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Brewing Classic Styles – February Update

As you may or may not be able to see on the recipometer (but surely by the expression on my face), I have brewed only three recipes since my last post. I went on vacation for a couple weeks and had to travel for work so I am behind.  Right now, on the two beers a week schdule, I should have brewed 14 beers already this year.  I have brewed seven…

  1. Flanders Brown Ale (Oud Bruin – pg 224)
  2. Lambicus Piatzii (Straight Lambic – pg 228)
  3. Its All in the Details (Belgian Golden Strong Ale – pg 242)
  4. Brew like a Homebrewing (Belgian Dark Strong Ale – pg 244)
  5. No Short Measure (Standard Bitter – pg 117)
  6. I’m Not Bitter, I’m Thirsty (Special Bitter – pg 119)
  7. Programmer’s Elbow (Extra Special Bitter – pg 121)

I have bottled three and tried two of those.  Both of those — the Belgian Dark and Golden — had low carbonation which I was worried about because this was the first time I have primed this little beer.  Until I get my process down, which I think I should be by the time I bottle the bitter, I am blaming everything that is wrong in the final product on my piecemeal brewing system.  I think that the The Belgian Golden Strong, which tasted similar to Delerium Tremens, was a good signal of how good these recipes can be.  The Oud Bruin, which I tasted pre-bottling, and had little to no sour flavor, will be an example of how bad I can mess up these recipes.

I recently purchased some more fermentation vessels so I will be able to brew six more beers sometime between tomorrow (when the homebrew store opens) and Sunday (when I have to travel for work).  The only piece of equipment I still need is some sort of lagering space.  Anyone out there who wants to lend me a chest freezer or extra mini fridge for the rest of the year, please comment with details.

As I said, I have brewed seven of the 94 recipes I am planning to brew this year.  Thats about 7.5% of the recipes and we are already through about 12.5% of the year.  The agenda is obvious but what may not be presented overtly by this project is its purpose.  I am doing this to gain experience about the brewing process, about styles of beer that I have not brewed before, about techniques that I have not used.  I’m behind schedule but have already added a bunch to what I will call my “beer instincts.”  The more you brew, the more likely you are to know what to do in a certain situation, which shortcuts you can take and which you can’t, what will ruin a beer and what will save it, etc…

February 15th, 2011 | Category: Brewing Classic Styles | One comment

Yes I Can Review An Entire Continent

My girlfriend and I recently returned from a trip to South America, specifically Patagonian Chile and Argentina.  The views and the hiking were wonderful.  Although it is practically a sin to summarize the majesty of the views and the hiking in one short sentence, it has become such that when I go on any vacation, I am wondering about where I will be able to try some new, hopefully local, and well-made beer.  This is a homebrewing blog after all.  Before leaving I found out about Jerome (“Herome”?) Brewing in Mendoza but did not find this Midnight Sun post about beer bars in Buenos Aires from when Sam Sessa went to BA last January.

So I went with an open eye but not expecting too much beyond Quilmes.  I was especially surprised and delighed to find a very small cerveceria  in a very small town in Patagonia.  The food here was great and while they only had two styles of beer, a bock and a pilsner, they were both well made and served quickly.  I have included a map of Argentina with this post to illustrate the location of this cerveceria.  The red “X” marks its location.  It is in the town of El Chalten at the base of Mt Fitz Roy and if I didn’t search for it and find this website, I wouldn’t belive that it has an address or a name other than “the Cerveceria.”  Check out the Galeria de Fotos on their webiste for a nice little tour.   The interior and exterior of the building are wood.  There is room for 30 people sitting at the dozen or so tables and room for a few more at the small bar.  You can see the grain mill and an unidentified tun if you look beyond the door behind the bar.  Everything on the menu that we had — we visited four times in three days — was delicious.  The staff is courteous and it is always full of trekkers just off the mountain.  If you are in the area, you need to stop there.

Another one of my favorite beers of the trip was Austral’s Calafate beer.  This ale is flavored with the Calafate berry, a local berry that looks like a blueberry but has many more seeds than a blueberry and not as strong a taste.  In the beer, however, the Calafate berry’s flavor is brought out brilliantly.

While it seemed to me that southern South America does not have the brewing roots, especially among its native peoples, that northern South America has, Patagonia is far from a beer wasteland.  Chile in particular has some breweries worth discovering.  Frankly, the entire region is beautiful enough that you should go there at least once no matter your drink of choice.

February 14th, 2011 | Category: News | Leave a comment