Brewing a Lambic

I’m not planning on doing a lambic just yet, but I stumbled upon this site and decided to link to it for later use.

The lambic style is defined by its locational ties (Payottenland), and its spontaneous fermentation by wild yeast and bacteria. It uses aged hops ( 2-5 years), and there are now places to get yeast starters that don’t require you to culture all the necessary bacteria & yeast. Whew!

It should be noted that if you were to brew a lambic, it would be called a lambic-style, or plambic (pseudo-lambic).

Miller High Life turns 100

The beer I grew up around just turned 100 years of age. Miller High Life is what my dad drank in Wyoming. After finishing a case, it was traditional to take all the clear empties back to the store to reclaim the deposit. The uniquely shaped bottles still carry the signature shape, though I imagine sales of cans has far outweighed bottles lately.

My dad started drinking micro brews after moving to Washington, though he insists Miller High Life was better when he drank it back in the day. No one else seems to think so.

I have no affinity for the beer, or its previous or current owners, but I’m quite impressed that they could make a product that has stayed the same for so long. That’s quite a feat.

Copper Creek Brewers Guild

My dad has joined a home brewing guild up at Holden Village. The Guild consists of maybe 10-15 amateur brewers who brew from kits from Northern Brewer. The Guild seems to be quite active, though I’m not sure about what materials and equipment they have at their disposal.

My dad’s first beer was a Nut Brown. It turned out better than my first batch, but was still a little green at the time I tried it. The guild members seem to do a good job because they pit their own beers against some micros in a blind taste-test, and prefered the guild beer over the micros.

Now one of the guild members has asked me to find a clone recipe for a Dutch beer, Texelse. No luck as of yet, and I can’t even seem to find a way to translate the page for any useful information. If you know dutch, or happen to know a clone recipe for one of their ales, please let me know.

Grant's Public Offering

Family from Yakima brought news of this for Thanksgiving. Yakima Brewing and Malting is going to make a public offering for its Mandarin Hefeweisen, which is its newest and best seller.

This seems in stark contrast to the former owner and namesake Bert Grant’s possessive nature. I may be pessimistic here, but it give me the feeling of a Red Hook or Widmer type business deal. Its not to say that they don’t make good beers (they do, mostly), but their production is dominated by a single, bland beer. I suppose this is good for them, and provides the economic backing for bigger and better things, but a certain AB owns large percentages of each company. That certain AB company, though tireless in their pursuit of quality control, seems to be more interested in market share than damn fine products.

Time will tell. I wish Grant’s the best; Their cask Scottish is amazing, and the pub is one of the few remaining pieces of architecture in Yakima that has been emptied and moved to the sucker-fish of a city called Union Gap.

Persuasion Pale 2

Tapping Persuasion Pale number 2 today. It was popular with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, so IÂ’ve made it to serve on Thanksgiving. IÂ’ve not tried it carbonated yet, but the warm beer had a very nice citrus boquet, with an almost SNPA taste. Lets hope its as good as the first batch, or my ass is grass. Well, not really.

Moldy Beer

Moldy Keg of IPA

I’ve got a carboy on the floor full of a neglected beer. Its developed a slight cap of mold on the top, but it still seems to taste good, and its at its target gravity. Is this mold a bad sign?

It was in Primary for 2-3 weeks, and Secondary for another 3. I’m not sure whether I should keg it, toss it, or bottle a couple. What’s the worst that could happen? A case of the skitters?

What would you do? Its an IPA. With a pretty high IBU. I guess I’ll just have to clean and sanitize all my vessels again.

Bald Guy Brown

Took a spent keg of Bald Guy Brown back to New Old Lompoc on Friday and decided to stay for dinner. The drive down was horrific – one and a half hours of traffic. The brewer, who had lent me the proper fittings for a Golden Gate keg was there. I returned the parts and he informed me that I had the last of the Bald Guy Brown. He wasn’t brewing it anymore because no one buys it. Its a shame because its the best Brown I’ve had.

Dinner was great, as were the beers. They’re going to be opening another location in SE Portland called the something shed. I can’t remember, but its supposed to be a dog friendly place with beer & wine. Sounds great.