Christmas beer! (And thoughts on ingredients and methods.)

The other day, I bottled my Christmas ale, and it’ll be fizzy and ready to drink this weekend.  It was a success, and I’m excited to drink it.  The concept was a red ale with Pacifica hops and spice and orange peel infusions.  I did a lot with this beer that was a little different than I have done in the past, to try to get a better product and it really worked out for me.

I used Maris Otter base malt for the first time (specifically the Thomas Fawcett MO). I’ve never been much of a fan of American 6-row because I don’t think it really has any flavor.  By contrast, 2-row, especially British 2-row is more complex, and it brings a lot to the beer.  MO is similar to 2-row, but more so.  It’s not powerfully flavored, just complex and grainy, and maybe a bit earthy.  You can tell why it is the traditional base for ales.  The MO flavor carried right through to the final product, and it was a smashing success. 

The funny thing is the main reason I’d never used MO before is that it’s kind of nichey, and I had never seen it in a recipe.  All the ones I’ve read call for 2-row or 6-row, so when I got to designing my own recipes, I fell into that same rut.  So, MO was a pleasant surprise.  It’ll probably be my default base malt for ales in the future.

Traditionally red ales are made with roasted barley, from which they get their red color.  I had to sub black patent, so I didn’t actually get a red color, but rather a pale brown.  It hasn’t made any discernible impact on the flavor, but since the beer is spiced, I may just not be noticing.  I have learned that Beersmith’s color estimates are off, at least for my setup.  My beers always come out paler than estimated, even though the alcohol estimates are always spot-on.

I raved in an earlier post about the Pacific hops, and I’m going to rave about them some more.  They’re fantastic.  They’re low-alpha, so they’re not too bitter, and they’re very, very earthy.  That’s the main flavor I get out of them.  I’ve heard other references say that they are citrusy, but I’m not convinced my sensitivity to citrus is very high.  Maybe others will get that out of them, but I get an earthiness that pairs fantastically with the complexity of the Maris Otter malt and the yeast flavors from British ale yeast.  If SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) brewing is your thing, I’d bet you could make a spectacular Special Bitter with Thomas Fawcett Maris Otter and Pacifica hops.

In the past, I’ve treated orange peel according to the recommendations I’ve read online–boil them for 5 minutes like a late hop addition.  I’ve always been deeply dissatisfied with the results.  I just don’t get much orange flavor coming through.  I did that with this beer, and it was no good.  So, this time, I added orange peel to the secondary for the last 10 days before bottling.  (It was supposed to be 6, but my bottling got delayed.)  I’ve done this with fruit flesh additions in the past with great success.  I was a little concerned that I would get unpleasant bitterness from the whites of the peels, but I really didn’t.  I used an ounce of dried bitter orange peel and an ounce of dried sweet orange peel.  It works well in this beer, but it’s too intense for something like a Belgian white.  If I ever do another one of those (I’m not a big fan of Belgian beers) I’ll probably do a 7-day infusion with a half ounce or two-thirds of an ounce total.  The infusion also included a healthy handful of cloves and a stick of cinnamon.  I’ve heard it from beer judges that you shouldn’t use cloves in beer, because it’s a phenolic off-flavor, so when you drink it, you’ll go, “there’s something wrong with this beer.”  I disagree, at least for my palate.  I think you have to be trained to think of cloves as a beer contaminant, and I haven’t been.  With the orange peel especially, it makes my palate go, “Yum! Christmas!”

So that’s my experience with the 2012 Christmas Ale.  I really hit the ball out of the park with this one, and learned some pretty cool stuff about ingredients. 

You should be able to get Maris Otter at any homebrew store.  Pacifica hops are a bit rarer, but New Zealand hops are getting easier to find all the time.  If your local doesn’t stock them, they’re easy to order online. (But check your local first.)

New Ingredients to try

When I got into doing mashes, first doing partial mash, then doing all-grain, I kept it pretty close to the vest on my base grains, using Pilsner, UK 2-row and American 2- or 6-row, depending on what I was making.  Those are probably the big 4, with Pilsner for German-style beers, UK 2-row for fuller-flavored ales and US pale malts for ales that need a cleaner flavor.

With my next couple of beers, I’m going to break out of that rut and try a couple new base malts, and I’m excited about them.  I’m going to make a Whisky Ale with Maris Otter, which is very traditional for cask-style ales.  (By the way, tomorrow’s Beginner’s Tuesday post is about how to make a cask ale.)  Maris Otter has a distinctive nutty/biscuity aroma.  I’m intrigued to see how it goes.  I can envision it becoming my go-to base malt for less-hoppy British style ales.

With that whisky ale, I’m also going to try New Zealand-grown Pacific Gem hops, which are reported to have an earthy flavor with a dark berry note.  I think that will match nicely with the peat-smoked malt and the oak tannins.

I’m really very excited about this Whisky Ale!

I’m also looking at doing version 3 of my Oatmeal Java Stout in the foreseeable future. I don’t feel like ‘m getting the right profile from the UK 2-row with that beer, so I’m going to use Mild Malt, which is a traditional base for stouts and dark porters.  I also need to adjust my specialty grains because the batch is too chocolately.  I need some more aggressive darkness to make it work, so maybe roasted barley….  We shall see.

Beginners’ Tuesday—What are Extract, Partial Mash and All Grain Brewing?

Veteran homebrewers tend to throw the words “Extract,” “Partial Mash,” and “All-Grain” around, and I remember when I started brewing that I found that really confusing. So, for this week’s Beginners’ Tuesday we’ll discuss what each is, and what advantages and disadvantages each has.

Extract Brewing

Extract brewing is the simplest form of homebrewing, and it’s the version that almost all homebrewers start with. You may be surprised to know that it’s also what most homebrewers end with. Something like 4 out of 5 homebrewers does extract brewing exclusively, and many people in the other fifth still do it on occasion.

Extract brewing uses malt extract for the fermentable sugars. The most time-consuming and delicate part of making a beer in the traditional (all-grain) method Is converting the starch into sugars. With extract brewing, you let someone else do that hard work! Malt is converted on a large scale in a factory, then either condensed to form liquid malt extract or dried out to make dry malt extract. Either one is added to hot water to produce the wort.

There are a wide variety of kits that use hopped malt, which are the ultimate in brewing simplicity. Hop extract has already been added to the malt, so all you need to do is stir the mix into hot water, cool it, dilute it and add the yeast. You can do the whole thing in under two hours with practice.

Unhopped extract give you a little more control over the recipe, with slightly more work involved. You have to add your own hops, and boil them for an hour. Many recipes also have later additions that are boiled for the last 15 minutes, or last 5 minutes. The hour-long boil adds a little time and a little complexity, but not much.

Extract brewing often uses steeping grains to add color or flavor to augment the extract. You’re not getting sugars from these grains, but you’re getting other flavor chemicals. Crystal malts are often used for this purpose.

These days, there is a staggering variety of malt extracts available, and one can make almost any style of beer from extract, including wheat beers and rye.

The advantage to extract brewing is its simplicity. Nothing takes less time or equipment, and nothing is more forgiving to mistakes. Now, more than ever, the diversity of beer available to the extract brewer is nearly comprehensive. I can understand why 4 out of 5 brewers love making great extract beer and never move on to more complicated techniques.

The disadvantages to extract brewing are relatively small. To some, it feels untraditional. You are also restricted in the control you have over the recipe. While you can have some flavor from steeping grains, it is extremely difficult (or basically impossible) to say, “This beer is great, but it has a little too much pilsner malt and it needs more Munich.” There are differences in flavor between British and American base malts, and that’s tough to capture in extract. Cooks, gourmands, wine enthusiasts and others who have palates that easily detect subtle differences in flavor may find the versatility in extract brewing to be inadequate, as broad as it is.

Most people cannot tell the difference between extract and all-grain beer in a blind taste test. Some people detect a noticeable tang in extract beers that they may or may not find unpleasant. I don’t know whether this is a result of genetics or palate training, but if you think extract tastes tangy, you may be well served by moving up to a more complex method.

Finally, oats cannot be used in extract beer. If you want to make an oatmeal stout, you have to use partial mash or all-grain brewing. (This dilemma is precisely what inspired me to move up to a higher level of complexity.)

Partial Mash

If you find that you love beermaking, but want to do more than extract allows, I have good news! Partial mash brewing overcomes almost all the potential downsides of extract brewing without a significant investment in new equipment. You can use the full range of brewing grains including oats, so you can tweak flavors to your heart’s content.

With partial mash, you are going to produce some of the sugars for your beer by converting starch in the grain, and then you are going to use malt extract to provide the rest. Most partial mash approaches are about getting a few missing flavors into the beer, so normally, the extract is still most of what you will be fermenting. You can still do this in a relatively small pot, like a 3.5 or 4-gallon. You need room for 3-4 pounds of grain and 2-3 gallons of water.

Partial mash requires you to use a base malt, which is a grain that has high levels of the enzymes that turn starch into sugars. Ales usually use 2-row or 6-row malted barley as the base malt. Lagers typically use pilsner malt. Anything that you’re using that’s not a base malt is a specialty malt, which might include crystal malt, roasted barley, biscuit malt, oats, wheat, rye and many others. To get the sugars out of those grains, you’re going to need an hour of time and you’re going to need to control the temperature of your water to between 150 and 158 degrees. That makes it a little complicated for beginners, but lots of people move on to partial mash after a small number of extract batches.

I’m planning a future Beginners’ Tuesday post on how to do your first Partial Mash.

The advantage of Partial Mash is that you get most of the versatility of all-grain brewing with the more simple equipment of extract brewing. The disadvantages are that it is more complicated and time-consuming than extract brewing.

All-Grain

All-Grain is the most complicated and most traditional method of making beer. None of the sugar is coming from extract; all is starting as starch in the grain. This requires more complicated equipment. You can’t use a few gallons of water to extract the sugars and top up later, like you do with extract and partial mash brewing. If you’re making a 5-gallon batch, you will need a pot that can hold 5 gallons (or more) of water, AND 14 pounds or so of grain. You also need very good temperature control. There is little margin for error—if your temperature is significantly wrong, you will have no sugars to ferment.

The upside of all-grain brewing is that you have ultimate control over your recipe. You can literally make any kind of beer you can dream of, you can tweak ingredients to your heart’s content, and make your mixture of grains as complicated or precise as you want. The downside is that it is very time-consuming and complicated, and it requires a fair amount of expertise to pull it off.

For those who want the ultimate homebrewing experience, all-grain is the goal. Fortunately, you can build to it by making your partial mashes more complicated over time. I’ll do a post on this someday, too, after we cover how to get into partial mashing.