Saison D'Hiver

It was 101° here the other day, and with the humidity the heat index was 105°. I dreaded brewing this weekend, but this is my employer's Christmas beer, and it needs to age a few months before serving. I got an early start, and was able to finish before the temps hit triple digits.

Saison D'Hiver
13.5# Belgian pilsner
2.5# Munich malt
1.5# Vienna malt
.6# Crystal 120L
1 oz Challenger 6.5%/60 minutes
2 oz Styrian Goldings 3.5%/60 minutes
1 oz Saaz 3.1%/20 minutes
.5 oz Saaz 5.8%/20 minutes
.5# Turbinado sugar/10 minutes
1# dark Candi sugar/10 minutes
1 stick cinnamon/secondary
1 vanilla bean, split/secondary
1.5l starter WLP 568 Belgian Style Saison Ale Blend
1 vial White Labs Belgian Abbey Ale WLP530 (if needed)

I mashed at 151° for 75 minutes, and boiled for a little more than an hour and a half. (I collected a bit too much liquor and needed to boil it down.) The original recipe called only for 1.5 ounces of Styrian Goldings and 1 ounce of Saaz, but the alpha acid numbers on my order were about half what the recipe called for. Fortunately, I had some Challenger and half an ounce of a stronger Saaz.

I get 60% efficiency, so my OG was predicted at 1.076. And I hit that number. The predicted color was 30 SRM, which is Stout color. But in the kettle, the color was more of a golden, and after adding the sugar, it was a light brown. Using the brewing calculator on my iPhone, I estimate the color about 14 SRM, the upper end of the range for a Saison. Then I compared my recipe to my shipment and realized that I forgot to add Carafa III to my order. D'oh!

Beer not linked to "Beer Bellies"

An eight-year study of more than 20,000 beer drinkers - 7876 men and 12,749 women - found that while heavy drinkers will put on weight, it won't necessarily be on the waist and that a pot belly is genetic.

Whew! Had me worried there.

The Brewing News Online Event Calendar

The Brewing News has launched a new online event calendar. It is much easier to use than their previous calendar. Their goal is to make this the most comprehensive resource for beer events on the web.

Avery Brewers Colorado Bike Tour - 7/20-24

Thirteen Avery Brewers and cyclists will begin a 5 day, 426 Mile, 42,000 Vertical Feet bike tour across 9 passes between Boulder and Durango, stopping at brew pubs and microbreweries to strengthen ties in Colorado's craft brewing industry. According to Avery Brewing President/Brewmaster Adam Avery, “The passion we put into our beer is the passion we have for life. We’ve always brewed big, challenging beers and so we’re choosing to challenge ourselves in the same manner.”

"What we’ve come to realize over the years is that despite supposedly being competitors in the marketplace, most all breweries in Colorado are fighting the same battle for good beer, preaching the same message of ‘quality over quantity,’ and living the same Colorado lifestyle. The Tour of Colorado is our effort to focus on those common threads and support the industry.”

Each stop along the tour will hold fundraisers for the Avery team. Those funds will be donated to local charities. The tour will conclude with the tapping of Wheelsucker Wheat Ale at the Ska Brewing Company in Durango, Colorado on Sunday, July 25th. Wheelsucker Wheat Ale is a collaborative beer between Avery Brewing Company and Ska Brewing Company.

"Craft" Like Bud Light

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa station KCRG is breathlessly reporting that a winery in Iowa have helped "Kick Prohibition Era Law to Curb." The law prohibits wineries from selling beer. The best part is this quote: "We are going to try and keep it like the micro brew type. Like Amberbock and Blue Moon. We've got Millstream I think from Amana and we do have the basic Bud Light." So they are going to sell craft beers like Bud Light, Blue Moon and Michelob Amberbock. Finally, the real reason for the move: ". . .they expect having beer available will really help their sales." So wine ain't paying the bills, they have to sell beer too.

Doesn't that make the winery more of a bar than a winery?

Texans, our Legislators want to do the same thing here: prop up winery revenues by allowing them to sell beer.

NHC Photo Slide Show

Shiner Smokehaus Review

For the record, earlier in the year the Texas alcohol distributors lobby appeared before the state licensing committee to oppose microbreweries selling beer on the brewery property. Their testimony strongly implied that the distributors were responsible for the growth of Texas breweries. This beer came out June 1 and is still not in Fredericksburg. I bought this six pack in Albuquerque on June 13. I also spotted it California, Nevada and Colorado. It showed up in my local supermarket on June 24. Good work, Texas beer distributors.

On to the review:
Appearance (0-3): Pours up crystal clear gold with a with head that dissipates rapidly leaving a few wispy clumps of bubbles floating on top of the beer. 2 points.
Aroma/Bouquet (0-4): Not much aroma. Some malt and something else. I assume it's smoke, but if I didn't know this was as smoked beer, I certainly wouldn't call it smoke. 2 points Taste (0-10): Hop/Malt Balance (0-4): Slightly sweet malt flavor with a hint of smoke in the finish. Not very noticeable. A little plastic/Band-Aid like flavor, which, I know from brewing a mesquite smoked beer, is the flavor of mesquite. No hops detected. 3 points
Aftertaste (0-3): Mild and smooth aftertaste. The smoke lingers a short while. 3 points
Mouthfeel (0-3): Mouthfeel is a bit thin with good carbonation. 2 points
Overall Impression (0-3): It's okay, once you get used to the odd smoke flavor. But it's a little hard to drink a third one. 2 points
Total: 14 points