Back from "The Big Island"

So I'm back and heavier one more member (and a permanent one at that) for the Woodland Creek chapter. I'm sitting here enjoying a Cohiba and Sam Adams 2005 Chocolate Bock with my new wife and I'll have to admit it's, OK. Only problem is that I had to do laundry and the lawn before I got to this point, which is fine if the beer and stogies are going to be this good. On last Wednesday I got to try Mehana Volcano Red Ale. All of Mehana Brewing Company's beers are labeled on-island and distributed there. Much like Kona's beers, they use fresh naturally filtered water that started out as rainwater and traveled down 30 miles of black volcanic stone (puna). Overall, the beer was okay, it was free at the time, but mainland beers really don't have anything to worry about.

TnDc Field trip #12

Today we rented a Jeep and headed to the southern most US point, Ka Lae. This is where the trade winds meet the island chain of Hawaii and the wind blows at 20-30mph ALL the time! On the way back we stopped in Kailua-Kona and the brewery was closed for Kona Brewing Company to have the floors refinished, which is like the only day of the year they are closed, but we still managed a tour with Randy. It's a nice setup with 10K gallons ALL kegged and distributed for HI only. They tried bottling there and couldn't keep up with demand, so the bottling line was abandoned for a brewing alliance with Red Hook and Widmeir Brothers. 210K gallons of beer were bottled last year and distributed to the west coast and HI. However, since they only brew <15K barrels a year ON SITE they are considered a micro. They have nice in-line setup that seems pretty manpower efficient. Cold storage for the islands seems small compared to overall consumption but demand is there by far. Some barrels were purchased for limited stuff and of course the next day they were releasing 08' barleywine, lillikoi wheat (label name has been abandoned due to inability to ask for when drunk), and another beer that lapses me but Merry and I did have a full taster, they even had place mats that kind of guided Randy along the taster. The water travels 30mi from mountain top to tap through black lava rock to give it the true Hawaiian feel; however, the brewmaster has to fly to the mainland to tender up chemical levels of NaPo4 to yield the true bottled feel? Needless to say a great beer but no real competition.

Force Carbonation

So it's the night before I get hitched and we just had the celebration dinner at The J Clyde and I'm getting some help in person from Junk and he's getting help from Red via his cell phone. "This is how we do it."

Free At Last!!

Governor Riley signed HB373 this morning "Freeing the Hops"!! Alabama can now have Gourmet Beer topping 13.9%abv and "Rogue" size containers. I'll have the 1st wedding dinner at The J. Clyde to have legal higher abv beer in Alabama if they can get it in.

Brew Batch #31 Extra Pale Ale

This kegging stuff is crawling up the crack of my ass. I am trying to figure out what temp my kegerator hangs at and at which setting in order to extrapolate what PSI and volumes of CO2 my beer will be at equilibrium so that it has a nice presentation and isn’t flat, the entire time making sure that I have tightened all the connections so I don’t have a leak and just empty my tank. I’ve read that once you get comfortable with kegging you’ll only do bottles for special occasions. I hope that’s the case because brewing has become unfun. It’s just a lot of Physics II I thought I had left behind. 1.000+ 0.001@ 70F to give 5.1%abv.

Brew Batch #30 Scottish 80/-

Affectionately known as the “Scottish Snowmen”, this batch was my 1st to keg. Went in the “corney” on today (5/19) and has been hooked up to gas at 12.5PSI to hopefully yield a nice shilling at about 2.1 volumes of CO2? If not this will have been the greatest short lived beer I have ever brewed because my guests at the wedding will be the guinea pigs on this one. Originally this one to be my test batch at kegging but it turned out too good to hope for better on the 60/-. At FG finally at 1.000+ 0.001@ 67F, this one should be about 6%abv. I tried the customary shot beer on the transfer and man did it taste great.

Our Tastes-- Bischoff Wheat Beer

Look, this is another truly German bier and it hurts my head to read the website because I only took a semester of German, with a year of Japanese (too bad we haven't tried any nip brews, I mean that in the best possible way, I have some great Japanese friends and they know they have killed us with tape recorders and small electronics, there's no need for them to regrow their Navy after WWII). Falkensteiner UR-Weisse, is a wheat beer with fine yeast bed. I can't read the description so what you read in English is vat u bei gettin'. Heavy yeast nose comparable to Hoegaarden with particulate matter sinking to the bottom of the wheat glass we are using. Expected straw cloudiness. Heavy clove yeast strain used. This is a great hefe, or U-R hefe, I-B Frank. 5.2%abv, nice label, green bottle, great to have tried out of the BOTMC.

Brew Batch #32 Scottish 60/-

My soon-to-be bro-in-law got to watch the action unfold on the bigger scale tonight with this smaller shilling batch. I hope to maybe use this but the 80/- is looking nice and me be more apt since it has completely fermented out. An uneventful evening of good beer and an OG 1.026+0.002 @77F.

Our Tastes-- Sea Dog Raspberry

Trying to clear out brews that Merry has been sitting on for some time, I pulled one of her Sea Dog Raspberry Wheat Ale. Made by Pugsley Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, this brew pours a wonderfully cloudy slightly red tinged straw. The aroma is a nice crisp raspberry (reminds me of the summer I worked in Clanton at the berry picking farm, damn I hated wearing long sleeves in the summer but I liked having arms left over at the end of the day). Head is flat and unremarkable. Even though this beer may be past it’s prime date, it still has a stupendous mouthfeel and flavor profile. Makes me want some buttermilk biscuits to go with a jam taste in my mouth.

Brew Batch #31 Extra Pale Ale

My first batch at the new house and it went off without a hitch. I just bought a new burner setup off of Jamie Ray (former OAA current MBP brewmaster) and this thing is hot! 100K BTUs. Took a little while to get the settings right but it heats up nicely. Not sure if brewing on the back porch is my thing since it was a little windy which happens to catch the burner flames so I may try the garage but in the summer that will be stifling and I don’t want to leave the garage door open because what I do here is still illegal. Archaic constitution. Great Cascade bite on the taste, OG 1.036+0.001 @71F. This is one of the beers I hope to have on tap at the wedding, had to slide something in there for the BMC drinkers.

Our Tastes-- Dogfish Head Pangaea

Attempting to finish off the DFH line-up I had in my Ps extra bedroom we embark on a trip to every continent with Pangaea. Best served cool, not cold in a snifter or wine glass. A clear light amber with head that dissipates fills our glasses. This particular bottle was bottled on 10/30/06. and I wish I had an image of the label art (it has the supercontinent of Pangaea on it). The smell is a suprising flat, but the taste is a hand grenade fo flavors! The most complex DFH I've had, maybe 2nd overall to SA Utopias! Mouthfeel is full with touches of clover/banana, honey, moutain berry, pure water, slight ginger?, with a velvet that smoothes across the tongue. Made with water from Antarctica, fermentable basmati blue rice from Asia, crystallized ginger from Australia, moscavado sugar from Africa, Belgian yeast from Europe, and I have no idea what from the Americas (probably just the damn taxes on it here). 7%abv and a healthy fattening alternative to pork right now.

Our Tastes-- Penn Weizen

Made by Pittsburgh's 1st microbrewery, Penn Weizen is a nice exchange on the palate of a weizen beer. Pennsylvania Brewing company opened it's vats in 1986 and recently celebrated its 20th year. Penn Weizen is one in a line of many truly brewed German-style beers offered by this brewery. This beer is another great example of why you should strive to use the "correct" glass for the beer. Since starting the DFH line of beers, we have attempted to use the right container and this one had added pleasure when tasting. Pouring a M-I-crooked letter crooked letter-I-crooked letter crooked letter-I-humpback humpback-I (wasn't that fun) silt if you will of cloudiness with a frothy quickly dissipating head. The aroma has a nice banana clove waft to it with a hint of the Bavarian yeast. The taste is no Hoegaarden, but does in a pinch, it's a little heavy on the yeast profile for me. Made with 2-row, wheat and barley malts and Hallertau hops. 4%abv.