A Day in Forest Park

For those who read this blog, you'll have to wait until later for my impressions on the 17th annual St. Louis Microfest.  The whole thing - trip up, walk through the park, drink, walk back through the zoo, dinner, and trip back - took about 12 hours.  I'm tired.  Aaaand a little sunburn.  Regardless, I'll be updating soon with notes about the incredible time at Microfest.  Until then, have a good one.

MICROFEST!!!

If you are sitting there saying "Wha?" I won't feel bad.  This fest was brought to my attention by a good friend and fellow brewer Marika Josephson.  I've been to the St. Louis Microfest site and thought that it would be cool.  Today, my wife had an article from STLToday and there, amongst a list of some big name breweries, I see Scratch Brewing Company - a brewery started in part by the a fore mentioned Marika.  This is awesome!!  I think this will be their first big pouring.  And they will be in good company.  If you get a chance, shoot up to St. Louis on Saturday and congratulate them.  But make sure to celebrate responsibly.  A total of 110 breweries will be there.  That's a lot of beer!!

New Beer Taste...

Last year I decided to track my beer habits.  I've found myself continuing this study to see where my tastes wonder.  I'm not saying that I can't remember every beer that I've tried.  With so much on my plate at the moment, I could see it happen if one slipped my mind now and then.  I can pull up my calendar and see what, when, and where I consumed.  I also kept track of the new beers I tried.  If I could not remember if I had tried something before, I tagged it as a new beer. 

Today as I was doing some chores around the house, I decided to pop open something new.  Today it was Miles Davis' Bitches Brew from Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales up in Delaware. 

Kind of a disclaimer here: I LOVE Dogfish Head.  Sam Calagione is somewhat of a beer brewing hero of mine.  Not only do they have their normal production batches, but they also have some reproductions that are formulated by working with a chemical anthropologist.  Resurrecting ancient brews gives us a good perspective on how beer has evolved over the millennium.  Regardless of regular or special batches, the dedication to detail and quality never wavers.  I will say that not every style they come up with is my favorite but they do make some damn good beer.

Where was I... Oh yes.  The Bitches Brew.  So, if the label says that it is an "ale brewed with honey and gesho", what would you think?  Well, I know what I thought.  What the hell is gesho? Gesho is the Ethiopian name for rhamunus prinoides.  Apparently it is used like hops.  Regardless, when I thought of an ale brewed with honey and something I didn't really know, I thought it was going to be like a honey wheat - light in color.  Boy was a wrong.  The first thoughts as I was pouring was, "What the hell" and soon turned to "Oh my goodness this is good!"

I wasn't vigorous enough on the first pour in my tasting glass and ended up not producing any head.  The second pour produced a mocha color head that faded away to a persistent ring suspended on rich, dark ale.

(More to come)

Inspiration comes from strange sources

So I just finished reading Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, Book One of The Kane Chronicles.  If you aren't familiar with Riordan's works, he's the one that did the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and the Heroes of Olympus series.  Now I can already hear some of you saying, "Aren't those kid's books?"  You have to understand something about me: I'm a mythology geek!  The Percy Jackson series is about Greek mythology, Heroes brings in Roman.  The Kane Chronicles is about Egyptian mythology.  In reading the Red Pyramid I found a lot of familiar names.  The should be!  I did some research on Egyptian mythology when writing my paper on Beer and Religion.  After all, Egypt was the brewing capitol of the world before those pesky Romans came to town.  I digress...  Even for a "kid's book" they reference a story from Egyptian mythology that I am familiar with.  If you have a copy of The Red Pyramid, Riordan's retelling starts on page 419.  The story goes something like this...

Ra was upset.  More than that, he was mad!  Humanity was disrespecting him: not following his commands, scoffing at his judgements, etc.  Ra decided to punish humanity and sent out his wrath in the form of Sekhmet.  Sekhmet started ravaging the country killing the wicked.  But, Sekhmet got out of control.  She became filled with blood-lust and started killing the innocent as well as the wicked.  Ra felt remorse and called Sekhmet home but she refused!  Ra dyed some beer red with pomegranate to look like blood.  Sekhmet saw the beer and drank her fill, became drunk, and passed out.  When she regained consciousness,  the blood-lust had left her and she became a different aspect, Hathor, the goddess of love and music.

Maybe it's because I live in an area called Little Egypt.  Maybe it's because all around me there are references to Egyptian hunting dogs.  Maybe it's because Sam Calagione is a brewing hero of mine and I just got done drinking some Ta Henket.  Regardless, I'm inspired to attempt an ale infused with pomegranate.  Maybe I'll call it Sekhmet's Feast.  Maybe I should seek inspiration for a better name... 

And we're off...

The Monks' first two batches of 2012 are under way.  Brother Charles is going for a Scottish ale while I'm gunning for a chocolate oatmeal stout.  I love the way the Brewhaus smells while we are brewing!!  To fuel our efforts, I had a batch of chili cooked up that I brought over.  The sad thing is that there were only two of us.  There was a lot of chili to eat.  Thankfully Charles's family assisted.  Good eatin' and brewin' were going on. 

Looks like we will try to bottle next weekend.  Until then, I've got more beer to drink.  While brewing I had some Brewery Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence and Bell's Hopslam Ale!  Oh man!!  If you haven't have Chocolate Indulgence, it's Brewery Ommegang's Belgian stout with Belgian chocolate!!  The flavor in heavenly: rich, creamy, smooth and balanced.  Something that one can get addicted to (that's why I have another bottle in stock).  And then there was Hopslam!!  Wow!! All the label says is "Ale brewed with honey."  The incredible hops flavor mixed with the honey seems to mask the alcohol - 10% alcohol!!  I didn't know it was an Imperial Ale.  No wonder why Beer Advocate rated Hopslam as a WORLD CLASS beer. 

I won't say too much about the chili.  It's for a competition at work.  Muhahahaha.  Enough of this.  More later. 

Oh woe are we...

I know it's been a while since I've posted but I have to tell this.

Sit right back and I will tell you a tale of woe.  It's about thirsty people and a cask of po....et.  Poet.  I know... I should stick to my day job.

Yesterday I showed up at Hanger 9 a pinch before 5pm just in time for the New Holland Poet (their oatmeal stout) cask party.  Cheech was there with tap and rubber mallet in hand ready to whack away.  Patrick from Koerner Distributing was by the cask's side.  This is where the fun began but not as you would expect.  Cheech lined up the tap and gave a might whack or five.  The tap would not go in.  Cheech tried more.  Patrick gave it a try.  Even yours truly gave it a shot.  We must have tried to smack this thing close to 100 times and the tap would not go in.  Patrick finally called for a screwdriver and a towel.  He wrapped a towel around the tip of the screwdriver and tried to use that to puncture the bung.  To be safe we got a bucket to have below just in case the beer started flowing.  When we noticed the dark liquid staining the towel we tried the tap again.  The damn thing would still no go in.  At this point every smack of the tap is sending a spray of the aromatic liquid all over (I won't be able to wear that jacket at the office until I get it laundered).  Finally something flew off - it was the outer ring of the bung.  We got the tap in place and tried to get in it but the rest of the bung went into the cask.  There was no bung - nothing to form a seal around the tap.  The beer was free flowing at this point.  Cheech was calling for pitchers - LOTS of them.  They were pouring glasses from the pitchers as quickly as they could to keep the pitchers in supply.  Once the level of beer was low enough so nothing would spill out the breather hole, we put the cask on end and took a breather. 

I can guess what some readers would say: You guys don't know how to tap a keg.  This wasn't a keg - it was a cask.  It lays on its side.  There is a breather hole on top with a plug (and the plug did shoot out at one point during the whacking).  At one end there is a rubber seal that you have to hammer the tap in to get the beer out.  Cheech got his workout for the evening!!

The beer was worth the effort.  (More later...)

Ah brewing...

It was good to be back out at the brewhaus once again.  We currently have a slightly augmented robust porter going - boosted with extra chocolate malt - and a jazzed up honey weizen beer with cranberry honey from the Neighborhood Co-Op.  Both buckets are sitting comfortably in Charles's basement.  The airlock on the honey weizen was already showing life before I left.  Because of some busy scheduling going on, we may not get to bottle until late September.  Oh, if only we could brew beer for a living...

We lived by our principal of "It takes beer to make beer" by enjoying Samuel Adams Summer Ale to help close out the summer, Samuel Adams Octoberfest to welcome the soon to come cooler season, and one of my all season favorites O'hara Irish Stout. 

Now we also live by our principal of The Little Red Hen - "If you put in, you get out."  Three of us were at the brewing session.  Ten gallons split three ways is still a lot of beer.  I hope some more folks come to the bottling session.