Summer Yeasts: ECY29 Northeast Ale

With my scaled back 2013 brew schedule I've been brewing less beer. It's been a relief and a regret at the same time. I know what I want to do for the summer in a general sense. I ordered Flemish Ale Yeast for this year's Flander's Red Ale. Additionally I ordered North East Ale Yeast from East Coast Yeast and Microbiologist Al B:

ECY29 Northeast Ale: A unique ale yeast with an abundance of citrusy esters accentuating American style hops in any Double IPA or strong ale. High attenuation is expected. Suggested fermentation temperature 65-70ºF.

This should make a dynamite IPA. Rumor has it that this is the famed Conan strain used by the notoriously secretous brewers at The Alchemist. Their signature brew Heady Topper is consistently ranked as a top beer by hop heads who are lucky enough to get their hands on this silver bullet.

Conan Yeast is one that has a reputation on home brew forums, in the magazines, and on the lips of challenged home brewers everywhere. The First step is to know thy enemy:

Reading more:

• Beer Flavored Ales has some good personal experiences on the strain.
• Signpost Brewing talks about generations of this strain and how it changes. (also above)
• The Dogs of Beer review the beer and the can, it's funny.

Heady Topper is such a good beer that it has a loyal and devoted local following and a cult following from across the nation. If you Google "Conan yeast" there are no fewer than a dozen blog posts on culturing and reviving the strain. Why? I plan to find out. The only question remains is to try to clone heady or continue blazing my own path.

East Coast Yeasts

A Selection of East Coast Yeasts.

I appreciate the consistency, availability, variety, and efficiency of big business. I am also a fan of the flexibility, innovation, and creativity of small business. Big Yeast (Wyeast and White Labs) makes a damn fine product and I want to pay them their due. In the world of small yeast manufacturers Al Buck is trailblazing the way forward for all of us. His company East Coast Yeast produces twenty or more varieties featuring both year round strains and seasonal strains. His small business model allows him the flexibility to release specialty blends of souring cultures, pure brettanomyces cultures, and other strains not typically available from 'big yeast' manufacturers. His souring cultures are unlike anything available from large producers. Bugfarm VI for 2012 includes a mixture of at least 5 brettanomyces strains, wild cider yeast, lacto, and pedio. His saison strain varieties come as a mixture of two strains, a single strain offering spicy notes, as well as a farmhouse brettanomyces blend which features saison yeast and brettanomyces.

I have used each of my vials of east coast yeast in a different batch of beer. I've purchased most of his line at this point and intend to post more information and detailed reviews of the strains. I know that a list like this would have been helpful to me before I dove in with both feet. Exploring East Coast's line has been fun for me and has yielded some delicious results.

(please read more after the break.)

Flowery Teas

I'll be making a wit bier again. After the vanilla didn't quite show up in the STL Wit I wanted to go a different way with my second wit bier. I've decided to try out a few varieties of flower blossoms, or petals, as a tea. My inspiration for this beer has been a number of flower beers that I haven't had a chance to try, and some that I have. The original batch of Goose Island's Fluer is having a large influence over this beer.

(please read more about my flowered teas after the break.)

'Rustic' Rye Saison

An Ear of Rye

What is Rye? Rye is a cereal grain similar to other cereal grains but it differentiates itself by growing more more heartily. Rye can grow in much poorer soil and grows vigorously even over the winter. Rye is mostly grown in Europe although it is cultivated on at least three other continents. Why add rye to my beers? Because it has a delicious if not elusive flavor. Straight from Briess's webpage: "Rye has a spicy rye flavor." I learned in school that if your definition for a word includes that word than it's a poor definition. Briess has told me nothing about rye. Looking at other sources yielded little to nothing else; the answer just kept coming back to 'rye is rye'. If I had to describe it I would say that it has a stronger flavor than other grains; A sharp, crisp, earthen flavor, with bark and nut spices mixed in. I think the best way to characterize rye is that you know when it's there, and you know when it's not. Nothing can replace it.

This isn't my first rye beer; there was last winter's ginger in the fields saison. It was nice and had a great flavor. It was enjoyed by all. This time rather than making another beer that focused as heavily on the ginger I wanted to make a nice saison with rye. This isn't my first saison either, but because my apartment is quite hot during the day I wanted to work with a more temperature tolerant yeast. After looking at the suggested fermentation temperatures of 75-85° for ECY 08 Saison Brasserie I believe that I will be okay.

(please read more after the break.)

Ordering Hop Rhizomes

Ordering Hop Rhizomes was the moon to me. Gardening is not my foray, my green thumb is novice at best. Hops are hardy plants though right? Strong growing vines with a medium to high yield.

So I read, researched, and scoured the internet for information. I learned a few things, Hops grow from root stock. They grow vigorously and yield well in their 3rd year. This post is going to run through my process and decision making from having cash in my pocket to having roots in the ground.

(read more after the break.)

Vanilla Beans

In my post on the American Double Chocolate/Oak/Vanilla Stout I made I briefly touched on vanilla and the it's complexities. This post is meant to expound on the information I shared there as well as to show the process for preparing and adding vanilla beans.  In my next post I will detail my recipe and process for the beer I'm adding these too after a lengthy extraction time.

Types of Beans

Vanilla beans are the fruit of Vanilla Orchids (Vanilla Planfolia, and Vanilla Tehenis) and are grown all around the world. The flavor characteristic of the region is known as terrior. Many fruits, spices, and herbs carry the terrior which is a combination of growing conditions such as temperature, humidity, air quality, and soil chemistry.

Vanilla Planfolia are the variety of bean that would be most associated with the idea of vanilla flavor. It is a long slender bean with the rich, buttery, bourbon, vanilla flavors that most people would associate with common vanilla flavored items. Tehenis is a shorter fatter bean with more flowery, sweet, even fruit like vanilla flavors.

(read more after the break.)

Hibiscus Pale Ale

With winter in full swing I wanted something a bit more that women would still drink, enter a malty pale ale. I wanted this to appeal to my girlfriend in flavor, and also in visual appeal. After reading about a gruit in which hibiscus was the main flavor/color component I began to think about that gruit re-imagined as a pale ale with hops.

Flowers in beer seems to be exploding at the moment; for SAVOR Dogfish & Sam Adams collaborated on an extremely exclusive beer called flowers. It was made with rose water and an experimental hops called 369. South Hampton Publik House brews a beer with flowers called Cuvee Des Fleurs. Arcadia here in Michigan had their summer seasonal on cask at Hopcat recently with Hibiscus added. Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel also makes a brew with hibiscus called Rosee D'hibiscus. There are many more examples of this phenomenon.

After purchased a few ounces of dried hibiscus at a Whole Foods in Chicago I tried chewing on the dried petals. I found myself deeply enjoying the pungent tart-cranberry taste as just one dried leaf filled my mouth with flavor. I immediately decided that this was a beer I had to brew. I wanted a hop that had a reputation for being floral in nature; enter Palisade. Palisade has been described as "perfumey" "rosey" "floral and aromatic" with "subtle bittering". That sounds perfect for this beer.

As with any endeavor I began by researching my chosen ingredients. Hibiscus has long been served as a tea everywhere it naturally grows, and the people of these regions have combine natural local flavors into drinks characteristic of their region. In Jamaica it is called 'Agua de Flor de Jamaica' and is made as a tea with hibiscus, ginger, then sweetened with sugar. It can be served in water or rum. In Panama they make a Christmas tea flavored with hibiscus, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. In other parts of the world they drink the tea with lemon juice, or lime juice. The drinks can be served sparkling or still depending on the mixer.

(read more after the break)

Ginger Rye Munich Saison

One beer I absolutely adored from Shorts was Ginger in the Rye. The flavor was delightfully bready with grain highlights and the ginger aged 3 years really gave the beer that subtle note to take it over the top. Shorts is re-brewing and re-releasing this in 6 packs soon but I wanted to brew a home brew inspired by it. I'm looking for interesting delightfully outside of the box things to brew at home to explore more flavors and styles.

The original brew is a munich wheat beer brewed with rye and fermented with the Weihenstephan strain. An account of the original brewing as well as a few details about the beer can be found here. A few Items are contained their to describe the beer and get me started "Rye Munich Weizen Ale with approximately 2 oz of fresh ginger per gallon and an ABV of approximately 7.0%" Rye, check, Munich malt, check, Wheat, check, Fresh Ginger, check, target abv, check. "I used the Weihenstephan yeast strain" yeast strain and an idea of the flavors it creates, check. "Toward the end of fermentation lots and lots of ginger was shredded and added to the fermenter." timing of the ginger addition, check. The beer is described on the trading card as "effervescent" approximate carbonation volume, check. All of that information is far from a clone recipe but close to a rough idea.

Because I am not trying to clone the beer but rather make an inspired by interpretation I am going to make this more in the mold of a spicy saison; "Ginger in the Fields" if it were to have a name. I started with a good base of Munich and combine it 6:5 with Pilsner malt to build a good grain base to convert the wheat/rye/Cara-Munich. I included strong doses of flaked wheat and ground rye malt in a 4:3 ratio. I evened the recipe out with a touch of Cara-Munich I to added color and depth to the malts. I wanted to go with hops that wouldn't be out of place in a Weizen so I decided that Saaz would be appropriate. This beer is going onto my yeast cake from my citra red saison so it should ferment well

(Read more after the break.)

Blackberry Pacific Gem Pale Ales

A few new types of hops are coming out of New Zealand these days and landing in my local home brew stores. These hops have a completely different set of flavors from the Noble German Hops, or the 'C' hops of the Pacific Northwest. One of the hops I'd like to try out in a beer is the Pacific Gem breed. This breed is said to 'fill the brew house with enticing aromas during kettle additions and has been described as producing oaken flavors with a distinct blackberry aroma.' This description could make this the perfect hop to make a black berry pale ale. A nice hoppy beer with bitter and sweet properties from a hop whose flavor should lend blend with the fruit addition for a nice complexity. If both the bitterness from the hops and the sweetness from the fruit can come through in the final product this brew could be a winner.

(read more after the break.)

A Reason for Every Season.

It's not a coincidence that your favorite major brewery pumps out seasonal ales with various characteristics when they do. Before my beer enlightenment I questioned why someone would release a fresh hopped beer in the fall when I was looking for a wee heavy or an Oktoberfest. I lamented not having super special seasonal stouts released in the summers when I had the most time off from work. One day I had an epiphany about beer seasons.

Rather then simply breaking down the beer seasons I wanted to make specific points about tradition, crop harvests, and alcohol.

(read more after the break)

Carbonation Tabs

What are they? Do they work? What brand to use?
I asked all of those questions and decided to find out for myself what worked.

Coopers Carbonation Drops

A regular sugar drop that is translucent and I'd say off white. It's a large sugar crystal to be sure. The ingredients list glucose as the priming agent. One drop is listed as sufficient to carbonate a 12 oz, and two drops sufficient for a 22 oz. The internet has reported fair to good results with this product. The main comments/complaints were that it did or did not work; on a product like this I tend to blame user error. I had an easier time getting these into bottles because it was only one drop to spoon in.

Brewers Best Conditioning Tabs

A small opaque white drop that is about the size of a skittle. The priming agents are dextrose, dry malt extract, and heading powder. Three to Five drops are the recommended range for a 12 oz bottle, no conversion is provided for a 22 oz bottle but one could surmise 6-10 depending. I found that 3 drops were too little, for average carbonation. I preferred to have 5 or 6 in a 12 oz bottle. I have made both full and part batches with this product, and I have seen good results. I have not experienced what I considered an off flavor as a result of using them. The internet has reported mixed results with this product ranging from: worked great, to didn't work at all because of no carbonation, floaties, and/or off flavors. I think if you have a good process, use really clean sanitary bottles, and good sanitation you'll be fine.

(read more after the jump)

Hops, whole vs pellet

If you read my post on the STL brown or the Black IPA you'll notice that whole hops annoy me. Pellet hops also annoy me, but for different reasons. There is no perfect solution to this problem.

The Problems with Hops:

Whole hops: clog my siphon, absorb lots of wort, float forever, but work better for dry hopping than pellets. Allegedly they impart less grassy-ness over time.

Pellet hops:  will clog all manner of filters, are hard to remove from the wort, are difficult to clean when dried onto the inside of a better bottle, and can impart a grassy flavor when beer is over exposed to remnants of the pellets. They do have the upside of increased utilization.

(read more after the break)