Bearded Brewing Blog

White Wizard Belgian White Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:11:00 +0000

With summer on it's way, I wanted to brew a nice drinking lighter beer. I had wanted to brew a saison, but the temps are still too low in the house for the fermentation temps to get high enough. Instead, I decided to go with a white ale. For the first time I used different spices than the standard coriander and decided to use some camomile flowers. Other than those minor tweaks, the recipe is very simple.

Most of the time I brew I don't use brewing software to calculate my OG. Since I partial mash, I have the comfort in knowing that I will still be able to get plenty of fermentables from the extract, so I don't really know my partial mash efficiency. I have a good feel for my system, and tend to approach brewing more in a cooking sense then a science. Not to say I don't try for consistency, but I tend to have a good feel when I write recipes the ballpark I'm going to end up in. Every once and awhile I over think it. I did so with the White Wizard. I bought 2 lbs of pilsner DME to add to the boil, along with wheat LME. Not wanting to get my OG too high I decided to use Beertools to make sure I wasn't too high on the OG calculations. I have to admit my laziness in not knowing my exact efficiency of my partial mash system is to blame. What came out in the calculations was a OG too high for a Belgian Wit. So I didn't add the 2 lbs (I should have split the difference with one) and the end result was a lower OG than intended. Not terrible, 1.042, but I would have liked for it to be a bit higher to get the beer into the 5% range. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I don't need to be precise in my brewing, but sometimes second guessing yourself isn't the way to go. Regardless, the beer should be a good sessionable beer at around 4.5%, and hopefully the spices and yeast should bring out the subtle flavors that make a wit so good.

Here's the recipe I went with:

Mash @ 152 for 1 hour:
3.5 lbs Belgian Pilsner
.5 lbs Flaked Wheat
1 lb White Wheat

3.15 lbs Wheat LME @ 10

Hops: 1 oz Hallertau @ 60

Spices: .5 oz Corriander @ 5
.5 oz camomile flowers ( 4 tea bags of pure camomile tea) @ 5
2 small pieces of star anise @ 5
1 T of orange marmalade @ 5

Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit (fermented at 68)

More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Back in Action with Burning Beard

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:12:00 +0000

It's been a very long time since I've blogged. Life got busy, I didn't brew for awhile and when I finally did, it was a recipe I've brewed before (and blogged about before...El Muerto). So I decided to hold off on the blog.

First, a couple quick updates... I bought two new tools for brewing. The first was a Better Bottle carboy. For years I've read reviews, contemplated, etc. But I'd never heard convincing enough evidence to sway me. Then one night I grabbed my 6 gallon glass carboy, slippery with PBW and dropped it all over my cement basement floor. The glass just missed my bare feet (yes I'm an idiot) and the clean up was a bitch. I decided that my pride of carrying big carboys wasn't worth the pain in the ass/risk of injury that the glass carboy carries. I eventually bought the 6 gallon Better Bottle and am never going back. The piece of mind alone is worth it, not to mention the ease of moving it even full.

I also felt like after 8 years of brewing, it was time to start properly aerating my wort, so I bought a small aeration system. I must confess that the new Northern Brewer retail store is 5 minutes from my house and it is a beautiful store that changes the way you shop for homebrew supplies. So I was "inspired" to drop cash on things I had eyed for a while. I digress.

The aeration system is cheap, easy and I have noticed a difference in the start of fermentation times if I run the system for 20 minutes.

As for the Burning Beard. I have been using the Zeus hops that my friend Jesse grew for me. We got close to 16 ounces and I have brewed several beers using them. They are very pungent,orangey and sweet. In my Doble Double IPA I balanced out the Zeus with Chinhook hops. But the hops lend themselves perfectly for a Belgian IPA. I brewed a Belgian IPA last year with the Zeus hops and I was happy with the outcome. I tweaked the recipe a bit, changed the label and name, and am going to be much more patient this time around waiting for it to condition. For the Burning Beard, I used only Zeus for the aroma and flavor hops and used Belgian malts, as well as some Belgian Candy Syrup. I also used Belgian Ardennes for the yeast, but I'm keeping the temps in the high 60s to avoid too much fruitness. I plan on bottle conditioning for a few months. I'm hoping that in June and July, the beer will be a hoppy and complex.

Here's the recipe:
4 lbs Belgian Pilsner
8 oz Belgian Carapils
8 oz Belgian Caravienne
*mash @ 154 for 1 hr.

6 lbs Pilsner Malt

1 lb Belgian Light Candy Syrup

Hops:
1 oz Columbus @ 60
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 15
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 5
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 3
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 0

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes in a yeast starter

I'm excited for the turn out, and need to make sure I'm patient with this one. Part of the reason I will be bottling it instead of kegging this one.
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Doble Double IPA

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:08:00 +0000

As part of my double brew weekend, I brewed up a double IPA. I always love the slew of Imperial IPAs that come out in late February/Early March, and thought it was about time I added my own to the mix. Plus, my Ryeteous Rye Porter got an infection, so I'm looking for something that I can have on tap in a month or so. Instead of brewing two lagers that would require time, I went with the Doble.
I've brewed my fair share of big IPAs, and I tend to focus more on the hops than the malt, since I tend to like IPAs that aren't too syrupy. I had a lot of whole leaf hops grown by my friend, Zeus and Centennial. I wanted to choose a complimentary hop that would balance the intense citrus and fruitiness of those hops. So I chose Chinhook, a hop I've used in some other beers of mine. I really like the piney/slightly smokey flavors that come from Chinhook and when paired with overly citrusy hops, I think it creates a nice complexity. I've been striving towards adding complexity in my hop profiles, so I'm hoping the desired result comes through.
The other difference with the Doble than previous brews, is that I chose to boil the wort for 90 minutes. I had time to spare, and have never done this. Based on what I've read, it should add some bitterness to the beer.
I was a little disappointed that my OG ended up lower than intended, so I'm thinking that I need to adjust my sparging techniques. I batch sparge, but I wonder if I am rinsing too fast, because my OGs have been lower than expected. That is however, the beauty of partial mashing...I still end up with a decent product, but am not getting as much out of the grains as I should. After two weeks of fermentation, the Doble has finally finished at around 7% abv. So its more "double" in IBUs than ABV. First pull out of the carboy was very tasty and very hoppy so, I'm not too concerned.

Going forward I would like to correct the sparging problem, or figure out another reason why my OGs have been so off.

As for the Doble recipe:
Mash @ 151 for 45 minutes
3 lbs Org 2-Row
8 oz Org Crystal 60
80z Org Crystal 40
1 lb Org Carapils

9.15 Organic Light Malt Extract (@ 20 min)
1 lb Honey (@ 5)

Hops: 1 oz Chinhook @ 90
1 oz Chinhook @ 60
1 oz Leaf Centennial @ 30
1 oz Chinhook @ 15
1 oz Zeus Leaf Hops @ 10
1 oz Centennial @ 5
1 oz Chinhook @ 2
1 oz Zeus Leaf Hops @ 1

2 packs Wyeast American Ale 2

I'm very excited to see how this turns out.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Gringo De La Noche

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:42:00 +0000

It seems like it's been a very long time since I've brewed or posted anything. With a busy holiday month, I didn't have time to brew in December, but made up for it by brewing twice this weekend.

My Friday night brewing session was my annual Imperalistic Mexcian Cerveza, the Gringo. This year I decided to brew a darker version of the Gringo, more in a Negro Modelo style. I have had some Vienna malt I've been wanting to use up, so a Vienna lagerish beer would be perfect. I have had success in the past by balancing out my "imperial cerveza" with Centennial hops. For the darker version, I wanted to go with all Cascade instead and I didn't use quite as many hops as I have with the other versions. I wanted to tone down the hops until I saw how they played off the darker malts.

As with all my pseudo-lagers, I use the California 2112 "steam" yeast which gives a nice clean finish and after lagering the beer for a couple months, I can get in the ball park. That said, the Gringo has always been it's own animal, clean and smooth with a nice hoppy citrusy presence with little bitterness. I'm hoping De La Noche continues the tradition.

Here's the recipe I went with:

Mash @ 150 for 1 hour

3 lbs Organic Vienna Malt

1 lb Organic Munich Malt

10 oz Organic Carapils

6 oz Organic Carafa 2

6 lbs Organic Light LME

Hops: .40 Cascade @ 60

.60 Cascade @ 15

1 oz Cascade @ 10

1 oz Cascade @ 5

1 lb Agave nectar @ secondary. Lagered for 3 months.

Yeast: Cali 2112

Very excited to see how it turns out!

Stay tuned, I brewed the following night and will be posting about my Double IPA this week.

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

Ryeteous Rye Porter

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:01:00 +0000

I have never brewed with rye before. I haven't drank a lot of rye beers, but have had several recently that I really enjoy. The two I really like are the wonderfully hoppy Red's Rye PA from Founder's and the very unique Cane and Ebel from Two Brothers. Northern Brewer recently released a rye malt extract that is a combination of rye malt, caramel malt and 2-row. I thought that would be a nice way to ease into the rye world, and planned on brewing a rye IPA. As the weather has been getting colder however, I found myself wanting a darker beer. I have had a rye porter from Iowa's Peace Tree Brewing Company which was quite good as well. So I decided to brew up a nice porter and use 3.15 lbs of the rye malt extract. I'm excited to see how it turns out. Normally I have an idea in my head of what I think the beer will taste like, but I have to admit I'm not quite sure what I will get with this one.
I had read in a BYO article about the idea of building complexity in a porter through layering dark grains. So I decided to use a variety of dark grains, in addition to some crystal malt to give it some sweetness. At the last minute, I was a little worried about the rye adding a bit too much bitterness, so I threw in a small amount of dark belgian candi syprup for balance.

Here's what I went with for my partial mash recipe:
Steep overnight in 4 qts of water (extract liquid added at 10 minutes left in boil)
8 oz Organic Carafa 2
4 oz Organic Roasted Barley
6 oz Organic Black Malt
8 oz Organic Chocolate Malt

Mash @ 151
3 lbs Org. 2-Row
1 lb Org Munich
1 lb Org Crystal 60

Extract @ 20
3.15 Rye Malt LME
3.15 Organic Light LME

2 oz Dark Belgian Candy Sugar @ 10

Hops:
1.5 oz Fuggles @ 60
.5 oz Fuggles @ 20

Yeast: White Labs 02 English Ale Yeast

I am curious to see how it turns out.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Final Touches

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:40:00 +0000

When I made the move from kits to creating my own recipes six years ago, I received a copy of Brew Your Own magazine in the mail with the annual label contest results in it. I was blown away and inspired to start doing it myself. I had never thought about that aspect of making my own beer...also making my own "brand. " Bearded Brewing was born and after many different drawings, I settled on my logo. The next step was creating my own labels. I've always used a really old school program called Microsoft Picture It!, but recently have started learning how to use Gimp (a free program that is very similar to photoshop). The next step was actually putting the labels onto the bottles. At first I used to buy labels in the homebrew shops, but found that they got to be really expensive. I eventually switched to inkjet sticker project paper sold at stores like Office Max and even Target. It was cheap, and I could easily cut out any size label I wanted, which is nice when bottling 22 oz bombers. It won't hold up forever in a fridge since it's not glossy finish, but it looks good when you give a friend a bottle or a six pack, and it actually holds up pretty well for a while in the fridge before getting soggy. Essentially, it's cheap and looks great til you get it wet. I use templates from 4th and Vine (which are the labels I used to buy at the homebrew shop). However, it looks like their website might be defunct.

I love the "professional" look of the labels on the bottles I give out, but thought it would be cool to have bottle caps. Until recently, it seemed way out of my price range since I would have to order a lot of them, and there would still be a really high price point.

Then I read an article in Zymurgy about a homebrewer who started his own bottle cap printing company, called Bottle Mark. I was really excited and even more so when I went to their site. You can order as few bottle caps you want at .12 cents a piece. Plus, you can load up a jpeg file, manipulate it on the site, and then even order a free digital copy to make sure it's what you want. Incredibly cool.

For $15 (including shipping) I got one hundred caps to start with. The customer service was awesome and the bottles looked great (and came quickly). My friend commented on how good they looked, not off centered or something you might expect from something as inexpensive and customized.

I have to say a six pack of bottles with my own cap on it looks sweet! In the future, I can see myself creating a cap for a special occasion like a wedding or a party, which I think is the company's big draw. Just had to share this self indulgence. Half the fun of home brewing is sharing your product, and the caps put the final touches on my beers.

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

1Up Pale Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:40:00 +0000

Several years ago my wife and I decided we didn't want to travel for Thanksgiving and deal with traveling to Pittsburgh or Arizona every other year to appease grandparents. So we decided to stay in Minnesota, and to only invite my sister's brother. It has turned into the most stress-free enjoyable holiday of the year. We have a laid back time consisting of a lot of football and movie watching, video game playing and beer drinking. Last year I decided to brew a beer special for his visit, a California Common.

My brother in law is a video game developer who lives in California. He recently switched projects and moved to San Fransisco. Being in Northern California, Peter has started to become more interested in hoppy beers. Not ready to jump into the IPA territory, his gateway lately has been pale ales. I decided to brew up a beer for his visit again, this time the 1UP is going to be a nice easy drinking pale ale.

I decided to brew a pale ale with some vienna malt I had, as well as some victory to give it some nice biscuity tones to play off the caramel. I used Cascade and Centennial hops for the hop bill. Pretty straight forward pale ale:

Mini Mash:

2 lbs Organic 2-Row
1 lb Organic Vienna
.5 lb Organic Victory
.5 lb Organic Crystal 40
.5lb Organic Crystal 60
. 5lb Organic Carapils
* Mash @ 153

6 lbls Organic Light LME @ 15

Hops:
1 oz Chinhook @ 60
.5 oz Cascade @ 10
. 5 oz Cascade @ 5
1 oz whole leaf Centennial @ 0

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Hawkeyepa

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:13:00 +0000

Despite the fact that I have lived in Minnesota for the past 15 years, I have held strong to my love of my home state of Iowa, and the team I grew up following with a fervor, the Iowa Hawkeyes. This past weekend I had an opportunity to travel down to Iowa City with my family to watch the Hawks

come back from a large deficit to beat Pitt. It was fun game and a great experience to be in Kinnick Stadium.

I had been wanting to brew up an IPA for the fall, using the Centennial hops my friend Jesse grew for me this year. I went down to his house to help harvest them, and have been excited to brew with them. Inspired by my trip to Hawkeye nation, I settled on the name and label for the IPA recipe I've had in my head for a couple weeks now.

I wanted to keep the grain bill relatively simple, I like IPAs that tend to be on the lighter side of the malt spectrum, focusing more on the hops than the malt. I wanted use pilsner malt in the partial mash, and also wanted to use some organic victory malt to add some complexity and body. I wanted to use some Chinhook hops to add a little bit of piney flavor to play off of the citrusy Centennial hops. I plan on dry hopping with an ounce or two of Centennial as well.

Here's the recipe:
Partial Mash: Mash 1 hour @ 152
3.5 lbs Organic Pilsner
.5 lbs Organic Victory Malt
.5 lbs Organic Crystal 40
.5 lbs Organic Carapils

Malt Extract: 6 lbs Organic Light LME @ 20

Hops: 1 oz Summit (17% AAU) @ 60
.5 oz Chinhook @ 30
.5 oz Chinhook @ 20
1 oz whole leaf Organic Centennial @ 5
1 oz whole leaf Organic Centennial @ 1

Yeast: 1272 American Ale II

Salud and Go Hawks!
Bearded Brewer

Waxing bottles

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:40:00 +0000

Homebrewing is all about individual expression for me. I love the ease of kegging, but I also love bottling because I love designing labels and playing around with different bottles. This summer I bottled my Farmhouse Ale in champagne bottles. They are a little more costly, but look very cool and when used for a special beer, they add a nice touch. I feel the same way about waxing big stouts, it makes them look cool and special. Last year I used wax for the first time, and it was a pain in the ass. This year, it went much better, so I thought I'd share the secrets of my success.

First off, wax isn't cheap at first ($14 @ Northern Brewer). However, the 1lb bag will last you for a long time. From my experience, 12 oz bottles don't look good with wax and aren't really worth the time, but 22oz bombers look great.

Here's what I did, and what worked well:

Take a tin can, with the label removed, and put it into a pot of water filled up enough to surround the can. Put the wax in the can, and bring the water to a boil.

The can will move around a bit, so if you have some grilling tongs to hold onto the can it'll help.

After the wax melts (which takes about 10 min), you are ready to dip the bottle. Be sure to stir the wax with a spoon, sometimes the top layer is melted, but there are still wax clumps which

will clump up on your bottle.

The wax will drip down the bottle, but will dry quickly. In the end, you have a very cool looking bottle to impress your friends!

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

Los Muertos Imperial Amber Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Last year I decided to make a double version of my hoppy Amber ale, El Muerto. Last year's version turned out to be one of my favorite beers of the year. A heavy dose of crystal malts gave this beer a really nice caramel sweetness to go along with a hefty amount of hops. It wasn't overly malty, like some big IPAs can be. Instead it was sweet and kind of bready, finished off by some piney/citrusy hops. The key to last year's Los Muertos (and this year's El Muerto) were Simcoe hops. Aside from some more citrusy finishing hops, the largest amount of flavor hops were the Simcoe and I loved the piney/resiny/grapefruity flavors they added. I was sad to hear that Northern Brewer was completely out of Simcoe hops when I went to buy the ingredients for Los Muertos. I decided to improvise with Chinhook hops instead. I have never brewed with Chinhook and wanted something similar in profile to Simcoe. For a finishing hop (similar to last year's version) I added an ounce of Centennial at the end of the boil. Los Muertos will also be dry hopped in the keg with 2 ounces of Chinhook leaf hops. I have high hopes for this beer. After a summer of drinking lighter wheat and belgian beers, I always start to crave hops towards the end of the summer and fall. I plan on harvesting a lot of hops from my friend Jesse again this year, and doing a big IPA with it. So I thought brewing up Los Muertos now would be good way to satisfy my hop crave while doing something different than what I'll be brewing up with Jesse's hops. I'm pretty excited about Los Muertos, I calculated the IBUs to be around 89 and when I transferred it to the keg, it tasted great.

Here's the recipe:

Mashed @ 154

3 lbs Org Munich

.75lbs Org Crystal 60

8 oz Org Vienna

4 oz Org. Crystal 120

4 oz Org. Carapils

4 oz Org. Black Malt

9.15 lbs of Org Light Malt Extract

Hops: 1 oz Summit @ 60

.5 oz Chinhook @ 30

.5 oz Chinhook @ 20

.5 oz Chinhook @ 15

.5 oz Chinhook @ 10

1 oz Centennial @ 1

Dry hop: 2 oz Chinhook leaf in keg

2 smack packs of Wyeast 1272 American Ale 2

More to Come!

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

El Gordo Mexican Stout

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

This summer I've been on a stout brewing kick. It started with my Black Beard Pirate Stout, then my 2011 None More Black RIS, and finally El Gordo. The nice thing about brewing big stouts in the summer is that by November they have had a nice amount of time to condition. This time around, I wanted to brew up a nice chocolate stout, but add a Mexican flare to it. In addition to cocoa nibs, I plan on adding cinnamon and vanilla beans to the secondary. While most people associate some kind of chili pepper in a Mexican stout, I have yet to have a chili beer I actually liked. Since I don't want to make a beer I won't drink, I plan on experimenting with maybe a gallon of the Gordo, but keeping the pepper out of the rest of the beer.
The only problem with summer brewing is keeping the temps low for pitching. I use a dual immerison chiller system, where I put one chiller in a bucket full of ice, then that goes to the other chiller in the brew pot. The brew pot is sitting in an ice bath as well. The problem is that tap water hasn't been getting much colder than 70 degrees, so there reaches a point where the wort won't cool down much past that. I ended up putting the Gordo into another ice bath in the fermenting bucket, which eventually brought the temps down to 68. It has risen back up to 74, which I hope doesn't produce too many esters or alcohol burn. But brewing in a basement in the hot summer only allows me so much control, so it is what it is.

For the last three stouts, I've been using a cold steeping technique I read about in Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer. I've been steeping instead of mashing my dark grains for some time, but usually similar to how you would in extract only brewing. Gordon's method involves cold steeping grains for 24 hours in a 2 L/lb ratio. Similar to cold steeping coffee, you end up with a very concentrated concoction, which I add to the last 10 min of the boil. Here's the recipe:

Mash @ 158 for 1 hour
2 lbs Organic Munich
2 lbs Organic Crystal 60
1 lb Organic Carapils

Cold Steep:
1 lb Organic Chocolate
8 oz Organic Roasted Barley
8 oz Organic Black Malt
- Cold steeped in 4 L of cold water for 24 hrs added @ 10

Extract: 3.15 lbs Wheat @ 30
6 lbs Organic Light LME @ 20

Hops: 1 oz Horizon @ 60

1 stick of cinnamon @ 5

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

In the secondary:
5.5 oz Cocoa Nibs
1 vanilla bean
* cinnamon sticks if necessary

Can't wait to see how this one turns out.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

2011 None More Black RIS

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:27:00 +0000

Last year I attempted my first RIS. While the abv didn't get up to the range I wanted (it was more around 8.5%), it was very well received and ended up being one of the best beers I've brewed. I tend to like fruitier Imperial Stouts, and the None More Black had a nice amount of dark fruit that played nicely with the chocolate and roasted tones. The best part of the beer was that it was proof that sometimes brewing doesn't go as well as planned and yet the beer turns out great.
When I brewed the NMB last year, I was having problems with my mash tun, it wasn't holding temps and so I kept losing heat. I ended up only mashing for 30 minutes before the temps had dropped significantly. Since I'm a partial mash brewer, I knew I was still going to be adding enough fermentables that it would still give me beer. After I cooled the wort down, I ended up pitching at too high of a temp, but then put the carboy in an ice bath. I ended up getting distracted and not realizing that the ice bath had dropped the temps significantly. It eventually rose to an appropriate level. All of the variety in temps made me think I was going to get some off flavors, but it didn't end up being the case!
This time around I am not going to replicate the flocculating temps, but I did hold back from making any significant changes to the recipe. The only minor change I made was using Dark Belgian Candi Syrup instead of Treacle. With the Black Beard Pirate Stout containing molasses, and I envison both being ready to drink around the same time, I wanted the NMB to have more dark fruit notes, so went with the dark candi syrup.

Here's the recipe:
Mashing @ 150 for 1 hour
2 lbs Org 2-Row
.75 Org Crystal 120
.75 Org. Chocolate
.5 Org. Special B
1 lb Org. Carapils

Steep for 24 hours in 2qts of water, then added @ 10 minutes left in boil:
.5 lbs Org. Black Malt
.5 lbs Org. Roasted Barley

9.15 lbs Org Light Malt Extract
1 lb Wheat Malt Extract

1 cup of Dark Belgian Candi Syrup

Hops: 1 oz Warrior (17% AAU) @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 15
1 oz Cascade @ 5

Two smack packs (didn't have time for a starter) of Wyeast 1056

More to come...

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

Black Beard Pirate Stout

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:28:00 +0000

On Father's Day I got an opportunity to brew a beer I've wanted to brew for some time. Inspired by a recipe from the brewing book that has had the biggest impact on my brewing, Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing. There is a whim and loose approach to brewing that immediately encouraged me to take risks and just have fun. I've gotten more brewing books over the years, some more serious like Farmhouse Ales, Brew Like a Monk and the new Brewing Better Beer by Gorodn Strong. All of those books are a more serious and calculated look at brewing. But Randy Mosher's book is a must for anyone wanting to try something different. I've wanted to brew a stout similar to his Black Ship Pirate Stout recipe for years. Last summer I brewed a big stout in the June and aged it until October with great results. This year I am doing 2 big stouts, and the first is the Black Beard. While I based the recipe off of Randy Mosher's recipe, I added some things here and there and adjusted the recipe for both partial mashing and organic grains. I'm excited to see what comes out in this one.

I've wanted to brew a stout with a Belgian yeast for awhile, but never have. I've had two commercial examples that were really tasty, Boulevard's Dark Truth Stout and Lucky Bucket's Certified Evil are both brewed with Belgian yeast strains. In addition to the Belgian Yeast, I am going to age the Black Beard on oak cubes soaked in rum to give it that "Caribbean" feel. I'm curious to see what (if any) flavors will come out from the rum.

So the recipe looks like this:

Partial Mash:

4 lbs Organic Munich

1 lb Organic Caramunich

Cold steep in 2 qts water: 12 oz Organic Black Malt, 8 oz Organic Carafa 2 (liquid added to boil @ 15)

6 lbs Organic Light LME

3.15 lbs Wheat LME

Hops: 1 0z Org. Hallertaur (8.5% AAU) @ 60

1 oz Willamette @ 25

1 oz Willamette @ 15

1 lb Organic Molasses @ 10 min

1 oz Coriander (@ 1 min)

1/2 tsp Allspice (@1 min)

2 pods of Anise (@ 1 min)

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes

In the secondary I plan on adding 1 oz of oak cubes soaked in rum. Also, orange zest soaked in rum as well.

Should be interesting.

Stay tuned!

Salud!

Bearded Brewer

Farmhouse Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 23:13:00 +0000

When I first started brewing 7 years ago, one of the styles I felt most comfortable brewing as I started designing my own recipes were Belgian Ales. What I loved about brewing Belgians were the creative freedom and room for error. Don't get me wrong, Belgians can be incredibly complex and require a lot of skill to brew, but because of the creative freedom and "loose" style guidelines, Belgians also allow adventurous brewers the ability to take some risks. Also, since Belgian yeasts add so much character (sometimes strongly) it helps cover up some minor mistakes that a young brewer might make. I found that my Belgians tended to be very popular amongst a variety of friends, which was another incentive early on for me to brew drinkable Belgian ales.

As I gained skills as a brewer, I expanded my styles and tried to nail down other styles. I spent the last couple years trying to improve my ability to brew darker ales and IPAs. On a recent trip to the Lost Abbey in San Diego, I was inspired to get back into Belgians. Their beers are amazing, and embody everything good Belgian beers are in my opinion; complex, refreshing, creative, and highly drinkable. I decided that the first beer I wanted to brew to start off my summer vacation (I'm a teacher, so I love to brew a lot in the summer) was a farmhouse ale. I brewed a Saison years ago, and I don't think I was patient enough, understood the style enough, and just didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to try my hand at it again. This time around, I've spent some time doing research, both in liquid and printed form. I've been drinking a lot of Saisons as I thought about the parameters I wanted to go with. Most notably I've been drinking: Saison Dupont (of course), Boulevard's Tank 7 (outstanding American farmhouse),Ommegang's Hennepin (a standard) and Great Divide's Collete (very good). As expected each of these is different and brings a different thing to the table.

I decided to go with a simple recipe and ended up adding some flaked corn as a nod to my home state of Iowa and what comes to mind when I think of "farmhouses. " I debated a lot over the types of yeast to use, and then stumbled upon the White Labs American Farmhouse Blend, which adds some Brett to the Saison yeast. After I researched the yeast, it turns out it's from the Lost Abbey, perfect! Here's the recipe:
Mash @ 149
3 lbs Organic Pilsner Malt
1 lb Organic Vienna Malt
1 lb Flaked Maize

Last 15 minutes of the boil (6 lbs Organic Light LME)

1 lb Turbinado Sugar @ 10

Hops: 1.5 oz Organic Belgian Saaz (1.9 % AAU) @ 60
.5 oz Organic Belgian Saaz @ 15
1 oz French Strisselspalt @ 10

Yeast: White Labs American Farmhouse

I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm also going to brewing some big stouts intended to be ready in October. I'll be brewing Black Beard Imperial Pirate Stout, and the 2011 None More Black Imperial Stout.
Stay Tuned!
Bearded Brewer

Dank Beer Review

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:28:00 +0000

A couple months ago I met up with a local North Minneapolis beer blogger that I've been following for a while. I'm not sure exactly when I stumbled across the Dank Brewer's blog, but I have always enjoyed his posts and frequent musical offerings he puts on his blog. Nick has been an All-Grain brewer for a couple of years and we had exchanged emails and intended to meet up for some time.
Finally this spring, I saw a post of a Black IPA he brewed, and having brewed a similar one (using some elements of his recipe as a reference) we figured it'd be a good time to meet up and compare Black IPAs amongst other offerings.

I was really impressed with the three beers Nick hooked me up with. He has brewed a ton of variety in a short amount of time, and some of his beers (like a Pilsner brewed with fresh Minnesota Snow) sound really creative. In addition to his Black IPA, Nick also gave me a Biere De Garde and his Dank The Essence Double IPA. I was quite excited to delve into his offerings.

Overall, I was really impressed with the Dank's beers. They were really well balanced, had great elements going on, and were clearly well conceived. I'm excited for some future beers, especially some Saisons which are apparently his specialty. Anyway, onto the reviews:

Dark Embrace Bitter End American Black Ale:
This beer poured jet black with a nice off white head. Chock full of citrusy hop aroma, with a little pine and some roastiness coming through. Perfect mouthfeel. The beer starts off smooth and creamy but hop bitterness replaces the creaminess quickly. The beer finishes with some coffee and chalky /roasty maltiness that play nicely off a lingering piney flavor. Really well balanced. The roasted malt presence is not overwhelming at all. I find this style, homebrewed or commercially brewed a very difficult style to be well balanced. The Dank Brewer has found that balance. A very good beer for the style.(And a lot better than the one I gave him!)

Bier De Garde:
I have to admit that I went into this beer totally blind. I had never had a Biere de Garde before, but now I will be seeking out the style. This beer poured cola colored with some redish highlights and a thin off white head. Amazing aromas, sweet and sticky, malty and slightly funky. Right away there was a nice sticky sweetness, very malty. Not very much spice, it was dominated by malt and raisiny, dark fruitiness. The body was again perfect, it finished really clean and was somewhat light despite all of the maltiness in the taste and aroma. This beer would be a great Christmas beer. I was really impressed with this beer, it was totally drinkable, but very complex at the same time. Well done!

Dank the Essence Double IPA:
Nick told me that his inspiration for this beer was a cross between Hop Slam and Russian River's Pliny the Elder... I have to say right off the bat that I have never smelled a homebrewed beer with this much hop aroma. I emailed Nick about it and he said it was six months old... amazing. Fresh this thing must have had the same aroma you'd get if you literally rubbed hops on your face! There was some honey sweetness that definitley gave it a similar Hopslam aroma, but definitley more intense. It poured clear pale gold with a foamy tow finger head. There was some nice sweetness and slight malt, but it got obliterated by the bitterness. This was the most bitter homebrewed beer I've ever had. While the bitterness remained, and gave the beer quite a backbone, there was a nice amount of sweetness from the honey and the citrusy hops to balance out the beer nicely. The hops dominated this beer from start to finish, citrusy and sweet upfront and a lingering bitterness at the end. This was a monster beer, and I can only imagine how good it would have been young, because hop aroma is supposed to dissipate with time, but this one was full of hop aroma and flavor. Mission accomplished in my mind.

It's always fun to meet the people behind the blogs. It's a unique community that feels great to be a part of. Beer is a social thing, even virtually. It was great to exchange beers and beer advice and overall conversation. I look forward to hooking up with Nick in the future and trying some more of the great Dank Beers he has filling his basement in Nordeast.

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Holy Hoppiness! Double IPA Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:13:00 +0000

This past weekend I had two friends, Jefe and Jesse over to do a follow up to our fall IPA tasting. Unfortunately, our friend Ben was not able to attend, which taught us a valuable lesson, splitting 9 Imperial IPAs amongst 3 people does make for a very rough next day. That being said, it was a fun a ride and we were surprised by the DIPAs we drank, some great and some disappointing.

As with all tastings, you can never make sure you have all the best beers you want, but we felt good about the ones we did have. My friend Jesse is quite the authority on double IPAs, and as the evening progressed he was frustrated that a few of his favorites weren't amongst the offerings, most notably Founder's Double Trouble, Bell's Hopslam, Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree, and Oskar Blues' Gubna. As a result, there's a good chance we will do a follow up at some point. Regardless, what we did have were the following:
Avery's Maharaja, Millstream Hop2, Moylan's Hopsickle, Odell's Myrcenary, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, Bouelvard Double Wide, Grand Teton Lost Continent, Weyerbacher Simcoe, Surly Abrasive.

Here's the rundown in the order we drank them, I'm giving the average grade:

Avery Maharaja: Surprisingly, this was the least favorite of the offerings. Big and sticky with quite the alcohol burn, this one was quite malty and pungent. Nice aromas of pine, mango and tropical fruit. But the beer was way too thick and syrupy was the general consensus.
Grade: B-

Millstream Hop 2: Regular readers of this blog will know what big fans of Millstream the Jefe and I are. With a recent law in Iowa passing, breweries can now brew beers over 6% and Hop 2 is Millstream's first double. This one was good and sweet, with a smooth crisp body. That said, it lacked any hop aroma. While tasty, it wasn't nearly hoppy enough for a double IPA.
Grade: B

Moylan's Hopsickle: This one was the first to really blow us away with the aroma. It smelled the way one imagines a double IPA should smell. Citrusy and piney with a lot of grapefruit and orange. Fairly well balanced and bitter, but a little on the malty side. A little too much on the combination of malt and syrupy body.
Grade: B

Odell's Myrcenary: The first to really blow us away (as was the Odell's IPA in the fall tasting). Light in color and body, this was full of nice tropical and citrusy hop aromas, along with some slight pine. Sweet, but clean, hoppy but really smooth. After the Hopsickle, we really loved this one.
Grade: A-

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid: We are all pretty familiar with this one, but all enjoyed it in this setting. Light with a malty and orangey aroma, this one is smooth and hoppy. Probably a solid B, but what bumped this one up to a B+ is the bang for your buck that Hop Stoopid is. At $5 a bomber, you can not find a better value for a double IPA. In the same class as Imperials that are double the price, this one is a no brainer when you want a good DIPA without dropping $9-$13.
Grade: B+

Boulevard Double Wide: A lesson for me that you should not judge a beer by the association you have with the brewery. Boulevard Wheat is a gateway beer on tap in much of the midwest, but their Smokestack Series has produced some very good beers, Double Wide among them. This one had some interesting flavors, a little vanilla and more bitter than some of the others we drank. Much more carbonated than the other beers, it was quite drinkable. Very good.
Grade: B+

Grand Teton Lost Continent: The biggest surprise of the evening. Jesse picked this one up on a whim (along with the Double Wide) and we were all blown away. Jefe called it an Imperial Two Hearted, it was light but complex. It had nice citrusy aromas of lemon and orange. Just fantastic aromas, nice complex sweetness in the body and finish and a good bitterness.
Grade: A -

Weyerbacher Simcoe: Aromas of brown sugar, pine and grapefruit. This one was thick and sticky. Puckering finish, with a ton of malt and syrup in the body. It was good, but a little too much. Was a little disappointing since Jesse dropped $13 for this bomber and we had high expectations of this one.
Grade: B+

Surly Abrasive: I have to admit that all of us were familiar with this one and Jefe and I pegged it as the favorite going into the night. We saved it for last because of that reason and it didn't disappoint. We all agreed it was head and shoulders above the rest. The aroma is so complex, piney and citrusy, but more aromatic than some of the others. Bright and bitter, but well balanced between sweetness and bitter finish. Bias aside, Abrasive just brought more to the table.
Grade: A

At the end of the "first round" we went back and tasted some others just to make sure we were being fair to the earlier beers. In the end, this was the consensus order:

1. Surly Abrasive
2. Grand Teton Lost Continent
3. Odell's Myrcenary
4. Boulevard Double Wide
5. Weyerbacher Simcoe
6. Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
7. Moylan's Hopsickle
8. Millstream Hop2
9. Avery Maharaja

What is fun about a beer tasting is that everyone tastes something different and it felt good that the three of us really poured (no pun intended) over the beers to come up with a "final list." The next step is to take the top 3 or 4 and put them up against the ones we forgot to include. But after the three of us were hung over on Mother's Day...it might be awhile until we can get the opportunity to do it again :)

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Funky Monk Belgian IPA

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:06:00 +0000

Last fall I brewed an IPA using only Zeus hops my friend Jesse grew for me. I was really impressed with the hops, they were really sweet and orangey. The beer, Lightning in a Bottle, was really good I thought, but it wasn't really an IPA. Despite using 1.5 ounces of whole leaf hops for bittering (and we believe the alpha acids were around 14-15%) the LIB wasn't very bitter. I'm not sure what the cause was, some thoughts are the bittering affect of young hops. Because of the lack of bitterness, I thought the hops would be fantastic in a Belgian IPA. The sweetness and fruitiness could turn out quite tasty if paired with an Abbey Ale yeast.
So I decided to brew a beer featuring these hops again. This time around I went with a base of pilsner malt, with a little bit Belgian aromatic and Belgian carapils. I also used 1 lb of turbinado sugar and 1 lb of orange blossom honey to give it some nice floral notes. I went with Wyeast 3787, Trappist High Gravity because of it characterized as more fruity than spicy, which I wanted in the Funky Monk.
The partial mash recipe is:
4 lbs Organic Pilsner Malt
.5 lbs Belgian Aromatic
.5 lbs Belgian Carapils
3.15 lbs Light Organic LME
1 lb Turbinado sugar
1 lb Orange Blossom Honey

Hops: .65 Columbus @ 60
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 15
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 10
.35 Columbus @ 5
1 oz Whole Leaf Zeus @ 2

3787 Wyeast Trappist High Gravity

I'm also going to bottle condition it until July or August. Last year I found that (as I should always know about Belgian yeasts) the Funky Monk was so much better several months later. So I plan on being patient on this one too.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

El Muerto 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:18:00 +0000

El Muerto is a beer that I've brewed more than any other beer. Despite the fact that a beer named El Muerto has been brewed multiple times over the past 6 years, the recipe has evolved and completely changed numerous times. Orginally designed as a clone beer to Rogue's Dead Guy, I have augmented the recipe so many times that it has nothing to do with the original idea.
The basics of the recipe have always been some combination of Munich, Crystal 60 and crystal 120 malts... but the hop bill has changed quite a few times.
Last fall I brewed big hoppy amber ale for the fall, I called it Los Muertos, a kind of doublish version of the Muerto. I loved the Los Muertos, it was one of the best beers I've brewed this year. So I thought to myself... I've got it! Just scale it back and now I have the newest (and maybe final) version of El Muerto. This time of year I really love redish/amber ales brewed with a lot of citrusy hops. I love Summit's Horizon Red and Odell's Red Ale. So with those beers, and Los Muertos in mind, I headed to the homebrew store. What made Los Muertos work in my mind, was a large portion of Munich malt, and a nice combination of piney/spiceness from Simcoe hops and the floral/citrusy tones of the Amarillo and Cascade hops. To my surprise, there seems to be a bit of hop shortage at Northern Brewer, so I had to improvise.
Out of Amarillo and Simcoe (a hop I've really grown to love)... I decided to go with Summit hops for the bittering hops and the substitution for Simcoe. They might not be as piney, but they sound pretty close. Warrior was available, but after some experience with Warrior in my Black IPA, I can say that they are quite strong and stronger than I wanted in the Muerto. For the finishing hops I decided to go with Columbus and Cascade for the replacement to Amarillo. I'm going to dry hop with some Zeus hops that were grown for me by my friend Jess. The Zeus hops I have are quite orangy/tangeriney, so it should add quite a bit of citrus. I am going to tone down the bitttering hops, just to bring the malt forward a bit more.
Hopefully it will turn out.
More to come. Tomorrow I'm off to visit some good friends in San Diego and will be hitting up the infamous Port Brewing/Lost Abbey, can't wait.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Gringo 2011

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:22:00 +0000

Several years ago I set out to try and hone my skills by brewing 4 or 5 recipes and master them. That didn't really work out, I have a hard time brewing the same beer very often because I'm constantly inspired to try brewing something different. Either I try a commercial beer that inspires me, come up with a label or name idea I want to work into a new recipe, or end up tweaking an old recipe so much that it's not the same beer.
But there is one beer that I've consistently brewed (relatively) the same for four years. What started out as a 3 gallon experiment has turned into one of my favorite beers to brew. The Gringo started out as my sarcastic take on the Imperial movement, at the time I thought an Imperial Mexican Lager was kind of over the top. Now everything is imperial, and the imperial pilsners I've had are fantastic. The Gringo is intended to be a hoppy Corona-esque thirst quencher. 4.65 ounces of Centennial and Cascade hops in the last 15 minutes gives the Gringo it's citrusy punch and the addition of Agave Nectar in the secondary gives it a nice sweetness on top of the citrusy hops. Not able to maintain lager temps during fermentation, I use California 2112 yeast which gives it lager "like" characteristics, then I put it in a fridge and lager it for 3 months, which really smooths it out and gives it a nice crispness.
I have not tweaked the recipe much each year, but I do make some minor changes. This year, I didn't have any organic Vienna malt, and chose to up the Pilsner malt instead, which might make a very slight change in the profile, but I don't expect too much. I also had to audible because they were out of organic light dry malt extract at Northern Brewer, so I went with 6lbs LME instead (still ended up with the same OG however). The only other change I made was adding some agave nectar to the boil in replacement of sugar. No matter how hard I try... I can't help tweaking a bit :)

Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Double Brew Weekend Pt.2- Stout Chocula

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I made the most of some open time to brew up two batches of beer. The first beer was a black IPA, and the second beer was a remake of one of my favorite beers from last year, the Stout Chocula. Impressed by Founder's Breakfast Stout, I decided to brew my own breakfast stout. While not nearly as heavy and big as Founder's version, I was really happy with the turn out of Stout Chocula. The addition of coffee and cocoa nibs in the secondary really brought the beer home. Cocoa nibs were the key, adding a nice chocolate flavor and creaminess that played really well with the coffee.This year I thought that I could try to enhance the beer with two of brewers' favorite stout additions... oak and bourbon.I looked at a lot of blogs and recipes about adding both oak and bourbon. I decided to go with oak cubes, as they seem to impart more flavor than chips. I decided to soak 1 oz of oak cubes in about a shot and a half of Jim Beam Bourbon. I plan on letting the cubes soak for a week, then adding the cubes and the remaining liquid into the secondary (along with the coffee extract and cocoa nibs). In order to impart a nice balance of flavors and aromas, I intend to age the stout on the cubes for a couple months. Should be interesting. Here is the recipe:
Steep: 1 lb Organic Chocolate
2 oz Organic Roasted Barley
4 oz Organic Black Malt

Mash @ 152 for 1 hour:
2 lbs Org. Munich
.5 lbs Crystal 60
.5 lbs Oatmeal
1 lb Organic 2-Row
.5lbs wheat
.5lbs coffee malt

6 lbs Organic Liquid Malt Extract @ 60
.75 oz Nugget @ 60
.25 oz Nugget @ 30

Irish Ale Yeast

More to come:
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Double Brew Weekend- Darkside IPA

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:11:00 +0000

This past weekend I had a rare opportunity to brew on back to back nights, and squeeze in a beer tasting with some buddies. For Christmas I got a new brew pot that allows me to boil all 5 gallons, so I've been pretty excited to be brewing with it, and thankful for the time to brew two batches in 24 hours!
Lately I've been on a big stout kick, and the theme of the beer tasting on Saturday was dark beers. As a little change of pace from the darkness, I wanted to brew up something hoppy. I just couldn't get completely away from the dark malts that have been dominating my palate as of late. So I decided to brew my first black IPA.
I really wanted to go with some piney notes from the hops, so I settled on using Warrior and Simcoe hops. I was really impressed with the piney/spiciness from the Simcoe I used in the Los Muertos I made earlier this fall. The Warrior and Simcoe also should give me some of the citrusy notes I want to come through as well. I added .20 oz of Centennial in the last 2 minutes, and plan on using them as a dry hop to add some complexity to the nose.
I went with this recipe:
Mash @ 154 for 1 hour:
1 lbs Organic Munich
12 oz organic vienna
4 oz organic victory malt
1 lb org 2-Row
1lb Org carapils

1 lb Black Malt (steeped)
6.30 lbs Org LME (3.15 @ 60, 3.15 lbs @ 20)

Hops:
1.25 oz Warrior (17% AAU) @ 60
.25 oz Warrior @ 30
.5 oz Simcoe @ 15
.25 oz Warrior @ 15
.5 oz Simcoe @ 10
.25 oz Warrior @ 10
1 oz Simcoe @ 5
.20 oz whole leaf Centennial @ 2 minutes

I poured the wort on top of a yeast cake of American Ale 2 from the Frozen Beard Winter Ale. I love using American Ale 2 for IPAs, and hoping that the citrusy/spiciness plays well with the roasty notes.

More to come this week: The second brew from the weekend, Stout Chocula, and a report from The Embrace the Darkside dark beer tasting!
More to come!
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Frozen Beard Winter Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Even though it is only the second day of January, this winter is shaping up to be a bitch of one here in Minnesota. We have had a lot of snow (seemingly more early on than usual) and now the real cold season seems to be setting in. Its the time of year when Minnesotans hole up and drink, and lately I've been filling my fridge with a variety of dark beers.
I decided to brew up another Frozen Beard Winter Ale, this time going with a stout. I find myself brewing styles in waves, wanting to brew hoppy beers in succession, or in this case stouts. I have only brewed a few stouts in my 6 years of brewing, but I have to say it is one of my favorite styles of beer to brew. Similar to how I feel about Belgian beers, I feel like there is so many different things you can do with a stout. I decided to go on a stout run of sorts, I plan on brewing another version of the Stout Chocula to go on top of the yeast cake of the Frozen Beard.
For the Frozen Beard I didn't really have a particular style of stout in mind, but I knew I wanted to add some dark Belgian syrup to the boil, but when I got to the brew store, they were out of it. Instead I opted for using some Treacle I had at home to achieve some of the same things I wanted out of Belgian syrup, and then some Star Anise caught my eye, so I bought some of that as well. Knowing I was going to be brewing up a chocolaty stout after this one, I wanted this one to feature some flavors quite different, so the anise and molasses that comes from the Treacle should be nice.

I went with this:
Steep: 12 oz Org Roasted Barley
4 oz Org. Black Malt

Mash @ 157 for 1 hour
1 lb Org. Carapils
1 lb Wheat
1 lb Org. Munich
12 oz Org. Crystal 60
4 oz Org. Crystal 120

6 lbs Organic Light LME

1 T Black Treacle @ 10
3 stars of Star Anise @ 10

1.5 oz Fuggles @ 60
.5 oz Fuggles @ 30

1272 American Ale 2

My only concern is if that the anise doesn't overwhelm. I've never used it before, it really had a strong aroma before I put it in the boil. Should be interesting.
Happy New Year!
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

Untamed Beer Review

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:27:00 +0000

I'm almost embarrassed to be writing this blog post. You see about 4 months ago Brian @ Untamed Beer sent me a box of his beer. I always enjoy Brian's blog, and in the past have really enjoyed his homebrew. Brian sent me six of his beers, and for reasons I can't even try to justify, it's taken me this long to work through the beers and write up a proper review.

Regardless of how long it took, it was amazing to experience. I'm not trying to be dramatic, Brian (and his wife's) beers are incredible. The creativity that goes into his beers is the stuff that inspires me as a homebrewer. I had made the decision to get back to trying to push the envelope and be creative in my brewing and Untamed's beers reminded me of why I need to do that. Brian sent me six beers; Kolsch, Smoked Chocolate Porter, 2009 Bourbon Oak Aged Imperial stout, a Gruit and two beers his wife brewed, a Thai Pale Ale and a Curry Stout.

Per Brian's suggestion I started with the Kolsch which was bottled off the keg. I'll write up the rest in order of drinking them:

Kolsch: This beer poured light straw gold with a thin white head. Wonderful fruity aromas, floral and almost apple notes. Sweet, but not overly sweet at first. A subtle floral sweetness followed by some grainy flavors. Finishes crisp and slightly dry, almost bitter as one would expect of a kolsch. A very refreshing, true to style kolsch.

Thai Pale Ale- Pours cloudy orange with a thin white head. Amazing aromas of ginger, floral hops, and slight spiciness. Smooth and sweet at first. Wonderful complexity of flavors, the "Thai" flavors don't overwhelm, but there is some nice lemongrass in the finish that works so well with the pale ale. It's malty with a great lingering sweetness. It's unique, but so well balanced and the lemongrass and other spices really play nicely with the pale ale. Very good!

Smoke Chocolate Porter- Pours jet black with a two finger khaki head. Chocolate and roasted aromas with some nice smokiness coming through. Excellent texture, milkshake like creaminess with a full but smooth mouthfeel. As it warms, the chocolate and smoke start to stand out more. It's complex but clean, not overly smokey, just a touch to add some nice character to a great chocolate porter.

2009 Bourbon Oak Imperial Stout- Pours motor oil black with a thick khaki head. Chocolate, bourbon, woodiness and roasted barley aromas hit you right away. Smooth and chocolaty at first, followed by some nice woodiness and some licorice in the finish. The bourbon is faint, a hint in the nose and the finish. The woodiness blends really well with the roasted notes. Just a fantastic beer.

Massaman Curry Stout- Pours black with a thin white ring around the glass. Smells so aromatic, not surprisingly, smells exactly like curry. I've never smelled a beer like this before. Really interesting and unique. Spices dominate, I know Brian's wife Nicole threw in a ton of spices:whole cardamom pods, dried chili peppers, cinnamon sticks, crushed cloves, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin, nutmeg, mace, coconut flakes. The cardamom is really the spice that dominates, but there really is a unique mixture going on. After the intial layer of spices, the stout starts to come through, with some faint chocolate and roasted notes. The beer is good, and definitely unique, but not one I could drink often. Very impressed with the concept, and I think I'd like it more if the spices weren't so dominate.

Gruit - I was very curious about this beer. An old beer style brewed before the use of hops. This beer is brewed with sweet gale, rosemary, juniper berries, cardamom, star anise, caraway seeds, ginger and bay leaves. The beer pours mahogany with some red highlights and a thin white head. Again, spices come through, especially the cardamom, ginger and star anise in the aroma. The flavor is sweet, with the star anise coming through nicely in the finish. It's unique, very sweet, obviously not bitter. A very interesting combination of spices and sweetness, very easy drinking.

Overall, I was really impressed with Brian and Nicole's brewing. The beers were unique and well crafted. While the curry stout and gruit might not be beers that I would drink on a regular basis, I applaud their approach. It's why we homebrew, to create something without restrictions. The Thai Pale Ale is a perfect example of what happens when you take risks, you end up with an outside the box concept that works so well that it makes total sense in the end. A big thanks to Untamed for the box of beer, (patience waiting for this review), and the inspiration to keep pushing the envelope.

Salud!
Bearded Brewing.

5 Year Anniversary Ale

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:28:00 +0000

I've been brewing for over 8 years. For the first couple years I brewed several kits a year. Living in a small apartment, brewing was fun, but not worth all the cumbersome chores involved with the process. Then my wife and I bought a house, a 50's stucco that included a special room in the basement. The room was a canning kitchen, complete with a gas stove, plenty of cupboard space and a long counter top perfect for bottling. It was the ideal set up for a homebrewing, plus it was close to the laundry sink. Easy access to water, gas stove, space for fermentation, and no need to mess up the kitchen! Too good to be true.
I started brewing more that following year, and then one summer got really into brewing. I also got a subscription to Brew Your Own Magazine. The issue that forever changed my brewing was the issue with the annual label contest winners. I was so blown away by the labels, the creativity that went into them, and the concept of uniquely naming your homebrewery. I decided to create my own homebrewery name, something I had never even considered before. I also started designing labels, something I have found to love as much as brewing.
That summer I designed my first label (below), and I also took the plunge into creating my first beer from scratch, the Bearded Fury Pale Ale. Even after pouring over recipes, I must have annoyed the hell out of the patient staff of Northern Brewer with all my questions. A simple extract Pale Ale recipe was a huge leap of faith for me. But it turned out pretty well (from what I can remember) and Bearded Brewing was born. What followed has been more fun than I ever anticipated. Several months later, after a tasting party to share a bunch of homebrew with friends, I launched a website because my friends wanted to keep informed of what I was brewing. My friend El Jefe and I created a site, but after a year, we encountered some problems with the site and I found the blogosphere as a replacement. That opened up a whole new world, and one that I have benefited from in more ways than I ever imagined. Not only did people care about what I was posting (something weird to me at first), but I became friends with people through this world. Trading beers and emails, meeting up with some local bloggers/brewers, and even going to the National Homebrew Conference on a media pass. I have learned SO much through the people I've met through the blog. I have tasted amazing homebrews, beers that have inspired me and expanded my appreciation of beer.It has been an incredible experience, one I honestly never expected when I started brewing, or blogging for that matter. A sincere thank you to all of you who read, post comments, email, etc.
I wanted to brew a beer to commemorate the 5 years that Bearded Brewing has been in existence. I decided to brew a stout for the winter, but wanted to go with something I hadn't done before, which is use a lot of wheat. I decided to go with a partial mash recipe, and changed up some things at the store. Here's the recipe:
6 lbs Wheat Extract
4 oz Org. Black Patent
4 oz Org. Chocolate malt
4 oz Org. Special B
2 oz Org. Crystal 120
2 oz Org. Cryatal 60
2 oz Choco wheat
2 oz Dark wheat
1 lb Org. Munich
1 lb flaked wheat
4 oz Org. Carapils
1 oz Fuggles
Yeast 1098 English Ale

Should be interesting. The next post I write will be a review of some beers from Untamed Beer Blog. I got some beers made by Brian and his wife in August. Have been working my way through them and feel AWFUL that it has taken me this long to a)drink them all and b) write a review of them. So an apology to Brian. And stay tuned for that.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

El Oso Rojo Raspberry Brown

noreply@blogger.com (The Bearded Brewer) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 02:14:00 +0000

Last week I brewed up my annual holiday ale. In the past I've tended to go with something lighter that would appeal to a lot of people, usually a Belgian wit with a holiday twist. Last year it was a Cranberry Orange Wit, that was good, but not great. I've been wanting to brew a raspberry brown ale for some time. The only one I've ever had is from a California brewery, Lost Coast Raspberry Brown. Unfortunately I can't get Lost Coast in Minnesota, but I make sure to enjoy this beer whenever I can get my hands on it, and it is a family favorite. My wife thought that it would make a great holiday beer.
For the second year in a row, I found myself brewing on Halloween, which was perfect timing because I wanted to allow a brown ale plenty of time to age. With the brown ale I brewed last year, El Oso, I found that it was really good the longer it conditioned in the bottle.
I went with a really simple recipe for Oso Rojo. I didn't use the El Oso recipe, instead I wanted to utilize the organic Victory malt I got from Seven Bridges this summer, to impart some nuttiness and biscuity flavors. Wanting to emphasize those biscuit notes, I toned down the caramel and chocolate in the grain bill.
Here's what I went with for an extract recipe:
6 lbs Organic LME
Steeping grains: 8 oz Organic Victory Malt
4 oz Org. Caramel 60
4 oz Org. Chocolate

1 oz Org. Fuggles @ 60
1 oz Org. Fuggles @ 10
Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale
* Raspberry extract in secondary

I usually use American 1056 in brown ales, but I wanted to get some nice fruitness and maltiness from the English yeast that I hope will help accentuate the raspberry extract.
Should be interesting. I find that late fall, early winter is the perfect time for a nice brown ale, so I'm hoping this one turns out as intended.
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer