So it has been a long while since I’ve tossed a post up
here. Lots has happened this summer: worked in a brewery, double cask fest
action in one day, many homebrewing experiences, picking fresh hops at Chilliwack
Hop Farms, attending Fraser Valley Beer Bash, brewery tours, and more. So much
that it boggles my mind to try and post it all. I think I need a personal
assistant and I don’t know how you regular bloggers do it. I’m just too busy
doing stuff that during the summer the last thing I want to do is to be hiding
behind a computer.
Anyhoo, for our Brewhouse Calculations and Recipe
Formulations class (say that 5 times fast), we are to put up a blog post as to
what our beer is. So grab a brew
(Remember to put it in the proper beer clean class to best enjoy it) and sit
back and be tortured...er..I mean enlightened.
So BL (That’s short
for BeerLearner) what style of beer DID you end up going with?
Good question. I wanted to keep it simple, but knowing me I
like to complicate the ever living crud out of everything. (sigh). I originally
wanted a mid-colored ale with local honey in it. I figured I could get
inspiration from Alaskan Brewing’s Amber Ale. It is delicious and one of my
faves. Then after further reading I discovered it’s a German Altbier. After
further reading I discovered that Altbiers sometimes use a lager yeast. After a
bit of pounding my head on my desk in frustration[J1]
because I don’t have the facilities to lager this beer, I decided to migrate
over to an American Amber Ale. Now I’m probably going to bastardize the style
because I’d rather not have a ton of citrus notes, citrus rinds, grapefruit and
hop forward nature that I find is prevalent with the style. (I can hear Dave (one
of “rock star” brew students in my class) saying that I’m a “wuss” from here).
 |
| Yep, that was this guy...about 1/2 a day before this blog post...well, except I have longer hair...and actual feet. |
What sort of flavour
are you going for?
Well I know what I don’t want. I didn’t want a beer that was
a hop bomb. I wanted something that was
reminiscent of Sleeman Honey Brown Lager because that was one of my “go-to’s”
in my youth. I desired more sweetness but not making it cloying. I wanted to
showcase local honey where possible to give it some character. I certainly want
malt forward with hops merely for balance. Therefore I’d be keeping to more
English hops but I’d getting ahead of myself. I would like subtleties of
caramel and a touch of toffee but not pushing the Scotch ale range.
 |
| I used to have this stuff in bottles all the time. It was one of my gotos - especially camping. |
Got a name for this
beer?
I do but I want to wait until I get the recipe under wraps
before I say anything. Call me cautious in this regard.
Give us some tech
specs already!!!
Ok, considering that I’m a complete neophyte as far as recipe
building is concerned, I had to keep this as idiot proof as possible so I don’t
end up wearing the dunce cap in class like I have in the past.
 |
| The BeerLearner in his younger days during the recipe building class on how to make mud-pies. |
Malt
|
Malting Company
|
°Lovibond
Range
|
° Lovibond for
Calcs*
|
Extract CG, db
|
% Moisture
|
% of Total Grain
Bill
|
2-Row
|
Canada Malting
|
1.5-2.1
|
1.8
|
80
|
4.1
|
80
|
Crystal 40
|
Great Western
|
35-40
|
37
|
70
|
7
|
10
|
Honey Malt
|
Gambrinus
|
20-25
|
22
|
80
|
4
|
10
|
So all you expert brewers, be gentle
before you rip this recipe a “new one”. It’s a Mark 1 version.
Why
these malts?
2-Row:
I went with 2-Row because I know it’s a reliable malt from talking with the
Band of Brew-thers. The description says that it's a suitable malt for all beer styles. I've seen used in the Olds College Brewery so I can't think of any other reasons as to NOT use it.
Crystal
40: Really this could’ve gone either way to C-60 or C-75 but I wanted to
shoot for a bit of color and body. I think this would be the area that would
need the most tweaking or substitution. I’m still learning as to how all these
Crystal malts interact in the brewing process and how they add flavor. This is where I try and be like Neo from
the Matrix and avoid the Dunce cap of Dimwittery.
 |
| Imagine a longer blond haired buy with an Australian duster coat and you have the BeerLearner using his patented "Dunce Cap Dodge" (Patent Pending) |
Honey
Malt: I haven’t learned how to gain extract from honey yet so I thought I’d
substitute honey malt. I also wanted to keep to the ingredients what we had
available at the brewery as much as possible. (Honey Malt we don’t have but I’m
sure I can order that in). It sounded like it had the sweetness I wanted from
the description (regardless of my prof stating it smells like armpit). How
could I feasibly without some honey reference to it? That would be akin to
making coffee with...no...coffee...right?
So
why would anyone want to have this beer? Seriously dude, why should we even
care?
That’s a bit harsh. Well, I wanted
this to be a combination of many things. Eventually this beer will evolve to
include local honey but we all have to start somewhere. Why local honey? Because local honey is delicious
and those apiarists work dang hard to get you good honey. Honey also has anti-microbial properties. So
put that in with the already awesome amount of nutritional goodness in beer and
how could this go wrong? I would like
this to fit right between the likes of Alaskan Brewing’s Amber (but with a
touch less hop), Tin Whistle Killer Bee Honey Dark Ale (but with less color and
maltiness), & Sleeman Honey Brown Lager ( but with more body, mouthfeel,
and slightly less carbonation).
I
wouldn’t call this a classic style, but certainly one inspired by the classics.
There you have it. You made it!
I have other homework to do so I
better get to it.
Drop back when ya can.
Cheers.
BL
