Making up for Time Lost

Kazoo Brew now has room to spread out! A rack in the kitchen devoted to beer equipment, a closet nook for busy fermenters oh my! To celebrate the advent of some cooler weather as well as the kickoff of the Steelers' season, a Tangerine Porter is gurgling away in the carboy. This was Kazoo's first foray into a big mash, weighing in at about 12# of grain. Still working out the best way to construct a mash tun from a water cooler, we just used a grain bag in a cooler to keep the temperature at about 156 F for 35 minutes. The result was a very concentrated, small batch of squid ink, smelling of hops and tangerine as well as other, darker notes. This will be perfect in November, so we quickly brewed a lighter, easier batch of Abbey-style Singel. Bypassed the mashing process by using a mini-mash + extract recipe and pumped this beer out in about 4 hours from grain infusion to yeast lob. Kettle Defoamer played a role in this brew to keep the yield high while fermenting in a smaller vessel. Should be ready in 4 weeks, +2 to bottle condition.

BikeToBeerFest @ HUB, Portland

I don't know the brewer's significance of the 19th of September, but several Portland breweries (of which there are many, many) hosted variations on the theme BeerFest yesterday. I live across the street from Laurelwood Public House, whose sign urged me to "save the date" for their beer party. But having looked in on the restaurant earlier in the week, I decided it was too nice a day to hang around the dimly lit corners of a pub, and instead opted to bike to SE and check out Hopworks Urban Brewing's Biketobeerfest, a convoluted play on the popular Oktoberfest.
I am thoroughly impressed by the PDX bike culture, and bicis of all kinds roosted in the racks outside of HUB's party...the hipster standard, single speed road bikes, locked alongside enormous hybrid commuter behemoths, the faux beach cruisers popular everywhere but Orange County, and the occasional recumbent, lurking among the kid-toting trailers. Everywhere were the workhorses of this uber bike friendly town.
Which is why I found it odd that inside the gates were more of the same, ostensibly, on display. The phrase "handcrafted bicycle" has several interpretations. In my mind, it means some welder with a vision and a pile of bike frames and parts: double talls, odd tandems, pivoting frames, bikes with steamroller wheels made from old kegs, backwards bikes with a tiller to steer, in short, a celebration of everything a bicycle can be, with emphasis on fun. In this case, it was taken to mean really fly, pricey bikes in custom colors for you to drool over and wish you could own. Aside from some synchronized bike dancing and a few smallies on bmx, the only interactive bike themed event was a K-mart brand bicycle hammer-throw. More accurately, watching some guy throw a cheap bike around. Hooray!
I guess a brewery can appreciate bikes without really understanding "bike culture" if the beer they put out is as good as HUB's. Two fresh hop beers were created just for this festival, and 14 others were on taps arranged around the grounds. I tried the "Fest of Fury," a very full-malt tasting deep amber beer with a delightful hop aroma and finish. I've reached the point in the year when extra supa hoppy ales taste skunky to me and I make the slow transition to porters and stout and the like. This is a brilliant transition ale, full of nuanced malt flavor, hoppy but not astringent, dark enough to warm me up when the sun was out to lunch.
"Bike Beer" was lighter, hoppier and delicious. Like I said, the days of Pliny the Elder with a slice of white peach are over. This beer was thirst quenching and quaffable.
The 7 Grain "Survival" Porter hearkened back to the origin of beer as safe drinking water, a loaf of bread and a warm blanket all in one inky black glass. HUB threw in some freshly roasted local coffee to round out the cacao notes in this new moon colored brew. This one was my favorite of the day, it felt like the right beer for the season.

Saison: First Taste

A sneak preview of saison was uncapped at the Farewell to Burners cookout in Oakland yesterday evening. Just as the sun tucked itself behind the vacant building and the air cooled off from boiled prawn-pink to a more comfortable pollution-purple, ten tasters reflected on the fresh summer ale.
(I have been listening to more NPR lately, and if this were a radio doc, here is where there would be audio tidbits of people clinking glasses and saying things like, "mmm I love hoppy beers!" and "the citrusy aroma disappears in the middle of the sip" and "this tastes like summer!") Alors.
The extra-carbonated deep gold colored brew produced a glorious head after decanting. The aroma was lightly spiced and citrusy, flavors that blossomed on the front of the tongue and gave way to a full but light as meringue malt middle, which then gave way to a very hoppy and just toeing the bitter line finish. Suffice to say it took superhuman powers of restraint not to plow through another round of bottles.

Capping up Kazoo Oakland

The British Summer Ale, "Mister Squinty" went down smooth at a solstice party in June, kegged in the backyard and quaffed magnanimously with fruits and cheeses.

Bottled the as-yet-unnamed Saison last weekend, came out the color of the Harvest Moon and the little uncarbonated sample sip tasted like the chalice of ambrosia standing in Venus' silk pillow-strewn Canary Island vacation rental.

Kazoo Brews are moving to Portland, OR...
just as soon as the Saison is sufficiently bottle conditioned to serve on the midmove picnic

It's Not A Stil, But It Sure Is A Double-Wide...

Got a kit brew of Blonde Ale going in the closet of the double-wide trailer. Max and I were worried that the Livermore summer would overwhelm our fermentation bodies and the beer would go rancid in the sweltering heat, so we stuck the carboy in a closet next to an air conditioner vent just prior to a cold snap. Result: fermentation came on hot and heavy for about 2 days, then all activity stopped. Now we shake/stir it up vigorously every other day or so and it's been blup blup blupping along nicely in the spare room.

What's that science experiment in the corner?

Now Fermenting @ Kazoo Brewery, Oakland:

Mister Squinty Summer Ale   &   Fool Moon Saisoon! 

Whole Hops Concluded! Sweet Portable Beer Dispense!!

In order to really relax on a Memorial Day camping trip, a full, portable corny keg is a necessity. A large, metal framed backpack accommodates one quite well, with room for a fly reel and a few chew bars.

The super-hopped, Belgian-American IPA came out spectacularly: the siphon hose with a ramshackle cheesecloth filter ran full with slightly cloudy golden nectar, and those pesky hop leaves stayed in the bottom of the carboy. 

Quick-charged the keg overnight, bathed in ice (hopefully about 50*F throughout), alongside of the Amber Ale keg we brewed and left behind to appease those brewhands unable to trek out to the river. Sealed off the IPA and tapped the Amber.

Materials needed for portable pump:

1 hand bicycle pump

1 Gas In quick disconnect fitting

4" gas tubing

1 old bike tire innertube

some kind of clamping device, pref. circular

sharp scissors

Cut the stem from the bike innertube (make the leftover rubber into a bungee to tie down important camping gear!) and force it into one end of the gas tubing, so that the air nipple sticks out. Clamp that down/use some extra secure thing you improvise. Attach the other end to the quick disconnect and voila! you can pump air into the keg to displace all that delicious beer. As long as you drink the beer in the span of 2 or 3 days, you don't have to worry about it going off due to the odd bits of primordial life you're introducing from the outside air!