New Kid on the Blog

Food connects people. Toasted baguette with soft, salty butter and seedy strawberry jam with hot coffee; an ear of sweet, fresh July corn plucked from the boil, my dad typewritering through his before I even finish applying the requisite butter-salt-pepper; the spicy bite of the soft, bouncy crumb cake from my grandmother's recipe. All of these tastes, textures, and smells I have indelibly connected to memories of place and people. Whether with close friends, neighbors, family, or complete strangers, our rituals of food, whatever form they take in time and circumstance, are evidence that food feeds more than our bodies when we make and share it with those around us.

So, you may be asking: Just who is this "Fermentationette"? In reality, she is the diminutive version of the Mad Fermentationist (from here, Mike) in a few key respects, being: far shorter in stature; much less learned in the fermenting arts (fermenter-in-training, I believe is my official title); and less measure-y about, well, most things.

What I may lack in stature, mad brewing (fermenting) skills, and detail to numbers, I hope to make up for by contributing a witty, once-weekly post recounting our (Mike and I) latest culinary collaboration; in addition to a beer pairing, likely supplemented with vocabulary and measurements from this blog's creator. For each, I'll do my best to estimate the amounts of time, kind, and temperature as necessary for each stage and ingredient. Keep in mind, though, that we basically make it up as we go, so consider our rough recipes more as guidelines for your preference/imagination.

The forces at work in these weekly adventures revolve around the caffeined collaboration of Sunday (and occasionally Saturday) morning treks to the farmer's market. We make our way seeking what's new, what's fresh, and most importantly, what looks good; ingredients we slowly weave into the haphazard balance of flavor and texture, for some lunch we've dreamed up in our brains.

The idea for such a weekly posting was borne from the fusion of a few well-timed ideas:

First, that people who appreciate and make beer also almost inevitably appreciate the experiment, accompaniment and sharing of food;

Second, that our Sunday food spectacles -- whether a resounding success or "still-technically-edible" -- warrant a record for both progeny's (and our own) enjoyment and learning; and,

Finally, that Mike wants to grow this blog by cultivating new contributors, recognizing the premise that people -- for all their habits and idiosyncrasies -- are as diverse as they are creative; and as hungry as they are thirsty.

Audrey

Smoked Doppelsticke - A True Adambier

With our Bourbon Barrel Wee Heavy getting close to its boozy/oaky destination the barrel crew set about deciding what would be next into the barrel. Plenty of ideas were thrown around, but something close to an Adambier was decided on, but we wanted to do something closer to the German origin of the style than Hair of the Dog's Adam (which I was happy about since I had just brewed a clone of it).

We decided to make the beer based on a sort of amped up Alt called a doppelsticke (literally double secret). The group decided on a base of German Munich malt, with some of the same smoked malt that is used in Bamburg Rauchbier, along with some Caramunich and Carafa for sweetness and color. A solid bittering hop addition with no late boil additions (any hop aroma would fade long before it climbed out of the wood we conjectured). Fermentation was by German Ale yeast, which is clean, but accents the malt more than clean American Ale yeast.

Sadly after most of us had already brewed the new batch, the wee heavy started tasting a bit fruity.... then a bit funky... then a pellicle appeared. I think the big oud bruin (as we are now calling it) has a good chance to turn into a tasty beer in a year or so, but that left us without a home for the Smoked Doppelsticke. After a few fruitless calls to local distilleries we decided to each take our portions and bottle them with or without oak as we say fit. Mine is still cold conditioning at the time being without any oak at this point (I'll decide what I want to do with it after it has a bit more time to mellow, right now it is pretty clear, pleasantly smoky, and very malty).

Double Secret Probation

Recipe Specifics (All-Grain)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.75
Anticipated OG: 1.088
Anticipated SRM: 22.1
Anticipated IBU: 48.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Grain
------
12.00 lbs. German Munich Malt
3.00 lbs. Rauchmalt (German Beechwood Smoked Malt)
0.50 lbs. CaraMunich Malt
0.25 lbs. Carafa Special II

Hops
-----
2.00 oz. Galena @ 60 min.

Extras
-------
1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 Min.(boil)
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP011 European Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
560 min @ 155

Notes
-----
Brewed 6/05/09 by myself

Started an all-night mash ~9:30 PM.

Picked up the sparge with 180 degree water 12 hours later. Really slow runoff. Pre-boil gravity 1.068, much higher than I expected.

Chilled to 75, gave 60 seconds of O2, then racked onto the yeast cake from the Oat Pale Ale. I would have liked to get it cooler, but my ground water was at 72. Placed into the freezer set to 60, put a blowoff tube on.

6/26/09 Racked to secondary, temperature left at 60, gravity down to 1.018 (79% AA, 9.2% ABV). Better attenuation than I expected, I assume the overnight mash gets the credit for that.

7/15/09 Dropped temp to 50 to help it clear.

8/9/09 Bottled with 3.375 oz of table sugar. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2. 3 bottles got bourbon soaked oak cubes that had sat in grade B maple syrup for a few days (something like Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout)

11/12/09 First tasting, doing well, nice smoke character, good balance.

1/05/11 Still doing well, the smoke has fallen off a bit, but it is still vibrant.

Distilled Hitachino's Nest Wit Cocktail

A couple months back my friend Tracy Jill dragged me to a cocktail night at Bar Pilar here in DC. It was the last night on the job for their weekly mix-master and he was bringing back his favorites from his time there. The bar had a couple decent taps, but I decided to take in the Epicurean delights (at $11 a drink).

Most of cocktails on the menu were riffs on old classics, or interesting new combinations, many with homemade bitters and other exotic ingredients and liquors. I thought most of them were alright, but I have not not had many cocktails since discovering good beer, they either end up too sweet or too boozy for my tastes. The one standout I tried was based on (surprise) Allagash White, with Plymouth gin, orange juice, honey syrup, and some lemon peel. The flavor was great, wheaty/bready, with some spice and just a touch of sweetness and not a lot of ethanol.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I was in The Wine Specialist on M St buying some beer (while walking back from $4 happy hour glasses of BFM Abbaye De Saint Bon Chien at Pizzeria Paradiso). As I was walking out a clear square bottle with the Hitachino's Nest owl on the cap caught my eye in the sake display. It was called Kiuchi No Shizuku and the label indicated that inside was the distilled remains of Hitachino Nest Wit beer (aged with extra aromatics), it sounded worth $15 for a try. The aroma was not too bad (orange and coriander and maybe a hint of herbal hops), but at 86 proof the alcohol was too strong for my tongue to get past.


Then an idea struck me, why not soften the harsh edges of the distilled spirit with some of the beer it was distilled from, plus a bit of lemon peel to give it a fresh citrus pop. I added a tablespoon of the liquor to each half of the beer (guessing completely on what to aim for). The results were pretty good, the flavor was close to an imperial wit. I think the beer was a bit past its prime, but the fresh citrus peel helped to cover that up. Although not as good as the original blend at Bar Pilar I thought it was a reasonable first attempt. A small amount of honey and orange juice would help to replace some of the sweetness that a bigger beer normally has, as well as some added complexity.


I realize most of you won’t be able to try this exact concoction at home, but gin is along the same lines as Kiuchi No Shizuku (they are both distilled spirits with herbs and orange peel), and any wit will do. Nothing wrong with playing with your beer a little bit from time to time.

Does anyone else have a good beer cocktail recipe to share?

Palisade Oat Pale Ale Recipe and Tasting

My Palisade Oat Pale Ale is another low gravity batch not to any particular style, that is to say a second International Session Ale. The malt bill is close to that of a special bitter (but it has oatmeal) the yeast is German, and the hops are American. It was inspired by a can of Surly's Bitter Brewer, but really can't be called a clone (it has different malts, hops, and yeast).

I had never used special roast malt (similar to biscuit or victory), palisade hops (a new-ish higher AA% Willamette replacement), or a clean German ale yeast (White Labs 011 in this case), so this is a bit of an experiment as well. All I was just looking for was something crisp and refreshing for the summer without any residual crystal malt sweetness. I was hoping that the oats and the lower attenuating yeast would fill out the mouthfeel without making it too thick or chewy.

This was the starter batch for a smoked doppelsticke that is still cold conditioning. It was originally going to be barrel aged, but those plans were scrapped after our Bourbon Barrel Wee Heavy grew a pellicle and started tasting funky.

Tasting 7/12/09
Appearance – Pours a ruddy straw yellow. The beer is clear when warm, but at about 40 degrees the chill haze is very apparent. Nice tight white head with moderately good head retention. A protein rest or some longer cold conditioning would help take care of the haze, but I don't really mind it.

Smell – The aroma is nicely hoppy with some herbal notes back up by a bit of spice. The character certainly leans European, but there is a hint of that dank Columbus flavor that reminds you that it is grown in the Pacific Northwest. Behind the hops there is a hint of bready malt, but it is hidden beneath the pungent hoppiness.

Taste – Nice assertive clean bitterness at first, flowing similar hop aromatics from the nose. The malt is more noticeable in the flavor, giving flavors of bread, saltine, and biscuit. The finish is dry which enhances the hoppiness, I think I made the right choice leaving the crystal out of this one. The yeast is very clean, but it provides a hint of fruitiness that you wouldn't get from Chico.

Mouthfeel – Medium-light body, but that is to be expected from a 4.5% ABV beer. The carbonation is subdued which prevents the beer from coming across as too thin.

Drinkability & Notes – Holds up to its session beer roots, easy to drink on a hot DC night. Not much I would change on this one, if you can't get your hands on Palisades then Willamette, Glacier, First Gold, or East Kent Goldings would be good replacements (pretty much anything would work for bittering).

Palisade Parkway Pale (International Session Ale #2)

Recipe Specifics (All-Grain)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 3.80
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.28
Anticipated OG: 1.044
Anticipated SRM: 8.0
Anticipated IBU: 34.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63 %
Wort Boil Time: 89 Minutes

Grain
------
6.25 lbs. Maris Otter
0.75 lbs. Oatmeal
0.28 lbs. Special Roast

Hops
-----
0.75 oz. Amarillo @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Palisade @ 4 min.
0.50 oz. Palisade @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.50 Unit(s)Whirlfloc Fining 15 Min.
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient Other 15 Min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP011 European Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
---------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Brewed 5/23/09 by myself

Boiled Quaker Old Fashion Oats with plenty of water for 10 minutes to ensure complete gelatinization. Collected 5.75 gallons of 1.030 wort.

Added 2 g of gypsum to the boil to help accentuate the hops.

Amarillos are 18 months old (adjusted down from 9.7%), Palisades are 6 months old (adjusted down from 6.7%).

Cooled to ~70 degrees, 45 second shot of O2, pitched a fresh tube of yeast, put into the freezer set to 60 degrees. After 20 hours there was no action, so I upped the temp to 65. After ~6 more hours there was fermentation starting.

5/31/09 Fermentation seems to be about finished, just a small bit of krausen hanging on.

6/06/09 Racked to a 3 gallon secondary, added the dry hops in a muslin bag. Gravity down to 1.008. Does not have as much bitterness as I was aiming for. Bottled one bomber with 3/4 tsp of cane sugar (this bottle was nice after 2 weeks, but I was glad I dry hopped the rest since it was missing that nice fresh hop aroma).

6/16/09 Bottled with 1.75 oz of cane sugar, aiming for the low 2's carbonation. Gravity was down to 1.008, lower than I expected, but it did not taste thin.

(Cabernet) Berliner Weiss

After how well my first batch of Berliner Weiss came out, it was only a matter of time before I brewed another one. This time I upped the volume to a full 5 gallon batch because I polished off the first batch far too soon, but other than that I kept the wort production (decoction, mash hopping, minimal-boil) the same.

The only major change I made to the base beer was the yeast/bacteria. The first time I used the great Wyeast Berliner Weiss Blend, but it has not been re-released since. So this time I used some slurry from my buddy Dan (who does the City Brewer blog), he used Wyeast Lacto and some US-05. I also added some Brett L (also from Dan), and the dregs from a bottle of Cantillon for some complexity (the beer got to 1.002 pretty quickly so I doubt the added funk will do much).

After making my own blueberry syrup last year (I liked the fruit flavor, but not the sweetness) I wanted to add some fruit to the beer during fermentation. I was inspired by a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon lambic that my friend Brian made (which incidentally took gold in the NHC East Regionals this year). So I took half the batch and added 34.5 oz of Cabernet grape juice after primary fermentation. Actual grapes would have been even better (that is how the lambic was made), but they aren't in season at the moment. The juice was from concentrate (picked up at the supermarket), but the flavor seems to be pretty good from the samples I have pulled (and the color in the glass is not nearly as shocking as the photo).

I am hoping to bottle soon since this will be the perfect beer for a DC summer that is just starting to burn.

Battle of France (Cabernet Berliner Weiss)

Recipe Specifics (All-Grain)
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.50
Anticipated OG: 1.033
Anticipated SRM: 2.6
Anticipated IBU: 0.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58 %
Wort Boil Time: 3 Minutes

Grain
------
4.50 lbs. German Pilsener
3.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt

Hops
-----
1.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker @ Mash Hop

Yeast
-----
Safale US 05 Chico and Wyeast 5335 Lacto slurry

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
---------------
Pulled the decoction after 5 minutes at the Protein rest. Added hops to the decoction. ~10 min to get up to 155. Left there for 15 min. Boiled 10 minutes. Added back to the mash got up to 140. After 10 min added 1qrt of hot water to get up to 145, should have pulled a bigger decoction.

Notes
-----
Brewed 5/24/09 by myself

DC tap water, carbon filtered.

Slow, cloudy runoff. Batch sparged. Collected 5.5 gallons of 1.033 wort.

Brought to a boil for ~3 minutes, skimming. Chilled to 80, pitched a thin 10 oz of slurry of lacto and yeast from Dan (US-05 and commercial Lacto). I also added some Brett L dregs from Dan. Put into my chest freezer @ 65 degrees.

Some fermentation evident around 18 hours.

5/26/09 Added the dregs of a bottle of Cantillon Vigneronne.

5/31/09 Super cloudy still, looks like particulate. Fermentation seems to be wrapping up, mild sourness, pretty clean.

6/07/09 Took out of the fridge to encourage fermentation/funk to get moving.

6/16/09 Racked to secondary gravity down ~1.002. Half racked onto three 11.5 oz bottles of First Blush Cabernet Juice. Nice tartness. It took a couple days to see the see renewed fermentation from the juice. Left at summer DC room temp.

8/9/09 Bottled both halves with 2.75 oz of table sugar each. Aiming for 3.5 volumes of CO2.

12/01/09 First tasting of both halves, both are doing well but need a few more months to mature.

4/28/10 Took first place in the Sour Ales category in the East Region of the 2010 NHC, scoring a 40.5.

When brewing, what is your average batch size?

< 2.5 gal 6 (2%)
2.5 - 5.9 gal 151 (71%)
6 - 10.9 gal 45 (21%)
11 - 20 gal 8 (3%)
> 20 gal 2 (0%)

Looks like most people do "standard" 5 gallon batches, although a good number go slightly bigger. I really should have broken out the slightly smaller batches since I suspect that would have gotten a more accurate look at the people who brew smaller than 5 gallon batches. As you've probably noticed from my recipes I tend to brew batches around 3.5 gallons, but I'll occasionally brew a 5 gallon batch if I am going to split it (half with fruit and half plain is common for my sours).

I'm impressed by the two people who answered over 20 gallons, those are some impressive homebrew systems (assuming you aren't pros).