Epic/Crooked Stave Elder Brett tasting

I learned of this new collaboration between SLC’s Epic & Colorado’s Brettanomyces-focused Crooked Stave earlier this week via the Utah Beer blog.  It’s fairly big saison that was then aged with four strains of Brett in white wine barrels that previously held Epic’s Belgian golden strong ale fermented with peaches, Brainless on Peaches.  Snagged a bottle of this yesterday, and after allowing it time to settle and chill at home, enjoyed it last night.  It certainly made an interesting accompaniment to watching The Two Towers.

Date - 27 January 2012

Venue - My house

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Poured gold with a substantial head that collapsed after a couple minutes.  White wine and green apple in the nose; the taste brought more white wine, phenolics from the  yeast, light tartness, and maybe a little fruit.  The mouthfeel was pretty light, with medium carbonation; it didn’t sit heavy in the mouth, and definitely didn’t come across as nearly 9%.  Overall, it was interesting, but didn’t deliver the funk I was expecting.  That may simply mean I need more experience with various strains of Brett, but for me, this beer was dominated by the wine that was originally in the barrels.  Given that there’s been a full run of another strong beer through those barrels prior to this, that wine character really seems to be going the distance.  I’ll be curious to learn if the Brett is still active in the bottles; if so, I’ll probably pick up a couple more bottles to age and see if any more barnyard/musty/funk character develops.

- Br. Absalom

Special Delivery

The other day I received a package from Austin Homebrew Supply.  Whatever could be in there?

Why, it's 26 ounces of pellet hops, of course!  Last week I jumped on a deal put up on Homebrew Finds for an 18-ounce hop variety pack from AHB; most of the hops will fill out my bittering needs for the next several months, though I may have to make some sort of "mixed bag" pale or IPA with them as well.  If you're interested, it looks like the sale is still going on as of my writing this.  While I was at it, I added a half pound of Kent Goldings pellets to the order for a Burton ale I'm planning.

My tiny hop freezer is nearly bursting at the seams!  Looking forward to having an opportunity to do some brewing and put them to use.  Not this weekend, but perhaps the following one.  This winter has found me missing hoppy homebrews; I see a remedy for that in the near future.

- Br. Abelard

Beer Flight

It often pays to be a regular at a place. I'm almost tempted to qualify that by saying at some places, but I don't make a habit out of going to places at which it does not pay to be a regular.

I'm a regular at Urban Burger Bar, much to my wife's chagrin. Great food, great beer selection, great people serving both, nice atmosphere, and, well you could say proximity to my workplace, all come together nicely to make it a no-brainer.

I walked in the other day for lunch just as they were opening to find a completely empty place and two beer flights artfully on display at the end of the bar. "We're just taking some new press shots," says Emily, one of the regular bartenders. Before I could ask what "press" they were for, she slid one of the flights in front of me and smiled.

"Edmund, Sprecher, Rasputin, and Allagash White," she says. I checked out the aroma of the first one, and it smelled a lot bigger than Great Lakes' Edmund Fitzgerald. I tasted it, and it tasted a lot bigger than Great Lakes' Edmund Fitzgerald. "I don't remember Edmund being this powerful," I tell Emily. "It can stand up on its own," she says, "it's a good solid porter." Out of curiosity, I tried the third one, North Coast's Old Rasputin, and it smelled and tasted an awful lot like a nice mild, roasty, coffee-like porter...at least I proved to myself that I can tell the difference.

(Cask Conditioned Summit India Pale Ale)

I went back to the first one and enjoyed the rest of the big, powerful Russian Imperial Stout Old Rasputin, followed by the third one, the nice balanced, mild, roasty Edmund Fitzgerald porter. And finally I drank the second one, Sprecher's Abbey Tripel. I left the Allagash White alone for the most part, except for a little taste after the other three. Against the others, the Allagash is practically a palate cleanser, and not lacking at all for that, but perhaps a bit out of place on that flight. Although maybe that's exactly the point.

But what's my point? No point, really. Just that it's nice to be a regular at a place.

Improvisatory Hopback

A few weeks ago the annual "Gadgets Issue" (35(1)) of Zymurgy appeared in my mailbox, an issue that I have always eagerly anticipated since I became a member of the American Homebrewers Association. There are often some very clever, effective, and cost-efficient homebrew-improvement ideas contained within, and besides, it's simply fun to read about what other homebrewers have thought of to experiment with improving their system, their methods, or both.

The idea that caught my eye most was the "Hop-Squasher", submitted by Courtney Tyvand. Her idea centers on creating a hopback out of a French coffee press. As she writes:

"I just pour a carafe full of my favorite beer and add a teaspoon or so of hop pellets...and insert the press screen, making sure that the vents are in the 'closed' position, and stick in the fridge for a few minutes. When I'm ready to pour, I twist to the 'open' position and very slowly depress the plunger to clear the hop debris and pour a great tasting pint of uniquely hopped beer. It's nothing fancy, but it is cheap and fun and allows you to play around with a lot of different hop and beer combinations." (p. 23)

When I read that I thought to myself, "Hey, I have a coffee press...I have hops...I have beer...I should do this!". And so I did. I decided to use New Glarus' Hop Hearty Ale as my first experiment, with a couple of teaspoons of Mt. Hood hop pellets as my experimental addition. For those who are unfamiliar with the Hop Hearty Ale, it's in the style of an American IPA and is dry-hopped with Cascade and East Kent Goldings. I decided to take tasting notes on a pint without the addition, and then notes on the beer with the addition. I chose Mt. Hood since it's fairly unobtrusive, mild, and wouldn't mess too much with the hop profile of the original. Below are my notes:

Hop Hearty Ale

Appearance: Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a 6 ounce tasting glass. Color is amber trending towards the red side of the spectrum, with a sticky foam that leaves lacing down the side of the glass.

Aroma: Not too aggressive, and very well-balanced. Some citrus and mint with a bit of a floral scent as well. Caramel, as the label states, is also present.

Taste: Very clean, and extremely easy to drink due to its balanced flavors. Citrus is more present in the taste up front, followed by some mint and ending with a grassy note. The caramel intertwines throughout. I don't think that it is too present at any point of the tasting.

Mouthfeel and thoughts: Definitely a medium body with plenty of carbonation, but not an overwhelming amount. Very, very easy to quaff, what with the balance and flavors present.
Now for the beer, plus Mt. Hood additions. Below are some pictures:

Hops:

Carafe:

Hops with carafe:
Hop Hearty Ale, Mt. Hood addition

Appearance: Same, with some small bits of hoppy goodness.

Aroma: The aroma has a much sweet floral-ness to it. Obviously the beer is now slightly out of balance and trending towards a floral nose; while not a bad thing, I don't think I'd make a dry hop addition out of it.

Taste: Very similar to the original. This is expected, obviously, as the AA% contribution should be near or at zero.

Mouthfeel and overall: Mouthfeel is obviously similar. The balance is slightly out of whack, of course, but I think it is a huge success as an experiment. The aromas contributed from this amount allowed me to see a hop profile in an entirely new light.

This is something that I think every homebrewer should try. Hop profiles can be a difficult thing to anticipate, and this is a cheap, quick, and fun way to experiment with different hops without losing a bunch of money on a failed batch of beer. In the future I think that I'll try it with multiple varieties of hops, as well as experimenting with length of time in the carafe as well as using more aggressive hops. For the record, I did not refrigerate the beer once the hops were added, but simply kept it out for observation. I think a warmer temperature will help profile the aromas a little bit better. I apologize for the formatting. Something happened to the latter half of this post, and currently I'm too lazy to fix it.

Dad's Rye IPA tasting & recipe

My dad got into homebrewing shortly after I did.  We’ve brewed many stovetop extract batches together on my visits home (we did an American brown a couple weeks ago), and I’ve put together a number of recipes for him.  This is one of those; it’s pretty straightforward, based around the new rye malt syrup that Northern Brewer released last year. It's modeled a bit on NB's Denny's Wry Smile kit, the hops in particular, subbing some of the specialty grains my dad had in stock.

Date - 8 January 2012

Venue - My parents' house (WI)

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The beer’s a deep red-brown with a full head on the pour; it drops to a thick film after a few minutes, but doesn’t leave a lot of lacing on the glass.  The aroma has a lot of fruit (apricot, maybe?) and floral notes.  The taste up front is of dark fruit and malt, followed by a strong bitterness that fades back quickly but lingers for a few moments.  There’s a little more fruit in the middle as it warms.  It’s medium bodied, the rye lying heavy on the tongue before slickly sliding off; the carbonation is moderate, not prickly but certainly not flat.  It’s turned out to be a very tasty beer, with a lively fruitiness without being overly sweet, balanced by solid IPA bitterness.

Dad’s Rye IPA (extract)
Batch size: 4 gallons
Projected OG: 1.052
Projected SRM: 9.2
Projected IBU: 38
Boil time: 60 minutes

Grains/Fermentables
94.1% - 6 lb Rye malt syrup
3.9% - 4 oz Biscuit
2.0% - 2 oz C 120

Hops
.5 oz Columbus (14%) (60 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.5%) (20 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (0 min)
.5 oz Columbus (Dry hop 7 days)

Yeast
1 pkg WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50

- Br. Absalom

Turkey Fryer Windscreen (Re)Build

In my second year of brewing, I moved to heating water and wort outside on a propane turkey fryer. Some time later, while perusing the book Brew Ware, I came across the idea of building a heat shroud or windscreen to keep the heat focused on the kettle and make lighting the burner easier (which can be a serious pain on a windy day). One roll of aluminum roof flashing and some pop rivets later, I had a heat shroud that looked a bit like a Cylon helmet but made my fryer much more efficient (and easier to light).

That is, until a few months ago, when we had a horrendous wind storm that was bringing down neighbourhood trees and blowing semis off the road. I’d left the windscreen sitting out the back door from the previous brewday; by the time I went looking for it, it was long gone. After much gnashing of teeth and donning of sackcloth, I set out to make a replacement.

I started to build the new windscreen just the way the old one had been: one straight sheet of aluminum with one pop-riveted seam that sat as an uneven tapered cylinder. After putting in one rivet, though, it seems I’d miscalculated my size and made it unusably small. I cut out the offending rivet, measured everything again, and redesigned the

windscreen to come together in five sheets, which would allow it to rest more evenly on the burner. Cutting down the single sheet also allowed me to leave out the spot where that first poorly-placed rivet had been. It took some adjusting before the final seam was riveted, but it came together great.

On its maiden voyage (a low-gravity beer fermented with Brett L alone, about which I’ll post on my homebrewing blog soon) I did learn one lesson worth passing along to anyone else interested in a project like this: five times the seams means five times less rigidity in the structure. The previous windscreen held its shape pretty well, and was never too difficult to navigate around to get the kettle on the flame. The new one bows so much around the square fryer frame that the narrow top opening, designed to only leave about a ½” to 1" gap between the kettle and windscreen, shapes itself into more of a square

when set over the burner, making it difficult at times to get the kettle into position.

To fix this, I’m considering making a rigid hoop for the top opening over which I can bend the rim to help it hold its shape. The extra seams also let out more heat, which you can see from the scorching along them on the windscreen; I’m not too worried about that, though, as it doesn’t seem to be melting. I may put some high-temp metal tape over them to better seal the structure, unless I come up with a better way to do that. In the meantime, though, I have a very usable replacement to keep down my propane expenditures.

- Br. Absalom

UPDATE: Last brewday a flaw in my slapdash propane-in opening (visible in this final shot) revealed itself: the contact with the propane line eventually led to the line melting, leaking propane, which ignited and sent out a very not-cool jet of flame.  I had to replace the line, and have since chopped down this windscreen to fit just on top of the fryer and inside the larger cylindrical windscreen I constructed to fit my larger brewpot.  Make sure your gas-in opening shields the line from as much heat as possible!

Green Flash Imperial IPA tasting

 

 Date - 2 January 2012

Venue - Local Option
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In Chicago for New Year’s Eve, Br. Thelonious and I stopped in at the Local Option in Lincoln Park before DeAunn and I headed out of town for Wisconsin last night.  He had the Nøgne Batch #500 Imperial IPA; hopefully he’ll post his thoughts on it.  The Green Flash Imperial IPA I had, pictured above, was everything I love about super-charged West Coast hoppy beers.  It was beautifully clear with nice lacing, it smelled like a freshly opened bag of whole-leaf hops with lots of pine and floral notes.  The taste matched the aroma: huge hop flavour with bitterness that doesn’t totally overwhelm, but lingers on the back of the tongue.  Unlike a lot of overly hefty IIPAs, this one finishes without a lot of sweetness.  This is absolutely the freshest smelling and tasting imperial IPA I’ve ever had, and will very much look forward to my next opportunity to have a glass.

- Br. Absalom

Homebrew labels

The only labeling I normally put on my homebrews is a couple initials on the caps so I can tell them apart.  It makes it a bit tough when folks come over and can’t figure out what’s what, but it’s not usually too much trouble get them what they want.  When giving homebrew as gifts, though, an actual label really improves their presentation.

In years past, I’ve mocked up pretty simple labels in a word processing program; for a background I’ve used an uncomplicated graphic (too much going on and it doesn’t really work) that I faded in a photo editing program.  Application with a washable glue stick makes it easy to reuse the bottles down the road.

This holiday season, though, I came across Andy Biggs’s Beer Labelizer website, which allows you to input your beer’s information into several really nice looking label designs.  It’s also extremely easy to use, which is a big bonus.  You don’t have total control over all of the variables (font, position, etc.), but it’s turned out the best-looking homebrew labels I’ve seen outside of some heavy Photoshop work (to which I’m not prepared to devote the time to really get into at this point).

I’m sure there are other sites and tools available for just this application; in fact, here’s another site I found sometime in the past year that I just haven’t spent as much time playing with.  I think I’ll be able to get a lot of mileage out of the Beer Labelizer site.  Fellow homebrewers, how long what do you do for label design?

- Br. Absalom