I love beer.
My Christmas present this year was a cornelius keg kit. I picked it up yesterday and I’m very excited to keg my first batch of beer. The Midwinter Porter I just brewed will be my first draft beer.
I’ve been getting really tired of bottling over the last several months. The worst part has been cleaning and de-labeling bottles. But I just picked up some Straight-A and that stuff is great! Labels come off in a snap! So I’ll just have to brew more to keep my bottle supply filled and my keg.
This is the winter recipe from Mainstreet Homebrew’s newsletter. They bill it as bigger and bolder than most west coast porters. It will be interesting to compare it to the west coast porter I brewed earlier this month.
Midwinter’s Porter
8 lbs Amber Malt Extract
12 oz CaraMunich
4 oz 120l Crystal Malt
14 oz Chocolate Malt
6 oz Melanoidin
6 oz Special Roast
3 oz Carafa Malt
2 oz No. Brewer Hops (1 oz @ 60 min, 1/2 @ 20 min, 1/2 @ 10 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 45 min
1/2 tsp Yeast nutrient @ 5 min
British Ale Yeast (WLP005)
OG 1.065
I brewed up another batch of my raspberry hefeweizen last week. Even though it was a “bit” foamy last time, it was a big hit with the extended family. I’m delivering a bunch as a belated Christmas gift. I’ve learned a couple of things since last time. First, I made sure to get a hydrometer reading before I pitched the yeast (1.054, if you’re curious). Second, I made sure to mix the wort well before I took the reading. I think not mixing it had given me some funny OG readings before.
Anyway, I’ll see how it turns out.
Last night we had a marvelous dinner at the Red Star Tavern in downtown Portland. We both had the Chef’s 3 course taster menu. Each course was paired with a beer by the chef.
1st Course
Organic Butter Lettuce, Baked Fig Vinaigrette, Toasted Almonds, Powdered Goat Cheese
Beer: Roots Organic Brewing Saison
2nd Course
Wood Grilled Kobe Beef, Marinated Treviso, Goat Cheese Foam, Red Wine Essence
Beer: Ninkasi Brewing Red Ale
3rd Course
Frozen Hazelnut Mousse, Brown Butter Sponge Cake,
Hot “Nutella” Milk Chocolate, Frangelico Foam
Beer: Caldera Brewing Pilot Rock Porter
All of the beers were excellent. I thought my mocha porter compared favorably to the Caldera porter. The Ninkasi Red Ale was fantastic. I enjoyed the saison, but I thought the red ale had more flavor. The kobe beef was awesome!
I had another great holiday ale tonight - Wreck the Halls from Full Sail Brewing in Hood River. Wreck the Halls is a very hoppy IPA, but not as in your face as some IPAs. Great beer!
My favorite holiday ale so far, and this is by no means an exhaustive search, is Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. It is delightfully hoppy and altogether very tasty. Even better, from my perspective, is that my wife considers it too hoppy and so I don’t have to share it!
I have also enjoyed Deschutes Brewing’s Jubelale and Bridgeport’s Ebenezer Ale. The Sam Adams Winter Lager didn’t do much for me.
I had the chance to go down to the 2007 Holiday Ale Festival in Portland this last weekend. The beers were great, but the experience left a little to be desired. We got downtown at about 6 on Friday night and the line to get in was long… Once we got in the place was packed. No big surprise, I guess. The lesson I learned is to go during the day sometime next year. Anyway, we sampled a couple of beers:
Another recipe from Main Street Homebrew. This is patterned after Deschutes Brewing’s Black Butte Porter.
West Coast Porter
7lbs Amber malt extract
12oz Chocolate malt
8oz 80l Crystal malt
4oz Carafa Black malt
Irish Ale Yeast
1 1/2 oz Cascade hops @ 60 min
1 oz Cascade hops @ 15 min
1 oz Cascade hops @ 5 min
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient @ 5 min
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 45 min
The original recipe only called for about half as many hops - but I had some extra cascade hops in the fridge and I decided to take it up a step.
This is a seasonal recipe from the guys at Main Street Homebrew.
Skellington Ale
9lbs light malt extract
10 oz 60l Crystal malt
8oz Victory malt
8oz Aromatic malt
8oz toasted Pale malt (toasted @ home for 12 min. at 350 deg.)
1/2 cup light molasses
2 oz Fuggles @ 60 min.
4 inches fractured cinnamon stick @ 25 min.
1 tblsp dried ginger @ 20 min.
1 oz Tettnanger hops @ 18 min.
3/4 tsp nutmeg @ 12 min.
1 whole clove @ 10 min.
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient @ 5 min.
1/2 oz Tettnanger hops @ 2 min.
1 can pumpkin @ 0 min - steep for 10 min.
East Coast Ale yeast
3 tsp vanilla extract & 1/4 tsp nutmeg when racking to secondary
Age 2 weeks in glass secondary and 4 weeks in bottle
This is ready to be bottled any time. Unfortunately I didn’t brew it very early in the season, so my pumpkin ale should be great in time for the superbowl.
This weekend I bottled the stout that I brewed early in October. I decided to call it “Rank Ambition Stout” in honor of recent events at work.
