Thom and I are planning a camping trip in September, and Thom had the idea to do an outdoor brew. I’ll bring the propane burner and kettle, and we’ll draw water from both sides of the Metolius for an outdoor brew, marking the first strategic partnership between BS Brewing and Schoen-Brau.
I’m thinking we’ll use hops I’m harvesting from the backyard pergola.
I was asked to design something for an upcoming book Von Glitschka is doing for HOW magazine. What better subject is there than a larger-than-life brewing company?
Here’s the rationale I sent for this magazine ad idea. Yes, I know what settles out isn’t technically yeast poo, but it sounds better/worse.
“Naturally-brewed beer is literally alive inside the bottle. Billions of yeast cells are eating bits of sugar in the beer, producing carbonation, but also yeast gunk, which tends to settle in the bottom of the bottle. Home-brewed beer is delicious, but you should pour the last part out unless you enjoy yeast poo. This is meant to make a positive out of what could be considered a down side to home-brewed beer.”
Today I am brewing a sour cherry beer with 10 lbs of cherries purchased yesterday at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. The recipe calls for 7lbs of light malt extract, plus 1 lb light dried malt extract (DME). To that I’ll add 1.5 oz. Tettnanger pellets and boil for 1 hr. 1/2 oz. more Tettnanger for aroma at the end. To the wort I’ll then add the cherries and turn off the heat. The heat should pasteurize the fruit, and after 15 mins I’ll remove to the fermenter and top off with H2O. Using Wyeast 1056, American Ale. Thought about trying a Lambic yeast, but for the first time, I’m keeping it simple.
I’m going to try using the plastic fermenter this morning for the first time – to date I’ve just used it as a handy vessel in which to sanitize bottles and equipment. We’ll see how that goes!
When I get back from Iowa, I’ll rack to the glass carboy for secondary/aging.
Name ideas?
Original Gravity: 1.050
Tart, thin tasting wort. I think this will be very tasty, if not very sweet.
I read the reviews on Citysearch and was prepared for the worst from this micro-micro-brewery. That and it’s extra-low profile. I consider myself a bit of a local beer nerd, and I just learned of this place a month or so ago.
Andrew and I headed over after work yesterday to investigate, and entered the bar at about 5:30. It was lightly populated, and the pigtailed barkeep quickly poured us a couple of Hop Golds, which I think I’d describe as a hybrid Pale Ale and IPA. She told us there was a lot of hops to it (I’d asked for their IPA, which was out), all Cascade in the brew and some more Cascade as a dry hop. Sounds like my kind of beer. We headed for a booth by the window, so we could see what we were drinking. The bar is pretty dark, though cozy.
With the first sip, the shocking thing was the plain aroma of grapefruit. Smelled just like grapefruit juice. If I was blind, I would have assumed it was grapefruit juice. Serious grapefruit juice aroma. I could have been drinking beer in a grapefruit grove. Its Latin name would be beerus grapefruiticus. Are you getting the picture?
But it was good. Very creamy with a finely-laced head and opaque in the pint glass (I held it up to one of the few windows and golden it was). Refreshing. Bitter. Grapefruit aroma. I could have had a few of them, and it was especially good after a brisk walk in the warm weather. The grapefruit subsided a bit as I neared the bottom of the pint, and bitter came forward. But the grapefruit remained right up there. SERIOUS grapefruit.
For our next set, Andrew got a “Dark House” which seemed to fit in the porter category, with plenty of hop bitterness. And grapefruit.
I got the ESB, and it was pretty similar to the Hop Gold, with a little more malt, which was a better balance to the … you guessed it … grapefruity hoppy bitterness. A well-balanced, creamy-headed 16oz. serving of goodness. For the low-low happy hour price of $2.50. Only New Old Lompoc has cheaper pints.
After a couple of brews apiece, Andrew and I were feeling a little tipsy. A bit surprising for a couple of enterprising drinkers, and I pegged both beers as fairly alcoholic, in the 6-6.5% range. The male bartender confirmed my suspicions, stating that most Tugboat brews are in the are 6-7% abv. Damn, I’m good.
One mystery remains: where in the world did all that grapefruit come from? It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was distinctive. As a confesssed hophead, I have never encountered this strong a citrus flavor, nor one so definitively specific. Could it be the yeast? After all, what would so many Cascade hops be doing in a porter?
Futher investigation may be neccessary.