The Norseman

I felt that on a chilly, Halloween night, it was only appropriate to brew a dark, roasty stout. I have been planning on brewing an oatmeal stout for some time. I've only brewed three stouts in my 6 years of brewing. The Irie Stout, a cherry stout, and La Vaca Milk Stout. In each of these stouts, there's something that I added...but as far as a nicely balanced, roasty, silky oatmeal stout, I have yet to brew one. This past year I've tried to move away from "experimental" beers in some ways, and tried to really hone my skills on some more "basic" beers. Hence the pale ales and IPAs, brown ale, and now an oatmeal stout. I love brewing outside the box, but at the same time, I want to really get better at the subtle nuances that separates a good beer from a memorable one.
There are a ton of recipes out there for oatmeal stouts, so coming up with the parameters and personal tweaks of the recipe wasn't that hard. The hardest part for me, ironically, was coming with a name and concept. Which is usually the first thing I come up with. I wanted to go with something dark and "metal" but kept floundering. I liked the idea of a hearty dark beer for the coming winter and a hearty name to go with it. Jefe suggested "Viking Beard" and feeling like the Viking vibe fit and of course they were a bearded lot, so I settled on the Norseman.
Here's the recipe:
6 lbs Organic Light LME
Partial Mash:
1 lb Organic 2 Row
.75 Organic Chocolate Malt
.75 Organic Crystal 120
.50 Organic Roasted Barley
1 lb Flaked Oatmeal
.70 oz Organic Pacific Gem Hops
1084 Irish Ale Yeast

In Jamil Zainasheff's book, 80 Classic Recipes he suggests mashing at a higher temperature to achieve some nice mouthfeel and creamy texture. I mashed at 160 for 45 minutes, so hopefully that was high enough for the desired effect. I have high hopes for the Norseman, because as the cold weather comes, I start craving dark, hearty beers.
More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Fitgers and New Glarus Binge

Last week I had the rare opportunity of two days without daddy duty, and a beer filled trip with a couple close friends. The original plan was to go to the New Glarus brewery outside of Madison, Wisconsin, but the trip plans became too expensive. Plan two became a trip to arguably the best brewpub in Minnesota, Fitger's in Duluth. My parents' cabin is two hours southeast in Hayward, Wisconsin, so we had a free place to stay. I'd been to Fitger's before, but it was the first visit for El Jefe and our friend Bob. Fitger's is impressive, inside an old building that was the site of the original brewery founded in 1881. All three of us got a flight of 7 beers, along with a few samplers of the other specialties on tap. I regrettably forgot my geeky beer notebook, so I'll give a very brief description/impression of the beers we enjoyed:
Light House Golden Lager- The least favorite amongst all of us, a pretty straight forward lager. Nothing wrong with the beer, none of us are particularly big lager fans.
Breakwater Red- A raspberry wheat beer. Smelled great, tasted very good, but very fruity. Not a beer I could drink a lot of, but would be good on a hot day.
El Nino Double Hopped IPA- One of my favorites of the day. An outstandingly hoppy, aromatic IPA. Piney, citrusy, caramely...just great.
Starfire Pale Ale- I can push this pale ale amongst the top pale ales I've had. Great floral hop aroma, quite hoppy and a great balance between caramely sweetness and slight bitterness.
Big Boat Oatmeal Stout- An outstanding oatmeal stout. Creamy and chocolaty with a great roastiness and nice bitter balance. Perfect mouthfeel and just a great balance of flavors. I could drink a lot of this stout.
Amsterdam Ale- This was a Belgian ale, spicy and malty. It was good, but not amongst our favorites of the day.
Witch Tree ESB- This was a great ESB. It was biscuity with some nice floral aromas. A nice, drinkable ESB, a perfect session ale.
Wildfire Lager- An amber lager brewed with chilli's. This was probably one of the worst beers I've ever had. Not because of execution, but because this beer was just way way too peppery for my taste. We all had a hard time choking down the three ounce sampler we split. Pure pepper all the way down to the esophagus.
Daisy Ale II- This was a very hoppy amber ale, and was outstanding. Great citrus and floral aromas, wonderful maltiness. Another excellent hoppy ale from Fitger's.
The Bearded Brewer, Bob and The Jefe enjoying some flights.

A great drinking experience, and worth the trip if anyone can get up to Duluth. I think it's a toss up between Fitger's and Minneapolis' Town Hall Brewery for the best variety and quality of brewed beer in Minnesota.

After Duluth, we headed south stopping in Hayward's Marketplace grocery store to stock up on New Glarus for the night. We were there a night before a bear wandered through the front door of the store and into the beer cooler. Seriously. We missed the bear, but we did pick up a sampler pack of New Glarus, along with some Hearty Hop IPA and Spotted Cow. While Jefe cooked up some great Iowa pork chops, we delved into the sampler pack, which included their Fat Squirrel Brown Ale, Cracked Wheat, Stone Soup, and Coffee Stout. I've written a lot about New Glarus in the past, but the reoccurring comment of the night was "this one is great too." I was especially impressed with the Coffee Stout. I feel that Surly's Coffee Bender is the best coffee beer I've had, but New Glarus' is a very close second. We went through quite a few New Glarus through the night, and as usual it delivered.
We agreed that if we were to list the top beers of the trip, in no particular order it was New Glarus' Cracked Wheat, Coffee Stout, Hearty Hop, Fitger's Starfire Pale Ale, and Big Boat Oatmeal Stout. A great trip, nothing like excellent beer, good food, and good friends.
(And I think have broken my personal record for using the adjective "great" in a posting.)
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- Steelhead Slammer

The Steelhead Slammer came about as the second time I've been "commissioned" to brew a beer. My friend Jesse has always been a strong supporter and brutally honest critic of my beers, really the best combination. In June he called me about wanting me to brew up a big IPA for a fishing trip he was taking at the end of September. Jesse's obsession is fly fishing, and he wanted there to be a fishing theme and most importantly a hoppy, hearty IPA to share with his friends on the trip. Jesse is a salesman of sorts, so I knew I had to deliver on a good beer since most likely Jesse would be talking up my beer before the trip. I've never brewed a big IPA before, but we talked about the kinds of beers he likes I set the parameters to be between two of his favorites, Bell's Two Hearted and Avery's Maharaja. Quite different beers, but in my opinion both beers are hoppy and citrusy, but bright. Feeling that I've never really gotten down brewing hoppy beers, I brewed three beers this summer in preparation, the Iowa Pale Ale I did with the Jefe was a good base of a clean but nice hoppy beer, and followed that up with the Bearded Fury, which was well recieved and I felt it was my strongest hoppy beer yet. I brewed an organic IPA, the Green Beard which unfortunately got an infection. With those beers, I was feeling like I could brew up the Steelhead to what I had imagined in my head. I wanted to have a nice caramely/malty base, but wanted to overload the final 15 minutes with Centennial and Cascade hops, and then dry hop with 2 oz of Cascade to give it a very citrusy presence. I didn't make a yeast starter, which might have affected the outcome, as the beer only got up to about 7% when I was aiming for for 9ish range. However, at 74 IBUs, it was officially the hoppiest beer brewed at the Bearded Brewery. So not technically an "Imperial", I think Big Ass IPA is probably more appropriate "category" of the beer. Regardless of the category Steelhead fits into, I'm extremely happy with this beer and more importantly Jesse loved it. He helped me bottle, and there probably isn't a better feeling than having him try a sample off the bottle bucket and being very pleasantly surprised. The feedback I've gotten from other friends has been really positive too, so I know I have a base recipe to build future big IPAs off of. Onto the review:
Steelhead Slammer pours a cloudy orange with a thin white head. Nice citrusy aromas of orange, lemon, and slight alcohol. Quite a bit of hoppy sweetness right away, citrusy but not puckering, more of an orangish-lemony citrus flavor. There's hints of tangerine in there as well, some faint fruitiness. Very little maltiness, some caramel notes, but this beer is more about the sweet hops. There is a nice bitterness in the finish, enough to give it a bite and balance. I'm happy about this since it's the most bitterness I've had in an IPA yet. I think the mouthfeel is very nice too, highly drinkable with a brightness to it, the hoppiness doesn't feel chewy to me, but more of a crisp, bright feel.

I was excited for the challenge of brewing a really hoppy beer. I was late to the scene of hoppy beers as a brewer. Hops were a taste I had to acquire over time, and it wasn't until the last couple years that I've enjoyed hoppy beers. Creating a recipe for a friend is always something I enjoy and I welcomed the challenge of brewing Jesse a big hoppy beer. Since it's technically his recipe, I'm not going to post it. But I will give the hops in it, because I found comparing hoppy recipes very helpful when formulating my own recipe.
I used: 1 oz Chinhook, .35 Summit @ 60, .65 oz Summit @ 15, 1 Oz Centennial @ 15, 1 oz Centennial @ 5, 2 oz Cascade @ Flamout, dry hopped 2 oz Whole Leaf Cascade.

More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Beer Review- Alaskan and Bear Republic

I've been slowly working through the commercial beers I got from my cousin's husband Mike from Denver. I had drank other beers from both Alaskan and Bear Republic breweries, so I was excited to have some more.

2008 Alaskan Smoked Porter: I've always heard about this beer as a gold standard of smoked porters. When I was out in Denver at the Falling Rock Tap House, I actually had this on tap. But it was the final beer I drank following an evening drinking a lot of Belgians and big IPAs. I quickly realized that my palate and level of sobriety were not to the point of being able to truly appreciate this beer. I asked Mike to bring me a bottle of Alaskan Amber and this so I could really appreciate it.
This beer pours as expected, jet black with a finger of khaki head.
Aromas at first of chocolate, sweet malt and a decent level of smokiness. Upfront there's a sweet chocolate flavor, soft mouthfeel with almost a milk chocolate like texture. Quickly the sweetness is replaced by a strong smokiness. The smoke lingers, along with some roastiness and slight sweetness in the finish. It's enjoyable and gets better as it warms. Definitely well crafted, but the smokiness does become a bit overwhelming, something I could only enjoy in small doses.

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA:
I've had mixed results with Bear Republic, I love their Hop Rod Rye but really didn't like their Pale Ale. Racer 5 however is a winner. It pours a cloudy pale orange with a finger of white head. Great citrusy aromas of grapefruit, orange and some lemon. Right off the bat you get a blast of nice citrusy hops, very sweet and slightly puckering. A smooth malty sweetness follows with some great caramel notes. Hops are prevalent but are on the bright side. There's some nice bitterness that gives a good base, but this IPA is heavy on the citrusy hops, with a nice clean finish. This is a classic West Coast IPA.

More to come...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer