New Brewers, New Brews

Last week, a dear friend and colleague treated me to the second annual U and Brew event at the Campus Club, showcasing a variety of local breweries and beers and highlighting hops research underway at the University of Minnesota. I won the least inspiring of door prizes – two orange beer koozies from Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis – but that’s alright: I also got a keepsake sampling glass from local brew mag The Growler, a bellyful of spicy sausage and soft pretzels with coarse brown mustard, and the joy of sampling five new (to me) brews. In order, I imbibed the following:

• Lucid Brewing’s Foto IPA (Minnetonka, MN) – nicely hopped and refreshing; this is definitely a hop-forward beer, but it’s not overwhelming for a guy like me, who’s no longer a hophead.
• Bad Weather Brewing Company’s Windvane Minnesota Red Ale (Minnetonka, MN) – Beautiful balance between hops and malt; you taste both, together and separately, if that makes sense. Tasty, tasty beer – and also quite refreshing for a beer this autumnal in color.
• Badger Hill Brewing Company’s MSB (Minnesota Special Bitter) (Minnetonka, MN) – Easy drinker; to me, like an English session ale malted and hopped like an Oktoberfest. I’d bring it to a party for something new and flavorful that everyone could enjoy.
• Excelsior Brewing Company’s Big Island Blonde Ale (Excelsior, MN) – This was the peer-pressure choice; everyone was trying it and saying how good it was, and I thought, “Lawnmower brew.” Light, easy-to-drink blonde ale with a hint of lemony citrus in the finish. 
• Pour Decisions Brewing Company’s Infidelity “Burton Ale” (Roseville, MN) – A good malty English-style ale. I didn’t know what a Burton ale was, but apparently this fits the bill: sweeter and darker than an English pale ale. I enjoyed it.

Indeed Brewing Company and Fulton Brewing Company (both in Minneapolis) were also represented, but I had only six sample tickets, and wanted to save the last for seconds on my favorite of the five I tasted. It was a tossup between Lucid Foto and Bad Weather Windvane, until I heard Bad Weather had just launched in March. I spent my last ticket and told them they had the best beer in the room. The young brewer thanked me, and confided that he liked Lucid Foto quite well himself. Turns out Lucid, Bad Weather, and Badger Hill use the same facilities. It’s a small and burgeoning brewing scene, by the looks – lucky us!

Homebrew VIII: Brunch Stout

Brunch stout.

Thought I’d share a quick review of my latest brew, Northern Brewer’s Brunch Stout from an extract kit. It’s the first beer I’ve kegged, and the most complex kit I’ve brewed – and while I’m enjoying it thoroughly, I would do a few things differently next time.

First off, I started with 6.5 gallons of water, as opposed to 5.5 or 6, which is my usual starting point. As a result, this stout (though by no means a BIG beer) is perhaps not quite as “big” as it ought to be.

Second, in addition to a massive amount of specialty grains and a pound of Belgian Candi Syrup (from beets and dates, as I recall), this kit contains a full pound of French roast coffee. The instructions say to crush the whole beans coarsely and add them to the wort, which I did. They do not say whether or not to remove them – I used a wire colander to scoop all that I could back out of the wort at the end of the boil, but some remained for the length of primary fermentation.

The result? Northern describes their brunch stout this way:

Brunch: a portmanteau of "breakfast" and "lunch". Brunch Stout: a collision of brunch as a particularly indulgent meal time, and a particularly indulgent stout. 60 IBUs, loaded with sumptuous malt, acidic and tangy coffee, and wildly fruity Candi syrup, this is a stout that does not know when to stop. There's something here for every interpretation of this decadent mid-cycle ritual, from the sweet to the savory, the simple to the intricate. Explore the limits of American-style stout as you know it with your new deviously delicious companion.

By contrast, what streams from my tap is a nice coffee stout, nearly black with a creamy mocha head. The flavor, to my palate, is almost exclusively strong black coffee and dark roasted malt, with more French-roast bitterness than hops. A pint left to warm a bit acquires some dark fruit hints as it approaches room temperature: blueberries and plums, perhaps, but they’re subtle. It reminds me of Guinness Foreign Extra or Sierra Nevada’s Narwhal Imperial Stout – a great stout, but not quite the multilayered egg-bake of a beer described.

Next time: Less water, and the coffee goes in a hops bag – plus I might screen it as it goes into the primary fermenter.

Pledge Week at Tappa Kegga Bru!

Well, I made the leap: Last Sunday, I transferred my Northern Brewer brunch stout to a sanitized 5-gallon pin-lock keg and hooked up the CO2 to carbonate (three days or so at 20 psi), then on Wednesday I sanitized the plumbing, hooked it it up, reduced to 10 psi, and pulled the first pint. I purchased the entire set-up (including a mid-size fridge spray-painted gold and a bunch of extra equipment) from a guy on Craigslist, and unbeknownst to me, a small flat O-ring was missing -- as a result, when I returned for a second pint, the system had lost pressure, and a small pool of stout had formed on the top of the keg and the liquid fitting. I remedied that today, with a 40-cent purchase at Northern on the way home. Resanitized, reassembled, and works like a charm! (Photos courtesy of Gabriel Thorp.)

Reducing to serving pressure.

Clearing the sanitizer from the lines -- don't waste too much!

Satisfaction.