Witbier Cookies

Based on a similar theme to the Oatmeal Stout cookies:  Witbier cookies.  I'm using ingredients that might go into an actual witbier (Wheat malt extract, bitter orange peel, coriander seeds).    They're even pale in color, due to the lack of brown sugar (I didn't think the molasses-y flavor would be appropriate).  

I'm very pleased with the flavor of these.   The citrus really shines, and the coriander backs it up nicely.
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1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt 

2t bitter orange peel

2t whole coriander seeds

1.5 cups flaked barley
1.5 cups flaked wheat


preparation 

1. Grind Bitter Orange Peel and Coriander in a coffee grinder
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, wheat malt extract, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Add wheat and barley; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Oatmeal Stout Cookies

I just realized that I forgot the salt.

Anyway, I've been wanting to make these for a while, and Christmas is the perfect time to pawn some cookies off on other people, so we don't have to eat them all.   Not that I mind piles of cookies around the house, but I just can only eat so many cookies.

The basic idea behind these is to use some of the same ingredients that would go into an oatmeal stout.   I get the maltiness from the malt extract, and the roasted flavors from the chocolate malt and roasted barley.   It just seems fitting to use flaked barley alongside the oats for some chew.  All of these ingredients should be available from your friendly-neighborhood brewer's supply shop.

Unfortunately, my nose is a bit stuffed up, so I can't give a great review of them, but I think this works quite nicely.   The roasted malts really give these a nice dark-chocolate/coffee flavor. 

I've got plans for a batch of Witbier cookies, too, and hopefully this experiment will give me enough data to learn some stuff for the next batch. 

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1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2  cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup Dark Dry Malt Extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

2T Roasted Barley

2T Chocolate Malt

1.5 cups flaked barley
1.5 cups Oats (whole rolled, uncooked)


preparation 

1. Grind Chocolate Malt and Roasted Barley in a coffee grinder
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour and baking soda; mix well. Add oats and barley; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Grain Cleaner (Indian Tumbler)

Post-boil wort sample.

At least half of the brown ales that I brew wind up being a way to get rid of a bunch of the grain scraps I have left over from various other brews.   Inventory is a whole lot easier to do when you have nothing to count.  This one wound up being that way as well.   I do like them, though, partly because it's a nice canvas on which I can really get creative, and partly because they tend to pair well with a variety of food.  

Two of my absolute favorite brown ales are Sierra Nevada's Tumbler and Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale.   Initially, I was going to make a Tumbler clone and in looking up clone recipes found that the "secret" ingredient is smoked malt. So I started looking around at smoked malt, and then thought, "Hey, I've got all this old French Pils and a stovetop smoker, why don't I try smoking my own?"   I couldn't think of a good reason not to, so I got out the smoker and the Alderwood chips and did it.   The smoker's tray held a little over 6oz. of malt, so that's all that I did.   I started off by spraying the malt lightly with water and stirred it while putting it into the tray.   Then I ran the smoker per its directions, but kept it on medium heat, and stirred every few minutes so I wouldn't burn the grain.   It seemed to work out nicely, and the grain came out with a scent reminiscent of smoked almonds, or toast and bacon.  

What I love about the DFH Indian Brown is the hoppiness of it.   The hops and the other flavors just work really well together in that beer.  It's also no slouch in the alcohol department.

After thinking about the brew for a while, I came to the conclusion that I should try to meld these and see what happens.   Unfortunately, I haven't taken inventory in so long, that I really don't know what grain I have, so the grain bill wound up going off of my mark a bit.   The LHBS didn't have any Crystal 60, so I went with Crystal 90 instead, and it turned out that I barely had any Crystal 40.   I was also close to the end on the Marris Otter, so figured I would just add that and have a nice gravity bump, and add slightly to the toasty flavors.   The Warrior, Columbus, and Cascade were all left over from the Pliny the Toddler Variants.   That's fine, though, as I think a bit less emphasis on the fruity side of things will do this beer well, considering the yeast and grain bill.

Grain Cleaner (Indian Tumbler)

Batch Size (Gal): 6
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.12
Anticipated OG: 1.067
Anticipated SRM: 27.5
Anticipated IBU (Tinseth): 65.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain:
74.3% -- 11.98 lbs. Canada Malting 2-row Pale Malt
10.1% -- 1.63 lbs. Marris Otter 2-row Pale Malt
6.2% -- 0.99 lbs. Crystal 90L
4.7% -- 0.75 lbs. Pale Chocolate Malt
2.4% -- 0.39 lbs. Alderwood Smoked French Pils
1.8% -- 0.29 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.6% -- 0.09 lbs. Crystal 40L

Hops:
0.74 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) 60 min.
0.82 oz. Columbus (Pellet, 13.9% AA) 20 min.
0.98 oz. Cascade (Pellet, 5.4% AA) 10 min.
1.00 oz. US Saaz (Pellet, 5.8% AA) 10 min.
1.00 oz. US Saaz (Pellet, 5.8% AA) 0 min.

Yeast:
WLP007 Slurry from 1/2 of my Pliny the Toddler Variant

Water Profile:
Clearview, degassed ~23h
Calcium Chloride: 1/8t

Mash Schedule:
90m @ 153F

Extras:
1 Whirlfloc tablet at 10m left in the boil.

Notes:

• Actual efficiency appears to be ~71%
• The first runnings came out delicious.   Rich toffee/caramel/raisin flavors with a pleasing slightly smoky finish.  22.25 Brix
• Pitched entire slurry at 8PM.   Wort stayed in the refrigerator a bit too long, so the temperature was 57F.

Pliny the Toddler Variants

Abby and I finished off both the Saison Sombre and the Wedding Stout this week, so it was a good thing that I had planned on brewing this weekend. When I finally managed to remind myself to get ingredients, my latest edition of Zymurgy had come that day, so when I asked Abby what she wanted to drink for a standard swiller, she pointed to a variation on Pliny the Toddler from a section on going from mash tun to good beer in 6 days.   I don't think I'm going to rush it that way, but it seemed like a decent recipe for a session IPA.   This will also be my first 10 gallon batch.  Now that I have a kettle that will handle that, I figured I should take advantage of the way things scale.

Unfortunately, Rebel Brewer didn't have WLP001 or WY1056 in stock, so I decided on WLP007 Dry English Ale and WLP575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend.   I'll be splitting the batch and trying some different things.   I also accidentally only got one pound of Carapils, so I made up the gravity difference with some Wheat Malt and the last of my Caramel 20L.   The wheat should add some additional protein and help out with head retention, and the Caramel Malt should just add a little sweetness.   My current plan is to ferment with the belgian yeast in my brettanomyces fermentor and add some oak cubes that spent several months in the Old Funkulator (Bretted Old Ale).


Pliny The Toddler Variants

Batch Size (Gal): 10
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.26
Adjunct Sugar (Lbs): 1.00
Anticipated OG: 1.046
Anticipated SRM: 4.1
Anticipated IBU: 56.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain
42.0% -- 7.25 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
42.0% -- 7.25 lbs. Canada Malting 2-row Pale Ale Malt
5.8% -- 1.00 lbs. Carapils (Dextrine) Malt
2.7% -- 0.47 lbs. Wheat Malt
1.7% -- 0.29 lbs. Caramel 20L Malt

Sugar
5.8% -- 1.00 lbs. Turbinado Sugar

Hops
1.25 oz Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) 60 min.
1.25 oz Columbus (Pellet, 13.9% AA) 10 min.
1.38 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.8% AA) 10 min.
1.38 oz Cascade (Pellet, 5.4% AA) 0 min.

Yeast
1/2 White Labs 007
1/2 White Labs 575

Water Profile
Clearview, degassed overnight
3/8 teaspoon Calcium Sulfate

Mash Schedule
Sacch. Rest: 90 min. @ 152F

Extras:
26 drops Fermcap-S (to prevent boiling over)
2 Whirlfloc tablets

Notes

• Brewed on Saturday, October 29, 2011
• Actual efficiency: 67% (I'm starting to think my efficiency problems are ingredient related, rather than process)
• Pitched yeast into each fermentor at ~9PM.   The wort was down to 64F, and it's 62F in the cellar.
• 6:30AM Monday, both beers are fermenting happily.   the 007 has a bit more kraeusen, but the 575 is catching up to it. 
• Beers rose to about 70F, after I covered them with a blanket, and they are now holding there with the use of the heat mat.   The 007 is pretty much finished, and I'm giving it another day at the warmer temp before letting it chill back to cellar temp (61F, currently) for a few days.   I added the brettanomyces infected oak cubes from the wedding stout keg to the 575 fermentor on Tuesday (11/1), and it still has a nice layer of foam on top, so it will sit around in the fermentor at least until I have another empty keg. 
• The 007 beer is carbonated and is getting swilled down this weekend.  It's quite hoppy, but the malt flavor is still there, and there's a nice sweet fruitiness with the yeast, even though it finished out quite dry

Chevre and Jalapeno Jelly sandwich

Abby made some sourdough last night, so we wound up having bread, cheese, and just random pickings of fruit and such today.   

For a wedding gift, one of the band members gave us a jar of home made jalapeno jelly, which is absolutely delicious.  

We decided to participate in the "cheese lovers" share at Doe Run Farm CSA, so we got a big log of Belle Chevre, that we've been slowly working on this week. 

Abby came up with the idea of the sandwich, but I thought it sounded like a great idea.   Comfort food, but weird.   Weird in a really tasty way, though.

2 slices sourdough (home made is best, of course)
spread Chevre over 1 side of one slice
spread jalapeno over 1 side of the other slice

Slap the slices together and eat it.   Sweet, sour, smoky, spicy, creamy...   this hits an awesome chord in your mouth.

Wedding Small Stout

So, Abby and I are getting married, and I thought that a batch of homebrew would be great for the reception.    I wanted to do something more on the malty end, because I know several of the attendees are not big fans of hops.   So I arrived at a dry stout, because it's a fairly accessible style, and I could put in some extra stuff that would complement those flavors nicely.   I got the base recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, and then slightly modified the grain bill, because too much of the black barley will make a beer taste like an ashtray, and I added a little Victory malt to my recipe, to add some toasty, biscuity flavors that the extract wouldn't have.

Originally, I was thinking that I could do an extract  batch and save myself a couple of hours.  This seemed like a good idea, because we've got so much going on with moving and combining households and such.   I looked into cold steeping the roasted grain the night before brewing, which seemed like it would work nicely.  Then I realized that the flaked barley really needed to be mashed to extract all the good stuff from it, so I would have to at least do a partial mash.   At that point, I decided that I may as well do a full-on all-grain batch.

I found a bucket of Maris Otter pale malt in the basement, which I hadn't realised that I had, so that was settled.   I removed the Victory malt from the recipe, because this base malt has some nice flavors to it (aside from it probably getting lost in the other flavors).    I spotted the cherry syrup that was left over from a couple of other brews, and decided to add that, to make mine a little more unique, and get rid of the bottle.

Friday rolled around and I skipped out of work a little early and got going.   There were a few problems along the way.   I overheated both the strike water and the sparge water.  I also forgot which direction I needed to hook things up with the pump, so I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out why the sweet liquor wouldn't flow when the pump was on, but would when it was off.   Other than those relatively small things, and a swarm of mosquitoes, things went pretty smoothly, though.

My current plan is to rack this into a keg in a couple of weeks, and add the oak cubes from Old Funkulator (an old ale with a bunch of Brett. Lambicus added, which has been warm aging for 7 months).   I'll let it sit warm after that, and hopefully the brett will have just enough time to add some interestingness to the stout before it's time to drink it.


Wedding Small Stout

Batch Size (Gal): 5.5
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.00
Adjunct Sugar (Lbs): 1.00
Anticipated OG: 1.047
Anticipated SRM: 36.9
Anticipated IBU: 29.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time (min): 70

Grain
60.0% -- 6.00 lbs. Maris Otter
20.0% -- 2.00 lbs. Flaked Barley
5.0% -- 0.50 lbs. Roasted Barley
5.0% -- 0.50 lbs. Black Barley

Sugar
10.0% -- 1.00 lbs. Fruit Fast Montmorency Tart Cherry Concentrate

Hops
1.25 oz Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 5.20% AA) 60 min.

Yeast
Lallemand (Danstar) Nottingham (rehydrated in 90F distilled water)

Water Profile
Clearview, degassed overnight
1/8 teaspoon Calcium Carbonate
1/4 teaspoon Calcium Chloride 

Mash Schedule
Sacch. Rest: 60 min. @ 156F
Batch Sparge:  15 min. @ 166F

Notes

• Brewed on Friday, September 2, 2011
• Added Roasted Barley and Black Barley before adding the sparge water, to hopefully prevent getting too much astringency from the dark malts.
• Actual OG: 1.048:  volume was a little low.
• Pitched yeast slurry at ~11AM Saturday, September 3, 2011, wort was at 56F.   Capped with foil.
• Monday, September 5, 2011 @8AM, still no activity.   Wort is now at 58F.  I'm guessing that the cold shocked the yeast, at this point.   I'll probably stir the wort up a little bit if I don't see any activity by this afternoon.
• Monday, September 5, 2011 @11AM, finally some kraeusen starting to form.  59F.
• Tuesday, September 6, 2011 @8AM, 54F:   should have backed off on the ice additions to the cooler.
• Wednesday, September 7, 2011 @7AM, 60F: perfect.   Added less ice back, to counter the temperature rise that the yeast are trying to make happen.
• Wednesday, September 7, 2011 @4:30PM, 62F.   Replaced ice.
• Thursday, September 8, 2011 @8AM, 61F.   Replaced ice.
• Thursday, September 8, 2011 @7PM, 62F.  Measured 1.020, so I decided to stop switching out the ice packs and just let it slowly rise.
• Saturday, September 10, 2011 @2PM, 64F, most activity appears to have stopped.

Triple Berry Soda

For my next trick, I'm going to try making a soda using a commercial frozen fruit medley.   I was quite happy with the ginger ale, and will probably try making another of those sometime soon, but I'm out of ginger and don't feel like going anywhere today.

1 - 1lbs bag of triple berry frozen fruit medley (blackberry, blueberry, raspberry) partially thawed and crushed
1L - water
200g - turbinado sugar
2t - lime juice
1- 2 inch stick of canela soft cinnamon
1/2 - vanilla bean, split, scraped, and cut into pieces

I'll boil all of this for 15 minutes.  after chilling in an ice water bath for 10 or 15 minutes, I'll add 1/8 teaspoon of pectic enzyme, which will hopefully keep the syrup from turning into jelly.    after I let that sit for an hour or so, I'll pop the syrup into the refrigerator and let it chill through the day.

Once the syrup is cold, I'll transfer to the 2L plastic bottle, carbonate, and shake.

first attempt at a ginger "ale"

1L water
99g grated fresh ginger
300g turbinado sugar
10 crushed allspice pods
1T lime juice

combine everything, bring to a boil...   boil for 10 minutes, strain into a canning jar for cooling. 

tomorrow, i'll transfer it to a 2L bottle and force carbonate with some of my beer equipment.   the syrup is pretty tasty, though.

Edit:   this particular mix has the "bite" that i'm looking for, but is a little too sweet for my taste.   also, it's a bit cloudy, so I may need to get some pectic enzyme to clear up the pectin that formed from boiling the ginger.

Fried Green Tomatoes

I finally did it.

After over 3 decades of living in the south, I finally made and tried fried green tomatoes.  

The CSA gave us some leftover green tomatoes last week.   Maybe some people prefer them, and maybe they just had some heavy wind knock a few off the vines.   Either way, I wound up with a couple of large green tomatoes, and since I have more stuff on the way tomorrow, I figured I should try doing something with these.  Frying them seemed like the obvious choice, and it was not a bad one.

I had some green beans as a side, which got my normal crab-boil, liquid smoke, liquid aminos, and butter treatment.   It works well for greens and black eyed peas, so I didn't see any reason that green beans should be any different.

• Oil to coat the bottom of a pan to an eighth to a quarter of an inch
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1t Old Bay Seasoning
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 large green tomato, cut into 3/8 inch slices
• Additional Old Bay to taste

Get the oil heated to at least 250F, and 300F would probably be a bit better (you'll really want a fry or candy thermometer to test that).    While that heats, get a container that will hold at least one (and preferably more) tomato slice, and put the flour, cornmeal, and first bit of Old Bay into it and mix thoroughly.   Put the buttermilk into another, similar container.

When the oil is almost up to temperature, dredge the tomato slices in the cornmeal/flour mixture to coat, then dip them in the buttermilk to coat, and then back into the cornmeal/flour mixture, before carefully placing them into the hot oil (try to lay them so any oil that splashes will splash away from you).   Cook for 3-4 minutes per side, flipping carefully.   When they're finished, and have a nice golden-brown color, remove them to a plate covered in paper towels, and lightly season with the additional Old Bay.

Veggie Bowties (florentine?)

This is basically yesterday's pasta, but with more tomato and some spinach-like greens, rather than a kohlrabi.   I'm really not certain what these greens are...  they're like a cross between what I generally think of as spinach and chard.   Too "ruffled" for most spinach, and without the "earthiness" of chard.

• Olive oil for sauteeing & drizzling
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium/large red onion, sliced into sticks
• 6-8 little carrots (probably 1.5 large grocery carrots), chopped
• 1 small yellow squash, chopped into disks
• 1/2 medium zucchini, chopped into disk
• 1 bunch spinach or other leafy green vegetable...  1/2 lbs, minus stalks. and torn up
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 3 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup malty beer (I used My Biere De Garde, this time)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Salt & Black pepper to taste
• 6oz bowtie pasta
• (non-vegan -> grated parmesan cheese to taste)

Pretty much the same process as last night, too.   The biggest difference is that the greens went into the sauce immediately after the pasta went into the boiling water.   This gave them just enough time to wilt nicely, without overcooking.  If anything this one tasted a little better than last night's, probably due to the extra tomatoes. 

Veggie Bowties

The Thursday before last, I picked up some tomatoes at the roadside farmer's market on my way home.   I love cooking with fresh tomatoes, and I'll be glad when I'm harvesting mine, but until then, I won't mind getting them from the CSA and farmer's market.   Those are usually much more ripe and ready than the ones from the grocery.

The CSA this week included a good bit of squash and zucchini, as well as a couple of kohlrabi and a big red onion.   They also had some little carrots, with tops.   Those still have the "carrot" nature, but they have a bit different flavor and texture from most of the carrots that you get at the store.

I'm just sort of rambling at this point, I think.   Quick Primavera pastas are pretty much a weekly staple for me during the summer.   Especially since I started participating in the CSA, since I wind up getting a big pile of fresh vegetables that I don't necessarily normally buy, and the pasta makes a really good "glue".   I'll hopefully post a few recipes from these things, though they will mostly be variations on the same theme that this one uses.

Enough talk...   This makes 2 servings.

• Olive oil for sauteeing & drizzling
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium/large red onion, sliced into sticks
• 5-6 little carrots (probably 1 large grocery carrot), chopped
• 1 small yellow squash, chopped into disks
• 1/2 medium zucchini, chopped into disks
• 1 kohlrabi, sliced into chunks
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves
• 3-4 sprigs fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup malty beer (I used my Saison Sombre, since it just went into the keg)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Salt & Black pepper to taste
• 6oz bowtie pasta
• (non-vegan -> grated parmesan cheese to taste)

I chopped all of the vegetables but the tomato, to try and make sure all the water that came out of the tomato would go into the sauce.  Next, I got the fry pan heating on medium high heat.   When water flicked onto the pan sizzled, I added enough oil to lightly coat the pan and added the garlic, onion, and carrots.  At approximately the same time, I got the water for the pasta heating on high.   Next, I got the tomato chopped up, and tore up about half of the basil leaves and set aside half of the oregano leaves.

Once the onion had mostly lost the purple color and started turning translucent, I added the rest of the vegetables, the prepared half of the herbs, the red pepper flakes, and some black pepper and a little salt. 

After the water came to a boil, I added the pasta, brought the water back to a boil, put the lid on the pan and turned the heat off.   I cooked the pasta for about ten minutes.   Meanwhile, I got the rest of the basil ready to tear, and stirred the sauce every minute or two.   It was just starting to stick to the pan with about 2 minutes left on the pasta, and with about 1 minute left, I added the beer to deglaze.

When the pasta was finished, I dumped it and the water into a sieve and shook it somewhat dry, and then dumped it into the pan with the sauce.  I added the last of the herbs and drizzled a final bit of olive oil over the pasta as I stirred it up.   I finished with stirring in some fresh parm.

Belgian IPA MII

The first beer I brewed using my new setup was also my first attempt at creating something similar to Stone's Cali-Belgique.   Though, instead of doing an IPA with Belgian yeast, I basically did a Tripel that was hopped like an IPA.   I did use all European-style hops (Mt. Hood, US Fuggles, US Saaz), to try and keep it in that less-aggressively-hopped realm.   It turned out to be really tasty, and something about that particular combination of hops produced an Orange-Juice-like flavor, which was pretty neat.

Today's brew is going in a little different direction.     I've got the T-58/3787 left over from the Cherry Stout, and I'm going to go with American hops this time around, to get more fruit flavors.   I'm using a few pounds of honey to dry it out and maybe provide some floral flavors, and I'm going to give it about an ounce of oak chips for it to sit on during primary fermentation.   I did the honey and oak thing in my first beer of the year, and it wound up making a really tasty, drinkable beverage.

So, yet again, my efficiency was horribly low.    All I know to do at this point is to either adjust the copper manifold somehow or to go back to the stainless mesh.   Luckily, I had some malt extract on hand, so I wound up adding a good bit of that to the boil kettle.   I even did a 90 minute mash.   I really don't have any obvious culprit for what the problem is, though, so I may just try going back to the mesh on the next beer and see if that fixes things.   Then I'll at least know whether it's an equipment problem or a technique problem.   Another culprit may be the gap on my grain mill...   I should check that.

Belgian IPA MII

Batch Size (Gal): 6
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.83
Adjunct Sugar (Lbs): 3
Anticipated OG: 1.081
Anticipated SRM: 7.1
Anticipated IBU: 76.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 40%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain
53.9% -- 8 lbs. French Pilsen Malt
3.4% -- 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt
3.4% -- 0.50 lbs. Crystal 40L
19.1% -- 2.83 lbs  Munton's Extra Light DME (Due to efficiency problems)

Sugar
20.2% -- 3.00 lbs. Tennessee Mountain Wildflower Honey

Hops
0.50 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) First Wort
0.50 oz. Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) First Wort
0.75 oz. Magnum (Pellet, 12.10% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) @ 15 min.
1.00 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) @ 10 min.
1.00 oz Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) @ 5 min.
1.00 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) @ 0 min.
1.50 oz Amarillo VGXP01 (Pellet, 6.90% AA) Dry
1.50 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) Dry

Yeast
Wyeast 3787 - Trappist High Gravity
Fermentis Safbrew T-58
(repitched slurry)

Water Profile
Clearview, degassed overnight
1.5 teaspoons gypsum

Mash Schedule
Sacch. Rest: 90 min. @ 151F
Batch Sparge:  15 min. @ 166F

Notes

• Brewed on Monday, May 30, 2011
• Actual OG was 1.070 after everything was said and done.   A good reason to keep DME around.   That was around the gravity that I was originally aiming for.
• Added 1oz oak chips soaked in 1 cup of water for a couple of hours and then heated to boiling in a microwave to fermentor immediately prior to racking from the kettle.
• Chilled to 64F and pitched.
• ~48 hour lag time.  I'm not sure if that was because of the temperature, the honey, or both.
• Temperature rose by itself up to 70F, and after a day and a half, I covered it and set the temperature controller to 70F.
• Temperature then levelled off at 72F, and it was held there for 7 days.
• Flavor is currently "Tropical fruit bubblegum"   which isn't a bad thing in my opinion.
• The bubblegum has diminished significantly.   Racked to secondary and dry hopped with 1.5oz Amarillo and 1.5oz Centennial on June 20, 2011

Pasta Salad

They decided to hold a baby shower for a woman at work, and I offered to make a pasta salad.   It seemed to be a hit, and I had a couple of people ask for the recipe.   This is actually a variation on one that some friends gave me several years ago, but it's simple, and pasta salad is a pretty good glue for all kinds of things.

Pasta:
1 pound of rotini

Salt & boil water, add rotini, and cook for 8 minutes.   Drain and rinse with cold water.

Veggies & such:
1 jar of halved kalamata olives, chopped 
1 jar of roasted red peppers, chopped
1 container of Feta cheese
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 green onions, halved and chopped
1t black pepper (to taste)
1t dry thyme
Fresh Oregano: the leaves from 3 4-inch sprigs, rough chopped
Fresh Rosemary: 2-inch sprig, rough chopped

Dressing:
1t dry mustard powder
1 part balsamic vinegar
2 parts extra virgin olive oil

Mix and shake in some sort of container.

Mix pasta and vegetables & herbs, add dressing to taste.   I used some green onions from my CSA, so if you get scallions from the store, you should probably use 4-5 of them.

Purple Drink

From July 11, 2010.   This was a bit thick, and I probably should have run the blackberries through a ricer, as it was a bit seedy, too.   A banana would be good in it, too.
-------------------

2 peaches
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup blackberries
1T lemon juice
1T honey
1 cup orange juice
ginger ale

Put everything but the ginger ale into the blender and once it's chopped up good, switch it over to liquefy for about 30 seconds. Mix 1 part fruit to 3-4 parts ginger ale and stir well.

Clover Mead For Strawberry Melomel

Abby and I made another mead on Sunday morning.   This time around was 4 quarts of Clover Honey from a somewhat local source.   I wanted to go with about 4 gallons this time, to get the Original Gravity somewhere in the 1.100 range, and we were successful with that, though we had to add a little extra from a honey bear that I bought when I bought the rest of that.    2 gallons of the water were leftover Milksick water from the Cherry Stout.

The whole thing pretty much went right as planned.   We've been doing the "no heat" method, and have had a decent amount of success with it (no failures so far, anyway).   I'm also doing the stepped feeding & stirring, as outlined by Ken Schramm in The Jamil Show on Mead.  That basically involves stirring in nutrients every day or two, to provide additional oxygen for yeast growth, and to give them the nutrients they need as they deplete their reserves.    Essentially, you keep them from getting too stressed, since honey is a nutrient wasteland.

We did soak the jars in a hot water bath this time, which made the honey pour very easily, and made stirring it into the water pretty much a breeze.   

This coming weekend, we're planning to run down to a Local Farm that does "pick your own" strawberries, and I'll be getting several pounds of them to put into this.    I'll top, clean, and freeze the berries, then thaw them and get them near room temperature before adding them to the must, once it's up near the 10% alcohol mark.

Clover Mead for Strawberry Melomel

Batch Size (Gal): 4
Honey (Gal): 1
Anticipated OG: 1.100

Sugar
4 1-quart jars of Weber Farms Clover Honey

Water
2 gallons Milksick water
1 gallon Clearview water

Yeast
Lalvin 71B-1122 2 5g packets, rehydrated in 1 cup of 100F distilled water

Extras
1/2 teaspoon Yeast Energizer
1/2 teaspoon Yeast Nutrient

Notes

• Mixed on Sunday, May 14 2011, around 9AM  
• 24.75 Brix, ~4 gallons
• Airlock activity by 8:40PM
• Temperature in the house has been in the low 60's
• 9PM Tuesday night, added 1/4t Yeast Energizer and 1/2t Yeast Nutrient and stirred pretty vigorously.   A lot of gas came out of suspension, but the gravity hasn't changed much yet.   Maybe 1/2-degree Brix.  pH around 3.8
• 9PM Thursday night, added 1/4t Yeast Energizer and 1/4t Yeast Nutrient and stirred vigorously.   pH still 3.8, gravity 23.5 Brix
• 10AM Saturday Morning, added 1/4t Yeast Energizer and 1/4t Yeast Nutrient and stirred.  pH 3.6, gravity 20.5 Brix

Pilaf-Stuffed Delicata Squash

This is from October 31, 2010.   Toward the end of the Winter CSA, I have a bunch of squash and sweet potatoes that need to be dealt with, but I've let them sit, since they can for a while, without going bad.   I was somewhat winging it with this, with the gorgonzola and cranberries, but the sweet, sour, and sharp really worked well together.   The beer is spiced, so that added some additional character, but truly you'd be unlikely to pick out its contribution, what with everything else going on in the dish.   It did make a nice pairing to the food, though.
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Roasted Delicata:

• 2 Delicata Squash
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425F.  Cut each squash in half lengthwise and cut the seeds and stringy stuff out with a spoon.  Set them on a roasting pan  Peel the garlic cloves and cut the hard bit off, and cut them in half lengthwise.   Smear garlic over the exposed parts of the squash and then leave a clove's worth of garlic in the bowl of each squash-half.  Brush the squash liberally with olive oil, and then season with some salt and pepper.    Put in the oven and roast at 425F for 40 minutes.

Pilaf:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 large portabella mushroom cap, cut into small cubes
• 1T unsalted butter
• 1 cup Rice Select Royal Blend rice blend (texmati, brown, wild, & red rices)
• 3/4 cup Terrapin Pumpkinfest ale
• 7/8 cup water
• 1T fresh sage
• 1T Bragg's liquid aminos
• 1/4t fresh-ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup dry cranberries
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts  (toast in a dry skillet over medium heat just until aromatic, and remove from heat)
• 1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese
• salt & pepper

Melt butter in a large sautee pan, and add the onion, sweet potato, and mushroom.   Add a little salt to help pull moisture out of the vegetables.  Cook on medium heat until the sweet potato is just softening, 10-15 minutes.   Add the rice and stir around and make sure it's all covered with a slight sheen of butter.   Deglaze with the beer.   Add the water, sage, nutmeg, Bragg's, and any additional salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil, toss in the cranberries, Cover and simmer for 15 minutes (or slightly less time than the rice package recommends).    Remove from heat and stir in the walnuts and cheese until the cheese has mostly melted.

Pile the Pilaf into the roasted squash until it's mounded over the top of the squash.   Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, or until the pilaf has slightly crusted on top.

Butternut Squash Soup

November 8, 2009.   I made this for Abby the first time she came up to the house.   I'd had some squash from the CSA sitting around, and wanted to make something good for a cool day.    Looks like today is another of those, though the butternut are no longer in season.   Nutmeg and Sage go amazingly well with winter squash.
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2 small/medium butternut squash, halved & seeded
4 cloves of garlic, crushed & peeled
olive oil

Rub each squash half with a garlic clove, drop the clove into the seed cavity, then brush with olive oil.  Roast at 425F for 30 minutes, and then rotate the pan and roast an additional 20 minutes at 350F. Set out to cool.

1/2 large onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, bias cut
3 medium/small carrots, quartered & diced
2 cloves garlic
olive oil to coat bottom of soup pot
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg
10-15 small-medium fresh sage leaves, chopped
2oz heavy cream
4 cups water
sea salt & pepper to taste

Put onion, celery, carrots, and garlic into a pot with olive oil to sweat, with just a little salt. While the vegetables cook, rough-chop the garlic that was roasted with the squash, and then use a spoon and the back of a knife to scrape the meat from the skin of the squash. When the onions were nice and translucent, add the squash and the water. Then added the herbs & spices, and the cream last. Simmer slowly for an hour or so.

Serve with grated parmessean and toasted ciabatta bread, with a little bit of butter.

Honey Beer Bread

 December 4, 2010.   I pretty much just threw this together and it worked.   I was trying to make a decent "rustic" loaf of bread.   In my experience that basically means a big lump of dough that's cooked on a flat surface.   Having a pizza stone makes this particularly easy.
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1/4 cup warm water
1 pack active dry yeast

Rehydrate yeast in water

1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
2 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients

1/2 cup malty beer (yazoo fall fest in this case)
1/4 cup clover honey
1 cup warm water

Mix everything together and turn out and knead for 10 minutes let rise for 90 minutes, and then punch down and fold into a loaf and let it bench proof for another 80 minutes. Cut slits in the top & bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

Chili Seasoning

December 23, 2010.   I gave a jar of this to my dad to use in the bag of posole that I gave him for christmas.

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flake of whole cinnamon
1t cumin seed
1t hot mex. chili powder
1t regular chili powder
2t new mexican red chili powder
1t garlic powder
1t onion powder
1t hungarian paprika
1/4t (mounded) dry mustard powder
1/4t (mounded) thyme
1/2t (mounded) mexican oregano

Mix in a coffee grinder and add to chili or use as a taco seasoning.

Broccoli Pasta

I should have gotten some pictures, but I was too busy cooking and eating...

1 shallot, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
4oz mushrooms, sliced
2 broccoli crowns, cut into bite-sized pieces
Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
1T fresh oregano, chopped (1/3-1/2 of that dry)
1t fresh basil, chopped
1/4t crushed red pepper
6oz rotini

Fresh grated parmesan to taste

Make sure the rack is in the center of the oven, and turn it to 500F.   Sautee the shallot, garlic, and mushrooms in some olive oil in a large, oven safe sautee pan for 3-4 minutes before turning the pasta water to high in a covered pot (I use a 4-quart saucepan, you may need to just time or sautee temperature according to your equipment).  The mushrooms should  be taking on some nice color just as the water comes to a boil.   Add the broccoli and herbs and some additional oil and stir thoroughly, so everything is mixed well, and then put the entire pan into the oven, uncovered.   Add the pasta to the water.   Cook the pasta for the time specified on its container.   Drain the pasta, remove the sauce from the oven, and combine (careful of that handle, it'll be hot) everything in the sautee pan.   Add parmesan and stir until it has melted into the dish, and serve.