Homebrew: Bourbon Vanilla Stout

I am going to attempt a vanilla bourbon stout.  I have been soaking some charred oak staves in bourbon for a few months.

First step: the stout.  I had two epic boil-overs making this - never turn your back on boiling wort!  Hopefully I didn't lose too much rich, beery goodness.

Steep for 30 minutes at 150:

1 lb. Black Malt (450-500 L)
1 lb .Dark Crystal Malt (94-108 L)
2 oz. Roasted Barley
3 oz. Chocolate Malt

Boil:

1 kg. Dark DME
1 kg. Light DME
1 lb. Medium DME

Added 1 oz. Fuggles (4.2%AA) at 60 minutes
At 2 minutes added 1 oz. Fuggles (4.2%AA), .5 oz. Czech Saaz

Filled to 20 litres, pitched White Labs WLP005 British Ale

I will rack to secondary in a few day, add the wood staves, a splash of bourbon and a splash of vanilla.

Homebrew: Saison

This brew is a bit of a hodge-podge of a French Saison, Belgian Saison and Biere de Garde.  It was also a bit of a "use what I have on hand" recipe. Not sure how it will turn out, I guess we will see.

Note, this was a 3 gallon batch

Steep 1 hour at 150 degrees:

2oz special aromatic biscuit malt
5oz honey malt
4oz caramunich 3
4oz caramel Munich 40L

bring to a boil, add:

2kg light DME
1lb dry wheat extract
.4oz Columbus hops (pellets) (15% AA)

Boil 55 minutes, add:
.4oz Czech Saaz hops (pellets) (2.6% AA)

Pitched Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Primary ferment 2 days at 65 degrees, 5 days at 70 degrees.

I just racked it to the carbuoy.  I will likely keep it at 65 degrees or so for two weeks then bottle.

Homebrew: Hefeweizen

I can't remember the last time I made a plain, simple hefe, without fruit or some other twist.  German style hefe is a great summer beer, so here is my recipe:

Steep at 150 degrees for 30 minutes:

4oz Caramel Munich 40
2oz Cara Munich 3

Boil for 60 minutes:
2kg wheat DME
500g light DME
200g amber DME
1oz Hallertau Hops (3.2% AA)

Pitched Wyeast 3333 German wheat.  Total - 20 litres

Great Places to have a beer - Bruges

Sith@Heart and I spent some time in June in Bruges, France and Amsterdam.  Needless to say, we found some great places to have a beer.  This post, Bruges:

't Bruges Beertje - a must see for beer lovers

2be - The Beer Wall

2be - The Beer Wall (great selection, nice canal side patio)

De Garre - Challenged to find this by Chris S.  Mission accomplished!

Homebrew: Lucky 13 Milk Stout

Brother from a different mother Darren Reed and I decided to try our hand at a milk stout.  Recipe is our own version, based loosely on a combination of the Left Hand Milk Stout and Mackeson Triple XXX stout recipes.  The name comes from the 13 ounces of lactose we use.

8 oz flaked oats

8 oz roasted barley

8 oz Chocolate malt

8 oz 60 L crystal malt

8 oz black malt

4 oz pale malt

4 oz smoked malt 

13 oz Lactose

1 oz EKG 5.7 AA (boil)

1 oz EKG 5.7 AA (flavour)

2tsp gypsum

1 tsp Irish Moss

• Crush and steep grains 30 min @ 150
• Strain and sparge top up to 3 gallons 
• Bring to ‎Boil
• Add DME, lactose, gypsum and boiling hops
• Boil 45
• Add flavour hops and Irish moss
• Boil 15
• Drop into primary, top up to 5 gals
• Pitch WLP‎002 English ale 

OG: 1.050

Homebrew - Irish Red, with Darren Reed

The second batch from the Barley Legal Brewing Company / Brothers From Different Mothers Brewing Co.  We decided to prepare for fall with an Irish Red.  After we brewed it I was worried I have once again made a brown ale instead of a red, but it turned out a nice, deep copper colour.  Dry tasting and slightly creamy with a nice finish.

Steep for 30 minutes at 150:

11oz Crystal Malt
1.5oz Black Malt
1oz Roasted Barley
2.5oz Pale Malt

Bring to a boil
1.5kg Pale Malt Extract
1kg Amber Malt Extract
1oz East Kent Golding hops (5.7%AA)

Boil for 50 minutes, then add:
1oz East Kent Golding hops (5.7%AA)
1tsp Irish Moss

Fill to 5 gallons in the fermenter.  Pitched White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast.

Due to schedule issues it was racked after a week to the carbuoy, but not bottled for about a month.  The ageing didn't seem to cause any problems.

Whale - found!

Dogfish Head 120 IPA.  Not what I expected - far richer and less hoppy than I thought it would be.  We put a couple in the cellar to see how they age.  I will let you know in a few years.

Beer Apps!

Good find by Sith@Heart

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/5-best-beer-apps-1.3274706

Achievement Unlocked: Beer 2000!

As luck would have it, pulled a great beer for #2000, without really planning it in advance.  I was on the boys annual NFL trip to Cincinnati.  After a great time at Oktoberfest (largest in the U.S.?) we visited the Rhinegeist Brewery.  Great space - think empty warehouse on the 3rd floor of a building.  The first beer we tried, which happened to be #2000, was the Truth.  A West Coast style IPA, it was replete with pine and citrus notes (interestingly it doesn't use Cascade hops, rather a blend of Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial).  A very well balanced and tasty IPA.  Great find for #2000.

Craft Beer in Ireland

A great find from Sith@Heart:

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/life/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/life/travel/craft-beer-in-ireland-visit-these-5-irish-pubs-and-sample-the-best-of-a-blossoming-craft-beer-scene&pubdate=2015-07-29

Grandma Tobias' Back Door Lager

Tonight I joined forces with Darren Reed to try our hand at re-creating his great grandmother's prohibition era "back door lager".  "Back door" as in that's where it was sold from at her farm.  Her recipe is here:

We made some selective changes.  First despite its name, this was clearly an ale, not a lager.  We upped the malt and reduced the sugar, on the assumption she was using so much sugar because it was cheap and malt expensive.  We couldn't figure out how much "35 cents" of hops was, so we used a hop bill that would fit a light German ale.  We steeped some grains and also used a proper brewing yeast as opposed to "Fleischmans".  I hope it tastes good, and will do Darren's grandmother proud.

Recipe:

Steeped at 150 degrees for 30 minutes:

3oz 40 L crystal malt
5 oz pale malt

Brought to a boil and added:

1 oz bittering hops (likely Cascade - grown at Michelle's parents)
2.5 kg light malt extract (dry)
250g brown sugar

After 45 minutes added 1 tsp. Irish Moss
After 55 minutes added 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (2.6% AA)

Filled to 21 litres.  Pitch Wyeast 1007 German Ale.

After about 5 days I will rack to a carboy, and bottle after about two weeks.  Prosit!

Here is Darren stirring the fine brew:

National Post article - Winter Beers

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/09/fix-my-drink-winter-beers-that-are-worth-your-time/

Homebrew - Pumpkin Ale 2014

Last year's pumpkin ale was a big hit, so I made another batch that was quite similar.  Hopefully this year's version will be as good or better.  The main changes were a bigger grain bill for the steep, more spices and a slightly different yeast.

Steeped for 30 minutes at 150 F:
7 oz. pale malt
3 oz. crystal malt
2 oz. special biscuit malt
2 oz. smoked malt (my homemade version)
1 pound roast pumpkin

After the steep, brought about 7 litres of water to a boil, added:
6.6 lbs. pale LME
1 pound roast pumpkin
1 oz. whole hops (grown by Michelle's parents - cascade most likely?)

boiled for 45 minutes, added:
.5 oz hops

Pitched Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale

added 1 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg, 6-7 all spice berries, and 1 clove

I want to thank iRob for his help with this batch

Heady Topper

Thank you to Jean for this little gem.  A very well balanced and tasty IIPA.

Beer Advocate seems to like it too!  http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27039/16814/

Nano-brewing comes to Calgary

Haven't checked these guys out yet, but I will be sure to try their beer as soon as I see it.

http://www.thedandybrewingcompany.com/

But can Sith@Heart and I visit them all?

http://www.craftbeer.com/news/craftbeer-com-news/craftbeer-coms-2014-great-american-beer-bars-results

Homebrew: American Style Dunkelweiss

I have made wheat beers before, but I believe this is the first dark wheat beer I have tried making.  Some of it is me just using what I had on had, so the recipe is a little odd.  Hopefully it turns out.

Steep for 30 minutes at 150 degrees:
- 9 oz. 120 L crystal malt
- 3 oz. 40 L crystal malt
- 1 oz. my home made smoked malt

Bring to a boil.  Add:
- 3kg. Coopers Wheat LME (50% wheat, 50% barley)
- 1/2 oz. "mystery hops" (whole) (from Michelle's parents - likely cascade)

After 55 minutes add:
- 1/2 oz. Willamette hop pellets (4.7 %AA)  (also, as I learned in Portland they pronounce it "Wilamutt")

Pitch Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

As per usual, I will let it ferment in the primary fermenter for a week, then rack to a carbuoy.  If I bottle it in 2 weeks it will be ready for the labour day weekend.

Beervana!

Oh my it has been far too long since I have posted!  The "red ale" came out more brown coloured than I had intended - clearly used too much dark malt.  However, it tastes great and is quite drinkable.  So I have christened it as either my browny red ale, or my reddy brown ale.  Either way.

Last weekend Sith@Heart and I travelled to Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival.  Beer wise it is an amazing city, and the festival is spectacular.  Outdoors, great craft beers, packed full of beer lovers, what is not too like.  Here are some photos of the awesomeness.

(I should also add we hit some amazing pubs - The Horse Brass, Bailey's, the Deschutes Brewery (Portland) and the Lucky Labrador)

Home Brew - Red Ale

It has been far too long since I made a batch of home brew, so tonight I opted to try making a red ale.  Hopefully it will be a smooth beer good for summer drinking.  I also made it outside using the side burner on my new BBQ.  However, because it is about zero outside, it did not reach a rolling boil.  I had to cover the wort for a good part of the boil just to keep it boiling.  I hope this doesn't lead to any off flavours.  This batch was also a bit of a witches brew where I tried to use what I had on hand.

Steep at 150 for 30 minutes:

1 pound crystal 60 malt
.5 pound chocolate malt

Bring to boil (about 2 gallons water).  Add:

3.3 pounds Amber LME

After 30 minutes boiling, added:

.5 oz whole hops from Michelle's folks (Cascade?) ("Novak" hops)

After 50 minutes boiling added:

.5 oz "Novak" hops

I added another 3.3 pounds of Light LME at knockout

fill to 5.5 gallons.  Pitch Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Woohoo - Timothy Taylor Landlord arrives in Calgary

Finally!  Now we just need to get it in casks

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2014/02/04/award-winning-english-ale-comes-to-alberta/