Kate Day 2011

This year's annual release of Kate the Great by Portsmouth Brewery in New Hampshire will see a partnership between the brewery and the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire (NH) and the Center for Wildlife (ME). Kate the Great is Portsmouth's famous 9.5% ABV Russian Imperial Stout, hailed by BeerAdvocate as the best beer in the U.S., and the second best beer in the world. This particular beer has been brewed on an annual basis since 2005 and has stirred up quite the following. With only 10 barrels being brewed (roughly 900 22oz. bottles), Portsmouth has been met with long lines and very disappointed customers in the past. This year, however, they're trying something different. Scratch-off tickets will be sold at a whopping $2 per ticket. Only 10,000 tickets will be sold (only 10,000...yeah), but only 900 of these tickets will be "winners." The holder of a winning ticket is qualified to purchase a bottle of the 2011 Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout, at $15 per bottle, on "Kate Day" (March 7, 2011). The catch, though, is that ALL proceeds from the sale of tickets will go towards both of the aforementioned non-profit organizations ($10,000 each, assuming all tickets will be sold).

Both of these non-profit organizations are certainly commendable. The Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire's mission is: "to conserve the significant land and natural resources of southeastern New Hampshire, including water, working farms and forests, wildlife habitat, natural areas, and community landscapes." They've been around for the past 30 years and have succeeded in conserving over 6,000 acres of land. This is done through various deed restrictions and conservation easements, among other things, in an effort to ensure fresh, local farmstand fruits and vegetables, protect water quality, and allow for the continued thriving of wildlife and local woodlands. Good stuff, naturally. The Center for Wildlife is equally worthy of praise, with various educational programs being offered regarding wildlife ecology, human impacts on wildlife and critical ecosystems, and stewardship. Having been around since the mid-80s, the Center is dedicated to the rehabilitation of wild animals. The Center reports that over 1,600 animals are brought to them each year, ranging from suffering illness, injury, and/or infection. The goal? To get these little darlings back into the wild by providing them with complete diagnostic treatment and recovery activities.

Moreover, Portsmouth itself has also tapped into the sustainable efforts of its partners and other breweries throughout the country. Specifically, the brewery makes a conscious effort to eliminate its use of plastics by switching to compostable takeout containers (potato-based biodegradable boxes), straws, and utensils. The brewery also utilizes local food ingredients in its restaurant, produced by local farmers, which of course contributes to the growth of the local economy. More recently, however, they have teamed up with EcoMovement Consulting and Hauling in an effort to sort out recyclable and compostable waste from overall waste produced. The compostable waste is then utilized as fertilizer by the same local farmers from whom they are getting their ingredients, and their spent grains are used as animal feed, which many breweries are beginning to do as well. A little bit certainly does go a long way!

March is just around the corner, so for those of you in the vicinity of New Hampshire, get on over to the brewery and pick up your tickets (only 10 per person per day) and support a handful of wonderful organizations in the process! And for the record, I would love to find a bottle of Kate on my doorstep this March ;-)

Peace and Love!

Oskar Blues Brewery Raises Over $20,000 For OUR Center

Oskar Blues Brewery, one of the leading members in the craft beer "canning revolution," succeeded in raising over $20,000 at the end of this past year for the OUR Center in Longmont, Colorado (with the owner himself contributing a solid $5,000). But, you're probably asking yourself, "What exactly is the OUR Center?" Right. So was I. The OUR Center (Outreach United Resource Center) is a non-profit organization that assists those in their immediate area in becoming more self-sufficient. According to the organization's mission statement, they "help people in the St. Vrain region move toward self-sufficiency by unifying community resources." They do this by providing those in need with food, clothing, utility and rental assistance, shelter, prescriptions, transportation, employment, and child care, among other things. Moreover, the organization's core values include: providing a welcoming environment to all and treating each other with dignity and respect; promoting responsibility, accountability, confidentiality, and trust in all relationships; developing innovative, efficient solutions through the responsible stewardship of our community resources; and dedicating ourselves to every partner's long-term success through ethical and professional practices.

Eloquently titled "Party with Purpose," guests were free to attend this event (hosted by Oskar Blues, at the brewery), with donations being accepted at the door, where they enjoyed live music and food donated by local venders and Oskar Blues. In addition to this, however, Oskar Blues has also collected over 800 cans of food at various locations to donate to the OUR Center.

Now, if this isn't a prime example of how a socially conscious business successfully operates, then I don't know what is. We all should be raising our glasses to Oskar Blues for their constant dedication and commitment to community and sustainability.

Peace and Love!

Quick Update...

Oh yeah...that's right, I maintain a blog. No, I haven't forgotten about this beautiful piece of work, but I have certainly neglected it. I've been busy, what can I say? Well, so what's new? Hmmm...the maple/oak brown ale was a success (didn't win any medals at Sunshine Challenge, though...but my Serrapale Ale did!), the braggot overcarbed (dangerously), the dubbel finally carbed (needs some age, but very tasty), I helped one of our best friends brew a gluten-free hefeweizen for her stepfather with celiac disease (still waiting for that to finish conditioning), my wife and I made a spiced hard cider for family/friends this Christmas, and I'm sitting on a vanilla-cinnamon porter that is still fermenting away (taking its time...).

Next on the list is an overdue espresso stout my wife has been waiting to brew for a while (we're shooting for all organic again if we can secure the ingredients, which will be reminiscent of the organic honey blonde ale I made last summer), and a heather braggot with some all natural, organic honey I received from a beekeeper near Tampa, FL. After this...we'll see. I've been re-exploring the idea of something sour again, after having saved the Berliner Weisse for a later date. I'm thinking a Flanders Red this time, but the year it will need to fully ferment is definitely going to require patience!

On the sustainable front, nothing really new to report, as far as I can remember at least (much has certainly happened over the course of the past few months, but this was quite a busy semester for me, making it hard to keep up and report everything). New Belgium's Tour de Fat appears to have been a success, as always. There also seems to be some progress with the organic hop farmers and the American Organic Hop Grower Association: beginning in January 2013, organic beers must contain organic hops in order to be labeled as such (right now, they don't necessarily need to).

I'm presenting a paper at the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion this coming March on the recent collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and the Trappist Abbey of New Clairvaux to produce a line of American Trappist ales. This will be the third paper addressing Trappist brewing in the contemporary world that I will have presented at an academic conference...perhaps it's time to work on another publication this summer...

More to come soon - I apologize to those of you reading for the hiatus!

Peace and Love!

Autumn Delight

A couple months ago, I was trying to think of a good beer to brew for the upcoming fall season (fall? Florida? Yeah...I know, but humor me). I didn't get much of a chance to brew last fall (the oatmeal stout was about it between August and November, I believe), and the fall before that I tried my hand in a "pumpkin" spiced brown ale ("A Holerin' Brown Ale").  Well, instead of trying another pumpkin beer (the previous one was a bit too heavy on the clove to really be much of a pumpkin beer), I figured it'd be nice to try some other Autumn-esque flavors.  Sticking with a brown ale base again, I planned to brew with maple syrup and oak chips.

While brainstorming some ideas, a homebrew buddy of mine from the club, Dave, mentioned he had used maple in the past and was never really satisfied.  He like my idea, though, so I asked him if he'd be interested in collaborating on a batch.  We planned on doing a 10-gallon batch, splitting it in half, and doing the maple/oak additions at different intervals.  This would allow us to see which one did better, in terms of the final flavor profile, and allow us to adjust as needed for future brews.

We arranged a day and time for the brew session (a few days before the semester was starting up again, so it was a great way to end the summer), and got to work on the ingredients and recipe.  Dave's setup is quite awesome (see pictures below), and brewing all-grain for once was a really nice treat.  From milling the grains to transferring the wort into two different fermenters, we spent the good portion of an entire afternoon and late morning brewing this bad boy.  Dave's 5-gallons were to see a maple and oak addition a few days after fermentation had started (to give the yeast some time to work on the more complex sugars), while mine was to wait until racking to the secondary.

Dave's setup

Chilling the wort

It's been just over a week since we brewed, and I actually just racked yesterday; fermentation had slowed down quite a bit, so this naturally kicked things up again (pure maple syrup is essentially the equivalent of a yeasty dose of steroids).  The plan is for me to bottle as I usually do, and for Dave to keg (with a possible mini-cask set aside as well).  We're both really looking forward to the final results.  Our taste tests from the gravity readings point towards a nice, malty English southern brown ale - I can only imagine how tasty the maple and french oak are going to make it!  Before my addition yesterday, my wife said it smelled like a fresh loaf of bread... Now, that's what I'm talking about! ;-)

Siphoning Dave's 5-gallons

Siphoning my 5-gallons

In other news, the saison is tasting great, the dubbel is currently bulk aging in the secondary, and the braggot is still fermenting.  My wife and I are going to be brewing an espresso stout later this fall - possibly in time for our club's competition (mentioned in previous posts) - and I'll be sure to post the outcome of our lovely little maple/oak in the near future.

Peace and Love!

Sassy Saison, Wittlebit 'a' Braggot, and Dylan Dubbel!

Well, I've done it...I've managed to cram three carboys into our guest bathroom's shower. Actually, it's just two until tomorrow, so I'm a bit ahead of myself, but still. The saison I mentioned in the previous post is now drinkable, and, I feel, quite marvelous. It's got that "spritz" you look for in a saison, with a nice herbal/spicy flavor. I don't think I'm going to enter it into Commander SAAZ this October, but I'll make sure I save some of these for Sunshine Challenge. So here's what we're looking at:

OG: 1.008

ABV: 5%

HBUs/IBUs: 13.3/25.38

Calories: 150 per 12oz. bottle

All in all, a nice refreshing beverage to enjoy throughout the remainder of the summer.

I also recently brewed my first braggot (traditional mead made with grains). My base recipe was set up for a Belgian witbier. I figured orange blossom honey would go perfectly with this, along with a witbier yeast strain (kept warm enough to produce some interesting esters). It had been in the primary for two weeks until last night (I racked it to a secondary). Fermentation has been pretty slow, so I'm really not sure how long until I bottle it. I've sort of wanted to keep it "still," but my wife really likes her meads sparkling, so the plan is to carb half and leave the other half alone. This was my first mead, so I decided to keep it small and only do a 3 gallon batch. Of course, after tasting it last night, I wish I did the whole 5 gallons instead. This baby is nice and semi-sweet. The alcohol content is about 7% (ABV) right now. It started with an OG of 1.097, and as of last night it was down to 1.038, so I suspect this will dry out a bit more, raising that percentage along with it.

Now, the dubbel. I love abbey ales. I love Trappist ales even more. And you know what? La Trappe Quadrupel is borderline the best beer I've ever had (right up there with a 2008 Westvleteren 12). So, this winter, I felt, needed a nice little "nightcap" beer to accompany it - specifically, one of these complex, delightful brews. I brewed an abbey dubbel this past Saturday using Wyeast's 1214 (the "Chimay" strain from what I understand). I knew the gravity was going to be up there, so I prepared my first yeast starter for this batch too (essentially turning a 50ml pouch of liquid yeast into about 600ml of liquid yeast), and I must say...I'm doing that for every batch from now on. Fermentation visibly started in under 8 hours (compared to my typical 20 or so). I did hold off on adding the dark Belgian candi sugar, though. From what I had read, it's best to let the yeast work at the more complex sugars from the malt before giving them a large dose of simple sugars. I also used the syrup instead of the rocks; I discovered, through my research, that the syrup would add much more flavor. Fermentation had surprisingly slowed down a bit, but last night I added the candi sugar and it became pretty active again. I felt like I was filling the trough for a pen of hungry pigs. Don't you just love those little microorganisms?

But anyway, sorry to keep things brief, but work starts back up on Monday and I have much to do. I'm collaborating with a homebrew buddy of mine tomorrow afternoon to brew an English brown ale with maple syrup and oak chips. I'll try to find the time to post how it goes before the end of the weekend.

Oh, and by the way, how do you like the names for these three? I know. Genius.

Peace and Love!

Saison And Spent Grains

Lately, I've been thinking and talking about (usually to myself) doing something much more productive with Wu Wei Brewing - and no, I'm not talking about actually opening a microbrewery or anything of that nature yet. I'm talking something non-profit...something in regard to sustainability and brewing. I mentioned a community-based brewery in a post a while back, but that isn't something very feasible for me to pursue right now - at least not directly. So, I figured I'd start with becoming a much more sustainable brewer on my own.

Now, all of you homebrewers out there certainly know the answer to this question: what is it that homebrewers accumulate the most on brew-day, in terms of waste? Grains. Well, arguably water as well (especially while sanitizing and cleaning)...and electricity, and perhaps some type of fuel source. But in terms of material waste, it is easily one's grains - no question about it.

The most efficient way to make use of spent brewing grains, from what I've read, is to toss them onto a compost pile, or spread them directly throughout a garden. Of course, one needs to have a compost pile or a garden to be able to do that...and I have neither. Another option is to make cookies or dog biscuits. This seemed like the way to go.

I found recipes, which I've included at the top of the page (near "Home" and "About"), and went to work with grains I had saved from brewing a saison the night before (I'll come back to that saison, don't worry). The cookies were marvelous; they were chocolate chip, peanut butter, and spent Cara-Pils cookies, to be exact. I also actually made dog biscuits later that day too (with the help of my wife). The biscuits were a bit of a chore, though. Following the recipe, but straying from it just a bit, we had to make them as almost a dog biscuit "brittle" of sorts, and then break them apart into smaller pieces after they were done cooking (which took 8 hours to completely dry them out). Our little guy, and every other dog who has gotten a chance to enjoy them, has completely loved them, so I think it was a win-win day of baking and eliminating the unneeded dumping of spent grains into our trash. This will definitely be something worth doing after every brew session, available time pending.

But back to this saison I so nonchalantly referenced. It's hot outside, let's face it, and I still don't have a spare fridge or chest freezer to maintain consistent, cool temperature ranges. These Belgian farmhouse ales ferment nicely well up to 78°F, so this (followed by a Belgian dubbel I mentioned in the previous post) seemed like it'd be a perfect batch to brew up during these hot summer months. I gradually increased the temperature on the saison using the "swamp cooling" method (otherwise known as evaporative cooling, where a wet towel, wicking up cold water from a shallow bath, draws off heat as it evaporates, either on its own or with help from a fan), from roughly the mid-60s to the mid-70s, and it's been about 3 weeks of active fermentation. It started with a gravity of 1.046, but based on the activity, it should be ready to bottle by the end of the coming week.

More on this batch later, but for the time being, scope out those recipes and try giving one (or both) of them a whirl next time you brew.

Peace and Love!

Trubble Clefe

I apologize for how late this post is, in regard to the actual batch of beer, but hey, what's a working man to do, eh? Well, so anyway, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is a Trubble Clefe, and how does this thing taste? Trubble Clefe, first and foremost, is a hefeweizen spiced with ground clove, and second, my attempt at a creative name; get it..."trub," "clove," and "hefe"...treble clef...trubble clefe? Clever, right?

The beer is superb! Very refreshing, delightful esters, not overpowering, in regard to the clove, and just all around an enjoyable beverage. The clove did, however, darken the appearance...obviously. The First Coast Cup in Jacksonville is being held at the end of the month, and I entered this bad boy as a spiced beer with the underlying style as a hefeweizen; at the last club meeting, a few of my fellow brewers suggested I classify the underlying style as a dunkelweizen, given the color. However, I really don't think it's malty enough, so I just let it ride with the hefe. I figured, if I closed my eyes, smelled, and tasted this, what would I think it is? We'll see what happens.

The clove was put into the boil during the last 8 minutes, and I only used 1 1/2 teaspoons; I thought I was playing it safe with only that amount, but it was actually perfect - I wouldn't change a thing. This truly is one of my most successful batches, and one of my favorites, so I really hope it does well in CASK's upcoming competition. I might even make it again to serve at this year's Sunshine Challenge...along with my Serrapale Ale.

That reminds me, though...Sunshine Challenge. My wife and I are actually in charge of organizing the beer festival associated with our club's homebrew competition this year (Sunshine Challenge). The links are embedded in the above text, so check it out and spread the word! There's an "event" for it on Facebook too, so look for it and toss out the invites! Email sunshine@cfhb.org if you have any questions!

But back to the Clefe. Here's what we're looking at:

OG: 1.014
ABV: 4.1%
HBUs/IBUs: 3.9/3.5
Calories per 12oz. bottle: 150

I was all-talk, it seems, with the Berliner Weisse. I just can't afford to buy a whole set of equipment to dedicate to bacteria-infested batches yet. It'll happen one day, because I absolutely love sour beers, but just not yet. I just whipped up a saison, and have recipes for a braggot and abbey ale (dubbel) already formulated. This summer is going to end on quite the delicious note...but more on that later.

Peace and Love!