A couple of porters

This weekend, we brewed a double batch of our porter.  All went smooth and both are happily (and violently) fermenting away.  We typically split these brews up and keep one as our standard porter and add bourbon and vanilla bean soaked oak to the other.  The timing and quality of the oak is critical for this one, as we want the bourbon flavor to be subdued and the oak the be the dominating adjunct flavor, with vanilla coming in second.  We let primary fermentation finish before adding the oak mixture until the desired flavor is reached.  Then condition for a few month to let everything settle in.

For this batch, we will follow the same regimen for the oaked version.  I'll let fermentation wind down and add the mixture in approx. 2 weeks.  I'll then rack off the oak and let it cold condition int he keg for a few months, once everything's balanced nicely.  I decided to take a different approach to the other half of this bath this time.  We've come to like the oaked version more than the original, so instead of keeping half as is, we added a little something special to it.  I'll be checking back on this one every so often until I think it's ready.  At that time, we'll share.

Next up is our bourbon barrel imperial stout, followed by our Summer Ale an oud bruin and our spring seasonal Irish Red.

Beer Pairing - 2012 Winter Edition Brewer's Notes

For this edition of our Beer Pairing, we served 4 beers.  Three were paired with food, and the fourth was served as people arrived.

The arrival beer was again our Brown Ale (second edition if you're following the blog).  It's an English style nut brown ale, with low alcohol (4.6%) and a smooth creamy texture.  It has a sweet caramel aroma with a nutty backbone and hints of chocolate.  Quantities were limited, but again this beer was well received.

The first beer for the pairing was paired with the chicken and mac salad.  It was our flagship beer, Blackout.  This beer is best described as a strong dark ale with vanilla beans.  It's creamy texture and vanilla and chocolate aroma and flavor make it perfect for a cold winter night, which here in San Diego means 60F.  Guests enjoyed this one and high ABV helped loosen people up a bit.

Notes: This version of Blackout we served was our revised version.  As said before, we were more than happy with the previous versions and recipe, but I had an idea and ran with it.  It paid off, as the result was a higher ABV beer (10.5%), a shorter conditioning stage, and a more simple and repeatable recipe.

The second beer, we paired with both the fries and tacos.  This was Me Too, our IIPA.  This highly hopped, but not overly bitter double IPA has a nose of pine, grapefruit, and citrus.  The body is medium-light, with a moderately dry finish.  A very nice 9.6% IIPA that will make even non-IPA drinkers thirsty.  We paired this with both the tacos and the fries for the spice enhancing qualities of the hops.  We thought the combination of pine and citrus would complement the spiciness of the dishes.

Notes: This recipe was based partially on the winner of the adjunct sugar vs no adjunct sugar IIPA taste test we did.  This does have some adjunct sugar (dextrose), but we altered the malt bill slightly and added a second dry hop addition.  We used 9oz of hops between the two dry hop additions.  Or, nearly 3.5lbs per barrel in the dry hop alone.

The third beer was paired with the desert.  We chose our Weizenbock for this.  This is one of our rotating seasonals for fall/winter and will continue to be so.  The sweet caramel malt flavors mixed with the clove spice and banana esters from the yeast made this the perfect beer to pair with the toffee bread pudding.

Notes: This is a pretty traditional German weizenbock finished off with a bavarian weizen yeast (WLP351).  I really like this strain for weizenbocks and dunkel weizens, it just compliments the caramel and chocolate notes perfectly) 

As promised, the theme for this beer pairing was quite opposite from that of our summer supper club.  We went with all high ABV beers for this one, as made sense for winter.  The next Beer Pairing will be in spring and will feature a spring seasonal, as well as a few others.  Details to come. 

Bottled and Labeled

We decided with the price of the Beer Pairing we'd include a bottle to take home. Weizenbock being one of our brews in the winter seasonal rotation. Me Too our double IPA. Being based in San Diego we have to have one, and Me Too is a step in the right direction. Blackout our flagship brew. It doesn't fit into any category. The closet thing would be dark strong ale with vanilla beans. Even that is more a description than a category.

I wanted the labels to have some meaning and some personality, so I used photos from recent and past "family vacations". Weizenbock has Scott on a stranger's scooter in Germany. Blackout has the IMBC crew toasting glasses at Toronado on Haight. Me Too has one of the IMBC crew passed out at Oktoberfest in Munich.

Beer Pairing - 2012 Winter Edition

Our latest beer and food pairing just happened on December 1st. You may have noticed a few changes. First, we changed the name from Supper Club to Beer Pairing, because people were focusing too much on the food and less on the beer. The beer has always been the main focus. The food is just so you won't get too drunk. Second, we changed up the direction of the food. From courses of food to small plates. Pretty much we tried to go with gourmet drunk food, things you would love to eat when a little faded. Third, with the price for the beer pairing guests also came away with a bottle of a brew of their choice.

ROUND 1, chicken karaage with Blackout sauce and furikake mac salad was paired with Blackout. The Blackout sauce was a teriyaki based sauce with a combination of Blackout and soy sauce being the backbone.

The creaminess of Blackout played well with the mac salad, and the soy ginger marinade for the chicken was a nice contrast to the subtle vanilla flavor of Blackout.

ROUND 2, oxtail chili cheese fries with cilantro jalapeno aioli was paired with Me Too, our double ipa (DIPA). The oxtail chili was made with Me Too.

Straight up, Me Too was a perfect pairing to the chili cheese fries. It refreshed the palate with every sip, removing the heaviness and gaminess of the dish.



ROUND 3, pork belly tacos with homemade hot sauce and pickled radishes and carrots was paired with Me Too. The pork belly was double deep fried for that extra crunch.

Like the chili cheese fries, Me Too was the palate cleanser needed to refresh the taste buds after each spicy bite.



ROUND 4, toffee bread pudding with caramel sauce was paired with Weizenbock.

With notes of cloves, bananas, and caramel Weizenbock elevated the flavor of the bread pudding. Pairing nice with the caramel sauce and toffee bits in the pudding.



If you missed out on this edition, stay tuned for our Spring Beer Pairing happening next year. Seats are limited, so don't sleep. Brewer's notes to follow soon.

IMBC jumps into sours

We've been talking for a while about brewing some sours, and a recent trip to Brussels basically solidified it for us.  We've decided to jump into the sour market with a variety of offerings that we'll be working on perfecting.  After extensive reading and research, we decided that our first sour would be a Flanders Red.

We brewed our first batch of Flanders Red this weekend.  We kept things traditional and used a grain bill of primarily Vienna malt with some flaked corn and a variety of cara and crystal malts.  We utilized a multi step mash (very similar to the one used by Rodenbach), and a 2 hour boil with a single small hop addition of some Stryian Goldings.  We used a direct pitch of a Roeselare yeast blend and will let that do it's thing for a while.  The brew went smooth and we hit every temp, volume, and gravity spot on.  The beer is currently in our temperature controlled fermentor happily fermenting away.  We'll let this one sit for at least 150-160 days before our initial sample.  At that point we'll decide when to separate into two batches, one with tart cherries and one with oak.  We have high hopes for this one and will be patiently (read anxiously) waiting it's release in 14-16 months.

In the meantime, we'll get a few more beers going.  We're looking into a Berliner weisse and Ould Bruin, as well as extensively researching spontaneous fermentation.  Our standard lineup will be still made with regularity, as will our seasonal/specialty beers.  Exciting times ahead...

Another IIPA Brew Day

With both previous renditions in the kegerator, we were able to do side by side comparisons.  Although there were things that stood out in both that I liked, I opted to further develop the version with the adjunct sugars.  Although both recipes had identical starting and finishing gravities and the same hopping, the version with the adjunct sugars had a slightly dryer perceived finish and more pronounced hop flavor and aroma.  So, I made some slight tweaks and brewed the next version yesterday.  With the exception of one of the pumps failing (but some quick thinking kept things moving smoothly), brew day was smooth.  I hit mash temp, volume and pre/post boil gravities spot on (as expected of course).
The modification made to this batch was minimal.  I eliminated the munich malt and stuck to a grist of almost all 2-row with a small amount of light crystal and carapils, with some adjunct sugar.  The hopping was modified as well.  I stayed with magnum for bittering and a cascade/columbus/summit blend for late additions.  Although I moved all of the late additions to the last 5 mins of the boil and whirlpool.  I also modified the dry hop.  I stayed with a simcoe/summit/columbus blend, but increased the overall amount and split it into two separate additions.  I expect this one to nail what I'm looking for and look forward to adding a 9% double dry hopped IPA to our regular lineup.  It's cutting it close, but I expect to have this one ready for our first Brewers Dinner in early December.  More to come on that soon...

Weizenbock Bottling Day

This weekend I bottled up our Weizenbock to give it some bottle time before its winter debut.  I used our logo caps on the 22s (labels to follow) and standard oxy-barrier caps on the 12s.  While we usually keg our beers using co2 to force carbonate, some styles are better conditioned naturally in the bottle and wheat beers are one of those styles.  This is a big, complex wheat beer. A slight caramel sweetness and spicy clove-like flavors from the weizen yeast, this beer is much smoother than the 9.6% abv will lead you to believe.  This beer will be ready just in time for late fall/winter...(supper club???).

Dispun

Another wedding brew project completed. I dropped off the bottles last night, and everyone was all smiles. We sampled a bottle, and everyone had their mind blown. The concept for the label was based off of Andy's hypebeast obsession with beer. It was only fitting that I take the most recognizable street wear brand logo and do it up for his label.



I created two different types of labels with the same concept. For the 12oz bottles I used Avery, and for the 22oz bottles I used Neato labels. I wanted the 22oz bottles to be special so I blew up Andy's face, moved the logo to the side, and added a nice message to remember the day. We opted to wax the tops of the 22oz bottles to add that extra appeal and maximize the shelf life for aging.



If you're lucky enough to get a bottle you will not be disappointed. Scott and I are definitely feeling this brew, so it will make an appearance again. Sorry Andy.

Double Batch IIPA Brew Day

Jet burner keeping the kettle boiling into dusk.

Yesterday was our first double batch brew day.  I started early in the morning and brewing went well into the evening hours.  I'm working on nailing down a IIPA that I'm happy with keeping as a staple.  The main problem is that I'm really picky about it.  For this effort, I started with the same recipe and created one with all malt and one with some adjuct sugars, keeping the hopping the same.  My goal is to sample each, determine which I like better, and further develop on that recipe.

The mash temp showing a constant 148F and the sparge water up to temp and ready to go.

Batch one is comprised of a combination of american 2-row and munich malts as a base with a small amount of medium/light crystal.  Batch two is the same, but I reduced the base malts slightly and added 100% fermentable sugars to keep the starting gravity the same.  I also added a small amount of carapils to the second batch.  These beers are borderline insanely hoppy.  I used Magnum for bittering, and a blend of Cascade, Summit, Columbus and Simcoe for flavor and aroma additions.  I will dry hop these beers with a blend of Summit, Columbus and Simcoe.

When I said these are insanely hoppy, I meant it. I used over a pound of hops for each 5 gallon batch.  To put into perspective, the dry-hop addition alone equates to over 2 pounds per barrel.  Due to mash tun limitations, and the fact that these are test batches, I brewed both to get 6 gallons into the fermentors.  After loss during fermentation and hop absorption from dry hopping, I should get a solid 5 gallons of each into the kegs.  Once all is said and done, both batches should finish in the 9% ABV range and are close to 100IBUs.  A San Diego IPA indeed.

Supper Club - 2012 Summer Edition Brewer's Notes

For this edition of Supper Club, we served 3 beers.  Two were paired with food, and the third was served as people arrived.

The arrival beer was our Brown Ale (second edition if you're following the blog).  It's an English style nut brown ale, with low alcohol (4.6%) and a smooth creamy texture.  It has a sweet caramel aroma with a nutty backbone and hints of chocolate.  This beer was well received, with the earliest attendees requesting additional pours.

The first beer for the pairing, was paired with both the appetizer and the dessert.  It's our cream ale.  Being a pre-prohibition style cream ale (as opposed to the classic cream ale commonly found), it has a slightly higher alcohol level at just over 5% and a malty finish.  Despite these things, it remains light, crisp, clean, and easy to drink, while maintaining its full flavor.People enjoyed this one, and it definitely went down smooth on such a warm evening.  We're dubbing this a Summer Ale, although since we're in SD, it'll be available year round.

The second beer, we paired with the main course.  This was our SD Session.  Clocking in at a whopping 4.1% ABV, this light session IPA is perfect for summer and paired beautifully with the pork tenderloin.

As you can tell, there was a theme here...low alcohol beers.  We thought this would work best for our summer session and it did.  But really, a 12% stout doesn't exactly quench your thirst during a heat wave.

SPOILER ALERT: 2012 Winter Supper Club will not be following this theme...can't wait.

Supper Club - 2012 Summer Edition

Starter. Pork belly lettuce wrap with a miso apple and fennel slaw. Paired with the Summer Ale.

We brined the pork belly overnight then finished it off in the broiler until golden brown. We used white miso as a base of the sauce, and tossed it with the fennel. We layered everything and garnished it with micro greens lightly tossed with some olive and oil and citrus.

The Summer Ale paired well with the starter. The heaviness of the pork and miso slaw played nicely with the clean and crispness of the ale.



Main. Pork tenderloin with roasted parsnip and sweet potato puree, and caramelized onion pan jus. Paired with SD Session.

I sous vide the pork tenderloin with a dry rub for 2.5 hours at 141F. I personally like it a little medium rare but I opted for a higher temp and longer duration to get it to medium. I finished the tenderloin on the grill searing each side for 3 minutes to develop that smokey flavor.

For the sauce I caramelized onions and set them aside. I poured the cooking liquid from the sous vide bags, added our Brown Ale and honey, reduced down, and finished off with a stick of butter.

The main paired perfectly with the SD Session. It was smooth and crisp with hints of mango and grapefruit. It held down the heaviness of the dish with each refreshing sip.



Dessert. Coconut tres leches cake with a warm berry compote. Paired with the Summer Ale.

The cake itself didn't have any coconut in it. It was all in the leches. The three milk mix had sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, and coconut milk. It was subtle, but was a nice touch. The warm berry compote had raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I wanted it a little tart to counter punch the moist creaminess of the tres leches cake.

The dessert paired nicely with the Summer Ale. It didn't overpower the dessert, and the malty finish of the ale added a nice touch.


Our next session will be in December. I can't reveal them all, but our flag ship brew, Blackout, will be making an appearance. Stay up to date on the blog.

Waxing

Today we waxed the 22oz bottles of the beer we brewed for our friends wedding.  The 12s will have the IMBC caps, but we wanted to wax the 22s for better presentation and prolonged aging.  Labeling will occur next week, then delivery.

Cream Ale, Brown Ale, and Blackout

Sparging a pale ale we brewed for a co-worker.  We utilize a continuous sparge for our beers, as opposed to batch sparging used by many homebrewers.

Busy, busy, busy....
Since we brewed the second version of a brown ale, we've brewed a few more things that are coming along nicely.

First, we've added a new beer to our line-up.  It's a cream ale, that's perfect for summer.  It's clean and crisp with subtle malt and hop presence, and at just under 5% ABV, you can a have a few without worries.  For those wondering, Cream Ales are an ale version of an American lager.  They were originally brewed by ale brewers to compete with the lager brewers who were dominating the pre-prohibition US beer market.  Some were brewed with ale yeasts and fermented cool, and others were made with lager stains and fermented closer to ale temps.  Ours is kept traditional to style and is made up of 6-row malt and flaked corn, lightly hopped and fermented with a blend of ale and lager yeasts to create a well-attenuated light beer with a smooth mouthfeel.  Although the name for this one is still pending, it'll be available for summer supper club and beyond.

Next, we brewed a modified version of our signature beer, Blackout.  For this, I basically took the beer in a different direction with the same goal in mind.  Fermentation is winding down, after which I'll add vanilla beans and condition it til December.  We'll then do a side by side comparison and go from there.  We have been very happy with Blackout and it's current recipe, but I got an idea and ran with it.  We'll see if it was a good one.

Finally, this past weekend, I brewed a pale ale for a coworker.  We've brewed one before for him and he was very happy with the resulting beer and feedback from his friends, so he came back for another party he's throwing.  Keeping in mind that the pale ale we've brewed in the past is not part of our regular line-up, I made some tweaks and brewed up a batch for him.  This was a pretty basic hoppy pale ale.  A gist of 90% american 2-row and 10% medium crystal, and hopped with Centennial for bittering and a 50/50 mix of Amarillo and Simcoe whole leaf hops late in the kettle and for dry hopping, this will be a beer that will please most anyone.  It's doing it's thing in the fermentor, anxiously awaiting it's dry hop as we speak.

Brown Ale Brew Day

With the first run of our nut brown ale on tap, some minor tweaks were in order.  I upped both the chocolate and victory malts slightly.  There were a couple of reasons for this particular modification.  The first was to get a slightly more pronounced nuttiness and the second was to get it a tad darker without upping the crystal.  I also thickened the mash a tad, as I've found that, at least for our brewery, a thicker mash yields better results for our low to moderate gravity beers.  I brewed the modified version this weekend and am excited to taste the final product.  Preliminary showings indicate a winner. Version one was a good beer.  Version two will be a great beer.

Screening the Classic Tee

Big ups to Mediumfits for hooking it up with the printing for the IMBC classic tee.

Winter Already?

With summer just beginning, it's hard to think about winter, but that's just what we did.  This weekend we brewed up another batch of our award winning weizenbock.  Using a grain bill of mostly malted wheat, along with pilsner and munich malts for base and specialty malt blend of medium crystal, special b and chocolate for color and complexity, this is definitely a malt forward wheat beer.  It's dark color and medium body, combined with a spicy traditional Bavarian weizen yeast and German noble hops lay the foundation and the high abv (8.6%ish) make this a perfect late fall/winter beer.

PS...as noted below, we also bottled up our bourbon aged imperial stout for our friends wedding.  I just want to say that if you are lucky enough to get a bottle of this masterpiece, you're welcome in advance.  Although, I have a feeling there may be more opportunities down the road....

Bottling

Over the weekend Scott and I bottled the wedding beer we brewed for a friend of ours who is getting married. It went smooth with minimal loss during bottling. Our 5 gallon batch yielded a case of 12s and 18 22s.

We sampled the brew at its worst state (warm, and flat) and it was still good. All I'm going to say is, it tasted like good bourbon. It'll just get even better aged.

Next step is waxing the 22s, labeling, packaging, and delivery.

IMBC Chef Coat

We've been planning Supper Clubs to introduce people to our brews. We just got a little more official on that front. Stay tuned for the Summer and Winter sessions.

IMBC Bottlecaps

Caps came in today. Bottling to commence in few weeks. 

All Moved and Settled...and Hectic

As I mentioned before, I had to move. The move went well and everything is back in operation. It's always an adjustment brewing at a new location with new variable, but all has been smooth and flawless, for the most part. We've been at our new place for almost 2 months now and we're 4 brews deep.

The first couple batches were both Blackout, our signature black ale with vanilla beans. Both of these batches went smoothly and are well on they're way. Batch one is currently sitting on some Madagascar Vanilla Beans, soaking up all they're goodness, while the other is finishing up fermentation. Once it's done, it will follow in it's brothers footsteps and get a dose of vanilla. Once the desired vanilla flavor is reached, they will be removed from the beans and aged 'til winter.

Last weekend it was time for the next couple batches, and a busy double batch weekend. First up was a English nut brown. We had been discussing various styles to add to our lineup that could please a more general audience, while still being beers we would want to have a few of. We decided on a brown ale and a cream ale. I played around with a few different recipe ideas before settling on what should turn out to be a solid example of the style. For this beer, I used an English pale malt for the base, with some crystal and a small amount of chocolate and victory for little nutty character. I finished this with the same strain of English yeast that we use for our porter, as I have been very happy with this strain. The brew went smooth and all is well. It's happily fermenting away and will be ready in the coming weeks.

The second batch of the weekend was our San Diego Session. Brew day went without any hiccups and it's enjoying itself and bubbling away nicely. This one should also be ready in a few weeks.

Next up, I'll be brewing another batch of our award winning Dunkel Weizenbock that should be making it's way into our winter supper club, and a cream ale that should please anybody on a hot summer day.

Sample Bottle Cap

I've been shopping around to get IMBC bottle caps made, and I found BottleMark. I purchased one cap to see the quality, and it was exactly what I wanted. They're cheap too. Coming in at 12 cents per cap no matter the quantity.

Expect to see these on bottles soon. 

Supper Club - 2012 Spring Edition Brewer's Notes

The Idea of the supper clubs is to showcase the beers and introduce IMBC and our beers to new people and get feedback on what works and what doesn't. We had a good selection available for this edition and received some great feedback that we'll incorporate into our future beers. That being said, here's a breakdown of what we drank that you missed out on.

We started with our Irish Red. This spring seasonal has a sweet nose with a hint of roast that carries through the beer and finishes clean and dry. A medium-light body and lower ABV(5.3%) keep the beer smooth and make it easy to have a few pints. The feedback we received was very positive, reassuring us to keep this one around. Look for this one to be available early/mid March.

Having 5 beers for a 3-course meal made having a palate cleanser between courses very easy. Our first choice was our Thai PA. This is a basic pale ale, lightly hopped with Sorache Ace for a slight lemon character. We finished this off with a post fermentation addition of fresh ginger and kaffir lime leafs. The ginger is definitely the front runner of this one, but not overpowering. The lime leafs, mixed with the sorache ace, make for a smooth bitterness and lemongrass like flavor that pairs well with the ginger. At 5.4% ABV, this is a nice refreshing pale that, while not be for everybody, is perfect for a warm spring day. The feedback was mixed on this one, as we anticipated. Ginger is a love it or hate it flavor and that was the reaction we got from people. We'll probably do this again, but not regularly.

For the main course, we chose our Oaked Porter. This is our standard porter, that was ages on bourbon and Madagascar vanilla bean soaked american oak. The bourbon flavor is very subdued, but is detectable. The oak and vanilla work to smooth out the beer and give it a very complex. Hints of chocolate, nut, vanilla, bourbon, and oak, make this 6% porter something not to be missed. Feedback on this, mirrors our thoughts.

Our next palate cleanser was our SD session. This was very well received as well. We basically took a good San Diego IPA and toned the alcohol down, leaving a highly hopped, light bodied pale at a quaffable 4.6% ABV. A combination of Citra, Amarillo, and Simcoe leaf hops create a refreshing citrus aroma with hints of mago and grapefruit. This one will definitely be sticking around as it's one of our favorites as well.

For desert, we chose our Black Wit. The idea behind this beer came from some late night conversations with the crew after a considerable amount of beer. Come, morning, the idea still sounded good, so we went with it. We took a traditional Belgian wit recipe and darkened it. A 50/50 split of unmalted wheat and malted barley, step mashed and brewed with coriander and fresh orange zest keep this beer sooth, crisp and refreshing. We added some darker malts during the sparge to extract their color while minimizing the roast character to keep the beer as close to the traditional wit as possible. What came through was a slight hint of roast on an overall refreshing beer that's too easy to have too many of, but at 4.3% ABV, that's probably OK. Feedback was positive for this one. This probably won't be added to our regular lineup anytime soon, but we're definitely keeping the recipe in a safe place.

Upcoming supper clubs will continue to showcase our staples, as well as experimental beers. Look out for summer session in July/August and a winter session that's sure to leave you wanting a bottle or two for the road.

Supper Club - 2012 Spring Edition Photos

As promised, here are a few photos courtesy of Maddalenna.

The starter, duo of sausage.


The main, beer braised short ribs.


The dessert, berry and stone fruit medley.


What it was like in the kitchen during prep/service/clean up.


View more photos here.

Supper Club - 2012 Spring Edition

IMBC Supper Club - Spring 2012 from maddalenna.

We recently had our 2nd supper club this past Saturday in Long Beach. It was larger, and more successful than our Winter edition with 18 people showing up to sample our brews and eats. My sister was in attendance, and she obliged to capture some footage of the night. Big ups to Madelene Farin for capturing and editing the footage. Follow her tumblr, maddalenna.



Added more tables to accomodate everyone. Big ups, to my wife (<3) with setting up the ambience. I had my brother and cousin with me in the kitchen, which  made food service pretty smooth. I cooked and served 8 people for the Winter edition, and I wanted to see how far the Farin Bros could push ourselves with 18 people. I created a menu in which I could cook the majority of things a day before and minimize the cooking during prep.



For the starter, we had a duo of sausage. The hot italian with homemade whole grain mustard. The curry chicken pork belly with a roasted parsnip and sweet potato puree. We paired the starter with our Irish Red.

For the main, we had beer braised short ribs with citrus gremolata, prosciutto wrapped asaparagus and confit fingerlings. We paired the main with our Oaked Porter. It's the same porter from the Winter edition, we just added bourbon soaked white oak chips to add flavor while it aged.

For the dessert, we had a berry and stone fruit medley dressed with a honey mint lime sauce. We paired dessert with our Black Wit.

Brewer's notes to follow for a detailed description of each of the beers.

From the feedback we received, everyone enjoyed the food and beer pairings. The overall favorite of the night was our Oaked Porter, Irish Red, and the SD Session. Our main focus was to enhance the beer tasting experience with food. Watch out for our Summer and Winter editions coming later this year in SD. Especially our Winter edition. DO NOT SLEEP. It will be ridiculous.

If you want to get down with IMBC supper club email remi.imbc@gmail.com.

New Beers, Getting that Barrel Aged Taste, and Moving

Despite not much written activity lately, things have been pretty busy at the brewery. Over the last few weeks, I brewed two new beers (and new styles for us) and took the next step in our RIS.

 

First up, a few weeks ago I brewed a Black Wit. This was a tradition Belgian Witbier brewed with flaked wheat and Belgian pilsen malt with some dark malt added for color. I added boil additions of coriander and fresh orange zest and finished with a traditional Belgian Wit yeast. I experimented with a unique way to extract the color without the roast or harsh characters from the grain and it turned out pretty well. After two weeks, there was a slight roast character, but the quickly gave way to a very refreshing spring wit. This will be light, refreshing, and quaffable at around 5%abv.

Next up was a good San Diego session beer. I brewed this last weekend and couldn't be happier with the way it has turned out thus far. I used a very simple malt bill of primarily 2-row pale male and utilized a long low temp mash to ensure a low FG and a crisp dry finish. First wort hopping and a very generous amount of late hop additions should give a bold hop flavor and aroma with a mellow bitterness, that, combined with the low ABV (4.5% target) will yield a very drinkable beer. did I mention that I will be dry hopping the hell out of this one? I mean, it wouldn't be a San Diego session beer without a solid Simcoe/Amarillo/Citra dry hop. This one should be ready in about a month(crossing my fingers for a spring supper club release).



 Then came the RIS. Cold temperatures and a not very alcohol tolerant yeast strain led to a higher than desired FG and low ABV. So, I added some high gravity yeast to finish off fermentation and get this beer down to where I wanted it. Well, that worked. Measuring in at 11.9% ABV and a final gravity of over 1.020, this stout is big, full bodied, and very tasty. Of course, as mentioned before, this is a barrel aged RIS so I racked it off the yeast and onto some french oak cubes that I had soaking in Makers Mark for 2 months or so. I'll be tasting this one periodically and moving it off the oak once I get the flavor I want from it, where it will then age and continue to mature until it's August debut.

Things will quiet down a bit over the next couple of months brewing wise as I have to move. but they will pick back up as soon as things settle down. Next up on the list to brew will be the next edition of Blackout...it's well over due.

Brewing Illustration

Via Libationlab

Caught this dope napkin illustration on how to brew beer in 7 steps while on my daily blog roll. What you don't see is all planning (before) and cleaning (after).

Bourbon Oaked Russian Imperial Stout

A few months ago, a friend of ours asked if we would make a beer for his wedding. Of course we said yes. When we asked what he wanted, he said he wanted a barrel aged imperial stout. Challenge accepted. After a month of planning we knew two things. One; we don't have bourbon barrels. Two; this is going to be a big ass beer. To accomplish the barrel aged profile without a barrel, we decided to go with a few ounces of french oak cubes soaked in Maker's Mark. I started soaking the oak cubes ASAP to ensure we would get maximum exposure to get the flavors we wanted.

Then came nailing down a recipe. I played around with a few different ideas, both in terms of OG and grain bill. The idea being that this was going to be a huge complex beer, I went with an expected OG of 1.114 and planned on a long slow mash to bring the FG down to the mid 1.020's and a final ABV of around 12%. I used primarily pale malt, with a combination of roasted barley, caramel and chocolate malts for color and complexity. I also decided to use a small amount of flaked barley to add a bit of smoothness to it. To help ensure we would hit a low enough FG and maintain the body that we wanted, I knew I was going to want to use some adjunct sugars. Weapon of choice? Molasses. I knew that molasses would give us enough fermentable sugars to help reach our goal, and it would also give a unique sweetness that would go well with this beer.

Now that the grist was set, I had to figure out what yeast I wanted. I haven't been happy with the stouts I've made or had that have used cali ale yeast (the most common yeast used for RIS, at least on a homebrew level). I had been experimenting with a London ale strain on our porter and have been very happy with the results. The only problem is that it's not designed for a beer of this magnitude. Solution? I need a ton of yeast. So after weeks of building up enough yeast, it was finally brew day.

The crew came down from LA to help out and everything went smoothly. It was definitely a long brew day with a 2 hour mash and 90 minute boil, but that didn't phase us. We hit our numbers and ended up with a little over 6 gallons in the fermentor. Its happily (and violently) fermenting away as we speak. I'll give fermentation a while to clean itself up before racking to a secondary vessel and adding the oak, where it will condition for a while. Really looking forward to how this comes out.