On the Seventh Day We Brew

Today we steal a page, literally, from the Legend's playbook. A friend passed along Charlie Papazian's Microbrewed Adventures. As one would expect in anything written by Mr. Papazian, the book closes with a chapter of various recipes scaled down for the homebrewer. In keeping with our Italian theme we bring you Firenze Pale Ale. Below are the details - for better or worse. If you want to know how brew it properly you will have to purchase the book.

So, with the latest storm of the century bearing down on the nation's capital, my trusty assistant (pictured) and I spend a day in the kitchen together. We opted for the all grain recipe (which loosely translates to all day brewing).

Original Gravity: 1.042
Final Gravity: 1.014 (or something close to it)
Primary Fermentation: Approximately 7 days
Secondary Fermentation: Approximately 7 days - preferably in a cellar (55 degrees F)
8 lbs Munton's Pale Malt
12 oz Briess Crystal Malt
1.5 oz Golding Leaf Hops (5% alpha)
1 oz Fuggles Hop Leafs (5.7% alpha)
1 oz Fuggles Hop Pellets (4.7% alpha)
1/4 tsp Carlson Irish Moss
White Labs European Ale Yeast
3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Add 9 quarts of 140 degrees F water to the crushed grains, stir, and hold at 132 degrees F for 30 minutes. Add 4.5 quarts of boiling water, bring temperature up to 154 degrees F, and hold for 30 minutes. Raise the temperature to 171 degrees F, lauter and sparge with 3.5 gallons of 171 degrees F water. Collect approximately 5.5 gallons of runoff. Add 60-minute hops (Golding Leaf Hops) and bring to a full boil.

Boil time is 60 minutes. At 30 minute mark of the boil add 30-minute hops (Fuggles Hop Leafs). At the 50 minute mark add the Irish Moss. At 55 minutes add the final hops (Fuggles Pellets). Strain and sparge the wort into sanitized fermenter. Bring the total volume to 5 gallons by adding cold water if necessary. Aerate the wort very well. Pitch the yeast at 70.3 degrees F (70-75 degrees F).

From the recipe (b/c our brew just started doing its thing): Primary fermentation is approximately one week. Secondary fermentation is also approximately one week recommends cellar the brew at 55 degrees if you have the capability.

While you are brewing we recommend you quench your thirst with the Great Divide Brewing Company's DPA Denver Pale Ale.

Cheers!

Savor Returns to Washington, DC

Savor, An American Craft Beer & Food Experience comes back to Washington, DC on May 30, 2009. There are a couple of changes to this event - it's a one-night only gig (7:30 - 11:00p) and this year will be held at the National Building Museum. This event is uniquely designed for microbrew junkies and food aficionados. It's a reception-style event featuring more than 120 beers from 65 microbreweries all paired with an array of appetizers.

If you're on the fence about attending you should consider your access to microbrew legends. We were lucky enough to attend Savor 2007. We tasted as many of the brews we could and also sampled some of the food. What we didn't expect was to shake hands with the living homebrew legend Charlie P., a brief talk with Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione and Brooklyn Beer's Brewmaster Garrett Oliver, and to be within shouting distance of Samuel Adams' Jim Koch.

You are also going to have access to beer that is otherwise difficult to find. Maybe it's not an easy find in your area or maybe the brewery only brings it out for special occassions but you'll find it at Savor. While we saw some old favorites, Savor is the easiest way to open your tastes to new brews. Get tickets fast though - the educational salons are already sold out. $95 per ticket may seem steep but you won't feel that way come 11:30 Saturday night. We hope to see you there. Cheers!

Cheers All Around for Labatt Blue

As part of the big agreement to purchase Anhieser-Busch, InBev was required to sell off some of its other brewing interests. Way back in November 2008, InBev announced that it would sell Labatt USA to make the folks at the Department of Justice happy.

Yesterday came word that the buyer is KPS Capital Partners, a private equity firm out of New York City (what Cerbus Capital is to Chrysler) with the added bonus that the US headquarters will remain in our beloved Buffalo, NY. In what is a rare upstate-downstate partnership KPS reportedly hopes to increase the number of jobs in the company (Editor's note: this is a promise oft made to Buffalo residents. See Adelphia case study).

So, one of our favorite Canadian brews will remain safely in the hands of upstate New York - for the time being.
Cheers!

When in Rome...

We've been in Italy the past couple of weeks playing tourist, exchanging nuptuals, and...drinking beer. Fortunately, 3 of our 4 readers were in Italy so it's unlikely anybody noticed the lack of posts. Since we walked just about every city block of both Roma and Firenze we figured we burned enough calories to drink up both wines and beers of Italy (we did not, however, find ourselves in the home of Italian friends at 5am).

L' Olmaia - left outside our honeymoon suite by a little angel (or two), this brew can easily be mistaken for a wine because it comes in a very wine-like bottle and both labels are in Italian. If you don't speak Italian it might take a few minutes of label investigation to figure out it's a beer. We are hear to say it's a beer - and a good one. It pours a nice, cloudy amber with a thick caramel-to-eggwhite head on top (the head dies fast though). Coming from Siena, you would expect the somewhat fruity flavor and will remind you of a weak IPA. It has a dry, clean finish. Don't worry about the size of the bottle because you will drink it all in one sitting.

G. Menebrea e Figli - 150th Anniversery Amber. GMF did just fine for their anniversery brew and we know because we sampled a lot of it. It pours amber like the L'Olmaia but GMF is very clear. The head is big and white. Also like the L'Omaia it's a bit fruity to the taste but GMF is more complicated overall. There is no dryness to GMF at the finish but you will go back for more.

Nastro Azzuro - It tastes like it sounds. One fellow traveler aptly called it the Miller Lite of Italian brews.

When is Beer Not Beer?

When it's 3.2, that's when. There's a battle going on in the statehouse of Kansas regarding the sale of beer. Current law requires some stores, particularly grocery and convenience stores, to sell beer that is no more than 3.2 percent alcohol. Even the most occasional of beer drinkers know that beer comes in a variety of alcohol levels - a cornicopia, as it were.

So, what's the big deal? The big deal is that if you buy your beer in a Kansas liquor store you get the beer the rest of the normal world gets. If you're on your way home from work and just feel like stopping by the local convenience mart on your way home you get the watered down stuff. The Kansas House and Senate will be weighing in on the debate that is, according to KSN.com, driven by the larger grocers. In the online article, Quik Trip spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh says “We know the law, and we will always do the right thing. Quite frankly, we're getting tired of their same old story. They really don't want competition and they need to be truthful about it."

Of course, the sage and wise stewards of liqour stores are not concerned about competition. To them, it's a matter of policing underage drinking - more stores selling real beer means more policing and that, in turns, means more cost to the state. Sounds reasonable - surely the big grocers have great difficulty calculating and verifying a buyers age when reviewing the Kansas driver's license.

Calculators for Homebrewing

Newbies will come to find that the more you brew the more precise you need to be, the more information you need to keep honing your craft. A friend turned us on to this novel tool and Web site. The Brewer's Lair offers calculators for your most important homebrewing needs.

The Lair is also good for recipes, tips, finding ingredients, and relaxing in the lounge.

Cheers!

Cass Ice Light

The storm of the year is hitting here in the nation's capital. In honor of the first measurable snowfall of the winter we bring you this delightful, and somewhat befuddling, Cass Ice Light Commercial.



Seriously, InBev own's Cass too?