The Daily Ikura

Kombucha-Home brewed!..round 2!

2008-08-23T09:17:00.008-05:00

Real quick post here folks. As some of you may know I've been a fan of this drink for a few years now and had at one point a nice little mother cell going ( link at bottom of post ). Well I've decided to get another one going and hopefully keep it going this time around-last time I just kinda pooped out on it..

Process is really straightforward, brew up some strong black tea, add sugar (about 1 tbsp per cub of tea), cool to room temperature and pitch a room temperature bottle of whatever Kombucha you can pick up at the super market (Whole Foods often has a few selections). Now just cover with some paper towels as I did, or you can use cheesecloth I suppose as well. The trick here is to make sure the mix can get some O2 but also ensure that nothing else can get in there (fruit flies etc ).

You can see off to the right that thin layer of the mother cell is starting to develop and eventually will become 1+inches thick.

Check out my other experiences with home brewing Kombucha: http://www.dailyikura.com/search/label/Kombucha

And if your not that familiar with this brew pop on over to Wikipedia to get your learn on!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha

Next up: "Hey Brother Hefeweizen"-Brewing Sunday

Cheers!

Mead-Home brewed! Round 1

2008-08-16T18:27:00.012-05:00

So about a 2 weeks ago I started thinking that I best get a mead going. No real reason why beyond the obvious ones-age old fermented drink (dated back at least to 1700BC), the simplicity of ingredients-honey/water/yeast, and of course the most obvious one-Mead's are delicious! I'm also sure I was also very much primed by national mead day which was pointed out repeatably in all my beer literature both online and off.

I really wanted to start this off by getting a good base set, and then (if it took with me) building upon that base recipe down the road to incorporate fruits, ales, and "other" so thats what I did.

Here's the rundown: 7 lbs of honey (5 being local straight up organic honey) and the remaining 2 being Orange Blossom honey (again organic), Wyeast smack pack of "sweet mead" yeast (ie-not bone dry mead as the end product), some yeast nutrient, and enough water to top off 2.85 gallons.

There is some controversy out there over if you should pasteurize the honey or not, I had opted not to but to rather heat up to 100 degrees F or so just so that the honey mixed well with the water, after that it was all aerating and pitching yeast (my reasoning was based in that I did not want to lose the honey aroma and that I trusted the natural protection the honey brought with it against foreign yeast and bacteria ).

Yep thats it!

Starting gravity came out to 1.129..which is the highest OG I've ever had! Its been in primary for one week and will likely stay there for another 2 weeks after which I will move to secondary. Secondary will hold for aa minimum 6 months after which I will move to tertiary for a time (yet to be determined..but likely at least another 4 months) to continue to clear and meld within itself as I'm sure it will basically be 15% rocket fuel for some time. After which all is said and done I will bottle in champagne bottles and give out as gifts.

Cheers!

Korean Stew-Kimchi and Blood Sausage Jigae

2008-08-13T19:49:00.012-05:00

Hands down one of my favorite things to cook is a Korean Kimchi Jigae and this time I had the opportunity to incorporate some Korean Blood Sausage (Soondae) into the mix..blood sausage is something that I have truly come to appreciate over the past few years..and should be noted that blood sausage and testicles were origally the two foods I felt I could NEVER get into. One down!

Anyhow, not much to my recipe here, essentially what really makes up the core of a jigae is the use of fermented red chili paste as well as the kimchi and dried pepper flakes. I've got to admit what I really love about a jigae is the simplicity of making a stew..but with the incorporation of these Korean staples of Kimchi, pepper flakes, and pepper paste you end up with this extremely savory chili/tomato taste which encapsulates all other ingredients in the stew. Knowing this is a stew you've really got carte blanche here..make due with what you have and you'll enjoy every last drop of it.

This time around you can see I made use of what we had on hand, the only "special" item I used was the Soondae since it is difficult to find in Chicago. Soondae is Korean blood sausage which uses (obviously) pigs blood, some "bits" of pork, but also incorporates vermicelli noodles which makes for an interesting sausage to be sure (seen above).

Here's a general process on making your own Jigae:

Saute a few tablespoons of garlic, diced onion, and whatever other "hard" veggie you have on hand in 3 tablespoons of Sesame Oil for a few minutes. Add 1 cup o kimchi (your call on what kind), 1.5 cups of water, bring up to a boil and add 3 tablespoons fermented red pepper paste, 2 tablespoons of dried chili flakes, 3 teaspoons of sugar and simmer for 20 minutes.

There you have it! You've got your base now toss in whatever you dig eating as a protein! This time around I did Soondae of course but in the past I have used everything from diced pork to duck. Just chill out and make yourself a Jigae and you'll quickly fall in love with the flavor.

Salute!

Charcuterie-Homemade Beef Jerky

2008-08-05T18:55:00.018-05:00

Definitely one of my favorite snacks of all time, why before I even started chewing tobacco (did it for 10 years and successfully went cold turkey a few years back) I started with that jerky that was sold in containers matched specifically to the ones used for Copenhagen...coincidence? Absolutely!

But I digress ;)

This is the 5th go around with beef jerky and I will say that after my first batch last year the quality has steadily gone downhill...until now!

When I say the quality has gone downhill I attribute it primarily to 2 things: the cuts of meat used (progressively fattier..which we know does not work so well w/jerky), and when sliced I have made the pieces progressively thicker, which equals longer drying time and therefore tougher/harder jerky.

Flash forward to this weekend as my wife and I had just finished our weekly "Korean breakfast", which is essentially every Sunday when we dont eat anything in the AM and head off to Chicago Foods (AKA JoonGBoo) to catch them when they open up at 10am prior to the heavy lunch crowd. It should be pointed out that Chicago Foods is a Asian Grocery Store and the restaurant area consists of 5 tables and a bar area...and is the best Korean food this city has to offer (plus is the only place we've found that has Korean Blood Sausage soup on the menu..and the sausage to purchase..more on that very soon ;) )

So the point of bringing our weekly trip to Chicago Foods is this: Bulgogia Korean bbq is a meat dish that consists of thinly sliced pieces of beef ( you see where this is going eh?) and then....well no point to go further then right?

Yep, so sliced Bulgogi meat, approx 1/8 inch thickness is good meat for jerky (ie low-medium quality sirloin cut) and is fairly low fat. What fat there is is often on the fringes of the cut and easily removed if desired.

Process and ingredients are very straightforward, and is partially borrowed from "Charcuterie":

2.25 lbs thinly sliced beef
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
.75 tsp Cayenne pepper
.5 tsp Saracha Sauce
1.5 tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Worcester Sauce
1.5 tbsp fresh ground peppercorn

-Mix all of the above into a bowl, let cure for 24 hours under refrigeration. After a day in the box bring it out and utilize a well ventilated surface (which I picked up at the Korean Store as well-seen in the pic) and possibly your oven (dependant on the temp you can achieve-ideally 85 degrees will do well) and let dry out for 18-24 hours.

Presto! You've got jerky! And for approx $6 for the beef and seasoning you've got a high quality jerky in the amount that would cost you over $20 easily at any Grocer. Cheers!

Charcuterie-Homemade Sausage, Round 2!

2008-07-29T19:37:00.010-05:00

Well this past weekend I made another go of home made sausage. I certainly employed the handful of lessons I learned from my maiden voyage into becoming the modern day Ab Froman (oh come on! You know the reference!).

..Sausage King of Chicago!!!!

Okay..I trust the jokes have subsided..on to the recipe!

Style of sausage and ingredients remained very much the same as my last venture, but this time around I paid much more attention to getting everything into proportion.

See I have this nasty habit of over-seasoning..and being a self proclaimed Salt addict (I have 5 different salts and 2 different books on the subject..both of which I have read in the past 2 months) I have a bad habit of over salting foods to the point that no one else can enjoy them outside out myself..which is not the healthiest approach I might add :)

Here ya go!

-5.8 lbs pork shoulder (after de-boning)

-3 tbs kosher salt

-1.5 tbsp fresh young basil leaf

-1.75 fresh ground black pepper (mortor/pepper corn)

-3 tbsp diced garlic

-1.2 cups $2 chuck (that's pronounced "two buck chuck")-Merlot from Trader Joes

-1 package natural pork casings packed in salt

I butchered the pork shoulder 18 hours or so prior. After cutting the meat into 2x2 inch (or so) cubes I added the salt, pepper, garlic, and basil leaf to sit and partially cure in the fridge overnight prior to grinding.

After chilling in the freezer (colder is better..cant let the meat rise above 65 degrees else the fax will "break" and ruin he texture of the meat) I went about my business grinding, mixing (1 minute on medium setting then 1 minute on med/low setting with addition of chilled red wine), and stuffing into pork casings which had been soaked and rinsed for a 23 hours. This time around I had my kitchen aid sausage stuffer on hand (last time I diy'd this part..not so great) and it worked out fantastically.

All in all the sausages taste fantastic, in fact I've just distributed a few to my work buddies for their "professional" opinion and have froze the remaining 20 links.

If you would like a more in-depth description of the process please do let me know, I'd be more than happy to share as I'm all about this Charcuturie business and would love to be able to add to the promotion of this timeless art.

Next up-Brewing update: American APA (base malts: 2-row, oatmeal, rye, wheat)

Salute to that!

Homemade Pork Sausage..now we're talking Charcuterie!

2008-07-24T07:31:00.011-05:00

Yep...this is a pretty big milestone for me since picking up Michael Ruhlmans and Brian Polycns "Charcuterie" last summer.

According to such great titles as the above making sausages is the ultimate in Charcuterie, what sums up the art of curing and preserving meats and is a whole field of culinary study in and of itself.

But enough about that..can you believe I made sausage? Me neither...but it was bound to happen :)

Just a quick post here folks, will be more in-depth on the next round of sausage making. Essentially what you see here is me raising a class of a Grand Cuvee Blonde Ale from some Belgium brewery who's name escapes me (was not so great anyway...wish I had some Brise-Bonbons left-French for "ball buster" by the way) and toasting the one poster we have in our kitchen..a classic butchers guide to pork and cuts of meat from these guys..its awesome.

From that point you have the grinding of 4lbs of Pork Butt (bone in-cubed and seasoned with salt, garlic, and pepper for 24 hours prior), the sampling of some of the sausage prior to stuffing into the natural pork casings (cooked on medium low heat on caste iron), and the final product which came out just "OK". Overall I consider the project a success and now know where I need to improve on my next go-around which I will post on at that point.

Cheers...and oink!

Curing Duck Breast, Ostrich, and Sockeye Salmon..not to mention drinking some Craft Beer....great afternoon!

2008-07-05T17:16:00.007-05:00

So after a long hiatus which included a trip to the east coast, a trip to the west coast, and a trip to Alaska I think I'll break back into the flow of foodie/beer/travel blogging by letting you folks know about 3 food items which are now (as of last hour) in our fridge and on their way to becoming extremely tasty. This afternoon I cured two types of meat, threw down some salmon for another batch of Gravlax..and put down some fine craft beer (primarily Dogfish Heads Mida Touch)..and some of my own homebrew..good times!

First up: Duck Prosciutto, this is my 3rd go-around with the salt cured duck breast, no major changes compared to past sessions. This time I utilized only some crushed peppercorns and some thyme seed for. Stay tuned...

Second up: Gravlax, but here's the kicker..its with fresh Sockeye Salmon that yours truly pulled out of the icy cold waters of Alaska just two weeks ago! Ready for another kicker?? These fillets have traveled with my good buddy Anthony across the nation just to get back to me (via Anchorage, to Tucson, and finally to Chicago).

Recipe is pretty straight forward. Salmon is curing in Kosher Salt with a small amount of white sugar (3 tablespoons to the 3/4 cup Kosher Salt), a hefty amount of Young Dill picked up at Whole Foods, and the juice of one orange (not traditional for gravlax). The two steaks of Wild Sockeye are both about 2 inches thick which means this should be ready in just a few days..cant wait considering my last venture into gravlax was last summer.

Third up is another salt cured prosciutto...Ostrich. I picked up a frozen steak of Ostrich meat at Whole Foods and thought "well..why not cure it like Duck Prosciutto?"..so that's what I did. Nothing fancy here at all. We have one steak curing (completely covered) in Kosher Salt for the next 24 hours and then will hang side-by-side with my Duck Breast Prosciutto for one solid week (after being sprinkled with some white pepper).

Dark Lord Day!

2008-04-30T12:23:00.008-05:00

This past weekend we took a short trip down to Munster, Indiana to partake in the world famous "Dark Lord Day" put on by Three Floyds Brewery ( http://www.threefloydspub.com/ ) once every year.

Essentially the "Dark Lord" is a HUGE imperial stout which imparts so many subtle flavors that it boggles the mind...seriously after one sip at the festival we all looked at each other and just said "wow" and agreed that it was difficult to even start describing what was going on with this jet black stout.

The actual event was what I would classify as just "ok", meaning that it was certainly an experience but after waiting in line (which ended up in the thousands of folks from as far as Japan) for 5 hours to get our bottles you were kinda left with the sense of "what now...". Well "what now" ended up being sampling just a few beers (a good cask bitter, and a Russion River brew), listening to a brief amount of heavy metal from a local band in the brewery wharehouse and jumping back on the road to Chicago. Granted the location is in Munster, IN and to be fair..well..there's not much going on down in Munster, but please keep in mind that I'm not faulting the event on the location but rather what was available at the fest....4 bottles of DL-good, 2 food stands and no access (well under a 2 hour wait) to the brewpub-bad.

Anyhow..the DL is a extremely chewy and robust stout and it's going to be very difficult to leave the remaining 2/4 that I have along for a year +

At $15 per bottle (22oz) and a limit of 6 per person you can bet we will be cellaring these bad boys for some time.

...also check ot the metal group that opened up at 11am....if this stuff does not get you drinking a beer called "Dark Lord" nothing will...

Panchetta!

2008-04-20T18:04:00.017-05:00

So its been a while since I've put a posting up..which sucks :) But rest assured outside of not having enough time to post on my culinary adventures I have actually reserved my spare time to actually "have" my culinary adventures...and this was one of them.

I'm happy to report that only weeks after picking up my copy of Charcuterie I've already produced 4 different flavors of cured meats and will get some pics/descriptions up very soon...but for

now

lets look at the Panchetta.

Essentially a salt cured (with spices and herbs) pork belly then hang dried for
2+ weeks to develop flavor which is used to flavor other dishes.

So after leaving this guy to hang dry for two weeks (next to my second round of du
ck breast prosciutto) I was finally able to bring it down and use it one a nice breakfast pasta for the wife and myself. After slicing thin and cooking with some shallots I added our panchetta to some pasta, goat cheese, and sun dried tomato for a hearty (to say the least) Sunday morning breakfast (by the way..as I'm writing this Sunday evening I can now tell you that this more than contributed to our Sunday late morning nap :) ).

Personally I loved it, the flavor was very much like bacon (no surprise) but had a nice herbal/floral note to it left by cure (if you have any interest in the cure please let me know).

Cheers!

Duck Prosciutto..

2008-03-26T17:23:00.012-05:00

Here's a riddle for you:

What has a road flare kit, a spare tire, tire iron, duck proscuitto air drying, my old softball mit, and is part of my car?

Thrown by the tire iron?

The answer is (of course) the trunk of our car!

So yeah..I let my duck proscuitto air dry in a propped open cooler in the trunk of our car..can you imagine the gatherinf of squirrels, ferrel cats, and whatever else wild animals prowl during the nights here on the north side of Chicago all gathered around our car during the nights like some sort of weird pagan ritual?

On to the process! After reading a few postings on making duck proscuitto over at the "Paupered Chef" (http://www.thepauperedchef.com/) by both writers on that site (Blake and Nick) and after getting my copy of "Charcuteries (http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206570634&sr=8-1) I was good to go!

First off, if this sort of thing interests you in the least (salting, smoking, and curing meats) please check out "Charcuterie" the book..well worth the investment.

Ingrediants are pretty straightforward: duck breast (I ended up with a frozen one from Whole Foods-but next time will go direct to China town), kosher salt (about 3 cups), some crushed peppercorn, thyme, a little cumin, and a small amount of white pepper (black is OK if thats all you have).

Equipment: non reactive dish ( I used a 12" pyrex pie pan), cheescloth, some twin or other way to suspend meat for approx one week.

Process: lay down an base layer of salt in your vessel, pat dry the duck breast and lay (fat side up) and cover fully with remaining salt, cover with plastic wrap. Refridgerate this for 24 hours to allow the salt to cure the meat.

After 24 hours remove, rinse breasts well off with tap water and pat completely dry. Once dried sprinkle with pepper and suspend in cheese cloth for 7 days (for approx 2 lbs of duck breast) at a tempeture around 50-60 degrees in a fair amont of humidity (not extremely wet, but also not extremely dry).

A quick note of the tempeture for line drying the meat: I actually left it to dry out in my trunk for a week which included some wild temp swings..from the low 30s for a small window up to the 50F mark...and my stuff tastes fantastic.

..I need a disclaimer after that though..please be careful and follow your best judgement (..if should be better than mine :) ).

After one full week (give or take a few days) remove from cheescloth and prepare to be turned off by the weird dark ruby colored meat and glistening duck lardo...but get ready for some amazing tasting meat as well!

Slice thin and serve as you see fit. Personally I enjoy the "gamey" taste of mine and eat it sliced and straight up.

Cheers!

Quiche...

2008-03-22T09:55:00.017-05:00

Well as you can see it's pretty damn snowey for the 2nd day of spring here in Chicago, so on a Saturday morning that we were definetely not going out into I thought I'd give my first quiche a shot...

Pretty straightforward recipe: eggs, milk, cheese, portabello and spinach as the "meat", 2 kinds of chese (sea chedder, and gruyere), salt/pepper, and some spinach tossed on the top baked in a pie tin at 350 for around 25 minutes.

It came out pretty well, my only complaint is that I tried to cook the portabello a little before baking the quiche in the oven..which ended up adding a little too much moisture to the final product..making it kinda soggy, but still tasty.

In the future I think I will cut down on the egg/milk ratio for the filling. This time around I went with 4 eggs to 3/4 cup of reduced fat milk. Next time around I'll be aiming for 1/2 cup milk to cut down and cook time and also to dry the quiche up a bit, and hopefully in turn making it fluffier.

..Also it occurs to me that I should go with a deeper pie tin (and make my own dough) rather than using one specifically put out for use with pies..you just cant fit that much stuff in there :)

Cheers!

Chamomile Wheat Ale..

2008-03-08T08:07:00.007-06:00

I've always been a big fan of Chamomile tea..so I suppose it was inevitable that I end up brewing a beer with this tasty, yet subtle, little flower...

Really straight forward brew here..an even mix of Belgian Pilsner malt and Wheat malt (5 lbs/5 lbs) and about 1/2 lbs of rice hulls to avoid the probable clogging of my mash tun had I not added them..

For hops I thought I would mix it up a little by using some Amarillo for flavoring, and a small mix of Magnum and Cascade for bittering

Note on the use of Cascade for bittering..if your savvy about the hop game right now you know this *should be considered a sin..using Cascade in this manor. Allow me to explain, I was using the last of my magnum (about 1/8 oz) for bittering and needed just a little bit more Alpha Acid to get my IBU's to where I wanted 'em...and knowing I would use the rest of the Cascade to dry hop..well there ya go :). Also please note that you will not see the cascade addition in the recipe below...I forgot.

Onward to the yeast..I really wanted to do something with a more clove/banana taste to go along with the chamomile and slightly fruity flavor put off by the Amarillo so I settled on White Labs Hefe yeast IV..which should (or "is") do the trick.

Chamomile was ala Trader Joes Chamomile Tea..which is delicious and actually manages to pull off a very present chamomile taste after using just one tea bag per cup o'tea. I had shopped around trying to find the "best" tea to use and I ran the gamete from loose chamomile flowers (whole foods), to their "yogi" tea..both of which were tasty..but on the same time extremely subtle and I needed some more chamomile (I need more cowbell!). Final addition was 12 tea bags of TJ's chamomile tea steeped at flame out and remaining through chilling to 68 degrees (about 20 minutes).

She's (just seems like you should call a chamomile wheat beer "she") has been in primary for a week and will remain there for one more at which time I will bottle.

..speaking of which I'm about to go into the brave new land of kegging...enough of this bottling bs :). Stay tuned for my conversion post, turning my Sanyo 4912 into a kegerator...

Cheers!

New website address!

2008-03-06T09:06:00.001-06:00

Good day all!

I've picked up the domain : www.dailyikura.com for the ole blog. If you have me linked anywhere you're going to want to change it from www.breuni.blogspot.com

Cheers!

Vietnamese Pork Ribs and Pho..

2008-03-05T13:04:00.014-06:00

I found this recipe off of a Whole Foods Video Podcast called "The Secret Ingredient", which is overall a great podcast once you get around the fact that they are obviously selling you Whole Foods products :)..maybe its my sales background that makes me sensitive to this..but hey everyones got to pay the bills right??

On with the recipe, its pretty straightforward-cure some baby back pork ribs for a few hours (sprinkled with kosher salt and peppercorns then wrapped up and set in the fridge), juice some coconuts (if you can find em-3 small/medium sized should give you 3.5 cups or so), add some dark sugar (1 table spoon), Vietnamese fish sauce (1/2 cup), garlic (5 cloves), and chicken stock (1 cup)..then braise for 1 hour at 350 degrees at which point you add some hard boiled eggs, cut ribs into 2 piece sectionns, and braise for an additional 30 minutes. Easy! And trust me its...delicious.

What you end up with is your ribs..which simply melt off the bone..but your also left with this amazing broth. What to do with it? Well thats your call..but here is what I did.

Take some fresh Star Anise, nutmeg, Cinnamon, and dark sugar, dump into a mortar and mix (about 1 tsp per for 2 servings), split up between 2 large soup bowls...cook some Pho noodles (rice noodles found in your local Asian market). Cut up some green onions, mushrooms, or whatever other veggie you think would work well (but does not require a long cook time) add to your bowls and pour the liquid left over from the ribs on top for each bowl, making sure that the broth is hot from the oven (this will release the flavor and fragrance from spices/veggies). Dump noodles on top, slice the hard boiled eggs in 1/2 and you've got your own version of Pho soup to go along with your ribs...good stuff.

The next time around I plan on using a sweeter beer (possibly a home brewed one) to replace the coconut milk..stay tuned.

Tips for this recipe...I wouldnt worry too much about having those exact spices on hand for the soup...think in terms of pumpkin pie spices and you'll be just fine..in fact you'll be making your own soup that way..no need to get hung up on the details :)

Also, I would focus on the quality of ingredients here (i.e. fresh coconut milk) but dont let that dissuade you..use what you have on hand and you'll soon be creating your own version of this dish. Take care!

Mixing it up!

2008-03-04T12:40:00.004-06:00

..So I'm a big beer geek..also a big foodie..who loves to travel. I had given the idea of creating a new blog dedicated to only food/cooking/travel...but to be honest I would rather be able to park everything right here...so thats what I'm going to do!

I would expect one cooking entry to each homebrewing entry..maybe somthing like 1.5:1. My apologies to my handfull of homebrewing buddies in the blogosphere...but I promise to carry my homebrewing street cred during this small change to the site.....and will be striving to do my share of recipes that include beer..

Working in these new subjects brings me much joy....

Man its silent around here!

2008-02-08T08:20:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update, as I've been crazy busy with other things lately and have not given the ole blog the attention she so richly deserves, I've brewed one additional brew recently (and set to brew in both the next weekends-chamomile wheat and a argentinian cascade apa), which was an APA..weird I know considering the hop shortage..but well..fuck it I felt like having a nice apa around for a while :)

Stay tuned for a facelift on the ole blog, I would expect even a name change...I'm going to be working on the blog with my buddy Anthony who recently just picked up homebrewing in a big way....guy doesnt brew anything under a 1.080 OG...so in about 7 months we'll be reverting back to the "Daily Ikura" after his liver craps out.

On that note does anyone here even know what "Ikura" is...I'm suprised I've never gotten a comment on that..anyhow I'm looking forward to working on the same blog with my buddy and would even venture to guess the site overall improves as a result.

Well do some pretty randomn stuff on this blog..just taking some chances ya know?

Cheers!

Oatmeal Stout AKA-Bumpaddle Oatmeal Stout

2008-01-09T16:06:00.000-06:00

This will be a real quick post..essentially what I did is brewed my first Oatmeal Stout (Aka "Bumpaddle"), bottled my English Bitter ("Miracle Elixor") and pitched the Stout wort right onto the yeast cake in primary last Sunday (but I did do this on a massive hangover from hitting up the hopleaf the night prior night...so I've got that goin for me..which is nice).

You can see my tempory "3 tier" system to the right, also I would like to note that I'm a knucklehead and have figured out why my mashes have been getting stuck so frequently with the last few batches...I've been batch sparging (which I prefer) but I have also been opening up my drain valve all the way..which obviously (well now anyway) has been compacting the grain bed and not maintaining the inch or so of liquid I should have over the grain bed when sparging. Needless to say this time it went great by allowing 30 minutes to sparge.

This is the second time I have re-pitched onto an existing yeast cake, the first was with my Barley Wine (onto a American Ale yeast used for a pale ale) which worked out well. With this batch I am able to say it worked just as well, if not better.

Primary fermentation was pretty much wrapped up within 3 days, which still amazes me. I plan on sitting this guy down in Secondary for at least a few weeks as it did come in a little heavy (1.068OG-above style guidlines..border line "imperial stout") before bottling..and then an additional 3-4 weeks to bottle condition might be necessary.

So this was a pretty full brew day, not only did I bottle my English Bitter (which is amazingly well balanced I must say) but I also brewed up an Oatmeal Stout, and finished the morning off by dropping 2oz of American Oak chips into my Belgiam Wild ale, which has been in tertiary for 4 months and will continue to be there for at least another 8 months prior to bottling. To the right you will see a close up on this batch in tertiary close up, you can somewhat make out a chunk of oak floating in there...just thought it was kinda cool looking..

This weekend I plan on JUST bottling my Saison...well thats the plan anyway....I will say I do have the grain and hops on hand for a pretty kick ass all cascade APA..which of course is a hop that will likely not exist in 2009.

Flemmish Beer Stew

2008-01-01T18:36:00.002-06:00

What you see to the right of you is my second attempt at a Flemmish Beer Stew...and they are only getting better. Usually I would not bother with putting up a recipe onto the beer blog, but considering the time of year and the use of beer I say my way to rationalize doing so. This is one of my favorite dishes at a local belgium beer bar..or gastropub-The Hopleaf in Chicago (http://www.hopleaf.com/) and I have long thought about making it at home. Then one day came along on Basic Brewing Video (http://www.basicbrewing.com/) and lo and behold the fellas were throwing down a Flemmish Stew! That did it for me, within a week I had made my own (first attempt which was great) and now I am getting around to evolving it even more.

I'll keep it brief..but here is the tie in-RODENBACH :)

Various pics below, if you would like the recipe give me a shout and I'll post it up.

Here is the recipe folks..

This is based on a recipe for 6 people, so adjust where necessary:

4 pounds meat, such as chuck, diced into cubes, a teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 cup white flour, 1/2 stick unsalted butter,2 large onions, thinly sliced, 20 oz of your choice of belgian beer ( I prefer a sour brown ale)2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme, bay leaves 1/2 tablespoons red currant or other jelly you prefer (try to make it tart though)1 tablespoon vinegar

1. Season the beef cubes with the salt and pepper and dredge with the flour. Shake off any excess.
2. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the meat cubes and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Work in batches so as not to crowd the beef cubes, or they will steam instead of sauté. Add 1 tablespoon of butter, if necessary. Transfer the beef cubes to a heavy Dutch oven.
3. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter to the skillet and melt over medium heat. Add the onions and cook stirring occasionally, until browned, about 15 minutes. If necessary, raise the heat toward the end of the cooking time. It is important to brown the meat and the onions evenly to give the stew its deep brown color. The trick is to stir the onions just enough to avoid burning the but not so often as to interrupt the browning process. Combine the onions with the meat in the Dutch oven.
4. Deglaze the skillet with the beer, scraping with a wooden spoon to loosen any brown bits, and bring to a boil. Pour the beer over the meant. Add the thyme and bay leaves.
5. Simmer, covered, over low heat until the meat is very tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Before serving, stir in the red currant jelly and vinegar; simmer for 5 minutes. This sweet-and-sour combination will give this hearty stew its sprigs and bay leaves. Taste and adjust the seasoning and serve.

Cheers!

English Bitter-Ye Olde Time Miracle Elixir

2007-12-29T06:39:00.000-06:00

Another "semi planned" brew session here. I find myself doing this more frequently nowdays..I will get a loose idea of what I want to brew, grow up an appropriate yet starter and crash it out in the fridge with the plan in mind to brew at some point within the following week.

Pic of Ye Olde Miracle Elixer to the right...directly in front of my Sanyo 4912 fridge...guess what thats going to turn into :)

And thats what I did here with the Ordinary Bitter (aka Ye Olde Time Miricle Elixir). It was a late Friday brewday which included 2 stuck sparges (yep I have forgotten my cardinal rule of no mashing without rice hulls) which I have found to be the most frustrating thing that can happen to me while brewing. On a side note my next hardware project will be a way to reinforce or apply a seal around the perimeter of my steel false bottom, or by opening up the diameter of my fittings round the drain valve. Anyhow...

This is basically Jamil Z's award winning recipe for his bitter and hopefully I can come close to that version (but I wont really have any other way of being able to tell if I do or not), the main intent of this batch is to get some homebrew back up on the shelfs here at home in a short time frame-I plan on bottling directly from primary in 1.5 weeks.

Grain:

-6 lbs Maris Oter

-.5 lbs Caramel 20L

-.35 lbs Special Roast

Hops: All US Kent Goldings-4.2% AA

-1oz U.S. Kent Goldings 65 minutes

-.75oz U.S. Kent Goldings 30 minutes

-.25oz U.S. Kent Goldings at flameout

Yeast: White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast

-Pitched 400ml slurry, decanted prior to addition.

Stats: 80 minute mash. Water to Grain Ratio 1.25 : 1 -Batch sparged
-154F at mash in -148F after mash-Sparge water temp 179

**Batch may be more fermentable than planned, after 2 stuck mashes.

-65 minute boil

04A. Bitter And English Pale Ale, Ordinary Bitter
All-grain

OG
1.042
FG
1.011
IBU
31
ABV
4.0 %
SRM
6

Saison...

2007-12-01T16:11:00.000-06:00

Hands down one of my favorite beer styles to enjoy..and has been for some time now. I've been looking forward to brewing my own version of this Belgian/French Farmhouse ale for a long time now..and coming off of both an insanely busy work week and a very interesting culinary week-we went to Anthony Bourdains book talk and signing earlier in the week..which was a great experience-I was ready to get some brewing done!

This beer is loosely based on Ommegangs Hennipin (which by the way is both one of my favorite Breweries-Ommegang, and favorites of this style- this Saison is amazing), a little more complex in terms of malt bill and process than a Saison Dupont, which is said to be made of only 1 malt-Belgian Pilsner, but was not by any means a complicated beer to make.

Knowing that the malt bill is fairly straightforward (Belgian Pils, Belgian 2 row, cane, and Belgian candy sugar my focus was primarily on getting the wort down to the mid 60's F and very carefully control the fermentation temps..starting mid 60's and ramping up to as close to 90F I can around day 10 in primary..this should be much easier to accomplish in the cold (and snowy as of today) winter season of Chicago (as should all my temp issues) than it was all summer here..which was brutal and a true challenge to keep temps under 80 in most cases.

I will update as primary moves forward. Cheers!

Fermentables:

Grain:
-7 lbs Belgian Pilsner -
-2 lbs Belgian 2-row (it came uncrushed so I had to take the roller pin to it...)

Other:
-1lb Belgian clear candy sugar

-1 lb Cane sugar

*Sugar accounts for 18.2% of the fermentables.

Hops:
Bittering:
-2oz Czech Sladeck 7.8%AA-80 minutes
Flavor/Aroma

-.15 oz of Bitter orange peel

Yeast:
-Wyeast Belgian Saison, 400ml yeast slurry started for primary.

Stats:
80 minute mash. Water to Grain Ratio 1.25 : 1
-Batch sparged

-152F at mash in
-148F at sparge
-No Mash out

-85 minute boil

-Irish moss added at 5 minutes to flame out
-Final Volume 4.5 gallons

-SRM-5 *This is one point below the low end for style.

-IBUs-31
-Original Gravity: ??? You tell me..my hydrometer went tits up and started letting in water..but according to my tastybrew.com calculations we should be right around 1.070.

The Yet To Be Named Belgian/Flemmish/Idahoen/Chicago Sour Ale....

2007-10-28T17:42:00.001-05:00

So this is my second brewing this weekend (first was my hardened Cider, seen below) and was also a batch that I have been looking forward to cranking out for a while now. It all started at my local homebrew store when I started discussing Flemmish Sour Reds and it was revealed to me that they had one smack pack of Wyeast Roeselare Ale Blend (a seasonal Brett and Lactic culture which saw a seasonal release earlier this year..in spring..so I cant believe I found it!) which was ordered but never picked up...so I picked it up :)

My goal was to do a soured beer, started in a glass primary for 1 month, then moved into a brand spanking new plastic bucket (food grade of course), and laid down on some French oak for a good long while (at least 6 months until bottling...and even then I'm not sure if I will). The gravity however would be higher than a standard Rodenback, or Dutchess De Bourgogne and would be loosely based on an existing homebrew recipe that I went over at the brew shop.

So after a started and failed attempt last week to brew this up (crashed out my 400ml starter in the fridge when I found that I would be sitting on it until this weekend) I was right back in the saddle this morning at 5:30am..thanks to Higgins the Wonder Pooch. So after taking her out, and cleaning up things that..well have no place being mentioned with soured beers. I was heating up my mash water and dumping grain into the ole mashtun.

Mash started at 7am, and was held for 90 minutes, target starting mash temp was 154F which I narrowly missed with 155F. Final mash temp was found at 149F..evidently I'm losing a bit too much head somewhere...but I'm not all too worried about it.

You know what had never happened to me while brewing previously? A stuck sparge that's what! Yes I was living the dream..brewing and never having any sort of sparge issues...well that definitely came to a screeching halt this morning...

So after trying every little maneuver I could muster with my mash paddle, then moving on to blowing into the vinyl tubing, I was about to put one to the mash tuns side and then finish it off in true Mortal Kombat style by screaming "GET OVER HERE" and then proceeding to chuck a butter knife attached to my fly fishing line at it I decided I should first attempt to move all of the contents out, and into a bucket.

Well after moving all contents I found that my vinyl tubing had come loose so nothing was moving from under the false bottom, I quickly reattached and proceed to move the grain and water back into the mash tun..

Did you see what I did there? I still feel like slapping myself.....

So..yes the tubing was disconnected BUT that should not halt all flow, what would halt all flow was if there a blockage somewhere. I realized that somewhat quickly after letting fly a string of vulgarity that likely had our neighbors thinking I have terets...and at that point all grain was back in the mash tun.

So..back we go-all grain back into the bucket, false bottom and all parts removed and rinsed (oh, and guess what? There was a blockage!), mash tun rinsed to ensure no grain was trapped under the false bottom when reassembled, grain goes back into mash tun, I go rinse the bucket as that is where I am collecting the wort and then I'm back in business!

With the slowest f'ing sparge I have ever seen..seriously it took an hour and then some..but eventually I was left with 5.75 gallons of wort..and a promise to myself that I would never brew again without using some rice hulls.

So to wrap an already long post up I ended up boiling for 90 minutes, cooled and pitched. The Roeselare is already churning away as the starter was in good shape when it was pitched, so I've got that going for me..which is nice.

Fermentables:

Grain:

-17lbs Belgian Pale Ale

-1lb Flaked Wheat (or "that grain that fucks up your sparge if you dont use rice hulls")

-1lb Belgian Biscuit

-1lb US 6 Row

-1/8lb Belgian Aromatic

-1/8lb Belgian Special B

Other:

-1lb Belgian Dark Sugar (hard, not liquid)

-1/2oz Bitter Orange Peel

-1/2oz Sweet Orange Peel

-1/3oz Juniper Berries (crushed just prior to addition)

Hops:

Bittering:

-2oz Czech Saaz 2.5%AA-90 minutes

-1/8oz Amarillo 8.2%AA-90 minutes (not traditional but only used for AA content)

Flavoring:

-No hops added-orange peels, juniper berries, and Dark Candy added-15 minutes

Aroma:

-None

Yeast:

-Wyeast 3763, Roesalare Blend

Stats:

90 minute mash. Water to Grain Ratio 1.2 : 1

-155F at mash in

-149F at mash out

-Sparged with 20qts @ 168F

-90 minute boil

-Final Volume 4.75 gallons

Original Gravity: 1.080

Hardened Cider...

2007-10-28T17:18:00.000-05:00

Howdy! Well this weekend saw the kickoff of my first hard cider, why make a hard cider you ask? Well because it seems that I am the only person online and with a few carboys who has not done this yet is why...it is also a tasty beverage.

After doing some homework on Northern Brewer (as you can see my research process off to the right consists of reading forums and drinking Saisons) I ended up deciding to utilize raisins, and Turbinado sugar to supply the yeast with some additional nutrients (raisins) and to give the concoction some amber hues while raising the ABV a bit (Turbinado sugar).

Process was very straightforward, which was much appreciated, I steeped the raisins in approx 1.2 gallon of the cider at 160F and held for 20 minutes just to be sure they were pasteurized. After doing so I put all 3 gallons (raisins included) into a glass carboy and pitched my yeast. The yeast I settled on was the Lalvin D47, which is intended for use with Chardonnay and Rose wines, neither of which are easy to find in a box (..okay..okay...so my wine appreciation does not stray far from the boxed variety...I'll work on it), seriously though this yeast looked great because it would not attenuate that highly (not as high as Champ. yeast anyway..) and also will work well in a wide range of temps (50F-85F), which suits me well in my climate controlled brewing operation (aka my office..on the ground next to my cpu). It has been 1 full day since then and the airlock is bubbling happily away...

I plan on letting this guy sit in primary for 2 months or so, then its off to secondary for another 1 or two months. I'm undecided if I will attempt to back sweeten at all..but I doubt I will.

Cheers!