Partner Brewing

I brewed my Oktoberfest or marzen lager this past Saturday and put a post up about the brew day on our homebrew club (CAMRA) forums. One of the members of CAMRA, Billy, contacted me and stated he wanted to come over to help brew. I must say that this is my favorite part of this hobby. Homebrewing is a very social hobby and people always seem to want to help each other. Friendly chatter and helping hands make a brew day all the more enjoyable.

Billy is a relatively recent, but passionate, homebrewer. He had not seen anyone do an all-batch of beer before and he had lots of questions. It was rather fun to walk him through the process and his questions were insightful and well-thought out. We also had the opportunity to enjoy a homebrew or two and Billy seemed to like both the pale ale and chocolate-hazelnut robust porter that I have on tap.

Thanks for coming over, Billy. Sharing mutual interest in this wonderful hobby is what CAMRA and homebrewing are all about. For more information about CAMRA, see our website at: http://www.cvillebrewing.com/

Chocolate Hazelnut Robust Porter

This beer came from Jamil Zainasheff's book Brewing Classic Styles. This has become my favorite recipe book and I have had consistent success with the recipes it presents. I brewed this beer for my wife, who loves all things chocolate, because she is so tolerant of my hobby and because I used a good portion of my "marriage capital" when I purchased and built my kegerator. Thanks honey, I hope you like it.

Brewed: 6/7/2008
Kegged: 6/21/2008
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: 1.022
Alcohol By Volume: 6.8%
Carbonation Volume: 2.2 (12 psi at 40 degrees F)

The beer features a full 8 oz can of Hersey's baking chocolate, which a friend wisely had me mix in hot wort in a sauce pan, rather than dump directly into the boil. The smell coming off of the brew pot was heavenly, even it if was 95 F outside on the deck when I made the beer. By the end of fermentation, the chocolate had settled to the bottom of the carboy, in a thick dark chocolate sludge. I was briefly tempted to try some, but then thought better of it. The porter had 0.5 oz of hazelnut extract added directly to the keg. The beer should age very well, given its large amount of dark and roasty malts and higher alcohol content.

The beer pours very dark. I mean like looking into a black hole dark. It's head is course and craggy, more like the head you would expect on an IPA, rather than a stout. The head is a dark creamy color, similar to the espresso stout I made last year, but not quite as tan. The head disappears quickly, which might be due to the high fat content in the chocolate. The porter smells of dark chocolate, with a very slight hint of hazelnut. It reminds me a bit of some of the chocolate shops we visited when in Italy, not sweet like Hersey Park's Chocolate World, but something more complex.

The first taste you get is roast. The roast character of the porter is more reminiscent of a stout. I think the robust porter naturally has this flavor, but the dark chocolate contributes to it as well. You get chocolate on the middle of the tongue, but it is more subdued than you would think after the smell. There is a bit of mocha on the back of the tongue, followed by just a hint of hazelnut. If I make the beer again, I will definitely bump the hazelnut extract up, perhaps to 0.75 oz of extract.

Overall, this is a enjoyable beer, but one that is complex enough so that you would probably not have more than a pint at a time. Cheers, honey, and once again I am glad a married a wonderful woman who enjoys beer and supports my exploration of brewing it.

Kegerator Conversion Complete

I have finished converting my kegerator so that it can use three taps. When I first bought the kegerator, I was amazed to discover that the refrigerator portion could accommodate three 5-gallon corny kegs. However, the draft tower only had one tap on it, which prohibited me from taking full advantage of the keg space. I thought of several different ideas on how to get more taps on the tower, but each idea had problems. The biggest problem is that the tower column is only 2.5" in diameter, which means that the faucet shanks would run into each other if they were anywhere near one another. Add this to the fact that if I drilled additional holes much lower on the tower, I would no longer be able to fit a pint glass under the new faucets.

In the end, I decided on adding additional space at the top of the tower. Here is how it worked:

• I saw a cool looking old champagne bucket that had wooden handles and a neat two color metal finish. I found it at a garage sale for $6.00


• I drilled a 2.5-inch diameter hole through the bottom of the bucket and its insulation so that it could slide over the draft tower pipe.


• I drilled three 1-inch diameter holes through the front of the bucket in a triangle shape, to fit the three shanks and faucet adapters.


• I mounted brackets to the bottom of the bucket and angled the brackets up through notches in the bottom bucket hole and attached them to the draft tower. They were spaced so that the bucket slid over the original draft tower hole to make the entire piece look seamless.


• The top of the brackets were mounted to the draft tower at the top, using bolts, nuts, and washers, so I did not have to drill a hole in the tower pipe. This would allow me to disassemble the bucket contraption and the original tower would still function (not that I plan on doing this).


• I put all the fittings together and poured a pint. This, actually, was after much adjustment and grumbling on my part, and at least one puddle of beer on the floor.
  

Here you can see my "frankenstein" of draft towers (yes, that is the blade of a sword on the wall . . . don't ask, it is a long story). I think it looks pretty nice and I can say I made it myself. It certainly cost less than a new three tap draft tower would have cost, which is around $300. I probably spent about $150, but that is because I bought two expensive forward-sealing taps. The actual parts, with normal taps, would have been less than $100. Cheers.

Beer Names for Bakers Party

I finally caved to John's request and named each of the beers for his summer party and family reunion. This is my least favorite thing to do, so I procrastinated writing them all down. However, I wrote a brief statement about each name, so I figured I would share them through the blog:

- Gusty Oats Oatmeal Stout - We brewed the two oatmeal stouts on an extremely windy day in March. It was cold and there were leaves and twigs flying all about. I would not be surprised if there were even oats gusting around that day . . .
- The Bends Oatmeal Stout (Nitro) - You get "the bends" when you come up from diving depth too quickly and nitrogen comes out of solution in your blood stream. This beer can do the same thing, as its wonderful flavors will make you want to deposit it directly into your blood stream via IV.
- Blazing Saddles Hoppy Red Ale - This hoppy red ale will leave you chuckling with its comic blend of smooth malts and jarring hops. We could think of no better tribute to the late Harvey Korman, who did so much to make us all laugh.
- Pissed Black Cat Stout - My neighbor's black cat has never been much of a fan of when I invade its territory on MY deck to brew MY beer. So, it demonstrated its hatred to John by taking a leak on my smoker right next to the brew pot. I can still smell that cat every time I fire the smoker up.
- Steamy Summer California Common - This beer style is more commonly known as steam beer, which is very appropriate, given the steaming sauna of a day we brewed it on. Hopefully, the day of the party will be a little less oppressive, but you can quench your thirst with this beer either way.
- Murphy's Law Dry Irish Stout - A fitting homage to the Baker clan's ancestry. This beer is aptly named because everything that could go wrong during the brewing process did. The beer's ultimate thumb in our faces was that it turned out so good.
- Short On Hops IPA - This india pale ale is anything BUT short on hops. Its name is a reference to the current worldwide hop shortage, which had me substituting three of the four hop varieties in the beer.

Belgian Wit

I have now made about eight beers using the recipes from Jamil Zainasheff's Brewing Classic Styles book, and I just love it. The recipes turn out fantastic and the book is full of excellent tips. Now, the stats:

Brewed: 4/19/2008

Kegged: 4/30/2008

Original Gravity: 1.056

Final Gravity: 1.011

Alcohol By Volume: 5.8%

Carbonation Volume: 2.7 (15 psi at 40 degrees F)

This was my first 1o-gallon batch, as mentioned in a previous post. I split the batch into two 5 gallon carboys, one of which I fermented normally and the other I racked onto pinot noir soaked oak chips to imitate the style of the Dogfish Head Red and White Ale. I will document the results of that experiment in another post. These tasting notes are for the batch that was fermented normally.

Belgian wits are supposed to be drunk fresh. They are yeasty and very tasty and I am happy with the results of my brewing. The beer appears cloudy and sort of glows a pale yellow-white color when held against a strong light. The wit has a thick pillowy white head that dissipates quickly, but leaves a nice lacing pattern on the glass. It smells strongly of yeast and orange citrus, which is no surprise given that the 10 gallon batch used the fresh zest of three navel oranges. In fact, the smell is one of the things I love most about this beer. The taste has an immediate zing from the coriander that settles into the orange. The carbonation leaves a trail on your tongue, but dissipates quickly. You next taste the yeast, which has a spicy aftertaste that finally settles on a firm smoothness. The beer finishes with a slight lingering sweetness.

I really like how this batch turned out. However, for the next batch I will back off on the coriander slightly, as it is a bit too strong. I also plan on increasing the carbonation a bit, as it could be a slightly stronger. Additionally, a member of our homebrew club recommended I add 1/4 tsp of lactic acid to the beer as I keg it to add a slight sour spritz to the flavor. The cloudy "white" color can also be pronounced by adding a tablespoon of flour wort when it is boiling in the kettle.

Overall, I am very pleased with this beer and how it tastes out of the keg.

Bohemian Pilsner

I meant to post this a while ago, but this review is timely as this is the very last bottle. Here are the stats:

Brewed: 1/19/2008

Bottled: 3/8/2008

Original Gravity: 1.061

Final Gravity: 1.011

Alcohol By Volume: 6.5%

Lagering Time: 5 weeks

I have been extremely happy with this beer, given that it is the first lager I brewed. The pils is very clear, probably the clearest beer I have ever brewed. It maintains its head for a long time, which is something, as most of my beer has a head that dissipates quickly. It has a clean taste, but with a definite strong hop backbone. In fact, I would say the hops are a bit too much and next time I brew the beer I intend to reduce the total IBUs by at least five. I detect a slight amount of honey in the palate, but not sweet. The finish is very clean and slightly dry.

One other thing I read about is that bohemian pilsners are made with very soft water. This makes the hops stand out a bit less spritzy (I know that is not a word, but it is what came to mind), but makes the flavor softer on the palate. I read that this can be simulated by purchasing cheap deionized water from Walmart or similar store. Substitute 50% of the water used to make the beer with the DI water and it will make the total water used softer, but still drinkable.

This is one I will definitely do again.

April was a Busy Brewing Month . . .

Ok, I admit it, I have been extremely lax about updating the blog, especially given all of the beer and brewing things I did in April. I keep telling myself that I will get around to posting to the blog, but never seem to make the time to do it. Here is a bulletized recap of the brewing and wine-making activities of the last month or so:

• John's Party Brew Day #3 - John and I brewed beer batches #5 and #6 in April, which included a Dry Irish Stout and a Pale Ale. The Dry Irish Stout resulted in a stuck sparge, so it took a LONG time, and we kept missing our temperatures; thus it was nick-named Murphy's Law Irish Stout. However, despite all of that, it tastes great.


• First 10-Gallon Batch - I brewed my first 10-gallon batch ever in April. I had borrowed a friends 20-gallon aluminum pot so John and I to make two batches of beer at the same time. While I had it, I figured I would try to brew 10 gallons of Belgian wit, which worked well, but still took longer than expected.


• First Brewing Experiment - I divided the 10-gallon batch into two carboys and finished each different. I used the first carboy as a control, allowing it to finish fermenting normally and just following the recipe. I tried to make the second carboy into a clone of Dogfish Head's Red and White beer, which my wife loves. This involved racking the beer onto 2 ounces of oak chips that had soaked in pinot noir wine for a week. It will be neat to try the beer side-by-side to taste how it is different.


• Kegerator - I got really lucky on Craig's List and bought a $1,000 kegerator for $150. It is only three years old and is in very good condition. It can hold three homebrew kegs and I am currently working on a method to outfit it with three taps. I am very excited about this project, as I will finally have draft beer at the house.


• 4th CAMRA Meeting - Our homebrewing club had its fourth monthly meeting and we had about 25 people show up. One of the members led the discussion about the Belgian wit category (very timely, as I had just brewed one and he had lots of good suggestions) and we talked about growing hops and organizing our first homebrew tasting event at the end of May.

I hope to write an individual post about most of these items, but if past performance is any indication, it might not happen for a while. I am especially interested in follow-up posts about the kegerator and the Belgian wit experiment. I also need to do a write up on my bohemian pilsner, as I am down to the last bottle.

Until next time, whenever that may be . . . cheers!