Dry Hopped Bud Light?

Dry Hopped Bud Light - Bertus BreweryI know what you are thinking…. Mmmmmmm……DELICIOUS! Haha. Well in all seriousness, this actually is a great idea for peeps looking to improve their dry hopping skills/build a knowledge base on what multiple varieties of hops taste like when dry hopped. For ~$15 you can buy some premium quality American Lager (snicker ;)) and enough hops (roughly a gram each) to dry hop each bottle.  Scott from BertusBrewery.com did an excellent write up of his experiment with this process with a 12 pack of Bud Light. The beauty of this experiment is that Bud Light is so mild that the hops stand way out. Simply recap your bottles after adding each hop, and let them sit for a couple of days. You can crash out any free floating hop particles by letting your bottles sit overnight in the fridge. You can view the entire article on this process at BertusBrewery.com.

 

Infusing Hops with Liquor

Hops and beer go together like peas and carrots, but hops and liquor? I was a little surprised when my friend Zac said that he was drinking hop infused vodka the other day. New Holland Brewing makes an un-aged whisky infused with hops (Hopquila) that is turning into a top seller for the brewery/distillery. Oregon based McMenamin’s Edgefield Distillery makes a mean dry hopped whiskey (Monkey Puzzle) that I’d love to try (Haha, please contact me if you’d like to send samples). So why not make your own hop infused spirits?  The idea is pretty simple, mix hops with distilled alcohol to break down hop oils and make a hop elixir. There are several techniques I’ve found as I’ve been digging around, and also several suggested recipes. My inclination is that a dry hopped whisky would be awesome, but I’ve also found that vodka infused with Centennial hops would also be pretty good. Here’s what you’ll need to start experimenting…

1) Vodka or Whiskey (pick your poison)
2) A french press or a container/funnel/strainer/coffee filter (haha, which is easier?).
3) 1/2oz of Medium alpha acid hops (Centennial would be a good choice, but I’ve heard of people using Cascade or Amarillo as well)

I’ve found a great wiki for making vodka infused with hops on Bob Stempski’s blog here. In this wiki he used water to “sparge” the extracted hop resin, and then froze the end result. After the elixir had frozen, he inverted the mixture allowing the hop infused vodka to pour out before the water melted (this actually looks like the ice may also help filter out any remaining hop particles). He also mentions that you can add hop vodka to underdeveloped beer to bring up the abv and add some hop flavor. I’ll be giving this a shot here soon to let you know the results!

BIMP Octoberfest Tasting Confirmed

BIMP’s first ever Octoberfest will be held on Saturday September 15th at 5:00pm! This tasting will celebrate the best beers Germany has to offer along with American tributes to German style beer. A true Octoberfest beer meets three criteria: 1) The brewer must adhere to the German Purity Law known as Reinheitsgebot. This law was put in 1516, and restricted all German beer production to the use of only three ingredients: barley, hops, and water. Yeast, the fourth and most essential ingredient in brewing, was not included in the original Purity Law because it had not yet been discovered that it was responsible for converting sugars to alcohol. 2) For a beer to be considered an Octoberfest beer it has to be over 6% abv. 3) Finally, true Octoberfest beer has to brewed in Munich, Germany by a Munich brewery. Traditionally Octoberfest beers are Marzens or Vienna Lagers. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to enter a beer in the true spirit of Octoberfest. I will be accepting entries from breweries in Munich, Germany and American interpretations of Marzen and Vienna Lager. Octoberfest beers fall under the European Amber Lager category via BJCP Guildelines if you are interested in looking for suggestions there. If you have the opportunity to drop by Kahn’s Fine Wines on Keystone or 86th St. you should have no problem finding either. The tasting will be held at Dax and Lindsy’s place in Broad Ripple. The gates are open! I’ll be posting a list of suggested beers soon. You know the rules: First 15 to Request a Brew get a guaranteed spot at the tasting, each entry needs to bring the equivalent of a 6 pack of their beer (3 bombers or 1 growler with one 12oz bottle for the pot), best entry takes home one of everyone’s brew and 2 tickets to Upland’s Octoberfest on September 22nd!

SUGGESTED BEERS:
Ayinger Oktoberfest-Märzen
Bier Märzen
Hacker-Pschorr Original Oktoberfest
Hofbräu Oktoberfest
Victory Festbier
Goose Island Oktoberfest
Samuel Adams Oktoberfest
Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager
Avery Brewing Company The Kaiser
Sun King Octoberfest
Upland Octoberfest
Harpoon Octoberfest
Flying Dog Dogtoberfest
Bell’s Octoberfest
Schlafly Octoberfest
Saranac Octoberfest
Three Floyd’s Munsterfest (fingers crossed)
RESERVED BEERS
Paulaner Oktoberfest (Sample) – Erik Howell
Hofbräru Octoberfest – Jenn Myers
Samuel Adams Oktoberfest – Nathan Boles
Spaten Octoberfest – Isaac Wagner
Sun King Octoberfest – Jeremy McClintock
Brooklyn Octoberfest – Lindsy Storm
Shiner Octoberfest – Dax Storm
Upland Octoberfest – Bob Reynolds
Left Hand Octoberfest – Dan Sandman
Two Brothers Brewing Atom Smasher Octoberfest – Matthew Kennedy
Bier Octoberfest – Nate Surls

You know the drill. First 15 to Request a Brew get a spot in our next tasting. Good luck!

Happy IPA Day!

Happy IPA Day everyone! IPA day is an opportunity for brewers, bloggers, and beer enthusiasts to use social media to converse and celebrate craft brew. IPA Day was created by Ashley Routson (AKA The Beer Wench) and Ryan Ross (Marketing Manager for Karl Strauss Brewing). Many breweries across the country and participating with hoppy pint deals and special brews. How are you spending IPA Day? I’ll be updating BIMP’s Twitter feed with retweets of breweries, brew shops, bars, and businesses that are participating throughout the day. Here’s some links to homebrew recipes that will hop you up! Also feel free to post any hoppy additions to BIMP’s Facebook page if you feel so inclined 🙂

Wonderful Beer Paintings for Beer Lovers

So I came across a really great blog tonight as I searching for brewing art. Beer Paintings – Original Art for Beer Lovers By Beer Lovers is a blog showcasing some fantastic oil paintings that integrate bottle caps, hops, and other beer odds and ends. I’m really impressed with these paintings! They even have an Etsy page where you can order custom oil paintings of your favorite brewery bottle caps! Please take some time to drop by their site (beerpaintings.blogspot.com) as they do an excellent job. Much respect!

Hop Trellis Hammock!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AaSgxJo5jU&context=C4ab2950ADvjVQa1PpcFPRG2g6tf2Xoco3HtoRTRBPo9j_UGIpGAw=]

This guy has the right idea. I can’t think a better reason to own a home! For those of you hop growers out there I know you are a bit jealous right now 🙂 Either way, Don Osborn seems to have figured out the best way to enjoy a lazy summer afternoon. If you are a homebrewer, Don has a whole slew of helpful Youtube videos available on his Youtube channel. Such a good resource. Thanks again Don!

Hopschart.com Makes Bitter Better!

This is AWESOME! If you are a homebrewer creating your own recipes, or just someone looking for something unique to hang on your wall, hopschart.com created an aesthetic poster sized hops chart. You can compare individual hops based off of flavors like citrus, spice, floral, herbal, etc. This would be a great tool for someone fine tuning their brew. Thanks to contributor zacjackson for the link.

Hop Rhrizome Pre-orders

Great Fermentations is doing pre-orders for hop rhizomes again this year. They’ve got 13 different strands ranging from 3.5% to 15.5% Alpha Acid. They take about two years to actually start producing a good crop, but I don’t think they are very hard to maintain. Here’s a wiki I’ve found for growing them.  Who knows, once you get a good yield you may even be able to trade your stash for some homebrew… (hint). No brewer I know would ever turn down fresh hops! Either way, it might be worth dropping by their shop or webpage.