Weekend brew

Busy weekend. Friday night, met R in Hoboken and did a bit of bar hopping. Nothing too exciting on the beer front - Old Scratch Amber, Rowhouse Red, and Reissdorf Kolsch at Mile Square (yes, corny, I know), Radeberger Pils at L&J's, Flying Fish ESB and about the most disgusting pint of Pilsner Urquell I've ever had at the 8th Street Tavern. They also served up about the worst plate of nachos we've ever had. Not even ballpark quality.

Finished up Friday night at the Malibu Diner. Nothing like dumping disco fries and a taylor ham, bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll on top of all that beer. I'm surprised I'm still alive.

Saturday was brew day. I went back to work on tweaking my lager recipe:

10 lbs Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (would have preferred an American lager malt, but this was all I could get at the LHBS)
1.5 lbs Weyermann Light Munich
2 oz. Briess Carapils

Shot for a 122° protein rest, but missed it and hit 126° (for 30 minutes). No big deal. Mashed at 148° at a 3:1 l:g ratio. Wound up with a two hour mash, due to trouble cleaning the wort chiller. Again, no big deal. Mashed out at 168°, recirculated until clear, sparged, and collected 7 gallons wort. Boiled down to 5.75 gallons at 1.054. Added 5g Gypsum to the boil since the pH read a bit high. Oh, hops:

1 oz Polish Marynka pellets 6.5% AA boiled 90 minutes
5g Sterling whole hops 7.0%AA added with 20 minutes remaining
5g Sterling whole hops 7.0%AA added with 15 minutes remaining
5g Sterling whole hops 7.0%AA added with 5 minutes remaining
5g Sterling whole hops 7.0%AA added at flame-out

Added whirlfloc tab with 15 minutes remaining, and 1/2tsp rehydrated yeast nutrient with 10 minutes remaining. Chilled and collected 5.5 gallons at about 66°. Cooled the wort overnight down to 54°, pitched about 300ml Carlsberg yeast from a starter, oxygenated and continued cooling the wort. Had active fermentation at 49° within 24 hours of collecting wort.

The Carlsberg yeast is Wyeast Danish Lager, I believe. This is my first time using it. It seems to have formed a weird looking mass at the top of the carboy. Always interesting to see how a new yeast performs. Also, I counted cells with a hemocytometer and microscope. I'll post more on that later...

Went to Krogh's in Sparta on Sunday afternoon. Had the two seasonal beers - Lindfor's Lager, a Czech style pilsner, and their Oktoberfest. The lager was malty with a pleasant hop nose, though a touch too bitter for me. The Oktoberfest was a deep amber, rich and malty, though there was a slight sulfury note that was a minor distraction. All was forgiven with some rarebit sauce.

HB Oktoberfest at Hop Devil

See below...

Stopped in there last night to sample this very intriguing beer. A bit disappointing in that it wasn't truly a wood beer, as the description made it sound. The cask was wood covered, but definitely lined either with plastic or stainless - no wood character in the beer at all. You could even tell by the seams in the faux hoops, that it was really just a show piece and not a "real" barrel at all.

The beer itself was good. A true German lager, just as you'd expect from HB. Not really an Oktoberfest beer, more like a milder pilsner. Had a fragrant noble hop nose and malt sweetness, but restrained hop bitterness.

On the homebrew front...

Got my 3.5 liter lager yeast starter going. I'm going to use the Carlsberg yeast for my next lager - the granddaddy of all lager yeasts. Unfortunately it got started very slowly, so I don't know if it will be ready for a Saturday brew. If not, I've got an ale yeast slurry ready and it will be Oatmeal Stout time.

The Hop Devil Grill on St. Marks Place does not do the world's greatest job of keeping their web site up to date, so I thought I'd share something very interesting that I received from them in one of their e-mail updates. This Thursday, 10/9 at 6PM they will have a

"wood cask of celebration beer from Staatliches Hofbräuhaus München sitting on their bar for the gravity pour"

Sounds pretty darn cool to me. Hopefully I'll be able to make it over there to check it out.

JC O-fest Recap

Friday afternoon saw the third annual Jersey City Oktoberfest party on Grove Street, right in front of (and sponsored by) Bar Majestic. The festivities were kicked off by a short parade down Grove Street, from Christopher Columbus down to Montgomery Street. This works out to all of 0.1366 miles according to the extremely helpful gmap pedometer site. The mayor, councilmen, and other honorees all met out in front of Bar Majestic, had a beer, then walked down to Columbus, waited for about twenty minutes, then paraded back down Grove to the Bar. Probably the strangest little parade you can imagine. Definitely the only one I've ever been to where there were more people marching than watching. Kind of charming in a way.

Standard German fare available under the tents - wurts and pretzels, plus veggie dogs, a thoughtful touch. Didn't sample any of the food as I was treating R to a fancy dinner out at the Iron Monkey afterwards. We did, however, take advantage of a few Sam Adams Oktoberfests, the only Oktoberfest beer being poured. You can do a lot worse than Sam Adams Oktoberfest.

As for the music situation, it was much improved over the last time we went to this event two years ago. There was a band (the Milwaukees) playing, which was cool. In between sets, the DJ played non-techno/dance music at slightly more tolerable volumes. Definiltey an improvement, and it allowed us to effectively chat up a few councilmen and feel important.

All in all, definitely a fun time. We'll look forward to it again next year. As for the Iron Monkey, the waitress told me that the braised pork shank was "impressive". So I ordered it. And she was right. Great stuff, especially with an Ayinger Oktoberfest, possibly my favorite of them all. Great time of the year for beer drinking.

Jersey City Oktoberfest Celebration

Happening tomorrow afternoon on Grove St. There will be a parade at 4, followed by festivities centered around the Bar Majestic. Luckily I'm getting out of work early tomorrow, so I'm hoping to check out the parade. No word on what beers will be served. Hopefully there will be multiple Oktoberfest beers available.

R and I went to this a few years ago. It was a good time for a while until, in typical downtown JC fashion, the DJ showed up. No better way to ruin an Oktoberfest celebration than by blaring techno in everyone's ears. I'll never be able to understand JC's facination with techno DJ's.

From the looks of the poster on their site, it seems that Bar Majestic will be having a DJ. With any luck it either won't be awful dance music, or if it is, they give us a few hours peace before they start spinning (corny DJ lingo for the simple act of playing a fucking record).

Still absolutely a worthwhile evening. It's always a positive when JC supports fun adult-themed events like this. Wish there were more. I'm looking forward to the parade, some beer, some sausage, and meeting the honorable Mayor Healy again.

Oktoberfests of The Times

Eric Asimov in today's Times has a writeup on Oktoberfest beers, featuring a tasting with Lew Bryson and the guy who owns Bierkraft in Brooklyn. Lew's one of the absolute best beer writers today, period, and an awfully friendly and accomodating man (over e-mail, anyway). And I judged my first homebrew competition at a table with Richard from Bierkraft.


I hobnobz with celebz.


It's duely noted that the O-fests being produced in Germany these days are starting to get lighter and lighter (both in color and on the palate) and that the American micros are picking up the slack. While Americans are producing some of the best beers of the style in the world (as evidenced by their favorable reviews by Asimov and friends), I would also note that some American micros are taking it a bit too far. Personally, I find that some of the Oktoberfest beers coming out of American micros are a bit too hoppy and/or rich.


I'll have to keep an eye out for the Thomas Hooker Oktoberfest, the numero uno in their tasting. Never had it before. My personal favorite out of Germany, Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen, did not make their top ten.


What's your favorite Oktoberfest beer?