Brewing With Bugs

My first experience with a sour Flanders Red Ale was at The National Geographic Museum in DC. Michael Jackson was our host and he had arranged for Rodenbach Foederbier to be on the menu for the evening. At the time, I didn't realize how lucky we were. Foederbier is only available at De Zalm, the brewery's cafe in Roeselare, West Flanders, dispensed by hand-pump. What I did realize was that these are incredible beers. Since that night I've been fascinated with the idea of trying to replicate one at home.

It was last spring that I came across several presentations by Raj Apte. In them he discusses, among other things, the oxygen permeability of various materials and comparisons of surface area exposure in various barrel sizes. One of his conclusions is that the small (5, 10, 15 gal) wood barrels used by homebrewers expose way too much surface area to the wood, relative to barrel volume. He set out to replicate, as closely as possible, the exposure experienced while aging in a 10,000 to 60,000 liter tun. His method? A toasted oak stopper.


So, there it is in all it's lumpy, fuzzy, glory. The fuzz is the pellicle from the bacteria and yes, it's supposed to do that. Yummy. The grain bill is primarily Pilsner malt built up with Vienna, Munich, and various Belgian malts. Traditionally, stale hops are used to impart the natural preservative nature, but none of the bittering qualities of the flower. I used a small quantity of low aa% hops that should get lost in the other flavors of the beer. I started fermentation with a very neutral yeast, then added Wyeast Roeselare Ale blend (#3763) which, as I understand it, is a combination of yeasts, including brettanomyces, and a blend of lambic bacteria cultures. It's been sitting there since August and will continue to sit until February or until it's oaky enough. Then the stopper comes out and I affix a regular airlock, and it sits until next August, or until it's sour enough, before bottling.

Cheers!

Kolsch

My sister's wedding is right around the corner and she came to me with a dilemma. She and I both brew and our tastes, while not favoring any style in particular, stay as far away from your run-of-the-mill, American, mass-produced beers as possible. We had planned to brew all the beer for the reception and make soda for the kids. Her problem was that her fiancée requested a "Coors Light-type" beer for his friends and family.

What beer tastes good, but is delicate enough to not offend the tastes of the light beer crowd?

Kolsch.

From the BJCP: "A clean, crisp, delicately balanced beer usually with very subtle fruit flavors and aromas. Subdued maltiness throughout leads to a pleasantly refreshing tang in the finish. To the untrained taster easily mistaken for a light lager, a somewhat subtle pilsner, or perhaps a blonde ale." Sounds perfect.

For a 5 gallon batch:
93% Pilsner Malt
5.5% Wheat Malt
1.5% Munich Malt
Hallertauer hops(60 min) 21.1 IBU
Hallertauer hops(5 min) 1.4 IBU
WLP029 Yeast

Mash: 149F, 70 min
Mash out: 168F, 10 min

OG: 1.046
FG: 1.011

Fermentation:
10 days, 65F
25 days, 35F

Carbonated to 2.5 volumes

The finished beer, while not fully carbonated yet, is delicious! It's a crystal clear pale yellow, has a subtle fruity aroma, a slight sweetness on the tongue, and finishes dry and crisp. It's not Coors Light (thank heavens), but I think they'll like it.

Time Flies...

...whether you're having fun or not. Believe me, I was not. I had another of those home remodeling/repair surprises kick me in the teeth. I pulled up the nasty carpet on the stairs back at the beginning of November. I figured it would be relatively easy to strip the glue and old finish and then refinish the wood, much like I did on most of the first floor. Long story short...I finished building a new stair case the other day. You can stop reading here if you only like short stories.

The wood under the carpet was so dry and brittle that I could pull most of the treads apart with nothing but my hands. Several treads were broken and I am really surprised that no one had fallen through them. I replaced the worst of the treads with what I had on hand then went off to purchase proper oak treads to replace all of the old ones. It's important to note at this point that my house is old. It was built in 1900 and back then, 1 inch = 1 inch. See where this is going?

No?

Alright, the original stairs were made of 1 inch oak treads and risers mounted on a triple stringer. Moulding was cut from 1" by 12" by x' oak boards to fit precisely along both sides of the staircase, covering the seam where the edges of each step meet the walls, and capped with a nicely milled piece of trim. The result is a very neat and finished look. For whatever reason, today's lumber is smaller than the specified size would have you believe. For example, a 2x4 stud is really only something like 1 3/4" by 3 1/2". Weird. So, the 1" by 10" boards I needed to make the stair treads only measured 3/4" by 9 1/2"...not big enough. This also meant I would have a bigger gap than originally between the tread and the moulding.

So, I had to buy 1" by 12" oak lumber, cut it to size, add a nice round edge with the router, stain, poly, and install 11 steps with spacers to make up for the old inch/new inch difference, and add new painted risers. I also installed new oak flooring on the landing. What a pain in the ass. The only thing left is to touch up the nail holes, put a fresh coat of paint on the risers, and either restore the original woodwork, if that's possible after my less than gentle demolition of the old stairs, or cut all new and try to match a modern stain/varnish combo to the color of 100-year old varnish. (>_<)

Bikes and Beers

I actually got dirt under my wheels this weekend! Saturday was the 2nd Annual Bootlegger's Bliss...a day of good rides, good eats, and plenty of home-brewed beers. Props to Steve over at Wrench In The Gears for putting it all together this time around.

This year the Bliss brought 15-20 of us together at Rosaryville State Park. I can't believe that I lived in the DC area for nearly 10 years and this was the first time I got out there to ride. Big mistake, this place is a hoot. Riderx describes it best as a "dirt rollercoaster."

We set out as one group, most of us on singlespeeds. The SSO Factory Team quickly left me in the dust, but the trail provided enough distractions in the form of various log stunts, that they were never out of sight for too long.

Once the ride was done, we moved on to the food and beers. There were a lot of great beers on hand: IPAs, double IPAs, porters, stouts, tripels, maibock, dunkel, and more. As good as they all were, I'd have to name ShivaSteve's Vanilla Bourbon Porter as my favorite of the day: a great porter with a slight bourbon oakiness, and just a hint of vanilla...very nice.

Of course, the alcohol brought out the silliness, first in the form of fixed-gear trials on a picnic table followed by several rounds in the derby. Ouch!

All in all, a great day. Any day in the saddle is a great day, but when you can share the time with a group of like-minded folks, it only makes it that much better. There was already talk of where and when next year's Bliss will be held. I'm looking forward to it. I've got a Flanders Red aging in the basement that should be good to go by next November and I'm working up an American Amber or Brown recipe...gotta prove to some of the guys that I'm not afraid of the hops. :)

Goodbye To A Friend

Glad to have known you.
7/7/94-10/30/07

New Kayak

The new boat is finally done. I say finally, because it's been a long time coming. It's been nearly 18 months on this one. I knew it would be on the market when finished and I lost motivation to get her done. I really don't want to see her go, but it's for sale. It's a CLC Chesapeake 16LT. They are wonderfully versatile boats. I use mine regularly on local flat water and have even launched into chest-high surf on several occasions.

She is of okoume (African Mahogany) plywood construction completely sheathed in layers of fiberglass fabric and epoxy. All hull seams have 3" fiberglass tape reinforcement internally. The hull is painted with marine polyurethane and the deck is bright finished with marine varnish. Watertight bulkheads and hatches, deck rigging, and adjustable footbraces installed. Included, but not installed: thigh braces, back band, and foam seat.

Details
Length: 15' 8"
Beam: 23"
Depth: 12"
cockpit size: 31"x17"
Weight: ~42 lbs
Knee height: 11.5"
Max shoe size (men's): 10
Recommended paddler weight: 100-150lbs (I comfortably paddle mine at 155lbs)
Max payload: 220lbs

Hat Trick Ale

I rolled out the tripel for it's first official tasting this weekend. It's been laying down for a couple of months now and I was looking forward to getting some feedback. A good friend who is probably the one person most responsible for introducing me to good beer had this to say: "Holy sh*t, you made this? Wow...this is great!" Glad to hear others think it's as good as I do. :)