KSB/Fantasy Football Correlation

posted by Jon

In a recent study done by a person, results have shown that drinking Knoll Street Brewery's beer increases fantasy football performance. The study cites a fantasy football league known as "In a Minute Honey" in which four of the ten league managers happened to be part of a Knoll Street Brewery sponsored "beer club". These four managers were the last four remaining in the fantasy playoffs. As news of this correlation has spread, fantasy football players everywhere are pulling whatever strings possible in hopes of joining the KSB beer club. Representatives of Knoll Street Brewery have declined to comment.

December and January brews

posted by Jon

The December brewing will be done on Sunday, December 19. We will be joined by our Hungarian beer club members. As originally planned, we will be brewing a smoked porter.

You may recall the post about the Von Bora Belgian Strong that was done as a side batch. Our January brew will be piggybacked with that side batch. I purchased a special yeast for that batch, White Labs' WLP545. It is a strain of yeast that is only released for a couple of months every year. It is a great yeast for Abbey Ales and Belgian Strong Ales. I am planning on keeping the Von Bora in the primary fermenter until January. Our January brew, a Belgian Blonde Ale, will be pitched directly onto the yeast cake left over from the Von Bora, meaning we don't have to buy any extra yeast and I don't need to do a yeast starter.

Food pairings

posted by Jon

When pairing foods with beer, it's often smart to pair foods with a lot of flavor with a beer that can hold its own, flavor-wise.

An example: When eating Buffalo wings tossed in homemade habanero sauce and served with homemade gorgonzola dressing, why not try it with a Sinister black IPA from Knoll Street Brewing?

December Update

posted by Jon

Delivery time!

In the next few days you will all be receiving a six-pack of Gourdon, our imperial pumpkin ale. We've been told that it's better than Ichabod and we agree. The cider is also ready. I'm assuming that all of you will want a sixer of the cider as well. The cider is literally the best cider I've ever had. If you don't want a cider, let me know (after that glowing endorsement, how could you say "no"?). The cider is $6.00 for the six-pack. Be careful with this stuff. I never did a gravity check, but it tastes/feels more like a wine than most ciders I've had.

There are a few expectations that we have. We have a very limited supply of bottles and the six-pack holders. When you are finished with a beer, please rinse the bottle out well and return it to us. We're not your mom who cleans up after you. We don't feel it's too much to ask that you make sure it's rinsed out well. If you decide to savor your beer a bit and not drink all of it in a month, please fill out your empty six-pack with bottles of your own. We can only use pry off bottles (no twist-off) and we'd prefer the taller brown bottles (New Holland, Bells, Shorts, etc). The short squat bottles that Founders, Abita and some Belgian breweries sometimes use don't fit in the six pack holder.

The Intruder (November's brew) has been racked off to the secondary, where it is sitting on 6 vanilla beans, 2 oz of light toast oak chips and 2 oz Maker's Mark bourbon. Hopefully it will be bottled soon.

The beer for December will be a smoked porter and will be brewed in a couple of weeks. It has not been named.

Quad post, part 4: Upcoming

posted by Jon

So, what's on tap?

The cider was bottled today. I'm absolutely thrilled with the flavor. After bottling them (with corn sugar) I almost regret putting the corn sugar in, because even without carbonation it's fantastic. Almost a low alcohol apple wine. The apple flavor is coming out a ton more than the last time I made cider.

The Gourdon Lightfoot Imperial Pumpkin Ale (aka "Pumpkin Trucker") was bottled a little over a week ago. Also seemed to have some great flavor. I'm quite excited about this one.

Both the cider and the pumpkin will be delivered by the first weekend in December, two weeks from now. I'm assuming all of you will want a sixer for $6. If not, I'd gladly pay for, and enjoy, the leftovers.

Quad post, part 3: Deliveries

posted by Jon

Time for the fruits of our labor, and your money, to finally pay off. The first of the Sinister Black IPAs are being delivered. All of them should be in your hands by the end of this weekend. Just a warning: It's wicked hoppy, but not too bitter.

Quad post, part 2: Von Bora

posted by Jon

Monday evening was our chance for a side batch, partially financed by Ryan Beld. This was Ryan's first foray into the homebrewing world and he decided to make the most of that chance by showing up late. Really late. Like, about to pitch the yeast late.

We had decided on a Belgian strong ale, in the style of a Rochefort 10. You will notice the use of Belgian candi sugar in this recipe. Belgian candi sugar is an invert sugar. Regular old white sugar is made of two types of simple sugars, Glucose and Fructose.When a yeast is attempting to ferment white sugar, it spends quite a lot of time breaking the sugar down into a more fermentable form. Inverting the sugar breaks it down to that form, making it less work for the yeast. Now, Belgian candi sugar costs about $6 per lb. We needed 3 lbs for this recipe. That's $18. How is Belgian candi sugar made? Take regular old white sugar, add water and a pinch of citric acid and heat to 160°. After 15 minutes or so the sugar turns from clear to pale yellow. Another half hour or so it is a deep amber. Heat to 300° (hard crack), pour out, cool and crack. 3 lbs of Belgian candi sugar. For about $2.

Why do Belgian-style beers often contain Belgian candi sugar, you ask? Belgian candi sugar raises the gravity, and thus the alcohol, of the beer without adding a lot of body. If you take a Belgian strong and an Imperial Stout, they might have the same ABV%, but the stout will be much thicker.

On to the beer geek stuff:

Von Bora Belgian Strong Ale (my lord Katie)

6:48 Water heated

7:05 Water @ 155°. 1 lb Belgian biscuit malt, 1/2 lb British chocolate malt and 1 lb CaraMunich malt steeped.

7:35 Grains sparged with 1/2 gallon hot water

8:00 12 lbs Pilsen LME and 3 lb Belgian candi sugar added

8:36 Boil started, 1 oz Northern Brewer hops added

Somewhere in here Ryan B shows up

9:06 1 oz Hallertauer and 1 oz Styrian Golding hops added

9:21 1 tsp irish moss and 1 tsp yeast nutrient added

9:31 1 tsp Ground coriander seed added

9:36 flameout

At this point we would normally use the wort chiller to cool the wort down to a pitching temperature, however, since this is a side batch, we are using our new plastic fermenter tub. Which is skinnier. As in it is skinny enough that the wort chiller won't fit into it. So, we take the bucket and place it in the sink surrounded by cold water and a bag of ice. An hour and a half later we're still not close to a pitchable temperature, so I leave the bucket (covered) in the sink and pitch the yeast the next morning.

6:20 Yeast pitched @ 72 °

O.G. = 1.130. That's right, this baby's gonna be around 13%.