Amber Rye Ale – Recipe & Tasting Notes

Background & Tasting Notes – This beer grew out of my interest in brewing something balanced, but distinct, and also truly, deeply red.  I’m proud to say that this one, unlike a past failed attempt which even incorporated a pound of carared, turned out brilliantly clear and beautifully red.  The earthy bite of the Columbus hops balances nicely with the soft maltiness that features notes of caramel and spicy rye.  The balance, good carbonation, and clean finish make for a medium-bodied, easy-drinker with the distinct flavor of rye.  This beer reminds me of some of the better house ambers I’ve had out and about, but my hop headiness leaves me wanting slightly more bitterness and slightly more hop flavor, so next time I make an amber, I think I’ll aim for slightly more hop character, yet something still close to balanced.  I’ll still be happy to have this beer around for awhile though.

Amber Rye Ale

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs):  11.0
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.012
SRM: 11.0
Calculated IBUs: 26.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain:
68% –  7.5 lbs. American Two-Row Pale Malt
23% –  2.5 lb. Rye Malt
09% -  1 lb. Caramel 80L

Hops:
0.25 oz.  Columbus (Pellets, 14.9% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz.  Columbus (Pellets, 14.9% AA) @  15 min.
0.25 oz. Columbus (Pellets, 14.9% AA) @ 1 Min.

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash Schedule: Single-infusion mash – 60 mins. @ 152F

My First Planting of Hops

I planted some hops for the first time this weekend.  I picked three different varieties, Cascade, Chinook, and Columbus, because these are three of my favorites, they are versatile hops that can be used in a lot of different styles of beer, and they are known for being good growers that are resistant to disease.  As you can see in the photos below, I didn’t build a trellis or tent pole system as I had planned due to last-minute laziness and lack of resources.  Instead, I simply put a screw hook into a tree about fifteen feet high and ran some coarse twine to stakes below.  I’m hoping this will work just fine.  My only fear is that squirrels are going to vandalize the twine.  My fingers are crossed.  If these guys grow well, hopefully I’ll clip the roots and plant with a better structure next year.  Oh, and I guess I shouldn’t call them “guys” because these plants are females.  I’ll post more pictures once these gals start shooting up that twine.

California Common – Recipe & Tasting Notes

Background & Tasting Notes – My take on the California Common style turned out a deep hue of amber with an assertive, clean hop bitterness and the lingering woody, earthy, slightly minty hop flavor of Northern Brewer hops, the signature hop of the style resurrected and made famous by Fritz Maytag and Anchor Steam.   Unlike Anchor Steam though, which has a malt character and body similar to a typical pale ale or lager, this California Common has a grainy, caramelly malt character.  The finish is really dry and clean thanks to a cool basement fermentation and conditioning at about 60F.  Overall, I’m really happy with the final product here: it’s hop-forward, but the hop character from the Northern Brewer hops is so unique and such a nice change of pace from the typical hop flavors of American Pales, IPAs, and Lagers; the maltiness is pronounced, but simple and makes for a medium-bodied beer; the California lager yeast produced a clean, easy-drinking beer that is really flavorful.  This is definitely one of my favorite beers of all that I’ve made.  Delicious.

If you’re not familiar with the history of the California Common/Steam Beer style, please familiarize yourself by reading up online or go buy a copy of Ray Daniels’ great book, Designing Great Beers.

California Common/Steam Beer

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs):  10.0
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.010
SRM: 9.6
Calculated IBUs: 43.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain:
80% –  8 lbs. American Two-Row Pale Malt
10% –  1 lb. Caramel 60L
10% -  1 lb. Vienna Malt

Hops:
0.75 oz.  Galena (Pellets, 12.2% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz.  Northern Brewer (Pellets, 10.6% AA) @  15 min.
0.50 oz. Northern Brewer (Pellets, 10.6% AA) @ 2 Min.
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer ((Pellets, 10.6% AA) DRY HOP

Yeast: Wyeast 2112 California Lager

Mash Schedule: Single-infusion mash – 60 mins. @ 151F

American Wheat – Recipe & Tasting Notes

American Wheat

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs):  9.0
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.012
SRM: 5.7
Calculated IBUs: 25.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 78%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain:
50% – 4.5 lbs. American Two-Row Pale Malt
50% – 4.5 lbs. German Malted Wheat

Hops:
1.00 oz. Willamette (Pellets, 5% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Liberty (Pellets, 4.5% AA) @  15 min.

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Mash Schedule: Single-infusion mash – 60 mins. @ 151F

Background & Tasting Notes – Moving away from my recent run of hop-centric brews, I’m now in the midst of a run of more easy-drinking, session beers, and the first of these bottled is my take on American Wheat.  This batch was inspired by my reading of Stan Heironymus’s book, Brewing with Wheat, particularly his section on the evolution of American Wheat beers such as the early and influential Anchor Wheat and Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen (a name of much controversy) which both emulate the malt profile of German Hefes, but lack the banana and clove flavors and instead feature slightly more hop and wheat malt character thanks to the clean finish of yeasts which don’t produce the phenolic and estery character that German Wheat yeasts do.  American hop varieties that produce citrus and/or mild, floral, or spicy hop flavors are also employed.

My American Wheat pours a cloudy golden straw color with a creamy, lasting head.  The aroma is pleasantly soft and bread-like.  This beer is medium-light bodied and has good balance: the wheat-maltiness and the spicy hop character are both mild and pleasant.  This was my first time using Liberty hops, which are an American descendant of the Noble varieties like Hallertauer, and I think they work well as a flavor addition in the American Wheat style.  This beer is refreshing, super easy-drinking, and a great reminder for me that great beer can be made with few ingredients.  This is the kind of beer that is really flavorful without making you feel like you just ate a roast beef sandwich: a great session beer, the kind that makes you sad to see the bottom of the glass and happy to have a refill.

When the warm months roll around, I’ll definitely be making another American Wheat, but I’m planning on switching out the Liberty hops for Cascade, Citra, or Amarillo to get that signature American citrus hop flavor to probably make for a slightly more summery and more wholly American take on wheat beer.  I’m also going to split the next batch and do half as an Apricot Wheat.

Cascadian Dark Ale – Recipe & Tasting Notes

Cascadian Dark Ale/India Black Ale

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs):  13.75
Original Gravity: 1.066
Final Gravity: 1.012
SRM: 32.4
Calculated IBUs: 65.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68%

Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain:
79% – 11 lbs. American Two-Row Pale Malt
7% – 1 lb. Carafa II
7% – 1 lb. Munich Malt
4% – 8 oz. Caramel 60L
3% – 6 oz. Carapils

Hops:
1.00 oz. Columbus (Pellets, 14.4% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.7% AA) @  15 min.
0.50 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 10.3% AA) @  15 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.7% AA) @  5 min.
0.50 oz. Chinook (Pellets, 10.3% AA) @  1 min.
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellets, 9.2% AA) @ DRY HOP
1.00 oz. Columbus (Pellets, 14.4% AA) @ DRY HOP

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Extras: 1 tsp. of Irish Moss added to boil with 15 mins. left

Mash Schedule: Single-infusion mash – 60 mins. @ 152F

Background & Tasting Notes – If somehow you’ve managed to not catch wind of the hubbub surrounding Cascadian Dark Ale/Black IPA/American-style India Black Ale, this new style is an American invention, specifically of brewers from Cascadia, the Pacific Northwestern territory.  Flavor-wise, CDA is a bit of a trick beer, since it has the appearance of a stout, but the ramped up hop flavor of an American IPA.  Level-headed folks might pose the following question about CDA:  “If you want to showcase hops, then why don’t you make a beer that is light in color with a subdued malt character that will really let the hops shine?”  Well, good question, but to hell with level-headedness.  One of the great things about the American brewing spirit is its sense of adventure in defying the categories and creating new ones through hybridized versions, experimentation, and simply hopping the hell out of everything and doing whatever you want.

I’d been interesting in making a CDA of my own for awhile (especially since it was a natural progression in color after my recent Imperial IPA and India Brown Ale and would complete a hop trifecta), but honestly, I hadn’t tried a single commercial example of the style until a couple of months ago.  I’m not really the type to drop $7-10 on a 22oz. bottle too often since I have good beer of my own around all the time, and most CDAs come in 22s, so I hadn’t had the opportunity to try any until my home brew club featured some commercial examples from Stone, Southern Tier, Deschutes, and Otter Creek at one of our meetings a couple of months ago.  Honestly, I can’t remember which ones were good and bad, but I can remember that the best two of the lot I liked most because they had the citrus and pine hop combo character that I love, and their roastiness was most subdued.  One example, can’t remember which, even had some chocolate malt flavor, which just did not fit the style in my opinion.  So, post-tasting session, I devised my own composite of the things I liked about the CDAs I sampled.

My CDA is jet-black and pours with a short, but lasting tan head and leaves good lacing in the glass.  It leads with citrus and herbal hop aromas and flavors.  The beer is medium-bodied and has little-to-no burnt roast flavor as the color would suggest.  Rather, it is primarily a showcase of a range of hop flavors with subtle, secondary roast and caramel notes.  On first sip, the citrus hop flavors are most immediately apparent, but piney, earthy, and spicy hop flavors show through with subsequent sips. The finish is dry and leaves a tongue-coating, resinous hoppiness thanks to generous dry-hopping. Overall, I’m satisfied with this batch because it’s on the way-hoppier side, but still super drinkable.

“Beer Belongs. . .Enjoy It!” Campaign (1945-56)

The above ad is one that I cut out of a Life Magazine from the 40s or 50s.  I’m not exactly sure when because I can’t find the magazine anymore.  But, I liked it so much that I framed it and hung it on the wall.  I probably did this about six months or a year ago, and I haven’t really given the ad much thought since. . .until today, when I stopped to look at it again.  I began to wonder about the impetus and sociohistorical circumstances that led to the campaign, and some quick searching led me to some great resources.  The first is a November 2009 article from All About Beer Magazine by Jay R. Brooks entitled “In This Friendly, Freedom-loving Land of Ours—Beer Belongs. . .Enjoy It!“  The article provides a great account of the looming post-prohibition sentiments of beer as an immoral beverage that created the need for the major brewers to band together and change the public perception in order to boost sales and defend themselves against the prohibitionists.  It also contains some information on the devising of the actual campaign and paintings.

Luckily, Jay Brooks, the author of the article, put scans of nearly every painting/ad from the entire eleven year campaign in his flickr gallery.  Many of the paintings depict dinner parties, outdoor gatherings, yachting and other pastimes of the upper middle class.  Some of them are just silly looking, but there are a couple in there that are great scenes of genuine fun amongst friends.  Check ‘em out.

Film Review: The American Brew (2007)

The American Brew: The Rich and Surprising History of Beer is a 2007 film by Jesse Sweet and Roger Sherman that provides a 50 minute primer on almost all things American beer and brewing: the history, breweries, brewers, brewing processes, tasting, judging, styles, cultural significance, economics, home brewing, craft explosion, etc.  This is a beautifully shot film with interviews with many of the major beer figures like Charlie Papazian, Randy Mosher, Garrett Oliver, Fritz Maytag, Michael Jackson, and many others who cover the range of subtopics explored.

On the whole though, this film won’t provide much new information to the true student of beer history and brewing literature, but it is worthwhile as a concise treatise on American brewing history.  The archival photographs are wonderful, and the segment on prohibition and the post-prohibition conditions that led to the dissolution of flavorful regional beers and the dominance of mass produced lagers is interesting.  Ultimately though, the scope of the film is too large for its 50 minute run-time, and many topics are glossed over much too quickly.  For instance, ample segments are provided on the American success stories, the “Beer Barons” (Busch, Schlitz, Pabst, Stroh, and Miller), and how they got there; yet, the craft brewing revolution of the last four decades is limited to brief coverage of Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada.  Also, Papazian and Mosher, home brewing gurus/gods are featured expert voices in the film, yet their claims to fame are never explained, and the segment on home brewing is limited to a super short clip of one really random NYC home brewer in his apartment.

On many fronts, The American Brew leaves the viewer wanting more and certainly isn’t a definitive document of American brewing history or American beer, but I would consider it a good starting point for the new beer geek as it does give a good primer on a range of subjects.  Also, it is simply enjoyable to watch for every beer aficionado because of the level of passion that the interview subjects convey about beer and brewing.  This film is a good reminder of why the United States of America is the greatest beer brewing country in the world.   AND for $5.49, the DVD is certainly worth the money considering all the great extra footage included, such as an awesome in-home segment with New Jersey’s foremost NJ breweriana collector, some further opportunity to hear Michael Jackson expound on beer, and some funny footage of Brooklyn Beer’s Garrett Oliver convincing a room of wine enthusiasts that beer pairs more harmoniously with cheese than wine does.  The extras section is chock full of good stuff, and it’s really a shame that these couldn’t have all been worked into the feature itself and lengthened it to two hours or somewhere close.  At least they’re available though.  Not bad.