Grand Opening of Wooden Legs Brewery

The other week was the grand opening of Wooden Legs Brewery in Brookings, SD. Sure it's been open for awhile, but this was a 3 day event in where they were launching a new beer and their kitchen has finally opened so they are in full swing. It all started with a movie on Thursday night, ribbon cutting an live music on Friday night, then "Pork and Pints" on Saturday, I had my kid this past week and weekend, so I was able to get a babysitter for Thursday night, and brought him down on Saturday for lunch.

Thursday Night - Showing of "The Beer Hunter"  documentary of Michael Jackson
So Thursday night  I went to Wooden Legs Brewery for a special screening of the movie "The Beer Hunter" which is a documentary of Michael Jackson, the world renown beer writer (and apparently for whiskey). I got to Wooden Legs a little before the movie was scheduled to start (7pm) to take my time and order a beer, I went with 11th Hour IPA from Crow Peek Brewing Company, great beer. We ended up going into the side room where it was setup with chairs, tables, Wooden Legs coasters, a projector and the best part....chex mix. I haven't had chex mix in a long time but quickly remembered how addicting this stuff is, especially when combined with beer.

Overall I thought the movie was very interesting, I had never heard of Michael Jackson (the writer) before, and left feeling the urge to checkout what different books are available on Google Play for me to purchase. The biggest one seemed to be the The World Guide To Beer which I will definitely look to get, first check the local library (because it's free) then see how much it is on Google Play and/or Amazon. The majority of the filming seemed to have been in Michael's last days, and at first I didn't know what to expect, he seemed very groggy and had long scraggly hair and a long beard...but when he spoke it was with a certain clarity and was so engaging no matter who he was talking to, an owner of a brewery or the cab driver that we went in and bought a beer for and brought it back out to him. It's a classic case of not judging a book by it's cover, because he was very interesting and very personable when he spoke, and that made the movie very enjoyable. I loved the 15 minute beer break intermission in the middle of the movie, the screen simply went black with white text saying "15 minute intermission, go grab a beer!" which of course we did.

The only negative critique I would have is the audio, it would go from being able to hear the narrator very clearly, to all of a sudden barely able to hear what either Michael was saying, or the person he was talking to. There would be instances where he was in a crowded bar for an appearance, and he wasn't mic'd up so you could hear ever conversation in the place and it made it really difficult to hear what he was saying. Even with the audio going in and out, I did like the movie and will look to perhaps rent it at home in the future to try and see if I can hear more.

Saturday - "Pork and Pints"
Starting at noon you could arrive at Wooden Legs and they had a huge smoker out front where they had been cooking 400lbs of pork! The deal was $5 all you can eat (which included potato salad, beans and chips) and it was $5 pints of beer. I met Rich at his house and we played daddy daycare by loading our kids in a Radio Flyer and walking down for the festivities. You could smell the pork from about a block away, and we were nervous at first if this was going to be a "family affair", something about taking your kids to a brewery just didn't seem right. However there were plenty of families with their kids there all having lunch, we loaded up a couple of plates and sat down for some good eating. Once we got settle Rich went up to the bar to order us a pair of the new What We Got - double IPA that had just been released the night prior. I have no idea what types of beer go with what types of food, but I do know that the double IPA tasted amazing with those pork sandwiches and potato salad. Ran into a lot of friends and coworkers that were down there for lunch as well, so it ended up being great food, company and most importantly.....beer, haha.

I look forward to Wooden Legs now being fully opened (now open daily at noon!), and definitely plan on making it down on a regular basis and help support the work that they are doing.

The Flavor: Sour

Greetings citizens,

Today's flavor of the day on Sesame Street is: Sour.  The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about sour is my favorite candy, sour Warheads!  I have tried all the sour warheads products from the traditional hard candy to the breath mints and sour spray.  To my knowledge they do not make a beer yet, but they should!  My first sour beer was quite the experience: La Folie by New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO.  Think cherry warheads, cold, carbonated, and wrapped in a mild brown ale background.  It was my first and still stands to this day as being my favorite, at least the 2010 vintage anyways.  After buying 8-10 bottles over the course of about a year from the Brookings Liquor store at $13.99 a piece they finally ran out of that 2010 vintage.  At this time I knew that I must learn more and brew my own.  The main thing that scares me about trying to make something like this is that it is expensive for a reason, and it says so right on the bottle "Reddish brown ale fermented 1 to 3 years in french oak barrels for mouth picking perfection".  I would have to commit a $30 fermenter and about $30 of ingredients for 3 years in order to make this stuff?  My accountant brain said the NPV of a fermenter, a brew day and ingredients exceeds the return I would get in 3 years so, I had to find an easier way. 

Fast forward about a year to the summer of 2012 and I find myself consuming more and more different sour ales, and I happened upon Oarsman by Bell's Brewery of Kalamazoo, MI.  Oarsman is a light in color and body, sour mashed wheat ale.  Picture a light, tangy, lemony, tart and refreshing beer that would take everything you love about a shandy and crank it to the next level by blending it with a sour beer.   First thing I was thinking, as after every new beer style I find, is that I had to do some more research on how to make me some of my own!  My discovery was astounding, I found out that I could make this sour mash ale in not 3 years, 2 years, or 1 year, I could make this stuff in just 2 weeks for a total cost of $12 for 5 gallons.  In the words of Phil Robertson(Duck Dynasty), "Now we are cookin' with peanut oil!"  Needless to say I had to try it, and it was the weirdest brewing I have ever done.  I was quite skeptical.

I will try to keep this simple but an all-grain brewing knowledge would be helpful.

Here is what I did:

5 pounds Briess Pilsen Malt and 4 pounds Rahr White Wheat Malt mashed at 154F for the duration of the Brookings Bobcats vs. Yankton Bucks Boys BB game with a 1.25 qt/lb grain ratio.  Added the rest of my brewing water for the whole batch to my igloo cooler to lower the temp to 120F.  Toss in .9 more pounds of uncrushed Pilsen malt , flood the head space in the cooler with CO2 and cover with a few layers of saran wrap.   Come back in 48 hours (yeah, 2 days!).  It will most likely smell like your garbage can on a hot summer day, but that is a good thing. Then pull off a majority of the mash into a pot and bring to a boil and add it back to the cooler in order to raise the mash temp to 170 for the run-off(mash out).  Bring to a boil, add in just enough hops to call it a beer and boil for 15 mins.  Cool to 65F and toss in a packet of Fermentis S-04 yeast.  It finished fermenting in a couple days and I kegged most of it with some making its way into a 64 oz growler with 20 little carbonating tabs. 

Here are the results:  A murky lemonade looking, headless treat with a taste that follows the appearance.  It is everything that I ever imagined I wanted a sour mash ale to taste like and more.  I am both amazed and excited to see that this is so easy, cheap, and quick!

 

Intro to Fermentation

Hello all, my name is Richard Drawdy, a husband and father of one son, an employee at Daktronics, and the part that leads me to this blog is a home brewer of about 27 months now. About a year ago I began talking to Matt about his homebrewing adventures which I originally discovered through this blog.  Then a couple months ago I got the chance to brew with the AnderHoff duo.  I noticed that they are in the beginning stages of the home brewers learning curve with myself being a little closer towards the apex.  At that point I figured there may be a few things that I could lend in the way of advanced brewing tips that could be a helpful contribution to the blog.  In my tenure I have made about 300 gallons of the home made libation we all love, totaling about 50 different recipes. It's not all about volume in this art its more about quality which leads me to my first topic I would like to present in my series of initial blog posts about improving your home brewed batches: quality fermentation.

There are many things that go into producing a malt sugar filled liquid which brewer's call wort, I will focus today on handling that wort once you get it into your fermenter. There are many variables that go into fermentation: wort composition, wort temperature, yeast variety, yeast cell count, yeast health, and fermenter size.  All of this may seem like a lot to worry about and it is! But, to keep it simple you can follow these couple of steps in preparation for your brew day:
Review the specifications for your yeast. This will tell you important things like pitching rate requirements, temperature tolerance and alcohol tolerance.  Effective fermentation is easily accomplished by shooting for the middle range on each of these requirements for your batch of home brew. Once you know the pitching rate requirements for your yeast you can use calculators available at yeastcalc.com or mrmalty.comin order to propagate or know how much to buy for your specific wort. Under pitching your yeast quantity can cause the wort to finish short of the targeted alcohol content as well as increase the amount of abrasive flavors produced by the yeast. Over pitching your yeast is less harmful but can cause the yeast to produce less flavors that you may want in the finished product.
Once you have the correct amount of yeast in your wort you then will want to focus on temperatures for the fermentation. Shooting for the lower end of your temperature range will restrain yeast flavor production, while the opposite will cause flavor production, some of which may be undesirable in the higher temperature ranges.
Now that we know the basics of fermentation lets walk through an example: Northern Brewer's Dead Ringer IPA Kit. When you buy the kit you also need to consider your schedule and whether you will have the time or equipment to make yeast starters, if not you will need to buy more than one liquid pack of yeast. This kit calls for a fermentation volume of 5 gallons of wort at an original gravity of 1.064. Yeastcalc.com says that this requires 222 billion cells of yeast or a pitching rate of 11.7 million cells per milliliter of wort. The Wyeast American Ale 1056 that comes with the kit contains 100 billion cells of yeast at the day it is produced. Based on the production date of the yeast pack you would need to buy 2 or 3 yeast packs. Or make a starter with 1 packet with a volume of 2-4 liters of starter wort again depending on the yeast packet age.  I will assume that the yeast pack is 1 month old, meaning I will have 85 billion cells to start with. I will either need to buy 2 more yeast packs or make a 2.8 liter yeast starter to get to 222 billion cells needed for this healthy fermentation. Wyeast American Ale 1056 has a fermentation temp range of 60-72 F, 15-22 C. For this IPA I do not really want any yeast flavor contribution so I will shoot for 62 F on this fermentation.  In order to achieve this temperature with some consistency but there are a variety of methods available.  You could be sure that you brew during a time of the year that you have a room in your house will be the optimal temperature, or you could build yourself a fermentation control system with a fridge like I have done.

Thanks for reading, and happy fermenting! Cheers - Rich

Additional References:

Jamil Z on Pitching Rateshttp://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

Youtube videos from Wyeast:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgOVeEqw5B8PdWeqg3s8tqI_jycItwf-p

Other great youtube instructionals:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgOVeEqw5B8MkKdSZVKMHWdWpxNqn3uRv

Catching Up

Alright....been on a little bit of a break again and a lot has happened since the last post. Not to make excuses, but I know see myself being able to blog on a more consistent basis since I finally got my keyboard/docking station for my tablet computer. So I've wanted to do posts of all the different things that have happened, but in an effort to catch everybody back up, I'm going to break this post up into small summaries of each event, first starting out is:

Big Brew Day - Russian Imperial Stout
Last month (February 2nd) was the Big Brew Day by the SDSU Homebrewing Club, and this time a Russian Imperial Stout, a really strong beer that we were aiming for a 10.5% ABV.

The idea for how to start this Big Brew Day had good intentions (9am meeting at Heist brewery), .....however we did not take into account the fact that most of us would be out that Friday night prior, and you could say that nobody was moving fast in the morning. I am guilty as well after going to my first Brookings Blizzard hockey game, where you can buy "VIP Tickets" for $26 and it includes entrance into the game, as well as all you can drink beer and all the food you can eat (catered by BBQ shack).....simply incredible.

So we ended up getting a late start on the day, had to make a pit stop on the way to Heist and get some coffee and Casey's breakfast pizza...mmm. Once I got to Heist and we started getting everything set up, Rich and I had to run back to his house to get the yeast starts that he did the other night. Soon enough we had everyone at the brewery and started crushing the grains and making some beer! Everyone brought different kinds of beer to share and put them in a big ice bucket, I bought a 4-pack of Ivan The Great. I was pretty excited to try this beer, until it became apparent that all 4 were incredibly flat and tasted like borderline syrup. I have experienced more carbonation out of a Bud Light that was sitting in a cooler for a couple days while at the cabin/Apple River. Thankfully others brought some really good AND carbonated beer so I wasn't at a total loss for the day.

I can't remember what prompted this, but I had written a quote down from Rich: "Beer with cheese...it accentuates the funkiness".

Me filling up my carboy

After we got done and it was time to start filling up everyone's carboy's, we realized that we may have a little bit more than expected, so instead of some of us getting 5 gallons, we got 6 (which I was not going to argue with). Then we had an aerator to help create oxygen prior to pitching the yeast, this was the first time I had used one of these, and wow does it definitely make it easier than picking it all up and swishing it around constantly. So we all got our allotted amount of beer, aerated, and pitched the yeast then loaded up our vehicles and head our separate ways.

Rich getting the hops ready

SDSU Homebrew Club February Meeting
This was the first meeting in quite awhile that I didn't have my kid and was actually able to attend. These meetings are so much fun, if you're a fan of beer, and a fan of trying different kinds of beer while meeting new people....there is no reason to not check out an SDSU Homebrew Club meeting. At this meeting, Rich showed everyone how to make their own labels and how to get them to stick to the beer bottle. After printing off a design on a colored laser printer, simply coat the back of the paper in a saucer of milk and press it to the beer bottle firmly and hold. I couldn't believe how easy this actually was and I think many others were surprised as well and now we all feel comfortable being to start making our own labels for the beers we make.

One of my best friends from college ended up coming into town so I had to cut the meeting short, but before I left I did try someone's beer that was actually rated at 28% ABV.....as soon as I heard about that I knew I had to try it. Wow! This pretty much tasted like drinking straight rum, sweet of course but some good flavor and not what you would expect from a beer, felt more like I was drinking alcohol straight. 

Bottling Dead Ringer IPA
Blake made a trip up to Brookings to help me finally bottle the Dead Ringer IPA that we brewed about a month or two ago. We took a final gravity reading and it came out right around where we wanted it to be for a 6.5% ABV. I am a fan of bottling day, though as much work as it may be, something about filling up bottles and capping them really hits home that you made beer....and I love it. We are using bigger bottles instead of the 12oz ones so we don't have has many to fill, so it's the best of both worlds.

Back In The Game - Dead Ringer IPA

It has been awhile since brewing my last beer at home, and a lot has changed in my life over that period. I have sold my house and live in a new duplex with my son every other week and after a couple of months, I have truly started to settle in. I have just begun to organize all my home brewing equipment and look to make 2013 the year I get serious about home brewing.

So the latest ingredient kit (malt extract) that I got, was from Northern Brewer and it's called the "Dead Ringer IPA". Since I'm still on my IPA kick, I thought this would be a great one to get back on track with.

Here are the ingredients that came with the kit:

• 1 lbs Briess Caramel 40
• 9.15 lbs Gold malt syrup
• 5 - 1 oz packs of Centennial hops (4 for brewing day, and 1 for dry hopping)
• Wyeast #1056 American Ale Yeast
• 5 oz Priming Sugar

With the help of my buddy Rich, 2 days before brewing day I did my first ever Yeast Starter. He let me borrow some DME (dry malt extract) and several pieces of equipment that I needed to pull this off. He also pointed me in the direction of a great link showing the basic steps to creating a Yeast Starter.

sketchy activities

So with the new equipment at hand, and having watched the video about 4 times to make sure I fully understood everything, I went to my new gigantic kitchen and began. If you didn't know much about home brewing (or me for that matter) and you saw what I was doing, you'd swear I was making meth or something illegal. Measuring amounts of white powder (DME) and using a 5000mL flask on my stove to boil liquids doesn't look so innocent, it's a good thing I had the curtains pulled down.

Brew day was last Wednesday (January 16th), and I had friends Josh, Rich and Blake Hoffman over to help out with everything. We had the burner set up in the garage and all the ingredients and equipment inside the house. It was really cold outside, so we kept having to do shifts of standing around the wort as it was steeping the grains and boiling the wort with adding hops. And as you can see in the picture to the left, we were obeying the #1 rule on brewing day.....drinking beer. Everyone brought over some different kinds of beer, with Rich bringing some home brew to try, and it reminded me of one of my favorite parts of home brewing, getting together and talking about beer while sharing/tasting different kinds of beer.

Blake before he passed out

Once we were done with the boiling and adding the hops, we made an ice bath in a tote out in the garage, where the cold weather outside really helped. Then we brought it inside and poured it through a strainer and funnel and into the glass carboy for primary fermentation, gave it a really good shake, then added the yeast and continued to shake for roughly 4 minutes (2 minutes me and 2 minutes Hoffman), at the end Hoffman was winded and passed out, since it was the most physical activity he has done all winter. The first two days in the carboy had plenty of activity and the airlock filled with whiskey was bubbling away.

All in all, I'm glad that I started back up with brewing beer, and look to continue this throughout the year and want to get better at it, and get more knowledgeable about beer in general. 

Here is the schedule for the rest of this beer:

• 2 weeks primary (1/16)
• 2 weeks secondary (1/30 - add hops)
• 2 week in the bottle (2/13 - bottle)
• I've found that a week or two in the fridge can help clear up the beer as well

Bubbling away!

"Favorite Beer"

It used to be every time someone would ask me what my favorite beer was, I would say something along the lines of Coors Light or even Sunset Wheat from Leinenkugel's for a period of time. Today when I get asked that question, I honesty have no idea what my favorite beer is right now. As I am trying more and more different types of beers, it gets a little harder to decide on a certain beer as my overall "favorite", but rather what is my favorite beer at that moment. 

What I've come to realize is that I have several different "favorite beers" that are based on either the season or a certain type of event going on.

For instance, right now with it being cold outside, I tend to like darker beers and stouts where normally in the spring/summer time I wouldn't. I have been going through several different seasonal variety packs this winter season, and I'd have to say the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is definitely at the top of my list.

I know this isn't a really dark/stout beer as I previously mentioned, more of a bronze color, but I have become a fan of IPA beers lately and this definitely hits on that. Though aside from other IPA's there is still a darker/malty feel to the beer while still having the bitterness that I've come to like from IPA's.

A slightly different situation that I might find myself in, is what is my "favorite beer" when quantity matters more than the quality of the beer. Some examples of this would be really hot days and something really cold to quickly quench your thirst or playing drinking games with old college buddies, or special occasions where I know beer is going to be consumed over a long period of time.

As much as I love the taste of craft beers, the truth is that when I'm playing beer pong or biz (form of beer die), I'm not going to have Sam Adams in my cup while the opponent has Busch Light....it puts me at a slight disadvantage and I am a competitive person.


Not only is this harder to consume at a fast rate (which is sometimes required) but due to the higher alcohol content of the beer, my hand-to-eye coordination will decline at a faster rate than that of my opponent. So when it comes to these circumstances, my beer of choice has to be something easy to consume, and not have a high ABV....this beer is Coors Light which was my main beer in college, so you can call me loyal, haha.

I do look forward to expanding my taste and appreciation of different beers, and who knows....maybe someday I will come across a beer that I will be able to give the title of My Favorite Beer.

Lakefront Brewery - Wisconsinite Summer Weiss

BEER REPORT CARD - Lakefront Brewery - Wisconsinite Summer Weiss - 4.2%

So I was stopping by the liquor store here in Brookings on my way home from work today to decide what beer to evaluate tonight, and came across a brewery that I have not heard of. I know I'm new, but I have not heard of Lakefront Brewery and was interested in trying a beer from Wisconsin with "local ingredients".

Brookings is currently in a 4 day heat advisory, so when I saw this was a Summer Weiss I was hoping it would be light but still have a lot of flavor, which sounded good because of how warm it was outside.

When pouring into a glass, it actually looked more clouded than I expected and had good carbonation. A very sweat type of aroma, and on my first sip can definitely get a sweat cider taste. Aside from the cider I don't really get a lot of flavors out of this beer, seems more dull and bland than I had hoped. I can't see myself having more than a six pack of these, but might be good for those people that into the sweat summer type beers. In the end, this is a little more sweat than I like, but it's really hard for me to say that I ever "hate" a beer (very few fall into this category), so I feel it was average overall.

Overall Grade: C