David and Walker are drinking a different beer each day* for an entire year, 365 beers in all, starting August 5th, 2010. We're writing about our daily regime to share the experiences and delicious discoveries with our friends and mild acquaintances to inspire YOU to bring previously unknown beers to your lips. (*limit one new beer per day consumed before midnight, no catch up days allowed)
As the Labor Day weekend begins with a half-day at work, I head directly
to my temple for my style of Friday Shabbat service at Beverage Warehouse.
This store has been our go-to beer supplier for the year and as you can tell, it is fantastically stocked. These two pictures only represent bottles in the bomber size, there's an entire wall of 4 and six pack options two long to photograph. This will probably be my final time here, as I'm moving to San Francisco shortly after a vacay in Australia, so I'm nostalgically taking pictures and taking the time to wistfully stroke my chin whiskers as I choose my final selections.
I pick out the beer of the day as well as my final, beer 400 beer in 400 days. I chose a beer that has fantastic potential for not only as a symbolic end to my experience, but also to revisit. I chose a 2011 North Coast Old Stock Ale. I plan to drink one next Friday, the 2nd in 6 months, and then the third a year from now. The final beer I will save for David's consumption. Revisiting a single beer as it ages will hopefully have the effect of purposing me to continue drinking and revisiting beers. Stay tuned a week from now to see how the first one does.
Afterward, I head home and bottle my 7th home brew and third partial mash, an Oatmeal Stout, with the help of Lindsey, who's unemployed butt makes itself useful as a bottle cleaner and capper. As always, I was worried about high temperatures, but this one tastes solid. It's a bit watery but the roast comes through nicely. I bottle it a happy homebrewer.
Classy glass for a classy beer
I celebrate with a newly acquired Imperial Stout from Nogne O, a Norwegian brewery. I've heard really great things and I'm excited to make it beer 393, on the day, of my first stout's bottling...
75 IBU's and 9% alcohol, these Norgie brewers don't back down. My first sips reveal an incredibly smooth and balanced product...like, fantastically so. Dark chocolate flavors with a slightly little roast and coffee and brown sugar flavor thrown in for good measure. I'm really enjoying how the hops balance out the malt. Rich but easy to drink -- this is motor oil light. The alcohol is so well hidden it's sneaking up on my brain as I finish the bomber. Half-day Fridays are off to a glorious start! This is strong, subtle and smooth. Absolutely worth the 8 bucks I spent on the bomber. BAD BOYS
Today is the nexus of two ideas I hatched weeks ago; buying a fruit beer actually made with fruit and not syrup and brewing my first dark beer. My spidey senses are tingling
First the beer. From the same brewery that brought you the delicious seasonal Smashed Pumpkin (smashed-pumpkin), Shipyard introduces another fruit infused beer, Smashed Blueberry.
A little yeast starter goes a long way
It's a whopping 9% blueberry beer that lies somewhere between a porter
and scotch ale. There's a lot going on in this, coffee and chocolate notes and a bitterness at the end that takes away from the blueberry, which is surprisingly subtle. I feel like this is a little "Midsummer Night's Dream" in a way, the dark chocolate and fruit mix together in a moody way. David isn't a fan, but I'm enjoying this latest entry. Will I buy it again? Probably not, it didn't appeal to me that much, but I'm happy that I experienced it. TRANSFORMERS rating. I would buy this again and pair it with food, duck or lamb. That would be really interesting.
Brew day is upon us! I began a yeast starter (above) two days ago and picked up the supplies yesterday. The apartment smelled like malt when I walked into the door, which is such an appetizing aroma. I'm working on my third partial mash home brew today and I'm still learning the process. One of the tubes in the sparge cooler popped out and 180 degree water poured out all over my hand, burning it decently. I fudged up on another aspect, which made me angrier at myself than the water cooler, so that cooler is in the clear...for now.
Untitled Oatmeal Stout
Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Oatmeal Stout. This is a Walker original recipe:
Malt Extract: Pale 3 lbs
Grain Bill: American Two-Row Pale 4 lbs
(8.5lbs) Flaked Oats 1.5 lbs
Munich Malt 1 lb
Chocolate Malt 12 oz
90 L Crystal Malt 12 oz
Cara Pils 10 oz
Roasted Barley 8 oz
Special B Malt 4 oz
Hop Schedule: Northdown (7.5%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
Yeast: White Labs London Ale (WLP013)
My other mistake was I misunderstood how much water to mash and sparge
with, so while my original gravity was 1.065, it turned out to be 1.056, which
means I will have about 5.5% alcohol and 28.2 IBU's (previously it
would be 6.1%). I thought at the time this would be a huge loss, but, not
really. I had to take about a gallon of wort out of the boil kettle
and there was less efficiency for starch extraction during mashing.
Usually you want to hit between 70% 75%. The pro's do it way better, of
course. I hit 55%. Stupid math skills getting in the way of fun again.
The color is going to be 42 SRM, which is black as a moonless
night. It's going to look great. What's interesting about the hop schedule with stouts, is that you don't
use any flavoring or aroma hops, just bittering to balance out the malt.
By excluding hops later in the boil, more of the roasted malt is
exhibited. Not all breweries follow that rule of thumb, but it's pretty standard.
Failure to brew on Sunday resulted in an unavoidable late Thursday night. We didn't even start cooling the wort until after midnight. I started boiling water at 7:15pm.
We finished around 1am and cleaned up and then shot the sh*t till late.Not the smartest of moves to do on a school night, but sometimes the Chappelle show comes on, home brews are opened and you start talking about life and suddenly the clock reads 4am. Worth it.
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:
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!
Two years ago David, Nick and I went to the first LA Beerfest at Sony Studios (which has since turned into a shit-show) and amidst a hundred vendors, bumped into these two guys set up next to Fireman's Brew pouring two beers from "The Bruery."
I think the first beer we tried was either a Saison de Lente or a Rugbrod, but their second beer was a summer seasonal made with Thai Basil which was astounding. Our minds were blown and we had just crossed a threshold; in a very unlikely place we'd stumbled upon one of the best breweries in the U.S.
Since then, neither David or I have tasted Trade Winds - until today. And we have a growler of the stuff! Two years later and we're having a homecoming for our threshold beer to The Bruery.
The Bruery's brewers are Promethean with many if not most of their beers and this one is an excellent example. Who woke up at one day and said, "hmm, I'm going to make beer with basil, thai basil to be exact." Truly Amazeballs. The beer's base is a belgian golden ale, but instead of using candi sugar, typical for the style, they use rice in the mash to lighten the body and increase the gravity and then spice with Thai Basil. The result is a beer that is subtle and earthy, with a hint of spice from the Thai Basil, which is evident in the first sip. The result is a basic golden ale that's easily drinkable (too much so) and a complex flavor profile. Some might argue that this is like their Mischief, only better. For me, how can you pick between your two kids? Well, for my parents it's obviously me and not my brother Warren, but I made that easy. Here it's much more difficult :). BAD BOYS rating.
Melissa R, Nick G, Lisa, Jake, Jenny and Tiffany are coming over to eat and watch the 3rd game between Dallas and Miami. I'm using this excuse to do a flight of my homebrews, as everyone except David and myself haven't had all three of my beers.
I love this, because I'm able to stand up and give a spiel about how each brew was made, funny tidbits, and how clever I think the names are (self absorbed much?). To my surprise though, Heisenberg's Honey Wheat, a winner at previous parties, is not the leading man here. My first brew, King Moonracer's Revenge made with clove, probably got the highest all-around rankings. Lisa's favorite was King Moonracer, Jake's the Red Headed Step-Child (because you just can't beat it), and Mel's was the Honey Wheat. The super hoppy Double Dutch Rudder (a belgian IPA, a beer where two different styles rub off on each other) and one of my personal favs, Jake loves but is probably too hoppy for the ladies' tastes.
Overall, everything but the Mavs loss was a great success! This entire weekend was filled with beer and breweries and great friends - another stellar weekend thanks to beer!
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!
Today is my joint berfday party with Aaron and Tiffany! Turning 28 today, the year which legends are made, friendships created and my liver fatally destroyed. Still recovering from Aaron's All-Denim Party, Aaron, David and I head to Costco for liquor to make Fader-aids, which are Gatorade and vodka. Our guests will love us and they're vital to the distinguished game of Sloshball.
This is my 4th homebrew and by all accounts, probably my best. This is coming from David as well as other friends. It's easily the most drinkable and perfect as a summer hammock beer, which was intentional. The irony of the situation, is that this was also the cheapest to make. I added very little adjunct malt to the recipe and it cost me a little over $30. My belgian homebrews cost over $50 in comparison. What made the difference was my decision to use Kolsch yeast, which provides a less tart flavor profile than an American Wheat yeast and clean, lager like finish, and also my dedication to keeping the temperature constant in my room, which was no small feat. I spent many nights freezing my butt off to keep the temperature in the room well below 70.
The beer itself is clean and crisp, with a tinge of sweetness from the caramel malts. It's something I could make and enjoy for the rest of my life and tweak the recipe very little. I plan on making this for every summer as long as possible. Here is the original link that explains the name (Heisenberg's Honey Wheat). This is a TRANSFORMERS rating because it's not a complex or astounding beer, but I think this brew is worthy of greater attention (perhaps a homebrew competition in the future?)
Birthday kids!
Sloshball is the game of kickball but played with cups filled with alcohol. It's a hilarious game. People trying to catch the ball with one arm, others trying to kick the ball (my every at-bat ended with alcohol on my face and up my nose - apparently I kick by throwing my arms up in the air), and people having to finish their cup as they round third, which also ends with a large amount of booze on their face.
It was an amazing birthday filled with body paint, booze and great friends! I thought it would be hard to beat last year's joint birthday party with my friend Natalie, also held on the beach, but this topped it! Wildly successful. Just amazing. Thank you to all my friends who came out!
Following my first homebrew, the Christmas themed King Moonracer's Revenge, the Belgian IPA was my my second foray into homebrewing (Belgian IPA brewing day)
All those monkeys celebrating like idiots in front of the White House reminds me to never send my children to college at Georgetown
After learning the basics of homebrewing, I wanted to make the beer style I like the most. Belgian IPA's are rare in Belgium (purists detest, Le Chouffe is the exception) and Americans have made the style their own. My particular favorites are the Green Flash Le Freak and several hoppy Breury beers. They're big bodied, sweet and extra hoppy. I love me some rich food and rich beer. It was to Frankenstein my own.
At 80+ IBU it's an incredibly hoppy beer. If the alcohol was higher, it would qualify as an Belgian Double IPA. Unfortunately, I still don't have a name for it (Double Dutch Rudder wasn't exactly PG), so for right now I'm going with BIPA.
The crowning remark I received after people first tasted it, was that it didn't taste like a homebrew. Best compliment I could receive for my second beer. There's still great carbonation and lace with the pour and the hops haven't mellowed with age either. The Simcoe, Centennial and Cascade hops provide a BIG hop bite that's incredibly distinct thanks to the super hop Simcoe. It's a hop combination that's unique and I'm quite partial too. The sweet malt body is compliments of a Belgian Pale Ale recipe from the Culver City Home Brew Shop.
What I learned from this beer and what I will correct in the next batch, which will be partial-mash, is that the body of the beer isn't big enough to handle the amount of IBU's. At under 5% alcohol, the beer is simply too light. I need to beef up the body so that the ratio between the Bitterness Units (BU) and the Gravity Units (GU) is 1. In this recipe, the BU/GU is at 1.81. I'd like to give this a Rock rating, but in reality it's not quite there yet. TRANSFORMERS rating. Still, I honestly feel it could be in the top 50-75 beers I've had this year.
So not only was I able to revisit a homebrew for a beer of the day, but they caught the most notorious terrorist in the world --
BUT, I was also to watch the most ridiculous infomercial I've seen for quite some time, the Pajama Jeans.
Had Mantastic day with Nick G and Nic -shooting pistols and shotguns at the range in the morning, then In-And-Out followed by watching the bloody SUPER starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page in the afternoon, then beers at Cabo Cantina. I capped off the man-day by bottling my latest homebrew (whose title I've changed), Heisenberg's Honey Wheat.
Kinda ran into a problem though. I've made three homebrews in the last three months and I'm incredibly low on unused bottles. Either David and I needed to drink 10 bottles or it was time to dive into previous bottles we've drunk and saved and see if I can sufficiently clean them out in time to bottle. Much to David's disappointment, I was able to save enough Stone brews (which we drank in October!) to bottle the batch, although we still drank Belgian Home Brews - ya know - just in case we needed more bottles. I decided to spray paint the Stone label to avoid confusion. The result was a bottle as bloody as the film SUPER.
I dig the barleywines and I'm excited to try this. It has a VERY rich malt of caramel and toffee. It's fun to drink, but I think it's way too sweet still and needs time to age. Love the big malt though, and this characteristic reminds me of Stone's Double Bastard. I'm very tempted to buy this and age it another year in the closet. It could be a Transformers, but currently it's simply ARMAGEDDON.
The day has come! Hoorayyy! Belgian Red, my first real experimental beer, is ready to drink. This was me when I woke up. David was Paul Pierce, the guy just running around after sinking a game winning shot:
So here is the Belgian Red Recipe. I have to say, it pours beautifully. Many home brews don't have great carbonation, but look at how much head it pours with! Awesomeness.
David says that you could have told him that this was the Belgian IPA we brewed and he would believe it. The IBU's are only at 50, opposed to the 80+ we have in our Belgian, but it's still quite hoppy. David also said, and I have to quote him because I'm proud, that the beer's "good quality exhibits my experience." Happy to report I'm getting better and not worse with age. Score.
Tell you what, it's different than I expected but I'm still very happy with it and it tastes delicious. The color pours beautifully but the flavor doesn't scream red ale, rather, the beer exhibits some light caramel flavors and the sweetness of a Belgian strong ale. There is considerably less caramel flavor than a Belgian Dubbel but there's definitely considerably more caramel than a Belgian Golden. I was hoping for a more "red" flavor profile, but this was the first recipe and I'll add more caramel notes next time. Otherwise, I'm VERY excited to share this with people in the coming weeks. It's tasty.
After sampling, we went onto "sample" more beer with Christine who is up from Newport and with Sara. It's time for a little Sunday Funday.
We checked out a bier garden on the Venice boardwalk. It's been a while since I've strolled the chaos that is Venice beach and I forgot how entertaining it is - that and how many dogs there are int he world. David brought Kamari (under the table in the picture above) and we settled in for a pitcher of Erdinger Dunkel, German puffed pasta and mozzarella sticks ordered by yours truly (not very German of me).
Sunday Funday continued with Sangria at Primitivo Wine Bistro. Guess what else is on Abbott Kenney? The Other Room. The beer of the day is now 3 out of 4 days from this bar. Starting to run out of options...Psych! Their menu is Laaarge.
Even though I know nothing about apricots (I have no idea what they smell or look like), I welcome any beer that can incorporate unusual elements in to make a balanced brew. Sam Caligione is the king of this, so I'm very excited to taste this.
I'm trusting Christine and Sara to help me out with the aroma. They say the Aprihop smells like a bag of dried apricots and weed. HA, silly girls - that's Dogfish Heads signature HOPS. But to be fair, hops are a distant cousin of the green cheeva that is so prevalent in this area. I blame it on the hippies. The fruit in this beer is very well balanced with the hops. I'm not a fan of fruit beers but I love this because the fruit and hops are so subtle. It's simply a well made beer. THE ROCK rating.
David announced that his next beer will be an Imperial Red, like Drake's Denoggenizer. I'm going to use my tax refund money like Ninkasi (the Sumerian goddess of fermentation) would want me too and invest in equipment to brew my first partial-mash beer. Time to step up home brewing a notch and get serious about this!
Oh Saturday, I love thee. Time is on my side today. In one week from now, I'm able to taste my Belgian Red. But today, I'm charged with transferring my Heisenberg's American Wheat that I brewed last Sunday (Heisenberg's American Wheat Home Brew) from the bucket to the carboy. The sample tastes fine, but it's a little early still to draw assumptions. However, let the record state that I'm patting myself on the back for the temperature control exerted while this is fermenting. I've definitely been sleeping in what little cold weather clothes I own. The Kolsch yeast works best between 55 and 70 degrees, but the first 24 hours after brewing I brought the temperature up to 72 degrees (to get the yeast working). Then over the course of the week I've slowly decreased the temperature in my room to from 72, to 70 and down to 66. When it's in the carboy I'll sustain a 64 degree temperature and Let It Ride like Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
I realized this is my 4th home brew in as many months, and I've never posted a picture of the trub. You'll see why in a second. Trub is the output of the yeast interaction with the fermentables and what's left after transferring the brew to the carboy. It's essentially heavy fats, proteins and inactive yeast. If left in the bucket for too long, the trub can impart off-flavors.
Yep. Like staring into Satan's butthole
So in transferring the beer to the carboy, we separate it from the trub and allow it to settle, which creates additional color clarity in the beer and precludes the trub from imparting any off flavor.
Wallah!
So now I wait a week or two and then bottle it. It should settle to become a dark yellow - light gold color.
Nick G is coming over for dinner and that means a guys night out filled with Chile con Queso, Steaks, Beer and Mush-Shrooms.
Unlike David, I rarely cook nice meals but fortuitously for me, this beer was actually created to be paired with food. Hailing from Spain, they probably thought we'd be pairing it with more complex food but whatever, American Steak rules. Also, Estrella has a beautiful bottle and I love its shape.
It pours a golden goodness and it's malty smooth. The Damn Inedit is a wit / lager chimera and it definitely has the wit spicy floral and citrus notes and finishes like a sweet lager. They were right about pairing this with food, but steak wasn't the best choice.
Problem is, the beer is decently unique but it never really grabbed me. If this beer was a stranger, it would be someone who had a great ice breaker but was a mediocre conversationalist. Still, it's worth introducing yourself to one mister Estrella Damm Inedit. ARMAGEDDON rating.
Today is a big day, full of sunshine and life and BEER. BEER BEER BEER. I'm going to drink lots of beer while I brew one beer and bottle another. Guess what's on tap at Casa de Davis/Brooks? Goose Island Demolition Belgian Style beer for lunch. Desert will be a Bruery Loakal Red. Stone Barleywine is the beer of the day and then after we bottle and taste my Belgian Red, a flight of Home Brew Beers - King Moonracer's Revenge and the Belgian IPA (which I codenamed the 'Double Dutch Rudder'). Got a lot on my plate. Beerspeed me:
Home brewing equipment. Nice yeast pouch
Heisenberg's American Wheat: Werner Heisenberg is a renowned German physicist famous for winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the creation of quantum mechanics and also the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. But for everyone else who hasn't starred on JEOPARDY, this name might be more familiar from the AMC original show BREAKING BAD. 3 time Emmy Winning actor Bryan Cranston (he's the Meryl Streep of TV) uses 'Heisenberg' as his drug dealing alter ego in the show.
The American Wheat Ale style is a very American take on a traditional German style dating back hundreds of years. An American style based on a German style deserves an equally imported name. Thus I give you, Heisenberg's American Wheat, a light and crisp wheat ale for the upcoming summer months.
Almost every American Wheat Ale recipe I researched was incredibly basic and simply used the Wheat Extract without any other fermentables or steeped grains. That sounded perfectly boring so I whipped up my own grain bill and picked out some Santa Monica farmer's market honey to spruce the recipe up.
Malt Extract: Alexander's Wheat Extract 6 lbs
Sugar: Sage Wildflower Honey 1 lb
Grain Bill: Caramel/Crystal Malt 10 L 6 oz
Caravienne Malt 4 oz
Cara-Pills 3 oz
Hop Schedule: Amarillo (11.0%) .35oz at 60 mins
Amarillo (11.0%) .35oz at 30 mins
Cascade (5.9%) .75oz at 20 mins
Cascade (5.9%) .67oz at 5 mins
Yeast: Wyeast 2565 Kolsch
Potential Alcohol 5.1%
33.4 IBU's
Starting Gravity 1.051
Color is 5 SRM (Yellow to Gold).
Notes: I didn't like the attributes of an American Wheat Ale Strain (I don't want my beer to be 'tart'), so I used Kolsch, a German Yeast, and threw in American Hops. Kolsch is an interesting yeast strain because it produces quick-conditioning pseudo-lager beers and ferments well cold, but it can also ferment at warmer temperatures (like my room) at 68-70 degrees. But I really chose the yeast strain because the beer will hopefully exhibit some fruity character of an ale with a clean lager like profile. The Amarillo and Cascade hops will also bring a slight citrus and fruit flavor. That's exactly the kind of beer I want to have whilst in my hammock this summer.
Hey ladies, check out my wort cooler...Is a line I should use more often
This will be the 4th barleywine from Stone we've had - check out the other three Vertical Flight of Stone Old Guardian Barleywine - and it's hot off the press. It's really sweet still and could definitely benefit from aging. David pointed out that it's so sweet it actually tastes a little like bubble gum. Still, it's delicious and has a great hop balance. TRANSFORMERS rating.
Each Stone beer has a story or letter on the back 'label.' This barleywine has a letter from the man, the myth, and the legend, Greg Koch, the head brewer of Stone. He was sitting in a Belgian Bar discussing beer with someone very knowledgeable about the state of beer in the world. This Belgian fellow basically said that the American beer scene is number one in the world, followed by Belgium and lastly Germany, which has really fallen far from the taste tree. It reminded me of an interesting article Nick G sent me about the state of German beer which you should check out "Germany's beer culture is in decline"
It got me thinking about how fortunate I am to be exposed to so much ingenuity, to be on the forefront and experiencing a virtual revolution and explosion of the craft beer world. Plus, I live in California, near the San Diego breweries (Stone will be the first American Craft Beer to open a brewery abroad later this year, in Belgium) plus breweries like Eagle Rock, Bruery, Bootleggers, Russian River and more. Germany's beers are governed by the purity laws, and that has really suffocated their beer industry. A large number of their brewers are gravitating towards the freedom and opportunities afforded by the craft beer movement. It kinda reminds me of the 1950's and 1960's (not that I was alive), but the idea that the best and brightest turned to government organizations, such as NASA. They worked for something they believed in. The U.S. is experiencing a renaissance, and I think this was a fortunate yeart to try 365 different beers.
That being said, drinking beer all day also reminded me that I need to watch my intake least I turn into one of those Kobe Heifers. David has a 1 beer a day rule and it's time I implement it. Beerspeed me.
Before tonight's beer, we tried our Belgian IPA home brew today for the first time (not inebriated by Oscar Sunday shenanigans). Everyone apparently loved it Sunday, but I wanted a perspective that didn't involve beer goggles so we cracked one open before our beer of the day:
Ain't she beautiful? Belgians have more fun
When we tasted the Belgian IPA before bottling, it didn't have the necessary malt body to balance out the hops and so it tasted overly bitter. Good news! The carbonation really shored up the body and the BIPA tastes very, very good. The hop bite has the complexity we want and the Simcoe at the beginning gives very distinctive bitterness. The beer has decent clarity, not as crystal clear as at bottling - strangely enough. I'd like a stronger hop aroma though.
I have big plans/changes for the next batch, which I won't bother you with now, but I'll actually do the dorky thing and post my beer recipe site, where my recipes are saved. Nerd Alert. You can see the above beer receipe, the future one, and the Belgian Red Ale that's soon to be bottled which I thought up myself. http://hopville.com/brewer/recipes/milkisforbabies
Onward and upward to the beer of the day, a Collaboration between two well known San Diego breweries and the winner of the 2010 March Madness Competition, Kelsey McNair. They created a 'Golden Session Beer' that is essentialy a large production format of his award winning 'West Coast Bitter.
Stone Brewery, Ballast Point and Kelsey McNair Collaboration
This is hoptastic but isn't overwhelming. The hops are there in numbers but are mellow and spicy. It's your summer day IPA - a really enjoyable drinker. Pick this up at Whole Foods for $3.50. THE ROCK rating. I wanna make one of these now....
...One of the best perks of doing this is that every couple of weeks, I'm inspired to create something I've never done before and I soon follow through with it. How consistently does that happen in life? To use the parlance of Charlie Sheen, Beer is totally WINNING.
I've been impatiently waiting for the workday to end and for David to return home to help my transfer my Belgian Red Ale to the carboy: Belgian Red Ale brew day. I'm dying to know how my first original recipe is shaping up and if the malt I burned (through user error during the brew process) can be tasted, or if it's negligible. Crossing my fingers for the later...
Touchdown! Gooooaaaalllll! Schwing, Schiwng, Schwung! During the transfer I fill a snifter up and the prognosis is excellent. It's still really sweet and needs time but the caramel flavor is spot-on as is the belgian sweetness. David and Karl are nodding approvingly as they taste. It's already pretty dank beer and Karl and David point out the sweetness could turn into alcohol, which would be a really good thing for this brew. I'm titillated to say the least and I'm eagerly anticipating bottling day. There is a hint of the bitterness at the end of the sip but it's very small and may disappear all together. We all agree this beer can only get better, and it's good right now. Here's to swimming with bow-legged women.
Karl picked out this Coronado beer, which none of us really know anything about the brewery other than it's in Saint Diego. This orange label is telling me it's a wheat beer brewed with honey and spices. Hmmm
The sexy coaster is a gift David returned with from Germany
This beer is really light and the orange is really mellow. It smells weird, a little musty, like the Old Sock Air Freshner I hang from my rearview mirror. Just kidding, that's no air freshner.
This wouldn't be a bad summertime beer, but some would argue this case for Blue Moon and only girls like the moon that's blue. I'm over it, as is Karl. THE ISLAND rating.
It's Valentine's Day blah blah blah shards. Real Men (*citation needed) spend a Bromantic Night drinking beer, eating pie, bottling delicious home brew and enjoying the company of a couch surfing friend Evan - who has spent the last two months on the Mexican Coast living in a beach tent and is currently regaling us with stories which make me want to call him names like "jerk face," "asshole," "god damn you," and "sure you don't need a party buddy?" (real friends don't let other friends party with beautiful strangers, duh).
And my first valentine Momma Davis sent her favorite fat kid a Pecan Pie. That's Texas love.
So good once it touches the lips
David purchased this after tasting it at the Whole Foods Beer Festival and it is phenomenal. This is up in the pantheon of Double IPA's alongside Stone Ruination. Classic Sierra Nevada body with an incredibly smooth but incredibly hoppy flavor. There's an interesting bite in the middle of my sip, like a hop spike, that's fleeting and adds an interesting characteristic to the taste.
This is DANK. It is Original Gangster Dank. It's 10.4% alcohol (which I don't taste at all) and it's over 100 IBU's. I mean, wow. Shenanigans. I'm pulling my hair out in delight. BAD BOYS rating. Seriously, pick it up.
If I can get off that boner coaster, David and I bottled our second home brew together, the Belgian IPA. We knew from tasting it during the primary to secondary fermentation transfer, that the brew is still a working recipe and we need to step up the malt/fermentables for the next batch.
With our tasting today, we forecast the brew to be 'pretty decent.' It's not there yet because the hops to malt ratio isn't where we want it, so it'll be pretty hoppy but hopefully not overwhelmingly so. I'm also crossing my fingers that the bottle conditioning / carbonation will bring out the hop aroma, because it's not very strong right now. The greatest surprise is the beer's clarity. It's fantastic and I couldn't ask for anything clearer. It's pretty close to a Houblon Chouffe:
This result is from either the wort cooler I picked up before the last batch or the Fascist-isque temperature control in my room, or both. Regardless, I'm proudly pleased with the final product. Two Mondays from now we'll taste and see what's in store. Best Valentine's Day in a long, long time.
Ever since the success of my first home brew, the winter ale King Moonracer's Revenge, I've been telescopically focused on making two beers, a Belgian IPA and a hoppy Belgian Red Ale, which is inspired by The Breury's Loakal Red. We're bottling the Belgian IPA Monday. It's time to make the Belgian Red.
This is only my third home brew but I want to be ambitious in my beer-every-day year, so I rather than follow anyone's recipe I designed my own. I did a lot of research on malt and hops and decided on specific grains that will give the light and medium caramel malt flavor as well as the 'red' color I want, and then throw several grains characteristic of Belgians that will add sweetness and a big malt body to compliment the strong American hop presence. Where I really diverged is with the yeast. I researched a few Belgian Red Ales and most of them used Irish or English yeast. I really want that Belgian sweetness and ester complex that I enjoy so much, so I'm going the road less traveled with a Belgian Strong Ale Yeast and crossing my fingers.
Grain Bill: Caramel/Crystal Malt 40 L 6 oz
Caramel/Crystal Malt 60 L 6 oz
Belgian Special B 2oz (this is a really dark grain)
Caravienne Malt 4 oz
Aromatic Malt 4 oz
Hop Schedule: Centennial (10.5%) .5oz at 60 mins
Centennial (10.5%) .5oz at 45 mins
Columbus(15.4%) .75oz at 30 mins
Cascade (6.6%) 1.25oz at 15 mins
Centennial (10.5%) 1.5 oz DRY HOP
Yeast: Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale
Potential Alcohol 6.8%
59 IBU's
Starting Gravity 1.068
Color is 12 SRM (Copper/Red is 10-14 SRM).
Not only is this recipe my own creation, but I'm also making beer without David's guiding hand for the first time. David's in Munich so Tiff is thankfully helping me out.
Wort chiller? Check. Newly built spice rack? Check. Linus the Storm Trooper Cookie Jar?...Time to brew
Always have to drink a beer during brewing so I bought a Drake's Imperial Red Ale to inspire us. God that stuff is good.
Brewing was...a learning process today. There were moments of "oh, I was supposed to add the sugar then," and "what's that black stuff coming up?" HA. What could I do? What's done is done. It wouldn't the first time I learned the hard way. So I burned some malt; the worst that will happen is there will be some 'toasted' notes that I wasn't expecting in the beer, but there also may not be any difference. Just gotta wait and see.
So afterwords I'm enjoying today's beer pleasantly surveying my two alcoholic babies. David brought back several brews from Europe and today's brew is from Austria, the Steiglbock.
Belgian Red Ale on the left, the soon to be bottled Belgian IPA on the right
The Steiglbock is an intense lager and my first light colored bock. It has a surprisingly big malt characteristics which are...interesting...but it's not my type of party beer. THE ISLAND rating.
Thanks to Tiff for helping me out! Crossing my fingers, today was a day of many home brewing firsts (good and bad) and as always, excited to taste the outcome.
