Imagination is act of forming a mental image never before perceived.

In my previous essay I established that failure is a reoccurring theme in my brewing.  Specifically I discussed the knowledge a brewer learns can be flawed, and I touched upon the notion that the speculations a brewer makes can also be flawed.  I wanted to elaborate more on this second point.  The speculations a brewer makes can also be limited by his imagination.

There is a vast realm of information out there for brewers to draw from- some of it is wrong, and that’s a stumbling block.  However a lot of it’s right, the styles are combinations of ingredients that ‘taste good.’- they sell.

And yet there is a larger world- an undiscovered beer country!  The beer styles are a product of time and location.  Technology and regional ingredients coming together to produce something that tastes good, a ‘style’.  Having learned ‘this works’, there isn’t much motivation to do more.  The English built the English Bitter and it sold- the end.   The Germans built an Octoberfest- it sold- the end.  Make more of this!

All these things were figured out in the past and they are the cumulative history that present brewers can learn from, but how does one find this undiscovered beer country?  They have to enter the world of ignorance, the places where there is a lack of knowledge- they have to use their imagination to discover something new!

Dark malts have existed for a long time, so have IPA’s, but only recently was the Cascadian Dark named an official style.  The idea, of making an IPA and putting dark malt in it- just hadn’t occurred.  Or it maybe it happened, but nobody sold it.  In the cumulative history of mankind, this beer is ‘new’.

And for every new style that is developed, how many failures are there?  Who knows, a lot, more than a lot!  One of the things about my brewing is I have an interest in exotic ingredients.  I want to understand what they contribute to a beer.  I do this because I want to make beer that I can’t buy at the store.

Consider that once upon a time there were seasonal beer, regional beers.  They were specific to a region because that’s the only place you could get this malt, or hop, or spice.  Seasonal because these ingredients were only available this time of year.  Historically beer might be common, but specific beers were time and place specific.  This is no longer the case, you could if you wanted, find a Christmas beer on the Fourth of July.  A Trappist Ale in Jamacia.  It could happen.

To make something rare or exotic, one has to enter the realm of ignorance and pack a lot of imagination.   Fool around with ingredients no one uses, or in a combination no one tries, see what happens.  Maybe someone did discover this tastes terrible, that it won’t sell.  The problem is, there isn’t a lot of documentation on what won’t work- just what will.

Since I want to find something rare in a world that has made beer common, I pursue unusual ingredients.  Sometimes with success, but many are terrible.  I’ve made a Dandelion beer (tastes like dirt, smells like lawn), and cough drop beer (tastes like menthol) , yarrow and oak  gruit (tastes like wet tree).  None of these will earn me the title of a style developer.  They are just bad- failures.

However, like my other failures I am learning from them.  I’m putting together an arsenal of unusual ingredients.  I can see a day making a Christmas ‘warmer’ that makes “the nose tingle”, the secret ingredient- a cough drop!

If every bad beer is an expression of ignorance, it is also an opportunity to improve your next beer!  The next time you make something terrible.  Tell everyone, ask them what’s wrong with it.  Take notes, drink several bottles yourself.  Take more notes.  Detail what is off and what is right.  Don’t focus on the good elements, consider the bad.  Think creatively, use your imagination.  Could these off flavors ever help a beer?  In some styles they might!  Is your beer sour?  There are sour beers!  Can your brew this again intentionally as a sour?  Is it to sweet?  There are sweet beers, can you do this again?  To dry, when is that appropriate?  All the bad things can be good- if you can imagine an use for them!

Sierra Nevada Torpedo

Torpedo by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has spent a long time being neglected by me. I purchased a bottle several weeks ago as part of a “you make your own six pack” crap. Sierra Nevada always makes good beers but, for some reason, I just find myself purchasing them all that often. Don’t know why. Could be they have been around for a while and I prefer trying to give the new kids on the block a try.

The pour brings a deep gold pour with a white foam that has above average staying power, leaving dry, sticky lacing behind. The aroma is hop forward, earth and spice are the front runners with a dash of citrus splashed in. The taste follows adding grassy hops to the mix along with a light sweetness that seems to be more of an after thought as the malts are subdued. Crisp and refreshing with only a mild build up of bitterness.

Torpedo is a crisp, refreshing, easy to drink IPA that will be especially good all summer long. I waited way to long but glad I didn’t wait any longer. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: Pinocchio is Italian for “pine head.”

Most of my beers can be described as failures, but I do not define myself as a Failure.  To explain why I can consistently fail, but reject the title of failure I need to explain how one becomes a brewer.

A person, for numerous reasons finds their interest in beer moving beyond drinking “Beer”, into the world of craft beer.  There is more than one kind of beer- there are styles, and within a style, there are many versions, many interpretations of that style.  And some kind of curiosity combines with hands on activity, and person realizes they want to try making beer.

Then this person needs to learn how to do it.  Yes a person can learn from a book.  They can buy a video, or watch something on line, but given the many actions that are occurring, the many minute details that need to be hit- in order, at specific times, most people seek out a teacher.

The process of making beer is simple, it is easy, but with no previous knowledge, it is incredibly intimidating.  The teacher, might be a community college class, or a Big Brew Day event, or a local club sponsored gathering.  Maybe it’s just a neighbor, but one person shows another the various parts of the brew day, and that act is how most people learn to brew.

And I am getting to a point.  While a book, or a video, or an on-line app can try to show you the way, nothing is as effective as being there, in person, going through the motions, seeing brewing done, and doing it.  Like muscle memory, this work through it, under the guidance of another is the fastest easiest way to learn.  That sort of learning is the oldest kind of learning, it is the oral tradition and it’s as old as beer.

This act of talking it through as you brew has numerous advantages.  The student can see, act, and ask questions.  The teacher, in the moment can explain, clarify, and guide the student.  Many nuanced issues can be addressed as the moment allows that a chronological book, video, or app can’t address.  The teacher is incredibly important to the novice brewer.

And yet… the teacher might be full of shit.

I was taught how to brew by a great friend who in turn was taught by one of his friends.  He taught me that when you drop your first hops, you need to boil it 60 minutes, then you drop your second hops and boil it 30 minutes, and then you drop your final hops and boil it 15 minutes.  This is how he was taught and this is how I learned to brew.  My first beer had a 105 boil because that’s how my friend was taught to brew.

Only when I bought my first book and read it and re-read it, and re-read it again did I e-mail my friend and humbly ask him if  he might be wrong.  Maybe the entire boil is suppose to be 60 minutes and 30 minutes into the boil, you drop the second hops, 45 minutes into the boil you drop the last- the total boil time is 60- not 105?

His first response was I was wrong.  Eventually he asked on line and he was told he was wrong, but because he had been taught that erroneous method- there was this emotional attachment and he said something like, “Some people do it that way.”  A reluctant, “I’m wrong.”  Not based on pride, but based on trying adjust what he was taught was true with what he learned is true.

As a brewer, I spend a lot of time trying to determine what I was taught was true with what is in fact true.  There are many instances where I feel like I am reinventing the wheel.  I feel many young brewers do this.  They can’t simply take your word on something.  If a little Black Patent is good, then a lot must be better.

I can’t fault brewers that ignore my advice, because I ignore the advice of other brewers all the time.  And here’s my point, that choice- to ignore the advice of others, causes me to fail often.  Having said this, I reject the premise that I am a failure, because I am learning.  I am learning what is true and what is not true.

Many brewers pass on false information.  Many brewers speculate on issues they don’t know anything about, or assume extremes that never occur.  As a brewer I’m curious, I want to separate fact from fiction.  Most of the time I find facts- more Black Patent isn’t always better.  Occasionally I find fictions- “Squeezing the Bag” probably won’t hurt the beer.

I suspect that most of my material will be Essay’s on Failure, a “What Not to Do” as a brewer.  However, once in a Blue Moon- I might get something right.  When your not laughing at my failures, you might learn something from my successes.

I was a bachelor this weekend. The wife and kids were out of town (and sorely missed) for the entire weekend. What to do? I got it: home brew! What to brew was a simple question. Saturday brew an Americanized Belgian Wit for the wife and, Saturday, brew up two IPAs. Each with the same base but highlighting a different. In this case Citra and Nelson Sauvin.

The trick with the double batch of IPA on Sunday was having enough equipment and not having a brew day that was more than 8 hours long. Chuck was willing and able to lend a hand, bringing over a burner, kettle, chiller, and a couple of other pieces of equipment. The plan was to get one batch boiling while starting the mash for the second. It was determined that Chuck and I would have to be doing different tasks from each other throughout the brew day in order to pull this off cleanly. For example, while one is chilling the first batch of beer, the other could be doing the sparge(s) on the second batch.

With both of the IPAs I did a first wort hopping, which was a first for me. Chuck had been doing for while but I wanted to make sure of the level of bitterness from that practice before jumping in (ever the cautious brewer). The aroma on the Citra version while chilling the beer was utterly fantastic (we chilled it in an enclosed area). The Nelson Sauvin version wasn’t as aromatic but this was chilled in the garage with the door open and a slight breeze.

We didn’t hit the expected gravity from the brew sheet but the gravity of both beers, pre- and post-boil, were exactly the same. At least I know my process is the same.

Unusual for Chuck and I as the day did go as planned. Ridiculously simple and clean. We were done with both beers in seven hours (two five gallon batches), including clean up.

Returning back to Saturday: Grass Cutter Wheat Ale was the brew of the day. This is a beer I have many times in the past, less so recently. The wife has taken a liking to an American Pale Ale that I brewed, asking for it rather than the wheat. I guess she was in the mood. This beer uses 0.3 ounce of freshly ground coriander and the fresh zest of two oranges. Like I mentioned an Americanized wit beer: the ingredients and yeast are all American. Outside of the boil pushing my post boil volume to under five gallons the day was a success.

During the brewing process of Grass Cutter, I also racked Double Bogey to secondary. It has already been a month since I brewed it, so it was time to move into a clean carboy and the 60 degree chill of the basement for a few months. The gravity reading put me at 1.022 which should put this beer on the done side and potentially the dry side. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.

I am sick, again. Seems to be the theme of my life for the past six months. It has been a rough bout with just about every cold ailment imaginable. This series of ailments has also slowed down the progress on the home brewing front: I haven’t brewed but I am catching up with some aging beers.

Brett Backspin was brewed back in February as my second attempt attempt at a Belgian Pale Ale. The beer finished at 1.007, I realize it could maybe drop a bit more, but felt that 9 weeks at 68 degrees Fahrenheit was enough, I wanted to taste it. I did drink a bit of the beer that I used to pull the gravity. The beer is subtle, easy to drink, and carries an ABV of 5.7%. I can’t wait for carbonation to finish so that I can give it a real taste.

This was a long day of bottling because of how the dish washer works and not really paying attention to the setting for the dishes that were in there to start originally. I am trying to use this occasion to get the wife into allowing me to pick up some kegs and get started down that path.

Coming up: this weekend I am a bachelor and brewing both Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: In 1221, Genghis Khan killed 1,748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour.

Centennial Hop on 2012-04-22

It has been a month since I updated about the hops growing at the corner of the house. It has been a bit of a slow month for growing after a crazy month in March that saw the emerge from their winter slumber much earlier than normal.

March was in the 60s just about every day with several in the 70s. If memory serves me, the mercury hit 80 on a day or two. The normal temperature is in the high 40s/low 50s. Way above normal. The hops plants loved it. In spite of it being dry, the Centennial plant managed to hit 2+ feet.

As good as the weather was in March, April was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Normal temps can hit the low 60s this time of the year but only a handful of days have managed. The weather is still dry, so watering has already started. As a result the hop plants have grown minimally. There are still more bines pushing up through the ground. I have to cut them back and will be focusing on the three strongest; I already have them wrapped around the string.

Hopefully the weather will bring some 60 – 70 degree temperatures and rain so that the hop plants will kick start back into action. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: Until the twentieth century dogs’ teeth were used as money by Solomon Island natives.

Jester King Commercial Suicide

After being sick on-and-off for the last three week, I was looking forward to an American craft beer. As part of the Secret Santa I was involved in ’11, I received a bunch of Texas craft beer. The most prominent of the breweries represented (by sure numbers) was Jester King Craft Brewery. No offense to the craft breweries in Texas but I wasn’t overly enamored with the beers that were sent from my Secret Santa. Not that he didn’t he my ridiculous want list but that only one beer was in the style that I defined as my favorite. That that would be easy.

A quick side note on being sick: it only took me 17 days before I went to the doctor. He prescribed several drugs, one being an antibiotic. Less than 12 hours after taking said drugs, I was on my way to recovery. Moral of the story: I am jackass for not listening to my wife and going to the doctor earlier.

Now back to beer. Commercial Suicide was in front of the other Jester King beers, so it was the choice for the evening. As soon as I nicked off the crown, a loud ssshhhh emitted from the bottle. Contaminated? I quickly brought the bottle over to the sink so it wouldn’t fuel the wife with another reason to get angry with me. By the time it was in the sink, light brown foam was oozing from the top. Contaminated? I poured the beer into a glass, getting a good 99% fill of foam. I had to let it sit for a while to get straight beer. Contaminated. Shit. Drain pour. I wasn’t in the mood.

Not a good impression for Jester King that hasn’t made a great impression of me through two beers. I have one or two left but I am not looking forward to either, especially based on reviews that I have seen on websites. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: Approximately half the money paid out by fire-insurance companies in the United States is paid for fire loss due to arson.

I joined Plainfield Ale and Lager Enthusiasts (P.A.L.E. or just PALE) some 10 months ago. Since it has been my go to homebrew club. Compared to the club that I came from, the 100 or so members is enormous. My take on a brew club is a place that ideas of home brewing should be shared: techniques, new equipment, recipes, and more. PALE has done a good job to this point.

The club’s meetings have been based at Limestone Brewing Company. This also allowed for Limestone Brewmaster, Ken McMullen, and Steve Woertendyke, the assistant to Ken and the Brewmaster of the yet to open Misfit Craft Brewery, to be part of the club. Of course they were bombarded by my questions and my willingness to help out in any fashion. Another member, Brando, recently opened Chicago Brew Werks a home brew shop right behind Limestone. These guys bring a sense of professionalism to the group, creating an atmosphere that is possible to take the hobby to the next level.

Back in January Limestone almost closed because of an issue with the landlord. Now, as of March 24th, 2012, they are closed and moving to the Fox Valley Area. Not because they wanted to but nasty issues with the landlord. This left our April meeting up in the air. Fortunately Bollingbrook Golf Course supplied the hospitality of a conference room, free of charge. The club lives on.

Our meeting place issue is not solved. The golf course, if it is to be our normal meeting place, is further away from the people west, like myself, than Limestone. But, when Limestone reopens, although closer to me, will alienate people if we go back there for our meetings that are opposite me in location. Finding a place that suits everyone is going to be difficult at best. The reason many people are part of the club is location; closeness is important.

The club will go on and hopefully prosper. The location of a permanent meeting grounds will be interesting. If you home brew, are thinking about it, or just want to be around some home brew nerds, stop by a meeting or three. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: One million stray dogs and 500,000 stray cats live in New York City metropolitan area. There are about 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend more than 5.5 billion on their pets each year. Every hour, 12,500 puppies are born in the US.

I never check my efficiency when I brew from the ground up. What I mean is that I usually compare it to what the brew sheet says I should get (which I set at 72%). I am happy if I am close and/or above those marks. Not all that scientific. In my defense if I miss my gravity and the beer tastes good, does it matter? To a point, yes. I want to understand why I am coming up short but at least the beer is good.

To figure out the efficiency, I first tried an online calculator: it would/should be quick and simple. I didn’t believe the numbers it returned (turns out it was wrong but then again my calculations below could be wrong), there had to be another way. Of course a search of the net produced tons of results with the first couple being from places I had been in the past. The first is a link to John Palmers’ online version of his book: How To Brew. The page highlights how to do manual calculations of the mash efficiency. Unfortunately those calculations cannot be one without know the amount of potential sugars your grain will add in one pound increments. Beer Smith has that information.

The two combined gave me enough to do my calculations. The calculation is simple, having three values:

• Formula: PS x G# / WV
• PS – Potential sugar contributed per pound
• G# – Pounds of grain in the beer for that particular grain
• WV – Volume of wort collected

Below is the grains I used and the calculations for each grain.
2Row 36 x 25.0 / 8.25 = 109.1
Roasted Barley 25 x 1.50 / 8.25 = 4.5
Chocolate 28 x 0.75 / 8.25 = 2.5
Special B 30 x 0.75 / 8.25 = 2.7
Crystal 120 33 x 0.50 / 8.25 = 2.0
Wheat 40 x 0.50 / 8.25 = 2.4
Flaked Oats 37 x 0.25 / 8.25 = 1.1

Total 124.3 (number of potential gravity points contributed if efficiency was 100%)

I actually achieved a starting gravity of 1.098 or, for the case of these calculations, 98. Now it is easy to divide the starting gravity achieved by the possible gravity points:

98 / 124.3 = 78.8% efficiency

I think that is pretty good efficiency, especially for a large mash. This leads me to two last thoughts. One, did I make a mistake in my calculations? And, two, are the gravity readings I am taking off? I will continue to keep an eye on this and do these calculations until I see a pattern or more suspicion is raised. Enjoy!

Useless Fact: At birth barnacles look like water fleas. In the next stage of their development they have three eyes and twelve legs. In their third stage they have twenty-four legs and no eyes. Barnacles stay fastened to the same object for their entire lives.

29.25# of grain dumped into mash tun

I have been slow on the blog lately as the weather ridiculously nice weather has pulled me away from the computer. That’s a good thing. I found time to brew on April Fools’ Day, April 1st, 2012. Not a joke, not a prank, I really brewed.

Double Bogey is a Russian Imperial Stout that I brewed over two years ago as my second our third batch of beer. I did age a gallon on oak aged bourbon too. The batch wasn’t all that good: the beer never developed and was always thin. The brew day was a partial boil as I didn’t have the capacity for a full boil (5 gallon pot) and used 4 or 5 bags of dry malt extract. You guessed it, a noob brewing a big beer and lots of sugars: boil over. Because of the partial boil, I had to dump a couple of gallons, or more, of water in the carboy to reach five total gallons. Easily my worst brewing experience. I was bound to not duplicate the mistakes.

Cooling it down

I also picked up some knowledge from my first bigger gravity beer: 203 IIPA. This batch taught me the lesson of decreased efficiency when making high gravity beers. The conversion for Double Bogey put me at 20 pounds of base malt, based on some calculations I used 25 pounds to make sure I hit my gravity. This brought my total grain bill to 29.25 pounds of grain. By far the most grain I had ever used in a beer. I needed two buckets to carry the grain in order to get it ground (yeah, still don’t have a grain mill, pissed me off). The 70 quart mash tun (see picture) was close to capacity: 9.25 gallon of water and the grain push it to the limit.

I ended up collecting 8.25 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.078 to be used in a 90 minute boil. Ended up with 5.25 gallons with a gravity of 1.098. The brew day went well with no complications. The 75 minute mash and 90 minute boil added an extra 45 minutes to the day while cooling of the wort took longer than usual. The water from the house seemed a bit warmer than normal. Think I am going to try and add tubing to run it through ice before it goes into the chiller, decreasing the initial temperature more.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-05 (2)
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.50 (5.25 actual)
Original Gravity: 1.093 (1.098 actual)
Final Gravity: ?
IBU: 78.0
Color: ? SRM
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Primary Fermentation: 30 days @70*F
Secondary Fermentation: 4 months @60*F

Grain Bill:
20.00# 2-Row (25.00# actual)
1.50# Roasted Barley
0.75# Chocolate Malt
0.75# Special B
0.50# Crystal 120
0.50# Wheat
0.25# Flaked Oats

Mash 152*F for 75 minutes.

Hop Bill:
1.75 oz Warrior (15.0%) @ 90 min
2.00 oz Fuggles (4.5%) @ 20 min

Extras:
1.0 tbsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes left in boil
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 minutes left in boil

Double Bogey will take some time to age but I am very interested to see if my skills have increased enough to make a better Russian Imperial Stout than the first time around. Enjoy!

Update:
2012-04-03 – yeast is chewing this beer up, almost creating such a high krausen that it is almost coming out of the 6.5 gallon carboy

Useless Fact: Snails have teeth. They are arranged in rows along the snail’s tongue and are used like a file to saw or slice through the snail’s food.