Hello to all of my readers. No I haven't forgot about you. Just a lot of things have been going on. Lets get the ugly crap outta the way first.
Last Wednesday I was laid off from my job. We were notified 6 weeks before that there were going to be layoffs. Did I think I was going to get hit? Well, I had my own reason in my head why I could and couldn't. Overall I'm fine with the situation. As much as it sucks, they provided a very nice severance package. I've got a few leads thanks to everyone reaching out to me. Hopefully I can turn something here in the next month or two. As fun as it is being home, it does get a little old. Maybe if the weather was nicer so I could ride my bike or work out in the yard things would be different. Heck.. even get a brew or two in ;)
So let's get back to beer talk. Three weeks ago Tony, Rob, and myself brewed my Tree Huggin Hippy Pale Ale. It's an all-organic pale ale. I'm pretty excited about this beer for the summer. I've already kegged it and just waiting for it to carbonate and condition. This is my first beer that I've made with a yeast starter. I was amazed at how quickly the yeast kicked off, in about 8 hours for full bubbling in the airlock.
I plan on brewing my Helle here soon as all 3 of my kegs are full at the moment. I always like to have something lined up to fill an empty keg. The helle will take a while to make which will be perfect for timing reasons.
Also with this last brew session it was very impromptu. I sent out a small email to some people but others found out and were a little upset they didn't get the invite. (Sorry Curly!). If you'd like to be on the brewing email, just shoot me an email or drop me a line on here. I'll add you to the list. Sometimes the brewing is planned, but other times it's hours notice, not days.
Here's some picture from the brew session with Tony, Rob, and myself. Pictures provided by Tony. Thanks guys for helping!
So I realized that I didn't inform many people about my New Years resolution. Yes I try to do the same things everyone else does.. exercise more, eat better, watch my weight, but I did another this year that I really am going to try to uphold. My goal at the beginning of year was to not buy any beer but to only buy ingredients for me to brew, with a few exceptions.
The exceptions are the following:
Going out to a bar, restaurant, state fair, vacation, etc.
Going to a party or throwing our own party. As much as I love supplying my own beer, sometimes I can't afford to drain all 3 kegs. Not that it's the cost that hurts, it's the 5+ hours of brewing to replace what's in there that hurts.
If something new comes out from one of the commercial brewers that I want to try. Example: Summit's unchained series. BTW the new Gold Sovereign is amazing. Go buy it if you're in the Twin Cities area.
So, with that said something new came out that I wanted to buy to drink while having my impromptu Friday brew session (which I'll blog about once I get the pictures from Tony). Stone Brewing out of Escondido, CA just started distributing here in Minnesota. I've had their beer before when I've gone to Washington. I was pretty excited to try their beer again. After contacting my local liquor store to insure they had some, I went down there to pick up a few 6 packs. This was the first time I had bought beer since christmas time. Holy sweet mother of god that beer wasn't cheap. They only had two of their beers, IPA and their Levitation ale. At $10.99 + tax a 6 pack, I bit the bullet and bought one six pack of each, but even I hesitated to spend that sort of cash on a quality product. I can really understand why people might be turned off from going outside of their save beer zone to try something different. Now granted that's cheaper then the $7.75 I paid the next night for a pint of Stone Arrogant Bastard at the bar I went to, but if you end up not liking the beer, that's a lot of cash to figure that out. I really do enjoy the places that allow for the build your own 6-pack. Reflecting on this now did make me just think that everytime I brew, I'm taking a gamble I might not like it also. Only problem is at that point I've dropped close to $30, 5 hours of my time, and I have 5 gallons of it. Lucky for me I typically have suckers friends I can pawn off offer up my beer to.
To close this, I still really encourage you all to continue to support your local brewer or another craft brewer, even if they are "larger" now such as the Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams) or New Belgium Brewing (Fat Tire). These companies are still locally owned and put a lot of pride in what they produce. If your name is Drea and I see you drinking another Bud Lite I will give you the finger, just like I promised at the Ginger Hop on Saturday night. Remember, it's not that I hate lite beer, it's just that I hate Anheuser Busch (which now own Goose Island... damnit!)
It's times like this which I wish I would have paid a little more attention in chemistry class.
One of the major ingredients of beer is yeast. Yeast is that living organism which, in a crude way, farts CO2 and poops alcohol. It's thanks to these small guys why beer is carbonated and alcoholic. Up until now I've always used either liquid or dry yeast in my beer with no pre-processing. For liquid yeast I would use a smack pack like Wyeast or a tube of Whitelabs yeast. I'd just dump it in when it was time to pitch the yeast. As for the dry yeast, I would just sprinkle the yeast on top of the wort. After listening to the podcast Brew Strong, I've realized just how important yeast starters are.
A yeast starters is a mini-batch of beer using dry malt extract and no hops to start the yeast buildup. This is only applicable to liquid yeast. Dry yeast only needs to be hydrated in a cup of warm water. The yeast starter is made in a chemistry grade flask by boiling water, adding the dry malt extract, boiling that for around 15 minutes, then cooling. Because this is a much smaller amount of liquid it's not necessary to boil for an extended period of time like a normal beer. Also there are no hops being added so we're only doing this to sanitize the liquid.
Why this is important is to have healthy, active yeast being pitched into your beer for a quick start of fermentation. While a smack pack has around 120 billion cells, it's been found that a number more like 150+ billion is closer to the amount needed. An easy way to figure out the amount of yeast needed is to use Mr. Malty's calculator. While listening to the podcasts they talked about stiring the yeast starter often, or using a stir plate. A stir plate is essential a spinning magnet which spins a magnetic bar which can be placed into a chemistry flask or other container which is set on top of the stir plate. Yeast require food (sugar) and oxygen to build up their numbers, hence why stiring is needed to keep a healthy flow of oxygen. I figured if I'm going to start building yeast starters, why not go all in.
After doing some internet research I found the stir plates are really damn expensive ($75~$100+ range). I did however find this website which talked about building your own stir plate. After looking at the items required to build this, I realized I had most of what I needed already. I have a lot of extra computer parts, connectors, and wires which covered my need of a computer fan and the rare earth magnetic. I had a box I could have used but I made a trip to my local Ax-Man Supplies store for the box and some additional items. For those of you not from the Minneapolis area, Ax-Man is a store full of random shit. There's really no better way to explain it. It's like an army surplus store but with more random motors and tinkering items. It's the perfect store for that school science project. So for $14 I bought the rest of the items I needed, along with a few extra goodies I might use later.
Note the pint glass in the background :)
One thing that I did different was I didn't screw my fan to the box. I didn't want my $27 flask resting on some bolts so I used motherboard plastic standoffs which I glued to the lid of the box. For $14 I think it works pretty damn well. Additional costs were $27 for the 2000ml chemistry grade flask and $6 for the 1 inch stir bar. The guy at Midwest supplies talked me into the 1 inch stir bar, though I'm starting to think I maybe should have bought the 2inch bar. Here's a video I took this morning of the first test run. You'll see in the video I change the speed of the fan using the control knob. Overall I'm happy with the project and I'll post updates as I build my first yeast starter. If you're interested in building your own stir plate, feel free to contact me.
It's been a while since I posted anything, and to be honest on the brew front not much has happened. I've been working on a few new recipe ideas for this summer and a yeast project which I'll post as soon as it's finished. Otherwise between work, social obligations, and the cold, I haven't been real interested in hanging out in the garage for 4 hours. With spring and warm weather comes a muddy dog, impromptu BBQ's, and of course brewing of my summer seasonals. I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head including one that came to me today that involves using a vegetable, and no it's not potatoes. So keep tuned as I hope to have lots of information here soon.
I just received an interesting link from my buddy Bobby. Apparently President Obama is joining the homebrewers ranks. I wonder if Mrs. Obama will have custom cups made.
Little update, I finally brewed this. I meant to do this about 2 weeks ago as part of my secret weapon of letting it lager for a while, but that's not going to work as well now. I'd give the info on my recipe, but I know that some of the other competitors read this, so more details to come later if it turns out any good. One thing I will say is that I brewed it unfiltered/no irish moss, so it's a hazy IPA. I'm sort of wishing I would have thrown in some irish moss now that I look at it ferment. Irish moss for those who don't know is a clarifying agent which helps make the beer clearer. When irish moss is not added it's hazy and typically you can't see through it.
Some pictures:
Now you'll notice the scale out and one of the rules was no scales. Let me explain. Some of the hops I bought were cheaper if I bought them by the half pound, so I did. The way I see it I could have spend the extra money to buy single oz's, so I should be able to measure out at least 1oz amounts then split them from there, which is what I did. Those were only some of my hops that I used. 9oz total of hops in this bad boy.
Just your normal brewing shot. Nothing special going on here.. not even a boil yet.
Overall it was a fun contest. I don't have any action shots of me rolling the dice, but I will say out of 12 rolls I never hit 6 once. Sort of weird. The summer challenge has yet to be determined, but we're talking about a seasonal. Depending on the rules I would like to make an American Honey Wheat this summer. If I could use my family's wheat that would be awesome, but there's a lot of work to do in order to make the wheat into brewing quality.
On another note I will say is I think I've been jumping the gun a little too quick on some of my beers to start pouring. I'm going to have to let stuff sit a little longer because my beers seem to be better towards the end of the keg then the beginning. My Irish Red for example has really picked up some flavors and is a whole lot better then the beginning. Needless to say I'm going to let Sophie's Stout sit for a little while longer in the keg before I actually tap it.
Anyways, it's been snowing for the last 48 hours and I should go and yet again snowblow my driveway. Until next time!
As many of you know, Minnesota has quite possible the dumbest liquor laws around. We can only buy beer, wine, and liquor in a liquor store. The liquor store has county mandated hours and a state mandate that they aren't open on Sundays. Also when it comes to breweries there is a whole cluster fuck of laws that I've started looking into. For example, if you're a package brewery you cannot sell your own product on site. If you're a brewpub you can only sell your product on site and cannot sell it in any other store or bar. Minnesota really is producing some damn good beers, but our laws are really prohibiting these companies from expanding in what I feel are logical ways. Surly would like to create a new 20 million dollar brewery with a restaurant, bar, and event center. Unlike the Minnesota Vikings who are asking tax payers to flip millions of dollars for their new home, Surly is asking for $0. They just want to be able to create this new brewery, which requires the change of some 80 year old laws.
I've felt pretty strong about a few political things which I try to keep out of this blog (one of which I was reminded of this morning while watching Good Morning America), but as a homebrewer I emailed my senator and representative. I strongly encourage my Minnesota readers to join me in doing the same. Go to this website to find out your local senator and representative: http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districtsRemember that you want to email the State ones, not the national ones which say "US". Below is an example of the letter I sent to mine:
I'm writing you on behalf of the current liquor law changes which I've heard are being proposed.
The first one is the Surly Brewery expansion. I fully support their cause. I believe that currently our liquor laws on where beer is able to be sold are holding back Minnesota based companies from expanding. Breweries such as Surly and Summit could benefit by the legislation changing 80 year old laws. I would also like to see smaller brewpubs be able to sell their beer to other restaurants and stores using the current distribution method. As a homebrewer of beer myself, I've looked into what it takes to start a brewery. I feel that with today's laws I'm hesitant to jump into such an endeavor. If I knew that the state did not hinder me to expand my business if it should take off, then I'd be more interested in making the investment. In the beer brewing world, our great state is offering a lot to the American people. I would like to see us promote those businesses and allow them to grow. Not only is the business going to be benefiting, but also the state from the taxes and additional jobs these companies will produce. Surly, unlike some other major companies, is not asking for tax breaks or handouts. They simply want to expand.
The other change which I fully support is allowing liquor sales on Sundays. This "blue law" has run its course in time. I believe it's time to accept that it is the 21st century and prohibition ended in 1933. The taxes which the state will collect by changing this law seems like a no-brainier to me. We're hurting for money and this would be one simple way to collect additional taxes without a lot of effort or burden on the people of Minnesota. If you can buy beer in a bar on Sunday, why not allow people to purchase it at a store? Please vote yes.
So please join me in changing these laws.
Prost!
-Ryan
UPDATE:
I got an e-mail back from Representative Carlson:
Thank you for writing to share your thoughts about the proposed Surly Brewery Company expansion. I want to share some information with you about what is happening in the legislature in regard to this issue.
As of today, there have been no bills introduced in either the House or the Senate that would allow for Surly Brewing Company to expand on their proposed scale. However, I am aware that the president of Surly Brewing Company has been meeting with legislators to discuss the proposed expansion to their facility and I look forward to the opportunity to speak with him. I will continue to monitor this issue as the session progresses. In the event that legislation regarding this issue comes before me on the House floor, I will certainly keep your views in mind.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me again in the future about this or any other issues.
Note the pint glass in the background :)
