In Preparation for Summer...

On Tap

14.89 First Taste

So it's finally been a month since I bottled my first mini-sour. It was 10 times better than I expected it to be. Nicely carbonated, very clean and clear, not too bitter(I was worried), and it finally has that distinctive brett character. I want to start waiting 3 months between bottles, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

Told Ya' Once Black Eye.P.A. IV

This is batch four of one of my favorite beers to brew, and drink. It was initially modeled after Cascade Brewing's fresh hop beer, but is constantly evolving. It's dark and slightly malty, but has a definite dominant bitterness. Black Patent, rye, honey, acid, crystal, peated, and flaked barley are some of the malts that make up this crazy mash. Dark cherry juice, tart red cherries, and red raspberries go right into primary, and oak chips in secondary. I did this batch with mostly summit hops, so we'll see what happens there.

Basic Gluten Free Beer

Round 2 with gluten free beer. I fucked the first one up by going crazy and doing 9 lbs of sorghum, and 3 lbs of honey. More like a "sorghum wine" I suppose. This one might be a little too bitter, but I can always keg it with some cherry juice or somethin'. Down with celiac sobriety!!!

15.12

Kinda the same as before. Wheat base, honey, acid malt, and a bit o' rye. Mostly simcoe for bittering, and some NZ pacifica hops for aroma. I forgot to add any coriander, but I think it'll turn out for the better. I might salt it later once it's calmed down, and I can taste it.

"HOLY SHIT!"

I brewed my black eye.P.A(C.D.A.) again the other night, and woke up to this. A full six inches of krausen that completely filled my 8 gallon bucket!

Oyster Stout Update #3

I kegged it up on 2-13, and added some fresh krausen from another batch and half a package of D-47. The other half went to the dubbel. I primed them both with a cup of honey. You can see the shells in the bottom of the secondary. Next time I'm gonna put em' in at the very end of primary, so I can spread them around a bit instead of all clumped together in the middle. They're about halfway carbonated right now so the wait continues.

A Date With My Palm(Sugar)

A guy came into the store a while back, and mentioned something about date sugar. I immediately went to New Seasons, and bought a pound of it. They also had palm sugar, which I've experimented with before. I got 2 pounds of it, but the brand of palm sugar I got this time had far more unrefined darkness than the last one I used. I re-pitched a jar of the 3726Farmhouse from the dubbel I made a while back. When I got the date sugar home I realized that there was oat flour in it as well, so she might be a little chewy. You can't really tell from the picture, but looking through all the beer in the carboy it has a purple hue. In the 3/8 siphon tubing it looks golden. We'll see how it looks in a pint glass!
In the kettle

2-11 24 hours into fermentation

2-13

2-15

2-17

Carlos SpicyWiener

I put 25 pequin chiles in the keg, and I still can't taste any spicy. Under-carbonated as well. How is my house even too fucking cold for lagers? The second generation of this beer is in secondary outside right now. I think I might go for 40 chiles next time, and keg a little early.

On Tap

Oyster Stout Update #2

S.G. is about 1.020, so it's getting close. Smashing the shells was a bit harder than I thought, and I couldn't break em' down into a powder like I wanted without totally destroying the bag. It also felt a little crazier adding the shells to secondary than I had expected. Fucking tastes good though!

They Grow Up So Fast

About a month ago they were only this tall!

Experiments with Fructose

I love finding new kinds of sugar to ferment. Bulk fructose is very cheap, and pretty tasty. 1 lb. of fructose in 1 gal. of water has a specific gravity of 1.o44ish. Let's see what happens!

Sour Beers: The Bane of an Imapatient Brewer

Less than a week after bottling 14.89 I wanted to open a bottle, but I know better. I was worried that the tucked away corner where this beer resides is way too cold. I grabbed a bottle, and held it up to the light. I watched for a while as the beer fermented in front of my eyes. Watching beer carbonate could probably be compared to watching grass grow or watching paint dry. I just have to let them do their job. Damn this waiting game!

(I tried to take pictures of the bottle, but I have a shitty camera. All the pictures were blurry, and it seemed pointless)

Out and About

So instead of going home and checking specific gravities, racking to and fro, bottling, kegging, or cleaning. I decided to take the night off. The http://uprightbrewingblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/tasting-room-happenings.html + the http://www.maxsfannocreek.com/events.asp was my mission. Ever since I first read about this elusive "Oyster Stout" I've wanted to taste one. "The Murky Pearl" is one that seems out of reach, but here in PDX I have a good feeling I'll taste it soon. Upright's was easy with their well advertised release party. This was my first visit to their tasting room, and though the venue is small the brewery itself is larger than life. The elusive search for the right hallway/doorway to the brewhouse is half the fun. I followed the sweet smell of mashed grain, fermentation, and the raucous from the basement. The wait in line was well worth it. Pouring the beer was none other than Ezra. I got one glass of the stout, and a bottle to age of course. I've "tasted" this beer a hundred thousand times in my head over the last couple of weeks. The one that I actually held in my hand, and imbibed was more than I had imagined. Smooth and malty, but more bitter than I had expected. A clean aromatic nose was all I found. The oyster aroma was not there. The oyster flavor was hidden, far off in the distance like a memory you had almost forgotten about. The most amazing quality(to me) was the mineral background that I had never tasted before. I spoke briefly with the very busy, Alex Ganum about my own oyster stout and promised him a bottle. I met a few new people, and caught up with some regulars from the store as well. Next on the agenda was the opening night of Fanno Creek's Winter Beerfest. I only sampled a few beers, but I'm pouring on Sunday so I know I'll have plenty of time to taste 'em all. One of the brewers from Mt. Tabor Brewing was kind enough to talk to me about the Rocket Dog Blonde. An absolutely outstanding beer that gets me all worked up over a fucking delicious 7.5% abv. "light beer". Very clean and WAY too easy too drink! I saw more people, especially women(no offense), lean toward this beer after a few too many big burly winter warmers. Jason Webb, as always, was the most gracious host, and to see so many people I know all at one place enjoying a passion for beer makes me happy. I also want to thank Jeff Alworth for giving me an honorable mention on his blog. All in all I'd have to say this was another awesome fucking day. Thank you everybody!

Oyster Stout Update #1

This beer started out at 1.071 9 days ago, and it's only down to 1.032. I'm expecting 1.o15ish for my T.G. but I'm hoping for >1.010. I want this beer to beer very dry. Damn those last 5-7 gravity points. Might consider using some sort of wine yeast later on , but I really don't think that's going to be necessary. When I tasted it there was a definite sweetness, but I know that will fade as it continues to ferment(Mmmmm...taste the progress!). The hops were overpowered by the yeast for now, but the blend I used tastes inviting and complex. The oyster flavor? I couldn't taste much of it. Will it be more present later on once the beer has aged/settled down? Not quite sure yet. I can't wait to add the shells!!!

On Tap

14.89

I had to bottle, but it's way to nice too be inside all day. This was a small batch I made the first day of 2010 using 3711FrSaison, Montrachet, and Brett. Lambicus yeasts. It's more of an experiment to see if I can make a "house" strain of yeast that will ferment well together, make consistently good beer, and do so under many different conditions. I pitched all the yeasts together in primary hoping that they would form some sort of symbiotic relationship. It was a team-building exercise if you will. I wasn't very happy with the results when I checked it about a month ago. Today during the bottling process there was a whole lot of tasting. "They" made a really clean beer, but I can't taste much from the brett. It's still really young, and now comes the hard part...waiting.