Little Bro

Although not beer related, I couldn't help but post my brother's recent interview on you tube:



Last season, in his first year as head varsity football coach, Jim led the Century Knights to a county championship. If you live in Maryland and want to see some good high school football, head up to Carroll County on a Friday night.

I can't help but be proud.

Good luck this season Century Knights!

-HolzBrew

The difference between a Stout and a Porter

I get asked this question all of the time and I'm not quite sure there is a really good answer. What's the difference between a Stout and a Porter?

It is an understandable question. They look more or less the same, the strength (ABV) is about the same, and gosh darn it if the flavor profiles aren't too terribly different. Every year inevitably a brewer at the Great American Beer Fest, wins a medal in one of the Stout categories and the brewer themselves describe the beer as a porter. See category 72: American Stout from last year's winner list, Dead Reckoning (great beer, by the way) by Troegs Brewing in Harrisburg won a silver medal. Check out the Troegs website, they call this beer a porter. In spite of this phenomenon, Stout and Porter are classified as two separate animals in the world of beer.

First, there are several sub categories of each style, stout has the following: dry stout, sweet (or milk) stout, oatmeal stout, foreign export stout, russian imperial stout, and american stout. The porter sub categories are as follows: brown (or english) porter, robust porter, and baltic porter.

I'm going to focus on american stout and robust porter. The following descriptions are from the BJCP guidelines. Specifically, the flavor and vital stats sections of robust porter:

"Moderately strong malt flavor usually features a lightly burnt, black malt character (and sometimes chocolate and/or coffee flavors) with a bit of roasty dryness in the finish. Overall flavor may finish from dry to medium-sweet, depending on grist composition, hop bittering level, and attenuation. May have a sharp character from dark roasted grains, although should not be overly acrid, burnt or harsh. Medium to high bitterness, which can be accentuated by the roasted malt. Hop flavor can vary from low to moderately high (US or UK varieties, typically), and balances the roasted malt flavors. Diacetyl low to none. Fruity esters moderate to none.

Vital Statistics: OG: 1.048 – 1.065
IBUs: 25 – 50 FG: 1.012 – 1.016
SRM: 22 – 35 ABV: 4.8 – 6.5%"

And from the flavor and vital stats sections of american stout:

"Moderate to very high roasted malt flavors, often tasting of coffee, roasted coffee beans, dark or bittersweet chocolate. May have a slightly burnt coffee ground flavor, but this character should not be prominent if present. Low to medium malt sweetness, often with rich chocolate or caramel flavors. Medium to high bitterness. Hop flavor can be low to high, and generally reflects citrusy or resiny American varieties. Light esters may be present but are not required. Medium to dry finish, occasionally with a light burnt quality. Alcohol flavors can be present up to medium levels, but smooth. No diacetyl.

Vital Statistics: OG: 1.050 – 1.075
IBUs: 35 – 75 FG: 1.010 – 1.022
SRM: 30 – 40 ABV: 5 – 7%"

Pretty similar, no? The only differences are that american stouts are "on average" slightly hoppier and slightly darker in color. Conventional brewing wisdom says that porters are brewed with Black patent malt and Stouts are brewed with roasted barley, but I've seen a study or two that shows only homebrewers stick to this convention, where as, commercial brewers use both malts in formulating their stouts and porters (I wish I could find that study, but alas I have not been able to).

This issue is constantly up for debate, simply use the search function at beeradvocate.com and you'll find many threads discussing this issue: see generally this post.

The history of both styles is very intertwined, for the cliff notes check out the wiki page for stout.

The only observation that I can lend after trying dozens of brews from each style, is that "on average" porters are a little smokier and generally are more likely to have that "burnt" characteristic. Stouts are more likely to have that coffee and dark chocolate flavor. BUT that is a very broad, "on average" observation.

Either way, fall is around the corner and nothing is better on a cool fall afternoon than a fresh stout or porter.

Keep it dark and roasty,

HolzBrew

The End of Summer 2010

Well folks it's over. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. Summer 2010 is officially coming to an end. How can I make such a wild proclamation? First, experience is on my side, I've accurately announced the end of summer 2008 and 2009. Upon checking my records it looks like summer 2009 ended on August 7th at 11:05 pm. This year summer lasted a little longer. What's the deciding factor in determining the end of the summer? Temperature or the lack of summer thunderstorms? Clearly not the case here. Nope, it's the the release of Oktoberfest brews, officially flooding the shelves at your favorite local DC-area beer store.

I've had the opportunity to try the Weihenstephaner and (my long time favorite) Left Hand Oktoberfests and I haven't been disappointed. Nothing says football season is right around the corner than Oktoberfest. Thank God too. I can't take anymore baseball. Living in this corridor of baseball mediocrity (see generally, Orioles and Nationals win-loss records for the last 5 years) wears on you and causes you to become jaded towards the entire sport.

I'll attempt a decent run down of this year's 'fest beers after I've had a few more.

In the world of homebrew I whipped up a batch of Strong Stout 2 weeks ago in anticipation of football season. My inspiration was the XXXXX Stout by Pike Brewing out of Seattle. This is the first time I've used a pacific NW yeast strain, so I'm curious to see how it turns out. Also, I'm kicking around a recipe in my head for a strong Belgian dark ale. Hopefully, I'll have time next weekend to brew it up.

Prosit!

Holzbrew

Enjoying a cask porter at Mad Fox! It's packed.

Enjoying an IPA at the southernmost brewery in the US. Kelly's in Key West. Cheers!

Golden & Strong

Just like Tango & Cash, Golden & Strong make a beautiful yet deadly combination.

For my birthday, my in-laws gave me a colonna corker. As I am excited to use this nasty red corking machine, I decided to brew a golden strong belgian ale Sunday afternoon for ultimate packaging in a wire-cage belgian bottle. I think this one is going to be the 2010 HolzBrew Holiday Ale. Current front runner for a proper name is "Reindeer Games." Thoughts?

I've got a little footage from brew day, that I may package into a montage, but only when I have time to do such things. Currently, I am employing an old homebrew trick to keep my primary temperatures around 68 degrees for the first 3 days. I placed the fermenter in the bathtub with about a 2-3 inches of cool water in the tub. Then I draped an old t-shirt over the fermenter making sure that the t-shirt touches the pooled water. The water works its way up the shirt soaking it through. Next I have a fan pointed at the wet t-shirt which causes the water in the shirt to evaporate faster. As the water evaporates it takes some of the heat from the fermenter with it. Ultimately cooling the fermenter several degrees. As seen below:



It's good for dropping a fermentation a few degrees, so it's great for summertime ale brewing. It's not quite enough for lager brewing.

Keep it cool,

Holzbrew

NHC Update

A big congratulations to Pete Britton (of Lake in the Hills, IL), Brian Steuerwald (of Brownsburg, IN) and Matt Haugo & Scott Wellington (of Aliso Viejo, CA) for taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in Category 22: Smoke-Flavored and Wood-Aged Beer in this year's National Homebrew Contest.

Unfortunately, Old Woodie ("OW") didn't quite make the cut. Actually, I recieved my second round scorecards this week and OW didn't score as well as it had during the first round (average score of 33 in the second round versus 39 in the first round). I kind of suspected that the judging would be a bit tough in the national rounds versus the regional rounds.

See the following link for the results. All in all a great showing this year with well over 6,000 entries. This was my first competition, but I suspect not my last.

Congrats to all winners!

In other news, Meg somehow bamboozled me into doing the South Beach Diet with her. So no beer for me for the next two weeks.

Even though I can't drink it, I suspect I'll be brewing up something during the upcoming July 4 holiday weekend. Stay tuned.

-HolzBrew