Pics from the Boulevard Brewery

This trip was a lot of fun. We went down to Kansas City and toured the Boulevard Brewery. If anyone has read my homage to the BB, you know that this was a pilgrimage for me and my brother. So, here we have some pictures from the Barrel Room, we took shots of us standing next to the Templeton Rye barrels because we also love us some Templeton.

This is a shot of me in front of the barrels.

The other one is a picture of me and the fiance in front of Gomer's in Kansas City.




















That place was amazing, especially for us coming from Iowa with all of our silly taxes on high abv beers. They had more beer than I have seen in a long time. And most of it was absolutely delicious. They even had a few I had never seen before.

The first shot here is my with the barrels, which was probably the coolest room in the brewery for us. Notice the overwhelming look of joy in his face.












This one is him giving the brewery a farewell hug.

It was great, we got to walk through the old brewery and the new brewery, then at the end we had free, fresh samples. Granted, we had already had everything they had on tap and the only one we really wanted wasn't available, but it was still fun. Then we went to a pizza place for dinner and they had the beer we wanted, it is Boulevard's Tank 7. It's a farmhouse ale, which made me ponder why we hadn't made a farmhouse ale, given our farm-upbringing. But it's a lighter beer, almost a cross between a Belgian wit and an American wheat with a little bit less flavor. It was good, but I don't think I'll be stockpiling cases of it for the zombocalypse.

All in all it was a good trip. Good beer, good food, good people. I'm glad we live so close to KC, because it is a pretty rockin' place for barbecue and beer. Next stop on the brewery tour?

Fort Collins for my honeymoon baby. That's right, I have the best fiance ever!

Back in Action

I am back from my brief hiatus. Who would have thought that purchasing a house, planning a wedding and getting through the holidays would be so time-consuming? Now that most of this is behind me though, I can begin to recap the brews my brother and I have been working on, as well as highlight some key events upcoming in the neighborhood. So a lot has been happening, and this might as well be called back in action part one of many...

We have made several new brews since the Double IPA. However, I do not have my brewer's journal with me at this juncture, so that will have to wait. I can give some important Iowa Brewing Updates though.

First, and probably most important for our microbrewing industry, the Iowa Beer Equality Bill is now part of SF 2088. What does this mean? The Iowa Beer Equality Beer would make it possible for microbrewers to brew beer up to 10% ABV and sell it in Iowa. This would put them on a level footing with external brewers who have been doing this for years (albeit getting taxed up the wazoo to do it.) SF 2088 is a Government Reorganization bill full of really interesting stuff, which you can find in the Newton Daily News article, because it's to boring to recount here. Why the Newton Daily News? Because it segues nicely into the next update.

Madhouse Brewery is the newest brewery in Newton! And the only brewery in Jasper County, home base of the Jasper Winery - ran by the one and only Mason Groben. Groben began work on the Madhouse Brewery in November, with the hopes of being able to be 100% operational by the end of February, so look for their varieties on your store shelves soon! Updates and reviews can be expected in the next few weeks.

Another new brewery has set up shop in Knoxville. Peace Tree Brewing is in full production now, check out more on their website. It's a smaller operation but seems to be one full of passion. It is now on the "places to visit" list.

Other than being new, what do these two breweries have in common? They are both being showcased at Living History Farms' Beer'n'Bread on March 6th. The Iowa Brewers Union will also be there to answer any questions, along with Mark Nauman of Beer Crazy. I will be attempting to make it to this event as well. Expect more updates.

Olde Main Brewery released it's first attempt at cider last week. I hope to make it up to Ames to give this a sample. Also, every third Thursday of the month, the guys at Olde Main are hoping release a new firkin for sampling. So, to get more involved with this check out the Beer Enthusiasts.

Lastly, for this article anyway, my brother has planned a trip down to Boulevard Brewery on the 13th of March. This is less a recreational trip and more of a pilgrimage to Mecca for my brother and myself. This is also my fiance's spring break trip, so we expect to get pretty crazy... Or not. Believe me there will be updates from this. I will probably post directly from the hotel room immediately after the tour in order to capture the pure euphoria that will be holding me.

Look for more updates on what the Brewing Cooperative has in its wings in the coming days.

Peace!

Double IPA?

I don't really think I can count this last IPA as a regular IPA. It's dark enough to convince me we made a hoppy porter...

Here's the ingredient list:

2 oz Columbus 14.4 AAU (60 min)
1 oz Columbus 14.4 AAU (20 min)
1 oz Columbus 14.4 AAU (5 min)
8 oz crystal malt 120°L
1 oz chocolate malt
12.5# Northwestern Northwest Gold Liquid Light Malt Extract
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
2 oz Loose leafe Chinook hops for dry-hopping.

OG 1.091
FG 1.034

Estimated IBUs- 100+
ABV- 8%

This was the first time we had tried dry-hopping, and I'm pleased with the result. The only negative for this beer would be a slight ester flavor that we think it picked up from being too warm during fermentation. Other than a slight banana flavor though, this beer has a powerful and complex hop flavor that systematically debilitates anyone who prefers Blue Moon.

I do believe that the next time we try to make an IPA we will use a different hop at the 5 minute mark to try and develop a little more complexity. Also, I would like to try a little less malt extract for this. I think that is contributing quite a bit to both the color and the issues with fruit/sweet flavor trying to overwhelm the hops.

Also, we are fermenting an Oktoberfest and when the sister-in-law comes up from Arizona we are making a Nut-Brown for her. She seems excited.

Hefe Round 2

So, the first ten gallon batch of hefe went rather quickly. Apparently it was popular. So, we decided to brew up another batch. And it was hot and humid and gross in my kitchen for about six hours, but it was worth it.

First, we went to a different supply shop. I know, Beer Crazy is still my favorite but we wanted to branch out. This new shop is in Valley Junction and it's a pretty sweet little setup. The guy has been running it for around ten years, and it is called Heartland Homebrew Supplies. The only drawback is that he quit carrying Wyeast because it didn't sell as well as the dry stuff, and it's a bit pricier. Understandable. The upside is he gave me some free bumper stickers, including one that says, "Save the Ales." HA!

Second, we used some coriander in this batch. Only in half to see if we get the "fishy" flavor that my sister-in-law doesn't like. I'm pretty sure it's not the coriander that gives it that flavor, but you never know I guess. We only put it in half of the brew so if it does wonk it up, James and I can drink that bit.

The dry yeast worked out though and the bubbles came on pretty quick.



Freakin' Sweet! It's almost too much for me when I'm at the computer.

The scotch ale has been sampled, and I think it needs a little more time in the bottle. The IPA has gotten even better with a little time, as has the red. So, following this line, I'm going to give the Scotch maybe a month more before I try it again. I think that it will have a smoother finish by that point. We'll see.

This whole post was basically an excuse to post the bubbles video.

Oh, and my brother has planted some hops! Look forward to pictures of those as they come about. I'm really excited to use them in a recipe. Call it Pipewrangler Ale or something.

Peace.

I like Scotch....ales

My brother and I brewed up a scotch ale the other night. We tried a few different techniques and modified what we thought we did wrong with the hefe. Our changes worked. The brew started bubbling much sooner, developing a healthy fermentation earlier than expected.

We also, just for kicks, bottled some of the wort to ferment. The hardcore stuff. OG of 1.14. With enough yeast and sugars to produce upwards of 13 percent abv. Wooo! Hopefully it turns out well. The rest of the batch is going to fall between 6-8 percent abv. Which is still high, but not as high as the little growler will be.

We used five different types of grains, dry and wet malts, and three types of hops. I will divulge the recipe later if I feel it turned out well. No point letting anyone in on our failed secret recipe, right?

The scotch ale is going to be a success though. I can feel it. The IPA turned out great, the red is delicious, if not quite carbonated enough, and the hefe should be ready any day now.

I have also developed a love affair with Olde Main's Off-KILTer Scottish Ale, which has something to do with our recent brew. I will try to scribble out some notes to explain why this is easily in my top five brews. It's not even that hoppy.

More later. Too tired to write much now. The new job is killing me Smalls.