Category Archives: Homebrew

2011 – The year in Beer

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

So, another year is in the books, which means another hour spent on New Year’s Day employing my children to sort and count the bottle caps collected from the previous year. As always, these simply represent every bottle of beer opened in the Nelson household during the previous year, regardless of who consumed them (though the vast, vast majority was me).

Total caps: 490

Breweries Represented: 28

Breweries with more than 10 caps (and % of total):

Schlafly – 17.8%

Firestone Walker/Nectar Ales – 12.4%

Budvar – 9.4%

Stone – 8%

Homebrew – 7.3%

Founder’s – 5.9%

Bell’s (all Two-Hearted) – 4.9%

Weihenstephaner (all Festbier) – 4.9%

Goose Island – 4.9%

Moosehead – 4.5%

Odell – 4%

Capital – 3.2%

Sierra Nevada – 2.2%

As “interesting” as these raw numbers are, I must add a few points for context. First, thanks to the generosity of Portland-bound friends Zac and Kate Duncan, I returned to the privileged class of people with kegerators, when Zac and Kate donated theirs to my cause.  Since that point, I’ve enjoyed the following:

1/4 bbl of Odell St. Lupulin

2 – 1/4 bbls of Odell IPA (2d keg in progress)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Urban Chestnut Zwickel (which lasted all of 7 days during the worst of this hateful summer’s heat)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Founder’s Red’s Rye

1 – 1/6 bbl of homebrew (still in progress)

So, taking the kegs into account,  Odell was far and away the most consumed brewery this year, basically tripling Schlafly. I’m very much in love with Odell’s IPA, and their St. Lupulin and (incredibly boringly named) Red Ale, all of which meld a serious punch of hop aroma and flavor, with a velvety malt load that just works for my palate. Founder’s also would get a significant bump, and Urban Chestnut would jump into the ranking.

Also missing from the above numbers are canned craft beer. I know I went through a couple of 12 packs of Capital Supper Club (thanks, Annie!) , and several (4, 5, 6?) six packs of Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I just did a crap job (read – no attempt at all) to track those this year. Sorry to the fine folks at Capital (who’d be finer if they distributed to St. Louis!) and Ska. Love your beers, but caps are easier to keep than cans.

Finally, I feel a need to explain the Moosehead entry. I grew up in Michigan, and, during college, Canadian beer was cheap.  Really cheap. In fact, when I moved to St. Louis, a case of Moosehead bottles at the store where I worked would set you back all of $12, and it was the most expensive of the Big 3 Canadian brands. When we were too flush with cash for bottom tier stuff like Weidemann’s, Beast or Schaefer (all at about $5 a case), but not spendy enough for craft, we went Canadian.

So, the summer of 2012 went through a rather oppressive phase. This isn’t uncommon (especially for someone from Michigan), but I was desperate for a beer I could chill and swill. I had been reading some mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during this period, many of which featured Canadian beer prominently. This triggered a nostalgic craving for some basic Canadian suds. Moosehead being the freshest of those at the Schnuck’s, I went with it. And enjoyed it. I might even do it again.

Previous years are here:

2010

2009

2008

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The Year in Bottled Beer Drinking – 2010

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

As always, my children were put to work on New Year’s Day sorting and counting the bottlecaps I have collected over the previous year.  For those who are new to this game, I collect the caps from every bottle opened for drinking at my house and keep them in a big jar.  This includes bottles opened by guests, at parties, etc. and were not all consumed by me!

2010 was my first full year without a kegerator, which definitely boosted the number of caps (I also kept track of cans in a spreadsheet and these are included in the numbers below).  The total for the year was 756 beers consumed.  The brewery breakdown is as follows for all breweries that had ten or more beers consumed:

Homebrew – 16.1%

Schlafly – 15.3%

Bell’s – 8.2% (over 2/3 was Two-Hearted)

Ska – 7.1%

Budvar – 5.5%

Weihenstephaner – 4.6% (all Festbier)

Sierra Nevada – 4.1%

Founder’s – 3.7% (all Red’s Rye, except for a single Breakfast Stout)

Capital – 3.6%

Big Sky – 3.4%

Lagunitas – 2.5%

Southern Tier – 2.2%

Ayinger – 2.1% (all but two were Oktoberfest)

New Glarus – 2.1%

Odell – 2.1% (all St. Lupulin)

New Belgium – 1.4%

Tallgrass – 1.4%

Pedantic aside:  Jolly Pumpkin likely would have made the list, near the bottom, but their caps are plain.  This year, I’ll be sure to identify them myself.

2010 was definitely the Year of Beer for me.  For whatever reason, my wine consumption was much lower than normal, and whisky was negligible until the last couple of months of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see homebrew already taking the quantity crown since I only resumed brewing part way through the year.  I expect its lead to increase in 2011 as I’ve been brewing regularly, and, apparently, drinking my homebrew regularly as well (that hasn’t always been the case).  In 2011, I’ll be shooting for better balance between beer, wine and whisky, and overall lower consumption.

Oh, and hey Capital! You see that you clocked in at #9 overall when you’re not distributed within  250 miles of my house? Please get a distributor in St. Louis.  I’m far from the only one who would buy a lot, as we have a severe craft lager deficit!  My consumption of Budvar would disappear if I could get Capital Pilsner here.  Thanks.

Previous Years are here:

2009

2008

Pedantic aside: My kegerator was up and running during ’08 and ’09, so the bottled numbers are much lower than this year.

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I love homebrewing. Again.

Posted on August 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve been at this homebrewing business for a long time, starting in January of 1994.  Throughout that period there have been hiatuses, and then there has been my most recent hiatus.  Every couple of years it’s not been uncommon for me to go six months without a batch, but there’s been nothing like this last one.

The cause was my late, lamented kegerator.  While I initially planned to have 2 kegs of homebrew and one of commercial beer, it quickly became 2 of commercial and one of homebrew, and then not soon after, all commercial beer.  Keg beer was such a bargain that stopping brewing didn’t bother me that much.  As a result, I brewed all of about 6 batches during my kegerator’s existence, and two of those were teaching other people to brew, rather than for personal consumption.

But once the kegerator died last December I quickly tired of paying 6 pack prices for 100% of my beer consumption.  I love craft beer, and it’s worth the money without doubt, but, frankly, I don’t have enough money to pay retail for my desired level of beer consumption.  So, in May of this year I decided to resume brewing.

Atypical for myself, I was cautious, opting (for the first time ever) to brew two kits from Northern Brewer (albeit with minor upping of the hops and lowering of ETOH) to see if I could really stick with it – especially since I’d now be bottling (it had been at least a decade), rather than kegging or using Party Pigs.

When these went well and the results were good enough to order some bulk malt from Missouri Malt, I again managed to go conservative and work with only three grains (a sack of American 2 row, 5 lbs. of CaraPils and 15 lbs. of raw wheat) and four hops (Citra, Centennial, Columbus and Magnum), and focus on brewing what forms the bulk of my consumption – hoppy, session strength (4.5% ish) beers.  Historically, I’ve brewed these well, and if I could move the bulk of my beer drinking to homebrew, I’d have cash enough to buy the lagers and sours needed to satiate my other beer cravings.

This has worked better than expected.  Having a limited selection is generating some great creativity, and I’ve almost finished the first sack of base malt and the CaraPils, killed the Citra hops and am down to just a bit of the others.   It’s also very freeing not to have hundreds of pounds of grain lurking in the basement, hoping that I’ll get off my fat ass and put them to use before they go bad.

I now have a sack of floor-malted Maris Otter on the way  , as well as a hops reload (more Citra, and some East Kent Goldings and Styrian Goldings for turning that MO into some classic bitters), and couldn’t be more excited.  The best proof, however, is that the homebrew is disappearing as quickly as it’s ready:

Here is one of the last pints of my summer sipper just before going to fulfill its destiny as a tasty, refreshing, hoppy delight. And here’s to homebrewing at full speed once again. It’s nice to be back, and, more importantly, to be enjoying both the process and the produce.

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A surprisingly successful tasting

Posted on August 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last Saturday I hosted a brewday and beer tasting for my church.  The brewday was fine (a very hoppy APAish beer with my new love – a 2:1:1 hop combo of Citra/Centennial/Columbus as finishing and dry hops), but the tasting went really well.  Beer experience of the tasters varied so I eschewed discussion of style and instead created four flights as follows:

Malty:  Capital Brewery Supper Club; Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat (hate the name, but it’s quite good); Goose Island Night Stalker

Hoppy: Budvar; Odell St. Lupulin; Southern Tier 2XIPA

Homebrew (wouldn’t normally subject people to these, but they asked): IPA; Kölsch; Batch 3 (a very hoppy, session strength thing with 1/3 unmalted wheat)

Sour: Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere (about a year in the cellar); New Glarus Belgian Red (about 3 years in the cellar); 2006 New Belgium La Folie

The Aftermath

The idea of the first two flights was to explore differing intensities and expressions of the core flavor and aroma components of beer.  The hop flight, in particular, was designed to showcase the aroma and flavor of hops, rather than their bitterness.  The sour flight was designed simply to show the tasters that these beers existed, and to walk them through the intensity level (the ’06 La Folie is incredibly sour at this point – more than young Cantillon to my palate).  It was great to see people really get the idea of the tasting.  As a companion, I prepared a sheet of other beers similar to those tasted so if a taster liked, say Night Stalker, they’d have a handy of list of other options available in the local market to try.

Not surprisingly, Supper Club was a big hit with everyone.  It’s just such a terrific example of what classic “American beer” can be.  Many people couldn’t get past the name of Buffalo Sweat (heads-up Tallgrass!), despite it being a really lovely rich, malty session stout. The Night Stalker definitely impressed, but folks questioned the ability to finish a bottle, even when shared with someone else.

People had a bit more difficulty with the hoppy flight, where flavors stepped a bit more out of the norm.  Surprising to me, the most universally popular was the 2XIPA which, is a very nice Double IPA, but still packs a much more intense hop load than the others in the flight (it was bottled only a week prior to the tasting).  People appreciated its excellent malt/hop balance (relatively speaking), and guzzled it with gusto.  Lots dug the St. Lupulin too, a beer for which I have great admiration, having put my money where my mouth is and purchased over two cases of it this Summer.  I was not expecting the Budvar to be the most polarizing, but it was.  This was relatively fresh, and well cared for (The Wine & Cheese Place keeps it cold in a cooler with no lights on), and the combination of substantial spicy/grassy Saaz over a relatively light body was too much hop for some.  Others adored it, of course, but I was not expecting the negative reactions.

The biggest surprise was the sour flight.  I believe it was wise for me to preface this flight with the caveat that these should not be approached as “beer” but as their own thing.  Most got this, and the Bam Biere was a huge hit – perhaps the tasters’ favorite of the whole tasting.  This one had been cellared for about a year, though the batch is still available on local shelves too – so you can buy it “pre-cellared.”  Do open it over the sink as it’s a gusher at this point.  It is a spine-shiveringly complex beer at this stage.

The Belgian Red had its adherents too, but the most critical remarks were not over the sourness (which at three years, is gorgeously well-balanced), but rather the Ludens-like character of the cherry.  Knowing that New Glarus uses a ton of top-quality fresh cherries, I’m at a loss to explain the aroma though I must admit that it doesn’t bother me.  Though the fact that I frequently selected boxes of Luden’s Wild Cherry cough drops when given my choice of “candy” may explain that.

Finally, the La Folie was more a pleasure to smell than to taste.  Undoubtedly complex, the sour character is just too much for all but a couple of tasters, who are limited to just a single pour by the intensity.  I am in agreement with them that it is a world class combo of aroma and taste, but one that I can’t manage more than a glass of without reaching for the Tums.

We warned him!

Paul Tasting La Folie for the 1st time

Paul agrees that La Folie is sour!

Overall, it was a great day, and I expect that St. Louis has got a few more drinkers who are going to be reaching out into a wider circle of craft beer choices.  Mission accomplished.

Lots of people said my homebrews were excellent, but I personally think they were half-loaded on Night Stalker and 2XIPA.  Honestly, I love my #3 – got just what I wanted with that one – light, 4.5% and hoppy as hell, and the Kölsch that I brewed for a friend’s birthday was really tasty and to style (used some of the Kölsch malt from Northern Brewer and lagered it for six weeks).

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Homebrewing Update

Posted on June 8, 2010 | 3 Comments

If you check out the “What Am I Drinking” page, you’ll have noticed the appearance of more and more “homebrew” entries under the beer section.  Since I resumed brewing activities a couple of months ago, I’ve knocked out three batches.  The first two were kits from Northern Brewer – something I’ve never brewed before, having previously always created my own recipes (even my first batch ever back in 1994!).  But, I wasn’t inclined to drop coin for sacks of malts and pounds of hops before I was sure I could stick with it, particularly since I’d be bottling – a task I remembered as heinous when I dropped it back in 1996 or so.

First up was their Three-Hearted kit, an all-Centennial hopped American IPA inspired by Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (probably my favorite beer ever).   I could not resist making a couple of tweaks – dropping the initial gravity to a more manageable 1.060, and using all of the hops in the kit by upping the dry hop amount.  I also did the ferment with some way past expiration Safale US-05 (like two years past . . .), which worked just fine, thank you very much.  I’m quite pleased with the result, and only have about a third of the batch left to drink.  I started drinking it too soon – the classic first batch of homebrew problem, and initial bottles were quite green, but it’s now drinking quite well.

Next was Northern Brewer’s Extra Pale Ale kit, inspired (I assume) by Summit‘s outstanding Extra Pale Ale.  I also tweaked the dry-hopping on this one, adding an ounce of Amarillo.  This one is still a touch green, so I’ve not fully formed an opinion on it yet.  Also fermented with a way out of date packet of US-05.  It’s alright so far, but I’m hoping it will continue to improve.

The most recent batch was the first wholly personal recipe of the great brewing restart of 2010.  I’m most excited by the fact that I’ve decided to utterly eschew styles in my recipe construction for a while (i.e. until it becomes boring).  This one is a mix of two row, raw wheat (about 30%) and a bit of carapils to 1.050, bittered with Columbus, with flameout additions of Citra, Centennial and Columbus, and fermented with a fresh satchel of US-05.  Everything apart from the yeast came from Kent at Missouri Malt Supply – a great local source for top quality brewing ingredients at virtually wholesale prices that evolved from homebrewers getting together to order full pallets from various malt suppliers.  I dry-hopped this beer last night with 30 grams of Citra, and 15 each of Columbus and Centennial.  I plan to leave it on the dry hops for 10 days and then package.  I’m very excited about the interplay of the citrus (duh) notes of the Citra with the raw wheat.

I’m also pleasantly surprised to find that I don’t mind bottling at all.  The key has been a repurposed tupperware tub that I previously used to hold sacks of grain.  It conveniently holds about 30 12 ounce bottles, meaning that sanitizing the bottles is a matter of about a half hour of work, rather than the hours I recall.  Add a spring-loaded bottle filler, and bottling is done in about an hour total.  Not too much longer than kegging used to take.

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New Excitement for Brewing

Posted on March 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Two forces have converged to really motivate me to pick up the mash paddle again after a really slow pace over the past 15 months or so.  Having brewed since 1994, I know that enthusiasm ebbs and flows, but this has been one of my longer (though not the longest) periods of low activity.

The prime driver for my rekindled flame was an interview I did with a Wash U. grad student about homebrewing last week.  I met Antonio via introduction by Schlafly‘s Stephen Hale at the pick-up location for Fair Shares, our local CCSA, of which Antonio and I are both members.  Talking about why I got into brewing in the first place, and my philosophy on designing beers got the creative juices flowing.

The clincher was a sudden realization of how much money I was spending on beer since the demise of my kegerator.  I was recently very excited that Founder’s Red’s Rye was on sale for $7.49 a six pack, which is a fine retail price. But, that’s still $30 a case. I’ve never brewed to save money, but I know I can brew beer for half that or less, and my beer is pretty damn good.

The only mitigating element on this enthusiasm is the realization that I’ll be back to bottling my homebrew. I haven’t bottled since 1996 or so.  First there were Party Pigs (which I always had excellent luck with) and then corny kegs. Unfortunately, with no kegerator and no dedicated beer fridge, there’s room for neither in our regular gotta-hold-stuff-for-a-family-of-four fridge.  So, bottles it is, despite memories of what a pain in the ass it is.

This coming Sunday, weather permitting, should be my first non-teaching homebrewing session in about a year.  I’m excited that I’ll be drinking homebrew again in about a month!

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A first for me.

Posted on August 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

I just picked up two new kegs from Dylan at 33 last night, which means that I have three commercial beers in the kegerator for the first time ever.  The initial plan was to split the kegerator space between commercial and home brew, but I have just not had the motivation/time/dedication/energy to brew for 9 months now – and I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it again.

I actually brewed yesterday, and had a great time with my friend Kevin (and his friend Darryl) teaching them how to brew using the all-grain method.  But, teaching is different than doing, and I was very happy to leave Kevin’s house when we were done and pick up my two sixth barrels (a bit more than 5 gallons in a 1/6 bbl) of already finished delicious brew.  I had been trying to guilt myself into brewing something, but finally decided it just wasn’t going to work.

In light of my last post, I decided that adding a third commercial keg would help me cut down on bottled beer purchases, as I would have a nice variety available on draft.  I still have some Pride & Joy from Three Floyds, which is a hoppy American Pale Ale, so I chose to add a nice lager – New Belgium’s Blue Paddle Pilsener – and something dark – New Holland’s excellent oatmeal stout, The Poet.  While a dark beer might seem an odd choice for Summer (98F today!), this one is modest in alcohol, and has flavors that compliment a lot that we eat during the Summer.  I find many darker beers work very well with grilled food and a lot of Mexican, and TexMex things.  In fact, I’ve often thought that a Mexican restaurant looking to dip a toe into craft beer would do very well to add a tap for New Belgium’s 1554, which is just a terrific food beer.

I’m excited to tap these later today and get to work on improving my discipline – practice, practice, practice!

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Back to brewing.

Posted on August 27, 2008 | 3 Comments

I was burned out on brewing this Spring.  I just didn’t want to.  I had no inspiration to come up with recipes, and the thought of all of the cleaning and waiting and watching filled me with potential frustration.  I could look weeks into the future and see no time when I was willing (let alone wanted to) ask my family to give me a six hour block of time to brew.  So I took a break.  Without guilt.

Now, I’ve been brewing for a long time now – 14 years this past January – so I’ve taken breaks before.  But, I’ve never really managed to do it guilt-free.  I always felt at least a little bad.  Ingredients sitting around, liquid yeast getting further and further from its production date – it was like a time bomb ticking!  Not this time.  I knew the brewing urge would come back.  I just needed to patient and enjoy the break my mind was telling me I needed.

I did brew one time with a friend (hi, Dave!).  For the past two years our church youth group has held a silent auction to help raise funds for their various mission trips.  Each year, I’ve donated two lots – a teach someone to homebrew day, and a wine tasting for 8 with food.  Last year’s winner of the homebrew day still hasn’t set up a time (I haven’t forgotten, Paul), but I had a really great time brewing with this year’s winner.  To take someone through the process provided great perspective for me.  It really got me excited about brewing again.

So, with the holiday weekend coming up, I finally have the time, and I’m feeling the inspiration.  My brew kettle will be fired up again.  Since I have an open spot in the kegerator right now, I’m going to go with something I can turn around pretty quickly – probably a nice, hoppy, sessionable APA.  I can’t wait!

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Three’s company.

Posted on April 14, 2008 | 5 Comments

Well, I did it. I added a third tap to the kegerator. It didn’t cost much, and boy am I loving it. Having a commercial beer and a homebrew on tap was great, but more choice (I can do any combination of commercial or homebrew between the taps) is even better. Right now I’ve got two commercial beers (Reissdorf Koelsch and Schlafly Oatmeal Stout) and one homebrew (a low gravity session ale of very mixed breeding, but good aroma and taste) on, and that gives me enough of a selection that I’m not tempted to cheat and buy bottles to supplement my options. That fact that my checkbook is still stinging from buying two kegs in one trip may have something to do with that, I’m sure . . . .

So, why now?  Well, word on the street is that the excellent Ventmatic faucets are disappearing from the marketplace again, as a result of some litigation over the relevant patents.  I love these faucets and wanted to grab a third one that matched my other two before they were gone.  Once that financial hurdle is overcome, it’s really not much of a question whether one should spend the additional $20 to get the bits needed to make that shiny new third faucet active or whether you should just stash it away on a shelf until “later.”  So, I spent about 5 minutes with a hole saw and a wrench, and voila!  Three draft options where there were once only two.  I also took a suggestion I read about online for an inexpensive drip tray, and promptly converted a $12 stainless steel 12″ mud pan from Home Depot to a much higher purpose.  I’ll post a picture of the completed kegerator soon.

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I’ve gone draft!

Posted on March 23, 2007 | 1 Comment

The rumours are true. I am finally converting my beer fridge to have two draft beers available. This entails drilling a couple of holes in the door, and installing some gadgetry. I decided to do things right, and stumped up the extra couple of dollars to order most stuff from the industry leader, Micromatic. They were incredibly responsive and helpful in getting me just what I need (or at least I hope so). I’ve gone with all stainless steel parts, as hoppy beers are supposed to have a negative impact on brass over the years. I also stumped up the extra for some Shirron (formerly Ventmatic) forward seal faucets.

I’ve spent a good deal of today dealing with various importers, distributors, brewers and retailers trying to find out what tasty treats are available to fill my new system. It’s a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, but it seems Jake at 33 Wine Shop & Tasting Room will come through big time once again and help me out.

In addition to being able to dispense commercial beer, I also picked up a used Corny keg from Northern Brewer to try the draft system on my homebrew. Normally, I use party pigs, and have for a long time, as they mimic quite nicely the qualities of real ale, something I’m rather passionate about. I’ll see how I like draft, particularly for my lager beers.

The equipment should be here next week. We’ll see how long it takes me to get it up and running.

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