Spruce Alemighty

Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing.  I have been longing to brew a spruce beer since trying Fort George's Spruce Bud Ale.  I assumed that spruce tips tasted piney and resinous.  I was right about the latter, however the flavor was fruity and not piney at all.  I was hooked.  I forgot about how much I wanted to brew with spruce, but low and behold a fellow home brewer Jon Hall from the Portland Brewers Collective made a wonderful spruce pale ale and reintroduced me to the wonderful flavor of spruce.  Another member, Rich, whom is leaving for the east coast asked me if I was interested in some spruce tips.  He had vacuumed sealed them and kept it in the freezer.  The only stipulation was I had to make a spruce beer before he leaves.  I was beyond ecstatic and will be sharing my creation tomorrow.

I have only tried spruce beer in two forms pale ale and gose.  I was damned if I was going to make either of those styles.  Not that I disliked those versions!  I kept racking my brain about a complementary style.  A customer at Imperial Bottle shop told me that his favorite spruce beer he had was a biere de garde (old beer).  There it was!  I was instantly transfixed on a memory of drinking biere de garde in the Pyrenees.  It was such a surreal moment and one of my favorite memories of drinking beer.

This French farmhouse ale can be debated as to the style parameters, however I think everyone can agree it is malt forward beer with cellar-like qualities.  Some of those qualities include flavors associated with yeast, musty basement and cork.  Often times these qualities are hard to achieve on the home brew level.

Here is my humble thoughts on the style... The appearance should range from golden hues to brown.  These beers tend to be bright, in part to long cold storage on lees, hence the name old beer.  Garding is the same thing as Lagering.  The aroma should be malty and sweet with a hint of herbal hops and those cellar-like qualities I mentioned earlier.  The taste should also resemble the malty sweetness and some fruity and herbal hop notes.  It should be dry and never cloying.  It should feel medium bodied.

An interesting fact is that spruce tips are full of vitamin C, which during colonial times helped prevent scurvy during the long voyages to the Americas.  They learned this from Native Americans upon arrival.

I added the spruce tips at the whirlpool stage of cooling the hot wort.  In hopes to preserve the oils and flavor.  I just tried the beer two days ago before kegging and I am excited about the results and look forward to sharing the beer and tasting the carbonated version.  I also, used an uncommon yeast strain.  Wyeast's Scottish ale, which was not a recommended strain in a farmhouse book I read.  The reason I choose this strain is that it attenuates well and flocculates even better causing a brighter beer that is dry.  Another positive from this strain is that it accentuates the malt flavor.  All of those reasons have helped me create what I feel is a true biere de garde with a touch of the United States Pacific Northwest.

I have created two more beers since and look forward to updating you on those.  Also, the 2nd Annual Stout Bout is about to happen.  So, you can surmise that one of these beers is a stout.  Hope your New Years brings you great tasting beer!  Looking forward to creating more interesting brews and sharing the high's and low's of this brewing journey.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly.  Salute!

Courage or Just Crazy

The cold is about to set in and why not have a beer that can warm you up a bit?  I have been wanting to create a nice big Russian Imperial Stout for a long time.  What better time than now to create another strange and dark creation...

Fermented black garlic is a mysterious and complex ingredient.  The Dirty Secrets and Deep Flavor of Black Garlic, Dave Arnold (former director of technology at the French Culinary Institute) states, "Black garlic is not fermented."  So, how then does it turn black and taste so different from a regular clove?

The garlic goes through the Maillard reaction by being slowly roasted at a low heat (137-142 degrees f) for about 1 to 2 months.  This process converts sugars and turns the garlic black creating a sweeter caramel like flavor.

The Maillard reaction is named after the French scientist Louis Camille Maillard, who discovered this process.  The reaction is not a singular one, rather it is a series of complex reactions between amino acids and reducing sugars.  The Maillard reaction is also important in beer!  It gives Stout it's darkness. The malt is transformed during the kiln process, which then darkens and changes the flavor of the malt just like the garlic.  The reaction also happens when boiling the wort.  The longer you boil  the darker your beer becomes.  I think by now we can move on from the good ole' Maillard reaction... 

What does black garlic taste like?  In my opinion, it has many layers of flavor.  Sweet, umami, carmel, chocolate and cooked onion are a few I pick up.  "Umami," is one of the five basic taste.  It is a wonderful savory taste found in many foods and beer too.  It is a Japanese word that translates to "delicious taste."

Audrey keeping an eye on the mash

My hope was to create a unique beer.  I wanted to approach the recipe like a chef would or at least how I think a chef might approach a dish.  When you read the label of this Russian Imperial Stout you may have thought that it was bat shit crazy idea or courageous.  I hope it was the latter...

I did not just randomly pick out things to throw in a beer.  My feeling, is that the black garlic will add some interesting nuances to the beer.  The carmel-like and chocolate-like flavors hopefully add to the malt character.  The onion flavor is reminiscent of certain hop flavors, which could make for an interesting note.  Umami is often a by product of big stouts.  Why add more?  Flavor of course, but this is where the Strawberry comes into play.  In my mind, the acidity of the strawberry will cut some of the umami making it easier on the palate.  Plus, I still have not made my annual strawberry beer.  

The original idea for my strawberry beer was to make a strawberry vanilla stout.  I read that black garlic goes really well with vanilla ice cream.  I juxtaposed the original idea with what I read and that is genesis of the vanilla.    

Maillard Reaction!

This Stout is huge with an OG of 1.120.  It will probably be about 12% when all is said and done. This beer was inspired by the first documented Russian Imperial Stout made by Barclay Perkins, called "Courage."  The Russian Royalty loved this beer and most documents point to Catherine II Empress of Russia being the biggest proponent of this dark and luscious brew.  

I love big stouts with their complex, bold and brazen flavors.  In one of my favorite beer books Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels speaks of doctors during the Victorian age prescribing pregnant women to drink three quarts of Porter and Stout!  I am not a  doctor, but please ladies if you have a bun in the oven do not drink six quarts of beer, and I probably would advise against drinking one of my Black Garlic, Strawberry and Vanilla Imperial Stouts.  

I digress, I hope to be able to share this beer with all of you.  If you do not get to try this concoction I hope to report back to you with good news.  That is all I got for today, remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry! 

As a side note, 'Rock The Casbah' Saison won 2nd place in People's Choice Category at Portland's "Willamette Weekly Pro/Am Competion."  Very grateful to have been a part of this awesome event. Thanks to all of you for your support! 

  




 

Rock The Kasbah Saison

Welcome back to Off the Hinge Brewing!  Working two jobs can be taxing and the amount of brewing has dwindled at my home, however I had the fortunate luck of being able to brew with Coalition Brewing in SE Portland.  Coalition offers home brewers a chance to brew with them on their pilot system.  To participate in the "Collator Series," a home brewer fills out an application and they choose a brewer to collaborate with.  As a side note, tomorrow if you are in town they will be opening their new brewery tasting bar, check out their website for more details http://www.coalitionbrewing.com/. 

My second job is at Imperial bottle shop and taproom, we are celebrating our 1st year in business tonight at 7PM!  My boss Alex Kurnellas and Shawn Stackpoole, have a good relationship with Coalition and asked them if they would be willing to do the Collator Series with me for our first year anniversary.  Elan Walsky, was more than willing and we met and discussed a recipe.  We decided to make a North African Saison with Apricots and Apricot Kernels.

Alex came up with the name, Rock the Kasbah Saison.  This beer's North African Spices and fruit, French/Belgian yeast strain and our bottle shop name "Imperial," made imperialism pop into my head.  During the unfortunate time of colonization in the 19th century, spices made their way around the world and sparked new culinary traditions.  Although, unfortunate circumstances like this occurred there are ways to bring humanity back together in a respectable manor.  One of those ways is through beer!

Beer history is vast and has been recognized as being around since the beginning of civilization.  It helps cities work by giving the crowded and downtrodden masses something to help them relax and be social, which has in turn helped generate interesting ideas.  Not only has it been a good social lubricant, but it has helped people stave off disease as healthy alternative to unsafe drinking water.  Alright, now I will stop with the history lesson and move to more interesting things...

  
The idea spawned from smelling Ras El Hanout, which is a North African spice blend.  Ras El Hanout, is arabic and translates to "Head of the Shop."  It is a blend of the best spices the shop keeper carries.  The complex mixture blew my mind.  It had several spices that are often used in Spiced Saison beers. Juxtapose summer heat with a refreshing brew and my thoughts went straight to a Spiced Saison.

Spiced beers can be a tricky thing to nail down, and the beer needs to have balance.  I found good information in the book 'Farmhouse Ales,' by author Phil Markowski.  Using a table in the book on spice additions helped us to figure out the right amount to use.  A French/Belgian yeast strain can cause spicy yeast notes, which add even more spice to this brew.  We decided to balance this with another North African ingredient, Apricots.  The sweetness of the Apricot rounds off some of the spice.

Saison styles generally have a moderate bitterness to them.  Brad Basil and Elan Walsky, came up with the idea to add the Apricot Kernels, which I had never heard of.  They are sometimes referred to as Bitter Almonds.  The kernels have an amazing aroma of pistachios, cherries and biscotti.  To bring out more of those aromas Brad roasted them for a short bit.

After primary fermentation ended we added the fruit.  We made a ten gallon batch so, we split up two carboys evenly.  In one we added a puree of Apricots along with the kernels, and in the other we added quartered Apricots only.  The reason we did it that way was to give us an opportunity to blend the beers for our desired outcome.

Wednesday, I met up with Elan and Brad to taste our brew and was very excited about the outcome of both brews.  We decided to blend roughly a 60/40 blend with 60% of the quartered fruit and 40% of the pureed fruit.  The beer has a beautiful golden orange hue with a stark white frothy smooth head.  I love the aroma, which smells of Cumin, Cinnamon and Coriander.  The flavor has a nice subtle Apricot note with just a touch of acidity.  The aftertaste was spicy and fruity with a slight bitterness.  I enjoyed the mouthfeel, which felt medium to medium light.  Overall, I am excited about the beer and hope you all can make it out and try this colonial concoction.  

As a side note, Elan asked me to brew with them for the Willamette Weekly Pro/Am competition in Septemeber.  I couldn't be more grateful!  I also, wanted to point out that my Co-workers made a beer with the Portland U-Brew.  Word on the street is that it is a hop bomb, for all you hop heads.  So, get over to Imperial tonight for some good libations and vibrations.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry, Cheers!  

P.S.  I wanted to thank Imperial and Coalition for the awesome experience!

Gelbe Birken (Yellow Birch) Gose

The salt used in this Gose comes from this ocean

Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing!  The Watermelon Mint Super Saison is kegged, and turned out great.  The watermelon flavor was fairly subtle, so I juiced a watermelon and added about a 1/2 gallon of watermelon juice to the keg and racked the beer over it.  Now, I feel it is just right!  This was suppose to be my refreshing summer ale, and it is, however it is 8.5%.  That being said, I need something a bit on the light side.

Gose, is an ancient German beer from the Saxony region.  It is a sour and salty concoction, which is quite different from the standard German beer.  The Reinheitsgebot (German purity law), which states the brewer can only use malt, hops, water, and yeast does not allow for other ingredients.  The gose being a rare exception.

How can Gose use ingredients such as, Coriander and salt?  The purity law originated in the 15th Century in Bavaria.  Germany at that time had not been Unified.  Gose originated in the town of Goslar, which is located within the North Eastern state of Saxony outside the rules of Bavaria.  This strange brew battled for its life and disappeared for awhile due to war and communism.  During the communist rule in East Germany, food became scarce and the cereals that make up the grist for the beer went to making bread instead.  For more info on gose check out this site, http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/Gose.html.

Taking some notes

American craft brewers are getting into the German Funk and giving it the respect it deserves!  I have yet to make a sour beer and did not care for sours.  Then, I tried the 'Geisterzug Gose.'  It is one of my favorite beers, sour, salty, citrusy, piney, and refreshing.  It also uses spruce tips.  Thinking about this beer I have been wanting to make a gose for the past 2 years.  My friend Shadow had an idea to brew a cedar tip gose and wanted to brew with me.  Finally, a good reason to brew this sour libation.

The cedar sounded delicious, but time was of the essence and the cedar was too difficult to find. The local brew shop had Yellow Birch wood.  Smelling this honey comb wooden stave, I was reminded of wintergreen and it had a sort of tartness to it, which I thought would play nice with the sour profile.

Finally, Shadow and I brewed this wheat based sour!  It took some time to match up our schedules.  Here is the skinny on the beer.  Traditionally, Gose uses a 60/40 ratio of Wheat to Pilsner malt.  Unfortunately, I did not have my recipe with me when I went to get my grains.  My ratio was roughly, 40/30 with the remainder being Acidulated malt.  I am not too worried about it.

Acid Malt is a sprayed with lactic acid, which will give the beer its sour edge.  We were going to use just one pound of the sour grain, however as we were mashing out we thought it could use more sourness.  We then added another pound.  After we stirred it up the grist and let it sit for awhile we continued the mash out.

Before I forget, when using this lactic grain you want to added it after the conversion of the wheat and Pilsner malt.  We mashed the Wheat and Pilsner for 60 minutes.  After that time, we added the Acid Malt for another 45 minutes.  The Acid malt lowers the ph in the water, which can negatively effect the enzymes if added too early.

If we were using Coriander seeds, we would have used more than the salt addition.  Instead, we used powdered Coriander, which made me think it would be bolder in flavor, although the essential oils may be compromised?  We used a quarter of an ounce of the Coriander and a half ounce of Salt.  I wanted a good balanced mineral to salinity salt.  I had no problem selecting this salt, because I use it frequently.  This is also a local product from the Oregon Coast, which is hand harvested.  The company that produces this product is called, Jacobsen's Salt.  I recommend it to any salt lover.

As far as Yeast goes, we decided on a kolsch strain.  I feel it has a nice profile that offers some fruity esters and is clean too, like a lager.  It is sometimes used in Berlinerweiss, which is almost the same beer as a Gose minus the salt and a bit more sour.  That is about all I have for today,  I just checked the reading and at the moment we are looking at about a 3.2% summer beer.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry!  Prost!

Wallonia Watermelon Farmhouse Ale

Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing blog!  A quick update, part of the Camino beer has been kegged and is delicious!  The aroma is a burst with berries, up front hints of fig and coco mingle with Tempranillo and a touch of tannins that follow.  This was the American II strain beer.  The Belgian Strain is still in the carboy, but the last sample I took was outstanding.  Much better than the American Strain, which is saying a lot.  Enough on the old brews...

Summer Solstice is fast approaching and a refreshing beer would be nice to sip on during the upcoming heat wave.  I was thinking about grilling food in the summer and staples that go along with a good BBQ.  Watermelon was the only thing that my mind was focusing on.  Also, I thought of adding basil because of a watermelon salad I had recently.  However, my friend Mike suggested I should use mint instead.  I was convinced having had that combination in the past.

Having picked out my adjuncts the next step was to choose a base recipe.  Last May, my wife and I made a rhubarb saison, which was tasty and refreshing.  Traditionally, saisons are brewed in the winter months to be enjoyed in the summertime.  I know winter has passed, but spring is close enough.  I prefer fermenting Belgian beers at higher temperatures the yeast characters really come forward.

Fresh Watermelon Puree

A standard saison is fairly hoppy and around 5-7% ABV.  I was shooting toward 7, however not knowing the amount of sugar in the watermelon it will probably be around 8% with an O.G. of 1.066.  I also used El Dorado hops, which have watermelon characteristics to accentuate the flavor profile.  I also have a bunch of Lemon Zest hops from the Lemon Fractal beer and decided to use them, I have read they have mint like qualities.

First Wort Hop with El Dorado

At any rate it should be tasty.  If you make a watermelon beer, I have been told you need to use a lot of watermelon for the flavor to come through.  A watermelon is 90% water.  I used a gallon of watermelon juice and about three pounds of puree with a 1/2 oz. of Mint at the last 10 minutes of the boil to help sustain the aromatics of the watermelon.

Fresh Mint

I kept the malt bill simple with 78% Belgian Pilsner Malt, 14% Flaked Wheat and 8% clear Belgian Candi Sugar.  When using Pilsner Malt, I recommend doing a 90 minute boil to drive off the DMS.  I used Danstar's Bell Saison Yeast.   I have been told it is a combination of the Belgian and French Saison yeast.  I love the flavors of the Belgian strain, but it stalls out.  I love the French yeast because it will eat through all the sugar like a champ.  You get best of both worlds.  It is bubbling like crazy right now!  I hope to be able to share this with you all!

As a side note, "Wallonia," is a southern region of Belgium where Saison originated.  Until next time, drink good beer responsibly and be merry!


  

Camino De Santiago beer

  

Possible label

Welcome back to Off The Hinge!  First off, I want to report back to you about the Lemon Fractal Ale.  The first sip exploded with lemongrass in a not so satisfying way.  I was totally bummed out, but I was not about to give up on this brew.  Sharing a sample with Steve, he was reminded of our One Night in Bangkok beer.  A light bulb came on, why don't I toast some coconut shavings and dump it in the keg?  That should balance out the strong lemongrass flavor, but  that by itself just would not do, so I decided to get mad and add the coconut with some of JB's Whiskey that was aging on oak chips.  I dumped all that into the keg.  It is much better now!  Sometimes you dig for gold and come up with a pearl...

There are so many wonderful beers out there and I have been thinking about how to make ales that have a purpose and are not just pretentious.  I was walking to work a while back and thought about my trek through Spain and out of the blue I had a beer-like epiphany of sorts...  How can I take my experiences and turn them into a liquid journey?  I wanted to design a beer that encompassed the flavors I experienced on the Camino, so that my friends could taste this brew and maybe conjure within them an imagination of what it was like walking across Spain.  After some light introspection, I came up with an Idea, "The Soul Searcher Porter."

Why Porter?  This is a double entendre.  First, in a more idealistic approach, "Porter" is someone who carries things.  Being that I carried my rucksack across Spain, I figured it fitting for this brew.  Second, I loved Eastern Promise the Baltic Porter I made some time ago.  Now that the base recipe was decided on I had to think about the flavors of Spain.  

My Camino family and I ate figs and blackberries on the trail, and I also recalled a fig/blueberry Baltic Porter that Burnside Brewing made last year.  This beer was quite tasty, so I decided why not substitute blackberries for blueberries?  That was not enough to satisfy my idea of Spain, so I decided to pick up some Spanish Tempranillo and soak it in dark toasted oak chips.  A 20-25 mile hike a day called for wine in the evening and Spain is famous for its full bodied and flavorful Tempranillo Wine.  I think the flavors of the wine will work well with the dark fruit and dark berry.  I have not decided yet, but I may add some coco nibs and coffee to secondary?  Thanks to Bradley for reminding me about coffee, how could I forget such a wonderful drink!  There was plenty of coffee and chocolate intake on this trip, so it makes sense for me to do it.

You are rarely alone on the Camino, with that in mind I invited a few friends to partake in this brew session.  I wanted to thank them all for there help!  I also want to thank all the friends I made on my Journey!  I will never forget any of you!  That is it for now, I will probably do another post on this with more of the technical side and explain the experimental 3 gallon batch that was born out of this... Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry.  

Salud!

Lemon Fractal Fruit Ale

Welcome back, I have some exciting news!  You may remember a little over a year ago Steve Childs created an American Barley Wine recipe that we brewed.  The Ye Ole Jabberwocky, and it brought home a gold medal from the Slurp and Burp 17th annual homebrew competition!  Other highlights included, Rob Woodruff (fellow Portland Brewers Collective member) won a silver for a mead and my Rum aged Stout was judged for best in show, but unfortunately did not place.  Overall, I consider it a great success, so Cheers to the PBC! 

Spring is a season for renewal and a time to renew ale with innovation, creativity and the human spirit.  All week I had planned on making a Smoked Cherry Whiskey Russian Imperial Stout, however yesterday, I woke up and all I could think about was the warm weather and a refreshing beer.  So, I developed a layered lemon beer.

My friend Jordan introduced me to a new experimental hop, ADHA 871 the "Lemon Zest Hop."  He made a single hopped pale ale with this hop that I found to be quite unique.  It came out of a breeding program in Yakima Valley.  It is described as having flavors which include, clean, pleasant, floral, citrus, huge mint, herbal, mellow spice, thyme, Saaz like, cucumber, sage, and a touch of lemon.  This innovation in hops is changing the ever evolving landscape of beer, which I deem to be a step in the right direction.

I purchased a pound of Lemon Zest hops after tasting Jordan's brew.  When the hops had arrived the ideas were raging.  I am a firm believer in using similar tasting items in one dish to achieve a range of depth in flavor, so I decided I wanted to bring out the refreshing elements of the lemon. 

I am enamored by the creativity and hard work that goes into the beer making process.  There are so many connections in the process from our ancestors of 10,000 years ago who propagated the barley fields, the modern retailer who sells the beer and everyone in between.  The connections are like the Fibonacci Number Sequence, for instance, 1 connection leads to 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... and so on.  This idea also created a creative spin I put into this beer.  Using the Fibonacci Sequence for the hop Schedule.  This was not only to be more creative, but also a homage to the human spirit and the connectedness of the universe.

My outdoor brewing partner

Now, that I have romanticized the process let us move on to the brass knuckles of this beer.  First off, I really enjoyed the malt bill and yeast strain of my Mango Cedar Belgian Blonde.  That being said, I used a similar grist only changing the US 2-row for Belgian 2-row.  I have never used the Belgian malt so, I figured why not try it out?  The yeast will be the same as the Mango beer, which was Wyeast's Forbidden Fruit 3463.  This strain tends to leave a little sweetness, which I hope will balance the 6 oz of hops I used.  

You may be wondering what other flavors did I use to add depth?  I talked earlier about using similar tasting items to achieve depth these ingredients include, Lemon Grass that I grew last year and a small touch of real Lemon zest.  That is about it the fermentor is going off, so that is a good sign.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry.  Cheers!

  

New wort chiller