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. Jurassic Amber Ale Brew Day
3. Simcoe IPA Brew Day

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…

Mark's Oktoberfest Tap Handle

Batch 89

Time to brew this year’s Oktoberfest.  I haven’t brewed a Marzen for several years, but Brenda has been asking for it.  If all goes well, it should be ready for the Brenda’s staff’s end of October TGIF.  I didn’t have any Tettnangers, so I had to sub in some Saaz in the last five minutes of the boil.  I’m sure it will still turn out to style and be pretty tasty.

This is pretty much the same recipe Stephen and I took a second place with in the regional finals several years ago.  This lager has always been well received over the years, but for some reason, we just haven’t brewed it.  I’ll need to find a tap handle to offer this brew out, but it’s a nice seasonal brew to have on tap.  Time to bring it back for the Oktoberfest season!

Here’s today’s recipe:

Mark’s Octoberfest
3-B Oktoberfest/Maerzen
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 8/22/09

Size: 10.08 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 197.69 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.059 (1.050 – 1.056)
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.012 – 1.016)
Color: 11.65 (7.0 – 14.0)
Alcohol: 5.84% (4.8% – 5.7%)
Bitterness: 31.6 (20.0 – 28.0)

Ingredients:
10.0 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
10.0 lb Munich Malt(2-row)
1.0 lb Aromatic Malt
1.0 lb CaraVienne Malt
1.0 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
2.0 oz Organic Hallertau (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.0 oz Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 oz Czech Saaz (5.0%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
2000.0 mL Starter White Labs WLP820 Octoberfest – Marzen

Overall, the brew day went well, but the temperature was high and the day was very humid.  I was glad to wrap up the brew, clean up and then hit the showers for a nice cool session.  I missed my projected OG by a couple points, coming in at 1.056.

I had a big 2000 mL starter, and as of 7:00 pm, the fermentation hadn’t taken off.  Such is the life of a lager brewer:)  I’m sure by tomorrow morning things will be cranking along nicely.

Related posts:

1. American Amber Ale on Deck…
2. Kolsch on Deck for Friday
3. Czar’s Pride Russian Imperial Stout

Trailer Park IPA Tap Handle

I brewed Sunday.  I winged it.  It felt good.

Usually I spend several days getting ready for a brew session, but Sunday I played it by ear.  Saturday, I went and saw Paul Thorn at the Sonora Blue Festival.  He kicked ass!  We saw him in an hour-long workshop, where it’s just Paul and an acoustic guitar.  John went with me, and I successfully requested “Give Them Their Roses” in honor of John’s dad’s recent passing.  He was touched – and now he believes in Paul Thorn.  Paul Thorn is the best musical artist you’ve never heard of!  We enjoyed Don Oliver’s, of Dust Bowl Brewing’s, Hops of Wrath at the festival and supported the local boys:)

I came home Saturday night, filtered and measured my brewing water, and then got up early (not Steve early:) Sunday morning and weighed and milled my malt.  I used my standard single hop ale malt bill, and then just winged the hops.  You may know me as the Lazy Brewer, but those close to me would probably call me the Anal Retentive Brewer.  I like to know what is going on waaaaaaaay in advance, so this was a stretch for me.  And I enjoyed it!  I just used some of my favorite hops and matched the standard bittering levels of my single hop ales.  The ale is still currently unnamed.  This was my 88th batch.  Here’s the recipe:

Trailer Park IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 8/09/09

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: 63.3 (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
0.5 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.5 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 45.0 min
1.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
2 ea Whirlfloc – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2000 mL White Labs WLP002 English Ale Starter
3.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter
4.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added dry to primary fermenter

This ale is currently cranking away in my fermentation fridge.  When I open the fridge’s door, wonderful aromas escape:)

Related posts:

1. Paul Thorn in Nacasio
2. Paul Thorn at the Little Fox Theater
3. Fresh Hop Holiday Ale

Moridicai's Red Flare Ale Tap Handle

I’ll be rebrewing my most recent red ale this morning.  The last batch was well received by visitors to Sociables, and the last keg blew a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve changed it up just a bit – dropped the Victory malt, upped the Munich, and added some Ahtanum hops.  One final difference is subbing in White Labs Pacific Ale yeast WLP041, for the Cal Ale yeast I used last time.  I’ll be be mashing in a bit lower, at 150 degrees, to make up for the fact that the Pacific Ale yeast attenuates a bit lower than the Cal Ale yeast.  This is a big red ale – basically an imperial red ale.  I comes out a bit big in both the OG and bitterness, but it tastes hoppily great with all of the hops added right near the end of the boil. Yum!

I lit the burners twenty minutes ago and will be mashing in just before 10:00 am.  The weather looks cooler for brewing today. Life is good!

Here’s today’s recipe:

Mordicai’s Red Flare Ale 2
10-B American Amber Ale
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 8/12/09

Size: 10.04 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 345.55 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.077 (1.045 – 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.019 (1.010 – 1.015)
Color: 16.56 (10.0 – 17.0)
Alcohol: 7.66% (4.5% – 6.0%)
Bitterness: 65.9 (25.0 – 40.0)

Ingredients:
2.0 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
27.0 lb Pale Ale Malt
2.0 lb Munich Malt
0.5 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
0.5 lb Crystal Malt 120°L
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils Malt
0.5 lb Pale Chocolate
0.5 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.75 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
0.75 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient  – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.5 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 oz Ahtanum (6.0%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
2.5 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
2000.0 mL White Labs WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast Starter
4.0 oz Columbus (15.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter
2.0 oz Ahtanum (6.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter

Related posts:

1. TAFTBD IPA on Deck for Sunday
2. Eddy’s IPA
3. On a Roll – Brewing Again!

Mark's Big Foot Barley Wine Tap Handle

My Czar’s Pride Russian Imperial Stout keg blew recently, so I put my barleywine online sooner than I had originally planned.  The barleywine really needs a bit more time to mature, but I always like to have a big ale on tap, so it filled a need.

For the first time, I’ll be pitching this barleywine on top of a White Labs English Ale, WLP002, yeast cake.  I’ll need to rack five gallons of Eddy’s IPA to clean carboy in the morning, so that the yeast cake is ready to receive its new charge.  I’ve always been a bit suspect of reusing yeast, but Stephen, and Steve, used to do this all the time.  Additionally, commercial craft breweries reuse yeast all of the time.  I have a vial of White Labs Super High Gravity Ale yeast, WLP099, to throw into the carboy after a couple days of initial fermentation.  I usually have to baby my barleywines to get them to attenuate out completely.

I’ve tweaked my barleywine recipe a bit, so here’s the updated version:

Mark’s Bigfoot 5
19-C American Barleywine
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 7/25/09

Size: 5.28 gal
Efficiency: 70.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 486.57 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.143 (1.080 – 1.120)
Terminal Gravity: 1.036 (1.016 – 1.030)
Color: 19.64 (10.0 – 19.0)
Alcohol: 14.48% (8.0% – 12.0%)
Bitterness: 120.3 (50.0 – 120.0)

Ingredients:
1.0 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
15.0 lb Pale Malt(2-row)
10.0 lb Maris Otter
1.0 lb Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.0 lb Carastan Malt
1.0 lb Aromatic Malt
0.3 lb Chocolate Malt
1.5 lb Corn Sugar
1.25 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
0.75 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient  – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablet (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
2.0 oz Cascade (5.8%) – added during boil, boiled 2.0 min
0.5 oz Centennial (10.5%) – added during boil, boiled 2.0 min
2.0 oz Summit (17.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter
2.0 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast Cake
1.0 1000 ml White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale

The wort is chilling right now, and should be put to bed in the brew shed’s fermentation chamber soon!

Related posts:

1. Lazy Barleywine
2. Blue Flame Imperial IPA on Deck for Saturday
3. Red Flare Ale Again…

Arriving at Alcatraz

Friday afternoon, after a quick lunch at Pier 39, we queued up at Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz.  I was surprised how windy it was on the bay, but the ride over to the island was uneventful.

A standard 5 x 9 foot Alcatraz cell

Once we got to Alcatraz, we headed up to the actual prison building and after going through the shower area (don’t drop the soap:), we picked up the iPod-like self-guided audio tour units and spent about 90 minutes checking out all things Alcatraz. I was unaware of the extensive military history of Alcatraz, and the years it spent as a prison were incredibly interesting. The tour is well worth the time and expense.

We spent night with our friends Eric And Patty, in Moraga, and we enjoyed several vintage barleywines that Eric had been cellering.  We chilled and then enjoyed a 1992 Old Knucklehead, 1993 Old Crustacean and 1999 Bigfoot.

Three vintage barleywines!

The Old Crustacean had lost its carbonation, but was tasty just the same. The best of the bunch was the Old Knucklehead with wonderful sherry-like flavors.  The Bigfoot was also quite nice:)  We also enjoyed several Speakeasy Big Daddy IPAs.

Three warm Brewfesters!

Saturday morning we headed over to the Orinda BART station and caught a train to the San Francisco Embarcadero station.  We walked two blocks to the ferry building and bought round-trip tickets to Larkspur Landing. The ferry over to Larkspur was filled with twenty-something kids who were enjoying the gamut of swill beers on the way over to the Brewfest.  After getting off the ferry in Larkspur, and a five minute walk to the Larkspur Landing courtyard, we bought our Brewfest wrist bands and hit the event.

Toast! A couple Old Rasputin Russian imperial stouts and a wheat ale

Larkspur Landing courtyard is arranged in a crescent shape, with all of the businesses arranged around the outside.  There were many great breweries that were arranged around the inner rim of the courtyard, under canopies.  The weather was warm, in the mid-80s, and there were lots of attendees, so we spent a fair amount of time just navigating around the event, and waiting in lines for samples.  We were some of the more vintage folks in the crowd.  We spent a fair amount of time grabbing a sample, and then enjoying it in the limited available shade.

My one rant with this event, and brewfests in general, are the fools who get to the front of the line, get their taster glass filled, and then stand there and talk forever to the brewery folks.  Jeez – once your glass is full, get the hell out of the way! There are people waiting patiently in line behind you!

Me and Vinnie Cilurzo - my hero!

The highlight of the day for me was chatting with Vinnie Cilurzo, of Russian River Brewing Company.  Vinnie is a rock star in the craft brewing industry, and I’ve been fortunate to hear him speak recently at NHC, as well as briefly chatting with him at this event.  Russian River makes one of my top five favorite ales, Pliny the Elder, and I got to tell Vinnie that he is one of my heros:)

The 9th Annual Microbreweries Battling Breast Cancer Brewfest was a great, well organized event and I suspect we’ll attend again in the future.  Using public transportation to travel to the brewfest is the easy, and responsible, way to go:)

Related posts:

1. Back from the 2008 California Brewers Festival!
2. At NHC…
3. California Brewers Festival

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s the Recipe for Eddy’s IPA:

Eddy's IPA Tap Handle

Eddy’s IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Mark
Date: 7/10/09

Size: 10.32 gal
Efficiency: 77.0%
Attenuation: 78.0%
Calories: 326.29 kcal per 16.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.073 (1.056 – 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (1.010 – 1.018)
Color: 13.68 (6.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 7.56% (5.5% – 7.5%)
Bitterness: 51.4 (40.0 – 70.0)

Ingredients:
2.0 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer – added during mash
11.0 lb Pale Ale Malt
11.0 lb Maris Otter Pale
2.0 lb American Munich
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 60°L
1.0 lb Carastan
1.0 lb 2-Row Carapils Malt
2.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
1.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) – added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
1.0 lb Corn Sugar
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient  – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.75 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
2.0 oz Northern Brewer (8.0%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
2000.0 mL White Labs WLP002 English Ale
3.0 oz Ahtanum (6.0%) – added dry to primary fermenter
3.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) – added dry to primary fermenter

I’ll be lighting the burners about 8:30 to get an early start on the day.  I also need to run down and fill a 20 pound CO2 tank during the mash.  Tomorrow will be a busy day!

Related posts:

1. Red Flare Ale Again…
2. Time to Brew this Winter’s Barleywine
3. Mash Destruction IPA

New Chest Freezer for Keg Storage (and old upright fridge in the background)

Last week I picked up a 13 cu ft chest freezer, and Ranco digital temperature controller, for cold keg storage.  This opens up my existing upright refrigerator as a summer fermenting chamber.  Last Friday I brewed a batch of one of Brenda’s favorite beers I make, Colona, and it is fermenting away at appropriate lager fermentation temperatures in my brew shed’s refrigerator.

Brittannia Arms Pub in Monterey

Last weekend, Brenda and I celebrated our 29th anniversary in Monterey. We stayed at our favorite Monterey inn, The Merritt House Inn.  As always, the staff there treated us wonderfully and we enjoyed several wonderful fresh fish meals, as well as a couple sessions in one of my favorite pubs, Britannia Arms.  We escaped 109+ valley temperatures for two days and enjoyed fabulous mid-70s temps.

Tomorrow I’ll be brewing another batch of Black Widow Stout.  The keg just blew last week, so it’ll be a month or so before I have a standard stout back on tap.  I do have RIS on tap, so not all is lost, but it is far from a session ale:)  I plan on oaking five gallons of this batch of Black Widow Stout.  Several of my brew buddies have been experimenting with oaking stouts and IPAs lately, and I want to give it a go.  Steve’s oaked RIS is truly one of the best home brewed ales I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy, and I want to join that exclusive club.  Hopefully I can get an early start on the brew day (not Steve early!) so that I can have a glimmer of hope of chilling the batch.  Even with an iced pre-chiller, I’ve had problems using summer valley groundwater to get my wort down to suitable initial fermentation temps.  With the Colona still in the fermentation fridge (currently in the middle of a diacetyl rest), this batch will need to start out in the living room, so I do need to get it quite cool to start off well.

With the 4th of July just around the corner, we’ll be spending the day with the usual suspects!  Happy Birthday, America!

Related posts:

1. Chillin’ in Monterey…
2. Post Brew Post
3. It’s in Glass!

The 2009 National Homebrewers Conference was without a doubt one of the best organized conferences, on any topic, I’ve ever attended – and working in the education field, I’ve attended my share of conferences.  I was really pleased with the variety of the breakout sessions, as well as the fact that everything started and ended on time.  Timeliness sounds like a given, but when it comes to conferences it is an often overlooked aspect.    The Oakland Marriott was a gracious host for NHC and they seemed to roll well with 1100 people wandering around with ale, armfulls of brewing stuff, crazy costumes and generally eccentric people.  Finally, considering that alcohol was a key component of the conference, I was very pleased to not see a single incident of stupidness or assholiness by conference attendees.  Amazing:)

Jay and Shannon from Utah

I had the opportunity to meet some really nice folks, like Jay and Shannon from Utah.  Rights like homebrewing are something that I take for granted, living in California, but I found out that Jay and Shannon were just recently legally allowed to homebrew in Utah.  They can now let the aromas of wort and boiling hops flow liberally from their brew house without fear of a visit from the local police department.  It amazes me there there are still antiquated laws on the books like prohibiting homebrewing in several states.  It’s really sad.  Jay and Shannon sat next to me at the Grand Banquet last night and I really enjoyed their company (and they put up with my jabs at Utah very graciously for most of the evening:)

Brett Glenna - my Twitter buddy!

I also got to meet up with someone I’ve been Tweeting with for a while, @BrettGlenna, and we got to visit a couple of times.  We talked about setting up a future beer exchange.  Brett has access to many east coast ales I’ll never be able to buy in California, and I found out he’s a bit of a hophead.  Boy, is he in for a treat with some of the aggressive west coast IPAs I have access to!

Stephen and I are already kicking around the idea of attending the 2010 NHC in Minneapolis.  I should be ready for a beer by then:)

Even though I previously facetiously blogged about coming home today to lovingly open arms on Fathers Day, I’m happy to report that it was indeed the case.  I had a shower of Fathers Day gifts from Brenda and DawBoy, and a nice “Happy Fathers Day” phone call from Meagan ( I drove past her apartment building, within 100 yards, leaving Oakland this morning)  this afternoon.  Brenda made a wonderful rigatoni dinner and we shared a lovely bottle of Merlot (yea, I said I was going to give my liver a break today, but Italian food screams for a glass or two of nice red wine!)

I also picked up my new iPhone 3GS, and I’m pleased to report that the migration went smoothly.  I simply backed up my previous iPhone and then restored the backup image on the new iPhone 3GS via iTunes and everything was there – even all my apps were in their same locations on the various screens.  Bravo, Apple for making things as simple as they should be!

The upgraded camera, with spot auto-focusing and metering, and 30 fps video are incredible.  The voice dialing (that should have been included in the iPhone Day 1) works perfectly and I was able to dial 3 out of 3 contacts perfectly each time, with no training.  Amazing!

Anyway, it’s good to be home:)

Here are the last couple of pictures from NHC:

Stephen, with his second wind - after a rough bout with Club Night

Sean Paxton - the Homebrew Chef

View of Oakland from my hotel room on departure day

Related posts:

1. Off to NHC!
2. At NHC…
3. iPhone Heaven!

Commercial Hop Production and Sales and Its Effect on Homebrewers with Ralph Olson (of Hop Union)

The Equipment Geek with Kent Fletcher

Maintaining Ideal Yeast Health: Nutrients Yeast Need with Dr. Tobias Fischborn (of Lallemand, Inc.)

Yeast: Build Your Own Library with Maribeth Raines

Yeast: Ask the Experts Panel moderated by Justin Crossley (of the Brewing Network), with Tobias Fischborn (of Lallemand, Inc.), Dave Logsdon (of Wyeast), Maribeth Raines, and Chris White (of White Labs)

My family left for home late this morning and I’m already missing them…

As promised here are some random pictures from the last 24 hours:

Charlie Papazian preparing to introduce Sierra Nevada Brewing's founder, Ken Grossman

Ken Grossman leaving the stage after the keynote

The Going Pro Panel Team

My favorite people at Pacific Coast Brewing for Friday night's dinner

Mmmm! Pliny the Elder and Green Flash Tripple

BOAT - Brewery On A Trailer

Some Guy

The Brewing Network interviewing Charlie Papazian

NHC Club Night crowds

More NHC Club Night crowds

Eddy didn't come to NHC, but I'm missing his cute underbite!

The BN's Bevo and Some Guy

Some Guy and Mike McDole

Me, Peter and Some Guy

Me, John Palmer and Some Guy

Me, Jesse from MoreBeer and Some Guy

This is what Some Guy looks like after staying for one too many ales at Club Night

Yeast - Ask the Experts Panel

Related posts:

1. At NHC…
2. NHC Wrap Up
3. Off to NHC!