I asked Mel to marry me Friday night. She said we should get engaged first, though, so we did that instead. Yay!

In the true spirit of Bathtub Brewery, we commemorated the occasion by popping open a bottle of Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, a sweet and sour blend of dark, roasty, massively powerful quadrupel with lip puckering cherry lambic from Lindemans. It’s one of our all-time favorites.

We spent the weekend in Pennsylvania, celebrating our engagement pretty hard, so we’re both in sorry shape at the moment, but we’ll be back Wednesday with a big write-up about our beer-related hardy partying!

Miscellany 1 Comment »

The mysophobiacs in the audience are going to love this. It might even prove to be their favorite part of brewing.

Microorganisms are everywhere. They’re in the air, on your skin, and in your mouth, and they never come off. You’re always filthy. They just. Won’t. Come. Off. Aaaaggghhhhhh…

The good news is that these little bastards can be killed with just a little effort and due diligence. Today, we’ll look at the fascinating world of

Sanitation

Unfermented wort is loaded with delicious sugar and nutrients, making it an ideal place for beer yeast to live. Unfortunately, beer yeast is not the only thing that thrives in wort. Unless you eventually try to create a lambic, removing as many wild microbes from your equipment as possible is going to become an important part of your beermaking ritual. You want to give your yeast a chance to become the dominant life form in your fermenter before any other organisms can take hold. The task is not trivial, but it also isn’t in the least bit difficult.

But first, let me allay one fear you may have: There is nothing that can survive in beer that can kill you or make you sick. A contaminated beer might taste bad (or disgusting), but it will not hurt you. Once it has completed primary fermentation, the alcohol acts like a natural disinfectant against nasty microbes. The worst thing that can happen is that you will have to either drink or discard some yucky beer. Even then, spoiled homebrew still tastes pretty good.

Sanitizing your equipment is easy. I’ll take you through the routine that I follow every brew day.

1. Sanitize the primary fermenter — Measure out a little more than 1 ounce of Star San, pour it into the 6.5 gallon fermenter, and then fill the fermenter with plain tap water until the foam spills over. Let it sit for a couple minutes, or until you’re about to start brewing. You can leave the solution in the fermenter as long as you want, but if you plan to leave it there overnight, keep adding water until the fermenter is completely filled.
2. Empty and dry the primary fermenter — I usually do this step just as we start brewing. Empty the sanitizing solution into your bottling bucket (it’s going to be super heavy, so get your wife to do it), and place the fermenter upside-down on the drying rack for at least half an hour or so. The foam won’t all drain out, but the negligible amounts of Star San that remain will have zero impact on your beer.
3. Sanitize instruments — Toss the following into the bucket of sanitizer: Plastic spoon, funnel, sample taker, stopper (the one with the hole in it), and airlock (3 pieces). No need for neatness; just drop them in. Make sure the inside of the sample taker fills up with solution.
4. Sanitize your hands – You can wait until you’re ready to transfer your wort to the fermenter to do this. Dip your hands into the bucket of solution. I like to go up to my elbows, but at least go a little bit past your wrists. Let your hands and arms air dry — towels are loaded with bacteria and fungus. You’ll probably drip solution all over the house, but don’t worry about it; it won’t stain or bleach anything.

That’s all you need to do on Brew Day! Later down the line, when you’re transfering beer between fermenters and buckets, you’ll also need to sanitize your racking cane, hoses, and bottling wand. I’ll remind you when the time comes.

Here’s a tip: Leave the sanitizing solution in the bottling bucket. Maybe put your kettle lid on top of it to keep dust out. You’ll still be able to use that solution in a week or two when you need it again.

Cleanliness

Cleanliness is just as important as sanitation. Where sanitation is concerned with killing microorganisms, cleanliness is about simply keeping your equipment clean, as in free of dirt and mold.

Over the next few months, you’re going to see dirt, dust, and leftover gunk collect in your fermenters and hoses. These deposits are perfect spots for microbes to grow, because your sanitizing solution might not be able to penetrate them. Some dirt will probably dissolve on its own in the sanitizer solution, but keeping your equipment clean with good, old fashioned elbow grease is just as important as passively soaking everything in Star San.

A little diligence is all you need. Rinse hoses immediately after using them. Scrub the brew kettle right after brewing. Use the carboy washer and brush to thoroughly clean your fermenters after you transfer beer out of them.

If you’re like us, your discipline will probably decrease to a not-so-fanatical level after one or two brews, and that’s fine. Even the most rigorous sanitation routine will only work 99.9% of the time, so it really isn’t worth worrying too much about. When the inevitable (and unlikely!) day comes and you find yourself the proud owner of 5 gallons of something funky, forgive yourself. Even the best and biggest brewers end up with a bad batch from time to time.

Next Time

Brew Day!

Homebrewing, Technical Add Comment »

Last time, we looked at all of the equipment we’ll need for our first homebrew, plus a bunch of stuff that we don’t need need, but that is Major League Nice-to-Have Town. Now, we need something to put in it.

Today, we’ll look at

Ingredients

Beer is made from four key ingredients: water, sugar (fermentable sugar, I should say), hops, and yeast. And actually, hops aren’t technically required, but you’ll hardly ever see a beer without them. Three plus a yeah-but-not-technically, we’ll say.

Water — A tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical required to sustain all terrestrial life. It is the most common molecule on Earth, and can be found covering approximately 70% of its surface. It is a liquid at room temperature, and the Celsius temperature scale is based around its freezing and boiling points, which are defined as 0 ºC and 100 ºC, respectively. The refractive index of water for the yellow sodium D line at 20 ºC is 1.333. It is commonly available from taps installed in most buildings.

Water will make up more than 90% of your beer, and so I highly suggest that you purchase a water filter attachment for your kitchen sink. Purchase bottled water for your beer only if your tap water tastes genuinely bad — your particular tap water will impart its own unique character to your beer. As long as your water tastes good, you should use it in your beer. An entire science exists around the replication of specific brewing waters. It’s that important.

Fermentable sugar — Your primary source of fermentable sugars will be malted barley. Barley is a grain that is very similar to wheat in appearance. Malted barley is created by steeping barley in water until it begins to sprout. The germinated barley is then dried. This germination produces some sugars, along with starches that are converted to sugar in a process called mashing. These sugars will be converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation process.

These surgars can also be derived from wheat, rye, and other grains. Some breweries, particularly the big American ones, also use rice and/or corn. If I may be permitted a brief editorial, please please please don’t emulate these breweries.

Hops — Green, conelike flowers that grow on long, green vines (or bines, technically). These add bitterness and floral flavor and aroma to your beer. Some hops also impart citrusy, earthy, or spicy flavors. There are dozens upon dozens of different hop varieties, but you’ll probably quickly find a few that are your favorites. Americans are particularly fond of the “C” hops, (i.e. Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, etc.)

Yeast — Microorganisms that eat sugar and excrete alcohol, carbon dioxide, and various other byproducts depending on the strain. Different yeast strains will produce beer with different flavors, but the end result, barring contamination, is the conversion of sugar to alcohol.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Homebrewers do not make beer. Yeast makes beer. The stuff that homebrewers make is a non-alcoholic tea called wort (pronounced wert). Yeast then converts the sugars in the wort to alcohol and carbon dioxide, turning the wort into beer. They don’t get paid for this, and many of them die in the process or are discarded afterward. They have a terrible union.

Your First Recipe

I’ll make this easy for you. For our first homebrewed beer, we’ll use Morebeer.com’s Extra Special Bitter kit. This kit contains all of the ingredients you’ll need, minus yeast, which can be found here. This is the same kit that Mel and I used in our first homebrew. It’s an easy recipe to start with, and the results will probably knock your sock off. New socks can be found here.

Let’s go over what’s included in the kit.

Malt

The kit comes with 7 lbs of Ultralight Malt Extract. Malt extract exists to make your life easier. No malting, no mashing — that work has been done for you. After mashing, most of the water is removed from the resulting liquid, producing a concentrated syrup that happens to be one of the most delicious substances known to man. Almost all of your fermentable sugars in almost all of your recipes will come from malt extract (unless you eventually decide to try mashing yourself — we haven’t braved that yet, and probably won’t until we have a house to do it in).

In addition to the extract, the kit also includes 8 oz of Crystal Malt 40L, 8 oz of Honey Malt, and 4 oz of Special Roast. These are what we typically call specialty grains, malts that we will steep in our wort, allowing them to add their unique characteristics to the beer. In this particular case, Crystal Malt adds color; Honey Malt adds a sweet, nutty flavor; and Special Roast adds a biscuity flavor and a deep, orange color.

In general, the more malts that are used in a beer, the heavier and more alcoholic the beer is. This recipe uses a moderate amount of malts. A light lager would probably use half as much malt, while a big barleywine might use as much as 11 - 12 lbs of malt extract along with another pound or two of specialty grains. There is a lot of room for experimentation, and no two beers are the same!

Hops

The kit contains 1 oz of Magnum hop pellets, and two 2 oz packages of Kent Goldings hop pellets. We’ll get into more detail about how we’re using these hops when we get to brewing. As for what hop pellets are, they are hops, simple as that. Okay, they look like rabbit food after having been squeezed down into pellets, but ounce for ounce, they’re exactly the same thing, only they stay fresher longer and are more convenient to store.

Magnum hops are primarily used for bittering, because they are very, very good at it. You can get a lot of bitterness out of a little bit of Magnum, and the bitterness they impart is so smooth that even people who are typically sensitive to hop bitterness can enjoy the flavors it provides. You may find yourself using this one frequently.

Kent Goldings hops have a mellow, flowery aroma and flavor that perfectly compliments malty beers. Many English beers use them to great effect.

Yeast

The yeast we are using is called English Ale yeast, produced by White Labs. These little guys impart a rich, malty taste to the beers that they make. During fermentation, they also produce organic compounds called esters, which add a slightly fruity flavor and aroma to the beer.

Based on the combination of malts, hops, and yeast that we are using, we should expect a semi-sweet, nutty, mellow, flowery, slightly fruity beer. That’s a lot of different flavors from just a few ingredients! Already, you should be seeing the power of homebrewing.

Other stuff

By now, you’ve noticed two more ingredient bags in your ESB kit: a little, white tablet labeled Whirlfloc, and a 4 oz bag of white corn sugar.

The Whirlfloc tablet is what’s called a clarifier. During the boil, you’re going to see lots of little globs of stuff floating around the pot. Whirlfloc (also called Irish moss in some circles) helps to precipitate these globs out of suspension, giving you a clearer beer in the end.

The corn sugar will find use in a couple of weeks, when you are ready to bottle the beer. By this time, almost all of the fermentable sugar in the beer will have been eaten by the yeast. But we need to carbonate the beer, and the only easy way to do that is to have the yeast produce carbon dioxide!

To remedy this, we will add just a little bit more sugar before the beer is bottled, in a process called priming. The yeast remaining in suspension in the beer at the time of bottling will then turn the sugar into carbon dioxide, which the caps on the bottles will hold in, forcing it to dissolve into the beer, creating carbonation. But, more on that later.

Next Time

In our next article, we’ll learn about the most exciting part of brewing: sanitation! I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun it is!

After that, we’ll get to brewing. Don’t worry.

Homebrewing, Technical Add Comment »

Wait … what the heck is LME you’re asking? “The London Metal Exchange? That doesn’t make any sense. Did she sit down and have some cookies with the exchange? And if she did, then wouldn’t they be called biscuits?”

Ahem, anyway, LME is known as liquid malt extract. Since we are not all-grain brewers, we rely on LME for our beers. We had some leftover after brewing the stout, so I put the leftover away until I could stick it in something. LME is somewhat similar to molasses, so I found a new oatmeal cookie recipe that stems from WWII when brown sugar was rationed and molasses was used more readily in cookies.

I must say, I am really happy with how these cookies turned out. The recipe does not call for spices, so I kept it that way — I have a separate recipe for spiced oatmeal raisin cookies — but in lieu of raisins I decided to use the dried cherries I had leftover from a chocolate cherry stromboli I made ages ago.

You could really smell the LME in the batter, and anyone who has sampled LME before could pick out its distinct flavor in the batter. The cookies are also thick with oatmeal — 2 cups — so as Ray said, it gives you plenty to chaw on.

The finished cookie has a great oatmeal texture, the cherries are a nice substitute for raisins, and the LME worked as a great sweetener/molasses substitute. If you have some leftover LME of your own (or molasses I suppose), then check out the recipe below, I think you’ll dig it!

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
2 eggs
5 tbsp LME or molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cherries

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. In a medium to large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and oatmeal.
3. In a large bowl, blend together softened butter and granulated sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla, LME, and eggs. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.
4. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop batter onto the paper by the teaspoonful, fitting 12 cookies to a sheet.
5. Bake for 10 minutes. Let the cookies rest for a moment before placing them on a wire rack to cool. Yields roughly 48 cookies.

Also, we also managed to score River Horse’s latest Brewer’s Reserve, the Imperial Cherry Amber Ale. I found that sipping it after tasting the batter left a hoppy taste in my mouth; however, sipping the beer after a nibble of cookie did not do the same thing. Weird. Nonetheless, the cookie and beer pair well.

The great texture and balanced chewyness make these cookies addicting!

Craft Beer, Pairings, Recipes Add Comment »

Looking in from the outside, homebrewing seems complicated. There are all kinds of weird equipment you have to buy; you have no idea what the recipes mean; people keep harping about sanitation; and the list of steps goes on for pages.

I know how you feel, and while brewing isn’t the simplest hobby you could pick up, it isn’t nearly as involved as you would expect. If you’re interested in starting but feel intimidated, the best thing you can do is find a friend who brews and sit in on one of his or her brew days. Mel and I watched Steph and Tim brew a pumpkin ale around this time last year, and we were genuinely surprised at how little work was involved, even for a recipe as relatively complex as a pumpkin ale. By the time we left their house, we felt like we were ready.

But, what if you don’t have any homebrewer friends? That is where I come in — Hi! I’m your new homebrewer friend! Today, we begin our beginning homebrew tutorial series, Pitched For The Very First Time. We are friends now. Please be my friend.

Today’s installment:

Equipment

Ready? This part’s easy. Here’s what you need: sanitizer, bottle filler, bottle caps, bottle capper, bottles, steeping bag, hop bags, big spoon, funnel, carboy, carboy brush, bottling bucket, airlock, rubber stoppers, flux capacitor, aaaggghhhhh…

Let me start over.

When you’ve committed to your decision to start homebrewing, go to Morebeer.com and buy this starter kit.

Ah. That was much easier.

The kit that I just directed you to contains almost all of the equipment that you’ll need. I’ll show you what else you should buy, but to get started, here is what the kit contains:

• Bottle of Star San Sanitizer — A colorless, odorless, tasteless, viscous liquid that creates a 2.5 pH solution when mixed with water, acidic enough to kill microorganisms, but neutral enough to comfortably sanitize your hands (unless you have extremely sensitive skin). You’ll use this to sanitize anything and everything that will come in contact with your beer after you finish boiling.
• Steeping bags — Thin mesh bags. You’ll use these to steep grains and to boil hops and/or hop pellets.
• A big plastic spoon — Used to stir the boiling wort (unfermented beer). Also very useful for aerating the wort before you pitch the yeast.
• 6.5 gallon glass carboy — This is where the magic [science] happens. The carboy will be your primary fermentation vessel. The basic kit comes with a plastic bucket instead, but I strongly suggest you get the glass carboy. I’ll explain why I’m having you get the deluxe kit in a moment.
• Airlock — A plastic device designed to let air produced by fermentation out of the fermenter without letting air and microoragnisms in.
• Rubber stoppers — For the carboy. One with a hole, and one without. The airlock attaches to the stopper with the hole in it.
• Carboy brush — A bent brush on a long, metal handle. Makes cleaning the carboy a lot easier for people without 1-inch wide arms.
• Funnel — For pouring the wort from the kettle into the carboy.
• Hydrometer and hydrometer cylinder — A device that measures the specific gravity of your wort. Don’t worry about what that means just yet. Suffice it to say that you’ll use this to estimate how much alcohol is in the beer when it finishes fermenting.
• Bottling bucket — A plastic bucket with a spigot. When it’s time to bottle your beer, you’ll siphon it into this bucket, hook up the bottling wand (see below), open the spigot, and fill your bottles. This bucket is also a great place to keep your sanitizer solution when you’re not bottling. Simply pour an ounce of Star San into the bucket, and then fill it to the top with tap water.
• Tubing — Used to transfer beer between vessels.
• Racking cane — A bent, metal tube that you’ll use to siphon beer between vessels. The kit also contains a siphon starter, but you use it by blowing air into the carboy, which I feel runs the risk of contamination. We don’t use ours, but I won’t stop you from using it yourself. It’s probably perfectly safe.
• Bottling wand — A tube with an attachment at the end that allows liquid through when you press on the end. You’ll use this to fill your bottles with uncarbonated beer.
• Bottle brush — For cleaning out the bottles
• Bottle caps — They keep the beer from all falling out of the bottles when you throw them around your living room.
• Bottle capper — A tool that locks your bottle caps down onto your bottles, creating a tight seal.
• Homebrew book — I haven’t looked at this yet, but I’m sure it’s very informative. Charlie’s book is better.

Why am I having you get the deluxe kit instead of the basic one? For the glass carboy. The plastic bucket that you get in the basic kit will do the job, but plastic can scratch, and scratches make outstanding bacteria homes (it’s hard to get sanitizer into them). Plus, the carboy just feels more elegant. I even feel better saying the word carboy than when I say bucket. If you stick to brewing, you’ll probably upgrade to a carboy anyway, so why not get one now?

Apart from bottles (you can just clean and save the bottles you get at the liquor store) and a kettle (if you don’t already have a big enough pot, which you probably don’t), if you want to stop with that kit, you can, but here are a few more handy items that you may want to pick up to make brewing easier and to improve your final beer:

• 5 gallon Kettle — A nice, big kettle is a must. You may already have a large pot, but depending on how old it is, it may have some funny flavors on its surface, ready to mix in with your wort. It’s probably also not very big, and you’re going to want to be able to boil about 3 gallons of water. Just get a dedicated brew kettle and save yourself a lot of strife. Benefit: You’ll almost definitely need one anyway.
• Wort chiller — A coil of copper tubing attached to two long plastic tubes. You hook one tube up to your kitchen faucet, lower the copper coil into your boiling wort for the last few minutes of the boil (to sanitize it), and point the other tube down the sink drain. When the boil is complete, you’ll turn the cold water faucet on and stir the copper coil around the hot wort. This will chill the wort much more quickly than if you simply let it sit, which will allow you to pitch the yeast sooner, minimizing the amount of time that the cool wort is exposed to air and microbes. Benefit: Faster; Less risk of contamination.
• More mesh bags — As your recipes start getting more complicated, you’re going to need more bags for steeping and hopping. We own three. I wouldn’t mind one more. Benefit: Easier boils.
• Sample taker — Basically a big pipette. You’ll need this to take samples for hydrometer readings. I have no idea why the starter kit doesn’t include one. Benefit: Easier sample taking. I know, right?
  
• Bottle/Carboy washer — Hooks up to your sink to turn it into a raging fountain. Cleaning a carboy will be unbelievably difficult without one. Benefit: Easier cleaning.
• 5 gallon glass carboy — A smaller carboy to use as a secondary fermenter. When your beer is done fermenting (yeast settles to the bottom of the fermenter, no more bubbles come out of the airlock), you’ll siphon it into this carboy, leaving the sediment on the bottom of the primary fermenter (called trub) behind. After another week in the secondary fermenter, you’ll find that more sediment has settled out of the beer. The end result will be a clearer beer with fewer off flavors. In addition, you can leave the beer here for several weeks if you do not have time to bottle it for a while. Benefit: Clearer, better tasting beer; Convenience.
• Carboy drainer — Used to leave your carboys upside down to drain. Easier than holding it like that yourself for an hour. Benefit: Convenience.
• More Star San — May as well stock up. Benefit: It’ll be years before you need to buy more.

Overall, you should expect to spend about $200 - $300 on equipment, plus another $40 - $50 for ingredients for your first batch. Don’t let that scare you off. Theoretically, you should save money in the long run because you won’t be buying as much commercial beer. In practice, Mel and I still make weekly trips to the liquor store, but hey. The initial investment is the worst of it, though; I only set aside $10 from my paycheck every week to fund our homebrewing, and that has been more than enough.

Next Time

That was a long one. Next time will be a bit shorter. We’ll go over ingredients: what to buy, and where to buy them.

PS: If you want to go ahead and order your equipment and ingredients now in one shot (which you may as well), I’ll be talking about the Extra Special Bitter kit that we used in our first brew, so I suggest ordering that. You’ll also need a vial of White Labs English Ale Yeast. When your kit arrives, freeze the hop pellets and refrigerate the yeast.

Homebrewing, Technical 1 Comment »

As mentioned in my recent post, Ray and I enjoyed a night out on the town a week ago. We had such a great time at The Khyber, but knew that there was plenty more beer real estate to check out before we headed back across the water.

Our next stop was Eulogy Belgian Tavern, known simply as Eulogy by most folks. The place was packed, both down- and upstairs, so we wriggled over to the bar, ordered a round of draughts, and quickly snagged a table near the stairs. I ordered Brooklyn Brewery’s Brooklyn Grand Cru, while Ray ordered Founder’s Centennial IPA. Both were quite tasty, and we decided to order a basket of traditional Belgian-style frites. They were seasoned well, but I think I like the frites at Monk’s Cafe better.

Eulogy has an extensive bottle list, but Ray and I both found it a tad difficult to navigate. The hustle and bustle was a bit much as well, since the bar is on the small side, so we decided to head out to Triumph after our first round. Nonetheless, we’d like to go back on either a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when we have more time to browse the bottle menu and enjoy a little more personal space.

Seriously, it’s freaking huge.

At Triumph we quickly snagged seats at the bar. Ray ordered a Belgian Golden Ale, while I was sucked in by their Coffee and Cream stout. However, at the end of the stout, there was a slightly off taste. Ray asked the bartender and we received a quick answer that the beer was fine, it’s tasted like that since it was tapped, but if I wanted to replace it, I could.

I didn’t, because I was reminded by Nodding Head’s disclaimer (paraphrased, “It’s not our beer, it’s you”) and I stuck with it. The beer started off great, I just wasn’t thrilled with the finish. Ray enjoyed his Belgian, and we decided to trek back to the train station after one round. It was getting late, and it’s never fun riding the train into NJ with the late-night wackos.

Hopefully in the coming weeks we’ll make it out to Tria’s Sunday School and see what the taps are like at Lucky Strike Lanes. Until then, it’s Rock Band and store-bought bottles for us. What a hard life, right?

Craft Beer, Pubs Add Comment »

On Wednesday, August 6, I decided to join the ladies of IPA (In Pursuit of Ale) for their somewhat bimonthly gatherings. I met the group’s presiding drinker (it actually says that on her business card — how awesome?!) Suzanne Woods at the Royal Stumble, and after hearing what IPA was all about, I knew I needed to check it out.

She planned a five course pairing menu at The Latest Dish, which is a neat pseudo-hole in the wall on 4th Street between South and Bainbridge. Eight of us attended, and it just so happens that one girl, Amy, was originally from Newark, NY and knew my roommate from my sophomore year at Brockport. Bizarrely small world, right?

I started the night out with Samuel Smith’s oatmeal stout, after trying to order Rogue’s Mocha Porter (out) and Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout (also out). Their taps were not working that night, so we worked with their bottle list, which was fairly extensive AND organized by region, which was nice.

I really enjoyed the Tempura Avocado with soy syrup and chile oil that was paired with Steelhead’s extra pale ale. The avocado had a great texture of crunch from the tempura mixed with the creamy softness that avocado’s are known for. This dish surprised me, because I’m a little back and forth on avocados. Suz let us know that Steelhead had a female brewer for 17 years, up until 2007 when she headed out on a cross country brewing trip.

The main course, however, really knocked my socks off. Executive chef Scott Schroeder — who took time out at the end of the evening to stop by our table — crafted a divine pork mignon with peaches and Gorgonzola, which was paired with a Corsendonk Abbey pale ale. The pork was amazingly tender, and the Gorgonzola offered so much flavor to this dish, without being overbearing.

If you’d like to know more about IPA’s night out, head over to Suz’s blog. Her post about the evening goes over all five pairings AND has pictures!

I definitely had a great time and will need to see when I will be able to join the ladies again in pursuit of some great ale.

Craft Beer, Pairings, Restaurants, Tasting Add Comment »

It was Saturday night and we were fixin’ for some action … sort of. Earlier in the day we had snagged fresh produce and chicken sausage at our local farmers’ market, donated a car-load of stuff to Goodwill, brewed our third beer (Steph and Tim’s Tropical Foreign Extra Stout), and had a dinner of stir-fry steak, broccoli and corn by 6 PM. Such accomplishment should have exhausted us, putting us to bed by 9 PM after a nightcap of Rock Band and Merry Monks.

Au contraire.

Ray suggested we take the train into Philly, and I grabbed my trusty guidebook to see what we should hit up. This was going to be awesome.

Our first stop was The Khyber. We dug the fact that it wasn’t packed and immediately grabbed the end of the bar by the bathrooms — which were labeled “Sit” and “Stand.”

The chalkboard draught list offered some favorites, as well as new brews, but the first thing that sold me on this bar was that it had a tap handle proudly displaying Middle Ages Brewery’s Beast Bitter! My parents currently live just north of Syracuse, NY, so Middle Ages is technically my hometown brewery. They make excellent brews in the fashion of medieval England. Get a load of this, sourced from their Web site:

“To maintain the tradition and tastes of English ales of the Middle Ages, the brewery uses two-row malted barley imported from Munton and Fisson Plc., in Stowmarket, Suffolk, England. The malt is germinated barley that has been kiln dried. ‘Our yeast strain is a direct descendent of brewing yeast originating in Yorkshire, England. It has been cultivated for the past 150 years,’ Marc [Rubenstein, head brewer and owner] said. We figure it should bear a resemblance to the Medieval yeasts.’ Middle Ages Brewing harvests its yeast from batch to batch, mixing it with warm beer to activate it.”

Talk about friggin’ cool!

Beast Bitter was my first pint of the night. It had a coppery color, and a delicious, balanced hop flavor. Standing at 5.3% ABV, this hometown favorite would make an excellent session beer. Ray ordered Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout, an Irish dry stout. It’s often described as “Guinness, but better.” We both loved how creamy it was (thank you, nitro tap), and we ended up just sharing the beers, since I kept sipping Ray’s pint.

For my next drink, I ordered Sly Fox’s Blob Ale, a seasonal imperial red ale brewed in honor of the annual Blob Fest in Phoenixville, PA held each July. It was surprisingly nutty and roasty, and I had no idea it was an imperial red until I looked it up later — it’s that smooth!

Ray ordered Atwaters‘ Vanilla Java Porter for his second round, but it left a bad taste in his mouth — literally. The beer had oxidized, leaving an icky vegetable taste smack dab in the middle of each sip and making it undrinkable. Ray mentioned it to the bartender who at first simply pointed to a loud-mouthed, half-witted brunette and her dopey husband and said, “Well they’ve been drinking it and loving it.” However, a minute later, after taking care of a long backlog of customers, the bartender came back to us with a sample in hand, leaned over the bar and said, “You know what, there is something wrong with this.”

The bartender quickly apologized and let Ray replace the beer with Paper City’s Blonde Hop Monster, which was an astounding imperial IPA. Served in a tulip glass to allow the nose to really show its stuff, it started with the sweet smell of flowers and gummy bears and filled the mouth with a big, malty, citrusy explosion. Meanwhile, the other couple at the bar ordered another round of the oxidized Atwater Vanilla Brocolli Porter.

Check back in later to see how the rest of our night panned out at Eulogy and Triumph!

Craft Beer, Pubs 1 Comment »

We started drinking Nuts About Coffee in full force this past weekend. It came out great! Here are our notes:

1.064 OG; 1.020 FG; 5.9% ABV; 13 IBU

Appearance: Super dark brown, hazy, and barely translucent, with a tall, thick, rich, frothy, and almost stout-like latte-colored head.

Nose: Sweet and nutty. Coffee is mellow and smooth, but still the first thing that you notice. Slight hint of chocolate.

Taste: Big hazelnut coffee taste asserts itself from word one, lingering on the back of the tongue and begging you to take another sip. More sweet, general nuttiness and chocolatiness wait beneath the coffee.

Mouthfeel: Medium, slightly dry, and creamy. Very smooth. Surprisingly crisp and clean.

Overall:
My thoughts: Best yet! The coffee was a great idea. I’m glad we used it. I was worried at first that it might have been too much, but it turns out we used just enough to make it the centerpiece without overwhelming with it. I can’t imagine how we could improve on this.
Mel’s thoughts: Did we just brew a porter? Hot damn, this was a great experiment. This would make an excellent dessert beer!

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days, Tasting Add Comment »

We are thieves. Dirty, filthy, rotten thieves are we. To call us unseemly would be an insult to all of the unseemly folk you’re likely to see around town. Same goes for the dishonest, unscrupulous, unwashed, crooked, amoral— Would that I could list these delicious adjectives all night, but we’re on a schedule here, people. Everyone on the bus… the bus to Lyingbastardville.

For you see, we brewed with a stolen recipe on Saturday. Steph and Tim were kind enough to offer us the recipe for their Foreign Extra Stout, and we accepted it… right from under their noses.

Steph asked us to refrain from listing the detailed recipe here, but I can at least give you their description of the beer:

Just as its appearance suggests, this beer is malty, roasty, and chocolatey. However, this style of stout is actually intended to be enjoyed in tropical climates. Smooth and refreshing, with a substantial alcohol kick, our Foreign Extra Stout will make you feel like you’re on the beach in Cancun…
OG: 1.074, 7.2% ABV, 30 IBU

This was one of the five beers that Steph and Tim brewed for their wedding back in April, and Mel and I have been wanting to try putting our own spin on the recipe for a while. We’ll fill you in on just what that spin is in a couple weeks, as long as it doesn’t fail in an epic manner, but, for now, you may rest assured that it will be awesome.

And now I’ve spent 246 words telling you that I have nothing to tell you. In place of the usual recipe listing, here is the first chapter of Moby Dick:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses…

Yeah, all right, I can’t keep that up.

I can’t believe Ray did that … anyway, you guys are going to love this beer once I put my little twist on it. Though I can note that I goofed and did not order the correct amount of hops. We had a half ounce too little from what the original recipe called for, but since the average alpha acid was for this particular hop from this particular supplier was higher by roughly 0.7 percent, we were okay. C’est la vie!

Well damn, now I gotta write a post about why what she just said makes so much sense…

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days 1 Comment »