Brewer Nerd Talk: Or My "Gushing" Apology

Last Christmas, because we have very little extra money and I had no job, I decided to make a Christmas beer for friends and family. My wife even made a great label for it. We called it Two Dog Night Espresso Stout. It actually was quite the tasty beer. But, there was a problem: many unsuspecting friends and family ended up with a beer with foaming problems. They would open the beer and watch as the foam flowed out of the bottle, over their hand, and onto their floor. Well, I just learned why that happened today.

Apparently this is a very common problem. In fact, in Germany a few years back, 61% of breweries reported that this had happened with some of their beers! Of course, the problem was caused by Fusarium (a mold) infested malt. Mine was caused by the inability to cold store the beer.

Between the malt, water, hops, and brewing salt additions, I made an environment ripe for the formation of Calcium Oxalate. If bottled, as it only happens to bottled beer, the Calcium Oxalate sinks to the bottom. When the bottle is opened and the CO2 is released, the beer foams uncontrollably. The Oxalate causes nucleation sites for the CO2 and releases very rapidly and exponentially causing a mess.

Now, if I had cold stored the beer like a good boy would, those crystals would sink to the bottom. The bottom portion of the container does not end up in the bottle. Thus, there would be no over foam.

So, what I want to say is that I am sorry to anyone who got one of the foamy beers. I wish I could have learned this 6 months ago. I also wish I had some way to cold age the beer...

Moral: Only bottle after a good lagering (aging cold). And buy a chest freezer so that I can store everything cold...or buy a canning line. Never a gushing problem with cans!

25% of the way home!

If I had written this yesterday, prior to my test results, you probably would have had a post ranting about how hard it is to sit through classes with people lecturing about yeast; about how complicated yeast can be. And how we had one instructor lecture for 2 1/2 hours about theories of yeast flocculation when the lecture was supposed to be an hour. By the way, I got the same information on Wyeast's website and read it in 10 minutes. And about how I probably missed at least 10 questions on the test (I actually counted 16 that I was unsure about). Yeast are complicated little buggers with their fermentative and respiratory qualities, and their sensitivity to pH and temperature. I know more about yeast than I ever thought I would need to know. And I still thought that I did horribly on the test...

However, I got a perfect score on the test (honestly, I have no idea how that happened). You will hear no more about it.

Anyway, I learned a few new things this week. Ready?

1. I definitely have a space bubble. Being crammed in a cattle car to and from school is getting really old. I don't like having people constantly bumping up against me! I need to find my Zen place. Those that know me, though, realize that I have no Zen place. I only have impatience. Thanks to my iPod and some choice podcasts, I have survived thus far.

2. Watching my wife fend off drunk morons hitting on her is really funny. Gina came to visit this past weekend. She really wanted to see Wrigley Field where the Cubs play. It's quite funny because it is literally in the middle of a neighborhood. There is NO parking. In any case, after she took about 30 photos (as she does), we went to Goose Island in Wrigleyville. Now, Wrigleyville is known locally by some as DoucheBagville for its impossibly high number of jackasses that frequent the local bars. Gina and I had a couple drinks and were getting ready to leave when two obviously fitshaced guys from down a ways at the bar came over and told her they were leaving. They thought that she needed to have the rest of their samples because they had to leave for a show. Then they saw her Black Butte Porter purse. I will be the first to say, that is pretty badass. My wife walks around with a purse made out of a Black Butte Porter bag made out of an old banner. She's pretty awesome. The, until now, reasonably cordial men decided they weren't leaving once they saw the bag. They really thought that she needed to go out with them. Then they decided that they were going to stay and hang out with her. I am about a foot away from all this mind you. Somehow, with a little verbal jousting, she not only managed to get them to leave, but got them to buy her an $8 beer! (Though they comment that they roofied her drink and would find her later...) While this was happening, the bartender brought me another drink on the house to consume "while your wife gets hit on". I do love that woman! She can verbally fend off even the most dedicated A-holes!

3. Seeing Gina was both a blessing and a curse. I would not have traded it for anything, but it's really hard to see her go again. She also brought two cards signed by all my friends from back home encouraging me to keep going. (Josh! Thank you brother! That meant a lot!) It was fantastic to know how much support that I have at home. I miss it all. I miss brewing and having family dinners with my friends at Brood Brewing and the Hendrix clan (corgis included). I miss jiu-jitsu and all my friends there (Brendan...keep the liver trained, I will be home sooner or later!) I miss working with the awesome people at GoodLife Brewing. I miss all my other friends. Jordan, thanks for watching the house, dogs, and keeping my hot tub in use. Mike and Ali thanks for all the texts and taking care of my wife while I am gone. You guys are all the best people I could ever ask to be around. I also really miss the mountains. It is as flat as roadkill here!

Okay. I digress. It was really great to have the wife here. She made me do all the touristy stuff that I probably would not have otherwise done. And I have to say, the Art Museum here is fantastic. A Little Dali and a little Picasso does the body good sometimes. Culture is good...

Interesting fact of the week: I met a guy on my way home from the concert last Sunday who told me that he could smell shapes. Yep...smell shapes. There are so many different kinds of crazy on the trains in the evening that I feel like I should bring popcorn for the show everytime I ride after about 10pm.

Beers of the week:

Two Brothers Bitter End: Drinking it right now actually. I still don't know where these guys are going with their beer, but this one is pretty good. Kind of like an english pale ale with more bitter bite. It's quite drinkable.

New Glarus Two Women: This was an all floor malted beer (look it up!). I was actually expecting more with all the hype surrounding this beer. It was very...meh!

New Glarus Spotted Cow: A "Wisconsin Farmhouse Ale". Basically, it was made with local corn and flaked wheat. It was a very pale beer that was easily drinkable with a little bite at the end. I would do this one again, but seeing as it's only sold in Wisconsin (and I am not going back unless forced) I will not be getting another.

New Glarus Raspberry Tart: No shortage of raspberry in this thing! It tasted like sweet raspberries with a sour finish. I didn't really know what to expect. I was hoping for more sourness, but it turned out to be rather good even without that.

Three Floyd's Alpha King: Ha! They say this is a "Pale Ale". This thing was hopped like it came straight out of the Northwest. It had a little more sweetness than I normally like, but it was really nice to have a "properly" hopped beer. (Man I miss The Descender IPA!)

Gina brought some beers from home too. I need to thank Curt and Ty from GoodLife for the Mountain Rescue. It was really good to have a taste of home.

Soundtrack of the week:

Lots of Brewing Network podcasts. It makes me think, which hurts, but it's probably good for me.

Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree. Just needed some weirdness I guess.

More Bon Iver of course.

Alright, that's it for now. I need to go see if I can figure out what a rectangle smells like. I am thinking chicken...

10 Weeks To Go

Well, week #2 came and went. It strangely feels like I have been gone longer. I have to say that I am really glad Gina is flying out next week because I am really missing home. This, I think, is the point where most everyone starts getting homesick. I just need to push through and keep myself busy.

In any case, I am still here. The information keeps flying at us at an insane pace. The course is designed really well though. Each week one section builds upon the other. It makes studying a little easier (no less time consuming though). This next week is supposedly the most difficult subject matter and test of the whole course. Rumor is that typically the test scores drop a combined average of about 10-15 points from the first two tests. I guess that means I need to keep studying...

This past week we made a trip out to the Breiss malt facility in good ol' Wisconsin. It was a very long day. I left the house at 6am to make the 7am bus. It was a good 3+ hour ride there. Living in the mountains for so long, it is really quite odd seeing sooooo much flat land. When the highlight of the drive is seeing Six Flags Great America, you know there isn't much around. The malt facility was quite interesting. It's still the same structure from 100 years ago. Obviously a lot of the equipment has been updated, but a surprising amount is still the same. Breiss is apparently very secretive about their facility so I was not allowed to take pictures inside the building, which is unfortunate because their grain elevator was really cool!

After the tour, we got back on the bus to a half dozen ice chests full of all kinds of different beers. These were to be our company for the drive back. As you can guess, having nearly 50 brewers on a bus with one bathroom and about 300 beers, chaos ensued. To make things worse, the toilet was in desperate need of dumping. Everytime someone flushed, it filled the back of the bus with the wonderful aromatics of a porta-potty on a sunny day. The drive back was definitely fun filled even if it did smell bad.

Beers of the Week:

I actually had so many new beers this week that I can't remember them all! I will try to highlight some of my favorites...

Goose Island's Allium Roseus: A Belgian-style red ale that was designed to be paired with certain dishes at the restaurant. That was a blow you away good beer. Lots of red fruit and vanilla flavor and a clean finish.

Goose Island's Blonde Trouble: A Belgian Tripel. Not as dry as I am used to with this variety, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Ska Brewing's Modus Hoperandi: They are Colorado based, but it's still new to me. It was probably the best IPA I have had since coming to Chicago. Very highly hopped without a whole lot of maltiness. Just how I like 'em!

Ommegang's Aphrodite: I vaguely remember this one. It was at the end of a very long night. I do remember that it was made with quite a bit of fruit juice and Brettanomyces. I thought it was fantastic...I think.

Three Floyd's Arctic Panzer Wolf: I have to be honest, I ordered this because I thought the name was ridiculously awesome. Turns out it's a 10% Imperial IPA. It was a little much for me, but the name is still awesome!

Haymarket's Belgian Pale Ale: Light and easy to drink. And dry hopped with Amarillo hops. It was a little thin, but it was still a very drinkable beer.

Life's Soundtrack:

This week I have been listening to Blind Pilot's We are the Tide album A LOT! It's such a mellow peaceful album, that walking and listening to that have had a very soothing effect on me.

Junior Kimbrough's Pandora station

Bon Iver's newest album

And, of course, brewing podcasts. The great thing about those is that I can now understand everything they talk about in a much more in depth way. It actually helps keep my mind thinking about brewing and has actually helped my understanding.

Future Soundtrack:
I am actually leaving the house now to go to a metal concert. August Burns Red, one of my favorite bands, is playing at a small club near downtown. I will probably be the oldest attendee, but it will be awesome anyway!

Prost!

Ah yes...The Weekend!

I don't really think that I can top the drunken, midnight blog post from before, but the weekend (well, Saturday) was entertaining.

As you can see, I went to Revolution Brewing. One of the folks that I am staying with found it in her heart to drive us out there rather than making me face the frightening world of bus travel through Chicago. Actually, I hear it isn't bad, but I greatly prefer rail travel to the bus. Anyway...we made it there a little bit before 7pm. One thing has become very apparent to me, the great people of Chicago love them some NIGHT LIFE! Revolution was a huge place with two floors and a huge bar on each level. We could barely squeeze through the hordes just to get inside. We were supposed to meet some of my classmates there; a grand task in that mass of humanity. I began my search by turning around and walking straight into one of them. Well...I guess it wasn't that hard afterall... We pulled a few tables together upstairs and sat down upstairs where the drinking-induced, music-free mosh pit was a bit more calm. The taplist was fairly diverse. They had about a dozen of their own beers on tap, about a half dozen guest taps, and a huge bottle selection.

Here's the rundown of what I had:

Iron Fist Pale Ale: I think this may be the best beer that I have had in Chicago thus far. It was truly a Pale Ale that even a Pacific Northwest brewery would be proud to serve. A very citrusy, hop-forward, but well balanced beer. I really had to applaud them on that one!

Weegene: This beer was actually the second runnings from Hugene, their high gravity Imperial Porter. (If you don't know what second runnings are, I think Siebel still has openings for brew school next year...get on it!) It was a good, roasty english-style sessionable porter with an ABV of only 4.7%.

Then I drank another Iron Fist...and another...What? It was good!

The other photo above (top one for those who are a little slow) is a picture of Revolution Brewing's...wait for it...Bacon Fat Popcorn. No, really. It's popcorn made with bacon fat instead of butter and topped with bacon and sage, I think. I didn't really make it passed where it said BACON FAT on the menu. It was exactly how you might expect, A-mazing!

Most everyone in Chicago (especially considering it is a very big city) are reasonably cordial if not friendly. I had my first experience of male douche-baggery that night however. When we were sitting at our cramped table I had to remove my jacket in an aisle. A knuckle dragging "person" decided that I was in his way and roughly pushed by without as much as an apology. My immediate response was to call him an 'Ass'. He walked on. His friends actually apologized for him though. That made me feel better. Maybe I expect too much. Who knows?

Anyway, enough about my space bubble sensitivity. Here is my write up on other beers:

Two Brothers Domain DuPage: A very interesting French-style farmhouse ale (I think). Those guys actually ferment in giant wooden vessels. Oddly, I didn't get any wood character, just a fairly light-bodied beer that reminded me of a Belgian Pale Ale.

Two Brother Golden Prairie: Hard to describe. It really wasn't like anything that I have ever had. I don't know if that's good or bad. I will have to try it again.

Bell's Oarsman: I had heard so many great things about Bell's, I have to try as many of their beers as I can while I am here. The Oarsman was made using a sour mash (again, enroll in school if that is a new term...or Google it, it's much cheaper). It gives it a very refreshing, Saison or Berlinerweiss type flavor. It would be fantastic to drink during a summer BBQ. Too bad it was 2 degrees with the windchill at that point. Good beer anyway!

Bell's Pale Ale: Meh...Not my style. Very spicy, earthy hop character. An English-style brew for sure. I couldn't find any faults in the beer, I am just not really into that style.

Bell's Brown: Good winter brown. Very malty, not a whole lot of hop character. I enjoyed it, but there was no way I could have more than one or two. It just finished too sweet.

1809 Berlinerweiss: Ok, I know this is not from Chicago. But, I love this style and it was brewed at Doemen's School in Germany where I will be studying in April. It was great. Good, clean sourness without the pucker factor. It was apparently made without any boiling. I really want to try to make this style when I get back.

What else? Oh yeah, I passed my test: 98% (I guess that is why I am here!)

Tomorrow I have to be at school at 6:45am. We are heading to the Breiss malting facility in Chilton, WI. The story is that since the drive is 4+ hours, we basically have an unlimited amount of free craft beer to drink on the way back into Chicago. You will hear all about it I am sure, should I live through the experience!

Until next time...Prost!

(By the way, make sure that you congratulate the folks from GoodLife on their second place finish at the Eugene Brewfest. The Descender IPA took second out of 100+ beers!)

Week One Done!

I am about 6 beers deep this evening. It's probably time to update the blog...

Obviously, celebration was in order today. I finished my first test today! My first week is in the books, and I am one step closer towards being a professional brewer. The results don't come in until Monday, but I am sure I did reasonalby well. This week was all about barley, malt, and hops. How much could I have learned? HA! There is a huge seedy underworld of brewing ingredients that no one knows about! Well, now I know about it! If you ever need to know about how hop extracts are formed by the use of Super-Critical CO2, I am the guy to ask. Who has two thumbs and would be willing to talk about pre-isomerized alpha acid pellets? This guy...

There is an absolutely insane amount of information flying at me in 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Stereo. I can't remember the last time I had to study this much for anything. Even in college, I could put in a couple hours per class leading up to the midterms and final for each class, and I would still get reasonably good grades. I found myself on a very regimented schedule here.

A typical day looked like this in week one:

7:00am: Wake-up and wish that I had adjusted to the time change a little better
8:10am: Leave for the train
8:50am: Arrive at Goose Island for class
5:00pm: Hustle across *"The Intersection of Death" to Siebel's Bier Stube for a pint of beer

5:30pm: Cry a little bit to myself

5:31pm: Leave the Bier Stube to brave rush hour traffic back home

5:40pm: Climb onto someone else's back in order to get a spot on the train back to my stop

6:00pm: Squeeze uncomfortably between the 12 people standing in front of the train doors and head home.

6:05pm: Make dinner while studying a bunch of stuff that I never knew that I needed to know

6:20pm: Eat and study

6:30pm: Clean and study

6:40pm: Study until I hate the thought that I may actually have to use barley and hops to make beer.

10:00pm: Watch Battlestar Galactica until I fall asleep

*The "Intersection of Death" is the intersection that we have to cross multiple times daily between Siebel and Goose Island. Approximately 17 streets merge at one point. 19 different stoplights send mixed signals to the speeding traffic and bewildered pedestrian. In 5 days, I have almost been hit twice. With that average, I should only be in the hospital for about 15% of my time here...

Yes, my life will probably be pretty regimented (unless I am struck by a vehicle) for the next few weeks, but, honestly, I love it! I have met so many new, cool people who are all in the same boat. Apparently, the guy I sit next to in class was even a customer of mine when I managed the pet store! Small World!!!

Today, we went into depth about water chemistry and how various dissolved solids effect the flavor of beer. Again, much studying will be needed. What is really cool about this is (Brewing nerds get ready...) that Ray Daniels is the instructor. Most folks won't know that name, but he is HUGE in the brewing community and has written one of the best books a brewer could own: "Designing Great Beers". I even nerded out enough to have him sign my copy of it!

I know, "Shut up and tell me about the beer!"

Ok, this week I had several new ones.
Bell's Witbier: Yeah...it tasted like a wit. No complaints. It was at the end of a long night.

Great Lakes Fitzgerald: A very nice roasty porter. Very drinkable. Very dry.

Two Brothers Cain & Able: I had heard great things about this beer. It was a nice dark red with

a hoppy red character. Not bad.

Goose Island Mathilda: I had to try this out of the tap since I love it out of the bottle. Honestly,

I think it needs the time in the bottle to let the Brett get the right flavor. It was good, but I

liked the aged character of the bottled version a bit better.

Goose Island Double B: Goose's pub only Belgian Dubbel...yeah...it was good. I will have it again.

Probably very soon!

For the music nerds out there who keep a "life soundtrack" like I do, here is my Chicago playlist for the week:

Pandora mix: Junior Kimbrough/R.L. Burnside (a lot of this)

Iron & Wine: Creek Drank the Cradle

Several podcasts from Stephan Kesting (Jiu-Jitsu) and Jamil Zainasheff (brewing)

That's it! I look forward to the weekend and to next week. John Mallette, the production manager of Bell's Brewery, will be teaching, as well as another day from Ray Daniels teaching about mashing chemistry. What an absolutely overwhelming experience! I will definitely look back at this when I am done and be very happy that I decided to do this!

Until next time...CHEERS!!! (Someone go to GoodLife for me and have a Pass Stout. I miss that beer!)

The Journey Begins!

Watching the sunrise is always amazing. I just wasn't expecting to be watching it while driving away from the Redmond airport yesterday. As many of you know, I am an absolute curse to airlines. I have been stuck on more runways, re-routed, and tossed around on more planes at a much higher percentage than most. How can this continue to happen to me? I am like a lightning rod of horrible air travel experiences! Sticking to that trend, the beginning of my journey was very short.

After a very hard goodbye to the wife and dogs, I walked in to find that my flight into Denver was already delayed for two hours. After my TSA molestation I found a seat by the other unfortunate passengers waiting for the flight. One gentleman was telling a lady he knew that his family called from Denver. They told him that the storm they were experiencing was supposed to be the worst one in 100 years. Denver, you are welcome. Just let me know if you need snow and I will schedule a flight through there for you. I made a couple phone calls to my wife and changed my ticket to stay far away from the Denver airport. Unfortunately, she had to drive all the way back to pick me up.

Honestly, it was nice to be able to spend one more morning with my wife, making her breakfast for the last time for three months. I got to take the dogs out on a hike as well. The change made for an exceptionally long day, but it really made for an easier goodbye.

My flights after that were not a problem. One was a little late (of course), but no real issues. There was a minute in San Fran where I strongly considered "missing my flight" to spend a night drinking at Beer Revolution with a good friend of mine. Probably for the better, I decided against it. Finally I arrived at the place where I would be spending the next 7 weeks to find one roommate passed out on the couch snoring and the three others tipsy. I knew at once we would get along. We spent the next 3 hours at a neighborhood bar drinking and talking about some very interesting topics (I will leave those out...) I did have my first local craft brew: Daisy Cutter Pale Ale by Half Acre Brewing. Not bad if you like grass. It tasted like a freshly mowed lawn. I will probably not get that one again, but will withhold judgement about the brewery itself.

The education that I have paid and given up so much to receive begins on Monday. I will be getting 7 hours a day of intensive brewery operation information. Fridays are my test days. Life is about to get really interesting...