbled up like turkey on Thanksgiving Day. The last release or two has only been at the brewery (to my knowledge) only.

The one that occurred this week was no different. The release started on Thursday and ran into Friday. We called the brewery on Thursday evening and we were told they sold out for the day but more would be available on Friday. How could I get some on a day I was scheduled to work?

In comes the wife. She quickly offered to go to the brewery, drive the hour, wait in line, and bring back a case of the beverage. Hours later, she was on her way back with six cases. From the various stories that others had that she spoke to, it seems like people use many different excuses to not be at work so they could get “their” share of Zombie Dust.

I have no need for that much ZD. I sold a case to Rich, now I only have to find buyers for a few more. I figure two cases for me will be plenty. Anyone want some? Enjoy!

Useless Fact: There are more beetles on Earth than any other living creature. The number of species alone is nearly a quarter-million (the United States has 28,000 species)

An American Craft Beer Tug-O-War has begun. I think it touches just about every facet of the industry: brewers, distributors, retailers, and, of course, consumers. I don’t know if I will ever touch every aspect of this topic but I want to look at it from the consumer side with retailers and maybe distributors coming another time.

The number of consumers of American craft beer is growing exponentially. It is the “official” thing to do as wine was a while back. All the hipsters have to be hip, so they need to ride on the coat tales.

I was recently talking to the beer buyer at a local store, Eric. He mentioned that he has people walk in, stating they are just getting into American craft beer and want to pick up Dark Lord, Bourbon County Brand Stout, Pliny, etc. WTF! Are you kidding me. Obviously they are clueless. This goes beyond the point that you can’t pick up Dark Lord at a retail store, that Bourbon County Brand Stout no longer sits on the shelves (because of the damn hipsters), or that Pliny isn’t even distributed to Illinois.

How do you start your craft beer endeavors with the biggest, boldest beers that are out there? That’s like saying give me Devil Dancer as my first American IPA.

Now here is the bad part, the hipsters aren’t even the bad guys here. It is the jackasses (this is how I will refer to them the rest of the way) that buy the beer for no other reason than trying to pull a profit in the second-hand market (I won’t even mention that devil of a bidding site). Since, it seems, these people just sit on their asses all day trying to figure out how to make a buck and don’t have a job, they make phone calls to any place they feel they can drive to, scouring for tips, lists, and beers that they can turn a profit.

This screws us all, even the hipsters. So even on a beer that is limited to one per person, they might travel around all afternoon, from store to store, picking up a case of bombers. This limits the amount of beer for everyone that actually wants to appreciate the beer for the reason it was made: to be drank. So the tug-o-war begins. American craft beer connoisseurs pulling the rope to get what they believe they deserve, hipsters pulling the rope to get beers that they have no idea of what they are asking, and the jackasses pulling on the rope to make sure they screw everyone to the means of their end: trying to turn a profit.

All this tugging leads us down the path of distributors and retailers restricting beer allotments further, possibly increasing margins by charging higher prices since the Internet seems to afford them quite easily. I long for the days when I could find Bourbon County Brand Stout on the shelf year round so I could get my fix anytime. Instead, now, I haven’t found the damn beer on a shelf in a year or more. Sad times.

For those of you that have played along, yes, I have broken my New Year’s resolution of not swearing in my posts. Some of these topics get me fired up. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: The deer botfly can fly faster than a jet plane. It has been clocked at a speed of 818 miles per hour. It crosses 400 yards in one second and moves 13 miles in a minute. The deer botfly flies so fast that it is almost invisible to the human eye.

Note: No matter how good the above sounds, there is no way it is true. Wikipedia on the deer botfly: "To maintain a velocity of 800 miles per hour, the 0.3-gram fly would have had to consume more than 150% of its body weight in food every second, the fly would have produced an audible sonic boom, the supersonic fly would have been invisible to the naked eye, and the impact trauma of such a fly colliding with a human body would resemble that of a gunshot wound."

Moral of the Story: Don’t believe the shit you read on the Internet.

I remember the days when Bell’s Hopslam was a beer I could never get enough of. I remember when every citrus hop bomb was a beer I sought out. I couldn’t get enough Cascade and/or Centennial in my American Craft Beer. I am not disappointed in the latest Hopslam, it just doesn’t seem to hold the same luster it used to. I want more from it.

What? How can I say that? Next I will be saying that Pliny The Elder by Russian River Brewing Company is merely an average American Imperial IPA.

I will never go that far, but…

Our senses change over time. The simple reason is this is due to age and the senses tend to dull over time; more of a certain stimulation is needed to create the same sensory response. I think the more logical is the amount of hop laden American craft beer and home brew that I consume. All of the beers I brew are usually over hopped for the single reason that I love hops.

But, I don’t think I can easily stop here as I think there is something else contributing and, quite possibly, the major factor in my shifting desire in hopped up beers: new hop varieties. Yeah, I dared to say it.

Every year new hop varieties are showing up on the market. They quickly become the rage of the industry and everyone is clamoring for them, even myself. The new, shiny ones always catch our attention. What the hell, they are new, that is just human nature.

A few years back Simcoe and Amarillo where the big new comers on the block. Simcoe with pine flavor and aroma while Amarillo with big citrus and highlighted fruit and floral profile both burst onto the scene. In the last year or two Citra has gained a lot of momentum, becoming the focus of some American craft beers which have becoming ridiculously popular. HBC 342 is in it’s infancy, as it doesn’t even have a name, but is being lauded for a citrus and watermelon profile. New Zealand is starting to bring some outstanding hops to market too. Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, and Rakau to name a few, are high on the list of home brewers as well as professionals.

All these hops have two things in common: high alpha acids and out of this world bold aromas/flavors: Nelson Sauvin is so potent that minimal amounts are needed to create grand aromas.

This hop boldness is the perfect blend for what American craft beer and home brew drinkers desire: the bolder the better in IPAs (I am at the front of the line). Tropical, fruits, wine, and other aroma/flavor combinations come through in these hops, imparting newness and shininess to these beers. Everyone is jumping on American craft beer, therefore, by association, people want to be the first to report on a new, way out hop.

Rounding back, Hopslam and Pliny are still top notch and the heads of their classes. They might seem “tamer” because of the brash new comers, nonetheless they are solid brews that will stand the test of time. Will these new hops and hopped beers do the same or will they fall to the way side as newer hop varieties continue to hit the lucrative market? I am going to be happy to be part of this hoppy ride. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: The caterpillar has more than 2,000 muscles.

Tyranena Scurvy

It has been a while since I had a bottle of Scurvy by Tyranena Brewing Company. It was released as part of Tyranena’s “Brewer’s Gone Wild!” series back in 2009. I have tried to pick up as many in that series as possible and have seen those beers as one off’s. I know a few have been repeated but guess I never knew that they decided to go year round. Obviously they don’t run their release schedule through me. Before I continue, is it me or has Tyranena slowed on the releases of aforementioned series?

The aroma is king and hop forward. Lots of citrus/grapefruit that straightens out the hairs of my nose. A caramel backbone holds up ever so slightly. The taste follows, heaping on the bitterness in the finish. According to my notes that because I had the beer too cold. I can see that as I had it outside for an hour in 20 degree temperatures; it was damn cold. The one thing I don’t remember in the beer is the amount of debris free floating in the glass.

Scurvy still satisfies the hop desires in me. Now that I know it is year round, I will partake more often. Enjoy!

Aroma: 8 (25%), Taste: 8 (25%), Look: 8 (15%), Drinkability: 8 (35%), Overall: 8.0

Useless Fact: Cockroaches have lived on Earth for 250 million years without changing in any way whatsoever.

It has been a while since I have come forth with thoughts on a brewing day. Rich recently mentioned his first brew day with me, which I affectionately named Rich’s Bitch. Since one of my New Year’s resolutions is to brew more and talk about it here, here we go!

Whenever I decide to brew a new style of beer, I do my homework. I check out BJCP guidelines and then scour the web for recipes. I decided that I needed some type of brown ale in repertoire. After reading the style guidelines for an American Brown Ale, I knew it was my type of beer: lots of hops.

After a week or so of screwing around, I settled on the following recipe:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-05 (was lazy)
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.014 (estimate)
IBU: 48.8
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 @70*F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 @70*F dry hopped

Grain Bill:
10.0# 2-Row
0.5# Crystal 60L
0.5# Crystal 40L
0.5# Wheat Malt
0.5# Chocolate Malt
0.25# Cara-Pils
0.25# Victory

Mash 152*F for 60 minutes.

Hop Bill:
0.75oz Warrior (15.0%) @ 60 min
1.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 20 min
1.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) @ 0 min
2.00oz Amarillo (8.5%) dry hop for seven days

Looking at the recipe I think I might have too many different grains, especially with the Wheat, Cara-Pils, and Victory combination. Based on what I wanted to achieve, I think there is some over lap. Once I bottle, I will know for sure.

The brew day went smooth. I was joined at various times by Chuck and Dave, sharing some home brew with each made the time pass quite quickly. The beer was busy fermenting this morning. I should be trying this one out in about a month. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: The Mexican fishing spider attaches itself to a small leaf, floats across a pond as if on a raft, and from this vantage point hunts its prey, large tadpoles and small fish.

 So here’s the step by step log of my first brew day:

 9:25 Gathering equipment and ingredients (purchased grains and yeast a couple days earlier in Aurora, hops are homegrown from my friend John in Michigan).

9:35 Prepared bucket of sanitary water, 3 level tablespoons of Step 1 No Rinse cleansing powder.

 9:43 Heating strike water on stove in the kitchen to save time and propane, preparing for the batch sparge, heating 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain.

 9:56 Strike water (12.8 quarts) heated to 168-degrees then poured into mash tun to help get it to temperature.

9:59 Doughing in the grains into the mash tun, digital thermometer used to hit mash range of 150 – 154 degrees (higher temp results in increased sweetness). Stirred for about 5 minutes, hit temp target and closed mash tun for 60 minutes.

 10:05 Sanitized the Italian glass carboy, first time used. 

10:10 Weigh the hops, using 0.6-ounces of Zeus (bittering), 1.0 ounces of Cascade for aroma, and 1.0 ounces of Cascade for flavor, and added a small qty of cones from Big Scot’s backyard (Centennial).

10:26 Checked the mash tun temp, still at 153 degrees, could do an iodine test to tell if the starches have been converted, we are just are doing this step by timing.

 10:46 Downtime, had a Big Scot’s Cascadian IPA “Dirty Balls” (golf term).

 11:04 Doing a vorlauf (clearing the wort), then took first runnings and collected 1.75 gallons.

.

11:13 Added 3 additional gallons of water at 190-degress for the first batch sparge, waiting 10-minutes.

 11:14 First runnings into the brew kettle.

 11:25 Completed first sparge, 3-gallons more of wort into brew kettle.

11:28 Added 3 more gallons of 192-degree water into mash turn, waiting 10-minutes.

 11:44 Last sparge in brew kettle, flame on, and approx 20-minutes till it hits full boil.

11:45 Cleaning mash tun, not that interesting, giving spent grains to friend that has a compose pile (trying to be green).

11:57 Brew kettle temp now at approx 170-degrees, watching for boil (200-degrees?) and protein break.

 12:08 Brew kettle temp now at approx +195-degrees, foam starting to signal protein break is close.  

12:11 Turn propane off for a moment to prevent over-boil, waited a minute or two, then re-ignited burner.

 12:16 First 0.6-ounce of hops (Zeus) in boil.

 12:57 Added 1.0-ounce of hops (Cascade) in boil.

1:06 Putting chiller in brew kettle, to bring to temperature.

1:15 Last hops in (another 1.0-ounce of Cascade), flame off, now for chilling process.

 1:16 Cold water running through chiller, working to get to 100-degrees, when we’ll take out second bag of hops (aroma flavor). Note: cooling water into clothes washer for re-use, my aren’t we green.

1:31 Hit 100-degrees.

 1:54 Hit 72-degrees, post boil gravity check, now at 1.045. Doesn’t make sense because we boiled off 2-gallons, hell I never took chemistry what do I know about precise measurements.

 1:55 Racking.

2: 00 Pitching the yeast.

 2:11 Yeast pitched and stopper in.

3-weeks in the fermenter, then rack into another carboy and dry-hop with 2-ounces of Cascade pellets for one week, then bottles for 2-3 weeks.

 First impression of home brewing: It’s a simple process on the surface, but precision is required and math calc’s make this not such a laid-back “hobby”. I think it was definitely a huge advantage to brew with someone that has the experience. And I like the social aspect of the whole process. The thing about beer being a communal activity becomes even more apparent in the brewing process (versus the drinking process). There’s enough waiting time between steps that sets a relaxed pace to the whole experience. And the results of the one’s labor are satisfying, though that’s yet to be confirmed via tasting of the aged product. I guess you are always happy with crafting something out raw materials. Plus it provides unequal insight into how that glass of beer tastes the way it does. I’ve just taken my next step towards Jedi-level beer geekery, and I can’t wait to taste the results and brew again. The only real question I have about home-brewing is what kind of style to brew next.