KC Hop Heaven

Hefeweizen Brew Day

2011-08-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

With the temperatures outside remaining under 100 I decided it was time to fire up the brew kettle. I will be doing a lot of tailgating in the upcoming months in Manhattan for some KSU football. I wanted to brew something for the first couple games that is light and easy drinking since the outside temps will proly still be on the hot side. I have been drinking a lot of the Dortmunder and Bitter I have on tap right now so I wanted something different. My wife suggested a Hefeweizen since I hadn't made one this summer. I figured that would be a great beer that would appeal to the other tailgaters in the hot weather.

My recipe for a German style Hefeweizen is fairly simple. I use 50% German Pilsner malt and 50% White Wheat malt. Any German noble hop will do to hit your IBUs. This beer isn't about the hops so it isn't that important which variety you choose. For this batch of Hefeweizen I choose to use Tettnang because I had around 1 pound of these in the freezer. Trying to clean out the freezer of hops before the new crop of hops come in to Hops Direct this fall.

After the boil I hooked up the garden hose to the immersion chiller as usual. The ground water here in Kansas is hotter than normal because of the extremely hot summer we have had. I knew that the ground water with the immersion chiller wasn't going to get my wort down to pitching temperature without some help. I was going to have to break out my pond pump with ice water to assist in the cooling process. I use this setup when I brew lagers to get my wort down to 55*F. I purchased a pond pump from Home Depot that you would use in a small fish pond. I place that at the bottom of a brew bucket and fill the bucket with ice. I put enough water in the bucket to get the pump going and the hot water coming back will melt the ice to keep the pump from running dry. I attached the pump to the immersion chiller and run the ice water through the chiller to help bring the wort down to 60-65*F. I use the hose water to first get the wort down to 80-85*F then I hook up the ice water. This works really well and I only use one 20 lb. bag of ice. If your struggling to get your wort down to pitching temperature with this hot summer weather, give this technique a shot. It is really inexpensive and works extremely well.

I used the Wyeast 3068 yeast. If you like your hefeweizen to have more of the clove flavor ferment this beer in the low 60s or if banana is your thing then ferment in the upper 60s to lower 70s. I like the banana but in lower amounts so I generally ferment this beer around 64-66. I have posted the recipe below if you want to give this beer a shot. Cheers!!

Recipe: Weissbier

Brewer: Ashley Strube

Asst Brewer: 

Style: Weizen/Weissbier

TYPE: All Grain

Taste: (35.0) 



Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size: 12.00 gal      

Boil Size: 15.38 gal

Estimated OG: 1.053 SG

Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM

Estimated IBU: 22.2 IBU

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes



Ingredients:

------------

Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      

11 lbs        Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)             Grain        50.00 %       

11 lbs        White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)                Grain        50.00 %       

2.50 oz       Tettnang [4.40 %]  (60 min)               Hops         22.2 IBU      

2.00 items    Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)          Misc                       

2 Pkgs        Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068)  Yeast-Wheat                





Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body

Total Grain Weight: 22.00 lb

----------------------------

Single Infusion, Light Body

Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     

75 min        Mash In            Add 7.00 gal of water at 163.4 F    152.0 F       

10 min        Mash Out           Add 4.00 gal of water at 200.0 F    168.0 F

Belgian Trippel Bottling

2011-08-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

I know I know im thinking the same thing, it has been along time since the last post. Well when you brew around 100 gallons of beer in just over a month it tends to wear you out. That's what all the of the Hop Heaven crew did to pull off Maifest 2011. The hot weather here in KC hasn't helped with the brewing schedule either!! It has been in the upper 90s or 100 for what seems like the whole summer.

I brewed a Belgian Trippel back in November and just got around to bottling it. I normally keg all my brews but I like my Belgian styles bottle conditioned. I think it brings out something in the beer that kegging eliminates. I normally bottle in 750ml bottles, 22oz bombers or 16oz flip top bottles. The 16oz flip tops are bottles that I bought from a WWII veteran that lives in Leavenworth. I was scouring Ebay one day looking for some cheap flip top bottles when I stumbled across these bottles. There were (4) cases of bottles he brought back from Germany during WWII. They are in the plastic cases and they had the original labels on them when I received them. He was planning to brew his own beer and bottle them in these bottles. He never actually used them once he returned and they have been in his basement every since. I bottled some of the beer in a case of the German flip tops and the rest in a case of 1 liter flip tops. Here is the recipe below if your interested in brewing this for yourself. It is a simple recipe as far as the grain bill goes but you wouldn't know it from tasting it. The recipe is posted below for your enjoyment!! Cheers!!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 12.00 gal      
Boil Size: 15.38 gal
Estimated OG: 1.075 SG
Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
24 lbs        Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)             Grain        81.36 %       
8.0 oz        Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM)                  Grain        1.69 %        
1.00 oz       Tradition [6.90 %]  (60 min)              Hops         11.9 IBU      
1.50 oz       Tradition [7.50 %]  (60 min)              Hops         19.5 IBU      
1.50 oz       Glacier [6.50 %]  (10 min)                Hops         3.4 IBU       
5 lbs         Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM)           Sugar        16.95 %       
2 Pkgs        Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat                


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion
Total Grain Weight: 24.50 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
75 min        Mash In            Add 8.17 gal of water at 160.7 F    150.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Add 3.95 gal of water at 210.3 F    168.0 F

Maifest 2011

2011-05-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, the KCHopHeaven crew hosted the 2nd annual Maifest. It turned out to be a beautiful day to be outside with family and friends drinking exceptional beer. We could not have asked for a better turnout. We saw all the usual suspects from last year and lots of new faces that came out to enjoy the beer and food. The beer flowed all afternoon and the crowd stayed until the end when we gave out a few prizes.

We drew (4) beer review sheets out of hundreds submitted. The lucky four won these great prizes:

Grand Prize: (5) gallons of custom homebrew (48 – 12oz bottles)

First Prize: 1.5 Liter of Champagne Beer (Belgian Strong Golden Ale) and (4) Maifest 2011 pint glasses

Second Prize: 60 count bottle of LIFE= focus+energy and a Life= shirt of your choice

Third Prize: (3) pack sampler from Oddly Correct Coffee Roasters

We would like to thank Oddly Correct for donating the coffee for our Coffee Club to pour the Porter through. It made the beer outstanding!! The crowd definitely agreed because the beer didn’t last long. Life= also participated in the Maifest activities. We would like to thank them as well for donating a prize package.

Last but not least, we would like to thank all the people that helped make this event possible. If anyone is interested in learning how to homebrew let us know. We are always brewing so you could stop by and check out the process. We are always willing to help new brewers get started in the hobby. Below are some pictures taken during the event. Cheers!!

Maifest 2011 - Please Read

2011-05-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some general thoughts and reminders for Saturday, ALMOST HERE!!!! The weather is looking like it's going to be awesome!!!

Please keep in mind that this is a LIMITED event and not a PUBLIC event. Please refrain from posting this event publicly, or in venues where it may be read by a lot of people. This is meant to be a private event to include our close family and friends and their friends. Thank you!

The event will be held from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at City Park, in Kansas City, KS. Please see previous post for exact location. Here is the days beer menu, there will also be prizes given away to people who return a rating card (see bottom of post) that we will have at the event.

PLEASE have a designated driver. We encourage NO drinking and driving whatsoever. There are plenty of cab companies out there, and we will have the numbers for at least THREE cab companies. If you need a number, let us know! This will also help with parking. There is quite a bit of parking, but it is still limited, so please CARPOOL out there. SERIOUSLY.... Carpool!

We will have shirts for sale at the event. We ordered about 35 extras, so make sure to pick one up early to make sure you get your size. They will be $15... cash money.

This event costs quite a bit to put on, so we appreciate and thank you in advance for any donations you may wish to provide ($15 suggested). These monies will be to help pay for the facility rental, food, swag, etc. NO donations will be put toward the cost of producing ANY beer. For those so inclined to donate, we will have a newly designed PINT GLASS for YOU!

If you guys have any questions, shoot us an email at maifest2010@gmail.com

Some FAQ's:

Am I allowed to bring my own food and beverages into the festival area?
Yes, but keep in mind we will be providing food and drink.

Are there seats available or do I bring my lawn chair or blanket?
There are plenty of picnic tables located inside the Pavilion. If you'd like to be in the sunshine as it will be an excellent day, please bring blankets and lawn chairs!

Are there restrooms and parking?
Restrooms are located within a short distance from the Pavilion.

Parking is limited and the Maifest Team strongly encourages you to carpool and/or get dropped off and take a cab home. We will be providing cab numbers upon request, and strongly discourage drinking and driving.

Are pets allowed?
Yes! Please bring your pets. Pets must be kept on a leash at all times, and able to play nicely with other pets and people!

Are children allowed to come?
Maifest is a 21 and over event by nature, but; we do understand child-care circumstances come up and children are allowed.

How do I become a vendor at Maifest next year?
Please talk with our Event & Vendor Coordinator Kyle Fitzgerald at the event.

How can I contribute to Maifest?
Event goers are asked to please donate $15 per person, which will go to operating expenses of this awesome event! As important, you can also contribute by filling out a rating card provided at the event in order to help us increase the quality of our beers! THERE ARE PRIZES THAT WILL BE GIVEN TO PEOPLE WHO RETURN THESE!!!!! Only cards with the name and email information included will be eligible for winning. Here is what the card will look like:

And of course, have a great time!

Thanks,
The Maifest Team

Maifest 2011 - Tee Shirts

2011-04-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

We are proud to showcase this year's tee shirt design for Maifest 2011!! The shirts will be available in both men's and women's. Everybody loved the shirts from last year so we decided to go with the same shirt material and style but with a new design. Shirts are available for the pre-order price of $12 for the next two weeks. After the April 25th cutoff, the price will increase to $15 per shirt.

Last year we ran out of shirts very quickly (sorry Graham and Oz), so we highly recommend taking the time to pre-order. Payment is not required to pre-order but would be appreciated. So take a look at the designs, admit that you can't live without one, and click the Buy A Shirt button at the bottom of the post. Just make sure that you put your size in the comment line within PayPal. If you don't wish to pay now but still want to pre-order, send an email to maifest2010@gmail.com with the following: name, shirt quantity, and shirt sizes.

Maifest 2011 - May 7th

2011-03-12T05:22:00.000-08:00

The weather is warming and the days are getting longer, which means that it is time to celebrate the coming of summer with the second annual Maifest. For all of you who attended last year, we thank you. For those of you whom have never heard of Maifest get ready for an awesome beercentric festival filled with friends, family, food, and of course a plethora of homebrew! If you are in doubt and don’t know if this is for you, check out how last year’s Maifest went. At Maifest 2010 we drank 18 different beers, ate 214 sausages and 100 burgers. Over 300 friends and family attended and we are expecting plenty more this year. 400? 500? 600? We’ll see. Don’t worry my friends; there will be plenty of beer.

The festival will kick off at 12PM and the beer will flow until 6:00PM. This year’s lineup will cover even more beer styles including favorites from last year: Belgian Ales, German Session Beers and of course HOPOCALYPSE! We have also added a 55 gallon American Oak Barrel to our arsenal so get ready for a couple specialty beers with excellent oak flavor.

PLEASE HAVE A DESIGNATED DRIVER!

As a special treat, we will have Gregory Kolsto with us. Gregory started the nano coffee roaster Oddly Correct which produces, in my humble opinion, the best fresh roasted coffee in town. We’re not sure what all Gregory will be bringing to the table, but we’re sure it will be good. Think Hop Hammer with fewer hops and more beans. The coffee club! Good thing we’ll have our local blackcoffeesmith to run that puppy.

Food will be provided in the form of Bichelmeyer sausages and locally raised beef burgers with some sides to fill in the gaps. The beer and food are free so bring your beer loving friends, just make sure that they are 21 or older and bring an I.D.

T-Shirt Info

We will be coming out with more information as the day approaches so stay tuned. For now, here is the current beer menu to wet your appetite!

This Year’s Beer List
Note: Italicized beers are the favorites from last year, retooled and even better!

Brewer: Kyle FitzGerald
10 G. Bavarian Wheat
10 G. Belgian Wit
15 G. Maibock
10 G. Hefeweizen
15 G. Pilsner
10 G. Extra Special Bitter (ESB)

Brewer: Thomas Sanford
10 G. Imperial IPA (with optional Hop Hammer)
10 G. Amber Ale
10 G. Brown Ale
10 G. Porter (with optional Coffee Club)
10 G. American Strong Ale
10 G. Belgian Golden Strong Ale
10 G. Black IPA

Brewer: Ashley Strube
10 G. Belgian Trippel
10 G. Belgian Blonde
10 G. Saison
10 G. Patersbier
10 G. Rye Pale Ale
10 G. Irish Red Rye
10 G. Dusseldorf Altbier
10 G. Dortmunder Export
5 G. Smoked Porter

Guest Brewer: Chris Thowe
10 G. American Wheat

Barrel Beers – aged in an American Oak Barrel
5 G. Oak Aged Russian Imperial Stout
5 G. Oak Aged Russian Imperial Stout with Chocolate and Orange
5 G. Virgin Russian Imperial Stout
10 G. Oak Aged Wee Heavy
10 G. Virgin Wee Heavy

Location:
The Pavilion at City Park, Kansas City, Kansas

It is the huge shelter at the very top of City Park, just keep driving up and you cannot miss it.

Link to Map

For any additional information, please RSVP to maifest2010@gmail.com.

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 3)

2010-12-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

The day of transferring our Russian Imperial Stout to our new 55 gallon American Oak (heavy charred) barrel was finally upon us. With the winter's first blanket of snow outside we finally were ready to take the 12 fermentation vessels of beer and get them into an oaky new home! We brewed this beer on October 30th and wanted to give it time to really finish out before introducing it to the barrel. We transferred it from bucket to barrel on December 12th which gave it about 43 days to completely ferment and settle out.

We followed our prescribed steps to preparing the barrel found HERE. Unfortunately, after letting the barrel fully soak up the water and expand, and filling the barrel with a water/barrolkleen mixture, we discovered a tiny leak in the end of the barrel. To fix this problem, a small wedge of natural cork was cut and hammered into the hole.

After soaking up liquid, the cork followed the oak's lead and expanded, thus stopping the leak! After fixing the leak and cleaning away the barrolkleen, we moved on to the next step. We dissolved 1 Oz. of citric acid and 2 Ozs. of sodium metabisulfite into 2 gallons of warm water, and used this mixture to rinse the inside of the barrel for about 10-15 minutes. This was done to kill any wild bacteria/yeasts.

We rinsed the barrel out until the water was running clear, and put it on it's stand where it will rest
until the beer is ready.

We moved all of the buckets to the garage so that they were ready to transfer. My HERM's system has a March pump attached to the body, and we wanted to use this to move all of the beer instead of the tedious task of siphoning it all. We set this all up and then took a set of Final Gravities which averaged about 10 Brix. After adjusting for the alcohol, we came up with a calculated ABV of around 9-9.25%.

It tasted pretty good and will definitely benefit from the added complexities of the oak barrel. We made 60 gallons of the beer originally. We put 55 gallons in the barrel and kept 5 gallons in a carboy to age as a control. This will give us an idea of what the stout tasted like sans oak flavor. Because this is a new barrel we will probably start testing the flavor fairly soon as to make sure and get the beer off of the oak before it becomes to flavor dominant. Overall the process went smoothly and we are excited to taste the results! Cheers and we look forward to letting everyone know how this turns out!

All photos courtesy of Libby Connell

Cooking with Brewing Equipment - Sous Vide Style!

2010-11-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

I came across an article earlier this week about Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, a Microsoft millionaire who decided to follow his passion for cooking and develop a cookbook. This cookbook (http://modernistcuisine.com/) started as a pet project that was supposed to be 300 pages and ended up taking over three years to develop and is 2400 pages long! In the article it talked about his use of Sous Vide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide) which is a style of cooking re-discovered in the 60's and 70's that has been slowly spreading around the world.

Right now, it is used mainly in high-end restaurants around the world. However, there has been a slow adoption among home based chefs and it has been increasing in popularity recently. This website has some interesting information on it (http://www.cookingsousvide.com/). The basic idea of the cooking style is to use precise temperature control to cook a meat EXACTLY to the desired temperature of serving, without the possibility of overcooking it. To do this, the meat is vacuum sealed with some spices/herbs.

Then the vacuum sealed package is placed into a temperature controlled water bath.

Coincidentally, my Hot Liquor Tank has a PID controller on it which can precisely control it's temperature. This is where it relates to brewing beer. Anyone with a brewing setup that can control water temperature for an extended period of time has the equipment to try this cooking method! We decided to make some Chicken Marsala, so... we placed some flattened chicken breasts, salt, pepper, and sprigs of fresh thyme in a vacuum sealed bag and put them in 141 degree water for approximately two hours. At 141 degrees, it takes about 20 minutes for all bacteria to be killed (http://www.cookingsousvide.com/story_image/image/92/sous-vide-chicken-cooking-time.png). As the meat remains in solution, it becomes more and more moist as the proteins continue to break down. Ours came out IMMENSELY moist and tender. It really was amazing.

Once removed from the pouches, we patted them dry while heating some extra virgin olive oil until it was smoking. We then floured the chicken and flash seared them on both sides (less than a minute on both sides). This achieved the proper maillard reaction to brown the chicken up both for added flavor and for presentation.

After searing, we added some butter and baby portabello mushrooms to the skillet for 5 or 6 minutes until they soaked up all the EVOO and goodness. After that we added 3/4 cup Marsala wine and 3/4 cup chicken stock and let it reduce for 10-15 minutes on medium. We added 2 tablespoons of butter and poured over the chicken. Finally, we garnished with some chopped Italian parsley.

The chicken took on a new texture that was more moist and tender than any chicken I have had before. It was absolutely delicious. We paired it with some steamed broccoli and citrus/pecan/spinach salad. All of it was delicious. This is the recipe we loosely followed (http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/sous-vide-recipes/more/sous-vide-chicken-marsala). The cooking process itself is amazing because you CAN'T overcook it, which means it is basically error free. The only work is vacuum sealing it, and setting the temp., after that a quick searing in a pan or on the grill and it is set to go! I would highly recommend trying this out if your brewing equipment is capable. It was really fun, interesting, and we look forward to perfecting the style to impress our guests!

Please try this out and post results! We'd love to hear from other people who have tried this!

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 2)

2010-11-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is the second installment to the Barrel Aging series we are doing. The link to the first is here....

http://kchopheaven.blogspot.com/2010/06/oak-barrel-aging-for-homebrewers-part-1.html

We finally got around to brewing the beer for this barrel. Summertime activities seem to occupy precious brewing time, but we did it! Because we acquired a new, heavy charred, oak barrel; we wanted to use a BIG beer to absorb the concentrated flavors. This lead us to a Russian Imperial Stout recipe that we believe will help reduce the intensiveness of the flavors from the barrel.

Brew day went very well. We had three 10-gallon systems up and running from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. We had no hiccups in brewing. This was probably due to our two beautiful brewing assistants (you know who you are). This resulted in about 60 gallons of wort to ferment. All of the initial gravity readings were pretty close to the estimated O.G. Our microbiologist friend propagated a large concentrated batch of Wyeast #1056 (American Ale) for us. All twelve of our fermentation vessels (buckets and a carboy) started without a problem within 16 hours and finished out nicely. They were in a hallway that remained at about 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

Overall it was a great brew and we will be detailing the build for the stand and the transferring of the stout into the barrel soon.

RECIPE:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Oak Barrel Stout
Brewer: Thomas Sanford Asst Brewer:
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications --------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 12.38 gal
Estimated OG: 1.090 SG
Estimated Color: 56.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 72.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients: ------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
25 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 72.46 %
3 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.70 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 7.25 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
1 lbs Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.90 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.90 %
8.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 1.45 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 14.9 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (45 min) Hops 6.2 IBU
2.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (45 min) Hops 21.1 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 11.4 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
10.00 gal Kansas City, KS Water
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 34.50 lb ----------------------------
Double Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
70 min Saccrification Add 27.60 qt of water at 172.7 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 24.15 qt of water at 187.6 F 168.0 F

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 3)

Rebel Smoked Porter

2010-10-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

As most homebrewers do I subscribe to the newsletters of online homebrew stores. They send out monthly emails highlighting specials for the month and new products. A little over a month ago I got the newsletter from Rebel Brewer with some awesome new products. One that really caught my eye was Alderwood Smoked Munich Malt. After attending the GABF this year and tasting Alaskan Brewing Smoked Porter I really wanted to try brewing a similar beer. Knowing that Alaskan Smoked Porter used alderwood smoked malt I was in search of any malt I could get my hands on that was smoked with this wood. Rebel Brewer was the first place I found that carried a malt of this variety. I immediately placed an order for 6 pounds of this malt to use in a 12 gallon batch of porter. There was a smoked porter recipe on the website so I figured I would try a variation of that for my first smoked porter. I had a 50 pound bag of 2-row in the basement so all I needed now was the specialty grains and I would be set. Brew day went smooth and I now have 12 gallons of smoked porter in my conical fermenting. I plan on kegging 5 gallons and bottling the rest to age. I think I will try and serve the keg on my stout tap to give it a nice creamy head. Stay tuned for a tasting in the coming weeks.

Recipe: Smoked Porter
Brewer: Ashley Strube
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Size: 15.38 gal
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 28.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 24.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 62.61 %
6 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 20.87 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.96 %
1 lbs Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.48 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3.48 %
12.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.61 %
1.00 oz Nugget [12.20 %] (60 min) Hops 22.1 IBU
0.33 oz Williamette [4.90 %] (30 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
0.33 oz Williamette [4.90 %] (10 min) Hops 0.6 IBU
0.33 oz Williamette [4.90 %] (1 min) Hops 0.5 IBU
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968)

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 28.75 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 9.00 gal of water at 163.6 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 3.80 gal of water at 211.4 F 168.0 F

Pumpkin Beer

2010-10-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I was getting groceries and saw pie pumpkins and I knew it was that time of your again. It is time to brew a pumpkin beer!! I have brewed a pumpkin beer the past three years with great results. I have been trying different techniques and ingredients to see what is easiest and turns out tasting the best. The first year I tried the traditional technique of adding the pumpkin to the mash. It was very messy to say the least. The next year I read about throwing the pumpkin right in the boil. That was way easier and a lot less messy. It also seemed to give the beer a better pumpkin color. So here is what I did this year. First off I bought 4 pie pumpkins at the store. I quartered them and scrapped off all the seeds. If you have some baking pans it is a good idea to wrap them in at least one layer of aluminum foil, two is preferred. This protects the pan from the melting brown sugar that you will put on the pieces. I add brown sugar to each piece and bake in the oven at 350 for 60-90 minutes. This caramelizes the brown sugar and the pumpkin bringing out some nice flavors in the pumpkin. In past years I would stop here but his year they go back into the oven for a second baking. I heard that baking the pumpkin twice brings out more flavors that you cannot get with baking the pumpkin just once.

After it cools you cut the "meat" of the pumpkin away from the outside skin. You are now ready to add this to your boil. Using this method eliminates the worry of a stuck sparge that you could have if you put the pumpkin in the mash. I use a mesh strainer at the end of the boil to remove the pumpkin before I start cooling my wort. I do this because I use a March pump to whirlpool my wort as I chill with my immersion chiller. In the next couple weeks I will be bottling the beer and will post some tasting comments. Until then the recipe is below if you feel like brewing it for yourself. I normally do 12 gallon batches but for this one I bumped it up to 14 gallons to ensure I get 12 gallons at the end of the boil. With all the pumpkin and other protein and trub that will be in the bottom of the kettle I will probably loose two more gallons that normal. Cheers!!

Recipe: Pumpkin Ale
Brewer: Ashley Strube
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 14.00 gal
Boil Size: 16.76 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 13.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 52.17 %
9 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 26.09 %
4 lbs Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 11.59 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 %
3.00 oz Glacier [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 27.4 IBU
2.50 tbsp Ginger Root (Boil 12.0 min) Misc
2.50 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
7.00 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
9.00 tsp Vanilla Extract (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
2 lbs Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 5.80 %
2 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968)

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 32.50 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 11.00 gal of water at 165.0 F 154.0 F

Notes:
------
added 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon in secondary or at bottling.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

West Coast Beer Tour - Series Intro

2010-09-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

This year my wife and I took our summer vacation out to the West Coast for a break from the Midwestern heat, to enjoy long distance friends and family, and of course drink our way up the coast. Contrary to my beliefs, this was not supposed to be a beer tour but seven breweries and over 100 samples later, one could extrapolate the trip to be just that, a West Coast Beer Tour. So for our purposes, that’s what it was.

I will be posting a four part series on the trip that will cover San Francisco to Seattle with multiple stops in between. Russian River was the must see on the trip and it did not fail to impress. I have to admit that I did swing by a couple wineries while going through Sonoma. So for all of you double duty drinkers out there, I will be doing a spot on the Sonoma Wine scene.

Here is a list of the stops on the trip that will be featured in the West Coast Beer Tour Series:

San Francisco: Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery and Social Kitchen & Brewery
Santa Rosa: Russian River Brewing Co. Brewpub
Sonoma: Benziger Family Winery, and Imagery Winery
Boonville: Anderson Valley Brewing Co.
Eureka: Lost Coast Brewery
Portland: Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB)
Seattle: Mac & Jacks Brewing Co. and Hale’s Ales Brewery & Pub

Great American Beer Festival 2010!

2010-09-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

09.09.09 Vs. 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale's

We just returned from Denver for the 2010 Great American Beer Festival this last Sunday. It was our second year and was just as amazing as the first. The same four went as last year; the three writers and our friend Rob from Austin who we wrote a post on detailing his first homebrewing experience!

This year was the 29th annual festival. There was over 2,200 beers served in the main convention center hall which was the biggest variety served at any beer festival, ever! There were 462 breweries serving over 36,000 gallons of beer to over 49,000 attendees. This year there were four new categories: American Style India Black Ale, Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Stout, Pumpkin Beer, Field Beer.

We went to the Friday night session and the Saturday afternoon session. We salute those who attend all four sessions as it truly is an impressive feat!

Sam's Number 3

Before our session on Friday, we went to the Falling Rock Taphouse which is a GREAT beer bar. We were able to meet Dean, one of the brewers from Pike Brewing in Seattle, WA. He was nice enough to entertain about three hours of questions regarding commercial brewing and was a great guy to hang out with. Their beers were great at the festival. At the taphouse we imbibed Russian River Consecration and Redemption, Stone 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale and 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Ale, 2010 Sierra Nevada Estate Ale, among others. They actually set a record for fastest keg poured non-stop with the Sierra Nevada keg. They were all amazing beers. This hampered our ability to go hardcore at the first session and we ended up trying about 110 different beers. The second session on Saturday we were able to try about 175 or so.

Some highlights:

New Glarus - Rasberry Tart

Russian River - great stuff

Cascade Brewing - all of their sour beers are great!

Jolly Pumpkin - all were great, Biere De Mars especially

Lost Abbey - Angel's Share and their Framboise

Pike Brewing - meeting Dean

The pizza by our hotel!

SAM'S NUMBER THREE - EAT THERE FOR BREAKFAST WHEN YOU ARE IN DENVER!

The beers we returned with!

Lower Manhattan Beer Bar

2010-09-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

I just happen to be in New York this summer and swung by the Blind Tiger Beer Bar. If you are in New York and have time to grab a beer, try this fine local establishment that caters to the craft beer aficionados. The Blind Tiger is a favorite of many as a great place to grab a beer while visiting Lower Manhattan. Touted by the New York Times as being “One of New York’s best beer bars,” they are sure to fulfill your need for quality beer.

Unless of course you want a large selection of summer style beers and happen to show up during Christmas in July! Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for the locals, Blind Tiger was running their annual summer special featuring a large lineup of winter seasonals. So rather than getting my much anticipated Festina Pêche by Dogfish Head, I was presented with Bad Elf, Mad Elf, and a multitude of Winter Ales. Lucky for me on day that was pushing 90 degrees they had one of my favorites Allagash White and for my business partner Graham a Brooklyn Wheat. Both beers were poured to perfection and tasted their prime during the hot summer day.

Blind Tiger has 28 beers on tap, 3 on cask, and an excellent selection of over 60 bottle beers, of which almost half are on the ‘Vintage” list. With a selection like this you are in the right place to try beers that are few and far between, and some you might not ever get to try again depending on the depth of your local bar’s cellar roster. So from the guys at KC Hop Heaven, cheers to the Blind Tiger!

Blind Tiger Ale House

281 Bleecker Street, New York NY
http://www.blindtigeralehouse.com/

Beer Run!!!

2010-08-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago my fiance Anne informed me that Victoria (our friend in DC) found an awesome place to buy beer and wine in Washington D.C. She also mentioned that Victoria would be driving back to Kansas in a few weeks. I immediately asked if she would be willing to pick me up a few beers to bring back with her. Fortunately for me she said yes and the search began. The store she was going to was called Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits. With a name like that it had to be good right?!?! The website has a search feature so you can browse their inventory to see what they have or usually have in stock. I was looking to pick up a few 750ml and 6 packs of beer you can not get around here. I was in luck Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits was loaded with good beer I have been wanting to try!! Here is a run down of the beer I was able to score.

(1) 750ml Dogfish Head Theobroma
(1) 750ml Brooklyn Brewery Locol #1
(1) 750ml Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace
(1) 12.7 oz Cantillon Iris
(1) 6 pack Kona Brewing Fire Rock Pale Ale
(8) 12 oz Firestone Walker Double Barrel Pale Ale
(2) 6 packs Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
(3) 6 pack Yuengling Traditional Lager

Good mix of beers for breweries we can not get in Kansas. There were many more at Chevy Chase I would have liked to get but I didn't want to over do the gracious offer I was extended. I just want to give a shout out to Victoria.....your awesome!!! I plan on sharing these with the KC Hop Heaven crew and posting some tasting notes on here in the near future. Cheers!!

Avery Seventeen Tasting

2010-07-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Appearance – Pours black in the glass, with several fingers of rich mocha colored foamy head. Wow, this really stays rich, retaining with a VERY frothy 1/2 finger the whole way through and just abosolutely slathering the sides with a ridiculous amount of sticky lace.

Smell – The dry-hopping is evident in the nose, with some juicy and herbal smelling character, as well as some bitter fruit and light peppery spice. Smokey roast rises up underneath with a touch of sweetness here from the malts but most of it appears to come more from the citrus and herbal textures of the nose.

Taste – The taste is dark and roasty the whole way through, with chocolate sweetness and more tangy feeling caramel notes coming in off the edges. Hops add some pop here, with notes of earth and grapefruit, while pine and spice stretches out into a bitter and VERY dry finish.

Mouthfeel – The mouthfeel is medium-fuller bodied with crispness to the carbonation up front that then works itself into a much creamier backend. There is some heft to the body here but the alcohol is limited to some light warmth on the breath after each sip, helping keep this fairly sharp feeling and drinkable.

Drinkability & Notes – Decent drinkability, maybe not so much as your typical table schwarzbier but then again this is an anniversary beer and special occasion. Fairly smooth and solid all around, dark, roasty and earthy.

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 1)

2010-06-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

We have a large interest in brewing beers that we can age in oak barrels. So, we are going to do an instructional set of posts on how to use 55 gallon oak barrels when homebrewing. The same rules will apply for smaller barrels. The amounts need to be adjusted appropriately, and the aging may differ slightly due to increased surface contact and increased oxygen diffusion in the smaller barrels. These posts will be done as we go through the process and will be accompanied by instructions, recipes, pictures, opinions, and results. This should give everyone a clear picture on what it is to use barrels and what sort of issues need to be addressed when using them. We will be going a few different ways with the barrels. We will be acquiring new American Oak barrels to start with. These are also called North American oak (Quercus alba) or white oak. They will contain high amounts of toasty and vanilla flavors. These will have an intense oak flavor and we will use these to brew BIG beers that can absorb the heavy amounts of oakiness and tannins. As the oak flavors begin to mellow we will eventually switch to sour ales by inundating the barrel with a large set of bugs from dregs and commercially available bacteria and brettanomyces strains. Finally, with enough beer/barrels we will use them for Solera brewing which involves using two or more barrels with different vintages of a beer; then pulling part of the oldest off for consumption and replacing it with newer vintages in series. Hopefully this will be informative to you the reader and for us as well.

Our barrel has been stored dry. This means that it will need to be swelled with hot or cold water to allow the staves to get larger as they soak up the water. This seals any cracks and allows it to hold liquid. We will begin by filling the barrel with 160 degree water. We will do this by adding 13-15 gallons of water at a time in succession to start the sealing process. Using water this hot will also help with sanitization. Using water much hotter than this may results in warped wood. The barrel will then sit for two days with the water remaining in it. After a couple days, if the barrel is of good quality and built correctly there should be no more seepage or leaks. You won’t want the water to remain in there for much more than 2 days for fear of contamination by mold or algae. The curing process may take longer than 2 days. If it does, drain and replace with new water to help avoid contamination. Repeat until the seepage and leaks stop.

After the initial swelling period, we will want to clean the barrel. Because this is a brand new barrel with heavy charring, we want to make sure it is clean, and also remove some of the intense burnt flavors the char will impart. This can be accomplished by using soda ash or BarolKleen. We are using the BarolKleen for ours. Mix 1 pound of BarolKleen for every 5 gallons of barrel space, which means we will use 11 pounds for ours. Then Let this solution rest for 48 hours. This will help leech excess tannins from the barrel.

After the BarolKleen, it needs to be fluhed with water until it runs clear from the barrel. This assures it is well rinsed out. This is followed by a mixture of 2 ounces of Sodium Metabisulphite and 1 ounce of Citric Acid dissolved in 2 gallons of warm water. Pour the solution into the barrel and roll it around so that all internal surfaces are contacted by the solution. Do this for 5 – 10 minutes. Then drain the solution and rinse the barrel well until the water is clear and pure.

The barrel will then be ready for beer. It will need to be filled ASAP to assure that the barrel is clean and free of any bad microbes.

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 2)

Oak Barrel Aging for Homebrewers (Part 3)

Maifest Pictures

2010-06-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

As most of you know we had Maifest on May 1st. It was a huge success!! We would like to thank everyone that made it out. The feedback we got from everyone was greatly appreciated. We estimate over 300 people attended Maifest. Great numbers for our first event. I have posted some pictures below of the event. If anyone has any other other feedback feel free to post below. We would love to hear what people thought or any suggestions anyone may have for next year. Again thanks to everyone that attended!!

Boulevard Brewing and Spiegelau Glassware Dinner

2010-06-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday night Strube and myself (Thomas) went to the beer/glass pairing at Boulevard Brewing here in KC. They had glassware maker Spiegelau out of Germany (the world's oldest glass maker), who is a subsidiary of the Riedel family. As guys who are pretty big into beer, we had read many different articles extolling the use of intended glassware for different beer styles. I don't think that either one of us was wholly convinced of this making a huge difference. This event changed both of our minds completely. We are now both believers in using glassware intended for specific styles. I am going to list a few of the VERY apparent benefits. Then of course, like us, you will be skeptical until you experience these things. So go out and get some correct glassware and have a side-by-side tasting with a generic pint glass!

A few of the benefits...

1. We thought the thin glass would allow the beer to heat up quicker, and that the thicker glass of a pint glass would act as an insulator. Wrong! The thicker glass pulls the cold out of the beer as the glass itself attempts to achieve temperature equilibrium. Within three minutes of tasting the beer after pouring, the temperature difference was quite noticeable, as the thinner glass held beer much cooler than the pint glass.

2. We had never even considered that the quality of the "clear" pint glass would actually distort the actual color of the beer. Generic pint glasses are made from quartz, and to keep the cost of the pint glasses down, the quartz is sourced from low quality mines. These mines are ladened with iron oxide, which is a pollutant to glass giving it a greenish tint. The more iron oxide, the greener the tint. When we looked through the glass at the beers, it was apparent that the pint glass gave the beer a very skewed greenish tint versus the true color of the beer which was seen with the higher quality (less PPM of iron oxide) glass.

3. We obviously knew that pouring a beer into a glass was better than drinking it out of a bottle from an aroma standpoint. We were surprised at the difference between a pint glass and a glass made for a certain style. The biggest difference was with a wheat beer in my opinion. The aromas were there with a pint glass, but only a hint of some fleeting scents were there. With the proper glass you could pick out all of the aromas from the beer very easily, and they were much more concentrated. The aromas were also noticeably more apparent in the tulip style glass. The pilsner glass and the lager glass, a little, but not as obvious as the other two.

4. The higher quality glass has a smoother surface than the jagged surface pint glasses. This was shown under a micron microscope (or something like that). The more jagged glass encouraged fast dissipation of the CO2, which made the beer flatter quicker. With the smooth edges of higher quality glassware, CO2 retention is encouraged.

5. Proper design of the glassware is also important for head retention. This quality is more apparent in the photos below. The head in the pint glass was either non-existent of quickly disappearing. The proper glasses allowed for better head creation and retention.

Summary...

Thinner glass is better as it keeps the contents colder. Glass made with less iron oxide represents the beers true color without a greenish tint. Proper glass design is important to capture all of the important beer aromas. Microscopically smoother glass design is important to keep the CO2 contained in the beer. Proper glass design is important for head creation and retention.

Thanks to Boulevard and Spiegelau for putting on this great event. It was very enlightening. Hopefully this post will encourage you to try proper glass styles. BUT... if you can't find one at any given time... drink it out of a pint glass cause it's still delicious!

Berliner Weisse = Awesomeness

2010-05-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

I recently discovered a style of beer that quickly became one of my favorites. There is only one commercial version of Berliner Weisse that I can find around here. If you know of another one please let me in on the gloriousness! It is an import called 1809 from Professor Fritz Briem. It is light, refreshing, and slightly sour. It's delicious. Unfortunately it is a style that only a few breweries in the world brew. So... that gave me the challenge of trying to perfect something that lacks many comparable examples.

Berliner Weisse beers are fairly unusual from a brewing standpoint. For most styles of beer there is a long boil of typically 60 minutes to allow for proper hop isomerization of the alpha acids. With this style there is an effort to minimize hop presence. In order to do this, the boil is generally held for less than 15 minutes and sometimes there is no boil at all. I went with ten minutes on the boil. The only hops were put in the mash.

I think it should be a great sour beer! In order to let it properly sour up, I let the lactobacillus rock out for a couple days before pitching the yeast.

Here is the recipe I made up for my first attempt, my efficiency was through the roof which made it a little higher in alcohol than I had intended... but oh well:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Berliner Weisse
Brewer: Thomas Sanford
Asst Brewer:
Style: Berliner Weiss
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 10.58 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 2.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 1.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 92.00 %
Boil Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.56 %
6 lbs Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.44 %
2.00 oz Hallertauer [3.50 %] (15 min) (Mash Hop) Hops 1.3 IBU
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
10.00 gal Kansas City, KS Water
2 Pkgs German Ale (Wyeast Labs #1007) Yeast-Ale
2 Pkgs Lactobacillus Delbrueckii (Wyeast Labs #43Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 13.50 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Protein Rest Add 16.88 qt of water at 141.9 F 133.0 F
30 min Saccharification Heat to 148.0 F over 5 min 148.0 F
15 min Step Add 0.00 qt of water at 154.0 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F

Notes:
------
Make 2L starter with the Lactobacillus about two weeks in advance. Keep this as warm as possible (up to 100 degrees). Make a 1L starter for the German Ale 2-3 days in advance. Did not do these for the first batch, Oz did my yeast and I pitched Lacto from Wyeast and White Labs packages directly.

Mash out according to schedule. Boil for 10 minutes. Add Super Moss and yeast nutrient as soon as boil starts. Cool to about 95 degrees F. Pitch the Lactobacillus bacteria starter before the German Ale Yeast. This will allow for the Lactobacillus to really get some souring done, and will really get it going due to the higher temp that lacto prefers.

Bottle with BELGIAN STYLE BOTTLES. Normal ones will blow up because I want HIGH carbonation. Lets get some effervescence!

Use half distilled water to reduce the number of randoms for the sours to interact with. Did not do this on the first batch.

May 20 - Added Wyeast lacto at 8:30 pm.
May 22 - Added White Labs lacto at 5 pm.
May 23 - Added Wyeast German Ale yeast at 6:15 pm.
June 6 - Transferred to Secondary
July 21 - Bottled with 7.5 ounces of priming sugar per 5 gallons

Update:
This tastes really awesome! It turned out WAY better than I anticipated. I definitely tried to make it heavy on the sour side and it didn't disappoint. I would add the ale yeast a little earlier for those not too into sour beers. This was perfect for my taste buds though. I would most def recommend this as a fun new style to try out. I have a bunch of bottles if you're interested in trying some!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hefeweizen Video

2010-05-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

When I got home from work tonight I immediately went to the basement to check the Hefeweizen. When I left for work this morning it was chugging along nicely, nothing to crazy. As soon as I hit the last step at the bottom of the stairs I could smell it. It was going CRAZY!!! I have posted a quick video of the fermentor with the blow off tube going into a one gallon jug. You can not brew a wheat style beer without using a blow off tube.......PERIOD. Enjoy!!

German Hefeweizen

2010-05-16T13:27:00.001-07:00

This morning I got up early to brew a German style Hefeweizen for my friends Chris Tallent and Ashley Roos engagement party. I will be providing two beers for this event, a English Dark Mild and German Hefeweizen. I already have a keg of the Dark Mild so I needed to brew a 10 gallon batch to fill (2) 5 gallon kegs. Brew day went extremely smooth with no problems at all. I have taken a few pictures of my sent up to share.

First is a picture of my mash tun. I have a Minibrew 15 gallon mash tun. It is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). I had a rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler with a stainless false bottom but needed more capacity to mash more grain. The false bottom in the Minibrew is way better than the rubbermaid cooler false bottom. I would have to vorlof 5-6 one gallon pitchers to get the wort to run clear. With the Minibrew false bottom the wort is running clear after 2 one gallon pitchers. To heat the water for the mash I have a Blichmann Engineering BoilerMaker 20 gallon brew pot. It is by far the best pot I have ever laid eyes on. It is a little on the pricey side but after using it for almost a year now it i s definitely worth the money. I have a March 809HS pump to pump hot water and wort around so I don't have to lift it. When doing 12 gallon batches with is a must!!

So after I have finished the boil I use the pump to recirculate the wort while I chill it with a 50' immersion chiller. I have modified the chiller with another copper tube to help whirlpool the wort while chilling. It definitely reduces the chilling time. So while the beer is chilling I cleaned my fermentor. I have a 14 gallon Blichmann Engineering Fermanator. It is all stainless so it is really easy to maintain. After the wort was cooled, I transfered the beer to the fermentor and pitched the yeast. Without going into much more detail that is the brew setup. The Beersmith brew information in posted below.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Weissbier
Brewer: Ashley Strube
Asst Brewer:
Style: Weizen/Weissbier
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 12.00 gal
Boil Size: 15.38 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
11 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 50.00 %
11 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 50.00 %
2.70 oz Vanguard [4.40 %] (60 min) Hops 22.2 IBU
2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
2 Pkgs Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast-Wheat

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 22.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 7.00 gal of water at 163.4 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 4.00 gal of water at 200.0 F 168.0 F

Induction of Another Home Brewer

2010-03-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Austin, Texas, March, 2010

I am happy to say that the home brewing ranks have been augmented by the addition of another brave soul who is ready to taste the best beer the world has to offer, home brew. His name is Rob Malone and he has been a steadfast member of the brewing team since 2006 providing such paramount tasks as beer tasting, critiques, and moral support. Rob has officially stepped off the sidelines and created his very own first batch of beer. To get off on the right foot we choose a Dunkelweizen for its versatility and ability to come out tasting great even as one’s seminal brew. For all of you soon to be brewers out there, I suggest choosing a first batch from a style that can take a little abuse. This would lead me to suggest a mild or dark ale as they have a wide fermentation temperature range and their darker color can cover up a bit of off tastes or final color/clarity variations. For this reason we chose a Dunkelweizen.

Remember it is of critical importance to have beer while brewing, preferably one related to the beer you are brewing. To that end we sampled some authentic European dunkelweizen and weizen beers along with an American version, Allagash White. Hacker and Pschorr is an excellent beer. If you can find it at your local liquor store, I recommend trying some. In my opinion it is best served ‘mit hefe’, or with the yeast by rolling the bottle prior to pouring.

Most home brewers, Rob included, start their brewing journey with an extract kit as they require much less time than all grain brewing and tremendously less equipment. As you can see by the picture all we using to brew this batch is a simple pot purchased at Wal-Mart for less than $20. The beer ingredient kits come with one or two containers of liquid malt, hops, dry yeast, and in Rob’s case, a bag of brewer’s malts to steep in the boil kettle as it heats up. While pure extract kits are much easier and potentially quicker, the partial mash kits that come with grains add a considerable amount of flavor and color depth to the finished product. For an additional 20-40 minutes, I think they are well worth the effort. In fact with the advances in liquid malt extracts and a wider variety of dry yeasts, one can brew a batch of beer in a quarter the time as all grain brewing and end up with an excellent beer. There are a lot of people out there that look down on dry yeast but they are still a cost effective way of producing beer. To prepare the dry yeast we mixed it with some warm water at the beginning of the boil. That preparation combined with a well aerated wort lead to a raging fermentation the next day; so much so that the airlock had to be removed prior to blowing the lid off.

I highly recommend starting home brewing with extract or partial mash kits and dry yeast prior to going for the gusto of all grain brewing and liquid yeasts. With less than $100 in the game you can get an idea of whether brewing is for you or not. For additional information on the starter equipment prices to brew your first batch of beer see the links below to my favorite online home brew store Midwest Brewing Supplies.

Midwest Brewing Supplies Equipment Kits

Beer Festival BREWFEST!!!!

2010-03-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

We went a little crazy this weekend and brewed the rest of the beer for Maifest 2010. We brewed for 16 hours straight starting on Friday. From 4:00pm till 8:00am. We brewed 7 beers for the festival. All of our equipment worked flawlessly and all the fermentations started perfectly. All in all it was an awesome night. We are getting super excited for the festival and this only got us more pumped!

We brewed:
Schwarzbier
India Pale Ale
Brown Ale
California Common
European Pilsner
Bavarian Wheat
Belgian Wit

We decided to taste some inspirational beers while we brewed, we chose some real special brews from the cellar:
Dogfish Head: Red and White
The Lost Abbey: Inferno Ale
Brew Dog: Bashah
Alaskan Brewing Co.: Smoked Porter (2009)
Stone Brewing: Smoked Porter
Russian River Brewing: Temptation
Rogue: Dirtoir Black Lager
Stone Brewing: Arrogant Bastard Ale

My favorite homebrew; Vindicated!

2010-03-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

When I first had Saison-Brett from Boulevard Brewing, I LOVED it. It is still one of my favorite beers. After having this glorious concoction I was inspired to try and brew something with the little fungi we call Brettanomyces. When I first tried to put my recipe together, I had trouble finding the Wyeast/White Labs strains I was looking for around here. Most of the people I talked to about it only warned me how Brett will destroy every single beer I would ever hope to make again on the same equipment because of contamination! Apparently they have never used sanitizer!

Anyhow, I ended up with a farmhouse style ale. It is a fairly simple recipe using two-row, malted wheat, and flaked corn. Hops used are Magnums, Simcoes, and Williamettes. I came up with the name BrettanoFunky Farmhouse and loved it.

Recently I entered it into the 27th Annual KC Bier Meister's Homebrew Competition and won a GOLD medal for the Belgian and French Ale category (subcategory: Belgian Specialty Ale)! I was super excited and it made it even better that this is my favorite beer I brew!

The other medal is for a Pliny the Elder style super hoppy Imperial IPA.

Here is the recipe for the BrettanoFunky Farmhouse. Hopefully you have the patience to let it age! Also, it is hard to find the Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse and the Wyeast 5151 Brettanomyces Claussenii as they are special editions. Whoops!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recipe: BrettanoFunky Farmhouse
Brewer: Thomas Sanford
Asst Brewer:
Style: Belgian Specialty Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (36.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal Boil Size: 4.08 gal
Estimated OG: 1.087 SG
Estimated Color: 5.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 63.49 %
4 lbs 12.0 oz Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 30.16 %
1 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 6.35 %
1.00 oz Magnum [13.10 %] (30 min) Hops 20.0 IBU
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] (10 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (2 min) Hops 0.5 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [4.30 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
5.00 gal Kansas City, KS Water
1 Pkgs Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (Wyeast Labs #3Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Brettanomyces Clausenii (White Labs #5151 Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Farmhouse Ale (Wyeast #3726 PC) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 15.75 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Saccharification Add 19.69 qt of water at 163.7 F 152.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F

Notes:
------
The carbonation level will be slightly higher than listed due to to attenuation capabilities of the Brettanomyces strains used. By letting the beer age for about 5 months before bottling, most of the residual sugars will have been fermented out by the Brett. Add the Brett strains after primary fermentation with the Farmhouse Ale yeast is complete.

UPDATE:
Last December 19th (2009) I brewed a batch of this using the White Labs Clausenii and the White Labs Saison yeast. After bottling it on the 15th of December (2010), we had a blind tasting comparing this new version to the original medal winner last night (Dec. 27th). We decided that the original was much more funky relative to the new one. Thus, the original version will be what gets entered into the MCAB competition which is accepting entries now. I am up against a bunch of AWESOME homebrewers, so I don't expect to win anything. However, I will certainly update this post with the results. Have a good new year!!

San Francisco Trip!!!

2010-02-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

I went to San Francisco this past weekend! During my trip I was able to try many beers that I have been wanting to try for a while now!!! I was super excited. Here are a few of the ones I was able to to try on tap while I was there...

Russian River Pliny the Younger!!!!!!! (extremely awesomely delicious)
Russian River Pliny the Elder
Russian River Blind Pig IPA
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Allagash White
Dale's Pale Ale

I was also able to hit up the San Francisco Beer Week Culmination event "The Barleywine Festival" at the Toronado, a bar near downtown San Francisco. A very cool place. There was tons of good drinks. Here are some of the Barleywines I drank...

21st Amendment Lower de Boom
Stone Old Guardian
Speakeasy Old Godfather
Full Sail Old Boardhead

Here are the bottles I brought back!! I think I did pretty well....

Grinders’ Goose Island Beer & Food Pairing (Taste Beering)

2010-02-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

February 9th at 7:00 PM

The Experience:

Tuesday night Grinders held another Beer and Food Pairing, known as Taste Beering to the Grinders crowd. The event was a success as the room was full and Paul DeVires with Goose Island Beer Company led the 40+ group through five beer and food pairings. If you haven’t ever been to Grinders, this event is a great intro to their food and beer offerings for a very reasonable price: $15 in advance, $25 at the door.

Bang for your buck:
Each 4 ounce beer sample was served with a small portion of food that complemented and enhanced the taste of both. Let me not fool you into believing this a typical American dinner scene with giant plates loaded with food. If you are looking to leave stuffed, you might be in for a surprise. On the contrary, if you want to experience beer with a taste of correctly paired food, you are in for a treat. Most people think of pizza and Big Ass Tots covered in W.I.T. when Grinders comes to mind, but unbeknown to some they have a great kitchen staff and even employ the skills of a Hungarian chef on Tuesdays.

The Brewery:
When you think of Goose Island what do you think? I know what I thought; “InBev owned, mass produced beer that doesn’t jump off the craft beer shelves at the store.” That was until I tasted a little something called Bourbon County Brand Stout. If you have not been privy to this one of a kind super star, leave your computer and go buy some now! That beer helped open my eyes to the quality of GI beers and this tasting provided some info to help ease my craft beer conscious. Two facts about GI: They are privately owned by John Hall who started the brewery in 1988, and the head brewer is his son Greg Hall. Goose Island has won more awards at the GABF than any other American brewery. Huh? Yeah that’s what I said. Also, all of the beers at this tasting have won the GABF Gold. With a specialty of Belgian style beers with an American twist, it is easy to understand how they have won so many awards.

The Pairings:

Mild Winter Beer with Savory and Sweet French Onion Soup
Awe the Mild, a revisit to a most popular style beer in England where one can drink a couple glasses and not smell like a hop yard or feel too buzzed to drive home. Remember “Buzzed driving is drunk driving!” That said the ABV is higher than I had hoped nearing 6%. The toffee color and creamy head come together for a great mild with a smooth mouth feel and finish. The taste of wheat is noticeable and some say the small amount of rye flakes used in brewing comes through. This is a solid daily driver, errr drinker.
ABV: 5.6% IBU: 28

Honkers Ale with Phyllo Brie Cups and Honey Lavender Drizzle
This English bitter is one of Goose Island’s best selling beers and has been winning awards for them since 1994. As a good bitter should, Honkers has a great bite of hops up front and a well balanced malt taste to balance her out. I love beers that have a biscuity flavor that keeps the glass coming back to your mouth. The brie cups were delicious but a little on the David the Gnome size, in fact too small to photo before disapearing!
ABV: 4.2% IBU: 30

Nut Brown Ale with Pecan Smoked Chicken Drummie and Herb Roasted Parsnips w/Frangelico Glaze
The Nut Brown Ale round out the English inspired beers and offered us the best food-beer paring of the night. Grinders hit this smooth brown with a mouth feel of wheat on the nose by providing a smoked drummie infused with pecan flavors. Either one alone was good, but together the flavors blended perfectly to smooth the hop edges of the beer and cut the smoked taste from the chicken. Well done Grinders! The American twist on the brown gives a better mouth feel, tan frothy head, and a wonderful nutty undertone.
ABV: 5.3% IBU: 25

Pere Jacques with Pan Fried Pork Choplette and Apple Compote, Cranberry Sauce
Pere Jacques or Father Jake was the first beer of the night to delve into GI’s flare for Belgian Style Ales. This Belgian Style Abbey Ale comes right out of the glass with a nose of fruit, lots of yeast flavors, and a great malt base. Pere requires a 10 week brew time to develop the complexity of flavors and aromas expected from Belgian ales. The choplette-teet was a sweet, savory combo that helped extenuate the fruit and yeast flavors within the ale. Being bottle conditioned and a strong showing of alcohol, you can cellar this baby for up to five years. If you haven’t aged a bottle of beer, get on it as this is very rewarding. The KCHH group brewed a Belgian Golden Strong in spring 2007 and has tasted a bottle every year since. High-quality for sure.
ABV: 8% IBU: 26

Bourbon County Brand Stout with Almond Joy Brownies
Ok boys and girls, this is where we get serious. As I said earlier, if you haven’t tried the Bourbon County Brand Stout it needs to be at the top of your list. GI brewed Bourbon County for the first time in 1992 using one oak barrel to commemorate their 1000th batch. Since then this beer has taken on a life of its own and demands full attention when tasted. I suggest splitting the first bottle amongst multiple people so you don’t get overwhelmed, after that hoard it! When pouring this ‘midnight’ colored ale, notice how it covers the glass and leaves a rich film. The nose is full of dark flavors: chocolate, tobacco, vanilla, and the charred barrel from whence it came. The 13% of alcohol is enclosed within rich flavors of chocolate and caramel malt and a sip will provide more taste than a case of normal stout. The heart and soul of Bourbon County comes from the 4 to 23 year old barrels it’s produced in and the 180 day sit time prior to bottling. Each drop is hand pumped from the barrel into bright tanks. Can you say labor costs? GI has lovingly passed that buck by rewarding pumping employees with a bribe of this dark magma as a reward. This beer is summed up by one word “Limitationless,” – Paul DeVries. This is truly a beer ‘with out limit’. Enjoy!
ABV: 13% IBU: 60

DE-MO-LITION Belgian Style Golden Ale:

After the tasting the KCHH group was able to speak with Paul, the Goose Island guy, and obtain a preview bottle of the DE-MO-LITION Belgian Style Golden Ale that will be hitting the KC market in about a month or two. You will have to tune back in to see the results of the tasting next week.

Links:

Goose Island Beer Company

Grinders

The Great American Beer Festival

Dark Mild Tasting

2010-02-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I was doing an inventory of my beers in kegs and bottles and realized almost every beer was over 7%. I decided it was time to brew a session beer. Since I have recently visited the UK, milds and bitters immediately came to mind. While there I had few beers that were labeled dark milds. These beers had a more full flavor than regular milds, more roasty and slight chocolatey flavors. After remembering how great these beers tasted I decided this was what I wanted to brew.

Dark Mild

Appearance - Dark brown with reddish hues when held up to the light, almost opaque. Beautiful tan head that slowly compacts to a creamy cap.

Aroma - Roasty, dark chocolate, hint of coffee, butterscotch, cream.

Taste - Roasty followed by an unsweeted chocolate bitterness. A hint of butterscotch and finishes semisweet with a lingering roasty aftertaste.

Mouthfeel - Very soft on the carbonation with a good input of microscopic fizz. Very refreshing and not thin by any means.

Drinkability & Notes - Really solid beer. This is what I remember drinking pint after pint of in the pubs around London. At 3.8% ABV you could have many of these without feeling guilty.

Recipe Specifics
------------------
Batch size: 12 gal.
Total grain: 16 lbs.
Original Gravity: 1.039
Final Gravity: 1.010
Estimated SRM: 18.4
Estimated IBUs: 19.3
ABV: 3.77%

Grain
------------------
81.2% - 13 lbs. Maris Otter
6.25% - 1 lb. Crystal 80L
6.25% - 1 lb. Caramunich
2.37% - 6 oz. Chocolate 350L
2.37% - 6 oz. Roasted Barley 300L
1.56% - 4 oz. Special B

Hops
------------------
2 oz. Fuggles (Pellets 4.50% AA) @ 60 min.
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets 5.00% AA) @ 15 min.

Yeast
------------------
Wyeast Labs 1968 - London ESB Ale
Made a 1L starter to pitch into fermenter.

Mash Schedule
------------------
Saccrification rest - 60 min. @ 152
Mash out - 10 min. @ 168

Easy Hop Hanger Design.

2010-02-08T18:32:00.000-08:00

So after making two beers with an immense amount of hops, I am officially tired of dealing with the hop chunks remaining in the beer post boil. I have been whirlpooling hard, and then siphoning off because I was concerned that my bazooka style filter would get clogged from the amount of hop sediment.

After kegging a Pliny The Elder clone last weekend, it immediately jammed up my corny keg, and I had to disassemble the thing while the beer was in it and clear it out. Instead of continuing to battle the hop sediment I decided to do something about it. Here is a simple solution I put together from a few dollars worth of items at Lowe's and a large nylon bag. I saw something similar to this on a forum some time ago, and finally got around to putting one together.

Items needed (with Lowe's part numbers):
23284 - 4" PVC Coupling - 1.99
66136 - #72 Clamp - 1.83
69886 - 1/4" -20-3' Aluminum Threaded Rod - (2) $1.64 each
Large Nylon Bag from the local homebrew shop

Drill four holes in the PVC coupling towards one end. I drilled 5/16" holes and they are about perfect size. Place the bag over one end and slide the clamp up over it and use a flathead screwdriver to tighten it. Slip the rods in and put it in the boil! Now dump all your adjuncts in the nylon bag. When the boil is over... pull it out and BAM! no trash left in your wort!

Assembly in pics...

Review: Bell's Brewery Hopslam

2010-01-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

The Beer:

Bell's Brewery releases this as a special edition in early January. It is only released to a few states, and Missouri happens to be one of them. A lot of people were excited about the tap version, which was released the same night as the Boulevard Collaboration party. I went to the party, and ended up getting some bottles of Hopslam from Kyle. He got them at The Cellar Rat, a STELLAR liquor store. Good work on his part!

ABV: 10%
Original Gravity: 1.087
Final Gravity: not listed
IBU's: not listed
Ingredients:
Hops: not listed
Malts: not listed

Appearance: A very good color for Pale Ale's. A nice dark golden color, probably around 12-13 SRM. Not a ton of residual head. Some very slight lacing.

Aroma: A delicious hoppy aroma. Citrusy. Not overwhelming, but very pronounced hoppiness. Smells awesome. No hints of alcohol.

Palate: Good carbonation. Slight resin.

Flavor: Tastes just like it smells. (Redundancy on) Very hoppy, but not overwhelming. Front end is hoppy. Back end is hoppy. After taste is hoppy. There is no hint of alcohol, just like the aroma, even though it is 10% ABV. Very hop heavy.

Verdict: It is a hop heavy beer, but not overwhelming like many hoppy beers are. I would say it is one of my favorite hip hop hoppy beers. (Redundancy off) But I wouldn't have missed Jean-Marie Rock for an on-tap version! It is a little expensive too by the way.

Fixing the HERMS

2010-01-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Let me start this off with saying I can't stand it when stuff doesn't work. It just absolutely irritates me to no end. So... this weekend I said.... hey I should brew a pale ale. So I did. I put together a recipe for a fairly hoppy pale ale I named C4 Pale Ale. I named it that because it uses Citra, Columbus, Cascade, and Centennial hops. That's four hops that start with C if you weren't paying attention. I put the recipe below.

ANYWAYS... I was brewing/watching the KSU - OSU game and wasn't watching closely. One of my PID controllers had been giving me an error message so I thought one of my temperature controllers had gone bad. I worked around that and brewed anyway. While I was watching the game I let the water level get past the electric water heating element in the HLT. I didn't realize this did anything until I was fixing the sensor... which I did successfully. Then I realized that one of my 4500W heating elements exploded because there was no water to offer resistance. It took me 2 hours and $100 worth of tools to remove the old element because it had slightly welded itself into the threads. Here are some pictures of why it took so dang long.

Point is... I got the element out. It looks like it needed it. I replaced it with a bigger element, so now I have 10,000W to heat my water. It should help cut a little time off. I was pretty excited to get it loose since I had to stand on top of the keggle, with a new 18" pipe wrench hanging off the old element, slamming it with a sledge hammer. Sometimes a little brute force is needed. Everything is fixed and this weekend we will be using it to brew a Belgian Golden Strong Ale for a friends wedding after we started the tradition with Kyle's wedding.

C4 Pale Ale

Brew Type: All Grain	Date: 1/21/2010
Style: American IPA	Brewer: Thomas Sanford
Batch Size: 10.00 gal	Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 11.45 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %

Brewing Steps

Check

Time

Step

1/21/2010

Clean and prepare equipment.

Measure ingredients, crush grains.

Prepare Water (14.45 gal total)

Amount	Item	Type
10.00 gal	Kansas City, KS	Water

Prepare Ingredients for Mash

Amount	Item	Type
20 lbs	Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)	Grain
2 lbs	Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)	Grain
1 lbs 8.0 oz	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain
1 lbs	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)	Grain
8.0 oz	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)	Grain

WARNING: Preheat Mash Tun - No equipment adjustments made!

2 min

Mash Ingredients
Mash In: Add 37.50 qt of water at 157.2 F

50 min

- Hold mash at 148.0 F for 50 min

2 min

Mash Out: Heat to 170.0 F over 2 min

10 min

- Hold mash at 170.0 F for 10 min

Sparge with 5.08 gal of 168.0 F water.

Add water to achieve boil volume of 11.45 gal

Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.065 SG with all grains/extracts added

Boil for 60 min

Boil Ingredients

Boil	Amount	Item	Type
60 min	0.66 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min)	Hops
60 min	0.66 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (60 min)	Hops
60 min	0.66 oz	Citra [11.10 %] (60 min)	Hops
60 min	0.66 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min)	Hops
15 min	0.66 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min)	Hops
15 min	0.66 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min)	Hops
15 min	0.66 oz	Citra [11.10 %] (15 min)	Hops
15 min	0.66 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (15 min)	Hops
1 min	0.66 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (1 min)	Hops
1 min	0.66 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (1 min)	Hops
1 min	0.66 oz	Citra [11.10 %] (1 min)	Hops
1 min	0.66 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (1 min)	Hops

Cool wort to fermentation temperature

Add water (as needed) to achieve volume of 10.00 gal

Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.

Add Ingredients to Fermenter

Amount	Item	Type
2 Pkgs	American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)	Yeast-Ale

1/21/2010

Measure Original Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.074 SG)

1/21/2010

Measure Batch Volume: ________ (Estimate: 10.00 gal)

5 days

Ferment in primary for 5 days at 68.0 F

1/26/2010

Transfer to Secondary Fermenter

7 days

Ferment in secondary for 7 days at 68.0 F

Add Ingredients to Fermenter

Amount	Item	Type
1.00 oz	Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops
1.00 oz	Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops
1.00 oz	Citra [11.10 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops
1.00 oz	Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)	Hops

2/2/2010

Measure Final Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.018 SG)

Bottle beer at 68.0 F with 4.7 oz of corn sugar.

4.0 Weeks

Age for 4.0 Weeks at 52.0 F

3/2/2010

Sample and enjoy!

MAIFEST 2010 INFORMATION

2010-01-27T08:21:00.001-08:00

Thomas Sanford, Ashley Strube, and Kyle FitzGerald are pleased to announce the 1st Annual Maifest 2010. What is Maifest you ask? Traditionally, Maifest (translated to Mayfest) is a celebration of winters darkness giving way to springs light and warmth, commemorated with plenty of food, beer, wine, and dancing. To this end, Maifest 2010 will be a celebration of the art of craft beer and the skill of home brewing.

From 12PM to 6PM we three home brewers will be providing approximately 15 different types of handcrafted beers covering styles from classic Belgian Ales to German Lagers and of course a great selection of hoppy beers. In addition to a full lineup of beers, plenty of delicious food will be provided to appease the masses.

Because you are our close friends the beer will be provided for free. Heck, we’ll even feed you for free! Must be 21 or older to participate with valid I.D.

For more information please click the Maifest flyer. If you would like a t-shirt we are going to get a few made to venerate this occasion. Pre-ordering is the best way to guarantee you get one. Hopefully you can make it and enjoy a day of good times, good beer, good food, and good friends!

Probable Beers At Maifest

Brewer: Kyle FitzGerald
10 G. Bavarian Wheat
10 G. Belgian Wit
5 G. Maibock
10 G. Dunkelweizen
10 G. European Pilsner
5 G. Schwarzbier

Brewer: Thomas Sanford
10 G. Roasty Toasty Amber Ale
10 G. C4 Pale Ale
10 G. Hop Heaven India Pale Ale
5 G. Hopocalypse
10 G. Common Man California Common
10 G. KC Beat Down Brown

Brewer: Ashley Strube
10 G. Tripel
10 G. Dubbel
10 G. Belgian Blonde
10 G. Saison
5 G. Chocolate Hazelnut Porter
5 G. English Dark Mild

Location

Address:
301 City Park Dr.
Kansas City, KS 66102

Map

Directions:

From the East…
Take the Park Dr/38th St exit - 0.3 mi
Turn right at Park Dr - 0.5 mi
Take the 2nd right onto S Grandview Blvd - 115 ft
Slight right at City Park Dr - 0.3 mi
Look for the Pavilion!

From the West…
Take exit 419 toward Park Dr/38th St - 0.4 mi
Turn right at Kaw Dr - 246 ft
Continue onto Park Dr - 0.6 mi
Turn right at S Grandview Blvd - 115 ft
Slight right at City Park Dr - 0.3 mi
Look for the Pavilion!

Picture

Wyandotte County Pavilion Link:
http://www.wycokck.org/Dept.aspx?id=18064&menu_id=1016&banner=15284

Review: Avery Brewing duganA IPA

2010-01-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

The Beer:

Avery brewed duganA IPA as a a limited release and released it in October 2009. It is a Double India Pale Ale focusing HEAVILY on hops. They claim to brew it when they have some additional tank space and want something hoppy. The marketing and supplemental blurb aim to tell the consumer that they are buying something that will make their head spin with lupulin and alpha acids.

ABV: 8.5%
Original Gravity: 1.076
Final Gravity: not listed
IBU's: 93
Ingredients:
Hops: Chinook, Centennial, Columbus
Malts: Two-row Barley, Dark Aromatics, Caramel Malt

Appearance: A very clear bronze color. A slight burnt orange, resembling the color of a dark honey. It pours with a significant one to one-and-a-half finger head. It has strong retention and lacing lines the glass as the bubbles begin to dissipate.

Aroma: A very strong dank smell. Heavy notes of citrus, pine, florals, and fruit. A "dank" hop-forward smell that makes no attempt at hiding its hoppy treasure.

Palate: Mouth Puckering. Resinous. Oily.

Flavor: WHOA! A hardcore mouth-puckering citrusy bitterness. A definite resin remains as the pine begins to shine through. There is a small malt note that peeks through eventually after your taste buds beat back the bitterness. A good IPA that is not for the faint of heart. If you don't like hops, you won't like this beer.

Verdict: I like the beer. I think it tastes slightly worse than I expect from the aroma. That's not to say that it is bad though. I would buy again, if I was having a shortage of lupulin in my blood. There are probably others that I would choose first, but its certainly a tasty hop bomb.

Boulevard Collaboration #1 Release Party

2010-01-19T19:39:00.001-08:00

The Experience:

Last night Boulevard Brewing had the release party for their first (of hopefully many) collaboration. It was held at a new hotel in Lawrence, KS: The Oread. What a beautiful hotel. Inside the hotel was the Bird Dog Bar which is where the big party was! We got there around 7:15 to make sure that we got good seats. With some persuasion, we convinced our waitress to ensure that we got the first bottle commercially sold to the public. As 7:30 rolled around, she quickly brought us the FIRST publicly sold bottle of Collaboration #1! We instantly geeked out and poured some golden goodness as quickly as possible.

As the night kicked off, Jean-Marie Rock (of Orval) and Steven Pauwels (of Boulevard Brewing) began making their rounds. They were generous enough to sign it and even labeled it the first bottle Fles #1 (which translates to "Bottle #1"). We were also able to acquire two unopened bottles from an un-named source and greedily had them sign those as well.

We were able to have conversations with both Steven and Jean-Marie. Jean-Marie ensured us that this would be his only collaboration which made it all the more special to be able to meet him and talk about his creation. He told us he was in charge of both the brewery operations and Orval's cheese making as well. Even across the globe, from his room in Lawrence, KS, Jean-Marie was able to monitor and make adjustments to the Orval operations. He joked that there was a parameter that he did not like and had to send an email to make sure they were on the ball. Although probably not as intimidating as Frank Martin, I am sure that he got his point across. Overall, the night was a glorious success. Hopefully everyone that went had as much fun as we did as I can't imagine anything that would have made it better!

The Beer:

The beer is Boulevard Brewing Smokestack Series, Collaboration #1, Imperial Pilsner.

ABV: 8.0%
Original Gravity: 14.3 Plato
Final Gravity: 2.3 Plato
IBU's: 30

The beer was served in room temperature wine glasses. It pours a wonderful pale color. Tiny pure white bubbles slowly retreat leaving a very slight lacing. The aroma is very crisp, with an ever so slight hint of hoppy goodness, slightly spicy aromas hint at the Saaz hops which were used. The carbonation was perfect for this style and it had a wonderful mouthfeel. In a society dominated by the flat, uninteresting flavors of Americanized pilsners, this one takes the cake as my favorite pilsner with ease. A very delicious Pilsner that starts and finishes very clean. It has a slight hoppy undertone with spicy notes from the hops. As soon as they come out, you should buy one and drink it because it is glorious.

New Kansas City Beer Blog! Projected Content.

2010-01-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

So, we are huge beer geeks. We are hardcore homebrewers, love great beer from all over the world, and really want to help lift Kansas City and the midwest to the next level in beer RESPECT! With a couple other blogs shutting down or taking hiatuses, we decided now would be a great time to start one up. Here is a mostly inclusive list of what we would like to cover on here:

Beer Reviews
Homebrewing
- process
- equipment
- techniques
- recipes
- ingredients
Local Event Coverage
- Beer Release Parties for local breweries
- Beer festivals (Irish Fest, KC BrewHaHa, Maifest (more to come on this), homebrew gatherings)
Local Brewery Info (tidbits of info, seasonals, special releases, etc.)
BrewPubs

There is always a beer centric event going on somewhere it seems, so we will try and cover the ones we find most interesting. We really like being creative with our homebrew concoctions. We will post about our brewdays, and will blast out our recipes and techniques. Please feel free to comment or advise, as we are always looking to improve and become more knowledgeable.

The appearance will continue to evolve for the blog. For now we are using the template so we can get started sooner rather than later. If you have any ideas for a real sweet header, send em over!

Hopefully you find this blog interesting and useful!

Cheers!
Thomas, Kyle, and Ashley!