Thrash Metal Pork Rillettes

Here's another fun recipe for cooking with beer. If you've never had rillettes before I highly recommend giving them a shot. It's essentially pork shoulder cooked confit (in rendered pork fat), that is then cooled and shredded apart, at which point you can mix in minced vegetables or dried fruits. Back in May I did a beer dinner with Jester King out of Austin. This was the appetizer, and was quite good.

The rillettes were enhanced by cooking the pork in fat along with some of their Thrash Metal Farmhouse Ale, a Belgian-style strong pale ale. The depth of flavor that the beer helped develop was quite nice, it added some nice fruitiness to the dish along with a great balance from the alcohol. Once the rillettes were made I pressed them into mini terrines with foie gras.

We served with with some wonton crackers (just wonton skins baked on a cookie sheet with a touch of cooking spray), montechevre cheese and some zante currants soaked in their Black Metal Farmhouse Imperial Stout. The flavors of the currants with the stout is quite a good match, the dark rich dried fruit taste from the currants pair up nicely with the roasted and chocolate flavors in the beer. Get that in a bite with the rillettes and you have a match made in heaven.

Thrash Metal Pork Rillettes:

4 lbs. Boneless Pork Shoulder

2 lbs. rendered pure white pork fat (or lard will do the trick in a pinch)

2 tbls. Tellicherry Peppercorns

5 whole garlic cloves

1/2 red onion - roughly chopped

1 cup Belgian Strong Pale Ale

                                            Salt

                                                                                        2 tbs. minced onion

                                                                                        1 tbs. minced garlic

                                                                                        salt and pepper

Take the first seven ingredients and put them in a dutch oven, make sure that the melted fat and beer is covering the pork. If it's not add a little more of each so that the pork shoulder is completely submerged. Cover the dutch oven and place in the oven at 225 for 4 - 6 hours, or until the pork is very soft and tender, and can easily be shredded with two forks. Allow pork to cool. Remove pork from fat, but do not discard the fat, and shred apart with two forks. Add the minced onion and garlic and gently stir to combine. Place in a small jar, or terrine, take some of the cooled rendered fat and use to seal the top.Once sealed these will keep for an extended period of time as the fat is a natural preservative for the meat. The addition of foie gras in the terrine adds a bit of gaminess and is quite good. Serve with crackers or crusty bread and cornichons.

Black Metal Currants:

1 cup dried Zante Currants
2 cups Imperial Stout

Combine and allow to soak over night.

How to pair beer with food.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before... I don't really like to talk about myself all that much on here... but I'm a chef. In a lot of ways that helps me out as a homebrewer. I'm less concerned with following strict recipes and style guidelines, and more interested in developing a flavor profile that I enjoy. I also really love pairing beer with food. While I love Garrett Oliver's Brewmasters Table, and think that it has some great suggested pairings, along with great explanations of styles with examples of styles, it doesn't really lay the foundation for how to pair beer with food... Why should you pair pork belly with a Belgian Trippel? Why shouldn't you pair a sour American Wild Ale with spicy seafood? 

Glad you asked... allow me to explain.

The rules of pairing beer with food are actually pretty similar to pairing wine with food. The fun part though is that beer offers such a broader range. 

1. Like cancels like.

What this essentially means is that like flavors don't enhance each other. In fact it's the exact opposite. Like components between a beer and a dish will tone each other down, which then allows you to taste more of the other flavors in the beer and dish. The dish bellow is an open faced smoked salmon "BLT". The sauce on top is an aioli made with Jester King Noble King. That was paired with the Jester King Farmhouse Wytchmaker Rye IPA. The hoppy flavors from the beer paired with the hoppy flavors from aioli didn't enhance each other, rather they don't each other down. In turn you could taste more of the rustic rye and malt character in the beer.

2. How to cut the fat.

For me anyways, eating a fatty and rich dish can be a bit tiresome after a while. Fat has a way of accumulating on the palate and needs to be cleared. This can be accomplished a few ways. First hop bitterness actually works similar to acidity in wine. The astringency of a really bitter IPA can really help clear fat off of your palate. This can also be accomplished with acidity from a sour beer, or a beer with high alcohol. The following is a picture of duck confit (actually cooked in pork and bacon fat) over a cannellini bean and olive oil puree with sage. That was paired with the Jester King/Mikkeller Beer Geek Rodeo. If you're not familiar with it it's the Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast (Imperial Stout) with chipotle chiles. The high alcohol really cut through the richness of the duck, plus the smokiness in the beer from the chipotle and the smokiness from the bacon toned each other down... which then increased the chocolate and roast characters of the beer.

3. Ease the heat.

I don't have a picture handy to illustrate this next one, but like a lot of richness... a lot of spice can get exhausting. Let's say you have some spicy kung-pao shrimp and it's getting to be too much the last thing you want to reach for is a bitter/hoppy beer like an IPA or pale ale. The hop bitterness will actually magnify the heat. Instead reach for a sweeter beer, particularly your sweeter fruit beers work well in this regard like Magic Hat #9. For darker, richer meats that are spicy I recommend reaching for something like a milk stout.

For the sake of not being exhausting I'll end it here, there's plenty more on pairing beer with food, but these few basics will make your next beer dinner a lot more fun!

Noble King Beer Aioli

This is a really fun sauce that has a broad range of application. Amazing on fish or chicken, but can also dress a salad or be on a sandwich. The recipe is actually a pretty basic aioli, just with a nice hoppy beer added in place of the water and some of the lemon juice. A few notes on this though... make sure you're using a good, real, Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil preferably one with a distinct fruity character and minimal bitterness (olive oils are not all created equally and quality matters... for more info on this read some of Tom Mueller's info on olive oil.) Also please pay attention to the order in which the ingredients are added, if you don't do it just right your aioli will not emulsify.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic

1 tbs. Dijon Mustard

2 egg yolks

1 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 cup Beer with good hop character but not too aggressive bitterness (Jester King Noble King Hoppy)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Coarse Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper To Taste

Assemble:

In the work bowl of your food processor mince the garlic and add a small amount of salt to help break apart the garlic and soften it up. Add the egg yolks and dijon mustard and puree for 30 seconds. This helps to incorporate some air into the aioli which will aid in the consistency of the finished sauce. Add half of the olive oil very slowly with the food processor running. Add the lemon juice and 1/4 cup of the beer, pulse together. With the food processor running slowly add the olive oil and remaining beer, alternating between the two every few seconds. If the aioli is too thin just add more oil and keep the food processor running until it thickens up. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Homebrew Recipe: Das Funken Weisse - Quick Sour Wheat Beer

Sorry to the four people who read this for the lack of posting over the last month. It's been a pretty crazy month. I went to Italy for a week in May and then there's work.... either way here's what I've been up to.

Back in mid April I brewed a sour wheat beer. Like most of my grists it was painfully simple, half Weyermann Pilsner and half American White Wheat. I did a small mash hop addition with some Willamette and a pretty low mash temp. Here's the fun part though, this thing was sour and ready to drink in a month (from the keg mind you). I started by pitching lactobacillus first and let it ride for 24 hours. Then I went in with a vial of WLP670 (American Farmhouse) and a smack pack of 3068. At one month it was dry, fruity, a touch funky and perfectly soured.

This could be bad info (I'm not a scientist) but from what I've read lactobacillus does poorly in the presence of alcohol, hence my pitching the lacto first. I kept it reasonably warm (76F) while it was all lacto, then about four hours before pitching the rest of my yeast I cooled it down to 68F. I suppose you could compare this beer somewhat to a Berliner Weisse in the sense that it's tart and sour and half wheat. But there's some other stuff happening too, a bit of spice and banana from the 3068, and some subtle brett character from the WLP670. Not to mention I threw two ounces of Citra hops into the keg. The result? A moderate strength, sour, funky, grapefruity and great beer.

Now granted I did make a great sour beer quickly, but I did keg it. I highly doubt the beer was completely done working, if you plan on bottling this you would probably want to give it a few months to ride out the last few gravity points.

Das Funken Weisse

OG - 1.046
Brewhouse Efficiency - 75%
IBUs - 6.8
Mash Type - Single Infusion
Mash Temp - 148F

Malts and Fermentables

4lbs. Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt

4lbs. American White Wheat

Hops

Willamette 5.5%AAU Mash hop - .5oz. - 60 minutes 

Citra 10.5%AAU - Keg Hop - 2.0oz

Yeast and critters

Whitelabs WLP670 American Farmhouse

Whitelabs Lactobacillus Delbrueckii

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan

I'll post a full tasting of this soon. But if you're looking to homebrew a sour beer quickly you may try this and see how it works out for you.

Un Poquito Wylde Tasting

Now that my kegerator is fully operational again, and this keg is fully carbed, I can finally get around to tasting the micro saison I made with my local wild yeast. If you remember the grist was simple, half Vienna malt and half white wheat malt for an OG of 1.032.

For such a simple and small beer this thing has a lot going on. I think it's really cool to make a beer that is completely unique to your area. Unfortunately that's a hard thing to do here in South Texas where mold runs rampant most of the year. I probably tried harvesting yeast 5 or 6 times before I got this last round to actually work without any sort of infectious mold. All in all the flavors of the yeast are relatively mild. Brett character mostly. If I decide to reuse the yeast (which I did wash and save in a growler) I expect some more lacto/pedio character to develop.

Appearance is a ruddy straw color. From the tap a one finger pristine white head forms. The head sticks around quite a bit, that's thanks to the wheat.The head is a little bit alive, with rocky chunks of foam forming and dissipating. Beer is quite cloudy, yeast was not very flocculant. Even with a week of cold crashing, I may decide to hit it with some finings..

The aroma is interesting to say the least. A bit of crackery malt, and a touch of Czech Saaz pokes through, then just awash from the yeast. Solid Brett character, pineapple and other non-descript tropical fruits first, followed by danky bretty must and funk.

The taste follows suit right along with the nose. A bit of Czech saaz character makes itself known up front then gets washed away with Brett character. Tropical notes of pineapple and mango dominate the palate followed by a slight bit of musty Brett funk. A light bit of lactic sourness hits the back of the palate. Finishes dry, but that's too be expected.

The mouthfeel is surprisingly full for such a small beer. The large amount of wheat really helped with that, but there's also a certain silkiness to it that I believe to be coming from the yeast... a lot like what you would get from a saison yeast. I carbed it only to 2.5 volumes to keep it from being astringent, but it's not quite lively enough. So I think I'll up the pressure for a couple of days to see how that helps.

Overall it's a great beer, that's nice and refreshing as it's getting hot out. I think I'm going to try to let it live in the kegerator for a month before I completely finish it. I'd like a bit more acidity to develop. This yeast is interesting and could play well for a larger beer.

Edit 4/26: Decided to throw an ounce of Czech Saaz into the keg. I'm loving the character of the beer so far, but would really like some more hop character.

Kent Goldings Amber Tasting

I've been meaning to get around to typing up this tasting for a while now. My brother and I brewed this back in January and I've been drinking it pretty regularly ever since. In fact my half of it is nearly gone. This beer is by no means perfect, nor does it really fit to the style of your traditional American Amber. For one it's pretty modest in the alcohol content (around 5%) and it doesn't have the same caramel like sweetness (at least not as much as your typical American Amber does). But the biggest differentiation is the hop profile. I find most American Amber Ales to often times cross the line with American IPAs, but typically with more malty sweetness. Instead of going with your typical American citrusy hops I went with some nice soft Kent Goldings. I love the soft floral/fruity character that they add to the beer along with extremely smooth bitterness.

Overall I like this beer quite a bit, it's easy to drink and uncomplicated. The body is not watery at all, but I wish it was a touch more full. It's kind of brinking on being somewhat lager like in how crisp it is... not that it's a bad thing... but not what I was going for.

I'm not going to go into a full fledged tasting notes review on this, because this beer doesn't really call for one. But I will give you the gist of it.

It pours a nice amber with a dense head. Smells of bready malt and classic English hops (floral, a touch woodsy and fruity). The taste is smooth and uncomplicated. Easy to drink and refreshing, and a low enough ABV to not get into too much trouble with. The malt character is a bit bready with a touch of toffee and caramel. The hop bitterness is there, but not assertive, and the hop character takes the back seat. Finishes dry. The mouthfeel is crisp and full, carbed it to 2.5 volumes. Overall a nice beer... not exactly what I was shooting for, but may be something I brew again in the future to tweak a bit.

Gavroche Bier de Garde - Review

Commercial beer reviews aren't the norm for this blog. And why should they be? Any Tom, Dick or Harry can post something on Beer Advocate. But I find that the information on there is only useful when you're specifically looking for it. If I'm stuck between purchasing two different beers and can't make up my mind... sure I'll look them up on my phone to see the score, but I rarely read something that points me in the direction to try something specifically.


One of the very cool things about my job (department manager for a large Texas based retailer) is that I sometimes get my hands on products before they come to market in Texas. This beer that I'm about to review is one of those.

The main reason I'm going to review this is because I was floored at how great this beer was. To be honest, Biere de Garde is a style that I have very limited experience with. I've had the Flying Dog Garde Dog (not that great) and the Jenlain Ambree (not a bad beer) and that's it for the style. Speaking of the style everything I've read says the style is very loose and not all that specific, so I had no idea what to expect going into it.

This is the Brasserie St. Sylvestre's Gavroche. The bottle calls it a "French Red Ale", but really an amber biere de garde.

Appearance - Into an oversized red wine glass it pours a deep rudy amber with a two finger head that sticks around for a few minutes then dissipates into a thin lacy head that sticks around to the end of the glass.

Aroma - The first thing I get is sherry vinegar. Not in an assaulting or offensive way, it's actually quite restrained, but unmistakable. The sherry blends into notes of dried cherries and a flash of black pepper. It ends with a faint crackery maltiness and vanilla aroma.

Taste - Delicate malt sweetness with bits of caramel and vanilla that quickly fades into dryness. A flash of tartness with sherry vinegar, cherries and pepper mid palate. It ends with a small, but firm hop bitterness. The most amazing thing is that this beer is 8.5% ABV and tastes nothing like it. The beer is so wonderfully smooth that you could easily (like I did) end up a bit tipsy by the end of the 750ml bottle.

Mouthfeel - Smooth and delicate with a spritsy carbonation. The mouthfeel is not heavy at all, but still full and lively.

Overall - Everything about this beer speaks of restraint. The flavors are complex and all over the place, but so tight and controlled that everything has it's place and doesn't fatigue the palate at all. Deceptively smooth and refreshing but interesting enough to keep you thinking about all of the flavors until the end of the bottle.

Biere de Garde is not a style I've tried to brew before, but after drinking this I just may have to.

Wild Yeast Micro-Saison

To continue with both my session beer kick and my funky brewing project this week I decided to brew with some local wild yeast that I harvested back in January. I wanted to brew something that would display the yeast quality well without too many other competing flavors. That's why I went with a very low ABV saison. I'm posting about this because for one I think it's really cool to gather your own yeast, but also because there's not really a lot of info available. The pic above is from when I propped it up. You can see the yeast cake on the bottom. The plastic ontop. Is because all of my airlocks were already in use.

I've tried harvesting wild yeast before but all I would get was mold and/or something that just smelled rank. Here in Texas the mold is pretty high so its not the best environment for catching wild yeast. What made this attempt different was that for one it was on one of the few cold nights we see in San Antonio, I've read that during colder weather the bugs are more at bay. I also made sure to wait for a night when the weather report listed the mold count as low/none.

I whipped up a weak dme sollution of 1.030(ish) and split it into two seperate mason jars. I covered them with a bit of cheesecloth to keep flies out and left them out overnight. One went out on my front porch and another on my back porch. Once brought in I covered them with plastic. I ignored it for a while, then before I knew it it had been a week. Checked it and... nada. Nothing had happened. After another 5 days one finally fermented with some nice little yeast rafts floating on top. Two days later the second followed suit. I decided to prop them up together with some late runnings from my lambic. I shook well, gave it nutrient etc... and nada. I decided to leave it alone and ended up forgetting about it. Two weeks had passed and I went to throw it out and sure enough there were yeast rafts on top and a cake on the bottom. I crash chilled it and left it. Then two nights ago I decanted it and threw in another round of starter wort, this time it took off in 12 hours.

When I decanted I took a sample. The smell was wonderful, very fruity with notes of lemongrass and peach plus a light spice. There was also a light sourness to the aroma and a bit of funk. The mouthfeel was quite silky and full. So perfect for a saison.

The brewday was very easy with a very small and simple grainbill. I went with a no sparge method to help accentuate the malt profile. The grainbill was simple, half Vienna half malted wheat. I chose both of those malts to help with the body/malt impression of the beer. The high percentage of wheat should make the mouthfeel reasonably full and the vienna malt should add a bit of breadiness to it. For hops I went with classic Czech Saaz, their spiciness should play well with the characters that I was picking up from the yeast. I only did a single 15 minute addition of the hops, depending on where this beer goes I may end up adding a dry hop addition.


Mash profile: Medium dry 151
OG: 1.032
IBUs: 7.4

Mash ingredients
3lbs. Vienna malt
3lbs. White wheat

1oz. Czech Saaz 4.1% AA 15 minutes.

Yeast: Wild caught yeast from 78247 area code.

Quick update: Despite the long lag time from when I propped this up it took off like a rocket today with onlya six hour lag time.

The Great Souring Project 2012

I have a goal to brew 8 sour beers this year. Ambitious huh? I even made a list of all the things I plan to sour. My plan is to brew two sours every 3 months and then next year I'll have a metric crapton of sour beer to play with/blend. I brewed the first one about two months ago.

The recipe was loosely based on my Belgian Single. I really liked how tight and controlled all the flavors were in that beer. Everything about marked subtlety. I didn't want to brew a sour with a hugely complicated grain bill and end up with too many competing flavors. My goal was just to brew something good, relatively low alcohol and of course sour.

I subbed out the pilsner for two row and upped the wheat a little bit. I kept the chocolate malt and the 60L the same, but also threw in a bit of Victory and Munich for some more malt backbone. After the wort was chilled to about 72 degrees I pitched a pack of the Wyeast Roeselare. No starter and I didn't smack the pack. The roeselare is a very specific blend. Wyeast does not recommend propping it up at all as it will throw off the blend, for that reason I also didn't bother smacking it.

Active fermentation inside of 12 hours that continued for about two weeks. At the one month mark I opened up the carboy to get a smell and a couple hours later fermentation had kicked back up. I'm assuming that it was just the bugs responding to oxygen being introduced.

After two months still no pellicle formation.

O.G. 1.054
IBUS 7.4
Mash Schedule: Single infusion. 152.

Mash Ingredients

7lbs. 2-Row - US
2 lbs. 3oz. White Wheat
1 lb. Munich - 10L
1/2 lb. American Crystal - 60L
1/2 lb. American Victory - 10L
1/4 lb. American Chocolate 325L

.5oz. Willamette Hops 5.4%AA Pellet - 45 minutes

Critters - Wyeast Roeselare Blend

Here's list of sour beers I plan/hope to brew sometime this year

1. Berliner Weiss
2. Low abv. sour/hoppy saison.
3. Saison with my wild caught yeast.
4. Sour peach and plum saison (actually something I've made before)
5. Soured dark mild.
6. Soured robust porter.
7. Soured Belgian golden ale.
8. The one I have fermenting now.

El Simarillo IPA

For one reason or another IPAs are just not a style I brew that often. It's not that I dislike them it's just that it seems that everywhere I turn there's an IPA. Not that that's a bad thing. People are free to brew and drink what they prefer, but for me this hop assault is tiresome.

So that being said when I do brew an IPA it's usually something a bit different. The last one I brewed about two years ago for a friends wedding and fermented it with Belgian yeast. Great beer, but I digress. This one is a bit of an oddball and not entirely sure I can even call it an IPA.

The one thing I dislike about so many American IPAs is that I usually can't taste anything but hops. I wanted a more malty base so for this one the base malt was Vienna along with white wheat. Then a pound of 60l crystal added for color. For the hops I did a first wort hop addition of target (which I do for all of my hoppy beers) and then late hop additions of el dorado and simcoe hops. The beer will later be dry hopped with more el dorado, simcoe then also some amarillo (El Simarillo get it?).

Brew day was largely uneventful. With the exception of burning the tubing to my wort chiller (good thing I have a back up. It was also my first brew using the new false bottom I purchased for my mash tun. I can't confirm it yet but my efficiency was lower than normal and I have a feeling that the change in gear was the culprit.

Mash profile single infusion at 154
Mash efficiency 70%
OG 1.046
IBU 76.8

Mash ingredients
5lbs Vienna malt
3lbs white wheat
1lb 60L crystal malt

Hop schedule
1oz. Target 8.8%aa FWH
1oz. Simcoe 14.1%aa 10min
1oz. Simcoe 14.1%aa 5min
2oz. El Dorado 16%aa 5min

1oz. El Dorado dry hop
2oz. Amarillo dry hop
2oz. Simcoe dry hop

Update 3/18/2011 - Racked onto 2oz. Simcoe, 2oz Amarillo and 1oz. El Dorado. Sample I had was really nice. Bitterness was smooth and clean, which is something I had worried about since using all very high AA% hops.

Calabaza de Fuego - Tasting

I'll start out by saying that I freaking love this beer. It's just so damn good. It has so much stuff going on for such a relatively tiny beer. The base of the beer is an English Dark Mild. A style of which I am particularly fond. I added pumpkin to the beer for body, and then also cocoa to the mash and finally ancho chilis to the fermenter.



The beer is dark (duh) almost cola like. Held up to the light it has a nice ruby color. Pours a very pitiful head that disintegrates into nothing in a matter of seconds... but that's to be expected in this style.

The nose is all over the place and in a good way. First bits of chocolate and roast followed the smallest bit of coffee, then just completely assaulted with the smell of sweet chilies followed by a bit of classic fruity English yeast character.

The taste is pretty much on par with the nose. A nice bit of biscuit and toast and chocolate at first. With just enough chili at the finish to remind you that it's there but not enough to steal the show.

The mouthfeel is where this brew falls short. It's a bit thinner than I was hoping. Brewday for this one had some challenges due to garage brewing on a very cold day, which resulted in me being unable to hold a solid mash temp. Fortunately though I had the foresight to keep the carbonation very low (1.8ish volumes) so it's not astringent at all.

Overall this is a great beer that I had originally brewed for the holidays, but am very glad I held onto a case. It ended up being the perfect beer for this time of year (it's practically spring in Texas right now). Fairly complex and interesting with great flavors layered one ontop of the other but so damn easy to drink. It also pairs incredibly well with BBQ.

Back

Okay. I have several brewing related goals for this year. The first is to keep this blog more updated, hopefully I can post once a week. The second is to brew more... a lot more. I'm aiming to brew at least two times a month. The third is to brew sour beers, and a lot of them. The goal is actually eight for the year, so that later next year I can go back and blend.

I actually did the first sour yesterday. The base for the beer was pretty close to my Belgian single from last year, however I added some Munich and victory malt for added breadiness, upped the chocolate to a quarter pound and got rid of the special b. For hops I just did a FWH addition of Willamette. You want something low AA since bitter and sour don't jive. I pitched a smack pack of Roeselare straight from the package. That package of yeast is a very specific blend of yeast and critters. Making a starter will throw off the blend, so don't build one when using the blend. You don't really need to worry about the pitching rates as much because the bugs will attenuate it our over time. I got lower than expected efficiency (65%) so I added 1lb of light DME to it. This beer is going to set for about two months and then getting hit with some fruit.

I'll post the full recipe tomorrow. I've also tried harvesting wild yeast by placing mason jars with weak dme solution outside. I got small signs of fermentation with no mold growth in two of them. Last night I pitched then into a starter actually pulled from the mash of yesterdays beer. Should it take off I'll be brewing a Hoppy Saison with it.

Look for several posts soon with tasting notes on a lot of last years beers.

Hoppy American Amber Brewday. Epik Tasting.

So my brother is in town from college and has been interested in homebrewibg for a while. So I decided to teach him how. Now originally I had planned on doing the hoppy farmhouse table beer, but my brother was interested in making an American Amber. So we did that instead. We also drank a fair amount of beer. Including some that I have been aging and waiting to open. Sorry there's no pictures but when you start your brewday at 9:00 and begin drinking at 10:00 so as not to anger the brew-gods..... you tend to forget stuff.

EKG American Amber

7lbs. Two Row - US
1lb. 12oz. US crystal 60L
2lbs. Homemade amber candy syrup

1oz. Willamette 5.5%AA - FWH
1oz. East Kent Goldings 5.0%AA - 10min
1oz. East Kent Goldings 5.0%AA - Flameout
1oz. East Kent Goldings 5.0%AA - dry hop 14 days

Yeast - US-05 dry yeast

Measured O.G. 1.054

Epik Tasting

I tried the first bottle of this a few months back but it wasn't ready so didn't post about it. This is the beer that started out as a utopias clone
then realized it would do better as a barleywine.

Appearance
Pours a deep rich crystal clear mahogany with a small build up of an off white head that then dissipates quickly (not surprising considering.the 14%+ ABV. Held io to the light there's a slight reddish color at the edge of the glass, probably from the munich and caramunich.

Nose
The nose is sweet and boost without being solventy. Notes of fig, dried plums and tobacco dominate the nose followed by a thin whisp of fruity and perfumey alcohols.

Taste
Not nearly as sweet as I had initially feared from the nose. It did attenuate extremely well afterall. Nice figgy and sherry like taste up front with bits of slightly tannic oak in the middle.The alcohol is nice and warming without being harsh.

Overall
Overall great beer... still needs another six months to round out.

Chocolate Chili Pumpkin Porter and Other Stuff

I apologize to the three people who read this blog for the severe lack of activity. But all has been quiet on the yeastern front here for the last few months.

First an update on the Utopias clone. The original plan was to add some honey and maple syrup to the fermenter to push up the abv. Then leave it to age for a year or more on oak and then to bottle it completely still. However after tasting it I just couldn't bring myself to mess with it anymore. So I decided to bottle it and carb it to about 2 volumes.

I haven't opened any yet but I did have a few tastes upon bottling and here is what I have to report.

As you can imagine a 14%ABV beer being it was quite boozy. Fortunately it's not fusel in any way, just lots and lots of alcohol coming through the nose; almost port like. The oak shines through nicely, and there's a small degree of sweetness, but not cloying.

In other brewing news. I've been craving good dark beers here lately. With all of the saisons and kolsch etc etc... that I've brewed for the summer months I've really been wanting something nice and roasty. So I brewed a batch of chocolate chili pumpkin porter.

I wanted to keep it small and sessionable, but still with enough going on to keep it interesting.

The base is pale malt with a pound of homemade brown malt. Specialty malts included some chocolate and pale chocolate malts, along with roasted barley and a little 60L crystal. For the pumpkin I wanted to use a light hand because in a beer this small pumpkin can easily become vegetal. So I only used 3 lbs. in the mash. There's also 1 cup of coco powder in the mash. Then I seeded and stemmed 5 ancho chilis and put them right in the fermenter. I went with anchos because I wasn't really looking for a lot of chili heat, more of a nice chili taste with a touch of smoke. If you've never had an ancho chili before, they taste like a smoky raisin.

Calabaza de Fuego - Chocolate Chili Pumpkin Porter

Mash
5 lbs. Pale Malt - UK
1 lb. Homemade Brown Malt
8 oz. 60L Crystal
6 oz. Pale Chocolate
4 oz. Roasted Barley
2 oz. Chocolate Malt
3 lbs. Canned Pumpkin
1 cup coco

1 oz. Targer Hops - 30 minutes

5 ancho chilis - in the fermenter for 1 week

Dry Nottingham Yeast

Carbonated to 2.1 volumes

Epik - with a "k" - Utopias Clone - Super Attenuation Update

So holy crap everyone. This thing has attenuated like a fracking champ (shut up. don't act like you've never seen Battlestar Gallactica.) After three days of the lower runnings beer fermenting I aerated the large batch and combined the two along with a very small droplet of olive oil. I realize that while the findings on the olive oil thing are controversial I figured a small droplet couldn't hurt anything and I wanted to everything I could to encourage cell growth.

I wish I had also added some fermcap but I figured with a gallon's worth of head space in my fermenter I should be fine.... boy was I wrong. Three hours later fermentation had taken off like a rocket and I had some blow over... but I only lost a quart or so. I let it go for 12 days past that. Fermentation was kept cool at about 64 for the first three days then I just let it free rise to 70. I just checked the S.G. and we're sitting at 1.015! How awesome is that!? That is some serious attenuation.

The hydro sample I just had is pretty darn good. Lots of perfumey alcohol and some nice sweetness, but deceptively smooth in taste. I can only imagine how it will be with some age. I'm now considering not trying to make this as crazy alcoholic as before because I'm enjoying where this beer is at... I'll still add the oak and let it age. But maybe not the extra fermentables.

Epik - with a "k" - Utopias Clone

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, but work has left me little time for brewing. A few weeks ago I did a strawberry ginger beer for my wife. I'll have a post on that before too long. But I'm more excited to talk about what I just finished brewing.

This was hands down the longest brew day I've ever had. From heating up the strike water to pitching the yeast was just shy of seven hours. "What could take so long?" one might ask. A 22%ABV beer. That's what took so long.

In much the same vain as Sam Adams Utopias or the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, I've often wondered about making a beer of insane gravity. After doing tons of research, careful planning and recipe design, I decided to brew it today. This more of a clone of Samuel Adams Utopias than anything else. I intend the end result to drink more like port than like beer.

Some of these ideas are not my own, so please don't think I'm the one who came up with a lot of this stuff. I rather read about other people's experience trying to do this, read about their successes and failures, and tried to come up with a plan based on that.

The most important thing in making a beer of this magnitude is yeast health and a strong fermentation. Most yeast stop fermenting in environments that have too much alcohol. It's also quite easy to underpitch into something of this magnitude, or to over stress the yeast. All of these things could end up in under-attenuation.

Also how do you mash that much freaking grain without having 30 gallons of water to boil down? Well allow me to explain.

I'm making a six gallon batch. I figured after trub loss and having a crap ton of yeast that should yield me with around five gallons of finished product. I made this beer with a whopping 31 pounds of grain. Two-Row, Munich 10L, Caramunich 1, 60L Crystal, and Smoked Malt. Then it will get doses of honey, maple syrup and table sugar... but that's for later.

Here's my recipe:

Epik Epikness

15lbs. American 2-Row

10lbs. Munich 10L

2lbs. Smoked Malt (Rauch)

2lbs. American 60L Crystal

2lbs. Caramunich 1 (33L)

2lbs. Honey

2lbs. Table Sugar

2lbs. Maple Syrup

1.5 oz. Medium Toast Oak Cubes - soaked in Apple Brandy

1.5oz. Medium Toast Oak Cubes - soaked in Malbec

5oz. Target Hops 8.6%AA - First Wort Hop Boil #1

2oz. Target Hops 8.6%AA - First Wort Hop Boil #2

Yeast WLP099 - Super High Gravity

Nottingham - Dry

I first mashed the 15lbs. of 2-Row at 145 for one and a half hours. I yielded about 2 gallons of 1.072 runnings. I then batch sparged and collected 3 gallons of 1.040 runnings. The runnings were then heated to 156 degrees which I then used to mash the remaining 17lbs. of grain. The mash temp settled at 145 degrees, held for 1 hour.

I then collected somewhere around 4.5 gallons of 1.107 runnings. While I was collecting these I added the 5oz. of target hops and began to boil.

I batch sparged this second round of grains and collected runnings of 1.060. These got a FWH addition of 2oz. Target, and then started the boil.

Both were boiled for one hour and got a hit of yeast nutrient and whirlfloc. The higher gravity kettle went down to roughly 4 gallons of 1.115 wort. The second kettle went down to 2.5 gallons of 1.072 wort. I was surprised at how little the larger kettle reduced in volume over the hour. I suppose that with more sugar to water ratio it had less to blow off and just didn't evaporate at it's usual rate.

While the larger kettle was still boiling I used a sieve to remove as much of the hop particulates as possible. I then put it strait into a sanitized bucket with an airtight lid.

The other one was crash chilled and whirlpooled, and then I aerated the ever-loving crap out of it. Into it I pitched all of the yeast, the two vials of WLP099, and the two packs of dry Nottingham (rehydrated of course).

The plan is to let this one ferment for 3 days. By that time the yeast in there should have reached the end of the growth period. At that time I intend to aerate the large gravity wort and put that strait into the fermenting beer. Then after high krausen is reached I will add the maple syrup, allow it to ferment then go in with the honey, and then finally the sugar. This should give me a S.G. overall of 1.170. Which is a shade lower than I was hoping so I may throw in a few pounds of DME.

Once my F.G. has been reached (I'm hoping for 1.022 or lower) I'll rack the beer to a glass carboy with the oak chips where it will age for at least six months... probably a year.

May/16/2011 - Brewed.

May/19/2011 - Higher gravity portion added to lower gravity portion.

June/3/2011 - Racked to secondary with oak cubes for bulk aging.

Belgian Table Bier - Pre-tasting

I just got around to bottling this one. It finished out at 1.011. Which puts the ABV at 4.8%. I had about one bomber's worth left when I ran completely out of bottles. Being one not to want to waste beer, I decided to do a tasting on it. But before we get into that here's some info on the importance of carbonation in tasting beer.

Did you know that humans cannot actually smell liquid? Rather we smell the gas coming off of the liquid. Think about it. Have you ever opened your fermenter at high krausen and tried to take a big whiff? I have, and it's intense. And then have you opened a fermenter to smell it once activity has died down and the yeast is dropping out of suspension? It can be hard to smell much of anything.

So why is all of this important? Because 85% of taste is actually smell. I'm sure we've all seen (or done it ourselves) people swirling wine. They're doing that to release gas so that they can smell the wine better and therefore taste it better.

Now with us beer nerds we don't need to swirl. We have a torrent of CO2 coming out of the beer carrying beautiful flavors and aroma a long with it. The reason I mention all of this is because this will be an incomplete tasting as I don't have any c02 to help me out. So give me a couple weeks... but here we go... also since it's uncarbed I'm not even bothering with mouthfeel.

Belgian Table Bier

Appearance - A nice medium brown. When held up to the light the highlights are an amberish color. Despite not being carbed there is still a tiny bit of CO2 escaping to form a tight ring around the top.

Aroma - After a vigorous swirl...... The first thing is green apple. Followed immediately with hints of toasted bread then chocolate. There's a bit of spice followed by a great whiff of the brewer's gold hops. If you've never used them they're fantastic. Earthy and a touch spicy with bits of black currant.

Taste - Even not carbonated this beer has a lot going on. At first I get a touch of roasted quality. It's followed with apple and spice. At the back there's a combination of earthy/black currant/chocolate. All with an assertive, but very smooth bitterness (thank you first wort hops).

Overall - I'm looking forward to drinking this beer fully carbed. For a table beer there is a lot going on.

Nelson Sauvin Saison - Second Tasting

I keep meaning to get to a formal tasting of this mild, but I can't stop drinking this saison. In fact I only have 10 bombers and a handful of 12oz. bottles left. So I figured I'd better do another tasting.

Plus the hop character is quickly dropping out, and this beer is somewhat hop focused.

Appearance - Pours beautiful rocky head of tight bottles that just doesn't quit. After about five minutes it drops into a nice ring of lace. The beautiful golden color made me dub this beer "Lapin d'Or" which is French for "Golden Rabbit".

Aroma - The intensity of those Nelson Sauvin hops has died down considerably. The aromas of over ripe pineapples and passion fruit is still there, but not nearly as assertive. More spice comes through, as does some nice notes of lemon peel.

Taste - There's still that great impression of sweetness from the pils malt up front that's quickly washed out by the high carbonation. In the middle there's a lot of the same flavors as are in the aroma. The lemon peel character is definitely more assertive in the palate than I thought it would be, but not unpleasant at all. There's some great spice and those nice tropical fruit flavors as well.

Mouthfeel - Still what I expected it to be. The high carbonation makes the mouthfeel full, and the 3711 leaves some great silkiness. And of course the finish is long and dry, only more accentuated by the high carbonation.

Overall - This beer has really developed nicely. I think it's safe to say that it is now at it's prime. I don't want to hang on to it much longer as the hop profile will drop out too much. This is a very well balanced beer that's great for the summer.

Pizza Dough

Brewing has been a shade lax lately as I haven't had much free time. The dark mild I bottled recently is quite good, and I'll have notes for that soon. The Belgian Table beer is cold crashing as we speak, I intend to bottle it tomorrow.

But not all things fermented with yeast have to be beer. Aside from making tasty brews I also happen to be a pretty awesome cook. One of the things I love to make at home in particular is pizza. It's delicious, relatively simple to make and pretty inexpensive. However the thing that most home cooks get wrong is the pizza dough. A lot of people expect to make good homemade pizza from dough in a can or that Boboli premade stuff.... but it's just not possible. I've spent a lot of time working on making pizza dough and I've found that I don't have an exact "recipe" for it. Rather it's a process and something you have to have the right feel for.

So here's how it goes.

At least 8 hours before you want to make pizza (I prefer the night before) we have to make a starter.

I start with about a cup of warm water and a tablespoon of yeast. Stir them together and let it proof. Then add some flour. I don't know exactly how much, I just add flour until it looks like thin pancake batter. Then add a small pinch of sugar. Set this aside for at least 8 hours in a warm place. Or better yet overnight.

After it's set the starter will look like this.

The gluten in the flour will set and the starter will be a bit thicker. The next step is to proof another tablespoon of yeast in another cup of warm water, with another pinch of sugar.

No there are no grains going into the dough, I had just received an order from AHBS and hadn't put everything away yet. Once the yeast has proofed (about 10 minutes) add it into the starter.

Next I add in around two cups of bread flour and run it together in my stand mixer until everything is incorporated then add a healthy pinch of salt. Then add more flour in 1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a ball. Set the stand mixer to low and let it run for 5 minutes. At this point the dough may or may not become too sticky. In this case it did and this is what it looks like.

As you can see the dough is sticking to the sides pretty heavily and the ball is not smooth. So I added about another 1/2 cup of flour and let it run until it becomes really smooth. Then let it knead on low for 5 minutes. Rest the dough for 5 minutes. Then knead for another 5 minutes.

I roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. I personally prefer it pretty thin, but this is how my wife prefers it. As far as what to cook it on I use a pizza pan with holes in it. The pizza cooks more evenly.

Put the dough on the pan then sauce. For my homemade sauce I use a can of tomato puree, a little garlic and some fresh basil and oregano. Don't over sauce it, otherwise it will be soggy, just a nice smooth layer.

I put the toppings over the sauce instead of on the cheese, this keeps them from drying out. Today it's fresh spinach and roasted chicken. Cheese can be your choice. I personally like aged provolone, but my wife really likes mozzarella. You don't want to drown it in cheese, just a good even light sprinkle. Then I finish it with a few fresh basil leaves on top.

The real trick to cooking the pizza right is to do it hot and fast. When you go to a great pizza place that's making pizza in stone ovens they're cooking it HOT. Usually upwards of 800 degrees. Now my oven doesn't go that hot, but it can do 550. So don't be afraid to crank your oven up as high as it will go. The high heat lightly chars the crust, and gets it crispy on the outside and gets the cheese slightly charred as well.

Bake the pizza on the bottom rack. It usually takes me around 8 - 10 minutes.

If your at a loss on what to put on your pizza my all time favorite is pepperoni and peperoncinis. Skip the pepperoni in a non-refrigerated bag and hit up your local grocer's deli counter. Ask them to slice it as thin as possible. Trust me it's worth it.

Another great combo is salami, kalamata olives and ricotta cheese. For a great meat free option make some oven roasted tomatoes and add goat cheese and arugula.

Belgian Table Beer - Brew Date: 3/29/11

So "Threat Level Midnight" has been put on hold for a few more days. The only reason being that I needed to make a huge starter for such a massive batch. So instead of that I decided to make a Belgian Table Beer; and use the yeast cake from that to pitch the stout onto. The recipe is pretty simple. It's mostly Belgian Pils with a few pounds of wheat. I added a small amount of Special B. for color, along with some 60L Crystal and then just a dash of chocolate malt.

The hops are only Brewer's Gold as FWH addition and then a flameout addition. I'm shooting for a beer with good drinkability, not huge alcohol, a pleasant hop aroma with a strong yeast profile. It's fermented with Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes.

Recipe:

60 minute mash at 151 degrees

5lbs. Belgian Pils

3lbs. White Wheat Malt

8oz. American 60L Crystal Malt

4oz. Special B. Malt

2oz. Chocolate Malt

1oz. Brewer's Gold Hops 8%AA FWH

1oz. Brewers Gold Hops 8%AA Flameout

3522 Belgian Ardennes Yeast

Threat Level Midnight

So my birthday is next Saturday and I wanted to brew something fun. I've had plans for a Belgian inspired Imperial Russian Stout. I want to do something inspired by Jolly Pumpkin's Madrugada Obscura. So what I'm planning on doing is brewing a normal IRS that I made once before, ferment it with Belgian Ardennes and then after primary fermentation is complete throw in some Roeselare Blend for some souring. I plan to let it bulk age and mature for 6 months before bottling.

Here's the rundown.

Threat Level Midnight

Belgian Imperial Stout

O.G. 1.089

F.G. 1.015

Anticipated ABV: 9.9%

IBUs: 53

14lbs. Continental Pils

8oz. Roasted Barley

8oz. Chocolate Malt

8oz. Crystal Malt 60L

4oz. Crystal Malt 20L

4oz. Special B 180L

1oz. Target 8%AA - First Wort Hop

2oz. Brewers Gold 8%AA - 60 Min.

Wyeast Belgian Ardennes - 3522 - The biggest starter EVAR!

Wyeast Roeselare Blend - Secondary