First State Brewers Blog

Hop prices are insane, and many varieties are getting very scarce. We’ve heard it time and time again over the past few months. Luckily our local homebrew shop, HDYB, has secured a good cache of hops and through their smart rationing policies, they should be able to give you the variety you seek in some form, either pellet, plug, or whole. In case you don’t know the policy: Maximum of 4oz per customer, only 3oz of any one variety. If you find yourself in there for anything, its probably worth making use of this and buying 4oz of hops, even if you don’t need them.

I am fortunate enough to be sitting on my own cache of 8-9 lbs of hops, which should only require occasional augmentation from Joe & Marlana. Many I have not come up with a gameplan for yet. I think next year will be one of significant experimentation and reformulation of recipes - many of my favorites that use Columbus, Simcoe, and Magnum hops will require substitution or retirement until the current crunch is over. I have several that I am pretty excited about using (and using up):

1. Summit hops (1 lb whole)- Citrusy, and 16.5%AA. I think these will go great with some Amarillo, Centennial, and maybe some Pacific Gem. Some homebrewers have said they didn’t know whether to brew with these or smoke them, they were so “aromatic”.
2. Mt. Rainier (8 oz pellets) - Herbal, slightly minty and some say has a licorice taste and aroma. Time to crank out some new dark beer (porter or stout) recipes for this one. These came from an informal hop swap with Ric at Stewart’s, and I traded him 8oz or 16oz of Sorachi Ace whole hops for them (I can’t really remember how much). The american brown he brewed with the Mt. Rainiers was outstanding.
3. Warrior - (~8 oz pellets) - Strong bittering hop and good replacement for my Magnum usage due to its low cohumulone content. I’ve had these since our big club buy from NCMS two years ago, but have never managed to work my way through all of them. I even gave about 8oz to Joe & Marlana at one time.
4. Horizon - (~5 oz pellets) - English dual-use hop with nice aroma and bittering qualities. I’ve only used it once before, when Mike Castagno and I brewed a split batch of english brown ale with it back in early 2006. I’ve been meaning to get back to these hops for quite a while.

I am also eyeing (with significant salivation) a new high %AA variety over at Puterbaugh Farms, Bravo, which sounds like it is a super-centennial. At almost $30/lb, it’s not cheap - but it IS whole hops instead of pellets, and sounds like it could be awesome in an IPA (probably with some Summit, Amarillo and Centennial). If they are still available after Xmas, I may have to sweet-talk the wife into letting me get some.

My recent brewing activities have got me re-energized about brewing next year, and I am looking forward to the next time I fire up the propane burner. I hope to do several more cooperative brews with other folks next year (Brian and Heidi & David jump to mind), and need to do a better job preparing for the local competitions - some have gone by with me having nothing to submit.

I’ve brewed the last two weekends, and it has been great - I can’t really explain the long hiatus (1 1/2 months) other than I was busy with other things… But last weekend I brewed 10 gallons of my black honey ale (w/ 4 lb buckwheat honey), and yesterday was a 5 gallon batch of Queen’s Darkness IS (8 oz of molassas). The Queen’s Darkness came in at around 1.084 OG, and the Black Honey is something on the order of 1.065-1.068 (will back calculate when I keg it).

I repitched about 1/2 of yeast from the honey ale into the stout, and had signs fermentation within 2 hours. It is rocking this morning. I also used the product from American Hop Plugs yesterday, which How Do You Brew? is currently carrying, and I must say - I really liked them. I will definitely look at buying and using more hop plugs in the future. They are expensive ($3/oz), but the convenience of dropping hops into the kettle in 1/2oz plugs is really nice… and they smell very fresh. Joe and Marlana have lots of Hop Plugs inventory, so if you are a “whole hop” fan as I am, I would strongly encourage you all to check them out as a viable alternative. Its amazing that those little plugs expand so much in the kettle.

My next brew will probably be “Homegrown Ale 2007″ or an American Pale / IPA. I’m itching to use my Summit hops in something, and I’ve got 2 lbs of Amarillo hops to play with. With all the dark stuff I’ve brewed recently, something on the lighter end of the color spectrum is probably a good idea too.

My miniscule Freshops order came today. I’m not quite sure which aspect is more insane:

• The alpha acids on my WHOLE LEAF Summit hops are 16.5%
• I only ordered 2.5 pounds this year, compared to 8+ last year
• It cost me $75 to order 2.5 lbs, which is about as much as I spent last year.

This is probably the last order for me for quite a while. My plan is to use the store of hops in my freezer until it runs out, or I can’t take it anymore and break down again. I am bummed that there were no Columbus or Simcoe hops to be had this year - at least not when I ordered. Now it looks like Freshops has some surplus 2006 inventory of Simcoe they are selling, but still no Columbus.

But why am I whining. I haven’t brewed in over a month, and the next one may be the last of the year.

My friend Brian and I got 2nd Place in American Brown Ale Category for the brown ale we brewed 20 gallons of some months back. I thought it was a very well formulated beer that had tons of flavor, and we did formulate it to fit the ABA style guidelines, so I am pleased and not entirely suprised that it placed.

I am trying to remember if Brian and I placed for any of our other beers other than the Gnarleywine (3rd place at Malt Madness) this year - I think the IPA could easily do well if we can get some carbonated in the bottles - which may have to wait until I put the second 5 gallons on tap next year. It will most likely taste a little different since we used the Safale S56 American Ale Dry yeast instead of WLP001, but based on prior experience I don’t expect it to be too different.

It has been a decent year for competitions - Those 2 joint prizes, and 2 other second places for my belgians (Abbey Brown and TnT), and a first place for the Choking Sun Stout - Not a bad year at all!

Since you all are suffering my Tech Geek posts about my user interface for my planned computerized homebrew system so well, I thought I’d take it a step beyond my screenshots to a little “in action” action. The screen capture was encoded with the Microsoft MPEG-4 v2 codec, and I know it works with Windows Media Player v11 (what we have). If it turns out you guys can’t see it or play it, or really want a different codec, I can try again. Otherwise try saving it to your harddrive and opening it with WMP.

BrewzNET video #1

The video basically shows the use of design control points, resizing the various objects that are available, playing around with pipe routing and styles, and a quick demonstration of the alpha-level support, which is not 100% at this point - I make the fermenter vessel partially transparent by setting the alpha channel for one of the color properties. I used a crappy freeware video capture application, so the framerate blows… but you get what you pay for, and you guys still will get the idea on how the screen designer is gonna work.

You may not care, which is fine too.

On the homebrewing front - I haven’t really brewed much. We did a saison (10 gal) a couple weekends ago, which is ready for transfer to secondaries, and I bottled 10 gallons of Choking Sun Stout on Monday - But I haven’t really put much thought into brewing more batches, namely because I have so much beer on hand as it is. I will probably brew some Black Honey Ale and a Coffee Stout sometime soon, but no firm plans on when. To be honest, the price hikes for malt and hops have seriously got me rethinking the frequency with which I brew. I have a decent supply of base malt and hops now, so I’ll probably burn through that over the next 6 months just to reduce on-hand inventory.

So I managed to get my prototype components worked into the main application after a couple hours of playing around. I fixed several issues, and found about 20 more that need attention.

I expect that this will go on for some time - but the results should be good. As you can see, I’ve put in placeholders for a component list on the top right side, and a combobox that will display the current component and its associated icon. I will ultimately put some tabs at the top of the development area to allow flipping between the graphics screens and events designers… I need to work on getting the refresh code optimized and hiding the component properties that I don’t want to show up in the PropertyGrid too.

So much to do…. but that is a good thing, I guess.

I have been writing computer code since I was 10, pounding away on the keyboard of my dad’s Atari 800 back when BASIC came on a cartridge, and programs were stored on audio tapes. Computers and programming have always made sense to me, and I’ve been blessed with a unique capacity to discern what applications are doing. I exercise that ability every day in my job, diagnosing problems with SAP which (more often than not) are the result of users not understanding or misusing the system rather than the sytem doing something unexpected.

So why the history lesson? Because I suprised myself recently, or more specifically the power of Visual Studio 2005 suprised me. For months I have been struggling with how to implement some design environment functionality for the BrewzNET software I’ve been working on for over a year. In fact, I took a several month hiatus during July-Oct and have not written a single line of code in that time - until this week. It is amazing what happens when you walk away from something and come back to it with fresh eyes. The primary concepts I struggled with (and prompted me to walk away) were how to implement the component and property list functionality when setting up a sculpture interface - namely how to make them look similar to the VB2005 IDE, which I feel is fairly user friendly and intuitive. I could write mountains of code and build custom components to do that, but the effort involved did not seem worth it.

Fast forward to Tuesday evening, when I was bored and playing around, only to discover a standard out-of-the-box component I was not familiar with - The PropertyList. It is exactly what I needed, and is (I believe) the same component that the VS2005 studio uses. SCORE! So how hard is it to use with my already-developed display classes for pipes, tanks, labels, etc? A single line of code implemented 75% of the functionality I was looking for - and the remaining percents are due to poorly designed object design on my part (and relatively straight-forward to resolve). The result speaks for itself - a flexible and professional looking property editing list. It works very well with the control-point functionality I had already implemented, and seems to update itself automatically when properties change.

Inspired by my newfound functionality, I endeavored to unlock the secrets of the component toolbox list. A quick SPY++ look at the VS2005 component list yielded the class name of “TBToolBox”. At first that didn’t mean alot to me, and I checked for a “toolbox” component hoping for a similar eureka! moment as with the PropertyList. Alas, it did not happen. Instead, I reanalyzed the name, and realized that the “TB” at the beginning of the class name stood for “Toolbar”. Voila! 10 minutes later, I had a prototype component list that looks strikingly similar to the VS2005 one.

So with some hesitation, I declare “GAME ON!!” for my control system development again. I hope to have a screen design environment completed by the end of the year, perhaps with some of the event model code completed as well. I have a short overnight business trip to CII scheduled for early November, so I may have time to code while en-route and Thursday evening. 5 1/2 hours in the air each way to Austin - YUCK.

I’ve got a drinking problem, I know - namely the lack thereof!!! For the first time in a long time, I’ve got a surplus of beer in my basement. In fact, I’m almost at 100% utilization of my available kegs, despite having alot of beer in bottles too. Brewing big batches (10 and 20 gallons) is certainly part of the cause. Couple that with a significant drop off of visiting friends & family, and Donna and I both having allergies that have curtailed our consumption… and my basement has filled up. I wish I were in this position back in June so I could have coasted through the summer months and not struggled with hot fermentation temperatures and warm ground water that had to be chilled with ice.

We have in kegs right now:

* 2.5 gal Gnarleywine (Brewed in 2006)
* 2.5 gal Tripel (Brewed in 2006)
* 10 gal Peated Scottish (5 of which is spoken for)
* 5 gal Ginger Pale Ale
* 5 gal Travelers & Tourists Dubbel
* 5 gal Saturday IPA
* 10 gal American Brown
* 5 gal Blackberry Dunkelweizen
* 5 gal Irish Red

Which totals up to 45 gallons in kegs pending rotation through the kegerator, so I think I will be doing relatively little brewing until the end of the year… might be a nice change of pace.

I also finally got off my duff and made some tap handle labels. Only one of them am I particularly pleased with - the Saturday IPA I brewed with Brian. I hope we brew this beer again sometime in the future, but given the fact that Columbus and Simcoe hops have become incredibly scarce (and expensive!!!), I think it might be a few years until the hop growing industry recovers. Scott Bieber tried some when he and Marty were over here last Sunday, and he seemed pretty pleased with it. Marty liked the peated scottish too - he threatened running off with my keg

Also, it appears that my level sensor testing inspired a fellow brewer down in Australia. Arnie has had an automated home brewery for years, and is constantly upgrading and improving his designs. I hope one of these days I’ll be able to pull together an automated home brewery as well, but priorities have put it on hold for now. Its just as well - I still have alot of work to do on the control and user interface software. Check out Arnie’s site, as well as Aussie Homebrewers where he is a frequent contributor to the forums.

“I… like… big… beers and I cannot lie
You other brothers can’t deny
You crave rich malt pouring in your face
Sticky hops and belgian lace…”

So I won’t give Sam Calagione’s “Pain Relievas” a run for their money… but I crack myself up.

OK. So this past Sunday I brewed another 15 gallons of Choking Sun Stout. Ever since my American Brown Experiment with Brian I’ve been dying to see if I could do a bigger batch as a single mash using just the gear I’ve got. We used Brian’s burner to heat our mash-out water, and I don’t really want to run out and get a new burner just for this setup when I know I’ll be going to a sculpture at some point… So for this solo batch I did things different. Same gravity setup, as with the 20 gallon batch, but I only did 15 gallons (1.070 OG)… and I heated sparge and mashout water together, transferring the sparge water to the HLT when it hit temp and heated the rest of the mashout water to boiling. It all worked just fine… I probably could have even done a 20 gallon batch if need be. These 28 gallon kettles are monsterous… and the kettle with a false bottom works awesome as a mash tun. I need to work out a better system for keeping the tun insulated - the sleeping bags work, but they’re a PITA and are getting pretty craptacular with wort and malt stuck to them - should be fun trying to get them clean.

As of 7am this morning, they were very visible signs of fermentation, and things were rocking as of 5pm this afternoon. Big batches rule.

Latest count towards my 200 gallon limit - 160 gallons from 15 batches. Its actually been 180 gallons brewed, but 20 gallons of that went home with Brian, so I’m not counting those towards my total. And before you all start screaming DRUNK!!! and pointing the fingers, we’ve given away nearly 50 gallons this year… and another 50 is basically sitting in our basement in kegs and bottles. So no, we didn’t drink all of it. YET.

So here is what the judges had to say about my two entries in the Belgian Dubbel category:

Travelers & Tourists: 31.5 Overall

Judge #1: 31/50 (Recognized BJCP Judge)

Aroma: Malty aromas with plum ester, no hop aroma, light spiciness (6/12)
Appearance: Deep amber, thick long-lasting off while head, clear (3/3)
Flavor: Dark malt flavors, raisin flavors, no hop flavors, skewed to malt with a dry finish (14/20)
Mouthfeel: Smooth with high carbonation, low alcohol warmth, moderate body - dry but not astringent (3/5)
Overall Impression: Dark rich with all appropriate flavors. Bit rough of a finish, aging may help. (5/10)

Judge #2: 32/50

Aroma: Raisins, Marshmellow, Malty. Nice! (10/12)
Appearance: Brown with slight haze (2/3)
Flavor: Malt & rasins with malty finish. Alcohol evident, some heat in aftertaste. Spicy with some phenols, appropriate for style. (12/20)
Mouthfeel: Medium. Med-high carbonation, appropriate for style. (3/5)
Overall Impression: A very good representation of the style, however the alcohol heat takes away from the smoothness. Needs more malt dextrins for smoothness. Possibly aging this would improve it also. Well done! (5/10)

Malady Abbey Brown: 34.5 Overall

Judge #1: 34/50 (Recognized BJCP Judge)

Aroma: Rich malty aroma, cherry ester aromas, light spicy phenol aroma. No hop aroma, no alcohol or solvent. (8/12)
Appearance: Deep amber, thick long lasting off-white head, clear (3/3)
Flavor: Light malt flavor - may need a touch more flavor. Balanced to a bit sweet with a vanishing (?) finish (14/20)
Mouthfeel: Light body, smooth, no alcohol warmth, high carbonation (3/5)
Overall Impression: Great aroma but a bit light in malts. May need a bit more grain. Clean (6/12)

Judge #2: 35/50

Aroma: Malt, esters, clean! spicy (9/12)
Appearance: Copper, nice & clear! Looks good! (3/3)
Flavor: Malty sweet with some lingering sweetness in the finish. Alcohol is in background, where it belongs. A smooth finish that makes you want more. Possibly a bit high on the maltiness (15/20)
Mouthfeel: Medium Lign, I wonder if the gravity is on the low side for style. (4/5)
Overall Impression: Very clean, smooth, and correct style. Alcohol is soft and brew is malty. Good example of style, though more complexity would make this better. Possibly ferment a few degrees warmer, or use a more assertive / complex yeast. Nicely done. (8/10)

So there it is. Neither of my dubbels did bad, but they clearly preferred the Abbey Brown. I wonder if they drank the TnT earlier than the Malady, because when it is too cold its character doesn’t shine through as well. God knows, I am convinced that your placement in the sampling chronology and a bit of luck is a huge contributor to the scores - Go too early and your beer will be cold (maybe too cold), but the judges will be reluctant to give high scores because they don’t know what is coming next. Get shoved to the end, and the judges palates could be completely overloaded, and they’ll barely taste your beer.

My 3rd place for the Abbey Brown won me a free vial of White Labs and some Brewer’s Gold hops. No clue what we got for the Barleywine, but I’m not too worried about it.