Category Archives: Beer

Lost Beer – Found

My best friend’s son just graduated from Texas A&M this past week. Son Ryan loves his beer, but that is not much of a surprise. We met Ryan the day after graduation night over at his parent’s house…Kathy and I made up a nice sample of good micro brews and a lone bottle of my aged Imperial Stout….a stout that was brewed December 2010 and has aged so very well. I took a 22 oz. bottle – John and Ryan split it three ways so we could all get a good taste of the beer. Ryan loved it!!!!! to say the least. I told him that I had held back one 22 oz. bottle for a special occasion.

I don’t know if it was the stout or the fact that he had been partying for 30 plus hours but at 9:30 PM he was horizontal and snoozing. I can only guess but a day or so later I received a text from my son Ben, a good friend of Ryan, asking me to save the last bottle of stout for him. Ryan must have bragged a little! I agreed but the beer disappeared before Ben came home to get it! Hmmmmmmm – seems like daughter Lisa absconded with it and shared it with her friend John….The report back was that he beer was superb. Sorry Ben!

I went to look at my storage locations thinking that maybe I had put a couple of bottles back but….no luck but I made a discovery……two cases of beer from a mystery batch. I use colored caps to differentiate the batches…I finished up the blue caps a month or two ago, the red caps last week, I still have the Dirty Blonde in the 6L bottle and a handful of flip top bottles of the same….where did the 45 bottles of silver capped brew come from?

Looks like the only hope for Ben getting a bottle of the Imperial Stout is if our friends the Mageean’s have not consumed all of the thqank you bottles I gave them for hosting and helping Joe this past fall. Donel Mageean is Irish so…..it is possible that it has been sampled completely.

I usually keep records of each batch brewed, dates, OG, FG, etc. But no records in my book for these 45 bottles! Ok – so lets chill one and taste it. It was very good….Like a Belgian Wit…. Where did it come from…Not Defalcos, Not Northern Brewer, not our local store in Humble…..I sometimes use Williams Brewing and I checked my order history there….ahhh in November I bought a seasonal kit…the “Christmas Wit” yes….now I remember…two cases capped with silver caps. Yeah, I think I remembered that I wanted to bottle condition for an extended period of time, yeah that’s right….and I will swear to the story.

Just add “Christmas Wit Ale” in the label area and you can imagine how the label looks on the bottle.

Cooking with Beer

Several ways to do this……

1. Allow the beer to work it’s magic from the inside out…. – grab a nice microbrew, sit back and savor the the taste, enjoy the heady aroma of malt and hops and let the magic of the alcohol stir your creative juices.

2. Once inspired, grab another beer, in this case it was an Amarillo Ale I brewed with a distinct citrus flavor – use it to marinate the chunks of New York Strip steak and chicken thighs cubed for shish-kabobs. Soak the meat overnight along with your favorite grilling seasonings..

3. Fire up the grill, load the skewers, flexible SS cable skewers given to me by my daughter, meat, bell peppers – yellow and orange, onion, cherry tomatoes and due to CRS I forgot the chunk pineapple purchased for the masterpiece.

4. Pull a pint form my min-ikeg…..the Dirty Honey Blonde Ale I recently brewed……then a Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA – a nice beer to try if you are not sure about IPA’s….they can be more bitter, i.e. hoppy. This one is pretty mild and has a nice hop/floral aroma. The website claims IUB’s at 60 but it doesn’t hit my taste buds as anywhere near that hoppy.

5. Enjoy the grilled flavors, aromas and beer!

TTFN

Bishop

Getting My Head Around Colorado Beers

I was in Denver Colorado last week working with a good friend and co-worker – Gary. We both enjoy a cold one and on this trip we were in a hotbed for craft brewed beers. We didn’t get a chance to visit any of the local breweries but cruised the establishments that line the 16th Street Mall in Denver.

Our first night we visited the Paramount Cafe – a fun and laid back place with cold beer and good burgers! I decided to sample….they had a flight of 5 – 5 ounce glasses of local IPA’s. One problem….they were out of one of the Colorado beers so I subbed in a California IPA, the Firestone Double Barrel. The flight included a very nice Odell’s IPA, the Titan IPA, the Denver Pale Ale and the Raging Bitch Belgian IPA. The Odell’s and the Firestone were top notch. Gary had the New Castle Ale – a big one! We were off to a good start Monday night.

The day we arrived we spotted the Yard House. In 2008, Gary and his wife Pat joined me and my wife Kathy at the Honolulu Yard House – 102 beers at that time on tap…Yum. We put a dent in some of the local beers and a few others. So we added the Yard House to our plans for the week.

Our second night we took my friend John’s recommendation to visit the Rock Bottom Restaurant with  a brewery smack dab in the middle of the room – 8 large fermenters located upstairs. I sampled the House Amber Ale and it was very good! Gary had the house Red Ale and he found it pretty tasty. Maybe I had two beers????? oh well. Our waiter was very beer  knowledgeable and invited us back for the Thursday tapping of the Vienna Lager at 6:00 PM. We promised to return on Thursday and to try the house Texas Fire Steak that he highly recommended.

We made it to the Yard House the next evening. I stayed with the Colorado theme and had two beers from the Tommyknocker Brewery – the Nut Brown Ale and the Hop Strike – an IPA. Gary went back to Honolulu and sampled the Kona Longboard Lager twice.

We finished up the training class we were delivering on Thursday and headed back down to the 16th Street Mall. First stop was the Yard House to cut the dust. I had an Odell’s Myrcenary Ale and Gary reminisced again with the Kona Lager. Tempted to try more but but we had a commitment back at Rock Bottom.

Gary started with the Fire Chief Ale – the house red ale and I went with the house IPA – Yum! Then two Vienna Lagers and it was worth the trip back. Then my notes get fuzzy – Looks like a house Stout was consumed….that was probably mine. A Pale Lager of some sort – likely Gary’s choice. The a Belgian #2 – maybe mine…A red Ale – I am sure that was Gary’s, then something listed as a cask ale ?????? – The house Kolsche – I remember that one and it was superb! Lastly a Barley wine was consumed – or at least we payed to consume it…that tasting session would have been better spread over two or three nights. We just ran out of time. The 6:00 AM drive to the airport Friday morning was a bit hazy.

I think  summer trip to Colorado with a DD is in order. Beautiful scenery and awesome craft beers. PS – if you stay close to the 16th Street Mall you can stumble back and not need the DD.

TTFN

Bishop

A Birthday and a Lot of Love Prevent a Butt Whipping

Growing older is not such a bad thing….I like waking up on this side of the grass. Today is the 13th of March, the day after my 61st birthday and the celebration that went along with it. I had a nice series of calls from friends and family, a handful of meaningful email notes and the Facebook posts that made me feel pretty darned good. Had a great BBQ lunch at the  Goode Co –  My wife scored some really nice tickets for the Houston Rodeo and the Zac Brown Band concert –  We shared the evening with our best friends Beverly and John….it was an almost perfect night. It could have all been spoiled by my “inattention to detail” the evening of the 11th!

On the 11th of March I took one of the two 6L mini-kegs that had been conditioning and “tapped” it. I had chilled it and then installed the spout and CO2 cartridge. I decided to sample a little taste……. 5 or 6 ounces or so just to ensure that it was good…..and yes it WAS! I pulled the short glass of beer and closed the valve on the spout…..or so I thought. When fulled closed you feel it bump a little as it goes fully closed a detente type of valve . When fully closed you also have the option of engaging a toggle lock  to avoid any accidental discharge of beer. The valve will stayed closed without the lock if it is indeed fully closed…….that is where I must have erred. I sampled at 6ish and I went down for the count at about 9:40 PM. Sometime after 11 PM our son Joe came home and went to the back fridge for water or a soda….not a beer and found a very wet floor in front of the fridge and the smell of beer heavy in the air. He called out to my wife who opened the fridge only to have  a cascade of Dirty Honey Blonde ale run out onto the already soaked floor.

Apparently the valve was not fully closed and had emptied an entire 6L mini-keg of good beer as a fine spray inside of the refrigerator. Fortunately my birthday was less than an hour away and she  chose the high road….and let me sleep rather than rousting my sorry butt and putting me to work on the mess. So, love and respect for an aging and feeble minded husband prevented what could have been a serious butt whippin’!

Thanks hun….. I still owe you big time and I sure appreciate the fact that you love me!

One of My Favorite Birthday Cards

Do Dirty Blondes Have More Fun?

A Nice Amber Color From The Start

I  am back to the brewing pot….I went down to the new brewing supply store in Humble, TX and had them help me design a blonde ale for an easy drinking session beer. What we came up with has the name – “Dirty Honey Blonde”. I was going to go real simple but I was easily talked into doing a partial grain recipe. It takes a little more time on brew day but it should be worth the effort. The grain bill included Vienna Malt, Honey Malt, Biscuit Malt and Cara-Pils Malt for body. The extract is an Amber Malt…. One hitch in the recipe was with the recommended hops, Hallertauer….they were out so we subbed Cascade hops…..when I cut open the package for the hops my nose was hit with an aroma that immediately took me back to my days of drinking Olympia Beer in California…. it was one of those beers that was just a little outside of the taste range for most of the new-rookie beer drinkers. What I realize now is how much the good use of hops influences beer taste. As a young man it was more about cost…..a case of Coors in the bottles was $5.25 – still a hefty sum in 1969 but I couldn’t tolerate Brew 102…the cheapest beer we could get. Yes, the Cascade hops….very nice, the clone recipe for Oly also includes Willamette hops but then again Oly is a lager and I am making an Ale!

I I did my darnedest to keep the cat hair at bay and soaked anything that came near the beer in Star-San!!!!! Mike, I am not going to lose another batch – It is into the fermenter now and it looks like it is off and bubbling. The  OG is 1.047 – about what it should be and will wind up in the neighborhood of 4.8% ABV. A nice session beer. Color is a nice amber  and a calculated IBU of 23.2 won’t make it real hoppy – that will make the bride happy.

My Amarillo Ale is done and seems to have mellowed out. The Amarillo hops……not from Amarillo, TX, give the beer a  definite  citrus floral  flavor. It has a bit of a grapefruit taste to me and Kathy says her buds pick up a hint of lemon. It slides down very easy. ABV of about 4.9% so it won’t whack you right away and the IBU comes out to about 58. The recipe claims – “somewhat dry ale with a strong floral-citrus accent” – and yes it fits the description.

Thanks goes out to the folks at Backyard Home Brewers and Education Center in Humble  TX.  A couple of the beer blogs that I follow are written by women brewers…..and guess what, while I was in the store a young woman – I would say most are younger than me now!- she was in to grab some supplies to brew on the weekend. The owners are helpful and easy to work with… if you are thinking about brewing and live in the area check them out. They hold classes on a regular basis and usually have something to sample and rate when you visit.

http://backyardhomebrewers.com/

Until Later

Bishop

 

 

If You Can’t Brew’em Then You Have to Sample’em

I am more than a thousand miles from my home brewed beer but I can’t stop thinking about the pleasures of lovingly hand crafted beers. I did a little search of Grand Junction, CO and asked the locals for some recommendations for good beer and a good meal.

Our second night in Grand Junction, Colorado found us in the Kannah Creek Brewing Company. Good food, nice pizzas and hand crafted beers. I had the Lands End Amber Ale. Here is a description from there webiste. A 2010 Gold Award winner.
“Kannah Creek Brewing Company was awarded a Gold Award in the German-Style Brown Ale/Dusseldorf category for our Lands End Amber Ale. This beer is light amber in color, with a medium malt sweetness and a light hoppy flavor.”
My work partner on this trip is Pat McAdoo, he is a wee bit Scottish so he sampled the Scottish Ale charged with nitrogen for a very nice creamy head. He gave it it a strong thumbs up. If you like Whiskey….. they offer up a nice list of choices but saddly I/we did not partake…..next trip fer sure!!! American Bourbons, Irish Whiskey and ouf course Scotch Whiskey. Locals can walk away with growlers full of craft beer as well. If you are in Grand Junction it would be worth a visit.
http://www.kannahcreekbrewingco.com/
Tonight we are off to Naggy McGee’s Irish Pub….. or The Ale House or The Rockslide Restaurant and Brewery! So many choices and so little time. I may sample more than one or two….we fly home early tomorrow so I “should” behave! I will report back soon.
TTFN
Bishop

Tennessee Beer Travels

Not much brewing on  the home front. I will bottle the Dick’s Danger Ale tonight, if can find enough empty bottles.

We just returned from a trip to Nashville and Knoxville Tennessee. I am impressed with the scenery, the music and the some of the local beers. We arrived in Nashville on Tuesday the 8th of November. We checked into he hotel about 2:30 PM and Kathy said lets head downtown….  I thought it was a bit early but decided to humor her. It turned out to be a good choice. Our first stop down on Broadway St. was the Big River Grille and Brewing Works. http://www.bigrivergrille.com/ The food was Ok but the beers were pretty tasty. Kathy liked the Nashville Steamer Golden Ale. I had to try two and chose the House IPA – it was pretty good, not overly hopped but still tasty and the Sweet Magnolia Brown Ale.

We then wandered off to sample some more and to find some music. We found both! Yazoo is a local beer, both on tap and as we found out later, in bottles. The Hop Project is a very cool beer. Every batch is different, Batch 61 is out today and I sampled batch 60 – it was outstanding. check it out. http://yazoobrew.blogspot.com/ I also sampled the Dos Perros ale and enjoyed it as well. Kathy went with her old standard – Blue Moon Belgian Wit….. she is not quite as adventurous but is broadening her palate.  I have heard her reply to someone, usually a woman (will that get me in trouble?) – when they say all beer is the same and she then proceeds to educate them.. I love it. I did drink a few PBR’s as it wanted to lighten the ABV load for the evening. My lovely wife surprised me with a nice room at the Marriott and lo and behold – it came equipped with a jacuzzi tub….. hmmmmm. It was a nice surprise. Nuff said! The musis…. For a Tuesday night it was superb. I am ready to go back and maybe even dance a little.

We then wandered off to Knoxville to see our son Ben swim at the UT invite. He swam well and Kathy and I got to explore a bit more. The beer exploration included two trips to the Downtown Grill and Brewery on Gay St. Some nice beers on tap. Over the two visits I manged to sample 5 beers from the list, The White Mule Ale, the Woodruff IPA…I like!, the New World Porter…. Ok but not as good as the State Street Stout – tasted a bit like my stout, and the Downtown Nut Brown Ale. Kathy stuck with the very pleasant and easy to drink Downtown Blonde Ale.  http://downtownbrewery.com/The_Beer.html

We went to a place called Cafe4 for lunch one day and they had a local beer on tap made by Marble City. The waiter said it was a stout and I decided to try it. Well, when he brought the beer out is was a nice amber color and definitely not a stout. He checked with the the bar and they insisted it was the stout…..I think the delivery guy didn’t swap out the handle. The beer was a bit sweet and had a bit of spice flavor.  I looked up  the brewery offerings on my iPhone and it appears I was drinking the seasonal beer. It was definitely the Spiced Pumpkin Ale. A day later we went down the Old City Knoxville and found a little market that had beer on draught as well as growlers to go. They had a couple of  the Marble City offerings. http://mcb2.syncslate.com/our-beer/ No stout…… but I tried Dad’s Dime Ale and the Nectar Rubus….a rasberry wheat ale. Nice beers. I also had a South Carolina beer by RJ Rockers called Buckwheat After Dark Ale a Dunkelweizen… I really liked this one. http://www.rjrockers.com/page.asp?p_key=62A5E5C200184ECDB2D69B6C1AEF1E58&ie_key=587AF451F7AF42E497B18737E009A050

We tool a drive up into the Great Smoky Mountains – wow= really nice and an afternoon drive is severl days too few! We should be back in February again.

Kathy and Bishop - Big River Grille and Brewery

Brisket and Stout – Better Than a Sleeping Pill

Stout and Brisket - Should Be Goo

Woke up around 2:30 AM this morning, tossed around for a while and finally decided I would get up and try to get some things accomplished. I looked online and saw that my local Starbucks wasn’t open until 5:30…..I could have gone up to the front of Kingwood – that store opens 30 minutes earlier….. Chose to wait and ride the bicycle down to my local Starbucks hang out.

My restless night was partially due to the procedure done on my right ear yesterday… they poke a needle hole in the tympanic membrane and inject a warm steroid solution into the ear. After three daily treatments the hearing issues (lack of) and vertigo may subside or go away. The vertigo increased overnight and the hearing is so bad I can’t tell if it is getting better. The tinnitus ringing in the ear was over the top last night… so it was a sleepless night…not “Sleepless in Seattle” – I think that was a chick flick, it was sleepless in Kingwood.

So, what does this have to do with a beer blog – well let me fill you in. I decided that some good Texas comfort food – Brisket!, a bottle of my oh so good Imperial Stout……. it just seems to get better and better as it sits, some nice fresh gazpacho – fresh from the garden and local CSA pick-up and dinner with my wife and daughters would be a nice precursor to a full belly and the sedation from an 11% stout! – it just may help me sleep.

I think I will sleep very well tonight. The stout is so smooth…almost silky on the tongue and a mix of “chocolaty” and a hint of licorice flavors is very nice….the beer  adds to my vertigo – I am almost ready to go sideways as I type. My third inner ear injection is tomorrow and hopefully I will see some improvement!

More Beer stuff. Need to pass along some pats on the back to some beer supply folks. A couple of weeks ago I ordered some imprinted bottle caps. Well, they have not arrived so I sent a note off to the contact email address asking for an expected delivery date. I received a great reply, after hours and not from some overseas call center….. Mr. J Cameron Cooper, Manager of BottleMark LLC, http://www.bottlemark.com/ , sent a great note back explaining  their production issues/problems….. I told him no problem that I could wait –  but he fired off a note back to me saying they will try to get my order out for my next bottling….. this is real customer service…. if you need printed caps – give BottleMark LLC your business. I am impressed!

Oh yeah, back to the brisket,…. 10 hours in the smoker – the brisket turned out awesome…. And yes…..I am fading …. I think I will have to pass on watching “Dancing with the Stars” tonight. Sorry hun!Mmmmmmm good brisket – goes well with the Stout.

Mmmmmmm good brisket - goes well with the Stout

An update… I was fading for sure – the post to the blog also went sideways so I am trying to salvage my thoughts – so few and so fart ( as I proofread I saw the word fart…not intended between them! – I am trying again. I did sleep very well – until about 5;20, then rode the bicycle down to my Starbucks office to finish things up.

Dear Melissa, the vertigo just makes riding the bicycle a small challenge in the bigger scheme of things. I love the challenge. When it gets bad enough that I have to lay down to put my underwear on I will forego the morning rides…..

TTFN

Bishop

Dick’s Danger Ale is in the Secondary Fermenter

It was a busy afternoon in the kitchen/brewery. I flew in from Midland on the 5:20 AM flight this morning….. I got some feedback – I was told that the flight left at the” crack of stupid”! It was a bit early according to my who picked me up as well as my co-worker – he decided to stay in bed and have a day of leisure – my alarm went off at 3:45 AM in order to get the car back and get my “special” pat down at the security gate… this all metal left  knee sets the alarms off every time. I wonder if anyone ever gets a woodie during this pat down….? No, not me… the guy doing the pat down!

Back to the beer – I transferred the ale from the primary into the glass carboy secondary fermenter in order to clear it up and allow it to condition a little long without sitting on the spent yeast. The grab sample to check the specific gravity was so good I think I  could keg it now and charge it up with CO2 – it would be ready to drink. If it gets better over the time as  it sits before bottling  I won’t be able to keep it around. This partial grain recipe seems to be a keeper. Once I get set up to do an all grain beer I will give this ale a try as an all-grain brew. It looks very dark but isn’t heavy and is just smooth!!!!!

I was able to do a pretty good job of avoiding collisions with my daughter Lisa and my lovely wife. Halloween party tonight with Lisa and friends. She made some of those Ritz cracker and peanut butter cookies dipped in melted almond bark and decorated Halloween style. I wonder if they will go well with D’sDA – (Dick’s Danger Ale)

I did have a bit of a problem during the transfer….. it is a requirement to enjoy a good beer while conducting any and every step of the brewing process. Well, I had a “small” pint of the Belgian Wit I recently brewed – one beer…. shouldn’t be a problem right? Well, not so recently. I have been afflicted with a condition called Sudden Hearing Loss –  just the right ear. I am one of the chosen ones because along with the hearing loss I have a pretty good dose of vertigo….  that becomes the issue. My vertigo and one beer start the merry-go-round spinning a little too fast. The only benefit that I can see is that my good home-brew may stick around a little longer because I am a one and done guy in my current condition. If you want more info there is a link below.

http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/hearing/shl.htm

Hmmmmmm, what shall I brew next?

TTFN,
Bishop

Dick’s Danger Ale is Fermenting

Busy day yesterday. I brewed the 5 gallon batch yesterday and it was a hectic effort. I did not dive in and do an all grain recipe….. my CFO would need to authorize a $600 investment in mashing equipment…maybe a little more depending on the quality. This was a partial grain batch and the grain bill was pretty heavy – 2.5 lbs of 2-row pale malt, 7 ox. of crystal mall 80 (L), 9 oz. of Briess black malt 550 (L) – the black malt really gives it a dark look. I also added 3.15 lbs. of Briess light extract and 1.5 lbs of dried malt extract. I used severla of my dear’s kettles and had to be a little creative to rinse the grains.

Magnum hopsused  for bittering and Mt. Hood hops for aroma – the Mt. Hood hops have a great aroma! Dry English Ale yeast, pitched at 74 degrees and aerated well. A day later there is a good krausen ring around the edges of the fermentation bucket indicating the fermentation is well underway.

I should be ready to bottle in two weeks and enjoy for the Thanksgiving Holiday Season. I ran a taste test on the sample I pulled to check the OG(original gravity) and the color matches up with the recipe – about a 28 on the SRM scale vs. a 35 or more for my Stout. The taste is nice… not sure how it will mature after it conditions. Folks in the Northwest rave about the beer so I am anxious but willing (need) to be patient.

SRM Scale link if you are interested; http://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/02/28/beer-styles-srm-color-chart/

For you folks in Houston…. some good beer news. We have a new brewery, Karbach Brewing Co. The Brewmaster is well seasoned… looks like the Houston Chronicle mixed his name up with the Brewery name in the article… oh well, Eric Warner has somegood  roots and spent time with Flying Dog as the CEO…. I like the Flying Dog offerings and the irreverent humor expressed through the artwork on their labels. The article touts Karbach’s “Sympathy Lager”….. and now the hunt begins.

Hey hun….er, Ms. CFO – how about a good sized refrigerator for the garage so I can brew some Lagers….. I found a great article for clone lagers like Hamms and Oly…..real classics…how about a real good MGD?

Maybe I shouldn’t press my luck.

The Photo below was taken on my 60th birthday – Pat Love – We named a Wheat Ale we brewed after him, John Livezey, my partner in crime at the Humble Beer Festival ( the H is silent in Humble), me.. looking good in that Bush t-shirt and a non-brewing neighbor Alan Wooten…. he did a little quality surveillance for us.

My Bakersfield Brewing Buddies on my 60th Birthday

The Belgian Wit was a hit at dinner tonight. My daughter Ashleigh had a friend over and her review of the beer was pretty spectacular… head swells, chest puffs up and I grin like the Chesire cat…. I do love to hear nice things!

TTFN

Bishop