Any questions, please ask. #SuperLazyStatus #IllFixIt
xxx Beers Left To Go!
Cheers!
20140515
1001 Beers: The Final Catch Up...
Ok, so this 1001 Beers post is not going to follow my normal format.... honestly, it will be almost formatless... I know I said this before... but... I plan to keep up from now on............ Ok, now that this is out of the way, lets check out what I have had.
Any questions, please ask. #SuperLazyStatus #IllFixIt
xxx Beers Left To Go!
Cheers!
Any questions, please ask. #SuperLazyStatus #IllFixIt
xxx Beers Left To Go!
Cheers!
20140421
Brewing The BJCP: Categories 10 & 6
It's been a long time since I have been here... Quite a long time... at least I am on the same focus as I was the last time I wrote. The BJCP.
One update about this whole thing, though. I take the Tasting Exam May 17th! That is just a few weeks away... I feel pretty confident about Categories 14 and under. I mean, I can still learn a thing or two about the styles and a lot about the history, but I feel pretty good. 15 through 23, however... I guess some of them are pretty straightforward. For 20-23, essentially you have to know how the ingredients within them affect the base beer. There are some styles within those categories that are all their own, but again, I said I need to study.
I am going to be getting into the categories again, shortly. But for now, I guess this is a good time to start a new goal for my brewing... or at least something I thought about doing. Maybe not a goal, per se. I want to brew at least one beer from every style of the BJCP guidelines. I guess I started with one that a lot of homebrewers do, but for no other reason than at a recent competition I won a 5lb bag of Belma hops from Hops Direct... 5 POUNDS! I can't imagine using it all in a reasonable amount of time, so I may end up giving some away. I went with a Single Hop Belma, American Pale Ale, (Category 10A: Check) to be my first beer... and since I had two empty carboys, I thought that an American Wheat with Belma might also work... only one way to find out, right?
Now imagine that photo with a game of Cards Against Humanity... and Judge Dread... and... well, yeah...
Now that we are past that... I drove home the next morning with a slight headache. It seemed to get worse though when I started brewing. It was never really bad, but it took some coercing of my liver to make it go away...
The brewday started out slow just because I wanted to be sure everything was perfect. I mean, this was my drool stands first major showing. It had to be perfect. I pulled it out a few days earlier to run water through it all. I figured out where I had issues and fixed what I could then. Obviously brewday would present with real life challenges.
Everything was going smooth up until the point when I decided I wanted to Mash In... typical, right? Nothing major happened I just realized that I FORGOT TO PUT IN THE CAMPDEN TABLET! I realized as soon as I finished mixing the mash and getting the pH. I sat down then shot up and went to crush the tablet. I typically put half of one in my strike water and the other half in my sparge water... Now that I am fly sparging instead of batch, I guess I have to remember to treat my whole volume. I just need to get my third Keggle back. I dropped it off at a shop to have some work done on it... anyway, I put the whole tablet into my mash tun and then crushed a second one into my sparge water... hopefully it worked out...
Everything else worked out perfectly until the very end. I got my pump all hooked up and I was ready to flow the wort through my plate chiller... for some reason, after I turned it on, nothing was flowing... I thought maybe there was an air pocket inside the motor, so I flushed it out. I thought maybe the elevation of the pump was not at an acceptable level, I thought maybe my false bottom was clogged because I typically use all leaf hops but today I was using pellets. This was also my first time using a false bottom. I typically use a Bazooka Screen in my brew kettle, and I know how pellets can gunk that up and mess up everything... the issue... I forgot to open the outlet valve on the pump... Yup...
So for this batch, I used the BeerSmith suggested profile for my system. I obviously made some edits to the profile but nothing I was not sure of... I ended up with about 7 gallons of wort... I hit my gravity dead on, 1.052... so there's something... I just had way too much volume. I ended up racking some off until there was room in my carboy and then pitching my yeast before bed. I spent a bit of time preparing for my American Wheat Ale, (Category 6D), brew the following day.
Honestly, there isn't much to talk about with the brew for the American Wheat. It was a very calm day, I ate the contents of my Easter Basket; Cascade hop candy, chocolates, a Brubar, and oh, I forgot to add the second half of campden tablet to my sparge water... I need to get my keggle! I never forgot before, but I used to do everything inside when I brewed... well, besides the brewing. I used to get all my water from inside, crush my grain, etc. etc.. etc... Now, I own a food grade hose, i.e. collect all water outside and other things. I guess I need to put it in a more obvious spot. I remembered initially, but oh well... I will get this worked out. Who knows, it may not be an issue. I should get one of those RV filters for my hose... yeah... that will work...
Again, the calculations in BeerSmith were a little bit off. My volume was a little high, but not like the brew before. I missed my gravity by a few points, Target: 1.050 Actual: 1.048 before adding the starter, 1.046-ish after. I'm not worried about it. I'm just looking forward to a nice, easy drinking, wheat beer... that I used 50% wheat in... so glad I had a ton of rice hulls just sitting around.
I guess my next brew is revisiting Category 6: Light Hybrids. On May 3rd, for the AHA's Big Brew Day, I will be brewing a Kölsch, (Category 6C)... or a Kölsch Style Beer... whatever. I'm brewing it! I'm using a Kölsch malt that is made in/around Köln and a yeast from one of the breweries there... Also, GUESS WHAT NOBLE HOPS I'M USING!!! Besides the water, everything is coming from an authentic source... Now lets hope this stands up to the great examples I have had...
<
I'll post back with updates on the beers and also information about the style guidelines for them. In the meantime..
Cheers!
One update about this whole thing, though. I take the Tasting Exam May 17th! That is just a few weeks away... I feel pretty confident about Categories 14 and under. I mean, I can still learn a thing or two about the styles and a lot about the history, but I feel pretty good. 15 through 23, however... I guess some of them are pretty straightforward. For 20-23, essentially you have to know how the ingredients within them affect the base beer. There are some styles within those categories that are all their own, but again, I said I need to study.
I am going to be getting into the categories again, shortly. But for now, I guess this is a good time to start a new goal for my brewing... or at least something I thought about doing. Maybe not a goal, per se. I want to brew at least one beer from every style of the BJCP guidelines. I guess I started with one that a lot of homebrewers do, but for no other reason than at a recent competition I won a 5lb bag of Belma hops from Hops Direct... 5 POUNDS! I can't imagine using it all in a reasonable amount of time, so I may end up giving some away. I went with a Single Hop Belma, American Pale Ale, (Category 10A: Check) to be my first beer... and since I had two empty carboys, I thought that an American Wheat with Belma might also work... only one way to find out, right?
A very clean hop, with a very orange, slight grapefruit, tropical pineapple, strawberry, and melon aroma.This batch is also the first time I had everything right in order to brew on my new system. What was funny about this brewday is that it was the day after "Stouterday". A few of us got together at Bryan's and... well, I think this photo says it better than anyway I could have.
Now imagine that photo with a game of Cards Against Humanity... and Judge Dread... and... well, yeah...
Now that we are past that... I drove home the next morning with a slight headache. It seemed to get worse though when I started brewing. It was never really bad, but it took some coercing of my liver to make it go away...
The brewday started out slow just because I wanted to be sure everything was perfect. I mean, this was my drool stands first major showing. It had to be perfect. I pulled it out a few days earlier to run water through it all. I figured out where I had issues and fixed what I could then. Obviously brewday would present with real life challenges.
Everything was going smooth up until the point when I decided I wanted to Mash In... typical, right? Nothing major happened I just realized that I FORGOT TO PUT IN THE CAMPDEN TABLET! I realized as soon as I finished mixing the mash and getting the pH. I sat down then shot up and went to crush the tablet. I typically put half of one in my strike water and the other half in my sparge water... Now that I am fly sparging instead of batch, I guess I have to remember to treat my whole volume. I just need to get my third Keggle back. I dropped it off at a shop to have some work done on it... anyway, I put the whole tablet into my mash tun and then crushed a second one into my sparge water... hopefully it worked out...
Everything else worked out perfectly until the very end. I got my pump all hooked up and I was ready to flow the wort through my plate chiller... for some reason, after I turned it on, nothing was flowing... I thought maybe there was an air pocket inside the motor, so I flushed it out. I thought maybe the elevation of the pump was not at an acceptable level, I thought maybe my false bottom was clogged because I typically use all leaf hops but today I was using pellets. This was also my first time using a false bottom. I typically use a Bazooka Screen in my brew kettle, and I know how pellets can gunk that up and mess up everything... the issue... I forgot to open the outlet valve on the pump... Yup...
So for this batch, I used the BeerSmith suggested profile for my system. I obviously made some edits to the profile but nothing I was not sure of... I ended up with about 7 gallons of wort... I hit my gravity dead on, 1.052... so there's something... I just had way too much volume. I ended up racking some off until there was room in my carboy and then pitching my yeast before bed. I spent a bit of time preparing for my American Wheat Ale, (Category 6D), brew the following day.
Honestly, there isn't much to talk about with the brew for the American Wheat. It was a very calm day, I ate the contents of my Easter Basket; Cascade hop candy, chocolates, a Brubar, and oh, I forgot to add the second half of campden tablet to my sparge water... I need to get my keggle! I never forgot before, but I used to do everything inside when I brewed... well, besides the brewing. I used to get all my water from inside, crush my grain, etc. etc.. etc... Now, I own a food grade hose, i.e. collect all water outside and other things. I guess I need to put it in a more obvious spot. I remembered initially, but oh well... I will get this worked out. Who knows, it may not be an issue. I should get one of those RV filters for my hose... yeah... that will work...
Again, the calculations in BeerSmith were a little bit off. My volume was a little high, but not like the brew before. I missed my gravity by a few points, Target: 1.050 Actual: 1.048 before adding the starter, 1.046-ish after. I'm not worried about it. I'm just looking forward to a nice, easy drinking, wheat beer... that I used 50% wheat in... so glad I had a ton of rice hulls just sitting around.
I guess my next brew is revisiting Category 6: Light Hybrids. On May 3rd, for the AHA's Big Brew Day, I will be brewing a Kölsch, (Category 6C)... or a Kölsch Style Beer... whatever. I'm brewing it! I'm using a Kölsch malt that is made in/around Köln and a yeast from one of the breweries there... Also, GUESS WHAT NOBLE HOPS I'M USING!!! Besides the water, everything is coming from an authentic source... Now lets hope this stands up to the great examples I have had...
I'll post back with updates on the beers and also information about the style guidelines for them. In the meantime..
Cheers!
20140203
Learning The BJCP: European Amber Lagers
As some of you may know, I'm planning to take the BJCP Tasting Exam in a few months. So, I thought I would share my "hardcore" lead up to that here. Granted, the information that I'm posting is not necessary for the tasting exam but this is the way I learn and it should be helpful to those in the future and to those who just want to learn more about beer. I plan to go into each of the categories, and I will probably make posts on different specific topics. But this is just the start. So, here we go!
European Amber Lagers
Category 3 of the BJCP covers European Amber Lagers. The two Subcategories take you into the world of the Vienna Lager and Oktoberfest/Marzen. I think I may have picked a bad time to start studying, because while it is easy to find a Vienna Lager, I missed out on Oktoberfest season. I know I had some good ones, though.
In short, The Vienna Lager (Category 3A); is a soft, elegant, dark golden to light brown beer with a maltiness that dries out in the finish to avoid becoming sweet, with a nice toasted character. This doesn't really tell you much, but when you think about some that you may have tasted before, it all makes sense. Negra Modelo, Dos Equis Amber, & Samuel Adams Boston Lager are the beers I picked to sample.
The Vienna Lager was first introduced by Anton Dreher after he and, Gabriel Sedlmayer first recognized that there was an actual difference between ale and lager yeast. Though, the Pilsner was the first traditional lager beer.
In the 1830's Dreher produced the first amber lager when he wanted to combine the crispness of a lager with the color of an English Pale Ale. He named the style after the suburb of Vienna where his brewery was located, Schwechater Lagerbier.
As time went on, the Vienna Lager style started to die off. They say that it went entirely extinct in Europe after World War I. Immigration kept the beer alive elsewhere. As brewers were moving to the United States, they brought with them the styles that they were accustomed to and made necessary changes to incorporate local ingredients. Due to the number of brewers established in the North and Midwest, the brewers carrying this style decided to go South; some into Mexico, Central, and South America. At this time refrigeration was a real thing and it made industrialization and brewing lager beer more accessible.
Prohibition killed the style in the United States, but it did not effect the Mexican culture surrounded by this beer. It even became a traditional part of their culture. Over time though, some examples of the style began to see the use of adjuncts.
The characteristics of this style that should be noted while judging a Vienna Lager are:
Oktoberfest & Marzen
Everyone always asks why Oktoberfest (Category 3B), is held in September, so I thought I would go into that a little bit to start.
The first Oktoberfest was October 12th, 1810. It was held as a celebration to Crown Prince Ludwig and his marriage to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildurghausen. The celebration went on almost annually. In 1819 it was declared that it would be held annually. They extended the total time of the festival and bumped the dates up a couple of weeks to take advantage of the better weather in late September and early October. There were some years where it was cancelled due to war or disease, but it held on strong over time and is now probably the biggest beer festival in existence.
Marzen was a German term that classifies any strong, "keeping" beer, that is brewed in March and stored for the length of the summer. Marzen and Oktoberfest are now essentially one in the same. The Oktoberfest style is defined as, "Smooth, clean, and rather rich, with a depth of malt character. This is one of the classic malty styles, with a maltiness that is often described as soft, complex, and elegant but never cloying."
Marzen is what was thought be served at the original Oktoberfest celebration and throughout the time until Josef Sedlmayr, in 1871, first created the beer. It is unknown if he originally intended for this beer to be used at the festival, but it was sold there and became extremely popular. Other breweries began to brew the Oktoberfest style and further increased its popularity. By technicality, only beers brewed by Munich breweries can be called Oktoberfest and all others must indicate that it is just in such style.
This is an Oktoberfest, I promise.
The characteristics of this style that should be noted while judging a Oktoberfest are:
If you are studying for this exam and you have any questions, or need help, please let me know! I have quite a few resources I am using that I can share. It may even help me along in the process!
Two good sources for information are the Upstate New York Homebrewers Association, and of course, the Beer Judge Certification Program's Website.
Next Up: You Will See.
Cheers!
Category 3 of the BJCP covers European Amber Lagers. The two Subcategories take you into the world of the Vienna Lager and Oktoberfest/Marzen. I think I may have picked a bad time to start studying, because while it is easy to find a Vienna Lager, I missed out on Oktoberfest season. I know I had some good ones, though.
In short, The Vienna Lager (Category 3A); is a soft, elegant, dark golden to light brown beer with a maltiness that dries out in the finish to avoid becoming sweet, with a nice toasted character. This doesn't really tell you much, but when you think about some that you may have tasted before, it all makes sense. Negra Modelo, Dos Equis Amber, & Samuel Adams Boston Lager are the beers I picked to sample.
The Vienna Lager was first introduced by Anton Dreher after he and, Gabriel Sedlmayer first recognized that there was an actual difference between ale and lager yeast. Though, the Pilsner was the first traditional lager beer.
In the 1830's Dreher produced the first amber lager when he wanted to combine the crispness of a lager with the color of an English Pale Ale. He named the style after the suburb of Vienna where his brewery was located, Schwechater Lagerbier.
As time went on, the Vienna Lager style started to die off. They say that it went entirely extinct in Europe after World War I. Immigration kept the beer alive elsewhere. As brewers were moving to the United States, they brought with them the styles that they were accustomed to and made necessary changes to incorporate local ingredients. Due to the number of brewers established in the North and Midwest, the brewers carrying this style decided to go South; some into Mexico, Central, and South America. At this time refrigeration was a real thing and it made industrialization and brewing lager beer more accessible.
Prohibition killed the style in the United States, but it did not effect the Mexican culture surrounded by this beer. It even became a traditional part of their culture. Over time though, some examples of the style began to see the use of adjuncts.
Dos Equis Amber
The characteristics of this style that should be noted while judging a Vienna Lager are:
Aroma: Moderately rich German malt, light toasted character, low to no Noble hop aroma, clean lager character, i.e. no yeast character, and THE AROMA OF CARAMEL IS INAPPROPRIATE.*NOTE*: These are the baseline characteristics for the style. There is room for variation but you must also know what is inappropriate. Read into, and understand, the guidelines. Not only the guidelines.
Appearance: Light reddish amber to copper color, brilliant clarity, & large, off-white, persistent head.
Flavor: Soft, elegant malt complexity. A toasted character but no roast or caramel flavors. A firm enough hop bitterness to provide a balanced finish. Low to no Noble hop flavor. No Fermentation Characteristics. Fairly Dry Finish with both malt and hop bitterness present in the aftertaste. There should be no other flavor characteristics.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light to medium body, moderate carbonation, slight alcohol warmth is ok, a gentle creaminess, no astringency, smooth with a moderately crisp finish.
Everyone always asks why Oktoberfest (Category 3B), is held in September, so I thought I would go into that a little bit to start.
The first Oktoberfest was October 12th, 1810. It was held as a celebration to Crown Prince Ludwig and his marriage to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildurghausen. The celebration went on almost annually. In 1819 it was declared that it would be held annually. They extended the total time of the festival and bumped the dates up a couple of weeks to take advantage of the better weather in late September and early October. There were some years where it was cancelled due to war or disease, but it held on strong over time and is now probably the biggest beer festival in existence.
Marzen was a German term that classifies any strong, "keeping" beer, that is brewed in March and stored for the length of the summer. Marzen and Oktoberfest are now essentially one in the same. The Oktoberfest style is defined as, "Smooth, clean, and rather rich, with a depth of malt character. This is one of the classic malty styles, with a maltiness that is often described as soft, complex, and elegant but never cloying."
Marzen is what was thought be served at the original Oktoberfest celebration and throughout the time until Josef Sedlmayr, in 1871, first created the beer. It is unknown if he originally intended for this beer to be used at the festival, but it was sold there and became extremely popular. Other breweries began to brew the Oktoberfest style and further increased its popularity. By technicality, only beers brewed by Munich breweries can be called Oktoberfest and all others must indicate that it is just in such style.
Aroma: Moderately rich German malt, light to moderate toasted character, NO HOP AROMA, clean lager character, i.e. no yeast character, and THE AROMA OF CARAMEL IS INAPPROPRIATE.*NOTE*: These are the baseline characteristics for the style. There is room for variation but you must also know what is inappropriate. Read into, and understand, the guidelines. Not only the guidelines.
Appearance: Dark gold to deep orange-red color, brilliant clarity, & large, off-white, persistent head.
Flavor: Initial malty sweetness, distinctive and complex maltiness often includes a toasted aspect. Hop bitterness is moderate, and noble hop flavor is low to none. Clean lager character with no diacetyl or fruity esters. Balance is toward malt, though the finish is not sweet, moderately dry. NOTICEABLE CARAMEL OR ROASTED FLAVORS ARE INAPPROPRIATE.
Mouthfeel: Medium body, medium carbonation, creamy texture, and smooth. Fully fermented, without a cloying finish.
If you are studying for this exam and you have any questions, or need help, please let me know! I have quite a few resources I am using that I can share. It may even help me along in the process!
Two good sources for information are the Upstate New York Homebrewers Association, and of course, the Beer Judge Certification Program's Website.
Next Up: You Will See.
Cheers!
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