Third Thursday Drink About

On Thursday night, we joined the inaugural Third Thursday Drink About hosted by local bars. Our friend Kara flagged this opportunity at the last minute and Michelle and I knew it would be good times. Two buses from Brewery Tours of San Diego traveled in opposite directions making stops at 8 local craft beer bars. The bus was FREE and was in operation from 8pm-midnight. Bars would simply ring a bell to let you know the bus is outside. Typically, the buses were about 20 minutes apart.
We started at Small Bar, then took the bus to Hamilton's, and finally to Toronado. We were a bit worried that the bus would simply abandon the route at midnight, leaving us stranded. If that happened, we knew we'd only have to walk home which would have been less than a mile, albeit unchillindamos. The buses did one more loop beyond midnight to make sure everyone got where they needed to be at the end of the event, nice touch!
The buses were mostly busy and full. With word of mouth, this may be an epic event every month around here. Towards the end of the evening the bus crowd was a little rowdy but all in good fun. There were probably more drinkers than beer fanatics on the bus; quite evident with one person opening a grocery bag and distributing cans of Tecate and numerous others vulgarly expressing their inebriated mission for the evening. As with any other tasting event, I ran into a few QUAFFers and recognized a handful of the local beer fanatics.
I did have another beer from Hollister Brewing Company in Goleta (just north of Santa Barbara). A person on the bus told me that the brewer of Hollister was hosting a tasting at Toronado and some of the beers were still on tap. I had their aged bourbon barrel (porter, I think) served from nitrogen and a creamer faucet and it was quite tasty. Michelle also had another of their beers. Its a bit foggy, but I remember it tasting like an imperial wheat ale. They had several other on tap but I tried to visit their website to recall what we had and there's nothing beyond their home page. Shout @ Hollister Brewing - You guys need to get your website going so we can see your beer list!

45 Gallons Enqueued

Yesterday, I finished racking all of the recent brews. I will post current gravities in the original brew recipe entries. Temp of beer during racking was 66° F. Gotta love that carboy lineup! (9 5-gallon carboys)

Update 12/22: Massive kegging operation ensued. Final gravities and calculated ABVs are located in the original recipe post, One Weekend, 8 Batches - 40 Gallons of Homebrew. Doing tasks like this in bulk is time consuming yet very efficient. 6 of these beers go up to Big Bear for our New Year's Bash and 2 go to Ed to resupply his kegerator in Pacific Beach.

13th Annual Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port

Pizza Port Brewing Company has a number of festivals throughout the year but this one is typically my favorite. I was in chillindamos mode so no detailed tasting notes to be found here. I did see one person taking detailed notes. In fact, this guy is a beer fest regular. After spending a number of years going to beer festivals in San Diego, you start recognizing the crowd! I don't think I had any San Diego beers this time since I've been well versed in local brews and had mostly local brews at the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival a few weeks ago.
I sampled a number of brews and as you can imagine, my mental notes increasingly became foggy as the night went on. From the above list, I had:

• Baltic Porter from Alaskan Brewing (anything I've had from Alaskan Brewing has been great so this was an easy selection)
• Very Noddy, an Imperial Schwarzbier from Buckbean in Reno (Schwarzbier is a rare find and a type of beer I've been wanting to brew)
• Hopsquatch, a Barleywine from Four Peaks in Tempe (insane beer, 'nouf said)

Above is the backside of the list for a total of 67 beers. There was also a VIP list but we never got around to asking for any of those brews. On this list, I had:

• Hip Hop IPA from Holister Brew Co (near where I went to college [UCSB] so I had to sample their beer)
• Moylander, a Double IPA from Moylan's (gotta love Moylan's, good brew from what I remember)
• Salvation, a Strong Dark Ale from Russian River (I've had this before, awesome brew)
• The Empire Strikes Black from Sierra Nevada (this is a collaboration beer from one of my all-time favs, very awesome beer)
• 10th Anniversary Double Alt from Tenaya Creek in Las Vegas (Tenaya Who!? I was surprised that in ten years of operation, I had never heard of Tenaya Creek Brewing. Being an Alt at a strong ale festival, I had to try it. This beer is my best of show! Their Double Alt was surprisingly well balanced and exemplified the altbier style [doubled, of course].
• Yakima Twilight, an American Strong from Victory Brewing in Downingtown, PA (after our trip to Philly last summer, I felt inclined to try have a Pennsylvanian beer, good brew)

As usual, the fest was packed but I did spot a number of great pro brewers, homebrewers, and general beer fanatics. Wrangling the operation was Tomme Arthur and Tom Nickel/Jeff Bagby (saw either Tom or Jeff - couldn't remember who's who) of the Lost Abbey and Port Brewing. I also saw Patrick Rue of The Bruery and Dean of San Diego Brew Co. Members of White Labs were there as well as a handful of fellow QUAFFers. Said hi to Doug, who's friends with Seanywonton, and has been working in the Pizza Port bottle shop. Doug had great news. He just started working at The Bruery and just did his first mash. Congrats and good luck, Doug!
Cheers and Chillindamos!

Small Bar on Black Friday

About a 15 minute walk from our house in University Heights (just another awesome community in San Diego), is a new addition to our famed beer neighborhood, The Small Bar. Small on seating but big on beer, The Small Bar hosted our homebrew club, QUAFF, this Black Friday. They also gave us a much appreciated discount. I much rather drink away the Friday rather than shop the ridiculous discounts. A little tipsy upon the return home, chillindamos!

Look at that beer list! Its easy to waste a day or two here. The video pans the bar and finishes with my brother and sister (in-laws) enjoying the afternoon. I think the bar is more medium-small than "small" in my opinion. I've experienced smaller but this place packs lots of beer goodness in a medium-small footprint.

I had a Houblon Chouffe IPA to start which I'm really taking a liking to. I then had an Anchor Steam Humming Ale, which was awesome. I'm partial to Anchor Steam as it was a desired beer when I was discovering (then-named) microbrews. Last, I had Rogue Brewing's Maierfest. I must have any German-style lager on tap and this was in my sights. It would have been first if not the Chouffe and Anchor Steam distractions! It was a nice brew with honey-like aroma and flavor. Makes me wonder if they tried a decoction mash to pull out rich melanoidins (or maybe they included a melanoidin malt or Gambinus honey malt).

Agave Smoked Porter

After having my Agave Vienna Lager, Larry at our favorite tequileria, Cantina Mayahuel, hooked me up with some high quality agave nectar for my next batch. He was excited the beer featured agave but nearly was appalled that I used a grocery store branded agave source. Michelle and I did a taste test comparing Trader Joe's Organic Agave Nectar with the Cantina's secret source. Larry's agave nectar was sweeter, richer, more aromatic, and much darker than Trader Joe's.


Left: The cantina packages their agave nectar in used Los Abuelos Tequila bottles.
Right: Agave nectar pours like syrup in viscosity and color.

I will maintain the same amount of agave nectar used in the Agave Vienna (8 fluid ounces) since that volume seemed to do very well (my first attempt brewing with agave nectar was a tad over ambitious). I'm considering when to add the nectar. Knowing that heat destroys aroma and flavor when working with honey in mead, I'm considering adding the nectar at the end of the boil (just enough time to sanitize) or take the risk and add it in the primary fermenter (post chilling - not the same as chillindamos).

On another note, this will be my first attempt in brewing a smoked beer. I'm not sure why I haven't tried to do this yet. I've done some "research" on the style. Stone Brewing's Smoked Porter and Alaskan Brewing's Smoked Porter set the bar very high. I have several beer buddies that rank these beers high on their list and for good reason! Outside of drinking the research is listening to the Jamil Show's podcast on Smoked Beer (downloads mp3 of podcast) available from The Brewing Network. Jamil shares a number of insights and his award winning Smoked Robust Porter recipe using either extract or all grain.

2009 Alaskan Brewing Smoked Porter

(notice the fine etching on that pint glass!)

There are a number of considerations when using and/or smoking your own malt. I decided to go moderately on the smoked malt using 2lbs. of German Rauch malt. Jamil Zainasheff's recipe calls for 2.25lbs. of rauch malt and though I don't want to hinder the subtle flavors and aromas that the agave may also contribute, I hear the smoke flavors and aromas will mellow over time. He also suggests going easy on the smoked malt the first time, then adjusting the amount in future brews. Since his recipe calls for 2.25 pounds of rauch malt, I figure that 2 pounds is a good amount to start with.

Roasting agave piñas to develop sugars (source below).

I would love to be able to find out what the above image of roasting agave piñas would smell like. Someday, I'll make a chillindamos trip down to Tequila to find out.

Agave Smoked Porter, Brewed November 29 2009
5 Gallons, Grain/Adjunct, Single Infusion, 90 Minute Boil

7lbs. Domestic 2-Row
2lbs. German Rauch Malt
1lb. Chocolate Malt
0.25lb. Crystal Malt 60°L
0.125lb. Black Roasted Barley

Mash:
152-154°F for 60min.
Raised to 165°F for Mashout

Added at the end of boil:
8 fl. ounces Secret Sourced Premium Agave Nectar

1oz. Homegrown Chinook 60min.
Whirlfloc tab 20min.
0.25oz. Hallertauer 5min.
0.25oz. Saaz 5min.
Racked on yeast bed of Winter Warmer (White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast)

Fermentation will take place below the lower end of WLP001's optimal range. The current house temperature ranges from 58-65°F.

Update 12/12: Racked to secondary. Current gravity is 1.012 at 66°F.

OG: 1.067 at 76°F
FG: 1.012 at 60°F
ABV: 7.5%

Image Source:
Hesse, Tobias. PICT1311.JPG. Digital image. Tequila - Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 28 Jan. 2006. Web. 27 Nov. 2009. .