Deschutes Bachelor ESB is a spectacular beer. Served almost exclusively in the brewery’s pubs and tasting room, this session Bitter is a local’s favorite (this local has logged more time with this beer than any other). I have tried several times to clone this beer but never hit the mark. I mostly attribute this to not enough time to get rid of each iteration’s beer, combined with a general tendency to get distracted on other things life throws my way. With smaller batch volumes, however, I can brew, bottle, drink, and make adjustments for each attempt producing the target profile I am after, so I have reset my sights on fine-tuning a version of this beer that I can add to my list of frequently brewed recipes.

Bachelor ESB is an american expression of a classic English Bitter, not far removed from its source of inspiration. This Bitter is medium bodied, 5% ABV, and is mildly bittered with american hops grown her in the pacific northwest. It is my ideal session ale.

What follows is the first round of brewing, plus take-aways. I will updating this post with a link to the post detailing the round of brewing once that is finished.

The post Deschutes Bachelor ESB Clone Recipe – 9/8/2015 appeared first on Brewerman.

So as a follow up to The Little Woody, I thought I’d give some of the highlights of the beers I was able to try.  I may go back today, as I was not able to get to everything I was interested in (BBC’s Sour Outback X … I thoroughly enjoyed Tonya’s sour offering at last year’s event, but events conspired against me this year).

• The Woodcutter [Three Creeks]: Somewhat assertive hop presence, but drinkable if you’re “afraid” of the hops.  A bit of a twang to it (from the Pinot barrel-aged barleywine they used?), with some solid barrel wood character.
• Super Nebula [Block 15]: Sweet Lord!!!!  For me, this was the star of the beers I tried.
• Wonka’s Wit [Block 15]: Another hit!  This is a refreshingly sour wheat beer.  Orange peel and coriander … tart and crisp … so good!
• Berliner Weisse [Deschutes]: One word … delicious.  You don’t get too many opportunities to drink this style, so if you like the sour beers, make sure to hit this one up.  I think it’s a great representation of the style.  I spoke with Jason Randles from the brewery, and he let me know they’re serving it at the pub, traditionally (with a choice of flavored syrups to stand up against the sourness).  I prefer it without, and thought it was awesome.

New this year was a Bourbon tasting for an additional charge of $30.00 for 6 tastes.  They are shorter pours, but added up, you get a decent amount for the enjoyment of drinking your Bourbon’s inside the historic schoolhouse, in a comfortable room.  All in all, there are some pretty tasty Bourbons to try … I really enjoyed the Jefferson’s, the Evan Williams Single Barrel.  Friends I was with would also chime in with the repeat performer Basil Hayden’s

Here’s an additional fun little bit of something … my wife and I were interviewed, and it was put up on the Little Woody Facebook page.

Cheers!

The post The Little Woody 2010 Recap appeared first on Brewerman.

Barrel aging takes resources, passion, and patience.  Judging from some of the media I’ve been seeing, the brewers are doing a good job of bringing all that to our glasses.  The number of breweries has increased in the past year, and the beers look more interesting as well.  New this year is the addition of a bourbon tasting.  Barrel Aged Beers and bourbon … c’mon.  It’s like it’s my own personal fest!

Here are some links to learn more and get you excited for this weekend.  See you there!

Official Details, straight from the source … cost, parking, etc.
Little Woody on Facebook (check out the brewmaster videos!)
Little Woody on Twitter

Also, BOR over at Bend Oregon Restaurants ended up doing a write up on the beers they’ll be pouring, so go check that out too.

Details

Friday, September 3
5-10pm

Saturday, September 4
Noon-10pm

Deschutes Historical Museum
129 NW Idaho, Bend, OR 97701
map

Basic entry including commemorative glass $6, $5 without glass
Tasting package $15 includes glass, entry and 10 tokens
Bourbon Tasting $30, includes glass, entry and Bourbon punch card

The post Little Woody 2010 appeared first on Brewerman.

Because I used loose pellets to dry hop, there are hop particulates suspended throughout.  The taste is clean, but green.  The purpose of the time spent in cold is to coagulate what I can to allow those solids to drop out.  This will improve the appearance, and the flavor will mature as well.  I’ll check in on it toward the end of the week and decide when it will be time to keg.

That clean taste … hats off to the wet t-shirt method.

The post English Bitter Update 1 appeared first on Brewerman.

The beer is sitting in a water bath with a clean, wet T-Shirt wicking water up around the fermenter.  There’s a fan pointed at the fermenter from across the room to force quick evaporation.  All of that is to battle the mid-70’s temp in the house.  Should put it in the mid-to-high 60’s (optimal temp for the London ESB yeast I’m using).  Going to probably stir up the yeast tomorrow, so I’ll have to take a sample.

Stoked to have a full keg of Bitter on the way!

The post English Bitter on the way! appeared first on Brewerman.

Beer: X IPA 1 – 36/50
Tasting Date: 1/4/2010

Appearance [max 5] : 3

Solid head that keeps its form, and slowly settles into a 1/4″ blanket  on the surface that slowly gets consumed through the beer.

Deep copper color.  Definitely darker than what I remember West    Coast IPA would have.  Going to need to do a side-by-side comparison (good thing I have another couple of bottles).

Aroma [max 10] : 8

The Centennial aroma on top of Cascade finishing on top of CTZ/Simcoe backbone is definitely a pleasing hop chord.  With this hop schedule it’s feint but pleasantly floral, then piny, and even a bit summer fruity?

Palate [max 5] : 4

Medium to full body, rich creamy texture, soft carbonation, clean finish

Flavor [max 10] : 7

Nice duration, with a uniform flavor curve that works from the back of the throat towards the front and sides of the tongue, then finishing in back of the mouth with a nice, bitter.  Absolutely love balance of sweet to bitter.

There’s a noticeable light tart finish.  Similar to light lacto in the Boulevard brewing Saison-Brett.  Not really what I want on the end of this beer.  Will need to investigate the underlying cause of that.  It’s definitely a subtle off flavor, so not too distracting from the otherwise very pleasant beer.

The caramels from the Carastan and Cara-pils on the two row are really tasty.  I feel the malt and backbone is just a hair too much.

Overall [max 20] : 14

This is a very solid IPA.  I’d like to turn up the aroma, reduce the mouthfeel (maybe OG just a touch too), and clean up the tart finish.  Once those items are addressed, I can turn my attention to manipulating the IPA’s crowning feature … the hop aroma and flavor.

The post X Brew Tasting Notes – X IPA 1 appeared first on Brewerman.

11/23: First run with the 1 gallon immersion “mash tun”.
Added 1/4 tsp gypsum to 2 gallons of Bend, OR tap water
Mashed in, and think I hit target 152 degree mash temp deep in the mash, not sure about the top though … 147 with digi. therm.

When I pulled the mash out, the floating thermometer was around 146, so it would appear there’s a problem with holding temperatures.

Recirculated the wort over the mash, and the gravity was way low (around a 54% efficiency). Adjusted the recipe, and
Put mash in the kettle (kept it in a grain bag), and added rest of water. Still low gravity.
Added DME to hit target grav.

New kettle: boil-off rate significantly higher than expected. Added somewhere around 1.5 quarts extra water throughout the boil.

Didn’t take OG measurement (way too tired) to get out sample for hydrometer … yeah … that lame.

12/7: No visible activity. Then I swirled the bucket like I used to when I’d make a starter in a belgian bottle … percolation nation!!!

12/8: Nasty top of the bucket from lots of activity … awesome to see this thing cranking.

12/15: Added dry hops

12/22: Bottling day.  Added half a pack of dry yeast … way too much … and calculated amount of corn sugar to add to hit around 2.4 volumes of CO2. FG was measured at 9.1 brix … don’t think it was complete in retrospect. Taste: clean bitter, peach, slight grapefruit. Light caramel malt. Very very pleasant.

Takeaways … I didn’t follow any of my own advice on this brew day … so lessons learned:

• Overheat your strike water so you hit your target infusion mash temperature.  Think that it was way too low.
• Take a gravity reading
• Know your equipment.  This initial brew is going a long way to try and do so, but I need to really measure my boil off rate.

Hopefully I’ll have a better run next time when I formulate the adjustments to the recipe.

Cheers.

The post X Brew – Brew Notes: XIPA1 appeared first on Brewerman.

“Arctic Alchemy, discoveries of the Red Hand ……”, a discussion on the Homebrewers Association forum kicked off by Chris Bowen talking about a documentary project he’s embarked on.

In July 2010, I am departing from Bethlehem with two friends on a 3 week journey about 2000 miles north to the Canadian Arctic. The purpose is to recreate a historic and somewhat mysterious ale that was originally commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1851 to ensure health and nutritional value to a team of Arctic Explorers.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/arctic-alchemy-153577/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arctic-Alchemy/197637538644

New Year, New Beer, New Hop

In BeerAdvocate magazine, Issue #35, Drew Beechum discusses a process of hop exploration by brewing not an IPA, but an Extra Pale Ale (a really-hopped-up pale ale).  He argues it avoids the alcohol and malt complexities of the IPA you’d initially reach for, and allows the hop flavors and aromas to shine.  In the article he’s focusing on the new, as he puts it, “it hop – Citra”.  Great experimentation approach for those of us really focusing on hops in our recipe formulation right now.

10 Homebrew Gadgets

Every now and then someone parades out a new list of brewing equipment and process innovations from the homebrew community that have made the brew day easier.  The new issue of Zymurgy has a new list, and it inspired me to go out and look for several cheap solutions for what I’m currently focused on (hopping, and improving my X Brew equipment).

• Hop Filter – a device for screening out hop debris while pulling wort from the kettle
• Sanitizer – a simple PVC pipe filled with sanitizer for racking canes and other long-stemmed items
• Mash Tun bulkhead – create hole and bulkhead for cooler mash tun (for my 1 gallon X Brew coolers)

What about you?

The post Worth Reading – 12/30/09 appeared first on Brewerman.

I originally poured the beer into a shaker pint, but the head was so gaseous that it took up over half the glass.  I changed over to an Orval glass, and was really gentle, resulting in a better pour (below).  The aroma is clean Saison … a bit of spice, with light fruit aromas.

I have to admit that I thought I hated this beer on the first sip.  It wasn’t the Brettanomyces, but it had more to do with a palate that was not quite ready.  I was hit up front with musty flavors and an astringency that I was not expecting.  I decided to have an unsalted cracker to cleanse and try again.  Oh my!

The carbonation was heavy, but not too much.  The flavors were the spicy esters and (pleasant this time) just-musty flavors you’d expect in a farmhouse Saison.  The flavor has hints of peaches and tangerines with a solid bitterness that hits next.  The clean finish is just underscored by the Brett tang.  I was wondering when I was going to pick up the Brett, and I absolutely love the subtle use of it.  There’s not much sweetness here.  Just a great balance between Brett, spice, clean malt, and solid bitterness.

I’m sure that this beer will develop more Brett character over time, so the balance may not be where it currently is for much longer.  That being said, what an enjoyable beer.  If you want to treat yourself to something a bit off the beaten path, check this one out!

BeerAdvocate: A
RateBeer: 99

The post Boulevard Brewing – Saison Brett appeared first on Brewerman.

Even after many attempts at recalibrating my equipment and brewing software, I have still found myself missing my mash temperature more times than hitting it. Usually the obvious candidate for the problem’s source was the mash tun temperature. My brew day starts with me pulling my equipment out of the garage as I begin heating up my strike water. At the time of this writing, snow has been on the ground for over a week, and my mash tun is really cold. If I grab my mash tun as soon as the strike water is ready (or even soon before starting to heat up my strike water), the temperature in the cavity of the cooler will be different than that in the cooler walls. If I then rely on the calculated temperature from my brewing software, when I dough-in, the cooler will suck heat out of the finite amount held by the strike water and will decrease the amount available to be absorbed by the grain.

Brewing software does a good job with computing the temperature of your strike water, but requires accurate data across many variables including grain temperature, total grain mass, grain moisture content, mash tun temperature, mash tun weight, and mash tun material (e.g. plastic, stainless steel). If inaccurate information is used in the calculation, the computed results won’t do you any good. Most homebrewers I’ve spoken with do not adjust all the low-level information once they get their software set up, and as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out.

I have encountered several popular approaches homebrewers use to address this issue:

1. Pre-heat your mash tun with hot water so the mash tun does not suck energy from your strike water.
2. Bring your mash tun to your brew location the night before so the entire mash tun has enough time to come to rest at the ambient temperature of your brew location.
3. Heat the strike water to temperatures slightly higher than the computed value, allowing the extra heat to warm up the walls of the cooler. Then stir the water vigorously until it reaches the calculated dough-in temperature.

After trying all of the methods above, overheating the strike water provides me with the most consistent ability to hit my target mash temperatures at the expense of about 20 minutes added to my brew day. Allowing your cooler to warm up to the measurable ambient temperature of your brewing area got me closer to consistently hitting my target, but I still found myself missing my target temperatures. This may be due to not having the correct value in place for my mash tun’s thermal mass (the capacity of a body to store heat) or some other setting. However, by using the last method, I ensure the entire mash tun (water and all) is at the target temperature and ready to give it’s heat up to the grain I introduce when I dough in.

Being able to reliably hit your mash temperature is a cornerstone for achieving the beer envisioned when your recipe was created.  Find a method that works for you and use it every time you brew.

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