Another article…

My friend Chris Fleisher writes a bi-weekly beer column (On Tap) in our local paper, the Valley News. I get quoted about every third article. This week’s article was about my late great friend Greg Noonan and the imminent release of Smuttynose Brewing’s “Noonan” Black IPA… Well done, Chris, and thanks!

Black & Light

Just as I credit Greg Noonan with the “invention” of the so-called Black IPA, I also owe to Greg my appreciation for the style known as Schwarzbier. I guess I was vaguely aware of dark beers as early as high school. In college, dark versions of some of the mainstream continental lagers were around, and our college pub actually had a pseudo-Belgian dark ale on tap from time to time… It was not until I started brewing myself, at the age of about 30, that I realized or wondered about the status of dark lagers – oh yeah, Heineken and St. Pauli and Löwenbraü Dark… they’re lagers! I got it!

As I got more into it, of course, I had to begin sorting and refining what I understood about styles. Writing the Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers’ Handbook with Greg brought it all into focus – there was a difference between a Munich Dunkel and a Continental Dark – a difference born of a focus on either malt or hops, but not really on both. Where a Bavarian Dunkel is malty, sweet, with the hops only there to balance, the Schwarzbier (basis for the northern German dark lagers) is more of a crisp hoppy beer that just happens to be quite dark. Greg referred to the style as a Schwarz-pils, suggesting that it had more in common, taste and bitterness-wise, with a Czech/Bohemian pilsner than with a Munich lager. So that’s how I approach the brewing of a Schwarzbier – it needs to be dark, of course, black, even, but it should also be somewhat light in body and crisp – hoppy like a good pilsner, dark like a porter, and, of course, supremely drinkable.

Triple S Schwarzbier

5 gallons, all grain

Ingredients:

• 7.5 lbs. Bohemian Pilsner malt
• 3/4 lb. Cara-aroma malt
• 2 oz. Carafa I malt
• 2 oz. black malt
• 4 oz Melanoidin malt
• 1 oz. Spalter hop pellets (@5.0% aa)
• 1 oz. Saphir hop pellets (@5.6% aa)
• 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (@4.0% aa)
• recultured yeast from Arcobraü Zwickel Lager
• 3/4 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Procedure:

Crush grains. Heat 13 quarts water to 162°F. Mash in grains and hold 60 minutes at 150°F. Heat another 15 quarts water to 168°F. Begin runoff and sparge, collect 26 quarts sweet wort. Bring to boil, add 1/2 oz. Spalter hops. Boil 30 minutes, add Saphir hops. Boil another 15 minutes, add Saaz hops. Boil another 10 minutes, add the other 1/2 oz. Spalter hops. Boil 5 more minutes, remove from heat and chill to 70°F. Take a hydrometer reading and pitch yeast. Seal and ferment at 65°F for two days then move to a cooler spot (50°F) for eight to ten days. Rack to secondary, condition cold (40°F) for three to four weeks. Prime with corn sugar, bottle and age warm for three days, then store cold for six weeks.

O.G.: 1050

IBU’s: 31

Notes on yeast: I had already brewed with this Arcobraü culture a couple weeks ago (a Bohemian Pilsner). When I racked that beer I scooped up a cup or so of the dregs from the bottom of the primary and stored it, refrigerated, in a sterilized glass milk bottle. A few days before brewing the Schwarzbier, I built the yeast dregs up to nearly a quart of slurry by feeding it about 1/2 cup of weak boiled wort (+/- 1020 OG) every other day… When I pitched it the yeast was very active and fermentation began in the primary with about three hours.

Splish Splash

Got an email from a reader with a question about aeration and yeast. Any further reader input would be welcome…

Hey Scott,
Just found your blog,  while searching for the origins of the dark IPA.  I’m going to attribute it  to Greg Noonan just like every Vermonter should.  I’ve been trying to get  better with homebrewing and have been a little concerned with aeration of the  wort going into primary.  I’m a PhD student in biobehavioral neuroscience  so I get a bit anal about things, bear with me.  As a scientist I want a  specific value for dissolved oxygen necessary for a good fermentation, I find  that nowhere.  Some suggest a vigorous shaking of the wort, I’ve read of  aeration systems (access to medical 95%02, 5%CO2 so I’m tempted), and I’ve also  read many that like you suggested transferring the wort so that it is a bit  splashy and aerates “enough” (the scariest option for me as a scientist, I need  control!).  Is a good pour typically enough to provide enough oxygen for a  healthy ferment?

Enjoying the reading material you provide.  Thanks!
Brendan

Hey Brendan, thanks for checking out the blog! Glad you’re enjoying it.

As you probably can figure out from my posts, I am NOT much of a scientist – I have no idea what kind of dissolved oxygen ratio would be ideal for optimum start-up. I have, for my entire brewing career (20 years) observed that pouring the wort into the fermenter and allowing it to splash well has been more than adequate. For a short while I used a counterflow wort chiller, siphoning the wort through copper into the bucket, and I am absolutely certain that there was not enough aeration occurring then – I had several batches that took days to start, and ultimately had off-flavors that one would associate with lag spoilage bacteria… Using the “pour and splash method” I usually get active fermentation within 4 – 6 hours, even quicker if I have built up a starter slurry…I don’t have my copy handy right now but I’d bet if anyone has quantified the oxygen content question it would be found in Greg’s “New Brewing Lager Beers“…
best of luck,
Scott

It’s About The Beer

When my friend Walter won the Brewmaster’s Cup at the Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrew Competition in May (see my early May post), earning the right to have his Vienna Lager brewed at the Vermont Pub & Brewery, it set off a chain of memories both personal and beer-related. In the eight years or so that I worked with Greg at the Seven Barrel Brewery, I shed many of my beer prejudices and learned to appreciate a variety of styles and a number of variations on those styles. As Greg frequently said, “It’s about the beer”, which meant a couple different things to Greg – it’s about appreciating the beer, for what it is, in light of how it was brewed, and how it fits in traditions. But also how it moves the idea of beer forward – a new version of a classic style, while it may “offend” a purist, may also open a door to a really interesting new beer. There has been a lot of talk lately about “Black IPA” or Cascadian Dark Ales, including on this blog. In the back of my mind, I knew this, but it took a friendly email from Patrick Dakin, a brewer who also is somewhat of a Greg Noonan disciple, to remind me that in fact, the first “black IPA” many of us ever heard of was brewed by Greg, at the VPB and at the 7BB. The first of its kind, anywhere? I can’t say for sure, but it was certainly my first.

I often ask myself, what would Greg brew? Last week I looked through the Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers’ Handbook, trying to decide what to brew next, and realized that I had never brewed a Cream Ale, at least not since moving to all-grain brewing. I flipped the 7BBBH open to Greg’s recipe for the Ottaqueechie Cream Ale, and another memory came up, that of sitting with Greg and head brewer Paul White at the bar at Seven Barrel, comparing Kölsch, Steam Beers and Cream Ales. Greg said, over and over, that you could basically brew all three with the same yeast and change the fermentation temperatures, or you could brew all three with the same grain bill and vary only the yeast, or you could brew them all as completely different beers. That was what was great about working with Greg – he would frequently throw the rules and expectations out the window and start over, inventing a new beer style, just for fun; but he could also nail a classic traditional beer style, devising a recipe on the back of a beer coaster, and could quote the Lovibond ratings for the grains and SRM values of the wort, the AAU’s and IBU’s of the hops, the attenuation and flocculation rates of the yeast, time and temperature limits, etc. etc. etc. For Greg, it was always about the beer. There are many of us who are grateful for that.

First Branch Cream Ale

5 gallons, all-grain

Ingredients:

• 7 lbs. Weyermann lager malt
• 14 oz. carapils malt
• 1 lb. flaked maize
• 2.35 HBU’s Mt. Hood hop pellets (1/2 oz. @ 4.7% aa)
• 2.1 HBU’s Perle hop pellets (1/4 oz. @ 8.3% aa)
• 2.1 HBU’s Perle hop pellets (1/4 oz. @ 8.3% aa)
• White Labs European Ale Yeast (WLP011)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Procedure: Crush lager and carapils malts. Heat 13 quarts water to 164°F. Mash in crushed grains and maize, hold at 152°F for 60 minutes. Heat another 13 quarts water to 170°F, begin runoff and sparge. Collect 24 quarts sweet wort. Heat to boiling, add Mt. Hood hops. Boil 30 minutes, add first Perle hops. Boil 30 more minutes, add second Perle hops. Boil 15 more minutes (75 total), remove from heat. Chill to 80°F, take a hydrometer reading, pitch yeast. Seal and ferment cool (65 – 68°F) for ten days or so, rack to secondary. Age cooler (50 – 55°F) or cold (38 – 40°F) if you can, for ten to fourteen days. Prime and bottle, condition very cool (40 – 45°F) for two weeks.

OG: 1055

IBU’s: 21.6

Notes on style: I have always thought of Cream Ale as the opposite of a Steam Beer. Steam Beers are lagers, brewed at more of an ale temperature. Cream Ales are, as the name implies, ales, but generally fermented cool like a lager. I’ve also heard of brewers who blended batches of light lager and light ale. As I mentioned above, Greg Noonan believed, and rightly so, that you could brew this beer in a number of different ways, with a number of different yeasts. See the note below on yeast. The BJCP guidelines describe Cream Ale as “a clean, well-attenuated, flavorful American lawnmower beer.” This one is a bit bigger than the standard recipe, and ever-so-slightly more bitter.

Notes on yeast: I considered several different yeasts for this brew, but in the end chose the European Ale yeast (basically an Altbier strain). I wanted a clean yeast, one that would deal well with potential temperature fluctuations – it is late summer, and we are bouncing back and forth between 40’s at night and 80’s during the day. Other possibilities were the San Francisco Lager yeast (Steam Beer), German Kölsch, and American Lager.

Heavy heart, heavy beer…

Last summer, the craft brewing and home-brewing communities lost one of the great people in the industry. Greg Noonan, founder and brewmaster of both the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington, and the Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon, NH, passed away, leaving behind a legacy of beer and friendship. Greg’s death was felt throughout the world, everywhere good beer is brewed or sipped. For many of us, it was also a very personal loss. Just about every homebrewer in Vermont knew Greg, and beer lovers throughout the state and all of the Northeast knew his beers. I worked for Greg for several years as manager of the Home Brew Shop at the Seven Barrel Brewery, and worked with Greg on the writing and editing of the Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers’ Handbook. Greg was a friend, a mentor, and an inspiration.

One of Greg’s real beer passions was Scotch Ale. He wrote the book. Literally. Whenever I taste a Scotch Ale, I ask myself what Greg would think of it. I brew an annual Scotch Ale or “Wee Heavy” with which to celebrate St. Andrew’s Day, in November. Because it’s a big beer, rich in malty flavor and high in alcohol, it requires some time to age and mature, thus I usually brew it in late Spring. This year’s brew is based on one of Greg’s recipes, and I will probably think of it as “Noonanbrew” as it ferments, conditions and ages in the bottles. Slainthé, old friend, we miss you.

Wee Heavy 2010
5 gallons, large mash with extract.

Ingredients:

• 10 lbs. Golden Promise 2-row pale malt
• 1/2 lb. peated malt
• 1/2 lb. amber malt
• 2 oz. roasted barley
• 3 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt extract
• 5 AAU’s Kent Goldings hop pellets (1 oz.)
• 5.3 AAU’s Northern Brewer hop pellets (1/2 oz. @10.6% aa)
• White Labs Edinburgh Ale yeast (WLP028)
• 1/2 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Procedure:

Build yeast up to a quart of slurry over a couple days before brewing. Crush grains. Heat 18 quarts water to 175°F. Mash in grains, hold at 158°F for 90 minutes. Heat 15 quarts water to 170°F. Begin runoff and sparge. Put first 4 quarts of runoff into a kettle and boil for 30 minutes to caramelize. Collect another 25 quarts sweet wort (while first runnings are boiling). Add caramelized wort back into main wort, along with the DME, stir well to avoid sticking and burning. Bring whole to a boil. Add Goldings pellets, boil 45 minutes. Add Northern Brewer pellets, boil 45 more minutes (90 total), remove from heat. Chill to 80°F, take a hydrometer reading and pour into a sanitized fermenter, splashing well to aerate. Pitch yeast slurry, seal and ferment 10 – 20 days. Rack to secondary, condition cool (50°F) for 4 to 6 weeks. Prime with corn sugar, bottle and cellar 4 to 6 months.

OG: 1105
IBU’s: 43.7

Notes on style: This is a big beer, even for the style. I expect this will end up at about 9% abv, with a full malty texture, some sweetness, and a nice peaty smoke flavor in the bcakground. Stay tuned for tasting notes in the fall…

Notes on ingredients: Golden Promise malt is a Scottish 2-row malt, which lends itself particularly well to big beers like Scotch ales and barleywines. I opted to add some DME to this batch just to bulk up the alcohol and body. I would have had to mash over 15 lbs. of grain instead of 11 or so… The peated malt is not necessarily traditional, but it is a flavor I like a great deal.

Notes on procedure: The Edinburgh yeast is a notorious slow starter. I decided to really pitch big this time, tripling the volume I usually pitch in the hopes of getting the beer fermenting quickly in the warmer weather.

I’m so proud…

Just got the news that my friend and colleague Walter Wallner won a couple blue ribbons and the Brewmaster’s Cup at the Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrewers’ Competition. Walter won a 1st place for his Munich Helles lager and for his Vienna lager, the Vienna also won the Brewmaster’s Cup, which means that he will get a chance to brew it on a larger scale at the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington. Seeing that Walter is from Austria, who better to win with a Vienna? I’d like to say that I had a lot to do with Walter’s success, but in reality all I did was make sure his entries got to the competition safely…  Nice going, mein freund!

Another of my friends and shop customers, Ben Linehan, won a 2nd place for his Dusseldorfer Altbier – again, well done!

See the complete results of the competition here.

2010 First Footer – Scottish Export 80 Shilling Ale

Being of Scottish heritage, I make it a tradition to brew a Scottish ale of some kind as my first brew of any new year. In Scotland, your luck and fate for the year are said to be determined by the first person who enters your home on New Year’s Day, and by how you treat them.

Many of my recipes, and my brewing in general, are inspired by my friend and mentor Greg Noonan. Greg wrote the book on Scotch Ale.  I worked with Greg, at the Seven Barrel Brewery, for several years, and kept in touch after I left there and he shifted his focus back to the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington. I saw Greg for the last time during the summer of 2009. We had a good laugh, he bought our beers at the VPB, and we parted as we always did, with a hearty handshake. I was shocked and very saddened to hear of Greg’s passing just a few months later. I find it very appropriate to dedicate this first brew of the new year to Greg, with thanks and affection.

Ingredients:

• 8 lbs. pale malt
• 2 oz. roasted barley
• 2 oz. peated malt
• 1.125 HBU’s East Kent Goldings hop pellets (.25 oz. @ 4.5% aa)
• 4.6 HBU’s Fuggles hop pellets (1 oz. @ 4.6% aa)
• White Labs Edinburgh Ale yeast (WLP028)
• 2/3 cup light dry malt extract (for priming)

The night before brewing, crush the grains. On brew day, heat 13 quarts of water to 164°F. Mash in the grains, hold at 150 – 152°F for 90 minutes. Heat 13 more quarts of water to 170°F. Begin runoff and sparge. Take the first half-gallon of wort and boil it for 20 minutes (to caramelize and increase the “butterscotch” flavors). Add this back into the rest of the wort. After runoff and sparging you should have about 5 gallons of sweet wort. Bring to a boil. Add EKG hops, boil 15 minutes. Add half the Fuggles hops, boil another 15 minutes. Add the rest of the Fuggles hops, boil another 30 minutes (total 60 minutes). Remove from heat, chill to 80 – 85°F. Pour into fermenter, splash and oxygenate as much as possible. Take hydrometer reading, pitch Edinburgh yeast, seal up and set aside to ferment at 65 – 70°F. After 10 -12 days, rack to secondary and age two to three weeks. Bottle with dry malt extract, condition at least two weeks.

Original Gravity: 1050
IBUs: 19

Style notes: This is not a strong beer, more of a session beer. Scottish ales are generally labeled by the old system, based on the tax per barrel. The stronger the beer, the higher the tax. This is an 80 shilling ale, about mid-way up the tax scale. The really strong Scotch Ales, also known as “wee heavies”, are often labeled as 140 shilling or more. Not also that the hops in this beer are restrained. We Scots are cheap, as many know, and hops are (or were, back in the day) expensive. Scottish ales are more malty, less bitter, less hoppy than English ales of similar strength.

Brewing notes: This ale would not normally have peated malt in it. I like the smoky flavor the peat imparts. Sue me.

I was assisted in brewing this ale by the immensely talented Rick Scully, webmaster, brewer, shepherd and friend. Who was also building this website and installing wireless internet in my house at the same time. I bow in his general direction.