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Rick Lyke over at Lyke2Drink has this month’s Session, and the theme is “The Brew Zoo“. Essentially if an animal is present in the name of the beer or brewery, or if an animal is linked with the branding, it’s in. Rick put it this way:

“The basic rule is that either the brewery or the beer must have a real live creature in its name. We will also allow beers with prominent animal label art (think Geary’s Ale from Maine and its Lobster) to be added to the Brew Zoo.”

In addition to the theme, another important point to note is that this month’s Session is appropriately dedicated to prominent beer author, Mr. Michael Jackson (to whom all beer lovers owe a large debt of gratitude).

So let’s see what animal Brewerman will contribute to the zoo.

Kiuchi Brewery - Hitachino Nest White Ale
Kiuchi Brewery is located in Japan. The iconic owl on the front is present on all the Hitachino Nest beers. It is one of the more distinct Japanese labels making this little bird easy to spot in the bottleshops’ coolers. This is one of their top selling beers for a reason. It’s an award-winner that people like. Let’s see what it’s all about.
Appearance: Classic haze of a white. Straw color. White head that quickly dissipates.
Smell: Whites are traditionally brewed with orange peel and coriander. This one appears to be no exception as the aroma is heavy on both fronts, but the coriander is coupled with an apparent nutmeg addition. Hops are not obvious or even apparent, which is to be expected for the style.
Taste: Nice, heavy fruit and spice sitting on top of the classic wheat-heavy grain bill. It is a big, bright flavor that dissipates cleanly.
Mouthfeel: Light and clean with lively carbonation that plays well with the flavor.
Drinkability: I like this beer, and will definitely pick more up the next chance I get. It is easy drinking and clean finishing despite the prevalent spice, which might be a bit on the strong side for some fans of Belgian witbiers

Ratebeer: 3.43/5 [80 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 3.99/5 [87 percentile]

So play nice with the other animals, little Hitachino Nest owl. Know that we’ll all be coming to visit you and your other Brew Zoo friends regularly.

Cheers!

First off, let me just say that I love Bell’s beer.  It is one amazing brewery. Their ability to put out so many different beers of such high quality is something to be respected. Ratebeer has 12 of their beers (not marked as retired) above the 90th percentile. Now that I’ve said what I love, let me say what I don’t love: the beer distribution system of this country, but that’s another post.

My buddy, Hophound, brought this (and several other Bell’s beers) back from a trip to the Midwest.  God bless him for that.  I’ll be posting about the other beers as they are consumed.

Appearance: Pours a hazy pale golden.  This beer is noticibly unfiltered, so there’s lots of little floaties (which, in my opinion, is a good thing here).  Decent carbonation.  The head dissipated quickly, leaving a little ring around the glass.
Smell: Pale malt, hops, clean, spicy, classic midwest beer smell (don’t know how else to say it).
Taste: Pronounced hop bitterness and spice against malt sweetness. A bit of nuttiness and melon in the background.  Lingering bitterness after the spice and malt die off.
Mouthfeel: Not too crisp, good solid carbonation.  Good medium bodied beer. 
Drinkability: Very easy to drink.  Very tasty.  The balanced bitterness and malt sweetness make this such an enjoyable beer to drink.  I like it a lot.  I wish that we could get Bell’s here.

Ratebeer: 3.35/5 [74 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 3.59/5 [82 percentile]

When people who aren’t into beer hear me giving credit to the primary name in beer writing, it never fails … “Michael Jackson?!  (snickering)”.  This is always followed up by me correcting them with, “Not that Michael Jackson.”  The Michael Jackson I’m talking about was a monster beer journalist who’d been at it for more than 30 years.  He was regarded as an unparalelled wealth of beer knowlege, and he was found dead, at the age of 65, in his home on Thursday.

This is indeed a remarkable day for all who love beer.  Many people around the Net are taking time to honor the friend and/or colleague they have lost.  This man was one of the pillars (if not a major piece of the foundation) upon which the craft beer resurgence stands.  His work (books, articles, television program, beer-of-the-month clubs, etc.) have been instrumental in helping foster the growing apreciation of the vast beer diversity that exists on this planet .  He may be gone, but he will most definitely not be forgotten.

With that, I’m going to mark his passing with a celebration of beer by raiding my cellar.  I have collected some great beers over the years, and some of them were directly because of Mr. Michael Jackson … not that one.

Cheers and unending thanks to you, Mr. Jackson!  Your life was rich and full.  May we all be so blessed.

Brewerman

So the Witbier has been in the primary for a week.  It is approaching its final gravity, so it looks like we’re on target.  Thie wort collected did not hit the target OG, 1.052.  It fell way short at 1.040, so it looks like this is going to be a Witbier Mild weighing in at an approximate 3.8 ABV.  Given the difficulty of this first all-grain batch, I’m very much OK with that (although I’ll be researching what specifically happened).  In addition, the style should lend itself well to that.  I imagine being very happy to be able to throw back a couple of these on a hot day without the alcohol hit were it a typical beer at twice the ABV.  I’m not sure what happened, and am going to be investigating as I go.

I took a grav reading, and it is at 1.011 (just north of where I think it should end up: 1.010 or 1.009).  Time to transfer.  I popped the lid, and saw something that I hadn’t seen before in previous brews.  It was a 1/4″ layer of proteinaceous gunk on top that I assume came from the huge amount of wheat in the grist.  The color was right on target as a beautiful, cloudy, pale yellow, and the smell is a fruity, spicy, somewhat funky aroma that is awesome.  There is a bit of a faint bready character in the aroma that I hope will dissipate with the lower temperature conditioning that I plan on putting the secondary through. Can’t wait to see what it does when it’s carbonated.

I plan on putting the carboy next to a floor air conditioning vent with a box over it to try and push the temp of the beer down a bit in an attempt to drop some crap out of the beer and smooth out the flavor. I just got my fermentation refrigerator hooked up, but don’t yet have a break-out thermostat to keep the temperature higher than the refrigerator’s high of 45 degrees. If I can find a thermostat solution soon, I’ll transfer the carboy to the refrigerator. For now, however, the cardboard box over the AC vent is as much energy as I’m willing to put into trying to get the temp down. We’ll see how it goes.

Here are some pictures:

I wrote a post a while back about how pumped I was to see Newport Market representing the Alesmith beers. If you, dear reader, haven’t yet picked up, at the very least, a Speedway Stout, frankly I’m disappointed in you. Now go clean your room. Seriously these guys are a cut above the rest. Yes, it’s expensive at one bottle for $12.00. But believe it or not, that’s a pretty good deal, and as Jimmy from South Park would say to the Crips and Bloods, “Come on”. $12.00 is really no excuse for robbing yourself of a uniquely fantastic beer-drinking experience. This tasting is for one of their beers that I hadn’t tried before, so without further ado … the Grand Cru (insert poet/know it thought here).

Appearance: Deep amber.  Tan, inch-high head that settles into a quarter-inch layer that stays for about a quarter of the glass.
Smell: Wow malt! Big malt and spices. Some yeast-ester aromas in there as well, but it’s toying with me … not clear as to what I’m picking up there.  Intriguing!
Taste: My palette just got slapped in the face!  Rich caramel malt flavors with ripe dark fruits of plumb and raisin.  Hints of chocolate in the finish.  It just keeps giving.  Can taste that classic Belgian candi sugar flavor as well butting up against the yeast.  Warming, moderate alcohol heat is supported by the huge malt backbone.  Smooth.
Mouthfeel: Rich with solid carbonation despite the 10% alcohol sweetness.
Drinkability: This is a big, boozy beer.  No kidding.  I spent a good amount of time with the one glass in the picture, and definitely wanted to share it with my wife.  Excellent beer.  Probably will buy another, and set it aside for a while to see how it cellars.  If you’re into big Grand Cru beers, definitely check this out.

Ratebeer: 3.92/5 [98 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 4.12/5 [89 percentile]

Quick post to say that I updated the brew day post for the Hazy Daze Wit by uploading some pictures so that people not familiar with homebrewing can get a clearer picture of the process.  Also, the fermenter is bubbling away.  The starter I made provided a big enough yeast colony to firmly take root quickly.  They’ve been chugging along, and it should be ready to transfer to a carboy in a few days.

So it’s brew day today.  This will be the first all-grain batch using the new system.   This is intended to be a Belgian Witbier that I’m calling Hazy Daze Wit.  I’m going to take some pics and do a more journal-oriented post so that I’m trapping some of the decisions made along the way which always seem to get lost before I sit down with the brewing software to document things.

Prior to brew day, I researched the style and brewing approaches.  Traditionally this is a beer that is about half and half barley and wheat.  Large amounts of wheat in a grain bill is notorious for stuck sparge due to the high gluten produced by the wheat.  Basically, it is like trying to rinse all the sweet nectar from the grain bed when there’s a boatload of library paste in there with it.  Given a little experience and what I read, I’ve taken out some insurance and added half a pound of rice hulls (which are mostly benign in flavoring).

I was worried about using traditional raw wheat.  I didn’t want to complicate things by having to deal with what I had read regarding gelitinization of the raw wheat.  Because the raw wheat is not modified like barley, gelinitization of wheat needs some help.  There is a process of doing this separately, then adding this to the mash.  Flaked wheat, on the other hand, has already been gelinitized, so this made the recipe formulation a little easier.

The mash schedule is a single decoction mash found in a couple of recipes out there.  The first infusion temp is to do a protein rest as described at John Palmer’s How To Brew.

The typical Protein Rest at 120 - 130°F is used to break up proteins which might otherwise cause chill haze and can improve the head retention. This rest should only be used when using moderately-modified malts, or when using fully modified malts with a large proportion (>25%) of unmalted grain, e.g. flaked barley, wheat, rye, or oatmeal.

Since I can’t apply direct heat to the mash (because it is a Rubbermaid cooler), I am going to perform a single decoction to reach conversion rest temperatures where the enzymes in the highly-modified pale malt will act on the starches that have become available during the previous rest. I will try to mash out at this point, but if I get a stuck sparge, I will perform another decoction to try and reduce the viscosity of the grain bed. We’ll see how it turns out.

10:15: Started boiling 6 and 4 gallons of water in my 7 and 5 gallon pots.

11:30: Both are boiling. Killed the heat, and am beginning to cool the water down to strike temperature (128°F).

11:45: Put some water in a tea kettle and boiled it.  Added this to the cooler to bring its temperature up so that I didn’t lose too much heat when doughing in.

12:45: Poured out warming water.  Poured in strike water (128°F), then stirred in grains thoroughly.  Tightened lid.

12:47: Checked temp.  Hit 122°F.

1:00: Took out 6.8 qts of the mash for the decoction, and began bringing it to a boil.  Not sure how long this will take.

1:22: Decoction is boiling.  Letting it go for 10 minutes.  Stirring it every minute to try and keep it from burning on the bottom.

1:32:  Transferred decoction to mash tun.

1:33: Began bringing sparge water back up to 170°F

1:36: Checked temp of mash.  It is only 140°F.  Bringing kettle water up to boiling to try and raise mash a bit.  Thinking I didn’t allow for the mash to cool off while I was pulling the decoction off.  Anyway … I’m relaxing, not worrying and … you know.

1:43: Added boiling water to mash to bring it up to target 154°F.

1:45: Still not hot enough. Added more boiling water. If not hitting it after this, I’m going to have to pull another decoction to get me where I want to be. I think that I messed up with calculating the decoction volume. Rookie move!

1:50: Inching up there, but I don’t want the mash too thin. Pulled another decoction of 3 quarts to see if I can push the mash temp up to 154°F.

2:00: Added second decoction. Fingers crossed.

2:15: Not sure why, but the temp appears to be dropping. I think it has to do with all the head space given the fact that I’ve got no thermal mass above the mash keeping the whole internal volume warm. Each time I open the cooler, I let all that steam out. Keeping it closed, and will just see how this first all-grain batch goes.  Also read that I might have had too thin a decoction (too much liquor … not enough grain). Next time, will pull a thicker decoction.

3:15: Sparge water fell to 162°F. Boiling some of it to bring back up to target 168°F.

3:30: Brought sparge water up to 168°F. Began sparge. This took about 40 minutes including recirculating 2 gallons to establish the grain bed as a filter (vorlof).

4:15: I collected 6 gallons of wort, which allows for a little over half a gallon of boil-off, concentrating to 5.5 gallons after the boil. Began bringing this up to a boil on the stovetop over the front and back burners. I also set aside some to cool. Will use this to see how I did with hitting my estimated gravity.

4:35: We have boil, and the clock has started. Five minutes, and the hops go in, then straight to cleaning/sanitizing the primary fermenter (food grade plastic bucket).

5:20: Inserted immersion chiller so it will sanitize. Deciding at the last minute to reduce the spicing. I can always add it with a potion of infused vodka in the secondary if necessary. Just don’t want to overdo it. Going with .75 orange peel, and .5 of ground coriander.

6:00: Wort is crashed to 78°F. Opened up valve on brew pot, to let it drain into primary. Doing it this way to let it splash away hoping to introduce oxygen into liquid. Pitched yeast and began to clean up. Will post more as readings are taken.

Quick post here … The Bend Brew Fest starts today and ends tomorrow.  It is being held at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.  I’ve had several people asking me what the highlights will be at the Bend Brew Fest.  I’ve also received comments on how lazy I’ve been in posting lately.  In an effort to appease these people who’ve never heard of Google before, here’s the fruits of 20 minutes of research combined with my own personal winners:

• Great Divide Brewing - Yeti Imperial Stout and Titan IPA (99th and 96th percentile on Ratebeer respectively).  Make sure to get the Yeti.  It is an amazing beer.
• New Old Lompoc - C-Note and LSD.  These were there last year if I remember correctly, and if I do, they’re pretty hoppy (i.e. don’t kill your palette with these up front)
• Wildfire Brewing - Support your new local brewery (Pale and a Golden)
• Butte Creek Brewing - Pass on the pils, devour the Organic Revolution X (Imperial IPA)
• Anderson Valley - If they’re pouring the Hop Ottin IPA … get on it.  Just wait until later in your list, as the hop bitterness will destroy your ability to taste tamer beers
• Ninkasi Brewing - Beers TBD, but they were among the first to run out last year for a reason. 
• Klamath Basin Brewing - Never had their stuff, so must try it. (Golden and IPA)
• Redstone Meadery - Only mead there … for something different to fall back on.  (Black Raspberry and Honey mead made with Apricot nectar)

So there you have it readers … hit print, go drink, don’t blame me if you didn’t like them.  I’ll be there opening day in the ProMash hat and Giant Robot shirt.  Feel free to come buy, say hi, and buy me a beer.

Cheers!

Note: It would appear that the print version of the beer list found in The Source (used to fuel the picks above) is incorrect.  Redstone Meadery was a no show, and Great Divide only brought the Yeti (still … my favorite beer at the fest).  Apologies.

I’m committed.  I just put the airlock on a starter for the Hazy Daze Wit - a Belgian Witbier that I spoke about brewing about two months ago.  I took 1.25 cups of DME and brought it to boil in a little over a quart of water.  I added a pinch of yeast neutrient as well.  I let this go for about 10 minutes, and then crashed it in my new dedicated refrigerator’s freezer in the garage.  Pitched the yeast and airlocked it.  Will keep each step documented as it goes.

This was picked up during a weekend trip to Seattle.  After being outside in the sun, nothing sounded better than a nice, tart, refreshing beer.  This one did not disappoint.

Appearance: Cloudy, straw, a little murky.  Great big-bubbled head with good retention at least halfway through the glass (thank you wheat!).
Smell: Not too much aroma. There’s just a hint of that classic Belgian white smell with a little spice and orange butting up against the malty wheat.
Taste: Very light footprint with  tart, yeasty flavors. Wheat coming through showcasing a hint of mellon. As expected, there’s no hop presence. A bit of malt finish in back of palette. A bit of a “dusty flavor” (for lack of a better term).  As the beer warms, it opens up revealing more of the orange.
Mouthfeel: Big carbonation with a somewhat dry finish.
Drinkability: Not best I’ve had, but a very refreshing beer.  Nothing overly distinctive about the beer, but is amazingly drinkable on a hot day.  Doesn’t really hit the palette with a ton of flavor as I typically like, but that makes it a bit more of a simple, thirst-quenching, refresher.  Nice.

Ratebeer: 3.84/5 [82 percentile]
Beeradvocate: 3.46/5 [86 percentile]