Sept 26th - Pumpkin 2

Pumpkin 2 has been bottled.  I think I used way too much DME for priming, so everything is in a cooler with a lid in the basement just in case.  I'll check it Thanksgiving weekend.

I played a game of whats in the fridge when I went to see the guys on Monday night.  We found a couple Belgian Quads and a quart of pumpkin 1.  I should really do better labelling my bottles.  Darrell seems to be the biggest Quad fan amoung us, so he has a bottle waiting in his fridge now.  Pumpkin 1 really held up well, even stored for 9 months.  I'm very hopeful for pumpkin 2, but I have decided that it needs some vanilla next time.

Most Wonderful Time, of the Year

Fall will soon be upon us and with it my favorite time of the year.  Today for example was almost perfect weather and temperature.  Also, Oktoberfest and Pumpkin Ales have been released.

Oktoberfest or Marzan beers are traditionally release in mid September after having been brewed in March and lagered (stored) over the summer.  Traditionally the storing was done in caves with temperatures in the mid 50s, but in modern days it's often just refrigerated.

Either way Marzens are traditionally very malty with a very clear light brown color.  Not as pale as a Budweiser lager, but some of the same characteristics.  Very clear, finishes dry on the pallet, with malt flavor on the tongue and subdued hops bitterness, but still retaining some hop flavor.

Today I was lucky enough to find a freshly tapped Oktoberfest in the local Upland Tasting Room.
http://uplandbeer.com/eat-n-drink/indy-tasting-room/  Since it was my first time in the tasting room, I didn't know what to expect.  What I found was a quiet little hangout that does a lot of growler fills and walkout business. (For those who don't know a growler is a 1/2 gallon refillable bottle for carryout beer) Upon walking in, I was greeted quickly and offered a sample of really anything I wanted to taste.  Since I was there for the October fest, I asked for a sample.  It definitely was pleasing to the palate so I ordered a pint and found a chair.

Seating capacity for the tasting room is only about 30.  However since it was still afternoon there were plenty of empty chairs.  I found a nice green upholstered chair in the back, connected to the free wifi and proceeded to enjoy my beer and just poke around on the internet.

It took me about 40 minutes to savor my Oktoberfest.  As it warmed the flavor changed slightly and it was a little more robust and slightly maltier as the temp increased.  Finishing my beer, I had my growler filled and was out the door to go get dinner for the family.

Upland Oktoberfest - I'm sure all the statistics are available on the Upland website, here's my take.  Very malty, finishes dry.  Probably around 5% ABV and 20 or so IBU. This style fits my tastes very well.  Just enough hop flavor and hop spice to let you know you aren't drinking a mass market beer.  Way more malt flavor than I ever find in non craft beer.  Perfect beer for ordering by the pitcher to do with some pizza, beer, or anything that has some meat and spice.  This is a style of beer I could drink year round and in many ways is the epitome of what beer should taste like  8/10.

Beer Fridge

I just had to rearrange my beer fridge because it is too full of awesome beer.  Feel free to give me a call, I need someone to help me drink the deliciousness.

In the fridge
Pogue's Run Porter
Schlafly Pumpkin Ale
Waberbrew - Brown
All grain nut brown
breakfast stout
Honey Wheat
Sierra Nevada Tumbler
Sierra Nevada Oliva Quad
Trappistes Rochefort 10
Sam Adams Cinderbock
Woodchuck
Life and Limb 2

Coming soon
Mocktoberfest

Sierra Nevada Fall Seasonal - Tumbler

I love fall seasonal beers, Octoberfests, Browns, Pumpkin ales, I love them all.  I recently met Steve the Indiana Sierra Nevada rep at a couple of different parties.  I thought I'd see if his product is any good.

The fall seasonal - Tumbler seems at first glance like it would be my kind of beer.  Brown, malty, not too bitter, sounds like a Waber kind of beer.  Also, being a fall seasonal in September, I'm pretty sure it will be fresh and not sitting around too long.

I picked up a 6'er at my local package store and I have to say I like it pretty well.  It has a lot of the same flavors as the English Mild I brewed, just bigger.  The English mild is exactly that, mild.  Not to strong, not too hoppy, just gentle.  Tumbler is like the English Mild punched up a bit. 

It's pretty good. I don't normally drink much Sierra Nevada.  Most of the time all those west coast breweries are way to hop focused for me.  Tumbler isn't.  Extremely drinkable and really good in the evening when the heat of the day is gone.  I'll buy at least one more 6 of Tumbler, and I'll be looking forward to it again next year.  Solid 7 of 10 and one I'd recommend.

Bottle Time 8/26/2012

Bottled the breakfast Stout and the Mock Octoberfest today.  Bottling went pretty well and I had some partials to hold as samples and check carbonation. Getting the itch to put something in the fermenter, but can't decide what to brew next.

All grain mock octoberfest

Notes for Waber: brewed 8/3/2012 og 1.042 too much water in mash. Boil off wasn't as much as I wanted. Pitched on notty yeast cake from AG nut brown. Fermenter in 60 degree water bath

Busy day - stout and nut brown

Brewed another round if breakfast stout. Just waiting for it to get to temp so I can pitch my yeast.

Also bottled the all grain nut brown.  Now the long wait while it carbonates. 

Brewing on the new patio is a lot nicer than brewing in the driveway. Its a lot easier to move around and the shade is awesome.

Green's Gluten Free Dubbel Dark Ale

Product of Belgium. First thought was Belgium is known for some good funky beers. This isn't one. I think it suffered from low turnover and long transport. It could be the sorghum or it could be the transport but it had a distinctive twang that I couldn't get past.

The dark dubbel description was accurate. Nice dark brown color, high carbonation and 7% abv.  Had it not had the off taste, it would have been 7/10 as it was 3/10.

Barley Island

Friend Tyler and I went to Barley Island in Noblesville on Monday.  We had a great time. Beer was good and so was the food. I did a 9 beer tasting and really enjoyed the Old Ale. All the beers were well made and pretty yummy. The casked barleywine was especially fruity.
Ty and I both decided we would be going back for another visit.

Crazy Fun Beer Weekend

It's been a beer week here in Indianapolis. Indiana Brewers Cup results were last weekend.  This weekend is the beer bloggers convention, and Indiana Microbrew Fest.  I was not involved in the bloggers convention, but found a bunch of new people to follow on twitter.

Personally, I was able to attend 2 events.  Kahn's Fine Wine and Spirits had an Indiana beer tasting open to the public on Friday night.  As it's just a few blocks  from the house, I was able to head over on Friday night and try some local craft beers.  I was pretty selective and didn't stray outside my comfort zone.  Everything was wonderful

Beers I tried Friday
Upland - Nut Hugger Brown
Sun King - Cream Ale
Flat 12 - Pogue's Run Porter - Awesome - Must find and buy
Shoreline  - Imperial Raspberry

Saturday was Indiana Microbrew Fest

Thanks to Amy and Ty for the tickets.  Unfortunately They unable to attend, so he and Amy gifted both tickets to me.  I was able to take Cousin Ben and we had a great time.

Bob from Monarch / World Class Beverage had put the word out that World Class needed some volunteers to help out at some of the booths.  Since Ben was also meeting several of his friends there, I left him in good company and headed off to help out with World Class.  I was assigned to the Rivertown booth were I got to spend a couple hours meeting people and pouring some great beer.

I was between Schlafly and Atwater Brewing and got to know some of the guys from there as well.  Everyone was super friendly and great to talk with.  Also in my row were Bell's Victory, and BBC.

Beers I tried Saturday
Sat:
Barley Island - Nickleplate Apricot Wheat, Dirty Helen
Figure 8 - Northern England Nut Brown Ale
Atwater Brewing - Dirty Blonde, Helles Lager, Voodoo Vater Dopplebock, Cherry Wheat
Rivertown - Helles Lager, Roebling Imperial Robust Porter, Unit 6 American Hefewizen, Jenneke Belgian Blonda Ale
Schlafly - Kolsh, American IPA, Yakima Hoppy Wheat

Just an awesome day all around.  Loved meeting people, loved pouring beer, loved talking to the brewery people about beer.  If you have a chance to go, attend Indiana Microbrew Fest.

 Personal Top 5 for the weekend
Flat 12 - Pogue's Run Porter
Atwater - Voodoo Vater Dopplebock
Schlafly - Yakima Hoppy Wheat
Barley Island  - Nickleplate Apricot Wheat
Rivertown - Roebling Imperial Robust Porter

My Reward

This is what you get when you work all weekend outside around my house.  One of my homebrew vanilla oatmeal stouts + a great honking scoop of ice cream.

Best, dessert ever.

Sam Adams Cinder Bock

This is a good beer.  I must be predisposed to the Bock style, because this one really floats my boat. Nice amber brown color and some really good caramel and toffee notes.  Malty without being overly hoppy I believe it to be well balanced.  Feels like it has a decent viscosity in the mouth.

Its supposed to be a rauchbock, but honestly it's fairly mild. I can't pick out the smoked flavors. Of course I'm having it with lunch which includes a sandwich which features home smoked pastrami so it may just be overpowered.  The label lists it at 9.4% ABV.  Certainly it has some kick, but doesn't seem to have any alcohol bite or taste.

The label on the back of the bottle lists it as batch #1.  This is one I would buy again and would try to emulate. However, I don't have a lagering setup, so I guess I'll just have to buy it. 

Hobgoblin Dark English Ale

500ml bottle poured nicely with a short head that retained nicely. Beautiful brown color. Low carbonation and pretty malty. Unusual twang and aftertaste. On the viscous side and slightly chewy in the mouth.
I think I'd really enjoy this if it wasn't for the twang.  Its really distracting and I find myself reaching for some peanuts to get the taste out of my mouth. I may try this again to see if it is just an off bottle. If it is inherent to the beer though I'd say no thanks. 

Scottish Ale - revisited

Well after being bottled for almost 5 months, my Scottish ale isn't doing so well.  Its lost almost all it's flavor.  It's generically malty and not hoppy at all.  Carbonation is very nice and  1/8" head remains even after 2/3rds of the glass is gone.   It's not bad in any way, it's just not really great anymore.  It is simply beer.

I have about 6 or so bottles left, so I'll finish those off and move on to something else.  The honey wheat seemed to be well received last night.  I'd like to give that one another try with some slight variations.

Newcastle Mini Keg

I like Newcastle beer.  It's nice and malty and really fits the flavor profile I enjoy.  The problem, they ship it in clear bottles and it skunks really quickly.  Therefore, I only order it on draft.  Most of the time that works out pretty well.

About a month ago I found a 5L mini keg with integrated CO2 at the grocery store.  Price was a little high, but because it's in steel, it shouldn't be light oxidized.  It was great.  So convienient to just pour a glass whenever and it tasted fresh and wonderful.  A resounding success.

Last week, I made a beer run, stopped in the local liqour store where they have a good selection and what do I see on the bottom shelf?  That's right, a cold Newcastle 5L mini keg and it's $5 cheaper than it was warm at the grocery store.  Boom, in my cart.

Tapped it last night.  I am so dissapointed.  It must have been improperly stored at some time.  It's off.  It doesn't taste fresh and has some wet cardboard smell / flavor going.  Once again I'm going to have to get  away from purchasing Newcastle unless its on tap.  I'm so very sad.

I guess this means that I'm going to have to brew my own.  The English mild I brewed is actually pretty similar in flavor.  I'm sure a couple tweaks and some research and I could find a decent clone recipe.  Seems a shame though. It's good beer when it leaves the brewery. Too bad that some retailers can't store beer in a way to help it continue to taste good.

6/3/2012

Gravity was down to 1.009 so I bottled it up.  8 oz DME in 2 cups of boiling water for carbonation sugar, into bottle.  26 of the 12 oz bottles, 16 of the 16 oz flip tops and one bomber.  It tasted just ok out of the fermenter, but I should mellow a little after bottle conditioning.

Brew Day - Honey Wheat 5/24/2012

Another kit from the LHBS.  How lucky I am to have Great Fermentations close by.  10 am I decided it was a good day to brew, 11:00 am picked up a kit, 3:30 I was cleaned up and pitching yeast.  It really doesn't get much easier than that.

I also replaced the regulator on my jet burner that I use in the driveway.  Holy smokes, it throws some heat now.  Granted it was a 90 degree day, but I was up to a full boil with 5 gallons in less than 1/2 hour.  I was also able for the first time to maintain a vigorous boil and had to back of the heat a bit a couple times.

This is also the first time I've done a full 5 gallon boil.  Its a lot easier to get a boil over in a 7 gallon pot with 5 gallons of wort than it was with 3.

Honey wheat kit - pretty simple kit really.  I backed off the boil times to reduce the hoppiness and added orange peel to make it a little closer to blue moon.  I'm looking for something to keep really cold while it's so hot outside and my english mild isn't meant to be served that cold.

I hit my OG pretty well and the yeast took off quickly.  Activity in the airlock within 5 hours and a full krausen within 15 hours.  Very vigorous fermentation.  Wheat beers are supposed to finish quickly so we'll see how long this one takes.  I may carbonate upstairs to get a little quicker finish than the 6 weeks it's been taking in the basement.

Boulevard Smokestack Series - Dark Truth

Pours nice and dark with a deep tan head.  I used a gentle pour and got a small amount of foam which dissipated fairly quickly. That's good in my book. Nicely roasted dark grains with no burnt taste.  Very little hop flavor.  I find that to be a good thing as well.  The malts are roasted enough that there is just a hint of sweetness.

This is a pretty big beer.  Very low alcohol taste, but a whopping 9.7% ABV. I'm not sure if that puts it into imperial range or not.  It doesn't have the smooth mouth feel of Guinness on nitro, but if I had to choose, I'd pick the Dark Truth. Guinness is so bitter that I can really only enjoy about 1 per year.  I could drink this one once a month.  I'm really not a stout guy.

I should have waited until dinner to drink this one.  I just came in from doing yard work and I only had this, an IPA and my pumpkin ale cold. I probably should have chosen the IPA, as in my mind stouts need a little something to go with them.

I'd pick this one over most of the other stouts I've tried.  I think it's a little better than Samuel Smiths oatmeal stout as it's a little more rich.  I think it's a lot better than Guinness as it doesn't have the same crushing bitterness. Solid 8 on a ten point scale.

Another thanks to Bob Mack as he's the one who gave me this sampler that I have been enjoying so much.

Boulevard Sixth Glass

Sixth glass - Another gift from Bob Mack @ World Class Beverage
Immediate thought - Belgian , sweet, not too hoppy. Good balance. Some fusal hotness and a little spice flavor from the yeast. Medium body. Good carbonation. Good copper color. Little cloudiness. Refreshing when with rich food but a little strong to just drink alone. Good dinner beer.

Boulevard Tank 7 farmhouse ale.

This is a pale ale.  Lots of hops. Its got bitterness, aroma, and flavor. Bottle conditioned with a fair amount of suspended yeast even after a gentle pour. Well executed with little to no grassy flavors. Slight citrus aroma. Not a style I tend to enjoy, but well executed for the style. 

After 10 mins there was 1/8 the inch of yeast in the bottom of my glass.

Breakfast Stout

I've bottled and carbonated my oatmeal vanilla breakfast stout.  2 full vanilla beans gives quite a dose of vanilla aroma, but it doesn't actually affect the flavor very much.  Nice thing about this beer is it doesn't have to be served really cold.  Just cool will do.

I'm really enjoying this beer. It has a pretty thick and filling consistency.  Its not great with a meal, but it is awesome as a snack.  With all the grain that is in it, it's probably north of 300 calories for a pint, so I do have to think of it as a snack.  Next time I make it, I'll step up to a full 5 gallon batch and I'll probably add a touch more hops or darker malt.  It could use a little more balance to counteract all the grain and malt.

Because of the odd batch size I used the coopers drops again to carbonate.  I've used them in 3 different beers now and they definitely don't provide as much carbonation as the old standby of 5 oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch.

Will I continue to use the coopers carbonation drops? The answer is yes, as long as it's a style that benefits from slightly lower carbonation and it's an odd batch size.  For a standard batch or higher carbonation it's just as easy to go with the corn sugar.

English Mild Picture

English Mild shortly after opening.  Should have refrigerated more than one.

After only a week in the bottle, the english mild tastes just fine and has ok carbonation.  It's a touch thin and a touch hoppy but it sure drinks fine.  Lets see what another week does for it.

English Mild - Bottling

4/8/2012 - I got into a rush because we had to leave at noon to make the big shindig at Grandma's house for Easter dinner.  10 am rolled around and I thought I had enough time to bottle up my English mild.  I mixed up my sanitizer and took a gravity reading - 1.006 - perfect, it's done.  Time to bottle.  Sanitized my clean bottles and got to it. 
It went well, I am getting much better at starting siphons and not spilling beer everywhere.  For both the stouts I bottled, I used coopers carb tabs instead of mixing in sugar when I bottled.  Since they were both small batches, it seemed like it would be easier than figuring the amount of sugar to boil and add before I bottled.  I thought for sure I had enough left to bottle the English mild.  Boy was I wrong - almost 20 bottles short.  Oh well, can't leave them uncovered.  I capped them anyway.

4/9/2012 After returning from Easter I ran to the LHBS and grabbed some more coopers drops.  There is at least one advantage of the swing top bottles I like to use. They are easy to open and close.  Opened them all up, dropped in the sugar pills and closed them again. Put a little note on the bucket so I'd remember the date and what it was and carried on

It smells like beer and I'm excited about it.  I'm going to take 3 or 4 and move them up close to my desk so they can carbonate more quickly.  The others I'll leave in the basement and the cooler temps will help them work more slowly.

March 31, Apr 1

Pretty busy couple of beer days.  Bottled up my Vanilla Oatmeal Breakfast Stout.  I hope it had some yeast left in it to carbonate.  There wasn't much left behind in my secondary at all.  This had been pitched on top of the yeast that I used for Dad's milk stout.  It feremented super quick, but I left it for a week just in case.

I brewed my english dark mild and it is fermenting.  I did a yeast starter this time and wow that makes things ferment quickly as well.  Its been 5 days and it looks like it's ready to bottle.  I'll do a sample of it this weekend and test it's gravity to verify.

English Mild

Been doing some reading and it looks like my next beer will be an English mild.  It's not typically sold in the US, so I haven't ever tried it before.  Sure looks interesting though.  Dark, not very bitter and a relatively low ABV probably about 3%.

Time to find examples of beer styles.

In preparation for my parents visit in April, I'm going to assemble some of my favorite beers for them to try.  It's easy for me to find some that are very malty, because that's what I like.  I'm going to try and find a good example of several different styles and then have a tasting for my parents.  Just to help me dial in basic examples for people.

Styles I need to find examples of
American Lager or Light Lager - Budweiser ?
German Pilsner - Warsteiner
English Pale Ale or ESB - Bass or Boddingtons
Irish or Scottish Ale - Sun Kings Wee Mac
IPA / APA - Dogfishhead 60 min
Brown Ale - Newcastle
Porter - Sierra Nevada
Sweet Stout - Widmer Snow Plow
Dry Stout - Guiness
Belgian Wit Beer - Hoegaarden

Weigh in with your style / brand preferences

There are several styles I'm missing, but they aren't nearly as common.  I'm looking for a good tasting, easy to find example of each

Poor Yield on Small Batch

Well, I bottled up Dad's stout.  It's very sweet, but it does taste like beer going into the bottle, so that's good.  Horrible horrible yield. If I am going to continue to do small batches I'm going to have to start with a smaller fermenter.

I used the 5 gallon fermenter for this batch and it's so wide that even leaving just 1/4" of beer in the bottom probably cost me a bottle of beer.  I had a lot of trub from all the oatmeal and grain, and I'm sure that sucked up some liquid as well.

15 bottles though and my first experience with a bottle capper.  My boss loaned me her's and it seemed to work pretty well.  That will give us 3 bottles to experiment with when Dad visits and if he likes it a 12 pack to take home to Oregon.  He thinks that will last him a year. Personally, I think he could drink beer a little more often than that.

Dad's Stout

Well, it had been 2 weeks, so I thought it should be time to bottle up dad's stout.  I got everything sanitized and the bottles ready to fill.  I brewed a new batch of breakfast stout for myself and got everything ready to put on the lees of the milk stout.

Disaster, the milk stout wasn't finished fermenting.  I checked the gravity and it still needs to drop at least another 10 points.  Here I am, everything ready to go and no place to put all the new beer.

Luckily I had another carboy (fermenter) that I was able to get cleaned and sanitized.  I got the milk stout transferred and a new airlock put on it.  I let the new beer slow cool and then here on Wednesday I'm going to check the gravity again and see if I got those final 10 points.

The new beer I brewed for myself came in @ 1.070 which is pretty heavy.  Lots of oatmeal.  It did however start fermenting quite quickly when I threw it on the old yeast cake from dad's stout.

Gluten Free? New Planet Pale Ale

Since both Mom and Uncle John are gluten free for medical reasons, it's time to explore some gluten free or GF beers.  Uncle John's favorite is Bard's Gold.  I haven't found it locally, but he says it's "drinkable".  Not good, but drinkable.

Since I haven't found it, I thought I'd look around and see what I could find.  At my local store, I did find New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale.  I brought it home cold on a Saturday afternoon and decided no point in waiting around.  Poured it right into my glass and gave it a shot.

My notes - Consistent with Pale Ale style. Clean,crisp and hoppy.  Good nose, poor head and slightly grapefruity. Color is too dark for a "pale ale" but the taste is fine. I'd be hard pressed to pick it out from a regular pale ale.

Overall I thought it was pretty good.  Price was a little high @ nearly $2.50 a bottle.  I'm not into the pale ale style in general, but I thought it was a pretty good example.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5, pretty middle of the road.  However, if one is limited to GF beer, it's probably pretty good because it tastes like regular beer.

Brewday - Feb 25th

Plowed Snow – half batch Feb 25 2012

Brew Notes – 2.5 gallon batch for Papa – Widmer Snow Plow clone.  Found recipe via homebrewtalk.com and web search.

Batch size 2.5 Gal

Boil – 40 mins (treat as 1 hour because no ice bath cooling)

Sweet Milk Stout

Techniques new to this batch, small scale and weighing my own ingredients.  Also substituting hops and using brewtarget free software.

Grains – 2.5lb Light DME, .75lb crystal 60L, .5lb wheat DME, .5lbs cara-pils, .5lb flaked barley, .5lb lactose, .375lb flaked oats, .375lb black roast barley,  .1875lb black patent malt

Hops - .3 oz Chinook – 12.2% aa bittering (40 mins), .25 oz EKG – 4.9% aa aroma (15 mins)

Yeast – washed Scottish ale from the 80\= a month ago –

Starter – 2 cups water – 1 cup DME

Misc notes:  About 40 outside and windy.  It took a lot of time to get everything to a boil.  Used the scale for the first time and it certainly adds a lot of planning time to measure everything.  I should have taken an OG and a final volume reading.  I probably should have topped it up.  Also the first time making a starter.  I should have used twice as much DME, but fermentation seemed to have taken off fine in the back.  Also I cooled it in the brew kettle out on the porch since it was cold out.  This gave me time to get the starter ready. Certainly easier just to seal it up in foil and wait.  It’s harder because it takes more time.  I used a strainer when it was going into the fermenter this time.  Boy that clogged up fast.  I’d better set up a 2 strainer system for next time.

Triton Brewing

Visit them here :

http://tritonbrewing.com/

What a fun place.  Staff was wonderful and a rotating selection of food trucks out front means you shouldn’t ever be bored.  Even dogs are welcome.

Triton is a fun little brewery that’s been open for less than a year.  Decent beer selection and locally owned.  It was a fun evening there after the Monarch beverage tour.  Our tour leader Bob Mack was able to arrange things for us and Triton was kind enough to buy the first round of beer so we could try their products.

The staff at Triton was very accommodating.  They gave us a tour of their brew area and moved tables around so that our group of nearly 20 could all sit together.  I ordered the Four Barrel Brown so I could review it.  I also had a sampler just so I could enjoy all their various styles. (I liked the IPA the best)

Triton Brewing Four Barrel Brown

According to the menu- Four Barrel Brown - “A fun and nuanced brown, our Four Barrel offers a very earthy, malty nose with light hop overtones. You’ll taste nuttiness, caramel and even coffee that we’ve finished with some light hops for a very nice balance”   - 5.2% ABV, 25 IBU, 21 SRM

My tasting notes – Lots of aroma hops, nice fruity nose. Good clarity – medium brown. Some lacing and head retention even after 30 minutes.  Malty but not sweet. 

That was the end of my notes, we were there with a group and I had a great time meeting people and talking with the other co-op parents.  Yes this was a preschool function minus the preschoolers. For more information about the co-op visit them here http://www.necoop.org/

Tour of Monarch Beverage – Hosted by Bob Mack of World Class Beer

Monarch beverage is an Indiana owned family business. They moved to a new facility on the east side of Indianapolis about 3 years ago.  Monarch sells over 17 million cases of beer and wine annually.  As a wholesaler and distributor, they handle beer and wine only – No liquor. 

Since the 21^st amendment – states all regulate alcohol independently. In Indiana there is a three tier system.  Breweries sell to distributors who then sell to the retail stores.  The distributor takes care of all transportation, most shelf stocking and paying the alcohol taxes on everything that is sold. Monarch represents approximately ¼ of all the beer tax revenue in the state of Indiana.

In 1970 there were roughly 40 breweries operating nationwide. Today that number is close to 2000. There are almost different breweries that have products available in Indiana.  Everything that is not a Budweiser product is handled through Monarch beverage.  Even with the large number of breweries that are now available beer consumption is actually down slightly over the last 5 years.  That said, on the day of our tour Monarch had 1.4 million cases of beer in stock.

Monarch has several innovative systems to help them manage their 900 – 1000 daily stops. The entire system is computer controlled, and many items go from the loading dock to the shipping dock without ever being touched by a human hand. They have 2 beer robots that tear down full pallets and load them into the automated system. They also have 4 robots that palletize orders. These robots are part of the vertique system. Everything is loaded so it comes of the truck in the correct order based on when each stop is scheduled throughout the day. 

Beer Tasting

Very excited, I get to enjoy 2 separate beer tastings tonight. One tasting is at Monarch Brewing as a fundraiser for Lucy's preschool. The other at is at Triton brewing in Indianapolis. I'll try and take good notes and post them in the upcoming days.


Oh and happy valentines to me from my lovely wife.  Is this a great present or what !

Jon Saffen's Ale

This one was a gift from my next door neighbor's brother.  I gave him a bottle of my pumpkin ale and he returned the bottle full of one of his brews.  What a nice guy !

Mmm lots of hop aroma, very clear with a nice amber gold color and foamy head. Pretty hoppy, I didn't get to ask what style it was supposed to be, so I'm going to go with IPA or APA.  The hops aroma is very telling and it reminds me of the IPA that cousin Ben brewed.  Probably over 60 IBU.  I'm going to guess some galaxy hops in this one.  Totally enjoyable.  Perfect partner for a hot rich soup, grilled sandwich or hamburger, - Yum.

Beer review - Sam Adams Wee Heavy

From the Sam Adams imperial line this is a big beer with big flavor. First impression was yum. Second impression was wow that's some alcohol. 10% abv doesn't kid around. The flavor is wonderfully malty with just enough hops to even of out.
The beer pours a deep brown with a tan head. Head retention was pretty good, still showing traces after 10 minutes. The body and mouthfeel are actually a bit thin. It must be the alcohol.
Its a little pricey at nearly $3 a bottle but worth it as a treat. Crisp and clean enough that is could be paired with a crusty sandwich or even a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.
9/10 only because its too strong to drink everyday.

Snow Day

New Belgium brewery Snow Day. Thanks to Tammy we had the chance to try this American Black ale today. It was a very enjoyable beer. First impression,  it was fresh and very crisp. Lots of greatt hop aroma and flavor. A little malt sweetness and a little spice.  Almost a touch of cinnamon with its gentle warmth.
Color was a dark caramel brown with great clarity. We were consuming from the bottle so no reports on head.
Some other reviewers have referred to it as a black IPA. I'd have to disagree. At 55 IBU and 6.2% abv. It doesn't have enough bitterness to really fit the IPA profile.  I'm not much of a hop head so this was a little bitter for me. It had a pretty good balance though and I'd probably drink another if I had a chance. I probably wouldn't enjoy a 3 in a row.

80/- bottling day

1/22/2012. No signs of fermentation for a week now. It must be ready. Also, my autosiphon is here and I want to play with my new toy. Susie wanted to be my helper today. She did a very good job. She was very diligent about not touching anything after she sanitized her hands. She also brought the flashlight when we needed it and put the caps on the bottles.  She also learned to read the hydrometer.  We had a final gravity of 1.011 which is a touch lower than expected, but very close.
We netted 36 of the 16 oz ez-cap bottles. The color is beautiful and the aroma is malty. The clarity is a bit lacking.  It probably could have used more time in primary but I wanted to get it bottled. There was just enough left for a sample for me. It tastes a little thin and young.  I hope it improves with its time in the bottle.
Another update about it in a few weeks when we see ifit carbonated.

Brew the 3rd, Scottish 80/

Another kit form Great Fermentations.  I’m getting better at deciphering their instructions into the real instructions.  They only have 10 steps from start to finish and for me it’s closer to 40 steps.  There is a lot of assumed knowledge that I’m sure is just rote for the more experience brewer, but I still have to make an expanded checklist.

The brewing itself went just fine.  I was very happy for the sunny morning and relatively low wind.  This batch was in done in the driveway again after the hop smell almost drove Julie out of the house last time.  One nice thing about the cooler temps is it makes chilling the wort go much more quickly.

Today was my first time using a dry malt extract instead of the liquid or syrup version.  I think I actually like it better.  It’s hard adding a powder to hot liquid, it always clumps.  However, it clumps on the top instead of settling to the bottom like the denser liquid extract.  I like this because it’s much less likely to scorch on the bottom of the pot.  Depending on the final result, I may switch to dry extract for future batches because it was that much easier for me to use.  I also suspect that it is more viable in long term storage which would allow me to stock up if I ever found a sale.

I had one minor misstep today.  I must have hit the stop/start button on the timer twice when I started my boil.  I looked up after a little reading in my book to see how much time was left and I saw the timer wasn’t running. At that point I just had to guess how much time had passed and hope I wasn’t too far off.  There shouldn’t be too much difference even if I was off by as much as ten minutes. 

Sanitation and cleanup went fairly well.  I’m getting more comfortable with my processes and workspaces.  By using the washer and dryer as a table top and the deep sink as my sanitation station I can do most of my work without messing up the kitchen and wrecking the house with my projects.

Everything looked and smelled great as it went into the fermenter.   Ben gave me a tip that I can actually get my yeast started a day or two ahead.  I’m going to have to remember that because it was a big help to me today.  I was getting carbon dioxide bubbles out of the fermenter less than 8 hours after I put the yeast in. 

The temperature in the part of the basement that I have set aside for the project seems to be sitting right around 68 degrees. It just so happens the thermostat for the house is set to 68 and it seems to be pretty consistent.  At least that new furnace is good for something.

Pictures of my fancy outdoor brewing station ;-)

Original Gravity - 1.050
Expected final Gravity - 1.014
Est ABV, 4.8%
Est IBU, 19.8

Review : Unibroue - Trois Pistoles

I have no idea what I want to say about this one. Its almost rum like. Fruity tones as well. Plum maybe.  It's slightly sweet but not in what I perceive as traditional malt flavors. I need to try this again with some food perhaps.

I just reread the above and it's not really a review. Oh well I guess its one of those nights.

Next beer

I've been researching my next beer to make and it looks like a Scottish Ale may be the thing.  I top out being able to enjoy beer around 25 IBU.  Beyond that I say too bitter for me.  Thus I needed a tool to help me evaluate potential bitterness in my brews.  Lo and behold someone already wrote the tool I needed and posted it on the internet.

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/ibu.php  I don't know a thing about these guys, but based on this tool better believe I'll be checking out the rest of the site.

Oh, and my pumpkin ale - very sweet and almost no hops at 4.5 IBU according to the calculator.

Brew 2 - Pumpkin - It fizzes

Well, after another week in the bottle it shows traces of carbonation.  The lid popped a little when I opened it.  The bottle I had last night was certainly very yummy.  The cloying sweetness has faded a little.  I think if it carbonates the rest of the way it should be up to a 8.5 out of 10.  I still thinks it needs just a touch more hops.  If you are in the neighborhood come by for a sample.