wheat ale updates

My attempt to clone Oberon worked with some success. I produced a nice wheat ale that has definite hints of Oberon-like taste, but I think the process of getting the yeast from Oberon bottles may have brought along a little bit of diacetyl that gives the beer a bit of unwanted tang. Still, at a block party this weekend I served the beer on tap and had no complaints. In fact, most of the beer is gone at this point.

The next beer batch for me is probably going to be nice session brown ale. I may make two batches in short order and put one in the kegerator and bottle the other. That should give me enough beer to last through October. I may take a swing at an IPA just because I haven't made one before. I also would like to try a Belgian wit beer. I think I will bottle the wit because I want to try to carbonate it with a bottle of triple sec and see how it turns out.

Black Beauty

Because I simply couldn't wait, I put a bottle of my black, bitter stout in the frig last night so I could try it today. And quite simply, this is the best beer I have ever made. Coming in at about 6.5% ABV and with an IBU of 63, it tastes much mellower. There's a hint of smoky, a hint of chocolatey and a bit of sweetness, but not much. It's great - a truly wonderful beer. Thank you beer gods.

The sweet smell of success

After several disasterous batches over the winters, I have now produced three consecutive amazing brews. The summer wheat ale I made with grains of paradise is a winner, the black stout with 63 IBUs will be ready to drink in a few days and tasted amazing right out of the fermenter and the Oberon clone using Oberon yeast is in the secondary and looking good. I think I am starting to get the hang of this!

The only real issue I have is that I have made so much beer that I really have to give some of it away. It's gotten ridiculous. I have at least three cases of beer in the house. I think a tasting party is in order.

The Oberon experiment

So - I started collecting yeast from the bottom of Oberon bottles a month ago or so and used a 1-gallon fermenting jug to build up the yeast supply. I made two additions of amber malt dissolved in water. I made a batch of beer yesterday (May 15) with the following recipe: 1 pound of light, dry malt extract, 1 pound of caramel malt 10 steeped at 150 degrees for 20 minutes. 3.5 pounds of liquid wheat extract and 2.5 pounds of liquid light malt extract. 1 ounce of Willamette for 60 minutes and 1 ounce of Cascade for 15 minutes. OG was 1.055. IBU - 24.

I pitched the yeast and it is bubbling nicely. Here's my concern. After four weeks in the fermenting jug, it smelled a bit cidery. I didn't see any growth that would indicate bacteria infection, but something didn't smell right. In a 5-gallon batch, a little stinky liquid wouldn't ruin the batch, but bacteria and funky yeast that makes cidery beer could. In the end, it could be a $25 mistake, but at least I proved I could make beer after the apocalypse.

Wheat beer, mmmmm

After a run of bad luck with beers, I feel like I have emerged from a dark, dark night and produced some killer products. After two weeks in the secondary, I bottled my wheat beer, and of course sampled it - warm and uncarbonated. It was very sound. Very dry and with a hint of spice. The final gravity was an amazing 1.00, meaning there is very little sugar left in the beer. The ABV works out to roughly 4.2% and it has a nice caramel color and surprisingly is very clear for a wheat.

My effort to grow yeast from Oberon bottles has worked very well and I will pitch my next batch with the Oberon yeast. I hope it turns out ok. As a back up, I plan on gathering some yeast from the first few bottles of this wheat, which uses a Safale style. I also put my black, hoppy, stout into the secondary - mainly to prevent autolysis (death and stinkiness) of the yeast. I think it is ready to bottle now, but I don't have enough bottles available.

Stout with a touch of IPA

I brewed a dark, strong stout yesterday that will be like a smokey, bitter sipper. It's not a style I would normally gravitate to, but I wanted to do something different. It smelled awesome and will have a really rich flavor. Although it could have about 6 or 7 percent alcohol depending on the attenuation, people will think it is stronger. Here's the grain bill: 3/4 pounds of Simpsons Extra Dark crystal malt, 1/4 pound of roasted barley; two pounds of Briess light dry malt extract and 6 pounds of dark malt syrup, which was added late to the boil at 15 minutes remaining. Liquid malt can produce more unfermentable sugars if it is boiled for the full boil. The hops included 1 ounce of 18.5 AAU Summit -- incredibly bitter -- which was used for the full 60 minutes as well as 1 ounce of Cascade split at 5 minutes remaining and at the end of the boil. Based on my calculation, that's a lip puckering 63 IBUs. The beer is fermenting nicely in the basement at 63 degrees. It's colder than normal, but hopefully this will keep out unwanted fruity esters that would be strange in a beer like this one.

Summer drinkin beer

I made a wheat ale yesterday that I designed for maximum session drinking during the summer. Ingredients as follows.
6 pounds of liquid malt extract - 65 percent wheat and 35 percent amber barley malt.
1 ounce of Willamette 60 min
1 ounce of Cascade 15 min
1/4 teaspoon of crushed grains of paradise last 3 min of boil
dry wheat ale yeast from Danstar
The original gravity was designed to be 1.040 and measured exactly 1.040 at pitching.  This will be a very light, low alcohol beer. I poured the wort between the fermenter and boilpot twice to aerate in hopes of getting a very good attenuation. At 24 hours, the bubbling is very active. I am on the fence about adding a small amount of apricots - about 1 pound - to the secondary fermenter for flavor. I like the idea of it, but I may want to try something new and flavor the beer at bottling with honey or triple sec, the latter if the alcohol is too low after fermentation.

Brown Ale

I bottled my brown ale today and took a warm, uncarbonated taste. MMMMM. It's going to be good - thank God. I've had too many misfires, and it's about time one went right. The beers will condition for about a month before they are served, and I think they'll be fantastic. The color was a nice deep brown but very clear after two weeks in the secondary fermenter. I'm still getting used to the giant kettle I have, which steams off a lot of water during the boil. I need to up the boil size to 6.5 gallons to make sure I get a nice 5 gallon batch. This one turned out at 4.5 gallons and made only 45 bottles. Still, that was a good thing because the beer ended up a touch stronger as a result.

Sierra Nevada

I stumbled across this great Q&A from Sam Calagione - the founder of Dogfish Head - with one of the founders of Sierra Nevada, Ken Grossman. I think the most interesting part is the similarities between the stories of these startup microbrews. They used second-hand or hand-built equipment, had little sense of the market and mainly went off a deep love of the product.

They also received a lot of help from other breweries. In no other business that I can think of do the competitors help one another in the way that microbreweries do. Grossman got yeast from other commercial breweries around San Francisco in the early days and Coors even was willing to sell him malted barley from its own stash. Today, the pathway for a microbrewery is much more difficult and easier. More people drink and seek out craft beer, but many more people are offering it as well.

In Detroit, there's an emerging brewing district off of Cass. With the impending arrival of a microbrewery near the Motor City Brewing Works and Traffic Jam, the potential to market the area as a destination has improved. Sadly, that area is where I had hoped to put my pie-in-the-sky green microbrewery. Opportunity lost, or delayed.

Brown Ale

I racked my new brown ale to the secondary fermenter and got a 1.020 gravity reading. Ugh. I am still not getting the kind of attenuation I want. I'm going to try to aerate the beer more the next time I do it and get a vigorous yeast starter going. The beer still should have a about 5.1 percent alcohol, which is strong enough to be fairly potent, but I was hoping for closer to 6 percent. It will sit in the secondary for at least two weeks and then I'll bottle it. I'd like it to be in the bottle for three weeks before serving it.

Real green beer

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is the most interesting brewery in America. Best known for its India Pale Ales, the 60, 90 and 120 minute IPAs, named for the constant hop infusion over that amount of time, the brewery is really a playground for owner Sam Calagione. He makes wild beers that test the threshold of ``beer,'' including this one: Verdi Verdi Good. I think it's safe to say it didn't taste good, but it really is a green beer. The brewery makes Midas Touch, a strong golden ale with saffron that was based on a chemical analysis of the residue taken from a cup found in King Midas' tomb. Calagione started his brewery after making only about 10 homebrews. I love his story. This New Yorker story is amazing and traces his history.

Amber ale with three hop combinations.

I made a new beer, and I think it's going to be good. Here is the story:
6 pounds amber liquid malt extract. 1 pound briess sparkling amber dry malt extract. 1 ounce U.S. Goldings hops 60-minute boil. One ounce Liberty hops, 45-minute boil, and 1 ounce Willamette hops for 15 minutes. One cup of brown sugar. Original gravity is 1.060. Yeast is Danstar Windsor Ale yeast. Alternative is Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale yeast in a smack pack. Going to try to ferment at a cool temperature to limit esther creation.

At the same time I bought a sixer of Bell's Amber and I am trying to harvest the yeast. They make some good beer.

Homebrewing boom

In the past two months, I found out that three good friends have begun making their own beer. I had a chance to try an IPA my buddy Mike made at a Super Bowl party and I was really impressed. I'm not a big hop person, but it was a very smooth beer, and I had a twinge of jealousy when I drank it that I didn't make it! My beers of late haven't turned out how I have planned and that's a really a set back because I don't like to finish them off with the same gusto, leaving me undersupplied for bottles.

I think my enthusiasm for making beer, and the early good results I had, encouraged some of them to get into it. Though, I really don't know for sure what motivated them. After the equipment purchase, it's a really good deal. You can make two cases of quality beer for $30 or less. Eventually, I probably will get or make equipment to make all-grain beers. The problem I am running into is that I don't drink enough to justify all the beer making and some of my more recent batches aren't that great, so I don't want to give them away. I will plow through the bottles eventually.

I bottled the golden ale I made last weekend and was disappointed to find the final gravity was around 1.022, way above the intended range, meaning the beer is sweeter and lower in alcohol than I intended. I tasted the beer, pre-bottled, and found it to be pretty solid. Certainly, I should be able to drink it. It's also a nice light color and I left it in the fermenter for more than three weeks, so it cleared out well. I'm hoping the wheat I used will help it with head creation. I have had the best luck brewing with English ale yeasts. They produce fruitier flavors in the beer, but the beer tastes good and I am getting good attenuation - or alcohol creation.

Brewed in Style

A shout out to Paul Koeller, who sent me his book ``Brewed in Style,'' the book about the G. Heileman brewing company. I started reading it struck me how much work it was to make lagers in the 1800s. They have to carve ice out of the river and stick it in caves to keep the temperature low enough. They had to really love beer.

Pfeiffer History update

I spoke with Paul Koeller, the lead author of The House of Heileman, a history book about the G. Heileman Brewing Co. A few things that I learned from him that updated the existing history. Heileman brewed Pfeiffer until 1979, seven years longer than the last recorded Michigan appearance of the beer. He also gave me the name and contact information of the head brewer at City Brewery in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The brewery does contract brewing for Pabst and others and the brewer is said to have a collection of recipes that are as old as 100 years and hand-written. This may be my shot to find it.

Cuvee - uck

I couldn't wait another week to try my Cuvee. It's been in the bottle for a week. Not happy with the results. It's under fermented, a bit sour and just has an off taste. I'll be able to drink it, but it definitely isn't a success. Trying not to be too bummed about this outcome. Worse, I cultured the yeast from this batch to make my Golden Ale - I hope the off flavors aren't a result from the yeast.

Cool John Stroh conversation

I called up John Stroh III by accident, really. He is the CEO of Stroh Holdings and obviously the standard-bearer for the Stroh Brewery history. I was hoping to reach someone who might let me into the Stroh family archives to hunt for a recipe for Pfeiffer beers. He answered the phone and couldn't have been more helpful and friendly. He quickly told me that by the time Stroh had acquired the name rights to Pfeiffer, there was no intellectual property left. It had either been destroyed or abandoned by G. Heileman under its tumultuous ownership changes. We went on to talk for some time about beer and the differences between the current mass market brands today and Stroh and other brands. It was a truly pleasurable conversation. I learned that at the turn of the century, the malt used in brewing yielded a far lower amount of fermentable sugars through mashing - something like 50 percent - compared with today's standard yield of 70 to 75 percent. Put another way, if a pound of malted barley had 10 units of sweetness, about 7 of those units can be converted to alcohol. Back then, it was more like 5, resulting in fuller-bodied and lower alcohol beers.

Also I learned that when breweries were getting hops for the beer, they didn't name the style so much as the region. For example, they brewers logs would say: Oregon hops, or English, and didn't name a particular style like Cascade or Fuggle. They might say Hallertau hops because that's a region of Germany that essentially grows one type of hops. I'm still going to try to track down the brewer at G. Heileman to see whether there is some secret location for Pfeiffer beer, but it's looking less and less likely that it exists.

Genesee

It sounds like the company that owns Genesee is going to make a push into Michigan this year. I found this article from the Rochester Business Journal that mentions many interesting things. It's a very well-done piece in general. Most interesting is that it mentions the undercapacity of the Rochester Brewery along with the brewery owners' desire to acquire brands. Combine that with the fact that Pabst, Strohs and a cadre of other brands are for sale and it makes one go hmmmm.

Pfeiffer Brewing Co. building

The Pfeiffer brewery on the 3700 block of Beaufait is owned by the city of Detroit, according to the Wayne County Register of Deeds. There is a faded CB Richard Ellis sign advertising the real estate with a non-working number and the firm has no listing for the building. It stopped operating in 1966 and is unlikely to be useable for anything other than storage. It has a lovely Art Deco corner, but the rest of the building is unremarkable. There is an office across the street that must have been part of the complex that bears the Pfieffer name stamped in concrete. J&G Pallets and Trucking occupies the building, which is flanked by thousands of wood pallets.

The brewery is located roughly a mile from where the old Stroh brewery stood as a crow flies. Here's a stylized shot of the brewery corner. Don't read the description as it contains inaccuracies.

Eureka!!

Everything I thought I knew was wrong. First off - apologies to SABMiller and acknowledgement that I violated a cardinal rule. I trusted what others had written about Pabst's current ownership and went blindly down that road. Miller doesn't own Pabst. Miller is the contract brewer for Pabst. The brewery and its many brands is owned by Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, which is based in California. The charity tried and failed to sell Pabst and the other brands, including Stroh's, in 2005 at the direction of the Internal Revenue Service. The charity may again be marketing Pabst and its brands, according to a New York Post article.

The fact is, Pabst continues to register the trademark for ``Pfeiffer's Famous,'' and updated the trademark as recently as 2005.

Also, a shout out to Rex Halfpenny, editor of Michigan Beer Guide. I queried him about finding recipes for Pfeiffer and his answer was very interesting. His research of older Stroh recipes in their archives showed that the brewers used weights of hops and malt as both were a commodity at that time and didn't use names or styles per se. It points to the fact that most of the beer brand differentiations were made by process and less by ingredients.

Pfeiffer beer frustration

OK, I think I found both authors of ``The Story of the House of Heileman'' and called them both last night. I left a message - unreturned - for one of them and the other phone was disconnected. The point of this exercise was that I hoped they would have heard what happened to Pfeiffer when Heileman bought the brand. I still have hope that David Delano may return my call. I also began looking into the possibility of finding the remains of the brand in bankruptcy court. Alan Bond, and Australian investor, had bought Heileman (which owned Pfeiffer) in 1987 and declared bankruptcy in 1991. Of course, I am not sure where Bond declared bankruptcy and for files that old, I almost certainly would have to go in person to retrieve them. Sigh.

In the interim, since I haven't heard from the U.S. contingent of SABMiller, I called and left a message with the London PR office and made my request. This is feeling a touch hopeless. Next on my agenda is to find out who owns the brewery in Detroit. This may take a trip to the assessor's office. I'd like to get a tour of the building and take some photographs.

Pfeiffer quest update2

I'm feeling a little unlucky at this point. I made a call to the Penobscot building in Detroit. The management has never heard of Armada Corp., which at one point had bought the rights to Pfeiffer Brewing Co. There is no record of them to speak of and they may have been a really small outfit. Heck, Pfeiffer stopped brewing in Detroit in 1966, so I have no idea what is left of their intellectual property. I left messages with two media relations types at SABMiller, pitching my request for help. I am not hopeful. But I may try the headquarters in London tomorrow. Who knows, they may like my Amurrrican accent. On my plan is to hunt down people who wrote about G. Heileman Brewery, which acquired Pfeiffer at one point. Maybe they have an idea about whether Pfeiffer was transferred along the way Miller.

Golden Ale update

After my last two fumbles on fermenting, I was concerned how this one would take off. I used harvested yeast from the bottom of the Cuvee secondary fermenter. This worked like a charm. The Golden Ale took off so strongly that it overflowed through the bubbler. I had to take it off and clean it twice. I think it's going to turn into a very nice beer.

Pfeiffer Quest update

In Peter Blum's book, ``Brewed in Detroit,'' he gives thanks to a James Jozwiak, a collector of Pfeiffer memorabilia. There are 10 listed in Michigan, and I called them all to no avail in hopes of tracking down more information about where the brand stands now. I didn't reach one man, who was in Detroit. I am going to try again. I did have a fun conversation with a James Jozwiak who lived in Belleville. He and I talked about Pfeiffer beer for about 15 minutes. He parted with a statement that Pfeiffer had pretty good beer. I bet they did.

Golden Ale brewing day

I decided to make a light golden ale with a special ingredient. The idea is to make a session beer with a bit of zest. I'm planning to add about a 10 ounces of maple syrup to the secondary fermenter to add flavor and a bit more alcohol. This will extend out the fermentation time as well because the sugars are more complex to ferment and take longer. I am using all extract for this batch and am hoping to get a nice light color. Starting with 3 pounds of Briess Dry Malt Extract, one pound of Bavarian wheat extract and two pounds of Briess Pilsen malt - a very light malt color. I am using one ounce of Perle hops for bittering and Styrian Goldings for finishing.

The beer came out with a bit higher Original Gravity than I thought. It settled out at 1.055. I pitched a Munton's yeast that I harvested from the Cuvee beer secondary fermenter and had chilled overnight in a cleaned old baby food jar. I put the yeast in a little luke warm water and added some malt and had it sitting with cling wrap over the top. I am hoping for a vigorous bubble by the time I go to bed in hopes I get pretty good attenuation.

Cuvee bottling

OK - here's a little admission, I eyeballed the Cuvee original gravity when I made it instead of actually measuring it. And I think I really started out at 1.050 and not 1.065. This is important because when I took the final gravity reading on the Cuvee today, it came out at a disappointing 1.020. This means in addition to starting with less sugar than I wanted, I ended with more than I wanted and the alcohol content is fairly low. Granted, there is a half pound of bottling sugar in there, so it may be a touch off, but probably not enough to affect the gravity tremendously.

So, I am looking at a beer of around 4 percent alcohol by volume instead of my intended 6 percent. The good news is, after keeping it in the secondary fermenter for a few weeks, it cleared out and has a really nice spicy taste and I think this will turn into one of my better creations. I drank a bit of it and even without carbonation, it's solid. It doesn't taste that close to the Cuvee I had in New York. Nevertheless, I intend to send a bottle to the brewer who gave me the tips on how to make it, along with my my grain bill.

Pfeiffer quest

Ever since I wrote a feature for Model D about the history of brewing in Detroit, I have been fascinated by Pfeiffer Brewing Co. Of course, the brewery name is my wife's surname, though there is no known relationship. But more importantly, I was amazed to read in Peter Blum's ``Brewed in Detroit'' that Pfeiffer at one time was nearly as large as Stroh Brewery.

A strike in 1958, shortly after Pfeiffer had borrowed money to expand to meet demand, allowed out-of-state competitors into the market and likely doomed the brewery. The more interesting thing - to me - is that after a series of swallowings by other breweries, the Pfeiffer name appears to be held by SAB Miller. However, it's unclear whether Miller owns the rights to the recipes, or, indeed, if the recipes have been lost altogether. The book mentions an Armada Corp. holding the rights to Pfeiffer's intellectual property. The Michigan Secretary of State has no record of Armada Corp., except for one formed in Armada, Michigan and I am fairly certain this ain't them.

What I really want to know is whether the recipes to some of their beers still exist. If Miller possesses them it is unlikely to release them and allow any sort of competitor to rise from the ashes and steel even the tiniest smidgen of market share in Detroit. That said, I may query them about the use of the name. Maybe it's for sale. By the way, the Pfeiffer Brewery still stands in Detroit in a lovely area north of Mt. Elliot between Gratiot and Mack in Detroit.

Cuvee in the fermenter

My Cuvee is starting to clear up in the secondary fermenter. It was very cloudy and seems about half settled now. I'm planning on keeping it in there for an extra week or so to try to get more gunk to fall out of solution. I also think that perhaps I should try to keep my fermenter farther from the heat vent in my room. The last batch I made had a lot of isoamyl acetate (banana flavor). Live and learn.

Dubbel is half good

My Belgian dubbel turned out kind of weird. The smack pack yeast didn't work and after two days I had to pitch a different yeast - a Nottingham English ale yeast. It fermented but I didn't know at the time that the bell on the bubbler had a crack in it, likely allowing oxygen and bacteria into the car boy. I bottled the beer and after two weeks began trying the beer. In a 22-ounce bottle, the first pour off the beer is solid. It has a nice Amber color and the yeast made it a bit fruity, with definite banana smell and flavor. It's not what I planned, but not bad. Then comes the second-half of the bottle. It's a yeasty cloud. The beer is alright, but there is so much yeast sludge in suspension that it is almost undrinkable. I didn't do secondary fermentation with this batch, and that was a big mistake.

This beer isn't a total loss, but I likely won't be drinking the whole bottle on these bad boys. Today, I am transferring my Cuvee into the secondary fermenter. I am hoping to prevent a screw up like the one that nearly ruined this dubbel.