On Pumpkin Beer

A few days ago I made a comment on Appellation Beer about horrid pumpkin beer. It spurred a few replies spanning a wide spectrum of sanity and coherence. I feel that I need to expand on my little rant and defend my detest of gourdy libations.

First up is Lauren Buzzeo's reply to criticism of her list that sparked Stan's post and subsequent debate. I enjoyed her reply and she certainly showed some journalistic professionalism, even suggesting a survey of brewers about pumpkin beer. In light of other replies, I am content to agree to disagree.

The other comments in response to mine were somewhat bewildering. I was accused of short-sightedness. My comment was misinterpreted as railing against adjuncts. I WILL NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY... damnit.

This might be fine if bitter or pils were the subject. But the subject is a group of beers of which every one I've tasted (unfortunately too many) has been obnoxiously spiced mix with stomach churning aroma, taste and body. Every time I give another one a chance I'm reminded of Lewis Black's rant on candy corn, its even seasonally appropriate. As that rotten liquid runs over the back of my mouth... SONUFABITCH! I've never seen anyone want a second serving of pumpkin beer. Even the people who do like it struggle to put away a full pint.

It is true that pumpkin beer has been made for centuries. But those colonial brewers were not using pumpkins to add flavor. They were short on barley and were looking for other things to make booze. They also fermented parsnips and wood shavings. Maybe some "innovative" brewer should concoct parnsip and wood shaving ale fermented in a pumpkin. It will be great!

It seems I'm rambling so I will head toward some final grandiose point. I'm not too concerned about the comments in response to mine in particular. But seems people find a problem with not liking, even hating, something. The defenders of pumpkin beer are reminiscent of Mac fanboys, though not quite as ravenous.... yet. So I will just say all pumpkin beers are disgusting and I don't care who knows it or what they think about it. Actually, I hope my local brewers get the message.

SS Stout

I have yet to brew a porter or stout that has satisfied my picky taste in dark beers. I have high hopes for this hefty brew though. The recipe was formulated with the knowledge of stouts brewed in Britain in the late 19th century. How do I know what British stout recipes were like in the late 19th century? Well clicking here would be a start. The slight liberty I have taken is the use of Cherry Smoked Malt, which I can justify using to approximate the smoky flavor that some Brown malts of the period produced.

OG is an adequate 1.074. When I finished my kitchen looked the way my garage did after my first attempt at changing motor oil.

Anniversary Guinness

A bottle of Guinness Bi-Centenary stout at the storehouse
at St. James Gate. They keep all the bottles in a glass
case ensuring than any pictures will be crap.

Guinness has announced today that they will be unleashing a limited 250th Anniversary Stout in the United States. From the write ups I cannot tell what to make of this new stout. MSNBC has a convenient comparison between Guinness Draught and the Anniversary Stout. (The date section for plain draught provides amusement. "Sometime after 1799.") There are reasons for optimism and cynicism. My inner optimist's and cynic's dialogue whilst reading the article:

Optimist: A stronger, maltier stout sounds encouraging.

Cynic: Hardly Foreign Extra Stout though.

Optimist: At least its not nitrogenated.

Cynic: But carbonated for more refreshment and zing!

Optimist: No two part pour, that should be refreshing.

Cynic: Don't forget the "double brew stream that combines two types of malts, ale and stout."

Cynic: Oh, oh it also has "triple hops" just like Miller Lite!

Brewing Historic Porter

Over at Barclay Perkins, Ron has written a bunch times about mid 19th century porter grists. Recently he posted about a particular porter found in the Lovibond Brewery logs. According to W.L. Tizard, a porter consisting of only amber malt and black malt resulted in an exquisite beer. A fan of dark beer and historic beer I had to brew for myself.

This beer presented a couple challenges with regards to malt choice and mashing. Finding Amber malt proved to be harder than I had anticipated. I needed a lightly kilned pale malt that retained most of its Diastatic power. [source] While reading the Dingeman's malt descriptions I noticed that they alternatively call their Aromatic malt "Amber 50" and the description matched the historical description. As an added bonus, Dingeman's Aromatic malt is widely available. I declare it good enough. I hope Ron reads this so he can tell me why that is a stupid declaration.

Without a true base malt I tempered my expected efficiency down to 70% from my usual 75+%. Turned out not to be enough as I ended up at 60%, so I added a half pound of brown sugar to raise the OG to range I was shooting for, 1.05-1.06. For hops, .5 oz Nugget boiled for 60 minutes and another .5 oz Nugget boiled for 10 minutes. Kent Goldings would have been more likely but I like Nuggets, so much for historical accuracy. At least I used Whitbread yeast.

After 20 hours of fermentation, yeast was cropped. The gravity had fallen to 1.042 from 1.051. The taste already attained an excellent balance of big malty flavor and an obvious but not overpowering roastiness. After 6 days the measured gravity holds steady at 1.022 (1.027 real SG, a paltry 47% attenuation and 3.7% ABV) and is ready for bottling. Never mind the terrible attenuation, this tastes great!