Today is another exciting day for us at Blue Pants. We are brewing our first Imperial Stout which will be aged in Bourbon Barrels. We've kept pretty quiet about this one so far because it will still be quite a while before it's ready for release, but since I like writing about new beers so much, I figured I'd go ahead and offer a bit of a teaser.
The idea for this beer came about almost as a matter of necessity. We need to fill our Bourbon Barrels that previously held Wee Heavy so that they don't dry out. In the past, we have brewed Pinstripe for aging in barrels with mixed success. Our first year brewing bourbon barrel Pinstripe, we had some great beer come out of the barrels, but the beer didn't seem to support all the bourbon flavor. We actually had to blend the barrel aged beer with a pretty significant portion of non-barrel aged beer in order to make it seem balanced. Last year, we had our first barrel contamination and we lost our entire batch of Bourbon Barrel Pinstripe (which would have been released this year). As a result, we started thinking about what we could use the barrels for. Originally, I wanted to rinse them and brew a stout fermented with Brettanomyces in them, but it would have been a bit of a waste of bourbon, since there is still a significant amount left in the barrels. Mike and I had talked about brewing an Imperial Stout several times over the last two years, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The exciting thing for me about this beer is that it gives us another opportunity to show off very high quality English malts. After seeing how much people appreciated the complex malty flavors of the Chocolate Oatmeal Porter, I wanted to follow that up with another malty beer that will feature the highest quality malts available.
Once again, we will be featuring Floor-Malted Maris Otter as the base malt. What a lot of people don't realize is that American 2-row is typically a blend of barley varieties that get malted together. The reason for doing so is because maltsters can blend different varieties together in order to creat consistent batches of malt from year to year. But what we end up with is a pretty bland base malt which doesn't provide much character to the beer. Maris Otter, on the other hand, is a specific type of 2-row barley grown in England and it is known for having a more intense malty flavor than most other base malts with a little bit of a toast character to it... When ordering Maris Otter malt, what you receive is not a blend of 2-row, but just Maris Otter by itself. When using floor malted ingredients, the malty flavors are even more pronounced. This was the same type of base malt we used in the Chocolate Oatmeal Porter.
In addition to the Maris Otter, we will be using English Crystal Malt which provides a toffee like sweetness without the sugary-candylike sweetness associated with American Caramel Malts which result in a cloying mouthfeel in high gravity beers. We will also feature a blend of Chocolate Malts (this time we are using more Pale Chocolate Malt to try to avoid the roast astringency of regular Chocolate Malt). In an effort to make the beer pitch black, we will be using a debittered black malt which will make the beer black, but will induce white foam. Lastly, we will be using Flaked Barley to add body and head retention thanks to their high amount of beta-glucans.
When brewing high gravity beers like this, I typically use a low mash temperature so that the beer will not be overly thick, but since we are aging in a bourbon barrel, I do want the beer to have a lot of body to support the bourbon and oak flavors. So instead of my typical low mash temperature, we went with a medium 154 degrees. Also, my normal philosophy is to use a yeast with a lot of character, but with a high gravity fermentation, there will be plenty of esters produced using a more neutral ale yeast, so instead of London Ale yeast like I normally would, we are using American Ale yeast which is a bit more robust.
What we will wind up with is a base beer at about 11% ABV before going into the barrels. The beer should be completely black with a long lasting off-white head, and with 50 IBU's should have a low apparent bitterness. Now just give us about a year before you get to sample it!
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Upcoming Beer: German Pilsener
For the last week, all I've been thinking about is how to follow up with our huge success of our last two new seasonal beers. Starting with the Oktoberfest, it seems that our customers liked having an easy drinking, German style beer that featured high quality German ingredients. At the time, it became one of our fastest selling beers in the brewery's short history. Although the beer was very popular, I was really happy to get away from brewing German styles this winter because ever since finishing school, a majority of my new recipes had been German or Belgian influenced beers. I felt like I was working myself into a box as being known as the guy brewing German beers.
It was a lot of fun for me to come up with an English style porter and go in a new direction. In the past, I think as a brewer I had always leaned towards styles that are heavy on hops or heavy with yeast characteristics... Pale Ales, IPA's, Saisons, high gravity Belgians, etc. When I did brew malty beers, I tended to use the typical American malts that were easy to come by and I was never very happy with the results. With our chocolate oatmeal porter, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could brew a malty beer. The porter featured very high quality English malts, including a fairly rare Oat Malt which gives significantly more oat flavor than flaked oats. The porter has been a huge success for us and recently became our highest rated beer on BeerAdvocate.com. While that has been very encouraging, it definitely puts the pressure on to come up with the next big seasonal.
So after making Spare Pair a year round beer, we are now looking for our next Spring seasonal recipe. We have settled on a German Style Pilsener. I was originally happy to get away from the German styles, but now that I've had a break, I am really looking forward to this Pils. The idea of brewing a Pils is appealing for a lot of reasons, but selfishly, I am looking forward to the challenge. It might be hard for a lot of beer geeks to understand why a Pilsener would be so exciting for a brewer... The real reason is because it is very difficult to brew a good one and a good Pils is something to cherish. This is the beer that keeps me awake at night, stressed out hoping that I am making the right decisions. To brew something that is perfectly balanced with a mellow malt backbone balanced with delicate hops, requiring a perfect fermentation to achieve that clean, crisp taste, all of which requires very soft water and a gentle boil to achieve the light straw color typical of a Pils is extremely challenging. So what goes into designing this Pilsner to live up to the challenge?
First, I think of the ideal beer and I think of the main qualities: Appearance, Aroma, Taste, and Mouthfeel. For the appearance, I want the beer to be as light colored as possible with a fluffy, long lasting, white head. So to narrow that down specifically, I think of all the things that influence the beer's color... Malt selection, Water Chemistry, Length of Boil, and Vigor of Boil. Then, I think of the things that influence head retention... Residual sugars, High Molecular Proteins, and Water Chemistry. That makes me realize that I need the lightest color Pilsen Malt available with a high ratio of High Molecular Proteins. For the malt, I will definitely be needing to order malt from a German maltster to get the exact specifications for a Pilsener. I also need soft water (luckily, we already have soft water in Madison, so the only real treatment we will use is an active carbon filter) with a low pH level and to maintain a boil that will drive off volatile compounds, but is not so vigorous or lengthy to induce Maillard Reactions.
Next, I think of the aroma of a good Pils. Obviously, some of the aroma will come from the Pils Malt. That is where the straw, or hay aromas come from. Personally though, I like a spicy aroma from the use of traditional German Noble hops along with a touch of citrus zest. For this particular beer, a blend of Noble hops will be used with the showcase being German Hallertau hops. The flavor should be a blend of hay, spicy hops, citrus, and herbal flavors with a really clean, crisp finish with no lingering aftertaste. So using that thought process, I know that I will need to have very strict quality assurance of all of my ingredients (and particularly the hops) when they arrive and I will need to pay close attention to the fermentation. We will use yeast from a well-known brewery from Munich which will provide a little bit more unique of a fermentation characteristic than is typical for a Pils (Munich breweries are known much more for Helles than Pils), but is still very clean fermenting and leaves a very crisp mouthfeel.
I still haven't decided on a final recipe and I doubt I will for at least another two weeks (I'm pretty indecisive when it comes to this type of recipe because of how every little factor can influence other parts of the beer) but I am very excited to continue to work on this beer and I will give a write up of the recipe when I am done!
It was a lot of fun for me to come up with an English style porter and go in a new direction. In the past, I think as a brewer I had always leaned towards styles that are heavy on hops or heavy with yeast characteristics... Pale Ales, IPA's, Saisons, high gravity Belgians, etc. When I did brew malty beers, I tended to use the typical American malts that were easy to come by and I was never very happy with the results. With our chocolate oatmeal porter, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could brew a malty beer. The porter featured very high quality English malts, including a fairly rare Oat Malt which gives significantly more oat flavor than flaked oats. The porter has been a huge success for us and recently became our highest rated beer on BeerAdvocate.com. While that has been very encouraging, it definitely puts the pressure on to come up with the next big seasonal.
So after making Spare Pair a year round beer, we are now looking for our next Spring seasonal recipe. We have settled on a German Style Pilsener. I was originally happy to get away from the German styles, but now that I've had a break, I am really looking forward to this Pils. The idea of brewing a Pils is appealing for a lot of reasons, but selfishly, I am looking forward to the challenge. It might be hard for a lot of beer geeks to understand why a Pilsener would be so exciting for a brewer... The real reason is because it is very difficult to brew a good one and a good Pils is something to cherish. This is the beer that keeps me awake at night, stressed out hoping that I am making the right decisions. To brew something that is perfectly balanced with a mellow malt backbone balanced with delicate hops, requiring a perfect fermentation to achieve that clean, crisp taste, all of which requires very soft water and a gentle boil to achieve the light straw color typical of a Pils is extremely challenging. So what goes into designing this Pilsner to live up to the challenge?
First, I think of the ideal beer and I think of the main qualities: Appearance, Aroma, Taste, and Mouthfeel. For the appearance, I want the beer to be as light colored as possible with a fluffy, long lasting, white head. So to narrow that down specifically, I think of all the things that influence the beer's color... Malt selection, Water Chemistry, Length of Boil, and Vigor of Boil. Then, I think of the things that influence head retention... Residual sugars, High Molecular Proteins, and Water Chemistry. That makes me realize that I need the lightest color Pilsen Malt available with a high ratio of High Molecular Proteins. For the malt, I will definitely be needing to order malt from a German maltster to get the exact specifications for a Pilsener. I also need soft water (luckily, we already have soft water in Madison, so the only real treatment we will use is an active carbon filter) with a low pH level and to maintain a boil that will drive off volatile compounds, but is not so vigorous or lengthy to induce Maillard Reactions.
Next, I think of the aroma of a good Pils. Obviously, some of the aroma will come from the Pils Malt. That is where the straw, or hay aromas come from. Personally though, I like a spicy aroma from the use of traditional German Noble hops along with a touch of citrus zest. For this particular beer, a blend of Noble hops will be used with the showcase being German Hallertau hops. The flavor should be a blend of hay, spicy hops, citrus, and herbal flavors with a really clean, crisp finish with no lingering aftertaste. So using that thought process, I know that I will need to have very strict quality assurance of all of my ingredients (and particularly the hops) when they arrive and I will need to pay close attention to the fermentation. We will use yeast from a well-known brewery from Munich which will provide a little bit more unique of a fermentation characteristic than is typical for a Pils (Munich breweries are known much more for Helles than Pils), but is still very clean fermenting and leaves a very crisp mouthfeel.
I still haven't decided on a final recipe and I doubt I will for at least another two weeks (I'm pretty indecisive when it comes to this type of recipe because of how every little factor can influence other parts of the beer) but I am very excited to continue to work on this beer and I will give a write up of the recipe when I am done!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
2014 Bourbon Barrel Wee Heavy
It's back! We just pulled our first barrel of this year's Bourbon Wee Heavy and it is hands down the best batch yet! It will be debuting at Fall Festivale this weekend and I can't wait to hear what people think about it. I wanted to take some time to tell everyone how it is different this year.
The first year we released the Wee Heavy was in 2012. It was a really good beer with a lot of bourbon flavor, but we didn't know that our yeast supplier had shipped us a contaminated slurry of yeast which lead to over carbonation in bottles that were kept warm.
Last year, we were really excited to brew it again, but we waited a little bit later into the year. The beer was still good, but the bourbon flavor was more subtle due to the colder climate that the barrels were aged in. The beer still got a nice oaky flavor, but I always missed the bourbon flavor from the first year.
So this year we learned our lesson and we brewed the beer during the summer so that the barrels would age in similar conditions to the 2012 batch. We also made sure to get a specific type of Buffalo Trace barrels so that we would get the vanilla bourbon flavor that the first batch had. It was definitely successful as we now have a ton of bourbon flavor.
Both of the previous batches were originally carbonated to a low volume of carbonation. Historically, Wee Heavys were carbonated at 1.2-1.5 volumes of co2. The low carbonation helps to make the beer a little more drinkable since you are less prone to feeling bloated. However, with such a low level of co2 in solution, we have had complaints that customers have thought the beer was flat. This year, we will be carbonating the beer to a higher level, but it will still be relatively low to keep the drinkability. Typically, bottled beers are around 2.4 volumes of co2, so we will be carbonating to 1.9 volumes.
So if you are at Fall Festivale this weekend, post reviews in the comments section. I'm looking forward to getting consumer feedback!
The first year we released the Wee Heavy was in 2012. It was a really good beer with a lot of bourbon flavor, but we didn't know that our yeast supplier had shipped us a contaminated slurry of yeast which lead to over carbonation in bottles that were kept warm.
Last year, we were really excited to brew it again, but we waited a little bit later into the year. The beer was still good, but the bourbon flavor was more subtle due to the colder climate that the barrels were aged in. The beer still got a nice oaky flavor, but I always missed the bourbon flavor from the first year.
So this year we learned our lesson and we brewed the beer during the summer so that the barrels would age in similar conditions to the 2012 batch. We also made sure to get a specific type of Buffalo Trace barrels so that we would get the vanilla bourbon flavor that the first batch had. It was definitely successful as we now have a ton of bourbon flavor.
Both of the previous batches were originally carbonated to a low volume of carbonation. Historically, Wee Heavys were carbonated at 1.2-1.5 volumes of co2. The low carbonation helps to make the beer a little more drinkable since you are less prone to feeling bloated. However, with such a low level of co2 in solution, we have had complaints that customers have thought the beer was flat. This year, we will be carbonating the beer to a higher level, but it will still be relatively low to keep the drinkability. Typically, bottled beers are around 2.4 volumes of co2, so we will be carbonating to 1.9 volumes.
So if you are at Fall Festivale this weekend, post reviews in the comments section. I'm looking forward to getting consumer feedback!
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Another Pinstripe Fest in the Books!
And so begins the recovery process of a long day of drinking Pinstripe... Last night, we wrapped up our third annual Pinstripe Fest. It was a blast! I can honestly say that I think it was our best one yet. Here are some things that I think made it great:
1. Oreo Pinstripe... I was shocked at how much this beer actually tasted like Oreos. I think it was Doug's idea to do Oreo this year and I originally cringed at the idea. Originally, we were just going to randle Pinstripe with Oreos, but instead we added cocoa nibs, vanilla, and lactose to a keg and I thought it was great. I would really like to bottle this variation in bombers or in 4-packs... Double Stuffed Stout?
2. A good line up of beers... In addition to the Oreo Pinstripe, I personally felt that this year's beers were the most drinkable variations we have done. Typically, we come up with some pretty crazy ideas for our variations and we go into it knowing that a few of them have potential to be a little too out there and we try to balance those riskier ones with some safer variations that we can count on to be good. In the past, some of our really crazy ideas didn't work out quite as we hoped (Sriracha comes to mind). I really expected the Bloody Mary version to be this year's bust, but I actually had a lot of people come up to me and tell me they loved it. I really liked the salted caramel, dry hopped, bourbon nitro, white chocolate, and hazelnut.
3. Debut of spirits... I was really anxious to debut our limoncello and our creme liqueur. The feedback we got was all really positive. A few adventurous people wound up making car bombs with their favorite Pinstripe variation and the creme liqueur. I'd be lying if I said I didn't try one with our Chocolate Oatmeal Porter earlier in the night. It was awesome!
4. Great entertainment... Seriously, Solid Blue Bluegrass Band was awesome! Unlike a lot of bands, they came and played at a perfect volume, sounded really well rehearsed, and the played some really great tunes. Also, when we started planning Pinstripe Fest months ago, who would have guessed that Ole Miss vs. Auburn would be such a great game?
5. The food... Stan and Tina always do a great job with the pizzas, but they really out did themselves last night. Their pasta cup appetizers were really good as well. I can't wait to have their brunch later this morning!
6. Allison kicked ass... This isn't really anything new, she's been kicking ass for a long time now, but she really did a great job with the planning and lay out. Everything ran really smoothly from what I saw last night and Allison deserves the praise for making that happen.
I won't lie and say that I can't wait to start making pinstripe variations again (This event really does take a lot out of us), but last night did get me excited to start coming up with new ideas for next year. It is always a challenge to come up with variations that don't repeat themselves.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Distilling
For those of you that haven't heard: We are in the process of launching a new distillery at Blue Pants! We will be unveiling our spirits on November 1st at our 3rd Annual Pinstripe Fest and I couldn't be more excited. I'm surprised the guys at work are still putting up with me talking about all the things I want to make since it is all I've talked about for the last few weeks. The most common question I've been getting seems to be people wanting to know how different distilling is from brewing. The answer is: Not a lot.
Before you ever get to the point of distilling a spirit, you basically make beer or wine. For us, we are using mostly grains for our spirits. Our vodka is made from mostly wheat, as is our limoncello, and our cream liqueur. Our process varies slightly from a lot of distilleries because we are using high quality brewing ingredients, where as typically distiller's malt is of lower quality than brewer's malt. We start off with a mash almost exactly like we would do for beer, except we mash at a slightly lower temperature (63 degrees Celsius compared to the 65-70 we use for beer), so that the most active enzyme is beta-amylase and the wort we produce is highly fermentable. We target a wort that will ferment out to about 8% ABV and after the mash, we do a sparge exactly like we do for brewing.
The next step for us is to boil the wort. A lot of distillers skip boiling, but I like to do a short boil to help break up proteins and to pasteurize the wort so we can have a predictable, clean fermentation. During the boil is where things begin to change from our brewing process. The boil only really needs to be 15 minutes or so (I do 30 minutes just to make sure to drive off some of the volatile compounds that can contribute undesirable flavors) and no hops are added.
After the boil, our process remains pretty much the same as it does for beer. We chill our wort, aerate it, and pitch yeast. Our yeast pitching rate is a little bit higher than our pitching rate for beer because we want to have fewer esters and as small of an amount of fusel alcohol as possible. After fermentation (2-3 days) we chill the "beer" and try to settle out as much yeast as possible.
Next is where we actually distill the beer. Distilling is really interesting as a brewer because it can help give you an idea of how consistent you are being in the brewing process. Distilling is a simple concept where you have a still on top of a boiler. As you boil the beer, the steam that goes up into the column gets condensed with cold water and the condensate drips out of the still.
Most beer drinkers know that when yeast ferments, it creates alcohol. What people frequently forget though is that there are about 900 more flavor compounds produced by yeast. Amongst them are things like acetaldehyde (green apple flavor), ethyl-acetate (nail polish), methanol (moreso if you are fermenting fructose), iso-amyl acetate (banana), propanaol (fusel alcohol), and many more. Luckily, all of these compounds have different boiling temperatures so when you distill, you can isolate each compound.
The first thing to come out of a still is methanol (the stuff that is attributed to making moonshiners go blind). It's boiling temperature is about 20 degrees lower than the temperature of ethanol and the smell is horrific, so it is very easy to collect all the methanol at the beginning of a run and discard it. We call that first portion of distillate "fore shots" and it can contain some acetaldehyde as well (which is known to cause hangovers).
After the fore shots, the next thing to come out of the still is called "heads." The heads contain mostly acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate and are safe to drink, but typically they don't taste very good. The heads portion is saved and can be redistilled or it can be used to mix into the final product in small amounts to provide some flavor.
The middle part of the run is called the "hearts" and is mostly ethanol. The heart of the run is typically light in flavor and should be the largest fraction of the run. Throughout the collection of the hearts, we check on the still periodically and smell and taste the distillate coming out. When the aroma starts to change, we know that we are getting close to collecting the last portion of the run; the "tails." Depending on the spirit being produced, the tails can be mixed in with the hearts to provide flavor (Scotch is typically high in tails because that is the portion of the run that contains the most peaty flavor. Vodka is supposed to contain no heads or tails, just neutral flavored hearts) or saved for re-distillation.
If everything was consistent from the mash and the fermentation than all of the by products of fermentation will be at the same ratios from batch to batch and it becomes easy to know when you are coming up on each fraction of the run.
We are very excited about the spirits that we are producing now. We just got a new still which is very versatile because it is modular. We can set it up to be a short still so that we get a lot of flavor for whiskey or we can stack sections of the still to make it tall and ideal for vodka production. So with our new still we will be able to make any type of spirit that we want. Our first three recipes will be ready later this week and we will unveil vodka, limoncello, and cream liqueur on November 1st. Soon after that we will be distilling a test batch of apple brandy and we will begin experimentation with gin and whiskey. I'm looking forward to all the recipe development that is coming up!
Before you ever get to the point of distilling a spirit, you basically make beer or wine. For us, we are using mostly grains for our spirits. Our vodka is made from mostly wheat, as is our limoncello, and our cream liqueur. Our process varies slightly from a lot of distilleries because we are using high quality brewing ingredients, where as typically distiller's malt is of lower quality than brewer's malt. We start off with a mash almost exactly like we would do for beer, except we mash at a slightly lower temperature (63 degrees Celsius compared to the 65-70 we use for beer), so that the most active enzyme is beta-amylase and the wort we produce is highly fermentable. We target a wort that will ferment out to about 8% ABV and after the mash, we do a sparge exactly like we do for brewing.
The next step for us is to boil the wort. A lot of distillers skip boiling, but I like to do a short boil to help break up proteins and to pasteurize the wort so we can have a predictable, clean fermentation. During the boil is where things begin to change from our brewing process. The boil only really needs to be 15 minutes or so (I do 30 minutes just to make sure to drive off some of the volatile compounds that can contribute undesirable flavors) and no hops are added.
After the boil, our process remains pretty much the same as it does for beer. We chill our wort, aerate it, and pitch yeast. Our yeast pitching rate is a little bit higher than our pitching rate for beer because we want to have fewer esters and as small of an amount of fusel alcohol as possible. After fermentation (2-3 days) we chill the "beer" and try to settle out as much yeast as possible.
Next is where we actually distill the beer. Distilling is really interesting as a brewer because it can help give you an idea of how consistent you are being in the brewing process. Distilling is a simple concept where you have a still on top of a boiler. As you boil the beer, the steam that goes up into the column gets condensed with cold water and the condensate drips out of the still.
Most beer drinkers know that when yeast ferments, it creates alcohol. What people frequently forget though is that there are about 900 more flavor compounds produced by yeast. Amongst them are things like acetaldehyde (green apple flavor), ethyl-acetate (nail polish), methanol (moreso if you are fermenting fructose), iso-amyl acetate (banana), propanaol (fusel alcohol), and many more. Luckily, all of these compounds have different boiling temperatures so when you distill, you can isolate each compound.
The first thing to come out of a still is methanol (the stuff that is attributed to making moonshiners go blind). It's boiling temperature is about 20 degrees lower than the temperature of ethanol and the smell is horrific, so it is very easy to collect all the methanol at the beginning of a run and discard it. We call that first portion of distillate "fore shots" and it can contain some acetaldehyde as well (which is known to cause hangovers).
After the fore shots, the next thing to come out of the still is called "heads." The heads contain mostly acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate and are safe to drink, but typically they don't taste very good. The heads portion is saved and can be redistilled or it can be used to mix into the final product in small amounts to provide some flavor.
The middle part of the run is called the "hearts" and is mostly ethanol. The heart of the run is typically light in flavor and should be the largest fraction of the run. Throughout the collection of the hearts, we check on the still periodically and smell and taste the distillate coming out. When the aroma starts to change, we know that we are getting close to collecting the last portion of the run; the "tails." Depending on the spirit being produced, the tails can be mixed in with the hearts to provide flavor (Scotch is typically high in tails because that is the portion of the run that contains the most peaty flavor. Vodka is supposed to contain no heads or tails, just neutral flavored hearts) or saved for re-distillation.
If everything was consistent from the mash and the fermentation than all of the by products of fermentation will be at the same ratios from batch to batch and it becomes easy to know when you are coming up on each fraction of the run.
We are very excited about the spirits that we are producing now. We just got a new still which is very versatile because it is modular. We can set it up to be a short still so that we get a lot of flavor for whiskey or we can stack sections of the still to make it tall and ideal for vodka production. So with our new still we will be able to make any type of spirit that we want. Our first three recipes will be ready later this week and we will unveil vodka, limoncello, and cream liqueur on November 1st. Soon after that we will be distilling a test batch of apple brandy and we will begin experimentation with gin and whiskey. I'm looking forward to all the recipe development that is coming up!
Enjoying Working in a Brewery
There seems to be an odd phenomenon happening in the brewing industry these days. Normally, when I meet strangers and tell them that I am a brewmaster, they think I've got this awesome job that allows me to drink all day. I'm inclined to agree, although the whole drinking all day myth is pretty far from the truth. Lately though, there seems to be a lot of articles written by brewers about how being a brewer sucks. The common reasons they give: It's hard, there is more cleaning than brewing, late night shifts are necessary and they suck, not enough social time, it's dangerous, the pay is bad, and the barrier to entry into becoming a brewer is pretty tough. All of that is true... It is difficult being a brewer... But it is awesome!
While it is true that being a brewer is tough, physical work (at least for most micro-breweries where equipment automation is a fantasy). I believe that is part of what makes the work so rewarding. How many jobs are there where you can work up to 80 hours in a week and when you're not at work, you still enjoy thinking about the next upcoming projects? Anyone who knows me will tell you that even after a 14 hour day of brewing, I'll still talk your ear off about upcoming beers or improvements we've made on existing recipes.
It is also true that on a brew day there is more cleaning than actual brewing going on. There is also a lot of multi-tasking, testing, troubleshooting, and frustration, but at the end of the day, it is always worth it when you see someone come in after they get off work, sit down at the bar, and order a pint.
As for the pay and the difficulty of getting a job, there is truth to that as well. The first job most people take in a brewing job is going to be a lot of grunt work, keg washing, scrubbing floors, helping run the bottler, etc. and the pay is likely going to be hard to live off of for a while. But if you look at the big picture as an entry level brewer, there are a ton of opportunities to move up. It all just comes down to how dedicated to it you are. If you come into the brewery as an entry level employee and you show that you can handle multitasking, staying busy, and that you are actively trying to learn the processes and techniques, the opportunities are endless. That is the way I started in the brewery... Serving beers in the taproom and helping out with a 4 head manual bottle filler, now 2.5 years later at age 24 I am the brewmaster with an International Diploma in Brewing Technology. How many businesses give the opportunity to move up like that?
All in all, I think I'm a pretty lucky guy getting to brew beer everyday. Yeah, it's difficult, it's frustrating at times, the shifts can get ridiculous, but every day I get to do what I love. To the brewers that are telling everybody that their job sucks... Maybe it's time you find a new job. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a profession in the world that will make me as happy as a brewer.
While it is true that being a brewer is tough, physical work (at least for most micro-breweries where equipment automation is a fantasy). I believe that is part of what makes the work so rewarding. How many jobs are there where you can work up to 80 hours in a week and when you're not at work, you still enjoy thinking about the next upcoming projects? Anyone who knows me will tell you that even after a 14 hour day of brewing, I'll still talk your ear off about upcoming beers or improvements we've made on existing recipes.
It is also true that on a brew day there is more cleaning than actual brewing going on. There is also a lot of multi-tasking, testing, troubleshooting, and frustration, but at the end of the day, it is always worth it when you see someone come in after they get off work, sit down at the bar, and order a pint.
As for the pay and the difficulty of getting a job, there is truth to that as well. The first job most people take in a brewing job is going to be a lot of grunt work, keg washing, scrubbing floors, helping run the bottler, etc. and the pay is likely going to be hard to live off of for a while. But if you look at the big picture as an entry level brewer, there are a ton of opportunities to move up. It all just comes down to how dedicated to it you are. If you come into the brewery as an entry level employee and you show that you can handle multitasking, staying busy, and that you are actively trying to learn the processes and techniques, the opportunities are endless. That is the way I started in the brewery... Serving beers in the taproom and helping out with a 4 head manual bottle filler, now 2.5 years later at age 24 I am the brewmaster with an International Diploma in Brewing Technology. How many businesses give the opportunity to move up like that?
All in all, I think I'm a pretty lucky guy getting to brew beer everyday. Yeah, it's difficult, it's frustrating at times, the shifts can get ridiculous, but every day I get to do what I love. To the brewers that are telling everybody that their job sucks... Maybe it's time you find a new job. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a profession in the world that will make me as happy as a brewer.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
New Beer: Apple Ale
One of these days, I'm going to remember to start blogging about things other than new beers. Today's post though is about another beer that we've been planning for a long time. I have always been a fan of supporting local businesses whenever possible and I really like when businesses team together to create a product. I have always wanted to brew a beer using local ingredients, but the Alabama climate doesn't do us many favors as far as being able to grow brewer's quality barley or hops. So when I asked Mike if we could start a series of beers featuring local ingredients, the plan was to think outside the box a little bit. The apple ale that we brewed yesterday is the first beer that has featured a local ingredient... Apple Cider from Isom's Orchard.
If you have never had Isom's apple cider before, you are missing out on one of the best things you can ever taste. Their cider is produced with a blend of apples and sometimes pears. It is unpasteurized and is much higher in sugar content than store bought apple juice.
One of the reasons I decided to brew this beer is that a lot of people have asked us recently if we would consider making a cider... The answer is no. Legally, we can not make a cider because it is considered a wine, not a beer. Our manufacturing license does not allow for the production of wine, so we can not make a cider. The idea was to make a beer with a significant amount of apple flavor, similar to New Glarus' Apple Ale from Wisconsin.
One of the challenges of brewing a beer like this is that the sugar from apples (mostly fructose) is 100% fermentable. That means that once it is fermented, the cider would have a specific gravity lower than water (Probably around .998). That low specific gravity is what we refer to as being dry. One of the complaints a lot of people have when they drink hard cider for the first time is that it is not sweet, but rather it is pretty similar to white wine. That is where having some unfermentable sugar (Maltotriose and Dextrines) from malts can actually improve the flavor of the apples for people that do not like that dryness.
So the base beer that we brewed is similar to a Nut Brown Ale. With a little bit of caramel malt, Victory, Biscuit, Special Roast, and Oats, the flavor contribution from the malts will be noticeable, but minimal. The focus is really on the apples for the flavor, but the base beer should help to give the beer a little bit of body. The hops are kept to a minimum at 5 IBU.
Measuring the specific gravity of various juices, I found that Mott's Apple Juice had a specific gravity of 1.040, Earth Fare's Organic Apple Juice (Pastuerized, Not from Concentrate, No Water Added) was 1.050, and Isom's cider came in at a gravity of 1.060. This poses another small problem for us as a brewery... When I did a test batch, Isom's did not have cider ready at the time, so I did a proof of concept batch using Earth Fare's juice. In a 5 gallon batch, I brewed 2.5 gallons of beer to a specific gravity of 1.050 and added 2.5 gallons of 1.050 apple juice. To remain legal, at least half of the fermentable sugar has to come from wort, not from juice. So we had to drop the amount of apple juice we used so that the sugar contribution was at least 50% wort.
The next challenge is actually probably a larger problem and is less controllable for us. When yeast metabolizes sugars, it acts kind of like a kid that wants to eat candy instead of dinner. It will try to metabolize all of the simple sugars (Fructose in this case) before metabolizing the more complex sugars (Maltose) and it can create yeast health problems. So we needed to make sure that we utilized a high yeast pitching rate and that the wort was very well aerated.
The beer is now fermenting away at a slightly warmer temperature than we typically use. We are using a very flavorful English Ale Yeast to encourage ester production which will make a fruity flavorful yeast character to compliment the apple flavor. If everything goes well with fermentation, the beer should be ready in just over two weeks. It will be a lot of fun to see how the beer is received. Big thanks to Isom's Orchard for teaming up with us to help us create this new, unique beer!
The other exciting thing for us is that we had an extra 75 gallons of cider after using it for the beer. Now the we have a distilling license, we are going to ferment this 75 gallons separately and make Apple Brandy (also known as Calvados)! It will take us a few months of aging it on toasted oak spirals before we are ready to share.
If you have never had Isom's apple cider before, you are missing out on one of the best things you can ever taste. Their cider is produced with a blend of apples and sometimes pears. It is unpasteurized and is much higher in sugar content than store bought apple juice.
One of the reasons I decided to brew this beer is that a lot of people have asked us recently if we would consider making a cider... The answer is no. Legally, we can not make a cider because it is considered a wine, not a beer. Our manufacturing license does not allow for the production of wine, so we can not make a cider. The idea was to make a beer with a significant amount of apple flavor, similar to New Glarus' Apple Ale from Wisconsin.
One of the challenges of brewing a beer like this is that the sugar from apples (mostly fructose) is 100% fermentable. That means that once it is fermented, the cider would have a specific gravity lower than water (Probably around .998). That low specific gravity is what we refer to as being dry. One of the complaints a lot of people have when they drink hard cider for the first time is that it is not sweet, but rather it is pretty similar to white wine. That is where having some unfermentable sugar (Maltotriose and Dextrines) from malts can actually improve the flavor of the apples for people that do not like that dryness.
So the base beer that we brewed is similar to a Nut Brown Ale. With a little bit of caramel malt, Victory, Biscuit, Special Roast, and Oats, the flavor contribution from the malts will be noticeable, but minimal. The focus is really on the apples for the flavor, but the base beer should help to give the beer a little bit of body. The hops are kept to a minimum at 5 IBU.
Measuring the specific gravity of various juices, I found that Mott's Apple Juice had a specific gravity of 1.040, Earth Fare's Organic Apple Juice (Pastuerized, Not from Concentrate, No Water Added) was 1.050, and Isom's cider came in at a gravity of 1.060. This poses another small problem for us as a brewery... When I did a test batch, Isom's did not have cider ready at the time, so I did a proof of concept batch using Earth Fare's juice. In a 5 gallon batch, I brewed 2.5 gallons of beer to a specific gravity of 1.050 and added 2.5 gallons of 1.050 apple juice. To remain legal, at least half of the fermentable sugar has to come from wort, not from juice. So we had to drop the amount of apple juice we used so that the sugar contribution was at least 50% wort.
The next challenge is actually probably a larger problem and is less controllable for us. When yeast metabolizes sugars, it acts kind of like a kid that wants to eat candy instead of dinner. It will try to metabolize all of the simple sugars (Fructose in this case) before metabolizing the more complex sugars (Maltose) and it can create yeast health problems. So we needed to make sure that we utilized a high yeast pitching rate and that the wort was very well aerated.
The beer is now fermenting away at a slightly warmer temperature than we typically use. We are using a very flavorful English Ale Yeast to encourage ester production which will make a fruity flavorful yeast character to compliment the apple flavor. If everything goes well with fermentation, the beer should be ready in just over two weeks. It will be a lot of fun to see how the beer is received. Big thanks to Isom's Orchard for teaming up with us to help us create this new, unique beer!
The other exciting thing for us is that we had an extra 75 gallons of cider after using it for the beer. Now the we have a distilling license, we are going to ferment this 75 gallons separately and make Apple Brandy (also known as Calvados)! It will take us a few months of aging it on toasted oak spirals before we are ready to share.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
New Beer: Chocolate Oatmeal Porter
Today, I get to do my favorite part of my job... Brew a new beer! Fortunately, I've been able to do so a lot lately. Recently, I have been asked quite a few times if we come up with our own recipes. It is always a little funny to me to hear that question. Yes, our recipes are all our own original recipes (What fun is it to brew a beer that's already been brewed by someone else?), and the follow up question is always; "How do you come up with a recipe?" or "I bet you brew a lot of small batches and tweak your recipes before filling those big vats."
The truth is recipe creation relies mostly on experience these days. I typically try to compare recipe creation to cooking. Most people know what ingredients like salt, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, etc. taste like. Most people also know what ingredients like chicken tastes like, so if you have experience cooking, you can easily imagine what it tastes like if you put those spices on your chicken and what the texture of the chicken will be like if you fry it, boil it, grill it, or bake it.
Similarily, when I brew, I know what all our malts and hops taste like, the characteristics of various yeast strains, and the effects that our various procedures have on each ingredient's contribution. So it is pretty predictable what the beer will taste like when it is done. This gives us the ability to create new beers and brew 60 barrels right off the bat... Which is what we are doing today.
Today's new beer is a chocolate oatmeal porter. This is a new seasonal for us and it is one that I am very excited about. Ever since I got back from school, most of the new beers I have brewed have been German styles and they have been very well received. I think a lot of people have enjoyed drinking styles that are not frequently brewed in America. Most American Ale styles have their roots originating from English Ale styles, so I am excited to brew something that is a little more closely related to what craft beer drinkers expect in America. However, there are quite a few things about this beer that are unique in comparison to American ales.
This Porter is being brewed with only English ingredients and features malts only from Thomas Fawcett and Sons, a great maltster which still utilizes many traditional malting techniques and is known for producing the highest quality English Malts. For our base malt, we are using Floor Malted Maris Otter, a very flavorful base malt with an intense toasty character. In addition, we are using two types of chocolate malts. In comparison to American chocolate malts, Thomas Fawcett Chocolate is much less harsh and has a more full chocolate flavor. We also have some English crystal malt which is sweet and toffee like, but does not have the sugary, candy like sweetness found in American caramel malts.
Perhaps the most unique malt we are using (and probably the most unique we have ever used) is oat malt. Typically, brewers use rolled or flaked oats when they advertise oats in a beer. Flaked oats are great for beers where you want a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, but they do not provide much oat flavor. The only oat malt that I am aware of is made by Thomas Fawcett and it was rare enough that their distributor had trouble completing our order for it. Oat malt does have a distinct grainy, oat flavor. We are using it as 10% of our malt bill, so the oat flavor should be well distinguished.
The hops will be kept to a minimum at 25 IBU's just to balance out the maltiness and the use of London Ale Yeast will provide some pleasant fruity esters while leaving a small amount of residual sugar. The end result will be a malt forward beer with a medium-thick body and a creamy tan head. At 6.25% ABV, I think this will be the perfect beer for the cold months coming up. We will have about 2.5-3 weeks before we are ready to bottle it. Hopefully you guys are looking forward to it as much as I am!
Thursday, September 25, 2014
New Beer Brewday: Adambier
Today we are brewing yet another new beer! This is another one that I am really excited about brewing. The beer is an Adambier, also known as Dortmunder Adambier and Dortmunder Altbier. This is not a well-known style of beer and the only commercially brewed example of an Adambier that I know of is from a great brewery, Hair of the Dog's Adam. It is a style the originated in Germany, but is no longer brewed there because the popularity of the style decreased dramatically as German consumers began to shift more towards lighter lagers as their beer of choice.
Adambiers are very unique in that they were brewed with dark malts and traditionally would have been smoky due to the malting technology that was available hundreds of years ago. At the time that Adambiers were popular, yeast was not a known ingredient in beer, and so Adambiers were spontaneously fermented. After fermentation, they were aged in oak barrels for about a year before being served. These were high gravity beers that could easily exceed 10% ABV.
So as we attempt to recreate this extinct style, we took a lot of factors into consideration. To replicate the dark base malt, we are using Munich base malt. For the smokiness, we are using beechwood smoked malt. To replicate the fermentation that would have been common to Adambiers, we had to consider what the closest type of yeast would be to what would have spontaneously fermented in Dortmund, Germany. So we settled on a German Ale yeast for our main strain of yeast, but it was obvious that a spontaneous fermented beer would contain some Brettanomyces as well (a different type of yeast than what Brewers typically use).
So now we have a split fermentation with a German Ale yeast and Brett Lambicus in primary fermentation. It will be at least 6 months before the Brett flavors fully develop, so it will take at least that long for us to release this beer, but I can not wait to do so!
Adambiers are very unique in that they were brewed with dark malts and traditionally would have been smoky due to the malting technology that was available hundreds of years ago. At the time that Adambiers were popular, yeast was not a known ingredient in beer, and so Adambiers were spontaneously fermented. After fermentation, they were aged in oak barrels for about a year before being served. These were high gravity beers that could easily exceed 10% ABV.
So as we attempt to recreate this extinct style, we took a lot of factors into consideration. To replicate the dark base malt, we are using Munich base malt. For the smokiness, we are using beechwood smoked malt. To replicate the fermentation that would have been common to Adambiers, we had to consider what the closest type of yeast would be to what would have spontaneously fermented in Dortmund, Germany. So we settled on a German Ale yeast for our main strain of yeast, but it was obvious that a spontaneous fermented beer would contain some Brettanomyces as well (a different type of yeast than what Brewers typically use).
So now we have a split fermentation with a German Ale yeast and Brett Lambicus in primary fermentation. It will be at least 6 months before the Brett flavors fully develop, so it will take at least that long for us to release this beer, but I can not wait to do so!
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Rauchbier
This was not the first new beer that I brewed at Blue Pants, but this is possibly the one that I was the most excited for so far. Rauchbiers as a whole are largely misunderstood by beer drinkers in America. It is hard to describe the smoky flavors to somebody that has never experienced smokiness in beer, and inevitably, the rauchbiers wind up being described as having a taste similar to bacon. Unfortunately, this really shouldn't be the case and as a result, rauchbiers have kind of taken on a bad rep in America.
When I went to Bamberg, I was under the impression that the beers were very smoky and, like many people, I thought they tasted like liquid bacon. I think this has a lot to do with American brewers trying to brew a style of beer that they have not experienced firsthand, but rather have read descriptions of the beer and try to brew to a beer that fits a poorly written description (I'm looking at you BJCP style guidelines). In Bamberg, I was surprised by the subtleties of the smoky flavor. While I was at the Weyermann malting facility, I decided that I wanted to introduce Alabama to the rauchbier style and that I would attempt to recreate the flavor that you might find in a classic example of the style.
So while our class was eating a great Franconian buffet dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to one of Weyermann's maltsters, who just happened to be a master beer sommelier (If this is not a title you are familiar with, I highly suggest checking out the documentary Somm, which can be viewed on Netflix). I jotted down a recipe and asked him for a critique. What he told me took me by surprise... In his thick German accent he said "This is stupid." I looked at him blankly for a second and he explained to me that I had too much smoked malt in my recipe (I think my original recipe called for about 60% of the grist to be beechwood smoked malt). He told me I needed to cut the amount of smoked malt down to 27% for a good smoky flavor. We had a brief discussion about using less than 27% and he was adamant that anything less than 27% wouldn't be detectable and anything more would be overpowering... No grey area with him.
So I came back to Blue Pants with this recipe and I am very pleased with the results. The beer has a rich, sweet malt character which compliments the subtle beech smoke flavors very well. A very clean, smooth bitterness backs up the maltiness and melds very well with our house lager yeast strain, which has a very clean flavor, slightly estery in comparison to many lager strains, and a very distinctive crisp finish. At 5.2% ABV, it is very easily drinkable and nothing about it is too overpowering. If you have been under the impression that smoky flavors don't belong in beer, I urge you to give our Rauchbier a shot, I think what you find just might surprise you. Prost!
When I went to Bamberg, I was under the impression that the beers were very smoky and, like many people, I thought they tasted like liquid bacon. I think this has a lot to do with American brewers trying to brew a style of beer that they have not experienced firsthand, but rather have read descriptions of the beer and try to brew to a beer that fits a poorly written description (I'm looking at you BJCP style guidelines). In Bamberg, I was surprised by the subtleties of the smoky flavor. While I was at the Weyermann malting facility, I decided that I wanted to introduce Alabama to the rauchbier style and that I would attempt to recreate the flavor that you might find in a classic example of the style.
So while our class was eating a great Franconian buffet dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to one of Weyermann's maltsters, who just happened to be a master beer sommelier (If this is not a title you are familiar with, I highly suggest checking out the documentary Somm, which can be viewed on Netflix). I jotted down a recipe and asked him for a critique. What he told me took me by surprise... In his thick German accent he said "This is stupid." I looked at him blankly for a second and he explained to me that I had too much smoked malt in my recipe (I think my original recipe called for about 60% of the grist to be beechwood smoked malt). He told me I needed to cut the amount of smoked malt down to 27% for a good smoky flavor. We had a brief discussion about using less than 27% and he was adamant that anything less than 27% wouldn't be detectable and anything more would be overpowering... No grey area with him.
So I came back to Blue Pants with this recipe and I am very pleased with the results. The beer has a rich, sweet malt character which compliments the subtle beech smoke flavors very well. A very clean, smooth bitterness backs up the maltiness and melds very well with our house lager yeast strain, which has a very clean flavor, slightly estery in comparison to many lager strains, and a very distinctive crisp finish. At 5.2% ABV, it is very easily drinkable and nothing about it is too overpowering. If you have been under the impression that smoky flavors don't belong in beer, I urge you to give our Rauchbier a shot, I think what you find just might surprise you. Prost!
5 Months Later
I can't believe it has been 5 months since I graduated from the World Brewing Academy. It still feels like I just got back from Germany. I suppose time flies when you stay busy! During this time, I think we have produced 4 new beers (Belgian Dark Strong, Black Saison, Irish Red, Rauchbier, and yesterday I brewed a Berliner Weisse, but wasn't counting it in the total), altered recipes to almost every beer that we brew, and changed many procedures on brew days. It has been great being back at work and we've been getting a lot of positive feedback on the changes that we have made in the last five months. I think during the time I was blogging during brewing school, I didn't realize how many people were actually reading my posts. However, in the last few months, I have run into a lot of strangers that told me that they read every post I made during that time. I looked at my previous blog yesterday and noticed that I had over 5,000 total views and I thought that maybe more people would be interested in hearing about the changes we have made at the brewery. So I am going to leave my previous blog untouched and this one will just be for talking about new beers and discussions of the challenges that we face on an everyday basis. I look forward to any discussions that arise with my followers. Prost!
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