Dierksenkougan Brewlog

Whoa....

2007-09-19T10:23:00.000-04:00

...remember when I kept up with this thing? I imagine if I had any readership whatsoever that they have given up on me by now...

I suppose when one starts working in the beer industry professionally, coming home and blogging about homebrewing after a long day's work just isn't at the top of my priority list. That isn't to say that I've stopped making beer at home (which was an appropriate worry getting into this job). To the contrary, I've been fairly hard at work getting everything around for my sister's wedding on October 6th, for which I'm brewing (or have brewed) five batches of beer, two batches of soda, and about 50 bottles worth of wine, over the last couple of months. Here's the lineup:

For the beer: 1) A batch of Old Ale from waaay back saved for exactly this type of special occasion. 2) Hannah, my American Wheat, always a crowd pleaser. 3) A pale ale with German hops. 4) A very tasty Tart Cherry Stout with Traverse City cherries. 5) and a special wedding ale to be revealed at a later date.

Additionally, there is a batch of all-natural vanilla root beer, several cases of Viognier, and one last pending soda that is still up in the air. Whew.

For the future, brewing will more than likely slow down, considering the new apartment and the difficulty of brewing without a back deck or porch, but I would certainly like to get in a few batches of some winter type beers (Scotch ale, perhaps bring back the all-Munich oaked stock ale for another run) before the snow outside makes it all but impossible to feasibly brew. So until then...

June News

2007-06-07T18:10:00.000-04:00

Not much for recent brews, just the Malt Liquor this past Saturday. I've been meaning to brew more, but my weekends have been occupied. The last brew could have gone better: I lost propane 20 minutes (instead of 60) into the boil, just as a massive thunderstorm rolled through, so I didn't get the boil down volume to where I had intended, which will affect the strength of the formerly 8% beer (but will stay within typical malt liquor range) and the effect of the hops. A shorter boil for my 60 minute hops (the beer's only hop addition) will mean less bitterness and slightly more flavor. This could be good or bad; it all depends on the specific characteristics of the final product. Right now, primary fermentation is winding down; the beer got a charge of powdered amylase enzyme in the primary to break up dextrins and starches throughout the fermentation, drying the beer out as per usual in malt liquors. As a result, I'll have to be extra patient to make sure the fermentation is complete before moving it into secondary and letting it sit a short while.

Other than that, Annabelle is now on tap, lightly carbed and tasting terrific. Finally nailed down that recipe...and an empty tap will probably hold the Rozenbier in the near future, though I'm worried that an inconsistant mash really ended up making this beer turbid and starchy, which may affect its flavor significantly. But time will tell.

On deck: another Hannah, Icarus (strong, Belgian honey wheat) and preparations for Sarah's wedding!

Unofficially Summer

2007-04-30T23:01:00.000-04:00

So I haven't been particularly diligant in updating the brewlog, but with exams and graduation, thesis presentations, papers, and new job stuff, brewing (or writing about brewing) hasn't been tip top priority.

New job! Of course, the first line of business. I feel like I've written about this on here already, but a quick glance proves otherwise. I guess I've just been telling everybody I see on an everyday basis, but to make it Dierksenkougan official: I got a job at the plant at Bell's! And not a crappy, bottle-monkey, line slave position, but a learning-intensive, meaningful job as a cellarman (which deals with everything in between brewing and packaging, namely fermentation foremost, as well as filtering, carbonating, dry-hopping, yeast cell counts, and lots and lots of transferring with giant complex German hoses that I haven't quite figured out yet. I finished my first official day today, half safety training and the rest of the day shadowing various other cellarmen in their daily duties; today I did a CIP (clean in place) with parecetic acid to a 200 bbl tank to get it ready for a batch of Oberon, and learned how to count tiny little yeast cells (both dead and alive) to determine proper pitching rates for the brewers and figure out yeast vitality. Cool, nerdy stuff. Looks from here that it'll be a weekday 9 to 5 job, forty hours a week, so full-time, with a nice full benefits package, and some good work experience in one of the nation's top breweries. All in all, a great experience, especially just coming out of college.

On that note, I graduated, as long as my grades that are released tomorrow are on par, which they should be. Yep, not that exciting.

What else...what else...Hannah's on tap, and as I'm typing this, I'm kinda wanting one. A very good batch, exactly what I was shooting for, and really took well to being put on draft. A nice long-lasting head, perfect orange color, good wheaty full flavor. I imagine it will go fast. Also on tap is Dierksenkougan's first soda, with extra special thanks to Matt Troup for putting the hard work in by squeezing 4 pounds of limes and lemons. Dk Limonade is all natural, just filtered water, sugar, and fresh lemon and lime juice, carbonated up like crazy on my dual-gauge. Very popular around here. I like it especially with whiskey (of course). I was sure to buy a new stainless steel shank (the beer shanks are chrome) to handle the acidity. Making soda is super fast, and really easy, and it tastes great, and its nice just to have some on tap for when we want it, so I imagine that we'll make more pretty soon. I'd like to make another fruity pop, but there are some demands for a homemade root beer, but I might squeeze in an orange cream or raspberry soda before that, depending on how things pan out digging up the right root beer ingredients, which apparently contain up to 17 different obscure plant roots and leaves and so forth.

Nothing brewed since the last post...the Rozenbier ("Rose Beer" in Dutch) is happily sitting in a cold secondary. I haven't given her a taste quite yet, as I've had enough beer to keep my kegs full and ready to swap out. I imagine she'll fill the position of whatever's next to go, though I'm tempted to keg Annabelle soon, since I'm itching to have her on tap for the first time.

Old ale is still on deck, as with the Malt Liquor. Other ideas include a hoppy pale ale with lots of German hops (a German Blend similar in premise to my American Blend I use in Big Sky IPA), as well as a strong Belgian wheat beer made with a substantial amount of honey, sort of like a summerized tripel, possibly with similar German hops or perhaps some strong American varieties to give it some IPA-like character. Bell's Right and Left Bank Ales, which are both outstanding, are the primary inspiration.

Happy Graduation to everyone who did, and hopefully this summer brings lots of beautiful, early Saturday morning brew days to write about very soon. I'm hoping the new job doesn't curb my enthusiasm for brewing on my time off, but I don't suppose it will.

Take care,
Sam

Invitation to Drink

2007-04-09T15:16:00.000-04:00

Just so it's out there, this is an invitation to any and all to come over to the house at 1210 California and have a drink on me. The draft system is up and running with four kegs (I think on tap right now are: Brown Ale, Scottish 80-/, Big Sky IPA, and the Stock Ale), with plenty of finished beer ready to replace whatever runs out, including a new Amber Ale (Rachel 3?) and, when that's finished, the return of Hannah, our summer wheat. So, yeah, anytime.

Brewed an Easter experiment. A fellow homebrew store employee thought I should make an ale with jellybeans and marshmallow peeps, but I stuck instead to a Belgian pale ale, using my favorite Bastogne yeast, with some rose hips for an experimental flavor. I'm thinking it'll resemble something like a cranberry weizen when its all said and done, but not quite. I felt like mixing it up a bit, I guess. She was bubbling away like crazy this morning, so we'll have to put her in a keg and get her going as soon as possible (that's when you come in...)

'Splode!

2007-03-29T20:18:00.000-04:00

Got my first official exploder yesterday. But not to worry, Hannah will be fine. With all that goop flying out, you can be assured that not too much in the way of bacteria and such is getting in...

Thesis Results and More...

2007-03-27T18:37:00.001-04:00

Well, the first order of business: Thank you everybody who came out to support my big thesis presentation, and my apologies to the few who I literally couldn't afford to invite. It was on a budget, after all. The event was a huge success, with lots of good food and good beers, and of course, good friends. And on top of it all, I get to keep the draft system! What a deal! I'll post some pictures of the event soon in a photo album; there are already a few floating around on Facebook, but I'll compile them all somewhere, as I have to make a scrapbook of the dinner for the Honors College anyway to get the last portion of my stipend.

With that off my shoulders, it's been awhile since I've actually brewed regularly, but it looks like I'm back into the swing of things. Upon a poor showing on a hearing anatomy test this morning at 8:00am, I decided to skip my following class and make some beer instead to cheer myself up. And, as yesterday was the official release day of Bell's Oberon (my first as an employee...yikes...), I whipped up my own summer wheat beer. That's right, Hannah's back. I'd like to get her in a keg as soon as possible, and start drinking her in no less than three weeks. It should be more than possible. And she's a bit of a rehashed recipe, since the last all grain version was brewed with little understanding of the process, and was pretty miserable as far as flavor (I still have some bottles sitting around, thin and overcarbonated...) but this one should be considerably more impressive.

And I'm not done yet: I think I'm shaping up to brew again tomorrow, as today's brewing session, with new burner and converted keg brew pot, was faster than previously expected. 4 hours start to finish, which is pretty incredible for an all grain batch. If I get to it, tomorrow I'll be brewing my take on a malt liquor, half as an experiment in a much snubbed beer style, and half as a personal guilty pleasure. I mean, I would love to have an official beer pong beer on draft! Dry and boozy...I'm experimenting with some new techniques, including a cereal mash (with frozen corn no less), which is a method of converting raw adjunct grains like corn and rice and such into soluble starch that can be then converted in the mash to sugars. Basically, I'll boil the smack out of the corn for 20 minutes until it turns into a mushy, starchy goo, and add it directly to the regular barley mash. The barley will work its magic over an hour, and voila, corn based sugar that is incredibly fermentable, resulting in a dry, alcohol rich beer that is super light in body and flavor. Steel Reserve! Add that to the punch of amylase enzyme (in the form of our good old friend Bean-O) directly to the primary fermentor, which will continue to break down long, unfermentable dextrins into shorter, fermentable sugars over the course of the fermentation. This, apparently, is a regular trick of the trade for malt liquor brewers. Instead of clean lager yeast, which may take several months of cold conditioning to taste even drinkable, I'll use some equally neutral ale yeast at a cool temperature, followed by some super-tolerant champagne yeast to finish it off. Also apparently a trick of the malt likka trade. I've done my research.

Other than that, I transferred Annabelle (#4!) while brewing this morning, and think I may have nailed her spot on this time. The substitute European ale yeast for my typical house yeast (Edinburgh) was a good decision: the resulting beer smells and tastes maltier, and less dried out, than have previous batches. Some very careful temperature control and a retooled recipe seem to have also paid off. That one will be sitting around for some time, but hopefully in a few months or so I'll be able to throw her in a keg (which I'm in dire need of buying more of).

On deck, certainly an old ale to add to the cellar so I'll have some monster beers for the colder months this year. The last version, my Stock Ale, was oaked for several months, but this version I'll likely make oak free, brewing it very much like Annabelle, but with less dark malt and more hops, and significantly more aging for that chewy, vinous character. In addition, I'd like to get an amber on tap soon, as my Transatlantic Amber is hanging out in secondary awaiting a free faucet.

It's warm outside, and brewing season has clearly begun! Come on by anytime and have a draft beer on me if you're in the Kalamazoo area.

Sam

Draft System!

2007-03-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

Here it is, in a near state of completion. The kegs are charging up with CO2 for a few days before I hook up the beer lines to the shanks...

As for specs, the system holds four corny kegs (5-gallon homebrewing kegs) and a huge 10# CO2 tank (big enough that I shouldn't have to fill it more than twice a year, if that). It's built upon a 7.0 cubic foot GE chest freezer, temperature controlled with a Johnson external thermostat. The faucets are Perlick stainless steel forward seal taps, which was my splurge. These faucets seal at the front of the faucet, which keeps bacteria from growing internally within the tap, and because they're stainless steel, I can use them in the future for wine or soda, if I choose to run it on draft (which I most certainly will). The regulator is also worth noting: a triple guage double regulator, which allows me to be more specific with my carbonation levels, so I can carb a Scottish ale or barleywine nice and low, and make my wheat beers, tripels, and soda extra fizzy. Currently in the system are the beers for the dinner, which is going on March 24th. Left to right we've got the Tripel, Babybelle (Scottish 80-/), Big Sky IPA, and Eva (10-Malt Brown Ale). Everything but the Scottish ale are set at a moderate 2.2 volumes of CO2 right now, and the Scottish is around 1.5 (I think, I can't quite remember). More news to come as I shell out more money for more goodies.

Babybelle

2007-02-18T13:56:00.000-05:00

First, there's a drawn distinction between Scotch ales (the near-black, syrupy malty low-hopped high-gravity beers of Scottish origin) and Scottish ales, the session ales also of Scottish origin. Scottish ales are brewed in the same vein of thought: low fermentation temperatures and low attenuating yeast for full bodied maltiness; low hopping rates due to high historical taxation on imported hops; and long periods of cold conditioning for a clean, yeast-neutral palate. The major difference, however, is that while Scotch ales reign among the strongest of beer styles alcohol-wise (usually above 8% all the way to 13% and higher), Scottish ales are among the weakest, designated by their respective taxation: there are 60-/, 70-/, and 80-/ versions (-/ meaning "shilling"). 60-/ are never stronger than 3.2% alcohol by volume, which is at about the level of a very flavorful Bud Light.

Babybelle (named after its big sister Annabelle, my Scotch rye ale), is my newest recipe, a Scottish 80 Shilling, which should fall in the very sessionable 4.0% ABV range. The intention is for this beer to be just barely finished fermenting and aging by the beer pairing event, as it would go impeccably well with the roasted wild mushroom soup: all those earthy, savory flavors would pair amazingly with the small bit of smoked malt in the beer along with the cutting power of its gentle malt sweetness. There's a chance it won't be finished in time, in which case something will have to be substituted, but I'm hoping for the best.

But anyway, I'm brewing as I type, and it's time to drain the mash and get boiling...

V-Day Tripel

2007-02-14T19:54:00.000-05:00

Oh wonderful Valentine's Day, when this year I spent the day doing what I prefer doing: brewing beer. And not what I don't, namely: going to class. Fearing the foot of snow accumulation on our back deck, and the less-than-impressive performance of my propane burner lately in subzero temperature, I woke up at a bleary-eyed 9:00am (earlier than I would have to wake to go to class) just to throw on some strike water and do a painstaking, 6 hour brew indoors. But, Hell, it all worked out. By 3:00pm I had five gallons of my 9% booze-baby Bastogne Tripel all ready to ferment. I hope to return home to some crazy bubbling activity after work today, provided the old yeast had enough umph in it to get the job done (and hopefully it does, since the right seasonal yeast for this beer doesn't come out until November of this year).

As far as other stuff, no word yet on the draft system. I was supposed to know by last Wednesday, got word from Dr. Hearit yesterday saying he'd figure it all out today, and still no word. I'm hoping that doesn't mean "I don't care enough," and I know he's a busy man, but I'll find out when I find out. How much can you bug somebody to hurry it up when they're giving you free money, right?

Lastly, speaking of propane performance, I made a rather spontaneous decision this week while browsing Amazon.com for new propane burner setups and bought up a 210,000 BTU burner (enough to keep 20 gallons at a consistent, rolling boil) as a little gift for myself. I hope to try it out as soon as I make a trip up to Traverse City to have my buddy's dad lop some lids of some stainless steel Anhauser Busch kegs, transforming them into two 15.5 gallon stainless brewing kettles for ten bucks apiece. There are probably some laws against this that I'm more than willing to ignore.

That's pretty much it. Threw in about 3-4oz. of toasted French oak chips into the stock ale this morning after soaking them in some cheap vodka (just to sanitize--hopefully flavor transference won't be an issue). A good month on those, then kegged up, it'll taste like we're drawing it straight from the cask. Mmm...

Next up: Something dark, and soon. Hopefully this Sunday, But I'll have to make room. Every 5 gallon carboy I own is filled to the brim.

Eva, IPA, and Draft Beer

2007-01-30T20:26:00.000-05:00

Apparently I was mistaken in calling the weather cold when brewing Rachel awhile back, as I had a little trouble keeping pressure on my propane tank, because this past Sunday was seriously frigid. In fact, too cold (as I discovered 1 1/2 hours later) to bring 6 gallons of beer to a boil. Only after pumping out most of my available propane, wasting good hours of my weekend, and scorching the shit out of my brewpot did I throw in the towel and do a double boil on the worthless gas burners of my stovetop. But frustrations aside, the result should be a clone copy of my Big Sky IPA, this batch of which will be getting entree treatment at the beer pairing in March. The only difference is a yeast substitution (Burton Ale for Edinburgh ale), which should leave the overall flavor/body profile rather similar, with perhaps a bit more fruitiness in the background. Not like I had a shortage of my house yeast; I have six vials in my fridge waiting for a beer. A mistake shipment from White Labs at work yeilded some free yeast when they showed no apparent interest in us sending their package back. So I took more than I needed for the time being, including five vials of German Lager yeast for a possible Maibock to be brewed late winter, possibly by the vice-brewmaster herself.

Besides that charade, I brewed up another Eva the week before, revamped like I'd done to Rachel, but not nearly to the same extreme; just changing some proportions of grain that were too strong in the finished product, substituting some flaked oats for creaminess and body, and substituting neutral British hops for the American Chinook hops that ended up taking on a sour note in the finished product. This also got the Burton Ale yeast treatment (as opposed to its usual prime of two packets of generic dry yeast) just out of curiosity for a new yeast. This batch of Eva will likely be paired up with the soup course of the beer dinner, since nothing sounds better to me than a big earthy brown ale (I should have added some rye malt, now that I think of it) and a big earthy mushroom soup.

Rachel, as it stands, is hanging out in a carboy just mellowing out until she meets her packaging fate. Either she'll be bottle about a month before the dinner (end of February), or, if plans/finances with building a draft system come through, she'll go into a corny keg as soon as the purchase is made. (Granted, Rachel isn't on the menu, but she could serve as a good substitute for the IPA in the rare case of a botched batch or infection) As of now, I'm eagerly awaiting a meeting a week from now with the Associate Dean of the Honors College (who is responsible for the committee awarding me my $1200 grant) to request an additional $600 of funding in order to have the beer available on portable draft at the event, which would be more logical and definately classier, and the construction of which would leave me with some vestige of my accomplishments after it all is said and done, so I could serve beer on draft at other occasions into the future (including my sister's wedding in October '07). Bottom line: very cool. And since Dr. Hearit (the Associate Dean) has been getting some pretty intensive milage out of my thesis idea with the incoming WMU freshmen, who clearly like the idea of an Honors College that supports their students making booze, I'm feeling confident that I might be able to talk some good business with him.

Next up: Tripel, then some sort of dessert beer that won't take more than two months. Unfortunately, I've procrastinated a bit on this one...but I'm sure I can come up with something decent for the event. Perhaps a nice smooth stout, or something lighter on the opposite end of the spectrum. You'll know when I know.

Rachel Redeux

2007-01-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

As of this afternoon, welcome a new Rachel to the lineup of beers. I've been spending months rehashing the recipe, taking tips from similar styles (like Altbiers and English Bitters) that boast more complexity than the typical American Amber and tastier ingredients. The result is a bit of a Transatlantic Amber: American and Belgian malts, Slovenian hops, but a distinctly British yeast character, all cold fermented and treated with the utmost patience. What this should mean to the drinker is an improvement upon an old recipe: more authentic and assertive maltiness; a less harsh, more refined hop bite; medium-bodied, complex in flavor, and crystal clear.

Today's brew day was almost postponed, since at 11:00am the temperature was too cold outside for my propane tank to hold pressure, resulting in a periodic dead flame. Some errands and a sandwich later, I tried it again as the temperature rose to around 50 degrees. In early January. But good enough to brew. No time wasted, it was a rare brew day of under four hours, including cleanup. Not bad.

Next up Sunday: Mikaela, something Imperial, or my Tripel. Whatever I feel. As long as it's warm enough.

Updates

2006-12-30T20:38:00.000-05:00

Admittedly, it's been awhile since my last update, but until recently not too much has been happening. I nearly forgot about my Big Sky IPA while it sat in my closet carbonating, but I opened a few up over break and they tasted great: well-balanced, very hoppy but not necessarily bitter. A truly drinkable IPA, and much better than my first attempt with only Amarillo hops.

Speaking of forgetting things, I should probably move the Stock Ale into tertiary tonight, since it's now been sitting on Challenger hops for more than a month, which has a potential hazard to develop grassy flavors with prolonged dry-hopping, but in a beer this huge, I wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference.

I kept it on the downlow previously, but I made a great Viogner for my Mom for Christmas (a semi-sweet white) and pulled out all the stops, corking and waxing some nice clear Claret bottles and making custom labels. With a little bit of research, it was easy. I have a Sangiovese kit on the way (an Italian red) also for my mom, and a Sauvignon Blanc for myself. I'll probably whip those up when they arrive next week.

The really big news for the time being is that I received a $1200.00 grant from the Lee Honors College to hold a Beer and Food pairing dinner as my senior/honors thesis project, which is a really big deal. The tentative plan is to have a guest list of anywhere from 25-35, including faculty, friends, and family, and hopefully somebody influential that can get me a job doing what I want to do (namely: this). But basically, it's free money to brew beer, cook food, and have a great time. So instead of staying on brewing hiatus through the cold winter, I'm going to have to throw on some mittens and pull out the propane and get to work, since the event will probably take place in late March or early April. I'll be interviewing caterers in the near future, and will surely post about this event many many more times in the future, so keep your eyes open.

On deck (for this Monday and the following Sunday) are some old favorites: a reformulated Rachel that takes a few tips from Honker's Ale (a personal favorite), and Mikaela if I can get Molly to brave the cold with me. If not, I'll probably get started on the imperial dessert beer for the dinner so I can get maximum aging before the event. Expect an all new recipe along the lines of an old ale or barleywine. Until then...

Sam

Stock Ale

2006-11-06T23:23:00.000-05:00

So here's the good and bad about Sunday's day of brewing:

The Good: Efficiency was better than expected, which was even more surprising given the gravity of the beer. Typically, efficiency suffers with bigger beers. But patience wins: I extracted about 8 to 9 gallons of wort from my grain and had to boil it down over three hours to 5 gallons (actually 4.5), which meant a lot of caramelization of the wort (a good thing for this style) and a lot of propane...

The Bad: It was a windy and cold afternoon, so I gave my propane burner stand a good wrap with tin foil to protect from the wind. Turns out I turned it into a Dutch oven, and scorched a good square foot of our back deck. Nah, not scorched. Burned. In fact, it's a rapidly widening black hole. Dangerous. Whoops.

But of course, all is worth it for a good final product. You won't hear much about this one for awhile; at 11% alcohol by volume, it will need significant aging in order to taste smooth. A primary fermentation on a small addition of steamed and toasted oak chips will emulate that cask-conditioned character in a bourbon barrel. If you forgot, this batch is a single-malt, single-hop lesson in simplicity. Cool fermentation temperatures will minimize yeast character (of my already neutral and beautiful house yeast) and let the malt (Light German Munich) and hops (British Challenger) prevail, with simple secondary flavors of oak and alcohol. It should end up a deep red, crystal clear beer, with a floral and fruity dry-hopped aroma that effectively covers up the immediate presense of alcohol, which should appear as warming in the finish, like whiskey.

And hopefully the burning treated pine boards of our deck won't add too much smokiness to the beer.

63 Gallons of Beer on the Wall...

2006-11-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

...or in my closet. Seriously: upon yesterday's bottling of 15 gallons (Champagne Lager, Fair Trade Stout, Bastogne Tripel...all smelling/tasting very good, especially the lager), there are now 50 gallons of beer, give or take a few gallons for short cases, hanging out in my closet...20 cases of over 10 varieties. Further, my hard cider is still fermenting slowly in primary, while 5 gallons of Big Sky IPA/Pale Ale and 3 gallons of 7 month old Ella is hanging out in secondary. PLUS I'm brewing this Sunday. Shnikes.

On Sunday's menu is the Stock Ale I've been writing about. Finally a free day from work without other obligations so I can brew for the first time in three weeks. I apologize for my prolonged absense from the brewlog. Hopefully it never has to happen again.

Tried some Annabelle the other day with my folks, and it was great. Even better fully carbed this week. Needs a bit of aging to get some of that great vinous character only attainable by a bit of cellaring.

But, anyway, back to those 63 gallons. If you want some, please ask. At this point, I can't drink it nearly fast enough before it reaches it's peak and starts to go bad. Here's what's available: I'm happy to just give it away, even ship it if you want to pay for shipping (which is under 8 bucks for a 12-pack if I go from work). Just ask. PLEASE. E-mail me: ignitehardcore@hotmail.com. Here's what's available and a quick description in hopefully not too haughty beer terms:

Bastogne Tripel: Sweet, fruity, high-alcohol but light-colored Belgian ale.
Annabelle - Scotch Rye: A dark, full-bodied, alcoholic Scottish ale, lightly smoky/earthy flavors under a huge caramelly, rum-raisin, dark malt canvas.
Champagne Lager: My first attempt at a lager is a well-balanced but strong light lager, crisp with light malt flavors and excessively drinkable.
Fair Trade Stout: A robust stout, strong but not overwhelming, spiked with Bold French Roast coffee.
Eva - 10-Malt Brown Ale: A dark and complex American brown ale with lots of toasty, toffee, and bready flavors balanced by a domestic hop tartness.
Rachel - American Amber Ale: Citrusy and hop driven with a malt sweetness to back it up.
Hannah - American Wheat: Effervescent with coriander and orange spices. Unfortunately a little thin and off target, but perfect for Blue Moon drinkers.
Mikaela - Irish Ale: Molly's badass brew. Cool fermentation temperatures yielded a totally smooth and crisp, creamy and malty medium-bodied beer.
Belgian Annabelle: Whoops. Pitched Belgian Trappist ale yeast instead of my house yeast, but 4-5 months of aging have actually yielded a great Belgian Dubbel: a little smoke, lots of sweetness, and yeasty fruitiness. A slow sipper.
Amarillo IPA: Hoppy hoppy hoppy, but not excessively bitter. A little overcarbed and a bit soapy, but definately drinkable for IPA lovers.
Blackstrap Brown Ale: Don't worry about this one. Tastes like liquid aluminum the longer it sits. Not sure why I'm wasting the closet space.

Plus a few extra bottles of last years Chai Porter (Holly) and Kolsch (still good). But,like I said, if you want FREE BEER, just ask. How many times do you hear that in a lifetime?

Until Sunday...

October 15, 2006

2006-10-15T21:16:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful day for brewing this afternoon, probably one of the last before I'm brewing in the snow. I need to put up a canopy and somehow freeze-proof the hose outside before too long.

The good news is that I seem to be stocking up for the winter months, with every carboy and bucket filled with beer. As of tonight, I have both the new Big Sky IPA (I'll get to that in a bit) and Bastogne Tripel #2 in primary, as well as the original Ella, Fair Trade Stout (already on the coffee), and my Champagne Lager in a cold secondary. Also there's a four-gallon batch of hard apple cider in primary in my closet that just finished fermenting on wine yeast. A quick treatment of potassium sorbate (to kill the yeast), some extra sugar for sweetening, and some glycerin for mouthfeel (maybe), as well as a quick degassing (so it's not semi-carbonated in the bottle), I'll throw it in some bottles to drink up immediately. Lastly, Annabelle is in the bottle (too soon, but I had to make space for the Lager's secondary), getting carbonated then being put on ice for a few months (maybe under a snowbank, who knows).

Last week's brewing was spectacular: the Tripel mashed, brewed, and fermented perfectly. A quick secondary and she'll be into the bottles in no time.

Things were similar today, except for the perfectly brewed IPA turned into a whole other monster at the last second. A leak in my immersion chiller hose diluted the five gallons to just over 6 gallons while cooling...whoops. On the bright side, the IPA was of modest gravity and relatively lightly hopped, so the new beer is a typical gravity, moderately to highly-hopped American pale ale, which I had on deck to make in a few batches anyway, so I'm bummed that I won't be getting the beer I was planning on, but thankful that such an ideal brew day wasn't a waste of time and money as well. The good news is that I made all my volumes and measurements spot on (otherwise) and my efficiency was a more than respectable 74%, which means I'm doing everything right (again, otherwise).

Next Sunday is my birthday, and though I'd like to brew a batch on my 21st, I'll just be getting back from Ball State's homecoming with Molly's family and will be hitting the bar and B-Dubs immediately thereafter. So in two weeks time (which is like brewing withdrawal for me) I'll be back at the burner with my Stock Ale, an experiment of 20 pounds of Munich malt, 4 ounces of British Challenger hops, and Hungarian oak shavings, simple with 3 ingredients and 11% alcohol strong. It's based off old historical stock ales made to be blended with lighter beers to increase alcohol, generally brewed with the strong first runnings of other beers and aged for a long time in oak casks. Who knows what it will be like, but I'm looking forward to it.

Until then, I'll be drinking Mikaelas.

Success Tastes Good

2006-10-03T16:26:00.000-04:00

We tried my brew last night and I'm SO happy with it. It turned out to be more of a darker Irish beer rather than the originally intended Red, but the taste has lost no magnificence. Almost like an Octoberfest, like Sam said, very malty and carmelly and full body of flavor. How convenient for this time of year AND my favorite season, eh? The official name is the gaelic-born Mikaela (Mick-ay-la), which is my middle name. It's gotten good reviews from all tenants of 1210 California, but if you'd like to judge for yourself, all you have to do is ask. I can't wait to have it around for the next few months (or however long it actually lasts...) to drink whenever I want to. Homebrewing is great.

With Sam's new financial prosperity yielding brewing mania, I'm not sure how much time he'll allow me to brew batch #2, but I'd like to get at least one more in before it gets super cold. New recipe ideas to come.

I'd also like to say that it's hilarious to me that I'm brewing. I feel like it's always really been Sam's thing, but to take part in his greatest passion in life really is an honor. And to actually be successful in it feels even better. I could be onto something here.

Happy Fall!

Love,
Vice-Brewmaster Moy

The Calm Before the Storm

2006-10-03T11:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my long overdue financial aid arrived in the mail to the tune of just under $1500. Of course, financial aid doesn't immediately equal a green light to go brewing crazy, since I had to apply for it in the first place to pay for auto insurance. But I figure that a few hundred dollars belong to me, since for the last several months I've been paying out of pocket for expenses that should have been covered by the student loan, money I would have otherwise probably been spending at my leisure. So, sure, I'm not going to go blow it all, but I've got four brewing sessions in mind within the next 2 or 3 weeks, especially because as soon as winter comes, it's going to be a lot more difficult convincing myself to brew in freezing temperatures. So I'm stockpiling.

First on the agenda (for this Sunday) is a complete renewal of my IPA that I haven't been completely satified with. I'm tossing the single-hop idea altogether for a unique blend of four tradional American IPA hops (Centennial, Cascade, Columbus, and Chinook, AKA C-Hops). The problem is that Amarillos, though interesting, aren't harsh enough or citrusy enough for my preferences; they are honestly just too smooth for that good bite I really require in a quality India Pale Ale. In fact, Rachel has more attitude than my IPA, and since she's an Amber Ale, that's pretty ridiculous. In addition, being lazy and using Kalamazoo tap water last time contributed too much chlorine to my beer, which makes hops taste somewhat like soap. Now, I'm back in the habit of buying Culligan charcoal-filtered and treated water before every brew day (at .29 cents a gallon it's not exactly busting my balls), which has only trace amounts of chlorine and is as close to distilled water as financially feasible, allowing for a good "blank slate" water content to easily treat myself with the minerals/additives I have on hand. So this time, no soap.

So that's the new IPA. I'm considering naming it "Big Sky IPA" because something about the explosion of hops in it reminds me of the natural beauty of Carpenter Lake, Ontario, where our family's cabin is called Big Sky. Perhaps Christmas gifts will be necessary.

Immediately thereafter (and possibly on the same brew day...who knows), I'd like to get started on another batch of my Bastogne Tripel, because I am both running out of the previous batch and my seasonal Bastogne yeast (that I won't be able to buy again until March of 2007) culture is probably actively waning in viability. Too much longer and I'll have wasted a big, healthy population of one of my favorite yeasts and have to reculture again in March, which is just a pain in the ass to do. So look for that soon. Yum.

On deck after that should be another new recipe: a stock ale, which is an old, massively high gravity style of beer that was used as a blending alcohol way back when. Usually it was simple and well-hopped, and quite sweet and full of body, as well as alcoholic and warming. I'm approaching this beer from one standpoint: simplicity. Basically, it's 20 pounds of a single malt (light Munich) and 4 ounces of a single hop (Challenger), both European, fermented on a large cake of Edinburgh yeast. The result should be a beautiful light ruby beer that is deceptive in every dimention: massively malty, hoppy, and strong. So it's more of an experiment than anything, and doesn't fall into one particular official beer style.

Finally, I'll finish up this storm of brewing with whatever I'm having a shortage of out of the lineup, which will probably be Rachel, or possibly an improved version of Hannah. But that's far enough in the future to talk about at another time.

As for current projects:

Annabelle (Scotch Rye) is hanging out in a cool secondary mellowing out. It's taking a good amount of patience to keep from bottling her weekend after weekend. Probably another month in secondary, and a month in bottles, and she'll be ready.

Molly's Mikaela Irish Red was first sampled last night. I'll let her brag about it herself, but personally, I think it's excellent, not even just for a first attempt. Really excellently malty and caramelly and straightforward, and I can't wait to watch it evolve for 2 or 3 months.

The Champagne Lager is still in primary because, until last night, it wouldn't truly stop bubbling. It's trying my patience, but I just jacked up the temperature last night to give it few day's diacetyl rest at a warm temperature, then I'll zap it down and cold condition it shortly.

And the Fair Trade Stout is coming along nicely. She was my first beer to literally explode out of the fermenter (high gravity ale plus lots of recultured yeast), and it literally got beer all over my closet, but no worries. I'll be adding coffee beans to it soon enough, give it probably 2 weeks on the beans, and bottle it up, letting it age for as long as I can hold out.

Anyway, off to OIT to see why I can't post anymore pictures on my Western site, then it's lunchtime and back to class.

Sam

Fair Trade Stout

2006-09-24T15:52:00.000-04:00

Though it started thunderstorming halfway through, brewing yesterday went surprisingly well. On the agenda was my first stout, kind of a specialty Imperial or Foreign Extra stout, depending on where you want to peg it. 5 gallons of it are healthily chugging away in my closet (the freezer is set for lagering temperatures right now, so I had to settle for a cool, dark place in the house). I'll be adding freshly roasted coffee beans to it in secondary (probably 2 and a half weeks from now), and thoroughly aging it, since it will need it at around 9 percent alcohol. Hopefully it will be prime and drinkable around the end of the year.

First Lager (Photos to Come)

2006-09-17T17:32:00.000-04:00

I had a relaxing and successful brew day on Friday afternoon making my first Champagne Lager, the details of which I have recently posted. Once again, I forgot my hydrometer reading so I have no idea as to the efficiency of this batch, but I hit most of my target volumes and temperatures spot on, so I suspect it was as expected.

I used filtered Culligan water for this batch as lagers are much cleaner flavored than ales and tend to emphasize off flavors. Essentially, brewing a good lager is far more difficult than brewing a good ale; factors like water mineral content (in this case) and poor technique aren't hidden by strong ale flavors. So I have my work cut out for me. Currently, the beer is bubbling safely away in my chest freezer set to approximately 55 degrees, and will occupy that space for three or four weeks, followed by a quick stint at 70 degrees or so (called a "diacetyl rest;" meant to remove the buttery-flavored compound diacetyl produced by many lager yeasts), and a cold secondary at fridge temperature to mellow and blend the flavors.

I should be brewing my new coffee stout (Fair Trade Stout) this Saturday or Sunday, which should be my biggest beer to date (hovering around 9% near Annabelle and the Tripel). I'd like for it to reach it's prime by Christmas.

Otherwise, Molly and I plan to bottle her Irish Red very soon. Preliminary sniffs are promising. Annabelle, too, is hanging out in secondary, but will be there awhile longer. A taste of her the other day was decent: the alcohol is a little hot (needs mellowing), and the flavor isn't spot on, but it has certainly been awhile since I brewed that first batch. I have a 7 oz. bottle of the original Annabelle waiting to be compared to this batch, but characteristics of its extended aging are not going to be reflected in the newer ripe batch. Oh bother.

Michelle DeFouw, who is responsible for the run of Dierksenkougan T-shirts long ago, will be working side-by-side with me on an imaging/printing project very soon (we meet Tuesday), where she plans on printing a substantial run of professional vinyl (removable?) labels for class credit, of up to six beers, which sounds just about ideal for holiday mixed six-packs. More on that later.

Sam

PS: Photos to come from this most recent brew day. I seem to have broken my bandwidth limits for the University hosting site, something I plan on addressing with IT soon.

Trespassing!

2006-09-06T20:39:00.000-04:00

I feel like I'm in Being John Malkovich.

So, as Sam warned, I have officially completed my first brew. It's an Irish Red (just like me!) of my own recipe. Sort of. I explained the color I wanted, and how much bitterness, sweetness, hop aroma, etc. I wanted, and Sam kindly guided me along choosing the right grains, how much of each, and of course the entire brewing process. It's pretty intricate, but to my pleasant surprise, not quite as complicated as I'd previously thought. A lot different, too.

There's a lot of sitting around in brewing, waiting for things to boil/cool down, etc., so a few beers later, I was drunk halfway through the process. Whoops. Good thing Sam can hold his better than I can, because he probably saved my batch a couple more times than I think. Thanks babe.

Overall, I actually really enjoyed it, and plan on doing it again soon! The toughest part will be coming up with a style that Sam hasn't already done (and that I actually like). Mr. 15 styles... Or maybe I'll just do one of his BETTER. Ha. Anyway, during the next couple batches I feel like I'll definitely be able to pilot more instead of navigate. But this one looks and smells like it's bubbling away deliciously and should turn out to be really good! Here's hoping :)

Love,
Mrs. Brewmaster

Annabelle

2006-09-06T18:38:00.000-04:00

Brewed Annabelle today. Pretty lousy efficiency, need to figure out why. I think my large batches are suffering because of the sheer amount of grain. Should still be about 8 percent, maybe a bit less. Should still turn out. Pitched onto Molly's yeast cake and had active fermentation within the hour; a method I'll likely use again. Speaking of, thinking of experimenting with Edinburgh Ale yeast as my house yeast, using it on everything I usually make with California Ale. Cali is just too boring, and everyone uses it. Edinburgh could give me some richer and fuller beers, especially out of Rachel and the IPA, and likely I'll stop using Munton's Dry Ale yeast for Eva and just switch to Edinburgh as well, it being most appropriate for the style. Perhaps Hannah (recently fermented on California Ale yeast) could also use some beefing up in the body category.

Hopefully I'll be brewing again fairly soon. The new porch and our outdoor hose are speeding up and cleaning up the process, so I've really been enjoying it. Anyway, that's it for now.

Four

2006-09-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

1. I'm excited to announce that Molly's first beer is bubbling away in the fermentor. I'm excited to taste the final product, but I'll let her get on the brewlog and tell you about it herself in the coming week.

2. Tomorrow I'll be brewing up another batch of Annabelle, this time with a big healthy slurry of the right yeast (harvested straight out of Molly's batch). She won't be finished anytime soon, but I'm excited to spend my Labor Day laboring over my propane burner, as hopefully weather will be agreeable.

3. I was able to get Dan, one of the brewers here at Bell's, to draw off a slurry of Bell's proprietary lager yeast for the Champagne Lager I hope to brew in about a week or two. I need to time the brewing with the cool secondary fermention of Annabelle and Molly's beer, because, as I've written before, lagers require long, cool primary fermentation for their clean, crisp character. So after tomorrow, that's on deck.

4. The next experiment further on down the road, possibly within the month, is Fair Trade Stout, a "Foreign Extra Stout" style with a huge amount of Fair Trade coffee. FESs are massive versions of your typical stout, sweeter than a dry stout (Guinness) with substantially more alcohol and hop character. I'll back off on the hops a bit to let the coffee be the foremost flavor and aroma, with a good alcohol bite and lots of complimentary roastiness from the malt. I'll probably use local Water Street coffee because it's damn good. This one might take a bit of aging so don't expect it until the snow comes.

Coming up...

2006-08-25T17:57:00.000-04:00

Barring the loss of a my refund check / leftover scholarship money due to me from WMU, or more unexpected financial shortages, nothing should get in the way of the next two batches on deck for the homebrewery, including an old friend and a new one.

I would like within the next week to pump out another batch of Annabelle (this time with the correct yeast), and get her fermented, and overlap her secondary (which requires mellowing at lagering temperatures...50-55 degrees) with the brewing of a new batch, and my first lager (which requires, unlike ales, low fermentation temperatures of 50-55 degrees). I figure that it would work nicely to coincide specific temperature requirements of the two beers so as not to have a giant freezer powered by the thermostat keeping all of five gallons cold.

The new recipe, currently under the working name of a "Champagne Lager" (though don't confuse this with High Life, the Champagne of Beers"), is a light colored but stronger (7%) lager that should take on several of the characteristics of Champagne, including a dry finish despite a high original gravity, some fruity notes at the finish, and a pleasant acidity. The flavor should be clean and crisp (characteristic of lagers) and should resemble something of a dry, tart Molson XXX. I can't think of an easier way to really nail it down. Any delay on making this beer, besides my furious work schedule, is because I'm waiting on Dan Barrett, head brewer here at the Kalamazoo Bell's site (former main brewery, now pilot brewery) to harvest me a slurry of lager yeast for personal use. I could buy some and reculture it myself, sure, but it would take a bit of time and money, and I like the idea of using Bell's proprietary yeast in my homebrew. Most importantly, it is essential in lagers, more so than in ales, to pitch a large amount of yeast, as the low fermentation temperatures make the yeast sluggish and more likely to die/flocculate having not finished the job, resulting in underattenuated (syrupy sweet) beer. So a brewery sized slurry of yeast for a 5 gallon homebrew batch should dry the beer out nicely. A grain addition of some German acidulated malt, which has in it naturally occurring lactic acid, should provide a nice tartness found in the most drinkable of beers, as it serves to perpetuate thirst and balance the presence of alcohol.

Overall, what I believe to be a well thought out and original brew. I failed to mention that the catalyst for this recipe was the kindly delivery by a local homebrewer of some leftover Glacier hops from February, wanting to make sure they would be put to use. Aged hops (in this case 6 months) are much milder and often more pleasant than new ones, especially for beers such as this where the hop character is secondary to other subtle flavors. Further, Glacier hops are nearly impossible to find, and we can't order them in the store through our suppliers, so I took this as a rare opportunity to explore a new ingredient. Expect this batch to be in the fermenter in less than two weeks, ideally.

Currently bottled and ready to drink at 1210 California (the new place):
Rachel, Hannah, Eva, Amarillo IPA, and the Bastogne Tripel, as well as an assortment of previous offerings.

Eva

2006-08-10T14:42:00.002-04:00

Just wrapped up brewing Eva on a short and early brew day. Forgetting to take a hydrometer reading, I'm not sure how my efficiency fared this time, but everything seemed to run its course smoothly with no big mistakes, messes, or boilovers. I would have liked to brew her before the Canada trip, but finances and lack of propane got in the way, so I'm crossing my fingers that 2-week-old crushed grain will have minimal effect on the finished product. Of course, we're moving from this apartment in 10 days from today, so hopefully Eva will grind out a solid, short fermentation and be ready for secondary (or even bottling) by the 19th or so. She was, if you remember, a leftover "kitchen sink" kind of beer last time around, and I didn't exactly take too much time or care in her fermentation. Essentially, Eva is a perfect quick beer, not too high in alcohol that it requires significant aging, if at all, and enough roasty toasty specialty malt to cover up any yeasty flavors that come hand in hand with young, immature beer. Of course it tended to improve over time, and I'll evaluate this upon carbonation with the last bottle of last batch's Eva (now about 4-5 months old) which has been hanging out in my mini-fridge for a good while.

In other news, www.dierksenkougan.com will be developed soon and be the HQ for starting to organize the brewing fiasco that will be my sister's wedding. It should be a nice, clean, semi-professional site that may just be rather important in a decade or so.

Rachel and Hannah are mere days away from being ready to sample, and supplies of the Tripel and the IPA (which I plan to brew again soon with other single varieties of hops like Simcoe or even a full Tettnanger IPA which I've never before seen) are still above the case mark. I'm being careful not to drink up any one batch at a time so as to have plenty of good offerings to share when requested. I'd also like to always have some of each of the six regular beers available at any given time, making Annabelle, appropriately, my next endeavor, and likely the first beer to be brewed at the new apartment on California Ave. Party Sept. 3rd, by the way.

Bastogne Tripel Label

2006-07-27T22:26:00.000-04:00

Tripel and Michigan State Fair

2006-07-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

I just cracked open my first chilled and carbonated sample of my tripel and was delighted. I'd say it ranks up there with the first batch of Annabelle in my books, though a completely different beer. Everything I was going for (basically a similar version of Bell's Sparkling Ale) was achieved: a muted Belgian character (thanks to White Labs' seasonal Bastogne Ale yeast), a soft but high alcohol content, and great drinkability. Clarity is sub-par, but the color is beautiful, and I'm starting to worry less and less about clarity in my beer, since it has little to do with the quality (especially the flavor) of a beer itself. I'll leave this recipe as is since I am overwhelmingly satisfied.

Bell's General Store where I work is a drop-off location for the upcoming Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition. I've wanted to enter some beers in a competition for awhile, but I was sort of waiting for a more local one (rather than the collossal AHA National Competition) for starters. I think I'll be entering it, likely with my tripel and IPA headlining. The cost for 3 entries is the same as 1 or 2, so I'll need to scrape up another entry as soon as possible, either using the Belgian Annabelle in the Belgian Strong Ale category or Hannah or Rachel if they are done in time. Wish me luck.

Rachel!

2006-07-19T19:42:00.000-04:00

The first all-grain version of Rachel is here. Brewed her on this beautiful day with very few problems and one looong brew day; extra runoff from the mash gave me about 7.5 gallons to boil down to 5 gallons, which took a bit of time and propane to figure out. But all is well, and Rachel should start fermenting within the next twelve hours.

Hannah is in the secondary. Some of the astringent tannin seems to have dissipated, but only bottling, carbonating, and chilling the finished product will tell the truth. I'm thinking of special ordering some PVPP brewing product (basically microscopic plastic finings that remove haze and tannin proteins) to add if pre-bottling tastings don't show significant improvement.

The approximately 3.5 gallons of Ella that proved to be far too dextrinous for a drinkable beer are back in a sanitized carboy. I'm experimenting with Bean-O and Champagne yeast, a catch-all trick for drying up a beer; in other words, those dextrins (long sugar molecules, cannot be consumed by yeast) will be shortened by the Bean-O enzyme (which is the same enzyme used to break up food in the human stomach; hense, Bean-O digestive aid), which will be readily consumed by the alcohol tolerant and highly attenuative Champagne yeast. The result? Who knows, but I'm expecting an even more astronomical alcohol content and little sweetness to balance it out. All in all, this is more of an experiment than an effort to produce a drinkable product. If worse comes to worse, I'll build a home still (as in distilling) and turn the booze into single-malt Scotch and store it away for awhile. The possibilities...

That's it for now. Eva #2 is next, hopefully in time for the Sam Adam's homebrew compitition.

Sam

Hannah!

2006-07-12T17:17:00.000-04:00

Hannah's back!

Brewed the first all-grain version of her this afternoon. Efficiency was a bit low, and I'm worried about some astringency issues from possibly too high mash temperatures (I need a new thermometer and a little more patience), but hopefully all will turn out well and result in a comparable version of Dk's summer beer.

Wheat beers being best enjoyed young, I'll plan on a week of fermentation and a week of settling in secondary until bottling, if not a bit longer, depending largely on time/finances.

That goes for the Tripel as well. Strange fermentation characteristics from that beer have calmed down; I had worried of an infection when the beer began to foam heavily in secondary. Hoping I had merely racked into secondary before primary had fully completed, I raised the ambient temperature surrounding the cooler to promote and last minute yeast activity, then moved to another secondary vessel. The same issue there, but much smaller in scale. As soon as I feel fermentation is complete, I'll make the move to bottles. By the way, the Tripel tastes very, very good. As does the Amarillo IPA, which is nearly fully carbonated and now mellowing out in the bottle. I'll have to put some restrictions on myself or else I'm bound to finish them before I know it.

Anyway, look for Rachel next. Until then...

Sam

The Lineup

2006-07-06T11:23:00.002-04:00

Being disappointed with the mediocrity of some of my more recent beers, I feel it necessary to produce some sort of permanent lineup of regular offerings, especially if I am to be moving my way into kegging in the coming months. I plan on moving away from brewing new styles until I have really pinned down these six previous brews, which I think demonstrate the best individual quality and comprise a healthy variety of styles:

Rachel - Amber Ale
Hannah - American Wheat
Annabelle - Scotch Rye
Eva - 10-Malt Brown Ale
Amarillo IPA
Bastogne Tripel

These are reconfigured all-grain recipes for each of these beers. Ideally, I would like to have each of these styles available at any given moment, and once I can accomplish that, I will start brewing new batches, as long as I have come to a final decision on each recipe. The overall problem is that after over 20 batches of beer, I have no set recipes, partly from spreading myself too thin over too many styles, and partly from moving so quickly from extract to all grain. I'd like to settle down with six original all-grain recipes for six outstanding beers, rather than 14 recipes for 14 sub-standard beers.

Tripel & IPA

2006-06-27T03:27:00.000-04:00

As an addendum to my post a few hours ago, I gave both the Tripel and the Amarillo IPA some preliminary tastes (flat and warm, of course) and I am ecstatic with the results. Even without significant aging, both beers taste excellent and exactly as expected. The bottom line: the desire to make beers without that certain "homebrewed" taste (that is, beer with the characteristics of professionally brewed samples) is as simple as going all grain. The range of possibilities available by giving up malt extract is just phenomenal. Needless to say, if you like IPAs or Tripels at all, I encourage you to let me know and I'd love to hook you up with some bottles of each of these beers, which I feel do quite a justice to what I feel I've learned over this entire process. They've renewed my love of brewing...not like I particularly needed it.

The Latest

2006-06-27T00:31:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately because of finances, brewing will have to take a hiatus for a short while (maybe two or more weeks) until I've completely budgeted it in, but the three last batches are all turning out very well, and looking promising.

The Blackstrap Brown Ale, as I may have mentioned previously, turned out excellent. The yeast fermented the beer quite dry (meaning less residual sugar and a less malty flavor/body), leaving a good alcohol base with a bit of tartness around the finish from the unfermentables in the molasses. Probably the most successful of the all-grain batches so far.

The Amarillo IPA...well...I haven't actually tasted it yet. I suppose I haven't gotten around to it, but I recently dry hopped it with another half ounce of Amarillo hops for that extra kick of flavor/aroma, and the color is exactly as expected due to some arduous notetaking on my part of the specific colors/strengths of my ingredients. I may taste it later tonight, but I'm hoping and expecting for my exactitude to pay off in a great summer IPA.

Lastly, the Belgian Tripel is right on course. Again, I haven't tasted it, but fermentation was quick and vigorous, as typical of strong Belgian yeasts, and upon smelling it, the regional Bastogne yeast is much less estery (fruity-smelling) than the Trappist yeast used on Ella and the second run of Annabelle, allowing for a bit of a subdued Belgian character, which I have to admit I find pleasant only in nominal amounts. It has a great golden straw color that is only possible through all grain brewing, and I'm excited to bottle her up after a bit of aging in secondary and the possibility of some cold conditioning later on down the road.

Speaking of Annabelle's second run, I popped open a bottle of her today, figuring the hotter summer temperatures would lend to a fully carbonated bottle by now. In retrospect, I was foolish to have used a recycled slurry of Belgian Trappist yeast (as used before on Ella) as opposed to spending the extra $5.00 on Edinburgh's regional yeast, but I consider it a lesson learned. Since being very disappointed with the latest run of Annabelle, I've put quite a bit of time into researching yeast specifics, and found it to be far more important in the final result as I had really believed beforehand, especially when substituting the most characteristic of Belgian yeasts. But all said and done, Annabelle isn't so bad; she's kind of what I wanted Ella to taste like. By going all grain and adjusting some of the specific specialty grain ratios in the malt bill, the new Annabelle has a much more particular smoke flavor (especially as it warms in the glass) and rye character, and I will certainly preserve this malt bill upon brewing Annabelle for the third time soon to come. But this time I won't be cheap about the yeast.

As for Ella, which has proven to be almost too estery and sweet for most palates (including mine and Molly's), I'm considering doing an experiment with the remaining beer by emptying the bottles back into a carboy and trying to "cure" the cloying sweetness somehow. One idea is using Bean-O, a digestive medication; while not necessarily appetizing, Bean-O works by breaking down hard-to-convert maltodextrins in the body into smaller sugar chains. In beer, Bean-O tends to make a beer bone-dry by destroying the same naturally produced dextrins (which are the major proponent of body in a "thick" or sweet beer), which are subsequently converted to alcohol by the remaining yeast which can now handle the shorter sugar molecules. By pitching a small amount of alcohol tolerant yeast (remember Ella is currently at about 11-12 percent alcohol right now) such as Champagne yeast, the sweetness will diminish and be replaced by another good cover of alcohol. There is a good possibility that the beer will worsen, and not have enough residual sweetness now to balance out the alcohol content, but I will do some reading up to try to prevent this from happening.

Anywho, that's the scoop. Another batch of Hannah (for you) and another of Rachel (for me) are in the immediate mix, as soon as the budget allows.

Sam

Tripel

2006-06-15T17:41:00.000-04:00

I just wrapped up another successful brew day this afternoon with a batch of a Belgian tripel style, which is a deceptively strong Belgian ale of very light color and body, but with evident alcohol undertones and fruity/perfumey yeast characteristics. It was developed only in the last century by Belgian abbots, religous brewers in a limited number of abbey breweries around Europe, specifically the monestary at Westmalle. It uses almost entirely Belgian Pilsener malt for the malt bill (the lightest, crispest malt available), though my recipe contained a pound of Vienna malt (another light malt with a stronger malt flavor/texture) to buffer what I felt was a bit of a one-dimensional grist. Perhaps just as importantly, Belgian tripel brewers use inverted sugar solids (of fructose or glucose, but not sucrose like found in table sugar) to flavorlessly increase alcohol content while keeping the residual density (body) of the beer comparibly low for the strength. This results in the type of beer that doesn't strike one as particularly potent, yet shows its strength as you stand up. To further balance the strong alcohol presense, specialized strains of Belgian yeast produce far more esters (observed as fruitiness) and phenols (observed as spice, like clove, pepper, or currant) than your typical domestic yeast. This particular batch is being fermented with a Bastogne Belgian yeast, which is excellent for subduing some of these characteristics, as Ella (the Anniversary Ale) fermented with a very estery yeast and came out perhaps a bit more fruity than expected. In this respect, the new batch should taste somewhat like an Imperial Pilsener (think Molson XXX for a less than suitable, but probably familiar example), with twice the strength of your average beer but enough other flavors to comprise an enjoyable drink. That's the plan.

Anyway, hopefully the tripel turns out as expected. Beyond that, the Blackstrap Brown ale is still carbonating in the bottle, while Annabelle is just about ready to be bottled as well (though constant surface bubbling makes me fear that she may be infected...we'll see), and the IPA has been dry-hopped and still has a bit of time left to mellow in the carboy before I can transfer her once more into another fermentor and bottle her up.

New Batch

2006-06-03T13:14:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update:

All three fermenters are now full with yesterday's new addition, an IPA (India Pale Ale) hopped with only Amarillo hops, a recent American hop breed discovered by accident. It should fare around 7.5% alcohol, with a reddish-copper color and, as appropriate of the style, should be very hoppy, but balanced. Because of the strength of this batch, it will need significant aging, as well as some good dry hopping in the secondary. I'm throwing around whether to apply the Jasmine name to this beer, since the last Jasmine would be almost impossible to reproduce (see back postings for the trouble we had with her), or retire the name altogether and name her something different altogether.

Once the IPA is finished fermenting in about a week, I'll have to bottle up the blackstrap brown ale to free a secondary fermenter, as Annabelle is still maturing in hers, at which point I'll figure out what to brew next. I'm struggling a bit with money right now, so I may be forced to take a brewing hiatus, though I doubt I'll be able to stick to my guns about that. At only about 15-20 dollars per batch nowadays (with my store discount and reculturing expensive yeast, as well as brewing entirely from grain), it is no longer proving to be much of a financial setback.

Blackstrap Brown Label

2006-05-23T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yeast Activity

2006-05-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

This is a sort of test movie to see if I can figure out this Google Video thing with my digital camera's video function. Ideally, I'd like to post short clips of homebrewing related stuff just as I have occasionally with pictures. This clip shows the yeast activity in my Blackstrap Brown Ale. All those blobs of yeast will fall out of suspension as soon as there are no more sugars to be converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide, but right now, as you can see, they're healthily chugging away.

Blackstrap Brown Ale

2006-05-21T16:55:00.000-04:00

Indeed, at least for the summer months, my operation and setup has moved outside! Tired of boilovers on the stove and turning our apartment into a beer steamed sauna, I bought my own propane tank today (so as not to use up the grill propane that we all share) and broke out the remaining parts of my turkey fryer set to take advantage of the calm and beautiful day outside.

By wrapping some aluminum foil around the base of the stand, I made a fairly windproof stand for my burner, which pumps out (according to the Chinese manufacturers) 165,000 BTUs of heat. Skeptical at first, I just had to adjust the flame to find a good middle road between heat and fuel economy, and this sucker proved to be able to bring my beer to a boil in about 25% of the time it has previously taken on my stovetop, which made my brew day nice and short by cutting it down by about an hour and a half...

Lots of homebrewers do exactly this, especially those who do large batches, because a household stove just isn't strong enough to bring that much liquid to a boil. It is generally agreed upon that a good, vigorous, rolling boil is necessary for brewing the best beer possible, as it releases harmful compounds (like DMS -- dimethyl sulfate, for one) that will negatively effect the taste of your finished product. My stove, the hoss that it is, boiled 6 or 7 gallons, but barely, and the boil could hardly be considered "rolling." This setup, however, proved to be much stronger and time efficient, and when necessary, I was able to crank up the heat to bring colder liquid to a boil incredibly fast (at the waste, of course, of more than the necessary amount of propane), which was very nice to have in a pinch.

Beyond the new experience of outdoor brewing, I am proud to say that, though it has taken me batch after batch after batch, I have finally figured out my own personal brewing system. In previous posts, I have had complaints about my low efficiencies, which refers merely to how many sugars I extract from my grain in comparison to the amount of sugars possible to extract. No brewer ever extracts 100%, but most homebrewers have efficiencies of about 70 to 80 percent. Previously mine have been far too low, sometimes below 50% but more often between 50% and 60%, and efforts to improve that number had failed time and time again. I did some serious reading on the topic, took some good notes, and stuck to what I knew today when mashing, instead of my occasional "fuck it" comment when things don't go according to plan. Mainly by paying close attention to water volume variables, including the thickness of the mash and by carefully maintaining exact volumes in the mash and sparge (mash=sugar extraction and sparge=grain rinsing to extract more sugars), I hit a better than expected efficiency of 75%.

Now that I can maintain such an efficiency, I can finally call myself an all grain brewer. That liquid pouring out is wort, a syrupy sugar liquid extracted directly from barley when it "cooks" in a solution at the right temperature. And I'm proud to say that I finally made it myself correctly.

The beer itself is a mild ale style, an old English session beer of relatively low alcohol and great drinkability. Most commercial examples are burnt orange to medium brown, and about 3 to 4 percent alcohol, about the strength of a light beer today. Expecting a low effieciency once again, I scaled up the recipe with some extra grain, hoping to, in the worst case scenario, screw up my mash once again and still end up with the correct beer strength. As it turns out, the beer is about 5 percent, which expressly places it outside the range of a typical mild ale, so it may have to be considered a brown ale instead, even if I've made already. But instead of being very roasty and carmelly like Eva, this beer (as of yet unnamed) should have the body of an Irish ale, being very dry and exceptionally light in body for its color, with a kick of richness due to an addition of one cup of blackstrap molasses. If the character of the molasses fails to shine through after fermentation, I will add an extra dose upon carbonating the beer (about 3 weeks from now, likely) so that flavor is recognizable. Ultimately, this beer should end up much like Bass Ale, yet slightly darker and a bit more flavorful, but not like your typical brown.

In other news, Annabelle is in the secondary. She fermented out very cleanly, and a preliminary taste exhibits a very strong alcoholic presense, much like the first tastes of her first batch. Strangely enough, the dark malts failed to turn this beer completely black, but the flavor shouldn't suffer. I may try to fix the color issue with the addition of some adjunct grains, but more likely, I'll just settle with a dark brown beer that tastes like the familiar Annabelle I love and say screw it. I wouldn't want to ruin it for something as insignificant as color.

Lastly, I officially declined the job I was offered at Arcadia. To make a long story short, I was unable to work for both Bell's and Arcadia simultaneously, as it was a conflict of business interests. I am anticipating my current job at Bell's will place me in good stead to work in the Bell's plant in the near future, and my employers are aware and cognizant of my interest. I'd be happy to talk about the whole situation in detail, but this isn't the place to do so.

Anyway, looking for a name for the new beer, as well as the Kolsch. Ella, by the way, is excellent, if not a bit strong, and will do well to age for several more months, and even years. Thanks to Rachel and Brandon for enjoying one with Molly and I on our six month.

Cheers,
Sam

Arcadia & Annabelle

2006-05-09T19:12:00.000-04:00

As we speak, I'm brewing up another batch of my favorite homebrew, Annabelle Scotch Rye, only this time, instead of using extract, this baby is 100% all grain, which may be a chore considering her high alcohol volume (10%). But so far, things are going smoothly.

Big news: Yesterday I was offered the Cellarman position at Arcadia Brewing Company in Battle Creek, AKA my dream job. That means I'll be working in the homebrew store at Bell's this summer while spending Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings (about 20 to 25 hours a week) getting paid to brew beer! The job is an Assistant Brewer position, which means I'll get to brew a batch once a week or so, but as Cellarman, I'll be in charge of everything beer-related after brewing and before packaging, including controlling and monitoring fermentation, transferring, clarifying, conditioning, aging, and carbonating, all very integral parts of the brewing process. Arcadia is a respectable distributing Michigan brewery, about the fifth largest in the state, with an attached restaurant and a distribution area spanning the midwest. They brew British style ales in particular, with open top fermentations and all UK ingredients. I enjoy their beers pretty frequently.

I'll post more about the job as I work, starting this coming Tuesday. I'm definately excited to get this opportunity to explore the brewing business, especially since this job allowed me to end my ice cream related servitude at Cold Stone, my employer of one year.

Back to the brew.

Sam

Employment

2006-04-27T12:48:00.000-04:00

I didn't want to jinx anything by posting this before the fact, but I received a call from Bell's Brewery today, after having an interview last Tuesday, and I got a job! I'll be working all summer at the Bell's General Store (unfortunately not their brewing facility), which is where I buy all my homebrewing supplies, as well as on and off in the Eccentric Cafe, their Kalamazoo bar. Should be easy work in a great environment, and hopefully a foot in the door for moving upward. Basically, I'm excited just to be surrounded by brewing stuff all day, plus maybe I'll get a discount for my own purposes. We'll see next week when I meet with my manager for scheduling and details and such.

Other equally big news: I received an email from the Head Brewer and Production Leader of Arcadia Brewing Co. in Battle Creek, MI, an easy 30 minute drive from here. I had sent in an application to work in their brewing facility about early March, and it looks like they're interested. I have an interview on Monday morning with the Head Brewer Mike, but I don't have any details yet regarding what they're looking for or even my chances of getting a job. I'll make sure to keep you all updated through the brewlog.

Cross your fingers!
Sam

PS: The Kolsch will be going in bottles tomorrow. Ella will be close behind.

Cold Conditioning

2006-04-18T23:36:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update:

The still unnamed Kolsch is cold conditioning in secondary right now, and will be there another three weeks before I bottle her up. Certain styles, especially ones that demand a certain crispness and lack of flavor complexity (like lagers, pale ales, and Kolsches), can benefit both in flavor and visual clarity from being cold conditioned and stored at near-freezing temperatures for months at a time. It allows most of the yeast to fall out of suspension, leaving the beer crystal clear, and also helps dampen yeast byproducts that cause fruity and spicy flavors in the beer. Of course, these flavors are welcome in many and most styles, but are less desired in others.

Ella the Anniversary Ale is hanging out with the Kolsch, and I'm still researching whether the cold conditioning will do her harm or good. It will certainly clear her up, which would be nice, but I have a trade off decision to make: Belgian ales like this one are known for their strong alcohol content and their complex, yeasty character. The cold will dampen the alcohol bite, which is nice, but also dampen some of that complexity. So I might take her out of the freezer and store her in a closet for a bit longer.

Regardless, both will be bottled in three weeks.

Meanwhile, Eva is all ready to drink. She's very very tasty; anyone who likes Bell's Brown or Newcastle should try a bottle. She's a far cry from my typical bitter beer: slightly sweet, but not cloyingly so, and very malty. Lots of subtle flavors to pick out and appreciate. She'll be around awhile (I'm still polishing off Annabelle and Rachel), so let me know if you'd like some.

Kolsch and All Grain

2006-04-08T17:51:00.001-04:00

Another new brew is bubbling away in the fermentor today after brewing yesterday. The beer is an as-of-yet-unnamed German-style Kolsch, a very pale, straw-colored beer that is the ale's response to your typical, run of the mill lager (but better). The result is something like your favorite high-quality pilsener, like Corona or Red Stripe, but with a slightly more pronounced hop flavor and some subtle fruity character from the special German yeast strain. In other words, something most beer drinkers should enjoy, but complex enough to not fall in the category of "cheap beer."

Yesterday marked a pretty important milestone in my brewing timeline, as the Kolsch was my first all grain beer, which means that instead of partially using malt extract, the beer was made completely from straight barley grain. The difference between extract and straight grain is basically the difference between getting orange juice concentrate instead of getting fresh oranges and squeezing your own; for one, fresh all grain beers taste better, but require more equipment and much more effort. Things like water quality, pH, and mineral content come into play where they hadn't mattered much before, because it's the brewer's job to get the sugars out of the grains, rather than the producers of the malt extract.

It was a decent brew day, but my effiency on my all grain system was disappointing. Good brewers get 75-80% of the grains' sugars out of them for brewing purposes, while 70% is acceptable. My efficiency was just under 60%, while I had expected 70%. That means my beer suffered about a 15% decrease in alcohol and body for the same amount of base grain, which is still acceptable for the style (this Kolsch will end up being quite light at about 4.5% alcohol by volume, which is on the low range of the average content for the style). Practice will make perfect, though, as I still need to study some water chemistry information and buy a few more ingredients (including buffer salts that keep the water pH at a perfect 5.2) to really jump head first into all grain. But overall, not a failure of a brew day. The beer should turn out just fine, after all.

Eva, the 10-Malt Brown Ale, got bottled while I simultanously brewed the Kolsch, and should be ready in under two weeks. I thought it might need more time to mature, but the alcohol content on her being lower than expected as well (she should fall at a normal 6.0% or so) meant that she was plenty ready in just a few weeks. Preliminary tastings are promising.

That's all for now. Not sure what is on deck, but I'll post after I've gotten back to the books, bought my needed ingredients, and I feel like I've perfected the all grain procedure. Hopefully weather improves as well, as I'd like the next brew to be an outdoor one with my new burner hooked up to a propane tank, sitting in the lawn chair and soaking up the sun. Until then....

Sam

Ella Label

2006-04-02T19:45:00.000-04:00

Eva

2006-03-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

Originally I hadn't planned on giving the "Kitchen Sink" beer much interest or discussion here, but when racking into secondary yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor, even only 1 week into fermentation. I decided that a beer this surprisingly tasty should be paid its due respects, so welcome Dierksenkougan Eva into the catalogue of beers. She's a brown ale, basically, of significant strength, made with 10 kinds of malt. Definately one of a kind, but luckily, I wrote enough notes on her that if she's a winner (which she's shaping up to be), I'll be able to repeat brew her in the future. A link to her recipe and hopefully a label of sorts will be up in the near future.

Before that, though, I have to bury the hatchet on my search for a new job. Cold Stone is getting boringly out of hand, and I'm compelled to find work that I actually care about. The big news is that I drove out to Galesburg today and visited Bell's brewing facility, and left a cover letter, application, and resume. Among other places, such as Imperial Beverage Distributers, and Gallagher's Pub, I'm setting my sights on some sort of beer/brewing related employment for the summer months, and hopefully beyond. I've procrastinated on this issue far too long, so it's nice to get moving on it. I'll be sure to post the news of those endeavors as soon as I know anything.

As far as the other beers, Ella is still mellowing away in the carboy. Yesterday's taste revealed a great beer that, like most Belgians, does an excellent job of masking it's enormous alcohol content (something like 10.5%, if I can recall). It should be excellent, but this one is a labor of patience. Even if she's drinkable, I'm going to leave her in the carboy as long as I can hold out, then in bottles for even longer. I want to enjoy my first cold, carbonated taste of her at her prime.

Mariah is about ready to be enjoyed from the bottles. I've had a few bottles in the last couple of days to track taste changes and carbonation. Luckily, a lot of the bad, sweet flavors seem to be rapidly disappearing, and I'm not entirely sure why. But I think that a month or more of aging will grant her great improvement.

Anywho, not sure what's next on deck. I might utilize our Whole Foods supplier downtown and get some rye malt and fresh Michigan honey to make some sort of beer, and hopefully use up these raspberries that are taking up room in my freezer. All three might make a good summer spritzer of some sort, and now that the weather is improving, it might just be the perfect timing for it.

Sam

Kitchen Sink

2006-03-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. Just a quick "I'm bored" post...

...the Zeta Psi batch of Hannah is completely finished with a near-perfect yield of one bottle less than two cases. I added an available Hannah from batch two, marked the caps and have stored them away until I can give them away. Woohoo.

Ella is in secondary now, and a preliminary taste concludes that she's going to be awesome! A great alcohol presense that isn't too overwhelming (and will mellow greatly over a few months) and just an exploration of malt complexity. The Belgian candi sugar adds a noticable touch of caramelization and smoke, but just a hint. The bunch of other highly kilned grains make their appearances, but only each subtly. Nothing is too overpowering. I'm excited to see how it will stand up to a few months of aging, then how it will improve when I cellar it over several years.

Mariah should hit the bottle pretty soon. I added some gelatin finings to the fermentor to clear her out. Gelatin in small amounts attaches to large proteins that haze beer and gives it great clarity without attaching to the live yeast in suspension that are required for carbonating the beer after bottling. She's fairly dark (darker than she should be...) so I can't tell if it has been effective. I've never used it before. Regardless, in the next few days (maybe even tonight) I'll bottle her up and stow her away for a few weeks.

Otherwise, I'm still unsure of the next new batch. I may make a kitchen sink beer very soon if I have a free night like I did tonight, using a bunch of my unused ingredients, including about 10 or 11 different grains, some highly bitter Chinook hops (my favorite) and a big sample of hefeweizen yeast I saved from the last Hannah. I'm not promising anything, not even a name, but it will be a lesson in learning, for sure.

Dk

Mariah Label

2006-03-16T18:38:00.000-05:00

Twins

2006-03-12T17:17:00.000-05:00

Hey, it's been awhile since I've posted an update, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been big news. Actually, if anything, I've been putting more time, thought, and effort into my beers, so there's quite a bit of new information to pass on to you guys.

First and foremost, I introduce two new styles to the Dk family. Mariah, which was brewed about two weeks ago, is lazily sitting in secondary soaking up a lot of East Kent Golding dry hops. Mariah is an English Bitter style, one that's been around a long while. She's a medium to medium-heavy bodied ale with lots of back end bitterness, the kind that lingers on your tongue and throat after drinking a hoppy beer. Bitters are one of my favorite styles, and preliminary tastes of Mariah are looking promising, except that I may have moved her too quickly from primary to secondary, and fermented her at too high a temperature (my thermometers have all been crazy inaccurate lately...), so there are a lot of complex off-flavors, some of which are welcome, but most of which are not typical of the style. Luckily, most of these flavor compounds are easily mellowed with age, as I plan to keep Mariah in the secondary at least another two weeks, then in bottles a good month. After that, more of the simple bitterness and less of the buttery, phenolic off flavors will dissipate as the yeast falls completely out of suspension.

I took some good pictures while brewing Mariah, so I'll put them up...

That's my double boil system going on, which I'm about to phase out. The problem is that the brewpot to the right has a five gallon capacity...to the very rim. To get a good rolling boil without risking boilovers (which happen anyway; note the burn marks on the stovetop), I can only fit about 3.5 to 4 gallons of wort in there. I like to have a full boil--meaning I don't dilute once the boil is done to reach my 5 gallon batch size mark--so as to have a better tasting, fuller bodied beer that doesn't taste watered down. I recently took a trip to Meijer and bought a 7.5 gallon aluminum turkey fryer for super cheap, which I'll be using from now on as a single boiling vessel. No picture of that, but it's a beauty.

There's the 6.5 gallon primary fermenting carboy, which leaves airspace for a 5 gallon batch to foam up when fermenting. In the case that 1.5 gallons isn't enough headspace, we use the vinyl tubing off of our beer bong to form what they call a "blow off tube," which creates an airtight tunnel into another vessel for foam collection. Haven't had to do that yet.

The other little jug is a yeast starter. I'm starting to make these a day or two ahead of brew day for every batch now. Basically you're making a mini beer and getting the tired, otherwise refrigerated yeast active over 24 to 48 hours before brewing, so by the time you pitch them into your beer, they've already begun to get into fermentation mode, multiplying your initial pitching volume by up to 10000% percent. This is absolutely essential for high-alcohol beers, so that the yeast can get it's job done before the resident alcohol in the beer weakens and kills them over a short period of time. Insufficient pitching volumes of yeast will create a semi-fermented beer which will taste half like real beer and half like malt syrup, which basically tastes sticky sweet like tree sap or unsweetened maple syrup.

Another new piece of equipment I've recently built is this Immersion Wort Chiller. It has a really simple purpose: to cool the boiled beer (actually wort, which is beer that has not yet fermented) to room temperature, so that you can pitch the yeast without killing them. This can be done in an ice bath (which has what we've always done), but the quicker the cooling process, the lower the chance of an infection in your finished beer, since unfermented beer is a great place for bacteria to thrive--full of sugars and, before cooled, warm and moist. The trick is using this chiller, which uses the great conductive properties of thin, soft copper tubing to run cold tap water through the beer, acting like a big ice cube that won't melt. That vinyl tubing attaches to the copper, and a garden hose fitting fits to our sink adapter so that we are able to get the boiled wort down to room temperature in just under 15 minutes. Better than our previous 40 or 45. Plus it saves us money on getting ice every brew day just to waste in less than an hour.

There's me holding some East Kent Golding hop pellets. Hops usually look like tiny green pinecones, but these are ground and processed into what looks like rabbit poop. The freshness suffers minimally, and the efficiency and surface area of the bittering hops is greatly improved. Ounce for ounce, these pellets are pretty heavy. To get an idea of how packed they are, know that when added to water and blended, they grow to about 10 times (probably more) their own size in this big green hop-smelling foam. Cool.

Anywho, expect Mariah (whose name is a derivitive of "Mary," meaning bitter) to be ready in another month and a half.

The other addition to the family is getting brewed this week (probably Tuesday). Her name is Ella, and, like Annabelle, she's a beast of a beer. At over 10% alcohol, Ella is our biggest beer yet, and she should expect, between fermenting, aging, and conditioning, about 8 months to fully mature as a drinkable beer. After that, she can be cellered for more than 2 years, probably up to 5 or 10 with good sanitary brewing procedures, where she will improve greatly with mellowing and aging. Ella is meant as an Anniversary Ale for my girlfriend Molly (it's her favorite girls' name), so we'll crack open the first bottle around our one-year in November of 2006.

I'll be bottling much of Ella (which is an English-style Old Ale, named for it's cellaring qualities--very malty, not too bitter, and alcoholically warming; to be enjoyed in small amounts) in cappable champagne bottles, where I'll dip the capped tops in wax (think Maker's Mark whiskey) which will ensure a complete vaccuum in the bottle, label them and set them aside for a long long long long time. Label for Ella (and Mariah) to come...

As for our other beers, Annabelle is disappearing quickly, since I seem to drink one of her just about every day to wind down at night. She's excellent, so I suggest that you try some before it's all gone (but don't worry, I'll brew her up again very soon, for my own sake). Hannah #3 for Zeta Psi at University of Michigan is ready to be bottled, but an accidental addition of Irish Moss (a natural clarifier) during the brewing process meant that Hannah is now crystal clear, instead of hazy like most wheat beers should be. Not that that in itself is a problem, but a lot of the character of wheat beers like Hannah comes from yeast and wheat haziness in suspension. Her flavor is excellent, but I've lost most of the citrus which makes her so tasty, so before bottling, I'll be adding some extra coriander and orange peel to the secondary for a week or so to try to make her as close to the old Hannah as possible. But ultimately, no worries.

That, I must say, about covers it. If you've read this far, then you must really care, so thanks. On deck after Ella I'll probably be brewing up a raspberry wheat or something since I have a giant bag of frozen raspberries I don't know what to do with. Aging wheat beers being mostly unneccessary, she'll be done about the time that the hot summer weather rolls around. I invite you to join us and crack one open when the time comes. Until then, I'll leave you with this picture of a half-drunk Annabelle, and this bit of brewing knowledge: in current and historical brewing practice, if a beer produces dried bubbles on the side of the pint after drinking, it is considered to have been expertly brewed. The bubbles are called "Belgian Lace." Here's Dierksenkougan's example:

Cheers,
Sam

Annabelle Progress

2006-02-16T15:56:00.000-05:00

Just poured a 6.5 oz. bottle of Annabelle into my Hoegaarden tumbler and enjoyed it over the course of an hour or so. I have never been so satisfied with a homebrew. I can't wait to see how she improves even more with age, but she's so delicately carbonated, and when drank at about 50 degrees, the alcohol is really subdued like Founder's Dirty Bastard, but stronger.

I have monumentally succeeded with this one, and I strongly suggest you push your boundaries and try it soon.

Annabelle Label

2006-02-09T02:34:00.000-05:00

The New Rachel

2006-02-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

We brewed a second, improved batch of Rachel last night, using what we know now to get exactly what we wanted out of our recipe.

Speaking of recipes, click here for the specific Rachel recipe. She'll probably be somewhere near the top of the American Ale page.

The recipe is a total redefinition of her former self. Besides the type of hops, which stayed surprisingly the same, Rachel has all new grain, yeast, and proportions, and hopefully an improved flavor. This brew marks the first time that we have properly sparged a batch, which is the method of removing the sugar from the grain with recirculation and hot water. The problem, it seems, was that our pregelitanized grains (like the flaked wheat in Rachel) cause the natural grain bed, which usually works as a filter, to get sticky. Pregelitanized flaked grains have no husks and are mashed into flakes, so when you cook them, it is no different than cooking oatmeal or pasta for a full hour. The result, as you can imagine, isn't a filter bed but an opaque paste. So I utilized the double mash procedure from Annabelle, filtering the sticky grains separate from the regular grains. In addition to producing a fully brewed beer rather than a partially diluted one (the purpose of the double mash with Annabelle), we had a successful mash and have solved possibly our most frusterating problem yet, giving me confidence in going forward with an all-grain brew once I have the necessary equipment.

Rachel will not be quite as alcoholic as the recipe states, but close. I'm thinking 5.5% by volume is more accurate, which is slightly less heavy than Bell's Amber. Taste wise, who knows, but the previous Rachel, which tasted more like a thin Irish Red, should be replaced by a much more malty and full beer, with a slightly darker color and heavier hop presence (righting another mistake we made as beginners).

I'd give her this week in the fermenter, two weeks of aging, and bottling for another two, so look for her mid-March. A peek in the freezer this morning showed that she's already actively fermenting just as planned. Hopefully everything proceeds without a hitch.

Cheers,
Sam

Backtracking

2006-01-23T17:29:00.000-05:00

Of course, I am always coming up with more ideas and new recipes to expand Dk and the styles we represent, but with the recent success of the second batch of Hannah, I want to spend the next few months fine-tuning some of our first recipes.

You see, Hannah Jr., though it seems at first taste exactly like the old Hannah, really is an improvement, even in the most subtle ways. I did a few things differently, just by gathering up all my knowledge that I've acquired thus far, and it paid off. She's more stylistically authentic; higher in alcohol, more noticably hoppy, and less saturated in citrus and coriander, this Hannah is even better than her first run. And her first run was damn good.

But Rachel and Cristin could use some work. Rachel was drinkable, even enjoyable to some degree, and I'm happy with how our first batch ever came out...Hell, I'm happy it even came out. But all optimism aside, I still love the Amber Ale style, and I failed to represent it with Rachel. So back we go, to the beginning.

Cristin has the same story. Nate did a great job with is first beer, but being beginners, we really didn't understand as much as we do now about the mashing system, so Cristin ended up watery and thin, with (dare I say) too much Cascade hops jumping out on your tongue for its malt balance. We could easily go back and brew it again, and find that balance.

Until now, Dierksenkougan has been about exploration of our favorite styles and replicating to the best of our knowledge. Granted, I've tried to make each recipe original, and not use too much of a blueprint from existing recipes or ideas or even styles, but now we have an impressive style catalogue under our belts: an amber ale, an American wheat and an American pale, a porter and an IPA, a creative holiday brew, and soon a heavy and alcoholic Scotch strong ale. That's seven good starts, and not a batch has failed, but we can really do better.

Expect to see new Rachel and Cristin recipes and updates soon. Following that, I'll probably be itching to try something all-new, but even another round of Jasmine wouldn't hurt, though replicating her will be difficult, since she was somewhat a labor of both patience and indifference. But I'll see what I can do.

In other matters, Annabelle is still hanging out in the secondary fermenter. I plan to give her a taste tonight to make sure she hasn't gone bad or soured or anything, but I don't forsee any problems. I really want to bottle her, but she's only been aging for about 2 weeks, and in her best interest, I'll give it her the whole month treatment. For certain, Annabelle is a different kind of brew, and she will be gross and possibly ruined if we try to drink her too soon.

Sam

Annabelle Progress

2006-01-11T01:42:00.000-05:00

Just a quick progress update. I moved Annabelle into secondary today. She fermented all the way through, exactly as planned without a hitch. I understand this beer will not be everybody's favorite, since it's sort of an obscure and esoteric style, but trust me that, from what I can tell by tasting it so far, this may be stylistically the best representation of a Dierksenkougan beer yet. The hopping and malt levels are seemingly perfect in balance, along with a great bitterness from the kilned barley and smokey earthiness from the rye and smoked grain.

If all goes well, I might consider entering this batch into a national homebrew competition (yes they have them, and yes it's a bit nerdy but it's a great way for professionals to critique your beer as a culinary artform) and get some feedback. The big stress in these competitions is on staying within the boundaries of a specific style (meaning color, bitterness, adjunct flavors, presentation) while retaining uniqueness and personality. Cross your fingers that Annabelle stacks up.

Big thanks to Molly, Markus, and Data for helping out with this batch, by the way.

Cheers,
Sam

Annabelle Recipe

2006-01-09T00:35:00.000-05:00

Access the specific Annabelle recipe here.

Holly, Hannah, and Annabelle

2006-01-07T14:51:00.000-05:00

We've been bottling and brewing like crazy maniacs over the last couple of days. Here's the scoop on all things Dierksenkougan:

Holly and Hannah are in the bottle, and should take just less than 2 more weeks to be complete and ready to drink. Hannah, as expected, is perfect, and should be an ideal twin of her former self. And Holly has greatly improved with her month or so in secondary fermentation, really mellowing out so that the chai flavors aren't overpowering like we feared they may be. She'll still be strong, but I'm really looking forward to a drinkable and even enjoyable holiday brew. She'll be done in two weeks as well, but unlike Hannah, could probably use even more aging in the bottle due to her complex flavor profile. We'll slowly be breaking open these bottles (she was a smaller batch, with about 35 bottles) and watching how they change over time.

Annabelle is the newest member of the Dierksenkougan catalog, and I've been very excited to brew her since we started. Building off the concept of several Founder's beers, namely Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale and Red's Rye, Annabelle should be a first for Dk in several areas. Through it was somewhat troublesome and messy, I chose to brew Annabelle in a double mash and double boil, which means to the rest of the world that I basically brewed two different beers simultaneously, and mixed the resulting contents together in the end. This has historically been done for a long time; the British porter style was actually once called an "entire," meaning specifically a mix of three stock beers (two thin and cheap brews with one more expensive, dark, and more alcoholic brew) and was traditionally served to porters under that name until the style became a standard and was brewed as a single batch under the porter name.

So back to Annabelle. Basically I brewed two different batches: something close to an amber ale or a lightly hopped British bitter, and a pitch black and virtually unhopped stout with a touch of rye grain and smoked barley. Combined, I'm hoping to create a strong Scotch ale like Dirty Bastard, with some rye sourness and smokey undertones representative of the historical Scottish style. Scotch ales are traditionally only lightly hopped, since importing hops to Scotland was expensive and growing them in the region was nearly impossible. As a result, Scotch ales were hopped with very strong hops (note: hops differ like dogs; there are several breeds of the same basic plant. Some are very strong and require only a fraction of the amount to impart the same amount of bitterness as other weaker varieties) and were brewed to be incredibly malty and alcoholic, instead flavored with smoked malts and regional spices like spruce tips. I confess, this is not a style for everyone, and to some it may taste like pure gasoline. But hopefully, others will enjoy the flavor and strength and be opened up to a more esoteric style of brew that is very atypical of the American style. Such is my goal.

The second and perhaps more important reason I chose the double-mash-double-boil technique was that I have noticed several of our beers are turning out too thin and watery, which I assume is from my habit of diluting our final wort with cold water to bring the batch up to 5 gallons. With a five gallon brewpot, leaving room for preventing boilovers and accounting for evaporation over the 60 minute boil leaves us with far from a 5 gallon result. So I pulled out the secondary brewpot, an 8 quart size, and made sure that combined we were producing at least 5 gallons of beer. No dilution, no thinness, hopefully. Especially for this robust style of beer, which needs to be thick and malty to really be enjoyed authentically.

Annabelle will need a lot of time in the secondary fermenter. I expect she'll be done fermenting in a couple of days, and out of habit I'll pull her off the spent grain husks and other trub before bad things start happening. After about a month in secondary, which, also required of the style, I will keep colder than usual (between 60 and 65 degrees), we'll bottle her and let her age for as long as I can keep myself from opening a bottle, which will probably be about 2 days. Expect Annabelle in early March.

Holly and Annabelle labels to come. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break.

Cheers,
Sam

Back in Kalamazoo

2005-12-30T18:06:00.000-05:00

Hopefully things will be getting back to normal very soon as everyone returns to Kalamazoo...

As for progress, Holly and Hannah are still in secondary. Having the heat turned off over break and no way to heat the brewing freezer, the beers nearly froze (the internal temperature of the freezer was less than 40 degrees when I got home), which didn't damage them but more than likely put any aging and progress at a standstill, since the beer needs to be warm to mature. My dad wired me up a great little gadget for Christmas with a thermostat and a light bulb that slowly but surely raises the internal terperature of the freezer, since the thermostat we have on it right now only serves to cool it off.

What that means is expect another week or so before we put Holly and Hannah in the bottle, and a week or two after that until they're carbonated enough to drink.

I'm home sick with the flu right now, so as soon as I'm over that, I'll start thinking beer again.

Also look for my beer cheese soup recipe which I'll post sometime soon since there has been a small demand.

Sam

Labels and Samplers

2005-12-19T02:10:00.000-05:00

Labels and Sampler Packs are finally finished!

Unfortunately, Kitten was unable to find the time to draw up some original Dierksenkougan artwork for the Ophelia label, so I went with the Shakespearean theme and designed another label myself tonight so I could get going with the sampler packs.

Ophelia is still having trouble carbonating, but I'm fairly confident she has it in her, so I'm putting her in the sampler packs anyway. The temperature of the freezer has been a bit low at around 55 degrees, while Ophelia should be carbonating at something more like 70. I'm thinking of getting another thermostat and a space heater to help keep our fermentation temperature correct during the winter months. Dangerous smangerous.

So, here's the finished product. Three beers with labels: Ophelia, Cristin, and the very last of the Jasmines...

Big thanks to Molly for helping me stick the labels, and to Kitten for unknowingly offering his printer to our cause.

This is probably the last update until after the Christmas season, so I'll see you all in a few weeks. Eat, drink (Dk), and be merry.

Cheers,
Sam

Holly, Hannah, and Ophelia

2005-12-15T23:38:00.001-05:00

Updates on Ophelia and the twins:

Ophelia is nearly done carbonating. I opened one tonight and she was a little flat, but so much for overcarbonating. I'm glad we avoided that disaster. She's very good though, and will be included in the Christmas samplers.

The new beer has a name: Holly. Thanks to DJ for the holiday-related name and just being a bad ass gentleman. She and Hannah Jr. have been racked over into secondary carboys to age for awhile...a week or two...Holly is very Chai-flavored, probably too much, but not too much to enjoy. Hannah is perfect, like always. That is all.

Cheers,
Sam

Hot in Here

2005-12-12T02:28:00.000-05:00

I say that because the frantic brewing over the last two days has effectively raised the cooler temperature back to a steamy 70 degrees (from about 55) due to what I can best guess is the active fermentation of two simulaneous batches at once. That said, both batches, Hannah Jr. and the new unnamed Chai beer, are active and healthy and turned out, post-brewing, just as planned. Good overall gravities, so it's looking like, alcohol wise, these will be exactly as expected.

To summarize, Hannah (our second batch brewed last October) Jr. is our first repeat batch due to a good household demand for another couple of cases. We'll have about 50 bottles of her next month, after she's done fermenting, aging, and carbonating in the bottle. So come on by and have another taste of the beer that's been called "better than Oberon" and help us break in the new year with some Dierksenkougan (as it should be).

The new Chai beer, as of yet unnamed, also turned out very successful. She should be a little higher in alcohol than most (between 6 and 6.5%) and have a just-under-overwhelming flavor and aroma of Chai tea. The cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and clove spices, as well as some Fuggles and Hallertauer hops, will hopefull blend nicely together for a tasty and unique holiday beer. Any good name suggestions are appreciated, especially leaning toward something Christmasy. I'll want to age this one slightly longer than most because of its higher alcohol content (like we did with Jasmine), so expect her around the end of January. We'll still have plenty of snow, but a good cold beverage never hurt anyone. This should be Dierksenkougan's most unique and different beer yet. She's a very pretty shade of dark brown, almost opaque like apple cider because of the wheat malt, and should have hints of espresso due to a last minute addition of some chocolate malt. What that means to the non beer snob is a fusion of a dark ale and a dirty chai (chai + espresso). Like always, I have no interest in selling it yet, so get yourself a free bottle and some good company while you still have the chance.

Concerns about over-carbonating Ophelia are still imminent; I read a book today that marked 1/2 to 1 cup of priming sugar is appropriate for a five-gallon batch like ours (I used 2 cups or more). What that means is exploding bottles in the night, or, as a best case scenario, just a very spritzy but still drinkable coffee porter. Cross your fingers for the latter.

Of course, like always I'm keeping in mind the next batch. I'd like to aim for our first super-heavy beer, more than likely a Scotch ale, my favorite style. That won't be until 2006, though, but keep your eyes open. I might not be able to wait that long.

Big thanks to Molly, Michelle, Kitten, and Markus for their help with brewing these last two batches. I'm starting to loathe our mashing procedure (I won't explain. Google it) so I'm considering putting some serious Christmas money toward a few extra high-tech tools for the Dierksenkougan homebrewery, which, as some of you know, is already a sight to behold.

Thanks to everyone who either helped brew, brainstorm, or just tasted a bottle of the homebrew and provided their suggestions and praise. I'm fully aware I take this a little more seriously than anyone else, but I appreciate those who have catered to my obsession. Keep reading!

Off to bed, then off to Chicago for a big trip with my other half. Hopefully we'll squeeze in a trip to Goose Island Brewpub (try their Honker's Ale on bottle available at anyplace that takes any pride in their beer selection in the Midwest).

Cheers!
Sam

Back to Business

2005-12-06T20:03:00.000-05:00

This Friday, following the end of exams and a heavy night of drinking Thursday night, we'll get back on schedule and brew the second batch of Hannah (our first repeat!) upon my return from work around 2:00. Movies will be playing in the background all day for anyone who would like to come over and blow off post-exam steam and just relax. Of course, parties will resume later that night as on any good Friday.

Then on Saturday, we'll be brewing a new batch around midday, so we'll have two going at once, just to make up for lost time this past month of Dierksenkougan neglect. The recipe has been established, but I'll post a full description (and hopefully label and name) of the new brew by this weekend. What I'll tell you now is that it is a very experimental idea, a cream ale with cardemom, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black tea (which the most scholarly of you will recognize as the ingredients for chai tea). I've only seen one other similar recipe on the database I frequent, and they lauded it as very tasty. I figure, I like chai, and I like beer, and maybe the two would taste OK together. And since we haven't made a bad batch yet, maybe the brew gods will keep it that way.

By the way, I bottled Ophelia on Sunday night. Kitten is still yet to provide me with a label, but when he does, I'll start printing up some Christmas sampler packs. Professional. Upon tasting, while warm and uncarbonated, she was very very good, very representative of the porter style but still unique and actually quite sweet. I'm crossing my fingers that she doesn't overcarbonate (ask me about that) and we'll all be able to enjoy her in one or two weeks.

Keep checking back. This week will be full of news. It's good to be back.

Sam

Apologies

2005-11-28T18:05:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, but it's been awhile since I've done anything with the brew. But not to worry. Ophelia is still in secondary, and she should benefit from the aging by losing that ripe, new beer flavor caused by active yeast. Judging by the looks of her, the fact that she's still crystal clear (as clear as a dark beer can be) and has nothing floating on top, this may be our most stable batch yet. I'm excited to see what the aging process will lend to her. We'll bottle this week sometime, hopefully, but exams and such have made the end of the semester rather hectic. Not to mention female distractions.

Hannah, therefore, is off to a late start, and we won't be able to get her out by Christmas. I ordered 20 blank six-pack containers, with label paper, to make up nice professional looking samplers a gifts. Consider yourself lucky if you get one. They'll contain 2 of each of our remaining beers: Jasmine, Cristin, and Ophelia. That's the plan anyway.

So Hannah's next up. We'll brew her definately during holiday break, if not sooner, depending on available time. After that, I'm looking into some more adventurous recipes, including trying to capture the essence of Chai in beer form. It may be a flop. We'll just have to see. Nothing has completely sucked so far.

Sorry it's been so long. Don't worry, we're still going strong.

Sam

Ophelia Update

2005-11-06T16:53:00.000-05:00

Racked Ophelia into secondary today, because her fermentation started like crazy. She probably has a little left in her, but an early change of environments off all the dead yeast and grain husks is going to keep her clean and stable.

I gave her a taste. Very chocolatey, yum yum. Trust me, you want to try this one. End of November.

Sam

Successful Brew

2005-11-03T01:21:00.000-05:00

Brewed Ophelia tonight. Very successful batch. I feel we've finally gotten a grasp on our own personal brewing methodology, rather than experimenting and not knowing what to expect. Putting the grain in little muslin bags and floating them around like bobbing apples...squeezing out their juices with a potato masher...I guess it's sort of primitive, but it's very consistent (our efficiency is about 60%, as expected), and Kitten gets to take out his feline rage through the use of a common kitchen utensil.

As for the beer, she should turn out exactly as expected, around 5.5% alcohol and nice and dark (but not opaque). I made a last minute to add 1/3 cup of coffee grinds, via a little filter pouch. I'm unsure if it'll make any noticable difference (some people brew porters and stouts with 5 quarts of brewed espresso), but hopefully it'll add a nice touch to the coffee flavor already imparted by the chocolate malt (not actually chocolate; the name refers to the color).

Dierksenkougan's first official dark beer will be done in 3 or 4 weeks. There's no need for extended aging on Ophelia; it wouldn't likely make much of a difference. Come enjoy a bottle with us following Thanksgiving break.

Look for art updates regarding Ophelia's label, and news about new t-shirts or hoodies. If you're not in immediate contact with me here at Western, let me know if you're interested soon! They'll be cheap, too.

A repeat brewing of Hannah is next. I'd like to have bottles available by Christmas so as to distribute them to those who missed the first run. Similarly, let me know now if you'd like me to set one aside for you.

Sam

Jasmine Bottled

2005-10-27T00:31:00.000-04:00

Yeah, that's about it. We bottled Jasmine tonight.

Basically, she's not good, but she's not bad either. Final alcohol: 10% by volume. That's a shitload. But it's defintately not shitty. She's got a good hop flavor, but could use more. We had a yield of more than 50 bottles, but we only sanitized 50 so we poured the rest out. With chilling and carbonation, she should be slightly better.

Final words: not a masterpiece, but a good beverage for getting drunk. Expect us to hone this recipe in the future and make it right. Until then, one week or two until she's ready.

Ophelia will be brewed either tomorrow (doubtful) or sometime next week (more likely), since I'm spending the weekend in Madison with DJ visiting Rachel. Name sound familiar? Yeah, that's our namesake girl, and we love her.

Cheers,
Sam

Ophelia

2005-10-24T23:39:00.000-04:00

Batch #5

Dierksenkougan Ophelia
Style: Porter
That's a link to the recipe. A porter, to those unfamiliar, is a dark ale, not quite as dark or astringent as a stout (like Guinness). This one should be very chocolatey and biscuity, but the high hop content will add a complexity not usually found in porters. This is our most complex beer yet, with five grains, two types of extract, and two types of solid, American hops. I don't plan to dry hop this because I want the roasted character to be as strong as possible. Our first shot at the darker spectrum of ales. Inspired by my newfound love of dark, flavorful beers.

The biggest news: The great artist Christopher Sell will be possibly doing artwork for the label. Here's my promise: if Chris draws up a masterpiece of a label (which is almost a given), I will make it my priority to use some birthday money to label every bottle of this and Cristin, granted they both turn out.

Ophelia's a one monther. Look for her around early December.

Sam

Cristin

2005-10-21T10:53:00.000-04:00

The newest batch of Dierksenkougan is finally being written about and it finally has a name. Cristin (aka Wasty) is an American Pale Ale and is named after the girl next door (or across the hall) last year in Ackley. Since it was my first recipe, I kept it pretty simple. This beer should appeal to almost everyone since it isn't very strong and should have a pretty clean taste. We did have some problems while brewing her, the largest being a very low mash efficiency due to the lauter tun that we tried for the first time. This basically means that Cristin will end up at around 3.5% alcohol. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. The beer will taste very good, but I wouldn't recommend trying to get drunk off of it. Right now, Cristin is in secondary fermentation, and we plan on dry hopping her to give her an amazing aroma as soon as we get something to weigh the hops down. She should be ready to drink in about two weeks.
The VB,
Nate

Brief Update

2005-10-19T19:45:00.000-04:00

It's been a short while. Here's how things are looking...

Rachel: Dierksenkougan's first run is on it's last legs. I think there are a total of 7 bottles left, most of which I'll be packing into a sampler as Christmas gifts. So hopefully you've been good this year.

Hannah: We've about a case left of our pride and joy. Hannah turned out to be more than we were ever expecting, and it has gotten praise from every tongue it touches. This weekend's birthday party will probably be your last time to get a bottle, but plans are in order, of course, to brew it again. Look for Hannah again around springtime next year.

Jasmine: Through thick and thin, this dry-hopped India Red is looking to be at least drinkable, if not enjoyable. She's a strong one at 10% alcohol by volume, and there are a few things wrong with her that I've been able to discern. We'll have to wait until she's bottled and carbonated to really know if this one went astray. Look for Jasmine in about a two or three weeks.

Nate's Secret Ale: Nate's said he'll get on here in the next few days, so I won't spoil the secrets. Basically, she has a great name, and ingredients were bought today that will hopefully and more than likely make this one really great beer. An impressive debut from your VB.

Looking Ahead: Hopefully tonight or in the near future I'll have recipated the newest batch. Suggestions are welcome, but my recent positive experiences with some great porters and stouts are leaning me toward something dark. Again, this may not be the average beer drinker's crowd pleaser, but I'm making it a priority for Dierksenkougan to turn you on to something better.

Sam

Batch #4 and Jasmine

2005-10-11T01:23:00.000-04:00

Brewed Batch #4 today, which is to this point unnamed. It's Nate's brainchild, and he's officially able to publish on this blog himself. Look for a synopsis written by him in the next couple of days. I won't say anything further.

What I will comment on is that Jasmine is back from the dead. We took a reading of her during the brew process today and she has somehow fully fermented. I'm not sure how, but we're continuing to treat her as if nothing bad ever happened. She's our first beer to reach tertiary fermentation, which just means we've put her in a third vessel before bottling. Tomorrow we're adding fresh hops directly to the fermenter, a process known as dry-hopping, to give her a really great fresh hop smell that's impossible to imbue by only adding hops to the boil. Hopefully this extra bit of TLC will make up for having basically forsaken her for the last two weeks. On that note, the two weeks are not necessarily a bad thing. Having kept her clean and sterile, that time, unbeknownst to us, was just an extra aging period, which is never bad for a big, alcoholic beer like an IPA. It's not like she was just sitting there rotting.

At this point, Jasmine has an alcohol content of a massive 10%, if our readings are accurate. You can't quite tell from the taste, though, which means we've done a good job this far of masking it. The dry-hopping will only help in that matter. We're giving her another two weeks in tertiary before bottling around my birthday on October 22.

By the way, party at our place October 22nd. We'll have a few Hannahs on short supply, who has been impressing people left and right. RSVP early and we'll stock a bottle away for you.

Your turn, Nate...

- Sam

Jasmine K.I.A.

2005-10-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

Jasmine has basically been killed in action, folks. It's like she's in some sort of permanent state of beer comatose, so I'm not sure what to do with her. Upon inspection, she doesn't seem to be going bad, so we racked her over into a secondary fermenter. The best we can hope for is that while she ages, at least some of the residual sugars continue to ferment. Since the batch isn't taking up any space we particularly need, I'll just leave her there until something good or bad happens, whether she begins to ferment again or starts smelling up the freezer.

Hopefully we can tweak this recipe and brew a successful IPA by the end of the year. For now, keep checking back for news on the next batch, as soon as Nate gets off his lazy ass and writes it up.

Sam

Update

2005-10-02T16:46:00.000-04:00

Hannah bottled today. Yield: 50 12-oz. bottles. Tastes great, very citrusy and very little aftertaste. Very smooth but not overwhelmingly sweet. Primed with Dry Malt Extract instead of corn sugar, making this officially a German "real beer," unless orange and coriander use is prohibited. Not sure.

Jasmine still giving us trouble. Gravity remains at 1.050, meaning she's only half fermented. I gave her one last big stir. If the yeast still fails to ferment any more, we'll have to toss her.

Talks about a simple pale ale in the works. Nate will be manning this one, including making the recipe and leading the brew, etc. Maybe I can get him on here to explain his thoughts once we've settled on ingredients.

Cheers! Hannah's done in two weeks!

Sam

Jasmine Update

2005-09-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

We think Jasmine may be suffering from a stuck fermentation, which means just that: the current alcohol content is at about half of what it should be, and the yeast seems to have stopped fermenting. We're looking into it, and I'll let you know. Our option now is to just give it a good shake/stir and try to rouse the lazy yeasties back to work. If that doesn't make a difference, we'll have to pitch another kind of yeast, likely champagne yeast, which has a tolerance for high alcohol contents, since it's a possibility that our yeast just can't handle the higher alcohol content. That seems unlikely since the yeast we used is made specifically for high gravity beers. If that's the case, we got seriously boned by the yeast company.

I'll keep you all posted.

Sam

Jasmine

2005-09-26T13:20:00.000-04:00

Our third batch, Jasmine, successfully brewed last night. Like I've said before, this brew falls under the category of India Pale Ale, though far stronger and (probably, we'll see) more hoppy than is typical of the style.

My only concern about the new batch is her alcohol content. Due to someone's miscalculation, whether mine or more likely something iffy on the online Beer Recipator, or an inconsistancy in grain content or who knows what, the beer, which we aimed to have an original gravity of 1.080, ended up more around 1.098, a very significant difference.

A crash course in gravity: gravity is a method of measurement to determine the sugar content in your unfermented beer (wort). A measurement like 1.098 is another way of saying that the wort is 109.8% the density of water. As the yeast ferments, it turns these sugars into ethanol and CO2, both of which are lighter than water. This reduces the overall gravity/density of the beer. Simple calculations can then be used to determine the alcohol content of the brew once it has fermented, since yeast activity and proportions of CO2 and ethenol production are apparently fairly predictable.

So back to our difference of .018 points. What this means, all in all, is that our IPA is likely going to stop fermentation with an alcohol by volume content of about 10%. This is incredibly high for beer, even for our style. Originally, the content was supposed to be just under 8%. Taste-wise, this difference is very noticable. The other problem here is that typically, especially in high-alcohol beers like IPAs, the quantity of hops added to the boil is proportionate to the expected alcohol content. We put enough hops in to offset an 8% abv level, but possibly not enough to balance another 2%.

So we're taking two measures to save this beer. First, in about a week when we rack Jasmine over to her secondary fermenter (a 5-gallon glass carboy where she'll mellow and mature for about 3 or 4 weeks), we're "dry-hopping," or adding hops unboiled directly to the fermenter. Many great beers are dry-hopped, which always adds a great floral and hop smell to the beer, as well as a small amount of bittering flavor. This, we hope, will help offset some of the extra alcohol, given that Jasmine is already quite heavily hopped (but not in a bad way). Second, when we bottle carbonate this beer, we'll give it a bit of extra priming sugar to make it extra spritzy. The extra carbonation will release more of the hop smell so that it doesn't smell like whiskey, as well as stimulate the tongue as to make the alcohol taste more like the alcohol in wine, and less like it does in spirits. That means we'll be able to savor the alcohol as a positive quality (hopefully), rather than experience what can best be described as "hotness" of many high alcohol drinks.

Jasmine may very well be our first mistake, but we didn't give up on Rachel, so I'll wait this one through until the finish. Rachel is officially finished this weekend, though our curiosity has driven us to already drink about half a case already. Also, Hannah goes into bottles this Sunday (probably), and will be done in another one or two weeks' time after that. We gave her a sip the other day after throwing her in the secondary fermenter, and we were really pleased. It's almost an Oberon clone, with absolutely no aftertaste. I'm guarenteeing good things from that batch.

Suggestions on the next brew are welcome. Something for the holidays, perhaps?

Brewmaster

Hannah & Jasmine

2005-09-23T16:46:00.000-04:00

First heads up: Matt brought up the face that naming our wheat beer "Brewfus" didn't follow the name-the-beers-after-females idea, so we've decided to change her name to "Hannah" and make a promise that we'll never stray from that pattern again.

Second heads up: WMU sent all it's upperclassman students a 100 dollar reimbursement check for some reason unbeknownst to me, so it follows that I've made another brewing investment with it. Today we stopped by the Bell's store and bought another 5 gallon glass carboy and other things. The idea is that we up our current production level to 3 batches at a time rather than 2. Two carboys will be dedicated to brewing these typical one-month batches that don't particularly require long fermentations or mellowing/aging periods. This third carboy, though, will be used for bigger beers with higher alcohol contents and more complex flavors. These "bigger" beers take longer to ferment and mellow to turn out truly tasty, but all sources say they're worth the wait.

This is where Jasmine comes in. Jasmine's style distinction is somewhat between an India Pale Ale and a heavy Red Ale...basically an IPA that's slightly darker than the style allows and very heavily hopped. Now granted, Rachel and Hannah are very non-offending beers, and they are somewhat aimed at pleasing the larger bunch of people. IPAs are more of an acquired taste, given that they're so bitter and very 'beery' in that respect, as well as rather high in alcohol (about twice that of Rachel at 8% abv). But that's the philosophy around craft brewing. I'm not here to please the masses.

Jasmine won't be ready for around 3 months, but you'll hear about her then. She goes into the kettle this Sunday. We'll throw some pictures up if we're not to hung over after Benny's birthday slam this Saturday.

Cheers!

Sam

Batch #2 Progress

2005-09-19T02:11:00.000-04:00

Our second batch was successfully brewed today (actually yesterday). OG=1.050. It should be ready to drink around October 15th or 16th, as long as nothing goes wrong.

Rachel bottled today. First time bottling was less the endeavor we expected it to be as long as there are always extra hands. Special thanks to Markus and Timmy for their help.

So now we have 10 gallons of beer in the freezer, Rachel carbonating in the bottle and Brewfus, who should start fermenting by tomorrow night or Tuesday.

Brewfus Label

2005-09-16T17:03:00.000-04:00

Dierksenkougan Brewfus

2005-09-14T12:23:00.000-04:00

Aptly named after Timmy's drunk pronunciation of "Brewtus," the monster glasses of beer served at Applebee's. I'm happy to report that this Sunday will be the biggest brew day in Dk's short history, because not only will Rachel be getting bottled, but our second beer will be getting brewed.

Brewfus will bear close resemblance to Bell's Oberon as a summery wheat beer, but with importantly different characteristics. My recipe is my best effort to make an Oberon-type beer that is even lighter in all respects. Oberon is fairly high in alcohol for a wheat beer, so Brewtus will not be so strong, allowing us more versitility with its flavor. The color, too, will be lighter, more of a pale yellow than a medium orange. What all this means is that the adjunct flavors you should slightly taste in Bell's, including citrus, honey, and coriander spice, will be magnified in Brewtus. Expect this beer to be incredibly non-offending, yet very flavorful and complex. I've chosen (partly out of necessity) to use a Bavarian yeast compound rather than a similar American style because the European yeasts introduce more subtle flavors than American yeasts do. While American yeast (like American brewers) has been developed to leave beer with clean, simple flavors, yeasts of Belgium and Germany are embraced for imparting complexity and uniqueness to the taste and smell of the beer.

Bottling Rachel will happen at about noon on Sunday, which will be immediately followed by more brewing. While brewing turned out last time to be more of a two or three person job, bottling will likely be a bigger ordeal. If anyone is willing to lend a hand, let me know.

Thanks,
Sam

Rachel Lives!

2005-09-10T18:38:00.000-04:00

I took a test sample of the beer just yesterday, really teetering on the decision to throw it out or keep it, so that if the damage was irrecoverable, we could brew again this Sunday. Turns out my best guesses were completely wrong. The beer not only fermented, but was nearly finished in terms of alcohol production. I can't detect anything negative in the aroma, which just smells exactly like fresh beer. Once the yeast in the sample fell out of suspension, the color and clarity of the brew were better than I had ever expected. So I took the plunge and tasted it, and besides being uncarbonated and a little warm, my best judgment says that it is good, unspoiled beer.

Tomorrow, Nate and I are going to siphon the fermented beer away from the foam and yeast dregs into a 5 gallon glass carboy, where we'll let it sit and mature for a week before bottling time. If all continues to go according to plan (or better than according to plan), we will have ready to drink brew by October 1st. As of right now, plan on there being a "social gathering" that Saturday to open the first bottles of Dierksenkougan and start the brewing season off right.

Cross your fingers!

Sam

Brewing Progress Update

2005-09-07T12:32:00.000-04:00

As would have been expected, our first batch has given us a few problems, one of which may render it undrinkable. Currently, Rachel is sitting in the freezer set to between 65 and 70 degrees, and has been there for the last three days. Typically, healthy fermentation should start in 24 hours, but the water in our airlock has only visibly bubbled (meaning escaping carbon dioxide, a good thing) a few times. I opened the lid today to check out the progress, and was surprised and pleased to find a pretty thick coating of foam on the top of the beer. This means the yeast is doing what it needs to be doing, yet there is still no air escaping from the airlock. Either we have a broken seal and air is escaping elsewhere, or the foam is less yeast related and more infection related. Both are bad, but obviously the latter is worse.

Every gut instinct of mine says to toss out the batch and start anew, but maybe by the grace of God this batch will turn out. The root of the slow fermentation, we believe, is that we used a vial of liquid yeast that was advertised to be ready to pitch. Other sources say that, when using liquid yeast, the brewer should start several days in advance and propagate the yeast in some sort of priming vessel, so that, come brew day, the yeast is already active and fermenting and is more likely to survive and prosper through its change of environment. We failed to do this...

Well, you live and you learn. I'll keep you all updated on how this batch turns out. In another 4 or 5 days, we will transfer it to a secondary fermenter (glass), as long as complete fermentation has taken place. In the result of a stopped fermentation, we may toss the contents and brew again the following weekend, making sure to prime our liquid yeast and have a packet of dry yeast on hand to jump start the process before three days of stagnant contamination.

Sam

Rachel

2005-09-04T18:29:00.000-04:00

Rachel is sitting in her fermentation bucket as we speak after being brewed today. We had our share of surprises, but things were pretty much painless. The only thing I'm crossing my fingers about now is that the wort didn't take too long to cool and get contaminated in the process. Everything else, though, seemed right on track. The beer's color and hop fragrances were right on the mark. The original gravity (1.045) was a little low, so we can expect a beer with a slightly lower alcohol content, but still within the range of the Amber Ale style.

For pictures, click here!

Special thanks to Nate, Michelle, Kitten, and Markus for being my helping hands.

Cheers,
Sam

Missing Pieces

2005-08-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

Brewing has been put on hold until we acquire or make these necessary pieces of equipment:

A spigot for our bottling bucket, which was mysteriously left out of the brewing starter kit that was supposed to contain it.
A larger, 7 or 8 gallon stainless steel brewpot, or another smaller brewpot (3 or 4 gallon), upon discovery that the 5 gallon one that I own will not be large enough for 5 gallons of all grain brew, which boils down for two or three hours over the course of the mashing and brewing.
Another carboy bung, because ours doesn't fit...
A (preferably) copper immersion wort chiller, which is a large amount of metal tubing wrapped in a large coil that can quickly bring hot wort down to fermetation temperature (usually 160 degrees down to half of that).
An immersion thermometer (dial type).
And most importantly, a lauter tun, which is basically a plastic bucket with a false bottom (think lots of tiny holes drilled into it), to seperate the wort from the grain husks so that we're not drinking pig slop.

I'll do my best to get these things by this weekend, but if you're at Western and you have access to a power drill (or cordless drill), please get ahold of me ASAP. We cannot start brewing without first making a lautering tun.

Everything else is in order. Again, if you can help, let me know soon, so that we may have a batch done by the beginning of October or so.

Thanks,
Sam

Almost There...

2005-08-30T17:38:00.000-04:00

Here's a photomerged look into the infamous Dk lagering cellar, currently being used to store everything until the final pieces of equipment are acquired/constructed...

Equipment is Here!

2005-08-30T11:47:00.000-04:00

The brewing equipment has arrived! Nate and I went to Bell's General Store yesterday and cleaned out the place. I don't have much time as of right now, but I'll post pictures of our loot and keep you all updated on when brewing will start as soon as I can! Hope everyone is acclimated themselves to another year of college life.

Sam

Finished Freezer Photos

2005-08-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

Freezer Pictures

2005-08-15T15:41:00.000-04:00

Lagering Cellar

2005-08-11T17:44:00.000-04:00

OK, so yesterday Preston drove me about two hours round trip so I could purchase a top-loading freezer through the classifieds. Turns out the thing is a monster, 15 square feet to be exact. Doesn't sound big? You could probably fit me and Data in it and several smallerish orphans. Or one dancing midget hired out and chained up for the Super Bowl.

So I'm having conerns about where to fit it in the apartment, but if my roommates bear with me, we could probably store it in the kitchen without much fuss, along the back wall or something like that. It has about the surface area of a child-size beer pong table, which is wrong in many ways. I'll post some pictures of it a la Pimp My Ride, because my next line of duty is to make a big ass stencil of the Dk logo and beautify the top.

Photos to come.

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering, its purpose is this: I'll hook up a thermostat to its power source, which will keep the temperature not at freezing but around 45 degrees, which is the ideal temperature for both fermenting lagers and storing bottled beer once it has been carbonated. And, since you can swim in it, we might as well use it as a second fridge in case ours starts overflowing with food and drink. Plus, its compressor, it being an older model freezer, is far smaller than most, requiring less energy, so it'll hardly have an effect on the electrical bill.

So there we are. The first brewing investment has been made.

2 weeks...

Sam

Three Weeks!

2005-08-07T15:53:00.000-04:00

Classes start (for us Western folk) in three weeks!

Not much for news on this end of things. At final tally, the beer fund has reached $830.00, 75% of which is in one dollar bills. It's like a brick of cash sitting in my sock drawer...

I'll be bringing it to the bank tomorrow because my mom has voiced concerns that it's bound to be stolen from the house or burned in a big fire or something crazy.

On the DkBrewCrew's message board on thefacebook, Michelle has offered to get started early on this year's t-shirts. If anyone has any good designs or ideas, run them by her so we can get them out faster than the last run.

I can't wait to see everyone! Once we're all settled in and normal, brewing will start.

Sam

More Beer Money?

2005-08-01T23:46:00.000-04:00

Just as a quick adendum to the last update, the beer savings has reached the epic proportions of well over $500.00. As DJ best puts it, "it's less beer savings, and more beer trust fund." That's more than 3 times what I had originally expected to save up, which obviously reflects the promise of a far greater product than ever imagined. Right?

Right?

Beer Money

2005-07-10T20:03:00.000-04:00

With only four nights of valeting under my belt, I've saved a wad of cash that totals $227.00, give or take a few bucks for a double cheeseburger I may or may not have accounted for.

I've posted before that the projected startup costs would be anywhere between $150 to $175 tops. So, needless to say, this puts us in good territory. The remainer will have to just be spent on cases of cheapo beer to hold us over until the real stuff is ready to be enjoyed.

For the future: Perhaps another recipe, though I don't know what I want to brew after Rachel. And, in all honesty to myself, it may take a couple of attempts to brew something potable, much less enjoyable. I also want to make a list of all the books I've picked up and read so far on beer and brewing and make some suggestions as to exactly what would be best to prepare the brew crew for brewing day.

Less than two months!
Sam

Preliminary 'Rachel' Recipe

2005-06-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

I am fascinated by beer. I just finished my seventh book either on homebrewing and/or commerial beer production, and I've already nearly exhausted the Traverse Area District Library's literary resources on the subject.

And so I've stepped it up. With the wealth of knowledge I've acquired at this point I feel, even having never brewed a beer before, that with the help of The Beer Recipator, a fabulous online tool that assists brewers by calculating everything from hop bitterness to the anticipated color of your brew, I have created a satisfactory recipe, or at least preliminary idea, for Dierksenkougan's first beer.

I realize the following is incredibly technical, but these charts are commonplace in the brewing world. I'll do my best to follow up each detail with a clear description, definition, or subscript. These terms and numbers are really rather simple, and absolutely essential in appreciating and understanding craft beer (that is, non-Budweiser/Miller/Coors beers that pay more respect to classic and variant European styles of beer).

Dierksenkougan Rachel
American Amber Ale
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Color: 12 SRM
Bitterness: 33 IBU
Original Gravity: 1.050. Final Gravity: 1.010. Alcohol Content: 5.1% by volume.
Grain: 7.5 lb. Pale American 6-row, 1.5 lb. American Crystal 60 Lovibond, .5 lb. Flaked Wheat
Yeast: Wyeast #1332 Northwest Ale Yeast
Bittering Hops (60 minutes): 1 oz. Cascade
Flavoring Hops (15 minutes): .5 oz. Willamette
Aromatic Hops (5 minutes): .5 oz. Willamette
Carbonation: Moderate (24 units), add 4.0 oz. of corn sugar before bottling at 65 degrees

For clarification:
- Type specifies whether the brewer will be using malt extract (type: extract) which generally comes as a premade syrup in a can, or will be brewing straight from malted grain, extracting the sugars themselves (type: all grain). There is also a partial mash type, which is part extract and part grain brewing.
- SRM stands for "Standard Refrence Method," which measures the absorbance of light into a certain colored brew. What that means for you and me is that lower numbers represent lighter beers (in color, not calorie content) and so forth. An SRM of 12 is a deep red color, slightly browner than the red on Rachel's label, an appropriate hue for what have seemed to become DK's team colors.
- Bitterness is measured in IBUs, or international bitterness units, determined primarily by how many "alpha acids" are released by the hops. Alpha acids, plus a few minor beta acids, are the source of bitterness in the plant. 33 IBUs of bittnerness are slightly above average for this style of beer, but by no means too strong. I mean to replicate the stronger hop characters of Bell's Amber Ale and other amber ales I have tasted. I believe it lends more balance to the full malt palette of the typical Amber Ale.
- Gravity is a measurement of density. Original gravity is the beer's density before fermentation, while final gravity is the density upon bottling. The drop in this density occurs because the heavy sugars in the brew are converted by the yeast into carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol), which are less dense. Brewers use this decline in density to measure an approximate alcohol content, which is fairly high in this case. Frankly, I like my beers strong. More than likely, the content will not overwhelm the flavor by any means, since it is still well within the expected ABV content for this style of beer.
- There is little to say about the grains in this brew. Like most beers, we begin with large amounts of pale malt, adding color here with a medium color (Lovibond is another similar color scale) crystal malt (which, despite the name, is not crystal clear, but rather carmel in color). The dash of wheat flake will promote a rounder body and a full, natural head on the beer without the use of artificial head-retention agents.
- Wyeast, the foremost supplier of brewing yeast in the country, produces several pure yest strains that each have unique characteristics in flocculation (clarity), ester production (natural off-flavors, not always a bad thing), and other accentuations. #1332, the Northwest Ale Yeast, is "one of the classic ale strains from the Northwest U.S. Breweries. Produces a malty and mildly fruity ale with good depth and complexity. Flocculation - high." It is also perfect for room temperature (65 to 75 degrees) fermentation.
- Bittering hops are added early in the boil for their namesake reason. Flavoring hops are added later, so that their unique flavors are not boiled out, yet their bitterness is not heated long enough to strongly affect the brew's IBUs. Aromatic hops are added very late, and contribute very little to flavor, though their oils are absorbed into the beer, enhancing its nose.
- Rachel is moderately carbonated. These nameless "units" of carbonation are new to me, an invention I presume of the recipator to establish the amount of priming sugar required to achieve proper carbonation in bottle conditioned beers like Dierksenkougan's.

There she is, and I'm very happy with her. With any luck, this recipe will yield a decent outcome without much need for tweaking. That's why I've been doing my research. Let me know what you think of it, and if you can, try an Amber Ale this summer to get an idea of what's going to be brewing. I suggest it with a good, medium-rare hamburger, and coincidentally, so do the experts.

Only a few more months...

The Brewmaster

Rachel (Update I)

2005-06-03T23:42:00.000-04:00

I spent some serious time today thinking about which beer I want to brew first as the pioneer brew and flagship beverage of Dierksenkougan Microbrew. I think I've made a decision.

I'd like to make my first batch an Amber Ale, one that I'm naming after my good friend Rachel Klegman, for several reasons:

1. Ambers go well with grilled red meat and BBQ, on which I expect the apartment will be basing its diet.
2. It is undoubtedly my personal favorite style of beer I've experienced so far.
3. It should be rather simple to brew, yet responsive toward making it unique and complex.
4. Malty and not heavily hopped, it should appeal to a wider range of beer drinkers.

I plan to begin working on a recipe soon, and I will be sure to post it when I finish and explain the contents and my reasoning in laymen's terms. I visited Bell's General Store during my visit to Kalamazoo this week, and I think I will do my initial business with them come September. Their prices are even more affordable than Things Beer, though they may have a slightly less comprehensive selection. But, for now, they seem to have what I need to start at an intermediate level, and a wide selection of grains and ingredients.

That is all. I hope everyone is still having a decent summer. I know I can't wait to get out of here.

Sam

Summer Update #1

2005-05-17T11:06:00.000-04:00

Hey all. I hope everyone is doing well. I had a day off work to contemplate what I have to accomplish this summer to bring flowing fountains of Dierksenkougan to Kalamazoo, so I thought I'd make a rare summer update on the BrewLog to pass my thoughts along.

The biggest issue of importance lately has been aquiring a refrigerator for fermentation. I've done a small bit of garage sale searching, but so far, nothing decently priced has shown up. Actually, there was a working fridge in the freebies section of the newspaper the other day, but apparently I called too late; it had already been claimed. The second, and related, issue has been researching refrigerator thermostats, because a normal fridge at 35 degrees is still too cold for lagering. The thermostat plugs into your fridge between the power outlet and the power cord and regulates, through an attached thermometer, when the fridge needs cooling and so forth. The price on that is looking at something around $70.00, so depending on how cheaply I can find a fridge, I might make the investment.

I train for valeting at Bowers Harbor Inn today, and I'm planning on pay from that job (including a large amount of tips) to go into a personal beer fund, which hopefully by summer's end will be enough to cover start-up costs plus more.

A few days I stopped by Diversions, a local hat store that just started selling beer and wine making equipment. They're a respectable dealer, but on a small scale, so I probably won't do much business with them. But the coversations with an employee there were enlightening, and it was nice to be able to talk beer to somebody for once. Today I plan to stop by Terrace Shopper to look around, which apparently sells brewing equipment as well, although I don't know to what extent. The place is rather small too, so I wouldn't imagine there are many deals to be found. Nevertheless, I'm doing my research, and I'm at the library right now, about to check out some brewing books after posting this update.

That's it. Please: if anybody sees a cheap fridge for sale, or know somebody who has one sitting in their garage collecting dust, please let me know. I'm willing to make an investment on this brewing thing, but I also need to make it through the school year on some sort of budget. My cell is (231) 392-2236. Thanks guys.

The Brewmaster

Brew Crew Group Picture

2005-04-25T00:55:00.000-04:00

It's not everybody, but thanks to Michelle for the great group picture from Kevin's party.

Everyone have a great summer, and get hyped up for the real thing come September.

The Brewmaster

The Shirts Are In

2005-04-10T19:14:00.000-04:00

The Dierksenkougan "Brew Crew" T-shirts are printed and available! Most of you who have paid have already received them, but if you paid, your shirt is waiting. Also, there are a small number of extras in various sizes. If you didn't get one, let me know and you might just get lucky.

Friday night, a few of us dressed in our new digs and hit our good friend Kevin's for a little party. Check out the photos here.

So big thanks to Michelle DeFouw for personally doing such a great job on these. For those who didn't know, Michelle made these herself. As in not ordered them from a screen printer. I saw the ink on her hands. And they look great. Thanks again, Michelle!

The summer is drawing near, which means we only have one more season until the beer starts brewing! This weekend's trip to Canada expanded beer knowledge and exposure to all, and I'm excited to crack open a Dierksenkougan on the front porch with good friends and a good BBQ.

See you then,
The Brewmaster

East of the Border

2005-03-30T18:21:00.000-05:00

Several of us are going to Canada on Saturday, April 9th. This applies to Dierksenkougan because dinner will be at Patrick O'Ryan's Irish Pub, where they have over 20 different beers on tap. Beers will be discussed, and ideas thrown around for possible brewing recipes. And then we'll go to the clubs and get intoxicated. Let me know if you want to carpool.

Browse Patrick O'Ryan's beers on tap here.

Sam

Hiatus

2005-03-19T19:12:00.000-05:00

As apparent from the lack of recent posts, the BrewLog will be taking a hiatus until new things start brewing. Haha, get it?

As for now, we're just waiting to get started, but there isn't particularly much that we can do except pee our pants with excitement. Check back occasionally, but I can't guarantee anything riveting until August or September.

As for shirts, they are, as always, "coming along." They are supposed to be done this week, but then again, they were supposed to be done before Spring Break. You will be contacted individually about them. Remember, they're $6.50. Scrape up some change, steal it from your sister, whatever.

Until then...

Cheers,
The Brewmaster

Fashion Police

2005-03-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

An update from Michelle, our T-Shirt Mistress:

DIERKSENKOUGAN T-SHIRTS are going to be available in the next couple of weeks. They are late due to a large project going on in the Printing Department, but there is good news...

The shirts are only $6.50!!! If you can get the money to me or Michelle ASAP, we'll hand-deliver your shirts when they arrive. Promise. Don't screw us, please.

Michelle: michelle_eliza@hotmail.com
Sam: ignitehardcore@hotmail.com

We'll keep you updated,
Sam

Field Trip

2005-03-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

A field trip to Things Beer may happen this weekend, perhaps Saturday morning. Brewers love company. A stop at Jersey Giant or other East Lansing locations could also be arranged.

Sam

Beer 102: The Brewing Process

2005-02-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

It will be particularly important that, come brew time, everyone involved hands-on with the project will have to know exactly what the Hell they're actually doing. The risk of batch contamination in an apartment housing four guys and a penguin is pretty substantial, and in the case of preventable loss of beer, I may be driven to stab somebody's eye out with a bottle capper.

The following procedure is extracted verbatim from the Dierksenkougan Beer Bible, AKA Marty Nachel's Homebrewing for Dummies. My comments are in brackets. Brownie points for those who borrow it from me for further instruction. Read on:

"The following list covers 24 steps that walk you all the way though the brewing process. Twenty-four steps may sound pretty intense, but I assure you they are easy, quick, and painless steps...Besides, when you're done, you brewed your first beer!

1. Fill your brewpot about 2/3 full with "clean" tap water or bottled water [we will use Culligan filtered water from Meijer. We don't want to be causing kidney stones] and then place it on the largest burner of your stove. ... The exact volume of water is not of great importance during this step, as the cold water that you add to the fermenter later brings the total to 5 gallons.

2. Set the burner on medium-high.

3. Remove the plastic lids from the kits and set the yeast packets aside.

4. Strip the paper labels off the 2 cans of extract [or however many cans we are using] and place the cans in a smaller pot or saucepan filled halfway with tap water. Place the pot or saucepan on another burner adjacent to the brewpot. ...

5. Set the second burner on medium.

6. ... Flip the cans in the warming water every couple of minutes.

[6.5. As this is happening, we will augment this very elementary procedure with the addition of specialty grains, which allow for a greater production variety of beer styles. To do this, we will use a mesh nylon baggie containing anywhere from half a pound to 2 pounds of specialty grain and steep the contents in a seperate saucepan containing hot, sub-boiling temperature water. After about 20 minutes of leeching the colors and flavors, the liquid will be transfered to the large saucepan and soon mixed with the extract.]

7. As the water in the brewpot begins to boil, turn off the burner from under the smaller pot (containing the cans), remove the cans from the water, and remove the lids from the cans.

8. Using a long-handled spoon or rubber spatula, scrape as much of the warmed extract as possible into the water in the brewpot.

9. Immediately , stir the extract/water solution and continue to stir until the extract is completely dissolved in the water. [Now you officially have "wort"] ...

10. Top off the brewpot with more clean...water, keeping your water a reasonable distance--about two inches--from the top of the pot to avoid boilovers.

11. Bring the wort to a boil (turn up burner if necessary).

12. Boil the wort for about an hour. [Never put the lid on the boil, and always stir the solution every couple of minutes]

[12.5. As the wort is boiling, since we will not be using pre-hopped extract, hops will be added, also steeping into the boiling wort. Bittering hops, the most essential, need at least one hour of boiling time, so they will essentially be added as soon as the wort begins to boil. Flavoring hops, added for secondary taste and less for their bitterness, need approximately 10 to 30 minutes of boil time. Finishing, or aromatic, hops are added in the last 5 minutes of the boil, and add a negligible amount of flavor, but instead make sure your beer smells discernably different from a dead rodent. Consumers appreciate this courtesy.] ...

13. When an hour has elapsed, turn off the burner and place the lid on the brewpot.

14. Put a stopper in the nearest sink drain [or bathtub], [and] put the covered brewpot in the sink and fill the sink with very cold water. ...

15. After 5 minutes, drain the sink and refill it -- as many times as is needed until the brewpot is cool to the touch.

[16. & 17. This part of the text details using dry yeast. Dierksenkougan will likely use liquid yeast, which comes in a "smack pack" and is prepared three days prior and refridgerated. It is ready to be added to the wort immediately upon brewing, and comes in a larger variety of styles and is less prone to bacterial contamination than dry yeast cultures.] ...

18. When the brewpot is relatively cool to the touch, remove the brewpot lid and carefully pour the wort into the fermentation bucket. Make sure the spigot is closed!

19. Top off the fermenter to the 5-gallon mark with cold, clean water, pouring it vigorously into the bucket. This splashing not only mixes the wort with the additional water, it also aerates the wort well. [Aerating the wort replaces oxygen, which the yeast need small amounts of to get a healty start. Soon, they will consume that oxygen and begin fermenting--violently] ...

20. Take a hydrometer reading. [A hydrometer measures the density of the fluid. This is important because as the yeast begin to ferment, they remove heavy sugars and replace them with lighter compounds like carbon dioxide and alcohol. As your density falls, your alcohol content rises, and every beer recipe has a projected final gravity (density) that tells you when to move onto secondary fermentation or bottling. If you don't wait long enough, your beer is too sweet and not alcoholic enough for you to be too drunk to care. Wait too long, and the yeast will run out of grain sugars and autolyze, or eat themselves, and produce a rotten-egg sulfur flavor that is best characterized as skunky.] ...

[21. Add yeast to wort. Shotgun a beer and give somebody a high-five Bayside style.]

22. Cover fermenter with its lid and thoroughly seal it. ...

23. Put the fermenter in a location in your home that is cool and dark, such as a basement, a crawlspace, or an interior closet.

24. ...Fill the airlock with water...and attach the rubber stopper."

!

Congratu-frickin'-lations if you got through that one, because there's 300 more pages where that came from. But it's all up here (points to head), and I'll be damned if I'll let anyone, informed or otherwise, screw up a single bottle of Dierksenkougan.

Next class: Beer 103: Secondary Fermentation and Bottling. Don't worry, it's a snap compared to this.

Your Brewmaster,
Sam Reese

PS. Shirt orders are in, so it's too late to take any more requests. They should be printed a week or two after Spring Break. Roll up your pennies and wash your best pair of jeans.

Beer 101: What is Beer?

2005-02-20T18:59:00.000-05:00

Having been pleasantly surprised in the number of people actually keeping tabs on Dierksenkougan through this weblog, I've decided to start a series of tutorials to bring the Brew Crew and its affiliates to a moderate level of intuition on certain things concerning beer that, come brew time, will have to be common knowledge. And since it isn't too far from the truth to say that many Americans can't discern their favorite beer from animal urine, I'll discuss the barest and bonesiest of the basics, right here, right now.

What is beer?

Fundamentally, beer has four ingredients, and according to some beer purists, anything outside of these boundaries is another beverage altogether. To be beer, a beverage must contain malted grain barley, hops, yeast, and water. In fact, one of Germany's oldest laws concerns "pure" beer, and it is strongly enforced today, requiring beverages with additives beyond these four to legally refrain from labeling itself as "Bier" else they experience the fiery fist of the law.

Barley: Malted barley, needless to say, is absolutely essential. It is responsible for providing the malt sugars that in turn break down into alcohol. Additionally, it produces the color and underlying flavor of the beer, among countless other things. Barley, over corn or millet or rice et al., has proven the staple grain in beermaking, though wheat beers have grown extremely popular and rice, whether you knew it or not, is commonplace in cheap American lagers to replace barley, which is rather expensive in comparison.

Keeping in mind that this is an entry level tutorial, what you should know is that freshly picked barley from the stalk is unsuitable in producing beer. The barley must first be malted in a kiln to prepare its guts to be turned into sugar, and then that grain must be sent though a mill to separate the husk from the grain. The kilning is not generally the responsibility of the homebrewer, but the milling is, if you wish to pursue an advanced level of homebrewing that is, as of yet, beyond the scope of Dierksenkougan. More commonly, beginner and intermediate brewers will purchase malt extract, which has been separated from the husk, crushed, and mixed with water into a thick syrup and is ready for secondary heating and, subsequently, brewing. It has also undergone a process of mashing, which prepares and releases the sugars from the grain and makes the mixture sweet and thick--a process that advanced brewers typically perform themselves. This grain, which now more resembles molasses and crude oil, is now ready for another key ingredient.

Hops: Hops certainly have less chemical influence in beer than malt, but they are equally important in dynamics of character.

Malt and hops are said to be the ying and yang of beer's flavor; where malt provides the sweetness, hops provides a balancing amount of bitterness, helping cover the flavor of alcohol in the finished product. Beyond bittering, hops (which are plants distantly related to marijuana that look like small, green pinecones) add spice and adjunct flavors to the beer, depending on which specially produced strain you decide to use. Less importantly, they are responsible for the aroma of the beverage, and more scientifically, act as bacterial inhibitors and natural clarifying agents for the wellbeing of your brew. No, beer cannot be brewed without hops (Timmy), and if what you hate about beer is its nagging bitterness, understand that hops are a necessary component in keeping beer from tasting like maple syrup and dirt.

Yeast: As equally essential as malt on the scientific front, yeast is what makes beer both intoxicating and effervescent. Yeah, alcoholic and carbonated. Yeast, as rudimentarily as possible, uses the malt sugars as food in absense of oxygen, producing, fortunately for us, carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol) as a by-product. In the brewing process, yeast is treated like a princess, kept at proper temperature and catered to in every manner. Bad or weak yeast can succomb to an overpowering propegation of wild yeasts or bacteria, effectively rendering your beer undrinkable. Thousands of yeast strains are used in beermaking, and each has been specially crafted over time to best fit certain beer styles, fermentation temperatures, and additive ingredients. For example, you would most certainly use a different yeast strain for a honey lager and an Irish stout, and you would probably use a different strain for an Irish stout and an English porter, though closely related.

Potentially, yeast can be used forever, skimmed off the surface before bottling your first batch and revitalized for a second, and so forth, until you screw up and kill the buggers. Since that idea sounds rather unappealing, I am suggesting that Dierksenkougan use new yeast in every batch and let our little friends rest in peace at the end of each brewing cycle, lest they become overworked and make us a nasty batch of brew.

Water: There would seem to be very little that can be said of beer's last ingredient, but water is phenomenally important to making the perfect brew. While most information regarding water is beyond the scope of the average introductory tutorial, it is essential to know that professional brewers spend thousands of dollars emulating water from different sites around the world, acknowledging that mineral and ion levels in certain water sources contribute to the unique flavors of their respective beers. Levels of chlorine, iron, calcium, and phosphate in water make significant differences in the "brewability" of water, as well as flavor quality and things like head retention (foam) and mouthfeel (physical characteristics like carbonation, thickness, and aftertaste). This is why it is not advisable to brew with distilled water; the natural mineral ions in groundwater promote a healthy atmosphere for living yeast cells. Distilled water, however, contains very little of these precious minerals, hindering growth and often paralyzing the progress of your brew.

There.

I imagine that is enough information for now, but every week or so, for your benefit and my own review, I will update the Brewlog with "Beer 101" tutorials, so that hopefully by September, we will all know the ins and outs of homebrewing enough to understand and appreciate the final product a little bit more. If you made it this far in this post, you're as serious as I am, and it's nice to not be alone...

Your Brewmaster,
Sam Reese

Last Call

2005-02-18T23:25:00.000-05:00

This is officially the last call for putting in requests for Dierksenkougan Brew Crew T-Shirts. This is more than likely the first, last, and only time we will print these bad boys and they're yours for a steal at only $8.00. By tomorrow at midnight we need a final list to get these out before or around Spring Break. If you want one:

a. Send me an email at ignitehardcore@hotmail.com, or
b. Send me a message on thefacebook.com, or
c. Leave a comment right here on the Brewlog

Include your size and, if you want more than one, how many. Again, the basic design can be found here, but remember the final colors and detail will vary slightly. Once the order is filed we will have to collect your money (perhaps even before), the logistics of which we have not yet figured out. But be assured you'll read it here when it has been sorted through.

This way we can get people asking questions about Dierksenkougan and make a few people curious.

By the way, there's a homebrewing seminar being offered by a brewer from Arcadia Brewing Company (Michigan based) that is being held at The Gibbs House at 4503 Parkview Ave. (East of Drake Rd.) this Saturday from 12:00 - 4:00. Because of commitments I will not be able to attend, but somebody from the Brew Crew should go and represent DK (and take notes!). It was on the front page of the Western Herald, so it may or may not be a big deal. I know I'm bummed I can't be there.

And there aren't free samples, which probably destroyed all chances of getting anybody to go that was still considering.

Remember, Shirts=Free Beer,
The Brewmaster

Possession with Intent to Brew

2005-02-17T15:42:00.001-05:00

Though homebrewing suppliers are legally allowed to sell supplies and non-alcoholic ingredients to persons under 21, the final decision is left at the discretion of the retailer. I emailed ThingsBeer today to clarify their policy, and I will amend this post with that information as soon as they respond.

Cross your fingers,
Sam

DERK - SIN - KOO - GINN

2005-02-16T01:45:00.000-05:00

What's so hard about a silly name? You don't say Budweiser like they wrote "Say It Ain't So" just like you don't rhyme Michelob with boob. So what should be coming out of your mouth when you say Dierksenkougan actually rolls off the tongue quite nicely, if you can manage to say it right:

DERK - SIN - KOO - GINN

That means if you're pronouncing it with six syllables and therefore sound like a drunken Scot, you are wrong and probably can't read. But I suppose I have to offer the benefit of the doubt, because it isn't like Dierksenkougan was chosen systematically or based on some greater meaning. But there is a traceable origin. Dierksenkougan is the pride and joy of a certain Kathryn Rozich, the combined hybrid of her favorite male and female names; respectively, Dierks and Kougan. The real question is if naming your daughter Kougan could be legally construed as child abuse. The name had a certain ring, so we made it a single word of, until now, ambiguous descent.

'Dierks,' an alternate spelling of 'Dirks' or just "Dirk," draws its heritage from an ancient Germanic leader of the same name. Today, 'Dierks' can be roughly translated to "ruler" or "king." Cool.

Cool is not the case with Kougan. We find 'Kougan' in several dialects of Japanese, and according to this site of compromised credibility, it means anything from audacity to rosy cheeks to male genitalia, none of which are particularly appropriate terms for describing a beverage. This is why Dierksenkougan will never be popular in Tokyo. "King of Balls" just doesn't demand the same degree of respect as "King of Beers."

Well Drinks & Well Wishes,
Your Brewmaster

A Festival of Flavors

2005-02-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

Despite the nearly exclusive consumption of American lagers in this fine country, I wanted to clarify just exactly what sort of beverage will bear the Dierksenkougan name, because if you were expecting something between Old Milwaukee and bathtub hooch, you're about to get a lesson in fine brew. While I don't pretend to think that my familiarity of beer styles by taste is extensive, I do have a few favorites that will occupy my first few batches. As a caveat, this projection may and probably will change as September ever so slowly creeps nearer.

Dierksenkougan Rachel: Red Ale.
Bears likeness to Killian's Irish Red, except that it is an ale. The difference is, fundamentally, that Ales use top fermenting yeast and lagers use bottom fermenting yeast. What that means as a general rule for flavor is that lagers are smoother and generally more watery, with fewer hop characteristics (bitterness) and less essence of grain. Lagers also need to be refrigerated during fermentation (an issue I will bring up shortly). Rachel should be medium to rich red in color, with a suppressed hop flavor, but the specialty roasted barley malts will seep through. This should be drinkable by quantity, likely containing a normal alcohol content and resembling any old American lager but with a better aftertaste and a more sophisticated, slightly fuller flavor.

Dierksenkougan MacKenzie: Scotch Ale.
My first and only Scotch Ale was Founder's Brewery's Dirty Bastard. This beer has a big kick of both alcohol and flavor, and probably shouldn't be heavily consumed for risk of liver failure. Excess grain sugars and chocolate malts help bring out natural sweetness, but the kicker is that MacKenzie, when bottled, will be primed with a shot of scotch in place of regular dextrose. The leftover yeast cells use the sugars in this scotch as they would with the dextrose to produce carbon dioxide inside the sealed bottle and a negligible extra amount of alcohol. This adds the complexity of scotch into an original brown ale, the sweetness balanced by lots of additional hops to really fill the mouth with flavor.

Dierksenkougan Jasmine: IPA (India Pale Ale).
Another full-flavored beer, and definitely an acquired taste. Don't expect much for sweetness in this one; instead, IPAs are tremendously hopped to subdue an equally evident alcoholic character. Historically, IPAs were special formula English ales developed during the colonization of India. To survive the long journey by boat, yeast activity had to be controlled as to avoid spoilage or autolysis (yeast eating itself, causing sulfur-like flavors in the beer; think rotten eggs). To do this, alcohol content was increased, effectively killing the yeast. Then hops were added en masse to counterbalance the alcohol presence, resulting in a brew that lingers in the back of the mouth and throat, often with mild oak flavors to emulate the characteristic formerly acquired by gentle sloshing in oak barrels. Jasmine is a beer to be drank slowly, one at a time, and over a meal because it truly possesses a comparable complexity to good wine.

Dierksenkougan Shannon: Traditional Irish Stout.
Think Guinness or, more appropriately, Mackeson Stout. Shannon is all Irish attitude, full bodied, thicker, and opaque black, but don't expect the punch generally credited to dark ales. This stout, like most, has a relatively diminished alcohol content which allows the chocolate and dark caramel characteristics room to breathe. Shannon should go down like an elixir, with little to no bitterness and all the subtle malt character as possible. If you pride yourself on your Irish heritage, you should be able to drink this shit like water.

Dierksenkougan Hannah: Honey Lager.
Hannah is the only lager on the lineup for one very important reason: required refrigeration. With very few exceptions, lagers require fermentation temperatures only sustainable via thermostat, something of which the Brew Crew is not yet in possession. If you have an old fridge or know somebody who does, please let me know. Attaching a thermostat is cheap and easy, but a refrigerator is required to make lagers and we could really use the donation. Hannah should closely resemble Honey Brown, an extremely drinkable, tantalizingly smooth, subtly sweet lager, and we should be able to knock this stuff back by the gallon. If we can get the fridge, this will be a house favorite, I guarantee it.

Want something else? Let me know and we'll brew it up. Do some research, make a recipe, and it could be a winner. On that note, I suppose my ultimate goal is to be the youngest brewer to ever be recognized with a prize at the American Homebrewing Association nationals, like the Beer Oscars. I also want to drive down the street in a Caterham Classic 7 surrounded by beautiful women who think brewing your own beer is sexy. Neither of these things will ever happen.

Well Drinks and Well Wishes,
The Brewmaster