Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 11 and the Chase Mentality

Have I mentioned lately that I am a Star Trek fan?

Well, I am.

Back in the 1990s, when Star Trek was wildly popular and there were two different Star Trek shows on each week, Playmates had an action figure line that I spent a lot of money buying.  For Star Trek's 25th anniversary, Deep Space Nine did an episode called "Trials and Tribble-ations" where the current cast was Forrest Gumped into an original episode.  Playmate toys had a special series of action figures for sale, and I pre-ordered them.  After the pre-order went through, Playmates decided to make the Chief O'Brien figure a "chase" figure, making it very scarce.  Needless to say, my cellection remains incomplete.

Here we are in the 21st Century, and we can't seem to get that "chase" mentality out of our heads.

Dark Lord Day sells out in 23 minutes.  Now Divine Reserve 11 is out, and sold out, or almost, at any rate.  People were lining up at 8 am to buy the beer as soon as the liquor store opened.

I'm guilty of this madness, too.  Doesn't mean I have to like it.  This kind of artificial scarcity might be a great marketing move, but it's a bad customer relations move.  If you can't get Divine Reserve 11, you get to read every beer snob's review of Rate Beer and Beer Advocate telling you how wonderful it is.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with one off beers.  Just one off beers with a limited release.

Having said that, I do have some Divine Reserve on hold.  Sometimes it's good to have connections.  So I too will soon be doing the whole "Neener Neener! Isn't DR11 the most awesomest beer on the face of the earth" post shortly.  Doesn't mean I have to like it.

CYBI Epic Pale Ale

Last August, The Brewing Network's Can You Brew It? cloned New Zealand's Epic Pale Ale, an American Style Pale Ale made with Cascade hops.  Only Cascade hops. Since I am between brews and need something to do, I decided to try it.  Only, I was short 1.5 ounces of Cascade! (See Monday's post)  I substituted some Crystal hops for the second and third Cascade additions.  Here's the recipe adjusted for my crappy efficiency:

Epic Pale Ale

American Pale Ale

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 3/25/2011
Batch Size: 6.00 gal	Brewer: Jeff Holt
Boil Size: 8.38 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: Jeff's Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 11 lbs 12.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 79.73 % 1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 10.14 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM) Grain 6.76 % 8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.38 % 2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) Hops - 0.43 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (75 min) Hops 7.5 IBU 0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 6.4 IBU 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 9.1 IBU 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (1 min) Hops 1.1 IBU 1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops - 1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.31 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 24.0 IBU	Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 8.9 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: My Mash	Total Grain Weight: 14.80 lb
Sparge Water: 10.96 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
ERROR - All Grain/Partial Mash recipe contains no mash steps
Mash Notes:
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 4.5 oz	Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F
Notes
Created with BeerSmith

Garrison Brothers wins Silver Medal in San Francisco

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition has been good to Texas distillers. Garrison Brothers won a silver medal in the Small Batch Bourbon (10 Years and Younger) category. Nice!

”Brewing with Holt!” Today’s lesson is….

....inventory your hops before you order.

Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) is My New Hero!

Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) issued a strong condemnation of the CARE Act.

 "The federal government has no business picking winners and losers in the wine, beer, and distilled spirits industry. Yet the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act would do just that by banning the direct shipment of wine and other forms of alcohol in the U.S. The impact of this bill would be devastating for brewers, vintners, distillers, importers, and consumers across our country. 

"Specifically, this bill would allow states to replace federal standards with their own, making it harder for out-of-state producers in California and elsewhere to comply with other states' laws. Wholesaler interest groups, the CARE Act's biggest supporters, are lobbying aggressively to unravel the existing regulatory structure. If successful, they stand to monopolize the alcohol market at the expense of other industry members and American consumers. [Emphasis Mine. -Jeff]

"I will not allow this discriminatory bill to go unchallenged. Existing state and federal regulations have created a fair and competitive marketplace for wine and other alcoholic beverages. Nothing has changed. That's why I am prepared to fight to protect our wineries, our businesses, our local economy and our consumers' right to purchase these beverages."

I love that man!

The Edges of the Great Texas Beer Desert are Shifting

Here in Paradise, we are at the edge of the Great Texas Beer Desert™--that vast expanse of nothing but Bud-Miller-Coors (and the occasional bottle of a German import) that runs from Mason to west to the Borders, with exceptions in Eola, Midland-Odessa, Lubbock and El Paso.  Sure, we can get some of the bigger craft beers, as the local beer distributors reluctantly use craft beers like Samuel Adams to cling to the precious shelf space, and keeping the other distributors' craft beers off the shelf.  (Don't get me started on freakin' distributors!)

Even as Craft Beer has exploded in Austin, and begun blooming in San Antonio, here I sit watching from the sidelines as everyone in Austin and San Antonio enjoy truly excellent, locally produced craft beers.  Because of their small size, the small breweries in Austin and San Antonio can't bring their beer to my market (Though they can haul it to Houston and DFW--again, don't get me started!)  So I have to pester my local liquor store to get some of the cool beers being produced in Texas.

Every once in a while, it pays off!

Jester King Black Metal has arrived in Fredericksburg!  O! Joyous Day!

Do I dare hope that Ranger Creek (who is the only other craft brewer I know of that has a bottling program) will soon arrive with La Bestia Amiable, or, even better, OPA?

Please, please, please, please let this be the beginning of the end, the fraying of the edges of the Great Texas Beer Desert.

Me bairns! Me poor wee bairns!

There comes a time in every parent's life when he must let go of his progeny, and allow them to leave the safety of the nest and face the hostile world out beyond, where by their behavior, our success as a parent can be judged.

And so it is with me today.  I have sent my offspring, the fruit of my loins, as it were, off to NHC for judging.

I am sending Saison du Permienne, Bugeater's Winter-Warmerized Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Amber, Dirktastic, Pecan Porter, Shadow Warrior and Belgo-Wiezen.  And they are being sent in an eBeaver beer shipping box.  I highly recommend them.

I was going to also send an Oatmeal Stout, but it went bad in the bottle, and a Coconut Oatmeal Stout, the same oatmeal stout that went bad with a couple drops of coconut extract in each bottle.

So now my legacy is on their way to Dallas where my worth as a human being will be judged based on the tastes of these 6 beers.  But, I can handle it!  I know the depression from losing will only last a few months.

Roger's Red Mild Kegging Day

Roger's Red Mild Ale clocked in at 1.041 on Brew Day, and was down to 1.007 on Kegging Day.  That gives it 4.5% ABV.

It has a bready, chocolatey nose.  The bread carries through in the taste, with a hint of hops.

It tastes like an Amber.

I hate ambers.  Oh well. . .

I must say, however, that the WLP002 English Ale yeast flocculates it the strangest ways: along the sides a tiny bit on the bottom.  Just a weird looking yeast.

So two weeks in the cooler, and it should be ready to drink.

Site Problems

A week or so ago, I began to notice a pop up window that opened whenever I closed the tab the blog was in.  I wasn't sure what was causing it, and didn't have time to figure out what bit of code was malware.  Yesterday, I sat down and started taking out the new things.

First, the Twitter counter went.  That didn't help.

Second, a Blog Burst link that has been on the site almost since day one went away.  That wasn't the problem.

Third, I deleted the "Search Google" search box at the top of the posts.  Whaddaya know!  It was a Google script that was causing it!

That "Search Google" script has been up there for years.  I guess someone figured out how to redirect it.

If you encounter any other issues, please click the "Email Jeff" link on the right and let me know.

Thanks

Bad News! The C.A.R.E. Act Introduced

HR 1161 was introduced to the loud applause of the National Wholesale Beer Distributors of America lobby organization.  (In the words of Ron White, I shit you not.  This is the exact wording on the NWBA web site.) This bill would stop Internet interstate wine and beer sales.  Small wineries across the country depend on the Internet sales for their income.  There are a handful of beer vendors who have started selling hard-to-find craft beer on the Internet.  This would shut them down too.

You know what to do.  Contact your Congresscritter and ask them to oppose HR 1161.

Just in Time for St. Patrick's Day - Guinness and Chocolate Cheesecake

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to post this earlier, but Spring Break is rather busy here in Paradise.  This recipe came from Closet Cooking, and I hope I will have a chance to make it some day.


Guinness Chocolate Cheesecake from Closet Cooking
(makes 6+ servings)

Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup Guinness

Directions:
1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, cocoa powder, sugar, and butter and press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.
2. Melt the chocolate in the cream in a double boiler.
3. Cream the cream cheese.
4. Mix in the sugar, chocolate, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and Guinness.
5. Pour the mixture into the spring form pans.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 60 minutes.
7. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in the oven with the door slightly ajar for 60 minutes.
8. Let it cool completely.
9. Chill the cheesecake in the fridge overnight.

Dirktastic Concerns

I kegged Dirktastic, and I had some issues.  Lately that seems to always be the case.

First, the beer is cloudy.  It's a bright yellow, opaque beer.  A milk-like, cloudy opacity.  Okay, I thought, Maybe if it sits in the cooler a week and carbonates, it will clear.  And if it doesn't I can filter it.


So I filled the keg, put some CO2 on it, and let it sit for an hour.  When I took the keg out to the beer fridge, I noticed that the lid hadn't sealed.  So I re-pressurized the keg, and watched as beer bubbled out around the lid.

Fuck!

So I checked a couple other keg lids, and none of them worked.  Although I did get one to hold pressure while the gas was on.  So it's sitting in the fridge, hopefully carbonating.  I will check it Friday, and if I need to, I'll filter it.  Then I have to re-carbonate it to have it ready to ship to Nationals by Monday.

Check back.

Attention, Texas Legislators: Craft Beer Keeps Growing Jobs and Business

Texas' budget problem is widely known, but at least our Legislators are focusing on the real problems: a lack of handguns on the University of Texas Campus and the "Hear the Heartbeat before the Abortion" bill.

While the forces of Darkness and Evil and continue to oppose HB 660 because children will buy beer, in other states craft beer is growing jobs, and tax revenue.  It must  be true.  It's on FoxNews.com.

Sigh.

Roger's Red Mild Ale - Brew Day

I have been brewing a lot of big beers back to back.  I like big beers: barley wines, dubbels, triples, imperials.  However, I realized as I kegged the last big beer, that I really was thirsty for a nice session beer.  I am still carbonating the CYBI Bam Biere, and needed another beer in the lineup.  So I consulted Mild Ale: History, Brewing, Techniques, Recipes (Classic Beer Style Series, 15) by Dave Sutula, and came up with this recipe, which I named for my Grandfather.  I  brewed it on March 6, instead of February 28, because I was bottling whiskey for First Brother of Satan on the 28th.

Roger's Red Mild Ale

Mild

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 3/6/2011
Batch Size: 6.00 gal	Brewer: Jeff Holt
Boil Size: 7.23 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 7 lbs 2.2 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 73.84 % 1 lbs 7.3 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 15.09 % 9.4 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 6.10 % 7.7 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 4.98 % 1.20 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (90 min) Hops 22.5 IBU 0.40 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.4 IBU 0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.033 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.041 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG (est.)
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 2.90 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 26.0 IBU	Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 22.7 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 9.67 lb
Sparge Water: 5.36 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp 60 min Mash In Add 12.08 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)	Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 21.6 PSI	Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F
Notes
Created with BeerSmith

The Horror!

Not to minimize anything that has happened to my friends in Japan, but when I saw this photo (a brewery damaged in the earthquake and tsunami today), all I could say was: "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.

Why the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas Hates Texas

If you've been following Scott Metzger's Brewed and Never Battered Blog, you know that he is championing the passage of HB 660, which would allow brew pubs to sell their beers into the retail distribution stream. The predictable opponents reared their heads and predicted minors would be buying beer! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!  Even with the addition of the requirement that brew pubs sell directly to distributors, they are predicting disasters of Biblical proportions on the horizon.  I began to wonder why, and suddenly, it occurred to me.

The WBDT hates Texas!

How else to explain that, in a time of a $30 billion dollar deficit, they oppose a bill that could generate $56.8 million in new tax revenues just by breweries brewing beer?

How else to explain that, in a time of record unemployment, they oppose a bill that could create 6,829 new jobs?

How else to explain that, in a slow economy, they oppose a bill that could add $678 million a year in new economic activity and could increase payrolls in Texas by $171.8 million a year?

The WBDT would prefer to see California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New York and Delaware (among others), collect that $56.8 billion dollars in taxes generated by brewers.

The WBDT would prefer to see those states keep their jobs, and keep jobs in Texas suppressed.  After all, unemployed people are depressed and need to drink the cheap, corporate beer that they sell.

The WBDT would prefer to see the economic activity just where it is: where filmmakers can use a Texas Beer Distributor's house as a location because it is the only thing opulent enough to look like a Drug Dealer's house.  And they don't want increasing payrolls, because then we might move over to Craft Beer, or--horror of horrors--wine!

Whey would they want that?

Because the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas hate you.  They hate me.  They hate Texas and Texas brewers.  They want to line their pockets--and the Legislators they allow us to elect, by extension--and keep their heels firmly on the back of the neck of the Texas economy.

And if you don't write your State Representative and ask them to support HB 660 and HB 602, you hate Texas, too.

Another Beer Bill

Scott Metzger just reported that HB 2436 has been introduced, and it would allow Texas microbreweries for either on or off-premise consumption. That one will go nowhere fast, I predict.

It is an interesting tactic, though: introduce a lot of bills that will sort of do the same thing, and let the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas decide which one they will allow to be passed.

Dry-hopping Dirktastic

It's been a crazy week, and it included a 13-hour round trip to Oklahoma for a dear friend.  I finally was able to sit down and gather myself and dry hop Dirktastic.  I needed one ounce of Challenger, a half ounce each of Centennial and Simcoe.  So I went through the bag of hops left over from the Brew Masters Warehouse order.  No Simcoe.

I went into the massive "Bag of Poor Math Skills", a large ziplock bag of all my leftover hops.  I thought I might have a Simcoe in there, but no.  I had used it to dry hop Saison du Permienne.  Looking at my array of hops, I spotted Citra.

In true Macht's Nicht spirit, I measured up half an ounce of Citra and added it, with the other hops, to the fermenter for a 7 day dry hop.  Then I said a few "Hail Ninkasi"s.  I have to keg it next Sunday, and force carbonate it for bottling on March 20, so I can ship it March 21.

No pressure.

"Garrison Brothers Bottling Days Blues" - Update

Sunday at noon, Satan forwarded me this photo of his brother.  He woke up with a swollen face.  So I emailed Laurel at Garrison Brothers,, and said First Brother of Satan couldn't make it, but I could.

We asked.  First Brother of Satan's wife is not responsible for this.  But if she is, we figure, First Brother of Satan likely deserved it.  I let the folks at Garrison Brothers know that I would be taking his place, and when Satan arrived on Sunday, we drank a few beers at Fredericksburg Brewing Company contemplating our taunting strategies.

Satan and I arrived at Garrison Brothers promptly at 9 am, and drove up to the distillery.  There were three other volunteers there: Sean, Shirley and Jim, a board member of the Chili Appreciation Society International, the folks who organize the annual Terlingua Chili Cook Off.  After a breakfast taco, we started filling bottles.  Dan Garrison filled the bottles, Satan corked, I stacked bottles at waxing stations, and the others started wrapping the deer skin "pigtails" around the lip of the lid and the lip of the bottle.  Ideally, this should cover the space between the cap and the glass to keep the wax out.  First you dip the end of the little pigtail in the hot wax, wrap it around the bottle, and secure the unwaxed end to the waxed.

Then we started waxing the bottles.  The trip is to spin the bottle around and around over the pot of wax to remove excess wax.  The wax cannot drip.  Makers Mark bourbon has the wax drip trademarked.  If Dan, Stephanie, Laurel or JD spotted a large drip, it wax was cut off and the bottle was dipped again.  Once the excess wax was removed we used leather stamping tools to put the iconic star on the top of the bottle, making sure to make the star was oriented the same way as it is embossed on the front of the bottle.  (If you find one that doesn't match, that might have been me.)

We were encouraged to take frequent breaks to help keep our minds from wandering, and so I made sure to take photos and I emailed them to First Brother of Satan all day long.

Stephanie was in charge of keeping track of each individually numbered bottle, mostly to keep TABC and the Feds happy.

After lunch, Dan and his Golden Retriever Whiskey took us on a tour of their under construction "kitchen", where they will cook the grains; into the now mostly empty barrel house; and back into the still house where they had just installed two large stills beside the tiny, original still.  Then it was back to dipping bottles, which lasted until about 2:30.  We did the same thing all over again on Tuesday, and everything went much smoother, now that we knew what we were doing.

Dan also said that the first release was twice as big as the first, commemorative release, and the release we were bottling was about twice as big as the first.  Their next release he said would be twice again as large.  With the addition of two new stills, seven fermenters, and large cookers, they should be able to spread the whiskey beyond the boundaries of the Hill Country.

In fact, several cases will be going to San Antonio and Austin this time.  I can't remember if he said they would be showing up in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, or if the whiskey fumes got to me and I imagined it.  Basically, ask your local retailer to pester their distributor.

When we left, Stephanie and Laurel asked us if we were worked too hard, and Satan said, "You don't know what we do at our real jobs."

There are a lot of great people at Garrison Brothers, and if you can beat me signing up for the next bottling, you'll have a great time.

For what it's worth, afterwards, Satan decided to give his brother his bottle of whiskey.  On Thursday, en route to a funeral in Oklahoma, I delivered the bottle to First Brother of Satan, who, besides having a more normal looking face, was excited that finally he could open his bottle from the first release.

Ironically, that bottle number is 666.

Head First Brewery

There's another entrant in the Texas Beer Derby: Head First Brewery.  The site is pretty small at the moment and there is no indication of where the brewery will be located, although it does say they are in Central Texas, so I am betting it's in Austin.

Not a bad variety of beers, either: Upside Pale Ale, BPA - Belgian Pale Ale, and Major D Dortmunder Lager.

KENS-TV's coverage of the The Rally for Texas Beer Freedom

Here is KENS-TV's coverage of the Texas Beer Freedom rally on Friday night: http://www.ksat.com/news/27004671/detail.html

The Indian Way To Get Rid Of Your Beer Belly

The Time of India talked to Celebrity fitness trainer Baqqar Nasser for ways to get rid of a beer belly.

He [Nassar, or Peggy, as he is known on the phone--sorry, couldn't resist] mentions the following exercises to trim Beer belly:

Exercise 1:
Lie down on your back. Try to lift your upper body to face the sky. Stay stationary for some time and return back to the original position. Gradually increase repetitions.

Exercise 2:
Hang yourself from a height. Lift up your legs, if this seems very difficult, try lifting up the knees. Begin with three repetitions and gradually increase them.

Exercise 3:
Lie on the floor on your chest. Lift up your body in a plank position, whilst resting your elbows and toes on the floor. Stay in this position for a while and return to original position. Gradually increase repetitions.
Dr Krishnan lists the following dietary precautions to get rid of the unhealthy pot belly:

- Avoid excessive eating.
- Avoid high calorie and high fat foods especially animal meat.
- Avoid foods made of refined products made up of maida and consume high-fibre foods.
- Avoid aerated drinks and sweets
- Eat small but frequent meals to help proper digestion.
- Leave a gap of two hours between your dinner and sleep time.
- Do not combine eating with other activities like reading or watching television.
- If you have digestive disorders or gastric problem consult a nutritionist to enhance your digestive system.