Pike Brewing Company honors Scottish poet Robert Burns with Pike's Robbie Burns' Evening

Seattle, Washington January 18, 2009.

Robert Burns loved ale as well as whisky and it seems only natural that as the brewers of Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale and the purveyor, at the Pike Pub, of some of the finest malts of Scotland, that Pike should honor the bard on his 250th Birthday.

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 pm

Whisky Master Ari Shapiro will conduct a tutored tasting of Lowland, Highland, Speyside and Islay single malts from such classic distilleries as Lagaluvin, Oban, Singleton, Glenkinchie and Talisker. Ari will discuss the history, culture and taste of each whisky providing an opportunity for guests to increase their understanding of single malt whisky, one of the world's sensory gems. Tasting Seminar: $25.00 per person

5:30 p.m.

Pike owner, Charles Finkel, will tap a firkin of Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale, seasoned with oak that was sterilized in Lagavulin single malt Islay Whisky. $6.50 per pint

6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

The Elliot Bay Pipe Band will "Pipe in the Haggis," a traditional ceremony that includes a reading of Burns' Ode to a Haggis. Haggis, is a traditional Scottish dish of intestines stuffed with a mixture of meat, oatmeal, onions, cayenne, pepper and salt. In addition to authentic haggis, a vegetarian version will also be served. Scottish specialties to accompany the haggis will included Cockie Leekie soup, smoked salmon from Solly Amon at Pure Food Fish in the Pike Place Public Market, organic vegetables, tatties (mashed potatoes) and neeps (mashed yellow turnips,) and bread pudding with Kilt Lifter Hard Sauce.

Traditional Burns' Night entertainment will include a poetry reading by Scottish speakers, an extraordinary pipe and drum concert, songs and lots of old fashioned fun. Buffet and entertainment: $25.00 per person plus tax and gratuity.

Burns was born in 1759, a time of revolution in Scotland, France and America. He remained a man of the people throughout his short life and preferred to write in the Scottish dialect rather than English. January 25 is Robbie Burns' Day, a national holiday in Scotland. He was raised on a lowland farm and had six siblings. Whisky was kept on the sideboard and a dram or two was enjoyed afore breakfast and spending the day toiling to grow plump summer barley, the lifeblood of both beer and whisky. In later years "The Bard," as he became known, wrote "John Barleycorn, Thou king o'grain!"

Called the "Scotch Casanova," "Rabbie," as he was known to his wives and girlfriends, sired almost as many sons as sonnets.He wrote: "One night as I lay on my bed, I dreamed about a pretty maid. I was so distressed, I could take no rest; Love did torment me so. So away to my true love I did go. To the green bed I and my love did go. What we did there I'll not declare"
A folk philosopher, he authored: "When neibors anger at a plea, An' just as wud as wud can be, How easy can the barley brie cement the quarrel! It's aye the cheapest lawyer's fee, To taste the barrel."

Burns' began writing poetry, about his first love, Handsome Nell, at 15: 'Tis this in Nelly pleases me,'Tis this enchants my soul; For absolutely in my breast, She reigns without control." Tam O' Shanter, Coming Through the Rye, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, and Auld Lang Syne crown a mosaic of over 500 works as sensual and pertinent today as when they were penned in the 18th century. The Elliott Bay Pipe Band will perform traditional Burns' songs, and at the end of the evening, a stirring rendition of Burns' classic, "For auld lang syne my dear, for auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne."

American Pale Ale II

This beer is a re-brew of the recipe I brewed for Teach a Friend to Home brew day. This recipe was the third IPA/APA I've brewed and the first two had to be dumped because the first one (American Patriot IPA) was just flat out horrible, and the second (Fresh Hop Harvest Ale) was spoiled by bacteria that was on my home grown hops that I dry hopped with.

This APA came out awesome and I was very pleased. The hop presence was very well balanced by the malt flavour and the sweetness from the crystal malts. Because it was originally brewed for TAFTHBD, I gave almost all of it away. So, this one is just for me!! I was little upset because I missed my OG by .005. This is the second beer in a row where I've missed by OG. I suspect it's because I'm not adjusting my efficiency % when I calculate the recipe on Tastybrew, so I will have to test it out. I want to do an efficiency test on my system soon also so I can know my actual % instead of estimating. Thankfully, no boil-over like last time. I'm finally able to adjust the temp on the burner to prevent the boil-overs. They have been a big headache for me since my swtch to all grain.

I had a different issue with this brew. When I was transferring it to the carboy from the kettle, it seems the trub screen I have inside my boil kettle got clogged with hops. Unfortunately, I had to use a wooden spoon to clear it which didn't work all that well, so I switched to my auto-syphon and racked it with that. I ended up with a lot more trub in the carboy than I wanted, but oh well. After I used the spoon, I realized it wasn't the one I had sanitized, so hopefully it won't ruin this beer but I wanted to make note in case it goes sour. Recipe is below.

Brewed - 1/10/09
H20/Grain ratio - 1.2
Mash Temp/Time - 155/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.050
IBU - 41
SRM - 7

Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory

Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale

Cheers,
Jason

Organic Belgian Witbier

Ah yes....my first stab at an all organic beer! This year, I had the awesome pleasure of being asked to be a groomsman in one of my friends weddings which is this June. We attended Hartwick College together and both swam and played water polo. Since college, we've also both gotten into triathlons, him a little more successful than I (injuries suck, but I'm back this year...watch out chap). So when he asked me to be in his wedding I was psyched and truly honored.

Knowing that I'm a home brewer and having sampled my beers in the past with much delight, he came up with an idea that to this day still makes me smile! I've been asked by the engaged couple to brew some beer to serve at there wedding. Of course I said yes, and since then I've been trying to improve my brewing. I should also mention that the bride to be is also a good friend of mine and one of my wife's best friends. She has also asked my wife to be in the wedding, which adds to the awesomeness of this event!!!

This Belgian Witbier will be the first tasting. We're all meeting back up at our alma matta on Jan 31st and will be sampling the witbier. I took the organic idea from the Bearded Brewer since his Inky's White Ale was such a hit and I also used his trick with orange marmalade instead of the orange peel. The other reason I chose all organic is because my friend, the groom to be, works for a company called Vote Solar. Vote Solar is a company that's committed to bringing solar energy into the mainstream through legislative ways like tax incentives and the such. With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea, and fun, if I were to brew this as an organic beer. Now id I could only get a boil kettle that can operate on solar power. Anyway, below is the recipe. Sorry for the long diatribe!!!

Date brewed - 12/30/08
OG - 1.046
Batch Size - 6g
Water/Grain ratio - 1.3 qts/lb
Mash temp/time - 152/60 min
IBU - 18
SRM - 3
ABV -

Fermentables:
5 lbs. Organic Belgian Pils
6 lbs. Organic White Wheat Malt
.5 lbs Organic Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1 oz. Organic Belgian Saaz (3.5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz. Organic Belgian Saaz (3.5% AA, 10 min)

Additives:
1 oz. Organic crushed Coriander (5 min)
1 tbls. Organic Orange Marmalade (5 min)

Yeast:
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

The yeast took a day to actually get started, but then started with a bang and i had some blow off, but neglected to use the blow-off tube initially. This brew is also a big milestone for me. I've purchased a Co2 tank and regulator and I'm going to force carb this in a keg, then bottle using my blichman beer gun. the bottling will definitely take longer, but I'm just psyched to be able to force carb my beers now. The brew day went very well. It was freezing cold, so my brother and I (he came by to learn how to brew and drink some beers) spent a lot of time inside, only going outside to quickly add hops. One small boil over at the end occured because I left the lid on the kettle after the 10 min hop addition.

If anyone has an experience with either the Blichman beer gun or a counter pressure bottle filler, let me know. I'm still debating on which one I should buy.

Cheers!

Brew Years Resolution

In the spirit of the new year, I've decided to put together a list of my 2009 new years beer resolutions.






1. Brew at least once a month.
2. Enter more homebrew competitions (in order to get better feedback about my beer)
3. Finish my business plan (if I'm ever going to get this business started, i need to finish it)
4. Learn and understand more about water composition in certain styles
5. Buy a grain mill so I can start buying bulk grain
6. Find a place to store the grain
7. Post more on the blog (goes with brewing more)
8. Post more educational information about brewing (for the beginner readers I have)

So....I know that's a lot, but I figure if I can get half of those done, then I've accomplished a lot. I hope you all had a great holiday and have a happy new year. I'm brewing my Belgian Wit tomorrow so I'll post the recipe and notes after.

Also, I finally popped my Winter spiced ale with a few friends over Christmas, and it was a big hit. My brother and I were very excited as you can see. When I originally tasted the first a few weeks ago, the cinnamon was overpowering, but the extra time in the bottle really allowed the cinnamon to mellow and balance very well with the nutmeg and ginger. I was very please, although Christmas night I had a few too many of them and had a hard time walking home. Oh well!!

Cheers and Happy New Year!!

Jason

Pike Entire Wood Aged Stout

I was recently sent a bottle of Pike's Entire Wood Aged Stout. Since I can't get Pike here is MA yet, Linda, the marketing manager for Pike offered to send me a bottle. I received it this week and finally had the chance to pop it open. Below is my review.

Appearance. Pours a dark black color with a thick creamy two fingered dark coffee color head. The head was very slow to disappear and left a decent lacing on the glass.

Smell. I think I didn't give it enough time to come down to proper temperature, but there was not a big aroma. I got hints of coffee and some malty bready notes.

Taste. The malty backbone of this stout is very obvious. Very well brewed on it's own. Hints of caramel came through and sweet chocolate flavors were present. There was a small hint of oak early on in the glass, but by about half glass the oak was very obvious, but not over powering. Very pleasant.

Mouthfeel. Mouthfeel was very smooth. Velvety was the word used in the press release and I agree. At the end of the sip the crisp carbonation came through a little.

Drinkability. I was very pleased with this beer. I can picture having a few of these after dinner. The high alcohol (9.5%) was very warming. The hints of oak and chocolate were perfectly balanced with the stout base and blended together well.

Overall, I was very impressed with this beer, although it didn't start out well. The neck and cap of the bottle were dipped in wax, which presented the bottle nicely. Unfortunately, it was a huge pain in the ass to get off. This is my first encounter with a waxed dipped bottle and I was not a fan. The contents inside where more than capable of making up for the wax issue. I can't wait until this beer makes it's way out to Boston. I can already see it becoming a favorite treat at the candy....i mean beer store!!

Cheers,

Jason

Weekend comes to a crashing end

Thanksgiving each year for me is shared with my wife's family in PA. Since there are so many of them (28) we celebrate thanksgiving and Christmas together, and then my wife and I spend Christmas with my family. This year, instead of going to my wife's aunts house, we all rented some condo's in the Pocono Mountains in north eastern PA.

The week was great, minus the fact that there was no good beer around. Thankfully I thought ahead and brought a bunch of beers, plus some of my own (Brown Session and VB Porter). I gave some tastings to some family members and they all loved them. I think I've secured beer duty for all future family gatherings.

When we got home and unpacked, I had to re-stock the fridge with all the left over beers ( i brought beer for everyone, but apparently only needed to worry about me and my wife so I had a ton left over to bring home). I was in the basement about an hour later and heard a sudden crash come from the fridge, and then the door flung open and out poured bottles of beer, shattered glass, waves of beer spilling from the broken bottles, and a few bottles which thankfully didn't break.

Apparently it's not smart to fill a shelf made of glass with 2 + cases of beer, because it will shatter and spill everything on it. The real problem is that I didn't label my last two beers (Brown Session and VB Porter) because I was going to enter them into homebrew contests and as most of you know, labeled bottles are frowned upon. I had it all down though, the VB porters on the right side of the top and bottom shelf and the Brown Sessions on the bottom shelf. Well, when the shelf shattered, it mixed them all up and now they got all mixed up and I don't know which ones are which. So needless to say, I might be entering them into the wrong categories. Oh well....Might as well start drinking the little that is left over and find out which beers are which.

Hope you all had a good turkey day!

Cheers,
Jason

Press Releases

So...from time to time, you might start seeing press releases from Pike Brewing Co. Linda Stratton, from Pike emailed me and asked if I would post them and even though I have yet to have one (she is sending me a sampler of their beers) I feel that if I could help spread the word about craft beer, I should. I know I have at least 4 readers so if 4 people are informed about something, then I guess it worked. And if you've had any of Pikes beers, let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,
Jason

Pike Brewing Company Releases Pike Entire Wood-Aged Stout

Seattle, Washington November 20, 2008. Pike Entire is a blend of three beers: Pike's XXXXX Extra Stout, original gravity 10.73 / alcohol 7.00%; the same beer aged for more than half a year in oak Bourbon barrels; and an Imperial Stout original gravity 10.98 / alcohol 12%. The Entire blend contains 42.7% barrel aged beer and finishes at 9.5% alcohol. The taste is complex with velvety malt tones, a coffee aroma, and a palate and finish of bitter chocolate. The biscuity character of pale and crystal malts, along with roasted barley, is balanced by a generous amount of Yakima Valley Willamette, Goldings and Columbus hops in the boil; finished with even more Willamette and Goldings. Adding complexity are the underlying wood tones perfumed by the caramel sweetness of wood-aged Kentucky Bourbon.
Pike Entire was unveiled for the first time on November 8 at the Washington Beer Lover's (WABL) Third Anniversary Party in Seattle that featured 20 local "rare and hard to find" beers on draft. The next morning, Seattle P-I beer writer, Geoff Kaiser, commented: "this was everything I hoped it would be.... It had plenty of bourbon and oak character without being overwhelming and it still allowed the stout to do most of the work. Quite lovely, and easily my favorite of the night."
Until the 18th century, malt was "kilned" over wood fires making most beers dark brown or black, and contributing significantly to the pollution in cities like London. The use of coal allowed brewers a little more control, but it was not until coke, a bi-product of coal, was introduced as a fuel that pale malt could be made. Pale malt yielded more sugar than black malt. Because the Thames was polluted, soft water was drawn from wells, ideal for dark beers, but yielding unpleasant flavor to black beers unless they were blended with the paler beers made by country brewers who had access to hard water. These country brewers also bought dark beers from London and aged them in large oak casks. After aging they sold them back to the London brew pubs as highly desirable, "stale" (aged) beer. Home brew houses then began to blend the black, pale, and stale beers and the result became known as "three threads", a corruption of "three thirds." Ralph Harwood's Bell Brewhouse, one of London's original common brewers and was the first to market an already blended beer to other pubs, called "Entire". It is believed that he blended his own black beer with purchased pale and stale. Since it saved publicans the chore of blending their own three threads, it became an immediate success and the beer style of choice that was sold by London's train porters. Ultimately the style became known as Porter. As brewing moved away from the brew pub to common brewers, Harwood's creation became London's great contribution to beer. As the British Empire expanded, "Porter," later known as "Stout Porter," then simply "Stout," became the world's most widely distributed beer style. In order to brew a beer in keeping with the original style but still distinctly American, Pike acquired oak Bourbon barrels last year and filled them with Pike XXXXX Extra Stout in April 2008 to be blended back. Pike Head Brewer, Drew Cluley, describes the beer as "complex and chocolaty with a great vanilla wood overtone." On Monday, November 24, 2008, Pike Entire, in wax-dipped 22 oz. bottles, will be released. It will have very limited availabilty at the Pike Pub and in select bottle shops, primarily in the Seattle area. A few quarter-barrels will be released for sale on draft. The Pike Pub will tap its one and only quarter-barrel of Pike Entire on Friday, November 28.
The Pike Brewing Company is a family-owned gravity flow craft steam brewery and pub in the heart of Seattle next door to the entrance to historic Pike Place Public Market. Founded in 1989, it was one of the earliest American craft breweries to offer styles like Imperial Stout, IPA, and Barley Wine.

Catching up

It's been a few weeks since I've last posted, but I haven't been able to brew since TAFTHBD so I haven't had much to write about. A few things have happend since then. Firts, my company laid off 1500 people in the first of 3 rounds of layoffs. Thankfully I was spared for now. Second, I tasted my first all-grain batch (American Brown Ale) the other night and I was very pleased. Great sweetness from the carmel malts, and just the right amount of bitterness I was looking for. The was some bready/malty flavors that I think came from the munich malt and it was a little darker than expected, but still great. Next time, I will leave out the munich and use some cara-pils for better body. This beer had good carbonation and head retention, just didn't have the prickly co2 bubbles in the drink itself. I'll post a proper review when I get a chance.3

Also, we're bottling up the APA from TAFTHBD this weekend. My friend is very excited since this is his first beer, and I am too since I only have to split it with one other person! More beer for me!

I posted a question on the tastybrew forum about when I should bottle my Winter ale. So, I will ask you, my readers, as well. I brewed this beer in early October and it's still in the carboy aging. Should I continue to age it in bulk in the carboy, or bottle now and let it sit until christmas? My plan is to age it until christmas regardless of where, but I'm curious to see if it is better to age all togther, or in seperate "batches" in each bottle. Let me know you're thoughts!

Cheers,
Jason

Teach a Friend to Home Brew Day - APA

TFTHBD was a good success, brewing wise at least. Only had one of my friends from work show up and my neighbor (who brews as well) came by for the afternoon. The day started pretty early (around 10:30 am) and we cracked open our first Pale Ale from Opa Opa. It was great beer, and get our creative juices flowing.

We chose an American Pale ale as our brew and decided to drink those types all day. The mash went well, although we were a little on the warm side (158) which I'm not too happy about, but thats what happens when you put the lid on, then go drink and don't check it for an hour! I tried to add our first hop addition as First Wort Hops (FWH) to prevent a boilover, but that really didn't work and I once again had a pretty big boilover. Hopefully it won't effect the IBU's too much. We hit our target gravity right on the money, 1.055. That made me happy because my first all-grain batch was a tad bit off the mark.

I used Magnum for the first time and I was very please. Very high alpha (ours were 13.5) and awesome aroma. The recipe is below.

Stats:
Brewed - 11/1/08
H20/Grain ratio - 1.3
Mash Temp/Time - 158/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.055
IBU - 41
SRM - 7

Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory

Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)

Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale

It is bubbling away pretty good right now, so I'm excited for this to be done. Tonight, I bottle my Brown ale. I took a reading last night and had a great fermentation, slightly more than I had planned though.

Cheers,
Jason