Out Of Key Brewing

A pie recipe on a blog about beer?  Yes, yes indeed.

I love brewing.  I love cooking.  I love eating.  I love beer.  This Thanksgiving I combined all of them to produce some food for the family.

Using the bourbon barrel aged porter as a base for the flavor I (ok we, hat nod to my wife) whipped up a pecan walnut pie.

This should be good

The recipe follows.

* 1/3 Cup Barrel Aged Bourbon Porter
* single crust pie
* 1/2 Cup chopped pecans
* 1/2 Cup walnuts
* 1 tsp. Cinnamon
* 1/4-1/2 tsp. Ground Nutmeg.
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 Cup corn syrup, light or dark
* 1  tlb. (good squeeze) honey
* 1/3 Cup white sugar
* 1/3 Cup brown sugar
* 8 tlb. melted butter
* 1 tlb. Vanilla Extract
* 1 tlb. flour
* 8 oz Chopped 50% Cacao baking chocolate (I use this same chocolate in Mr Hyde)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Toast the pecans and walnuts for 10 minutes in the oven.

While the nuts are toasting, sample bourbon barrel porter.  Tilt head back, savor the flavor.

Return to cooking, in a mixing bowl combine the honey, sugars, eggs, corn syrup,  butter, Porter, vanilla, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until smooth.

Fold in the nuts and chocolate. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 350° for 40-50 minutes.

Eat massive meal.

Finish with massive block of pie.

Sleep on couch for 3 hours.

A match made in heaven

I really need a good Rye Recipe, I have the Harry Knuckle Rye in my stable, which is a great beer but not exactly what I am looking for. I have been drinking the Hop Rod Rye from Bear Republic, which is simply amazing. Its got a great hoppy/malty balance, really a good beer. There are couple clones on that I have found on the internet which are worth pursuing. One from Ruthless Brewing (those guys need to get those images fixed hosted, its really cool to see others on their brew days….(Open offer to provide the image hosting)) looks great, I just may need to back the juice off a bit, id be curious to see how that one really turned out. Another from the boards over at Home Brew Talk called Humboldt Hop Rod looks really good as well. Im thinking the next beer beyond my wet hop will be a hoppy rye, I will say however that I need to brew a keg of something my wife will drink, perhaps another Wader Patch Wit is in order.

Had a group over on Friday night for a pre-St. Patrick’s day gathering. I served my home brew, including a keg of Harry Knuckle, silk stout, and a lot of chocolate stout. We had a great time and everyone genuinely seemed to enjoy the beer, but the night really illustrated for the need for session beers for parties. The chocolate stout was a big hit but it weighs in at around 9% alcohol. By the time it late we were all feeling very little pain. The stout is great for sipping one in the evening, but I’m not really sure it is made for drinking all night. Its not that you cant drink them all night, its that you shouldn’t.
I think the following is a good guideline:

“A session beer should be low enough in alcohol to encourage conversation but not tangle your tongue.”

Not unreasonable. The amber (English bitter) I brewed for the family party earlier this year almost met that bill, but may still have been a bit strong. I’m thinking of working that recipe a bit to create great session beer, something along the lines of a Honkers Ale from Goose Island. A clean refreshing beer that is easy drinking. I will post the recipe as soon as I come up with it.

On a related note, there seemed to be some interest in brewing up some beer for the annual St. Pat’s party that we attend. I have a pretty good idea a session beer may be just what the doctor ordered.  Something along the lines of an Irish Red Ale, cheap to make and easy to drink.

I am working on the recipe for a saison for this summer. Saisons are spicy dry ales that are really crisp and refreshing. A great pair to a warm summer evening. The recipes are really quite simple in composition the most popular example of the style’s grain bill consists of only Belgian Pilsner malt. The yeast here is the key. With that in mind I am going try something new as well. I am going ferment the batch with two different types of yeast. Five (maybe 7) gallons is going to get a standard saison yeast, the remaining will be fermented with Brettanomyces claussenii (brett). Additionally I am planning on adding some lactobacillus to the brett batch to give it some additional food to produce flavors with. The hope here is to create a complex beer with a slight sour twang that is a great summer drinker. You can follow the recipes development in the recipes section of the site.

Discussion:  http://www.cfhb.org/mead/oak.htm

Perhaps use some of the Oak from the jack daniels smoking chips. They must be steamed to avoid contamination.  Boiling extracts too many tannins

So I wrote the guys from a local brewery to ask about their red rye, just to show my appreciation for the fine brew and on a whim asked for the recipe. He totally hooked my up:

Pils
Munich 3%
Crystal 10 8%
Rye 12%
Crystal Rye 3%
Melinoidan (Aromatic will work) 3%
Black Malt less than 1% for color

First wort hop with Summit and Columbus 40 IBU
30 minutes left with Summit 12 IBU
25 minutes left with Columbus 8.5 IBU
20 minutes left with Simcoe 7 IBU
Dryhop with Simcoe about .3 oz/gallon

Palm Sugar added before start of boil. (.15 lbs per gallon)
Mash mid 150′s
Boil 75 minutes
target starting gravity 1.072

We use 70# in 465 gallons and it gives us about 1.5 plato boost in
gravity. �We add it more for the creamy/pinappley flavor than for the
plato boost.

cups flour
4 cups spent grain (100% no hops in grain)
1 cup peanut butter
1 eggMix with hands. Roll mixture onto cookie sheet to the desired thickness. They will not rise. Cut into shapes. Bake at 350F° for 30 minutes. Remove from oven to cool. Bake again at 225F for 8 to 10 hours for complete drying.

This is Great source for some good recipes�

Next summer a lite pilsner beer (og:� 1.040) – Yellow, drink all day.

Smoked Beer.

Serrano Chilli beer.