Beer Diary...

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...

Congratulations to all of the competitors in this years Santa Cruz County Fair homebrewing contest. The following are the results from this years event. Please forward this to anyone you know that may have entered beer this year. Competition Results SC County Fair 2011 9/10/2011   Best of Show Winner Chris Scianni Flight Winners - Flight Description - Beer Style Robert Conticello - English Brown Ale, Porter - Mild Harendra Goontilleke - English/Imperial IPA - Imperial IPA Katie Lipton - Belgian Strong, Sour Ale, Strong Ale - Belgian Dark Strong Ale Michael Lipton - Wheat/Rye, Belgian/French - Belgian Specialty Ale Larry Lynch-Freshner - Fruit, Spice/Herb/Vegetable, Smoke/Wood - Classic Rauchbier Sean McMasters - Stout - American Stout Dennis Nolan - Mead- Braggot Dennis Nolan - Cider - Common Cider Gary Schilling - Hybrids - California Common Beer Chris Scianni - American IPA - American IPA Mark Taylor - Lagers - Standard American Lager Chris Thomsen - Special...

I had an excellent afternoon sampling a hand full of beers at Drake's Brewery barrel room yesterday. I headed up the 880 to San Leandro with friend Brady to find out what was on tap and we were not disappointed. Tucked behind and through the shadowy alleys of a colossal shopping mall, Drake's is not easy to find. But as we meandered our way between buildings a brilliant and holy light was shinning down on Drake's Barrel House tap room. Stepping inside this warehouse/taproom we approached a length of bar that fronted about 18 tap mounted to a large walk-in cooler. With only a couple of tables and the bar, the facility appeared mostly devoted to the dozens of barrels for the purposes of aging. Out on the patio were several more tables for enjoying the beer in the sun. Eager to quench our thirsts we ordered  pints of light lagers before launching into some of the barreled aged beers.  Brady got the pilsn...

Three simple words, crush, crush, crush. Wait, that's one simple word three times. Regardless, this is the number one thing you can do in your brewery to increase the amount of sugar you extract from you grain. I went from an efficiency of 75% to 85% with just that one step. I cranked down on the gap in my mill a little at a time over the course of several batches, watching my efficiency go up with each adjustment. My current gap setting is .029" (.737mm) on the narrow end of the mill and .055" (1.40mm) on the wide end of the mill. (My mill only adjusts on one end.) The rollers are somewhat smooth with fine ridges that run the length of each which adds to the severity of the crush. If you are relying on your homebrew store to crush the grain you order, ask if they will narrow the gap, or if not, to mill the grain twice. They should be accommodating but only after they warn you about a stuck sparge. Smile and nod politely. "Oh, but what about ...

I'm contributing ten gallons of beer to the Zymurgeeks homebrew club barrel project this week. This is  a lambic style beer that will be in the barrel for a couple of years. Two years seems like a long time, I hope I'm not dead when the beer becomes mature. If I am, please see to it that some is poured into the urn where my ashes are kept. My batch is actually just some additional beer that needs to be added to top-off the barrel because of evaporation and I suspect some plain and simple thievery, but I'm happy to pitch in so to speak. I like a good gueuze every once in awhile but I would never brew ten gallons for my own personal consumption. This batch allows me to experience the enjoyment of brewing a new style and be able to draw off some every so often in small amounts. I'll be pitching Wyeast's lambic blend 3278 for this beer and I've made a starter using (don't tell anyone) cane sugar. The starter already has the smell of  a lambic, sour and fu...