In the cellar

Time has been short lately and with the prospect of moving, I scrounged in to my cellar and chilled an Imperial IPA that I brewed many moons ago. It was the last of the Yakistan Imperial IPAs. I’m pleased to say that:

  • Whoa!
  • There’s not much hopiness left, but…
  • damn.
  • the beer exhibits all the qualities I enjoy in a robust IIPIA – bitter, warm, malty, and, for lack of a better word, robusto.

You have to roll your R’s when you say that though. Really, I’m quite impressed with how it aged. Enough sugar, enough time, and I assume, the perfect cellaring conditions. Thank god we don’t have to move them though.

Lagering

I racked the pilsner that Joe & I brewed to the lagering vessel tonight. To avoid oxidization, I filled the carboy with CO2 first, then pushed the beer from secondary to the lagering carboy using CO2 as well. Seemed to work alright, though it’s sad to see only 4 gallons of the initial 5 make it this far. Maybe if I had dry hopped it in primary instead of secondary, we’d have both a clearer beer and a tad more available for labor day.

So I guess the lesson I learned from this batch was not to dry hop a lager with loose leaf hops. Pellets would have at least settled out.

Luckily, the beer tasted nice and had a nice color, though the turbidity was a little high. Hopefully a month or so lagering will solve some of that.

On the home front, we’ll be moving to NoPo to a place that has both an ideal garage and an ideal basement for brewing. Just have to choose. Given the lack of good pubs in the area, I may need to brew more.

Spill

Last time I was up north in Bellingham, I picked up a few bottles of the local IPAs and splurged on a bottle of Pike’s Old Bawdy 2006 (a barleywine). Last night I cracked the bottle open, poured it in to a glass, took a tiny sip, then set it behind me, out of range of my daughter’s grabby hands. A few seconds later, while filming her new mobility, I backed up and knocked the whole glass over. You can even tell the precise moment because you can hear me say start to curse, but stop myself in the film.

There was another tiny sip left in the glass, but it was otherwise a tragedy. Barley (the dog) spent the next several minutes licking the site of the spill (after we toweled it up), so I suppose it wasn’t a loss for everyone.

Finally, a brew day

Scott, Joe and I were going to do a big brew day, but Scott had to go and get a job. However, Joe and my time constraints forced us to carry on and still brew today. We snagged Scott’s all grain gear, my kettle, and Joe’s new Zapap lautering setup and proceeded to brew a 10 gallon batch of ale that was split in to a Pale (or IPA… we’ll see) and an ESB, and a pilsner. I’d brewed with Scott doing some all grain, but didn’t know the specifics of what was going on, but luckily Joe, well, let’s just say he knows what he’s doing. Something about a formal brewing education…

Anyway, running two simultaneous all-grain batches wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The beers were all racked nicely, and all finished in the 1.050 – 1.060 range with few problems. There was something satisfying about brewing 15 gallons of beer, too.

The pale ale and ESB share the same base. We brewed 10 gallons of this basic recipe:

Grain

  • 18 lbs domestic 2-row
  • 2 lbs Crystal 40L
  • 1 lbs Munich

Hops

  • 1 oz Palisades (9.7% aa) @ 60
  • 1 oz Chinook (12.5% aa) @ 60min
  • 0.9 oz Chinook (12.5% aa) @ 30 min
  • 2 oz Cascade (6.9% aa) @ 5 min

The pale will get dry hopped in secondary with Cascades. The ESB was alloyed with a tea we brewed using 3 oz of Crystal 60L and 2oz of Chocolate malt, and a small addition of hops

The pils was brewed with the following

Grain

  • 7 lbs of Pilsner malt
  • 2 lbs of domestic 2-row
  • 1 lbs of CaraPils

Hops

  • 2 oz Czech Saaz (3.3% aa) @ 60
  • 2 oz Czech Saaz (3.3% aa) @ 10
  • 2 oz Czech Saaz (3.3% aa) @ 5
  • 2 oz Czech Saaz (3.3% aa) @ dryhop

The pale and ESB were both pitched with an ale yeast from Joe’s place of work, and the Pils with a lager yeast. We already have krausen too.

Brewing all grain with Joe was slightly different than brewing with Scott. Scott knows his equipment, knows the process, and has his thermometer calibrated. Joe and I were a little more trial and error. However, this was our first unguided experience, so we both agreed that it would be largely a learning experience and we’d worry about some of the other details later. All throughout the process, Joe would point out things like “there are two schools of thought on this” and we’d quickly debate or simply default on a position before moving on to the next step. Style is largely formed on limitations.

A few lessons learned from this experience:

  1. Bazooka screens clog way to easily with pelletized hops
  2. Hand-milling 30 pounds of grain can take a while
  3. If mashing two separate batches, either mash them side-by-side, or bring two thermometers.
  4. Brewing on a lovely day is no better and no worse than doing anything else on a lovely day.
  5. 10 gallons of wort is, like, twice as heavy as five gallons. Lift with the knees.

New hops

This weekend I heard from a grower about 3 new hop varieties we’ll see in the next year or two. Sadly, the details were obscure, but it sounds like Sierra Nevada will be one of the first brewing with the “Bravo” hop. Another talked about the success of of their Summits, which are now being used in Widmer’s W’07. Quite tasty.

Coors wants it both ways

Coors is releasing new packaging and is going to be marketing its “Spirit and Unique Heritage.”

Am I the only person who thinks Coors would benefit the most by distancing itself from its past? They’ve only recently realized that by discriminating, they’re missing out on a potential market. And when they started advertising to black americans in 1985, it was more out of fear of a boycott than desire to include others in its heritage. Coors’ history is a record of letting bigotry get in the way of business.

I don’t even feel like I need to mention the beer.

Velvet

Michelle and I attended the Velvet Oatmeal Porter and Mountain Rescue Fundraise at Lucky Lab last night with some of the other folks in my Geography department. It was the first time we’d been to the Quimby beer hall, which has some charm to it, though the same poor accoustics of the other 2 pubs. We couldn’t really spend any time inside because it was so packed, and it took roughly 30 minutes to order a beer. The Oatmeal porter was ok, but I also got a pint of the Triple Threat IPA, which was quite good. Looks like a good collection of sandwiches too, but the wait was too long.