Much ado about Brew!

I've been getting an overload of information about home brewing and beer in general lately; it's been difficult to decide what to blog about.

There are so many festivals and festivities that it's hard for this old beer braud to keep up...let me try to explain.  From what I can tell, this home brewing hobby is probably the most time consuming, science plus artisan exploration, that I'm quite sure I'll never get bored.  When I moved to Austin 17 years ago this past August, I moved here from a horrid divorce in Dallas, where I left my ex-husband of 7 years, a Frenchman. During our marriage we shared a bottle or two of wine nearly every night.  When I took my first teaching job I met a lovely young lady who invited me to be part of the "Austin Lady Winos" club.  Every other Thursday we met at a member's house, with wine assignment and our own fancy goblet.  A little over a year into this fabulous club of nearly 80 women, I began to notice my absence at work on Fridays and it wasn't a mere wine hangover, but serious sickness.  I went to the doctor and was told that I had developed an allergy to wine, probably the sulfites within the bottles.  So, I quit the group and went back to margaritas and other cocktails.  Still not a fan of the watery slosh most prevalent at picnics and parties.

Enter love of my life, a beer enthusiast and soon to be home brewer.  Now some 14 years later I'm finding myself an empty nester and someone in need of going out to leave the hubby home alone to finish his dissertation without distraction.  It is absolutely impossible to not have a beer related event, happy hour, anniversary, release party, club meeting etc. every single night of the week.

This old gal is beat.

Would I trade it for a more somber evening by the TV  (we don't own one) or with a great book...well maybe the great book with a beer in hand, but then that would spoil the point of developing my palate and learning from the phenomenal group of learned beer aficionados here in Austin, Texas.

Here's this weeks agenda:  Monday night attending the Black Star Coop's member's extravaganza I was beside myself to meet fellow home brewers and home brew celebrities who I found out used to live on my street...the Dewberrys.  The Dewberrys have won the Black Star Home Brew contest, an honor that bestows upon the recipient the pleasure of having the brewery name and make that beer to sell on tap!  Dan is also the techy in charge of a group that I have recently joined and tonight, will attend my first Happy Hour/release party event!  Dan's been a member of the Austin Zealots for over a decade and he and his lovely wife Jolene have graciously accepted my invitation to interview them and hang out with them during their next brew day!  And to think, I almost didn't go!

Last night I attended a new group for me as well, something I stumbled upon while cruising my Facebook wall from the group Bitch Beer.  Reading their book this summer turned me onto our current 52 in 52 challenge.  The group is Beer Necessities, a ladies "Meet Up" something I, being a solo dork most of the time, had never heard of.  The meeting was a ladies beer forum at Craft Pride, again, a new place for me to attend on the stylish and popular Rainey Street area of downtown.  I was the oldest person there, I'm sure of it.  Friday night is Bitch Beer's "Time of the Month" Happy Hour at Hi-Hat.  Followed Saturday afternoon at Fiesta Gardens, the yearly Texas Craft Beer Festival, featuring all 55 craft breweries in Texas.  Of course we have tickets.

See what I mean?  

The thing is that, at each and every one of these events, I learn something new...something that I need to test out on my next batch and it's making me nervous about the outcome of my 25 gallons that are fermenting...now.  I almost want to toss it all out and start again...but wait...it's beer!  No can do.

All this time, I've been looking at other beer blogs and seeing the snazzy looks of the younger generation's technical capabilities and their already-done up to the minute useful information such as every single event at every single bar/brewery/brew pub in the Central Texas area.  Which leaves me wondering...what do I have to offer?  And, let's face it...if you don't ask yourself this question as a writer/artist...blogger(?) then you are most likely just intellectually masturbating out into the blogosphere...unnecessarily so.

That being said, what I am hoping to accomplish with this modest blog, is nearly the same thing I did with my other blogging endeavors...use this tool as a journal to document my adventures and discoveries while sharing with folks a bit of what going out on a limb, meeting new folks out and about town and inviting oneself into the homes and minds of homebrewers here and now, in what has become, my home town.

I can't wait to meet the Austin Zealots (Zymurgic Enthusiasts of Austin Loosely Organized Through Suds!)

Happy Home Brewing

&

Cheers!!!

~Cheryl

Fabulous Homebrewligans: Tom Brotherton of Bluebonnet "Home" Brewery

Tom Brotherton at his outdoor brewing station.

  I met Tom several years ago when I managed the Green Garden at Zilker's Botanical Gardens.  He was a volunteer, getting his hours in for his Master Gardener Certification.  He invited my husband and I over for lunch to have me give him some pointers on his huge property in Manchaca, just south of Austin.  At the time, his brewing equipment was in his garage, and I stayed behind to visit with his lovely wife, Annie while he and my husband went out to talk about all things beer.

  Flash forward 5 years and here he is in his hand built and designed outdoor brewing station.  Solo brewing is relatively new to me, and I am absolutely amazed by the attention and devotion of homebrewers and am elated to spend a brew day with anyone willing to share the sacred time it takes to create my favorite elixir.  Tom, is a rare brewer, even among professionals and it was my first experience seeing (other than youtube videos) a whole grain process.  I'll explain more about what makes him unique, soon.  He's been brewing now for 44 years and is on the eve of his 70th year on earth so this particular arrangement of equipment is exciting because I top the charts at 5'2" and lifting 5+ gallons can be challenging.  Tom isn't a fan of injuring his back either so his system is rigged with  3/8th inch quick disconnect tubing which can transfer, pipe hot water to cool or vice-versa without a lot of lifting and pouring.  

  Now, being a gardener, Tom is hypersensitive to the current drought situation  (has let his lawn die, which I'm so proud of him for doing) and he also has a swimming pool (salt water) so he feels a bit of guilt about his carbon footprint.  Being the intelligent and sensitive fellow that he is, he's aware that his brewing is also quite taxing on the water situation so he is as conscious as he can possibly be, pouring water onto plants and spent grains on the compost but also, his cooling tubes drain into the pool...so, we joke that at least he's swimming in post production beer water!  All of this is only part of what makes Tom a unique brewer, the bigger and for me, more impressive part is related to his education and passion.  Tom has his masters in Microbiology from Columbia, Missouri and spent his adult life as a hospital administrator, post Vietnam.  He does some things in the process that insure perfect beer that I've just not seen other people do and that's what I'm most excited to share!

  What we're brewing:  Annie's Guinness Stout

  Tom's wife Annie, a retired Episcopalian Priest and certified Hospital Chaplain loves Guinness.  Tom took a clone of the original recipe and after 3 batches, adjusted the recipe to fit Annie's taste perfectly.  He brews this just for her and it's always on tap at Bluebonnet Brewery.  He uses iBrew to log in all of his adjustments, times etc. and stays within 1-2 degrees, points of gravity etc. to insure consistency...always.  He's no fly by the seat of your pants brewer...like me, forgetting to get the specific gravity, adding things on a sensorial whim without measuring...hoping for the best!  

Mini-mill and grains.

Tom starts his brew day around 9am but really he starts several days earlier, letting the water sit for up to 72hrs and he begins the yeast 24hrs in advance, always.  He collects and cultivates his own yeast and has quite a collection in the fridge.  But, for my part I arrive and we begin grinding the grains in his tiny mill!

Tom's yeast collection.

Here is a sample of some of the yeasts he's got in the fridge...and his eyes light up when talking about it!  On the counter he's got two erlenmeyer flasks with the yeast bubbling away.  He divides the pre-batch in two so if the yeast decide to party, they don't go over the edge.  Everytime he walks by he gives them a little giggle and rejoices in their thriving.


All this is overwhelming to me, a mini-mash girl with less than a hundred gallons to my name so I'm wondering how long this all took him to figure out and what did that learning curve look like...I am an old teacher and we never lose interest in "process."  He tells me that he learned to brew back in 1970 or so from Annie's dad.  They were living in San Diego at the time and homebrewing was illegal, or rather you had to have a licence to brew up to 100 gallons per household, until blessed Jimmy Carter in 1978 passed the homebrew bill, making it okay.  It was the thrill of driving into east L.A. and slinking up to an old warehouse back door in secrecy that made the whole thing irresistible!  The fellow inside had a 55 gallon drum filled with malt extract, that he filled with their mason jars and then took a  brown paper bag and slipped a few handfuls of whole hop flowers in before the cash exchange and getaway.  The yeast they got at the grocery store, the water from the tap.  In the 90's while living in Houston he started toying with mini-mash and when they moved to Hawaii, he went back to whole grain brewing and the current set-up he built in 2002 with stuff  he got mostly from Home Depot.  He's  been brewing, kegging and also making wine all this time.  Right now he's got several fruit trees and 1 year merlot vines on Texas resistant root stalk to Peirce disease in his yard and they got watered via the brewing process!

So, Tom's figured stuff out...and the "stuff" I needed to learn happened without my asking.  In this shot you see Tom carefully removing Elm leaves from the boiling pot.  He calls it "essence of Elm" and doesn't sweat the small stuff.  After all, not much can get past the boil ;)


I've jumped ahead...what you're really looking at is the mash tun, with false bottom that's sparging from the copper system that Tom built himself.


I cannot begin to explain the fabulous smell!  He said he took the tubing and simply scored the base.  This is only one rung of the square apparatus that fills the bucket.

Sparging: rinsing your grain bed.

Here's the part that was so interesting to me...Tom doesn't move beyond this point until the science of converted sugars is complete and how he figures this out is something I, in my humble ignorance, having not taken a chemistry class...ever... was completely amazed by. As soon as the water hit strike temperature of 164 degrees F, it was added to the grain to produce a mash temperature of 154 degrees. Tom then takes his spoon and  puts a drop of the grain water on top of a small amount of iodine that's been placed on a white tile.   Immediately the solution turns deep black in color.  He then explains that when the sugars are converted, the iodine will be syrupy brown and translucent.  Before we drain the bucket and proceed to the boil, he tests the wort again and sure enough the color is as he predicted and it's time to get the boil on to add the hops!  In my brewing, I'm lucky to have remembered the timer!  I am going to do this from now on though!  Sciency-mathy stuff no longer scares me, in fact...I bet if we taught brewing in high schools we'd have a much higher retention rate.  I'm probably preaching to the choir.

Tom's Brew Kit, getting ready to check the wort!

After this stage, the brewing is pretty much the same as my mini-mash except that the finished beer, once cools drains from pretty high up, oxygenating it perfectly, and to save his back he drains 1-2 gallons at a time and leisurely walks it into the refrigerator where it will ferment.  By the time he gets back outside about another gallon or so has drained and he walks it in and, with all the small batch high pouring, the beer is thoroughly blended.  In the fridge he adds the yeast, checks the temperature...around 55degrees and then we get onto the serious business of sampling some of his 5 year old double chocolate whisky stout that's been conditioning in bottles and is dolled out conservatively...what's the rush?  He's got 3 beers on tap: Annie's Stout, a Mexican Lager that he adjusted and then dry hopped...which was excellent and a mock Shiner Black that he's mixed with an American Pale Ale and ginger infused tea.  He's an artist, a chemist and a fabulous Homebrewligan!  Thank you for sharing your time, space, love of brewing and glorious beer!

Tom Brotherton at his Home Brewery in Manchaca, Texas.

This article is going to be the first in a series of meeting Homebrewligans.  If you know someone who is passionate about their brewing and think they should be featured, please leave a comment with contact information.  I'm always up for meeting one of my peoples!

Happy Brewing & Cheers!
~Cheryl

The Beer That Broke The Cycle

Hello beer enthusiasts!  I'm so happy for anyone out in the blogosphere that stopped by for a pint!  Cheers!  

  What your looking at is a photo I snapped at The Violet Crown Cinema, in downtown Austin, Texas and it's of Revolver's Blood and Honey Ale.  It simply knocked my socks off earlier this summer.  I have been, for several years now, what is lovingly referred to as a Hop-head, greedily seeking that bitter, mouth puckering, palate cleansing liquid gold.  My partner Greg prefers the dark brown sweetness of Porters and Stouts.  I digress-while seeking cool local (meaning Tejas Craft Brews) bottles to take up to my old college classmate in Oklahoma, who is making us a beer chandelier, I came across their awesome revolver-themed bottles in Dallas, picked up a 6 pack and for the first time in several years succumed to the sweet citrus fruitiness of an ale, as opposed to the overwhelming bitter edge.  I am sincerely thankful for that because the summer just got better and better and I realized that my palate was not in fact "wrecked" from IPA's but was finding it's way back to balance.

   

  Greg and I are devoted home-brewers.  We are crazy about the Craft Brew scene that is exploding in Austin and for several years now have been brewing and dreaming up a business that we finally opened yesterday, Austin Bed & Brew, a beercation-destination in the heart of Austin.  We met in an alternative teacher training program 16 years ago and have both wandered away from the classroom, but absolutely love brewing and teaching and several other things that we felt we could pull together our concept of doing what we love, which is, brewing, gardening, designing, meeting new people and of course sharing a fabulous brew while getting to know them!  

  Home Brewligans is going to be a shared blog about all things beer.  Breweries that we visit, beers that we try, festivals we attend, successes and failures while attempting to make that perfect beer, and the fine folks who brew that we meet along the way.

  For the record (not that one exists) Greg is finishing up his PhD. and that is what sent me into brewing on my own...he's been taking a break, and after watching him brew for the past 5+ years, making suggestions and working along side...I've decided to take off on my own and become a homebrewer myself.  My maiden brew happened on Summer Solstice, the day our stained glass window for the Bn'B was installed, and a holiday that is very endearing to me.  That beer is now gone!  It was a lemongrass, ginger Summer Ale, that I infused with a fresh lemongrass tea made from my herb garden.  Here's what I've brewed since:

Greenbelt IPA

Lavender Saison

 (again, I made an infused tea from the blossoms in my garden added at the secondary fermentation transfer)

Imperial Robust Porter

(at transfer, I added extra dark chocolate and a tea from dried chili pequin in my garden)

Blonde Mystery Hops Ale

(my buddy in Idaho sent me some wild hops growing on his property and the bearded dudes at Austin HomeBrew came up with a recipe to help us identify the hops!)

  Like I said, the Bn'B opened yesterday, and I'll post about it at some time, but you can check it out at Austinbedandbrew.com, "Like" us on Facebook and see the photos or consider a "beercation" with us!  

  Next up...Pumpkin Ale.  What are your thoughts on that?  

Sun coming through the clearstory, casting light on our "Church of Beer" stained glass window 

at Austin Bed & Brew

Happy Brewing & Cheers!

~Cheryl