Brettanomyces

I brewed a dark cherry lambic back in June and it's been aging in a carboy since. I'd only made one prior attempt at a lambic much earlier on in my brewing career, which I ended up dumping. Thankfully I've learned enough about yeast, bugs, and sanitation that I understand what I did wrong the first time around. This batch looks and smells like it's supposed to, although I haven't tasted it yet to be sure how it's coming along. I thought everything was good. I was wrong.

It seems like I either have brett lurking somewhere in my equipment or I have a natural source of wild yeast in my back yard or basement. Since then, I've had one batch I tossed because of contamination and traces of it show up elsewhere.

The first hint that something was up was a ten gallon batch of Firestone Double Barrel Ale clone which was split into two fermentors and pitched with two different yeasts. One of the batches turned out amazing, and the other was infected. The process for both was literally identical up to the point of pitching. The results couldn't have been more dissimilar. The aroma, taste, and even then color of the two beers was distinctly different.

So after a bit of research, I tossed all of my old plastic tubing, and brewed a batch of my ginger wheat which I fermented in a V-Vessel. (Separate post on that at some point.) I racked a gallon off into the sanitized, but possibly contaminated better bottle and let it sit for a couple of weeks. The test was inconclusive, and in hindsight I probably should've bottled up the results and done a "forced" conditioning at high temperatures to see if there really was anything at work.

But in any case, here are the steps I took / have taken since.

I bought a new better bottle and hardware for it.
I replaced all of my tubing and hoses used on the cold side of the process.
Instead of using a brush and mild detergent, I upgraded to PBW for cleaning the Better Bottle.
My keg cleaning regimen now involves a soak in PBW, scrubbing, a rinse and then a soak in star san instead of just a water rinse / scrub and a sanitizing cycle.
I've started buying fresh, clean bottles for anything which is going to need to age and only using recycled bottles for short term transportation.
As much as my limited space permits, I keep all of my aging beer cold.

After all that, I can't definitively say that I've beaten or contained that troublesome but wonderful bacteria lurking in my brewery somewhere, but I do brew with more confidence that I won't have to pitch any more batches soon.

Anything I missed?

Drinking Locally and Learning to Love Small Beers

One of the local options here in Chicago I've really come to appreciate over the past six months or so is Half Acre Beer Company. I tried some of their beer early on when they were still contract brewing up in Wisconsin and wasn't really impressed.


However, I came back to Daisy Cutter and Gossamer earlier this year and had a totally different impression than that of the Lager. They're both smaller beers, with the Daisy Cutter as a pale ale coming in at 5.3% and the Gossamer as a golden ale coming in at just over 4%. They're both great examples of their respective styles, although I think that there's a significant difference between canned and draft Daisy Cutter.

In any case, one of the things I really enjoy about both of these beers is that they really work as session beers. The Daisy Cutter has a nice hop presence which makes it a good option to substitute in for an IPA and the Gossamer is just a well-executed, very drinkable beer. There were a few years where I was all about big beers with big flavor and big alcohol, but the more that I've brewed the more I realize that it takes a very particular type of skill to brew a smaller beer that still tastes incredible.

So my hat's off to the brewers at Half Acre. They turn out some great products and it just feels good to know that my beer dollars are going back to a business that is literally three miles from my house.

Now about that four pack of Over Ale in my fridge...

Oak Aging Experiment (Setup)

At some point while I was sitting at the Bears game and freezing my ass off last weekend, my thoughts drifted to how nice it would be to have a flask of something strong and brown to warm me up. Naturally I then drifted on over to beer and how it'd be nice to oak-age some of the Russian Imperial Stout we've got left after the angriest fermentation I've ever witnessed...

Thankfully, I had some medium toast American oak cubes left over from the Firestone Double Barrel Ale clone Jeremy and I brewed towards the end of the summer. So after a bit of researching proper oak handling and the appropriate quantities to use for aging on a homebrew scale, here's what I did.

• The consensus seems to be that 1-2oz of cubes per 5 gallon batch is about right. Since I'm going to be aging in 1/2 gallon growlers, I measured out 4 x .2oz (6g) portions of oak cubes. (The thought here is also that cubes give a more complex, layered flavor than chips. Since this is already a big, complicated beer I wanted that complexity instead of just straight oak flavor.)
• I boiled some water and poured enough over each portion to cover the cubes and monitored the temperature to make sure it stayed over 180F for 20 minutes to pasteurize the cubes
• At the same time, I sanitized the jar which would hold half of the cubes and a generous measure of bourbon.
• While the chips were pasteurizing, I sanitized two growlers, complete with stoppers and airlocks.
• I also sanitized the shiny new beer gun Jeremy and I went in on...
• Back upstairs, I transferred half the cubes into each of two sanitized jars and added some Maker's to one set to soak for a few days.
• Set up the beer gun and filled the two growlers, adding 6g of cubes to each.

And now we let them age for a couple of months. It's going to be difficult to stare at those growlers and wonder what delicious chemical magic is going on inside of them, but I'm sure that the end result will absolutely be worth the wait.

I'll repeat with the bourbon soaked cubes this weekend when we bottle off the rest of the batch. More to come on the Blichmann Beer Gun, but my initial take is that it f'ing rocks.

My Local Homebrew Shop

As far as I know, there are three homebrew shops in the city of Chicago proper. (One of them has a handful of locations, so technically there are six or seven actual "storefronts".)

However, there's one which very recently opened up and definitely stands out from the rest. Brew Camp (in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, which happens to be really close to my neighborhood) does some things differently from the other options and does them well.

They engage with their customers on both Facebook and Twitter and actually respond to questions and comments that people post. I'm still not entirely sold on the overall impact social media has on a business, but the guys here are definitely using it to their benefit.

They teach brewing classes for beginners at their space. This has to be one of the best ways to get people over the initial learning curve and into the hobby.

They are working with my local homebrew club to put on a competition this January and hosted the last meeting in their space.

In short, they're engaging with the brewing community here in Chicago in ways other than simply letting people come in to their store and ask for advice. In a small niche business like this one, it absolutely sets them apart from their competition. I'd much rather shop somewhere that I know my dollars are going to support people who are ambassadors for the brewing community and truly passionate about beer.

(I don't have any connection to Brewcamp, nor do I have any commercial interest in writing this post. I'm simply someone who's been really impressed with them thus far and thought they deserved another positive mention.)

Firestone Union Jack in Chicago!

I've been a huge fan of the Firestone Walker beers for a while now. One of my best friends was out in San Luis Obispo for a few years for work and turned me on to their products while you could still only get them in California, Nevada and Utah. I'm pretty sure that in my nascent appreciation for craft beer I read an article in one of GQ or Esquire which named it the best beer in America as well.

In any case, my buddy was nice enough enough to smuggle some bottles home every time he was back in Chicago and then continue to do so when he swung back through California after relocating back to Chicago. So up until last January, I only had occasion to drink their beers on very rare occasions. Thankfully, they released the proprietor's reserve series here and made the Double Jack and Walker's Reserve available here in 22's and on draft.

And now as of a month or so ago, they've released Union Jack in both six packs and on draft. I am a happy Firestone fanboy. It's definitely my go-to house IPA when I don't have one of my own on tap.

After the homebrew club meeting last week, a handful of us ended up at the Bad Apple which happened to have Union Jack on draft. Most of the guys hadn't tasted it previously, but by the time the little lady and I left the better portion of our group was drinking it.

Well done Firestone crew. Now you guys just need to figure out how to get the Double Barrel Ale out here!

Epic Blowoff (Part 2)

Believe it or not, these two better bottles each started with the same amount of beer in them. I posted a picture earlier of the mess the one on the right made all over the bottom of the fermentation freezer. I'm not totally sure, but I think it managed to blow off about a gallon and a half. I honestly can't even believe that this fermentation produced enough CO2 to turn all of that wort into foam and then push it out through a 1/2" blowoff tube and out of a growler. Totally ridiculous.

The batch on the left had a lower OG (although still a big beer at 1.095) and tasted pretty delicious when I took a sample transferring it to a keg for pre-bottling carbonation. The batch on the right started at 1.106 and definitely needs some substantial time to mellow out. It still has some really strong coffe / astringent notes which dominate the taste of the beer. I'll follow up on it in about 3 months...

My Local Homebrew Club

After a summer of intense learning and brewing, joining a club stood out as one of the things which I hadn't started to do yet. It just so happens that there's a club literally in my neighborhood and one of the guys who started it owns a small (non-beer related) store which I frequent on a regular basis.

Last night I finally made it to a meeting and even convinced the fiance to come with. (Luckily for me, she not only tolerates the massive amount of brewing stuff at the house but she actually is a huge craft and homebrew fan who has pretty extensive knowledge at this point. Subject for another post.) I was pleasantly surprised at the number of brewers in attendance, the range of skill levels, and that they're holding a competition in January.

There was a short presentation by a BJCP judge on the different style categories and what to expect when entering your beer in competition, followed by a hour and change of socializing and trying other brewers' beers. This is definitely the fun part. It's awesome to talk to so many other brewers in a concentrated, in person setting and to try so many other home-brewed beers and listen to the brewers talk about how they made them.

I'll definitely be entering the last of the Octoberfest we brewed in September, a lambic that's been aging since June and possibly the double IPA Jeremy and I are about to brew in the competition.