Double Barrel

Last Saturday marked the 15th homebrew competition in a friend's backyard, and as usual it was a lot of fun.  Last year I won the competition with a "Barack Obama Black Ale".  As that was my 4th consecutive win there was some talk at the judging table about asserting term limits.

This year we had a great turnout, 15 brews from maybe 10 brewers. I won "best name" for Double Barrel Palin Ail (puns intended).

The beer itself was only moderately popular (my other entry, "Red Head", did very well so far as actual beers went), but here is a recipe for the Palin Ail for those who might be interested, for a 5 US gallon batch:

• 8 oz 60L
• 6 oz Cara Munich
• 6 oz US Victory
• 2 oz Malto Dextrin
• 4 oz flaked rye
• Steeped 30 minutes at 150 F
• 6 lb light malt extract
• 1 lb dry malt extract
• Bittering: 1/2 oz Horizon 11.4 + 1 oz East Kent Golding 4.5
• Flavour: 3/4 oz East Kent Golding + 3/8 oz Nugget from my new hopyard
• Aroma: 1 oz East Kent Golding
• 3/4 tsp Irish Moss
• 1 tsp DAP
• Pitched a Nottingham dry yeast

Who me? Bitter?

My second-latest homebrew was enjoyed far more than I'd have guessed yesterday at our annual local homebrew competition, bringing me a win for the third year running.  The surprise comes from it being a very hoppy beer.  This crowd has traditionally seemed to enjoy lighter styles, though with my Porter winning last year and now this aggressive pale this year, perhaps there is a change in tastes going on.

This beer marked another change - I have always brewed in the kitchen, which is convenient but slow, and frequently unpopular with other family members (ahem).  For this beer I hauled out my big camp stove, which turned out to be very nice for bringing large batches to boil quickly.  I liked this so much I think I'll brew them all this way in future.

Anyway, here's the brew:

Who me? Bitter?

• 2 lbs 2-row malt
• 1 lb flaked wheat
• 1 lb crystal 75L
• 1/2 lb rye
• 1/2 lb munich

Mash in at 170 F with 1.5 gallons. Insulate (I used a cooler and a couple of sleeping bags) for about 50 minutes. Sparged carefully with 2 gallons or so at about 175 F. Brought to a boil, turned off heat

• add 7 lb light liquid malt extract

brought to a boil. Added

• 1 oz Magnum hops for 60 minutes
• Whirfloc for 20 minutes
• 2 oz Centennial hops for 5 minutes

removed from heat, let cool, splashed into primary fermeter and added water to make up 5.5 gallons.

• Pitched White labs California Ale yeast (WLP001) at 68 F

Fermentation started in about 18 hours (at 68 F), proceeded for approx 1 week. When bubbling had decreased enough to suggest secondary fermentation was underway, I added directly to primary fermenter:

• dry hopped with 2 oz Columbus
• 1 oz french oak chips (steamed for 15 minutes)

After another couple of days, the rate of bubbles dropped to roughly zero.  after 1 more day I racked to a 5 gal carboy, then crash cooled to 36 F in a cold freezer (took perhaps 12 hours).  Let stand for 5 days for yeast and other debris to settle out, then kegged and carbonated.

After aging for 10 days in the keg, this beer is medium bodied and a pale amber color, with strong hop characteristic and huge floral nose from the dry-hops. And yet it isn't so bitter as to rip the back of your throat off.

Manuel, the put-upon Porter

This last weekend was the 12th annual Brew-Ha-Ha and All Round Good Time, a homebrew competition with ballon origami that is held yearly in a friend's back yard, and this year I won for the second year running. The winning beer was a Porter I affectionately named Manuel, after the British comedy Fawlty Towers (though scripts refer to Manuel as a waiter, and arguably he dresses as one, he seems equally a Porter in function)(and, Waiter not being a style of beer, the joke (and likely the beer) would fall rather flat were I to change the name of the beer to reflect literary reality).

I think I only won because of the Chicago Rules of Voting that applied, which have been described as:

• vote early
• vote often
• dead people's votes count twice for sheer tenacity to drag themselves to the poll
• underage voters can vote as well, though presumably they didn't taste. Knowing something about the subject is no more a requirement for our contest than it is for other elections in our experience

This follows because despite winning with my Porter, the weight of the kegs at the end of the day showed that my Pale was actually much more popular, at least in terms of consumption. Go figure.

I'm going to try for 3 years running next year, with a new ale called "Constitutional Challenge", because of course it will take a challenge for me to hold office for three terms.  I'm open to suggestions on what style such a politically important beer should be.

[Comments from my previous blog]

1. Jonathan Bruce left...

Monday, 24 October 2005 12:08 pm :: http://blogs.datadirect.com/jonathan_bruce

Nice work Glen. Are you planning on shipping your brew to the east side?

Reverend's Finger - an open source source brew

I've been meaning to post this for a while, ever since winning a homebrew competition last fall.

Reverend's Finger

Recipe for 5 US gallons. All temperatures degrees F

3/4 lb British Crystal 77
1/4 lb Belgian Special B

mashed in at 150 for 40 minutes
165 10 minutes
heated to 175, removed and rinsed grains

added 6 lb amber liquid malt extract
Bittering: 2 oz EK Golding 5.5% (boiled 65 min)
Flavour: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (15 min)
1/4 tsp irish moss (10 min)
Aroma: 1/2 oz Fuggles 4% (1 min)

WPL007 Dry English Ale yeast

Fermented at 68 for a few weeks, crash cooled to 34  for another couple of weeks

Kegged and aged under 9 lbs C02 for 2 months or so (fresh beer be damned)

[Comments from my previous blog]

1. tianye left...

Friday, 1 September 2006 1:49 am

hello

2. glen martin left...

Saturday, 24 April 2010 12:29 pm :: http://blog.glen-martin.com/

A drunk at a bar had a conversation with me once that went just like that comment. "Hello ...." and then nothing. Thanks for the very topical comment.

Now an award-winning homebrewer

After brewing beer in my kitchen for several years, I won my first homebrew competition yesterday in the 11th annual Brew-Ha-Ha at our friends Jack & Mo's.

The names brewers come up with for their beers are frequently a lot of fun. We had a real "elections" theme to the titles yesterday,  with Ballot Box Root Beer, Undecided Amber, and my own offering, False Victory.

As for the win, "Surprised" best conveys my feelings. Though perhaps it shouldn't, if one pays attention to recent political elections, where we've seen those staking out (or pretending to) the middle ground doing well. Just as in elections, my winning brew was somewhat lighter than my usual - a little less body, a little less hop. And that moderation seemed to work for many. Go figure.