I might be planning a trip to IPA mecca...

A Few Un-posted Pics from 2013

A tasting at French Broad Brewery in Asheville, NC.

Brewing up the Pecan Porter/

Enjoying an O'Dells double IPA in Denver, CO.

Experimenting with adding basil and lemon peel  to a fresh summer saison.

Great Lakes seasons started to become available in Raleigh this year.  I first had this beer at Tony B's wedding!

Homemade ravioli at a cafe in Atlanta.

Triumph Brewery opened it's doors this year in downtown Raleigh.

Enjoying a beer from Sixpoimt Brewery somewhere in New Jersey.

From Mike's Pastry in Boston.

View of downtown Boston.

Wonderful coffee roaster in Portland, ME.

Enjoying a Berliner Weisse

Substation (Super-Imperial) Stout

The Substation Stout was brewed on September 14th with James and Sam and bottled on October 12th.  It had a primary fermentation with two packs of US-05 and a secondary fermentation, pitched in the same vessel two weeks later, of White Labs 099 super high gravity ale yeast in order to bump the ABV up to 15%.  There are a lot of differing opinions on how to use the 099 and many different results.  However, this collaboration was nothing short of triumphant.

Appearance - I have been only serving one bottle at a time split between two brandy snifters, and 6oz has been just the right amount.  The stout pours dark and thick and the "legs" run slowly down the side of the glass.  We added priming sugar, but no carbonation has yet been produced.

Smell - The aroma is quite potent.  Dark fruits of plum and raisin mellow of to hints of cocoa and coffee.  It almost smells like port wine. 

Taste - The first bottle I opened in early December had quite a bit of dark fruit taste and was not nearly as malty as I had anticipated.  However, the subsequent bottles in late December has less fruit and more of the dark, roasted, coffee, and chocolate flavors that one desires in a stout.

Mouthfeel - This has a very thick, full-bodied mouthfeel.  No carbonation yet.  Not very creamy when compared to an oatmeal stout.  Maybe oatmeal should be added if we brew this again next year?

Overall - Quite and amazing beer.  It pairs exceptionally well with dessert, but it can stand alone as a single drink.  I will definitely be letting a few of these age to see what they taste like next year at this time.

Graff Cider Review

Graff Cider, made famous on homebrewtalk.com, is an easy to make cider-like beverage that produces a potent potable in four to six weeks.  This is a good alternative to the traditional cider process that can take almost a year to mellow out.

Use the link above for directions on how to make a five gallon batch.  James and I used 0.5 ounces of summit hops by mistake because we read the directions too quickly.  We bought Target brand apple juice and 80SRM crystal malt.  And now for the review...

Appearance - The Graff Cider pours a beautiful orange color with a nice full head that lingers as you drink it.  It is a bit cloudy still, but given enough time in the fridge it will clear up.

Smell - There really isn't a whole lot going on aroma wise.  You can smell a bit of apple and the tiniest bit of citrus hops.

Taste - This is not your sister's Woodchuck.  Lots of carbonation ~ dry compared to commercial cider ~ hints of fresh apples ~ surprisingly similar taste profile to white wine.  I must say that there is some lemon hop bitterness to the finish.  This is because summit hops were used and we had more AAUs than we probably should have.

Mouthfeel - This has a very full-bodied mouthfeel.  Lots of carbonation here, but somehow the texture is almost creamy.

Overall - Excellent batch.  I will try a different apple juice next time and take it easy on the hops.  It might be interesting to try to ferment this using only brett.

Flanders Red - My First REALLY Sour Beer

I brewed four gallons of the New Belgium - La Folie clone last night.  This is a Flanders Red Ale that needs around a year to age on the yeast cake and another year in the bottle.  Yep, I'm in it for the long haul with this one.  The picture above is the krausen after about 24 hours.  The recipe (slightly modified from the BYO recipe) and mash-in-a-bag steps are below.

La Folie Clone - 4 Gallons
OG - 1.062
IBU - 20
SRM - 17
ABV - 6.0%

7.8lbs of 2-row malted barley
1lbs of munich malt (20L)
1lbs of crystal malt (80L)
0.5lbs of flaked wheat
0.3oz of summit hops at 60min
Wyeast 3763 - Roeselare Blend

Brew Day:
1) Mash in at 1.25qt/lb of water at 152F for 60min.
2) Squeeze grain bag and transfer bag to sparge bucket.
3) Add 2.25 gallons of sparge water to achieve ~150F for 30min.
4) Squeeze bag, transfer wort to boil bot and boil for 60min.
5) Cool, aerate wort, and transer to glass carboy for 12 months

Next Year:
1) One month before bottling, add 0.5oz oak cubes that have been boiled and soaked in some red wine.
2) Add champagne yeast (qty?) and priming sugar to bottling bucket before racking.
3) Bottle and age for an additional 12 months.

Two Years:
1) Open the first bottle of SOUR punch you in the face beer.

2013 - Homebrew Roundup and Review

This is a recap of the beers brewed this year, their results, and a few lessons learned.  This will be just as much for my documentation as well as your enjoyment.  If you want a recipe or beersmith file, don't hesitate to ask.

Backstory - I have wanted to get into homebrewing for quite some time, but storage space and time were big issues.  I had borrowed/perused many BYO magazines from my co-worker James, and heard some very interesting homebrew tales from another co-worker, Sam.  The fan finally hit the shit when my buddy Craig T. showed me his one gallon femto-brewery in his apartment outside of Boston.  I came home determined to do a few one-gallon batches but my homebrewer friends in Raleigh talked my into the 3 gallon brew-in-a-bag method.  After my first batch, the shit-fan was turned up to high.

Coffee Stout - This was a great way to start my homebrewing adventure since dark beer seems to be very forgiving.  Any mistakes I made here were well covered up by the coffee and the dark roasty malts.  I added an entire french press full of cold brewed Whole Foods - Christmas Blend coffee at bottling, but I was in a rush to make the coffee and I might have added the water to the grinds before it had completely cooled.  The result was great, but the coffee flavors were very prominent.  I didn't have a scale at this point, so my hop additions and priming sugar was mostly guess work.  

Smoked Black IPA - My goal with this recipe was to recreate a beer I had on vacation in Portland, Maine.  Rising Tide - Atlantis is such an amazing beer.  I first had a Rising Tide beer with my friend and fellow "femto-brewer", Craig, at a quaint little pub in Waltham, Mass called The Gaff.  My beer turned out nothing like Atlantis.  My brew was overwhelmed with dark malts that masked the hop and smokey notes I wanted.  However, the result, more of a lightly smoked porter, proved to be quite quaffable and I enjoyed every last bottle.  My first batch next year will be an updated version of this brew.  I will trade the english hop varieties for american hops and up the smoked malt to 50% of the grain bill.

Sasion #1 - By far this was the best beer I made this year.  It was VERY simple recipe and used a french saision yeast and french hops.  After about a month in the bottle, this brew came out clear, refreshing, well carb'ed, and with an amazing belgian yeast flavor that almost any beer drinker could enjoy.  I can't wait to make this again next year.

Saison #2 - I re-used the yeast from Saison #1, increased the hops, and increased the gain quantity to come up with a ~10% saison.  Again, this beer came out so wonderfully, but it really needed several months in the bottle to condition.  I would leave this in the bottle for 3 months or so before trying it.  Also, it took about 6 weeks to fully carb up.

Berliner Weisse - I found out about this beer from a Draft Magazine article I read over the summer.  I do enjoy a good sour beer so I thought I would give this style a shot.  This was a very simple low OG recipe that used a lacto for a few days before pitching a US-05 packet.  I aged my four gallon batch for two months before bottling.  This turned out clean and crisp but not as sour as I had hoped.  Next time I will let the lacto run its course completely before pitching any other yeast, and probably add some more yeast right before bottling.  After two months in the primary, my yeasties were about dead and some bottles had a difficult time carbonating.

NZ IPA - I have been slightly obsessed with New Zealand since my friend Aaron set off after college to enjoy a year traveling around those two tiny islands.  This was many years before The Lion, the Witch, and the Hobbits even made it to the multi-plex.  I haven't even seen the movie.  ~ This beer was probably my biggest disappointment this year.  My scale had broken the night before brew day so I couldn't measure out my hops, of which I did not have enough.  The NZ hop presence was there but just not enough of it.  James and I tasted it side by side with Green flash - Green Bullet, and the flavor was spot on.  It was also over-carbonated and I had many bottles foam out after opening the cap.

Molasses Pecan Porter - This was a good experiment!  I made a standard american stout and added a LOT of roasted pecans to the mash and again in the boil.  I also added about a quarter of a cup of molasses during the boil.  The results: good stout, the oil from the nuts prevented a good head from forming, hardly any taste at all from the molasses or the pecans.

Substation Stout - This beer was the result of James, Sam, and I each brewing a two gallon batch and combining them to ferment in James' temperature controlled fridge.  This beast will be ready to quaff in December, so look out for a full blown review then.  It was based off of the Kate the Great RIS that seems to be very popular.  This is a 15% abv russian imperial stout.

Graff Cider - I decided to make this after reading a lot about it over on the homebrewtalk forums.  It seems like a tasty beverage, so expect a full blown review here in a couple of weeks.  The Graff was super easy to brew, and it tasted great just a couple of weeks after bottling.  I will definitely be making another batch of this again next year perhaps with some Trader Joe's juice.

Chipotle Chicken Chili

Cooked up some of the Pioneer Woman's Chipotle Chicken Chili this afternoon.  She used a mexican lager, but we are using a Highland Brewing - Oatmeal Porter.  Should be good!!

Sam's - English Brown Ale

This one is from my co-worker Sam.  This English style brown ale pours a cloudy dark brown. The nose is slightly malty and yeasty and it began to be a little nutty as it warmed up.  This is a nice dry beer with a nutty/malty front and finishes with a bit of that characteristic English style fruity yeast flavor.  Those complex yeast flavors started to shine though as it warmed up. True to style!  Good work, Sam!

This recipe is on the computer screen in the background.  Goes great with beer!

From Bosnia..

"Went to the Gradska Pivarina (Beer House) in Bijeljina with a few Bosnian Serb colleagues last night and had a few beers (pivo).

 

The one on the left, Jelen (deer) Fresh from Serbia, was ordered by one of the women, it’s a grapefruit beer with 2% alcohol, also made with lemon and blueberry, not for me…. Inadvertently had one of them in Belgrade with another colleague a couple of months ago.

 

The Lasko in the glass is from Slovenia, had a hint of honey, not bad.

 

The Niksiscko in the mug is a darker beer from Montenegro with a hint of roasted grain…my favorite. Bringing home the mug!

 

The last one on the right, Staropramen,  is from the Czech Republic, reputed to be one of the best beers in the world…was ok."