Sorachi Ace Farmhouse Cider

When you learn to brew beer the hard way, making a simple cider from store bought juice is like child’s play.  Buy juice. Empty juice into carboy. Pitch yeast. Wait. Bottle.  It’s a refreshing change from beer and adds a little variety to your pipeline.

Knowing that apple juice has only simple, readily fermentable sugars, you know your cider will finish out crisp with a low, low gravity unless you can kill the yeast and force carbonate.  I don’t keg so I’m stuck with a bone dry cider; but that’s how I like them anyway.  In lieu of going to an orchard and blending the perfect mix of tart and sweet apples for a real authentic cider, I use store bought juice, it’s much more readily available.  Select a quality juice, one with no preservatives and preferably organic.  I use Whole Foods brand juice, it’s organic and paseutrized and is relatively cheap at $8.99 a gallon.  If you want to bulk your alcohol (which will be pretty high already because of the low FG) you can add simple sugar of any kind.  For complexity, maybe add spices, or dry hop.  Aside from that, dump the juice in the carboy and aerate.

Yeast choice is a matter of preference.  There are cider yeasts that are supposed to attenuate less and generate a slightly sweeter product, but I have never used one.  My first batch I pitched S-05, for this one I used Lallemand Belle Saison, hoping to generate a touch of spice and fruit notes.

We dry hopped our cider with Sorachi Ace.  A lot.  We used two whole ounces for a five gallon batch.  I really wanted to add something to this cider, and thought that the super pungent lemon aroma and hop freshness of Sorachi might be nice.

Here’s the recipe!

Beer Name: Sorachi Ace Farmhouse Cider
Style: Dry Hopped Cider
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.004
ABV: 7.2%

Grains:
5 G Pasteurized, Unfiltered, Organic Apple Cider

In the Boil:
Nothing

Fermentation:
Lallemand Belle Saison Dry Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with 2 oz Sorachi Ace Hops in secondary
Primed with 3.25 oz raw sugar

Brew Notes:
23/06/13: Brewed
Fermented wrapped in blankets
30/06/13: SG of 1.004
07/07/13: SG of 1.004, racked to secondary
21/07/13: SG of 1.00, bottled

Tasting Notes:  Pours a cloudy peach juice with a thin bubbly cap.  Medium to high carbonation with a thin body.  Aromas of lemon, herbal hop, apple, pear and a touch of yeasty spice.  Smooth and refreshing, a great summer quencher, just be careful, they pack a punch.

Overall, this is tasty stuff, the girlfriend loves it.  I really want to see how it comes along over the next six months.

Malty F*%!&R American Amber/Brown Ale aka 'Little Filthy'

You lose some you win some. After pouring out a whole lot of Bitter I'm glad to see that our next beer came together quite well.  Our American Brown Ale, which was originally planned as an American Amber, is suspiciously tasty.  It came up a little darker and wholesome looking than we anticipated, but the flavor profile is phenomenal.

The beer was initially designed to be a kick board for our 'Big Filthy' Barleywine; a good way to make a massive, healthy yeast starter to ferment our final farewell upon.  It turned out to be quite the tasty endeavor on it's own.

We wanted to brew something relatively clean, and it had to use the yeast we wanted to use in our Barleywine, Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  We'd never brewed an Amber so we started there.  Lots of Pale Malt as the base, Victory for some honey and biscuit notes, some leftovers from previous brews for depth (Aromatic and Biscuit), CaraPils for head retention, Crystal 77L for sweetness and a hint of Black Malt for color and roastiness.  Our local homebrew store recommended us to try out a new product, Zythos Hops, so we used those exclusively and spread the hop bill out a lot.  The yeast fermented quite neutral and let the ingredients shine, the hops are present and accentuate the malt bill very well.  Despite having a bite-y bitterness, this is really a malt-forward brew.  It was interesting to compare to our Belgian IPA, which also used 8 oz of Crystal 77L: I swear you can pick out the exact flavor notes it contributed to both brews.  Trying desperately not to drink all of this so I can try a bottle in a months time.  Here she be:

Beer Name: Malty F*%!&R aka Little Filthy
Style: American Brown Ale
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.8%
IBUS: 38

Grains:
7 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1 lb Victory Malt
8 oz Crystal 77L Malt
8 oz CaraPils Malt
8 oz Aromatic Malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
2 oz Black Malt

In the Boil:
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 60 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 30 Minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes
1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes
½ oz Zythos Hops @ 5 Minutes

Fermentation:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast in primary
Dry hopped with ½ oz Zythos Hops in secondary
Primed with 4.25 oz Amber DME

Brew Notes:
02/07/13: Brewed
Single infusion mash @ 152F
Missed OG of 1.055, resulted in 1.046
07/07/13: SG of 1.010, added 1 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient, roused yeast and raised temperature
09/07/13: SG of 1.010, racked to secondary
25/07/13: SG of 1.010, bottled

Tasting Notes: Pours a dark mahogany with an off white cap that leaves a touch of lacing.  Aromas of roasted malt, dark bread, butter toffee and a touch of dark fruits.  Alternating sweet malt and bitter hop notes that layer quite nicely and round out just slightly hoppy.  Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation and a creamy mouth feel. Quite delicious actually, one of our better brews.  Really love the malty roundness to the whole thing.

I'd love to rebrew with a slightly more subtle hop and maybe scale back the medium toasted malts a bit in place of something a little more dark.  All in all quite enjoyable!

A Day in Niagara

I had some free time to myself this morning and decided that being a man in need of peaches, I would head to peach country.  Aside from being the best fruit growing climate in Ontario, Niagara is home to all kinds of gastronomic delights.  It's iconic to the Canadian wine industry, home to a few new and wonderfully successful breweries and features trendy restaurants and classic bed and breakfasts.

I rarely travel by myself, so I took the opportunity to crank the music and plan out a route that would be selfishly indulgent and allow me to accommodate both my business and pleasure needs.  I needed peaches for the witbier, I wanted to stop in to tour the facility one of our suppliers, scope out a potential new one, taste some of the most progressive and successful wines of Ontario, and grab lunch.

First stop: Walker's Country Market.  The place has been active since the 1930's and still offers a great selection of local fruit, maple syrup and home baked goods.  Eight pounds of seconds peaches for the brew, four pounds for eating and a drink (delicious and unique Niagara baco noir juice) ran me around $16.  I passed on the pies and maple goods, although they all looked delicious.  Back to the road.

Second stop:  Niagara Oast House Brewers.  BRU buys good beer.  Oast makes good beer.  You can put together the rest.  Part-owner, sales representative and brewer, Cian MacNeill, was kind enough to give me a tour of the facility, and let me know what was coming up in their pipeline.  They're working on developing a function room upstairs and are planning a series of beers in first fill oak barrels.  I hit up the shop on my way out for a couple of bottles of their Saison ($11 each), and some of of their classy branded merchandise ($20 for a tee and $15 a hat).  Someone was kind enough to tip me off that a gastropub down the road, The Garrison House, sold their beer.  Better hit the road.

Third Stop: Stratus Winery.  I was originally a wine guy.  Now I'm a beer guy.  I suppose.  It's not that I don't like wine anymore, but beer feels a lot more casual.  I can open a bottle of it and not have to worry about drinking it in 48 hours before it tastes dissipated.  More people are willing to share a beer with you.  Anyway thats a little off topic.  Stratus has quickly become the most respected winery in Ontario, quite possibly Canada.  Most people attribute this to its French winemaker, J-L Groux.  I wasn't really sure what I was in for here as I don't typically like Canadian wines, especially reds, and had yet to try any of Stratus' products as they aren't exactly cheap.  I loved the building, inside and out. They have a beautiful wine shop and tasting bar that evokes the feeling of a luxury library (You really need to see it to understand).  I tried their Syrah at the bar and instantly fell in love.  In a blind test I would have sworn it was from France's Rhone Valley.  I bought a bottle and a novel serving platter made from a decommissioned wine barrel.  Wine was on the upper end of Ontario pricing at $44, and a similar awe inspiring platter can be yours for around $80.  Both pieces are interesting if not mildly expensive.  On to the road.

Fourth Stop:  Garrison House.  By this point I was starving, and I have heard good news about the Garrison house.  I took a seat at the bar and nabbed a half pint of local Silversmith Black Lager, a tasty burger and a coffee for under $30.  I chatted with owner/operator Leigh Atherton and she let me know that despite the fact that Silversmith is technically closed today, if I knocked on the door someone would be able to help out a beer director in need.  Off we go.

Fifth Stop:  Silversmith Brewery.  I figured I would pop in and take a look around, it is after all located in a beautiful old church.  I walked in an met up with owner Matt Swan and looked around the brewpub.  Matt let me in on the news with their brews and told me, "I guess if we didn't want people to walk in, we would lock our doors".  We parted ways and I was headed back to Oakville.

A productive and interesting day in Niagara, I would recommend checking out any or all of these places.

Walker's Country Market
walkerscountrymarket.com
15796 Niagara Parkway
Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara Oast House Brewers
oasthousebrewers.ca
2017 Niagara Stone Road
Niagara-on-the-Lake

Stratus Vineyards
stratuswines.com
2059 Niagara Stone Road
Niagara-on-the-Lake

The Garrison House
thegarrisonhouse.ca
111C Garrison Village Drive
Niagara-on-the-Lake

Silversmith Brewery
silversmithbrewing.com
1523 Niagara Stone Road
Niagara-on-the-Lake