Square One Taurus IPA tasting

Mrs. Absalom and I are just about halfway through the middle of a cross-country road trip that has already taken us through one-fifth of the Union, with more to come.  Some quick tasting notes from the road are in order, however, from the brewpub of Square One Brewery and Distillery in St. Louis, which we visited on Br. Abelard's suggestion.  The food was well prepared and tasty, and their American pale ale slipped down my throat faster than I could believe.  Intrigued by the current offering in their single-hop IPA series, featuring a varietal about which I've never heard--unsurprising given its incredible scarcity--I took a few notes as I went.

Date - 27 June 2012

Venue - Square One brewpub

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Appearance - Glowing orange, a little murky, wispy head that drops after a minute.

Smell - Very light; initially I couldn't smell it over the plate of wings that had just arrived!  A little malt, lightly herbal.

Taste - Even maltiness and almost light orange on the front, followed by a solid herbal bitterness with a little lingering spice.  It wraps up quickly, without a long aftertaste.  The bitterness is balanced very well; it doesn't taste anywhere near the purported 85+ IBUs.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied, light carbonation; very fitting.

Overall - A solid, satisfying beer, though certainly not what's always expected as an IPA.  Wish I got more from this unique hop, which was very delicate and had a hard time getting across.  While good, I'd have probably preferred another of the APA to another of this.  Either way, I'd love to get back to this excellent, inviting brewpub sooner rather than later.

-Br. Absalom

Small Batch Yeast Rejuvenation

Paying a visit to a new (to me) homebrew shop in the area last week--unbelievably, there are three here that are within easy driving distance--I discovered a box of expired yeast vials and smack packs, all marked half off.  "Great for yeast starters!" the note on the box proclaimed.  Indeed, I replied.  In the box was a vial of WLP862, Charlie Papazian's Cry Havoc strain; I've never used it, but have been interested since Br. Abelard put it to work on his recent kolsch.  I hadn't yet settled on a yeast for an upcoming imperial porter, and growing up this vial seemed like a good possibility.  Of course, the "best by" date on the vial was 10 March, solidly three months ago; according to Jamil Zainasheff's pitching rate calculator, it was only 10% viable when I bought it.  Nothing like a challenge.

On hand at home were partial ounces of Galena, Warrior, and Nugget hops, and just over a quart of starter wort from the end of my recent Burton ale mash.  Add a pound of DME, some water, yeast energizer, and a short boil, and we have a gallon of hopbursted IPA.  It came together almost too easily, and into a little fermenter it went.

It took a couple days to get going, during which time I moved it into a glass fermenter and put it on the stirplate, much to its benefit.  This strain is known to have a bit of a lag starting fermentation even under optimal conditions, and I didn't entirely set it up for success.  It would've been smarter to start off with a much smaller starter of lower-gravity wort; next time I'll probably build it up with just a cup of 1.030 wort before this size starter batch.  Thankfully, by yesterday afternoon it was chugging away, making up for lost time; I had to slip it into a swamp cooler to keep it under control.  This is a way to take advantage of a good deal on yeast, fully utilize the resources already around, and get a micro batch of semi-experimental beer out of the deal.  There's not time now to propagate enough yeast for my imperial porter, but that just means the Cry Havoc will be available for something a little further down the brew docket.  In the meantime, I'm planning to stop by that LHBS again; they seemed to be suffering from an overabundance of expired Pacman smack packs...

Starter IPA
1 gallon
OG: 1.056
IBU: 39.1

1 qt Starter wort
1 lb Muntons Extra light DME

.1 oz Galena (13.2%) (15 min)
.2 oz Nugget (12.4%) (10 min)
.2 oz Warrior (16.7%) (5 min)
1.1 oz Galena-Nugget-Warrior blend (0 min - hop stand 30 min)

Pinch Yeast energizer
WLP862 Cry Havoc

- Br. Absalom

Casking on the Cheap

I don't recall exactly when I was introduced to cask beer, or real ale as it's termed by CAMRA, but I've long enjoyed this departure from the normal draught experience.  There are certainly those who don't care for this "warm, flat" beer; for me, the cellar-level serving temperature allows more aromatics and flavours to emerge, and the reduced carbonation lends a fuller, richer mouthfeel to lower-gravity ales.

My home serving setup has not progressed to kegging yet, let alone setting up a firkin with a handpump (though there are some interesting DIY ideas for doing this).  A while back, though, Northern Brewer started carrying an innovative solution for those who wanted to have real ale at home.  Cubitainers are expandable, reusable plastic containers that are available in a number of sizes and can take a tap attachment.  They can't take a very high level of pressure, which makes them perfect for serving cask-style beer via simple gravity feed.  I picked up a few of the one-gallon size a year or two ago, but had only tried using them once before.  When my recent English summer ale was ready for bottling, it seemed like a perfect time to put one back in action.

Since the volume going into bottles was going to have a higher level of carbonation, I filled the cubitainer before adding my priming solution to the bottling bucket; the cask portion received a separate preparation of priming sugar to lend it a more appropriate amount of pressure (and to prevent the thin plastic container from, y'know, exploding).  This was kind of a test run for the cubitainer cask method, so no finings were added to the "cask".

After a week in my warm brew closet, during which time the cubitainer expanded and the yeast flocculated solidly, I let it chill in the fridge for a while and we had a small cask release party.  Real ale traditionally sits well for just a couple days once tapped, after which it begins to turn, so the thing to do seemed to have most of it in one go.  The results: mixed.

It was difficult to reach a real "cellar" temperature; with spring in full effect, even our basement was relatively warm, but in the fridge for even an hour or so seemed to bring it down a bit too far.  While not bad, it was just...off...a little.  The bigger effect was in the mouthfeel.  While the cubitainer had built up significant internal pressure, the beer in the glass was pretty much wine flat.  Again, while not the worst thing in the world, it still wasn't quite right.  Beyond that, the summer ale itself was pretty green; the mineral quality of the yeast (Wyeast 1028) was very assertive, giving the beer a lager-like quality.  This is still present in the mature bottles, though it's mellowed.

While this wasn't quite a rousing success, it was still encouraging; I will do this again.  Some considerations for next time:

- More priming sugar.  I'm fairly certain that BeerSmith, which I use to estimate carbonation as well as build recipes, accounts for some CO2 left in solution after fermentation; however, in rousing the yeast to ensure fermentation was complete, much of that was probably driven out.  Going a little heavier on the priming solution (within reason) should cover the issue.

- More carb time.  Giving the cask more time to allow the generated CO2 to get back in solution should also improve the carbonation levels.

- Improved "cellar temperature" method.  Instead of moving in and out of the fridge, a small insulated box with room for the cask and one (or maybe two) ice pack(s) might keep the beer at a better "cellar" temp.

- More appropriate beer style.  Admittedly, the beer in question was probably not the best one for casking: it was a light wheat beer, and the higher carbonation of the bottles seems to suit it much better than the low-carb cask did.  In addition, the young yeast character was a bit overwhelming.  An all-barley bitter or porter, possibly with a fruitier yeast, will probably turn out quite nice served this way.

- Cask hopping.  A few whole hops, maybe in a hop bag, would really make this something special.

Half the fun of these projects for me is trying out homespun methods to imitate or commercial process or product, or even to come up with something even more interesting.  Keep innovating, and find your bliss.

- Br. Absalom