Lug Wrench Brew: Cait the Grate, Imperial Stout

It has been nearly four months since our last blog post, and nearly 18 months since our last Lug Wrench collaborative beer.  Shame on us...we know.  Tom and I have the best intentions of continuing to fuel the blog with more content, but many times life just gets in the way. 

We were fortunate in that last weekend Tom and his family made the trip up to Rhode Island for a long over due get together of the families.  And while both our wives rolled their eyes at the mention of brew session, Tom and I made sure it happened.  The style: a Russian Imperial Stout.  Why?  Because we have never done one before and its the perfect beer for long term storage and aging.  Plus, when done right, they are oh so good.

After a bit of conversation, we decided to go with a RIS recipe from a friend of Tom's down in Virginia (thanks Jeff!).  Modeled after a famous RIS brewed annually by the Portsmouth Brewery, this homebrew version came with thumbs-up recommendation of having produced good results in the past.  While, our intent was to follow the recipe as written, our last minute attempt to get ingredients together caused us some foibles and we had to made a few substitutions.  The two largest changes was first that the LHBS was out of flaked barley when we stopped in, which caused us to improvise by adding a combination of flaked oats and wheat.  Secondly, our pre-boil gravity appeared to be much lower than expected, causing us to add in all the DME I had in the house along with brown sugar (neither which was in the original recipe) to bump up the gravity. 

 

To make the brewing session a bit more "special", because of the large amount of grain we used and the assumed low efficiency, Tom and I decided try making a second beer via a partigyle method with the mash.  After the primary boil kettle was full, we ran another 3 gallons of hot water through the mash tun into a smaller kettle that could be boiled in on the kitchen stove.  This second beer, which was hopped in the direction of an American Stout, had an OG in the 1.065-70 range.  We'll try to put up a separate post on this beer shortly.

At the time this post's writing, it is obviously too early to tell how well the beer will turn out.  However, it was yet another good Lug Wrench Collaborative Brew Session that kept us on our toes.

Below are the notes and recipe for the collaborative imperial stout.  The notes will be updated as the beer continues to ferment, aged, and be tasted.

Cait the Grate, Russian Imperial Stout

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0 (6 gal left in the kettle, 5 gal in the carboy)
Total Grain (lbs): ~32
OG: 1.118 (target: 1.012 without sugar additions)
FG: 1.034 (69% apparent attenuation)
SRM: 57.8 (Rager)
ABV: 11.3%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60% (dropped to accommodate lower efficiency with big beers)
Wort Boil Time: 75 minutes

Grain / Extract / Sugar
---------------------------
24.5 lbs American 2-Row Malt (Briess)
2.0 lbs White Wheat Malt
2.0 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)
1.12 lbs Special B Malt
0.94 lbs Carafa Special II
0.81 lbs Aromatic Malt
0.63 lbs Crystal 60 Malt
0.63 lbs Roasted Barley
0.50 lbs Flaked Oats (instant quick oats)
0.50 lbs Brown Sugar
0.32 lbs Black Patent Malt
0.32 lbs Crystal 120 Malt
0.32 lbs Chocolate Malt (English)

Hops
--------
3.1 oz Newport Pellet Hops (9.8%) at 75 minutes
0.3 oz Centennial Pellet Hops (10%) at 10 minutes
0.6 oz Palisade Pellet Hops (7.5%) at flame out
0.4 oz Styrian Goldings Pellet Hops (5.4%) at flame out
0.4 oz Williamette Pellet Hops (5.5%) at flame out

Extras
--------
28 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
-------
2.5 packets (11g per packet) of US-05 dry yeast, hydrated before pitching

Mash Schedule
-----------------
60 minutes at 148° F
Batch sparged to get 7 gallons in the brew kettle

Notes
-------
Brewed on 11/3/13 by the Wallace Brothers.  Eighth collaborative session brew

Aeration was accomplished via an oxygen tank and diffusion stone, run for 60 seconds.

Beer was about 59° F after aeration.  Pitched the 2.5 packets of hydrated yeast (hydrated in 2 cups of 90° F pre-boiled water) into carboy and placed the setpoint of the fermentation fridge to 64°F.  Since there will be a lot of activity that will generate heat once fermentation kicks off, the setpoint was set low to keep the temp from spiking.

Activity kicked off in the carboy in less than 48 hours after pitching yeast.

11/24 - Racked the beer into a sanitized keg for aging.  FG was measured at 1.034, which gives a 69% apparent attenuation and an ABV of 11.3%.  I would have liked to seen it get below 30, but a 70% attenuation on this size beer is not bad.

Mason Dixon Line Mead Tasting

Jeff recently posted that our Mason Dixon Line Mead won a gold medal at the 2013 Ocean State Homebrew competition.  He had mentioned to me that he brought it to a recent homebrewing club meeting and that it was really well received.  Jeff encouraged me to open a bottle and give it a try, something I had not done for quite some time.  After it won gold, I figured the least I could do was to enjoy a glass and post some tasting notes.

Upon opening the bottle of Mason Dixon Line Mead, there is a clear hissing sound, demonstrating evident carbonation.  This is confirmed by medium sized bubbles racing up the sides of the glass when the mead is poured.  The mead appears brilliantly clear pale straw color.  It carries a delicate floral scent along the lines of honeysuckle, though not nearly as strong.  A light honey aroma is also present, especially as the mead warms. I did not detect any of the medicinal aroma that I recall from the mead shortly after bottling, more than two years ago.

The mead's flavors are delicate, much like the aroma.  The initial flavor perception is floral and smooth.  This fades to a slightly herbal or spice-like character, perhaps something warming like cinnamon  though this could be related to the alcohol strength.  The end of the taste is slightly sweet on the tongue, though it fades rather quickly.  There is also a lasting alcohol warmth in the back of the throat that is rather pleasant   The carbonation level is light and provides a mild mouthfeel.

Overall, I would say Jeff is correct.  The Mason Dixon Line mead has completely turned around.  It lacks its former medicinal and abrasive flavor characteristics.  It is enjoyable to drink now and has a positive character all its own, supplemented by the back story of where the honey was sourced.  In many ways, I am glad that I did not like it at first, so I still have a decent stock to age for years to come.  Congrats to the mead for winning gold!

Photo credit: The mead appears with a picture drawn by my daughter, who nicely granted the rights so that it could appear on this blog.

Cheers,

TW

Two Lugwrench Beers Medalled at OSHC

The results of the 2013 Ocean State Homebrew Competition were announced last night and Lug Wrench was elated to see two of our "beers" on the list of winners.  It has been a real pleasure watching the OSHC grow from small beginings into a sizable competition, with 359 entries this year.

Our Frosty Fool Eisbock was awarded a silver medal in the Bock category (out of 12 entries).  I struggled with whether to enter it as a doppelbock or a true eisbock, but ended up putting it in the doppelbock category as I didn't think it was "over-the-top" enough to do well as a eisbock.  Competitions tend to award those beers that stand out in their categories, so strong doppelbock would likely do better than a middle-of-the-road eisbock.  The true test will be when I get to read the judges comments to see how the pegged the beer, but given its place on the awards table, it obviously did well as a dopplebock.

Our Mason Dixon Line Mead won a gold medal in the Traditional Mead category.  However, given there were only two entries in the category, we'll take this win with a grain of salt.  This was actually the first time I've entered a mead (Tom has won a few medals before for his meads), but this mead was special as it was a combination of Virginia and Rhode Island honey (thanks yet again to Bil for the RI honey!).  What impressed me most about the mead is how it has evolved over the years.  Tom originally described it having a very medicinal quality in its early life and we both shelved it and forgot about it.  But recent tastings showed it to have transformed considerably - enough so to give it a try in competition.  It goes to show that unless a beer or mead is critically flawed, there is always value in letting it age out and watching the flavors change over time - many times for the better.  The scoresheet and score on this mead will be the real tell for how well the taste has evolved.

Our thanks go out to all the organizers, judges, and volunteers who took part in the 2013 OSHC - we look forward to another good comp next year.

Slainte!

-JW


"Drink is the feast of reason and the flow of soul."
-Alexander Pope

Freeze Condensing the Eisbock - Photos and Video

After a month of primary fermentation and a month of lagering, it was time to perform a critical process step in the brewing of our collaborative Eisbock – freeze condensing the beer. We have the Kulmback region of German to thank for originated this beer style, wherein a portion of water in the beer is frozen off and removed in order to intensity the beer’s maltiness, body, and alcohol. On a homebrew scale, this freezing process can be accomplished with two corny kegs, a beer line jumper, and a freezer, which is exactly what I did.

Given that this was the first time I had attempted to freeze condense a beer, I kept my camera close by to photo-document how I implemented the process.  While I was planning out what I would do, I did spend some time searching the web for examples of how other homebrews had implemented the freezing steps.  Sadly, I found several generalized descriptions about making eisbocks, but very few descriptive or image intensive sources to help an eisbock newbie.  So below I am sharing the step-by-step photo log of how I did it along with some commentary.  Whether it is correct or incorrect, I felt the need to leave behind a little more information than what I was able to find in the chance that someone, someday may find it useful.

Step 1: Obviously before a beer can be freeze consensed, a good base base beer is requiremed.  Our beer (comically named Frosty Fool) has been sitting in a keg (i.e. the "original" keg) at 38 degrees F for almost a month at this point. 

Step 2: A second keg (i.e. the "recieving" keg) has been cleaned, sanitized, and CO2 purged in order to recieve the beer after the freezing process. 

Step 3: In order to transfer the condensed beer from one keg to the next, a jumper line is needed.  You can purchase one from a homebrew store (such as this one), or one can just as easily be assembled from some beverage tubing, two beer line quick-connects, and a pair of hose clamps.

Step 4: Make sure to sanitize the jumper line prior to any transfers.  After sanitizing the recieving keg, I left about a half gallon of sanitizer in the keg and pressurized it.  With the jumper line was connected, depressing the inner pin on the unused quick-connect allowed the sanitizer to get pushed through the jumper line.  The nice part about this was that after all the sanitizer was run out, CO2 was blown through the line clearing it of any liquid.

Step 5: The freezing process.  The original keg was placed into my small, tempurature-regulated chest freezer (as seen in Step 1) and I dropped the tempurature down to 0 dgrees F.  Even though the beer was just above freezing tempuratures at the start, it took approximately ten hours in the chest freezer before it was ready to move onto the next step.    

During the freezing process, I kept shaking the keg to listen for ice crystals forming in the beer.  When the "slushing sound" gets more and more noticable, the freezing process is almost done.  However, defining when the process is complete is very subjective.  Given I had no experience with this, determining when the sound was "slushy" enough certainly tried my confidence.  In all honesty, the only reason I stopped the freezing at ten hours was due to the fact that it was 1 AM, I was tired, and I wanted to get to bed (and leaving the keg in the freezer for another 6 hours was not an option).  Luckily it turned out to be the right decision, as the amount of beer that was frozen was close to what I was targetting.

Below are two videos I snapped as I was hoping the audio would pick up what the slush sounded like when I called it done.  (Make sure your sound it turned on before playing.) 

Calibration Sound - this is the beer when it was just placed in the freezer (i.e. 100% liquid).

The slush sound at the end of the process (after ten hours in the freezer).

Step 6: After the freezing was deemed complete, the beer was transfered from the oringial keg to the recieving keg via the jumper line and the application of gas pressure to the original keg.  I was concerned that the freezing process might have frozen the original keg's dip tube or connector post, but the beer flowed smoothly as soon as the gas was turned on.

Step 7: Once all the liquid was run out of the original keg, I did let the gas continue to push through the line for an extra 10-20 second to make sure everything that I could got pushed through.  When the gas was turned off and the jumper line was disconnected, the recieving keg (and the eisbock inside) was finished.  The beer was moved back into fridge at 38 degrees F for another month of lagering before it will be ready for any type of consumption.

In order to determine how much was removed through the freeze condensing process, I opened the original keg and looked inside.  The beer slush would need to be measured so I could calculate the consensing ratio which would allow me to recompute the beers FG and ABV.

Step 8: The nice part of the corny kegs is that their stainless steel walls are great conductors of heat.  To quickly melt all the beer slush, the original keg was placed in a hot water bath with the water only touching the bottom 6 inches of the keg (where the slush was residing).  It only took about 15-20 minutes for the heat to penetrate the keg and completely melt the beer slush.

Keg in a warm water bath

Going....

Going...

Gone.

Step 9: Once everything in the keg was melted, I closed up the keg and applied gas to it,  This allowed for the beer to be carefully poured through a cobra tap into a measuring pitcher to be measured.  A total of three quarts were left behind, or 15% of the total volume.  Sources had suggested to target about 1 gallon of liquid to remove from a 5 gallon batch, so while I was a little under the target, I was quite pleased I got as close as I did just by listening to the slush in the keg.

One surprise, however, was the amount of color that was left behind in the melted slush.  If I was able to extract just the frozen water, the melt should have been clear or incredibly light colored.  But the color was much darker, indicating that other components of the beer got trapped in the ice crystals and were removed.

Step 10: With the freeze condensing completed, I had to do a side-by-side comparison of the beer.  Prior to placing the original keg into the freezer at Step 1, I poured 3-4 oz into a glass and covered it.  After the freezing and transfer, I poured another 3-4 oz from the condensed beer into seperate glass.  I had expected the condensed beer to be a little darker, but they were visually about the same in terms of color.  Upon tasting the two (both at room temperature), the condensed beer had a noticable higher intensity (both maltiness and sweet alcohol presence) as compared to the base beer - a result that was expected, but relieving at the same time. 

Pre-condensed on left; Post-condensed on right

*   *   *

New approches and processes always seem more involved/complicated when someone has never tried them before.  When the readers had selected the eisbock style for us to brew, I was pumped that I would get to explore the freeze conditioning process for the first time.  But the excitement was coupled with a little anxiety - nothing ever goes as planned and I didn't want to flub our collaborative beer if things went awry.  Despite the trepidations, the two unexpected elements were minor and easily items that could be planned for the next time around.  

Now it is back to the waiting game.  The condensed eisbock is back in cold storage for several more weeks to help mellow and meld the beer's components together.  Tom and I have a family function together in late July, so I would expect that will be the first time we'll be able to taste the finished product.

Given I am a bit of a feedback junky, please leave us a comment if you've brewed an eisbock and let us know how your freeze condensing process compares with how we did it.  

Slainte!

-JW

"There are two reasons for drinking: one is when you are thirsty, to cure it; the other, when you are not thirsty, to prevent it."

-Thomas Love Peacock 

Lug Wrench Brew: Frosty Fool, Eisbock

After an 18 month hiatus, Tom and I were finally able to strike up the propane burner together and brew our latest collaborative beer.  The prior collaborative brew was our Wheatwine Braggot, which was made back in November 2010.  So once all the kids and wives were asleep, we brewed up the base beer for what will become our Eisbock.

Aptly named after the April Fool's Day brewing session, this beer will represent the first collaborative beer where we did not pick the beer style - the readers did.  Three to four weeks prior to our planned brew session, we narrowed our interests down to six potential styles and then put it to a vote on the blog.  The idea was somewhat of a whim, but after we put the poll up, both Tom and I were incredibly energized by the number of participants that took part in the decision.  For a while, it looked like we might be brewing our first sour beer, but the Eisbock style made a surge and ultimately had the most votes.  The whole process might seem a little gimicky from the readers' perspective, but for Tom and I, it was very entertaining and enlightening to 'crowdsource' the style decision.  I would expect that we will do it again the next time we do a collaborative beer (although hopefully it won't be 18 more months away).

After the style was decided upon, choosing the recipe was somewhat a no-brainer.  Jamil Zainasheff's recipe and process is the only notable recipe for Eisbock that I have come across.  The grain bill and process described below should look familiar to anyone who is a disciple of Jamil's book.  However, accommodating the ~25 lbs of grain in my 5 gallon mash tun was going to be a problem.  Luckily, I was able to barter with another homebrew and friend (thanks Jeff H!) to score a larger capacity mash tun to get the deed done in.

At the time of this writing, the base beer is still bubbling away through primary fermentation.  Once its complete, I'll rack it to a corny keg and let it lager for 4-6 weeks before doing the icing process.  Assuming I remember to take some pictures, the icing process will most likely be the subject of a future blog post, which I will link back to here.

Below are the notes and recipe for the collaborative eisbock.  The notes will be updated as the beer continues to ferment, lager, get iced, aged, and be tasted.


Frosty Fool, Eisbock
(recipe modified from Jamil Zainasheff's Brewing Classic Styles)

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (lbs): 24.5
OG: 1.086  (target: 1.088)
FG: 1.022 before icing; estimated to be 1.026 after icing
SRM: 14.9 before icing; no noticable color difference after icing
IBU: 28.0 (Rager)
ABV: ~8.5% before icing; ~10% after icing
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60% (dropped it to accommodate lower efficiency with big beers)
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain / Extract / Sugar
----------------------
13.5 lbs. Bohemian Pilsner Malt (Weyerman)
9.5 lbs. Munich Malt 10L (GlobalMalt)
1.25 lbs CaraMunich 40L

Hops
-------
0.5 oz Warrior Pellet Hops (15% AA) at 60 minutes
0.5 oz Hallertauer Pellet Hops (4% AA) at 30 minutes

Extras
-------
1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 30 minutes
28 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
-------
Saflager S-189 (from a local brewpub), propagated up through two 2L starters

Mash Schedule
---------------
60 minutes at 152° F
Batch sparged to get 7 gallons in brew kettle

Notes
---------
Brewed on 4/1/12 by the Wallace Brothers.  Seventh collaborative session brew

Aeration was accomplished via an aquarium pump and diffusion stone, run for 30 minutes.  Foam Control was added to the carboy as needed during aeration.

Beer was about 53° F after aeration, so the carboy was placed inside the fermentation fridge (set point at 45° F) for ~8 hours before pitching yeast.

Pitched entire 2L starter when carboy was 43° F and placed the setpoint of the fermentation fridge to 46°F.

Activity kicked off in the carboy 48 hours after pitching yeast.

In order to help drive fermentation of the lager, I will be ramping the temperature up using Mike McDole's technique for driving lagers.  Also, given the OG of the beer, I will keep the initial fermentation temperatures lower than normal, as this sucker is going to throw off a lot of heat.

4/4/12 - Fermentation activity started with kreuzen forming.  Temp set at 46° F

4/6/12 - Fermentation going strong.  Raised temp set point to 48° F

4/7/12 - Fermentation still going strong.  Raised temp set point to 50° F

4/9/12 - Fermentation slowing slightly. Raised temp set point to 52° F

4/11/12 - Fermentation slowing more.  Raised temp set point to 55° F

4/20/12 - Fermentation continues to slow.  Raised temp set point to 60° F

4/26/12 - Fermentation almost complete.  Raised temp set point to 70° F

5/3/12 - Fermentation has been complete for a few days.  Cold crashed the beer by dropping the set point temperature down to 35° F.  The beer remained in the carboy until I got the chance to rack it off the lees and into a keg.

5/26/12 - Finally, I was able to transfer the beer off the yeast and into a sanitized keg (after ~3 weeks of lagering in the carboy).   The beer tastes very clean and has a stong malt intensity paired with a warming alcohol sweetness.  No detectable hot alcohols at all, which I am very pleased with.  The color, on the other hand, is fairly light - lighter than I would have wanted.  The icing should darken it a bit, but perhaps if we ever brew this again, we'd add in some coloring grains to darken it up a bit.  I'll let the beer lager for another 2-3 weeks before icing it.

6/19/12 - Completed the icing process by placing the keg in a freezer for 10 hours and then transfering the unfrozen liquid into a new keg while the frozen slush was left behind.  After measuring the volume of the left behind slush, we removed 3 quarts of liquid, thereby condensing the eisbock by 15%.   A description of the whole process can be found here.

2/24/13 - After 8 months of lagering in cold storage, we tasted the beer for the first time.  It is very clean with a sweet, rich malt character, although the sweetness does not linger into the aftertaste.  It may not be "over-the-top" enough to score well as an Eisbock, but the results are very pleasing.

4/8/13 - Samples the Frosty Fool beer were entered into the 2013 Ocean State Homebrew Competition, where the beer was awarded a silver medal in the Bock category. 

Poll: Next Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer?

Like all our prior blog polls, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we received on the most recent blog poll.  The readers' responses to the question "For the next Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer, what beer should we brew?" are presented below.

It looks like we'll be lagering!  The race was awefully tight between Baltic Porter, Eisbock, and Flanders Brown Ale.  Just about every day, Tom and I would be checking the results and one of those three would edge up a vote, keeping it a close race.  But it looks like we'll be brewing German this weekend after all.

The recipe for the beer will most likely be from Jamil's book Brewing Classic Styles, as its pretty much the only trustworthy recipe I've been able to come across (does anyone know any others)?  Additionally, I've spent some time listening to Jamil's description of the style on the Brewing Network's Jamil's Show to get a better feel for how the beer will be 'iced' after the lagering process.

Wish us luck!  I'll likely be posting on the brew day in the coming week or two.

Slainte!

-JW


"Nothing ever tasted better than a cold beer on a beautiful afternoon with nothing to look forward to than more of the same."
-Hugh Hood

Help Lug Wrench Pick The Next Collaborative Beer

It will have been almost 18 months since the last time Tom and I were able to brew a Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer.  That dryspell is coming to an end, as it looks like Tom and his family will be taking the 500 mile trek to Rhode Island fir a visit at the end of March.  And you know what that means - its brew time!

Like the majority of our prior collaborative beers, we've typically focused on darker, high alcohol beer styles - beers that can cellar well for long periods of time.  When we are lucky enough to be in the same town again, Tom and I will often open one or two of these beers from the growing library as a way to look back at our collaborations. 

In planning for this upcoming brew in March, Tom and I threw around several different options and were able to narrow the list down to these six possibilities:

• Russian Imperial Stout
• Strong Scotch Ale
• Baltic Porter
• Eisbock
• Flanders Brown Ale
• Imperial Smoked Porter

Of course, picking which style to brew from the list is never easy we love too many of them.  So we thought - Why not let the readers decide?!? As a result, we put up a poll (on the right side of the page) and are asking all our visitors to let their voices be heard for what style of beer we should brew next.  Give it some thought.  Don't give it any thought.  Flip a coin.  Either way you do it, vote and help us out.  The results will be in our brewpot at the end of the month!

Slainte!

-JW


"I'm gaining weight the right way: I'm drinking beer."
-Johnny Damon

Flemish Fisherman Collaboration Beer Gets A Silver

Back in July, I posted about whether to send some of my few remaining bottles of Flemish Fisherman into the Dominion Cup.  I elected to send two bottles into the competition and the results are in and the Flemish Fisherman took a silver medal in the Belgian Strong category (BJCP Category 18).  The Dominion Cup had 22 entries in this category.  I am glad that I sent the beer into the competition and I am looking forward to reading the judges feedback.

Flemish Fisherman was brewed in the beginning of July 2010 as part of our Lug Wrench collaborative beer series.  The recipe was supposed to be a clone of De Struise's Pannepot, a world class complex dark ale.

Flemish Fisherman - To Submit or Not, That is the Question

It has been a more than a year since Jeff and I brewed the Flemish Fisherman, a Belgian dark strong ale.  The beer was brewed in the beginning of July 2010 as part of our Lug Wrench collaborative beer series.  The recipe was supposed to be a clone of De Struise's Pannepot, a world class complex dark ale.  Given that a year has past, I figured it was time to give Flemish Fisherman a review.  I also needed to determine if the beer should be sent to a Richmond, VA homebrew competition - The Dominion Cup.

The beer pours an almost opaque dark brown color, with hints of ruby highlights when backlit by a strong light (seen above "caught" by my daughter's fishnet of stuffed animals).  A course off-white head sits atop the beer, though it fades rapidly, leaving just a thin white ring around the surface of the beer.  The aroma of the beer is complex, with stronger notes of banana mixed with dark fruit.  There is also a hint of brown sugar or toffee in the nose.  The spices placed in the beer have faded dramatically over the year since the beer was brewed, leaving only the faintest trace - which could exist in my mind because the recipe is known to me.

The beer's flavor is deep and complex.  The first part of the taste reveals a slickness on the palate that slides into a dark caramel sweetness.  The sweetness is abruptly interrupted by a spicy flavor reminiscent of cinnamon and coriander.  The sweetness returns in the end of the taste, accompanied by a warm alcohol sensation that is a bit out of place on this warm July evening.

All said, Flemish Fisherman is a complex and interesting beer.  My biggest complaint is that it does not finish drier.  The result is that the sweetness and alcohol build as the pint continues, making it less drinkable than is ideal in the Belgian dark strong ale style.  On the other hand, the judges of the Dominion Cup will taste only a small amount of the beer, probably only 2 or 3 ounces, so they will be less susceptible to this factor.

I guess it really comes down to my desire to send in two bottles from my precious stash of Lug Wrench beers.  I count myself lucky to have to make such a decision.

Cheers,

TW

Midnight Wheat Collaboration Beer Gets A Bronze

This year I entered one or two of the Lug Wrench Collaborative Beers into the 2011 Boston Homebrew Competition (BHC).  The results of the competition were announced yesterday and we were incredibly pleased that our Midnight Wheat collaboration beer placed third in the Fruit/Smoked/Wood-Aged/Specialty Beer category (out of 20 entries).

This marks the second medal in two years that a Lug Wrench collaborative beer has been awarded at the BHC. 

Midnight Wheat, which was a wheat wine brewed with local Rhode Island honey, was a collaboration brew done this past Thanksgiving while I was visiting Tom in Virginia.  The full recipe and background to the beer can be found in one of our prior blog postings.

Slainte!

-JW


"They who drink beer will think beer."
-Washington Irving

Lug Wrench Brew: Midnight Wheat, Wheat Wine Braggot

Jeff and I took the opportunity to brew our fifth collaborative beer while he was down visiting for Thanksgiving.  As mentioned in our Mason Dixon Line Mead post, we had a unique opportunity to utilize some Rhode Island wildflower honey from a friend of Jeff's and we wanted to make something special with it (thanks again Bil!).  The honey's aroma and flavor were fascinating and complex with hints of lavender and some herbs like mint.  When deciding on what recipe to brew, we ended up making a play on the ubiquitous honey wheat style that has gained favor as a "gateway" beer in the American craft beer segment.  However, true to our collaborative brew goals, we wanted it to be a much bigger beer that could be aged over time.  In the end, we decided on brewing a Wheat Wine with honey, or a Wheat Wine Braggot.

Officially, a braggot is a derivative of mead, or honey wine.  As one would expect, braggots are a hybrid between beer and mead with fermentables coming from both the honey as well as malted grains.  Some sources state that a minimum of 50 percent of the fermentables have to come from honey to be called a braggot (ours is about 20 percent), but other sources state that only 25 percent need to come from the honey.  Our recipe is right on the latter edge.

When formulating the recipe, Jeff was fortunate to interact with Sean Paxton, The Homebrew Chef, via email, to get some guidance and suggestions on brewing a great wheat wine.  Using Sean's feedback, the base wheat wine recipe was put together.  As Jeff and I discussed the beer, the decision to bolster the recipe with honey came afterwards.  Originally, the honey addition was must smaller (1-2 lbs) and was included primarily bump up the gravity in the beer.   However, we really liked the thought of what flavors honey would bring to recipe.  In the end, the honey addition continued to be increased until we ended up with what is printed below.  All of this was decided upon before we actually had the RI wildflower honey in hand, and once we were able to taste the raw honey's complexity, we knew we made the right decision.   

During any large family gathering, like this Thanksgiving, finding time for Jeff and I to brew together is always a challenge.  In this case, we brewed the wheat wine late in the night after all the kids were put to bed, resulting in another post-midnight brew session (hence the beer's name).  The braggot has just been bottled and it is cloudy like many beers with a significant amount of wheat (this despite cold stabilization and fining with gelatin).  The collaborative brew has a complex flavor and I am excited to see what a little aging will do to it.

The recipe and notes for the beer are listed below and I will update the notes as the beer continues to age.

Cheers,

TW


Midnight Wheat, Wheat Wine Braggot

Recipe Specifics
-------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Fermentables (Lbs): 24.6
OG: 1.101 (target: 1.108)
FG: 1.021
SRM: 12
IBU: 60 (Rager)
ABV: 10.8%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 61%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
8.10 lbs Maris Otter Malt
5.70 lbs White Wheat Malt
1.80 lbs Torrified Wheat
0.90 lbs Caramel Wheat Malt (46 L)
0.30 lbs Caramunich Malt (56 L)
4.80 lbs RI Wildflower Honey
3.00 lbs Dried Malt Extract
0.50 lbs Rice Hulls

Hops
-----
1.90 oz Perle Pellet Hops (7.5% AA) at 60 minutes
0.60 oz Williamette Pellet Hops (5.6% AA) at 15 minutes
0.60 oz Tradition Pellet Hops (5.6% AA) at 15 minutes

Extras
-------
1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
1.0 gram Chalk in mash
1.0 gram Calcium Chloride in mash
3.0 grams Baking Soda in mash
1.0 gram Chalk in boil
1.0 gram Calcium Chloride in boil
32 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
-----
30 grams – Safale US05, Dry Yeast

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 min at 153°F
Batch sparged to get 8 gallons in brew kettle

Notes
------
Brewed on 11/23/10 by the Wallace Brothers. Fifth collaborative session brew.

After the mash and sparge was complete, we added the 3 lbs of DME because our pre-boil gravity was lower than expected.

Aeration was accomplished via an aquarium pump and diffusion stone, run for 20 minutes.

Yeast was pitched at 64 F and fermentation started within 12 hours.  Fermentation was allowed to ramp as high as 70 degrees after the first 48 hours to help the beer attenuate.

12/12/10 - Dropped the beer to lager temperature (~40 F) to help clear it.

12/15/10 - Added 3 tsp of gelatin clarifier in one cup of 140 F water to the cold beer to help clear it.

12/21/10 - Bottled with 4 Muntons carb tabs per bottle.  SRM is approximately 12 (I love this beer math iPhone app that does color approximation).  Appearance is a hazy golden-honey color.  Smells yeasty with some caramel and a bit of clove.  Flavor is complex and warming with a firm bitterness in the middle and a notable fruit/citrus flavor in the end.  No detectable hot alcohols.

2/27/11 - Samples of Midnight Wheat were submitted to the 2011 Boston Homebrew Competition, where the beer was awarded a bronze medal in the Fruit/Speciality/Wood-Aged/Smoked category.

4/18/11 - Wrote an article on the Midnight Mini-Wheats, a version of this beer that I tried to brew by dramatically lowering the ABV.

4/22/11 - Midnight Wheat scored a 41.5 in the first round of the 2011 NHC and advanced to the Mini-Best of Show.  It did not medal or go onto the second round of the NHC.  Best competition score I have received to date.

10/9/11 - Brewed a new double batch of Midnight Wheat with Kenny.  Hoping it turns out as good as the first batch.

Lug Wrench Brew: Mason Dixon Line Mead

Jeff and and his family were able to join us down here in Virginia for Thanksgiving again this year.  Once we knew this visit was a possibility, we began planning another collaborative brews.  After deciding on brewing a Wheat Wine Braggot (the details of which will be posted soon), we began sourcing the honey we would need for the brew.  In addition to fitting in a brew session, we decided to try something different - making mead.  The only question was if we were able to get enough honey for both the braggot and the mead.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water.  Some people believe that it is the world's oldest alcoholic beverage.  It is also the root of the word honeymoon, as newly married couples would drink mead for a month to bring fertility and happiness (and hang-overs).

As part of the search to find the honey we needed, we decided it would be fitting (and a pretty cool backstory) if we sourced half the honey from Rhode Island and the other half from here in Virginia - a true Mason Dixon Line Mead.  Seeing how honey is flavored strongly by the raw materials the bees have to work with, the idea was to make a mead from honey from Rhode Island and from Virginia.  The mead could highlight some of the differences between our respective residences.  For the Rhode Island contribution, Jeff talked to a homebrew buddy in RI who is also an beekeeper with one or two hives.  After discussing the project, Jeff's friend agreed to contribute several pounds of Rhode Island honey (thanks Bil!).
The Rhode Island honey was a wild flower honey because it did not come from one particular source of flowers, but from whatever plants grew in the region near the hives.  The honey was unfiltered, giving it a cloudy appearance.  Its aroma was fascinating and complex with an amazing floral bouquet with hints of lavender and some herbs like mint.  The Rhode Island honey's flavor was equally complex, featuring several herbal flavors, including cinnamon and mint.

For the Virginia contribution, I was able to find a clover honey that is packaged nearby in Berryville, Virginia.  The clover honey was a bit more of a 'commercial' product, as it was filtered and clearly labeled.  It smelled and tasted much as one would expect from a store-bought honey, which is to say it was good, but uncomplex.  The honey had a warming flavor, but mostly it was just sweet.  I was amazed at how different the two honeys were when compared side-to-side.  It will be interesting to see what flavors and aromas come through in the final mead.

The mead is happily fermenting away and will probably keep doing so for the next month.  I am excited to see what flavors and aromas come through in the final mead and to see if one honey dominates the overall flavor profile.  If one does, I hope it is the Rhode Island wild flower honey, as it was something truly unique.

Cheers,

TW

Mason Dixon Line Mead, Dry Mead

Recipe Specifics

-------------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0

Total Fermentabales (Lbs): 11.75

OG: 1.070

FG: TBD

SRM: ~7

IBU: 0

ABV: TBD

Brewhouse Efficiency: N/A

Wort Boil Time: N/A

Grain/Extract/Sugar

---------------------

5.5 lbs Gunter's Pure Clover Honey - Berryville, VA

6.25 lbs Wild Flower Honey - Rhode Island

Extras

-------

1 tsp Yeast Energizer

2 tsp Yeast Nutrient

4 g Potassium bicarbonate

Yeast

-----

10 g – Lalvin D47 dry white wine yeast

Notes

------

Created on 11/28/10 by the Wallace Brothers. Sixth collaborative session brew.

Mixed honey without heating.  Added nutrients with the following schedule (25% upon mixing honey, 25% 24 hours after fermentation started, 25% 48 hours after fermentation started, and 25% 72 hours after fermentation started.  Fermenting at 70 F.

12/18/10 - S.G. 1.000.  Color is crystal clear straw.  Nose has a bit of an herbal quality and alcohol.  Flavor and nose have a lot of the RI honey character, which is herbal and a bit minty.  Flavor also has some hot alcohol.

4/18/11 - S.G. 0.999.  Bottled.  Mead is crystal clear and the same pale straw color.  Aroma has a faint herbal character, which is slightly medicinal.  Flavor has a honey back flavor, with a medicinal front end.

6/27/11 - Mason Dixon Line Mead featured in a homemade cheese and homemade beer/mead pairing, which is captured here.

4/8/13 - Samples of the Mason Dixon Line Mead were entered into the 2013 Ocean State Homebrew Competition where the mead placed 1st in the Traditional Mead category (although there were only two entries in the category).

4/11/13 - Tasting notes collected on the blog here.

Lug Wrench Brew: Flemish Fisherman, Spiced Belgian Quad

Eight months have wisped past since the last opportunity Tom and I have been able to brew a beer together – the last being the English Barelywine brewed at Thanksgiving.  But this past weekend, the planets shifted into alignment, Tom and I were both in the same place, and the opportunity presented itself. With a large contingent of family decending on Rhode Island for a certain six-year old’s birthday, we weren’t going to miss the chance to add a 4th beer to our collaborative series.

Plans for this brew session have been building for several months. Choosing what to brew was decided back in May – De Struise’s Pannepot. The beer has such depth of complexity, such great flavor, and made such a good impression on us that the idea of brewing a clone rapidly bubbled up to the top of our short list. Furthermore, when we began collaborating with Mike over at The Mad Fermentationist, Mike had already devised a Pannepot Clone (from a translated ingredients list directly from the brewery) and he sent us a few bottles of the clone during our last beer exchange.  This sealed the deal and the ingredients for the Pannepot clone were gathered.

Of course with the 15-20 people crashing my house for the weekend, finding the 6-7 consecutive hours for a brew session was quite the challenge. In the end, after 2 nights of rain delays, we were able to squeeze in the session on the last night of Tom’s visit.

Below are the notes and recipe for the collaborative beer. The notes will be updated as the beer continues to ferment, age, and be tasted. Additionally, a few bottles are due back to Mike for his thoughts and feedback on how the recipe held up in our hands.

Flemish Fisherman, Spiced Belgian Quad
(recipe modified from The Mad Fermentationist's Pannepot Clone)

Recipe Specifics
-------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.32
OG: 1.094 (target: 1.096)
FG: 1.027 (higher than anticipated)
SRM: 29.7
IBU: 33.5 (Rager)
ABV: 8.8%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
14.0 lbs. Castle Pilsner Malt
0.50 lbs Flaked Corn
0.50 lbs Special B Malt
0.16 lbs Carafa II Special
0.16 lbs Chocolate Malt

Hops
-----
1.85 oz Williamette Pellet Hops (4.8% AA) at 45 minutes
0.30 oz Sterling Pellets Hops (6.0% AA) at 20 minutes

Extras
-------
2.0 lbs Dark Candi Sugar (80 SRM, 1.032 ppg) added at pre-boil
1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient at 15 minutes
1.0 g Cinnamon (dried, pre-ground)
1.0 g Thyme (dried, pre-ground)
3.0 g Coriander (dried, pre-ground)
5.0 g Sweet orange peel (freshly zested)
30 drops of Foam Control in the boil

Yeast
-----
23 grams – Safbrew T-58, Dry Yeast

Mash Schedule
-------------
100 min at 154°F
Batch sparged to get 7 gallons in brew kettle

Notes
------
Brewed on 7/11/10 by the Wallace Brothers. Fourth collaborative session brew.

Due to limitations of the mash tun, the water to grain ratio of the mash was 0.8 – 1.0 qt/lbs. Because the mash was so thick, sparging took an extra long time (consider adding rice hulls to mash if there is room to help lautering).

After the mash and sparge was complete, 1 qt of wort was pulled from the brew kettle. The 2 lbs of Candi Sugar was mixed into the 1 qt until mostly dissolved, after which the mixture was added back to the kettle and a pre-boil gravity was taken.

Originally the recipe called for Saaz hops at the 20 minute addition. However, after checking my inventory, we decided to substitute Sterling hops instead. The change to the beer's flavor profile should be minimal.

Aeration was accomplished via an aquarium pump and diffusion stone, run for 30 minutes.

Aerated wort was placed into the fermentation chamber with the temp control set to 65°F. Once at 65°F, the hydrated yeast was pitched.

Temp was maintained at 65°F for 48 hours, before being allowed to ramp up to 75°F (over a three day period) for the remainder of the fermentation.

Fermentation activity kicked off within 9 hours of pitching. Activity grew so vigorous that it pushed up through the airlock and clogged it. Airlock was replaced and 10 drops of foam control was added to the fermenter to control future foam overs.

7/24/10 - After 5-6 days of no noticeable fermentation activity, the carboy was cold crashed (35°F) for 48 hours and then pulled for racking.  The beer was racked into a clean, sanitized, and CO2 purged keg where the beer will lager for ~6 weeks at 35° - 40°F.  Gravity at this point was 1.027 (8.8% ABV).  The taste was surprisingly smooth given its age, a bit of sweetness to it and only had a brief hint of alcohol.

11/10/10 - While the original intention was to let the beer lager for 6 weeks, I got very busy and forgot about the beer for much longer than that.  So finally, after ~14 weeks of lagering, the beer was bottled.  Using a new packaged of rehydrated T-58 yeast and 4.2 oz of corn sugar (2.8 volumes), the solution was mixed into the keg and 39 bottles were bottled.  Based on the taste (which had the priming sugar in it), the beer is smooth with hints of alcohol, but not many sharp edges.  The biggest concern is the sweetness, which might have been partly from the priming sugar, but we'll have to see in a few weeks when the first carbonated samples are tasted.

7/25/11 - Posted tasting notes more than a year after the beer was brewed.

8/13/11 - Flemish Fisherman gets a silver medal at the 2011 Dominion Cup.

Tasting The Foreign Export Stout

With the Memorial Day weekend upon us, Tom and I had the opportunity to get the families together for a family function in Upstate New York. It was unfortunate that the ‘gathering’ did not take place at either of our homes (else this post would be describing a collaborative brewing session instead), but it was a perfect time to crack open a couple of bottles we’ve previously brewed and talk about them – even if our wives rolled their eyes at the notion.

The Mad Fermentationist’s Foreign Export Stout that was brewed back in April was certainly on the top of the tasting list. Inspired by Mike’s very positive review last week, there was quite a bit of anticipation for the beer. Joined by Tom’s brother-in-law Jonathan, a fledgling mead-maker, the three of us poured the 12 oz brown long neck bottle into snifter glasses to see what the jet-black liquid held in store.

Aroma: A mild, smooth nose of coffee and dark chocolate revealed itself right off the get-go. A slight hint of English yeast ester was braided in with it and maybe some hints of fig or dark fruit.

Appearance: A midnight black beer that completely blocks out all light trying to pass through it. It possesses a thin, deep-tan head of tiny bubbles, which sparsely layered the surface of the beer and the sides of the glass.

Flavor: A balanced, yet strong black coffee flavor combined with roast character comes though initially at the first taste. Dark chocolate (similar to unsweetened dark cocoa) begins to mix in with the coffee. The mid-palate reveals a berry esters hidden in the dark with a slight underlying minerality. A subdued, sweet, pleasing alcohol presence is barely noticable at the end of the mid-palate and continues to provide warmth into the aftertaste. The beer finishes very smooth with the impression of being dry. A lingering roast and dark chocolate character remains in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: A smooth, creamy, moderate to moderate-full mouthfeel. A pleasing low carbonation level supports the character of the beer without getting in the way.

Overall Impression: A very smooth, easily drinkable, full bodied, dry stout with a blended flavor or coffee and dark chocolate that hides its alcohol well – even being as young as it is (only 1 month in the bottle), the beer is one of the smoother stouts we've tasted. Everything seems melted together into a unified flavor as opposed to a collection of several individual components.

Slainte!

-JW


“There is nothing in the world like the first taste of beer.”
-John Steinbeck

Tasting Notes: Brother Barleywine - a Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer

Similar to the prior set of tasting notes, theses notes have been sitting idel in my notebook for longer than they should.  So, while several months have past since we tasted it in May, I wanted to get them up on the blog for archival purposes.

During Thanksgiving 2009, Tom and I were able to brew an English Barleywine together when we travelled down to Virginia to visit Tom for the holiday.  The beer, which was named 'Brother Barleywine', was a big beer (10+% ABV) so we knew it would need some age before it hit its prime.  Below are the notes we tasted the beer when it was 6 months old.

*  *  *

Aroma: The aroma reveals the beers boozy nature with plenty of alcohol in the nose.  A hint of moderate caramel was also detected.

Appearance: The beer posesses a ruby-red, dark honey color that was very plesant.  Super clear.  There is only a slight head upon pouring or swirling the beer, but it never lasts long and quickly disappears.

Flavor: Complex caramel notes with a hint of a cider character, which is followed up by smooth alcohol and a boozy presence.  The beer has a little noticable English hop bitterness and has a drier finish than we had expected.  It is balanced for what it is with a lingering hop bitterness in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: The beer is a lot thinner than we had planned, without much structure to it.  A little disappointing.

Overall: The alcohol is present, but not assertive.  Good sipping beer.  The dryness lets the beer keep is drinability without being cloying.  There is a residual build-up of flavor/richness with the beer, almost to the point of palate fatique.

*  *  *

While the beer took a turn from what we had expected it to be, we are both very curious to see how it will be in 6-12 months from now when it reaches maturity.

Slainte!

-JW


"It was as natural as eating and to me as necessary, and I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking beer."
-Ernest Hemingway

Tasting Notes: Dragon's Breath - a Lug Wrench Collaborative Beer

These notes have been sitting in my notebook for a month or two and I finally got up the energy to type them up so they can be archived on the blog with the rest of the Collaborative Beer information. 

Back in the summer of 2009, Tom and I brewed a clone of New Holland's Dragon's Milk, which we named 'Dragon's Breath'.  During a family function in May 2010, T and I were able to open a bottle together and note down our thoughts on how the beer has held up.  Below are the notes we took from that tasting.

*  *  *

Aroma: Sweet character with a hint of bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, and a slight toasted nut aroma.  In addition, we were able to detect light toasted coconut (most likely from the oak character).

Appearance: The beer is dark, almost to the point of being black with garnet highlights when held up to the light.  Once pourred, the a light tan head of tight bubbles presents itself.

Flavor: Initially, the beer gives a complex brown/sugar/dark surgar/molassas flavor without the sweetness.  Vanilla and bourbon flavor follow behind with some sweet alcohol riding along with it.  There is a roast character that rounds out the flavor.  A maple flavor is detected in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel:  Moderate to full bodies, robust with a fair amount of structural tanins.  There is a warming alcohol, but it is tucked into the beer well.

Overall:  So far the bbeer has aged very well, blending the flavors together.  No oxidation noted.  With the full body and warming alcohol, the beer is probably best as a cold weather sipper.  There is residual sweetness/flavor in the aftertast, but it has enough dryness to prevent any cloying.

*  *  *

The beer turned out a lot better than we had hoped and many of the more harsh notes we detected during the early tastings have fallen away.  Can't wait to try this beer in several months as it continues to develop.

Slainte!

-JW


"Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer."

-Frederick the Great

The Session #37: When To Drink The Good Stuff

Welcome to The Session – a collaboration of bloggers writing on a common beer-related topic. For March, Greg Norris over at The Ferm chose “The Display Shelf: When To Drink The Good Stuff” as the collective topic to explore. A round-up of all blog posts for this topic can be found here.  You can read more about Beer Blogging Friday (“The Session”) over at the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

Let’s face it, we all have at least one – an uber special bottle hidden away. We guard it. We brag about it. But when do we actually drink it? There’s this drawn-out enjoyment of holding onto that special treasure; a lingering anticipation for the day it will be sampled.  But the build-up can overshadow the contents of the bottle.  So much so that finding the appropriate moment to memorialize this treasured brew can take on a life of its own.

If we peel back the layers of this materialistic obsession, it seems as if we are more afraid to lose our prize then to actually enjoy it – only the most memorable occasions are worth breaking it's seal. Is this how its supposed to be?  No. The priority should be just the opposite: to celebrate the event, not the bottle.  Celebrate being surrounded by good friends and family. Celebrate making it through the day without getting a flat tire.  Just celebrate.

There is a scene from the movie Sideways that examplifies this misdirected obsession we can all be guilty of.  Paul Giamatti’s character, a depressed wine aficionado, has a cherished bottle of 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc wine (valued at >$1000 per bottle) that he has been holding onto for a monumental occasion – an occasion his life has yet to yield. He laments about finding the right occasion that would justify uncorking such a bottle. In the end, the main female lead convinces him that just possessing such a treasure is reason enough to celebrate.  Nothing more is needed to justify opening and enjoying it. This thread in the movie ends with the scene of Giamatti sitting alone in a no-name fast food joint drinking the ultra expensive wine out of a foam coffee cup.  And his character couldn't be more content. 

Family and friends have always been a staple reason for celebrating. As many readers may know, the two authors of this blog are brothers who, unfortunately, live more than 500 miles from each other. Due to this geographical handicap, only once or twice a year are we able to get the families together and question why we really do live so far apart. But during these visits, we live it up. We break out the goodies from our cellars. Old, new, good, bad – it all comes out to be shared with the best of friends. Neither of us live affluent lifestyles, but it’s during these visits that we get to experience some of the true treasures of life.

It’s also inevitable that we strive to get in a brew session during these visits (much to the chagrin of our wives) as a means to collaborate and brew up a souvenir. Not only is there enjoyment in the actual brewing, but the fruits of the labor give us something hold onto and cherish. We typically focus on higher gravity, cellar-squatter type beers for these sessions, as the intent is to lay them down for a long period of time – to add them to the library of 'Good Stuff' that we’ll raid and taste the next time we are fortunate enough to be in the same town again.

How to sum up this little rant: life is about the experiences and memories that are accumulated along the way, not the material possessions - celebrate those moments whenever you can.

Slainte!

-The Wallace Brothers


“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
-Winston Churchill

Dragon's Breath Collaboration Beer Gets A Bronze

The results of the 2010 Boston Homebrew Competition (BHC) were announced this weekend and Lug Wrench Brewing was elated that our Dragon’s Breath collaboration beer placed third in the Specialty Beer category (out of 18 entries).

Dragon’s Breath, which was a clone recipe of New Holland Brewing’s Dragon’s Milk, was a collaboration beer brewed back in July 2009 at our Rhode Island “facility”. The full recipe and background to the beer can be found in one of our prior blog postings.

Slainte!

-JW


"Drink is the feast of reason and the flow of soul."
-Alexander Pope

Beer Blogger Brewoff – Cool Concept

Erik Myer over at Top Fermented recently posted about a Beer Blogger Brewoff he and several other bloggers started back in December. Simply put, the nine beer bloggers all brewed the same stout recipe, with each blogger being able to alter a single element of the recipe to make it unique to them.

Upon completion, everyone ships their beer to one another and a virtual tasting/evaluation via conference call is planned occur where all the bloggers get the chance to discuss the beers and the process.  Furthermore, the conference call will be recorded and posted as a podcast for anyone who is interested.

This is what I love about beer, blogging, and the intersection of the two: creativity, collaboration, and camaraderie. Good on Peter at Simply Beer for conceptualizing the event – don’t let this just be a one-off experience!

Slainte!

-JW


“The brewery is the best drug store.”
- German proverb