I’ve opined to several people over the past
few weeks about how this hobby of home brewing beer is a blessing and a
curse. To me, it’s nice to have an end
product to drink, for sure, but the draw for me is making 5 gallons, or 2 cases,
if bottled, of a beer that I can’t get commercially. What is funny is that one
of my favorites (IPA) I can buy in various varieties, but I am getting to the
point where, if I can get the hops that I want, I actually prefer my IPA to the
ones I can buy, even those are very good.
But no, I am drawn to brew black lagers. Dunkelweizens, and Saisons. Try going to your local grocery store and
buying a case of a dark wheat beer. It
ain’t happening. So I read, and I start
to think, and the thinking becomes 5 gallons of beer that I am glad I made, but
not necessarily something I’m excited about drinking.
In 2012, I started finding really good deals
on hops. Once I got a grain mill, I
could buy 50 lb bags of grain and then focus orders on crystal malts and other
grains to add character to my beers. All
of the sudden, I felt I needed to start getting various varieties of hops to
have on hand. Once I started harvesting
yeast, it all went to hell. Because you
want to use that yeast up before it goes too long in the Mason jar.
I started memorizing my hop and grain
inventories in my head. Then I would lay
in bed thinking about beers I could make.
I would drive to work and think about the beers I would make. On a drive home, while enjoying a playlist by
the Hold Steady, it came to me…I would make 3 beers and bottle them. I would give half away in six packs to
friends, 2 of each beer. I would design
sixpack holders and make CDs of my favorite Hold Steady tunes to go with each
six pack. I WOULD CONTACT THE BAND AND
SEND THEM A SIXPACK.
I will say that I got a number of the bottles
labeled. At least the ones I would give
away (an operator error – ME- caused there to be more labels for one of the
beers, and not enough paper in inventory).
I decided to forget about the sixpack décor…I have many sixpacks, but if
I mail these, I don’t see the point in adding a cardboard carrier. And the CD?
Well, let me know if you’re interested.
So, here are the beers I came up with to make
based on 3 Hold Steady memes. I have
posted some rock videos with their songs in here for your listening
entertainment.
Charlemagne in Sweatpants
“He asked what happened to Charlemagne. She just
smiled all polite-like and said something vague. She said ‘Charlemagne got
caught up in some complicated things.’ She wiped at her nose and she winked.” –
“Don’t Let Me Explode”
5.5
gallons
OG:
1.052
SRM:
10.2
IBU:
29.3
Efficiency:
68%
60-minute
boil
8 lbs
American 2-Row
2 lbs
Belgian Pale Ale Malt
1 lb
CaraMunich I Malt
0.19
lb (3 oz) Special B Malt
0.25
oz Herkules at 60 min.
1.00
oz Styrian Goldings @ 30 min.
1.00
oz Crystal @ 15 min.
Wyeast
3522 Belgian Ardennes (2 L Starter with 200 g light DME)
I had
been jonesing to make a Belgian Pale Ale ever since I read a review about an
Antwerp Belgian Pale Ale made by De Koninck.
Remember what I said about having all these hops and yeasts to make
these beers? Well, I didn’t have ANY of
that stuff to make a Belgian Pale Ale.
Hell, what I REALLY wanted to make was a Belgian Dubbel. But I thought it would be a good idea to make
a smaller beer first, get a HUGE yeast cake, and then make the Dubbel from
that. Enter “Charlemagne”.
This
beer turned out nice. It’s balanced, and
maybe a bit more in-your-face Fat Tire.
Still balanced. Do I find it
exciting? Not really. But it IS well-made, and it’s an easy
drinker. There’s this funk that hits you
with the first drink, then after that, it goes down easy.
Ybor City
“Don't
tell my sister about your most recent vision
Don't
tell my family, they're all wicked-strict Christian
Don't
tell the hangers-on, don't tell your friends
Don't
tell them we went down to Ybor City again” – from “Slapped Actress”
5.5
gallons
OG:
1.055
SRM:
4.2
IBU:
48.6
Efficiency:
68%
60
Minute Boil
11
lbs American 2-Row
0.38 lbs
(6 oz) CaraFoam
0.19
lbs (3 oz) Munich Malt
0.13
lbs (2 oz) Aromatic Malt
1.25
oz Ultra @First Wort Hop
0.50
oz Ultra @15 min.
0.50
oz Ultra @10 min.
0.75
oz Ultra @0 min.
Wyeast
2000 Budvar Lager (4L starter, 400 g light DME)
Never
been to Ybor City, but I was in Tampa for a work thing once in the 90s. Had I known about Ybor City, I would have
checked it out. Hell, I didn’t even have
a computer that early in the 90s.
Thing
about the south is that they’re coming along with the craft beer, but it seemed
so much of it was centered around the heat, and not drinking heavy beers. For a while there, a lot of the beer that
they sold (and still sell) seemed “watered down” to me. So I had some Ultra hops around and saw that
they were a higher alpha acid, but a decent Hallertauer substitute. So I decided to go with my favorite Pilsner
yeast, Budvar, and used the Budvar clone recipe from the book “Clone Recipes”,
except I ended up using 2-row malt instead of Pilsner malt. Because I wanted to see how that worked out.
Turns
out, it worked out pretty well. I let
the bottles lager for 3 weeks after letting them carbonate for 3 weeks, and
this is as decent as any pilsner I’ve made.
I can’t find Ultra hops for sale anywhere, but they do strike me similar
to Vanguard or Mt. Hood, just more Alpha Acids.
Your Little Hoodrat Friend
“While
she was at the citadel, he was getting high as hell. When she came to in the
matinee, she was asking round for someplace else to stay. While he was down in
Lowertown, she was feeling out the 5:30 folk mass. And the night that she got
born again, he was getting with her little hoodrat friend.” – “A Multitude of
Casualties”
5.5
gallons
OG:
1.054
SRM:
12.7
IBU:
44.4
Efficiency:
68%
60
minute Boil
6 lbs
American 2-row
3 lbs
American Red Wheat malt
2 lbs
rye malt
0.33
lb Carawheat
0.33
lb Chocolate Rye
1.00 oz
Sorachi Ace @First Wort Hop
1.00 oz Sorachi Ace @5 min.
Wyeast 1007 German Ale (2L starter with 200 g
of light DME)
This
one gave me fits. I had these 2 oz of Sorachi Ace hops that I wanted to
use. I read enough about them to know
that these hops were divisive; either people loved them and discussed the
flavor as “lemon cream” while the opposite stated they imparted onion and garlic
and were overall very harsh. I decided
to stay positive and think about what kind of beer would be good with lemon
cream and remembered Sam Adam’s Coastal Wheat, which used lemon peel in the
brew, and honestly, was a well-made beer (even though I’m not much of a wheat
beer fan). So I actually was leaning
towards making a wheat beer with these for about 1 day. Then somewhere along the way, I decided that
I’d like to make an Alt beer. I bought
the yeast. I thought I would love to
drink an alt beer, and wasn’t sure I wanted to give half of it away. Maybe I’m starting to bore you with the
details here.
In
the end, I decided to make an alt beer with a twist; half of the base malt
would be a mixture of 2-row, red wheat and rye malt. Then I decided to make it red, so I added a
little chocolate rye and carawheat for color.
2 additions of Sorachi Ace hop, and alt beer yeast. Done.
I
think the issue I may have had with the first few beers was that they were only
in the bottle 3 weeks before I tried them, and I was getting a lot of hop
harshness. To top that off, the mocha
imparted by the chocolate rye was at war with the garlic-ness I was perceiving.
Flash
forward 3 more weeks and the beer has balanced out. There’s not really any malt coming forward or
hops. I’d be interested to hear what
other people who try this think.
Why the Hold Steady?
I
love rock music, and I love storytelling.
When you can tell a story in a song and develop characters into
episodes, then that is truly amazing talent to me. The Hold Steady has found the perfect blend
of all the rock music I’ve grown up with, the sleazy, enjoyable stuff that used
to be frowned upon at highbrow establishments that can now be found on the people
who run these places iPods.
Craig
Finn is a lyrical genius. He mixes great
literary, music and film mythology into his characters and brings the seedy
side to the surface. He references the
bible a lot, but not in a Christian Rock type of way. He twists it and gives it the “Sex, Drugs and
Rock and Roll” treatment. I always
chuckle when people say, “The Hold Steady are Christian Rock.” Yeah, if that’s
the case, then I guess Slayer is sort of Christian Rock in that way as well.
My
beers have always been influenced by rock and roll titles, imagery and
art. I thought this would be a fun
project. I will always continue to have
rock and roll titles, such as making Black Sabbath albums the names of my
Imperial Stouts. However, I am not sure
I will ever make these recipes again, so if you were lucky enough to get some,
I hope you enjoy them.
“They
did wade in the water into ‘One Tin Soldier’. She started to cry. Youth
Services always find a way to get their bloody cross into your druggy, little,
messed up, teenage life.” – “A Multitude of Casualties”
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