Fun Fact: Etymology of "Lambic"

Bronx NY-

After listening to a recent radio show on Lambics, I found myself wondering where the word "Lambic" originated. I thought that it surely had some relation to the style's fruit flavors or natural fermentation. The answer it turns out it much more simple. According to etymonline.com "Lambic" is related to the fourteenth century Middle French word for a still, alambic. At this point the etymology takes an interesting turn. The fourteenth century term, through the previous three centuries of contact between French knights and the Arabic speaking world, was an adaptation of al-anbiq the Arabic word for "distilling flask." Reaching further back, al-anbiq is related to the Greek word ambix meaning "cup."

-Giancarlo

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Archaeology and Beer

Bronx NY-

Archaeology, my other nerdy obsession intersected with Beer on Saturday when I received my copy of the new January/February issue of Archaeology Magazine in the mail. The cover story was labeled "Lords of Peru" but in fact when I went to the actual article the title was "Trophy Skulls and Beer: unearthing the source of an Andean empire's power" by Andrew Curry.

Archaeology has yielded interesting results for the beer world in the past i.e. Dogfish Head Midas Touch (some statements about the discovery made by Dogfish are unfounded). This time it was archaeology learning something about ancient Peruvian culture. The article centers around practices on the borders of the Wari empire which ruled in Peru from approximately 600-1000 A.D. At the settlement of Cerro Baúl at the top of a mountain in the Andes, "the most critical building...may have been the brewery."

Curry spoke to archaeologists who stressed that the chica beer brewed at the site would have

been very important for maintaining relations with neighbors. One archaeologist even theorized that the Wari "may have actually wooed local leaders with a potent mix of beer and hallucinogens." The article goes into much more detail about the structure itself and the keros cups the Wari drank beer from but I would like to leave you with this story of the brewery at Cerro Baúl's last days in 1050:

"After brewing nearly 2,000 pints of beer over the course of more than a week, it seems the Wari held one last drunken blowout at Cerro Baúl. Two dozen or more lords, each raising a uniquely decorated kero, toasted one last time, then smashed their drinking vessels on the floor of the brewery. Then they lit the building on fire and left the mountain top forever."

-Giancarlo

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Fun Fact: Church Key

After being offered a couple of church keys by a local beer distributor to help with the beer I had bought I wondered how a bottle opener could possibly become associated with a church key. Turns out, the term came into use because the device looked like the handles of ornate keys, many of which were church keys. According to Michael Quinion, the term first appeared in print in 1951 but was probably in use by the 1930s.

-Giancarlo

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Fun Fact: Beer Stein Lids

This post begins a series of fun beer facts that we have collected while pursuing our enthusiasm for beer.

About a month ago Rich and his roommate gave me a stein and got me thinking about why someone drinking beer might want to cover it with a lid and when this development occured. After some quick research I came across and article in the Beer Stein Library that sufficiently satisfied my curiosity. Apparently the covered stein had its origins in 14th and 15th century efforts to keep the bugs that invariably followed an outbreak of plague from getting into the beer.

-Giancarlo

For more details check out the article:

http://www.beerstein.net/articles/bsb-1.htm

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Revolution of the Beer 1000 brews a porter

Sea Cliff NY-

On November 8, Revolution of the Beer 1000 met again in Sea Cliff to brew its third beer. After a brown ale and belgian wit, we decided to brew a brown porter using an all grain kit bought from Austin Homebrew Supply. This account will not be as detailed as Mike's breakfast stout but I will give you some of the basics. Our total grains weighed 10 1/2 lbs. 9 lbs was Marris Otter, 4oz chocolate malt, 40z black patent. 2 oz of hops were added, 1oz of challenger and 1oz of kent golding.

We only have a 5 gallon mash tun so we had to sparge a few times because the grain took up so much room in the mash. Our mash tun has an interesting set up that was suggested to us by the owner of Lark Homebrew. We took a short piece of copper piping and made cuts about 3/4 of an inch apart. We then took the screen part of a small strainer and clamped it around the copper. It is not a good as a false bottom but it seems to be holding up well and is easy to clean.


Since our last brew had over a gallon boil off during boiling we increased the amount of water to 7 gallons since we didn't want to add any chlorinated water from the tap that would slow down our yeast. Unfortunately we still ended up with almost 6 gallons and don't have a hydrometer so we don't know how far off the target specific gravity we are. The wort had a nice dark color and smelled delicious.

Since we had so much wort and no wort chiller it took us a while and a lot of ice but it eventually came down. When pouring the wort into our fermentation bucket we had a small spill and lost a bit of that extra wort. Now two and a half weeks later it looks like the fermentation went well and we will be bottling tomorrow.

Where's the Murphy's?!

(So, I tried to update this post and I accidentally deleted it. I was able to retrieve it, so here it is, and it's not updated. However, let it be known -- The Field did have Murphy's and it was just as delicious as I had hoped.)

Boston, MA --

This is my first BeerUnion post and, to be honest, I'm a little nervous. Mike set the bar pretty high with that elaborate brewday play-by-play...

Anyways, I'm writing to follow up on a comment Mike made in an earlier post. It's true, we have been "drinking more Murphy's than water" here in Apt 28. There are few things I love more than a delicious Irish stout, especially Murphy's. I have had little trouble finding Murphy's in cans at local liquor stores, but finding it on tap has proven to be a bigger challenge.

I've determined that we live in a Guinness-dominated world (or city, at least). Don't get me wrong, I love (LOVE) Guinness, but there are better dry Irish stouts out there. Guinness tends to be a bit watery, a bit bland, sometimes just boring. Murphy's makes up for everything that Guinness is lacking. It has a fuller body, richer flavor, yet is still (dangerously) light enough so that you can consume many pints.

Alright, so here's where the quest begins. Of course, Guinness is served at 99% of bars I've been in. Where's the Murphy's?! Our usual "Murphy's bar," Bukowski, has taken it off tap and has replaced it with Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout (ehhh, not so great). So our mission tonight is to find a bar with Murphy's on tap. After calling around to many Irish pubs, I've got my hopes set on The Field in Central Square in Cambridge. This is a traditional Irish pub owned by a true Irishman, who I hope will serve me my pint of heaven-sent goodness with a side of craic.

Guinness simply won't cut it tonight. Stay tuned for updates on the search for Murphy's Irish Stout.

Cheers,

Ashley (& Mike)

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Zeppelin Biergarten, a satisfying experience.

Jersey City-NJ

The new Zeppelin Hall Biergarten in Jersey City is a great beer experience. I was as happy as the mustache in their poster. The biergarten itself was very nice, high ceilings, appropriately long tables, live music and a fireplace. Unfortunately it was chilly and raining so the outdoor area was closed but there will definitely be a return trip when the weather is nice.

The food was overpriced but decent and a half liter of draught beer was six dollars. I had my first taste of Tennent's Scottish Ale which was disappointing. There really was not much to it, but I followed it up with a satisfying Boddington, the Aventinus was also delicious.

-Giancarlo

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Mike's Recent Homebrews

Bronx NY-

I recently was given four homebrews by Mike. Excited, I first opened his Scottish heavy. There was little head retention but the lack of carbonation was enjoyable, almost like a cask ale. It had a smooth finish that was pleasing to the palate.

Mike based the IPA off of Greenflash IPA. Mike certainly captured the unmistakable floral smells of Greenflash. Nice head retention helped those smells to remain throughout drinking. The bitterness forced slow drinking, which I welcomed since it allowed me to savor it more.





All in all the brews impressed me. It was the first time I had tasted these styles from Mike and I can't wait to taste more new ones and repay him with some of mine.


-Giancarlo


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Brew Day - Breakfast is served all day in Boston!

The Publick House, a local business I frequent near my residence, is a perfect place to grab a more-than-slightly overpriced pint. 9 dollars for a 11oz. pour can get discouraging very quickly, especially when one is on a budget. I rationalize it by calling each glass an "inspiration" for my next homebrew endeavor. However, in my opinion Publick House carries the most unique and widest selection of beers in Boston. One brewery out of Michigan in particular, Founders Brewing (BA link), has consistently made an impression on my palate. I thoroughly enjoy both their scotch ale, Dirty Bastard and their IPA, which is loaded with "an abundance" of centennial hops - hence Centennial IPA.

Founders brews a seasonal beer that is intense and bold, yet balanced and genius in construction. Including flaked oats, bittersweet and unsweetend chocolate, and two separate coffee additions, Founders Breakfast Stout is truly a meal in a glass. I love this beer. I'm a sucker for stouts, but one this good is really rare.

I had Founders Breakfast Stout in mind for my next homebrew for some time. My last beer, which I brewed in September, was a 3.5%ABV session ale. It was a Scottish 70/- or a Scottish Heavy - mild yet full of malty goodness. I love consuming more than one beer in a session with minimum consequences, but I wanted to brew something bigger, something that would suffice for dinner when I don't want to heat up something that is collecting frost in my freezer. The Breakfast Stout definitely meets these requirements.

At first I wasn't 100% set on brewing the Breakfast Stout. I considered a Russian Imperial Stout after downing a bottle of Dragonslayer by Middle Ages Brewing in Syracuse, NY (for those not aware of this brewery, shame on you). Also on deck was a Irish Dry Stout, as Ashley and I drink more Murphy's than water at the moment. Ultimately the Dry Stout was placed on the back burner and The Founders won out. It might have had something to do with a couple of bottles finding their way into a mix-a-six I created.

I searched the interwebs for a while to come across a killer recipe. Recipe formulation for me is still at an early stage, I tend to slightly modify already tried and true recipes to my needs. I consulted some of my homebrew literature in my home library (Brewing Classic Styles and Designing Great Beers) for info about Stouts, Double Stouts, and Imperial Stouts. However it was here on a thread over at my usual wealth of information homebrewtalk.com that won me over.

I decided to make some slight changes to this recipe; I switched the base malt from American 2-row to Maris Otter and upped the IBUs. MO is a quality British base malt, which will give my beer a maltier nuttier taste and slightly darken the color - found in British "real ale". I don't know if color is an issue in this stout however. Also, the thread on HBT debates the IBUs stated by Founders and a clone recipe printed in an issue of BYO, from where the original recipe on the forum was adapted. I put the recipe into my brewing software, and determined that at 30IBUs the grain to bitterness ratio was kinda low; 0.33. The Founders website boasts 60IBUs, which is about 0.66 GU:BU. The idea behind the grain to bitterness ratio is that the more grain and malt character a beer has, the more hop character may be needed to create a balanced beer. I've read that the closer that this ratio is to 1.0 the better. I changed the first hop edition from 0.5oz of Nugget at 60 min. to 1.0oz Nugget. We'll see how this turns out.

Breakfast Stout Recipe:

Batch Size (Gallons): 6

Original Gravity: 1.085

Final Gravity: 1.022

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 56

Boiling Time (Minutes): 90

Color: 47SRM

Mashed at 155F for 60 mins. 1.33 qt/lb.

16 lbs. Maris Otter

1 lbs American Chocolate Malt

.75 lbs Roasted Barley

9 oz American Black Patent

7 oz Crystal Malt 120°L

22 oz Oats Flaked

1.0 oz Nugget (Whole, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 min.

.5 oz Mt. Hood (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 30 min.

.5 oz Mt. Hood (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 2 min.

2 oz Ground Sumatran coffee at flameout

2 oz Ground Kona coffee cold brewed, added at bottling

2.5 oz Dark bittersweet baker's chocolate at 15 mins.

1.5 oz Unsweetened chocolate baking nibs at 15 mins.

2 pkg. DCL Yeast Safale S-04 Top Quality Ale Yeast

Fermented at 65˚F

The brew day went unchallenged, although it seemed longer than I had hoped. I started about 11:00am on Saturday and was cleaning up around 5:00pm. I have a 10 gallon mash tun, but I was not sure that the 20+ pounds of grain and the almost 7 gallons of strike water were all going to fit into it! Got a little nervous I must say. Also depicted here is the vorlauf, or first runnings. Making sure what leaves the MLT is nice clean, particle-free wort. Black as night, everything is going to plan! laughs diabolically

I had to reward myself with some fruit of a previous effort after I came to a boil. Scottish Heavy = yum. I added the 4oz of baker's chocolate with 15 minutes left in the boil and the kitchen filled with cocoa sweetness aroma. At a few minutes after flameout I added 2oz of ground Peet's Arabian Mocha Sanani. At this point I became very excited because the wort really smelled like coffee. Amazing. There will be another coffee addition at bottling. I'll brew up 2 more ounces in a few cups of water and add it into the bottles bucket. I used my wort chiller to cool down to 65˚F and pitched two packets of SafAle-04 dry english yeast. Hopefully this will impart a few more esters in this brew than other American yeast strains (WLP001, SafAle-05, etc). I pitched at about 5:00pm and was seeing airlock activity around 10:30pm - hooray for proper pitching rates! I will continue to ferment this monster at 65˚F for the next 10 days or so in my fermentation fridge, and I am still debating to whether to secondary this beer. I will definitely keep everyone updated and hopefully this will break my fast soon enough!

Cheers!

-Mike

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Fightin' Wit gets bottled

Sea Cliff NY-

Revolution of the Beer One Thousand bottled its second brew this past Saturday. Initially we were concerned by the absence of flaked wheat at the Larkfield Brew Shop but the color was spot on during bottling and hopefully the taste will be too. After cleaning labels off the bottles with oxyclean and sanitizing solution we baked the bottles for about 2 hours at 300 degrees to make sure that they are sterile. We cleaned 48 bottles which turned out to be the perfect number. Fightin' Wit will have its debut at Thanksgiving and be followed by Wolfgang Mueller's German Purity Porter for Christmas. Pictures to follow soon!





-Giancarlo

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Homemade stumpkin? Bronx forces happy accident.

Bronx NY-

For Halloween I thought it might be fun to attempt a recreation of Heartland Brewery's Stumpkin ale. Stumpkin is a mixture of Heartland's Smiling Pumpkin ale and their delicious Farmer Jon's Oatmeal Stout. So I set out to gather a pumpkin ale and an oatmeal stout. Most of the Bronx woefully lacks the necessary variety for beer enthusiasts. Stores are dominated by Modelo and Budweiser.

In the Belmont neighborhood the best selection can be found at "Beer City." The store had neither pumpkin ale nor oatmeal stout. I ended up using an old Post Road pumpkin ale and Guinness. The result was not exactly what I thought of, but still delicious. Give it a try.

-Giancarlo

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Risk and Corsendonk

Bethel NY-

Corsendonk brown ale was a perfect complement to an afternoon struggle for world domination on the risk board. Too bad we didn't have more appropriate goblets.

-Giancarlo

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A good end to a great night

After the belgian beer fest, we first stopped by Pour House to capitalize on "burgermania" (1/2 price burgers). Now we are finishing at Bukowski-she's having a Gritty McDuff's Black Fly Stout and I'm having a Cisco Whale's Tale Pale Ale, a hoppy britishy American pale ale. Has more of a malty base than other pale ales. Very yummy.







- Mike

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Last Call

The crowd moans begrudgendly.


- Mike

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The Fun Begins

The scene.




Haverhill "Brumaire" very good stout with Belgian yeast. Smells and looks stoutish but has a Belgian bite. A+


- Mike

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Pregaming with PB&J

A good start for a night to remember.

-Mike

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Belgian Beer Fest Part 1

May I say that this is my first post to BeerUnion and also my first blog post ever. In minutes I and my lovely girlfriend Ashley will be heading off to Belgian Beer Fest (Session 2) put on by BeerAdvocate.com down at the Cyclorama in Boston. I am very excited. Dozen of breweries, presenting hundreds of fine belgian beers will be attending. Some of which you cannot regularly purchase here in the USA- some breweries are here as special guests. Unlimited (albeit regulated) 2oz. pours served in, I hope, cute little belgian beer glasses. I will attempt to update BeerUnion from within the bowels of the Cyclorama, however I may be distracted/inebriated, as this is my first beer festival and I am not sure that I have the willpower to control my need to try EVERY beer they are serving (hundreds of beers x 2oz = A LOT OF PINTS). Wish us luck. -Mike

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Map Room: Local Bar with Large Selection and Attitude

Corner of N. Hoyne and Armitage, Chicago IL—

Map Room offers a wide and in some cases obscure selection of brews. The bar carries one beer on beer engine in addition to a large number on tap. The most common order on this lazy Sunday afternoon was the Strongbow Cider but a slightly too cold and quickly poured Charles Wells Bombardier English bitter also fit the bill (after a few minutes to warm).

Map Room takes its name from the maps covering the majority of the walls. The maps combined with tables decorated with foreign currency and shelves of National Geographic magazines make the bar a fun one to examine. The worn feel and the offering of small free afternoon buffet makes it an attractive destination for the fall. The buffet consisted of ribs and sausage smothered in barbecue sauce, fried chicken, etc. The bar also makes coffee available from a local roaster. The bar was dominated by locals so don't be surprised if you receive more than a few stares, especially if you are in a group larger than three.
For those looking for a bit of beer education, Map Room hosts Beer School once a month for $25 with Greg Browne the Brewmaster from Mickey Finn's Brewery.

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Goose Island: Standard Brewpub with Stong Selection

Clark St., Chicago IL —

The Goose Island Wrigleyville brewpub supplies a similar atmosphere to other urban brewpubs like Heartland in New York. The selection and quality of beer raises the experience. The seasonal Harvest Ale was the surprise of the bunch with a well balanced hoppiness that was not over powering. The Pivo faithfully made the Czech style available from a local source. The oatmeal stout was forgettable and noticeably lacked a roasted flavor.

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