Blind Taste Test and Other Fun Stuff

The Big Texas Beer Fest was definitely a success in my book.  Got to taste a bunch of stuff on my wishlist, and some stuff I hadn't planned on.  The VIP tickets were worth it for sure.  The first hour when it was just VIP ticket holders was the best part of the day.  No lines anywhere.  Next time, I'll be sure to get to the limited releases that I want to try during that hour, as I missed out on a few that I had wanted to try.  Some of my favorites (going from memory and my Untappd app) were:

Armadillo Ale Works Brunch Money
Deep Elum Neato Bandito
Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Lakewood Bourbon Barrel Temptress
Ayinger Celebrator
Peticolas Sit Down or I'll Sit You Down (dry-hopped with Cascade)
Real Ale Blakkr

Brunch Money is supposed to be available this week in bottles around the Metroplex, so I might have to try to find some.

I also managed to knock a few beers off of my bucket list recently, including Ommegang Three Philosophers and New Belgium La Folie (2014).  Three Philosophers I had at the BTBF and was pretty good. The La Folie I picked up this week at the Flower Mound Whip In and it was excellent.  I wasn't disappointed in either of them.

Now, to get back to homebrewing....It's been about a month and a half or so since I bottled the Magic Hat #9 clone that I brewed up.  My parents were in town a few weekends ago, and they came by the house to see the new hardwood floors we had put in.  I pulled out a bottle of my #9 clone and a store-bought bottle of #9 and poured them into solo cups marked "A" and "B" and gave one of each to each of my parents and my wife.  It wasn't a totally fair comparison, because the store-bought stuff was a bit older, so it wasn't all that fresh, but all three people thought that my version was much better!  How about that?

My ESB, named Enzo English Ale in honor of our English Springer Spaniel, should be just about ready to drink.  I put a bottle in the fridge last night to try out this weekend.  Really hoping it turns out good, as I love a good ESB.

The old beer fridge is starting to get pretty full, so my next brew day is still a little ways off.  I might try to go for something longer fermenting here soon, though, so I've at least got something going.  Thinking about doing a saison with the Dupoint yeast strain.  It likes higher temperatures, which will be perfect for the upcoming Texas summer heat.  After that, I need to do another batch of the Charge 8 Imperial IPA.  It's extremely tasty, and I'm afraid I'm going to start running low soon!!  Can't have that.

Happy drinking!
Kyle

Big Texas Beer Fest

This weekend I'm attending my first ever beer festival. Yes, I'm a 37-year old craft beer lover and homebrewer who has never been to a beer fest. Sue me! I'm really looking forward to this one, as most of the local breweries are going to be there, as well as some of the bigger craft breweries from across the nation, and even some international ones. My wife is very excited about going as well....at least Magic Hat will be there, so she's guaranteed to like at least one beer!

They published their beer list over the weekend, and wow, lots of goodies on there. There are several in BeerAdvocate's top 250:

5. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
27. Firestone Walker Sucaba
65. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
78. Ballast Point Victory at Sea
106. Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA
107. Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock
140. Unibroue La Fin du Monde
152. North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout
179. Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA
187. North Coast Old Stock Celler Reserver Brandy Barrel
191. Odell Myrcenary Double IPA
222. Founders Porter
227. Odell IPA
235. Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA

There are also a number of limited edition beers that will probably only be available in limited quantities (I hope you got VIP tickets!):

Alaskan Pilot Series: Jalapeno Imperial IPA
Great Divide Espress Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
Deep Ellum Neato Bandito
Franconia McKinney Champagne
Franconia Trippel Dunkel
Grapevine Rasberry Brown Ale
Lakewood Bourbon Barrel Temptress -2013
Lakewood Rock Ryder with Fresh Lemon and Ginger
North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve Brandy Barrel -2011
Ommegang Fire & Blood
Oskar Blues Ten FIDY (Whiskey Barrel)
Peticolas Golden Opportunity (cask dry hopped with Cascade)
Peticolas Sit Down Or I'll Sit You Down (dry hopped cask with "a mystery")
Peticolas Velvet Hammer (cask dry hopped with Cascade)
Rabbit Hole Rapture (Randalled with coffee beans soaked in rum)
Revolver Barrel One

Some others that caught my eye:

Brooklyn Sorachi Ace (92 on BA)
Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA (93)
Gulden Draak (94)
Jester King Aurelian Lure (99)
Jester King Das Wunderkind! (91)
Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale (94)
New Belgium Lips of Faith - Wild2 Dubbel (83)
Real Ale Blakkr (90)
Saint Arnold Boiler Room Berliner Weisse (88)
Stone Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA (90)

My want to try list is already over 50! I'm going to have to pare that down significantly, and will probably try a bunch of local stuff I haven't had before, and the rarer stuff above. Anything that I've had before or that I can easily get, I'll probably pass on, unless it's really good. I'm going to attempt to take notes as I taste, to share my thoughts after the festival, but we'll see how that works out! With 2oz pours, I figure 36-40 is probably a good limit to try to stick to.

Hopefully I'll see some of my loyal readers out there!

On the homebrew front, I made my first attempt at an all grain beer on Saturday with my simple ESB recipe. Enzo English Ale (after our English Springer Spaniel) is fermenting happily away. I hope to have a report in 6 weeks or so.

Craft Beer Bucket List

There are thousands of craft breweries out there making great beer.  There's no way to taste them all.  Some have been around for a while, some are new on the scene.  I'm shocked at how few of the "great" beers according to BeerAdvocate I've actually been fortunate enough to try.  So, I've created a craft beer bucket list for myself.  This will be an ever evolving list, as I am able to try some, and as I find new beers to add.  As befitting a self-described hophead, this list will be heavy on IPAs, but I've mixed in several other styles, as well.  Where available, I took the availability from the brewery's website.  Otherwise, it's from BeerAdvocate, so I can't attest to the accuracy. 

So, here it is, in alphabetical order:

1. Alchemist Heady Topper
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #1
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/27039/16814/
Availability: Year-round, only in Vermont

2. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 98, Ranking: #61
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/199/29619/
Availability: Year-round

3. Bell's Hopslam Ale
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #23
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/17112/
Availability: Winter, limited distribution area

3. Bell's Two Hearted Ale
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 95, Ranking: #200
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/1093/
Availability: Year-round, limited distribution area

4. Deschutes The Abyss
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #19
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/63/34420/
Availability: Winter

5. Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #3
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1146/57747/
Availability: Rotating

6. Lagunitas Sucks
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 97, Ranking: #83
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/220/74986/
Availability: Winter

7. New Belgium La Folie
Flanders Oud Bruin
BeerAdvocate Score: 95, Ranking: #237
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/192/1917/
Availability: Yearly single-bottling

8. North Coast Old Rasputin
Russian Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 96, Ranking: #141
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/112/412/
Availability: Year-round

9. Ommegang Three Philosophers
Belgian Quadrupel
BeerAdvocate Score: 92, Ranking: NR
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/42/3457/
Availability: Year-round

10. Prairie Bomb!
American Imperial Stout
BeerAdvocate Score: 99, Ranking: #52
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/94350/
Availability: Rotating

11. Russian River Pliny the Elder
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #4
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/7971/
Availibility: Year-round, very limited distribution area

12. Russian River Pliny the Younger
American Triple IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 100, Ranking: #2
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/21690/
Availibility: Year-round, very limited distribution area

13. Sierra Nevada Celebration
American IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 93, Ranking: NR
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/140/1904/
Availibility: Winter

14. Stone Enjoy By IPA
American Double IPA
BeerAdvocate Score: 98, Ranking: #54
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/84596/
Availability: Rotating, availability varies based on when it's brewed

Going to All Grain with a new Brew Kettle

Last weekend I brewed for the second straight weekend, with the help of a hockey buddy who wants to get into homebrewing, Josh.  We did a Magic Hat #9 clone from Austin Homebrew Supply.  To make room in my primary fermenter, I racked the Imperial IPA over to a secondary.  It was at about 1.032, so it still has some work to do, so I made sure to take some of the yeast cake with it.  Probably not the best idea in the world, but it took all of a few hours to be back at it with a nice thick krausen, so all is good.  We ended up not getting nearly as much boil off as I expected, so almost 6 gallons of Magic Hat went into the fermenter.  I still hit my OG, though, so it should be fine, just more of it!  We'll see after it's bottled and conditioned when we do a blind, side-by-side taste test!  I have them both fermenting happily away upstairs in the guest bathroom in swamp coolers.  With the cooler weather the last few days, I haven't even needed to add frozen water bottles to keep them both around 64-66 degrees!

The next day I was musing about moving on to all grain using the Brew in a Bag method, but knowing I probably need a bigger kettle than my current 8 gallon one.  My totally awesome wife started browsing through stock pots on Amazon and gave me a few ideas.  I eventually settled on a 16 gallon Bayou Classic stainless steel kettle with ball valve spigot, and she ordered it!  This is going to be awesome!  I have a couple of 5 gallon paint strainer bags from Lowe's that I was going to use as brew bags, but now I'm afraid they might not be big enough for the 16 gallon monster that's supposed to arrive on our doorstep today.  I'm going to Homebrew HQ after work today to get a new hydrometer (the old one got accidentally dropped, and they're extremely fragile) and a few other things, so I might see what they have there.  There's also a guy who makes custom BIAB bags and charges pretty reasonable amounts.  We'll see on that.

Another thing I want to get into is making yeast starters.  It seems easy enough, and I won't have to buy two vials of yeast for the high gravity beers like I did with the Smoked Porter and Imperial IPA.  I've been working on some all grain recipes recently.  I've got ideas for an ESB, a Kolsch, and a Belgian Trippel.  I'll probably start with the Kolsch, since it will be the simplest and cheapest.

Speaking of beers, I've been trying to come up with catchy names for all my beers.  Originally, I was thinking of using artillery terms and slang for all the beers I make, since I'm an FA officer in the Guard.  That led to Charge 8 Imperial IPA and Willy Pete American Wheat.  Lately, though, I was thinking maybe I should stick to the theme of the brewery name, and go with Texas-based names.  I had the idea of using figures from the Texas Revolution and have beers like Jim Bowie Blonde and Juan Seguin Stout.  I expanded to Texan military heroes from all eras and wars, to be able to do something like a Chris Kyle Kolsch or an Audie Murphy IPA.  If anyone actually reads this blog, I'd love some input!  Naming beers is half the fun of brewing them (the other half being the drinking part, of course....ok, maybe its more 20/80 naming/drinking, but you get the point!)

Next Beers, Jester King, and Beer Labels

It was a good Super Bowl weekend in Austin.  Dad's birthday was Super Bowl Sunday, so we went out to eat with Mom and Dad Saturday night.  Since Austin Homebrew Supply was on the way to their house, we made a stop there.  We also went out to the Jester King Brewery for a couple of hours first, since it's not far from their house, either.

At AHS, we picked up some supplies for my next two batches.  After asking for the wisdom of my Facebook friends in helping me come up with the next beer to be brewed, I settled on an Imperial IPA (also known as a Double IPA).  I did some googling on IIPA recipes, and found this article by Vinnie Cilurzo on brewing Double IPAs.  Vinnie is the owner of the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA, the makers of the Pliny the Elder Double IPA, which has the top ranking on Beer Advocate.  So, a good guy to get beer brewing advice from.  In that article is his all-grain recipe for a 5-gallon batch of Pliny the Elder.  I decided that I'd start with that recipe and tweak it some, to reflect my own hop preferences.  First, I had to convert it to extract, since I haven't gone to all-grain yet.  With the help of Beersmith 2, I came up with this:

Grain Bill
11lbs Extra Pale LME
10oz Crystal Malt 20L
10oz Carapils Malt
3/4lb corn sugar

Hop Schedule
4oz Chinook - 90min
.75oz Chinook - 45min
1.25oz Simcoe - 30min
.75oz Centennial - 0min
2.5oz Simcoe - 0min
1oz Chinook, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Centennial dry hopped for 12-14 days
.25oz Chinook, .25oz Simcoe, .25oz Centennial dry hopped for the last 5 days

Yeast
While Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Basically, I substituted Chinook for Columbus and messed with the amounts to come out with even numbers, so I wouldn't be short or over by getting 1oz bags of hops at AHS.  I'll be sure to report back once it's ready to drink in a couple of months.

We also got AHS's Magic Hat #9 clone kit, since that's my wife's favorite beer.  Hopefully it turns out good!

After the homebrew store, we met my parents at their house and headed out to the Jester King Brewery.  It was not at all what I expected.  I've been to several small breweries for tours, and I was expecting more of what I had seen at those.  50 people at most, more there for the free (or cheap) beer at the end of the tour than the tour itself.  At Jester King, there were a few hundred people out there.  It must be the "in" place to go for Austin-area hipsters, because I was surrounded by them!  For as many people there were, though, the people pouring did a great job cycling everyone through the tap room.  We were in line for maybe 15 minutes before we walked away with 10 different beers between the four of us.  You can get anything from a 4oz sample all the way to a 175ml bottle.  They also had an outdoor pouring station with a smaller selection of their beers.  The outside area has a bunch of picnic tables, and it was a beautiful day, so we found an empty one and started testing out beers.

Now, not only is it not your normal brewery as far as tours go.  They are a farmhouse brewery, and their beers are not your normal everyday beers, even for craft beer lovers.  They ferment with farmhouse and wild yeast strains, as well as souring bacteria in many of their beers.  They also use local well water and all organic grains and hops.  The result is a wide spectrum of flavors, many not found in more "traditional" beers.  Some of their beers can be quite sour.  You really need to go in with an open mind!  I liked pretty much everything I tasted.  The Noble King, Black Metal, and RU55 were my favorites. My parents and wife all liked Mad Meg.  They also sell bottles to go, so if you find something you like, you can pick up some to take home!

Once we got back to my in-laws' house Saturday evening, I started playing around with beer labels on http://www.grogtag.com/.  Erin had seen a display setup for them at AHS, and grabbed a card that had a code for a 10% discount.  They produce custom, reusable beer bottle labels.  You can pick from any of their pre-made labels, or design your own.  I used one of their pre-made labels where you can upload your own background and came up with this for my IIPA:

Charge Eight refers to the max charge on a M119A2 howitzer.  I thought it was a fitting name for an in-your-face Imperial IPA.

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Super Bowl weekend.  Is baseball season here yet?

Overdue Update - Christmas Goodness

So, since my last post, I've brewed, bottled and started drinking an AHS Belgian White; and I also brewed and bottled an AHS Smoked Porter that I got for Christmas.  The Belgian White turned out great.  It's brewed with bitter orange peel and cracked coriander.  I over-carbonated it just a bit, so it pours with quite a bit of head, but it still tastes awesome.  The Smoked Ported I bottled this past weekend, so it still has a couple of weeks of bottle conditioning before it's ready to drink.  I made sure to use the Priming Calculator over at Northern Brewer to calculate how much priming sugar to use, so I don't over-carb again.  I forgot to do that for the witbeer, and just used the whole package that came in the kit from AHS.

Speaking of Christmas, it was very good to my homebrewing hobby this year.  In addition to the Smoked Porter, I also got a new bottle drying tree, and vinator bottle sanitizer, and a wort chiller!  The wort chiller cut down the process of cooling the wort after the boil tremendously, just using water from the spigot outside.  In the summer it might be different, but right now, the water is plenty cold coming out.  The bottle drying tree and sanitizer also saved alot of time during the bottling process.  Maybe next year I'll see about trying to start getting all the stuff I need for all grain brewing.  In the meantime, I might start trying out doing Brew In A Bag all grain.

As you can tell from above, I've started using recipe kits from Austin Homebrew Supply.  They have a great selection of beers to choose from, and I'm not quite to the point where I can craft my own recipes.  My wife and I are headed down to Austin for a Super Bowl party, and plan on making a trip to AHS to get stuff for my next batch(es).  I would like to do another IPA next, my first one turned out so good.  I might ask the guys at AHS to help me convert my extract recipe to all grain, and see what it would take to do a BIAB brew.  After that, who knows.  I'll see what they've got while we're there.

Also while we're in Austin, we're going to try to swing by the Jester King Brewery.  I've heard great things about their beer from friends who live in Austin, and from people over at HomebrewTalk.com.  From looking at their menu for this weekend, looks like they're going to have some good stuff available in their tap room.  My parents live out near there, so they might join us as well.

This is a short one, but remember....relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew!

Brew Day

North Texas Beer week was last month.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to participate in any of the events, I just had too much going on, including having drill on one of the weekends.  That didn't stop me from keeping up with the goings-on via Facebook.  Apparently, I "liked" something or signed up somewhere, because a couple of weeks ago, I get an email from The Ticket saying that I had been selected as the Brewer for a Day winner at Franconia Brewery in McKinney.  I got in contact with Dennis at Franconia and we worked out a day for me to come in and be a brewer.  That day was yesterday.

Their brew days usually start at 5:30am, so I got up really early to make the 45 minute drive up to South Oklahoma McKinney.  Apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere, because the head brewer didn't know I was coming that day (I had originally scheduled for Monday, but had to reschedule) and didn't get there until 6:30.  No worries, though.  He got there, and we got right to work.

The brew schedule called for a Kolsch to be brewed in the morning, and an Amber in the afternoon.  The grain was already ready for us, so we got the mash-in process started.  Up to this point in my homebrewing, I've been doing all extract brewing, and haven't gotten into all-grain at all, so this was a good learning experience for me.  Their setup is basically a very large-scale homebrew operation, at least on the brewing end.  Once all the grain was in the mashtun and the mash started, we started prepping the grain for the afternoon brew.  They use alot of grain!  We got it all milled and into the chute ready to go. 

Once the mash was complete, we started moving the wort to the brew kettle while fly-sparging to get as much of the sugars out of the grain as possible.  Once the brew kettle was full, the water was just about at boiling.  Added hops throughout the boil, and once it was all done, let it whirlpool for 5 minutes to get all the trub to the center, then started moving it to the fermenter.  Or course, during the boil process, we had to clean out the mashtun.  The fun side of brewing! :-)

Once the boil was done, but before moving the wort to the fermenter, the other two brewers started their mash-in process for the Amber.  Once it was done, we started moving the Kolsch wort.  We also moved 4 finished batches from the fermenters to the cooler to prep for kegging/bottling.  They naturally carbonate their beers in the fermenters, so everything is moved under pressure.

While waiting for the wort to transfer into the fermenter, we tasted some samples of the beer we had just moved into the cooler.  They also had a handful of kegs in the cooler that weren't labelled, so they weren't sure what was in them.  Of course, we had to hook them up so they could get them properly labelled, so I got to sample a few more beers!

We finished up the transfer of the Kolsch wort to the fermenter and cleaned out the brew kettle.  By this time, the mash on the Amber was done, so they were ready to mash out.  I hung around for a bit longer to help with that before heading home for the day.

All in all, it was a great day as a brewer.  I got to see firsthand how a commercial brewery works, and to talk to some experienced brewers.  I got a lot of good tips for my homebrew setup, and will hopefully put some to use on my next batch!

Merry Christmas to all my readers (all 4 of you!)