BetterBeerBlog

It wasn’t until this afternoon that I took a look at this post again and I completely omitted any mention of me having tried Firestone Walker’s XII. Thanks to Nicole, I was able to sample a little bit of “12″ but I didn’t take any notes because I had bought two bottles. Speaking of bottles, I bought two at $30 a piece! Man… some of the things I do for beer. I have a feeling that most of the money was spent on packaging, the box was pretty nice. Anyway, I was planning on cracking one beer open tonight for dinner and aging the other bottle. Look for the full review on this beer in the near future.

I’ll be the first one to admit that I wasn’t planning on going to Toronado tonight. Even though it’s a mere 50 miles or so away, San Francisco is just a difficult place to drive up to in the middle of the week without a special ocassion. Luckily for me, Firestone Walker was unveiling their XII (aka “12″), their 12th anniversary beer that is a blend of several beers aged in wood.

Sammy and I made the drive up after work. It took us an hour to get to San Francisco because of the traffic. Even in the carpool lane, we were stop and go in certain places. To make matters worse, some shitfuckforbrains in an old ass Lexus (back when they looked like slightly nicer Corollas), kept high beaming us to move over to a lane to let him pass. First of all, we were going above the speed limit and faster than the so-called “fast lane”. Second, the dickweed had plenty of time to pass us if he wanted. When he did, he cut us off and then slowed down to below the fucking speed limit. What the fuck?! I mean seriously? You’re in such a rush to want to pass us and you pull this Mickey Mouse bullshit? At least we were going the speed limit. Mr. PantiesInABunch slowed down to 45 mph to make some sort of point? Hey, I drive a super old version of a high-end brand and I’m in a rush but not so much so I can’t be douche on the freeway.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Some people, really.

It didn’t help matters much when we arrived in lower Haight and couldn’t find parking. That’s the thing I hate the most about San Francisco, the lack of parking. Sure, we could’ve taken the train and maybe the buses but we choose not to. As a result, we’re driving around the neighborhood looking for a spot. Thankfully we were able to find a spot about a block away.

In the end, it was all worth it. When we go in Toronado, the first person we saw was Nicole from The Trappist. She quickly informed us that 12 was almost sold out. I made it a point to pick up a pair of bottles while placing our order. It took us a few minutes but at least we got our bottles. Toronado, unsurprisingly, was full but not so much so that you couldn’t get around. I order Firestone Walker’s Big Opal wheat wine to start off while Sammy orders Two Rivers’ organic Pomegranate cider. I’ll list the beers we had and my notes in a little bit.

Surveying the area, we see a lot of familiar faces. As I mentioned before, there was Nicole from The Trappist, Sean Paxton the Homebrew Chef and his father Zane, Rob from Pfiff, The Thirsty Hopster herself, Jessica and her “boss”, Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Brynildson.

Shame on me for not noticing who Matt was earlier but even if I did, I don’t want to come off as some fanboy who’s all up on his nutsack. I got a chance to talk to Matt for a pretty good amount of time. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t know who he was as I was able to just chat the dude up. Matt is a really down-to-earth kind of guy. I found him supremely easy to talk to and friendly. What I found really surprising was that he was just kind of hanging out. Matt is a very accomplished brewer, his Pale 31 won Bronze at this year’s GABF while the Mission Street Pale Ale Firestone Walker brews for Trader Joe’s won Gold in the same category. His Union Jack IPA ended up taking Gold in the IPA category as well. With a resumé like that, you’d expect him to have quite a following.

When compared to Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head brewing, it’s like night and day. Sam is very much a rock star in the brewing world. It seems that he loves the attention and the spotlight. Good thing he is charismatic enough to be able to own his well deserved fame. Trying to talk to Sam during the Dogfish Head unveiling at Toronado proved to be a big more difficult as he was always surrounded by people. Granted, I found Sam to be an excellent host, friendly with a great memory but I could never really connect with him. I’m not saying that Matt and I are now best friends forever or anything but it was nice to have had a conversation with the guy.

In addition to meeting up with some “industry” people, it was good to talk to some of the “locals” as well. Sammy was having an interesting conversation with Todd, who happened to be sitting next to her at the bar. I ended up chatting up with Felice and Michael, a pair of Jessica’s friends. All three were great people to talk to and have actual conversations with. That’s what I love about beer, it brings people together.

Anyway, the experience was great and I am glad I made the effort to come out. The beers (which I’ll be getting to) were good and the company great. Sammy and I finished the night off at Memphis Minnies, a BBQ joint across the street from Toronado. We split a sampler plate consisting of (on the bone) ribs, sweet-smoked pulled pork, brisket, fries and sweet potatoes as our sides. Not sure if it was the beer talking or not but that was some good eats. With Memphis Minnies about to close, we bagged the rest so I could have some lunch tomorrow/later.

Here are the drinks we had with my notes:

• Firestone Walker Big Opal, wheat wine, 11% ABV - As the name would imply, Big Opal is a big beer. Weighing in at 9.5%, this is an unfiltered wheat beer made with premium two-row malted barley, wheat, torrified wheat, honey malt, honey and 100% Saaz hops. The resultant beer has a sweet aroma reminiscent of honey and creamed wheat with a white peppery spiciness and noticeable alcohol character. The honey aromas are most likely from the honey malt and not the honey as fermented honey tends to loose a lot of its aromas. This beer is full bodied with medium-low/medium level of carbonation. The flavor is sweet, like syrup with huge wheat character, hints of cinnamon and a peppery finish. This beer reminds me of a maibock on steriods.
• Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin - I feel both frustrated and honored to cover this beer. I’ve been trying to find more information about this beer but it’s been scarce. Not even Firestone Walker’s website has any information and for good reason: they’ve stopped brewing it. Here’s what I can tell you: this is an oak-aged oatmeal stout, somewhere in the 5-6% ABV range. In the dim lighting of Toronado, this beer appears dark, opaque. I’m picking up some roasted malt aromas, some bittersweet chocolate notes, some coffee and even vanilla? The flavor of the beer is fantastic. My mouth is enveloped in a rich, creamy, velvety blanket of roasted malt and coffee flavors with strong hints of chocoate and slight oaky undertones. This beer is medium bodied but low/medium-low in carbonation. This beer is on hand pump only and the creamy and velvety texture hides the fact it has a low level of carbonation. This is what Guinness tries to do with their stout on nitro but it’s hard to compete with the real thing. Another interesting thing about the name. I’m sure by now that the “velvet” part of the name comes from it’s texture. The “merkin” part is a bit more infamous. Despite what you may think it is, a merkin is actually a Victorian-age pubic wig. That’s right. Pubic. Wig. I’ll let you absorb that for a moment. Prostitutes used to shave their va-jay-jays clean when they’d get pubic lice. Unfortunately for them, being “so fresh and so clean” was a big turn-off back in the day. In order to get their customers back, they had to resort to the use of pubic wigs. Soo lucky for me this beer doesn’t taste like pube… not that I’d know what pube taste like or anything. Moving on…
• Ommegang Rouge, Flemish Sour Red Ale, 5.5% ABV - This is another beer I was having trouble finding information on. It’s not on the Ommegang website but I was able to find tidbits here and there. What I am able to tell you is that this isn’t a pure Ommegang beer, it’s a collaboration between Brewery Ommegang and Brouwerij Bockor of Belgium. “Authentically Belgian”, this beer was the result of spontanous fermentation and 18 months of oak aging. It’s hard to tell what this beer really looks like. Toronado is a horrible place for lighting (then again, full lights means it’s time to go home). The aroma has a noticeable, lactic sourness, more tart than anything. It’s somewhat representational of pickle juice but I think it’s a little bit like ketchup. I also pick up slight brettanomyces funk in this beer. The flavor is mouthwateringly tart, the lactic sourness permeates through all facets. I’m having trouble picking up any of the rich, dark fruit flavors and melanoidic qualities of this beer. Maybe my palette is fatigued, not sure. If you’ve had a bottle of Duchess de Bourgogne or Monk’s Kettle Flemish Red Ale, and you liked it, this beer is definitely for you. My one complaint about this beer, rather this style of beer, is the lack of consistency. The very first bottle of Duchess de Bourgogne I ever tasted was absolutely sublime. Now, it seems like I’m chasing a dream. While very in line with many of the sour beers I’ve tried in the past, I can’t help but miss that very first bottle of Flemish Red Ale with it’s complex malt character and tart finish. Still, this is by no means a bad beer, it’s very good actually. I was just looking for a little bit more.

I thought I’d take a break and write about something not related to my San Diego trip. I’ll plan on having the next San Diego related post up by very late tonight but enjoy this diversion until then.

There’s nothing like a little failure to instill humility in a blogger. I’d like to think I’m a decent homebrewer. I practice good sanitation and am careful with my processes but I don’t always get things right the first time. Take cider for instance.

In my backyard, I have two apple trees that I refer to as the “apple bushes”. Instead of a singlular, main trunk there are a few. We took one weekend sometime last year to trim back the extra trunks but they pop up every so often making the trees look like bushes. For the longest time, I had no idea what kind of apple trees they were. I thought apples came in two varieties: red and green. I kept expecting the apples from these trees to turn red but they never really did. By the time they were reddish, they were pretty much bad. Some Googling later revealed to me that these were Gravenstein apples. If you’re familiar with them, they don’t turn red at all but are a mix of red and green.

This year, I decided to try and make cider from the apples from my trees. With the help of my wife, her sister and kinda from her nephew, we managed to pick two coolers worth of apples. I wasn’t sure how much juice I was expecting to get from two coolers but since this was our first try at it, I was more inclined to see how things would “play out”.

The day before I stopped by Beer and Winemakers of America, my local homebrew shop. I spoke with the owner Rich and he set me up with everything I was going to need to make cider, well, almost. I bought my yeast and I rented a fruit press. I was supposed to rent an apple crusher as well but opted not to. Instead, I was to put Sammy and her sister to work cutting the apples down into much smaller pieces. In retrospect, I should’ve gotten the apple crusher. If you are reading this and are looking to make fresh cider from apples, rent the damn apple crusher.

I start my day off by processing the apples. This involved getting them a quick wash and then chopping them into little pieces. One at a time. By hand. Suck ass. Did I mention that I should’ve gotten the apple crusher? A few hours and a couple of blisters later, Sammy and I finally finish chopping up the apples. I load them into the press and start to press away. I only get a couple of cranks in before I’m stuck.

Rich warned me about this. “Apples,” he said, “are notoriously difficult fruit to press. They don’t give up their juice easily, which is why you should consider renting the apple crusher.” Further, pressing apples isn’t necessarily an endeavor of brute strength more than it is a successful combination of pressure, time and patience. Rich instructed me to crank the press until it stopped then, then to take a 10 minute break. The fruit would compress, release its juice then settle allowing me to get in a few more cranks in.

I don’t even think I got a full revolution from the press. The combination of a large number of apples and big, inconsistent pieces formed a very frustrating day of juicing. So frustrated, I set things aside to do the next day. Even then, I pretty much took things apart and threw away all the apples. They were actually pretty tasty as we sampled them as we cut the day before. But yeah, I chucked everything I did, cleaned up the press and packed it away, ready to be returned.

Live and learn… to do things easier.

What I am about to describe will probably be shunned by cider making purists. After all, there’s an immense sense of self-satisfaction by taking something you have nurtured and grown in your backyard and processed it into something else. There’s just no substitute for taking on a project and seeing it to completion. I understand this sentiment completely.

At the same time, I’m pretty stubborn. I was determined to make cider by any means possible, I wasn’t going to waste a vial of cider yeast. So I did what any desparate man would do: I used apple concentrate.

After telling Rich how I messed up making apple cider, I casually threw out the idea that I could use frozen apple concentrate. Rich paused for a moment and said, “That’s not a bad idea. You’d have better control that way as well. Just use half the amount of water needed.”

With those wise words, I headed over to Savemart looking to pick up some apple concentrate. Finding out they were about $2.19 per canister, I decided to scale back my operation. Instead of 5 gallons, I was going to make 3 gallons of cider. Besides, for something I’ve never done before, I wanted to limit my liability so I felt a test batch was in order.

I decided to use the Sunny Select brand of apple concentrate for no other reason than the math was easy. With one of their 16 fl. oz cans of concentrate, you can make 64 oz of juice, or half a gallon. It would stand to reason that you would need two cans to make one gallon and with the “use 1/2 the amount of water” rule for cider, 4 cans for one gallon. Here is my recipe:

Concentrate:

• 12 cans - Sunny Select Frozen Apple Concentrate (16 fl. oz.)

Yeast:

• White Labs English cider yeast (WLP775)

Water:

• 3 gallons of the finest San José tap
  

Extras:

• 1 tablet servomyces

Original Gravity: 1.064 (within the topmost limits for the style)

Final Gravity: 1.012

ABV: 6.825%

Tasting Notes (must): Clear, pale gold in color. Tons of apple esters in the aroma, sweet smelling. Tastes a lot like really sweet apple juice with a slight tartness in the finish. Full bodied, cloying, still.

Tasting Notes (final): Clear, gold in color, bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. Aroma is slightly sour, acetic in nature. Flavor is sweet, like red apples. Slight sourness in the finish, crisp and effervescent. According to Sammy, it’s a pretty darned good cider.

Process: I just blended everything together, pitched the yeast and aerated the hell out of it for 5 minutes. Some might wonder why I didn’t boil the water first. Truthfully, I forgot. By the time I remembered, I had already mixed the concentrate with the water. I could’ve boiled it then but I was worried I would’ve boiled away the aromatics. I can always “market” this as unpasteurized.

Anyway, I plan on letting this ferment out as much as possible, looking for more of a dry cider. I also plan on hooking this up to the kegerator and making it a sparkling cider. As soon as nature plays itself out, I’ll update the essential information above.

Addendum: I’ve had a night to think about this post and I’ve come to the realization that my whole hang up has much more to do with my failure to press two coolers worth of apples than it is actually using concentrate. In retrospect, I learned a lot about cider making from the whole experience. Certain processes are in place because they work and to try and circumvent them to save a few bucks ended up costing me more in time later down the road. The use of frozen apple concentrate shouldn’t be seen as a “shortcut” or “taking the easy way out”. How is using frozen apple concentrate to make cider any different from how I use extract to make beer? Probably not much, if at all.