Small updates

I’ve made a few minor changes to the site, and will be making more over the next couple weeks. Most will be invisible as they are mostly changes to the underlying code. Others, like the News Archive section on the right now include links to categories and all listings instead of by-month archives.

I’ve also added a creative commons license to the site, which now replaces the copyright at the bottom and allows you to use anything on the site like the recipes (thanks to Vores Ol for the idea) but not for your personal financial gain. Not that my recipes scale to brewery size, but more as a way of sharing with the community.

Calculate IBU using Glenn Tinseth's Formula

I added a second IBU calculator that uses Glenn Tinseth’s formula. One of the advantages of his method is that it is supposedly superior for full-wort boils. With a 10 gallon kettle, I’ve been doing full wort boils for some time, but my IBU numbers have been a little wacky, a little excessive. This should help things out.

The one thing I’m uncertain about is the utilization difference between whole hops and pellets. I accounted for the difference the Rager calculator. I’ve written Glenn Tinseth himself and hope he’s willing to shed some light. He knows much more about hops that I ever will.

Free as in beer

Moira directed me to a story about a group of Danes that have released their beer Vores Ol recipe under the Creative Commons License. Its a great idea and I must admit I considered using it for my regular postings but not the recipes.

Now I’m tempted to follow suit with my recipes. I’m not sure if it would matter, but its more of a philosophy thing anyway. Sticking it to the man, so to speak, which is one of the founding tenants of home brewing.

QBrew update missed

I totally missed the QBrew update from 0.3.3 to 0.3.4, but I’m hoping to make amends by posting a link to the update now. I love the program and use it for all my brews, including most of those in the recipe section.

I’ll have to try out the Mac version when I get home. I recently broke the QT installation on my desktop and have to rely on my laptop for recipes.

When Brewers and critics disagree

The Northwest forum at BeerAdvocate.com has had some really interesting discussion surrounding some reviews and hurt feelings with a local drinker and brewer:

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read.php?thread=408509

I know the reviewer and think highly of his opinions, so I’m fairly surprised by all this. But not as shocked as when the brewer responded directly.

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read.php?thread=410603

I’m not really sure what the deal is, but it doesn’t really make me want to visit the guy’s place.

The Hop Bomb drops

My christmas gift from my father-in-law included a box full of hops. A mix of pellets, and whole cones too. I’m a little overwhelmed, and for the night I couldn’t really focus on what we were doing. All I could think about were recipes. Here’s why:

Whole cones:

  • Galena – 13.2% α
  • UK East Kent Goldings – 6.4% α (freshly imported)
  • Santiam – 6.8% α
  • Crystal – 3.9% α
  • Vanguard – 4.4% α
  • Nugget – 13.2% α

and for Pellets:

  • Cascades – 5.7% α
  • US Fuggle – 3.7% α
  • Simcoe – 12.1% α
  • Chinooks – 12.2% α
  • Centennial – 10.0% α
  • Palisades – 9.7% α

There are a couple I’ve never heard of, and one in particular makes me nervous. The Palisades are supposedly a new variety that could replace Willamettes. Willamettes are one of the most widely grown varieties here in the, uh, Willamette Valley, and the Palisade has a higher alpha acid content and a higher productivity, which could seriously hurt hop growers. Its one of those cases where the green revolution has surpassed its benefit to a large number of people and concentrated the benefit for one or two folks. You know who I’m talking about. The king of beers.

Regardless, I’m pretty damn excited because many of these hops will be very useful in expanding the variety of beer styles I can brew. I know Crystal and Galena to be favorites of Rogue, and there are several noble-style hops that rarely use.

Oddly enough – my coffee has taken on a distinctive hop flavor. Maybe I should move this box somewhere else.

Expat Returns

Tuesday night I met with Rich aka GreenCard, aka Project: Expatriated for a couple beers at my local. He’s been living in England for the last few months, and in Belgium for the year before that.

Beerwise and otherwise, it sounds like he enjoyed Belgium quite a bit more. Considering his stories of visiting farmhouse style breweries in the countryside, its hard not to. The beucolic scene of this old country brewing is really enchanting, not to mention the unique contribution it makes to the beer world.

We swapped some homebrew, including a barleywine that he brewed before moving to Belgium that has been aging all the while. I cracked one and it was delicious. Flavors of port, raisin and even orange peel mixed with the slightly spicey and generous body for a really excellent effect. I doubt the IPA I gave him will be nearly as good.

Vegetarian Beer

Not content with blissful ignorance about beer’s origins, Geraint Bevan has started a list of beers he knows to be vegetarian, or in some cases, vegan friendly.

What? Aren’t all beers vegetarian? Well, no. Some animal byproducts such as isinglass are used for clarity. Isinglass is a derivative of gelatin, a protein most often collected from pig or cattle hide or bone. In beer, most isinglass comes from fish swim bladders. As such, they aren’t fit for vegetarians.

An alternative to isinglass is Irish moss, which is dried seaweed. It seems a no-brainer, but there are probably reasons people prefer to use isinglass, including custom.

When I brew, I use Irish moss, so my veggie friends need not worry. Even that beer that ended up tasting like over-salted pork contained no animal products. It was just an overdose of sanitizing solution.

thanks to Al for the link.

Bridgeport closing for 10 months

It appears that Bridgeport’s brew pub will be closing for 10 months for renovation. Holy crap that’s a long time to go without cask IPA, Caesar salad and roasted garlic pizza.

“The project calls for major changes, including the creation of an on-site bakery, with freshly prepared breakfast pastries, espresso drinks and express lunch service. The bakery will act as the daily wholesaler for all of the breads, rolls and pastries offered at the pub and its sister restaurant, the BridgePort Ale House on Hawthorne Boulevard.”

Pastries and espresso? I figured they were making it bigger because its crowded with newbies lately, and the new wait to be seated model sucks. At least they’re adding a rooftop bar. Should I be worried about that? They had a Streetcar Saison to mark the introduction of the streetcars, an Rope-themed amber to celebrate their residence in an old rope factory, but will they create a Rooftop Brew to celebrate the new bar? I’d better speak to my wife lawyer.