Brewery Trial Review - Breaking the Habit - Coffee Porter

I'm literally sitting here thinking... "Is it really October already?" I mean, really? Feels like my wife and son just got out for Summer vacation. I'm not even sure I ate much of the wonderful Summer bounty from our area and now it is gone and pumpkins are everywhere. It used to be too hot to fall asleep, and now the night is crisp and brisk, and the darkness overshadows the day sooner and sooner with each passing moment. The days of crisp and light beers are passing and the dawn of a new season of dark and roasty beers is upon us. Just in time for the switch is this Coffee Porter.

Appearance: This beer pours very dark, yet super clear, under a rich and sticky head that last for a few minutes before dropping to a thin cap. Sticky lace clings to the walls of the glass all the way through. Clear, dark brown highlights hug the edges.

Aroma: Big bursts coffee leap off the nose. Roast coffee leads the way with caramel and dark chocolate notes, hints of esspresso, which gives way to fruity pineapple esters and a wiff of alcohol. Below the coffee is a rich biscuity malt with a touch of hops.

Flavor: The flavor doesn't mimic the nose at all. Biscuity malt leads the way with hints of chocolate and burnt sugar. A mild spicy hop note peaks through leading to a balanced and dry finish. The final note to wash over the tongue is a return of the espresso notes and a mild acidity.

Mouthfeel: The light, yet creamy body, gives way to a dry and mildly roasty finish. Though the body is light it isn't thin or watery, and could use a little boost. No acrid flavors from the coffee.

Overall: The blend of coffee and beer is complex and balanced with neither overcome by the other. Each take a turn coming forward in waves, cofee, beer, coffee, beer, coffee beer. The blend of coffee adds depth, but the beer never gets lost to it. Could use a higher FG for more body, but other than that, this beer is ready to go.

Brewery Trial Recipe - Tragic Magic: Session Saison 3.0

Yes it is Fall.  Yes I just brewed a beer that fits perfectly in Summer.  Yes, I did this on purpose.  The recipe is starting to dial in for my Session Saison, but it isn't there quite yet.  I really enjoy this beer, but it needs a little more work, so I brewed it again even though we are headed into times of darker nights and darker beers.  I want to have a fresh memory of where the last batch was while comparing this batch.  And, I am also bringing the team (thus far) for the brewery over for a tasting and cheese pairing and needed all of my Flagships ready for sampling.  I also need to ensure that this a beer I will want to drink in the dead of Winter, because if I won't drink it, not many others will, and if no one wants to drink it year round, it shouldn't really be a Flagship.  I am still trying to dial in the spicing, for this version I added some peppercorns to get some peppery bite and left out one of the original spices which really needs to remain from initial tastings of this batch (it is missing something great compared to previous batches).   I am also playing with the hops as one of them throws this herbal tea bag astringency thing that I am not too fond of (I think it is the Crystal since it doesn't show up in the IPA).  I also took a shot at adding Lacto a day before the yeast strains on half this go round to see how it works out with a touch of tartness and lower pH.  We'll see how these adjustments do and then go from there on the next iteration, but for now, it still drinks nice when doing yard work.  As an added bonus, I have a culture of a Brett strain growing up at the moment that I plan on adding to a case of bottles to see what a little aging will do to this one.

Brewery Trial Recipes - Breaking the Habit: Coffee Porter 3.0; Break My Fall: Brett Cacao Bourbon Porter 2.0

Fall is officially here, even though breweries have been putting out Pumpkin beers for nearly a month now.  With the dropping temps, cool nights, gentle breeze, dark evenings, and changing artists palates in the trees comes an innate hankering for something darker and rounder than the crisp and light beers for Summer.  The Good Lord gave us Porters and Stouts for a reason, and He also gave us an internal timer that almost instantaneously switches to them from Saisons as the season changes.  Like a junkie looking his next fix we yearn for that dark and roasty beverage to sooth our troubled souls.  This is part of the reason I just rebrewed my Coffee Porter recipe (the other is because I need to have my flagship beers to give to potential investors).  I swapped out the Crystal hops for Chinook on this round to avoid the herbal tea notes that Crystal can throw, and to get a little resin and pine in the mix.  The last iteration had issues with the coffee additions as the coffee from the original recipe was no longer available.  For this one I actually went with a blend of 2 different coffees from a local artisan and the complexity really makes the beer pop.  This recipe was done on my first double brewday in nearly a year.  Gotta say it was actually fairly smooth except trying to get all the beer into the fermentors in the fermentation fridge.  This was also my first time doing an entire 11+ gallons together in one vessel, which works really well and ensures that I don't have any differences from 2 different pitches into 2 different Better Bottles.  After primary fermentation was done this batch was split into 2 different beers.  The fresh keg got the Coffee blend, and the 5 gallon carboy received 2 Hungarian oak cubes soaked for 2 months in Woodford Reserve Bourbon.  It also received a pitch of Brett, and will get cacao nibs in a couple months.  The first version of this beer is drinking quite nicely right now.

What's Up With All The Recipe Silence?

For those of you who have been watching the blog for some time now, you may have noticed a large shift in the way I post my recipes.  Specifically from detailed information like Malster, Lovibond, Pounds/Ounces and percentages of malts used, detailed hop schedules, and yeast information to a generic format, X malts, Y hops, and vague yeast info.  And you might be asking yourself why is all the silence from End of Silence?  I want to assure you that it is not that I think my recipes are somehow so awesome that I would never want to share them.  It is also not a punk move to keep homebrewers in the dark to my recipe information like Stone with Arrogant Bastard.  It is for one honest reason... I am opening a brewery, but I am still a ways out with fundraising and such.  I would hate to broadcast my recipes and yeasts and temps and information for everyone to see and have someone locally start making my beers and selling them before I can launch.  It would suck to put all of the effort and thought into my beers and the brewery and have someone snatch it out from under me before we were able to see our dreams come to fruition.  This is the only reason why I am keeping my recipes generic and also why my website doesn't have any information about the vision we have for the brewery.  I feel like we will be bringing something amazing and unique in terms of beers and vision to the area, and I would hate to see it end up being done half-hearted by another brewer who has money to launch before us or an existing brewer who wants to take out the competition before it even starts competing.  Craft Beer has existed from the beginning with an ethos of camaraderie, but it is also a business, and as we have seen with recent buy outs, "partnerships", and petty lawsuits, the business of beer is becoming more and more cut throat.

If you happen to have questions about timings, amounts, yeasts, etc., feel free to shoot me an email and we might be able to discuss a little more details out of view of the entire web.

Let the Yeast Speak!

Brewery Trial Recipe - Release The Panic: IPA 3.0

As I continue to move forward with test batches for the brewery it is becoming more and more evident how difficult it can be to fully dial in a homebrew system.  Humidity, temperature, wind, all play a role in the temperature of the grains, the mash, the runnings, and impact boil off rates.  My efficiency is fairly dialed in, but sometimes it drops a few percent which impacts the beer.  The last time I brewed this recipe I got 7.5% ABV instead of the intended 7.0% For this batch my numbers were much closer to where I wanted them.  11.5 gallons of wort, 2 full corny kegs, 80 IBUs, and 7.2 ABV (even though I was still shooting for 7.0%).  For this iteration of the flagship IPA, Release the Panic, I upped each of the hops, especially the Columbus to get a little more resin in there to play with the tropical notes.  I also upped the IBUs a little more to try to get some bitterness past the yeast as it down plays the IBUs a lot.  I am also keeping this keg at a little higher temp than the previous as it helps to make the aromas pop to serve it a little warmer, and it helps keep the haze in the beer a bit instead of dropping it crystal clear taking precious hop oils to the bottom with the yeast and protein particles.

End Of Silence Has A Tasting Room In My Garage...

It has been a few years in the making, some paint here, some glasses there, updating the keezer, etc, etc, but the bar is pretty much done.  I really enjoy the look and feel of it, and so does my wife.  The wood on the wall, light gray paint, bright purple accents, and white trim really pops.  The way that it turned out really makes me hopeful to translate it over to the brewery tasting room as well.  Just a few things that we want to do to finish it up, but those will have to wait until we have the funds for them.  We want to swap out the ugly carpet for vinyl flooring.  It will make it much easier to clean up spills, and finish off the look nicely.  We also want to knock out the wall that leads to the deck and put in a slider door.  We need some better lighting which we are working on at the moment.  We also want to make the window bigger so we can look out at the hops against the fence and watch the kids play in their area just outside that wall.  The chairs I have in there are super comfortable, but extremely ugly, so we want to get some fabric to cover them with.