Last week in Beer

As those of you who have "liked" us on Facebook may have noticed, last week was crazy busy for us! We brewed our inaugural batch of homebrew up at Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab on the new all grain system we designed. We recorded a Local Buzz podcast with Tyree Radio detailing some now overlooked craft beer brands like Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas, Samuel Adams and others. We also scored tickets to a Peticolas event called Making a Hammerer that we sadly could not attend. We brewed a beer alongside Grant Wood of Revolver at Dr. Jeckyll's. And we capped it all off with another Local Buzz podcast on location at the Division Brewery in downtown Arlington.

Details coming soon

We've been teasing the Dr. Jeckyll's brew stand build for a few weeks now, and I'm sorry to say since last week was so busy, I haven't had the time to devote to a post that would do justice to the effort involved. I know many of you homebrewers would like a good bit of detail on the setup so that you could potentially build your stand with all the bells and whistles too. Please be patient! I'll sit down and hash it all out hopefully this week and post everything from pictures to the step-by-step brewing instructions to possibly even a video of the system in action.

I will say that the system worked beautifully, if not perfectly. Through the seemingly complicated tangle of hoses, we managed to brew 5 gallons of a nice big stout for Pete, a patron of Dr. Jeckyll's and an avid homebrewer. The setup operated very well and easily moved gallons and gallons of sweet wort through each stage of the system with only a few "learning experiences." Beer was made and it was a great day. I want to give Pete a special shout out and a hearty thanks for being the first brewer on the new system and letting me tag along on his brew day (to make sure nothing went awry and burned our faces off).

Next came the first of last week's Local Buzz shows. We decided to tackle a common pitfall of craft beer lovers: inadvertently avoiding the breweries that first introduced you to your craft beer obsession. I am certainly guilty of this because the main driving force in my craft beer hobby is trying as many new beers as possible. Smartphone apps such as Untappd helps craft beer lovers find and track each new brew they find, and so it almost becomes a beer-themed arms race with your friends to constantly try more than each other. Not that that's a bad thing!

 Variety is what it's all about for me and many others. However, the very first craft beers you ever tried probably came from some of the American craft beer pioneers like Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada, Shiner, and others. Just because there are now over 4,000 craft breweries in America doesn't mean this Senior class of brewers aren't still churning out unique and interesting brews. On the contrary, their size and length of time on the beer scene affords them more opportunities than most smaller breweries to experiment and get new flavors out there. You can listen to our podcast HERE and see for yourself why you should take a trip down memory lane to some of these great breweries and beers.

Now, as I mentioned above, we didn't get to attend the Making a Hammerer event that Peticolas Brewing Company threw last week. That doesn't mean we weren't really excited about it! This was a great opportunity to try both vertical and horizontal versions of the same great beer, Velvet Hammer. Many folks in the DFW area are familiar with the Velvet Hammer, and Imperial Red Ale that sits at about 9% ABV with a full mouthfeel and satisfying malt to hops balance. This event allowed attendees to try fresh Velvet Hammer as well as VH aged for a few years (vertical tasting). They then served up some variants of this recipe: Sledge Hammer and Pick Hammer (horizontal, kinda).

As its name suggests, the Sledge Hammer is VH's big sister. ABV in the double digits, huge malt-forward body smashing against a heaping helping of hops, and a beautiful color to boot. We enjoyed this beer for the first time last year at North Texas Firkin Fest here in Arlington and thoroughly enjoyed it. Several times. This beer combines the first wort runnings from two batches of Velvet Hammer to make a huge single batch of Sledge Hammer. The other variant was called Pick Hammer and is everything that Sledge Hammer is not. It is the later runnings of the Velvet Hammer batch, meaning it's not quite as heavy in ABV and body. Many consider this an Amber Ale, though it is still a relative of the parent Red Ale style. We have yet to try this, but it is making its way to taps across DFW so make sure to try it if you find it!

Grant Wood and David doughing in on the Cascadian
Dark at Dr. Jeckyll's

Next came another influential moment in my brewing career thus far on Thursday. I had the great fortune to play host to Revolver Brewing at Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab for a pint night and brew session with Brewmaster Grant Wood. Grant is an astoundingly accomplished brewer, having brewed at Pearl, Lonestar, Sam Adams, and of course now at Revolver Brewing in Granbury. Aside from the amazing Revolver beers on tap (including rare offerings like Cinnamon Girl and Fracker Barrel One and everyone's favorite Blood & Honey), Grant and I brewed a Cascadian Dark Ale, more commonly referred to as a Black IPA. A simple malt bill combined just enough roasted barley to give this beer a deep black hue with plenty of fermentables to get this beer into the 6-7% range.

Aside from a deceptively simple malt bill, we used some not-so-common hops called Mandarina Bavaria, Apollo, Mosaic, and Saphir. Each lend their own unique flavors, but together they coalesce into a juicy blend of citrusy west coast IPA flavor and aroma. We brewed 11 gallons of this interesting beer so that the batch could be split into two separate fermenters for a couple of lucky brewers to take home. The wort was auctioned off to the highest bidder and the proceeds went to Irving Cares, a charity close to Irving-native Grant Wood's heart. A great big thanks to both Revolver Brewing and Dr. Jeckyll's for letting me take part in this awesome evening.

Jason Tyree & Wade Wadlington getting us all set up for podcastin'
at the Division Brewery in Downtown Arlington

 Finally, we put a crown on the amazing beer week by spending an evening with our good friends at Division Brewing, Arlington's first locally owned craft brewery right in the heart of downtown. Wade Wadlington and Sean Cooley invited us into their incredible brewhouse for an episode of Local Buzz of Tyree Radio. (If you haven't already, go like them on Facebook and sign up for their FREE podcast on iTunes, Android, and spreaker.com. It's great for road trips, helps a commute whiz right by, or just great brew day listening!)

We discussed Division's tremendously popular Grand Opening on New Year's Eve and some of the delicious beer they have been working on like the supremely juicy east coast style Sticky 'stache IPA, Distant Cousin English Mild, their ever-popular X-mas Morning Porter with fresh toasted coconut, and a special version of their Ben Stout that uses dark chocolate and orange zest to recreate the Terry's Orange Chocolate ball flavor in liquid form. Wade & Sean being ever the perfectionists, one-offs like this one will continue to be tweaked from batch to batch until the right balance is reached, so feel free to give them your honest feedback when you see them at the brewery.

Division will be hosing another grand opening this Saturday, January 30th starting at 11am with an all-new IPA featuring elusive Galaxy hops. Make sure to get there early because a pretty substantial line formed last time in anticipation of their unveiling. Same as last time, $15 gets you in the door with 4 pours to try something you may have missed last time. Please make sure to designate a driver or use a ride-sharing app if you intend to enjoy all 4 pours! Also keep in mind that Division's location in downtown Arlington means you are a stone's throw from great places to eat like Fuzzy's Taco Shop, Twisted Root Burger Co., Mijo's Fresh Mexican Food, JR Bentley's English Pub, and many others.

We will be taking a well deserved week off to bask in the glory of last week's beer-infused memories. We will however be picking up right where we left off with our Pro-Am brewing session with Shannon Brewing in Keller this weekend! We will be brewing our Porter that won Operation Bravo's homebrew competition in November at the Shannon Brewery, so stay tuned for a blog post detailing all that.

What an exciting time here at New Main! We want to thank each and every one of our readers and fans for helping us get to this point. Your support and interest has kept us going this whole time, and very truly, y'all have given us these opportunities to meet so many great people in the craft beer and homebrewing world. We will return the favor by continuing to bring you great interviews with the movers and shakers of craft beer, interesting beer discussion, and some killer homebrew recipes for you to try out for yourselves. Please continue to recommend us to your friends or other craft beer lovers at the bar.

'Til next time, Cheers!

Get that batch a keg. Batches love kegs.

We have a few exciting (to us, anyway) developments to talk about today. Chief-most among them is our fridge is now working like normal again! That means we can pull out of our holding pattern and switch back to homebrew production mode. It also means I can start giving the few batches I've managed to brew in the mean time some much needed TLC.

Starting to get crowded up in here...

We were lucky enough to come home with the batch of beer brewed at Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab with Rabbit Hole head brewer, Matt Morriss last Halloween. This was a "toned-down" version of their stellar American IPA, Rude Jester, dry hopped with tons of great American west coast hops. Since we anticipated this IPA to be a little more tame than its parent namesake, we dubbed this batch "Sassy Jester."

Due to a little bit of distraction and some poorly timed kitchen appliance failures, the dry hop went on a little longer than it should have. Oddly, the resulting beer came out exceedingly bitter, almost astringent, though no other detectable flaws were present in the beer. Normally, dry-hopping does not affect the bitterness level of a beer - only the flavor and/or aroma. The malt character was great and once the bitterness blanched your tongue, you could tell the hop character was a nice blend of citrus and tropical fruit flavors.

I kegged this beer and set it in the fermentation chamber at about 65F to condition while we attempted to get the fridge situation taken care of, hoping some time would mellow the off-flavor. I brought a sample up to Dr. Jeckyll's to share with some other homebrewers and to brainstorm some ideas to fix the heavy bitterness. The best solution was to blend this beer with some sweeter brew in an effort to balance the malt-to-bitterness equation. Another homebrewer named Shane mentioned he had a honey-based recipe that finished a little sweet that he had sitting around, so he graciously traded me some of his homebrew for the finished product, should it prove drinkable.

When it comes to blending beer, it is important to get the dosage correct. You have to take care to compare different combinations next to each other so that you get a good idea of each sample's characteristics and differences as compared to its neighbors. It also helps to have a second palate on hand to taste the samples in case you are taste-blind to certain flavors. Amanda and I measured out even portions of the Sassy Jester in 3 pint glasses. We sampled Sassy Jester and Shane's beer alone before blending to develop a control in our minds. I then dosed in 1, 2, & 3 shots into the respective pint glasses for comparison.

From left to right, 1-shot, 2-shots, & 3-shots dosed into a half
pint of Sassy Jester

As expected, the 1-shot sample retained the most bitterness and the 3-shot sample was much more mellow, even masking some of the hop character. We landed somewhere between 1 and 2 shots per half pint, or roughly 1 part Shane's beer to 3 parts Sassy Jester. This allows the drinker to taste the overall West Coast IPA character, still be able to discern a nice hoppy aroma, and have a well-balanced flavor that doesn't shred your taste buds.

Aside from that experiment, I also kegged my half of my collaboration brew with Kyle Nelson of Steel Rain Beer. We called the batch Steel Main Mild to reflect both of our homebrewery names. The final gravity of my half clocked in at 1.015, leaving this beer just a touch under 3% ABV. Definitely light and sessionable, but it doesn't taste thin as one might expect. It has a nice malt presence, little to no hop character and finishes satisfyingly dry so as to invite a following sip. This particular style of beer requires very little carbonation, so I'll check it after a day and see where she sits. If all goes well, we will be entering this beer as a team to the Bluebonnet Brew-off homebrew competition.

The small batch mild that I brewed around Christmas time that ended up more of an English Brown is also ready and carbonated. I kegged that beer a few weeks ago and let it cold condition after tasting what is described as "green beer." This doesn't imply infection, St. Patrick's day food coloring hijinks, or a bad batch necessarily, just that the beer needs a little more time to mature and even out. After sitting a serving temperature for a week, this beer pours beautifully with a nice off-white head and a deep brown satisfying body. I will submit this as a solo entry into Bluebonnet and see what the judges think.

Now that we have beer flowing through our taps instead of sitting in homebrew limbo, we can plan some future batches and get an idea for what we want to submit for competitions down the road. We are definitely planning on re-brewing the 9*8*7 Russian Imperial Stout soon to allow appropriate aging time. I would also like to flesh out a red ale to enjoy by St. Patrick's Day.

Dr. Jeckyll's new homebrew demonstration kitchen!

Our next post will be pretty informative and hopefully exciting as well. As I mentioned last week, we were asked by Dr. Jeckyll's to help them design and build a 3-vessel, 2-tier brewing system that will be used for brewing demonstrations right in the homebrew store! We had a run-through brew session this weekend and learned a lot about our brand new system, and I will detail all of that next time.

Til then, cheers!

So we didn't win the Powerball...

Like many millions of Americans, we seized the chance to take part in the largest lottery drawing in history. Alas, we didn't even get the dang powerball right, so we walked away empty handed. But take heart fellow craft beer lovers! This in no way shape or form has diminished our love of brewing and our ability to bring it to you! Although, a couple hundred million bucks would surely have helped us start up a commercial operation. 

Anyways, back in the real world, we've hit a slight snag in the pipeline that should be remedied in the near future. Our kitchen fridge that came with the house decided to die, was "repaired", died again, then waited for months while "a part came in." I put quotes because, months?! Seriously?! I'm sure Amazon is selling like 18 of the part we needed on a regular basis. I'm not here to slam the repair business because that would be tacky. I told you all that to say our beer fridge has been pulling double duty as our kitchen fridge as well. This means the space normally taken up by several kegs of glorious homebrew was stacked high with lettuce, assorted veggies, at least 4 kinds of mustard, twice as many kinds of salsa, and well, you get the picture. Not beer.

I have every confidence that our last repair visit has solved the problem, so the pipeline should be restored fairly soon. (If the fridge breaks again, the repairman actually asked to buy it from us so they could study from it and learn its secrets. wtf.) With that problem solved, we now have only to brew more beer! And on that front we have been making some serious strides.

As we mentioned on Facebook, we collaborated with our friend Kyle Nelson of Steel Rain Beer on a British Dark Mild last weekend. The idea was to brew a tasty beer that would require a very short fermentation and conditioning phase so that we could submit it for judging in the Bluebonnet Brew-off - the largest single-site homebrew competition in the United States. This is a relatively overlooked style when compared against the overwhelmingly popular American IPA or Pilsner categories. We thought we'd brew a double batch so that each of us would have 5.5 gallons or so to enjoy.

We also decided we would ferment our own half with a different yeast from the other to see which one lent the right character we were looking for. Kyle dosed his half with WLP007 (White Labs Dry English Ale Yeast) from a starter he made a few days before brew day. I wanted to use a unique strain that I heard was an interesting variant of the usual British yeast suspects, but unfortunately both of my local homebrew stores were out of stock (Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire, for the record). Instead, I opted for Mangrove Jack M07, a yeast rumored to be malt-forward and highly flocculent (meaning the yeast would drop out of suspension pretty readily, leaving behind very clear beer).

Upon further inspection, these two yeast from two different suppliers are essentially the same strain. Oh well, there may be subtle differences in our fermentation temperature profile, so this is still a valuable learning experience. Kyle and I will meet up next week and use a blind taste test to figure out which one we want to submit as a team. We want to give a warm thanks to Kyle and Erin for inviting us into their home to brew with them. Make sure to check out SteelRainBeer for more great homebrew recipes and some great spent-grain dog treats for your pooches!

On other fronts, we have been busy working with Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab in Pantego setting up their in-house brew kitchen. Those of you who have read the last 10 or so blog posts know I make it no secret how much I love hanging out at Dr. Jeckyll's. It's a fully stocked homebrew supply store as well as a 40 tap growler bar with live music on the weekends and 4 dart boards. What makes the excitement level go to 11 is that it now includes its very own 3-vessel all grain brew kitchen! Three massive restaurant grade natural gas burners sit under three re-purposed half barrel keggles to offer enough capacity to brew up to 10 gallons of beer at a time. Anybody can sign up for a brew session with the head brewmeister, Scott Cooper. Once the beer kitchen is up and running, for a small fee and the cost of your homebrew batch you can brew and take home as much wort as you can carry! (Due to TABC regulations, you can't pitch yeast at the store. The second yeast touches the wort, you have 0.0000001% ABV beer, which must be produced at a licensed brewery, which Dr. Jeckyll's is not.)

Our next post will detail how the setup works and all of the parts & prices in case you are thinking of putting your tax return to good use this year. Keep in mind, building everything yourself instead of buying everything ready-made off the shelf will save you a good chunk of change, but the overall build will not be cheap. Take some time to learn the basics of a brew stand build while squirreling away as much cash as you can. By the time you're ready to build, you should have a good idea of the value of each element and the cash to pull the trigger. For some inspiration and light reading, visit homebrewtalk.com and check out their user library of homebrew setups.

Til then, Cheers!

Better Know Your Brewers: Legal Draft Beer Co.

It was a cool and clear Tuesday morning in the heart of the Metroplex. The sun was just beginning to peek over the distant Dallas skyline, casting stark rays of light straight down Abram street in Arlington. As we adjusted the visors in our car, we reflected once more on how lucky we were to have the opportunity to meet the newest Brewers on the block, Legal Draft Beer Company. Nearly all of you reading this post have been on a brewery tour and learned how beer is made, but we count ourselves among the supremely lucky few that Greg McCarthy, his partner Curt Taylor, and their master brewer Heiner Orlik invited us to see how a brewery is made.

While a crew unloaded the Legal Draft brewhouse from a flatbed, Greg, Heiner, & Curt all exchanged excited looks and Christmas-morning smiles. Amanda and I walked through the warehouse space that will soon come to house this amazing brewery, imagining with some ease where each tank, pump, and kettle would stand alongside a vibrant tap room and a skilled brewing staff. A cold mist began to blow in, so we all huddled into a warmer space out of the wind to talk about where Legal Draft came from and where it is headed.

How did y'all get started brewing?

Greg: My dad brewed some when I was a kid, and I talked with Curt about 15 years ago about starting up a brew pub in Arlington. Not til a few years ago did I get some stuff together and make a few batches and my friends and I thought, "This isn't too bad." And at the same time I knew I didn't want to do this just as a hobby. Now was a good time and it felt like a good opportunity to do this, so I started putting together a business plan and doing a lot of research and looking around for a place to do it all. Last spring Curt and I were together with that same group of friends and I told him I kind of wanted to do this and he said, "Sign me up!" So we went forward and about middle of June last year I started telling people about what I was going to do so I couldn't back out. And here we are. 

Tell us about bringing Heiner on as your brewmaster.

G: Well I had brewed a few batches, but I always knew I wasn't going to be the brewer. We weren't in any clubs or organizations. I think my beer was pretty good, but it's a whole different subject brewing in your garage compared to what we're going to do. And y'know, we didn't have time to mess around for 5 or 6 years learning how to do that, apprenticing someplace or starting smaller ourselves and seeing if we could grow. We knew we wanted a really good brewmaster, and when I talked to Ezra Cox, then at Revolver, now Cidermaster at Bishop Cider, he said, "Here's what you do. You put an ad in all the trade publications online and you find a really highly qualified, big background sort of brewer and then he becomes pretty much everything that's important to your brewery." 

So we put the ad out in September with our sort of mission statement to make a lot of beer and grow fast, and within a couple of weeks he replied and his first message to me was, "Your mission statement is all well and good, but who is going to be the captain of this ship? Are you looking for someone who was a homebrewer for 2 years or an assistant brewer for a couple of years at some place that doesn't make very good beer, or are you looking for someone who is German-classically trained to be your brewmeister?" And I said, "Well it sounds like we need you." We wanted someone who was dedicated and trained who would do this, and Curt and I drove out to Midland to meet him. He was brewing out at Big Bend in Alpine, and he has a daughter and granddaughter in Forney, so he and his wife were anxious to be closer to them. He also wanted to be somewhere where you didn't have to drive three and a half hours to get to a mall.

Curt: Not to mention, his wife was not fond of all the tarantulas and mountain lions and scorpions in West Texas. 

G: Heiner has been brewing beer in America for 30 years, and he's like us - he doesn't have time to mess around and go the nice patient route with a small brewery. He's very highly educated, he did the whole program at Doemens in Munich, he brewed for Abita for a long time, and he also has a degree in Economics.

C: That's what's impressed me is his diversity of experience. There's not one thing we've run into where he didn't have something to offer. The potential for Greg and I to make mistakes and have to backtrack to go in the right direction, I guarantee he's already saved us a couple of those wrong turns, and I'm sure there'll be more to come. You can't replace over 30 years of brewing experience. The first word out of his mouth is Quality. You have to have quality product, a clean environment to brew in to make something that our friends would enjoy drinking.

What made you decide to open a brewery?

G: Everybody has been over to the largest capacity, oldest continuing brewery in the Metroplex, and the first time I went there I was just amazed because it was 95 degrees outside, not air conditioned, on a Wednesday night, no music, no food, and there were 500 people there. And you know what? It was FUN! It was greater than the sum of the parts by a mile. I just thought if they could do this, then we can too and maybe ramp that game up a little bit.

C: I think Greg and I over the last 15-20 years have been talking about having some place cool in Arlington and every time we leave we wouldn't have to drive to Dallas or Fort Worth. With the brewery and everything else happening for Downtown Arlington, it's going to be a destination. It's going to help to change the face of entertainment in downtown.

Your brewhouse is not very common. Can you tell us more about the IDD High Efficiency Brew System (HEBS)?

G: There are a few breweries across America that have this system. Probably less than 20 systems working right now, and according to Heiner, the mash filter is not a new idea. The system is all mounted to the skid: the mash tun, the boil kettle, the hot liquor tank, and the whirlpool. You pump out of the mash tun through the filter plates and depending on your style, you have the prescribed number of filter plates. Every other plate is solid and the other one has a bladder inside. Efficiency of that process comes from the grain getting stuck on the cloth and squeezed like a tea bag. You get the very last of the sugars out of the grain and when it's done, that grain falls down and you can clean the filter easily and the grain is very dry and heads off into the hopper. So that's different from the lauter tun and you get a greater extract efficiency. 

Then the boil kettle has the usual steam jacket, but it also has a calandria inside which is basically another steam boiler so you get a really high-energy, vigorous boil and a higher evaporation rate in 40 minutes that would take a conventional boil kettle of the same size 90 minutes or longer. So you cut time off each batch, and as you're pumping that wort through the filter and the mash tun empties, you're ready to start mashing in your next batch. You can be working 3 batches of 17 barrels at a time all in a row. When I saw it in action, they started at 9am and intended to brew 3 batches but ended up doing 5 to get a little ahead and they were still finished up by 5pm.

What sort of beers can we look forward to enjoying soon?

G: Heiner is in charge of the recipes, but we'll start off with sort of a core 5 beers: gold lager, amber lager, a hefeweizen, an IPA, and a stout. Something for everybody. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, there aren't a lot of craft breweries that have a bunch of lagers. It's really an economic decision because it takes more time to ferment properly. The lagers are getting sort of overlooked. By the time we open, we're going to be heading right into the Texas summer time, and we want to have clean refreshing beers with a few options that  everyone is going to want to drink. We'll start with that core 5 and always have that on tap, but the good thing about Heiner is he wants to take it in different directions too. 

Reinheitsgebot means different things to different brewers. For some people it means, "Ve have four ingredients in ze bier and no ozzers!" But Heiner's view is it's all about no adjuncts, it's about the methods and it doesn't mean you can't brew ales or have fruit beers or add orange peel to your wheat beer or have sours or anything like that. He wants to barrel age some stuff, he wants to do sodas like root beer and ginger ale to serve to kids or non-drinkers or designated drivers, he wants to create some radlers, too. He's of the mind that Reinheitsgebot means you do a good job, you brew good quality product in the right kind of environment. You use barley, not rice or corn to cut costs. You know, if you're brewing a wheat beer, technically you're violating Reinheitsgebot, but it really doesn't go against its intent.

C: There's also a strong desire to have gluten-free beer as well, and our system lends itself to that very easily. We can't call it gluten free legally, though,  without adding a certain enzyme that converts any remaining gluten in the beer. We recently went out to San Diego and visited Duck Foot Brewing, and every beer on tap there was gluten-free because the owner is a celiac. We sat there and drank for a couple of hours, and I liked ALL of their beer! It didn't taste like a Redbridge or Omission or anything. They were all good. It would be a good way to tell folks who have that limitation, "Hey we have stuff for you too. Not just soda."

Aside from our favorite draft houses and growler bars, what sort of packaging should we look for on shelves?

G: We will have primarily cans, about 2/3 of our production by volume and get them into stores. We'll have our own canning line in February or March, so we'll be up and running very soon after we start up. (Mobile canning) is a great system, but it gets expensive over time. It would cost us about 3-5 times as much in the first 5 years as having our own machine. We'll pay off the equipment within the first 3 years we believe. 

We'll also have the taproom, and that's always where my head was first. That's where you first visit breweries and I just wanted something with a good vibe, a nice family place to come hang out for a little while. Bring the kids, bring the dog, have games to play, TVs on the wall with sporting events. You know, a place people just enjoy hanging out. We'll also have a big enough place to rent out for events like class reunions, rehearsal dinners, business lunches, whatever folks like to do. 

Photo credit: Dodson Development, LLC

Arlington seems to be at the beginning of a very concerted effort to revitalize the downtown district. How will Legal Draft fit into that picture?

G: (The Texas Live events center) was the first of several announcements we expect to be coming soon. Put a pin down in the absolute center of the Metroplex, and it's right here. It's taken some time, but it takes some vision and some guts to knock down some of the unfortunate looking infrastructure and build places people want to come visit. Groups like Dodson Development have that vision to come in and design some great spaces for everyone to use and enjoy, and it's going to be great.

Our good friends at Division are a stone's throw away from y'all. Do you see any collaborations or neighborhood alliances in the future?

G: Wade Wadlington's shop is real close, and we think that's terrific. It would be great to get even three more. It creates some magnetism and synergy, unless we get one of the very few people that doesn't want to play nice, which just doesn't happen often. Wade and Sean do completely different stuff than what we're doing: he's got fruits and sours and IPAs. He'll be smaller volume, but he'll have twenty different beers on tap and the variety is what makes it fun. And his place looks terrific! Things are starting to happen for him and for downtown and it's really exciting for us all.

Having warmed up with some much needed coffee and much appreciated beer conversation, we left Greg, Heiner, & Curt to unload their remaining equipment and headed back home with an even greater sense of excitement than we brought downtown. The sun climbed a little higher
and burned off the fog to shine on brand new kettles and pumps, and thus Legal Draft Beer Company took some of its first steps onto the DFW craft beer scene.

We want to thank Greg McCarthy, Curt Taylor, and Heiner Orlik for allowing us to be a part of their brewery building process. We are genuinely excited for y'all, and we can't wait to share a pint in Spring of 2016!

Like Legal Draft on Facebook & follow them on twitter @LegalDraftBeer and Instagram legaldraftbeer!

Greg and company will be joining Tyree, Rhode, and myself this spring on Tyree Radio for an all-Legal Draft Local Buzz podcast. We'll make sure to give y'all a heads up so you can listen to even more great news and brews from Legal Draft Beer Company. Don't forget to like and share Tyree Radio on Facebook and subscribe to the Tyree Radio podcast. It's free and it's AWESOME.

Mild Winter Brew Day

We missed posting last week because we were getting ready for another brew day. This time, we dove into a recipe that is not very common, though incredibly easy on both the brewer and the drinker: English Mild. As its name implies, this British ale is neither bold nor big. This is what we "yanks" would call a session ale, though distinctly full of English ale character.

Dark Milds (per BJCP 2015 style guideline 13A) can be anywhere on the pale to dark amber range, about 12-25 SRM. They should appear fairly clear and possess no great hop presence or aroma. The main stand-out quality of this style is its drinkability while remaining flavorful. True to most British styles, the beer should be malt forward and exhibit toasty/biscuit flavors with a satisfying dry finish. As my comparison to session beer might imply, this is not a heavy hitter at about 3-4% ABV. This is a beer meant to be enjoyed throughout the day without rendering the drinker incapacitated.

As we mentioned last post, we will be co-brewing with our friend Kyle Nelson of Steel Rain Beer in January with the hopes of submitting our beer for the Bluebonnet Brew-off. This is the largest single-site homebrew competition in the United States, and judges an incredible 1,000+ homebrew entries every year. Due to time constraints, we decided we would brew a Mild recipe that Kyle drew up so that we could finish it in time for the entry cut-off on January 28.

This recipe is not Kyle's, though. I read a few recipes online and listened to the Brewing With Style podcast from the Brewing Network to pick up some pointers and general impressions. I wrote this recipe on Beersmith and checked it against the style guidelines, just to test the boundaries of the style for my own education and edification. I also chose to brew this on my small-batch stove top setup since I'm currently re-building my full batch system. (Stay tuned for a bunch more posts on the build!)

On to the recipe:

Mild Winter

2.5 Gallons, OG: 1.036, FG: 1.010, ABV: 3.4%, 20 IBU

Malt
2.75 lbs Maris Otter Pale Malt
4oz Biscuit Malt
4oz Crystal 40L Malt
4oz Chocolate Malt

Mash @ 152 for 60 min

Hops
0.5oz East Kent Goldings @ 60 min

Yeast
White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast, ferment @ 65 for 3 days, then ramp up to 70 for 2 days before crash cooling and kegging at 1.5 volumes CO2.

Now for a gratuitous amount of brew day photos...

My small batch grain bag is a little large, so to keep the bottom
from scorching on the hot bottom surface, I put a stainless steel
vegetable steamer underneath.

Perfect mash temp hit after doughing in.

Our overly sophisticated mash insulation system
consists of several bath towels and my Carhartt.

Even so, we lost about 4 degrees Fahrenheit
throughout the 60 min mash. I'll chalk it up to
less thermal mass in the 2.5 gal batch size.

After removing the grain bag, we were left with
exactly 2.5 gallons of "first runnings" wort.

But we weren't done with those grains just yet!
Sparging with 170F water, we rinsed out some
more sugar and ultimately gravity points.

Adding the sparge back into the boil, we started
with about 2.75 gallons.

In order to keep from shocking yeast that's been
stored in a fridge, I put the vial or pouch in a
bath of room temperature water to warm up.

The downside to small batches is you don't
always use hops in the most efficient way. I
suppose I could have added the hops later during
the boil and used the whole ounce though.

Pre-boil gravity right about 1.040. Hmm...

Our high-tech method for suspending the hop sock
to keep it from scorching on the bottom of the
kettle during the boil.

Damn-near futuristic chilling setup with the
garden hose connected to the wort chiller in
the driveway.

Despite the Texas winter day being a balmy 75
degrees, the wort chiller was able to bring the
2.25 gallons down to pitching temperature in
about 25 minutes. Here is the batch getting all
cozy in the fermentation chamber.

Last but not least, our OG reading shows a
whopping 1.050. Ain't exactly a mild anymore.

Now oddly enough, I got stellar conversion in my mash and the pre-boil gravity showed 1.040, finishing with a OG of 1.050. This pushes it out of the style guidelines by quite a bit, leaning more towards a British Brown Ale (category 13B). Not what I set out to brew, but hey it's still beer. I'll have to dial in my boil-off rate and brewhouse efficiency in Beersmith to prevent surprises in the future. We'll see how this guy measures up after fermentation. I will likely have to re-name it to reflect its true style. Mild-Mannered Brown? Who knows. Once again, beer was made and it was a good day.

Chipotle 9*8*7 RIS on the left & Mexican
Vanilla 9*8*7 RIS on the right

If you look closely at the photo of our fermentation chamber, you may notice something a little weird with one of our two Russian Imperial Stout variants. Slowly but surely, the Chipotle 9*8*7 RIS has been building up a pellicle. Pellicles form when oxygen gets into the fermenter. Though it's most commonly associated with sour beers and/or lambics, it doesn't necessarily mean the beer will become sour. True, the chipotle powder I used probably had trace amounts of some wild yeast that landed on it in its production process, but this may only impart a "funky" flavor one might expect from brettanomyces without the lacto- or pedio- sourness. While some may consider dumping this beer since it's "only a gallon of beer," I'm going to let this little experiment continue. We really enjoyed this base Russian Imperial Stout, and I'm intrigued to see what time and bugs will do to it.

I did not sanitize or sterilize the powder I used for this gallon of special release RIS, so I inadvertently inoculated a gallon of stout with some kind of funk. Whether or not it will improve the flavor remains to be seen, but I'm hopeful that we won't have to dump this gallon. When it comes time to bottle, we'll let y'all know what's up.

Tis the Season!

We took a few weeks off from the blog to spend time with our friends and family. We participated in the Chosen Half Marathon in New Braunfels, Texas in support of our dear friends, Adam, Katti, and Isaac Henderson. We shared miles, meals, and memories, and we were pleasantly surprised when some of our other dear friends, Brian and Lauren, shared some of the peach wheat beer we brewed for them back in July! I must admit, I didn't think I would enjoy a fruit beer as much as I did. We may have to add Life's A Peach Wheat Ale to our yearly rotation!

Chosen Half Marathon runners just before the race

We spent the following weekend visiting our friends and relatives in Tyler, Texas for Thanksgiving. Turkey, dressing, dogs running everywhere, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, dogs, squash casserole, dogs, and of course, ooey-gooey butter bars. And dogs. There were 10 dogs. In one house. At least they didn't run away with the turkey. We had a great time catching up on each other's lives and playing board games while enjoying some Deep Ellum Dream Crusher and Martin House Day Break. Now to say that our board game sessions are hilarious is like saying sunsets are pretty. As far as I can remember, each time we've played a board game together, whether it be Cards Against Humanity, Balderdash, Cranium, ERS, or Catchphrase, at least one of us has been in serious danger of asphyxiation due to laughter. Honestly, how any of us have managed not to break a rib or two is a certified medical mystery.

As all of us across DFW recover from North Texas Beer Week and Thanksgiving, let us reflect on the coming months. It's the most wonderful time of beer. Stouts, warmers, porters, barleywines. Where the summer is more of a quantity season, fall and winter are certainly a time to reflect on quality. This is why I took a leaf out of a fellow homebrewer's book and decided to start a birthday tradition of brewing a barleywine to be aged and enjoyed on the following year's birthday.

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying this delicious 
barleywine from Deschutes after a year of aging.
Photo: Paste Magazine online

This practice allows me to do what I enjoy most, namely brewing and drinking great beer, on a day when I can surround myself with the things and people that matter most. Barleywines and stouts are excellent beers to share with loved ones while contemplating life and the future. Something about gingerly sipping a 10%+ ale bursting with flavor and complexity sets the tone for one to be able to step back and examine oneself impartially.

I have noticed that many people don't find barleywine appealing, most likely owing to its intense malt flavor and high alcohol content. This is fair, because barleywine isn't a beer brewed to appeal to the masses. It is one to be enjoyed on special occasions when you have the time to reflect both on the beer and on the important matters you've set aside throughout the week. Each sip contains the right balance of elixir and contemplation, setting the tone for your mind to begin unfolding the most tangled messes we all struggle with. Whether this hearty ale is enjoyed with friends accompanied by meaningful conversation or poured and sipped fireside while enjoying a good book, a fine barleywine sets the appropriate tone for contemplation and reflection.

Here's the recipe:

Birthday Barleywine

2.5 Gallons, OG: 1.100, FG: 1.020, 60 IBU, 10.5% ABV

Grain Bill
8lb Maris Otter Pale Malt
2lb Munich Malt
4oz Crystal 20
4oz Crystal 80

Mash @ 149 for 90 min

Hops
1.5oz East Kent Goldings First Wort Hops
1.5oz East Kent Goldings @ 10 min
(75 min boil)

Yeast
White Labs 007 Dry English Ale Yeast

Ferment @ 65F for 2 weeks, rack to secondary for aging 9 months, package for conditioning 2 1/2 months. Enjoy near November 14, 2016.

I look forward to nursing my barleywine through fermentation and aging in the coming year. That may prove challenging not due to technique but rather remaining mindful of what is best for the beer as the year carries on. I'll be making a few changes and additions to the New Main brewhouse in the coming months, thanks to a little help from our friends. We were gifted a sturdy wire frame shelving unit on which I hope to construct a 2- or 3- vessel brewing system soon. We will also be decorating the garage brewhouse with several tin signs and posters we won at Dr. Jeckyll's grand opening and Halloween party. Furthermore, we will be setting up a collaboration brew session with my award-winning brewing buddy Kyle Nelson of Steel Rain Beer in the near future as well. We're hoping to brew around New Years and make a Bluebonnet competition entry beer, so stay tuned for the details!

Kyle Nelson, another badass Aggie brewer and blogger sporting
his Gold Medal at Labor of Love earlier this year

Last, but certainly not least, the time is near at hand for our good friends Sean and Wade at Division Brewing to fling wide their doors and accept the unwashed masses into their brewhouse and taproom. Though their grand opening has yet to be announced, murmurs and photos on facebook intimate that they are nearing their much anticipated start date. Be on the lookout for some meet-the-brewer and tap takeover events in the Arlington area. We were fortunate to catch them during North Texas Beer Week at Mellow Mushroom in Arlington to sample the few remaining excellent beers from their impressive line-up that we had yet to try: Rosalee, Ag Town IPA, Bruton's Bitter. Folks, I think it is no small secret that we CANNOT WAIT for these guys to start pouring in Downtown Arlington.

Wade Wadlington & Sean Cooley are about to drop some mad
delicious beer on Arlington

Until next time, enjoy each other, enjoy this time of year, and of course enjoy great beer.

Happy Veterans Day! - Operation Bravo Recap

This Wednesday is Veterans day, and for those of us who have not served in the armed forces, it is immensely important to acknowledge and thank everyone who has. I have had the pleasure and honor of knowing several fine Americans who put their life on the line to protect our country, regardless of personal beliefs or who happened to be in the white house at the time. To all of my friends and family who serve and who have served, thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping the American way of life alive.

We celebrated our Veterans this past weekend by participating in the Operation Bravo Homebrew Competition and Hero Appreciation Event hosted by Homebrew for Heroes and Shannon Brewing Company. For those of you that recall our post about Deep Ellum's homebrew competition, this contest was very similar. Brewers entered one beer each for judging according to the BJCP guidelines, and the three best beers were awarded third, second, and first place in a best of show ranking. Nearly thirty brewers entered a beer into the competition, and from the several I tasted, North Texas knows how to brew!

Busted out the Beerhemoth for another great homebrew competition

We are very lucky to be homebrewers in the internet age, having access to the best available information with just a click. Not only that, but I met several folks who have spread the knowledge and passion for brewing to their neighbors and family members. And let me tell ya, they are making some awesome beer! I sampled a nice British mild and American IPA, a great brown ale, an amazing grapefruit farmhouse brett beer, a great wheat, and some delectable vanilla bourbon porter during the event.

We got the opportunity to serve our homebrew to Veterans and brewery guests all afternoon, and I was personally impressed with the discerning palates of these beer fans! Many were picking out the chocolate and coffee notes in our Rio Bravo Porter while commenting on the lighter-than-expected body and dry finish. Along with the porter (our competition entry), we brought our Zombie Dust clone batch for the hop heads to enjoy. We promptly ran out of the porter (okay, maybe we sampled some of it watching Aggie football over the past few weeks), and urged a few self-admitted IPA haters to give this brew a shot. To their credit, these folks were able to appreciate the massive citrus character exploding out of their glass and weren't so caught up in the "I don't like hoppy beers" mantra. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table to try our homebrew!

No finer a view to be found than craft beer fans enjoying your homebrew

I want to hand out a few special thanks to some people who made Saturday so great. Kyle Nelson, another Aggie homebrewer and beer blogger, was gracious enough to host me under his canopy since I arrived a little later than planned. Kyle is an accomplished homebrewer who took home Gold at the Deep Ellum Labor of Love Homebrew Competition a few months ago for his stellar Saison. Kyle brought an outstanding Belgian Quad to this competition for entry in the Stong Dark Belgian category. Being only a few feet away, I was able to sample this fine brew more than once that afternoon, and each sip was better than the last. As a BJCP judge in attendance suggested, this fine beer will only get better with age. Thank you Kyle for helping make this event unforgettable. I hope we get the chance to homebrew together very soon! Y'all should go check out his blog for great write-ups and recipes: steelrainbeer.blogspot.com

I also want to give a shout out to one of my friends, Charles Medina, who is a dyed in the wool craft beer fan. Your positive attitude, assistance during my many beer sampling (and let's be honest, beer "recycling" breaks), and just your general enthusiasm gave me the energy and help I needed to make it through the afternoon. Thank you brother. Can't wait to brew with you either!

The face of a real craft beer fan, Charles Medina

Now on to the nitty gritty. Competition. As much fun as it was to swap brews and ingredients with the other homebrewers and participate in the collaborative spirit of homebrewing, someone had to walk away with the hardware at the end of the day. As I mentioned before, the top three beers were ranked in a best of show presentation. In addition to the best of show category, homebrewers pouring at the event had the opportunity to bargain, advertise, and ultimately woo the craft beer fans in attendance into casting their vote for fan favorite. The winner gets their homebrew recipe immortalized in a homebrew kit marketed as "Picked by Heroes" nationwide. Look for this one on your local homebrew store shelves soon for a chance to recreate your favorite hand crafted beer!

The first, second, and third place winners of the best in show awards were all given some pretty awesome hardware. Each winning brewer left with a Homebrew for Heroes growler with a complimentary fill from Shannon's taproom, a gift certificate to Stubby's Homebrew Shop in Haltom City, and a .50 caliber bullet bottle opener that turns into a tap handle from Bullets2Bandages. These were some pretty generous and amazing prizes.

Some mighty fine hardware, I do declare

Okay, I've stalled long enough. New Main Brewing's Rio Bravo Porter won first place in Best of Show for the event! In addition to the outstanding prize pack I just mentioned, we now get to do a Pro-Am (professional - amateur) brew session with Shannon Carter! This collaboration beer will be produced on their commercial system, and in the very near future it will be commercially available. Not only that, but that beer will be entered into the 2016 Great American Beer Festival competition in Denver, Colorado as part of the national Pro-Am Competition. You bet your hat we're planning on going!

These are very exciting times for New Main Brewing. We are very fortunate and very blessed to be able to share our passion for brewing with all of you. We are also among the luckiest people in the world to be able to live in this country that is so well defended and honored by its service members. To each and every hero out there, from the bottom of our hearts, Thank You.