Author Archives: Bishop

Update on Latest Batch

If you have been following along I recently brewed another Golden Wheat Red IPA – with a twist! More hops!

I transferred the beer from the primary fermenter into the secondary while adding an ounce of Centennial hops – dry hopping the beer. As is my habit, I pull a sample and checked the gravity and yes, the taste. The gravity is close to the expected final gravity, that is a good thing. The taste…..I have to pat myself on the back….if the final product comes close to the sample it will be an outstanding beer!!!!!

I would love to have posted on the day of the transfer but work was calling and I had to head off to Paris for a few days. Rough duty but someone has to do the dirty work. Now the beer sits for 5 days or so at 64 degrees F and then I will crash it to 34 F to clear it up and drop the sediment to the bottom. I will keg 6 Liters into one of my minikegs and bottle the rest. Now the wait….first taste of the beer will be at the end of January for for the Super Bowl.
Enjoy a night shot of the Eiffel tower from my recent trip.

Eiffel Tower lit up with Christmas lights in Paris, Texas

Eiffel Tower lit up with Christmas lights in Paris, Texas

 

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

2014 – My focus will be championing the “Drink Responsibly” element of my blog!

Bishop

Golden Wheat Red IPA Kicking Off the New Year

This newest addition to my recipe folder is just so smooth and nice. I checked on the new batch a bit ago and it is bubbling along nicely. So, from Kingwood, Texas, I wish all y’all a great New Year.
Drink Local and Drink Responsibly
Bishop
A couple of looks at the beer, nice lace and nice head, so dadburn good!

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A Repeat – Sorta

My Golden Wheat Red IPA is disappearing too quickly so I decided to brew another batch, albeit with a tweak to the hopping schedule.

Here is the link to the original post with the recipe;

https://bishopsbeerblog.com/2013/11/10/inspiration-comes-to-fruition/

My preliminary notes prior to cranking up the burner

My preliminary notes prior to cranking up the burner

The plan was to increase the hops, change the schedule up and see how it lands. There was a significant goof on my part, I was going to stay with the Amarillo and Cascade hops mix I used previously. I went to the Beer store in Humble(Backyard Homerbrewers and Education Centre) to pick up the ingredients from my pre-prepared list. Picked up the ingredients and headed home. If you look closely in the photo you will see a package of Centennial hops, not Cascade! The dummy at the store fouled up, or so I thought. My list was still in the bag so I looked at what I had written……Hmmmmm, where was my brain, I was thinking Cascade and wrote Centennial! I got what I wrote down – I guess I was the dummy.

Most everything stayed the same….except for the hops and the hopping schedule.

60 minutes – 1 oz Amarillo

30 minutes – 1 oz Amarillo and 1 oz Centennial

15 minutes – 1 oz Amarillo

At Flameout – 1 oz of Centennial

1 oz Centennial used for Dry hopping planned for the secondary – 5 days then crash to 34 degrees for a couple more.

The Original gravity of my first batch came in at 1.066, this one, using the same grain bill and extract is 1.040 – a significant difference. It could be I was shorted  or I bought slightly different ingredients from my local store. The first batch ingredients were purchased from the cross town store Defalco’s..  The color is also notably lighter – may have to try brewing this again real soon!

The beer is in the fermenter at 62 deg. F for a week and will then be transferred to the secondary and dry hopped….

Is it true that there are no bad beers? Just some better than others?

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

First Taste Test – Golden Wheat Red IPA

Well the jury is now returning the verdict…..the beer is PDG! I benefitted by several weeks away from the temptation of sampling the beer too early. I have to admit that I did sample one before I left, I knew it was going to be too early and yes it was….In need of a few more weeks of conditioning……so, that is what I gave it!

December 19th, 2013, I tried the second bottle of the batch. Wow! Very nice head, the aroma was/is amazing and the Amarillo hops used for the dry hopping have left its signature citrus note! The color is a bit darker than I had anticipated. It is a darker red than planned, but is very clear and refreshing. My daughter Lisa was over when I poured that “second” first beer. Her comment was, “It tastes light, not dark like I thought it would be”.  Nice lace on the glass so I sat back and enjoyed being home, looking forward to the Holidays and spending time with family!

The Beer, The Bottle and the Belch....not really!

The Beer, The Bottle and the Belch….not really!

I shared a few bottles with my buddy John. We sat and watched a little football yesterday  enjoying my latest offering. He was highly pleased…..”it is a keeper recipe” was the proclamation. I had to agree with him but the wheels were already turning – it is good, but maybe I can tweak the hopping schedule and make it great!

Should I??????  Absolutely!

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year

Bishop

Oh, Thanks again to Lengthwise Brewery in Bakersfield for the inspiration!

Thirsty in Oman

I have been relatively quiet on the beer front for a few weeks. I am waiting patiently to let my latest bottling, the Golden Wheat Red Ale bottle condition a little longer. The temptation to sample is easy at the moment. I am about 12 time zones away from the beer and the temptation! Oman is a long ways from Texas.  This quote from “The Wizard of Oz” comes to mind – “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.” I stood on top of a sand dune last night, about 30 kilometers from the UAE border just inside of Oman and said this to my buddy Gary,  “Gary, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Texas any more.”

Let me add, the Omani people are an absolute pleasure to work with, converse with and share with. Yes, we are guests in their country but I have never felt so welcome in a foreign country. The hosted a “BBQ”…..really a large grill filled with kabobs and fortunately for Gary the selection did not include goat. I haven’t convinced Gary that goat can be very tasty. As we sat around under the cabana, a young man named Ali spent 30 minutes showing us some of the beauty of his country…and yes it can be very beautiful! I am looking forward to a future visit with more time to explore!

YES – it is very dry here…..not much rain and in many places the beverage selection is pretty restricted! The hotels in Muscat do serve alcoholic beverages as they cater to a very diverse clientele in this country. A walk on the beach shows the diversity in the cultures and languages all around you. On one walk we heard, German, Italian, Hindi, English, some sort of a Scandinavian dialect, Lebanese and Arabic – probably a few more that I had no clues about.  I am looking forward to a return trip with more time to explore the country and meet more of the wonderful people here!

Looking north west from a top a dune adjacent to our humble camp of 7,000 people!

Looking north-west from a top a dune adjacent to our humble camp of 7,000 people!

 

Drink Respectfully, Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

To Your Health

I subscribe to a weekly online post called the “Weekly Pint”. Always informative and usually entertaining. Last January an article caught my eye – drinking a hoppy beer like my preferred style, IPA, may reduce the chances of catching a cold. I love it when I can tout the health benefits of drinking beer….. The winter cold season is approaching so…..What do we need to do? Read on and find out.

I dove in to the article, as I read further I realized that I needed to temper my enthusiasm! The promising research showed that ingesting large amounts of humulone, a key ingredient in hops, the best part of my preferred beer style – see above in case you forgot that I love IPA’s of all kinds, yes some more than others – nonetheless they are all good, can actually be good for your health (a lengthy run on sentence). So how many IPA’s would I need to pound down to fend off Respiratory Syncyital virus? Just 30 beers at one sitting would provide enough protection to ward off the virus. Dang it….that would definitely max out my daily intake limits by – hmmmm somewhere in the neighborhood  of 10 times. Let’s hope that the researchers mentioned in the article will find more benefits of hops – in a more practical dosage!

http://link.weeklypint.com/view/5032e2fddc87ac0b4f0b2ce5tn1c.2e1/a70bbd88

“Humulone

512px-(S)-Humulone_svg

Humulone and its “cousins” adhumulone, cohumulone, prehumulone, and posthumulone are α-acids found in the resin of hops (Humulus lupulus). They are precursors to iso-α-acids, the predominant contributors to bitterness in beer. H. Bungener isolated humulone from commercial hops in 1886, but it wasn’t until 1970 that D. DeKeukeleire and M. Verzele determined its absolute configuration.” Facts from Wikipedia – a most trusted source!

Now you know……. probably mare than you wanted to know! As a bar trick you could use the information above to draw the molecule on a bar napkin and impress all of your friends!

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Dry Hopping Dilemma

I should not read any more! If you have been following along I am brewing an “inspiration” IPA based on my mistaken read of the chalkboard at the Lengthwise Brewery Pub out in the Marketplace, Bakersfield, California. The ale is designed to be a “Golden Wheat Red IPA” based o the combined three individual local beers on tap. I failed to report that the bartender had poured a mixed blend for some customers who gave the blend high marks. I just decided to try and brew that blend. Post with recipe located here;

Inspiration Comes to Fruition

So here is my dilemma. I transferred the beer into the secondary carboy with 1 ounce of Amarillo hop pellets sitting on the bottom. Once the beer was transferred, I gave the carboy a nice swirl to get the pellets to settle. I then carried it out to my temperature controlled chest freezer. I now need to decide on a temperature scheme/schedule during the dry hopping phase. From my exploration of the web I find too many choices, schemes, schedules and opinions!

  • Two days at room temperature and then crash to 35 degrees for up to two weeks.
  • Five to seven days at low room temperatures then rack off and package.
  • Five to seven days at room temperature and then crash to 35 degrees for 2 days prior to packaging.
  • And too many variations to list!!!

My choice – the logic I like is; hold the beer at a temperature that will allow the aromatic oils in the Amarillo hops to best express their amazing aroma.  So, five days at 65-67 degrees then crash to 35 degrees for a couple of days to aid in clarifying the beer before I bottle. I am convinced that the beer will be very good!

While racking the beer into the secondary I noted that the fermentation was vigorous – the Krausen was thick and reached the lid of the primary. I guess that I was lucky that it didn’t lift the lid or fill the airlock. Note to self: consider a blow-off tube next time for the early yeast activity!

Transfer from primary fermenter to the secondary and hop pellets floating on top.

Transfer from primary fermenter to the secondary and hop pellets floating on top.

Hop pellets floating on top of the beer - kinda look like the rabbit pellets we fed them!

Hop pellets floating on top of the beer – kinda look like the rabbit pellets we fed them!

 

Evidence of the Krausen on the sides... gotta be a good beer.

Evidence of the Krausen on the sides… gotta be a good beer.

I bet some of you are thinking, is he going to drink that? Yes I am!

Drink Responsibly and Drink Local

Bishop

 

Golden Wheat Red IPA Update

I just had to share a quick update on the Inspiration Beer at the end of it’s first week in the primary fermenter. The original gravity, the OG, was 1.066. A week later it had dropped to 1.016! I am pleased with the progress. Tomorrow I will rack it over to the secondary and add 1 ounce of the Amarillo hops.

The first taste, that’s right, I couldn’t dump the graduated cylinder full of the beginning’s of a nice beer and let it go to waste, was very nice and not as hoppy as I had expected. I shared a taste with my son’s girlfriend and she found it drinkable. Patience Bishop, patience!

I am wondering if an ounce will be enough??????? Maybe I shouldn’t get too frisky and just stay with the original recipe! Thanks again to the great folks at Lengthwise Brewing in Bakersfield CA!

Drink Local, Drink Responsibly

Bishop

 

Inspiration Comes to Fruition

I hinted a couple of weeks ago about being inspired to brew something a bit unique. Well I made it happen today….the recipe was developed about a week ago from some inspiration found in a conversation with the bar keep at Lengthwise Brewing Pub in the Marketplace – Bakersfield California. I was attempting to order a beer and the big chalkboard had these tree words stacked above each other in the lower left corner of the board.

Golden

Wheat

Red

So, I ordered one…..it sounded like an interesting beer. The barkeeper smiled while telling me that those three were part of the tap line-up for the brewery. I had been fully aware of their Centennial and Double Centennial IPA’s, The Kern River Crude Porter, the Blonde as well as a host of guest beers on tap. It just didn’t dawn on me that these were three distinct beers. The ensuing conversation made me feel a little better. Apparently I am not the only ” cerevisaphile  – A devout lover of beers.”, that has made the same, I won’t call it a mistake, but rather the natural combining of those yummy sounding beer components. So I was struck by inspiration and went on my mission to build this beer.

The recipe; Partial mash – the easy way.

3 lbs light malt extract – the Golden portion

3 lbs of Wheat Malt extract – The Wheat portion

1 lb. Caramel Malt – crushed

½ lb. Crystal Malt 55 L crushed

2 oz. Black roasted barley – crushed – the crushed grains should add body and the Red portion of the inspiration.

2 oz. Centennial pellet hops – 1 oz. @ 30 minutes, 1 oz. @ 15 minutes

2 oz. Amarillo pellet hops – 1 oz. @ 55 minutes. 1 oz. in secondary a few weeks from now

½ tsp yeast nutrient @ 10 minutes, ½ tsp gypsum at beginning, ½ tsp Irish Moss @ 30 minutes

Grain placed in brew pot and removed when temperature reached 170 deg F.

OG is 1.066 – Fermenting at 64-68 deg F Aerated for 3 minutes prior to pitching Wyeast 1056 Ale yeast.

At two weeks I will check and transfer to the secondary then dry hop with the remaining Amarillo hops.

This should be a hoppy beer, not real bitter, but should have a good floral and citrus aroma.

Now the big challenge is to be patient!

Brewing notebook, malt extract, grains and hops. Ready to brew.

Brewing notebook, malt extract, grains and hops. Ready to brew.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Brewing Inspiration

Last night I picked up some inspiration for a new batch of beer. I am in Bakersfield working this week. At dinner last night my workmate ordered Pumpkinhead Ale from Shipyard Brewing Co., Portland Maine. Although I didn’t drink it I did enjoy the aroma- wow! Instant inspiration. It seems a little late in the year to brew a pumpkin ale but I have a plan!

Others in our dinner party drank the 805 from Firestone Walker – Paso Robles CA brewery. Great easy drinking beer.

Last fall my wife decorated the house with several “Cinderella” pumpkins. They really are, Rouge Vif d’Estampes. variety. Great for decorating and excellent for cooking/eating and very difficult to carve. They store very well. Last December I cut up and roasted one such pumpkin. I had enough puréed pumpkin for multiple loaves of pumpkin bread and a batch of pumpkin ale! The puréed pumpkin also freezes well. The beer aged nicely and at 10 months the last few bottles were excellent!

I am inspired to repeat the effort. I took good notes, bought supplies from our local store so the follow-up effort should not be a problem. Brewing day will be post Thanksgiving but I promise to capture the effort!

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Rouge Vif d’Estampes – makes a great pumpkin ale! Give it a try!

Drink local and drink responsibly
Bishop