Singing Boys Brewing Blog

Two of our beers won medals at the 2013 Door County Beer Festival's Homebrew Competition.  

Cherub Nectar, a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, won the gold medal in its category and then went on to win the bronze medal (third place) in the overall Best of Show.  Cherub Nectar is a very dry, easy-to-drink beer combined with a high abv.  This is achieved by using low mash temps, using sugar (which paradoxically dries out a beer), making two yeast starters, and ramping the fermentation temps up over the course of the fermentation.

Midnattssol IPA won the silver medal in its category.  Featuring Summit, Amarillo and Mosaic hops, it has the typical fruity aroma of an American IPA, especially mango. 

The gold medal in the IPA category went to my friend and fellow homebrew club member Mark Westmeyer.  Mark served for the past two years as president of the Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS) and his IPA was outstanding.  I think its fun that the two IPAs entered by BOSS members took gold and silver! 

Nancy and I took a five-day holiday in Door County and on Saturday, I judged at the competition.  I judged three flights - pale ales, wheat/rye beers, and spice/herb/vegetable beers.  I was scheduled to judge in the Best of Show round, but because one of my beers was in that round, I didn't, of course.  All judging at competitions like this is anonymous - the judges don't know who brewed which beer - and judges don't judge in the categories in which they have beers entered. 

The competition was in Bailey's Harbor, on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula, as part of a large (and very fun) craft beer festival.   The competition's director, the one who organized it, was Taylor Schultz, a 22 year-old who just graduate from college!  He did an exceptional job, it was very well-run. 

Nancy and I stayed on the other side of the peninsula, on Green Bay, in a small and picturesque village called Ephraim.  We were there for the Norwegian celebration of the midsummer, called Fyr Bal, which included lighting of giant bonfires along the bay side, quite lovely. 

We highly recommend the quiet bed and breakfast we stayed in, the French Country Inn.  Walt and Joan, the hosts, joined us along with other guests, for our daily happy hour, which we supplied with our handmade beer, cider and wine!  Its a pretty inn that is tidy but not fussy and just about perfect for us. 

We spent a lot of time biking,hiking, eating and on the water.  Above is Nancy at the helm on Green Bay.  Lots to recommend, but some highlights are Peninsula State Park, the lighthouse and hiking at Rock Island State Park, Wickman House, and Schoolhouse Artisanal Cheese. 

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Here's Nancy modeling a shirt I love, from Fermentedtees.  Add More Hops really is sage advice that will make your life better.  You can check out their other shirts at www.fermentedtees.com

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Received a packet in the mail yesterday from the Beer Judge Certification Program.  Based on my tasting exam scores and experience, I've been promoted from a Recognized to a Certified Beer Judge. 

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Beer, because of its endless variations and styles, pairs well with a wide-range of foods.  While wine is usually the first option that occurs to us when considering food pairings, beer is more versatile and provides greater distinctiveness and choice.  There are some foods (chocolate, spicy Thai) that just will not match well with wine.  Not true for beer - you can always find a beer style that works. 

This past weekend, Nancy and I hosted four couples for a dinner with five courses, each paired with a handmade beer from one of us.  Our first course, as people gathered, included smoked salmon and proscuitto ham with crackers and pico de gallo with locally made tortilla chips.  We paired this with Bill Goetz' Pilsner.  The snappiness of the noble hops cut through the smoke, fat and salt of the salmon and proscuitto.  The easy drinkability and maltiness complimented the spiciness of the pico de gallo.  The photo below is from Bill's Facebook brewing page

The second course was a salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, yellow grape tomatoes, oranges, and cucumber, with a lemon & basil vinagrette.  We served my Cherub's Nectar Belgian Golden Strong Ale with this course - this is a very dry, easy to drink beer, made with Pilsner malt, with some Belgian-y fruitiness and esters and a high abv (9.5%).  This beer stood up to the citrus flavor of the orange in the salade and the bitterness of the lemon dressing.  This is a good example of where it would be difficult to pair a wine that would work with the citrus and lemon acidity, but the beer cut through it. 

For our third course, Mark Westmeyer brought his Imperial India Pale Ale, a big, malty, bitter beer with tons of hop aroma and flavor.  The hops were Mosaic, Summit and Citra, if I remember correctly.  This beer can stand up to hearty fare, so we paired it with:  ribeyes steaks grilled with olive oil, sea salt, garlic and black pepper; a potato and leek gratin; and roasted brussel sprouts with smoked pork and onions.  The fullness of the beer complimented the heaviness of the food, but the hops help cut through the fattiness of the pork, cheese, and beef. 

Next was a cheese course, paired with Terry Frey's  farmhouse beer, a Saison with brettanomyces, a wild yeast found on fruit skin which adds a 'funk' to beers.  The funkiness of the beer complimented the funkiness of the cheese, which included a Spanish cheese made with three milks (similar to Manchego), a blue stilton, a white stilton with candied ginger, a Wisconsin sharp cheddar, and a brie.  If you'd like to read more about beers with brettanomyces, here's a great article in the NY Times

We ended with a dessert of brownies paired with Jim Todd's Old Ale aged in a wooden barrel.  This is a big, malty beer, round and luscious, with some vanilla and oak from the wood.  I believe he blended the beer he brought; in other words, he mixed different versions of the beer when it was bottled.  This was a group brew, I think, with many people brewing the base batch and then combining them together in a large wooden barrel.  It was a wonderful beer with which to finish a meal and the fullness and roundness complimented the dense chocolate in the brownie very nicely.

If you are interested in reading more about the many styles of beer and how they pair with food, take a look at The Brewmaster's Table by Garret Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.

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22nd Annual Charlie Orr Memorial Chicago Cup

Yesterday, I judged at a beer competition sponsored by a club Nancy and I belong to:  the Brewers of South Suburbia (www.bossbeer.org).

First, there is a ton of administrative work that goes into a competition.  This is Jim Todd toiling over a computer at the competition.  Nine hundred bottles had been made 'anonymous' for judging the last Saturday (an all-day process involving many people) but must then be 'reconnected' to the brewer afterwards when score sheets and judges comments are sent to them:  a good database is critical. 

This is a group of stewards (Mike Bardusk, Matt North, Terry Frey and Roger Masson) puzzling at the organizers' tables.  Stewards bring out the flights of beers to the judges and organize the score sheets afterwards: a critical job.  Matt served as chief steward for the competition.

I judged in two categories.  In the morning, I judged Amber Hybrids, which include German Alt beers and California Common beers, sometimes called steam beers. I judged BOSS member Steve Kamp's Evil Horse Steam (of course I didn't know it was his beer at the time) which went on to win the first place ribbon in the category.

For each beer presented, there are at least two judges who evaluate the beer and each fill out a judging sheet, with both numeric scores and comments on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression. Below is BOSS member Bill Goetz and other judges, with Roger Masson stewarding.

In the afternoon, I judged the Spice, Herb and Vegetable beer category: two BOSS members took first and second place in that category.  I judged Jim Todd's jalapeno blonde ale which won the second place ribbon; Brandon Branbury's pumpkin, squash and spice beer was judged by another pair of judges in the category and won the first place ribbon.

Below is another table of judges doing the mini-best-of-show for their category; when there are multiple pairs of judges for a category, the best beers from each pair at sent to the mini-bos for final evaluation and placement into first, second and third.  At this table is Ian Wilson (in the baseball cap), the head brewmaster at Rock Bottom in Orland Park. 

In addition to judging, I served on the organizing committee for the competition and coordinated the prizes and sponsorships.  The Chicago Cup is distinguished by the number of prizes we award to the winning brewers;  below are photos of the tables with some of the prizes.

Our most valuable prize this year was a $250 gift certificate to a homebrew supply store (Kennywood Brewing in Crown Point) and we had a handful of other gift certificates and prizes in the $100 range.  Also, logo baseball caps, t-shirts and pints glasses are very popular among homebrew stores and suppliers, apparently!  To see the 36 sponsors of the competition and links to their sites, go to www.bossbeer.org/competition. 

The competition's director was Steve Sikorski, in the middle in the photo below.

Afterwards, the club president and the director of judging at the competition, Mark Westmeyer, was relieved that another successful competition was done.  He might have been a bit giddy; he was wearing the right shirts for the day.   

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Our Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale took first place in the American Ales category at the 2013 Chicago Winter Brew Competition! 

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Last July, my friend Bill Goetz and I traveled to the Detroit-area and took the Beer Judge Certification Program's Tasting Exam.  A few days ago, I received this in the mail:

I'm in, with a score of 76 out of 100 possible points.  Bill also passed, as did my friends Lorena Evans and Scott Pointon. 

To qualify to take the tasting exam, we needed to first pass an online entrance exam.  Then for the tasting exam, we each evaluated six beers, as you would at a competition, and our evaluation sheets were compared with those filled out by proctors for the same beers.  The proctors are National and Master judges. 

Passing the tasting exam requires a score of 60, which qualifies me to be a Recognized Judge.  My score of 76 was high enough to qualify me for the next level up - Certified Judge - after I have gained more 'experience points' by judging in competitions.  The next level up is National Judge, which would require much more experience, retaking the tasting exam and getting a score of 80+ and then passing a written exam. 

 Bill and I decided to pursue this after last year's Brewers of South Suburbia's competition, the Chicago Cup.  He served as a steward at the competition, and I was a 'novice' judge.  There has been such growth in homebrewing that competitions find it challenging to recruit enough BJCP judges. 

Here's my BJCP card and pin:

After Bill and I both passed the online entrance exam, we began preparing for the tasting exam together.  It requires a knowledge of the official beer style guidelines, which are worthwhile reading for anyone who appreciates craft or handmade beer.  We also did some tastings together of beers in related styles - for example, in one of our sessions, we compared brown porters, with robust porters, with Baltic porters.  Similar, but different.

We also took a beer sensory class offered by Marty Nachel, a member of our club and author of a number of books.  His class, which was very helpful, focused on identifying off-flavors compounds, such as diacytl or oxidation. 

At the tasting exam, the very first beer was perhaps the worst beer I've ever tasted in my life!  It was supposed to be an Irish Red, but it was so badly infected as to be nearly undrinkable.  Other styles included in our tasting exam were an Octoberfest, Northern English Brown, Belgian Tripel, Bohemian Pilsner, and Robust Porter. 

My final scores for each of the beers we evaluated differed from the proctors' final scores by  4 - 7 points.

I'm signed up to judge at the Square Kegs competition in a couple of weeks and will also sign up for the Drunk Monk competition, another local Chicago competition.  The BOSS Chicago Cup is at the end of March and I'll judge at that again, too. 

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I make what some people call a simple draft-style cider.  Its easy to drink, light, not complex, sparkling and semi-sweet.  I don't enter it into contests, its not that kind of cider, but we like it. 

Tonight, I pasteurized our latest batch.  Pasteurizing is necessary for the process I use - to stop the yeast after the bottles are carbonated but not over carbonated.  If the yeast kept going, soon we would have bottle grenades.  Unlike beer, where the yeast only eat some of the complex sugars from the mash, they devour all of the simple apple sugars. 

I pasteurize on the stove top and put together a tutorial (with pictures) for other cider makers who have run up against the cunundrum of making bottle conditioned, semi-sweet (not bone dry) sparkling cider.  You can see the pasteurizing tutorial here.

I came up with the process after Hugh and I spent a half-day working at the local brewery in the village of Ribe, Denmark - one of my tasks was loading and unloading their simple bottle pasteurizer. 

Before pasteurizing, my process is very simple.  For this batch, I poured three gallons of grocery store apple juice (without preservatives) into a small carboy, added pectic enzyme (to keep the pectins in the juice from solidifying or getting hazy) and Danstar Nottingham yeast.  Let it ferment until bone dry, about a week. 

Then I added three-quarters of a gallon of apple juice to the bottling bucket, then racked the fermented juice into the bucket.  The new juice both backsweetens the very dry cider and primes it for bottle conditioning.  After bottling, I wait a couple of days and begin checking on carbonation, nothing's wasted - I always drink with test bottles!  For this batch, I bottled on Saturday and pasteurized on Wednesday. 

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Last Thursday, Nancy and I went to a fantastic party thrown by Lagunitas Brewing.  Lagunitas is opening a brewery in Chicago, near 16^th and Rockwell on the near southside.  Thanks to Jamie Hale and AJ Hudson's Public House for inviting us - it was great fun. 

The party was thrown in giant warehouses owned by Cinespace Chicago Film Studios (the largest film stage space outside of Hollywood, we're told, and where Chicago Fire is filmed), there had to be over five hundred guests, entertaining performers and servers from Red Moon Theater, food trucks, and of course, Lagunitas beer. 

We saw my friend-in-beer Jessica, her friend Tim, and visited for a while.  Jessica writes a really good blog, girlslikebeer.net - I'd say she approaches it like a journalist.  She is one of the best resources for information about the exploding brewery scene around Chicago.  

Jessica wrote a blog post about the Lagunitas sneek-peak party and has a couple of photos http://girlslikebeertoo.net/2012/12/07/lagunitas-brewing-company-offers-a-sneak-peek/ 

The new brewery is going to be built-out in another Cinespace building, which in its former life was a Reyerson Steel plant.  We took a flashlight tour through the darkened soon-to-be-brewery.  Its huge - seven football fields can fit into the building.  There will be a glass-sided, elevated tap room right in the middle of the brewery.  The tap room will be open in March 2013, well before the brewery is open - sounds like it would be fun to visit, drink some Lagunitas and watch them build the brewery!

One of the highlights of the evening was, as we were leaving (at our customary early hour because we're old), briefly chatting with Lagunitas' founder Tony Magee.  Told him we were friends of Steve Kamp (through our homebrew club, the Brewers of South Suburbia) who brewed his Fusion 8 beer at Lagunitas a few months ago and Tony lit up.  After a few minutes, we thanked him for the most fun we've had at a party in a long time, and headed out. 

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A few weeks ago, we invited a group of friends over to brew a beer based on the White House Honey Ale recipe - you can see the recipe, view a White House video and read more about it here.  Although it is still relatively young, tonight, I sat down with a glass and wrote down some tasting notes. 

Aroma  Honey is prevalent, with jasmine and lavender elements, perfume-like; malt and hops aroma, if present, are overwhelmed by the honey.

Appearance  Deep copper with gold highlights; white head that dissipates and leaves good lacing; some haze, you can see through but it is not brillantly clear; it might be 'chill haze' which would go away if refrigerated for a few days.

Flavor  While the malt and hops were not apparent in the aroma, they do come through in the flavor; they are balanced, with good hop bitterness, as in a good English pale ale; honey flavor is also apparent, very pleasant, again with a lavender or jasmine element, not cloying; there is an underlying earthiness, which might be from either the honey or the English hops, or both.

Mouthfeel  Some alcohol warmth, but not fusel or 'hot'; medium bodied but with an easy-to-drink dryness to it.

Overall Impression  The honey-character of this beer is apparent from the first sniff and on through tasting; it gives the overall impression of an English pale ale but with significant honey aroma and flavor; it is dry and easy-to-drink, but the honey gives an impression of sweetness and fullness, which isn't really there.

As always, if you'd like some of this batch, let me know (click the Contact Us button to the left).  We'll be drinking one or two of these on election night, to either celebrate the outcome or cushion the disappointment. 

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