Archive for December, 2008

Holiday Beers

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Normally, posting about holiday beers on the 29th might seem a bit late. But in the grand scheme of things we’ve only just gotten through drinking them. Which ones have been good this year? What kind of different styles are you seeing? What do you normally drink this time of year?

So far I’ve tried Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, Great Lakes Christmas Ale, Anchor’s yearly Tree beer, Magic Hat’s winter warmer, and a couple others peppered in there.

I’ve really enjoyed the Great Lakes Christmas Ale. It’s spiced delicately considering its use of ginger which tends to beat drinkers over the head even with judicious use of the root. The Anchor ale is excellent as usual, one for the cellar so to speak. The Sierra is also tasty, but doesn’t seem particularly special, seems like a double, or Imperial IPA.

Now it’s your turn.

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Return of the Green Fairy

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

For about a year now in America, we’ve been able to buy once forbidden fruit — Absinthe — the green liquor of 19th Century legend. So I wondered if the recent legalization of the drink had resulted in a renewal of absinthe culture in this country. I also wondered what the big deal might be. Is it really hallucinogenic, as so many people claim?

To run down a little of the history of the spirit, Absinthe is a green, anise flavored liquor derived from wormwood which in turn contains Thujone — a purportedly psychoactive substance. In the late 1800s the beverage was very popular, particularly amongst artists, writers, and other cultural luminaries in Europe — mostly in France. Not long thereafter, in the early 20th Century, the temperance movement coupled with questionable research as to the effect of Thujone began to create a negative perception of absinthe and its supposed effect on those who drank it. Some merely claimed that absinthe addicts were “sodden and benumbed.” (more…)

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Brew History: How Commercial Craft Brewing in the U.S. Began — Again.

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Picture it this way: It’s 1934 and America’s failed “Noble Experiment” — Alcohol Prohibition — has been repealed at 4:31 p.m. on December 5, 1933, ending 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours and 32.5 minutes of Prohibition. Very suddenly, it has become legal to make, distribute, and drink alcohol again, but after more than a decade, what companies have weathered the financial storm that comes when what they do becomes illegal?

The short answer: very few. The ones that did survive the pressures of finding a way to make money doing something else were usually the large concerns like Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and others that took advantage of their already highly established supply lines to produce other products. (more…)

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How do I do that? Calculating ABV

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

I just kegged a smoked porter I brewed last week and let ferment for about seven days. Let’s say I wanted to know what the approximate alcohol by volume of this beer is. How do I figure that out? Time to remember your sophomore chemistry.

Equipment needed:

  • A brewer’s hydrometer
  • A brewer’s thermometer of some type (instant read electronics are plenty accurate.)
  • Pad and pencil

NOTE: I use a hydrometer, but there are other methods. A refractometer is also a very accurate measurement tool. I just don’t have one, so I wouldn’t call myself experienced enough with their operation to comfortably explain it here. However, Christmas is coming and here’s a nice link to the Thirsty Brewer where any of you nice readers could purchase one for our mutual edification.

We’re going to measure the specific gravity, or liquid density of the wort.

First thing’s first: You’ve brewed your beer, turned off the burner and begun cooling your wort. When the wort is approximately 60˚ Fahrenheit, collect a sample of your cooled wort in the vessel that accompanies your hydrometer. Fill the cylinder enough to allow the hydrometer to float, but also leave enough room to allow for displacement so there’s no spillover.

You’ll notice that there are graduated numbers on the narrower end of the hydrometer. The higher number at the bottom of the narrow end usually reads 1.170, while the topmost number is .990.

When you drop the hydrometer into your sample, it should float with a certain portion of the graduated narrow end submerged, and a portion revealed.

Just like chemistry class, you’ll want to read the number that is closest to the middle valley of the meniscus, where the liquid ends, and the headspace begins.

This specific gravity reading — 1.047 in the case of my smoked porter — is referred to as the original gravity, or O.G. Ice-T would be proud. Write this number down. I often write the O.G. down on the side of the fermenter with a Sharpie. (more…)

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Posted in Brewing, Geek-Out, How do I do that?, Measurement, Science | 1 Comment »

The Soul of Beer

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Perhaps you’ve heard Jim Koch — founder of Sam Adams brewery — say in his commercials that Hops are the soul of a beer, that they are for beer what grapes are to a good wine. This is arguable, but the problem with that statement is that not all beers use hops as an ingredient. Additionally, saying that they are to beer what grapes are to wines forgets that the major flavor component of a beer is grain — not hops, just as grapes provide the majority of flavor for wines. Still, all that said, hops really are incredibly important to beer.

A quick search on the almighty Wikipedia reveals interesting minutiae about the flower of what amounts to a vine-like weed. Hops were first mentioned in historical writing by Pliny the Elder; were banned in England until the late 1500s, and so forth. But none of that trivia tells you why they have been used in beer for centuries.

Hop flowers contain small glands that produce Lupulin, a chemical resin that has mild sedative effects on its own — no alcohol required. This is true only of the “female” plant. The resin is made up in part by Alpha and Beta acids. These are the chemicals important to brewing.

Alpha acids isomerize — i.e. molecularly rearrange — when boiled for an hour or so, and have a preservative effect that limits the growth of certain bad tasting bacteria, creating a welcoming environment for brewing yeasts. They also produce a characteristic bitterness but don’t really provide much of the aroma that we associate with beers. The bitterness of a beer is actually measured using a unit called an International Bitterness Unit, or I.B.U.

Beta acids, on the other hand, produce the aroma and flavor that you recognize when you drink a beer like an American IPA. They are typically added after the majority of the boil has been completed — between ten and three minutes left — or after the heat has been turned off — called “knockout.” Beta acids tend to impart a flavor and aroma of overcooked vegetables or cardboard if they are added to the boil too early in the process and allowed to oxidize. Hops added to cooled beer only impart aroma, as none of the Alpha acids are isomerized to produce the bitter taste. Beers with ultra-high Beta acid levels are known to produce a feeling of corrosion on your teeth, but this is really just the hop resin sticking to your enamel.

After years of experimentation, and selective breeding of hop varieties, experienced brewers know which hop varieties high in Alpha acid for bittering and preserving a beer to combine with which high Beta acid flowers in order to create the style of beer they are aiming for.

If you want a classic German beer, you probably use one of the Noble Hops that have been used since the Renaissance to achieve the balanced character that most German beers possess. English ales use more recent cultivars, and many American beers use all manner of mutated, cross-bred varieties to get the insane I.B.U.s we sometimes look for. (more…)

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First Runnings

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Dionysus

First Runnings: In brewing, the initial run-off of sugary liquid from a mash tun. This liquid is usually rich with fermentable sugars and compounds that make up a flavorful beer.

As an inaugural posting here on soyeahdood.com, I feel it’s more than appropriate to reflect on why we’re here. What is the meaning of all this?

Why do we drink alcohol? Is the answer to the question as black and white as “To get drunk” or “For the flavor?”

Now of course these answers are quite often perfectly valid, but are there deeper reasons?

Imbibing is a willful act; a conscious choice to alter our state of mind; to lower the defenses a little — perhaps a lot — and be someone that we normally are not. This can be true for either of the above situations.

Most of us don’t drink top shelf liquors, high-end wines, or limited edition beers every time we decide to exercise our right as adults to imbibe alcohol.  But of course there are special occasions that call for such indulgence. In the same right, there are occasions that call for Natty Boh, Pikesville Rye, Mad Dog or Colt .45.

More often than not, consuming alcohol is an accompaniment to celebration. We drink at weddings, we drink at wakes and funerals. We drink at sporting events, and we drink at intellectual gatherings. We make toasts to celebrate our feelings for others, and — unfortunately — sometimes we drink to drown out the more depressing noises our world makes in our lives.

Imbibing has inspired us artistically, aided our romantic endeavors, and opened us up to new social interactions. Sometimes we even use it to get us closer to the divine.

The Greeks devoted a whole deity to intoxication and revelry, expounding upon the virtues of vice in the form of a religion. Christ used wine as a sacrament, and even after the Reformation many Christian churches thought of alcohol as a gift from God to be enjoyed in moderation as much as any other natural phenomenon. Pre-Colombian cultures imbibed fermented Taro, having chewed it up to convert the starchy root to sugar with the amylase enzymes in their saliva. It seems that a desire to alter our own consciousness is almost hardwired into our genetics. Even “lesser” animals like Elephants and monkeys get drunk by eating fruit that they have hidden and allowed to ferment.

So on this, the first of what I hope will be many posts, I pose the question to you: Why do you drink? What experiences have you had in drinking that point to something more than the obvious answers: to get drunk; because it tastes good? Think about it the next time you raise glass to lips, and tell us why.

That said, understand that So Yeah Dood isn’t just a site devoted to beer, wine, spirits, etc. It’s about the state of mind associated with imbibing and celebrating, enjoying a well-crafted wine for its sublime characteristics, or appreciating the value of an ice cold beer after a hard day’s labor. More than anything, this site is devoted to sharing our knowledge and personal appreciations with others, so by all means start sharing.

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Posted in Aesthetics | 4 Comments »