Good Marketing

I have a few blog topics upcoming. More to say than there is time/energy to say it. But this one requires a comment.

I received a package today (actually a couple days ago, but I found it out on the front porch today). What follows is the entirety of the letter included (emphasis is mine):

Dear John,

Well, it has taken two years and I'm happy to say the quest was well worth it.

After watching wine lovers drink from glasses specifically designed to enhance different varietals, I decided that I was going to find the perfect glass for Samuel Adams Boston
Lager, and as a member of the American Homebrewers Association, I wanted to
share the results with you. I hope you share my view that beer deserves to be
approached with the same respect that wine is accorded.

We are enclosing a document we wrote about the history of this quest... what we tested, who we worked with, etc., and I hope you enjoy the story [we did... Heidi remarked how it was really well put together] The proof, however, is in the tasting, so, I am sending along a pair of our new pint glasses for you to experience and test. As an AHA member you have showed the same commitment that we craft brewers have to the brewer's art.

I hope you will enjoy Samuel Adams in this glass. While we developed this glass specifically for Samuel Adams Boston Lager, we suspect it may enhance the taste of other beers with a high malt body and a high level of complex hop aroma as well. You can be the judge. I would certainly be honored if you enjoy one of your homebrews from this glass.

Thank you for your support over the years.

Cheers,

Jim Koch

That's right, they sent me two pint glasses for no reason other than that I'm in the AHA. Of course, they're advertising their beer, but they did a really bang-up job with that. They're really cool glasses as well, and since we both dig finding new pub glasses, this makes for a huge treat. I wish the camera was working, so I could post a picture of them.

So Sam Adams, I tip my glass to thee! My new one, at that.

The Yard House

Heidi's new job is in Glenview, and she's near The Glen, an outdoor shopping center something like Old Orchard but for the even more affluent. As it happens, there's a Metra stop a block away from her workplace, so I can take the train up after work and we can go have a lovely meal or whatever.

In any case, we chose last night to go to the Yard House. It's a chain restaurant, but it's a new chain restaurant, and I remember going there back before it was a chain. This was in Long Beach, mind you, but it was good there, it's pretty good here, too.

The Yard House's big claim to fame is that they have 250 beers on tap. Some of them are Budweiser and it's various American kin, but most of them are either microbrews or foreign or both. This makes each trip to the Yard House a lovely little experiment. The food is good, too.

In any case, I came in and asked if they had anything like Goose Island's MBA (Masters of Beer Appreciation), where you drink so many beers, you get something free. They didn't (I kind of already knew the answer; the one in Long Beach didn't, but I wasn't sure if they had initiated something like that). The manager told me no, but then he subsequently bought me a beer (a Spatten Optimal, I believe... oaky and a little sharp, but sort of complex). Yes, the manager of the restaurant gave me a beer on the house. For no reason than that he was in a good mood.

Speaking with him later, I mentioned that I just started homebrewing, and he said, "Hey, I'm a homebrewer, too!" Just from speaking with him, it was obvious that he was much more experienced than I am, but it opened a pretty cool door for us to talk brew stuff (as a result of that conversation, I have ideas about how to proceed with this Hefeweisen... could end up being very very good).

The Spaaten was stronger than I expected it to be, and I'm still a bit of a lightweight, so I ended up being less enthused about the rest of the night. Still, I know from experience that this is a good place to go, and now I know from experience that this particular Yard House is that much more worthy of my patronage.

Brew #4: Hefeweisen

On Saturday Mattox & I got together and brewed a Hefeweisen (well, we talked and drank and ate and played Katamari Damacy on Darrick's PS2 while the thing boiled). This was arguably the easiest brew I'd ever done.

There was a concern about the yeast. When we receive boxes, we never know it. We open the door and it's there. Even if we see the UPS guy pull into our circle and then drive away, we're not sure if he's delivered to us until we open the door. In any case, my kit was delivered on one of the really cold days (not the subzero ones, but the single-digit ones), and we weren't sure if it had been sitting there just that day, or for a whole day. Matt had had an issue with yeast that was delivered when it was butt-cold, and he had to head out to the brew store to pick up more when his brew wasn't fermenting. I knew that this might be an issue; if the yeast was frozen, the brew wouldn't ferment, and I wouldn't have time to go to the brew store for a week. Sure, I could have made a starter to see if it was alive, but I couldn't find the starter kit, and was too lazy to look it up.

In any case, the brew: this was an extract kit for a Hefeweisen (a German Wheat beer). And that's all it was. Literally, the entire package was six pounds of Bavarian Wheat Dry Malt Extract, and a half ounce of hops. No grains, nothing else. So, all I needed to do was boil the water and dump in the extract. That was an adventure all its own. For some reason, the boil didn't evaporate the water as expected, so dumping in six pounds of powdered malt was too much mass for the size of pot I have (and keep in mind, this is a big pot). I ended up dumping it all over the stove, much to the annoyance of my lovely wife, and had to get another pot to boil the overflow. There was a brief panic situation as we scrambled to clean the stove, and the brew boiled on.

Eventually, when both pots had boiled down a bit, I dumped the excess from little pot back into big pot, and got everything underway. It was still too much for the fermenter, so I left a bit of the brew in the pot to be dumped. Good thing, too. There's certainly nothing wrong with the yeast, as this was my first brew to spew out of the fermenter. Yep, the fermentation was so vigorous that there was some crap that had come out of the fermenter and plopped on the carper. Coulda been worse. It's in a closet and the only coat that got a little on it was the sleeve of my raincoat. Having a bit of a mess on a closet floor isn't a big deal, especially because it appears to have cleaned up well.

So this was a messy, albeit crazy easy brew. So far, brewing has been sort of like making Easy Mac. I get everything measured out in a bag, and I follow the directions. Easy to the point of silliness (OK, it's a little more difficult than Easy Mac, but it's still pretty basic). I think the next step is to find a recipe from Zymurgy (the magazine of the American Homebrewer's Association), and follow that, getting the components individually. I might still do a couple more kits, but I think it's time to graduate to the next level perhaps a kit that takes a little more work than just the regular brew. I'm not ready for all-grain, but maybe that will come in the next couple years.

Oh, and for those who care (and for posterity), the original gravity was approximately 1.038.

Brew #3: Dwarven Ale

I just finished brew #3, my admittedly inexperienced take on a Dwarven Ale. Darrick (Heidi's brother) commissioned this brew, and here's hoping it comes together the way we both expected. I chose a base of a Scotch Ale kit, and added spices on my own.

3.5 lbs Plain Amber Malt Extract
2 lbs Plain Amber Dry Malt Extract
8 oz Crushed Crystal Malt 60L (grain)
4 oz Crushed Chocolate (grain)
1 oz Crushed Roasted Barley
1 oz Fuggle Hops (Bittering)
1/2 oz Fuggle Hops (Finsihing)
11g Nottingham's Brewing Yeast

3 tsp Cloves
1 Tsp Allspice
1 handful, Cinnamon bark

This is a kit from Brew & Grow, the local brew store, as opposed to my usual morebeer kit. My concerns are the following: there was no clarifier, so it'll likely be kinda cloudy, and all the spices we used were fresh; they tend to float, and I know some got into the fermenter. This will change the flavor dramatically, and could be a little overpowering. I'm thinking powdered spices are a much better choice in the future, but I'll wait until I've seen how everything comes together. What it boils down to, though, is that I'm not particularly thrilled with the kit I bought at the brew store. It's a great store, just not the greatest place to get a kit. When I get more experienced, I'll probably go with recipes found here and there, and then I'll go to Brew & Grow.

And one other thing that was fun to find out: we have mice in our garage, as evidenced by all the little mousy poo that was all over the brewing stuff. Fortunately, thorough cleaning and sanitization is an essential first step for brewing, otherwise I would have been really pissed off and not done my brew this year (and therefore hosed yet another goal).

Thoughts on brew #2

I recently had a bottle of brew #2, ostensibly my "Christmas Ale." It's a decent ale, but needs to sit in the bottles for a bit longer, to smooth out the taste a bit. But here's the thing: it's not very Christmasy. The spices (which were wrong to begin with) didn't do a whole lot for the brew, and it's still a bit more hoppy than I'd like, but I'm guessing that I can figure that out eventually.

The last bottle of the Irish Red got taken over to a friend's house yesterday, although I have two large bottles of it still in the fridge. Now here's the thing, and perhaps other brewers can help me out with this: The most recent bottle of it I had was slightly more fizzy, and significantly smoother than any of the others I had. It almost tasted like a different beer. It was in a thinner bottle, and had been sitting there longer than any others I had drunk, but not that much longer. My thought is A) more oxygen had gotten into this bottle than usual, therefore mellowing it a bit more, B) the bottle was thinner than usual, and therefore aged differently than bottles with more depth to them, C) I had a bottle of the sorta-Christmas-ale that hadn't been marked, and I just didn't realize it. The more I think about it, the more I think it's C, but does anybody more knowledgeable in brewing have any insights into the other possibilities?

Also, I tend to prefer less bitter and more mellow or smooth beers. So far, I've made somewhat bitter beers, that taste a little harsh. Any input on what I might be doing wrong?

Brew #2 Bottled

We just bottled Brew #2. I filled the bottles, and Heidi capped them. It moved a lot quicker this time, and it looks (and smells) like it will work out quite well. If there's anything I'm concerned about, it's that the corn suger didn't fully mix in with the finished beer. This shouldn't be a big problem (I think); it should just be a little flat, if there's anything wrong at all. I'm learning that homebrewing is a forgiving activity, so I'm not all that worried.

Approximate final gravity: 1.017
Estimated alcohol content: 6.6%

Brew #2: A Christmas Adventure!

Yesterday Mattox was over and we brewed a Christmas Ale. It was a good time to hang out and the first time we had seen Matt since the wedding. It was a bit of an adventure, though. This was the first time I brewed in the new place, and the brewing in the new environment thing seems to be an interesting experience. Schaumburg water tends to taste a bit like chlorine, so I had to buy a gallon of water and then fill that jug with filtered water, but that was a small matter. I think the biggest thing that made it an adventure was the fact that the kit was improperly packed, and didn't include hops or the right spices. The spices aren't much of an issue, the lack of hops is a pretty big one. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the hops thing until we were almost to boiling. Fortunately, there's a brew shop in Schaumburg, unfortunately they had just closed when I called. Here's where you rely on the kindness of strangers, at least strangers who brew. I explained that I was right in the middle of a brew and needed to get hops. They asked how soon I could get there, and we were off. Not only did I find the place, but it was a nice one. They had already won a new customer when they let me buy stuff after closing time, but they would have won a new customer just by being the shop that they are. Neato!

We also figured out a new heat transfer tool. I have a copper-coil "heat sink" (not sure what it's actually called) that goes into the pot for a quick heat transfer to cool the wort down after the boil, but it requires hooking it up to a nozzle, which I don't have in my kitchen (the sink doesn't have that kind of faucet). In my old place, we used this by holding the nozzle over the faucet, and that's what I expected to do for the 15-20 minute cooldown process this time. However, Matt, being the ever-resourceful guy that he is, looked around the immediate area and saw the right kind of nozzle coming off the washing machine. We managed to pull the pot over to the dryer, and started the flow, and the tube connecting to the copper coils promptly popped right off, spraying water all over the place. A little screw tightening later (combined with turning on the water a little slower), and we were transferring heat quickly, cleanly and with little fuss.

I have a good feeling about this brew. The last one was a hit with friends, and there's still plenty of it left, but I think this one is going to be even better. I'm not sure if I'll have enough bottles to do the third brew this year, but we'll see what-all comes of it.

And now, the details:
Extract:
8 lbs, Ultralight Malt

Grain:
8 oz, Crystal 120L
8 oz, Caravienne
4 oz, Honey Malt
2 oz, Special B
2 oz, Black Roasted

Hops:
1 oz, Northern Brewer Hops (bittering)
1 oz, Willamette (aroma)

Spices:
2 tsp, Cinnamon
2 tsp, Pumpkin
1 tsp, Ginger

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale yeast

And Whirfloc as a clarifier.

Original Gravity, approximately 1.068

On brewing mead

I don't really have much to say right now, but I figure it's been too long since I've posted. I'm healing from the seizure.

But I did want to post about a rockin' walkthrough of brewing mead at Mattox's blog. For those of you interested in brewing, read this.

AHA and Goose Island

Heidi and I have had a relatively crappy day. It's too damn hot, we've had car troubles, and we just went to Wal-Mart. For that last part, you need to understand what a large Wal-Mart in the suburbs is like on a hot weekend day. It ain't pretty. We were planning on hitting Ravinia tonight, but because of the heat and the car problems, we were unable to make it.

But one thing we were able to do was go to an American Homebrewer's Association event at Goose Island. That was a lot of fun. I was able to chat briefly with way more experienced brewers, and hang out with Heidi and Matt for a while, and even tour the brewery part of Goose Island. It was way cool, and more educational than I think I understand just yet. And it was air-conditioned. And, for $33, I got four beers (one of them in a bottle to take home), a $5 off token for a future visit to Goose Island and a new membership into the AHA. So that's a heck of a discount. So the part of the day that worked well worked really well. The rest of the day was kinda bleah.

Brew #1 Bottled

Recently finished bottling brew #1. Not sure how it's going to turn out, but then again, I'm brand new at this. It should be ready for drinking at my D&D game on the 25th, which should be a fun change of pace, y'know, assuming it doesn't taste like feet or anything.

Some techical details:
# of gallons bottled: A little over 4
# of bottles: 44
Final Gravity: 1.009
Estimated Alcohol Content: 5.1 %

Matt's in Italy at a conference, so he gave me some pointers (and some bottles), but he wasn't there walk me though the process. There were a few things that I know I screwed up, and a few things that might have gone wrong. I might have some explosive bottles, I might have some nasty bugs growing in some of the bottles. But it just might turn out perfectly. Owell, worst thing that happens is that I throw the beer out and learn.

Brew #1: Inaugurale

Mattox was over yesterday and helped me out with my first brew, Morebeer's Irish Red Ale Extract Kit 145. This was my first step into a larger and grander world yesterday, but it will be my last brew in this apartment. But with the move three months away, I'll still be drinking the fruits of my labor when I'm in the new place, which is the way it should be. I've just checked the fermenter, and the fermentation process appears to have started, so yay!

Have some details for those who are so inclined:
Date Brewed: 5/28/2006
Number of gallons in boil: 6
Estimated range for original gravity : 1.050-1.058
Original Gravity :1.043 (OK, it's my first brew, cut me some slack)
Number of gallons in fermenter: Approx. 4 (which is a guess)
Temperature of wort at pitching: Approx 80 degrees F (which is a guess... I need to get a thermometer)
Yeast: White Labs Pitchable Liquid Irish Ale Yeast
Quantity Pitched: 1 vial (approx 35 ml)
Lag time (between piching and onset of fermentation): About 10 hours
Suggested fermentation temperature: 63-72
Actual fermentation temperature: Room temp (significantly warmer)

The Fermentation of a Plot

I've been a little concerned about the quality of my kitchen for the homebrewing, especially on my first attempt. I know it can be done, as the first brew I witnessed was in a kitchen not much better, but I'm still organizing, and will likely still be organizing when I want to do the brew. So, I've decided my first brew will be on-premises at Bev Art Brewer and Winemaker Supply. Matt had mentioned the place to me when I went over to witness his brew recently, and I looked it up and gave them a call. I'll head down there this weekend to check the place out, and sign myself up for an onsite brew. This will be mighty convenient, as I will be able to have my first brew available for my housewarming/movie night in October.

I'm thinking September 3rd or 10th, depending on Howard and Janet's pre-wedding bash stuff.

Homebrewing

So I think when I move, I'm going to get into home-brewing my own beer. It'll save a little bit o' cash, and be kind of fun, and add some additional fun to the festivities when I have people over. I'm still thinking of a creative name for the apartment, though. This is doubly important now, because the beer will have to be named creatively as well. And Heidi will probably be making the label for the bottles, being her creative self that she is. Anyway, I just got some books off Amazon, so we'll see what-all comes of it.