Barrel Adventures

In January of 2015, at the Upper Mississippi Mash Out, one of the biggest and baddest homebrew competitions around, I ended up talking to another beer judge Scot Schaar.  Scot is a distiller for the Mississippi River Distilling Company out of LeClaire, Iowa.  The distillery opened in 2010, and Scot has been bringing bottles of their spirits for the UMMO charity silent auction for years.  I've always wondered what the whiskey tasted like, but have never gone out of my way to look for it.  That year, I discovered that Scot had brought some small used oak barrels with him on this trip and that a few had not been claimed.  So I found myself in a chilly darkened parking lot hefting a heavy oaken barrel while my wife (giving me a significantly dirty look) handed this fine fellow a wad of cash.  On the barrel head so to speak...

The barrel is a 15 gallon oaken affair that previously held the Cody Road Rye Whiskey for approximately 14 months.  The rye grain for this spirit is grown in Illinois (my home state).  Typical larger producers of whiskeys and bourbons use 55 gallon barrels, but with the advent of smaller craft distilleries they've started using smaller barrels as well.  These are much more accessible to us homebrewers since we don't have to brew up 55 gallons of beer to fill one!  One reason distilleries use these smaller barrels is their increased surface area to volume ratio:  a smaller barrel has more spirit in direct contact with the oaken walls.  This results in faster color and  flavor transfer from the oak into the spirit.  Single malt Scotch is usually aged for 10+ years since they're using already "used" American bourbon or whiskey barrels.  So by using a smaller freshly charred barrel, distilleries can get a drinkable spirit out to market without waiting for 3-5 years.  This particular barrel was crafted at The Barrel Mill in close-by Avon, Minnesota from North American white oak.

What to use to fill this special barrel?  I went with an old stand-by, the only beer I brew every year: Olde Meconium Imperial Stout.  I've used oak chips and cubes in this beer before with mixed results, but have always wanted to try it in a genuine barrel to see if the results would differ.  My usual batch size for this beer is 6 gallons and it pushes the very limits of capacity for my 10 gallon brew system.  Olde Meconium is my most challenging beer to brew and I had no desire to brew it three times to fit in the barrel!  Luckily I managed to talk my friend and fellow Jack Of All Brews member Mike Lebben into helping me out.  Both of us did a modified version of the beer, adding some dry malt extract to the boil to be able to do an 8 gallon batch each.

This was the first time I had brewed since the previous November, and after new shelving had been built in my garage.  As a result, I spent a fair amount of time digging out equipment, refilling propane tanks, etc.  Not my smoothest or quickest batch ever.  I hit pretty close to my goal gravity though.  Fermentation went well, split between two carboys.  The 5 gallon batch I fermented with American ale yeast, and the 3 gallon batch with Nottingham ale yeast.  I've brewed this beer with both and thought combining the two might give me a flavor profile somewhere in between the two.  And I had those yeast already in my fridge, so why not?

One week in, Mike and I got together to fill the barrel up.  I found a spot for it under the stairs in the basement where it would be out of the way and have fairly consistent cool temperatures.  Both of our batches were still fermenting slightly with bubbles coming every 5-10 seconds, but I was concerned about how dry the barrel was getting and didn't want to wait much longer before filling it.  Once we added the beer--right up to the bung--it started to foam out at us!  I hooked up an improvised blow-off tube to avoid Imperial stout all over the walls!

After about 8 weeks in the barrel we tasted it and decided it was time to take out the beer.  The hardest part of that process?  Trying to lift the full barrel up high enough to siphon beer out of it!  My friend Rob Wengler helped me muscle it up on top of my kegerator for this event, risking hernia for the sake of beer!  Rob and I had actually brewed an English brown porter in the intervening weeks and that beer was ready to add now.  We moved the now lighter empty barrel back to its home in the closet and added our porter.  I did not rinse the barrel, wanting to keep what little whiskey character remained for this second and much smaller beer.  I regret that now!  Once the beer had been in the barrel for 12 hours it started to ferment again, bubbling over the airlock and making me hook up the blow-off tube again.  I'm not sure if there was some residual unfermented sugar in the beer, or if the quantity of healthy yeast left in the barrel just kicked back into gear, but it kept fermenting away for another several days before slowing down.

The idea was to leave this beer in for about a month and then fill it for the final time with the base beer for a lambic sour that would then sit around for 1-2 years getting funkier.  I did get my part of the batch brewed up, but had a hard time getting help for the second half.  Then life got busy with summer travel plans and time slipped away from me.  I eventually brewed up a second batch of lambic wort, but the porter stayed in there a bit too long.  When I tasted it, the beer had a strong oak tannin character as well as a hint of sourness.  Oops!  I ended up transferring the porter out into glass carboys and adding some dregs of Flanders red ales.  Those are coming along nicely now with a slowly developing complexity of sourness and creepy looking pellicle.

This time I dumped out the old yeast and rinsed out the inside of the barrel.  I quickly (before the staves could dry out and shrink) filled it again with my two batches of lambic.  I actually fermented the lambic wort in glass carboys with an American ale yeast first, but added 2 packs of Wyeast Lambic Blend yeast and some dregs from a bottle of Cantillon to the barrel.  I did get a kick-up of fermentation within 2 days that lasted for another week or so before settling down.  I just tried this beer and the sourness and brett character are starting to show up, but still pretty subtle.  This may live in the barrel for a year or longer.

The need to keep the barrel filled, and to plan ahead with brewing beers to fill it is the most difficult aspect of using it.  Since nearly all commercial barrels are big (most 55 gallons) you nearly always need help filling it and getting multiple people to brew according to a timeline is tough!  Even using a small barrel can be a pain, and requires some planning ahead and collaboration.

As a wrap-up, our first batch from this barrel--Barrel Aged Olde Meconium--won a gold medal at this year's Mashout!  Thanks to Scot for getting me that barrel, and to Mike for helping me brew this beast!  I do think this is the best beer I've ever brewed and the level of complexity from the barrel itself goes far above what I've been able to do with booze soaked oak cubes in the past.  This was an interesting experiment, and one I'd recommend, but taking care of a barrel is a bit of a chore.

Beer Dust! Water Science Made Easy

Hey faithful blog readers!  Today I'm taking a quick break from my usual beer reviews, photography, and brewery visits.

Those who know me, are probably well aware that I've been a homebrewer for about 25 years.  Doing the math, I've been homebrewing for more than half of my life!  Over the past 10 years or so, the knowledge of the craft as well as the ability to share that knowledge has risen exponentially, and the overall quality of homebrew has risen with it.  We are in a great time for the hobby!

Since I moved to Waconia, Minnesota I have had one major problem with my brewing: the water.  Our water here tastes funky--musty swimming pool, mildew, hints of decomposing flesh at times.  Yuck!  The water is also hard as sin.  I can drop an ice cube into a glass of water and watch the flakes of sediment literally rain down through the glass.  England's Burton On Trent is known for hard water with plenty of calcium and magnesium, but if their water is a 10, my local water goes to 11.  (Hey we were talking England, so I had to quote Spinal Tap!)  I quickly discovered that using this water resulted in decent stouts and porters, but everything else had strange flavors and lacked the balance I was looking for.  Based on things from the Internet I tried using Five Star's 5.2 Mash Stabilizer, but didn't see much positive effect on things.  Looking back, this is because I was actually adding more salts to my already mineral-laden water.  Besides, that product is more for mash pH.  I have tried to get water reports from the city but with mixed results and much variation season to season, resulting in more variables for handling this.

I tried cutting our local water with reverse osmosis (RO) or distilled water that had all the nutrients/salts stripped from it.  This helped a bit, but was less than reproducible.   Then I worked on strait RO and building it up using mad-scientist powders and my tiny gram scale.  This resulted in better final beer, but still left me with a lot of questions.  For instance: "So I'm using the water profile of a certain region in Germany--but do the Germans do anything to their water, or take it as is?"

I read the Water book by John Palmer.  OK, I tried to read the Water book.  Three times.  I have a medical degree and have taken plenty of chemistry classes in the past, but that was a long time ago, and this was just hard to follow.  And frankly, I find water chemistry boring and not as "fun" as recipe formulation and the actual brewing process.  I know I'm not alone in this!

My brew system in action!

Enter, my good friend Keith Brady.  Keith is a molecular biologist and actually likes the whole water chemistry aspect of brewing!  I had been blown away by his IPA's and Pale Ales over the past several years at brewclub meetings and was very excited when I discovered that water profile tweaking was a major part of his success.  Keith continued to win awards both small scale (our Jack Of All Brews monthly Golden Mash Paddle) and larger scale (Minnesota State Fair, and many more).   I continued to struggle a bit with those hoppy beers, but continued to do well with my dark beers.

Next up comes fellow club-mate Mike Lebben, also an award winning homebrewer, who actually has a business background.  Mike, Keith, and I talked over some beers and decided to combine our knowledge bases and come out with a pre-measured packet of water salts to be added to RO or distilled water.  These are based on a specific beer style profile and aim to improve the taste and balance of those beers.  With a year of testing under our belts, and lots of work on getting our logo and packaging arranged, we just opened up our new business: Beer Dust was born!

Beer Dust won't be for everyone.  Those hardcore homebrewers already messing with their water are not necessarily going to want to invest in our packets, and that's just fine.  Though I admit, I'd like to see some advanced brewers try Beer Dust and give us feedback on how well it works for them.  Mainly our goal is to help the beginner and intermediate brewers to get a better result in their finished beers.  We have been testing the formulas in all-grain and extract brews, and the IPA works great for both versions.  Will Beer Dust guarantee a perfect beer?  No way!  Much depends on the individual brewer's skills in recipe formulation, temperature control, and especially sanitation and cleaning.  This is just a way to take some of the guess-work out of the brewing process and add a level of control to the process.

For the first run, we have our IPA packet ready to order.  As our sales grow, we plan to put that money back into Beer Dust so we can keep putting out new profiles.  We already have the recipe hammered out for Pale Ale, and are still doing test batches for Brown Ales (both English and American versions eventually!)

We're all excited to see where this venture takes us, and hope that the growing homebrew community will want to give Beer Dust a try for themselves.  I'm sure that we will certainly spark some good discussions out there on the Interwebs, but hope that folks will actually try us out before making too many judgements.  We are certainly open to hearing constructive feedback, as well as ideas about future styles people want to see from us!

Please check out our website for more information and to order HERE.  Also like our page on Facebook HERE and share it with your friends if you can.  At this point we are really trying to get the word out about Beer Dust and could use all the help we can get!

Punktastrophy: The Redemption!

Early this fall season I published a post about the cursed pumpkin brew that Mike Lebben and myself attempted to create on the night of the Harvest Moon.  Follow this link for a recap of our epic brewing adventures.  Though told in over-the-top style, everything in that post truly happened, and it seemed that the disgruntled pumpkin gods were against us.  Mike continued his overseeing of the 10 gallon batch of Imperial pumpkin ale over the following month. 

Mike served his spiced version of the tainted brew to thirsty parents on Halloween from a giant pumpkin with a spigot.  Take THAT disemboweled pumpkin! 

I finally had a chance to visit Mike at his Wandering Eye Brewery for an official tasting of the beer.  Let's just say I was suitably impressed with the results, especially considering how many things went wrong with our process that could have resulted in a terrible beer! 

First I had a taste of the un-carbonated and un-spiced ale my from my half of the batch.  Remarkably after as much pumpkin slurry as we had in the wort, this sample is crystal clear!  A deep orange in color to nearly brown.  In the aroma I noted an earthy or peaty smell with a hint of maple syrup.  The flavor was sweet without being cloying and had a lot of real pumpkin flavor.  I sensed a subtle maple flavor at the end of the taste.  I was very excited about the blank canvas I now had to work with! 

Mike next  poured me a sample from his kegged and spiced version for a comparison.  Here is my official review along the same lines as the other pumpkin beers I have been blogging over the past two months.

Mike's Harvest Moon Imperial Pumpkin Ale: 

Aroma: I get strong nutmeg and ginger in the initial whiff of this beer.  A more restrained cinnamon comes out with swirling, mixing with a bit of apple ester to give a spiced apple cider aroma.  No hop aroma noted.  Some sweet malt and very subtle maple is also gleaned from this sample.
Appearance: Very deep orange to nearly brown in color.  There is a slight haze which is most likely chill haze based on the crystal clear room temperature version I sampled prior.  Not any hazier than the other commercial pumpkin ales I've tried.  This sample had very little head when poured, but I could rouse some fine white head with swirling.
Flavor: Somewhat sweet and very malty up front, but not cloying in the least.  Some melanoidins giving a toasty flavor.  I can pick up distinct ginger, allspice and nutmeg in the flavors.  This ends somewhat dry with a slight astringency that is tempered by the maltiness.  Slight alcohol warming as it goes down, but pleasant not distracting.  Medium mouthfeel.  I do pick up true pumpkin flavor in this beer, lurking in the background behind the spices.  No hop flavors. 
Overall: A remarkably balanced beer, especially given its troubled past.  A high alcohol beer, this has a pleasantly malty mouthfeel and warming finish suitable to the cold nights in Minnesota's November.  A bit more carbonation would be welcomed, and is easily fixed by putting it on more CO2.  Mike did a great job with the spicing, (making a tincture of spices in vodka) and it really enhances the pumpkin flavor rather than overwhelming it.  This is in my top tier of pumpkin beers that I have tried this season!  4.25 out of 5 (down from 4.5 due to low carbonation.) 

Next up is my version:

Eric's Pumpacolypse Brau:  I picked up my half of the batch from Wandering Eye Brewery and took it home very carefully!  Tasting the un-spiced base beer was very interesting--I could really pick out the pumpkin flavor, as well as a hint of the dark maple syrup that had gone into the fermenter.  I made a tincture of Penzey's spices including cinnamon, allspice, clove, powdered ginger and nutmeg, soaking them in some cheap vodka that I usually use to fill my airlocks.  After 24 hours in the booze, I ran the whole mix through a coffee filter and into another sanitized jar.  I then slowly added this to the kegged (but not carbonated) beer, tasting as I went.  When the flavors seemed right I finished kegging the beer and put it on gas to carbonate.  The result was right where I wanted it, but I had reserved some of the tincture in case the flavors faded once it was carbonated.  Based on my likes and dislikes from all the commercial examples I've tried, I went for a minimal approach.

Aroma: A subtle mix of nutmeg, clove and cinnamon.  Sweet malt and pumpkin flesh is strong after the initial zap of spices.  A hint of maple syrup and caramel. 
Appearance:  Just a tiny haze in this deep orange colored beer.  Carbonation was a bit light, but brought out a fine white head with swirling.
Flavor: Similar to Mike's version (obviously) in malt forward notes.  I do pick up the maple flavor, but on the back of the tongue.  The spicing is mild, but I can pick up nutmeg, clove and some ginger off the bat, with cinnamon trailing behind.  Medium bodied with some pleasant alcohol warming effect.  A mild astringency at the finish, but balanced well with the maltiness.  Carbonation is still not completely where I want it, but still higher than Mike's version.
Overall: Similar to Mike's version, but spices are a tad less prominent.  I really like this beer and managed (to my wife's chagrin) get through most of the keg at my birthday party.  4.5/5

I am very impressed with the way this beer turned out, in the face of its troubled past!  I would love to do this one again next year, with some changes in process.  First off, cut down the pumpkin a bit--just too much in there.  Increase the rice hulls to a ludicrous amount.  Cut the recipe from a 12 gallon to a 10 gallon to leave more room for additional rice hulls, water, etc.  This batch really overwhelmed the capacity of Mike's system the way we did it. 

Pumpkin's Vengeance!

Time for an update the infamous Pumpacolypse Brau!  And no, this one will not be done in over the top 80's horror writer style.  Oh, and apparently the crazy brew session from last post was actually done on the advent of the Harvest Moon.  No wonder things got weird!

After we left our poor Mike Lebben (continuing a 3 hour sparge I believe) he had thrown a lid on the wort and gone to a much needed rest.  This is not standard practice, but hey everyone needs sleep so who am I to judge--I snuck out early after all. 

Here is the sludge left over after the sparge.  Perhaps too much pumpkin?

By 8:45 the next morning, like a proper trooper, Mike was starting to boil this hot mess into a foamy creamy pumpkin wort slurry.  He boiled for 60 minutes with a vigorous rolling boil.  There was only one hop addition (just over an ounce of Chinook at 60 minutes) for the whole 12 gallon batch.  This is to be a very malt forward beer.  Apparently there were no disturbances with the pumpkin gods for this part of the brew!

 

 

Near the end of the boil Mike added Irish Moss (for clarity...maybe we should have used a ton of this), Wyeast yeast nutrient, and pumpkin pie spice.  We kept the spice down a bit...we can always add more later if needed, but you can't pull it out once it is in there!

 

 

 

After chilling with his handy Chill Wizard system from Sabco, he oxygenated the beer well and placed it in an enormous 15 gallon glass carboy.  I've seen Mike haul this around filled with beer before...that man must be an X-Men mutant or something.  Final gravity was 1.068 (before adding the honey and maple syrup I believe.)  By day 2 this thing was fermenting like mad.  With about 20% headspace in the demi, this evil beast of a beer managed to fill the blow off tube, the blow-off bucket and then spill onto the floor--as if making one last desperate attempt to escape its captors.  But Mike was not to be beat this late in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack'd Up, 3rd Street Brewing (Cold Spring):  This is described as an Autumn Ale, and does not actually contain any pumpkin.  It does have pumpkin spices however. 

Aroma: Tannic and earthy.  Hints of Cinnamon and Ginger.  No hops.  Almost no malt.

Appearance: Gold in color, lighter than most examples.  Fine white head that fades fairly quickly.  Slight haze.

Flavor:  Not very sweet, in fact not much malt flavor at all.  Ends very dry with a hint of spices.  Ginger stronger in flavor than in aroma.  Has a fairly notable astringent bite in the finish.  Might have some hop bitterness.  As it warms the astringent finish makes me not want to drink more, reminding me of soap.

Overall:  Not balanced enough.  It lacks body and complexity, more like a cream ale with a touch of spices.  The astringency is overwhelming for such a light beer.  I have yet to really like a beer from these guys, and this is no exception.  I try not to be a hater, but after tasting 5 beers from a brewery and not finding any of them pleasant to drink, I tend to give up.  I'd rate this one a 2 of 5.  I save 1's for outright infected beers.

 

 

 

New Holland Ichabod: This is one of the venerable craft pumpkin beers, first debuted in 1997.  I've had it before, but figured I'd try it out with all the rest this year. 

Aroma: Starts out with a strong nutmeg aroma, followed by some earthy pumpkin flesh.  There is some malty sweet grain in the background, but the spice dominates.

Appearance: orange to copper in color with a large off-white head.  There is a bit of haze to this one as well.

Flavor: Like the aroma, has a strong up-front nutmeg flavor.  The malt/grain sweetness arrives late on the palate.  This ends fairly dry with a bit of tannic astringency.  A bit tart and earthy.  As it warms I can pick out more cinnamon.  The body is a little thin for my tastes. 

Overall: A fairly well balanced beer.  I would like a bit more malt or body to this, but loads better than the Jack'd Up.  Not a ton of depth to this beer, but does have a real pumpkin taste.  I give it a 3 of 5.

 

Next Up:  My marinated musings on Autumn Brew Review as well as even more pumpkin beer reviews.







Pumpocalypse Brau: Cursed Brew Day

Lonely Road

On a late Autumn evening, after a long day's work, Eric Wentling gathered up his contribution to the upcoming brew--a quart of locally made maple syrup--and hopped into his Toyota Camry for the ride into the small town of Victoria.  Passing the newly opened Enki Brewing, he thought of the pleasant pale ale served there and began looking forward to the results of tonight's endeavor.  He and his friend Mike Lebben were to brew a beer that night, but not just any beer--an Imperial pumpkin ale to rival all others.  This was to be an epic monster of a beer, malty and packed with pumpkin and pie spices, with an extra kick of the maple syrup and honey to make this a true harvest ale.  The fading sun lit ruby highlights from the first few maples to change color this fall, and the long shadows raced by. 

Upon arrival Eric ran the gauntlet of hyperactive dogs and met Mike in the basement to prepare their soon-to-be infamous brew session.  The sun continued to sink as they began preparation: heating water, doing last minute calculations, and measuring out grains.  The two were blissfully unaware of an upcoming visitation of wickedness and evil, brought to bear on them by the silently screaming malevolent spirits of a thousand slaughtered gourds.  The first small hint at the horrors to come was when Eric noticed an inaccuracy in their ingredients.  Cans of sugared and pre-spiced pie mix glared accusingly at him from the counter top, taunting him with their lack of pure pumpkin flesh.  While he traveled back to town center to replace the ingredient, Mike continued to work on his tardy prep work.  They should have paid attention to these early signs, but continued about their business without a care in the world.

By the time of his return a bloated full moon began shine in the deepening darkness, bathing his car in it's baleful light.  Returning to the brewery, the water was up to temperature, and using Mike's  automated grain mill made short work of grinding the massive amount of barley called for in this recipe.  The two added the grain to the large mash tun and infused it with warm water, aiming for a protein rest around 120 degrees to help with some of the potential extra pumpkin proteins.  They then got to work opening seven cans of pumpkin puree, happily scooping out the thick gelee into a pot filled with warm water.  The Curse reared its head when one of Mike's can lids seemed to leap off track and slit his finger, promptly drawing first blood in this battle.  Gloving up in his creepy blue nitrile gloves, (like some homebrewing version of the villains from Firefly), to prevent a bloody brew, he kept on like a champ.  They both continued to ignore the warnings. 

They poured the glistening orange pumpkin slurry into the eagerly awaiting mash, turning it an unusual shade of auburn.  The first twenty minutes went according to plan, showing off the efficiency and sparkle of Mike's Sabco brew system.  Then the terrors began.  With a slow death-rattle, the recirculating mash gasped out its last breath.  Despite the thin mash and the excessive use of rice hulls to pad the filter bed of grain, the pumpkin settled into a thick block at the bottom the kettle, preventing all liquid flow through its barrier.  Just as this occurred, heavy footsteps rang from upstairs, signaling the presence of Others.  The ears of the dogs swiveled to take in this new presence and then they were off like furry rockets to fend off their home from that perceived evil.  Mike ignored the noise and continued to battle his system for supremacy--attempting to make that liquid flow and get the temperature up to its next mash step of 156 degrees. 

Luckily for them both, the new arrivals were Sarajo--Eric's lovely wife--as well as Matt and Anna Finnesgard.  The three of them happily helped to sample the Rogue Pumpkin Patch and Southern Tier Pumpking that Eric and Mike had been sampling prior to the vindictive stuck mash.  The mood lightened a bit as these friends added moral support to the continuing battle, but beneath the pumpkin orange surface of that mash lurked even more wickedness and pain.  Sarajo braved the dogs to head home, leaving the Finnesgards to hold back the darkness while Mike and Eric pushed the limits of the Sabco to its breaking point.  Settling in among the discarded and dangerous cans of pumpkin, the two distracted the dogs and took turns trying beers from Mike's large kegerator.  Mike continued to stir up the thick and sturdy mash, getting it to circulate for brief fits and starts before firming up into a copper colored brick.  More water was added.  Even more rice hulls.  All to no avail.  With a huge commercial keg filled to the brim with grain, pumpkin and water, there was no way to lift and dump it out either.  Mike continued to try syphoning out and blowing back through a tube to attempt to clear the obstruction.  At one point while attempting the latter maneuver, a great flatulent gurgle was followed by a huge molten bubble of goo that spattered three feet away to land directly into Mike's left eye, making a mockery of all his efforts.  While this was going on, the burner needed to be turned on and off repeatedly to keep a steady temp and burn the bottom of the not-recirculating mash, as well as constantly turning off and on the pump to avoid the terrible grinding sound of a cavitation

Around the time the two had finally arrived at their second mash temperature, came another suspicious entry into the home.  This time the heavy and sliding tread on the stairs wasn't the Finnesgards or Sj.  Looking frantically about for a weapon of defense (for the two protagonists were beginning to realize that something obscene and calamitous was upon them this dark evening), Mike found only his dripping wooden mash paddle--so like a cricket bat...

Alas the interloper was only Mark Glennon, another member of the local homebrew club, come to claim his prize medal from Byggvir's Big Beer Cup, and only narrowly avoided a paddle to brain pan.  Perhaps Eric should have warned Mike of his impending visit.  Now five strong, the party continued the endless battle against the pumpkin ale, fueled on ever more high alcohol beers and fear.  Always the fear. 

The sparge began.  The steps prior should have taken an hour and half, but had burgeoned into an evening-long slow crawl of nearly three and a half.  Now the two attempted to collect the sweet and pumpkin-rich fluid wort from the mash into the brew kettle, but were again plagued by compression and solidity.  Wielding in his paddle like a burly madman, Mike strained against this obstruction.  Sweat creased his furrowed brow, blood collected in his gloved hand, and his crimson left eye watered and weeped.  The Curse of the Pumpkins Past would NOT win!  Mike would drive his ailing body to the finish and force this ochre beast into submission.  Eric simply looked on in awe.  Soon, the rest of the party slowly disappeared, their absence barely noted during the legendary battle.  Had they tired of the show and simply left?  Or had something more ominous and sinister transpired?  We may never know the details, but eventually Eric and Mike were the only remaining combatants. 

The night loomed long and the following day's work was soon to be done.  Eric crept slowly away from the manically muttering and cursing Mike.  He faded to the periphery, while Mike stoked the fires and paddled his way through the endless brew.  With his partner occupying all the attention of the evil spirits, he was able to break the spell and escape the hellish pull.  Mike was left to his deranged work, unhinged completely by the events of the evening.  He madly punished his body and that mash for another three hours until all 15 gallons of wort was collected.  Exhausted, he threw a lid on the mess and collapsed to a troubled slumber, haunted by the melancholy cries of massacred pumpkins.

With morning light came clarity, at least for Mike if not for the murky orange stew that was to become the Imperial pumpkin beer.  For having struggled so mightily with the mash, too much proteinaceous material had made it into the final wort.  Re-invigorated, Mike fired up the burner...

Have Mike and Eric seen the end of the problems with this batch?  Despite the heroic efforts of both, with the final beer be worth the effort?  Or will the dreaded Pumpkin's Curse have the last say?  We will find out soon, my friends.  Soon.


Thanks for bearing with the purple prose, but I figured it was the only way to properly write up a brew session fraught with such troubles.  We chose to start with the Imperial Pumpkin Ale recipe from this month's Zymurgy magazine.  This recipe is a big one and also involves honey and maple syrup.  I managed to wrangle up a bunch of B grade maple syrup from a friend and colleague of mine who has quite the impressive syrup making facility on his property.  He has a great website with all sorts of info on syruping and sells his syrup locally under the brand Somerskogen Sugarbush.  I like the B grade syrup for cooking and brewing, as it has a more robust flavor and darker color that is normally seen as a flaw.  Syrup is a simple sugar and is nearly all fermented out when used in brewing, leaving little of the residual sweetness that one would expect with such a sweet and sticky product.  The carmelization of the darker syrup should have a bit more flavor impact though.  We will see!

Continuing my effort to taste a whole slew of pumpkin beers this fall I'll mention a few more I've had in the past few days, at least one of them during the aforementioned brew day.

Tyranena Painted Ladies:  The commercial description is pretty humorous so I'll include it here.  "The Painted Ladies Annual Fling celebrates the renaissance of downtown Lake Mills. Although named for the restoration of the many Victorian storefronts, some of the more adventurous women-folk added a playful twist and dressed as, well, painted ladies. Inspired by these bold and spicy women, we brewed Painted Ladies, a pumpkin and spice-infused amber ale. This fall, make sure you enjoy a fling with a few Painted Ladies."  The label includes some awesome tarted-up Victorian pumpkins to continue the theme.
Aroma: Sweet maltiness.  Definite nutmeg up front with hint of ginger and allspice.  An earthy note present as it warms, but not extreme.
Appearance:  Crystal clear copper color.  Large off-white head that is very persistent.
Flavor: Sweet and malty but not cloying.  As with aroma, the nutmeg is front and center, with an allspice/clove "burn" coming up last.  This has a slightly astringent earthy or musty finish, but doesn't detract from overall enjoyment too much.  I think that flavor is the actual pumpkin in the beer.  The spicing on this one is borderline too high.
Overall: Not a bad beer.  Probably the best beer I've had from Tyranena in a while.  I honestly had kind of written them off over the past few years after I'd tried a couple of duds.  This one is high on the spices, so if you hate them then you likely won't like this beer!  Scores a 3.5 of 5 for me.

Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale:  The description makes note of growing the pumpkins for this beer on Rogue's own farms in Independence, Oregon, then driving them to the brewery for the beer quickly after harvesting.  Interestingly my cousin works for the city of Independence.  Small world.  Not much info on the actual beer specs though.  I have it on fairly good authority that this batch may have been last year's release.  Also, this review was scrawled hastily upon a yellow sheet of paper with a fading pencil during our fight with the pumpkin beer.  So there.
Aroma:  Up front nutmeg, followed by ginger and cinnamon.  No hop aroma (strange in a Rogue beer, but OK for style).  Sweet sugary malt and a hint of honey.
Appearance:  Deep copper to nearly brown in color.  There is a slight haze to it.  A huge off-white head that is largely persistent.
Flavor:  Sweet maltiness throughout the taste.  Nutmeg and cinnamon are the dominant spices in this one, and come off present but somewhat muted or faded.  A subtle roastiness sets this one a bit different from many of these beers.  No hop flavors. 
Overall:  A bit bland and muddied, but not a bad beer.  Lacks complexity.  If this is indeed last year's batch the spices may have faded and left this one a little blah.  I do give it a 3.5 of 5 though, still drinkable and better than some others.

Next Up:  An update on the Punkacolypse Brau and reviews of more pumpkin beers than you can shake a stick at!  If you are bored in the mean time check out Sj's jewelry blog for a cool Autumn challenge she took part in HERE.