Two Weeks

I'm really excited. A nice long 16 day vacation coming up mostly in Germany. Basically the beer touring part of the trip consists of:

- 7 days in Oberfranken using Bamberg as the base (of course). This will include the usual pub crawling of Bamberg's many great breweries and pubs. A trip to the Kreuzberg Kellers, a trip to the breweries and kellers of Geisfeld and Rossdorf Am Forst, some touring of breweries just south of Forchheim, some touring of breweries in Western Franconia, and any other interesting beer side trips in between that I can manage.

- Cologne. A one day excursion for Kolsch.

-5 days in Denmark. I'm not sure what I'll encounter here beerwise. Basically just hanging out with friends in Djursland. Maybe we'll manage a brewpub visit to Aarhus and pick up some Danish microbrews along the way.

- 2 days of Hamburg pub crawling

- 1 day beer rampage in the Dusseldorf Altstadt before leaving Germany. What a perfect grand finale.

- 1 day/night pub crawl of Dublin before flying home on August 2nd. I hope to include visits to the Porterhouse and Bull and Castle.

Just a couple more weeks to go.

Brew Day Pictures

Well it's been slow lately. So I might as well post pictures of the brew day at my house in April. We brewed 5 batches of homebrew and polished off 2 - 5 gallon kegs of homebrew in the process. Not to mention a couple of growlers of home-brewed Mild. I'm the guy in the red hat in the last post.

Brew Day on Saturday

An epic day of brewing will occur at my house on Cape Cod this Saturday. Altogether we're brewing 5 batches of all grain beer while enjoying two kegs of homebrew (one a Stout and one a Sticke Alt).

I'm brewing a Rauchbier again.

9 lbs Weyerman's Smoked malt
2 lbs German Pilsener
1 lb Weyerman's Cara Munich III
1 oz of Hallertau at 60,30, 15
Wyeast Bavarian Lager Yeast
Triple decoction mashed and lagered for about 3 months.

This recipe has worked well for me so far so I'm sticking with it.

One of my friends is brewing his annual Oktoberfest Marzen beer and what a fantastic brew it was last year.

Another is going to take a shot at a Belgian Triple.

And we've got two first time all grain brewers. One is doing an ale using Ringwood yeast and the other is going to do some kind of Pale Ale.

The weather will be a perfect 60 degrees and Sunny. It's going to be a great day!

The Session #26 - Rauchbier

I've never done one of these Friday sessions before but this week it is a topic near and dear to my heart. When I think smoked beer I think Oberfranken and Bamberg in particular as the crown jewel of that magnificient beer region. As I sit here and drink my seidla of Schlenkerla that I was lucky enough to have in the fridge, my mind wanders back to my recent visits to Bamberg and the sorrounding countryside. I recall bringing my wife to the Shlenkerla Tavern in March 2008 for her very first Rauchbier. She was appalled and I was the beneficiary of an extra seidla that she refused to drink. Not so with my kinswoman Isabelle Jauss from Hamburg. Isabelle does not like Rauchbier but she refused to give in and guzzled her Rauchbier in one fell swoop in order to get it over with as quickly as possible. Not me. I savored this great beer served in its natural sorroundings. Luckily for me I was there two days before they stopped serving their seasonal Fastenbier. Even more Rauchy goodness! My trip that year to Oberfranken ended with one final night at the Hartmann Brauerei and Hotel in Wurgau about 20 miles east of Bamberg. Dinner on that wonderful night for me consisted of Harmann's Felsentrunk Rauchbier (a milder Rauchbier than Schlenkerla) and a dish of recently killed local wild boar hunted from the nearby Frankische Schweiz.

Now my mind wanders further back to Summer of 2007 when I visited Bamberg for the first time and of course made the mandatory visit to Schlenkera but I also discovered what is now my favorite brewery of Bamberg. The Spezial Brauerei. My kinsman Ingmar (originally from Gelsenkirchen but living in Cologne at the time - and a true fan of Kolsch) was good enough to accompany on this trip. Being more accustomed to the lighter Kolsch, Ingmar was a good sport in hanging in there with me as I wandered from brewpub to brewpub. "Sticking to the core business" we called it. Finally on the day before we left we made our way over to Spezial and discovered their courtyard beergarden in the same complex as the Gastatte and Brauerei. We intended to have one beer and then move on but Spezial's beer and atmosphere is too damn good to have only one so we stayed for at least 3 hours.

And finally Spezial has the greatest beer keller this beer lover has ever had the pleasure to drink at. Lovely shaded beer garden overlooking the city with plenty of Spezial Rauchbier to enjoy. This is as close to paradise as it gets.

On Thursday July 16th 2009 I return to Bamberg for a one week of beer touring Oberfranken style with friends. Beer Paradise indeed!

NERAX 2009

This past Friday night a few of us went to the NERAX 2009 event in Somerville, MA. Once again it was a great time. I've heard people complain about the crowds at this event. I just don't see it. I don't think I waited more than 2-3 minutes to get a beer refill at any point and there was plenty of room to stand and drink.

There was not any beer in particular that stood out to me as the awesome, surprise beer of the event. But there were quite a few good ones. I enjoyed the array of beers on offer from Westerham Brewery of Kent, England. The 1965 Special Bitter Ale was especially delicous to me. I also really liked the Hooky Gold from Hook Norton Brewery.

As usual there was a mix of British and American cask ales there. I drank plenty of each. The American ones tended to be quite a bit stronger so I had fewer of these in order to avoid being completely smashed since we were there for the entire 4 hours. It is interesting to note that on average the American ales are quite a bit stronger than the British ales that were there. The British ones seem to be milder and more suited to a longer drinking session whereas the American ones are brewed to give you boatloads of flavor and get you completely smashed at the same time. Of course both Rick and Mike liked the Ragnar's Baltic Porter the most since it was one of the heaviest and biggest kicks in the ass. We all tried the Old Dubh from Harviestoun and did not enjoy it much. It seemed off and heavier in alcohol than the advertised 8%. I'll have to try this from the bottle some day to see if its any better.

Now we just wait for NERAX North in the Fall.

Troegs Brewery

I've recently discovered the beers of Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I initially heard of them on a recommendation from a friend in a discussion where I was asking where to find good American Brewed lagers and said friend pointed me to Troegs to try their Dopplebock. Well I had the Dopplebock and it was okay. Nothing great. The Germans still have us beat in this department. But in the process I discovered the beers they really do well such as the Hopback Amber Ale and the Pale Ale. I've really enjoyed these beers. I wouldn't call myself a hophead but occasionally do like a well hopped American ale as long as its not overdone and vile. Troegs definately hit the spot and I was happy to find that the small package store down the street from my house carries them.

Maibock

This weekend I got ambitious and brewed a Maibock on Saturday. I brewed one of these last year around this time as well and thought it would be a good annual tradition to produce this beer to serve up at May Day.

Anyhow here is the recipe:

9 lbs German Pilsner Malt
4 lbs Vienna Malt
2 lbs Weyerman's CaraHell

1 oz Spalter hops at 60 minutes
1 oz Spalter hops at 30 minutes

I did a triple decoction mash using the following procedure.

1. Dough in with cool water. Hold for about 15 minutes.

2. Add in about 1 1/2 gallons boiling water to bring temperature up to 105 degree acid rest. Hold for about 20 minutes

3. Pull 1/3 thickest part of mash and slowly bring to a boil. Boil for about 5-10 minutes.

4. Return decoction to mash tun to bring temp up to about 122 degress. Let sit for a short protein rest. About 10 minutes.

5. Pull about 40-45% thickest mash and bring to a 10 minute boil.

6. Return decoction to mash to bring temp up to 150-155 degrees. Let sit for about 20 minute Saccharification rest.

7. Lauter decoction. About 40-50% thinnest portion. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

8. Return decoction to mash and sparge.

I did about a 75 minute boil of the wort and wound up with close to 6 gallons with a starting gravity of 1075

Used Wyeast Bavarian Lager Yeast - liquid.

This will ferment in the cellar for about 8-10 days then a couple of days diacetyl rest. I'll then put it into the freezer at around 34-38 degrees for 2 months.