I Brew Beer and Cook Food

Beer: I Built a Hop Spider

2015-01-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I randomly decided to build a hop spider. I was watching a video by Chop & Brew about a beer they brewed and aged it in a Woodinville Whiskey Rye Barrel. I noticed they were using one in the video. It seems like a neat idea for an easier cleanup. So I looked up how to do it here and made a trip to Lowe's to pickup some supplies. After posting on reddit, it seems like most people prefer the stainless steel option. The PVC I bought seems to be extremely tough and durable so we'll see. The heat distortion temperature of PVC is 197.6°F and most boils are 210°F+. Since it'll be above the boil, I'm hoping the wort vapor won't be too bad.

The wife and I wanted to start up an online store selling random stuff we make and I've decided this is going to be my first item. I know a lot of people brewing are the DIY type, but some people may not have the tools or means to do so. I'm not looking to profit, but to help a fellow brewer out! More to come on the new store we're opening!!

Beer: Rye Whiskey Barrel

2015-01-02T09:58:00.001-05:00

This showed up on my porch the other day. My brother got it for me as a Christmas gift and I can't even describe how excited I am to use it! I just came up with a recipe that I think will compliment well with the Rye Whiskey. A while back we made a beer called the Scotch Stout which had peat grains with some Ardbeg Scotch mixed in with it. Well, instead I took out the peat and replaced it with some rye grains and I'm hoping it'll be amazing. We'll see!

If you're interested in getting one, they rotate their barrels and sometimes have a Maple Bourbon barrel available which I can't wait to get my hands on as well. Here is the link: http://www.woodinvillewhiskeyco.com/barrels/

Below is the recipe I formulated!

Original Gravity:

1.087

Final Gravity:

1.024

ABV (standard):

8.21%

IBU (tinseth):

52.85

SRM (morey):

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
26 lb	United Kingdom - Golden Promise	37	3	73.2%
4 lb	American - Roasted Barley	33	300	11.3%
2 lb	Flaked Barley	32	2.2	5.6%
1 lb	Flaked Oats	33	2.2	2.8%
0.5 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 120L	33	120	1.4%
0.5 lb	American - Rye	38	3.5	1.4%
0.5 lb	Belgian - Special B	34	115	1.4%
0.5 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	1.4%
0.5 lb	United Kingdom - Crystal 70L	34	70	1.4%
35.5 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
2 oz	Nugget	Pellet	14	Boil	60 min	45.73
1 oz	Willamette	Pellet	4.5	Boil	30 min	5.65
1 oz	Willamette	Pellet	4.5	Boil	5 min	1.47

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 each	Whirfloc Tablet	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Food: Pasta Bolognese

2015-01-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

One of my go-to dishes at Italian restaurants is Pasta Bolognese. There's something about it that I just absolutely love. The extra sweetness from the carrots and celery just make it oh so good. My wife bought me an awesome pasta maker for Christmas and I thought this would be the perfect meal to try it out on. I asked her if she wanted to make a date night out of it and it was quite successful! I overcooked the pasta a bit because this was the first time I cooked fresh pasta. It was delicious!

Here is the recipe for the pasta:

Total Time: 25 min

Prep: 20 min |Inactive Prep: -- |

Cook: 5 min

Level:Easy

Yield:4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

2 cups flour

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

Mound the flour on a clean work surface. Hollow out the center making a well in the middle of the flour with steep sides.

Break the eggs into the well. Add the salt, and olive oil to the hollow center and gently mix together with a fork. Gradually start incorporating the flour by pulling in the flour from the sides of the well. As you incorporate more of the flour, the dough will start to take shape.

With your hands or a bench scraper continue working the dough until it comes together. If the dough is too dry, add a little water; if too wet or sticky, add a little flour.

Begin kneading the dough and keep kneading until it becomes smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. At this point, set the dough aside, cover it with plastic, and let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. You can store the dough in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, but allow it to return to room temperature before rolling it out.

Divide the pasta dough into 4 even sections. Keep each section covered with plastic wrap or a clean towel while you work with each one. Flour the dough, the rollers of a pasta roller (or your rolling pin), your hands, and the work surface.

If using a pasta machine: Flatten 1 of the of the dough pieces between your hands or with a floured rolling pin until it forms a thick oval disk. Dust the disk, the roller, and your hands with additional flour. Flour a baking sheet to hold the rolled out finished pasta.

With the roller on the widest setting, pass the pasta through the machine's rollers a few times until it is smooth. Fold the dough over into 1/3, and continue to pass through a few more times until the pasta is smooth again. Begin adjusting the pasta machine settings to become thinner, passing the dough through a few times at each setting.

If rolling the pasta by hand: Flatten a dough piece into a thick oval disk with your hands. Flour a baking sheet for the rolled out finished pasta. Place the oval dough disk on a floured work surface, and sprinkle with additional flour. Begin rolling out the dough with a floured rolling pin working from the center of the dough outwards, constantly moving the dough and lifting it to make sure it's not sticking.

Here is the recipe for the sauce:

Total Time: 55 min
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 45 min
Yield:6 servings
Level:Intermediate

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 pound ground chuck beef
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

Directions
In a large skillet heat the olive oil. When almost smoking, add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until the onions become very soft, about 8 minutes. Add the celery and carrot and saute for 5 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the ground beef. Saute, stirring frequently and breaking up any large lumps and cook until meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil and cook over medium low heat until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. This will take approximately 1/2 hour. Finish bolognese with Pecorino Romano.

Beer: Christmas Was Good to Me

2014-12-27T21:42:00.001-05:00

Christmas this year was amazing. I can't even describe how appreciative and grateful I am for all the amazing people in my life. I did not expect to get even half the stuff I got and the whole day was full of family, food, and friends.

I cannot wait to use the Draft Brewer Dual CO2 Regulated Keg System. I still need to get a freezer before using it, which I might already have squared away due to having awesome friends. It seems there was a theme this year. Most people who know me know that homebrewing has taken over most of my free time. It's an addiction. The science behind it is so interesting. I've never been a reader in my life. I could never, EVER finish a book. I read a 600 page book in a couple of weeks a little while ago. I couldn't put it down. My wife also got me some awesome power tools so I can finally finish some of the house projects we have going on.

So have I mentioned how awesome my wife is? She took a total of 6 hours to get me 4 bottles of beer from one of my all-time favorite breweries Tree House Brewing Company. They opened on the Tuesday before Christmas to release some pretty amazing beers. Harmony is an absolutely delicious IPA and Bear is an amazing hoppy brown. More to come about the future endeavors with the new equipment!

Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

2014-12-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

It's that time! I bottled the New England 1020 IPA last night and it tasted delicious. The FG got down to 1.010 which is better than I expected. Overall it's a solid 5.8% ABV IPA. I had hoped for a lot higher but lack of attention to detail during mashing results in lower efficiency. I'll post tasting notes once it's done bottle conditioning!

Beer: Stein Beer

2014-12-15T14:04:00.001-05:00

We decided to take a shot at brewing a beer in the stein brewing method. All I have to really say is this was one of the most fun brew days we've ever had. There was just so much awesome crammed into one day! We decided to go with a simple Kölsch recipe to start with and then if it was successful, do something a little more complex. We hit a 1.052 OG which was very close to what we were hoping for. Only issue we had was the Wyeast Kölsch smack pack had a hole in it when we smacked it. And yes we did cook steaks on the rocks and potatoes in the fire. It was amazing.

Hopefully we'll have more pics, but here is what I have so far!

Here is the link: http://imgur.com/a/1csBh

Original Gravity:

1.055

Final Gravity:

1.014

ABV (standard):

5.42%

IBU (tinseth):

24.37

SRM (morey):

4.11

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pilsner	37	1.8	90.9%
0.5 lb	American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt)	33	1.8	4.5%
0.5 lb	German - Munich Light	37	6	4.5%
11 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Domestic Hallertau	Pellet	3.9	Boil	60 min	16.7
0.5 oz	Domestic Hallertau	Pellet	3.9	Boil	45 min	7.67

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
4.5 gal	170F to warm mash tun and dough in at 161F	Infusion	150 F	60 min
3.5 gal	Bring to boil and sparge as much as needed	Sparge	170 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
15 each	Granite Rocks (Fist Size)	Other	Boil	60 min

Yeast

Wyeast - Kölsch 2565

Attenuation (avg):	75%	Flocculation:	Low
Optimum Temp:	56 - 70 °F	Starter:	No
Fermentation Temp:	65 °F	Pitch Rate:	0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 90 B cells required

Beer: All I want for Christmas is a Brew Kit

2014-12-11T16:21:00.002-05:00

Check out this article I wrote for Modern Man Jack!

All I want for Christmas is a Brew Kit — Modern Man Jack

Beer: Stein Brewing

2014-12-05T13:32:00.002-05:00

In a couple of weeks we are going to attempt an old school brewing technique called stein brewing. The concept is pretty simple. We are going to be using hot rocks (granite) to heat up the boil kettle. Not many people do it anymore and we just thought it would be a fun day of fire and activities. Sixpoint Brewery did one a little while ago and made a quick video about it.

We are going to make sure to post a bunch of pictures and hopefully get some video of the day! We're sticking with a basic Kölsch recipe and maybe in the future, try out a stout. It'll add some smokey and sweet caramelized flavors that are going to be real nice. Here is another video by Basic Brewing about the method. Cheers!

Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

2014-12-03T10:13:00.000-05:00

I transferred The New England 1020 IPA last night and it tasted absolutely delicious. Still have a little ways to go on dropping that gravity down, but overall very impressed with the Yeast Bay Vermont Ale strain I used. It is sitting at 1.020 and would like to get it to at least 1.012 if I can. If not, oh well! As Charlie Papazian says, "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew". More updates to come later! Cheers!

Food: Thanksgiving 2014

2014-12-01T21:03:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving was a success! All that planning and it felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. Everything came out exactly the way I wanted. Turkey was a bit dry, but not bad.

The rub consisted of sazon, adobo, garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I used the chicken stock from the practice chicken I made a few weeks ago. The gravy was absolutely delicious! (Thanks Regina and Barb!) We also had garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade Duffy stuffing, carrots, Puerto Rican pork and rice, cranberry sauce, and pearl onions. For desserts, we had chocolate pudding pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, ice cream, homemade whipped cream, brownies, and a variety of cookies.

A couple days later I made another stock with the turkey. Of course, the leftovers made PLENTY of turkey and stuffing sandwiches. My wife isn't a fan of leftovers so I am still trying to consume as much of it as I can by myself. It's pretty difficult. I feel like I've gained 20lbs already.

I also broke out the Apple Pie Ale, as well. It came out great! I don't really have any complaints about it thus far. Very well rounded and delicious. I can't wait to do it again! Cheers!

Beer: Discussion with Q&A from John Kimmich of The Alchemist

2014-11-20T12:34:00.001-05:00

From time to time during my endless research into homebrewing I come across a gem like this:

This discussion with Q&A from John Kimmich is extremely informative. You also can get a good background into The Alchemist's Heady Topper. Also go check out Chop & Brew by Chip Walton. A great find and I can't wait to watch the rest of his videos!

Food: Puerto Rican Bistec Encebollado (Steak and Onions)

2014-11-20T10:15:00.001-05:00

I married a lovely Puerto Rican woman. What does that mean? On top of everything else I absolutely love about her, the cuisine that comes along with her heritage is AMAZING. The first taste of this cuisine was when her mother made the rice. Oh man, this rice. I can't even describe how amazing it is. Just look at it...

I haven't even attempted this yet. There's a science to it. Not too wet, not too dry. The perfect amount of seasoning. My next taste was when I went to her grandmother's house and had the pork WITH this rice. It was ridiculously amazing. THEN we went to Puerto Rico and it was just too much to handle. Mofongo, Fried Plantain, Empanadas (on the beach), Medalla Light (beer), Magna (beer) and so much more.

Then I had Bistec Encebollado. Only people that have had it can describe it. So what do? Make it when I get home. I've been making it for a couple of years now and keep trying different cuts of meat to see which ones we like. Last night we tried bottom round and it was delicious. Perfect texture for this meal. I first based my recipe off of this recipe.

Total Time: 4-24 hours
Prep: 5 minutes
Inactive: 4-24 hours
Cook: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 lb steak (I've tried many. The "bad" cuts are always the best and most tender)
1 large yellow onion sliced
1 packet sazon (white)

1 packet sazon (yellow)

1 tablespoon adobo
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
2 tbsp garlic minced
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Prepare all ingredients and place in a ziploc bag with the steak. Set in fridge for 4 hours or over night to marinate. **If you're short on time you can skip this step**

Dump all ingredients into a heavy pan and cook until boiling. Once boiling turn heat to low, cover and cook for 40 minutes or so. Once done meat will be very tender.

Side note:

The New England 1020 IPA is fermenting like crazy! When I left the house this morning there was an extremely thick layer of krausen in the carboy! Super excited.

Beer: Brewing The New England 1020 IPA

2014-11-19T10:58:00.003-05:00

So I am a moron. Again, I forgot to take pictures of brew day. I get too caught up in the moment and enjoy it too much. I'm going to dedicate one of my friends solely to taking pictures next time. Anyways, we have fermentation! The picture is a bit deceiving because it is in an extremely dark place and I had to use the flash. The color is a lot lighter... A LOT lighter.

Again, we missed our OG. We were at about 1.043. I added a pound of table sugar that I know will dry it out a bit but I got it to 1.053. We also mashed in a little too high at around 160°F. Next time I am going to focus a lot more on detail so that this doesn't happen again.

We used a little bit of a Campden tablet to kill unnecessary microbes and fluoride. I've been noticing my town has been adding a lot more recently and it was weirding me out. I pitched the Yeast Bay Vermont Ale Yeast 48 hours later to make sure the Campden tablet didn't kill that too! That would've been very unfortunate.

We did a whirlpool which was extremely fun attaching this massive paddle to a drill and using it at 180°F. We need to re-do the paddle as it was too big and getting stuck when we would try to pull it out and causing it to come to a dead stop. Completely defeating the purposes of a whirlpool.

I will update more when I transfer to secondary and dry hop! Below is the recipe we used. Feel free to have at it!

Original Gravity:

1.063

Final Gravity:

1.013

ABV (standard):

6.63%

IBU (tinseth):

141.25

SRM (morey):

5.2

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	72.7%
1 lb	Rice Hulls	0	0	7.3%
0.75 lb	Belgian - Munich	38	6	5.5%
0.75 lb	Flaked Oats	33	2.2	5.5%
0.5 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 10L	35	10	3.6%
0.5 lb	American - Carapils (Dextrine Malt)	33	1.8	3.6%
0.25 lb	German - Acidulated Malt	27	3.4	1.8%
13.75 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
5 mL	Hop Shot	Fresh	2.77	Boil	60 min	51.39
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Boil	10 min	16.28
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Boil	10 min	18.79
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Boil	5 min	8.95
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Boil	5 min	10.33
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min	16.48
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Whirlpool at 180 °F	0 min	19.02
1 oz	Citra	Pellet	11	Dry Hop	7 days
1 oz	Simcoe	Pellet	12.7	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
5.3 gal	175F to warm up mash tun, once at 160 dough in	Sparge	150 F	60 min
4.1 gal	Close to boil, then stir mash with water to distribute evenly	Sparge	175 F	15 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min
1 each	Whirfloc Tablet	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Default - - -

Attenuation (custom):	80%	Flocculation:	Med
Optimum Temp:	66 - 72 °F	Starter:	No
Fermentation Temp:	68 °F	Pitch Rate:	0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 102 B cells required

Notes

Pale 2 Row must be RAHR
Vermont Ale Yeast
http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/vermont-ale

During second sparge mix up the grain in order to distribute the heat evenly.

Beer: New Techniques During Brew Day

2014-11-13T13:14:00.001-05:00

I have been on the journey to brew the best IPA I can ever since I started brewing. Which is actually not too long ago. Last year around this time I was brewing 1.5 gallon stove top brews and adding 3.5 gallons of tap water to make 5 gallons. In this short amount of time I have already jumped to all-grain brewing. Can you imagine what I will be doing next year? I can't.

This next brew we are calling The New England 1020. It's going to be a what I call them a "New England IPA". Not as bitter and more aromatic. I get to experiment with techniques I've never used before. I am going to be using a HopShot which is a hop extract to add some bittering elements without adding too much flavor of the hop. Next I am going to be whirlpooling at 180°F with the addition of hops. This is going to (hopefully) create a blast of aroma in the face. I also just picked up this yeast strain which is a Conan clone.

I will definitely try to take a lot of pictures and update as soon as I can! I have trouble taking pictures because I am having too much fun the whole time. Yesterday I finished up the labels on the Apple Pie Ale and took a few nice pictures. Here they are!

Beer: Random Thoughts

2014-11-12T10:43:00.001-05:00

This past week I have decided to not make a mess of my kitchen anymore and move my brewing operations down to the basement and outside. Conveniently I have a walk out so it makes things much easier. This weekend we get to try it out for the first time when we brew our New England 1020 IPA! I just added a dart board and other things to make it a bit more cozy. Next step is adding an old school tube TV with NES or SNES hooked up to it!

I have been drooling over a brewing system for about a year now. Whenever I see it all I can think about is this:

I am going to try to make that dream a reality next year. I don't know how I am going to do it, but I am going to do it. Everything about it is so perfect. It is called the Brew Magic V350MS System.

Specifications
Model Name: Brew-Magic V350-MS Brewing System® (Patent Pending)
Controller Type: Unitronics Vision 350 Touchscreen, 3-1/2″, 256 color, QVGA , Industrial type
Software: ‘Magic-Soft®’ (Patent Pending) programming
Kettle type: Heavy-duty stainless, 15.5 gallons with handles
Kettle setup: Boil (lower), Mash (center), Sparge HL (right)
Connector type: Stainless, 1/2″ Pharmaceutical quality Tri-Clamp
Frame type: Commercial duty, powder coat, baked enamel
Frame kettle decking: Stainless steel , removable for easy cleanup
Frame Casters: Heavy duty swivel, two of the four are locking type (4.5″ T)
Brewery Size (with Casters): 74.5″ Long x 62.5″ High x 20″ Wide
Deck Height: Upper deck 39.5″ Lower deck 18″
Height to top of upper kettles: 62.5″
Height to top of lower kettle: 41.25″
Weight: 289 Lbs.

Food: Chili is Back

2014-11-11T20:57:00.003-05:00

For a long time, I had a chili recipe that was solid. But what did I do? I got bored with it. So I started messing with it. First was adding whiskey to it... fail. Next was adding ground turkey to it... epic fail. That was the final straw. A year later and I decided to start from scratch. I based it off of this recipe that I found online. I just needed the base for it and then I added my own flavors to it.

Instead of 2 lbs of beef, I substituted it with some hot Italian sausage. I cut the casings open and just used to ground meat. Added some spices that I like to add to most of my food and called it a day. I didn't really take any measurements as I am still in the early phases of finalizing it.

It wasn't as spicy as I would've liked it, but that's okay. I'm working on the base right now then I can layer it with more complex flavors. I can't wait to make it again! 'Tis the season for chili is a hearty food! My favorite time of the year.

Beer: Apple Pie Ale Bottling (Update)

2014-11-09T21:31:00.000-05:00

We bottled the Apple Pie Ale this weekend. It tasted absolutely amazing. Extremely well rounded with hints of apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and bready notes. Although we wanted it at about 8%, I think having it at 5.8% is actually better. Makes it very drinkable at any time. Also we were surprised at the clarity. You can see right through it!

While all this was going on I was preparing a chicken stock for Thanksgiving. I slowly simmered it for about 6 hours and then strained it. Simple recipe of celery, carrots, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Kyle did a little photoshoot with the Scotch Stout and The Quadrupel. I have to say it came out looking awesome!

Food: Chicken Thanksgiving Pre-Game

2014-11-07T10:47:00.001-05:00

This year, we are hosting Thanksgiving. We hosted it a couple of years ago and were pretty successful. My wife blogged about it and you can read it here. We looked around for the recipe we used and we could not find it anywhere. Oh no. So what do I do? I bought a chicken to practice a random recipe that I came up with and I can say it came out extremely delicious.

I did a nice brine for a little over 24 hours. Pretty simple. Salt, sugar, olive oil and water. It definitely helped in the juiciness of the chicken. I would've liked to do it for a little longer but didn't have enough time. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to do it for Thanksgiving because the thought of leaving a turkey in a bucket in our basement brining freaks my wife out. We won't have enough room in the refrigerator.

With it I also cut up some fingerling potatoes with some salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and olive oil. They came out extremely delicious as well!

I'm not 100% sure the measurements for the chicken as far as seasoning, but I can tell you what I put on it! I call it the Duffy mixture because I pretty much use it on everything. It is a mixture of salt, pepper, paprika, adobo, sazon, and garlic. I can't wait to make the turkey for Thanksgiving! Next year I got approval to actually go to a farm and pick out my turkey.

After the delicious meal I went to my buddies house for a beer tasting. It was a night filled with extremely weird beers. We had:

Lagunitas Brewing Company - A Little Sumpin' Wild Ale
De Proefbrouwerij - Long of Tooth
Two Roads Brewing Company - Route of All Evil
Freigeist Bierkultur - Abraxxxas
Tröegs Brewing Company - Blizzard of Hops
Freigeist Bierkultur - Geisterzug Gose Rhubarb
Nikenjayamochi Kadoya Honten Co. - Ise Kadoya Genmai (Brown Rice)
Maine Beer Company / Half Acre Beer Company - Sapping Mammoth IPA
Tree House Brewing Company - Good Morning
Ourbeer Brewing Company - Hoppy Brown (Disaster)

Some were gross, some were okay, and some were just mind blowing. Two that stood out the most to me were Good Morning (American Imperial/Double Stout) by Tree House and Abraxxxas (Smoked Lichtenhainer Weisse) by Freigeist Bierkultur.

Food: Kick the Microwave. Easy Popcorn.

2014-11-02T20:42:00.003-05:00

Yes, microwave popcorn is easier. But for me, there was so much more I wanted from my popcorn. I wanted to make it any way I wanted to without purchasing a million different boxes. So what did I do? Started making it from scratch. Well, I mean I didn't grow corn stalks and pick my own cobs. It's extremely simple to make, and I'll tell you how I do it.

You can use any oil but I prefer extra virgin olive oil. I am obsessed with the flavor and aroma of it. Start off by coating the base of a sauce pan with the oil. Heat it on medium and put one kernel in. This is a timer to let you know when to put the rest of the kernels in.

Once the kernel pops, pour enough kernels in to coat the bottom of the pan. At this stage, if you want to make kettle corn just add a spoonful of sugar.

Cover the pan. Shake the pan back and forth to keep the kernels from burning. Make sure you keep a good grip on that cover as those kernels start popping at an extremely fast rate.

Once the kernels stop popping or slow to about every 5 seconds, they should be done. Pour it into a bowl and salt immediately. Salt to your taste. Everyone has a different palette. You can also add any other ingredient you want here such as butter. Now go put on a great movie and enjoy!

Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure (Update)

2014-11-02T13:38:00.001-05:00

I got a text from my brother yesterday that went like this:

I know it sounds crazy, but I do wish I was there with him. It's a lot of work, but it is so rewarding. This is one of the reasons I absolutely love brewing beer. It's something I created from scratch. Although wine is a little different. I've noticed (in the short amount of time) that wine people really don't like breaking the mold. Whereas in beer, that is my goal every single time I brew. I know it's really hard because everyone has done everything already, but I still try to create a unique brew every time.

So throughout the day he continued texting me with pictures and stories of what is going on. This made me wish I was there even more! Early on in the conversation there were texts saying "Pump is amazing but dangerous. I just shot a stream of sanitizer 10 feet across the yard" and "5 gallons/minute" and "Was more expensive than I expected, like $400 or something". Then, 3 hours later "Pump broke!!!!". Oh no. One thing about these type operations is nothing EVER goes 100% smoothly. You have to be able to think fast and think on your feet. I instantly told him to go to the brew store and he was already on his way. Brothers think alike huh?

At least I am not there to help with the cleaning up! Sorry Joe! Now we play the waiting game. Everything is now going to sit in the barrels for up to almost a year I believe. This is where I would go insane. At least with beer I can drink it in a couple weeks and it is delicious. Oh well! I cannot wait until next year when we do this again!

Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure

2014-10-29T12:58:00.000-04:00

I received a text from my brother a little while ago that went something along the lines as, "Dude... I just bought a ton of grapes. The logistics of me doing this myself isn't going to work". I offered my services. We got the flight figured out and before I knew it, I was in Seattle.

Next challenge, how do we get these grapes? We didn't have a truck. How do we get, A TON, of grapes? Finally, Joe squared away a vehicle. This...

A 24 foot diesel box truck.

Good thing touring and moving has prepared me for that. So next up, the 3 hour drive to Yakima Valley to get the grapes! It was an amazing drive with great views most of the time so I didn't mind. We got to Red Mountain AVA and picked up our NOW 1.5 tons of Syrah and Petite Syrah grapes.

We get back to Seattle and get stuff ready for the next day of wine making. In between all of this we went to some amazing restaurants, I got to drive a Porsche, and we drank copious amounts of beer. Fast-forward to the next day and we start! We started extremely early with the sanitizing with some good ol' Star San and PBW. If you don't have these things, get them. I think we cracked our first beer before 9AM.

It was a blast and if we didn't have the equipment we had, I think it would've been the most miserable experience of my life. We definitely need to figure out some of the logistics next year to simplify carrying 1.5 tons of grapes. I also didn't have to worry to much about the science behind it because my brother and his wife had that covered.

I was never a huge wine fan until this weekend. It opened my eyes (taste buds I guess) up to a whole new world. I wish I could help out with all of the other steps along the way, but my brother has that covered. He will be racking to French Oak barrels for about 9 months before bottling. The Syrah has fermented much faster than the Petite Syrah. I think he is shooting for a 16.5% ABV on the Syrah and about 14.5% on the Petite Syrah. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine. We'll see! I'm very excited to taste this once it is done. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine.

Beer: Hoppy Brown (Disaster) Ale

2014-10-28T13:50:00.002-04:00

A while ago I tried a beer by Banner Beer Company called "Run to Equinox". What is it? A hoppy brown ale. It was pretty good. It didn't blow me away, but it was pretty good. So what did I do? Go on the search for some more hoppy brown ales. The search was, well, not that successful. The only other that I found in the area was Smuttynose's "Durty" which is now called "Mud Season". So what does a homebrewer do if they cannot find the beer they want to drink? Find or formulate a recipe and brew it.

After much research, everyone seemed to base their recipe off of Janet's Hoppy Brown Ale. Must be good then right? So I did the same thing. Tweaked a couple of things but overall kept it close to the same.

We called it the "Hoppy Brown Disaster" because pretty much every step of the way, something went wrong. When draining into the fermentation bucket, the hops blocked the drainage. When fermenting, the temperature somehow jumped to 82°F even thought it was cool out. When transferring from secondary to the bottling bucket, the hops clogged and broke the auto-siphon wand. You get where I'm going. It was a disaster. Other than the fruity esters from the high temps, it came out great!

The only difference from this recipe and the final is that the OG was 1.069 and the FG was at about 1.009 after the yeast went insane cause of the high temperature. So the final ABV was around 7.9%. I was okay with that. I also decided to use whole cone dried hops last minute to try them out. Needless to say, I wasn't a huge fan because I didn't account for water consumption. You live and learn!

Original Gravity:

1.068

Final Gravity:

1.016

ABV (standard):

6.89%

IBU (tinseth):

81.92

SRM (morey):

30.84

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	64.5%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 40L	34	40	6.5%
1 lb	American - Chocolate	29	350	6.5%
1 lb	American - Wheat	38	1.8	6.5%
1 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	6.5%
1 lb	Rice Hulls	0	0	6.5%
0.5 lb	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	3.2%
15.5 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Mash		5.78
0.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Boil	60 min	18.59
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	15 min	14.39
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	10 min	14.15
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	0 min
1.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
4.5 gal	Brings it to 150F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.5 gal	Brings it to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min

Yeast

Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast

Attenuation (avg):	77%	Flocculation:	High
Optimum Temp:	57 - 70 °F	Starter:	No
Fermentation Temp:	72 °F	Pitch Rate:	0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 110 B cells required

Beer: Northern Pale Ale

2014-10-27T11:24:00.000-04:00

Last year my friends and I were at the brew store. I don't quite remember how it happened but Phil got a whiff of a specific hop called Northern Brewer and his face lit up like a little kid in a candy store. "We must brew a beer with this hop" he says. So, I came up with an extract recipe and we brewed, transferred, and bottled. It was a very drinkable pale ale that was almost an IPA. People that didn't like IPA's seemed to like it because of how light it was.

I entered it into a competition and got some great feedback on it's flaws and weaknesses. Surprisingly it got a 27 out of a 50 which I thought was very modest.

With these improvements, which included adding more hops to balance the overall malt heaviness, I tweaked the recipe. This time it was an all-grain recipe. We were very excited to rebrew this one.

The new one definitely had way more flavor and was more well rounded than the extract recipe. Success! It is a really good mild West Coast IPA. There is a great grapefruit taste and overall citrusy. But for some reason, I just wasn't satisfied. We're not on the West Coast. I feel like being over here, I wanted to brew the what I call it "New England IPA". This great wave of IPA's coming through here is incredible. 3 notable mentions include: Tree House Brewing Co. - Julius, Hill Farmstead Brewery - Abner, and The Alchemist - Heady Topper. Recipe and brew day coming soon for that one!

So, overall... GREAT IPA. Below will be the recipe so you can give it a shot! It's a solid 6% as well. Cheers, and good luck!

Original Gravity:

1.065

Final Gravity:

1.018

ABV (standard):

6.19%

IBU (tinseth):

68.03

SRM (morey):

6.81

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
11 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	80%
1 lb	American - Vienna	35	4	7.3%
0.5 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	3.6%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 20L	35	20	7.3%
4 oz	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	1.8%
13.75 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29.55
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	30 min	10.19
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	30 min	22.71
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	5 min	2.64
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	5 min	2.95
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
5.2 gal	To bring up to 152F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.6 gal	To bring up to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min
1 each	Whirfloc	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Attenuation (avg):	72%	Flocculation:	Medium
Optimum Temp:	59 - 75 °F	Starter:	No
Fermentation Temp:	68 °F	Pitch Rate:	0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 105 B cells required

Notes

$35.20

Bring first mashing in to 175F and let sit in tun to warm it up. Wait 10 minutes or so until it is at 165F and dough in.

Once cooled down, whirlpool wort to seperate hop particles and trub. Let sit for at least an hour COVERED. Let cold break.

Beer: Apple Pie Beer (Update)

2014-10-26T11:13:00.003-04:00

Last night Kyle and I transferred the Apple Pie Ale. Let me tell you, the young beer tasted delightful. Last year when we brewed it we used McCormick Cinnamon Sticks which, well are pretty much fake and pumped with artificial flavors of cinnamon. This year we used real cinnamon and Tahitian vanilla beans. The gravity was exactly where I wanted it. Well, I mean after the unfortunate event of not having enough grain to get to a OG of 1.080 and instead hit 1.055. The gravity was about 1.011 which puts the beer at a 5.78% ABV.

The equation used to get the ABV is simple:
ABV = (og – fg) * 131.25

Food: Steak

2014-10-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

Today will be a simple post. I love cooking steak. I mean, I look forward to it all day if I know I am cooking it later. A while back I stumbled upon this website. Go there. Research. It'll make you cook a better steak. All I can say is, salt. It heightens so many flavors. Cheers.

I Brew Beer and Cook Food

Beer: I Built a Hop Spider

Beer: Rye Whiskey Barrel

Food: Pasta Bolognese

Beer: Christmas Was Good to Me

Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

Beer: Stein Beer

Beer: All I want for Christmas is a Brew Kit

Beer: Stein Brewing

Beer: The New England 1020 (Update)

Food: Thanksgiving 2014

Beer: Discussion with Q&A from John Kimmich of The Alchemist

Food: Puerto Rican Bistec Encebollado (Steak and Onions)

Beer: Brewing The New England 1020 IPA

Beer: New Techniques During Brew Day

Beer: Random Thoughts

Specifications

Food: Chili is Back

Beer: Apple Pie Ale Bottling (Update)

Food: Chicken Thanksgiving Pre-Game

Food: Kick the Microwave. Easy Popcorn.

Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure (Update)

Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure

Beer: Hoppy Brown (Disaster) Ale

Beer: Northern Pale Ale

Beer: Apple Pie Beer (Update)

Food: Steak