BrewLocal

Kvass and a Transition

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 15:59:00 +0000

We were recently interviewed by our friends at Basic Brewing Radio in support of the article and a link to the audio stream is below:

Streaming mp3

For more of our writing read Nathan's DesJardin Brewing and Mike's The Mad Fermentationist.

Apologies for our long silence. We've got a long article on kvass in the current (Dec.) issue of Brew Your Own magazine on the kvass we brewed with Scott Smith at East End Brewing Co. in Pittsburgh. This article is a transition of the BrewLocal good beer-travelogue-apprenticeship-oral history spirit into print and we'd encourage folks to let Chris Colby, the editor at BYO, know if it's something you enjoy and would like to continue to see in print (really lay it on thick, let's bury the guy with e-mail). These trips are great fun, and wholly inspiring, and we're working hard on lining up some more good'ens.

Interview with Bill Madden of Mad Fox Brewing Co.

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:01:00 +0000

Bill Madden will very excitedly be opening his new brewpub Mad Fox Brewing Co. soon and in preparation for the opening we sat down with him for a relaxed and informative interview covering a lot of territory.

Best of luck Bill...sure we'll be seeing a lot of you at the new place.

Audio

Mad Fox Brewing Co. Preview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:51:00 +0000

A few weeks back, local brewing legend Bill Madden was kind enough to have us around to the current construction site that is his soon-to-be-open dream brewpub Mad Fox Brewing Co. (an amalgamation of his and his wife's last names) in Falls Church, VA. Bill has a reputation as a craftsman brewer, producing flawless award winning beer: a stalwart of the local brewing scene, having run brewing operations at Capitol City Brewing Co., the short lived Founders (Alexandria, VA) and Vintage 50.

Bill is the definition of a community minded brewer, having organized local beer festivals for years, and is intimately linked with the local, long established, homebrewing club Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP), where he met his wife, his business partner for Mad Fox, and many of his most loyal customers. He sees his main role at Mad Fox as not only head brewer, but as a "European publican", a sort of approachable man of the house who will cajole you with a story and coddle you with a pint.

Bill got to work from a blank slate with Mad Fox: a huge modern space in which he could build to his specs, including a brand new 15 BBL brewhouse from Premier Stainless Systems, (6) 30 BBL fermentors, and (7) 15 BBL serving tanks . Everything is in it's right place, and there is plenty room for storage of cooperage and materials.

Bill has planned an ambitious cask program, having ordered 6 traditional handpumps and 50 casks from UK Brewing Supplies in Pennsylvania. His idea is to practice proper cask cellarmanship, keeping 3 casks pouring at all time with the remaining 3 available on-deck, properly settled, vented, and ready when needed.

We were excited to hear Bill has big plans for barrel aging and experimenting with wild fermentations. He hasn't had the opportunity to delve into the wild in any of his former positions and is chomping at the bit. He has curtained off space for barrels and is building in dedicated pipes to carry beer to-and-from the brewhouse to the barrel room.

Bill has garnered much acclaim for 2 beers in particular that have become his signature: A very traditional, impeccably drinkable Kolsch, and a brawny Wee Heavy that is built to age (and we'd imagine will be a candidate to see the inside of one of those barrels). Along with these staples, he has conceived a seasonal beer board that will allow room for variations on key beer themes of color and body, and he will continue his tradition of stealth beers for those in the know.

Bill gave us a walking audio tour of the construction site.

the future brewhouse

the stage, lounge area

brewers storage room (imagine casks and kegs stacked to the ceiling)

Bill and his beloved dumpster (he's paid his dues)

Bill recently had the brewhouse installed and we will have a broader interview with him up on the site shortly. It's going to be great having a new, ambitious brewpub in the metro area ( and just blocks from the Old Dominion Trail for us cyclists).

Stillwater Single

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Brian's version of a Belgian single has a solid malt bill with a solid amount of hops. Not sure if this recipe will ever be released as part of his commercial Stillwater Artisinal Ales, but it certainly looks like it would make a great summer seasonal to me.

Stillwater Single

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.13
Anticipated OG: 1.048
Anticipated SRM: 3.6
Anticipated IBU: 24.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
------
85.0% - 7.75 lbs. Pilsener
11.0% - 1.00 lbs. Wheat Malt
4.0% - 0.38 lbs. Munich Malt

Hops
------
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole, 3.40% AA) First Wort Hop
1.00 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh (Whole, 4.10% AA) 60 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole, 3.40% AA) 10 min.
0.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole, 3.40% AA) 0 min.
0.25 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh (Whole, 4.10% AA) 0 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend

Water Profile
--------------
Profile: Baltimore

Mash Schedule
----------------
Saccharification Rest Temp : 45 min @ 149

Notes
------
Sparge with 170 degree water

At Home with Stillwater Artisanal Ales

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:39:00 +0000

Brian Strumke is an East Baltimore native, ex-techno dj/producer and current Belgian beer fanatic. Michael had met up with him a few years back to talk homebrewing sours, but this time around we wanted to talk to Brian about Stillwater Artisanal Ales, his new commercial venture. So we headed up from DC to Baltimore after work to meet up with Brian at his house in Brewer's Hill, appropriately in the shadow of the old National Bohemian Brewery (Natty Boh). As an added bonus, noted Belgian beer expert, and Brian's East Baltimore neighbor, Chuck Cook joined us for the evening. Chuck told us a great story about how he smuggled a bottle of one of Brian's sours over to Belgium and into the hands of that godhead of Belgian beer arcanery Tim Webb, who when pressed to identify the beer, mistook it for one brewed at one of the tradition lambic houses.

Brian is one of the most passionate and naturally talented homebrewers we've encountered. He has won awards at both the NHC, with an extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignon Lambic, and at the Sam Adam's Longshot competition. He understands flavors and recipe development in a way that few homebrewers do, drawing on his music background and synesthesia to construct beers unlike any others you are likely to try. What strikes you most about his philosophy is his insistence upon doing things "right": the idea of the inauthentic (like adding lactic acid for a hint of tartness), or cutting corners with less expensive malt or hops horrifies him. As an example he had just secured a couple thousand dollars worth of hopback hops to increase the aromatics on future batches of Stateside Saison and he insists on bottle conditioning.

Brian has just bottled his first beer under the Stillwater banner at the Dog Brewing Co. in Westminster, Maryland. Brian's vision is for a travellin' brewer setup similar to Pretty Things, whom Brian had not heard of until just recently, in which he rents time, space and resources at an established brewery. This has allowed him to start brewing commercially for a much smaller cash outlay than it would have to buy the tanks and equipment necessary to start brewing from scratch. It also allows him the flexibility to brew a smaller amount of beer, or switch brewing facilities if a better situation comes along. He has also teamed up with 12% Imports which will be taking his beer all across the country with shallow/wide distribution. Brian hopes to complete against similar Belgian operations which are highly sought after, but hard to come by.

We started out the night by cracking his second bottle of the just produced Stillwater Stateside Saison. Brian had drank the first bottle earlier in the night after letting it sit for several days to settle, but with this second bottle he roused the yeast. He preferred the character of the bottle with the yeast mixed back into suspension and is considering adding that as a suggestion on the label (much as hefeweizen bottles do). We told him we'd help spread the word, so SHAKE WELL!!!

The beer was beautifully dry, (thanks to the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast strain sourced from one of our favorite's Brasserie Thiriez) with firm hops. Many American versions of the style don't come off as crisp and hoppy as a fresh example from Belgium; we're not sure if they are too low in IBUs or just not dry enough. The yeast influence was nice: lightly spicy, with complimentary fruit notes. Overall a great first commercial batch.

Nathan got the chance to try a special dry hopped cask of Stateside that was produced for Max's Belgian Fest a few weeks earlier; the dry hopping added an IPA-like, brashly American hop assault that changed the focus from the yeast derived flavors of the bottled version.

Next up we had samples of a test batch saison Brian had brewed that wasn't even finished fermenting when the 30 bbl batch of Stateside was brewed. It was a different beast entirely: with a bigger, fruitier hop nose (from more high alpha acid Nelson Sauvin hops than he was able to get for the big batch) and some definite Fantome style rustic qualities. It was an interesting beer, with more complexity, though not nearly as accessibly drinkable as the commercially produced version.

The other beer he had on tap was another one that he hopes to brew commercially some day: A Saison Darkly. It's a brooding beer with 7 malts, and 3 herbs, that still manages to find an elegant balance. We also indulged in a couple homebrews from Brian's cellar: including a gruit with nicely restrained herbs and a bit of funk, and a big, dark, Belgian sour with a delightful blue cheese funk that was just about perfect. Stepping down to his basement provided a magical mystery tour: low ceilings and crannies packed full of carboys and corked bottles full of homebrewed lambic aging on their sides.

It seems like Brian is getting off to a great start in fair weather, and we are looking forward to seeing what other interesting beers he comes out with...an imperial stout with coffee from a local roaster was mentioned as a possibility.

Interview with Steve Leason of Selin's Grove Brewing Co.

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:01:00 +0000

In this episode we speak with brewing polymath Steve Leason of Selin's Grove Brewing Co., in Selinsgrove, PA.

Audio

A Visit to Selin's Grove

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:26:00 +0000

The story of Selin's Grove Brewing Co. is the story of a couple of over-achieving, modern day beer-steaders. Steve Leason and his wife Heather McNabb opened Selin's Grove in 1996, at the peak of the second wave of the American Craft Beer Renaissance. They had started brewing together years before in a fisherman's shack on the Maine coast, where they worked as innkeepers. A journey out West, including a stint at the burgeoning New Belgium Brewing Co. in Ft. Collins, Colorado and an inspirational, slapdash trip to Belgium fomented their dream of opening Selin's Grove.

They jumped at the opportunity to house a brewpub in the basement of a very singular property Heather's parent's owned: PA's 3rd governor Simon Snyder's old stone retirement mansion, in the central PA town of Selinsgrove (pronounced CEE-LINS-GROVE). Built in 1816, and archivally preserved, the building is on the National Historic Register.

Heather and Steve have really put all of themselves into the business and it shows: a comfortable historic locale, good food, friendly community-minded service, beer done with an amazing care to detail. They are supported by a enthusiastic local following that had the staff filling up growlers non-stop while we were enjoying our lunch before talking to Steve. It's a lot of work supervising staff, keeping the tanks full, the books balanced and raising 3 young'ens in their apartment above the pub.

Stepping into the basement level Colonial era pub displaces time: dark wood, open hearths and candle glow. Certainly a contrast to most other brewpubs that are modern and bright, but it did make taking photos a bit more difficult.

Steve is really humble and easy going with a literate sense of humor. He comes off as a bit of a hermetic brewer: practical, studious, pseudo-mystic. It seems like every brewer we talk to has something else besides beer that also really gets them going: Steve's current obsession's are mycology and trail running. He didn't want to be recorded talking about a mushroom beer, but we will say when we asked he certainly seemed to have given it some thought in the past

The brewpub started with a patchwork 3 bbl system, that Steve and Heather cobbled together with their tight resources . The 3 barrel system drove Steve to his wit's end brewing constantly to keep up with demand. The upgrade to their current 7 bbl. system was a welcome and necessary investment that re-inspired Steve's brewing.

The brewhouse was relocated to a converted shed behind the pub allowing the brewing to take place at any time of the day, without space restraint (a feature I'm sure the guys at Bullfrog are jealous of). That said, it does require that all of their beer is kegged, and hauled to the pub: no easy serving tanks for their tap system.

Steve does a yeoman's job producing a broad range of beers with precision. He has a definite bent toward organic practices, with 3 organic beers on tap for our visit: Baltic Porter, Shade Mountain Oatmeal Stout (that he has been tweaking) and a really well executed Pilsner. Many of the organic beers we've encountered seem to leave a bit desired; not so at Selin's Grove. Steve has been happy with the quality and diversity of organic malts available, though he admits many organic hops from New Zealand and the US are behind the curve. He looks to Europe for organic hops.

Steve's Stealth Tripel was really exceptional, showing no higher alcohol flavors and lots of honied fruit. He uses a mix of Trappist yeasts: the "Bastogne" strain from Orval and Westmalle's strain to help the 9% abv beer attenuate.

Market Street Fest is a proper, long lagered (5 months), traditional marzen that relies on an extended boil for chewy melanoidins, eschewing the one-dimensional, caramel sweet marzens too often found in brewpubs that rely on excess specialty malts . It is rare to find a brewpub that does lagers this well, they require time and tank space that most small breweries are not willing to invest in.

Another excellent beer was the hop drowned SNAFU IPA. Steve uses judicious amounts of high alpha Amarillo and Simcoe (the same combination that seems to be dominating the IPA market these days) conjuring strong pine and resin, and well balanced with enough malt sweetness to support the booming bitterness. IPAs are all about freshness, and having one fresh, and properly handled at a brewpub is hard to beat.

Steve has a cultish following for his fruit beers. While we were there, they had Saison de Peche which can only be described as being a peach nectar of the gods. Steve let us in on one of the secrets to the success of his fruit beers, he adds fruit juice to the beer late in the process, at a point when the sugars and fresh flavor of the fruit are preserved into the beer in the glass. A friend recently cracked open a growler of Framboise he had hauled back from Selin's Grove and it had the same huge fruit preserves character as the Peche.

Steve has also garnered acclaim for his Pumpkin Ale. Serving it on nitro both gives it creamy mouthfeel and exclusivity (since it cannot be put into a growler). Crystal malt and a late dose of spices in secondary make it one of the top rated pumpkin beers in the country.

As we were winding down and preparing to leave, Steve ducked back behind the bar and reappeared with two glasses of a secret stash of 8 year old Russian Imperial Stout brewed for his son Owen's birth, that Steve hoped would last 'til Owen's 21st (Steve is thinking he'll be brewing another batch to bridge the gap). The space-black beer shows little signs of oxidation, remarkable bitter chocolate and dark fruit depth and drinkability. It's the only RIS Steve has produced and we're thinking of starting a petition to make it a regular seasonal.

Thanks to Heather and Steve for doing everything right.

Mike Hiller Dunkelweizen Recipe

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:20:00 +0000

Mike was nice enough to give us the recipe for the Bavarian Barbarian recipe that he has been the most pleased with so far (sadly it was long gone when we visited with him), Square Feet Wheat (his fall seasonal Dunkelweizen). I've included a good chunk of the text from his email followed by a distillation of the recipe from it because I think it is more interesting to hear why a brewer chooses to brew something in a specific way.

Malt Bill:
Pale Ale malt (keep it simple; it should just be a base grain and not a big deal in the flavor profile)

28% Wheat flakes or wheat malt (whatever you can get your hands on; kick it up to a full 1/3 of the malt bill if you're somehow anal about wheat beers HAVING to be 1/3 wheat)

19% Honey malt (the honey malt adds a nice, sweet, honey-like character that goes well with the clove esters you'll get from the yeast)

13% Caramel Munich 60L (backs up the sweetness of the honey malt and works with the Caramel Munich 120 for "dunkelness")

10% Munich light

2% Caramel Munich 120 (gives the beer the "dunkel" coloring without going overboard)

Hops:
"You can do whatever you want here, keeping in mind that the hops are absolutely not the dominant characteristic of this beer style. I like to stick to German noble hops for a level of authenticity."
Bittering: 1 oz. Tettnang
Flavoring: 1 oz. Hallertau
Aroma: 1 oz. Tettnang (10 minutes before end of boil)

"Again, lot's of variations you can do with the hops. Keep it floral and/or spicy and you'll be fine. And keep it simple. There's no need for a complex hop character in this beer style."

Yeast:
"If you can get your hands on a yeast strain originating from the Andechs Brewery in Germany, I highly recommend it. If not, try to find the best German or Bavarian Wheat or Weizen yeast you can get. You won't be sorry. The fermentation temperature should be kept on the lower end to produce more spicy characters like clove - between maybe 66 degrees and 68 degrees. You might actually produce some apple andpear esters, too. Banana might come out, but it'll be rather subtle - as it should be. Higher temps (between 68 and 72 degrees) will yield the fruitier esters like bananas and bubble gum which are better for hefeweizens. You're certainly welcome to do that - it's your fuckin' beer, do whatever you want."

"I hope this is the kind of thing you're looking for. I think I covered everything, but if there are any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. I strongly encourage experimentation in brewing - especially on the homebrew level, so please take this recipe as merely suggestion. Play with the damn thing. Use a Special B in place of the Caramel Munich 120 for example. Maybe punch up the caramel flavors and toss in a biscuit malt to make a more bready dunkelweizen. How about some chocolate malt? Whatever. Dunkelweizens have always been one of my favorite beer styles and it's wide open for various interpretations. Dunkelweizen means dark wheat, right? So as long as it's dark and has some wheat in it, you're pretty well able to do whatever the hell you want. Enjoy!"

Bavarian Barbarian Square Feet Wheat

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.38
Anticipated OG: 1.053
Anticipated SRM: 17.0
Anticipated IBU: 24.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 min

Grain
------
28.6% 3.25 lbs. Pale Malt
28.6% 3.25 lbs. Wheat Malt (or flaked wheat)
17.6% 2.00 lbs. Honey Malt
13.2% 1.50 lbs. CaraMunich 60
9.9% 1.125 lbs. Light Munich Malt
2.2% 0.25 lbs. CaraMunich 120 (or Special B)

Hops
------
1.00 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang (Whole 3.50% AA) 60 min.
1.00 oz. Hallertau Hersbrucker (Whole 4.00% AA) 20 min.
1.00 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang (Whole 3.50% AA) 10 min.

Yeast
-----
Andechs Brewery Weizen Strain (alternate: WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen, my favorite)

Mash Schedule
---------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 148

Notes
-------
Ferment between 66 and 68 degrees

"Square Feet Wheat for Fall/Winter has been released to the masses. This is a dunkelweizen of distinction. Fermented with a weizen yeast strain from the Andechs Brewery in Germany, Square Feet Wheat Dunkelweizen bears a taste of clove along with some fruity esters that include apples and pears. Heartier than a mere hefeweizen, this dunkelweizen is the perfect match for the Fall and Winter seasons as it boasts a 5.5% ABV and flavors that will complement holiday meals and desserts."

Mike Hiller Interview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:43:00 +0000

In this episode we speak with Mike Hiller, founder and headbrewer of

Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Co. in Williamsport, PA.

you can download the audio here.

An Afternoon with a Bavarian Barbarian

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Near the end of our early morning brew day at Bullfrog, Mike Hiller, founder and brewer of Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Company, walked in to drop off a sack of malt. We had been emailing with him to set up a time to talk, but hadn't settled on a anything yet. We agreed on early afternoon and ran back to the hotel for a quick nap before meeting up with him at his brewery just down the street.

Mike is a Williamsport, PA native as well as an ex-welder, actor and almost novelist. His first brewing job was at Legend Brewing Company in Richmond, VA. Legend produces a wide variety of fresh beer to a limited market at an affordable price, as an alternative to mass produced swill, which seems to have informed Mike's own business decisions.

Mike and his wife Kira run the whole operation: Mike is the brewer, salesman and delivery driver and Kira runs the business side of the operation. Mike takes a craftsman approach to both his brewing and his business: pragmatic and with forethought.

Bavarian Barbarian is the ideal local counter balance for the more out-there beers of Bullfrog. Mike strives to make his beers accessible, winning over Bud-Miller-Coors drinkers, while staying true to the fact that his aim is flavorful craft beer. His beer is also reasonably priced at $4 a bomber at the Wegman's around the corner.

It is always good for a small business of any type to get the locals involved in their business early. For a small brewery a loyal fan-base means free word of mouth advertising (the most reliable kind) and customer requests for your beer at local bars and beer stores.

Mike focuses on sessionable beers to pair with experiences, even if some of them are a bit higher in alcohol than the English tradition. His year-round beers are all the standards: brown, pale, IPA, stout. He adds onto these with seasonals like a dunkleweisse and a Brett spiked, spiced summer saison (with a yeast culture from Bullfrog).

Mike was inspired by Brewing Up a Business, the brewing autobiography of Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head. He meticulously worked on crafting a business plan for a long time, allowing him to raise the money needed to start the brewery. He purchased a big industrial space which gives him the room to expand when he outgrows his initial 10 barrel system, or when he wants to add a canning line. These days there is enough good beer available in most places that it takes more than good brewing skills to get a small brewery off the ground.

Mike is a committed locabeervore who preaches that PA is overflowing with amazing, well crafted beer, yet is inundated with alluring west coast labels that squeeze out the local fresh beer from shelves and taps: not that out-of-state beer doesn't deserve a place in your fridge or cellar, but more a case of missing the forest for the trees when it comes to supporting local beer.

BrewLocal, Buy Local, Drink Local...Ride Easy.

Terry Hawbaker's Recipe

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:34:00 +0000

"I just had to do something different this year instead of the same old cinnamon/ginger/christmas spice crap... did I say crap I meant beer" - Terry Hawbaker

CHOCOLATE-CHILE-CHRISTMAS-THINGY

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 20.60
Anticipated OG: 1.103
Anticipated SRM: 27.2
Anticipated IBU: 21.4
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Sugar
------------
82.5% - 17.00 lbs. Pale Malt
4.9% - 1.00 lbs. Munich Malt
2.4% - 0.50 lbs. Crystal 90L
1.2% - 0.25 lbs. Carafa III
1.2% - 0.25 lbs. Crystal 60L
7.8% - 1.60 lbs. D2 Candi Syrup

Hops
------
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings Pellet (5.00% AA) @ 90 min.

Extras
-------
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
1-1.5 Diced Chocolate Habereros 7 days
8 oz French Cocoa Nibs 7 days

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP510 Bastogne Belgian Ale Yeast

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 149

Notes
------
Place cocoa nibs and habeneros in a straining bag and leave them in contact with the beer for 1 week in secondary right before bottling/kegging.

Bullfrog Video Tour

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Join us for a cellar tour of Bullfrog Brewery with Terry Hawbaker.

Teaser Alert - to find out what's in those wild barrels in the basement, you're just gonna have to stop in and ask for Terry.

Terry Hawbaker Interview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:58:00 +0000

For our 4th episode we'll be speaking with Terry Hawbaker of Bullfrog Brewery, in Williamsport, PA.

Bullfrog Brew Day

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Having tried a few different and striking bottles from Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport, PA we knew it was only a matter of time before we would be making the trek up to meet head brewer Terry Hawbaker: friends of ours had smuggled to DC bottles of Bullfrog's "El Rojo Diablo" - a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel aged sour red ale dry hopped with 3 pounds of hops in the barrel, and "Magic Beans" - a barrel aged, soured black saison with chocolate and vanilla beans. Terry's experiments with wild yeast and barrel aging have garnered him both a GABF gold medal in the Wood and Barrel Aged Sour category for "BeeKeeper" and a cult following amongst the beer geekerati.

When we contacted Terry, he was enthusiastic to have us up for a brew day and we had a feeling it would be memorable trip to Billtown. Turns out Terry is a brotherfish, with a birthday in March like ours which ventures speculation on the predilection of Pisces and the umami of sour beer.

Because the brew house at Bullfrog is front-in-center of the pub, Terry and his assistant Nate keep bakers hours so as not to get in the way of the lunch crowd. We were up early to start the brew day at 3AM, with a brief tour of the cellar and a sample of a just tapped cask of an 18 month old Flanders Red, a vinous and intriguing blend, that Terry was going to be transporting to Wilkes-Barre later that day for the grand opening of his friend's restaurant AuRants. With the first sip, we knew this was going to be an amazing day...and the taps kept flowing and the bottles popping.

Terry and Nate are obsessed with the possibilities of their beer. They've learned that patience and the art of forgetting are keys to the life of long aged and mixed fermentation beers: "Beekeeper", a buckwheat honey spiked saison, spent well over 2 years in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels before it was released and at times was thought to be a lost cause. Long aging in oak barrels make for significant investments of time and space for a small brewpub.

Their ambitious schedule of bottle releases of single barrel experiments, painstakingly blended and hand bottled in the cellar have been wildly successful. It's a demanding job keeping the pub supplied with interesting, new drafts and burning the other end of the candle keeping the bottling schedule on-line and it's apparent that these guys are not getting a lot of sleep (and further apparent they're doing so without regret). They are not giving themselves a break either, with plans to put in several more barrel racks in the near future: Underground, Independent...Maximum Rock N' Roll.

Their kegs gone wild series are original, off-the-cuff riffs on Bullfrog's clean draft beers that Terry inoculates with wild yeast and acid producing bacteria in the keg, giving these beers funk without the added wood notes that accompany their barrel aged beers. On the occasion of our visit, the current interpretation was Smokin' Amber Gone Wild. A delicious, hugely complex enigma of smoke, malt and gamey-lacto-funk.

Terry's big 8% abv Edgar IPA is his best selling beer, which they have to scramble to keep in the tanks. Bullfrog has bullied and corrupted their local clientele to expect evermore artful and compelling beers with each return visit. Even his hop bombs haven't escaped the creeping influence of wild yeast, as shortly before our trip Bullfrog released bottles of "Undead Ed" which is a reformulation of Edgar IPA with brettanomyces, which dries out and sharpens the beer, as well as adding enticing aromatics.

It seems Terry is near bursting with ideas for new beers and is only bound by the limitations of the physical space of the cellar and hours in the day. He apprenticed in a very serious bakery that specialized in spontaneous leavening years back that served as his introduction to wild yeast and acid producing bacteria, and he has proved an apt pupil. Terry very consciously sees his brewing as an act of art, yet without any pretense or pomp.

Both Terry and Nate are that great combination of easy going and really engaging, equally music and beer possessed and have fanatic homebrewing backgrounds. Nate just bought a used 55 gallon system to start filling barrels at home: a man after our own hearts. They are both passionate about the entire spectrum of brewing from dialing-in their house Blonde, to Terry's quest for the ultimate Scotch ale, to all the barreled madness.

A bottle of De Dolle's Oerbier Reserva stands sentry over the mash tun. It's one of our favorite and inspiring beers, a mixed fermentation goliath (~13% abv), aged in used Bordeaux casks for 18 months, and it made absolute sense to see it there. We also spotted a bottle of Pretty Thing's Baby Tree on the stairs down to the cellar, who we visited with just a few months back.

Bullfrog was founded in 1996, and still operated by Steve Koch and his father Bob. Charlie Schnable brewed there for 5 years before leaving to open Otto's in State College, PA. Terry came on board in 2004, after brewing for the now shuttered Black Rock Brewing Co. in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Steve has given Terry free rein in the brew house which has paved the way for some really radical creations.

The copper brew house at Bullfrog is an Old World showpiece...

The fermenters and conditioning tanks are right behind the bar, making even transferring beers something that must be done before any customers arrive. Bar patrons have a front row view to the ageless mystery of fermentation.

Like many of the breweries we have visited, a farmer comes by to collect the spent grain once it is removed from the mash tun.

As the brew day wound down, Terry was kind enough to open up a bottle of "Frambozen" for us to sample. A perfectly balanced sour raspberry beer blended from two barrels of completely different beers (one higher gravity, one lower, one with raspberry puree, the other with freshly picked berries). All of their sour barrel aged beers start out clean with the rest served on tap, no special grainbill, mashing , or hopping, the magic is in the microbes and time.

We sat the fella's down for a detailed interview in which we cover all things wild, barreled and otherwise Bullfrog, that we'll have posted soon. If you've never been to Bullfrog, there's no time like the present (to get ripped apart). Thank you Bullfrog.

Central PA Preview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:39:00 +0000

Our second BrewLocal road trip found us pointed North to the great wilds of Central PA. Pennsylvania is ripe with beer destinations that make for endless possibilities for beer touring, there are dozens of interesting, small breweries and brewpubs: an intricate stratagem scattered across the map.

Our search for local took us to Williamsport, PA for a brew day at Bullfrog Brewery, where wunderkind Terry Hawbaker is producing highly original, boundary shattering beers with abandon.

Next up we sat down with Williamsport's prodigal son Mike Hiller, who plies "The People's Beer!" at his small production brewery Bavarian Barbarian Brewing Co. Mike gave us some great insight into the logistics and realities of starting a small brewery.

An hour south found us in Selinsgrove, where we spent an afternoon with founder, head brewer and secret mycologist Steve Leason of Selin's Grove Brewing Co. Steve is a bit of a brewing-polymath, producing impeccable beers across a glut of styles.

We'll be rolling out posts from the trip over the next several weeks, keep tuned.

David Wollner's Recipes

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:32:00 +0000

We suppiled the name and then asked David Wollner of Willimantic Brewing Co. to dream up a recipe for a no-holds-barred IPA named "Menschkeit", which is yiddish for the quality of being a Mensch or a good guy. Drink up and be Menschful.

"Menschkeit" ~ David Wollner's Dream Rye IPA

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.50
Anticipated OG: 1.074
Anticipated SRM: 8.3
Anticipated IBU: 144.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
------
10.00 lbs. Pale Malt
3.00 lbs. Rye Malt
1.50 lbs. Wheat Malt
1.00 lbs. Crystal 30L

Hops
-----
1.50 oz. Chinook (Pellet 13.00% AA) @ First Wort Hop
1.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet 12.00% AA) @ 40 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade (Pellet 5.75% AA) @ 25 min.
0.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet 12.00% AA) @ 20 min.
1.50 oz. Cascade (Pellet 5.75% AA) @ 10 min.
1.50 oz. Cascade (Pellet 5.75% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade (Pellet 5.75% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Columbus (Pellet 12.00% AA) @ Dry Hop

Yeast
-----
WYeast 1028 London Ale

Extras
-------
0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min

1.00 Unit(s) Whirlfloc @ 10 min

Water Profile
-------------
Add gypsum to adjust water to ~100 ppm Sulfate

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 150

Notes
-----
FG 1.014

David was in a particularly rye mood, because he also supplied us with the recipe for "Rail Mail Rye", his favorite house beer.

"Rail Mail Rye"

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.63
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 5.6
Anticipated IBU: 36.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 95 Minutes

Grain
------
7.50 lbs. American 2-row
2.50 lbs. German Rye Malt
0.63 lbs. Crystal 20L

Hops
-----
0.38 oz. Cascade Pellet (7.80% AA) @ 85 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade Pellet (7.80% AA) @ 55 min.
0.43 oz. Cascade Pellet (7.80% AA) @ 25 min.
0.50 oz. Cascade Pellet (7.80% AA) @ 0 min.
0.68 oz. Cascade Pellet (7.80% AA) @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 Min.(boil)
1.00 Unit(s) Whirlfloc @ 10 Min.(boil)

Yeast
-----
Willimantic House Strain Fermented in the mid 60s (WYeast 1028 London Ale is the closest commercial equivalent)

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Unfiltered Willimantic tap water plus 1.68 tsp of gypsum added to the boil

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 153

Notes
-----
FG 1.008

Cold condition for 5 days after primary fermentation finishes.

David Wollner Interview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:39:00 +0000

For our 3rd episode we'll be speaking with David Wollner of Willimantic Brewing Company, in Willimantic, CT.

Audio

Willimantic Brewing Company Video Tour

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:32:00 +0000

Join David Wollner on a tour of Willimantic Brewing Company...

Willimantic Brew Day

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Secreted away at The Willimantic Brewing Company, in Willimantic, CT, David Wollner carries on a nearly 30 year affair with the Humulus Lupus. David has built a reputation as a hopcentric brewer who regularly has 3 or 4 variations on his IPA oeuvre on tap (what we like to call the Wollner Variations). Through constant experimentation he seems to have evolved an extra sensory sensitivity to hop profiling. Being the owner and brewer gives him absolute freedom to brew whatever strikes his fancy, the only constant on his beer board is his flagship Certified Gold.

Willimantic Brewing Company is located in the historic old Willimantic Post Office in the center of town that had sat vacant for close to 3 decades before David and his wife renovated it. They painstakingly restored and have maintained the structure and the postal theme. The other driving theme at Willimantic are the frogs you see all over the place that reference the local tale of "The Battle of Frog Pond".

David was waiting for us on an overcast Wednesday morning at 8:15AM with sacks of milled grain to brew his Summer S.A.S.E., a session ale brewed exclusively with Sybilla hops from Poland. David is a real stand up guy with an easy-zen-humor that puts you immediately at ease and the 7 barrel brewhouse is second nature to him. Within minutes we were up on the platform taking turns dumping sacks of grain in the mash/lauter tun and canoe paddling the thickening mash. We hit our mash temperature dead-on.

When David deemed the mash lump free, we trooped out across the parking lot to the local diner for breakfast sandwiches on Texas toast and got straight into a thoughtful interview that wound in and around the brew day.

When we got back to the brew house we were ready to sparge the mash and collect wort for the boil kettle. We grabbed a few garbage bins from the basement for the spent grain, where we snuck a peak at his Dickel bourbon barrels in which he has aging a double IPA, souring an Imperial Porter and propagating a solera-mother-funk-barrel that he adds whatever he deems worthy to. Next up was raking out the spent grain into the bins to be picked up by a local farmer.

While we waited on the kettle to fill with wort and then come to a boil, we ran the numbers on the Sybilla hops, which David had never used before, to determine our hopping schedule.

Next up was the boil and hop additions...

at the end of the boil, we whirlpooled and ran sanitizer through the fermenter.

When we had transferred all the boiled wort from the kettle it was boots on ...

for hopping in and scouring the inside of the kettle, it’s a sweaty but vital job. Lastly we harvested fresh yeast from the bottom of one of the fermentors and pitched it into the cooled wort.

Everything we sampled throughout the brew day demonstrated David’s assured experience and hop sensitivity: including a super dry, spicy saison fresh from the tank, a crisp Imperial Pilsner ale, and 2IPA, a lush, fruity hop bomb. What really floored us was his huge funky blend of intentionally soured Imperial Porter, vintage Willi Whammer barleywine and some of his solera funk that made for this really ponderous chocolate, oaky, lactic masterpiece.

Among other brewing memorabilia David has on prominent display in the brewhouse is a big picture of the 3 Stooges, stooging out with bottles of beer. The Stooge spirit seemed to increasingly pervade the brew day with everyone naturally adopting their respective personae (Nathan>Larry, Mike>Curly, David>Moe).

Thanks Moe.

We'll be posting a video tour, interview and recipe shortly.

DRINK WILLIMANTIC BEER.

Dann Paquette's Guidelines for a Proper Bitter

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:38:00 +0000

Dann Paquette brewed at the Daleside Brewery in Yorkshire prior to moving back to the States to start Pretty Things. He gave us this outline for producing a proper Yorkshire bitter.

"Diamond Geezer"

~a Proper Yorkshire Bitter

82% Maris Otter

10% Fawcett Pale Crystal
8% Torrified Wheat

OG 1.040 FG 1.008 ABV 4.2% 25 IBUs

mash at 150

Challenger for bittering (.75 oz of 8% AA pellets @ 60 min for 5 galllon batch)

Finish with Challenger, First Gold or "whatever you really like 'cause you're not going to use a lot of it."

Use a fruity English yeast and ferment up to 72 degrees.

Use isinglass to clarify.

If cask conditioning, top crop yeast at 1.010 and move to cask, where the oxygen rich environment with spark a secondary fermentation.

Drink by the Imperial Pint.

Dann Paquette Interview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:13:00 +0000

In this second BrewLocal Podcast episode we talk to Dann Paquette and his wife Martha of Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project Massachusetts. To subscribe with a podcast downloader use: http://brewlocal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Audio

An Evening with Pretty Things

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:22:00 +0000

After our brew day at Mayflower, we drove back to Boston and had dinner at Redbones, a great, and hugely popular, concept barbeque and good beer joint where the pulled pork married well with Cambridge Brewing Company's "Imperial Skisbol", a dark Danish smoked lager brewed in collaboration with Nørrebro Bryghus. After dinner, we met up with Pretty Things duo Dann Paquette and his wife Martha on the back deck of Deep Ellum, which proved to be the metaphysical nexus of the day, including several Mayflower beers on tap and cask, Pretty Things' own "Jack D'Or" and "Confounded Mr. Sisyphus" on tap, along with other local standouts from High and Mighty, Berkshire and Cambridge. The laundry list of creative New England breweries and a focus on session beer made for an extremely smart tap list, and it was great to hear how interconnected all the brewers are with each other.

Dann was a fixture of the Bay State brewing scene having brewed at Ipswich, John Harvard's, The Tap and inventing the Rapscallion beer line (where Matt Steinberg also worked), before moving to England and brewing at Daleside for a couple of years. Now back in Massachusetts, the beers he is currently producing span his experience, from riffs on saison to a British brown, to a session lager coming shortly.

Dann and Martha seem to share an impish-psychedelic-storybook imagination and funhouse spirit that is readily apparent in their highly personal and brilliant website. There is a real charm to the Pretty Things mystique, we weren't surprised to hear that Dann looks to fellow madcap Kris Herteleer from De Dolle Brouwers for inspiration. Our conversation lead towards a real interesting mash-up of eccentric Belgian and traditional British beer-ways. Dann's alternate persona "Jack D'Or", an Edwardian character of his and Martha's design furthers the spirit of fun at the heart of the Pretty Things Project.

It was really enlightening to be able to drink Pretty Things beers while Dann expounded on the virtues of authenticity and fun that are the drive of the project. Of particular interest is the brew house rental (not contract brew) model that Pretty Things has worked out with Paper City Brewery in Holyoke, MA (which also has a more traditional contract brewing arrangement to produce High and Mighty). The model has worked well for De Struise and De Ranke in Belgium before they got their own respective breweries.

Thank you to the inimitable Dann Paquette and the eminently charming Martha Holley for a memorable evening.

We'll be posting Dann's Guidelines to a Proper Bitter and a podcast of our conversation on the site shortly.

Matthew Steinberg Interview

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:39:00 +0000

In this first BrewLocal Podcast episode we talk to Matthew Steinberg of Mayflower Brewing in Plymouth MA. To subscribe with a podcast downloader use: http://brewlocal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Podcast

Matthew Steinberg's Recipes

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:26:00 +0000

Mayflower Porter

Taking its cues from “Three Threads”, a bartender’s blend of three distinct ales, Porter became the beer of choice for 18th-century Londoners. Mayflower Porter embraces this history. This complex brew is smooth and full-flavored with notes of roasted coffee beans and bittersweet chocolate that will warm the palate all year long.

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.86
Anticipated OG: 1.063
Anticipated SRM: 34.6
Anticipated IBU: 38.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Grain
-------
9.50 lbs. American Pale Malt(2-row)
1.00 lbs. Chocolate Malt America
0.75 lbs. CaraMunich 120
0.50 lbs. Brown Malt
0.15 lbs. Scottish Peated Malt

Hops
------
0.68 oz. Pilgrim @ 70 min.
0.77 oz. Glacier @ 20 min.

Extras
--------
1.00 Unit(s)Whirlfloc Fining 15 Min.(boil)

Yeast
-----
S-04 SafAle English Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Plymouth

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Pitch at 73
Ferment at 66

FG 1.021
Crash chill to 32 after fermentation is finished for 1 week.

Hop Goddess

"The beer itself is a dedication to a girl...cunning and blatant, embodied among succulent notes of earth and spice. I wanted to make a really hoppy beer that was in the Belgian tradition. De Ranke XX Bitter happens to be one of my favorite beers in the world, not that I was trying to brew a beer specifically like that, but I used that beer as a stepping off point."

-Matthew Steinberg

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.06
Anticipated OG: 1.062
Anticipated SRM: 5.4
Anticipated IBU: 69.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Sugar
-------------
8.00 lbs. Belgian Pilsener
1.38 lbs. Munich Malt
0.81 lbs. Corn Sugar/Dextrose
0.63 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt

Hops
-----
0.50 oz. Chinook @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Sterling @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 30 min.
0.38 oz. Sterling @ 20 min.
1.00 oz. Sterling @ 5 min.
3.00 oz. Amarillo @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
1.00 Unit Whirlfloc @ 15 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP510 Bastogne Belgian Ale Yeast

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Martha's Vineyard

Mash Schedule
---------------
90 min @ 146

Notes
-----
Begin ferment in the low 80's

Aim for high carbonation (~3 volumes)

If you're feeling randy spike with Brett B, but do not age for an extended period.

FG 1.010
84% AA
6.9% abv

Mayflower Video Tour with Matthew Steinberg (in 2 parts)

madfermentationist@gmail.com (Mike and Nathan) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:20:00 +0000

part one...

and part two.