Easing Back In

Only 6 weeks left in the residency. Working 70 hr weeks of 12 days on followed by 2 days off has taken its tole on Rowdy Reptile. The last time we brewed February (Schwarz) which we are saving until Elise can drink again. We still have the Pale Ale on tap and it is tasting great at this point. It's got a little bit of bitterness and a good hop aroma. Nothing brash and in your face, but a good beer to sip on. The Belgian Pale Ale is still there, but I think it's now past its prime and I'll probably be dumping it eventually to make room if it's not gone before then.

As I was writing about it, I decided to go pour a pale ale, and wouldn't you know, the hop aroma was getting so good because it was about empty! Now it's completely empty. Of course. Great. Back to nothing on tap.

In other news, I am going to be able to squeeze a brew in this weekend, and since I have the ingredients on hand, I am going to take another crack at a Belgian Dubbel. This time I'll use a commercial Amber Candi Sugar product (instead of trying to make my own). Otherwise, the base malt is about the same from previous batches. I made the starter tonight and will be brewing on Saturday after work.

Usually I make the starters (pic above) with enough time for them to ferment out and then cold crash in fridge. This was on short notice, so I'll be pitching the yeast at high krausen; basically when the fermentation in the starter is in full-swing. Hopefully the old yeast (Sept 2012....) still has some life left and the starter can grow enough new yeast to be able to ferment this one out like a dubbel should. I assume we'll be drinking this one in about 6-8 weeks

The hops are back again this year. The pic on the left is of the Centennials, and on the right is the Newport. The Centennials are growing a lot quicker than the Newport and the longest bine is about 10 feet high. This year we were able to string some trellis' up the side of the house to give the bines a little more room to climb and hopefully produce some more cones.

The next planned brew day is probably not going to be until around Cody is born and Elise's parents are in town to help (last week of June). With the extra help around I'll try to sneak away and brew an IPA. After that, I have a week off in July before I start my real job, and I'll brew a Summer beer: Pale, Saison, or Wit. We'll see if that even gets to happen, I hope it does as we'll need some lighter beers to balance the dubbel and schwarz.

With the residency ending and more people around to help drink, I hope that we can start brewing back up where we left off 12 months ago. Once we've got a nice stockpile going we can then start making the fun, experimental beers likes Bier de Mars, 100% Brett beers, and some stuff with oak. This year we didn't have time to make our Anniversary Barleywine or any of our winter beers, so hopefully this summer we can make some for the winter.

Schwarz and Pale Ale Update

Today I was off and was able to squeeze in a brew. We don't have much variety to choose from the malty-persuasion, so I thought it would be a good time to brew a Schwarzbier. We are going to do the same recipe that we had during my graduation and I hope this one is as good as that one. The water here in NC isn't as favorable for brewing dark beers due to the softness of the water, but hopefully the added carbonates to the mash from the baking soda and chalk that I added will make up for that. We probably won't drink this one for 4-5 months when Elise can start drinking again, so hopefully it will be very smooth after the long aging process.

As for the pale ale, it is a decent beer. It took a little longer than expected to carbonate and was therefore lacking any crispness, but now that it is carbonated properly, I am much happier with it. It's not overly bitter, but for a pale, I would like a little more "bite" next time.

I think the next IPA we brew will be much different than past ones. After reading a book about IPA, I saw a water profile a pro brewery uses and was surprised by how high their sulfate and calcium levels were. I am definitely going to start playing with higher levels of those minerals in our hoppy beers to hopefully accentuate the hoppy profile. We are also going to brew a few recipes from the IPA book like Firestone Walker and Stone before we try our hand at an original recipe again.

Hopefully we'll be able to brew 3-4 more times in the next 5 months before the little one is here. I am thinking an IPA, a dubbel, a brown, and maybe another saison, but who knows how much time we'll have.

#TeamDietrich

2012 In Review

Each year I like to do a little review of some of the data we keep about our brewing. This year, surprisingly, was pretty similar to previous years in the amount of beer we brewed, but our costs were higher overall as we bought the kegerator and all the parts that go along with that. This was the first year in which we have had to dump a beer. Because I didn’t clean the new kegs well enough, we had to dump a Schwarzbier and a Brown Ale. I counted those beer’s volumes, but not as separate batches of beer.

2012:
Beers Brewed: 19
Gallons: 94.25 gallons
Cost/bottle: $1.61
Cost/bottle (ingredients only): $0.62

Last year’s cost/bottle: $0.97 (ingredient only: $0.60)

Overall, not a bad price for good beer, when you consider that a decent 6-pack of beer is running about $9/six pack.

For 2013, I don’t think we have any specific brewing goals in mind. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with our beers right now. I think that several of them could use a tiny bit of tweaking to take them from good to outstanding, but time’s not really on our side right now. Our friends and family enjoy our brews and that is what’s most important. Hopefully in the Spring we’ll be able to add a little variety to the lineup with something malty (like a Dubbel) and something refreshing for the Summer (like a Saison).

#teamDietrich

Last brew of 2012

It’s December, and the residency will be calm for the next week and a half, so I had some time to make a quick post and update everyone (if anyone is still reading after the hiatus) on what’s been going on at Rowdy Reptile. Over the past 3 months I have completed rotations in the Surgical/Trauma ICU, Emergency Department, and the Cardiac ICU; needless to say, I haven’t had any time to think about beer. The family has been so busy we haven’t brewed a beer in over 4 months! We knew not brewing for that long would eventually catch up to us, and it finally did last week. Previously, we had the Porter, BPA, and Gatorbait Pale Ale on tap and everything was fine. Then the Pale Ale kicked. A few days later the porter was empty, and 1 day after that the BPA kicked.

No beer on tap? At the Dietrich’s? Maybe the Mayans were right…..

Anyway, we’ve got a few bottles of the Saison left and plenty of the RIS and First Snow to last for a while. However, all 3 of those are big beers (7.3, 8.9, and 8.9% alcohol) and none of them are hoppy. And you always need at least 1 hoppy beer, right? Right. #America.

With family coming into town, and the relative “break” in the residency, we will have time to squeeze in a brew day on the 23rd. We are planning to make our Double Pale Ale (now for the 4th time) with the only modification being in one of the hops. Amarillo hops are now $3.80/oz (normally they are about $2), so I subbed those out for Falconer’s Flight. We’ll still keep the same timing on the hop schedule, and then dry hop with an ounce of Falconer’s Flight. Hopefully this one will be ready to drink by mid-February.

#teamDietrich

10 gallons: Belgian and American Pale Ales

With the limited time we have for brewing these days, having the ability to make 10 gallons in one session is quite a luxury. The same amount of time and effort yields double the beer. The hardest part though, is having to deal with fermentation.

We only have 1 dedicated fermentation fridge, so the other batch we make has to be fermented with a yeast that is a little more forgiving. Belgian and saison yeasts do fine at higher temperatures, so we'll do the BPA in a swamp cooler inside the house and try to keep it around 68.

We buttered with centennial (the store was out of Amarillo) and then used cascade in the boil. We'll dry hop the American one with probably Columbus and hopefully they be ready to drink by Cooper's first birthday party next month.

While brewing I also kegged the porter today. This was one where we used all English ingredients and English yeast. The sample tasted very good today, and it clocks in at a respectable 4.25%. This will be a good session-style beer and I can't wait until its carbonated.

The hops are also doing well. It seems that the Newport has more hops, and larger sized cones too. There isn't enough on either to make a beer with, by we'll drop them in some pints when they are ready.

Busy life

Life is busy right now. Working as a resident so far has me pretty busy, and I can only imagine how much busier it is going to get in the next few months. With the little free time I have (only 4 days a month) I want to spend as much time as possible with my family and I hope to brew at least 1-2 times in order to break even with what we consume here at home.

I think some people out there are reading this, and I just want to say thanks and hopefully you'll stick with us through this year. I wont be able to post as much, probably only when I brew, but I will try my best to post as often as possible. I'll probably do more 'mobile' posts on my phone, but with the drawback of not having photos display as well.

Updates: the hops are looking good. A decent amount of cones on the bines, but not even close enough to brew a batch of beer with them. Next year should be a good year though.

The double pale ale is gone already. That was a good brew once it finally got carbonated and we are going to have to make another one soon.

The black IPA is tasting just OK; a little harsh, but decent, and not as good as last time. I think it is because of the soft water her not being suited to darker beers, but that will hopefully be something we can get used to for the future.

The saison is really really good. We'll have to make another one of those again soon.

The porter is almost done fermenting, and the sample that I had was very good. I think that one is going to be a good beer as well.

#TeamDietrich

English Porter

Today we brewed our first true English-style ale: porter. It's hotter than sin outside as I brewed today, the heat index was 103, and I am wondering why I decided to pick up the ingredients for a porter? I now remember that I was planning on brewing this in late September to have for a nice October-time porter. Oh well, who doesnt like porter on a hot day with some good barbeque?

After brewing in the heat and having previously brewed in the very cold (feels like 103 vs ~24) I was tyring to think which one I would rather do again. In the very cold, you can just put on a coat, hat, and gloves and be reasonably warm. In the heat, you can just go inside to the A/C while the boil is going and come out for your hop additions. The biggest difference I have seen though, is that when it comes time to cool. Super cold outside (i.e., snow everywhere) > super cold ground water (~33 when you add the snow) = super fast cooling. Super hot outside > super warm ground water (+78) = long, long cool time, and you still dont get down to much less than 85. However, when you are cleaning up, you cant get hands wet in the cold temps, so you have to clean up inside. If this isnt an option, I can imagine clean up would be rather difficult. In the warmer weather I can just go spray-crazy with the hose and clean everything up very quickly. So it's a toss up with the weather. If I had to pick, I would pick right in the middle. Cool enough outside to where you can hang out, but still warm enough to where you dont have to worry about getting wet and freezing......but who really cares, you make beer either way.

I am very interested to see how this recipe turns out. We've never really paid that much attention to where ingredients come from when making certain styles. We typically use American specialty grains in most beers, with the occassional Belgian specialy malts (e.g., Special B, melanoiden, etc), but we have never used English malts. Today the grist is ~80% Marris Otter, 15% English Brown malt, and 5% Black Malt- all malted in the UK. I've heard to make authentic British ales, British ingredients are a must, so I'm very hopefull that this beer will be really tasty. I doubt I'll ever compare it to a version with American ingredients, but I hope I like this beer enough to not want to go back to US malts for English-style ales.

The mash smelled awesome today, I love the smell of the mash of dark beers. The chocolate, roast, coffee/espresso, and bready aromas will hopefully make it into the final product, and as you can see, it will have a nice dark head. The OG was 1053, modest compared to our average brews (the Black IPA was 1070) but the ~5.1% alcohol is high compared to traditional English session-style ales which usually hover around 4.3-4.6%. If this one turns out well I imagine I'll make another more traditional, i.e., low alcohol Enlgish bitter or something in the future.

 The hops are doing well too. As you can see they've climbed as far as they can go and are now climbing back on themselves. Next year we are going to have to put some really trellis' up so that they can actually grow higher than 6 feet, but we've got plenty of time to figure that all out. This year is all about root growth, so once the roots are settled, then we can have the hops climb.

 In this picture you can see the small flowerly-like thing and although not I'm not 100% sure what it is called, this will eventually turn into a hop cone. There is a decent amount of these on both plants and more are sprouting up everyday. It will be another 5-6 weeks before I think any cones will be large enough to use and I think we'll just make a simple pale ale using all of our home grown hops. We'll have to see which plant looks like it will produce more to determine when we'll make that beer. If the Centennial is going to have a lot more cones, we'll probably make the beer in August so that we can use the fresh hops to dry hop the beer with. On the other hand, if the Newport is doing well we'll have to wait until the harvest time to brew a beer so that we can use the hops in the actual boil.

No planned brew date for the next beer, but I imagine it will be the black lager. With the Porter on tap in the future, I hope to have the black lager in a keg actually lagering in the fridge for a couple of months before we put it on tap. After that will be the last brew we have the ingredients for, the Dubbel. I am planning to do another purchase and plan out our next few brews which will likely include the Belgian Pale, Brown, and probably another Saison (which was bottled the other night and tasted awesome).

#TeamDietrich