Pacific Northwest Road Trip

Last week I took a flight from Socal up to Norcal for a road trip starting in Chico to Puget Sound area in order to help my Mom move.  Just our luck, it was in the middle of the worst storm to hit the west coast so far this year.  But despite the bad weather, I was determined to get some visits  to some breweries along the way.

So of course being in Chico I had to start at Sierra Nevada.  My friend Steve and I sat at the bar, and ordered lunch.  In case I haven't mentioned it before, they really have done a great job with the restaurant and taproom, and the food is as awesome as the beer.  Unfortunately, they were out of their Baltic Porter, which I think is about the best Baltic Porter I've ever had.  So instead I started with their new Glissade bock.  This is a real refreshing beer, with alot of subtleties in hop aroma and smooth malt flavor.  They are going to be bottling this beer soon, so look out for it. As we were enjoying our beers and sandwiches Ken Grossman walked by.  Pretty cool, but I didn't want be like a groupie so I didn't ask for an autograph. Next I tried the Juniper Black Ale.  Though overall a good beer, I can't see myself drinking this too often.  I can't remember what the ABV was, but it was maybe around 10%? I might be wrong on that.  Anyway, the juniper was a bit too much for my taste.  Think if you like that particular flavor, you'd like the beer.  Since I had a moving truck to pick up, I kept myself to those two half-pints of beer.  But I did pick up a couple Sierra Nevada tap handles for my new kegerator faucets I just installed.  I'll post more about that later.  Sadly this might be the last time in a long time that I'll get to visit the brewery, since I don't see any other reason I'll ever be in Chico again.

After a day of packing up the moving truck with my Mom's house and alot of old memories, we headed up 5 in the rain and snow for Washington.  The snow and rain takes a toll on you after so many hours, so we stopped in Salem Oregon for the night.  About 12 years back, I had been in Troutdale at McMenamins' Edgefield Hotel/Brewery/Winery.  My sister had her wedding there, and we all had a great time and I remembered what good beer it was.  Now they have expanded quite a bit and have a bunch of brewpubs and hotels, including a brewpub in Salem called Boon's Treasury.  I was excited to get to have their beer again. While waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for dinner I had the Hammerhead ale, which I guess is one of their standards.  It was a nice coppery colored malty ale with cascade hops, and was probably fairly good beer if it wasn't for the dishwatery smell and taste from the glass.  With dinner I had their IPA which unfortunately was very thin and watery, and I could barely even notice the hops.  Overall, I hate to say it was a huge disappointment.

We finally made it up to Washington, unloaded, and moved my Mom into her new place.  We finished quickly enough to leave a day open for hanging around downtown Seattle. I had heard the Elysian Brewery had some good beers, so I dragged my family over to the Elysian Fields brewpub over on 1st Street by the stadium.  We were about the only ones in the place, being that it was early Saturday and there were no games going on, but I'll bet this place really packs 'em in during Seahawks games.

 

Elysian Fields Brewpub

I've got to say, we had some great beers here.  I started with a Yerba Mate Tripel.  I had never had a beer brewed with tea before so wasn't sure what to expect, but it was awesome.  The tea really complemented the light hop tones very well.  I had a sip of the Saison my sister was drinking - you could really smell the spice on this one. 

Me, Sis, and brother-in-law

My mom ordered the Avatar Jasmine IPA, which while was a pretty good IPA by itself, I'm not sure the jasmine really did much for the beer - I would have preferred it just as a straight IPA.  My last beer was a cask conditioned Immortal IPA. I forget sometimes how great cask beers can be since I don't get them too often.  Without all the heavy carbonation, you really get to experience all the flavors and aromas that sometimes get lost in the fizziness of forced carbonation.

My Mom and I enjoying some IPA and Tripel.

After some awesome beers and appetizers at Elysian, we needed a walk, so we hiked up to Pike Place Market to walk around.  As it was just about lunch time, my sister suggested a Russian bakery called Piroshky Piroshky.  The word Piroshky comes from the word pir which means feast, and these delicacies are truly feasts that you eat with your hands.  If you've never had a piroshky, it is a warm bread filled and topped with sweet, savory, vegetable, or meat fillings.  It was the perfect meal to have in between brewpubs.  I had one with garlic, onion, and cheddar cheese.  It was one of the best things I have eaten in a long, long time.

 The Pike Brewery

Next on the list was The Pike Brewery right in the middle of Pike Marketplace.  I was hesitant at first to go here due to many reviews online that say it's too touristy.  Well, being that I am a tourist I figured why not?  Plus I really wanted to see their three-story brewing setup.

My sampler at Pike Brewery

For tasting I got a sampler of six of their beers:  Pale, Kilt Lifter, Naughty Nellie, Tandem, IPA, XXXX Stout.  These were all real solid traditional beers.  I couldn't really find fault with a single one.  Surprisingly I really liked the smokiness of the Kilt Lifter scotch ale, and I'm usually not a big scotch ale fan.  Also very good was the Stout.  I would definitely recommend stopping here to anyone visiting the marketplace.  Yes, it is touristy, but that's why you're there right?  There was plenty of room to sit and relax and enjoy some really good beer.  I'll go back next time I'm in Seattle for sure.

So that pretty much ended the day and the trip.  All that was left was a ferry ride back to Bainbridge Island.  The cool thing about the ferry is you can get beer on tap.  I relaxed and enjoyed a Red Hook ESB while admiring the Seattle skyline at night.  Cheers!

View of Seattle from Bainbridge Ferry

Gold Rush Common Takes a Silver Medal!!

Just for kicks, I sent a few bottles of my Gold Rush California Common and Vanilla Pale Ale to the St. Louis Brews Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition.   Their contest is a qualifier for the MCAB XII.
I was pretty happy with my California Common, and the Vanilla Pale was a real longshot, but I always like to get feedback from judges so I can improve my brew.

Out of 11 entries in Category 7 Amber Hybrid Beer, my California Common got a 2nd place!  I'm real happy with this since the guys who got 1st and 3rd, also ended up getting 3rd in the Best of Show round with their smoked beer.

So here is a run-down of how I made my Gold Rush Common:

INGREDIENTS:
6lbs Pale Liquid Extract
1lbs. Light Dry Extract
.9lbs Crystal Malt 45L
.45 lbs Munich Malt
Bittering hops:  Northern Brewer
Flavor and Aroma hops: Cascade
Irish Moss for fining at end of boil
White Labs San Francisco Lager #WLP810

PROCESS
Pretty straight forward extract brew.  I steep the grains in about 160F for 30-40 minutes in 3gallons water.  I used straight tap water with no mineral additions.  I rinse the grains with another 1/2 gallon water to rinse of as much sugar as I can.  Then add the extract and bring to a boil.  At hot-break, I add the bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes, adding flavor and aroma hops at various points throughout the boil.

At end of boil, I put my kettle into an ice bath to bring down the temp.  I can get the temp down to about 60 degrees in under a half hour now.  When the temp is down to 60F, I pour into my carboy and then add preboiled and then cooled water to the carboy to get about 5.25 gallons.  Then I shake the carboy around for awhile to aerate (I haven't stepped up to an aeration system yet), then I pitch my yeast, which has been happily started days before in a little over a pint of wort for a starter.  Then I put the carboy in my beer cave in the garage which at that point was about 64-66F and stayed that way for the whole fermentation.  My target original gravity was 1.056 and I ended up at 1.062 so a bit off, but no big deal.

One thing I did a bit different with this batch was the technique of Krausening.  During the brew, I saved about 10% of the wort and bottled that up and put it in the refrigerator. I also saved some of the yeast starter.  After about 7 days I took the saved yeast and wort and brought them up to  temperature the fermentation was at, and mixed the yeast and wort making a new starter.  After three more days when the starter was bubbling away nicely, I pitched this into the already fermented beer.  This is called krausening.  It's how most beers used to be done, and especially with California Common, they would krausen the beer in the casks it was shipped in so it would naturally carbonate in the final serving vessel.  Now, my technique is a bit different as I krausened in the fermenter, not my final keg.  Two reasons for this.  First, this was my first kegged homebrew and I was afraid of naturally carbonating in the keg without using a bleeder valve to maintain right amount of pressure.  Second, I had read that krausening helps to finish off a beer since the new  yeast active yeast cleans up alot of the unwanted junk from the primary fermentation.  After another 9 days, I racked into keg and force carbonated.  Final gravity was 1.018 putting ABV at 5.74%  That's a bit higher than the style allows, but not by much, and my measurements could have been off anyway.

"Brewing Alchemy"

Had to post his photo of  this awesome painting my mom just finished of the kettles at Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico.  She had the pleasure visiting the brewery with some other artists recently to sketch and paint various areas inside the brewery and grounds.  Check out some of my mom's other work at Sierra Sky Gallery.  Thanks!
  
UPDATE:  Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada bought the painting!!  Congratulations Mom, and many thanks to Ken.  I'm not sure if the painting will be on display at the brewery or his residence.

Book Review: “The Search for God and Guinness” A Biography of the Beer That Changed The World - by Stephen Mansfield

FCC (Big Brother) Disclaimer: In accordance with new FCC rules regarding bloggers receiving payment or other compensation for reviews, I need to let it be known that I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in return for a review (favorable or not) on my blog.

Now that that's out of the way, here is my review....

Stephen Mansfield  is a best selling author and speaker who deals mainly with issues regarding religion and American culture.  In "The Search For God and Guinness"   Mansfield takes us through several generations of Guinnesses to explain how faith, morals, and sometimes some good luck enabled the Guinness brewery to become one of the most respected, charitable, and successful companies the world has ever seen.


I have visited the Guinness brewery in Dublin twice over the last couple years, and Guinness has always been one of my favorite beers.  And I love history.   These are two reasons I was first interested in the book.  Though as Mansflield details in the book, he did not come at the writing from the perspective of a beer drinker or aficionado.  In fact he talks about how he actually didn't particularly enjoy beer very much growing up.  His interest in writing the book rather was to look at how faith played a role in shaping the values of the man who founded Guinness and subsequently the descendants who would run the brewery in future generations.  He also chronicles how beer has played such an important role in historical and religious occasions since the dawn of civilization as well as the beginning of Christianity itself. (I never knew that St. Patrick had his own personal brewer that travelled with him as he sought converts in Ireland!)

There are many themes of interest throughout this book that intrigued me aside from the historical:  That you serve God by mastering a skill and using that skill to serve and help others.  The idea of studying a sort of moral philosophy to learn about past history to help acquire skills needed for today.  The theme of passing of skills from father to son  is important to help each generation build upon the last. From my own personal standpoint, this helps comfort me in the sense that though my father and grandfather have passed, the things they taught me are still being put to use today.  And so they are still with me .  There are many other lessons in the book that I think will appeal to different readers for different reasons.  Whether you come to this book from a theoligical, historical, or business interest.  Or whether you are just interested in beer, there is something in this book that will captivate you.

December 1st Beer Tastings: Sierra Nevada / Dogfish Head Life & Limb and Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA

Selma's, my local pizza place here in Rancho Santa Margarita just opened up a new Tap Room. While I liked the sushi place that was there before, I've got to say, Selma's beer list triumphs over a crunchy roll any day.

So tonight my wife, daughter, and I ventured over for some pizza and brew. I was on a mission, since I had seen the beer list online prior to their opening, and was excited to see that they had the Sierra Nevada / Dogfish Head Life & Limb on tap! I've been looking forward to this beer for awhile now and was very surprised to see that Selma's was able to get it. As you can tell from previous posts, I'm a huge fan of both Sierra Nevada and Dogfish. Both are unique brewers that consistently innovate while producing highest quality brews.

Anyway, as for the Life and Limb: It's a strong beer at 10% ABV. Thick, foamy, light brown head. The beer looks and smells like maple/molasses. They actually use maple syrup from Sam's family farm, and birch syrup from Alaska to naturally carbonate the beer. Mouthfeel is very smooth despite the high alcohol content. Almost like eating pancakes on Sunday morning. Hop character is not overly pronounced as far as I could tell - would have expected maybe a little more hops with the Sierra Nevada connection. Overall this was an excellent and well balanced beer. Though I would say I taste perhaps more Dogfish influence than Sierra. It actually reminded me a little of Dogfish's India Brown Ale which is a bit more hoppy but has the similar caramel/molasses taste.

After two pieces of pizza and a pint of the Life & Limb I ordered a pint of Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA. At 7.5% they say it's an aggressive IPA, and they're right. But this is a bit different than alot of the IPA's out there that are overly bitter with poor malt/hop balance. The hops in this IPA hit you in the nose first, then right on the tip of your tongue. That's from being dry-hopped with Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe. The aroma and flavor of hops here are much more overt than the bittering hops (Warrior, Simcoe). I've got to say that even though I'm a big IPA fan, the initial hop burst seems to overpower the rest of the beer. It does finish fairly clean and I like the freshness of the dryhopping, but really didn't get much malt here. I'll have to revisit this at a later time and give it another try. As for now, the Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale still gets higher marks.

On tap for me right now: I just kegged a California Common, have an Oaked Baltic Porter in Secondary, and will be brewing a Black IPA this coming weekend. Looking forward to the holidays! Sveiks!

Thoughts on Beer This week...

Was just thinking what an incredible week for beer this is. The Great American Beer Festival is kicking off, Oktoberfest is in full swing, and tomorrow is the 250th Anniversary of Guinness signing the lease on the St. James Gate Brewery. Sadly I am not at any of those events!!

But that's ok, I bought a couple bottles of Sierra Nevada's Estate Harvest 2009 and am enjoying that this evening while reading and living vicariously through all those at GABF and Oktoberfest who are tweeting and blogging about the fun.

By the way, I highly recommend the Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest. They brew with hops and barley grown on site at the brewery in Chico. This beer actually tastes like it was just harvested. Something about it just tastes so fresh and clean. Makes me excited to hopefully have enough homegrown hops next year to use in my own brew.

Dogfish Head Chicha

Dogfish Head Brewery is known for creating ancient beers based on cultural traditions or archeological finds.  They have just announced their newest brew which is Chicha.  Chicha is a South American, mainly Peruvian brew that is mostly made from corn.

Check out Dogfish Head's video about the Chicha - it's very cool.  The thing I find most interesting as a homebrewer is that we get so caught up in things like PH measurements, gravity, color, and other details.  And here we have native Peruvians brewing in their traditional way to make Chicha - they chew the corn in their mouths prior to the boil instead of germination!! It just reminds me that as a homebrewer I need to remember that you can make great beer by experimenting with different techniques and ingredients.

It's too bad the Dogfish Head Chicha is only available at the pub, I would love to be able to try some but don't think I'll be getting out to Delaware any time soon.

2009 Hop Crop

Well, not really a whole crop of hops.  More like a dozen hop cones on my Nugget Hops.  But I am optimistic for next year!  I planted new rhizomes this year in a couple different places in my yard.  In the spring I planted 2 Cascade, 2 Willamette, and 2 Northern Brewer hops varieties.  Last year I had tried to grow in pots, and that didn't work well at all, so this year I put them in the ground.

Here is a picture of the planter I made for Willamette and Cascade:

Both Willamettes sprouted up within a couple weeks, then only one of the Cascades.  Here is a closeup of the Willamette at about 4 weeks (in April).

Initially the Willamette got to about 6 feet then stalled out.  The Cascade went to about 12 feet and stalled as well.  I'm pretty sure that I over watered due to the heat, and got root rot.  The leaves turned yellow then dried prematurely.  But the Cascade is having a late summer resurgence with new side shoots.  I think one other problem is that the stone I used to outline the planter gets real hot in the sun.  I think it is just baking the hops.  For next year, I may have to switch out the bricks with wood, or widen the planter so the hot bricks aren't right next to the hops.

In the front side yard, I originally planted a couple Northern Brewer hops, but they never sprouted.  I dug them up and they were rotten.  Again, I probably over watered. So I planted a Nugget rhizome in mid May and it really took off.  I decreased the watering schedule a bit and added a drip to it.  It seems to really like the Southern California heat because it is up to about 15 feet now, and I even got some hops cones.  Not bad for the first year.  Here is a picture of the Nugget hop that I have strung up to the top eaves of my house:

And here is a closeup of the hop cones.  They are not real big yet, but have great aroma to them already.  Next year when this hop plant is established I hope to have enough of a yield to actually brew some beer with my own hops.

Tweet!! Tweet!!!

Let's see how this works. I have been very hesitant as I have little time as it is to update my blog as often as I would like. But I went ahead and joined Twitter. So please follow me on Twitter, and whenever I update the Blog, I will send out a Tweet. Click on the link at the top of my blog or just go here: http://twitter.com/karlisbeer and start following my posts. Thanks for your support!!

Cuidado con el chupacabras!!!

Last night we had an excellent dinner. My all-time favorite mexican restaraunt (and the first mexican food I ever ate when I was a kid back in 1978 or so) opened a new restaurant in my city. They are called Carmelita's and I used to go to their original place in Roseville back in the day. What a coincendence that they open up a new place 500 miles away in my city. The food gods must have been smiling on me.

http://carmelitas.homestead.com/

Anyway, I ordered their Coloradito Burrito which is what I always had when I was a kid. It tasted exactly as I remembered it to be 20 years ago! Burrito Heaven! They slow cook the beef in chiles and onions and tomotaoes. I have never had a burrito that tasted like theirs. Very unique.

So when ordering our food, I was expecting the usual mexican beers to be on the list: Tecate, Corona, Negra Modelo, Bohemia. But there was a new one: Cucapas Chupacabras Pale Ale. It is brewed out of Mexicali, MX. I really wasn't expecting it to be very good, but I'm always up for something new so I gave it a go.

Upon pouring I was surprised to see that for a pale ale, it was actually very dark copper/amber color. Had a good foamy head, though not much aroma. Had some definite hop taste and was actually a bit more malty than I would expect from a pale as well. But overall it was a very good beer that actually tasted a bit like a homebrew rather than commercial brewery. It paired real well with my burrito and salsa roja. Find out more about the brewery here:

http://www.cucapa.com/eng/eng.html

¡salud!