Oktoberfest

Time to get excited about Oktoberfest!!!

We have a homebrew party going on October 1st.  There will be four beers, food and fun.  If you are reading this, you are invited to show up.  Food and beer are free.  If you come, bring friends and donations for our Laundry Love Project.

Beers Served:

• Scottish Red Ale by Salem’s Brew
• Vanilla Creme Ale by Seek’s Brewing
• Oktoberfest by Jimbo Baggins Brewing
• Honey Brown Ale by Jimbo Baggins Brewing

Party Info Here:  Oktoberfest

Laundry Love Project Info Here:  Laundry Love, Mesa, AZ

Home Brewed Fund Raiser

Two Beers in Carboys

Two brews ferementing in Carboys getting ready for Home Brewed Fund Raiser. 

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=159955287400936

The party is Saturday, June 4th 6:30PM – 11PM.  Anyone interested in attending can message me back and I will send directions.  We are going to have 4 different brews to sample:

Salem’s Brew – New Kind of Cream Ale

Seek’s Brewing – Red Dog Ale

Jimbo Baggins Brewing – Whiskey Barrel Stout & Shire Summer Wheat

As I write, the Whiskey Barrel Stout is resting in a Secondary Fermentor on a bed of French Oak chips.  The Oak Chips were marinated in Jim Beam Whiskey.  I had a small sample when moving it from the primary to secondary fermentor, and even without the added oak and whiskey flavoring, it had a wonderful complex flavor.  Last time I made this brew it was a success and enjoyed by many at the Big Tent after party here in Phoenix, AZ.

The Shire Summer Wheat I’ve made several times in the past is a Belgian style Wheat with several secret ingredients.  Some batches have turned out better than others.  I always add a little citrus to the tail end of the boil for this beer.  While I was waiting for the brew to start boiling, I went to the fridge to grab couple of oranges I saw there earlier in the week.  Unfortunately, they were gone.  My first thought was dashing to the store and grab some, but then I remembered my neighbor accross the street has several citrus trees.  So, I knocked on their door and asked if I could steal a couple off one of the trees.  My neighbor Mary was telling me about one of the orange trees her husband planted by accident which produces alot of oranges, but they are nasty to eat.  I pulled a couple off that tree, smelled them and found the rind had the most wonderful citrusy smell.  I ended up using three of the oranges.  From the smell coming out of the fermentor, I think this is going to be one of the best batches yet.

Going Belgian

Sad news…The Belgian Strong Ale is gone.  I had several favorable comments including a fellow brewer who asked for the recipe.  So, I think this is a recipe that I will keep in my library.  Good news is I already have a Black Ale “Black Forest Ale” in the fermentor and it should be ready to keg by Good Friday and ready in time for the Easter EmDes pool/kegger party.

The Black Ale that I’ve been brewing for a few years now could be described as a very dark, malty beer.  It is a recipe that was built from several others that claim to be clones of New Belgium’s 1554.  I’ve enjoyed it, but I don’t think it is one of my wife’s favorites. 

I’ve been reading ”Radical Brewing” by Randy Mosher, which has stirred up a lot of ideas and things I’d like to try.  He describes Belgian brewers as being pretty radical and basically throwing away convention and coming up with recipes and varieties of beer that really can’t be classified with others.  That’s the kind of brewing that I can really connect with.  I’d really rather not come up with something that tastes just like some off the shelf beer.  And, I’m not too concerned with trying to reproduce exactly the same recipe.  Instead, I like the idea of constantly experimenting…maybe I’ll add some spices or fruit or sugars this time and see what happens.  I think I’m going Belgian!  More Belgian style beers to come.

The Unveiling

It’s Beer!  I guess it would be classified as a Strong Belgian Ale.  I’ve kegged the beer and had a sample (or two).  Unfortunately, I’ve had a cold, so it is kind of hard for me to really taste and enjoy it.  It has an initial sweetness.  There is just a tad of underlying carmel flavor.  I’d like to see what I can do to bring that out more in the future.  It has just a bit of citrus like bitterness to balance the sweetness.  There is a grapefruit like taste which kind of lingers on your tongue.  For future attempts, I’d like to reduce that flavor a bit.  When getting to the bottom, the sweetness seems to come out more.

It is definitely a strong beer.  One glass and my insides begin to feel all warm and happy.  I meant to use a hydrometer to measure the alcohol content, but forgot.  A hydrometer measures how much “stuff” there is in the liquid before you begin fermenting.  You take a measurement before fermenting and then when it has finished and with a little math, you can determine the amount of alcohol in the beer.  I have a hydrometer, but don’t usually use it.  More of my finished product of beer is by feel and taste than by the science of the stuff.  This time however, I knew the percent of alcohol was going to be high, so I wanted to measure so I would have something specific to say (like 8% or 10%).  I guess you will just have to trust me, that this is stronger than the normal beer (even for a homebrew).

So, this Sunday will be the unveiling.  Anyone interested in having a sample is welcome to come to our regular Sunday Emerging Desert meeting.  We’ll be sharing beer (some wine too for people who like that sort of thing) and discussion centering around god and faith (something best done while sharing a drink).

Next beer to be brewed is my Black Ale.  I have the ingredients, but haven’t felt up to the brewing yet.  Need to get over this cold.  For now, I think I will just have another Strong Belgian Ale.

What I Learned about Non-Violent Protest from Brewing Beer

Belgian Dark Ingredients

This week I mixed up my first attempt at a new recipe for a Belgian Dark Ale.  The recipe I put together called for 9lbs for Liquid Malt Extract and 1lb of Dark Belgian Sugar (plus other grains).  Normal recipes have up to 6lbs.  So, when I put this thing in the fermentor and added the yeast, I was expecting an explosion of fermentation.  I’ve had a couple of beers blow the top off the fermentor, and I was afraid that was going to happen.

Several hours later, I checked on the beer to see how it was doing, and if I had a mess yet (from the expected explosion).  I was surprised to see that there was activity going on, a head of foam building on top of the beer (from the gases released by the yeast doing their thing), but no bubbles coming out of the air lock on the top.  Then I realized, I forgot to put water in the air lock.  I carefully added the water and immediately saw it starting to bubble.  I’m feeling pretty comfortable that there was enough active fermentation going on there that kept anything bad from sneaking in through the air lock.

It has been almost a week now, and this beer is still actively fermenting.  Most of my other brews finish the active stuff in about 3-4 days.  This one is still bubbling away.  So, here’s the thought.  There’s this crazy guy I really respect.  He worked with fermentation too (one time, he turned water into wine when a wedding party he was at ran out).  He said something about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a little bit of yeast.  So, here is the batch of sugary stuff, not realizing it could be something more, if it just changed.  Then along comes this word, this catalyst, this yeast that whispers something about change, “You can be something different.  You can be much more than you are now”.  Slowly (especially in this case) that yeast starts to work its way thru the whole batch of ingredients, slowly, stealthily,  magically changing it into Beer.  It has a mind of its own, and can’t be controlled.

With this batch of ingredients,  I thought the result would be explosive, but it wasn’t.  Just a little sprinkling in of the Kingdom of Heaven, the good news (our world doesn’t have to be this way, you can be different, things can change) and it started to work slowly, eating away at was true, and making something else true.  It is the persistence of the yeast in the end that wins out.  Problem is, being patient and waiting for the result.  So, it will be at least a couple more weeks before we are sampling and sharing the result.

Belgian Dark Fermenting

In Pursuit of Something GOOD!!

 

My Notes from the Strong Beer Fest

Saturday I attended an event with some friends called AZ Strong Beer Fest.  

“The event is a beer tasting featuring strong beers, but offering a wide variety of beer types and styles.” 

With a bit of sarcasm, I said I was going to do some research.  I’ve been looking for something new to brew and this seemed like a pretty good place to try some really good craft beers and get some ideas of different styles.  Well…as you may be able to tell from my hand written notes…it was too good.  The strength of the beer and the fact that it was pouring rain (which didn’t interupt the beer sampling), made taking notes a bit difficult and my hand writing got much worse as the day progressed.

The first few samples were very hoppy.  I have nothing against hoppy beers, they just aren’t my favorite or the style I prefer to brew.  My mouth ends up so overwhelmed, I can barely finish my beer or taste anything else. 

There were several Stouts (including Imperial – very strong) that were very flavorful, but I’ve done Stouts before.  It was interesting to taste a Chocolate next to a Whiskey, and I’d have to agree with Joshua who commented that Whiskey is much better match with the Stout flavor than Chocolate.  So, the Whiskey Barrel Stout will definitely remain in the brewing favorites category.  I also sampled a Double Bock, which was quite tasty.  It will be something to try for the future.

There were for me, however, two beers that really stood out.  One was a Belgian Style Quadruple and the other a Belgian Dark Ale by Great Divide Brewery in Denver Colorado.  Both styles are very similar, with a mixture of sweetness (almost carmelly), very light hoppiness and an interesting fruity flavor imparted by the Belgian Yeast (I suspect).  Joshua said, to him, it tasted like cotton candy.  So, now begins the pursuit.  Can I brew something like what I tasted (or maybe even better)?

I’ve found a handful of Belgian Dark and Quadruple recipes on-line and in some brewing books.  I’m going to attempt to pull from these the ingredients that might create the flavor I am looking for.  It will no doubt take several attempts and tweeks to the recipe, but the pursuit begins.  I am sorry to say, I won’t have anything on tap for Emerging Desert for a few more weeks.  But when I do, maybe it will be something GOOD!

My First Post

There are many great bloggers out there, and many brewers much more skilled and experienced than I am.  So, I feel a lot of aprehension starting a blog.  It’s a lot like throwing together grains, malts, water, hops and yeast hoping that somehow they produce something someone enjoys.

I started about 10 years ago with a Home Brewing kit and the encouragement of my wife to give it a try.  I started out slowly and for years, as a Charismatic-Evangelical, felt like a closet brewer.  There wasn’t much encouragement, and in general my community either frowned upon it or would have preferred something more like Coors/Bud (ick).  During that time, I brewed 3-4 times a year and only bottled beer.

Three years ago, my wife and I found ourselves outside the organized Church and drawn into an Emergent community of Heretics, Rebels and Drop outs.  About that same time, we invested in a Kegorator for serving beer.  Since then, brewing has become a Spiritual Gift (there’s some Charismatic language for you) and sharing it has become a Spiritual Experience.

The primary purpose of this blog will be to share the process of brewing beer, what we’ll have on tap for our next Emerging Desert cohort meetings,  and some thoughts on faith and the spirituality of brewing.