The local homebrewing store, F.H. Steinbarts, is totally fucked and hates brewers. Yesterday I began my first solo brewing endeavor, proudly deciding to attempt a relatively complicated dark, spiced Belgian ale. While this brew could almost be interpreted as a Trappist style, I decided to build the beer like I was making an American-style, well-hopped Porter. I have named it "Styrian Browne", despite the fact that it is completely unrelated to Styria, a region of Austria known for its hops. I prefer to think of the beer as an intrepid sweep of a brewers hand across the European landscape and history and beyond. One day I'll actually put in Styrian Goldings, and it'll be totally amazing.
Anyway, I learned several extremely valuable things about Steinbarts and their setup for homebrewers.
1) Everything is grossly overpriced. Every barley is about 50 cents more per pound than other Northwest homebrewing stores, namely Bader Brewing in Vancouver, WA. The 50 cents extra translates to roughly 50% more expensive for grain that doesn't even do what its supposed to.
2) The mills are fucked. The rollers on the in-store grain mills are set much too far apart. Really, only about half of the grain comes out milled, meaning much less sugar can be extracted during mashing. Some even smaller grains, like unmalted wheat, dont even get cracked or crushed in the slightest. This forced me to add MALT EXTRACT, a purist's nightmare, to the boil in order to come close to the numbers I was after.
3) They're always out of everything. Granted, there is a serious hop crisis (blah blah blah), and brewer's yeast is seasonal, but there is really no excuse for running out of essential malt styles like Munich.
Really, complaint #2 is what is really getting me cheesed. What I now desire more than anything is my own mill. I simply can't get the high gravity beer that I know I deserve.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Rock Bottom, Where Beer Lovers Go To Die
Early in our homebrew adventures--Andy and I, without quite knowing what we were doing, managed to brew up some sort of devilishly strong IPA--somewhere around 15% ABV and inky black in color. A few months down the line, it's become a nice enough beer for a first effort at something dark--the carbonation balances the depth out, and the cloying and heavy flavour has all but dissipated in favor of more subtle notes. But just imagine how a homebrew of such heaviness must taste after two weeks of fermentation. Horribly sweet, syrupy, and woefully undrinkable. Now imagine that you've just paid $4.50 for a pint of such filth. I did just that this Monday. It was my first day of jury duty, and being unselected by noon, I was granted a lunch break that lasted an hour and a half. "Great--I can have some beers, maybe get down to Bailey's" I thought to myself. Of course, being noon, Bailey's was closed, and my downtown knowledge is lacking to say the least. But then I thought to myself, "Josh, isn't the brewer at Rock Bottom on the board of the Oregon Brewer's Guild? And isn't the other big chain brewery in town, BJ's way more decent here than down in California? Maybe Rock Bottom wouldn't be too shabby of a place to try a beer--plus it's close to the courthouse." Thus, I set off on a wonderful beer adventure.
Upon taking my place at the bar, I glanced up to see a chalkboard sign promoting the limited release Belgian Porter that was now on tap. In retrospect, that I even would consider trying such a thing at a brewery with no other Belgian styles on the tap list seems asinine. But my sleep-deprived mind (jury duty starts way too early) quickly made wonderful associations with the Buffalo Belgian Stout, which I happen to enjoy very much. So, the 8.3% ABV Belgian Porter it was. What a mistake. The sweetness overpowered every other dimension to the beer--and while it might have been tolerable at warmer temperatures, served from a snifter or goblet, from a pint glass 'twas dross. Lacking intense carbonation, the beer simply tasted immature. There was no balance, no depth whatsoever--and it reminded me of tasting homebrew after a primary fermentation. The yeast characteristic was vaguely Belgian-esque, but again--how was I to tell? My palate was too overwhelmed by the intensity of the malt sugars. Perhaps this heaviness is meant to remind to uneducated drinker that the beer is slightly more alcoholic than the standard northwest brew--but to a seasoned lover of beer, it only serves to offend the senses. But hey, I did have to go back to jury duty, so I choked it down. I won't even go into the "palate-cleansing" lager I had immediately following. Oddly enough though, I'm fairly glad to have tried such swill--it makes every homebrew setback I've ever had so much less galling--for there is worse, far worse out there. It's just a damn shame that "far worse" has to be in this city.
Fuck you, Rock Bottom.
Upon taking my place at the bar, I glanced up to see a chalkboard sign promoting the limited release Belgian Porter that was now on tap. In retrospect, that I even would consider trying such a thing at a brewery with no other Belgian styles on the tap list seems asinine. But my sleep-deprived mind (jury duty starts way too early) quickly made wonderful associations with the Buffalo Belgian Stout, which I happen to enjoy very much. So, the 8.3% ABV Belgian Porter it was. What a mistake. The sweetness overpowered every other dimension to the beer--and while it might have been tolerable at warmer temperatures, served from a snifter or goblet, from a pint glass 'twas dross. Lacking intense carbonation, the beer simply tasted immature. There was no balance, no depth whatsoever--and it reminded me of tasting homebrew after a primary fermentation. The yeast characteristic was vaguely Belgian-esque, but again--how was I to tell? My palate was too overwhelmed by the intensity of the malt sugars. Perhaps this heaviness is meant to remind to uneducated drinker that the beer is slightly more alcoholic than the standard northwest brew--but to a seasoned lover of beer, it only serves to offend the senses. But hey, I did have to go back to jury duty, so I choked it down. I won't even go into the "palate-cleansing" lager I had immediately following. Oddly enough though, I'm fairly glad to have tried such swill--it makes every homebrew setback I've ever had so much less galling--for there is worse, far worse out there. It's just a damn shame that "far worse" has to be in this city.
Fuck you, Rock Bottom.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Give us, this day, our daily gueuze
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Day trip to Vancouver, Wa.
Today Joshua drove across state lines in search of Lost Abbey and a decent homebrew store. Success! Bader Brewing turns out to have quite a fantastic yeast and hop selection (unlike Steinbarts), and damn good prices on base malts. We also determined that the grain mill is set up to make a finer grist, hopefully resulting in a higher- gravity brew. They even knocked off sales tax with proof of Oregon residence.
We then moved down the street to By the Bottle, a strange little bottle shop next to Salmon Creek Brewing in downtown Vancouver. While we opted not to stop for a pint in the brewery, By the Bottle proved to be on par with pretty much anything you can find in Portland. Some interesting sights were a Boon Mariage Parfait Geuze, a $30 Malheur Brut, last year's Gouden Carolus Cru D'or, and North Coast's Le Merle Saison, which we can't get in Oregon for some reason. picked up three bottles of Lost Abbey: the Belgian farmhouse, a Biere de Garde, and a dark Abbey style brewed with raisins. Josh grabbed a Berliner Weisse 1809 and a Malheur 10. Check out the brewing process for the 1809, as described by Ratebeer:
"1809” is fermented in traditional open fermenters and horizontal lager tanks. The applied mashing regime is a single step decoction mash with 50 % wheat malt.The total amount of hops is added to the mash so that isomerisation takes place in the decocotion part of the mash. The wort is not boiled but only heated up to boiling temperature and then transferred to the open fermenters and pitched with yeast and lactic acid bacteria (isolated from malt) at 18 °C (64°F).
After the bottle shop, we grabbed some tacos/burritos from Muchas Gracias, a small, cheap taco wagon with a few locations around Vancouver. Joshua says they make the best fish taco in the Northwest.
-Andy
We then moved down the street to By the Bottle, a strange little bottle shop next to Salmon Creek Brewing in downtown Vancouver. While we opted not to stop for a pint in the brewery, By the Bottle proved to be on par with pretty much anything you can find in Portland. Some interesting sights were a Boon Mariage Parfait Geuze, a $30 Malheur Brut, last year's Gouden Carolus Cru D'or, and North Coast's Le Merle Saison, which we can't get in Oregon for some reason. picked up three bottles of Lost Abbey: the Belgian farmhouse, a Biere de Garde, and a dark Abbey style brewed with raisins. Josh grabbed a Berliner Weisse 1809 and a Malheur 10. Check out the brewing process for the 1809, as described by Ratebeer:
"1809” is fermented in traditional open fermenters and horizontal lager tanks. The applied mashing regime is a single step decoction mash with 50 % wheat malt.The total amount of hops is added to the mash so that isomerisation takes place in the decocotion part of the mash. The wort is not boiled but only heated up to boiling temperature and then transferred to the open fermenters and pitched with yeast and lactic acid bacteria (isolated from malt) at 18 °C (64°F).
After the bottle shop, we grabbed some tacos/burritos from Muchas Gracias, a small, cheap taco wagon with a few locations around Vancouver. Joshua says they make the best fish taco in the Northwest.
-Andy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)