Quick Sour Post

So, for the past 3+ years I've had the second runnings from Blackwine II sitting on Roselare yeast. Time to do something with it. So, last night I had a private blending party and mixed 0.75 gallons of the sour stuff with 1.5 gallons of Westy 16/17 (a 15.5% Belgian Dark) to create what to me tastes like an Oud Bruin, yet with more malt character. I added some priming sugar, so I'll know more in a few weeks. Until then...

2008 Anchor Trip: Part 2: Thirsty Bear -- Fail

Sigh... I remember about a decade back when Thirsty Bear was a decent little brewpub. Sure, the place was still loaded with yuppie scumbags and they seemed a bit more concerned with their tapas than beer taps, but it was a good place to go and grab a pint after work and an even better place to grab a keg from when you were tossing a party. The only beer I remember from 1997 was a pale ale -- typical American brewpub fare to be sure. However it was well made and quite good.

At some point in time Thirsty Bear has gone organic on us. Too bad, for as nice an idea as that is (hippie), organic beer means you are working with inferior malt and hops. The beer just ain't going to taste that good. Think sulfates and wine. Combine less than ideal ingredients with less than stellar techniques and you have a recipe for blah. Or, in the case of Thirsty Bear, several recipes.

Dr. Drew reserved the upstairs room for the Falcons, but only about 25 of us showed up. It was a last minute deal and most other people did their own thing or went to Magnolias. Still, we were there to drink (at least I was) so I had to try everything.

The first red light was their "Valencia Wheat." Turned out it was a Wit. Only because they have no faith in the beer-intelligence of their patrons do they cynically call it a wheat. It should be pointed out that they have no problem with an item on their dinner menu called, "Kokotxas." Worse than purposely mislabeling a beer is serving a bad one. This supposed Wit was sharp, tart, the color of Mountain Dew and about as far from a Wit as soda water is from Hoegaarden.

They also had a beer on called, "Golden Vanilla" -- it's a blond described as "light and smooth in taste" that for some reason has been infused with Vanilla Beans. I think that some reason is absurd levels of Diacetyl. In fact, most of the Thirsty Bear beers seemed to be suffering from big bunches of butter flavor. We did mix in one part Vanilla beer to two parts nitro-tap Stout, but... it didn't really help. They had a less than hoppy butter-balled IPA and an English ESB on a nitro tap... That one really sucked. So we left.

To 21st Amendment!!! Oh man, did that save the night. Every Falcons' frown immediately got turned upside down. Who am I kidding? We weren't just smiling, we were downright drooling. Turns out it's strong beer month in San Francisco (someone forgot to tell Thirsty Bear) and 21A had big beer flowing out their wazoo.

Jimmy and Earnesto Smiling at 21 Amendment


I sampled a 9% Belgian brewed in honor of Michael Jackson called "Beer Hunter." A big-ass Impy stout with a little too much espresso and a 10% watermelon wheat wine that is a punched of version of their regular watermelon beer (amazingly, you could taste the watermelon -- Drew was saying it takes 500 pounds of melon for their "normal" offering).

But I'm really here to talk about Hop Crisis. 21A whipped up a mother of a high gravity DIPA that weighs in at a liver-busting 11.8% abv. More over, it smells and tastes absolutely delicious. Everyone we came with had at least one glass. I had two. Some had more. It just ruled, big time. I want more. Better than Pliny the Younger. I know, I know. But it is.

Here's me after two glasses of Hop Crisis and that big espresso Stout.



Nuff said.

2008 Anchor Trip: Part 1: Firestone Walker

The Maltose Falcons won the coveted California Homebrew Club of the Year for the 7th time. That means that Anchor Brewing threw us a big, fat old party at the brewery. It also meant about 140 Los Angeles based Falcons would be on the loose in SF. Loud, brutish and very, very thirsty. The following few blog entires are going to attempt -- with the aid of photos -- to capture at least some of the beer-soaked madness that went down (click pics to make 'em big).

Jim Crooks and One Day Champ


Myself, my girlfriend Amy Judd and Drew "One Day Champ" Beechum hopped in my car and headed up the 101. However, we decided to make a pit stop at the Firestone Walker Brewery in Paso Robles for some lunch and libations. Only they don't serve lunch. So, I left the non-drivers to pound beer and I hit subway for some foot-longs. EDIT: Just realized why Drew looks like such a goon in the above picture -- he's drunk out of his gourd at 1:30 pm. Yup, he polished off a pint of Union Jack and a snifter full of Parabola, plus something else, I'm sure.



Beers Sampled:

Union Jack -- 8% British DIPA. Clean and well made. Drew bought a 6-pack.

Saucerful of Secrets -- Big, spiced Belgian monstrosity. Designed by a homebrewer and FW's first Belgain ale. Pretty good.

Red Nectar IPA -- That's right, FW bought Nectar Ales. Good, old school Cali pale ale. Though calling it an IPA (in the west coast sense of things) is a stretch.

Velvet Mirkin -- Some sort of Bourbon Oatmeal Stout on a nitro tap. I fucking hate nitro taps, so I didn't bother with it. Part of what goes into FW 11.

Winter Beer -- OK, this was a blend of the 9% Saucerful of Secrets and the 5% Velvet Mirkin to create a bizarre (yet good) 6% wassail. Very cool, actually. And no frigging nitro tap. EDIT: Turns out this beer is called, "Saucerful of Merkins"

Parabola -- Oh lordy. Yes, this is a 14% mega-stout that serves as the primary a beer in FW 11 (about 3.5% of the final product). Tasted pretty meh when served cold, but as it warmed up, truly special and delicious -- exactly how Dark Lord behaves... Hmmm... Also, Jim Cibak was there. No seriously. He was in the tasting room with us. As was Matt Bryndalison.

Pale 31 -- I was told by the barman that Pale 31 is the best pale ale in the world. When I balked, he showed me the GABF medal proving it. Not my kind of Pale Ale. I could see East Coasters getting all hot and bothered by Pale 31, but to us Golden Staters... not so much.


We also wound up wandering around the brewery (literally) and then running into another FW Brewer, Jim Crooks. He led us to the new giant-ass cold room where we saw cases and cases of Union Jack six-packs waiting to head out. We also saw the Double-Barrel fermenting process, where FW will be sticking a bunch of new 120 barrel fermenters and their grain mill 4-stories up off the ground.

Barrel O' Rufus


Mr. Crooks also gave us a bottle of Walker's Reserve aged in Bourbon Barrels. Check back here in a couple of days to find out how that tasted. (hint: good)

Trillions of Cells: 5 Yeast Blended Starter

(click images to make them larger)

I'm lucky enough to know Dr. MB Raines. She not only makes some of the best beer I've tasted (and the single best Lambic I've ever tasted), but knows more about brewer's yeast than basically anyone. And by basically I mean anyone.

MB showed up at a Flacons meeting one day with a strong Belgian golden ale called "Sextuplet." It was something nutso like 14 or 15% alcohol. On top of that, it was delicious. I had made beers this strong before, but my Belgian attempts (which tend to feature simple grain bills and very few hops) were always hot alcoholic bombs. Not so with MB's Sextuplet. The secret? Different types of yeast.

I forget the specifics, but she had at least three distinct strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Belgian, of course. Obviously, different strains of yeast develop different phenols and esters. They also have different alcohol tolerances. I wish I could speak more to the science of how and why (I can't), but suffice to say that blending yeasts increases the number of flavors in your finished product. Is this always better? No. But you can get lucky. And so far I've been lucky.

My first experiment with blending yeasts was a beer called Steve French (if you don't get the name, watch the "Trailer Parks Boys," season IV). It featured five different types of yeast. I still remember when I was transferring that beer into secondary. I checked the gravity. Steve French had dropped from 1.090 to 1.008. Moreover, it tasted fantastic. Nearly as dry as a saison, but with tropical fruity esters all over the joint.

Then, on that yeast Cake, Jimmy and I whipped up a 1.158 monster called Westy 16 that dropped to 1.034 for an abv of 16.9% [UPDATE -- I checked my notes -- 1.139 down to 1.012. So there you go]. So, we changed the name to Westy 16/17. That monster won some medals, including a first place in the 2007 DKM Imperial Anything 1.100+ category. Tomorrow, we're brewing up 20 gallons of the Westy as a 35th Anniversary Falcons beer. So, I'm making a huge ass starter.



The 5 yeasts going into this starter are:

WYeast 1288 Belgian Strong Ale
WYeast 3787 Trappist
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit
White Labs 530 Abbey
White Labs 510 Bastogne



Above you can see the amount of yeast made after 24 hours on the stir plate. Tons of yeast is still in suspension. I figure about one more finger. Still, not nearly enough! Here's one more pic:



Again -- not nearly enough. Time to step it up, and debut my new 3000 mL flask:



OK, I'm thinking this will give me almost enough for 20 gallons of 20 gallons of 1.155+ wort. Jamil's butt-kicking yeast pitching rate calculator is telling me I need just over 2 trillion viable cells. Which seems just about right.



I'll let you know. And it looks like I'm going to need a bigger stir plate!

Gonzo 4: The Boozening

Drew commented that we were nuts to use such top shelf booze on this year's Gonzo. To which I can only say, yep -- we's nuts. (Member -- if you click the pics, they get BIG!)



Two shots from each bottle did the trick.



There's some dried Shitake Mushrooms. Yummo, as my girl might say.



OK, this is the booze tincture with the 'shrooms stuffed into it. We let this sit for a few hours, then remove the 'shrooms, squeeze 'em out back into the pint glass and then dump the whole mess into the wort at flame out.



We went a bit nuts this year and actually added some mushrooms, hemp seeds and poppy seeds right into the mash tun. My theory -- why in the hell not?



Hey! That's Drew. Grinding up the grain. Wait, not grinding -- milling.

And here's what I remember of the recipe:

Pretty even split between US 2-row and Marris Otter
biscuit malt
Caramel 120
Munich Malt
Acidulated Malt
Some Special B, probably, maybe
2 pounds of turbonado sugar
6 shitake mushrooms plus some hemp and poppy seeds

90 minute boil

2 ounces of Warrior + .3 ounces of Summit @ 60 min
1 ounce Centenial + 1.25 ounces of Chinook in the hopback @ 30
2 ounces of Palisade in the hopback @ 10
2 ounces of Cascade at flame out

two ounces of bourbon, 2 of rum, 2 of tequila with shitake mushrooms. let that sit around for a few hours.

1 table spoon each of hemp and poppy seeds at flame out. Add just the liquid from the mushroom/booze thing at flameout.

add in the rind of an grapefruit and a tangerine.

Pitched on a yeast cake of 1056 and 1278.

No Citrus Shortage: Passivating The Boiling Kettle

After years and years of abuse use, it was time to really clean the boiling kettle. In fact, I decided to go ahead and passivate the stainless steel. I have a big old bottle of Acid #5, but... I also have an entire yard full of citrus fruit -- way more than I can eat. Or even give away, really. So, I cut up a few dozen tangerines and lemons, tossed 'em in the keg (after a mondo scrubbing) and filled her up with water. My favorite part was drinking the run off. Yum. The keg now sparkles.

Continuous Hopping: The Gonzo Way

Well friends, it's that time of year -- when Drew Beechum and I get together and whip up a batch of Gonzo. Just to refresh your memories, Gonzo is a barelywine drew first brewed on the day homebrewer and patriot Hunter S. Thompson killed himself. This recipe calls for a 1.092 beer with bourbon, tequila, rum, hemp seeds, poppy seeds and shitake mushrooms. Yum, yum, yum.

Besides honoring Dr. Gonzo, this beer is (in true Gonzo fashion) also about experimentation. So, besides adding hemp, poppy and shitake 'shrooms directly to the mash, we decided to try something new. Continuous hopping.

The idea came to me in a day dream. Then I forgot about it completely until Kelsey McNair reminded me (I told him about it months ago). I purchased a hopback a couple years ago and I hate it. Pain to use, clogs up the wort chiller, just no fun. But, I was trying to think of SOMETHING to do with it. So here's what Dr. Beechum and I did:





1) Fill hopback up with the Aroma charge. In this instance 1 oz. whole Centenials and 1.25 oz of pellet Chinook.

2) Run boiling wort out of the kettle and into the hopback.



3) Pump mega-hopped wort back into the kettle.

4) Cycle for 30 minutes(we also added the 10 minute charge to the hopback). And yes, I'll be purchasing a back up pump very shortly.



Tada! Did it work? Won't know for a while, but we did taste the wort as it was being returned from the hopback -- HOPPY. So, here's hoping.

Cheers, Y'all.