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Week Four:Home Brewing

I’ve always liked the idea of the wine connoisseur. Not so much the snooty, fancy pants personality but just learning the different styles and subtle nuances of wine’s many varieties. I want to use words like bouquet, undertones and texture while knowing which wine pairs well with certain foods or which to serve based on season or occasion. Basically, it’s the idea of having a hobby that allows you to learn and explore the many complexities of something you really enjoy while getting drunk at the same time. Sounds perfect, right?

Unfortunately, there is one minor flaw in my plan to become a wine connoisseur. I can’t stand the taste. To my palette, most wines have a musty, dry flavor that I could best liken to the smell of old people. When I go to a liquor store I’m like a kid in a candy shop, fascinated by all the varieties with their fancy names and colorful labels. But the only wines I ever like are the $2 a bottle, ghetto wines that taste more like Kool-Aid. I know there are plenty of wine lovers hating me right now, but I can’t help the way my taste buds have developed.

Beer on the other hand is a beverage I can get behind. Even as a kid, stealing sips out of random cans at family parties, I’ve always loved the taste of beer. Unlike wine, however, I prefer the finer varieties of beer. Therefore, the recent explosion of microbreweries and specialty beers is a lot of fun for me. I love trying new brands and different varieties or seasonals when they are introduced. I’m not sophisticated enough to write up descriptions of different brews with all the associated jargon as previously mentioned, however. I just love the taste of beer and truly enjoy sampling the many available and emerging varieties.

Enter my friend and coworker Michael. Until recently, Michael and I sat next to each other at work and we’ve always gotten along thanks to our similar levels of nerdiness. Whether discussing sports, comic books, movies or television shows our level of obscure and otherwise useless knowledge is just astounding. In addition to such nerdy pursuits, Michael recently immersed himself in the art of home brewing and once again our interests were aligned. Realizing this would make an excellent addition to my list, Michael agreed to be my brewing mentor and a date was set.

Michael and his brewing partner have been working on developing their own recipes for several months. Their experimenting has led to some early accomplishments and they have formed a start up company known as Nickel City Brewing (http://nickelcitybrewing.wordpress.com/). Although still in the preliminary stages, I have sampled several of their varieties and am confident they will have success in the future. Not only can they make a delicious beer but the clever, locally inspired names never fail to entertain. Among my favorites are the Burbage Irish Red and the Courier Express Lager.

I arrived at Michael’s apartment last Saturday afternoon to begin my latest adventure. Unfortunately, his regular brewing partner was unable to join us for this session. Upon my arrival Michael was in the process of cleaning and arranging the necessary implements for our day’s work. Among these tools of the trade were a large black kettle, a 5-gallon plastic bucket, a medium-sized steel bowl and some coiled copper tubing. Michael then gave me an introductory tour of the beer room which included numerous jars with different varieties of grain as well as several more buckets and a water cooler filled with assorted brews in various stages of fermentation.

The brewing process began by deciding the type of beer we would brew. Our choice for this batch was oatmeal stout (Ebenezer 1789, named after Buffalo’s first mayor). Stouts are my favorite variety of beer and having previously sampled some of Nickel City’s version I was very excited to be part of the process. The first step was to measure the correct amount of the different varieties of grains necessary for the oatmeal stout, including some delicious smelling chocolate grains. Next, Michael began filling the large kettle with 5 gallons of filtered water while I used a coffee grinder to refine the necessary grains and mix them together with some dry oatmeal. I can’t reveal the exact grains or measurements of each because I would hate to expose Michael’s secret recipe. Also, I honestly can’t remember, I was just following his lead.

This mixture was then poured into a mesh bag that looks and acts like a large tea bag. After bringing the water up to the appropriate temperature the “tea bag” was dropped into the kettle where it had to stew for an hour. We used this time to clean up some of the mess we had already made (which was surprisingly a lot) and I promptly spilled a large amount of water on Michael’s kitchen floor. More work for me.

When this hour was up we removed the “tea bag” and were left with a lovely concoction known as wort. After adding some hops and malt extract, the wort is then brought to a boil, which must be maintained for another hour. There’s definitely a lot of down time when making beer but I used most of it to badger Michael with my endless questions of the brewing process. I’m no expert at this point, but I make relatively competent apprentice.

Now the next step of the brewing process involves some very exciting thermodynamics! After boiling for an hour, the aforementioned copper tubing is connected to the sink and cold water is pumped through it so the wort can quickly cool. Once it reaches approximately 80 degrees yeast is added and the wort is transferred to the 5-gallon bucket. After the incident with the water, Michael decided to do the pouring while I held the bucket. This was probably for the best. The bucket is then tightly sealed and a fancy little tuber is inserted in a hole in the lid to help release the carbon while keeping the oxygen out. (Note: Please forgive me if I’m getting any of these terms or processes wrong. I was an average-at-best Science student in high school and this post is definitely not meant to serve as a “How-to” on home brewing.)

While most of the manual labor is finished the brewing process is far from over. What comes next is, of course, more waiting. Brewing is all about patience and attention to detail, neither of which are my forte, but I digress. After two weeks of fermenting in the bucket or “primary storage”, the brew will be transferred to the water cooler. Another 10 days or so in this “secondary storage” and the beer can be bottled. However, these bottles will then have to sit a bit longer before they will be fully carbonated and ready to enjoy. I will be sure to post updates as the process continues and if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll share some of my delicious, little brew child. In the meantime, however, I highly recommend you check out Nickel City Brewing. They really are doing a fantastic job and if you’re a beer lover, you should take any available opportunity to sample their wares. http://nickelcitybrewing.wordpress.com/