Nuts! And Christmas Beer.

Every year around this time breweries come out with their Christmas offerings, beers loaded with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices designed to evoke a certain “festive” spirit of the holiday season. I think most people like these beers come December, but wouldn’t want to drink them throughout the winter, let alone the rest of the year. My goal here was to reimagine Christmas beers as something seasonal and warming, without overloading the beer with spices. 

One image that sticks in my head when I think of Christmas is “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” (feel free to sing along). Incorporating nuts into beer is a delicate proposition I’ve been working on. While nuts do have significant amounts of carbohydrates (good for beer), they tend to be high in proteins and fats (bad for beer). Chestnuts are that rare breed of nut that is relatively high in carbohydrates and low in proteins and fats, making it ideal for brewing. It’s rare in another respect, in that many trees in the US were wiped out by a chestnut blight in the early 20^th century, resulting in a relative scarcity. 

The chestnut itself, contrary to my prior assumptions was more sweet than starchy, and thus roasting resulted in more “cooked sugar” flavors, i.e. caramel/molasses than “baked bread” i.e. malty/toasty ones. While not planned, I hope this will add an interesting complexity to the beer. The actual nut character when preparing the chestnuts was quite impressive as well, evoking a strong peanut-y aroma, the kind that tells the primitive hunter-gather mind that this is a valuable food resource capable of sustaining the body, and is therefore irresistible to us.

The chestnuts were roasted, pealed, soaked, and then added to the mash.

Rounding out this recipe is spruce (nothing says Christmas quite like the smell of fresh spruce) and mint (my “festive” compromise). This is a big beer (coming in at around 7%) with abundant sweet, malty, and nutty flavors; just the thing to stay in and hibernate with all winter long. Brew date 12/5/2012.

Blue Corn Blonde

I came up with the idea for this beer about a year ago. It was meant to be something that would combine the two aspects of our philosophy - the local agricultural side and the spirited use of unconventional ingredients side. I asked Evan to plant some for me and he was on board. Unfortunately the crop did not turn out, and we didn’t end up with much of use. I got a little impatient and decided to brew a first draft with blue corn meal I purchased online for a first run test, brewed 11/18/2012.

The basic premise of this beer is to throw off the conventionality of light colored beers and brew something with bold and abundant flavors. Of course, there are IPAs, an abundantly flavored pale ale, but by in large this cross section of beers seems a little thin. Corn as an ingredient is sometimes used in these beers to lighten them further. The base sugar in corn, dextrose, is 100% fermentable, so the flavor you taste when eating an ear of sweet corn does not translate into a sweeter beer, but a more alcoholic one. Thus, it creates a very dry and neutral tasting beer. The challenge for this beer then is to use the corn in ways that brings out its flavor while still remaining somewhat true to the base style.

In the same way that the inner part of bread tastes different than the crust, raw corn meal tastes different than a toasted corn tortilla. A complicated chemical process called the maillard reaction is responsible for this difference, as well as many of the varied flavors we enjoy in conventional beer. When you cook a starch or sugar, you are producing new flavors. The ultimate goal will be to incorporate those toasted corn flavors, which of course are distinct from toasted barley, wheat, oats, etc.  

This beer is obviously a work in progress. One of my hopes is to smoke whole ears of corn, both to toast them, and to impart an added dimension of smokiness into the final product. If a lightly colored smoked blue corn tortilla beer doesn’t change some minds about light beer, I don’t know what will. I’m also toying with the idea of incorporating roasted bell peppers somehow, but my gut tells me vegetable beers are a whole other can of worms.

It's banana beer!

The concept: Whenever I think of the ideal dessert beverage, I think of stout; that's the jumping off point for this beer. It's easy to pair a rich, creamy stout with a chocolate cake or mousse to create a brilliant complementary dining experience. I recognize the value of pairing beer with food to enhance the quality of both, but the "easy" way doesn't exactly excite me as much as painstakingly crafting creative beers.

With that in mind, I brainstormed a concept that I find fresh and exciting: banana cream stout! The idea is to create a full-bodied, richly textured beer, vaguely evocative of a milkshake, and then load it up with an explosion of banana flavor, making an ideal pairing for either chocolate-y or fruity desserts, or just as a standalone experience.

The execution: The tools at a brewmaster's disposal are many and varied. Often there are many ways to arrive at the same solution. Such is the case with banana.

Funnily enough, the principle chemical responsible for creating the flavor of bananas is also produced as a by-product by certain yeast strains. These banana esters are a prominent flavor component in many German style wheat beers. In fact, I've heard dunkelweizen referred to as "banana bread beer" which is not terribly far off from what we're doing here.

Using a German yeast strain that produces lots of banana esters is only part of the equation here though. This is where I get to bust out my tool belt. After all, it wouldn't really be a banana beer without bananas, would it?

As far as I know, using actual bananas is not often attempted (at least not outside of Africa) by either professional or home brewers, possibly because it's not strictly necessary, and it can be quite messy, but I’m not going to let something like that stop me. In order to get some further value out of the bananas beyond the flavor component, I'll be extracting their sugar content as well (via the same technique used on pumpkin in many pumpkin beers).

When a banana ripens, a similar process to malting occurs: amylase enzymes within the banana convert the fruit's starches into simple sugars. This why the flavor of a banana is not entirely synonymous with the banana ester compound - because the sweetness is inseparable from other elements of the flavor profile. Mashing the bananas in with the malt will help complete the conversion process, extracting the sugars from the bananas into the wort. 

I’m also baking the banana beforehand, hoping to crystallize some of those sugars in order to add to the overall complexity of the beer. I'm hoping this will be somewhat akin to the banana version of caramel malt. I could be trademarking the term "carabanana" any day now. 

An elaboration

Credit goes to my brother-in-law, Aurel, for taking and assembling these panoramic photos.

Glass Bottom Brewery LLC went from here:

to here:

only with, as I have mentioned, the help and advice of many individuals who proved their willingness, beyond any doubt, to help our business start and undergo its process of development. I thought that listing them for posterity might be appropriate at this point. Hopefully they will pardon the use of full names and my unwillingness to put them in any order but the one where their names surge into my head.

Ezra Bloom, the other less overt but equally important half of this business
Eric Williams
Dale Culleton
Matt Barnard
Ben Kreider
Jay Heath
Joe Burkhart
Aurel De St Andre
Bob Sinopoli
Jeff Minkler
Dennis Downing
Matt Blake
Wayne Burkhart
Lin Howitt
Dave Williams
Marylin Geller
Robert Bloom
George Whaling
Dave Shepard
Don Johnson

and others I will likely have to edit in.

For your viewing pleasure, here are more panoramic photos that show the yard in its progression to a (nearly) current state of development. Any questions about this process can be answered by emailing this account, or feel free to show up at the yard when we are present (on 41 north of GB and south of Division St) so long as you remember to park inside the field, not in my landlord's private driveway.

May I just add that having something tangible, even if we have yet to work out the issue of having a sign (due to residential zoning of the leased hop yard), is wonderful for a fledgling business that so far has been fueled only on unfulfilled dreams. In the future the hop yard will progress to being a place of growing plants and grazing animals. I can't wait.

More pictures from Aurel to come.

Evolution of a Hops Yard

Unfortunately hops yards of this magnitude do not spring out of the ground spontaneously, though it may seem that way from these pictures. It requires a lot of hard working and planning. Most of the credit must go to Master Farmer Evan Williams.

 

An empty field on route 41, just north of Great Barrington. 

Cut black locust - extremely strong, rot-resistant wood. Not pictured: countless hours of labor pealing the bark off the posts.

  The outside posts go in slanted away at an angle to help hold up the eventual weight of the plants pulling inward.

An excavator with an auger attachment drilled 5 foot holes into the ground, into which we buried the posts.

 Sixty posts pointed skyward.

Cabling.

Next year it will all be green (knock on wood).

- Ezra

Trending, Blogging, Surfing, Farming

Hi again to all you potentially existent readers of this attempt at modern-day media!

In accordance with what I understand to be the rules of the internet, if someone somewhere else said something about you, you have to link to it when you then go back and blog about yourself, your accomplishments, your thoughts, and your deepest darkest secrets.

All you old-school blog readers new we were starting a farm, now anyone that reads the Berkshire Eagle knows we're not only starting a farm, but we're building a structure just to grow a plant that's used exclusively for beer flavor and bittering. It's on Rt 41 North of GB and south of Division St. If you do come check it out, you will likely find us there, working on cable (all posts upright and all anchors set!) in order to get ready to finally plant our hop roots (rhizomes).

Anyway, back to self-referential writing/riffing on the article:

First, thank you to Ned Oliver for having the guts to walk right up and ask (and to you others that have allowed your curiosity to overcome your normal social inhibitions). If you are stopping, try not to stop right on the highway (41) or back up for 50 feet (seen that done twice) just to talk to us. Anyway, Ned quoted me (the less beer-oriented guy, Evan) on a bogus bit of made-up fairytale percentages about hop flavor accounting for 25 to 95% of what the beer tastes like. What I should have said was that hops contribute a different amount of flavor to different types of beers but that that amount is not quantifiable as a percentage. Sadly I need to work on my PR shtick.

What I can comment on when I'm not bungling through beer flavor interviews is that farming is work, and the work is always diverse. We have felled trees, shaved poles, rented equipment, contracted professionals, worked day and night to troubleshoot or build specialty tools, and that's before any tilling or planting.

And the bottom line? Without a saleable product like beer, even a specialty farm that grows hops (and shows off the polyculture by grazing sheep among the vines, but more on that later) is going to have problems with cash flow and profitability. For that reason, I have to extend a special thank you to my father, Eric, my landlord, Dale, and another professional in the area, Matt, for their free help and advice. A young farming brewing business partnership needs its volunteers (my dad and his countless hours), good landlords and operators (Dale owns the land we lease on 41 and helps with his own equipment) and outside professional contractors (Matt knows a lot about digging fence post holes, carpentry, excavation, and working efficiently). Anyone that wants to be a part should feel free to contact, our business is about inclusion and transparency, above all.

Thanks to all helpers, and hello to all potentially new readers.

Evan

R and D #4: Scottishish

According to beer style guidelines, the "traditional" Scottish ale is a beer low in alcohol and hops, with a slight malt character. It's a session beer from a region that historically didn't produce hops domestically. It is made distinct by the unique qualities of Scottish water, which sometimes lends a slight peaty flavor to the beer.

But as an American I'm not one for subtlety. I want to be beaten over the head by the peat flavor in order to grasp that this is a product of Scotland I'm drinking, which obviously it is not; it's a product of the Berkshires. Peat smoked malt is our not so secret ingredient, and using a relatively high proportion of it is or not so secret technique.

Brew date July 1st. Stay tuned for tasting notes.

- Ezra

Mixing Metaphors for Business and Pleasure

Greetings all. Long time no post. I thought I'd give a quick update of some of the latest goings on at GBB.

At Glass Bottom Brewery we're carving an exquisite tapestry one block at a time. We're getting our ducks in a row that we may taxi down the runway to flight, freedom, and a brewing license. We're ready to jump into the lion's den, but first we have to learn how to swim with the fishes. Just like our educational backgrounds (I have a BA in International Affairs, Evan's got one in Spanish), we're cobbling together a business from pieces that don't immediately or easily fit together. We're a farm, we're a brewery, we're a three ring circus. A triple threat: we sing, we dance, we brew beer. Okay, we don't sing and dance.

Progress is slow but forward-moving, is I guess what I'm trying to say. We could write a book about the head aches and adventures we've gone through to get this process going, and the ones that are still in store for us in the future, and perhaps someday we will, but that's not what interests me. Expect big updates at some time in the unspecified but near future about our new location and hops farm. For now though, since I'm in it for the brewing, without any further pomp, and only a little bit of circumstance, here are some pictures of our latest brew, a reeaaally large batch of home brewed beer (25 gallons). We transferred a soon-to-be alcoholic beverage through equipment made of stainless steel, brass, silicone, and ceramic, and into a brand new 60 gallon capacity HDPE fermenter, which came to rest finally inside a rather sturdy air conditioned plywood box.

The new and the old fermenter in a side-by-side comparison.

Water heating and storage tank on the far right (Hot Liquor Tank in brewing parlance). Liquid pumps through a heat exchanger coil and into the mash tun for greater temperature control.

 

From the mash tun we pump sugary wort into the boil kettle.

 

A closer look at the valves on our new fermenter. Plastic + Stainless Steel Fittings = Headache.

The aforementioned insulated, plywood box for temperature controlled fermentation.

Pretty cool stuff. Hopefully before long we'll have rooms full of it.

Until then,

- Ezra, The Beerman

This lumbering plane may someday achieve flight

Wow. Here I am again, writing to no one in particular within the confines of an aggressively mediocre method of communication.

Evan here, the hyper-literate and entirely unconvinced half of this blogging brewing farming partnership. So finding help for a good ol' post shave flopped, but that didn't stop my Dad, myself, and Ezra from putting in some of our own sweat equity. The hops yard may well be full of strange twisting wood and shiny new cable within a few weeks. I'll disclose the address when I finally have a lease signed. Panoramic pictures to follow as well.

I was looking for some feedback from any of the brewing community that cares to give it about cultivars they have found to be successful in our tumultuous New England environment. Please, refrain from recommending Cascade. I know it works, and so do you. Let's not sink into the realm of the obvious here.

Additionally, since I apparently also manage this business (and don't just wallow around trying to figure out how to be a hops farmer) I have some preliminary news. With any luck (hah), Glass Bottom Brewery LLC will sign a lease agreement and be on its way to fed, state, and local licensing for the production and legal sale of beer. For now, we are individual homebrewers providing samples of our homebrewed product to anyone interested in knowing what the future may bring. But within the three months for fed, the two months for state, and another for local, we may well be able to say that Glass Bottom Brewery produces beer. I think a celebratory brew day may be in order, and all parties that have given us encouragement (or insurance, or legal advice, or a guarantees of future business) will be invited. Scottish Ale anyone? I'll let my associate describe it better.

Cheers,

Evan

Farmer for a day, part of a hops trellis for life!

Howdy folks (assuming you're out there) from your favorite farming/business managing half of Glass Bottom Brewery, LLC.

Many of you know we plan to be a farm and brewery (!) and for that reason, need farmland. While I have been a reticent blogger, and an even more doubtful internet user in general, I am putting a plea out there to any and all readers to consider participating (in real life!) in our farm.

Let me back up for this paragraph. Beer needs hops. Local beer needs local hops. Glass Bottom Beer needs Glass Bottom hops. Because (corny catch-phrase incoming) in each glass you can see through to our farm. Or such is our hope. This post is not just about being in touch with the hops, it's about participating in the construction of the trellis upon which they will grow.

I may (note the use of the provisional tense) have a deal for the construction of a 20ft high hops trellis using super-beefy rot-resistant black locust poles, sourced in the lowest-possible carbon footprint kind of way on the very farm that is renting me land. While I can't do a barn-raising kind of trellis structure erecting, with 20-30 people lifting these poles into their four-foot deep holes, I can ask for your help in shaving their bark.

This yard will be 125 feet by 333 feet, or just under an acre, and comprise 60 poles at 24 feet each. Your job, noble volunteers, if you choose to accept it, is to simply help me remove the bark from these massive poles so that they better last in soil-contact conditions. This will involve use of a draw knife, axe, spud or other tools you bring to this event.

What's in it for me? you might ask... Well, as an unlicensed entity, we can't sell you any beer. That leaves us the option of homebrewing it and giving it away for free. Anyone that's been to the garage/brewery will know we don't skimp on the free beer.

This project should happen in about 3 weekends, and I need to gauge interest to see if it's worth drawing up volunteer agreement forms for using said sharp tools to remove bark from said posts. Email glassbottombrewery@gmail if you have interest in coming to the Great Barrington/Monterey area and helping me prepare our hops yard for trellising and planting. It might just be an historic event.

Cheers,

Evan

R and D #2 Update - Pretension is a dish best served in a beer glass

As part of an ongoing effort to improve the quality of the beer we at Glass Bottom are producing, I have been studying up on beer judging. I'd like to think that my palate has improved as a result of my efforts, but it's possible I've simply learned the language and vocabulary of beer tasting. Nevertheless, I will endeavor to taste one of my own beers, while sounding as pretentious as possible. Please don your monocles and top hats while you read my description of my Belgian Black IPA:


Appearance: Beer appears black in the glass. When held up to the light garnet highlights appear around the edges. Pours with a tall light brown head. Head is slightly velvety and dissipates slowly, leaving a thick lacing on the side of the glass.

Aroma: Generous hop aroma in the nose. Aroma is clean and evocative of light citrus. This citrus character is complemented nicely by abundant fruity esters - also very clean and evocative of light fruits such as pears and a subtle hint of bananas. Low to no malt aroma present - perhaps just a touch of graininess.

Flavor: Sweet up front with raisin and caramel notes. Grassy hop flavor from dry hopping additions and medium resiny/citrus hop character in the middle of the sip. Pear esters continue their supporting presence in the flavor. Finishes with a mild to moderate bitterness that lingers for 10 to 15 seconds on the palate. The balance of this beer is decidedly hop forward, with little malt character present.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body with mild carbonation. Has a heavy, creamy feel punctuated in the finish by the slight tartness and dryness of the bittering hop additions. Slight alcohol warmth warns of higher than average alcohol content, but is pleasant and inviting without ever becoming boozy.


Prescription -
An interesting and elaborate hybrid that incorporates aspects from multiple beer styles. I got just about everything that I was going for with this beer - the dark sweetness of the crystal malts combines well with the hop and ester profiles, but I've noted that the full bodied heaviness imparted by such an abundant crystal malt addition is out of style for an IPA, certain types of stouts, and Belgian strong ales, all of which tend to finish on the dryer side. In the future I will lower the crystal malts and replace them with fermentable sugars and just a touch of the darkest, roastiest malt to aid in the drying effect. A fruity backbone with a crisp, bitter finish is what I think I'm looking for in this beer. Stay tuned for future iterations.