First State Brewers Blog

So little time, so much to do. I’m not sure where it all goes, but I won’t be torturing you all with a lengthy blow by blow. Instead, consider this post more of a drive-by.

• I suck as a hop grower. I must the only man on the planet that can’t grow Cascade… but that’s probably because I’m trying to do it on a 3′ high fence. My Liberty hops were totally decimated by beetles. My Nuggets did OK despite everything.
• I’m brewing 15 gallons of Choking Sun Stout this weekend. Woot.
• I’ve got mad amounts of beer in kegs and bottles downstairs.
• I took 3rd for my Abbey Brown and a joint 3rd with my buddy Brian for our Gnarleywine in a competition on Saturday. Read Brian’s blog for details.
• I totally loathe coming up with tap handle labels anymore. I’m not sure why. Two of my taps currently have “Saturday IPA” and “Peated Scottish” written on the back of a business card. Fancy, huh?
• I won’t be making the club meeting this Month. Gotta drive to NY to help my parents move that weekend.

So no, I’m not dead. I’m just up to my eyeballs in crap. I’ve been doing freebee development work for Donna’s old boss in Atlanta for the past few weeks, and I think I finally got that monkey off my back… so more I should have more time to blog and bore you all with my activities soon enough.

As you probably have heard by now, the Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson, has passed away. I was shocked when I read John Biggins’ email. Heidi Derr just sent me an article by Lew Bryson that had me in tears. The comments on Lew’s post tore me up!

I remember when I first got into brewing close to 20 years ago and watching “The Beer Hunter” on the Discovery Channel. Soon after watching it on TV, I ordered a copy of the video for my self. The First State Brewers made many trips to the University of Pennsylvania to see him at the annual Book & the Cook beer tasting event. On one occasion I got him to sign my copy of the World Guide to Beer.

Through Michael Jackson’s video and writings, I developed my interest in beer and my desire to travel to other beer brewing regions of the world. My travels to England and Germany are proof. I’m sure he will be in my thoughts when I go to Ireland next Spring, as well.

So, this weekend I urge you all to seek out the best beer you can find and salute the life of this great man!

UPDATE: Also, thanks to chazzq for alerting me to an obituary in the Washington Post.

The First State Brewers have been on 2 international beer tours. The first was a trip to Germany in 2002. The 2nd trip was couple of years ago split between York, England and Marburg, Germany. Now, plans are being made for a trip to Ireland!

We are looking at possibly going around St. Patrick’s Day or Spring Break of 2008. If you’re interested in joining us, please let me know.

Here’s a Google Map that I will be updating with possible destinations. Click on the thumbnails to get a description of the attraction. Zoom the map in to see all the attractions at that location. If you know of a place we should visit that’s not on the map, please let me know so I can add it!

View Larger Map

This weekend one of our projects was to clean my “beer room”, the unfinished part of our basement. It has needed attention for some time, and it now looks worlds better than it did. One of the projects I completed was reinforcing the shelving where our commercial beers are aging. Its a relatively meager collection, however it was heavy enough to start bowing the 1/2″ particle board it sits on. The reinforcement slats will completely eliminate that issue for quite a while.

In addition, I made a decent attempt at cataloging the homebrew I have in kegs and bottles - the kegs were relatively easy, and I went ahead and included the 30 or so gallons I have in secondary fermenters that will be kegged over the next 2 weeks or so. The bottles were a little more challenging, but not too bad. Now I have a good idea of what bottles I shouldn’t worry about drinking, and what I need to start rationing.

Next weekend I will brew a Blackberry Wheat using some “free” yeast from Joe and Marlana at HDYB. They had a Wyeast propogator pack of their 3056 Bavarian Wheat strain that had expired, and offered it to me gratis (along with my purchase of the 3 sacks of grain). As I make starters for all my yeast strains, it didn’t worry too much - I’ve got a rockin’ 1L starter of it on the stir plate right now, that I’ll let finish out, settle, and then I’ll decant it and pitch it into another 2L of wort prior to pitching next week. I should have a good cell count by then, despite the yeast’s humble beginnings. Once the beer is brewed and fermented, I’ll rack it ontop of 4 or so pounds of the blackberries we picked at Milburn Orchards a few weekends ago.

I’ve got some fat sacks. You know you want some. I picked up 3 bags of Breiss 2-row Brewer’s malt from HDYB today - Joe cut me a deal since I bought 3 at a time. Add that to the sack of pilsner and 1/2 sack of Maris Otter - I gots the goods.

My peated scottish brewed on Sunday is winding down… just in time for a 20 gallon batch this weekend of American Brown Ale with my buddy Brian. The sack of Weyermann Pilsner comes courtesy of Brian as well - Thanks a ton, man. Very cool. We’ll use the rest of the Maris Otter (top bag - about 25 lbs left in there) with a portion of Briess 2-Row Brewer’s malt this weekend, repitching yeast from our batch of Saturday IPA a few weeks ago. This batch won’t use nearly the hop bill the last one did - I think right now we’re only looking at 6 or 7 ounces for 20 gallons, whereas we used 24 oz in that IPA.

A friend of mine AIMed me and asked me to post something on the blog. I am actually a little embarrased about it, but I’m going to anyways. My friends and family are always the folks that I brew to please, and here is a bit of feedback I got from one of them. There are Kudos to all of you at the end too.

So without further ado…

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First, a little background:
I’ve had the immense pleasure of knowing Garrett since 1995, when I first moved to Atlanta. I had probably crossed paths with him before then, but it wasn’t until that time that he and I discovered our common love of industrial music, griping, and intoxication. We passed many a day in his room at the frat house, sucking down beers and blasting music that most human ears, (including his housemates) would classify as utterly antisocial. At the same time, I fell in with Garrett’s cousin Drew and a group named Order of the Beak; and after being an erstwhile roadie for them on a utterly horriffic tour through Florida, became a member of the band as well.

Many years have passed since then, with both Garrett and I eventually losing our painted, spiked leather jackets, in favor of more corporatish attire, and Order of the Beak changing names, moving to Florida, and now having been resurrected by Drew, Jeremy and I as Choking Sun. However rare our chances to be in actual proximity to each other are, I cannot imagine not having Garrett in my life.

That being said, I began to read about his exploits on the First State Brewer’s Blog a couple of years ago, and remember my first reaction along the lines of, “wow, I have no fricken idea what he’s talking about here, but it sounds very cool.” And then I was lucky enough to have some of the Choking Sun Stout, which, with no sense of overstatement, knocked my socks off. I will always remember the glorious shining moment when it occurred to Drew, Jeremy and I that not only were we a very exclusive group of three guys who had weathered a hell of a lot together, but we had our very own, lovingly handcrafted beer named after us.

Then, just the other week, I got to try the Traveler’s and Tourists Ale. From what I understand it’s Garrett’s take on a Belgian Ale, so when I first spied it, it seemed almost right on the money colorwise, although a bit thicker looking than a normal Belgian. However, on first sip, my lord. It was lighter than it looked, crisp, just enough sweetness and bitterness, and left an absolutely amazing aftertaste. Again, Drew, Jeremy and I sat out in the studio, savoring the greatness, and smiling. While I am always going to be loyal to the Choking Sun Stout, (kind of like one being loyal to your first love) I think the Travelers and Tourists is possibly the finest beer I have ever had the opportunity to drink. I’m not a connesieur, by any stretch, but I’d like to flatter myself by thinking that I can sniff greatness in things, and this is greatness embodied. I have had chances to taste some of Garrett’s other fine work as well, especially that Bourbon Stout (?) and it’s all touched with immense talent.

So for all those up there in the First State, I would like to heartily thank you for being such good folks to my dear friend and his family, and for any peer pressure you might have provided to keep Garrett striving for excellence, (though I doubt he needs much prodding at all, dedicated man that he is.)

Cheers…
d. battermann

In a couple words - wheaty, light, summery, and fruity. They best describe the flavors that I’ve focused on for the past few hot months (aside from the stronger belgians)… and they have resulted in some great batches. I realized that I have not posted any tap labels recently, and that I also haven’t talked much about what we’ve had on tap - so here’s a quick pre-independence day synopsis:

Thursday’s Tonic Black Raspberry Ale:
This was actually a starter batch for 20 gallons of Amarillo Pale Ale, but turned out to be one of my favorite fruit beers I’ve ever made. We made a relatively light ale with a weird assortment of leftover old grains (which needed to be used or tossed), including some honey malt and a touch of crystal. We then racked the beer into the secondary ontop of 2 pounds of frozen black raspberries picked back in Sept/Oct of 2006. We let it condition on the raspberries for about a month, and the beer picked up a ton of color and flavor from the berries. The beer itself was deep red (almost purple) with a strong berry taste, a long-lasting pink head, mildly tart, and a nice sweet finish. I was very disappointed when this keg blew last week.

Mango Mama Witbier:
A mostly traditional Belgian-style witbier with a twist - it sat on mango cubes for a couple weeks in the secondary. The coriander and bitter orange peel additions were relatively reserved, I didn’t bother with any chamomile, and the malt bill was mostly just wheat malt and pilsner. It is a very good witbier, and has all the right characteristics - but does not have a very strong mango flavor. Last time we pureed the mango, which I think helped alot - this time we were in a rush to get it on tap, so it didn’t condition as long as it should have - and the mango cubes didn’t flavor the beer enough. Lesson learned. But hey! It is a very good witbier nonetheless. And before you all judge me somewhat pervy, the artwork was composed by my wife. She’s so cool.

Summer Haze Wheat:
Another starter batch that has pleased me beyond all expectations - This was a 10 gallon batch of a relatively simple ale fermented with the Wyeast 3864 Canadian Belgian strain - and formulated to fall pretty close to the Belgian Pale category. The addition of a little wheat malt gives it some haze (as well as the yeast strain, notorious for not flocculating well), 1.5oz of fresh ground ginger and several ounces of Sorachi Ace hops give the beer a refreshing and crisp flavor, and the yeast strain - well, its my favorite. It pushes this beer into a whole new world of yumminess. At 5.5%, this is perfect for fortifying (not stupifying) you after mowing the lawn or working in the yard.

I had a few other batches in there that are worth mentioning, but they didn’t stick around long enough for me to even create a tap handle (yet)… one was a peated scottish aged on bourbon oak chips. It’s tentative called “Thistle Dew”… and once the next keg goes on tap I’ll post the label I come up with for it. I also gone through a couple kegs of Amarillo Pale - Man, that stuff rocks.

…and a snip snip there… Boys and girls, the operative words here are are “elective sterilization”… and I’m not talking fermenters or autoclaves. I have not done any brewing related anything in a week or so due to a procedure I had last friday. It went fine, and my equipment is recovering just fine.

In the meantime, I’ve had some time of to work on my VB.NET stuff… and made progress, albeit not as much as I’d hope for nor as much as is needed, however sitting with a roasty laptop ontop of your injured… lap… is not exactly a great idea either. Where is that friggin ice!??!?! All I can say is that I am working on it as time allows and that I hope to have something to share in a few weeks.

Other things of note include:

• Jolly Pumpkin Beers are a nightmare to this brewer
• Joe Gallo, homebrewed beer guru extrordinaire

I just hope that Rob did as thorough *cough cough* a job capturing Joe’s comments as he did ours, because there is some questionable info and guidance in this latest installment, IMO… but I’m an unrepentant homebrewing snob.

And hey… that Amarillo Pale Ale recipe looks kinda familiar!!!

… 22 jars of wort… For starters!

Today was a very, VERY long brew day in that I had made another batch of starter wort. I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of 1.040 wort and managed to get it all canned in a single evening - The wort itself only took 4 hours, from about 1pm to 5pm, but the canning took another 5 hours. That’s fortunately alot shorter than the first time I did it - learned the hard way that my stove just doesn’t have the required UMPF to pressure can at 15 PSI… but the propane burner sure does.

Now I’ve got another 5 or 6 month supply…

My next batches won’t happen until end of May though. Got too much going on for the next 3 weekends, so it’ll have to be the weekend after our May meeting - and I’ll be brewing a starter batch of SOMETHING using Saison yeast, followed by a large 15 or 20 gallon batch of Saison du Sevier once that starter batch is ready for racking. My wife is also petitioning for a big batch of Witbier, so the Saison may get usurped until a little later in the season - I don’t know. I’ve also got a crazy amount of American hops just BEGGING to be used, like Columbus and Simcoe, so I’m thinking a 15 gallon batch of IPA might have to be brewed soon.

So much to brew, so little time.

Check out this great article in Spark Magazine!