Pittsburgh Beer Scene Part 2

Continuing the beery travelogue on our recent trip to the Pittsburgh area.  If you missed my previous post, check it out HERE.

Day two of our trip to Ligonier found us eating a wonderful breakfast bread pudding and sipping pumpkin spiced lattes at Thistledown B&B, located right along the quaint main street.  Ligonier is a small town at the site of an old French and Indian War English fort (which has been rebuilt as a very cool interactive museum).  With the classic town diamond with white gazebo band shell, tons of small cafes, galleries, and antique stores, this place is unstuck in time.  With slight breeze blowing falling leaves around the streets, and an Indian Summer warming sun, this was a truly beautiful and relaxing place to wander around.  The only negative?  Very little is open Sunday through Tuesday, making our timing here a bit problematic.  So what else to do but go back to Pittsburgh for some more beer tourism!

Mayberry?  Or Ligonier, PA?

This time driving in the daytime, we were able to see and appreciate the hills and valleys (hollows) covered with large trees currently in the process of dropping brilliant yellow and orange leaves upon us.  Coming from the very flat areas of Minnesota this terrain was quite a change for me, and reminded Sj of the mountain near where she grew up in Alabama.  We passed through several small towns on our way into Pittsburgh proper.

Our first stop was Arsenal Cider House, named after the Allegheny Arsenal, in the suburb of Lawrenceville.  This is very close to Roundabout and Hop Farm Brewing, so one could get to all of them in a short time.  Located in a small red house across from a large church, we found this place difficult to find at first since there was no visible sign.  Upon cautiously entering we found a small, rustic interior with burned and distressed pine woodwork and rich wall colors.  Civil War era pictures and memorabilia lined walls and shelves.  A small tasting bar filled with taps and wooden casks formed the focus for the small taproom.  When we arrived right after 11 AM opening, there was a large tour group ahead of us finishing up with their tasting.  Another group was just finishing a tour and switched places with the current crowd...so much for hitting the taproom before they got busy!  We barreled (no pun!) our way into line and were able to each taste a thimble sized paper cup of 4 different fermented beverages each for free. 

This place makes really good cider!  They had strong wine-like ciders and meads, some made from cherries and blueberries, as well as some more traditional dry and semi-sweet hard ciders.  Some were oak aged to add complexity and tannins.  Probably my favorite was the oak aged blueberry wine that was the best blueberry fermented beverage I have ever had!  We ended up ordering a glass apiece and watching the chaotic taproom tour group from our little table near the back of the tasting room.  Did I mention the amazing tap handles shaped like pistols and skeletal hands grasping fruit?  I risked TSA body cavity search in order to bring one of those pistols home in my luggage!  I love what these guys are doing, and hope that they expand from growler and tap sales to bottles so I can get some sent to me.  The only thing I would suggest is to add a sign to the questionably marked taproom...

After our strong cider/wine, we were in need of sustenance.  A nice walk from the cidery was one of the more unique brewpubs I've ever visited: The Church Brew Works.  And yes, we made lots of jokes about sitting in a pew on Sunday!  This large brewpub is located in the 1902 St. John's the Baptist church, reminding me of a massive church bookstore we saw in Maastricht, Netherlands earlier this year.  I had heard mixed things about the beers, but had to check it out myself.  They won two GABF medals in 2012, so how bad could it be? 

This place is enormous.  A small brew system occupies the pulpit, with fermentation/serving tanks behind the long bar to the left of this picture.  I'm not so sure about the tawdry yellow flags and signs though--it seems to detract from the majesty of this place.  They also had un ugly yellow bopping hot air driven promo thing outside that I associate with cut-rate used car lots.  It was crowded but not insane and our service was accurate and fast.  As with most of Pittsburgh, a ton of folks were sporting their Steelers gear and a somewhat rowdy table next to us were watching the game through an iPhone.  That town has some serious sports team pride! 

We had a pretty good pizza with wild boar and BBQ sauce made with one of their beers along with a side order of terribly cooked fries.  Sj and I shared a sampler of all their beers.  This was a mixed bag--some were good, others not as thrilling.  None were outright terrible, but overall they reminded me of the brewpub beer quality from the early 1990's.  My favorite was actually the light lager since it was the cleanest of the bunch.  I have a hard time believing that these beers won GABF medals, but I know that things can change batch to batch and possibly brewer to brewer.  I tried to look up some details on the brewer, but the garish bright blue website didn't have any information.  I would certainly recommend checking this place out, but I found several better places for beer even in the same suburb. 

Ok, I decided to add a third entry to this travelogue and am including more on Ligonier and the Eastern outskirts of Pittsburgh in that one... Coming up soon!

Steve Piatz Mead Talk

Ok, I know the blog has been a little light on beer stuff recently, so here is a little write-up on the meadmaking class that Steve Piatz gave at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last weekend.  I actually hadn't realized that the Arboretum had so many adult education classes, but since Sj joined up this summer I've learned a lot more about them.  I have also been taking little field trips out to take pictures (as anyone who has been watching my 30 Word Thursday posts will know!) 



Found this busy guy in the gardens at the Arboretum...

For those who don't know who Steve is, he is a highly educated and intelligent retired engineer who just happens to be one of the foremost authorities on making mead.  He is one of the highest ranked BJCP judges in the world and in 2008 was awarded Meadmaker of the Year at NHC.  So this guy knows his stuff!  Oh, and he's also a really nice guy who is willing to share his expertise with others.

This fine morning we met at the Arboretum Learning Center early in the morning to set up everything for the talk.  There were two levels of the class: those who learned and tasted meads, and those who also got to make their own 1 gallon mead recipe to take home. 

Once folks arrived, Steve jumped into a great lecture on the history of mead.  Many people in the class were homebrewers and others were beekeepers looking into another use for their honey.  Every 15 minutes or so Mike B., Paul D., and myself would pour commercial and homemade meads to the group.  I have to say that Steve's meads were better than all of the commercial examples!  We tried traditional meads, fruit meads, metheglins (spiced meads), Pyments (grape meads), and even a fantastic fortified port-like mead from White Winter called Black Harbor.  While people were sipping on their newest mead, Steve would continue with the talk and also give a quick explanation of each mead we were tasting. 

Commercial meads

Eventually we moved into the hands-on part of the class.  This got a little chaotic between continued mead tasting, talk, and actually making of the mead.  Luckily the fine spouses of Mike, Paul, and Steve all jumped in to help out and we were able to handle everything well.  Special thanks should also go to Midwest Homebrewing Supplies for helping out with ingredients and equipment. 

Steve Piatz waxes poetic about his passion: mead!

By the end of the lecture more than half the group had a gallon bucket of mead to take home, and everyone was quite happy having tried a great grouping of meads.  I'm glad that I was invited to help out because I learned quite a bit during the talk!  I've made some meads myself, but am looking to up my game, and I think this will help.  I have already invested in a couple big gallon jugs of honey and have started a one gallon batch of cranberry blossom honey from the local Minnesota Honey Company in Minneapolis.

A quick plug for Steve's new book:  I bought a copy and am about half way through it.  Lots of good info in here and very useful recipes and techniques...not the usual vague stuff that is in many of the older mead books.  Buy one from Amazon here. 

Make An Easy Mead!

OK, I've been doing the arty 30 Word Thursdays for the past two posts and am neglecting the beer info!  Between travel and then a bout of illness, I have fallen behind.  I thought today I'd do a quick post about mead making. 

For those who haven't been exposed to meads before, they are a wine made of honey as the fermentable instead of grapes.  Interestingly mead has been grouped with homebrewing for ages, and only more recently has it been included in more wine oriented media.  We homebrewers will take the orphaned and obscure fermented beverages without complaints!  The first mead I ever had was the old super sweet mead that had a knight on the label and came with a packet of spices to mull with the warmed drink.  It was less than impressive and I subsequently ignored meads for about 10 years.  Upon getting involved in the burgeoning homebrew community in Minnesota I discovered that several of the AHA Meadmaker Of The Year winners were from the area.  We had Curt Stock out to my house around that time to give a presentation on making fruit meads and this really started me off on wanting to try this for myself.

Making a mead is easy, but making a great mead is difficult.  I'm going to go over a basic recipe here for starters.  I have won a few medals for meads at smaller competitions like Byggvir's Big Beer Cup, but by no means am I a famous mead maker.  Consider this a beginner's essay.  Following these directions, making a mead will take under an hour of hands-on time--much quicker than even a stove-top extract homebrew.  Make sure to still follow good rules of cleaning and sanitation, though the honey and the high alcohol content of meads are a bit more forgiving than with beer.

1) Find yourself some honey.
This is honestly the toughest part of mead making.  A 5 gallon batch of mead will require 12-18 pounds of honey, and it can be hard to find in bulk like that.  With the recent colony collapse disorder honey prices have risen somewhat steeply as well, so a gallon (12#) jug of honey is likely to cost over $40.  When you compare this the cost of a wine kit at the local homebrew shop it isn't that crazy.  The quality of the honey can have a big impact on the resulting mead as well, so ideally try to learn where your honey is from and what flowers the bees were using.  Most commercial mass produced honey is blended from multiple sources and as a result is fairly plain/generic in flavor.  The most sought after honeys for mead making are tupelo and orange blossom (good luck finding them in Minnesota).  Each single source honey has a unique flavor, and some are better for meads than others...experiment!  Northern Brewer and Midwest both have some honey available in a pinch, but your best bet is finding someone who raises bees and make a deal with them.  I was lucky enough this year to find one of my work-mates who is raising bees and he brought me 12 pounds of his fresh honey.  I'm assuming it is wildflower (a mix of various sources of nectar for the bees).

12 pounds of honey awaiting the magic of fermentation

2) To heat or not to heat.
Most old recipes call for either boiling or at least pasteurizing honey for making mead.  Based on years of experience (and more from all those great local meadmakers) this is not worth doing and actually results in a loss of flavor and aroma particles.  Honey is essentially sterile, so there is really no need to boil it.  You may need to heat it if there has been crystallization, either by direct heat or adding a small amount of near-boiling water.  Crystallized honey is just fine, but does make this step more involved.  In fact most sellers of honey will be unable to sell their crystallized honey for as much and will often give you a deal on buying this from them.

3) Just add water.
You can use any water for this, but there are some caveats.  If you don't like the taste of your tap water, don't us it.  Mine tastes like a swimming pool due to added chloramines, so I use bottled spring water.  I wouldn't use distilled, as the yeast will need some calcium and other ions to grow and function correctly.  I usually add my honey (room temp or warmed if needed) to a 5 gallon brewing pail, mainly to use the estimated volume measurements on the side.  For 12 pounds of honey I will usually add water to get up to a total of 4 gallons.  This will leave you with a sweet to semi-sweet mead depending on your yeast and fermentation.  The typical store bought kits will recommend 12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch, but this nearly always finishes very dry and not as honey-like as most people expect--think honey champagne. 

4) Stir.
Doing this with a spoon is a pain, especially if your honey is pretty firm.  I use a paint mixer attachment for my drill.  My wife likes to tease me that the only reason I bought a drill at all was to mix mead and grind grain.  She is correct.  With this method of stirring you can make sure the honey is completely dissolved in the water, rather than clumped up on the bottom of your bucket.  This also adds enough oxygen to the mixture (or must) for good yeast health.

5) Take your vitamins.
One of the biggest advancements in mead making over the last several years has been an increased understanding of yeast health.  Honey has tons of sugars for the yeast to break down and turn into alcohol, but lacks a lot of the micronutrients and free amino nitrogen (FAN) that are supplied by beer wort and most fruit juices.  As a result, adding nutrients for proper yeast health and energy is the way to go.  I use a mix of 2/3 DAP and 1/3 Fermaid K, mixed to that ratio and stored in a spice jar.  This mix supplies the needed nitrogen as well as other minerals and nutrients needed.  I use 3/4 tsp of this mixture at the initial stirring step.  I do another 24 hours after the fermentation begins.  Another at 48 hours.  And one final dose at about 2 weeks, or when fermentation is slowing down.  This stepped addition will keep supplying nutrients to yeast when it needs it the most--during active fermentation.  The stirring process at these times will also add more needed oxygen and whip out the accumulating CO2.  Mead is not as sensitive to oxygen as beer, so you can feel safe about doing this.  Prior to using this method meads often stopped fermenting early resulting in overly sweet product, as well as resulting in stressed out yeast that led to more off-flavors in the final mead.

6) Take your temperature.
I use one of those temperature strips stuck on the outside of the bucket to keep a basic measurement of the fermenting must.  This isn't incredibly accurate, but prevents extra opening of the lid risks of letting infection in.  Keep the fermentation temperature on the lower side, as higher tends to give you more of those rocket-fuel or paint-thinner flavors.  I aim for mid-60's.

7) Yeast!
I use 2 packets of Lalvin 71b-1122 (Narbonne Strain.)  Rehydrate your yeast per packet instructions in warm water.  This prevents shock to the yeast if added directly to the sugary must.  Some people add Go-Ferm at this step to give those yeast a little nutrient kick.  I do that when I remember to.  After about 15 minutes add the yeast to your must and you are good to go.  You can experiment with different yeasts, but many beer yeasts will not fully attenuate a higher gravity mead.

Rehydrating yeast getting ready to ferment some honey

8) Transfer to secondary.
I usually leave the fermenting mead in the bucket for 2-4 weeks before transfer to a glass secondary.  By then the majority of fermentation will be done, but if there is still a fair amount of active bubbling in the airlock--leave it for a bit longer.  I use a glass secondary mainly so I can see how clear the mead is getting, and I'll leave it in there for a few months to finish fermenting and to clear.  I find that young mead often has a sulfur-like note that fades with some time in a secondary. 

9) Tinker.
Most meads done this way will be drinkable, but not all will turn out exactly as you want.  The magic and the skill in mead making lies in what you do after fermentation and clearing has occurred.  Back sweetening, blending, adding flavorings, tinkering with acid levels, are all options at this point.  I'm not going into that advanced stuff here, but know that there is plenty more you can do after the fact to make your mead into something better.

10) Bottle or keg. 
I put mine in beer bottles and keep them in a Tupperware container.  Meads have a propensity to start refermenting in the bottle, resulting in popped corks and exploding bottles.  Following specific gravities from start to finish may help prevent this, but since many still have residual sugar it could be an issue if warmed.  Kegs don't run this risk, but I don't pour meads by the pint so I rarely serve them this way.  If you want carbonation, the keg is the way to go. 

Beyond that, the sky is the limit.  Add fruit and you have melomel.  Add grape juice and you have pyment.  Add malt and you have braggot.  Add herbs and you get metheglin.  Add cider and you get cyser.  Not to mention experimenting with dry, semi-sweet, and sweet meads of differing alcohol content!  And then trying different types of honey to mix things up!  Also if the honey cost is prohibitive to do such large quantities, try a one gallon batch with about 3 pounds of honey for starters.  Meads are not just for Renaissance Festivals anymore!