| Our Ingredients |
One of the truly wonderful results of the craft-brew revolution is the increased availability of higher quality ingredients over those used by the big boys. The mega-brewers use a high proportion of rice and corn in their beers instead of barley malt. Why? Because it's cheaper. Even the barley malt they use is generally of lower quality. The mega-brewers use malt from 6-row barley because it has more of the enzymes needed to convert the other grains to sugar. Unfortunately 6-row barley malt is also high in protein and husk tannins, neither of which is good in lager beer.
We follow a different path. All of our base malts are made from the "Hanka" strain of two row barley from Germany. In our opinion, this is the best and most appropriate barley for the types of beer we make. This is the barley malt that allowed the brewers in Pilzn to create the pale beer revolution more than 150 years ago. This Pilsner malt has a darker color than most, produces rich, malty beer, and is low in protein, so it produces a naturally clearer beer. We build our amber and dark beers with darker, more flavorful base malts as well, and we don't skimp on the specialty malts either. Many of our beers use two or more base malts and up to seven specialty malts. These malts are more expensive - roughly 20% more than the standard malts used by other craft brewers - but we feel they are necessary to get the flavors and malt character we're looking for.
We use a lot of hops. Not because we like massively bitter beers, but because we believe that multiple hop infusions during the brew process result in smoother bitterness, more interesting flavors, and a better balanced beer. We also find that our naturally soft water brings out the best from hops - smooth and flavorful bitterness. We usually make four hop additions while brewing a batch. We also look for the best, most appropriate hops for the beer we're making. If that means the hops come from the Czech Republic and cost 50% more, fine.
| Brewer's Notes |
What's Brewing - May 2
The new system is here! That's it, on the left. We are finishing installation and should be ready to brew by the middle of the week after next. I have to admit that this was a much more difficult process than I thought. Just the permitting process alone can be pretty amazing (and expensive too). I plan on brewing a batch of Coastal Common first - it seems to be a little more forgiving because of the high hop rate, and it spends the least amount of time lagering. We'll then move on to Schwarz and Pils over the first week or so (gotta make up for lost time).
In about a month I'm going in to get my hip replaced. These last couple of months have been very frustrating as my mobility has deteriorated significantly. In my absence, my daughter Lisa and her friend Sarah will be handling the brew house. Lisa will be just back from working harvest in New Zealand, and Sarah is a graduate of OSU's Fermentation Science program, who spent a year interning at a brewery in Germany. I think things will be in good hands.
What's Brewing - February 29
Well, the new 7 barrel system is on the way, but I suspect that I won't be up and brewing again until sometime in April. It just takes longer to get things reorganized than I thought, and getting all the moving part in synch will take some time. With that in mind, I'm going to start brewing on the little system for a few more batches. I'm thinking about doing a farewell batch of Bobtoberfest just for the heck of it as part of that - probably for release late June/early July.
Hopefully we'll have the new system in place (but probably not totally installed) by the March 15th Open House. I was a little worried about whether the Borderline Bock would be ready by the Open House, but it's looking pretty good right now, and with two more weeks of lagering, it should be ready.
What's Brewing - January 30
The Hugo never got unstuck. I still have a few kegs of it left, but I'm giving up hope. I did brew a near-Bock that we call Borderline Bock. Hopefully it won't meet the same fate as Hugo. It should be ready in mid-March.
I'm getting really close to acquiring a new, bigger system. I expect that the last commercial batches I brew on the old system will be next week. After that, I'll start moving things around to get ready for the new system. My goal is to get everything set up and brewing by mid-March. The new system will require a slightly different brewing process, so I've been experimenting with different procedures for the last few weeks, and I've been trying to brew on other large systems around Oregon to get a better grasp on process similarities and differences.
What’s Brewing - December 28
Well, we're out of beer again. The story of my life! The good news is that I can take some time to brew with a few other craft brewers in the area to see how they use their equipment. Hopefully this will give me some ideas of what I should buy in the way of a bigger system. Hopefully we'll have something up and running this spring so we'll have ample beer for summer!
My Bock is stuck. That is, the fermentation is stuck. The yeast has consumed about 80% of the sugars that they should have, leaving a nice, but very sweet beer behind. For you numbers geeks, the beer started at 1.070 and is currently at 1.028 when it should finish around 1.018 to 1.019. This can be a problem because we would run the risk of the beer restarting fermentation in the bottle. Yikes! I'm working on getting a big enough container so that I can krausen all of it at once (right now it's sitting in 7 kegs). Krausening means adding a new batch of strongly fermenting beer to the current batch. I may also try at least half of the batch in an oak barrel... If krausening doesn't work, there won't be a Bock this year.