Making Beer with a Sous Vide Immersion Cooker
Sous-vide is the process of cooking food sealed in an airtight bag by submerging it in a bath of heated water.
The idea is that sous vide, a French technique that translates into “under vacuum,†allows food to be cooked at a precise temperature that is much lower than usual but for a longer period. When cooking steak, for example, the sous vide technique evenly cooks the meat throughout and retains moisture and aromas all without overcooking the outside.
So what does this have to do with making beer at home?
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Beer Profile: Triple Crown
Profile by Maria Devan
Middle Ages Tripel Crown. Another good beer from them.
Pours hazy yellow with a slight orange blush. The color is the color of ripe apricot. So many tripels look just like this with a perfect stream of bubbles that rises form the center. White head in the tasting glass I cant’ speak to it. Fruity nose with lots of earth.
Nose is fragrant with wheat and with spice. Pear. Clove is demure and perfumey and there is coriander. No actual citrus on this nose but the ringwood yeast is tangy and shows you that element. Sweaty, vibrant No alcohol on the nose. The beer is light like a soft sweet little punch.
No real biting carbonation despite the stream of bubble you can make out through the haze. Still, it drinks bready from wheat and very creamy . Esters from yeast are crisp like banana peel. Not overly ripe banana that smells like bubblegum. Spice clove and a good hoppy finish. Bitterness reveals a light floral and the soft pear as the earth that was so deep literally evaporates on your palate to reveal a soft alcohol presence that has no sting at all. A mouthfeel that is deceptively light.
Outstanding.
4.5
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.
Maria Devan Reviews: John Courage Russian Imperial
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Your Saturday 6-Pack, Vol.5): Saison
Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard
Said Theseus to Philostrate: “Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments. / Awake the pert and nimble spirits of mirth.â€
And said a more contemporary Jane to Dick: “Get thee hither and fire up that damn lawnmower, for it has been more than a fortnight since you’ve put your sickle to a blade of grass!â€
Back by popular demand, and just in time for the dog days of summer, Your Saturday Six-Pack. Let us raise a few glasses of suitable ale in honour of those days that occasion dreamy hallucinations. Bring on something crisp, dry, effervescent, fruity, and spicy!
Saison it is.
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Tom Becham Reviews
Written by Tom Becham
Things have been somewhat quiet on the beer front for me lately, for various reasons. But I am still in the game, and have two short reviews for the readers of Professor Good Ales.
Now, these might seem like gimmick beers to many. But they are so 
well done that they are worth trying, even if you don’t like odd twists on more traditional styles.
The first is The Bruery’s Arrrggghhh! (Yes, that is the actual name of the beer.) This beer with a piratical twist is billed by The Bruery as an Imperial Pilsner at 7.7% ABV. It is modified by the use of rice and coconut. My general experience with coconut beers is that the coconut is seldom discernible on the palate (I’m looking at YOU, Maui Coconut Porter!). Not so with Arrrggghhh! (Oh, dammit, it’s just fun to say and type.) Continue reading “Tom Becham Reviews”
Homebrew Competitions: Decoding Your Judging Scoresheet
In “Facing (Beer) Judgment†last week, we looked at three things to remember when you consider entering your beer in a homebrew competition. Let’s say that you have entered a beer in the competition and you have the results. Whether your beer brought home a medal or not, you’ve received valuable feedback that can have a major impact on the quality of your future batches. You should have a cover sheet and at least two score sheets for each beer you entered. You already know whether your beer won, but looking at your paperwork will indicate why it did—or didn’t—do well.
Start by looking at the cover sheet. There’s a lot of explanatory text here, but the interesting bit is in the box in the middle. Your final assigned score stands out, but more importantly, you can see where in the flight your beer was judged (Ordinal Position in Flight: ____ of ____). This information can be useful when you’re reading the score sheets because it can affect how your beer was perceived. For example, bigger beers tend to do better late in the flight because of palate fatigue. Crowd skewing can also be a factor; a set of milder or stronger beers before yours can impact a judge’s sensitivity.
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Epicurean Unbound: Five Ways to Expand Your Tasting Horizons
Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard
If you’re a fan of the late, great Tom Magliozzi and his brother Ray, better known as “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers†on NPR’s Car Talk, you know about “Stump the Chumps.†One way to introduce an extra element of intrigue into your tastings is to play the craft beer version of “Stump the Chump.â€
All you need to do is ask each of your friends to find a beer that’s easily confused with another beer style –– or a style that you and your friends might not drink much of. We’ve already touched on the influence that labels can have, but without any initial cues beyond the colour of the beer, you’ll be surprised how hard it is to guess a style “blind.†Is it a porter or a stout? A Tripel or a Belgian golden strong ale? A British ESB or a strong ale? A Scotch ale? A Doppelbock? Bonus points if you can guess the brewery.
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Maria Devan Reviews: Unita Farm Side Saison
IF YOU ARE A FAN OF IPA, SCIENCE SAYS YOU’RE MORE LIKELY TO BE PSYCHOTIC
The professor has his doubts, for sure-PGA
If you’re a big fan of bitter drinks, such as IPAs, Negronis, Boulevardiers and the like, scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria have uncovered that you’re also more likely to exhibit malevolent personality traits. The same is true if you crave black coffee or tonic water. Basically, you’re a psycho.
To come to their conclusion, scientists surveyed 1,000 participants and asked them to rank a variety of foods on a six-point preference scale. Once the foods were ranked, respondents were also asked to complete a personality questionnaire. The results were then scrubbed against each other to determine the results.
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