Topics

1

The Pub / 2nd Gourmets & Growlers pairing event

« on: May 20, 2013, 11:08:15 am »

Our club just did their second food and beer pairing event Sunday. It was a great time. One of our local micro brewers has a small tap house "Draper's Tap House" and as he's closed on Sunday's, he let our club use his place for the dinner. We had 36 people with all the food and most of the beers prepared by club members. Everybody pitched in with decorating, serving and clean up and it went really well.

The planning committee chose an Italian theme. Here's our menu:

Assaggio di estate Bruschetta  (Hearth baked baguette toasts with a topping of fresh tomatoes, olives, onion, capers, garlic)
choice of beer from Tap House selection

Insalata di fagiolo con Feta & Peperoncini (White bean salad with red and green peppers, onion, Feta cheese and a honey, balsamic, sun dried tomato vinegarette on baby greens)
paired with Blanche de Bruxelles

Risotto di Funghi Selvatici (Wild mushroom risotto topped with fresh roast asparagus spears)
paired with White Truffle infused Porter

Crab Ravioli con Salsa di Burro Salvia Marrone (Crab stuffed ravioli topped with Sage brown butter sauce)
paired with Vienna Lager

Stufato di Manza ala Romano con Polenta formaggio (Rich Roman style beef stew topped with Gremolata served with Parmesan/Asiago Polenta and sauted Fennel)
paired with American Amber

Torta Dolce con Frutta (Individual cakes filled with custard and topped with fresh strawberries)
paired with choice of Chocolate Stout, Lambic Framboise or a blend

We're in the middle of a good and growing wine appellation here and we hard core beer enthusiasts refuse to be upstaged. Pretty good for a motley rural brew club don't you think?

Be a S.N.O.B. ...Support Native Oregon Beer!

2

Equipment and Software / Something to help with lifting

« on: April 07, 2013, 11:15:19 am »

Any clever ideas of ways to minimize lifting stuff when brewing? I have a pump and use that for liquid transfer, but there are still kettles, fermenters, full cornies, buckets of water and other stuff that is repeatedly shlepped about. I've recently damaged my shoulder, and I refuse to give up brewing while stuff mends.
My water is about 75' from where I brew. My chest freezers are in two different buildings, but both accessible without having to go up and down stairs.  If everything were inside in one place, a hoist would be the obvious choice, but of course that's not, nor ever going to be the case.

All brilliant and/or hair brained ideas will be considered. 

3

All Grain Brewing / What is an adequate wort boil time

« on: January 30, 2013, 03:22:14 pm »

I've been adding an extra gallon of water or so to my tun near the end of my sparge, and just let it gravity run off while I'm finishing up the rest of my brew day. I end up with a gallon or more which I can just boil up and use for my next starter.

I trust I don't need to boil it all that long as most of it will be decanted off the yeast. I've been going with 15-20 minutes, or enough to evaporate it to around 1.026-30 gravity. Then I either can it, if I have a goodly amount, or refrigerate or freeze.

Any problems with this procedure?

4

Ingredients / Dry Hopping research - Interesting

« on: December 03, 2012, 11:45:36 pm »

Anybody read this thesis? Any thoughts? I noticed the author is scheduled to present this data at the World Brewing Congress Portland 2013. Ran across the info while I was perusing Indie Hops' blog.

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/34093/Wolfe_thesis.pdf?sequence=1

5

All Grain Brewing / Mash pH and water adjustments

« on: September 17, 2012, 08:52:56 am »

I have an ESB recipe. Using Bru'n water to calculate the Ca additions and Cl:SO ratio I want, I get a mash pH of 5.4.
When I toggle between the Adjusted water and the Existing water on tab 4, line 24 I get a mash pH of 5.4 on the existing water.

Am I correct that as i have an acceptable pH with no mash adjustments, I can add all my salts (both mash and sparge) straight to the kettle, then just go ahead and acidify my sparge water as necessary? I do need the water additions as my water has very low mineral content.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Style Guidelines and Judging

« on: August 25, 2012, 07:17:49 pm »

OK...so I'm going through Zmag and looking for some recipe ideas to put my own spin on for the next brew session. I'm looking at the Cat. 10 winner, an American Amber. Based on the recipe submitted, this one is certainly pretty far outside the style guidelines for an Amber. 66 IBU's and nearly 7%ABV. That looks a lot more like an IPA to me.

I like to push the style guidelines to make my beer stand out a bit for competitions, but I'm always being dinged about stuff being a bit high alcohol for style.

Any thoughts on this from the judges out there? Just kind of surprised me that it would go gold at national level being that far out of style.

7

Equipment and Software / iphone is now a pH meter too

« on: August 10, 2012, 09:22:37 am »

For all you early adapters out there..........

http://www.rdmag.com/Tools-And-Technology/2012/08/Lab-Equipment-Portable-pH-Meter-On-Your-iPhone-Sensorex/

8

Beer Recipes / Recipe help please

« on: July 19, 2012, 09:35:53 am »

I will be brewing 25 gals of beer for an event. Ingredients provided are Gambrinus Pale malt, whatever specialty ingredients I want in reasonable quantities, and the following hops...Kent Golding, Summit and Glacier. American Ale Yeast or London Ale Yeast.

Another person has already committed to brewing an English style bitter for this event, so it needs to be different.

I have never used Summit hops. I've read a lot of negative comments from folks about them. The person providing the ingredients uses a fair amount of Summit and I'm not in love with many of his beers.

I'd love some thoughts on what some of you would brew constrained to these two yeasts and 3 hops varieties...

Thanks.

9

Questions about the forum? / Can't log on

« on: June 02, 2012, 05:13:55 pm »

Wanted to download some previous NHC seminar notes, and can't log on. My info is set up the same for the Forum and for the main site, but can't get into main site. Get page of error messages..Soap Error?

Wuz up?

10

All Grain Brewing / Water adjustment to step infusion mash

« on: May 16, 2012, 09:51:34 am »

I have used Bru'n water to determine the water adjustments necessary for a recipe. This recipe will require a step infusion mash. 1st water addition will be 5 gals., 2nd will be 3 gals.

Would I add 5/8ths of the salts to the 1st infusion and remainder to the second, or do I just add what is required to the mash at the beginning.  I'm assuming that it may throw the mash out of balance by adding all at once. Right or wrong?

11

All Grain Brewing / 10% Malted Wheat

« on: April 14, 2012, 10:42:30 am »

Contemplating a recipe here. Haven't used malted wheat in anything for donkey's years. Am I going to want/need rice hulls, or at 10% will I most likely get away without a stuck run off.