Chocolate Macadamia Nut Porter Update

I force carbonated the porter last night at about 26-28 psi for 14 hours at about 38 degrees. This morning, I turned the pressure down to about 10 psi (serving pressure) to let it keep going for a few more days. I poured a small glass just to see how it was coming along and I dare say it is ready. I'm sure that after another couple of days, it will be perfectly carbonated, but it's very nicely carbonated now. I think it carbonated so quickly because the gas is denser the colder it gets.

The porter itself turned out nicely. It has a nice nose; you can immediately smell the chocolate and you get a nice smoky, roasted aroma which I'm assuming is the nuts. Considering it has a large portion of hops, it is not overly hoppy, which I like. The flavor is a little lacking, which is surprising considering the amount of ingredients that went into this beer. There is a little chocolate on the tip of the tongue followed by a bitter-sweet finish. It has a nice mouthfeel and a long-lasting consistent head (thank you, CO2).  It is definitely on the bitter side (not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels too much like a stout as opposed to the porter it is supposed to be), so I might try milk-chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate instead of the bitter-sweet I used if I were to try this recipe again. This bitterness takes away from the smoothness a little. Overall, I would give this beer a solid B. Not great, but not awful, either. It is something I would definitely like to play around with in the future. However, none of my friends have tried it, so I'll let them judge it as I am probably my worst critic. Also, it has only been in the keg for a day. As it conditions further, the beer may begin to show some more mature characteristics.

On a side note, I am in love with kegging already. It presents new challenges and problems (like making sure everything is hooked up properly, securing leaks, getting the regulator to work, etc.), but it is very nice to just walk up to the tap and pour off a nice cold beer whenever I want. Gotta love it!

Until Next Time,
RHSC

Hard Cider

I "brewed" (not really sure this term applies here) this cider over a month ago and am bottling it today. There are so many ways to make cider,  and there are tons of recipes out there. This is my first attempt at making cider, so I decided to take an easy route.

Ingredients:

• 5 gallons Apple Juice
• 2 lbs Honey
• 1 lb Brown Sugar
• 1 package Champagne Yeast
• 3/8 or 3/4 cup corn sugar

Instructions:

• Heat one gallon of juice on stove.
• Add honey and brown sugar. Stir until completely mixed together.
• Add to fermenter with remaining 4 gallons.
• Pitch yeast.
• Ferment in primary for 2 weeks.
• Ferment in secondary for 2 weeks.
• Bottle with corn sugar for carbonated cider, or without for flat cider.

My plan is to carbonate half of the batch, which is why I have 3/8 cup of sugar listed (you will use 3/4 cup if you plan to carbonate the entire batch). I will transfer the cider to the bottling bucket and bottle half the batch into wine bottles. Then I will add the solution, stir, and let sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then I will bottle the rest into beer bottles. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Until Next Time,

RHSC

Pale Ale

As most of you probably know, I am not a fan of pale ales, and I definitely don't like IPAs. I don't like the overly bitter punch of hops without any malt body to back up the hops. However, a lot of people do like them. Just go look at all the craft beers in the grocery store beer aisle. So many of them are IPAs and pale ales. A lot of my friends like them, so I decided to try my hands at making one. My goal was to make a pale ale that has a nice balance between the hops and the malt. I don't have a lot of experience with pale ales, so the guy at the local HBS took a pale ale kit and helped me customize a recipe to basically make a balanced batch of beer that I would like, but that pale ale drinkers would also like. I brewed today, and it smelled surprisingly good. It looked a little dark for a pale ale, but they all look a little darker in the bucket than they end up looking in the glass. I was also amazed at how easy this batch was to make. This may have been the easiest batch I've ever brewed.

Ingredients:

• 6.3 lbs Light Malt Extract
• 0.5 lbs Crystal Malt (40 L)
• 6 oz 2-Row Malted Barley
• 1 oz Cascade Hops
• 1 package English Ale Yeast

Instructions:

• Steep grains at 150-160F for 30-60 minutes
• Stir in extract and half of the hops. Boil for one hour.
• At 30 minutes, stir in the remainder of the hops.
• After one hour, remove from heat and cool the wort.
• Pitch the yeast.
• Ferment for 10-14 days.

OG: 1.038

Once again, I plan to keg this batch and force carbonate. If you are going to bottle, you will want to use 3/4 cup of corn sugar to 2 cups of water for the priming solution. I will let you know in a couple of weeks how it turns out.

Until Next Time,

RHSC

Craft Beers

What is a craft beer? There are actually a lot of definitions, and there is even a legal definition, apparently. A craft beer is basically a beer that does not use rice or corn as a major ingredient. The craft beer movement started in the 1970s to get away from the beer created by the mega breweries (such as Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc.). The problem with craft beers these days is that they are trying to do exactly what they originally were trying to get away from. They are trying to take over the market and become leaders in the industry. They started as regional breweries that provided original high quality products to the people of that region. I recently read a blog post from "Top Fermented" about this subject that I really liked. He stated that these breweries are throwing around the word "consistency" lately. This is the same word that the mega breweries throw around. Each Budweiser is supposed to taste exactly the same. It's not necessarily about making good beer as much as it is about making consistently tasting beer. What about consistently good beer?

The blogger even states that making a product that tastes exactly the same year after year shouldn't really be possible. Think about it. You're using organic materials that change from year to year, not to mention that yeast is a living organism, which reacts differently from batch to batch. Even if you use the same materials each time, there will most likely be a slight taste difference. Will it be similar? Of course. The same? No. And it shouldn't be expected to be. This is one of the principles behind home-brewing. One of the exciting parts of creating your own beer is that even if you make the same batch again, it will probably display different characteristics each time. The craft beer industry started with this idea in mind, but these companies have basically become smaller versions of the mega breweries. They are more interested in creating a flagship beer with a few supporting styles and marketing them across the country and even world-wide. Don't get me wrong; you start a business to make money. No one ever goes into starting a business with the intent to lose money. And people typically don't like change, so they don't want their favorite beers to change. However, I feel like this makes it harder for smaller, truly local breweries to provide their craft beers to the community.

I like the idea of craft beers. The whole idea of using corn or rice is to control the flavor of the product. Using malted barley and wheat, without using rice or corn, allows for the unique complexities of the beer to come out. I even think it's okay for the beer to be different from batch to batch. Isn't this the same for the wine industry? The same style of wine from different years is not expected to be exactly the same. That's why we put emphasis on labeling the years of the wine. Why can't we do this for beer?

The author of "Top Fermented" is starting a small brewery in NC. His mission is to create good beer that has variability, as all good beer does. I really like this and am excited about his brewery. If more breweries took this chance with their beers, the beer industry would be completely different. They would be getting back to actually creating "craft beers."

Check out his post at http://www.topfermented.com/2011/06/01/real-beer-has-variability-or-mystery-brewings-mission-statement/.

Until Next Time,
RHSC

Stupid Bucket Lid...

Imagine what you would say if something suddenly went wrong with a project you had been working on for weeks...and that is probably what I said this past Friday night. After I transferred the porter (see Chocolate Macadamia Nut Porter post) from the primary to the secondary, something horrible happened. As I was placing the airlock into the rubber ring in the top of the lid, the ring fell into the batch. Panic ran through my mind like never before. I cursed...and then cursed some more. I quickly opened the bucket; maybe it was floating.

No such luck. It sank to the bottom.

I suddenly began thinking about having to toss the batch due to it being completely contaminated. However, I realized that there is a reason why I sanitize the entire lid and not just the underside that comes in contact with the beer (as a few people have told me is all that is necessary). I quickly washed and sanitized the primary and tubing, and re-transferred the beer back into the first bucket. I guess in the grand scheme of things, this was not the worst thing that could have happened, but what upsets me the most is how much beer I lost in the process. You always lose a little volume in the transfer, but I went from just over 5 gallons to less than 4.5 gallons on Friday. Hopefully, this won't contaminate the batch and it will still turn out well. It's just extremely irritating.

Damn.

Until Next Time,
RHSC

Beer Blogging Buddies

I recently joined this social network for beer bloggers called "Beer Bloggers Unite." It's a very cool site where all kinds of beer bloggers can get together and share ideas, recipes, beers they like/dislike, etc. I was immediately welcomed by a gentleman named Marcus who owns his own restaurant in Ellenville, NY. He has a video blog called "Beer Blogging Buddies," where he and two friends sample different beers and rate them on a score from 0-100. It is hilarious. Not only do they appear pretty knowledgeable about beer, but you can tell they really enjoy beer. You can also tell that they really enjoy each other's company. The one thing I really liked about them is that they don't appear to subscribe to trends. They like what they like and are unapologetic about it (that also goes for what they don't like). I really like this blog and have added it to the list of blogs I'm following. It's a lot of fun and I recommend everyone give it a try. You can follow the link below:

http://beerbloggingbuddies.blogspot.com

Until Next Time,
RHSC

Kegerator

Over the past couple of weeks I have been looking into kegging my beer. I have come to the conclusion that bottling is tedious and takes a really long time. Beer usually has to condition in bottles for at least 10-14 days, whereas keg conditioned beer only needs about 5 days. Also, force carbonating the beer is really the only way to ensure that each beer is consistently carbonated. I recently purchased a keg refrigerator, or kegerator. I've been pricing kegerators, online and on Craig's List, and finally came across one for sale at an antique shop in Raleigh. The owner wasn't even really aware of what he had. It is an old U-Line "Keg-Meister" complete with tower and CO2 tank. This model was discontinued around 1994 or 1995. It was rusted, dirty, and in need of lots of work, but worked fine and got cold in a hurry. It also has tons of space. It will easily hold two 5-gallon Cornelius (corny) kegs. He was asking $295, but I got him down to $250 once I told him about all the parts I was going to have to replace and modify for home-brew kegs (it was set-up for commercial kegs). I jumped on it immediately.

What I've Done So Far:

• Scrubbed down all the exterior metal--it looks silver again
• Scrubbed the interior--it's still rusted, but not as bad as it was
• Cleaned and scrubbed the drip tray and drain
• Replaced the beer line
• Soaked and cleaned the shank and faucet
• Replaced the commercial couplers (gas-in and beer-out) with ball-lock couplers for corny kegs
• Replaced the regulator and gas hose for the CO2 tank.
• Found a Sam Adams tap handle and put it on instead of the little black knob it came with

I eventually want to replace the tower with one that has two faucets so that I can tap two kegs at once. I'm not sure that I'll keep this one forever, but it's a great start. I already have a keg and am planning to keg condition my latest batch (see the Chocolate Macadamia Nut Porter post). It's a great investment and I've been told by many who have made the same leap that I got a great deal. Pictures below.

Until Next Time,

RHSC

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Porter

This past Friday, a group of friends came over and helped me brew this latest batch. I've been trying ever since Beer Fest to create a recipe for this type of porter after I tried the Gallows Point Dead Man's Porter, which was a chocolate macadamia nut flavored beer. Since then I have been anxious to find a recipe that recreates this beer. I couldn't find one anywhere. I looked through various recipe books and even online to no avail.  So, this is basically an original recipe that I came up with based on a couple of basic porter and chocolate porter recipes.

Ingredients:

• 4.3 lbs Dark Malt Extract
• 3 lbs Amber Malt Extract
• 0.5 lb Crystal Grain (90 L)
• 0.5 lb Chocolate Malt 
• 0.25 lb Black Patent Malt
• 1.5 cups Molasses
• 9 oz Bittersweet Baking Chocolate (60% Cacao) (melted) (adjust amount based on desired sweetness)
• 1 cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts (roasted)
• 1.5 oz Northern Brewer Hops 
• 1.5 oz Cascade Hops
• American Ale Yeast

Instructions:

• Steep grains at 150-160F for 30-60 minutes.
• Bring to boil and stir in extract, molasses, and Northern Brewing hops. Boil for one hour.
• At 45 minutes left, stir in half of the macadamia nuts.
• At 30 minutes, stir in the melted chocolate. Stir frequently to prevent the chocolate from burning.
• At 15 minutes, stir in the rest of the nuts.
• After one hour, remove the wort from heat and steep the Cascade hops for 10 minutes.
• Chill wort quickly and add to fermenter.
• Pitch yeast.
• Ferment in primary for 7-10 days.
• Transfer to secondary for 7-10 days.

OG = 1.060

I have invested in a kegging system (blog post on the way), so I will not be bottling this batch. I will transfer to a keg and force carbonate for about 5 days. However, if you want to bottle, you will boil 3/4 cup of corn sugar to 2 cups of water for a priming solution and bottle for 10-14 days. I am very excited about this batch, especially since I will be kegging. Once it is ready, I will post an update.

Until Next Time,

RHSC