2008

Forgive a bit of self-reflection in this post but; What a year!

BLOG

My blog of tasting notes and brewery equipment has had over 2000 visitors, from 6 continents, 53 countries and every state in the US except South Dakota.

I have tasted hundreds of beers for the first time, and have started to develop a sense of the beer industry both here in San Diego County, on the west coast and in the US in general.

BREWING INDUSTRY

Here in San Diego, we started to receive more variety of beers as local distributors picked up some east coast brands like Dogfish Head that were not available last year. We have a vibrant beer culture here that does not exist for hundreds of miles until you get to the Bay area to the north. I will spend some time this year thinking about what factors aid in development of an appreciation of craft beer among its residents. The most obvious answer is to have a large successful craft brewery because brewers refine their skill there and then launch out on their own.

On the west coast, there are 5 major brewing centers:

• Portland stands tall above the rest on the west coast. With some 30 breweries, the brewing scene there is perhaps the most dynamic in the world. Widmer, Bridgeport and McMenamins are the key factors here, as well as the original Henry Wienhard's.
• Seattle also has a rich and dynamic brewing industry, and developed earlier with RedHook and Pyramid forming the foundation.
• The Bay Area is more disbursed geographically, but Anchor is the major brewery with several stellar smaller breweries sprinkled in wine country and the east bay.
  
• Bend now has 8 breweries, which works out to roughly one brewery for every 8000 people! The obvious source there, and my current favorite brewery, is Deschutes.

BEER

I was able to take tasting notes on 52 different beers. This is harder than I thought since I really just want to enjoy the beer, not shoot a photo and take notes, but it has proved valuable. The notes in addition to the other tasting I have done and reading have allowed me to develop internal expectations for what a beer should taste like. I have gained a basic expectation of what the following styles should taste like this year.

Amber Ale, Stout, Porter, IPA, Octoberfest style Lager, Czech Style Pilsner, Dopplebock, Brown Ale, Barleywine, Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, Belgian Style Ale (double, and tripple), Irish Red Ale.

HOME BREWING

The main, stated goal of this site was to develop my brewing skills as I considered starting my own brewery. In the last year, I have completed 10 brews:

• 6 pale Ales, 1 was bad, 4 were OK, 1 was good.
• Disaster Porter - Amazing
• Winter Warmer - Very Good
• American Wheat - Good
• Belgian Tripple - Not great
• Czech-style Pilsner - Not great
• Stout - ??

I also got to work as a brewer's assistant at a small brewery for a couple evenings. I hope to help out a couple more times this year.

I hope to brew more lagers this year, I think that lagers are a huge gaping hole in the American brewing industry. We have millions of gallons of crap lager marketed and sold to an ignorant public and almost no great lagers being brewed here. I think lager has gotten a bad name in the US and craft brewers (at least on the west coast) are not interested in tackling it. The brewers that do offer lagers primarily brew Ales and don't have the proper brewing equipment to extract the malty flavors that the Germans and Czech brewers are so skilled at producing.

Full Sail is a great example of this. Their Pale Ale is one of the best I have had, and their Wassail was my favorite seasonal beer this year. But their Dopplebock was not remarkable. It lacked the rich malt tones that the German brewers offer.

There is an area in Oregon that has some of the best tasting water I have ever had. If I could hone my lager brewing skills and have a brewery built there that has the necessary equipment to specialize on lagers it may work out pretty well.

GOALS FOR 2009
No major goals for 2009, just more of the same, brew a dozen times or so, taste another 50 beers, and increase my lager brewing skills. I would also really like to brew a great pale ale.

Tasting: Red Hook's Double Black Stout with Coffee

Sitting down to Tarantino and Rodriguez's three hour double feature Grindhouse called for something special. Red Hook's "DB" Double Black Stout with Coffee should fit the bill. I don't typically like beers with food in them (for lack of a better way to put it), but I have a soft spot for chocolate and coffee stouts.

Anyway, on to the tasting. Be gentle with me. It's my first time:

Appearance: 3/3 Solid black, dense. Brown where light shines through the meniscus, but otherwise dark.
Head: 1/3 No head to speak of, but I didn't expect one.
Aroma: 2/3 The coffee scent overpowers pretty much everything else.
Flavor: 2/3 Mellower than I expected, but I suppose I was calibrated for your typical Russian Imperial Stout. Low to average carbonation, a coffee flavor somewhat balanced by fair bit of hop bitterness. A slightly sweet start gives way to a medium bodied coffee taste with a roasted malty, hoppy finish.
Mouth feel: 2/3 Medium to thick body, low to average carbonation, seems right for the style.
Overall: 2/3 It started better than it finished. As coffee stouts go, it seems out of balance...kind of a Jeckyl and Hyde with it's sweet start and bitter finish.
Buzz: 2/3 It'll do.

The Double Black Stout is the first beer in Red Hook's Limited Release line of beers. If you want to try it, you should be able to pick it up until around February of next year.

The bottle advertises it as a "smooth, Imperial Stout enhanced by coffee and dark malts with a big, roasty flavor." It got better as I spent time with it, but the finish left me wanting for something more well rounded. It'll do for a change of pace, but nothing in it knocked me out.

Tasting Stone Double Bastard

Stone releases an extra-strength version of their flagship Arrogant Bastard called, Double Bastard each holiday season. At 10.4% ABV it is a potent brew, but not too heavy. I actually enjoy it more than the original, although I think that the Oaked Bastard is probably my favorite variant.

Tasting: Wychwood Bah Humbug Christmas Ale

The shelves and aisles of my local stores are full of seasonal beer.   According to one chart I saw, this is peak season for limited offerings.  I doubt I will get through them all any time soon, and trying to purchase a decent selection is a costly undertaking with the price per serving much higher than the year-round beers. 

Tasting: Chilled to ~40 degrees (f) from a goblet.

Appearance: 3/3 Translucent orange with hints of red.
Head: 3/3 Nice head with very fine bubbles thick on the pour thins after a few minutes but doesn't disappear.
Aroma: 2/3 Nice hop aroma, subtle malt.
Flavor: 2/3 Nothing to really grab at; low carbonation, some hop bitterness, some sweetness, maybe some heat from the alcohol.
Mouth feel: 2/3 Medium to thick body, low carbonation, velvety on the palette.
Overall: 2/3 This beer doesn't make a lasting impression although it is good, and fairly balanced.
Buzz: 2/3 Light buzz after 2/3 glass.

The beer tasted better the longer I enjoyed it, it was a sipping beer, and hints of spice started to show as it warmed. 

Tasting Briefs

Lots of seasonal beers and not enough time to take detailed tasting notes means I will summarize:

Stiegl Goldbrau Lager - Very malty and smooth Austrian beer, but a bit too sweet.

Sierra Nevada Celebration - Tasty beer, hoppy, red in color and reminiscent of Dogfish Head's 90 min IPA. 

Stone Levitation Ale - Very good, the lightest beer offered by Stone at 4.4% alcohol.

Alaska Smoked Porter - Amazing beer, like a great cigar or fine wine, complex deep and rich flavored.

Klosterbrauerei Weissenohe Marzen - A great beer, very malty, but not too sweet.

Brew 11 Extra Stout

I wanted to brew a good winter beer, and decided on a stout. I juiced it up with a bit of Agave syrup with a target gravity of 1.090. It came out with a bit too much volume, but considering that, the gravity was pretty good at 1.082. I discovered that my mash keg has a hard time maintaining higher temperatures. I will insulate it some more and try one more brew and if the problem continues I will replace it with a cooler.

Strategy: Dough in at 168, observe drop to 153,

rest 30 min.

Heat Decoction and mash out at 160

3:13 PM 11/8/2008 strike temp=168

3:33 PM 11/8/2008 Temp dropped too quickly, reheating water.

3:50 PM 11/8/2008 Temp = 164

3:52 PM 11/8/2008 Dough in - Mash temp = 152

4:05 PM 11/8/2008 Temp Check = 150

4:25 PM 11/8/2008 Temp Check = 151

4:30 PM 11/8/2008 Started Decoction - 1.5-2 gal

4:45 PM 11/8/2008 Decoction boiling

4:55 PM 11/8/2008 Stopped Decoction Boil, return to mash

5:34 PM 11/8/2008 Sparge Water = 180, starting sparge

5:54 PM 11/8/2008 4 gallons in boil kettle, started heat

6:11 PM 11/8/2008 Runoff complete, 9 gallons of wort!

6:13 PM 11/8/2008 Boil Started

6:22 PM 11/8/2008 Added Centennial and Galena hops

7:02 PM 11/8/2008 Added 15 min hops

7:15 PM 11/8/2008 Added 3 min hops

7:19 PM 11/8/2008 started chill

8:03 PM 11/8/2008 Og = 1.082, volume = 6.5 gallons

Update - The recipe had too little roasted barley, and too much agave. It packed quite a punch, and after 3 months was finally conditioned and tasted ok though.

13 lbs American 2-row
.5 lbs Crystal 60
.75 lbs Roasted Barley
1 lbs Chocolate malt
.5 lbs Dextrine Malt
.5 lbs Munich Malt
0.5 lbs Dry Light
1.5 lbs Honey
1.0 oz Centennial (8.70%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.0 oz Galena (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.5 oz Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
0.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
0.0 oz Willamette (5.0%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Tasting: Brew 10 Pale Ale

This is my 4th effort to make a good pale ale, this time I increased the flavor and aroma hops as well as the bittering hops. For some reason the final gravity ended up too high, and the fermentation temperature was too high so I am not there yet, but I am getting closer.

Tasting: Chilled to ~40 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 2/3 Beautiful copper color, thick off-white head, champagne-like bubbles minor haze.
Head: 3/3 Light, thick head that lasts.
Aroma: 3/3 Nice hop aroma, surrounding subtle malt.
Flavor: 2/3 Somewhat dry, nice bitterness with strong hops, and some yeast a bit sweet.
Mouth feel: 2/3 Medium body (for a pale ale), somewhat overly carbonated, sweet flavor remains after swallowing fading to hoppy tartness.
Overall: 2/3 This is a very drinkable beer. The hops are a little more forward than necessary, and it is still a bit too sweet, but I think I have worked out why and will fix that in the next brew.
Buzz: 2/3 Light buzz after 2/3 glass.

I am quite pleased with this beer. It is more complex because I used 3 different hops, and the aroma and flavor that were lacking in the prior effort are there, perhaps a bit too strong. The bitterness is nice too.

Brewing Notes:

5:54 PM 8/22/2008 Heat started.

Strategy: Dough in at 145, observe drop to 135

Lauter/Heat until 148

Rest 30 min

Lauter/Heat until 160

Rest 30 min

5:13 PM 9/27/2008 Dough in at 145

5:18 PM 9/27/2008 mash temp = 135

5:23 PM 9/27/2008 mash temp = 140

5:27 PM 9/27/2008 Started heating sparge water

5:58 PM 9/27/2008 Mash temp = 158

6:06 PM 9/27/2008 Cooled to 150

6:28 PM 9/27/2008 Recirc up to 160

6:43 PM 9/27/2008 Start Sparge

8:22 PM 9/27/2008 Start Boil

8:28 PM 9/27/2008 Added .8 oz Chinook Hops

9:15 PM 9/27/2008 insert chiller

9:25 PM 9/27/2008 add 5 min hops + irish moss

9:30 PM 9/27/2008 Stop heat + add aroma hops + start chill

10:01 PM 9/27/2008 og = 1.054, taste is thin, not bitter.

3:11 PM 9/28/2008 Fermenter is bubbling away

Updated:
Recipe
11 lbs American 2-row
8 oz Crystal Malt 40°L
4 oz Crystal Malt 60°L
4 oz Carapils®/Carafoam®
.85 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Liberty (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
.5 oz Liberty (4.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

Notes on Lagering

N. Jufer (I am not sure if he wants to be quoted, but I need to attribute this to him since it is a direct quote)  responded to a question about lagering on the American Homebrew Association digest email I got today with an entirely different approach from what I used on the Pilsner I completed recently.  I used the Noonan (based on the German) method.  I think I will try this next time:

Rather than repeat rigid old school German lager practice (as in Noonan's "New Brewing Lager Beer"), I will relater to you what works for me (and works quite well judging by competition results). I drew on George Fix's similar experience as related in the Classic Beer Styles Book "Vienna-Marzen-Octoberfest". Also Palmer and Zainasheff have similar recommendations in "Brewing Classic Styles. My basic process is to pitch a big pitch of yeast on wort at 46 to 47 degrees F and let it ferment to completion at 50 degrees. Sometimes after a week to 10 days I will raise the temperature to mid-50's to finish the fermentation, but in all cases I let it ferment to completion in primary. This means, bubbling has virtually ceased and almost all the yeast has fallen and the beer is clear. This is generally fourteen to twenty eight days and is dependent on OG, fermentability of the wort, and on yeast strain, pitching rate, yeast health,  and the temperature regimen used.

 

Being a keg brewer, At this point I rack to the finishing keg and cool it in the refrigerator at 34 degrees. George preferred to cool the primary down to 34 degrees before transferring to keg (which aids in dropping more of the yeast still in suspension. I generally don't have room in my little fridge to do this so I transfer at 50 degrees F or whatever the finishing temperature was. Then the Corny keg is put in the fridge which is set at 34 degrees. I begin force carbonation immediately which by my process usually takes about 10 to 14 days to achieve. I usually don't hook up the out side of the keg during that period. When I do I pull off the yeast from the bottom and take two ounce samples every four days to a week or so until it clears to brilliant. This usually takes two to three weeks but the beer is not at its best until around four to six weeks (bocks and baltic porters even longer).

Tasting: Budweiser American Ale

I have only read one good review of this beer, and several ambivalent reviews. I think it would be properly classified as an Amber Ale. I have 2 favorites in this category: Deschutes Green Lakes Amber Ale, and Firestone Double Barrel Ale, and this beer is nothing like them.

Tasting: Chilled to ~40 degrees (f) from a pint glass.

Appearance: 3/3 Beautiful copper color, nice off-white head, champagne-like bubbles.
Head: 3/3 Light, thick head that lasts.
Aroma: 2/3 Very light hops, and maybe some malt?? .
Flavor: 2/3 Very dry, somewhat watery, some yeast bitterness, and light hops, no malt.
Mouth feel: 1/3 Very light body, somewhat overly carbonated.
Overall: 1.5/3 Not very ale-like, very light in flavor, aroma, and bitterness, a few weird flavors that are very subtle, but definately there.
Buzz: 0/3 No buzz after 22 oz.

This is not a bad beer, but it isn't a good beer either. It is the best Budweiser I have had, but not as good as some of the Michelob beers like Amber Bock. A bit more gravity wouldn't hurt, but this is a very drinkable beer.

After purchasing this beer, but before posting this review, I read a couple interesting posts on Beervana discussing whether or not this should be considered a "craft beer".  As you can see in my comments, I do not, for the following reasons, repeated here:

Craft brewers and craft beer generally avoid the use of adjuncts unless it is used traditionally, like adding Belgian sugar to a Trippel, and don't use ingredients that the style doesn't call for to change the appearance or flavor or the beer.

After tasting Budweiser American Ale (as an example) 3 things made me suspicious::

1. The head retention was much better than I have ever seen on a light-bodied ale.

2. The body was much lighter than the color would normally permit

3. There were some very subtle off-flavors that I haven't noticed in an ale before.

These could all be in my head, but the above, combined with the fact that the label does not claim "using ONLY the finest malts, hops and water" or something equivelent tells me that the beer has been engineered with adjuncts and ingredients to position it where Budweiser thinks it will be best received by macro-beer drinkers.

If any of the above are true, this is NOT a craft beer in my opinion.  It doesn't mean it isn't good beer, but the whole point of craft beer to me is to work to get basic ingredients to do what you want in the beer, accepting that there are tradeoffs, and trying to achieve the best balance with what you have.  I think adding chemicals to aid with head retention, or rice to thin an ale changes it into something else, and would be analagous to using acrylic paint to touch up an oil painting.  It may look great, but it is no longer an oil painting.

Force Carbonation

Brew 8 has completed fermentation and lagering, it doesn't taste that great yet, but hopefully it will come around during bottle conditioning?? I am trying to force carbonate for the first time. I used a carbonation chart which tells what psi to apply to the beer at what temperature to achieve the desired level of carbonation. Pilsners typically have 2.4 volumes of CO2 and I am keeping it at 40deg (F) so I applied 12.5 PSI and will hope for the best.