MO/WGV SMaSH

SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beer brewing is a great way to experiment with ingredients.  You select one kind of malt, and one kind of hop, and brew a beer using only those ingredients and yeast.  This lets you really see what any given malt or hop tastes like by isolating it from the rest of the ingredients in your beer.  It works well for exploration purposes, but you are limited in what style guidelines you can fit into as not many types of beer can be brewed to style with just one malt.

We decided to make an Ordinary Bitter; we stretched the guidelines a little on this one as it is fractionally under colored and has a touch too much alcohol, but we really wanted to give it a shot.  Maris Otter (MO) is the traditional British Pale Malt.  It gives English beers that stereotypical bready, biscuity sweetness that you can't get from anything else.  It's a lovely malt and is widely used in SMaSH beer.  East Kent Goldings are the textbook British hops, and are responsible for the earth, spice and floral notes so common in English brews.  We really wanted these but our store was out of stock.  We settled on a distant relative of EKG's, the Whitbread Golding Variety (WGV).  We spread the hop bill out far and wide, so we would be able to see the WGV's in all their roles, Bittering, Flavor and Aroma.  As far as yeast was concerned, we really wanted to be true to style, so we chose Wyeast 1469 Yorkshire Ale Yeast.  All in all this simple experiment should make us a very true tasting, if a little lightly colored, brew.

Here's the recipe:

Beer Name: MO/WGV SMaSH
Style: SMaSH Ordinary Bitter
OG: 1.036
FG: 1.008
ABV: 3.9%
IBUS: 30

Grains:
7 lbs Maris Otter Malt

In the Boil:
¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 60 Minutes
¾  oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 30 Minutes
¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops @ 5 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ¾ oz Whitbread Golding Variety Hops in Secondary
Primed with 2.3 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
11/06/13: Brewed
Single infusion mash @ 153F
16/06/13: SG of 1.010
19/06/13: SG of 1.008, racked to secondary
03/07/13: SG of 1.008, Bottled

Tasting Notes:
26/07/13:  Pours a pale straw color with a thin white cap.  Aromas of lemon zest, herb, biscuit, bready yeast and crisp malt.  A touch dry for the style, crisp and refreshing.  Medium carbonation and light body.  A sessionable quencher with a slightly bitter finish.

It's easy to appreciate the value of the Maris Otter in this beer.  It generates a huge amount of character for a base malt, I'll certainly be using it more often.  The WGV hops play their part as well.  If this weren't a SMaSH and an experiment, I would be adding a touch of Crystal 120L or even Chocolate Malt for color and richness, and a bit of Biscuit Malt for depth and complexity.  I'd adjust the hops back so that most of the IBUs come from the bittering additions, rather than so spread out.  I'd carbonate slightly less as well.  All and all this is a great thirst quencher and a damn tasty experiment.  I look forward to brewing a 'real' bitter.

"Does This Taste Infected?" Dunkelweizen AKA "My Crazy Dunkel"

That whole thing about having everything under control with brewing and thinking we know what's going on?  The part where I said "I feel like we are at the point where we can dependably choose to make a beer that tastes a certain way, and make it so"?  Ignore that.  At least for now.

We set about brewing a Dunkelweizen.  A traditional German wheat beer, with a little dark malt flavor and yeasty profile.  We designed a nice little grain bill that would give us some malt sweetness and a touch of toasty cocoa notes.  We hopped lightly, just to balance the malts.  We chose an appropriate yeast strain that would make some spice and banana notes that appear in the traditional style.  And then everything went to hell.  Somewhere along the line (we think in the temperature critical part of fermentation known as primary) the yeast got out our control and started producing a very tart, lemon juice flavor.  At first I thought the beer might have got infected, but we quickly ruled that out.  Souring bacteria cannot thrive well in beers that are hopped any more than a few IBUs, and there was no pellicle (a visible sign of infection that looks like a white film on your beer) that would indicate another type of bacteria.  As the beer aged, the sour flavor diminished to a point where it was drinkable, but still too tart for the style.  Then we bottled.  After three weeks (which is how long it generally takes to carbonate a beer) is was very sour, dominated by lemon juice like flavor.  I had one recently (5 weeks after bottling) and the sourness has faded a bit but is still present.  I really hope it subsides more.  We learned that you really need to keep your fermentation temperatures in your control.  We hadn't really been paying too much attention here, and were neglecting a couple key elements to the process, and may have been fermenting somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees warmer than we thought.  Although this is likely to be the culprit for our sour lemon beer, it isn't sure.

Here's the recipe:

Beer Name: My Crazy Dunkel
Style: Dunkelweizen
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.008
ABV: 5.3%
IBUS: 16

Grains:
4 lb Wheat Malt
2 lb Pilsner Malt
2 lb Munich Malt
10 oz Chocolate Malt
1 lb 4 oz Rice Hulls

In the Boil:
1 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker Hops @ 60 Minutes
½ oz Strisselspalt Hops @ 60 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat Blend in primary
Primed with 5.7 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
28/05/13: Brewed
Stepped mash
20 Minute Protein rest @ 122F
60 Minute Saccharification rest @ 152F
10 Minute Mash out @ 170F
Fermented in cooler set to regulate to 65F
02/06/13: SG of 1.010, Slight sour flavor. Infection?
05/06/13: SG of 1.010, Racked to secondary. Sourness fading
19/06/13: SG of 1.008, bottled

Tasting Notes:
26/07/13:  Pours cola colored with a thin head that dissipated quickly.  Nose is lemon zest and a touch of dark malt.  Aromas of lemon zest, and a touch of bittersweet chocolate malt as it warms.  Sour on the palate, with the slightest hop bitterness here. Thin body and moderate carbonation.  Sadly one dimensional and possibly infected.  Let it age and pray it gets better.

Either we made some very unhappy yeast, or got ourselves a right nasty Lactobacillus infection that can tolerate the hop level we used (apparently rare but not impossible upon further research), either way this beer was a learning experiment.  We have since bought new equipment for sour beers (Okay, I was working with lacto at the same time we brewed this and cross contamination is a POSSIBLE issue) and are paying more attention to fermentation temps.  Am I going to throw it out? Hell no! Am I going to use this yeast again? Not likely.  Will we be more careful about contamination and temperature control? Yes.  Will I make it right eventually?  You bet.

Breaking Point: Belgian IPA

As it turns out, if you practice anything enough you can get good at it.  As you practice you'll have ample opportunity to figure out all your problems, that's the easy part.  As you persevere you will then slowly begin to figure out all their solutions.  Our 7th beer is living proof.  After mashing our first three batches extremely hot (a fatal flaw the lead to over bittered and over sweetened lower than intended alcohol brews), not keeping proper notes on our California Common and severely overcarbonating our Saison, we seem to have come up with a beer that is a winner on all fronts.  Recording and adjusting our process has been key to our success.  I'm not saying the beer is perfect, and we still have a lot to learn, but I feel like we are at the point where we can dependably choose to make a beer that tastes a certain way, and make it so.

We wanted to brew up something called a Belgian IPA.  The style is still developing and is found in two forms; a West Coast style IPA that has been fermented with a Belgian ale yeast or a Belgian Tripel that has been aggressively hopped with English or American hops.  We wanted to brew the former.  We put together a recipe that would use a blend of both American and Belgian style character malts as well as Belgian Candi Syrup, to build a beer with American IPA like crystal malt sweetness, but with the bready, fruity tones of a Belgian Amber or Dubbel.  Then we hopped in the style of a West Coast IPA: Centennial for earthy bittering, Simcoe for pine and citrus flavors and Citra for its tropical fruit aromas.  It was all rounded out with a warm (ester producing) fermentation using Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale, to get some fruit and spice notes layered in.

All said and done, the recipe and fermentation schedule looked like this:

Beer Name: Tropic Thunder
Style: Belgian IPA
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.008
ABV: 6.7%
IBUS: 62

Grains:
4 lbs Pilsner Malt
3 lbs 2-Row
1 lb Munich 10L
8 oz Crystal 77L
8 oz Aromatic Malt

In the Boil:
1 lb Belgian Candi Syrup 45L @ 60 Minutes
1 oz Centennial Hops @ 60 Minutes
½ oz Citra Hops @ 30 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
½ oz Citra Hops @ 5 Minutes
½ oz Simcoe Hops @ 5 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ½ oz Simcoe Hops in secondary
Primed with 4.5 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
17/05/13: Brewed
Mashed @ 156F
Fermented in Reflectix and Sleeping Bag
21/05/13: SG of 1.014
24/05/13: SG of 1.014, racked to secondary
28/05/13: SG of 1.013, double dropped (accidentally)
02/06/13: Fermentation seems to have restarted, SG of 1.010
11/06/13: SG of 1.008, bottled

Tasting Notes:
25/07/2013:  Pours a pretty orange tinged amber with a thick off white cap of head.  Leaves soapy lacing. On the nose lots of mango, banana, strawberry and a touch of citrus zest.  Dry with only the smallest hint of caramel malt background and yeasty spice.  Slightly bitter on the finish, layered with the yeast notes and more fruit.  Moderate body and carbonation.

I liked the appearance and flavor of this beer, it's something I would consider remaking.  All in all it's just a touch too subtle for me, as though all the flavors could be more pronounced.  Ditching the Pilsner Malt and adding more of the Crystal and Aromatic would help provide it a slightly sweeter finish.  Hopping could be upped considerably as I find this under bittered for an IPA.  Brew again!

BRU

I'm currently working at the newest of Season's related restaurants, BRU!  We are the first gastropub in Oakville with a focus on craft beer!  Come on down and enjoy a pour off of one of our six taps, or choose from our 24 bottles.  Best of all, the beer has all been hand selected by me! Our 16 item menu features modern takes on bar favorites and rotates as often as our draft and bottle listings.  Enjoy burgers, fish and chips, mussels, steak and our own SmokeMan's Platter!

Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Facebook: Bru Resturant

Twitter: @BruResto

Thanks for your support!

10 Ratings

Here's a fistful for you!

Rogue Farms OREgasmic Ale

650 mL bottle. Pours orange toffee with a thick off white head. Leaves lots of soapy looking mess. Aroma is deep caramel malt, layers of toffee, dark bread, allspice, and woody herb notes. Delightfully complex with a nice balance of sweet malt and bitter hop bite. Full bodied and chewy with moderate carbonation. Textbook American strong ale.

Mill Street Curious Parrot
330 mL bottle. Pours golden amber with a foamy white head. Aromas of floral hop, caramel malt, orange, toffee and buttery biscuit. A touch of sweetness, nice herbal hop balance with a lingering bitter finish. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation and a mild aftertaste. Not a stand out, but the best thing they’ve offered since the tankhouse ale.

Palm
330 mL bottle. Pours amber with a thin white head. Aroma is herb and corn. Flavor similarly one dimensional. The Molson of Belgium. Dull times.

Innis & Gunn Scottish Pale Ale
330 mL bottle. Pours copper with a thin white head. Aroma is oak, vanilla, caramel and spicy, herbal hop. Moderately sweet and full body with a slightly bitter and boozy finish. Medium carbonation. Too sweet for my taste.

Railway City Canada Southern Draft
500 mL bottle. Pours a light straw with a fuzzy white cap. Simple aromas of fresh cut grass, herb and crisp light malt. Clean and refreshing with a hint of sweetness and moderate carbonation.

Railway City Iron Spike Copper Ale
500 mL bottle. Pours copper with a white cap. Caramel toffee, biscuit and marzipan notes with a touch of herbal hop and black tea. Light bodied with a clean finish. Moderately sweet with full carbonation. Quaffable.

Great Lakes Brewery Crazy Canuck
473 mL can. Pours straw with a nice white head, leaves no lacing. Pungent fresh hop aroma, lemon, orange, pine and a touch of biscuit flavored malts. Light to medium bodied with full carbonation. Dry with a the pleasant lingering mouth feel of hop bitterness balanced with crisp malt. A tasty session beer: crush a few of these on a hot day.

Railway City Iron Spike Amber Ale
500 mL bottle. Pours mahogany with a thin cap that quickly leaves with no lacing. Aroma is a touch of woody hop, chocolate malt, amber caramel, pear and plum. Taste is a fairly dry, finishes roasty. Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Not badly made, just boring.

Kensington Brewing Baldwin Fish EYE-PA
463 mL can. Pours ruby tinged amber with a thin head. Aromas of deep caramel malt, fall fruit, spicy hop and pine. Full bodied with moderate carbonation and a well balanced finish.

Renaissance Perfection Pale Ale
500 mL bottle. Pours walnut with a nice white head and soapy lacing. Aromas of butter toffee, biscuit, fig, mixed nuts and bread. A hint of sweetness well balanced by bittering hop and a touch of earthy floral notes. Medium body and low to moderate carbonation. Well made and well enjoyed; would complement a meal.

http://www.ratebeer.com/user/169526/ratings/

Peach Wit Part I: Recipe Design

In my last post I covered the different factors that brewers consider when designing a beer.  Each of the five elements; water, barley, hops, yeast and adjuncts (that's the name for anything you add to your beer that isn't any of the first four ingredients) are taken and balanced to fit the profile and guidelines for the beer you wish to create.  That's right, guidelines.  Each style of beer has a distinct set of guidelines according to the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), in order for beers to be judged well in competitions they must meet the guidelines associated with the style category they are entered into.  These standards are held worldwide and dictate how a certain type of beer is to be.  Qualitative considerations include aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel.  The quantitative considerations are known as vitals and include OG, FG, IBU, SRM and ABV.  All of these details are factored into recipe design.  I want to share with you the process of creating a beer, from start to finish, in depth,  This process begins here, at recipe design.

For me, recipe design starts with an idea; a concept or style I want to play with.  Summer screams fresh fruit in Ontario, and fruit incorporates well into a balanced beer.  My brewing timeline tells me that if I get started soon, peaches will be really ripe when I need them, so I have decided to use those.  Lambics are the most popular style to spike with fruit, but they are incredibly complex to brew.  Wheats are next in line: and those I can do.  Wheats come in many styles though: crisp American Wheats heavily hopped for flavor; German Weizens with their banana and clove phenols and a touch of sweetness; and Belgian Wits, cloudy and spicy.  In my mind, the fact that I am already about to cloud my beer with peach pulp makes me think that a Wit would be a good idea.  The spicy characteristics that Belgian yeasts lend, as well as the adjuncts commonly added to Wits would balance nicely with the peaches.  Think peach and ginger jam, or peach and bourbon cocktails.

Oddly enough, that's the hardest part.  Once the style is settled, I build the recipe around the BJCP style guidelines.  I like my beers to meet, or at least lie around the outskirts of these regulations.  I do some research into the style, its history and traditional brewing methods, and keep all of this information in mind while developing.  I use a free online calculator provided by Brewtoad in order to calculate vitals based off of ingredient selection and methodology.

A little bit of reading tells me that Wits traditionally contain very few kinds of malt, typically just Pilsner Malt and Raw Wheat in equal parts, sometimes with a bit of Oats added.  I don't really want to go too crazy with the malt bill here as I really want the peach flavor to be uncomplicated by a bunch of layering malt flavors.  I will stick with that as a simplified bill, the Oat addition is relatively minimal and will provide a nice starch haze to the beer, as well as a full mouth feel.  As far as quantity goes, Wits have an OG between 1.044 and 1.052.  In order to achieve an OG in that range on my system, I require four and a half pounds each of Wheat and Pilsner Malt, as well as a half pound of Oats.  This yields an OG of 1.050.  Assuming a very average attenuation (attenuation is the word used to describe how much of your sugar is eaten by your yeast) of 74%, this will put my FG at 1.013, and ABV at 4.9%: well within range.  That being said, I can usually eek a few extra points of attenuation out of yeast due to how I perform my mash and fermentation.  I presume when all is said and done I will achieve an attenuation closer to 77%.  This yields a FG of 1.012 and an ABV of 5.1%; still well within style.  The color of a Wit is traditionally very light, and the barely roasted malts I have selected put my product right in the center of the allowed range of 2 to 4 SRM. However, the addition of peaches makes that a pretty moot point, as they will darken and hue the beer. A few pounds of rice hulls will be added to make mashing easier, they provide no flavor but make my life simpler when it comes to procedure.

Hops in Wits are usually minimal, and only used for bittering.  The hop presence does not need to be forceful as the quantity of wheat used will create its own flavor profile, and the spices that are normally found in these beers have a similar effect to the hops anyway.  Old World varieties are the norm, but some mild American hops would work.  I initially wanted to use Willamette hops from Oregon for their slight spiciness and even bittering, but they were unavailable so I settled on a more traditional choice; German Spalt.  A full ounce of Spalt added at the very beginning of the boil will allow for 17 IBU.  Wits are allowed from 10 to 20 IBU, so I'm riding a little on the high side, but I love hops.  This gives an GU:BU ratio of .33, or a fairly 'sweet' beer.

Wit yeasts come in a few varieties, White Labs offers a few in both regular and seasonal formats, as does Wyeast.  I'm more familiar with Wyeast, and I read their product has spicier phenolics even when fermented cool, which is a plus.  I'll ferment this one at room temperature, but my rooms are cold. I'm hoping to have the internal fermentation temperature in the low to mid 70's.  This should generate a nice yeasty flavor profile; very desirable here.

As far as adjuncts go, the obvious choice here was peaches.  2 to 6 pounds of fruit is typically added for a noticeable flavor, an peaches are fairly mild once fermented, so I decide to go full bore and toss 6 pounds of pitted peaches in my recipe.  As I mentioned before, Wits are spiced.  They typically feature Curacao orange peel and coriander, but might contain ginger, nutmeg, grains of paradise, caraway or cinnamon.  One of my favorite Witbiers (Hitachino Nest White Ale) features nutmeg, so I decide to use it in addition to ginger which will play well with the peaches.  I will also include small amounts of the typical bitter orange peel and coriander.   I've toned down the usual quantities of spices used due to the variety of spices I'm adding.  I don't really want them to be noticeable, I just want them to accentuate the already existing spice flavors of the hops an yeast.  I will not be using Irish Moss, a fining agent, as I wish the beer to be cloudy.  I will be supplementing my yeast with Wyeast Yeast Nutrient.

All said and done the recipe looks like this:

"Just Peachy" Peach Witbier

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.012
IBU: 17
ABV: 5.1%

4.5 lbs Pilsner Malt
4.5 lbsRaw Wheat
.5 lbs Flaked Oats
2.2 lbs Rice Hulls

1 oz German Spalt Select Hops @ 60 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
.5 oz Ground Ginger @ Flameout
.5 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ Flameout
.25 oz Coriander Seed @ Flameout
.25 oz Nutmeg @ Flameout

1 pkg Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

6 lbs Ontario Peaches in secondary

This should turn out to be a fruity, sessionable ale with spicy accents and a complex finish.  Keep your eyes peeled for brew day photos, fermentation notes and bottling day griping!

BJCP
bjcp.com

Brewtoad
brewtoad.com

A Window Into Recipe Design

For as much as I love to drink beer, brewing proves to be even more entertaining.  Recipe design is by far the most interesting element of the brew process.  It's similar to cooking in a way; you have to research and balance ingredients in just the right measures in order to come out with something truly great.  Like cooking, the number of ingredients are really limitless, but there are the main four: water, barley, hops and yeast.

Water is the base for all beer, and all food for that matter, and is very important in how your brew turns out.  However, changing your water is a complex process.  You need to get in depth information about your tap water and its chemical composition, and adjust your water profile accordingly by adding small amounts of various types of compounds depending on what you are brewing.  This is a necessity for commercial brewers, but lies on the extreme end of a homebrewers capabilities.  The most important part is that your water has a moderate pH, is not heavily chlorinated, not softened in your home and does not contain any extreme amounts of any particular element (most major cities water profiles are acceptable).  I do not alter my water profile for brewing.

Barley malt will form the next most important part of your beer.  Grains provide the sugars that the yeast will ferment to produce alcohol: more grain per batch will result in more sugar, which will result in more alcohol. The quantity of sugar in a beer is measured by SG or specific gravity; the alcohol content is based on the difference between your original gravity (the amount of sugar in your unfermented wort) and your final gravity (the amount of sugar in your finished beer).  The amount of sugar any given grain provides is measured in p/lb/g or points per pound per gallon: high p/lb/g grains add more sugar in the form of SG points, and thus result in more alcohol.  Grains also dictate mouthfeel, head stability and provide the malt aromas to your brew (such as caramel, biscuit, coffee, chocolate, nut and charcoal).  Grain selection will decide the color of the finished product as well, the darkness of the roast will tell you what color a grain will give your beer, the quantity of that malt you use will decide how much of that color it will add.  The roast of a grain is measured in degrees Lovibond (L), higher numbers are darker.  The color of a finished beer is generally measured in SRM (standard reference method), again, higher numbers are darker.  All these factors will help you decide what grains you want, and how much of each to use.

Hops are beers natural seasoning.  Their main usage is to provide bitterness that will offset the sugary tastes provided by the grain.  Bitterness is provided by the Alpha Acids in hops, or AA%: hops with a higher AA% are 'more bitter'.  The bitterness itself is measured in IBUs (international bitterness unit).  The relation between your original gravity and your IBUs is very important, it is called your OG:BU ratio.  A high ratio is a very bitter beer (an IPA for instance).  Hop utilization is also important.  Because your hops are boiled, their flavor and aroma dissipates as you boil them.  Hops boiled for 60 minutes or longer only contribute bitterness: no flavor or aroma.  Those boiled for 30 to 59 minutes add flavor (remember flavor is sensed by your tongue, and only comes in 5 variations). Those boiled for less than 29 minutes add aroma (those are sensed in your olfactory, and are the things you can name when you taste).  Different hops contribute different aromas, including citrus, pine, spice, earth, licorice, mango and even grape.  What aromas you want decide what hops you will use.  In general, cheaper, less unique hops are added early in your boil to supply the bitterness, and the more expensive and uniquely aromatic ones are added closer to the end to provide their distinctness.

Yeast selection is one of the most underrated parts of brewing.  Most people know they need to select a Lager strain (one that ferments on the bottom of the beer and works well when at cool temperatures) or an Ale strain (one that ferments on top, and works well when warmer).  What they don't know is that there are millions of sub strains of beer yeast, each that has it's own living preferences and develops different flavors.  I only produce Ales for right now, as the equipment you need to ferment them is minimal.  Careful yeast selection will help you develop the right flavor profile for your beer, or lack thereof.  It will determine the temperature you ferment at, how long you ferment it for, how clear your beer is and how much sugar your beer will lose to its 'appetite'.  Belgian style yeasts are notorious for liking high temperatures and consuming a lot of sugar.  American yeasts are known to clear up very well and produce minimal yeast flavor.  English strains can leave behind a lot more sugar than other yeasts, resulting in more body in the finished beer.  German Weizen yeasts throw off lots of citrus, banana and clove flavor.  Catering to your yeasts habits will allow it to really shine, and gives the best chance of it providing the elements that it is supposed to.

There are a million other things to add to your beer!  Sugars can be added to produce more alcohol and provide the sensation of dryness.  Grains can be varied to cut costs and change mouthfeel: corn is cheap and oats provide a full body.  You can add fruit, spices, clarification agents, yeast nutrients and energizers, or even foreign bacteria such as those found in yogurt or sourdough bread!

Recipe design is fun, experimental and painfully based on the trial and error process.  Give something a shot: if you like it, great; if you don't, change it.  Rinse and repeat.  Next up I'll be brewing a traditional Belgian wheat beer, called a Witbier, and in the spirit of summer I will be spiking it with fresh peaches.  I will be posting my recipe creation process for all to see, so consider this your primer lesson!

Rocky Patel Sun Grown Churchill

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a premium Cuban cigar, but the growing presence of quality brands such as Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley or CAO make it all too easy to find an enjoyable, well made smoke without the hefty Habanos price tag.  The Rocky Patel Sun Grown is a great cigar with a competitive sticker value and beautiful construction.  A nice even leathery wrapper holds together premium tobacco from Ecuador and Honduras and offers a perfect draw and no compromise on flavor.  Big and bold taste but surprisingly mild on the nicotine front.  Expect a smooth array of bitter amber caramel, roasting coffee beans, cocoa powder, allspice and rich cream in signature RP harmony.  Hints of cedar and leathery goodness.  Slate colored ash and plumes of white smoke.  Overall quite well, a nice finish a good meal or a long day.

A Fond Farewell

I am sad to say that my co-worker, brew partner and good friend Tyler will be moving back to his hometown of Peterborough as of the end of next week.  Our final beer will be brewed up next Tuesday and we will be getting together sporadically to bottle and wrap up all the loose ends of fermenting batches.  The pipeline nowadays looks something like this:

Bottle Conditioning: "Does This Taste Infected?" Dunkelweizen, Maris Otter/Whitbread Golding Variety SMaSH Bitter

Long Term Souring: Hibiscus Berliner Weisse

Secondary Fermentation: NZ Hopped Tripel

Primary Fermentation: Sorachi Ace Cider, "Little Filthy" Zythos American Amber Ale

Up Next: "Big Filthy" American Barleywine

Brewing with Ty was a great experience for both of us, and we are disappointed to have to part ways.  He has some friends brewing back home, and I will continue to use our existing setup.  This means I will be taking on the big task of brewing solo from now on.  Anyone who's interested in pitching in feel free to drop me a line!  In order to save time I may brew a little less frequently, and also plan on focusing on more sessionable "table beers" that are low in alcohol but high still in flavor, and sours that I can leave to ferment for longer periods of time.  Some ideas for future brews include:

Peach American Wheat

Pilsner/Tettnager SMaSH Kolsch

All-Brett Table Saison

Funkleweizenbock (A Dunkleweizenbock with Brettanomyces)

Altbier/Kellerbier

Patersbier/Enkel

Thanks for your help and enthusiasm over the last thirteen batches, and may we brew collaboration beers in the future!

8

A fistful of beers. Or perhaps two fistfuls. A pretty wide range here.  Avoid the Mill St. and I&G in favor of the others.  Conductor's Ale is Junction Craft Brewing's first LCBO offering and is a powerhouse American Pale Ale, full bodied with good complexity for the style.  A few Belgian's in here as well; the Nogne O Saison was a great effort, Pepe Nero something different (it's actually a black Saison with black pepper), the Derniere Volonte the first LCBO regular offering introduced by Dieu du Ciel, and the rare Hopfenstark Saison Station 55, a complex, bitter and herbal micro from Quebec.  Ommegang's Game of Thrones Iron Ale was a touch overpriced and gimmicky but well made none the less.

Nogne O Saison
500 mL bottle. Pours a cloudy yellow amber with a nice white cap of head, leaves a little lacing. Pretty aromas of fruit esters (banana and pear), mild spiciness, verbena, dough and a touch of earthy funk. Dry with a nice wheaty mouth feel and some herbal hop bite. Full carbonation and medium body, refreshing. Well made and tasty like all Nogne O products.

Junction Craft Brewing Conductor's Ale
473 mL can. Pours a clear amber with a big splotchy head and a mess of soapy lacing. Nose is crystal malt, pain d’epice, candied fennel and citrus rind. Mildly sweet and full bodied with moderate carbonation and a layered finish of contrasting bitter hop and sweet malt. Full flavored considering the ABV. Another local gem.

Goose Island Pepe Nero
750 mL bottle. Pours a very dark brown, almost black with a thick beige cap. Leaves nice lacing. Aromas of roasted malt, prune, espresso, cocoa, and pepper, both the vegetable and the spice. Surprisingly dry, medium to full carbonation with a clean mouth feel. Spicy on the finish. Different. Enjoyed.

Ommegang Game of Thrones Iron Throne Ale
750 mL bottle. Pours straw with a dense white head. Fresh cut grass, citrus, lemongrass and spice. Medium bodied and high carbonation, mildly sweet with a lingering noble hop bitterness.

Hopfenstark Saison Station 55 (Biere Amere)
750 mL bottle. Pours peach juice with a thin head and no lacing. Aromas of stone fruit (peach, nectarine), pear, lime herb, a touch of caramel malt. Incredibly complex. Moderate carbonation and medium body. Very good.

Dieu du Ciel Derniere Volonte
341 mL bottle. Pours straw yellow with a huge foamy white head. Aromas of citrus peel, pear, ginger, floral hoppiness and a touch of bubblegum. Dry with high carbonation and medium mouth feel with a lingering finish layered with spicy old world hop. Reminds me more of a hoppy Tripel than an IPA per se.

Mill St. Don Valley Bench Estate
355 mL bottle. Pours a hazy pale straw with a bit of foamy white head. Aroma is grass, lemon zest and a touch of oak, a definite chardonnay note as well. Dry with a round wheat beer mouth feel but by no means heavy bodied. Mild and a little boring. Little to no finish, just faint herbal hop. Understated.

Innis & Gunn Canadian Cherrywood Finish
330 mL bottle. Pours a rich copper amber with a patchy head. Aromas of cherry, oak, vanilla, maple and rich caramel malt. Fairly sweet with an ever so slight hop finish, medium carbonation, medium-full body and slight alcohol bite. A bit sweet for my liking, but good complexity.

As per usual:
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