New Texican

Hey everybody! It's been a little crazy this week, but I finally made some time to sit down and write about the awesome brew day I had on Saturday. Why was it awesome? Well, not only was it Big Brew Day (read as: homebrewers all over the country celebrating the art of homebrewing), but it was also the very first time I got to brew at our new home! I was just going to brew a basic American Brown Ale using a kit from MoreBeer (seriously love those guys!). However, special occasions call for special beer, and so New Texican Brown Ale was born!
You're probably wondering, "WTF is a New Texican?" Well it's a word I made up to describe where I'm from. I am a native and proud New Mexican (yes, it's a state). I was born and raised in a little town called Española located in the northern part of the state. I LOVE New Mexico, but an interesting thing happened when my husband and I moved to Galveston, Texas back in 2009. I felt connected to Galveston and to Texas, like I belonged here. I even have a doppelganger here, according to several random strangers I've met through awkward conversations ("Oh hey, how are you?! I haven't seen you since high school." *confused look* "Didn't you go to Ball High?" "No . . ." "Oh sorry, haha, you look exactly like a girl I went to school with.") When we got transferred to California, I spent most of those 3 years homesick for Galveston. When we found out we were coming back, I almost cried because we were going home. "I thought New Mexico was your home?" Well, they both are. Thus the term, New Texican (seriously, if people can have dual citizenship, why can't we have dual state residency?)

I wanted this beer to reflect both of my homes, so I tweaked the recipe kit a little. To represent my New Mexican side, I chose to add some red chile powder. Now, unless you're a New Mexican or have spent some time in the state, that would seem like a weird choice. Ask any New Mexican, though, and they'll tell you we put that shit on everything! Now don't start gagging. When I say chile, I'm not talking about the mix of spices, meat, and beans. I'm talking about chile peppers grown in New Mexico, dried and ground into powder. It's pure deliciousness and there's nothing more New Mexican than our chile! (Fun fact: New Mexico's official state question is "Red or Green?", referring to whether a person wants red or green chile with their meal.) To represent my Texas side, I chose to add honey from Gulf Coast Honey Bee Farms. I needed something sweet to balance out the spice of the chile. Their hives are located in Galveston county, and what better way to capture the essence of a place than through the bees that fly all around it? A secondary reason for this choice is my husband's obsession with honey. Every time I say I'm ready to brew another batch, I get, "Can we put honey in it?" So this time it was a win-win!

Brew day went great! We chose a shady spot near the garage, so much better than getting baked in the sun next to a busy swimming pool. I bought a drinking water hose to fill my brew pot from the spigot outside, so much better than lugging a bunch of gallon size water jugs down the stairs. We only had one neighbor ask, "Whatcha cookin?", and cleanup was a breeze! I had enough space to hose down all the bigger pieces of equipment and give them a light scrub, so much better than kneeling down by the tub and scrubbing away at a giant pot. The initial sample tasted great, just a hint of spice. I'm so excited for the final result, and to debut my new logo on the labels for this brew. The logo is also a play on the New Texican theme, but that's the only hint I'm giving!

Head over to my Instagram page, @drunkenborrachobrewing, if you wanna check out pics and videos from our Big Brew Day. To my fellow homebrewers, drop me a line and let me know what kind of brewing activities you did to celebrate the weekend!

Cheers!
-Angelica

Whatcha Cookin?

I said that when we moved to Texas, I was going to make the switch to all-grain brewing and upgrade my equipment, and I did- sort of. I had a full 3-tier system in mind when I said that, but limited storage in our apartment meant that I had to do something different. After a little bit of research, I opted for the Brew-In-A-Bag Method instead. All I needed was a big ass pot, a propane burner, mesh bag, and a paddle, so off to the store I went. This is when things got interesting. Anyone from the South knows that these items, minus the mesh bag, are also needed for crawfish and/or seafood boils. Crawfish season was already over when I was buying the stuff, so the guy in line behind me at the register got curious. The conversation went something like this:
Guy: "Whatcha cookin?
Me: "Beer"
Guy: *laughs*
Me: "Seriously, I homebrew"
Guy: "Oh, you can do that?"
Me, trying to pay and get out of the store: "Yup, it's fun. Have a nice day."

Next step was to go to the homebrew supply for the mesh bag and ingredients. It was August, so I was buying stuff for the 2nd edition of our anniversary brew, 9 Year Itch. This was my 1st visit to the (only) shop in my area. They had everything I needed, and it was a good experience so far, so I decided to ask for advice. My last regular shop was a great place to ask questions and get tips and they never made me feel stupid for asking, so why should this place be any different, right? HA!
Me: "This is my first try at BIAB, any tips for me?"
Store Employee: "Yeah, don't do it." (Really?!)
Me: "I have limited space, so this is pretty much my only option for all-grain right now."
Store Employee: "That's too bad. Your efficiency is going to be really low. I would suggest getting a mash tun as soon as you can."

Needless to say, I walked out of there a little disappointed. When I got home, I turned back to the good old Internet and homebrew forums and found a ton of pointers! (Not all HBS stores are created equal, my friends, but that's not the point of the story.) Flash forward to brew day. We decided to set up by the pool, which is close to our apartment, but far enough away to satisfy the 10-foot rule for open flames at the complex. August is HOT in Galveston, so as the day went on, lots of people
passed through the pool area. Almost every time, we ended up in a conversation similar to the one I had at the store:

People:"Whatcha cookin?"
Us:"Beer"
P:*cue laugh* "Really? Is that legal?"
U: "Yeah, take a look."
P:"Oh wow, that's cool!" Or "Well if you need a taste tester, I'm in Apt #___" *Wink, wink, awkward laugh.*
 (I joke about it, but I really love people's reactions, and you know I love talking about beer and brewing to anyone that asks.)

The brew session went well, and we made it to the waiting period. Now, 9 Year Itch is a big beer at an estimated 9% ABV, so I expected it to take some time. I didn't expect to learn a lesson about stuck fermentation. I check my numbers at 2 weeks and 3 weeks in before I bottle, just to make sure fermentation is over and my target has been reached. Well, after 4 weeks, my gravity readings were still the same as week 2, and way too high for the beer to be considered done. Back to the internet, and it was confirmed- fermentation was stalled, but there was a way to start it back up again! All I had to do was add more yeast, Saison yeast to be exact. This strain is a monster and will eat any fermentable sugar in the wort, even if conditions are less than perfect. 2 weeks after adding it to the carboy, my numbers were right where I needed them to be, and it was time to bottle. Well, due to the extra samples I took before I realized fermentation had stalled, as well as the extra trub  from the 2nd yeast addition, I lost about a gallon worth of beer. Did I factor this is when I was preparing the priming sugar? Of course not! In fact, I used extra because I wanted it to have the high carbonation levels characteristic of Belgian beers. Luckily, I didn't get any bottle bombs in the batch, but the majority of them were gushers. We have learned, and instructed everyone who got a bottle, to open the bottle over the sink and immediately pour it into the largest cup they could find (so much for proper glassware). I'm also lucky that none of these issues affected the taste in a bad way, there was just less of it to enjoy. The beer was still delicious, and we are down to our last few bottles.

The moral of the story: brewing comes with its share of challenges, but it's always worth it in the end. And that's why I love it.

CHEERS!

That Time I Tried To Make A Sour

Tried is the key word in that title. What I actually made was  . . . something weird. Settle in, because this story is gonna take a little while.
Let me start by saying that I LOVE sour beers! I've been a fan since I had my first one at Ale Industries’ place, The Pig & The Pickle (which is now closed, unfortunately). I wish I could remember what it was called, but this was 3 years ago, when I was still a young grasshopper in the world of craft beer. For those of you who are not familiar with the style, a sour beer  is created by using wild yeast strains during fermentation or by introducing bacteria to the brew liquid. It sounds bad, but the results can be very tasty if it goes right. The majority of them are very tart, which is why they appeal to me. I grew up in the age of Warhead candies, and ate those suckers til I had cuts in my tongue. That being said, it was definitely a style I wanted to take a stab at, but I felt very intimidated by the whole thing. Brewing in itself can be a gamble, but sours are in high stakes territory. They can take months, or even years, to develop the correct flavors and you really have to be on top of your sanitation game to prevent infections in future non-sour batches.  I did what I do best and started my research to decide how to approach the project. Luckily, Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine had just released an issue dedicated to sours. One of the articles mentioned a method called kettle souring, which can produce results in weeks rather months. It involved using plain yogurt to sour the beer, since it contains lactobacillus, a common bacteria used in sours (link here if you're curious). It sounded simple enough, so I got more details from this post on the Not So Profesional Beer Blog. I knew I wanted to do a small batch, just in case I ended up having to dump it. My regular homebrew store had some 1 gallon kits on super clearance, so I picked out a brown ale, got some extra supplies to replace the ones I was about to infect (plastic really likes bacteria), and picked out a yeast blend that contained even more lactobacillus.
One of the first steps in this yogurt method was to grow a culture. As per the instructions, I mixed a little dry malt extract with water and poured in the clear liquid from the top of the yogurt container. I had to find a way to keep this mixture warm and cozy for several hours so the culture could grow. After ruling out a few different methods, I settled on using my wax warmer as a hot plate (they're not just for keeping your house smelling good anymore, folks!). This mixture went into the wort, which had to sit for a few days at around 100 degrees. I have a gas stove, and didn't feel comfortable leaving it on the burner or in the oven, so in the slow cooker it went. After about 3 days, it started smelling a little sour (in a good way, not the "how old is this milk?" way). The taste wasn't quite there, but I figured that would come with time. I finished off the brewing process, set it in the garage and tried to forget about it. After an agonizing 3 months of waiting and peeking and taking gravity readings, I bottled it and let it condition for about another month.
Finally, tasting day had arrived. It was pretty bad, guys! The carbonation level was like pouring a beer over an Alka-Seltzer tablet, and the taste was odd, to say the least. In my husband's words, it tasted like "a sour Miller Lite." To me, it tasted like a cheap beer with a ton of salt in it. I'm not exactly sure where I went wrong, though I can think of a few things that could've contributed.

• Not being patient enough
• Using ingredients from a kit on clearance, probably not the best quality.
• Not being patient enough
• I had to move the carboy at one point and may have disturbed the pellicle (a layer that forms over the top, protects the wort from oxygen)
• Not being patient enough
• I dropped a straw in the carboy while trying to get a sample for measurements and couldn't get it back out (don't ask)
• Not being patient enough
• Could've used more yogurt or let the culture grow a little longer

This was a huge learning experience for me, and when the sting of making my first crappy beer wears off, I will definitely attempt a sour again. For now, I have a few bottles left of this . . .thing in the garage. I crack one open every once in a while to see if it improves or changes over time. So far, it doesn't look very promising.
If there are any other brewers reading this, I'd love to hear your suggestions, tips, dos and don'ts, stories regarding sours. Until next time, friends.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving or The Complications of Brewing Alone

If you can't already tell by the nature of this blog, I'm not the typical wife. I'm a pretty low maintenance person in general, so I don't need big celebrations for birthdays and anniversaries. My idea of a good time is stuffing my face with sushi, watching a movie, and hitting up our favorite brewery. Flowers are optional, and the hubby knows better than to buy me any jewelry. Despite all of this, he still manages to spoil me rotten every occasion. Last year, I finally had a chance to do the spoiling . . .
Hubs had to go on a business trip for several months, one of which contained our anniversary. So what's a girl to do when her other half isn't around to celebrate a special occasion? Make beer, of course! I consulted The Brewmaster's Bible and found a recipe for a Belgian Tripel, one of his favorite beer styles. While checking out at the homebrew supply, the conversation with the guy behind the counter went something like this:

Guy: "So what are you making?"
Me: "A Belgian Tripel"
Guy: "That's a pretty big beer!"
Me: "Well, it's for a special occasion. I'm brewing it to surprise my husband for our anniversary."
Guy: "Oh, that's so cool!"

The look on his face when he realized that I was the one doing the brewing, and wasn't just there to pick up supplies for my husband: priceless! He wasn't lying though, this beer was a tall order. The higher alcohol content of the beer meant it was going to need longer to ferment and the style calls for higher carbonation levels, making it prone to bottle bombs during conditioning. Add in the fact that this was the very first beer that I would be brewing completely on my own and wasn't using a pre-assembled kit, and it's safe to say I was freaking out about it just a little. To calm my anxiety, I did what I do best and researched my little heart out. 

Anniversary/brew day came, and everything went pretty well. I had to make a couple adjustments to account for the fact that I didn't have my muscle around to do the lifting (5 gallons of beer is really heavy!), but I'm happy to report that I didn't drop or break anything, including my toes. Four weeks later, and it was time to bottle. This did not go as smoothly. Three quarters of the way into siphoning out the beer from the carboy, my auto-siphon stopped auto-siphoning. They're great time savers and I highly recommend them, but the plastic piece that makes it "auto" is extremely fickle. Apparently, I had knocked it loose at some point during the process. I still had over a gallon of beer left in the carboy, and I wasn't about to waste it (can you say alcohol abuse?). So after a few choice words, I started pumping the siphon by hand. That didn't work very well either. Tired of feeling like I was in an episode of Little House On the Prairie, I said screw it and stopped pumping. I picked up the carboy and *very carefully* poured the rest of the beer into the bucket. Anybody who brews knows this is a HUGE no-no, but it was over a gallon of beer! I had already poured enough priming sugar solution into the bottom of the bucket for 5 gallons, so leaving out that much beer was guaranteed to produce a crapload of bottle bombs. I figured a little bit of extra sediment at the bottom of the bottles was a good trade-off. After finally getting it all bottled, I waited and waited. Since I decided that I wasn't going to open a bottle until our late anniversary celebration, all I could do was hope that I didn't screw everything up. 

Many weeks later, the big day had arrived! We said a little prayer to the homebrew gods, and cracked open a bottle of 8 Year Itch (can you guess which anniversary we were celebrating?). Guys, it was awesome! The color was great, carbonation was perfect, and it went down dangerously smooth for an 8% ABV beer. It was officially the best anniversary present that my husband had ever received, according to him, and made me "the cool wife" to all his buddies. I still get compliments on it from friends that have tried it. The success of this beer means I definitely have to make it again, so a new tradition has been born. This fall, look out for a report on 9 Year Itch.

Ok, I promise I'm done typing now. Cheers, guys, thanks for hanging out!

How Barnes & Noble Started My Homebrewing Obsession

Yeah, you read the title right. I know, B&N isn't exactly known for their expertise in homebrewing. In fact, I find their section on beer to be extremely lacking. They do, however, sell really good quality homebrewing kits from Craft A Brew. Also, since I currently work at B&N, I was able to buy it at a really good price using my employee discount (This is probably a good time to mention that I am NOT being paid by either of these companies to plug the product, I was just that happy with it).
My husband had been toying with the idea of homebrewing for a while, so 2 Christmases ago, I surprised him with the Hefeweizen kit. We brewed the first batch together, mostly because the hubby doesn't like to read directions, and waited. I was pretty skeptical about the outcome because of a few horror stories I heard from friends. To my surprise, the hef was very tasty (similar to a Widmer). Being the science nerd that I am, I wanted to brew another batch from a recipe rather than a kit, just to make sure it was the process that made good beer, and not just the kit. We went to a local homebrew shop, where they gave us a recipe for a Smoked Porter. We brewed it together, and waited. Another success! By the time that batch was gone, we had official caught the brewing bug, and the one gallon kit just wasn't cutting it for us anymore. We made trip #2 to the homebrew shop, and walked out with a complete 5 gallon brewing kit and a recipe kit for a Stout (we like our dark beers). This is when the fun really began . . .
Let's just say that the margin of error grows with the batch size. This beer wasn't as successful this time around. Again, my inner nerd kicked in, and I went into research mode to figure out what went wrong. I bought a few books, scoured the internet, and a monster was born! The more I read, the more I fell in love. The science behind it intrigues me, and the freedom it lends satisfies the creative itch that I couldn't scratch with anything else. I can do anything I want in homebrewing, and no one can say it's wrong. Don't even get me started on how I feel when people taste my beer and like it! That's a post for another day.
Well, I think that's enough for one night. Thanks for reading . . .