Festivus!

Nothing serves as a better precursor to the "Feats of Strength" than a few beers to numb you up for the abuse. Enjoy your favorite beers this holiday season, and tell all your people that you love them (just don't say it too much or they'll think you're drunk).

Make sure to have plenty of carbs to sustain you too. Be merry and be safe. Wesolych Swiat!

Peragave

I love pomaceous fruits. After recently making an apfelwein, I wanted to replicate the process with pear juice. I decided to make a gallon test batch. If it's good, I'll probably make a three or five gallon batch. The only consideration would be cost, considering that pear juice is pretty expensive. I also added a agave nectar to boost up the booze and add some finesse to this brew, hence the Latin inspired name.

Peragave

Style: pear wine

Juice:

3 quarts of pear juice (Knudsen's).
A fourth quart of pear juice to add when racking to secondary to achieve desired volume.

Other fermentable sugars:

23.5 oz. light agave nectar (365 brand)

Yeast:

1 packet of Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast

Other Ingredients:

½ tsp. of Wyeast Wine Nutrient Blend

¼ tsp. of LD Carlson Yeast Energizer

The process was pretty simple. My must consisted of about 3 quarts of pear juice and a 23.5 ounce bottle of light agave nectar. Add 2 quarts of the pear juice to a sanitized gallon jug. Pour in the agave nectar, cork the jug with a stopper, and gently shake for five minutes to incorporate the ingredients and aerate the must. Add more pear juice until there is only about two inches of head space in the neck of the jug between the must and the stopper (roughly another quart). There shouldn't be a lot of krausen, but give yourself a little headroom just in case. Add yeast nutrient and energizer and stir gently for five minutes to incorporate. Then take a gravity reading; it should be roughly around 1.090. Then pitch the yeast and gently stir it in to the must. I used Red Star Côte des Blancs, the same yeast that I use for my apfelwein.

Keep in the primary jug for two weeks, then transfer to a secondary one gallon jug. At this point there will be a lot of trub in the primary. There will be a yeast cake at the bottom, as well as a considerable amount of solids from the pear juice that have fallen out of suspension. Avoid transferring the bulk of this sediment to ensure a less turbid final product. After transferring to the secondary, add pear juice from a freshly opened bottle until there is only about an inch of headspace in the neck of the jug. Keep in the secondary for 2 to 3 months before bottling.

I'm guessing that this will finish with a final gravity below 1.000, as my apfelwein did, so the ABV should be around 12%. I'll post some tasting notes after bottling it in the spring. That will keep me going through this coming winter: the promise of good weather and homemade hooch!

St. Bigfoot Apfelwein

I love fall. Harvest time has always stirred up something primal in me, and there's nothing like a crisp, dry glass of cider on a breezy autumn night to bring out your inner noble savage. Hence, my most recent project, St. Bigfoot Apfelwein! Thanks to my sister Stephanie, whose quirky sense of humor inspired the name.

I designed this recipe after taking some cues from the viral apfelwein posting by Edworts on Home Brew Talk, as well as practical advice from some cider brewing books. I made it a couple of months ago, and it's in the secondary now. It's an attempt to merge the Old World tradition of fruit wine with a twist from a New World ingredient: maple syrup. It's what I imagine German and Scandinavian immigrants to Wisconsin and Minnesota probably threw in with their apfelwein to boost up the booze with a locally available sugar source. I also really liked The Saint by Crispin, which is a cider brewed with maple syrup and a Trappist ale yeast.

I used Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast, which is typically used for white table wines. I tasted a sample of my product when racking to the secondary and it was tart as a Granny Smith apple. This is a plus for me. I don't prefer desserty wines, and I don't want to play around with chemicals needed to backsweeten the apfelwein.

As with the mead I recently made, this is my first attempt at apfelwein. Any experienced brewers of ciders and wines who come upon this and shake their heads at my rookie mistakes have full permission to drop some knowledge on me. It's the only way I'll learn.

St. Bigfoot

Style: Apfelwein

Juice:

5 ½ gallons of apple juice (365 brand, organic, fresh pressed).
A few more cups of apple juice (if necessary) to add when racking to secondary to achieve desired volume.

Other fermentable sugars:

16 oz. maple syrup (two 8 ounce bottles, 365 brand, light amber)
12 oz. can of frozen apple juice concentrate (Sno Pac brand; thaw before adding to must)

Yeast:

2 packets of Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast

Other Ingredients:

1 tsp. of Wyeast Wine Nutrient Blend (½ tsp. added to the must on day one; ½ tsp. added to the primary on day four).

½ tsp. of LD Carlson Yeast Energizer (¼ tsp. added to the must on day one; ¼ tsp. added to the primary on day four).

The process was pretty simple. First, rehydrate the contents of two packets of the Côte des Blancs yeast in 4 oz. of warm water (approximately 105 F) in a small sanitized measuring cup or bowl.  

Then, take three gallons of the apple juice and pour into a sanitized bucket. Also add one bottle of the maple syrup. It helps to immerse the bottle of syrup in hot tap water for a few minutes to cut down on the viscosity so it pours easier. Paddle the must for 5 to 10 minutes to aerate before pouring through a sanitized funnel into a sanitized 6.5 gallon carboy.

Next, add the remaining 2 ½ gallons of juice to the bucket, along with the second bottle of maple syrup and the apple juice concentrate. Aerate for 5 to 10 minutes and then add to the rest of the must in the carboy. Add the first addition of yeast nutrient and energizer to the carboy. Stir the must vigorously for two minutes using using the narrow end of a sanitized paddle in order to fully incorporate the mixture.

Finally, after the yeast has been rehydrating for at least 15 minutes, gently stir it with a sanitized spoon. Pour the yeast into the carboy and gently stir the must to evenly distribute it.

Stir in the second dose of the yeast nutrient and energizer after four days. Ferment in the primary for two weeks. Transfer to a secondary 5 gallon carboy and add extra juice to minimize head space (though probably not necessary because of initial volume). Keep in the secondary for 2 to 3 months, or until final gravity is reached, which I'm estimating should be between 1.000 and 0.996. Original gravity was 1.064, so the ABV should be around 8.5%. Bottle still and enjoy!

You can backsweeten the wine if you don't like the dry, tart character, but make sure to do so safely. If you add extra fermentable sugar without properly dispatching the live yeast with appropriate chemicals, then get in the bunker and prepare for bottle grenades.

So make some! Taste a little this year, but hide half of it away in a closet or cellar to let it get interesting. Dust it off next November and release the beast!

Winter Beer Recommendations

Winter's that time of year when I transition from golden and amber ales, which complement breezy fall weather so well, and delve into brown ales, stouts, porters, and maybe even a few heavier lagers. I usually don't have a lot of patience for sweet, syrupy beers if they aren't balanced out by a decent hop profile, but short days and blankets of snow have a way of convincing my palate to lust for those thick, malty brews. It must be my inner caveman crying out for more calories to survive the cold. Anyway, I'd like to share a few of my recommendations for good winter beers. Many of these pair exceptionally well with holiday fare.

1. Elliot Ness - Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH. Elliot Ness is a pleasant domestic take on a Vienna lager. It has a malty aroma and a slightly sweet finish. Bring some to Thanksgiving dinner. I've paired it with smoked turkey; very tasty. It can carry you through the meal and stand up to the dessert course as well. A good beer to share with craft virgins too, as its lager body makes it more accessible.

2. Bell's Best Brown Ale - Bell's Brewing, Kalamazoo, MI. Larry, you need to bring back the old bottle art with the little sleepy owl! I'm not digging the new guy as much. The beer is a deep sienna color. It's very turbid and unfiltered, as most Bell's brews are. Best Brown is kind of like their amber ale, except the toasted barley flavor is jacked up a few more notches. The hops balance it out for a clean finish. This is a good snow shovelin' beer (winter equivalent of a "lawnmower beer"). I would pair it with pork tenderloin and roasted herbed potatoes.

3. Breakfast Stout - Founders Brewing, Grand Rapids, MI. I've always talked about how this beer would actually be delicious to have with breakfast, and I recently got a chance to experience this pairing! A few friends and I attended the Breakfast Stout Breakfast that Founders put on this year and it was amazing. The dark roastiness of the beer was delightful with bacon and grits, and the significant ABV kept us warm in the misty November morning air.

4. Dragon's Milk - New Holland Brewing, Holland, MI. Oaky aroma with a syrupy, vanilla taste. Spoon some over warm pecan pie topped with ice cream. I really enjoyed the toasted chili Reserve Dragon's Milk that New Holland released earlier this year, and I can't wait for the raspberry one that comes out this fall.

5. Rye-on-Rye - Boulevard Brewing, Kansas City, MO. At 12% ABV, it's a real winter warmer. Slight caramelly sweetness is balanced by a modest hop profile and a gentle bite of rye. Pair with an aged cheddar or Uniekaas Reserve.

Old Bill

This is an English barley wine that I made last year for Christmas. It named it in the honor of my grandfather, who was known to drink a few beers in his day. I wish he were here to taste it. He had a sweet tooth too, so I think he would have enjoyed the cloying raisin viscosity.

Old Bill (2014)

Style: English barley wine

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. 55 L British crystal malt

Extract:

11 lbs. extra light DME

Hops:

2 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

1 oz. East Kent Goldings pellets (dry hop)

Fruit:

1 lb. of golden raisins added on the third day of primary fermentation. Bring to a boil in a quart of water and simmer for ten minutes. Turn off heat and use a potato masher to mash raisins into a pasty consistency. Cool and add to the primary.

Yeast:

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale (two packets pitched in the primary).

A third packet of Wyeast 1084 (added to the secondary 3 days before bottling).

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ¼ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

I estimate the original gravity to be about 1.104 and the final gravity to be around 1.024, and the ABV should be around 10.5%.

Last time I made this I kept it in the secondary for about six weeks to thoroughly allow fermentation to complete and to let it clear. The end result was good, but sweeter and less carbonated than I would have liked. I think the yeast were tuckered out in the last mile. I think adding a second packet of 1084 at the beginning might help get a healthy fermentation started right away.

Chin Music

This is my wet hopped Belgian IPA that I make with my homegrown Chinooks. If you don’t have access to fresh hops, you could substitute the 6 ounces of wet Chinooks in the aroma addition with one ounce of pellets. It might not be conventional to finish with Chinook, but I did it and I like it.

Chin Music

Style: Belgian IPA

Water:

2 gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. 10 L Cara-Hell

Extract and Sugar:

8 lbs. extra light DME

1 lb. of Belgian clear candi sugar

Hops:

1 ½ oz. Chinook pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

½ oz. Chinook pellets (flavor @ 20 min.)

1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor @ 20 min.)

6 oz. freshly picked wet Chinook hops (aroma @ 10 min.)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey (two packets pitched in the primary)

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ¼ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

The original gravity should be around 1.080 and it should finish around 1.015, which should make for an ABV of 8.5%.

I usually don’t rack my beer from the brew kettle to the primary anymore. I typically just pour it in through a funnel and try to reserve the trub. In this case, however, I would recommend racking because of the volume of fresh whole cone hops. If you pour the wort through a funnel or a strainer it will probably clog up.

If you’re worried about losing the fermentable sugars clinging to the hops, you could put the hops in a strainer, sparge them with water over a sanitized bucket, and then use this liquid to add to the primary to achieve your total volume. I might try this next time to see if it helps keep the original gravity where I want it. I imagine it may help draw some more flavor off of the wet hops too.

Saison du Lewan

This is a blueberry saison. When I've made it in the past, I’ve used blueberries that I picked fresh from The Blueberry Ranch in Mishawaka, Indiana. I freeze them, thaw them in the fridge, puree them with some water, and then heat them up and hold them at 180 F for 30 minutes to pasteurize them before I add them to the fermenter. If you’re brewing with berries, it’s not advisable to boil them to pasteurize them as it will set the pectin and create a haze in your beer.

This is a big hit. I used to add the blueberries in the secondary, but I started adding them to the primary instead with better results.

Saison du Lewan (2014)

Style: Blueberry Saison

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

8 oz. Carapils

8 oz. honey malt

Extract:

7 lbs. extra light DME

Hops:

1 ½ oz. Styrian Goldings pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

½ oz. Styrian Goldings pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

½ oz. Saaz (flavor @ 15 min.)

½ oz. Saaz pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

Honey:

2 ¼ lbs. (36 oz.) blueberry honey (@ flameout)

Fruit:

3 lbs. of blueberries added on the third day of primary fermentation. Puree berries and mix with 6 cups of water. Hold at 180 F for 30 minutes to pasteurize, and then cool before adding to fermenter.

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

OG should be about 1.080; FG should be around 1.016 (I kept crappy records last time, but I think this is about right). The ABV should be between 8 and 9%; I’m not entirely sure how much fermentable sugar the blueberry puree adds, but I’d imagine it boosts it up a bit.

I've dipped the bottles with blue wax in the past and given them as gifts. It actually ages pretty well. I recently had one that was almost a year old, and it still had saison spiciness and a detectable fruit essence.

Galaxy Cuckoo

So, I finally got a hold of some Galaxy hops! I’ve been meaning to brew with them for a while because I wanted to make a beer to suit my wife’s tastes. She loves Galaxy Unicorn. This should be more sessionable than the Pipeworks brew it seeks to emulate, yet still very hoppy and fruity.

Here’s the recipe; brew it before they release a new hop from the Southern Hemisphere that will make Galaxy passé.

Galaxy Cuckoo

Style: Wheat IPA

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. Carapils

Extract:

7 lbs. wheat DME

Hops:

1 oz. Columbus pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Galaxy pellets (flavor @ 30 min.)

1 oz. Galaxy pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Citra pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

1 oz. Galaxy pellets (dry hop)

1 oz. Citra pellets (dry hop)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

The original gravity was 1.062 and the final gravity was around 1.014; ABV should be around 6.3%. I drank my hydrometer sample the other day after bottling and I was blown away by the aroma. I dry hopped with Galaxy and Citra; it was a lupulin KO!

I stand by the logic of dry hopping with pellets after making this one. Whole leaf hops look pretty cool in the carboy, but they act like one big sponge and I think some volume is lost. They often impart less aroma in my experience too, perhaps because the cell walls aren’t broken down as much by the extrusion process that pelletized hops go through. Just a hypothesis; don’t quote me on that one.

Rye Shell

I just made this beer for my brother’s wedding. I wanted to make something that embodied both him and his fiancée, and I added ingredients that corresponded to both of their tastes and personalities.

My brother loves big IPAs; Wookey Jack is one of his favorites, so this obviously had to be a rye beer. He also enjoys Founders Red’s Rye, so I added a pound of Weyermann CaraRed. He’s a big, bold guy, so the malt and rye spice needed to be present.

His fiancée loves bright, tangeriney hops, so I finished the boil with some Citra and dry hopped it with two ounces of whole cone Amarillos. Good relationships are about balance, and so are good beers. I see this beer as a metaphor for their happiness together.

Here’s the recipe:

Rye Shell

Style: Rye IPA

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. CaraRed

Extract:

9.9 lbs. Briess Rye LME

Hops:

1 oz. Chinook pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Centennial pellets (flavor @ 30 min.)

1 oz. Centennial pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Citra pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

2 oz. Amarillo pellets (dry hop)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

The original gravity was about 1.064, which is slightly lower than expected. Maybe I added a little more water than usual. It finished around 1.017, which should still make the ABV around 6.2%.

I'll do some tasting notes soon. I tried some the other day after it carbonated, and I'll say that the rye bite is definitely there. The citrusy aroma is present, but not quite as strong as I hoped for. I think I'll use pellets for the dry hop instead of whole cone hops next time I make this. The rationale for using the whole cones was more surface area in contact with the wort, but unfortunately I think they absorbed a lot of the beer and didn't impart as much hop aroma as I wanted. Still, a noble brew for two people that I care about very much.

First Mead!

Actually it’s a melomel, which means mead with fruit added (tart cherries in this case). I have to confess that I’m out of my comfort zone here, but that’s a good thing. It’s how we grow as people, right?

I am not an expert at mead brewing by any means. In some ways I think it’s probably a little easier than making beer (no mashing, no boil time, no hop additions, and no cooling time, for example). In other ways it seems a little more demanding (using yeast nutrient and energizer effectively, dealing with potential stuck fermentation, and waiting far longer before the final product is drinkable).

This is not necessarily what I’m recommending for others to do; it’s merely a document of what I did. I’ll let you know in a few months how the final product turned out. If any experienced mazers read this and want to set me straight, by all means do so.

Mellow Mel

Style: Tart Cherry Melomel

Water:

3 gallons of spring water

Honey:

5 lbs. of Sunny Hill Honey from May’s Honey Farms in Harvard, IL

Juice:

2 quarts of tart cherry juice (R. W. Knudsen Just Tart Cherry).
A few more ounces of juice (if necessary) to add when racking to secondary to achieve desired volume.

Fruit:

4 cans of Oregon Pitted Tart Cherries in Water (14.5 oz. each)

Yeast:

2 packets of Lalvin 71B-1122 (dry wine yeast)

Other Ingredients:

2 tsp. of Wyeast Wine Nutrient Blend (½ tsp. a day for the first four days).

1 tsp. of LD Carlson Yeast Energizer (¼ tsp. a day for the first four days).

Recipe:

So here is the ingenious process that I pieced together from doing some online research. As with making beer, everyone has a different opinion on how to make certain processes happen, and it’s hard to find straight answers sometimes. Someone should do a blog on this stuff to set everyone straight.

First, rehydrate the two packets of yeast in four ounces of warm water (104 to 109 F). I recommend sanitizing a small pot and heating up some of the spring water to the desired temperature, and then pouring it into a small sanitized measuring cup. Add the contents of the yeast packets into the warm water and let stand for 15 minutes without stirring.

Add 1 ½ gallons of the spring water to a sanitized 5 gallon bucket. Add the first dose of the yeast nutrient and energizer to the water. Add the 5 lbs. of honey as well. It helps if you immerse the container in hot water first; it really cuts down the viscosity of the honey when you pour it. Thoroughly incorporate the honey and aerate the hell out of the mixture with a sanitized plastic paddle. This will take about ten minutes. You now have mead must.

Add the two quarts of tart cherry juice, as well as more spring water to achieve 3 total gallons of must. Aerate for another five minutes or so until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Open the four cans of cherries with a sanitized opener. Pour the cherries and the liquid into your primary fermenter (a sanitized 5 gallon carboy) through a large sanitized funnel. Add a few at a time; they tend to clog up. It helps to have a stick to push them through the opening. I used my bottling wand.

Pour the well-aerated must through the funnel as well. Place a cap on top of the carboy. Gently shake it to incorporate and aerate the must further. Be extremely careful when doing so.

Take an original gravity reading; it should be around 1.079-1.080. Stir the yeast well with a sanitized spoon and pour it into the must. Gently shake the carboy again. Attach your airlock and put in a safe place to ferment.

For the next three days add the quantities of nutrient and energizer specified above. Stir the must to incorporate these additives and to degas it.

After two weeks, rack the mead to a sanitized 3 gallon secondary fermenter. Fill the carboy up as high as it can go without interfering with the stopper, ideally to the base of the neck. Add a little more juice if necessary to achieve this volume. Do not transfer the cherries to the secondary. Put in a tight fitting stopper and airlock. Make sure it has a good seal, as the mead will stay in the secondary for at least two months. Also make sure to check your airlock and keep it filled with sanitizer or vodka to the appropriate level. If the stopper or airlock is compromised, your mead will be oxidized. You like that Johnny Cochran action?

Bottle when the mead has reached its final gravity and cleared (approximately 2 months). I would estimate that this one will be pretty dry, so the FG will likely be around 1.000.

Notes:

We’ll see what happens! My melomel gets transferred to the secondary this week. I’d like to share some with my family this holiday season, although I know it will still be pretty young then. Cheers to my first Viking brew!

By the way, this honey from May’s farm in Harvard, Illinois tasted awesome. It had a complex spiciness to it that I really hope makes it through to the melomel. Their honey comes from assorted wildflowers and you can really detect the terroir.

White Wizard Redux

I really enjoyed this last time I made it, so I won’t tweak it too much. As with Honey Badger, I’m going to steep a pound of Carapils in the future, instead of trying to mash any adjuncts with 2 row.

I’m also going to boost the amount of wheat DME from six pounds to seven to kick the booze up a notch and create a stronger backbone to support the hops.

I’ve doubled the amount of coriander and sweet orange peel as well. It wasn’t that pronounced last time so I want to add another dose of both in the last five minutes of the boil to see if it imparts a desirable aroma. Plus, I hate buying packages of specialty ingredients and then only using a pinch.

White Wizard (2014)

Style: White IPA

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. Carapils

Extract:

7 lbs. wheat DME

Hops:

1 oz. Columbus pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Centennial pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

1 oz. Citra pellets (dry hop)

Yeast:

Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit

Other Ingredients:

1 tsp. ground coriander (½ tsp. added @ 15 min., ½ tsp. added @ 5 min.)

½ oz. sweet orange peel (¼ oz. added @ 15 min., ¼ oz. added @ 5 min.)

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:
The original gravity should be around 1.062 and the beer should finish around 1.014, making for an ABV of around 6.3%. This one's a winner!

Honey Badger Redux

So this is the next evolution of my famous Kölsch style/honey ale hybrid, Honey Badger. The hop schedule should be about the same as the previous incarnation of this recipe that I posted last year, but I have changed a few things.

For starters, I no longer intend to mash 2 row barley with torrified wheat during the preboil. Frankly, I’m not sure if my prior method adequately converted enough of the starches in the wheat into fermentable sugars. I like the boost of head retention that the wheat offers, but I’m pretty sure that I can get that from a pound of Carapils instead, which can be steeped according to Briess.

Secondly, I know some Kölsch breweries do add wheat to their overall grain bill. Since I’m no longer using the torrified wheat during the preboil, I intend to add some wheat DME to help achieve the desired flavor profile.

Lastly, I’ve omitted the ounce of Saaz for dry hopping. This is already a fairly hoppy brew, and I want the aromatics in the honey to come through instead of a wall of lupulin.

Otherwise, it’s business as usual down at the Honey Badger Picobrewery. Cheers!

Honey Badger (2014)

Style: Kölsch with honey

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. Carapils

Extract:

3 lbs. extra light DME

2 lbs. wheat DME

Hops:

1 oz. Hallertauer pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Tettnanger pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Saaz pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

Honey:

2 lbs. of orange blossom, clover, sunflower, or other light honey added at flameout

Yeast:

Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime the beer before bottling.

Notes:
The original gravity should be around 1.060 and the beer should finish around 1.010, making for an ABV of around 6.6%. Happy brewing if you try this one. I'll make it soon and post my tasting notes.

Recipe Reboots/Alt Country

I love homebrewing with a passion. I love experimenting with new ingredients, and I like hectically jockeying a few batches around at once, especially in the summer when I have the time to do so. The consequence of this, however, is that I don’t always keep the best records of my ingredients and processes. I’ve found myself documenting original gravity readings written on Post-it notes, scrawling a schedule of hop additions sketched on our refrigerator whiteboard, and hunting for old Brew and Grow receipts to figure out which yeast strain or specialty grains I used. Enough!

When I started doing this a few years back, I kept meticulous records. I even received a specially formatted notebook for keeping track of homebrew recipes from my sister-in-law and her fiancé as a Christmas gift. I filled it out in detail for a while, but—alas!—I eventually got too comfortable and went back to my Post-its and whiteboard shenanigans. I was like the time when Mr. T was at the mall and Homer Simpson kept telling himself, “I’ll go a little later, I’ll go a little later.” Folks, not keeping track of your homebrew records will hurt the quality of your future beer endeavors. The next time you want to brew that Columbus and Citra White IPA that your friends and co-workers drooled over and you can’t figure out how to replicate it, you’ll know that Mr. T has left the mall.

This has led me to the realization that I can’t ever let this kind of lapse in record keeping happen again, especially since I design my own recipes and rarely brew from kits. Over the next few weeks I’m going to post summaries of all of my past brews, or at least the most successful ones that I plan on doing again. I also intend to update recipes posted in the past if I have made any adjustments or improvements to them.

I’ll start with my most recent brew, Alt Country. It’s my take on an Altbier, yet it incorporates some American hops and UK malt into the mix. It’s ready to bottle on August 21^st. Cheers!

Alt Country

Style: Altbier

Water:

2 ½ gallons in brew kettle, heated to 155 F to steep specialty grains.

1 gallon in separate pot, heated to 155 F for sparging specialty grains.

Grains:

1 lb. 55 L UK Crystal Malt

Extract:

7 lbs. extra light DME

Hops:

1 oz. Northern Brewer pellets (bittering @ 60 min.)

1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor @ 30 min.)

1 oz. Cascade pellets (flavor @ 15 min.)

1 oz. Willamette pellets (aroma @ 5 min.)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Other Ingredients:

1 Whirlfloc tab or 1 tsp. or Irish moss (added 15 minutes before flameout).

Water to add to the wort to achieve 5 ½ gallons of total volume in the primary fermenter.

¾ cup of corn sugar or 1 ¼ cups of ex light DME boiled in 2 cups of water for five minutes to prime beer before bottling.

Notes:

The original gravity should be around 1.062 and the final gravity should be around 1.014, which should put the beer at about 6.3% ABV. However, these readings obviously depend on how much water you add to the fermenter when diluting the wort before pitching the yeast. I used to start with about 5 gallons, but I’ve adjusted that to around 5 ½ because of all the volume I lose in trub and yeast sediment when transferring to the secondary and bottling bucket. I don’t strain my wort obsessively like I used to when transferring from the brew kettle to the primary carboy. I don’t see the point because the Whirlfloc helps a lot of the gunk settle out, and I do a secondary fermentation anyway. Consequently, I have a lot of trub at the bottom of my primary, so I think that extra half gallon helps me compensate for the extra volume of solids.

Also concerning water, I would recommend using distilled H20 (I’m saying this from the perspective of someone with hard tap water; if you have an awesome source at your disposal, disregard). I know my tap water sucks because the hardness is through the roof whenever I test the levels in my fish tank. I’ve had much better results when switching to distilled water. Also, it also has the benefit of being more sterile than what might come out of your faucet in terms of beer spoilers, so that’s another bonus. This advice applies only to extract brewing; all grain brewers shouldn’t use distilled water because it lacks some desirable minerals for yeast health. Malt extract has the minerals from the water table where it was produced, so it’s not an issue.

I’ll post some tasting notes on this one after it’s bottled and carbed. Happy beer adventures in the meantime!

Ghosts of Beer Adventures Past

Here are a few zymurgy/gastronomy highlights from 2012. Enjoy!

February 2012 - Homebrewed ale

Overprimed? Maybe slightly, but still aesthetically pleasing.

April 2012 - Steak fajitas with a chipotle rub

I really appreciated Steven Raichlen's awesome advice from How to Grill on how to treat the skirt steak, green onions, and poblanos.

I made some chicken fajitas on the grill as well. I used Bill Baron's Fajita Seasoning as a rub; it was very savory.

I paired both with Three Floyd's Rabbid Rabbit. As a saison, I found it more fitting with the chicken, but it helped cut through the spice of the steak as well.

April 2012 - New Glarus trip

You can't beat that old world copper appeal.

Open fermentation in progress



Roasted red peppers at the Glarner Stube

May 2012 - Beer brats with grilled onions paired with Sixpoint's Crisp 

It's served with Mama-in-law's potato salad, my wife's coleslaw, and horseradish with beets on the side. 

May 2012 - Ye olde Dubuque Star Brewing facility

It's been converted into a restaurant and a museum now.

June 2012 - Orval mural at Goose Island

June 2012 - Headwich at Fat Head's in North Olmstead, Ohio

I can't believe I ate the whole thing!



June 2012 - Salmon and Trout grilled on indirect heat  

I used Whole Foods Thai Ginger Marinade. The fish was great cold on crackers the next day too! 

June 2012 - Homemade angel food cake with strawberries

We used Alton Brown's recipe and it turned out nice and fluffy.

July 2012 - In the words of the immortal Wesley Willis, "Rock over London, rock on Chicago."

July 2012 - Southern Benedict and Smoked Trout at the Old Oak Tap in Chicago

July 2012 - We stopped at Keeweenaw Brewing Company our way to Isle Royale. There was a cool mural and nice views from their back terrace.

July 2012 - Dinner at the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor, Michigan

July 2012 - Hop farm on the Old Mission Peninsula just north of Traverse City

July 2012 - Beer flight at North Peak Brewing Company in Traverse City

We also got to meet Russ from Right Brain while on this trip. He welcomed us into their new location while it was still under constuction, and he poured us some pints right out of the fermenters. He also gave us a growler and some logo glasses to take home. What a gent! I cant wait to check it out again next time we're up there.

July 2012 - Homemade blueberry pancakes

We picked the blueberries at The Blueberry Ranch in Mishawaka, IN. We froze the rest and used them to make a blueberry saison.



July 2012 - Homemade pizza with one of Wisconsin's finest beverages

I highly recommend using a pizza stone for pies made from scratch; you can't beat the even heat.

August 2012 - First Lager!

This was a Pilsner that I called Czech Mate. Note the righteous frame that I built to support the carboy.