The Captain's Chair

I haven’t formally reviewed anything from Michigan-based Jolly Pumpkin before, which is unfortunate I suppose, as my first one out of the gate isn’t frankly that indicative of a couple other pretty solid offerings I’ve had from them, including Oro de Calabaza (a biere de garde) and La Roja (a wild ale).

I picked this one up at Casanova’s in Hudson. And according to Beer Advocate, Noel de Calabaza is categorized as a Belgian strong dark, which I just don’t get. Like many styles, there’s often a fairly wide degree of latitude in characteristics of aroma and flavor. But when it comes to Belgian strong darks, the general theme across similar stylistic offerings like Chimay Blue, Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre and Unibroue Maudite is a rich malt foundation of caramel, bread and toast accented by a spicy, dark fruit aroma. 

With Jolly Pumpkin’s Christmas seasonal, however, you have to strain to pick up even a hint of these qualities. Instead, whatever malt complexity might actually be there is overshadowed by the two main things this beer does have going on…loads of barnyard funk and an acidic tart flavor, not exactly what I’d call your prototypical Belgian strong dark.

So putting the stylistic shackles aside, was the beer flavorful on its own merits?

They bottle condition the beer, and this one was a bit of a gusher, all kinds of carbonation spewing out of the bottle as I just barely got my glass in place to catch the pour. Color was nice, a deep mahogany with a meringue-like cloud of dense bubbles topping the glass. Brett, brett and more brett in the nose, which I’m a big fan of, laced with an acidic quality. Not much of the dark fruit or sweet candi sugar I’d expect. 

The beer has a fleeting sweetness up front in the taste, which quickly transitions to a potent, dominating lactic sourness. As much as I’ve been getting into sours lately, this one wasn’t really working for me, with not enough nuance or layers of additional flavor there to complement the one-dimensional tartness. Despite the overabundance of carbonation in the initial pour, mouthfeel was surprisingly thin, almost as if the acid took over and cut the texture.        

I really wanted to like this beer. But a lack of malt depth and vinegar-like flavoring make it a tough one for me to recommend.

Rating: C+

For anyone who’s spent any amount of time fiddling with a fermentor or enjoying a nice cold homebrew on a summer evening, Charlie Papazian is a man that needs no introduction.

His continued and untiring efforts since the late 1970′s to promote homebrewing and craft beer in this country — which include founding the American Homebrewers Association in 1978, the Brewers Association in 1979, creating the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, and writing the seminal book on homebrewing in 1984 — have unquestionably made him one of the most important figures in the industry.

With the American Homebrewers Association’s National Conference hitting the Twin Cities this coming June, I recently had the opportunity to connect with Charlie about his perspectives on the growth in homebrewing, and how the craft beer industry has changed over the last several decades:

TC: The craft beer industry has undergone monumental growth since the early 1980’s. How has homebrewing played a role in this shift since you founded the American Homebrewers Association in 1978 and Brewers Association in 1979? 

CP: Homebrewers were and still are the foundation of the craft brewing community. Nearly all of the cutting edge and traditional styles of beer were elevated and championed by homebrewers.  They still are the vanguard of experimentation.

TC: What are your perspectives on how the Twin Cities – compared to other beer destinations on the coasts – has evolved as a beer culture the past couple decades?  

CP: I don’t have recent perspective on the Twin Cities beer community.  But I’m looking forward to the visit in June.

TC: Your book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, is considered by many to be the bible of homebrewers around the world. Since it was first published in 1984, how has homebrewing grown and changed in this country? What challenges or obstacles still exist in expanding homebrewing?

CP: Used to be you brewed because you couldn’t get a variety.  Now homebrewing is even more about the enjoyment of the hobby, and then going beyond that to make exactly the kind of beer you want to enjoy, as well as beer types you can’t get fresh otherwise.  Also, it’s damned fun!

TC: What’s been the most significant innovation in homebrewing equipment/technology/ingredients since you started? What kinds of innovations do you see having an impact over the next 20 years? 

CP: Quality yeast accessibility, no doubt.  Fresh hops and variety second, with variety in malt third.

TC: The Great American Beer Festival celebrated its 28^th consecutive year this past September. How was your GABF experience this year? And what trends stood out in your mind?   

CP: It was fun. How can you really describe the Great American Beer Festival without actually being there! The biggest trend seems to be that increasingly more attendees are really serious about tasting all kinds of beer – and having fun.

TC: What have been some of your favorite, go-to recipes you’ve developed over the years?  

CP: Ordinary bitter a la Brakspears, Czech dark Lager a la U Flecku, Czech old style golden lager, imperial porter, cherrywood smoked malt lager, oatmeal stout, and a juniper chokecherry ale.

TC: What’s in the fermentor right now?   

CP: Lagering now, I have my Rogerfest cherrywood smoked lager #2, imperial porter, a Maerzen old style, and a Czech golden lager. 

TC: What advice would you give folks just starting out with their first batch of beer? 

CP: Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew!

For more information and to register for the 2010 AHA National Conference, visit the American Homebrewers Association website.

A wee little review heading into Christmas.

I was curious what the folks over at Summit were going to ferment up next as the second offering in their recently introduced Unchained Series, considering they set the bar pretty high with their very well done Kolsch. Turns out beer number two is well-suited to the cold winter months, a Scottish 90/- conceived by brewer Eric Blomquist.

Summit took a more traditional approach with their version of a Wee Heavy, opting to brew with heather, a purple flowering plant native to the Scottish highlands. These days, the herb is more commonly used in making Scottish liqueur Drambuie. But for many Scottish brewers who didn’t have ready access to hops, it served as the primary bittering agent, providing a touch of balance to their malt-forward ales. Interestingly, the underside of the heather leaf also contains a fungus that is known to cause hallucinogenic reactions, making proper cleaning of the plant before brewing of utmost importance (unless you’re into that sort of thing). 

Summit’s Scottish 90/- poured with a deep burgundy and maroon coloring, with crystal clarity. Rich caramel, dark fruit and a bit of smoke in the nose with a very unique and enjoyable herbal quality that finishes out the aroma, likely the heather. Malty sweet taste, a nice combination of roasted flavors and slightly caramelized malt, somewhat reminiscent to what you might get with a stein bier. The hop/heather bitterness helps balance out the sweetness, but not enough to draw attention away from the trademark malt backbone. The beer’s 7% ABV is well-hidden, making this a dangerously drinkable selection.

Another fine offering from Summit, get some before it goes away. Sounds like the third in the series will be an India Rye Ale brewed by Mike Lundell.

Rating: A-

The Beer Blogger Brew-Off went about as smoothly as I could have hoped, given I was brewing in near arctic conditions.

After being pummeled by a snow storm earlier this week that created snow drifts in my driveway in excess of two feet, there’s no doubt winter has officially arrived in Minnesota. So it was nice hanging out in the garage with the propane burner cranked up as far as the dial would go, taking the edge off the single digit temps as the unforgiving wind howled outside the door.

However, while it was just slightly bearable in my garage, the cold did come into play during the mash. Thinking the cold mash tun and ambient air temp would make an impact on the mash temp, I overcompensated and heated my strike water to about 180 degrees, which resulted in overshooting the 152 degree target temperature by a couple notches. Not a big deal…the finished beer might come out a tad sweeter than expected, but considering the style I’m brewing it will likely go unnoticed.

During the sparge, the wort smelled fantastic coming out of the mash tun, tons of roast and chocolate. To make it a milk stout, I added a half pound of lactose to the boil with ten minutes remaining. The gravity reading (before I added the lactose) was 1.045, so very close to the target established by Peter at Simply Beer in the original brew-off rules.

I’m pretty excited for this one, as it’s been a while since I’ve had a nice, easy-drinking stout on tap. I’m even more excited to try the beers from the other guys taking part in the friendly competition and see how their secret ingredients made an impact (so far, I know one guy added maple syrup, and another toasted oats). To read about how the Beer Blogger Brew-Off went for the other homebrewers involved, check out the Twitter hashtag #brewoff.

Here’s a few pictures from the day:  

I’m normally not one to turn down a challenge…especially when it comes to my favorite hobby.

So when Peter over at Simply Beer recently contacted a handful of homebrew bloggers across the country to take part in what he dubbed a Beer Blogger Brew-Off, well, there wasn’t much debate on whether I was going to throw my hat into the ring.

The format is pretty straightforward…everyone will brew the same base stout recipe this coming Sunday the 13th, but the variable is we all get to change ONE thing about the recipe…whether that’s tweaking the grains, hops, yeast, or introducing a secret ingredient.  The secret ingredient can be anything, as long as the 5 gallon batch is completed on time.  Everyone will bottle their beer January 10th, ship each participant a couple bottles on February 1st, and do a virtual tasting on February 12th that Peter will record and post as a podcast.

I think this event is a pretty cool idea, for a couple reasons…aside from the beer itself, the camaraderie and friendships developed being part of the homebrewing community, whether local or national, are some of the greatest things about the hobby, in my opinion. I’ve also learned alot from connecting with other brewers, and I’m certain this experience will be no different once I sample their beers and get a chance to learn about their vision and process.   

Here’s the list of participants, including a couple local guys. If you’re not familiar with some of these accomplished homebrewers, check out their sites:

Derek – Luther Public House (@LutherHaus)
Erik – Top Fermented (@topfermented)
Joseph – Hopfentreader (@hopfentreader)
Michael – Thank Heaven For Beer (@heavenlybrew)
Nate – Thank Heaven For Beer (@THFBeer_nate)
Peter – Simply Beer (@simplybeer)
Thomas – Beer Genome Project (@TomBGP)

Here’s the base recipe we’re all going with:

9 lbs. domestic 2-row barley
1 lb. chocolate malt
1 lb. roasted barley
4 oz. flaked barley
4 oz. caramel 60°L
1 oz. Willamette (60 min)
1 oz. Tettnang (2 min)
Wyeast 1056

60 min mash @ 152
75 min sparge @170
60 min boil
Estimated gravity of 1.046 and finish around 1.014

So what’s my secret ingredient going to be? I’ve put a fair amount of thought into it, and it’s been surprisingly challenging coming up with that ONE ingredient to go with. After some pretty funky suggestions, including one from my buddy Aaron at The Vice Blog to brew an egg nog stout (not sure I’d be able to pull that off with just one ingredient), I’ve decided to keep it relatively simple and add about a half pound of lactose during the boil to make this a nice milk stout. My focus will be on making this the most well-executed stout I can, as opposed to blowing people away with barrel-aged, fruit-infused craziness.

I’m curious to see what the other guys decide to do with their batches. I’ll keep everyone updated as the competition progresses.