Tag Archives: hops

After 25 years it is finally here: Brockton IPA

The Granville Island Brewing Company turned 25 this year, and to celebrate they released a new beer titled Brockton IPA. Granville Island Brewing is one of British Columbia’s first craft brewers – all BC beer fans, even those whose tastes are not always satisfied with Granville Island’s regular offering, owe a big thank you to this brewing pioneer.

Granville Island’s non-seasonal six-pack beer is generally speaking, not brewed to please the discerning pallet of a passionate beer drinker, but that is good. Not all craft beer needs to be challenging and thought provoking. Granville Island’s beer serves as a great entry point into the world of craft beer. This brewery has done a great deal of work in developing a market for craft beer in Vancouver. Although I am no longer a diehard fan of Granville Island English Bay Pale Ale, I still have a great deal of respect for this ale. Had this mild pale ale never existed I may not have been exposed to BC’s burgeoning craft beer scene – English Bay Pale Ale was one of the first craft beers that I tasted, enjoyed and began to purchase regularly.

To please fussier beer drinkers, such as myself, Granville Island Brewing offers a good selection of creative and flavourful seasonal beers. Unlike their regular offering, which is now brewed in Kelowna, their season beer is still brewed on Granville Island. To me, the true definition of a craft brewer is not how many liters a brewery produces annually, but whether or not a selection of seasonal beer is offered. Seasonal releases are a great way for brewers to challenge their customers’ taste buds and push the boundaries a bit. Having achieved success with a previous IPA seasonal release, Granville Island Brewing decided that now was the perfect time to release a milder version of their seasonal IPA.

Because I fall into the “fussy” beer drinking category, I assumed that Brockton IPA would not be for me. My assumptions were correct – there is nothing wrong with this beer and I believe it is a great IPA for those who have never experienced the full on flavour assault of an IPA, I just prefer a bigger, bolder IPA. Knowing that Brockton IPA was not for me, I decided to invite a few friends over, all who like beer to varying degrees, to sample the beer and offer their unbiased opinions.

Here is what they thought:

Brad Wiens:

i

It is a good beer, but somewhat weak. Similar to other Granville Island Beer.

ii

i

i

Cheryl Wiens:

I

It tastes like a pill that I tried to swallow and then coughed up

i

i

i

i

Holly Wolfe:

i

It is okay, but a bit too bitter. I prefer their Winter Ale.

i

i

i

i

i

Rachel Richardson:

i

Piney tasting – Where is the citrus flavour?

i

i

i

i

i

i

Chris Richardson:

Chris has already posted his comments, but to reiterate:

i

It tastes like a hoppier version of English Bay Pale Ale

i

ii

i

i

No one seemed to fall in the love with Brockton IPA, but aside from Cheryl, everyone did finish their beer. Subjective opinions aside, Brockton IPA is a great introduction to hoppier, flavourful beers and I am always excited to see a brewer release a new beer. I look forward to seeing what Granville Island brews next.

Cheers,

Erik

Homebrewing for the first time

This past Saturday, Erik invited me over to brew a batch of porter with his good friend Brad.  I had never homebrewed before, so this was completely new to me.  I arrived at Erik’s house a while before Erik, who was running late, returned from Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies with the malt and hop ingredients.  Luckily, I was really on time because Holly had just finished making lunch.  I was already liking brewing by this point.

When Erik got home with the goods, the first thing we had to do was heat up some water for the first phase, mashing.  Mashing involves mixing the malted barley (the recipe of which Erik can fill you in on) into hot water.  Our malt mixture contained very little roasted chocolate malt (you could see the odd black fleck), which you might be surprised to find out is all that’s needed to give a beer that dark porter colour.  The water had to be heated up to approximately 170F on the stove to get a temperature of 152F in the mashing vessel.  How Erik knows this, I cannot tell.  We used Erik’s fancy beer making software to figure out the ideal temperature of 152F.  Apparently, anything three degrees above would lead to too many unfermentable sugers in the mash (leftover sugar means sweeter beer) and anything three degrees less would lead to too many fermentable sugars (not much leftover sugar means dry beer).  After Erik had mashed in his barley malt and was ready to let it sit in the lautering process, we were dead on at 152F.  Erik’s giant beer cosy system only loses 1F per hour, which I was pretty impressed with.  Lautering is the process of letting the mash steep, to extract the fermentable sugars that yeast turns into alcholol.

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Erik Mashing in the barley malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Action Shot of Mashing in the Barley Malt

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Lautering in the giant Beer Cosy

Now Erik would tell you that home brewing is easy, and it is fairly straight forward, but it is really only easy when you are me.  It is true that while homebrewing, you do a lot of work in bursts and then wait around for an hour or so.  Homebrewing is also fairly precise and requires a fair amount of careful sanitization, as well as a good chunk of knowledge (that Erik has and I don’t).  For me, brewing consisted of playing a lot of frisbee with Luca, Erik’s dog, and drinking a lot of beer.  Whereas Erik spent a lot of time tearing around, cleaning stuff, carefully measuring/mixing, and took part in a good deal of attentiveness.  I had a great time though, because frisbee and beer drinking are pretty fun.  We drank a lot of fantastic beers, including Mission Springs Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout, Swans Coconut Porter, Swans Berry Ale, and Anderson Valley Tripel.  We also had Paddock Wood IPA, which I thought was more of a decent pale ale than a respectable IPA, and Granville Island Brockton IPA, finally a westcoast IPA.

Luca, good frisbee player

Luca, good frisbee player

After an hour of waiting (drinking beer and playing frisbee), it was time to sparge.  After draining the wort (unfermented beer) from the mashtun (Erik’s has a filter in the bottom), we poured hot water (hotter than the first go because we need no more extraction) through the mash to get more of the sugar out.  We did this three times, stirring each time before draining more wort.

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Erik draining the wort into the kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Wort going from the mashtun to the brew kettle

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Chris stirring during sparging (one of my few tasks)

Bad, a good man

Bad, a good man

After we’d recovered the wort, it was time to fire up the brew kettle.  Erik’s kettle is a turkey fryer that he heats with a potent propane burner.  Bringing the wort to a boil was fairly challenging (mostly for Erik) because the wort wants to quickly extricate itself from the kettle.  After achieving a boil, Erik immediately added the bittering hops for the hour long boil.  After fifty minutes, the aroma hops were added.  I do not recall the types of hops we use, but I seem to recall willamette being used for aroma.  I’ll be honest, by the time the aroma hops were added I was out of beer making mode and into beer drinking mode.  After the hour long boil, Erik cooled the wort using cold water running through a coper hose.  Once cool, the wort was put into a carboy, to which yeast was added, and left to ferment for a week or so.  After further ageing in the bottle for a few more weeks, we’ll have a tasty porter.  Although, I fear my involvement may have somehow ruined this beer, but we’ll see.  Erik, thanks for letting me make beer with you and I apologize if I somehow ruined it.

The Brew Kettle

The Brew Kettle

Erik preventing extrication

Erik preventing extrication

We had a good time

We had a good time

Stirring in the bittering hops

Stirring in the bittering hops

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cooling down after the boil (cold water runs through)

Cheers,

Chris

Okay, I’ll admit it – I love yeast

The world of beer aficionados is generally divided into two camps; hops heads and malt lovers.  This particular part of the world, the Pacific Northwest,  is chock full of  hop heads and rightly so – Washington State is one of the world’s greatest hop growing regions.  But as much as I enjoy  drinking an over the top Imperial IPA, I’m not a true hop head.  Neither am I a true malt lover – although I can’t image ever turning down a malty Southern Brown Ale.  So where does this leave me – will I forever be lost in this state of limbo? No, for I am a yeast lover.

Yeast is such an under-discussed and unappreciated ingredient – without yeast beer would not exist and the world would be worse for it.  Beer was brewed without hops for centuries and although beer  would not be the same without malted grain, a whole plethora of sugary ingredients are out there just begging to be added into the brewing process, but yeast cannot be replaced or substituted.  Baking Powder just will not do in this situation.

Yeast can be a completely neutral ingredient, imparting almost no flavour at all in its creation of alcohol and carbon dioxide, which is desirable in many beer styles.  On the opposite side, yeast can create esters, and phenols and many other compounds that add a  range of fruit flavours and spicy complexity to beer.  Not only can yeast create flavour, but it can also add mouthfeel and can  draw out or hide the maltiness of certain beers.

The Belgians are masters at controlling spicy, fruity, sour and almost sweet flavours that yeast can create,  Germans have brewing with neutral lager yeast down to a science, the English know how to control malt flavours with yeast, and North Americans have embraced a whole gamut of yeast strains to brew with.  Brewers understand the importance of yeast, but that understanding does not make it to the consumer often enough.

Yeast is a living, breathing organism that is responsible for the creation of beer and I think these creatures deserve a little more attention in the world of beer.  A knowledgeable beer drinker should be able to determine the different hop varieties in a beer and perhaps even the different malts, but I believe only a select few could determine the style of yeast used to ferment the sweet wort into beer.

My obsession with yeast has grown to new heights.  So far I have collected two wild yeast cultures; one for bread and one for brewing my very own authentic West Coast Lambic.  The third yeast culture was harvested from my last homebrew and is essentially an IPA flavoured Wyeast 1968 ESB yeast.  Instead of brewing with this yeast, I think I will try to make pizza dough with the yeast.  Add some heat to the pizza sauce and I would imagine the the pizza would pair perfectly with an IPA – both sharing the same yeast.

Harvested Wyeast ESB Yeast; Wild Yeast for brewing; Wild Sourdough Yeast

Harvested Wyeast ESB Yeast - Wild Yeast for brewing - Wild Sourdough Yeast

Wild Yeast for an Lambic expierament

Wild Yeast for a Lambic experiment

If you only take away one thing from this post I hope it is this:  Yeast creates beer, and without beer where would the world be -  would happiness as we know it exist?

Cheers,

Erik

Hops in 2009

A photo of early BC hop pickers; courtesy of the Chilliwack Mussuem

A photo of early BC hop pickers; courtesy of the Chilliwack Museum

Happy New Year! 2009 brings exciting news to the world of BC Craft Brewing. Hops have once again been planted in the Fraser Valley and a small harvest is expected this year.

With the recent hops shortage, brewers have struggled to find a reliable supply of hops and have had to deal with dramatic price increases. If proven successful and commercially viable, it is expected that BC’s dormant hop industry will be revived, providing local brewers a new source for hops. BC was once a major hop producing region, not surprising seeing that Washington State, just south of BC, is currently one of the largest hop growing regions in the world. Sadly, due to declining demand BC’s last hop harvest was in 1997, but 2009 is a year of change. The Chilliwack Museum has a put together a great site about the history of BC’s hop industry that is worth taking a look at.

BC has some amazing brewers creating fantastic beer. Speaking from the perspective of a home brewer, new ingredients helps to inspire brewing creativity – harvest ale, brewed with fresh hops instead of dried hops, is the first beer that comes to mind in this situation. I think this new supply of local hops will bring a new passion to the many craft brewers in BC. I look forward to tasting the news beers that BC brewers create.

Chilliwack’s hop yards provided seasonal work for my grandparents when they first moved to British Columbia, so I feel a small sense of connection to this industry and am very excited to see that hops are once again being grown in BC. For more news on this story check out the BC Beer Blog – a great source for BC beer news.

Erik

Lunch

I have a lot of two things in my house at the moment: leftovers and beer. Naturally, I put the two together to make a stew. I love cooking with beer, and a stew is one of the best ways to incorporate beer into food. This also gave me a chance to open my latest homebrew – a Vienna style ale.

Instead of Turkey, I made BBQ ribs for our annual Christmas feast. I can’t say I am a huge fan of turkey – the only reason why people like turkey is because it is perfectly acceptable to cover it in a ridiculous amount of gravy. I had about two full racks of ribs sitting in my fridge on the verge of spoiling just waiting for a stew.

Lunch

Lunch

The stew consisted of bacon, onion, carrot, sweet potato, BBQ pork ribs and Vienna Ale. The starch from the sweet potato was not enough to thicken the stew on its own so I did have to throw in a small amount of all purpose flour. This is my favourite way to cook – using whatever is on hand, toss everything into one pot and let the flavours come together.

The Vienna Ale was also terrific. I used Vienna Malt and 2-Row Barley Malt in equal parts, Cascade and Amarillo Hops, and Nottingham Ale yeast to create my own spin on a Vienna Lager. The beer has a sweet but not overpowering malt flavour coming from the Vienna Malt. The sweet flavour is further supported by the Amarillo hops, which tend to impart a somewhat sweet citrus flavour in young beer. This sweetness will dissipate in one month or two; although, I think Amarillo’s unique flavour tastes great in young beer.

I have no shame in promoting my own food and drink – It was delicious.

Erik