Notes on Photography

Of the few people who have read my blog, most have commented that the photos look great so I thought I would write a bit about the photography on the blog.

One of the food bloggers I really enjoy reading, Clotilde Dusoulier has excellent photography. I emailed her about a year ago complimenting her on her photos, and asking her how she got such natural lighting, and she was kind enough to reply. She places the food in a particular location in her house so that it receives natural light.

When I decided to start this blog, I decided that I would try to place great photos with each article since I think it really adds a lot to the posts. I have a Nikon D50 camera with a 18-55mm zoom lens which is capable of taking excellent photos if I do my part in setting up, so one morning after my 5th or 6th post I looked around the house for a nice place to photograph beer.

I tried several areas, with different surfaces and backgrounds, until I settled on using our dining room table. It has a beautiful dark finish and the wall behind it is a neutral tan color. That first session I took the picture of the Oktoberfest, which is my favorite photo so far. It was about 9:00 am, so after the photo, I had a swallow and then dumped the rest before heading off to work.

Thus the problem: I am always blogging after dark, since I usually taste the beer after my kids are in bed. So if I want to shoot the bottle with a full glass of beer, I either have to shoot it the next morning and dump the beer (NOoooooo!!) or I have to do my own lighting. I have tried a few different setups, none of them particularly pleasing. Some of them came out okay, but most were too yellow. I purchased a halogen work light, and put a florescent bulb in another work light. I suppress the flash on my camera which gives longer exposure, so I need to use a tripod.

A few nights ago I gave up. It was taking 15 -20 minutes to setup and take the shot, then tear down and put things away and that is no fun the 10th night in a row. So two of my favorite beers, the Viscosity and the Brandywine don't have a full glass in the photo since I waited until later to shoot them.

I resolved to come up with a simpler setup, and decided on what you see in the photo above. It is pretty much the same setup, only with a portable tripod that is much quicker to use. I also changed the light positions and focused the florescent light (which tends toward the blue/green portion of the light spectrum) directly on the bottles to offset some of the yellow. My final adjustment was to use the camera's timer so that my finger on the shutter doesn't move the camera and blur the shot.

With this new setup it only takes 5-10 minutes to set up and tear down, then I enjoy the beer and take my tasting notes and relax for the evening. The next morning I load the pictures onto my computer, crop and resize them with Adobe Imageready, and update the post and publish it.

Tasting: Port Brewing Old Viscosity

I want to participate in the blogger's session on barleywine on Feb 1st so I was looking at dark beers to get me in the spirit ahead of time. I was drawn to Old Viscosity by the brewery, and by the fact that the beer is aged in Bourbon barrels.

Tasting: Chilled to ~50 degrees (f) from a pint glass. After last nights tasting, I decided to chill my beer a bit more.

Appearance: 3/3 very dark with tan head.
Head: 2/3 1 finger head that thins quickly, but lasts on the edges until the bottom of the glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Chocolate/Coffee/Caramel and a bit of hops.
Flavor: 3/3 Subtle sweetness with touch of bourbon and smoke. Toasted oak and DARK chocolate. Amazing
Mouth feel: 3/3 Medium-heavy bodied, light carbonation, aftertaste of baker's chocolate.
Overall: 3/3 Another amazing beer from Port Brewing. It is scary how good their beer is.
Buzz:3/3 good buzz after 2/3 glass.

Tasting:Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale

When I first tasted this ale, I was confused. It did not taste much like an ale, more like a lager. After reading the blurb on the label, I see that it was "styled after the crisp golden Kolsch ales of Cologne, Germany"

Tasting: Chilled to ~55 degrees (f) from a pint glass (I should have chilled this to ~50), but I doubt it would make much of a difference.

Appearance: 3/3 very clear yellow.
Head: 2/3 light head that thins quickly.
Aroma: 2/3 Strong Malt aroma, some reviews I read after doing my tasting say grassy
Flavor: 1/3 Strong malt flavor.
Mouth feel: 2/3 High carbonation, light body, malty finish.
Overall: 2/3 This is a case of a mislabeled beer. It is pale, and it is an ale, but it is a Kolsch ale, which is completely different from an American Pale ale or a British Ale. I also don't think it matches up to the style guide very well. I may have to try another Kolsch beer to see if I just don't like the style.
Buzz: 2/3 Faint buzz after 1 glass.

I am coming to understand that I really prefer Ales to Lagers. With the exception of the Oktoberfest beer, I have enjoyed the Ales much more. I think this is because I prefer Hop and Yeast flavors to malt flavors.

I will read the entire label before drinking in the future, and try to find the ideal serving temperature and hit it more closely.

Tasting: Yebisu

Yebisu is brewed by Sapporo Breweries in Japan. My friend Jack suggested I give it a try after he saw it advertised at a Japanese Restaurant in Encinitas.

Tasting: Chilled to ~35 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 very clear yellow.
Head: 2/3 light head that thins quickly.
Aroma: 3/3 Mild malt aroma.
Flavor: 2/3 Faint malt and very faint hops.
Mouth feel: 3/3 Medium-high carbonation, light body, malty finish.
Overall: 2/3 This was a good beer, but nothing stood out, I think I prefer Kirin, but I will need to do a comparison someday.
Buzz: 2/3 mild buzz after 1 glass.

Tasting: Stone Pale Ale

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 beautiful amber color, very clear.
Head: 3/3 Nice head that lasts the whole glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Floral, mild malt aroma, very pleasant.
Flavor: 3/3 Faint malt and medium hops, sharp but not bitter.
Mouth feel: 3/3 Medium carbonation, medium-light body, pleasant flavor of hops linger.
Overall: 3/3 This beer is what I would like to achieve with our Pale Ale, with perhaps a bit less hop bitterness and a touch more fruity.
Buzz: 2/3 mild buzz after 1 glass.

Stone is the giant among our local breweries, and I have had this Pale Ale before and really enjoy it. I plan to visit their brewery sometime in the next few weeks.

Brew: Preparing a yeast starter

Preparing a starter is like brewing a single bottle of beer, with enough yeast to ferment a whole batch. It is especially important to keep everything sanitary since the starter may be saved for an extended period of time.

For my starter I used a packet of ale yeast, and a cup of dried light malt extract, a 1000cc flask,
a bung and an airlock.

Heat up 650cc of water until warm, then mix in 1 cup of dried light malt extract to create wort.

Boil wort for 5 minutes as you sanitize everything else.

Pour the water into the sanitized flask, cover with sanitized aluminum foil and then immerse the flask in water to cool to ~75 degrees (F).

Once cooled, pitch the yeast and seal with bung and airlock. Maintain proper temperature until fermentation is nearly complete if you are using it immediately otherwise remove the beer and refrigerate until needed.

For best results, add more (boiled and sanitary) wort to the yeast prior to pitching.

You will significantly increase the amount and health of the yeast in your fermenter which will speed fermentation and reduce the chances of contamination by other bacteria.

Visit: Pizza Port Carlsbad

My wife and I had a few hours without the kids last night so we went to Pizza Port, rated the best small brewery in the US at the recent American Brew Festival. The pizza was great, I had a pint of the California Honey beer, which was very good. The problem is the place is so crowded (on a rainy Wednesday night) that my wife doesn't ever want to go back.

From an owners perspective, having standing room only, everyone with a pint in hand, is a good thing. I wouldn't expect them to change anything. How much money flows through that place each evening/week/month I wonder:

We paid $22 for a ceasar salad and a 3 topping medium pizza, plus 4.25 for the beer. The pizza was baked in a normal conveyor pizza oven, so I imagine the gross margin on it was 80%, and the margin on the beer must be at least 80%. Our only staff interaction was an order taker for 1 minute, a bartender for 1 minute, and a bus-boy for 15 seconds. Of the $27 we paid, I estimate that 21.50 was gross profit. If my wife had had a beer it would have been $25, or 12.50 per person.

The capacity was listed at 145, and I am sure that they were at capacity or above it. People appeared to be staying for ~1 hour which permits 3 turns easily since we arrived at 6:30 and left at 7:30 and the place was still crowded. During nice weather more people can fit comfortably since they have at least 40 seats outside. So 145*3*12.50 = 5437 per evening. Lunch should bring about 1/6 that (smaller portions, less alcohol, fewer turns), so roughly $1000. I saw 8 staff members, each probably paid ~ $12/hr (burdened cost), and working 12 hours per day, for a labor cost each day of $1150 (Excluding management). That makes for a daily gross margin after labor of $5400 on weekdays, probably $7600 on weekends, that is $42k per week in gross margin, or $182,000 per month, probably quite a bit more since I think my estimates were conservative.

Not too shabby.

Notes on Tasting

I started doing the tastings because I don't have nearly enough experience tasting different beers to provide a solid background on what I want to brew. My scores are based on how I like what I am tasting. This is different from how a certified judge would rate a beer, since they are required to judge to a standard.

I think once I taste more types of beer though I will come to regret my ratings since the final score is based on whether I like the style almost as much as whether I like the individual beer. Bur for now I will proceed as I started until I have a better sense of each style, and then I will probably change my evaluation to more closely match the way certified judges evaluate a beer.

With the exception of the Oktoberfest, I have only judged beers that are available in 16 - 22oz bottles for the following reasons:

1. I need 22oz bottles for my own batches, it is too much work, and requires too much shelf space to fill/condition/store 12 oz bottles.
2. I don't drink to get drunk, and 2 beers is the perfect number for an evening.
3. I don't want to drink 6 servings of beer I am tasting, my money goes a lot farther 22oz per flavor.

I may need to start buying 6-packs if I find styles that are not available as 16-22 oz bottles.

I find that my inexperience makes it difficult to adequately describe a beer, so I have started looking at the BCJP style guide to understand how best to describe the beer I am tasting.

Tasting: Fuller's London Pride Pale Ale

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 beautiful amber color, very clear.
Head: 3/3 Rich, frothy head that lasts the whole glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Faintly floral, fruity aroma, very pleasent.
Flavor: 2.5/3 Faint malt and light hops blend nicely with a mildly sweet, vanilla/fruit flavor.
Mouth feel: 3/3 Medium carbonation, medium body, pleasant flavor of hops with light malt linger.
Overall: 2.5/3 This beer is the closest I have had to our homebrew #1. It is a bit sweeter than I prefer, but a tasty, balanced beer.
Buzz: 2/3 mild buzz after 1 glass.

3rd Brew: Sage Ale

I thought of creating a Sage Beer when I first heard of the hops shortage. I also would like to create a beer that can be strongly identified with my home in San Diego county.

I found a recipe online and decided to try it. I don't expect it to taste good, but I am very curious how it does taste to see if it is something I can work with to create something more, or if it just skunky and nasty and horrible.

The recipe called for brown sugar but I substituted agave syrup (another regional ingredient).

Here is my adapted recipe:

16 grams of dried sage
1 lb of light english malt
1/3 lb of agave syrup.

Directions:

• Pick 3 handfuls of sage, dry in oven @ 100 degrees (F) then freeze until needed
• Boil 1/2 gallon of water in a pot at least 6 quarts in size
• After boil, turn off heat and add 1lb of light english malt
• add another gallon and bring to boil
• Add 8 grams of dried sage, and boil for 20 minutes
• Add 1/3 lb of Agave syrup, bring back to boil for 1 minute
• Add 8 grams of dried sage, Boil for 1 minute
• Cool by immersion in larger kettle (~20 min) to 80 degress (F)
• Siphon into 1 gallon jug
• Pitch 200cc of ale yeast prepared from starter, or 1 tube.
• Add water leaving enough space on the top of the jug to accommodate the krausen without overflowing

The whole brew required only 1 hour not including cleanup, I like the 1 gallon batch!!!

--Update--
I see from my page tracker that this entry is getting a lot of traffic so I will post an update here.

After bottling and conditioning I tasted this ale and it tasted baaaad. At first I thought it was just the sage, but I later brewed an english-style pale ale with that same yeast and found that beer to taste bad in a similar way.

Later this year (2008) I may tackle this recipe again with a good yeast to see how it tastes. If I do, I will post another update so you know.

Tasting: Moylan's Imperial Stout

Tasting: Chilled to 45~55 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 dark, rich color that poured like tar from the bottle.
Head: 3/3 Thick, dark head that lasts the whole glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Great, very toasted malt aroma, on the edge of burnt, hints of chocolate and coffee.
Flavor: 2/3 Rich, toasted malt flavor, hoppy, the sweetness is masked by the malt and hops.
Mouth feel: 2/3 thick body, toasted flavor lingers, with hops and toasted malt lingering.
Overall: 2/3 This beer was a little too rough for me.
Buzz: 3/3 buzz after 1/2 glass.

My wife likes dark, hoppy beers so when I got my beer styles poster and saw the gravity and IBU, I wanted to get an Imperial Stout for her. She liked it, but it is not my style. I would like to taste one of these from a different brewery, maybe I just don't like Imperial Stouts.

Tasting: Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 dark, rich color, can't see through the glass.
Head: 2/3 Nice light head that lasts half the glass.
Aroma: 3/3 Amazing toasted malt aroma. I don't go crazy over coffee or chocolate aromas in my beer, this had none of that.
Flavor: 3/3 Very mild toasted malt flavor, subtly sweet, incredibly balanced as no single flavor stood out.
Mouth feel: 3/3 medium bodied, light fizz, very light sweetness lingers, very clean finish.
Overall: 3/3 I can't imagine how this beer could be better.
Buzz: 3/3 mellow buzz after 2/3 glass.

I was apprehensive on this beer since I did not enjoy the Samuel Smith lager I had a month or so ago. But this beer was really great.

Tasting: Eric and Brad's First Brew (Pale Ale)

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 2/3 light amber color, minor haze.
Head: 3/3 Nice light head that lasts the whole glass.
Aroma: 2/3 Very pleasant fruity aroma (from the yeast), and hops. The yeast aroma, while pleasant, is stronger than it should be, probably caused by using one fermenter.
Flavor: 2/3 Mild fruit and hops pleasant, but a bit sweeter than ideal.
Mouth feel: 3/3 full bodied, light fizz, very mild hop flavor lingers.
Overall: 2/3 a great first brew, and very encouraging.
Buzz: 3/3 nice buzz after 1 glass.

I plan to replicate this recipe in one of our first all-grain brews, we will try to mash in at a moderately low temperature to reduce the sweetness. We will also use a secondary fermenter to reduce the influence of the yeast. It was good, but a bit out of balance. The hops were very balanced and we won't change that part of the recipe.

Tasting: Prime Max (by Hite)

I picked this up in a Korean grocery store in Orange County. It is brewed by Hite and imported from Korea. The label caught my eye with "all malt and fine cascade hops"

Tasting: Chilled to 40~50 degrees (f) from a pint glass (I should have chilled it more).

Appearance: 3/3 crystal clear light lager color.
Head: 2/3 Small head disappears quickly.
Aroma: 2/3 Very light malt, no discernible hops.
Flavor: 3/3 Very balanced lager, great taste.
Mouth feel: 3/3 medium bodied, light fizz, slight malt lingers.
Overall: 2/3 a good lager for the price ($1.99/22oz), a great session beer.
Buzz: 1/3 slight buzz after 2 glasses.

I was really impressed by this beer. It delivered on the label although I expected a bit more hops in the aroma, it was a solid beer.

Tasting: Full Sail Wreck the Halls

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 dark, rich red.
Head: 2/3 Two fingers of medium sized bubbles.
Aroma: 3/3 Hoppy!
Flavor: 2/3 Strong hop flavor, a nice bite.
Mouth feel: 3/3 medium bodied, light fizz with hoppy aftertaste.
Overall: 2/3 a good beer, more hoppy than I normally drink but balanced and tasty.
Buzz: 3/3 pleasant buzz after a pint.

Tasting: Belhaven Scottish Ale

Imported from Scotland, a 16 oz bottle

Tasting: Chilled to 50~60 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 dark reddish, you can barely see the tiny bubbles rising to the top.
Head: 3/3 Three fingers of light effervescence.
Aroma: 3/3 delightful blend of mild hops and malt.
Flavor: 3/3 A very nice blend of mild hops and malts, mellow, smooth, subtly nutty.
Mouth feel: 3/3 a great smooth feel, light carbonation, clean finish with a pleasant bitterness leaving you wanting more.
Overall: 3/3 Wow, I really liked this. It is going on the list of things I want to brew.
Buzz: 3/3 pleasant buzz after half-a-pint.

Second Brew: Belgian Tripel

On our second brew we made several changes from our first;

• We wanted to do a full-wort boil to see if the pot could hold it
  
• We took an original gravity reading
• We are going to use a heater for the primary fermentation period
• We plan to rack to a secondary fermenter
  

On the full-wort boil, I neglected to factor in the volume that the extract would add to the wort, so our 8 gallon brew pot was filled to 6.75 gallons and when we added the bittering hops it boiled over. We didn't lose too much since I expected it to foam up and was ready to cut the heat.

Because of the excess volume and the boilover, I was especially keen to determine the original gravity, thinking that we could boil off the excess (since I didn't know how much was in the pot for sure, and I didn't want to overfill the fermenter) I forgot that original gravity should be read at 60 degrees (f) and our reading was ~1.058 which was 0.015 too low. The problem was, I had already added the aroma hops. So we boiled for another 15 minutes or so until I realized that my reading was worthless since the reading was taken using wort at ~180 degrees (f) and we stopped the boil. We cooled the wort with Brad's new 25 ft chiller, and took another reading, this time it came to 1.078, and moved the wort to the fermenter and pitched the yeast. We ended up having to add 1.5 quarts of water.

I neglected to take another OG reading after adding the water, but we can figure it out approximately based on the water added.

Lessons learned: Include all components when determining how much water to use;
Mark off a spoon so you can to know how much wort is the the pot,
Don't add the aroma hops until you are SURE that you are done boiling.
Take your gravity reading after adding water to the fermenter.

Recipe:
Specialty Grains

* 0.5 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils

Fermentables

* 9.15 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
* 1 lbs. Clear Belgian Candi Sugar

Boil Additions

* 1 oz. Styrian Aurora (60 min) - reduced to ~3/4 oz since we did a full wort boil.
* 1 oz. Saaz (15 min) - It should have been 1 min but...

In addition to the above changes, we also needed to heat the fermenter due to the low night temperatures here in San Diego right now. I purchased a Kenwood oil-filled radiant heater at Home Depot for $26.00 and we are using a remote temperature sensor placed next to the carboy (similar this one from Oregon Scientific) to keep tabs on it. 2 days in and it seems to be working well, the temperature stays between 71 and 72 degrees (f) even though the nighttime temps in Brad's garage are probably down to 55. The carboy sits under the stairs and we used some blankets to section it off from the rest of the garage and to retain the heat in that space.

Tasting: Orion Premium Draft Beer

One of our friends is from Okinawa and they brought a local beer for us on New Years. Orion is "the" local beer of Okinawa, and is imported (as opposed to being brewed in the US like Kirin).

Tasting: From a small 5oz glass typical of Asian Restaurants.
Appearance: 1/3 VERY light color.
Aroma: 1/3 Very light malt, no discernible hops.
Flavor: 1/3 I don't know whether this should be classified as a light beer, but it tasted very light.
Mouthfeel: 2/3 Smooth, light mouthfeel
Aftertaste: 2/3 Light fiz, then a light malt finish that lingers.
Overall: 1.5/3 Better than the big 3 US lagers, but not great. I would not be surprised to find there are high concentrations of rice or corn extract.

Tasting: Kirin Light

Last night my friend Jack and I had sushi and the only beer they had on offer that I hadn't had yet was Kirin Light. Kirin is brewed "under the supervision of" their brew masters by Anheuser Bush in Los Angeles.

Tasting: From a small 5oz glass typical of Asian Restaurants.

Appearance: 3/3 light coloring appropriate of a light lager.
Aroma: 1/3 Nothing special.
Flavor: 2/3 This beer reminded me of Miller Light (which is not bad for a light beer, but not great).
Mouth feel: 2/3 Very carbonated.
Overall: 2/3 A decent light beer.
Buzz: 1/3 None whatsoever after two 12oz bottles.

All-grain brewing demo

Today Hydrobrew put on an all-grain brewing demonstration. The recipe was a chocolate stout, I didn't take enough notes to repeat the recipe, but the brewmaster said he expected an abv of 7% or so.

The brewery was 3 kegs, with a sightglass on the hot liquor tank, a Mash/Lauter Tun with a bazooka-style false bottom, and a keg with a 1/2" ball valve as the brew kettle. The stand was a 10 ft pole with each keg circling downward, all with burners and a quick-connect gas line.

I am still building up my brewery. I have a 32qt brew kettle that works great for extract brewing, but I am worried it will be small for an all-grain brew if it boils over. I have a keg that I need to drill and install a false bottom into, and I need to decide what I am going to do for my hot liquor tank. I was thinking of using a 10 gal. rubbermaid cooler, but it seems more flexible to use another keg since I could also use it as a large brew kettle if I needed to. I also picked up a 1 gallon glass jug for experimental brews and Brad picked up a 25ft wort cooler too.

We heard of a north county home-brew club called the Society of Barley Engineers. I will have to check it out next month.

Tasting: Spaten Munich Octoberfest

I have noticed that not many American Craft brewers brew lagers, they are more difficult, take longer, and there is lots of big-brand competition could be some of the reasons, I am not sure. I think that it may be an opportunity for our brewery (should we ever get that far), so I was interested to try a good Octoberfest beer.

I went down to my local BevMo and took a look around. I found several good beers including Spaten Munich's Oktoberfest. What a great beer, I am trying to figure out how to taste and log beers I try and found this guide to tasting beer online from: RateBeer.com. I added a bit to it, and simplified it.

Tasting: Enjoyed (after initial tasting) with some great potatoes pan fried with Ham; worthy of an Octoberfest feast.

Appearance: 3/3 Honey rich color, with rich light head.
Aroma: 2/3 Light Malty Aroma, very light hops, I gave it a 2 because there was nothing notable, it is good though.
Flavor: 3/3 Rich malt, light hops.
Mouthfeel: 3/3 Smooth, rich mouthfeel, light carbonation
Aftertaste: 3/3 Light fiz, then a pleasant malt that fades quickly for a clean finish.
Overall: 3/3 An amazing beer, my favorite lager so far.
Buzz: 2/3 good buzz after 1.5 12 oz bottles.

This was an amazing lager, I think I will try an Oktoberfest as my second all-grain brew.

Our First Brew

Brad and I got all our stuff together a few weeks ago and did our first brew. We didn't take detailed notes, but here is the recipe:

5 Gallon yield, malt extract recipe
Ingredients:
7.4 lbs Light Malt (from Hydrobrew)
8 oz. Caramel Malt 60L, milled (for steeping)
1 oz. Cascade hop pellets for bittering (AA=6-7%)
1 oz. Cascade hop pellets for flavor and aroma
California Ale Yeast (White Labs # WLP001)

We did not rack to a secondary fermenter, and it took 3.5 weeks to complete fermenting since the temperature was below the 68-72degree(F) range recommended for the yeast, we did not boil the bottle-conditioning sugar.

Bottle Conditioning took 4 weeks, we sampled at 10 days and it was good, but not finished. At 4 weeks, it was very good, and everyone I shared it with enjoyed it with one exception (I am not sure what he thought, and I think he drinks lagers exclusively).

Introduction

This blog is a tasting log, and a brewing log as I work towards someday co-owning a brewery.

Standout beers that I have had lately but not logged are:

Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic -
Appearance 3/3
Flavor 3/3
Head Retention 3/3
Comments: An amazing beer. I don't know if I would enjoy several in a row, I was drinking them one per evening, but very enjoyable.

Pilsner Urquel -
Appearance 3/3
Flavor 3/3
Head Retention 2/3
Comments: An obvious classic