Beer Geek T.V.

There's a new, fun web site out there for all of us "beercentric" folk: Beer Geek T.V.
It's part of Beer Geek dot com.

My son and I were interviewed for Beergeek.TV at the Oregon Brewer's Festival, this past Summer. You can check it out here. We're about 3/4 through the video. The rest of the video is great to watch, because it gives you an idea of how fun the OBF is, and why I always try to make it to Portland for it, every year on the last full weekend of July. You can read more about my last fun OBF trip (with photos) here.

On the nanobrewery side of things:
I'm dry-hopping my Barleywine with Fuggles and EKG. I had also pitched some additional champagne yeast, but I don't know how much more attenuation I'll get out of it; apparent attenuation is at 82%. Two days ago, the specific gravity was at 1.020; down from a whopping 1.120! That's an ABV of 13.4%.

My Belgian Double is already in two "corny" kegs, and one of them should be fully conditioned and carbonated, by now. I'm going to taste it tonight.

I've purchased the ingredients for my annual "Sherpa Porter," a Robust Porter that I keep tweaking the recipe on, every year. This year, I've tweaked it a lot, and I'm interested in the result. I'm going to shoot for brewing it this Sunday; it's the only chance I'll have for 3 weeks.

Happy Brewing,
Bad Ben

Barleywine Brew Day

On September 30th, I brewed a ten-gallon all-grain batch of barleywine. The last time I brewed a barleywine was in November of 2003, (and I still have some of that batch left).

This recent batch had a starting wort gravity of 1.120 on brew day, so it'll be a monster. I included the following grains in it: Maris Otter, Klagas 2-row, Castle Caramel Munich, Cara-Vienne, and small amounts of two new available grains: Crystal Rye Malt and Simpsons Golden Naked Oats.

There's over a pound (total) of hop flowers in this 10-gallon batch. I started with 2-ounces of Nugget hops for bittering, and have a lot of Fuggles and Kent Goldings for the rest of the hop bill. I'll also dry-hop with Fuggles and Kent Goldings.

Shane, Cody, and Keith showed up to keep me company, for the last half of the brew day. Cody had just finished 2nd in a 50-Kilometer run, so he only had half a beer and went and sacked-out in Shane's car...he was pretty darn tired. It was a fun day.

It is finally ready to transfer to secondary fermentation tonight (Oct 15). The little yeasties have been going nuts for two straight weeks! I'll check the gravity during transfer, and see if there's a need to add any champagne yeast.

Here are some photos of the brew day operation:


The bottom (inside) of my mash tun.


Mashing-in.


Hitting a mash temperature of 152 degrees perfectly.


Recirculation through the mash. Here's my cheap-ass flow control system, (a set of needle-nose vise grips with silicone tubing on its jaws).


Enjoying a glass of my Harvest Double-IPA on brew day.

Brew Your Own

I'm in the September/October issue of Brew Your Own Magazine, as the featured homebrewer.

My son is also mentioned, and there's a photo of me, my nephew, and my son enjoying ourselves at the 2006 Oregon Brewer's festival.

Pick up a copy, if you don't subscribe. (Barnes & Noble usually carries it).

It's kind of cool, and (I think) an honor.

Michael Jackson has left This Mortal Coil

Michael Jackson, the "Beer Hunter," was a legend. He recently left this mortal coil and our worldly existence.

Michael had so much energy for beer, malt beverages, and people, and was a genuinely nice person. He was a true gentleman.

I got to meet him personally in 1994. It was at Big Time Brewery in Seattle, at 7 a.m., and he was leaving for the airport to go back to the U.K., but he still wanted to check out our beers for a possible new book project. This, after a whirlwind weekend tour of Seattle and the Northwest's breweries and brewpubs. He gave us an honest assessment of our beers, had some coffee and chit-chat, and then left. He didn't have to do this for us (at an un-godly time in the morning), but the man had said that he would, and he did. I still cherish the photo of all of us on that day.

In the photo was Mark Irvin from Spokane's Northern Lights Brewing, Dick Cantwell (currently of Elysian Brewing in Seattle), Brian Johnson (formerly of Fort Spokane Brewing, Spokane, Washington), and me.

Michael, whatever dimension you're in, I know that you are enjoying yourself thoroughly!

Happy trails and cheers,

Bad Ben

OBF 2007

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I attended the Oregon Brewer's Festival.

We flew up to Oregon for a family vacation again, which included a lot of walking, beer tasting, fine food eating and a good, long run.

The high points of the trip were:

1. Bumping into old friends Dave Buhler and Dick Cantwell (from Elysian Brewing), and attending their little party at Stumptown Coffee...the Avatar Jasmine IPA was exquisite.
2. Tasting more than a few really good beers. One of my favorites was this year's version of Pliny the Elder.
3. Spending some quality time with my wife, son, nephew, and friends.
4. Being a complete lush for a couple of days.
5. Breaking my nose and still having fun.

I wrote a more in depth report of some of our fun on my other blog.
Here are some photos from the trip:




Thurday Afternoon at OBF

Laurelwood visit

Rogue!

You've got to stop at Powells, when in Portland.

Recycling can be a drag!

Street signs

The Trail Nerd pour at OBF

Bridgeport...(I still miss the old Bridgport).

Afternoon beers at Laurelwood.

Nice shirt!

Matt, my son.

My trip up the mountain.

Strong IPA & Kölsch

The strong IPA that I brewed a month ago turned-out very tasty for what it is...a high-IBU hop monster from Parallel Hell. It dried-out to a gravity of 1.010. I burned through a keg of it this past Saturday at my 100-mile racing buddy Raul Flores' retirement party. It was well-received; Raul likes hoppy beers. (Retiring at the age of 51...sheesh)! I put a warning sticker on it to warn "beer newbies" and fools, since it has a 8.15% alcohol content (by volume).

I also had about 3 gallons left of my ESB on tap, and the rest of that keg played-out within a couple of hours. I'm glad, too, because it was getting "a little long in the tooth," and I'm not a huge ESB fan. I guess that's why I don't brew that style very often. I'd rather brew a brown or something else interesting, if I want to have a "mild" beer style around.

This past Sunday, June 3rd, I brewed a Kölsch-style beer for the Summer. One of the 5-gallon kegs will go to another buddy to help him win a BBQ competition, and the other will be for personal consumption. I always like to have a Kölsch and/or a Pilsener around for the hot Summer months.

I used a version of an old recipe of mine that I tend to like. For the 10-gallon batch, it included:
9 lb. Weyermann Pilsner, 9 lb. Maris Otter Crisp, and 2 lb. White Wheat Malt on the grain bill. I performed a single-step mash. For hops, I used Tettnang and Hallertau Mittelfruh hop flowers for that "Noble" nose. I used my "secret" Kölsch yeast, and pitched a healthy starter. It's bubbling away in the glass fermenter like crazy, and should be ready in time for my friend's BBQ date.

By the way, during transferring I got a taste of the Brett-inoculated Saison that will be my next Lambic. Woo-hoo! This new Brett Baby is going to be tasty!

Happy brewing, everybody!

Nanobrewery Goings-on

I brewed a strong IPA yesterday. It went well, other than I forgot to recirculate through the wort, and add Irish Moss. (I shouldn't start drinking and gabbing with friends before the boil). It'll turnout okay. I'll just do my 3-fermenter shuffle over the course of the next month, and it will flocculate-out most of the particulate/haze. I'll probably use gelatin for fining, as well. (I usually don't use gelatin, but oh well).

The gravity of the finished wort was 1.072. I wanted a hoppy (non-Midwest style) IPA, so I used Columbus, Amarillo, and some Centennial. With the higher gravity, it'll be well-balanced at about 100 I.B.U. of bittering.

In the malt bill, for the pale malt, I used half Harrington 2-row and half Maris Otter Crisp 2-row. I also added 2 lbs of Vienna, 2 lbs of crystal 40, and 2 lbs of Rye malt, just to make it interesting. I'm always experimenting. This will be a non-traditional and strong hybrid IPA. Maybe it'll get better gas mileage, being a hybrid and all.

Next weekend, if I get time, I'll do my traditional Spring/Summer brewing of a Kolsch-style. I've got to get another "session beer" on tap; my ESB won't last too long.

And So it Goes...

On Wednesday, April 11th, a wonderous voice and author fell silent.
And so it goes.


Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

I read a lot of books in my youth. I would stay up past 3 a.m. many times to finish a good book. I stumbled onto my first Kurt Vonnegut novel at the tender age of nine. I couldn't get enough of his material, especially where I lived at the time, (on Air Force bases). So when we went to "town," I would scour all of the libraries and used and new book stores for his books. My mom didn't mind; she always encouraged my reading habits. Little did she know that "Science Fiction" and other genres of books might contain the "F-word" in them, or promote differing / off-kilter views on life, the universe, and everything.

This man had a lot to do with how I turned-out as a "thinking" adult. So you can partially blame Kurt Vonnegut for this pile of conscious meat called "Bad Ben."

Read More on My Other Blog.