And the winner is...

Not me exactly, but my Pine Tar Porter took 3rd of 19 porters in the World Expo of Beer homebrew competition. Being that it was my first entry ever and I've only been brewing all-grain since December (I've been brewing for over 5 years total), I couldn't be happier about it. I've also brewed my first all-grain wheat beer on Sunday. I learned a few thinks about the water retention differences of wheat and barely malt and what a stuck run-off is. In other homebrew news; the hops are poking out of the ground in my garden and I planed a 20x10 patch of 6-row barley yesterday. More on all that later.

Brewing photos as segue to future post

I've been meaning to post about my recent equipment changes/acquisitions, but these photos of my new bottling hydrometer taken by my lovely and talented wife will have to suffice for the time being (Avuncular Dunkel SG= 1.0125).

My First Competition

My friends like my brew. I like my brew. But is it prize worthy? I will find out soon because I'm entering The World Expo of Beer's Homebrewing competition. I've been to this festival in Frankenmuth a couple of times with my brother and his friends. Its a good time with lots of beer and entertainment, and besides Frankenmuth is a fun/wacky place to visit. The homebrew competition is a new event this year. I'm entering my Pine Tar Porter and maybe my Dunkel or the IPA that I'm currently finishing up. The deadline is April 11th so if you don't have a brew ready to go, its probably too late for this one.

Holly Michigan: Home of the Carry Nation Festival

Remember prohibition? No? Well anyway, you can celebrate the life of one its most infamous advocates in Holly Michigan this summer if you like. I came across the Carry Nation Festival when researching prohibition the other day and you know, it looks... strange. Why Holly? She went there once. Ok. But, really, I do love festivals so this might be one to check out. The website has not been updated so hopefully it's happening again. The most important question: will there be a beer tent?

2008 Batch #4 Recipe: Diversified Pale Ale

As home brewers these days we have to diversify when it comes to the hops we use in our brews. Thats where the name for this batch comes from, I'm using two hops that are new to me: Perle and Cluster (because they were the highest alpha hops the store had!).

I made a yeast starter from the White Labs Cal V I had saved ( 3 vials left) two days prior to brewing using wort I saved from two privious batches in the freezer. The dark color come from the pine tar porter wort.

I also tried the super easy techinique of whilpooling the cooled wort before transfering to the pimary. I had a problem with sediment and hops plugging my valve last time I brewed. It worked great. Now, on with the recipe!

• 8lbs 2-row US pale malt
• 1/2lbs toasted 2-row US pale malt
• 1/2lbs 20 lvb crystal malt
• 1 oz cluster hops
• 1 oz perle hops
• 1/2 oz northern brewer
• ale yeast (I'm using a re-cultured White Labs Cal V)

THE MASH

Heat 9 quarts of H2O to 170ºF, add crushed grain. Stabilize at 155ºF. My mash was on the low side of 150º for 30 minutes then I heated it up to 158º for the second 30 minutes. 1 hour mash total, then mash out at 168ºF. Sparge with 4.5 gallons H2O at 170ºF.

THE BOIL

Add the 1/z oz Northern Brewer hops when the wort is boiling. at 15mins add 1/2 oz of the Cluster. At 30 minutes add the other 1/2 oz of cluster. At 45 at 1/4 oz of the Perle. At 60 minutes turn off heat and add 1/4 oz of Perle. Chill, transfer to primary, pitch and seal up! I added about a 1/2 gallon of H2O to bring the volume up a bit. Next time I'll boil let vigorously to decrease the water loss. The Brix before pitching was 11.6 (SG ~ 1.046) After the fermentation begins to settle down, transfer to a secondary and add dry hop with the remaining 1/2 oz Perle.

Helpful Hint: visit your local bakery

It's always cheaper to buy grain in bulk, but how to store it to keep out unwanted scavengers and bugs? Being that I'm an avid thrifter, I have this helpful hint to offer: visit your local bakery. Most bakeries don't make their own fillings or frostings, they buy them by the gallon in buckets. So, many have an ample supply of empty buckets around that have been used once. My favorite donut bakery, Hinkley's in Jackson MI, often will have buckets sitting out for $1. The one pictured is a 4.5 gallon Bavarian Creme Filling bucket (can you imagine the diabetic coma 4.5 gallons of Bavarian Creme would cause!?) with 10lb of 2-row pale malt. It will probably hold 20lbs of malt. It could also double as a small primary fermenter. You might have to ask for the buckets at some places, but I would imagine most bakeries will have them. Remember it will always help your cause to buy some baked good first. Deli's will often have pickle buckets, but the pickle smell lingers for a while. Happy scrounging!

2008 Batch #1 Recipe (posted out of order): Pine Tar Porter

This is my first brew of the year, but I haven't got around to posting the recipe until now.

• 8lbs US Pale Malt (Briess 2 Row)
• 1lb Belgian Munich Malt
• 1/2lb Crystal Malt (lv 49-60)
• 1/2lb Black Patent Malt
• 1/2lb Chocolate Malt
• 1oz Northern Brewer (good luck finding some)
  
• 1oz Northern brewer from my garden
  

THE MASH
10 qts H20 at 145º add grain and stabilize at 134 º for 30 minutes. added 3 quarts of boiling H2O ( would
have added 5, but that was before I had my large mash tun) stabilize at 153º. Mash for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes heat to 158º for 10 minutes. (My conversion looked complete after 30, but I continued with this schedule anyway). Then mashed out at 168º. Sparged with ~3 gallons of 170º H20.

THE BOIL

I had to boil in two pots. I filled my main boil pot to the brim and boiled the rest in a smaller kettle. When boiling, added 1/2 oz purchased NB hops; at 30 min added 1/2 oz garden NB hops; at 45 minutes added the other 1/2 oz of garden NB hops. I turned off the heat at 60 minutes and added the final 1/2 oz of purchased NB hops. After chilling and combining the kettles I had 4.5 gallons, so I added cold H20 to make 5. Added saved yeast from 12.12.07 (White Lab California V). Original Gravity was 1.060.

SPECIAL HANDLING

The ale yeast stopped working before it reached the gravity I was hoping for. So, I added the sludge from a lager I was transferring and let it worked a little more. This brought the gravity down to 1.020 which is acceptable (plus I was out of beer) so I put it in a keg. The final gravity was 1.020 which gives it an % alcohol of ~5.2 . I'm not sure why the yeast stopped. Too cold in the kitchen? Maybe too many unfermentable sugars? Or, maybe I just didn't have enough patience and everything would have been fine. Either way it turned out great.

The Porter is in a Keg

After letting the specific gravity drop to 1.020, I've decided to keg the porter. The extra few weeks with the lager yeast seems to have helped. I'm happy with the way it's turned out, once the CO2 is balanced out (I hit it hard with pressure so I could tap it 6 hours later when friends came over) it will be the perfect brew to tide me over until spring. I'll post the recipe soon.

Kalamabrew

Some friends of mine are part of a group from the Kalamazoo Gazette that have started Kalamabrew; a beer blog with a focus on the Southwest Michigan beer scene. Its packed with information about Michigan beer as well as news about beer in general (I'm sure it helps having access to the AP wire :) While is great reading overall, one cool feature is the Michigan Brewery video tours. I've included the most recent below. Nice job guys, and keep up the good work.

Freakin' Firkin

Is that six pack for me?

Being a busy person, I can't always have a batch of home brew in a drinkable state. So, currently I have 15 gallons of beer lagering in carboys. My cheap beer of choice is High Life, however my wife came from the store with a surprise yesterday: a six pack of Bell's Hop Slam. Now, I normally would never pay $15 for a six pack (thats would cover the entire grist bill for 5 gallons of home brew with a few cents to spare!! Hops are another story these days...) but as my wife pointed out, my birthday is next week and what better gift is there? The cashier asked her if it was, "some kind of special beer." I'm happy to report that it is. Man is it good. At 10.0% alc. you can split a bottle amoung friends and sip it like scotch. Is claims to be brewed with honey and has slight residual sweetness that you would expect from a beer of this octane, but its balanced perfectly with the hops (centennial I'm guessing??) This truly is a great beer that I'm sure will keep well. Its only availabe for a short time, so you can pony up the cash now and drink one a month for the next six months. If I can get one of the beers in my basement into a keg or bottles, I might be able to keep a bottle or two around until... March.