India pale saison

This is a review of my first attempt at all grain brewing. I decided to make a hoppy saison since I still don't have a good temperature control system. It turned out to be a smashing success - far and away better than the extract brews that came before it! Here's my review:

Look:  Orange-yellow, straw colored. Slightly hazy, but as a farmhouse ale I think it is fitting. Pours a lush white head that is rich and stiff (it can support a bottle cap). Lots of staying power. When the head dissipates, it leaves behind some beautiful lacing. The body on this beer really is spot on!

Aroma:  Spice and citrus. Slightly fruity. I am having trouble placing the particular spices. If I make this again, I will dial back the hops a touch. It is just a little bit too hoppy for the bitterness to play well off of the spiciness, which is what I wanted.

Taste:  Spice and hop character mesh well and play off one another. Again, a little bit too hoppy. Dialing back hops and bumping up gravity would benefit this beer.

Mouthfeel:  This beer has some nice body, but it is also pretty strongly carbonated. These two factors play off one another and make the beer seem light but not thin. The carbonation level accentuates the hoppiness, causing a slight puckering sensation when drinking. The overall result is a very strong but clean feeling beer.

I'm very satisfied with this beer, and it can easily be improved when making it a second time.



Recipe Name:         India Pale Saison

Recipe Volume:      5 gallons

Yeast:                     White Labs WLP568 Saison Blend

Malts:	Amount
1. 2-row malt	8 lbs.
2. Vienna malt	1 lb.
3. Carapils	0.5 lb.
3. Honey malt	0.5 lb.

Brewhouse Efficiency                      77%
Calculated Original Gravity            1.055
Caclulated Boil Gravity                   1.044
Measured Original Gravity             1.056

Hops:	Amount	Boil Time	IBUs
1. Nugget (13.5%)	1 oz.	60	49
2. Warrior (16.7%)	0.5 oz.	30	23
3. Saaz (2.4%)	1 oz.	1	0

Calculated IBUs          73

Pumpkin Ale

I got the beer team together about a month ago to brew a pumpkin ale. We decided to use whole pumpkins and roast them ourselves instead of canned. The results were fantastic! I am very proud of this brew. Here's a review and a few photos. Enjoy!


Appearance:  Golden yellow color. Very bright and warm. Evokes thoughts of harvest. Thin, off-white head that rapidly dissipates leaving little lacing.

Aroma:  Lots of spices shine through. Strong aroma of nutmeg and warm cinnamon. Also a slight nuttiness and a creamy smell present (possibly due to lactose). Warm fruity notes also present.

Taste:  Complex. Starts out sweet and slightly sour. Some caramel flavor comes through (would be worth bumping up when we give this another go - possibly more Crystal malt). Spices present on the back end of the taste. Neutral malt backbone present throughout, which works quite well.

Mouthfeel:  Medium-high carbonation level. Lactose gives slightly velvety feeling at start, which is cleaned up by effervescence.

Overall, a great beer! I am very satisfied with this one. It is going into my hall of fame.

Banana Brett saison - an exercise in funking beer

Ask any homebrewer with his salt what the key to good brewing is and you will often get three words in response:

Sanitize. Sanitize. Sanitize.
And this is generally good advice. However, on occasion when the brewer throws caution to the wind and opens up his brew to allow whatever floating through the air might find its way in, something amazing happens. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the sour beer!

Ok, so this is not the way many modern sour beers are actually made, but it harkens back to a previous era and the true spirit of what a sour beer is. Wild yeast and bacteria are present in our air. If you don't believe me, take a nice juicy steak and leave it out on your counter for a few weeks. While there are plenty of wild microbes out there that we would have no interest in ingesting, a select few can produce wonderful, mind-blowing results when cultured in a beer fermentation. Here are some of the key players that go into making sour beer what it is:

Brettanomyces (Brett)
This wild yeast is often suggested to impart "horsey, barnyard tastes and aromas." While this might not sound all that appealing, it somehow manages to work in many beers when present in the proper proportions. Brett also provides a hint of sour flavor to beer. This is accomplished by some metabolic pathways utilized by Brett yeast strains which result in the production of acids.

Lactobacillus (Lacto)
Lacto ferments lactose to lactic acid. I haven't used it yet in a brew. It produces a very sour beer.

Pediococcus
Anyone who is not interested in making sour beers should avoid this bacteria like the plague. Once it takes roost in brewing equipment, it is almost impossible to eradicate. However, for some sour beers, Pediococcus is a key component.  It is always used in conjunction with Brett. I have not used it yet.

Now that you have a bit of a primer, let me explain my most recent brew. I recently had a beer from Jester King, one of the boldest local breweries in Austin. This beer, called El Cedro, motivated me to try to brew with Brett. Since I have a stir plate and can make starters, I figured rather than going out and buying some, I would just culture it out of the bottom of the El Cedro bottle (it is a nonfiltered beer). I did this, brewed a saison, which I let run its course through primary fermentation, and then added the El Cedro starter and a couple of bananas. Results to come (but probably not for a few months). Here are some photos for you to enjoy and the recipe if you want to brew it yourself!

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, this was my first all grain brew!

Aldy preparing the mash

Egg drop soup?

Immediately after adding bananas and Brett

2 hours after adding bananas and Brett

Recipe Name:         Banana Brett Saison

Recipe Volume:      1 gallon

Yeast:                     White Labs WLP568 Saison Blend for primary fermentation
                                Brett cultured from El Cedro for secondary fermentation

Malts:	Amount
1. 2-row malt	8 lbs.
2. Vienna malt	1 lb.
3. Carapils	0.5 lb.
3. Honey malt	0.5 lb.

Brewhouse Efficiency            77%
Calculated Original Gravity            1.055
Caclulated Boil Gravity                   1.044
Measured Original Gravity             1.056

Hops:	Amount	Boil Time	IBUs
1. Nugget (13.5%)	1 oz.	60	49
2. Warrior (16.7%)	0.5 oz.	30	23
3. Saaz (2.4%)	1 oz.	1	0

Calculated IBUs          73

Imperial Amber Ale Review

Here's a review of my latest beer:

Look:  Deep amber/brown. Looks like it could be a brown ale, but has a slight reddish hue. Slightly off white head that leaves behind nice lacing on the glass.

Aroma:  TROPICAL!!! Lots of mango and some pineapple on the nose. This is likely due to excessive use of Simcoe hops.

Taste:  Fruit comes through first. Some mild malty undertones. Finishes with the mango and pineapple and a slight alcohol flavor. I think it could do with more bittering. Lots of fruit complexity, but since I was going for something hybrid between an amber and an IPA, I think it isn’t far enough into the IPA camp.

Feel:  Smooth and velvety. Feels like it has some real body to it. It is a bit on the heavy side and leaves quite a coating on the palate.

Overall it's not bad, but too much in the fruit camp for my tastes without enough bittering to balance. If I make this one again I will need to hop the shit out of it during the boil. I already added a lot of hops and still no bitterness comes through. The IBUs should be at least doubled! This would probably be a good one to go overboard hopping. The rest of the flavors would balance it nicely.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe Name:         La Mia's Imperial Amber IPA

Recipe Volume:      1 gallon

Yeast:                     White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Malts:	Amount	Gravity Points
1. Pale malt extract (DME)	1.75 lbs.	77
2. Crystal 120	1.75 oz.	3
3. Caramunich	1.75 oz.	3

Calculated Original Gravity            1.084
Caclulated Boil Gravity                   1.060
Measured Original Gravity             1.090

Hops:	Amount	Boil Time	IBUs
1. Nugget (13.3%)	0.2 oz.	90	45
2. Simcoe (13%)	0.15 oz.	30	24
3. Simcoe (13%)	0.15 oz.	1	24
4. Nugget (13.3%)	0.1 oz.	Dry Hop
5. Simcoe (13%)	0.2 oz.	Dry Hop

Calculated IBUs          70

Procedure
- Heat 1 gallon of water in a large pot.
- Heat 3 cups of water to 150-160 F in small pot, add Crystal 120 and Caramunich. Steep for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (maintaining temperature is not vital). Remove grain bag and wash with water heated in large pot.
- Add 3 more cups of water, bring to boil, turn off heat and stir in 1.75 lbs. DME
- Return to boil and add 0.2 oz. Nugget hops
- Boil 60 minutes, and then add 0.15 oz. Simcoe hops
- Boil 15 minutes, and then add 1/4 tsp. yeast nutrient and 1/4 tsp. Irish moss
- Boil 14 minutes, and then add 0.15 oz. Simcoe hops
- Boil 1 more minute, then take off heat
- Top up to 1 gallon with chilled sterilized water
- Chill wort to 75 F in ice water bath
- Add wort to fermenter
- Aerate for a few mintues
- Pitch 3/4 of 1 vial of yeast

"Sugarman" Chocolate Stout Review

Here's a review of the latest homebrew I have been enjoying.

Look:  DEEP brown. Almost black. Very rich color. Brownish head that looks lush but dissipates quickly leaving behind little lacing.

Aroma:  Surprisingly, the overwhelming aroma I get is of coffee. A little bit of roastiness and mocha comes through too.

Taste:  Very sweet to start. A punch of sweetness that mellows out to a roasty character with some bready overtones. Slight bitterness rounds out flavor. Slight bitter chocolate flavor, but without knowing this is a “chocolate” stout, I probably wouldn’t peg it as such. Some coffee notes come through as well. On the not so nice side of things, I can taste some astringency and some fusel alcohol flavors.

Feel:  Has a bit of a bite to it. Not as velvety as a lot of other stouts I have had. Leaves a sharp feeling in the mouth.

Overall I think this was a good first effort. Definitely could be much better. Fermenting at lower temperature would probably be key, but not necessarily easy for me to accomplish in Austin during the summer. I may have to revisit this one when the weather cools off a little bit.

For those interested, here's the recipe:

Recipe Name:         "Sugarman" Chocolate Stout

Recipe Volume:      5 gallons

Yeast:                     White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale

Malt:	Amount	Gravity Points
1. Pale malt extract (DME) in boil	3.3 lbs.	42
2. Pale malt extract (DME) at knockout	3.3 lbs.	42
3. Crystal 60 malt	0.5 lb.	3
4. Roasted barley	0.5 lb.	4
5. Chocolate malt	0.5 lb.	3

Calculated Original Gravity            1.063
Caclulated Boil Gravity                   1.044
Measured Original Gravity             1.068

Hops:	Amount	Boil Time	IBUs
1. Nugget (13.3%)	0.75 oz.	60	37
2. Fuggle (4.5%)	1 oz.	30	13

Calculated IBUs          49

Procedure
- Heat 1 gallon of water to 150-160 F, add Crystal 60, roasted barley, and chocolate malt. Steep for 30 minutes (maintaining temperature is not vital in this stage). Remove grain bag and let drain.
- Add 3 gallons of water, bring to a boil, then turn off heat and stir in 3.3 lbs. DME
- Return to boil and add 0.75 oz. Nugget hops
- Boil 30 minutes, and then add 1 oz. Fuggle hops
- Boil 15 minutes, and then add 1 tsp. yeast nutrient
- Boil 15 minutes, then add 3.3 lbs. extract, let sit 10 minutes to pasteurize
- Add 1.5 gallons chilled sterilized water
- Chill wort to 75 F in ice water bath
- Add wort to fermenter
- Pitch yeast

The beer in Barcelona...

It has been a few weeks since I last posted on this blog. That is because I have spent the last week and a half in and around Barcelona. Barcelona is an amazing city in an even more amazing nation (Catalonia, currently the northwestern-most province of Spain). The lifestyle, culture, and people of this area are all very near and dear to my heart. I hope to live in Barcelona sometime in the near future (hopefully at the culmination of my current mental/emotional journey in the strange world of Ph.D.'s and academics). This place has become precious to me, and that is without even mentioning the culture unto itself that is Catalan gastronomy.

I have had many of the best meals of my life in Catalonia. The beauty of Catalan cuisine is not just the intense flavor and freshness of the paella, fideua, fish, shrimp, calamari, clams, muscles, sepia, not to mention metric tons of pork available in every imaginable form (look up jabugo, chorizo, salchichon, and fuet to see just a bit of what I am talking about). No, no! The true beauty of Catalan cuisine is the culture behind it, the pride taken in preparing and serving it. I have been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to experience these wonders in the company of good Catalan friends.

Having said all that, the beer selection available in Catalonia, even in Barcelona (one of the world's major cities by anyone's estimation) can be summed up in two words: limited and unimpressive. Beer is simply not good in this part of the world. The only selection is between a few different brands of pilsners. The entire status of beer over there can be captured with one observation - you can go into a restaurant in Barcelona and simply order "una cerveza" (a beer for those who don't know any Spanish). You don't need to specify anything beyond that and you will be brought a beer. While this certainly makes things easier for those among us who are not adept at speaking Spanish (me), I think it is a travesty that a place boasting some of the best food in the world is so lacking when it comes to the masterpiece of gastronomy that is beer. I don't know if the problem is that people in Catalonia do not like beer or that they have just not been introduced to the proper types of beers in the proper setting to understand how wonderful beer can be (I would like to hope the latter is true).

One more short story to vent my frustration before I close this post. I went to the Moritz brewery in Barcelona, one of the major breweries of the area. It is located in the center of Barcelona and appears to be a working brewery, with stainless steel vats scattered about and all the other familiar symptoms of a brewery. "Great!" I thought. Surely I would be offered some variety whilst drinking beer at a brewery. In a way this was true. There are three options at the Moritz brewery: pilsner, amber, and "mestiza". I have had plenty of pilsners and ambers in my time, but what is this third variety offered, this mestiza. Those who speak Spanish know that mestiza means mixed, and that's exactly what this option is - a 50:50 mix of the other two varieties.


Ok, moaning is now out of the way.

Voy a volver pronto! Visca Catalonia!!!

Imperial IPA (first original recipe)

I decided to be a little more ambitious for this brew and go by my own recipe. It will be an imperial IPA with a little bit of amber character to it. For those who don't know, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. This is a beer style that is characterized by an intensely hoppy (bitter) flavor. The style was developed back in the times of colonial England. The word "India" in IPA refers not to the country, but to the East India Company, the premier importer/exporter of the 18th century. Beer was among the products that the company exported. Beer, while generally very resistant to bacterial infection can still act as a breeding ground for some bacteria. When it is holed up for months in the hull of a warm, damp ship it becomes especially susceptible. What the clever folks at the East India Company knew was that the isoprenes imparted to the beer by the hops act as an antibiotic agent. They were able to make a beer that would survive a long boat trip across the ocean by adding more hops to it. The result was the extremely bitter style of beer known as the IPA.

So that covers the IPA part of the name, but what about the "imperial." Adding the word "imperial" to the name of any beer style generally means that it is somehow bigger and bolder than its non-imperial counterpart. In general, imperial beers use large amounts of hops and malt. As a result, they are typically higher in ABV and with very in-your-face flavors. My imperial IPA should be no exception!

Here are some photos from brew day:

The wort just before pitching the yeast.

Here it is after sitting for a few minutes. That lighter layer on the bottom is called the hot break protein.

Steeping the specialty grains.

Wort just before hop additions.

What I am shooting for in this beer is a style with decent malt character to it and a nice punch of hops. The hops I used should give the beer fruity and piney flavors. I will review it when it is ready.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe Name:         La Mia's Imperial Amber IPA

Recipe Volume:      1 gallon

Yeast:                     White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Malts:	Amount	Gravity Points
1. Pale malt extract (DME)	1.75 lbs.	77
2. Crystal 120	1.75 oz.	3
3. Caramunich	1.75 oz.	3

Calculated Original Gravity            1.084
Caclulated Boil Gravity                   1.060
Measured Original Gravity             1.090

Hops:	Amount	Boil Time	IBUs
1. Nugget (13.3%)	0.2 oz.	90	45
2. Simcoe (13%)	0.15 oz.	30	24
3. Simcoe (13%)	0.15 oz.	1	24
4. Nugget (13.3%)	0.1 oz.	Dry Hop
5. Simcoe (13%)	0.2 oz.	Dry Hop

Calculated IBUs          70

Procedure
- Heat 1 gallon of water in a large pot.
- Heat 3 cups of water to 150-160 F in small pot, add Crystal 120 and Caramunich. Steep for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (maintaining temperature is not vital). Remove grain bag and wash with water heated in large pot.
- Add 3 more cups of water, bring to boil, turn off heat and stir in 1.75 lbs. DME
- Return to boil and add 0.2 oz. Nugget hops
- Boil 60 minutes, and then add 0.15 oz. Simcoe hops
- Boil 15 minutes, and then add 1/4 tsp. yeast nutrient and 1/4 tsp. Irish moss
- Boil 14 minutes, and then add 0.15 oz. Simcoe hops
- Boil 1 more minute, then take off heat
- Top up to 1 gallon with chilled sterilized water
- Chill wort to 75 F in ice water bath
- Add wort to fermenter
- Aerate for a few mintues
- Pitch 3/4 of 1 vial of yeast