None More Black RIS

I've never brewed an Imperial Stout before. I'm not the biggest fan of the style to begin with, and it seems like a very daunting beer to brew well. It was a bottle of the Dark Lord from Three Floyd's that made me think again about brewing one. That beer was so complex and full of fruity and roasty flavors. Not to set the bar too low for myself, but I have a hard time believing I can match that monster. Nonetheless, I wanted to see if I could brew a big stout full of flavor and force myself to age it for some time to see what the end result is. Part of why I brewed it in June was because right now a big stout is not something I'm craving. My plan is to age it for a period in the secondary (might be splitting/adding some things to the beer at that point as well), bottling and then waiting until the weather starts to get chilly before finally cracking one open.
I rarely reuse a name of a beer, but years ago I wanted to make a label playing off of Metallica's Black Album for a dark beer. I used it for a black wheat I brewed about 3 years ago. Let's be honest, the best Imperial Stout names are taken: The Darkness, The Dark Lord, The Yeti, The Abyss. So I went back to the label. The name comes from a cult favorite for my college buddies and I, Spinal Tap. For those unfamiliar, when the band is presented with an all black album design, Nigel says "It's almost like how much more black could it be? And the answer is none, none more black." Always thought that would be an awesome name for a dark beer. (skip ahead to about :50 sec).


More to come:
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

AHA Pro Brewers Night

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Pro Brewer's night at the American Homebrewer's Conference in nearby Bloomington. A pretty cool opportunity given that this conference is in a different city every year. I applied and was accepted for a media pass, another huge opportunity. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to much of the conference, but was able to get to the Pro-Brewer's night on Thursday. Over 45 breweries on hand, including all the local ones, it was a great opportunity to drink some good beer.
I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that much of what was on hand was stuff that you can find in the stores. I was hoping for some rareities, but a few breweries did deliver on that end. I went to the conference with my good friend Jesse. We met up with a couple local bloggers that I've met before, Derek from Beer This! and Jon from Legal Beer.
The list was a bit overwhelming, and as the night went on it became incredibly harder to make mental (written was thrown out early) notes of what I drank. But here are the highlights:
Started off the night with Surly 4. I had never had this beer before, but heard a lot about it. A great espresso, milk stout. Surly also had their AHA Rally Wort- they aged this in oak barrels with the Cynic yeast, also quite good. Jesse had the Braggot and said it was very interesting.
Some other Minnesota breweries that impressed me were St. Paul's, Vine Park Brewery, a former brew pub, turned brew-your-own location, that now apparently brews their own batches available for growlers. The beer they had on hand was inspired by their group trips (yes, they offer that as well) to Beligum. It was called Cuvee de Belgium and one of the more surprising beers of the night. Jesse and I both walked away impressed by this one.
From far, far up north in Minnesota is Boathouse Brewpub in Ely. Jesse was impressed with their Hasselhop Rye IPA, and I had their Deepwater Horizon Brown Ale. Very good brown full of brown sugary goodness.
Town Hall and Fulton sampling came towards the end of the night. Town Hall's Imperial IPA was awesome, Jesse ( a huge DIPA fan) was excited to finally find one and Southwest Minneapolis' Fulton's Sweet Child o' Vine (second time I've had it) was very good as well. Excited for their continued growth. Also had to try Summit's Oatmeal Stout, cask conditioned and dry hopped with Fuggles...very tasty.
Among the surprises of the night was a small brewery located in Zanesville, Ohio called Weasel Boy. Weasel Boy seems like a pretty small operation, and the beers they had on hand were fantastic, a great Russian Imperial Stout called Anastasia RIS and Bitter Sable Imperial Black IPA.
Overall the night was a lot of fun. It was great to be able to sample so many beers from all over. Good to hang out with good people, my only regret was not being able to make more of the conference (especially club night).

The pics in order from the top (Derek and I, Jesse and I, John and I).


Coming up this week will be some info on my None More Black Imperial Stout I brewed, and some other thoughts on some beers I've been drinking lately.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

New Glarus Interview Link

I'm a huge, huge fan of New Glarus. You can skim my past posts for the gush fests that are my reviews of their beer (and as my buddy Jefe says...still waiting to drink a bad New Glarus). I found this interview on Twitter link from the Dankbrewer. Had to post it. I admire so many things New Glarus does; the emphasis on local ingredients, the simplistic labels, the great range of traditional to out of the box beers, the old school brewery, the fact that they only sell in Wisconsin (sucks but you gotta respect it), etc.
This interview is just a reminder of why New Glarus is the shit. Great approach/outlook on the craft of brewing. No wonder they make great beers, the man behind it has a great vision. I digress... click here
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Southside Summer Ale

I've never been a huge fan of blonde ales. But recently I got a sample pack of Ska Brewing Company. I was disappointed at first because of the 12 bottles in the pack, four were their True Blonde Ale, and there were only 2 each of their Ten Pin Porter and Buster Nut Brown (the two I was most excited about). But oddly enough I found myself coming back to the blonde ales in the box. It was crisp and slightly malty and brewed with honey which gave it a nice lingering sweetness. Nice and refreshing on a hot day. Trying to decide what I wanted to brew for a nice summer beer, I decided to step away from the wheats I typically brew and brew up a blonde.
My recipe was fairly basic, but because of the extra time I have now that it's summer break, I decided to do a partial mash. What a mess for my first brewing of the summer. I didn't hit my temp first, then did the annoying process of heating/drawing off water/ putting it back in the mashtun...basically a clusterfuck. Finally I got it at 150, and the temps started dropping rapidly. Not sure if my cooler is no longer holding temps or what the deal is, but to top it off, after about 30 minutes of this shit, my 1 year old son wakes up and I had to go deal with that, deciding to scrap the partial mash. I had bought an extra couple pounds of DME, so I knew I had enough extract to brew up the beer.
To add to the ridiculousness of the ordeal, after putting in my first addition of DME, I went to refill my beer and had a boil over...something that hasn't happened in a long ass time! Frustrating! But the rest of the brewing went fine, I broke my hydrometer testing tube earlier as well, so I have no idea about the OG. I still believe it will turn out fine, but what a pain.
The recipe is very basic:
5 lbs of organic light DME (1 @ 60, 4 @ 15)
1 lb of wheat dme (@ 60)
1 oz Hallertau @ 60
1 oz Hallertau @ 5
.5 lbs of honey @ flameout
I'm also going to use some raspberry extract in the secondary.
1056 Wyeast American Ale

On another note, had a great night at the Pro-Brewers night at the American Homebrew Conference. Plan on posting about that experience in the next day or so...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Gringo 2010 Review and other thoughts

Finally getting around to reviewing this beer. The Gringo yielded a little bit less this year, I only ended up netting about 4 gallons for some reason, and putting the majority of it in 22 oz bottles. It's a fairly popular beer amongst my friends and it's the kind of beer that is good to give to people because it is fairly accessible. As a result, my stash of Gringo disappeared quick this year. The Gringo came about a couple years ago, when tired of the Imperial craze that seemed to dominate the market, I set out to create an imperial something, and settled on a Mexican lager in jest. What started out as a 3 gallon smart ass beer, now in it's third year has turned into one of the beers that is really well received amongst those who drink it. Its basically a pilsner brewed at somewhat ale temps (I use the Cali 2112 yeast which claims to retain lager like characteristics up to 65 degrees). I then lager it for a couple of months. In the case of this year's Gringo, I was lazy about bottling and ended up lagering it for almost 3 months. The end result was a very smooth beer with some nice crispness and great clarity...clearly 3 months is the time frame for lagering it. In addition to the pilsner malt that dominates the recipe, I also use 3 oz of Centennial hops and 1 oz of Cascade in the last 15 minutes of the boil, the final touch is 1lb of Agave Nectar that goes into the secondary. One more note...it's not technically a lager due to the lack of lager yeast (hence the use of the more general "Cerveza" instead) and also it is not technically "Imperial" because it clocks in at about 6% (hence the "Imperialistic" label). Onto the review:
Pours pale yellow with a rocky white 2 finger head. Crystal clear. Aromas of agave, citrus and slight graininess. Sweet, honey like at first followed by citrusy flavors of lemon, lime and tangerine. Soft mouthfeel that finishes crisp with some lingering agave sweentess and the graininess again.

Other notes: I am not thrilled with the Funky Monk at this point. I think I used too tame of a Belgian yeast, or something. It's a bit unbalanced. I did split the batch kegging 3 gallons and keeping the other 2 in a 2 gallon fermenter. I'm going to be adding some oak chips to it and see how that works out.

Also, I'm exicted to go to the American Homebrewers Conference here in the Twin Cities. I got a media pass, which is awesome. Due to some prior engagements I'm not sure how much I can go to, but for sure am hitting up Thursday night's Pro-Brewer's night. Stay tuned for details from the event.

Last but not least, the beauty of teaching...summer break. As of today I'm on it (and already brewing). I plan to brew a lot this summer as last summer was busy with the birth of my son. On the docket, a Russian Imperial Stout, a gluten free IPA, another Jefe collaboration (this time a black wheat) and a couple other ideas I'm contemplating.

Salud!
Bearded Brewer