Beer Is Good

Yes, we realize it's been a very long time since our last update.  Moving had slowed things down a little, but we're getting back on schedule and have been brewing up some delicious beer.  With our delays in brewing, our 8 taps got close to drying out. We revived them and have some tasty beers on tap and more coming soon.

On tap:

Blackout - always a great beer and even better with the slightly cooler weather.

Bourbon Barrel Aged RIS - This is basically the same beer we issued as Dispun last year, with some very minor tweaks.  We had some carbonation consistency issues with that beer, so we decided to forgo bottle conditioning and keg it up.  Apparently, despite the added yeast and nutrient, the yeast had some trouble carbonating the 14% ABV bottle of bourbony goodness.  This batch is has carbed up nicely and is very enjoyable.  You definitely get the bourbon, maple, oak on the nose, but the beer opens up to a smooth RIS with hints of chocolate, molasses, maple, figs and some vanilla.  It doesn't have the alcohol heat that you'd expect from a 14% beer, but you know it's there.  This one will be sticking around and making it's way into the seasonal rotation, but will probably vary from year to year.

Brewed:

We've got a double batch of our Oaked Porter going into kegs tonight.  It's had just over 2 weeks on oak and will get moved off the oak and into kegs to carbonate and smooth out.  We'll be tasting this one periodically and should have it ready in a couple months.  This beer likes to take it's time to let the flavors mellow out and blend.  We've found that initial tastes have been a bit too bitter oak, so I'll usually wait til it smoothes out and hits its sweet spot before releasing it.  

We've also got a double batch of SD Session fermenting now.  That should finish up shortly and be ready fro dry hopping.  We'll have this ready to go in 3-4 weeks.  

Next up:

The first up will be an IPA with Warrior, Galaxy, Belma and Amarillo.  There could be slight changes to the hop bill or schedule, but that's the current plan.  We might do a double brew day and get another IPA going as well since we'll have fresh yeast from the double batch of SD Session ready to go, we'll see.

Next will be a double batch of Prohibition Ale.  Then we'll be making some special beers in celebration of some soon to be born IMBC family members.  More on those beers in the future.  Heading into the new year, we'll be getting our spring seasonal Irish Red ready and brewing some new things, as well as keeping our regulars available.  It's looking like a spring/summer release for our Flanders Red and Sour Porter, we'll have more info on that as we continue to sample.

Our next IMBC Food Pairing is looking like mid January in Long Beach.  Hit us up if you want more info.  We can't say what beers will be paired yet, but it looks like we'll have Prohibition Ale, SD Session, 1 or 2 IPAs, Blackout, Bourbon Barrel RIS, and possibly our Oaked Porter to choose from.  

Updates

So just a few updates since we've been pretty quiet blog-wise for a while.  Our Helles is doing well.  I kegged it a few days ago and will let it continue to lager in the keg for a few weeks.  We brewed the next batch of Prohibition Ale and it's in the kegerator being enjoyed on a near daily basis now that summer is here (at least weather wise).  We've also brewed a couple things for some friends parties.

The first was our Irish Red Ale.  While this is a spring seasonal, it was requested for a pool party for it's ability to please everyone and not just the hop heads, and it's a sessionable beer.  The party has come and gone, and the beer was well received by all.

Next up was a batch of our SD Session for another party.  That party has yet to come, but the beer is just about ready.  It's wrapping up it's last 1.5 days of dry hopping and will get kegged and carbonated shortly.  More to come on this.

We also kegged are most recent batch of Blackout and look forward to sharing it with anyone who's brave enough.  We've got a few others that are conditioning/aging right now as well.  A RIS that's aging on bourbon and oak, a Flanders Red and another special sour.  The sours have been coming along quite nice as our first venture into these types of beers.  We haven't taken any samples since adding the bugs, but the pellicles are looking very nice.

I'm moving this weekend (for the last time for a very long time) so brewing has been carefully planned around this.  But we'll get back into the brewery within a few weeks with some IPA's, more Oaked Porter, and a few other things that have been on the back burner.

Other IMBC Happenings

We brewed up our first rendition of a Muchen style Helles.  We stuck to the traditional basics for this one and kept the gain bill very simple with almost entirely German Pils.  We hopped with Hallertau and Tradition, and are fermenting it with a southern German lager stain.  We utilized a multiple step mash, starting with a very thick and low temperature mash.  We added a couple hot water infusions and employed our RIMS for additional steps.  This will a 2 hour boil helped produced a wort that will be highly fermentable and should leave us with a beer reminiscent of our favorite German bier halls.  We're keeping a close eye on this one and will begin ramping up fermentation temperature once we see about 90% of fermentation complete.  Then we'll drop the temp back down and lager for 6 weeks.

Up next is some more Prohibition Ale.  Oh and we're on Instagram #idolmindsbrewingco and Facebook.  

Beer Pairing - 2013 Spring Edition Brewer's Notes

For our latest edition of our beer and food pairing, we went with 4 pairings and an opener.  The opener was one of our IPAs.  Batch number 2, if you're following.  We really like the clean bittering of this beer.  It has enough bitterness to balance out the alcohol and simple malt bill, without having a sharp bite to it.  Simcoe definitely dominates the nose, but you can definitely taste the columbus and centennial as well.

Our first course (which was actually served second due to technical difficulties), was paired with our spring seasonal Irish Red Ale.  Ours is a classic take on the style, harboring a malt forward beer with caramel dominating the flavor and aroma.  A subtle hopping helps to balance out the beer resulting in a traditional Irish style red ale that's not too sweet or filling.  This paired well with the Bistek.

Our second pairing (served first), was our Prohibition Ale.  The use of 6-row barley and flaked corn, combined with a blend of clean fermenting ale and lager yeast strains give this beer a very clean flavor profile that makes it perfect for daytime (or anytime really).  We paired this with the adobo lettuce wraps, and the clean profile of the beer really helped the adobo stand out.

Our third pairing was our SD Session Ale.  The bright tropical aromas, from generous late and dry hop additions of Simcoe, Amarillo and Citra definitely dominate this beer.  The smooth bitterness provided by the first wort hopping help keep this low ABV IPA sessionable.  The bright flavors of the beer complimented the  short rib/crispy rice goodness nicely.

Our fourth and final pairing was our Oaked Porter.  The smooth oak character, complimented by the chocolate and nutty characteristics of our Porter made this an obvious pairing for us.  The creaminess of the olive oil ice cream worked perfectly with the smooth oak/vanilla/chocolate/nut flavors of the beer.  Can you say beer float?

Overall, the pairing was successful.  The beer and food were well received.  We're shooting for a late summer pairing, so stay tuned.

Beer Pairing - 2013 Spring Edition Chef's Notes

Our latest beer pairing was held this past Saturday in Signal Hill. We were graciously hosted by some good friends. You'll notice a change in the menu style. We wanted the focus to be on our brews, so we shortened the food description and lengthened the beer one. 

Plate one was a wagyu bistek saltado. It was paired with our Irish Red. The red is our spring seasonal brew. Bistek is a traditional Filipino dish usually made with slices of beef sirloin slowly cooked with soy sauce and lemon juice. We fried the french fries using the cold start method. That method gave us the crisp we wanted with the fries. We wanted to change it up and used wagyu beef over french fries and added a jalapeno cilantro green sauce on top.

Plate two was an adobo pork belly lettuce wrap and apple fennel slaw. It was paired with our Prohibition Ale. The prohibition ale is brewed year round. Adobo is another traditional Filipino dish usually made with chicken stewed with soy sauce, vinegar, and garlic. We slowly cooked the pork belly to render the majority of the fat, stored it in its own juices, then threw it underneath a broiler to crisp it up. We finished the wrap with a reduction of the adobo sauce.

Plate three was a braised short rib and crispy rice over a kimchi sauce. It was paired with our SD session. The braised short ribs was modeled after the traditional Korean dish, galbi jjim. It's basically a sweet soy braise. For the crispy rice we took a traditional Filipino dessert, Sinuman, and made it with out the coconut milk and sugar. We seasoned it with mirin and salt, crusted it with panko, and deep fried it. We made the kimchi sauce with kimchi and the braising liquid. 

Plate four was an olive oil ice cream with candied bacon. It was paired with our Oaked Porter. Easily the all star of the night. We took a traditional egg based ice cream and added high quality olive oil. We used an olive oil made from arbequina olives. It gave a subtle grassy and floral taste to the ice cream. The candied bacon just took it over the top. As one guest put it, it reminded him of breakfast.

The idea for this pairing was to take familiar traditional recipes and change it up or re-use them in a unique way. We'd change up a few things technique wise, but overall, what we conceptualized to what was produced was spot on.

Stay tuned for our brewer's notes, and follow us on Facebook. You can also see more photos from the pairing on Instagram. Search for #idolmindsbrewingco.

IPA tasting and Blackout brew day

With all three IPAs on tap, I was able to do I side by side and see what I liked, and what I didn't.  What I didn't like was the hopping of the Oat IPA.  I do like what the oats brought to the beer, but the hop combo and/or timing did not work for me.  I'll probably do it again with some different hops.  One thing that has been pretty consistent is that I haven't been overly happy with any IPA I've brewed that was bittered with magnum.  So I'll be staying away from magnum with our IPAs.

Next was the other two IPAs.  I didn't expect either to be a disappointment, but I did expect one to stand out.  That didn't happen.  I really liked both of them.  These are actually the first IPAs that I'm sold on.  While I enjoyed Me Too, we will be adjusting the hopping and re-introducing it under the same name.  In the meantime, both of these IPAs will be reproduced and will most likely be sticking around as part of our IPA line.  We're still working out the details of the line, but it will include at least one IPA, a IIPA, possible an even bigger IPA and an all Brett IPA.  Our SD session will be included in this line as well, as sort of a mini IPA.  Speaking of our SD Session, we kegged up 2 batches of it and it will be ready for drinking soon.

With all the IPA experimentation, we've gotten a little behind on things.  I was hoping to get our next batch of Blackout going to prevent running dry, but things didn't quite work out that way.  We're brewing up the batch today, which means it will be ready in 4-6 months.  We still have some available, but quantities are limited.  We also added our bourbon/oak mixture to our RIS.  This 13.2% bourbony, oaky, stout will be ready by late fall, which is perfect timing as far as I'm concerned.  Next up will be the next batch of our cream ale (now known as Prohibition Ale) and a Helles.

IPA anyone?

As mentioned before, I've been playing with a few IPA experiments, appropriately named IPA experiment #1, #2, #3.  All are brewed and will be ready for sampling in a few weeks.  The first was brewed a couple weeks ago and the the other two brewed last weekend.

The first is an IPA with oats in the mash (experimental IPA #1).  The idea being that they would provide an added creaminess to the IPA without the added malt sweetness.  Hopping for this one was pretty simple with a bittering charge of magnum and flavor/aroma and dry additions of simcoe and columbus and centennial with cascade added in the boil as well. Fermentation is complete and the dry hopping concludes today when it will be cold crashed before being kegged shortly.  Preliminary indications suggest that this will be a solid IPA.

The next two batch #2 and #3) are the same IPAs in terms of grain bill and OG, but vary in their hopping.  The grain bill is very basic with a pale malt base, and almost equal amounts of light crustal, carapils, and sugar.  The mash was kept low for a low FG and a nice crisp dry IPA.  For these batches, I added hops to the mash, in addition to a 60 and 30 min hops additions, followed by our standard IPA late and dry hopping.  For batch #2, we mash hopped with columbus, bittered with warrior, and included centennial, columbus and simcoe in the boil.  We'll dry hop this one mix of simcoe, columbus and centennial.  Yes, this is similar to batch #1, but the amounts and times vary. For batch #3, we mash hopped with amarillo, bittered with warrior and added centennial, simcoe and amarillo in the boil.  We'll dry hop this one with a blend of simcoe and amarillo.  This was our first go at mash hopping, and although there is a somewhat general consensus among the homebrew community that mash hopping isn't worth it, a few of our favorite commercial examples are said to include mash hopping, and we figured it was worth a try.  These two batches are fermenting now, and will get their dry hop addition in about a week, then cold crashed and kegged.

I attempted to document our batch #2 and 3 brew day with photos, but of course failed miserably.  Here's what I was able to get....

Mash hopping makes the mash smell even better!

Recirculating the mash

The kettle filling up with sweet wort