New DC-Area Brewery

Via BeerActivist

Looks to be a new brewery coming to the DMV. Name: Rhino Chasers, after surfers who are in search of “the big wave.” Both brewers(and owners) are of the recently sold Old Dominion stock. I have always enjoyed OD beers, though I don’t think they push the envelope too much.

In my oh-but-so-humble opinion:

Their Millenium Barleywine was really estery and nice if I remember correctly. I also had their Spring Bock, which was OK. Other than that, the regulars you’d expect from any brewery (pale ale, lager, amber) were middle-of-the-road examples, well made but not standing out in any respect. 

That, I would assume, had a lot to do with whatever the company OD wanted with its beers, so it doesn’t mean that these guys won’t break out and make something unique. At least I’m assuming they will make their own beers under this “Catoctin Brewing Company” brand. Now it looks as though they will be reviving the Rhino Chasers brand, because it had already existed once in California, and marketing beers under Catoctin. I will most certainly give Rhino Chasers a try, although much like Chris at BeerActivist I’m not sure what the surfer reference means to DC. I wish them well and hope to be drinking their stuff soon. 

July 4th Saison Brewing

What better way to spend Independence Day than brewing up a batch of American homebrew? Not exactly an Ameican style, but hey, it’s a free country. 

Myself and a couple of friends avoided the DC crowds and hung around the house yesterday to brew this batch. I got some yeast from the brewers at District Chophouse, so I was expecting this to be one of my more healthy fermentations. I was right. I was wrong, though, to think I could rotate this video to be the right direction. 

 

 
So I had to make a trip to the hardware store this morning because  I woke up to my room smelling like beer, very yeasty beer. When I went in with my spare carboy in hand one of the men working there almost had a heart attack thinking I was going to drop it and shatter glass all over his store. After I assured him that I had a good hold of it I got the tube and came back to put it in the active carboy. Below are some pictures from today. Forgot to take any yesterday during the actual brewing. I’ll post my recipe up here soon. 

 

 

Bikes and Beers, A Great Mix

Bicycling.com put out a little summer article  on best Bicycle Beers. It’s a fun read just to see all the different names of beers. After all, what else could they base a “bicycling” beer on besides it’s name? Nutritional benefit? And yes, Fat Tire is on the list. 

Of course, I could be wrong. Beer DOES hydrate better than water.  So natrually it’s probably best for you to schlep a six pack in your gunny sack rather than that Evian. But then again, there’s the driving the bike part. 

Thanks to Beer Activist for finding this article.

Real World Crashers, Unite Just Not At Wonderland – DCist

A list of some places that have decided not to allow the Real World DC to film. Because I’ve never been around it, it’s hard to say what the impact of the show will be on my current ‘hood, Dupont Circle. The mansion is at 20th and S St.s NW, about three blocks west and three blocks north of my apartment. I can’t imagine it taking over a city this big, but what do I know. 

At least they won’t go near the bar closest to my place, Townhouse Tavern. At least according to The Anti-Real World DC. Quite an entertaining take on the goings-on, as the authors live across the street from the house. 

Also:

My heart goes out to anyone affected by the deadly metro crash of yesterday. Another sad reminder of how fragile we are and how many things are beyond our control.

Cisco Brewers Captain Swain’s Extra Stout

Picked up a bottle of this diddy at Whole Foods this evening and am enjoying it during The Daily Show and Colbert Report. It’s very robust. Also a nice malt complexity, but a bit too roasty for me, almost burnt in the aftertaste. The malt flavors are numerous and distinct, though, and if you read the description on their Web site it lends to that fact because apparently they use a lot of Munich and wheat malt. I’d never heard of using wheat in a stout. If they cut back a tad on the roasted barley then, for me,  it would be a very, very nice beer.

Postless

Lack of posting recently because last week I went and visited my college roommate in Wilmington, N.C. It was a very relaxing four days that included all the things I have to get when I go to N.C./The beach.

1) N.C.-style Bar-B-Que – vinegar-based, spicy and tangy with hush puppies, fried okra and red slaw (I didn’t get any red slaw this trip but subbed in some excellent potato salad) We went to a place called Jackson’s Big Oak. I highly recommend it. It’s exactly what I look for in a BBQ joint. 

2) Bojangles – If I really really want to I can get Jenna to drive me to Maryland for some Bojos, but it’s a must any time I head back. For any of you who don’t know, Bojangles is a southern chicken and biscuits chain restaurant. 

3)Flaming Amy’s - This one is Wilmington-specific. Best burrito joint I’ve ever had the pleasure of patronizing. Yes, it’s better than Chipotle.  Carrburritos in Carrboro, N.C., is way up there as well, but Carrburritos only has Mexican-style offerings, whereas Flaming Amy’s has any kind of combination you can imagine and a salsa bar. The pineapple-jalepeno salsa is a personal favorite. If I were getting Mexican-style, it would be a much tougher decision. 

4) Cheerwine – A cherry-flavored soft drink that’s available lots of places in the south, but mainly N.C. and S.C. It also originated in my hometown, Salisbury, and is still based there. I worked for those guys for a couple  of summers.  

5) A “real” beach – That’s what I call the beach in Carolina. It’s one where you can walk for miles if you want and not have to worry about running into private sections of coastline. Also one where everyone in town is wearing shorts and flip flops and the “shirt and shoes required” sign isn’t enforced. You can drive your boat to a restaurant and your bike anywhere because it’s so flat. There aren’t attractions like mini-golf and water parks, just the beach, and that’s all you need. 

Didn’t mean to get all preachy on that one. There’s just nothing like going to the beach for me. 

If I had gone home to “tha Bury” I would have gone to Hap’s Grill. It’s another one of those “best” places that no place on Earth will ever compare to for me. It’s solely hot dogs and hamburgers, and the way to get them is “all the way,” which include chili, onions and mustard. I get cheese as well. 

………..great. Now all I can think about is how much I want to get back.

SAVOR Beer and Food Pairings

Beer & Pairings.

This list is serious. Makes me really wish I had the $85 or so it took to buy a ticket to this shin dig before it was sold out. It’s one of the best beer festivals, though I don’t know how much of a “festival” it is, in the country, and it’s in DC (aka where I now live). I only say it’s not a festival because there won’t be people yelling every time some bottles are chucked into a garbage can and there won’t be pretzel necklaces and Oktoberfest hats. I’m certainly not saying it’s going to be boring or not fun, it will be. The point is I’m not going. Truly worth an FML.

Homebrew Bread

The title of this post is a little misleading. I didn’t use a homebrew in this bread. It was my first try at baking bread, and I didn’t want to potentially waste one, so I used a bottle of Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat that someone left at my apartment. I wasn’t going to drink it (not a fan personally) and the fruity, esteriness of it seemed like it would be appropriate for bread. It was. 

I got the recipe from the most recent podcast of Basic Brewing Video. It was sent in by a listener and sounded so simple it lured me to try. I would thank the listener if I could remember his name.

Here’s the deal:

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 oz of beer

The recipe actually calls for “sifted” flour, but I don’t have a flour sifter and it worked just fine. You mix the dry ingredients and beer together and then bake it somewhere between 325 and 350 degrees (I think I did it at about 335) for about an hour.

I hear this is referred to as a “quickbread” because you don’t need to let it rise or add yeast. The baking powder pretty much does the work. At about 55 minutes in, I pulled it out and spread some butter over the top and put it back in for about 10 minutes. It got a pretty good color but the consistency on the inside was slighty, and I mean very slightly, doughy. It maybe could have used another five minutes or so in the oven.

 

The end result was tasty, and you can kind of taste the estery, spiciness of the beer. It gave me enough confidence to use a homebrew in the next loaf. Will probably do one with a Hefeweizen and then in a week or so make one with an Irish Stout when it’s ready. Comparing how the two differ in taste might become a post in the near future.

“Cavs Win!”

“Cavs Win!” – ESPN Video – ESPN.

In the current issue of Sports Illustrated there is an article about the misery of Cleveland sports. The history is really pretty unbelievable. That city has been the butt of every sports joke for the last 50 or 60 years. The news anchors for the Cleveland station in the video above are referencing that article. The clip in the above link was taking place while I was writing my most previous blog entry.

Double IPA Recipe

I forget how I became aware of Tastybrew.com, but it’s a pretty sweet Web site for the amateur brewer. Now that I think about it, I came across it via a poll question on The Mad Fermentationist. The MF said he sometimes uses the site when he doesn’t have access to Pro Mash. I trust that guy because he’s in my homebrew club here in DC, and he makes really great stuff. 

Pause. The Cavs and Magic are now tied with 33.4 seconds remaining. Will resume blogging momentarily………..oh yeah, save draft………..

Oh. My. God. I just found out where amazing happens this year. LeBron is truly an MVP.

Anyway, the calculators available on Tastybrew are really fun to play around with and I get to tinkering on them trying to come up with recipes. I did this Double IPA tonight. If any of you readers (or with my blog it’s more likely “people who stumbled across this”) out there have some suggestions that might help me with this, I’d greatly appreciate it. I’ve had the most trouble in my lengthy one an a half years or so as an extract brewer with IPAs so if you have any tips on IPAs in general that would also be helpful. 

Here’s the recipe draft. I usually do a full volume boil, starting with about six gallons of water, and I set the calculator to 75 percent efficiency, which I think is how Tastybrew refers to apparent attenuation. (Not sure at which percentage I normally operate, but I figured that was pretty close.)

Double IPA
5 gallons

 

12 lbs. Light (or extra light) Liquid Malt Extract

1 lb. Crystal 60 L (steeped)
1.5 oz Centennial Pellets (60 min)
1 oz Simcoe Pellets (30 min)
1 oz. Simcoe Pellets (5 min)
½ oz Centennial Pellets (5 min)

1-2 oz Amarillo, Cascade, Simcoe or Centennial dry hops for secondary

 

Targets:

ABV: 8.1%
SRM:10
IBU: 82
OG: 1.084
FG: 1.021