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.

R and D #3: Forest Farmer Brown Ale

Every year around this time maple sap starts to run in New England. Maple sap means maple syrup, and maple syrup, to us, means beer. We brewed this beer last year, and it was a huge hit. This year we let ourselves go wild with the forest related influences. Maple sap, maple syrup, sprigs of spruce, and shaved oak all went into this beer, as well as a woodsy hop variety called Northern Brewer, and a complex malt profile.

Thanks to everyone who came out and joined us for the brew. Brew date 2/26/2012.

 

Shiny happy equipment.

 Testing out some new equipment. You may notice a puddle wort on the floor that wasn't there before. The performance was not without a hitch or two.

The dregs of a wort abundantly spruced.

R and D #2: "Because it's there" - A Belgian Black IPA

For those of you who aren't familiar with the style, a Black IPA (also sometimes referred to as Cascadian Dark Ale) is a relatively recent invention of the American craft brewing industry. It is born of the hop-centric viewpoint that all beers, regardless of style, can benefit from being absurdly hoppy. The style is still evolving, but the base components are these: dark in color like a stout, and hoppy like an IPA. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Glass Bottom's previous foray into the world of Black IPA's was something of a hybrid. Instead of using the traditional American IPA hops in our offering, we went with a traditional UK stout variety, and scaled it up accordingly. The UK hop variety Fuggles is much more earthy than it is citrusy, and it tends to highlight and accentuate dark malts. This beer seemed to work (there were certainly no complaints), but the opportunity to participate in the conversation of a still evolving style is Glass Bottom's bread and butter.

Our new take on the style is yet another hybrid. It is born of the delightfully devilish dry fruitiness of Belgian ales, and the enigma that is Black IPA's. Loaded up with a panoply of crystal malts and flaked barley, this beer should have body and plenty of bitterness. Fermented with the same yeast strain as Duvel, hopefully this beer will creep up on unsuspecting palates and provide them with a hugely rewarding flavor. Brew date 2/20/2012.

What's in the pipe?

Tea.S.B. - an English bitter brewed with Earl Grey tea and lemon zest. Brewed 12/20/11

Local IPA - 100% locally sourced barley malt. Dry hopped with homegrown cascade hops harvested this fall. Brewed 12/18/11

Nanobrewing for Dummies

After some months of working on our brewing system, Glass Bottom Brewing has finally successfully brewed a nano-sized batch of beer. What is "nano" you ask? Well, nano is a broad category of sizes for brewing equipment somewhere between homebrewing and microbrewing. Nano is the size smaller than micro in metric system. Micro, nano - get it?

Anyway, we brewed a 20 gallon batch of a very basic brown ale just to test out our new equipment, and we're very pleased with everything. Here are a few pictures from the brewday:

 

Set up and ready to brew. We're using 55 gallon stainless steel drums as a mash tun and boil kettle. 15 gallon keg/kettles heat our water initial until we finish off a third 55 gallon tank.

 

 This is our mash screen, which worked phenomenally for us. It's made from a piece of stainless steel that we cut from the top of the drum. A stainless steel mesh is laid over holes that we drilled into it. Sugary liquid passes through the holes, but grain remains behind in the mash tun.

 

 Same vessel filled with 43 lbs of grain and 16 gallons of water. Beer in the making.

 Here we're rinsing the grains with hot sparge water while extracting sugary wort from the bottom of the vessel and pumping it into the boil kettle.

 Close up of our copper manifold sparge arm in action.

 

Close up of the electrical for the 5500 watt heating element that boils our wort. 

 

Chilling and racking into our conical fermenter. 

Glass Bottom Values

"What is Glass Bottom Brewing?" You may ask. Well, definitions can be complicated, and the truth is we're still finding out what shape our organization will take. While we don't know exactly "what" we are, here is a brief list of our core values that we hope distinguishes us from the abundance of craft brewers out there:

- Beer as Art - At Glass Bottom Brewery we think of beer as a form of expression. An empty glass is our canvas, and our ingredients are our medium. Malt, hops, water, yeast - each ingredient that we add is painstakingly chosen in order to contribute to the story we're trying to tell with a given beer. We focus on the details because in the end they amount to more than the sum of their parts. You can’t create a genuine work of art on an assembly line; it comes from the soul of an artist. We work hard to create interesting, well rounded beers that allow the customer a glimpse of the brewer’s vision. 

- Innovation - As brewers we strive to advance the craft of beer by using nontraditional ingredients and practices. We like to think of beer as a constantly evolving organism where innovation spurs success. There is no one right way to brew beer. As a result we’re willing to try ingredients other brewers won’t – just ask enthusiasts of our smoked garlic porter. The bottom line is if it tastes good, we brew it.

- Collaboration – As in most industries, many layers of separation obscure producer from consumer. We see this as one of the great tragedies of the modern brewing landscape. Because drinking beer has always been a social experience, its production should be no different. The goal is to share our passion and knowledge of beer with our customers, and in turn learn from them.

- Local Ingredients, Sustainable Practices - For us living local is not just a marketing strategy; it's a lifestyle. We believe that all of us have a duty to reduce our footprint on the earth regardless of the industry in which we work.  Unfortunately, many other brewers big and small have little regard for local values when they clash with the bottom line. Wherever possible Glass Bottom Brewery will use locally sourced ingredients, and we will actively explore opportunities to make brewing a generally less wasteful enterprise.