Engagement Party

So, we are a couple of weeks behind posting this but we wanted to write a quick couple of paragraphs about our engagement party.  The party was hosted by Ashley's mum, Pam, and her matron-of-honor, Maggie.  Festivities went down at Pam's house which is an ideal home for entertaining.  Pam and Maggie really out did themselves with all of the delicious food and decorating.  Everyone who showed up just stuffed themselves on everything from individual 7-layer dip cups to homemade beef jerky.

Not wanting to add to Pam or Maggie's stress, but desiring a decent beer spread, I volunteered to make the beer buying round.  My only requirement was cans because empty glass bottles in bulk make for a much heavier trash bag in the morning.  Luckily several craft breweries now release beer in cans.  The spread was 50/50 with the big three (Miller, Cooers, Bud, all light) sharing the stage with craft and smaller macro breweries (Shiner, Fat Tire, Avery).  For the non-beer drinkers, Pam and Maggie made a couple of delicious Sangrias for the red wine and white wine fans.

We are grateful for everyone who showed their support and were able to come celebrate with us!  We are also thankful for the awesome hostesses Pam and Maggie.  We look forward to April, 20th of 2013 and hope everyone that follows this blog can make it NWA for a celebration!

Enjoy the pics.  I was outside tending the beer cooler and didn't think to take a single pic all night.  As you can see, the people inside had a better mind to snap some shots.

The Spread

The coozies

Ashley with some of her employees (Left to Right: Whit, Lex, Ashley, Shelby, and Michayla [?SP?])

Matron-of-honor Maggie w/ Ash

Pamfab and Ash

Hostesses Maggie and Pam getting lovee-dovee with Ash

Ash with Matt Mulehorn (that's me)

Ash and Casey

Little cakes, they were good.

The centerpiece with all the food around it.

Another food shot.  The 7-layer dip cups were tasty.

A Decent Proposal

So life has been very exciting and busy here in Northwest Arkansas.  But one very special thing has happened recently.....WE GOT ENGAGED!

It has been over three weeks already and most everyone has found out and heard the story.  But for those interested to learn more of the event we wanted to write a quick little story.........

I had been shopping around for a ring since the end of April and it just took time to finally find something I was really happy with (I got a lot of help from a friend of Ashley's that works in the jewelry industry so she steered me straight, thanks Molly!)  Once I decided on the ring I wanted I had to wait over 5 weeks to have it made and shipped to Fayetteville.  I got the ring on a Thursday night and knew as soon as I inspected it that it was 'the one' for 'THE one'.  I had no idea to go about proposing but I didn't want to sit around for too long so I started thinking...

Originally I was thinking I would take Ash on a weekend getaway...but that is too obvious and I figured we would want to be near some friends and family to celebrate.  So then I started thinking of taking her to the highest lookout point in Fayetteville called, Mt. Sequoyah. But after driving past on two separate occasions and seeing it jam packed with people I knew it would not be private enough.  So Friday afternoon rolls around I still have no idea what to do.  I'm starting to think I will have to wait another week.  Then her mom texts me and says, 'I know!! Bells Gable Chapel! Google it'.  So I did.  Long story short it is a beautiful chapel in west Fayetteville that was handbuilt by a husband for his wife.  It used to be open to the public but now is only available upon request by the proprietors.

Ashley's mom gave me the man's name to call and I did.  He told me to come by after work to see if the chapel was something I would be interested in using.  You will need to look at the photos below but all I can say is that the chapel is a little slice of heaven and architecture in NWA.  It was the perfect place.  The gentleman said when I brought Ashley back that he would look for my car and close the gate behind us.

So Ashley thinks that Friday night we will just be going out to dinner and relaxing.  She had heard of Bells Gable before so I decided to play dumb while she was getting ready (for dinner).  I told her a friend lived near this little church where he and his wife wanted to baptize their son....how it was a cool little handbuilt church that looked like it was ripped out of England and put in Fayetteville.  I continued to play dumb with Ashley and asked her if she knew what my friend was talking about.  She said, 'Yeah, Bells Gable'.  And I said, 'Is it really that neat?' And she said, 'Yeah, it is really really pretty'.  So I said, 'well let's just drive past so I can see it before dinner'...........

On the way out to the chapel I continued to play dumb by asking Ash if she knew how to get there.  We eventually found our way and to our surprise (wink wink) the gate to the property was open!  We pulled in and saw a pretty little chapel...

Always trying to be adventurous I said, 'I wonder if the chapel is unlocked...maybe we can look inside'.  To which Ash said, 'I think we might be trespassing'.  I said, 'let's try to go in'.  Fortunately, Ashley played along and walked up to the door with me.  When I opened the door (which just so happened to be at dusk with the sunset coming through the stain glass windows) we saw all the candles lit.  This is the point where Ash started to get a little suspicious.  We walked inside and I played dumb for a few seconds longer until we were up front near the altar.

BTW, these pictures were taken a week later when we revisited so they don't capture all the beauty...but most of it.

At this point in the story there is a small gap because we were both so excited and nervous and happy that I forget some of the stuff I said (what I do remember having said will be just our memories).  But at the end of it all I asked her to marry me.  She said YES! And then I remembered I hadn't shown her a ring.  And she loved it!  And we are both super happy.

The above photo was the only pic we thought to take that evening.






So that is the story or how two lovebirds got engaged.  We loved the chapel so much that we decided to have our wedding there as well (details to follow).

We hope you enjoyed the story and we are thankful for all of you and your support. 

This super sweet love story blog post coincidentally is being written on our 3 year anniversary.  It was three years ago tonight that I met a beautiful little southern belle named Ashley.  And she met a tall, handsome (her word, I was thinking brute was a better descriptive) fella from Ohio.

Looking forward to seeing all of you when the wedding bells ring! If not sooner!

Kegging, A New Frontier

There isn't anything I can say to excuse my absence on this blog.  Life in NWA has been very busy and I lack the discipline required to keep this space updated.  I haven't brewed since the end of April, but in 2012 alone I have brewed 10 batches of beer.  I will try to post a short blog at some point with a photo of each brew but here is a short list to refresh your memory:

1. Hoppy New Year/2Heart2 (India Pale Ale)
2. Muhleisen Pilsener (German Pilsener)
3. Pig Trail Ale 2 (American Brown Ale)
4. Willie's Helles Yeah (German Helles Lager)
5. Big Boozy Baltic Porter (Baltic Porter)
6. Wedding Brew (Split batch for two different fermentations to make an amber ale and an amber steam)
7. Muhleisen All-grain Double Decocted Oktoberfest (German Oktoberfest)
8. Muhleisen Extract Oktoberfest (German Oktoberfest)
9. Steinau Weissbier/Muhleisen Hefeweizen (German Hefeweizen)
10. California Common (California Common) <---wasn't feeling creative to come up with a neat name

All of these beers, except for my Oktoberfests, have had their final packaging into bottles.  I recently bought some kegs and decided that I would keg my German Oktoberfests for an Oktoberfest party to be had this fall.

Kegging is a new frontier and one that scares me a little (a dirty bottle affects 12 oz of a 5 gallon batch).  A dirty keg ruins all 5 gallons.  My cleanliness and sanitation has been on point recently and I think I have nothing to worry about.

The kegging process (aside form ensuring a clean keg) is super straightforward.  Siphon the beer into the keg and pressurize.  There are some finer points but that is basically it.  Below are some pics in the process.

This is me kegging the 'All-grain' batch.  Looked exactly the same for the extract batch.

I will discuss the differences in more detail below but check out the color difference between the two batches.

Putting the pressure on the kegs.

 As evident from the photos, my brewing hobby has transitioned to Ashley's house.  I recently moved out of my house and into a one bedroom apartment that cannot support all of my equipment.  Anyways, the two batches of beer are really vastly different.   I won't say which is which in the photo above, but even the flavors and aromas are different.  I would say they are both true to style for an Okto but just different within those style parameters.

It will be interesting to see how these beers age in the keg.  I will take great joy in forcing my friends and family into picking their favorite between the two after a blind taste test.  They will both be good, but they are bound to divide the masses.

I welcome all who read/follow my blog to be at Ashley's house on September 22, 2012.  There will be two Oktoberfests and probably a Hefeweizen on tap for the occasion.  Soft pretzels, bratwurst, potato salad, German polka records.  Who wouldn't want to be there?  RSVP.

Oktoberfest - The Pinnacle of Lager Season

Well its over and done. The Muhleisen Oktoberfest/Marzen is now sitting in the fridge on the verge of fermentation.  The past 8 hours have been a battle for the brew.  Here's how it all unfolded.

Oktoberfest beer is by far my favorite style of beer.  Flavor wise it is just a straight up malty lager with no 'in your face' or 'funky' flavors.  The reason I enjoy it so much is from a combination of sensory combinations.  Fall begins to roll into the US and the air takes a turn from hot and humid to warm/cool and dry.  The smell of autumn sets in air and the leaves that are green turn to brown.  When I first started brewing beer in August of 2008 I had just started my journey on craft beer.  I found myself fascinated with the delicious German Oktoberfests from Paulaner, Spaten, Ayinger and an American Craft Oktoberfest from Great Lakes Brewing Company.  I remember sitting on my parents deck one early autumn evening and eating dinner whilst quaffing on some of these fine brews.  I was hooked.  Every September/October I get reignited for a delicious Oktoberfest beer. I also love drinking these beers from big 1 litre mugs while singing German songs, but that is a separate blog post.

Even though its my favorite style, of the 3 dozen odd batches of beer I have brewed I have yet to brew an Oktoberfest.  So today was the day.  The weather is beginning to warm and soon I will have to decrease my brewery output as the hot days of summer come back to Arkansas.

Here was my recipe:

4# German Pilsener
3.5# Munich Malt
2.5# Vienna Malt
0.5# Crystal 60
0.5# Carafa45
Preboil Gravity (7.5 gallons) ~1.045
OG (6 gallons) ~1.056

90 minute boil
1.1 oz. Hallertau (5.7% AA) at 60 min
0.4 0z. Hallertau (5.7% AA) at 20 min

Water was a 50% dilution of Mountain Valley Spring Water and distilled water.  Approximately 3 grams of CaCl added with 2 grams of CaSO4 to bring the alkalinity in check and add needed minerals.

Yeast was White Labs Oktoberfest Lager yeast off a 2 stage starter to achieve roughly 400 billion cell count.

The mash was 'Hochkurz Double Decoction'.  Hochkurz roughly means 'HighShort' in German and this approach employs two different saccharification rests with decoction to raise between the first and second sacc temps and then a second (decoction) to raise the mash to mash-out temp.  I won't bore anyone with details but my fist rest was at roughly 145F and my second rest was at 158F.  I hit 85% brewhouse efficiency and the decoction boils should add a nice malty backbone to the final product.


Decoction brewdays are much more hectic than the average infusion mash brewday.  Therefore I don't have a bunch of pics.  But here are some action shots:

The aftermath of the decoction.  I did the majority of it on the stove (the decoctions were small [7 quarts] because of the small temperature increases needed).

Boil boil boil boil.

Was happy to hit my gravity goal.  I also really like the color.

The sweet sweet wort is making its way to the fermentor.

The sweet sweet wort has been inoculated with the yeasties and well aerated.

 

So as excited as I am for this beer, it is going to take patience.  I want to do this the way that the Germans intended for this beer.  They would brew this beer in March and lager it in caves in the summer months before enjoying it in the fall.  The history is a little blurry but it was called Oktoberfest beer after 1810 when these beers were brewed specially for a celebration of a Prince/Princess wedding.  


Long story short.  I'm going to ferment this beer for 3 weeks and lager for 6 weeks.  Then I will bottle it, let it condition, then put it back in the fridge to sit, and sit, and sit.  In late September I will bake pretzels, grill brats, and enjoy this beer with my brewthers and brewisters.


Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this beer rocks!

Willie's Helles Lager, Big Bad Baltic Porter, and some Hoppy Ale Updates

So as usual I have procrastinated on my brewing updates.  Unfortunately this won't be a long post for two reasons:

1. I took crappy notes when I brewed Willie's Helles Lager so that will be a paragraph and pictures.
2. My Baltic Porter was a complete last minute decision (decided yesterday to brew it today) so I am writing this blog not three hours removed from pitching the yeast and I am tired and not in the mood to type as much as usual.

Willie's Helles is a lager recipe I got from my brother Willie.  I won't even go into details on the recipe instead I will direct you to his blog post where he discusses making it, click here. The only difference between his recipe and my attempt was water and a decoction mash.  This was my first try at a decoction mash and I can safely say that I won't be making it a habit.  It was a lot of work!  I got to break in brother Mark's gift of a brew paddle for all the intense decoction boils.  The brewday went relatively smoothly but I was so busy decocting that I hardly took notes or got pics.  It has been three weeks since I brewed and I racked it to secondary yesterday.  OG of 1.069 to a racking gravity of 1.017.  It was sweeter that I had hoped in an odd 'macro' corn way.  I hope some time in secondary mellows it out and brings the gravity down another point or two to dry it up.

Stir the mash

Stir the decoction

Still stir the decoction

The spent grain looks a little more spent after a decoction mash

Racking from primary to secondary.

So Willie's lager was fermented with the same German Lager yeast I used for my German Pils (which I will be bottling in a week).  I wanted to resuse the yeast one last time before throwing it out and I thought I better go big or go home.

So I brewed a Baltic Porter.  Originally I was aiming for a 3 gallon batch at 1.090 OG.  But then I got carried away.  More on that later.  Here is the recipe:

7.5# Munich
5# German Pilsner
0.5# Crystal 60L
0.5# Belgian Special 'B'
6 oz. Debittered Black Malt
0.25# Chocolate Malt

1# Light DME added to preboil volume.

3.5oz of Czech Saaz (3.0 AA) at 60 min
1.3oz of Czech Saaz (3.0 AA) at 15 min

With my original intentions of a 3 gallon batch I decided to try my hand at a 'Brew-in-a-Bag' method of brewing.  This is basically an easier way to do all-grain brewing with the trade-off being slightly lower efficiency and typically smaller batch sizes.  The concept is easy, put your grains in bag and soak them in water at the appropriate temp (think super big tea bag steeping) for an hour before draining off the grain and proceeding with brewday as usual.  I decided to make it more complicated.  I couldn't handle the idea of a lower efficiency (mainly because I didn't plan for it in my grain bill) so I decided to insert my copper manifold under my grain bag so that I could sparge extra sugars off the grain into the boil kettle.  What I ended up with was 8.5 gallons of wort that when boiled to 4.25 gallons (50% reduction yikes!) would yield the desired 1.090 OG.  But then I figured 'what the heck' and added the aforementioned pound of light dry malt extract to boost me to a projected 4.25 gallons at 1.100 OG.  INSANE!

Obviously the longest part of this brewday was the boil.  It took about 2 hours to boil the wort down to a point where I could start the hop additions and proceed with brewday.

I hit my targets and the beer is currently sitting in my fridge at 53F and will stay there for at least a couple of weeks before I bring it out to room temp to finish fermentation.  Sorry for the lack of pics...it was another busy brewday and my pretty little helper wasn't here to snap pics.

Grains. In a bag.

Bag of grains.  In a pot of hot water.

Racking the sweet sweet wort to the primary fermentor.

So for new brews that's all the news I have.  The two ales I have brewed this year (Two Hearted Ale Clone and Pig Trail Ale 2) have been in the bottle for a few weeks now and this weekend I got to give them a taste.  I won't offer too much of my opinion but all in all I am quite happy with how these turned out.  I am interested to see what my brewin brothers and sisters think of them next time we Skype.

PTA2 on the left.  2<3 2 on the right.

With all the busy business of this past weekend I even had time to run my truck through a car wash....she needed a bath!

I hope you enjoyed the post.  Talk to you all soon!

An India Pale Ale, A German Pilsener, and An Amercian Brown Ale all walk into a bar....

LONG POST ALERT!  SETTLE IN!


So as per my latest post I have some big brewing updates to share.  As I type this my hoppy brown 'Pig Trail Ale' is in the mash tun.  By the end of this post the brew will be happily in a fermentor. 

PINNAC-ALE #2
I brewed the IPA two weeks ago but never shared much detail.  It is yet another brew from my Columbus days that I had to retry (Mark and I screwed up the last batch and I felt the need to redeem).  Here is the recipe:

10# American 2 Row
2# Vienna
0.5# Carapils Dextrin
0.5# Crystal 20L

Mash at 150F for 60 minutes

1.2 oz of Centennial (8.7%AA) at 60 minutes
1.2 oz of Centennial (8.7%AA) at 15 minutes
1.2 oz of Centennial (8.7%AA) at 5 minutes
1.2 oz of Centennial (8.7%AA) at 0 minutes
1.2 oz of Centennial (8.7%AA) dry (added in secondary)

I used the standard White Labs California Ale yeast from a simple starter.  The water from this brew is an interesting story but I will keep it short and sweet.  A co-worker owns about 300 acres of farm-land east of town and he has several springs of delicious water.  I decided to use this water but I guessed it would be highly alkaline (due to abundance of limestone on property).  So to the 11 gallons of water I added approximately 3 tsp. of gypsum.  The gypsum would lower the mash pH into the appropriate range while adding sulfate for hop bitterness.

This beer is currently in secondary and I have yet to have a taste....it is very cloudy so that does not give me complete confidence....but it should be okay.  Will get a taste in about a week when I go to bottle it (this is where Mark and I screwed it up last time).

MUHLEISEN PILS
Yesterday I had plans to have a double brew day.  But after waking up late and getting started late, I only had time to brew my pilsener (first lager of the season!).  This brew went pretty flawless and as I type this it is filling up my fridge with the horrid aroma of sulfer (good from a lager fermentation perspective).  This aroma will give way to cleaner fermenation aromas in once primary winds down.  Here are the details of the brew:

11# of German Pilsener Malt

Mash at 147F for 90 minutes

1.1 oz Perle (7.5%AA) for 60 minutes
0.35 oz Hallertau (5.7%AA) for 15 minutes
0.35 oz Hallertau (5.7%AA) for 1 minute
(90 minute boil)

I used a healthy dose of White Labs German Lager yeast to get this party started.  My water situation was the most interesting aspect of brewday.  I used Mountain Valley Spring Water at a 2 to 3 ratio with distilled water.  The distilled water cut the high alkalinity for this super pale brew.  I also added a teaspoon of Gypsum and teaspoon of Calcium Chloride per 5 gallons of water.  This further balanced the alkalinity and added sulfate to accentuate hops and chloride to accentuate malt.  I am excited to see how this brew progresses.

My last Muhleisen Vienna Lager.  This was the first lager my twink and I brewed together.  A year after brewday, it was a delicious way to start another lager brewday!

My Pils recipe is supposed to be a good clone of Bitburger, so I bought a six pack to do my research.  I will be pleased if mine turns out similar.

I have been noticing that my copper manifold has been brighter than usual after the mash...may pH must be improving (hopefully).

Totally random photo but I thought the setting night sky was rather lovely.

Pale Beer.

AMERICAN BROWN ALE (Pig Trail Ale #2)
So my first batch of this dark elixir turned out a little too tart and fruity form its hot fermentation (~75F).  I also think I way underpitched the yeast and the brew never recovered from distracting off flavors.  It still turned out quaffable, but not what I was looking for.  I won't bore you with the ingredients and activity again, you can reference my first post to this brew for the details.  But a few things did change:

I am repitching a healthy and high-population yeast slurry from the aforementioned IPA.  This should handle the underpitching woes from batch #1.  I also got a better handle on my water chemistry.  The water in this area is highly alkaline without high counts of the more important brewing salts.  This water probably makes killer english browns, porters, and stouts.  But for American brews I don't think it cuts it.  Using straight Mountain Valley Spring Water I also added approximately 2 grams of Gypsum, 1 gram of CaCO3 (chalk), and 1.5 grams of Calcium Chloride to every 6 gallons (6 gallon mash, 6 gallon sparge).  This will add sulfate and chloride for a good malt and hop punch while balancing the alkalinity to yield a good mash pH.  The final thing that will make this PTA an improvement over last is the lower fermentation temps.  My house is rockin at 63F which will yield a nice steady 67F inside the carboy at peak fermentation.  Once peak primary is over, I will slowly raise the temp in the house to keep a consistent 67F for the brew.  This will also be dry hopped in secondary and should be ready to taste as early as a month from now!

Hit my pitching gravity.  And then I hit that coca-cola!

Ready to blow-off some krausen.

 

AND THEY ALL ORDERED A WEE HEAVY SCOTTISH ALE

This is an update to the Scot I brewed in October.  It has been in the bottle for a little over a month now and it gets better every day.  My brewthers and brewisters are hankering for a taste but I am procrastinating cuz I don't think its ready.  This was a high gravity brew that had a cool fermentation.  It tastes about how I thought it would, but I can tell it still has a lot of improvement ahead.  All bottles are aging in the fridge and a month from now it will be better.  I actually think it will be at its prime around May or June, just when it is getting too hot outside to enjoy the caramel maltiness.  That's alright, I am going to keep some for Christmas 2012 and it is sure to be a real pleaser then!

Alright, that was a long post, but I was making up for lost time.  I hope all of you who have read this far were entertained. I also hope you are all well and happy in this crazy little thing called life!  Stay tuned for more lagers!  I'll give you a hint for what's next.  I learned it from brewther Willie..........................'Helles Yeah!'

Update Way Overdue

Friends, Family, Brewers,

Our blog has fallen to the way side.  I will be working over the next couple of weeks to revive it.  The last post was the Scottish Ale Brewday.  That Scott is getting better with time and I think in another 4 weeks it will be stellar. I will be sending it out to my brewthers and brewisters hopefully this week...I'm excited to share.

I am about to go on a brewing rampage.  It's lager season!  Last weekend I brewed an IPA and this upcoming weekend I am starting a lager series.  I am going to start with a German style Pilsener, then proceed to a Helles/Dortmund style brew.  After that I am not sure what I will brew but my 4th lager will be my favorite style of beer, Oktoberfest.  I'm hoping to have a whole bunch of brew lagering away in a couple of short months.

Somewhere in between all of this lager activity, I am going to rebrew my very first all-grain Arkansas batch, the Pig Trail Ale (Hoppy Brown Ale).  The water in this area is best for darker beers and since I love malt and hops, I think this is going to be my standard brew that I am going to perfect.  I was not thrilled with my first batch of this and know this next batch will be a huge improvement!

Anyways, my next post will have some picks of the IPA brewday and a tasting of the Scottish.

Until then, have a brew for me and a wine for Ash (or a drink of your choice if you abstain from alcohol)!