Monthly Archives: April 2014

Homebrew: R&H Wedding Pale Ale

Today I brewed up a 40-liter batch of a relatively simple American Pale Ale. The beer will be served at my friends’ wedding in July, so I aimed for a beer that as many as possible would find enjoyable. This meant a relatively low bitterness, a moderately light body and alcohol content, and a nice hop nose. The malt bill consisted of only Pale Ale, Munich and Carapils malt. I hit a 73% efficiency, which meant that the OG was 1.053. Slightly higher than I had aimed for, but not a big problem. I mashed at 65C, which will hopefully produce quite a light body and dry finish, when fermented with WLP007. We bought a pH-meter recently (Milwaukee MW-102), and this was the first time I used it during a brewday. We have been plagued with some high beer pH values recently, and naturally one cause could be a high mash pH. This was the case, and I had to add a total of 12 g of 80% lactic acid to the mash in order to get the mash pH down to 5.35. The meter seems to have been a really good investment, and hopefully our beers will improve as a result. Post-boil pH was 5.26, which should drop to below 4.5 with a healthy fermentation. I hopped the beer with Chinook, Cascade and Centennial, with a hefty flame-out addition. IBUs should be around 30-35, depending on how much iso-alpha acids were extracted from the flame-out addition. I will dry hop with all three varieties once fermentation slows down. I pitched a 2-litre starter of WLP007, which should leave a dry finish, clear beer, and slight hints of fruit esters to complement the hops. I’m fermenting at 18.5C, for a slightly cleaner finish. I’m really looking forward to sampling this one in a couple of weeks!

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

 

Homebrew tasting

Last Saturday I attended a small homebrew tasting with a couple of friends, and we tasted through 12 different beers in total, ranging from light blonde ales to hoppy pale ales to imperial stouts to fruit-infused sour ales. It was a really interesting evening, and here are some quick tasting notes with accompanying pictures (beer are described below the pictures from left to right). I had a slightly runny nose during the evening, so my olfactory senses were not at their prime. Hence, the aroma descriptions will be quite limited.

1

Tresk Brewery – Hemera Blonde Ale

The first beer of the night was a Blonde Ale brewed by Marcus, apparently inspired by this recipe. The beer poured golden-yellow and slightly hazy. Almost no head was formed, but that was probably because of the pouring technique. The aroma was really light and bland, with just the slightest hints of malt and citrus. Despite what it sounds like, this was actually a very good thing, since it fits the style well and there were also no off-aromas present, which are typically very easy to spot in these light beers. The flavor followed a similar suit, with light notes of caramel and grain, and minimal hints of hops in the form of floral and citrus tones. The finish was quite dry and a relatively bitter finish. Again, very little fermentation byproducts that disturbed the flavor. Body was light and the carbonation level was moderate. This was very reminiscent to the light bulk lagers. Overall, not a beer that I found particularly enjoyable, but it was well made and would suit perfectly as a thirst-quencher for the summer.

Tresk Brewery – Summer Wit

The second beer of the night was a Witbier, that was also brewed by Marcus. He used flaked wheat, coriander, black pepper and orange peel in it, and fermented it with WB-06 dry yeast. This one poured with a very hazy straw-yellow color that is very typical for the style. Again no head was formed, but that will again be attributed to Marcus’ pouring technique. Citrus (particularly orange) and a peppery spiciness dominated the aroma, but in the background there was a (for me) disturbing tone of ‘breakfast sausage’ (the kind you put on bread). I think the coriander and black pepper are the reasons for that. I tried a bottle of this about a week earlier, and then it had quite obvious tones of diacetyl as well, but they had now faded away. The flavor offered some slightly tart and bready wheat tones together with the spices and citrus. The finish was quite sweet (but this was bottled around 10 days before tasting I think, so could probably be priming sugar) and had only a mild bitterness. The body was again light and the beer had a moderately light carbonation level. Overall a refreshing beer, that had some slightly disturbing ‘off-flavors’. Maybe slightly too much spices?

Ilkka’s Pihka II American Brown Ale

The third beer of the night was a hop-bursted American Brown Ale, that I received from my colleague Ilkka. The beer was brewed with Maris Otter, Brown, Crystal 60, Chocolate, and Black malt, and hopped with Simcoe and Chinook. It was fermented with Conan yeast that I had cultured up from a can of Heady Topper. The beer poured clear with a light brown, almost copper-like color. A slight off-white head was formed. Surprisingly light-colored for a Brown Ale, and this could almost go for an Amber Ale. The aroma was a nice blend of some toasty and lightly roasted malt tones, and some resin-like tones from the hops. The beer had been in the bottle for almost a year when we tried it, so it was probably very different in aroma and flavor last year. The flavor began with some nice malty tones, featuring notes of caramel, biscuits, toasted bread, and coffee. These then combined with a surprising fruitiness (almost mango-like), which could be derived from the hops, the yeast or from a combination of both. The finish was semi-dry and featured a moderate bitterness. This was really nice and well made, containing no off-flavors or other disturbing notes. Could just as well pass as an Amber Ale, and was probably quite different when it was fresher.
2

Ville’s Mystery Beer I

The first beer of the second trio was a mystery beer (unlabeled bottle) that Marcus had received from his friend Ville over a year ago and recently found in his cupboard. We had no idea what to expect, and I have no clue even now what actually was in the bottle. The beer was very well-carbonated, and as we opened the bottle, the beer started to slowly gush out. We quickly poured it to our glasses, where it had a slightly hazy amber-orange color. A massive off-white head was also formed as a result of all the carbonation. The aroma was very rich and malty, with tones of dried fruits (raisins and dates) and caramel. Could this be a Barleywine or a Belgian Strong Ale? The flavor followed a similar suit, with an initial hit of caramel, biscuits, raisins and other dried fruits. A minerally astringency was also present, which I wasn’t very fond of. The beer was really sweet, and the flavor ended with a slight alcohol burn as well. A little too heavy on the carbonation, especially for a beer with such a full body. Overall, this was quite nice, but the astringency really pulled down the points for me. You could definitely tell this had been in the bottle for quite a long time from the oxidized notes.

UJ IPA (see recipe and notes here)

The second beer of this line-up was the IPA I brewed about a month ago. This had been in the keg for around a week at the time of tasting, so the beer was definitely still green at the time. I haven’t tried it since the tasting, so I have no clue how it has changed. The beer poured with a slightly hazy, deep yellow color. Again, little head was formed. The beer really exploded with hop aroma, and the double dry-hop seems to have done its job. There were tones of grapefruit, resin, and tropical fruits present, and they all seemed to jump out of the glass as you closed in. A really, really nice aroma. The flavor was similar, but here the hop tones were joined by a slightly sweet maltiness. Unfortunately, the beer finished slightly too sweet (1.015), and would probably have been better a little drier. The bitterness (75 calculated IBUs) didn’t feel that strong, and the flavors were quite balanced between each other. The beer had a medium body and carbonation level. Overall, I am quite happy with the beer, but it would probably have been better with less sweetness. I hope it dries out slightly in the keg.

Hobbe’s Tupla-Kustaa Double IPA

The final beer of the second line-up was an Imperial IPA brewed by Hobbe. I don’t remember any recipe-specific details about this beer, but it was apparently bottled quite long ago and was thus past its prime. The beer poured with a slightly hazy orange color, and again almost no head. Judging only from aroma, you would probably not guess that this was an Imperial IPA, as it was mostly malty with just the slightest hints of resin from the hops. The flavor began slightly tart and with a caramelly maltiness. There was not much hop character present here either, but the beer finished very dry and with a huge bitterness. Quite unbalanced unfortunately, and this was probably better much fresher. The beer had a medium body and a high carbonation level (this could have continued fermenting slightly in the bottle with time). This was definitely not my type of IPA, and I think it could have used much more hops late in the boil, for a larger presence in the aroma.
3

Tresk Brewery – Evil Twin Amber Ale

We continued with enjoying one of Marcus’ recent beers from tap (5L party keg). This was a hop-bursted Amber Ale, based on Jamil’s Evil Twin. I had tried this beer earlier, but from bottle, and then I really enjoyed it. The beer pours clear and with a copper color. A slight off-white head is formed. The aroma features mainly tones of caramel and fruits, and thoughts are drawn to candied citrus zest and pineapple. There were also some ‘raw’ hops tones present, lending hints of pine and resin. The flavor is also hop-dominated (Citrus, pineapple, resin, flowers), but featured some toasted, bready and caramelly malt tones as well. The finish is semi-dry and has a moderate bitterness. The beer had a medium body and carbonation level. Maybe slightly unclean, and could use a little more bitterness, but otherwise this was a really well-made and enjoyable beer.

Tresk Brewery – Koff Porter Clone

The second beer of this line-up was also brewed by Marcus, and he wasn’t really happy about this attempt of cloning Sinebrychoff’s Porter. He had fermented it with Wyeast’s Irish Ale, but through a combination of under-pitching it drastically and using a quite old smack pack, he warned us that is contained quite a lot of off-flavors. He hadn’t tried it for several months though, so perhaps it had improved in the bottle? The beer poured clear and with a dark brown color. The color was more of a Brown Ale than a Porter, but I haven’t had Koff’s Porter for a while, so I don’t know how close it was to the original. The aroma was mostly roasted malts and coffee, but in the background you could detect banana (isoamyl acetate) and disturbing sulfur-like aroma. It wasn’t at all as bad as I had expected based on Marcus’ warnings, but you could definitely tell everything hadn’t gone smoothly with the fermentation. The flavor mainly featured tones of coffee, roasted malts, and ash, together with a slight earthy hoppiness. The finish was quite dry and it had a moderate bitterness. There was something off in the aftertaste as well (slightly solvent-like). Not bad, but this could definitely be improved with more fermentation control and proper pitching.

Ville’s Mystery Beer II

It was time for another unlabeled mystery beer from Ville, this time contained in a majestic 75 cl bottle. The beer poured with a slightly hazy, amber-orange, almost copper color. This time, there was not a problem with over-carbonation, and thus with careful pouring, a minimal off-white head was only formed. The aroma was very similar to Ville’s other beer, featuring a rich and sweet maltiness, with hints of caramel, raisins and dates. There is quite a lot of alcohol in the aroma as well, suggesting this will be quite a strong beer. The flavor is similar, with loads of caramel and toffee, together with really pronounced tones of raisins, dates and other dried fruits. Almost no hops tones, and a moderately low bitterness. The flavor is really sweet and the beer finishes in a slight alcohol burn as well. The body is full and the beer has a moderate carbonation level. This beer was very similar to Ville’s other beer, but where the first felt slightly astringent, this one was a bit more boozy. Not sure about the alcohol content, but it could easily have been over 10% ABV. A nice strong ale, that was a little heavy on the alcohol notes unfortunately.
4

Tresk Brewery – 1AM US-05 Amber Ale

The final line-up began with a two year old vintage of Marcus’ first attempt at homebrewing. It was an Amber Ale, that was split into two and fermented with S-04 and US-05. I have tried both beers earlier at one of our beer tastings, and then we already thought they were past their prime. How would two extra years of aging affect the US-05 version of the beer? The beer poured crystal clear and with a deep orange color. A slight off-white head was formed. The aroma is quite mild, featuring some slight bready malt tones and a little caramel. Surprisingly clean, especially compared to my memory of the beer and the tasting notes from a couple of years ago. The flavor was also bready and malty, featuring very little hop tones. The finish was dry with a huge bitterness. Quite one-dimensional, but what else is to expect from this old of a homebrewed Amber Ale. The body was light and the beer had a moderate carbonation level. This was not at all as unclean as I had remembered it, but still, the beer really didn’t excite much.

Ilkka’s Vadelma-Mustaherukka-Mustikka Sour Ale

The most interesting beer of the evening was a homebrewed Sour Ale that I had received from my colleague Ilkka. He had fermented it with a range of bottle dregs, and aged it on some raspberries, black currants and bilberries. I’m not that big of a Sour Ale fan, and don’t have much experience drinking them, so I’m not sure how worthwhile these comments will be. The beer poured clear and with a deep red color. It reminded me of the appearance of cranberry juice. The aroma was dominated by a sourness, which I found was quite mild (so I suspect it was mostly lactic acid and not that much acetic acid?), together with some berry tones in the background. I thought the berry tones were mostly from the black currants, and couldn’t detect much bilberries. The flavor was really sour, but I have no clue how it compares to other Sour Ales and Lambics. The berries were slightly more present in the flavor, with the black currant and raspberry dominating. Despite the strong sourness, I thought the flavors were quite balanced and even seemed to find a minor sweetness in the finish. The body was light and the beer had a moderate carbonation level. I actually thought this was quite nice, despite the big acidity. I have my own pseudo-lambic fermenting, and think I’ll go with something similar when adding some berries for flavoring. I have another bottle of this base beer, that has been aged on cloudberries instead, and it should be interesting to compare the two.

Yetish Imperial Stout (see recipe and notes here)

The final beer of the evening was a bottle of our approximately 10 month old Imperial Stout. We oak-aged half the batch, but this bottle is from the plain version. This is actually the first bottle I try from this batch, but I remember the beer having a really pronounced chocolate flavor when bottling. The beer poured pitch-black and with a high viscosity. You could definitely tell this beer was going to have a full body based on the thick appearance. The aroma was dominated by the typical Stout tones, with coffee, dark chocolate, roasted malts, and even some raisins and dried fruits. The flavor was similar, with mostly roasted malts, coffee and chocolate tones. The chocolate wasn’t as in-your-face as I had remembered. Unfortunately, we all thought the beer was slightly tart, and I’m wondering if either the bottle was infected, or if the brewing water could have used more alkalinity. The beer was quite dry and had a quite high carbonation level as well (perhaps some extra fermentation in the bottle), which could have enhanced the perception of tartness. The finish was quite bitter as well, and I’m not overly happy with the beer. Hopefully the oak-aged version is better.

Growing hops at home

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

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

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

HomepageRateBeer linkGoogle 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

HomepageRateBeer linkGoogle 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

HomepageRateBeer linkGoogle 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 linkGoogle Maps link

DIY Hop Spider – Keg version

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

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]