Filed under: Stout
So this past Tuesday was our monthly brew club meeting. I brought a growler of my (newly named) Wilford’s Best Oatmeal Stout to the meeting to get some feedback from fellow brewers. For anyone out there that doesn’t currently attend brew club meetings in your area, I recommend you change that. It’s an outstanding place to meet up with fellow brewers, share advice, taste beers, and get some solid feedback. Brewing in bubble isn’t healthy.
Anyway, I sought out some feedback on the brew and was not disappointed with the response. Fellow brewers are gentle, but constructively critical. Here are some of the highlights of the feedback:
Pros – It was generally seen as a smooth beer, especially compared to some of the commercial stouts we tasted that night. Most found it to have good mouth feel without an overpowering alcohol burn. One club member noted the chocolate notes that were subtle, but present. The overall view was that it was a surprisingly good drinking stout considering the 7%abv.
Cons – Lacks the “wham-bang” of some more complex and rich stouts. It’s a good beer, but not a great beer. It’s a little high for style (abv), but with stouts there is a pretty wide accepted range.
So over all I was really happy with the response. I was going for a palatable stout that I was be comfortable drinking 10 gallons of. The feedback was in line with what I was looking for, both the positive and the negative.
After the meeting, I decided to have a glass to collect some of my thoughts. After trying three different stouts and a handful of other brews, I found that Wilford’s Best did lack some complexity. While is was drinkable and had nice mouth feel, it really fell short on the flavors. It could use some hints of toffee, chocolate and coffee to really set it off. Instead, you get a great swath of delicious aroma and the flavor falls short.
*Notes for next time, split up the roasted barley with some 120L crystal and a small amount of chocolate malt. I think that this will give some more complexity, but it needs to be done in moderation as this could make the beer really over powering.
Filed under: hops
This past week I was fortunate enough to get to visit with Tim Manchego from Pompey Mountain Hops Farm in Pompey New York. I found this after an article in the local news paper about Tim’s operation ran and was brought to my attention. Initially, I wanted to get up there during hops harvest to get some nice hops shots, but because of my personal schedule, I wasn’t able to get up there in time.
I spoke with Tim for over an hour and learned a lot about his operation. This past year he harvested 600lbs of hops! Some of them were pellets and others were sold as whole leaf hops. Tim offers a fall “you pick’em” special for $5 a bucket full of fresh hops.
This past year he built an oast out of a greenhouse that he is able to haul from the farm to his house for winter storage. Tim has a pelletizer that allows him to offer pellet hops of all varieties.
He indicated what I have heard a lot about hops in New York, the C letter hops grow best in NYS. His Cascade, centennial and Chinook all grew the best on his farm.
This spring I am going to go visit with Tim to see how he gets the trellis’ setup and treats the sprouts.
Special thanks to Tim, I personally picked up 3lbs of cascade that I broke up and vacuumed sealed in smaller packs. Should make for a productive winter!
Filed under: Fermentation Friday
So initially, I was a little concerned that my subject for this month’s Fermentation Friday that I was being a little too open ended and it wasn’t going to give people anything to write about. But what I found in reading all of the posts is that people’s drive for brewing can be both similar and unique. Most people identified the satisfaction of creating something, escaping the daily grind by focusing on one finite project, having something that you could take pride in and bringing people together. However, each post had an individual insight into what made these people start brewing and how it keeps them going.
All of these themes were really clear in what makes us brew…oh yea, and we all like beer…A LOT. Thanks for everyone that submitted and if I missed you in this list, please respond and I will add your post (Adam I am looking in your direction!)
- Brew Dudes reflect on why Dudes Brew: Brew Dudes
- Brewing Suds knows that patience is a great virtue especially in brewing: Brewing Suds
- Chris from Bob’s Place came into brewing for drinking, but it’s grown from there: B.O.B’s Place
- Just another Booze Blog stated brewing after a trip to Europe: Just Another Booze Blog
- Matt the GISBREWMASTER loves beer (how is it possible that reading a blog post makes me want a beer?): A World of Brews
- Awesome, a brew-lady tells her inspiration, I personally love to see women in brewing, it’s always great to diversify the pallets and keep from just making “man candy”: BrewCookPairJoy
- My post
Filed under: Fermentation Friday
Here we are at another Fermentation Friday! I am the very fortunate host of this month’s virtual get together so I will start the conversation off. The question I’ve posted to the group is:
Remember why we brew?
This is a pretty open subject, but the idea here is, what got you started? What gets you out of bed for brewing and drinking? Once you’ve brewed enough batches, it becomes apparent that if you’re in it for the beer, it’s a lot easier to just go buy a six-pack. So why do we keep doing this process?
For me, it’s as much of a self-image thing as anything else. An experience in college caused me to create an image of what ‘making it’ really meant: One summer in college, we made a road trip out to Rochester to visit a group of alumni. After a long day at Ten Ugly Men, we headed to Spike’s house for a beer. Spike was another alumni that was full of life and a ton of fun. The guys insisted that we had to stop in and visit Spike for a beer (or more). When we visited, we were down in his basement, it was pretty cramped, just enough room for the pool table, but he had a fridge with two taps on it. Now pool and beer on tap is pretty impressive, but when he explained how he made the beer himself, I was floored. ‘This guy has the world by the balls’ I thought, and from that point on I decided that I was going to figure out how to make it happen. So now I think about my house, my life and the expression of my own personal freedom that being able to brew my own beer is; something Spike has always represented to me.
In some small way, every time I wake up at 7:30 am in the snow and cold, I think about Spike and that basement. I think about how I like it when I get to give my own brew tours, the pride I get when someone tells me they enjoy my beer.
I love to share my beer, for two reasons; one, I get to brew more, and two is that I like to have people be made happy by something I made. Brewing is more than beer and drinking. It’s a lifestyle and chance to be a little different, while still part of a unique group. In some ways, it’s the ultimate example of following your desires and createing something you like from almost nothing.
One observation that I’ve said and have heard from others is that brewing is an escape from the daily grind. But the beauty of brewing is that it’s not just the act that’s an escape, but talking about brewing and beer is as well. I am always glad to talk at length with want-to-be and “newbie” brewers. I like to talk anyway, but bring up beer and it’s all over. Brewing is an opportunity for me to escape another conversation about the weather or politics.
So, visions of being Spike in the basement with my bro’s hanging out playing pool and drinking my great brews have shaped my introduction into brewing and still drives me today. I love to share beer and conversation; brewing fuels that as well. The act of brewing is an escape, but so is thinking and talking about it. In all, this is a fulfilling hobby, both personally and socially.
So tonight, I am going to tip back a pale ale and offer a toast to my lost friend Spike. In every beer, there is a little Spike to make me smile. Thanks as always to Adam for being the man behind the idea.
First Round of FF Submissions (I will also do a full post with all submissions this weekend so please share your link):
- Brew Dudes reflect on why Dudes Brew: Brew Dudes
- Brewing Suds knows that patience is a great virtue especially in brewing: Brewing Suds
- Chris from Bob’s Place came into brewing for drinking, but it’s grown from there: B.O.B’s Place
- Just another Booze Blog stated brewing after a trip to Europe: Just Another Booze Blog
- Matt the GISBREWMASTER loves beer (how is it possible that reading a blog post makes me want a beer?): A World of Brews
- Awesome, a brew-lady tells her inspiration, I personally love to see women in brewing, it’s always great to diversify the pallets and keep from just making “man candy”: BrewCookPairJoy
Filed under: Fermentation Friday
That’s right kids, it’s that time of the month again! The next Fermentation Friday is October 30, 2009. In case you’ve never heard of FF, it’s the brainchild of Adam at Beer Bit’s and he has the whole history documented, check it out.
Since it’s my chance to choose the topic, I decided to go with something a little more thought provoking than useful. This month’s topic is:
“Remember why we brew?”
Whether it’s the inflated sense of independence that the smell of mashing malt brings or just some image of yourself as a beer artisan that brewing creates, I want to hear about it. No limits here, it can be what started you down the path, or what inspires you to lug 15 gallons of water out of your basement at 7am.
Now the natural reaction may be “it’s the beer stupid”, but I think it’s deeper than that for most. It is for me at least.
See you next week.
Filed under: Stout
So this weekend was both a great brew day an opportunity to pass the brewing torch (kind of I guess). I was lucky enough to get a helping hand from friend of CNYBrew Jess who wanted to witness all-grain brewing in action. I say it’s passing the torch because 4 or 5 years ago I went to Pete’s house and witnessed my first all-grain brew. It reminded me of how crazy the process sounds compared to when you actually see it in action.
Anyway, this weekend I started at about 1pm after one of my football games. This was a 10 gallon brew of oatmeal stout that would make Wilford Brimley proud. This was another in the line of my “simple brews” where I’ve tried to scale down the complexity of my recipe’s with hope of letting the style shine through and decide what beers I really like.
Now with this beer, I started out with a 21bix first running (1.088), 16 brix (1.066) after the first sparge and 11 brix (1.045) in the last running. The pre-boil gravity was 1.063 and after a 1 hr boil, the OG was 1.071, compared to the estimated 1.064. I added two table spoons of gypsum to the mash with hopes of getting the water treated to be a little more like that water in Dublin.
At the end of the day, the wort looked and smelled great. I have high hopes for this brew. Lets see how everything turns out in the end. On another note, I have to say that I really enjoy the day brewing over the morning brewing we usually do. I got to drink a few beers and had some neighbors stop by.
It was great to have Jess out there to participate in a brew day and if anyone wants to stop by, feel free to email me at travis@cnybrew.com or hit me up on twitter @cnybrew.
Cheers
Best picture I found about oatmeal
That’s right, beer isn’t just for dinner and lunch anymore, now it’s for breakfast. My friends over at the Brew Dudes have also been in on the Oatmeal Stout and I haven’t brewed one since I used to kit brew. I think it’s time to re-visit this classing breakfast drink.
Seriously though, I am going to be continuing on my path of less is more in my brewing. This is a simple stout with some flaked oats to hopefully give the beer some body. I am currently at 3lbs of flaked oats, but I might be splitting that half flaked oats and half flaked barley.
Here is what I have so far:
Amount Item Type
26.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain
3.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain
3.00 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) 60 min
1.00 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 30 min
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min) Hops 10 min
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (10 min)
Irish Ale Yeast (1085)
This is going to be a single mash infusion held at 154 for 60 min with two batch sparges. In case it wasn’t obvious by the recipe, this is a 10 gallon batch. I want to treat the water with some calcium, but we’ll see how the brew day goes.
Cheers.
Filed under: hops
This past weekend I picked the last of my hops and prepped the vines for winter. According to the hops stuff I’ve been reading, you cut the hops vines down to about 3″ sticking out of the ground. From there, you just take the vines, cut off the hops, and dry. Simple enough.
Below is a picture of two ounces of Cascade vacuum sealed. I picked up an actual vacuum sealer and I am very glad that I did. It’s awesome! My total harvest was just shy of a pound so not too bad, though I hope that next year is a big year. So far the Cascade hops has been carrying the load with my harvest.
NOT 
After a party this weekend with some of my neighbors, it was brought to my attention that there are in fact two meanings of the word “keggle.” Ignorant to the intricacy’s of female anatomy exercises, I have been known to talk about my “Keggles” and how I’ve been working on them for years. So to clarify the differences, I decided I would outline both and how they are different.
Whats a Keggle and a kegel?
First off, a keggle is an informal word for a keg that has been converted into a kettle. The kegs used are traditionally 15 gallon beer kegs with a hole cut in the top by a torch, plasma cutter or a saw. In most cases, a hole is cut in the side for a spigot using stepped drill-bit to ensure proper sizing. There is generally a welded or weldless ball-lock, silcock or other spigot affixed to the hole. In some cases a hop strainer is also attached to spigot (inside the keggle) to keep hops out of the finished wort. Keggles can be found as both home-made and store bought.
When looking at a keggle compared to a kegel, there are several major differences between the two. For example, a kegel is defined as:
The aim of Kegel exercises is to fortify muscle tone by strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles of the pelvic floor. Kegelis a popular prescribed exercise for pregnant women to prepare the pelvic floor for physiological stresses of the later stages of pregnancy and vaginal childbirth. Kegel exercises are said to be good for treating vaginal prolapse and preventing uterine prolapse in women and for treating prostate pain and swelling resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis in men. Kegel exercises may be beneficial in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women. Kegel exercises may also increase sexual gratification.
Note that while a keggle is used for brewing beer, a kegel is generally used to exercises pelvic muscles, treat “vaginal prolapse” and possibly increase sexual gratification in women. A kegel consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles that make up the pelvic floor, whereas a keggle consists of a keg with a hole in the top and a spigot on the side. Finally, in the case of a kegel, a “kegel exerciser”can be used to work these muscles. In the case of a keggle, if anything besides a keg were used, it would not be a keggle, just a kettle or brew pot.
Use of the word
While it appears that there are many physical differences between a keggle and a kegel, the two words are both spelled similarly and pronounced the same. With that said, generally there are very different uses of the words. For example:
“I built a new keggle this weekend, I can’t wait to try it out”
This compared to the use of the word kegel:
“It hurts every time I do a kegel.”
Now when used in the plural, the possibility of confusing the two words increases, both because of the context and because it is less common to meet someone with multiple keggles:
“I was cranking out on all keggles this weekend, it was awesome”
Note that this can sound very similar to:
“All my kegels are starting to pay off, I was cranking this weekend, it was awesome”
Finally, to further confuse the issue, if you are talking about things that improve a keggle, a statement can easily be misconstrued:
“I picked up a metal bar so that I can hang a bag of hops in my keggle”
Compared to:
“I picked up a device to increase the effectiveness of my kegels”
Now hopefully we, as brewers, can move forward to ensure that there is no further confusion about the difference between a keggle and a kegel. This newly equip knowledge will keep us from party Faux pas like “My keggles are awesome, they really help things down there (pointing to the basement)” or “Did I hear the word keggle? Whats up? You ladies brew?” or “it’s a keggle, it really helps make the whole process easier and increased my volume ten-fold.”
Cheers.
Packed and ready for the show
So over the winter I was contacted by a representative from Forte Promotions about trying out some of their products and writing about them. For the last six to eight months I have been looking for the right time and place to give some test runs. Then the perfect opportunity came; Pearl Jam in Toronto – what better place than a concert to really take some products for a test drive!
As you will note, pictured above is a Koozie Party Cooler that was one of the items that was sent to me. As you will note, we took the liberty of decorating it ourselves with the hope that it might not get taken. Anyway, as you can see, it’s filled to the rim with delicious “Mill St. Wit” (it only gets modest BA’er love) and some random cans we brought with us.
We used this cooler to hike nearly a mile to the Molson center in Toronto in traffic. This cooler really stood up to the pressure and didn’t fail us. Our beers were cold and there were no broken handles or dropped beers. A win all the way around.
The sad news is that our plan of tagging our property failed and our cooler was no more after we got back. However, our cooler was a really warrior that held up and hopefully has moved on to keeping some other Canadian beers cold. My recommendation is that this is a hell of a cooler and will be missed. It’s durable and the bottle opener attached to it is clutch.
If you are interested in learning more, check out the folks at Forte Promotion. They were friendly and eager to help out.
Finally, how about a little taste from the Jam show… [first time they played Porch on this tour!]
