Kentucky Common

According to the Wahl-Henius Handy Book of Brewing that was published in 1902, a beer referred to as the Kentucky Common was enjoyed by many in the Louisville area in the early 1900's. This style was a darker Cream Ale that utilized a partial sour mash. The recipe consisted of barley, corn, dark roasted malts, and some caramel malts.
Malted barley has a lot of natural occurring bacteria that live in the husk of the grain. Lactobacillus is one that is useful to brewers. Lactobacillus is the same bacteria that makes yogurt sour. The lacto in the grains when given the right conditions will turn a nice warm sugary environment into a tart acidic slurry of grains and lactic acid. Add that to your mash and you can add a tart twang to your beer.
So how about a Missouri Common? We will keep you posted.

Malt Liquor?

Let's cut to the chase here. If you add sugar to a regular batch of wort (beer) along with a little more yeast then you get a higher alcohol beer. One of the members of the Anchor Star brewing family has a real taste for a light fortified beer. Since this member provides us the premises in which we operate then we keep him in supply.
Today's brew is a light bodied American Ale. The grain bill is simple 2-row barley, Mt. Hood hops, and a late addition of sugar. It is a beautiful Monday. Most importantly Go Cards!

Fête de la bière belge

For the past few months we have brewed, fermented, conditioned, kegged, bottled, corked and caged, five different Belgian styles. We will be serving them with a few classic Belgian foods like liège waffle, mayonnaise and pomme frites, and croque monsieur. The event is Sunday April 14th at 3:00 PM.

Lambic Style

After brewing this beer my only words that I can say is...Whoa! I love a good challenge, and the challenge today is called a turbid mash.
What is a Lambic? A Lambic is a beer that is brewed in a region of Belgium called Pajottenland. It is a complex beer that is exposed to wild yeast and bacteria native to the region. The flavor of a Lambic is typically sour. It is often blended with fruit or sometimes older Lambics to make what is known as a Gueuze. Lambics take from 1 to 3 years to ferment and condition due to the different bacteria and yeast that work on all of the complex sugars and starches. To make the ideal wort for this style I will do a turbid mash. The turbid mash originated in Belgium in the early 1800's when breweries where being taxed on the size of their mash tun. What else do you do in that situation but jam as much grain as you can. So why a turbid mash? A turbid mash is exactly that. Milky, opaque, and cloudy. Full of unconverted starch from unmalted wheat and barley. The opposite of what you would want from a standard infusion mash. At different intervals you remove a certain percentage of mash liquor by pressing a colander like disk referred to as a stuykmanden and siphoning it out.
This beer goes against a lot of conventional methods. A thick concrete like mash. A very large percentage of unmalted grains. Old oxidized stale hops are used. Bacteria and wild yeast cultures are used to intentionally take over your fermentation. Oh those Belgians?
So how is a Lambic made in St Louis Missouri? Well first you ferment it for about a week with a standard ale yeast. Then you pitch a Lambic sour culture and let the magic begin. Sometimes it will smell like a barn. Sometimes it might smell like gym socks. After the different bugs had their turn it will be a complex sour ale that I plan on adding fruit to. I will keep you posted.

Schwarzbier

A Schwarzbier is a malty lager with a small amount of de-husked roasted barley to give it a dark color without the toasty flavor you get from something like a Stout.
I have been working on my methods of harvesting and re-pitching yeast. I have been using WLP830 German Lager yeast which is very versatile. So let's take them from light lagers to amber to dark or schwarz. Once you go black you can't go back, with yeast that is. Yeast can pick up the flavors from the dark malts and carry over to your next batch so it's been a good run my friends. I think I will go for the Southern German variety of yeast next time. Time to make a Munich Helles.

Kolsch

I have had a few less than perfect results brewing a Kolsch style beer. Kolsch is a German beer that is very close to a lager. Actually a Kolsch is a lagered beer but is an ale. Lager beers are fermented cool, ales are fermented warmer. After it is fermented it is cooled to a lower temperature and the yeast is allowed to clear up and eat up any remaining undesirables left over. The result is a clean, light, golden ale that doesn't leave much room for imperfections. The yeast can be a little finicky. It typically remains suspended in the beer after it ferments giving it a haze. Something so simple should be easy. Patience is required.
This time I feel that I got it right. One of the challenges when you start brewing is being patient enough to get the right result. Often times the brewer is just dying to crack open his latest and sample it a soon as possible. You want to share your hazy, sweet, flat malt beverage with your friends. There is nothing wrong with that. The first sampling that a brewer takes either good or bad is like an epiphany. I CAN MAKE BEER! As though you are handed a gift from the hand of God himself! Once you get past that you want to make it good or make it right to style. Proper sanitation, the right fermentation temperature and conditioning, the right carbonation and the perfect pour. Time makes all things better. The brewer and the beer.

Belgian Pale Ale

It is such a beautiful day. As a matter of fact this is my favorite weekend of the year. The weather is perfectly cool, the leaves are falling, and the Cardinals in the playoffs. It's as though all of my favorite things are in perfect alignment.
I stepped outside to admire the day and snapped this pic of a young Belgian Pale Ale.