Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!

February 7th, 2010

Perhaps the greatest recipe ever, from our CSA newsletter.  Thanks, Enterprise Farms!

2 C freshly ground whole-wheat flour
2 C plain yogurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. melted butter
Soak the flour in the yogurt in a warm place for 12 to 24
hours.  Stir in the other ingredients and thin to the desired con-
sistency with water.  Cook on a hot, oiled griddle.
Serve with butter and maple syrup, or your choice of toppings.
  • 2 C freshly ground whole-wheat flour
  • 2 C plain yogurt
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 Tbsp. melted butter

Soak the flour in the yogurt in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours.  Stir in the other ingredients and thin to the desired consistency with water/milk.  Cook on a hot, oiled griddle (low heat).

Serve with butter and maple syrup, or your choice of toppings.

This recipe will cook much slower than other pancakes, but is worth the wait.

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No-Knead 100% Whole Wheat Bread

January 31st, 2010

We are yet-another-follower of the no-knead bread movement. Several good references available from thekitchn, although we started with a different ww interpretation. Current recipe is a work in progress.

Ingredients:

  • 16oz (3+ cups) wwf
  • 3 1/2++ teaspoons vital wheat gluten
  • 1¼ teaspoons salt
  • ¼ teaspoon instant yeast (or ¼ plus 1/16 teaspoon active dry yeast*)
  • 15oz-by-weight (13oz if proofing yeast) liquid (about 2 cups).  No more than half buttermilk.  Milk, cider, beer, all good.
  • Chopped nuts, etc., for fillings.  3 handfuls, max.
  • Rolled oats/flax seed/additional flour as needed, for crust

Procedure:

  1. *Let yeast proof in ¼C warm water, if necessary.
  2. Combine dry team.
  3. Add yeasty-water + remaining liquid.  Stir with a wooden spoon.  Batter will be “shaggy”.
  4. Cover bowl with foil and let sit 12-18 hrs.
  5. Fold dough over on itself a few times in the bowl.  Add in any fillings.  Let sit another 15 mins.
  6. Shape into dough ball, and plop onto oats/flax/other-crusting-ingredient.  Wrap lightly in t-shirt material, and let rest another 2 hours.
  7. Preheat oven to 425degF.  30 minutes before bake time, put 2qt dutch oven + lid into oven to preheat.
  8. Dump dough into dutch oven.  Jiggle to let settle.
  9. Bake 30 minutes covered.  Remove lid, bake another 15 minutes.
  10. Remove from pan.  Let cool, to extent willpower allows.  Enjoy.

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Rebellion California Common

January 18th, 2010

In counter to the English IPA, a steam beer with American hops.

Ingredients

Grain (amber profile, rev 2)
8 lb Belgian two-row*
1 1/2 lb Victory**
1/2 lb Crystal 90L
1/2 lb Crystal 40L
1/2 lb American dark wheat
1/10 lb Roasted barley***
*Intended to be US 2-row, but they were out.  Also out of UK 2-row.  Kindly, they sold us the Belgian 2-row for the usual US/UK price of $1.50/lb.  Should be indistinguishable.
**Increased from previous recipe to increase maltiy/bready-ness.
**Added to provide a reddish hue.
Hops
60min – 3HBU Northern Brewer, 3HBU Chinook
30min – 6HBU Northern Brewer
10min - 3HBU Northern Brewer, 3HBU Chinook
0min – 6HBU Chinook
Yeast
Wyeast 2112 California lager (our first foray into Wyeast, as they were out of WLP810).

Procedure

  1. Bring 14.5qts water to 138degF.
  2. Acidify with 0.44g citric acid (0.03g / qt).
  3. Add grain (at 65 degF), Temperature stabilized @ 128 degF
  4. Rest for 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes
  5. Bring 13.5 quarts sparge water to 170 degF (target 28 quarts input water)
  6. While stirring frequently, Heat mash to 144-146degF
  7. Rest for 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes (don’t forget to check the sparge temperature)
  8. While stirring frequently, Heat mash to 163-165degF.
  9. Rest for 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes (sparge water at right temperature?)
  10. Sparge into a pair of buckets; cycle ~15 gallons total.
  11. Yield of mash was ~ 4.75 gallons, shorter than expected.  Different mash system loses more water.
  12. 60 minute boil, as per hop schedule
  13. Chill, toss, pitch.  Started in kitchen, a bit cool @ 60-70degF.  OG = 1.080.  WAY higher than expected (1.063, for 4.5gal yield.)

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The King’s English IPA

January 18th, 2010

This was intended to be an Imperial IPA…  but we didn’t get the extraction we were going for.  Thus, we reprogrammed the hops in real time to make this an English IPA.  We think the disconnect was due to starting with hot water, not cold water…  and while our cold water has a pH of ~9.5, our hot water tests at ~6.  Thus, adding the citric acid was a *bad* idea.  Further tests to be done, but we’ll re-try this recipe (with the originally intended hop profile) at a later date, with improved pH control.

Ingredients

Grain (amber profile, rev 2, gravity++)
12 lb Belgian two-row*
2 lb Victory**
3/4 lb Crystal 90L
3/4 lb Crystal 40L
3/4 lb American dark wheat
1/5 lb Roasted barley***
*Intended to be US 2-row, but they were out.  Also out of UK 2-row.  Kindly, they sold us the Belgian 2-row for the usual US/UK price of $1.50/lb.  Should be indistinguishable.
**Increased from previous recipe to increase maltiy/bready-ness.
**Added to provide a reddish hue.
NB:  Assuming the mash ratio of 3.1:1 is right, this (16.5lb) is the max amount of grains we can handle.

Hops
60min – 5HBU Target
45min – 5HBU Target
30min – 2.5HBU Target, 2.5 HBU Fuggles
15min – 2.5HBU Target, 2.5 HBU Fuggles
10min – 2.5 HBU Fuggles, 2.5HBU EK Goldings + 1 pinch of Irish moss
5min – 2.5 HBU Fuggles, 2.5HBU EK Goldings
0min – 5HBU EK Goldings

Yeast
White Labs London Ale yeast WLP013.  (Next time, if warmer, use the more classic Burton-on-Trent variety, WLP023.)

Procedure

  1. Bring 21qts water to 134degF (130degF from the tap)
  2. Acidify with 0.63g citric acid (0.03g / qt)
  3. Add grain (at 65 degF), Temperature stabilized @ 125 degF
  4. Rest for 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes
  5. Bring 15 quarts sparge water to 170 degF (targeting 36 quarts input water, expecting to lose 0.8qts/lb=13qts to the pot+grain)
  6. While stirring frequently, Heat mash to 143-145degF
  7. Rest for 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes (don’t forget to check the sparge temperature)
  8. While stirring frequently, Heat mash to 163-165degF.
  9. Rest for 20 minutes, stirring every couple minutes (sparge water at right temperature?)
  10. Sparge into a pair of buckets; cycle ~15 gallons total.
  11. Yield of mash was ~ 6 gallons, 25 quarts
  12. Mash gravity = 1.056 @ 90degF = 1.060 @ 60degF
  13. 60 minute boil, as per hop schedule
  14. Chill, toss, pitch.  Started in kitchen, a bit cool @ 60-70degF.  OG = 1.075.  Higher than expected; just at the top of the English IPA style definition.  (Original expectation was for 1.084.)

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useful addresses

November 21st, 2009

(just cleaning up the kitchen of odd scraps of paper)

The Brewing Network – Brew Strong.  www.thebrewingnetwork.com .  Water Analysis I-IV

Craftbrewer Radio.  radio.craftbrewer.org

Felt bags.  etcetera media boston.  www.etceteramedia.com

Clay whistles.  Marc Mancuso.  www.marcmancuso.com

Cool Boston photography.  Brian Beaucher.  www.bbeaucherstudios.com .  Mike Ritter.  www.ritterbin.com

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Lessons Learned from 2009 Night of the Funk

October 16th, 2009

We attended BeerAdvocate’s Friday -evening session of “The Return of the Belgian Beer Fest!” with Bob & Linda.  We have been to many of BA’s beer fests in the Cyclorama, and quickly found that we preferred the Friday night sessions due to the smaller crowds, more chill atmosphere, and free waffles.  The waffles were (again) excellent, and the atmosphere was still more-chill, but it seemed that the event planners had increased the number of tickets available for sale…  leading to much longer lines this time.  Disappointing, and we’re considering holding our own, private Belgian beer tasting in lieu of attending this event next year.

Despite all that, some good lessons learned:

++

Cisco Brewers, Stoned Sour Sole (very light candy)

Ommegang, Rouge [BA]**

Smuttynose Brewing Co., Strawberry Short Weiss [BA]

The Lost Abbey, Cuvee de Tomme (amazingly balanced) [BA]**

The Lost Abbey, Sangre Del Christo (just very well done) [BA]

+

Allagash Brewing Company, My Other Brother Darryl

Vichtenaar (disappears in your mouth)

Verhaeghe Echte Kriek

Ithaca Beer Company, Le Bleu (Blueberry sour ale — + for uniqueness)

The Bruery, Sour Rye

The Bruery, White Zin

Chapeau Exotic Pineapple Lambic

St. Louis Fond Tradition Gueuze (light)

o

Allagash Brewing Company, Brother Darryl

Brooklyn Brewery, Wild 1  (medicinal)

Cisco Brewers, H30+

Cisco Brewers, Sans Saccharo

Monk’s Cafe

Petrus Aged Pale

Bacchus

White Birch Brewing, Oro de Calabaze

-

Duvel, Biere De Mars

Haverhill Brewery, Beerstand Berliner Weiss

Haverhill Brewery, Rejuvenation w/ Brett

Ithaca Beer Company, Brute

Orval Trappist Ale

De Proef Reserve Signature Ale

De Proef Saison Imperiale

Smuttynose Brewing Co., Dr. Funkenstein

Weyerbacher Brewing Co., Riserva

- -

Cambridge Brewing Company, Reckoning

No, -10

Harpoon Brewery, Sour Rye Ale

White Birch Brewing, Wild Ale

**indicates available in bottles, hopefully in a market near you.  I mean me.

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Mash Water Chemistry Experiment

August 30th, 2009

We’ve finally decided to exlpore the effects of our water chemistry on our brewing process.  We weren’t thrilled with the extraction from our last two brewing sessions, so it seemed time to investigate ways to make it better.  After some more reading of Charlie’s book, he said many enlighting things about mineral content, pH and even had a table of water properties from classic beer brewing towns.  Then he went on to say …

Consult your local town, city or county water board.  They will usually supply you with free information about the contents of your water.

So, we did!  And what we found was interesting on many levels – both in terms of brewing beer and just understanding the complexities of delivering safe drinking water to large urban areas

We’ve known for some time – due to our tropical fish keeping habits – that the Somerville tap water we brew with has an average pH over 9 – which is really alkaline and perhaps is not the best in terms of sugar extraction.  But using the information from MWRA, we also learned that our Calcium content is very low (5 parts per million) – and according to Charlie – Calcium plays an important role in reacting with phospates that are present in malted barley.

Being geeky engineers, we decided it was time for an experiment!  For this first experiment, we decided to stick with one variable – mash water pH.  Making alkaline water more acidic is easy .. if you have acid!

Apparatus

  • Each Mash: 1 lb US 2-Row, 1 Gallon Somerville Tap Water
  • pH Tester Strips (4.6-6.2 range)
  • Digital probe thermometer
  • “LD Carlson” Citric Acid
  • pH Testing solution & vial from Aquarium Test Kit, pH range 6.0-7.6

Method

  • Put grains in muslin bag
  • Bring mash water to 160 deg F
  • Add grains, leave undisturbed for 1 hour
  • Ladle 750 ml from pot into holding container (taking care not to disturb grain bag)
  • Chilled sample to 60 deF to match calibration temperature of hydrometer

Results

Batch 1 (Control): Gravity = 1.006, Mash pH was over the limit of the pH test strips

Batch 2 (added Citric Acid* to achieve pH = 7): Gravity = 1.000 (WTF?), Mash pH was on the low side, color on strip was like 4.6, but could’ve been lower

* The pH of a single gallon of water turned out to be EXTREMELY sensitive to the citric.  The technique we settled on for adding precise amounts was as follows:  Added 1/4 tsp of Citric Acid to 8 cups of water, and then added that solution – 1 teaspoon at a time – to the 1 gallon of mash water, stopping to check pH after each installment.  We’ll use this same process if we decide to do this during brewing and then take the time to figure out the math.

Conclusions

Well, instead of acheiving some grand clarity in water chemistry (get it – a water joke!), we have gotten a suprise result – the pH balanced mash water gravity was LOWER than the control batch.  Well, it appears our quest to better understand our water chemistry and the mashing process will continue – we don’t give up on stuff easily :)

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Chef Emma’s cobbler

August 11th, 2009

Chef Emma served us up a very tasty berry cobbler.  We hacked her recipe into the following:

On the dry team, we have…

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger/all-spice/cloves

Work in the butter, biscuit-style; add the milk.

2 tablespoons cold butter

1/2 cup [butter*]milk or cider, to texture

*(if using buttermilk, plus-up dry team w/ 1/8t baking soda)

Toss

6? cups berries aka 6 medium apples

with

1 tablespoon cornstarch

and put in baking pan.  Spoon the batter on top of the fruit (should be thick like biscuit dough).  Meanwhile, whisk out the fruit bowl with

1/4 cup [brown]sugar

1/4 cup warm water (or bourbon)

and drizzle on top of the batter.

45 mins @ 350F, or until GB&D.

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Arrogant Bastard: Original vs. Oaked

August 8th, 2009

We found a new version of Arrogant Bastard in the store last week and decided it was a good time for a comparison taste test.  This is really what happens when we have none of our own beer to sample!

We’ve liked Arrogant Bastard for years, and it seems Stone Brewing has decided to up the flavor profile even more by aging Arrogant Bastard with Oak chips.  Personally, I’m more partial to real Oak barrel aging – but using chips accomplishes the same goal (I presume) and is probably a lot cheaper than large oak barrels  (although, just for reference, Dogfish Head has HUGE Oak barrels that are used to age 120 Minute IPA – not to mention the crazy exotic wood barrel made from Santo Marron wood).

Aroma

Original has distinct pine notes and a pronounced malty sweetness, Oaked is more subdued – it’s hard to detect either

Taste

Original: Massive malt and bitterness at the same time, hard to really characterize in words, Oaked: comes on more acidic (my intial reaction was resin like, but not in a bad way), and also seems a little sweeter

Mouth Feel

Original: Coats the tongue nicely, I get an alcohol heat, Jana does not.  Oaked: Does not coat the tongue as much, I think the body is reduced, Jana finds it bigger

Finish

Original: Lingering bitterness, Oaked: Less bitter, slightly sweet, bitterness does not linger as long

Conclusions

I’ve decided I like the Original Arrogant Bastard over the Oaked version.  The new Oaked is certainly still a very good beer – I just think they did a great job with the Original!  Jana has concluded she prefers the Oaked version – less hop bitterness linger at the finish was the key factor.

Secondary conclusion, sitting around comparing high octane beers is fun way to spend the evening!

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Sesame Noodles

August 2nd, 2009

Tyler Florence has an excellent recipe for sesame noodles.  We mostly follow it, though we tend to eat them warm.  Excellent with shrimp and broccoli.  Our modified recipe follows…

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound whole wheat pasta, linguni cut
  • a splash of hot sesame oil
  • canola oil, just a quick turn around the pan
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced
  • 3-inch piece fresh ginger, minced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • big squirt or two of Sriracha chili sauce
  • 1/2 cup Teddie’s peanut butter (or whatever you can get)
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • water as needed

Directions

Cook the noodles.  Drain and toss lightly in sesame oil.

In a small saucepan, heat the canola oil over medium flame.  Saute ginger, garlic, and scallions until soft and fragrant. Mix in the peanut butter, vinegar, soy sauce, and chili sauce.  Add water as needed to adjust consistency.

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