Homebrewhaha

One man's adventures in the lands of homebrewing, cocktails, and other delicious liquids

Posts Tagged Beer Brewing

Video Killed the Webernets Star

Jan 14

Posted by danielOut in Beer Brewing, Drink of the Day, Soda | No Comments

Since you all asked for it, here is the first try at a video version of drink of the day. Since this was my first shot, that is all the post will be today. Let me know what you think!

Drink of the Day #00012 from Daniel Auchenpaugh on Vimeo.

Drink of the Day Video Episode 0001. After the feedback from my awesome readers, I’ve decided to give the video blog a try for my Drink of the Day segments. Please let me know your opinions!

If this video doesn’t show up in Facebook, check it out on the actual website by pointing your browser to The Actual Site!

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Stop Whining and Start Wine-ing

Jan 6

Posted by danielOut in Drink of the Day, Winemaking | 2 Comments

He really loves that Mother's Milk

Wine: Not always serious

I hope you guys didn’t miss me too much yesterday; I just had too much to do for an update to happen. Most likely Tuesdays are going to just be that way; sorry, I hate to say it, but I have far too many hobbies for me to realistically update every day. Regardless, since I know you whined about it… we’re gonna talk wine.

Thanks to Daniel Hammond (pictured) for illustrating that wine doesn’t have to be so serious. Ask anyone who has shown up at one of my wine parties. I think serious is one of the furthest things from our minds, unless you’re going to associated serious with “seriously awesome”, in which case we’re serious all the time. For me, wine is about the same kind of things that any drink is: delicious flavors, new experiences, and sharing adventures with friends. Some people in the wine industry would disagree, and try to make it in to a black-tie beverage, but they can shove it. One of my favorite wine descriptions (courtesy of Travis Phillips) involved a football helmet, rainwater, and socks. Though to be entirely honest, I can’t remember if it was good thing or a bad thing. But whatever, right?

The first key to enjoying wine is knowing what you’re doing when tasting it. You could read fifty books on wine, and all of them will have a different way to do it. No worries, but here are a few pro tips. First, smell what you’re drinking. Wine is one of the best smelling things in the world. Seriously, why are there not candles scented like wine? The aroma (or “nose”, if you’re a wine person) is a really telling aspect. Think of it as the movie trailer to your wine. It doesn’t tell you everything about it, but you can figure out roughly what you’re in for. Some people also check the color, either before or after smelling. If you’re interested, go for it. If not, whatever. You aren’t some kind of worthless peasant if you don’t. Well, not much of one, anyway. Now drink it, damnit! It is why you bought it in the first place! What took you so long? Oh, wait, woah. Don’t swallow it, what are you doing? Let it sit for a second. Swishing the mouth is optional, but I enjoy doing it. It coats your mouth in that lovely wine flavor, and makes sure all areas of your tongue are exposed to the wine. Think about what the flavors remind you of, and “grapes” or “alcohol” are totally acceptable answers. Note how “heavy” it feels on your tongue, that’s the “body” of the wine. Body is also used pretty extensively to describe beers, so hold on to it and you can be the next beer nerd at a party. Swallow, and check out the finish. Does it hang around a long time kind of like in-laws, or is it like the money in your checking account and there is no trace of it left? Bam, there you go. You’re now a professional, trust me.

Of course, more goes in to wine that just that. But really, just try it next time someone puts a glass in front of you. Some people go through the tasting process just for their first sip or two, but I like to swish every sip. Just really expresses the flavors across your mouth, and isn’t that part of why we’re drinking things? So how do you end up with something in front of you that you’re going to like? Well buying wine is a lot easier than people think. Hell, for the first few years of my wine-lust I just bought stuff with cool labels. However, I made a mistake when I was new to wine. I kept buying single varietals of grapes I enjoyed. I’m still guilty of staying away from blends, and I really have no good reason for it. So what grape to go with? Well, there are a ton of them. I could keep a whole blog going on the different styles of grape for well over a month. If you’re really interested, I’d tell you to pick up The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil; probably the best wine book I’ve ever read. A much more fun, and effective, method is to just go buy one you haven’t tried. I’d make sure you visit the “other whites” and “other reds” sections of your wine store, too. That’s usually where you find the not-so-popular styles, though in smaller numbers. Find one with a reasonable price and a good label, and go with it. Please don’t think you’ve got to drop $30 or more on a bottle to find a good wine. Pillar Box Red is a great example; it is not terribly hard to find, and retails around $10. It has done excellently even with the big wine reviewers, and really kicks some serious ass. For a $10 wine, it is a steal.

So that is it, really. There isn’t some huge post about traditions, customs, etc that goes here. Wine is simple, but people have complicated it over time. Seriously, it is old grape juice, how can that be so snooty? No one is making a big deal about 5 year old Coke, so why should we about wine? Just open, enjoy, and write about it. Speaking of writing about things, drop your favorite grape varietal in the comments… for reference, mine are Tempranillo (red) and Grüner Veltliner (white). Check them out if you get a chance.

I had to drink it because the bottle kept scaring me when I opened the fridge

6 malts, 6 hops, 6.66% alc - Shmaltz Brewing

Drink of the Day

I know, you’d think it would be a wine? However, and I didn’t realize this until I figure out what tonight’s post would be, I was out of wine. That sucks, and is a real problem. How did that happen? Oh, wait, I know… a hojillion dollars of brewing equipment. Regardless, our Drink of the Day tonight is from the fine people over at Shmaltz Brewing, the same people who make HE’BREW. I grabbed this bottle on sale, clearly a Halloween leftover, and thought I’d go ahead and pop it open tonight. I was surprised when I poured it… that shit is red. Not like amber, but like red. It didn’t come out in the picture, but even the head is red. It is a seriously red beer, and I have no idea how they pulled it off without the aid of food coloring. Impressive, truly.

It is really malty on the nose, and only a hint of hops sneaks in there. Also, the malt flavors are really prominent. Don’t get me wrong, the six hops do make a showing. However, it was clearly small amounts of the six. This isn’t a very bitter beer, so saying you put in six hops is kind of silly. The body is nice; just what I’d expect from something with that aroma and flavor. I think that is probably where they did the best. The malty taste is good, and has a little grain element to it. I like that. However, on the finish a little hint of cleaner (windex?) sneaks in at the end. It isn’t major, or something to make me toss the beer out, but it prevents me from giving this a “totally awesome” kind of thing. Plus, having had their Genesis Ale and Messiah Bold, I expected a lot more out of this beer. If it is on sale, grab it. You won’t be sad. However, at full price I’d probably grab one of the other beers from Shmaltz if you hadn’t had them; they’re just better beers.

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Cocktails, wooo-oooh!

Jan 2

Posted by danielOut in Beers, Cocktails, Drink of the Day | No Comments

12 beers enter... and they all win?

$12 for 12 samples (3oz) of beer? Yes, please!

This is the biggest problem I’ve ever had. I was all set to write a post today on bitters… I knew what cocktail I would make, I knew what I was going to say, and then a terrible thing happened. I went to make the drink (always a requirement before a post) and realized that I had no whiskey. Truly, a tragedy has stuck our home today. So, I’ve had to improvise. I’m going to, instead, write about the experience Sam and I had yesterday at Dry Dock Brewing and do a Drink of the Day. The main event, however, will be to touch on what you really need to know to start making cocktails at home.

First, and I would be remiss if I let another day happen without discussing this, I went to my local homebrew store yesterday. Interestingly enough, The Brew Hut is attached to Dry Dock Brewing, a local Aurora brewery. After purchasing our supplies, Sam decided we should at least have a beer there, since we seem to be stopping by often. After sitting down at the bar, the bartender gave us great news. They had 13 of their beers on tap (yes, you read that right, 13) and they did $6 sampling trays of 6 beers each. So all we had to do was pick one not to try, and there we had it. We omitted the Pumpkin Ale, because it isn’t October and I don’t like pumpkin. I could devote multiple posts to describing these beers, but if you’re in the Denver area you can check them out yourself. If you aren’t in the Denver area, then I’d just be cruel to taunt you with them. However, the highlights were a great Double IPA, a silky smooth Vanilla Porter, and a Apricot Blonde that just screamed to go with wings. There wasn’t a single “loser” out of the 12 beers that we tried; the guys over at Dry Dock really brew great beer.

Now, I know a lot of you like an occasional cocktail. Maybe your current favorite is Jack and Coke, or perhaps you really like a good martini. These things are really easy to make at home, I promise. You just need a couple of things, then you can probably make them better than a generic bartender. Of course, don’t get me wrong, a quality bartender with a whole commercial arsenal of tools, mixers, and knowledge at their fingertips will still out-do me any day. However, I can still make some pretty mean drinks at home. First, get a Boston shaker, please. They look badass, add a nice authentic feel, and really seem to keep the best seal when shaking. You can use any pint glass for the other half, though I have just an unmarked one for my shaker. The next thing you’ll need is a jigger, and the stepped variety is easier to read from above. However, if you’re like me, you think the stepped ones are ugly. I use a double-sided jigger that has half ounce on one side, full ounce on the the other. For quarters and eights, I guesstimate. Horrible, aren’t I? However, in reality, that small amount of liquid doesn’t have to be exact in a 5 or 6 ounce drink. Really, that is all you need in a bare-bones sense. However, getting a few bar glasses will really help your drinks stand out. My first, and still favorite, are these glasses from World Market. I really think you can get away with putting anything but a martini (or other non-iced drink) in them. They’re simple, feel good in the hand, and look like a classic. A few martini glasses for good measure, and then you can expand slowly over time.

Now, you have your shaker, jigger, and glasses. What else do you really need at your bar? Knowledge. I know, you’ve been making Jack and Cokes out of your fridge in your dorms for years. What could you possibly need to know? Well, what if (gasp!) you felt like something other than that one beverage some day? There are a mass assortment of quality cocktails out there, and playing around with various ingredients is part of the fun. One of the best parts of cocktails is the instant gratification; mix them up and you’ll know instantly if you’ve got a hit or a miss in the first sip. I’ve learned a lot from Imbibe magazine and from watching The Cocktail Spirit over at Small Screen Network. Sure, a lot of the recipes may include things you don’t have handy. Look for what you can accomplish, and try your best to adapt where you are missing ingredients. Really, I think cocktails embody the essence of this blog the best. They’re playful, they’re fun, and they’re about trying new things to see how it turns out. Also, and this may be a little too far too fast, but they’re a great way to see how flavors can intermingle and compliment each other. Plus, making a whiskey sour at home means that you’ll know you’re getting fresh simple syrup, fresh lime, quality whiskey, and any other personal touches you like (I put egg whites in my sours; ask if you’re interested) which may or may not happen at your local bar. So go forth, spend about $20, and let me know how your cocktail trials go!

With real cat pee scent!

Sunshine, with applicable sunshine yellow color

Drink of the Day

I like wheat beers. I really, really like them. I’m not even sure what lured me in at first, but they’re some of my favorites. Considering I’m typically a dark beer guy, this is really strange. As you can see, this wheat beer was really light. Most Belgian wheat beers have pronounced citrus flavors and a heavy orange nose; nearly all are spiced with coriander and orange peel. Tonight I sat down with New Belgium’s Sunshine, which was a leftover from the variety of beers I grabbed on New Year’s Eve. As evident by the giant blue sticker I forgot to take off (sorry!) it was off the Whole Food’s “create your own six-pack” shelf.

The first thing I noticed after pouring the glass was the really poor head retention; typically it is really easy to get a nice, fluffy head off the light beers. This one barely formed, and I was worried I wouldn’t get the picture taken before it had time to vanish. Also, it smelled like cat urine. We have three cats; I know this smell. This beer smelled like cat urine. Bad start. However, after the first sip, I was much more hopeful. The beer was light, crisp, and had just a hint of orange. Now, I’m a citrus fanatic; I know it, I accept it, and I deal with it. I would have loved a more pronounced orange flavor, but that is just a matter of taste. They really managed to blend the flavors well, even if it wasn’t exactly how I would have done it. After being nervous at first, I was rewarded with a really refreshing beer that would be great once it warms up outside. I trust, and enjoy, New Belgium, but I will disagree with them on this beer. They offer it to be an all-season beer, but I really think you should save this for hot summer day when your A/C breaks. It would be the perfect summer heat wave remedy.

Have a drink I should try for Drink of the Day? Want me to cover a topic on the blog? Just let me know, and keep on trying new drinks!

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Status Update, Soda, and Sippin’ Beer

Dec 30

Posted by danielOut in Beer Brewing, Beers, Drink of the Day, Soda, Winemaking | No Comments

I've really got a handle on that wine, you see...

If they were brother/sister, the wine would be the girl

Well, it is Wednesday. That means my beer and wine have been fermenting away for almost four days in my basement. Please ignore the ugly wood-paneled walls, as the house was built in 1968. I hear it was all the rage back then. Speaking of history, let’s throw down with some fun homebrewing facts for you. Of course, during Prohibition, brewing at home was illegal. After prohibition, the home brewing of wine was legalized. However, a stenographer’s omission resulting in the words “and/or beer” being left out. This meant that it was illegal to home brew beer until February of 1979. That means modern homebrewing is about to turn 31, which is only slightly older than me. Current laws allow for an adult, age 21 or older, to brew “not more than one hundred gallons of beer in a year.” Thanks to the fact that my wife also lives in this house, our house can legally brew 200 gallons per year. If I continue with 5-gallon batches, that means I would have brewed 40 different beers in one year. It is good to have goals. Interesting historical homebrewers of note: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin. Seriously, ole Benny boy harnessed the power of lightning. If he did that, and still found homebrewing interesting, then it is a good enough hobby for me. Lastly, as shout-out to my (theoretical) international readers; these dates are all based on US laws. Look up the homebrew history for your own country, and add it in the comments. I’m curious like that.

Now, back to my beer and wine. The wine you can’t see, because of the dumb plastic bucket. Seriously, I really need to get some more of those carboys from Better Bottle. I like being able to see the process in action. For the first couple of days of fermentation

This is what babies look like

Fermentation photo from 4 days after cooking.

I was worried about temperature. The wine kit says 65 to 75, and the beer kit said 60 to 75. Despite trying to adjust the temperature of the house to be warmer, I was still showing 62 to 64 on the wine for the first two days. This didn’t seem to slow the fermentation process of the wine, though. It was chugging along full speed ahead, or at least what I could tell from the CO2 escaping the airlock. Yesterday and today have been better, hovering in the 65 to 67 range when I’ve checked. Hopefully a couple of degrees won’t impact the flavor too much. Regardless, you can see a clear head forming on the beer. Until this morning, it had been growing steadily in the carboy. I think it has gone back down a little since yesterday, though. This means we’re starting on the downhill side of the fermentation mountain. At this rate, we’ll be on pace to bottle Monday or Tuesday. After bottling, though, I’ve still got a couple of weeks before drinking. So don’t get too excited yet.

So far I’ve primarily talked about beer and wine here, and I wanted to touch a little on something else. A fantastic, bubbly beverage that most people have been drinking the majority of their life. Soda. Now, we’re all familiar with a variety of mass produced sodas out there, so I don’t think I need to go over those. However, there are a variety of awesome sodas out there. Lately I’ve been grabbing different flavors of Oogave sodas from Whole Foods, which use agave nectar as their sweetener. I’m particularly fond of their Mandarin-Key Lime. However, the real king here (and those who know me should find no surprise in this) is Virgils. Their root beer is hands-down the best soda I’ve ever had. Plus, it even comes in mini-kegs! What is not to love? Their cream soda is also a clear category winner. If you like root beer or cream soda, even a little, then go get some Virgils. I often buy them at World Market or Whole Foods, but (at least the root beer) shouldn’t be hard to find. And as a little aside, the company that owns Virgils is called Reeds, and their ginger sodas are really good if you like ginger. Their “Extra Ginger Brew” packs quite the ginger punch. Of course, in the realm of fruity or citrus sodas, it is really hard to beat out IZZE. They have quality drinks in a variety of interesting flavors. In fact, though non-fruity, I have some “Birch” flavored IZZE in my fridge right now. It sounds weird, but actually is quite good. Their Clementine is also one of my favorites. Now, I’d be really slacking if I didn’t mention that making your own soda at home isn’t hard at all. In fact, it is very much like brewing beer. Only you don’t want to give this yeast but a day or two to eat the sugars, naturally carbonating the soda, but not eating all the sugars and producing alcohol.  Now, since I’m contemplating a batch of soda sometime in the near future, I’d really like to hear what your ideal soda flavors would be.

In a New Belgium glass, which is also good!

An American Pale Ale, to be specific.

Drink of the Day

Occasionally, I’ll be adding a “drink of the day” to the bottom of a post. This highlights what I’m drinking while I write the post. After all, it would seem a bit silly to have nothing to drink while writing a blog about beverages. Our local Whole Foods has a Merchant of Vino, where they sell a great variety of beer, wine, and a small selection of liquor. Handily, they have a “create your own six pack” wall, and that’s where I first had something from Boulevard Brewing, but I’ll touch on that specific beer later. I recently grabbed their sampler case, and decided to break out their Pale Ale for this post. I’m more typically a wine guy when it comes to really identifying flavors, aromas, and complexities. So this will be a learning experience for me as well.

American Pale Ales are characterized by dominate hoppy bitterness, flavor, and aroma. They’re also fairly low on maltiness, and have a medium body. I like hoppy beers, but I’m no crazy hop-head like some are. The aromatic hops used in this pale ale really do a great job, really adding some wildflower and fresh green aromas on the nose. This is what I like hoppy beers to smell like; a green, herby floral aroma. The bitterness is crisp, and I would really love this beside some good BBQ. A sweet, smokey BBQ sauce would really be awesome next to the bitter, green taste of this pale ale. Just a hint of sweet on the finish adds a little complexity that makes this a solid Pale Ale. Perfect with a lunch, or when you’re in the mood for something not too heavy. Well done, Boulevard. Glad my faith in your sampler pack was not misplaced!

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Batch the First; A Beer and Wine Combo!

Dec 29

Posted by danielOut in Beer Brewing, Winemaking | 1 Comment

Need... more... carboys...

Total cost around $250

It was a slightly dusky and not at all stormy night; the day was the 26th of December, in the good year of 2009. On this day, beer was conceived! I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Let’s go back, way back. All the way back to the 21st, when my (beautiful, awesome, smart) wife gave me a home wine making kit for tolerating her for two years. Then, since my parents were gracious enough to give me funds for Christmas, I thought a trip to The Brew Hut was in order. After all, I had to get a batch wine to make anyway, right? Well, after looking over the home brewing kit, I realized I already had most of the needed equipment in my wine kit. So I picked up a bottling bucket, a corker/capper, and a 20qt stockpot.

Next step was to decide what to make. Wine wasn’t too hard to pick; while they had a lot of great choices, I’m a big fan of tempranillos, and they tend to be a little hard to come by. Plus, they are typically pretty bold, and I’m hoping that will help cover up any minor mistakes. Beer, on the other hand, I didn’t know. While I could have selected my own grains, etc, etc I didn’t feel comfortable enough with that yet. So I asked one of the helpful guys over at The Brew Hut what he recommended for beginning brewers, and he directed me to an English Brown Ale ingredient kit. I like dark beers, so this sounded pretty excellent to me. I won’t lie, though… the massive row of hops and grains really did spark my interest. Looking forward to getting the hang of this and experimenting with recipes.

It is like a cauldron of awesome.

Cookin' up the wort

I arrived back at home, unpacked my goodies and took the above photograph. After that, it was a sanitation bonanza (isn’t that fun to say?) because you have to be really careful about outside crap getting in your brew. After all, the idea here is to create a perfect situation for the growing of yeasts. Which, of course, means lots of other things would love to grow in there. Your job is to be the guardian of your little yeasts, and make sure the bacteria bullies and contaminate cockbags don’t get in there and ruin this perfect wonderland you’ve created. So, after sanitizing the pot, the carboys, my brewing tools, the cats, my neighbor, the sun, and most of the Rockies, I felt I was ready…

Now, something you non-brewers might not know (and something I didn’t know until recently) was that this cooking process creates what is known as the wort. You can use that link to travel to wikipedia for more detailed info, but the summary is that wort is the liquid you get when you’re cooking up all those yummy beer ingredients. This process is a little lengthy, and while I imagine it would be quick now that I’ve done it once, you’re still looking at well over an hour (probably near to two hours) spent cooking. I was a little nervous about the temperature, and I really need to get a floating thermometer or one I can clip on the side of the pot. I kept having to take one of our shorter cooking thermometers and sticking it in there to check the temp. We’ll see, but I think I managed to keep it where I wanted. Once you’ve steeped your grains, added your malt, and got the first set of hops started, then it is a long wait (about 45 minutes for this recipe) before you are ready for the next step.

Go go magic auto-siphon, GO!

Just add water! (And yeast, time, etc)

So what did I do for 45 minutes? Well, since this was my first batch, I really didn’t want to leave it by itself. I just wasn’t sure; you know, overprotective beer-parent and all. So I thought, hey, why not just start the wine? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I did. Bentonite is added as a clarifying agent, then the delicious juice. The next step is adding some water, and then (mostly if you’re making some reds) adding oak chips or powder to give that “barrel flavor” that is really hard to accomplish authentically at home. At this point, I broke out one of my favorite new tools… my drill attachment stirring rod. Next time, I promise a photo of this bad boy in action. Essentially, it is paddles that are pushed outward via spinning force on one end, and the other end is your drill. It is made of awesome. Now, at this point the (not-quite) wine was a little warm, but we’ll get to that later… Toss the lid/airlock on that bad boy, and then back to the beer.

Shortly before you’re done cooking, aromatic and flavoring hops are tossed in to the mix. The aromas and flavors imparted by hops tend to evaporate rather quickly, so these have to be added much after the bittering hops, and just before you stop the boil. Let them sit for a few minutes, and then off the heat we go. Toss a lid on it, and now we’ve got to cool the wort as quickly as we can. A sink full of ice water is a perfect chilling bath for a 20qt stockpot. It wasn’t terribly long until my wort was down to the ideal temperature, but that pesky wine was still warm from the warm water used with the bentonite. Whatever, I’ll leave it. Now that the beer is cool, I can transfer it to a carboy. In addition to my white plastic bucket, I’ve got two plastic carboys from Better Bottle, and I really like them much more than the plastic bucket. Once in the carboy, toss in the yeast and break out the (cleaned and sanitized) drill attachment and let the stirring begin! A few awesome seconds later, and stopper/airlock combo is pushed in to the next of the carboy, and it is moved to the basement.

All the rage in Canada!

Colorado Snow-chilled Wine: A Marketing Gimick!

At this point it was getting late, and I wanted to cool that wine down. My backyard WAS full of snow, and snow is cold… yeah, yeah I did that. But it worked, at least in the sense that the wine cooled down. So I added the yeast, put the lid back on, and put it in the basement. And now we play the waiting game… the beer will be bottled in another 5 days or so, and ready for first taste about two weeks after that. For reference, here are some stats for these initial batches. If there are terms you don’t understand, don’t worry… a post is coming about those in the future.

Now, I just hope I don’t get hit by a C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

Beer

  • Grains: 8oz Crystal 60L, 4oz Chocolate, 6oz. Carapils Dextrine.
  • Malt: 3.3lbs liquid amber, 2lbs dry amber
  • Hops: 1oz bittering, 1oz flavoring, 1/4oz aroma
  • SG: 1.050

Wine

  • Style: Tempranillo
  • Region: Spain
  • SG: 1.085

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