Yearly Archives: 2014

Growing hops at home

Leave a reply

I (pre-)ordered some hop rhizomes earlier this spring (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus and Nugget), and on Tuesday a package arrived at my door. I planted some Cascade and Chinook over at our summer cottage two years ago, but they haven’t really done that well. The Chinook grew extremely well the first summer and even gave quite a large first-year harvest, but it unfortunately died during the first cold winter. The Cascade has grown poorly both years, and hasn’t given many cones either year. I decided to start fresh this year, and will also plant them in our garden at home instead (so I can monitor them more easily). Like last time, I started by planting the rhizomes in pots and keeping them indoors (I know it is not optimal to place the rhizomes this close together, but they will be moved before they are allowed to tangle together). As soon as the weather gets a little warmer (probably in a month), I will move them outside and give them more space. The rhizomes all seemed to be in good condition when they arrived, so am hopeful that at least something will grow.
rhizomes_package
planting
planted

Updated look

Leave a reply

I thought I’d update the visual look of the blog slightly. Some things might look a bit strange the upcoming days, but will try to tweak everything as soon as possible!

Trip to Paris

Leave a reply

Last week I was on a short visit to Paris, and while there I checked out some of the local beer shops and pubs. I ended up buying a total of 14 bottles home (one I actually had at the hotel). Here are some short comments about the places I visited.

beer

La Cave à Bulles

A fantastic bottle shop, featuring loads of French craft beer. The owner was really friendly and talkative. The focus was mainly on French beer (the prices varied from around 3.5€ to 7€ depending on bottle size and type), but there were some imports as well (e.g. Cantillon, Jester King, Hoppin Frog, Port Brewing, BrewDog, Mikkeller, Nogne O, and Dieu du Ciel). I bought 7 different French IPAs, which should be really interesting to try out (I’ve actually already had one bottle, which was okay). The imports were a lot more expensive, and only ended up buying a bottle of Dieu du Ciel’s Aphrodisiaque. I don’t have any pictures from inside unfortunately, but I definitely recommend a visit! They seemed to have quite a nice line-up of Cantillon, 3 Fonteinen, and other lambic, but since those aren’t really my cup of tea I didn’t buy anything.

la_cave_a_bulles_map

Homepage – RateBeer link – Google Maps link

 

Bières Cultes

Another bottle shop I visited briefly, since it is quite close to La Cave à Bulles. The shop was a little smaller, which also meant that the selection was a little smaller. The selection consisted mostly of Belgian beer, and since most of those are quite easily accessible for me, I choose not to buy much from here. They had some imports as well (e.g. Kernel, Brewfist, Brewdog, Nogne O, Fano and Rogue), and I decided to buy a bottle of Kernel’s Export India Porter and Brewfist’s 2Late. The prices seemed to be slightly lower than at La Cave à Bulles, so that is nice. As mentioned earlier, it is very close to La Cave à Bulles, so why not pay a visit if you are in the area? There are apparently other Bières Cultes shops around town as well.

bieres_cultes_map

Homepage – RateBeer link – Google Maps link

 

La Moustache Blanche

This was the last of the three bottle shops I visited. The shop was of similar size to Bières Cultes, and featured a nice mix of French craft beer and imports (e.g. Kernel, Mikkeller, To Ol, Green Flash, Nogne O, Amager, and Struise). Since I had already bought quite a lot of bottles, I didn’t buy much here. The prices were quite similar to the other shops. The imports were priced similarly to Bières Cultes (i.e. slightly cheaper than La Cave à Bulles). The owner was friendly and talkative. I definitely recommend a visit to this shop as well!

la_moustache_map

Homepage – RateBeer link – Google Maps link

 

Express de Lyon

A pub/restaurant located right next to the Gare de Lyon station. I came here only to try a few beers, but ended up having a cheeseburger as well (which was good, but not great). They didn’t have a large selection (around 15 taps and a similar amount of bottles), but there was good variety and some nice craft beer to choose from. Beers were mostly European, but there was some American beer as well. I had a Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (which was tasting slightly unclean unfortunately) and a De Molen Amarillo (amazingly fruity and really nice) from tap. The beers and a Cheeseburger was around 20€, so quite nice prices as well (oh, and it was cheaper to drink at the bar than at a table). The place was quite filled up around lunch hours (most people were not there to drink beer it seemed like), but the place started emptying up while I was there from around 1 to 3 pm. They had Struise Black Albert on tap as well, but was not really in the mood for a strong Imperial Stout at the time. Overall a really nice place and I recommend paying a visit (+ they had free wireless).

rogue_yellow_snow

Rogue Yellow Snow IPA

de_molen_amarillo

De Molen Amarillo

express_de_lyon_map

Homepage – RateBeer link – Google Maps link

 

La Fine Mousse

The final place I visited was a bar specialized in craft beer. I came here a couple of minutes after they opened and there were already a couple of people inside drinking beer (blend of tourists and hipsters). The place had a clean and modern, almost industrial, style look. Behind the bar was a row of 20 unlabeled tap handles and above them on the wall was a chalkboard with a list of what was on tap. The tap beers were mostly French, with a couple of Belgians, Brooklyn Sorachi Ace and Nogne O #100. They also had a large bottle selection (around 150 bottles I think), but I didn’t try any. The owner (at least I think it was him behind the bar when I came in) was friendly and recommended me a couple of beers when I asked for something hoppy. I ended up trying four beers in total, 2 being great, one was good, while I think the final was infected. Etoile du Nord was the first I tried (sold as an English IPA, but apparently more of a Saison), but it wasn’t very IPA-ish and tasted like plastic. I think this might have been infected? I moved on to La Sylvie’cious, which was an okay IPA, featuring some floral hops and a slightly unclean flavour. Outland’s West Coast IPA was the best of the French beer, with nice hop tones of tropical fruit. I was surprised with the color though, and would classify it as an American Brown Ale rather. The final beer of the night was Nogne O’s #100, which was as fantastic as ever. Really delicious and complex flavours. Prices were quite fair, and I think I ended up paying around 22 euros for the 4 beers. The place was quite small, and it started to get a little crowded as the evening progressed, so I recommend you come there early. I definitely recommend a visit if you are after craft beer in Paris!

la_fine_mousse

etoile_du_nord

Brasserie Thiriez Etoile du Nord

sylviecious

Brasserie Le Paradis La Sylvie’cious

outland_west_coast_ipa

Brasserie Outland West Coast IPA

nogne_100

Nogne O #100

 

la_fine_mousse_map

Homepage – RateBeer link – Google Maps link

DIY Hop Spider – Keg version

4 Replies

We built our own ‘Hop Spider‘ out of stainless mesh last summer, and since it’s worked really well, we yesterday decided to build a new version, that would fit precisely into a Cornelius keg. The idea would be to be able to dry hop directly in the keg with pellet hops, or why not use it to contain oak cubes, coffee beans, cacao nibs, etc. We’ve previously used muslin bags for keg hopping, but they are a hassle to clean and sanitize. Also, they tend to let through some smaller particles. Hopefully this will work better. I’ve also recently made a keg-to-keg jumper, so that beer can be transferred anaerobically to another keg using CO2 (e.g. away from keg hops). I’ve tested it with the recent UJ IPA (which was tasting fantastic by the way), and it worked exactly as intended. Here are some pictures:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

 

Homebrew: Summer Blonde

Leave a reply

The Imperial Stout I brewed last week has been fermenting along nicely, and as the airlock activity started slowing down, I raised the fermentation temperature (from the initial 17C) to 20C. Big and complex stouts aren’t the ideal summer beers, so last Sunday I brewed up a batch of a really simple Blonde Ale. The malt bill consisted of Pilsner malt, Flaked Oats, CaraAmber and CaraPils. I slightly overshot the OG, and ended up with 38 liters of 1.055-gravity wort instead of 42 liters of 1.050-gravity wort. The beer is lightly hopped with Herkules and Cascade, with a calculated IBU around 24. This means the beer should appeal to pretty much everyone and be really easy to drink. I decided to ferment the beer with White Lab’s German Ale/Kölsch strain, which should lend some lager-like characteristics as well. The brewday went extremely smoothly for once, and even hit the assumed efficiency of 70%. This will be kegged and ‘lagered’ after a couple of weeks. Hopefully a really nice beer to drink on hot summer days.

[beerxml recipe=http://beer.suregork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/summer_blonde.xml metric=true cache=-1]

Homebrew: Big Black Stout

1 Reply

Next Sunday, I thought I’d attempt to brew up a really big and strong Imperial Stout, influenced by some of the great American representatives: Yeti, Parabola, Speedway Stout, Storm King, BCBS etc. I am aiming for an OG of around 1.124, and to get that high I think I’ll collect some extra runnings and boil 2-3 hours in several kettles, before combining the worts in one kettle and adding the hops. The malt bill will hopefully lend a thick body, with a ton of coffee and dark chocolate tones. I’m not expecting too much of the yeast (WLP007), and I think this will end up with a final gravity between 1.030 and 1.040, giving approximately 11 to 12% ABV. Hopping will be kept simple, with one bittering addition of Herkules and one flavour addition of Mittelfrüh. Aiming for around 70 IBU, to balance out the alcohol, roast and sweetness. When fermentation is finished I’ll bulk age it in a keg together with some oak cubes. Can’t wait!

[beerxml recipe=http://beer.suregork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/big_black_stout.xml metric=true cache=-1]

 

Homebrew: UJ IPA

Leave a reply

Today I brewed an IPA inspired by Can You Brew It’s Firestone Walker Union Jack episode, since it is one of my favorite commercial beers. The original beer features a really nice hoppy aroma and a perfectly balanced flavour. I am hoping to achieve something even remotely similar, and looking to have it ready for drinking in the beginning of May when the weather starts to get warmer. The malt bill featured a base of Pilsner and Munich malt, together with dashes of CaraPils and CaraAroma. The original gravity (consequently the ABV%) ended up slightly lower than the original/CYBI clone, but hopefully it shouldn’t affect the final product much. I used Herkules for bittering, since I have some 2012 harvest left in the freezer. The flavour and aroma hops were equal doses of Cascade and Centennial. The calculated IBUs clocked in at 75, so there should be plenty of bitterness to go with the hop flavours and malt tones. I’ve been having some problems getting WLP002 to ferment dry enough, so I thought I’d try WLP007 instead. The brewday went very smoothly for once and the post-boil wort tasted promising, so am really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out!

[beerxml recipe=http://beer.suregork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/uj_ipa.xml metric=true cache=-1]

Tasting Impressions: K04 Extra Special Bitter

Leave a reply

It was time to try a bottle of our recently bottled ESB. It was tasting quite nice during bottling already so am really looking forward to trying this one. The beer pours with a slightly hazy amber-orange color and a slight cream-colored head is formed. The foam head collapses quickly leaving some lacing along the glass. The aroma is a nice mixture between fruity esters, a nutty maltiness, some caramel, as well as some earthy and herbal hop tones. The aroma has a nice ‘British’ vibe, and suits the style well. Not really much to complain about. The aroma could perhaps featuring some more hoppiness for my taste. The flavor begins with lots of maltiness, and the tones you get are bready, nutty and caramelly. A slight fruitiness joins in (yeast derived, rather than hop derived) and it reminds me almost of apples and pears. The flavour finishes with an earthy and herbal hop bitterness and a semi-dry finish. There are some slight alcoholic and solvent-like notes in the background, but fortunately they stay quite well hidden. The relatively strong bitterness works well here, balancing out the slightly sweet maltiness. The beer has a medium-full body and medium carbonation level. Feels quite good in the mouth, but the bitterness and slight alcohol notes draw away from the drinkability. Overall a good beer, but it is far from perfect. I would maybe up the aroma hops slightly and use a different yeast strain.

k04_esb

 

Homebrew: Big Bad Barleywine

Leave a reply

On Sunday we will be attempting to brew this monster of a beer. We are looking to make a really full-bodied, malty, hoppy and bitter Barleywine, that hopefully will be perfect for aging a couple of years. We are aiming for an OG of 1.109, which will result in an ABV of 11-12% if the yeast manages to take it down to 1.020-1.030. We are looking for some resiny hop tones to go with the maltiness, and chose the hop varieties based on that. For the yeast, we chose White Labs WLP007 Dry English, since it produces a really nice flavor profile, flocculates well and should tolerate up to 12% ABV. I prepared a 3 liter starter earlier this week, as we will need lots of yeast for this monster. After fermentation we will age it in a keg together with some oak cubes. When it is finally time to bottle the beer, we will still add in some dry hops to give it a dose of hop aroma (which will most likely have been lost from the 6+ months in the keg). Hopefully everything goes smooth on the brewday.

[beerxml recipe=http://beer.suregork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/big_bad_bw.xml metric=true cache=-1]

 

Small homebrew update

Leave a reply

It’s been a while since the previous post (I apologize for that!), so I thought I’d write a short update. Next Sunday it’s time for another brewday, when we will be attempting to brew a massive 1.100+ gravity Barleywine. I’m going to write a proper post on that (containing the recipe as well) later this week. Last week we bottled our K04 ESB (it is tasting quite promising, with a nice herby hoppiness and bitterness coupled with caramelly notes; a proper review coming up) and kegged the Brygg Öl Pale Ale (which was also very promising with a massive hop aroma and flavor, coupled with a surprisingly bitter finish). Out of curiosity I took some samples of both to the lab and did some standard beer analysis on them. I won’t bore you with details, but one thing that caught my attention was the relatively high pH of  both beers (4.70 for the K04 ESB and 4.73 for the Brygg Öl PA). A high beer pH can cause several issues, including: a higher risk for infections; decreased flavor stability; a more muddled flavor (especially in highly hopped beers); and lower total diacetyl removal rate (especially relevant for lagers because of the lower fermentation tempeatures). Generally you want to aim for a beer pH between 4.1-4.5. Because of this, I think I’ll invest in a proper pH meter and start monitoring the mash and wort pH more carefully, which will hopefully result in improved beer quality!