Widmer Brothers had somehow until now not had a pale ale in their regular beer offerings.  They recently brought on line a lot of new capacity in their new brewhouse and I suspect that one of the early results of that new capacity is the permanent return of this great pale ale.  This is a really easy to drink pale ale, with a noted hoppiness that doesn’t permanently infest your sinuses or overwhelm the rest of the beer like some others that I won’t mention here.  The malt flavors are still evident and the mouth feel is very smooth.  I’m now torn about which Oregon pale ale is my favorite, Deschutes’ Mirror Pond or the new Drifter, but then, I’m not sure I need to choose: they’re both excellent beers.  The new labeling for drifter is nice, too, invoking surf images.  With the abnormally long and cold spring that summer imagery might be part of the appeal.  If you like pale ale it’s worth picking up a six-pack of Drifter, or if you’re here in the Northwest, grab it on tap.  It’s nice to see such a great beer follow on the heels of the disaster that was W’09.

We’ve been super busy lately and are behind on the blog.  Apologies to all!  In the meantime we had the chance to travel to San Francisco lately and had the chance to down a few pints of Gordon Biersch’s Marzen.  Gordon Biersch are a Bay Area company, but have restaurants spread around the country serving excellent food and beer in many cities in the United States.  I had had the Marzen before but it had been some time ago, so it was like a new beer this time around.  The color is very similar to that of Fat Tire, a reddish gold, but the taste is a lot less grainy but still with a strong malt taste.  The weather was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit the day I had a few pints and the beer went down well on the patio.  This is a good spring and fall weather beer and highly recommended for session drinking.  Enjoy!

A customer just sent us a note asking about why we recommend 1.5 cups of corn sugar for bottling on our recipes when many others say 3/4 cup or 1 cup.  Carbonation levels vary by style of beer.  They also vary by personal taste.  So determining the “right” number is a difficult thing to do.  Since we largely support beginning and early stage brewers here at One Hour Brewing, we have posted recipes that are going to be good from the first try.  We also have posted sugar levels that are likely to please on the first try.  So here’s the general logic behind the numbers.

Most people who are getting into brewing expect to refrigerate their beer.  Many brewers prefer cellar temperature, but it’s fairly safe to say that most beginning brewers are putting their beer in the fridge.  Personally I like some beers at cellar temperature and some at fridge temperature, but that’s another topic.  So for now assuming that we intend to refrigerate finalized bottles (after carbonation) we need to get a level of carbonation that will withstand the lower temperature.  That means a higher level.  We have been quite disappointed with the level of carbonation in some beers at that temperature using less sugar.  Trial and error has shown that 1.5 cups works well for this for many recipes.

Style plays a huge part in how carbonated a beer should be.  A flat hefeweizen or a highly carbonated English ale, for example would not be as pleasant as one would expect.  Hence there is no “right” number for all recipes.  The recipes we have posted so far tend to be style where decent carbonation is required.

The final variable in the equation is how long you let the bottles sit before drinking.  A longer bottling period will allow smaller amount of sugar to ferment completely and generate a good level of carbonation.  Drinking within a few weeks of brewing, however, may not allow that to happen, and the higher sugar level will get better results more quickly.  That is not to say that you will have hugely over-carbonated bottles later on, but it is to say that it helps early on.

Lastly, that number is not enough to damage bottles in our long experience.  We have had glass bottles sitting for several years at this level without any difficulty whatsoever.

As always we’re aiming for the best experience for people using our instructions and recipes.  Let us know if you have feedback!

We talked about Hook Norton brewery some time ago.  This is an old school brewer in Oxfordshire, England.  Their brew is and has been served at the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien hung out, the Eagle and Child.  They make a range of bottle-condition and cask-conditioned ales of high quality.  I recently was able to get my hands on a bottle of Double Stout here in the U.S.  It’s something of a rarity here so I was excited to bring it home.  The bottle did not disappoint.  This is a very English stout, tasting much more like a heavy British ale than like its Irish cousins.  That is not a down side, just a statement.  This is one smooth beer with a nice smell of yeast and malt and a great feel going down.  The bottle is really nice looking, too, if you put any stock in that.  I’m a big fan of Hook Norton beers and the Double Stout is definitely on the keepers list.

Earlier this month we talked about the easiest of the many fining agents that can be used to clarify (or “fine”) your homebrew: Irish moss.  In the commercial brewing industry, particularly in the United Kingdom where cask ales are still produced in larger volume, the most common fining agent is Isinglass.  Irish moss works to remove proteins from the beer which may cloud it, and is added during the boil.  Isinglass is added to the beer as it goes into the secondary fermenter.  As you know, we recommend a two stage process as recommended in our guide.  As with all fining agents, this is not something a complete beginner should worry about.  Make some batches, get things working well and then play around with clearer beer.  Start with hazier styles where this is not a factor.  But back to the topic at hand.  When the Isinglass is in the secondary it helps contribute to the flocculation of the yeast the clumping helps it drop out of suspension in the beeer, yielding a clearer brew.  But what is it and how do you use it?

First lets say this is not a product for strict vegetarians or vegans.  And it’s controversial (what isn’t these days?) as some people feel adding an animal product to the process, even if it doesn’t end up in the final product, is a pollution of the beer.  But rest assured it has been used for centuries in producing clearer beer and it’s harmless.  Isinglass is basically the swim bladder of a fish.  Originally it was exclusively that of the Beluga Sturgeon, but in modern times it’s made from many different kinds of fish, largely tropical and sub-tropical.  It’s similar to gelatin, but with different amino acids that give it enough different chemical properties to work better than gelatin for this purpose.

Because this is an animal-derived product it’s more sensitive to temperature and acidity than other additives.  Generally it should be fairly fresh and refrigerated if possible.  Often it’s not refrigerated and it works just fine, but the reality is that the fresher it is kept the more effective it is.  As with everything else, there is no point worrying too much about it.  Just make sure it’s not too old and hasn’t been stored in the sun, etc.

It’s sold either as a “liquid” which is more like a jelly, or as a powder.  Really the liquid is easier to use as it’s ready to go as-is.  But in the event that you need to use the powder you need to boil about a pint (500 mL) of water to sanitize it, let it cool, then mix in the appropriate amount of powder for your batch.  The instructions on the package will tell you the exact amount.

So here’s what to do with it:

• At the coolest point in your fermentation process, usually just as you’re going to move to the secondary, you will add it to the fermenter (the secondary one).  You don’t want to significantly cool the beer after this as it can re-cloud from chilling.
• Put the Isinglass in the secondary fermenter before you start to siphon in the beer from the primary.
• Siphon the beer from the primary onto the Isinglass.  This will help it mix well into the batch.

That’s it!  Proceed as normal with the rest of the fermentation process.  When you move the beer from the fermenter to the bucket for bottling, the Isinglass will be left behind with the yeast sediment.  You will not be drinking fish bladders.

Are there any drawbacks?  The main drawback is that it can sometimes take a little longer for bottle conditioning when using Isinglass.  This is because you are leaving behind more yeast than you might otherwise and that means those that are left have to work harder and that takes longer.  This is a small difference, and the tradeoff is clearer beer.  It’s your call!

We discussed Munton’s malt a little while ago.  The big name in brewing malts in North America, however is Briess.  You will undoubtedly find their malts at any homebrew store you visit in North America.  So how do their malts stack up to Munton’s?  They are excellent quality products and are used in commercial and homebrewing extensively.  We’ve never noticed a huge difference in the quality of the dry malt from Briess vs that from Muntons.  Some people prefer Munton’s malt extract to Briess and we’ve found that it may sediment slightly less than the Briess DME.  However, that being said, this is still an excellent product that will make great beer.  If price is important to you this will almost undoubtedly be cheaper in North America than Munton’s will. 

The big advantage to Briess malts is that they are widely available here in liquid form.  That is our preferred malt packaging, and malt is substantially cheaper that way than in dried form.  We have had great success brewing with Briess liquid extract.  In particular their wheat extract is excellent and works very well for German style Hefeweizens.  The company has been in business since 1876, so they are certainly doing something right.  Homebrew is just a tiny part of their business, but they seem to meet homebrewing needs with the same level of quality that they provide to their commercial partners.

Since I normally have enjoyed Widmer beers and I felt bad about how terrible their W’09 Belgian Style ale was, I thought I’d review one of their best beers.  This is an amber ale and it’s not in an established style.  It’s a Widmer creation and it’s seriously good on any evening, in any time of year.  Lightly malted and lightly hopped, it’s a medium beer in many ways, but the recipe just works.  The inspiration is a convertible ride on a summer night and the logo is a dog hanging his tongue out over the side of the car.  Definitely appropriate.  But make no mistake, this is a great all season beer and you can’t go wrong picking up a large bottle or six pack of this one.  Here in Portland it’s available in 22oz bottles, six packs, and twelve packs.  I know that on the US East Coast it’s available in the same.  Everyone else worldwide are on your own.  But if you’re in Portland and want to sample one of the city’s greats, this is, in our opinion, one of the high flyers.

On Mt Hood here in Oregon you can ski nearly year round. Sure, the skiing isn’t great in the summer, but you can do it if you want to. On the other hand, the winter skiing is quite good. When you’re coming off the slopes (and not driving all the way home!) it’s often time for a little warmth. Luckily just below the town of Government Camp is the Mt Hood brewery. It’s Oregon, after all. One of the greats on tap at Mt Hood is the Pittock Wee Heavy, named for Henry Pittock, an avid outdoorsman and the man who built the Oregonian newspaper into a dominant force. His stately home is still operated as a museum by the city of Portland. But back to the beer.

This one is in the Scotch style: heavy, malty and mildly hopped.  Alcohol content is quite high, but like all good beers with high alcohol content, you can’t tell immediately from the taste.  The brewery holds a portion of each batch to be aged and then blended back into a future batch.

Here in Oregon there are other pubs around the state that serve this gem of a beer, so if you’re not in Portland no fear, you may be able to find it locally. The brewery states that none of their beer is sold outside of the State of Oregon, much to the loss of the rest of the planet.  But if you’re in Oregon, and anywhere near Mt Hood, it’s worth the stop for the Pittock Wee Heavy if not the scenery alone.

Malting is the process of taking grain and turning it into a combination of sugars and proteins. This is key to the production of great beer since malt is essentially what’s fed to yeast to produce beer.  Large breweries often do their own malting, taking barley and hops, and sometimes wheat, in and producing beer.  Other companies, and most homebrewers rely on someone else to handle this early stage of the brewing process.  We do exclusively extract brewing for reasons of time and space, so we rely on good quality malt for our end products.  Beer is mostly malt, so making that decision matters.

One of the celebrated names in malting is Muntons.  Their own slogan, as we mention in the title, is “World Class Malt.”  And that it is.  Muntons is based in the UK but their products are available worldwide.  If you speak to any experienced home brewer they will tell you that Muntons’ products are as good as any out there.  We’ve always had good experiences with both their liquid and dried extracts.  The dried extracts are much easier to find stateside for reasons of shipping cost. They also make home brewing ingredient kits, but since we’re partial to our own recipes we have never tried them. Given the quality of their other products, these are likely to be good.  We always lean toward fresh hops, however.

There are plenty of other companies that produce good quality malt.  However, if you’re buying top shelf ingredients, Muntons is probably on your list.

I’m usually a big fan of Widmer Brothers’ products. Nearly all of their beers are at least worth drinking, and some are excellent. So it was with pleasure that I tried the new Widmer W’09 release in the Brewmasters’ Series (W09). This one is intended to be a golden Belgian style ale described as having “an estery fruitiness with peppery tones.”  I was a little suspect about the description: the peppery part made me think bad thoughts. But it’s Widmer, right? How bad could it be? Train wreck bad.

Belgian ales are not generally heavily hopped.  There was that fruitiness you would expect in a Belgian beer, and the color was right.  Unfortunately there was a strong aroma of American hops and a bitter after taste that contrasted sharply with the malty, fruity goodness that is usually found in this style of beer.  Ok, so we wouldn’t expect it to be identical to Belgian beer: it’s not intended to be a precise copy.  That would all be well and good if the combination worked.  It didn’t even come close to pulling it off.  I had this particular beer on tap at the Widmer establishment and I can say it’s the first time in memory that I sent a beer back.  The waiter was not at all surprised if I read his expression well.  It speaks well to the Widmers, though, that there were no questions asked.

All-in-all a really disappointing showing from a well-respected brewery.  One for whom I have a particular fondness given that I live about a 10 minute walk from the brewery.  If you’re looking at a pack of Widmer W’09 in the grocery isle, take a pass and be glad you read this first.