Messages

31

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Trapistes Rochefort 6,8,&10

« on: December 28, 2009, 02:52:19 PM »

Tour trivia question would be, "What is the dog's name?"

Wow, that's a new one to me. I don't remember any dogs. I guess you got the "celebrity tour".

32

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Where to get custom Belgian-style glassware?

« on: December 25, 2009, 09:48:33 AM »

Thanks for all of the replies. I have been working with a local company where one of my fellow club members works. They've got many different pint glass options available. After the holidays he will be meeting with their distributor, and showing him a sheet of different Belgian shapes, and seeing what might be available. I'm concerned about the minimum quantity, but they might do a minimum total, pints + Belgians, which would make it easy. I'm planning on screen printing. If it has to be an etch, I can get a home kit for that.

33

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Whatcha Brewin' this week -- 2009 Dec 16 - Dec 22?

« on: December 16, 2009, 01:31:45 PM »

Did an English IPA this morning. Used the yeast slurry from an ESB that I just racked. Doing a Helles Bock (decocted) tomorrow. Did I mention I'm off this week?

34

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New section coming!

« on: December 05, 2009, 04:24:36 PM »

"Other fermentables"

Interesting choice of words, since Roxanne has been pushing competitions in our area to include an "other fermentables" category. We're getting a lot of people locally fermenting different stuff. In Roxanne's case, that includes maple syrup, date palm sugar, and agave nectar (in addition to using them in beer and mead). The Mountain Brewer Open (Greater Huntington Homebrewers Assn.) got 6 or 7 entries in the first case of somebody actually including the category.

35

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Whatcha Brewin' this week -- 2009 Dec 2 - Dec 8?

« on: December 05, 2009, 08:00:18 AM »

I have a Belgian Barleywine just into the fermenter, and I hope to add an ESB this weekend.

Belgian Barleywine?  Mind posting the recipe?

Sure, but it's a brand new, never-before brewed recipe, so I don't know how it will turn out. It's just something I've wanted to do for a while, and I had a nice big slurry of White Labs 575 Belgian Blend, so I figured it was time. My inspiration was Scaldis, but I made no attempt to make a clone. The recipe is just my own ideas. The recipe for 5.5 gallons:
7' Belgian Pale, 6' Belgian Pils, 3.5' Briess 6-row pale, 1/2' Caravienne, 1/2' Aromatic, mash at 149° for 90 minutes. 2' clear candi sugar added, boil 90 minutes. 1.5 oz. Styrian Goldings pellets (5.2 aa) for 70 min., 1 oz Sterling whole (8.7 aa) each for 15, 5, and at knockout. Pitched the yeast at 62°, fermenter rose to 70° before starting to drop off. Over 1/2 gallon blew off in the first 18 hours (wow!). OG 1.106, FG TBD, calculated 42 ibu's.

36

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Boiling Wort outdoors in winter

« on: December 04, 2009, 02:45:19 PM »

I'll second the comments about evaporation rate. Mine varies quite dramatically depending on the wind, and a little on the humidity (and I brew on a protected walk-out basement patio that is sheltered on three sides). It's always nearly double the rate I experience during the summer. I have not had much success in predicting it very accurately, so I now target to get five gallons or less, and dilute as needed in the fermenter.

37

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Whatcha Brewin' this week -- 2009 Dec 2 - Dec 8?

« on: December 03, 2009, 07:24:12 AM »

I have a Belgian Barleywine just into the fermenter, and I hope to add an ESB this weekend.

38

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Trapistes Rochefort 6,8,&10

« on: December 02, 2009, 05:41:37 AM »

We had the good fortune to visit Rochefort a few years ago. The brewhouse really is a brewing cathedral. The tour (given by the brewmaster, Gumar Santos) ended in the tasting room. He served us 6, then he served us 8, then 10, and then, "Which did you like?", and more came around. Then, "How about some beer for the bus?" Plus everyone got a Rochefort chalice. Very nice.

Their fermentation process is rather unusual (at least to me). They brew Tuesday through Thursday, two batches each day, and one on Friday, all of the same beer. The first batch goes into the unitank around 11:00 AM on Tuesday, and the yeast is pitched. The second batch goes on top of that, followed by each successive batch through the week. After the last batch the fermenter is exactly half-full. (They did some experimentation, and found that the flavor was not the same if the tank was filled any higher.) The temperature is held at 24° C (76° F). That beer is bottled on Monday morning, so the last batch spends less than 72 hours in the fermenter. They never dump the trub, nor dump or skim the yeast. The bottling line is very state-of-the-art, and is massively oversized compared to most breweries. They want to be able to bottle an entire week's production in one work shift, because bottling is a very noisy process, and they're trying to minimize how long they disturb the monks. The bottles are conditioned from six to ten weeks, depending on the beer. The conditioning rooms are not heated or cooled. They look like oversized garages, and the temperature is controlled by opening or closing the doors.

39

General Homebrew Discussion / Where to get custom Belgian-style glassware?

« on: November 27, 2009, 02:21:47 PM »

I want to get some custom glasses with my logo on them. I know of several places where I can get standard pub glasses, but I especially want some Belgian styles. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

40

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Could we have moon beer?

« on: November 14, 2009, 09:00:12 AM »

I don't know if they'll brew in space, but the rules haven't prevented people taking alcohol with them into space. In my former career I designed air quality monitoring equipment, and I had a few conversations with some people involved in designing equipment used on the shuttle. They were primarily concerned about the possible presence of toxic compounds, primarily as outgassing from components. What they found was traces of ethanol, on every flight. For obvious PR reasons, NASA never publicized the data, but a quiet investigation turned up evidence that there was some booze smuggled on most flights, going back to Gemini. No word on whether they found any trace hop aromatics.

41

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The hoppiest beer in history?!

« on: November 13, 2009, 11:28:17 AM »

The recipe? Well, 18' pale malt, 1.5' Caramel 20L, 1.5' Munich 10L, mash at 151° for 90 minutes. Boil 90 minutes. 4' corn sugar added at end of boil.
Hops:
4 oz Columbus pellets in mash
4 oz Columbus pellets first wort
4 oz Columbus pellets in 75 min.
2.5 oz Columbus pellets in 60 min.
1.5 oz Cascade pellets in at 50, 45, 40, 25, 15, 10, and 5 min., and at knockout
1.5 oz Centennial whole at 35, 30, 15, 10, and 5 min, and at knockout
1.5 oz. Simcoe whole at 20 min.
3 oz each Centennial whole, Simcoe whole, and Cascade pellets dry hops. These were put in sequentially (ie not all at the same time) for 5 days each.
1 gallon starter of Wyeast 1056 American Ale

OG 1.098
FG 1.025
10.0 % abv

I originally intended to use more Simcoe, but on brewday found out I did not have the unopened bag I thought I had. With a brewery named after a cat, I intended to get more "cat urine" in there.

42

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The hoppiest beer in history?!

« on: November 12, 2009, 03:22:45 PM »

Jeez, Rob ... make it a bit easier!

Rats! I forgot my email was in my profile. I should have had you try to figure it out after drinking a couple pints of Hop 50.

43

General Homebrew Discussion / The hoppiest beer in history?!

« on: November 12, 2009, 02:30:47 PM »

Ruination? - Light beer!
90 minute? - Your time has run out!
Pliny? - Please!

I hereby lay claim to having made the hoppiest beer in history! I welcome your stories to come knock me off my perch! 

I turned 50 last week, and my party is Saturday. My wife turned 50 back in March, and she asked for an Orval clone for her party. (It came out really nice.) So back in March I was already thinking about what I should make. I knew it had to be a hop bomb, but what exactly to do? 50 years, 50 ibus? Nothing special there. How about: 50 ounces of hops? That's right, I used 50 ounces of hops in one ten gallon batch of what I'm calling Hop50. I took my Double IPA recipe and increased the gravity a little, and started acquiring hops. Columbus, cascade, centennial, and simcoe. Despite being advised to cheat by using a bunch of low alpha hops to get to the 50 ounce level (I was offered 25 oz of 0.6% alpha Tettnang), I stuck with varieties appropriate for a Double Imperial. Mash hops, first wort hops, additions every 5 minutes, plus dry hops. It calculates to 362 ibu, but I'm well aware that this is way past the level of solubility for bitterness. The OG was 1.098, FG is 1.025. I ended up with about 7.5 gallons in the fermenter. I lost nearly three gallons to wetting the hops, and that's using mostly pellets!

The finished beer is certainly the highest hop flavor I've ever experienced. However, the perceived bitterness is not as high as I expected. My wife says there's so much going on there that you just can't experience it all (she's a BJCP Master, so she's probably right). The aroma is strong, but not overpowering. If I could afford to do it again, I'd move more of the hops into dry hopping. The malt character (yes, it has detectable malt!) supports the beer really well. I wouldn't change a thing there.

Finally, for the record, Siamese Moose is a new name for my on-line activities, and this is my first post under that name. I'll send a party invite to the first person who names me!