2009 Brewing Year In Review

This was a neat post I did at the end of last year, so I figured I would continue the trend with some random brewing stats and facts from 2009. Enjoy!

- Number of Batches Made - 18
- Number of Gallons Made - 110
- First Brew Day - 1/17/2009
- Last Brew Day - 11/29/2009
- Number of Beer Batches - 16
- Number of Wine Batches - 0
- Number of Cider Batches - 1
- Number of Mead Batches - 1
- Homebrew Competitions Medals Earned - 1 silver and 2 bronze
- Batch with Highest Alcohol - ~13% - Mixed Berry Mead (not finished yet, so ABV is estimate)
- Batch with Lowest Alcohol - 3.7% - Mild n' Wild English Mild
- Average Alcohol Across Batches - 6.2%
- Favorite Brew - Hoppy Gentleman English IPA (wonderful biscuit malt character that blended very well with the herbal and earthy English hops)
- Worst Brew - Headless Folly Pumpkin Beer (added too much vanilla, so all you can smell and taste is vanilla, which makes it hard to drink)
- Favorite Name - Double-Wide Dubbel (Belgian ale brewed in two parking spaces outside our local homebrew shop for Teach a Friend to Brew Day).
- Approximate Amount of Grain used in 2009 - 263 pounds (average of 16.4 lbs/brew)
- Approximate Amount of Hops used in 2009 - 47.5 ounces (average of 2.97 oz/brew)
- Biggest Equipment Upgrade - Purchase of a 15-gallon stainless-steel kettle with attached ball-valve
- Number of Batches Brewed for Baker's Party - 4
- Biggest Supporter of My Brewing - My wife, who still supports my wonderful hobby, though under duress at times. Thanks, honey!

Oktober Fete and Fest

Oktoberfest or marzen beers are the richest of the European amber lagers. They were traditionally made in early spring and lagered in cold caves over the summer months. They would be pulled out for the fall harvest festivals, where their rich character and higher alcohol content would be appreciated by festival-goers. Oktoberfest beers are typically smooth and rich and start with malty sweetness, but finish dry enough to be drunken in quantity.

Back in Septemeber, I brewed my third attempt at making an Oktoberfest-style lager beer. My first attempt was years ago, before I understood how lager yeast worked and it did not finish fermenting out. I don't even think it should have been called a beer, though a friend of mine "adopted" the whole batch and, as far as I know, actually drank it. My second attempt, just last year, also had fermentation issues. The first pitch of yeast I used (Wyeast Bavarian Lager - 2206) turned out to be sickly and did not get off the ground almost at all. I pitched a dry lager strain on top of that to save the batch and it worked. The finished product had a fair amount of diacetyl in the flavor (buttered popcorn), but was definitely drinkable. But, it was not to style and I knew I could do better.

This year's Oktober Fete and Fest used the same grain bill as last years batch, but I used a different yeast strain (White Labs 820), which was special ordered right from the manufacturer and was VERY lively. I made a gallon starter out of it to prime it for the job. The result was easily my best yet and I have had difficulty not drinking it all quickly, as it pairs very well with food.

Here are the stats on the Oktober Fete and Fest:

Brewed: 9/12/2009

Kegged: 11/2/2009

Original Gravity: 1.059

Final Gravity: 1.013

IBU: 27

Alcohol By Volume: 6.0%
Lager Length: 31 days at 40 F

Carbonation Volume: 2.8 (15 psi at 40 degrees F)

The beer pours a clear rich amber color with a rocky white head. The head slowly fades during the pint, but leaves thick lace behind all the way down the glass. This beer is one of the clearest I have ever produced, which is likely a result of long lagering period. The aroma holds a very subtle bready malt character, but finishes with the drying quality that you find in many lagers. I do wish the Oktoberfest had a more substantial aroma, as this one is rather thin.

The initial taste is slightly bready and malty, but lacks some of the malt complexity that I like in this style. The mid-palate flavor has a nice balance between malt and hop bitterness. The taste concludes with a nice dry lager profile that makes it easy to go back for another sip. I think it is this dryness that makes the beer pair well with food and also makes it go down so easy.

The Oktober Fete and Fest received an honorable mention at the 2009 CASK Virginia Beer Blitz competition and earned a score of 33. The judges found it to be very drinkable, but found slightly more diacetyl than they would like to see, as well as it lacked some of the malt complexity they wanted up front.

I am just glad that it placed as well as it did.

Third Annual Virginia Beer Blitz

Earlier in December, the Colonial Ale Smiths and Keggers (CASK) club, out of Williamsburg, VA, put on their third Virginia Beer Blitz. This is a competition that a member of our club did really well in last year, so the rest of CAMRA was interested in it this year. We put on a concerted effort to get entries into the competition, which included having a member's friend drop the entries off at the host brewery in person. Jamey also went down and volunteered as a judge in the competition and had a good time doing so.

The results of the competition can be found here: http://www.colonialalesmiths.org/BeerBlitz/ It was nice to receive a silver metal (mead), a bronze metal (cider), and an honorable mention (Oktoberfest) from the competition. CAMRA, as a whole, also did very well, coming in a three-way tie for most metal points with CASK and the Beer and Ale Research Foundation (BARF) for the coveted Blitzkrieg award. The award ended up going to CASK because they got the most points in the best of show round. This was a great showing for our club, as we are relative newcomers to the Virginia homebrewing competition scene.

Thanks to Jamey for bringing back everyone's medals and prizes and for representing the club at the competition. I hope to be able to volunteer at next year's event.

Hand-Crafted Tap Handles

A couple of months ago, one of the members of our homebrewing club offered to help anyone who was interested make their own tap handles. Eric had just gotten a small lathe for his wood-working shop. The type of lathe he purchased was most often used to make fancy wooden pens or small ornamental dowels, but Eric figured it could also make great tap handles. He wanted to get a feel for what the lathe could do, so he wanted some "guinea pigs" to try different techniques out. I immediately volunteered, as anything we could come up with would be better than the small plastic handles I was currently using.

On three nights over the span of a couple of months, I met Eric in his shop and we created three completely different handles. Eric let me select pieces of wood to use from his furniture-making scrap pile, which had a lot of off-cuts. I selected three different woods, so that I could get significant variation in the tap handle appearance (from left to right, in the picture, we have maple, cherry, and walnut wood). We drew some inspiration for the tap handle shapes from on-line pictures, but most of it came spontaneously as we worked with the wood. I was able to help do some of the less detailed work, but Eric usually had to step in at the end with his more delicate touch.

Thanks for your help, Eric. I had fun making them and I think they look great.

The "Mane" Event

This post needs a little background. Stay with me, as I promise it will get back to beer.

For about 8 years now, my family has been involved with a local childrens theater company called Blackbox Players (http://www.blackboxplayers.com/). My wife and I have enjoyed acting for quite a while and now that we have kids who enjoy being on stage, our interest in Blackbox is even stronger. This fall's show is a musical version of the C. S. Lewis book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It has been a fun show, with an interested cast of adults and children and some great original music from a local artist.

I am cast as Aslan, the mysterious lion leader of the good forces in the land of Narnia. Aslan has proven a difficult role for me to play, as I am typically cast in a comic-relief type role. Aslan does not joke; he does not make the audience laugh; he hardly even smiles. All the same, it has been an interesting role for me and the costume is really neat (see the attached picture).

Now, back to beer. One of my fellow cast members has been interested in brewing for quite some time. We got to talking and I invited him to my house over to brew a batch of a beer of his choosing to help show him the ropes and see if he would like to explore the hobby further. He said he wanted to do an oatmeal stout and we left it at that. Apparently, he was in a grocery store looking for a couple commercial examples of oatmeal stout when he saw a beer bottle with a giant lion (think Aslan) on its label. He kindly purchased it and gave it to me as a gift.

Lion Stout is brewed by the Lion Brewery PLC, which is located in Sri Lanka. It is a beer that has gained quite a following outside its country of origin. The bottle has the following quote from Michael Jackson, of Beer Hunter fame, ". . . the stout was soft, fresh and quite delicious. This was the top-fermenting Lion Stout . . . it was bottle-conditioned and had an extraordinary chocolaty, mocha character . . ." Ratebeer.com gives it a rating of 98%, with well over 1,000 votes. Here is my humble review . . .

The stout pours with a thick mocha-colored head. The foam has a tight bubble matrix, which makes it look rather like a giant pillow, though it gradually dissipated, leaving a neat lacing on the glass. The beer itself it as black as I imagine a black hole would appear. I held the glass up to a strong light and I could not perceive any light coming through. The aroma has a distinct dark chocolate smell, with just a hint of alcohol, which reminds me of a Godiva liquor. I also get hints of coffee, but it does not come close to competing with chocolate in the nose.

The flavor of the beer is devine. It is smooth and creamy, without any of the alcohol presence I would expect from an 8% ABV beer. The main flavor component through the entire taste is dark chocolate. I get some coffee and mocha in the mid-palate, but it is subdued. The end of the palate has a slight sweetness; one that competes nicely with the slight roast character of the beer. The stout reminds me most of a "death by chocolate" desert, but not as sweet. It is really quite incredible.

A special thank you to my kind cast-member, Tres, who gave me this wonderful stout. It has been my pleasure to review it. My vote . . . it gets a big ROOOAAARRR!!!

Collaboration Label

Jeff recently mentioned that he would like to create a label for our collaboration brewing sessions. Seeing how we do them infrequently and they will likely always be bottled beers meant for aging, a label seems a creative way to make the effort special. Add to this that Jeff has a friend who is a graphics designer who might be willing to exchange his expertise for homebrew, and now we are cooking.

Jeff asked for some ideas on what our co-homebrewery might be called, and here is what I came up with.

- North and South Brewing
- Dixie Line Brewing
- Wallace Brother's Brewing
- Two Brothers Brewing
- Barley Brothers
- Wallace Clan Brewing
- Shared Obsession Brewing Company
- Stout and Bitter Brewing
- Witty Exchange Brewing Company
- Bugman's Brewing

I will add Jeff's thoughts to the list when I see them. Regardless of what we choose, it seems a fun collaboration for our collaborative brews.

Thanksgiving Beer and Brew Day

My brother and his family were able to come down for Thanksgiving this year, which was great. In addition to being able to spend time with my lovely sister-in-law and nieces, Jeff brought down some incredible beer. He has access to a larger beer market where he lives than we do here in Virginia. Some of the beer that we were able to sample includes:

• Cantillion Gueuze (http://www.cantillon.be/br/3_101)
• De Struise Black Albert (http://struise.noordhoek.com/eng/)
  
• De Struise Pannepot (http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/struise-pannepot/37835/)
• Pretty Things Jack D'Or (http://www.prettythingsbeertoday.com/site/node/13)
• Jolly Pumpkin Luciernaga (http://www.jollypumpkin.com/beers.htm)
  
• Several beers from River Horse Brewing (http://www.riverhorse.com/our_beer/our_beer_tripel_horse.html)

Jeff also brought me down several bottles of the New Belgium Dragon's Milk clone we brewed together this summer. This beer is a complex dark ale with wood and bourbon character. Early taste tests of the beer were clearly too heavy on the bourbon, but time has definitely helped blend the rougher characteristics together. We did a side-by-side comparison of our clone and the actual Dragon's Milk (http://newhollandbrew.com/corp/beer/high_gravity) and they were amazingly close. I detected a slight coconut flavor in our clone that was missing from the real beer. Jeff suspects this is due to a difference in the wood chips we used versus the barrels used at the brewery. Otherwise, they were really close and this was the best clone I have done to date. I am going to stash the 11 remaining bottles away and see how they age.

Our loving spouses were also supportive enough to allow a brew day on Sunday, which we took full advantage of. Jeff and I have co-brewed a beer every time we have been together since he started homebrewing early this year. We have arrived at the consensus that we should brew dark big beers together because they can age well and a while often passes before we can see each other again to hand the beer off. It also allows us to build a library of beer we can sample and discuss when we visit. So, this time we elected to brew an English barleywine. Neither of us have attempted this style before, so we decided to use Jamil Zainasheff's recipe in Brewing Classic Styles as a starting point. We modified the recipe to use the hops we had on hand and ran with it.

Sunday was a beautiful day. It was sunny and there was an autumn crispness to the air. There were leaves on the ground and the sound of laughing children around the deck as we made our beer. Regardless of how the beer turns out, I must say, that it will always embody the joys of family for me. It was made in the company of multiple generations (see the picture of our youngest brewer), in the shared interest of two brothers, and at the end of a holiday that celebrates our extended family, past and present. It is a beer I will save away to bring out on special occasions. When I serve it, I will remember a small piece of the joy that my family brings to me.

Cheers, Jeff. Thanks for another wonderful brew.