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June 2008 WoT – Summer Wheat

Jun 172008

Summer is upon us, and I am sad to say the kegerator is only functioning at 50% capacity – one tap. I was supposed to have the second tap full of a new batch of Engine 97, but disaster struck and I had to toss that batch. I was nervous when I brewed up my next batch, but my extra cleaning and sanitation efforts paid off and the summer wheat exceeded my expectations.

A nice cool glass of summer wheat

Summer Wheat
I love wheat beers, especially in the summer. Hefeweizens, witbiers, American wheats, it doesn’t matter…the more, the merrier. This year I’ve been trying to make an effort to brew some seasonal styles, and as the weather warmed up wheat beers jumped to the top of the list. A household favorite is Leinenkugle’s Sunset Wheat, and that was the benchmark I was shooting for. The recipe I used was pretty straightforward – 50% wheat malt, 50% 2-row pale malt, 1.0 oz of Cascade hops, and some coriander to spice it up. I added a touch of fruit flavoring at kegging – the recipe calls for blueberry, but I had some boysenberry around so I decided to use that. I’m not really sure what style this beer should be filed under, but since it has some fruit flavoring, let’s stick it in Fruit Beers (BJCP category 20, Fruit Beer).

The protein rest I used during the mash seems to have worked its magic – the beer pours with a nice head. It doesn’t stick around too long, but leaves some nice lacing on the glass as it recedes. The coriander gives a definite lemon flavor, which surprised me – I am fairly inexperienced with coriander, and I imagined it would give more of a peppery taste. Nope, it lends a citrus tang and a pithy bitterness (I have some grains of paradise I picked up which I think will get me closer to the pepper taste I was looking for…or, maybe I’ll try actual pepper…but that’s another spice for another brew).

The aroma is inviting, with nice citrus notes from the coriander and just a hint of the boysenberry flavor. More importantly, the beer tastes great! It was brewed with a very clean Kölsch yeast which lets the slightly creamy/slightly tart taste of the wheat really shine through. The coriander lends some lemon zest, and the boysenberry lurks in the background tying everything together with a faint sweetness. I don’t think you would be able to identify the boysenberry if you didn’t know it was in there – it’s a taste that leaves you smacking your lips wondering, “What is that?”

I have it carbonated fairly high, which gives it a nice crisp mouthfeel – this beer will not stick to your tongue. The body is perfect – just heavy enough to keep from being watery or thin, and just light enough to be a nice refreshing summer beer. I trust the protein rest helped out the body, but I will have to brew the recipe again without it to see to what extent that is true…

If I made one mistake on this brew, it was grinding the coriander too fine. I read that fine grinding would increase the coriander effect, and I wanted a strong coriander presence in the beer. However, I think the beer finishes a touch too pithy, just a little too bitter. However, others who have tried it don’t share that opinion, so that might just be me nitpicking. It definitely doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of a pint or two.

I think this has the makings of a new house brew, and I’m looking forward to using the same base recipe with different spices and flavorings during the summer. Wheat beers are pretty quick from grain to glass, which makes them perfect for experimentation.

Now – this beer doesn’t have a name, and I think you guys should help name it. Drop me a comment with your name recommendation and I’ll pick the one I like best and post the results. Who knows, the winner might even get a prize for their trouble!

Review – Sea Dog Bluepaw

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Jun 012008

I stopped by our local beer emporium yesterday and noticed all the summer seasonals were back on the shelves. Some people might use Memorial Day as the official start of summer, but I use the appearance of witbiers, light wheats, and easy-drinking lawnmower beers in retail stores as my benchmark. Here’s a review of my first official summer beer.

Aroma
Perhaps it was due to a slightly stuffy nose, but the beer did not smell as strongly of blueberries as I would’ve expected. However, the scent is definitely identifiable as blueberry, with a faint touch of grain and a sort of creaminess I assume is from the wheat. As the beer warmed, the creaminess was less noticable while the blueberries became more prominent.

Appearance
Beer is amazingly clear for a wheat beer and has obviously been filtered. Light gold in color. Formed a large head when poured which settled quickly, leaving no lace on glass.

Flavor
This tastes exactly like what I think a blueberry wheat beer should be. The blueberry is present and abundant without being overpowering or cloyingly sweet. It also tastes like natural blueberry flavor as opposed to the slightly chemical feel that extracts or artificial flavoring can give. The beer is well-balanced, with the sweetness of the blueberry kept in check by the tart flavor of the wheat malt – it is almost faintly sour, but not in an unpleasant way. Lightly hopped – detected a bit of bitterness in the finish and aftertaste, but the hops are not prominent enough to pick out on their own.

Mouthfeel
The carbonation level is on the high side, resulting in a crispness which helps further cut the sweetness of the blueberry and works to cleanse the palatte after a sip. This is not a beer which sticks to the roof of your mouth. The beer is light-bodied without tasting too thin or weak.

Overall
A nice fruit beer I look forward to each summer. If you don’t like light-bodied, lightly hopped, fruity wheat beers, expect to be disappointed. Personally, I have a special place in my heart for such creations, and love kicking back on a summer night with a few. The blueberry flavor is interesting because the sweetness adds to the body, making this beer feel slightly bigger and smoother than a similar beer with citrus flavors. You won’t make any mistake – this is a light-drinking wheat – but it is more filling that you might expect. Be it my love for Maine blueberries or the dog on the label, Bluepaw is one beer that keeps finding its way into my glass.

May 2008 WoT – California Common and Apricot Pale Ale

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May 162008

One of the features I’ll be doing every month is What’s on Tap – a discussion of some of the beers I’ve brewed and am enjoying that particular month. This month is the premier of WoT, and I currently have two kegs I’m working on emptying.

Engine 97 Steam Beer
This is one of my house beers and a favorite among my fans. It is brewed in the style of a California Common (BJCP category 7B, Amber Hybrid Beer/California Common Beer), also called steam beer. The quintessential commercial example of a Cal Common is Anchor Brewing’s Anchor Steam. This style calls for a medium-bodied amber to light copper colored ale, with a moderately malty taste and pronounced hop bitterness. The style showcases the Northern Brewer hop variety, which produces woody, rustic, or minty qualities. In addition, light caramel and fruity notes are acceptable.

My version is brewed using one of Jamil Zainasheff’s recipes, and I like it better than Anchor Steam. It adds a nice amount of malt complexity with its varied grain bill, and has that nice hop punch you want from a Cal Common. The batch I am currently drinking was brewed in early April and is conditioning nicely in my beer fridge – however, I doubt it will have time to reach its true peak, since I have been steadily attacking this keg!

Only “problem” with that brew session was that I was adjusting to a bunch of new equipment and missed my original gravity by quite a bit, causing this batch to be lighter in body than I expected. As a result, the caramel notes aren’t really there, the beer tastes a lot hoppier than usual (sort of like a baby IPA), and the alcohol content is low (somewhere around 4% ABV). Of course, these aren’t really problems – the beer still tastes great and the lower ABV makes it a nice session beer. However, these are things which would get me dinged in a competition for straying out of style.

Client #9
This beer was designed to be a clone of Magic Hat’s #9. Magic Hat describes that beer as “not quite pale ale”. Technically, this would fall under the rather broad style of Fruit Beer (BJCP category 20, Fruit Beer). Basically, all the style holds you to is having the fruit you used come through in the aroma and taste, have the fruit flavor be supportive and not artificial or overpowering, and have a well-brewed base beer backing it all up.

I brewed this one in late March, right when the Eliot Spitzer scandal was breaking, so I named it in his honor. This beer was another victim of my new equipment breaking-in period, so the original gravity also came in on the low side. It’s a little lighter-bodied and has a touch less alcohol than planned, but the apricot flavor fills it out nicely. It was racked onto a can’s worth of Oregon apricot puree (Oregon makes seedless, sanitized fruit purees without added sugars or fermentables which are available at homebrew shops and online – they work great. The purees you find in the supermarket should be avoided!) for two weeks and then kegged. The beer turned out very nice – a medium-hopped, unassuming pale ale in the background, complemented by a nice, fresh apricot nose and taste. I have it carbonated on the higher side and it is a nice, refreshing springtime beverage.

This keg is just about done. My girlfriend loves this stuff, preferring it to Magic Hat’s brew. The keg would be kicked already, but we are having company for Memorial Day weekend and they want to try some. I have already been contracted for another batch, but I might try a different flavor, like blackberry.