Gotta credit Conrad for this one. Kinda going in a new direction with it, but keeping it fresh will be good. We are going to do The Ghosts of Beers Past or Zombie Beers Back From The Dead we'll work out the name later. And by old recipes I mean a hundred to thousands of years old. Anyone who signs up for this is gonna have to do some research and probably get a little creative to make it work with modern homebrew techniques. We are looking for old recipes, odd recipes, extinct styles, something interesting, raise a beer from the dead. A few years ago Chuck did a Meso American Corn based brew that turned out great, that would be an excellent beer for this. I think I am going to do a 600 year old gruit ale recipe, back when beer and ale were 2 different things. Pre-prohibition American lager? yes! Stein Beir? Yes! Ancient Egytian recipe? Awesome! Medieval recipe? Bring it on!!! Spruce Beer? Give it to me! Get creative and be prepared to do some research, let's see what you got. Let's get weird, but delicious!
Sun, Aug 16, 2015 - 11:11pm
#1
School Series for Harvest Fest: Ghosts of Beers Past
I think this is a great idea. I brewed an 1865 Mild English with the recipe from 150 years ago of a brewing company that has since gone under. I'd be happy to have that keg be used for the party. I have a great book called vintage homebrews that I would recommend looking up old brews recipes as well.
http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-home-brewers-guide-to-vintage-beer-b...
And the last issue of Zymurgy has a recipe for sahti. It sounds disgusting to me, but that shouldn't stop someone else from making it.
I'll do a Kottbusser, though.
The new BJCP guidelines (2015) also have a historical section.
Excellent. I think we can rustle up a few more though.
A real good buddy of mine is an Assyriologist. I'm gonna see if he can send me an edition of a Bronze or Iron Age tablet containing a recipe or description of flavors/ingredients.
Great idea!
www.singingboysbrewing.com
I think I'm down to getting in on this. Maybe viking type beer.
Saw this and wanted to share since it's pertinent to the Harvest Fest school series.
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3268-pre-prohibition-techniques
Ok, we have:
Nancy brewing an 1865 English Mild
Jeff Kotbusser
IceHouse Assyrian Recipe
Jeremy Viking Recipe
Joe late 1400's Ale
That's 5 total. I am pleased with that number but I would welcome more should anyone else show interest. Just wanted to bump this up and see how folks are doing with their research. We will also need you to write a short blurb about your beer as well.
Nancy's 1865 - English Mild Lovibond XX
A small London brewery based in Fulham, who sold beer to households, hospitals, and institutions, but not in pubs. This English Mild recipe was from Jan. 4th 1865, it was called XX ale, but it was more like a weaker X ale from larger breweries. The brewery closed it's doors in 1909.
Home Brews Guide to Vintage Beer
I can make a beer for the ghost beers. I didn't see this till now, but I will brew a 1503 English beer using the info I gathered from the link below. I'm also going to use some oak to mimic the barrels they would have used. Hopefully I'll brew this on Saturday.
The recipe: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?item=11413
the source:http://web.archive.org/web/20080504012020/http://www.badger.cx/brewing/1...
My buddy hasn't been able to point me toards the literature I was seeking. I am going to have to brew something else. Any recommendations?
Icehouse, the current issue of Zymurgy has a recipe for 1st century beer made out of bread....
Many home brewers give up on the idea of a stein bier because you cannot heat a stone hot enough to boil out your wort. I was thinking it would be worth it to try a partial stein bier: get a stone really smokey and hot and start a boil with the stone, then move the bier to a burner and finish off the boil.
Anyone want to smoke out and get stoned with me this week?
Icehouse, here are some things I was also re-searching:
Here is a recipe for sahti, which is probably something the Vikings drank (I read somewhere). I think you can get away with just using juniper berries for this (they're at whole foods): http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=321633
Another, more proper, viking recipe: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/aug/03/viking-h...
And here is a beer I was going to make, but changed my mind and went with the one I'm making. It's an unhopped Ale, which was the most popular kind of "beer" in England for centuries. It's not a gruit, it's just freshly fermented malts. Nice thing about this is it's meant to be served really fresh. So you could literally make it 2 weeks before the 'fest. One week to ferment, one week to carb: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pwp/tofi/medieval_english_ale.html
Yikes, whether we are ready or not, a stein bier is being produced Thursday evening at the CHAOS brewhouse. Three people so far including myself.
Sixpoint tried a stein bier using basalt and multiple dunkings.
Sixpoint : The Making of Dr. Klankenstein from Aaron Ekroth on Vimeo.
I want to go with a wood fire. It seems to me it is important to get smokiness with the caramelizing.
Anyone have any basalt?
Granite breaks up in the boil.
I was thinking of just using black lava stone, the kind sold for gas grills.
We also need a colander, chains, serious tongs, and some super heat resistant gloves.
Any engineering types want to jump on board?
Hey, we might swing by for this and check it out/help out. What time are you cooking?
I watched that video you posted. If you can find proper granite rocks, not sheets of it, it should work fine. We used to use it for "sweat lodges" when I worked in the wilderness and I've seen plenty of granite stones dropped into water and be fine. What ever you do though, make sure to avoid any "river rocks". They contain water and will explode when heated up. Saftey goggles are good idea.
Might also be good to source wood for your fire. If you use pine, or treated wood, that smoke will have some bad stuff in it you wouldn't want in a beer. Bar-b-que woods will work great, like hicory, mesquite, applewood, etc.
Hopefully we'll see you there, if not, good luck!
Thanks for the tips Kris, we should have fire going by 7pm, looking to drop rocks around 9pm.
Yes, definitely want fruitwoods.
Here is a homebrew perspective on the stein bier process:
http://byo.com/aging/item/857-hot-rocks-making-a-stein-beer
I tried making a stein awhile back, my stone connection fell through >:o
I can give you my alt recipe if you're interested. I thought it turned out well.
Theoretically speaking, you don't "need" to worry about boiling your wort with the rocks. As long as their is sufficient heat to vaporize off your off-flavors, it should be OK.
According to the specs, the all-in-one picobrew system heats the wort to about 205 degrees F. Just make sure to vigorously stir during this process because yoiu won't have the luxury of a rolling boil.
Turns out we have all the granite rocks we need behind the brewhouse, granite rock makes up all the railroad beds throughout the city, and the tracks by us have received a new layer of rock recently. PBW bath and a boiling rinse did wonders.
Anyone have a portable firepit?
We would need it by 6:30pm tomorrow (Thursday). We are hoping to drop stein by nine.
At tomorrow's open house I will be brewing Poor Richard's Ale, which was inspired by Benjamin Franklin's home brew recipe: http://www.benfranklin300.org/etc_article_ale.htm
Things are looking pretty good for the stein bier, started fermenting yesterday (1.072 OG).
The granite rocks from the railbed behind CHAOS were great, but they do break up a bit in the boil. Despite glowing wood embers going into the wort, it is not smokey, but it seems like 8 or so dunkings of red hot rocks over 30 minutes added a lot of caramel flavor (beyond what one pound of TS&F Crystal I added.)
With more people, fire, and rocks, we are pretty confident we could do a full hour boil. It was a lot of fun, even the Metra cop had a blast – the club should get a fire pit.
just checking in, how's everyone going?
I have a time on the calander tomorrow to rack the 1503 into a keg. It's been on oak for a week (1.5 oz boiled till clear). Should be ready by halloween!
I tried a bottle of mine while brewing this past Monday and it's good to go!
Kegging the stein tomorrow.
Im a bust on this one. I have been travelling nonstop. I belive i will be in michigan or ohio for the party.
The Stein Bier came out well; kinda sweet, finishes a little estery for S05, surprisingly smokeless despite burning wood embers fallling into the wort, but overall a very clean light amber ale with a nice hoppiness from German Perle.
We need to do a single malt version of this to find out what the hot steins are adding.
The beer needs a name...
Railbed Ale - Hobo Stein Bier
(my fave, granite from train tracks out back)
Rock Biters - Monster Stein Bier
(Rob brought up Neverending Story)
Hobo Stein Bier
(most to the point)
CHAOS ROCKS!
(it was a club brew)
I like Hobo Stein Bier...
No need to entertain the NeverEnding Story name; all the tiny bits and pieces of track ballast crashed out, so your teeth will probably be ok!
I like Railbed Ale - Hobo Stein Bier or just Hobo Stein Bier.
He he, Rock Biters was a reference to the yeast, funny enough to make the list.
I have to wrap up the menu today and get the promo machine going, so looks like Hobo Stein Ale for now...
Does everyone have descriptions written? I need to holler at Nancy and see if she can whip something up for us by saturday.
Does everyone have descriptions written? I need to holler at Nancy and see if she can whip something up for us by saturday.
Just Post your descriptions in this thread if you could, similar to this format, thank you:
Beer Name
Beer Style
Approximate Dates and region style was brewed
Brief description of taste drinker can expect, methods used and why, plus any additional interesting info.
1503 English Beer
English brown beer (at the time, unhopped beers were "Ales" and hopped beers were "Beer")
This is one of the first examples of a recipe for a hopped English beer made commercially. 1503 is date of the recipe.
Researchers of this style/historical recipe, were surprised upon tasting it that it's rather "dry" and not very sweet. This is strange considering the IBU is about 12-15 and the final gravity is a huge 1.020. But, when you taste this, you'll see it does have a rather clean, dry finish.
Kottbusser
Brewed until 1871, then revived in the 1990s.
The style tastes very similar to a kolsch, but will be a bit more body from oats. Honey, molasses, and an ounce of Saaz hops are added at the end of the boil. There will be a hint of sweetnes in the finish that counters the spicy sensation of the noble hops.
The style orginated in and around the northern German city of Cottbus. When Germany was unified in 1871, the northern states were required to follow the Beer Purity Law of 1516. Due to the oats, honey, and molasses the style was no longer permitted to be brewed. After the law's repeal in 1987, the style was commerically revived, though the honey and molasses do not conform with the revised Beer Purity Law enacted in 1993.
Joe...I'm going to add my personal opinion as an aside and say that it is unfair to throw something like this on Nancy's plate the week of the party & that there shouldn't be an expectation that she will have produced anything by Saturday. Nancy has accommodated the Workshop Series on severely short notice several times in the past and it is a habit that needs to be corrected moving forward.
---
Poor Richard's Ale
Strong Ale (5.4%)
Colonial American Ale that was brewed based on the writings and beer descriptions of Benjamin Franklin.
Poor Richard’s Ale has a complex aroma with a pleasant malty, corny, and slightly nutty character, enhanced by a slight molasses-spiced undertone that adds an almost fine tobacco-like quality. The flaked corn will lighten the body and provide a nice counterbalance to the malt flavors. Hop bitterness and flavor are designed to be medium-low. The molasses will add an additional level of spiciness/bitterness that will compensate for the lower IBU level.
Oh jeez, the last minute design crunch discussion, I've got too much to say about that... It's worth adding that it's no one's fault, but we do need to address this as a group. The beer menu needs to be a booklet, and we need more signage on site if we want our guests to really get the message.
That being said, here's more on Steinbier...
Hobo Stein Ale
7.5%
Steinbier (German for stone beer) Brewed in Germany and Scandinavia till the 20th Century, its name is derived from the hot stones that were put into the mashing tubs to achieve the required temperature for production. Due to the contact of the glowing, hot stones—often heated directly in the fire—with the malt, the resulting beer has a taste of caramel and soot. This was a traditional brewing process; top-fermenting yeasts and a taste of fruity ester were usual and there.
Our Steinbier is a hybrid of modern and ancient techniques: the grains in the mash were not heated by stone, granite rocks heated in a cherry wood fire were dropped into this beer for a 30 minute boil, then boiled conventionally with German hops for another hour.
Hey Steven,
Don't worry! I was going to do design a poster for the ghost beers. Like I've been doing for the other school series beers. So we can keep an abervated description for the menu, but then the ghost story of the beer will be on the poster I'm designing. Cool?
I have a cool idea, how to lay it out, but my workload this week is crazy, I have a major presentation on Thursday. I might not get to it till Friday. I'll route it to you all, if I have time, if not I'll just bring it with me on Sat.
Nanc
Ken, thanks for chimming in... but I knew this was coming. I spoke to Joe earlier in the week. I can get it done, but I apperciate you commenting about it. We need to get our stuff together eariler.
Thanks, Nanc
Hey Nancy, I assumed you were handling the poster design, and that the menu is fine as it is for beer school, just wanted to point out that party promo materials have turned into a big project. Conrad just jumped into the game. Three designers working on one party, kinda nuts!
My challenge right now is fitting the extra beer Flossmoor Station has donated, not a bad problem to have, their sour sounds delicious ;-)
Ken, I agree it is unfair to drop this on the design team so late in the game. That's my fault, time slipped by, and I apologize for that. I did check with Nancy to make sure she could do it, if not I was gonna try various back up plans. Going forward it might be best if I hand off the school series to someone else for two reasons, the first of which is that family and work are getting the best of me right now and I think I can be of more service to the club to focus what time I do have on board duties. Running the school series correctly, and putting on the type of multimedia see/touch/taste/smell presentation I think it should be requires an iron fist and a lot of micromanaging, and as much as I want to do it, I'm just not doing a very good job of it right now. The second reason is that I feel like the school series needs fresh blood and fresh ideas or a new approach. The concept has so much potential and can go so many different ways, I don't want folks to get bored of my way of doing it and become disinterested. I think it needs a reboot of sorts, or at least a new leader to help it keep evolving and keep fresh. I'd like to remain involved in the concept and would love to help whomever takes over, assuming we find someone willing to, I just don't have the time to be emailing people all the time and cooking up the design stuff and all that.
Ken, I agree it is unfair to drop this on the design team so late in the game. That's my fault, time slipped by, and I apologize for that. I did check with Nancy to make sure she could do it, if not I was gonna try various back up plans. Going forward it might be best if I hand off the school series to someone else for two reasons, the first of which is that family and work are getting the best of me right now and I think I can be of more service to the club to focus what time I do have on board duties. Running the school series correctly, and putting on the type of multimedia see/touch/taste/smell presentation I think it should be requires an iron fist and a lot of micromanaging, and as much as I want to do it, I'm just not doing a very good job of it right now. The second reason is that I feel like the school series needs fresh blood and fresh ideas or a new approach. The concept has so much potential and can go so many different ways, I don't want folks to get bored of my way of doing it and become disinterested. I think it needs a reboot of sorts, or at least a new leader to help it keep evolving and keep fresh. I'd like to remain involved in the concept and would love to help whomever takes over, assuming we find someone willing to, I just don't have the time to be emailing people all the time and cooking up the design stuff and all that.
Yeah, they are bringing a LOT of beer, I'm excited to sample all of them!
Thanks for managing the Tetris of Typography!
Lady of Clare's Strong Ale
Historic Ale
England, Recipe adapted from Clare household records of 1332-33
This recipe is very different from modern beer in several respects. It called for no bittering agents such as gruit nor hops, which were only beginning to be used at the time. The wort also was never boiled, boiling the wort came about because hops need to be boiled to extract the oils and various chemicals. Water was boiled and the grain was mashed in it, the resulting liquid was fermented and drank. This was a very nourishing brew because it was not boiled. Boiling wort coagulates proteins, making the beer clear, but also loosing the nutrition those proteins provide. Wide use of clear glass vessels was still several hundred years off so the cloudy appearance of a beer in a clear mug is a non-issue plus those drinking really needed the extra proteins and minerals that not boiling it retained in the beer. Also, boiling the wort required a seperate boil kettle making it difficult for brewers of ale to brew hopped beer. This is strong ale that the Clare family brewed over 3,000 gallons of during the holiday season. It is very fresh, according to the laws of the time it was illegal to sell it past 4 days old and was usually drank still fermenting, although this version has completed fermentation. It is also not carbonated as vessels that could hold that type of pressure hadn't been perfected yet.
@Joe: I really wanted to do an unhopped Ale. I got nervous and went with something I knew more about. I somehow didn't even see this was a part of the list... I'm super excited. Thanks for making that!
On the graphic design side of things... I don't know any backstory, so forgive me if I'm missing a point. But my Gf and I are both graphical designer related (she's an artist.--makes my beer labels, etc, and I have tech-writing experiance/production experiance) we can help out in future. Maybe not be the primary for the whole club, but we'd totally be down to make a sign if we had 7 days notice. Thanks guys!
Ok, Nancy is doing the Beer School poster, but I need final short descriptions for the printed full beer menu.
Here's what I have (6 beers total):
Hobo Stein Ale 7.5%
Granite rocks heated in a cherry wood fire were dropped into this beer for a 30 minute boil, then boiled conventionally with German hops for another hour – Steven Lane & Rob Caro
Kottbusser 4.8%
German wheat/oatmeal ale with honey and molasses – Jeff Whelpley
Lady of Clare's Strong Ale 5.5%
Un-hopped English recipe adapted from Clare household records of 1332-33 – Joe Falck
1503 English Beer 4.5%
One of the first examples of English beer using hops. Oak added for barrel flavor – Kris Blouch
1865 English Mild 5.5%
Pretty mild... based off an 1865 Lovibond, English Brewery recipe – Nancy Rockwood
Poor Richard's Ale 5.4%
Recipe based on Benjamin Franklin's favorite Strong Ale – Ken Getty & Gary Glass
--------------------------------------
@Joe: Guessed on yer 5.5% ABV, LMK
@Kris: Good to know, we'll be scheduling a post mortem pizza party to come up with a timeline, roles, and task list. It will be an open meeting, and I suspect we have a lot of talent on board to divvy up the workload.
5th Annual Stout & Chili Night is just around the corner!
That's fine for the Kottbusser.
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