There's More...

I forgot to mention a few things in yesterday's post, so here is some more random stuff.

The amber from about two weeks ago got transferred and dry-hopped yesterday.  Although my mind is constantly changing, I am planning on using The Rodeo as the name for the amber/session/bitter/mild/good beer/whatever that I have been making.  I hit all my numbers and it tastes good at this point, but the beer looks much more like a Pale than an Amber (part of the reason I don't really want to classify a style for it).

On Christmas night we had an unexpected surprise as my Uncle Tom, a well know IPA lover, brought a few (10-12) bombers from his beer fridge to taste.  What started as a 3 or 4 beer tasting turned into a lot more, which was awesome.  They were all Imperial's and Barleywines, so needless to say, we were having fun.  One of the best parts about going to different parts of the country is trying the local beers.  Rather than make everyone jealous about the different beers I got to try, I will just say that if you want a hoppy beer, Three Floyd's knows what they are doing (they know a lot more than just hops also).  That, and if you are on vacation, ask for something local to drink, it might not always be better than the beers you have tried before, but there is only one way to find out.

Last Post of '09 (maybe)

I am back after a nice Christmas trip to Chicago, not much new, but I can find a way to BS through a post. 

The day before I left for Chicago I had an unfortunate occurrence...the CO2 on the kegerator ran out.  I think I have a leak somewhere because there was no pressure on the kegs, although after getting new CO2, I can't find a leak so I dont know.  The problem was that it was Sunday (nowhere open to get CO2) and there was no pressure on The Caboose and Peppermint Chocolate Stout for a week.  I am hoping that it can be salvaged now that it is back on the CO2.  As I write this, I am drinking the Caboose, it is noticeable low on carbonation, but not totally flat.  We'll see how it turns out after a few days at pressure.

Managed a few brewery trips while in Chicago, both of which have been profiled on the blog before.  Had dinner at Two Brothers, meatloaf sandwich with an imperial stout and their hoppy rye beer.  The meatloaf and rye beer worked really well together.  I really liked how the restaurant specialized in "comfort" food, like macaroni, meatloaf, etc.  I am a fan of most of the beers Two Brothers makes.  There pub is not what I am looking at doing for PBC, but their production facility is quite impressive. 

Also stopped by Half Acre's tasting room, it was a different take on a tasting room that I have really seen before.  It was really more of a retail store than a tasting room, although they did have 6 beers on tap.  They gave us like 2 oz samples of all the beers, but we were not able to buy a beer by the pint.  They had bombers of two of their beers available, 6ers of one beer and growlers of anything on tap.  They also sold Half Acre schwag and had bombers from other breweries available.  My initial thoughts were that it was not a very lucrative way to set up a tasting room, but while we were there a ton of people came in and bought beer, so I could be wrong.  They were getting a lot of people buying their "Big Hugs Imperial Stout," which was quite good (it was more of an imperial coffee stout than imperial stout, but still tasty).

Might make more beer this week, but if we get some more snow I will find myself on the mountain.

More Session

Going back to work some more on the session ale, although I call it an amber, it could be classified into a few categories.  Really, I just think it will be a damn good beer.

Session Beer (Amber)

Style: Best Bitter/Amber Hybrid (not that the getting an exact style really matters to me)
Malts: American 2-Row, Biscuit, CaraVienne, Crystal, Munich
Hops: Mt. Hood, Nugget, Willamette
ABV: ~ 4.2%
Playlist: Rocking the Christmas tunes, best songs you may not have heard include "Christmas in Hollis" by Run DMC and Wyclef's version of "Little Drummer Boy"

The Peppermint Chocolate Stout is done and I tried some samples today.  It is exactly what I was shooting for, it tastes like peppermint bark.  I know it is a weird flavor for a beer, but the flavors do work well together.  The aroma is peppermint up front, but is subtle in the taste.  There is dark chocolate in the aroma, but it takes a back seat to the mint.  It tastes rather sweet, but that is balanced nicely with the bitter chocolate finish, which lingers for a while.  Although it is good, I can't think of a circumstance where I would want to have a second pint in one sitting.  I will be sure to bottle a bunch of this and get it out to people so that they can try it.  My guess is that the opinions will be split between "wow this is really good" and "what the hell were you thinking," I'm okay with that.

Rodeo and Others

For some reason, this past weekend I had a bunch of inspirations for beer names, maybe it was the beer talking.  The thoughts that I had start to stray away from the outdoors image and start going into the cowboy/western theme.  Here's what I got:

Rodeo - What I like about this is that it can be applied to both kayaking and skiing (kayaking competition is a rodeo and in skiing it is a freestyle move) and then of course there are actual rodeos.

Outlaw - I just thought this one sounded tight.  Wanted to do an Outlaw IPA, but it looks like that beer already exists...damn it.

Bandit

Double Barrel Shotgun - Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout. 
Single Barrel Shotgun - Barrel-Aged Stout
Sawed-off Shotgun - Stout

Let me know if any of these stick or if you have any other ideas

Last Month of '09

Kind of hard to believe that '09 is almost over, it feels like I just finished Brewing School even though that was 9 months ago.  As I move towards the end of this year, I am really hoping to get most of my financing nailed down so I can start 2010 by signing a building lease.  Meetings are set up, it is just a matter of getting the commitments.

Now that I have made some Christmas/Holiday/Winter Seasonal pilots, it is time to get back to working on the first release(s) for Payette Brewing.  There is a poll on the right to help decide what style I will start/continue to work on.  I have my opinions on what to make, but I want to know what the people in Boise want to see.  Be sure to check back for opportunities to sample these pilot batches and give your feedback.  I plan on brewing something this week and will post something when I do.

I had another idea last night, if I can ever put it to use I will be stoked.  The idea is putting the cart ahead of the horse, but I want to make sure I write it down so I don't forget it.  So when a country wins a World Cup, they put a star above the team crest.  Since Brazil has won five World Cups, their crest has five stars.  If and when a PBC beer wins a GABF medal or another award, I will put a start above the beer that won's logo.  That all sounds good, but I still need to make an award winning beer before I can start adding stars.

Session Development

I originally wrote this post a few days ago when I was sampling the beer to see if it was fully carbonated, but I have had to come back and redo the post because my initial impressions have changed.  The first few pints I tried were way too hoppy, which was sort of strange because I made an conscious effort to tone down the hops.  It wasn't bad being hoppy, it just wasn't what I was trying to make, I already have a Pale and IPA that are hop-focused.  The pint I poured tonight was more of what I was aiming for originally, a balanced session beer.  I still think it could use a little more body to it, but the malt comes through really well right now.  I am curious to find out what other people think of this beer, as it has that biscuity taste that a lot of people like in Fat Tire and Mac and Jack's African Amber.

I plan on brewing this one again soon with some minor changes, but I will wait to decide on what to change once I get some other people to give me feedback.  If you are in Boise, write me a comment and I will try to get you a bottle.

The Caboose

First you will notice that the look of the blog changed.  I started playing with stuff when I put the Facebook and Twitter links in and liked the clean look of this layout.  It should change some more, but I can't figure out some of the header stuff to put in the logo.  Blogger almost makes things too simple to the point where you can't do things you want to do.  The Facebook page just got put up, so if this is the first time to the blog, welcome.  Twitter is up, I m going to try to start using that, so we'll see.

Today I am brewing the first batch of The Caboose and racking last week's Stout into secondary fermenters with some additions to the fermenters.  Here is what we have going on The Caboose:

The Caboose 

Style: Old Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Aromatic, Caramunich, Munich, Special B
Hops: Cascade, Chinook, Nugget
ABV: ~7%
Playlist: Couldn't do the Christmas music yet, Reckless Kelly's "Snowfall" was good enough to put me in the winter mood.  Working on a skiing playlist with some Counting Crows, Blues Traveler and all the other great songs from Warren Miller films.

Its only fitting for a Holiday Beer that it be really cold outside when I make it, the least it could do is snow so I could go skiing.

I split the Stout into two batches, one batch is aging on Cocoa Nibs, Vanilla Bean and Peppermint. Since I was not able to track down enough huckleberries, the other one is not on anything and can be a control to try next to the chocolate vanilla peppermint one.

November Update

Since this summer, posts have become less and less frequent. So this is suppose to bring everyone up to date on the progress of the brewery.

Fund-raising has started and is progressing fine, although it is something that takes a lot more time that I thought. The time thing isn't because I am getting turned down or anything, just people are busy. It makes sense because I am talking with successful businessmen who worked hard to get there and are tied up running companies. I can't complain about it, but I get frustrated playing the waiting game.

Beers. The majority of my posts recently have been about pilot batches that I have been working on. The biggest hurdle for my pilots is that I don't have the space or money to get my pilot system set up right, so I am still lacking some of the controls that would help make better more consistent beer. I am comfortable with the state of my Pale Ale. The recipe isn't totally nailed down, but I have enough batches that I know what I am looking for when I go to host taste panels to decide which will be the beer. I have started working on an Amber, which still needs some work. My biggest problem is deciding what kind of Amber it will be since in my mind the style can go hoppy or malty. I keep trying to go malty, but then the C hops get put in front of me and I can't resist. Seasonal beers and Ales of No Return are in the works, but I am not as concerned with those right now.

Open Source Beer

I will start this post by saying that I am pretty sure I heard this idea somewhere else, but have not idea where so I can't credit them. On the other hand, maybe it is just such a brilliant idea that I am afraid to credit myself when in fact I am really just that genius...probably the beer talking there.

Here's the deal, the abundance of information and mass collaboration has given way to sites like Wikipedia and operating systems like Linux, so why not apply that to a beer. Here is what I want to do, put together a beer recipe that starts out rather simple, but produces a decent beer. Make a batch 15 barrel batch of the beer and call it "Boise's Ale 1.0" or something that gives some ownership to consumers and shows where it is in development. I then make the recipe and all the details available to local homebrewers and ask them to make a batch, but try to improve on it in some way. Then they would need to bring in samples, similar to a competition, and we would go through all the samples and decide on which change(s) should be incorporated in the next batch. Brew 15 barrels of "Boise's Ale 2.0" and go through the process again and again...Maybe call is just "1.0" then "1.1" or "2.0" etc.

The way I vision this unfolding would be that the beer gets a few iterations in and is grows into a damn good beer. The recipe would still be available and I would still take samples of beers that the local talent brew, but it should get to the point where it will take an excellent improvement to change the beer.

Based on what I know of homebrewers, the beer may start as an Amber at 5% and a few batches later be a Barley Wine aged in bourbon barrels clocking in at 10%.

Ideas keep coming...just need to get the financing to start rolling in so I can put the ideas to good use.

Waiting for Snow...

Getting antsy to ski, even if it is only the middle of November. Today I am brewing up a Christmas (Holiday, if I have to be P.C.) Beer. I am brewing a larger batch than normal today so that I can split the beer in secondary fermentation and try out two ideas for this beer. I guess you could call this laziness, but this way I can have two similar beers side by side to see what works and what didn't.

Milk Stout
Malts: American 2-Row, Chocolate Malt, Lactose, Roasted Barley
Hops: Galena (gotta love hops named for Idaho landmarks)
ABV: ~5.5% - 6%
Playlist: "Run This Town" (puts me in the mindset for what I am trying to do in Boise) then "Real As It Gets (best song on the Blueprint III) followed a jump to Micky and the Motorcars "Live at Billy Bob's Texas" (I know, big change from Jay-Z, but I'm in charge)

It is a rather simple Stout recipe because a lot of the flavors are going to come from the ingredients that the beer is aged on instead of a complex malt bill. The lactose will make the beer sweeter and smoother, it should also compliment the cocoa better than the bitterness of the roasted barley (and hops, although the IBU's of this beer are pretty low).

Taking the first wort and pre-boil gravities

The specifics of the two different batches are tentative right now and I will put up a new post once I have done it, but here are the thoughts for right now.

Peppermint Chocolate Stout
~ Age with peppermint, vanilla beans and cocoa nibs

Huckleberry Chocolate Stout
~ Age with huckleberries (if I can't locate any then probably cherries) and cocoa nibs

I mentioned putting coffee in one in an earlier post, but I don't like the idea of having coffee and lactose in the same beer. I will just have to make my "Cowboy Coffee Stout" at another point.

As of me typing this, I am calling this beer "Belschnical," but that is still subject to change. I will save an explanation of the name for a later date if you don't already know what it means.

Holiday Beer Ideas

It is coming up on the Holiday's, so it is about time to brew a few Christmas beers. I have two ideas that I will brew shortly.

Peppermint Chocolate Stout: I guess I didn't learn my lesson last year with my Candy Cane Belgian Strong Ale. Although now I have a good gauge on how much mint to put in the beer without it being a failure. (On that note, I do have at least 1 bottle of last years beer to try this year in the event that the mint faded...unlikely). I am thinking about making about a double batch or a bigger batch so that I can split it into two after primary fermentation, I would finish one with vanilla and the other with coffee. I am still toying with things to add to this beer without overwhelming it, but I want something noticeably different from my Stout. As with all of my beers, I will post something on the brew day to talk about all the details of the beer.

Winter Warmer: This isn't really an official style, but it very common among breweries around this time of year. Calling it a winter warmer and making some sort of Strong Ale gives the brewer a lot of flexibility with what goes into the beer. I am going to take my Belgian Dubbel recipe, tweak it some, hop it up and use an American yeast strain. The plan is to retain some of the dark fruit characteristics from the Dubbel, but then put some "C" hops in to give it some of that west coast touch. The beer also should be strong enough to hold up for a few years of cellaring, with the hopes that in future years I will barrel age some of it and blend that with a fresh batch each year. For the record, I am referring to this beer as "The Caboose" from here on out. I have a bunch of ideas for The Caboose, most with the assumption that this will become Payette Brewing Co's Winter/Holiday/Christmas/End of the Year Beer.

Other beers on the horizon include variations to current Pale and Amber recipes as well as "The Jackalope DIPA"

Blonde Pilot

I made a Blonde Ale a few weeks back for a Halloween party and wanted to revisit that beer a little bit. Luckily there is some left, so in between typing that first sentence and this one, I went and poured myself a pint. I have said before that Blonde's are tricky because they are so light that any flaws will be easier to detect. Whereas problems in IPA's and Stout's are more difficult to detect since there are bigger and bolder flavors up front.

This beer ended up being a little rushed, I brewed it a little late to be ready for Halloween. Although some of the issues I have with this beer are more my fault, even if I tried to blame them on time. I used an English Ale yeast, which is not the preferred type of yeast for this style of beer, but it has some characteristics that I like, so I tried it. Overall, I would give this beer about a 3 (scale of 1-5). It has a nice light yellow color although has some haze with excess yeast still suspended. I has a nice bready taste and is fairly light bodied, the bitterness is great for a Blonde. The hop aroma is mostly lost in the fruity esters, which is the major problem with this beer. It lacks that crisp, dry finish that most Blonde's have. The beer came in at 4.2% and is sessionable.

Those Samuel Adams glasses are pretty tight

I don't like using a yeast starter because I find the first generation is always under pitched, leading to the excess ester production as was the case with this beer. I could make a starter, so this problem is on me. The beer also didn't ferment as far as I was planning because I didn't give it enough time at the low fermentation temperature, which led to the beer being on the sweeter side (instead of dry). My biggest frustration is that I know how to fix the problems with the beer, but with my current equipment there is little that I can do about it.

Working?!?!

I call it work, most people call it a hobby, but I am making some more beer today. I need to get back to piloting beer regardless of the progress of the financing of the brewery. On that note, I have started to dreaded task of raising money. At this point I am not placing a time line on financing because any idea of timing that I have had so far has been blown out the door.

I had a meeting this morning with Shane Williams who is a former VP of Beer and Wine at Albertson's and worked for distributors throughout his career. It was one of the better meetings that I have had with people giving me advice as he has more knowledge of the industry than anyone I have talked to. I am not going to bore with all of the details, but I am very glad to have a contact like that who I can refer back to. During our talk at the coffee shop, the lady next to us couldn't help but introduce herself after hearing what we were talking about. She is a chef who has a the TV show "Dining Out Idaho." I got her card and she was very willing to get me some good contacts in the area, could be a great help in the future. I generally dislike coffee shops because you end up hearing more than you want to from people next to you, but it worked out great here, so maybe I will stop hating.

As for today's beer, still looking for an introductory PBC beer. I was trying to go towards a English Mild Ale, but I don't think it will fit into that category, probably an American Amber. I toned down the grain bill from my Amber into a session beer, shooting for 4-4.4%, but trying to keep a solid malt backbone (not watery and uninteresting). As for the hops, as much as I try to get away from the classic northwest hops, I never really do. The IBU's are around 30, so it isn't hoppy, but with Zeus and Centennial hops it should still have a northwest feel. I did go with an English Yeast strain, one because that is what I have fermenting and two, I just like the English Yeasts.

Amber/Session Ale:
Malt: American 2-Row, Biscuit, Cara-munich, Crystal, Munich, Roasted Barley
Hops: Centennial, Zeus (Fresh Hops from Idaho)
ABV: 4-4.4%

Long Over Due

I have not been blogging as I have nothing to talk about right now, I haven't made beer for a while and I haven't made any news worthy progress in a while either.

As for my business planning, I have been getting great help from a lot of different people. That is both a gift and a curse. I really think I am learning a lot from businessmen who have had success throughout the years. Where it gets tricky is each person has their own little view of what PBC is going to be and they don't know anything about the brewing industry. It is tough sorting through their suggestions and applying them to the plan while maintaining the vision that I have for PBC. It is getting very frustrating and hopefully all for the best, but there are times I really wish I could say "shut-up, you don't have a clue what they are talking about." I am just venting right now and if you are one of the people that has been helping me I am talking about someone else.

I am brewing for the first time in a while today. I get to use some of my new equipment, but it is not put together in a real system, so it is similar to what I have been doing. Trying my hand at another Blonde Ale, I don't feel like I have had the most success with Blonde's so I need to try some more. I am going for a light bodied beer with a slightly spicy hop finish, here is what I've got:

Blonde Ale:
Malts: American 2-Row, Flaked Maize
Hops: Crystal, Saaz
ABV: ~4.5%

Black Raven Brewery

I was told that I had to check out Black Raven Brewery before I left Seattle and I don't need an excuse to go try some beers, so I went. The brewery is located in Redmond in a business park, similar to a ton of breweries that I have visited. On the outside, the brewery was not much different than most, but on the inside, wow. The best tasting room I think I have ever been to. I'll get back to that though, first the brewery itself.

Black Raven is a production brewery, but at this point most of their sales are done on the premise. As far as I could tell almost all of their equipment was brand new, starting with the 15 bbl brewing system. I had a good talk with one of the owners/head brewer, I was able to touch on new subjects that concern me as I move forward and left with great ideas and tips. It still amazes me how different every brewery owner's story is and what they found to be most difficult in starting up. I think I am in a great position having heard so many points of view, but at the same time it is scary because there are so many different things that have slowed other breweries progress down. Here are some shots of the brewery:

New 15 BBL Brewing System

Part of the tasting room and the racking area

The most impressive part of the brewery is the tasting room. They spared no expense in building the tasting room, artistic wooden tables and Raven themed artwork on the walls. Probably seats 30 and they don't serve food, although you can bring in outside food. The tasting room extends beyond the front room/bar, has some seating along the walk-in cooler (which you don't notice is the cooler) and then there is some seating in the back essentially on the brewery floor. They did a great job of making it a nice place to come and drink a beer and not just a brewery. Black Raven, along with some other breweries, have really changed my thinking about a tasting room and there will be a solid tasting room at PBC.

Tasting Room

Of course I had to take a seat at the bar and enjoy the sampler, a nice mix of traditional styles with a specialty beer to top it off. Their IPA was by far my favorite followed by the Brown Ale. The other beers were well made beers, but didn't blow me away. The specialty beer was a Belgian Brown, which was actually my least favorite, but always enjoy new and different beers. I hope to make it out their again when I am back in Seattle and like seeing all of these new places getting started.

Step 1, Move to Boise

Not only am I writing this post today, I have a second post that will be scheduled to post later this week. I really have no excuse for not blogging any updates these days, but I haven't had many interesting things to write about. I am not a fan of blogging just to blog and like to have some material to write about. Although I sometimes feel like I am turning into the blogging equivalent of a blowhard who just likes to hear himself talk.

100% moved to Boise at this point, which means that I have to stop hiding behind the safety of the computer and get things going. I have mentioned before about getting to a point where you just need to take a jump and a lot of other things start to open up. I am at one of those points again, this probably being the biggest to date (although quitting Boeing was pretty big). Beside some minor tweaks, the plan is done and it is time to go raise some money. I should find out a lot here shortly. If I get ripped by a potential investor I know there is still work to be done, but lets hope for the best.

I had some new equipment made by my homebrew guy in Seattle, another brew kettle and a hot liquor tank. Those along with my existing brew kettle will get pieced together to make a pilot system very similar to the one I have been using at Schooner. I am going to design how I want the system to look this week and probably put together a big list of parts I need to make it work right. The good thing about the system I have in my head is that I don't need all the bells and whistles from day one to be able to brew, but everything can be added as I can get it. I hope to get another test batch brewed up later this month on the system.

Speaking of test batches, I kegged my last two pilot batches last week. I haven't had a chance to really taste them and review them, but I will share my initial thoughts. The IPA is piney and citrusy in more of an apricot way than grapefruit, it is pretty good, but my ratios for the hops are out of balance. It needs work and if I had to bet, I would say IPA will not be among the first beers offered. Not because I don't think I can make a good one, because I can, but I am such an IPA fan, I want to release one that I love, not one that is just okay. The other pilot was a Pale, I like it so far. It is more typical of a Pale with the use of a lot of Cascade hops. I think I have a good arsenal of pale ale recipes that I am ready to make 3 or 4 and put them in front of a tasting panel.

No promises, but I'll try to get back to posting regularly.

1 Week

Down to one more week of living in Seattle, kind of weird considering I have lived here for 7 years. I am sure I will reflect on that at some other time, but right now I am really excited to be in it 100%. Sure I have been "in it" since I quit my job, but once I am in Boise it will be much more real than right now. I just can't wait until I can write the same title in regards to the brewery opening.

I brewed up another batch of pale ale, went a little different route than the most recent one I kegged and simplified it more. I slightly regret that at this point, but it will be good to have something different than the last pale that turned into a strong ale. Here are some specs on the one I brewed last week.

Pale Ale
Malt: Pale, Crystal
Hops: Nugget (Bittering) Cascade (Aroma)
ABV: 5% (was dead nuts on my gravity for the first time on Schooner's system, only took three tries)

The thing that really concerns me is the Cascade hops. Cascade has been a staple in craft brewing since the movement started which is why I see it as concern, it is a great hop, but it is also everywhere and I don't want to have a beer that tastes just like someone else. I really shouldn't worry about it because if it is a good beer, then it is a good beer.

Knocking-out a batch of Pale Ale

I have had a chance for my first pilot to have some tastes and get some people's opinions. First of all, the alcohol content is very deceptive. It drinks like a 5% beer but hits you like the 6.8% beer it is. While I still think it is on the sweet side, others who tried it didn't find it overly sweet. This will be a future pilot, but I plan on hitting my gravities to have a true pale to taste.

I ordered some equipment for my own pilot system this week, as I get it all put together I will post some pictures.

More Brewing/Kegged Pilot

I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks at Schooner Exact brewing, learning and drinking. Mostly just brewing, but with brewing comes drinking when the end of a long day is near. We brewed a triple batch of their IPA between Monday and Tuesday. They have a few 30 barrel fermenters and a 10 barrel brewing system. The two batches on Monday took forever, tons of little shit went wrong, people came in to visit and we started putting back some beers a little earlier than we probably should have. 13 hours later we had 20 barrels in the tank.

Tuesday in comparison was really chill, the single batch went smoothly then I tagged along on some deliveries. We stopped at a Georgetown Brewery and Two Beer Brewery on on way out, awesome places. Georgetown has been brewing on a 60 barrel system for a year now that is awesome. Amazing to see what can be done in only 7 years as a company, if I got to that point in 15 I would be stoked. Two Beers, who I wrote about a long time ago here, has a new location. It is a 7 barrel system with a cool tasting room. Like most places, it gives me ideas, but isn't quite what I am trying to do. It amazes me how cool the whole industry, most everyone is friends and help each other out if they can. Boise doesn't have the brewing culture that Seattle has, but who knows what can happen in the next few years. The rest of the deliveries were not the norm of a delivery afternoon as we chilled at some of the stops and had pizza and a pint, then some coffee, then another pint. If all delivery days were like that I would never have time to make beer, but it was a nice treat after cranking out 3 batches in a day and a half.

I was finally able to carbonate and keg the Pale Ale pilot batch that I made a while back, also meaning I drank some. First off, this is the farthest off target I have been when making a batch of beer, not in terms of taste, but gravity etc. I attribute this to not knowing the system when I designed the beer. The beer I thought would come in at around 5.5% clocked in at 6.8%, a bit boozy for a Pale. The beer has grown on me as I had some more last night, but it is not going to be an immediate PBC offering. It is very sweet, even though it fermented to a very low terminal gravity. Combine the sweetness with the pungent aroma of the Columbus hops and you have a beer that is interesting, but probably not one for the masses. Since I have a lot of this beer, I will get as many people as possible to try it and give me feedback. Getting someones real opinion is always tough because people usually try to be nice, but I want to know if people don't like it.

Took an IPA sample, it tasted alright and I like its potential once I get some dry-hops on their for a few days.

I am making another pilot batch tomorrow I think, I just need to sort out what I am going to make. Right now I am thinking about doing another Pale Ale iteration. More to come on that front.

More Pilot Brewing

The blogging has fallen by the way side, I like to think because I am busy doing more important things, who knows. I have spent quite a bit of time at Schooner Exact helping out in a bunch of ways, which has been great. One of these days we will get around to kegging the Pale Ale that I made a few weeks back. Hopefully I have them this weekend and I will give a report back on how it turned out. I was able to make a second pilot batch this week, here is some details:

IPA
Malts: Pale, Munich, Crystal, Carahell
Hops: Amarillo, Columbus, Magnum, Simcoe, TBD (For dry-hopping, probably Citra and Cascade)
ABV: 6%

I missed the target gravity on this beer, so it wont be as strong as I planned. This is strange because I overshot the Pale Ale, which will probably have more alcohol than this one. Maybe I am labeling them wrong, but that is just semantics, this one has a shitload of hops.

Vorlaufing the IPA mash

I really hope to get back on the blog, right now I am more focused on getting a business off the ground, moving and the upcoming Dawgs season. Speaking of football, I might put up my weekly football emails up here instead of email them, remains to be seen.

Pilot Brewing

I have been making "pilot" batches of different beers for quite a while now, pretty much every beer is a pilot batch in some way or another. Yesterday I brewed up a 1/2 barrel batch of my pale ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact Brewery. Beer specifics:

(Strong) Pale Ale
Malt: American 2-Row, Carahell, Crystal
Hops: Columbus, Perle
ABV: 6%
Playlist: KEXP, not my favorite station, but a establishment in these parts

First you might notice that I use "strong pale ale" and the beer is looking to be 6%, this wasn't by design but the way it is. The reason behind this is that I only ended up with about 13.5 gallons instead of 15.5. At home I pay great attention to the volumes of water that I use in all of the brewing steps, which is easy when you are filling things using a quart-sized pitcher, it gets more difficult when you go up in size. In my brewery I am going to find a way to track all of the water going into the mash and the pre- and post-boil volumes, I think it is very important to consistency from batch to batch. Anyway, when eyeing things on a system you have never used it is easy to be off. Matt had things to work on, so he showed me some things and then left me to brewing for the most part. My kettle-full volume was short, so my end product was short on volume and high on fermentable sugars. In a few weeks I am going to get a little drunker than I originally thought, not all that bad really. Every time I brew it is a learning experience, so the next time I make a pilot batch things should be more on target.

As for the beer, it is a scaled up version of my last pale with malted wheat being substituted for Carahell. The idea is to add a little more body to the beer. The yeast is also different because I am using Schooner Exact's house yeast, a lot easier and cheaper for me. It shouldn't make very big of a difference in the beer because it is similar to the one I generally use. As I have probably mentioned a bunch, temperature control is a problem for me. This batch is in a glycoled jacketed fermenter and the temperature can be dialed in, problem solved.

Pilot batch in the fermenter

It sounds like I will be able to use the pilot system a little more, so I need to decide on some beers to make before I get out of town. I am also going to need to pick a few more kegs to be able to hold everything I make. Beer suggestions will be taken...I am thinking about making either my Amber, Blonde or Brown.

Gotta Hop

Brewing on a "Real System"

Although my home brews are real beer, I can't call my equipment a "real system."

Friday morning started out a lot like my tenure at Boeing, early, but had a much different feel to it, brewing. I met Matt, one of the owner/brewers at Schooner Exact, a little before 6 AM and got the chance to help him brew a 7 barrel batch of their Gallant Maiden Hefeweizen. I am not going to give away the secrets to their beer, but it is a German Hefeweizen as opposed to the American Wheats that I have made in the past. It was a long hot day in the brewery, but it was great to get some work in on a real system. It was a lot better atmosphere to ask questions and share my thoughts compared to the other times that I had been at the brewery. As we went through the day, I could ask questions as they popped into my head and Matt shared multiple "things I would do differently" as he came across them. The experience really reinforced my level of brewing and brewery planning knowledge.

I will be brewing a 1/2 barrel batch of my Pale Ale on the pilot system at Schooner Exact this Wednesday. I am trying my best to keep the recipe tweaking at a minimum, so this one will be almost the same as the last Pale I made for my presentation. I am certain the beer will improve compared to previous batches because I will get to use a temperature controlled fermenter.

I need to remember to write down all of the genius beer names that I come up with, so here's one: Jackalope Belgian IPA, well I am not sure about the style (never made a Belgian IPA before), but I want to make it some sort of hybrid style of beer because of the nature of Jackalopes...hoppy as a jackrabbit and the reddish-brown of an antelope... This might need to be a seasonal or ale of no return, but I think this could be a really fun one. Any style ideas out there for "The Jackalope?"

Thursday 7/16 Rambling

Thursday...it's the new Monday as far as I am concerned. I am going to fight the power and write my updates on Thursday.

I will start with a review of the beer I made with/for Drew. The main goal was met and exceeded, the beer clocked in at 6.8%. Not only is it up there in alcohol content, it is a dangerous beer because you don't realize it is that boozy until you get into that second pint and go "damn, I'm getting buzzed." Amber beer are tough for me to judge because unlike some other styles, there is such a range of expectations. There are the super malty ambers and the super hoppy ambers with no real definition of which on is correct. This one is much more in the hoppy category, but not overly bitter. The chinook hops give their distinct grapefruit flavor to the beer, but the traditional floral and citrus aromas/flavors from the cascade hop are lost in this beer. I have found that my last few batches really lack in the hop aroma department, something I am troubleshooting right now. Dry hopping would really help this aspect of the beer. I plan on making this, or slight tweaks to this recipe again, it is a beer that has promise, but needs work. What I plan on doing is shooting for a higher final gravity, which will increase the malty sweetness and decrease the alcohol content (looking for 6-6.2%). With the hops I will cut the bittering hops a some, bump up the flavor/aroma hops and add a dose of dry-hopping. That is quite a bit of recipe analyzing, I am just thinking out loud and making sure it is on paper somewhere. I can't tell you how many times that I have looked for notes on previous batches of beer just to find a blank page and have almost no idea how the end product turned out.

As for other things, well I am brewing a batch tomorrow at Schooner Exact and making a pilot batch of my Pale Ale on Monday down there (1/2 bbl batch). Planning keeps moving, but I have a real beef with a lot of the planning. Everyone tells me I need to have all of this different shit, some of which could be important, some maybe not. I feel like I have done so much typing and so little doing. So much stuff just needs to be done and experienced because you can't make a plan for all the unknowns out there. As important as planning is, there aren't answers out there for everything. I am obviously frustrated and very tired of sitting behind a computer, that's why I quit my last job.

Lots of Beers

It is time to revisit the beers that I have made over the last month or so.

Starting with the beers that I entered into the Puget Sound Pro-Am, I mentioned the results slightly on this post here. I have been waiting for the written results before I write about it. Like I mentioned I entered four beers a Pale, Stout, Blonde and Amber, that is the order from best to worst. I am pretty happy with how the Pale and Stout turned out and disappointed in myself on the other two. Overall the biggest problem that I have with my beers is something that I don't really have control over on my current system, fermenting temperature. All of the beers exhibited some esters and phenolic flaws that are a result of fermenting at too high of a temperature. All the beers would have scored higher with out that and the amber and blonde would probably jump a lot because those beers were pretty much ruined due to that. As far as the stout, the biggest problem was a lack of body, which looking back at all my notes makes perfect sense. A few tweaks in the mash will improve that. The pale could also use some more body, but as much. The improvement I need on the pale is giving it some more flavor and aroma hops. While I am disappointed in some results, I am very glad to get feedback from impartial judges and can only get better from here.

I made another Blonde since then that was much better than the one I entered into the competition. I missed my starting gravity and ended up with a very light beer. Not really a bad thing, but the rye was a bit overwhelming for how light it was. I also have come to the conclusion that I do not like Brewer's Gold hops, if I didn't have a few ounces left from the free hops I got, I would be hesitant to use them again. I have had limited success with blondes so far and don't know when I will make another, but have developed a recipe that I think will be much better.

The two beers that I served during the presentations last week were the American Wheat and Pale Ale. Seemed like a good combination of beer to serve, but I didn't really realize that the beers were extremely similar. The only real difference was the amount of wheat used in the American wheat and more hops in the pale. My fermenting issue played well for the wheat because it brought out the banana and clove that are associated with wheat beers, but I will call that what it really is, dumb luck. I need to cut out any crystal malts in my wheat recipe and go back to the yeast that I used before on this. The beer was drinkable, but not stellar. The pale was great though. The taste was more along the lines of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale than a Manny's to give market examples. Many of the people at the events have tried my pale ales before and found them to be too bitter, but this one seemed to hit the mark pretty well. Still could probably use an increase in the hop aroma though.

I have two beers carbonating right now and only the Mountain Man in a fermenter right now. I guess I need to get back to making some beers this week. I am hoping to use a pilot system at a brewery so I can get a bit more control over the process instead of the good old closet fermenters.

Lost and Found in a Mountain Town

I failed miserably at keeping up with my postings over the past few weeks, but I'll make up for it this week. If it is any consolation, I had a hell of a time in Idaho. I was originally going to go back to Seattle on the 2nd, but I couldn't resist the temptation of boats, beer and sun in Donnelly/McCall for the 4th of July. Now that I am home, I have had some time to think over the progress that I made over the last few week. Here are some of the details...

I had two presentations that were a combo of "Craft Beer 101" and an "intro to the Payette Brewing Company concept." I had a 10 slide PowerPoint that I figured would take maybe 30 minutes to go through, but when it was all said and done, both of them went well over an hour and a half. **Quick side note: why is "hour" preceded with "an" instead of "a," its probably the only word I can think of that starts with a consonant that does that. I am not trying to be an English teacher, so moving on... The discussions that came up during the presentations were both distinctly different and will go a long way in my planning in the next few months. Right now I am trying to wade through the ideas and information that I gathered and can't help but feeling more lost than I was a month ago. I figured that I was 70% done with the business plan and after that I feel only 30% done. Frustrating. In the end I know I will have a very solid presentation for potential investors and a better grasp on what needs to get done to run a successful business. At least I have two presentations to very knowledgeable and experienced people under my belt.

One idea that came up worth sharing include the possibility of starting by contract brewing. In a perfect world I would not want to do this, but after talking it through, it seems like a very good option. The two biggest benefits about this route would be getting a product into the market sooner and establishing a demand before raising the large amount of capital to build the brewery I am planning. Once I put together these numbers I will have a better idea of how everything will work, so stay tuned.

Also got great feedback on the logo work and even have a second round of revisions done. Not quite to the point that I want to post them, but soon enough.

I have a lot of other things that I am going to get up this week, but I am sort of over writing this blog...good win today America (2-0 over Honduras in the Gold Cup)

Monday 6/29 Update

A whole lot going on, just not sure what is worthy of reporting. Although I am sort of on vacation ("sort of" because I am always on vacation these days), a lot of time has been spent talking, writing and dreaming up things for Payette Brewing. Since I am in Boise I have had time to talk with different people and am starting to feel dangerously close these days.

I have two presentations this week, I wouldn't really call them investor presentations, but they sort of are. They are sort of a craft beer/Payette Brewing concept talk that happen to take place with two different groups of potential investors. I hope to do some real investor presentations end of July and early August. I am also meeting with a local bar manager tomorrow to talk beer and brewery stuff, progress is on the horizon.

To sum up the post, the Monday update would have been better off written on Thursday. As not to disappoint my five fans, expect a Thirsty Thursday Post.

Treasure Valley Hop Farms

My drive from Seattle to Boise to a slight detour to look at the hop farms in Wilder, Idaho. I really do mean just to look at, I pulled my car off to the side of the road and took a few pics and a video, that's it. I did this mostly to have my own pics that I can use of hop farms in Idaho and fill up some much needed blog space.

Hops Late June, FYI the poles are 20 feet tall

My ten minutes of research on the all knowing inter-web have given me an arsenal of information to share about Idaho hops. Idaho hop production accounts for 8% of the US harvest and 2% of the world harvest, nothing huge but still a substantial amount. Word on the street (local homebrew store owner) is that S. Idaho use to account for 25% of the world production and the one of the farms started growing hops over 120 years ago. Obviously things have changed, but the production has increased over the last few years due to the shortages in the hop market. Rumors has it (same guy, new cliche phrase) says these farms sell their hops to Steiner, so I am going to have to go through that company for some hops to be able to make an "all Idaho" beer and jump on the "Buy Idaho" train.

Hop field in the distance

This post is only a little bit about the hop farms in Idaho and a lot bit about proving that I still have "it". By "it", I mean the ability to put up a mildly entertaining post while showcasing my uncanny ability to use modern technology. Yes, that is an unnecessary hop field drive-by video embedded below...

I hope this you enjoyed this post, I burned my chicken breast because I was so focused on writing something awesome.

Drew's Brew

Now that I have caught up on my drinking a little bit, I can get back to brewing. The ridiculous weather in Seattle might just be leaving us, last night we got out first rain in 29 days, unheard of for May/June. Today I have some company in the brew, my roommate Drew. When asked how he could get a membership to my keggerator, the answer was simply buy me supplies for a batch. So today we are making Drew's beer. Being a huge fan of Mac and Jack's, the request is for an Amber. What I am aiming to do is make a similar northwest style Amber Ale, but try to be noticeably different. Not that I actually know the recipe for the African Amber, but I have a good idea on the main components and will try to avoid making a clone.

Amber Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Caramunich, Crystal, Munich, Roasted Barley
Hops: Chinook and Cascade
ABV: 6%+ per request of Drew

Post brew day comments: The brew went well and should land well about the 6% minimum set by Drew. Generally speaking I don't drink much when I brew, mostly because I try to start at 8 AM, but with a late start and some motivation we kicked back a good number of beers (in the process. It is definitely more relaxing (brewing drunk that is), but you get a lot lazier with everything. It seems like blasphemy in the homebrewing community to say this (because it is generally a ritual, drinking and brewing), but I am not a fan of getting drunk while brewing(drinking yes, but not getting drunk). Anyway, the beer is well into a healthy fermentation and hopefully this is the Amber where I stop sucking.

Monday 6/22 Update

I think I am a good week or two away from some Monday updates with some real substance. I have a trip to Boise starting tomorrow that will give me a lot of time to make contacts in Boise and get the ball rolling a little more. I probably should make a list of what I need to get done, because it could easily turn into an unproductive trip. I have two informal meetings I am working on setting up with prospective investors. Not really asking for money at this time, but a time to let them in on my plans and where I am at. Of course there will be beer there and a great time for me to practice my pitching skills and beer education talks.

I have some initial logos done, but it still needs some work and because of that I wont post it on the blog. As soon as I get something I like, rest assured it will be on here that day. The biggest problem that I am having is that I cant really pinpoint what I want. I will show what I have at my meetings to get feedback and ideas. A few rounds of revisions and I will have something.

I stopped by one of Seattle's nanobreweries last week, Gilligan's Brewing, and had a talk with one of them. They have an interesting concept going. They are not full-time brewers and do everything on nights and weekends as more of a hobby, but do sell their beers. The set up that they have in no way will turn a profit, but it gets them into the market none the less if they want to expand in the future. I need to go down again when the Seth Gilligan is there because he knows the answers to some of my questions (licensing etc for a small operation). Once I go down again with a camera/flip cam I will do a full post about the brewery.

I brewed last week and wrote a post on it, but since I didn't finish it and post it yet, it will be scheduled to come up either tomorrow or Wednesday.

All for now...

Monday 6/15 Update

I started doing these Monday updates to try to get me to accomplish something every week that I can share, which has sort of happened. It is also keeping me thinking and blogging, cause laziness is like a virus that often strikes me for extended periods of time. I don't really like the title I have for the update though, seems like every site has a Monday morning update of sorts. I will try to think of something, but it is unlikely it will change.

Everything seems to be coming together a bit and I had a roll going this morning, then I ran across something very important. USA is playing Italy in the Confederations Cup right now. My work got very rudely interrupted to check it out and I am trying to get this post done during half time. First off, Clark's red card was bush league, absolutely deserved a yellow card though. Reckless tackle, yes, but it was in mid-field and it wasn't like Clark was accumulating fouls to deserve the strait send-off. They were really just starting to play well and being down a man for another 45 is going to be tough, but Jozy drawing that PK will really help that out. In general I think the US lacks two things, creativity on the attacking end and they are careless with the ball. They always turn the ball over is stupid places and in general can't maintain possesion very long. The attacks usually look like they have promise, then get into the attacking third and can't create a decent shot. Enough about my soccer rambling, but the bottom of this post will have a game wrap up because the second half is about to start...

...The US soccer team is a very frustrating team to watch, flashes of brilliance mixed with careless play can easily lead to giving up 3 goals in the second half. You can't expect a team playing down a man against one of the best teams in the world to not concede some goals, but I thought they were the result of careless play. I am going to restrain myself from ranting for too long, but have some food for thought. First, is Landon Donovan actually the best player in the country or overrated? I lean to the later. I swear half of his 40 international goal have come from the penelty mark. FIFA's eligibilty rules are questionable in my mind. The US does benefit from having some foreign born players on the squad, but having a player score two goals against his country of birth rubs me the wrong way. In his defense, Rossi's father is Italian born and he moved back there when he was 13, but he is still an American citizen. That reminds me of the US qualifier last week in Chicago (or maybe Honduras north). What other country can play an away game on their own soil? To quote my boy Adam Carolla in The Hammer "You guys sure seem to love Nicaragua except for the part where you risked your lives not to live there any more."

I am going to check myself right now, because I don't really have the energy to do what it takes to truely finish this rant. Those looking for an actual brewery update are going to have to wait another week or so.

Feelin' Kind of Rugged

Rugged enough to take on the Mountain Man today. Brewing up my second batch of the Mountain Man Barleywine. It follows the general recipe of last years version with a few modifications, including some more base malt to get a little more alcohol, less chocolate and some crystal malt. While I will be able to taste this one and the one I made in the fall side by side, they should be pretty different because of the age on the old one and the changes to this one. I also plan to let this one age longer in the fermenting vessels, I of course think it is going to be great, but going to have to wait a while to find out.

Mountain Man Barleywine
Malts: American 2-Row, Aromatic, Biscuit, Chocolate, Crystal
Hops: Chinook, Centennial
ABV: Probably in the 9-10% range
Playlist: Soaking up the new Ryan Bingham album

Moved some beer around today, excited for the Brown Ale I made last week, but I am always excited about what is next instead of what is on tap now.

Monday 6/8 Update

I feel like a broken record saying this, but I am making progress. The frustrating part is that it seem like there is little to really show for it at this point.

The actual brewing that I have been doing has been okay recently. Discouraging in that the last few batches that I have gotten on tap have been sub-par, but brewing and tasting them have been good to put a lot of what I have learned into practice. It seems like I have been learning a lot more of what I don't want to do than what I want to do, which is good information to have, but I could use a win or two pretty soon.

I think that the trouble that I am running into is trying to design a beer that is both good and unique. Sounds a lot easier than I am making it right now. I don't want to put out the exact some beer as another brewery, but there is only so much you can do before you make a weird beer. I keep on trying different combinations of ingredients that are not traditionally used together and I am finding there are reasons that they aren't used. Not that the beers are terrible, but there is usually one or two things that aren't quite right and that can usually be traced back to the recipe. I think every once and a while I need to remember to heed the advice of those that have come before me.

Not really sure what is on the docket for future brews, running low on space and need to spend some quality time drinking to catch back up. I plan on brewing the second batch of the Mountain Man Barleywine soon, slight tweaks to last years brew and making it earlier so it is ready come Thanksgiving or Christmas.

That was hardly an update, but that is what I'm calling it. One of these days I will take a step forward instead of sidestepping the issues, then I will have a worthy post.

Brew Day 6/3

The brewing has slowed a bit, mostly because of lack of space for new batches. The number one thing that is telling me is that I am not drinking enough. Here is whats brewing today:

Brown Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Brown Malt, Chocolate Malt, Crystal
Hops: Magnum, Amarillo
ABV: ~4.8%
Playlist: Carolla and Sports Guy podcasts (I still need to actually make a real brewing playlist if I am going to include it, but Carolla is funny as shit)

I know I mentioned honing in the Pale Ale recipe by making 4 back to back batches with slight changes, but that is going to have to wait. I am so close with that recipe being set that I think I will hold off on making Pales for a bit so I can get another recipe or two dialed in. For the Brown I am shooting for sort of a hybrid between an English and American Brown. English Browns are dryer have a nutty taste and have low hop bitterness and aroma where Americans have more of a caramel and chocolate taste with higher hop bitterness and aroma. Basically meld those two and I am targeting a slightly nutty taste with a bit touch of chocolate and a moderate hop presence.

I also want to start posting name ideas for the different beers that I am making. I have thrown around different ideas for naming conventions, most recently I think I said I wanted to keep the year round name simple by just preceding the style with Payette, not sure that I like that idea anymore. I am sure I will continue to flip-flop on this, but right now I want to have names that include the style, but also put in some creativity. I would like to thrown in an element of something Boise/Idaho specific, but subtle to the point that it doesn't exclude people outside of Idaho from drinking it. Not sure if that made sense to you, but it make sense in my head.

Not sure why I keep associating Brown Ales with sheep, but in my head they seem right for each other. I have always been a fan of Mutton Buster Brown, just don't know how the association with beer and kids riding sheep will go over with the authorities and he public. The other direction I was thinking was something to do with the Basque Sheep Herders that come through the foothills in the summer. I have been doing some research on the topic and haven't found anything that sparked a great idea yet, so feel free to help me out. If I need to abandon the sheep theme, thrown out some ideas...Penitentiary?

Monday 6/1 Update

A few updates for this week, unfortunately most of it is not that interesting. I got the results back from my entries in the Puget Sound Pro-Am and they were about what I expected, but would have liked them to be higher of course. I only have the raw scores at this point and will be able to analyze it all a bit more when I get the judges sheets with comments and everything. My Pale Ale and Stout fared the best and the Blonde and Amber performed poorly. Even though I could probably speculate for a few paragraphs, I will write another post once I understand why I got the marks that I did.

Last week I met with the guys from Schooner Exact Brewery twice last week. I got to check out their brewery, ask a bunch of questions and even got in some help with a brew on Saturday. Failed twice to bring a camera or my flip cam with me to get some media to spice up the blog a little. Saturday was their inaugural brew at their new location which was cool to be a part of. Schooner Exact is pretty much where I want to be in about a year (I would like to say sooner, but after all the research and such I have been doing, brewing a year from now is reasonable). It was another good opportunity to check out how someone else built their brewery and get some hands on work with some brewing equipment. I am probably going to help them out a little more in the future and will do a more in depth post later (even get a pic of two).

Got another brew in the works this week, probably Wednesday. Changed my mind about the consecutive pale ale brews because I have a good idea on how that is going to work out, doing a brown ale tomorrow.

On the planning front, things are moving forward again. Hit some points where I stalled out, but have found ways to get through that. Planning is fun to be able put all these ideas together and dream about how things will look in a year, but mostly it is a bitch. Gotta Hop...

MIA

It doesn't seem like I have been doing anything that I should recently, lost focus on everything and need to get back on the saddle. Making some beer today, revisiting the B-plan and just trying to figure everything out again.

Pale Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Crystal, Wheat
Hops: Columbus, Perle
ABV: ~5%
Playlist: Adam Carolla Podcasts

Keeping at the pale ale because it seems to be getting really good and very close to a finished recipe. What I might do over my next 4 brews (this one included) is make all pale ales with different tweaks and then compare all of them to determine the best. What I would do is keep the same base recipe, use two different hops schedules and two different yeasts. This way I can compare the hops side by side with the same yeast and compare the yeasts with the same hops. This will probably happen, I just need to resist my urge to try different styles for the next few weeks.

I also need to find my way to a Kinkos to print out my entry forms for the Washington homebrewers pro-am. While it would be great to win or have one of my beer selected to be made by a local brewery, I am really just looking for the scores. As much as I respect the opinions of my family and friends, I want to know what an unbiased judge thinks of my beer. Unfortunately I dont really think I am entering my best work, I at least know what the problems are with the beers I am entering so I expect some deficiencies in the scoring. I am entering an Amber, Blonde, Pale and Stout and will post a results entry once I know how it all turned out.

May? Really?

Been over a week since I have been brewing or doing much of anything to get Payette Brewing going, so might want to get back at it. Not really much sun for today's brew, but I can handle it. Here is some details on what I have going today.

American Wheat
Malt: Wheat, American 2-Row, Crystal, Flaked Wheat
Hops: Columbus, Perle
ABV: ~4.5%
Playlist: New Ben Harper Album with a bit of Randy Rogers mixed in (live at Billy Bob's of course)

This is my standard Wheat Beer recipe I have been making for a while, the grain bill at least, and have been constantly changing up the hops and yeast. This time I am not really sure what to expect, I am using a combination of American hops and German hops then tossing in the English Ale yeast that I have going from the last few beers. I am expecting something much more along the lines of a pale ale than a wheat, but with 50% wheat I should be getting a good does of wheat character. Don't really know until you try right?

It doesn't look like I have a post for the first Amber I made, but there is one on the second one I still have fermenting. The first one is on tap these days, though likely gone after tonight. It is a malt focus beer with little to no hop aroma. I enjoyed it, but feel that it could use some biscuit malt or something to give it a little more bready taste to it. The Vienna and Munich malts give it a sort of lager characteristic that makes it a very smooth beer, but I just think it lacks some bit of complexity to it. I have another one in the pipeline and will be able to do some side by side comparisons to see how my changes affect the beer.

Next week I know that I am going to have plenty of things to post since I will be in Boise and have some meetings lined up, I just don't know when I will get around to putting that stuff up. As real as all this planning has seemed, I feel like it is going to another level of reality next week when I sit down with the marketing and real estate folks.

Blonde's Are More Fun?

When it comes to brewing, I would say Blondes are a little more of a high-maintenance bitch instead of fun...was that too much? They aren't that easy...not it either. A more difficult beer to get consistent and desired results out of. There we go. Back to brewing, I have been on quite the tear of brewing recently, but had to slow do a bit because of lack of equipment. Not really a bad thing because it made me try to catch up on my drinking a bit. Giving the Blonde another try, the store was out of the malt I was looking to change to, so made an on the fly change and we'll see how it turns out.

Blonde
Malts: American 2-Row, Wheat, Rye
Hops: Brewer's Gold, Glacier
ABV: ~4%
Playlist: Shuffle

This is what my dog does while I brew, lounges around eating our flowers. Come on Sophie, we are trying to be classy here

The previous Blonde is about gone and I was semi-satisfied with it. A little too bitter for the style which also took a little away from the drinkablity (I can't believe I just used a Budweiser word, but that is something I am looking for in a session beer). I also thought that the fruity esters in the beer were also a little higher than desirable. Specifically the banana flavor (Isoamylacetate for those wondering the brewing term for it). From what I can tell this is a result of some of my brewing techniques, but also the yeast that I used is known to promote fruity esters. So this time I am trying a different yeast strain and see how that changes the flavor profile, specifically the fruity esters. The rye is only used in small amounts, but rye does have a very distinctive flavor so we will have to wait and see how it turns out.

Other thoughts. I got the parts I ordered to be able to do some draft line cleaning and sure enough the adapters that I got do not work, so it is back to the drawing board on that.

Kegged the stout today and since the batch was little too big for the keg I am sipping on a glass of flat, cellar temperature stout. Not exactly idea for a warm sunny mid-day drink, but I don't want to pour it out, tough job but someone has to do it. Initial thoughts are that the beer has promise. Very bitter due to both the amount of hops I used, but the roasted/coffee flavors add another type of bitterness.

Sampled the pale ale from a week back, very stoked for this one.

Huge props to Sheila, just got my birthday present. I always hated on people who wore bike jerseys, except those with beer bike jersey. Black Butte Porter bike jersey, tight. Almost makes me feel like going for a ride, except the whole already been drinking thing.

Tap Handles

When you really start thinking about this, tap handles are one of the most important things to a draft only brewery (good beer always helps). With draft only accounts, it is the main marketing presence in a bar. A good tap handle will bring the beer to people's attention and make them ask about it and hopefully order it. Making a good product is what brings them back. When you are at a bar, you aren't always sitting at the actual bar and take a look at the taps from afar to see what they have, the well designed ones are noticeable.

Problems I see with many common tap handles:
1) You can't read them. I always like to know what I am ordering and if I can't tell what it is then I wont order it, I will probably go to one of my mainstay beers instead of something new. Not all the brewery and beer information needs to be in word form to be identifiable. Too many taps have a novel written on them and you don't care about most of the information on them.
2) Shape, too many are a standard oval on top of a long wooden handle. I am aware that making tap handles is expensive and it is cheapest and easiest to go with a standard shape, but I think that tap handles are a worthwhile investment. Look at Goose Island, probably the easiest tap handle to recognize from anywhere in a bar, I am sure it is worth the extra cost to make those taps. Just being a different shape doesn't make it better though, there are plenty of weird looking tap handles that do nothing more than the standard tap shape.

Things I like in tap handles:
1) Easily identifiable logo at the very top, Avery is a good example of the logo on top, but I am not sure that I am a fan of the information below.
2) Consistency through the beer line up, Georgetown has a little more unique oval, but all the taps have the same basic shape.
3) You can easily tell the two most important things, Brewery, Beer Name. Beer style is included in that, but that has more to do with naming conventions that the brewery uses.

I will be giving a lot of thought to what the PBC tap handles will look like and will be getting some help from a marketing company because I know beer, they know marketing. I have a lot of different ideas floating around in my head and once some of those get sorted out I will try them out on the blog. To throw out a few, I have never seen carbon fiber taps and I love that look, maybe there is a cheap carbon fiber coating out there. Bright colors, but not obnoxious...well maybe obnoxious, it would stand out. I also like aluminum taps that are machined or water jetted into logos and shapes. Once I decide, this will be the first place to reveal them.

Brewing Playlists

Two of my favorite things: beer and music. One thing that I always think about when I vision my brewery is how tight it is going to be to rock out and make beer. I have been thinking about this for some time and on my drive home today (actually Friday, using the post scheduling feature, how 'bout them apples) while rocking out to Reckless Kelly's Bulletproof (tight album) I decided I had to write a post about it. Lets just hope that I can remember all of the literary gold I came up with while driving.

So here is the deal, music and beer are generally at the core of all of my inspiration (rocking out and booze, how could it do anything else but inspire) and I want to utilize that in the brewery and share it with PBC's customers. Most brewery websites have information about each of their beer offering that may include a description, ingredients and who knows what else. I want to include a music playlist for each beer. I am not going to make these playlists claiming that they are the inspiration for the beers though. The playlists are going to be a combo of what I listen to while brewing the beer and what I like to listen to while drinking the beer. Or have no real relation at all and just be a stellar playlist. It is going to be tight to be in charge in the brewery (even if I am the only employee) because I can rock whatever tunes that I want. If anyone has a problem with my music selection my response will be "shut up, I do what I want!" because I am the man in charge.**

As time permits, (something that I have quite a bit of right now) I am going to try to post some playlists I start to come up with while brewing. Once I figure out all the gadgets that blogspot.com has, I will try to put some music on the blog or maybe even the entire playlists. But mark this day down, if you see this stuff on another brewery's website they officially stole it from me. Although someone might already be doing it and if that is the case I plead ignorance and still came up with it on my own.

Although my music personal selection favors country to a great extent, I embrace most music. Each list will be unique and hopefully different in the overall theme. In honor of my first unborn fermenter, the first playlist I post will be a compilation of Wu Tang Clan, both the group and solo projects from the members. For those wondering, the unborn fermenter is O.D.B. because one day it will be my O.D.B. of fermenters and the name will be just that much more fitting. I can't wait to write a blog saying, "the first batch of Mountain Man Barleywine is fermenting in Old Dirty Bastard."

These playlists could be somethings that comes into play later when I try to put on some concerts and stuff. Once I get a real website up, all the songs will be linked to the artists site or somewhere to buy their stuff. Also, it could be cool to allow fans to post their own playlists of what they like to listen to while drinking a PBC beer. Sort of create a music community intertwined with the beer community because many of them are the same people. I will have to solicit ideas from Sheila, our budding music production person or whatever it is you are trying to do. You realize that I officially own your career Sheila, food and music with my beer, game over.

I really need a voice recorder or at least carry around my flipcam all the time so I can record my inner Bill Simmons when I come up with the stuff. Compared to my vision in the car, this post is good, but falls well short of the gem I had brewing in the car.

**Some might say that doing what you want because it is your business is a bad idea, well those people have never met me...whatever I touch turns to gold and most of all...I rule! (Amy, you probably don't read this, but you are still #2)

Part III...I think so

Yes, another sunny brew day in Seattle. I could use another 10 degrees, but I wont complain because the weather has been pretty awesome recently. My only gripe is that this nice weather makes motivating myself to be productive a lot more difficult. So here is what I have going today:

Amber Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Vienna, Munich, Crystal
Hops: Brewer's Gold, Mt Hood
ABV: ~5%
Playlist: Cross Canadian Ragweed (will make sense after upcoming post)

Basically the same recipe as a few weeks ago with a different yeast. The one I did before is carbonating in the keggerator, took a little sample even though it isn't ready just yet. Has a good malty, bready base with a slight hop presence. I will review accordingly when it is ready to drink. I do need to vary my mashing schedules and temps between batches a little more because many of my beers have been fermenting past my target terminal gravity. Sounds like a great problem to have, more booze for you buck, but it is leaving some of my beers with less body than they needed. By fermenting further, there are less residual sugars which is good for say a Blonde, but for something like an Amber or Pale there still needs to be something there to balance the hops. Not a huge problem, just need some more non-fermentables in the wort and with a temperature adjustment and/or grain bill adjustment this is easily taken care of.

Homebrew competition coming up next month, trying to enter four or so beers. I am not too concerned about winning anything, which would be nice, but I really want to get the scoring feedback from the judges. They are a lot more impartial than anyone who is drinks my beer while sitting on my couch.

Naked City/Georgetown Brewers Night

I went out to the Georgetown Brewers Night at Naked City last night. I wrote a few months back about Naked City and am liking the place more and more. Just like any bar, you can't force character and Naked City is no different. It seemed very plain the first time I went there and have since gotten a lot of cool things to put up on the wall to give it some character. The staff is very knowledgeable and they put on some good events, like last night.

Being the brewers night, the brewers were out at the bar and they brought along a cask conditioned version of their 9 lb Porter, good stuff. I really like what Georgetown does with there beers and more so their marketing. Everything is very simple, cool and modern which I think helps them tap into the giant market that is the casual beer drinkers. I will write a post about my thoughts about the brewery some other time, maybe I will pay them another visit. This is about the brewers night, which was pretty casual, they raffled off schwag and provided a place to talk with the people in the industry. I didn't get to talk to the brewer or owners as much as I would have liked, but did talk a little. I hate being the douche that tries to be all buddy buddy with people at events like this, you know they are out there. I also wasn't about to solicit a job while they are hanging with their friends, I know they aren't hiring, but met the guys and they know I went to Siebel. Its never bad making connections in the industry you are in even if it isn't an immediate payoff. Scored some pint glasses (probably the last thing I need more of) and did a lot of thinking about tap handle design (post to come). In the end it was a good event and I look forward to being on the other side of a brewers night.

Sunny Brew Day Part II

I had other plans when I woke up this morning, but in the end it felt like a day to sit on the front porch and make some beer. 70 and sunny on Green Lake, pretty awesome. Going after the elusive Pale Ale again even though I wrote against it earlier, I actually got a little better response from my last one so with some tweaks, here we go again.

Pale Ale
Malts: American 2-Row, Crystal, Honey Malt
Hops: Columbus, Amarillo
ABV: ~ 5%

Sipping on the Blonde Ale I made a few weeks back, biggest problem is that I didn't use any clarifying agents so it is really cloudy. Doesn't affect the taste of the beer, but with the aesthetics, a blonde ale should be brilliantly clear. Seems like a very good summer beer. A low 4.2% abv, a slight fruity taste and a subtle hop bitterness. Going to give it another try in a week, only change I am going to make is the yeast. Could make a large difference, but I am making an effort to re-pitch yeast from batch to batch and I have a different yeast in the pipeline.

Still trying to put together a draft line cleaning business on the side. The only thing really holding me back is finding the right hose fittings, trying to make some homemade adapters to make my equipment work really easily. So at this rate I will be in business in ten years.

Back to brewing...

Sunny Brew Day

Worked from home today if you will. A crappy morning turned into another great Seattle day. Brewing up another batch of my stout I made back in November. Here are some of the details:

Stout
Malts: American 2-Row, Crystal, Flaked Oats, Special B, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt
Hops: Centennial, Willamette
Target ABV: 6.5%

It is almost exactly the same recipe as before because I thought that was a tremendous beer and wanted to do it again. I know that a stout isn't you typical spring beer, but I have a few things to sort out in the next few months as far as beer recipes go. As nice of a day as it is, the wind is reeking havoc with my burner, so hopefully I can still hit my numbers without a consistent boil.

The keggerator modifications are on hold until I go back to Lowe's to exchange some parts, the stuff I bought didn't work quite right. Basically what I am doing is putting quick releases on all of my CO2 hoses and regulator. Sounds super exciting I know, but when ever I want to take kegs anywhere it is a pain to unhook all of the hose clamps and such. It is also starting to mess up the end of my hoses. When it is done I can take my beer with me in a matter of seconds, which is finally legal to do (I think, maybe it is almost legal, but it will be).

Have another post in the works about my current progress and such. Might start it today, but with a pub crawl tomorrow afternoon and sailing on Sunday, don't hold your breath.

Rant Time

Got some motivation for doing work for PBC, so blogging is sort of a distraction, but there are a few things I felt like writing. First off it has been a while since I have done any work while drinking a beer, mostly because I go get free Internet from the coffee shop. Which by the way scares me because the last three days I have felt like a prototypical Seattlite and I don't really like that. Not drinking has nothing to do with working in the morning, I have mentioned that it is society, not me, that has deemed drinking in the morning unacceptable.

Now that I am blogging with a New Belgian Mighty Arrow Pale Ale, I have a few more beefs. First, I really enjoy this beer normally, but for some reason the sixer that I got at 7-11 tastes like ass. In beer terms it is smells like old gym socks and tastes like cheese and I am very disappointed with 7-11 (I blame them not New Belgian because I have already ranted about N.B. and I want to give them a break)

Which brings me to my next beef, "pint glasses," what a crock. I don't know why I haven't noticed this before, but I poured my 12 oz beer into a "pint glass" and with the proper head came right to the top of the glass. The only way 16 oz would fit into that glass is all the way to the brim with no head. This is your standard issue bar pint glass, I know, I stole this one fair and square. The US needs a law, like they have in Europe, where all glasses are marked with their size. There is a little line on most import glasses showing where the beer should be to allow the proper head and tells you exactly how much beer that is. Most likely if you order a pint you are getting 12 oz and head (don't get me wrong, the head is a vital part of a beer).

Enough of that...I sort of lost my meaningful message for this post somewhere in the rant. Basically I am getting shit done. Some days I feel like nothing is happening, then bam, get some responses, get some motivation and everything is good. Some days I get hella frustrated like today and need a break. I am kind of over this post right now, making beer tomorrow so will post something about that and my efforts in upgrading my keggerator, which by the way is the best purchase ever.