Weed Ales and Lagers (Mt. Shasta Brewing Company)

A few weeks ago I went on a road trip to see my grandmother for the weekend. On the way back I decided to find a brewery to stop at for a late lunch/early dinner so that I could push through the night to get home. What a better place than to combine my love of beer and food for a brand new brewery trial. I found the Mt Shasta Brewing Company, of Weed, CA. It is located right off of the I5 and you can't miss the place. It definitely has a vintage feel and is a unique place in Norther California. 

At first walking in I was one of three customers in the bistro and right away I was offered a beer and the staff was very friendly. There were 9 different beers there and I tasted all but 2 of them. I must say, damn good beer.

The first one I tried was their Lemurian Lager. This beer is brewed like a Bohemian Pilsner, which I do not usually like because they all taste like straw, but this beer was one of the best lagers I have ever had.Clean, refreshing and delicious.

The next beer I tried was the hefeweizen finished with hemp seeds. First off I was skeptical of trying it but it was amazing! Light and refreshing with a strong finish. The hemp seed has a unique flavor, and the seed did not over power the wheaty lightness of a German hefeweizen. The beer was also quite clear implying that it is a filtered wheat.

I then tried the Weed Amber which is one of the best ambers I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased a 6 pack. It has a cool crisp finish, and not a lot of amber taste which I highly enjoy. It also has a great clear amber color.

Delivery Truck

The next one I had was the Weed Golden Ale. This one was delicious but I did not like the dry hopiness of the ale. Other than that it was damn delicious.

 This brewery I feel is amazing and the next time I pass through Weed, California, I will stop in again.

2011 Best Beers

So I just picked up the latest Zymurgy Magazine because every July/August edition has the best beers lists. How awesome is that. Well I have a few things to say about some of the lists.

The first list is the Top-Ranked Beers list

1. Russian River Pliny the Elder - A knock out!

2. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

T3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

T3. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

5. Bell’s Hopslam

6. Stone Arrogant Bastard - My Favorite

7. Sierra Nevada Celebration

T8. Sierra Nevada Torpedo

T8. Stone Ruination - Delicious

10. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - Refreshing

11. Stone Sublimely Self Righteous - No Words

12. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine

13. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

T14. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

T14. Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

T16. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA - Delicious!!!

T16. New Glarus Belgian Red

18. North Coast Old Rasputin - Great Imperial Stout

19. Bell’s Expedition Stout

T20. Deschutes The Abyss - Chewy!

T20. Left Hand Milk Stout

T20. Odell IPA

T20. Samuel Adams Noble Pils

T20. Surly Furious

T20. Troegs Nugget Nectar

T26. Rogue Dead Guy Ale - Delicious

T26. Samuel Adams Boston Lager

28. Anchor Steam - Great Beer

T29. Bear Republic Racer 5

T29. Ommegang Three Philosophers

T29. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy

T29. Three Floyds Alpha King

T29. Three Floyds Dark Lord

T34. Avery Maharaja

T34. Dogfish Head Indian Brown

T34. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron

T34. Three Floyds Gumballhead

T38. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

T38. Lost Abbey Angel’s Share

T38. New Belgium La Folie

T38. New Belgium Ranger

T38. Oskar Blues Old Chub

T43. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

T43. Great Divide Yeti

T43. New Belgium 1554

T43. Russian River Blind Pig

T43. Ska Modus Hoperandi

T48. Alesmith Speedway Stout

T48. Dark Horse Crooked Tree

T48. Green Flash West Coast IPA

T48. Summit EPA

T48. Victory Prima Pils

I must say that I was not surprised to see Pliny the Elder winning again for the third year in the row. I must say that I was not surprised to see only a few Oregon breweries on this list but I was also surprised how low some of the Oregon breweries scored. I know that Oregon has the most breweries per capita and coming in at a whopping 93 breweries in the state! One reason I believe that more beers are not on this list are because a lot of the breweries do not commercialize their beers. This I believe most of the breweries do not want to go big like Samuel Adams(Boston Brewing) who just had their microbrewery status revoked because Sam Koch got a large head like Sam Caligione that arrogant prick.

Anyways as you can see I added in a few comments of the beers I have had and I need to get my hands on the rest. The Pliny I am unable to find around Portland. Anyone know where to get it?

The Wandering Monk

So, after a 2 month hiatus from brewing due to many a weddings and the activities that go along with weddings, I have decided to get back to brewing. During my hiatus I found a book called Beer Craft. In this book it is written by people like me who brew in an apartment. These people brew up one gallon of all grain batches and so I decided to double a recipe for a 2 gallon batch of a Belgian Abbey Ale or more commonly known as a Dubbel. These recipes are also all all grain. SO I can move on to all-grain brewing but in small batches with all the equipment that I have without buying new stuff for 5 gallon batches.

The Wandering Monk
5lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
1lb Munich malt
8oz Special B
4oz Biscuit malt

20g Fuggle Hops
8oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup

Pre-boil TG: 1.046


I am brewing this up tomorrow so I will let you all know what happens and how it turns out as the process goes on!

Well so far brewing has gone well. I mashed at 154 for 1 hour. Pre-boil gravity was 1.044 so I cannot complain with it being close to the target gravity.

The boil has started and my Fuggles have been thrown in. I have started to put everything into nylon and fine mesh bags to reduce the amount of extra nonsense that has come into my beer.

Everything went well! The beer is in the fermenter and yeast is pitched. We will give it a few weeks and see what happens! It is fermenting beautifuly. Gravity not where I want it to be so the Monk will sit for a few more days.

Well after 10 days in the secondary, the beer is delicious but it definitely needs some bottle conditioning time. The beer has a potential alcohol content of around 6.8%. At first tasting it is a little thinner than I had hoped but we shall see after about 1 month of bottle conditioning.

The Root Colbeer

Well I know this isn't beer to go with my miniature brewery that I got going on in my small apartment, but since my lady doesn't like real beer I made root beer. So I really had no clue how to make a root beer so I went to Brew Brothers and milled around the two soda making books that exist. As it so happens that same weekend the two brewing proprietors were out of town and they had some loyal customers as helpers. I got to talking with one guy and he said that he made something closer to sarsaparilla. I ended up getting

7.8oz of sarsaparilla root
5 vanilla beans - whole
5 star anise

with the hopes of finding some sassafras root which I will have to venture to the east coast to find it. It grows naturally over there. Also apparently it is carcinogenic so it is not allowed for mass sale in the US. Anyways I ended up getting some root beer extract to cover the sassafras flavor.

After doing some research I did find that the sassafras root give root beer it's rootness. So because I had to find to go with the root beer extract I was a little disappointed in the fact I couldn't find the sassafras root.

Put 3 gallons of water into stockpot.

After steeping my stuff in around 140F degree water, for 80 minutes, at around half way I added in 2 tablespoons of the root beer extract to my root beer mash. When all that was done with the boil and all I put it in one of my beer primary buckets and added water up to 5 gallons. then transferred with my AutoSiphon into my keg. Now I am just waiting for it to cool so that I can force carbonate the bad boy!

Well after force carbonation this guy is delicious. It does not taste like commercial root beer which is fine with me. The carbonation is low which is alright with me. Now maybe I shall see what it tastes like with  ice cream in it foe root beer floats!

Kegs! Oh how sweet it is

Well so I have ventured into kegging...

5 gallon keg

I found some cheap kegs on craigslist or at least a certain craigslist sleuth I know found them for me. I picked up two pin-lock kegs for 60 bucks. The difference between the pin-lock and ball-lock or Corny kegs was the posts. As you can see the picture I posted you can see some little pins on the side and they will hold the accessories on with a simple push-and-twist.  The ball lock posts act like airhose fittings and snap on easier. The reason the two kegs have different posts is because Coke and Pepsi didn't want their kegs to be able to interact with each other. I understand why but hell, it's stupid. A keg is a keg and these pin locks will work just fine for me.


Anyways, I went to Main Street to pick up my keg set up and with it I got all the hoses, the connectors, another 5 gallon keg, a Picnic-style tap, a 5lb CO2 cylinder, regulator, and for a few extra bucks a gas manifold that will let me gasify two kegs with out having to daisy-chain the kegs together. How cool is that! It is identical to the picture below.

I am quite excited for this. Eventually I will add onto it for a 4 keg gasifier or manifold. These things aren't cheap but for now I can move back and forth between kegs. I can also use the kegs to force carbonate my beer and then see about moving to growlers for people or maybe bottling? We shall see how it turns out. All in all the investment into kegging was not as cheap as I thought it would be. The kegs were 30 bucks apiece and the manifold was 33 bucks. There are some other ones out there but they cost about 40 bucks apiece and I will eventually purchase one or build one. We shall see. The CO2 tank will only cost 12 bucks for a trade in. How awesome is that! I am pretty stoked.

Th only problem I will have with kegging is that I do not have a way to keep my kegs cool yet. I am not made of money for beer making but we shall see where this leads me. So those of you who come over for a beer and it comes from the keg, no bitching that it isn't cold. You will get either the finger or a 'bugger off.'

Well UPDATE: When I ventured into the kegs I figured that I would be able to have carbonated beer at a warmer temperature. Oh how I was wrong. It turns out that when you force carbonate the carbonation is not the same as when you use corn sugar to carbonate in bottles. SO to be able to kep the carbonation I am going to have to figure out a way to keep my damn kegs cool. I am debating if it would be cost effective to construct a Jockey Box into which my kegs can go anywhere with cold beer. PoorHouse Jockey Box  I figure I could make an even more elaborate one but I figure Ill go cheap for a while maybe even see if I could make a double jockey box with a small ice chest.

Rogue Public House and Brewery

So this is one of my favorite places to go when I am on a brewery tour or just wanting some good Oregon local food. This place also has some amazing beers. Not only do they have up to 20 beers on tap they usually have one to three rotating taps of something special they have brewed up that doesn't usually go to bottle. Also when I visit here I usually have at least one tasting flight and 3-5 pints.

Rogue Brewing Website

I always love the Dead Guys because it's light and delicious. I also have been enjoying Barley wines lately. These are usually malty and delicious with big aftertastes and lots of flavors. Usually very light on hops. I also make it a point to try something new every single time therefore I can have a great rounded view on their beers and not just a limited view. They also almost always have some sort of a seasonal beer that is just as delicious as the rest of their beers.

Another detectible fact about the Rogue is that they try to use the freshest and the most local ingredients that they can use. They use Kobe Beef and homemade cheese from the Rogue Creamery. Damn near as good as the Tillamook cheeses but the best part is this cheese is from Rogue therefore making it that much more delicious.

Bollocks! English Ale 2.0

Alright so since my Bollocks ale was liked by many and seemed to be a hit, I decided to make it again. This time with a slight adjustment to my Carastan malt. I wanted a hint more toffee flavor and kept the rest of the flavors the same. Still this beer will mimic that from something across the pond. Since I literally just pitched the yeast there will still be more to come about this Sweet Brew.

 9lbs Breiss Light Liquid Malt Extract

10oz Carasan/Carastan 30/37

4oz English Crystal 70-80L

4oz Special Roast

2.0oz Fuggles @60min (6.0 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @15min (4.1 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @10min
.25oz Fuggles @ 7min (5.2Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @5min

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @1min


 1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 min
1/2tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @10


WLP 005 British Ale Yeast


Just transferred to my secondary. Gravity at 1.022 Can't wait to get this one into my first keg! The beer is delicious. Toffee flavors are excellent. Has a great slight bready taste and the beer is delicious. 


Just kegged this bad boy and the final gravity came in at 1.020. So now the PSI is set to 32 and force carbonation is in effect. So tomorrow night we shall check out the progress and then Monday afternoon it should be ready for drinking!

It came out great! I am really excited as to how well balanced this beer came out to be. The toffee tones are a little more pronounced yet still subtle. Anyways the beer is delicious and as you can see it is light brown and really clear, well the lighting isn't the greatest but it is still good. So we just had a heat wave and the beer now has a delicious banana bread aroma that is so enticing I drank 2 tankards full.

Tattoo 'N Brew

So I know no one cares but since this past weekend I was at a wedding for some dear friends of mine and decided that my next blog post will focus on beer and bliss. My friends that finally got married and they had kegs of decent beer at their wedding. I think I have decided that it would be fun to have small kegs of rotating taps. This way I could have a few people bring beer that they made or smaller doses of amazing beer to drink up at my wedding. Or I could just brew the beer for my own wedding and people have to deal with whatever I make. :) A benefit of home brewing is that whoever comes over has to deal with your tastes. This is nice because you can get people to drink what you like and hopefully convert them. With the Corny kegs you could get at least 3-6 different types of beer distributed on 2 taps. With about 40 beers a keg damn, there could be one nice beer tasting event.

I also realized I have not brewed a batch of beer in almost a month. Depressing. I just have had no time with wedding activities and work. I do think I will have to make some time ad maybe do some early morning brewing. I also a going to begin kegging my beers so this should bump up production.

So this is my new tattoo. As you can see it needs some more work. Shading and some red/orange tips. This is a tattoo I designed myself.

Bailing Wire

My third beer gadget that I love that does not require batteries is bailing wire. I use bailing wire to make a handy thermometer holder to regulate the temperature during the mash, I have used it to make a third hand when I brew alone and need to strain something, or anything else that need tie together or whatever. I know some people will disagree with me, call it unsanitary, or flat out white trash but I see it as using my ingenuity and ways to find gadgets without spending a lot of money. (Check out PoorHouse Brewing for other ideas on how to make things smartly and cheaply. Hop Spider post is one that I refer to.)

Honestly, I have found that with beer brewing people use whatever they can to make their brewing experience as practical as it can be and what works for them. When it comes to the brewing process the basics are the same but what is used can be different. When it comes to the three tier systems there are many many different setups. Some people set up a linear three tier system. Some people has fully automated their brewing setup and some people have fully automated a whole set up to where they just add in the grains. Some systems have it to where even the hop schedule is automated.

What works and doesn't work for you?

Beer Savers

So I know I have been plugging some beer gadgets but this one is another one of my top 5 gadgets so far. They are called the Beer Savers. These silicone babies act like bottle caps for those nights where you might not want to finish that 22 ouncer or 12 ounce bottle. I use them a lot when I pick up a 22 ouncer that I want to split between 2 nights.

Beer Savers come in many colors

Anyways back to my product plugging, these fellas are great. They have kept a beer fresh for me for up to 3 days! Still carbonated. The only problem I have with the damn things is my cats have turned 5 of them into chew toys. Why they decided to do that I have no clue, but for only $7.99 you can get yourself a half dozen of them and for $14.99 you can get yourself a dozen of them. I would recommend getting the half dozen.

Beer Savers Website

They come in many different colors and are dishwasher safe. These make for great stocking stuffers for when the Holiday season rolls around. These also make great gifts for the beer enthusiast, your old man, or the guy who likes to cover his beer with tin foil or saran wrap because he can never finish a beer. Well let us consider this my number 2 of Mikey T's Top 5 Beer Gadgets.

Decap-N-Catcher

So while I was at Portland's Spring Beer and Wine festival, a man was walking around with a plaque. The unique quality of this plaque was that it was a bottle opener. It mounts right onto your refrigerator and will hold a week's worth of bottle caps around 12-15 caps. Best 20 bucks I have ever spent. The mystery behind this wonderful gadget is that there are no batteries and it used powerful magnets to stay on your fridge and hold the caps.

The inventor of this device is local here in Portland and ships them all over the country. This would be great for those of you who get bottle caps all over the place or put them in drawers or like to fold them up and leave them on the floor for your fiancé to step on.

 

Here is my DeCap-n-Catcher in use. As you can see there are caps there. 

DeCap - N - Catcher

What is your favorite beer gadget?

I Bocked Mai Taxes of 2011

So I started out with a clone recipe to make the wonderful Rogue Dead Guy ale. First off, Rogue brewery makes one hell of a beer no matter what they are making. They have over a dozen or more different types of beer. I also was making this beer around Income Tax season so I figured this higher ABV beer would be a great way to celebrate the receiving a payment from Big Brother for a change.

I started out researching this clone recipe but could not fin enough consistencies so I just walked into Brew Brothers and their knowledgeable staff has a recipe that I followed to some extent. I did want some more malty character to it and a little more hop bite. Not a lot of hop bite but some. So I eventually used the following recipe:

6.5 pounds Golden Light LME
2.5 pounds Munich LME
1.25 pouns Carastans 30/37
1.6 ounces Perle @ 60
1.25 ounces Saaz @0

Mashed at 155 for 30 minutes then added the malt extract. Boiled for 60 minutes and followed the hop schedule.

I used my Wyeast 1056 slurry or Rogue Pacman in this beer and holy guacamole. This yeast is by far my favorite.

OG 1.078
FG 1.017
ABV (potential) 8.0 felt like a 7.3

After comparing the two, the clone is very very close to the brewery's Dead Guy. This beer does not have much meat to it but that's what makes it so drinkable. It goes down smooth and kicks you in the butt. I think next time this one might have some more malt. Maybe a double dead guy???


What's your favorite Rogue beer?

The coveted Blasphemy Blue Wheat

Now the most coveted of Mikey T's beers will be blogged about but unfortunately the recipe will not be shared but with only the most trustworthy people....as Stone's Arrogant Bastard's motto goes,



“You aren't worthy!”

(I am being serious)

So my inspiration for this beer which I have dubbed, the Blasphemy Blue Wheat, ABV of about 5.5%, came from the beer world's lack of blueberry flavored beers and my love for blueberry flavored things. THe blueberry ales seemed lacking so I decided to go with a blueberry wheat. People love raspberry wheats so why not a blueberry one?

I started with a German hefeweizen recipe and worked my way from there. When I first made this beer it was not blueberry season and I was not able to get fresh blueberries so I used extract. The blueberry flavor comes from tastings as the beer ferments and grows. Therefore I cannot accurately give measurements but have some idea of them on paper. (Computer stored recipes can be hacked and therefore stolen so I have coded all my recipes so that I can decipher them.) HAHA Since then the beer has just gotten better and better to where it has been described as “nectar from the gods with a hint blueberry” to just “blueberry beer deliciousness.” So I haven't decided if I want to use fresh blueberries or not yet. I cannot get the beer to turn blue it has more of a purplish/golden twinge to it. Since this beer has become more popular I will not share the recipe with you guys unless you are a professional brewer who wants to commercially produce this or you are a local brewery wanting to try something new. (10 Barrel you should attempt this one. You guys have balls the size of Jupiter and go out on a limb often with your beers. Let's make a deal for this one!)

For those who want some pointers and tips on wanting to make this beer let me know and I will glad help out. I will NOT share the recipe. If you want and I have some on hand I am more than willing to share a bottle with you!

Bollocks! It's English Ale!

So my love for the beer from across the pond has shown through. My inspiration has come from Fuller's 1845 beer which I think is one of the best beers from across the pond. My next across the pond adventure inspiration will be a hard cider.

I went into the recipe process to find out all that I could about English beer. I found out that most have pronounced bread and toffee flavors. The pronounced toffee flavors come from the Carasan/Carastan British 30/37L malt. This is a flavor I highly enjoy. To get the bready flavors I did not want them to be too pronounced but still noticeable, I used the Special Roast.

The recipe is as follows:

O/G 1.078

F/G 1.016

ABV 5.4% my scale says 8.1% but after drinking it's definitely not that high in alcohol content.

IBU: 30

SRM: 15

9lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract

8oz Carasan/Carastan 30/37

4oz English Crystal 70-80L

4oz Special Roast

2.0oz Fuggles @60min (6.0 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Goldings @15min (5.7 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Goldings @10min

.5oz Goldings @5min

.5oz Goldings @1min

1 Whilfoc tablet at 15

½ tsp of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @10

Since none of the malts were enzymatic, I just steeped the grains in 3 gallons of water until they hit 180°F and then added malt extract. Then when the boil started I followed the hop schedule and at the end of the boil I ice bathed the wort in 30lbs of ice water in my bath tub. After 25 minutes the wort temperature was down to 68°F and I pitched my yeast. I used the WLP 005 or London Ale yeast.

After fermentation was complete and I transferred to my secondary to let the rest of the nonsense drop, I bottled. Then I bottle conditioned the beer for two weeks at around 69°F and enjoyed. The toffee flavors after tasting are not as pronounced as I'd like but next time that will be fixed. The yeast definitely gives off a drier finish to the beer. This is consistent with most British ales. This beer when shared with people has been highly popular and everyone has loved it.

Ode to Lindsay Wheat

This wheat beer is a Belgian White Wheat style. The inspiration for this came from some of my cousins' love of Blue Moon and my family's attachment to oranges.
So add in the Orange Blossom honey and voila! delicious beer. This beer is still in the secondary  fermenter.

The recipe is as follows:
5.2 pounds of Golden Liquid Malt Extract
1.3 pounds of Wheat malt extract
1.25 pounds flaked wheat
1.0 pounds European two-row
.83 oz Hallertau Mittlefrueh @61 minutes
.83 oz Fuggles @15min
.25 Hallertau Mittlefrueh @12min
.83 oz Hallertau Mittlefrueh @ 1 minute
1.0 pounds Orange Blossom Honey @1minute
.5tsp Wyeast Nutrient @10
WLP 400

Original Gravity: 1.056
Estimated ABV: 5.4%
Mash grains for 30 minutes at 155
Add in malt extract bring to boil and follow hop schedule.
Pitched yeast at 72 degrees. Transferred to secondary after 7 days and second fermentation started. Gravity at 1.031

Still in fermenter....watching beer ferment is like watching grass grow or paint dry.

Racked the beer a second time for more stuff to fall down. When I racked it a first time a second vigorous fermentation started. SO we will see what happens now...

Well I was finally able to bottle this bad boy. 34 12 ouncers and 5 22's. Beautiful. 5.4% in the end.

It looks copper in this picture but I had some other not so great pictures and I think there is an orangeish tint to this fella. The beer turned out well. Now we will give it a few weeks to condition and crack it open and garnish with an orange slice.

First post!

The name comes from my love of Scooby Doo. Also I am an avid cartoon watcher and home brewer. 

So after talking with an old friend and figuring that I want to share my brewing experience with people and the amount of people who love my Blueberry Wheat I should blog about my brewing experiences....Well starting after 22 batches of beer.... I have made many different batches of beer but I must say that any beer I have made with the Rogue Pacman yeast is amazing. Thanks to my cousin Randy (BTW checkout his blog http://poorhousebrewing.blogspot.com) he has shared some great tips with brewing ideas. For those who are all about sustainability save some of your yeast slurry into a 1qt Mason jar and save yourself 6 bucks a batch! Anyways I have most recipes posted at hopville and you should check that site out for helping with recipe creation. I stumbled upon that site with the help of the guys at Main Street Homebrew. (Check them out)

Main Street has a great selection of ingredients and bottled and kegged beers. The staff is very knowledgeable.

Anyways let's stay tuned for more.....