Trillium Brewing

Trillium Brewing blog moving

2011-11-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

As vaguely referenced in past posts, we have had increasingly burgeoning aspirations to take Trillium more seriously and see if we can make it in to a bigger part of our lives. Over the past ~2 years, we have been busy preparing ourselves for the moments that are upon us now. Esther and I have never been people to limit ourselves to one major life event, so in addition to her building her own business, having our first child, and moving to a new place (that's suspiciously close to a nice place we'd love to be able to buy our own beers one day), we also signed a lease on a 2300SF space in Fort Point in January.

This is probably not particularly new news for those that have found us over on twitter and/or facebook. We've even given a few sneak peeks at the interior of the space, and shared our excitement about the first few shoots of (unofficial) BSA barley grass leaping from the Concord, MA spring soil. Of course, as the fall weather sinks in, we are reminded this all happened well before we had a good appreciation for just how long the 1st building application, community hearing, zoning variance hearing, first facade/design review, second facade/design review and 2nd building permit application processes were going to take--going on 10 months now!

Other than the need to rally some support (which has been truly humbling) for the community hearing, we've tried to stay pretty quiet here. Of course, we've been pretty busy preparing Trillium behind the scenes. Loads of test batches and recipe formulation work that left my laptop keyboard a bit lupulin stained from time to time.

Kevin, Kaity and I cranked out the bones of the website ...but we have held off launching it (until right...now!), because we've been waiting for our building permit from the city. Well, I'm sorry to say we don't have that piece of paper in our hot little hands as of today, but I'm confident we are pretty close.

That, plus I figure the 7mo+ of silence here has gone on for far too long to be fair to those that have been regular readers over the past few years. The good news is that its while we are retiring the homebrewing blog, it'll take up new life here.

We've been giving away so much beer, that 5-10 gallon batches brewed up in a condo kitchen with an even less powerful electric kitchen range just didn't make sense any more. I'm not really a gear head, but experiencing the slumbrew lab was fairly emasculating.

So, that brings us to this past weekend, where a yet-again humbling experience was had when we took our own Trillium Laboratories brewing set up for a test drive. We landed on the Blichmann top tier based system to crank out ~20 gallon batches at Greentown.

Brilliant, kind and inspiring group of people. Honest, too. As one of the engineers strolling by noted as I was struggling to slide Plate C in to Slot 48, "Oh, its like the Ikea equivalent for homebrewing, right?" Yes, complete with the 8 hour assembly time and day after embarrassingly sore hamstrings.

Anyhow, we needed to prepare a bit before the first brew day. One of the very generous greentown companies helped us design, build and dialed in the thermoelectric powered temperature control system for the conical fermenter. Some turbo yeast and about $20 worth of table sugar and continuous data logging made me very confident we would have the all too critical tight temperature control over our ferments.

In the preceding week, I had mentioned to a few friends that we were finally going to fire it up, and we had another humbling show of support. And so glad they did, because there was loads of trouble shooting to tackle that anyone should expect on the first run of any system, homebrew scale or otherwise.

Once we did fire up the burner to heat the strike water, things went amazingly smooth. So much so, that the group even took a few moments to indulge the brewer to drone on about the beers he brought to toast the group (a wild variant of the trillium saison, black currant aged cuvee de tetreault)

Really enjoyed the convenience and efficiency of some higher end equipment (triclamps instead of barbed fittings, counter flow chiller instead of immersion...but yeah, mostly the propane vs electric burner).

So, Esther, Luc and I raise a glass to Jason, Ross, Mitch, Heather, Sorin, Mike, Chris and everyone at Greentown for their generosity and enthusiastic participation. Really feeling the Innovation District love. Also feeling simultaneously guilty and jealous that you are now dealing with the distraction of 20 gallons of Fort Point fermenting away just steps (arm's reach for Ross!) from your workspace! Promise the first keg is all yours, guys.

Brewing sugar experiments: Part 2

2011-03-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

Its been a bit tedious making all these sugars and only doing forced ferments with them...I really am kind of skittish to a entire batch to the experimental sugars, without knowing more. Though others report nice results, I needed a little more empirical data about fermentability.

The first round was like running in to a brick wall...none fermented at all with beer or bread yeasts. Ultimately, I attribute the lack of fermentability to the temps running too high, creating a very high percentage of caramel and maillard compounds.

I did save a bit of the stuff to see what would happen if I let the house bug blend run wild. Knowing how slowly they can work with anything but simpler sugars, I gave it 2.5 months to ferment out.

Sugar 1 (tartaric acid, 300F x 3) SG: 1.050 FG: 1.014 (71%AA)

Sugar 2 (tartaric acid, DME, 300F x 3) SG: 1.052 FG: 1.030 (41%AA)

Sugar 3 (Yeast Engergizer, 300F x 2) SG: 1.060 FG: 1.058 (3% AA)

...side note, did get some mold growth on Sugar 2, I would expect that drove down the FG a little more than the intended bugs alone would have on their own.

So, the data suggested that with more nitrogren in the cooked sugar, and resultant maillard compounds, results in reduced fermentability, even with the enzymatically superior wild bugs.

Before having these results, I decided to modify a single variable (temperature) to see if I could improve the fermentability, but retain the rich complex flavors found in the D2 syrup. Same quantities as Sugar 3 from the first round, but cooking steps reduced to the following:

B2, Sugar 1: 255F, 245F SG: 1.068 FG: 1.028 (57%)

B2, Sugar 2: 265F, 255F, 245F SG: 1.066 FG: 1.040 (38%)

Significant improvement in fermentability, but I also noticed that the flavor and aroma compounds didn't approach the levels of Sugar 3 from Batch 1. They were pretty similar to one another, actually, and somewhere between the amber and regular dark syrup from Dark Candi. Also noted, after about 1.5 weeks of storage, sugar crystals began to form in Sugar 1 (the more fermentable of the 2),

I did perform a control this time to clean up the results a little more (water + sugar + tartaric acid + just enough heat to dissolve the sugar). Cooled, diluted to 1.040. Fermented to 0.990 (126%AA).

I do have an as yet unfounded theory that the D2 (and perhaps the other darker syrups) are really just various combinations of some smaller percentage of very dark (thus, unfermentable) maillard syrup that's created from cooking unrefined beet sugars and a higher percentages of very lightly cooked inverted sugar (100% fermentable) to get the targeted flavor, color and fermentability profile.

Yeast hunting: 1st taste

2011-02-27T14:29:00.001-08:00

Luc was asleep, and without the necessary specificity, I suggested in a hesitant but casual tone, 'Hey, you guys want to try some beers?'. The usual affirmatives shot around the room, so I pulled out the bottles that I had been pretty leery about trying. Yes, the first tasting of beers fermented with wild bugs collected in Connecticut.

Esther, Jason, Brendan and I huddled around some ominous looking fliptops and a smattering of BJCP scoresheets. The group was ready to try the latest from Trillium...and then I had to break the news "These are probably going to be the worst beers you've ever had in your life."

them: "Is this going to make me sick...or worse?"

me: "Uh, no...nothing 'bad' can live in beer. Uh...I think."

I thought it best if I just excerpted some notes from the session:

"Astringent. Raw wort. Really bad."

"Gross."

"Unfermented wort."

"Hairspray, celery."

"I don't want to try any more of these."

"Faint Muskiness. Acetone."

"Really gross."

"Even worse."

"Aquanet. Celery...in a really bad way"

"Malty molasses, unfermented...grosser."

Now I really didn't have much in the way of hope to hit it out of the park w/ my first collection of wild yeast, given it was likely still too early in the yeast collection season, and I likely way underpitched. I did think that I would get some alcohol tolerant strains, given the action in the sample vials. The near still 'beer' and raw sugars that were still present told me otherwise.

Now, the base beer wasn't brewed with a lot of effort or the best ingredients...I really had intended the first batch to be a propagation step, with which I would pitch on to their respective yeast cakes. OG of 1.040 w/ old liquid dark malt extract taking up space in our fridge for the last 3 (4?) years, a 30 minute boil and some old low alpha hops (to ~10IBUs). So, I forewarned...gave the expectation that it would be a pretty bad beer, not only for this reason, but mostly for the fact that that microbes used to ferment them were a total crapshoot.

Here's the very bright bit of sun peeking through the clouds ...these were all notes from the last 3 of the 4 bottles, but here are some selected notes from the tasting team from first bottle (the yeast sample collected from the Chardonnay grapes):

"Fruity, faint wood astringency...just a touch bright"

"Crystal clear, rusty red"

"Slight roast, lactic (maybe just the faintest whiff of acetic)"

"Weak flanders red"

"Dry, thin, well carbonated. A bit of barnyard, but overall very clean. Alcohol?"

"Clean snap finish. Dry."

"Weak, but sessionable. No hop flavor."

"Slight astringency, tartness, fruity...but needs more of everything."

"Weak to start and finish, but really great potential. Needs more character."

"Slight sour lingers on the tongue, bright, clean finish."

"Auburn, crystal clear. Thick beautiful head, falls slowly to a 1 inch persistent head."

"Potential to be a 'new england red'"

So, while the first bottle set up the expectations that were unreachable for the rest, I was surprised to find that even one of these samples yielded an even moderately alcohol tolerant strain of sacchromyces (too clean to be brett, I think).

Yeast from the dregs were saved and are intended for a more earnestly brewed beer.

Any microbiologists out there want to help me to isolate various yeast and bacteria strains?

jc (at) trilliumbrewing (dot) com

Ashley's Peaches

2011-01-31T18:54:00.001-08:00

~3lbs of thawed native yellow peaches from Ashley's Peaches (~1/2 mile from my parent's house in Acushnet, MA) were crushed and added to a better bottle. 3 gallons of the golden strong sour base was racked on it, December 2010.

When you can get them, these are by far the best peaches I've eaten in my life. I don't care if its marked 'organic' or 'local'...the grocery store stuff is picked when they are rock hard, so if they ever ripen to sweetness, the flesh is usually mealy, grainy bland crap. I don't even bother at this point.

Ashley's are full on real peaches, as they were intended and should be. Ripened on perfectly pruned trees that have been thinned to enhance sun exposure, ripening and full flavor. They'll leave a few leaves on the stem of the fruit, a perfect visual garnish to the sun blushed drupes. The skin can be easily pulled away from the flesh if you can't handle the fuzzyness. When you cut in to them, the juice just drops out (you're going to want that juice), and the very red sugar rich flesh that's close to the pit falls away easily from the stone.

Time and time again in the late summer, I get to re-live childhood, each time you slurp-bite in to an Ashley's peach as you bow over the sink, with the juice dripping down your hands and forearms. This isn't my first rodeo, so I know to roll my sleeves up past my elbows, if I'm wearing them.

Ashley's only puts out pristine product, and only the pristine. They are ready to eat either immediately, or the next day. A third day is pushing it. Every single peach is hand selected and put out for sale, and the locals know to arrive early, so you don't have your hopes dashed by the 'Sold out for today' chalkboard sign that often makes an appearance as early as 11AM. As I'm now an out of towner, part of me wishes they'd give me not-quite-ripe fruit to take home for my beer...the bugs won't mind the wait. But, as a fellow artisan, I wholly understand there is only one way to make your wares available...only when you know they are ready.

So, taking a cue from Ashley's, this beer will stay with the peaches until I don't see positive pressure on the airlock + 3 months.

Reference/influence

Golden American Farmhouse

2011-01-31T15:57:00.001-08:00

Quite often on my trips over to Europe, there's the hope to find one-oh please let there be at least one- really good beer to help soften the landing after an upside down day of red eye flights, GPS navigated foreign highways, and game-face-on meetings. Duvel almost always fits that bill. I've turned many a colleague on to this alternative to Stella, so it certainly fits that craft beer gateway designation of accessibility. It also has earned its reputation, many times over, for giving crushing hangovers. But for its fair complexion and the unassuming 330ml squat bottle, you can easily down a couple, or even 3 if there's a wait for a table before dinner has even started, only to be met the next morning with the Devil's pitchfork squarely planted in that throbbing nerve that's holding your right eyeball in place.

So, I've learned, very much the hard way, to take it slow. Let the glass in front of me warm a bit and not just do what you'd otherwise be inclined to do - just get after it and slug it down. I've even gotten the colleagues to tolerate, if not enjoy, the process to create the classic, the near unrivaled head that forms when you pour it down the middle in to a matching laser etched glass.

Of course, the beer that created the style is (well, feels) painfully simple to the complexity seeking (geeking) homebrewer-"just" pils, sugar, styrian and saaz to ~30IBUs, duvel yeast w/ the proper fermentation and lagering schedule, bottle condition to big CO2 volumes. There's really no sense in trying to clone this (or other) beers, as you can grab bottles in so many places around here. Of course the simplicity of the recipes belies the exacting nature to successly hit the mark. I think of this beer as a process and fermentation-first beer; no room to hide behind layers of roasted and crystal malts, mounds of masking hop resins.

I felt like exploring the realm of a belgian golden strong with the tenets of duvel yeast, loads of white sugar (6lbs in a 10 gallon batch), base pils malt, but add some push-pull to the easy going grist with some softness of wheat malt and that full spicy feel that you can get from rye. Long, cool mash to help with fermentability. Up the bitterness a bit to match the more-ness of the not just pils grain bill, and good amount of late additions with Styrians and Saaz to keep the impression of an attempt to keep it in the family. Decidedly American influence from the Amarillo. Dry hop with a touch more of each...is this becoming a belgian golden farmhouse IPA?

Reference/influence: this and this.

Brewed on 12/4/2010, 1 liter starter stepped to 5000ml w/ 1.040 wort. First use of the comically sized 5000ml Erlenmyer (which actually has 6500ml total volume).

Started fermentation at 62F, held low 60s for 36hrs, then free rise to mid-70s. Finished very dry to 1.006, ~9.4%abv. No protein floc aids...but even after 2 weeks in primary, this beer looked almost milky with proteins in suspension. Despite turbidity, kept on schedule and dry hopped for 7 days, then racked 1/2 batch to keg to lager 42F, 20PSI (~3vols), 1/2 to bottles. Not milky any more, but permanent haze after 1.5 months of lagering.

Substantial head formation, retention, lacing. Tight protein pillow persists through the quaff. The commercial counterpart still has me beat, however. Clouded, pale orange. Appearance is darker than SRM due to the cloudyness? Amarillo nose, spicy Duvel phenols. Hoppy! Amarillo muscles out the other, more polite hops. But, you know what...I don't want it to be an IPA stacked on top of a Duvel. A firm coarse bitterness is OK, but need to give way to the grainy-ness and yeast metabolites. Rye fullness to the palate despite high-ish carbonation. Wheat cushion keeps it from being too spritzy even when right out of the bottle.

But...uh-oh...the bite of higher alcohols rear their ugly heads. Burn at the back of the nose/throat is screaming at me "I AM A HANGOVER IN A GLASS" ...not in that subtle whispering way that you ignore when you have a Duvel in your glass.

Bitterness is firm and cleansing, to snap back the fusels on your breath... but you hesitate to go back for another whack. As it warms, it actually becomes more pleasant. The hops become more apparent/masking the fusels. Spice and duvel yeast show up well and the rusticity of the grains sit on your tongue with the bittering hops. But you still need to pay the fusel toll. Likely culprit: not enough O2 (aerated, didn't O2 inject). I'll shove these bottles to the back of the cellar, take another look in a few months. Wonder if it'd ever drop bright.

I know this one is closer than its drinking now. Still a bit of a guess w/ the fusels muddying the impression, I have expectations for major tweaks on the next go:

though it feels wrong for a farmhouse beer, whirlfloc
O2 inject (duh)
amarillo bittering addition change to northern brewer (for rustic woodiness)
pull back on late hop additions by 1/2
eliminate dry hop

Golden Farmhouse

Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 12/4/2010

Batch Size: 11.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 13.25 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 90 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
20 lbs	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	68.97 %
2 lbs	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	6.90 %
1 lbs	Rye Malt (4.7 SRM)	Grain	3.45 %
0.50 oz	Amarillo [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
0.50 oz	Saaz [5.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
0.50 oz	Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops	-
2.50 oz	Amarillo [9.10 %] (60 min)	Hops	31.2 IBU
1.50 oz	Styrian Goldings [5.40 %] (20 min)	Hops	6.7 IBU
1.50 oz	Amarillo [9.10 %] (20 min)	Hops	11.3 IBU
1.50 oz	Saaz [5.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	6.2 IBU
6 lbs	Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	20.69 %
1 Pkgs	Belgian Golden Ale (White Labs #WLP570) [Starter 5000 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.078 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.078 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.006 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.03 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 9.42 %

Bitterness: 55.5 IBU

Calories: 352 cal/pint

Est Color: 4.5 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 23.00 lb

Sparge Water: 4.22 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 28.75 qt of water at 159.1 F	148.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 18.40 qt of water at 203.8 F	168.0 F

Nemesis Quad

2010-12-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

We all have beers that have flat out beaten us. I'm not talking just slightly less than great beers. Beers that have truly failed, even on a singular component. Just a completely fatal and unrecoverable (as far as initial intentions go) flaw that just gnaws at you at the swing and ...whiff... miss of the initial concept.

These are usually higher gravity beers the beer that has been me certainly falls in that camp: A quad with a very large portion of D2 syrup that resulted in an underattenuated mess. Great fermentation character, bready malty with that complexly stewed prune, almost roasty figginess. And a beer-ruining cloying ~1.035ish sweetness.

Jason tried the same recipe at home, with nearly identical technique and pulled up lame in the same FG ballpark. Thankfully, he didn't chuck his either, and it has spent the better part of the summer and fall making amends with the now available year round Wyeast Roselare blend. Tasted it a week ago, and its got the makings of a sour beast, I can't wait to see where this one ends up. It was so damn delicious, we just forgot to stick it in the hydrometer jar for a reading before it disappeared from our glasses. I've been ultra patient, trusting that its just too early now to even think about it, now that it has the grapes on it.

Anyhow, Jason, Luc and I set out one early morning in October to make right what went oh-so-wrong a few years ago.

That recipe was based on an approximation of the St. Bernadus Abt 12, which purportedly has a very heavy dose of this specialty dark candi syrup, which I'm trying to figure out a way to cook up at home. That cooked sugar, combined with some refined beet sugar combined for ~20% of the fermentables, in order to ensure a properly dry finish. um, right.

In that go-around, I made all the now-obvious mistakes that hindered that goal: less than optimal pitching rate, went with aquarium pump + airstone aeration and not oxygenation and lack of fermentation temperature control.

As my shipment of pils malt was late arriving from the recent mail order, and runs to the homebrew shop are really limited as of late with daddy responsibilities, we sacrificed some of that class pils character and went with some American 2 row as the base grain, so we could just brew some ale.

The tube of Chimay yeast had gotten off to a running start in an ample amount of 1.040 starter wort, and had been spinning round in the stirstarter for 36 hours before pitching.

The D2 was unfortunately in that not-quite-there-yet shipment too, so an across the street run to Trader Joe's for some turbinado was the lame duck sub. Before we started, we thumbed through Brew Like a Monk, and found we had now settled on a close approximation of an included classic recipe, so we felt confident while we weren't going to get to see how far down we could attenuate the prior recipe, we would still end up with a solid beer to ponder the true re-brew.

I did want to bump the IBUs up a touch from the prior batch, perhaps as a knee jerk reaction to compensate from the memory-sticky too-sweet finish, so 3oz of whole leaf Willamette made its way in to a hop sack for a 60minute addition.

As we'll often do, while we wait for the wort to come to a boil, J and I popped some solid bottles, but not before we were sure the little man had what he needed.

The first was a 750ml of 2.5 year old chimay grand reserve, in a study of the malt and yeast profile that was intended from this brew day.

And, if you've been around the house at all, you'll know that one nice bottle can sometimes lead to the popping of another.

And perhaps another after that.

Unfortunately, the cooing baby and hubris induced visions of an already vanquished quad brewday convinced me that we had it all under control, until I turned back to the lauter to realize, we had collected too much wort, and diluted a full 20 points below intended gravity! I could only shake my head, foolishly foiled. Oh well, at least that means there'll be just more of this not-quite-quad BSDA.

Fermentation started at 62F, held for 24hours after krausen appeared (sometime that night, pitched late afternoon). Raised to 74F ambient over the next 2 days, then blanketed in fleece to up to 77F for 1 week. Conditioned for an additional 2, then enough cane sugar to bottle to 4 volumes. FG to a respectable 1.016F.

Corked and caged.

Quad 2010

Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 10/11/2010

Batch Size: 5.50 gal

Brewer: Jason

Boil Size: 6.30 gal

Asst Brewer: JC

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50):35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
14 lbs	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	63.64 %
3 lbs	Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)	Grain	13.64 %
1 lbs	Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)	Grain	4.55 %
1 lbs	Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)	Grain	4.55 %
1 lbs	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	4.55 %
8.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 75L (75.0 SRM)	Grain	2.27 %
3.00 oz	Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	33.4 IBU
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Turbinado (10.0 SRM)	Sugar	6.82 %
2 Pkgs	Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530)	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.113 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.092 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.026 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.016 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol:11.52 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 9.97 %

Bitterness: 33.4 IBU

Calories: 425 cal/pint

Est Color: 20.5 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 20.50 lb

Sparge Water: 0.00 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature:168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 25.63 qt of water at 161.4 F	150.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 16.40 qt of water at 200.2 F	168.0 F

Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

Notes

collected too much wort.

Quad + Cuvee de Tetreault: Cabernet Sauv grapes in to the mix

2010-12-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

A bit earlier this fall, 5 Gallons of frozen grapes arrived from Midwest supplies, just as the Fall2010 winemaking season was in full swing. I was looking for an interesting fruit addition to give some depth to some of my bigger/darker sours, and I found a really cool option with inspiring commercial precedents (such as this and to a lesser degree, this.)

I pulled the trigger, not on freshly harvested grapes or even current season frozen must. I went with the surprisingly still available (as of Dec 2010) $50 deal on 2007 Cabernet grapes from Napa (picked and crushed on my birthday!). These high brix, huge flavor and tannin grapes from the worldclass americal viticultural area were intended for dark sours already slowly churning away. I would normally eschew pre-processed and the downright old for a fresh/recently harvested version, but, given the consideration of cost (at $200+ for fresh equivalent), I wasn't overly concerned about an erosion of quality given the high sugar content (~23.3Brix) and I'm sure they were stably frozen from harvest to delivery.

Popping the lid showed me no overt signs of freezer burn, even though there was a little more headspace in the bucket than I expected. There was a rubber gasket seal and some tear away plastic that ensured this bucket wouldn't leak, but we all know the oxygen permeability of HDPE. But still...5 gallons of whole frozen napa cab grapes for ~$75? A no-brainer. Jump on it, if you haven't yet and its still available. I'd love to compare notes down the road.

Despite my endorsement, I did feel a twinge of guilt (that continues to nag at me) at the extravagance of the cross country shipping, and ridiculous amounts of styrofoam that was needed to keep them frozen.

I'll prefer in the future to focus on and mostly stick to the best of what the new england regional AVAs have to offer, as there's plenty of the more local and equally high quality options to explore. No, this is not laughable. While the long, warm and dry seasons in the west coast valleys drives the best out of the deep and dark reds, the moderation of the Atlantic coastal climes seems to make the much hardier rootstock of the whites (and earthy Cabernet Franc) truly sing. I'll go so far to say that some of the best methode champenoise sparkling wines I've ever had, come from a sleeper winery in Westport, Massachusetts (snap up all of the Maximilian, should you come across it).

So, I quickly discovered that 5 gallons of cab grapes is alot. ALOT.

After 5lbs of the crushed and mostly thawed grapes went in to the quad rescue attempt and 3.5lbs in to 4 gallons of the Cuvee (6 gallons remain without fruit addition, for now), I still have about 4 gallons of fruit left. I guiltily freezer-bagged up the remaining grapes, and hogged even more of the already hops-choked freezer.

The quad has been souring with the bugs for a descent amount of time now and any activity had slowed to a near crawl. I overfilled the carboy, and after a week, the re-activated microbes were pushing CO2, grapes skins and yeast up through the airlock (and continued to do so for ~1.5 months).

The cuvee was still quite young when the grapes were added (pellicle hadn't even fallen yet), so, despite my better judgement, I added the fruit much earlier than is likely optimal (would prefer than multiple brett strains, lacto + pedio would be favored over the sacch, and a later addition achieves that; sacch tends to lose viability faster than the others).

Only (lots) of time will tell, so I'm looking forward to my first tastes of these in about a year.

Brewing sugar experiments: Part 1

2010-11-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

There's a long history of adding simple, non grain-based sugars to beers which has been very well described in several texts, so I won't go in to that detail here. I'm essentially singularly focused on the how and why these sugar additions are made, so that I can better know how to drive the intended flavors, mouthfeel, aromas in to the finished beer -so, essentially the same as anything else that goes in my kettle.

I'm certainly not adherent to the German predilection of malt-hops-yeast-water ONLY concept of beer purity, so there's no leap in my mind about whether a sugar addition would be compromising the finished drink with a lower-tier ingredient, in fact many of my favorites are made that way with a significant contribution of them. Given the commercially available options, I'm basically disinterested (for now) in the relative cost of the grain and adjunct bill for a batch of homebrew, as they are, at this scale minimally impactful. So, I've been very happy to buy sugars (cane, turbinado, honey, maple syrup, etc.), except for a single attempt at making invert sugar for a super-saison very early on. The juice of lemon (ascorbic acid source), a few pounds of cane sugar, a splash of water, and bunch time and heat (up to 275F). Poured it out of a sheet lined with aluminum foil, cooled, stuck in the fridge, then satisfyingly cracked the candy with a ball-peen hammer to shatter. It soon made its way to the brew as a ~20% late sugar addition (ug, what a sticky mess at the bottom of the kettle...syrups are the sugar addition of choice from now on), and drove the saison flavor in a direction that it likely shouldn't go. A toasted marshmallow, almost burned maraschino cherry (weird, I know) flavor that persists in to the bottle today.

I've read about making a maillard syrup in recipes online and Radical Brewing that is supposed to reasonably approximate the flavors of the darker syrups from Dark Candi (D2 is, by far, my favorite). There has been debate about the nitrogen source needed to drive these flavors, and some vocal consternation about why its 'wrong' to make these maillard syrups with anything but sugar, heat and time (no added nitrogen, no acid). I understand how Dark Candi pulls it off. But, I would guess that these syrups attain the deep, complex flavors that they do not from 'sugar only' in that they are not created from a highly refined sugar (sucrose only) source.

Despite that it says 'Beet Sugar' on the label, and that others have reported the importer states that refined beet sugar, heat and time are the only ingredients, I have to guess that the syrup is made from a very complex soup of sugars, a small remaining portion of proteins after coagulation step, and loads other organic materials from those beets. What most of us have access to outside of a sugar processing facility is pure sucrose (or mostly refined sugar, as in the case of turbinado). The recipe of pure sugar + varying the heat and time parameters is tricky and requires precise control. If you go too far w/ the time and heat, you really wouldn't do much beyond caramelize at the constituent sugars' various caramelization points, making them characteristically flavorful, but otherwise first degrading, then creating complex molecules (ie. http://www.food-info.net/uk/colour/caramel.htm). These molecules, while quite tasty, are wholly inaccessible to the metabolism of your average household yeast. In order to get the characteristic (in my opinion) maillard-like flavors of the Dark and D2 syrups, you'd require a nitrogen source. I don't readily have access to a big load of sugar beets or cane sugar to shred/juice, strain and cook up in order to replicate sugar house processes, so I had to look to the grocery store and homebrew shop for widely available analogs, as suggested by Mosher and others.

For now, I certainly am satisfied with the impact of simple cane sugar at the lighest possible end of the scale (although I'd prefer something with a whole food soul) I'm really seeking a reasonable approximation of the highly touted, but veiled in mysterious D2 profile at the other.

Any success here will could also hopefully be extrapolated and dialed back to an approximation of the 40SRM amber version.

Some assumptions to base this round of experiments:

1. pH of their finished syrup is <>

2. the sugar mix in D2 (and the others) is likely reasonably close to the mix fructose, sucrose and glucose as it is in the other disclosed syrups' product cards, as there's been some inversion of the beet derived sucrose. I wonder if Dark Candi adds back some refined sucrose after cooking their sugar, to help with fermentability?

3. sucrose dissolved in water does not shift the pH, so I opted added include a pinch of tartaric acid to my recipes which didn't include DAP, to somewhat consistent.

I did not measure pH, so that's a knock.

Here's another. I should have done a more controlled control by omitting the acid altogether and using distilled water or neutral pH water, but I skipped that in this round (as it takes 2 hours of standing over a boiling pot to make a batch of sugar, at this scale, at least).

In part 1 of my experiment, I cooked up three batches of sugar on my stovetop, with the intention of getting the darkest possible syrup, with the characteristically dark/stewed fruit and rich chocolaty flavors, but still 'very fermentable' profile of the D2 (wished they published that data on their website, but I can easily do forced ferment test myself). All three sugar recipes followed the same process, in order to closely mimic the sugar profile, maillard flavors, pH. Fructose caramelizes at 230F, while sucrose and glucose caramelize at 320F, so I figured heating to 300F would keep me well clear of the caramelization of at least the latter two, if the sucrose wasn't completely consumed, but still give me that deep, rich maillard flavor that I sought. Didn't really know how much sucrose the inversion process would consume, and what the final mix of fructose, glucose and sucrose would be. Should have done myself a favor and spent the 3 minutes reading this, but it may have thrown me to another tangent and possibly have done a literature search to find the data.

Sugar 1/Control

1lb Cane sugar + 1/8 teaspoon tartaric acid + 1/2 cup water

Quickly bring to boiling over medium heat.
Once heated to 240F, lower heat and slowly heat to 300F (use digital candy thermometer w/ alarm), add 1/2 cup water
Repeat 2x, adding 1/2 cup water again to cool and reconstitute to syrup.
Lightly golden color, sweeter-than-sugar caramelized flavor. Light, only slightly more interesting than plain sugar dissolved in water.
Very slightly additional darkening with sequential heating and cooling. Definitely not even close to the D2 ballpark.

Sugar 2/Cane + 1/8 teaspoon tartaric acid + 1/2 cup DME, replaced the weight of cane sugar w/ DME

Used DME as the nitrogen source, knowing there was a more complex range of malt derived proteins. Guessed at the amount.
Had to switch to a much larger (2.5gallon) pot, as the boiling sugar got about 5x the volume as the first batch. Big and foamy, almost looked like the foam before hot break coagulation, but with bigger bubbles. Pain in the butt to make if you need a vessel 10-15x the volume of the finished syrup.
Richer and deeper caramelized flavor than the first batch, but no roasty, raisiny taste I'm looking for.
Deep, mahogany red color, significant darkening at the 2nd heating, very slightly darkened after the 3rd.

Sugar 3/Cane + 2 tablespoons Yeast Energizer

The LD Carlson yeast energizer includes DAP, yeast hulls (as well as magnesium sulfate and Vitamin B complex). DAP disassociates to ammonia and phosphate, leaving an acidic solution, so adding the tartaric acid would be unnecessary. Also, held off adding until the solution reached 240F, given ammonia would volatilize and less would be available for maillard (and more to sting my nose). Yeast hulls would be a small %, but another source of organic material that if I had to speculate, may add further depth of character.
Chocolatey, figgy/raisiny syrup. Medium roast coffee mixed with stewed prunes. A touch 'bright' from the resulting acid in the DAP? Gave a slightly metallic flavor, not as 'soft' as taste of the D2 gives. More concentrated, richer, deep flavor though.
Dark as night, but not burnt, at all. I'd guess that ~95% of color occurred in the first heating, the remaining in the first half of the 2nd. Brought back up to 240F after last water addition to concentrate syrup a bit more, but still retain sufficient water. Prior 2 batches seemed a bit too watery.

Made 3 mini batches of sugar water for forced fermentation tests. 50grams of syrup + tiny pinch of nutrient, topped up with water to 200ml finished volume.

Measured OG:

Sugar 1: 1.066

Sugar 2: 1.064

Sugar 3: 1.080

Samples returned, brought to a boil in foil covered erlenmyers, 5min. Chilled in ice bath to 75F.

Moved to stir plates, added pinch of Nottingham direct without rehydrating (not a recalled lot).

Plates set to pull sufficient vortex.

~36 hours, no sign of fermentation, no CO2, etc.

~ 5 days, gravity measured:

Sugar 1: 1.060

Sugar 2: 1.062

Sugar 3: 1.078

Basically no fermentation, added bread yeast, 5 more days, didn't budge one gravity point, even without sanitary technique.

So, the first 2 syrups got me nowhere even close to D2, and the much touted DAP got me very close, but the too-high temperatures quickly left the sugars wholly unfermentable. I did calibrate the candy thermometer to boiling water and another thermometer, and it was within ~1F, so that's not the issue. I scrolled for quite a while through this discussion, but I was unable to find anyone who talked about conducting a forced fermentation test w/ the syrup alone, just FG of beers in which they used their home cooked sugar, most notably here.

Next round we'll see what impact lower cooking temperatures may have on recipe for Sugar #3, easily the closest approximation to D2 thus far.

Double barley wine, orval'd

2010-11-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

During the spike of irrational exuberance that commonly plagues homebrewers with a few solid batches under their belt, about 3 years ago, I decided I wanted to shoot the moon...brew up a ~20%abv double barley wine bomb that could age for years, decades even.

There were a good number of commercial examples that I've read about, sampled a handful. How hard could it be?

Brewing beers before certainly sported loads of enthusiasm. Perhaps lacked a bit of perspective. It had come quite easily. Even the russian imperial stout recipe flagged with the 'expert' connotation in the homebrew magazine seemed to be an easily attained success. Time to up the ante. Way up.

So, I got greedy. I'll google and google and google until my little fingers could google no more, and I'll simply read up on all the brew forums how I could bang out a beer that would push the very limits of yeasty fortitude.

I'll step over the bodies of those that have tried and failed before me (what exactly is a stalled fermentation, anyway? never happened to me before, they must be skipping obvious steps), and ride the apparent attenuation coattails to success.

Should be easy enough.

Trappist high gravity yeast? Yeah, that's the ticket.

40% simple sugars to boost the fermentability of the wort. how extreme! But...why use one, when four different sugars would undoubtedly add a 'depth of flavor'?

Daily aeration? Hmmm, where's that aquarium pump...got it!

No way I can mash enough grain for a 5 gallon batch in my little mash tun, so I'll partial mash this beast, make up the different with extract. I'll split off the batch to give the Cali ale yeast a good start at a reasonable OG, and then really concentrate down the rest of the volume, late addition with the sugars with a FOUR HOUR BOIL. (are you rolling your eyes at me yet?)

Can the concentrated wort and do daily additions...it'll be better (and easier) than dissolving little baggies of reconstituted cane sugar every day for 2 weeks, I'm sure of it.

All that concentrated wort should bring the combined gravity to ~1.170. Yeah, that's what i said. 1.170. Well...no, I didn't measure it. I calculated with my whiz-bang Beersmith software.

Right, I can't be sure, as I didn't think to do a 50% dilution of the final concentrated wort, to be within the range of my hydrometer). Whatever.

A well timed addition of high gravity yeast, made in a high gravity starter w/ some of the canned wort (y'know, you have to acclimate the yeast to what its about to face, right?) will drive that attenuation to my target of 1.025.

OK, maybe I'd be happy with 1.030. It'll need that balancing sweetness to handle that huge alcohol, yes?

6 lbs Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 23.35 %
8 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 31.13 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.89 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2.92 %
3.2 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 0.78 %
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [12.20 %] (240 min) Hops 31.0 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [6.00 %] (240 min) Hops 15.3 IBU
2.00 oz Palisade [6.90 %] (240 min) Hops 35.1 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
1.00 oz Palisade [6.90 %] (15 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
1.00 oz Palisade [6.90 %] (15 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
1.00 oz Glacier [6.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
2.00 oz Oak Chips (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
4 lbs Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM) Sugar 15.56 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Maple Syrup (35.0 SRM) Sugar 10.70 %
2 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 7.78 %
1 lbs Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 3.89 %

6 months later, that hydrometer wasn't budging.

~1.065

*Hydrometer pictures Oct 2010 (not 1998)

This beer quickly eroded my mounting homebrewing hubris down several notches. But, I couldn't drink it, I couldn't hand over a bottle to a friend (or foe) with a straight face, and couldn't bear to chuck it. Maybe my friend Mike could force carb it, and that would give it the impression of it being dried out with a carb bite to it? Ah, no, tastes like carbonated barley wine cough syrup.

Text that night from mike as he racked it over:

"The gravity is 1.065...want to ferment this a little more first"

Ouch.

So, in this keg, the big beer that couldn't, slumbered for a few years in a basement. He moved to a new house. Hung out down there for a few months, too.

texts, each a loud echo the last, would show up periodically:

"hey, want that barley wine of yours"

Oct. 15, 2010...I took delivery of that embarrassing keg, humbled but hopeful.

The reclamation plan I had already set in motion was eerily similar to the underattenuated quad solution.

Use bugs. Lots of 'em.

Plus a liberal dose of hope.

Start small, though.

Build vigor with time.

Dregs from 2 relatively fresh bottles of Orval.

500 ml 1.040, 1 week, decanted,

1000ml, 1.040 2 weeks, decanted.

2 gallons, 1.038 5 days decanted ~75% (will need some active brett going in, knowing the chances of anything waking up in the super toxic environment, even brett, was slim. Knowing any lacto or pedio in there probably would crash and burn in the cough syrup of a beer, I pinned all my hopes on the fortitude of brett brux var. orval)

Boy, it really hurt racking over from the keg, as the head formation in the 7.9 gallon bucket was downright glorious. Not to mention all the wonderful aromatics hitching a carbonated ride, liberated from the beer.

Yet another learning experience. But, embarassment, shame has given way. I now cherish these 'teachable moments'. I feel thankful for these relatively harmless miscues. There's always next time, the next beer that will be better for it.

I've been slowly, surely accumulating them over the years in my personal bizarro world book of 'how NOT to brew'.

I should have slow bled off pressure over the course of several days, then racked.

Ok, you wild and crazy Belgians...have at this car wreck of a wicked big beer.

Happy to report that after 1.5 months after Orval'ing the wicked big beer, I still have positive pressure on the S-shaped airlock, and a bit of funk emanating from under the plastic. Who knows, maybe I'll realize my dreams of reaching ~1.025 one day, even if it comes a few years later than planned.

Ok, I'd be happy with 1.030.

Planting the future

2010-10-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Loaded up the car and took the family on a trip back to my hometown of Acushnet to share in the Luc QT and to get some trillium rhizomes in the ground. For about 15 years now, my parents have graciously allowed their frustrated landscaper of a son to cut new garden beds around the entire property and grow up pretty much anything I might want (Pop Tetreault : "whatever you like, as long as its not a willow tree...those roots get in to everything...I don't want anything destroying the septic system"). Most of the early plantings are now mature groups of Peony, iris japonica, allium giganteum or many multiples of the Pee Gee and oak leaf ydrangea.

Despite my fascination with this beautiful North American woodland wildflower, there was still one species that had not worked its way in to the soil until now.

The eponymous Trillium.

Five rhizomes of trillium grandiflorum (Great White), five of trillium erectum (purple/red), and three trillium luteum (a mottled-leaf yellow) were on the docket for the day, so I snuck away for 30 minutes to have a bit of fun in the dirt.

I selected a site in a garden bed that is best suited for these spring time ephemerals, and with some expected dapple shaded neighbors. A mix of native: marsh ferns (Thelypteris palustris) and tall/limbed up golden birch trees (species?) and introduced plants: a flowering japanese cherry and a collection of japanese maples (some named purchased cultivars, some originally seedlings now in their awkward youth from underneath mature specimen trees back in the city.

Unfortunately the soil in this section of the parents property is mostly glacial clay; a soggy root suffocating mess in the late winter/early spring and a parched solidified brick in the inevitable dry spells of the summer. The antithesis of the 'well drained, moisture retaining and high in organic soil' that trillium require.

Thankfully, my parents kept up the heaping compost pile, feeding it regularly with kitchen and yard waste. Pop will turn it a few times a year with the big kubota front loader and supplement it with some manure from my uncle's farm. Really beautiful, well rotted compost. Smells like the forest floor on which it lay. I peel back the outer layer of pulled weeds (unfortuately went to seed) and garden harvest that didn't make Pop's premium measure of quality. The center of the pile is ready to use and the perfect planting soil amendment.

After digging down ~12 inches, I took away 5 wheelbarrow fulls of the dusty, rocky clay coil, which apparently lives in the bizzaro world (it rained pretty well the night before) and replaced it with 4 of the compost and 1 of screened loam, the combination of which will help with drainage/tilth, nutrients and minerals.

The trillium rhizomes were disappointingly tiny. But they were firm and most had lengthy root systems ready to take hold in their new home. They will get settled this fall putting out a bit of root growth before going dormant for the winter. Pop will lay down an insulating layer of finely shredded leaves from the fall yard cleanup, providing further incentive for the earth worms to pay a visit to this site.

Hopefully the little plants will pop up their tri-lobed sepals in the spring and begin the slow but steady growth that will make this in to sturdy stand for the brewery's eventual forest's edge garden planting.

Walking back to the garage to return the shovel, Pop proudly pointed out a lone and youthful rhubarb ...his own recent propagation success story. He had gotten a bit of root from a friend in August and planted it in his raised boxes. The late summer sun fried the leaves to nothing. But underneath, the compost and soil nurtured, kept the roots cool enough to make it through the harsher days to the cool growing season.

After what some people would probably consider too long to be lingering around, talking about the growth of a single plant, we walked back in to the house, knowing that Pepere would have been happy to take part in the fun, and wishing that he was still around to do so.

Yeast hunting: update

2010-10-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

The yeast cultures from the Stonington, Connecticut vineyard hunting trip have all burst to life with some very interesting and encouraging results.

While I was sitting around waiting for things to happen inside those tubes, I found lots of practical and timely reading through Jamil's (just as much Chris White's) yeast book. Had me harkening back about 15 years to my Microbiology 101 class with all of this aseptic technique, plating agar media, incubators talk.

Now, I'm not going to venture off in to selective media, vitality or viability testing or anything too geeky, but rather rely on sensory evaluations and macroscopic techniques.

The first macroscopic observations actually came the evening of the collection, only about 10 or so hours after the cultures were started. I noticed turbidity and some positive pressure on one of the tubes with the Sauvignon Blanc grapes...a little agitation revealed some CO2 production. Interestingly, these are the first grapes to ripen and were harvested a few weeks prior to our visit. There were a few straggler tiny clusters missed by the harvesters, so I was able to snag a few for my effort.

Anyway, I guess I wasn't going to have to sit and stare at these for days on end before at least 1 tube with some growth. A sniff along the cap didn't yield much, so I re-tightened the lids and turned the tubes over on to their caps for the night. The centrifuge tube cone bottoms require a rack, and the cardboard rack would take too much of valuable counter space. I tucked the 11 tubes in to small corner of my cutting board, and went to bed for the night.

Agitated them all again in the AM before shooting out the door in a futile attempt to miss the Monday AM Boston traffic. Came home that evening to see 2 or 3 of them leaking fairly significant amounts of wort (beer?) from the screw threads, mabye as much as 1/3 of their total volume, due to the built up CO2 pressure. Well...duh.

Good news is that the headspace in the tubes was filled with CO2...bad news is that I probably lost lots of viable bacteria and yeast in those, most noticeably in that tube of Sauv. Blanc, which when agitated put forth even more frothy CO2 bubbling, and this time a vinous, white winey lactic and bread yeasty smell.

The open air tube had some strange brown coagulated proteins, which reminded me a lot of the first stages of culturing up the kombucha bugs. No CO2, though. Maybe the clumps are hot/cold break from the DME? All the tubes w/ the white grapes were showing signs of life, while the reds were pretty silent. Oddly, all the tubes with grapes were seemingly devoid of these brown coagulated clumps.

Three days after harvest, all the white grapes were still actively fermenting, and yeast seemed to be floc'ing in the bottom of the tubes in stratified layers. The reds were quickly following suit, just a bit behind the whites. No CO2 production evident from the open air vial, just the brown clumps. Are the brown clumps growing?...maybe a bit more turbid now? (should have take photos in same position/lighting for side by side comparison).

The next step was the following weekend (Day +7) when I took 1 tube of each of the four grape varietals, agitated to get the yeast/bacteria cakes in to suspension (had to shake pretty hard for some of the tubes) and pitched in to ~250ml of starter wort + pinch of nutrient. There was significant turbidity and CO2 production and some leaking at most of the tubes' cap threads.

The Sauv Blanc tube that was the most active from day 1 was very turbid at this point, and and took the blue ribbon yeast production, despite the reduced propagation media volume.

I sniffed each of the vials (too nervous to taste anything yet).

All but the merlot smelled like raw, yeasty fermenting wine. The merlot smelled like raw sewage on a hot summer's day. But just a small tube of it, so thankfully a minimal nostril full didn't leave me reeling, spilling the vile stink all over the kitchen. Guess I got a bloom of Enterobacter? Glad I didn't taste it. It got pitched in to its fair share of starter wort, hoping that the more benevolent creatures start to outcompete this stink stank stunk bacteria. The cultures were topped with foil and rubber bands (to minimize any stank spilling, should one get tipped in the high traffic kitchen) and were swirled to agitate whenever I walked by.

Fast forward one day, and little creamy white growths appeared on all of the cultures. Certainly didn't have the morphology of a mold bloom, most resembled what in my experience looks like yeast (mini) krausen.

The next day I took the 2nd runnings from a batch of belgian strong (gravity read at 1.034) and topped up the cultures with another 250ml of wort.

Fermentation was evident in the AM, with CO2 emerging through the media. These were left to ferment for 5 more days (Day +13) and sufficient yeast was settling at each of the cultures and continued to be very turbid. I've read that lots of wild yeasts can be very dusty, but its not really possible to know whether this was due to dusty yeast or otherwise high and varied bacterial blooms. I chilled the samples down in the fridge in an attempt to crash the yeast out of suspension, in order to repitch a hopefully concentrated yeast cell count in to more starter wort. Uncapping the foil revealed a very similar looking pellicle in each.

Again, certainly no mold, but the aroma profiles have begun to differentiate themselves.

Sauv Blanc smelled strongly of fruity kombucha (indicating some acetobacter produced acetic acid)
Chardonnay was a softer kombucha/acetic, more raw and yeasty
Cab Franc was notably vinous with a smaller, softer background odor of bready yeast
I took a very short sniff of the Merlot fearing the worst, but it seems that my hopes were realized...the Enteric poop stink has been mitigated significantly, and is now just a faint background odor. Perhaps just remnant volatile odor compounds from the now outcompeted bacterial population.

The cultures were decanted and added to ~225ml of wort, affixed with an airlock, and now currently sit at room temperature. I neglected to take any gravity readings.

Single tubes of each varietal + the open air tube remained, and signs of fermentation continue on the tubes with grapes. Its like the microbes are slowly gaining access to the sugars/nutrient in the grapes so are slowly chewing away. The color change in the red cultures is obvious. No obvious pellicle forming like in the foil covered larger cultures.

As for the open air tube, we finally have significant CO2 production, first noted at Day +11. You can see the foam leaked around the threads after agitation...smelled raw vinous, yeasty (sorry for the repetitive descriptors...I'll employ far more colorful vocabulary when I act like a man with actual hair on his chest and take a swig).

Stay tuned for the next exhilarating microbiological installment when I actually make something intended for at least a small taste analysis.

Plans call for making a small batch of a relatively lightly hopped farmhouse style beer, splitting the wort across 4 ~ 1 gallon fermenters and see what kind of primordial beers we end up with on their first generations. I'll grow up the additional 5 samples behind these first 4 to see if there are any significantly different characteristics, and selecting a few that smell the most benevolent. There are also plans for streak out the mixed cultures on some malt agar media, isolate some yeast from the bacteria, then slowly step up in 25, 50, 100, 250, 1000ml erlenmyers to grow up pure cultures to more split wort 1 gallon pitching volumes, but that'll be a story for a future post.

Yeast Hunting near Flanders*

2010-10-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

I have been brewing batch after batch of beers with other people's bugs these days, in order to hurry and wait for them to be ready to bottle in 1-2 years. The notion of brewing an american wild ale with truly wild yeast and bacteria that has been nurtured along by my own doing from their primordial beginnings has been growing in romance in my mind for quite some time. I have been reading and re-reading about it. Talking to (at?) anyone who will listen to me go on and on about such things as 'facultative anaerobes'.

Usually starts with a self-indulgently lame lead-in like:

"So, you like sourdough bread, right...? Well, y'know...there are these beers..."

Knowing that some of my favorite beers are created with such wild caught strains, I had to have a hand at it. I know I'm not alone in this, and the chance at finding, creating and learning about beers with as yet undiscovered terroir signature has struck many others before me. Of course, this was (and in the rare case, still is) how beer was brewed for thousands of years, and is experiencing a tremendous revival as of late. Hopefully, I will be able to favor and coax along an otherwise happenstance and motley fungal and bacteria crew (no mold-whammies, no mold-whammies...aaaaaand, STOP!) with some relative simple steps and techniques.

The first step to growing up yeast is the familiar process of making an appropriate medium to capture and grow up the cultures. I started with boiling up a small starter (OG 1.030) with DME and a pinch of wyeast nutrient.

I added 40ml of still hot (~170F+) wort to eleven sterile 50ml centrifuge tubes and re-sealed the threaded caps. Threw them in a gallon ziplock bag the morning before driving down to Saltwater Farm vineyard for their 2010 Chardonnay harvest. Here's a video peek of the place from last year's Halloween Cab Franc harvest.

The mood was considerably more energetic at this year's harvest. Of course the vines are another year older, but the grapes were pushing the brix count north primarily from the long, warm and sunny season, and the tons/acre harvest (I hear) was exceptional. Lots of new french oak barrels (ooooooh boy) lay in waiting for the Chardonnay. I spent a few minutes, alone, in silence, just being near them, smiling widely.

Outside, the surrounding wetlands and fields were thick and lush. Plants that are usually winding down to dormancy this time of year, exhausted from the efforts of flowering and then setting seed, were flagrantly reblooming.

Lots of yeast-feeding nectar was still aplenty, so the yeast conditions were quite good, but not ideal. Both the night and day time temps have been cool, as of late (good), but the rains came through a few days (not so good). I could see that the whitish haze that typically has set up camp on the grapes has been washed off a bit, though still quite visible toward the bottoms of the clusters.

I had big Luc strapped to me, so my harvesting efforts were probably measured in the 10s of pounds, not hundreds, but Esther and Anne-Marie quickly filled the trays in the overcast ~55F weather.

I opened a few vials and pushed 4-6 of those bottom-of-the-cluster grapes in to each. I wandered around the grounds, snagging 4 different varietals: Sauvignon Blanc (3), Chardonnay (3), Cabernet Franc (2) and Merlot (2).

Not so much because I postulated that Id get different strains from the different grapes, but rather there might be micro climates hidden within the micro climates of the vineyard, each yielding some different microbiota. With the 11th vial, big Luc I went for another 20minute stroll through the vines, with the cap off...making our own mini-Lambic. For the record, I too don't really wish to enter in to a debate of the 'proper' use of the appellation...

Our good friends, the vineyard owners, were quite generous to heed my request for 5lbs of the Cabernet Franc, for use in adding to a portion of the strong pale sour beer I brewed not too long ago. When we returned home, Esther took the Luc-handoff, and I went to work destemming these pristine/mold free clusters by hand. In to a washed stainless bowl, then vacuum seal bags, then the freezer. 4lbs, 10oz. I had hoped for 5 on the button. Nuts.

I'll add the grapes after the Sacch/Brett has been knocked back a bit by the lowered pH levels, and give the now stronger pedio something fresh to call dibs on.

It is now already three days later, and I've seen clear signs of fermentation, first on the white grapes, then the red, but nothing too definitive yet in the 'open air' vial. I'll likely chill, then decant the grapes and wort tomorrow evening. A familiar whitish sediment is settling on the bottoms of the most active vials, and bright hints of vinous fermentation gases are sneaking from under the plastic screw tops.

The agar, sterile Petri dishes, inoculation loop, and small scale Erlenmyers are on their way. Meanwhile, I'm only about 1/2 way through Yeast, so I've got some work ahead of me.

And at least I have Luc to let me go on and on (for now, anyway) about my hopes of finding the elegant, yet rustic Tetreault strains, and dreaming about going yeast hunting in own family farmhouse brewery one day.

*Flanders (Road)

les mauvais outils

2010-09-20T13:09:00.001-07:00

'Use the right tool for the job', my pop would say to me as a young lad, whenever I'd stubbornly use a comicly undersized implement for the task at hand, be it a paring knife to chop onions or a hand trowel to dig a hole in the garden. I'd scrape and scratch away, until I heeded his advice and finally make the long walk back to the garage to fetch the right tool.

Not much impresses my dad, but if its one thing my dad's eyes go wide on, its properly apportioned gear that can do a job better (best)...be it his Kubota tractor or the (excessive) SD-RAM chipset in the laptop.

After the recent attempt at a big red DIPA, I look at my hand trowel of a brewing set up, and yearn for my Kubota rig.

OK. Id settle for a mantis at this point.

I stuffed the heaving grist in to the 10 gallon cooler and mashed in with a way too low water to grist ratio, even holding back the crystal for capping the mash, after a little tun capacity was realized from settling the grain bed through recirculation.

4 oz of black malt was set aside for complete and dusty pulverization in the bladed decaf coffee grinder, aka the paring knife of the coffee grinders in our kitchen. We only hit proper coffee with a burr grinder. This very small amount of black malt will help to lend a deep red hue. The oxidation protection qualities of the highly kilned grain is a nice side effect. Maybe only the very faintest of roast flavor will appear (and probably only because you'd look for it when you know its there).

Being a double IPA, there are mounds and mounds of hops (Chinook, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo) pressed in to service, with the majority held back for later boil and dry additions. A late addition of ~10% sugar to dry out the beer, while still pulling max IBUs, customary to DIPAs.

The now customary painful run-off takes 2 hours, including two grain bed resetting blows of air back through the run off tube to clear the stuck mash.

1 hour to cool the 10.5 gallons of wort to close to pitching temps. Another hour to strain out the hops from the wort and clean up. Wort still at 72F. Left in front of the A/C unit to chill down to pitching temps. To bed at 1:30AM on a school night. Reached 67F by 6:30AM the following day, yeast pitched. Fermentation started in ~6 hours, and active fermentation between 63-65F. Krausen fell in 3.5days, conditioning at 70F now.

I need some new stuff, because what I have are clearly les mauvais outils (the wrong tools).

9AM, 26Sep2010: Added gelatin to both vessels.

Nose of deep and complex american hops...missing the fresh/resinous tones only achieved w/ dry hopping.

Caramel/malty.

Muted British yeast esters, carried by soft alcohols.

6PM, 26Sep2010: 4oz of dry hops in each vessel: 1 oz each of Chinook, Centennial, Citra, Amarillo, whole hops.

Imperial Red IPA

Imperial IPA

Type: All Grain

Date: 9/12/2010

Batch Size: 10.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 11.74 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 75 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount

Item

Type

% or IBU

28 lbs

Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)

Grain

76.19 %

3 lbs 8.0 oz

Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)

Grain

9.52 %

2 lbs

Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)

Grain

5.44 %

8.0 oz

Caramel/Crystal Malt - 75L (75.0 SRM)

Grain

1.36 %

8.0 oz

Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)

Grain

1.36 %

4.0 oz

Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)

Grain

0.68 %

2.00 oz

Citra [12.00 %] (75 min)

Hops

32.2 IBU

2.00 oz

Amarillo Gold [8.50 %]

(Dry Hop 7 days)

Hops

4.00 oz

Chinook [12.40 %] (60 min)

Hops

63.6 IBU

1.00 oz

Citra [12.00 %] (20 min)

Hops

9.3 IBU

1.00 oz

Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (20 min)

Hops

6.6 IBU

1.00 oz

Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min)

Hops

7.8 IBU

1.00 oz

Chinook [12.40 %] (20 min)

Hops

9.6 IBU

1.00 oz

Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min)

Hops

1.00 oz

Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min)

Hops

1.00 oz

Chinook [13.00 %] (0 min)

Hops

1.00 oz

Citra [12.00 %] (0 min)

Hops

2 lbs

Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)

Sugar

5.44 %

1 Pkgs

Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007)

Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.097 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.78 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 129.1 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 17.7 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 34.75 lb

Sparge Water: 8.41 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
90 min	Mash In	Add 30.00 qt of water at 160.4 F	145.0 F

Cuvee de Tetreault

2010-09-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

In order to keep the momentum going on the the longer term projects, I decided to leverage the burgeoning house blend of sacch and bugs, as recently harvested from a repitch in to the saison.

I had been leafing through my well worn copy of wild brews, nosing through my eclectic stash of ingredients, and my mind drifted toward the cooler days of fall and winter that will slowly descend on us here in boston. My eyes settled on the 'dark medicine' recipe in the back of the book. Having never tasted cuvee de tomme, the description and intention spoke to me loud and clear, and thought I'd put together a prospective vs. reactive wild belgian dark strong.

I upped the carafa III special a bit to give it a decidedly deeper hue and a heavier dose of D2 syrup to ensure dry figginess. While the strong population of brett C in the bug mix may not be as complimentary as a brett B or L might be, but perhaps the less obvious will be the tipping point that makes this beer uniquely, unintiutively delicious.

I warmed myself with what will form the basis for another belgian farmhouse/trappist inspired beer, and pitched the dregs of a relatively fresh (bottled 4/2010) Orval in to 500ml of starter wort, dosed up with an ounce of maltodextrin. I grabbed this perfect specimen of a beer from the close to the door cooler at public house provisions. I opted for the cold vs. warmer shelf version-OK to settle for a slightly less funk in the glass, as the yeast/bugs would be healthier. With Luc in tow in the baby bjorn, I had a long, humid but very inspired walk back home to Coolidge Corner.

Since I had been repitching and culturing up from dregs so much these days, I have made certain that I've been propping up the needed nutrients for proper propagation with balanced doses of wyeast nutrient. I'm likely to start in with the white labs competing servomyces when this vial runs out, as the concept of bio-availabile micronutrients from yeast grown in enriched media is tugging at my brain-strings pretty convincingly.

I still felt a bit gun shy with the D2 from my earlier poor attenuation experiences, but just a little fermentation experience with brett + bugs will cure you of that concern pretty quick. I even tossed in a touch (2oz) of left over maltodextrin in a cavalier oh, the bugs will tear through that stuff, no problem sort of way. In fact, you sort of hope for the sacch to back it down relatively early in the process, leaving a feast for these expressive creatures.

Willamette whole hops lend a woodsy bitterness to this beer. No flavor addition, as it'll be at least a year before bottling, probably another 6months before the first pour.

This beer is made as are all my beers. Single infusion, with my rigged 3 tier condo kitchen gravity setup, comprised of my bottling bucket HLT, rotating sparge arm, 10 gallon cooler/bazooka screen MLT, mixed withe some stainless ball valves and vinyl tubing.

For 5 gallon batches and non-sticky mash, the bazooka screen is plenty adequate. But for an overloaded mash tun, it gets bound up right quick.

Always. As in 2 hour sparges.

Not cool.

I'll take a deep breath and run my hand over my grandfather's prohibition resistant beer case, and gain some serenity knowing brewers have endured far greater barriers than I will likely ever need to face.

The saison was racked to 5 gallon glass, where it'll continue to slowly ferment for the next 4-6 months before bottling. The entire volume of yeast cake was split between two fermenters after aerating the big 1.086 wort.

I didn't get to watch the krausen kick up on this batch, as Esther, Luc and I went away for the week for our 1 year anniversary, but the evidence of a properly active krausen revealed itself stuck to the side of the ullage in the pyrex fermenter. Straddling the odd bedfellow line between a belgian strong dark and an imperial porter, a push on the lid of the bucketed filled my nose with subtly spiced saison, caramel, biscuit, woody hops and soft roast. Fruity pineapple and cider and CO2 sting lead me to believe I'm headed down a long road of yearning... waiting. Should give me enough time to decide on oaking and to eventually find some proper glass to house the finished cuvee.

Cuvee de Tetreault

Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 9/4/2010

Batch Size: 10.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 11.45 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
11 lbs 8.0 oz	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	36.51 %
6 lbs	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	19.05 %
5 lbs	Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)	Grain	15.87 %
2 lbs	Carafa III (475.0 SRM)	Grain	6.35 %
2 lbs	Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)	Grain	6.35 %
1 lbs	Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)	Grain	3.17 %
1 lbs	Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)	Grain	3.17 %
6.00 oz	Williamette [4.70 %] (60 min)	Hops	38.8 IBU
2.00 oz	Malto-Dextrine (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
2.00 tbsp	PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
20.00 gm	Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
3 lbs	Candi Sugar, D2 (80.0 SRM)	Sugar	9.52 %
1 Pkgs	House Sacch/Brett/Bugs Blend	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.086 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.008 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 10.21 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 38.8 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 48.8 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body

Total Grain Weight: 28.50 lb

Sparge Water: 2.40 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Full Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
45 min	Mash In	Add 35.63 qt of water at 170.5 F	158.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 14.25 qt of water at 196.6 F	168.0 F

Luc brews (part 2)

2010-09-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Somewhere within my new dad sleep deprived brain and body, I managed the gusto to run through the paces of this double batch, double brew day with relative ease.

Even with a way too small wort chiller (25ft copper immersion), no pump, an underpowered (for brewing) electric range and splitting the wort to two vessels for the boil, I was able to crank out 20+ gallons of some longer term projects, that will further mature my house blend of bugs.

Soon enough, these brew days will start with the reference of 'oh man, remember when ...'

Of course, the second part of the marathon double brew day started before the last one ended. I felt at the same time inefficient from my undersized brewing gear and the joys that come from the orchestral coordination that back to back brewing requires. I was feeling great about recycling both heat energy and water from the wort chiller waste water. But there was the nagging 'your brew set up is undersized...you could be playing with your son right now instead."

I measured and milled the grain bill for the 2nd batch while the 1st was coming to a boil. Racked a big beer to secondary to free up a fermenter and ran down to the storage space to fetch another.

While I'm whipping around the place, the saved bug blend slurry on the counter is gurgling back to activity from its chilled slumber as it warms to room temperature. CO2 is regularly rising from under the depths, loosening chunks of slurry and carrying them to the surface, almost indicating that the word is out...the rowdy melee is about to ensure. The lot of them somehow know its going to be feedin' time again soon. I grabbed a sniff of the from the under the bubbling lid of the loosend mason jar and I get hit with the Jolly Pumpkin and Brett C nose.

The grain for the 2nd batch is laying waiting in the nearly overflowing bottling bucket waiting for a very warm, intended to favor the B amylase enzymes. Lots of nearly neon green Saphir hop pellets have been measured out, ready to lend their gentle bitterness to this beer, which is intended to be split 3 ways (unadorned, and 2 yet to be determined fruits).

The luscious malt and gentle hop aromas fill the apartment, even as the boiling kettles do battle with the AC units. I wrap everything up by 7:30PM to a 'what can we reheat from the freezer and throw some fresh vegetables in it to have some semblance of nutrition' dinner. I promise , as I crash to the couch with Luc and the smiling wife, the lot of us feeling exhausted yet still quite fulfilled, that I'll bring down the brewing equipment to storage tomorrow morning before work.

Strong Golden Sour Base

Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 8/22/2010

Batch Size: 10.00 gal

Brewer: JC, Jason, Luc

Boil Size: 13.45 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 90 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
20 lbs 8.0 oz	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	61.19 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	10.45 %
3 lbs	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain	8.96 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)	Grain	4.48 %
1 lbs	Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)	Grain	2.99 %
6.00 oz	Saphir [3.70 %] (90 min)	Hops	29.7 IBU
4 lbs	Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM)	Sugar	11.94 %

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.098 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.096 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.025 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.61 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 11.29 %

Bitterness: 29.7 IBU

Calories: 441 cal/pint

Est Color: 5.0 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body

Total Grain Weight: 29.50 lb

Sparge Water: 2.08 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Full Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
45 min	Mash In	Add 36.88 qt of water at 170.5 F	158.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 14.75 qt of water at 196.6 F	168.0 F

Luc brews...someday (part 1)

2010-08-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Things have fallen a bit quiet in the last few months here at trillium...singularly due to the preparation and subsequent arrival of our son, Luc. The big guy (11lbs, 1oz) arrived in style, and in many ways, is now the man of the house. We have put our old, carefree child free lifestyles aside and traded that in for parenthood. We haven't looked back. Sure, reducing sleep to a mere fraction of what I comfortably need is tough, but then I keep reminding myself...I'm not the one who was carrying around an 11 POUND BABY inside my body.

A bit of perspective is all I need, when I look through my new dad bleary eyes up at my crying baby (hungry? tired? dirty? cold?...nope, he's hungry... again) and, even with these big eyes staring up at me, I now can understand that life's passion won't erode, fade away. I simply look back at the guy, and grin, looking forward to the day he has the manual dexterity to hold and then turn over a bowl to make his first hop addition.

Even as I really should be hunkering down on Sunday morning for some make-up zzz's (you simply must sleep when the baby sleeps), I shot out of bed to the apartment's annoying, grating buzzer. That damn buzzer is reminisce of the most annoying sound in the world (at 0:51).

"uhhhhhh...who is that? god...what time is it?"

"its Jason...we're brewing today, remember? I'll take the baby; get more sleep...you need it"

"uhhhh...Ok"

Jason has arrived, and I haven't even set up the grain mill, never mind finished bringing up the equipment out of storage.

I walk around somewhat aimlessly, flailing and failing at my stumbling impression of preparedness. He's lugged up his big boy batch mash tun complete with its DIY copper manifold, 44 quart stainless kettle, an a prapo sample bottle of breakfast stout, and a strong 'I'm going to need some coffee before we do anything, so I can't even imagine how you feel' look on his face. Tell me about it...

At least I had made up the saison yeast blend starter, started off gassing/heating the strike water and cleared out the kitchen for a double/double brew day. These two ten gallon batches will hopefully make up for a bit of down time.

We had exchanged some texts the night before, and decided in vague generalities on the recipe, so things were definitely a bit out of order for my usual brewday. I tossed Brew Like a Monk and Farmhouse Ales at him said 'here, hold my baby', grabbed a shopping cart from the hallway, and made my way down to the storage space.

Loaded 'er up with the gear, sacks of grain (gotta love the apartment elevators), and grabbed a first sample bottle of the 2009 RIS (notes to follow in another post) to follow Jason's marginally lower abv breakfast stout.

Jason wanted something that would be generally appreciated by beer nerds and curious but as yet uninitiated alike. I wanted something that could serve as a nice foil to some Brett + bug character. We settled on a hoppy saison as the base beer...his portion to get the white labs saison yeast blend, mine to also get house bugs from the stonington sour pitched into the primary with the sacch.

A brew day + babysitting requires a brewing partner.

We swapped off getting in QT with Luc, all while keeping on the brewday's requisite schedule. Jason would rock him while I mashed in, I changed his diaper as Jason vorlaufed.

Saison

Type: All Grain

Date: 8/22/2010

Batch Size: 10.00 gal

Brewer: JC, Jason, Luc

Boil Size: 11.45 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
20 lbs	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	86.96 %
2 lbs	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	8.70 %
1 lbs	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain	4.35 %
2.00 oz	Citra [12.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	39.6 IBU
2.00 oz	Goldings, B.C. [4.40 %] (15 min)	Hops	7.2 IBU
2.00 oz	Goldings, B.C. [4.40 %] (1 min)	Hops	0.6 IBU
12.00 gm	Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	WLP568 Belgian Style Saison Ale Yeast Blend (White Labs #WLP568) [Starter 1600 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.063 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.63 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 47.4 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 4.2 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 23.00 lb

Sparge Water: 2.42 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 28.75 qt of water at 161.4 F	150.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 18.40 qt of water at 200.2 F	168.0 F

Stonington Sour-Bottled

2010-07-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

T-minus ~24hours until the little Taco arrives

...and I can't legitimately extend the aging on the stonington sour any more. Its (well past the) time to make room in the guest bathroom for the encroaching baby bathing accoutrement, and while the beer has only been on the bugs for ~4 months, the pellicle fell quite early in the game, and there has been no positive pressure on the airlock for quite some time. Not having a hydrometer (broken...2nd one), I'm strictly relying on my sense and gut that this thing is mostly finished. Its highly probable that I'm wrong.

But in the battle of beer vs. baby...the mighty baby wins the guest bath, but in truth it looks like this beer is going to make us all winners. Immediately after removing the airlock, this Brett C beer/wild ale had strong tropical fruit aromas with a touch of compost-y earth. I can't wait for it to develop further in the bottle and have those aromas further carried by what will likely be ample carbonation. The beer was blended with 750ml of 2007 Saltwater Farm Chardonnay (100% estate grown grapes, fermented in stainless, aged in French Oak). A small sip brought those aromas to life...the fruity aromas highlighted by a medium-acid brightness. A fullness in the body still remains somehow (wheat?), though it finishes with dry snap, so I'm quite certain (hoping) the FG is reaching terminal. Oak tannins aren't where I'd want them to be, but do provide more soft fullness. The microbial impressions lean toward a nice menage a trois of the Fantome Printemp, JP Oro de Calabaza and Brett C, with the aromas sitting squarely with Brett C.

Many friends of mine, especially Sue and Pat, have been saving their thickest of glass for these high pressure brewing endeavors. And its a good thing, you never know where the 'wild' ones will end up. Chances are, even with a modest dose of the priming sugar, the strains of Brett et al will continue to carbonate well past their enzymatically challenged Sacch brethren, and it is best to have hedged some bets toward the higher CO2 vol tolerant vessels. Its a motley crew of green, brown, and clear (gasp!) glass...375ml all the way up to a 1.5L magnum. Corked + caged a few, while most were outfitted with either the standard or larger diameter euro cap.

My attentions will certainly be turned almost solely toward the taco for short bit, which will keep me and my friends from running through this, my first earnest attempt at a wild fermented beer.

...I wonder if I can sock away a bottle of this until Taco is of age (or somewhere reasonably close to it).

Hops: back in to the earth

2010-06-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

Took advantage of a rare unbooked Saturday morning, and sprang out of bed early. My intentions of getting the plants back in to their final homes soon after unearthing them has been repeatedly foiled. So, this Saturday I looked forward to finally sinking my languishing bag-in-a-box hops back in to the earth at my uncle's farm in Berkley, MA.

My generous aunt and uncle have designated a ~50 x 3 foot row adjacent to a nursery area on their farm. I had my work laid of for me. I had to dig out about 2 feet of partially decomposed wood chips and replace it with a mix of screened loam and well rotted farm provided compost.

They had laid down this thick bed of chips to prevent weeds taking over in the nursery. While extremely effective at suppressing growth, the wood scavenges nitrogen in the decomposition process in a much more effective manner than (hops) roots can, so a huge amount of compost was needed to tip the carbon:nitrogen ratio back in to balance. Thankfully, earthworms and microbes have had at the chips for going on 4-5 years now, so they are already partially decomposed and loaded with earthworm castings. The rich loam provides sufficient mineral and tilth for the newly planted hills. I couldn't help but notice the huge population of earthworm in the compost as I was amending the bed.

So, I've successfully jostled the hops root systems from their constricting but the northern exposed protected homes and thrust them in to a new and southern exposed environment in the worst possible time of the year. I've cut back the already stunted ~4-5 foot bines to 1 or 2 nodes to keep the plants from respiring too much. Even still, this will truly test the big rep of tenacity that hops carry. My aunt waters the nursery daily to keep the potted plants going through the season, and she'll ensure that the water will hit the newly planted hill to make sure they don't experience prolonged desiccation. If they survive the next month, then I'm very confident they'll start yielding some farm-compost fueled hops for years to come.

Trellising couldn't be put up this day, but the plan is to sink 30ft telephone poles ~5feet down (Uncle Richard has some serious excavating equipment) at each end of the 50ft row. A lead wire will run across the top with coir twine staked to the base of each hill. An annual top dressing of compost will be the only additional amendment that will be needed.

Driving through the relatively rural land, my mind drifted away (back) to growing ingredients for a proper farmhouse beer, using ingredients raised in local soil. While growing and drying hops is really quite easy, the grain component can be a bit daunting to some and isn't nearly as common.

I am undeterred.

The rest of their farm is situated in cleared forest, so there's no spare 1/2 acre of so that would be needed for this pilot project, so I've begun to put out some feelers to local farmers who might be interested in bit of a land-for-beer barter.

But for now, I'll continue to scour the internet for information on growing grain in New England. There are some bits and pieces from some blogs and a recent article in the May-June 2010 BYO, but no comprehensive beginning to end experience just yet.

I am inspired by stories such as these, and I have my hopes for this project, as well, and will continue to check in on updates.

goodbye.hello

2010-05-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Tough day for me this Saturday.

Usually best to get the bad stuff out of the way first...I had to concede defeat, and finally let go of the garden that I've tended for the last 7+ years...little plot M20 at the Victory garden in the Fens.

This 16ftx24ft patch of rich earth wasn't perfect, but it was mine, for a while.

I've had several interactions with intruders (insectivorous, rodent, and..most frustratingly, human) that led to untimely destruction of hours worth of work. But, you learn to keep the water averse plants up on higher ground. You don't replant trees and shrubs that seem to have bark that's the favorite late winter snack of the river rats. You keep the most tempting of flowers and fruit out of arms reach and spike the garden gate with lock jaw inducing rusty finish nails and thread rose thorns along the fence tops. Top notch garden regulation approved security systems (and, no, razor wire isn't on the list).

Its not easy having a garden that you treat like its going to be yours forever. You set up a mini irrigation system, you drag in 18 inch pavers and haul in puddingstone from under the deck of my old Mission Hill apartment. Plonk down mail order perennials and tiny trees with visions of growing them to a more sturdy, landscape worthy size.

You grow things.

Black eyed susans. Blue hosta. Purple clematis, purple heuchera, purple potatoes.

Spicy thai basil, sweet smelling mock orange, pungent garlic chives.

Japanese everything (almond, Stewartia, maple, holly, cypress, iris, peony, painted fern, redbud trees...you get the point).

And, in recent years, hops. The true lupulin wolf of the garden. I set up 10 foot galvanized poles and coir twine trellis, knowing they were undersized, but were also likely maxing out the stifling garden's regulations. They were a nice start, but the apexes were reached about 1/2 in to the active growing season. They caught the attention of the neighbors, and initiated hour long conversations about their care, and eventually about their favorite kinds of craft beer.

I found out Saturday that I was known through the tight garden clique as the 'hops guy'. Huh. That's cool, but I was only mildly disappointed that I wasn't known as the 'peony guy'.

Centennial, CTZ, Cascade, Sterling, and Fuggles. The mature Sterling and Fuggles were already ~6ft tall, and shooting up bines far from the crown. The thick ropey rhizomes were lifted, bines cut way back, sectioned and carted back to my parents house, and are resting under a layer of well rotted compost, just waiting until they get to their new home at Sticks and Stones farm.

So, in recent years, I've pacified my need to have my hands in the earth today while nurturing the visions I had of a firmly rooted and floriferous tomorrow. This is why it was so tough to walk away from it this Saturday. The clock had run out, and though I've never lived closer to the gardens I was paradoxically no longer living in Boston proper, and these gardens are strictly reserved for her residents. Knowing this was coming for quite some time, so this weekend was actually just the final bit of it. It sort of felt like raiding an already picked over garden center, but there were still some longtime gems in there. Probably, the most important of which was the scrub pine seedling that my aunt Norma gave to me when I first started the garden. I've been going Miyagi on its ass for years, and it is starting to resemble a tree that would be at home in the master Bonsai collection at the Arboretum. But, I still must wait, as he is in good hands for the time being, until I can call a more permanent patch of earth my own.

so, a day where I needed to let go of a lot...

...this loss, albeit small, helped to magnify and highlight a truly inspired evening.

An evening of visions, possibilities. Building momentum toward what will be our future.

Brookline Hopfen Weisse: large format bottling

2010-04-30T14:20:00.001-07:00

Man...there's something about popping the cork on a large format bottle...it just tells you and everyone with you that 'today is a special day...fun will ensue'.

I've squirreled away a few of these thick walled bad boys (a handful of magnums, one 4.5L and one 9L (!!!) knowing I wanted to eventually fill it up with my own beer, and cram a cork back inside the neck. There's discussion in the wine world that the larger format bottles are more 'age-able' and lead to a more complex and refined quaff. Perhaps it has something to do with the reduced oxygen available in the headspace/liquid ratio. Or maybe its due to the larger volume leading to a larger number and volume of flavor compound to compound interactions.

Or maybe its just because huge bottles are 100% hilariously awesome.

(yes, this is the 9L bottle of St. Feuillen tripel that the lovely wife surprised me with for Christmas a couple years back).

So, eventually I knew one day I'd dig out one of these funny bottles and fill 'er up.

Trouble was... I don't have a stand-corker that could accommodate the skyscraping height...the Colonna capper/corker that I normally use to cork and cage champagne and belgian bottles maxes out on a magnum bottle height, so after scratching that idea off the list, I was left to try to rig something with the wine kit included double lever corker.

This corker is designed for 1. wine corks (not larger diameter Belgian corks) and 2. inserting the cork flush with the top of the neck of wine bottles.

The corker has only been pressed in to service once before, and the price tag isn't staggering if it were to get injured in any wrong tool for the job attempt. So, I figured I'd do a dry run with a Belgian cork in a regular champagne bottle to see if I could overcome problem #1.

Luckily, I quickly discovered that the reducer orifice in the corker can still accomodate the larger diameter Belgian corks. I promptly removed it with a corkscrew and wondered how (if) I could mimic the same half-way-in/half-way-out insertion that I rigged with the Colonna. Feeling emboldened by my initial success, I grabbed another cork, made a quick dip in one-step sanitizer (provides just enough lubrication to help ease it through that almost too small reducer), and depressed the levers until I had plunged the cork down with the levers just slightly less than parallel to the counter. I held it up the whole apparatus to the light, and could see about 3/4 of an inch of cork in the neck.

OK...what do I do now? I would have to then interrupt the mechansim of the levers and their leverage point, but still allow the plunger to continue, otherwise the cork would just continue to get driven in to the neck, and I'd have no real way of pulling it back out, save for a CO2-seal-destroying corkscrew. I pulled the levers back a bit, and braced my left hand just under the corker's orifice chamber, right where it meets the bottle, which in effect falsely extended the neck of the bottle. Holding on tight to the bottle with my pinky and ring finger, I pushed down on the plunger directly, and with a little wiggling, the cork slipped through the remainder of the orifice, and I had that half-in/half-out cork I was looking for.

Good thing I held on to the oversized cage that came with the bottle...the regular cage wire is probably about 3 inches too short. I'm sure I could cut and twist in another length of wire, but this sure looks cleaner.

Oh, for the bottle nerds out there (oh, I'm on the only one? I don't think so.)...here's a chart of the proper names for the larger format bottles, including its correlation to the standard 750ml bottle. reference

(there are others, here's the exhaustive list from wikipedia, including the source of the bottle names)

You can just tell...there will be fun had when this bottle of Brookline hopfen weisse gets popped.

(...and no, this isn't camera trickery...the hopfen weisse is right next to that bottle of cantillon to its left).

Quad rescue attempt: gratuitous funk pics

2010-04-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

After the WLP655 didn't seem to do much beyond an initial restart on what appeared to be a sacch type of krausen, I pitched ~600ml of stepped up mixed dregs starter (including oro de calabaza, fantome printemps and consecration) in to the quad rescue ~22 days ago.

This is what I'm looking at today, including one very strange slimy (pedio?) bubble that has taller-than-it-is-wide straight sides.

Modern Homebrew + French Oak TV: Brewing with Extract

2010-04-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

And here's the followup segment to the shopping trip at Modern.

I go through an intro/extract homebrew segment on the BATV show 'French Oak TV'. Hopefully it helps to show how easy it is to make great craft beer at home, and inspires some aspiring brewers to take the leap and pay a visit to Modern Homebrew Emporium in Cambridge. If you see Randy there, tell him French Oak sent you!

As its been quite a while since I've brewed with extract, I'm very much looking forward to trying the hefe with Ray, the show's producer. It really is a great way to start out, and an extract brewday is great timesaver (~2.5hrs vs. all grain ~6hrs). Various styles really lend themselves to extract (stouts, ESB, the various wheat beers), so either drop me a message or a quick chat at the homebrew shop will be sure to put you on your way to making your first batch of craft beer, right in your own kitchen.

Cantillon: le temps ne respecte pas ce qui se fait sans lui

2010-04-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

My work takes me to the Netherlands (and the UK) fairly regularly, but the schedule is often so stuffed that, at the end of a jet lagged, bleary eyed day, I consider myself to be quite lucky if I can land at a hotel restaurant that has a Trappist beer or a Duvel available.

The last trip had me situated in the sleepy Dutch town of Heerlen, at the old Kasteel Terworm. Rebuilt several times, this castle is replete with turrets and old growth wooden beams and, of course, a moat. This castle had some local Dutch beers...the hands-down favorite that our group went back to again and again was lovingly coined the 'hamster beer'.

Availability of hotel rooms is tight this time of year as it is a tourist season in the Netherlands, with plenty of horticulturally inclined Europeans seeking out (and finding) visions of the painted fields of Lisse and the Keukenhof.

Due to the ash cloud drifting from Bjork on over to most of northern Europe, we had plenty of time to check out the muscari, daffodils, and loads of other flowers that have been known to spawn a certain bulb-inducedmania, but I had priorities. We checked out from the castle, as they weren't able to put us up for another night, and we first made rental car tracks to Brussels, a mere 125km from Heerlen, to visit Brasserie Cantillon, which is just outside of the center of the city. I had inadvertently assumed that Cantillon would be situated in a quaint little Belgian outpost of a farming town, where the ample benevolent wild microbes flourished for centuries.

Nope. Its in the middle of the city. But...to be fair, it is a city that is virtually engulfed by very close proximity farm after farm after farm. Centuries old agrarian roots are still planted firmly so the flora aloft in the Brussels air is aplenty, with only a likely minor impact from the industrial revolution. From the looks of it, some of the same equipment that was around at the beginning of this revolution was still employed at Cantillon. I was at peace as I set my own hands on the huge gear driven mash/lauter tun, koelschip, and other hand-hammered pipes and machinery.

Jean van Roy invited me and my colleague to a self guided tour, which allowed full access to every last area in the place. Certainly a tour that would induce fainting episodes in OSHA and other american minded food inspectors. So, just the way I like 'em.

Wandering through the time-tested brewery, with all of its rounded, worn edges and hand hammered equipment, hand hewn floors, and...well, pretty much everything, an immediate appreciation pervades. You just get it...a simple innate understanding of just how important what is being crafted here in a family owned, wholly earned pillar in brewing's history.

When I asked Jean van Roy about his perception of american attempts at using spontaneous fermentation, his eyes widened, and rather than expressing concern or looking threatened by oversea mimics, he rattled off his favorite american examples (ie. Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, etc.) and gave an 'we all rise with the tide' sort of assessment of the growing awareness and appreciation for the beer.

But, romance aside, to be sure, this is still the place that has consistently turned out world class beers that are (close to) perfection in a bottle, and it's a wonderful thing that the world is experiencing a revival in the appreciation of these soulful, artisan beers. This revival ensures Cantillon's continued existence and availability, while at the same time, inspiring others to delve in to the as yet unexplored flora growing in our patches of earth and wafting through the local air, just waiting to ferment something that will, in the coming years, continue to make van Roy's eyes widen.

time does not respect what is done without him

____________________________________________

PS. make sure you don't leave anything of value visible on your seats when you are in a city.

any city.

even if it is in the middle of the day.

and there are plenty of friendly Belgian people walking all around.

A broken window on your rental car and a stolen laptop might (almost) ruin your visit to Cantillon.

Modern Homebrew + French Oak TV

2010-04-09T16:41:00.001-07:00

Modern Homebrew: Supplies. Fun. Advice. from French Oak TV on Vimeo.

Brooklineweizen

Weizen/Weissbier

Type: Extract

Date: 3/4/2010

Batch Size: 5.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 5.72 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: -

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
6 lbs	Wheat Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)	Extract	92.31 %
8.0 oz	Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)	Grain	7.69 %
1.00 oz	Tettnang [4.70 %] (60 min)	Hops	18.0 IBU
1.00 oz	Hallertauer [3.30 %] (10 min)	Hops	4.6 IBU

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.044 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.19 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 22.6 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 7.1 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: None

Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb

Sparge Water: -

Grain Temperature: -

Sparge Temperature: -

TunTemperature: -

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: -

Steep grains as desired (30-60 minutes)

Mash Notes: -

Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar

Volumes of CO2: 2.9

Pressure/Weight: 5.1 oz

Carbonation Used: -

Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F

Age for: 28.0 days

Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

Brookline Hopfen Weisse

2010-04-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

Early dismissal from work yesterday, so I got to move up the brewing schedule 1/2 day. I wanted to brew up something using the collected Weihenestephan yeast cake from an extract hefeweizen batch I bottled earlier in the week, in association with new homebrewing episode from French Oak TV a few weeks back. Looking at my huge stash of grain and hops, I wanted to brew something on the bigger side of the OG scale, in order to burn through some ingredients.

I recently had a fantastic collaboration brew between Brooklyn Brewery and the German brewery, Schneider called Hopfen-Weisse, and something in a reasonably close approximation of that just seemed like an obvious choice.

After a bit of research, the relatively high OG grain bill is intended to be very simple ~mix of large proportion of wheat and pils malts (I used Franco-Belges, each at 1.8L), in addition to a bit of sucrose to prevent the finished beer from becoming too cloying, and to serve as a foil for the

wonderful aromatics and flavors from the Weihenestephan yeast and American hops.

Brookline Hopfen-Weisse

Weizen/Weissbier

Type: All Grain

Date: 4/2/2010

Batch Size: 7.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 8.43 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 90 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
10 lbs 8.0 oz	French Wheat Malt (1.8 SRM)	Grain	50.00 %
8 lbs	French Pilsner (1.8 SRM)	Grain	38.10 %
1 lbs	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain	4.76 %
1.50 oz	Citra [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)	Hops	-
1.50 oz	Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)	Hops	-
2.00 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	60.8 IBU
1.00 oz	Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (40 min)	Hops	17.3 IBU
1.50 oz	Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (10 min)	Hops	10.7 IBU
1.50 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (10 min)	Hops	16.5 IBU
1.00 oz	Citra [12.00 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.50 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Amarillo Gold [9.10 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	7.14 %
1 Pkgs	Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068)	Yeast-Wheat

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.077 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.69 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 105.3 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 4.7 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 19.50 lb

Sparge Water: 0.78 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 24.38 qt of water at 161.4 F	150.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 15.60 qt of water at 200.2 F	168.0 F

My intentions...smooth and silky wheat malt, bready pils. Hops: Pine, grapefruit, dank, tropical fruit. Yeast: powerful banana and clove aromatics. This leaves me quite hopeful for an intriguingly flavorful new summertime favorite, from the local Brookline brewery, care of the some of the most interesting ingredients the collective brewing world has to offer. And not quite Reihheitsgebot adherent. I can hardly wait to see the first pour; the head formation should be monumental. My Bodum knock-off tall pilsner glasses should make for an ethereal vessel for this modern hybrid beer.

24hrs-popped the lid on the bucker fermenter...no sign of a krausen forming. Very surprised, given the 500ml of thick, fresh slurry pitched. Grabbed the sachet of Nottingham from the fridge as a fail safe, there was going to be another 24hours before I would get an adequate pitch of replacement bavarian wheat yeast.

4/9/10- Realized I forgot to add the 1.5lbs of sucrose to the beer! Boiled in equivalent amount of water, cooled, added to fermenter. Fermenter smells amazing of fresh wheat malt and layered hops, but clearly lacking the characteristic banana and clove aromatics.

belgian pale ale

2010-03-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

a rare monday night brew session, a belgian pale ale with decidedly hoppy intentions.

Half way through the boil, I'm growing concerned about my decision to use a large amount of low alpha hops, reminiscent of a past misstep. I desire all the subtleties of the noble varieties, but just looking to turn up the volume. Something has been lost in translation in the past attempts, and perhaps I should have listened to the nagging doubts in my head.

Looking at all the vegetal matter I've dumped the kettle , I fear I've brewed a chlorophyll-bomb.

oh well, worse comes to worst, I just spent a few hours making a big starter of a'chouffe yeast (WLP550).

meh, low expectations might yield a nice surprise.

Bubbling away nicely ~18hrs later, wrapping with a big blanket to help insulate the fermentor...looking to free-rise the temp up in to the mid 70s to help generate those characteristic gnome-y phenolic spiciness.

~48hrs in to ferment, free rise (fermenter wrapped in blanket) up to 78.9F, fermentation slowing considerably now. A'chouffe character starting to really show up.

Racked off yeast 02April, in to 6 gallon better bottle, in order to free up primary fermenter for doppel hopfen weisse. Saved yeast cake, yielded about 400ml of thick yeast slurry, after overnight settling in a mason jar in the fridge.

belgian pale ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 3/29/2010

Batch Size: 6.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 6.87 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
12 lbs	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	82.76 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)	Grain	10.34 %
1 lbs	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain	6.90 %
3.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [4.40 %] (60 min)	Hops	36.8 IBU
1.50 oz	Crystal [3.00 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)	Hops	-
1.50 oz	Goldings, East Kent [4.40 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Crystal [3.00 %] (20 min)	Hops	5.1 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [4.40 %] (20 min)	Hops	7.4 IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [4.40 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Crystal [3.00 %] (0 min)	Hops	-
1.00 items	Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)	Misc
1.00 tsp	Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)	Misc
10.00 gm	Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
1 Pkgs	Belgian Ale (White Labs #WLP550)	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG

Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.05 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %

Bitterness: 49.3 IBU

Calories: 43 cal/pint

Est Color: 7.1 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 14.50 lb

Sparge Water: 1.18 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 18.13 qt of water at 161.4 F	150.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 11.60 qt of water at 200.2 F	168.0 F

trillium

2010-03-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I really like beer people.

I find that they (we?) are generally a more thoughtful, giving bunch of people.

Eric Surface of Mt. Tabor Brewing (or here) shot some pics of some spring blooms that he happened to have transplanted in to his wife's parent's garden in Oregon.

uh, right...soooo, that's cool.

Why send pictures of some flowers over to some dude you've never met, save for a couple emails and a shared interest in beer?

Well, they are trillium flowers, or Trillium grandiflorum for the horiculturally inclined, and that clearly has stuck in his head as something that I might be interested in.

He was right. Very right.

After a long trip on over to Europe for yet another trip away from home, I return to my land-less, concrete surrounded condo.

And, before I left, the skies here in Boston were just ekeing out some reprieve from late winter cold and rain that plagues us for far too long in to the new year. We had a few transient days in the 60s and 70s, and green life was ready to start anew.

Then the vapor sank again, down in to the 30s, juuust in time for me to wait outside at a the blustery Logan for the shuttle to then take me to the overflow parking lot that I often dread using as I drive to the airport through the Callahan tunnel.

I finally arrive home, booted up the computer, logged in to email, and I see some fantastically alive pictures of my brewery's namesake from Eric.

so, thank you, Eric. This helped alot, and I can patiently wait a few more weeks for spring ...and Trillium Brewing Company...to truly arrive.

yep, I really like beer people.

stonington sour

2010-03-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a (yet another) trip to the Netherlands. When it is at all possible, and I can convince my co-workers, I do my best to get in to Amsterdam to get some world class beers at Cafe Gollem, on Ramsteeg.

On my first few trips, I was thrilled to find the Westvleteren offerings, calmly residing on their thoroughly Belgian bottle list. However, over the last few years, I feel the growing pull of the wild fermented beers, and find my eyes returning back to the most visible chalkboard in the place, the one over the door, where all of the spontaneously fermented offerings are listed. My coworkers all wait patiently, and say 'So, what do you think...what are we drinking tonight?'

I put some Orval, Rodenbach Grand Cru in front of them.

gueuze, faro...

some funky imperial stout (de struisse cuvee delphine)

I let them go through the process, uninitiated.

they wince. they make faces. they raise their eyebrows. they sniff. cautiously... then, put the glass back to the table without trying it, doubtful about the experience in front of them. They'ver heard me say some seemingly un-beery things like 'horse blanket' 'sorta like bleu cheese'

They muster courage, and give it a go. 'wow'. and they keep sipping, keep drinking, until its time to ask...'what are we drinking next?' save the receipt boys, we're going to need it.

I wake up before the sun on the morning after my return, grab my brew kettle, and start heating up the strike water for my first (prospective) sour/wild ale. Taking cues from the flavor profiles of Temptation, Mo Betta Bretta, and my own notions of what I'd like to see in an American Wild, this beer was mashed in high (157F) to ensure lots of dextrins that the sacch will pass over, for the rest of the bugs to go after later. Replaced a pound of the pilsner with carapils for more dextrin.

A little Ca+Cl- to up the Calcium in the mash to ~100ppm.

Restrained hopping with 1oz of EKG ~15IBUs.

90 minute boil.

Pitched WLP 655 (Sour Mix I) and WLP 645 (Brett c.) directly (no starters) in to primary.

Now, I'm drinking an Oro de Calabaza (batch292) and making a 500ml 1.040 starter to add the dregs to kick some Dexter, MI bugs to the mix after a couple days. 1oz of medium toast French oak and 500ml of Chardonnay from Stonington, CT will complete the picture in the extended secondary (airlocked glass is intended).

Will keep the fermentation in the mid 60s to encourage a slower initial ferment, and then let the heat of the summer take the lactic acid levels up to where I hope they'll go.

stonington sour american wild ale

Type: All Grain

Date: 3/28/2010

Batch Size: 6.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 7.23 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 90 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
7 lbs 12.0 oz	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	49.21 %
6 lbs	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	38.10 %
1 lbs	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain	6.35 %
1 lbs	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain	6.35 %
1.00 oz	Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (90 min)	Hops	14.6 IBU
1.00 oz	French Oak Cubes, Medium Toast	Misc
1.00 tsp	Yeast Nutrient	Misc
8.00 gm	Calcium Chloride	Misc
500.00 ml	Chardonnay (Saltwater Farms Vineyard, 2006)	Misc
1 Pkgs	Brettanomyces claussenii (White Labs #WLP645)	Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs	Sour Mix 1 (White Labs #WLP655)	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.067 SG

Measured Original Gravity: SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG

Measured Final Gravity: SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.26 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: %

Bitterness: 14.6 IBU

Calories: 296 cal/pint

Est Color: 4.6 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body

Total Grain Weight: 15.75 lb

Sparge Water: 2.23 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Full Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
45 min	Mash In	Add 19.69 qt of water at 169.4 F	157.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 7.88 qt of water at 199.5 F	168.0 F

4/9/10- 1oz medium toast French oak cubes put on 300ml Chardonnay, capped with saran wrap under cap to reduce oxidation.

4/24/10- 1oz medium toast French oak drained of wine + ~500ml of cultured up dregs of oro de calabaza, consecration and fantome printemps , added to stonington sour.

Saltwater Farm, spring tasting

2010-03-21T05:14:00.001-07:00

Esther and I made the trip down to Stonington, CT yet again yesterday afternoon as we were attending a private tasting at Saltwater Farm Vineyard. Every time we return, we reaffirm the reason why we married there; it is a place of simple beauty, filled with the quiet wonders of the natural world and the warm hearts that are attracted to the place. It is a place we will be able to visit often and experience the freedom of leaving behind much of the distracting noise that can come with business of life, slow down the pace a bit, and focus on our own quiet, natural wonders.

Since the fall harvest at the vineyard, I have made continual, albeit slow progress. Working to assemble some film that I shot of that day, teaching myself the software, the process, all the while hoping that that (today's interpretation of an) austere timelessness of the harvest would translate to the finished piece. Throughout the process, it let me return to that place, over and over again, those moments which inspire me...which inspires us, not only to create something for today, but with a hopeful eye toward what will be built in the future together.

IBA: tasting

2010-03-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

If you have been following along, you'll noticed a trend in the last few posts, in that they are all tasting notes.

A few reasons:

I found that my tasting notes just haven't kept pace,
There's a big backlog of beers to write tasting notes about,
I'm looking to tidy up the place, and with that, alot of beers that are just sitting taking up valuable space around are now targeted for 'removal'
I haven't brewed since bumble, b2

So, during a good spring cleaning today, I came across a few 1 liter flip tops. Huh, I thought all of these IBA bottles were gone. So, might as well toss it in the fridge while I catch up on my laundry so it can be chilled down for a later tasting.

Now, I have had some problems with the flip tops holding CO2 over extended periods of time, so I always fear the anemic, the pathetic little 'pffft' after flipping off the rubber gasket. No such problem with this bottle, as a loud and sudden pop revealed what would be excellent (yet excessive) carbonation.

I've now taken to only pouring down the middle of the glass, as the initial pour will immediately reveal the carbonation level. If properly, and not overly carbonated, the beer will form a proper head, and not take too much time to do so. This results in the best head formation, and tends to de-gas an overcarbonated beer, such as in this case. With an overcarbonated beer, you just gotta wait it out. None of that disgusting slide of the finger across the nose to pick up head killing oils for me.

God, that's gross.

I try to taste a beer for what it is first, and not what it was intended to be. I leave that for last. I try to go in with no expectation, and build an impression as I go. So, I already mentioned the overcarbonation, a perennial problem I've had since my unevenly carbonated first IPA. That was a result of inadequately dispersed priming sugar. I have since overcompensated, not trusting myself, despite careful and thorough blending with the racking cane in the bottling bucket.

This beer pours a pale chocolate brown...well, its dark brown, darn close to black in a full glass. Ruddy reddish brown when held up to the light. And earlier problems it had with clarity have dissipated with time on the shelf. It has dropped brilliantly clear now with time.

Yet another beautiful head forms on the lengthy pour, and the aroma provided is malty, roasty and biscuity. If nothing else, I'd say the heads on my beers are as good as any beer I've ever poured.

The beer tastes like a hybrid between an american brown ale and a dry stout. Roasty flavor, a touch of caramel, but very little sweetness on the finish. A drying roast character is pervasive the whole way through and the faded, muted bitterness is now in pretty great balance with that. Any extract twang in its youth has now smoothed over and is undetectable. Clean fermentation, hardly any perceptible character, right in line with the California ale yeast. No fresh hop aroma or flavor anywhere to be found.

Funny, as it is now, a dry roasty American brown with subtle hopping, its tanding tall abve where it was in its youth: not quite enough fresh American hop character struggling from behind too much roast, and roughness from the extract twang.

Belgian IPA: tasting

2010-03-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

Its already been over a year since I've brewed this beer?

wow.

Well, while it was very young, it was mostly a rough and muddled impression of an over hopped tripel with an incredibly low FG (1.002), which made this beer just under 12%abv. The smattering of noble and american hops were of rather low quality, as I am now aware of what high quality stuff is available to the homebrewer. Despite their less than optimal quality, nothing would have rescued the recipe for what was intended, a bigger, nobler cousin of Houblon Chouffe. Silly me...la chouffe had already pretty much nailed the style. In the earlier tastings, very little finishing hop character made its way from behind the big phenolics, alcohol and rather rough edges. I contend that even double the hopping levels of these noble hops wouldn't have come forward in the youngest months of such a huge beer, like I had hoped...its just not within their abilities, their strength is in their subtleties. The recipe would need to scaled way back, and hopping schedule revamped. And I'd go back to the a'chouffe yeast, like I had originally intended, I think.

Well, despite its roughness, its low FG and full flavor always seemed to warrant another mouthful. So the bottles went fast.

And after just a glass, its very easy to pour another, and...another and...whoops, you and your friends wake up to a morning of regret. So, I now only have a few bottles left, and the bottle I opened tonight has been in the fridge for at least a few months of cold conditioning.

Its delicious.

The beer seemingly has now gone through the transmogrifying cardboard box, and now could be a described as a Noel special release qualityBelgian tripel, with wonderfully complex Belgian fruity nose, a clean snappy and dry pilsner body, and a softened bitterness. On the pour, a pillowy head forms and stick around through the quaff as a reduced but stable little pillow of protein at the surface.

A glowing gold, slightly hazy appearance and just high enough carbonation is best enjoyed in this Duvel goblet, with its 'D' laser etch continuing to feed the aromatics for each sip.

Warming alcohols fills the back of the throat and sinuses on the swallow, carrying the phenolics through again, and easily warms up a snowy, blustery Boston winter night. Would pair wonderfully with a steaming bowl of root vegetable/braised beef shank soup, washing back the richness, and scrubbing the palate clean again for a great back and forth, which is better, which do I want more type of battle.

Belgian Chocolate Stout: tasting

2010-03-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

In and effort to diminish the vast quantity of bottles in my aging library, I pulled one of my first brewed beers from the wine rack (yes, this beer was lying on its side for the better part of 2.5 years...more on that later).

The Belgian chocolate stout was brewed before I was taking proper notes, so I'll recall the recipe and particulars from memory, which actually give me a descent understanding of how the beer has revealed itself to me today.

Most importantly, this is when I was buying recipe kits from Midwest. I'll guess that the base kit was either a dry stout or the oatmeal stout kit, knowing my predilections at the time. At this point, I likely boosted the recipe with another 1lb of chocolate malt, as I recall being underwhelmed by the roast character of earlier kit, to which I logically attributed to the specialty grains components of the recipe.

So, just add more, right?

Yes and no.

Certainly adding more chocolate malt would increase the flavor threshold, but, just like many other flavors, the perception of 'chocolatey-ness' certainly relies on more than just this simple addition (though my head was certainly heading in the right direction). I now appreciate that the yeast choice, its health, pitching rate, SG/FG, fermentation temperature, brewing liquor, other components of the grist will also have harmoniously holistic impact on all flavor perceptions, including 'chocolateyness'.

But, back to the other particulars about this batch...I know I re-used yeast from the tripel I had made earlier, which was actually yeast cultured up from a few bottles of Duvel. Not the most expressive yeast I've found, so not one that screams estery, phenolic Belgian, but...again, my head was in the right place. Plus, I really liked the idea of re-using my yeast that I had lovingly nudged out of its trans-Atlantic, very far from its European home hibernation.

Lastly, I used some cacao shells to 'dry hop' the beer after primary. I had snagged a bunch of the bags that Taza was handing out as homebrewing fodder at one of the Beer Advocate fests I attended (maybe it was the first ACBF?). This artisanal chocolate maker in nearby Somerville certainly have their heads in the right place, as it pertains to their product, so I hoped to infuse some of the amazing aromatics from these shells in to my beer.

I had poured a bottle of my corked/caged tripel this past summer, which went nearly completely flat. That singular experience told me that I will not cork and cage bottles that I intend to keep for any real amount of time. Caps are clearly a superior, yet homelier solution that I'll opt for in the future.

This beer, after resting upright in the fridge for a few weeks, exhaled out a satisfying burping pop as the cork was freed. Hmm, only an n of 2, with two different beers, stored in different rooms, but the beer lying on its side kept what I assume was most of its carbonation, and the bottle stored upright was nearly devoid of the stuff.

Poured it down the middle of a small Portsmouth Brewing goblet, and a satisfyingly creamy head formed. Perhaps it was a Midwest oatmeal stout kit? I can see that the beer had conditioned itself clear with time. Nose of ...chocolate, nice proper artisan chocolate, though I have to assume that these aromatics have seen a better day, given its age. It would have been useful to try some non dry cacao shelled beer in a side by side to appreciate the impact, but those experiments will need to be realized at a later time. The beer is dark, though not nearly as dark as some of my other stouts and porters, which lean toward excess in the roasted grain territory. Still, it sits in that glass, fat and dark.

First sip gives a thin but velvety feel, so I'll put a stake in the ground, this was the oatmeal stout kit paired with full attenuation of the LME by the Duvel yeast. No distinguishable yeast character...nothing that says 'hey, this is a Anglo-Americanized beer, fermented with a Belgian yeast.'

Just a very clean ferment, and obviously full attenuation. A very sessionable beer, subtle roasted grain acidity. I could have multiples. Its very nice and satisfying as it warms as well. The chocolate tendencies grow with the warmth. Satisfying drying finish from the kilned malt, cocoa on the breath. Ah, too bad there's only a handful of these left.

Lastly, on to the is it bad to lay down the beer for aging question.

My response today is...maybe. The sediment that developed along the side of the bottle is garishingly disturbing at first, but it truly didn't make its way in to the pour, actually. So, to me, that's only a minor fault, as I'm not serving the bottle to someone. Sets up an interesting sediment erosion-lightning streak appearance, though.

After a few weeks in the fridge, any 'moveable' sediment made its way down the bottom of the bottle, and stayed put during the pour. This beer was very clear, all the way down to the last sip, and no cloudiness at the dark margins when held up to light.

So, there was plenty of CO2 in this beer. Maybe the beer contact with the cork is what kept this beer carbonated, but until I pop a good number of a couple more from the wine rack and the few remaining bottles that from that tripel batch that have spent their lives standing upright, I'll not make a verdict, yet. One thing is for sure, this beer has aged very gracefully, and I am more than happy to turn a blind eye to the sediment. And who doesn't love the sound of a popping cork?

Bumble, Batch 2: tasting

2010-03-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

Poured the 2nd bottle of bumble from batch 2 tonight.

The first 750ml bottle was shared with my great high school friend, Josh Demasi, a few weeks back; the ubiquitous Facebook finally paid dividends with an actual reunion with an old friend.

I recently had an Allagash White at a beer dinner at VeeVee, and was hoping for some parallels. At that time of the Josh-JC reunion, I think the bottle was just short of 2 weeks in to conditioning. I poured aggresively, pushed out a lovely even haziness, golden and creamy white head. But, when brought to the nose, it had an overwhelming, very powerful aromatic that he described as lemony, where for me, it was hitting the olfactory senses hard with a rose petal perfumey-ness.

No sir, I didn't like it.

Mouthfeel was a touch thin. Also had a sort of mild astringency and a whiff of higher alcohols on the breath after the exhale on the swallow. I wanted the fullness of the Allagash, I wanted the even, finishing crispness, but all I could focus on was that weird aromatic. Was it the coriander? no, I used the same amount as previously, and this coriander should only be milder, as its been sitting there in storage for a while. The tangerine? nope, it just didn't remind me of the fresh aromatics that were being emitted as I zested. The wicked expensive chamomile? Again, no...My mind was swimming, and I had to return to being present with my guest.

I bowed my head in a bit of shame, as Josh and I were reunited under the pretenses of a proper beer tasting + tasty fresh out of the oven flatbreads evening. I hoped for a seamless experience. While pot&kettle b2, the SPAb3, Leon, and RIS2008 made very strong showings, bumbleb2 pulled up lame, for sure. Oh well, work in progress, I hoped.

Josh finished the glass with a redemptive, "Well, it would probably be good in the summer time...right?"

hmmmm. maybe he was right, maybe a little time would fix what ailed this witbier.

Fast forward to tonight, about a month + in the bottles now. The pour revealed what again looked to be a proper witbier, if not 'white' enough...probably too golden.

That flowery aromatic was only maybe minorly (possibly) present, or existed only as a haunting fearful memory of bottle 1. Things seemed to have mellowed and smoothed over, very similar to what I remember the witbier of batch 1 eventually provided. I searched for finishing aroma hops, none to be distinctly found, though the just-enough bitterness was spot on. rolling spices and not-quite-full-enough mouthfeel. Perhaps the carbonation was set too high?

Still, the Allagash is still a towering standard to which I haven't even remotely (yet) approached. I think I'll simplify, add a much larger percentage of wheat.

And de-bumble it.

Yep, drop the honey.

The honey must be thinning the body substantially. So, that, coupled with the too high carbonation, is sort of leaving it in no-man's-land. So it will be not a honey witbier for the time being. So I can't, with a straight face, continue to give it bee inspired name. Right? But that's OK, I've actually tired of the moniker almost immediately after I coined it.

She sure is photogenic, though.

Stonginton Pale Ale: Batch 3, Tasting

2010-02-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

Though its been a few months since I've brewed SPA, batch 3, I opened one of the last remaining bottles last week. Its been drinking fantastic since about 3 weeks from bottling, where it was still a touch green at 2 weeks. Even now, perhaps a month past its truly fresh aromatic and resinously hoppy peak, it has still garnered accolades from friends, both new and old... ie."one of, if not the best IPA I've ever had...and I've had a few".

Yeah, these sort of statements really do stick in brewer's head.

The small incremental changes of going with C40 vs. C60 + increasing to 1lb vs. .5lb did, in fact, improve the beer as I had hoped. Any implied biting (too) dry character from the first two iterations has now given way to a smoother, rounder mouthfeel. Just a touch of soft sweetness and light biscuit malt introduces each taste before giving way to the incredibly American hoppy profile. It still leads with that terrific fresh green nose, just-peeled grapefruit rind and floral aromatics. An unaggressive bitterness finishes, builds a bit after the swallow, but never punches too hard. This is an aroma first, and flavor 2nd, and bitterness 3rd IPA, and I think I like SPA just like that.

But, there's almost always room for improvement, and this beer still elicits plenty of criticism from its creator.

I will certainly back down on carbonation levels in the future, as the overcarbonation flaw simply cannot be resolved with a slow, high pour given the unbelievable head retention from the wheat and hops. I also think I'd retain more of the volatile aromatics throughout the beer over the course of its enjoyment if I didn't have to resort to such remedial tactics, and would have a softer, more inviting quaff, as well.

I will revisit the grist, hopping schedule, etc. once I have the carbonation more in line with where it should be.

Ultimately, however, this beer is one that really would benefit from cold crashing + kegging, as that Chico yeast strain combined with tons of late + dry hopping renders this a particularly hazy beer. IPAs really shouldn't sit around conditioning for extended periods of time...the clock is ticking! Of course, bottling with all that turbidity results in a significant sediment in the bottle, which can and does adversely impact the pour. I will usually leave 3-4 oz of the beer (!!!) in the bottle for fear of introducing that sediment, which ends up muddying up the whole experience, both visually, and flavor wise. This also means this beer travels very poorly, so the advantage of bottle conditioning the batch to have a six pack to take away, always at the ready, is diminished by all that sediment stirred up and into the beer. I would love to cold crash the whole she-bang before dry hopping to drop the hop flavor stripping yeast out of suspension, then return to room temp, then rack to a keg for immediately chilling, carbonation and storage, but until then I'll dream of others' clearer IPAs that aren't saddled with all that beer-robbing sediment and head ballooning carbonation.

pot&kettle, batch 2...tasting

2010-02-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

It has been a little over a month since the pot&kettle batch 2 has been in the bottles, but I can't wait any longer for the first glimpse, er...taste. The only change I've made from the last iteration was to change the yeast strain. Discussion of that here.

Ok, so that's a huge change, but keeping the remainder of the recipe constant should better allow me to perceive impact.

Pulled from fridge, allowed bomber to stand for 20minutes. Slowly poured down the middle of the imperial pint glass, incrementally, allow the substantive head to form and fall, form and fall. All in all, took about 4 minutes. That's a long time to wait for your first taste, but I know I'll be rewarded with a full glass and a proper head.

A-OK, so I should have started with appearance, but the very second thing I noticed after the streaming black-brown pour was the powerful roast and malty aroma that almost immediately wafted over to entice me. I didn't even get a chance to look down to the bottom of the glass first.

So aside from the distractingly rich and pervasive aroma, you can tell immediately that this beer has great full mouthfeel.

What? ...what's the problem?

Oh, right this is 'appearance' section of the tasting notes...

I mean that you can actually see the fullness in the pour, you can tell this isn't a thin bodied beer in the pour. It just looks full. You'd have to be paying attention, very close attention to your beers as you pour them to know what I mean.

Of course this stout shades just south of black at the edges, a dark brown that appears to have quite a bit of haze to it, which is a bit surprising as I've let it warm a bit, and the Burton ale yeast should have had ample time to floc out. Nice substantial head that forms quickly, props itself up, and forms irregular and large bubbles. Slow to burst. See what I mean? It just looks like its got tons of velvety mouthfeel.

S-Ok, I've already covered this, but seriously, to all whom I give this beer to...take your time pouring this slowly. Let the head form and fall, form and fall. Anticipate. Wait for the aroma to make its way over to you, it is the perfect pre-quel for what's in store. Rich, melted dark chocolate, roasted grains, and a very 'bright' acid french roast coffee. Searching for any hops...nope, nothing but roast/cacao. Pumpernickel?

T-Smooth dark chocolate, french roast coffee, minimal sweetness. Smooth, not biting acridity on the finish. Dominating dark roasted malt. Complexity abounds, but mostly within the range of roasted grain. Hoping that the subtleties of dark prune/raisin flavors from the Special B appear over time, as the roast continues to mature and mellow. British yeast character in the background, not overly apparent, to me. Not overly attenuated, the british yeast left enough body, even with the 150F mash. Just like I hoped. Huge roasty dryness on the palate to finish. Dry, dark chocolate.

M-Velvety, coating mouthfeel. Thank you oatmeal. Thank you Burton ale yeast.

D-If you like stouts that lean toward the outer edges of roast character, then this beer will go down quickly, dangerously. Proper and smooth carbonation, adequately degassed from the slow pour. I have a big glass of beer in my stomach, and yet...I look over, and the imperial pint glass is down to its last mouthful, and I'm seriously considering cracking another. But I won't, I have an interview in the morning.

Brewing, filmed

2010-02-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in this post, I was filmed brewing up a batch of pot & kettle oatmeal stout by the public access TV group French Oak TV. Stay tuned for followup segments, where Summer (the host of their show) chooses a recipe, and we brew an extract + specialty grains batch. We'll discuss ingredients, boil and fermentation in a bit more detail and compare/contrast against all grain brewing.

The Art of Home Brewing with JC Tetreault from French Oak TV on Vimeo.

Ousted Special Bitter: tasting

2010-01-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

Pulled the sampler bottle of the OSB tonight, the day after I return from the UK. I still have the romantic notion and taste of the John Courage, Fuller's London Pride and Greene King 'IPA' on cask lodged securely in my brain.

Side note... the Audley was recommended as a place to get some great pints kept on well maintained casks, and some traditional British fare. The pints delivered, and the fare did live up to the unfortunate reputation for English food. Perhaps I should have been more wary as the recommendation came from a co-worker who's idea of the finest food is steak and chips...and only steak and chips. From, well... pretty much anywhere.

Anyhow, tonight's homebrewed version whisked me back across the Atlantic in one tilt of the head. Left out of the fridge for 15 minutes before pouring. A frothy, fluffy 2 inch head forms after an aggressive pour down the middle. Ruby color, slight chill haze, getting more clear as the beer warms. The pour likely knocked a descent amount of carbonation out, and the restrained (for me) CO2 probably ended somewhere in the 1.8-2.0 neighborhood, likely a full 1.0 volume step above where you usually find cask conditioned ales, which suits my American palate just fine.

The wonderfully expressive Burton yeast backed up and complimented the bready malt sweetness in an earthy and satisfying way. This beer starts sweet and full. Wonderful mouthfeel, but not cloying or stomach filling. Just enough backing, balancing bitterness and some woodsy Willamette flavor and aroma. A touch of drying roast from the chocolate malt on the finish? Asks for another big, full mouth of the brew. This certainly has more going on the stuff I had on cask, essentially it just seemed like more...which is exactly how this beer was formulated.

Makes for a full, layered beer that would make for a great session with friends and family, solo style as a one-and-done at the pub, or yes, even paired up well with a big plate of steak and chips.

Bottom line, I'd be very proud to serve this to a Brit who is searching for a real ale in the states.

Bumble, Batch 2

2010-01-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

I had originally planned to have the three 'wedding beers' re-brewed and available for the holiday parties and gifts (alot of people have been asking for bottles), but unfortunately, I couldn't get to all three. I got a surprise day off on NYE, so I promptly made a trip to the LHBS, and grabbed some pils base malt, a vial of WLP400 then to the grocery store for some chamomile and fresh citrus. Chamomile as the 'secret spice' that makes wits pop was reinforced through pouring through some of of homebrew books, so despite my impression that chamomile tea kinda smells like dirt (not earthy...just like dirt) I figured I'd give it a go.

Since Spanish grown clementines are in season, I went with those over the unripe looking sweet navels. I chose correctly, as the zest was very aromatic and left an orange oil haze on the plate I zested on. Couldn't find the indian coriander though, had to go with the packet of Brewer's Garden stuff I already had...that change will have to wait until the next iteration.

I've found that last minute brew sessions can be pretty pricey, as compared to good ol' planning ahead.

The pils base malt was 3 times the price as buying in bulk through the Boston homebrew club.
There was only one selection of 100% chamomile tea at the grocery store...most are blends. $9.99 for .79 oz. You gotta be kidding me. I wish I knew of a local herb shop that sells bulk herbs, but I suspect that I could do a little better than ~$202/lb for those little flowers. Hmmm...lets see: YUP. Oh, but you might have to suffer with an ugly utilitarian plastic bag instead of the oh-so-nice aluminum tin and gimmicky tea bag fortified with paper tea pot support scaffolding.

A few other changes from the first iteration that hopefully will impact the beer in a positive way:

1000ml yeast starter made on a stir plate vs. swirling periodically
Chamomile
mid 60F fermentation temp
Use of rice hulls in the sparge
Mid-primary addition of 2lbs of eatlocalhoney

The only item I can talk about now is the big impact of the 1lb of rice hulls on the sparge. It slowed a bit toward the end, but in general, the sparge went just as quickly as an all barley beer, which is a welcome departure from some of the snail-like-sparges in the past.

A few notes about this beer...the last batch of bumble was actually the only time Ive ever had true success with the witbier style. I'd say that the biggest/majority of problems I've had with brewing have actually been isolated to this one style, except for the terrible attenuation I had with my quad. I've been plagued by stuck sparges, hot ferments resulting in severe off flavors, strange astringency issues, and other problems that stemmed from less than optimal (ok..it was bad) process and technique. As with most things with life, I think I've learned the most from those mistakes, as nothing is harder for the proud homebrewer than to declare defeat and dumping each bottle, one by one, down the drain. The initial sniffs from the first bubbles from the fermenter (wheaty/spicey/yeasty...no fusels) are telling me that all is well in witbier world.

Bumble, batch 2

Witbier

Type: All Grain

Date: 12/31/2009

Batch Size: 6.50 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 7.44 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
8.0 oz	Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)	Adjunct	3.64 %
4 lbs 8.0 oz	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	32.73 %
3 lbs 8.0 oz	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	25.45 %
1 lbs	Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)	Grain	7.27 %
1 lbs	Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)	Grain	7.27 %
1 lbs	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain	7.27 %
4.0 oz	Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)	Grain	1.82 %
1.00 oz	Hallertauer, New Zealand [7.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	18.5 IBU
1.00 oz	Hallertauer, New Zealand [7.00 %] (30 min)	Hops	15.8 IBU
1.00 oz	Mt. Hood [5.10 %] (10 min)	Hops	5.4 IBU
0.25 oz	Chamomile (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
1.00 oz	Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
1.50 oz	Tangerine Peel (Boil 5.0 min)	Misc
6.50 gm	Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
2 lbs	Honey (1.0 SRM)	Sugar	14.55 %
1 Pkgs	Belgian Wit Ale (White Labs #WLP400) [Starter 1000 ml]	Yeast-Wheat

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG

Measured Original Gravity: SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG

Measured Final Gravity: SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.49 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: %

Bitterness: 39.7 IBU

Calories: cal/pint

Est Color: 6.0 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 11.75 lb

Sparge Water: 2.83 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Light Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
75 min	Mash In	Add 14.69 qt of water at 161.4 F	150.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 9.40 qt of water at 200.2 F	168.0 F

Frozen Yeast Banking: Fail

2010-01-03T09:23:00.001-08:00

Attempt at reanimation of ~6month old witbier yeast...failed.

Tried 2 vials, second was added after first showed no signs of activity ~36hours, both had ~20mls of slurry.

No activity in ~72 hours, just stinky oxidized yeast slurry/wort.

Maybe wyeast 3944 is particularly frost sensitive... Maybe there were the purported killing thaw/freeze cycles...I'll try again w/ the 1056 samples, to see if those guys are still viable.

The differences between the sucess w/ the 1056 and failed 3944 (in order of perceived/wild guess of impact)

Duration of freeze before reanimation attempt
Strains
Volume of slurry in 50ml vial.
Generations

Ousted Special Bitter

2009-12-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

In order to continue to better understand the character of it, and in an effort to use what I had on hand, I chose to step up the remaining wlp023 (Burton Ale yeast) that I had chilled in the fridge and make some ESB (Extra Special Bitter), style 8C in the BJCP guidelines. Where this is now thought to be a strong beer in its home country, as compared to the lower gravity bitter, and special bitter styles, the ESB would otherwise likely be considered a relatively low alcohol in the states.

Given the deluge of hugely hopped DIPAs and Imperial stouts that have become the norm, I've been retreating to the more moderate, but still subtly complex and extremely flavorful English pub beers. Still, it was tough to go to the other end of the extreme. To get away from the big-is-good American attitude just didn't happen...my original intentions were outsted. I wanted to start with the very basics and brew a truly quaffable proper ordinary bitter. But that would have left me with a couple pounds of Golden Promise, and what am I going to do with just a couple pounds of British pale ale malt, right?

Just throw it all in, change the specialty grain profile, and I'll have an ESB. After all, my buddies are always helping me drink these beers, and just like most Americans, they've been trending toward the big-bigger-biggest beers. I didn't want anything 'Ordinary' passed over for something bigger. Also, I've never been to England, so I really don't have much to to compare it to as ordinary bitters generally don't exist here in the States. I generally will learn the most about brewing a particular style if I have some of the better rated and/or personally preferred commercial examples to taste alongside the homebrew.

My first crack at the style recipe was formulated after consulting my new copy of Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles, and the well worn but still venerable Designing Great Beers by Lewis. While Jamil's recipe called for some low Lovibond Crystal malt (C15), I've tasted some ESBs, and generally my favorites thus far had a nice luscious mouthfeel, caramelized malty sugars (leaving the impression of caramel-y more so than sweet), wonderfully fruity and complimentary British yeast, a touch of roast, and a pared down/just-enough-to-balance-everything residual sweetness on the finish. Hops are firm but never harsh. They are intended to be woodsy, a touch of spice and earth, but nice and snappy on the finish to make you want to take another mouth filling sip. Kent Goldings are classic here, but I went with the ultra fresh (and Americanized version) 2009 Hops Direct Willamette.

Restrained carbonation to allow a proper session and reduced stomach protrusion.

Here are the specialty grains. Each are added to the big measuring cup, after taring the digital weight scale. Interesting how the flaked grains take up much more volume than an equivalent weight of crystal malt. You can see the relatively small amount of roasted malt (in this case Carafa III, which is 525L) at the top of the cup. This German malt should add that smooth roast background that I'm looking for, as well as provide some aging protection that I've heard so many anecdotal stories about.

I did add some Calcium Chloride to my strike water, in order to assure adequate Calcium (enough for ~50ppm).

On to the recipe...nothing crazy here, aside from perhaps the somewhat unusual addition of the flaked wheat. Its been added to hopefully help generate a smooth as silk mouthfeel, which I hope will be accentuated by the intended low CO2 volume in the bottle. This was recommeded by Dann Paquette in his recipe for a Yorkshire Bitter (which appears to nimbly straddle the ordinary/special threshold) in his discussions w/ the BrewLocal guys, so I figure that the wheat will help to prop up the body and head retention which can be a little problematic in a low CO2 beer. I have flaked wheat on hand, so I used that vs. torrified. But, as is probably expected, I'll probably 'go American', and wimp out, carb in the low 2s vs the more style appropriate high 1s.

Mashed at a bigger-bodied ~154-155 in my 10 gallon HDPE cooler.

This "Ousted Special Bitter' is already happily fermenting away at ~66F less than 24hours from pitching, but certainly has not yet hit high krausen. This beast of a yeast blew the lid off the last batch I fermented, and I suspect the vigorous krausen will make a second appearance here. I continue to tempt fate with the ill advised combination of 1. not-quite-enough of a headspace in the fermenter and 2. 3 piece airlock. What the hell is my problem?

Things still look quite calm (don't they always right before disaster?). I'll likely move the bucket away from the small cool microenvironment where its situated now, to raise the temp to ~68-69F ambient after the first 48hrs to ensure complete attenuation. If all goes well with batch 2 of the pot&kettle and this OSB, I'll likely make this yeast my house British strain, and add another selection to the yeast bank.

OSB

Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Type: All Grain

Date: 12/26/2009

Batch Size: 6.00 gal

Brewer: JC

Boil Size: 6.87 gal

Asst Brewer:

Boil Time: 60 min

Equipment: My Equipment

Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0

Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00

Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
12 lbs	Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)	Grain	90.09 %
8.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)	Grain	3.75 %
8.0 oz	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain	3.75 %
4.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)	Grain	1.88 %
1.1 oz	Carafa III (525.0 SRM)	Grain	0.53 %
2.00 oz	Williamette [4.60 %] (60 min)	Hops	26.8 IBU
1.00 oz	Williamette [4.60 %] (Dry Hop 10 days)	Hops	-
1.00 oz	Williamette [5.50 %] (30 min)	Hops	12.3 IBU
1 Pkgs	Burton Ale (White Labs #WLP023) [Starter 500 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG

Measured Original Gravity: SG

Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG

Measured Final Gravity: SG

Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.29 %

Actual Alcohol by Vol: %

Bitterness: 39.0 IBU

Calories: cal/pint

Est Color: 13.2 SRM

Color:

Color

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body

Total Grain Weight: 13.32 lb

Sparge Water: 1.97 gal

Grain Temperature: 72.0 F

Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

TunTemperature: 72.0 F

Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Mash PH: 5.4 PH

**Single Infusion, Medium Body**
Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
60 min	Mash In	Add 16.65 qt of water at 165.9 F	154.0 F
10 min	Mash Out	Add 9.32 qt of water at 196.6 F	168.0 F

Pretty Glass for pot&kettle

2009-12-24T08:54:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I bottled up the pot&kettle, batch 2, a brew session that has been filmed, tweeted and pics posted on Facebook by French Oak TV. Ah, my 15 minutes of mini-fame!

I ended up with 11 gallons of the black stuff so I had to put the call in to Dan V (of VeeVee) to help supply me with the additional glass I needed. I was quite happy to hear that he continues to set aside glass for me. Esther and I were all to happy to hop in to the car and make the short trip to JP to see the very hospitable Dan and Kristen and to enjoy yet another fantastic dinner. Aside from the satisfying food, Dan always keeps a very tight and thoughtful beer list...on this cold Boston night, it was good to see the Nogne O #100 flying out from the behind the bar. Each bottle of #100 Dan sent out generated yet another smirk. It clearly pleased him to know he was helping others enjoy some very special craft beer. I know that smile well, as I'm often wearing it myself.

Esther and I finished with dinner with their fantastic coconut cream pie (perfect amount of subtle sweetness in the silky cream, delicate use of lime, hardy biscuity crust).

As we pushed back from our plates, Dan bestowed 3 boxes of some very Pretty glass...I do hope that these repurposed vessels bring even a portion of the great fortune to Trillium that has rightfully been received in their original incarnation.

So, back to the bottling...10 (11?) gallons is the limit of my condo kitchen cum brewery, which is just fine, because wrangling and sanitizing enough bottles for this much beer is an undertaking that requires some planning and the laboriously kitchen sink hogging de-labelling process, in the case of new glass. Thankfully, I can reuse the first batch pot&kettle glass, with labels fully intact and unfazed by the dishwasher's intense heat cycles.

Initial taste of the green pot&kettle tells me that the change in yeast to the Burton strain may have had a significant impact on the finished product: a much more estery/fruity nose, which enhances the rich malt profile. Layer after layer of roast filled the bottling bucket. Virtually no hard acridity on the palate...just a subtle, drying char in the aftertaste. Attenuation was likely less than that cranked out by the Nottingham, but some residual body and sweetness might be an incremental improvement. I'll take a gravity reading on the test bottle to confirm FG.

I rarely will send out any bottles as gifts before I'm 100% confident in the quality/proper bottle conditioning, but given the proximity to the holidays, a number of them are going out with proper instruction to store at room temp and to wait at least 1 month before sampling, and preferably 6, if at all possible. It feels strange to give gifts with instructions and caveats, but its more difficult for me to see these beers enjoyed at anything less than their full potential.

elemental sneak peek

2009-12-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Made some major leaps tonight...given that there really wasn't much beery stuff for me to do. Since:

every last ounce of fermentation capacity is currently occupied
I spent last night celebrating my good buddy's birthday at Lord Hobo, both pregaming and postgaming with some SPA and Leon
the lady friend has been away from home at a training for her new job

I wiggled my way back through 128/Rte. 2/Storrow Drive/BU/Brookline traffic, grabbed a burrito from Boca Grande, and hunkered down for the eve at home. Definitely strung together way too many hours sitting in front of the computer tonight, but I've now effectively force fed myself the (only the most basic of) elements of... premiere elements.

So, all of that sneek peek posting from a while back will eventually come to cinematic fruition. It was actually kinda in doubt for a while there...this adobe software was kickin' my butt.

I'm certain that I've got many more hours ahead of me on this, but I think I'll be quite proud of my efforts at the end of the day. I'm not going to go so far as to fully describe what I've got planned here, but there is, in fact, a plan.

And yes, it does involve beer.

pot&kettle, batch 2 with a new yeast strain...brewed...on film?

2009-12-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of requests for the crowd favorite oatmeal stout that made its first appearance at my wedding a few short months ago, and I finally was able to crank out a 10 gallon batch yesterday. I only made one change to the recipe, but it was a major one...this iteration of pot&kettle is currently fermenting with Burton ale yeast (wlp023). In response to a question about experience with this strain, I posted today on BeerAdvocate my rationale for choosing this yeast for this beer, vs. the prior dry Nottingham used in the early iteration, so I'll just copy and paste what I wrote:

I brewed an oatmeal stout last night, wanted to see if I could get a bit more english yeast character out of it vs. the dry nottingham ive used in the past. I was also looking for slightly less attenuation than the nottingham, given there are no crystal malts in my recipe, and I thought just a smidge more maltiness would fit in nicely.

I want a british 'house' yeast strain to work with, for mid-gravity british style beers... something that would be pretty expressive, but not so attenuative as to dry out the beer too much. Something that would be well suited to ESB, porters, english IPAs, etc. and the white labs description sounded like it could serve just that purpose:
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/stra ... lp023.html

giving up a little bit of the floc character vs. 002, but maybe getting a bigger ester profile and better attenuation. I've used 005 and 013, but didn't get as much flavor as I had hoped for in those strains. the first whiffs from the starter are giving me more of what I've been looking for, so fingers are crossed.

The brew day went as smoothly as it would have, given the cameras were rolling...so, my consistent foreshadowing of how oats can lead to a stuck sparge seemed to precipitate...guess what...yep, a stuck sparge. Or, a super duper ultra slow sparge. Which is especially painful when you are being filmed as a homebrewer with any kind of credibility. Oh well, I guess the segment will better highlight the fact that things can and do go wrong when brewing...you just...well, RDWHAHB. And, diagnose the problem, so it doesn't happen next time. Next time, I won't brew a 10 gallon recipe of oatmeal stout...my system can't handle all that grain, and still allow enough head space for a serious dose of hot liquor for mashing out.

What's all this talk about 'cameras were rolling' and 'being filmed'?

Right, so... (a phrase I fear I uttered with great regularity in response to Summer's questions)...I contacted French Oak Media about a month ago to see if they had any interest in doing a short segment on homebrewing, given that I live in Brookline, and they are producing spots about the local wine, beer and spirits scene. I thought..."hey, I'm a homebrewer, and what could be more local and topical to their show than a guy who might be your next door neighbor, brewing up some beer?' Turns out, they had discussed doing this very thing, so it was great timing that I contacted them.

Among others, I've enjoyed FOM's prior pieces on Cambridge Brewing Company, Mayflower, Harpoon, Sam Adams and Pretty Things, so its quite a bit of fun to be able to somehow included in such a venerable group.

Right, so... the shoot was yesterday, and aside from the gummed up lauter, I had a great time with Ray and Summer. They are genuinely interested in brewing, and it was great fun to see the light bulbs illuminating over their heads, as they started to better understand the process of brewing. I could actually see the bulbs lighting up, as they were literally able to put their hands right in to it. They were very complimentary of the beers I shared with them, and I can tell are just all around good people. It'll be fun to see what they were able to capture from the day, but for now I'll leave you with a couple images, starting out with the glass bowls of malt and specialty grain set out, cooking-show-style, waiting for the shoot to start.

LEON label, 2.0

2009-12-07T19:50:00.001-08:00

Getting closer...I stayed truer to the layout that Kevin and I created for the pot & kettle.

Still needs a background, like I mentioned before. Still too much negative space, leon needs some dimension, he's just sort of floating out there. Maybe the impression of depth using a washed out, weathered looking wide wooden plank wall, like you might see in a barn. Or maybe just some ground for Leon to stand on, a bit of mud perhaps. Still need to play with the the colors a bit more, as it needs a little more life, but staying in those soothing earthiness tones. I wanted to add a hop cone or cones in there somewhere...this is a DIPA after all.

Changed the font for Leon, too...sort of similar to goose island's Belgian style ales series, like their Juliet. The one I have for now is just...umm, a whole lot more generic.

Did a little better in word, and now I'm able to get a bigger picture...try clicking on it too, for a closer look. Still working on the left panel 'blurb', what's there now is just a placeholder...you may notice the duplicitous use of the phrase 'pig out'. I don't even really want to use it in there, actually.

Quad rescue attempt

2009-12-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

Ok. Its been nearly 6 months since I've determined the quad just wasn't anywhere near a beer that I'd drink, nor offer to a guest. I decided at that point that I'd take this very underattenuated beer (~1.035), and try a sour rescue. Well, I'm just getting around to it now. But first, I'm guessing that I made one critical mistake...too small of a pitching rate. I don't have adequate notes, but I remember making maybe a 1liter starter (non stir plate). Not even close to enough, per the mrmalty.com pitching rate calculator. The beer seemed to ferment fairly aggressively to start, but it just stalled well before the target FG was reached.

Jump ahead now to earlier this week, I made a 1.040 100g DME/ 1000ml starter of wlp655 and let it ferment out for four days. As you can see by clicking through the link, this blend of microbes includes the usual ale yeast Saccharomyces, as well as what is considered a 'beer spoilage' organism in non-wild beers: Brettanomyces. I'm not sure if its a single strain of Brett, but I'm leaving some faith that the White Labs folks know their stuff. The blend also contains some souring microbes that will add organic acids, among other critical aromatic compounds that round out the complexities commonly found in these types of sours. From the recommendation of the mad fermentationist, I didn't use the stir plate beyond some initial aeration, as the pedio + lacto bacteria thrive in a anaerobic environment, and I really want these guys to contribute a significant sourness to this beer. If you are looking for a book that can help form a basis for understanding wild ales, and their related culture, take a look at Wild Brews. My sister Chelynn actually gave this fantastic book to me last Christmas, and has been read in regular intervals since. Really, the only thing that has kept me from going wild until now has been the extended aging that is required to properly develop the flavors of these beers, which...now several years later since I first had the inclination to brew wild, seems like I made a poor choice. I could have a healthy stash of some of my favorite beer styles really starting to come in to their own. Oh well. 2011 looks to be a good beer year for me.

So, the (purported to be wlp001 cali) ale yeast took off in ~12 hours, and the krausen fell in ~2 days. I took a sniff at that point, and I already am getting some musty, barny type smells from the brett, completely unlike what I get from a typical starter. Hmmmm, I have a feeling my carboy fleet is about to grow significantly in size...these wild ales really chew up conditioning capacity due to the extended secondary required for the relatively slow growing bugs to do their thing.

I took the next step with the sour mix starter...I uncorked three of the corked and caged quad 750s and added them to a one gallon jug with the starter. The next AM, the airlock was active...a definite krausen had reformed, and CO2 bubbling up through the beer could be seen in the jug. I suspect the hardy Cali sacch yeast had restarted on the residual sugars left behind by the inadequate primary ferment.

Tonight, I went through the painful task of slowly pouring the rest of the bottles in to my bottling bucket, doing my best to not aerate the beer too much.

This beer smells phenomenal, and its really a shame that the fermentation was sub par underattenuated mess...figs, prunes, dark caramelized sugars all over the place. faint whiff of warming alcohol, rich sherry and port notes, perhaps giving the impression of brandy soaked sour cherries...this all without the aid of volatilization from CO2 fizz. I'm hoping that these aged aromatics aren't driven off by this restarted ferment and are minimally oxidized by all this less than ideal handling of the beer.

So, now I'm hoping to wake up to the krausen reformed in the carboy, as I saw in the 1 gallon jug, but the true test of patience will be holding off taking samples until the pellicle drops which may be as long as 6-12 months (photo from madfermentationist.blogspot.com...I hope to have my own image soon.)

Almost forgot to mention...after primary krausen falls, I will soon add ~1.5 oz of boiled sanitized medium toast french oak 1. to (theoretically) give the bugs at least some square footage to set up camp (they also are said to metabolize some of the sugars in the oak, though this must be a very, very small percentage of fermentables, but more importantly, 2. to add a background barrel character. If I can get anywhere in the neighborhood of Stille Nacht, I'll be exceedingly pleased.

4/8/10 - 600ml of cultured up dregs oro de calabaza, consecration and fantome printemp added.

4/24/10 - positive pressure on S-shaped airlock is obvious. random bubbly film forming on surface. pellicle formation finally starting. I need to add some oak to this beer.

LEON label concept

2009-12-02T16:34:00.001-08:00

Oh man...it is so frustrating to work in microsoft word to design labels...I wanted to create the .pdf so I could rotate the image on the screen (couldn't do this in word, had to work with my head tilted the whole time). You can't, apparently. All kinds of things go haywire...images disappear entirely, there's this weird crosshatching in one text box, and went all wacko. Figuring it had to do with my free .pdf printing utility, I tried to print it out on paper. Nope, more haywire stuff.

I could, however, at least take a screen shot, so that's what I have for now to post. Hopefully, I'll get more learned in some graphic design software.

I did, however, figure out how to make my very own Leon logo (sort of) from a photograph of the pig that inspired the beer.

Open up photoshop (I have the 'elements' version, which is the stripped down from the pro version) and bring up picture of a pig:

First, use the 'quick selection' tool, to select all the areas around the subject, in this case, the handsome Leon. Delete these sections as you go. You can see that Leon's front foreleg is cut off by his tasty, albeit lazier roomate. No problem, use the quick selection tool on the other hamhock, copy and paste it, increase the size a bit to make it appropriate scale. Now that you've knocked out the noisy background, and added back the leg, reduce color saturation to zero, to make a black and white image. Increase contrast to 100%, then posterize until you have only two colors...black and white. I tried using the sumi-e brush effects tool, but I liked what I got from the aforementioned manipulations to not need that extra step.

Flip him around 180 degrees, and this is what you end up with.

Using various text boxes, a UPC code image I downloaded from the 'net, fonts downloaded from dafont.com, I whipped this up in about 2 hours. Alot of that was learning curve on the photoshop plus sifting through fonts, though.

What do you think? First, I tried to get the label image to appear bigger than below, but just the perfect storm of the limitations of Word, MS Paint, and Blogger software, I guess. Anyhow, the label layout is too small for a 22oz bottle (its only 4x5inches), so I'll need to redo it on a larger Word template, and that's OK. I just wanted to get the concept down. Feels like its missing some sort of background, maybe a wide-wooden slat type of wooden barn feel, or something, but I really like where this one is going.