French Press Dry-Hopped IPA

At a recent homebrew club meeting, I wanted to spice up a dark IPA by doing a cold-press of leaf Simcoe hops in a french press coffee maker. We did a side by side against the unadulterated version and the results were what you might expect:  really, really good! I put 1 oz. of leaf Simcoe hops in the press and slowly added two bottles of the IPA (which was brewed with Simcoe and Citra pellets). It steeped in the refrigerator for about 1 hour before serving. The press hopped beer revealed more of everything associated with hops (and I really pressed the juice out of those hops). More aroma, more flavor, but it was different. You got the citrus and pine, sure. But there was an intense, biting, vegetal spice that the non-pressed beer lacked. It even made my fellow club members a little (shall we say?) high. We all had an aura of hop glow around us for several minutes. It was nice, but boy were those hops intense! If you have some extra leaf hops, or just want to buy hops for this express purpose, I would highly recommend everyone do this at least once. Be warned though. It's kind of a waste of lupulin if you don't have something to do with the hops afterward, and it kind of turns your friends into hop zombies. Here are some pics to go along with the post, including what my friend, Ian, looked like when he tried to eat on of the hop cones. Enjoy! Be Fermentive!

Hop Harvest Time (Almost; with pics)

Let's face it. We're getting tired of waiting for our homegrown hops to be ready to harvest. With everyone talking about fresh hop beers and pictures on our Facebook walls of people laying in bins of freshly harvested cones, we've been itching to pick our hops and deflower (so to speak) pots full of virgin wort and process the remainder for the year's upcoming brews. (cue "screeching to a halt" soundbyte) Just wait!!! Don't succomb to peer pressure or your own lack of willpower. Your hoppy beer will thank you later. The knowledge of picking hops later than usual has been passed on to us, the homebrewer, by Stan Hieronymus, author of recently released book, For The Love of Hops. As the cones mature, the resinous lupulin glands become a more golden (orange-y) schoolbus yellow color. They get more sticky. They get better, imparting better flavor and aroma to your beer. So some of the bracts are browning around the edges? No big deal. If you harvest too early, you won't get those intense hop characteristics you are looking for. I'm not going to tell you exactly when you should harvest. Only you truly know your bines. You listen to them don't you? If not, you should! They have much to say. In fact, here is a very good YouTube video showing what I'm talking about.

That being said, I am planning a simple extract hop harvest ale this weekend anyway. Here's the recipe. Enjoy! Be Fermentive!

Hop Harvest Ale

3.3 # Light Pilsner LME
3.3 # Amber LME
1 oz. Simcoe (First Wort Hop) 60 min.
at least 1 # fresh from the bine Chinook cones at flameout

30 minute hop stand (submerge fresh cones; put a lid on it)

Pics of my hops courtesy of Galen Strole

Hard Cider: From Apples to Buzz

This is another first for my fermentation adventures: hard cider...yes, from apples! I've wanted to make hard cider for several months now, but I'm cheap and had no intention of buying apples or fresh pressed cider from an orchard. So, now that I live in a state where every other yard contains some type of fruit tree, I decided it was time. I published a craigslist ad requesting free apples. Not surprisingly, I got a reply the same day. However, surprisingly, I only ever received one reply. I guess (despite what the apple-littered ground suggests) people want to keep their apples or don't want freeloaders like me coming to pick them. Anyway, I went out to craigslist ad respondent's house (who, btw, informed me that at one time he was driving a car he got for $15 off the craigslist "barter" page) northeast of Kalamazoo (I know, there are a million apple trees between Vicksburg and northeast Kalamazoo, but I was in the mood for a drive) and picked 2 5-gallon buckets full of apples (along with a few pears he didn't even know he had). Since I do not have a fruit press, my method of juice extraction was my trusty Jack Lalanne Power Juicer (you know, the one from the infomercials). It did what I wanted it to do, albeit not very efficiently. As a result, these (free) apples barely filled my carboy half way:

I wanted more cider. I needed more apples. On the way home from a trip to the recycling center during which I began to realize just how many apple trees I passed on my daily routes, I decided to stop at a public park that had been catching my eye for awhile (I'm always on the lookout for new places to take my kids to play). I got out of my car and started walking around. I saw trees that had the shape of fruit trees. Lots of them...full of apples and crab apples! This park practically had its own orchard just waiting to be picked. I, of course, had my buckets in tow and filled both of them from several different trees.

The apples weren't too sweet, with plenty of tartness and tannins that will hopefully yield a nice, dry, tart hard cider.

So it took 4 5-gallon buckets full of small to medium apples (probably about ~100 lbs.) for my juicer to produce approximately 6 gallons of cider. So far, I couldn't be happier.

I poured the cider into two carboys, aerated, and pitched half a sachet of S-04 English Ale yeast in each. The OG of 1.040 was not quite what I had hoped, so I added one pound of table sugar in each carboy to bump the gravity up to 1.056. Hoping to get a nice dry cider of at least 5.5% ABV. I'll try to post an update on how it turns out with tasting notes. Until then, I encourage any of you with access to apples or extra cash to make some hard cider. Experiment with different varieties, processes, yeast strains, and/or additions of hops/wood/bugs/etc. Good luck!. Be Fermentive!

The Hideout Brewing Company

Today, I had nothing to do for the rest of the day at my internship, so I left to run some errands before completing what would be a total of 3 walks (did I mention I didn't have much to do?). But before that I was able to find and visit a brewery I'd been wanting to go to since I first learned of it:  Hideout Brewing Company. What attracted me to this brewery (other than the name and the promise of flavorful craft beer) was the obviously eclectic brewing style they employed. This is not the type of brewery that has very many simple, straight-forward beers (though some may fall short of the expectations their names create). No, they create interesting, eye-catching, "you put WHAT in this beer?!" kinds of beers. While I was there, though my own homebrewing history is not what one might call "pedestrian," I attempted to stick to the less garish-sounding beers. Nevertheless, they were as follows:  Blueberry Maple Mild, Chocolate Raspberry Mild, Sour Weizen, Polish Potato Ale, 9am Hazelnut IPA, and Trigger Man IPA. See what I mean? My Yelp.com review may be viewed here, but I enjoyed my time at Hideout Brewing Company very much. I was the only customer the entire time I was there, and the bar was tended by the brewing scheduling and distribution manager, Mike. Nice guy, and quite knowledgeable about the product. I will definitely be back. May even join the Mug Club. If you are ever in the Grand Rapids area and have time for only one brewery, I definitely recommend this one. Here's a pic of the 9am Hazelnut IPA.

Airlocks...Unlocked

Please permit me to rant about something just this once. ::smug grin:: I might apologize in advance for preaching homebrewing heresy, but I won't. It's my blog, and if you don't like it you don't have to read it (but who doesn't like their ego stroked?; I don't have any followers yet anyway.). However, it is my hope to dispel the myth of the necessity of the airlock, though I may have to pry it from the cold, dead hands of some stalwart homebrewing brothers and sisters. Nevertheless, as purveyors of the fermentive arts, we are often quite concerned (some of us more anal-retentively than others) with cleanliness and sanitization. Don't get me wrong! Such practices are without question the most important skills homebrewers can employ to ensure a quality (if drinkable) product, but we sometimes do things that have overly negative consequences solely because we think we have to, someone told us he had to, or because we just don't know any better. There is ALWAYS choice, both in brewing and in life. There is also ALWAYS consequence. (You didn't pay for that. It's just a little extra bonus existential wisdom from me to you.)

Enter, the myth of the necessity of a closed fermentation vessel. Closely related to sanitization practices, the use of an airlock is one of the more popular ways to create a (physical) barrier that allows the escape of CO2 and prevents the ingress of O2. Airlocks also (in theory) prevent unwanted baddies/dust/bugs/etc. from getting in the fermenting beer and causing potential contamination/infection. But are they really necessary? That depends, but I'm leaning toward "no." Before you write me off as a lunatic and stop reading, first consider the products of fermentation. A fermenting food or beverage produces three things:  alcohol (everyone's favorite); Carbon dioxide; and, heat (rarely mentioned because of its obvious ubiquity). In addition to contamination, the other anathema of brewers is oxidization. (Let's not kid ourselves. For all brewers, more for homebrewers than professionals, some oxidization is inevitable. There is some transfer of oxygen when racking to secondary, and during bottling, unless one purges with CO2 and is extremely careful.) During fermentation, kreuzen and CO2 form a barrier of physical substance as well as positive pressure above the beer, thus preventing ingress of O2 and making an airlock unnecessary. If fermenting in a bucket, a loose fitting lid or, in a carboy, a sanitized piece of foil to cover, is all that is necessary. Some even leave that space open on purpose, but that's another topic (sort of). The reasoning behind this is that if some undesirable substance was to get in the beer, it would have to travel up, against the force of gravity (not to mention against the positive pressure of escaping CO2) to enter the beer. This is highly unlikely, as most floating particulate falls through the atmosphere via gravity.

Okay, so you've got airlock(s). Why not use them? I'm not preaching against airlocks, per se, but against the strict use of airlocks to the exclusion of all other reasonable methods of achieving the same purpose. However, there are other reasons you might not want to be restricted to an airlock. First, if you're a homebrewer, having some version of the following is not a matter of if, but when. These experiences usually occur for the less experienced homebrewer, or for the homebrewer who is dogmatically opposed to change/enjoys cleaning beer off his/her ceiling:

Or this:

I think these videos prove most of my points. Sure, in the second video, the guy could have used a blow-off. But the use of a restrictive device like a blow-off tube (just like a jet engine) will create more force and (according to Newton's 2nd law of motion) potentially push more of your beer out of your fermentor and into the blow-off receptacle. Again, a loose fitting lid or piece of foil works just fine. Recently, I was chatting with a homebrewing friend who shares a brewing space with other homebrewers. He recounted to myself how he had to clean up some of his equipment in the aftermath of an airlock explosion when other brewers borrowed his brewpot in an attempt to contain potential blow-off. First of all, this is unacceptable, but it is also just plain dumb. My friend said the other brewers were attempting a FFF Darklord clone (also kinda dumb) and had allowed coffee and cacao nibs to enter the primary fermentor, thus clogging the airlock and causing a huge, albeit greatly aromatic, mess. Again, unacceptable. I fail to see the point of putting coffee and cacao nibs in primary in the first place, but to, then, tempt fate with an airlock? Mind-boggling! But I digress...at least use a blow-off, but again, a loose-fitting lid or piece of foil is sufficient.

Another reason (though, admittedly, less important for the homebrewer) one might not want to use an airlock is the potential effects of osmotic pressure on yeast. Research suggests that fermenter geometry and pressure can stress yeast such that growth rates and fermentation characteristics are negatively affected. An open fermentation (loose fitting lid; foil cover) alleviates this pressure and (in my experience) tends to accentuate fruity esters, especially in hop-forward beers.

Finally, there are several commercial breweries that use open fermentation (some for centuries), including Ommegang, Sierra Nevada, New Glarus, Jolly Pumpkin, Anchor Brewing, D. L. Geary, and Samuel Smith's. If the best in the business ain't skeered of open fermentation, neither need you be. Just be careful and follow a few basic rules with open fermentations:
-Practice good sanitization methods
-Until active fermentation has commenced: cover, but loosely is fine
-It's even okay to uncover and let your beer breathe during active fermentation (kreuzen)
-Temperature control. Always a plus.
-Size of fermentation vessel may dictate, but leave enough head space to allow for kreuzen (this may mean  brewing smaller recipes, heaven forbid.)
-When fermentation slows down, positive pressure decreases. Insert airlock now.
-Be smart with your hose (in all things, but especially when racking to secondary so as to reduce O2 (transfer)!

Finally, if you doubt what I'm saying (and that's okay; doubt is an essential element of enlightenment), here is at least one article by some titans of craft beer who are also proponents of open fermentation. Enjoy! Be Fermentive!

Living by example (Altbier)

Black Mead

I've never made mead before. I did make a beer (a braggot, actually) that was mostly honey and agave nectar over a year ago, but never just honey mead. There are two main reasons for this: First, it's too easy; second, honey is EXPENSIVE! I like the art, multi-step process, and science associated with all-grain brewing. You don't have to, but it helps to know your stuff. Honey is expensive, and it takes a lot to make mead. Several weeks ago, I was given a 5# can of honey. This was not just any honey, but honey that had been rescued from the house of a man who had passed away. And said honey had been sitting for 20+ years! I tasted some the this same honey when I received it and it is some of the most complex sweetness I have ever experienced. It has a rich, multi-faceted, toffee-like flavor with a fruity, floral aroma. The color (as seen in the images below) is a deep, rusty amber. When poured into the fermenter it appears black. I don't know much about honey, but I don't know how people could get honey quite like this. Nevertheless, here is the recipe and some pics.

Black Mead (1 gallon; est. O.G. 1.190):
5# Black honey
1 sachet wine yeast (I may pitch with a super high gravity yeast if the wine yeast conks out sooner than I want it to)
2 tsp yeast nutrient

Procedures:
Dissolve honey in ~0.25 gal warm water (100F-115F).
Dissolve yeast nutrient into water and honey.
Add must (that's the honey/water solution you have at this point) to about 1 inch of cold distilled water.
Top up with cold distilled water.
Dissolve yeast in 50 mL 100F-105F water (allow yeast to sit atop water for 15 min. Do not stir.)
Pitch yeast into must; cover or put in dark place (yeast don't like light).
I don't claim to know what I'm doing, but, generally, wine ferments at higher temperatures. So, ambient room temperature should be fine for mead.

Here is the actual honey can

Notice the dark color

Gravity reading

Black Mead, Top down

Black Mead, Side shot

Darker the Berry Blueberry Altbier

My family went blueberry picking last week and picked over 15# of blueberries. That's a lot of blueberry muffins, blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes, and blueberry cobbler. So, what to do with all of those blueberries? Make blueberry beer, of course! According to BJCP guidlines, the fruit beer category has very few parameters. It's pretty much wide open as long as the beer has fruit in it, and the fruit should be "prominent." I don't know about you, but this sounds like an open invitation to spit in the eye of tradition and be fermentive.

A few weeks ago, I nabbed 10# of mislabeled Weyermann Floor-malted Bohemian Dark malt in the bargain bin at my LHBS. My thoughts were something along the lines of:  "This would make a nice, dark, malty, German ale and/or lager, and I have been thinking about that Metropolitan Brewing Iron Works altbier I had that time at Haymarket Brewery." The following recipe is inspired by those "old" German ales brewed before the use of lager yeasts became so popular. It is a deep, rich amber-colored, malty beer with an assertive hop bitterness to (almost) balance the sweetness. This fruity version downplays the IBUs in order to bring forward the blueberry aroma and flavor.

Darker the Berry Blueberry Altbier (numbers do not include fruit additions)

5.00 gallon batch  O.G. 1.050  IBUs:  32.8  Efficiency: 75%

Grist:
7# Weyermann Floor-malted Bohemian Dark Malt (74.6%)
2# White Wheat Malt (21.3%)
0.25# Special Roast (50 SRM; 2.7%), reserve
0.13# UK Chocolate Malt (450 SRM; 1.4%), reserve

Hops:
1.25 oz. Mt. Rainer (6.0%; 90 min; first wort hop)

Yeast:
SafAle US-05

Procedures:
Mash in @ 130F (mash thickness 1.39 qt/lb)
Decoct 4.86 qt of thick mash. Bring to 155F, hold 20-30 min. Boil 15 min.
Mashout @ 168F with 4.5 qt boiling water. Add Special Roast and Chocolate malt at mashout.
Sparge with 3.25 gallons water @ 168F.
Vorlauf until clear (approx. 2 qt.)
Boil 90 min.
(Irish moss; yeast nutrient @ 15 min, if it suits your fancy)
Rack onto 5# blueberries in 6.5 gallon secondary (to accommodate berries and fermentation of fruit sugars) after primary fermentation is complete.

This recipe is for a blueberry ale, but other fruits or combinations of fruits and/or vegetables may be used to your individual taste. Be fermentive!