Russian River Brewing Company

The secret to a thirty year marriage?  Find a beautiful woman who will accompany you on – and be excited about – a craft brewery tour on your 30th anniversary getaway!  This is a gallery of pictures from our recent trip to Mendocino – with several stops along the way, and on the way home.

Related posts:

1. Northern California Beer Road Trip
2. 30 Glorious Years!
3. California Brewers Festival

Colona Mexican Lager Tap Handle

Batch 102

I was swapping out some kegs in the kegerator a couple days ago and discovered that my Colona Mexican Lager has only about a gallon left to go before the keg blows.  Time to brew it again:)

I named this beer, the first time I brewed it, as a kind of play on words – it’s a clone of Corona – hence Colona.

Lagers aren’t my favorite style, by a long shot, but I do like to have beer available for the masses when they visit Sociables. I will admit that it is a refreshing beer after yard work on warm days! Colona is a crisp lager, bittered with Liberty hops, which have a spicy, earthy quality to them. Think Czech Saaz, only more aromatic and American. The key ingredient is flaked maize, along with some 6-row pale malt, with extra enzymes to help convert the corn. The Colona is cold fermented with White Labs WLP 094, a seasonal yeast, released every spring.

Here’s the recipe:

Colona
1-B Standard American Lager
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 7/3/10

Size: 10.08 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 263.46 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.059 (1.040 – 1.050)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.004 – 1.010)
Color: 3.0 (2.0 – 4.0)
Alcohol: 5.84% (4.2% – 5.1%)
Bitterness: 16.7 (8.0 – 15.0)

Ingredients:
2.0 tbsp 5.2 Ph Buffer – added during mash
10.0 lb Pale Malt (2-row)
4.0 lb Pale Malt (6-row)
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils Malt
7.0 lb Flaked Corn (Maize)
1.75 oz Liberty (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.25 oz Liberty (4.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2000 mL Starter White Labs WLP940 Mexican Lager

Notes
Ferment at 51-53 degrees F for 7 days, then let fermentation warm to 62-64 degrees F for 4-6 days for diacetyl rest, chill 5 degrees F a day until you reach desired lagering temperature. Fine with gelatin or to clarify, carbonate to 2.8 to 3.0.

Flaked Maize for the Colona Mexican Lager

Related posts:

1. Mash Destruction IPA
2. Time to Keg Up!
3. Red Flare Ale Again…

30th Anniversary!

Today marks the 30th anniversary of my wife, Brenda, and I. Mrs. Lazy Brewer doesn’t read this blog, so this post isn’t really being written for her eyes. But, today is a landmark day. Many people don’t reach their 30th anniversary, even with multiple wives/husbands. We did it with just each other – and a couple of kids!

Brenda puts up with all of my quirks, obsessions and hobbies. She keeps our lives in order and is the foundation of our home. She is the glue of our family. And I love her:)

Related posts:

1. 28 Glorious Years!
2. Chillin’ in Monterey…

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale

Brenda and are are escaping the hot Central California summer heat with a road trip to Mendocino. We’re staying a couple nights at the MacCallum House Inn, in downtown Mendocino, and hitting a couple breweries I’ve wanted to visit, for quite some time, on the way north.

First off, we’ll be stopping in Petaluma to visit Lagunitas Brewing Company. I’ve heard wonderful things about their taproom and I’m really looking forward to a visit.

Next, we’ll be stopping for lunch at Santa Rosa’s Russian River Brewing Company, where hopefully I’ll leave with a growler or two of Pliny the Elder – and maybe even Pliny the Younger.

Pliny the Elder

Eventually, we’ll wind up in Mendocino, after about a five hour drive, and take it easy for the rest of the evening. The next day, we’re hoping to head over to Boonville, and visit Anderson Valley Brewing Company for ales and lunch – followed by a bit of wine tasting on the way back to Mendocino. Somehow, I’m also hoping to fit in a visit to Bear Republic Brewing, in Healdsburg. And maybe – just maybe – a stop at Marin Brewing Company, in Larkspur on the way home.

This is an anniversary trip for us. I’m looking forward to spending some time with Brenda – over some quality ales.

Life is good!

Related posts:

1. Beer Tour Picture Gallery
2. 28 Glorious Years!
3. Prison and Ales!

Brenda's Deschutes Brewing Tattoo

Brenda and I wanted to try a new beer festival this year and I’ve kind of looked at the Monterey Beer Festival for the last couple of years.  We bought tickets about six weeks before the event and they arrived just a couple days after ordering them on the web.  That was a good sign!  We booked a room at our favorite place to stay in Monterey, the Merritt House Inn, and we were good to go.  We tried to find friends to join us, who didn’t already have something going on the weekend of June 5-6, but it was a busy time for all.  That was a bad sign!

Saturday morning we jumped in the Audi TT Roadster and headed for the coast. The weather was unseasonably warm for Monterey when we arrived.  We checked into the Inn, and then drove over to the Monterey Fairgrounds.  We arrived about an hour after the festival started and were amazed to see a line to get in that was probably 2000-3000 people deep!  We followed a car into the actual fairgrounds and ended up parking in the arena – with only twenty other cars:)  We went to the end of the line, only to hear someone in front of us mention that there was another line at the main entrance that was much shorter, so we headed up to that area.

Cheap Shitty Tasting Cup!

After another fifteen minute wait, with an ID check and bag pat-down, we received out wrist bands and (incredibly cheap shitty little (no offense intended to the Solo cup folks – I use your stuff all the time.  Offense intended for the Monterey Beer Festival folks for using such an unclassy  tasting container for this event!)) plastic Solo taster cups – and were told not to lose them.  That was a bad sign!

Once we actually hit the beer fest area, the first thing we noticed was the sea of humanity, 94.3% of who were between 21 to 26 years of age.  By 1:45 pm, many were obviously well on their way to a serious hangover.  Another bad sign!  We smooshed our way through the crowd to the center corral of tables, only to discover that all of the beer in that area was being served in a frantic, non-stop manner, by MBF folks wearing “Volunteer” t-shirts – not folks from the various breweries.  There were cases of unrefrigerated beer stacked behind the poures, who were serving out of the open cases/six-pack holders that had had ice poured on top of the open cases.  Again, that was a bad sign!

MBF sea of humanity!

A couple of the breweries’ beers I specifically went to taste, most notably Goose Island, were nowhere to be found.  These best of the bunch were ales from Ninkasi Brewing and Deshutes Brewing. Additionally, I finally tasted Sierrra Nevada’s Tumbler Brown Ale, which was good, but not as great as  I had hoped. We worked our way around the booths, waited in looooooong lines, and had probably six or seven tasters of beer.  By 3:30, many of the booths were out of beer (Sierra Nevada was closing up by this time) and it just further lengthened the remaining lines as the fest goers flocked to the booths that were still pouring beer.

Peter B's IPA - Yum!

We left about 3:30 and headed back to Peter B’s Brewery, in the Portola Plaza for a quiet ale.  I had a couple of their awesome IPAs and we noticed that several other more vintage MBF attendees (not in the 21-26 year age bracket:) also stopped by to an ale.  After relaxing on Peter B’s patio, we headed over to the wharf for a quiet dinner, where I enjoyed a nice porter with my mussels and sand dabs.  It was a great way to cap off a somewhat disappointing day at the Monterey Beer Festival.

Sand Dabs for Dinner!

All in all, we probably won’t be going back to the Monterey Beer Festival.  The overly young crowd, focused on quantity, not quality, the long lines, the fact that many beer offerings were gone long before the end of the event, and the fact that the MBF folks seem to have over-sold the attendance, will probably keep us for going back in future years.  This is more of an event for those folks looking to get sloshed on mass quantities of beer, not those who are looking to taste several quality ales.  I’m sure there are thousands of people who really love this annual event, but it’s just not what I look for in a beer festival.  My BrewBuddy Stephen has mentioned the different nature of beer festivals in the past and I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about, but there is a definite difference between a Beer Festival and a Brewer’s Festival.  I’ll be attending the latter type of event in the future.

There were positives, though.  The food was excellent.  We had a couple wonderful sausage sandwiches.  There were several high quality breweries there – though I think the quality of their ales was lost on most of the attendees.  Finally, it was good to see that MoreBeer had a booth (it was good to chat very briefly with Jesse) serving some homebrew – that was well received by the attendees.  And hey, at the end of the day, I was in Monterey with my sweetie:)

Related posts:

1. California Brewers Festival
2. Chillin’ in Monterey…
3. Back from the 2008 California Brewers Festival!

Look Carefully...

Yesterday I bought some bottles of ale at BevMo to take to my brew club meeting.  The style of the month was pale ales and I wanted to take a couple samples of ale, so I grabbed a bomber of Bear Republic’s XP Pale Ale and a bomber of Anderson Valley’s Poleeko Gold Pale Ale and headed up to check out.  I got carded!  Woohoo!  I thanked the girl (well, she wasn’t a girl, but based on my age, she could have been my daughter:), paid for my ales and headed out the door.  Life was good!

Today, I headed into town to grab a quick lunch, ordered, and was filling up my soda cup when I heard my tech guy politely arguing with the counter girl (same “girl” definition as above:) that his lunch cost more than mine did, even though he ordered exactly the same thing.  Come to find out she had (unasked for) given me the senior discount!  Woohoo!  I saved 50 cents!

But, damn, this was both ends of the spectrum, two days apart!  I had to laugh:)

Life is good!

No related posts.

Mark's Centennial IPA Tap Handle

Batch 100

This Friday (with the close of another school year imminent, I’m trying to recover some of the extra days I worked last summer to open a new school campus – use ‘em or lose ‘em), I’ll be brewing my 100th batch of home brewed beer!  My, how the time flies.  Seems like it was just yesterday and I was waiting for any new information I could get on the progress of the construction of my MoreBeer 1550 BrewSculpture.  I even visited the Concord showroom and was taken on a tour of the metal shop.  There in a bucket, were the various pieces of of angle iron , tubing and parts that would eventually become my brewery.  When the FedEx freight truck finally arrived in June, I couldn’t wait to brew my first batch and in 100 degree plus weather, I brewed a Racer 5 clone.  It turned out OK – not great, but OK.

It was at least fifteen batches before I really felt comfortable with my equipment, where I could brew on autopilot and not make stupid mistakes.  By batch 30 I was making really good beer and feeling comfortable with replicating recipes and experimenting with what different malts and hops brought to an ale.  I started messing around with lagers, first brewing in the winter, taking advantage of environmental chilling to aid the fermentation.  By batch 50, I was fermenting both ales and lagers in a temperature controlled fermentation vessel – a thermostatically controlled refrigerator.  I brewed a couple amazing ales in this period of time.  Somewhere in the next few batches, Sociables became a reality.  From there, it was a race to this batch!

I’ve been thinking about this batch of ale – batch number 100 – for quite some time.  I has to be an IPA:)  It has to use my favorite hops and have a simple malt bill.  It needs to be a big, bitter IPA.  Here’s what a threw together.

Mark’s Centennial IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 5/7/10

Size: 10.0 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 316.98 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.071 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 9.71 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 7.03% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 71.1 (40.0 – 70.0)

Ingredients:
12.0 lb American 2-row
12.0 lb Maris Otter Pale
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils Malt
1.0 lb Carastan
1.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.0 ea Servomyces Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
4.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 4.0 min
4.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) – added during boil, boiled 4.0 min
4.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
4.0 oz Amarillo (8.5%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
2000 mL Starter White Labs WLP041 Pacific Ale

I hope turning 100 feels this good!

Related posts:

1. TAFTBD IPA on Deck for Sunday
2. Mash Destruction IPA
3. Imperial IPA on deck for tomorrow…

Mark's German Hefeweizen Tap Handle

Batch 99

I just realized that my German Hefeweizen recipe has never been posted.  This is a staple at Sociables, and is always on tap.  It is well received by those folks who may not be into the hoppier ales I typically brew.  It has a very nice banana and clove nose that is typical of German hefeweizens.  It’s a pretty simple, traditional hefeweizen recipe and includes just a hint of Carastan malt to give it some complexity.

Typically, my wheat beers tend to have pretty crazy fermentations, but neither of these ales benefited from my traditional 4-5 day starter process. The wit starter only worked overnight, and the hefeweizen starter only ramped up for two days. So far, the wit is chugging along slowly, and I have blow-off tubes on the hefeweizen just in case it takes off in a big way. Both the German Hefeweizen and Friday’s Belgian Wit should be ready to keg up in about ten days, and then be drinkable a week or so after that.  Wheat beers are best enjoyed fresh:)

Here’s the recipe:

Mark’s Hefeweizen
15-A Weizen/Weissbier
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 4/25/10

Size: 10.08 gal
Efficiency: 65.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 201.92 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.061 (1.044 – 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 – 1.014)
Color: 6.37 (2.0 – 8.0)
Alcohol: 5.97% (4.3% – 5.6%)
Bitterness: 15.5 (8.0 – 15.0)

Ingredients:
11.0 lb Pilsner Malt
11.0 lb Wheat Malt
2.0 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
1.0 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
0.5 lb Carastan
0.75 oz Northern Brewer (9.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.25 oz Northern Brewer (9.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2000 mL White Labs WLP300 Hefewizen Ale

Collecting the Hefeweizen Wort

I nailed the OG today and hit exactly 1.061.

On a side note, I brewed barefoot today.  It’s foreshadowing the coming of summer here in California’s Central Valley.  Please remind me of that tomorrow evening when the latest big ‘ole storm hits:)

We’re hoping for nice weather by week’s end so we can host a TGIF next Friday afternoon.

Related posts:

1. At Wits End…
2. Watermelon Wheat on Deck for Thursday
3. Kolsch on Deck for Friday

The Brew Sculpture in Action

As several of the Lazy Brewer’s readers have pointed out, it been a while since my last post. It’s been a mix of general real life busyness, and sheer laziness. I’m brewing a German Hefeweizen as I type this (on a new toy – but more on that later:) and enjoying the aromas only those of you who brew can understand.  I’ve brewed several times since last posting in January, including an IPA, an American Brown Ale, and a Russian Imperial Stout. Friday I brewed a Belgian Wit and then today a German Hefeweizen.  I’m trying to get several of the crowd-pleasing summer ales ready to go before the summer drinking season starts.

Today’s brew is the last of an era.  The next brew I do will be my 100th batch!  I’ll be working on an original recipe for my centennial ale over the next week, and I’m 99% sure it will be an IPA (big surprise, huh?).  I want to brew an easy drinking, high flavor/aroma IPA that kind of goes back to the roots of my brewing – bittering with Columbus, flavoring with Centennials and then finishing with either Cascades or Amarillo (or both:).

So where am I in my brewing after 100 batches?  Well, I’m making consistently good ale, sometimes great ale.  I’ve tried brewing a lot of different styles.  Some of them have become favorite ales that weren’t on my beer radar five years ago.  I’ve really come to love the darker ales; browns, porters and particularly stouts.  Some wheat beers are now a part of my regular brewing routine, like wits and German hefeweizens – though I still have very little love for American hefeweizens.  I also really like the big beers; barley wines, imperial reds and old ales.  I’ve also learned what I really don’t care to drink – some of  the Belgians are just too much for me.  A Belgian Golden Strong Ale is the only keg I’ve poured out.  It was brewed to style, and came out nicely, I just didn’t like beer.  More than anything, I’ve learned that when it comes to brewing, time is your friend.  Letting beers finish out in the fermentor, and then giving them time to mellow, clear and generally become stellar ales is what conditioning is all about.  Finally, I’ve also learned that brewing is all about people.  Many of the best friends in my life are, or have been, brewers.  Brewing with them, and enjoying ales in their company, is what life is all about.  Also, seeing a non-brewer’s face light up when they are sipping one of your hand-crafted brews is priceless:)

Other recent events, in no particular order, that have kept me away from here are more than a bit of wine tasting, shuttering the doors on my ten year web hosting business (no tears here:), planning a trip to Italy in October, installing a commercial WordPress theme for this blog, and an impulse purchase of an iPad.  I may create individual posts about some of these things in the future:)

Related posts:

1. Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2009 A Success!
2. Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2009
3. At NHC…

Pub Crawl Ticket

Our homebrew club, the Central Valley Brewers Guild, is looking into a Sacramento pub crawl, where the participants are delivered, and returned home, by Amtrak.  We are looking for alcohol responsible methods of transportation to ensure that our crawlers are returned home safely, as well as not endangering the public at large.

The CVBG Founders have been discussing this for some time now and we finally decided to make a trial run to see if an Amtrak pub crawl is feasible.  We checked train schedules and made reservations (a bit funky as you can’t print tickets made by web reservations – come on Amtrak, it’s a new century!) by phone.  The train departed at 10:34 pm on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Sacramento at 12:30 pm.  The return train departed at 4:55 pm, so we knew going in that time would be tight.  Four and a half hours, and four potential pubs in downtown and midtown Sacramento sounded just short of undoable.  Additionally, we were looking at moving 18-20 blocks either by foot or exploring public transportation options.  Our idea was to head out to the farthest pub on the list, Rubicon Brewing Company, and then work our way back towards the Amtrak station.  Our fear is that keeping 30+ pub crawlers somewhat organized, and moving between pubs with such a tight schedule, will be similar to herding cats.  The possible pubs on the list included Rubicon Brewing Company, Pyramid Alehouse, Brew it Up and River City Brewing.

Rubicon's Hop Sauce

We arrived at the Denair Amtrak station about fifteen minutes before the train was supposed to arrive.  Once we boarded, we paid the conductor for our reserved outgoing tickets.  We were told to just pick up the return tickets when we hit the Sacramento station.  About twelve minutes later we picked up Steve at the Modesto Amtrak station.  Modesto has a relatively new, and very nice Amtrak station with a ticket counter, so we will probably buy advance tickets there for the real rail pub crawl.  All went well until we were about eight miles out of Sacramento.  They were working on the tracks, and we sat for almost twenty minutes while workers moved equipment and allowed a freight train to pass.  That kind of delay on crawl day would be a huge blow to the agenda.

Once we arrived in Sacramento, we lined up to buy return tickets and burned probably another fifteen minutes.  We discovered that Regional Transit buses would get us within a couple blocks of Rubicon Brewing Company.  Better yet, the Amtrak conductors could provide us with free transfer passes for the buses.  You just ask for them before you leave the train.  Too bad we didn’t know that.  Stephen was able to get four passes and we had to pay for the others.  We arrived at Rubicon about 1:30 ready to imbibe.

Mmmmmm! Bacon Cheeseburger!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Rubicon had their wonderful imperial IPA, Hop Sauce.  It is served in a 10 ounce goblet and they will only serve you two. I started with a Hop Sauce, followed by a couple of Rubicon’s exceptional IPAs. Rubicon’s IPA is definitely in my top five IPAs for its wonderful flavor and drinkability.  Stephen went all Belgian on us and even introduced Brenda to a sour beer she really enjoyed.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and picked our waitress’ brain on bringing 30+ crawlers in on a Saturday afternoon.  We decided that the curb-side outdoor seating would probably best fit our group.

After lunch and ales, we headed back over a block or so to a RT bus pick-up area and rode a bus back to the head of the Westfield Mall and one of my favorite brew pubs, River City Brewing.  RCB has awesome food, decent ale (but no IPA…) and great atmosphere.  I particularly enjoy grabbing and ale or two on a warm day and sitting in their outdoor seating and watching the mall traffic wander by.  Time was getting short, so we ordered up a round of ales and headed outside.  Strangely, while we waited at the bar for our beers, one of the folks sitting there asked if we were on a pub crawl.  Go figure!  After a quick ale, it was time to head back to the Amtrak station to hop on board the 4:55 pm train home.  The ride home was uneventful and we had one last ale on the train to cap off the day.

Feeling Empty and Sad...

Looking back, my impressions of the day are as follows…

I was surprised how many people actually ride Amtrak in California’s central valley.  Pleasantly surprised:)

Four and a half hours is a pretty short timeline for a pub crawl.  Even without our 20 minute Amtrak delay, we’ll probably need to cut the pubs down to three to fit the alotted time.  Rubicon is a must (they have the best ale of the four pubs, in my opinion:), as well as River City, since it is only two blocks from the Amtrak station and it will be pretty easy to move a lubricated crowd onward on a moments notice.  That leaves either Pyramid or Brew it Up to axe.  Since we didn’t have time to visit either one, we may need to go back and do further research.  I’m sure both of the establishments have their upside so we really need to enjoy a pint or two in each to get a feel for the atmosphere – and their ability to handle a group our size.

Feeling Full and Happy!

Additionally, I was really impressed with the friendliness, and helpfulness, of both the Amtrak conductors and the Sacramento RT bus drivers.  They could tell we were “out of towners” and offered friendly advice freely – all with a smile.  I was pleasantly surprised:)

Finally, we are seriously considering two paths for the day of the pub crawl.  One is the 4.5 hour run of three brew pubs. The other, for folks more dedicated to the ales, is a “Crawl Over” where we stay at the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn – literally crawling distance from River City Brewing company:)

We’ll be presenting this information, as well as doing more research, for a late spring pub crawl to our homebrew guild. We’ll also have some work ahead of us setting up the logistics of the day with the various pubs we visit.  We’re hoping to have a couple of the brewers on hand for tours and Q&A.  Not exactly sure how that will play out on a Saturday, but we want to give it a shot for the good of our guild.

River City Brewing Guys

Related posts:

1. 28 Glorious Years!
2. Looking Back at Sac
3. TAFTBD IPA Chugging Along…

My new Therminator!

Woohoo!  Santa brought the Lazy Brewer a new Therminator!

I’ve been an immersion chiller kinda brewer since I first starting brewing.  I’ve always liked the fact that by using an immersion chiller, most of the cold break stays in my brew kettle.  I also have really enjoyed the 15 seconds it takes to spray off my copper coil chiller.  What I haven’t liked is waiting for 45-75 minutes (depending on the current groundwater temperature) for my wort to cool.  It just leaves the wort in the potentially dangerous temperature range, susceptible to  contamination, for too long.

I have been very hesitant to use either a counter flow or plate chiller because of cleaning and sanitation concerns.  I’ve seen sheets of beerstone that have flowed out of Stephen’s counterflow chiller and it chilled me to the bone. He’s never had a batch get contaminated, so I do believe his anal retentive cleaning and sanitation methods work – it just creeped me out when I saw the beerstone exiting the chiller.  Additionally, I’ve known several of my brew club buddies that regularly use plate chillers – and read the forum posts about cleaning and sanitizing them.  Steve started with a Shirron plate chiller, and promptly moved up to the Therminator.  He has a cleaning and sanitizing routine for the Therminator where he instantly pumps PBW through both his March pump and Therminator for several minutes, then pumps clean water through both, followed by StarSan to sanitize the equipment.  Like Stephen’s cleaning regime, I’m convinced Steve has covered all the bases to make sure he doesn’t infect a batch of ale.

Steve managing the Therminator connections

In the long run, I don’t see the Therminator actually saving me any time on brew day because of the need to meticulously clean the plate chiller after use, but it will allow me to avoid putting my wort at risk during the actual chilling phase.  This is obviously a good thing.

I still need to pick up some cheap quick disconnects for my water hose connections, additional tubing for wort, as well as a sump pump for moving the various liquids necessary for cleaning and sanitizing.

I’m a creature of habit.  After 95 batches, I have my brew day processes down pat.  Integrating the Therminator into my brewing process will throw me out of sorts for a while.  Steve has suggested I do a dry run with water, learning to manage the various hose swaps necessary for both chilling and cleaning/sanitizing. This sounds like a good idea…

Related posts:

1. Yeast Starters
2. Centennials, Centennials, Centennials :)
3. TAFTBD IPA Brew Session

Merry Christmas!

Another year is on the horizon, and it’s time to reflect on everything that is good in my life.  My family loves me and puts up with all my eccentricities, and I’m truly blessed to have some of the best friends in the world. I have a fun and challenging job. I get to travel to places that feel like home. I get to enjoy wonderful ales on a regular basis.  Life is good!

Merry Christmas to all of the Lazy Brewer’s readers.  Open a good ale and share it with someone you love:)

Related posts:

1. Merry Christmas
2. Welcome Eddy!
3. Happy Birthday to the Lazy Brewer!

Back in Black IPA Tap Handle

Batch 95

Before a recent Stockton Thunder game, I had the opportunity to enjoy a couple of Steve Altimari’s Black IPAs at Valley Brewing, in Stockton.  It was a big ‘ole IPA, bursting with a wonderful grapefruit finish from massive amounts of Amarillo hops, and dark as night.  Two of them made me really happy and set the tone for the evening:)

I contacted Steve on FaceBook and he was incredibly forthcoming about the hop bill, and how he darkened up the IPA, without adding the roastiness and astringency from dark grains.  The secret is to use Weyermann’s Sinamar, a proprietary extract of their roasted malt, Carafa, add some Magnum hops for bittering, and bunches or Simcoes and Amarillos for flavor and aroma.  What follows is a wide sweep at his recipe (I’m way too lazy to do the math from Steve’s info:) – with lots of late hops to add the grapefruit explosion.

I’m only five batches away from my centennial batch!

Back in Black IPA
14-C Imperial IPA
Brewers: Mark Ranes, Steve Hillestad
Brewer Focus: Maggie Curley
Date: 12/23/09

Size: 10.08 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 385.8 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.086 (1.070 – 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.022 (1.010 – 1.020)
Alcohol: 8.56% (7.5% – 10.0%)
Bitterness: 100.0 (60.0 – 120.0)

Ingredients:
15.0 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
15.0 lb Maris Otter Pale
1.0 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.0 lb Carastan
1.0 lb Carafa TYPE III- in the Sparge
2.0 oz Magnum (14.5%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
2.0 oz Amarillo Gold (10.0%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
4.0 oz (or more) Sinamar – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2 Servomyces Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2 ea Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
3.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
3.0 oz Amarillo Gold (10.0%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
2000 mL White Labs WLP001 California Ale
8.0 oz Amarillo Gold (10.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter

We’ll be brewing this up at Steve and Maggie’s place, on the Buford 3-10. Additionally, we’ll be fermenting in Steve’s kegmentor (or is that a fermeggle:), so we get 10 gallons of the same wort fermenting in one vessel.  We’ll dry hop with 8 ounces of new crop Amarillo pellet hops that are en-route from Hops Direct.

Black IPAs may simply be a trend, but I’m looking forward to this ale!

Related posts:

1. Black Widow Stout on Deck
2. Amarillo IPA Tomorrow
3. Evil Twin Red Ale on Deck

Back in 2007, I brewed the best batch of beer I’ve ever brewed – Blue Flame Imperial IPA.  It was my first encounter with Summit hops, and was intended to be a clone of Green Flash Imperial IPA.  All modesty aside, it was far better than Green Flash’s efforts.  Everyone who tasted it, even folks who aren’t hopheads, agreed that it was an incredible ale.  I’ve tried rebrewing this ale probably a half a dozen times and have never hit the same high mark again.  It just never seems to have the same hop brilliance in either the flavor or aroma as the original.  Brewing this ale, in its original form, has become my life’s challenge!  I tried again today.  I went back to the original, un-tweeked recipe, and gave it another shot.  Here’s the 97% original (I was missing .3 lbs of crystal 60) recipe:

Blue Flame Imperial IPA
14-C Imperial IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 12/12/09

Size: 5.04 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 384.58 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.090 (1.075 – 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.020 (1.012 – 1.020)
Color: 12.85 (8.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 9.8% (7.5% – 10.0%)
Bitterness: 222.4 (60.0 – 100.0)

Ingredients:
1.0 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
20.0 lb American 2-row
0.5 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
0.3 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
0.2 lb Crystal Malt 120°L
0.2 lb Carastan
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 90 min
.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 45 min
.5 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 45 min
.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30 min
1 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.5 tsp Wyeast Nutrient  – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
.5 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
1.5 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
2000 mL Starter White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Steve and Cooper

The brew day went well and Steve and Cooper came to keep me company.  It was a late start for Steve, as he’s usually cleaning up about the time I mashed in, but it gave the Boston boys a chance to play.  Steve brought some of the Imperial IPA we brewed at his place back in November.  We messed up on the hopping schedule, but it turned out to be an amazing IPA.

I also had my first real scary encounter today with a carboy.  As I was taking it back to the bedroom to “put to it bed” for a cozy fermentation, my foot caught on something in the walkway, and I went down to my knees, barely softening the blow with my hands as the carboy hit the floor.  Luckily, it didn’t break and all was fine.  But, it was definitely a wake up call…

Related posts:

1. Blue Flame Imperial IPA on Deck for Saturday
2. Imperial IPA on deck for tomorrow…
3. Time For This Year’s Barley Wine

The 2009 Teach a Friend to Brew Day Crew

Today’s Teach a Friend to Brew Day event was successful in several ways.  First and foremost, it was a wonder social event – many good (old) friends, some good (new) friends (I got to meet some local Twitter folks – Hi @AlexisDias !) and many friends of friends.  Homebrewing just seems to attract high quality people.  It’s one of my favorite things about the hobby:)

Between Brad and I, we brewed 20 gallons of ale, 10 of my annual TAFTBD IPA, and 10 of Brad’s German Hefeweizen.  My brew day went well, short of forgetting to add clarifier and yeast nutrient (I get distracted with so many fun people around:), and the IPA has been put to bed for a nice cozy fermentation.  Everything else aside, we made beer!

Most importantly, I think we may have picked up as many as four new homebrewers out of the event!  The Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day event is all about showing people how easy it is to brew great beer, showcasing the ales you’ve brewed and lighting the burner under new brewers.  I think we did that today:)

A Photo Gallery has been posted of the day’s activities for your viewing pleasure.

Related posts:

1. Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2009
2. Teach a Friend to Brew Day Success!
3. Teach a Friend to Brew Day

I’ll have coffee and morning munchies early in the day, as well as sausages (John has offered to be the event’s GrillMaster:) and lunch munchies in the afternoon.  Additionally, attendees will have full run of the 8 ales I have on tap throughout the day:)  We should be done around 3:00 p.m.  My best guess is that there will be about fifteen attendees.

Last year’s event at Sociables was a huge success!

Related posts:

1. Teach a Friend to Brew Day
2. Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2009 A Success!
3. Teach a Friend to Brew Day Success!

Citra IPA Tap Handle

Batch 90

I’ll be brewing with the Citra hops that Ralph Olson, of Hop Union, sent me last week.  They are wonderfully aromatic and I can’t wait to see how this brew turns out.  At last evening’s Central Valley Brewers Guild gathering, several of the members were drooling over the hops. This recipe will be the standard malt bill used for all of my single hop experiment ales.  The hops are adjusted to keep the bittering levels the same for all hop additions, throughout the brew.  This allows me to see what any particular hop brings to the ale.

I’m way ahead on my contract days at work, so I’m taking tomorrow off to brew.  I’m looking forward to a quiet morning, surrounded by the aroma of very fresh hops!

Here’s the recipe:

Citra IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 10/19/09

Size: 10.08 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 317.28 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.071 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 7.27 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 7.03% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 62.3 (40.0 – 60.0)

Ingredients:
20.0 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
4.0 lb Vienna Malt
10.0 oz Crystal Malt 10°L
6.0 oz Crystal Malt 40°L
1.0 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.0 oz Citra (11.1%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.0 oz Citra (11.1%) – added during boil, boiled 45.0 min
1.0 oz Citra (11.1%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.5 oz Citra (11.1%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.5 oz Citra (11.1%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2 ea Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2000.0 mL Starter White Labs WLP001 California Ale
4.0 oz Citra (11.1%) – added dry to primary fermenter

Milling Grains for Citra IPA

Related posts:

1. Amarillo IPA Tomorrow
2. Columbus IPA Brew Day Tomorrow
3. Imperial IPA on deck for tomorrow…

You may notice (even more) flakiness (than usual:) with the Lazy Brewer site over the next few days.  The Lazy Brewer is transitioning to a new hosting service and I’m currently backing up/restoring databases and moving content to the new host.  If things go well, the site should be far more responsive than it has in the past.

Related posts:

1. Happy Birthday to the Lazy Brewer!

Hmmmm? What's this?

…and on the porch is this white, unassuming package.  My daughter said she had a delivery coming, so I assumed that it was her package.  But no, it was a package from Hop Union!  Here’s the back story…

Back in June, Stephen and I went to the 2009 National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland.  I attended a session called Commercial Hop Production and Sales and Its Effect on Homebrewers with Ralph Olson, of Hop Union, since I have an intense interest and love for hops.  I had the opportunity to ask Ralph a question during the Q&A part toward the end of the session.  I asked what was new in the hop world – basically what was coming down the pike that I should be looking out for.  Ralph said to look out for a new high alpha hop called Citra.  He said that Citras were not widely available last year, but were being used by Sierra Nevada in their new release, Torpedo Extra IPA.

It smells good! Still very mysterious...

When  got home from NHC, I e-mailed Ralph a couple weeks after the conference and asked him if he could somehow hook me up with some Citra hops.  He said to get in touch with him around harvest time in September.  Well, it’s harvest time!  Last week I again contacted Ralph and asked about the Citras.  He promptly responded and asked his folks to send me half a brewer’s cut of Citra hops.  I instantly hit Google to find out what a brewer’s cut is and discovered that it is a rectangular  15 x 10 x 10 cm sample from a hop bale, wrapped in stiff, light-proof paper, held together by a pin.  “These samples are cut from the sides of representative bales using a sharp knife and a special pair of hinged tongs, which grips the sample on the pressed sides of the cones and enables the sample to be withdrawn without breaking apart.”  Ooooh!  Now this sounds intriguing!

Yup! It's a brewer's cut!

Flash forward to today…

I opened the package and was instantly hit with the familiar aroma of fresh citrusy, piney hops!  Woohoo!

I’ll be checking out the properties of the Citra hops by using them in my standard single hop recipe where the malt bill is always the same, and only a single hop is used.  This really lets me focus on what any particular hop brings to a ale.  I’m hoping to brew this ale next weekend.  I’ve been waiting on twelve pounds of 2009 new crpp hops (Centennials, Cascades, Columbus, Magnums, Goldings, Northern Brewers, Simcoes) to arrive, so I didn’t get a starter ready for this weekend.  I guess I could have brewed:)  I do need to make a B3 run soon to get some bulk base grains, but I may brew twice next weekend to get ready for the holiday season if I have enough base malt.

Brick of Citra hops!

Now don’t you all go hitting up Ralph for free samples!  This whole thing came out of his very informative and interesting session at NHC, and I didn’t see all of you there!  But I have to say, Ralph swims with the sharks of the brewing industry.  I’m but a plankton floating in the sea of homebrewers!  For him to set me up with this sample of Citra hops is waaaay more than he had to do.  Jeez – I was just a guy sitting in a conference audience, asking a question!  But from what I’ve seen over the last few years, and particularly relating my experiences at this year’s NHC, this is typical of the type of quality folks you find in the brewing industry.  Even the Ralph Olsons, the Sam Calagiones, the Ken Grossmans, the Charlie Papazians, the Vinny Cilurzos, and on and on, show respect and appreciation for us little guy homebrewers.  They don’t need to, but they do:)

Ralph Olson at NHC

Simply put, Ralph – you da man! I owe you an ale or two when I get up your way:)

Related posts:

1. Citra IPA Tomorrow

Dust Bowl Brewings BevMo Tasting

Friday night, a group from the Central Valley Brewers Guild descended on our local BevMo for a tasting with our local up and coming brewery, Dust Bowl Brewing.  It was exciting to see our buddy, Don Oliver (of Sam Adams Longshot fame), standing in the 6′ x 6′ tasting box as we entered the store.  The box was already full when we got there, so we had to wait a few minutes to work our way in for tastes of his Hops of Wrath IPA, and two other pre-production brews, a white ale and a buckwheat ale.  The Hops of Wrath IPA is great, and I particularly liked the white ale.  Don told me he backed way off on the coriander for a more subtle spice profile in the ale.

We probably over stayed our welcome, but I was able to enjoy at least half a dozen tastes and Don was as gracious as always – answering questions and shooting the breeze during lulls in the action.  Don is also welcoming the CVBG with open arms for our September 2nd gathering, by opening up his brewery to us.  This guy remembers where he came from:)

Several of the CVBG folks wrapped up the evening by having dinner at our local Applebees, where Dust Bowl Brewing’s Hops of Wrath is on tap.  Here’s to hoping Dust Bowl Brewing continues to make inroads into local (and not so local:) pubs and restaurants.  These guys rock!

And congrats to Don on his upcoming wedding.  His girl was smart enough to wait and see him actually become a professional brewer before committing!

Related posts:

1. Post Brew Post
2. On a Roll – Brewing Again!
3. Bitter Brewing…