O'Leary's Barn Burner - Brewing

It's one thing to have an idea in your head and another to actually bring it to life. Like I described in my last post I had an idea of my brew day for O'Leary's Barn Burner. I figured I'd carefully measure out all of my ingredients and brew different batches in an attempt to nail down the flavors I was looking for. I planned to brew one day and had to push it to another. The best laid plans of mice and men...

Brew day arrived while my dad was in town for my birthday. We decided to do two batches, one with a stepped mash and one with a single mash at 152 degrees. The stepped mash we did at 99, 144 and 152 degrees. We did the full gallon for the stepped mash, adding water as it heated to bring the temperature up. The single mash was with two quarts of water.

The process of brewing went well. The only issue that popped up was we miss-measured the grains initially, I got a new scale and didn't read it right. We also found that the scale didn't go low enough for the hop measurements and we ended up guesstimating the hop measurements.

We split the two batches between my two carboys and sat back to wait.

After 14 days one batch went directly into bottles and the other went into secondary fermentation for another seven days.

Both batches of bottles sat for at least 14 days before they were put in the fridge.

What did I learn?

I would probably pull back a little on the smoked malt. I liked the flavor but it was just a little strong.

I would like to switch out the Cascade Hops for a UK variety. Don't know which yet but I'm open to suggestions.

If I make two batches at once again I would blend them before I bottle.

In the end I really like the results of this brew. It came in at 5.5% and, while the smokey smell is strong, it really mellows out.

If you've had it let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Brewing next...Anchor Chucker Ale - A SMaSH Experiment.

Boston Beer trademarks 'Boston Strong' 26.2 Brew to benefit marathon charities

Interesting idea from fundraising. What do you think?

O'Leary's Barn Burner - The Recipe

In our last installment I talked about what inspired me behind naming my first beer recipe  This time around I want to talk about the recipe itself.

Why Irish Red?

Two reasons:

1. I love everything Irish. No seriously, ask anyone who has ever heard my ipod playing and they will say that there is always at least one Irish song in the mix. My number one bucket list dream is an Irish pub crawl.

2. I love the style of Irish Red Ale. It's a great everyday, year-round beer for me.

I always wanted to brew an Irish Red Ale. For me I like to look at a beer and try to imagine what it would have tasted like when it was first developed. In my mind I see Irish Red Ales having a smoked peet flavor due  to the malt drying process and I love smoked beers. They remind me of campfires and smores and great nights on the deck with friends. I'm not big on the flavor of peet smoked malt so I went with German smoked malt.

Here is the alpha version of the recipe - I will admit this is a riff off of a recipe by Brooklyn Brew Shop. I needed a place to start. This is NOT going to be the final version.

For 1 Gallon (U.S.)

1.5 lb Maris Otter (UK)
.5 lb Caramel 60 (UK)
.25 lb Aromatic (UK)
.5 lb Smoked Malt (GER)
.25 lb Roasted Barley  (UK)

Mashed in at 89 F
Rested at 152 F
Mashed out at 170 F

.5 oz East Kent Golding Hops (UK)
.3 oz Cascade Hops (US) (I really want an English hop here)

60 minute boil
Half the hops at 5 minutes into the boil
Rest of the hops at 50 minutes

Windsor British Style Beer Yeast (dry)

3 Tbsp Honey (Bottling)

This was the plan. Get enough of the ingredients to make several 1 gallon test batches. This way we could have more smoked malt in one and less in another or make one batch hoppier than another.

The reality was completely different. I went through a local homebrew supply shop. Now, in their defense  it was the first time I got grains from them and I made an assumption on how I would get my order. I expected  to get all of my ingredients in separate bags so I could measure out my supplies...but I didn't.

Instead I got a bag with all of the grain mixed together.

When life gives you grain...make beer. So I did just that. I took the bag of grains and made do...more on that in my next post.

O'Leary's Barn Burner - The Inspiration

Let me tell you some stories.

There are things that inspire me and there are things that lead me to wonder why. This is the story behind my first beer recipe.

I'm from Chicago, the City of Big Shoulders, Hog Butcher for the World, the Windy City. I love the city of my birth and youth. I love its history and culture, its beauty and the dark places of its soul.

As a child and teen I would immerse myself in books on my city's history. I was obsessed, and still am, with the tragedies that built my city into what it is today. I could tell you all about the Iroquois Theater and the Eastland but my number one fascination was the Great Chicago Fire.

The fire that destroyed Chicago in the early autumn of 1871 started in or near the barn of Mrs. Catherine O'Leary and lead to the destruction of more than 18,000 structures in a 3.5 square mile area. While it wasn't the deadliest or largest fire that year, the City of Peshtigo, WI burned on the same day in a forest fire that killed more than 1,200 people and burned more than 1.2 million acres, it was a fire that shaped how the city of my youth grew in its youth.

The site where the Great Chicago Fire started is now the home of the Chicago Fire Academy. The majority of my childhood was spent hanging out at or with paramedics and fire fighters. My father is a member of the Chicago Fire Department. He's the one who taught me to love beer.

He taught me how beer is brewed and what goes into it. He taught me the love that is put into a brew by a homebrewer. So I knew one day that I would start brewing too. When that day came I knew I wanted the first beer recipe that I developed to be a tribute to things that are important to me. It would be a beer that would always have a place in my heart and a beer that is a piece of me.

But the O'Leary referenced in the name is not the same O'Leary of the fire fame. No, my O'Leary is a friend.

I first met Mariana in 2004 when she was a third class petty officer and we were in a Coast Guard "c" school  together. She and I worked together off and on throughout my career. She is an awesome person who is full of life and deserves all of the rewards that life brings.

Unfortunately life also brings tragedy.

In August 2011, Colin O'Leary, Mariana's husband, unexpectedly passed away. While I never had the pleasure of meeting Colin. I know how much joy he brought to Mariana. I promised her that I would name my first beer after Colin.

So in the end this beer is named for things that have a lot of meaning for me. It's meant to stir memories of campfires and friends.

O'Leary's Barn Burner, in memory of a friend, a city's history and my father. This smoked-Irish Red Ale is for all of you.

More on the Washington State beer tax

From Dick Cantwell at Elysian Brewing and Heather McClung at Schooner EXACT:

As many of you doubtless already know, the budget submitted by Governor Jay Inslee calls for a rough quintupling of the excise taxes paid by small brewers selling their beer in the state of Washington. Only one in-state producer--Redhook--produces more than the 60,000 barrels per year ceiling on the exemption that has existed since taxes on larger brewers were raised a couple of years ago, quietly, in the final hours of congressional session. The loss of this exemption would mean a rise to at least $23 per barrel of production. This is over twice the tax paid by Alaskan brewers, the current unhappy leaders in the shouldering of excise tax burden. Larger Washington brewers such as Georgetown, Mac and Jack's and Elysian (my company) would see an increase of several hundred thousand dollars per year. Even a nano brewery producing a hundred barrels a year would be on the hook for an additional two thousand dollars. 

No brewery so affected will be able to absorb these costs and simply call it good. Prices to wholesalers and retailers would rise, resulting in a likely cost increase per keg of at least $20, and a probable jump in pint prices across any given bar of fifty cents to a dollar. Packaged beer, of course, would go up in price as well.

Washington's roughly 200 small brewers employ in the neighborhood of 3500 people. These are local people working for predominantly locally-owned companies, which in turn support local Washington growers of hops and barley. Because of this concentration of beer production-related bounty, Washington is vulnerable to such a tax increase in ways that no other state would be. Brewers in other states would better be able to secure the ingredients needed to produce beers of character, better able to market these beers in our state and elsewhere, and better able to reinvest in their own breweries, and to create jobs in their own local areas. This tax hike doesn't just threaten to raise prices, it threatens the entire Washington craft beer industry. Contact your congresspeople, and the Governor himself, to voice your opposition to this predatory item in the proposed budget.


http://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/


http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/default.asp



Dick Cantwell

Head Brewer

Elysian Brewing Co.

Seattle


Below are two links to letters you can send to your representatives. The first one is ready to send. The second is for people who wish to personalize their communication. Thank you for taking the time to support your local brewery!



READY TO SEND:

http://www.washingtonbrewersguild.org/WABL%20SEND.pdf



EDIT FIRST LETTER:

http://www.washingtonbrewersguild.org/WABL_Letter.html

Heather McClung

Schooner EXACT Brewing Company
Washington Brewers Guild President
hmcclung@gmail.com

Tasting the new brew

Finally opened my new brown for tasting at the start of the new year. It pours with a nice solid, lasting head and is very smooth. 

Taste-wise it is smooth and caramel on the tongue with no aftertaste. It's a great beer to have with a steak and  potato.

The beer is named Taught Watch in a, ahem, nod (cough - inside joke - cough) to something we keep hearing in the Coast Guard. "We are Coast Guardsmen. This is our chosen profession. This is our way. This is what we do. Stand a Taut Watch. Semper Paratus."

This has been one of my favorite beers so far and I was very worried about it as the county just changed our water system over to reverse osmosis. Previously we had very hard water here is Elizabeth City, N.C., and it has lead to pretty good brews. The change had me worried that I may need to add gypsum or some other brewing minerals to my boil to help out.

Turns out I didn't need it. If you've had it leave a comment and tell me what you thought.

Now it's time to try my own recipe. 

Washington State proposes new beer tax

The State of Washington is proposing to extend permanently a currently temporary tax on breweries in the state. This tax is called the "$.50 cent a barrel tax" and was put in place in 2010 as part of a measure to increase revenue in the state during the economic downturn.

The current tax exempts breweries making less than 60,000 barrels a year in beer. The new proposal is to remove the 60,000 barrel exemption opening up the tax to all breweries in the state.

Read up more here and make your voice count.