American? Heaven Forbid

It is always fun delving into the lucky dip that is the CAMRA Beer Club quarterly delivery. I did well this time with XB Bluebird Bitter from the Coniston Brewing Co. It describes itself as an English pale ale with American aroma hops, but "not too much mind, or we might have an American pale ale on our hands". It need not worry about that, it has a bit to go before things stray into APA territory, but it is a tasty beer with distinct citrus hop notes in the American fashion but strange because it is carbonated like an English ale and the combination is a little unusual. The colour is very appealing, and a triumph of bottle conditioning in that it is very easy to pour without agitating the yeast sediment and has perfect condition.

Bottle conditioning is a tricky thing to do well. Brewers are given a number of options in the bottling of live beer and it's hard to know which is best. One question the brewer must address is how the yeast is to be provided with enough extract to condition the beer. One option is to halt the fermentation by cooling the wort before the yeast have used all the sugars. The beer can then be put into cask and bottles where the yeast continue to ferment the wort when things warm up and provide a degree of carbonation in the product. That's very bloody hard to judge, I imagine. Another option is to let the beer ferment out and then add some priming sugar to the bottling tank. This appeals to me as a home brewer because it is exactly what we do and works very effectively, but the volumes involved at the commercial scale might be impractical. Also, there are specific bacteria that just love priming sugar and ruin beer. Another appealing option is to add a measure of freshly fermenting beer to the bottling tank. Termed 'krausening' this has the double benefit of supplying extract for conditioning and also an infusion of fresh yeast that will carbonate the beer in peak condition, but again could prove difficult because the primary fermentation of one batch must be carried out with the bottling of another batch in mind.

Yeast counts are also a problem because too much yeast in the bottle will either give a sludge of dead yeast in the bottom of the bottle or a yeast layer that lifts too easily and fogs up the pint. Some brewers opt to reduce the yeast content to half a million cells per millilitre by cooling the beer in the fermenter thereby encouraging most of the yeast to drop out of the beer. Others roughly filter the beer to remove all the yeast, but leave the tastier components, and then re-introduce a specific amount of yeast to take care of things in the bottle. The yeast count in the bottle must be sufficient to allow conditioning of the beer within a few weeks and also enough to produce a thin uniform film over the bottom of the bottle preventing slippage of the sediment, providing ease of pour.

There is no doubt that it is easier, if a little more expensive, to run your beer through a fine filter to stabilise it and not worry about all these complex considerations, but I am glad that a great many brewers in Britain have persevered with this tricky business to provide us with live, flavourful beers.

Bigger Daddy

I've had a chance to try a few of the Speakeasy brewery beers at my leisure over the last while, having had a small sample of them during a tasting evening last week, and can't find fault with any of their hoppy ales. Prohibition is a stunner with immense American hops yet balanced perfectly with rich malt. It is billed as an amber ale yet is very heavy in the alcohol stakes at 6.1% abv, which is something of a pity because it is the sort of beer I could drink pints of, if it were a little easier going. The level of hop character, rich malt, outright bitterness and alcohol content puts it in the IPA style as far as I'm concerned. However the Speakeasy Brewery do produce an IPA by the name of Big Daddy which overlaps with Prohibition somewhat because the hop character and bitterness do not stand out enough to set it apart from its stablemate. It is lighter in colour and slightly crisper, but the hop character is damn near identical, perhaps a tad more bitter, with a similar malt profile that is a little less full. What I'm getting at is Prohibition is a perfectly good example of an IPA with all the strength and flavour intensity we expect. I'm not complaining. They are both outstanding ales that satisfy the hop lover in me. Perhaps the people at Speakeasy brewed Prohibition first, fully embracing the explosion of flavour that the American craft brewing industry fostered, but then realised that they couldn't pack much more flavour into an ale when they brewed Big Daddy. Still, lets hope they keep trying.

Black Lightning & the DMS Issue

This quarter's CAMRA Beer Club belatedly arrived yesterday, just as I was starting to get a little concerned about it. A previous delivery had gone missing in the post so I get a little nervous when it's overdue. This month's motley crew of real ale look quite promising. Among them is Entire Stout by the Hopback Brewery of Wiltshire. So effective is the marketing of their golden ales it is very strange indeed to see a black beer coming from one of their bottles. I have enjoyed Summer Lightning many times in the past both bottled in Ireland and on cask in England and each time thought it a wonderful beer. I was surprised when Tim said he noted a distinct DMS note to it, and swiftly commented that DMS in unlikely in a beer brewed with pale malts. I had to eat my words shortly afterwards when I tried a bottle out of curiosity and was met with a strong vegetal note, typical of high DMS levels.

I might take a minute to jot down a few notes on dimethyl sulphide (DMS) to clarify why it is unusual to note it in some beer rather than others. It is a sulphur compound as the name suggests, and like most sulphur compounds is quite unpleasant smelling. It is a common feature of some lagers because lager malt contains large amounts of the precursor to DMS, S-methyl methionine (SMM), but the levels are low enough to add a distinct character to the lager which is often desirable. SMM is broken down into DMS by heat which in brewing occurs during the boil and during kilning in the production of malt. Thankfully DMS is quite volatile so it is driven off to the atmosphere during these processes. Pale ale malt is kilned at a high temperature compared to lager malt and as a result most of the DMS is driven off leaving very little in the finished malt. This explains my surprise that a golden ale brewed presumably with pale ale malt would have a strong DMS element to its character. The smell of DMS appears to vary with its concentration. Bamforth describes it as 'cat urine' which I can agree with because this is the distinct smell I get from Heineken, particularly in bottles. This might sound like I'm slagging Heineken off, but in fact a high DMS aspect in a lager suggests that it is made with a great deal of malt, rather than cheaper adjuncts that might thin out the body. The other smell commonly used is cooked corn, which I must confess I have never experienced. Another common smell is a rotting vegetable like odour, clearly outlined to me during a brewing course I undertook during which a concentrated DMS solution was passed around for us to smell. It had the unmistakable odour of cabbage left to rot in the drain of a sink after the washing up is done.

Getting back to the beer in hand, it's a nicely bitter stout with some chocolate in there somewhere, which really comes through during the swig when your nose is buried in the glass. The roasted barely is clearly evident to me at the moment because of late I have been drinking my own dark beer which is without any roasted barley at all. The bottle states it is suitable for vegans because it is not fined and has no residue of marine swim bladders in the form of isling glass. It seems common enough practice for brewers not to fine or filter their stouts, the Porterhouse don't bother either because stouts will hide any haze issues. All the better for us because nothing is stripped from the beer. It might not be so good for a work colleague of mine with a yeast sensitivity who asked me a few years ago if there was any yeast in commonly available draught beers. In my then ignorance, I told her no, it is all filtered, except for wheat beer, so she'd be safe enough. Let's hope she doesn't get a hankering for decent stout anytime soon...

Dream Porter

It's a damn fine looking beer and no mistaking. It tastes pretty good too, but not as good as it could and I have learned a number of lessons in the brewing of this porter; there is a limit to the amount of dark malt that can be added to a beer with the hope of making it black. Roasted barely or patent black malt will black it up a treat but you'll struggle with chocolate malt, even heroic amounts of it. I didn't want to use any of the more acrid malts so opted for brown and chocolate which accounted for around 15% of the grist. Despite this the roasted notes aren't what they might be and the beer is also a bit thin, much like home brew made with too much sugar. This is down to the the high percentage of dark malts which don't add much in the way of fermentable sugars and so left the beer a little thin with insufficient pale malt to pad the whole thing out. Next time I plan to ease back on the roasted malt, but add some black malt which is potent stuff and shouldn't be required in large amounts to darken the beer and add roasted character. I'm determined to crack porter brewing. I want a full beer with decent malt character complemented with a rich roast flavour and perhaps a hint of hops. Is that too much to ask?

Awards and Marketing

Did I mention I brew award winning beer? There was a delay in delivery of this certificate because I couldn't attend the event myself, but picked it up at the recent beer tasting evening where I met up with the fellow brewer who presented the beer for me. I was surprised my stout did so well because thanks to a bottling mishap it was horrifically over carbonated and invariably provided nothing more than a glass of viscous tan foam. The judges must have expertly dealt with this problem and actually got some beer into the glass for tasting.

This isn't my only award you know, I also won first prize when Oz Clarke and James May spent an evening in the Bull and Castle pub during the summer filming the last episode of their beer tour of Britain and Ireland show for the BBC. My Centennial Ale was voted the best of the home brew on offer, though it must be said that the decision was based both on the beer and also the blurb that the brewer could give to the camera in support of their beer. I couldn't attend the event, but had none other than The Beer Nut to do my marketing for me. Any one who reads his blog knows he has a wonderful turn of phrase and expertly talked the celebs into picking my beer at the expense of the the beer they actually preferred the taste of, brewed by Laura of Aran Brew fame. I'm a firm believer that beer must speak for itself and to hell with the blurb that comes with it, but I'm thankful nonetheless that TBN talked my beer up a storm. Seemingly James May took a bottle of my ale home with him, which is a bugger because I'll not see that bottle again, and those swing tops are hard to come by...

Bugger the Middle Man

I feel like I have missed out on quite a number of beer events this year, despite attending a record number and having a great time in the process. This is a good reflection on the beer scene in Ireland at the moment where there are in fact too many events to attend throughout the year. The latest event on the beer radar was a tasting of some new American imports which had been show cased previously. Sadly this was on the other side of the city and I was too busy too attend. Thankfully this time round things fell into place I was at liberty to attend this event in Lilac Wines off license on my side of the city. The main thrust of this event comes from Jonathan Spielberg (no relation, I'm assured) a New Yorker via California who now lives in Dublin. He and his business partner have taken it upon themselves to import tasty American beer to Ireland independently rather than through the tortuous route that most imported beer arrives in Ireland - mainly through Britain where any number of middle men take their cut with the result that the poor suffering Irish beer lover pays around 3.50 per 360 odd millilitres of beer. By eliminating these meddlers Jonathan's wonderfully tasty beers are available at around 2.70 per bottle. A bargain by Irish standards and long overdue.

The imports presented mainly came from the Speakeasy Brewery, San Francisco and Gordan Biersch Brewing Company, San Jose. I had tried Speakeasy's Prohibition Ale a number years ago, but couldn't recall it too well. It proved to be a solid well hopped amber ale which could be easily drank in great volumes except for the 6.1% abv it packs. Big Daddy was also on offer, Speakeasy's IPA, a fuller hoppier ale, but mild compared to some of the hop bombs coming from the US. Some on the most interesting beers came from the Weinhenstephaner trained Gordan Biersch. This European experience has clearly influenced the flavour of their beer, most strikingly the wheat beer which actually tastes like a Bavarian weisse - a rare thing in American wheat beer. This was starkly illustrated by the White Lightning wheat beer offered by the Speakeasy brewery, a beer in sharp contrast to the Gordan Biersch, that was just plain unpleasant and made me realise that American wheats can actually get blander than those I have already tried. Biersch's Blonde Bock wasn't too much to get excited about, likewise the Marzen, but the Pilsner surprised me greatly as it did in fact have that chewy malty sensation that the sweeter Czech pilsners carry, with a good measure of bitterness to balance it out.

In an attempt to sound out the market Jonathan had brought along some other American ales that are not yet on the shelves. He was sounding out the wrong market in some respects because the beer geeks who turned up loved the stuff, which may well mean that the average punter will turn up their nose. Butte Creek's Organic Pale Ale proved to be the most interesting with an intense hop aspect that was faintly English in an earthy mineral like way. Two very promising beers form the Blue Frog Brewery left us divided on whether their IPA or double IPA (Big DIPA) was the better. The Big DIPA boasted 83 bittering units, but the immense body and alcohol swamped this making it far more approachable. This is a common occurrence in these American big beers and it surprises me that American brewers persist with it. The IPA was ascribed 63 bittering units but thanks to the thinner body was an order of magnitude more bitter than the DIPA. Why put all those expensive hops into double IPAs if you just don't get any bang for your buck?

Dunkel Clarity

My recent dunkel weisse experience left me feeling a little hollow because the flavour just didn't meet with my expectations. I ended that post telling you about the other Weinhenstephaner Dunkel that I had yet to try. This one is labelled Tradition and I thought it was perhaps a rougher, fuller version of the other dunkel weisse, but a comment by Barry about dunkel being dark beer in general rather than the darker weisses that I thought them to be helped explain why this beer was filtered and not at all spicy when I got it into the glass. At first I thought it was a kristal dunkel weisse, an interesting notion, but in fact this appears to be a traditional dark German beer and a damn tasty one at that. It delivers on the rich dark malt aspect where the weisses failed, matched with an amazing clarity and rich colour. It is one of the tastiest looking beers I have seen in quite some time. Hopefully we'll see more of this type of beer arriving on Irish shores in the near future.

Hop Daemon

I forgot all about this beer for the last few months. It got stashed away in a box somewhere during a tidy up of brewing and beer clutter and I was no real hurry to find it again because the first time I tried it I was decidedly underwhelmed. Green Daemon was part of my last quarter CAMRA beer club delivery (come to think of it, this quarter's delivery is long overdue...) which proved to be quite unremarkable save for a tasty porter. A second try of Hop Daemon has changed my opinion on this beer entirely. First time round I thought it thin, gassy and with an unusual flavour that I don't like, but sadly find in quite a number of the more common English ales. At a second attempt this beer has transformed into a crisp, lively, very pale, bitter and clean tasting golden ale. What the hell happened? I suppose I could point towards further maturation of this beer in the bottle for the last few months but I know this not to be the case, or at least not the main contribution. The fact is my palate was in two completely conditions each time and my state of mind equally differing. I can't recall the exact circumstances of my first taste, but if I had reviewed the beer at that time I would have suggested you give it a wide berth. This time round I suggest you hunt it down next summer, when it'll hit the spot very nicely indeed. The effect of mind set and environment on one's perception is something I have long been aware of, and I try my best to avoid beer when I feel that I might not fully appreciate it, because when I consume alcohol I like to make every drop count, not just imbibe this noxious chemical for the hell of it. But more importantly, if I am going to be one of these review beer blogger types how the hell can I be sure I won't change my opinions on beer at the drop of a hat?

And before you ask, no, I won't be changing my mind about Gulpener Rose.

Water water everywhere

My intention upon starting this blog was to write about the more technical aspects of beer and brewing but ironically the very brewing studies I am doing have prevented my from doing the research required for this type of post. I have written a few articles, but posted them on Irish Craft Brewer along with contribution from other forum members, in the hope that this website would become a valuable resource for home brewers and anyone else hoping to learn about beer and brewing. The article below was already posted on ICB and so some might have already read it, but in an attempt to get this blog back on track I have posted an edited version of it here.

Every brewer knows that the quality of the water used in the production of beer is of paramount importance. Water can provide direct flavour effects and also indirect effects upon mash, wort boiling and fermentation. The water we use for brewing is a mix of various inorganic ions which stem from the environment the water passed through during its journey to your tap or well. The concentrations of these ions vary depending upon geographical location and there can be no doubt that some sources of water are better for brewing than others, but as brewers we have a degree of influence over the make up of the water that enters the mash tun.

The common ions in water and their direct influence on flavour are:

Sodium: contributes a salty taste at a concentration of 150 to 200 mg/l and may be harsh at levels greater than 250 mg/l. At lower levels (up to 100 mg/l) sodium ions can produce a sweetening effect in conjunction with chloride ions.

Potassium: can be salty at concentrations greater than 500 mg/l. Beer is high in potassium which is extracted from malt but it is essentially flavour neutral at these levels. Potassium chloride can be considered as a source of chloride instead of sodium chloride if sodium levels are too high.

Magnesium: can contribute a bitter and sour flavour if above 70 mg/l, though this effect is dependant upon a balance with calcium ions.

Calcium: flavour neutral except for its effects on Mg influence

Iron: gives metallic and astringent flavours at levels as low as 0.5 mg/l and even lower in lighter beers.

Chloride: gives fullness and sweetness with optimal effects between 200 to 400 mg/l

Sulphate: imparts dryness and astringency and increase bitterness. Optimal levels are found from 200 to 400 mg/l

Hydrogen: The effect of hydrogen ions is felt through influence on beer pH. At pH values below 4.0 beer tastes more sharp and acidic and perceived bitterness is increased. Values below this cause increased metallic after taste. Above pH 4.0 effects on mouth coating occur resulting in greater biscuit and toasted flavours noted. Above pH 4.4 mouth coating increases with soapy and caustic characters develop.

A number of brewing texts refer to the importance of chloride/sulphate balance because of the antagonistic effects of these two ions. Studies have shown a shift from 1:1 to 2:1 chloride:sulphate increased the perceived sweetness while a shift in the ratio towards sulphate increased perceived bitterness and astringency. Additions of salts such as calcium chloride and calcium sulphate (gypsum) provide brewers with a means of adjusting this balance thereby adjusting the flavour to suit the style of beer brewed. The indirect effects of ions in water are probably of more significance to the quality and flavour of beer than the direct effects they contribute. These indirect effects are manifested through the interaction of ions with malt constituents and wort components. The main direct effects can be divided into:

Yeast requirements: Fermentation is an immensely complicated combination of enzyme reactions that ultimately result in the production of ethanol, carbon dioxide and small quantities of flavour compounds from the anaerobic metabolism of maltose and other malt constituents. In order for these reactions to go ahead smoothly without the production of undesirable flavour compounds yeast must have all the nutrients required to maintain these essential metabolic pathways. Water provides some these essential ions while others are derived from the grist.

Effects on malt enzymes: Suitable water provides a good environment for the action of malt enzymes during mashing which ensures full extraction of fermentables from the grist. The most significant contribution from water is calcium ions which stimulate and protect malt amylases, in particular protecting them from heat inactivation.

Effects on colloidal stability: The main contribution water makes to colloidal stability is through the addition and action of calcium. Calcium levels of at least 50 mg/l are required for good yeast flocculation while at least 100 mg/l are required for good break formation. During break formation calcium forms complexes with proteins, polyphenols and hop constituents aiding their removal from the wort. This greatly helps with wort clarification and can reduce haze potential in the beer. A further action of calcium involves removal of oxalate in the form of calcium oxalate. Oxalate stems from the malt and too much in the finished beer causes gushing upon opening.

Them beers them beers need calcium

Something worth bearing in mind with respect to calcium concentration is the different stages of the brew that various amounts are required. If you have assessed that a certain addition of calcium sulphate will bring your calcium levels up to the level required to mash effectively, the question must be asked how much of the calcium is left behind in the spent grains, and do you have sufficient calcium left for both effective boiling and good yeast flocculation. It is suggested that calcium levels are depleted by 50 to 60% due to losses in the spent grain. Therefore sufficient calcium should be added to maintain calcium levels throughout the rest of the brewing steps.

Dunkels!

Dunkel weisse seemed to drop off the Irish beer radar entirely over the last few years. Erdinger's offering is almost ubiquitous, of course, but Franziskaner's more satisfying dunkel disappeared quite some time ago. So it was very exciting to wander into one of Dublin's best off licences and find three brand new dunkels on the shelf produced by breweries that I am already fond of. The first was Weinhenstephaner Dunkel, producers of the eponymous and satisfying heffe and Vitus, so I greatly anticipated this dark beer. I thought it a little light in colour when I poured in to the glass (I'm certain dunkel was darker when I was younger...) and the flavour proved a bit light too. It reminded me more of a full on straight up weiss like Schneider rather than its darker counterpart. It has been quite some time since I have tried this style of beer, but this just wasn't the experience I recalled. It was very pleasant with all the spicy Bavarian bits in place, but not the dark beer I anticipated. The second dunkel on offer was from Maisel, producers of the very fine Maisel's Weiss, another beer from my early days of beer appreciation. This one proved a little more satisfying on the colour and flavour front, but still wasn't quite what I had hoped for. Again, the darker malts didn't really show through and it could easily be confused with a heavy Weiss. Perhaps my perceptions are biased in some way by erroneous halcyon memories from my youth and these beers are indeed fine examples of dunkel weisse. It's hard to know. I have yet to try the third one, which is also from Weinhenstephaner, but is dubbed 'tradition', and I am very keen to see what this might mean. Perhaps this one will meet with my memory clouded expectations.