Infinite Door Ale

Author David Foster Wallace died last fall. He would have been 47 years old this Feb. 21st, so to honor his life and inspirational work, I decided to gather a few friends together on the 21st and brew up an Imperial Stout titled the Infinite Door. Aqua took some nice photos; check them out here. We did some random readings from various DFW books. I worked out a dice rolling system that told you what book to read from and what page to begin on. As it ended up, most of the readings ended up falling on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (which was recently adapted into a film, which I think first showed at this year's Sundance Festival).

This was the first time I have ever used a yeast "starter". I generally just pitch straight from the vial (which is how you buy it), but this time, knowing it was going to be a fairly heavy brew, I wanted to guarantee that I was pitching enough yeast to get the job done, so a good day and a half before brewing, I prepared a small wort and got the yeast excited and multiplying.

This was probably the messiest beer I've done as well. I tried to abide by the 2 quarts of water per 1 lb. of grain for my mini-mash, which was slightly idiotic as my mini-mash pot is only a little over 2 gallons capacity, so when I dumped the grains in, it was a bit of a problem, but I just let some of it overflow, cut the flame, put the lid on and put a towel on top to trap the heat.

The sparge was when it got truly messy. Here I am recirculating the first runnings.

Shot of boil...

My past few beers have been experiments with spice, to some degree, so this time, I decided to hold back, and added only a few spices, at extremely low volume. Small amounts of Nutmeg, All Spice, Cardamom, and one Star Anise pod.

Some reason I cant get this photo to stand up straight. Here the wort is cooling in the tub.

Pulled a sample before pitching the yeast, Original Gravity of 1.078. Not quite as heavy as I had anticipated, but good enough. My biggest beer yet.

On the 8th day of fermentation it was racked. Final Gravity of around 1.019. Attenuation of about 75.6%. Really good for the White Labs Edinburgh Ale yeast I used. 7.8% alcohol/vol.

As mentioned in my Oak Aging post, back on 12/09/08, I had put some toasted American Oak chips on some Knob Creek bourbon. Here are the chips before I drained them off the bourbon and added them to a baggy to soak in the secondary.

I ended up having some of the bourbon. It was interesting to taste. Extremely oaky, which in someways comes off as peppery. It tasted good.

Here was a sample of the Infinite Door a few days before bottling. The bourbon/oak was very subtle, but definitely there. I think this is going to be a good one.

Infinite Door Stout

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Malts/Sugars

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8 lbs. Pilsen Malt Extract Syrup (Most before boil/Rest at 15 min)

2 lbs. Two-Row*

.5 lb. Crystal 60L*

.5 lb. Crystal 90L*

.25 lb. Chocolate Malt*

.25 lb. Special B*

.25 lb. Roasted Barley*

.25 lb. Black Patent*

1 lb. Dark Candi Sugar (rocks)

Hops

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1 oz Styrian Aurora 7.6% (60 min)

2 oz Cascade 6.3/7.1% (60/30 mins respectively)

1 oz Fuggles 4.6% (30 min)

Yeast

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White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028)

Other

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Whirlfloc tablet (15 min)

Servomyces yeast nutrient capsule (10 min)

1/8 tsp Nutmeg

1/8 tsp All Spice

1/8 tsp Cardamom

1 pod of Star Anise

Mini-mash (*) grains went into water around 160 degrees, so one step mash around 157 or so for an hour. Sparge water around 170. Mixed in most of the malt extract (though not all) before bringing to boil. 1/2 Candi Sugar at 30 min, and half at 10 min. Spices went in at flame out. Otherwise as scheduled above. 60 minute boil.

Brewed on Sat, Feb 21

Racked on Sun, Mar 1

Oaked on Sat, Mar 7

Bottled on Tue, Mar 17 (St. Patrick's Day)

Hive Door Ale (Batch 02) - Tasting

GOOD NEWS: The other evening I tasted this again - at 44 days in bottle - and the chlorophyll taste mentioned in the below review is almost gone. Not nearly as noticeable, and really, mainly only in the tail and aftertaste. I'm gonna sit'm down a bit longer and see if it doesnt disappear all together.


27 days in bottle

Appearance - 1.5 finger head, not much retention; golden ale, bronze highlights; murky with slight yeast

Smell - Grassy, hops, slight pepper, hints of honey as it warms

Taste/Mouthfeel - Nicely carbed malty intro into suddenly harsh chlorophyllesque bitterness, dispersing into hops, finally into nice sweet, peppery notes; but then after taste brings back the grassy taste - not terrible, but definitely off a bit.

Drinkability/Notes - OK batch except for the crazy chlorophyll bite; still enjoyable, but not as scrumptious as batch 01 - numerous factors I am thinking could be the cause of the off flavor. I dont think it has anything to do with not using quite as much honey as 01. Second factor would be that I used Turbinado Sugar versus Clear Belgian Candi Sugar. I dont think it's that either. I think it's the hops. "How To Brew" mentions that chlorophyll notes can come from storage issues, and also hops. I am thinking it could be that some of the hops I used were from the 01 batch (though stored in freezer) - but also, I used some different hops than the initial recipe, plus some Saaz plug I had in the freezer. That said, I also did something stupid out of my excitement, after coming home from a Christmas party one night, really wanting to take areading (knowing it almost time to rack), I tumbled the fermenter and though not much of the beer escaped, and nothing got in to contaminate, what did happen most likely, was that any hop residue that was pushed up by the fermentation probably got worked back into the brew, so when I racked it, some of the hop residue got in there as well. This is a POSSIBILITY. Outside of using different hops (b/c store didnt have all the same), this one also fermented at cooler temps (68ish) than the first run (74ish). I think this brew is more like a Saison, so it may work better at higher fermentation. Just a few thoughts. I look forward to trying it again, and matching that first run. Good thing I have good notes. Brew and learn.

Oak Aging

In preparation for my next brew, an Imperial Stout recipe I have been working on, to be titled INFINITE DOOR (to be brewed next month in honor of David Foster Wallace (more on this later)), I started looking into oak aging, and how it can be done homebrew style. There is a rippling trend right now of brews, particularly stouts, that are being aged in oak barrels previously used for aging bourbon (though at La Trappe I had an Allagash triple on tap, that was aged on bourbon barrels, that was almost like a pilsner) - I have read that a large reason for this, is to impart bourbon flavor to the brew (not so much the oak) - and for commercial brews this is the only way to go about it, as it would be illegal for them to toss some bourbon into the brew. However homebrewers dont have these limitations. But I'm getting ahead of myself. More on the Infinite Door another time.

Important part: I bought some American Oak chips. I have read that French are better (mellower), and that cubes are better than chips (not as much crazy surface area), but whatevs... I was gonna wait to first try them on the stout, but when I racked the Enchanted Door (and sampled it), the spices were just everywhere, so I thought, "it may be good to oak this a bit to mellow out the spice..." So after two weeks of conditioning in the carboy, I poured out 1 oz of toasted American oak onto my scale.


I then put them in a muslin bag and steamed them in my brew pot (aluminum stock pot from Chinatown that came with a steamer rack) for about 20 minutes to sanitize, kill any whack bacteria.


I had a bit of trouble getting the bag into the carboy, it took a little wrangling, but I did get it in there. However, I didnt put any weight in the bag, so it floats. I sanitized my bottle filler and poked the bag around with it for a bit, to soak it, then plugged the carboy back up. I plan to let it sit on the oak for about a week before bottling. But I may change my mind when I sample it (if I am not getting enough oak flavor yet). I am actually thinking the floating bag may be a good thing, as since I havent done this before, ALL of the oak is not touching the brew, so I at least may not be overdoing it (but we'll see). I have read that American oak can really impart a lot of oakiness, quickly, so you gotta watch out, monitor it along the way, until you get what you're looking for...

Enchanted Door Ale / Reusing Yeast

So on my next brew, I tried a little experiment (well, experiment for me at least!), in that I reused my yeast from the Hive Door 2. I had seen various articles in books, magazines, and online, about this practice, and decided to give it a shot. Many people that write about this, talk about it in regard to saving money (a vial of White Labs yeast is about $8.00), but I just figured it would be interesting to see what happened.

As my guide, I used a simple article from the last issue of Brew Your Own discussing the matter. 1) I took an empty Gatorade bottle (large plastic), cleaned and sanitized it. 2) After racking the Hive Door from the fermenter, I swirled up the yeast cake with a small amount of Hive Door still in the bottom of the fermenter and poured it into the Gatorade container. 3) Screwed the sanitized cap onto the container and put it into the refrigerator. Note: This could cause a CO2 problem if left for a while, so you want to unscrew cap occasionally to let pressure out. I was brewing again later that day, so I didnt worry too much about it (though I did make sure a few times).

Later that day, I brewed up a similar recipe to the Hive Door, with a number of changes (no honey, more sugar, added .5 Belgian Munich), this time shooting for a more traditional Tripel-style Belgian. On the crazy side, I went a bit whacky with the spices, adding small amounts of Chinese Five Spice, All Spice, Coriander, White & Black Pepper, Wormwood, Star Anise, Vanilla Extract, and Maple Syrup. Not sure what I was thinking. Just went with it. The Enchanted Door. The gravity came out to 1.074, which is my highest OG yet. 4) When starting the brew I took the Gatorade bottle of White Labs Trappist from the fridge and sat it down in the closet I ferment in (to let it temp change).

I whirlpooled in the bathtub to cool the wort down. Was able to get it down around 76 within 15 minutes, though I may have been a bit rough with it, causing some aeration (you really dont want to do this until after it is cooled down, not while, from what I understand). Oh well. I like to think that doing it this way really works/steeps the spices and hops into the wort before you strain into the fermenter. I should probably spin a bit slower in the future, but whatevs.

I filtered the wort back and forth from pot to fermenter, filtering it through a colander twice, aerating the hell out of it. Foam was almost to the lid of the fermenter. I moved it into the closet. Fermometer read 70/68 degrees. Perfect. 5) I then examined the Gatorade bottle of White Labs Trappist. There was some separation evident from where the beer was on top, yeast in the middle, and trub on the bottom. I dumped the layer of beer on top into the sink, and then pitched the rest into the fermenter! It was about half of a Gatorade bottle.

It seemed to take quickly (within 4 hours), pushing up the lid, slowly, but then a day later, WHAM: it went crazy, bubbling in the airlock. I think for this style of brew it was good to pitch so much yeast, however, 2 days in there were some sulfur smells that werent the most pleasant, however, they were gone within a day... The yeast fermented like mad for about a week and a half. Longest ferment I have had. It is pretty much done now, sitting at around 66 degrees, its main action was at around 68/70. My last hydrometer reading, 4 days ago, was 1.010 - 8.3% alcohol. Right in line for a Tripel. I am guessing it'll probably be around 8.5% final when I rack it, as it fermented for a few days more. I was glad to see that the yeast spit out a lot of the dark trub, crusted onto the upper sides of the fermenter, above the beer, so the beer isnt sitting on it now (well, not all of it anyway)... Will probably leave for a few more days, and after bottling Hive Door 2, will rack to secondary.

Tasted one of the readings, and it was crazy interesting. We'll see how it turns out... On New Year's Eve, we stopped by to see a friend for a bit, who generously opened and served us from a 50 oz (or so) bottle of Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale (which I am guessing was a gift from Anchor Steam to his place of work). After passing out a few more glasses, he then cleaned the huge bottle and gave it to me for homebrew! I am planning to fill it with Enchanted Door and let it age in the cellar for a bit, for the right occasion.

Here are a few links to some good articles about reusing yeast if you happened to stumble upon this randomly:
ARTICLE BY PRES OF WHITE LABS
FROM NORTHERN BREWER FORUM

Brewed on Sun, Dec 21
Racked on Thu, Jan 8
Oaked secondary on Jan 22
Bottled on Tue, Feb 3

Gingerbread Monk comments

So the Gingerbread Monk has been getting some love this holiday season, though mainly from the Party Pig in my fridge (at this point). For the following reasons, I am going to wait to do a proper tasting. Having brewed this specifically for Christmas etc, the Pig went into the fridge after only 12 or 13 days after priming. I dont think that fact effected the first taste of the brew much, but what I have noticed, esp. with a beer like this (a darker dubbel-style), is that drinking at the fridge temp masks a lot of the subtleties of the beer and possibly make its weaknesses more apparent... After tasting one from a bottle, straight from the cellar (which was excellent), I began letting the glass sit for at least 15 or 20 minutes after pulling from the keg, before drinking... It is amazing how much ten degrees on a beer like this changes the experience. I have decided to let some of the bottled portion age a bit more before doing a detailed tasting on here.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I now have a deeper understanding for when temperature guidelines are on the side of specific beers. Brewing beer yourself you are more open to experimenting with temps and tasting, versus buying beer, throwing them in the fridge, and drinking the same way each time. You start to see how technically, refrigerator temp can many times make an unreal beer (not saying mine is unreal, but) taste not so great.

These were the first labels I have designed, because H was too busy. I like the label, though let it be known I kindof ripped it off of Witkap-Pater Abbey Triple Ale (though changed it a bit!).

Hive Door Ale (Batch 02)

Of the brews I have brewed so far, Hive Door has received the best reception. Therefore, I decided to brew up another batch. This will be my first time trying to replicate. Luckily, I took good notes the first go.

This time I didnt do the partial mash steeping (in a sock) style. I actually mashed the adjuncts. Also, I only used 12 oz honey, versus 16 oz (slight foul). Despite that, I gained a few points on my original gravity. This time: 1.070 (vs. 1.067).

I had to use slightly different hops as well, though comparable, and amounts the same. I did use a plug of Saaz this time, versus pellets.

Here is a video taken during the last 15 minutes of the boil!!!!



Same White Labs Trappist yeast was pitched. Has been fermenting now for 6 days, mainly around 66 degrees. First batch fermented a bit higher, in the 68/70 range, but it has been cold here... Has been steady bubbling, and that same banana split aroma was everywhere a day after fermentation began, so it's on the right track.

Brewed on Sat, Dec 13
Racked on Sun, Dec 21
Bottled on Thu, Jan 8

Dragon Door tasting

Dragon Door Ale - Dec 10 (26 days in bottle)

Appearance - Awesome hand-width head; great retention; nice amber, gold brew, basically see-through; a few slow moving particles, trace of gelatin

Smell - Huge hop aroma, Saaz and more Saaz

Taste/Mouthfeel - Smooth nose, thin malt, almost like a lager, or steam beer, into hoppy bang on buds anticipated by the aroma - an extra notch of bitterness hangs on, possibly from the overly-steeped tea - a little strange, but not terrible, just apparent; some slight spicy tang rounds it up, citrusy, ginger, grapefruity, almost lemony to a point...

Drinkability - With its 4.5% alc/vol, it is definitely the best contender for steady drinking that I have yet brewed... I put half of this batch into a Party Pig keg and it was nice drinking it from the keg. Came out super clear... That said, I already have a number of ideas that I think will make this a better brew. Also, flavor-wise it has improved with a bit of mellowing in the bottle, though the kegged portion didnt last too long.

Hive Door tasting

22 days in bottle; Nov 19 @ cellar temp

Appearance - Finger or so head, fairly quick dissipation into bubbly film; amber brew with golden highlights; not much lacing, if any; a bit murky

Aroma - Banana, honey, pepper, almost note of cola, slight vanilla

Taste-Mouthfeel - Smooth malty, wheaty intro into fairly high carbonation, nice hop spread lays out on the pallet with definite pepper notes, honeysuckle; dry spicy finish (coriander?)

Drinkability etc - This is a fairly complex brew, lots of flavors; I need to do another serious tasting on this one. Each time I've had this one, I have noticed different things that jump out, though this is the first time I have sat down to actually take notes on what I am tasting. Strong honey/banana/pepper aroma pulls you in - I think the Trappist yeast worked well with this brew; Maybe a bit too intense flavor to session (also with a well hidden 7.5% alc/vol); but an interesting brew; look forward to seeing how it ages; I think this one would be good cask-style

Below is a photo of another pour where the head was much more active (may have had to do with the fact that this one came from the fridge, whereas the one I took notes on was straight from the cellar).

Abe Lincoln's Apple Pie (follow-up)

So this is a bit of a follow-up to the below posting about spotting Abe Lincoln in a pie crust while about to make a pumpkin pie.

We decided not to use the crust right then (though we did make the pumpkin pie with another (you, know, they come in twos)). After receiving numerous responses, and emails (thanks Arrow!!), about the sighting, I learned that Abe Lincoln's favorite pie was an Apple Pie. Apparently, Honest Abe's favorite dinner was cheese and crackers.

Anyway, learning this info, H decided to send our Abe phantasm to culinary heaven by baking him into an Apple Pie. As you can see from the photo above, he was still there, waiting...

Not only did she bake him into the pie, but she used him for the top crust! You know he was loving it.


We put vanilla ice cream on our slices. Really tasty. Used a simple (yet yummy) recipe from River Road Recipes, a Southern classic.

Gingerbread Monk Ale

So Hannah and I decided to brew up a beer together. My idea was to do a seasonal brew that we could enjoy with friends (and ourselves) this Christmas season, so we went with a gingerbread beer idea from the awesome book, Radical Brewing. One thing I like about this book is that a lot of the brew ideas/recipes leave a lot of room for you to come up with your own parts... Like for this one, really, you were only told a specific mixture of spices to add at the end of the boil, those you would use for a gingerbread cookie: ginger, clove, cinnamon and allspice.

Though it said to compliment this with a lightly hopped brown ale, I decided to fill out the rest of the recipe with a more caramel malty version of the Trappe Door, hence the Monk part of the recipe. Here is the wort after mashing the grains and adding the malt extract, waiting for boil...

Boiling...

Only did one hop addition (since the spices are supposed to be a large part of the profile) at the begin of the boil (1 oz of Fuggles and 1/2 oz of Hallertauer). Also, channeling my inner monk, added 1/2 lb. of turbinado sugar.

Midway through the brew, it was looking nice. Added more of the sugar.

Gingerbread spices were added around 5 minutes and then after the boil, started cooling it down asap with Pete's wort chiller (thanks Pete!!!). We had it down to around 78 within about 15 minutes.

Warning: Before yeasting, always make sure that no babies have crawled into the fermenter.

Here you see Hannah pitching a vial of White Labs Trappist yeast before we shut the lid. Before yeasting, I took a sample for the hydrometer. Around 1.070 OG. Let it ferment around 9 days, now reading 1.014. This brings it to 7.2%. All exactly the same as the Trappe Door. About to rack it into the carboy now, weather outside cooling down...

Brewed on Sun, Nov 9
Racked on Tue, Nov 18
Bottled on Wed, Dec 10 (half batch went into Party Pig)

Abe Lincoln spotted in pie crust

This weekend, I was prepping a pumpkin pie, and when I looked down at the pre-made, frozen crust, I spotted Abe Lincoln. See the below photo. I dont know if this is some magic mojo moving up to the election this week, but it was quite amazing to say the least. After showing the photo to numerous folks that evening, we also realized there was a man whispering in Abe's ear.

I hope to follow up with another seasonal soup recipe soon, a pumpkin soup I have been trying to perfect this fall. A fusion of a Mexican soup with a Cajun one. Really good, more to come on that...

Trappe Door tasting

After about 20 days of aging, I finally sat down with a chalice of Trappe Door for a serious tasting...

Hannah drew the label for me, and I changed them up in color, etc, kindof like some psychedelic beer Easter eggs.


Nov 1 @ cellar temp

Appearance - Pinky finger head into malty film, brown reddish tints in the pour; dark brownish brew, reddish tints up to light; dark

Smell - Woody, chocolate notes; banana; vanilla; alcohol

Mouthfeel/Taste - Smooth & sweet malty nose, slight caramel & definite chocolate flavor into nice hop bitterness; low carbonation; slight fruit finish, almost grape-like; slight spice

Drinkability - This one hides the alcohol well, I am feeling its 7.2 % only halfway through - tasty Dubbel-style, almost leaning towards a stout, though not that thick; definitely easy to drink, though potent!

Hive Door (bottled)

Hive Door was finally bottled Oct. 28, and then lugged to the cellar the next day. Samples tasted out of this world, seriously. Really looking forward to having this one when it's carbonated etc. I primed it with a healthy amount (3/4 c.) of Washed Raw Sugar. Below are just the tall boys from the batch (notice the two champagne bottles in back - we plan to age one for a year).

Dragon Door Ale

My latest brew, is a Chinese-themed brew titled Dragon Door. What you are seeing below are the basic ingredients: Demerara sugar (1/2 lb), Clover Honey (1/2 lb), Malt Extract (6 lbs), Brown Rice (1 lb), Ginseng Oolong tea (will use around 10 tsp), and a bag of grains (Belgian Pils, Carapils & Crystal 10L). These were the basics used, along with some other things I added like 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1/2 tsp ground ginger.


I cooked the brown rice in a rice cooker, and then, along with the adjunct grains, I mashed them at around 160 degrees for about 45 minutes, then sparged and lautered into my brew pot (I think I am using the correct terminology here, as this is the closest I have gotten to mashing grains myself).

Added the hops, using 3 oz of Saaz (2 oz at 60 minutes, 1/2 oz at 30, and last 1/2 oz at 15). I chose Saaz as a Tsingtao clone I spotted online used them as well (plus I already had some in my freezer!).


I totally forgot to buy ice that day before brewing (I usually use two bags in a tub of cold water to cool off the wort - old school style), so Pete brought over the wort chiller that he made himself. Check it... Cooled the wort down to about 67 degrees within around 20 minutes. Nice. The spots floating below are ginseng oolong tea leaves I added at flameout (only 1 tablespoon).

To hook the wort chiller up to my sink, we had to use some plumbing skills. An ancient roll of Babolat tennis racket tape (used to help from scuffing the end of your racket) came in handy.

So, keeping with Chinese tradition, I fermented (using White Labs German Kolsch yeast) for 8 days (8 is good). I then, the morning before racking, boiled 4 cups of water, then turning off the heat, dropped in 8 tsp of ginseng oolong tea and let it steep for about an hour and half. I then strained it into a Pyrex and funneled it into my carboy. I then racked the fermented beer onto the tea in the carboy. Hydrometer readings for this one gave me 1.050 Original Gravity and around 1.015 Final Gravity, meaning the finished brew should be around 4.5% alc/vol. Should be interesting how this one tastes. I plan to keep in secondary for 13 days (in Chinese numerology, 13 is a good number, versus in Western culture).


Brewed on Fri, Oct 24
Racked on Sat, Nov 1
Bottled on Fri, Nov 14 (note: half into a Party Pig/half into bottles)