After almost a month without posting a Homebrew Wednesday video I’m back with a considerable amount of updates. First I taste/review my Lion’s Roar Pilsner 2.0 (recipe tweaks mentioned in video). Then I share some footage from my recent Renewal 4-grain IPA brew day (grain to glass video planned). Finally I taste/review my Workman’s Pint Porter and share Brewminaries related updates.
Cheers an HHBW!!!
Side note: Though I said in the above video that I’m going to stick with my current pilsner’s recipe. I may end up making a few tweaks bring out a touch more of the to-style bready malt character that most beer drinkers associate with both czech and german pilsners.
On Monday, April 20, 2015 I headed to Brooklyn Brewery for yet another Brewmaster’s Reserve Series beer release event. This time the beer was a “Rye IPA” (style not specified) called I Wanna Rye-It!. As usual I filmed brewmaster Garrett Oliver’s words of wisdom and quickly edited together the above video so I could share them with you.
BREWERY’S DESCRIPTION: In the “old days” (days you may recall from movies like “High Noon” and “True Grit”), when people drank whiskey, it was almost always rye whiskey. And in the “old country” (which you may remember from countries like “Estonia” and “Germany”), when people ate bread, it was often rye bread.
So what’s so great about rye? Look at it this way: rye is the bad-boy cousin to those two better-known grains, barley and wheat. There’s nothing delicate about it; it’s tough and it grows where it wants, when it wants. Rye is fun, but it has an edge to it, like a gruff antihero riding into town. It’s got complex spicy, nutty flavors, and that makes it exciting, but it sometimes gets a little out of hand, especially when it hangs out with equally edgy American hops.
Don’t get us wrong, rye can be silky smooth and seductive when it wants to be, making it pretty irresistible at times. Brooklyn I Wanna Rye-It takes that wayward grain on a little joy ride through spicy flavors, a light smack of caramel, an explosive pop of hops and a sharp dry finish. And when your pint is finished, we think you’ll pick yourself up, dust off your jacket, smile and ask us for another one. You’d better ask quick, though—rye doesn’t like to be kept waiting.
Brooklyn I Wanna Rye-It is pretty awesome with pastrami, ham, barbecue, burgers, steaks and hard cheeses. The rye is pretty loud, and all this attention is likely to rile it up even further. Actually, this beer sorta reminds us of our Production Manager, Jimmy Valm. Hmmm… must be a mysterious backstory there somewhere.
My Thoughts: Going in to this beer I didn’t know what to expect. After all, as Garrett described in his “words of wisdom” rye has elbows i.e. it’s a grain that can express itself in a variety of ways. So when I was handed my first glass of I Wanna Rye-It! I curiously sniffed and sipped it for a couple minutes, gathered my thoughts, and then asked my friends what they thought of it. To me this beer has a remarkably refreshing and balanced complexity. The first thing that stood out to me was that I could taste the crisp breadiness of not only the crystal malt, but also the Crisp pale malt and enjoyed how it rounded out the finish of the beer and reminded me of an English bitter. Upfront the spiciness of the rye blended with floral and citrus notes from the American hops were the stars of the show. Though they seemed quite bold at first, the hop and rye flavor combination never overwhelmed my palate. So after enjoying a glass of Brooklyn’s Gold IPA I finished off my drinking for the night with yet another glass of I Wanna Rye-it! At 7.5% this beer is quite drinkable and perfect for pairing with a wide variety of foods (see suggestions above). I hope to find it at a bar or bottle shop that fills growlers so I can bring some home to enjoy with dinner on a warm Spring evening. Cheers! Rating: 8/10
Some of you may be wondering where I’ve been lately and your concern is legitimate. I’ve been on a “Spring break” of sorts where I been busy with my Brewminaries club duties and Passover and therefore haven’t filmed enough content to post an update video, brew day video, or beer review. However, I’ll be a brewing an IPA this coming Sunday (4/19) and will post my updates and a sneak peak of brew day on 4/22 or 4/23 and then a full brew day video soon after that.
I have a deep seated desire for finding ways to add beer to as many of my recipes as possible. Well… actually, don’t all of us craft beer drinkers?
In addition to adding dark beers to dishes such as beef stew and chili, I’ve recently been on the look out for ways to add beer to desserts. As someone who likes coming up with recipes on the fly, one factor that held me back from baking desserts with beer was the risk factor of adding too much or for that matter too little beer and throwing off the texture of a dessert. So when my keg of chocolate oatmeal milk stout was close to finishing I felt it was time to gather up my courage and pick a dessert to incorporate it into. Brownies were the most obvious choice because of their dense, moist, and chocolate forward nature.
Though I like a dense and fudge-y brownie after a full meal, an opportunity arose for me to bake beer brownies for breakfast. As you may know I recently brewed a rye pale ale on March 18th at Rockaway Brewing Company along with my fellow Brewminaries and the owners of Bitter & Esters. Being that brew day was set to start at 10am I decided to bake them as a morning treat and source of energy prior to our long brew day. Needless to say we ended up waiting until brew day was over to try them and ended up pairing them with my chocolate oatmeal milk stout.
Now before I tell you how they turned out I’ll share with you how I prepared and then baked them…Although I’d baked brownies many times in the past, I chose do a quick google search for ‘chocolate stout brownies’ and found a delicious sounding recipe for Triple Chocolate Stout Beer Brownies that I knew I’d be able to follow.
Ingredients:
12 ounces chocolate stout or any dark beer
1 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (more to taste is using a roasty tasting beer)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
4 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Heath bar bits
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Step One: Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a 13x9x2 baking pan or aluminum pan with aluminum foil, letting foil extend 2 inches beyond each short side of pan.
Step Two: Whisk together the beer and cocoa powder.
Step Three: Whisk in the melted butter and sugar
Step Four: Whisk in one egg at a time. Note: Room temperature eggs will incorporate faster then fridge temperature eggs.
Step Five: Pour and then whisk in the flour and salt followed by both types of chocolate chips
Step Six: Once all ingredients are well incorporated i.e. the batter is nice and smooth, slowly pour it into your prepared baking pan and use a spatula to make sure it’s level.
Step Seven: Bake 42 to 45 minutes in preheated oven, until top is shiny and dry, and a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out with out moist crumbs attached. Then remove the pan from the oven and let the brownies cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
(Picture for this step is above)
Yield: 32 medium sized brownies
So, how’d they turn out?
These were probably the most chocolatey and decadent brownies that I’ve ever baked. Because I didn’t use any baking powder they were quite dense and best enjoyed by slowly savoring each small bite. When paired with my chocolate oatmeal milk stout the sweetness of both the brownie and the beer complemented each other without becoming cloyingly sweet. I should note that while at times I found myself nitpicking at the dense texture of these brownies, everyone loved them and asked me for the recipe.
So how would tweak this recipe to make it even better? Next, time I will probably take steps to make the brownies a touch less sweet and dense. For example, I may use less sugar or swap out the heath bar bits for more dark chocolate chips, use a less sweet beer, and add a touch of baking powder to add a bit of fluff to the texture.
Remember folks, just as brewing involves a fair amount of experimentation, so does baking. Therefore, I’d recommend trying this recipe as is and then feel free to tweak it to your liking.
Cheers and Keep On Brewing…and baking/cooking with beer!!!
As a NYC’s newest homebrewing club, The Brewminaries have been fortunate to get off to a great start that has been chock full of opportunities to set them up for success. One such opportunity was presented to them by John LaPolla, co-owner of our beloved local homebrew shop Bitter & Esters. Having been asked if he wanted to brew a 5 barrel (155 gallons) batch at Rockaway Brewing Company (Long Island City, NYC) by co-founder and head brewer Marcus Burnett. John thought it would be a great idea to involve The Brewminaries i.e. the club which I am now the treasurer of, formed after coming together as the Bitter & Esters SWAP Team at NYC’s first Brewnity event on February 22, 2015. To quote John himself, “And in what is turning out to be typical Brewminary fashion, they jumped right in with gusto. We decided that they should come up with the recipe and after some wrangling and horse trading, they came up with a rye pale ale hopped with Galaxy and Mosaic hops. Ryes of the Brewminaries was born!”
On Wednesday, March 18, Brewminaries club officers Sheri Jewhurst (“Dictator”), Robert Sherrill (Events Co-Chair), and I joined Bitter & Esters owners John Lapolla and Douglas Amport and Rockaway Brewing Company co-founder and head brewer Ethan Long to brew our first club beer aka Ryes of the Brewminaries. Ethan put us to work, making sure we took part in every part of the brew day including everything from milling the grains and adding the hops to yes, you guessed it, the cleaning of the mash tun, the brew kettle, and anything else that was used to during our brew day. Surprisingly though, despite being an annoying but necessary process as a homebrewer, all of us enjoyed doing the cleaning because it helped us appreciate all the hard work that goes into brewing on a larger than 5-10 gallon scale. Especially after experiencing the ability to add a pound or more of amazing smelling Galaxy and Mosaic hops per addition.
Throughout the brew day the Rockaway staff made us feel at home. They gave us freedom to try all 8 beers that they had on tap and even ordered us pizza for lunch. Once the wort was cooled, transferred to its 5 barrel fermenter, and John pitched the yeast (Wyeast 1056) we returned to the tasting room to share some of our home-brews with Ethan, Ray (brewer and cellarman), and the tasting room staff. As a special treat I brought brownies that I baked with the my chocolate oatmeal milk stout so that everyone could pair them with samples of the beer itself. From Ethan’s positive reactions to our home-brews (he asked for seconds of my double IPA) and eagerness to help us fully understand the ins and outs of brewing on his 5 bbl system, we all could tell that he was glad to have brewed with us and is just as excited as we are to taste the final product when it’s released in the beginning of May.
On behalf of The Brewminaries I’d like to thank Ethan, Marcus, Ray, Justine and the entire Rockaway Brewing Company staff for allowing us be professional brewers for a day, being so accommodating while we brewed together, and supporting our new homebrewing club. In addition, a BIG thank you goes out to John, Douglas, and the entire Bitter & Esters staff for bringing The Brewminaries on board for this collaborative brew and for your continued support of our goals and activities.
Next up for The Brewminaries…A dry hopping schedule experiment featuring a Pliny The Elder clone recipe as its basis / inspiration.
Yesterday i.e. Wednesday 3/18/15 I participated in a collaboration brew day at Rockaway Brewing Company (Long Island City, NYC) along with John and Doug, owners of Bitter and Esters homebrew shop and two of my fellow Brewminaries, NYC’s newest homebrew club. Together we brewed a 5 bbl batch of a hoppy rye pale ale that we named Ryes of The Brewminaries. Hence, for this week’s Homebrew Wednesday I start with a synopsis of brew day and some misc. updates and then shoot you off to an update on my Workman’s Pint porter and a preview of my brew day footage. Note: As soon as I receive my fellow Brewminary Robert’s photos and video footage I’ll be editing together a full brew day video. Enjoy and Cheers!
Back in March 2014 I brewed two one-gallon test batches to break in my new 1-gallon carboys, one was a porter and the other was a ESB. Despite being a bit estery due to my raising the temperature in my fermentation chamber after panicking when both krausens dropped quicker than expected, both beers received positive feedback from fellow homebrewers and I was keen on brewing them again in future. Fast forward to March of 2015, I was going back and forth trying to decide what I was going to brew next. Then it struck me…I’d already scaled up my porter’s recipe in BeerSmith and only needed to switch the yeast (original batch was fermented with SO-4) and do some research to make sure my percentages were on point for the beer that I modeled the recipe after, Founders Brewing Company’s Porter.
Once that was done with another dilemma surfaced. The recipe called for 1.25 lbs of chocolate malt, an amount that in my mind was a bit excessive. However, because I didn’t want to deviate from a recipe that many brewers on Home Brew Talk (thread about this recipe) have had success with, I struggled with when the best time would be to add the chocolate and black patent malts. While cold steeping had worked for me in the past, I didn’t want to sacrifice the roasty flavors that I love in Founders Porter. Therefore, in the end I did some more research, spoke to a friend who works at Brooklyn Homebrew (where I purchased the grains and yeast for this brew), and then decided to add them and some calcium carbonate (lowers acidity) at mash out. In order to account for the small amount of fermentable sugar present in the dark malts that would be absent in the mash’s saccharification rest I added an extra half pound of base malt (not shown in the recipe below).
I should note that after a 10 minute mash out rest I began my 2nd vorlauf and realized that the wort’s color was a bit too light. So I stirred the grains and let them steep for an additional 10 minutes. This gave the wort a rich brown color, which was still not as dark as I’d predicted, but met my standards for a robust American porter. Lastly, as stated in the above video, I used NY Craft Malt‘s 2-row pale malt as my base malt and achieved 76.6% mash efficiency despite my lautering/sparging issues (see video). I’ll definitely be using their grains in the future.
Stats: Target Pre-boil gravity 1.051 / Actual Pre-boil gravity 1.048 @ 7.25 gallons. Target Original Gravity 1.067 @ 5 gallons / Actual Original Gravity 1.063 @ 5.7 gallons i.e. I didn’t lose much wort to the hops and achieved a strong enough boil to “make up for the lost preboil points.”
After a week of reflection on the beers that I entered in the New York City Homebrewers Guild’s Homebrew Alley 2015 content, this week’s Homebrew Wednesday focuses on opportunities that I’ve recently taken advantage of in order to improve my homebrewing knowledge and skills. All the while continuing the thread/message that runs through my blog posts about homebrewing which is promoting the benefits of getting involved in one’s local homebrewing and craft beer community all the while keeping a finger on the pulse of the global growth of homebrewing and craft beer culture.
Question of the Week: If you were to brew a beer to showcase New York City or New York State beer culture which beer style would it be and what special ingredients would you include in the recipe?
Episode Overview:
Workman’s Pint Porter – This past Sunday I brewed my version of a Founders Porter clone using NY Craft Malt 2-row and the technique of adding the grain bill’s (grist) dark/roasted malts at mash out…Full brew day video coming soon.
On Wednesday, March 18th I’ll be brewing a 5 barrel batch of rye pale ale at Rockaway Brewing Company along with John and Doug, owners of Bitter & Esters and two fellow members of NYC’s newest homebrew club, the Brewminaries. I plan to film brew day, but am still waiting on permission to do so from the brewery staff.
On Tuesday, March 3rd I began my journey to become a certified BJCP judge by taking part in the NYCHG’s BJCP class, which meets on Tuesdays at 6:30pm at Jimmy’s No. 43, an NYC craft beer bar. More details in the above video.
Since teaming up with Artisanal Imports in November 2013 I’ve been able to try and in turn spread the word about the great line up of beers that they and their partner company Authentic Beverage Management import to the U.S.. One of my favorite beers that Alex Forbes, their Mid-Atlantic Sales Manager has introduced me to is Prearis Quadrupel, a 10% ABV quadrupel brewed by Vliegende Paard Brouwers at Brouwerij De Proef. As such when I met up with Alex in December 2014 to try some Brazilian craft beers at NYC’s Beer Authority, I made sure to ask him to include both Prearis Quadrupel and Grand Cru (barrel aged quadrupel) in the allotment of review samples that he’d be giving me. Below are my reviews of both beers.
Prior to opening and pouring this beer I was under the impression that it was aged in bourbon barrels. However, upon my first whiff I could tell that it was not. Some quick research and a closer look at the bottle’s label revealed that I had just poured the peated whiskey version of Prearis Grand Cru i.e. their quadrupel aged in Ardbeg barrels.
It poured a true to style dark ruby red color with khaki cap of foam. Both the taste and aroma were dominated by earthy and smoky peated whiskey character which masked the based beer almost completely. At times I was able to pick up some dark fruit notes and a bit of caramel, but as the whiskey character was just too present. With a medium to full mouthfeel and moderate carbonation this beer was quite drinkable for its alcohol content and in turn kept me wanting to continue to sip more despite being perturbed by the whiskey flavors.
I’ll conclude with the thoughts that I jotted down upon deciding not to finish the bottle. This beer is not for the faint of heart i.e. this is a really peaty beer. Despite my love of peaty scotches, not enough quadrupel comes through to balance out the beer i.e. it’s quite one noted. Perhaps a year or two of age will allow for this beer’s aroma and taste to reach a balance. Rating: 6.5/10, for how well the whiskey flavors were able to work their way into the beer. At times it seemed as if I was drinking Ardbeg scotch.
BREWERY’S DESCRIPTION: Préaris Quadrupel was crowned best craft beer (home brewed) Belgium 2011. This is what Paul Arnott, masterbrewer at Brewery Dubuisson mentioned: “What a maturity for a craft beer: all hearty, rich and balanced, very mature. A beer to enjoy!” Aroma: caramel, dark fruits. Taste: Malty roasted and chocolate malt slightLy bitter, dark fruits, caramel. Aftertaste: malty and mild bitter.
As with many of the beers that I’ve been given to review I made sure to share this bottle (750ml) with friends…For me Prearis Quad presents with a blend of both traditional and more modern aromas and flavors. Meaning, while many trappist and abbey quadrupels are yeast driven beers with a phenolic spiciness that cuts through their flavors of dark fruit, caramel, and toffee. Prearis Quadrupel has far less phenolic spiciness and yeast esters and is instead balanced by sweet pie crust sweetness that complements its notes of dark cherry, toffee, and caramel. All of which reminded me of a traditional fruit pie that I’d eat during the colder months of the year. It’s alcohol content is hidden quite well and the grains that were used have given this beer an impressive smooth body. It is clear to me why this beer has won a variety of awards since it was first brewed in 2011. Rating: 8/10, I could see this beer appealing to beer drinkers of all experience levels.
For a full list of the beers that Artisanal Imports imports visit their website.
Having recently received my scoresheets from my first ever homebrew competition (Homebrew Alley) I decided to use this week’s Homebrew Wednesday to review the scoresheets and discuss my thoughts on the the judges’ feedback. In turn, my main goal for doing so is to show my fellow homebrewers how they can utilize the blind feedback of homebrew(ing) competitions to improve their brewing. Cheers!
The Breakdown
Due to the length of the above video I’ve chosen to also breakdown my competition scoresheets in text form so that my reactions to them can be as clearly understood as possible. First I’ll summarize the judges’ comments and then give my reaction/s to them.
Scoresheet 1: Holy Inn Brewing Company Oak Aged Barleywine, Score: 39/50, 3rd place in the Smoked and Wood Aged Beer Category
Judges’ Comments: In terms of score there was a 2 point difference in the taste category of the scoresheet. Both judges enjoyed the interplay with the French and American oak and sweet malt flavors. Though at times the beer tasted a bit sweet and quite oak forward; the oak dryness and flavor at mid palate kept the beer’s drinkability in check.
My Reaction: Throughout the weeks prior to dropping my competition entries at Jimmy’s No. 43 I opened a few bottles of this beer and people either were really impressed with it (it won me the people’s choice pint glass at a Bitter and Esters beer swap) or gave me similar feedback to the competition judges. So although I think it’s a good beer, I was quite surprised when I found out that out of the five beers that I entered, my oak aged barleywine was the one that placed in its category. To me it lacks balance in that even after a year plus of aging the oak and bourbon flavors have remain dominant and prevented the base beer from coming through like I feel it should. Moving forward: Now that it has placed in a relatively large competition I will be looking back at my recipe and and aging processes so that I can brew the best oak aged that I can next Fall. Ideally I’d like to scale back the amount of oak chips that I used (4oz) and beef up the malt complexity. Possibly utilizing the malt bill from my more recent batch of barleywine.
Scoresheet 2: The Innkeeper English Barleywine 2014-15, Score: 27/50.
Judges’ Comments: Because I added too much priming sugar at bottling this beer ended up over carbonating and both judges picked up acetylaldehyde and oxidative aromas and flavors which masked and diminished the complex malt character that was present prior to this beer over carbonating.
My Reaction: After about four weeks in the bottle I opened a few bottles of this beer with friends and fellow homebrewers and we all loved it. However, our excitement was short-lived because after a few more weeks in the bottle the beer began to over carbonate and develop some off flavors. Once I realized that this was taking place I quickly split my remaining bottles between my keezer and kitchen refrigerator in order to prevent them from carbonating further. After a couple days I took them out and wax sealed them to prevent further oxidation while they age. Moving Forward: I plan on giving this beer at least 6 months post being wax sealed before opening a bottle to check this beer’s progress. When I bottle condition my next big and or malty beer I’ll definitely employ a less if more method when deciding how much priming sugar to use.
Judges’ Comments: This beer received the biggest total score total difference (5 points) between its two judges. The first judge (score: 30/50) focused on the rye character of the beer and stated that it was masked some of the saison flavors that he was looking for. However, from some of his other comments I deduced that he may not be so familiar with rye saisons. The second judge (score: 35) was able to detect more complexity and enjoyed the beer quite a bit more and found it to be refreshing and a surprisingly good competition entry. However, he did comment that it was a bit sweet in the finish.
My Reaction: As stated in the above video I’ve been enjoying how this imperial rye saison is aging and so have my fellow NYC homebrewers. However, the higher abv and spiciness from the yeast and rye seemed to have been too much for one of this beer’s the judges. Moving Forward: I definitely would like to brew this beer again and will consider decreasing the amount of rye (2 lbs, 3.2oz were used in the beer that I entered) to 1.5 or 1.75 lbs in order to allow for my of the classic saison flavors to shine.
Judges’ Comments: When I was told my a couple of my close homebrewing friends who were able to attend the Homebrew Alley awards ceremony that I’d be happy when the competition results were posted, I was quite confident that my stout would be the beer that placed in its category (13B Sweet Stout). When the results were posted I was surprised yet still happy with the score that this beer received (35 and 33 > 34).Then when I received my score I was happy that one of the judges for this entry was my good friend and pro brewer Chris Cuzme. Both judges enjoyed the balanced complexity of this beer and remarked that a bit more carbonation and roasted malt character were needed to take this beer from great to outstanding.
My Reaction: I completely agree with the judges’ comments and will definitely add some of the dark/roasted grains to the mash when I brew this beer again instead of cold pressing all of them. Moving Forward: This was my first time cold steeping dark/roasted grains and after receiving positive feedback from the competition judges and many of my fellow NYC homebrewers; I am glad that I chose to add lactose and the ‘extract’ of cold steeped dark grains to this beer’s recipe instead of adding cold brewed coffee at bottling/kegging time. While a bunch of my other recipes may need a couple more brews to achieve perfection, this one only needs one more tweak to be exactly where it needs to be.
Scoresheet 5: Woman of Valor Tripel, Score: 35/50.
Judges’ Comments: Because this beer finished with a final gravity of 1.016 I kept my fingers crossed and hoped that the two bottles that I entered were ones that aged well. Thankfully they seemed to have aged well enough to garner a 35/50 in a tough competition category. However, I should note that the 35 came from a 33 and 37 being averaged. The judge who gave this beer a 33 focused on there being too much yeast character and a lack of balance, but made sure to state “I was hard on this beer, but for good reason. It has potential. It could cleaner and more balanced…Not refreshing like a trippel should be.” Though the second judge picked up on the esters, but he enjoyed them quite a bit and picked up on some malt sweetness in the finish (15/20 for Flavor).
My reaction: Out of all the feedback/comments that I received from this competition I was most impressed by the first judge’s comments on my tripel. He took all of the beers stats and characteristics into account and gave constructive honest feedback. I hope that in future homebrewing competitions I continue to receive similar comments from judges. Moving Forward: I definitely want to brew this beer again. The biggest change that I plan on making it raising the beer’s fermentation temperature earlier so that it will have a better chance of receiving a lower final gravity. I am also considering adding a portion of the candi sugar that’s in this beer’s recipe on day 2 of fermentation in order to give the yeast a head start on the more complex malted grain derived sugars. If all goes well I’m confident that my next iteration of this beer will be amazing.
Have you had similar experiences in homebrewing competitions that you’ve entered? If you have, comment on this post and share them. Cheers!
thebrewedpalate.com 