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Almost seems backward

Summer around the homestead is a busy place–there’s a yard, garden, and impending orchard to manage, as well as fields and fences to tend to.  Wood has to be cut & split for the winter.  Not to mention the repairs on the house–new siding and windows; plus a lot of interior work (the entire house re-plumbed!).

So what seems backward?  Well, the whole cycle of barley.  The winter barley gets planted in a bit over a month, give or take–late September to early October, or what would be “harvest time” for most normal crops.  Then it’s harvested in late Spring/early Summer (June or so), about the time lots of other things are just starting to grow…

I’ve been “threshing and winnowing” my harvest from last year, with an eye towards exactly what my usable yields are, and how much tilling I’ll have to do in a week or two.  I use the terms “threshing” and “winnowing” guardedly; while technically, they’re accurate for what I’m doing, they also somewhat overstate the enormity of the project, or lack thereof.  The threshing is being done by hand, literally–I’m just grabbing handfuls of grain ears, and “grinding” them between my fingers.  Most of the grains fall from the stems; the awns make a horrible mess, and a lot of the work is done.  (This is a process best performed outside.)  Once I’ve gone through it pretty thoroughly, I take a bit more time and pick off any stubborn grains from the stems (I’m sure there’s a technical term, but it escapes me at the moment).  Then I spend a bit more time hand-grinding the grains, just to break up the remaining awns & chaff.  Afterwards, I either wait for a breezy day, or plug in a fan, then it’s picking up the grains by handfuls, dropping them back into the container.  The breeze (or fan) blows away the light “chaff”, letting the heavier seeds drop back into the bucket.  It’s one of those things that I know makes perfect sense, intellectually, but it still amuses me to no end that it works as well as it does.

Next year, after I’ve had a bigger harvest (knock wood), I’ll have to step up my game a bit; I’ll probably actually get buckets for the grains (not the smallish plastic boxes I’ve got now), and the process will undoubtedly take more time.  Still, that’s a concern for next year.  For this year, I’ve got lots of other things to keep me busy.

First, there’s the hops.  I’ve got to find some time, probably this weekend, to harvest the Cascades from my “retired” bines (the only ones that produced–go figure).  The new bines weren’t expected to put any out, granted; I’m going to have to replace the Sterling, at least, as they seem to have died over the Summer.  (I’ll see, come Springtime, whether any of the others have made it–they’re okay, thus far, but Winter may do them in.)

I’m doing what woodworking I can, given that I don’t have any power tools to speak of, nor time to really use them. (Okay, I’ve got the tools, but I need to get to work on the Undisclosed Location before I have a place to put them–and it still needs electricity, etc…)  I’ve been doing some whittling, and I’ve found some images of a really nice carved chair that I’d like to take a stab at recreating/modifying.  I’ve also been toying with the idea of having a bit of fun with the carvings–maybe do a couple of pieces as inlays.  The fun lies in selecting the woods to use–some more-or-less ‘exotic’ woods will fluoresce under blacklight, which raises the possibility of some interesting “special effects.”

Another interest that I hope to delve into is metalworking–particularly coppersmithing (and probably silversmithing, eventually).  I’d like to try my hand at raising a bowl or two, and maybe some cups, as well as possibly doing some chasing and/or repousse, then there’s enameling…  The copper got me to thinking, though (always a bad sign)…  (To Be Continued)

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Harvest time

Well, some of it, anyway. The winter barleys–Maris Otter and Halcyon–are completely harvested. I got most of it last weekend, but left a few stalks to finish “curing”/drying; they were retrieved yesterday. I’ll probably harvest the Bere barley this weekend, while the Hana probably needs another week or two. Overall, from sowing the first seed, it’s been about nine months; by the time it’s done, it’ll probably be ten months overall, for all the varieties. My yield looks pretty good: starting from 5 grams of seed per variety, I’ve got at least several ounces of each: Maris Otter (the only one I’ve done any real processing on) came to a little over 10 ounces, prior to threshing/winnowing (maybe 9 ounces, when all is said and done). With that sort of yield, assuming similar results the next few years, I could get about 28 pounds per variety next year–enough to “play” with malting some, and replanting for sustainability.

Actually, at a that rate of increase, only 8 pounds and a bit (total!) is probably enough to plant and be sustainable, figuring roughly 20 pounds needed per batch (10 gallons), and no more than 20 batches per year (legal limit), that’s 400 pounds; add back in the 8 pounds to re-seed, and it’s pretty close. If I just re-plant everything, then from the 9 ounces this year, I’ll get 28 pounds in 2014, then 1400 pounds in 2015… And that’s per variety; I don’t have enough field to pull that off.  Barley has an “optimal” seeding rate of about 85 pounds/acre; sticking to a manageable amount, about 1/4 acre, and planting ~5 pounds of each variety is much more reasonable…

The hops are, of course, another issue entirely. Their harvest season doesn’t usually start until August, as the days start getting a little shorter. My “retired” Cascades have a number of burrs and some early cones; their root system was significantly larger, of course, than the new rhizomes. So far, there’s not much to report with them–the bines were savaged by groundhogs a couple of weeks back, but are rebounding. I’ve set up cages to protect them; I wasn’t anticipating a harvest from them this year, anyway–they need to get established. Next year, however, I’m hoping will be productive. We’ll call it a few ounces this year, and (optimistically) about a pound next year; time will tell.

In other news, I’ve got about 1/3 of the decking on the deck of my future BierGarten (“Dante,” the deck on the Undisclosed Location).  I expect to have it done before the end of July; general clean-up and debris removal will probably be going on at the same time. I’m debating right now whether to get a separate power line/meter run, or just to extend the electrical service from the house (it has a 100A panel and a 200A panel-don’t ask why, because I don’t know). I’m planning (hopefully) on taking down the chimney in August/September, and making roof repairs around the same time. I’ve also got to patch the holes in the walls; once all that’s done, I can start storing some of my equipment out there. Still quite a bit to go before it’s even 50% usable, though.

In the meantime, the main house is getting a new outside over the next week–exciting, but also an unholy mess of preparations and the like. And we’re taking the next step in “dismantling” the utility room this evening, the better to re-build it (better and stronger) over the summer…  What fun!

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Grainy goodness!

It’s amazing, the difference a week will make.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have grain!  It’s a long way from ready for harvest, but it’s getting there…  This is the Halcyon; the Maris Otter is probably another five or six days behind it.  The Bere is growing rapidly, but is still probably about a month and a half away (at a guess); the Hana is right behind that.

Grain showing through on some Halcyon barley

Here are my “retired” Cascades, climbing up their tree, with tons of Alehoof all around:

Cascade hops, Alehoof, and Mint.

Ah, spring…

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Who’s Got Herbs?

Teaching went well last weekend.  The class was smaller than I might have liked, but that was largely a factor of the size of the event.  I’ve submitted proposals to teach the classes at University in a month; we’ll see how that goes.

One of the topics of my classes is medicinal beer.  It would appear that at least the Germans were adding medicinal herbs to their beers, using them to transport whatever healing qualities the herbs were thought to carry.  I don’t recall ever having heard of this actively being done in period–although I may have seen a reference to it somewhere, probably about the Saxons.  Still, it stands to reason; they were using wine for the same purpose, and cordials (hard alcohol) were meant as medicine, not for their taste.

Some of the herbal additions seem reasonable and logical–they’re pretty standard herbal medicine, even today: Balm for stress reduction; Eyebright for eye ailments.  Fennel for coughs.  Ginger to settle the stomach.  Some others seemed odd, but I can go with it: oak leaves as a diuretic. Juniper against poison.  Still others were downright odd, if not dangerous: Salvia for the teeth (?); Pennyroyal as a decongestant (!).

Other “indirect” remedies include washing one’s face with wheat beer (good for the skin); beer warmed with oil and/or butter in the morning, as a laxative; table beer (very low alcohol) boiled with fresh hops to ease a toothache.

There were a couple of things I’d like to try, just to see–not for their medicinal purposes, but because the idea sounds tasty.  Rosemary beer.  Cumin.  Anise…

In other areas, while “making the rounds” of stuff growing around the farm, I found an interesting little gem:

Ground Ivy, Creeping Charlie, Alehoof

That would be a plant known as Ground Ivy, or Creeping Charlie.  Back in the Medieval period, however, it was commonly known as “Alehoof,” and was used by the Saxons as part of a typical gruit.  I’ve got piles of it; quite a bit is growing around the “retired” Cascades, appropriately enough…  Some experimentation will definitely be in order, just as soon as I can get brewing again!

And while I’m thinking about it, my barley:

Barley, Bere, Hana, Halcyon, Maris Otter

That’s the Maris Otter on the right, and the Halcyon on the left.  The Bere and Hana are hidden behind these…

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I’m Published!

Well, sort of.  At the least, two of my recipes are in a much more trafficked area than my website, and my name is attached to them. This turn of events is thanks to a friend of mine, known in the SCA as Sorcha Crowe, putting together an article on six-row barley for Zymurgy (the “official” magazine of the American Homebrewering Association–click the link in the sidebar and join up!).  She asked me if I had any recipes using six-row that she could use, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As luck would have it, my “historical” barley (the Bere) is a six-row.  Its progress in the field has been impressive–given another month, it may catch up to the winter barley in growth.  The Hana is still plugging along, but hasn’t really been as productive, which is somewhat disappointing.  (Overall, I’m not as impressed with the Hana as I would have liked–its germination rate seemed low, and now it’s not growing as well.  I may try selecting the better seeds, to try selecting for a better-adapted variety, but that’s a multi-year process…)

I have, at this point, most of the holes dug for the pier footings, to which I will attach a deck, and from there a pergola for my hops.  I hope to get the footings poured in the next couple of days; if I’m successful there, I should have hops in the ground after this weekend, and not a moment too soon.  The Sterling rhizomes have put up shoots, as have the Magnum and one of the Willamette.  The Cascades are lagging a bit, but if need be I can get a cutting from my “old” plants (which have reached their climbing strings, and are progressing as hops will do).

In the meantime, I think I have my class notes finalized for this weekend; I need to find a free minute or two to make copies of my handouts.  Atlantian University has found a site for a Summer Session in June, and my Lady Wife and I are combing our schedules to see if we can attend and present our classes (she teaches classes on Russian clothing).  Right now, things are looking positive.

On another positive note, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to actually brew something by late summer.  Probably not “inside” in the Brewhouse, nor on a nice, shiny electric brew-rig, but brewing nonetheless.  There have been a number of people ask when I was going to start back up; for now, that’s the best I can offer–“soonish.”

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Some observations on barley

The biggest problem with growing barley, I’m finding, is observing the progress. On the one hand, brewing is a hobby for the patient–it’s all “hurry up and wait,” after all. On the other hand, watching barley grow is rather like–well, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s like watching grass grow.  (Makes sense, really, since that’s exactly what it is…) At least with the hops you can see progress on a daily basis.

So, everything has germinated. The Maris Otter and Halcyon are nearing the tops of their “cages”. The Hana and Bere are a ways behind that. I’m disappointed with the germination rate I got from the Hana in the field–of the 30-40 seeds, I’ve got maybe ten sprouts. (All of the Hana in the planter came up–it’s likely a soil issue, rather than a seed issue.)  The Bere is happy both in the field and the planter, with its second set of leaves up and the third set looking not far behind.

In the meantime, with less than two weeks to go before their introduction, I’m feverishly going over, revising, and correcting my class notes for the Medieval German Beer classes.  There are three, tentatively titled: “Period German Brewing Practices,” “Medicinal German Beers,” and “A Period German Pub Crawl.”  Thus far, the corrections are primarily fixing typos, and making sure my facts line up.  Of the three, I’m happiest with the Pub Crawl; it’s entirely possible that in the future I’ll fold the Period Practices bit into that one for a “mega-class”.  I’m hoping to have some medicinal herb people in the Medicinal Beers class, and to make it more of a discussion group.

Part of the fun for the Pub Crawl was looking at the various local beer names–“brands,” if you will.  A friend of mine was commenting on the wide variety of beer names available at the local liquor superstore, and the humor value in many of them… Well, our ancestors were no different in that regard: Butterfly, Toad, Choir Finch, Mosquito Mustard, and Raving Man are among the less vulgar names.  Some of them describe the feeling, or aftereffect, of the beer: Body-blow, Rip-Head, Blow-the-Man-Down.  The Lubeck offering of “Israel” was so named because of its strength: “People strive with it as Jacob wrestled with the Angel.”  (“Israel” is from the Hebrew for “wrestles with God”.)

Surprisingly, only a few of the beers were familiar to me, in terms of historical offerings: Gose, Israel, Broihane, Alt Klaus, Joben, and Mumme. Of those, I have only ever tasted commercial Gose.  (Mumme has become non-alcoholic, while Broihane morphed into a Pilsner, apparently.  I have practically no information whatsoever on Alt Klaus or Joben.)  Bock was not mentioned as such, although it was present if you know where to look–it derived from the name of its town of origin, Einbeck.  Indeed, it was searching for information on period “Einbeckisch Bier” that led me to the sources for my classes.

I’ll try to update again, either as “teaching-day” approaches, or soon after… And, I promise, pictures of barley (and hops!) will be forthcoming before long.

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Barley has begun!

Well, after significantly more toil and trouble than should really be necessary, I’ve got some barley in the ground. My evil plan has begun…

It’s not much, really–two very small plots (about 2’x3′ each).  barley has begunAnd I’ve absolutely no idea whether things will turn out.  But, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  The plots are my two winter barleys; specifically Maris Otter and Halcyon.  The planting was auspicious: the day after the Autumnal Equinox, and it was “witnessed” by both the Sun and the Moon.  So long as the winter isn’t absolutely insane, I’m at least moderately optimistic for them.

The rest of my barley (Bere, Hana, and Conlon) will wait for springtime, being spring barleys.  Which means I’ve got a little time yet to get the field prepped for them.  I’ve got to finish mowing (get everything down to 1/2″), then figure a way to disk or till a pretty large area of dirt.  I may end up renting a tiller from Home Depot, when all is said and done–although I may be able to talk a neighbor into disking the area with their tractor…

Work on the Brewery/Pub is still in the early planning stages–I may do a little interior clean-up this weekend, but I’m likely to have my hands full working on the house (ah, the joys of an old farmhouse–always something to fix…).  A full clean-up may have to wait for spring, as I’m liable to want a dumpster to haul stuff away–there’s junk both inside *and* outside that needs to go.  Then a new roof…  Eventually, there will be (as mentioned) a bar, as well as a dedicated brewing space; I hope to have a rainwater catchment system in place to provide about 2500 gallons or so of water; there will be a lagering/cold-storage area, and a bathroom.  Throw in a poker table, and you’ve got the start to an evening!  One wall is perfect to be the screen of a digital projection system (can you say twenty-two foot diagonal screen?); in decent weather, I may even be able to set up outside–depending on where exactly my hops end up.  All told, I think the space is going to work out nicely…

Speaking of my hops, I hope to move them to the new area by this weekend.  They didn’t produce, this year–they got too dry during the heat wave; I was amazed they came back as well as they did–so I’ll probably cut them back, and actually plant them in the spring.

And so, the latest round of adventures are under way!  Look for more updates as things progress.

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Brew Day October 2010, and Bochet

While I’ve been lax in updating this blog, I’ve been (reasonably) active with some experimentation.  My last brew day, one week ago today, saw one modified “normal” batch and one experimental, and I’ll be whipping up two more experimental batches tomorrow evening.

The modified batch was a version of my (quite popular) Kolsch recipe, but with the volume turned up to 11.  I believe it will end more like a pale ale than anything else.  I was down to basically dregs on my current base malt stash, and decided to use it all; this bumped the starting gravity up about 25-30 points.  I increased the bitterness by a similar amount, keeping the BU:GU ratio roughly the same…  It will still be quite pale, I believe–something in the golden range–but with a firm bittering, and a solid malt backbone.

The experimental batch was based on the idea of caramelizing honey for a mead.  Several folks have done so-called “bochet”, or “burnt” meads, with the results being described as different, if not entirely to their liking.  I was going for a slightly less “cooked” flavor, and hoping for an improved color.  (Not that a straw-gold mead is a bad thing, but it’s just a bit… well, overdone.)  I took my “spare” pot (7.5 gallons) and emptied 10lbs of wildflower honey into it.  With a touch of water to rinse the honey containers, the total volume was right about 1 gallon.

1 gallon honey in a 7 gallon pot
Honey, before the boil

All accounts that I’ve read regarding boiling/caramelizing honey when making bochet indicate that it foams up quite a lot.  I had planned on simply stirring like mad to keep it from boiling over; let me recommend instead using a very low flame.  The stuff literally tried to crawl out of the pot.

Honey boiling for bochet
45 minutes into the boil; still climbing the pot, but a lovely color.

I boiled for about an hour, all told; the honey turned a lovely deep amber, and even my kids commented on the “caramel” smell.  A second word of warning for those who would follow in my footsteps:  bees can smell the honey cooking.  They will come to try to “rescue” it.  Lots of them will.  At the end of the hour, there were about 6 big bumblebees and maybe 15-20 honeybees swarming the pot.  At least three of the honeybees gave their lives trying to grab some of the honey–they got “caught” by bursting bubbles, and fell into the pot.  I don’t think they’ll throw the flavor off by much, though.  At any rate, the end result is quite pretty, and is (still) fizzing away happily.

Bochet and Kolsch
The mead and the Kolsch; the mead is the dark one just left of center.

As for tomorrow’s adventures, I’ll be throwing together some more meads–a few folks over on the GotMead forums have some “quick” meads, supposedly ready-to-drink in 3-5 weeks.  We shall see.  I’ll try to document those here, with pics.

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Not a braggart…

But a braggot, maybe. I’ve been contemplating this one for quite some time, and am still not certain exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve got the honey–a full gallon of killer-bee honey, rich and tasty. To this, I’ll add a basic beer-like concoction, and ferment. But what sort of concoction?

The grain bill is the obvious place to start. Malt will add a both color and a depth of flavor to the brew. But what to add? The BJCP guidelines seem to suggest that the braggot should be built off of a base beer style, but Ken Schramm indicates that it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. I think that my course of action will be to do a basic, mostly light malt brew. I’ll add some slightly darker grains, Special-B and/or a bit of Crystal 60L, just enough to add a reddish tint.

The hops are next on the hit parade. All of my sources call them “optional” in a braggot. I think a light hopping with something in a floral/noble bittering hop, just to cut some of the intense sweetness, is in order. Certainly nothing IPA-like; I’m thinking more the hopping levels of a mild ale, possibly even slightly less. I don’t know necessarily what type of hops; perhaps a nice Hallertau?

Finally, there’s the yeast to consider. Schramm’s samples use Lalvin D-47, which supposedly flocs well and works to 12-14%. I think a better choice would be to start with a clean, alcohol-tolerant beer yeast, then perhaps finish up with something else in the wine variety, to “clean up” some of the residual sugar. A healthy lager yeast, combined with a cold ferment, could do marvelous things. (2018 edit: or one of my new favorites, WYeast 1968) But then, perhaps going straight for a wine yeast to start would be good. I’ll have to play on Promash and look at starting gravity, attenuation, and alcohol percentages, then decide.

Lastly, while it’s likely a while off, I’ll need to consider containers. This won’t be one to keg–it’ll be far too strong for that. Small bottles will be in order. Perhaps after a light filtration and force-carbonation. The bottles I’ve got on order from Shiloh Pottery will be lovely for presentation, too. I think I’ll enjoy this process.

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What I Brew, and Why I Brew It

The topic of what and why I brew has come up several times recently, and after a bit of contemplation, I felt that I should express my views.

The reasons I brew are many: I enjoy the actual process. Frequently, brew days are socializing times with friends. The “puzzle” of what style would be good, and what ingredients should go into making it, is enjoyable. And, of course, there’s the end product. I brew beer at least as good as, and often better than, what I can buy. The beer I brew is also less expensive than store-bought, something I’ve put some time into achieving. And, finally, it’s enjoyable to gather a group of my friends together, throw some meat on the grill, and have a good time–lubricated by some of my beer, of course.

Something I don’t care for, however, are those who drink solely to get drunk. Add to that group those who insist on only brewing highly alcoholic beers–constantly striving for over-10% batches. I’ll admit, I’ve made a number of strong batches; I certainly don’t think strong beers are inherently “bad.” But I think that to truly call oneself a brewer, while limiting oneself to a single “style” (if “big” can be called a style), is to define “brewers” somewhat narrowly. There is great variety in smaller beers, and much complexity. They can require significant finesse. And they can be sublime.

All that being said, there is, of course, a place for everything. I’ll be hosting a “Winter Warmer” competition at an event in January; I hope to have a good turn-out, and to see lots of really tasty brews. I may have some of my own to sample, but I won’t be entering anything myself, of course (since I’ll be running the comp). I should think about doing one for lighter, “lawn-mower” beers in the summer…