The Historical Brewing Event

About a year ago my friend Mat and I with the help of many many others, got together to design recipes, brew, bottle and make labels for three five gallon batches of historical beer. Last April we got to serve the beer to reenactors at the annual Patriots Day battle reenactment held at Minuteman National Park in Concord Massachusetts. It was great to talk to several other home brewers and all of the history buffs who enjoyed the beer.

The event went well, the 50 or so people in attendance, including us, managed to drink most of the 140 bottles we brought, leaving us with enough surplus to give anyone who stuck around a couple bottles of their favorite brew to take home. Despite aging the beer less than an ideal amount of time, two of the batches were bottled just two weeks before the event, the general consensus was that the beer was tasty. The only real negative comment I got was that at about 50 degrees the beer was colder than it would have been served historically. The only let down was how little people drank of our Swankey, a low alcohol licorice flavored beer, apparently most reenactors dislike anise as much as I do.

Recipes and descriptions:

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London Porter ca 1800 - 4.8% abv - Brewed 3/18/06

Grains
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8 lbs Pale Malt
2 lbs Amber Malt
2 lbs Brown Malt
.063 lbs Chocolate Malt
OG 1.051

Hops
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1 oz Fuggles @ 60 min
1 oz East Kent Goldings @60 min
36 IBUs

Yeast
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1275 - Wyeast Thames Valley Ale

Porter, named for the laborers who were the first big drinkers of it, was invented in 1722 as a combination of three different beers, called threads, that would have been mixed together when it was ordered. Eventually many breweries began to make a porter that was Entire, containing all three threads in one barrel, to save the publican time and effort. The dark black color that people associate with modern porters comes from the addition of Black Patent malt the process to make which was not invented until 1817. While this beer is intended to replicate what the Redcoats would have enjoyed back in England, in 1775 domestic porter became available in America with the opening of first porter brewery in the states.

Traditionally porter was made from a 1:1:1 mixture of pale, brown and amber malts, however only one company makes amber and brown malt today and these versions are too harsh to be used in such high proportions. We kept with the practice of caramelizing some of the sweet wort to add color and flavor to the beer. Traditionally, due to the expense, hops were added only early in the boil to maximize the bitterness they contribute, the result is a beer without much hop aroma.

As this beer aged it got very smooth and smelled just like a bowl of coffee ice cream. Probably not as dark as it should have been. Next time I think I will go with the traditional ratio of malts, and use home toasted versions to make sure that those large amounts of roasted malts doesn't get unpleasant.

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Swankey - 3% abv - Brewed 3/13/06

Grains/Sugar
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5 lbs mild malt
.25 lbs chocolate malt
.5 lbs unrefined cane sugar
OG 1.032

Hops
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1 oz Fuggles @ 60 min
15 IBUs

Spices
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3 g Anise @ 5 min
1.5 g Star Anise @ 5 min

Yeast
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1275 - Wyeast Thames Valley Ale

Swankey was a regional specialty of western Pennsylvania, it was produced for more than a century until prohibition forced the last few producers of it out of business. Refreshing and relatively low in alcohol with a strong licorice flavor this was the soda-pop of its day.

Not much is known about this style today, so I based this recipe on the few scant references that I could find and modern day Dark English Milds. This version gets its licorice flavor from two types of anise.The addition of unrefined turbinado sugar boosts the fermentables while keeping the beer light and refreshing. The English yeast we used adds esters and complexities that are probably closer to what yeast of the 18th century would have contributed than what current day American ale yeasts would contribute.

I never really liked this beer, but then again I'm not a licorice fan. For such a low alcohol beer it had lots of flavor and did retain plenty of body. Next time I think I'll just leave out the anise, but then it really wouldn't be a Swankey would it?

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Poor Richard's Ale - 5.4% abv - Brewed 2/20/06

Grains/Sugar
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8lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Flaked Corn
.375 lbs Molasses
.75 lbs Biscuit Malt
.25 lbs Special B
.125 lbs Chocolate Malt
OG 1.060

Hops
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1.25 oz East Kent Goldings @75 min
28 IBUs

Yeast
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1728 - Wyeast Scottish Ale

Versions of this beer were originally brewed by more than 100 breweries this past winter to celebrate the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is quoted as saying "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." At the time of the Revolution barley was relatively expensive so many recipes of the day use corn and molasses as cheap sources of sugar to supplement the barley. The tradition of using corn to lower costs and keep beers light in flavor and color is still alive with the beers from Miller and several other American breweries.

We used a Scottish yeast because it is relatively neutral, allowing the flavors of the corn and molasses to shine through. The mixture of barley malts in this recipe is intended to replicate the High (dark malts) and Low (pale malts) mentioned in many beer recipes from around the time of the Revolution. All of the hops were added early in the boil for plenty of bitterness, however this drives off most of the volatile oils leaving a beer with not much in the way of hop aroma.

Turned out to be a great beer, just had the last bottle a few weeks back. With some age it got some vinous notes and tasted silky smooth. The molasses was really the key to this one. If I wanted to make this more traditional I'd up the corn and the molasses, but as a beer it was great as it.

Culturing Kombucha from a Commercial Bottle

I got a comment on this, I didn't really give enough detail on exactly how I went from a bottle of Tea Chi to having a gelatinous disk of microbes. Essentially, I applied the same principles to get it that you can to harvest yeast from a commercial beer, start small and go bigger as the microbes can handle it. If you go too big too fast the microbes will take a long time to grown and ferment and might get overrun by the local microbes who might not make such a tasty beverage.

I let the whole bottle of Kombucha warm up to room temperature, I then poured it into a sanitized mason jar. I generally don't sanitize now but I wanted to give the microbes a head start because they might be weak after being refrigerated for a couple of weeks. To them I added about a cup of cooled unfermented Kombucha (just cooled tea with .75 oz of white sugar dissolved in it). Every few weeks I would add some more of this sweetened tea moving up to larger vessels when needed until the Kombucha “mushroom” had grown quite large. I dumped out this first batch because it had gotten very sour because of how long the culture had been fermenting without a large replacement or liquid.

When it gets big enough you can just start bottling 90% of the liquid before adding the fresh nutrient solution.

Sauerkraut Bottling

After 4 weeks getting nice and sour I decided to call my first attempt at sauerkraut ready to eat. After washing my hands and 2 mason jars I crammed the cabbage into the jars and topped them off with the “kraut juice” pushing down on it to get as much air out as possible. My two heads of cabbage ended up filling up the two jars perfectly. The sauerkraut is nice nicely acidic and salty, but still has a great crunchy texture that I think is much better than the soggy texture that commercial sauerkraut normally has.

I don't normally eat straight sauerkraut so it's hard to judge exactly how good my homemade version is until I get some bratwurst or make a Ruben or some brisket with sauerkraut and prunes (mmm mmm heritage).

So far I think the most important lesson I have learned is to slice the cabbage thinner, I have some pretty big chunks in there. Next time I think I'll add some additional spices, I may even give Korean Kimchi a shot (sauerkraut with chilies, garlic and scallions).

Bottle Hopping

Last night I bottled my Mo' Betta Bretta clone. I got about 2 six packs and 3 bombers from both the plain and cherry soaked batches. Both batches tasted good, although the cherry batch definitely tastes more funky and immature than the plain version.

To create some variety I added 4 dried hop cones of 4 different varieties (Centennial, Simcoe, Mt. Hood and Sterling) to 4 empty bottles before filling with the plain batch. I tried to select intact cones so that they would be easy to strain out of the beer for serving and so far all the hops appear to have remained whole except for the Sterling which broken down almost immediately.

I got the idea from a special version that LaConner Brewing did of their IPA for Bottleworks in Seattle that had whole hops added to each bottle. Some companies dry hop in the keg (Russian River does it on Pliny the Younger), but as I don't keg that wasn't an option. Bottle hopping also works well in this case because I wanted to leave the bulk of the beer plain, plus now I'll get to try out four different dry hopped versions.

If consumed reasonably quickly (exposure to whole hops for an extended period of time can cause grassy off flavors) this should give the unique experience of having the hops in contact with the beer up until moments before serving. The drawback is that the hops provide loads of nucleation sites for bubbles to form which can lead to rapid foaming. I have heard several stories of broken bottles and gushers from people who had the bottle hopped LaConner IPA

It'll be another few weeks before these beers are carbonated enough to try, but I'm really excited to see how the different versions compare.

1st 100% Brettanomyces Brew: 1st Tasting

I often see recipes posted on the internet that include no mention of how the beer turned out, and in the rare case that they do mention what the beer tastes like it is brief and vague. I hope to post reviews and results for all the recipes I talk about on the site, in fact I'd like to do updates as time goes on to show how age can effect the beers I make.

48 days ago I brewed this beer, and it's now been in the bottle for 2 weeks. I went with one of the bottles that was spiked with dry US-56.

Appearance – I had left the bottle in the fridge for 24 hours before opening, even with 15 minutes to warm up before pouring it still had plenty of chill haze. The head is initially vigorous, creamy and stark white. However, it sinks pretty quickly leaving just a thin spotty covering. As the beer warms it gradually begins to clear, but never gets crystal.

Smell – Opens up with lots of lemons, and a mild herbal/grassy/spicy hop aroma. There is a light earthy-funkiness hiding behind, but it certainly is not a primary aroma. Overall pretty clean, but there is enough going on to let you know this is not a run of the standard style.

Taste – Lightly tart, with bready malt. Plenty of esters, apples and pears for the most part. There are some barnyard notes as I get closer to the bottom of the glass. It's pretty well balanced, the hops are not assertive, but they certainly are stronger than in most traditional “wild” beers.

Mouthfeel – Prickly carbonation with a medium body. Feels surprisingly full for a beer that finished at 1.009.

Drinkability & Notes – Certainly still tastes young, but damn tasty for a Brett beer that only has two weeks in the bottle. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops over the coming months.

Recipe

Can Brett make bread?

I had some Brett from Mo Betta Bretta saved in a growler in the fridge. Not having anything else to do with it I decided to see if this yeast could lend its unique flavor to bread. To make things more interesting I decided to also add a few tablespoons of kombucha, I was hopeful that the microbes would get along and make a unique sourdough.

I made a sponge with 6 oz (by weight, so much more accurate than using volume) of all purpose flour, 3/4 cup lukewarm water, about 1/8 cup thick Brett slurry and 1.5 tbsp of fermented kombucha. I let it sit out overnight to make sure the Brett acclimated to its new task. By the morning there was clearly activity, although not as much as I normally get from dry baker's yeast.

I then kneaded in 10 oz of flour, 6 tbls warm water and 1 tsp salt. I put the dough in a saran wrap covered bowl and placed it in the oven with a pan of hot water to rise. After one and a half hours (the normal rise for this recipe) the dough had risen some, but not the requisite doubling. After another hour the dough was close to where it was supposed to be. I shaped the dough into two baguettes and put them back in the oven to rise until dinner time.

After the bread had doubled again (about three hours) I preheated the oven to 500 degrees with my baking stone (large overturned terracotta flowerpot base). The bread baked for about 15 minutes, until it was golden brown and crunchy.

After cooling for 30 minutes the baguette was ready to eat. The smell was mildly funky and Brett like, but other than that looked and tasted just like a regular loaf of bread. The second loaf is spending the night in the refrigerator, I'll save some of the dough from it to see if the Brett will adapt to its new home and produce a suitable sourdough starter.

The next night I used the second half of the dough to make a pizza with some left over roasted pork tenderloin and caramelized onion. The Brett character had intensified and nicely complemented the earthy flavors of the meat, onions and cheese. The dough, even cold, was very easy to work with, I have no idea if I can credit this to the starch munching Brett, or if it was just that particular dough recipe. Sadly, I forgot to save any of the dough, so I guess I'll be making a new starter soon.