Drink: Syrah Wine Adventure

I received a text from my brother a little while ago that went something along the lines as, "Dude... I just bought a ton of grapes. The logistics of me doing this myself isn't going to work". I offered my services. We got the flight figured out and before I knew it, I was in Seattle. 

Next challenge, how do we get these grapes? We didn't have a truck. How do we get, A TON, of grapes? Finally, Joe squared away a vehicle. This...

A 24 foot diesel box truck.

Good thing touring and moving has prepared me for that. So next up, the 3 hour drive to Yakima Valley to get the grapes! It was an amazing drive with great views most of the time so I didn't mind. We got to Red Mountain AVA and picked up our NOW 1.5 tons of Syrah and Petite Syrah grapes. 

We get back to Seattle and get stuff ready for the next day of wine making. In between all of this we went to some amazing restaurants, I got to drive a Porsche, and we drank copious amounts of beer. Fast-forward to the next day and we start! We started extremely early with the sanitizing with some good ol' Star San and PBW. If you don't have these things, get them. I think we cracked our first beer before 9AM. 

It was a blast and if we didn't have the equipment we had, I think it would've been the most miserable experience of my life. We definitely need to figure out some of the logistics next year to simplify carrying 1.5 tons of grapes. I also didn't have to worry to much about the science behind it because my brother and his wife had that covered. 

I was never a huge wine fan until this weekend. It opened my eyes (taste buds I guess) up to a whole new world. I wish I could help out with all of the other steps along the way, but my brother has that covered. He will be racking to French Oak barrels for about 9 months before bottling. The Syrah has fermented much faster than the Petite Syrah. I think he is shooting for a 16.5% ABV on the Syrah and about 14.5% on the Petite Syrah. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine. We'll see! I'm very excited to taste this once it is done. It's supposed to yield around 140 gallons of wine.

Beer: Hoppy Brown (Disaster) Ale

A while ago I tried a beer by Banner Beer Company called "Run to Equinox". What is it? A hoppy brown ale. It was pretty good. It didn't blow me away, but it was pretty good. So what did I do? Go on the search for some more hoppy brown ales. The search was, well, not that successful. The only other that I found in the area was Smuttynose's "Durty" which is now called "Mud Season". So what does a homebrewer do if they cannot find the beer they want to drink? Find or formulate a recipe and brew it.

After much research, everyone seemed to base their recipe off of Janet's Hoppy Brown Ale. Must be good then right? So I did the same thing. Tweaked a couple of things but overall kept it close to the same.

We called it the "Hoppy Brown Disaster" because pretty much every step of the way, something went wrong. When draining into the fermentation bucket, the hops blocked the drainage. When fermenting, the temperature somehow jumped to 82°F even thought it was cool out. When transferring from secondary to the bottling bucket, the hops clogged and broke the auto-siphon wand. You get where I'm going. It was a disaster. Other than the fruity esters from the high temps, it came out great! 

The only difference from this recipe and the final is that the OG was 1.069 and the FG was at about 1.009 after the yeast went insane cause of the high temperature. So the final ABV was around 7.9%. I was okay with that. I also decided to use whole cone dried hops last minute to try them out. Needless to say, I wasn't a huge fan because I didn't account for water consumption. You live and learn!

Original Gravity:

1.068

Final Gravity:

1.016

ABV (standard):

6.89%

IBU (tinseth):

81.92

SRM (morey):

30.84

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
10 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	64.5%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 40L	34	40	6.5%
1 lb	American - Chocolate	29	350	6.5%
1 lb	American - Wheat	38	1.8	6.5%
1 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	6.5%
1 lb	Rice Hulls	0	0	6.5%
0.5 lb	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	3.2%
15.5 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Mash		5.78
0.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Boil	60 min	18.59
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	15 min	14.39
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	10 min	14.15
1.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	0 min
1.5 oz	Centennial	Pellet	10	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
4.5 gal	Brings it to 150F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.5 gal	Brings it to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min

Yeast

Danstar - Nottingham Ale Yeast

Attenuation (avg): 77% Flocculation: High Optimum Temp: 57 - 70 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 72 °F Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 110 B cells required

Beer: Northern Pale Ale

Last year my friends and I were at the brew store. I don't quite remember how it happened but Phil got a whiff of a specific hop called Northern Brewer and his face lit up like a little kid in a candy store. "We must brew a beer with this hop" he says. So, I came up with an extract recipe and we brewed, transferred, and bottled. It was a very drinkable pale ale that was almost an IPA. People that didn't like IPA's seemed to like it because of how light it was.

I entered it into a competition and got some great feedback on it's flaws and weaknesses. Surprisingly it got a 27 out of a 50 which I thought was very modest.

With these improvements, which included adding more hops to balance the overall malt heaviness, I tweaked the recipe. This time it was an all-grain recipe. We were very excited to rebrew this one. 

The new one definitely had way more flavor and was more well rounded than the extract recipe. Success! It is a really good mild West Coast IPA. There is a great grapefruit taste and overall citrusy. But for some reason, I just wasn't satisfied. We're not on the West Coast. I feel like being over here, I wanted to brew the what I call it "New England IPA". This great wave of IPA's coming through here is incredible. 3 notable mentions include: Tree House Brewing Co. - Julius, Hill Farmstead Brewery - Abner, and The Alchemist - Heady Topper. Recipe and brew day coming soon for that one!

So, overall... GREAT IPA. Below will be the recipe so you can give it a shot! It's a solid 6% as well. Cheers, and good luck! 

Original Gravity:

1.065

Final Gravity:

1.018

ABV (standard):

6.19%

IBU (tinseth):

68.03

SRM (morey):

6.81

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
11 lb	American - Pale 2-Row	37	1.8	80%
1 lb	American - Vienna	35	4	7.3%
0.5 lb	German - Carapils	35	1.3	3.6%
1 lb	American - Caramel / Crystal 20L	35	20	7.3%
4 oz	American - Smoked Malt	37	5	1.8%
13.75 lb	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	60 min	29.55
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	30 min	10.19
1 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	30 min	22.71
0.5 oz	Cascade	Pellet	7	Boil	5 min	2.64
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Boil	5 min	2.95
0.5 oz	Northern Brewer	Pellet	7.8	Dry Hop	7 days

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
5.2 gal	To bring up to 152F	Sparge	165 F	60 min
3.6 gal	To bring up to 175F	Sparge	212 F	10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.5 qt/lb

Other Ingredients

Amount	Name	Type	Use	Time
1 tsp	Gypsum	Water Agt	Boil	60 min
1 each	Whirfloc	Water Agt	Boil	15 min

Yeast

Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Attenuation (avg): 72% Flocculation: Medium Optimum Temp: 59 - 75 °F Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 68 °F Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / ° P) 105 B cells required

Notes

$35.20

Bring first mashing in to 175F and let sit in tun to warm it up. Wait 10 minutes or so until it is at 165F and dough in.

Once cooled down, whirlpool wort to seperate hop particles and trub. Let sit for at least an hour COVERED. Let cold break.

Beer: Apple Pie Beer (Update)

Last night Kyle and I transferred the Apple Pie Ale. Let me tell you, the young beer tasted delightful. Last year when we brewed it we used McCormick Cinnamon Sticks which, well are pretty much fake and pumped with artificial flavors of cinnamon. This year we used real cinnamon and Tahitian vanilla beans. The gravity was exactly where I wanted it. Well, I mean after the unfortunate event of not having enough grain to get to a OG of 1.080 and instead hit 1.055. The gravity was about 1.011 which puts the beer at a 5.78% ABV.

The equation used to get the ABV is simple:
ABV = (og – fg) * 131.25

Food: Steak

Today will be a simple post. I love cooking steak. I mean, I look forward to it all day if I know I am cooking it later. A while back I stumbled upon this website. Go there. Research. It'll make you cook a better steak. All I can say is, salt. It heightens so many flavors. Cheers.

Beer: Belgian Quad Bottling Disaster...

Last night I decided to bottle the Quadrupel that had been sitting in my basement since oh, February maybe? I have been afraid to bottle this because of the yeast and sugar I am adding at bottling, I was afraid of bottle bombs. My buddy Ryan bought bottles for us which was amazing! A while back I went to Strange Brew in Marlborough because I was in the area to look for some corks, a corker, bottle ties, and yeast. I needed some advice because I had never done this before. I asked a million times if this small red corker would do the trick on some Belgian bottles. I was assured over and over that it would...

Fast forward to last night and, well it did not do the trick.

Of course I didn't check to see if it worked before I sanitized EVERYTHING and transferred EVERYTHING to the bottling bucket. I tried my hardest to jam that guy in there and no go. My hands actually have blisters on them today. Well, to be fair I also assembled most of the chairs for our brand new 11 foot dining room table so that may have something to do with it as well. So here I am, freaking out because I don't want my precious beer that had been aging for over 6 months to spoil. Then my wife calmly just says, "Text Pat. He definitely has one". Genius. He also works at Homebrew Emporium over in West Boylston where I get all of my ingredients. The place is amazing. 

I text Pat and get the BEST response ever. 

I drive over to his homestead, pick up the beast and get back to bottling. And when I say beast, I mean beast.

All bottled, corked, and caged. Ready to rock. I can't wait to drink this one.

So moral of the story? Definitely check everything before you get too far ahead. I usually do because I am super OCD when it comes to this type stuff. I wasn't thinking and was very excited to finally get this bottled. Oh well! Crisis averted thanks to Pat! Cheers.

Drink: Armeno Coffee Roasters, Ltd.

The other day I realized I was wasting way too much money buying coffee everyday ($2.65 a day and roughly $80 a month) at Dunkin Donuts. Yes, I know. It's not good coffee. It was just easy for me to grab on my way to work. I decided it was time to stop being lazy and make my coffee in the morning. So what did I do? I reached out on the Book of Faces (Facebook) and asked if anyone knew of a good place to pick up some good quality coffee.

My buddy Reuben recommended a place called Armeno Coffee Roasters, Ltd. in Northborough, MA. I decided to head over there after work and check it out. The minute I walked in, I was pleasantly greeted by whom I assume is the owner and helped me with any question I had. They had EXACTLY what I was looking for which was a pretty obscure coffee bean called Monsooned Malabar. After browsing a little bit Puerto Rico Hacienda San Pedro 360 Reserva also caught my eye.

After I made my decisions the owner showed me around and I got to see the whole process. It was very neat. I got to see the green beans before they are roasted. I am definitely going to be going there whenever I need coffee from now on and I highly suggest you do too.

Beer: Tree House Brewing Co.

So, in our quest to create the perfect IPA, what do us brewers do? Research. And what does research entail when you brew beer? Drink beer. Rough life isn't it? The Ourbeer crew and I will be heading over to Tree House Brewing Co. in Monson, MA on Thursday to get our hands on some delightful "Julius". They will also have "Ma" on tap as well which is a Hoppy Amber Ale.

What is Julius? Well it is described by Tree House as:
"(American IPA - 6.8% ABV) - Bursting with pungent American hops, Julius, our American IPA, is loaded with notes of passionfruit, mango, and citrus. A soft, pillowy mouthfeel and rounded bitterness makes Julius very, very easy to drink. You've been warned!"

All I can think about when I see this beauty is, "Would you just look at it?"

The first time I went there with my buddy Senecal, I was blown away. They were extremely humble and you just felt like you were part of something right when you walked through those doors. Yes, the wait is long. But in the end of the day, it is well worth it. I will be writing a follow up post to review and let you know how the excursion went. In the meantime, cheers!

Food: Slow Cooker Pork Chops

I bought pork chops for dinner but really did not have a recipe in mind. I just wanted pork. So last night as I was going to bed I searched for a recipe. I decided I wanted to do something in the crock pot so that I didn't have to do much when I got home. After going through many different kinds of pork chops recipes, I finally found one. Since I didn't have some things and wanted to make it a bit my own, I tweaked it a little like I always do. Here is the recipe!

Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes
Prep: 10 minutes
Inactive: 8 hours
Cook: 8 hours
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
4 thick cut boneless pork chops
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, chicken broth, garlic, paprika, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, and basil. Pour into the slow cooker. Cut small slits in each pork chop with the tip of a knife, and season with salt and pepper. Place pork chops into the slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for 8 hours.

Don't forget, relax and have a beer!

Food: Chicken Fried x 3

A couple of months ago, I forgot to get Frank's Red Hot. This has been our "go-to" chicken wing meal for 7 years. We panicked and I looked all over the house for a solution. What to do... what to do. The Internet will save us! I found a recipe online for a Puerto Rican style chicken wing recipe called "Chicken Wings in Escabeche Sauce". I didn't have the ingredients for the sauce, so I just made my version of the chicken wing.

What is it? It is chicken wings that are breaded in delicious spices and triple fried. Yes, you heard me correctly... TRIPLE fried. It's not as time consuming as it sounds and can be done in very little time. So here it is! And don't forget, grab a beer and have fun! I did...

Total Time: 40 Minutes
Prep: 10 Minutes
Inactive: 10 Minutes
Cook: 20 Minutes
Yield: 10 Chicken Wings (I can eat 10 myself... so you can up the ingredients as need be)

Ingredients
2 lbs chicken wings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cup flour
2 envelopes sazon
1 tablespoon adobo
1 tablespoon pepper

Directions
Rinse chicken wings under warm water, pat dry. Toss chicken wings with olive oil, salt and garlic powder, set aside.

In a dutch oven or heavy pot heat enough oil to cover chicken to 400 degrees.

While the oil heats combine flour, adobo, sazon and pepper in bowl with chicken. Stir or shake the bowl to coat all of the chicken.

When oil reaches 400 degrees, fry chicken wings for 3 minutes. If all the wings don't fit you will have to fry them in batches. Remove from oil and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Lower the heat of the oil to 300 degrees, return all the wings back in the pot, cover and fry for 10 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain in paper towel lined plate.

Raise the heat again to 400 degrees, fry until dark golden brown, without burning. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towel lined plate.