tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57587013681470007702024-02-18T17:49:52.115-08:00Microbe BrewerMicrobe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-40300738077902272452018-08-16T14:53:00.000-07:002018-08-16T14:53:09.101-07:00Kviek StrainsI recently received several new Kveik strains from a gentleman named Ivar in Norway. We traded some yeast that I had for several strain that he had collected.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ267p9Qwnbh2UTFzyuE7V7BMhphonfHEi4YJLBKmHW_JopVYRAzOR_iY0G0rSujsF3o2-ycOt-bzcvg1I38bAH9QmvEa6U4T1kUfPpSQSWSZLPMvY3sjjj1CggMpnoiIDdCB9EG0JiaE/s1600/Kveik+Samples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ267p9Qwnbh2UTFzyuE7V7BMhphonfHEi4YJLBKmHW_JopVYRAzOR_iY0G0rSujsF3o2-ycOt-bzcvg1I38bAH9QmvEa6U4T1kUfPpSQSWSZLPMvY3sjjj1CggMpnoiIDdCB9EG0JiaE/s320/Kveik+Samples.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
#1 Gjernes (Voss)<br />
#4 Muri (Olden)<br />
#5 Hornindal (Raftevold)<br />
#9 Ebbegarden (Stordal)<br />
#10 Framgarden (Stordal)<br />
#15 Nornes (Voss)<br />
#16 Simonaitis (Joniškelis, Lithania)<br />
#17 Midtbust (Stordal)<br />
#22 Stalljen (Hornindal)<br />
#38 Aurland (Aurland)<br />
#39 Marina (Kshaushi, Russia)<br />
#40 Rima (Kshaushi, Russia)<br />
#43 Opshaug (Strandadalen)<br />
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I am planning on brewing with each strain over the next year and comparing the results.<br />
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I will be using a standard recipe for each batch that is made up of...<br />
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71% Pilsner<br />
23% Munich<br />
6% Rye<br />
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I will be doing 3 gallon batches with 10 grams of Juniper added.<br />
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The plan is to use a step mash starting at 120 for 30 minutes, 140 for 30 minutes, and 160 for 30 minutes. The wort will be boiled for 10 minutes with a small addition of hallertau added just before starting to lauter the mash.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C0aQTyat57w1JAFvk2AoWMaU0hyqP5pgaoo_mx0V5120Gdl853Y5mDVhsFWoUpzkK9UHedj17Z1j3CTNVYn_bXpgX-Omk0v4Sr1Xs7hxd93Uy6_ZLfNZK0BEyEZwJJo20LRpdNY6ap2_/s1600/Kveik+Samples+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4C0aQTyat57w1JAFvk2AoWMaU0hyqP5pgaoo_mx0V5120Gdl853Y5mDVhsFWoUpzkK9UHedj17Z1j3CTNVYn_bXpgX-Omk0v4Sr1Xs7hxd93Uy6_ZLfNZK0BEyEZwJJo20LRpdNY6ap2_/s320/Kveik+Samples+2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br />Matthew Peetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10715018702434323961noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-33051829926882622812018-08-09T14:39:00.000-07:002018-08-09T14:39:52.256-07:00Picobrew ZymaticI recently purchased several <a href="https://www.picobrew.com/Store/products/zymatic.cshtml">PicoBrew Zymatic</a> systems for the <a href="https://www.regis.edu/RC/Academics/Degrees-and-Programs/Certificates-and-Licensures/Certificate-Craft-Brewing.aspx">Regis Applied Craft Brewing Certificate</a> program. These are fully automated hot-side brewing systems for homebrewing. The systems have a lot of awesome features, you can manage the mashing cycle from your phone, have it run while you are gone, and have precise temperature control.<br />
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I decided to take one of them for a test drive and see how it performed.<br />
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The system shipped in three boxes and is rather heavy, I was hoping that it would be a little more mobile than it is. If you were pulling it into and out of storage a lot it would be a bit of a pain. The boxes included a keg, the outside system, and the insert for the system full of all the miscellaneous pieces. I was pretty excited to see that it also came with a recipe kit so that you could start brewing as soon as you opened the box.<br />
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The system was very easy to get set up and had you start by running a simple cleaning cycle. A few more pictures would have been nice in the user guide, but is was pretty simple to figure out how everything went together.<br />
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After the cleaning cycle had ended I loaded up the insert with the grain and the hops that came in the kit. This was all very straightforward but made one draw back very clear. You are limited to brewing 2.5 gallons of beer in a time. Not a huge issue for me as I usually brew smaller batches anyways. However, for $2,000 being limited to 2.5 gallons at a time is kind of a downer.<br />
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I set the system up, made my water additions in the keg, and fired everything up. Since the system is fully automated I decided I should be fine to go and paint the outside of my house. I came back in after about an hour and noticed that there was a slow drip in the system somewhere. I tried pushing the insert farther back but that did not make a difference. I ended up with a bucket under the system as it slowly dripped the rest of the brew.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SWPhm9LV859hUYNKgGTFRO5dSrhyOyuvkJWTnpKbyBv7-hlDERoFE2pTn_vnBM1pLMF9hOKsoAgFPmBALqJkwKhq_RSQzRQX26jtPKL8lKzQSFded8HLlK1eMMmNrTfmtBJu2YqHCtHf/s1600/PicoBrew+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SWPhm9LV859hUYNKgGTFRO5dSrhyOyuvkJWTnpKbyBv7-hlDERoFE2pTn_vnBM1pLMF9hOKsoAgFPmBALqJkwKhq_RSQzRQX26jtPKL8lKzQSFded8HLlK1eMMmNrTfmtBJu2YqHCtHf/s320/PicoBrew+3.jpg" width="320" /></a>It was very cool to be able to pull up the system while I was painting outside and see the progress. There is a chart that is slowly constructed as the brew occurs that highlights when you move to boiling and hop additions are made.<br />
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After the boil finished the beer has to be cooled down. Here was another let down of the system. Even after paying $2,000 you have to figure out how to cool the wort. There is no heat-exchanger included. I ended up sticking the keg (that now contained all the wort) into a bucket of ice to cool down. In the future I am going to try to hook up a heat-exchanger inline so that I can avoid this issue.<br />
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After the beer cooled down, I added the yeast and placed the keg into my fridge with a temp controller set at 65F. In a week or so I should be able to transfer it and bottle it up.<br />
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I later went and played with the online recipe creator. It is cool for someone who always follows the rules. However, for an advanced brewer there are a lot of limitations. For one, you can only pick from a limited catalog of yeast to add to the beer, and it forces you to pick from one on the list instead of being able to add your own. This was particularly frustrating for me who likes to play around with yeast! There were also only 4 water addition options and you had to use teaspoons as the value, so anyone who wants to use grams is out of luck.<br />
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Overall it is a cool piece of equipment. I am looking forward to the precise temperature control and hopping additions that I will be able to set. I also really like that you can run a rinse and a cleaning procedure on the equipment. The 2.5 gallon limitation will likely be a downer for some people, but it does not really matter all that much to me. What I would like to see changed is the online recipe builder. It needs to include more options for building out your recipe.<br />
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Matthew Peetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10715018702434323961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-45790506397051260432015-06-05T08:58:00.000-07:002015-06-05T08:58:29.113-07:00BJCP ExamI recently passed the BJCP exam (right before the new guidelines came out). I thought I might write a short post based on how the test went in case anyone else is thinking of taking the exam.<br />
The first part of the process is to pass the online multiple choice exam. It is a 200 question open book timed exam. I thought that the test would be a lot harder than it was. I picked the option of paying $20 to take the test 3 times instead of $10 per time figuring I would not pass the first time and need to take it again after some additional studying. As it turns out I passed on the first attempt. If you know a decent amount about the geography of beer and fermentation you will do fine. For example, English styles of beer use English hops and yeast that are generally fruity, somewhat sweet, and produce byproducts such as diacetyl. So when a question asks "What is the hop characteristic of such and such ENGLISH BEER STYLE" the answer is going to be floral/spicy. If the question is asking about an American style of beer the answer is going to fit American characteristics (Piney/Citrus hops, clean fermentation profile, etc.). If you don't know anything about a certain style, say Bock, as long as you know the beer style is from around Germany you know that it should have German hops, German malt profile, and German fermentation characteristics. By knowing about what ingredients are located where you automatically know a lot about the beers in that area.<br />
After passing the online exam you can now take the in-person part of the exam. The consists of tasting 6 beers and filling out judging sheets for them. You do not get to use the style guide while you are tasting the beers. Your score is then compared to that of three judges who are also tasting the exact same beers. The result is based on how closely you scored the beers to the professional judges with some leniency if the majority of the people taking the test disagree with the professional judges.<br />
The first beer was a German Pils, it ended up being my best review for the exam.<br />
The second beer I tasted was a Cream Ale. I was certain that it had been spiked with DMS as it tasted terrible. I scored the beer low as did most the people I spoke with after the exam. It turned out the beer was a gold medal winning beer at GABF. I assume this is where I lost the majority of my points. It is a little frustrating that the professional beer judges get to take the exam with the tasting guidelines and confer with each other as they take notes.<br />
Third beer was a Northern English Brown, I learned later that it was Ellie's Brown Dog Ale from Avery. I scored the beer well and mentioned that it would fit better in an American Brown Ale category.<br />
Forth beer was an American Pale Ale (Dale's Pale Ale). I scored well on this beer and it was a very enjoyable sample.<br />
Fifth beer was a Belgian Golden Strong (New Belgium's Trippel). I missed some points here but did note that the beer would be better placed in the Tripel category because it lacked the fruitiness of a Golden Strong.<br />
Sixth beer was a Robust Porter (a home brew). This was my second lowest scoring beer. My remarks apparently disagreed with those of the professional judges.<br />
What I learned is that several of the beers were really high quality beers (Trippel, Dale's, Ellie's Brown Dog) entered into the wrong category to see if you could identify what was required for the category. Being forced to take the exam without the style guidelines requires you to really know your stuff. I did not score low in any of the five area (Perceptive Accuracy, Descriptive Ability, Feedback, Completeness, Scoring Accuracy) but rather did poorly on two of the beers (Cream Ale and Robust Porter). I am not all that surprised as I have never had a Cream Ale before and do not drink much porter let alone compare it to Stout and Brown Porter. In order to improve my score I simply need to drink and review more beer!<br />
Overall my final score was a 74, I would have liked a higher score but it will at least allow me to achieve the "Certified" rank after I have some judging points.<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-6928275670849729942015-03-28T09:33:00.001-07:002015-03-28T09:33:26.808-07:00Belgian Beer History: Peter BouckaertI had the pleasure last week of listing to a lecture by Peter Bouckaert, the Brewmaster at New Belgium, on Belgian Beer History. I thought I should write down some of the key points he made before I forgot.<br />
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He started by having everyone shout out what their own impression of Belgian Beer was. He got responses like "Trapist", "Sour", "Wild", "High Alcohol", etc. He then pointed out that in reality the majority of the beer made in Belgium is pilsner. In addition he mentioned that ~10% of the market is "beer for kids" and had us taste Avril, a Dupont table beer. A style traditionally made from the last runnings.<br />
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Peter went on to talk about the history of beer in Belgium and the surrounding area, all information that you could read about elsewhere. What I want to record are some side notes that he made.<br />
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<ol>
<li>American Malt is too high in protein. This came about because the Macro Brewers need all that protein so that when they cut their wort with corn and rice there is still enough Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) and enzymes to convert the starch. He mentioned that the protein is too high to make a big beer without needing to add sugar.</li>
<li>1554 is actually from a 1447 book and by the sounds of it only loosely based on what was found in the book, he even had to decide if it should have hops or not.</li>
<li>Peter's Reinheitsgebot has only 3 ingredients, Experience, Knowledge, and Creativity</li>
<li>American brewers should not use the word Lambic, it takes away for the authenticity of real Lambics.</li>
<li>Keep beers simple, he showed a panel for a trapist brewery with 3 buttons, one for each of the beers that they make. The irony is how complicated the beers are from such a simple process.</li>
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He finished by telling us that despite all that he just went over here and now are the best time and place to be a brewer. Made me very proud to be in the Colorado Craft Beer community.Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-13408901871281987442015-03-12T12:19:00.000-07:002015-03-12T12:19:00.494-07:00Triple Chocolate Coffee Milk Stout<h2>
Triple Chocolate Coffee Milk Stout</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRD8ZPZyhNQnNW4Z4KY73QHQalww8AZeO-0dWZ0p0uubOK4v1wp36HWnuMHBW7IwUy7jgAK8YUl-oF0BUWYbYNuKHPG6p4vkgWuCyN3BclZkTuUdMHL_-1lTni30e2WnqOBnOo-0nfSrI/s1600/Coda+Coffee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRD8ZPZyhNQnNW4Z4KY73QHQalww8AZeO-0dWZ0p0uubOK4v1wp36HWnuMHBW7IwUy7jgAK8YUl-oF0BUWYbYNuKHPG6p4vkgWuCyN3BclZkTuUdMHL_-1lTni30e2WnqOBnOo-0nfSrI/s1600/Coda+Coffee.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a>Winter is in full swing in Colorado. We just set a record for February snow fall and the temp is 15 F outside. Know what that means? Time for some Stout! I was talking with my buddy John and we were both reminiscing about a Chocolate Stout he had brewed last year. He also mentioned that he had coffee from a local rooster, <a href="http://codacoffee.com/">Coda Coffee</a>. With that in mind we set out to brew a Chocolate Coffee Milk Stout. The only problem was deciding what yeast we wanted to use. Last year the Stout was brewed with Ringwood yeast, which I personally hate because of the aromas it produces in the finished product. Long story short we decided to brew a 12 gallon batch and split it into 3 carboys with 3 different yeast strains, and so Triple Chocolate Coffee Milk Stout was born!<br />
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The recipe was the same as last year but with a bigger batch size.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2 of the 3 strains we were using</td></tr>
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Recipe:</h3>
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OG: 1.050</div>
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Grains:</h4>
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15 pounds 2-Row Base Malt</div>
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2.5 pounds Chocolate Malt</div>
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1 pound Flaked Barley</div>
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Hops:</h4>
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2 oz East Goldings @ 30 minutes</div>
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<h4>
Yeast (Bought from local company <a href="http://www.inisbc.com/">Inland Island</a>)</h4>
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<a href="http://www.inisbc.com/inisbc-361-continental-ale.html">INISBC-361: Continental</a> (Ringwood)</div>
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<a href="http://www.inisbc.com/inisbc-315-english-ale-v.html">INISBC-315: English Ale V</a> (Listed as good for ESBs)</div>
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INISBC-316: English Ale VI (Not sure but has to be better than Ringwood!!)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtK-apiFgSZix7CWcMa9CftcQbesk8d9hIW2sQ6UwxfSMmFp8Sys6uV3jDZ1PB9gJze98EE8APlvM97dt8MFlPubnp27JfNHFW_izYW6-PgskyExHt_JedrWLSl4zDkcjuPLe3kgFxwLM/s1600/3+Stouts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtK-apiFgSZix7CWcMa9CftcQbesk8d9hIW2sQ6UwxfSMmFp8Sys6uV3jDZ1PB9gJze98EE8APlvM97dt8MFlPubnp27JfNHFW_izYW6-PgskyExHt_JedrWLSl4zDkcjuPLe3kgFxwLM/s1600/3+Stouts.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At 14 hours all three were already fermenting away.</td></tr>
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Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-702105746356186102014-10-28T07:10:00.000-07:002014-10-28T07:10:06.105-07:00Pumpkin Beer 2014It has been an unusually long and warm fall in Colorado. The leaves are slowly falling from the trees, the temperature is still in the high 70s, and it is the perfect time of the year to brew a pumpkin beer. If everything goes as planned I should have carbonated bottles by the time Thanksgiving is here to share with family and friends.<br />
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I have been using a similar recipe for several years now, about 90% pale malt and 10% 20L caramel malt. This gives the beer a nice orange color. I also add 3 pounds of pumpkin for a 5 pound batch to the mash. In the past I have always toasted the pumpkin in the oven before adding it to caramelize it. For spice I add 1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice per gallon of wort 5 minutes before the end of boil. This level of spicing is slightly less than I would like so I add some vanilla and additional spices right before bottling.<br />
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This year I decided I wanted to mix things up a bit and deviated from past years. I happened to have some molasses on hand and wanted to experiment with adding some to the boil for both color and flavor. I also had some fresh cascade hops picked by a friend that I hope will make a nice addition to the beer.<br />
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The recipe that I settled on looked like this.<br />
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3 gallons<br />
6 pounds Pale 2 Row<br />
1/3 pound special "B"<br />
1 pound molasses<br />
2 pounds toasted pumpkin<br />
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1 oz Fuggles at 60 minutes<br />
1 oz home grown Cascade at 15 minutes<br />
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice at 5 minutes<br />
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1 vial of <a href="http://www.inisbc.com/">Inland Island</a> Oregon IPA Yeast<br />
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I mashed the pumpkin with all of the grain at 148 F for an hour with a batch sparge for 20 minutes at 175 F. The molasses was added at the start of boil.<br />
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Update 10/27/2014<br />
12 hours in fermentation is raging, yeast took right off.Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-2069839844052698362014-03-30T12:33:00.000-07:002014-03-30T12:33:29.933-07:00Baby's Barleywine Ale3/30/2014<br />
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My wife and I recently welcomed a new addition to our family, a beautiful little girl. In celebration of her birth I brewed a Barleywine to share with friends and family and a few extra to age for when she is older. I based the beer on a past recipe "<a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/11/barley-wine-2012.html">Barley Wine 2012</a>" which turned out fantastic. It was so good in fact that the bottles I intended to age ended up in my belly before the year was out. Using this recipe as a guideline I decided to up the roast, toffee, and chocolate and dial back on the hops to make it more of an English Style Barleywine. I also wanted to test out a yeast blend that I had acquired to the <a href="http://www.brewingscience.com/PDF/prodlist/BSI_Yeast_Descriptions_Guide.pdf">Brewing Science Institute</a> labeled BSI-85. The blend includes a variety of English ale strains to create a diverse ester profile and California Ale Yeast to make sure that the fermentation does not stall out.<br />
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This is the recipe that I settled on:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDkh6_hUeazARJVZ9t8UiHnV-yAByM-nBrsy-0K_30Qtcb6e1qcsD43lj20FoHcfZ_fWKBH9hsCh6SEUnF_1NLnAs3QAaNT98s7TPfrzYYDV78sx4WpWy2d_6ygC0TnuxOr8s1RlS76w/s1600/WP_20140228_007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBDkh6_hUeazARJVZ9t8UiHnV-yAByM-nBrsy-0K_30Qtcb6e1qcsD43lj20FoHcfZ_fWKBH9hsCh6SEUnF_1NLnAs3QAaNT98s7TPfrzYYDV78sx4WpWy2d_6ygC0TnuxOr8s1RlS76w/s1600/WP_20140228_007.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a>Grain Bill:<br />
71% Maris Otter<br />
11.5 % Malted Wheat<br />
7% Caramel 60<br />
7% Caramel 80<br />
3.5% Special "B"<br />
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Hops:<br />
90 minutes Magnum 32 IBU<br />
30 minutes Magnum 21 IBU<br />
5 minutes Challenger 5.5 IBU<br />
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I mashed at 148 F for an hour to create a highly digestible wort<br />
Starting Gravity 1.088<br />
Final Gravity 1.020<br />
ABV ~10%<br />
<br />
Pitched BSI-85<br />
Primary Fermentation 2 weeks<br />
Seconday 3 months at 65 F<br />
Aged 3 months at 50 F<br />
Bottled with table sugar and fresh yeast<br />
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<br />
Tasting Notes:<br />
Beer turned out great, carbonation is subtle which really lets all the flavors come through the beer as well as the body. Sweet and warming, well balanced at the finish. The roast really comes through as does the caramel, toffee, and chocolate.<br />
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<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-26984945612520796552014-03-02T10:43:00.000-08:002014-03-02T10:43:00.355-08:00Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Sympossium 2014It is that time of year again!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfBeQaBVN5vGto6FJ_ZVJSOz1r-jidEc1HAQGrH-f_EgcDmLthKJgoJ5GE4ak7cawPMV0p1schxvaDTRVTOdXteC6n6PGf_hUTNfw35yy2IAyshfBk03ybUcssz-AgRhqGEr5-X3FyYM/s1600/RMMS+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfBeQaBVN5vGto6FJ_ZVJSOz1r-jidEc1HAQGrH-f_EgcDmLthKJgoJ5GE4ak7cawPMV0p1schxvaDTRVTOdXteC6n6PGf_hUTNfw35yy2IAyshfBk03ybUcssz-AgRhqGEr5-X3FyYM/s1600/RMMS+2014.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a>For the past 4 years I have been lucky enough to attend the Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Sympossium. It is a get together for any brewers in the Rocky Mountain region and the day is spent listening to presentations from leaders in the industry, drinking beer, and net working.<br />
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This year presentations were given about malting, setting up a sensory analysis program, marketing, Crafting A Nation, brewing lager beer, and hop utilization. I thought I would share a couple of the tips I picked up this year from two of the presentations.<br />
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1) Brewing Lager Beer: The Slow and Expensive Way -Ashleigh Carter<br />
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<ul>
<li>Ashleigh is an experienced brewer who has worked at both Dry Dock and Prost. She travels regularly to Germany and knows more about German beer than almost anyone I know. Her talk focused on brewing Lager beer in a traditional fashion. She recommended a few things...</li>
<ul>
<li>All Lager beer can be made with 5 malts and 2 hops, but for any one beer in the style you should only be using 3 malts and 1 hop at most.</li>
<li>pH is very, very important, and here are her recommendations. Mash (5.2-5.5), Begin Boil (5.2-5.5), End Boil (5.0-5.2), End Fermentation (4.2-4.4)</li>
<li>A thinner mash is better (in particular for decocting), she recommended 4:1 to 5:1 liters:kilograms</li>
<li>Mash long and low (temp 145-148)</li>
<li>Boil no less than 90 minutes (Colorado Altitude)</li>
<li>Knockout cold</li>
<li>If you need to make a water adjustment add CaCl2 at 50-100 ppm</li>
</ul>
</ul>
2) A Look at Hop Utilization - Jeff Nickel, Jason Mehberg, Jason zumBrunnen<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I have gotten to hear several talks from the folks at AC Golden in the past. They always do a great job of presenting data to back up what they are saying. They also have all the cool toys to analyze their beer and the opportunity to play around with recipes and ingredients. The topic this year was hop utilization and how perceived bitterness relates to measured IBUs.</li>
<ul>
<li>The rule that we have all been taught is that you have to boil hops in order to isomerize the Alpha Acids and add any bitterness to your beer. The guys from AC Golden blew that out of the water with their presentation. They tested different conditions and how they effected IBUs measured by HPLC or Spectophotometery. According to their results IBUs were increased in the whirl pool, mash hopping, and first wort hopping. All times when hops should not have been able to isomerize. This shakes the very foundation of hopping!</li>
<li>The second half of the presentation looks at increasing IBUs in homebrews that were dry hopped. They tested three sets of homebrewed beer before and after dry hopping. Each time the IAA (Isomerized Alpha Acids) increased, some by 25%, just through dry hopping. The data is still preliminary but I am going to follow up with Jason when he has all the results in.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
Yet another great year at RMMS drinking beer with the people who brewed it and learning about new developments in the state of craft beer!<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-28796314246850786672014-02-23T10:22:00.000-08:002014-02-23T10:22:11.118-08:00Solera: Perpetuum2/23/2014<br />
<br />
Two years ago a couple of my friends and I raised money on kick starter to brew beer, buy barrels, and age sour beer. Last summer we had two release parties and had a great experience sharing our creations with fellow beer enthusiasts. Although the group that was responsible for the project have all moved on, some of that beer is still left in the form of a Solera. For the first time I will be pulling from the Solera and adding back fresh wort. Before I get to that let me tell you a little bit about what a Solera is and how this particular one came about.<br />
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From Wikipedia:<br />
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"In the solera process, a succession of containers are filled with the product over a series of equal aging intervals (usually a year). One container is filled for each interval. At the end of the interval after the last container is filled, the oldest container in thesolera is tapped for part of its content, which is bottled. Then that container is refilled from the next oldest container, and that one in succession from the second-oldest, down to the youngest container, which is refilled with new product. This procedure is repeated at the end of each aging interval. The transferred product mixes with the older product in the next barrel.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />No container is ever drained, so some of the earlier product always remains in each container. This remnant diminishes to a tiny level, but there can be significant traces of product much older than the average, depending on the transfer fraction. In theory traces of the very first product placed in the solera may be present even after 50 or 100 cycles."</i></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDZhDWwOLwY03f27-VTSQFKFICvLt-A7MptkfY2P5rDAoRWuPK_z1EOq8HO0jvjTsiEnZWcriXTKAOu4UOXVDJTSy_rxHjPkpLo9EoA_LRXpxeFiYg1x30DN9HNoA84wk4b91htSGgwU/s1600/Cantillon+Brewery+23.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtDZhDWwOLwY03f27-VTSQFKFICvLt-A7MptkfY2P5rDAoRWuPK_z1EOq8HO0jvjTsiEnZWcriXTKAOu4UOXVDJTSy_rxHjPkpLo9EoA_LRXpxeFiYg1x30DN9HNoA84wk4b91htSGgwU/s1600/Cantillon+Brewery+23.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>As you can see the concept is pretty basic, you take a portion of the old beer out and make up the difference with new beer. In this case I only have a single barrel that is being aged. The barrel came about when the Wild Brewing team was bottling 90 gallons of beer. We came down to the last 5 gallons in the first two barrels and decided to put them into carboys so that they would settle out (the yeast cake was kicked up in trying to get out all the beer). When we came to the final barrel we found out we did not have enough bottles and had to leave 15 gallons of beer in the barrel. I was uncomfortable leaving the barrel half empty and so we topped it off with the 5 gallons from the other two barrels and 5 gallons of fresh beer. That brought the barrel back up to 30 gallons with a mixture of 15 gallons of Cherry Saison, 5 gallons of <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/07/flanders-red-ale.html">Flanders Red</a>, 5 gallons of a <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2013/05/wild-brewing-savage-tasting.html">Pale Sour</a>, and 5 gallons of something resembling an all Brett Wit. Since that time the barrel has been topped up with extra wort from several batches of beer, mostly sour or all Brett beers. At this point it has an impressive amount of microflora both from batches of beer, the original inoculum, and several sets of bottle dregs. Here is a list of just the microbes added through beer additions.<br />
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<ol>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhg-k6llfIOjF727ApTyoOzoi20wRkMa9cELBrCS4cjQtJV30f3JhjgFSYMRLo842QkJir8UDZjHk7ACDoXoi0SJVal5Hd3Ts-tRR-zIcXIwq8anfqv4tfUYAjuzvIaL-S2aZIn1W6PQ/s1600/Pellicile.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhg-k6llfIOjF727ApTyoOzoi20wRkMa9cELBrCS4cjQtJV30f3JhjgFSYMRLo842QkJir8UDZjHk7ACDoXoi0SJVal5Hd3Ts-tRR-zIcXIwq8anfqv4tfUYAjuzvIaL-S2aZIn1W6PQ/s1600/Pellicile.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>
<li>Yeast</li>
<ul>
<li>French Saison (3711), Chimay, Farmhouse (3726), Saison (3724), Cherry Yeast, Scottish Ale Yeast </li>
</ul>
<li>Brett</li>
<ul>
<li>Drei, Crooked Stave (CMY-001), B. clausenii, B. bruxellensis, B. lambicus</li>
</ul>
<li>Bacteria</li>
<ul>
<li>L. brevis, L. delbrueckii, Pediococcus</li>
</ul>
</ol>
A couple of weekends ago I decided it may be best to move the beer into a new barrel that did not have cherry pits and a bunch of autolysing yeast in the bottom. I used a barrel that had been cleaned and moved all of the original Solera beer into the clean barrel along with 5 gallons of new beer (a highly hopped Scottish ale). This should give the bugs something to survive on and get the beer off any dying yeast.<br />
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I tasted the solera beer at the time I was moving it and it was very tasty! A nice round sourness and a whole lot of fruit in the nose. It was a light red color which I hope to darken up by adding darker beers in the future. In about 6 months I will take out 5 gallons and bottle it and freshen the barrel with new beer.<br />
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Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-45116377038859309342014-01-15T07:53:00.000-08:002014-01-15T07:53:57.057-08:00Yeast Cell Counting and Viabilty: HemocytometerCell counting is one of the most important skills for a brewer. It allows a brewer to be able to pitch the correct number of cells into their wort. It also ensures that the cells are healthy and ready to make beer.<br />
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The most basic way for a brewer to count cells is to use a hemocytometer. This is a tool that was developed in the 1800's for counting blood cells. It just so happens that blood cells and yeast cells are about the same size. For this reason a hemocytometer can also be used for counting yeast cells.<br />
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The hemocytometer itself is a rather ingenious invention. It is simply a grid on a slide that holds a known volume of liquid. The volume inside of any one of the 9 large squares on the grid contains exactly one 10000th of a mL of liquid. To obtain the total cells in 1 mL of liquid you can count all the cells in that 10000th of a mL and multiply by 10,000 to come up with the cells in 1 mL of liquid.<br />
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In combination with counting cells they can also be stained for viability. Viability is how many cells in the population are alive. The number does not tell you how healthy the cells are, (there is another method called a Vitality Test that can be used to tell you how healthy the cells are) only if they are alive or dead. To stain the cells you can use a solution of 2% Methylene Blue, which is a dye that enters into all the yeast cells. The yeast cells that are still alive have an active enzyme that will break down the dye. Yeast cells that are dead have no active enzyme to break down the dye and soon accumulate it inside. This causes the living cells to appear unstained and the dead cells to stain a dark blue/black color. By counting dead and live cells a percentage of living cells can be obtained, this number is the viability of the culture.<br />
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Here is how both a cell count and a viability count are done.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IzGNwYQM8-n455PIUTEzJw7AqvlSHOYe9uqwTobtTb8nPLJ-8k1huQAYZC2CxAwKavlIuxRLEbSuXjmuq81sa0zPX8-XF-vklanG-iwidfq-JkNjkDHG8QWmH61py24n_s_j6A7N0zI/s1600/800px-Hemocytometer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IzGNwYQM8-n455PIUTEzJw7AqvlSHOYe9uqwTobtTb8nPLJ-8k1huQAYZC2CxAwKavlIuxRLEbSuXjmuq81sa0zPX8-XF-vklanG-iwidfq-JkNjkDHG8QWmH61py24n_s_j6A7N0zI/s320/800px-Hemocytometer.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loading the Hemocytometer<br />Photo <span class="description en" lang="en">14:12, 13 November 2008 (UTC) by <span id="flickr_upload_bot_reviewer"><b><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jacopo_Werther" title="User:Jacopo Werther">Jacopo Werthe</a></b></span> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ol>
<li>Take your yeast slurry or whatever sample you want to count.</li>
<li>Mix the sample up very well, if the yeast are heavily concentrated you will need to dilute them in water (you can not count the cells if there are too many on the slide, aim for between 80-200 cells in the 5 counting squares).</li>
<li>Take the diluted sample and add a few drops of methylene blue until the solution turns a medium blue color.</li>
<li>Add about 15 uL of the sample to the hemocytometer slide using the sample loading notch.</li>
<li>Count all of the cells in the boxes that are highlighted below (the 5 4x4 boxes that are located inside the large center square). Note that each of the boxes is rimmed by a triple line. Cells that are on the upper and right triple line should not be counted (they are considered out of bounds). Cells that are on the lower and left triple line should be counted as in bounds. If a cell is budding count it as two cells if the bud is greater than or equal in size to the mother cell. Count the budding cell as one cell if the bud is less than half the size of the mother cell.</li>
<li>Take the number of cells you counted, multiply by 5 (because you counted only 5 of the 25 squares in the area), multiply by 10,000 (because your volume counted was a 10000th of a mL) and multiply by your dilution factor. If you diluted 1:20 and counted 89 cells the math would look like this...<ul>
<li>89 x 5 x 10,000 x 20 = 89,000,000 or 8.9E7 cells/mL</li>
</ul>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg44epXZxEyeJjzGnYVRBpx1OmFX74to4tWNJTvrHvUNZcsaoqLf5OyfPMhdTAVAP0ku_aJzV3qbdrrTn4wc48wiMy-RrIrGdoX9UAzyBux4eHbvBzrI9jMs9ozhyLD1XagrHGl-htQxs/s1600/Hemocytometer.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg44epXZxEyeJjzGnYVRBpx1OmFX74to4tWNJTvrHvUNZcsaoqLf5OyfPMhdTAVAP0ku_aJzV3qbdrrTn4wc48wiMy-RrIrGdoX9UAzyBux4eHbvBzrI9jMs9ozhyLD1XagrHGl-htQxs/s320/Hemocytometer.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 5 cells to be counted are highlighted in blue.<br />Photo from http://dictybase.org/techniques/media/dicty_growth.html</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li> To determine the viability count the number of living and dead cells in all 5 highlighted squares, then divide the living cells by the total number of counted cell. If you counted 86 living and 3 dead the math would look like this... </li>
<ul>
<li>86/(86+3) = .966 or 96.6% viability.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4FfE16y0fqRpAsS-cPCzHv-j_HvI5b1MnDHUBJsIy_qTyB8Upcnhj9aTKv_JIXiJo-VCmy6gbUt-Toi1ggy1boVPQPGZiC4g4jS730vtBbeVGdHEppPj78Y8Diz-2bNiGYYl7B8kqzY/s1600/Peetz+Staining+5%25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4FfE16y0fqRpAsS-cPCzHv-j_HvI5b1MnDHUBJsIy_qTyB8Upcnhj9aTKv_JIXiJo-VCmy6gbUt-Toi1ggy1boVPQPGZiC4g4jS730vtBbeVGdHEppPj78Y8Diz-2bNiGYYl7B8kqzY/s400/Peetz+Staining+5%25.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stained cells.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Now that you know how many cells you have in your slurry you can
calculate how much volume of your yeast slurry to add to your fermenter.
I will be adding a post on how much yeast to add to your wort and will post a link here.<br />
<br />
<ol></ol>
Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-15035192615052756572013-12-31T15:44:00.000-08:002014-10-28T07:17:30.166-07:00Christmas 2013 Porter (1923 Courage Stout)For Christmas this year my Dad and I decided to brew up a beer to share with the family. He really likes the London Porter served by a local brewery and wanted to create something similar to share with family and friends. I spent quite a bit of time looking for a recipe or some style guidlines for what exactly makes a porter a "London Porter". I eventually turned to the blog "<a href="http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/">Shut up about Barclay Perkins</a>", which has a wealth of information about British beer. I came across a recipe for <a href="http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1923-courage-stout.html">1932 Courage Stout</a> and decided that it would be a great place to start. With a few modifications my Dad and I soon had a recipe.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfXVlcX6DoJdT2BSXiELtSasdqWgA17cZVuwwqtEijzJR6vRXGugf9ZTHfSF1_tGr7Y3U8QgCWq8_l_7IdXxIIExEB3yTz6nGQqRAp21lGOmmCm7SaovIFiG6mMEXq0xyHCTGuPkskvs/s1600/WP_20131124_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilfXVlcX6DoJdT2BSXiELtSasdqWgA17cZVuwwqtEijzJR6vRXGugf9ZTHfSF1_tGr7Y3U8QgCWq8_l_7IdXxIIExEB3yTz6nGQqRAp21lGOmmCm7SaovIFiG6mMEXq0xyHCTGuPkskvs/s320/WP_20131124_001.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a>The most challenging element to brewing this beer was the Black Invert Sugar. I poked around on the internet and found that you can create your own invert sugar using heat and acidity. Invert sugar is table sugar (succrose) which has been split apart into its two components, fructose and glucose. It tastes sweeter than table sugar, retains moisture better, and is less prone to crystallization. Hydrolysis (the addition of a water molecule) will cause succrose to break apart. In order to create our own invert sugar we catalyzed the hydrolysis reaction with heat and acid.<br />
<br />
<b>Invert Sugar Recipe</b><br />
<ul>
<li>1 pound Table Sugar</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>1.5 cups water</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>1 tsp lemon juice</li>
</ul>
Add the sugar to the water and bring to a boil on the stove, keep stirring so that no sugar falls to the bottom and burns. Add the lemon juice. After about 7 minutes at a simmer you will have invert sugar. If you want Black Invert sugar continue cooking it. It will start to turn a golden yellow color, then a deep red. When the color is deep red take it off the stove, as it cools it will continue to darken in color until it is finally black.<br />
<br />
As we made the invert sugar we were also working on mashing and bringing the wort to a boil. The rest of the recipe was as follows (mostly copied from <a href="http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/11/lets-brew-wednesday-1923-courage-stout.html">Barclay Perkins </a>)<br />
<br />
Christmas 2013 Porter (1923 Courage Stout)<br />
<br />
5 Gallons<br />
OG 1.044<br />
FG 1.007<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVrYsiXZW0XQuLWR_ee8AC4GSHH7VRT_echs7INHyyFv01-REKu5f8AYbb33EtUPU1gk8-XBNBEMY5piAIYH_1aDX0VbeguvTb4rponUAE41-l4NCLyhVs3ziOrVIUTMUxyjrULQdQg4/s1600/WP_20131229_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVrYsiXZW0XQuLWR_ee8AC4GSHH7VRT_echs7INHyyFv01-REKu5f8AYbb33EtUPU1gk8-XBNBEMY5piAIYH_1aDX0VbeguvTb4rponUAE41-l4NCLyhVs3ziOrVIUTMUxyjrULQdQg4/s320/WP_20131229_001.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a><br />
Grain <br />
3 pounds Maris Otter<br />
1.25 pounds Golden Promise<br />
1.25 pounds Peark<br />
0.75 pounds Black Malt<br />
0.5 pounds Brown Malt<br />
0.5 pounds Black Invert Sugar<br />
<br />
Hops<br />
17 IBUs Challenger at 90 minutes<br />
12.2 IBUs Challenger at 30 minutes<br />
<br />
Yeast: Yorkshire Ale, Ferment at 68 F<br />
<br />
Primary for 2 weeks and then straight into a keg. Force carbonated to 1.8 Volumes of CO2.<br />
Served at 55 F.<br />
<br />
ABV 4.9% (Tested by Gas Chromotography)<br />
<br />
<br />
Tasting Notes:<br />
<br />
Beer pours full of tiny bubbles, looks just like a cask beer, strong tan head turns into a wonderful lacing around the glass. Jet black in color with no highlights.<br />
Aromas of toast, coffee, chocolate, and a deep maltiness. No hop aroma, very well balanced.<br />
Taste is smooth, chocolaty, and a little bitter roast bite at the finish. The beer is dry and has notes of coffee and toast. Roast increases as the beer warms.<br />
Overall I am very pleased with this beer. It looks awesome coming out of the keg and it is a nice smooth drinker<span style="color: #0000ee;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0000ee;">10/17/2014 </span><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">I found <span style="color: #0000ee;">a bottle of this beer in the<span style="color: #0000ee;"> basement. It <span style="color: #0000ee;">was <span style="color: #0000ee;">hidden in a box of bombers in the fridge and I stu<span style="color: #0000ee;">mbled upon it <span style="color: #0000ee;">while looking for some old sour beers. <span style="color: #0000ee;">I was <span style="color: #0000ee;">pleasantly</span> <span style="color: #0000ee;">surprised <span style="color: #0000ee;">to find the beer <span style="color: #0000ee;">was <span style="color: #0000ee;">still in great condition. Despite the low alcohol content everything tasted great. The coffee and chocolate flavors <span style="color: #0000ee;">were a little subdued compar<span style="color: #0000ee;">ed with the first tasting but the beer was still s<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="color: #0000ee;">ilky</span> smooth<span style="color: #0000ee;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-61570275033867420552013-10-27T13:53:00.000-07:002013-10-27T13:53:03.174-07:00Pumpkin Beer 2013It is that time of year again. Pumpkins are starting to show up at the stores so that brewers like me can turn them into beer!<br />
<br />
This year I followed the same recipe, almost, that I did last year. Despite knowing what I needed to do the brew day turned into quite a disaster. I decided to brew with my buddy Chase who just got hired as a brewer at Bristol. We also invited some of our co-workers from the Brewing Science Institute. This dream brewing team was unable to handle what was ahead of them.<br />
<br />
Problems started when I showed up with not enough grain, I was about 4 pounds short. This was easily fixed by scaling back our 10 gallon batch to 8 gallons. As we pulled out the equipment that we needed for the day we found that it had been put away wet and dirty and was covered in mold. Before we could even start brewing we had to clean everything.<br />
<br />
Things went from bad to worse when our roasted pumpkin turned our mash into cement. It took an extra hour and a lot of stirring to get what we needed out of the mash tun. When it became time to add hops we found that no one had any hop bags. We opted to go without, which was a terrible idea. When it came time to run the beer through the chiller all the hops immediately jammed the chiller which left us with 8 gallons of beer and no way to cool it.<br />
<br />
I decided to cut me losses and take the beer home hot. I then placed it back on the stove, boiled it again for ten minutes, and then cooled it with my own chiller. Finally getting the beer into the carboy after an almost 8 hour brew day.<br />
<br />
Despite all the disaster the beer turned out great. Here is the recipe and a review.<br />
<br />
Recipe for 8 gallons of beer<br />
<br />
OG 16 Plato<br />
FG 3.5 Plato<br />
IBU 27<br />
ABV 7.5%<br />
<br />
Grain<br />
90% Marris Otter<br />
10% Caramel 20<br />
3 pound toasted pumpkin added to the mash tun<br />
<br />
Hops<br />
60 minutes 1 oz 13% AA Magnum<br />
10 minutes 0.75 oz 6% AA Sterling<br />
<br />
Spices<br />
5 minutes from end of boil 1 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice<br />
AT BOTTLING 2oz sugar (for carbonation)<br />
AT BOTTLING 1/4 oz Vanilla<br />
AT BOTTLING 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
Beer pours with a strong and sticky head. The foam turns into a lovely white lacing around the glass. The beer is orange-gold in color and is almost crystal clear. Small bubbles rise to the top of the beer from the nucleation site, excellent carbonation.<br />
<br />
Aroma is a little sweet and filled with pumpkin pie spice. The spice is not overwhelming, it is clearly a beer that has been spiced to smell like pumpkin instead of a pumpkin pie bomb. It would be nice to have some caramel or grain notes to add some pie crust aroma.<br />
<br />
The taste is excellent. Pumpkin pie spice is subtle and in the finish. The vanilla went a long way to smooth out the palate. The alcohol is not perceptible which is pretty impressive for the ABV.<br />
<br />
Mouthfeel is smooth and full.<br />
<br />
Overall this beer turned out very well, despite the rough start. It will be a great beer to share at Thanksgiving this year.<br />
<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-82256268595516914872013-08-10T18:56:00.000-07:002013-08-10T18:56:16.321-07:00Isolating Wild YeastI think any enthusiast in the hobby of home brewing at sometime or another becomes enchanted with the multitude of yeast strains that are available. Suppliers such as Wyeast, White Labs, and the Brewing Science Institute have hundreds of options (although not all of them are offered to home brewers). Despite the options from suppliers this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as yeast are concerned. Wild yeast live all around us on trees, fruit, and even in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/07/26/1208362109.full.pdf">stomachs of bugs</a>. Who knows what unique and wonderful yeast could be waiting to be found. I recently set out to collect some of these "Wild Yeast". I thought I would share some of what I have learned and found.<br />
<br />
<b>Isolating Wild Yeast</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This is the procedure that I have found works best for isolating Wild Yeast. I have mostly used this method to isolate yeast from wild beers (Cantillon and Drei Fontenien) but have also used it to collect yeast from barrels.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<ol>
<li>I take a small sample of the beer and add it to a container filled with sterilized low gravity wort that is made with a little bit of hops. This first step will make sure that any of the bugs (Yeast and Bacteria) are able to ferment wort and live in the increasing level of alcohol. This also works to kill or stop the growth of any bacteria that is present, which I am not really interested in (the hops should also help cut down on bacterial growth). I allow for 2 weeks of growth since some of these bugs are coming out of a bottle that has set for a while.</li>
<li>I next take about 1 mL of the new culture from step 1 and place it on a large wort agar plate. This will give me the chance to grow up single colonies. I allow for 1 week of growth.</li>
<li>Take any colonies that have grown on the first agar plate and transfer them to their own new wort agar plate and allow them to grow into separate single colonies. (You may notice that some of the colonies do not look similar, in which case you may have mutants).</li>
<li>Next, take single colonies from the 2nd set of plates and grow them up in small (250 mL) wort samples. If the yeast is able to attenuate the wort in these samples they can be moved onto the final stage.</li>
<li>Step up the cultures to about 1/2 gallon test batches. If you like the results you can save the yeast for further batches of beer.</li>
</ol>
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<div>
<b>Results</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
I have used the above method to collect a dozen separate wild yeast strains. Most of the time the yeast is pretty unremarkable and has little to no aroma that it produces. Other times the yeast does not attenuate well or take weeks to finish fermenting. However, I have found several strains that I like so far and will continue to look for other keepers. It is really rewarding to spend all the time isolating a strain and then get to figure out how best to use it!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBDkAhh8oqRLRg4YUvcD6atzw2CV_Hbz5HX5fTpl-cwbocXQvvTeutSkRjM33zNJGt0XgjehVJkf5O35fHIiIZ6x0lCBmTRbQdUrp7yqa7xl2Msvi_iY5prFZepUWc0_qN6kWMa3szWQ/s1600/Yeast+Plate.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBDkAhh8oqRLRg4YUvcD6atzw2CV_Hbz5HX5fTpl-cwbocXQvvTeutSkRjM33zNJGt0XgjehVJkf5O35fHIiIZ6x0lCBmTRbQdUrp7yqa7xl2Msvi_iY5prFZepUWc0_qN6kWMa3szWQ/s320/Yeast+Plate.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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</div>
Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-1113601820900696722013-07-21T17:36:00.000-07:002013-07-21T17:36:45.623-07:00Citra SaisonI have finally been sucked in by the hype of Citra. A newer hop variety that claims to have tropical fruit aromas like pineapple, mango, and papaya. A friend and I decided to use the hop in a Saison to try to make a nice summery session beer. The results- I should have brewed alone so I didn't have to share the final product with anyone!<br />
<br />
Recipe for 3 gallons<br />
<br />
6.25 pounds 2-row base malt<br />
1.33 pounds Munich<br />
0.5 pounds wheat malt<br />
0.25 pounds carapils<br />
<br />
mashed at 152 F for 1 hour<br />
sparged at 178<br />
<br />
Added 0.4 oz of Challenger at 60 minutes<br />
Added 0.5 oz of Citra at 10 minutes<br />
Added 0.5 oz of Citra at 0 minutes<br />
<br />
Original Gravity 1.065<br />
<br />
Fermented with a blend of 3711 (French Saison) and 3724 (Farmhouse) [Blend was 10% 3711 90% 3724]<br />
<br />
Fermented at ambient temp for 1 week, placed in secondary 2 weeks, bottled with table sugar<br />
<br />
Final Gravity 1.008 <br />
<br />
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<br />Tasting<br />
<br />
Beer pours a cloudy orange/yellow color with a good head that settles back into the glass. It can easily be revived with a swirl. The foam is very very sticky and forms a wonderful lace on the side of the glass.<br />
<br />
Aroma is filled with tropical fruit notes, mostly dominated by pineapple but with hints of mango as well. There is also a nice spice from the 3711 that rounds out the nose nicely.<br />
<br />
The beer taste like a saison, a little sweet and wheat/bread like to start with a wonderful phenolic and dry finish. The 3711 delivered the typical silky mouthfeel.<br />
<br />
Overall this is a great success. The tropical fruit is overwhelming and continues to develop as the beer warms. The beer looks great and is so smooth and drinkable despite the 8+% ABV. This really turned out well and I will certainly be making a second batch.<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-90207404444280619892013-06-09T16:22:00.002-07:002013-06-09T16:22:45.460-07:00Bavarian HefeweizenFirst, a little bit about wheat beers. Wheat beer (Weizen) is beer brewed with a portion of malted wheat replacing malted barley. Weizen can be split into a couple additional categories, Hefeweizen and Kristallweizen, along with styles like dunkelweizen and weizenbock. Kristallwezien is wheat beer that has been filtered to remove the yeast and any haze from the beer. Hefeweizen ("yeast wheat") is unfiltered Weizen that contains haze from the yeast.<br />
<br />
To make matters even more complicated there are multiple forms of Kristallweizen and Hefeweizen. I will be writing today about just Hefeweizen, as it is the focus of this post. Hefeweizen in Germany can be sub-categorized by region, either North, Middle, or South (Bavarian). What sets these areas apart are the aromas of the Hefeweizen. In Northern Germany Hefeweizen most often shows clove like aroma along with nutmeg and other phenolics. In Bavaria banana esters are emphasized along with apple. While in central parts of Germany a Blanche is often seen between the two (clove and banana). While this is not a hard and fast rule it gives a good generalization of Hefeweizen in Germany.<br />
<br />
The focus today is to make a Bavarian Hefeweizen (a banana bomb). To do that we need to create as much isoamylacetate (which smells like banana) as we can. There are several things we can manipulate to do this, (1) the yeast and (2) the grain bill.<br />
<br />
Yeast:<br />
To create as much isoamylacetate (banana) as possible we want to pick the correct yeast strain. In the example below I will be using a proprietary strain from the Brewing Science Institute. Your best bet to obtain this strain is to culture it from a growler of Prost beer. If you do not have this option available to you I would recommend Wyeast 3068.<br />
Yeast produces isoamylacetate in response to stress. So in order to stress the yeast out you can do several things, under pitch and under aerate. You should pitch only 25 % of the cells you would normally use and only aerate half of what you normally do. These two factors in combination will produce a very banana like beer.<br />
You also want to manipulate the fermentation temperature and ferment the beer at > 68 F.<br />
<br />
Grain Bill:<br />
Some of the precusors for the phenolic compound that smells like clove are created while mashing. In particular a step mash that has a rest at 111 F and 125 F produces ferulic acid which will result in an increase in clove in the finished beer. To prevent this and create more isoamlyacetate a single step mash to create a highly fermentable wort is suggested. I have also heard it recommended that 3 % glucose added to the boil will increase the level of isoamylacetate.<br />
<br />
Using all of the above knowledge I decided to brew a simple Bavarian Hefeweizen.<br />
<br />
I used a very simple grain bill with 50% malted wheat and 50% malted barley. I added a single hop addition for about 12 IBUs.<br />
<br />
Bavarian Hefeweizen<br />
<br />
OG: 1.046<br />
FG 1.012<br />
Grain Bill<br />
50% Malted Wheat<br />
50% Malted Barley<br />
<br />
Single step mash at 148 F <br />
<br />
60 minute addition of Hallertau for 12 IBUs<br />
<br />
Propriertaty yeast strain at <8 million cells/mL<br />
<br />
Fermented 70 F<br />
<br />
Tasting:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5COnoODrmsUdLb86opBppKsCgUSoPTLX15p41AxQwnvraLyIpWppvhUwgd8UyS7qVxvKO4FalaJ666Ond4PGV64d4H8WZii1YqC-zmEBBs4KorgF46dvMEnBoFPd7NoN1JsZC6gj4mg/s1600/IMG_3267.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5COnoODrmsUdLb86opBppKsCgUSoPTLX15p41AxQwnvraLyIpWppvhUwgd8UyS7qVxvKO4FalaJ666Ond4PGV64d4H8WZii1YqC-zmEBBs4KorgF46dvMEnBoFPd7NoN1JsZC6gj4mg/s320/IMG_3267.JPG" width="240" /></a>Apperance: The beer is straw yellow with an intense and sticky head. A little cloudy from the yeast but not too much.<br />
<br />
Aroma: The beer is a banana bomb, I also detect a little bubblegum and some wheat aromas.<br />
<br />
Taste: Wheat beer! Very simple, a little bit on the sweet side but very very drinkable.<br />
<br />
Overall: This was a great success. I was able to produce loads of isoamylacetate and create an incredible refreshing wheat beer.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-36268933531677229872013-05-06T17:58:00.003-07:002013-05-06T17:58:39.788-07:00Wild Brewing: Savage Tasting<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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For anyone who has been following what is going on I recently completed 4 barrel aged sour beers with the help of two friends. The barrels are all bottled and I will be posting tastings of them one by one. <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-brew-day.html">Here is the recipe</a> for the first beer, code name Savage.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFQLhbLJkJL6GeQh7lxX1kuRT6LP4niBNyCx2MHNLJnXySfiS6JMPdCPOSqclinhoXwdRsxdEstXU3498X-Iw_YyOoRL-nFJcNeXmyUFM2XejrZ9Na3iIokwqRW1Ofqic8Ia5mCTgsiM/s1600/IMG_3210.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhFQLhbLJkJL6GeQh7lxX1kuRT6LP4niBNyCx2MHNLJnXySfiS6JMPdCPOSqclinhoXwdRsxdEstXU3498X-Iw_YyOoRL-nFJcNeXmyUFM2XejrZ9Na3iIokwqRW1Ofqic8Ia5mCTgsiM/s320/IMG_3210.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Savage:</div>
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<br /></div>
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Beer pours a slightly hazy golden color with a thin head
that becomes a lacing on the glass. The golden hues of the beer make it appear
very refreshing and go to show how simple the original recipe for this beer
was.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Aroma is very crsip,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the first thing that hits you is sour and funk balanced on the side of
lactic acid. There is a little bit of barnyard but it is very subtle and helps
to support a roundness in the aroma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is a hint of lemon or of lemon grass at the finish of the beer. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Flavor: The beer is sour. The first thing that hits you is a
lemon like sourness, the middle is bright and warming, with a sour puckering
finish. There are not a lot of individual flavors throughout but the sourness
really makes the beer refreshing.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Mouthfeel: The beer is very crisp, medium in body. The sour
really cleans the palate.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Overall: The beer is a great example of what a sour beer
should be. The beer is tart without being harsh or vinegar like. The sourness
is very bright and plays well with how light the beer is in color. A perfect
display of sourness in a beer.</div>
Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-5397503339831731512013-04-20T06:55:00.003-07:002013-04-20T06:57:08.149-07:00Spring Time in the Rockies!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujc0zr8y5GQgJkJkOGFwCVta6vDnn8MiBc7dGfnXrkEZiseUPE4F0dh4HfBbCGkqsGNvyskpzgfA9lrJCOe14nBYI6muSHD3aY7aIsxTWZdn6u_rjlTqsDo79rGQ7BJCujf5EMahNmC4/s1600/IMG_3115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujc0zr8y5GQgJkJkOGFwCVta6vDnn8MiBc7dGfnXrkEZiseUPE4F0dh4HfBbCGkqsGNvyskpzgfA9lrJCOe14nBYI6muSHD3aY7aIsxTWZdn6u_rjlTqsDo79rGQ7BJCujf5EMahNmC4/s320/IMG_3115.JPG" width="320" /></a>Last weekend the crew of Wild Brewing got together and with
the help of some friends and family bottled the remaining 3 barrels of sour
beer. It took almost an entire afternoon but by the end of the day we had a
pile of freshly labeled sour beer. In case anyone is curious about how we
bottled our sour beer I have included the directions at the bottom.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMuU58othqZ3H9Sfzi0iM0rGIKkdNv3SJ2BkH86NDCMhZfcAGAkiuWntIrBcNfyirQGY0GAiuL6wz8F7nh_JPbzn5iylUcBc1AJ2aTL5A6w3IOVgfOJ-rumVFKJUEs4jZQpP4nymwdewE/s1600/IMG_3118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMuU58othqZ3H9Sfzi0iM0rGIKkdNv3SJ2BkH86NDCMhZfcAGAkiuWntIrBcNfyirQGY0GAiuL6wz8F7nh_JPbzn5iylUcBc1AJ2aTL5A6w3IOVgfOJ-rumVFKJUEs4jZQpP4nymwdewE/s320/IMG_3118.JPG" width="320" /></a>The three beers that we bottled were a Flanders Red,
Flanders Sour Pale, and a Cherry Saison. Early on I noticed that the Saison had
some kind of bacterial growth in the barrel and based on how ropey the growth
was I guessed that it was pediococcus. I had read somewhere that Brett can
break down some of the proteins that are produced by pedio. I inoculated the
barrel with several strains of Brett and within 2 months the ropey layer on the
top of the beer had disappeared. What could have been a very unpleasant barrel
of beer turned into a very tasty sour.I will post reviews of how the beers taste as they finish
their bottle conditioning period.</div>
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Bottling Sour Beer:</div>
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I have now used this method for 5 batches of beer and it has
worked out very well each time. I would like to note that the beer that I use
this for is almost completely flat and has no fermentable sugars left. I use
freshly cultured champagne yeast because it is both acid and alcohol tolerant.
It may produce a tiny amount of fruity aroma but I have not noticed it in the
bottles. For 5 gallons I dissolve 3.5 ounces of table sugar in 1 cup of water
and bring it to a boil. I then add the sugar water to the bottling bucket along
with about 5 milliliters of Champagne yeast slurry (the slurry is fairly
liquid). After a quick and gentle stir it is ready to bottle!</div>
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<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-18005979534862238522013-04-07T10:56:00.001-07:002013-04-07T11:25:55.560-07:00Home Brew Competition <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My local home brew store recently had a homebrewing competition. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that two of my entries had placed. The first, a <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/01/flanders-red.html">Flanders Red</a> that I brewed well over a year ago came in 3rd with a final score of 40 (Excellent). The other beer, a <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2013/01/farmhousesaison.html">Farmhouse Ale</a>, placed second with a score of 39. Both of the beers moved onto the mini best of show.<br />
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I thought I would share the judges comments so that if anyone wanted to brew either of these beers they would know what a judge thinks of them. The recipes for both can be found using the above links.<br />
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<b>Flanders Red:</b><br />
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Aroma: "Great Nose" "Tart Fruit, Berries, Currant"<br />
<br />
Appearance: "Copper-red, Clear, poor head retention. Bubbly" "Nice color a little light"<br />
<br />
Flavor: "Nice Tartness. Not Overwhelming - or underwhelming" "Tart balanced, fruity overtones - well balanced. Tart Aftertaste. Food phenolic balance"<br />
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Mouthfeel: "Medium body, moderate carbonation, tart." "Nice and Dry. Good carb level."<br />
<br />
Overall Impression: "I enjoyed this beer!" "Very nice beer! Well balanced, tart, and refreshing with good complexity."<br />
<br />
<b>Farmhouse Ale:</b><br />
<br />
Aroma: "Pleasantly sweet, wheat malt dominates, a subtle tartness of hay is perceived, a light fruit (pear) is noticed, something almost spicy as it warms." "4-ethyl phenol is good, nice spicy character, sweet smell."<br />
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Appearance: "Pale straw, hazy and had mild head that faded quickly" "Hazy, golden in color, minimal carbonation"<br />
<br />
Flavor: "Wheat malt balanced with refreshing carboxylic sting, hops have a balancing and excellent bittering effect, finishes pleasantly dry with a little hint of phenolic (pepper and clove)." "Nice barnyard flavor, good grainy taste with a little citrus pop in it as it warms also pepper flavors."<br />
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Mouthfeel: "Medium body )appears very light because of high carbonation) no warmth, no astringency" "Nice body, needs more carbonation"<br />
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Overall Impression: "A very pleasant wheat based beer, It had all the right characteristics of saison. I do not perceive individual accessory spices but I can taste something different. Try colder bottling procedures and keep transfers as cold as possible." "Really enjoy this beer, really good for the style, love the spicy character in this but feel it could use more carbonation"<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-39002336538094784392013-03-23T11:13:00.000-07:002013-03-23T11:13:37.159-07:00BelgiumI just got back from an awesome beer tour of Belgium. I though I would share a little bit about what I learned and saw there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxB-FLsxlee1t0h-ydXYx4BmCc4aALII8a3dEU1jU78eeB9pwJgqm30VADkzP4na-VwFnqvkRKWTYxU5ZKg5zMzBWdoMhRG8fIazLIYFg4l2lpZ1ZWiaRzNkLdqH3jBPeioQz128kIeKA/s1600/Abbaye+de+Maredsous+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxB-FLsxlee1t0h-ydXYx4BmCc4aALII8a3dEU1jU78eeB9pwJgqm30VADkzP4na-VwFnqvkRKWTYxU5ZKg5zMzBWdoMhRG8fIazLIYFg4l2lpZ1ZWiaRzNkLdqH3jBPeioQz128kIeKA/s200/Abbaye+de+Maredsous+2.JPG" width="200" /></a>First, it was great to be somewhere where great craft beer was available at every restaurant. Colorado certainly has it fair share of eating establishments that have craft beer on tap or a couple in the bottle, but nothing like Belgium. Every place that we ate had several beers on tap and a bottle list so that you could pair whatever you were eating with a great beer to have along the side.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRVGyfeGnSkx80SYPnd129eAcl05qcKKrGyiA10mAIx0xrP2Rtrh27b6mEaksEzQfPqf_W2HqVXTB8v-7O3hZTB75_PF45AZ_SO8HPOnRThtapY26QlL4-eIDuqxesbqnE4dtzIqfg7c/s1600/Cantillon+Brewery+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRVGyfeGnSkx80SYPnd129eAcl05qcKKrGyiA10mAIx0xrP2Rtrh27b6mEaksEzQfPqf_W2HqVXTB8v-7O3hZTB75_PF45AZ_SO8HPOnRThtapY26QlL4-eIDuqxesbqnE4dtzIqfg7c/s200/Cantillon+Brewery+2.JPG" width="200" /></a>Second, I was able to visit some awesome breweries, such as Cantillon. Cantillon is one of the last producers in Belgium of authentic lambic and is the last brewery left in Brussels. On a self guided tour you got to see their old brewing equipment and barrel after barrel full of lambic. What I enjoyed that most was seeing the coolship and the roof that it was under. The slits in the tiles allowed for amble air circulation and I could just imagine the wild yeast populating the cooling wort.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTO6V1qXwKWguPCMYjJ4D6P2_jG1MrPRY1viAdcAbXejn5chKtiZD23p0huwuGWkCZ3O_RsHFofVq7gFl1DO7xPcn2vW7ghFbQxE5GUV4yushCKOUdyn2TN7PGozj2RJABU5deW2wPkQs/s1600/Cantillon+Brewery+15.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTO6V1qXwKWguPCMYjJ4D6P2_jG1MrPRY1viAdcAbXejn5chKtiZD23p0huwuGWkCZ3O_RsHFofVq7gFl1DO7xPcn2vW7ghFbQxE5GUV4yushCKOUdyn2TN7PGozj2RJABU5deW2wPkQs/s200/Cantillon+Brewery+15.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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Third, I made sure to hit up as many of the Trappist breweries as I could. This included Rochefort and Chimay who make some of my favorite beers. The trip also included a stop at Maredsous where cheese, beer wurst, fresh bread, and beer were available... all of which were delicious.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2tyR3FTkJx1rt9PLl2M2WPk_SfPncKr4FylcQnUjoal7Gu6pgqKbiTYl0fs5ZHCenseymqwtExKimrIZUtOgceACFJ7OFE9TJNqdQGuYwAur86vU5RfRCI7rkesnioh_SltpEUN8-L0/s1600/Cantillon+Brewery+30.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2tyR3FTkJx1rt9PLl2M2WPk_SfPncKr4FylcQnUjoal7Gu6pgqKbiTYl0fs5ZHCenseymqwtExKimrIZUtOgceACFJ7OFE9TJNqdQGuYwAur86vU5RfRCI7rkesnioh_SltpEUN8-L0/s200/Cantillon+Brewery+30.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally, to ensure that I would remember my trip I stuffed a suit case to the brim with beer to take home! <br />
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<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-461232093488565182013-02-23T20:07:00.001-08:002013-02-23T20:07:46.716-08:00Rocky Mountain Microbrew Symposium 2012Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend for the 3rd year in a row the Rocky Mountain Microbrewing Symposium (RMMS). This is event gives brewers the opportunity to hear talks from experts in the brewing industry and share knowledge between scientists who are doing brewing research and the people who are actually making the beer.<br />
<br />
This year talks were given on brewing weiss beer, yeast flavors, marketing, distribution, gluten free brewing grains, and creating Lager beers. I thought I would go ahead and share some of my notes with anyone that is curious.<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxfjBOunJ18Z8t_82OVZKg9VGwMXpCOPi2r4fzckkpfLBZfqocAiFNfFxVX65NJtnqPw3hGI932Rsldcz_EFrR790iUg5BVUFM2uCGJiasMOgM5ie9PGaWahI58kPSnjNyWWz9pw9GwA/s1600/IMG_2615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoxfjBOunJ18Z8t_82OVZKg9VGwMXpCOPi2r4fzckkpfLBZfqocAiFNfFxVX65NJtnqPw3hGI932Rsldcz_EFrR790iUg5BVUFM2uCGJiasMOgM5ie9PGaWahI58kPSnjNyWWz9pw9GwA/s320/IMG_2615.JPG" width="320" /></a> The first talk was by Dr. Chris White (White Labs). For someone who
already knows a lot about yeast it was a little dull. The big highlight
was a focus on Acetyl-aldehyde. White showed a chart that outlined the
amount of this nasty compound produced at different temperatures. I was
pretty shocked to see that at 65 F only 8ppm are produced but that at 75
F 153 ppm are produced! Another good reason to control your
fermentation temps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHm78IVodUbEq-LQB3k0Jud1EVEasNVBF4mC57_klBZRRlZOjJ7c2RqmgU-it-32yXZP6OkUu6ZeYHwCBrV43V4Y_yCoMCHw1o9mqDsjUibfHYRtmIDdXhCzz2yF2ayh5eoiFHU9IMFb4/s1600/IMG_2616.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHm78IVodUbEq-LQB3k0Jud1EVEasNVBF4mC57_klBZRRlZOjJ7c2RqmgU-it-32yXZP6OkUu6ZeYHwCBrV43V4Y_yCoMCHw1o9mqDsjUibfHYRtmIDdXhCzz2yF2ayh5eoiFHU9IMFb4/s320/IMG_2616.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
The second talk was by Bill Eye of <a href="http://www.prostbrewing.com/">Prost Brewing</a>. Bill knows a ton about brewing beer and in particular about making great wheat beer (he won a gold medal at GABF while at Dry Dock for this category). Bill outlined two separate directions to go when brewing a wheat beer, phenolic or banana. Here are his suggestions for creating a beer that is focused on one or the other.<br />
<u>Phenolic</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Use well modified malt</li>
<li>Stick with 50% wheat malt</li>
<li>Do a ferulic acid rest at 111 to create more of the phenolic precursors</li>
<li>Boil the beer longer (120 min-150 min)</li>
<li>Use Eric's Rule (The knockout temp in Celsius + the fermentation temp should equal 30 C)</li>
<ul>
<li>Bill suggested knockout at 12 C and fermentation at 18C</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Pitch a healthy amount of yeast into a fully oxygenated wort</li>
</ul>
<u>Ester (Banana) </u><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0k5pjx92wgZKdBrpzZaA_AOaZjDxp-xxtzHF2s-PcXpf-X2yO1PEowhfaiAGc_CaZjF5PJI408AIbSVxetGYn9IXJod-yEzEOX2Hh5S6uq_jCdQPphWuKEjJ3ozNfuHl3ehCFpYny9g/s1600/IMG_2619.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0k5pjx92wgZKdBrpzZaA_AOaZjDxp-xxtzHF2s-PcXpf-X2yO1PEowhfaiAGc_CaZjF5PJI408AIbSVxetGYn9IXJod-yEzEOX2Hh5S6uq_jCdQPphWuKEjJ3ozNfuHl3ehCFpYny9g/s320/IMG_2619.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Malted Buckwheat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>Use undermodified malt</li>
<li>Use 60 % or more wheat malt</li>
<li>Mash with a single infusion to create a highly fermentable wort (150 F)</li>
<li>Do not fully oxygenate the wort, do about half the usual amount</li>
<li>Ferment at 68 F or higher</li>
<li>Underpitch (Bills uses 2 million cells/mL)!!!</li>
<li>Add zinc which helps boost the amount of isoamylacetate</li>
</ul>
The final talk I thought people might find interesting was one on Gluten Free Malts produced by <a href="http://coloradomaltingcompany.com/">Colorado Malting Company</a>. The grains that they malt include buckwheat, millet, quinoa, Amaranth, Coix Seed, Sorghum, and Teff. All the malts are low in diastic power but can still be used to brew beer when amylase is added. I took some sample bags home to play around with and will be ordering some of the grain in bulk from them to play around with.<br />
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Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-49377754163781819622013-01-27T15:13:00.000-08:002013-01-27T17:40:10.563-08:00Farmhouse/SaisonAs I mentioned in my post about Essens Wheat I brewed 5 different beers for Christmas. For the 4th and 5th beers I wanted to play around with yeast a bit more. I had two strains that I wanted to compare, the Dupont Saison strain (White Labs 565) and a strain from the Brewing Science Institute labeled "S-26 Farmhouse Ale".<br />
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The plan was to brew one 5 gallon batch of beers and split it into two equal parts. I could then add 565 to one carboy and S-26 to the second. The recipe was very basic...<br />
<br />
11 # Malted 2-Row (Rahr)<br />
1 # Malted White Wheat<br />
1/2 # Unmalted Wheat<br />
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Mashed at 148 F for 1 hour at a grist to water ratio of 1/3 (pounds)<br />
Sparged with 3.5 gallons of water at 178 F.<br />
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First runnings 1.082<br />
Second runnings 1.038<br />
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Hops<br />
60 minutes 3/4 oz Challenger 8.8%<br />
25 minutes 1 oz German Hallertau 3.3% (2011 crop)<br />
5 minutes 1/2 oz Hallertau 5.5% (2012 crop)<br />
<br />
Original Gravity was 1.055 (14 Plato)<br />
Oxygenated with aeration stone<br />
<br />
12/6 Brewer <br />
12/12 Moved to Seconday (Both beers at 1.010 (2.5 plato))<br />
12/16 Bottled S-26 portion (1.010) with 40 grams sugar. Moved 565 to keg to force carbonate (gravity still falling and now at 1.008) <br />
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As you can see the 565 portion finished a little drier than the farmhouse portion. Now onto a tasting of the two.<br />
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1/27 Farmhouse S-26<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2-iPBRql1yBzpdbzl5khYapIhMpuGUazHXIcAmAGbj4Q4reWZA2GgoBGUEBBZ4aYIrN-k5ZpEKPFGVZVlQFTZFUJrOR_wOhh6q1Fu41sBA07mYMNY_6n1S1PMxXYYumJpGapmjZxCUc/s1600/IMG_2507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ2-iPBRql1yBzpdbzl5khYapIhMpuGUazHXIcAmAGbj4Q4reWZA2GgoBGUEBBZ4aYIrN-k5ZpEKPFGVZVlQFTZFUJrOR_wOhh6q1Fu41sBA07mYMNY_6n1S1PMxXYYumJpGapmjZxCUc/s320/IMG_2507.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Appearance: The beer is very hazy. A lot of yeast is in suspension along with some haze from the unmalted wheat. The beer is impossible to see through despite being very light in color. A wonderful head sits atop the beer for the entire tasting and just refuses to go anywhere.<br />
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Aroma: The aroma is a mixture of so many different flavors. There is banana, strawberry, bubble gum, some clove, wheat, yeast, bread, and ripe fruit. Very pleasant.<br />
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Taste: The beer starts of sweet, like a wheat beer. The finish is dry but not bitter. The beer tastes mostly of bread and yeast.<br />
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Mouthfeel: Medium, and medium in body. Not cloying or silky. Fairly typical.<br />
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Overall: I am very pleased with how this beer turned out. The aroma is just wonderful and makes for a very pleasant drinking experience. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiguVO3Lsev3OKtZRdJt1MkJQsLd0Krop-dgMUKen-WvWxf8RHMSoy-5wTTHUfUYTHc2phjbQEr8SrPjmWUt45fARL__x97grZY2GznvwoRXTS5ui19yhBv3Qc51LaQxVKa_qeo4Lh8Kk/s1600/IMG_2509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiguVO3Lsev3OKtZRdJt1MkJQsLd0Krop-dgMUKen-WvWxf8RHMSoy-5wTTHUfUYTHc2phjbQEr8SrPjmWUt45fARL__x97grZY2GznvwoRXTS5ui19yhBv3Qc51LaQxVKa_qeo4Lh8Kk/s320/IMG_2509.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
1/27 Saison<br />
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Appearance: At first glance the Saison is not near as hazy as the farmhouse ale. The head retention is also not as strong. It does form lace around the glass which the farmhouse did not.<br />
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Aroma: The aroma is very different. There is still some bread but the beer is more spicy. Some fruit aromas are present but they are subdued.<br />
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Taste: The beer is fairly similar. Sweet to start but with a more bitter finish. The spice of the hops come through better in this version.<br />
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Mouthfeel: A little more crisp and refreshing than the farmhouse, maybe due to a lower terminal gravity.<br />
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Overall: This is certainly a saison. It is crisp, refreshing, and the hops come through. Still a very tasty beer.<br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-61350822471358134322013-01-06T12:03:00.000-08:002013-01-06T12:15:15.524-08:00Blending<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTfQCqzqhGyzGcCmi_odrrOmFRjRszBuy_3OA6v77aV1GG-qPdshQgR7FBUJzqhwunE_Y296U6MzBa5T_b17TQYospQPvtIKmQlXq_ar4GE2LEqjq1pfuesThlN5enzy3D85F907l2qaQ/s1600/IMG_2495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTfQCqzqhGyzGcCmi_odrrOmFRjRszBuy_3OA6v77aV1GG-qPdshQgR7FBUJzqhwunE_Y296U6MzBa5T_b17TQYospQPvtIKmQlXq_ar4GE2LEqjq1pfuesThlN5enzy3D85F907l2qaQ/s320/IMG_2495.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flanders Red</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I recently attempted my first beer blending. About two years ago New Belgium released a beer called <a href="http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/detail.aspx?id=2776aec8-790e-4f38-a53e-8a42d914ab81">Clutch</a>. It was an awesome combination of sour and stout. It was a tasty combination of chocolate, coffee, and something lying just at the edge of sour. I decided to save a gallon of my <a href="http://microbebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/09/flanders-ale-tasting.html">Flanders Red</a> to try to recreate this beer.<br />
I had two hurdles to overcome 1) create a base beer that would include the flavors that would transform the Flanders Red into Clutch without conflicting with it and 2) find a way to keep the bugs in the Flanders Red from turning the stout part of the blend into a bomb as they slowly ate all the sugars that the primary stout yeast left behind.<br />
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I decided to use a tame stout recipe to create the base beer using a yeast strain (scottish ale) that would create few esters and leave the beer malty. Here is the recipe I used...<br />
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<br />
<br />
4.5 gallons<br />
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OG 1.075 <br />
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72.5% Belgian Pilsner<br />
10 % Cara Vienna<br />
10% Cara Munich<br />
2 % Caramel 80 L<br />
5 % Chocolate Malt<br />
<br />Mashed at 155 F<br />
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Bittered to 50 IBU with 60 minute boil of zeus hops.<br />
<br />
Used 1056 yeast<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-De0ocV6WuE2aflReMdUC5c2GYO67FeuiMlsNaLFJydwTqoFpfnZRqALAIXuUw_5GjIQb50hh2nT4veZ21pcTyQijrfX549OaH7BC-MrQs7IKCmOCkvgpmid7fLfhMFc1CrFr24s4bzI/s1600/IMG_2496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-De0ocV6WuE2aflReMdUC5c2GYO67FeuiMlsNaLFJydwTqoFpfnZRqALAIXuUw_5GjIQb50hh2nT4veZ21pcTyQijrfX549OaH7BC-MrQs7IKCmOCkvgpmid7fLfhMFc1CrFr24s4bzI/s320/IMG_2496.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flanders Red in pot with blanket of CO2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I then took the gallon of flanders red that I had and purged a 1.5 gallon pot with CO2. I added the flanders red to the pot and then added more CO2 over the top. I heated it to 170 F for 30 minutes to try to kill all the bacteria in the beer.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4Td1sudRGLJHzyjq3hGVspm2Szko7NwRyVOdiN4gwriEqFvvg1BlkLA1nyLvCvSMc0yXAnMpTFN16RS34_sWVECp9nBKulP2zv4dWaZlKFr1LTlqvxgMVJAEfpg77tTEHgFbzy4DVEw/s1600/IMG_2498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4Td1sudRGLJHzyjq3hGVspm2Szko7NwRyVOdiN4gwriEqFvvg1BlkLA1nyLvCvSMc0yXAnMpTFN16RS34_sWVECp9nBKulP2zv4dWaZlKFr1LTlqvxgMVJAEfpg77tTEHgFbzy4DVEw/s320/IMG_2498.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A weird foam formed over the beer as I heated it</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
After the brown ale finished I added the two beers together and bottled them.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tasting:<br />
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Beer pours a very hazy brown color with amber highlights. A strong fluffy head sits atop the beer for the entire tasting session, never falling back into the glass.<br />
<br />
The aroma is a mix of the fruit, funk, and sour of the Flanders Red with a little bit of roast from the Stout half. No notes of chocolate of coffee as I anticipated.<br />
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The beer is sweet, malty, and sour in the finish. I can pick out some chocolate and roast at the end but the sour kind of overtakes them.<br />
<br />
The mouthfeel is wonderfully full and very creamy.<br />
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Overall the beer is a curious creation. It is certainly tasty but it was not what I was going for. The sour seems a little over the top and I am suprised that at 20% it is able to dominate the finish.<br />
<br />
Note: I have had a couple of bottles since the original tasting and they are continuing to develop more sourness, so I am not sure I held the beer at a high enough temp for long enough to kill all of the bugs. That being said the malt and sweetness is still present so at least the desired affect has been achieved. I have moved all the bottles to the fridge to prevent much further change in the beer. Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-24964956728227461012012-11-25T11:34:00.001-08:002012-11-25T11:34:29.642-08:00Barley Wine 2012One of my favorite styles of beer is Barley Wine. When the weather starts to get cold outside and the snow starts to fall what could be better than a beer full of malt, balanced with hops, and with a touch of warming alcohol. A beer that you can sip on for hours and explore the complexity of its malts, the depth of the hops, and the subtly of the yeast flavors from a long fermentation. As the beer warms through the course of the session the flavor and depth will rise from the glass.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNJi90y6FNGCOPL8way7MxepymhlwJ-bkX_qWt2sJnfrveC_cQblzHLFKuSSHxfGWzy-9fvFQMcdVdT4JLXb52rafMAloC68OpzuSsyQnabDGymRYZvqEeTDTYnW6bwQsziGBjR86e3Q/s1600/IMG_2487.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVNJi90y6FNGCOPL8way7MxepymhlwJ-bkX_qWt2sJnfrveC_cQblzHLFKuSSHxfGWzy-9fvFQMcdVdT4JLXb52rafMAloC68OpzuSsyQnabDGymRYZvqEeTDTYnW6bwQsziGBjR86e3Q/s320/IMG_2487.JPG" width="320" /></a>When I first started brewing one of my goals was to brew a barley wine each year, some for drinking that year and some for aging for latter. So far I have brewed a barley wine each year but nothing else has gone according to plan. The first year I brewed a huge beer that was all extract, with an original gravity of 1.092. It was the 5th beer I had ever made and I went big. I added candi sugar, orange peel, and ground corriander. The beer finished at 1.025 and despite 60 IBUs was unbearably sweet and just really a mess. I was only able to drink a few of them and the rest slowly made its way down the sink. So ended my Barley Wine 2010.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgL_5pwKznoV048mOgNmqUXKu_ZaQgb8VuudTKezICejxXuY9jDTuFNCGH4DuGqwdplOKoPUJJzdFiRAvy_QbcwA_vHPY5fPEiS2fDlIB2dTvEGSvUWMjcYZIXB1TY_IxqT3pPqzEeLp8/s1600/IMG_2488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgL_5pwKznoV048mOgNmqUXKu_ZaQgb8VuudTKezICejxXuY9jDTuFNCGH4DuGqwdplOKoPUJJzdFiRAvy_QbcwA_vHPY5fPEiS2fDlIB2dTvEGSvUWMjcYZIXB1TY_IxqT3pPqzEeLp8/s320/IMG_2488.JPG" width="320" /></a>The next year I was more prepared. I had already brewed several all grain beers and had purchased a book on the style. I planned another huge beer with 15 pounds of grain and 85 IBUs. Despite terrible efficency (original gravity 1.080) the beer turned out awesome. I dry hopped it in a keg for two weeks (which I had just gotten) and got ready to bottle it. I did not know that I needed to vent the keg or that the beer had dropped in gravity. When I went to open the keg the beer exploded out of the keg and shot hops everywhere, by the time the beer stopped flowing out of the keg there was only 3 gallons of the original 5 left. To make matters worse the beer dropped in gravity even more in the bottle and all the bottles were overcarbonated- so I spent a night slowly bleeding of the carbonation from all the bottles. Despite all these problems the beer was truly delicious with a huge malt body and a very nice hop finish. The beer never made it past 2 months though because I quickly drank it down.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPCGvH1RiFVsAH2ZQ9xt7otxk7zHYfTgHKrFGGCzWw8HuZ0zwzqQ9K-bYoOdD_FPQq3DZ8bYnWJqu-vwj5VB_DLd11_VMVqTJ_owWc4Vk10cN2cKq0a9RnUIG8XFSvi6qai965WxxeGk/s1600/IMG_2494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPCGvH1RiFVsAH2ZQ9xt7otxk7zHYfTgHKrFGGCzWw8HuZ0zwzqQ9K-bYoOdD_FPQq3DZ8bYnWJqu-vwj5VB_DLd11_VMVqTJ_owWc4Vk10cN2cKq0a9RnUIG8XFSvi6qai965WxxeGk/s320/IMG_2494.JPG" width="320" /></a>This year I plan to learn from my mistakes, I will be patient and let the beer finish all the way before I bottle it, I will vent a keg before I open it, and I will remake that beer from last year because it was damn tasty!<br />
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Here is the recipe that I am following for my 2012 Barley Wine.<br />
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13 pounds of Rahr- 2 row malt<br />
1 pound of Caramel 90 L<br />
1/2 pound of Caramel 120 L<br />
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1/2 pound of Special "B"<br />
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Mashed for 1 hour at 149 F<br />
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Boiled 3.5 hours<br />
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Hops:<br />
90 Minutes 2 oz Challenger 8.8 %<br />
25 Minutes 0.5 oz Cascade 6.6 %<br />
15 Minutes 1 oz Cascade 6.6 %<br />
5 Minutes 1 oz Cascade 6.6 %<br />
Dry Hopped 2 oz Cascade 6.6 %<br />
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Added a yeast cake of 1056 and fermented at 65 F<br />
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10/6 Final Gravity 1.009<br />
ABV ~10.5% <br />
Bottled 3.5 gallons with 65 grams table sugar.<br />
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11/25<br />
Beer pours a cloudy amber brown color with wonderful red highlights. A rocky head of tan foam sits above the beer constantly being replenished from the nucleation site on the bottom of my snifter.<br />
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The aroma is dominated by the cascade hops, pine, some grapefruit notes.<br />
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Flavor is at first semi-sweet with a mix of malt, toffee, caramel. Then comes some raisin and dark sugar/rum, finished with a refreshing bitterness that cleans the pallate for the next sip.<br />
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The body is full and big.<br />
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Overall this beer turned out wonderful. It is still pretty green and will certainly develop well with age. <br />
<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-8371758112029565622012-11-15T19:25:00.001-08:002012-11-15T19:25:52.412-08:00Labels for WIld BrewingMore exciting news!!!<br />
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This is what our labels are going to look like on our Wild Brewing Beers!<br />
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Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5758701368147000770.post-87617988393739087362012-11-12T18:14:00.000-08:002012-11-12T18:14:07.259-08:00Wild Brewing UpdateHello Everyone!<br />
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I have some exciting news. Our Oud Bruin is moving along nicely and will be ready to bottle any day now. The other three beers are not far behind and come February-March we will be planning our tasting events.<br />
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We also just updated our logo so that it would fit better on pint glasses and bottle openers for all of our awesome sponsors. Here is what it looks like!<br />
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<br />Microbe Brewerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09517250336279553180noreply@blogger.com0