Posted on 11/11/2009 6:11:36 AM PST by Willie Green
PORTLAND, Ore. - Learning to brew your own beer in Portland, a.k.a. Beervana, would seem to be pointlessness personified. Yet 80 homebrewers and brewers-to-be spent a rainy Saturday morning doing just that in a stark warehouse warmed only by two boiling kettles.
"It's not pointless at all," said Michel Brown, a well-known Portland homebrewer who began making his own beer 38 years ago at the age of 17. He was teaching the advanced class in the back room at F.H. Steinbart, the 91-year-old brewers supply store. Steinbart regularly offers free classes such as the one Saturday.
"By brewing your own, you can make just the beer you want," Brown said. "When was the last time you saw an ordinary bitter on tap in a pub? When did you last see a 60-shilling Scottish ale or a peanut butter porter?"
He knows odd brews because he's made beers with ingredients such as ham and cheese; Bac-O-Bits; peanut butter and chocolate; and Nutella. His CXI Pumpernickel Ale is the 11th anniversary Widmer/ Oregon Brew Crew Collaborator beer, and yes, pumpernickel bread is an ingredient.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Too bad he couldn't taste it for four more years.
back then the drinking age was 18.
I’m just a simple ale lovin’ guy. All these half-arsed flavored beers really turn me off. Peanut butter flavor? Ham and cheese? Sheesh.
Home brewin’ ping
pumpernickle ale sounds pretty good
I like beer flavored beer. I don’t think beer should be sweetened with honey or cherries. I like the german theory - they can only use water, hops, yeast, and grain.
As for me, give me an insanely hopped IPA.
Cheers!
“As for me, give me an insanely hopped IPA.”
Me too! I love IPA’s. The advantage to liking an IPA is that very few people will drink your beer.
My German friends taught me that every beer from the local brewer contains a loaf of bread :)
Heh, pretty neat stuff. I experimented quite a bit in my homebrewing days, though it was mostly with specialty grains and a few adjunct fermentables (rice syrup, honey, etc.) I did one fruited beer - a cream stout with sour cherries that was rather nice. I also did a spiced ale with unsweetened cocoa that turned out decently, albeit with a bit of a lingering aftertaste.
My best brew, though, was a strong (around 9% alcohol) Belgian abbey-style beer. I used an excellent kit from Brewferm as a base and then added my own blend of grains and fermentables to customize it. The final product took about six weeks’ aging in the bottle before it was really ready, but man oh man was it gooooood!
BTW, there is a famous beer out of Bamberg (IIRC), called “rauchbier” (smoke beer) It uses smoked malt. Not my thing, but I think it would be good addition to a pot of barbecue sauce!
I too am glad there is a bit of experimentation going on even if many attempts result in poor brews. I’m just a beginner but I try to go to my local homebrew club and engage in peer reviewed research once a month.
Also true for Barleywines. I'm enjoying Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale at the moment:
Bump for later malty goodness suggestions...
Very true that.
One other recipe we tried was a smoked Heffeweisen. I cooked the wort over an open oak fire. It was a pain making sure we didn't burn it but the flavor was really, really good.
L
I finally got it through my head NOT to boil neither DME nor LME!
Anyone have ant experience using Peanut Butter (PB2) added to your wort?
Dunno if it should be boiled or just steeped???
Dick Gaines
**********
If done right, the honey in beer is eaten by the yeast to make alcohol, and is not merely a flavoring, which is simply a hook to make girls like beer.
The only drawback is that compared to regular sugars, honey can take as long as 12 months to be fully used up by the yeast.
That's why I do not brew with honey: I wanna get drunk next week!.
To use peanut butter in my PBS (Peanut Butter Stout aka Reeses Peanut Butter Beer) I take the jar of peanut butter and place a paper towel on it. It will gradually wick off the oil. Keep changing the towel until the oil is mostly gone and the PB is a solidified mass. Keeping it in a very warm place will help that.
Once the oil is all gone, toss the whole jar in. Sadly, unless you use a big jar, the flavor is hard to detect.
Add some chocolate malt in, even some dry cocoa powder and let it go. Do try to skim the oils off in the boil however.
Give it a shot Gunny, I think you will like it.
Hope this helped.
Cheers,
knewshound
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