Juan's Home Brewery

Tis the Holiday Saison (2011)

2011-10-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Brew #: 27
Brew Date: October 16, 2011

Recipe based on that developed for the mini-mash version of Brother Levonian saison ale.

Ingredients

6 lbs extra-light dry malt extract

2.0 lbs Vienna malt

1.0 lb flaked wheat

0.5 lb flaked oats

12.0 oz sugar

3.0 oz Saaz hops @ 60 min. (bittering)

0.5 oz Glacier hops @ 60 min (bittering)

22 g. (0.67 oz) Glacier hops @ 30 min. (flavor)

0.75 oz Glacier hops @ 5 min. (aroma + flavor)

1.0 oz Saaz hops @ 0 min. (aroma)

8.0 oz honey, @ 0 min.

0.5 oz fresh tangerine peel @ 0 min

0.25 tsp black pepper @ 0 min

0.25 tsp turmeric @ 0 min

2 vials of White Labs WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast

0.5 oz Kent Goldings, @ dry hopping

Procedure

Placed grains in 1.0 gals of 165F water and held at between 148F and 162F for about 1 hr. Sparged into boiling kettle to make 6 gals in boil.

Added malt extract and sugar, and brought to boil.

Added 60-minute hops, and proceeded to add hops at times indicated above.

At minute 0, turned off heat and added the honey, 1.0 oz Saaz hops, tumeric, pepper, and tangerine peel.

Cooled wort to 85F, racked to fermenter and pitched yeast.

Gals in fermenter: 5

Gals. in Keg:

O.G.: 1.076

F.G.: 1.010

A.B.V.: 8.6

Fermentation Notes:
10/17 attached FermWrap heater
10/2* evident fermentation subsided. Unplugged FermWrap.
11/12 transfered to secondary fermenter with addition of 0.5oz of Kent Goldings pellets
11/20 Racked to keg and connected CO2

Mild Ale

2011-10-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

Brew #: 26

This recipe takes off using Charlie Papazian's Righteous American Real Ale, from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, as a starting point.   The primary variations are use of California ale yeast instead of an English-style yeast, and the addition of grains to add a reddish tint.

5 lbs amber DME
6 oz. Carafa III malt
1.5 oz. Cascade hop pellets (6.4% AAU) - bittering
0.5 oz. Kent Goldings hop pellets - aroma
1 tablet Whirfloc clarifying agent
6 gals. Arrowhead bottled water
2 vials of White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001)

Brought 1 gal water to 110*F. Added Carafa malt to it and raised temp and held to ~170*F for more or less 10 mins.

Brought 5 gals of water to boil in pot, sparged grain water into this. Returned to boil, and added DME and bittering hops.    At 1 to end of boil, added aroma hops and clarifier. Removed from heat at 45 min. mark.

Cooled wort and racked to fermenter.   Pitched yeast at 77*F.

Gals. in boil: 5
Gals. in fermenter: 4.75
Boil: 45 mins
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.5%
IBUs: 35.3 - 38.8

10/15: Racked to secondary fermenter.
           Tasted beer. Initial impression: light, refreshing, nice bitterness.
10/18 Transferred to keg for carbonation stage.

"Closed for Maintenance"

2011-08-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

I have emptied and cleaned all three kegs, and run sanitizer through the lines and taps on the kegerator. Soon I will install the new Perlick faucets, and the homebrewery will be ready to be put back into action.

Heretic Brewing

2011-06-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

On June 8th, on its final session, my BJCP beer judging class took a field trip to the facilities of Heretic Brewing, where Chris Kennedy, the head brewer, gave us a tour of the facilities.

Located in the new E. J. Phair Brewing Company brewery in Pittsburg (California), Heretic shares space in a rather unique time-share sort of arrangement, which entitles them to two brew days per week. The prepping and cleanup when working on such a large scale -30 barrel batches- can extend a brew day up to 12 hours, as opposed to a homebrewer's 2-4 hr brewday.

Here we see the mash tun, with a hydrating hopper above it. The grain is milled in a special room in the basement and transferred to the hopper via a long pipe fitted with an screw conveyor. Next to it, on the rights side of the photo, is the boiler.

Here we see some of the assorted connical fermenters in the brewery. The foremost two -each with a 30 barrel capacity- belong to Heretic, the rest to E. J. Phair.

At that time Heretic was in the last stages of fermenting a Brettanomyces-innoculated beer for release at the National Homebrewers' Conference in San Diego this week. They also have plans for a Brett porter in the works, but are waiting until after NHC to brew it.

Heretic -and E. J. Phair- are as yet fairly hampered in their brewing schedule by the absence of a cold room on premises.

This is the future cold room for the E. J. Pahir brewery. The kegs in the corner, as well as the area they're in, belong to Heretic. The kegs are all Sankey kegs, even the ones that are Corny-sized. Chris explained that on a commercial level Cornelius kegs are a pain and a risk for the brewer because they have so many places that yeast and bacteria can hide and they are so hard to clean compared to Sankey kegs.

Here Chris shows us the millroom and the pipe that carries the milled grain up to the mash tun at brewing time.

One of the peculiarities of brewing in Pittsburg is that the sewer system cannot accommodate the large amounts of trub and spent hops generated by the brewery, so they must all be removed before discharging the dirty water after cleaning the equipment. To try to make that the two brewing enterprises are going to experiment with a giant sieve to remove the solids from the discharge water.

After the tour, Chris joined us for the final session of beer judging over at the E. J. Phair taproom across the street.

Pouring at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival

2011-04-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today I got to spend the afternoon tasting some excellent craft beers and pouring Club DOZE homebrew, including my own Saison, for the public at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival.

Following the good reception given a homebrew tasting booth at another recent festival, DOZE was invited to share its members' homebrews at this iteration of the Craft Beer Festival.

It was great time, and our booth was one of the more popular ones, with many repeat visitors looking to taste our varied offerings.

A curiosity of the event was that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Enforcement regulations limited us to pouring into small plastic cups, even if someone tried to hand us their festival-issued glassware. I expect that it was that as homebrewers we were not licensed to dispense beer to the public, thus we could not "serve" beer but only offer folks a 2-3 oz. "tasting" sample.

Even so, by a bit past halfway through the event we finished off my keg of Saison and three others, and by the end of it we had drained fourteen corny kegs of homebrew!

Pouring at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival!

2011-04-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

It turns out that DOZE has been invited to set up a booth at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival next week and to serve our homebrews.

I'll be donating my keg of Saison to the effort, and look forward to pouring it for the public. So, if you're there, stop by for some!

T'is the Holiday Saison 2010

2010-10-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Brew #:25
Brew Date: October 27, 2010

Recipe based on that developed for the mini-mash version of Brother Levonian saison ale.

Ingredients

6 lbs extra-light dry malt extract

2.0 lbs Vienna malt

1.0 lb flaked wheat

0.5 lb flaked oats

12.0 oz sugar

3.0 oz Saaz hops @ 60 min.

0.5 oz Glacier hops @ 60 min

19 g. (0.67 oz) Glacier hops @ 30 min.

0.75 oz Glacier hops @ 5 min.

1.0 oz Saaz hops @ 0 min.

8.0 oz honey, @ 0 min.

0.5 oz fresh tangerine peel @ 0 min

0.25 tsp black pepper @ 0 min

0.25 tsp turmeric @ 0 min

2 vials of White Labs WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast

0.5 oz Kent Goldings, dry hopping

Procedure

Placed grains in 1.3 gals of 151F water and held at between 151F and 170F for 70 mins. Sparged into boiling kettle with 1 gal of 170F water, to make 6 gals in boil.

Added malt extract and sugar, and brought to boil.

Added 60-minute hops, and proceeded to add hops at times indicated above.

At minute 0, turned off heat and added the honey, 1.0 oz Saaz hops, tumeric, pepper, and tangerine peel.

Cooled wort to 82F, racked to fermenter and pitched yeast.

Gals in fermenter: 4.5

O.G.: not taken

F.G.: not taken

Fermentation
10/27 Pitched yeast at 82F. Set to ferment with FermWrap to keep temperature above ambient.
11/13 Racked to secondary fermenter, with addition of dry hops. I would have preferred to have done it a few days sooner, but I had a bad cold.
11/22 Very occasional bubbles through airlock. Fermentation or evaporation?
12/23 Racked to keg. Rather later than I would have liked, but I was sick for two weeks and figured it wouldn't be prudent to deal with the beer in that state. Tasted beer, a bit more bitter than I would have liked in the style. May mellow out with time, cooling, and carbonation.

Now, to get it carbonated in time for our New Year's Eve party....

Gals. in Keg: around 4.

Old Beer Ads

2010-09-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

No. 24: Pale

2010-08-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'd been calling it a "Mild" because that's all I could think of. It had an OG of 1.045 and around 50 IBUs. It's light in body and not very hoppy. So "mild" comes to mind. However, it is not a brown ale.

Looking at Charlie Papazian's description, it may fall more in the range of an Ordinary or a Special Bitter.

NB: Next time try a British yeast?

NB: at the September DOZE meeting it was generally agreed that it most fit the description of a Pale Ale.

Brew #24

Brew Date: August 22, 2010

Ingredients

7 lbs light liquid malt extract
1 lb Crystal 15°L malt
2 oz. black roasted barley
4 oz. CaraRed malt
1 oz N. Brewer 8.5% AA hops (bittering)
1 oz N. Brewer 8.5% AA hops (flavoring)
1 oz Centennial 9.2% AA hops (aroma)
2 vials of White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001)

Procedure

- Added grains to about 1.5 gals. 180°F purified water, turned off burner, covered and allowed to steep for 20 mins.

- Brought remainder of water to boil in kettle.
- At boil, sparged grain liquor into kettle.
At this point I realized that I had fudged my measurements and ended up with 7.5 gals in the kettle. To prevent boilover I removed 1.5 gals of wort and ketpt it in reserve.
- Added LME, and brought back to boil.

- Once back at boil added bittering hops. After foaming had subsided, I returned 1 gal of liquor to the kettle, and returned to boil.

- At 50 minutes added flavour hops, and remaining 0.5 gal of liquor.

- At 59 minutes added aroma hops.
- At 60 minutes removed from heat and turned on wort chiller.
- When wort reached 86°F, transferred to fermenter, leaving about 1 gal, full of sediment, in kettle.

- Pitched yeast at 84°F (actually, not much above room temperature today).

Gallons in fermenter: 5.5

Fermentation:
Active fermentation within 24 hrs.

Kegging/Bottling:
Kegged beer. Set CO2 at 30 psi to try to carbonate it in time for NCHF.

9/14: Overcabonated it. Oops! Tastes quite mild, very drinkable on a hot day. Liz likes it as well.

OG: 1.045

FG: Sample not large enough. Hydrometer rested on bottom of tube.

ABV: Unable to calculate.
IBUs: 46-52

Caporales & potos

2010-08-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

On my recent trip to Peru I picked up two traditional beer vessels:

First up, a pair of caporales. These large -aprox. 1 L capacity- glasses are the descendants of Inca keros. I would guess they came into use in the 19th C. and are still often used as the preferred serving vessel for chicha in the Peruvian Andes. They are, unfortunately, getting harder to find as drinking preferences have moved to beer, and for chicha, the glass is replaced by cheaper plastic tumblers. Nevertheless, at my request and moved by his own desire for some, Diego kept his eyes open for them, finally locating a bunch for sale in Lima's Mercado Central. He bought several, and I brought home a matched pair.

Another type of chicha cup, this one use primarily on Peru's north coast, is the poto. Made from a dried gourd, the poto is somewhat disposable. They are used until even setting them out to dry in the sun won't fix them up, at which point they are tossed away.

When the song says "...chicha servidita en mi rico poto..." this is what it's talking about.

I bought this one in the market in the Lima neighborhood of Surquillo.

"Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock" - Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brew

2010-08-15T21:52:00.001-07:00

Today at Whole Foods in Walnut Creek I picked up a bottle of one of two 30th Anniversary beers on hand from Sierra Nevada. The bottle I selected was an Imperial Helles Bock brewed by Charlie Papazian, Fred Eckhard, and Ken Grossman called, appropriately, "Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock". (The other one was "Fritz and Ken's Ale", from Ken Grossman and Fritz Maytag).

As it says on the label,

"Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhard are two of the country's most esteemed homebrewers and writers. ... Charlie and Fred agreed to work with us on this very special brew in honor of our 30th Anniversary. This Imperial Helles Bock is a testament to the ever-evolving brewer's art. ..."

The beer itself is, not unexpectedly, very nice. Smooth-drinking, with a nice head that isn't too thick but does hang around a bit. It feels rich but not chewy in the mouth, and the hops are assertive but not overpowering. I mean they're definitely there, right up front, but don't leave that bitter sucker punch after swallowing that some beers can. The label described the hop flavors as "floral", and while I'm not sure about that precisely, I would agree that they tend more in that direction than toward fruitiness (e.g. I definitely didn't detect any citrus or banana).

Overall, I like it. A lot.

I wish I had bought two, but at nearly 10 bucks a pop, I'm probably OK with just one at a time.

Brew Name: Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock
Style: Imperial Helles Bock
ABV: 8.3%
Brewery: Sierra Nevada
Serving Type: 1 pt 9.4 oz longneck

T'is the Holiday Saison

2009-11-24T19:33:00.000-08:00

Brew #:23
Brew Date: 24 November, 2009

Recipe based on that developed for the mini-mash version of Brother Levonian saison ale.

Ingredients

6 lbs extra-light dry malt extract

2.0 lbs Vienna malt

1.0 lb flaked wheat

0.5 lb flaked oats

12.0 oz sugar

3.0 oz Saaz hops, 3.0% AA @ 60 min.

19 g. (0.67 oz) Glacier hops, 6.0% AA, @ 30 min.

1.0 oz Glacier hops, 6.0% AA, @ 20 min.

1/8 oz Glacier hops, 6.0% AA, @ 5 min.

1.0 oz Saaz hops, 3.0% AA, @ 0 min.

8.0 oz honey, @ 0 min.

0.5 oz fresh tangerine peel @ 0 min

0.25 tsp black pepper @ 0 min

0.25 tsp turmeric @ 0 min

0.5 oz Kent Goldings, 6.1% AA, dry hopping

2 vials of White Labs WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast

3.0-3.5 volumes CO2 in keg/ 5.4-6.6 oz corn sugar for bottling (for 5-5.5 gals).

Procedure

Placed grains in 1.3 gals of 151F water and held at between 151F and 164F for 70 mins. Sparged into boiling kettle with 1.5 gals of 170F water, to make 6 gals in boil.

Added malt extract and sugar, and brought to boil.

Added 60-minute hops, and proceeded to add hops at times indicated above, however the 1 oz of Glacier hops added at 20 minutes was intended to be added at 5 minutes, thus the addition of the remaining 1/8 oz of Glacier hops at 5 minutes. Added enough water to return volume to 6 gals.

At minute 0, turned off heat and added the honey, 1.0 oz Saaz hops, tumeric, pepper, and tangerine peel.

Cooled wort, and pitched yeast at 84F.

Gals in fermenter: 6

O.G.: not taken

F.G.:

Fermentation
11/24 Pitched yeast at 84F. Set to ferment with FermWrap to keep temperature above ambient.
11/25 Temp. over 80F, detached FermWrap almost entirely. Krausen evident.
11/26 Temp at about 76F.
11/30 76F
12/1 76F. No evident fermentation.
12/3 Racked to secondary fermenter, with addition of 0.5 oz of 6.1%AA Kent Goldings hop pellets.
12/5 75F. Active fermentation, airlock bubbling frequently. Is this normal? Effect of rousting the yeast?
12/13 Turned off FermWrap.
12/21 Kegged beer.

Gals. in Keg: 4.5

American IPA

2009-11-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

Brew #22

Brew Date: 15 Nov. 2009

Ingredients

9 lbs ultralight liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs Crystal 15°L malt
1.5 oz Magnum hops (bittering)
2 oz Cascade hops (flavoring)
2 oz Cascade hops (aroma)
0.5 oz Chinook hops, 12.1% AA (dry hopping)
1 tablet Whirfloc clarifying agent
2 vials of White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001)

Procedure

- Steeped grains in grain bag at 170F - 171F for 30 minutes.

- Brought wort to boil and added malt extract

- Once back at boil added bittering hops

- At 45 minutes added Whirfloc

- At 53 minutes added flavour hops

- At 60 minutes added aroma hops, and turned off flame

- Cooled with wort chiller (NOTE: Stirring wort with wort chiller really reduces cooling time!)

- Pitched yeast at 85F

Gallons in fermenter: 6

OG: n/a

FG:

Fermentation:

11/16 65F Evidence of foam, which had subsided.

11/18 64F
11/23 64F
11/24 Racked to secondary, dry-hopped with 0.5 oz Chinook (12.1% AA) whole-leaf hops
12/3 Kegged beer.

2009-10-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

The Session: Eastern Beer

2009-10-02T16:39:00.001-07:00

For this month's Session I opted to go about as east as I could, until I almost ran out of land: Thai beer in the form of the country's best-known brand (at least abroad), Singha Premium Lager Beer.

Singha is brewed by the Singha Corp., of Bangkok, and labels itself the "original Thai beer, since 1933."

Singha is a pleasant easy-drinking beer that will promptly get one in that "session mood," but could be easy to overdo, even though at 5% ABV it is not overly alcoholic.

The color is a pretty gold and the head, while fluffy and white at pouring, soon disappears; which does not mean that the beer loses its effervesence. I poured it before I sat down to type and it is still fizzy, with bubbles steadily rising through the column of liquid - and I'm a hunt-and-peck typist! I guess it could be classed as an example of the countless "international"-style lagers out there, but if so, it is a solid one at that.

I have enjoyed Singha, and I must say that it is nice to taste it -really taste it- without having it be merely a cooling agent for a curry-ignited palate.

I would like to be able to say that Singha has captured the essence or terroir of Thailand, that in tasting it I can smell the foliage and exult in the tropical sun, that it takes me to the Far East, but I can't. It is not different-tasting enough for that, the presentation (a standard 22 oz brown longneck bottle with a two-tone label) is unispired, and never having myself been to Asia, let alone Thailand, I have no nostalgic associations to be awoken.

Interestingly, if anywhere, it takes me back to South America with its own set of golden lagers and I would not hesitate to pair it with any Latin American cuisine.

____________________
Related Links:

The Session 32: Drink East, Young Man

Review: Green Lakes Organic Ale

2009-09-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

(Originally published in the Club DOZE newletter, The Monthly Mash, October 2008.)

This month's beer review is of Green Lakes Organic Ale by the Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon.

Green Lakes Organic Ales is a (5% ABV) dark amber beer with an orange tint and an attractive appearance. Upon pouring it presents a low head, with mixed bubble sizes. However, head retention is somewhat low, as 3-4 minutes into the glass (1/3 of the way down) the head was gone.

It does not have a prominent hop aroma, but it does offer a nice, unagressive bitterness and hop flavor. It's not malty in flavor at the outset, but a bit of roasted malt character seems to peek out from behind the hops. The overwhelming impression is one of smoothness. Malt flavor and aromas do emerge later into the glass, once the head has subsided and the beer has started to warm.

The blurb from the brewery on the label of this beer indicates that this beer is made with five types of one-hundred percent organic malt “balanced with Crystal and Salmon-Safe Sterling hops” making it as “easy to drink” as it is “easy on Mother Earth.” While a USDA certification of “Organic” is not one of the first things I look for in a beer, it certainly doesn’t seem to hurt any. Green Lakes Organic Ale is easy to drink. It is a good, solid, tasty amber ale, though in my opinion, other than that USDA certification and the particulars of its ingredients, it doesn’t particularly stand apart nor above other amber or pale ales on the market; but, in the same vein, you’d not go wrong by choosing it for your home bar.

Cerveceria De Tomas - Lima, Peru

2009-08-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

In the first week of August, on one of my last days in Lima, Nico, Diego and I went to visit a locale that I had been curious to visit: Restaurant Cerveceria De Tomas.

Located on Lima's Avenida Rosa Toro, home of many cevicherias, it's fare -not unexpectedely- tended toward seafood. However, the reason for the visit was that De Tomas is Lima's only brewpub.

On the day we went, the place could not have been deader. For most our meal we were the only diners, and only at the end did another table fill up. This may have been in part due to the day of the week -a Tuesday- and the time of the year -mid-Winter- as ceviche is generally regarded as a revitalizer after a hard night and as Summertime fare.

The fare, it must be said, was quite good. Not great, mind you, but solidly done and in that realm De Tomás has no need to envy any of its neighbors I'm sure.

I, of course, was there for the beer.

All of De Tomas offerings seem to be ales. Upon that base, they build their selection of beers by tweaking the malts, and most often, it seems, by use of additives. The server did share that they use a mixture of whole-grain malts and malt extracts depending on the recipe and on availability of particular ingredients. He would not say what hops were used, saying that that was known "only by the technician in charge of making the beer."

From what I can recall, their basic beer was a "Pilsner", although it lacked the body and hop character of any Pilsner I have tasted and did not even compare favourably with Peru's standard Pilsner- and Bavarian-style commercial lagers. If anything, it tasted like a light beer.

From L to R: Pilsner, Algarrobina Beer, Red Beer

The next one on the list, and the second we tried, was one made with the addition of algarrobina, a syrup made from the seed pods of the algarrobo or huarango tree (Prosopis pallida), which is sometimes referred to in English as "American carob" and in Hawaii, where it has been introduced from South America, as "Kiawe." Algarrobina syrup is widely used in Peruvian cooking and is a common flavoring in desserts and cocktails. The beer made with it was actually quite tasty and balanced. The algarrobina added a nice undertone to the beer but did not dominate, and seems to have lent some body to the beer as well.

The third beer tasted was their Red beer. This one was brewed with darker malts and the addition of honey. It also was an improvement over the Pilsner and the honey's influence was noticeable. It's head was also denser and more longlasting than that of the other two.

Other offerings included a dark beer (also brewed with honey), a lime-flavored beer, and a mint-flavored beer, as well a "Premium" beer which included "special malts, honey, and fruit flavors" but which was sadly unavailable at that time.

Considering that Peru's beer culture is dominated by Bavarian- and Pilsner-style lagers and the complete absence, at least in Lima, a metropolis of nearly 9 million souls, of a single other brewpub, one has to recognize that De Tomás is doing well by holding its own ground in the face of some stiff competition.

I suspect that the lightness of the beers and low hop character are probably, more than anything, a measure of the extent to which the availability and prices of malt and hops in Peru are impacted by the sheer size and reach of Backus & Johnston, which holds near-monopoly on beer and brewing in the country.

Backus' monolithic status has been recently challenged by the Brazilian group InBev, and by the Ayacuchano Añaño family with their Aje Group breweries. Hopefully, others -maybe one of the dozen or so small, independent breweries said to be operant in Lima- will follow upon Mr. De Tomás footsteps and open up more brewpubs. For such a beer-drinking nation, it would seem a natural step, and in any case, Mr De Tomás seems committed to making it happen as he offers yearly courses on brewing at the pub.

I think we can all drink to that!

Restaurante y Casa Cervecera "De Tomas"
Av. Agustín La Rosa Toro Nº1151
San Borja
Lima 41 - Perú

National Homebrewers Conference

2009-06-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

I just got back late last night from the National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland, three days and nights of beer talks, beer seminars, beer tastings, beer samplings, and beer drinking.

Commemorative beers brewed specially for the occasion, and distributed as
gifts to those attending the conference upon registering on-site

LECTURES

Clockwise from upper left: John Palmer (author, Brewing Classic Styles) on proteins and
head retention; Bob Hansed (Briess) on specialty malts and color in beer; Michael Ferguson
(BJ's Restaurants) on brewing German lagers; Tomme Arthur (The Lost Abbey) on
"ingredients 5 - 10".

The talks and lectures were pretty interesting though not always immediately relevant to me as an extract brewer. Nonetheless I did learn and found them all informative and, by and large, entertaining.

One of the best was the talk given by Tomme Arthur of The Lost Abbey. Not only was he a fun speaker, but he was very gracious and earnest in anwering all manner of questions from the floor. To make matters even better, he had a number of samples of Lost Abbey beers on hand.

Some of those were pretty potent and by the end of the talk we were all a bit loopy, which made it even more amusing that the session was punctuated by corks flying through the air preceded by loud POP!s as the bottles were uncorked!

HOSPITALITY SUITE

Clockwise from upper left: More Beer!'s table at the Hospitality Suite; Rogue Brewery's table;
Cellarmaster Mike McDole and Randy enjoying a well-earned break in the HS; the Brewing Network
crew pouring their beers in the HS, on the Maltose Falcons' awesome portable bar.

CLUB NIGHT

From L to R: A part of DOZE's offerings on Club Night; Dick and Nate in the DOZE
beer tent; Aaron and I manning the DOZE food table.

With Charlie Papazian.
The lady who snapped the picture for me somehow managed
to capture the precise instant in which we both blinked!

CLOSING BANQUET

The Conference closed with an awards ceremony and a banquet directed by DOZE's own Sean Paxton, a.k.a. The Homebrew Chef. Sean designed a menu for us in which every dish was paired to a beer from Rogue Brewery, and that beer was used in the preparation of the dish itself. These included an Asian-inspired salad, a choice of roast pork or chicken, and a delicious chocolate mousse dessert made with Tcho brand chocolates and a surprisingly awesome chocolate-infused imperial stout which, we were told, is brewed under contract by Rogue for sale abroad and, other than at our tables, was unavailable in the US.

SOUVENIR

Preparing for the NHC

2009-06-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

With the advent of the AHA's National Homebrewers' Conference upon us a group of DOZErs gathered at Black Diamond Brewery to unpack, sort, and record entries from all over the country for the National Homebrew Competition to be held at the Conference.

Utah passes HB51

2009-03-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

On March 24th the Gov, of Utah signed into law HB 51, which among other things ammends the regulations on manufacture of alcoholic beverages such that,

(b) An individual may without being licensed under this chapter manufacture in the 83 individual’s personal residence a fermented alcoholic beverage if:

(i) the individual is 21 years of age or older;

(ii) the individual manufactures no more than:

(A) 100 gallons in a calendar year, if there is one individual that is 21 years of age or 87 older residing in the household; or

(B) 200 gallons in a calendar year, if there are two or more individuals who are 21 years of age or older residing in the household;

(iii) the fermented alcoholic beverage is manufactured and used for personal or family 91 use and consumption, including use at an organized event where fermented alcoholic 92 beverages are judged as to taste and quality; and

(iv) the fermented alcoholic beverage is not for:

(A) sale or offering for sale; or

(B) consumption on a premise licensed by the commission.

In other words, Homebrewing is now Legal in Utah.

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Porter

2009-02-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

(Brew #21; Brewed January 19, 2009)

Based on MoreBeer! kit #170

Ingredients

8 lbs ultralight malt syrup

4 oz maltodextrin

1 lb Crystal 40°L malt

8 oz Black Patent malt

4 oz Chocolate malt

1 tablet Whirfloc clarifier

1 oz Glacier hops (bittering)

1 oz Cascade hops (aroma)

1 vial White Labs California Ale yeast (#WLP001)

Added grains in grain bag to 3 gals. cool water and allowed to steep until liquid reached 170°F. Removed grains and brought wort to boil.

Added malt extract and bittering hops. The kit instructions indicated adding the maltodextrin at this point but I forgot about it until minute 50 of the boil, so I added it then. I also added 2 gals water to make it a full-boil, and boiled for an additional 20 minutes.

Added bittering hops and boiled for an additional 1 minute, and removed pot from heat. Topped off with 1 gal distilled water.

Total boil time: 1 h. 16 min.

Pitched yeast at 84°F

Gals. in fermenter: 5

"Artesanos de la Cebada" segment from Peru TV

2008-12-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

A video segment on microbreweries in Lima from Panamericana Televisión's Panorama news program:

Part 1 (7:52 mins)

Part 2 (8:13 mins)

The Session

2008-12-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

THE REPEAL OF PROHIBITION

Seventy-five years ago, on December 5, 1933, the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah ratified the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, thereby repealing the 18th Amendment, which had banned the import to, export from, and "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" in the United States.

The end of Prohibition meant that after 13 years Americans could again legally produce, sell, obtain, and give away alcoholic beverages - including beer. At the time this came as a great relief and joy to millions, and it no doubt also meant an almost immediate improvement in the quality of drink available after more than a decade of clandestine moonshine, bathtub gin, and questionable homebrew.

Today we continue to reap both the bitter fruit of Prohibition and the sweet fruit of its end.

Prohibition brought down a fine brewing tradition harkening back to the earliest days of the European settlement in North America. Before Prohibition the United States had a wealth of local and regional breweries producing a variety of old-world lagers and ales, reflecting the tastes and styles of the peoples who settled each area. After prohibition we were left with a few, mostly larger, breweries and the bitters, porters, ales of days past were replaced with watery, weak-bodied and nearly flavorless lagers.

Luckily, that has now changed, as Americans have slowly rebuilt the traditions of old, researching and reconstructing the old recipes, reviving old styles and bringing regional brewing cultures back to life. From Anchor Steam on the West Coast, to Sam Adams on the East, and from a million microbreweries and home taps in between, we are able to taste the fruit of the 21st Ammendment.

Thinking of all that and upon what a momentous event ocurred in people's lives seventy-five years go, I cannot help but think that today of all days it is doubly true that, "Surely, it must be Happy Hour somewhere," and that here, where I sit -glass of homebrew in hand- it is Happy Hour indeed! So I invite all and sundry to raise a glass, mug, shot, or stein to the 21st Ammendment.

Cheers!

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Best Bitter

2008-11-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

Brew #20

MoreBeer! Kit #118

6 lbs. ultralight malt extract syrup
0.5 lbs light dry malt extract
0.5 lbs Carastan malt
1 oz. Kent Goldings hops (bittering)
2 oz. Kent Goldings hops (flavoring)
1 oz. Kent Goldings hops (aroma)
1 tablet Whirlfloc clarifying agent
1 vial White Labs English Ale Yeast (strain #WLP002 )

Added the Carastan malt to 4.5 gals cool water and allowed to steep as water heated on stove. Removed grain when water reached 170°F.

When water boiled, turned off heat and added malt extracts. Returned to boil and added bittering hops.

At 55 minutes added flavoring hops and Whirlfloc tablet.

At 58 minutes added aroma hops.

Total boil time 60 minutes.

Cool and rack to fermenter. Gallons left in pot at end of boil: 4. Gallons lost to boiling: 0.5. Gallons of cold water in fermenter: 1.25

# of gallons in fermenter: 5.25

American Wheat (Sept. 20th, 2008)

2008-11-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

Brew #19

(MoreBeer! Kit #125)

3 lbs Bavarian Wheat dry extract
2 lbs Light dry malt extract
0.5 oz Glacier hop pellets (bittering)
1 oz Glacier hop pellets (aroma)
1 tablet Whirfloc clarifying agent
1 vial White Labs California Ale yeast (#WLP001)

1) Brought to boil, 2.5 gals of water;
2) When boiling, turned off heat and stirred in dry extracts and bittering hops;
3) Returned to boil, and boiled for 60 mins.
4) At 40 mins., inserted wort chiller;
5) At 55 mins. added Whirfloc;
6) At 59 mins. added aroma hops;
7) At 60 mins. turned off heat, and started water through wort chiller;
8) When wort cooled somewhat, added to fermenter with 3 gals. cold water;

Temperature at pitching: 86F

Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV: 3.8%

Duration of Fermentation: Kegged on the 10th day (Sept. 30th)

Initial tasting notes: 9/30/08 - Tastes more or less like I'd expect a wheat beer to taste but surely will improve with chilling and carbonation. Hopefully it will ready to drink on Friday.

Tasting notes: 10/12/08 - Tastes pretty good. The flavour has rounded out a bit, and it seems to have a bit more body than before. The wheat flavour comes through nicely.

10/27/08 - There's been a slightly "off" flavor in there from the start, but it hasn't increased over time. Tonight at the DOZE meeting one of the members correctly described it as "Band-Aidey". Several suggested it could be due to chloramines in our tap water, which would not necessarily volatilize in the boil.

California Ale (May 7, 2008)

2008-11-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

Cerveza Ale Californiana

1 lb/453 gr, malta Crystal (15ºL)
7 lbs/3.175 kg, jarabe de extracto de malta palida
1 oz/28 gr, lupulos Magnum (amargante)
1 oz/28 gr, lupulos Glacier (saborizante)
1 oz/28 gr, lupulos Glacier (aromatizante)
1 tableta de clarificante marca Whirfloc
1 paquete de levadura tipo California Ale

1) En una olla muy grande colocar la malta Crystal y 3 galones (11.36 litros) de agua fria y traer lentamente (aprox. 30 minutos) al hervor.

2) Apagar el calor, retirar los granos del liquido.

3) Agregar los lupulos Magnum y el extracto de malta, revolviendo constantemente con un cucharon, y volver al hervor.

4) Bajar el calor para que no se caramelize el extracto, pero matener el hervor. Contar 60 minutos.

5) Esterilizar la fermentadora y todo lo demas que entrara en contacto con el mosto.

6) Al minuto 40 agregar el Whirfloc

7) Al minuto 55 agregar los lupulos saborizantes.

8) Al minuto 59 agregar los lupulos aromatizantes.

9) Al minuto 60, retirar del calor y, con la tapa puesta, dejar enfriar un poco. (Se puede colocar la olla en un baño de agua helada, con tal de que se tenga la tapa bien puesta y que no entre nada a la olla.)

10) Colocar 2.5 galones (9.46 litros) de agua fria en la fermentadora esterilizada.

11) Una vez enfriado un poco el mosto, colarlo a traves de un colador esterilizado (la manera mas facil es colocar el colador metalico en la olla de mosto hirviente al final del hervor) a la fermentadora.

12) Tapar la fermentadora con su tapa, tambien esterilizada, y colocar el dispositivo para expeler CO2 sin dejar entrar aire.

Por tradicion, al hacer cerveza se debe tomar cerveza o no saldra bien.

13) Una vez la temperatura del mosto baje a 70-78ºF (21-25ºC), agregar la levadura y oxigenar con sacudir la fermentadora por varios minutos.

14) Colocar en un sitio oscuro y de temperatura estable no muy alta ni muy baja -de 60 a 70ºF (15-21ºC)- por mas o menos dos semanas.

15) Cuando haya cesado la fermentacion, embotellar con la adicion de 3/4 taza de azucar disuelta en 2 tazas de agua hirviente y dejar reposar 2 semanas mas (para que se forme gas en la botella), o llenar la chopp.

Rinde: 5 galones (19 litros).

Al final, deje enfriar una muestra y usando un hidrometro (tambien llamado densimetro) medi la gravedad especifica del mosto: 1.052.

Al finalizar la fermentacion, en aproximadamente 14 dias, tomaremos otra medida que, junto con esta, nos permitira calcular el grado de alcohol de la cerveza acabada.

Recipe Index (By Name)

2008-11-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

A
Ameircan IPA
American Wheat Ale

B
Best Bitter

C
California Ale

I
IPA- Ameican IPA

S
Saison - T'is the Holiday Saison 2009
Saison - T'is the Holiday Saison 2010

Juan's Home Brewery

Tis the Holiday Saison (2011)

Mild Ale

"Closed for Maintenance"

Heretic Brewing

Pouring at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival

Pouring at the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival!

T'is the Holiday Saison 2010

Old Beer Ads

No. 24: Pale

Caporales & potos

"Charlie, Fred, and Ken's Bock" - Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brew

T'is the Holiday Saison

American IPA

The Session: Eastern Beer

Review: Green Lakes Organic Ale

Cerveceria De Tomas - Lima, Peru

National Homebrewers Conference

Preparing for the NHC

Utah passes HB51

Related readings:

Porter

"Artesanos de la Cebada" segment from Peru TV

The Session

Best Bitter

American Wheat (Sept. 20th, 2008)

California Ale (May 7, 2008)

Recipe Index (By Name)