Just as we finished our exploration into the wide world of Stout recipes, Brew Your Own Magazine features Imperial Stout, Dry Stout and Sweet Stout on the cover of the First issue of 2011.  The magazine tag line is “Shout for Stout.”  

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BREW ON! (your own)

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.

On Saturday afternoon, we put the old apple press to work.

Our target was 3 gallons of cider for this first attempt.  I read somewhere online that one would need 12.5 lbs of apples to make 1 gallon of cider.  We picked about 40 pounds from the orchard down the street and felt like we had enough.

We started chopping the apples in half and then french fry cutting the halves to get them ready for the press.

After pressing with all our might, we learned that the apples needed to be process even further to get more juice.

We employed a 3 three pronged attack (food processor, stick blender, and regular blender) to prep the apples for more productive pressing! 

The regular blender didn’t work all that well, so we stuck with the food processor and the stick blender.  We turned the 40 lbs of apple fries into mush in no time.

We put them all back into the press and watched the huge flow of cider spill down into the kettle.

I added 2 cups of sugar to the cider and pasteurized it by heating it to 170°F for 20 minutes.  We felt it was our best option to kill any unwanted critters. 

We cooled it in a kiddie pool ice bath, added some pectic enzyme, some yeast nutrient, and two packages of proofed Champagne yeast.    

Sunday morning, it was fermenting like crazy.  We’ll see how it turns out.

Lessons Learned:

Need an apple grinder or some kind of way to mill apples into a nice mush quickly and easily.

Need to fix the bottom of the old press.  There are a few leaks – we had a temporary fix with plastic wrap…but that’s not ideal.

We were only able to press 2.75 gallons of cider.  We may have a larger yield next time, but maybe we should pick a few more pounds of apples.

Some photos:

I have been thumbing though a favorite old recipe book of mine recently looking for inspiration.  Temptation lurks on every page under the headings of Alt, Porter and Bock.  I try to see these beers in my minds eye, and sometimes I imagine what they must taste like, or what the perfect example you taste like on my palate.

Then I think about the techniques and skills required to not just brew a beer willy nilly, but to brew it well.  I am always preaching about being dedicated to brewing a couple recipes and brewing them well.  The temptation to brew a new style every time we brew is very great as homebrewers.  I think many brewers to jump all over style to style.

So I began to wonder, if I wanted to have one recipe that I brewed really well which would it be.  Well simply picking one beer/recipe/style to brew over and over gets boring. (I have tried it!)  So then I thought about maybe narrowing the field to fewer beers.  But how many to include…. Well the new kegerator I am building will have 4 taps to start with.  And, the more I hashed it over, 4 sounded like a decent compromise between variety and commitment to better brewing.

So I pose this question to myself: “Which four styles would you brew if you were limited to only 4 styles?”

Here’s my top four.  I chose these because I find myself gravitating towards these recipes all the time.  But I don’t dedicate myself solely to these styles because I occasionally toss in some other new style.

American Cream Ale
English Ordinary Bitter
English Northern Brown Ale
Oatmeal Stout

Interestingly, with these four I could save money to develop the perfect recipes, because three of them are English in nature.  So that means buying English base malt in bulk and perhaps buying EKG hops in bulk as well.  Lastly, if I plan my brewing sessions appropriately I could always pitch with yeast cake, or at the very least save English ale yeast for batch to batch…again significantly reducing the cost.

(Of course how does this fit into my new love of sour beers that I will obviously need to start brewing myself as commercial examples are far and few between???)

So what’s your top four???

BREW ON!

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.