Concordia Zoo

Concordia Ale House is still my favorite haunt, but damn are there a lot of kids there. The last couple times we’ve been (earlier than before Ella), there have been a number of 30ish parents with kinder in tow, and while it doesn’t bother me, it seems like it is changing the atmosphere of the place. Plus, it seems like it’s even more stressful for the wait-staff than your typical leering male clientele.

I’m being quite hypocritical myself – We’ve now taken Ella there a dozen times, but she’s quiet and may as well be a beer gut while she sleeps in the sling. That’s going to change though, and I hope we don’t ruin one of the best watering holes in Portland.

chip clip

I dropped a chip clip into a keg while siphoning my fresh hop beer. The clip was holding the racking cane and slipped off the tube, falling directly into the small mouth of the keg. The break in the foam was almost a perfect outline of the chip clip. I hope it doesn’t ruin the beer – it’s quite good.

Squash; My wife. Again.

With Michelle’s help, I brewed another batch of Squash; My Wife, Spiced Ale. This time I only used sweet meat squash and had to skip fresh ground ginger for the dried variety. Also, I steeped half the squash for 45 minutes with the grain, and boiled the other half. The O.G. was 1.054 and the taste is delightful. Here’s the recipe:

Grain bill:

  • 7 lbs LME
  • 1 lbs domestic 2-row
  • 0.5 lbs Crystal 80L
  • 0.5 lbs Crystal 40L

Hops:

  • 2 oz Vanguard @ 60 min. (4.4% aa)
  • 2 oz Vanguard @ 10 min.

Misc:

  • Fermentis Safale S-04 dry yeast (with 1 liter starter)
  • 10 lbs sweet meat squash, cubed and baked
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp allspice
  • 1 Tbsp fresh ground nutmeg
  • 1 Tbsp dried ginger

Michelle cubed and baked all the squash and prepped spices, and since she enjoys the spice addition, we may add more to secondary if the flavors mellow when racking. So far it tastes great. I tried the steeped and boiled squash and both were bland and stringy – a good sign that the fermentable sugar and flavor had been extracted.

Scott's all grain dubbel

Sunday I “helped” Scott brew an all grain batch of a Belgian dubbel. I’ve never brewed all-grain before, and he’s only done it with the assistance of an experienced brewer, so it was uncharted territory. The wort came out around 1.075 and the taste and color seemed to be right now. Now it’s just a matter of waiting. Speaking of waiting – it takes a long time to do an all-grain batch.

Drinking with BAs

Some enterprising BeerAdvocate members put together a Portland meet up this last Saturday starting at Concordia Ale House, then moving to a fellow member’s beer mecca. I joined briefly at Concordia to meet some of the other BAs from the community (and have some delicious beer) and had a good time. It was interesting to see the degree to which many BAs agree on some beers, and disagree on others.

There was some confusion over the tab, which happens with large groups. I think I dropped $12 on 2 pints of local craft. 90% tip! woohoo!

Fresh Hop Beer

A huge thanks to Joe and Lindsay for snagging some fresh hops for me while at hop madness this year. They brought me 3 bags and a small tub of Willamette and Crystal hops.

Yesterday I picked the remaining hops (which were about to lose their “fresh” status) and brewed up a low gravity pale. Because of the ingredients (a mix of stuff lying around, borrowed stuff, and wet hops), an exact, replicable recipe is impossible, but here’s the gist:

Picking fresh hops

Grain bill:

  • 4.5 lbs LME
  • 2 lbs organic 2-row

Hops:

  • 2 oz fresh Willamette @ 60 min. (4.5% aa)
  • 8.5 oz fresh Willamette @ 10 min. (4.5% aa)
  • 13 oz fresh Willamette @ 5 min.
  • 11 oz Crystal @ 2 min. (5.7% aa)

Misc:

  • Fermentis us-58 dry yeast (lazily pitched into cooled wort)
  • Irish Moss

Yup – that’s 34 ounces of fresh hops – almost all under 10 minutes. The kettle got rather difficult to stir by that point, but I made sure to turn the hops into the boil to extract their precious lupalin.

Fresh hops in the boil

After the boil, I had some trouble cooling the wort efficiently – even with an immersion wort chiller – because the hops were holding so much of the wort. Because of the heat (I’m guessing), one of my chiller fittings had loosened up enough to let some tap water in to the kettle. I stopped it early before it turned the beer into hop tea.

The last part of the brew included slinging around my week-old daughter. She slept through it, but I’m still giving her assistant brewer credits.

Ella the assistant brewer

I racked the wort into a poly fermenter to try it out again. I also failed to make a started so I sprinkled dry Fermentis yeast (it says you can do it on the packet) onto the wort. Krausen isn’t exactly rapid, but I think there’s a leak in the bucket around the airlock letting CO2 out. I suspect this because the corner of the kitchen with the bucket smells absolutely fantastic.

Michella IPA #1 tapped, Michella #2 racked

Upon Michelle’s insistance, I kegged and tapped Michella IPA #1, despite knowing it wasn’t any good. She had 2 sips before putting down the glass permanently. Maybe Barley will want some. Michelle thinks it tastes like line cleaner, I think it tastes sour from sitting on the hop-pellet laden trub too long. Either way, it’s no good.

I racked Michella #2 as well, and it’s much better. It should be ready for consumption next week.