New Batch - Irish Red

I bottled a new batch the other day - an Irish Red. This recipe is a modified Brewer's Best kit for a Red Ale, purchased at Kirk's. In an attempt to make the red ale more Irish I added three extra ingredients.

1) Toasted malt (crushed grains). I read about toasted malts in the homebrewer's bible, where it was listed as a key ingredient for Irish Reds. The process of toasting malt is to take whole grain malts - stick them in the oven for 10minutes @350F and then crush them with a grain mill (I used a rolling pin). You can buy a specialty grain called Victory Malt, which is basically the same thing, but I thought it would be fun to try making it - and it was....

2) More hops. I had some extra fuggle hops laying around, so I decided to add them in. I don't know if this will make the beer any more Irish, but I like my reds with a little bit of bite. According to my calcs, this addition should raise the IBU's by about 10 for a total around 40.

3) Food coloring. It wouldn't be St. Patty's day without green beer. A couple drops of blue food coloring in each bottle will hopefully give this beer a nice green glow. I only did this to a third of the batch because of the after-effects.

As you can see, my Irish Red isn't very red. The tinge of red that is there comes from the toasted malt and the little bit of black patent malt that came with the recipe. This recipe used pale malt extract which attributed most to the paler color. This time I let it slide as the pale color allowed for an easier dye job. Unless I am floored by the flavor, I'll probably use amber malt extract next time around.

Spreading the Love

Big news from the rotunda - the state legislature passed a state wide smoking ban (no exceptions), effective June 2009. I for one am extremely excited. After being spoiled here in Lincoln for the past 3 years I really notice it when going to the bars in Omaha - even when there are just a few people smoking. Now if KC would pass a smoking ban too, I'd be set.

The arguments against the smoking ban have really lost all validity to me, despite being enticing on the surface. The "smokers losing their personal freedoms" argument doesn't hold because smoking affects everyone else in the room and those people are losing their personal freedom to breathe clean air. The "go somewhere else if you don't like it" argument doesn't hold because 1) we're talking about public establishments and 2) all businesses are required to have healthy work enviroments for their employees, whether were talking about asbestos removers or bartenders, and there is no feasible way to regulate when a room becomes too smokey.

The only thing I'm torn on are businesses whose primary source of income is through tobacco sales, such as cigar shops or hooka bars. They could have smoking areas that are separate from the main establishment where employees would not have to enter that could be equipt with super duper ventilation systems. All the same, it would be a regulatory nightmare.

EXTREME BEERFEST

EXTREME BEERFEST is tomorrow and beertopia has posted the list of the some 90 beers they will be serving. I'm only familiar with a few off the list so I decided to pick my top 10 favorites by the merit of their name alone, which will go down on my must try list. I believe they will be supplying a program, so I'll hopefully be able to make a more informed decision tomorrow on the rest of the beers I will be drinking.

Mac Queen’s Nessie
La Terrible
Boulevard Smokestack Series - Sixth Glass
Delirium Nocturnum
Carlsberg Elephant
Old Engine Oil Special Reserve
Gonzo Porter
Old Foghorn
Smoked Goosinator
Great Divide Old Ruffian
Batch 1000 – Upstream

Yeah I know there's 11 listed there - I couldn't decide.

Corned Crisis

So I had a startling revelation the other day when I looked at the calendar. St. Patty's day falls on the monday before Easter this year. No, I'm not worried about the Catholic Church trying to reschedule all the Saint Patty's Day Parades - bishop what's-his-name can still eat his corned beef on the 17th of March if he wants to. My concern arose with regard to my lenten based decision to go vegetarian for a bit. I've developed a personal tradition over the years of cooking up some corned beef and making ruebens for St. Patty's day. Maybe it's my bohunk upbringing, but I can't think of a better meal for the holiday. Being faced with a dilemma I thought of a potential solution - tempeh ruebens.

I'd heard of vegetarian restaurants serving ruebens using tempeh as a substitute for corned beef, but had never tried one as I liked the original recipe so much. Well the other day I decided to try it as sort of a test run. After checking a few recipes online I got started. Tempeh comes in blocks, so I sliced it into strips with the same thickness I do for corned beef. Next I brushed it with some soy sauce to give it a brinyish flavor that would compliment the soybeans. After baking for 20min at 350F it was ready to go. I slapped it on some rye bread, added some kraut, swiss cheese, and 1000 island dressing and I was ready to eat. It was great! The tempeh goes great with the other ingredients. The added salty flavor offsets and the sweet of the dressing in much the same way as the corned beef, but in a way that the flavor of the kraut, cheese and rye bread really shine through. The tempeh also gave the sandwich the same hearty feel as corned beef, making for a satisfying meal.

So I've found my savior this year - tempeh. I'm sure I'll have the original recipe again some time, probably for St. Patty's day next year. Otherwise, given how good the tempeh version is and how easy it is to prepare, I can definitely see it becoming a staple in my diet. Good food, good for the environment - why not?

The Sexiest of Beers

As my computer was grinding away on this project I'm working on today, I decided to do a quick internet search for "valentines" and "beer" given the holiday. To my surprise an article by Michael Jackson (the late world renowned beer authority -> not the singer) popped up titled "In search of the sexiest brew". It's a humorous article that provides some interesting info on the history of chocolate, cherry and honey flavored beers. Although MJ does not crown a "sexiest beer", my vote would be for the one that gets her drunk.

Wet Your Whistle

Today's beer fact comes from my handy dandy daily beer calendar. 'English pubs used to bake a whistle into the rims of their beer mugs as a way for customers to order more beer, hence the phrase, "wet your whistle."' I am going to superglue a whistle to my beer mug at home and see if Noel brings me another beer.

Lent

So lent started the other day. While I'm definitely not a Practicing Catholic and wouldn't call myself a Catholic if someone asked - I will claim the moniker "Raised Catholic". As a Raised Catholic person who is not sure what / if anything he wants to be (religion wise) I do still enjoy the little traditions that go with Christianity / Catholicism. I'll always celebrate the holidays and will sometimes attend mass on said holidays or on vacation with the folks. Despite being bored to death as a child, I enjoy the traditional flow of the mass between the readings and the prayers and the following sunday breakfast. Although, I must say I don't feel right taking the communion any more and I hate that they sing all the prayers now. Generally speaking I still think that religion is a good way to learn and keep one's morals. Now I'm not talking about the "right winged agenda" BS, but rather the "do onto others" stuff.

Anywho - so where am I going with this? Well even though I am not a practicing catholic, I decided to give something up for lent this year. I'm going Vegetarian! No fish on fridays for me - just beans. I wouldn't say I'm doing it for god, but rather I'm doing it to hopefully learn something about myself, which I think is probably the whole point behind lent anyways.

The Keg Floweth

The keg is up and running! As I still have yet to get a beer fridge, I set the keg up in the coal room in the basement. This winter the room has been holding at a steady 50F, which is a great temp for winter ales. When hooking it up I blew off the excess natural carbonation and set the regulator to 8psi. I think this worked out great as it poured nice and steady creating an 1inch thick head before settling down.

This batch is a Classic Dry Stout, which came from a kit I got at Kirk's Brew. It turned out better than I was expecting. The texture was smooth and very drinkable with a thicker body than the porters I've made, but a lot thinner than the stouts you have to chew. It did turn out dry, but not overly - just enough to offset the smoothness of the beer and linger in the mouth without making you pucker.

Laundry Bike

Sadly I've not been riding my bike lately. This is the most action it's seen in a while. Partly I blame the ice storm - after biting it once while riding to the grocery store I opted to wait until the streets deiced. Well our street finally thawed after the last warm up 2-weeks ago and I still have yet to get back on. Maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day.

SUPER FAT TUESDAY

You guys doing anything to celebrate? Flashing for Obama?

No plans here - I'd like to go out for a bit, but I haven't heard of any goings on - at least nothing I'd like to attend. Most likely I'll be at home shoveling and looking through wedding pictures.

BTW - I have not idea what this picture is.