Category Archives: Recipes

Here are both extract and all grain homebrew recipes along with a brief description of the beer. Each of these I have done and enjoyed, no untested recipes here.

The Ultimate Hophead treat……Hop Extract from Vodka (Lupulin Extraction)

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Making a hop martini is one of the many things you can do with elixir!

Calling all hopheads out there! Have you ever craved the Ultimate hophead experience? Well, I have it here for you. I have made a hop infused vodka with my homegrown glacier hops that you can spruce up almost anything to fit your hophead needs….even a full on hop martini. The process is simple, and the possibilities are endless.

The process is very simple, you just take hops and place them in a vessel, say a mason jar. Then fill it 1/2 full (or more. I did about 3/4 full) then let it sit for 4 days or more (I did four days). The hops will absorb some vodka, so you may need to add vodka throughout the process if you used a lot of hops. What I also did, was every day I gently shook the jar to help bring out more hop goodness. I don’t have any scientific evidence on if it dissolves more lupulin, but hey, it worked for me. What you see in the picture was 4 days of infusing glacier hops in the Vodka. From there, I strained off the vodka and placed the hops in a strainer. I gently squeezed the hops to extract more liquid, but I did not wring them out. I wanted mostly lupulin and not so much of the leafy matter that I would get if I abused the cones too much. I took it to my homebrew club for evaluation, and we all agree, there is a ton of hop flavor and aroma dissolved in that Vodka. For me, the first two swallows are bit harsh, but after that, its smooth sailing.

Some will say the type of vodka you choose really doesn’t make a difference, but I disagree. If you use a cheap vodka that you have to mix with something to taste good, you probably will still end up with vodka infusion you really are not happy with. My favorite vodka by far is Tito’s Handmade Vodka. It is relatively inexpensive ($16.95 for 750ml here where I live), fairly easy to find, and is a top-notch vodka you can easily drink straight. To me, it’s the perfect vodka for this task. But you can use whatever you want.

So what can you do with it? Well, obviously you can have a hoptini of any type, you can use this either straight like I did or find something sweet to mix it with. You could serve some hop shots with this for some hophead fun. But you can also use this to hop flavor to marinades, or other aspects of cooking. You can also make small batches to test the characteristics of different hops compared to each other. This would be an excellent tool for training your palate for judging. The last think I am going to mention is adding hop character to an underhopped beer. Let’s say you brewed a beer that just seems a bit bland to you. You can add this homemade hop extract to not only add a bit of bitterness, but mostly hop flavor and aroma to your brew. I have tested this with beer poured into a glass and adding a small amount of this hop extract to it. It works. I don’t know exactly how to measure up for a 5 gallon batch, but it could be done. The amount of alcohol you are adding is minimal. You have to think that Vodka is only 40% abv, so just under half of whatever you add is contributing to the alcohol content of the brew.

Mmmmm, hops.

A Great Beer Sauce you can Make for Christmas gifts!

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If you are like me, you probably like to toss in some homebrew to your gift pool around Christmas time. This year I am aiming to try something different. Introduce people to cooking with the beer. So earlier this season I found two good sauces made with beer, but I tweaked them to make them a bit better (at least according to my taste). This year I am giving out some of this sauce to people as Christmas gifts. It’s also a great crunch-time last-minute, easy to make, home-made gift for those who have everything. I am including only one of the sauces because the other is only good for a few days, it does not make for a great gift idea. But I will post it later under a regular food/beer posting.

DoppleBock Sauce

2 cups of Apple Cider
1 Bottle of Sprecher Dopplebock (or your favorite Dopplebock)
1 1/4 cup Ketchup
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Cup Honey Dijon Mustard
1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 Cup light dry Malt Extract (you can substitute Brown Sugar)
1/2 cup of Honey
1/2 Cup Molasses
2 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBSP Frank’s Red Hot (or your favorite Hot Sauce)
2 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon celery Salt
1 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Hot Madras Curry Powder (optional)
1 Medium Onion (chopped)
2 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
1 Roasted, peeled, and chopped Anaheim Pepper
Kosher Salt to taste (or sea salt, do not use Iodized salt)

Roast the Anaheim Pepper by brushing it with olive oil and either grilling it until the skin starts to char, or placing in the oven at a low broil. Turning every minute or two until the skin starts to char.Then place in a plastic bag to steam for about 15 minutes. When cool, the skin should peel off easily.

Add all the ingredients above to a large non-stick sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer from 30 to 60 minutes, or the sauce starts to thicken. Allow to cool, then quickly run it through a blender or food processor to smooth out the peppers. Transfer to jars and keep cool until you give them away as gifts, or till you cook with it. This sauce will keep in the fridge for several months.

This sauce goes great with Chicken and Pork. However, try it with some grilled shrimp and you will fall in love. I guess you could use it on Lamb or even as a sauce for cocktail weiners too. It may be a bit too sweet to be used on Beef, but that’s your call. (EDIT: I have since tried it on a few beef dishes like Salisbury steak and as the liquid in beef stew, and it turned out great. Turns out it’s not too sweet for beef. My wife actually liked it so much she demanded we have some in the fridge at all times. )

Food Recipe: Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques (Belgian Dubbel)

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Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques

Today I’m going to do things a bit differently. Instead of simply talking beer, or talking beer and food pairing, or cooking with beer. I am going to invite you in and show you a recipe I created using Pere Jacques from Goose Island. Although in this recipe I used lamb, this will work with pork or beef as well since dubbels pair nicely with both those. There are a few beer styles that pair well with lamb, but I chose the Belgian Dubbel because I felt the yeast character, particularly of Pere Jacques, would work well with the mild gameiness of the lamb.

My wife and I have discovered the joys of grass-fed animals. Come to find out, corn is not the natural food for cows, and this can lead to health issues, not only with the cow (or other grass-eating animals) meat, but some say it can be linked to the presence of E. Coli in the meat. Now, I’m not going get all preachy on it, but this was something interesting I learned. Moreover, grass-fed meat does taste a bit different, and I actually like the flavor. We get our meats from a place called grassway organics.

With all that, here is the recipe I came up with.

Lamb Stew with Belgian Dubbel

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil (more if needed)
2 pounds lamb shoulder or leg meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle (12-ounces) belgian dubbel
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon mediterranean seasoning
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large onions, sliced into rings
4 shallots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large potato cut into large cubes
3 medium-sized carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 celery stalks
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary*
2 fresh basil leaves*
a few sprigs of fresh mint
3 bay leaves

*use dry store bought if fresh is not available.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add lamb to skillet in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan, and sear well on all sides.

Sear the meat.....

Remove from skillet.When all the lamb is seared well, return it to the skillet. Sprinkle with flour and stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 3 minutes. Remove to a Dutch oven or slow cooker.

Degrease skillet. Place over medium-high heat; add beer and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Blend in vinegar, mustard, and mediterranean seasoning. Pour over meat mixture.

Add the beer mixture

Melt butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and shallots and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté an additional 2 minutes. Mix onions and garlic into meat.  Add carrots and potatoes along with  rosemary, mint, bay leaves, and celery.

Ready to cook.

Bring stew to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until meat is tender, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.If the stew is too thick or dry, add a little more beer as needed. If too liquidy, cook uncovered until desired consistency or use a cornstarch and water mixture.

Now reap the rewards of your labor!

The How’s and Why’s of beer with food

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There is a lot of info on the web and in books about pairing beer with food, and what beer styles to go with what specific dishes. Generally I find the books to be a lot more in-depth than the websites, but that is to be expected. In one of my earlier posts, I briefly gave some insight and pairing suggestions that were listed in on of my favorite books, The Brewmaster’s Table. This is an excellent book for anyone remotely interested in beer and food pairing. But what I want to do today is touch on the how’s and why’s of beer and food pairing. The reason is, you may have some beef stew you are looking to pair with a particular beer, but your beef stew will more than likely have a different flavor than the way I make it. You may add chili powder, or other spicy components. Maybe you add a lot of fresh ground pepper, and I don’t. Having the ability to figure out what is in your dish, and what beer to pair it with is not a static skill. What I mean, is that you can’t always pair a chocolate cake with a stout, and expect the combination to be the same each time. Generally, a sweet stout is a sweet stout, but they all are a bit different. These differences, and knowing them, can be the difference between a so-so pairing, and a spectacular pairing.

The first step is a bit dry. You have to become familiar with beer styles and generally flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel you can expect from these generic styles. There are a few sources for this information and they are all free. First you have the BJCP style Guidelines, but you also have the Brewer’s Association’s Style Guidelines. I find the Brewer’s Association’s guidelines a little less detailed, but those would work great for a quick reference of what to expect. For a more detailed breakdown, go to the BJCP styles guide. Also, you will find some slight differences in the naming and grouping of the styles, but both will get you what you need to know. Without having a general knowledge of these generic styles, it will be very difficult to figure out beer pairing on your own. So, as boring as it may be. Read at least one of these guidelines and become familiar with at the very least, the major styles.

The second thing you need to be familiar with is the ingredients, at least the key players, in the food you are pairing. Let’s take something I simply love, BBQ. I mean the real deal. Low and slow pulled pork. How would you go about pairing a BBQ meal with your favorite beer? It is a bit easier to pair if you are also the cook. You will know what ingredients and what type of food you are making. If you are asked to bring a beer to pair with someone elses dish that takes a bit of investigation. So you have to dissect what you are making. The base of your food is going to be a pork shoulder, slightly salty, a touch sweet, and sort of fatty. But chances are that is not going to be the key flavors of the dish. There, you look at your rub, your sauce, and consider the smoke. Is your rub going to be salty? Is it going to have some spice? What type of spice? Is your sauce going to be vinegar based or tomato based? Sour or sweet? Maybe spicy? How is it cooked? Is it roasted, charred, boiled? What type of flavor does this cooking method add? All these factors are going to have some influence on your choice of beer, but whatever your main flavor component is going to be, that is probably going to be your biggest factor. Just don’t forget the supporting flavors and aromas of your dish. This holds true for every dish you want to pair. Even something simple like roasted chicken. Are you going to use rosemary or just basic salt and pepper?

Now you want to put it all together. Looking at the pairing from a very high level, you have two basic interactions, balance or accentuate. Here is where you do have some easy to remember rules. Some attributes help balance others. Here are the three rules of thumb to live by when pairing.

1. Roasty, Bitterness (hops), alcohol, and carbonation in the beer will balance fat, sweetness, and Umami in the food (for more on Umami please refer back to my article “Being Honest with the Beer“.)

2. Sweetness and Malt in the beer will balance acidity and spiciness in the food.

3. Bitterness (hops) in the beer will accentuate spiciness in the food.

 

here is the dish we want to pair. Here is my pulled pork sandwich which is some Slow smoked BBQ pork shoulder, Sweet Salty and Spicy Rub, and homemade BBQ sauce. Topped with a bit of creamy cole slaw.

 

Now, one last stage of pairing is putting it all together. Generally, you probably want to balance. With balance comes haromony….most of the time. There may be times you want to accentuate a flavor or aroma. Both of these can be obtained by using the rules above, and combining it with finding common ground in steps 1 and 2 above. By understanding the flavor and aroma components of the beer, you can find flavor and aroma components that compare to your dish. You can have earthy, citrusy, roasted, burnt, sweet, caramel, Spice (like clove, vanilla, chocolate, allspice, ect), spice (heat, think pepper beers), and so on. Almost any flavor in food you can find a close match or at lease a balancing component in beer.

So now you want to think about what you want to do as far as finding balance or accentuate the flavor of the dish. So using our example above of the BBQ pork shoulder, let’s find a type of beer that may pair well with it. In my pork shoulder, I use my own rub (See the bottom of this post for my Rub Recipe) which is a bit salty, sweet, and spicy. I tend to use a vinegar based homemade sauce with sweet onions, and hard rolls baked here at a local bakery. So I have a dish that is fairly balanced between the salty, sweet, and spicy, has some  acidity from the vinegar. Since the meat is sweet, there is some sweetness to the rub and sauce, I want to work on balancing the sweetness of the dish with the beer. Since it is smoked (I use maple, cherry, and applewood), I have some earthy and woody tones I can use as well.

Since I want balance, Look at rule #1 above. I may want something with a bit of roast, some carbonation, and maybe some alcohol or bitterness. Yet, I don’t want an overly roasty beer because I want some malt and sweetness to balance the spiciness from the rub. So here I am looking at a beer that is slightly roasty, has some malt depth and sweetness, a mild amount of bitterness, decent carbonation and/or alcohol. Since I don’t want to accentuate the spiciness of the food, I want to avoid highly hopped beers.

You want to match the intensity of the food. So it wouldn’t make sense to pair this pulled pork with a a heffeweizen or cream ale type of beer. I also want to match up the woodieness of the smoke. The smoke flavor is a key attribute to traditional BBQ. So I am thinking of getting a beer with some wood or smoke character. Although a Rauchbier is smokey, it is probably too smokey for my taste….although by all means it would pair nicely. Scottish ales may be a bit too sweet or not bold enough to stand up to our dish.  A Marzen/Oktoberfest would fit the bill nicely. It has the malt, with a toasty character (toasty is not roasty, but can help match up well with grilled food), not a lot of hops, but it does have decent carbonation. It would be  a good pairing, but we can do better. What Marzen is lacking in this case is the earthy woody character I am seeking. In this case I am looking at a porter, perhaps a brown ale. Some barrel aged English browns may work and pair nicely, Barrel aged American Browns may also work, but in some cases may be a bit too hoppy for the amount of heat in the dish. What I am looking for is a safe bet. So I am looking to the porters. A robust porter may provide too much roast. So here I have narrowed it down to a barrel aged brown porter or a barrel aged robust porter. If you look at the style guidelines for these two styles and add some wood from the barrel aging, you may have a very nice pairing for what we are looking to do in our dish.

That is the basic process and probably sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. But if you follow these simplified rules, this will get you into the right process for creating your own pairings. Just remember, it’s all about planning and understanding your ingredients, understanding your beer, and coming up with a plan on what you want your pairing to do. Balance and harmonize, or accentuate and showcase. Ido want you to keep in mind that there is no right or wrong pairing when it comes to food and beer. There are just some that are better than others. With my dish here, you could have easily gone with a Belgain Dubbel, where the malt, yeast, and alcoholic strength also would have enhanced the dish. For my taste perspective, I wanted a bit more roast than that. Also, you will need to consider the specific brand of beer. Some may appeal to you more than others. But finding this generic range, will help you narrow down your pairing. If you don’t know what is available at your local beer store, having this information will help one of the employees point you in the right direction. If you are able to tell them you are looking for a barrel aged porter, or a Belgian style dubbel, they should be able to steer you in the right direction (if they are good store and have somewhat educated people working the counter). You can also quickly deduce a good pairing based off the offerings in a resteraunt by knowing generally what you want to order, and a broad range of style that may go with the dish. That is if the resteraunt you are at offers a bit more than the big three and one or two other offerings.

As always, feel free to contact me if you feel I’ve missed something, have any questions, or just want to talk beer!

Barleypopmaker’s Triple “S” Rub

1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Kosher Salt
1 1/2 tbsp Black Pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp Paprika
1 1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Chipotle Pepper Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Cooking With Beer

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It’s fairly common, once your doors of perception have been opened to the real flavors and aroma of beer, that appreciation widens to food…..or vice-versa. Most commonly, beer lovers are concerned with pairing the right beer with the right dishes. If you look in most cookbooks however, you will receive generic descriptions for any recipe calling for beer. Most of the time it will say “1 can/bottle of beer” or if you are lucky it may actually specify, “1 bottle of dark beer”. But if you are reading this, you already know that beer is more than just light, amber, or dark. Even comparing similar styles between different brewerys provide different flavors, sugar content, levels of bitterness ect. I was very happy with the announcement from the Brewing Network, that they were going to be having a show hosted by Sean Paxton, the Homebrew Chef. Now I am no Sean Paxton, my level of cooking skill and interest takes a  more low brow approach. But, just because I have no interest in cooking five-star type of meals, does not mean that you cannot adapt the same approach Sean Paxton uses for beer and food, in more common food types that you like to cook. I am an avid low and slow BBQ fan, quite often taken 10+ hours on making a smoked pork butt or beef brisket. I also love grilling steaks, burgers, brats, and chicken. The trick is to create a marriage between the two, the hard part is deciding what and where to incorporate beer into the equation. Sometimes it’s a pairing, and sometimes it’s using beer as an ingredient. What I loved most about the first episode of the show, was it explained exactly that, and I knew from that point this latest edition of the Brewing Networks line-up was going to be easily understood by anyone who has even the slightest interest in cooking will be able to pick up something.

So before I proceed, I just want to give a you a bit of my cooking background, all of which is as an amateur. Now, I admit, listening to that episode of The Home Brewed Chef inspired me to try something they had on the show, and that cooking experience I had today inspired me to write about it. But I have been cooking with beer for quite some time, just not at Sean’s level.  I did however, receive some email comments from Sean on my other site (which I have not transferred my food section over to this blog yet) that he liked what I was presenting and it could get people on the right track with some simple cooking with beer recipes. Coming from him that was a big compliment. Many of his ideas on his site, were incorporated into the type of cooking I do. For example, I have my variation of his Chocolate Ancho Chili Spice rub, into a variation that uses Chipotle peppers instead and a bit of brown sugar instead of organic sugar. I have also made his Stout BBQ Sauce as well. Also, I entered a cooking with beer contest, and I ended up as a top 10 finalist, but had to back out of the final cook-off because I just started a new job four days before the final cooking, and I didn’t want to ask off, four days after starting. At the end of this article, I will provide that recipe I had. But for now, I will talk a bit about cooking with beer, and give a simple recipe based off an idea that they talked about on the first episode of The Home Brewed Chef.

In my experience (and from what it sounds like others do too) is when cooking with beer you want to consider three things. The flavor of the dish you are creating, the style and flavor of the beer you want to use, and how these two forces will collide. As an example, you wouldn’t want to use a Heffeweizen in a hearty sauce, because it may be completely lost in the dish. If you are like me and light a slight sweetness to the sauce, you will want to find a slightly sweet, and more full flavored beer. Something that can stand up to the boldness of the tomatoes and beef,  yet not overtake the dish or come across as bitter. I like to use an English style old ale. I have found for me, the character of the beer comes through well, and the slightly wine-like vineous flavors mesh well with tomatoes. Same holds true for other aspects to consider, for example when pairing grilled ribeyes with an American amber ale, you could incorporate something with that amber ale into a side dish, or sauce that would go with that steak. That is where I was interested in an off the cuff idea that Sean Paxton shot out during that first show. You could take a roasty stout, where the roasted flavors of the grain may pair well with a grilled steak, and take some onions and shallots, saute them, then use a broth and the beer, reduce it to a sauce and pour it over the steak. It sounded so good I had to try it. So here is my version of that idea below. I used a smoked imperial porter with Chipotle peppers (Benji’s Smoked Imperial Porter with Chipotle Peppers from Tyranena to be exact) that I had in my beer cellar instead of a stout, but that’s what is great about cooking, you can change anything to fit your taste. Here was mine.

Here are the Ingredients, 1 cup of Benji's Smoked Imperial Porter with Chipotle Peppers, 3 shallots, 1 medium sweet onion, 1 garlic clove (not visible), butter, and 1 can of beef broth.

I sauteed the onions, shallots, and garlic until they started to clear.

I then added the broth and beer and continued to cook until reduced to a medium thick sauce.

These are just tenderloin steaks with hop salt and pepper. I have a hard time smothering fatty steaks like ribeyes. But tenderloins don't have much flavor on their own.

Grill 'em how you like 'em. I like medium myself.

 

Once the sauce is reduced to where you like it, plate the steak, let it rest, then just before eating spoon the sauce and onions on it. This was very delicious. I ended up serving it with pan roasted potatoes I also drizzled with the beer.

So that was it. When cooking with beer, you want to think about how the flavors are going to meld with your food. Will the bitterness go well in that cake? Probably not, but a great raspberry lambic may. Another think to remember is that when you are cooking with the beer, some of the water will evaporate, so you may also concentrate the flavors, this can work to both your advantage, or it will work against you. So if you are cooking with a hoppy IPA, and you concentrate that bitterness, you better have a bit of sweetness in the dish to try to balance out that part of the beers contribution.

Cooking Brats tip

Living here in Wisconsin, we have a strong German heritage. Brats, among other sausages are very popular. But in summer, brats are everywhere. People often par boil their brats in beer, or soak them afterwards in beer. Normally this is just some Bud, Miller, or Coors. But, this really doesn’t do much. The skin of the brat prevents the liquid from really penetrating the brat in that short amount of time. If anything, you get the aroma of the pot while it is boiling or steeping afterwards. But when you eat the brat, 9 times out of 10 you don’t get much flavor from the beer. I did find that if you soak the brats in beer 24 hours prior to grilling, you do get a lot of beer flavor. I like to use Capital Brewery’s Wisconsin Amber as my soaking beer of choice. Also as a side note, a true brat cooker will never par boil them. They should be cooked raw on the grill. But I promise you that if you soak them for 24 hours, then grill them, you will get many compliments on how much beer flavor your brats have.

Pub Skirt Steak Fajitas with Beer Braised Onions and Peppers

With that, here was my Pub Style Skirt Steak fajita’s recipe I promised earlier in this post. This is the one that earned me a top 10 spot, and I would put money on winning the thing I would have been able to compete. In all honesty, the amounts are estimated, I normally don’t cook with exact measurements. So play around with it and suite it to your taste.

Skirt Steak
1-2 lb skirt steak (Fat trimmed)
1 cup of Sprecher Pub Ale (1/4 cup reserved for grilling)
2 limes (you will need the juice from 1 and 1/2 limes or about 3 tablespoons for the marinade and the other half a lime for grilling)
1 teaspoon of cumin
3 dashes of Tobasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Place the skirt steak in a gallon freezer bag, along with the beer, 3 tablespoons of lime juice lime juice, cumin, and tobasco sauce. Allow to marinade overnight. If in a hurry, allow to marinade at least 3 hours before grilling.

When ready to grill combine 1/4 cup of Pub Ale and juice from 1/2 lime into a bowl or pour into a clean spray bottle.

Remove steak from the marinade and lightly salt and pepper the meat. Place it on a medium high heat grill and grill using direct heat. For an average skirt steak grill for about 5-6 minutes per side, while spritzing with the beer and lime mixture (or basting if you used a bowl)

When done, allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into 1/4″ slices. Cut the skirt steak at an angle.

Serve on warm tortillas with the below onion and pepper mixture.

Beer Braised Onions and Peppers

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium sliced red onion sliced thin and in half
1 small red pepper grilled then cut into strips
1 small green pepper grilled then cut into strips
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup of Sprecher Pub Ale
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Melt butter under medium heat (use a side burner on the gas grill if you have it), then add onions and sugar cook until the onions soften. Stir in the ale, vinegar, grilled peppers, and salt. Cook over medium heat while stirring until all the liquid has nearly all evaporated.

Serve with the above flank steak on tortillas (This mixture also goes great with brats. I soak my brats in beer 24 hours prior to grilling, do not par boil. Just grill them. Serve with this same pepper and onion mixture)

Hopbursting + 3 Homebrew Recipes using this Method

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My Homegrown Hops

I am a huge fan of the technique called “Hopbursting”. I first discovered the yet to be named technique in 2006 on a general discussion of the possibility of eliminating the bittering hop addition, and instead using massive quantities of hops at the end of the boil. A few guys tried it and really seemed to like the results, so I then also brewed my first beer with all late additions in September of 2006. Most of my IPA’s and Pale Ales since the discovery of this Hopbursting technique, have been done this way with what I feel are outstanding results. I will provide a few of my own recipes at the end of this posting, two will be pale recipes and one smoked IPA recipe.
First let me explain what Hopbursting is. The technique is simple, you just increase your charge of hops and deliver them all to the boil within the last 20 minutes of the boil. The thought is that bitterness is imparted to some degree during even a short boil, and this is true. I have made some very nice IPAs with all my hops added in the last 15 minutes. They are nicely bitter and the aroma and flavor are bright and pleasing. I also find the bitterness to not be as bracing or harsh and seems to have a more round and soft character. The thing to not be confused about, is hopbursting is not just simply adding a large charge of aroma and flavor hops, ALL hops are added during the last 20 minutes. There are no 60 minute additions. You can probably get away with adding 30 minute and still calling it hopbursting, but the original technique adds them all within the last 20 minutes. As an example, in my smoked IPA recipe I add 7 ounces of hops all within the last 10 minutes of the boil.
So what are some the benefits of hopbursting? First and foremost, this technique gives you the bright and clear hop flavor and aroma that many people look for in a good IPA or American Pale. You can achieve these results without dry hopping, that of which I am not a personal fan of. Although I do enjoy dry hopped beers from time to time, I find the hop flavor to be a bit more grassy and raw than I like.
Another advantage is the bitterness I spoke of. If you don’t enjoy the harsh or bracing bitterness that some IPAs have, but yet yearn for intense hop flavor and aroma, then this is the technique for you. As I explained before, I find the bitterness to be more rounded and pleasing to the palate. The flavor also seems to shine more, where in traditionally hopped beers, the flavor seems to take a back seat to the bitterness. Don’t get me wrong, you will still see a good deal of bitterness, but it just won’t have the same feel to it.
Every technique has some disadvantages, and hopbursting has them as well. One disadvantage is that you lose more wort to absorbtion. So increase your wort volume based on how many extra ounces of hops you use. Also, hops are not all that cheap (but getting better again) so more hops will equal more cost. Another thing to consider is that if you don’t have a false bottom or good way of straining the wort, you will have a lot more hop matter to clog your spigot. One last thing I can think of to consider is your PH. If you measure your PH, remember that a high PH can make your beer appear more bitter than what it is. So with more hops, can come more bitterness than you want if your PH is too high. So pay attention to that.
All those things considered, Hopbursting is a good way to move more into the realm of hop flavor and aroma, instead of the just intensely bitter IPA’s. Below are some of my favorite recipes that I hopburst, and these all have turned out quite good. Keep in mind that the IBU’s for hopbursted beers probably appears a slight bit lower than what is listed. I also list the estimated OG and FG instead of my measurements.

Brass Monkey Pale Ale (My First Hopbursted Beer)
5 Gallon Batch

10.00lb   Pale Malt (2 Row)  US (2.0 SRM)
1.00lb     Caramel Malt – 10L  (10.0 SRM)
1.00lb     Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM)
2.00oz     Chinook [12.80%] (10 min)
2.00oz     Amarillo Gold [8.40%] (5 min)
0.40oz     Chinook [12.80%] (0 min)     -
1 Pkgs     US-05 or WLP001 or Wyeast 1056     Yeast-Ale

Single Infusion Batch Sparge

Mash in with 15 quarts of water at 165.9 degrees F. Mash for 60 Min at 154.
Batch Sparge with 4.75 gallons of water based on equipment.

Ferment at 62 degrees until done. No need for secondary.

Est. OG=1.60
Est. FG=1.014
ABV=6%
IBU=42.4

Land of Lincoln Pale Ale (This beer has taken a 1st and 3rd place medal in competition)
5 Gallon Batch

10.00 lb     Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)
1.50 lb     Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)
0.50 lb     Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM)
1.00 oz     Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.10%] (15 min)
0.50 oz     Columbus (Tomahawk) [16.10%] (10 min)
1.00 oz     Cascade [5.30%] (5 min)
0.20 oz     Glacier [5.60%] (5 min)
1.10 tbsp     5.2 PH Stabilizer (Mash 0.0 min)
1 Pkgs     US-06, WLP001, or Wyeast 1056     Yeast-Ale

Mash in with 15 quarts of water at 165.9 degrees F. Mash for 60 minutes at 154 degrees. Sparge with 4.75 gallons of water per your equipment.

Est. OG 1.050
Final 1.012
ABV 4.5%
IBU 41

Emperor’s Hand IPA (Smoked American IPA) and Juniper IPA
5.5 Gallon Batch

Please refer to my home roasting post to get the instructions on how to make the home roasted malts.

12.00 lb     Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)
1.50 lb     Gold Malt (home roasted) (20.0 SRM)
1.00 lb     Amber Malt (home Roasted) (22.0 SRM)
1.00 lb     Copper Malt (home roasted) (100.0 SRM)
1.00 lb     Deep Amber (home roasted) (60.0 SRM)
3.00 oz     Simcoe [13.40 %] (10 min)     Hops
4.00 oz     Amarillo Gold [8.90 %] (5 min)     Hops
1.00 oz     German Saphire [4.11 %] (0 min)
1.00 tbsp     5.2 PH Stabilizer (Mash 0.0 min)
1.00 items     Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
1 Pkgs        (DCL Yeast #US-05, WLP001, or Wyeast 1056 (chico strain)

Mash in with 20.63 quarts of water at 168.2 degrees F. Mash for 60 minutes at 154 degrees. Sparge with 4.5 gallons of water per equipment.

Ferment at 62 degrees until finished. No need for secondary.

OG 1.067
FG 1.016
ABV 6.26%
IBU 62.7

For Juniper IPA I added 1 package of Juniper berries soaked in 1 1/2 cups 170 degree water for 15 min. I added water and all. (Note – next time add Juniper to primary after fermentation is complete, or rack to secondary and add berries and water) Let sit for 2 weeks on berries.


Chocolatizing Your Beer

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Like many other aspects of brewing, there is more than one method to achieve a specific end result. You have the Extract vs. All Grain methods (and those in between), dry yeast vs. liquid cultures, fly sparging or batch sparging (or even now sparge methods), and so on. So when it comes to adding chocolate flavor to beer, it should come as no surprise that brewers use various methods to impart chocolate character to  their beers. In this posting I will discuss my favorite method, which I have been using for years with great success, using roasted cacao nibs.

To add a distinct chocolate character to beer, brewers use roasted malts, cocoa powder, bakers chocolate, bar chocolate like dark chocolate,  cacao nibs, chocolate flavoring, or a combination of these. I have had beers that used all of these methods and some are better than others in my opinion. Out of these, the worst is the use of bar chocolate and Baker’s Chocolate. To make the chocolate into a bar, the manufacturer uses cocoa butter or other fats to bind the chocolate. You do not want these fats and oils in your beer, not only does it affect head retention, but fats go rancid fairly quickly. Chocolate flavoring can be OK, but many times it does not give you the chocolate character that goes well with beer. Most chocolate flavoring gives you a sweeter milk chocolate or chocolate candy flavor (maybe you remember Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager from Miller Brewing Co).  The use of Cocoa Powder is pretty popular, but in all honesty still tastes like cocoa powder in the beer, but it can work. The use of malts to impart chocolate is probably the best, but can sometimes be tricky to really get that chocolate character you may be looking for. For, me the use of Cacao Nibs gives you the distinct natural bitter-sweet chocolate flavor and aroma, non of the fats, and does not give you that cocoa powder flavor.

Here is what Cacao Nibs look like.

Cacao Nibs are chocolate at is roots. They are the roasted and broken up pieces of the cacao bean. You do need to find the roasted nibs, and not raw. There is a difference. There are several vendors that sell Nibs, and I prefer these.

Scharffen Berger Cacao Nibs

You can add the nibs to the end of the boil for a small amount of chocolate flavor and aroma, or add them to either the end of the primary or in the secondary fermentor. The best way that I have found to impart the most the character from the nibs is to soak them in vodka for 24 to 72 hours prior to adding them. You use just enough to cover the nibs amount you want to use. For example, if you use 6oz for a batch of beer, the amount of vodka it takes to the cover the nibs in a small container is not enough to alter the ABV by anything you can detect by taste or smell. You do add the nibs and vodka to the beer. Just remember, only add enough to cover the nibs, no more than that.

So why the vodka you ask? Because there are volatile components to the chocolate that are not soluble in water. So for better extraction of the flavor and aroma qualities of the nibs, you need a medium like alcohol to draw them out. Vodka is neutral enough to do the job, while not affecting flavor or aroma in the small amount used for a 5 gallon batch of beer.  Another benefit is that the vodka is high enough in alcohol to sanitize the nibs prior to adding them to the primary or secondary fermentor.

So does it work? Yes, I have a special recipe I will share with you that I have done well with in competition. The extract version of the beer and the all grain version of this beer have both won awards. The all grain version also lost by only 4 votes in a “Best of the Fest” people’s choice award at a brewfest against 30 commercial brewers and one other homebrew club. The issue with this beer you can expect if you enter it in competition is that it is what I call a tweener beer. It is too dry to be a sweet stout, too sweet to be a dry stout, and does not fit in the oatmeal stout category well even though there is some oats in the recipe. But one fact remains, this is a very good people pleasing chocolate stout.

The 501st Vader's Fist Chocolate Stout

The 501st Vader’s Fist Chocolate Stout (All Grain Version)

Batch Size= 5 gallons

6.00 lb Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)
2.00 lb Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel Malt – 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (Briess) (1.4 SRM)
0.25 lb Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM)
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.10%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.10%] (30 min)
1 tbsp 5.2 PH Stabilizer (Mash 0.0 min)
6.00 oz cacao beans (Secondary 7 days)
1 Pkgs US-05, Wyeast1056, or WLP001

OG=1.054
FG=1.013
IBU’S=33.5
SRM=40.5
ABV=5.3%

MASH INFO:
Single infusion/Batch Sparge/Full Body
Mash in with 14.38 quarts of water at 174. Should equalize to 156 degrees. Mash at 156 for 60 minutes.

Batch Sparge twice with 2.5 gallons of water at 175 degrees.
Boil for 60 minutes using the hop schedule listed in the ingredients section.

Add Nibs to primary after fermentation has ended, do not rack beer to a secondary. Just add the nibs to the primary fermentor. 2-3 days before adding them, soak the nibs in just enough Vodka to cover the nibs. Then dump them in, vodka and all, let sit on the nibs for 7-10 days max, 3 to 4 days seems about right. Add Milk Sugar if preferred.

501st Vader’s Fist Chocolate Stout (Extract Version)

6.60 lb LME Dark Traditional (Briess) (8.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM)
3.25 oz Fuggles [4.10%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.10%] (25 min)
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)
6.00 oz cacao beans (Boil 5.0 min)
1 PKG US-05, Wyeast 1056, or WLP001

(For 5 gallon pot) Bring 1.5 gallons of water to 158 degrees and place grains in pot, place cover on pot and allow to steep for 30 min. Remove Grains and Sparge with 1 gallon of Hot Water in a strainer. Bring water volume to 4.0 gallons. Bring Water to boil and add LME and EKG hops.  Add Sterling Hops at 30 min in. Then Add Irish Moss with 15 min left in boil. Cool and add top-up water to fermentor as needed to reach 5 gallons. Soak nibs in Vodka for 2 to 3 days and add nibs and vodka to primary after fermentation slows allow to sit on the nibs for 7-days. If you have the ability to do full boils, add your usual water volumes for a 5 gallon batch.

If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask.

Recipe D.O.A. IPA Recipe

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Recipe: D.O.A.  IPA
Brewer: Jason Johnson
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain

D.O.A. IPA

Recipe Specifications
————————–
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.92 gal
Estimated OG: 1.066 SG (Actual was 1.059)
Estimated Color: 12.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 117.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
————
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU
11.00 lb      Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM)     Grain        70.97 %
2.00 lb       Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM)Grain        12.90 %
1.50 lb       Vienna Malt (Briess) (3.5 SRM)            Grain        9.68 %
1.00 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L (40.0 SRM)     Grain        6.45 %
0.50 oz       Newport [9.30 %]  (60 min)                Hops         13.6 IBU
0.50 oz       Newport [9.30 %]  (40 min)                Hops         11.9 IBU
1.00 oz       Simcoe [11.90 %]  (25 min)                Hops         24.2 IBU
1.00 oz       Amarillo Gold [8.60 %]  (20 min)          Hops         15.2 IBU
1.00 oz       Palisade [6.30 %]  (20 min)               Hops         11.2 IBU
1.00 oz       Palisade [6.30 %]  (15 min)               Hops         9.1 IBU
1.00 oz       Simcoe [11.90 %]  (15 min)                Hops         17.3 IBU
1.00 oz       Amarillo Gold [8.60 %]  (10 min)          Hops         9.1 IBU
1.00 oz       Glacier [4.50 %]  (5 min)                 Hops         2.6 IBU
1.00 oz       Palisade [6.30 %]  (5 min)                Hops         3.7 IBU
1.00 oz       Glacier [4.50 %]  (0 min)                 Hops          -
1.00 items    Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)          Misc
1 Pkgs        SafAle American Ale (DCL #US-05)          Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 15.50 lb
—————————-
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Step Time     Name               Description                                               Step Temp
60 min        Mash In            Add 9.03 gal of water at 163.3 F         154.0 F

Notes:
——

This was a brew in a bag batch where all the water is added at once in the kettle while the grains are contained in a bag. The process had a few glitches, but the beer turned out awesome.