Singing Boys Brewing Blog

On September 29, the 2012 National Organic Homebrew Challenge will be held in California and I sent two beers to this competition, the first competition of a national scope that I've entered.  At the competition, a panel of two or three judges will evaluate my beers in writing - competitions are a great way to receive feedback from non-biased, knowledge evaluators in an anonymous context.  

First I put the competition bottle id forms on each bottle - three bottles each of our Midsommar Cream Ale and Midnattssol IPA.  Then wrapped each bottle in bubble wrap and secured with packing tape.

Then into a box that holds the bottles fairly tightly, then more bubble wrap to hold the bottles securely.

Used shipping tape to securely close the box and affix the mailing label.  Then off the UPS store for shipping, which cost a little less than $18.  

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Our congregation, Mt. Zion in Oak Lawn www.mtzoaklawn.com has a steak dinner (its grilled, not fried, I don't know why its called a 'steak fry') every autumn and in recent years I've brewed a cream ale, a pale ale, and a batch of draft-style cider for it.  This year, I brewed an American Wheat for the dinner on September 29 - if you're in the area and want more info about the dinner, drop me a note via the Contact Us button. 

This is a light, dry, American-style wheat.  As you can see, its highly carbonated per the style.  Very easy to drink. 

This wheat beer has a subtle addition to it - for the dinner, I'm going to offer some prizes (beer glasses and signs) to those who are able to identify the addition.  The only hint is that it is a spice, vegetable, fruit, or herb. 

For the beer geeks, this beer is 60% wheat malt, 40% pale ale malt, mash at 150F,  Hallertauer hops with around 17 IBU, and US-05 yeast, fermented at 62F.  1.048 OG and 1.004 FG. 

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Some wise people have said that brewers make wort (the sweet liquid extracted from grains, boiled with hops) and that yeast make beer.  There is a great deal of truth to that - the yeast are the ones who do the work, eat up the sugars and change the sugary wort (pronounced wert) into delicious beer.  As a brewer, my job is to provide them the best possible environment and conditions in which to do that work.  Hence the latest addition to our brewing area:

 This looks like a small freezer, and it is.  But to me, it is a fermentation chamber - a temperature controlled area where my yeast can do their business.  I've always controlled fermentation temperatures, but this setup allows me to do so with more precision and fewer fluctuations.  Each variety of yeast has its own temperature sweet spots, a range actually, and this allows me to hit that range.  Generally, lower temperatures in the range will help the yeast produce fewer compounds that we perceive as off-flavors, like strong esters or hot alcohol flavors.  

 Above is a digital temperature controller.  It has a probe (the grey wire) that goes into the freezer and monitors the temps.  The controller functions as a switch - the freezer's power cord plugs into the controller and the controller plugs into the wall outlet, controlling when the freezer turns on and off.  For the current batch in the chamber, I have the controller set for a maximum temperature of 63F.  There is still some fluctuation in the temps, in that by the time the controller turns off the freezer, the temp will still fall a few degrees, usually down to about 60F.  For the beer I am making and the yeast I am using, that range (60-63F) is just what I'm looking for.  

Here is the inside of the chamber.  The beer is an American Wheat style, a lighter style, which I will be using as a base to make a raspberry beer.  After this fermentation is done, I will rack the beer from this carboy (off the yeast cake) into another carboy with raspberry puree.  The yeast will wake up when they sense the presence of new sugars to eat and start up a secondary fermentation.  

The tubing in the picture above is called a blow-off tube - it runs from the carboy in which the beer is fermenting to a jug of water, which functions as an airlock.  As the yeast produce CO2 and pressure builds within the carboy, the gas pushes up through the tubing, into the jug of water, and then up through the water until it is released to the air.  No air, though, gets through the water jug/airlock the other direction - this is important because air carries lots of wild yeasts and we want to keep those away from our beer.  

I bought the small freezer on our local Craigslist, and its funny ad made me smile.  Here's my paraphrase:

Small, five cubic foot freezer for sale, $50.  He used to store his meat in it.  Now he's gone and I want this gone, too.  

The good news is that when I picked it up, I didn't find him chopped up and in the freezer.  

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Hugh, me and six thousand other enthusiasts attended the 2012 Great Taste of the Midwest, one of the largest beer festivals in the country.  It was held in Madison, Wisconsin.  We stayed in a hotel across the street from the Wisconsin capital, within walking distance of the festival, which was held in a city park.

Although the festival opened at 1 pm on Saturday, we and many others started lining up early.

We used the opportunity to study up with the guidebook for the festival.  There were over one hundred breweries and brewpubs at the festivals.  

One of our favorite tents was the Real Ale tent.  If you aren't familiar with real ale or cask ale, its worth reading about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ale#Real_ale 

There were so many interesting and remarkably fresh beers in the real ale tent.  A really memorable cask ale for me was from Toppling Goliath, an Iowa brewery that describes itself as a "stealth brewery, flying under the radar", whatever that means.  But their real ale, a double dry-hopped American IPA was mouthwateringly fresh, I could smell the hops from ten feet away when the server poured the beer.  Remarkable!

The setting for the festival was beautiful and it was a lovely day.  It was in a city park on Lake Monona.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.  

Hugh, having spent the previous 2 1/2 months in Turkey, was enjoying eating pork again.  This was bacon on a stick.  

We set our chairs up in a shaded area, walked around trying various beers (2 ounce taster portions, and I usually ended up only trying 1 ounce or so) and then came back to our chairs, and the happy surprise that is the Jim James and The Damn Shames band.  Take a listen, they are great fun.  

Hugh had a great time at a special tent that Chicago's own Goose Island had set up for their Bourbon County Stout.  BCT is a blended beer - it comes from different casks and is blended by the brewers.  

They shared with us four varieties of BCS, highlighting bourbon, vanilla, chocolate or vanilla flavors.  After a brief talk, we were then given the opportunity to blend our own version of BCS, using those four samples.  Mine emphasized the vanilla flavors and was delicious!   

Hugh tasting his personal blend of Bourbon County Stout.  We also tried a special tapping of Bourbon County Stout that had been aged in a barrel that had aged Manhattan cocktails in it previously - it was quite delicious (and blended by experts). 

We sampled far too many beers, meads and ciders to list them all.  At the risk of leaving off some excellent examples, here are a few that stood out for me:

Aeppeltroew Winery's Perry (a pear cider)

Ale Asylum's Hopalicious

Atlas Brewing's 1871 Smoked Porter

 B. Nektar Meadery's Vanilla Cinnamon Mead

Blind Pig Brewery's Saison La Sorciere

Buffalo Brewing Company's Chili beer

Dave's Brewfarm's Citra Single Hop Lager and Eye. Pea. Eh?

Dragonmead Brewery's Under the Kilt Wee Heavy

Finch's Beer Co's Toasted Summer Kolsch

Free State Brewing's Oak Aged Cow Tipping Stout

Goose Island's Gran Gas (a spruce tips, Scandinavian inspired beer) and a Bourbon County Manhattan Stout 

Haymarket's Indigent (an imperial stout aged in Templeton Rye barrels)

Well, you get the idea.  If you'd like to see the whole program, with all the breweries and the beers they brought, follow this link.

If you went to the Great Taste of the Midwest and want to highlight a beer or two, do so in the comments below!  

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Thought I'd share a small DIY project that is very simple.  We have a beverage fridge for beer, cider and wine and I wanted to put a blackboard up above it where we could say what's currently available and add whimsical little drawings, as the spirit moved us. 

Here's what we ended up with:

I went to the local Goodwill store and they had many, many pieces of art - I picked one for $10 with a distressed frame that suited my aesthetics.  Taped the frame, quick rub of the glass with sandpaper, then sprayed on three coats of Rustoleum Chalk Board spray.  You want to do this in an area with good ventilation, but no wind.  I did it in the garage with door open. 

You can buy new chalk boards, but they generally fall into two categories:  1) cheap plastic-y surface that doesn't work very well or 2) $100+ real board with classroom-esque aluminum frame around it. 

Making this myself was simple, cheap and gave me a funky little chalk board for us to mess around with.  This project would be good for parents of small children too - you can make anything into a chalk board - the end of a bunk bed, the front of your kitchen refrigerator, any flat surface. 

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Last Friday night, we hosted a party organized around guided tastings of four flights of beers.  Twenty-seven of our friends gathered at our home, including quite a few brewers who brought some of their handmade beers with them.  Of course, I started off with the intention of taking lots of photos, took three (bad quality) photos and forgot to take any more. Oh well . . .

This is Kurt Esslinger and Erica Sanchez.  Kurt is the pastor at Agape Campus Ministry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Erica is a member of Agape's board of directors. The party was a benefit for Agape and raised $1,000 for the ministry.

One of our BOSS (Brewers of South Suburbia) friends, Jim Todd, led us through the second flight tastings - Amber Ales.  Steve Kamp led the third flight (India Pale Ales) and I led the first (Light Hybrid Ales) and fourth (Stouts) flights.  Those leading the flights gave a little history of the category, some insight into the ingredients and process used, and what distinguished the styles. 

In addition to leading the conversation fo the second flight, Jim also brought some of his handmade Cream Ale for the first flight.  Another brewer, Bill Goetz, shared his Tiger Blood Amber Ale.  Our friends, Christopher and Shelley Barnard shared two of their beers, a Rye IPA and a Russian Imperial Stout. 

Each flight of beer was accompanied by a cheese and another dish, paired with the beers.  The cheese came from the Half Italian Grocer and Deli - check it out, wonderful cheeses, and thanks to Steve Kamp for helping to pair the cheeses with the beers. 

After the guided tasting portions, which took about an hour, we brought all the beers and food back out and people spent the next two hours exploring the beers further, visiting, laughing, learning more about Agape.  Special thanks to Terry Frey for sharing some of his extraordinary handmade Belgian ale.  As often happens, beer culture brought people together and folks had a great time. 

Here are the beer flights:

Light Hybrid:  Jim Todd's Cream Ale, 5 Rabbits Blonde Ale

Ambers: Bill Goetz' Tiger Blood Amber Ale, Metropolitan's Alt, Bell's Amber

IPA: Chris and Shelley Barnard's Rye IPA, Argus' Pegasus IPA, Finch's Threadless IPA, and Lagunita's Hop Stoopid

Stout: The Barnard's RIS, my organic Cream Stout, and Barley Island's Brass Knuckles Oatmeal Stout

It was a great gathering, with church friends, beer friends, and just friends. 

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Last Tuesday night, I had one of the most fun and rewarding beer-related evenings of my life.  The Illinois Humanities Council's Public Square put on a program at the Haymarket Pub and Brewery called What's Brewing in Chicago: The Politics of Beer.  The event sold out - standing room only - and was exactly what beer culture should be:  great beer, good food, interesting people, outstanding conversation.   

Liz Garibay and the Tales, Taverns and Towns Project

The first speaker was a member of the staff at the Chicago History Museum, Liz Garibay.  Liz had a presentation that she was only able to touch on because of time, but talked about her research on some of the founding of the earliest taverns in Chicago's history, how beer and politics intersected in 19th century Chicago, and the role of immigration in the civic life and its impact on brewing. 

She has a website for her project, with a blog with some interesting stories http://www.talestavernsandtowns.com/blog/  She would be a great guest at a homebrew or beer club gathering - she has interesting information and shares it in a compelling way. 

Pete Crowley: Brewmaster at Haymarket Pub and Brewery

Our host for the evening, Pete Crowley at Haymarket Pub and Brewery  then spoke for a few minutes, about why craft beer in the metropolitan area is growing and how drinking locally made craft beer is a political statement. 

Pete and Liz took questions from the crowd.  This guy asked whether Liz knew if it was true or not that the old Schoenhofen Brewery, run by German immigrants, was shut down during WWI by the feds on charges that they were using their tall water tower to broadcast messages to German agents. She hadn't heard that story before. 

Its About Beer

During the program, I had two outstanding Haymarket beers.  The first was the  Lizzie's Simcoe IPA.  The simcoe aroma and flavor were strong and citrusy, balanced with a nice malt backbone in the beer.  This is an outstanding IPA.  Next, I enjoyed The Defender Double American Stout.  This is a strong stout, close to 10% abv, I'm guessing, and hoppier than some stouts.  Really delicious, with strong roasty, coffee-like flavors balanced with maltiness and chocolate malt.  Both were outstanding. 

One of the great things about the evening is that it was an example of beer culture.  We were seated at communal tables, with people we didn't know when the evening started, but that soon changed.  At my table, across from me were two younger men, one of whom had recently graduated from college.  They were obviously on a date, very interested in the topic but self-described mass-produced beer drinkers.  I pointed them toward Haymarket's Pilsner, which they enjoyed.  I told them about how when I was their age, 100 years ago, one of my first experiences of 'better beer' was also a pilsner - Pilsner Urquell - at a pub in Iowa City called the Sanctuary.  Like Haymarket, the Sanctuary was the sort of place where beer culture thrived and new friends were easy to meet.

Speaking of new friends, another person at our table was Serge, a photographer who gave me permission to use his photos for this blog entry.  He enjoys lighter beers, photography is his art and hobby, and you can see some of his photos on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/people/saumacus/

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Two weeks ago, I attended a Beer Sensory Class taught by Marty Nachel.  Tasting beer, evaluating it and then talking about that evaluation is something that can be learned and practiced.  While this can lead to other classes, more training, beer judge certification, etc., I found it valuable just for enhancing my enjoyment of craft beer.  The more you know . . .

Marty is an author, certified cicerone (similar to a wine sommelier), and good beer advocate.  You can learn more about his interests and classes at http://www.ale-conner.com/  and http://www.beerexam.com/  Recently, the second edition of his book Beer for Dummies was released. 

This is Dominick and Bill, rows of cups in front of them.  The pedagogy for the class was to take a neutral beer base, like a typical American light lager, taste it alone, then taste it repeatedly with different innoculations of common or standard flaws or off-flavors.  Reptition was key, to try to build sensory memory (like muscle memory in athletics). 

Colleen and Tony are puzzling over some of the handouts and materials Marty gave us, to help make sense of the flavors we were perceiving.  One of the aspects that makes beer tasting challenging is that we don't all perceive flavors the same way or to the same degree. 

In some ways, it was hard work requiring a lot of concentration.  We all spent a fair amount of time going back and forth, as Mario is doing above, between what our noses and tongues were telling us and the very helpful resource sheets that Marty gave us. The flavors we focused on were:

• Acetaldehyde - a green apple aroma and flavor, which might be caused by an incomplete or stalled fermentation or contamination
• Diacetyl - artificial butter, butterscotch or toffee, sometimes perceived as a slickness, which might be caused by contamination or be a byproduct of fermentation; if its a product of fermentation, the yeast will 'clean up' after themselves, if given enough time and the proper environment
• DMS - a sweet, canned or creamed corn aroma and flavor, a compound that comes from the barley (particularly pilsen malt) that can be boiled off; also can be caused by too long a time to cool the wort or contamination
• Esters - fruity flavors and aromas, sometimes these are not a flaw, depending upon the style, caused by stressed yeast working in a less than optimal environment
• Oxidized - cardboard, paper, or sherry aromas and flavors, caused by exposure to oxygen post-fermentation
• Sour/Acidic - tartness in aroma and flavor, due to microbial infection or contamination

While it was hard work, we also had fun. By the end, when we had tasted, re-tasted, failed, succeed and failed again to identify the flavors, things got a little silly. 

We tasted, we listened to Marty, we discussed (as Scott is doing above), and tasted some more.  All for the purpose to trying to develop some flavor memory so that we could identify the six flavor compounds listed above.  I found at the end of the evening that I could identify acetaldehyde, oxidation and diacytel pretty well.  Even after a couple of hours of work, though, I still struggled with identifying DMS. 

This class was for members of a club Nancy and I belong to, the Brewers of South Suburbia (BOSS).  Above is a member of the club, Amie, who ended the evening by being able to correctly identify all six flavors.  Recently, she's also medaled at a beer competition, and won the club's bbq sauce and chili contests. 

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We're not quite empty-nesters yet, but with one child away at college and the other at that adorable age where he wants nothing to do with us, we find ourselves with a little bit of space - space to go on dates, out for dinner, or other close-by excursions.  On a sunny, cold and blustery winter Saturday, we hopped in the car and drove 1 1/2 hours to southwest Michigan to visit the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.

We stopped first at the Warren Dunes State Park - I took the boys camping and to the beach there a couple of times when they were small, but it is a completely different experience in winter.  Stark and wild - the waves smashed into the shore and the wind tore through us.  It reminded me of a quote from John Muir: "In God's wildness lies the hope of the world."

Our first stop was lunch at Tabor Hills Winery and Restaurant.  It is a beautiful dining room, with a gorgeous view of the rolling vineyards in their winter desolation.  It wasn't busy at this time of year; we had reservations but didn't need them.  We both enjoyed an unusual Caesar salad with grilled artichokes and their soup du jour, that they called Potato and Ham, but also included bacon, cheddar cheese, and a garlic crouton.  Very rich but perfect for a cold winter's day.

At each winery we visited, there is a tasting room with a bar or two and helpful staff ready to assist.  Each charges a tasting fee, which usually got you five tastings.  At two of the wineries, the fee also included a glass - I love that!

At Tabor Hill, our favorites were their Dry Reisling and a semi-dry white wine called Traminette.  I was unfamiliar with the Traminette varietal - throughout our wine trail excursion, I found that the unfamiliar (to me) varietals, those not typically grown in California, were the ones that made the best impression.  I suspect it has to do with the vineyard owners growing varietals that work best for this unique grape growing climate and region, rather than trying to imitate what works elsewhere.  The Traminette has a Gewurztraminer character to it, but softer and rounder, I thought.  A very enjoyable wine to sip on its own or with appetizers. 

Next we visited the Round Barn Winery, which is actually a winery, distillery, and brewery.  Its round barn is indeed picturesque -  the owner bought the barn and shipped it to his vineyard from Indiana.  Our favorite wine at Round Barn was a blended dry white wine they call Vineyard Tears.  It is an Alsacian style wine, but includes varietals in the blend that you wouldn't find in Alsace - Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.  A very enjoyable dinner wine. 

We also tried Round Barn's vodka, which is made from grapes.  I'd never tasted a grape vodka before, it was very clean and thought maybe I could detect a hint of grape in the aroma.   We also enjoyed the beers they make at Round Barn, including their Oak Aged IPA.  They grow hops at Round Barn, too, that they use in their beers.   They said that they invite homebrewers to come out and pick hops after they have harvested what they will use that year. 

A short drive away is Domaine Berrian Cellars.  The driveway to the tasting room is through some vineyards.  We were surprised to learn that all the wineries we visited use their own, estate-grown grapes or grapes that are grown locally - within 5 miles, according to one of the servers. 

Two varietals we tried at Berrian that we enjoyed were the Lemberger, a rich red wine grape from Germany, and the Viognier, a less-common Rhone Valley white wine grape.   We also enjoyed their Crown of Cab, a Bordeux-style blend that is aged for two years in oak. 

Our server at Berrian told us that in the summer and especially the autumn, the experience is quite different than ours visiting in the winter.  The crowds are more massive, the servers are working faster and with less convivial chat.  At Berrian, there is an outdoor deck overlooking some vineyards that is popular with visitors, she told us. 

Finally, across the road from Berrian, we visited Lemon Creek Winery.  In addition to grapes, Lemon Creek grows fruit which is available seasonally - raspberrys, plums, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries, and apples.  During our time in the tasting room, we met three of their dogs - it was charming and a great way to end our tour of the wine trail. 

At Lemon Creek, we also enjoyed two new-to-us varietals.  One was the Seyval Blanc, which is used in their Northern Lights late harvest wine.  The other was a dry German varietal called Kerner, which had a smoky undertone to it and that I imagine will compliment spicy food well. 

All and all, it was a lovely getaway for two not-yet-empty-nesters.  Not too far for a day trip, we left home at 9:30ish and were back by 4:30 -  which seemed to be just the right length of time.  There are other wineries, which we'll go back to visit another time - it would have been a waste for us to do more tasting that day, our palettes were done. 

Here's a link to a pdf brochure about the trail, which we found helpful.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment! 

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Fracking and Gas Drilling Threaten Brewery's Water

On a blog I subscribe to - Beer Activist - I read an interesting post about Brewery Ommegang, a  well-respected New York brewery that makes Belgian style beers.   The brewery, in a court brief, is opposing a lawsuit brought by the gas industry against the town of Middlefield.  The town bans gas drilling and the lawsuit seeks to overturn the ban. 

The brewery is specifically concerned with the practice of hydrofracking: "Its Masterbrewer and Quality Control Chemist agree that even if Brewery Ommegang wished to do so, it could not remove many of the toxic chemicals used in hydrofracking, should they be released into the brewery's water supply." 

You can read a news article about this at http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1267472742/Ommegang-Fracking-may-force-us-to-leave

Beer Activist is an interesting blog.  Here's what the author, Chris O'Brien, says about himself:

Beer Activist is the blog of Chris O'Brien, author of Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World (New Society Publishers, 2006). The blog is dedicated to my two favorite things:  drinking beer and saving the world.

By day, I am the Director of Sustainability at American University. I have also worked as Director of the Responsible Purchasing Network at the Center for a New American Dream, and Managing Director of the Co-op America Business Network and the Fair Trade Federation.

I've traveled much of the world researching local brewing traditions, including the four corners of Africa, and did a short stint as a quasi-professional brewer at the Zululand Brewing Company in Eshowe, South Africa. My beer writing appears in places like American Brewer, Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, Zymurgy and New Brewer.

I am part owner and a board director of Seven Bridges, which is a brick and mortar store in Santa Cruz, CA and an online retailer (www.breworganic.com) of organic brewing supplies, and organic/fair trade home coffee roasting supplies.

I speak at conferences, festivals, beer tastings and other events involving beer, books and saving the world. I’m available to speak at your event. Just email me: beeractivist [at] gmail.com.

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