Merry Christmas!

Nanobrewing

An interesting article on nanobrewing.  I think Alberta needs some major regulatory reforms to allow this to happen.  Hmm, I think I just found my new hobby...

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/drink/2012/12/nanobrewing_how_tiny_beer_making_operations_are_changing_the_industry.html

Fun Places to drink beer

I have decided to upload some of the pictures of fun places Sith@Heart and I have enjoyed a nice beer.

Hofbrauhaus, Munich

The Prince of all tasty, tasty lies...

Hail Satan!

Random beer drinking pic

Westvletern 12 - Calgary

Homebrew: Pumpkin Stout

After Halloween there was a special at the Superstore - free pumpkins.  So here we go!  This recipe also features a lot of stuff I had on hand, so it is pretty cobbled together.  Here's hoping it works.

Steep at 150 for 30 minutes:

3 lbs pumpkin “meat”, roasted at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (until starting to caramelize)


3.5 oz roasted barley

7 oz chocolate malt

11 oz medium crystal malt (75L)

Boil:

1oz "mystery" hops (whole) (maybe cascade?  I am not entirely sure)

3 kg dry light malt extract

After 55 minutes, add:

1tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

.5 oz East Kent Goldings hops (6.1% AA)

Fill to 5 gallons.  Pitch:

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Home Brew: White House Honey Ale

My brother brought to my attention President Obama's homebrewing exploits at the White House.  One of his recipes was for honey ale.  As luck would have it, my friend Taryn has an apiary and we had discussed making a honey beer.  This seemed like too big a coincidence to pass up.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe

I had to make a few changes to use up ingredients I already had, also substituted the yeast for something better (I think).  Here it is:

Steep for 30 minutes at 155 degrees:

8 oz biscuit malt

10 oz pale crystal malt

2 oz medium crystal malt 

Bring to a boil.  Add:

6 pounds liquid malt extract (light)

1 pound dry malt extract (light)

1.5 oz East Kent Golding hops (pellets)

2 tsp gypsum

After 45 minutes of boiling, add:

.5 oz Fuggles hops (pellets)

After 50 minutes of boiling, add:

1 pound honey

After an hour, I let it cool, topped it up to 5 gallons and pitched Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale

Mango hefe follow up

After letting the hefeweizen ferment for 2 weeks, I added the puree of 4 mangoes (heated to 160 degrees to pasteurize) and added them to 3 gallons of the hefe.  I let that ferment 2 weeks and then bottled.

The result was, as I expected, a nice beer, but with subtle fruit notes.  The mango hefe in Vegas must have used juice or extract, rather than fermenting the fruit.

The beer is still pretty tasty, although one of the bottles massively foamed up when I opened it, so I need to be careful...

American craft beer - top 50

A must read for fans of American craft beer:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/community/news/show?title=2012-best-beers-in-america

My precious...

Mango Hefeweizen

A few weeks ago Sith@Heart and I were in Vegas, and we stopped for dinner and a few beers at the Triple 7 brewery at the Main Street Station casino (downtown, not strip if you are looking for it).  Their beers were generally decent, but what really caught our attention was the seasonal - a mango hefeweizen.  It was excellent - if you are in Vegas and head to Freemont St. make sure to try it out.

So I am going to try and make one of my own.  The Triple 7 was so sweet I think they may have used extract or puree to add to the beer, as opposed to using raw fruit in the fermentation process.  I am going to try the raw fruit and see what happens.

First step - the hefeweizen.  I opted for a German style:

Steep 5oz Caramunich type 3 (60L) for 30 minutes at 150F. (steep in 1/2 gallon, sparge with 1/2 gallon)
Add 1.5 gallons water.  Bring to boil.
Add 6 lbs. liquid wheat malt extract, .8oz Hallertau hop pellets (4.3% AA)
Boil 1 hour.
After boil, cool, add water to make 5.5 gallons.
Pitch Wyeast 3333 German Wheat.

I am going to let that primary ferment for a week or so, then add mango puree to the secondary fermenter and see what happens.

Globe story - beer and food

Growing recognition of the wide number of possibilities that can be had paring beer with food.  Makes me simultaneously hungry and thirsty.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/trends/trends-features/beer-vs-wine-which-goes-best-with-food/article2419001/

Interesting article on homebrew set up

Thanks to iRob for this one:

http://gizmodo.com/5900668/the-home-brewing-laboratory-of-every-beer-drinkers-dreams/gallery/1

Kolsch update and Beer o' the Day

Bottled the Kolsch today (added 2/3rds cup dextrose to the 4 gallons). Will let youk now how it is in a few weeks.

Beer o' the Day: Cascadia Dark Ale by Banff Ave. Brewing Co. Finally, an exciting beer from this brewery. A nice, hoppy dark ale. Next time you are in Banff - give it a try!

Globe article - Toronto's craft brewing

More and more reasons to visit the Big Smoke. Now if only Calgary would get on board...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/globe-to/torontos-craft-brew-scene-hops-to-life/article2402063/

Beer o' the day - Pizza Beer

Today's Beer o' the Day is Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer by Sprecher Brewing Co. This beer actually tastes like pizza - sort of. It reminds you of pizza, no doubt, but I couldn't quite place it. Until iRob pointed it out, that is - it doesn't taste like pizza, so much as pizza burp. As in, the taste of your burps if you eat too much pizza. It is certainly an interesting beer, I will give it that. Not sure I would recommend more than one.

Also, pizza beer burps do not taste like fresh pizza, sadly.

Homebrew - Belgian Dubbel

Today I am trying my hand at a dark Belgian dubbel style beer. I am using as my base recipe the clone recipe for Chimay Red in Clone Brews by Szamatulski, with substitutions where I couldn't find the precise ingredients. Wish me luck!

Steep for 30 minutes @ 150F (in .5 gallon):
- 4oz special aromatic biscuit malt
- 8oz Caramunich type 3 (60L)
- 1 oz chocolate malt
sparge with .5 gallon at 150

Bring it to a boil plus another .5 gallons (1.5 total). Add:

4 lbs DME
400g DME (didn't have enough LME)
3 lbs LME
1.5 lbs Belgian Candi sugar (amber)
.5 oz Northern Brewer at 10.3% AA
.4 oz Tettnanger (US) Hops at 3.9% AA
(both pellets) (again, had to use substitutes / left over hops)

Boil for 45 minutes. Add:

.25oz German Hallertau hops (4.3%AA)
.25oz US Fuggles hops (4.2%AA)

After 5 minutes, add:

1tsp Irish Moss

After 1 hour, cool, add to cold water in fermenter to make 5 gallons. When room temperature, pitch Wyeast Belgian Abbey II liquid yeast.

(I just realized I was supposed to boil 3 gallons by the recipe, not 1.5. Oh well, it made preventing boil overs that much easier. Hopefully it has no real impact)

OG: 1.061

Home brewing - Kolsch

In an effort to make Sith@Heart happy, I have decided to try and brew a light beer that is not very hoppy. After our trip to Cologne last year, Kolsch seemed just the thing! I am using the recipe for Itsok Kolsch in Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing. However, his recipe does not call for any specialty malts, which seems just wrong to me. So I am making a few tweaks of my own.

Steep 4oz Pale Crystal Malt (20/24L) and 3oz Caramunich Type 3 @ 140-150 degrees for 30 minutes

Add 1.5 kg liquid wheat malt extract (60% wheat, 40% barley) and 2.5 lbs light dry malt extract
1 oz Saaz hops (2.8% AA)
Boil for 30 minutes. Add 1/2 oz Tettnanger Hops (3.9% AA).
Boil for 15 minutes. Add 1 tsp Irish Moss

Fill to 5 gallons. Pitch Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch)


Next week: a Belgian dubbel!

Tasting notes - Anchor Steam Clone

I sadly don't have an Anchor Steam to use as a comparator, but from my memory the clone I made is hoppier than the original. It has a nice orange/amber colour, good head, and slight citrus notes. Slightly drier and hoppier than I was expecting, but on the whole pretty tasty (and my guests liked it too - I barely have any left after my party!)

Beer o' the Day - Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

Ok, I have had some interesting beers in my life. And then there is this one. You can clearly taste the smoke, bacon and maple. On a breakfast plate - delicious. In a beer - maybe less so. This is a beer you should try at least once, but probably no more than that, either.

Ingredients, as per the bottle: Briess Cherrywood smoked malt, Weyerman beechwood smoked malt, house-smoked hickory malt, Great Western 2 row, Munich, C15, C75 malts, applewood-smoked bacon, pure maple flavouring, Rogue micro hopyard Revolution and Independent hops, free range crystal water and Pacman yeast.

I will say this - at least it is not boring! And that is the most important thing.

Beer o' the day

Today's beer o' the day is the limited release Lagunitas Imperial Red Ale.

As the bottle says "Net contents: 12 fluid oz's ...of hops, malt, hops, yeast, hops, water, and hops." A very hoppy red ale, but as you expect from Lagunitas - very tasty!

NP article - What the Baltics have done for beer

http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/02/25/happy-hour-what-the-baltics-have-done-for-beer/

I was enjoying an imperial stout just the other day (from Phillips Brewery). Great for cold winter days!

Other good beer blogs

As awesome as this blog is, I can't say it is the only good beer blog out there. Here are some other good ones:

http://petebrown.blogspot.com/

http://barleymowat.com/

http://www.greatcanadianbeerblog.com/

Homebrew: Anchor Steam clone

Thus far I have only brewed ales, because the ale yeasts ferment at or near room temperature. Lager yeasts ferment at temperatures below 10 degrees. Without access to a fridge that would hold a carbuoy, this can be tricky.

However, Anchor Steam seems to be an interesting hybrid. It uses lager yeast, but the recipe says to ferment at 15 degrees. Lucky for me, that is about the temperature of our cold storage, so here goes:

(note - in order to make sure it fit in the cold storage, I made a 3 gallon batch, not the usual 5, so the measurements are adjusted accordingly. Except the yeast - I unthinkingly pitched the entire packet, as opposed to 3/5ths. Not sure what effect that will have...)

Recipe taken from Clone Brews (Szamatulski)

Steep 238 grams medium crystal malt (75 L) for 30 minutes at 150 degrees F

1.7 kg light dry malt extract

water volume: 8.5 Litres

20 grams Northern Brewer hop pellets (9.8% AA)

boil 45 minutes

9 grams Northern Brewer hops (9.8% AA)

3/5 tsp Irish moss

boil 14 minutes

9 grams Northern Brewer hops (10.3% AA)

I cooled the pot to about 65 or so degrees F, then pitched a packet of Wyeast's 2112 California Lager yeast. As noted above, I pitched the hole thing. I then set the carbuoy (filled to 3 gallons) into the cold storage.

Random beer picture

I get thirsty just looking at this

Tasting Notes - American IPA

Not bad if I do say so myself! Unsurprisingly, this beer has strong hoppy notes. A light citrus bouquet with a dry finish. Hoppy but not (to me) overwhelmingly so. I like it!