Mirror, Mirror, on the Pond - Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale Clone

I am a big fan of most of the podcasts on The Brewing Network. I find them informative and I definitely enjoy their entertainment value on my 40 minute drive in and out of work each day. One of the shows, The Jamil Show - Can You Brew It focuses on cloning commercial beer. The general format of the show is to call up the brewmaster, extract a recipe from him or her, along with some tips, and brew up a batch. Then, live on air, they do a blind tasting of the commercial beer along with the homebrewed version. The beer is judged "cloned" if the majority of the tasters state they could not change the recipe to get any closer to the commercial example.

I have made a couple of the beers featured on Can You Brew It and I have a list of additional ones I would like to try. However, I must say that I have only tried about six of the commercial beers they have attempted to clone, as the rest of them are beers that I can't get around here. This does not dissuade me from attempting them, as the goal, for me, is not to get a perfect clone, but to make interesting beer. In general, some part of Jamil's description or discussion of the beer peaks my interest and then I want to make it.

The beer I am attempting to clone here is Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, which is featured on the September 28, 2009 Can You Brew It show. Deschutes describes this beer as "a quintessential American pale ale. Mirror Pond elegantly blends the sweetness of malted barley with the bite of hops (which add bitterness and aroma). It's refreshing, loaded with strong hop flavors, and perfectly balanced." The name comes from Mirror Pond, which is a scenic pond along the Deschutes River that is a choice spot for summer festivals and concerts and is just three miles from the brewery. The beer has won many awards and has garnered quite a following.

Here are the statistics of my clone brew attempt and the tasting notes:

Brewed: 1/23/2010

Kegged: 2/3/2010

Original Gravity: 1.050

Final Gravity: 1.011

IBU: 42

Alcohol By Volume: 5.0%

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

The beer pours with an uber-thick creamy head. The sheer volume of foam makes me think there is a nucleation site inside of my tap or beer line. In fact, it is so large that I have to let the foam settle out before topping off the beer, as evidenced by the foam "cap" in the picture. The beer is the color of amber or dark honey, with a light chill haze being evident. I get a nice citrus aroma from the all-cascade hopped beer, with a hint of pine resin. The beer has an interesting malt character that appears at the beginning of the taste. It is vaguely reminiscent of toast and biscuits and is likely derived from the Mutons pale malt that makes up half of the base malt. As an aside, I have discovered a real love for this malt of late and have begun using it more than Maris Otter. The mid-palate has a strong bitterness to it; one that I must say is not balanced by the beer's body. The bitterness lasts through to the end of the taste, which is nice and dry.

On a whole, I am pleased with my Mirror Pond clone attempt. Having never actually tried the real beer, I can't attest to how close my attempt came to the original. However, it is a nice beer and we have cleaned out the keg fairly quickly. My only real complaint is the bitterness, which is not in balance with the beer's body. I suspect that I miscalculated the bittering hop addition, either through over-estimating how much alpha acid was lost to age or mis-measuring the actual hop addition.

I hope to someday try the real Mirror Pond. Until then, I have to say thanks to The Brewing Network for getting me to try this interesting American pale ale.

Lug Wrench Brewing - First Pump Build Post

Jeff and I started a collaborative blog a couple of months ago called Lug Wrench Brewing Company (http://www.lugwrenchbrewing.com). The idea was to encourage collaboration in our shared homebrewing hobby through creative writing and blogging. While Wallace South Brew News will focus on my individual homebrewery and tasting notes, Lug Wrench includes topics of interest to a wider audience. Thus, I decided to post information about my toolbox-housed wort pump build on Lug Wrench, as others may enjoy and benefit from the ideas. However, I wanted to post a link to the entries here, as they directly involve my homebrewery.

You can find the first post here: http://www.lugwrenchbrewing.com/2010/02/wort-pump-in-toolbox-concept.html.

Double-Wide Dubbel

With all the snow we have had recently, I must admit I have enjoyed having a rich Belgian-dubbel on tap. This is the Double-Wide Dubbel, which my friend Greg and I brewed for last year's Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. Belgian dubbels are rich and malty ales that were traditionally brewed for Trappist monks and provided a good amount of their daily sustenance. American versions tend to be more imperial in nature, and this one is no exception. It is based on a Tommy Arthur recipe found in the book Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus. Dubbed "Double-Wide Dubbel" because it took two of us to brew the massive double batch, and it was brewed in two parking spaces outside our homebrew store, Fermentation Trap.

But, enough of the background, here are the stats and tasting notes.

Brewed: 11/7/2009

Kegged: 12/6/2009

Original Gravity: 1.076

Final Gravity: 1.014

IBU: 16

Alcohol By Volume: 7.9%

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

The beer pours a deep ruby red, which contains a slightly hazy appearance. The color looks fantastic when held up to a bright light, with a thin layer of small bubbles running through the center of the ruby column. The dubbel has a thin white head that rapidly dissipates, which is not surprising, given the low hopping rate and high alcohol concentration. The aroma is very complex, with hints of raisins, dark fruit, caramel, cinnamon, cloves, and all spice. The aromatic complexity increases as the beer warms.

The dubbel's flavor is also complex. The initial part of the taste provides some of the spice hinted at in the aroma (note, this is all yeast-derived, as no spices were added to the beer). I also get a bit of a zip from what I suspect is the carbonation level, though the beer is not carbonated any more than others in my kegarator. The spice fades to a dark fruit, raisin, and honey sweetness at mid-palate. I also detect some alcohol warming at this point, though it is subtle. The end of the taste has more caramel and honey, with the sweetness lingering on the palate. The sweetness becomes cloying by the end of the pint.

I must say I like this beer, given the winter weather we have had in Central Virginia. It hides its alcohol very well and has an enjoyable complexity. However, if I made it again, I would definitely lessen some of the specialty malts and possibly lower the mash temperature. The beer could finish dryer, which would help it drink easier (though at 7.9%, this might not be a good thing). The beer is also over carbonated, as the flavor improves when I knock some of the carbonation out of it.

One other interesting thing to note is that I tried Greg's version of the dubbel and it tasted different. You could tell they came from the same base, but his had a metallic flavor that is missing in mine. We used the same wort, the same yeast, and targeted the same fermentation profile. I am always intrigued by things like this, because they clearly show that even when things are almost equal in brewing, two different brewers can produce two different results.

Club Competition - Brown Ale Judging

Last night was a first for me, and a first for our club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA). We had more than one club entry into the American Homebrewers Association's (AHA) Club-Only Competition. For those not familiar with these competitions, you can find more information on the AHA's website, but it is basically a series of homebrewing competitions where each club can only submit one entry. The idea is to have interested homebrewing clubs organize brewers to work on a style, then pick the best entry from the club and submit it to go head-to-head with other clubs. It is used in evaluation for the AHA Club of the Year award, and is a neat concept.

The next Club-Only Competition is for English Brown Ales, which include milds, Northern English brown ales, and Southern English brown ales. These ale styles are popular in CAMRA and we actually had six entries competing for the honor of representing the club in the competition. This was the first time we had more than one entry for a Club-Only Competition. To determine which beer would be selected, four of us gathered at a member's house last night for a tasting.

We printed out a copy of the BJCP style guidelines and a score sheet and sampled each beer. Our general process was to pour the beer, visually inspect it, then smell it, taste it, smell it again, and taste it a final time. We took notes and evaluated the sample individually, and then discussed our thoughts together. We tried to come to a relative consensus about each beer, but we did not always get that far. The discussion was lively and very interesting.

In the end, we chose one beer to represent CAMRA. I had a great deal of fun with the actual judging and discussion. It reaffirmed to me once more that what I love most about this hobby is the people I have met through it. It was a great evening spent in the company of friends.

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.

Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day - 2009

Yesterday was the American Homebrewing Association's (AHA) annual Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. This is an event that the AHA organizes to help show people how homebrewing works and encourage interest in the hobby. It is one of my favorite "group brewing" events of the year, as I really enjoy showing off the process and talking to prospective brewers. I have participated in this event for the past three years, by hosting an event at my house in 2007 and then helping with the events at The Fermentation Trap in both 2008 and 2009.

This year, my good friend and fellow CAMRA-member, Greg, and I decided we should do a joint-brew of a Belgian Dubbel. We had been planning on doing another join-brewing session for a while and this seemed a great way to profile the hobby and our local homebrewing club, as well as making some good beer. The recipe we chose to follow is Tomme Arthur's dubbel, as documented in Brew Like a Monk (see my review of Tomme's Lost & Found Abbey Ale here). To do a 10-gallon batch of this beer, we required more than 31 pounds of grain, three pounds of dark candy syrup, and over a pound of raisins. The sheer volume of grain meant that we needed to use both our mash tuns, which allowed us to show the differences between batch and fly sparging. We ended up calling our beer "Double-Wide Dubbel," as it was a double-sized batch and we brewed the batch in the parking lot, while taking up two parking spots.

We had about 14 people stop by and chat with us during the event at The Fermentation Trap. I hope that we were able to provide some useful information and encourage interest in our favorite hobby. In the end, Greg and I each got six gallons of 1.083 wort (higher than we expected) that will make a great beer. I greatly enjoyed brewing with Greg, as he is a fantastic brewer with different processes than mine and because we are good friends. Thank you to Randy and the staff of The Fermentation Trap for hosting the demonstration and for being so supportive of CAMRA and homebrewing in Central Virginia. They are great and I would recommend people stop by their online or retail store and pick something up (http://www.fermentationtrap.com/).

The Lost Abbey's Lost & Found Abbey Ale

One of the members of my homebrewing club took a trip up to Pennsylvania a while back and brought a bunch of bottles of beer we could not find down here in Central Virginia. He was kind enough to offer several bottles of Lost Abbey and Russian River beer for sale to club members, at the cost he paid for them. I took him up on the offer and picked up a bottle of Lost Abbey Lost & Found Ale. I have previously had Lost Abbey's Devotion Ale, but that was the only one of their offerings I have sampled.

Here is what The Lost Abbey says about the beer (http://www.lostabbey.com/lost-abbey-beers/year-round-beers/lost-and-found-abbey-ale/):

"Lost and Found- Modeled after the great Trappist and Monastic beers that inspired the founding of our brewery. A richly deep garnet colored ale created from a blend of Domestic and imported malts. As part of our commitment to interesting brewing endeavors, Chef Vince created a special raisin puree for this beer. Malts, raisins and a fantastic yeast strain working in harmony produce a beer of amazing complexity and depth. Available in 750ml bottles and on draft at select inspired locations.

OG- 1.065 TG- 1.010 7.5% ABV [bottle shows 8.0%]

Malts- Two Row, Wheat, Medium and Dark English Crystal, Special B and Chocolate Malt.
Hops- German Magnum and German Tettnang
Yeast- Proprietary Belgian Ale Strain
Adjuncts- Dextrose and Chef Vince’s Raisin Puree."

The beer pours a cloudy deep garnet color, with a thick off white head. The head itself has very course bubbles in it, looking almost like a sponge. The head dissipated rather quickly and did not leave any lacing on the sides of the glass. However, after the bulk of head evaporated, there was a thin lair of tighter bubbles that lasted through out the tasting. The aroma is very complex, including dark brown sugar, bitter herbs, raisins, and some funk.

The taste begins with the flavor you get from brown sugar, if you imagined taking the sweetness out the equation. I get a definite raisin flavor next, which has some sweetness that lingers on the tongue. I also get a lot of carbonation in the taste at this point, much like tiny pin pricks on the tip of my tongue. The end of the flavor has more raisins, but finishes dry with a little alcohol warming. I was actually surprised at how well the beer hid the alcohol, as I would have expected to taste more at 8.0% ABV.

All in all, I liked the beer. I remember liking Devotion a more for its pillowy body and smooth drinkability. But I would recommend trying Lost & Found, if you can find it.

Hoppy Gentleman - IPA with English Class

At the end of July, I was looking through my freezer and discovered I had accumulated a good amount of odds-and-ends hops - partially full hop bags that were left over from previous brews. Given that I brew a lot of English-based ales, it is not surprising that most of the extra hops are English in nature (herbal and floral hops, rather than the citrus or pine-like American varieties). I felt like making something hoppy, something with class and style, but something that still excited my palate. So, I thought, why not make an English IPA?

India Pale Ales generally fall into two categories, American and English. The IPA style originated in Britain, though it is not brewed much there anymore. The IPA style has been adopted by West Coast American craft brewers as the poster child of the good beer movement. While the American version is bold, higher in alcohol, aggressively bitter, and dripping with flavor, English IPAs are more subdued and balanced and have a more defined malt character. They seek to interest your palate through subtle complexity.

So, here are the stats on my Hoppy Genetleman, an IPA with English Class:

Brewed: 8/1/2009

Kegged: 8/15/2009

Original Gravity: 1.066

Final Gravity: 1.014

IBU: 51

Alcohol By Volume: 6.6%

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

The beer pours a dark amber-red color, with a thick rocky head. The head stays with the beer through the pint, leaving a neat lacing on the sides of the glass. The beer has a floral nose, similar marigolds in the summer, with a hint of bitter herb in the back. The IPA has a lot of malt flavor in the early part of the taste. I get hit with an assertive fresh bread flavor that fades to dark caramel by the mid palate (hence the picture with the IPA and the homemade sourdough bread). The hops are there in the beginning of the taste, but definitely playing second fiddle. They become more prevalent in the back of the palate, and help end the beer dry, which prepares you for another taste.

I think I would like a bit more hop presence in the beginning of the taste, but I am very happy with the beer. It hides its 6.6% ABV well, so that you really don't realize its potency. I will definitely do this one again, perhaps with more late kettle hops to increase the hop flavor at first taste.

It is classy and interesting, it is a Hoppy Gentleman.

Red, White & Awesome - Dogfish Head Inspired Ale

My wife, Meghan, has been a big fan of Dogfish Head's Red & White ale since she first tried it at their Frederick brew pub several years ago. The Red & White ale is a strong Belgian wit that is supplemented by pinot noir grape juice, fermented out in stainless steel, and then aged in used pinot noir wine barrels. It is a complex and interesting beer, though it is quite strong at 10% ABV (as are most Dogfish Head beers). Given Meghan's love of this beer, I set out to make a beer using the same basic process as a gift to her.

The basic process is that I take a standard Belgian wit recipe and brew it up. I ferment it out completely, and then rack it into secondary on top of a couple of ounces of oak chips that have soaked in pinot noir wine for a few of weeks. I let it age on those chips for about a week, or until I can start to taste the oak. Then, I keg and serve it.

This is the second time I have made this recipe. The primary difference is that last time I did not get much Belgian wit character, as it was missing a solid orange citrus character. So, I doubled the orange peel this year. The other difference is that I could not find medium toast oak chips this time, so I had to use heavy French toasted ones. These tend to add a vanilla character, so I added and extra half an ounce to see if I could get oak in addition to the vanilla (I used 2.5 ounces this time, for a week).

Here are the stats for my version, which is called Red, White, & Awesome (RWA for short):

Brewed: 8/16/2009

Kegged: 9/4/2009

Original Gravity: 1.055

Final Gravity: 1.011

IBU: 21

Alcohol By Volume: 5.9% (calculated as 5.6%, assumed 5.9% from wine in chips)
Time Aged on Oak Chips: 8 days

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

My wife very nicely surprised me with a bottle of Dogfish Head Red & White ale to do a comparison with the RWA. In the picture above, the RWA is the one in the Chimay-style glass. We tasted them together and here are her observations:

The Dogfish Head version has a much richer aroma, much more complex. The version I brewed has a less intense aroma. The Dogfish Head beer has a slightly darker color, though it has yeast particulate matter floating in it. The RWA ale has a bright and clean flavor, with a citrus finish. The Dogfish Head beer has a different starting flavor, one that is rounder and fuller, much like the aroma. The finish of the Dogfish Head beer is similar to the RWA ale in that they both finish dry and clean, though the RWA has a citrus finish that the Dogfish Head lacks. She says she likes the complexity of the Dogfish Head beer more than the RWA, though the bright flavors in the RWA are nice too.

I share most of her opinions, though I will build on them with the following. The RWA ale appears more cloudy, much in a true wit fashion. The Dogfish Head is more amber, though with some hop matter floating in it. I think her description of the beer aromas are dead on, as the Dogfish Head ale has is much more complex. The RWA does have a very clean and citrus-forward flavor. I don't get too much in the way of an oak flavor or that much wine character in the RWA, maybe a little bit of vanilla from the heavy toast chips. With the Dogfish Head version, I get a much more defined alcohol character, which I would expect for the ABV difference (5.9% versus 10%). I also definitely get a wine character and an oak character in the early and mid palate. I think the RWA finishes cleaner than the Dogfish Head version, and seems more drinkable.

All in all, the beers are more similar in the finish than anything else similar. However, they are not that close in taste overall. That is why I have stopped saying that RWA is a "clone" of the Dogfish Head beer. I really like the "inspired" idea, as that is what actually happened. Meghan liked the beer, as did I, so I tried to make something like it. I very much enjoyed our beer discussion about the two different ales, and was very grateful for the unexpected gift of great beer.

Cheers, honey. I love you.

Dominion Cup 2009

The Dominion Cup is the largest homebrewing competition in the state of Virginia and three of us from CAMRA drove down to Richmond to volunteer at the event this year. Jamey, Greg, and I left Charlottesville around 7:00 am the morning of August 28th and arrived at the site of the competition, Capital City Ale House Music Hall (http://www.capitalalehouse.com/), a little after 8:00 am. The Capital City Ale House Music Hall is a large rectangular room with a large cooler in the back, where the competition organizers from the James River Homebrewers (http://www.jrhomebrewers.org/) set up a series of long tables for the judging to take place.

Jamey, Greg, and I each ended up in different roles during the competition. Greg, who won a bronze medal for his German alt beer in this year's National Homebrew Competition, ended up judging IPAs during the morning session and fruit beers in the afternoon session. Greg has been talking about getting BJCP-certified, so this was a great experience for him. Jamey ended up stewarding for both sessions of the competition. A steward assists the judges at his or her table by organizing score sheets, maintaining the beer entry pull list, and generally trying to keep things moving for the judges. As an added bonus, Jamey got to taste some of the entries along with the judges and weigh how he would have scored the beer as compared to the judges' comments.

I got to spend the day performing the duties of cellarman. I had volunteered to steward for both the morning and afternoon sessions of the competition. But, though a volunteer sheet mix-up, I was not scheduled in the morning. The competition director put me to work helping the club's cellarman, Mark, for the morning session. The cellermen of a competition organize how beer is stored and distributed to the stewards and the judging tables. In this case, it meant moving and organizing 732 bottles of beer (366 entries, two bottles each). The cellerman position was surprisingly interesting, as it was a logistical focal point of the competition. We had to make sure the entries were pulled in the correct order for each of the 11 tables, so the judges were working through sub-categories correctly (light alcohol to heavy alcohol, less assertively flavor sub-categories coming first, etc.). We also had to organize the cooler so that we could easily locate the best of show entries for the final session in the afternoon (the best beer in each category was reserved and then provided to the BoS judges late in the afternoon to pick the best beer of the competition). Mark did a great job and I enjoyed myself enough to volunteer to continue to help him into the afternoon. It was a great way to spend the day.

At the end of the day, CAMRA did great (full awards list can be found at http://www.jrhomebrewers.org/dominioncup/DomCupWinners2009.php). Jamey ended up winning more medals than anyone else and took home the Plato Award for best brewer at the competition (total of 25 medal points). Greg won two medals and I won my first ever medal, a bronze for my Hoppy American Amber Ale. Several other CAMRAites won medals, bringing our club total to 15. It was very exciting to see our club get so many accolades. It was also fun to see my brother take home two medals with some of the beer I brought down from his club when we visited Rhode Island earlier this year.

Most of all, I enjoyed spending time with my two friends and talking shop about a hobby we all love so much. I had a chance to meet a bunch of other homebrewers from all around Virginia and hear some of their stories and brewing methods. The experience once again affirmed to me that brewing beer is, above all, a social activity. While we all came together in the spirit of competition, the most enjoyable part of it all was spending a day in each other's company.

Of course, winning a medal never hurts either . . .

Smokey Fox - Comparison and Contemplation

I have been remiss in posting tasting notes for my homebrew of late. So, I figured I would take a moment to post some thoughts on what I am calling Smokey Fox, my smoked lager brewed with grain that was smoke-malted at the Copper Fox distillery (see the post from June). This beer was an experiment for me, as I had never made a smoked beer before and had no idea what to expect from the malt from Copper Fox. I must say that this beer has again shown me that decent process will result in good beer, even if you are not familiar with specific ingredients.

Smokey Fox used a traditional German Rauchbier malt and hop profile. This is a style that originated in and around Bamberg, Germany and the distinctive smoke flavor in the beer came from the beechwood fires used to roast the grain at the end of the malting process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rauchbier). The malt bill included the Copper Fox smoked 6-row barley, pilsner malt, Munich malt, Caramunich malt, melanoidin malt, and a pinch of black patent malt for color. The smoked malt made up about 50 percent of the total grain bill. I used hallertau hops in the beer, though you could use any German noble hop, as the hops are not the focus of the beer. Here are some stats:

Brewed: 6/28/2009

Kegged: 8/1/2009

Original Gravity: 1.052

Final Gravity: 1.014

IBU: 32

Alcohol By Volume: 4.9%

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

Smokey Fox pours with a huge craggy off-white head. I was surprised at how much head this beer has, given the smoked malt in it. The beer's aroma is just slightly smokey, which increases as the beer warms. The aroma is otherwise smooth, with a very faint hint of sulfur at the end of the nose. The beer is a deep red in color, almost like the color of sunlight coming through red glass. This color did not come through very well in the picture, but it looks wonderful up close. The smoke flavor in the beer is also subdued, though it picks up as the beer warms. I also get a little biscuit and bread flavor, along with just a hint of spice. Smokey Fox finishes very clean and leaves you wanting another sip.

Knowing that I was going to eventually be reviewing Smokey Fox, I took the opportunity to pick up a classic example of a smoked beer while visiting my parents in Rochester, New York (Beers of the World is a wonderful store). I bought a bottle of Schlenkerla smoked marzen, both because they are one of the classic producers of smoked beers and because I love marzens. When comparing the two side-by-side, I was struck by their similar color; they looked almost identical. Their heads were the same color, though the Smokey Fox was thicker. That is where the similarities ended.

Compared to my beer, the smoked marzen was smokey, REALLY smokey. Its smoke aroma was intense and lovely. Think bacon cooking over a camp fire (yes, I said bacon). It was truely lovely. The smoke aroma transferred to a slightly lesser extent to the flavor. The malt in the marzen, which is usually a mainstay of the style, was completely subservient to the smoke. The smoke persisted throughout the taste, even lasting 10 seconds or more after you swallow.

I must say that I really enjoyed the Schlenkerla, but it definately wore my palate down. The smoke flavor, which I loved, kept building through out the pint. By the end, my palate was dead. I did alternate between the two beers through out this evaluation, but by contrast, the Smokey Fox tasted like a smooth malty lager, with little to no smoke flavor. I guess it is not that surprising, given the Schlenkerla's intensity. After having both, I think I would like a bit more smoke in my beer, but not that much more, as I can have several pints of Smokey Fox, but not more than one of the Schlenkerla.

I hope you enjoyed the review as much as I had writing it. Thanks to Copper Fox for the malt and the chance to do this project.

Cheers,

Tom

Brother Brews: Dragon's Milk Clone

We went up to visit my brother and his family in Rhode Island a couple of weeks ago for vacation. The cousins had a lot of fun playing together and we did all sorts of fun activities like going into Boston, going to the beach, and playing around in the backyard. Jeff and I also got to do a bunch of fun beer-related activities (much to our wives' chagrin), such as stopping at some of his local bottle shops, trying a bunch of his homebrew, and doing a comparison of the Lost Abbey Devotion clone we had brewed together with the actual commercial beer. Jeff is lucky enough to get Lost Abbey beer in his area. It was really a lot of fun to compare the two beers. As I recall, our homebrewed version was more grainy, rough, and had more Belgian character than the commercial version, which was smooth, velvety with just a hint of spice. We were also able to get a brew session in together, which was a highlight of the trip for me.

Jeff and I had previously decided to try and brew a clone version of New Belgian's Dragon's Milk, which is a wonderfully rich bourbon-aged old ale. I had previously tried Dragon's Milk at The Timberwood Grill, which is near my house, and fell in love with the beer. We decided on it because it was a rich and interesting beer and would age well, as it would be some time before we would see each other again and be able to exchange bottles. The clone recipe was published in the January 2008 edition of Brew Your Own magazine.

I had a lot of fun seeing how Jeff brews beer, as every homebrewer develops their own process with their own equipment. Jeff also brews at night, which is very different than my weekend daily brewing. He also batch sparges, while I use a homebrew-sized fly sparging setup. As an added bonus, one of our best friends from when we were growing up, Craig, came down from Boston and stayed the night to hang out. It was really fun to show him the process and chat with him over a couple of pints of Jeff's great homebrew.

The Dragon's Milk Clone is now aging on bourbon-soaked oak chips in secondary and I can't wait to try it out. I had a great time, Jeff, and I hope we can do it again soon.

Pictures from the 2009 Baker Crab Fest

Well, the 2009 Baker Crab Fest went very well. We only had a very brief period of rain and it was not too hot. The food was excellent and I even got away with a lion's share of the clams. The beer seemed to be well received and it was fun, as in years past, to chat with people about what they thought of our efforts. The only slight problem we had was that the pilsner poured foamy after about 6 oz were in the glass. The flavor was still good, but it was pretty foamy.

The order the kegs were kicked was as follows:

- Midnight Breakfast Oatmeal Stout on Nitro Tap (making it the party favorite, yay!!!)
- Pissed Black Cat Pale Ale
- Double Down Scottish 80/~
- Hippy Hawk Bohemian Pilsner (it was kicked after the party)

And here are some pictures:

Here are John's handmade tap handles

Here is a picture of the full tap machine

Here are all the kegs

Me pouring a beer

Copper Fox Distillery

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Central Virginia and, surprisingly enough, my family had nothing scheduled to do. So we decided to take a drive, have a picnic, and tour some local wineries and distilleries. That is right, I said distilleries. There are two operating distilleries here in Central Virginia and both of them are within an hour drive of our house.

The first one, the Belmont Farm Distillery (http://www.virginiamoonshine.com) has an advertisement on Route 29, near Culpepper. It was fun to visit and really looked the part of an old time farm-based distillery. The pot still used there was built in the 1920s and several parts of the bottling line were from the early 1900s. There are several modern pieces to the operation, most notably all of the different water filtration systems, but the place still has a very authentic feel. They sell two types of whiskey there, both available from the farm, an aged whiskey and a raw, unwooded whiskey.

The second distillery was the real gem, and the most fun stop for me on our entire trip. I first saw mention of The Copper Fox Distillery (http://www.copperfox.biz) on the Mad Fermentationist's blog, where his club was looking to possibly get a used barrel from the distillery (http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2009/06/oubreak-2009-infected-barrel.html). Copper Fox is located in Sperryville, VA in an old apple processing facility. The owner, Rick Wasmund, and his "Master of Malt" (Mom) operate the distillery and provide very personal and educational tours. They have an innovative aging process where they age the whiskey in contact with apple and cherry wood, which imparts an interesting color and taste to the whiskey. But, the coolest thing of all is that they malt their own barley.

Copper Fox uses 6-row barley as the sole ingredient in their whiskey. They get the barley from one farmer, who lives about 3 hours from the brewery, and bring the raw grain directly into the distillery. Then, during the cool times of the year, they soak the barley in giant vats and then lay it out on the floor of a special section of the building. They let it germinate and then they kiln it right on site, using apple and cherry wood (http://www.copperfox.biz/products/). This imparts the malt with a interesting smokey note that helps make the whiskey distinctive. As far ask Rick knows, they are the only distillery in North America that malts their own grain.

Rick was kind enough to send me home with a sample of this special malt. I am planning on using it in a German-style smoked lager sometime in the near future. I would encourage any readers in Virginia to pay the distillery a visit, as the tours are well worth the drive. While you are at it, pick up a bottle of Wasmund's Single Malt Whiskey and give it a try.