Jefferson-Inspired Monticello Ale

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is currently collaborating with Starr Hill Brewery to produce Monticello Reserve Ale, "the official beer of Monticello." The recipe is inspired by what was historically brewed and consumed at Monticello, back when Jefferson himself was stirring the kettle. For the Jeffersons, beer was a crucial part of the family meal, and brewing was an important activity on their plantation. About every two weeks, roughly 15 casks of this low alcohol "table liquor" was being brewed, with his wife Martha overseeing the production. Large scale brewing at Monticello didn't commence until Captain Joseph Miller (a British brewer) was detained during the War of 1812. Miller helped facilitate the production of a beer with a much better shelf-life, focusing on the quality and overall quantity of the beer currently being brewed (eventually about 100 gallons every fall and spring). The recipe was far from uniform, being mostly based on which grains were currently available at the time of brewing (usually some type of combination of either barley, wheat, or corn), with about three-quarters of a pound of hops per bushel of malt.

This lightly hopped, wheat and corn-based brew will be available from Starr Hill Brewery in 750ml bottles beginning February 21st (President's Day), as well as on tap at local restaurants. Additionally, there will be a tasting open to the public (and free!) when the first keg is tapped in the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center Museum Shop between noon and 3:00pm. Talk about tapping into some interesting - and tasty - history!

Peace and Love!

Upcoming Changes...

As all my readers out there know, this blog and the corresponding Twitter and Tumblr pages have chronicled both my own homebrewing and recent movements regarding sustainability and brewing. That isn't changing, per se, but what is changing is the manner in which this information is conveyed. From now on, the blog will be dedicated to sustainability in the world of brewing and the Tumblr page (I know, this hasn't seen much action lately) will be dedicated to my own homebrewing adventures. The Twitter page will continue to provide quick, brief updates pertaining to both (as well as the witty remarks you all have come to love and hold dear). I'm also on the fence right now with whether or not I should purchase a custom domain name for the blog (www.wuweibrewing.com, for example), so this might be something else you all will see in the near future. The idea would be to make the URL much more simple, but the default one provided by Blogger really isn't all that long or complex, so we'll see (of course, it's also dirt cheap these days to buy a domain).

Another change, which many of you probably never really noticed anyway, is that I've now permitted the blog to be found through web searches. I've had this disabled in the past for a few reasons: the personal nature of this site (in that it's mostly been about what I'm doing...for friends of mine to read and follow), the fact that I really didn't want it to be all that public (as in, known outside my circle of friends), and that I worried about the use (theft) of my logo (which I now know really can't happen). Since the content of the blog is going to deal with matters beyond my own brewing (which it has already been increasingly doing), and very important ones for that matter, I think extending the reach of the site is a logical step.

But, just to mention a few things real quick before this change is officially implemented, I brewed a heather braggot this past Monday. It was a small, 3-gallon batch (just like the witbier braggot I brewed a few months ago). I crossed a traditional wildflower honey mead with heather ale (this was made with heather tips and was completely unhopped, thus making it, by today's standards, somewhat of a gruit beer). That previous parenthetical note (the "somewhat"), by the way, is in regard to the fact that traditional (medieval) gruit beer was typically made with the combination of these three herbs: marsh rosemary, sweet gale, and yarrow. However, today, any beer made without hops, but with the addition of other herbs/bittering agents, tends to get labeled as gruit. I envision myself making more small batches with ingredients other than hops in the near future as well. Growing my own hops isn't really feasible at this point, but if I can grow my own brewing herbs to use in these batches...well, that would just be wonderful, now wouldn't it? Especially if they turn out well!

Peace and Love!

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!