Think it’s been long enough since my last post? Sorry about that. The good thing is, you haven’t missed much, the bad thing is, you haven’t missed much because I haven’t done much homebrewing.
BUT, the really cool thing is I’m ready to brew more in 2010 then ever before! Look at that beauty! That’s my brand-spankin’-new 15 gallon kettle which will allow me to double my capacity by doing 10 gallon batches instead of 5 gallon batches. This kettle has actually been on the “wish list” for quite some time, and I received a little bit of funding for it LAST Christmas and just finally pulled the trigger. This bad boy is approximately 40 pounds, all stainless steel, with welded fittings for a 1/2″ ball valve and 2″ length / 3″ face thermometer. I also opted for the optional false bottom so I can use whole flower hops in my brews if I so chose. And, the novelty of handles, go figure. Yeah, this isn’t a cheap piece of equipment, but with proper care it will realistically last a life time.
So in preparation of getting my brew on for 2010, or at least for the next little bit, and to hopefully abuse (in the best way possible) the new kettle and all of it’s features I also placed a nice sized hop order from Hops Direct.
It’s kind of a shitty picture, but that’s 5+ pounds of whole flower hops. Each bag was suppose to be 16oz, instead the bags ranged from 20 to 22oz a piece, over a pound of free hops total. Also, I was trying to hit a dead-line for my delivery and Hops Direct upgraded my shipping from 3-day to 2-day for free. This is my first time using them and I must say I was happily impressed and would easily recommend them to anyone interested. So what did I order? I ordered a bunch of C’s: Cascade, Chinook, Columbus, Centennial, and Magnum. So everybody better get ready for some hoppy American brews, but what else is new from Fool Circle.
So hopefully more news later this week, at least one more post about a very special brew from the weekend after Thanksgiving, stay tuned!
So Sunday (9.27.09) was the 4th Annual Dogfish Dash 5K/10K and Robert’s and my 4th year participating in the 10K.
There were a few changes this year. First was the name (see shirt above), it has it listed as the Off-Centered Dogfish Dash, umm, ok, was that necessary, whatever :). And while I’m on the shirt, what’s up with the chicken in the logo instead of the dogfish? Seriously we asked a couple people that worked there and they all were like “dunno”. So, anyway, back to the real changes, first off it was in Milton this year versus Rehoboth the past three. Milton is an odd little town, but it was nice to take a run through it. Also, it was big, capped at 1,000 people and sold out, though supposedly about 25% of the people didn’t show because of the rain. Also, the food was all cold food versus hot food and cold food at the pub, understandable though since there is no pub at the brewery. But the biggest change was the lack of flow of fine fine Dogfish Head beer. Basically they had one jockey-box set-up with four handles, they couldn’t pour the beer fast enough plus it was pouring over 50% foam, ugh. It seriously took us over 20 minutes to get one beer, our ONLY beer from the jockey-box. They later brought out about 10 cases of Festina Peche which they blew through in like 30 minutes to help alleviate the jockey-box scenario. And later we found the tasting tent, which was way off to the side, where they were pouring about 6oz servings of Palo Santo, 90 Minute, Punkin, and Midas Touch – at least that tent had some flow. I know DFH is already aware of this “problem” and I guarantee it will be fixed for next year.
BUT, besides the changes, which sounds like bitching, it was a good time! We got lucky with the rain. I woke up about 5AM (about and hour and a half before I had to wake up) to the sound of rain pouring on the roof of my dad’s place. When we got to the brewery about 7:30AM it was still drizzling. By 8AM for the start it had stopped. By the time we wrapped up our 10K about 9AM it still wasn’t raining. But within, say 15 minutes, it rained for over the next hour as we all tried to enjoy beer, yogurt, and cereal. Oh, and no coffee, WTF!?
And, in case anyone was wondering, both Robert and I were running about 80%+. If I would have had 2 Advil, another 30 minutes, and a large coffee before the run I would have been 100% easy. Much better than last year, where we both were like 10-20%, yuck. So, kind of regardless, we’ll be back again next year! Thanks Dogfish Head, thanks Matt.
OK, so last Saturday (09.19.09) I was down at Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE for the 5th Annual Intergalactic Bocce Tournament, and it was just as bizarro as ever!
If you want to see the rest of the pictures click here.
So once again the Erik Mitchell Band was invited back as the “Bocce Band” to play everyone’s favorite show of the year, the Dogfish Head Intergalactic Bocce Tournament. Fortunately for me, for this gig in particular, I have been dubbed essentially an honorary member of the band. My main “duty” as being in the band is to hopefully be able to borrow the van from work (which I was able to), help set-up and break-down equipment, and take pictures to document the day. All while enjoying several refreshing Dogfish Head beers and hanging out with the freaks. I think I can handle that! From the bands perspective this is quite a “big” gig in the sense of the amount of time they play and the amount of songs they play. This year they started roughly around 1:30PM and finished roughly around 8:00PM, so like 6.5 hours. They played 4 sets, with at least 12 songs per set, except for maybe the fourth set. Each set was roughly 1.5 hours long, so in the whole time frame they really only took less than an hour break spread throughout. So, if you’re interested here is a copy of the 2009 Dogfish Head Bocce Tournament Set List from the show, enjoy.
Besides the band, there was so much else going on! This tournament is a total freak fest in the best way possible. When DFH talks about doing things for Off-Centered People, these are their people. We ran into lots of familiar faces like Tom and Eric from Punkin Drublic with a crazy new Amish theme, Jim and John from Midas Touch My Balls who were the old guys last year and this year they were the old guys widows (with obituaries and everything), John Deere Flava Flav, T-Pain, and Shawty Pimp from the Pallino Pimps rockin out their nautical “I’m On A Boat” theme, Lee (Nacho Libre) and the rest of the Alpha Males kickin a construction theme with man hole … covers, and of course last years champs Bonsai Bocce running with the same theme as last year in their Karate Kid gear, plus Real Fake Tits and his crew from Mama’s Roast Beef were rolling with a German beer girl theme, and Sam and his peeps were crazy cross-dressing bocce lovers … anyone else in the freak show? Oh yeah, Motley Brue with Nikki Fuckin’ Six Pack were back after being gone last year and being Motley Jue the year before that, so they were kicking their 80’s glam rock gear, Knights of the Malted Balls (2009 champs!) had there same knight gear on, Beer Junta (I think that’s their names) had a Mad Scientist type thing going on (sorry if I’m mixing two teams together), the Bocce Beer Monks were there again but by the time Saturday rolled around their team was basically out of costume just relaxing, also Jebus was back again with the Holy Rollers rocking out a baby Jebus and the three wise men type theme this year, and Cat Bird Ass Brewery switched things up and were bikers this year, I think they changed their name too, but I can’t remember to what, and of course the winning team from Arizona from the DFH West Bocce Tournament these guys had full size fabric Dogfish Head bottles for costumes, they looked pretty cool, and I think the last team was a group of architects and/or engineers who have been working with Dogfish Head to redo the exterior of the brewery, look at the pictures to see what I mean.
I spent a lot of my time hanging out with the different teams that weren’t actively playing, and hanging out with some of the Dogfish Head staff, so big hey to Audrey, Marissa, Matt, and John. I also tried to take a bunch of pictures and actually filmed a couple short videos of the band too. With the pictures I originally was going to borrow Karen’s camera, but when she lent it to me we realized the LCD screen on the back was cracked, and with a digital camera that makes it much more difficult to see what you’re actually shooting. So I instead I used Erik’s camera, which worked out just fine. He also brought the video camera but the battery wasn’t fully charged. So I think (Erik has the camera so I am not sure) we have about 20-40 minutes of each the second, third, and fourth sets from the show. I actually can’t wait to see them no matter how poor the quality or short they are. The food I thought was also superior this year in my opinion. They again had it catered and lunch was cold sandwiches, wraps, chips, fruit, that kind of stuff and it was pretty good, and dinner was more hot food with a BBQ flair, ribs, pork sandwiches, all sorts of sides – yeah dinner was real good. It was actually smart for DFH to do dinner at Milton instead of Rehoboth in my opinion because it freed up their upstairs from all the freaks and didn’t overwhelm their kitchen with like an extra 60+ orders on a Saturday night. They also did the awards ceremony at Milton this year, which I assume went well, but the band was packing up their equipment during it as to not hold things up because we were already behind schedule with the buses.
All in all it was a great time, from the Friday night party before the party, or Bocce Eve as we have dubbed it, which we determined has the feeling of Christmas Eve and Mischief Night rolled into one – hyper anticipation, to breakfast at Timmy D’s (that’s for you Carson), to the ridiculous bus ride home (how often do you look forward to a bus ride?), all the way through the Saturday night mayhem. Yeah, that’s the cool part, just because bocce is over and we’re no longer in Milton doesn’t mean the fun stops. This year Erik announced during the show that we’d be showing our 3rd place winning movie from the Dogfish Head Film Fest “World Wide Clout” back at our hotel room and essentially invited everyone back. Fortunately we only had like 15 people show up, people from all sorts of teams, the architects, the pimps, the old ladies, and I think the construction guys. Then after the WWC showing and hanging it was time to raid the Dogfish Head brew pub again, so we were down there enjoying ourselves for a while. And of all things bizarro we ran into a couple from Austin, TX who also had entered the Film Fest who happen to be at the pub and recognized Robert and I. I swear, with how crazy everything was that day it seriously felt like we imagined them there, the timing was just crazy. Oh, he also announced about our silly shaving bet with Robert, so hopefully that sparked some interest there too.
So, not to make this post any longer, I’ll leave you with a couple links to even MORE pictures if you are so inclined to look at more drunk cross dressing people playing bocce :). First are pictures from Jimmy Balls from MTBM here. Next are the pictures from the “unofficial” Dogfish Head photographer, Jess Daleiden, for the bocce tournament, you can find Friday’s pictures here (which is the day we were not there) and Saturday’s pictures here. If anyone wants more just ask, there’s always more from this event. And in case your interested, re-caps of the past: 2008, 2007, & 2006 (sorry no 2005).
So yesterday my buddy Garrett and I brewed a beer that’s been dubbed the Harvest Ale, a Pale Ale brewed with all fresh hops!
We decided on doing a 10 gallon batch as this was TOTALLY an experiment, and 10 gallons would give us each 5 gallons at the end of the day. This was a total experiment because neither one of us had ever used fresh hops, there was no way of telling what the estimated alpha acids or IBUs from the hops would be, and hell, we didn’t even know if we were going to have enough hops for the experiment in the first place. In all honesty we could have basically made a “lawn clipping” beer by accident.
And let me just tell you, these hops were F-R-E-S-H-! Literally Garrett cut down the bines an hour before I arrived and filled a utility wagon and we began picking right away. Of course it had been raining all morning and we were a little unprepared for the excess water on the cones so Garrett came up with the idea of laying all of the hops on a screen with a fan on them to help surface dry the hops, nice. Our recipe called for a total of 20 ounces of fresh hops which we think translated to about 4 to 5 ounces of dry hops, which for a 10 gallon batch seems about right for a non-super hoppy beer.
So, why all the fuss with the fresh hops? Well, fresh hops are literally only available (in the northern hemisphere) once a year, so this could only happen when it happen, that alone makes it special. Also, the longer hops are handled and aged the less potent they and you lose the sensitive volatile oils that can’t hold up to it. So, there hops were literally like three hours old when they hit the kettle, they were picked by hand (versus machine) and were used in every aspect of the recipe. By using them throughout we know we destroyed any delicate compounds with a 90 minute boil trying to achieve our estimated bitterness level, but we mostly late hopped which will help preserve the sensitive material.
One funny thing that happened during the brew day was we WAY over shot our OG some how. We were aiming for 1.055 and hit 1.066, huge difference. Not that I’m concerned, though the hop profile may appear diminished, it just is big, it’s like 85%+ efficiency, and that’s pretty much even if I accidentally over weighed the grain by a pound or so. Anyway, this should be a pretty exciting beer to keep your eyes on to try and grab a taste when it is on the kegerator. Even compared to commercial versions, there is nothing else like this available, this is the freshy-fresh!
Yup … Kitchen Sink :). So today I brewed a beer dubbed the Fool Circle Kitchen Sink Dark, I know, super descriptive and right to BJCP style guidelines.
So in the last post I talked about brewing the Kitchen Sink Amber, well today I brewed the Kitchen Sink Dark. Both of these batches were intended to use up all of my ingredients and still make drinkable beer, though not stylistically accurate. They did their job, the only ingredients I have left right now are about 90 pounds of base malt, 2 pounds of malted rye (which was ordered in “extra” for the R3 and never used), and 1 ounce of Cascade hops for dry hopping the KS Amber. So now it is time to re-up for some freshy-fresh batches, maybe say, … 6 batches worth, so again if you have suggestions let me know, I’ll be ordering soon.
Anyway, today’s brew day went pretty good. I was finished in about 5.5 hours without any major set backs but a few minor glitches. For example, I ran out of propane after collecting the wort but prior to achieving a proper boil, no problem that’s what the spare tank is for. I also couldn’t cool the wort below 80 degrees, again not too big of a deal, did the wet towel/fan trick the last two batched and it worked out marvelously. I suppose the biggest problem, which had nothing to do with making beer, is I have determined I am not a plumber. This is the second or third time I have tried to solder copper tubing for different brewing applications and I have never done a good job. It always takes me two or three attempts, it looks sloppy afterward, and typically I am unhappy with the outcome. Well today I was trying to put together some copper for inside the HLT to help siphon the water out without me having to tip it, a pick-up tube essentially. First my soldering sucked and second, I didn’t have enough pieces (realized after the fact) to make it work properly. Guess what that means? Another $5-10 bucks on stupid copper fittings and another hour of me struggling with the torch and solder. Oh well, I suppose that’s how we learn things.
Also, sorry about the lack of pictures for the KS Amber and Dark and the cleaned up brew room etc, I let Robert borrow my camera for a little bit so that we can document his hairy life here: Roby vs. the Razor. I actually had forgotten, but there was a similar bet in the movie Knocked Up where his roommates bet that he couldn’t shave or cut his hair for a year and the loser pays the other roommates rent for a year, now that’s a hefty bet!
Sorry about the delay in recent posts, I guess I’ve just gotten caught up in other things. Anyway, Roby’s Red Rye (R3) is now on tap, so if you want to give it a shot, now’s your chance.
On tap with the R3 right now is the Cluster Wheat which is about to kick and the Sum Bra Pale Ale. The Cluster Wheat I actually stopped drinking for a while because I wanted to make sure there was enough left to reserve a couple bottles. Fortunately I got around to bottling on Saturday so everything is OK there. Have I tried to briefly describe the R3 yet, … I don’t think I have … Any way, in brief, the R3 is slightly darker than anticipated, thus skewing the true desired ‘red’ nature, though I have to admit that is a hard color to nail (for me anyway), it is also more hop forward and less malt forward than we had originally planned. Originally we really wanted to showcase the rye (50% of the base malt) but as time went on more and more hops were being added to the recipe. Honestly, it is pretty balanced, it’s just not what we had originally discussed. The rye is more subtle than I had anticipated, there is a slight spice note, a slight bread note, and a slight licorice note, but other than that nothing too dramatic. Some people say rye contributes a slickness on the palate, I did not detect that. It’d be interesting to see what some others say, I may have become a little jaded with it by now. BUT, after what sounds like a bunch of criticism, the beer turned out great and is a full flavored easy drinking brew. Above in the picture is “Aye”, he is the tap handle for the R3, pretty funny.
Today I brewed one of two batches to use up the ends of a bunch of older grains. Today’s was dubbed the Kitchen Sink Amber and the other is the Kitchen Sink Dark. I know they’re both real descriptive, yeah right. Today’s brew day was a little late start, not until almost 1PM, but other than that things went pretty good. It was beautiful weather, nothing tragic happened, and I was able to clean up and organize the brew area for the first time in a while, thanks to Karen for scoring me a nice shelving unit that I was desperately in need of. I did over heat my water for the HLT to so I had to let that cool some, and I couldn’t get my wort below 80’F after an hour and fifteen minutes of cooling. So right now I’m doing the carboy in a tub with some water and a wet towel and fan method to help cool it down via evaporation. Last time it helped almost 10 degrees in like 12 hours, so by tomorrow morning I should see some changes. I honestly don’t know if that’s just the surface area of the carboy that gets cooled that well, but it least it’s doing something. I’m thinking for the KS Dark about adding some Chinese 5 Spice Powder too it, sounds interesting to me. I was eating some stir fry the other day that had some in it and I thought it be good in a beer, first thoughts were a stout, a dubbel, or a saison.
Finally, looks like there is an interesting little web site that could be fun to watch on a weekly basis. Myself and two friends have a year long bet going and we decided to document it with a web site. So if you have any interest in checking it out or following along for the next year, check out this web site and bookmark it: Roby vs. The Razor. Basically it is a dollar a day bet with my friend Robert that he can’t go an entire year with out shaving. Too funny, go check out the website.
The trip was kind of a three part trip, first to Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY, second to Ft. Kent, ME, and third to the Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach, DE to see Keller Williams. It was both a long week and a fast week if that makes any kind of sense. It started last Friday July 31st with Erik, Robert, and myself going up to Brewery Ommegang to volunteer for their Belgium Comes to Cooperstown (BCTC) event. This is the third year Robert and I have done it and the first Erik has joined us. It was very similar to the last two, but with a couple legal changes. It seems Ommegang ran into some issues with the State of New York and beer festivals in between last years and this. For my volunteer shift I was pouring beer for a brewery from CT called Olde Burnside Brewing Company, they were pretty nice guys and I had a blast. Both Friday and Saturday nights were of course big party nights, tons of fun.
See the rest of the pictures from Ft. Kent, ME HERE.
From Cooperstown we travelled to Ft. Kent, ME which is pretty much the northernmost most part of Maine. It was a 12 hour drive from Ommegang to Ft. Kent. We stayed at this cool lodge called the Trackdown Kennels & Lodge. It’s basically a hunters lodge, but since it was off season it was just a cool chill lodge for us to kick it in. We then spent the next two days with Robert’s family, who’s father is originally from Ft. Kent, for his parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. I originally was a little hesitant in going up, I had never even met his parents before, but soon after we met them I knew we would be OK. Ft. Kent is very laid back, almost additively so. Once I really got use to the vibe (which was just about when we were leaving) I could have kicked it there for quite a while. The Anniversary party was pretty much a family reunion with about 90 members of his family there and people traveling in from as far as AZ and CA, it was very cool.
See the rest of the pictures from Keller Williams HERE.
Then from Ft. Kent we travelled back to DE, it was about 13 hours, which is actually the fastest I have ever made that drive. I had been to Limestone, ME twice, which is very near Ft. Kent, and if my memory serves me right it was closer to 18 hours both times, so I was pleased to say the least. We got home about midnight-ish on Wednesday and on Thursday Robert, Karen, and I were leaving to head to Dewey Beach to see Keller Williams at the Bottle and Cork. There were a bunch of people we were meeting down there for the show; Craig, Alycia, Abby, and Wooly. The show was tons of fun though it took quite a while for the crowd to really get into it, lot of talking and such, but hey it’s a bar I guess. Keller played a ton of cover songs, so that’s both cool and also a little disappointing just because I would have liked to see more originals. Anyway, after the show we all went back to Abby’s dad’s beach house in Millville and hung up late and then got up early and got going. Friday Robert and I were wiped and we actually cut the beach portion of the trip a day short, originally planning on staying until Saturday.
Overall it was a really great trip, and a great way to spend a week off from work. Hopefully there will be more great trips like that in the future. If you want more details on anything or have any questions let me know, I just don’t feel like typing too too much right now.
So the other night was a night of transfers, nothing too exciting, but I figure I’d give you something different to read.
So from left to the right the following things are either happening or about to happen in this picture: Carboy number one has an actively fermenting R3 in it, carboy number two is the Cluster Wheat about to be transferred to a keg, and carboys three and four are both Sum Bra Pale Ale about to be transferred to secondaries and dry hopped. So this was … last Tuesday I think, so like a week ago.
Currently the R3 is done visual active fermentation and is ready to be transfered to secondary and dry hopped. The Cluster Wheat is currently on tap, and the Sum Bra Pale Ales are both hanging out on their dry hops and I am trying to decide if I want to transfer to keg on Wednesday or wait until over a week more, so essentially 8 days on dry hops or about 21 days – both would be fine.
Things I have noticed in the in between; the R3 has a weird clumpy yeast/protein clumps weirdness going on. I have heard whispers of such activity because of use of rye, but I have never seen such a thing, it is odd to say the least. If you squint at the first carboy you can see two big-ass chunkies toward the top by the bubbles (I know, yeah right). The Cluster Wheat has turned out well, I actually am looking forward to getting into it a few pints to get a real feel for it, which I think is going to happen tomorrow. And the Sum Bra Pale Ales are doing nice, fermented down in the range I wanted, and tasted pretty good at transfer. The funny thing is, either the Summit or Bravo hop has a distinct Simcoe hop flavor to it, which totally through me off – cats in my beer? If you know what I mean you know what I mean, you know.
Bailed on the brew day for Sunday, it was the Amber Kitchen Sink, I woke up a little crusty and then the day slipped away and I found myself at the movies watching the newest Harry Potter movie. I thought it was freakin’ good. Also, this week I have a big multi-step trip coming up: Return to Cooperstown, NY and Brewery Ommegang for the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown (BCTC) event Friday, Saturday, Sunday then off to Ft. Kent, ME (last exit on Rt. 1, WAY up there) to meet the Desjardin family for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday then rush back home to DE to go to the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach to see Keller Williams and hang-out for a couple days at the beach Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So if things go quiet for a bit that’s what’s up, but I will definitely post about BCTC.
On Sunday 07.19.09 Robert brewed his first beer, pretty much unassisted = Awesome!
So we brewed Roby’s Red Rye (R3) on Sunday, and for lack of anything else, it went perfectly. So Robert has sat in on at least 10 brews between brewing with me and brewing with Garrett. He has talked about getting into brewing, though he leans toward wine and mead for some reason, but has never brewed. He has assisted me, but really assisting often details trouble-shooting or work of lesser importance. So the last time he sat in I basically told him it was his turn to brew a batch of beer. So we started from square one and came up with a concept of what he thought would be good, then we developed a recipe, ordered in ingredients, and picked a date. He decided on a Red Rye, which isn’t really a style as much as a concept, but I liked it. He essentially was looking for a red beer with Jewish rye bread characteristics (read: caraway), and a nice hop profile. So I started the base for the recipe; Marris Otter and malted rye about 50/50 with some different crystals and some roasted barley to help round out the beer and to aim for the red color. The Jewish rye bread style was met through those ingredients plus a 1/2 ounce of toasted ground fine caraway seed, which actually lent a neat licorice flavor. And the hops are actually 100% whole leaf home grown Nugget hops a la Garrett.
The brew day went fine; my mill motor which wasn’t cooperating last batch worked, we hit our mash in numbers, we didn’t get a stuck mash with a 50% malted rye bill (though it was quite compacted), we didn’t run out of gas (very low and the back up was empty), and we almost hit out OG (low by .003 points), but wound up with an extra 1/2 gallon – so I assume the OG was off from lack of boil-off for some reason. Oh yeah, and the whole hops didn’t totally clog up the kettle too.
After we cooler for an hour and fifteen minutes we called it quits at 78’F. I then did the bath/towel/fan method and it was down to 66’F the next morning. By the time I got home from work it was spooging out the top of the airlock and I had a mess to clean up – lovely. So I cleaned things up and took it out of the bath. It’ll probably raise up to 70 or 72 but I’m cool with that. We’ll keep you posted on how the R3 develops.
So I asked him if he thought he could do it again on his own (he had written directions too), and he said, yeah, probably, until the very end. Not bad.
