TBP Reviews: Ss Brewing Technologies 10 Gallon Kettle

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Barry W

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It’s been an exciting adventure over the past couple years in terms of the upgrades that I’ve slowly been able to make to my home brewing equipment, and while I didn’t start formally reviewing any of it until I negotiated the terms with my newest blog sponsor aka Ss Brewing Technologies, it’s been really rewarding to share each upgrade with all those who visit thebrewedpalate.com.  While I got by for almost two years brewing great tasting beers using an aluminum brew kettle and a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cylindrical cooler mash tun; upgrading to stainless steel was always on my mind. However, since good quality (durable etc.) homebrewing equipment doesn’t come cheap I decided to re-read my blog sponsorship proposal and choose a producer of quality homebrewing equipment to send it to.  To fill you in on part of my general sponsorship proposal here is an excerpt which helped me choose to contact Ss Brewing Technologies, a California based company that is known for producing quality homebrewing equipment and listening to customer feedback. “One of the primary reasons why I’ve been able to post such a large variety of blog content is because of my sponsors. I tend to approach sponsorship as a partnership in that I only ask companies that I respect and can see myself taking pride in promoting to be sponsors. That partnership includes my not setting a specific cost for sponsorship. Rather I ask potential sponsors to let me know what they’d be comfortable providing as part of their sponsorship. For example, Yakima Valley Hops sends me…while  Cornykeg.com…So my question for you is…What are you comfortable with providing me if you choose to become a sponsor of The Brewed Palate?”

20150703_103733Enter my new 10 gallon Ss Brewing Technologies (Brewtech) kettle… At first glance this kettle is a simple yet hefty piece of equipment.  By hefty I mean a  large and somewhat heavy pot made of 18 gauge 304 stainless steel designed to efficiently boil wort.  Each kettle comes pre-drilled with two holes in its front face, one for the optional thermometer or provided stainless steel plug and one for the standard 3-piece ball valve.  Other standard features include silicone covered handles, internally etched volume markings starting at 2 gallons, and a trub dam, which I’ll talk discuss later on in this review. As shown in the above video after following the provided assembly instructions I then followed their instructions for prepare the pot for its first brew day. This involved doing a leak test, washing the pot with hot water and PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash), and passivating the stainless steel with 10 gallons of concentrated StarSan solution. One quip that I had with their instructions was that they tell you to use 10oz of StarSan, which in my opinion is way too beyond Five Star’s manufactorer’s instructions. In turn, I used 1.5oz per 5 gallons of water or half an ounce more than Five Star instructs. One extra step which I didn’t film water my use of my submersible pond pump (usually used for recirculating ice water while chilling my wort) to back flush the ball valve after cleaning the kettle with PBW and after passivating and rinsing it.

My favorite parts of the kettle:

kettle_dam_grandePick-up Tube & Trub Dam: The pick-up tube was quite easy to insert into the back end of the ball valve via two temperature resistant rubber grommets i.e.  pop it in and you’re set.  Attached to the pick-up tube is a small metal blade which gets covered by a provided a rubber slip on squeegie.  The idea behind this innovative device is that you’ll be able to whirl-pool your wort at the end of the boil and not only will your trub collect in the center of the kettle.  When you start pulling wort from the kettle into your fermenting vessel, the dam blocks the trub pile from entering the pick-up tube. See the video above to see how the trub dam performed on its first brew day.

Thermometer: It may not be everyone’s preference, but for me the low position of the thermometer means that I can monitor the temperature of my wort or strike water once it’s just above the kettle’s 5 gallon mark. Also, I no longer have to carefully use my digital thermometer to measure the temperature of wort that’s almost boiling (effin’ hot steam!). Lastly,  the thermometer temperature probe’s low position allows you to RDWHAHB while adding a hop bag, whirl-pooling, and chilling your wort.

Volume Etchings: After almost 2 years of having to use other measuring vessels to fill my aluminum kettle with mash water, sparge water, and preboil wort and then having to estimate my post-boil volume; it was a huge relief to have the internal volume etchings to give me more exact volume measurements.

Final verdict: Wait no pros vs cons section? As I eluded to earlier in this review, this kettle represents the first major upgrade to my brewing equipment since I started brewing more regularly in October 2013. Hence, I don’t have any experience with the quick disconnect and tri-clover fittings etc. that could be added to Ss Brewtech’s kettles. Though I should note that since brewing with this kettle a couple weeks ago the new Ss mash tun and sparge arm that I ordered were delivered and I plan on ordering quick disconnect fittings to make transferring strike water etc easier between my kettle, mash tun, and HLT (my 10 gallon aluminum kettle). For me this kettle is my ticket to being able to continue taking my brewing to more advanced levels. So if you’ve been looking to buy a new kettle or any new brewing equipment for that matter make sure to consider Ss Brewing Technologies’ kettles and the rest of their line up of high quality / skillfully engineered products.

Price Point: Pricing for Ss kettles is on par with other heavy duty brew kettles, although they are substantially cheaper than other well know brands such as Blichmann Engineering. You are getting a pretty substantial piece of stainless steel with this worthwhile purchase, it’s not thin or flimsy like lower quality stainless or aluminum kettles.  The 10 gallon pot is actually 10.7 gallons so you some head room to prevent boil overs if you want use this pot for 6 to 8.5 gallon batches.

  • 10 Gallon ($225)
  • Bimetal Thermometer ($37.50)
  • Coupling for Bimetal Thermometers ($12.00)
  • 15 Gallon ($275)
  • 20 Gallon ($325)
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HIBC Presents: Millennium Falcon Rye IPA Brew Day

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Barry W

On Sunday, July 19th I brewed my third IPA of 2015, Millennium Falcon Rye IPA. I chose the name for two reasons. First, I used Millennium and Falconer’s Flight hops (and some Columbus hops), along with three varieties of rye: rye malt, flaked rye, and crystal rye. Secondly, two of my fellow NYC homebrewers brewed a double IPA with the same hops and no rye; that beer was so impressive that I had to brew my own version of their recipe. In addition to this beer’s recipe being new and my own, this brew day served as the first test of my new 10 gallon brew kettle from The Brewed Palate’s newest sponsor Ss Brewing Technologies (BrewTech). A full overview/review video of the kettle itself will be uploaded ASAP that’ll include my full opinion on how the kettle performed during its “maiden voyage”. Though I will say that it nice to have my older 10 gallon aluminum kettle to use as an HLT.

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Keys to this recipe:

  • I chose to use 2 lbs or 14.7% rye (15.2% w/o rice hulls), but came across recipes with more rye while putting together my recipe.
  • The Munich and Honey malt were used to add some sweetness to the spicy and bready qualities of the rye.
  • Any final gravity numbers noted above represent my target final numbers.
  • I somehow ended with 0.60 oz left of Millennium for dry hopping so I’ll probably order* some more so I can dry hop with 0.75oz or 1 oz. I’ll also probably add some Columbus hops to the dry hop.
  • As stated in the video, my go to IPA yeast is Wyeast 1272 American Ale II, but when my LHBS aka Bitter and Esters didn’t have it in stock I chose Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale because it has more in common with 1272 than 1056 does.

*All of the hops that were used for this beer were provided by yakimavalleyhops.com for the purpose of the promotion of homebrewing with hop varieties from the extensive variety that they carry year round.

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HBW 59: Gravity Readings Galore!

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Barry W

In this week’s Homebrew Wednesday I go from gravity reading to gravity reading updating you on my two hefeweizens and Tart Tense saison. I also introduce The Brewed Palate’s newest sponsor Ss Brewing Technologies.

I’ll be reviewing my new Ss kettle and their new mash tun sometime in the next few weeks so be on the look out.

Cheers!

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Homebrew Wednesday 57/58: Tradition, Tradition! Hefeweizen (brew day & TBP updates)

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Barry W

Since the day I was born I’ve been living a life steeped in traditions, all of which have given me a sense of purpose and enriched my quality of life. So when it came to brewing and naming my first all grain hefeweizen, a classic german beer style; the importance of remaining true to one’s traditions came to mind. It brought back memories of watching Fiddler on the Roof with my mother for the first time as a child and her telling me that her mother introduced her to it. Hence, I’ve named this beer Tradition, Tradition! Hefeweizen.

As the label that I put together for this beer states…“In the late 19th and early 20th century European Jews faced challenges that would ultimately bring an end to simple life in their small communities called shtetls. In order to brave these challenges they stayed true to their traditions. In a similar vein, Germans have taken pride in and held true to their tradition of Reinheitsgebot (1487, 1871) brewing stricture for centuries despite many revolutionary brewing techniques. and ingredients. This beer serves as a tribute to those times and to the importance of keeping both religious and brewing traditions alive. L’chaim and Prost!”

Beyond tackling the brewing of my first hefeweizen I also took it upon myself to brew my first ever 8 gallon batch of beer. As mentioned in the above video, my biggest obstacle in doing so was not having the ability to take an accurate preboil gravity reading due to my brew kettle’s 10 gallon capacity. The next obstacle was having to use multiple pots to boil the 11 gallons of preboil wort on my stove. After blending the wort to keep things as uniform as possible and increase hop utilization, I poured 8 gallons into my main kettle, 2 gallons into a 12 quart stock pot and 1 gallon into an 8 quart stock pot. One small boil over aside, after the two larger pots reached a boil I realized that the 8 quart pot which was on my stove’s smaller “simmer burner” wasn’t able to maintain a boil. Therefore, I decided to keep it on its burner and gradually add its wort into the 12 quart pot. I should also note that I created three recipe files for this brew day on Beer Smith; a 5 gallon batch, a 3 gallon batch, and an 8 gallon combined batch. Doing so helped me figure out how to tailor my hop* addition schedule to the size of each boil (13-14 IBUs).

After both boils were over I combined both pots/kettles and estimated how much wort I ended up with. It was my estimation that caused me to miss my target OG by 2-3 points. Don’t worry, I’ll explain…The combined wort’s gravity was 1.060 or 6 points over my target of 1.054. So I went into BeerSmith’s dilution tool and at my estimated 8.75 gallons and target OG of 1.o54 I calculated that I needed to add 0.85 of a gallon to my kettle. However, after doing so and taking another gravity I was left with a gravity of 1.052. While I’m okay with that OG, I’m glad that the new kettle that I ordered recently has volume markings etched into it i.e. no more need for blind estimates.

Due to the added volume of the top up water I ended up with roughly 8.6 gallons of wort split between two Better Bottle carboys; 5 gallons in a 6 gallon, and 3.6 in a 5 gallon. For a glimpse into the start of fermentation watch the video above. Overall, I am happy with how brew day went and am looking forward to the finished products.

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*All hops used were provided by Yakima Valley Hops for the purpose of hop education and review through brewing.

Mash Schedule: My original goal was to do a ferulic acid rest, but after a late start to brew day and overshooting my initial mash temp I decided to stick with a protein rest followed by a sacc. rest, a mash out rest, and fly sparging. 

Protein Rest: 122F for 35 minutes

Sacc. Rest: 153F for 70 minutes

Mash Out Rest: 168F for 15 minutes

And now for a flash back to last week’s Homebrew Wednesday video which I somehow neglected to create a blog post for…

Episode Notes:

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  • June New York City Homebrewers Guild meeting: I discuss the formal portion of the meeting where we played “Guess the hop” and then the subsequent bottle share where was I lucky to try the NHC 2015 Best of Show gueuze which was brewed by 3 of my fellow club members.
  • June Brewminaries club meeting @ Threes Brewing: I discuss the fast growth of the club since its inception in March of this year and how great it was to hold the meeting at Threes Brewing, a fairly new NYC brewery in Brooklyn. 
  • Update on my Tart Tense saison (fermenting w/ The Yeast Bay’s Farmhouse Sour Ale blend): An update on the beer’s fermentation with a gravity sample that I took at the 15 day mark.
  • Wrap Up: A brief discussion of what’s coming up in terms of my homebrewing.

Cheers and Keep on brewing!

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Beer Review Blast!: What have I been drinking lately?

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Barry W

20150609_210417 Since switching my focus from craft beer to homebrewing two years I’ve found myself drinking and purchasing increasingly less craft beer. However, that does not mean that I’ve lost my interest in sharing my thoughts on craft beers that I’ve tried in the recent past with all who visit thebrewedpalate.com. In order to get back on the beer reviewing bandwagon I’ve decided to post my first “Beer Review Blast!”, a compilation of craft beer reviews and reflections in order to give you a picture of where my journey towards further palate development is currently standing.

aviary_1426389153271Belô Petroleum Brazilian Imperial Stout: In December of 2014 I met up with Alex Forbes of Artisanal Imports at Beer Authority, an NYC craft beer bar for a event celebrating Brazilian craft beer. Out of the four Brazilian beers that he gave me to review / spread the word about, this imperial stout brewed with cocoa powder was my favorite. It poured with low carbonation and a tiny brown head that quickly dissipated. However, the bottle does say “smooth mouth feel, with a light carbonation.” It had a smooth full body and wasn’t too “flat” tasting on the palate.  This beer’s complex flavor profile includes prominent notes of dark chocolate and dark fruits upfront with dry cocoa at mid palate, and hints of roasted malt and hazelnut throughout as it warms. At 11% abv there was a touch of booze in the aroma and aftertaste, but it didn’t affect drinkability. Rating 8.5/10

 

aviary_1427756776921Drinking while brewing at Bitter and Esters 3/30/15: While brewing a Pliny the Elder inspired double IPA for a Brewminaries homebrew club dry hopping experiment my fellow homebrewers and I shared some great craft beers. First we tried a couple of the beers that I brought…Westbrook Gose: This was my first time trying it and I loved it. It was refreshing, tart, and had just the right amount of saltiness at mid-palate (8/10). Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine: A citrusy east coast IPA that lives up to the hype every time I’m lucky enough to drink it (8/10). Grey Sail Captain’s Daughter double IPA: Though I’ve heard great things about this one, it had a dank quality that didn’t sit well with me and some of my fellow homebrewers (7.5/10-I hope to try it again and re-review it). Two other notable beers from that night were from Jack’s Abby Brewing. TrIPL, a 10% abv “triple IPL” that’s bursting with citrusy hop flavors and finishes surprisingly smooth (not too bitter) (8.5/10). Then the star of the night Lager Ness Monster, a 15% abv “imperial baltic porter” which again had a complex flavor profile (chocolate, espresso, and dark fruits), and hid its alcohol content quite well (9/10).

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Post Passover Imbibing: After Passover i.e. 8 days without drinking beer, I cracked open three special beers. The first was Boulevard’s Imperial Stout X (w/ coffee): After being blown away by the base beer on tap a couple weeks before Passover I was eager to try this beer. Though the coffee was well integrated it took away from the rich imperial stout flavors that I enjoyed in the base beer. After talking to some friends I came to the conclusion that the base beer is better on tap because it’s carbonation is smoother than the more widely available bottle conditioned version (8/10). Next was Great Lakes Chillwave double IPA: unfortunately the four pack that I picked up wasn’t as fresh as I thought it would be and therefore I can’t give this sought after beer an honest review just yet. Number three was a local brew, Singlecut Beersmith’s Bon Bon 2xTNT IIPA: Singlecut has been pumping out some great IPAs since they began bottling a portion of their beers. This one was chock full of citrusy and tropical NZ hops and had a really nice smooth finish for a 143 IBU beer (8/10).

aviary_1429140108840Supporting my local craft beer bars: While at the Brewminaries April 2015 meeting I made sure to order and enjoy a couple of the great beers on tap at Covenhoven, a great craft beer bar / bottle shop in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The first was Other Half’s G is for Green, a juicy and quite drinkable double IPA brewed with citra, simcoe, and topaz hops (8.5/10). Then towards the end of the meeting I spotted Pizza Boy’s Sunny Side Up on tap and immediately ordered a glass. Second only to Goose Island’s Coffee Bourbon County Brand Stout, Sunny Side Up is one of the best coffee imperial stouts that I’ve had to date (9/10).

 

 

20150425_231010Keeping up with new releases: Because of my recent tendency to drink more homebrew than craft beer I haven’t been putting as much effort into keeping up with buying newly released beers. However, I did buy a couple in last month or so and enjoyed both of them. The first was Stone Ruination 2.0: Luckily I jotted down some tasting notes while imbibing this revamped double IPA… A more dank and fruit forward version of 1.0, but not as tropical as other DIPAs…Very west coast appeance (light gold, clearly filtered, off white head), flavor profile, and finish. In terms of the hops, I picked up mainly grapefruit and lemon notes, but some peach and pineapple were present in the finish as the beer warmed up and though faint they added a slight sweetness (juiciness) at mid palate. The higher abv was well hidden and the “ruinous” bitterness did build on my palate (8/10). The second beer was Brewery Ommegang’s Three Eyed Raven dark saison, the most recent release in their Game of Thrones series of beers. Having brewed a dark saison in the past year I was curious to taste this one and in the end was quite impressed with the beer’s balance of saison and dark fruit and malt flavors. I feel that Three Eyed Raven is the best beer of the series so far (8/10).

11187376_903278906361822_8014753071486134783_oBeer and Cheese Tasting: On May 7th I hosted a beer and cheese tasting for 12 of my close friends where we paired four cheeses from The Cheese Guy with four beers. Without going into ratings, all the beers are on my current list of go-to beers in their respective styles…The pairings were…Fresh Mozzarella w/ Weihenstephaner Hefe-weissbier, Swiss w/ Brooklyn Sorachi Ace saison, Bell’s Two Hearted IPA with aged Cheddar, and Gouda w/ Founders Porter. I enjoyed all of the pairings, but the fresh mozzarella was too mild tasting when matched up against the phenols and esters of the hefeweizen. Next time I’ll pair it with goat cheese or brie. Brent aka The Cheese Guy also recommended that I include a fifth “wild card” cheese when I host tastings in order to provide a contrasting pairing option.

20150514_220902Stone IRS and Chai IRS: After acquiring a couple bottles each of these sought after Russian Imperial Stouts I invited a friend whose favorite RIS is Stone IRS over for a side by side tasting. True to form the “Classic Release” lived up to its reputation with a dependably complex flavor profile which included dark chocolate, cocoa powder, espresso beans, toffee, and some dark fruit esters. Though it could use a year to age I was pleased with this year’s release (8/10). Then it was time to dive into the “Odd Year Release” aka Chai Spiced IRS. To me this beer tasted like a Starbucks “dirty” chai latte (chai latte w/ a shot of espresso). It had a creamy full body that was chock full of chai tea flavors. Despite the presence of some coffee and chocolate in the finish, I feel that this beer was not as balanced as I hoped it would be. I’m curious to see how it ages, but for now I’d advise drinking it in small quantities and when possible pairing it with chocolate forward desserts to bring out the base beer (7.5/10).

Crasher-in-the-Rye-525x357Clown Shoes Barrel Aged Beers: Having heard great things about Clown Shoes Brewing’s barrel aged beers I was excited when my older brother invited me over to try a few of them. The beers that we tried were Extremely Angry Beast, The Peace That Money Can’t Buy, and Crasher In The Rye. Sadly I didn’t jot down tasting notes for any of them, but I chose to include them in this blog post for the following reason. For me they all hit the mark in terms of appearance and flavor complexity, but the flavors were a bit disjointed and lacked the cohesive / rich complexity and wow factor of many of the well regarded big barrel aged beers that I’ve come to love over the past few years (e.g. Firestone Walker’s barrel aged beers). I’m not sure what rating to give them based on my personal experiences, but all being said and done I’d still recommend them to fans of barrel aged beers.

Sour Night at the NYCHG BJCP class: (see pic above) As a member of the New York City Homebrewers Guild I decided that 2015 would be the year that I’d finally sign up for their BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) class. Beyond learning about the technical aspects of brewing processes, beer off-flavors, and ingredients we’ve been tasting and evaluating 3-5 beer styles per Tuesday night meeting (session). This week’s (June 9) was special because it was all about sour beers (craft and home-brewed versions). In all we sampled 9 commercial beers, 6 of which I hadn’t tried before, and 2 home-brews (brett saison and belgian pale ale). The 3 commercial beers that I had tried before this meeting were Rodenbach Grand Cru (my favorite flemish red), Weihenstephan Professor Fritz Breim 1809 berliner weisse (a refreshing well balanced example of its style), and Liefman’s Goudenbond (a complex 8% ABV oud bruin, perfect for dessert). Of the six remaining beers Lindeman’s Cuvee Rene was the only beer that got negative reviews due to it’s being skunky (green bottle). Though once the skunk volatilized the beer was more enjoyable, but didn’t have as much of the complex funk and bright wheat/citrus character that I’ve experienced in other gueuzes. The remaining beers were: Victory’s recently released Sour Monkey (a funky, bright, and drier finishing version of Golden Monkey), Oud Beersel Oude Kriek (Vielle) (amazing cherry flavor with just the right amount of funk/tartness), Anchorage The Tide and Its Takers (complex and funky, but a bit boozy), Lost Nation Lamoille Bretta (bright / refreshing lemon and funk; could use a bit more saison esters and spice), Black Acre Sour Golden Ale (brett forward with lemony and bready malt sweetness and earthy/herbal hop notes in the finish).

Upcoming Reviews: I recently got my hands on four variations of Jack’ Abby Brewing’s Framinghammer baltic porter and hope to review them in the coming days/weeks.

I hope you enjoyed my first Beer Review Blast!. Feel free to comment below on the beers and the post in general. Cheers!

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Homebrew Wednesday 56: A Saison Without Hops?

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Barry W

farmhousesouraleThis past Sunday I brewed a saison WITHOUT HOPS in order to accommodate the lactobacillus in The Yeast Bay’s Farmhouse Sour Ale blend. As with all of my beers, I learned a lot from this brew day and hope you’ll learn something from this video. Cheers!

Episode Notes:

  • Possible grain to glass video: If I do edit together a grain to glass video it’ll focus on the development of the tartness in this beer (currently named Lacto Saison).
  • A quick tasting of my favorite hefeweizen aka Weihenstephan Hefe-weissbier
  • Importance of mash temperature for this beer and for beers fermented with wild yeast and bacteria.
  • Importance of keeping the IBUs low for this beer and beers fermented with lactobacillus.
  • Brew day footage: Collecting second running > sparging > preboil gravity > end of the boil / original gravity.
  • Start of fermentation: Longer than expected lag time and lack of “visible” signs of fermentation led to my contacting Nick,  The Yeast Bay’s founder and “chief yeast wrangler” and asking for advice on how to proceed.

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Note: Any final gravity / abv numbers present above are numbers that I put in after brew day to evaluate the potential ABV of this beer.

 

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Homebrew Wednesday 55: So many hop varieties…So little time.

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Barry W

11203534_903028889720157_2981532926645248394_oAfter filming the ending clip of my recent Grain To Glass video I decided to turn my camera back on and film myself talking about what else I’ve been up to lately. A good portion of which involves a show and tell about my most recent hops order from Yakima Valley Hops. Enjoy and Cheers!

Episode Notes:

  • Introduction: Why I don’t post weekly Homebrew Wednesday videos.
  • My recent beer and cheese tasting: On May 7th I hosted a beer and cheese tasting at my apartment and paired four cheeses from The Cheese Guy with four beers. The pairings were…Fresh Mozzarella w/ Weihenstephaner Hefe-weissbier, Swiss w/ Brooklyn Sorachi Ace saison, Bell’s Two Hearted IPA with aged Cheddar, and Gouda w/ Founders Porter. I enjoyed all of the pairings, but the fresh mozzarella was too mild tasting when matched up against the phenols and esters of the hefeweizen. Next time I’ll pair it with goat cheese or brie. Brent aka The Cheese Guy also recommended that I include a fifth “wild card” cheese when I host tastings in order to provide a contrasting pairing option.
  • Monthly Beer Swap @ Bitter and Esters: At the May 2015 beer swap I won my second people’s choice pint glass after the majority of those in attendance voted my pilsner as their favorite beer of the night.
  • Suds In Solidarity / Brewnity: On May 17th I attend a homebrew event which raised money for 3 local NYC beer bars (e.g. Jimmys No. 43) that were affected by the recent East Village fire / building collapse. Video coming soon…
  • My Next Beer: This coming Sunday (May 31st) I’ll be brewing a saison and fermenting it with The Yeast Bay’s Farmhouse Sour Ale blend. Once it’s ready I’ll be bottling it instead of kegging it so that I can age it and avoid introducing lactobacillus into my beer lines.
  • NEW! Hop Varieties from Yakima Valley Hops: I show you which varieties I got and talk about why I chose them. Check out their website (link above) for information on all the hop varieties that I mention in this episode.
  • Upcoming beers: Tradition, Tradition! Hefeweizen, Millenium Falcon IPA, Satiator Doppelbock, Approved Emancipation Russian Imperial Stout.
  • Closing thoughts…

Cheers and Keep on brewing!!!

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Grain To Glass: HIBC Renewal Four-Grain IPA

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Barry W

20150519_175410For my first “Grain To Glass” video I’ve chosen to share my latest innovative beer with you. Renewal Four-Grain IPA was brewed with barley, wheat, rye, and oats (purchased at Bitter & Esters) along with four relatively new hop varieties that were provided by Yakima Valley Hops. All in all I’m quite happy with the finished product, but you’ll have to watch this video to see how it was created. Below you’ll find some tips on recipe formulation that I gleamed from formulating and brewing Renewal IPA and the full recipe. Enjoy and Cheers!

Recipe Formulation  Tips:

When brewing innovative or out of the box beer recipes there are some important factors to consider in order to properly execute the use of new ingredients, techniques, and processes. By new I mean new to you. In other words it’s easy to watch or read about another homebrewer pulling off a challenging beer style or process, but until you try it you won’t know how it effects your personally established brewing processes. The following are some things that I learned from brewing Renewal IPA.

  1. Always create a base set of controllable variables: A) My base IPA grain bill consists of American 2-row, Vienna, White Wheat, Crystal 20L, and Honey malts. However, for this recipe I chose not to use the Vienna malt in order to allow the breadiness etc. of the wheat, rye, and oats come out as the hops begin to mellow. B) Having fermented my recent double IPA with Wyeast 1272 American Ale II and enjoyed how its esters complemented the hops, I chose to use it again for this beer and then tweak my fermentation temps and schedule as needed. C) Because I chose to use 34oz of high protein/dextrin malts I made sure to add rice hulls and some extra mash water into the mash to prevent a stuck sparge during my purposely slow run off.
  2. Make sure to ask other homebrewers for feedback before finalizing your recipe: A) When I decided to use both 4 grains and 4 hop varieties for this beer I made sure to share the recipe with members of my local homebrewing clubs and on some of my go to online forums. As a result I added a pound of dextrose to the recipe in order to prevent the beer from having too heavy of a body. B) While a few homebrewers warned me of the green pepper character of Equinox hops, I chose not to listen to them and brew with Equinox anyway. Watch the above video to see why they were right. Though I should note that I’ve found that this hop variety is like Summit in that some people love it and others strongly dislike it.
  3. When brewing IPAs (especially with new varieties), carefully plan out your hop schedule: A) While most homebrewers brew SMaSH beers to try out new hop varieties I chose to use four new varieties in this beer. In turn, I had to carefully plan out how to showcase them. B) Once I put together my grain bill I decided to set an IBU limit of 80 so that I’d a produce a beer with big hop flavor and balanced bitterness. C) When using new hop varieties, use a clean bittering hop and save the new varieties for flavor and aroma. For this beer I chose to use Magnum hops for my bittering / first wort hop addition. D) Though I forgot to do so when brewing Renewal IPA, adding gypsum (calcium sulfate) to hoppy beers can help accentuate hop flavor and aroma.

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TBP Presents: Marshall Schott aka the Brülosopher (brulosophy.com)

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Barry W

On Sunday, May 3rd I grabbed a pint of homebrew and hopped on Google Plus for a Hangout with one of today’s most well known homebrewing bloggers, Marshall Schott aka the Brülosopher (brulosophy.com). Known for his well executed homebrewing “exbeeriments” and witty writing style, Marshall’s experimental approach to homebrewing has generated quite a bit of discussion amongst homebrewing all over the US and internationally as well. In turn, I felt compelled to interview him in order to both share his approach and homebrewing knowledge with even more homebrewers and to give all those who have already benefited from his blog a more personal perspective on the content that he produces and posts. I hope you all benefit from the content of this interview as much as I did from conducting it. Cheers!

Notes: 1. Due to the length of the interview I decided to split it into two parts. 2. below you’ll see a list of topics that were discussed in each “part” / half. Feel free to skip to topics that interest you most if you’d rather not watch the entirety of each video. 3. Both parts contain a mix of both personal and general topics. 4. We both were a bit nervous while asking questions and giving answers during the interview. So please excuse both of our saying the words “you know” quite often throughout it. Thank you!

Topics Discussed:

  • How did you get in to homebrewing? [0:40-1:53]
  • Inspiration for starting Brulosophy.com and goals for the outcome of his “exbeeriments”. [1:54-3:46]
  • How do you as the person who carries out all of the exbeeriments react to their commonly not statistically significant results? [3:47-5:57]
  • Bloggers helping homebrewers brew better beer vs. laying out the results of various exbeeriments and letting homebrewers decide how to interpret them based on their brewing process constraints / abilities. [5:58-9:21]
  • The Brulosophy lagering method [9:22-14:00]
  • The Hop Chronicles: An upcoming series on Brulosophy.com [14:01-16:27]
  • The process of conducting a Brulosophy experiment. [16:28-19:14]
  • Part One outro…

Topics Discussed:

  • 5 key factors to consider when you’re looking to improve the quality and consistency of your home-brewed beers. [0:22-4:09]
  • What inspired me (Barry-The Brewed Palate) to start manipulating my brewing water and how doing so has significantly impact both my and Marshall’s beers [4:10-6:24]
  • The homebrewing scene in Fresno, CA. [6:25-8:34]
  • The benefits of being a participating member of your local homebrewing community. [8:35-9:59]
  • The impact of homebrewing blogs on the homebrewing hobby / community and the sense of responsibility that bloggers have to produce / post useful content. [10:00-12:44]
  • How did Marshall get to the point where he was ready to share his homebrewing “exbeeriments’ and experiences via a blog? [12:45-15:54]
  • Balancing brewing new and old beer recipes for the sake of creating desired flavor profiles and the experimental side of Marshall’s brewing. [15:55-18:52]
  • Marshall aka the Brülosopher @ NHC 2015 in San Diego, CA. [18:53-20:32]
  • Closing remarks. [20:33-21:12]
  • Part two outro…
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Brewminaries Long Island City Breweries Bike Tour aka Ride to the Ryes

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Barry W

IMG_3933On Sunday, April 26 The Brewminaries homebrew club (I’m the club’s treasurer) along with the Bitters and Esters homebrew shop staff celebrated the  release of their first collaboration brew aka Ryes of the Brewminaries with a bike tour of three Long Island City (Queens, NYC) breweries. The last of which was Rockaway Brewing Company, the brewery where the beer itself was brewed on March 18th. Though I do not currently own a bike, a fellow club member and I walked to from one brewery to the next and sampled beers at each one.

We first went to Transmitter Brewing Company, a yeast focused brewery that has grown quite a bit over its short history. Since first visiting Transmitter this past August they’ve upgraded to a 7 bbl brew house, installed larger fermenters, and moved their growing numbers barrels to an adjacent warehouse space. Each one of their beers is brewed, fermented, and packaged with care and attention to detail. They even keg condition to ensure the consistency and quality of their beers between bottles and kegs. Before heading out to the next brewery (Big Alice Brewing Company), I made sure to purchase a bottle of F4, a saison / farmhouse ale fermented with three strains of brettanomyces i.e. a funky version of my favorite warm weather beer style.

IMG_3919Though the Big Alice staff knew we were coming I think they were a bit taken aback when we arrived and quickly filled their tasting room. While many beer bars stop offering flights when they’re really busy, all of us were able to order flights of 4 or 6 sample glasses and taste the creativity that goes into every Big Alice beer. As a homebrewer that tends to stick to beer’s traditional four ingredients I found Big Alice’s eclectic line up of unique beers to be balanced and approachable. However, despite fellow Brewminaries insisting that I try the jalapeño black IPA, I could not get passed my dislike of beers brewed with peppers and nicely declined their offers.

After finishing our flights and snacking on a bit of the trail mix provided by the Big Alice staff we headed to our final destination of the bike tour i.e. Rockaway Brewing Company. While they had some beers that I hadn’t tried on tap, I decided to stick to the beer that we all went there for. Ryes of the Brewminaries, our hoppy rye pale ale brewed with Mosaic, Galaxy, and Magnum hops. With its juicy tropical fruit aroma and flavor, it was a quite refreshing beer to walk around the brewery with all the while chatting with my fellow Brewminaries, homebrewers, and the Rockaway staff.

All in all this inaugural collaboration and its releases were a big success. I’d like to thank John LaPolla and Douglas Amport (owners of Bitter & Esters), the Rockaway Brewing Company staff (especially head brewer / co-founder Ethan Long), and my fellow Brewminaries for their part/s in creating that success.

The Brewminaries have a lot of great brewing experiments, showcases, and events planned for the upcoming months and I plan on continuing to document my perspective on them both on the Brewminaries website and here on thebrewedpalate.com.

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