Vol. 4 No. 1 January 1997
by Lucy Zachman
Although I wasn't present to witness the election, and therefore cannot vouch for it's
authenticity, George De Piro was unanimously chosen to succeed Warren Becker as our
fearless leader. As President, George promised to devote most of his time to foreign
relations particularly with the Belgians and the Germans. Congratulations, George!
Part 1: Thanks to a surprise guest, German wheat beer was a surprise topic for our
November meeting. Jay Engelhardt, Vice President of Bavaria House Corp., treated us to
some unseasonal and unfiltered Weihenstephaner weisses. They proved to be fine beers, even
in the holiday season.
Weihenstephaner is brewed at the University of Munich by the faculty of the Agriculture
Department. But don't let that description fool you, it is actually from one of Germany's
oldest breweries/monasteries. As Mr. Engelhardt explained, hundreds of years ago the
brewery was run by the monks, but eventually, due to taxes and other social and political
interference, the state took over brewery and eventually it was folded into the
university.
Nevertheless, these wheat beers were quite delicious. Of the three varieties currently
imported to the US, we had the pleasure of tasting the Hefe-Weiss and dunkel, both
unfiltered. Kristal is the filtered variety that you can find at your beverage
distributer. George noted that if you are interested in brewing instead of buying, try
Wyeast 368.
Although many of us enjoy some more substantial brews this time of year, I encourage you
to put Weihenstephaner on your shopping list this summer!
Part 2: At our November meeting Pierre Jelenc showed us just how adventurous homebrewers
can really be. Although some of Pierre's brews could not be called "perfect for
style," they could certainly be called interesting.
Putting his talents as a chemist to work, Pierre created an open fermented concoction that
tasted of tart strawberries, but smelled of a number of things. He had added a mix of
different yeasts as well. If it hadn't been for the strong, somewhat off-putting nose, I
really would have enjoyed this beer. Ah, the hazards of open fermenting in your kitchen in
NYC I give it an "A" for effort and ingenuity.
Now you may be wondering why I'm talking about a creation that may not be considered
great. Well, as homebrewers I think we need to consider the value in the attempt and the
creativity. I, personally, have helped to create some not so good OK, bad! beers, but we
keep on trying and improving and experimenting. And that's what it's all about! (I
hope?!?)
I'd like to encourage the return of the discussions we used to have in the early days of
our club when we would try a couple of brews, talk about them and really try to identify
what may have gone wrong or what we could improve. All you aspiring beer judges take note!
Some advice
along these lines is always appreciated.
In the category of perfect for style, Pierre also let us try a terrific blueberry mead and
a very tasty
sweet mead. The blueberry was one of the best meads I have ever had a very nice sweet/tart
balance.
Keep up the good work, Pierre! See you next
month...
Continue to celebrate the new year at Mug's Ale
House, 125 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, on
Wednesday, January 8, 7:30 PM. It should be a good night to break all your New Year's
Resolutions!
Note to readers: The Malted Barley Appreciation
Society has joined the World Wide Web. Check out our page, courtesy of the New York Beer
Guide, at: Malted Barley Appreciation
Society. We also have a new home page, under construction, by your editor, at: Malted Barley Home Page Lastly, we have an E-Mail address. Any
E-Mail can be sent to the editor at: my E-Mail
address . Keep those E-Mails coming in!
by Bill Coleman
This month, we are going into a little brewing history. The Imperial Stout is a historical
style
that is a leftover of the great days of the British Empire, just like India Pale Ale. Like
an IPA, an
Imperial Stout was made to survive a long ocean voyage, in pre-refrigeration days, by use
of a lot
of malt, and a lot of hops.
Unlike the India-bound IPA, the Imperial Stout was made for a cold climate, the court of
Imperial Russia, where it was a great favorite. It is a sipping beer, made to linger over
and savor in front of a cold fire.
The one remaining Imperial Stout from the old days, and for years the only beer to be
labeled
"Imperial Stout," (until the comparatively recent appearances of Samuel Smith
and Grant's versions) is Courage Imperial Stout, which has not been available in the U.S.
for some time.
However, a resourceful importer whom we are all aware of appears to be working on the
matter;
details will follow at a later date.
In the meantime, let's enjoy our own, homebrewed version. The recipe here is an extract
version, with some specialty grains. An Imperial Stout is an example of a style, in my
opinion, that succeeds very well as an extract beer. There is so much malt in the beer
that even an all-grain version will taste syrupy, which is often a fault of extract beers
in other styles. Don't take my word for it, however; this beer won a third prize for
stouts a few years ago in the New York Homebrewer's Guild Contest.
You will note there are a couple of unusual ingredients in this recipe; namely, as Honey
and
Molasses. I figured they'd go well with the sweet, heavy malt flavor, and was happy with
the results.
Anyway, on with the recipe.
Name: Salty Dog Imperial Stout #1
Date: 12/24/93 8:45 p.m.
Volume: 5 gallons
Ingredients:
6.6 lbs Munton and Fison Old Ale Hopped Liquid Extract
3.3 lbs Munton and Fison Pale Liquid Extract
1/2 lb. Light Dry Extract
1 lb. clove honey
12 oz. molasses
1 cup dextrin powder
3.3 oz. black patent malt
4 oz. chocolate malt
1/2 lb. roasted barley
3 tsp. gypsum
2 oz. Eroica Hop Pellets, 10.8 alpha (boiling - 60 minutes)
1 1/2 oz. Fuggles Hop Pellets, 4.1 alpha (flavor - 2 minutes)
1/2 teaspoon Irish Moss (15 minutes)
Repitched American Ale Yeast (4th Generation; 6 days since previous batch)
Time of Boil: 60:00 minutes
When & How Grains Added: Crushed malt added to 2 1/2 gallons water, brought to a boil,
in
nylon bag. When & How Hops Added: As above, put boiling hops in bag, in water before
brought to a boil (17 mins extra)
Original Gravity: 1.083 Final Gravity: 1.021
Original % Alcohol by Weight: 8.72 Final % Alcohol by Weight:6.52
Original % Alcohol by Volume: 10.91 Final % Alcohol by Volume:8.15
Temp when Yeast Added: 78�
Date Transferred: 1/5/94
Date Bottled: 1/23/94 3/4 cup bottling sugar added on bottling.
PS: I am at work presently on an all-grain version of an Imperial Stout. When it's done,
and
the results are in, I'll post it here!
by Jim Simpson
Editor's Note: The most exciting event for the Malted Barley
Appreciation Society Last
Year was undoubtably Jim's Simpson's win of the Sam Adams World Homebrew Contest, which
garnered the only Headline in this Newsletter's History. Herewith, from the archives, is
Jim's account of his brewing of the batch over at Boston, along with his prize-winning
recipe.
On December 13, 1995, I flew up to Boston and arrived at the Boston Beer Co. I met with
brewers Jim Periclese and Jim Deborg to discuss my recipe. They were very busy kegging
their latest creation: a Sam Adams cask-conditioned Ale. In between filling kegs they
asked me questions such as "why so many English ingredients in an American Pale
Ale?". My explanation was that I originally set out making an English Pale Ale, but
split the batch, dry hopping 1/2 English and 1/2 American. Not only did they have trouble
locating the same malts and hops I used, but they weren't going to use any turbinado sugar
and wanted to eliminate the flaked barley! My beer, it seemed, would only be their
interpretation of my beer. They kept telling me that in a large brewery, it would be
difficult to use so much sugar, (at the time I forgot S.A.'s Honey Porter uses honey and
Triple Bock uses maple syrup, so why not turbinado sugar?) and flaked barley is
troublesome to mash. Since they had none, I had to give in to the sugar elimination, but I
insisted that they use the flaked barley. They were unable, or unwilling, to get English
Pale and Mild Ale malts. They said that the right proportion of Klages, Victory and Munich
malts would produce the desired malt profile. They also didn't use Challenger hops but
substituted them with Northern Brewer.
They used an extensive lab report to come up with a recipe to mimic my beer.
After helping load the grain bin, I was treated to some of their latest creations. Too bad
that at this point in the evening I had a splitting headache and just wanted to sleep, or
I would have enjoyed them more. The newest one, the S.A. cask-conditioned Ale, was a
breakthrough for them. The beer is slightly filtered and served with blanket CO2 pressure
from a hand pump.
This is not traditional, but ensures that the beer stays fresh for a longer time. The beer
was slightly cloudy from the yeast and had very little carbonation. I enjoyed this beer's
round malt
flavor and nice balance of what might be Goldings hops in the finish. The last beer I
tried was Triple Bock. This "Beer" is nothing like a Bock or a Triple. It is
really hard to call this beer. The complex aroma is that of a cognac and sherry. The taste
is nothing like any beer I've had (not even Samiclaus). it reminded me of Harvey's B.C.
There is no carbonation and it's served at room temperature. You can taste some of the
charred oak from the cask in which it was aged.
What really gets you is the incredible smoothness.
After a few beers in the tasting room I was treated to dinner by my hosts, Jim Deborg and
his
assistant. We dined at Brew Moon, a brewpub in the theater district. The food was
excellent and
the beer was decent. I tried the IPA, but by this time my head was pounding so much that I
couldn't finish my beer. They put me up at The Copely Plaza Hotel (tres chic) and I was
instructed to arrive back at the Brewery at 7:00 AM. When I arrived Jim P. was tending to
the steam boiler and Jim D. was busy cleaning tanks. We started loading the grain into the
kettle and mashed in at 122 �F, then rested for 20 minutes. We raised the temperature
slowly to 145�F, using steam, and rested for 15 minutes. We raised the temperature up to
158�F and rested for 1 hour.
A photographer arrived and started taking pictures. He took an "action" shot of
me and Jim
D. doing the iodine test. After conversion was established, the mash was heated to 168�F
and
pumped to the lauter-tun. It settled there for ten minutes to establish its filter bed.
The wort was
then recirculated for 15 minutes. As sparging began, sweet wort was pumped to the kettle.
When half the kettle was full, steam was applied to the first steam jacket. When the
kettle was full,
steam was applied to the second jacket. Boiling was achieved in about 15 minutes --- not
bad for
over 310 gallons. We added the first hops: a judicious amount of Northern Brewer and
Fuggles.
After 30 minutes, more Fuggles were added for flavoring and it was left to boil for 30
minutes
more. Then, our finishing hops were added: Northern Brewer, Fuggles and Kent Goldings. As
you can tell, there are very few American hops used. After 10 minutes without heat the
wort was
pumped to the whirlpool tank to remove the hot break, protein coagulated during the boil,
and
spent hops. It was then pumped through the counterflow chiller. Oxygen was then injected
on
its way to the fermentation tank. We collected yeast, their Boston Ale strain, in a
sanitized
stainless steel bucket and added it to the tank as it was filling.
The whole process took 9 hours from start to finish and at that point I was exhausted. A
winning beer was in their hands.
Pick-a-Dilly
Category: Classic English Pale Ale
Method: full mash
Starting grav: 1.051
Ending grav: 1.013
Alcohol cont: 4.9%
Recipe makes: 13.0 gallons
Total grain: 23.00 lbs.
Color (srm): 6.3
Efficiency: 82%
Hop IBUs: 37.1
Malts/sugars:
0.50 lb.. Crystal 60 lovibond
1.00 Lb. Flaked Barley
10.00 Lb. Klages Malt
2.50 Lb. Mild Ale
8.50 Lb. Pale Ale
0.50 Lb. Turbinado Sugar Hops:
1.75 Oz Challenger 9.1%, 60 Min
1.00 Oz Fuggles, 3.6%, 60 Min
1.00 Oz Northern-brewer, 7.9%, 60 Min
0.75 Oz Fuggles, 3.6%, 30 Min
1.00 Oz Kent-Goldings, 6.0%, 0 Min
0.25 Oz Fuggles, 3.6%, 0 Min
0.25 Oz Challenger, 9.1%, 0 min
Boil temperature of water: 212�f
Grain starting temperature: 70�f
Desired grain/water ratio: 1.25 quarts/pound
Strike water: 7.19 gallons of water at 164�f, first mash temperature: 150�f Second mash
temperature: 165�f
Boiling water to add: 2.69 gallons
Notes: add 2 oz. Cascade dry hopped in secondary to 6 gallon carboy. Ferment at 70�f.
------
Don't forget to purchase your beer from
American Beer Distributing
256 Court Street,
Brooklyn, NY (Cobble Hill)
718-875-0226
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