Allstar Break, I'm back.

Wow,what a hectic month and a half its been.  Between work, moving, traveling, and brewing I have neglected you all and I feel terrible about it.  The MLB All Star game is upon us, and while the Cubs are sending Starlin Castro, really no one gives a care about the game.  Hopefully we will see a Josh Hamilton-esque performance at the home run derby.  Cubs are bad, so that takes care of baseball for the time being. Onto the brewing.

Lets start with the news that Crooked Number should have a logo soon, which will double as a label.  Once I get the finished product I will post it here, as well as add it to the banner on the blog.  When I last left you, I had mentioned I had finished brewing my first ever IPA for a coworkers wedding present.  The recipe is below:

• 14 lbs Pale 2-Row
• 1/2 lb Crystal 60L
• 1/2 lb Malotdextrin
• 2 oz Magnum
• 1 oz Cascade
• 1.5 oz Amarillo
• WLP 001 California Ale Yeast

This resulted in an OG of 1.070 and a FG of 1.008 for an ABV of 8.3%.  This beer is a dark golden color, and an IBU of 84.2 according to BrewTarget.  I will update you with a picture and tasting notes in my next post.

I also started a new tradition of brewing a Fourth of July beer, on the date rather than for the date.  I decided on a Fruit Wit beer for the summer heat.  The recipe is as follows:

• 3.75 lbs Red Wheat Malt
• 6 lbs Pale 2-Row
• 2 oz Saaz
• 1 tbsp Bitter Orange Peel
• 2 tsp Whole Coriander
• WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale Yeast
• 4 lbs fresh Illinois Peaches

During the brew day I ran into issues with my thermometers malfunctioning as well as a boil over for the 5 minutes I wasn't watching the beer.  The OG of the beer was  1.042, which is lower than I would have liked, I think due to my thermometers. Unfortunately, about 3 days into fermentation the beer exploded, due to a clogged airlock.  After closing the lid and cleaning the airlock, I added the peaches to the primary, to ferment for another week before I will rack to secondary.  The beer tasted all right, lacking flavor but I am hoping that the peaches fill that void.

So with the fruit wit on the way, I will begin to ponder my next recipe.  As always thanks for reading, see you soon.

Osama is dead or Friday Links

So I hope to post some relevant links to interesting stuff on Fridays.  Hopefully it will be a mixture of baseball, beer, brewing and bourbon. So here we go!

• Patrick Michael has a great preview of the Cubs upcoming home-stand.
• Aleheads have a great list of Mexican beers in honor of Cinco de Mayo
• Take a minute to read about the legislation going on in Illinois related to craft brewing. 
• Check out the Unitied Countries of Baseball.
• Great Tribune article on Small Batch Bourbon

Happy Friday everyone.

Dark Lord Day or rather Dark Line Day

This year I had the opportunity to attend Dark Lord Day at 3 Floyds Brewery in Munster, IN.  For those of you who don't know, Dark Lord is a Russian Imperial Stout brewed by 3 Floyds, and is only sold once a year.  As craft beer as exploded so has Dark Lord Day.  This event, while considered a festival with beer sales, guest draughts and food, is almost more of a tailgate.  People set up both inside and outside the event with coolers and chairs while discussing the finer points of beer, trading rare brews with others, or touting their nano or pico-brewery.

This years event was touted as more organized, with less time spent in line and more time enjoying the atmosphere.  For comparison, last year I waited in line for over 5 hours to be able to purchase my Dark Lord  with my golden ticket.  There was no rhyme or reason to the line, and near the beginning of it many people would just hop in and get their beer. For yesterday's event, tickets were sold in groups of A, B, or C with different time slots to buy the beer.  Initially there was only one line of  beer buyers in group A, and people just wanting into the festival.  This was caused by the gates opening at the same time as beer sales were to start. Eventually, however, they split the lines effectively making both run smoother and faster.

I would say overall I spent about 2 hours waiting in line for my beer.  Not too bad compared to last year.  But I didn't attempt to even enter the guest draught line due to its hour wait, which is a shame when looking at the list of brewers and beers. Some lessons to be learned for the brewery, in my opinion:

• Create two separate lines for people buying DL vs. people wanting into the premises
• Open the gates an hour before the DL sales begin.
• Add more guest taps or another location with guest beers
• Organize with the neighboring businesses to aid in parking

Now onto the beer.  This year they did not offer samples of the 2011 Dark Lord like last year, so I wasn't able to try it. I am going to let it age at least 6 months before I even consider drinking one.  Here is a picture of one of the bottles.

I was also able to buy and try the Evil Power Imperial Pilsner. This pilsner was quite a bit darker than your average pilsner, with a maltier flavor and a bit more hope bite.  It was still delicious.

Finally, the Cubs are on a 2 game win streak.  Who would have thought? I am loving the production of Castro and Barney, and Zambrano and Matt Garza have been great. Look for posts this week for a mini-keg update as well as (hopefully) the first post about the history of beer and baseball.  Also an update on the Seal Ale and recipe ideas for some wedding beers.

California Common (Steam) Beer and the San Francisco Seals

For my first legitimate post and next batch of home-brew, I am brewing a California Common style of beer, popularized by Anchor brewing with their Steam beer.  This type of beer is an pale ale, but it utilizes a bottom fermenting lager yeast as opposed to top fermenting ale yeast.  Originating in San Francisco, Steam beer has been brewed since the late 19th century, and is as old as baseball.

One of the earliest professional baseball teams in San Francisco was the Seals, a minor league team and  charter member of the Pacific Coast League. The Seals once played 230 games in a season, a minor league (and probably major league) record.  The Seals played until 1957, when the Giants came to town and were forced to move to Arizona.  Notable alumni include pitcher Harry Feldman and Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio.

The recipe for my "Seal Ale" will be as follows:

• 8.5 lbs 2-row Base Malt
• 0.75 lbs Crystal Malt 40L
• 0.5 lbs Dextrin Malt
• 1 oz Northern Brewer Hops for 60 min
• 1 oz Northern Brewer Hops for 15 min

The OG target is 1.048-1.054 and the target FG is 1.011-1.014 with an IBU range of 30-45.  I hope to post a post-brewing update after I brew.

Also a Cubs update, they lost today 12-2 to the Dodgers on a rainy April afternoon.

Baseball, Beer, Brewing and Blogging

So this is pretty exciting. My first blog ever.  Hopefully you can get as much out of reading my posts as I will writing them.  To elaborate slightly on my intent, I hope to share my limited knowledge and insights into all things starting with B, especially Baseball, Beer, Bourbon and Brewing.  Maybe you find a cool little nugget of baseball facts, or maybe find your new favorite beer.  Or maybe you become inspired to brew your own special beer.  Lets see if we can make some goals shall we....

• Bring interesting or offbeat insights to baseball to your knowledge, including but not limited to sabermetrics, ball-parks, baseball history, how the Cubs are doing, etc
• Introduce you to some new beer brands or styles, and somehow tie that into the baseball theme (or not)
• Show you some delicious bourbons
• Share my homebrewing experiences, recipes, and beers with you.

I have no idea how all this will fit together, but who knows maybe we can make it work.  So sit back, crack a beer, turn on the game and enjoy. 

Darren

PS: First legit post to come this weekend.

EDIT: I decided to add bourbon as a killer B