The Beer Gunner

Electric Amarillo Pale Ale

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:03:00 -0400

A few months ago Midwest Supplies was cool enough to contact me and ask if I would review one of their beer recipe kits. After looking through their wide selection of available styles- available in both all grain and extract with yeast type and grain crushing options - I decided the Amarillo Pale Ale all grain kit with Wyeast Northwest Ale 1332 would be perfect for the spring weather. A few days later the kit was on my doorstep with all the ingredients necessary to brew a great batch of beer and a detailed recipe. Included in the kit was the following:

10 lb crushed 2-Row 8 oz. Carapils, 8 oz. Caramel 40L specialty grains, 1/2 oz. Columbus, 2 oz. Amarillo hops, priming sugar, muslin bag and yeast

That night I made a 1 liter starter with the Northwest Ale yeast and looked over the hop bill for the recipe which had the following directions:

Add 1/2 oz Columbus bittering hops (half the bag) and boil for 60 minutes for optimal hop utilization. After boiling for 40 minutes add 1 oz Amarillo flavor hops. Boil for 20 minutes then add 1 oz Amarillo aroma hops and remove the kettle from the heat.

While I thought this was a great base for the hop bill I decided I wanted to add a few more hop additions to the boil and purchase some more Amarillo hops for dry-hopping as well. Unfortunately my local homebrewing store was out of Amarillo, so I decided to dry hop using 1 oz each of Centennial, Citra, and Mosaic hops. Also, since I keg my beers I decided to throw the 5 oz of priming sugar (dextrose) to the boil to add a little bit of gravity and dry the beer out a little bit more.

Here is my final recipe for those interested:

OG 1.050
FG 1.012
IBU - 26
ABV 5%

Grain

10 lb 2 row

8 oz carapils

8 oz cararamel 40L

5 oz corn sugar (dextrose)

Hops

.5 oz Columbus at 60 minutes

.33 oz Amarillo at 15 minutes

.33 oz Amarillo at 5 minutes

.33 oz Amarillo at 1 minute

1 oz Amarillo at turn off

Dry hop - 1 oz mosaic, 1 oz centennial, 1 oz citra, 1/2 oz columbus

I usually add 1 oz of mixed hops every 2 days for 8 days for dry hopping schedule- wanted to use amarillo but my homebrew store was out of it

Yeast

Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale

Single Step Infusion at 151 degrees for 60 minutes

The Results

After fermentation and dry-hopping I transferred this beer to the keezer and carbonated for a week. As of now this beer is almost gone and everyone has really enjoyed the citrus and tropical aroma and flavor, the beautiful bright blonde color, the dry character, moderate bitterness, and immense drinkability. It is very easy to drink several of these beers and keep reaching for more.

Final Verdict

The Amarillo Pale Ale recipe kit from Midwest Brewing is a great kit that I would highly recommend to any homebrewer from novice to award winner. With a few small recipe tweaks to fit my palatte and available ingredients, I am quite pleased with the results and would happily make this beer again.

Pros- great service, yeast options, grain crushing options, front door delivery, quality ingredients, easy to understand directions

Cons- liquid yeast viability dates could be old, dry hopping not included in recipe or ingredients

My keezer is finally finished. Many thanks to Billy at...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:45:55 -0500

My keezer is finally finished. Many thanks to Billy at BillyBrew.com for the awesome tutorial and my buddy Tim for helping me build the collar.

birthday beers

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:33:00 -0500

birthday beers

The keezer collar is almost complete. The taps are in the mail...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:12:00 -0400

The keezer collar is almost complete. The taps are in the mail and the woodstain is almost dry…

On April the 28th, twenty-five homebrewers at Public Assembly in...

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:56:44 -0400

On April the 28th, twenty-five homebrewers at Public Assembly in Williamsburg shared their brews with the public in the biannual Brooklyn Wort 2012 homebrew competition. The competition has been organized by Brooklyn Homebrew and Sycamore bar since 2009 and has steadily been growing in size and stature. This year all potential participants were required to submit a beer in a preliminary round before being selected to participate in the main event. There were over 125 entries to get one of the 25 spots.

I was lucky enough to be one of the brewers selected to share their beer at the event. It was a lot of fun meeting other brewers, sampling beers (hoppy ipa’s, chile beers, funky beers, belgian beers, etc), and getting feedback from both the public and a group of judges including brewers (Sixpoint, Brooklyn Brewery, Kelso, Carton), distributors, and bar owners. A lot of people said they really enjoyed my Lupulin Lager- a hoppy lager with big hop aromas and a nice smooth finish - and I got pretty good scores from the judges (average of 36 out of 50), but I did not place in either of the two categories- people’s choice and judges choice- however I was just happy to be there among all the creative homebrewers.

Congratulations to all the brewers that won…and many thanks to all the judges and Brooklyn Homebrew and Sycamore for putting on a really fun and unique event.

Hopefully I’ll be back next time.

My new homebrew labels. What do you think?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:27:27 -0400

My new homebrew labels. What do you think?

Rule changes to cost New York breweries millions

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:42:00 -0400

brewyork:

A ruling last month in a lawsuit that an out-of-state beer importer brought against the New York State Liquor Authority has ended a major tax and fee exemption for small brewers in the state, which will cost them millions of dollars in previously-waived costs.

The lawsuit was filed by Massachusetts-based Shelton Brothers in the wake of the SLA’s rejection of a handful of Ridgeway beer labels in 2006 on the grounds that they would appeal to underage drinkers. The importer claimed First Amendment rights were violated by the Authority’s censorship of the labels, but then went one step further to also challenge the Constitutionality of the Authority’s label registration fees and excise taxes, which were levied for all out-of-state brewers and waived for small in-state brewers.

To resolve the lawsuit, the State Liquor Authority issued new rules [PDF] two weeks ago that lifted the 12-year old excise tax exemption, which applied to the first 200,000 barrels of beer brewed by in-state brewers. Since all but two in-state brewers brew less than that amount, nearly every drop of beer brewed by a New York craft brewery was previously not taxed by the state. It now will be, effective immediately, and retroactive to March 28th. In addition, the authority has re-imposed the $150 label registration fee that was previously waived on in-state batches of beer smaller than 1,500 barrels. Many of New York’s smallest brewers will be subject to this fee for the first time.

Read More

The Coolship has arrived! Beermail from Portland, Maine.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:19:19 -0500

The Coolship has arrived! Beermail from Portland, Maine.

awesome poster. just bought one for my man...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:46:00 -0500

awesome poster. just bought one for my man cave.

rooksjeff:

Hops Bitterness & Flavor Poster by Zeke Shore. Buy your’s at HopsChart.com.

Beer Review: Brew Kettle White Rajah

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:39:00 -0500

According to The Brew Kettle in Strongsville, Ohio, the White Rajah is a west coast style IPA full of citrus and tropical hop flavor with an assertive but smooth bitter finish. I’m very excited to review this one since it’s very highly rated on Beer Advocate, I love the style, and it’s very difficult to find outside of Ohio. The bottle says it has 6.8% ABV and 70 IBU. Let’s go ahead and crack it open.

Appearance- pours a clear bright copper/orange hue with a finger of white head that clings to the glass with every sip.

Smell- the first waft of this is very inviting and gets my taste buds salivating. Sweet tropical fruit notes like mango, passionfruit, and pineapple dominate, while a tinge of citrus hangs in the background. Based on the smell alone this beer definitely belongs in the world class IPA conversation.

Taste- has a solid malt backbone for the style, but that is obviously not what this beer is about. This is a hop forward beer with a soft bitterness from start to finish. Tropical and citrus flavors are widespread and intermingle nicely. Just as the bottle states the beer has an “assertive but smooth bitter finish”.

Mouthfeel- dry and medium bodied as expected for a west coast style IPA, good carbonation/plenty of bubbles, with a bit of oiliness from the hops.

Drinkability- very easy to drink. I wish I had more than one. This is very very good IPA and deserves it’s high ranking. Well done Ohio. I definitely will be looking forward to any more Brew Kettle beers that come my way.

Overall- A. This IPA is definitely in the world class IPA conversation. It’s easy to drink, smells fantastic, and has a soft yet assertive bitterness. Drink it!

Successful Beer Trade- picked up a CBS and some goodies from the...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:08:07 -0500

Successful Beer Trade- picked up a CBS and some goodies from the Brew Kettle including White Rajah

Here our some pics of the 5 gallon Bourbon barrel we picked up...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:13:55 -0500

Here our some pics of the 5 gallon Bourbon barrel we picked up from Kings County distillery in Brooklyn last weekend. We are planning to brew an imperial stout in January and let it sit in the barrel for a few months so it will pick up all the great oak, bourbon, and vanilla flavors. Cheers!

A Belgian Holiday

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:22:00 -0500

It’s that time of the year again. The Christmas tree is decorated, A Charlie Brown Christmas is playing, cookies are in the oven, and baby…it’s starting to get cold outside. So what style of beer are you grabbing for after a long day of holiday shopping?

For me it is always something Belgian. The sweet and rich malt flavors and the fruit and spice aromas imparted by Belgian yeast are a perfect complement to the holiday season. Plus, many of them have and ABV of 10% or higher which always helps the stress of the holidays just melt away.

So here are some notes I took on a few Belgian and Belgian style beers from a recent tasting that will hopefully help you happily get through the holidays.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer Division- while pleasant and fun to sing/drink (especially with your grandmother) these beers are just never going to be holiday classics. I think they may be more appropriate some other time.

Mikkeller Not Just Another Wit- (7%) orange peel, coriander, hops. Dry and light malt backbone, orange honey color with a high ABV for style. Great beer…but I might save this one for Easter.

Toria Tripel- (8.5%) light straw color with light body, lemon and Belgian yeast aroma, very dry and drinkable…but it just does not have the malt backbone required for a holiday beer.

Maredsous Tripel- (10%) another tripel which for me just does not seem to be the Belgian style fit for the holidays due to its soft malt characteristics. Dry, citrusy, with golden color and light body. Alcohol definitely is noticeable and cloying. I only needed a little of this before I wanted to move on.

Leave some for Santa instead of milk Division- these are very good holiday beers and I’m sure Santa would be very grateful after all that milk…plus these should be shared with others anyways.

St. Bernardus Christmas- (10%) now this is what I’m talking about. Dark brown/black with caramel malts, candied sugar making their presence felt and rich fruit and spice aromas floating around. This one will definitely make your Christmas stress float away. A definite Christmas classic.

Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer Blauw - (11%) This is a big beer and I’d just give Santa a little pour. Dark, alcoholic, and sweet with candi sugar and caramel. Opaque Dark Brown with dark fruits and spice wafting around. Smooth and silky mouthfeel. Definitely very good…but I could not drink a lot of it.

Mikkeller Santa’s Little Helper- (10.9%) Yes please…I’ll have another. Sharing many of the characteristics of the St. Bernardus and Golden Carolus…but with big chocolate roast and stout like characteristics to boot. Pours black and is very smooth and silky. A great holiday sipper.

Got me singing Fa la la la la along with Justin Bieber Division- these beers are amazing and established Belgian and holiday classics. If you have never had them, find them and put them in your family’s stockings. This is what people are talking about when speaking of great Belgian beer. They get me excited enough to sing loudly and spread holiday cheer.

St. Bernardus Abt 12- (10%) Dark brown with creamy head. Rich and malty with the aromas of the classic Belgian yeast and smooth mouthfeel. Go ahead and just get some.

Rochefort 10- (11.2%) For me this is the beer I want to drink on Christmas. It has everything I could possibly want from a holiday beer. Great dark brown color with red hues. Dark fruit aroma and flavor, goes down easy with just a slight alcoholic taste and a sublime mouthfeel.

Happy Holidays!

Beer Review: Hill Farmstead Abner

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:44:29 -0500

The Abner is an Imperial IPA from Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro Bend, Vermont. Named after the brewer Shaun Hill’s great grandfather the Abner is described by the brewery as dutifully crafted from American malted barley, a plethora of American hops, our ale yeast and water from Abner’s well. It is unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and double dry hopped…aromatic and flowery, and bursting with notes of citrus and pine.

Ingredients: Pale and Caramel Malt; Dextrose; Chinook, Citra, Columbus, Simcoe, and Warrior hops; Ale Yeast, and our Well Water.
18.5º P
170 Theoretical IBUs
8.2% abv.

I was lucky enough to pick up a small growler of this at Hill Farmstead’s Harvest Festival Event.

Appearance- poured into a hill farmstead wine glass from 750 filled at the brewery’s harvest festival. Pours a cloudy tea color- amber yellow orange- can see bubbles floating to the top of the glass- small head leaves nice lacing

Smell- tropical fruits, pineapple, juicy…fantastic aromas pouring out of this

Taste- lot like the smell…bitter on the end…hits the lips full of tropical and citrus notes…pine…ends a bitter dry

Mouthfeel- crisp and dry nice light body…

Drinkability- all night long…i can’t imagine ever getting tired of this…if only it was not for the 8% ABV

Overall- A+. this is a world class imperial IPA. One of my favorite offerings from Hill Farmstead and that is really saying something. I can’t wait till i get a chance to have another glass.

A great day IPA tasting…the Maine Brewing Company Lunch...

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:06:00 -0500

A great day IPA tasting…the Maine Brewing Company Lunch was excellent and my favorite…closely followed by the Sculpin and Bengali Tiger.

Brewday: Smash Amarillo IPA

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:43:00 -0400

The picture above is my SMASH(Single Malt and Single Hop) Amarillo IPA happily fermenting away. Over the last few months I have gotten the brewing bug and started to brew up some beers. I’ve moved all my brewing outside by buying a turkey fryer and propane…which has definitely made brewing and clean up a lot more easy/enjoyable.

The Amarillo IPA is my first time brewing a SMASH beer. The theory is using only one malt (in my case 2 row) and 1 hop really allows you to develop a taste profile for those specific ingredients, which hopefully will help improve your overall brewing and recipes.

I brewed this one last Sunday using the following recipe and the BIAB (Brew in a Bag) mashing method:

Recipe Specifics
————————
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 12
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.016
SRM: 3.8
IBU: 90
ABV: 5.2%
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
——————————-
12 lbs. Pale Malt (2 Row) US

Hops
——-

1 oz FWH
1 oz at 60
1 oz at 15
1 oz at 5
1 oz at flameout
4 oz dryhop

Extras
———-
1.0 Tab Whirlfloc at 15 Min(for clarity)

Yeast
——-
Wyeast 1056

Mash Schedule
——————-
60 min at 152°F

Here are some photos from brew day.

The Mash

The Boil

Cold Break and the Wort Chiller

Aerating the wort before pitching the yeast

Hill Farmstead Harvest Festival- some shots from last weekend....

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:13:00 -0400

Hill Farmstead Harvest Festival- some shots from last weekend. Great time with awesome beer and food.

Blue Mountain Full Nelson Pale Ale

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:59:30 -0400

The Full Nelson is Blue Mountain Brewery’s “flagship” beer. Made with an abundance of cascade hops grown at the brewery’s location in Nelson County, Virginia…the beer certainly lives up to its label- a homegrown Virginia Pale Ale.

Color- pours a reddish copper with a delicate off white finger of head with bubbles of many different sizes…
Aroma- has a sturdy bready malt character with traces of caramel malts that is well balanced with mild touches of citrus and herb from the cascade hops…inviting yet subdued.
Taste- malty caramel on the front end…with a bitter finish with essence of herbs and citrus…
Mouthfeel- dry crisp refreshing…perfect for the style
Drinkability- very easy to drink…good session beer. 15 plato 60 IBU 5.9%
Overall- B. this is one to throw in the fridge for every day drinking and as an East Coast substitute for Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale. Good for those just starting out with the hops…or for those moments when your craving a solid beer that does not break the bank…and it’s available in cans too.

A Recap of NYC Brewers Choice Event

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:33:35 -0400

The Brewer’s Choice Event at City Winery is the defining moment of NYC Craft Beer Week. It is a veritable who’s who of the NY craft beer community and a chance to rub elbows with some of the region’s best brewers, publicans, bartenders, and food purveyors while sampling a fantastic variety of craft beer and food. Here is a quick list of all the breweries represented:

Allagash , Barrier , Blue Point, Brooklyn, Captain Lawrence, Cross Roads, Dieu du Ciel, Empire, Goose Island, Greenport Harbor, Kelso, Maine Beer, Ommegang, Schmaltz, Sierra Nevada, Sixpoint, Smuttynose, Southampton, Two Brothers, Wandering Star, and White Birch.

And some of the food available:

Orwashers Bakery-handmade bread, Bierkraft-porchetta w/Gentleman’s relish on crostini, Cabot- selection of cheddars, Mile End-smoked brisket, Jimmy’s No. 43-specialty sides and port tacos, Ricks Picks- phat beets, smokra, classic sours and the people’s pickle, Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse- raw milk cheeses and wood fired breads, Piggery + Mother in Laws Kimchi-roasted whole ham leg with kimchi, Nita Nita, Betty Brooklyn-duck confit rillette, Murray’s Cheese, The Crooked Knife-Pulled Pork Sliders, Sigmund Pretzels, School House Kitchen, East Village Meat Market, Nordic Breads, Coach Farm Cheese, Aeros Oysters, and My Friends Mustard.

Basically it’s a free for all, once you get your tasting glass your free to sample all the different food and beer in any way you choose, talk to the brewers, and just enjoy the excellent space at City Winery. At different points throughout the night I had the chance to talk to Rob Tod from Allagash about his Coolship beers and dining options in Portland, Maine, listen to Garrett Oliver as he discussed the White Birch Wild Oak Aged Imperial Stout with their brewer, and generally just talk beer with a ton of interesting people.

A few of my favorite food/beer pairings:

I found myself continuously filling up my glass with the White Birch Wild Oak Aged Imperial Stout and going to the Aeros oyster table and putting down 2 or 3 at a time.

The Brooklyn Sorachi Ace 2009 was excellent with the Coach Farm Fresh and Aged Goat Cheese.

The Piggery + Mother in Laws Kimchi roasted ham was fantastic with the Captain Lawrence St. Vincents Dubbel

The Sigmund Pretzels and whatever beer I had in hand at the time

My favorite beers:

The Cherry Saison from Kelso

The Berkshire Hills Saison from Wandering Star

The Plum Shiso Sour Wheat from Dieu du Ciel

The Imperial Stout from White Birch

Brooklyn 2009 Sorachi Ace

Maine Beer Peepers Ale

At the end of the evening Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery gave the keynote speech and summed up the spirit of the event quite nicely by saying to paraphrase “100 years ago NYC had the most interesting beer and food culture in the world. People brought their beer culture from all over the world and settled in NYC. At one time there were over 4,000 breweries, some making nothing but weiss beer, others making nothing but porters. Today we are here to reclaim and remember that beer culture and take it back. There are now 1800 breweries in the United States, we are about halfway there.”

some photos from Cantillon’s Zwazne day at Spuyten Duyvil...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:15:33 -0400

Zwanze 2011 waiting to be served

First Zwanze 2011 being poured

Zwanze 2010 being poured

Beautiful picture of the 2010

Cantillon 2010 Vigneronne

Cantillon Kriek and Rose de Gambrinus

Tilquin Gueuze and Taras Boulba

Vrienden and Haansens Oude Kriek

The bar about halfway through the day..

some photos from Cantillon’s Zwazne day at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, Brooklyn via chickenxwaffles:

chickenxwaffles:

While I’m pretty content using my iPhone for photos nowadays, my friend who was with me at Zwanze Day prefers his T2i. Here are some of the great shots he took.