Back From My Absence

It's been a long time since I've posted anything and I feel that I should really apologize for that.  Brewing took a little bit of a back seat for me over the past few months.  My wife and I moved into a new house in the country which brings a whole lot of brewing excitement with the multiple varieties of hops that I plan on growing as well as different herbs as well. (There may be a gruit coming up here over the summer and possibly a fruit beer in a year or two after my plants have established themselves.)

I've even started brewing five gallon all grain batches again now that I can set up my Igloo cooler and turkey fryer in my garage.  Last weekend I brewed a Weizen Bock with some of my friends whole Nugget hops, but I'll get back into that in a later post.  I was so excited about it, brewing all grain batches again that is, that I've been working on my own plans for a Brutus 10 system with the possibility for an expansion to twenty gallon batches later down the road.

I had hit somewhat of a roadblock a few months ago with my BJCP challenge and didn't know what the problem was.  (If you'll recall, I was getting somewhat of a metallic/cleanser type taste in my beers.) Well I realized that it was the iodophor that I was using for sanitation.  It hit me one night when I went out for a couple beers at Buffalo Wild Wings and the ones I drank also had that same faint taste and iodophor after all is a commercial sanitizer used in breweries and restaurants.  Oddly enough it is one of those things that some people can taste since my wife had no problems with them at all.

I feel much better about my processes now and am excited to get back on track.  I'll have a week off work coming up shortly, and I am hoping to get a couple more batches brewed.

On Deck: Light American Lager
Secondary: Weizen Bock
Total for 2011: 88 Gallons

Status Update

It's been a while, a long while.  I keep meaning to update the blog, but we have been busy.  Marygrace and I have recently been looking for a house.  The good news is, we found one.  The bad news is that I don't really want to start another batch of beer until we move.  (Although I will make an exception for a pumpkin stout for Halloween.)  The house is good, but my recent brewing attempt have been rather lackluster.  It seems that brewing works in waves for me since I don't really repeat any of my recipes and I always like to experiment.

I believe that one of my issues may be coming from my conical fermenter.  I bought it on eBay over a year ago and it has been working great, but recently every beer that I have brewed in it (Lite American Lager, German Pilsner, and Hop Harvest) have had a stale water flavor with slight metallic undertones. The last time I cleaned it, I noticed that some of the chrome coating on the thermometer was peeling and I think this may have something to do with it.  I'll have to replace it, but until then, I'm back to carboys and buckets.

The Gose that I brewed isn't as great as I would have hoped either.  Since I used aciduated malt, as suggested by Brew Your Own, the flavor produced is more similar to a wort spoilage, rather than a true bacterial infection of the beer.  It gives the beer a bit more of a sour milk/tea-like flavor than anything else.

The beer that I tried to make with wild yeast that I captured has scared me.  I smelled it a short while ago and it still reaks of DMS.  After tasting it, it was still present.  I will have to try this experiment once again after we move.

My mead is a shining star of what I have done recently, proving to myself that it was not my water source that was the cause of my stale water off flavor mentioned above.  My one complaint about it though is that I rushed it too much.  I should have done another one or two carboy transfers, but I didn't, and the bottles have a very small layer of yeast on the bottom.  Either way, it was my first go at it, and my lesson was learned.

I'm in a slump right now, and I'm glad that I got all of that off of my chest.  I'm hoping a couple easy extract brews and means can get me out of it.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Just because I haven't posted in a while does not mean that things have been slow here at Lake Effect Brewing.  I have a couple more batches under my belt in the past couple of weeks, I have successfully captured and brewed a batch of beer with wild yeast, and I had a great hop harvest, all of which I plan on detailing in future blog posts.  For now, I just wanted to throw out a quick plug for a couple of things and tomorrow when I brew my very first sour beer (maybe my second, I still have not tasted my wild yeast ale) I plan on doing a full sized post.

The first thing I want to mention is the Basic Brewing Logbook.  I picked this up a couple of weeks ago and I could not be more pleased.  I love this book.  Even though I use Beer Tools Pro, this serves as an excellent hard copy for finalized recipes for the year.  With its agenda in the first few pages, you are able to keep track of all of the dates for your primary, secondary, lagering, and anything else you could possibly want, and with room for 50 batches, even I would have to try to fill it up.  For $13, you can't go wrong.

The second, and most important part of this post is a startup brewery in Austin, TX that needs your help.  My brother in law's boss, the owner of Austin Homebrew Supply, is in the process of starting up a microbrewery and they need some help purchasing some more equipment.  They have set up a Kick Starter page where you can pledge to donate money to their cause.  Don't worry though, you won't be just giving someone a handout, for your donation, you can get anything from a sticker to being able to help create a featured beer as well as helping to name it.  So, unbutton your change purses and help a worthy cause of fellow homebrewers to pursue their dream.

On Deck: The Gose is Loose
Primary: Wild Yeast Test Batch, Harvest Ale
Secondary: Wildflower Mead
Carbonating: Ginger Ale
Total for 2011: 76 Gallons

An Underground Beer Culture Surviving in Wine Country Part 2

My next few attempts at finding delicious beer in France were nothing short of brilliant successes.  One of the days when we were walking around the city of Narbonne, we had stumbled upon an underground bar/brewery that was advertising lambics for only 2.50€.  But, of course, with our luck it was closed.  I do have the best wife in the world though, and she promised me that we could go back another night.

Well that night came and it was everything I could ever want in a bar.  L'Antre de l'Echoppe was literally an underground beer culture.  It was a tiny brewpub that was built into an old cobblestone cellar with a medieval theme and with plenty of both domestic and import beers on tap for reasonable prices.  This brewpub was so small in fact that they actually brew in the bar, and when it is open, they just push the equipment off to the side.





They only had two of their own beers on tap, but they were both spectacular. 



The first that we had was La Blonde Maison.  At 5% ABV, this was an extremely easy drinking beer.  It was cloudy, very light, and fruity with a slight sharpness at the end.  La Noire Maison was another 5% ABV beer.  Surprisingly, for having a dark, strong, and chocolaty aroma it was unexpectedly light.  It had a deep chocolate malt flavor with almost no linger.  I hope that some day I am fortunate enough to get back to Narbonne and to L'Antre de l'Echoppe again.

When we went up to Carcassonne after Narbonne, I was hell bent on finding some Biers de Carcassonne, but we had no such luck.  We did however find a couple of other beers in a small boutique shop.  At first I was a little skeptical about them, but chilled that night in our Barcelona I indulged and was more than satisfied.



Abbaye Fontfroide not only is a remarkably beautiful abbey outside of Narbonne, but the namesake has been used for an artisanal beer.  The nose is a very subtle spicy (peppery) aroma from the yeast, and there is an excellent head, so good, it made pouring difficult.  It was very heavy beer that was both sweet and spicy notes that shockingly did not linger long at all.  There was an excellent floral flavor as well, and after tasting some of the raw honeys in the area, I would not be surprised if that was where it was coming from.



We never went to the Abbaye de Valmange, but much like Fontfroide, they lent their name to a beer.  It was extremely aromatic with overpowering caramel notes.  The beer itself some subtle spicy notes along with the chocolate and caramel flavors. 

So in the end, I would have to say I am pretty impressed with the beers the south of France had to offer.  (Their wines weren't that bad either.)  I just wish I wouldn't have been so blind when I was traveling around Europe in the past not searching an scouring for the artisan beers.  I can only imagine how many delicious ones I have missed on my travels.

Primary: German Pilsner
Secondary: Lite American Lager, Ginger Ale
Carbonating: Honey Dunkelweisen
Total for 2011: 65 Gallons

An Underground Beer Culture Surviving in Wine Country Part 1

I was a bit skeptical at first and for good reason. Sure, in northern France you can find some great breweries, including the ones that are credited with reviving the Bière de Garde and the Bière de Mars styles, but in southern France, the heart of wine country, really?  At one point the master blender at the estate we were at (Château des Karantes) had remarked to us that the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France (where we were) produces more wine in one year than all of Australia combined.  And I was supposed to find good beer here?  I went in a skeptic, but I came away a believer.

My first experience was at a small cafe in Gruissan.  There were signs in the window tempting: 'Découvrez nos bières artisanales.'  It was a hot day and I was quite parched, so it was my duty as an inquisitive brewer to partake in a nice cool, frosty beverage
 

La Néou is an aromatic, 5% ABV white beer brewed with spices and water from the Pyrenee mountains range.  It was a light, sweet wheat beer, and it had light honey notes to it. (Honey is one of things that this region of the world prides itself on, so it makes sense that they would use it in their beer.)  There was the slightest diacetyl (butterscotch) flavor to the beer, but it wasn't off putting at all.  It actually worked very well with the beer.  These pleasant flavors lingered for a while and it was a perfect way to quench my thirst on the Mediterranean coast.

My next sampling wasn't a beer, but a cider, and being it is my goal to familiarize myself across the lines of the BJCP guidelines, I thought it would be another great learning experience.

 

I am not an expert in ciders by any means, so I do not know if it is actually one of the high quality ciders on the market, but I do have to say it was one of the best I've ever tasted.  It was Loïc Raison's Cirdre Breton Brut.  At 4.5% ABV it is relatively low alcohol compared to most that I have drank in the past, but it's flavors were unmatched.  Upon the first sip, you're hit with a light, dry crisp flavor that has just a touch of sweetness and a hint of honey.  The more and more I drank, the more the tannin flavors of the skin became present and gave the illusion that you were biting into an apple.  It was a wonderful thing to have happen.  Flavors like this are going to be hard to match when I start making ciders, and I can only hope to achieve results close to this.

This one completely ripped off Delirium Tremens (only a pig instead of an elephant), so how could it be bad?  The big pink pig was calling my name and I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.  Had I been able to speak and read French a bit better, I may have steered clear (Rince Cochon translates to Pig Rinse...ugh...).

 

Although this beer is very crisp and refreshing like a lager, it is actually an ale that has a very soft nose, similar to a pilsner, and just slightly fruity, like an English ale.  The flavor and after taste were exactly the same, the slightest maltiness along with a hoppy/fruity after taste.  Though this beer wasn't necessarily what I was looking for, it did have a nice sweetness and crispness to it that has its own time and place, and a BBQ in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea was just that (though I do not think that is what the brewers had in mind since it is from Belgium).

Look out for part two of this series later this week... 

Primary: German Pilsner, Ginger Ale
Secondary: Lite American Lager
Carbonating: Honey Dunkelweisen
Total for 2011: 65 Gallons

It's Vacation Time!

I thought I would give everyone a heads up that I will be taking a couple weeks off from blogging on the count of me getting married and going on a honeymoon and not just laziness.  I will have it be known though that this will not just be a vacation.  No, I will be doing some "research" on this trip as well since although we will be traveling in the Languedoc-Roussillon region which is well know for its vineyards (as a matter of fact we're staying at one) my beautiful wife to be said that we would be going to a microbrewery for my birthday present.  So without ant further ado, I am off and will be back in a couple of weeks.

Brewing with an IR Thermometer

I got lucky, twice (the second time extremely, I thought all hope was lost).  The third time bit me hard, but I was able to salvage it with some quick thinking.  The Easter bunny gave me an Infrared Thermometer (Pyrometer) this year, and I couldn't wait to try it out for brewing.  I wish I would have been a bit smarter.

I jumped into it head first as I usually do with a new toy.  It was high tech, so in my mind it had to be accurate.  The Pilsner that I brewed with it came out perfectly, both original gravity and terminal gravity (this is where I was lucky).  The second beer I brewed with it was my first wedding hefeweisen (now the Hopfen Weiss).  At first, I had just thought the original gravity was extremely low because the flaked wheat I had used turned into a giant ball while brewing.  The fermentation went pretty well, so I ended up with a nice summer, hoppy, low alcohol content wheat beer that would be perfect for the BBQ.  I couldn't complain too much.

The third batch I did was perfect (or so I thought).  I used malted wheat instead of flaked wheat and I hit all of my temperatures right on with the temp gun.  There was only one problem: my original gravity was low, meaning my efficiency was way off just like the Hopfen Weiss.  There had to be something in common with these two batches, and my thoughts started to turn towards my IR Temp Gun.

Naturally, I turned to my engineering background and had to perform some experiments regarding my temperature gun.  Over the course of three brew sessions, I took temperature readings with both my normal thermometer and the gun: at my pre mash water temperature, mash in, mash out, and my sparge water, always aiming for the same target temperature.  Although I cannot say that after my initial discovery that I was shocked by these results, I was surprised that over the temperature span the deviation between the two devices changed.

Red is a normal dial thermometer, and blue is the IR thermometer.

These results confirmed my suspicions, my temperature was consistently off.  When I thought I was reading 158ºF, my temperature was probably up near 185ºF, far above the range of starch conversion.  In a way I am tempted to continue with these tests to build up a better average temperature differential between the two devices so I can use just the IR gun, but all I would need is that one stray time for it to catch me and screw up another of my batches.  No, for now I will continue using my reliable dial thermometers.

Primary: Honey Dunkelweisen
Secondary: Hefeweisen 2 (Honeyweisen), Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale, Wedding IPA
Total for 2011: 53 Gallons

Lake Effect T-Shirts Available

Try to contain yourselves.  I know its hard considering that you can now own your very own Lake Effect Brewing Company t-shirt.  The design that Nate had created for the bottles and the website was too good to not be displayed to everyone even if they weren't drinking my beer or visiting the blog.  I had to shove it in their face.



Nate and I started printing shirts over eight years ago with some breaks in between as well as some improvement in our process.  I am selling these for $10.00 each.  If you're interested, just let me know.  Right now, I only have a couple of larges and extra larges, but if there is enough interest I will be printing more.  Right now, they are light blue with white printing, but if I end up printing more, I will be able to print any color shirt requested, you would just need to let me know.

On Deck: Honey Dunkelweisen (5/29), Wedding IPA (5/30)
Primary: Hefeweisen 2, Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale
Secondary: Hefeweisen (dry hopped with Sorachi Ace), Traditional Pilsner
Total for 2011: 46 Gallons

Cascade-Honey Ice Cream

Well, we forgot to take out some meat from the freezer for dinner tonight so we ended up going out to the Blue Monk.  I've been there a couple times, but this was one of my first eating there.  I'm not going into a whole post about a dinner, but I will say that one of the beers I had, Goose Island's Dominique was quite exceptional.  It was a sour/wild ale, and it makes me anxious for the weather in Buffalo turn warmer so I can start to harvest my own yeast.

On to the post.  One of my other passions besides brewing beer is making ice cream.  There's just something about making your own ice cream that's satisfying, much like brewing beer.  I've been wanting to combine the two for some time now, and I finally saw the opportunity to make a move with some whole Cascade hops that I had.

If anyone has an ice cream maker, here is the recipe I came up with:
3 heaping tbsp Cascade hops
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Bring 1 cup of milk to a boil then remove from heat.  Add hops and let steep for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, beat honey, flour and salt into the egg yolks.  Strain the hop infused milk into the egg mixture, add half and half and return to heat.  Be careful not to boil at this point, because the eggs will scramble.  This mixture needs to be thickened up to a custard.  Then remove from heat, strain again, and add the heavy cream.  Then, the mixture just needs to refrigerate until cold and then should be frozen in your ice cream maker.

If the ice cream is made as above, it will end up being an off white/cream color.  I suggest adding two drops of green food coloring to give it a nice light olive tint.

I enjoyed this ice cream, although as I have said in the past, I am not a hop head.  I think the best way to enjoy this, if you are like me, is with a nice rich malty beer in between sips.

On Deck: Imperial IPA (3/17), Mango Habanero Wit (3/24)
Primary: Chili Lime Pilsner, Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier
Secondary: Belgian Blonde
Conditioning: Elder Ale
Total for 2011: 27 Gallons

Homebrewing in Buffalo

Not too many things going on the homebrew from right now.  I am mainly biding my time until I get to brew beer one in my three beer Cinco De Mayo series, my Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier, on Sunday.  I tried the Elder Ale last night as I was putting it into secondary, and I cannot wait until this beer is ready to drink.  It is almost more like a wine than a beer.  I am excited to see how the flavors round out over time and how it tastes slightly chilled and carbonated.  I cannot rememer the last time I was this stoked about a homebrew, probably the Barley Wine.

The Buffalo News posted this homebrewing article the other day.  Its definately worth the read, although I wish it would go into a bit more detail about the growth of homebrewing in the area.  The big thing that it mentioned was that this year for the Amber Waves of Grain competion there are over 400 enteries from over 100 people.  Even if I don't have much luck this Friday and Saturday, at least I will have some great feedback from the judges.

The Sultans of Swig were also mentioned in the article.  Jay and I went to a meeting last year, and they seemed like a great group of people that I could learn alot from, but then summer crept up on us and the rest is history, and now that the meetings are in Hamburg, I'm not sure if they will be in my future.  Perhaps I will have to look into the Niagara Association of Homebrewers.  If anyone in the Buffalo area has any interest in attending either of the meetings with me, let me know.

On Deck: Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier (2/28), Chili Lime Pilsner (3/6)
Primary: Belgian Blonde
Secondary: Elder Ale
Conditioning: Irish Red Ale
Volume brewed in 2011: 23 Gallons