Oat IPA

A few of us meet up a every week or every other week at Appalachian Brewing Co. in Collegeville, PA. Appalachian is one of those brewpubs that has 15 on tap, 8 are various lagers, an IPA, a stout, and a few others that never change. Even a Barleywine is always on. This isn't a complaint and the IPA never sits too long and is pretty fresh, always. They don't brew on this Appalachian and it is the furthest away from their other pubs in the Gettysburg area. What am I getting at? Get to the point. A few months ago I was pleasantly surprised to see a trio of of different adjunct IPAs on. I saw Three Grain IPA and was happy enough, but I was then served three 10oz tulips of a Rye IPA, Wheat IPA, and an Oat IPA. The Oat stole the show. Granted all three were 7.5% ABV and the Oat was the last one that I finished. I did sip on each throughout though.

So I set out to brew an Oat IPA. I wanted a very hop forward, and slightly grainy brew. I kept the grain bill as simple as possible. 2 Row, Crystal 40, Carapils, and Oats. I went with Golden Naked Oats. They were nice and biscuity, similar to a Vienna Malt. On the hop side I thought long and hard about  it. I bittered with a bit of Nugget, but with 15 mins to go I used generous amounts of Columbus, Simcoe, Amarillo and Citra. It was dry hopped with Amarillo, and, for a first time, keg hopped with Citra.

I was spot on with OG (1.066) and slightly shocked that it dropped to (1.008). Dryness is what I was going for. I mashed at 149 and boiled for 75 mins. I've been boiling for 75 mins lately so that 90 min boils don't seem as long and to drive off DMS. I've never had a problem with DMS, but I might as well stop thinking about it.

It is currently carbonating now. I did lose a bit with dry hopping and I am sure that the Citra are soaking it up nicely in the keg. The picture above is 5 days in the keg. It is super cloudy, but I have stopped using Irish Moss. I expect it to clear up a bit though. And this is the first full glass poured. A full review will come soon.

Wild Oats by Philip Larkin

About twenty years ago
Two girls came in where I worked -
A bosomy English rose
And her friend in specs I could talk to.
Faces in those days sparked
The whole shooting-match off, and I doubt
If ever one had like hers:
But it was the friend I took out,

And in seven years after that
Wrote over four hundred letters,
Gave a ten-guinea ring
I got back in the end, and met
At numerous cathedral cities
Unknown to the clergy. I believe
I met beautiful twice. She was trying
Both times (so I thought) not to laugh.

Parting, after about five
Rehearsals, was an agreement
That I was too selfish, withdrawn
And easily bored to love.
Well, useful to get that learnt,
In my wallet are still two snaps,
Of bosomy rose with fur gloves on.
Unlucky charms, perhaps.

Oat IPA
Great Western 2 Row, Crystal 40L, Carapils, Golden Naked Oats
Nugget, Columbus, Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra (dry hopped with Amarillo, keg hopped with Citra)
WLP Cali Ale (1L starter on plate)

Sour Raspberry: Tasting

I brewed this beer in the spring. It was a first in playing with both fruit and brett. My family picked an abundance of raspberries and I was looking to get my hands on a few pounds of them. I got seven of those pounds. I've learned more about brett since brewing this. I still have only used it in the secondary either pitching directly from vile or smack or growing up from bottle dreggs. I only left this one on the brett for 6 months and I am sure that patience would have made some real difference.

It is a nice ruby red color. The brett cleaned up the haze from the raspberry and continued to drop the gravity. The head lasts and is a brilliant bright white.

The aroma on this is straight up funk and fruit. If you don't even sort-of like raspberries then you would hate it. Again, not knowing too much about brett at the time I probably would have either pitched a cleaner yeast in the primary and a lacto and pedio along with the brett in the secondary. I could have held back a bit on the  amount of raspberries also.

I carbonated the hell out of it. The mouthfeel is quite bubbly, tart and desert-like. The alcohol stays hidden until half way through the glass. I sip pretty slowly, but often, trying to pick up the nuances. This was set out to be a giant Belgian Fruit Beer, but I thought that it was a bit overwhelming and wanted the berries more musty and earthy. The brett if anything was an experiment to make something that I would maybe like out of something that I knew that I wouldn't. If I say Sour Raspberry some think Lambic. It lacks complexity, is a bit young and at this point, it is what it is....a nice jolt of funk.

Barrel Project

Photo by a G.L.U.B member

Yesterday was a Multi-Club Group Barrel Project put on by Keystone Homebrew. My club participated in filling our Bourbon Barrel with an Allagash Curieux Clone. The day was pretty much perfect for brewing and every once in a while it is great to wake up at 7am and get started. A little over a dozen clubs were involved from all over the area. Beer was poured by Round Guys and Free Will and food was served by Iron Abbey and a few others. Checking out other brewer's setups is fun for me. When brewing solo I am pretty simple. I heat up my strike water in my mash tun, dough in and insulate if needed. My SS mash tun loses about 1 degree in a 60 min mash and 2-3 degrees in a 75 to 90 min mash. I fly sparge with a whirly-gig and boil as normal (unless I have a high hop amounts going in and I use a SS Hop Spider). Five gallon batches are easy this way. But with 13 or so clubs and 5-10 club members per group, there were plenty of propane burners, single tier rigs, 10 gallon kettles, 55 gallon kettles and everything in between. The gist of this project is that we collect from the barrel is that it will part of a giant club night event at NHC in Philly next year. I don't have the complete low down on how long it stays in the barrel.

One of my last posts ended with my eagerness for the Farmer's Cabinet Tamarind Brew Challenge. The event changed a few weeks prior to the date and ended up turning into a tasting at Keystone. The date didn't work for me and even though it was a friendly-style competition to start with I never entered my beer. It was a Tamarind Brown Ale with a few Belgian specialty malts in there as well.

My end result on the Tamarind wasn't really what I was shooting for. My original intention was to brew a few different styles and go from there. I slacked. I brewed other beers that  I had planned. I don't know why. I ended up brewing 2 sours and I have nothing but time to sit an wait on those. I had a British Yeast in mind for this one. I picked up a pack and it was pretty old. I had my doubts from the start. It was one of those decisions that homebrewers make that seems even more wrong when you walk out the door of the brew shop. I put in on the stir plate for 36 hours with little to develop. I probably could have stepped it up a few times. Instead I hoped and pitched. The next morning was a sad morning. A sad Monday morning with the only Homebrew shop open an hour away. I gave it a few more hours, but I wasn't going to kid myself. So Nottingham Yeast it was. I am not blaming the yeast on this brew. In fact I was pleased and intrigued after a vigorous fermentation. The tamarind was super noticeable. Maybe too prominent, but I didn't care. I thought it would fade in time. It did. At this point I am letting it sit a bit. Maybe my taste buds will come around. I can't put my finger on the issue with it. I want to say oxidation and thought my Brew Club would agree with me. There is nothing like a group of brewers palates to find the flaw. No one picked up on the oxidation. Most said it was a fine session beer. I am almost out of the last few bottles of them and that is just fine with me.

But a las. My art opening at Sweet Mabel Folk Art is 6 days away. The Oatmeal Stout is ready to be kegged. In the meantime Jules and I found the time to brew up a Dark and Hoppy Harvest Ale. I haven't had to much time to sample it out of the fermenter, but we dry hopped it the other day and 8ozs of uncarbed, deep brown, slightly murky and beautifully hopped beer looked nearly ready. Tracy at Sweet Mabel did mention her fondness for IPAs. I hope this one makes the show. The grain bill on this started out like a Black IPA minus the roast and it's currently the color of a Victory Yakima Glory.

Curieux Clone
Belgian Pilsner Malt, Carapils and Dextrose
Hallertau and Tettnang  Hops
WLP 550 and Wyeast Belgian Ardennes Blend

Taste! Belikin Chocolate Stout

Belikin Brewery's one-off chocolate stout (almost 7%!)

by douglas reeser on October 1, 2012
I consider myself a beer lover. Like many craft-beer connoisseurs, I enjoy trying new beers and I drink the hoppy, the malty, the sour, and the weird. When I moved to Belize almost a year and a half ago, my beer drinking took a turn for the boring. It's a small nation, with just over 300,000 people in the entire country, and as with most Caribbean and Latin American countries, craft beer has not yet happened in Belize. Needless to say, the choices are slim. The national brewery, Belikin, has a corner on the market, but thankfully they actually offer a few options. They brew some lagers (Lighthouse and "beer"), they have one of the few concessions outside of Ireland to brew Guinness, and they also brew their own stout (that clocks in at about 6.5%). As a daily drinker, I drank the stout, even resorting to adding a bit of coffee to my glass, that actually worked quite well. Regardless, I didn't have all that much choice in my beer drinking endeavors.

To my surprise, the brewers at Belikin decided to get creative after I moved to the country (although I doubt I had anything to do with this development). The brewery announced a series of seasonal beers, and they started with a sorrel stout. Sorrel, also known as hibiscus, has a sweet, berry-like flavor, and is common in Belize, especially around the winter holidays.  It's typically known as a wine or tea, but it worked great as a stout . I quite enjoyed this uniquely flavored beer last winter, and was looking forward to a spring beer that never came. However, Belikin released a chocolate stout for the annual cacao fest held in the south of the country every May (They also later released "Verano" - a Blue Moon type summer beer). I drank as much as I could during the cacao fest celebrations, and then stashed a few in the fridge to enjoy over the ensuing months.

Gold foiled and stickered cap...

Well, my time in Belize started to wind down, and I had one chocolate stout left. It was Belize Independence Day (September 21), and I was home alone after celebrating the night before. I decided to break out the choco-stout and write down some notes. I poured it into the typical 10oz Belikin glass, and immediately, the strong, rich chocolate aromas hit my nose. It poured a dark brown and had a fizzy carbonation with virtually no head retention. As I lifted the glass to drink, the smell of chocolate overwhelmed my senses, and that smell transferred to my tongue. While not as rich and thick as some craft chocolate brews, the Belikin chocolate stout still tastes like a chocolate bar. It was carbonated in the mouth, and a bit of the bitterness of the stout came through at the end, but there was virtually no aftertaste.

I can't say that this beer would stand out if put up against some of the specialty craft brews from the States, but I do think it would hold its own against most. In either case, it was a welcome change of pace in a country where the men drink stout and the women drink Lighthouse - with pride. It was also unique enough to stand out from other chocolate stouts that I've had in the past. And this should not surprise, as the chocolate is from cacao grown by Maya farmers in southern Belize, something to which no other beer can lay claim. After drinking about half the bottle, I was actually reminded of the traditional cacao drink of the local Maya population - a kind of watery, sweet, chocolatey drink popular in the nearby villages. The stout is sort of like that cacao drink, with very little in the form of additional flavors coming through. In the end, the beer left a chocolate taste in my mouth, and I love chocolate, so I would never complain about this beer! Thanks Belikin, and thanks Belize. My beer-life for the last year and half did lack in variety, but I made it through thanks to the adequacy of the brewers at Belikin.

And in keeping with the spirit of things around here, how about a poem in the form of the Belize National Anthem:

O, Land of the free by the Carib Sea,
Our manhood we pledge to thy liberty
No tyrants here linger, despot must flee
This tranquil haven of democracy
The blood of our sires which hollows the sod,
Brought freedom from slavery oppression's rod
By the might of truth and the grace of God.
No longer shall we be hewers of wood.

Arise! Ye sons of the Baymen's clan,
Put on your armours, clear the land!
Drive back the tyrants let despots flee-
Land of the free by the Carib Sea!

Nature has blessed thee with wealth untold,
O'er mountains and valleys where prairies roll;
Our fathers, the Baymen, valiant and bold
Drove back the invaders; this heritage hold
From proud Rio Hondo to old Sarstoon,
Through coral isle,over blue lagoon;
Keep watch with the angels, the stars and moon;
For freedom comes to-morrow's noon.

Oatmeal, Pumpkins, Funk, and Tamarind

I've never cared for blogs that do not have at least one picture per post. With something like a beer blog I need something...anything. A hydometer reading is even fine. I still do not have a camera right now and it is killing me.

My last post was for my Pumpkin Mole Stout. This was bottled in the past few days and I was shocked to see the hydrometer read 1.010 as a final gravity. It is a bit dryer than I expected, a bit too much heat without enough chocolate, however it is spiced up just right for a pumpkin. It will be interesting to see what comes of this in the next few weeks after some time in the bottle. It is going to be a great holiday brew. Halloween or Thanksgiving? I lean more toward Halloween.

I wanted to rebrew and tweak my Dark Farmhouse Funk recently as well. I love this beer and I am happy that I didn't give too much of it out. I can't wait to see if I get more complexity out of it over time. There were plenty of changes I wanted to make and now  it is less like a rebrew and more like a completely different beer. When I first brewed it I was going for a Bretted Black Saison. This time around it is more like a Belgian Brown/ Bruin. It is only 3 weeks since brew day and the original Farmhouse sat of 4 months. I've got all Fall and winter for this. I used bottle dregs on the first brew. This one has Brett, Lacto, and Pedo in the secondary.

In 4 weeks I have an Art Opening that I wanted to brew for. I did this early in 2011 for an opening and wanted to do the same this year. So I asked Julian Heal to brew up an Oatmeal Stout with me. Art Opening crowds are tricky to brew for. IPAs are great and Pale Ales are not as fun. If I am going to drink it I like it a bit hoppier than your average crowd would like and that is not fun. Dark Beers turn people off. It is weird. When the sky turns black at 7:30pm during the year, stouts and porters are perfect. An Oatmeal Stout sounds light enough for a crowd.

The brew session for out Oatmeal Stout was great. We started at 7pm and finished around 12:30. Jules gave me carte blache on the recipe. It is probably a bit too involved. My goal is to simplify my recipes a bit more. There are 7 grains in this brew and I am sure that at least 1 is unneeded, but when you have six grains, 7 or 8 is fine too.  I was most excited to finally have a stir plate. Up until now, my Mr. Malty yeast starters were pretty good (at least 10-20% close). This one was spot on and blew the airlock off the conical. I can't say that I am pleased with that result, but after a dump and tasting we'll see what we get.

In two more weeks the entries for Farmer's Cabinet Iron Homebrewer challenge are due. Last year I attended with Julian but did not brew. It is a special ingredient challenge with some nice guest beer aficionados (mostly BJCP certified). Last years ingredient was a Smoked Cherry wood Rye. This year we get Tamarind. I am not sure how to work correctly with tamarind. It is so tart and there are plenty of good options to use it with, but when the goal behind the challenge is how well that you use the ingredient, you want it to stand out and not be overpowering. There seems to be a fine line with tamarind. A tamarind Berliner Weisse sounds great, but then you are working with tart and tart. I think Belgians would melt great. The spiciness from the yeast and tartness from the fruit marry nicely in my head. With the brew using a secret ingredient I have a tendency to be secret with my brew for the time being. I look forward to talking about it next week in a post.

Oatmeal Stout
Pale Malt, Flaked Oats, Flaked Barley, Chocolate Malt, Crystal 80, Roasted  Barley, 
Carafa III, Special B.
Galena and Willamette Hops
WLP 004 Irish Ale

Brewing: Pumpkin Mole Stout

Old Photo. I lost my camera in Baltimore last week.

The idea for this beer came out of a desire to make a Pumpkin beer, although I am not a big fan, and to further experiment with some ideas by the "other guy" that blogs on this site. That was a slight jab at Doug. He has been living in Belize and has to drink the same beer all the time. There is not much he can do here, EXCEPT, throw ideas my way about using mole in a beer. If you do a simple search, a few homebrewers have published their successes at using mole. Commercially I have been seeking out New Holland's El Mole Ocho, New Belgium's Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole (which I missed on tap in Baltimore on a weekend trip last weekend. The tap list was 95 deep. I was bound to miss one), and the various others out there that are probably incredibly difficult to get your hands on.

With so much going into this batch, the ideas of using actual pumpkin seemed to be another time sensitive (under 15 mins) "thing" to consider. What the hell though. I picked up a few 1lb boxes of organic pumpkin puree. It seemed to be the best idea based on research. This was only a 3.5 gallon batch by the way (1.074 gravity). I made a nice little concoction of the necessary "pie" spices. The major issue was going to be anything too overpowering with both the mole mix and pumpkin mix. I was looking for more mole with a bit of a pumpkin coming through rather than the other way around. With everything going into it, the mole, was a cheapened version of what it should be. I drew 2 quarts of wort at 20 mins and kept a low flame on it on the stovetop. I added 2oz of cacao powder, ancho chili powder,  and a dash of paprika and red pepper. At 1 min I threw in a deseeded pablano pepper for some extra heat. More chocolate will come in the secondary as I am sure it will be needed.

The recipe of the stout was a slight variation of last years Chocolate Stout, but with more oats, more flaked barley and a Canadian Pale Malt instead of Maris Otter. I used WLP San Diego Strain on this one too. I love this strain and the blow off came with in the first 6 hours. The smell is pretty delightful, but I must admit that the pepper at flame out is scaring me a bit. 

Pumpkin Mole Stout
Pale Malt, Munich, Flaked Oats, Flaked Barley, Chocolate Malt, Crystal 120, 
Roasted Barley, Carafa III.
Fuggle Hops
WLP San Diego Strain
16 oz Pumpkin Puree, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, All Spice.
Cacao Powder, Ancho Chili Powder, Red Pepper, Paprika, Pablano Pepper

Hoppy Pale Wheat

Hoppy Pale Wheat or Wheat IPA? It is a style that I have not brewed often enough to find what I am looking for in an end result. I can't even say that there are many commercial examples that I have had. A few years ago one of my local bottle shops parted with a 3 Floyds Gumballhead. We never see 3 Floyds in PA (not even in Philadelphia). It was great beer none-the-less. I guess Lagunitas Lil-Sumthin Sumthin weighs in on this category also despite the higher 7% ABV. I am sure that there are plenty of others, but I don't seek out too many of them unless they are on tap somewhere.

Brewing a low ABV hoppy brew gets a bit confusing for me and has been requiring tweaking recipes multiple times before brewing, especially with a grain bill that has very little specialty malts and wheat as the predominate base malt. By the way, the OG on this brew was 1.042. On our Session IPA a few months ago we used a pound of hops, but with a Vienna/ 2 Row base, Crystal 60, and Honey Malts there was plenty for the hops to mellow out with. The grist for this brew was Wheat (50%), 2 Row(45%), Crystal 40 and Caravienne and Simcoe,  Cascade, Amarillo, and Citra for Dry Hopping. Overall 8oz of hop madness. I've also been washing my yeast whenever possible. My 2nd generation Cali Yeast was used for this.

Drowning in Wheat - John Kinsella

They’d been warned

on every farm

that playing

in the silos

would lead to death.

You sink in wheat.

Slowly. And the more

you struggle the worse it gets.

‘You’ll see a rat sail past

your face, nimble on its turf,

and then you’ll disappear.’

In there, hard work

has no reward.

So it became a kind of test

to see how far they could sink

without needing a rope

to help them out.

But in the midst of play

rituals miss a beat—like both

leaping in to resolve

an argument

as to who’d go first

and forgetting

to attach the rope.

Up to the waist

and afraid to move.

That even a call for help

would see the wheat

trickle down.

The painful consolidation

of time. The grains

in the hourglass

grotesquely swollen.

And that acrid

chemical smell

of treated wheat

coaxing them into

a near-dead sleep.