Today, I received score sheets for my two entries into the National Homebrew Competition final round.  The bronze medal American barleywine scored a combined 38.3 points and advanced on to the mini-Best of Show round.  It came in 3rd out of 252 entries in the strong ale category.  Here are the score sheets (click on the images to view a larger size version you can actually read:)

Cover Sheet Mark's Bigfoot Barleywine

Score Sheet 1 Mark's Bigfoot Barleywine

Score Sheet 2 Mark's Bigfoot Barleywine

Score Sheet 3 Mark's Bigfoot Barleywine

The Beanilla Porter scored a combined 34 points and did not place in the finals. I was surprised at some of the comments saying that the fresh vanilla overpowered the underlying robust porter style.  Upon further research in the BJCP style guidelines for spiced beers, they do repeatedly talk about a balance of the spice and the underlying style.  Strangely, this received much higher scores in the first round (and a first place regionally), and the level if spice was complemented several times.  Go figure…

Cover Sheet Beanilla Porter

Score Sheet 1 Beanilla Porter

Score Sheet 2 Beanilla Porter

Score Sheet 3 Beanilla Porter

All in all, this has been a good experience.  I was always just a bit wary of the whole judging process, and some of that is still there.  I can’t help but feel that judging beer ultimately comes down to very subjective calls by judges.  Aside from strong ales that didn’t meet the primary BJCP style guidelines, how exactly was my bronze medal barleywine better than 249 other strong ales?

The barleywine keg blew last Monday, but I’ve bottled eight bottles for potentially entering the ale again next year and see how it does after another twelve months of aging.  But, I also need to brew the barleywine again ASAP:)

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Table 30, with my favorite people, at the Awards Ceremony

We returned from NHC to blistering heat (over 100 degrees) in the San Joaquin Valley.  On top of that, our air conditioner crapped out, and we spent a very hot, restless night before a repair dude made it to our house yesterday.  All is good again!

The trip home for NHC was long, but uneventful.  After a couple days to detoxify my liver, I’ve had time to reflect on some of the things I learned at NHC 2011.

I learned that I can attended a three day beer conference and not over-imbibe, even though beer is available from 9:00 am to 2:00 am.  Never once did I have next-day blues from alcohol.  Every day, I had next-day blues from lack of sleep. The NHC conference is definitely a marathon event:)

My Bronze Medal for the American Barleywine

I learned what pride is.  Pride is being on a stage, receiving a medal for your brewing accomplishments, in front of the people who love you the most.  Nine of the ten people at my Grand Banquet and Awards Ceremony table were actively rooting for my ales, maybe even more than I was.  The look in their faces when my name was called meant more than the actual bronze medal.  They were proud and happy for me like they themselves had actually won!  I love you guys:)

I learned the power of social media.  The kudos I received via Twitter and Facebook were amazing.  Some of my Twitter buddies could be heard cheering from other places in the banquet room.  That was cool!

We are already planning on attending next year’s NHC in Seattle.  Family in Oregon that we can visit, the huge beer culture in Oregon, and the fact that I haven’t been to Seattle since I was a child, are all huge draws.  I’m planning on setting up a brewing schedule, that favors competition entries for next year’s NHC, in the next couple weeks. Additionally, I’m going to bottle some of the winning barleywine and see how it matures over the year.  It would be interesting to submit it again next year and see how it scores.

If you are a homebrewer, and you’ve never been to a National Homebrewers Conference, start saving your pennies now!  Next year’s conference in Seattle should be killer!

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Me and Gary Glass

Holy crap!  I won a bronze medal at the 2011 National Homebrewers Conference for my American barleywine!  I was so excited!  It was wonderful to have so many of my good friends around when it happened:)  And most importantly, it put The Central Valley Brewers Guild on the map.   I think I’m proudest of that:)

Many thanks to those of you who have reached out to me with congratulations!

Mr. and Mrs. Lazy Brewer

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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!

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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:)

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Blue Flame IPA Tap Handle

It’s time to brew this year’s Blue Flame Imperial IPA.  My 2008 Mark’s Big Foot Barleywine keg blew tonight, so the timing is right.  I have a monster starter going on the stir plate with two vials of White Labs WLP001 California Ale and one vial of White Labs WLP002 English Ale. I started it on Monday, so I have plenty of time to let it ferment out, feed it once and then chill and decant the nasty starter beer.  I’m changing it up just a bit and pulling out .3 pounds of crystal 60 and .3 pounds of crystal 40 and adding a half pound of Carastan in its place.  I liked what the Carastan did to the Mash Destruction IPA, so I thought I try it in one of my annual house ales.

There’s a possibility I may brew this IIPA Friday afternoon, but most likely it’ll be lending aromatics to the neighborhood on Saturday morning:)

Here’s the recipe:

Blue Flame Imperial IPA 2009
14-C Imperial IPA
Author: Mark Ranes
Date: 4/25/09

Size: 5.04 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 80.0%
Calories: 343.56 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.103 (1.075 – 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.021 (1.012 – 1.020)
Color: 10.72 (8.0 – 15.0)
Alcohol: 10.93% (7.5% – 10.0%)
Bitterness: 222.4 (60.0 – 100.0)

Ingredients:
18.0 lb American 2-row
0.5 lb Carastan
.5 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
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 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) – added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 tsp Wyeast Nutrient  – added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
2.0 oz Summit (17.0%) – added during boil, boiled 0.0 min
2 oz Summit (17.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
2.0 oz Nugget (13.0%) – added dry to secondary fermenter
500 mL starter White Labs WLP001 California Ale
500 mL starter White Labs WLP002 English Ale

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I’ve been kegging this way since I started brewing and it seems to be working. My barleywines, that often age for over a year, show no signs of oxidation. I also like the fact that I’m not introducing any bacterial or fungal stuff from my mouth as I don’t have to blow into carboy to start the siphon.

Although I was really worried about the barleywine finishing way too high, it seems that somewhere along the line, the yeast chewed through most of the maltose. I’m not sure if it was the champagne yeast starter I added a couple weeks back, but the final gravity was 1.031. It seems kind of high, but it is important to remember that this barleywine started with an original gravity of 1.134. This is going to be one big ‘ole barleywine! Here’s the particulars on the barleywine:

Mark’s Big Foot Barleywine

Brewed 02/14/08 (Valentines Day:)
Original Gravity, 1.134
Final Gravity, 1.031
Alcohol by Volume, 13.86%

I also kegged up ten gallons of Colona Mexican Lager. This is a clone of Corona – hence the name Colona. It is always well received by the masses and is the beer of choice for those folks that visit my bar, but are not craft brew drinkers. Often, after couple Colonas, they are willing to try some of the other ales I have on tap. It is a clean lawnmower beer for the summer. The two kegs will lager for another month or so before serving. Here are the details:

Colona Mexican Lager

Brewed 03/02/08
Original Gravity, 1.060
Final Gravity, 1.015
Alcohol by Volume, 5.91%

Finally, I also kegged up five gallons of Blue Flame Imperial IPA. This is the third time I’ve brewed this in the last eight months, and I’m hoping it turns out as good as the first batch. The last time I brewed the IIPA, it just didn’t have the same hop brilliance as the first batch. The sample I tasted from the hydrometer jar leads me to believe this round is as good as the first:) Here’s the info on this ale:

Blue Flame Imperial IPA

Brewed 03/15/08
Original Gravity, 1.096
Final Gravity, 1.021
Alcohol by Volume, 9.96%

Ahh, the beauty of twenty gallons of freshly kegged beer!

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It was the biggest beer I’ve ever brewed and came in at OG 1.134!  It was like syrup when I put it in the fermentor.  Obviously I was worried about the yeast’s ability to chew through the wort, but I made a huge 1600 ml starter, with 2 vials of White Labs Cal Ale yeast, WLP001.  It took off with a huge ferment, with a massive krausen, that put a ton of yeast in the bucket holding the blowoff tube.  I was hopeful.  After about 25 days I took a hydrometer reading and the hydrometer bottomed out -meaning that it was still way too high.  I added a properly rehydrated packet of Safale US-05 in hopes that it could wake up the lazy barleywine.  All the while, I’d been performing my standard late fermentation carboy swirling on a daily basis, in hopes of rousing the yeast.  I tested it again after a week and it had dropped a bit, but not enough.  A couple weeks ago, I had Stephen pick up a vial of White Labs Champagne yeast, WLP715, in hopes that its high tolerance for alcohol might help finish off the barleywine.  Additionally I put a heating pad on the carboy, insulated by a Carboy Cover, and hoped for the best.  There was some activity in the airlock, and I’ve continued to swirl the carboy on a daily basis.  I’ll take another hydrometer reading soon to see how much progress I’ve made toward the final gravity.

I’d like to give a plug to Carboy Covers.  I’ve been using them since I started brewing and I gave a couple to Stephen because he taught me so much about brewing (even though I’m now a better brewer than he is:). Basically, most brewers know that light is an enemy to your fermenting, as well as finished, beers.  Carboy Covers keep the light out of your carboys.  They are made of soft fleece-like material and come in a variety of fashionable colors.  You can get them for 1, 3, 5, 6 and 6.5 gallon carboys and I can attest to the fact that they do hold up over time.

The green Carboy Cover in this picture is over three years old and does have a nasty yeast overflow stain on it, but I’m sure with a simple rinsing, it will clean up nicely:)

Originally, I picked all of my Carboy Covers up on eBay, but there were no auctions running when I wanted my last batch, so I paid full retail at $11.00 a pop – still a good deal in my book.  There are currently a couple eBay auctions running right now.  I recently had to resort to using bath sheets to cover my carboys since I had so much beer in glass.  Now, with four additional Carboy Covers, I can have up to 40 gallons in glass, and protected from light!

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