Beer Vacation

Ever taken a beer vacation? Even if not the main goal, I attempt to taste as many new beers as I can when out of town. Here, the brewpubs are only allowed to sell their beers at their brewpub location, it's dumb the law in MN. If you visit somewhere that doesn't have national or regional distribution, you have only one chance to sample everything you can (unless you plan another trip).

Last weekend, the Mrs. and I went up to Duluth and did some hiking along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was a great relaxing weekend. We didn't get to all the breweries we want, because some had limited hours and were closed on Mon-Tues like many here in the Twin Cities, but we got to sample some wonderful brews and food. I put a list together of all the places we dined and the brews we tried there. If you get up to Duluth, check these places out and let us know what you think.

Fitger's Brewhouse Brewery & Grille - Duluth MN
I had a flight, cause it was my birthday. Then tried a couple specialty brews, and paired it with an Elk Burger with blue corn tortilla chips and salsa.

- XXX English Pale Ale (favorite of the flight)
- MN Nice Cream Ale
- Starfire Pale Ale
- Big Boat Oatmeal Stout
- El Nino IPA
- Apricot Wheat
- Lighthouse Golden Ale
- Homegrown Hempen Ale
- Big Boat Oatmeal Stout on cask

Do North Pizzeria - Two Harbors MN
We didn't have any beer here, but the pink lemonade and taco pizza was fantastic for our day of hiking Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock State Park.

Canal Park Brewing Co. - Duluth MN
I had the Duluth Dip (thin cut roast beef topped with sautéed mushrooms & onions with a cup of Au Jus sauce) and beer-battered cheese curds.

- Nut Hatchet Brown Ale (maybe my favorite of the whole trip)
- 40 Acre Saison

Northern Waters Smokehaus - Duluth MN

No beer here either, but this might've been my favorite meal of the whole trip. My mother-in-law's cousin owns this place. It's a little hole in the wall deli in an old warehouse-turned-shopping center. I had the smoked salmon pita wrap with Sprecher's root beer. This place is getting so popular it's hard to find a seat at one of their bistro tables out front, and I've heard they are expanding to a 2nd location in Duluth.

Thirsty Pagan Brewing Co. - Superior WI

It was raining on Monday and most of the breweries in Duluth we wanted to try were closed so we went over the bridge into WI. There's not much to do in Superior on a Monday, so we ended up at Thirsty Pagan Brewing Co. right as the brewpub opened for the afternoon. They were having their 9th anniversary party and we got some happy hour special beers and even free caramel cookies. The guy next to us at the bar said we should try one of their fabulous pizzas, so I guess we'll have to go back soon.

- North Coast Amber Ale

- Bourbon Barrel Aged Penelope Porter on cask (my wife's favorite from the trip)

Grandma's Saloon & Grille - Duluth MN

Just across the canal from our inn is Grandma's, it looks like a northern lumberjack version of Cracker Barrel, but replace all the southern comfort food you'd expect and substitute fresh smoked or fried lake fish and a comprehensive burger menu. We tried to go to Castle Danger Brewery in Two Harbors the day before, but they were closed so I got my Castle Danger fix while I scarfed down the biggest beer-battered walleye sandwich I've ever seen. 

- Castle Cream Ale (the only beer I had all weekend that wasn't made on premises)

Have you ever done a beer vacation? Where did you go and what did you sample?

American IPA

Brew Day: 3/23/15

1 gallon Dead Ringer extract kit from Northern Brewer. (it's supposed to be a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale)

1 1/4 gal in the kettle

0.2 lb of Briess Carmel 40L

Let grains steep while I heated the water. Put them in at 140, took off the heat at 154. Down to 150 after 10 mins. Turned heat back on. 50 min boil. (Recipe calls for 45 min boil, but waited to add hops until past the hot break, about 5 mins)

1.5 lb Gold LME - 55 mins
3.5 gram Centennial hops 8.4% AA - 45 mins
3.5 gram Centennial hops 8.4% AA - 20 mins
1/4 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
7 gram Centennial hops 8.4% AA - 5 mins
7 gram Centennial hops 8.4% AA - 0 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Poured wort through the double-mesh strainer into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched half a packet of Safale US-05 at 72. Hoping to keep the fermentation temp between 65-75 using ambient temps in the apartment. The gravity came in at 1.064, which is right on for the recipe from NB, but higher than the 1.054 that my Brewers Friend app calculated. Ended up with just over 3/4 gal in the fermenter. Lots of hops so lost some volume.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, then about 2 weeks to bottle condition. The 5 gal kit from NB calls for dry hopping in secondary for 5 days, but the small batch kit doesn't. So I'm going to just give it about 3 total weeks in the primary before bottling.

OG: 1.064 (15.8 brix) 

est IBU: 40.2

est FG: 1.012
est SRM: 9.12
est ABV: 6.83%

I filmed the brew day with my new tripod mount for the iPhone. 

If you want to watch it on Youtube, click right HERE.

Results of My First Homebrew Competition

Back in November, I entered a local homebrew contest that was put on by Northern Brewer and Bent Brewstillery. I only had one beer that was ready at the time of registration, my Dubbel, so I entered it under the name "The Merry Monk." It was my first time entering a competition, and I was both nervous and excited. I knew that the beer hadn't been steller, in fact I dumped about half of the batch out, but I wanted feedback and some validation that I'm not a complete waste of grain.

The recipe I had was partly from a kit from Midwest Supplies called the Noble Trappist Ale. Belgian yeast and German hops. I got most of the kit from a Craigslist deal, the seller was moving so he just threw it in as I was buying all his carboys and bottles. I needed to get the yeast, specialty grains, and hops from the store since they weren't in the box. I also added an extra pound of dark candi sugar (at the suggestion of the sales clerk) to bump up the abv a bit.

I brewed this in August, before this blog, so I don't have my notes, though the original recipe can be found here. I didn't expect to win anything, but since my wife doesn't have a discerning craft beer palate and most of my craft beer friends live 500 miles away in Missouri, I wanted some feedback on my process. I did better than I expected, but obviously not as good as I'd liked. I got a 26. See my scoresheets here. If you'd like to see the winners, the list can be found here.

I'm not discouraged from competing, in fact I might enter several more in the months to come. Who knows, maybe I'll have a killer batch and maybe even win something. I'll have to refer to myself as an "award winning homebrewer." Hahaha! Until then, I brew for myself...the science of the process and the enjoyment of the end result.

Have you entered in a competition? Tell me about it in the comments below. Cheers.

American Brown Ale

Brew Day: 2/17/15

1 gallon extract kit from Northern Brewer.

1 1/4 gal in the kettle

0.05 lb Crystal 80L
0.05 lb Chocolate malt
0.025 lb Black malt

Let grains steep while I heated the water. Put them in at 120, took off the heat at 160. Still had 4 mins left of 10 min steep. Down to 158 after remaining 4 mins. Turned heat back on. 55 min boil. (waited to add hops until past the hot break, about 10 mins)

1.5 lb Gold LME - 55 mins
7 gram Willamette hops 4.7% AA - 45 mins
1/4 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
3.5 gram Willamette hops 4.8% AA - 15 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Siphoned out of kettle (to leave hops behind) through the double-mesh strainer into a 2 gal bucket. Put the end of the siphon hose in a nylon mesh hop bag in attempts to keep this clearer in the fermenter. Pitched half a packet of Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast at 69. Hoping to keep the fermentation temp between 65-70 using ambient temps in the apartment. The gravity came in at 1.055, up 2 points from the est OG of 1.053. Ended up with just over 3/4 gal in the fermenter. Guess that extra 10 mins of boil and that hop bag really reduced the total volume.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, then 2-3 weeks in secondary, then about 2 weeks to bottle condition.

OG: 1.055 (13.6 brix) 

est IBU: 27.5

est FG: 1.015
est SRM: 21.5

Fermentation Update: 2/25/15

On 2/22 I took a gravity reading and it was down to 1.017, two points from final gravity. I've heard of these English yeast strains taking longer to finish than others. I've also been told by several people online and in-store at Northern Brewer that hitting a "stuck" fermentation with some champagne yeast can help it get going again without imparting additional unwanted flavor. So I put in 1/3 or a pack of dry champagne yeast on 2/22 and waited a few days. Today I measured again and it went UP 2 POINTS instead of down! So now I'm at 1.019. No idea what's going on. I guess I'll have to give it a few more days, and then see what's changed. Anyone else experimented with champagne yeast? Let me know in the comments.

Packaged: 3/17/17 

No secondary. These 1 gal kits from NB don't call for one in the recipe, but I normally do to help clarify. The champagne yeast must've helped, because I got the gravity down to 1.013. It just took longer than expected. As stated above, some English yeasts can take longer to finish out. That puts this beer in 5.51% abv. I bottled 5 12oz bottles. I could've gotten a bit more, but I was starting to pick up the yeast cake at the bottom and I'm going for quality over quantity. I can always make more if it's good. This recipe is NB's clone of Big Sky's Moose Drool. So when mine is fully carbonated, I'll do a side by side.

Chinook IPA

Brew Day: 1/27/15

1 gallon extract kit from Northern Brewer.

3/4 gal in the kettle

0.15 lb Belgian Carapils
0.05 lb Crystal 120L

Steeped grains at 160. Down to 152 after 20 mins. Added 1/2 gal to bring total pre-boil volume to 1.25 gals. Turned heat back on. 45 min boil. 

1.5 lb Light LME - 45 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 45 mins
1/4 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 10 mins
7 gram Chinook hops 13% AA - 0 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Siphoned out of kettle (to leave hops behind) through the double-mesh strainer into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched half a packet of Safale US-05 at 69. Gonna shoot for a fermentation temp of 68 using ambient temp in the apartment. Under shot the gravity a bit, hoping for 1.057, ended up with 1.050. Maybe should've boiled off a bit more, though my volume was right at 1 gal in the fermentation bucket.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, then 2-4 weeks in secondary, then about 2 weeks to bottle condition.

OG: 1.050 (12.5 brix) 

est IBU: 40.58

est FG: 1.016
est SRM: 7.7

Racked to secondary: 2/11/15

Racked the beer into a 1 gal glass jug, and put in the fermentation chamber where it's 60. I've got a lot of bottles from previous batches in there. It's turning into more of a cellar than a fermentation chamber. It makes a good case to go to kegs, less space requirements, but I don't have a good place to keep the kegs cool once fermentation is complete. So bottles will have to continue for now.

It bottomed out at 1.015, so it should be about 4.59% abv. It still tastes/smells very sweet. This is my second attempt at this recipe, cause the first one was too sweet. I hurried the last batch for a party and didn't give it enough time, and that was my downfall. So I'm taking my time now. We'll have to wait and see.

Added gelatin: 2/25/15

Trying to get a nice clear beer. Added 1/8th of a tsp to 2/3 cup of cold water. Heated up the mixture in the microwave in 15 second bursts until it got to 150 deg. Stirred mixture and dumped it into the beer which had been in the fridge for a week at 38 deg. 

Packaged: 3/16/15

After over a month in the fridge clarifying, I ended up with 1 22oz bottle & 6 12oz bottles. This was my first gelatin experiment, so we'll see how clear it is after carbonating. 

Black IPA

Brew Day: 1/12/15

1 gallon extract kit from Northern Brewer.

3/4 gal in the kettle

0.1 lb Briess Crystal 80L0.05 lb Weyermann Carafa III
0.05 lb Chocolate malt

Steeped grains at 160. Down to 132 after 30 mins. Added 3/4 gal to bring total pre-boil volume to 1.5 gals. Turned heat back on, it took 18 mins to bring to a boil. 45 min boil. 

1.5 lb Gold LME - 45 mins (waited to get past hot break before adding hops)
7 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 45 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 11.8% AA - 15 mins
1 tsp Irish Moss - 15 mins
3.5 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 10 mins
3.5 gram Cascade hops 6.5% AA - 5 mins
7 gram Centennial hops 10.4% AA - 0 mins
7 gram Cascade hops 6.5% AA - 0 mins
5 oz Corn Sugar - 0 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Took 11 mins to cool down to 91. It's winter here in Minnesota so I took the opportunity to cool it the rest of the way out on the patio at 0 degrees, and that made me come up with a clever corny name for the beer. Black I(ce)PA.

I'm not lying. It was seriously 0 degrees.

Overshot the projected gravity of 1.071 and ended up at 1.077. I'm okay with it. Dumped the wort out of the kettle, through the double-mesh strainer, into a 1 gal jug to aerate. There were a lot of hops left over in the kettle too. 

Then cleaned the strainer and dumped out of the jug into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched yeast at 69. Safale US-05. Most of the Northern Brewer 1 gal kits call for only 1/2 of the dry yeast packet, but this is a pretty high OG so I used the whole thing. Once it's done it's job, it'll fall out anyway. Attached blowoff tube just in case the extra headroom on the bucket isn't enough. Fermenting at 67.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, then 2-4 weeks in secondary, then about 2 weeks to bottle condition.

OG: 1.077 (18.8 brix) 

est IBU: 66

est FG: 1.020
est SRM: 23.64

Racked to secondary: 1/26/15

Two weeks and now time to rack the beer off the yeast. It smells great. Plenty of hops in the bottom of the bucket, even with straining the wort twice before pitching the yeast. I tasted the sample I pulled off and it was what a black IPA should taste like. I just used the ambient temp in the apartment to ferment this one. It swayed a bit between 64-72 so it didn't get the consistency it probably should've gotten, but we were gone for a bit down to St. Louis to visit family/friends. Which I think is probably ok since it fermented down further than I'd estimated. It got down to 1.014, instead of the 1.020 I was expecting. Guess that extra 1/2 packet of yeast did the trick on the high original gravity. So I should end up about 8.27% abv. 

I'll give it a few days in secondary then bottle. Don't want to wait too long to bottle, cause I want all those amazing hop aromas and oils to be super fresh. I'm debating using gelatin on this to clear it up, but it's so black it may not make a difference. Have you used gelatin to clear your beer? Let me know your process and results in the comments.\

Bottled: 2/10/15

Due to the hops, my wort loss was pretty dramatic. I only got four 22 oz bottles filled. Now to sit and condition.

Battle of the IPA kits

In an attempt to keep a variety of different beers around the house, I've decided to brew more small batch kits. It should also cut down on the amount of time it takes to brew and bottle as opposed to 5 gallon kits. So I picked up two IPA kits from Northern Brewer, and want your help to choose which one I should make first. Click the link below to cast your vote.

Chinook IPA

Black IPA

>>>>> go to my Instagram picture here to vote <<<<<