Firestone Honey Blonde sweetens the deal

I'm crossing out another item off my Los Angeles bucket list by eating at Hara Sushi, but since there's a line (always a line now), I'm over at Bar Food to kill some time with a pint. I used to go to Hara when it had a plastic banner for a sign that said "SUSHI" and it still had a B rating. They lured us in there with a nearly all afternoon and night happy hour and we stayed for the cheap but also delicious sushi. My favorite is the gratuitous baked lobster roll:

Iron Fist Renegade Blonde distracts me from a rediculous night of brewing my Savory Caramel Sea Salt Ale

Tonight I'm brewing my 6th home brew in 7 months. The recipe is incredibly experimental and is inspired by a particular sweet I can't pass by, which are caramel on the inside with sea salt on top. The combination of sweetness and the salt creates a supernova of flavors. It's wild if you haven't tried it, you can probably find them in wine shops or Whole Foods.

I've never seen a beer like this and there is only style brewed with salt that I'm aware of, the German Gose. This beer is packed with caramel malts and dark brown sugar, then I'm adding sea salt at the end of the boil and crossing my fingers that it's the correct amount. I chose a Scottish pale malt as my base grain and I'm using a Scottish yeast, which will accentuate the malty flavors. Since smelling a beer will greatly influence the taste your beer, I threw in a gregarious amount of aromatic malt to bring out the salt and caramel aroma. Finally, the hop count is real low, which will exacerbate the caramel malt presence.

To be honest, those who have tasted all my homebrews agree that they would buy them again if it was sold in store, which is the ultimate litmus test. However, I'm nervous about this one. I haven't really screwed a brew up yet but this one could be the one. Welp, here's to being bold:

UNTITLED SAVORY CARAMEL SEA SALT

Malt Extract:  Pale Malt Extract   3 lbs
                       

Grain Bill:         Marris Otter 3 lbs 6 oz
                        Munich Malt 2 lbs
                        Caramel/Crystal Malt 1 lb                       

                        Special B 14 oz
                        Aromatic Malt 10 oz            

Sugar:             Dark Brown Sugar 1 lb

Hops:             Kent Goldings (5.0%) 1 oz at 60 mins
                       Willamette (5.5%) .5 oz at 45 mins
                      
Yeast:            Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale

Misc:              9 tsp of Sea Salt at 5 mins.

Instructions: Boil 1 gallon of the first runnings and add brown sugar. Add with the rest of the wort to cool in the fermenter.

Mash Efficiency set at 70%
Potential Alcohol 6.3%
19.4 IBU's 
Color is 26 SRM (Dark Brown to Black).
*Keep reading and you'll discover why I don't have a starting Original Gravity, grrrr.

Three tiered brewing in action. You can see David in the background manning the caramelization pot on our open flame stove

The major difference between this partial mash brew and the last, is that the grain bill is 2.5 lbs more, around 8 lbs. This requires 4 gallons of water to mash at 158 degrees and another 7.5 gallons of water at 182 degrees to sparge. We use a 4 gallon pot for all of our boils. After the first gallon was taken out to boil to caramelize the wort, I filled up the 4 gallon pot really quickly. Suddenly I'm scrambling for pots.

This is when the circus came to town and this music started playing in my head:

So I'm running around the apartment, flipping open cabinets, the dishwasher and scrubbing off bowls from the Sunday bbq. I'm scrambling for pots and pans, anything that resembles a bowl. I literally use every pot we own and one of the bowls to catch the run off. I look ridiculous, David is shaking his head at me. Actually, he does it so often that I'm wondering when he'll start charging for chiropractic appointments. THEN, guess what happens? I have to boil all each and every pot.

I'm boiling on every heat inducing platform in our apartment. I'm pretty stressed here, but I also can't stop laughing at my naivety. I thought earlier today about getting a larger boil kettle, but my ADD mind shifted gears after I watched this entire video David sent me (start at 2 minutes):

So, I'm stuck boiling wort on 5 different pots in two different locations. At this point in the brewing process, I usually play video games for an hour, but instead I'm going back and forth checking for boil overs. Boo. We're going to have a huge electric bill from running four electric coils for over an hour and a half.

To shift gears, David suggests we pop open a small bottle of my Belgian Blonde, pictured above, which has only been in the bottles for a week. Usually I wouldn't even consider to open a beer this early, but I need something and at this silly point in my second partial mash, curious to try how my first partial mash finished.

Even though at a week early it's great! Citrus and apple flavors with a hint of sweetness and a dry bite belgian blonde bite. David says its better than my honey wheat, which is the highest compliment he could give it. I really appreciate that and it couldn't have come at a better time, as I rush to check on my pots.

Afterward, we uncapped our beer of the day from Iron Fist, which was brewed by a 21 year old kid. His Imperial Oatmeal Stout is phenomenal. I bought the Renegade Blonde at the brewery whilst we visited. It's a blonde ale that's created using Kolsch yeast. When I sampled it at the brewery, I thought he really nailed the malt. Tasting it here after my blonde, it's not nearly as scrumptious. It's crisp but also quite tart. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Long story short, the 5 gallons of boiling wort that I poured into my fermenting bucket took me two hours to cool down. Usually it takes less than half an hour. 6 hours after I started, I went to bed at 2AM. I was to tired to take the OG. This marks the first and last time I brew during the week. Also, the last time I brew without a 10 gallon kettle. I feel like most home brewers have stories from their rookie mistakes, and finally after my 6th beer I have something to share. Hopefully the brew will still turn out great!

Moinette Blonde helps me kill lobsters and brew my first partial mash home brew

It's the day before my berfday and I got lots going on. I'm gonna kill a lobster using a butcher's knife (I can't believe this is the humane way) and then I'm going to make my first partial-mash home brew. I've been eying this day for a while because brewing partial mash is a completely new process compared to extract brewing and it requires some science and solid execution. Good thing I'm going sharpen my execution skills with these pound and a half crustaceans first!

Sara names her lobbie William, David's is Garth and mine is Newton. We read on a website after we bought and named them, that whatever you do don't name them! Because then you get attached. Well, I suppose I've had friends for shorter time periods but I've never put a knife through their brain. Time to knock that off my bucket list.

David likes to get really close to his subjects before execution. It makes doing business personal.

Newton is gonna be delicious

Because I knew this would hilarious, I took video of each of us wielding the killing stroke. David is the pioneer, Sara is hilarious, and mine is 'efficient' (I suppose). I'm very proud of these videos, not just because I went hand-held Paul Greengrass style, but really because David and Sara are energetic participants in them. It was weird to end a lobster like this, but it is much more humane than throwing them in a boiling pot and letting them die a slow, agonizing death.

*Please know the videos are slightly graphic - we are killing animals. If you have a problem watching Shark Week or 'When Hungry, Hungry Hippos Attack' on the Nat Geo channel, this is not for you. Otherwise, I think you'll be entertained. I was a little squeamish at first, but it turned out to be (too much) fun and is one of those experiences I can cross off my life list.

Do note, that when they are moving afterwords, they're dead but their nerves are still going. It's creepy and crazy. The same thing happens when you kill a snake. The videos are short, between 1 minute and 1:30. Below is what happens when brain meets knife.

 David

 Sara

 Walker

This was quickly becoming an incredibly fun day. After slicing and dicing them, David and Sara stuffed the lobsters with crab whilst I prepared my brewing equipment.

The champagne below (I will post a video tomorrow with more detail) was a gift from my dad for my 21st birthday. It's a pretty nice bottle so at the time I planned to have it on a 'Special Occasion.' And I could never decide when that occasion was, so it's been on my desk, under my bed and in my wine cooler for the past 7 years. It's not like champagne ages, would it still bubble?

To my delight, the bubbly and food was amazing. The champers was surprisingly complex. Champagne with crab stuffed lobsters, wow, a pretty high-class meal. Thanks to Sara and David, who made my last day as a 27 year-old an awesome day.

So instead of celebrating the birthday weekend by paintballing today, I decided to grill seafood and make my first partial mash beer. Homebrewing with extract is how I made my previous 4 beers, but by learning partial mash, I gain an understanding of All-Grain brewing (the third and final tier of homebrewing) and hopefully create more complex beers. It's more complex though and I had to outfit two 5 gallon coolers with special equipment.

I won't describe the process in depth here because it's detailed online, but it simply involves 'cooking' the grains (I have 5.5 lbs) in 152 degrees for an hour (mashing the grains), and then sparging the grains (washing them with 180 degree water) again, to create the wort. The hard part is getting the right water temperature and then maintaining it and figuring out how much water to use. Overall, it took me 4.5 hours to mash the grains and cook the wort. Usually it takes me 2, 2.5 hours.  

I'll post the recipe below, but first let me review the beer of the day. I'm making a Belgian Blonde so I picked one of the few Belgian Blondes I saw in Beverage Warehouse today and it was fantastic. It has a strong yeast smell and great color. The pop when I uncorked it was stronger than my champagne pop, and it has great carbonation and sexy Belgian lace. There is a smooth and balanced pilsner malt base and has a subtle spicy flavor that adds a delicious twist. Moinette blonde is a flat out fantastic for the style. BAD BOYS rating.

Here's the two-tier system in action

Untitled Belgian Blonde
Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Summer Belgian Blonde. I built this recipe from scratch.

Malt Extract:     Pale 3 lbs
                        Dry Pilsner Extract 1lb

Sugar:              Light Belgian Candy Sugar 1 lb

Grain Bill:          Belgian Pilsner 3 lb 4oz

                        Vieanna Malt 1 lb

                        Caramel Crystal Malt 10L 12 oz

                        Cara-Puls 8 oz               

Hop Schedule:  Hallertau (3.0%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
                       Hallertau (3.0%) 1oz at 30 mins
                       Cascade (4.0%) 1oz at 15 mins
                      
Yeast:            Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (made a yeast starter Friday night at 3:30am after partying, HA).
                 
IBU is  22.5 (style is typically between 15 and 30)

Potential Alcohol 6.7%
SRM (color) is 5

The gravity was a little lower than I expected coming out of the Mash-Tun, so I added a cup of dry pilsner extract to the boil. The OG reading at the boil's end malfunctioned and said my beer is 10%+ which is not possible. Overall, I hit the temperatures I wanted but had trouble maintaining the 150 degree plus temp while Mashing. The process kept me busy but wasn't as stressful as I thought. It was fun though, I'm already looking forward to creating another recipe!

 Here are 5.5 lbs of grains being mashed.

 

Redhook Blonde and Jay's triumphant return

Jay "Jabroni" Subbers is back in town for a one night special and we met up at the Townhouse and ran into old friends Adri and Brad and what I thought would be a quick drink turned into an erstwhile festivus talking about old times, bourbon, Coachella and one of my favorite subjects, savory food. Brad keeps segueing into stories by yelling out "RAAAANDY" from Aziz Ansari stand-up and it surprisingly never gets old. Awesomeness prevails tonight.

Blonde's have more fun - but not as much as gingers

Back home I'm cracking open a Redhook Blonde. I'm a big fan of blonde ales but I recall not liking this in college. However, there's truth to the "every seven years your taste buds change" because I'm enjoying this even though it has failing marks on the beer advocate website. Maybe that's the Maker's talking, but the medium body feels right and the taste is clean with a touch of hops. If Redhook was pitched against Sam Adams in a Beer Bowl, I'd be rooting for Redhook to win - ima fan. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Shiner Blonde is one of my favorite beeeeers

Shhh. It's here...

Love the beer and love the picture

Walt Disney based both Goldilocks and Cinderella on her after bumping into her coming out of a restroom at a Taco Bell (and it was Nacho Grande night). She is a lover and not a fighter, but she fights as well as she loves. She can walk the razor's edge but wouldn't dare thread the needle. She finally got Mother Theresa to admit Madonna's song "Like a Virgin" was a tribute to her during the early 80's in Bangladesh. Interpretive dance students follow her lead. She tells 'your momma is so fat jokes' so well that your mother thanks her for the compliment.  Julia Childs looked up to her even though she was a shorter cook. She is a smooth curser but a rough talker. When she tours with Blondie, somewhere in the world Pat Benetar orgasms. Even though she isn't Grace Kelly, princes still propose to her. If looks could kill, then gingers would be extinct.

SHE IS....Shiner Blonde....my most favorite Texas Beer of all.

She has a smooth and creamy malt flavor that finishes dry and balanced. Shiner Blonde isn't nearly in the same league as other blonde's such Duvel or Delirium Tremens or Bruery Mischief. Yet, Shiner Blonde is so, so drinkable and is great with BBQ. It's my favorite beer to drink when I'm back in Houston or any day that requires a hammock. I could literally drink this all day and get drunk. True story. Point of all this, they started selling this in California around my last birthday in May and I was so excited my pants flew off magically. It must be Shiner Blonde's veritable magnetism. Boom! TRANSFORMERS rating.

Blonde Mission(ary) UnAccomplished

Did I mention I like Blondes? Especially Belgian. No blonde jokes will be found on this website. However, see this fellow here:

Blondes have more fun, but not here

As reported yesterday, David and I think something's disastrously wrong in with the bottle/beer. Something has gone wrong, probably on the way to the store. Maybe it go too hot. Maybe too cold. Because it's not just right. Another really sour beer taste. Nothing is mentioned in the beer reviews of this, so we can only assume this is a 'corked' beer, for lack of a better term. This has become a sad week at the PlattiBrooks House of Sweet Love and International Pancakes.

UPDATE 10/5 - Wish I had two more thumbs so I could give this blonde 4 thumbs down. PEARL HARBOR rating.

Mission Street Blonde is not your Catfish

More malty than hoppy, this beer kinda seems just a few steps up from your run-of-the-mill cheap beer, like a maltier Bud Heavy, or even a heavy tasting Coors Light. Won't get it again, and for those who might be looking to mix it up with a small craft beer, go elsewhere.
This beer is Haylie Duff. Yeah, they put her in Napoleon Dynamite, so what? I hope Mission Street Blonde has an awkward sister. I bet Mission Street has a good beer - not that Hillary is that good either.

Mission St. Blonde Ale did not knock my pins over

Coming home after the opening game of my bowling league in which I bowled TERRIBLY, David poured Mission St. Blonde Ale as soon as I walked in the door. The label says it's brewed in Paso Robles, but the brand is really an offshoot of Firestone brewing.

I love blondes (pun quite intended) so when I saw it at Trader Joes I asked for her number and asked her out. But then I never called her back.

David has a boner for his new Double Dutch Oven.

I usually attempt to judge each beer on it's own and not compare it to another beer/style, but that's just the case sometimes. Accordingly, this beer doesn't remind me of a blonde. It's unusually bitter and has lots of malts. But it's not very complex. Tired from a craptastic night of rolling, this blonde didn't entertain me well. THE ISLAND rating.