last weekend AP and I flew back up to our old stomping grounds in SF for a swim as well as some much-needed beer exposure.

• on friday we made a pit stop over at columbus cafe, and old favorite, where a couple pints of lagunitas’ dogtown pale and bear republic’s racer 5 eased me into the weekend.
• we also cruised by bistro gambrinus for dinner per AP’s research, which turned out to be a great idea.  the food was great (the burgers looked awesome), and although the service was spotty and a couple taps were kicked, the beers were still outstanding.  I grabbed a köstritzer schwarzbier (drinkable and well balanced, a little more refined than death and taxes) as well as a schneider aventinus (not my thing, tons of clove and banana), and AP knocked back a neumarkter lammsbräu dunkel, which was damn tasty and made me wish I had ordered it (AP has been doing a lot of that lately).
• on saturday we hit the bridge and went up to the hopmonk tavern in sebastopol with the CBs and TB (after trying some of CB’s pale and his killer saison going to town in his fermenator).  after getting off on the wrong foot with their house kellerbier (super corny and actually pretty horrible), I recovered with pliny, while the table was being peppered with favorites like lagunitas’ kronik/censored and rodenbach’s grand cru.
• we also stopped by bottle barn on the way back to grab some beers, highlights including ’08 bourbon county stouts for $3.50 a pop!
• before taking off on sunday, there was one essential stop to be made over at healthy spirits.  this spot was my first major beer discovery in the city and is still a must-visit location for many reasons, a few of them being:
  • the staff - the owner, rami, and resident beer expert, dave, are super friendly and can talk for days about beer.  dave has given me great homebrewing ideas (kvass IPA) as well as insightful beer procurement advice (bi-rite for brews?).
  • the selection - unless I cruise down to port’s bottle shop in SD, there is really no other place I can go to get ANY hard-to-find beers, much less small batch belgians from cantillon, fantome, drie fonteinen, etc.  healthy spirits carries them all, and aggressively stocks some of the finest beers money can buy.
  • the blog - dave maintains a great blog that is consistently updated with their new procurements.  even though I can’t make it in most of the time, I can check the blog to keep updated on new killer releases.
• of course, this selection and service does come with a price (healthy spirit beers ain’t cheap), but if you mix a sixer you get a discount.  I grabbed a boxload of brews and checked them on my flight without any issues (FYI, a standard 24-pack filled with 6-7 wrapped bottles weighs about 25 pounds, well under standard airline limits).
• when AP and I finally got back to LA, we were glad to be home, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the amazing beer scene up north.

on sunday I managed to squeeze in some time for a last-minute brewday.

• this wasn’t any ordinary brew, though – it was my first pilsner!  I was inspired by my recent keezer build to brew a beer that needed some colder fermentation temps and long-term lagering, and a pilsner fit the bill perfectly.
• I was also inspired by my trip with AP to the czech republic, and I therefore decided on a bohemian style pilsner, or “bo pils.”
• after a little internet scan I came across jamil zainasheff’s bo pils recipe, which I then slightly modified as follows:
  • 10.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 93.02 %
    11 oz. Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.98 %
    1.50 oz Saaz [3.50 %] (60 min) Hops 18.5 IBU
    1.80 oz Saaz [3.50 %] (30 min) Hops 17.0 IBU
    1.00 oz Saaz [3.50 %] (10 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
    1.00 oz Saaz [3.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
    1 Pkgs Budvar Lager (Wyeast Labs #2000) Yeast-Lager
• I also made a pretty hefty (for me) 1L starter a couple days before and gave it a shot of O2 to get it going.  I pitched at 70F and let it sit for about an hour before tossing my fermentation bucket into the keezer at 55 +/- 5F.
• the next morning, I knocked the keezer temp down to 50 +/- 2F, which seemed to be right for the yeast.  last I checked, the airlock was bubbling away, so everything seems to be on the up and up.  keep your fingers crossed…
• I also managed to keg the IPA during the brew.  as usual, I forgot to grab a gravity reading, but the aroma was pretty awesome, so I’m hoping for the best.
• on monday I also cruised over to san pedro brew co. to meet up with JW to try out his new lineup.  he has a belgian wit, amber, and brown on tap, all of which were tasty.  I especially liked the brown, which was clean and very sessionable, a perfect summer beer for the brown ale lover.
• JW also showed me his fermenter cleaning procedure and, as usual, fielded a barrage of questions with patience and enthusiasm.  thanks again JW!
• also, on the hop front - all the plants are doing well, but the cascade vines are definitely larger than any first year growth I have ever seen.  there are tons of developing cones and which will hopefully result in a significant harvest.
  

last thursday night, AP and I went over to alpine village for some legit german food and brews.

• ever since I dropped by AV a little while back, I was eagerly anticipating our return.  I knew it was going to be a great night right when we walked in the door, and were seated immediately and given a healthy serving of liverwurst and rye.
• thursday was swing night, and there was a full band in attendance along with an impressive singer.  we were definitely the youngest in the crowd by a few decades, but it didn’t keep us from cutting a rug in between courses and beers.
• ah, the beers – AP got one of her staples, hangar 24′s altbier, and I had weihenstephaner’s kristall weissbier.  well, I ordered it, and ended up with an unfiltered wheat instead, so who knows what I put down.  later AP chatted up the bartender and tried the kristall weiss after the fact, which was definitely tasty and probably the variety of the style that I would pursue ifwhen I brew another wheat.
• on sunday AP and I rang in the 4th with some heavy BBQ and great beers.  I’m talking a 10lb pork shoulder, 8lb brisket and two dozen brats in the smoker with all the fixins – it was definitely a good time.
• unfortunately, I was out of homebrew for the occasion, but the food was very well complemented with some firestone walker variety packs and a sixer of stone’s IPA, which was better than I remembered.
• I also snuck down to the basement for some bottles, including stone’s 14th anniversary empirial IPA (uncomfortably bitter with not enough aroma to balance it out, probably due to the hop selection), lagunitas’ hairy eyeball (killer as always, malty and delicious), and new belgium’s eric’s ale (definitely one of my favorites, the most drinkable sour I have come across).
• on saturday and sunday JF helped me out with some “brewery expansion construction”: using an angle grinder and some bootleg jig I threw together based off a modification of this idea from homebrewtalk, we cut the tops off of a couple of kegs that will soon enjoy long lives as an HLT and mash tun.  we also installed some weldless ball valves, thermometers, and sightglasses.  once the third keg makes an appearance and all my quick disconnects and other fittings come in, the setup will be revealed, but until then the project will remain shrouded in mystery.

last saturday I decided to brew an all-grain version of my partial mash IPA, which is currently in the process of being tweaked to become my house IPA.

• I loved the partial mash recipe above since it produced a strong citrusy/floral hop aroma and remained well-balanced even after the hop nose faded a bit over time.
• ideally, however, this beer should be consumed early.  I plan on a week for primary fermentation, a week of dry hopping, and a week for secondary fermentation in the keg before lagering and serving.
• the malt bill was very similar to my partial mash recipe, and the hop additions were identical:
  • 5.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 44.05 %
    4.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 41.85 %
    0.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 4.41 %
    0.50 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.41 %
    0.30 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.64 %
    0.30 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.64 %
    1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (75 min) Hops 49.5 IBU
    1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (55 min) Hops 46.3 IBU
    1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (20 min) Hops 28.7 IBU
    1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min) Hops 10.4 IBU
    1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
    1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale
• I struggled a little with my mash temps (I still have to iron out some kinks), but I ended up with an OG of 1.067, which was in line with my beersmith profile.
• I mimicked the impromptu 75 minute boil I ended up with last time, which will hopefully give me similar results.  the profile suggests 135 IBUs, which sounds a little fishy to me, but this brew will definitely pack a punch.
• luckily, my starter was ready to kick some ass when I pitched it with a shot of O2, and fermentation got off to a vigorous start.

• in other brew news, most of the hops are doing well, but my cascades are going nuts. the vine has bolted up past the second story of the house, and cones are popping up everywhere.  I am looking forward to some great fresh hop beers in the near future…
• I also got lucky and scored some 15 gal. plastic barrels from a guy on ebay for $12.50 a pop.  these guys just squeeze into my old kegerator-turned-fermentation fridge, and will be perfect for 10-12 gal. batches (soon to come – stay tuned).

a little over a week ago AP’s birthday rolled around, so we headed off to santa monica, one of our old stomping grounds, to celebrate.

• our first stop was library alehouse (not to be confused with library bar), a great little beer bar on main st.
• I remember stopping by library alehouse many years ago and excitedly grabbing a downtown brown before I really caught on to the craft beer scene.
• that tap handle is still pouring after all these years, but I have come to appreciate the finer offerings that this beer bar has to offer.
• AP and I spotted the tap for eric’s ale and immediately ordered up a round.  we were bummed to discover that eric salazar from new belgium was going to be stopping by the next day to pay a visit.  that would have been sweet…
• the beer was great, the scene was mellow, and the food was tasty, but AP and I packed up and moved on to our next destination.
• our next pit stop was at wine expo on santa monica blvd.  the selection was varied, and we grabbed a reissdorf kolsch, a berliner weiss, and a geuze for later in the evening.
• if you’re ever in the area and looking for a brew, wine expo is a good place to check out.  they have a bunch of interesting imports, but stock a pretty ordinary domestic selection.
• we continued the bottle hunt at whole foods on wilshire, which I remembered as having a pretty decent beer selection.
• “pretty decent” was an understatement – they had a great selection of hard to fund find beers.  after staring at the lineup for a good while, I could tell AP was done with bottle shopping, so I grabbed a bottle of port’s older viscosity, allagash’s confluence, and dogfish’s burton baton and hit the road.  this whole foods is definitely the place to go with paycheck in hand to grab some rarities for a special occasion.
• AP and I then cruised down 3rd street promenade, ending with a stop by the fifth amendment alehaus.  I didn’t know what to expect when we stepped in, but the bar was cozy and the bartender/owner was friendly and knowledgeable.
• my only gripe was the price of a pint – I can see $8 for a pour of eric’s ale or delirium tremens, but for port’s hot rocks lager? gimme a break.  I think the price will keep me from coming back on a regular basis, but if you’re stranded on third street shopping with your lady this place is the ticket.
• I also tried a taster of the bruery’s coton, and let me tell you, it was one of the first old ales/barleywines that I actually disliked.  it was super hot with an overwhelmingly boozy finish.  all I could taste was alcohol.  come on guys, just stuff it in barrels for a year or two and push it for your usual $30 pricetag!
• afterwards we grabbed some great italian at a BYOB joint where we shared some beers and then headed home.  our samo excursion was a great success – happy birthday AP!

last weekend was full of brew related accomplishments and surprises.

• on thursday night I finished up the keezer collar, and AP and I lugged the thing down to the basement, where I fitted the taps and ran the beer lines.
• after wiring up the ranco temperature controller with some help online, I ran the temp probe and the gas lines and fired everything up.
• the thing works like a charm, and it’s great to have so much fridge space for storing kegs and other bulky items.  I can even lager in my brew bucket if I want to, but I will probably lager in kegs the old kegerator.
• on friday DH drove down and we skipped over to naja’s for an afternoon brew.  I got to try a taster of ‘dark side imperial stout’ or something like that from sierra nevada, but ended up with an ’08 alaskan barleywine, which was nice and malty but still relatively drinkable.  we finished up in style with a bottle of fantome saison, which had a great fruity aroma and finish.
• I am always amazed at the number of homebrewers that roll by naja’s for a pour – they are always friendly and can talk beer all night long.  friday was no exception – we ran into bob, a member of pacific gravity with a sick all-grain gravity system and a vast brew knowledge.  hopefully we’ll meet up again bob, maybe at a pacific gravity meeting!
• friday night the smoker was fired up, and by saturday afternoon 20 lbs of pulled pork was ready to rock, in addition to 3 beer can chickens and a couple dozen smoked brats.  that along with a the kegs of alt and kolsch kept friends and family busy for hours.
• both kegs were a hit and got kicked before the sun went down.  they were very drinkable and great session beers, but my only complaint was the clarity (both had a little haze from only being lagered for a week or so).  unfortunately, no pictures were taken (again) due to entertaining duties.  next time, I swear…
• just when I thought my beer weekend was coming to a close, I got a call sunday from james of san pedro brew co. he had tried my brews on saturday and wanted to know if I was interested in swinging by the brewery this week to check out a brew session.  I jumped at the chance and told him I would be by monday.
• monday morning I met up with jason, the award-winning brewer at san pedro brew co.  he had already started mashing an experimental amber ale and patiently explained the entire process on their 5 bbl. system.  he let me help out with the mash, explained their lauter and sparge process, and let me participate with some hop additions.  I was flipping switches, pulling levers, and loving every minute of it.
• when it came time to empty the mash tun, he must have though I was an idiot since I practically begged him to do it.  he let me stick around for the entirety of the boil all the way to racking the wort into their conical and let me help out with the crush and line sanitation for the next day’s brew.  it was an awesome experience, and I was like a kid in a candy store, ogling all the equipment and trying out jason’s killer brews.  thanks again jason, and good luck with your latest comp results!

this memorial day weekend I managed to sample a great variety of beers and start on some lofty projects that have been in the planning stage for quite some time.

• on saturday I was lucky enough to find a local paintball store that filled CO2 tanks.  this made for a relatively simple fill-up, as opposed to my experience in SF.
• I also dropped by bevmo to see if they had any eric’s ale bombers in stock.  I talked to one of their buyers and it seems they aren’t ever gonna get it in, which is unfortunate, since I was all set to pick up a case of the stuff.
• I was treated to a tour of the bevmo coolers, however, and walked out with a bottle of parabola, a sixer of lagunitas undercover shutdown ’10, and a bottle of mikkeller’s it’s alright!
• I cracked the it’s alright!, remembering that a tasting of it a few years ago left me a little disappointed.  I definitely liked it more the second time around – it had a ton of barnyard funk and was very refreshing.  add a little tartness to the mix and it could be a great summer beer.
• on sunday I went with AP and the rest of the posse to naja’s for a quick beer.  the place was packed, but I managed to get a pour of dogfish’s burton baton, which was killer on a hot beach day.  it made me want to place an online order for a quick dogfish fix…
• the rest of the weekend was spent BBQing and hacking away at one of my 2 consecutive projects, a basic 4-tap keezer.  I will post a more detailed writeup when the build is finished (hopefully by the end of the week), but for now a teaser pic will have to do.
• as for the other project, let’s just say it has to do with doubling my brewing capacity and halving my brew time, and was inspired by CB’s sick setup.  more to come on that front as pieces to the puzzle fall into place.

this last weekend was packed with some brew-related activities.

• on saturday I kegged the alt.  I took a sample and it tasted pretty damn good, but I forgot to get a final gravity reading.  will have to remember to grab it when the keg is tapped.
• on saturday night AP and I unveiled a metric shitton of smoked 2-2-1 pork ribs (this time I took some pics).  to celebrate I cracked open a couple beers with a summer feel – the collaborative saison du buff and victory’s wild devil.
• saison du buff was good, but I could have easily gone with a 2-3oz taster instead of a full pour.  it was definitely an interesting spin on a saison, and had some medicinal notes but had a cleaner finish than, say, a gruit.
• victory’s wild devil was great – it was an awesome blend of bretty funk with a clean bitter pale ale finish, and went well with the smoky ribs.
• on sunday AP and I ventured over to alpine village for their swap meet and beer hall.  I’ve been heading out here ever since I was a kid, but I never fully appreciated this place until recently.  suffice it to say that the spot is awesome and will be reviewed in greater depth soon.
• AP and I shared a dunkel and an alt after an afternoon of flea digging, where I managed to scoop up a pretty neat piece of breweriana for some pocket change.
• after cleaning it up and tightening the bulb, the sign didn’t look half bad, and it was a neat tribute to an SF beer of the past.
• also, on the hop front – the cascade is topping 6 feet and is still climbing, and the mt hood is in close pursuit.  gotta get the second year plants going though…

so, after 4 years of extract and partial mash brewing, I finally stepped up to the plate and pulled off my first all-grain batch.

• I finally had the space to go all-grain after moving, and I had recently modified my partial mash tun with a new false bottom (courtesy of CB) for better efficiency.
• after a bit of thought, I was inspired by this post over at beer and nosh and decided to go with an dusseldorf altbier.
• the dusseldorf alt is a bit hoppier than alts from other regions.  I thought it would be a good contrast to my extract kolsch.
• my recipe was a hybrid from a post on brewboard and one on home brew talk.  I recently downloaded beersmith and ironed out the details on their software (which is pretty amazing by the way).  the grain and hop bill is as follows:
  • 6.00 lb       Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)             Grain        54.55 %
    2.00 lb       Munich Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM)              Grain        18.18 %
    1.00 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM)     Grain        9.09 %
    1.00 lb       Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                     Grain        9.09 %
    1.00 lb       Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)                 Grain        9.09 %
    1.50 oz       Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [3.80 %]  (60 min)Hops         19.9 IBU
    1.00 oz       Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [3.80 %]  (30 min)Hops         10.2 IBU
    1.00 oz       Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [3.80 %]  (10 min)Hops         4.8 IBU
• if you want more recipe info shoot me an email and I’ll send it over.
• after a thorough discussion with CB about mash and sparge temps, boil time, and other mash tips (the guy should seriously teach a class), I milled my grains, heated my strike water, and made the jump.
• I batch sparged as per denny’s instructions and ended up with 5 gallons at an OG of 1.060 at 75F, which if I calculated correctly gives my system roughly 74% efficiency. not bad for the first shot!
• after a rough start, my wyeast 1007 smack pack got going, and seemed to be pretty happy for the next few days after I pitched.  I’m planning on kegging the batch this weekend and lagering for a month or so before serving.
• I will likely throw more all-grain brew tips out there once I get the process down pat, but for now I have a few recommendations for a successful switch from extract brewing:
  • get brew software. programs like beersmith take a lot of guesswork out of the process and are pretty cheap.  it was invaluable having my brew day laid out on paper before I got started.
  • talk to someone who brews all-grain first. I walked away with more information from my 30 minute convo with CB than from hours of online research.  a lot of the small stuff isn’t covered online (basic mash theory, etc.) and makes perfect sense once someone who has done it explains the obvious to you.
  • take gravity readings.  I never had to do this before – with extract it didn’t really matter since you knew you were getting fermentable sugars.  however, with all-grain, gravity readings are essential for troubleshooting your system and really add a lot to your knowledge of brewing.  I used my refractometer and it was a piece of cake.
• overall, switching to all-grain brewing wasn’t too difficult (just a little more time-consuming) and was much more rewarding.  I am looking forward to cranking out many more brews while tweaking this process.

last saturday I managed to keg my kolsch and on sunday I hit up port bottle shop.

• FYI, when I keg, I just toss in 3 oz. of bottling sugar straight into the keg (no boiling) and rack the beer on top.
• I use my portable keg charger and a single canister to push PBW and sanitizer through my dip tube, and I use what’s left in the cartridge to seal the top of the keg after filling it.
• the above method makes for quick and easy keg filling, and I have had great results with secondary fermentation in the keg.  it sure beats force carbing too (if you have the patience to wait another week or so).
• when I was down at port, the bottle shop was slammed when I went in, as it was the annual carlsbad fair and over 100,000 people were milling around outside.
• I slipped in and managed to score a bottle of ’10 angel’s share bourbon barrel (anyone up for a 3 year flight?) and a bottle of good ol’ fantome.
• also, I just picked up a grain mill and the ingredients for my first all-grain batch.  tune in next week for the results (hint: it’s a kolsch rival).