Professor Good Ales

Garden varieties of yellow yarrow are super as a hop substitute in beer. Photo
by Charlie Papazian

Written by Charlie Papazian for Examiner.com

Here’s a recipe for champagne-like, floral beer brewed with yarrow.  Excerpted from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. 

Yarrow Ale

Yarrow Ale is a traditional ale brewed by brewers throughout Europe before hops were popularized.  Read Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Buhner and learn about the properties of yarrow.  Use fresh flowers and greens for best results.  And no there isn’t a mistake in this recipe – there are no hops. 

Ingredients for 3 gallons (11.5 l)

• 3 lbs. (1.4 kg) extra light dried malt extract
• 5 oz. (140 gm) fresh yarrow flowers and leaves
• 0.8 gm sweet gale (myrica) (available at homebrew shops)
• American ale type yeast
• 1/2 c. (140 ml) corn sugar (for bottling)

Add the malt extract, sweet gale and 3 oz. (85 gm) of yarrow to 1 1/2 gallons of water and boil for 60 minutes.  Add 2 oz. (56 gm) yarrow during the final 5 minutes of boiling. Sparge immediately into your fermenter and 1 gallon (4 l) cold water.  Add water to make 3 gallons (11.5 l). Pitch the yeast when cool. Bottle when fermentation is complete.

Picture courtesy Tom Becham

Written by Jonathan Shikes for blogs.westword.com

I’ve cooked in chili cook-offs, competed in a hot wings eating contest and eaten my fair share — and then some — of jalapeno poppers, New Mexico and Colorado green chile.

And I’ve sampled at least four kinds of chili beer. Hell, my boss even has one named for her at the Wynkoop Brewing Company.

But I’ve never tasted anything quite like Ghost Face Killah — a beer that Boulder’s Twisted Pine Brewing Company hopes will end up in the Guinness Book of World Records as the spiciest beer on earth.

To make it, brewer Jeff Brumley made a batch of a wheat beer, then added six kinds of dried chilies: Anaheim, Fresno, jalapeno, Serrano, habanero and the famed ghost pepper, commonly recognized as the hottest pepper in the world (about 200 times more pungent than a jalapeno). Then he let the chilies soak in the beer for a couple of weeks.

The results are a beer that made my lips and mouth burn and seared the back of my throat for a good two hours. And while this brew was certainly spicy, it also had a nice, rich, warming flavor that would have gone even better in a plate of enchiladas.

I tried it on May 5, when Twisted Pine tapped a keg for its Cinco de Mayo party, and while the beer — which was served only in four-ounce glasses — was gone after about three days, the brewery will bring it back for the Snowmass Chili Pepper & Brew Fest (June 4-5); it will also likely have a keg at its Boulder taphouse at the same time.

“It was going pretty quick,” says Twisted Pine’s Mike Burns. “Everyone who usually drinks Billy’s Chilies [Twisted Pine’s bottled chili beer] was happy to be drinking it.”

Burns adds that a couple who actually grow ghost peppers in their Boulder garden each had about two pints and offered to supply the brewery with fresh peppers.

Sounds hot.

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Funny youtube from a brewer in Louisville, KY

Profiled by Ken Carman

Why would I profile these two different styles from two different brewers together? Because I think they suffer from a similar problem.
Continue reading “Beer Profiles: Saranac Irish Stout and Terrapin Hop Karma Brown IPA”

“Well that bites.”

ABV – 5.9%
OG – 15°P
SRM – 10.5
IBU – 59???

YOS was a hophead long before most and actually likes IBUs that go way above 100. But sometimes there’s just no point in being so damn bitter.

Scribe was shipped a bottle of French Broad’s Rye Hopper Ale. In the interest of being fair he had to drink it warm since Mrs. Scribe dropped the bottle after unpackaging and the cap popped. Maybe it was because it was too damn warm, though Scribe finds the warmer nature of beer from the country of bad teeth tends to mellow the hops. But this had little rye, low sense of malts and bitter, bitter, bitter.

Did your brewer leave you for a “better” beer? Poor Rye Hopper. No wonder you’re so damn bitter.

The aroma was hops: maybe Cascade but taste couldn’t tell, a bit rye. The color: golden. The taste was bitter: period. The problem here is that 59 IBUS usually doesn’t do this unless high alpha acid hops are used or someone dumped the hops in the beginning of the boil and astringency takes over. Scribe is guessing the latter. There’s a talent required when brewing hoppy beers: especially if you want the character of, oh say, RYE, to arrive on the palette as well as hops. Additions at just the right time, in the right way, and not just a long, hard, boil.

Hey, French Broad! Don’t you Asheville, NC guys know that hard boiled is for eggs, not hops?

New owners Keith Greggor, far left and Tony Foglio with Fritz Maytag at Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco. (Gene X. Hwang/Orange Photography)

Written by Greg Kitsock for The Washington Post

Two weeks ago, the beer world was jolted by the announcement that Fritz Maytag had sold the Anchor Brewing Co., in San Francisco to the Griffin Group, an investment and consulting company best known for growing Skyy Vodka into a multibillion-dollar brand.

Normally, buyouts and mergers in the beer business are nothing to jump up and down about. In January, Long Trail Brewing Co. in Bridgewater, Vt., acquired rival Otter Creek Brewing Co., 40 miles up the road. In March, Ken Allen of Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Boonville, Calif. announced he was selling his business to Trey White, a former executive with United States Beverage Co.

As of this writing, Pabst Brewing Co. is still on the sale block, in case you’re shopping around for a unique birthday or graduation gift.
Continue reading “Anchors Away”