German Pils, August 11 2010

I'm a huge fan of German Pilseners.  This is one style that I simply have to brew it the way I want it.  The ABV of this brew will exceed the style limits for sure and I'm pretty sure I'll hit the upper limits or higher in IBUs.   Cause that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it!
The great part about brewing a pilsener is its simplicity.  German Pilsner malt and some noble hops is all it takes.  Despite the basic ingredients, there's lots of variety out there.  Some pilsners are light and sweet while others can be very dry and hoppy.  Some great pilsners I've had are Bitburger, Warsteiner, and Spaten Pils.  In the recent spirit of doing "research", I picked up a couple of new pilsners to try.
The first is from Allgäuer Brauhaus, their Teutsch Pils.  Allgäuer Brauhaus is in Southern Germany and so it was expected to be small in the hop department (Pilsners, I've read, tend to get drier and hoppier to the north).  I forgot to take a snapshot of the poured beers this round but the Teutsch Pils was golden pale in color with little head retention.  It was more malty than dry and had a light yet balanced hop bitterness and flavor.

Allgäuer Brauhaus Teutsch Pils from Southern Germany.

I'm digging on these German bottle neck labels!

Gotta sport the Reinheitsgebot.

The other pils I picked up was brewed by König Ludwig in Bulgaria. Their Kaltenberg Pils was much more of a Bavarian Pilsener style with a sweeter malt flavor and bigger body.  Hop bittering seemed very low and only subtle in the aroma and flavor.
Tasting these more uncommon bottles makes me wonder how fresh these beers truly are.  I couldn't find this particular label on the König Ludwig's website so this must be adapted or relabeled for export.  It might be time to consider a beer-cation to drink these European gems at their source.

König Ludwig's Kaltenberg Pils from Bulgaria.

König Ludwig uses more of a standard neck label.

German Pilsener, August 11 2010

BJCP Category 2A. German Pilsener (Pils)
5 Gallons, All Grain, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

11 lbs. German Pilsner

90 Minute Single Infusion Mash 148°F

0.65 oz. Magnum 60 min.
0.5 oz. Saaz 30 min.
0.5 oz. Spalt 20 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.
0.35 oz. Tettnanger 10 min.
0.25 oz. Saaz 1 min.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast (thanks, Kara!), Vial to 900ml Starter

OG: 1.063 @ 73°F
FG: 1.010 @ 46°F
ABV: 7.3%

Update 8/26: Racked to secondary.  Current gravity is 1.013 @ 75°F (diacetyl rest).  It will be a couple of weeks until I start lagering.

Evaluation: I took this beer to QUAFF's evaluation panel on November 17th.  I poured this towards the end of the evening so the panel was a bit spent.  While the malt profile was there, it was the hops that needed to go bigger.  I don't think I mentioned gravities and the ABV because those are a tad high as well.  A word of caution was discussed about using Magnum for bittering since its easy to overdo the bittering.  We also talked about loading more noble hops at the end of the hopping schedule.

Munich Helles, 8-9-10

Ahhh, helles yeah!  Time to break-in our new Lager Cave with a number of brews where chillindamos is a necessity.  I'm stocked in German malts and hops right now and would like to get 6 lagers underway by the end of the month.  I'm hoping to use September as a lagering month with kegging and dispensing ready for Oktoberfest.  I've never brewed this style before but got a fairly decent scope of the beer design from some reading and a focused podcast on the style (The Jamil Show - Munich Helles).
As with any new brewing adventures, I like to do thorough "research".  I picked up a couple of commercial examples of the style and damn, this beer is awesome.  I could truly drink Munich Helles all day!  The bready, toasty, malt profile is just my thing.  The flavor is balanced with a nice noble hop bittering and subtle flavor.  It dries gently, demanding your palette to beg for more.  Dangerously, I can drink lots of this and that's probably why the German's drink this beer style by the liter.  I first had the Weihenstephaner, their Original Premium.  They claim to be the world's oldest brewery with a date on the bottle "Siet 1040".  Obviously, they had plenty of time to perfect this brew.

Weihenstephaner Original Premium, a commercial example of Munich Helles.

Weihenstephaner, the world's oldest brewery, since 1040.

Weihenstephaner Original Premium Munich Helles.  Awesome looking beer! Not all fizzy-yellow-stuff is bad.

I also had a Paulaner Original Munich.  Paulaner and Spaten both claim the title to have brewed the first lagers.  The profile of this beer was similar to that of the Weihenstephaner though more focused on the slightly sweet pilsner malt flavors.  Very balanced and extremely drinkable.  I certainly enjoyed the Weihenstephaner more but would readily go through a few liters of either of these fantastic brews.

Paulaner Original Munich, a commercial example of Munich Helles.

I'm digging the neck labels of these two beers.  Their shapes are similar.  Any reason?

Another great looking Munich Helles, Paulaner Original Munich.

Munich Helles, 8-9-10

BJCP Category 1D. Munich Helles
5 Gallons, All Grain, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

9 lbs. German Pilsner
0.75 lbs. Munich
2 oz. Melanoidin

90 Minute Single Infusion Mash 150°F

1.35 oz. Hallertauer 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.

White Labs WLP830 German Lager Yeast (thanks, Kara!), Vial to 900ml Starter
Primary Ferment at 52°F

OG: 1.050 @ 68°F
FG: 1.010 @ 46°F
ABV: 5.5% (temperature corrected)

Update 8/24: Racked to secondary.  Current gravity is 1.0105 @ 71°F (diacetyl rest).   Lagering will begin in a couple of weeks.

Evaluation: I took this to QUAFF's evaluation panel on November 17th.  Of the 5 beers I brought for feedback, this one seemed to be the best example of the style.  Harold searched for signs of improvement but only suggested to re-brew this in January for NHC first round.  That was good news to hear!

American Barley Wine, August 6 2010

Challenges of Brewing BIG Beer

While most of my brews are fairly moderate in alcohol (6-8%), I tend to stray away from big beers for a handful of reasons: mash tun size, expensive ingredient list, and its difficult to achieve a balanced beer.

Big Beers Necessitate a Large Mash Tun
My mash tun simply can't handle the quantity of grain needed to brew an alcoholic monster.   My current mash tun uses a 5 gallon Rubbermaid Water Cooler and I know they also come in 7 and 10 gallon sizes.  I could easily upgrade just my mash tun to accommodate larger grain bills. As far as fitting a false bottom to a new mash tun, those come in a number of sizes as well.  Northern Brewer carries a number of False Bottom sizes and types.  MoreBeer also has a decent collection of False Bottoms.  Making 5 gallons of strong ale styles such as barley wines needs about 20-30 lbs. of grain.  I find that my 5 gallon cooler is maxed out at 15 pounds of grain.  Potentially, I could squeeze in a few more pounds at the expense of potentially losing yield but I like to keep the mash bed light and fluffy during sparging (see images below).  I can either find a larger solution or just hold out a bit longer to upgrade to a brewing sculpture with a double sized mash tun.  My vote is for the later!

5 Gallon Rubbermaid Water Cooler holding just over 15 lbs. of mash during vorlauf.

Just enough room to use a Phil's Sparger, my 5 gallon mash tun seems maxed out at 15 pounds of grain.

If you don't quite have the capacity to make a big gravity beer using grain, there's a couple of options for you to try.  First is to do two mashes and use only about 1/3 of your normal sparge volume.  Most of what you will collect during each mash is high gravity first runnings, or the sweetest collection of wort.  You'll get low efficiency and increase your brew day by a few hours but it works!  Second, you can just add malt extract to the kettle.  This is what I did today.  In a big beer like a barley wine, using extract to boost the gravity of your grain batch will not be noticeable in the final beer.  The downside is that extract is always damn expensive!

Big Beers are Expensive and Difficult
Making bigger beer styles is really like making two beers in one.  In doing so, you can expect to double your costs.  If you're using any quantity of extract, you can nearly triple the cost.  Compared to a basic style such as pale ale, a barley wine needs more than twice the base and specialty malts and could use 2-3 times more hops.  The goal in big beers is balance.  I find that even pro brewers have difficulty finding balance in their bigger beers.  Balancing alcohol with the right amount of residual malt sweetness, bitterness, and hop flavor is very challenging.  You need to plan for more than just the final bottled or kegged beer; planning for profile changes during longer-term storage should also be a  consideration.  Knowing how your beer is going to change over 6 months to 3 years adds another level of complexity.
Fermentation and attenuation can also be problematic.  With a large fermentation task at hand, big beers require lots of attention to yeast.  This means a large pitching rate of healthy yeast, well oxygenated wort, and maintaining steady fermentation temperatures.  Worse case scenario, your yeast craps out and you get a stuck fermentation leaving you with a sweet, partially fermented, beer that will just make you cry.  For the level of cost investment and time needed to mature a big beer, its a science and an art to get good results with high gravity brewing.
Time to flush all that worry out with a good beer and chillindamos.  Every new brewing adventure mandates some "research".  One of the best Barley Wines I've had recently was made by Alaskan Brewing Company.  I had their 2009 Alaskan Barley Wine Ale this past winter.  Thought I would age this bottle for a year but made the mistake of not hiding it!  Earlier this week, I was in San Francisco and toured Anchor Brewing Company (more on that later).  I had their Old Foghorn Ale which was also a great barley wine.

2009 Alaskan Barley Wine Ale

American Barley Wine, August 6 2010

BJCP Category 19C. American Barley Wine
5 Gallons, Grain and Extract, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

12.5 lbs. Domestic Pale 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 60
10.3 oz. Red Wheat
8 oz. Caravienne
5.25 oz. Crystal 20
2 oz. Chocolate

90 Minute Single Infusion Mash *152°F
*difficult to keep temps consistent in the mash tun with this much grain so a little over half of the bed sat at the warmest of 152°F while the coolest layer (top) rested at 148°F

5.2 lbs. Liquid Malt Extract added to the kettle

1 oz. Simcoe 60 min.
1 oz. Simcoe 40 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 20 min.
0.9 oz. Homegrown Chinook 10 min.
0.75 oz. Homegrown Centennial 10 min.

Dry Hop: 0.65 oz. Amarillo

Racked on yeast bed of Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin using White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

OG: 1.105 @ 68°F
FG:1.020 @ 66°F
ABV: 11.3%

Update 8/26: Racked to secondary.  Current gravity is 1.018 @ 75°F.   Added dry hop.

Update 11/7: Racked to 3 gallon tertiary on 1oz. American Oak Chips.  Other 2 gallons went in a keg for carbonation to be bottled on 11/11.  I will be submitting a bottle of this to our Club Only Strong Ale competition.  Tasting the hydrometer sample was very promising.  The oaked split will sit for another month before bottling that portion.  I plan to submit that to the Wood Aged Competition next year (two beers with one brew!).

Update 11/27: This beer won 1st place in our club-only strong ale competition.  Shipping out for the AHA Club-Only competition hosted by Greater Everett Brewers League in Washington.

Flanders Brown Ale, July 25 2010

I'm not really into sour beer but this style, BJCP Category 17C. Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin, seems to be a good compromise for this fall's club-only competition.  An Oud Bruin has a sour component but doesn't necessarily overpower the rest of the beer.  Balance between sweet malt and sour is the goal.  Based on readings, brettanomyces and other souring critters take time to sour a beer.  The Flanders that I brewed today is highly likely not going to be ready for the club-only sour competition this fall (I'll submit it anyway) but may have potential during AFC and NHC next year.  Many sours can take a year to develop.  As a first, there's lots to be learned about funky beer.

After harvesting at our hop farm yesterday, we stopped at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido to pick up some "research" for some upcoming brew sessions.  While there were a number of sours in stock, I couldn't find an exact match for an Oud Bruin or Flanders Brown Ale.  I think I picked up something close however, Ichtegem's Grand Cru, Flemish Red Ale, matured in oak barrels, Oud Bruin gerijpt in eiken vaten, 6.5% ABV.  The BeerAdvocate lists the style of Ichtegem's Grand Cru to be a Flanders Red Ale.  We'll sample this Monday.  Most likely, I'll give it a try and pass the rest over to Kara who loves sours.

Ichtegem's Grand Cru - an Oud Bruin matured in oak

Flanders Brown Ale, July 25 2010

5 Gallons, All Grain, Single Infusion Mash, 90 Minute Boil

9 lbs. German Pilsener
1.5 lbs. Vienna
1.5 lbs. Munich
1 lb. Red Wheat
0.75 lb. Crystal 20
0.5 lb. Caravienne
2 oz. Chocolate
2 oz. Black Roasted Barely

Single Infusion Mash 152°F

1 oz. Tettnanger 60 min.
0.3 oz. Spalt 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc tab 20 min.

White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (vial to quick starter) Thanks, Kara!
White Labs WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix 1 added to secondary
WLP655 Includes Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, and the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Pediococcus.

OG: 1.072 @ 73°F
FG:
ABV:

With a grain bill this size, I thought I'd be nearing capacity.  Looks like room for a couple more L.B.s!

Update 8/6: Racked to secondary, current gravity is 1.0125.  Pitched the vial of WLP655 in the secondary.  I'm worried that WLP001 chewed away much of the sugar, not leaving a whole lot for the Belgian Sour Mix to chew on.
After brewing a barley wine today with 15 lbs. of grain and truly trying to keep the grain bed light and fluffy, it looks like this grain bed at 14.5 lbs. was a bit compressed.  I suppose it really depends on the type of malt and the thickness of the mash to determine how much grain a 5 gallon Rubbermaid Cooler can effectively hold.

Chimay Cinq Cents Tasting Notes

This tasting followed the Rochefort flight, on another evening of course! I'm well versed with Chimay since its a hard beer to miss at a number of pubs with quality beer available. Before I really started paying attention to Belgian style beers, this was the only Belgian I would recognize on tap (or on the bottle list). It seems that every reputable craft beer bar has a metal sign for Chimay. I think they're the only one in the authentic Trappist group that actually advertises their beer. Its been quite some time since I had the white label and I truly have been missing out.
Chimay Cinq Cents
Brew Like a Monk gives the vitals:
OG 1.069 ABV 8.2% (8% on the bottle) Attenuation 89% SRM 8.5 IBU 35
Pours cloudy and pale in color with a creamy white head. There's clove and banana in the aroma but this left as it warmed. Light to medium body with medium carbonation (visually seems to have a higher carbonation than perceived). The hop character is subtle but lingers in the aftertaste. This beer has a great flavor profile that comes in chapters. First comes the malt sweetness, subtle banana, clove, dries out, then finishes with a smooth clove-like hop bitterness. Ed was here for the tasting and commented on how well balanced the beer is.
This is my favorite from the Chimay lineup though its been months since I've had blue or red label Chimay. Taking notes is the only way to keep track!
On a side note, I've read that Chimay is the source for White Lab's Trappist Ale yeast strain.

Philly Phun!

Michelle and I just returned from a wedding trip to Pennsylvania. We had Saturday to explore downtown Philadelphia and while Michelle had a worth while mission to experience Dunkin' Donuts and see the Liberty Bell, I needed to find numerous opportunities to chillindamos.
We left our hotel and traveled to the city via the SEPTA (local train) and practically tripped over Dunkin' Donuts, check. With a Dunkaccino and donut in hand, we headed to Monk's Cafe.
Monk's (pictured above) has two bars, one in the front and one in the rear, each with their own dining area. At the table, there's a beer bible that tells the story of Monk's and their famed owner, Tom Peters, who currently is an Ambassadeur to Orval. The bible discusses beer, the brewing process, and most importantly, the bottle list. A supplement card lists their current draughts. One could spend ages here drinking!
I started out with a Chouffe Houblon which was described as a cross between a Belgian triple and an American IPA. This was a good descriptor but being from San Diego, I felt it was more on the pale ale side. The Houblon was an easy drinker. Michelle started with an Allagash White which is always a good choice.
Michelle and I aren't into the cow so a Philly Cheese steak wasn't something we desired while in town. Instead, Monk's had an awesome vegan substitute that was awesome grub. The rest of the menu looked awesome as well.
I then had a La Rulles Estivalle which has a blond ale using Orval yeast and three American hops: Amarillo, Cascade, and Warrior. Another easy drinker with a light body, a lager-like smoothness with citrus notes and slightly sour. Michelle had a Unibroue Ephemere which was similar to a summer wheat ale but green apple infused (not a cider). She really liked this one and it felt like a great summer brew.
After Monk's, we headed over to Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant. Above you can see the outside of the brewery. Nodding Head refers to their collection of bobbleheads, even having their own bobblehead as tap handles. They have seven tanks and thus seven beers on tap. The atmosphere was very casual. Above is the bar at Nodding Head Brewery. I first had their BPA or Bill Payer Ale which was a nice medium bodied malty pale ale. It had a citrusy smooth hop character with caramel flavor in the malt profile, copper in color, and a dense head. Michelle had their Monkey Knife Fight which was a gold lager spiced with ginger and lemongrass, yet another refreshing summer brew. Last, we had a taster of their Berliner Weiss where Nodding Head adds a bit of Woodruff syrup to cut down the sourness.
Later that rainy evening, we returned to a vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple of doors down from Nodding Head called Su Xing (pronounced SuShing and not Suking!). Good eats! After wandering our way to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell (check), we found Triumph Brewing Company. With a focus on German beers, this place reminds me of Gordon Biersch in San Diego. Their tap towers and faucets were awesome and seeing that they had an altbier, I had to have one. I insisted Michelle try the helles. The Sticke Altbier was not exactly what I would expect from an altbier. I then read their description and found out that sticke in German means secret. To me, the secret was something happened that imparted astringency to the beer. Bummer. The helles, on the other hand, was right on. Light and delicate malt flavors with a creamy head, this beer seemed to be the 2nd most popular beer pouring. The most popular was their Kinder Pils, a lighter version of a pilsner. Wait, isn't that a helles then!? I also had the Munich Dunkel which was really good. It was malty sweet with a medium-light body and subtle hop flavor.
While at Triumph, the thunder rolled in and the sky started dumping. This slowed us a down to a near halt and we were soon jumping puddles to dinner.
I think we only scratched the surface on our short trip to Philly and hope we make it back someday, at least to visit Monk's if anything else!

Mr. T's 30lb. Necklace Tasting

Seanywonton's Mr. T's 30lb. Necklace

Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Brewed in November of 2008 by Seanywonton, I've had this bottle sitting at cellar temps in my wine fridge for about 3 months then in my fridge for about 1 month. Sean brought us the bottle during his visit here but we never got around to opening it. I've shown the bottle to a number of friends who all thought it was a commercial brew. I suppose the golden waxed top and great label gives it the product feel. Check out the awesome label (sourced from Seanywonton):

After pouring it for Michelle, myself, and two other beer fans not really experienced with Belgian Golden Ales, we shared a number of nice compliments. It was very refreshing on a warm summer afternoon. Although, it did warm up on the inside kickstarting some chillindamos :-)

Mr. T's 30lb. Necklace, Belgian Golden Strong Ale Recipe
(Seanywonton's Blog Entry)

I knew Sean entered this brew for competition (something I've yet to do with my beers) earlier this year and also that he had some tasting notes: Seanywonton's tasting notes. The day after this tasting, I went back to his notes to compare them with my impressions.
Sean, hopefully these comments will help! The carbonation was med-high as to be expected with a golden strong and the thin head quickly fell. This seemed to be what you experienced. As you can see above, the clarity has really cleared up. The aroma was clove and spice with hints of floral and malt sweetness. Your esters were gone in the aroma and only a hint in the flavor. The lactic acid addition was one of the first things I noticed in the flavor along with a gentle sweetness and the Trappist yeast characteristic clove and spice. The subtle hops complimented these flavors and showed up more in the after taste. Many other qualities mirror Sean's March tasting notes (mouthfeel).
Some thoughts after seeing Sean's notes from March. Clarity takes time to achieve, especially when bottle conditioning. Also, the esters can change with time along with the alcohol/sweetness balance. Lactic acid, on the other hand, seems to stick around leading me to believe that a drinking/competition time frame should be in mind when using it. Will it lend itself in a month or 10 months? The art is really in the yeast with Trappist ales. How much to pitch and your fermentation temperature schedule will express the highly desired bouquet variable. Thanks for sharing, Sean!
This was the first tasting in my self-education of Trappist beers. On Monday I picked up some Trappist ales to start tasting. I've had a number of Belgian beers in the past, I just haven't really paid attention until recently! I decided to first start tasting with the monastery group (coming soon):

1. Rochefort #6
2. Rochefort #8
3. Orval Tripel
4. Chimay White
5. Westmalle Dubbel
6. Westmalle Tripel

Hi-Times Beer Tasting

Another picture of Hi-Times tasting area! Sent from my mobile phone.

End The Summer Light

We're at Hi-Times Wine Cellar for a beer tasting. The theme is "End The Summer Light". The focus seems to be off-beat wheat. Wits, hefes, saisons, and more are on the 13 beer tasting session menu. Sent from my mobile phone.