Beer Diary...

Near the top of my list of favorite beer styles is the Belgian Tripel. I can't get enough of these beers and regularly have a homebrewed clone version of Chimay's Cinq Cents on tap at my house, (yeah, pretty pedestrian but they make a great tripel). So when I saw a unique brand on display at the Whole Foods beer cooler I snatched it up to do my typical comparison to the giant of Tripels, Chimay. The Straffe Hendrik Brugean Tripel is less of a strict Belgian tripel but seems to be more of a cross between a Belgian Dubbel and tripel. De Halve Maan (the half moon) Brewery claims to be the only authentic(?) Belgian brewery in the city of Bruges for whatever that's worth. The brewery first mentioned in town records from 1546 has been owned by Maes-Vanneste family since 1856. For more information about this historical brewery go here . What is authentic and for that matter more valuable is the flavor and quality of this beer. I like it a lot. For a tripel there is an inor...

One of the greatest challenges I'm finding as I grow my small brewery is consistency in the product. Producing beer of high quality that tastes, smells, looks and feels the same from batch to batch keeps me vigilant in my efforts. The grain bill is easy because I have access to all I need, but the hop schedule sometimes has to change occasionally because of the difficulty in getting hops here. So, I find myself adapting recipes based on what I have on hand at the time. The same can be true of yeast. But the hardest part of staying consistent for me is that I can no longer experiment with my beers like I've done in the past as a homebrewer. I like changing up the yeast for instance to see what the results are simply to try something new that could possibly 'wow' me. Case in point. In the recent past I'd been brewing my Belgian Tripel for sale here which is quite popular. I always use my favorite tripel yeast Whitelabs WLP500. I've been making ...

Beer Diary... I sat down with a glass of Arend Tripel  with the intention of forcing myself to review the beer when it occurred to me that a thousand other people have already reviewed this beer (and every other beer for that matter) with similar thoughts as mine, and I just stopped and decided to give this revelation some serious consideration. At this moment, I don't really care what I have to say about Arend Tripel, I mean, it's a good beer that fits the description of a classic Belgian tripel but saying anything beyond that simple point is, well, pointless. Ratebeer and Beeradvocate have ton's of reviews with details and applied averages and all kinds of ratings to enlighten those interested. The logical step for me would to simply place a link to those sites from here and here  leading to a cluster flock of opinions about this beer. Then I could follow up those links by saying something like - " what they said ". A...

Using homebrew to cook with is a great way to make some delicious dishes and additionally you can proudly say that the 'secret ingredient' is beer I brewed myself. It highlights the creative process and gives me just one more way of saying to my wife  "Hey, look at me, I'm like a modern day renaissance man! Right?" Or, just a way to be inventive in the kitchen and have fun using beer to make good tasting food. I'm not locked into just homebrew. I'll use commercial beer too but I tend to weight the cost of good commercial beer over the results expected in a dish. Often times I'd just prefer to drink the $5 a bomber beer. The other night, with the help of the wife (actually, she did all the work while I lurched over her trying to help but really just getting in the way), I worked up a recipe for BBQ sauce that is just plain good. Spicy with a plenty of heat offset with the sweetness of brown sugar and a bottle of under attenuated belgian tripel I ha...

I began my day with plans to brew a big beer, an all-grain Belgian Tripel , one of my favorite styles and worthy of having a keg on tap at all times. But in the brewing process, I ended up with about a gallon of additional running's at the end of the sparge. I didn't plan for this extra project when I started out this morning brewing my take on a Belgian tripel. I simply went about my business as usual but was unaware of the gallon or so of additional water in my hot liquor tank or it could be that I just didn't care that much, once the water was there. Normally I'm careful to calculate the amount of sparge water I will need in order to run all of it out of the HLT, through the mash, and finally end up with thirteen gallons of wort to begin my boil. This time, when I got to thirteen gallons in the boil kettle, my mash tun was still flowing and so I diverted the flow to a separate vessel and waited to see how much I would collect. I eventually ended up with close to a...

I've been using pellet hops in hop bags in the boil since the beginning of my brewing habit. I first purchased the medium sized nylon type from MoreBeer and soon discovered how limiting the size was. After the boil, the hops had expanded into a fist tight ball that pressed against the constraints of the bag. No me gusta! So, I started using 5gal. paint strainer bags a couple years ago to give the hops some more room to be exposed to the hot wort. My thinking and hope was that I could achieve a higher degree of flavor and aroma. You can go here to see other ideas or here to see my 'hop spider' solution . But there were problems with using these techniques, mainly that even with the larger bags the expanding vegetative mass appeared to seal off the flow of wort through the hops. I haven't done any studies to prove this so don't hold me to this theory but just from the looks of it I'd say I'm not getting my fair share of the available goodness from the hops....

One of the more popular beers we're brewing here in San Miguel is a Belgian tripel with honey. Belgian tripels are one of my favorite styles and the reason I brew it to begin with but it's nice to see that it's being received well here. It could be the people are drawn in by the rarity of a higher alcohol beer but I believe it's the high quality and unique character that is the selling feature. Nice chunks of hot break material After the boil As you know, I've been working to modify my challenging brewing water in order to brew better beer and for this recipe I've tried to mimic the water used from the region that Chimay is brewed. By diluting my tap water with a percentage of reverse osmosis water and adding back in some essential minerals that the filtration stripped out I am finally able to see the positive results from these efforts. One clear sign that I'm on the right track is the great 'hot break' material I'm seeing ...

a quick wikipedia scan gives some clues of the origin of the doctoring of mx. light beer. Evidently it dates back to the 40's where at the prestigous club Deportivo Potosino lime, salt and ice were added. But, no reference as to why? I imagine that the light beers in the 40's were probably much better and more flavorful than they are today but who can say for sure. Could have been crap back then too. My beer ice or " mi chela helada ". An alternate theory that predates the wiki proposal: Brought to you by Don Roberto' michelada mix website states - The “Michelada” was first created in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. As legend has it, the infamous military leader El General, Don Augusto Michel, would lead his battle hardened soldiers to his favorite cantina in San Luis Potosi to enjoy Mexican beer with lime and added hot sauce for character. Who's to say they aren't both correct or fictitious and really who's to care? Is there a ...

A fter two fantastic beer filled months in Santa Cruz I'm back in Mexico carrying on where I left off with the Cerveceria Dos Aves project . I hated to leave Santa Cruz, my good friends and homebrewing compadres, the beautiful weather and beach scene, the vibe and of course the awesome craft beers that make the Mexican craft beer scene pale in comparison. I spent more than I should have of my personal budget on beer but I was so starved for the quality craft beer that the States has to offer that I couldn't help myself. From the hoppy malty deliciousness of Drakes Denogginizer and Knee Deep's Hoptologist to the local sour scene at Sante Adairius Rustic Ales I immersed myself deeply knowing that soon I would return to a country that has a lot of ground to cover to reach the level of quality and creativity that seems to be a standard in the brewing industry in California. Of course my mission here in San Miguel is to do my part to help propel the craft beer mo...

  Making an eisbock is a relatively simple procedure, and according to the German Beer Institute web site it goes a little something like this: "Because water freezes before alcohol, the chilled brew can be drained off the ice crystals that form in the tank. During this process, the beer loses about 7 to 10% of its water content. As a result, the alcohol concentration in the beer increases, usually to about 10% by volume, about twice as much as the 4.5 to 5.5% of a regular German lager."  I've thought about doing this for a long time now. The actual doing part didn't happen until recently because of an unfortunate blockage in my mind. Because I was focused on accomplishing the task with five gallons of beer, I just assumed that I would need to somehow get an entire corney keg in a freezer and somehow remove the ice from that container and then carbonate the remaining concentrate left in the keg for dispensing. I know it seems strange, but  it never occurred to...

While cleaning out my brewing area I set aside all of the empty yeast vials that I accumulated over the years. Although I've thrown away many more vials than I've saved and as a standard practice I use a lot of US-05 dry yeast, never the less, the remaining collection revealed some telling statistics about my brewing habits. The first and obvious is how often I brew wheat beers and my preference for Whitelabs hefeweizen yeast WLP300 . As you can tell from the picture below, I have far more empty vials of that yeast then any other. I use it for my standard German hefe and also a dunkelweizen recipe that I brew without changes at this point. Besides the great flavor I get from this yeast, I've discovered over time that fermenting with it at low ale temperatures (low 60's f. in this case) has a considerably influence in increasing the amount of phenols in the finished beer, a flavor component that I really enjoy. Empty vials of Whitelabs yeast The other clear in...

Brewing beer for the public is way different than brewing for myself. Even though as a homebrewer I brewed a lot of beer for personal consumption (over the legal 200 gallons per year, don't tell anyone) it's no where near what I'm brewing now. Our new label design and brand logo A typical volume per month at this time of the year is 120 gallons, with the trend and current production capacity at 160 gallons. But we still don't have a lot of history to use as a compass, and I'm still in the process of determining how much beer is needed in inventory based on the demand from month to month. Our current standard line-up is: Pale ale, Belgian tripel, Dry stout and Imperial IPA. I've tested a couple other styles over the last year and they didn't receive the high praise that our current four beers get. My plan is to brew our same seasonal beers again this Summer to be released in the late Fall which are the Barley wine and Russian imperial stout. I may bre...

Cerveceria Calavera is another stand out micro brewery in Mexico. From the many beers I've tasted down here, there are only a handful of breweries that rise to the top of my list in regards to a consistently good selection of styles. Calavera ranks in my top three, following closely behind my favorite, La Chingoneria who produce my all time best "Armargator". Calavera comes in next with their take on a Belgian Tripel and then Tijuana Brewing with their 'Guera'.  However, I have to say that I take exception with Tijuana Brewing because of their proximity to San Diego and the obvious influence of the So. California beer scene. Calavera Smoky Scottish Ale Today, I revisiting Calavera by trying out a glass of the Smoky Scottish Ale 80/- down at Cafe Mesa Grande. I've never been a big fan of the Scottish style as it tends to be too sweet and cloying for my tastes but if the Mexican brewers are trying to make it, I want to sample their take on the style. ...

Unibroue is a brewery in Quebec, Canada that has it's beginnings as a 1990 buy-out of the already existing Brasserie Massawippi located in North Hatley, which produced the first craft beer meant for commercial distribution. After becoming one of the most successful microbreweries in Canada, Unibroue was soon acquired by Sleeman Breweries , which itself was merged with Sapporo brewery in 2006. Blanche de Chambly is Uniboue's flavorful, relatively low alcoholic Belgian ale with plenty of phenolic spice and fruity esters. There's coriander in the nose and sweet orange peel comes on strong in the taste. With all that going on, I was surprised how un-impressive I was with this beer. Sure, it's quaffable but what detracts from the possibilities offered by those initial flavor components is the overly sweet bready flavors with a heavy handed candy sugar presence that feels cloying and burdensome. It impressed me as that of an under attenuated tripel. As if it didn't ...

I don't know where to begin, except to say that there are no simple answers. So, I'm posing this question to you who happen to stumble upon or are following this blog. But what is the question you ask? Simple. How does one decide on a selection of beers if you're conducting a beer tasting class? The reality is that there are twenty three recognized classic styles of beer not including mead, cider, melomel, and perry (whatever that is). In addition, there are a total of seventy nine subcategories that make up these styles. Break that down even further by considering the companies that brew these beers and you've got thousands of beer out there to choose from. Now, your mission if you choose to accept it is to pick just eight of those beers to present in a three hour tasting session. Making the choice of beers can be a creative process and that is how I approach it. I begin this process with an intention. For instance, I may make the decision on my selecti...

Each year we continue to grow. Slowly. It's a struggle to make a small brewery profitable and it's an incredible amount of work just to break even. But, with our recent gold metal wins in a national competition against professional brewers throughout Mexico the hard work is rewarded with a sense of validation. This is encouraging and the pride of the achievement has energized me to keep at it. We took first place for our Am. pale ale and R.I.S.  Last year we took 3rd. place for our Belgian tripel and two years ago a gold medal for our barley wine. Needless to say, we are making some good beer now we just need to make a lot more of it. We have commissioned a local welder to manufacture a set of 3bbl kettles that we hope to put into use by the end of September. This will reduce our current work load of eight back-to-back brewing sessions in a 17 hour period down to one in 8 hours in order to get our fermentors half full. As our sales increase we can then go to bre...

I recently made the short trek to the other side of the bay to meet up with a friend of mine and enjoy his company over a couple of beers. During the drive down I couldn't help but smile in appreciation, for the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful places in the country. As Highway 1 bends south along the shore I witness the stunning views of the coastl ine with its cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach lining the distant horizon over a vivid expanse of deep blue ocean. My destination is The Ol’ Factory Café http://www.olfactorycafe.com/ located at the entrance to Monterey. Morgan Christopher is the owner and beer aficionado, who opened for business two years ago introducing to the public the vast array of remarkable beers from all over the world. As I walk in I am immediately drawn to a bar that boasts at least forty specialty beers in bottles and another ten or twelve on tap. We’re not talking your usual domestic craft fair although there is some of that ...