Wet Hop Ale

Wet Hop Ale
(5 gallon)

.5 lb cara pils
1 lb crystal 40
6.6 lbs Cooper's light liquid malt extract

8 oz Beacon Hill Fuggles (60 min)
4 oz Beacon Hill Fuggles (30 min)
4 oz Beacon Hill Fuggles (5 min)

60 min boil

yeast: WLP 002 English Ale Yeast

Pitched 10/6/08, SG 1.034
Secondary 10/23/08, SG 1.016 (?)

Kegged 11/7/08, SG 1.020

BH Wet Hop Ale

Wet Hop
(10 gallons)
9/28/2008

24.0 lbs American 2-Row
1.50 lbs Crystal 40L
2.00 lbs Carapils
?? SRM

4.0 oz Amarillo (60 min)
2-3 lbs fresh hops added gradually from 90 to 15 min
?? IBU

Yeast: WLP050 California V Ale

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.055/?? OG on 9/28
1.018/1.028 secondary on 10/8
1.018/1.018 keg on 11/23

Gareth's Saison v3

Saison v3 (Saison Dupont clone)
(5 gallon)

.5 lb Vienna malt
5.75 lbs Munton's extra light dry malt extract
1 lb wheat dry malt extract
1 lb Belgian light candi sugar

1.4 oz East Kent Goldings 4.8% (60 min)
.5 oz East Kent Goldings 4.8% (15 min)
.5 oz dried orange peel (Penzey's) (15 min)
.25 oz Liberty 4.8% (5 min)

60 min boil

yeast: WLP 550 Belgian Ale Yeast

Pitched 8/14/08, SG 1.062
Kegged 8/24/08, FG 1.015

The final gravity is lower than was previously the case for this beer: perhaps the warm weather meant the yeast worked more efficiently.

Hefeweizen

Hefeweizen
(5 gallons)
8/16/2008

4.5 lbs German Pilsner
5.0 lbs Wheat Malt
? SRM

2 oz Hallertaur (60 min)
0.5 oz Saaz(2 min)
? IBU

Yeast: WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

Step mash:
protien rest 45 min @ 120
sacc rest 90 min @ 150
mash out 10 min @ 165

1.044 OG on 8/16

ESB

All Grain 6 gallons
7.3% 77 IBU

Grains
5 lbs American 2 row malt
6 lbs British pale malt
8 oz British crystal malt
8 oz Raw wheat

Hops
3 oz Bramling Cross 60 min
1 oz Bramling Cross 5 min
2 oz Kent Goldings 5 min
1 oz Cascade dry hops into primary removed at secondary

Yeast
Wyeast British Ale 1098

Mash @ 158* 60 min

6/4/08 OG 1.050
6/8/08 to secondary
Kegged 6/28/08

Rhubarb Ale

All Grain 10 gallons
OG 1.044, FG1.010, 4.3%, 14 IBU

Grains
6 lbs American 6 row malt
8 lbs wheat malt
2 lbs Dextrine malt

Hops
1 oz Fuggles (or Hallertauer) 45 min
1 0z Fuggles (or Hallertauer) 30 min

Yeast
2 packets dry wheat yeast

Variation 1: 2 lbs rhubarb boiled in 1 cup water, strained to one cup and added to secondary
Variation 2: As above but with 1 lb honey and zest of one orange, boiled and strained

Mash 60 minutes @ 154*
7/3/08 OG 1.030
7/7/08 FG 1.010 Ingredients added
7/19/o8 FG of v.1 1.008, kegged

Saison Noire II

Saison Noire
(5 gallons)
7/4/2008

10.0 lbs Belgian Pilsner
0.25 lbs CaraFa II
0.75 lbs Malted Rye
0.25 lbs Smoked Malt
1 t gypsum
14.0 SRM

2 oz Hallertaur (60 min)
0.5 oz Kent Golding (15 min)
0.5 oz Styrian Golding(2 min)
42.3 IBU

Yeast: WLP565 Saison

Infusion mash 155 degrees for 90 minutes

1.050 OG on 7/4
1.020 secondary on 7/11
1.019 keg on 7/31

Cut back the CaraFa II malt to make it a bit less Noire. Added in some rye and smoked malt to see if that adds any malt complexity. Brew store had the 565 saison yeast back this time as well, interested to see if that makes a significant difference.

Allagash Black

I tried to just bring up the image of the bottle, but I got the whole writeup. My apologies.

On a recent trip to Portland last month, I decided to make the trip worth while and stopped onto Allagash Brewing to see what was new. Who would have guessed, a Belgian Stout. As luck would have it, we forgot to bring this important discovery south on our last visit and our own tap was between beers, so we had to crack it ourselves. Dark pour, coarse carbonation, as described classic chocolate and coffee taste, but without any hint of Belgian yeast. A very drinkable, although strong stout.

Description and picture from Allagash:

Allagash Black

Allagash Black, our new Belgian style stout, is brewed with German 2 row barley, Torrified wheat and oats, balanced by a large addition of Belgian dark candi to give the Black a full and silky mouthfeel. Roasted malts give this stout its classic chocolate, toast and malty taste, and contribute to chocolate notes and a hint of roasted coffee in the aroma. The Black is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain and refermented in the bottle with the methode champenoise to make this beer truly unique.

Availability: 750 ml bottles, 5.17 gal kegs
ABV: 7.5%
Original Gravity: 1.072
Recommended Serving Temperature: 55°F
Recommended Cellaring Temperature: 55°F


» Click here to see food pairings

2008 NYC Road Trip

Ginger Man - 11 East 36th Street

Visited this place after dinner in Midtown. Impressive selection of beer, and I was able to watch the Celtics beat the Pistons. Tried the Allgauer Buble Bock, Saison Dupont Foret, and Jenlain Ambre all on tap.



Spuytn Duyvil - 359 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg

The place was quiet when we arrived around 10, and packed when we left around midnight. Hipster atmosphere, some eclectic decorations including a collection of whiskey decanters and a pregnancy poster.



McSorleys- 15 East 7th Street

Sawdust on the floor, waiters that look like barbers, only two types of beers served in 10oz mugs - two at a time. This place is classic, the beer was good, the atmosphere sold the place. The high point was the cheese platter of sliced cheddar cheese (american was the other option) that came with a sleeve of saltines.



D.B.A - 41 1st Avenue

Wandered by here after McSorleys. Another impressive beer selection as well as whiskey and the other hard stuff I don't tend to drink. Cantillon Iris (for $21!) and an espresso stout cask. Also tried my first Japanese whiskey - Suntory 12, not bad, a little on the sweet side.

Lambic

Lambic (style beer)
(5 gallons)
5/10/2008

9.0 lbs Belgian Pilsner
6.0 lbs torrified wheat
? SRM

4 oz Crystal (180 min)
(whole leaf hops, baked in oven @ 200 for about 2 hours)
? IBU

Yeast: WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix

Step mash:
Protien rest 30 min @ 130
Sacc rest 30 min @ 150
Mash out 10 min @ 165

180 minute boil

1.080 OG on 5/10/08
1.008 FG on 3/26/09

Went for a more traditional grain bill and mash than my prior lambic. The 1.080 was higher than I was shooting for.

Westvleteren

We visited the Westvleteren monastery - or at least the adjacent bar - in summer 2007, and we picked up a few bottles, at a very reasonable price, in Bruges, which we finally broke into in May 2008. The beers are widely reputed as being among the world's finest, although we do sometimes wonder if that's as much because they are hard to get as anything else.

We started with the Westvleteren Blond (5.8% abv), which is the beer that the monks themselves are apt to drink. It has a wonderfully intense aroma, with hints of honey, and there's a faint hint of honey in the taste, too. It's a complex beer, crisply carbonated with a large number of bubbles on the tongue. There were some disagreements as to whether it was sweet or dry, and while we agreed that it had some herbal/spicy qualities, some chose coriander and others cardamom as the dominant flavour. 

We moved on to the Westvleteren 8 (8% abv) next. Again, the beer is intensely carbonated, and there was no disagreement this time that it was a much drier beer. The most prominent flavour was that of raisins, although there's no mistaking that this is a beer. Given the jump up in alcohol content, it was surprisingly light, even refreshing, in taste. 

We concluded with Westvleteren 12 (10.2% abv),which has an exceptionally intense flavour, more obviously alcoholic even on the tongue. The beer had strong hints of sherry and port and fruit flavours. It was much sweeter than the other two brews, and tasted like a real after-dinner beer rather than a beer to drink with food. It wasn't as carbonated as its less alcoholic siblings.

After much mulling and swirling and glass exchanging, the consensus favourite was the Westvleteren 8: the final few sips from that bottle were in notably high demand.

Saison Noire

Saison Noire
(5 gallons)
5/4/2008

10.0 lbs Belgian Pilsner
0.5 lbs CaraFa II
1 t gypsum
20.8 SRM

2 oz Liberty (60 min)
1 oz Willamette (15 min)
0.5 oz Willamette (2 min)
46.2 IBU

Yeast: WLP570 Belgian Golden with starter

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.055 OG on 5/4
1.015 secondary on 5/10
1.008 keg on 6/9

Raftman

Rating: 2

Unibroue

Chambly, Quebec, Canada
Style:
ABV: 5.5%
341 ml bottle

One of the beers we brought back from the great Gaspe road trip of 2008, though I think you can get this in the states. Orange color with plenty of tiny bubbles. Lighter in alchohol and body than many other Unibroue beers that I've had. Light smokey taste, but I'd have a hard time saying this is whiskey inspired.

Very drinkable for a Unibroue, but still has that distinct taste.

Dunkelweizen v2

Dunkelweizen v2
(5 gallon)

1/4 lb 2-row malt, toasted in pan
1/2 lb chocolate malt
7 lb dry wheat malt extract

3/4 oz Crystal 3.8% (60m min)
1/4 oz Saaz 3.2% (10 min)

WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

60 min boil

Pitched 4/5/08, SG 1.060
Secondary 4/16/08, SG 1.022

Tasted pretty darn good when I drank the sample used to determine the specific gravity when I was moving the beer to the secondary!

Sixpoint Craft Ales

Sixpoint Craft Ales are a pretty new brewery located in Brooklyn, with their first beers rolling off the production line in 2005. They shipped some beers to Massachusetts but for production reasons they apparently weren't able to keep up with demand, and we caught the beers on their comeback launch tour.

Shane Welch, the brewmaster/co-head honcho, was at Cambridge Common when we visited to try out the five different Six Point beers they had on tap. It's always fun to try so many beers from one brewery, to get a sense of what they are about. We especially liked their Bengali Tiger IPA (it's nice to get an IPA that isn't just hops), and their Sweet Action, an American Blonde style, with hints of honey. They have a wide variety of other styles, too, and Shane seemed to imply that they would continue to produce an unusually large number of different beers compared to other craft brewers.

It was fun to get to chat to the brewmaster for the beers we were drinking. He was eager to share his enthusiasm for beer, giving us an account of his beer background and his plans for the future, as well as the intrigue of the craft brewing industry! He got his start as a brewer while in college, getting into homebrew in a big way, and hosting big parties at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. That was only his first step, though, and he dropped out and pursued his own beer education and eventually landed up in Brooklyn with the keys to his own place. It sounds as though they are in the midst of a big expansion and we're hoping that their beers will be more reliably available in Massachusetts henceforth.

Deep Ellum

When nearby Deep Ellum appeared on a Beer Advocate list of the best bars in the US, we figured we had to find out what the fuss was about. That said, we're a little wary of the Beer Advocate lists, which sometimes throw up such unpredictable places we wonder if some loyal drinkers have acquired carpal tunnel syndrome in trying to ensure their favourite place comes out top. The top choice in 2006, the Moan and Dove, doesn't even appear on the 2008 list!

However, wariness proved to be unnecessary, for Deep Ellum is a genuinely enjoyable spot, with a short but very solid food menu, and a really excellent selection of drafts. It's always fun to get to a new place and discover a couple of rounds' worth of unfamiliar beers, even more so when the staff are so friendly and helpful. We were impressed by the staff's beer knowledge and enthusiasm, and their quick responses to questions about the seasonal botles that were in stock. They usually have around 20 beers on tap, with a nice range available (we still remember the otherwise excellent beer bar that had at least a dozen hop monsters on tap one evening, and virtually nothing else!). The bottle menu is pretty solid, too, especially when it comes to Belgian selections: you certainly don't see Brugse Zot, Bink, or De Dolle Brouwers everywhere, even in specialist bars.

The food is generally very good, too. The cheese plates are a great way to start, and generally have unusual accompaniments.

Judgment Day

Rating: 2

Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Company
Cooperstown, NY
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 10.5%
750 ml

Pours withe almost no head (despite my attempts to generate something more vigorous), a deep brown colour, almost completely opaque. The nose is rich and fruity, with raisin the uppermost scent, along with a sweet maltiness. The taste is rich with raisiny flavours, too, with other dried fruit tastes mixed in, especially prunes, as well as caramel maltiness. It's a nice, sippable beer, but it might be enlivened by some more carbonation.

Go Pats!

Gareth's Saison v2

Saison v2 (Saison Dupont clone)
(5 gallon)

.5 lb Vienna malt
5.75 lbs Munton's extra light dry malt extract
1 lb wheat dry malt extract
1 lb Belgian light candi sugar

1.25 oz Willamette 5.8% (60 min)
.5 oz Liberty 4.0% (15 min)
.5 oz dried orange peel (Penzey's)
.25 oz Liberty 4.0% (5 min)

60 min boil

yeast: WLP 565 Saison 1

Pitched 2/3/08, SG 1.060
Secondary 2/16/08, SG 1.024
Kegged 2/25/08, SG 1/024

Barley Wine

Barley Wine
(5 gallons)
2/3/2008

15.0 lbs British 2 row
7.5 lbs wheat malt
0.75 lbs crystal malt 60L
0.5 lbs black patent malt
0.5 lbs chocolcate malt
1.5 cups molasses
39.0 SRM

1 oz Cluster (120 min)
1 oz Cluster (60 min)
0.5 oz Willamette (15 min)
1 oz Liberty (2 min)
2 oz Amarillo
51.8 IBU

Yeast: WLP001 California with starter Infusion mash
155 degrees for 60 minutes

1.115 OG on 2/3

Ommegeddon

Rating: 3

Brewery Ommegang
Cooperstown, NY
Style: Wild ale
ABV: 8.0%
750 ml


Ommegeddon is one of the great beer names, designed to capture the idea of explosively wild flavors. It's not an exaggeration: this is a really excellent American take on a wild Belgian ale. Due to my own failure to follow the bottle instructions, this poured with almost no head, a straw color, with a saison/yeasty nose. The flavour is where the wildness really emerges, with a real sense that it was brewed right on the farm. It's got a delicious rawness and goes perfectly with good strong cheese!

Grisette

Grisette
(10 gallons)
1/27/2008

13.5 lbs German pilsner
4.5 lbs wheat malt
3.2 SRM

3 oz Liberty (60 min)
1 oz Willamette (15 min)
1 oz Kent Goldings (2 min)
34.6 IBU

Yeast: WLP565 Saison with starter

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.050 OG on 1/27

Somewhere between a wit and saison style. I'm using the saison yeast so I'm anticipating this will taste more like a saison.

Southampton Bière de garde

Rating: 3

Southampton Ales and Lagers
Southampton, NY
Style: Bière de garde
ABV: 7.2%
750 ml

One of the Southampton "750 Series" beers, this bière de garde pours with a very impressive head, retaining the head for ten minutes or more, with a dense froth of tiny bubbles. It's a deep amber colour, a little cloudy. The nose is a crisp, burnt caramel, quite bright but not overpowering. The taste at first seems to belong to a stronger, more alcoholic beer. Again, the taste is reminiscent of caramel, but without any of the sweetness of caramel. There are hints of maltiness, and there's a slightly bitter tang; it's a little reminiscent of a young, rough-around-the-edges wine, and that's exactly what's appealing it. A very drinkable, complex beer; we weren't able to identify all of the flavors swirling around.

Dubbel

Dubbel
(5 gallons)
1/6/2008

7.5 lbs Belgian pilsner
1 lb wheat
.75 lbs munich
.5 lbs caramunich
.5 lbs crystal 40
.5 lbs special B
.5 lbs aromatic
1.0 lbs light candy sugar (store was out of dark)

.75 oz Fuggles (90 min)
.25 oz Liberty (60 min)

Yeast: WLP500 Trappist Ale

Infusion mash 150 degrees for 90 minutes

1.070 OG on 1/6
1.013 keg on 1/26

I had planned to add raisins at the end of the boil, oops.