Brewing Update

I have been brewing, just not reporting. Currently I have three beers in the fermenters. Two are IPAs and one is an ordinary bitter. The first IPA is my standard recipe which I am exceptionally happy with. The second IPA was an experiment. The malt bill is my normal one (a combination of American 2-row, some Munich, and some special-B) but my hop profile is different. For that beer, I am using warrior and columbus hops, and dry-hopping with columbus. The inspiration for this hop profile came from the Flying Dog IPA, which in my opinion is a great IPA. My third batch, brewed last night, is my tried and true ordinary bitter recipe. I miss having that one on tap.

New to my brewing process is an aeration stone. When hooked up to a canister of oxygen, this should aerate the beer and hopefully aid in the attenuation of my fermentation. I haven't used it enough to see how it is working, but the current beers in the fermenters should provide me with good feedback because I have records from brewing these beers a few times before.

The brewing of my standard IPA brings me to another, more commercially oriented comment. My IPA was inspired by a clone recipe for the Avery IPA. I am not sure if my recipe is much like Avery's, but I think it tastes pretty close and I am a big fan of both. Or I was, anyway. It came to my attention recently that Avery has changed their IPA recipe. I noticed something was different when I saw the IPA with a new label and in the liquor store, where only high-alcohol beers are sold (here in TN). I finally decided to buy a sixer of the new formula to try, and I was disappointed. The new IPA is really good, don't get me wrong, but now it tastes much like many of the other American IPAs on the market. The hop profile is a little brighter and, I would say, a little stronger. The alcohol difference is pretty negligible in my opinion (this isn't an imperial IPA), but it is now missing the signature maltiness that was evident in the old Avery IPA. I am an Avery believer, but I don't see myself buying this IPA. I don't agree with their decision to change the recipe. (To me it is like the experiment Coke did back in the 80s, after which they came out with Coke classic. I would buy an Avery IPA Classic.)

In other news, I have decided to retire one of my own recipes because, frankly, I just don't enjoy it as much as other beers I brew. I have limited brew capacity and limited consumption capacity (if i want to keep my girlish figure), so the Oatmeal Mild is going away.

Last week I was in Chattanooga to run in a race, and the night before the event, my special lady and I had some time to spend in the city, so we tracked down the Terminal Brewery. First off, I should mention that the Terminal is at the end of the free electric shuttle line (at the terminal) so if you are staying anywhere in town, you have free transportation to the brewery and can drink to your heart's content without worrying about driving. Now, as far as the beer they serve, it was nothing short of phenomenal. Their IPA was so good that I opted for a second in lieu of trying another beer. (It was primarily hopped with Magnum hops - possibly my favorite hop variety.) They also had a great German Alt which the lady has now requested that I attempt to brew at home. Looks like the Terminal Brewery has inspired 2 beers for me to brew in the future. Great stuff.

That's all for now, and that's enough. Cheers.

Beer in Tennessee

Rumor has it that Boulevard Brewing Company is pulling all of its beers out of TN because of lack of sales. This is interesting, but not really surprising, and a little disappointing.

Ever since the local distributors decided to end exclusive distribution of the big boys and started snatching up craft beer accounts, there has been a glut of craft beers in Tennessee (specifically Nashville). What started with some new beers showing up, increasing variety and giving us access to many of the great west coast breweries, started to overwhelm the local beer buyers. It is nice to always see new beers on the shelf to choose from, but at some point some of the favorites started to go away. With the competition for shelf space and consumer's fridge space, most breweries started sending only one or two varieties. An example is the Avery ESB. A very good beer that I was buying for a while until it disappeared from the shelves. (I saw it again about a month ago at a local beer store, and I did buy a sixer of it.) That is when I first noticed the problem. Beers were coming in at such a high speed that beers were being pushed out just as fast. For many beers, that was just fine because a lot of craft beers really aren't that great, but there were also some casualties that shouldn't have gone away. And there are beers that never made it because of the crowded market (Schlafly No. 15, I am thinking of you).

So while the Boulevard announcement is not too surprising, it is a little disappointing that a brewery, and a quality long-standing one at that, is giving up on us. Admittedly, I haven't drank much Boulevard since it first came to town at the beginning of the big craft beer Tennessee movement, but I did enjoy what I drank.

I guess the moral of the story is to consistently buy the beer you like so it doesn't go away. Or just start homebrewing and don't worry about it.

Brewing has resumed

This past weekend I managed to pull my stuff together and jump back on the horse. I live in a new home, so my homebrew process needed figuring out. At the old brewery on West Linden, I brewed on the front porch, using the change in elevation to help with the process. At my new place, the setup is different. The optimal place to brew doesn't have stairs. What it does have, however, is better lighting, a roof from the elements, and much more space. None of the brewing process will need to take place in the kitchen (except the drinking part), and I am no longer limited to daytime, fair-weather brewing. (Truth be told, I have brewed in the dark and in the rain, but it was enough of a pain that I did try to avoid it.)

So when it came to designing my new brewery, the main question was whether to stick with the gravity method of fluid transfer or step up to using wort pumps and such. When it came down to it, the decision came to what I was willing to spend, and a wort pump was just not yet worth the price of admission. So gravity it is. So then it came to figuring out a structure which would allow versatility and ease of process. There are a few commercially available homebrew targeted brewing structures, but, again, they can be expensive. So I decided to build one.

What I came up with is a table that uses sawhorses as legs, and then another smaller table to provide a third level. So this is my new brewery:


With one batch brewed, I am feeling pretty good about it. The only part that is slightly tough is lifting the hot sparge water to the top level. But for 5-gallon batches, it is never too terribly much water. If I ever moved to larger batches, then I will more likely move to a different system anyway.

Cheers.

A Lull

I am having a bit of a pause in my brewing, but only for a month or so. I am moving in the next few days, which means a few different things as far as my brewing is concerned. 1. My brewing has paused, as I have mentioned, in order to move more easily (brewing will probably resume in a week or so). 2. West L.A.B. will be no more (I won't be living on West Linden Ave. anymore) . 3. I hope to increase my production some. I will have much more space for both brewing and storage. I am working on upping my refrigeration capacity, so if anyone has a source for good, cheap refrigeration appliances, let me know.

Earlier this month, I did a friend a favor and brewed two batches of beer for his grand opening party. I brewed a Chocolate Milk Stout (using chocolate nubs from Scott at the Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company ) and my typical Special Bitter. The bitter tasted about like usual, but maybe a little lighter. I think that was due to using a different source for my Maris Otter base malt. The Chocolate Milk Stout was pretty phenomenal, if I do say so myself. I look forward to brewing that one again, hopefully sooner than later.

With that event taking up my kegs, I am pretty light on beer right now. I did brew a standard bitter before the party, though, so I wouldn't be completely dry. It is based off of my Special Bitter, but is attempt at a more session-able beer. I like the results, but I am not satisfied with them. That recipe will require some tweaking. So that's what I currently have.

On another note, one of the beer blogs I read regularly is by a fellow named Ron Pattinson, who is a beer historian and tends to write alot about beer history and old beer recipes and beer numbers and many things that are often dry, but he tends to give an entertaining slant. Ron also posts (usually-) weekly recipes from the early days of European (and mainly British) brewing. There also happens to be a brewery up in Massachusetts called Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. These two came together to re-produce (as in produce again) a beer based back in 1832.

The beer is called a Mild Ale. It is not a dark-colored mild that most people know a mild to be today. This is a caramel/amber colored beer that really tastes more like an imperial ESB (if that makes any sense ). Well, I managed to get a hold of a couple of bottles of the beer through a friend coming to Nashville from Mass. a few weeks ago. Tonight I finally opened the first of the two, and it was very interesting and quite enjoyable. I plan to hold onto the other bottle for a while to see what aging does to it. I also intend to track down a homebrew-quantity version of the recipe and attempt brewing it myself. Well worth learning some brewing tips from the early 19th century.

Cheers!

Teaser and Short Update

This is a teaser for one of my next beers. I'm brewing for a friend's bike shop grand opening. Should be a good beer.

In the last month or so, I have brewed a dry-hopped pale ale and I have kegged my backyard bock. The pale ale is very good and the bock is decent. It is a little sweet, but I can definitely taste the difference made by lager yeast instead of ale yeast. I am glad that I don't require cold weather to make my ales.

Cheers.

Lager, etc.

This week I started my first foray into lagering. I brewed a bock-inspired recipe on Wednesday night and pitched some lager yeast. I also turned the heat down in my house to help out the cause. (I have a laundry/utility room in the back of my house that tends to be about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of my house... That room seems to be about 50 degrees right now...) Once primary fermentation appears to have settled, I plan to move the secondary out to a shed behind the house to take advantage of the seasonal cool weather for a few weeks of lagering.

This is a new thing for me. With ales, I know how to tell when the primary fermentation is finished based on the appearance and activity of the yeast (ale yeast is top-fermenting - so the yeast dropping to the bottom is a good indicator). Lager yeast, however, is bottom-fermenting (or so they say). So I am in the process of learning something new. Really hoping that 1) the weather cooperates and 2) the beer is good.

Also, as an update, I am currently serving/drinking the "small" extra stout from my Christmas day brewing, and quite enjoying it. I call it "extra" stout because it is super dark tasting with a very dark/toasty lingering aftertaste. It is certainly an interesting beer to drink. I call it "small" because it was brewed from the second runnings of my imperial stout mash. That imperial stout is still in the fermenter just chilling out. One of these days I will bottle that one, and I look forward to the opportunity to try it. Considering how dark and tasty the small beer is, I think the imperial will be pretty remarkable. That one had an initial gravity of 1.118, which means it could conceivably reach an alcohol content of around 12%. Crazy. It should only improve with time. I intend to bottle the imperial stout sometime around the end of this month.

Cheers.

Kegging

A good friend of mine, known to many as The Mannondale, has lately started brewing his own beer. He is on the accelerated homebrewer program. In the month he has been brewing, he has brewed maybe 6 batches of varying strength and variety. I have yet to try any of his beer (since he lives 2 southern states away), but considering his increased interest and the quality of the ingredients he is using, I have no doubt that the quality of his product is top-notch. Another aspect of his brewing for which he can be considered an over-achiever is that he has already acquired a kegerator and is planning to keg his first batch tonight. This post is essentially a primer for how I keg and carbonate my beers so he has somewhere to work from when figuring out his process.

What you need to keg your homebrew:

• A 5-gallon soda keg
• An auto-siphon
• Sanitizer solution
• keg lube
• co2

Kegging

The process is super quick and simple. Essentially, it is the same as racking to secondary, but you are racking to the keg. Your keg needs to be clean. Then your keg needs to be sanitized by pouring in some sanitizer solution, re-fitting top, and shaking the keg for a a few seconds. I usually then let it sit while I take a sample of my beer to check the final gravity. Then, simply pour the sanitizer water back into your sanitizer bucket. Go ahead and drop the top in the sanitizer water, too. (But I usually keep my rubber o-ring out of the solution.) Using a sanitized auto-siphon, transfer the beer to the keg. Then lube the o-ring with a fresh coat of keg lube, place on the top, and secure the top on the keg.

Purging

With your beer in the keg, the next important thing (for beer quality) is to purge the oxygen immediately. To do this, simply hook the co2 up to the "in" connector on the keg and turn on some gas. You will hear the gas fill the empty space in the keg. When the keg is up to pressure, simply let the gasses escape by opening the pressure relief valve on the top of the keg. Repeat this several times to be confident that the oxygen has been evacuated.

Carbonating

It is generally accepted that beer carbonates more successfully when chilled. So at this point, I typically put the keg, while still connected to the co2, into the fridge to chill overnight.

(Fast forward to the next day)

Now that your keg of beer is chilled, you have a couple options for carbonating.

1. Slow Carbonation - If you just hook up your beer to the gas and let it sit for a few days, then your beer will eventually carbonate. This can take different lengths of time, depending on your co2 pressure. I have had this take a week to fully carbonate in this manner. These days I want my beer faster, so I no longer use this option.
2. Fast carbonation - For this method, I will jack up the pressure to 20-30 psi and actively work at the carbonation over the course of 20-30 minutes. You can either lay the keg down on its side and rock the keg back and forth or plug the co2 into the "out" connector (if using ball locks) and keep the keg upright (but still gently rocking it back and forth). Keep going as long as you hear the bubbling of co2 entering the keg. After maybe 20 minutes of this or when the bubbles are much less pronounced, then I call it done.

At this point, your beer should be ready to serve. Turn your gas down to your desired pressure (around 8-9psi for me - i prefer lighter carbonation) and pull yourself a beer. You may find that the pressure settles in over the course of a few days.

That's all there is to it. Beats bottling any day (Though I do still find reason to bottle the occasional special beer).

Cheers.