Not to influence the voting on an open poll, but it appears that I am going to be brewing up a Maibock next month….which is fine by me.  I think it will appropriate for the seasons.

Brew in the late Fall.

Let it lager in the Winter.

Enjoy it in the Spring.

After doing some more reading into the style, I thought I would share my findings:

• As with other Bocks, the flavor emphasis is on the malt.
• Noble hops are to be used
• The color of Maibocks ranges from deep gold to light amber.  I had it in my head that they would be a little darker.  I was mistaken.
• Lager yeast needed (natch) but one that leaves a clean flavor profile
• No Diacetyl

I guess there is some jovial argument about the differences between a Maibock and a Helles Bock.  Maibocks could be considered a fest beer since it is associated with May and Spring and such, so one could get away with making it a little stronger, darker, hoppier…

One should use European continental malts for a Maibock.  I plan have a base of Pils malt along with a little bit of Munich malt for flavor.

The style also calls for a decoction mash.  I wonder if I can do that as a batch sparger?

I have a Maibock Recipe here but it calls for extract.  I need to create an all grain version of it and update this post.

Here is my latest diatribe about homebrewing pushing the limits.

Normally, experimentation is a great thing.  Hell, I make a living off of experimentation everyday.  But there comes a point where as homebrewers, you’ve got to ask yourself: “Can I really make a great experimental beer, if I haven’t mastered the basics.”

I find that Porter has bared the brunt of many a homebrewers foiled experimentation with flavorings.  Don’t believe me… when was the last time you saw someone post a Porter recipe that didn’t include, chocolate, fruits, hazelnut, coffee, bourbon, whiskey, mint, sage, vanilla, grass or tooth-paste as a special additive? (That’s a trick question, see here.)

The point is whenever someone says; “Hey I want to add some Root Beer extract to a beer to make a Root Beer flavored beer, any idea what style I should use as a base???” The answer is inevitably poor old Porter.

Is this a just fate for what may actually be one of the grandfather styles of all English Beers?  Porter signifies a major change over in the production of coke fired malting plants and roasting techniques that took much of the smoke wood fired nature out of brewing.  Black Patent malt and Porter are significant milestones in the production of modern industrialized brewing.  This first step brings us cleaner tasting malts and true paler ales!

I challenge anyone who follows along with us here to spread the word:  If you have a Porter on your recipe “to do” list this year please, put down the cherry extract, the twigs of spruce or the basket of figs.  Just focus on the roasty blackness and simplicity that should be Porter.

BREW ON!

Barley wine is a strong ale that got its start in England in the 1800s.  The term ‘malt wine’ was used in the 18th century, but barley wine was used in the 19th century to market to common folk as an alternative to wine made with grapes.  They were made using the first, high gravity runnings of the brewer’s mash.  At the time, it was common to brew multiple beers (2 or 3)  from the same mash.

Nowadays, barley wines are brewed specifically.  These ales are complex and their flavor profile can change with conditioning time.

This style has some loose guidelines when it comes to color and, in some instances, the amount of alcohol in the brew.  I think that they should be strong and over 8% ABV.

With this looseness out of the way, a brewer can focus on the concrete guidelines around the flavor and the mouthfeel.

Barley wines should be malty.  It should be apparent in the aroma.   The flavor profile should have many layers to it.  It should hit upon all the malty descriptors from nutty to bready to caramel to roasty to toasty to molasses.    From what I have read, most of these flavors should come from just pale malt…but using long boiling times to caramelize the sugars  (of course specialty malts can help, especially for extract brewers).

The mouthfeel should have a lot of body.  It should have a chewy feel to it.

BCJP breaks this style into two types: English and American.   The American guideline allows for more hop flavors…naturally.

From what I read, this seems to be a tough beer to brew.  The starting gravities tend to be very high.   I think one would need to have their fermentation process down.  They would need to have experience making a starter, using yeast nutrients, and controlling their fermentation temps.  The use of a secondary fermenter may also be necessary.

I think the best part of the barley wine style is its changing flavor profile with age.  This style would be good to brew and age…and taste at different points in its lifespan.

Braggot…

I love that name for a style of beer, fermented beverage…whatever you want to call it.

Braggot is in its simplest form a 50/50 blend of Honey and Malt.

We know 100% malt fermentation as Beer. And if you didn’t know already, 100% honey fermentation is a Mead.  When they come together in significant ratios, it is known as a Braggot.

I haven’t had too many Braggots.  The best of my memory brings back trying Brother Adam Braggot from the Atlantic Brewery in Maine.

Braggot should strike a balance between beer flavors and mead flavors.  Just like any mead or beer, the residual sweetness, tartness, dryness, etc. etc. will vary with the ration of honey to malt and the style of beer or type of honey being used.

You don’t hear a lot about Braggot these days, but the style mystifies me.  I have only had a few meads but the couple I have had were great.

Brewing this style, I would suppose that a simple blend of clover honey and DME would be a good start.  Balancing out the gravity of each together to get that 50/50 blend.  I would expect to use perhaps either a good American Ale yeast for its clean characters, however a mead yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance may be better suited to help dry out the product.  So many options.

This style may be a good one to experiment with in the upcoming new year.  But I wanted to write about to help me start thinking about using more honey in brewing and maybe a Braggot is a good way to combine my depth of experience in beer brewing with mead making before diving headlong into outright mead making.

I recently posted one of my favorite recipes it seems only fitting that I should put up a post for the style profile that I love so much.

Ordinary Bitter is a low alcohol well balanced brew, where neither the malt nor the hops compete for attention on the palate.  Ordinary bitter defines the term Session Beer.  This beer falls under the English Pale Ale category.

Typically, the aroma of Ordinary Bitter is malt focused, but it is a mild aroma.  Somewhat bready and maybe lightly sweet from English yeast strains used.  A little bit of hop aroma is acceptable, but I prefer the malt forward aromas.

The color can be a light yellow to a solid copper in color depending on how much and how dark a crystal style malt is used in the grist.  I like using some mid-range (40L-60L) crystal malt in this style because I think the mild caramely sweetness pairs well with the biscuit/bready qualities of the necessary English Pale malt used as a base malt.
Hops should be English based as well and East Kent Goldings (EKG) are the best choice.  However, using a higher AA variety for the bittering portion of the bill is fine, but I still prefer to follow up with some EKG for flavor hop additions.  Overall, the beer seems bitter despite the small amount of hops to be used which is due, in part, to the low starting gravity (typically less than 1.040SG).

Ordinary Bitter is one of my favorite drinking beers.  The type of brew you can have several servings of with friends and still maintain your “uprightedness”.  So start your night with your favorite full flavored stout or porter, but keep you session moving forward with a good Ordinary Bitter.  I always like to have this one on draft ready to go.

I have ignored this category of post for too long.  It’s time to get back into examining beer styles.  Today I am writing about the alluring Baltic Porter.  Being of Baltic descent (I’m 1/4 Lithuanian), I have had an interest in this beer for a while.

I’m a quarter Irish too…for what it’s worth.

The Baltic Porter was bred in England.  Back in the 1700 and 1800s, England brewers were producing barrels and barrels of stouts and porters.  When they wanted to expand their customer base, they took to the seas and shipped their beers east.  To survive the long journey, the beers were brewed strong…increasing the amounts of malt and hops they would normally use.  The results:  Imperial Stouts and Baltic Porters.

Baltic Porters have sweet malty flavor profiles.  Complex notes of raisins and licorice dance on the tongue.  Coffee and bitter chocolate are sometimes present too.

From what I read, hops play a small role in this malt party.  These beers are high in alcohol and it can be a prominent part of their aroma and flavor.

Smoothness was a defining character of these beers.  I can imagine a velvety mouthfeel for these beers.

One last thing I found interesting, and probably is related to the call for smoothness, is the use of lager yeast for this style.  With Porters, I assume they are all ales.  Some, if not most. Baltic Porters are brewed using lager yeasts and techniques.

Thanks for reading.  Please read our other beer style profiles.

Now someone go get me a Utenos Porter. 

How do you write a style profile about a beer that traditionally did not have a strict rule set of how it should be made?  I don’t know, but I am going to try to pull something together. 

Cream ale is a style that is indigenous to America.  They were made by ale breweries to compete with the golden lagers that were starting to become pretty popular towards the end of the 19th century.  Because of Prohibition, the full knowledge of ingredients and techniques that were used was lost.  What we do know is that they are ale to be made more like German lagers than British ales.  This concept probably led to the ale breweries using lager yeasts and trying their best to storing their brews at cold temperatures for long periods of time.

BYO magazine put it best when they put together these guidelines:

• It’s an American beer style, so all ingredients should be American.
• The brew should be fermented at regular ale (warm) temperatures but cool to cold conditioned for a good length of time (2 to 4 months) to mimic a lagering stage.
• The brew’s uniqueness should be derived from it having both ale and lager qualities.
• It should be effervescent and dry.

I like the idea of making a true American brew.   I also feel like homebrewing brings us back to a time where people mostly made things for themseleves.  Beer styles seem to be based on what people had around them.  If you look at my cream ale recipe, I use flaked maize.  You can’t get a more American grain than that, right?   Heck, if I were living in those times maybe I would be using some corn in my brew.

I took up the challenge of brewing a cream ale because I wanted to try to brew something light for summer.   Homebrewers tend to brew darker beers, and I have no problem with that.  I wanted to see if I could brew a lighter beer where mistakes would be easier to detect.  Certainly wasn’t perfect, but was very drinkable and I will keep working at it until it’s close to flawless.