April Update

Hey all!

Man, my current work situation doesn't give me a lot of down time. No, I don't work more than a 9-6, but I travel regularly for two-week stints and this calendar it's been about every 4 weeks, so the time I have at home is spent catching up on what I have to put off because I'm not in Berkeley. Early spring is also usually full with the end of Lent and Holy Week/Easter, my wife's birthday, and taxes. None of those things takes a lot of my time, but all together with the normal life stuff I found that between my last trip and this one, March 10-April 11, I could hardly find the time to bottle the batch I brewed before leaving and I ended up brewing back-to-back the last day I was in town to keep on the schedule I'm trying to set for myself. My porter has yet to go untasted, but since I bottled it two weeks later than planned it has now had plenty of time to bottle condition so I'm expecting it to be fully ready by now. I also submitted it to a homebrew competition without tasting it so I doubly hope it turned out tasty!

Besides that, I have had time for beer in my life, of course. Just check my Untappd account ;-) (@TheBrewourist). Friends invited us over for dinner one Friday night for homemade Chicago deep dish pizza and asked me to bring a 6-pack so I made it a mix of my homebrew, and had exactly 6 different varieties to share! Using small glasses four of us shared six 12-oz bottles of Dr Bradley's finest (well… one of the batches was the S'More of What? (v2), which still isn't that great). The rest of the menu was Zorba's OPA!, Plain Ol' Saison, Gold Medal IPA (v2), Little Lebowski, and the last bottle of Grapes & Grain - Scuppernong. The S'Mores and Scuppernong were overcarbonated and despite trying my hardest to slowly release the gas I had to just get it over with and lose half of each bottle to the sink. The Scuppernong was pretty tasty, but the S'Mores had just gone blah. I really want that brew to be good, but it might take more practice and bad batches than I'd prefer. As for the Grapes & Grain, those who were able to try both versions preferred the Muscadine, so if I can get my hands on those grapes again I'd definitely brew with them for a full 2-gal batch. Everyone loved the Zorba's OPA!, which I've unofficially renamed Award-Winning Oat Pale Ale since I won a third place prize with it. What? You didn't know? Well, if I wrote more regularly you'd know, so let me share.

Apparently spring is homebrew competition season, and I've now submitted my beer to four Bay Area competitions: North Napa Rotary Homebrew Competition, World Cup of Beer (put on and hosted by the Bay Area Mashers), Alameda County Fair Bay Area Brew Off (BABO2016), and the Sonoma Beerocrats American IPA Competition. I've talked about Zorba's OPA! before, so I don't need to reiterate what I thought about it, but everyone I've given it to loved it, so it was quite the surprise to have won third place in the Specialty Category. I entered it in that category of the 2008 BJCP Guidelines because that was the suggestion I found in researching submitting a pale oat ale into competition since it's not an official category. I also submitted Little Lebowski to that category because of all the coffee-ness in it I couldn't submit it to the milk stout. That milk stout scored well, but not as well as the pale oat ale. Since that recipe has been so popular I'll keep it, but it wasn't what I was trying to brew, and I know how I'll change it for next time.

For the World Cup of Beer I submitted the Plain Ol' Saison and the Little Lebowski to two categories: milk stout and spiced/herb. In that latter category Little Lebowski passed preliminary judging, as did the Saison. I never would have thought I could have entered the same beer into two different categories, but BAM's January meeting focused on entering competitions with a panel discussion and one thing mentioned was entering one beer into multiple categories (which means multiple physical entries). So my milk stout went into the cream/sweet stout category, but the coffee was too much and overpowered any other flavors; and it went into spiced/herb where it did well! The feedback was appreciated, and as the Plain Ol' Saison was a stripped down recipe from the Spicy Jalapeño Saison, I have ideas of how to modify it to meet the judges' comments and suggestions.

As I described above, I didn't have the luxury of 5 hours of freedom for brewing the month before my current work trip, so I wasn't going to have something fermenting while I was away, but the last Saturday, April 9, I took the chance. My wife was in class that day and I had made the decision that week to brew that day. Ostensibly I was to help prepare for her birthday party that night, which I did and everything turned out amazing, but I also brewed not one but two batches back-to-back. Because my previous brew was a porter I wanted something lighter for the warmer weather. I plan to do a Kölsch this year, but as that will be my first lagered beer I wanted to be at home with it during fermentation. I've thought about rebrewing my brown ale, but since I just did a porter that would be too close a style. I looked through my list of basic beer styles and decided to rebrew my California Common It's always been a hit and it's light enough but also flavorful enough to be a tasty warmer weather brew. But then again, I live in Berkeley, so warm weather might not be until September/October. I also brewed a gluten-free beer, something I've been interested in producing for my GGF friends. The Beer Making Book has a GF recipe for every season of beer, but three of them involve malting your own buckwheat, something I'm not keen on doing myself. The GF recipe for the spring uses carrots, red quinoa, basmati rice, and table sugar, easy enough! That was my second brew on April 9, and both fermentations started well. I look forward to packaging both and seeing how they turn out. Hopefully, fingers crossed, I'll actually get 2 gal of CA Common in bottles, as opposed to the first two times I brewed it.

I've been planning the next few brews and need to figure out when to line them up. To help me I've created a spreadsheet weekly calendar to better plan and track my brewing. I realize there's software that could do this, but I like DIY and knowing how it all comes together. Plus, coding in spreadsheet is oddly satisfying. These are my brewing plans for the summer:

• My BAM friend Fernando has a 10-gal all electric system and he wants to do a joint brew. With his larger system he suggested I take home two 3-gal carboy's of wort, and he keep 5 gal, then we use different yeasts or dry-hopping. He's become a master of IPAs so I suggested we brew a basic IPA recipe. He'll use the usual American Ale yeast and known hops for good IPA dry-hopping. I'll use a Belgian yeast and match his dry-hopping in one batch, and in the other I'll use simple English Ale yeast and maybe dry-hop with a more subtle, less US West Coast styling. We have yet to schedule this, and I'm looking forward to it.
• The BAM Style of the Quarter (SOQ) for 2016Q2 was announced as wheat, and the 2015 BJCP Styles allowed are American Wheat, any of the German Wheat beers, Wheatwine, Berliner Weisse, Witbier, and Gose. I don't care for wheat beers. I'll drink them, and I brewed one at the start of my second year of homebrewing, but I just don't like the taste of wheat malt. However, I have been getting more into Goses, and a Craft Beer & Brewing email this week had a Gose recipe. The Beer Making Book also has a Gose, so I'll compare the two recipes and brew one for the competition. I like that I've found this way into the SOQ since I don't like wheat beers. I was afraid I'd have to miss out on this one, as I want to compete as much as sensible, and now I'll get to. It'll also be the first sour beer I'll brew, via kettle souring, and I'm excited for how it could turn out. The entry deadline is June 2, so if I get the brew started by the first week of May there will be enough time since this style should be drunk fresh, like a super hoppy IPA. The CB&B recipe calls for rice hulls, and I still have plenty from the GF ale, and I think I have enough of the suggested hop, too! The grain bill is fairly simple, and I'll the Lactobacillus or drop a dollop of plain yogurt in the pre-wort.
• Belgian quad rarity Westvleteren 12. My friend and I were going to cultivate the yeast from that tasty Trappist treat, but learned that they just use the commercially available Westmalle yeast variety. Knowing that this should be much easer. It has a very simple grain bill, and with a 20% off coupon Northern Brewer sent me I purchased the European hops and dark candi syrup needed. This brew will age in secondary for 3 months, and depending on when I start it and the IPA experiment with Fernando, I might have to buy another 3-gal carboy. I want this beer for the colder weather next fall and winter, so starting this later in the spring or into the summer might not be out of the question.
• And finally I want to try my hand at lagering with a Kölsch. As the lagered ale complement of a California Common, it will be interesting to see how the lagering goes. You might have come across the quick lagering method, and I will likely attempt that  method just to not tie up my temperature controlled fermentation chamber for over nearly two months if I want to lager. During the summer I could quick lager in my mini fridge and ferment ales just sitting in my living room. We'll see how things turn out.

As for my Year of Beer 2016, I've been brewing beer as much as I can, and I've also been searching for and applying to brewery jobs as I can find them. I've gone on a few interviews but nothing's come from them yet. If any of you readers are out there in the Bar Area, particularly the East Bay or SF, send jobs my way.

And that's what I have for now! 

How's your brewing coming along this year? Any interesting batches, past of future? Have you competed and done well, or better than you expected?

Until next time, friends, happy brewing!

The Two SF Beer Week Events I Could Actually Attend

Hey all!

Another 20 days, another set of beer and brewing experiences.

SF Beer Week was at the end of January this year (thanks to the "Big Game"), and again I spent the week in lovely South Dakota enjoying as much of the local craft beer scene as I could. I didn't want to miss SF Beer Week, but I couldn't help it. I missed most of the events, but there was one on the last day of the "Week" on Sunday January 31, and as I was flying home January 29, I knew I could make it. Hopyard Alehouse in Pleasanton hosted Beer Judging 101, two hour-and-a-half sessions intended to introduce beer drinking and homebrewers to the basics of beer judging.

New Month, New Year, New Post!

Hey everybody!

Welcome to 2016! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and joyous New Year. I know I did, and I even got to do some Brewouristing while in St Louis for a conference between the holidays. This month has been so busy, and it's barely half over! But let me give an update of my recent beer-based activities.

Like I said, I did some Brewouristing while in StL. My wife and I had some drinks while around the city and I aimed to sample local favorite. While at lunch at The Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar I had a flight and finally got to taste Prairie BOMB! SO GOOD! Now I understand the hype. This is a great imperial stout aged on coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla, and chilies, and well worth the wait. At the hotel bar I greatly enjoyed Urban Chestntut's STLIPA, a wonderfully hoppy, floral and fruity, lightly bitter double IPA. And at another lunch we ate at Morgan Street Brewpub, a neighborhood joint serving their own fare. A disappointment on that trip came from Schlafly, another StL stalwart. Their pale ale is an amber, and not that great, and the kolsch was merely acceptable. Bummer, but not every brewery can produce high quality beer, something I hope won't be said if I go into brewing professionally.

Upon returning to Berkeley I bottled the milk stout with coffee I brewed earlier in December. That was my 2015 closeout brew, which I'm calling "Little Lebowski." I mentioned brewing it in my triple-beer weekend Dec 5-6, and a fuller post about it is coming after I take the first taste. If it's good I'll submit it to a competition due the last weekend of January, and no matter what I'll be sharing it with friends during a viewing of The Big Lebowski as it's my favorite film and inspiration for the original The Dude Abides. But since this one came out at 6% ABV, and my goal was a less heavy beer than the original, I hope it's good and I feel confident competing with it.

My first brew of 2016 was a stripped down saison using the recipe for the Spicy Jalapeño Saison with none of the extra sugar or added peppers. My 2016 brewing plans are to perfect my brewing of basic recipes, and I've been wanting to do this with this saison recipe for a couple of years now. The brewing went well and primary fermentation felt like it went fast, but I purposely kept it nearly 69°F to aim for traditional warmer saison fermentation temps. I've got the controller set to that during the remaining fermentation and conditioning, and don't even have the cooling output plugged into the temperature controller so that it stays as warm as possible. OG came out to 1.040, one of the lower gravities I've ever had. Depending on overall attenuation, it could come out to 3.5-5% ABV. Fingers crossed that it'll be tasty and good enough for competition, as well!

That same weekend I had my second professional brewing experience. During the BAM brew day we teased with Dan the CQ brewer that he should get beer nerds to help him regularly. I emailed him that following week with that proposal and he jumped on it. So January 9 I headed down to San Leandro's industrial neighborhood and helped the CQ guys package a saison for SF Beer Week. I assisted in the sanitization, CO2 purge, and filling of two firkins, and then manned the sanitization and CO2 stations for 20 cases of 750-ml champagne bottles (that's 240). I only squirted myself once with pressuring sanitizer, and got to know Dan and Peter. I had plans with my wife that night so I couldn't stay too long, otherwise I would have kegged the finished beer in their other bright tank. Dan was happy with my help and when I'm back in the Easy Bay I'll hit him up to see where I can be assistance in February.

Since it was announced last summer, I've also been in regular communication with two gentlemen starting a new brewpub in Berkeley. I have yet to meet them, but we've maintained email correspondence, and with any luck our schedules will line up in February. I want to brew as much of my own beer this year, but I also want to get professional experience to bolster my resume. I now have two brewery job applications out there. 2016 is the year of beer. Here's to whatever my future holds!

How were your holidays? Any fun beer adventures? What do you hope that 2016 holds for you?

Until next time friends, happy brewing!

BAM Christmas Party 2015

Hey friends!

Another Monday, another post written at the last minute because I don't plan ahead and work on it throughout the week.

I had a Saturday full of homebrew! How was yours?

Brief Update

Hey all!

I have a brief update for you. I've been traveling and sick the past two Mondays, respectively, so haven't been able to get a new post written and up. But I haven't been lax in my brewing and craft beering!

Everything I've been working on in the past few months has been bottled, and I've even tasted a few of the batches. The first I tasted was my oat pale ale. Not impressed. It tastes like green apples, which means acetaldehyde, a precursor to ethyl alcohol in the fermentation process. The yeast is supposed to clean up all the acetaldehyde by the end of fermentation, but if you remove the beer from the yeast too early, or allow the yeast to go dormant and fall out of suspension, that step can be arrested. Apparently that's what I did! Even though the beer sat on the yeast for a month before bottling, maybe the yeast just didn't finish its work. I talked to Tom at Oak Barrel and from what he could gather from books they have on hand, there's not much I can do once it's on bottles. So I've placed my case of OPA near the heater in my apartment and shake them up every few days to rouse the yeast so that it can do some more work. Hopefully that works. If it doesn't, I've got a cidery beer on my hands, and a bit of a disappointment in my work. After the off flavoring of the S'More Of What?, another not great beer is kind of a slap in the face, and has me questioning my desire to go into brewing professionally. Oh well, ever onward…

The #w00tstout is amazing! Can not wait to try this. I'm having some friends over in a two Fridays to sample the latest of Dr. Bradley's Brewing Co., and this will be the star of the show. The hydrometer sample was quite good, so I know the conditioned product will be great, and I will slowly mete out this batch over the next year-plus.

I dry-hopped and bottled the Almost Gold Medal IPA, cold crashing for 1.5 days in between, and it smells great. I barely got to taste it having to use some of the hydrometer sample to fill the 20th bottle, but what I did taste was quite good. For an IPA it could be a bit bitter, but it's hoppiness is sweet, floral, fruity, and a light touch, very well balanced. I hope only 11 days in bottle will be enough to meld and condition the flavors for competition at the BAM Christmas party this Saturday. Even if it doesn't place, I expect this batch to be a good one, and the happiness should mellow into something nice while this batch lasts. Definitely a leg up on my IPA making, and I will be researching the temperature variance of the fermentation schedule to understand the why and how of what I was directed to do following that recipe.

I finally tasted the Grapes & Grain, and it's good! The yeasty esters are a bit much, for my tastes at least, but it's good overall. I drank the mixture of the two versions, and it was plentifully carbonated without  being a gusher or having too strong of a carbonic taste. Having this batch turn out this good, after two disappointments this year, was like a weight lifted off my shoulders, and I won't be ashamed to serve it to my friends next Friday. I'll also be shipping some to the grapes' provider in Atlanta, and I can't wait to hear what she thinks of them.

This last weekend I had a triple-beer experience. A new friend of mine from BAM was brewing a Mexican milk stout using Abuelita tablets, and we collaborated on adapting a recipe he found to his 5-gal system. After that I headed over another friend's house where he and his husband were hosting a house warming holiday get-together after their recent nuptials, and shared a batch of nut brown ale they recently brewed. Then Sunday morning I got up and brewed a lower ABV version of my Imperial White Russian milk stout w/ coffee, The Dude Abides. I like what I've produced before, pushing it up to 9.1% ABV, but I'd rather have a more drinkable beer, especially with the #w00tstout I'll have around for the next year-plus. My aim was to get something about 5.5%, but I believe this batch will be about 7%, which is fine. I already have an idea how to modify it more to reduce the ABV and keep the body and mouthfeel full and smooth. After pitching around 1:30PM, fermentation began by midnight, and by this morning it was bubbling away. I'll "dry hop" the whole beans, although I'm considering coarse grinding them and putting them in a muslin sock for greater area exposure

And that should take us up to today. I am working on my overall brewing plan for 2016. Having some friends over next week to sample my beers will be the inaugural event in what I hope to be an every 6ish weeks series wherein I serve my friends my beer and they give me honest, open feedback. I hope to use this next year to push my brewing to the next level with consistent, positive results. I will also be seeking any and all local homebrewing competitions to start getting official recognition under my belt.

What have you been up to before and since Thanksgiving? Any fun autumnal or wintery brews coming up? What are your plans for 2016?

Until next time friends, happy brewing!

The Brewourist: … And Back Again

In the first part I detailed my journey from the Black Hills to Oak Ridge, TN, and all the brewpubs I visited along the way. After a week working in eastern Tennessee, the reason for my visit was complete and I left a day earlier than planned because, well, Oak Ridge doesn't have much going on. My first stop was St Louis, MO, again, then Sioux Falls, SD. And because I couldn't arrive back in Lead, SD until 3PM Monday Oct 26, having left Oak Ridge on Friday Oct 23, I got to spend two nights in St Louis! I was looking forward to spending a more time with my friend there and visiting two new brewpubs.

Heavy Riff Brewing, St Louis, MO

I chose my hotel in St Louis on this return stop to be close to two other breweries. My first night back my physics professor friend was busy preparing for a public physics lecture the next morning, so I walked myself to Heavy Riff, another music themed brewery on my journey, and sat at the bar. Their flagship beer is an oatmeal milk brown ale (what?!). It's practically a light brown porter (by definition), and wasn't my most favorite drink there, but they have a seasonal version of it with vanilla and coffee, which was one of the best beers I've ever had. Heavy Riff serves food and I had a salad with turkey and berries and a bowl of chili pork verde, both were delicious. I chatted with one of the bartenders a little bit, and made single-serving friends of my fellow barflies. We cheered on the KC Royals as they clinched the ALCS and I left at nearly midnight. I didn't have much to do the next day but be at Washington University St Louis by 10 the next morning, so a late night out wasn't a bad thing. Because I walked that night I was able to enjoy four half-pints and a couple 12-oz pours. Like I said, my least favorite was their flagship, the Velvet Underbrown (get it? think Lou Reed's proto-punk work), but it wasn't bad, I just need to be wowed to brown ales. The west coast IPA wasn't that overpowering (which is good), and having never heard of a beire de mars, I quite enjoyed the amber-y take on the traditional French/Flemmish style. I like rye in my beer when it's done well, and the lager, a general difficult style, was enjoyable!

Guitar neck tap handles and a steady
stream of quality tunes in the air.

• New Kids on the Bock (collaboration of 5 local breweries)
• Velvet Underbrown (oatmeal milk brown)
• Single Successful Rye (rye lager)
• Two Frenchmen (beire de mars, in collaboration with Excel Brewing Company)
• Left Coast Envy (WC IPA)
• Vanilla Coffee Velvet Underbrown

The Civil Life, St Louis, MO

Beers aplenty!

The next day I spent the morning and lunch with my friend and his girlfriend. He gave a great public lecture on the nature of the universe and how Einstein's work helped discover these results. We lunched at a local Mexican place and then parted for the afternoon. That evening I met him at his place, he showed me around, and we headed over to The Civil Life, a delightful little brewpub that focuses on Continental style session beers and has a tasty menu all produced out of the tiniest little kitchen at the far end of the bar.  Because I drove that night I had four half pints, with a final taste of their Milk Stout on tap, a lovely dessert beer.

• The Angel & The Sword (cask conditioned and served English ale)
• Rye Pale
• Vienna Lager
• Civil Common (CA Commons)

Dinner was an arugula salad with apples and red onion, and liverwurst on pretzel buns. So yummy! I like the focus on session able beers that aren't overly hoppy in the new American craft beer style. Will definitely visit again when I have the chance and find myself with free time in St Louis.

Dinner with the Vienna Lager.

The Big Rip Brewing Company, North Kansas City, MO

A flight of five at this small but mighty KS brewery.

Heading west from St Louis, Kansas City is perfectly situated for a lunch time stop. On my way down I stopped at a bar-restaurant, so on this return trip I wanted to find a brewpub that made its own beer, or just a taproom, for my stop. I had a leftover burrito from my lunch the previous day, and found that The Big Rip Brewing Company does not serve food in their taproom but allows visitors to bring their own food! This was perfect. I made my way there, just north of downtown in an industrial neighborhood, ordered a half-flight, and dug into my tepid leftovers. The place has framed horror and sic-fi movie posters for decoration, and the beer names echo that fandom. I enjoyed the Groovy Pale Ale, and was told they also make "Boomstick" and "Mr. Fancy-pants" beers. Remembering the Evil Dead poster, I said to the barman, "I see what you did there." When talking about this with the two employees there that day, in between plays of the KC Chiefs game playing out on multiple TVs in the room, they told me that they are indeed horror, sci-fi, and science fans, and their name reflects that. The Big Rip is a theoretical end-of-the-universe scenario, where the constant acceleration of the expansion of the universe leads not only to galaxies becoming island universes, ignorant of their former neighbors, but solar systems, and eventually atoms themselves, ripping apart, giving the brewery its name.

• Umbrella Kölsch
• Great Conjunction Cherry Hefe
• Outlander Roggenbier-Rye Ale
• Groovy Pale Ale
• Franklin Road Coffee Porter

My half-flight, only because I was driving and had to make it to Sioux Falls, SD that night, was the five of their beers on tap that looked most interesting to me. Overall they were good and enjoyable! I really liked the Groovy Pale Ale, which was really fruity in the hops, and the coffee porter was lovely in roasted flavor and aroma. The cherry hefeweizen was good, and I don't care for wheat beers! I'm glad to have stopped there and even purchased a t-shirt, as it mentions "dark matter," the subject of my thesis work.

Gandy Dancer Brew Works at Monk's House of Ale Repute, Sioux Falls, SD

Continuing northward up I-29 that day, I eventually made it to Sioux Falls, SD, and realized I had crossed about half of Lewis and Clark's original journey in just a day of driving. I was looking forward to my hotel room and dinner at Monk's House of Ale Repute. Being Sunday night, most of the breweries in the city were closed after 5 or 6 PM (it was after 7), but Monk's House, as a food-serving, was still open, and I was lucky that they were open long enough for me to get there and spend a few hours enjoying the locally-brewed beers and have dinner. Monk's House is home to the Gandy Dancer Brew Works (I never discovered the name's origin), and as such I focused on those beers. They were pretty good! I was expecting the Dark Ale to be a Black IPA or the like, but it was more like a Belgian dark ale than a Cascadian dark ale: sweeter and maltier, not so hoppy. The porter was strong, and I don't care much for strongly alcoholic dark beers as I feel that taste takes away from the more complex malt and kiln flavors present in porters and stouts, so it wasn't my favorite, but I could recognize quality brewing.

The signage of my dinner destination in Sioux Falls, SD.

• Brainless Wonder IPA
• Fresh Hop Bindlestiff (Dark Ale)
• Point of Origin Porter
• Bitterest Bian (English bitter)

Dinner was a brat on a bun with fried green beans. Simple and good. I made single-serving friends of my bar neighbors, and chatted with the bartender, who also brews at Gandy Dancer, and is an anatomy teacher at at local high school! We talked brewing and Midwest and Plain State breweries. My last official night on the road brought me to another great brewpub and I was glad for the opportunities I had to visit all these wonderful places while on the road.

Hay Camp Brewing, Rapid City, SD

However, I was still away from home, and my last night in South Dakota, after driving across the state and dropping off the repaired crystals, then working three days underground on the experiment, I had to run an errand in Rapid City. I brought dinner (Qdoba!) to Hay Camp Brewing, a newer nano brewery in the city I visited for the first time during my September work trip, and got tasters of a few of their beers on tap. I unfortunately missed some great beers I saw they had the previous week, but what I was able to try was worth the stop.

3/4 Hay Camp beers tasted that evening.

• Best Bitter (English bitter)
• Better Brown Ale
• Mothers Temptation (Imperial IPA)
• Victory Stout

I had their Victory Stout on my first visit, and it's goooood. Lightly smoky to match the expected stout roastiness, this stout is about 5% ABV, so they're not trying to knock you on your butt with it. I respect that, as I no longer care for strong, boozy dark beers. The IPA was what it should be, and the bitter and brown lived up to my expectations for those styles: good but not astounding. This place was started by two guys who studied science in college and grad school and still have day jobs, so it's an inspiration for my possible future career change.

I'm lucky that a work trip afforded me this fun tour of brewpubs between Lead, SD and Oak Ridge, TN. One thing I noticed was the general prevalence of cask conditioned and hand pump served beer. I tried a few of them at the different breweries and enjoyed the different taste and texture afforded by this style of serving beer. There's a world of brewing out there, and I can't wait to do this again. When I travel I'll look out for local breweries to sample, and report back here what I find.


What's your favorite randomly-visited brewery or brewpub? If and when you visit places on your own, do you talk to other people or keep to yourself?

Until next time friends, happy brewing!

The Brewourist: Or, There...

Dateline: October 2015

A medium-large neutrino collaborative experiment housed in the Black Hills of western South Dakota needed to deliver two of their germanium crystal detectors to an company in eastern Tennessee for repair. They are elevation sensitive, so flying them is out of the question, and shipping them freight would take too long. A junior researcher was chosen to drive them as fast as reasonable across the middle of the country, wait for the repair, and drive them back. This is his journey.

I'm back!

Hey all,

I don't know who reads this, or who has been reading this in the nearly year since I last posted. I last wrote about fall 2014's brewings, started a post about online resources I use for my homebrewing, and then 2015 happened. As you may know, my wife and I moved to Berkeley, CA from Cleveland, OH summer 2014 for my first post-graduate research position. Within months my wife found a seminary program to attend and takes classes full time on top of part time work in the morning and teaching piano  lessons afternoons throughout the week. I still brewed, at an even more aggressive rate than before, but just didn't have the energy or made the time to write about it and other beer and brewing related items.

Rye Ale, Porter, and Double IPA, Oh My!

I brewed three batches this fall, two rebrews of previous batches and a simple new one, putting me at four brews deep after my move to Berkeley. My first brew here, the annual Spicy Jalapeño Saison, is another rousing success. The next three brews were a first-time rye pale ale, which has been bottled, conditioned, and is currently being enjoyed; a rebrew of the peanut butter porter I brewed in the 2012-2013 winter; and a rebrew of the single-hop IPA recipe I augmented into a double IPA and brewed on July 4, 2013. I've been enjoying the rye pale ale and have noted a maturation from the first bottle I drank. The PB Porter was tasted at the end of the first week of December and the double IPA was bottled November 29 to be tasted before year's end.

Bridging the Gap: Cleveland to Berkeley

In this post I will cover my last batch brewed in Cleveland and my first batch brewed in Berkeley. They are both repeats so I don't feel like they deserve they own posts, and even though they are repeat brews they still stand on their own uniqueness with lessons learned during the brewing. I had hoped to brew one more batch before leaving cleveland, but that was untenable, and my first batch in Berkeley was a few months in the making and turned out great.

I'm back! An Update of My Brewing Doings

I know I have never kept as consistent with this blog as I'd like, even when I've specifically written about my planned schedule-keeping to force myself to write regularly. I brewed my last beer in Cleveland, OH in late March. The week before Memorial Day my wife and I moved across the county to Berkeley, CA. I brewed my first batch here in August. I haven't stopped enjoying new beers, but we had to get settled before I had the time and funds to brew again, and am just now finding the time to write here again.

Going to California

This post was started back in April, before I moved across the country. It's now October and I'm finally finishing and posting it.

"Spent my days with a woman I love, 

Smoked no stuff and drank all the beer.... 
Made up my mind to take a new job, 

Going To California with an aching... and some fear."

That is a parody of the opening lines to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California." As I've mentioned before, I'm moving to the Bay Area for a research position, so I wanted to open this post with a little something that spoke to moving out west, changing the lyrics a bit for my situation. When I prepared to brew this batch I didn't have a recipe ready so I thumbed through my recipe books and found this one: a California Commons, called "Spring Lager" in the recipe book. Also known as Steam Beer, this style is a lager brewed at the low end of ale temperatures, about 64°F. It was invented in San Francisco, CA during the Gold Rush when Central Europeans came out west to make their fortune. To capitalize on the new immigrants, beer makers attempted to make a draught the miners were familiar with, lagered pilsners, but without the ability to cold ferment and cold store the beer, the drink was fermented warm with lager yeast and Steam Beer was born!

Very basic brew, no fancy additions.

Spent Grain Bars

I take an afternoon break every work day and walk down to the coffee shop on campus to refill my reusable mug with 16 oz of burnt bean water and talk to the baristas (or Sagistas, as it's the Sage's Cafe). Then I walk back to my office to enjoy my coffee with a granola bar. Sometimes I forget my granola bar when I pack my lunch so I have to buy a bagel or cookies, but I have been purchasing a big box of 48 packages of Nature Valley granola bars for years, and in the past two have been enjoying them with coffee in the afternoon. In an effort to "save money" and "use all the parts of the animal," I've decided to use the spent grains from brewing to make my own granola bars. I've made two batches now, and so this post discusses that process.

California Visit Beer Tastings

Hi all my buddies!

With my career moving forward I would like to update this blog to a more regularly, hopefully weekly, with my brewing and beer reviews making up at least half of the posts I'll write. Since I mostly buy make-your-own six packs I drink a lot of different beers and so build up quite the collection of beer experiences by that alone. I also try to brew once a month, so there will always be a post about that each month. I have a backlog of beer tastings from the fall as I wasn't doing anything brewing or blog related until I finished and defended my dissertation, and now that that's done I can spend some time crafting these posts, doing so regularly, and have them ready to publish on some sort of schedule. 

"Careful man, there's a beverage here!"

While my return to homebrewing and blogging began on Dec 20, two days after my PhD thesis defense, I still haven't posted anything since earlier in January when I announced my return to homebrewing and blogging. My first post-defense brew was bottled on Jan 12, and as it's a new recipe of a high gravity style with a complex flavor palate, I have yet to give it a try because I want to allow it plenty of time to mellow and meld so my first taste won't give a bad impression. That said, I do owe you, my readers, a post detailing its brewing, especially since I'll be brewing two batches in the next two weekends and I want to get this off my plate.

"I got a rash, man.  I got a rash..." 

I had the idea for my most recent batch, an imperial milk stout with coffee, from The Big Lebowski (TBL), the Coen Brothers' 1998 cult hit and my all-time favorite movie. I first saw this movie when hallmates of mine in my first year of college invited me into their room on Wednesday night in January 2001, handed me a cheap beer, sat me down, and pressed play on their DVD player. I was subjected to 2+ hours of a rambling shaggy dog detective story that melded elements of bowling noir, Raymond Chandler, LA-ness, and all the rest, and loved the heck out of it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. Only the relationship with my wife has been as rapidly strong and long-lasting. I made a costume of one of the main characters for Halloween 2003 and have worn it every time I've seen it on the big screen since, even when meeting Jeff "The Dude" Bridges after a Q&A following a showing of the film at UCSB. I try to bring it into conversation, have sat people down with a white russian in hand and turned them onto one of the greatest films of the later 20th century, and even worked it into a short answer midterm in a college course on human sexuality ("a natural, zesty enterprise"). It's my favorite movie.

2014 Brew Plans

Hey all.  While I'm working on the post for my return to homebrewing with  my first 2-gal batch, I thought I'd give a quick report on my brewing plans for 2014.  I have ingredients for a batch I plan to brew this weekend, my wife is going to be out of town next weekend and so has convinced me to brew that Saturday, and I'm moving to Berkeley, CA in May so anything I brew before then has to be bottled before we leave.  But once we're settled there I'll be brewing like crazy, of course.

Peaches Come In A Bottle, They Were Put There By This Man...

The last beer I brewed before taking a thesis break was one from The Beer Making Book.  It was described as a beer form of peach cobbler, and I had to wait for peach season this past summer to brew it.  I haven't had great success with the brews from that book, but they've all turned out drinkable.  The last fruit-infused beer I brewed from it was a red ale with blueberries, and it was one of my least favorite homebrews.  That said, I wanted to give this one a try since peaches were in season in late summer and I like peach cobbler.  I peeled and roasted fresh peaches to go in the boil, and was excited for this once I bottled it after a couple weeks fermenting.  That excitement was stifled with the first bottle, and will be discussed at the end of this entry.  On to the peaches!

Grains, oats, hops and yeast...

... Plus peeled and roasted peaches.

Good Choice!

I'm back!  And welcome back!  I've finished my dissertation, defended it, passed, been dubbed "doctor," enjoyed my holidays with my family, and am ready to write some more, after I've spent four months writing everyday.  But more than that, I'm here to homebrew, drink beer, visit breweries and brewpubs, and talk all about it.  I've been keeping my beer tasting notebook in the interim, and there are several entries waiting in the wings to be discussed.  As a return to form I restart my blog with a review of the Samuel Adams Hopology sampler 12-pack released last year.

The top of the Hopology box, showing the fun labels and descriptions for each of the six beers held within.

A Brew the Founding Fathers Would Be Proud Of

My wife was out of town the week of July 4, and I worked my usual work hours, 9-6, but took the 4th off for some me time because it was America Day, I hadn't played disc golf since January, and hadn't brewed since May.  I woke up and drove out to Sims Park in Euclid, OH to play a solo game of disc golf.  I almost got into a fight with some local idiot who thought it was fine to park his grill exactly in front of the 10 basket.  When I alerted him to this fact and suggested he move 30 feet to the right he responded with an obscenity and threatened my health.  I let him be after reminding him that not only was I ruining his holiday, but he was ruining mine.  My day was overshadowed by this, but I let it go and finished my game.  When I got home I began brewing preparations while I made and ate brunch and finished watching Fight Club from the night before.  Then it was time to brew.  I played The Magnificent Seven on my laptop in the dining room while I brewed, and when that finished I put on The Bridge on the River Kwai; favorite western and war movies to enjoy on America Day while my wife was out of town because she doesn't care for those genres.

American-grown grain and hops, English ale yeast.

So what did I brew on America Day?  An American Pale Ale?  A crappy, rice and corn mashed pilsner?  A bourbon barrel stout?  None of the above, but a single-hop double IPA using a proprietary Hopunion hop; an American craft beer-style super-hopped IPA, bigger and bolder like everything else in the US.  I found the original recipe here, where Hopunion implies that they give a new recipe every month, but this has been up since February 2013.  As I brew in gallon batches I adjusted the original recipe to my needs, and then when I purchased the grains I increased the base 2-Row Pale Malt grains from 2.4 lbs to 3.0 lbs because I wanted to make a stronger beer.  I prepared my recipe the night before so when I went to brew I was ready.  However, I remembered the suggestions from the Beer Craft 1-gallon homebrewing book for turning a pale ale into an IPA, then into a double IPA, so while I mashed the grains I modified my recipe on the fly, increasing the sparge amount and boil time, as well as the hop amounts.

Beer Review: What I've Been Randomly Drinking These Past Months

And now another beer review.  I tend to buy 12-pack samplers or individual bottles because I want to try as many different beers as possible, so in the past 7 months I've had a number of different beers and here I give you my impressions of them.  These cover late fall through spring, and I really got back into porters and stouts this past year, so a majority of these are of those varieties.  I also wanted to brew a Black IPA this summer, which I have, so I tried a few bottles of that variety.  Here's a run down of beer I've been drinking just to share my thoughts on good beer.