Malt Sourdough Bread

Inspired by other baking homebrewers I decided to try my hand at putting all that spent grain from the barleywine to good use. I used a low hydration figuring that the malt would bring along plenty of water. I aimed for 50% hydration but neglected to account for the starter and ended up at 57% before the malt was added. All measurements are by weight.

16 oz King Arthur Bread Flour
8 oz filtered water
5 oz sourdough starter (100% hydration)
5 oz still wet mashed malt
.3 oz kosher salt

-Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and let rise 20 hours.
-Shape and let rise another 2 hours.
-Bake for 30 minutes in 450 F oven.

The bread had a good flavor with a nice combination of sourdough and malt. (Good enough that I ate it all before I thought to take a photo.) The only problem was the texture turned out a bit too wet and dense. Next time I would either push the hydration even lower or use some grain that has not been mashed. Some crystal or honey malt could be tasty.

Belgian Barleywine

This ale was inspired by Stille Nacht from De Dolle Brouwers. I am quite enamored with their beers, if that was not already obvious. I'm not in the mood to make up the tables that I did for the previous batches but the recipe is quite simple. A heap of pale malt, whole Nugget hops (I love the earthy spiciness of Nuggets), a healthy dose of sugar, a long boil and Oerbier yeast. OG at 1.110.

The only question is which oak spiral to add to secondary: one that has been soaking in red wine or the one that just came out of the B. Lambicus beer. Maybe both. Maybe split the batch and use both.

3/22/09: Racked to Secondary. 1.010 SG apparent(90%), 1.026 real(75%), 12.7% ABV.

5/5/09: Racked 1 gallon to 1 gallon jug w/ half medium toast French oak spiral soaked in lambic dregs. Bottled 3 gallons with 2 oz corn sugar. Smells very fruity and sugary with pear and Nugget hops. Taste of fruit, spice, molasses, caramel, hops with a rocket fuel burn afterward.

Mild! Tasting

I bottled the mild after only 7 days of fermentation with 4 oz brown sugar. It attenuated to 1.005 SG (86% apparent attenuation) making for a nice light 4% ABV. I cracked open a bottle three days after bottling and was pleased to find it already carbonated.

With a vigorous pour down the center of the glass the beer releases a nice two finger head of light foam. The color is a light orange with a brownish tint from the brown sugar at bottling. Decent clarity. A distinct yeast fruitiness, oranges mostly, blends with the earthy hops to create a pleasurable but not overpowering aroma. The taste is similar with some bready warmth and honey sweetness from the biscuit and honey malts. The hops assert themselves in bitterness and flavor and make me want to call this an IPA. The body is a bit Kate Moss but that makes for extreme gulpability. Overall I am pleased with this brew but might aim for a higher finishing gravity next time I get a craving for session beer.

Quadrupel Imperial Double Mild

Back to brewing. I started getting anxious to bottle the B. Lambicus beer but it needs at least another month to finish attenuating and aging. And while the Dubbel Chocolate and Stout are tasty, after couple of either I find myself wanting something lighter in flavor and alcohol yet still tasty.

For this ale I aimed at 1.037 OG with the character coming from an interesting the malt and special yeast (De Dolle yeast repitched from a previous batch). I brewed this last Friday, February 6 and plan on bottling early next week. Like all my brew, this hardly fits in any category. Maybe a Belgian single/ankel (if there is such a thing) or mild in terms of gravity but not any other way. I decided to have a little fun with name and poke fun at the need of many brewers to increase hops and alcohol for the sake of hops and alcohol.













This is my official joining of the session beer project. I look forward to enjoying this ale with lunch.

Irish Beer, Part III

I'm eager to get back to covering brewing activities so here is a quick round up of Irish beer with notes on the few stragglers. Occasionally I found an Irish beer available outside a brew pub at a non-beer bar. These were all pleasant surprises to the usual Guinness/lager/cider choices.

Galway Hooker: A pale ale from a craft brewery in the west. They deliberately limit distribution to certain pubs where it would be tasted with open minds. It tasted like a three quarter strength Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA. Nothing amazing but a nice every day beer. Galway Hooker on the web.

O'Hara's Celtic Stout: A stout from the Carlow Brewing Company. I found this one in bottles at an off-license so thankfully I could taste it without flavor obfuscating nitro-kegging. Smooth and roasty; exactly how I wish Guinness would taste. The best Irish stout I've tasted. Carlow also brews a red and a wheat which I did not try.

Kinsale Lager: As far as I can tell this is the only offering from Kinsale Brewing Company in Kinsale. After a 3 km walk each way to Charles Fort in Summercove, a pint of this lager showed its strengths. A refreshing, light body carrying bready malt combined with just enough noble hops.

Overall I was surprised at how awful the beer selection was in Ireland. Finding these craft brews was rare and each of these were only in one location. I only found Franciscan Well to have decent distribution, but only within Cork city. I think that Irish culture can be extremely conservative in certain aspects, especially when it comes to food and drink. So any change in the beer available will come slowly but there is a start with the brews I've mentioned.

Irish Beer, Part II

From Cork I moved on to the big city, Dublin. Beer was a fairly low priority in my travels but I found some time to search out something beyond Guinness. I made the requisite visit to St. James' Gate and found the tour tedious and exhausting. The tour could be whittled down to the advertising section without losing anything. At the end I opted to make my free beer a bottle of Foreign Extra Stout, thankfully served only slightly chilled. Beer in hand, I fully enjoyed the 360 view from the Gravity Bar on that Waterford crystal clear day.

Tired of the throngs of tourists I figured a mid-afternoon trip to the Porterhouse brewpub would provide a sanctuary from directionless drones that plague large tourist attractions. Wrong. But at least there was some decent beer.

Plain Porter: Not quite as dark as Guinness porter. Nitro-kegging dulled any subtle flavor it had to offer.

Oyster Stout: A deft combination of a dry, roasty stout and salty oysters. Further evidence that stout and oysters are a natural combination. Unfortunate nitro-kegging. Why, why, why?

An Brainblasta: Supposedly the brewery's top of the line. Seemed to me that the malt, hops and yeast were fighting each other instead of complimenting. Not awful, just meh.

TSB: A 3.7% ABV bitter. An excellent session with a very English balance of malt and hops. Moreish. The Porterhouse's best beer is its lowest strength beer.

Due Up for Part III: Beer not from brewpubs.

Irish Beer, Part I

I recently returned from Ireland, a place known for beer. Painfully though, that is only one type of beer mainly from one brand that frankly sucks. Slowly though, Irish craft beer is making headway.

My first respite from nitro-stout came in Cork thanks to the Franciscan Well Brewery, which has been brewing since 1998. Their beers are available in Cork's better pubs with the Rebel Red reaching ubiquity. I find extensive tasting notes tedious to write and pompous, but here is my opinion of their beers.

Shandon Stout: Nitro-kegged stout. A step up from Guinness-Murphy's-Beamish with a bit more roastiness.

Blarney Blonde: A light, easy drinking blonde ale. Lacks character.

Friar Weisse: The brewery's wheat beer. The yeast character tasted like it needed more maturation time.

Bellringer: A spiced winter beer. Over spiced to near undrinkable. Why do brewers make these insipidly spiced beers? I have yet to drink one doesn't puzzle me.

Rebel Red: A wonderful red ale that shames industrial Irish red ales. Very fruity with distinct rasberry flavors. At 4.3% abv Rebel makes a great session beer (very important for beer in Ireland). By far the brewery's best and a beer I would gladly drink any time.

I only found these beers within Cork. Apart from the brewpub, Blarney Blonde, Friar Weisse, Shandon Stout and Rebel Red can be found at the Mutton Lane Inn and Sin É. You can also drink Rebel Red at the infamous Hi-B bar until you, like me, get kicked out for no good reason.