Pumpkin Cinnamon Spice Brown Ale

Okay ladies and gents it's been a while since I have posted because I am back to brewing! It being fall I decided that I needed a beer that represented everything I love about this season. So I took cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice in order to replicate the smell and taste of pumpkin pie. Then I thought, "well if I am going to replicate the taste of pumpkin pie then I need a freak-in pumpkin"! So I added two pounds of pumpkin right into the mash, I know what your thinking "What crazy Jack o'lantern brewer would put two pounds of a gourd into a beer"? I will tell you which one this guy!  Then at the boil when it came down to putting in the spices I thought "why add only one cinnamon stick when I could add TWO WHOLE STICKS!  The end result was a complex autumn beer with a slight pumpkin profile, a strong cinnamon bite, settling out with a hint of nutmeg and a dry hop finish. The is honestly the most complex tasting beer I have ever brewed and couldn't be happier with it. You can't have a sip of it with out thinking of the changing colors in the trees or the crisp autumn air. Here is the recipe below brew and enjoy:
10lbs 2 row brewers malt
.5 lbs malted barley
.5 lbs American Vienna
.2 lbs candi sugar dark
2 lbs pumpkin
2 oz pumpkin spice mix
1 oz East Kent Goldings (.5 oz 60min, .5 oz 30 min)
1 oz Fuggle
Original Gravity 1.052
Final Gravity 1.010

Next week I will be brewing an Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout, this beer will be my winter beer and getting the peanut butter in there will be a challenge for sure!

Happy Brewing

Oregon Organic Brewers Fest, A Mouthful to Say The Least

 Beer festivals in my book are usually one the biggest let downs I have all summer. Oh sure it sounds like a great idea: get as many brewers together as possible to make some extraordinary specialty beers and get people interested in the microbrewery movement. In theory that is a great idea unfortunately, what usually happens is a mob of drunken patrons swarming the beer tents like... well like a drunken mob. The beer runs out fast and the lines are so long you are forced into an endless circle of ordering your beer then immediately going back in line. While you are circling about the smell of all those people hits your nose like a mallet hitting a sealed can of rancid dog food. So usually I try to avoid the big water front beer festival in downtown Portland.

Well it's done but not finished

Well it’s done… My own attempt at a blonde ale. This is the first time I have dared to venture into this style of beer. For a long time I have been nervous about trying to create them but I finally decided to go for it and here is the result:
It has a light yellow color that to the untrained eye would seem flavorless but that thought is immediately thrown away the second you smell its hoppy aroma.  I nervously poured the drink into my mouth and as it touched my tongue it danced and with every step a new hoppy flavor tickled my senses. Dare I swallow; if I do this flavor, this sensation, this exotic dance would end and then what. I swallowed; and once I did the dancer that was once there left a new taste, this one different but equal to its predecessor. As good as it was I was left unsatisfied, where was the rich malt flavor that I had hoped for? Yes the dance was nice but it lacked a certain sweetness to balance its many steps. So I am left to do only one thing and that is to drink until it is gone so that I may brew it again only this time with the sweetness that I so desire. 

Why I love Blondes

Blondes are pretty. They are simple and yet their bubbly nature brings out a complexity not found elsewhere; they are light but deep and rich in character. When one passes by my nose it is their fruity scent that makes my mouth water. When one touches my wet lips my eyes will roll back as a waterfall of flavors are tantalizing my senses. They are seductive. With every look and smell and taste and desire not felt for the other breeds I cannot help but ask the bartender, “may I have another?”

Widmer why not?

Last Friday I got the opportunity to take a private tour of Widmer’s brewing facility and what a facility it is. From their tanks that stretch from the basement of the building all the way up to the roof tops; from their bottling plant where they can bottle 300 beers a minute to their brew kettles where the magic happens I saw it all. Alan Taylor is one of the brew masters and he was the one giving the tour. Alan went to a brewing school in Germany before coming back to Oregon and working for Full sail then Widmer. The most interesting (and also one of the most gratifying) things about the plant was that the process of brewing was the same as the one I do at home.