Dr Robert Lustig - How To Protect The Liver and Feed The Gut

#Homebrewed Stout Study: Highly Hopped Wheat & Kelp Variation

This beer started out as a part of my 7 gallon, low gravity, "Stout Study" batch, and ended up highly hopped with a variety of pellets and buds I had ziplocked in the fridge, and before I was done (just before I was done because I added the Kelp on bottling really), there was the potassium rich hint of the sea, the result of a pinch of seaweed.  

According to my Beersmith notes, apparently, "I added enough hops to make this a celebration type ale than a typical dry or sweet stout. Hops include Cenntenial for bittering, Chinook for both and Cascade for dry hopping-aroma".

It was converted using Nottingham yeast, the voracious monster I favor in missions such as these.   At first, I though I a pinch of powered cacao to the boil, intending to accent the roasty flavors, but Beersmith notes tell me it was a shot of coffee. Go fig-- Beersmith does.  

Apparetnly I also added unusual elements to the boil: Cayenne pepper, flacked oats (4.7%), honey, Northern Brewer's wheat extract, and Briess "Caracrystal Wheat (16%), which is way beyond suggested ratios of 13%, I know, but I think we were way off the reservation by then.  I used 3lbs of Black Barley, which is 45% of the sugaz, so it's hard to tell if the coffee gives it the chocolate notes, or the roasted barley.  I used 1lb of caramel malt (11.7%).  I used 5.3 oz of Wisconsin wildflower honey, or just 3.9%, mostly to bring the alcohol level up a bit. 

Original gravity was 1.031, and it ended up 1.010, or 4% by weight.   The IBUs are estimated to be.... 57.7 (hehehe).

I'll have you know, I also added a good half cup of roasted American oak chips (and a bit of juice from boiling them).

The result-- get my nut hugging flight suit because it's truly "mission accomplished," right down to the small hint of kelp after taste. The stout is really very good.  I mean, if I were to make something the mad flavors I like most, this would be the beer: chocolate, sprucy nose, well balanced roasted malt taste with the kind of thickness you've come to expect from the world's leading Stout, which shall remain unnamed, in Dublin.  

A nice big bubbled frothy head, which is still in effect after 30 minutes drinking this flavor delivery devise. And the after taste of kelp, so you know you'd getting the potassium a body needs.  I love this beer 

Bottling DunkelweiZenGuy and Comment on The Sapes Beer Ad in the UK

So  there comes a time when bottling is in order, right.  Here's bottling day for the 5 Hop DunkelweiZenGuy I brewed for Christmas. 

Bottling amounted to recycling the bottles of a lot of different, great commercial beers we've had in 2013, as well as a little experimenting with fruit juice, just to see if we can't carbonate using Black Current rather than honey or dex-corn sugar in those corked 22oz Abbey Ale bottles.  Well, not just to see, but also in the hope we can get all Belgium and shit, with some of this batch too, if you will.  

Should be interesting to see how fermented sweet Black Current juice juice squares off with 5 varieties of hops in a bottle.  I'm guessing more bitter sweet, like seeing your girlfriend from college check into your nursing home, than confusing, like the mixed message you might expect from eating salt brine pickled cabbage with jelly donuts.










It's important to remain clean in all this, as caramel grains make a sticky mess if left unchecked, boys and girls.  And so a bottle of Alcohol stands ready to sterilize and clean up as needed.That Hop Devil was an epic beer... still recall drinking it after painting rooms all day. 

As you can see labeling is an art form, and sometimes not at all. 




















This seems like a good spot to comment about world wide, globe spanning beverage monopoly and card carrying ALEC member, Diageo and their new video advertisement about The Sapes in Congo, a very classy group of gents who dress for every occasion.  See if it doesn't have an inspirational quality, in a place where that's in very short supply.  I was going to say like lighting a candle in space or some other dark place, but no need to evoke the whole "Heart of Darkness", "dark" otherness trope when discussing Africa. 

It's got a nice bit about the stout drinker being a "Master of my fate and captain of my soul," a solid 19th Century philosophical trope, just in case you missed the point that it's possible to overcome the odds in a place where horrible outcomes are as frequent as sunrise if you just party your way out of it (with the right Diageo ammo).  Of course, they are broadcasting this commercial in Ireland and Britain not Africa. Seems like such a long way to go to promote a beer, unless your sales amount to a small nation, upon which the sun never sets. 

I find the music corny in places. 



Guinness 'Sapeurs' from Finger Music on Vimeo.




Here are the same "Sapes" in a video by Bouncy's sister Solange, shot in South Africa, far from Congo.  Not a lot of drinking in this one.



Losing You - Solange from Bresi-Ando consults on Vimeo.

JosephBrau's (Trader Joe's) Dunkelwiezen Dark Wheat

Trader Joe's does a lot of things right, and this Dunkelweizen is no exception, so don't let those Whole Foods hipsters talk you out of Trader Joe's JosephBrau brand just because they can't find their favorite Kasha bars, or [insert other funny unusual products] there.  

Dunkelweizen is made of roasted and caramel wheats, usually not more than 13%, but there's no telling here.  The balance is made with "pale malted barley" here. 

Color & Froth:  a brown color and frothy head are true to the style, if not better than most wheat beers on execution (I've had wheat beer flatten like a pancakes on me).  Tight bubbles that last awhile, and a cloudy brown, just like the over powering 5 hop DunkelweiZenGuy I made for Christmas. 

Aroma:  a nice mix of bread with bananas and clove in nearly equal measure.  Maybe a banana bread with clove powder on top if you wan't to be catchy about it.  By comparison, since I'm not particularly religious about the whole bread, banana and clove wheat beer trip, so I just over-hopped the DunkelweiZenGuy I made for Christmas, like the Chinese took Tibet. 

Favor: same same, sweet banana bread with this lingering clove flavor, with a moderately sweet, caramel concentrate flavor that reminds me of soda extract, or more to the point-- you'll find bourbon notes and tones in this beer.  It might be a good choice to wash back some locally distilled whiskey if you have a mind, and if you don't, there's always Jim Beame, or Diageo's acquired brands- Bulliet and Dickel.

Body-- medium bodied, malty feel, but a little thin vs. what might have been.  Nice balance of malt to ethanol, and nicely balanced aroma to taste. 

The pickled masses at Beeradvocate.com rate this beer at 80.  I think it's better than that, but you'll have to pour one to find out.   

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10707/39924/?ba=Ethanol4one