We’ve been busy in the 620 brewing beers that will delight our tastebuds. I will soon obtain pictures of our two brewdays, and we will share them (with commentary) and details about our two new brews. Brew 1 (with SBU boys in tow) was a porter with a twist, we added blackstrap molasses to ramp up the alcohol content, flavor and complexity. We have bottled this one with a new member’s help (Dave N.), and we are anxious to see how it will turn out. We have Great Expectations.
We also are also excited to add a strong pale ale to the mix. We were shooting for a british ale/extra special bitter, and so far, so good. Our airlock is fuzzing with CO2 goodness, and we are totally pumped. Totally. Pumped. We enjoyed some delicious brews while we chatted it up with yet another addition to our group (who mostly likes wine and Coor’s Light) Jon N. The beer we enjoyed was awesome. Elrond brought an english ale from The High Noon Saloon in Leavenworth, KS. This particular beer was “Annie’s Amber Ale” and was extremely balanced, and extremely good. I rate 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Pictures to come, pinky promise.
TCE
Cameron enters the season undefeated against wheat beers. He’s ready to mix it up and make some waves in the Christian beer industry–look to him to be the big man in the middle as he takes charge of the hoppy goodness.
Elrond is all about Sam Adams Boston Ale. Will he attempt to recreate, nay, redefine beer as we know it?
Conor is looking to “crack some skulls” as they say. Who is “they”? If you have to ask, you will never know. He wants to beat the porter that they did last year, maybe even create a True Stout, a fine man’s beer that will stand up to any Cigar.
Featuring Evan–the brash college guy with something to prove. If his lineage holds true, he will enjoy wheat beers like Cameron, but may even take hold of a fine Ale like CS Lewis, Spurgeon, or Luther Before him.
Tune in to find out.
This year…more posts. Scout’s honor.
More Theology–Pointing to Christ is what we want to do. All that we do is Coram Deo (Before the Face of God) even drinking and brewing beer. Enjoying God’s gifts and giving him the glory MUST be what we are about–if we are not, this activity is pointless and needs to be eliminated.
More Fellowship–This is a hobby that will put us into contact with non-believers and the unchurched. We realize the weight of the balance we must strike. The balance? “To make much of God in the way that we enjoy the activity and enjoy the drink.” We must not enjoy the gift above the giver. If we ever drink to excess, (and we don’t because of accountability) we violate biblical commands to avoid drunkeness and practice self-control. If we violate what God’s word says, we are elevating the gift to a status that it is undeserving of.
More Fun–we don’t take ourselves very seriously. This is our time to talk theology, to enjoy being around Christian brothers and enjoy God’s gifts. Hopefully, that is reflected here in this website.
Our first brewdate is tentatively September 26. Preparations are being made…more to come!
Just so you know, we bottled on Monday night. Tasted our creation–it is going to be awesome. Our Amber Ale finished at about 1.018 we used 4.1 oz of priming sugar to bottle. Boring–yes. We will soon be adding Fishing Pictures (from Cameron’s Birthday) Plus, Conor meets Barack Obama!
Here are some delayed pictures from our last session of bottling and brewing. I know you will like them.
Elrond and I took 95 nasty bottles with labels, and turned them into delightful vessels from which to drink delicious brew. This is Elrond’s “artsy” shot.
Liberty Ale, Fruity...
Our drink for the evening was Rogue Chipotle Ale Which was…interesting, and Anchor Liberty Ale which was fruity, more of a “hot summer” drink.
Overall, the evening was fruitful with good times and good conversation.
The Beer Sommelier
Not many pictures of Elrond make it into the blog, mostly because we are jealous of his rakish good looks, but partly because he owns a really sweet camera and takes most of the pictures we use. Above is a picture of him sampling the boiling wort, because he insists on tasting it at every temperature possible, from ice-cold to third-degree-tongue-burns hot.
WARNING–The next picture may cause some troubles with the law–but I am really willing to risk some jail time for Cameron, it would really teach him some character.
The Littlest Brewer
Apparently, Andie likes to stir things. She really wanted to get in on producing high quality beer for her daddy and his friends to enjoy. She provided the extra special ingredient–Love.
–Conor
Hoppy Birthday Cameron!
Took a trip to Kanopolis Lake to go fishing (Cameron is the only one who fished) for Cameron’s Birthday. After catching the limit, we jetted over to Manhattan to visit Theoden (our ambassador of brews to KSU) and his wife, Katie.
Bison Brown, Malty and Delicious
We had an awesome meal at Little Apple Brewing Company . They brew their own beer, and have several varieties on tap. We enjoyed Riley’s Red Ale, Hoppiness Stimulus IPA, Bison Brown Ale and Wildcat Wheat. At 2.50 a pint for the “beer of the day” and 3.50 for other beers, this place is a great place to enjoy an inexpensive homemade brew.
Attached are some pictures at the meal with the birthday boy, Pictures of the fishing trip/Corporate retreat still to come. 
The Solution...A "Blowoff"
Elrond and Cameron Averted near disaster by fashioning a “blowoff”. These pictures don’t reveal the real extent of the problem, we almost had a beersplosion which sounds really good, but would actually be a real mess to clean up.
The Problem--WAY overactive fermentation.
After a few days, we checked the beer, measured the specific gravity and tasted it. Wow–It is going to be incredible. The pressure that built up inside the carboy caused the break material to form at the top of the bucket–it was kind of weird.
Nastiness--Will not be in our beer.
Worthy Wort
Another exciting week for the ephah brewers.
We had a great brew day on Sunday, Feb 15. We continued the fellowship after church by brewing a batch of what we hope will be a delicious amber ale.
Cameron obtained ingredients at High Gravity Homebrewing in Tulsa. The ingredients are Belgian, English and American, which is why we are calling it a Hybrid Ale. The following is the ingredient list:
Brewing Date: 15 February 2009
Where: Cameron’s Garage
Present: Elrond, Conor, Cameron
Supplier: High Gravity Brew Supplies, Tulsa, OK
Recipe: ephah batch #4 Hybrid Ale
1 lb. Briess Pilsen Light DME
6 lb. Munton’s Amber DME
0.50 lb. Dingemans Victory
0.50 lb. Special Roast
0.50 lb. Briess Carapils malt
0.50 lb. Weyermann Light Munich malt
0.50 lb. Weyermann Cara Red
1 oz. Warrior Hops 15.8% AAU
.5 oz. Kent Goldings 5.8% AAU (Flavor/Aromatic)
.5 oz Kent Goldings 5.8% AAU (Finishing)
2 tsp Gypsum
1 tsp Irish Moss
Yeast Type: 11g Danstar Nottingham Dry Yeast
Specialty Grains Steeping Time: 1400-1430
Wort Boil time: 1445-1600
Bittering Hops: 1 oz Warrior Added 1445 (75 minutes)
Aromatic Hops: .5 oz Kent Goldings Added 1545 (15 minutes)
Finishing Hops: .5 oz. Kent Goldings Added 1558 (2 minutes)
Specialty: Gypsum added to water before boil, Irish Moss added at 1545 (15 minutes)
SG:1.065
Primary Fermentation Date: 16 February 2009 1615
Where: Cameron’s Basement–in primary fermenting bucket elevated on table.
Notes for Next time: We might have some considerable hoppiness generated by the incredible AAU content of the Warrior. We need to get the math in place to calculate potential IBUS before we buy materials, these were selected on a whim, (and the fact that I had just had an incredible Left Hand Warrior IPA just days prior–This may have tainted the selection of these particular hops)
The result of this brew was a delightful deep ruby/amber color–we should have a tasty brew coming!
After brewing, we put our beer to sleep in the basement to let the (new to us) Nottingham yeast do its work. Apparently, Danstar Nottingham is a strain used by many commercial brewers and well known for its flocculation (how fast and vigorously it eats the sugars) and attenuation (the amount of sugars that it eats before it starts slowing down–it tends to finish lower). This was very apparent to Elrond and Cameron when they went to check on our beer. The beer fermenter almost exploded due to the rate at which the yeast was creating carbon dioxide. Foam was coming out of the airlock and the bucket was bulging. Elrond and Cameron fashioned a “blow-off” in order to vent the pressure. The high pressure could also be due to the fact that we started with fairly high SG-(the amount of sugars in the liquid) All of our beers to this point have had SGs of under 1.060–the highest being our porter/stout. This beer started with a 1.065–and will require additional weeks of fermenting to mellow out.
On Monday, Elrond and I also washed bottles. We finished the night with 95 clean bottles including 2 22oz. bottles. Elrond and I also enjoyed a Rogue Chipotle Ale (mmm…spicy!) and Anchor Liberty Ale. Both were good, but I preferred the more traditional Liberty.
Pictures of all the above to come.
–Conor
I gathered this from Justin Taylor’s Blog, And I found it quite insightful.
This quote from Martin Luther (known to drink [and brew!] a beer or two in his day) is helpful:
We must not…reject [or] condemn anything because it is abused. This would result in utter confusion. God has commanded us in Deut. 4 not to lift up our eyes to the sun (and the moon and the stars), etc., that we may not worship them, for they are created to serve all nations. But there are many people who worship the sun and the stars. Therefore we propose to rush in and pull the sun and stars from the skies. No, we had better let it be. Again, wine and women bring many a man to misery and make a fool of him, so we kill all the women and pour out all the wine. Again, gold and silver cause much evil, so we condemn them. Indeed, if we want to drive away our worst enemy, the one who does us the most harm, we shall have to kill ourselves, for we have no greater enemy than our own heart, as the prophet, Jer. 17, says, “The heart of man is crooked,” or, as I take the meaning, “always twisting to one side.” And so on – what would we not do?
-From his fourth Invocavit sermon from 1522, found in Works [American edition] 51:85.
Should we be sensitive to the consciences, sins and weaknesses of others? Absolutely. Should we seek God’s glory, and if Alcohol is a hindrance to His glory or our testimony should we curtail our hobby/experiment? Absolutely.
We are seeking to Glorify and Enjoy God forever in our fellowship, but we may not be doing enough yet. We want Ephah brewing to reach out to those who may not be reached in more “conventional ways”. We want demonstrate that God is good because our drink or hobby is NOT our god, but a pleasure of life that God has bestowed upon us.
Soli Deo Gloria
The Perfect Pour
–Conor
Something that we knew going into this brewing thing is that “live beers” (beers that are brewed and bottle fermented such as our own beers) continue to age as they sit. This aging is much like wine, in that age produces more complex flavors as the beer fully matures.
Problem. Our beers are disappearing too fast, and may not be reaching their full flavor potential. Our Irish red had a haze to it at first, but as the beer has aged, it has become quite clear with a strong head. The flavor is not as rough as it was, and it is a much better beer than it was a month ago.
I think our stout is a true testament that aging produces better beer. At first, I felt it was too sweet, and too watery. Now, after a 2 months of aging, the flavor is on par with any stout. I drank it against a comparison beer (Left Hand’s Milk Stout, a World Cup of Beer Winner) and I prefer ours. It is wonderfully complex and malty, a perfect beer for a cold evening with a pipe.
I would like to see each of these beers mellow for another month, but our Red Ale is GONE and only a couple six packs of our Stout remain. We have been drinking them and giving them away (mostly giving them away) at a pace that has severly depleted our supplies and the ability to fully gauge what these beers would and should be like.
Maybe it is time to brew 10 gallon batches. Now accepting donations for the brew-kettle and related equipment. I promise we’ll compensate you in-kind with good beer.
You'll make it little guy...you'll make it.
–Conor
Conor Pummeling Grains with his Fist--Norris Style
Before the brewing process, have a beer
Ok, we will finally disclose and illustrate the process that we follow to brew a good beer. People have been clamoring for images of us in action. So here it is, people.
At left, you will Find Conor smashing the mess out of some victory malts used for specialty grains–he is using “dragon fist” style. Most people use a rolling pin or bottle for the cracking process, but not Conor. He has knuckles of iron from a strict training regimen. He doesn’t even have to hit the bag–the force of air being compacted between his fist and the grains causes the malts to explode. At right, Elrond complies with Homebrew Rule #1. Drink a beer before you brew, it gets creative juices flowing, and makes the process that much more enjoyable note Conor’s Hoppiness shirt, brought to him from
Breckenridge Brewery. It was secured by Theoden, our ambassador of Brews to K-State. After we have sufficiently crushed the specialty grains, it is time to steep them. This process gives us some special flavors and flavors of our beer. We are steeping Victory and Crystal malts in the following picture.
We aren't playing around anymore.
After the grains are sufficiently steeped, it is time to make the wort. Barley malt extract are the sugars that the yeast eats to create the byproducts Carbon Dioxide (yes, beer has a carbon footprint, which is really cool) Alcohol, and Sheer awesomeness. Most commercial brews have the CO2 and Alcohol parts down, but lack the Sheer awesomeness. That is what makes our beer different.
Cameron is protesting Obama's election by not wearing any shoes for the first 100 days of his presidency
I know what you are thinking…”ok, you have water, malts, where the heck are the hops?” Hold on cowboy, the hops are on their way.
We selected a hop with an English profile in order to fit the style of our beer. Fuggles weren’t available to us, so we chose Willamette.
Hoppiness in action
You probably aren’t interested in varietal genealogical history of hops, so I will spare you this discussion. Elrond adds hops while requiring Cameron’s watchful eye over the process.
Hopping it up
Next, the theological discussion commences while we watch the boil. Wort is a little darker that we thought it would be, but is still within the color guidelines for an English Bitter of “Straw to Chestnut” doesn’t matter to us, as long as it doesn’t taste like garbage disposal dregs.
Specific Gravitas
After the boil, we chilled it using simply by having Elrond give the beer his best icy glare. This scared the crap out of the wort, and it immediately cooled to the desired temperature. We aerated the wort by throwing it between to buckets. It was so foamy that we had to improvise a foam net. This was a brilliant idea devised by our on staff paid process engineer, Cameron (disclaimer: he is compensated in beer only, his health benefit plan and 401(k) match are also in beer-related vehicles.)
We finished with a specific gravity of 1.039 (39) which will put it right in English bitter ranges. Though we are going for an English style beer, we will continue to live our lives American style, which includes brushing twice daily. We don’t want to lose all of our teeth by 30.
And that’s it. More pictures to come of what everybody else (wives, children) was doing that evening, and some nice artsy poses of us in the beer cellar (Cameron’s basement.
Disclaimer: Evan (Cameron's Brother) did not consume any alcohol, he just participated in the theological discussion and looked really good posing by the carboy.
