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!