Road Trip

It's spring and time for a road trip. This time my wife, the sly raccoon, and I are going to Portland to see my sister and James get married. As I've posted before, I'm bringing ample supply of homebrew. I also hear that someone on James' side is also bringing homebrewed beer. It should be a good beer-filled weekend. Also if you know anything about Portland, you know that's it's a beer town. While there I think we'll pay a visit to a brewery or two. I was thinking of the Bridgeport and Laurelwood breweries. Both of which are very cool. Laurelwood is a local distributor and they cask age a lot (if not all) of their beer. Bridgeport is cool because it is the oldest Portland based brewery. We are also making a stop in Moscow to visit the Coeur d'Alane alehouse, which has a stout with vanilla and bourbon-- It's delicious. Stay tuned for more details.

Spent Grain Cookies

Last night I made some cookies with the spent grain from the ESB I made the other day. Barley is grain that you can use a lot like oatmeal. I've been making bread out of it, but I felt like branching out a little. The one thing to beware of is extra moisture involved when using spent grain for baking. I followed a recipe for bread that called for 3 cups of spend grain and had to add so much flour that it ended up making 3 2 lb. loaves. I might suggest drying it out in the oven for a little while. Here is the recipe if you want to try it. The grain addition makes whatever you've got just a bit heartier.

Extra special bastard

Today I'm brewing my last entry in the hausbrau battle. It's an ESB that's being a bastard. It's pretty simple mostly 2 row and crystal, but the kicker (I think) is the torrified wheat. During my sparge, it just stopped about half way throug

h. A stuck sparge. Like a duck in the muck. So I ended up pouring it through a colander. I don't know if this will really f up everything or not. It's weird; first you have the mash (where you hold grain and water at a temp for a time) and then the sparge (where you rinse said grain with hot water) both of which take sugars from the grain and put them into the water. I wonder how much you get from either and if a half sparge is enough to produce a decent beer or if this batch is going to taste like shit.

Local Beer Locale

My obsession for local beer has many reasons. The big one is to bring the giant down. The reason the giant sucks so much is that all they produce is one product. I'm talking about the big three Budwieser, Coors, and Miller among others. They're all almost exactly the same beer. A fan of these may be able to tell you the difference but the point is that they are all the same kind of beer: pilsner. It's light, refreshing, and what the people wanted. Times are changing (at least I hope so) and it's not so hard to find beer that comes in different varieties. The giant breweries do have a very consistent product; it's just all the same. This is due to their highly mechanized process. It's where small breweries have more flexibility, but because their systems aren't as mechanized they have to keep an eye out for quality control ( I think this amounts to not falling asleep at the wheel).

At any rate, here in Boise we have four breweries that are attached to restaurants. Tablerock is located in downtown Boise at 705 Fulton St., The Ram is also right downtown at 709 E Park Blvd, Highlands Hollow is just north of Hyde park at 2455 Harrison Hollow Lane, and finally the Sockeye is by the mall at 3019 N Cole. Highlands Hollow and the Sockeye are two especially cool breweries and it seems that they are kind of hard to find unless you know where to go. I know that the Sockeye has live music regularly and they always have one or two brewer's whim beers, one of which is usually Belgian or another high gravity beer. The Ram is a corporation but they still produce some tasty beers.

Also in Ontario, OR there is Beer Valley, which is not attached to a restaurant. Beer Valley distributes all of their beer, but you can find most of it at the Boise Coop . You can also get it on tap at the Bittercreek Ale House, where you can also get beer from Sockeye, Highlands Hollow, and sometimes Tablerock. You can also find Highlands Hollow at Papa Joe's on Capital and Sockeye at Solid in Bodo. So check these out if you haven't done so already and let me know if there are any breweries that are your favorites and I'll try to visit them.

All Idaho HausBrau Battle

As a home-brewer, it's fun to see how your stuff stacks up to other beers. This of course includes many tastings and evaluations, which are both informative and delicious. The next of the opportunities, and one of the biggest maybe in the state, in taking place here in Boise. It's the All Idaho HausBrau Battle and it's coming in May.

This competition is for anyone who is any Idaho resident who brews one of the styles of beer being judged and brews it in their home (i.e. no commercially produced beer). The categories include American IPA, Extra Special Bitter/ English Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, Maibock/Helles, Saison, Blonde Ale, and Organic American Amber Ale. Contestants can enter as many times in one or more category. Entree fees are $6 for the first beer and $3 for any after that. To enter you have to bring 3 ea 12 oz bottles, unless you participate in the organic category where you must bring 8 ea 22 oz bottles. All of this will be held at the Stonehouse on the 22nd of May. Entries are due on the 15th of May by 5:00.

One of the fun parts of this competition is the public judging for the organic Amber. This is why there has to be so much beer entered for this category. The public judging costs $10 and includes beer and dinner, so it seems like a pretty good deal. You also have to buy a judging card to participate in the judging, which is $5 and gives you 10-15 samples. All other beers entered will be judged by certified BJCP judges. Some of the prizes sound pretty enticing: a chance to brew at the RAM, to get your beer on tap around town, or to be entered into the GABF Pro-AM competition in Colorado (the biggest beer competition in this part of the world).

I've got an oatmeal stout, an IPA, and hopefully an ESB to enter.

For more information on how to enter visit www.boisecoop.com/idaho-hausbrau-battle-for-homebrewers-and-beer-lovers-alike

Beginning of a good thing

As this is my first post, I should probably tell you what's going on. This is my attempt to record all of my thoughts on beer in a semi-organized manner. These thoughts include what I'm brewing, what other people are brewing, recipes that I've tried that include beer, beer festivals, and really anything else beer related. I've been brewing at home for something like 3 years. I didn't start keeping track until October of 2007, when I tried to brew a mocha porter with the bitterest hops I could find. It was really bad, but with documentation I've improved. Let this be an extension of that. I'm a cook/ dishwasher at Old Chicago. I go to school at college of Western Idaho on the BSU campus for culinary arts. I hope to brew professionally in the future.

This is my closet, which has been converted to a makeshift brewery. I've got an oatmeal stout that's been bottled and is ready to drink on Monday. I've got an IPA in secondary fermentation that I dry-hopped with a 1/2 oz of Cascade pellets. I've got a mead made from 15# of clover honey and has been sitting for 9 months. I've got a Black Butte Porter clone that I brewed for my sister's wedding at the end of the month. Lastly I've got a few bottles of my brown ale that are dwindling.