Singing Boys Brewing Blog

There's a very interesting article on the 'Beer Archeologist' Pat McGovern in this month's issue of Smithsonian magazine http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Beer-Archaeologist.html#

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I love this vintage beer can of Edelweiss

The slogan is fantastic - "A Case of Good Judgment."  I wonder if that's copyrighted?  Follow this link to an article in Timeout Chicago and see other cans like this from the collection of two brothers in the Chicago-area.  http://timeoutchicago.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-chicago/7543049/brothers%E2%80%99-can-collection-reveals-chicago-brewery-history

Edelweiss was the flagship beer of  Chicago-area brewery Schoenhofen, back in the days when every little town had a brewery and every big city had dozens.  Its great that here in Chicago, we're getting back to that, with new craft breweries opening all the time. 

The Schoenhofen brewery building is still there, at 18th and Canal, and there's a great website with photos and explanation of the history at http://forgottenchicago.com/articles/schoenhofen-brewery/  The brewery fell victim to Prohibition and was eventually sold.  One fascinating story on the website is that the Schoenhofen family used the height of the brewery's water tower to broadcast messages to German agents in World War I, prompting federal agents to seize the brewery.  I have no idea if that story is true or not, but it makes for great lore!

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Inspired by our time in Sweden and Denmark last summer, this semi-dry, bottle conditioned, sparkling cider marks the 2011 Midsommar celebration.  At the Midsommr, night is scarcely dark at all, and the sun only reluctantly sets.  People celebrate this amazing time with their friends and family, often with cider, a favorite drink in Scandinavia. 

Midsommar in Sweden is like Thanksgiving, Christmas and the 4th of July here, all rolled together.  In the mornings, there are public celebrations, in town squares or parks, folk dancing, military bands, etc.  Then people retire to their homes around noon, with family and friends.  Everything, and I mean everything, shuts down.  The people who ran the hotel we were staying in gave us the keys to the hotel and told us that there would be no other guests and no staff. 

Robert, Hugh and I went for a walk around midnight, it was still light out, and people were still celebrating in their backyards.  I think because the summer is so short, Scandinavians enjoy it as much as possible. 

Here's a link for more information about Midsommar http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Traditions/Celebrating-the-Swedish-way/Midsummer/

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Our Summer 2011 Wheat Beer with Coriander is ready to drink!  Light, with a slight tartness and easy to drink.  It has a nice citrus finish from a late infusion of Cascade hops and hand-crushed coridander.  To read all about it, the style, the ingredients, the beer geek info, and the recipe, follow this link to The Beers. 

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Just as with bread baking, in brewing, yeast health and vitality are critical to the process.  I manage my yeast carefully, including the temperatures at which the beer ferments.  Here is a photo of the summer wheat beer with coriander as it ferments:

The beer is an a carboy made of special food grade plastics specifically for fermenting beverages.  The carboy is inside a large plastic tub filled with water.  In the water, I keep a floating thermometer (one of the cheapest and best tools I have - I use it to monitor the mash temperatures, the fermementation temperatures, and its essential for when I pasteurize bottled cider) and swap out, as needed, 1/2 gallon bottles of ice. 

For this beer and yeast (Safale US-05, a basic american ale yeast), I kept the fermentation temps at 60 - 62 degrees.  The tube running from the carboy to the jar with sanitized water in it is a 'blow-off tube' - it allows the carbon dioxide that the yeast produce during fermentation to escape.  The foam is called 'krausen' and when fermentation is finished, it falls back down into the beer. 

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Summer Wheat Beer with Coriander and Links to Great Summer Beers

Today was a gorgeous day, if a bit windy - sunny, everything green and verdant from all our recent rain.  A perfect day to brew outside! 

I haven't brewed for a while, been waiting for a day like this so I could do it in the backyard.  I decided to use ingredients I had on-hand and make a summer wheat beer with coriander.  It will be light, dry, refreshing with a slight citrus flavor from the coriander.  I used one ounce of coriander seeds, ground by hand in a mortar and pestle, added in the last five minutes of the boil. 

As with most of our beers, this is made with organic malts and hops.  The recipe included 4 lbs of wheat malt, 4 lbs of pilsener malt, and 2 lbs of munich malt, mashed at 156 degrees. Hop varieties used include pacific gem, hallertauer and cascade.  For this beer, we used a dry yeast called Nottingham and are fermenting the wort at 60 degrees. 

I didn't pay close enough attention to my volumes this brew - I was aiming for a 5.5 gallon batch but ended up with 6 gallons.  That means the beer will be a little lighter, which is fine for a summer beer.

Stay tuned for updates on this beer. 

Here are links to some of my favorite commercial 'summer' beers:

• Metropolitan Brewing's Krankshaft, a Kolsch-style beer made by a great Chicago brewery;
• Goose Island's Green Line, a pale ale that means summer to me because the first time I tried it was at an outdoor Grant Park Symphony concert two summers ago - part of what makes a great summer beer is the associations we carry;
• Pilsner is a great summer beer style and one of my favorite pilsners is made in Berkeley, California - Trumer Pils;
• Blanche de Chambly is a Belgian-style Witbier or White Ale made by Unibroue in Quebec;

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One of the key ingredients in most beers is hops - they provide bitterness and balance to the sweetness of the malt.  In many beers, like pale ales, they provide an interesting aroma and flavor, too.  I've decided to try growing my own hops this year and planted five hills yesterday.

I've planted two different varieties of hops.  Three of the hills are Cascades, the stereotypical American pale ale hop, popularized by Sierra Nevada among others.  Cascades are characterized by a citrus or even grapefruit flavor and aroma.  The other two hills are Willamette, an American hybrid of the English Fuggles hop, used more commonly for aroma or finishing, more delicate in flavor and aroma than the Cascades and can be used in English ales. 

Hops are grown from rhizomes, which look like sticks with buds coming out of one end and roots the other.  You plant them vertically, with lots of good composted soil, and the bines appear sometime after the soil temperature stays above 40 degrees.  Hops grow tall and need to be trained on a trellis or twine, which is what we will be doing, up the side of the house.  They are perennials, with limited production of cones the first year, and increasing yield in following years. 

I bought my hops from Glen Fuller at Rising Sun Farms, an organic hop farm in Colorado.  Glen and I have become internet friends, I've used his Cascade hops in my beers.  You can check out Glen and his operation at http://www.coloradoorganichops.com/    

Organic hop growers like Glen have been at an extreme disadvantage until recently.  The FDA had previously ruled that commercial brewers could label and market their beer as 'organic' without using certified organic hops.   Thus there was little incentive for hop growers to grow using organic methods, or for organic farmers to get into the hop growing business.  Many of the hops available for hobby brewers were from New Zealand and Europe.  Now, the FDA has changed this rule - beer labeled organic must use organically-grown hops - and I hope it assists hop farmers like Glen in building their business.   

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Many of us appreciate the joys of using our hands to make things that we could buy - I enjoy making music, yogurt, bread, beer, and cider, for example.   One of the pleasures of the handmade path is that it connects us with our ancestors and a time in our collective memories before mass marketing and production, a time when we made everyday items for ourselves and those we love.   

I recently was shown an outstanding website for those who want to try their hand at making hard cider - at www.makinghardcider.com  The site, titled The Homebrew Helper: Making Inexpensive Cider, is well-suited for beginning cider makers, because it's concise, clear, and expertly walks the fine line between providing good  information and still keeping things simple enough for beginners.  An added bonus is that the site is attractive and simple to use.  If you want to try your hand at making cider, start here.    

The author and designer of the site is Jessica Shabatura, who writes ". . . I am a hobby brewer of wine, port and cider. I have a degree in horticulture and a great love of chemistry, thanks to my father who is a Food Scientist. I created this site as a project for a grad school class I am taking in Educational Technology Media. I do hope you enjoyed it. Thanks so much and happy cidering! If you found this site useful, would like to be linked as a resource here, or have kind suggestions, you may email me at brew@howtomakehardcider.com"

Cider making is infused with Americana.  In Colonial times, when our society was largely agrarian, barley wasn't widely grown so beer making was less wide-spread than now.  But every farm had apple trees and every family made cider.  Want to make some cider for your family and friends?  Visit www.makinghardcider.com

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Nancy and I visited Revolution Brewing Company for the first time on a recent Thursday evening.  Revolution is a brew pub and restaurant located in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. The raised fist motif can be seen throughout Revolution, including the tap handles.

It's a great space, in a renovated older building with tall ceilings.  While we waited for a table, we sat in the pleasant lounge area and visited with some of our fellow patrons about the beer list and the interesting descriptions of the beer selections.  Revolution brews its beers in a 15 barrel onsite brewery.   

Nancy ordered a Village Green English Bitter  "a smooth, medium bodied, golden session ale with tremendous drinkability, brewed with English Northdown hops for an herbal, earthy aroma. A very approachable beer that won't drop the hammer on you! God save the Village Green. $5 pint (4.1% ABV)"

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I bottled Wunjo tonight.  To read more info about it, including the recipe, follow this link http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Wunjo.html

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