Saison, ESB, Belgian "Amber" and other News

Once again, I've been too damn busy to blog on this beer blog. I've been working, running, volunteering, and etcetera. I HAVE BREWED, THOUGH. So bugger off! (He said politely while sipping an Mocha Imperial Stout).

On January 7th, I threw a bunch of leftover grain together, with some leftover noble hops, and a healthy starter of BadBenomyces cerevisiae, a Belgian Abbey-style yeast. What came out was a rich amber-colored potpourri of a Belgian ale that had an original gravity of 1.075.

Exactly one week later, my son and I brewed on a day that was colder than an Eskimo f*ck, even with a couple of burners going and a supplemental kerosene heater. My son (Matt) has brewed professionally before, but is still trying to get the hang of brewing on the "home-concocted pile of metal" that my Nanobrewery is. His goal is to make a few successful batches with his buddy, Kevin this year. Since he and I introduced Kevin to "decent brews" a couple of years ago, he spends way too much of his fledgling family's income on bottled Belgians and such. I'm helping him build a cheap kegerator, and have given him and Matt free reign to brew on the Nanobrewery, if they can hack it.

But, I digress...back to the "Eskimo f*ck" brew day. My son had previously made a request to brew a "session" beer of some type, because all of our stock on hand is now strong, 7 to 9 % beers. I had recently scored some of the new Wyeast "Yorkshire" ale yeast, so it was a natural to do an ESB. The brew day went real well. We had the garage TV going with the playoffs on it, and drank coffee until everything was settled and the brew kettle's flame was struck. Matt was taking careful note of everything I was doing, and was fastidiously cleaning anything that we were finished with. It's nice to have a brewing apprentice!!! Roxy was there also, lending a hand, as usual.

So now, I've got three 10-gallon batches in the fermentors, which includes the "Winter Saison." About the Saison...it's spent an inordinate time in secondary fermentation. I'm going to split it into two 5-gallon sub-batches. One of them I will condition, then force-carbonate. The 2nd 5-gallons will go into a carboy, and I'll throw in some Brett yeast and some additional malt-derived sugar, and let it do it's thing for a while in a dark, forgotton corner.

What else is going on?
The beers I have on tap are tasting great, especially the Scottish and Mocha Imperial Stout. The 2nd 5-gallon cornelius keg of Sticke Kölschbier is cold chillin' and hasn't been touched. The Harvest IPA is almost gone. I've got some oak-aged imperial stout, some (vintage 2003) barleywine and some other homebrew in storage.

In a month, I'm going to be a BJCP tasting judge at a regional contest. I was invited by the organizer (who's the Midwest's premeire BJCP trainer). I feel honored to participate, even though I shun homebrew clubs and contests, as a rule. She wants me to enter my Mocha Imperial Stout and "any beers I have kicking around" also, but we'll see. I don't want to sound smug or anything, but I normally shun contests, because I know that I brew good beers, and I don't need constant validation by my peers. Also, I hate putting beers into BJCP categories; probably because I think it limits true brewing creativity. Don't even get me going on homebrewers who only get their rocks-off brewing cloned recipes! To use an analogy; why drive a stock piece-of-shit Chevy, when (with a little coaxing and creativity) you can drive a 263-MPH Bugatti?

Later, and Happy Brewing!



Matt brewing with 'tude on a warmer day.

Yummy Bits and a New Saison

I've been a lazy blogger, but I've had an interesting couple of months at the ol' Nanobrewery.

My Mocha Imperial Stout and Scottish 90 Ale are on tap and delicious. (My "Scottish 90" is just slightly stronger than an 80, hence the name). The Stout has a very complex taste profile. Or at least that's what some homebrewing buddies and a few "red wine snobs" have told me. I just know that I like it a lot. The Scottish has exquisite mouthfeel and flavor. Both of these brews are exceptionally tasty. I limit myself to up to one 12-ounce glass per day, to prevent "self-mummification."

The high-gravity Sticke Kölschbier turned-out okay. It's a good beer in its own right, but not one that I'd drink on a regular basis. I guess I'm more a fan of the taste of a normal-gravity Kölsch-style ale, with it's inherent clean/crisp body and taste, and the resultant refreshing quality of that style.

The hoppiness of my Harvest IPA has finally settled-down somewhat. It's not so much of a hoppy punch in the face (when you take your first sip), anymore. It's a beer that I'll have one small glass of, (maybe) once per week, using it mainly as an aperitif. My buddies drink the sh*t out of it, though. I guess I only like real hoppy ales in the Summer.

On November 24th, I brewed what I call a Winter Saison, with a starting gravity of 1.074 / 18 degrees Plato. I used two yeast varieties. One home-slanted variety that I've used before, and an actual wine yeast, namely Wyeast Bordeaux. They are still very active, even though I've transferred to secondary fermentation. At the time of the transfer, the gravity had been reduced to a specific gravity of 1.032 (or 8 degrees Plato).

After the transfer to secondary fermentation, In the Belgian tradition, I rejuevenated the yeast somewhat by raising the temperature of the fermentation vessel over the course of two days, from 20 to 24.5 degrees Celsius. The fermentation has now resumed a more vigorous state of activity. I can honestly say that I'm excited about having a Belgian on tap, once again. I'm still looking at 3 more weeks or so until I can taste it, though. What a good way to usher the New Year in!

The grain profile of the recipe was different from most of the Saisons I've brewed in the past. The grain bill consisted mainly of Maris Otter British pale as the main ingredient. Smaller quantities of the following malts were used: Weyerman Munich, Weyermann Rye Malt, Weyermann Vienna Malt, Simpson Crystal 75, and a "skosh" of Castle Aromatic Malt. The color is close to 16 HCU (~10 SRM). At the end of the boil, I included the zest of 1.5 large Navel oranges, and the zest of 1 small white grapefruit. Black Malabar pepper and Grains of Paradise were also added. IBU was 27, and I used Styrian Goldings and Saaz hops.

The brew day became quite the neighborhood gathering. By the end of the boil, 8 people were still there, talking so loudly that I thought the other neighbors might complain.

Brew Day Photos:


Brew Day Setup, aka "White Trash Theater"


A closeup of my hodgepodge, homemade & amateur-welded equipment.


Lovely Roxy, the "Perfect Woman" for Brew Day.
She loves cigars and strong drink, (and the occasional tip or IOU).
Trudy Nepstad contributed this to my garage brewery about 5 years ago.
Thanks, Trudy!

Nanobrewery Update for Oct '06

I haven't posted for a while, so here's an update for my nanobrewery:

In early September I brewed a "Sticke" version of a Kölsch-style beer. My son and I tried the first samples of the finished brew last night. It is definitely well-balanced and yummy. This keg I will serve as-is, but the other keg I'll probably dry-hop for an extra bit of "umph" & aroma.





This past month, I've also brewed a Scottish Ale and a Mocha Imperial Stout. The Scottish will be going to tertiary conditioning tonight, and the stout will be in the primary until at least tomorrow.

The Mocha Imperial Stout is an experiment, like many of my beers. At the end of the boil, I used 6 oz of Scharffen Berger Unsweetened Cacao Nibs and 5 oz of (ground) Starbucks Café Verona Coffee for this 8-gallon batch of Imperial Stout.



Inventory:
In the past month, I've run out of 2 Belgian styles: my Strong-Dark, and the Saison.
I'm also down to the last of the Oak-aged Whisky Barrel Imperial Stout that I brewed on Dec 26, 2005. It is almost perfect, so I bottled some for posterity. The Hop Harvest IPA is doing fine. It's slightly unbalanced and overly-hopped (to me), but my friends always go for that tap handle. I still have about 3 pints of the May 5th Big Brew Day "Poor Richard's Ale" (18th-century period beer) left. I need to feed it to my neighbors (or drink it myself), to give me some tap room.

What to brew next? I have the heavy styles covered. I think I need a lighter brew on tap. I'm thinking about a lager; specifically a crisp, slightly-hoppy Northern German style Pilsener. More than likely, I'll brew another couple of Saison's, though.
Any other suggestions?

This weekend, I'll take a keg of the "Sticke" Kölsch and the IPA to a race that I will be supporting.
I plan to run in the Heartland 50-mile trail race with a couple of trail-running buddies. Afterward, my friend Raul and I want to set up a "gypsy" aid station about 4 miles from the finish line of the 100-mile trail run event, (which will still be going on for many hours after we finish the 50). We're going to call it the "Mirage Aid Station." There will be hot soup, food, water, loud music, half-crocked aid station volunteers, and 2 styles of ale on tap. What more could an ultrarunner want at mile 96 of a 100-miler?

Homebrewed Kölsch Variant

Well, I'm going to find time to brew again this weekend. I'm going to brew a Kölsch-style beer with more of a hop profile and a higher gravity. I'll still use "noble" European hops, though. It will basically be a "Sticke" version of the style. I'll also use a Scottish Ale yeast, instead of a Kölsch yeast. I've used this yeast before for Kölsch, and ended up with good results.

I always like making up my own recipes and messing with the rules of a style. It makes life interesting, and I've made many a fine beer, this way. Yum, yum...can't wait!

Here's the basic recipe:

Gute Träume Sticke Kölschbier (version #7)
Style: Kölsch variant.
Type: All grain
Size: 11.5 gallons
Grain:
20 lb. Turbo Pilsner, 1.7-2L
9 lb. Maris Otter, Crisp -3L
3 lb. Wheat Malt
Mash:
Single Step Mash at 152-155F for 70 min. Actual temp:_________
start recirc. 50 mins into mash.
Batch sparged at 170F
Boil: 80 minutes
Hops:
2.0 oz. Tettnang Hop Flowers (60 min.)
1.0 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh Hop Flower, German (45 min.)
1.0 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh Hop Flower, German (30 min.)
2.0 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh Hop Flower, German (10 min.)
2.0 oz. Tettnang Hop Flowers (10 min.)
Yeast:
2 ea Wyeast Scottish Ale, 1728 XL (activator pack).
Fermentation:
Primary fermentation in glass at 72F for 5-6 days.
Secondary fermentation in glass at 72F for 5-7 days.
Tertiary fermentation/conditioning in glass at 60F for 5 - 14 days.

Back To Homebrewing!

I'm back to homebrewing again, after a 3-month hiatus. I haven't brewed since early June! I brew outside, and we've had a very hot & humid Summer which was more conducive to passing-out from heat exhaustion, rather than brewing. The weather yesterday (on the Labor Day holiday) was perfect...80F was the hottest temp observed. I would have brewed on Sunday, also, but my back and left hamstring were injured severely on my last big running event. A few days ago, I couldn't even tie my own shoes, let alone do any of the tasks involved with homebrewing. (I'm much better, now).

Homebrewing Technical Talk:
I decided to brew a "Harvest India Pale Ale," using my crop of this year's hops from my back yard. Last year, I had enough hops for three 10-gallon batches of hoppy brew. This year, my hop crop sucked, because of the extreme heat and humidity, (but with little rain). Oh well, I still had enough hop flowers for a "brutal" addition to this IPA, which is a borderline Imperial IPA with a 1.072 starting gravity. (Imperials start at 1.075). I could have had a higher starting gravity, but I sparged more wort out of the mash tun's grain bed to try to get a higher pre-boil volume close to 14 (or so) gallons. All of the hop flowers suck-up a lot of water, and also the long boil time will evaporate-off a lot of H2O. I succeeded; the total wort volume was about 11-1/2 gallons post-boil, which will come out to be about 10 gallons final volume for the kegs, after time spent in primary fermentation, secondary fermentation, and conditioning.

My hop vines in the back yard are all intertwined, so I have no idea of hop variety or alpha-value specifics for this particular brewing session. All that I know is, there were these varieties in varying amounts that I added to the brew: Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Willamette, Saaz...a regular "smorgasbord / potpourri" of hops. I love the element of surprise, when I'm brewing my annual harvest ale(s). Last year's version was magnificent!

OBF Fun

Well, the Oregon Brewer's Fest (OBF) was fun. My only regret was: I couldn't meet up with the Beer Bloggers, for "family" reasons. I spent all of Friday with my Portland-area family members, and got caught up. It was probably for the best, as I was running a 50-Mile trail run near Mt Hood on Saturday morning.

My son, my nephew and me hit the Brew Fest hard all day on Thursday. There were a few standouts, and a few crappy beers, but most of them were enjoyable. The weather was perfect, that's for sure. I'll post some more about the experience later.

Nanobrewery News and BURP Update

Well, my BURP party (last Saturday night) turned-out to be a blast. I wanted to reduce my homebrew stock somewhat, but we only drank about 10 gallons of it. I'm left with about 45 gallons of homebrew, which really isn't too bad of a problem.

On tap that night were the following brews:

1. Bad Ben's Brow-beater Brown Ale - An American Brown Ale (and a good session beer)
2. Poor Richard's Ale - An experimental ale that I brewed for Big Brew Day
3. Spring Fling IPA - A very-hoppy IPA with an ABV of 6.7%
4. "Saison in the Sun" - A citrusy Belgian-style farmhouse ale...(my personal favorite)
5. And last, but not least by any measure, my Belgian Stong, Dark Ale (which has an ABV higher than 9%, right now).
6. I also had some of my Oak-aged Imperial Stout on hand to sample, at the end of the evening.

Tasting Notes from the BURP: The craft beer "newbies" preferred the Poor Richard's Ale and the Brown Ale. Both are fairly mild in flavor, so that's no surprise. The beer "experts" preferred the IPA and the two Belgian-style ales. The red wine "experts" fell in love with both Belgians, also. It was fun to see discriminating wine-only folks enjoy the complexities of a good Belgian-style ale. They also enjoyed the oak-aged Imperial Stout.

Food: The entree consisted of marinated and grilled chicken wings, and also some grilled turkey. A big salad was available and others brought potluck items.

All in all, it was a very fun and successful party, and I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep prior to my run the next morning.

One more party? Last night, I had about 25 folks over for a "Wednesday Night Run." It's a scheduled run that people show-up at to run and then eat a potluck dinner at the host's house. It's also a 25-year old Kansas City tradition in the running community, and is sponsored by my running club. I had 4 of the above beers on tap in my beer garden, and the weather turned-out to be just perfect. I'm through with hosting parties for at least a couple of months. I'll be in the mood again though, by September, I'll bet.

Nanobrewery update: As soon as we get a cooler-weather weekend, I will finally brew my Imperial IPA. This next weekend isn't looking too good for that. Maybe the next will be a little better. One can only hope.
Cheers!

Annual BURP (Beer Utilization & Reduction Party)

As some of you might know, I do a little bit of homebrewing. Every now and then, I end up with too-much beer for personal consumption, and I occasionally have to ask my friends to help me with my problem. That's why we're once again hosting...

Bad Ben's 2-1/2 Annual "Beer Utilization and Reduction Party" (BURP).
Date: This Saturday night, June 31st...(also known as July 1st)
Time: 6:37 PM until 11 PM
Where: My house. I can e-mail directions.

The theme of this year's party will be "Fashion-Challenged." If you want to participate in the fun, please wear a psychotic clothes combination. (To all I.T. folks and software engineers: well, just come as you normally would dress for work). If you don't want to participate in the fashion extravaganza, please try to wear some beer-related or W.C. Soccer clothing.

We'll provide some "hearty munchables" and will have several homebrewed beers on tap, along with a few bottles of decent wine.
Please bring your choice of ONE (or more) of the following:

1) Snack food, or a potluck item.

2) *Beer, mead, or an interesting wine; (ESPECIALLY if it's homemade).

3) A semi-good looking Significant Other, sister, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, mistress, gigolo or reasonable facsimile, thereof. Or you can bring a friend or just yourself.

NOTE: If you plan on imbibing like a frat-boy or whorority-chick, please BRING A DESIGNATED DRIVER; (or you can stay-over and sleep on one of our nice air beds and have our big, slobbery dog lick your face all night).

*Homebrewers: For mini-kegs I have an extra CO2 bottle and hoses, if you have the proper fittings.