Yep, finally hurt myself brewing.

As one of my first exposures to craft beer, India Pale Ale is a style that I hold in my heart with deep regard. The style lends itself to massive complexity in flavor and aroma. Some make it intensely bitter, some like it with big body and lots of sweet malt — depends on which side of the Atlantic you live on, really.

As the legend goes, India Pale Ale originated during the mid-17th century during England’s control of India. At the time, the only way to ship supplies to the garrisoned troops there was to sail all the way around Europe and Africa into the Indian Ocean. The journey took many months, during which time beer destined for India would often spoil before arrival.

In response, George Hodgson began to brew a high-alcohol and generously hopped pale ale for export to India. The extra alcohol preserved the beer from spoilage during the trip, and the extra hops balanced out the heavy malt character of the beer. Hodgson dominated beer exports to India until the 1820s, and is now credited with the creation of what had already come to be known at that time as India Pale Ale.

American and English brewers create two very different India Pale Ales. Americans favor heavy amounts of hops, creating crisp, medium bodied, refreshingly floral and bitter IPAs without which no summer can be considered remotely complete. The English, on the other hand, craft a maltier IPA with more subtle (but still pronounced) hop character that meshes well with lots of nutty, biscuity malt notes. I’m a devout lover of English beer, so you can guess which style I prefer. Hint: it’s the one I can never seem to find anywhere. Sad face. Guess we’ll have to make our own!

With this recipe, we’re aiming to create a very English IPA. To drive that point home, in addition to using lots of different specialty malts, we’ve focused the recipe’s hop additions on British Kent Goldings hops, a mild hop that excels at complimenting malt character, while still asserting a soothing, floral overtone to the concoction. Hands down one of my favorite hops. You can never use enough of these guys. It’s physically impossible. If you managed it, your skin would turn inside out and you’d be swallowed by a black hole. A flowery, delicious black hole.

As a final touch, we’re using White Labs Burton Ale yeast, straight from the town of Burton, England, where the IPA was born.

To the recipe:

28 September, 2008
Goldings Shower India Pale Ale
5 gallons

8.0 lbs Ultralight Liquid Malt Extract (60 min)

1.0 lbs Victory Malt
0.5 lbs CaraPils Malt
0.5 lbs Special Roast
0.375 lbs Crystal Malt 40L
0.375 lbs Cyrstal Malt 75L

2.0 oz British Kent Goldings Hops [5.7% AA] (60 min)
2.0 oz British Kent Goldings Hops [5.7% AA] (30 min)
2.0 oz British Kent Goldings Hops [5.7% AA] (15 min)
2.0 oz British Kent Goldings Hops [5.7% AA] (5 min)

1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min — clarifier)

White Labs Burton Ale Yeast WLP023

4 oz corn sugar (bottling)

———

Create a yeast starter two days in advance.

Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.

Remove grains, turn off heat, add malt extract while stirring.

Bring to a boil. Add remaining ingredients as indicated above.

Chill wort to below 80°F. Pitch yeast starter and aerate thoroughly. Allow to ferment to completion at 70 – 75°F.

Rack fermented beer to secondary fermenter. Age for two weeks.

Rack to bottling bucket. Boil corn sugar with 1 c filtered water and add to beer. Mix well.

Bottle. Age for two weeks.

Fun story: I was making the yeast starter on Friday. Everything was going normally. No boilovers, no accidental burns. Smooth as buttered silk.

With 2 minutes to go before it was time to stop the heat, I put a work glove on my left hand, lifted the starter flask off of the stove, waited for the wort to stop boiling, and added 4 grams of yeast nutrient, which caused the wort to erupt like a geyser from the flask. Swearing is so much funnier when you’re not thinking about it.

I reflexively hurled the flask away from me, wort still spurting from the opening as if heaving from the throat of a sorority sister at 2 AM, creating the spectacular mess you see here:

Remarkably, the stove still works. By the way, boiling wort hurts very, very badly when you put it on your hand, so don’t put boiling wort on your hand. Also, hooray for safety.

I spent the next hour cleaning up, and as if to indicate how badly I wanted to hurt myself again, I got straight to work on a new starter. It did not try to kill me.

Our Brew Days Add Comment »

Geeeez, I can’t believe September is almost over already.

Don’t forget that next Friday, October 3rd, is the day of Session #20! Mel and I are hosting this month, and the topic is “Beer and Memories.” To quote Mel:

Is there a beer that reminds you of a specific memory?

If you’re thinking, “Huh?” then you might want to craft your response along the lines of “Whenever I drink [insert brew here] it reminds me of that day …” Or perhaps it’s the reverse. Oooooh.

To participate, write an article on the topic for your blog, and then either email the permalink to me or post the link as a comment in this article. Looking forward to hearing from everyone!

The Session 4 Comments »

We set the date for our wedding with the venue of our dreams … and no, I’m not being all mushy princess pouffy white dress bride with you. We’re getting married in a freaking brewery with a German beer hall!

If I may excerpt from Lew Bryson’s Pennsylvania Breweries 3rd Edition:

Carol Stoudt is a pioneer. When she founded Pennsylvania’s first microbrwery in 1987, she was one of the country’s few female brewers….The effect Carol and her brewery have always had on the industry … is macro. She makes good beer. The Stoudts don’t hold with average; they want the best.

Ray and I feel really good about putting money into the hands of Stoudts — they are not another member of the Wedding Industry waiting to jack up prices by 20 percent and make us feel like every other couple. They march to the beat of their own drum, and so do we.

On Saturday, November 7, 2009, Ray and I will be married in one of the stunning indoor courtyards at Stoudt’s Brewery in Adamstown, Pa. Following the ceremony, we will march into the beer hall, man and wife, and share with friends and family alike some of the best craft beers in the state, as well as wonderful food and a tower of my specialty cupcakes in lieu of a traditional wedding cake.

If everyone walks away with the feeling that they just attended the beer festival of the year, then our goal will be met. Until then…

Breweries, Miscellany 4 Comments »

I recommend a week spent in Sunset Beach, NC to anyone who needs to get away for a little while, but doesn’t want to be completely in the boonies (there was a Food Lion a little over a mile away and Myrtle Beach is only 30 minutes away).

We brought a trunkfull of craft beer with us, since we have found Sunset Beach’s beer selection a little lacking, though they did have 2 brews from Leinenkugel which can work in a pinch. We brought the following:

• Stoudt’s Heifer-in-Wheat (6 pack)
• Smuttynose’s Hanami Ale (6 pack)
• Dogfish Head’s Chicory Stout (6 pack)
• River Horse’s Belgian Tripel (6 pack)
• Founder’s Breakfast Stout (4 pack)
• Ommegang’s Witte (750 ml bottle)
• Avery’s Fifteen (22 oz bottle)
• Great Divide’s Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout (22 oz bottle)
• Southern Tier’s Back Burner barley wine style ale (22 oz bottle)
• Southern Tier’s Big Red red ale (22 oz bottle)
• Southern Tier’s Pumking imperial pumpkin ale (22 oz bottle)

It was a mix of old and new, and for 4 mornings, Ray and I split a bottle of Founder’s Breakfast Stout with our eggs and hot Italian sausage. Yes, it was perfect.

We went to the Carolina Winery, where last February we met Tim, the knowledgable and down to earth vintner. Unfortunately, he wasn’t manning the tasting bar that afternoon, and we were helped by a staffer that was efficient in her pourings, but didn’t offer the same insight that Tim did. Nevertheless, we walked out with 3 bottles, one of which we intend to save until the Christmas season when a spiced cranberry wine will go nicely with dinner.

Other than that, we spent plenty of time on the beach (even suffered a sunburn), the pool, visited a lovely local tea house for “ultimate tea”, fed turtles and giant carp, rode an antique carousel, and spent plenty of time sipping beers and reading beer periodicals.

Did you miss us?

Craft Beer, Miscellany Add Comment »

We’ve run off to North Carolina by the time you read this. Odds are pretty good we’re still asleep, or at least only just lurching out of bed, a long, restful night’s sleep encrusted in our eyelashes. Maybe we’ll go for a walk. Maybe we’ll go to the beach. Maybe we’ll just relax inside, Mel reading a magazine on the couch while I draw on the balcony. It doesn’t matter. We’re on vacation. Aaahhhhhhhhh…

We’ll be back next Monday! No big parties while we’re gone.

Miscellany Add Comment »

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s nice archive page.

For the 20th Session, Bathtub Brewery threw our hats in the ring (our hops in the fermenter?) to host a Session topic you might not expect. I’m sure you were figuring we’d quiz you on the best pumpkin brews to pass your lips, or ideas for wild and crazy ingredients for a harvest ale. Well, that won’t be the case. Instead, I pose this question for you to ponder:

Is there a beer that reminds you of a specific memory?

If you’re thinking, “Huh?” then you might want to craft your response along the lines of “Whenever I drink [insert brew here] it reminds me of that day …” Or perhaps it’s the reverse. Oooooh.

To participate, simply write up your post on Friday, October 3, 2008. You can leave it as a comment here, or email us here.

The Session 12 Comments »

I’m sure some of you are waiting to hear about how our take on Steph and Tim’s Foreign Extra Stout has played out — I can tell you that Ray and I have tried a couple, and they have carbonated, but they need to mellow a bit.

But if you also remember that post at all, you should remember our mention that I was going to put my own spin on the recipe, and I did. Except it didn’t quite work.

Inspired by my Orange Chocolate Chip cookies, I wanted to add an orange flavor to the stout; however, foresight was in my favor and I decided I didn’t want to chance the entire 5 gallons. So Ray and I prepped 2 carboys when it came to secondary fermentation: one for 2.5 gallons of untouched stout (the control) and one for 2.5 gallons of stout with 1.5 ounces of McCormick orange extract added (the variable).

We thought the grocery-store extract would be fine, and we eagerly awaited the orangey-goodness seeping through the stout, infusing the roasty beer with a nice citrus nose and flavor. We didn’t get that lucky.

While the control batch carbonated fine — just needs a little more aging — the orange-flavored stout never carbonated. So it’s flat, and quite honestly, it reminds me of orange-scented cleaning supplies in the taste and nose department. A bit of a disappointment, BUT it’s not as if we wasted 5 gallons. So far we used a majority of a 12 ounce bottle to create a beer and brown sugar reduction that was paired with sauteed apple slices over french toast. It was pretty neat. We’ve also read plenty of blog posts about using “bad beer” for marinades and such, which we will most likely do over the coming months. I wanted to feed it to my plants, but Ray dissuaded me.

So, you might be asking, “What happened?” We’re not 100% sure; I know I properly added the priming sugar to the bottling bucket — and the regular stout fermented fine — so I think it’s safe to rule that out. The only thing we can think of is that your typical baking extract does not rock yeast’s world. That, or maybe I didn’t do my good luck dance well enough that day.

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days 3 Comments »

I wrote this month’s recipe myself. It’s only our fourth brew day, and our experience in homebrewing is negligible compared to some people we know. Am I crazy to be creating a recipe from scratch already? I must be crazy. Crazy crazy.

Our big leap into recipe writing is made all the ballsier by our choice of style. This month, we’re making a Belgian Tripel. Possibly my single favorite style — hence my burning desire to make one — Tripel is a sweet, golden, light bodied, yet ferociously alcoholic beer. Hop bitterness is typically subdued but noteworthy, ceding the floor to sweet, pale malts and spices. Belgian candi sugar lightens the body while creating complex alcohol aromas, and Trappist-style yeast produces warm, banana-like esters that burst forth from a dense, creamy white head.

High alcohol content (ours will be around 8.5% or 9% ABV, but I’ve seen as high as 12%) is disguised by the ample sweetness. When it’s aged properly, it’s not uncommon to mistake this for a lighter session beer before falling out of your chair after half of a pint… which is one of the reasons why it is typically only served in a 10 oz tulip glass.

For a beer as big as this, it is very important that one create a yeast starter two or three days in advance. Creating a yeast starter gives your yeast extra time to wake up and reproduce in a light wort before getting dumped into the heavy wort that this recipe produces. The end result is a faster fermentation that starts sooner. We’ll go into detail on how this is done soon. In the mean time, however, my brother-in-law has an excellent yeast starter tutorial in his Picasa gallery here. He doesn’t do it quite the same way that I do starters (I don’t use an airlock, for example), but you won’t ever go wrong following Tim’s advice. The guy knows brewing better than anyone I’ve ever met.

Note that you could certainly try to do this without a yeast starter, but even with the starter, ours took two days to get up to full speed. Without the starter, we could have gone a week without seeing anything happen. By that time, one could only guess what other kind of microbes will have taken up shelter in all of that sweet, delicious wort.

But enough worrying. Here’s how we did it:

30 August, 2008
Belgian Tripel
5 gallons

3 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract (60 min)
6 lbs Pilsner Light Liquid Malt Extract (15 min)

8 oz CaraVienne Malt (Steeping)
8 oz CaraFoam Malt (Steeping)

1 lb Belgian Candi Sugar (60 min)

1 oz Vanguard Hops [4.4% AA] (60 min)
1 oz Sterling Hops [6.0% AA] (15 min)
1 oz Sterling Hops [6.0% AA] (1 min)

1 oz Crushed Whole Coriander Seed (15 min)
2 oz Sweet Orange Peel (15 min)

1 tablet Whirlfloc (20 min — clarifier)

White Labs Trappist Yeast WLP500

4 oz corn sugar (bottling)

———

Steep grains at 155°F for 30 minutes.

The boil will be for 60 minutes. Remove grains, turn off heat, and add dry malt extract while stirring. Add candi sugar and stir until dissolved. DO NOT add liquid malt extract yet!

Bring to a boil. Add Vanguard hops.

With 20 minutes remaining, add Whirlfloc tablet.

With 15 minutes remaining, turn off heat. Remove Vanguard hops and add liquid malt extract while stirring.

Return to a boil. Return Vanguard hops to the boil. Add 1 oz Sterling hops, along with crushed coriander seed and orange peel.

With 1 minute remaining, add 1 oz Sterling hops.

Chill wort to ~80°F. Pitch yeast. Allow to ferment to completion at ~70°F.

Rack to secondary fermenter. Age for at least two weeks before bottling.

Definitely a more complex recipe than we’ve brewed so far, and I confess that I did at times fail to relax, insisted on worrying, and did not have a homebrew. Make a checklist. Plan out every detail ahead of time and just follow your list. You’ll have a much less stressful brew day if you do.

This took twice as long as we expected to begin fermenting, but it did start eventually. Just be prepared for a couple days of worrying, followed by a moment of elation when your fiancée spots the first suggestion of krausen on the surface of your wort. Phew…

Also, keep in mind that this is going to be a fairly long and slow fermentation. I won’t be especially surprised if primary fermentation takes more than two weeks to complete. Let it do its thing. Good beer takes time.

Homebrewing, Our Brew Days 1 Comment »

Welcome to The Session, a monthly event in which beer and brewing bloggers get together to all write about a chosen topic on the same day! This is Session #19, for which Lootcorp writer Jim has chosen the topic, “Deutsches Bier.”

It’s funny how old rules get thrown out of proportion and miscontextualized sometimes.

The German Reinheitsgebot, literally “Purity Law”, sets down, in its current form, that beer brewed in Germany must only be made of malt, water, hops, and yeast. When it was first written in 1516, however, the law stated that beer could only be made from barley, water, and hops. The differences between the classic Reinheitsgebot and the current German beer law shed light on some interesting quirks in human knowledge and thinking.

The most striking difference between the two versions of Purity Law is the lack of a provision for yeast in the old law. This is due to the fact that nobody in that time period knew that yeast existed. The conversion of wort into beer was generally attributed to the will of God until Louis Pasteur uncovered the role of yeast in fermentation in the 1800s. Many brewers had at least figured out that the sediment at the bottoms of their fermentation vessels could be put into other batches of beer to encourage fermentation, but they didn’t know why doing so worked.

If I may be permitted a brief editorial, as a devout Atheist, I am endlessly amused by how often the will of God turns out to just be germs. End of editorial.

More interesting than the addition of yeast, though, is the change in wording from “barley” in the classic law to “malt” in today’s law.

The original motivation for Reinheitsgebot was not a quest for higher-quality beer, but was instead a desire to curb shortages of more expensive wheat and rye, by requiring beer makers to use barley, in order to help bread makers. This purely economic concern is obviously not relevant today, and so current German beer law now allows all malt, regardless of what kind. Hefeweizen lovers should be thankful for that.

The rationale for German beer law today is that it leads to better beer. Indeed, brewers all over Germany proudly proclaim that this law is proof positive that Germans brew the best beer in the world. While we certainly cannot deny that there are many excellent German beers, one need only open a badly skunked bottle of thoroughly unexciting Beck’s to realize how absurd this assertion is.

More likely is the case that Germans cling to Reinheitsgebot simply for the sake of tradition. And who can blame them? I certainly would not begrudge anyone their national pride. But tradition does not make German beer good; Marvelously skilled German brewers are what make German beer good. And do please note that this only applies to the good beer. There is plenty of bad beer in Germany, I promise you.

That people around the world still defend an ancient and antiquated economic ordinance on the grounds that it is the reason for unrelated modern successes is symptomatic of the importance of tradition inherent to the human condition. It points to the power of belief at the expense of reason, the propensity for people to feel when they could instead think. It restrains progress and inhibits learning, endangering our development as a species. The fact that the problem of tradition affects something even as ultimately inessential as beer shows just how stubborn humans are capable of being.

Opinion, The Session 2 Comments »

Roughly two weeks ago, the day after Ray got on bended knee and asked me to shack up with him forever til one of us kicks, the four of us (Ray, Steph, Tim, and me) headed along I-76 to Adamstown to attend the 12-4p.m. session of Stoudt’s 17th annual microfest, with proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Association. This was our first time at Stoudt’s Brewery, and I think we may have fallen in love.

First, I really appreciate the way the beer hall is designed, with 2 open-air courtyards and a large hall with a raised dance floor and stage. The ceilings are high and decorated with vintage posters and the most gorgeous Victorian (or perhaps they’re more Art Deco) chandeliers that the four of us have laid eyes on. Breweries were lined along the perimeter of the beer hall, as well as along one wall of the larger courtyard. In the middle of that courtyard was table after table of German food, as well as some staple drinking cuisine such as pizza, chips, and pretzels. We each had a hearty plate full of sausages, sauerkraut, pizza, nachos, etc., and everything was excellent! There was even fresh bread, which I presume was baked on the premises, since there is a bakery, Eddie’s Breads, on location.

We all agreed that this was one of the best fests yet. Barely any lines (yet there was still a good crowd, full of nice folks), an excellent selection of brewers and beers, great food, an excellent band — who even played my song, “Melissa” by the Allman Brothers — and possibly the biggest plus, which was Stoudt’s beers themselves. Stoudt’s was beyond generous and made ALL of their beers on tap available for sampling. ALL. If I had to guess, that meant that there were at least 7-8 at the main bar that had several friendly bartenders working the taps, as well as a table in the courtyard serving up 2-3 more brews, including a dark IPA that I think was called Black Eyed PA (I searched the Web site a bunch, but I believe it was a seasonal that made its summer exit; nevertheless, it was delish with quite the alcohol and hop kick).

After the fest, we headed over to Stoudt’s Brewpub, were quickly seated, and continued our reverence to some of the best brews we’ve ever tasted. I think my favorite was Fat Dog Stout, but they have so many to choose from and love.

So, enough of the gushing. Time for some pictures!

These fermenters stand directly outside of the brewery and were effective in getting us uber excited for the fest. Look at the hops!!!

I want that chandelier for my living room. It is that awesome.

The roof keeps the weather extremes at bay, while still providing plenty of natural light. And look at the trees! And the greenery!

We had such fun. Thank you Stoudt’s.

Breweries, Brewfests, Craft Beer Add Comment »