There's no free lunch....

Good Morning, and here is my environmental rant for the day. Don't usually like to discuss things like this in this blog, but this is directly related to beer. Today I received an email from Northern Brewer discussing how the supply of hops will not meet worldwide demand for the next two years. This is on top of what we have all seen with rising beer prices this year.

Now what the Northern Brewer article didn't mention, is why there is a shortage of hops? And why have beer prices overall increased as well? Of course rising petroleum costs are raising prices of everything we buy. But that's not it by itself. One of the main reasons for hops shortage is the energy trend towards biofuels like ethanol. At first glance you might not see the correlation, but it's there.

Now I'm all for trying to find new cleaner resources of energy - solar, wind, nuclear, being chief among the options. But people need to understand there is no free lunch when it comes to energy or anything else. No magic bullet. For example, it takes more energy to produce hydrogen than you get from burning it. True, the end product out of your tailpipe is cleaner, but some production plant had to burn coal or natural gas in order to create the hydrogen in the first place, then had to transport the hydrogen to it's final point of use. All that is wasteful.

But now back to biofuels and beer. Farmers have found that with this new trend, it is more profitable to switch out their traditional crops and start growing corn to be used for ethanol production. So, farmers that used to grow wheat, barley, and HOPS are now growing corn instead. Thus here we have our inequity in supply and demand. Beer demand (especially for craft brews) is growing worldwide while supply of ingredients for beer are not. Another unintended consequence of the growth of ethanol is food shortages in third-world countries. Worldwide stocks of corn are being directed toward fuel production rather than food. This is also causing even more rapid deforestation to plant crops like corn and soy to be used for biofuel. Mexico has seen prices of tortillas rise to the point of regular people having to pay the equivalent of a day's pay just for tortillas which are the main staple. We are now starting to see countries like Taiwan and China withhold exports of rice just to be able to feed their own people.

So you see, there is no free lunch as my professor in Econ 101 told us. It sounds great to use ethanol to save the world by cleaning the air. But what good is that if we can't afford to eat our tortillas and drink our beer?!!

Like I said, I'm all for trying to do things better, and ethanol technology was an important first step in the goal towards cleaner energy. But what are some possible solutions that reduce the negative externalities (ECON 101 plug here) and still allow us cleaner air, cheaper beer and tortillas? I'm not a scientist, but here are some ideas:

1. Grow and brew your own: Why not grow your own hops? Yes, they do take up alot of space, but anyone with a pole in the backyard or the ability to run a wire horiziontal can grow some hops. Grow organic as much as possible. And by brewing your own you are helping buy reusing bottles and minimizing transportation costs associated with production.

2. Buy Local: If you can't grow it yourself, try to buy not just your beer ingredients, but as much of what you consume as close to home as possible. This helps in a few areas. The farther the product had to travel to get to your plate or glass, the more fuel was consumed to get it there. It also takes cost out of the distribution chain. Buying locally supports your local economy.

3. Different production methods/ingrediants for biofuels: Producers need to look at other sources to make biofuels. Corn production requires much water and is not as efficient as other possibilities. What about about other options such as bamboo and hemp? Renewable sources that are more efficient to grow than corn. This would take pressure of world corn stocks. Of course new supply pressures would be put on other products that require hemp and bamboo, but like I said there is no free lunch.

Anyway, just some ideas floating around in my head.....

Next on Tap.....

Alright, back to some real beer after that horrible lemon hefeweizen. This weekend I brewed a "Big Honkin' Stout". I used an extract kit from Northern Brewer. It's going to be very hard to wait for this one - should be done in about two months just in time for christmas. And no matter how hard I try to do everything perfect during brewing, something always goes wrong. This time my siphon came loose while transferring into my primary, and I spilled wort all over the kitchen floor. Oh well, not too much was wasted and luckily we need to refinish the floor anyway.

After I move the Stout out of the primary, I'm going to try a California Common. I'm modifying my Bronwish Ale recipe a bit. Mainly using light DME instead of dark, and using California Lager yeast instead of the Irish Ale yeast. For those of you who haven't heard of California Common style of beer, think of Anchor Steam. Anchor trademarked the name "Steam" for their beer, but it basically is the style that the pioneers and 49er's made during the California gold rush. Since refrigeration and cooling was difficult back then in the hot California weather, brewers had to use a lager yeast but brew like it was an ale. The result was steam style beer. I'll post my recipe later when I start brewing this one.

How much is inside a keg?

I thought this was a lightedhearted and funny page, that actually does answer the question. I can't remember how many keg parties I have attended in my lifetime - but it's probably too many. Anyway they say 141 cups in a standard half barrel keg. Do you trust their counting?

http://www.cockeyed.com/inside/keg/keg.html

Wife Beer Update (Follow Directions!!!)

I have learned my lesson. If someone says peels from two lemons should be plenty to get good lemon flavor, then use two lemons - not three. Not being one with alot of patience, I opened a bottle of the Lemon Lingerie hefeweizen after only one week in the bottle. Though still young and needs a few more weeks to age, I thought it was awful. WAY too much lemon - very bitter and sour. Almost tastes like chemicals or artificial flavor. Erika seemed to like it so far though since she likes lemon so much. We'll see what she thinks after it ages a few more weeks. I know for sure I'll hate it. So if she can drink it that's great. Otherwise down the drain.

Time to go back to real beers! Once the weather cools a bit I'll start another batch of brown ale and maybe start thinking of a good Christmas beer recipe.

"Wifebeer"

Last night I bottled my "wifebeer". Pretty self explanatory really - a light ale that the wife will drink. It's calledd Lemon Lingerie, and I got the recipe of one of the forums at www.realbeer.com. It's a real simple American Hefeweizen, but the interesting twist is to put lemon peels in the secondary fermentor.

So I tasted it before bottling and it sure has a ton of lemon flavor. Maybe too much - we'll see once it is cold and carbonated. Alcohol content is just about 3.8%

This bottling is getting to be a real pain though. Think it's time to start thinking of either kegging or perhaps one of those tap-a-draft systems.

Great Idea : Free beer samples at the grocery store....

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Sam Adams Longshot Brewing Contest

I finally received my score sheets from the Sam Adams Contest. If you remember, I entered a Porter which was my second attempt at brewing. Two judges scored my beer an average of 27.5 which rates at the high side of "Good"

The scale is as follows:
Outstanding (45-50)
Excellent (38-44)
Very Good (30-37)
Good (21-29)
A satisfactory beer that generally fits the style parameters.
Fair (14-20)
Problematic (0-13)

One judge's comments were "This is a good beer, but not malty enough for style. Slight soap flavor. Very Dry Finish"

The other wrote "Slight roast, mild. Try increasing chocolate malt a bit"

So I think overall not bad for my first entry. And I even got a cool t-shirt that says Samuel Adams Homebrewer on it.

Next year I'll do better...

BEERCICLES!!!!

I thought this was a funny gimmick. Perhaps a waste of beer? Or maybe on a hot day it would be real tasty...

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Next On Tap....

It's real warm here lately - in the 90's. So it has been somewhat difficult to keep my fermentation temp low without a real thermostat control. I have the carboy in a plastic tub of water right now which is just barely keeping the temp around 75F. I deally I'd like it to be around 70, but this will have to do for now until I convert the old refrigerator. And then I can make some lagers!

Right now in the secondary fermenter I have my own version for an Irish Red Ale. I guess I'll call it an Irish/American Reddish Ale, because so far in the secondary fermentor it looks very much like a Brown Ale. And I used Northern Brewer hops and some darker malts to try to get it a little darker than a Kilkenny Ale. We'll see how this works:

1.50 lb Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract
6.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain
0.02 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain
2.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (30 min) Hops
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (White Labs #WLP004) Yeast-Ale

From this batch I have tried harvesting the yeast in order to try to culture it for a couple more batches. Hopefully that works. I can save $5-6 per batch if it does.

And next on tap after the Irish ales, is a "wife beer". I found someone who posted a recipe for a "Lemon Lingerie". It's basically a hefeweizen, but he adds lemon zest to the secondary fermentor to give it the lemon zing. Sounds real good for a summer beer that Erika can drink.

UPDATE 8/21
I forgot to tell you how this one ended up!!! I think this is my best beer to date. I'm calling it "Trabuco Brownish Ale" I looked up the style guidelines and technically it does fall within the style of an "American Brown Ale" mostly due to the higher hop content. But since I used Irish Yeast, I'll call it a Brownish (Brown-Irish) ale. It tastes similar to but hoppier than a Newcastle I think. But I'm not a great taster.

Stone Brewing World Bistro

This Saturday Erika and I drove down to Escondido after visiting the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. There is nothing much in Escondido I would ever go there for, except for the new Stone Brewing World Bistro. Stone Brewery just recently opened a new restaurant/brewery, and it was very impressive. http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/

The building architecture is a modern/industrial with lots of stone, iron, and rebar. The restaurant area has floor to cieling windows on one side that let you see the brewery operations. The other side is open out to the outdoors beer garden. You can lounge around outside in the garden and have a beer - very relaxing.

Dinner was excellent. I had the Super-Septuple Garlic Bomb Chicken with Stone IPA garlicky mashed potatoes which was awesome. Only bad thing was that it also came with Brussels sprouts which though they looked tasty, are my absolute most hated vegetable in the world. Erika had a Spicy Lime Almond Crusted Tilapia with toasted barley & quinoa tabouleh. Also was excellent, and the quinoa was especially good since we have been on a quinoa kick lately.

So now for the real important part - the beer! For starters I had the Stone Ruination IPA. Lately I've been a little tired of all the West Coast breweries and their IPA's and pale ale's. Everyone seems to be just hopping up like crazy and losing the taste of the beer. I'm no different - my recent pale is nice and hoppy but not alot of malt character. This Ruination IPA is very different though. Although highly hopped of course, and 7.7% alcohol, the taste is still very good and you can still taste the underlying characteristics of a very good beer. I think it was a perfect pairing with the garlic infused chicken.

Next I had the Stone Smoked Porter w/Chipotle Peppers. Now I am always a sucker for anything Chipotle so I couldn't pass this one up. At first taste you get the smoky porter you would expect and nice and dry. I didn't really notice the chipotle until after swallowing. Unfortunately that aftertaste wasn't very appealing to me. The chipotle bite at the back of my tongue didn't really leave me wanting more. Unfortunately I think it's one of the few beers I couldn't even finish. I don't think it's a bad tasting beer - just something about it wasn't quite right for me.

So I will definitely go back and do the tour one of these days, and also try some of the other Stone beers. I've always enjoyed their Arrogant Bastard Ale, and am looking forward to some of their others. Cheers!