This beery weekend was finally the day of the long-planned Y.m.p. APA, of which the crafting consumed the majority of Saturday night while Mrs. BOV oversaw the very imp hisself. Whilst prepping for the brew day (read: “cleaning”,) I got a chance to fit in a beer I strongly suspect will be available on Aug 25th. As well, after a lovely Sunday stroll w/ Mrs BOV & Imp, I finally got to drink an excellent limited offering from one of my favorite left-coast breweries, Lagunitas (h.t. Pete B for alerting, and Mike at Coles for stocking it.) All that and some yard-work, too.

Ok, a quick rundown on the homebrew. Young Master Phineas, who began living among us on Nov 30th, was born a hefty 9 pounds and 4 ounces- And being the pathetic beer-minded dad I am, I immediately thought it was a good total grist weight for a brew. “Grist”, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, is simply what you call all the malted barley, wheat, and whatever else you might be deriving flavor and fermentables from during the mashing portion of the brew. I finally got down and hammered out a recipe, something a lot like this:

5 lbs. American (Breiss) 6-row pale; 1.5-2L
3 lbs. British (Fawcett) Optic 2-row pale; 2.1L
.33 lbs German (Weyermann) Melanoidin malt; 22-32L
.33 lbs British (Fawcett) malted wheat; 2L
.33 lbs British (Fawcett) crystal rye; 70-80L
3 oz American (Breiss) crystal malt; 40L
1 oz German (Weyermann?) chocolate rye (400-500L)

(plus- who knew?) 1lb Billingtons muscavado sugar at end of boil

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1.5 oz Palisades 8.5AA @ 60
1 oz Palisades 8.5AA @ 30
.5 oz Palisades 8.5AA @ 10 + irish moss
.5 oz Palisades 8.5AA @ flame-off
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Wyeast 1332 (Northwest Ale) Atten 67-71%; Flocc high; temp 65-75
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O.G. 1.052
IBU 63
Color ~9 SRM
ABV ~4.8%

So, mashed to some John Zorn (Naked City), keeping it at 156 degrees early, slowly falling to a final temp of 152 over the 1.25h period. After recirculation & lautering, I drew off a 4 gallon kettle for boil– and my first misfortune, fear of underconversion. The gravity as I started was already only about 15 Brix (= ~1.060; yes, I use a refractometer), wasn’t bad, but after the full run-off, then boiling, then adding to 2-3 gallons water for the final 5 gal total… I knew I was off already. Still, nice sparge, no sticking, by the end of the run-off it was measuring 5 Brix (= ~1.020). Began the boil to Rush’s Signals and started dropping in the Palisade hop plugs. Note: if using whole leaf or plugs, use bags! I lost a lot of kettle volume to these leaves, and I guess that’s one huge difference from pellets, my mainstay for years. Also, for shits & giggles, with about 5 min left to go in the boil, I dropped in a pound of sugar- I had some muscavado in my brewing cupboard, it wasn’t getting any fresher, so heck: call it one to grow on! Finished the hour boil and hop schedule to some Spoon (Kill The Moonlight) while chilling with the immersion chiller- I was even used my double-coil design with initial chilling stage because the groundwater was coming out a balmy 60. The wort (i.e., unfermented beer) dropped to below 90 in about half an hour, and then it was into the 6.5 gallon carboy for primary, along with filtered water to make to total volume, approximately five gallons. O.G.? Oh, right: I am a total farking idiot. I forgot to take the original or starting gravity. No, I just went ahead and pitched the yeast and went to bed. It was late. It is what it is.

I’ve had it in the fermentation chiller at 68 degrees, it’s getting there but of course, fermentation is exothermic, and so until the primary calms down, it’s sort of an uphill battle- it’s at 72 right now, and burbling through the airlock in a pleasing way. Here it is:

OK, so now for the beers. Sorry to drag you non-brewers through all that, but perhaps it whets your appetite to at least know more about what goes into beer, if not get into the hobby. I should take a moment to plug Niagara Traditions and the NAH, who will be at the Brewfest doing a demo, as usual.

The first of these two beers, pictured below, is from Southern Tier of Lakewood NY. They’ll be at the Brewfest, and I’d be completely unsurprised if they’re rocking both this one and its “younger brother”, Hop Sun. I’m talking, of course, about the beer Paul mentioned in the Beer-O-Vision interview from the Goodbeer Club: über*sun, an Imperial Wheat Ale. And it has the specs to back that up: 8% abv, starting at 18 degrees Plato. It is light, at only 5 Lovibond, and lists the ingredients as only 2-row malted barley, wheat malt, and Centennials in the kettle and as dry hops. Simplicity, in this case, is not without some danger. Where do you put the alcohol?

Obviously, it pours out like liquid sun indeed, a haze-free golden shine: The stuff just about gives off light. Sitting atop, a fluffy head is reinforced with wheat proteins. While it doesn’t maintain, it does leave beautiful lacing all the way down the tall glass; very nice. At 40 degrees, the aroma combines a good dose of citrusy Centennials with some of the breadyness of honeywheat and no mistaking it, some alcohol. I find the aroma overall very ‘open,’ somehow. The flavor mixes a tingly hopsbitter beginning with a lightly sweet and slightly dusty middle coming to a finish that is a bit of a whack of hops and fusel-alcohol. Honestly, I get a bit derailed at the end of this beer, and I wonder if a different bittering hop might have played better with this grain bill, or if maybe a different yeast might have softened the hops finish. In the end, I think the alcohol x hops interaction sort of nudges this beer out of balance for my palate. However, it’s hard to hide alcohol in as light a beer as this, of course. I’m thinking that the wheat dimension didn’t overcome the overuse of hops, meant to, themselves, overcome the alcohol, perhaps.

On to number two…

I discovered Lagunita’s while living in Tucson, and am so very glad it has reached WNY in terms of availability. This bottle, which we split over a plate of loaded fries, came to a couple of very thirsty people (and highly anticipated by one of them on a recommendation from a beery friend in San Francisco). Especially cool was the label- yes, nice artwork, but in the blurb, they make mention of a trio of brewing greats, though not by name. You don’t have to be too well-versed in American microbrewing lore, however, to identify that they’re naming Sierra Nevada, Anchor, and Rogue as their holy trinity of brewing inspiration, and you know what- I think they’re spot-on when it comes to some of the critical early innovators of craft brewing going way back.

For their 13th anniversary beer, they threw down a malt-driven imperial red ale, and it’s a winner. It pours out, as can be seen, with a sincere copper tone, and some red highlights in the depths of the glass- crystal malts, perhaps? There’s a nearing-chunky head, but its not going to stick around- the alcohol (8.3 abv) will see to that, though it laced the glass well. In the nose, you are confronted with some fierce malt, tinged with some yeasty floral nods; the combination gives just a notion of dark fruit to it. Alongside, hops, mainly piney and earthy, operate in the top-end. Particle-man beats Triangle-man on this one- aroma goes to malt. How about flavor? It’s oily from the get-go, but as the bitterness spreads back along the tongue, the malt character comes to the fore nicely with brown sugar, slight date, and toast. I wonder about rye, and I have a pause about oats because the mouthfeel is so solid, chewy, owing also to medium-low carbonation. The finish is sluggish, deliciously, earthy, peppery, bittery so, pretty much obliterating the middle and going down the throat with a trace of warmth. Triangle victorious! For a beer with this level of complexity, this is remarkably easy to drink. It’s sort of what I wish their Brown Shugga was, actually. As a match to fries with cheese and bacon bits, it worked very well, and I have to recommend it. It might also stand to aging, if you were into that.

So, there you go, two beers >4U