Recently in Homebrewing Category

X wrote "Year 1." We'll call this year two.

Over the past two weekends, I've spent about 4-5 hours in my yard hoping for a better outcome than last year. Mr. Sun, this is on you, too. Into pots, instead of the ground, went hop rhizomes; two each of Fuggles and Goldings. Hopefully have found a sunny corner of the yard and will worry about the needed 10'-12' trellis later. The balance of time was spent weeding. Oy, weeds and dandelions, the bane of my existence, horticulturally speaking, of course. The Columbine seeds (you can take the boy out of Colorado...) I planted in the fall did nothing. I'll chalk that up to more 2010 bad mojo. But on the bright side, my cherry tree has the hint of many blossoms to come. Will cherry blossoms lead to actual cherries?


So, it's April. April showers and blah blah blah. And we've had more than our fair share of rain so far this month and year, Seattle or no. Can I amend the couplet to read, April showers brings May beer? Breaking out of my usual home brew experiments in English ales, I'm attempting my first German-style beer, a maibock, or May Bock. With adequate lagering, I should be able to sample by Memorial Day.


Happy spring!

And on the umpteenth try...I finally secured a bottle of Washington State's first distilled whiskey since Prohibition, Dry Fly from Spokane. Batches 1 and 2 from the hand-crafted and bottled shop were gone from our state-run liquor stores before their official "street dates." Surprise! even governments run afoul of the law. Batches 3 and 4 slipped beneath my finely-tuned craft alcohol radar. But I wasn't missing number 5. Even though I had to drive around in, um, squares circumnavigating University Village to find the relocated liquor joint.

Kent and Don, the gents behind Dry Fly, have been a two-man wrecking crew on the dusty laws of Washington. Working with local state senator Chris Marr (D-Spokane), they helped push through the state's first craft distilling statute in 2007. Further wound up getting legislation enacted to reduce the fees associated with opening a craft distillery (as well as requiring half the ingredients be state-grown). Then, earlier this year, SB 6485 was signed into law, raising the productivity threshold from 20,000 gallons annually to 60,000.

I imagine you've heard of craft or microbreweries? They number more than 1,500 nationwide today. Sounds like a big number, and their popularity and profile has no doubt been spearheaded by the industry's notorious leading lights (Sam Calagione, for instance). Though when measured in domestic beer sales, craft breweries still only pull down single-digit percentage of market share. Less than 4.5% of the total, if my math is correct. Though in a down economy, when the total beer market declined 2.2% last year, craft brewing sales rose 7%. (Numbers courtesy of the Brewers Association.) In the past 30 years, when most date the dawn of the current craft beer explosion, small, independent brewers numbered but 100.


Safe to say, the Spokane boys are well in front of the wave to come. At best count, there are just north of 300 craft distillers nationally today. (The number of licensed distillers is pegged about 2.5x that number, but the number of craft distillers listed by the American Distilling Institute -- the closest thing to a single governing association for the industry -- lists the smaller number their annual directory.) Yet in recent weeks, in addition to Washington, Illinois (two craft distilleries in the state) and Iowa (three) have passed legislation that could encourage entrepreneurs and *cough, cough* home distillers into going pro.

"White" spirits (gin, vodka; anything that doesn't require any significant aging) are typically the first spirits many of these distillers produce while they wait for their whiskey (or rye or bourbon) to mature. In short order, one can expect Oregon's legion of distillers (28, or 10% of the national total, and growing) to start introducing whiskeys.

Oh yeah, how does the Dry Fly taste? For a whiskey made from wheat and aged just over two years, it is light-bodied though not without a bite. You won't mistake it for a Kentucky bourbon or Tennessee whiskey any time soon. Will be interesting to see how it ages. Now back to my Compleat Distiller.

Just about five hours on the clock from steeping grains to finished with clean-up. Using malt extract is certainly one time-saver during a brew day. I've brewed up my first attempt at a Belgian Wit beer today. And, as is oftentimes the case moments after I've sealed the top on the primary fermenter, I'm not sure what I'm going to get on the back side. So, I'm embracing the homebrewer's mantra, coined by über-guru Charlie Papazian: relax, don't worry about it, have a homebrew.

Wit beers are characterized by coriander and orange flavors which I added at the end of the boil (steep). Also added at various times are hops (I used domestic Goldings), dried jasmine flowers, and caraway. The last two are my experiments with this batch. Caraway is one of my favorite flavors (rye bread toast anyone?) and dried jasmine flowers are added to my favorite IPA so I thought a small amount would be a nice complement to the orange. Sounds good in theory, right?

My biggest concern at the moment is the color. The color profile for wit beers is very light golden and into the fermenter my beer was anything but light or golden. I think the malt extract may be a contributing factor. It was darker than I expected wheat malt extract to be. I wonder if the homebrew store where I purchased my ingredients filled my malt bucket with pale or even light amber malt extract rather than wheat malt extract. If they did, it's certainly too late now. So, we'll see. It's not always all about the style guidelines, but for my first attempt, it would be nice to be in the right zip code.

Grain bill:

• Crystal 10L
• Wheat malt
• Torrefied wheat

Wheat malt extract

Additions:

• Cracked coriander
• Cracked caraway
• Orange zest
• Dried jasmine flowers

Yeast: Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

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I also moved my porter experiment into secondary fermentation this weekend. My 7 quarts have now been put into one one-gallon growler, and about half-full on two half-gallon growlers. The smaller vessels will wind up yielding 2 22-oz. bottles when all is said and done, so let's hope something in this experiment is darn tasty. Into the one-gallon fermenter I also tossed some oak chips from a Jack Daniels barrel so an oaky bourbon porter will be the end result. Paired with some apple pie a la mode. Mmm, who's hungry?