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 Because, really, if CeePeeZee can do it, why can’t I?
In the latest issue of Zymurgy, Mr. Papazian writes an article and dedicates a recipe to his very young daughter, Carla. Carla’s Oat Brown Ale was created with his wife to be something “new, different, unique, healthy, and refreshing.” The base of the recipe is a Maris Otter and English mild split. To that base he adds oats, crystal 10, honey malt, Belgian aromatic and dark rapadura sugar, “for mystery.” He uses English hops and English malt.
One of SFB’s founders is about to become a father for the second time. Our next beer will be dedicated to that child. I suppose you only really need one correlation between baby and beer for it to make sense. Its a girl so right away I though we could throw in some sugar and spice. It was suggested that we could include some “baby” plant ingredients. Can I buy baby hops? Her name is Logan but all I can think of is Logan’s Run. Maybe we can work in a L.O.G.A.N. acronym. Got any ideas?
In other news, our Munich Helles is hanging out in the fridge rather comfortably. The old smell test tells me that it is not finished fermentation. It was quite warm during the first 12 or so hours after pitching so perhaps that did in some of the yeast. We may repitch.
P.S. What the flip is going on in this picture? Who makes a giant baby head, really?
via BoingBoing…
Ever have trouble coming up with a title for a post? Linkbait is an online title generator allows you to create oh so catchy titles for a blog post or article on any subject you want or any subject it wants. Either enter your own subject or let Linkbait choose for you. Here are a few choice homebrewing titles Linkbait generated for me. I reserve the right to use them on future SFB posts. The more I read these, the more they start to make sense. Perhaps homebrewing is becoming the new China!
- Why Homebrewing Sucks: Myth vs Reality
- Homebrewing And The Occult
- Six Bits Of Homebrewing Advice That Will Land You In Prison
- Eight Ways Homebrewing Can Help You Survive A Plane Crash
- 10 Of The Best Homebrewing Movies Of All Time
- Seven Ways Homebrewing Could Cure Cancer
- Five Reasons Homebrewing Is The New China
- Seven Things Homebrewing Has In Common With A Unicorn
- Why Homebrewing Should Scare You More Than Osama Bin Laden
- Eight Shocking Ways That Homebrewing Has Appeared In Porn
Just a few brief topics today.
1. The brew of our newest beer, a Munich Helles, went very well. It is an original recipe and we were very close to hitting the target gravity. My mashing skills are much improved, if I don’t say so myself. One thing that we need to improve on is aeration of the wort and yeast pitching procedures. I’ve been trying to follow proper re-hydration procedures but when things don’t work you question everything. That means I’ve been considering buying something to aerate the wort, either a piece for the end of the siphon hose or a pump. It also means I’ve considered buying a stir plate for the yeast. Of the two, I think the stir plate will be more effective but I’ll probably get both eventually.
2. Remember Truli Fruli, our attempt at making a Fruli Strawberry clone that does not taste anything like Fruli Strawberry? Well its bottled and will soon be ready to drink. I tasted some during bottling. It tastes good. The flavors produced by the Belgian yeast plus the strawberries we fermented in combine for a delicious beer, albeit nothing like we were going for. We’ll be popping tops on that beer this Fourth of July.
3. Great. American. Beer. Festival. Tickets purchased. ’Nuff said.
 Ahh, Bonnaroo. People, people everywhere and not a drop to drink. It was hot. And it was hot too. We know that everyone who attended loves music (read: drugs) but do they love good beer? That’s what I wanted to find out. In a word: no. I saw nothing from the crowd that excited me. A few cans of Fat Tire here and there. I guess if there were any craft beer fans in the crowd they (as I did) would have either consumed their beer in a cup (so I would not have been able to see what they were drinking) or consumed their delicious craft beer in their campsite which, unless they were adjacent to a road, I would not have been able to see. Even the beer tent, discussed later, had more people in it that were just seeking shade than people seeking craft beer. I did see a heck of a lot of Bud Light, Natural Light, and Michelob Ultra. But, hey, so many people still eat McDonald’s. You can’t blame the masses but, I think, you should be able to hold them accountable.
As I mentioned, I brought a six pack of 21st Admendment’s Brew Free or Die IPA and a six pack of Brewer’s Art Resurrection. Both stayed cold and served me well but I wish I was near by someone who would appreciate the beers.
To the organizers’ credit there was a beer tent called the “Broo’ers Festival.” The tent included $3 samples and $7 to $8 pints from about a dozen breweries. Some I had heard of and tried before: Sierra Nevada, Magic Hat, Ommegang, Brooklyn and Stone. Some I had never heard of but was excited to see what they had to offer: Asheville, Blue Grass, Lazy Magnolia, NOLA, Smokey Mountain, Terrapin, and Thomas Creek. The tent also housed Broo University run by Civilization of Beer, a beer education company. Broo University had free classes throughout the weekend on starting your own brewery, becoming a Cicerone, beer history, and even offered a few “meet the brewers” sessions.
I sat in on one of the “How to Start a Brewery” classes. The instructor halved the task at hand. Both halves being equally as difficult to do well. The business half being difficult because of the all the paperwork, laws, regulations, and daily minutiae. The beer half being difficult because of the skill required to make good beer. I didn’t learn too much but it was interesting to hear the instructors anecdotes and extemporaneous tips from his years as a consultant at different breweries. The person sitting next to me in the class told the class that he is in the planning stages of opening his own brewery in Chattanooga, TN. He seemed to know a lot so I didn’t doubt him.
Overall, there was good beer available, I just thought — this being the “Year of the Can” and all — that there might be more crowd participation.
You know there are two other pages you can click on besides this main blog page? I bet you didn’t. One is a “Contact Us” page which may or may not allow people to contact us. The tabs are up there under the banner image.
The other page is “The Beers.” It lists all the beers ever to come out of SFB and a little something about each of them. The Fruli clone attempt is beer 14! We are coming up on one year of brewing in September! I am going to (try) do an anniversary lambic for our one year anniversary. That should be fun (or a disaster). 16 or whatever number of brews we get to by then is pretty respectable, if you ask me — which you didn’t.
Anywho… check out “The Beers” page if you would like a brief history of SFB.
Not so morning but I’m over it.
That red is done. I tried to re-aerate and re-pitch some yeast and still nada. Sometimes I just don’t know whats going on. But a promise is a promise: no more reds from me. The Fruli clone (see previous post) is coming along. We’ll pop it on the fourth with some fireworks and count the oohs and aahs. Next up may be some sort of lager (we had to try it again some time) or the Belgian Abbey Ale with raisins that I’ve been yapping about for a while.
SFB is going to enter the Heavy Seas Letter of Marque homebrew contest. I was going to tweet about it but I figured more people (competition) would see it that way. I am going to enter the Dark American Wheat we entered into the NHC this year because it is one of the only beers we have that meets the high alcohol standards required by the Mutiny Fleet.
I’m off to Bonnaroo this weekend where I will capture enough info for a surely delightful “Beer in Bonnaroo” post or two. No bottles but craft cans are a plenty. I’m bringing a six pack of Resurrection and a six pack of Live Brew Free or Die IPA. I’ll be on the lookout for other sipping on craft beers and hopefully get a few pictures. There is also a Broo’ers Festival which is supposed to be a tent fully of craft beer goodness. Farewell.
The purpose of this beer is to imitate Fruli Strawberry. The problem is that I cannot find a Fruli clone recipe on the internet. If we all can simply put the (unfortunately late to arise) idea of simply mixing finished beer and juice — as Fruli most likely does — on the far side of the bar for a post, I will continue.
Sometimes, no matter how many times something is discouraged in Zymurgy, various (read: every) home brew books, or brewing websites you just need to work things out for your self before you will believe them. Call me Doubting Daniel. I want to add my fruit whenever I please, not just when everyone else says to add it. I want to use strawberries even though most people generally discourage it. Sometimes you must press onward.
So we brewed the recipe from “Brewing Classic Styles” for the Wittbrew but did not add any of the spices it mentions. We boiled down about two and a half pounds of fresh, local strawberries and added that sticky slop, cooled, to the cooled wort and pitched some Belgian wheat yeast. After that settled down, I added an additional two and a half pounds of strawberries (sliced and frozen since the boil) to an empty carboy and racked the green beer on top of it. There it now sits, for what will be about two weeks once I bottle.
My initial impression is that it might still turn out to be a good beer but it will not taste nor look like Fruli Strawberry. Although, all the proof — as some might say — of the pudding is in the eating (or “in the drinking” in this case). Look out for “Truli Fruli – Part 2″ which will be (at least) my thoughts on the finished product and at (at most) advice to anyone looking to make some Fruli at home. Until that day, when I can speak definitively and in absolute terms, enjoy these pics of the brew process. Most likely they will not be displayed in order.
Lets just say that our Fruli attempt did not (or has not) turn(ed) out as we hoped it might. It is not pink, rather an unusual shade of strawberry-chocolate milk. It does not smell of strawberries although, at least, it smells like beer.
If I have learned three things from brewing this Fruli-Strawberry mutant hybrid they are:
1. Always check the expiration date on liquid yeast.
2. Always check the expiration date on liquid yeast.
3. Never (within reason) count out old yeast.
I switched back from dry yeast to a slap pack for this brew, “BELGIAN WT” to be precise. On the ride home we realized the pack was over the six month “best if used by” period. I though maybe it would be OK or we could use a starter if necessary. When it came time to pitch, the package was not fully inflated but it was late and I did not feel like waiting any longer. So I pitched. Nothing the next morning beside some strawberry pulp hovering mid-carboy and thick layer of super-trub at the bottom. It was a different story Sunday morning: low activity, less trub, wondrous level of strawberry pulp floating at the top.
I will transfer the Fake Fruli to a clean carboy and add some frozen strawberries sometime today or tomorrow. After that, pictures galore! Hurray. Should be ready by the the fourth. Ahhhhh, fireworks and fake Fruli.
P.S. We picked up a bottle of Fruli at Perfect Pour yesterday. After careful consideration we decided that any other attempts to duplicate the beer will involve a straight up blend of beer and strawberry juice as it seems as though that is what the Fruli folks do. Also, less hops, more coriander and lemon peel.
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