Blackstone Brewery tour and Beer School

The Blackstone beer tour was a great of fun. For those outside of Nashville, Blackstone has been in existence since '94 or so, so they are Nashville's oldest brewer still in existence. They have won many awards at the GABF and WBC, as evidenced by:

Their Porter, for instance, is the most honored porter in the country. It has won more awards than any other beer in that category...

When I got a great Groupon deal to tour their new facility (opened six months ago), I jumped at the chance. The tour (and "brew school") consisted of a 2-hour tour and tasting at their new brewing/bottling facility. 

Arriving at the facility, we were handed our 'beer goggles,' as this is a working brewery:

We were greeted by the owner of Blackstone, Kent Taylor, who informed us of the history of Blackstone and gave a nice "beer school" of the process of brewing:

The tour ended with a tasting of five of the Blackstone beers (four pictured, plus an Irish Stout):

and then finally, lunch and a sampler at the brewpub/restaurant:

Really glad I went.  And what a value...  tour and school, tastings, free sampler, four bottles to take home, and a pint glass for $10!   I didn't learn a lot that I didn't know about brewing, but I learned a lot about their actual setup and history. And also about their future, as it seems they've really set this facility up for the future. Seeing their spiffy new computer controlled mash/lauter/hops/boil/whirlpool setup made me very jealous. And their kick-butt bottling system they bought from Magic Hat pushes 100 bottles per minute (Magic Hat's replacement one pushes 400/min). I wonder if they'd let me use their equipment on the weekends... Apparently I'd only take less than a minute to bottle... 

Interesting side note...  Dave Miller, Blackstone's brewmaster for many years, used to work for Schlafly.  When Schlafly heard about this new brewery that Blackstone was setting up, they approached them about brewing Schlafly Pale for them, as they were exceeding the capacity of their brewery.  Thus, this facility also brews Schlafly Pale for distribution in kegs in this region.

Very interesting day...  Blackstone is at many points in the shadow of Yazoo (and they seem to have a chip on their shoulder about it), but they are a fine brewery who has a fine brewmaster that creates very tasty brews.  They only distribute in middle TN right now, but be on the lookout for their bottles once they expand their distribution.

EDIT:  The Lost Beers did a nice profile on Blackstone, including the publication of five of the homebrew recipes that were used to develop the Blackstone core beers.

#57: Cascadian Dark Ale

First brew of 2012. This is a "clean out the pantry" batch if I ever saw one. I totally cleared out every bit of grain I had in seal-a-meal bags and added 5lb of pilsner malt. I also cleared out two opened hop bags. Somehow these always seem to turn out the best. Normal mash temps (155ish) with a 170 sparge.

Cascadian Dark Ale
American IPA


Type: All Grain
Date: 12/23/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 81.63 %
0.63 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 10.20 %
0.25 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 4.08 %
0.25 lb Cherrywood Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 4.08 %
0.50 oz Chinook [11.40 %] (60 min) Hops 38.6 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.40 %] (30 min) Hops 29.7 IBU
0.30 oz Warrior [15.80 %] (15 min) Hops 15.9 IBU
0.50 oz Pacific Jade [13.30 %] (5 min) Hops 9.0 IBU
0.60 oz Amarillo (Leaf) [8.70 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
0.25 tsp Calcium Chloride (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
3.00 packs ale yeast (2 oz)



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.068 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Adjusted Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Adjusted Est Alcohol by Vol: 4.95 %
Bitterness: 93.3 IBU
Calories: 222 cal/pint
Est Color: 20.7 SRM


EDIT: Missed by volume again. Bummer. Thought I had the math right this time. That would be three in a row with that issue, so I'll have to see what I can do to get it right. The OG was spot on again, but the volume was way low, so of course the OG is different after I topped off. As with the last three... RDWHAHB. Numbers adjusted above...

#56: Light Lager

I've become very interested in creating a pale lager that I will like (as craft pilsners and pale lagers have become some of my current favorites), but also one that my non-craft friends would appreciate. Here goes the latest attempt. This started as the BYO Schlitz (60's/Gusto/current) recipe, but my grain balance is a touch different, and my hop selections were different (they called for Cluster and Fuggles for 60 min and no flavor addition), as I wanted to clear out some leftover hops.

I harvested the lager yeast from my Oktoberfest. Of course, this harvest is kind of backwards, as I should be harvesting from a pale to use in an oktoberfest just in case I impart some Oktoberfest characteristics into the pale. I really don't care if this occurs, to be quite honest, but I washed the yeast well and figure I'll be OK. If the harvest was unsuccessful, I picked up some dry lager yeast as a backup, but the starter was active, so I'm pretty sure I'm OK.


Pale Lager
Standard American Lager


Type: All Grain
Date: 12/31/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal
Brewer: Swenocha
Boil Size: 3 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 lb 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 42.64 %
1.69 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 36.03 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 21.32 %
0.10 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
0.10 oz Pearle [7.70 %] (60 min) Hops 5.7 IBU
0.25 oz Saaz [4.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
0.25 tsp Calcium Chloride (Mash 90.0 min) Misc
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs German Bock Lager (White Labs #WLP833) Yeast-Lager

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.09 %
Bitterness: 11.7 IBU
Est Color: 3.5 SRM

EDIT: Well, a mostly successful brew day other than missing my OG wildly. I lost a bunch more volume to the flaked corn than I thought I would and thus my volume was only about 1.5 gallon. Since this is pale lager, I thought 4% would work as well as 5%, so I topped off with water and moved on. My only concern is that this is two brew days in a row where I've missed my mark after never really having that issue before. I suppose my efficiency could be not where it was on previous runs, but I really think that this one can be accounted for by the massive swelling of the corn. And I don't think I really accounted for the extra boil-off due to the 90 min boil that the recipe called for (instead of my normal 60). Ah, well. Live and learn... Pitched and hopefully things will be rockin' soon...

EDIT: 50 degrees in the fermenting fridge, and a nice layer of trub.

EDIT (3/12):  Five weeks in the bottle at this point, and this thing is exactly what it is supposed to be...  essentially what normal folks call light beer...  Tasty and pretty...

Perfectly carbed and very clean.  Aroma is corn, grain, and a bit of hop.  Next go-around I'll likely hop a bit more, but this really shows promise.  Flavor is pretty solid, though not strong in any way.  Clean, a bit of bitter, a bit of corn, a bit of saaz.  Very pleasant.  Should be even better in another month.

1st attempt at dog biscuits

Post brew session, I decided to try my hand at spent grain dog biscuits.  Here's the recipe I used:

4 cups spent grain
2 cups flour
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Press down into a dense layer on a large cookie sheet. Score almost all the way through into the shapes you want. Bake for about half an hour at 350 F to solidify them. Loosen them from the sheet, break the biscuits apart and return them, loosely spread out on the cookie sheet, to the oven at 225 F for 3 to 4 hours (or until they are really dry) to prevent mold growth. Store in an airtight container to keep them dry and mold-free.

The second bake just commencing.  I pulled a couple to let the doggies (and me) test them.  Pretty tasty, and the dogs are hovering to see if I drop any.  Appears to be a success story...

#55: Two Hearted IPA clone

Wow...  it's been a while since I brewed.  It's been even longer since I brewed an IPA.  One of my favorite IPAs is Two Hearted from Bell's Brewery.  I've wanted to brew one of the countless recipes related to this brew for some time, and I have 2oz of Centennial staring at me in the freezer every time I open it, so here goes.  This is pretty much the BYO recipe, though I am using Notty because it is what I have on hand...


Midway through the hop boil at this point.  Minor catastrophe with a split grain bag (I was experimenting with  a new tool to keep my bag off of the bottom of the pot, and it apparently caught on the bag...  back to the drawing board), but another grain bag as a filter clipped to the top of another brew pot strained things real nice.  Didn't get my usual sparge and lost some wort to the accident, but RDWHAHB...


EDIT:  Well...  with the volume lost with the bag split and the subsequent lack of sparge, my volume was way off.  I figured I could either a) make only a gallon or so of beer that hit my hydro reading pretty well, or b) add water to the wort to reach my volume and make this a light IPA.  I went for option B.  Thus, I am looking at a 4% abv beer.  I also lost a metal binder clip I use to hold the hops bag into the wort and had to fish it out after realizing several minutes later.  Assuming no ill effects from that either.  I tasted the last hydro pull just to make sure there were no off-flavors, but didn't detect any.


Alas, I have a session IPA.  I hope the bitter is not off the chart for this OG...


Again...  RDWHAHB...


EDIT x2:  I have had a day and a half of no activity, which in theory isn't the end of the world, but since this beer has already had issues, I decided to experiment a touch to see if I could get things going, and also to give the ABV a bump. So, I followed normal yeast starter procedures with 1 cup DME and some boiling water, and I also added a pack of booster. Once boiled and cooled, I added an additional pack of Notty, aerated the snot out of it, then added to the fermenter. I ended up mid-Q, so my level is in the 2.4 to 2.5 gallon level. I took a new hydro reading, knowing it wouldn't be 100% accurate with the yeast already added, but it should be close enough. Success on my estimates, as I got it to 6.5%, which was my target. Recipe below adjusted. I see activity already.

Two Hearted

American IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 12/27/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal
Ingredients
Amount       Item          Type             % or IBU

0.50 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 7.08 % 4.50 lb Malteurop 2-Row (2.0 SRM) Grain 63.74 % 0.75 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 10.62 % 0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.54 % 0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3.54 % 0.66 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 0.41 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (60 min) Hops 22.3 IBU 0.20 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (45 min) Hops 10.2 IBU 0.20 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (30 min) Hops 8.6 IBU 0.20 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (15 min) Hops 5.5 IBU 0.20 oz Centennial [8.80 %] (0 min) Hops - 0.81 lb Booster (0.0 SRM) Sugar 11.47 % 1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.089 SG	Revised Est Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021 SG	Revised Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.91 %	Revised Est Alcohol by Vol: 6.53 %
Bitterness: 46.6 IBU	Calories: 298 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.5 SRM

EDIT:

Wow... two weeks in the bottle, and this is great!

EDIT:  Fast-forward to 4.5 months in the bottle.  Still very, very tasty.  Acquired a Two Hearted this weekend, so I did a little side-by-side...  Mine is a bit more pale than theirs and clearer.  Aroma is spot on.  Flavor is pretty darn close as well, though their carries a bit more malt character, which isn't surprising considering the challenges on brew day.  Really, really happy with this attempt.  I hope to have a cleaner brew day next time, but I will definitely roll with this recipe again.

Slow brewing quarter...

Weeellll....  No brewing activity still.  My stats for the year are pretty low.  I guess work and family have cut into my process a bit more than they did last year.  


2010:  77.5 gallons on 33 brews
2011:  49 gallons on 19 brews


Wow...  I was much more motivated last year.  Actually, I think the fact that I'm mostly doing all-grain now, as opposed to extract (and even hopped extract) last year is the big difference.  A much longer brew day.  Luckily I still have a fridge full o' homebrew, so I guess I'm doing enough.  But I still have plenty of styles I want to do, so I'll have to get back on the horse soon...

#54: Oktoberfest/Marzen (AG)

First lager (finally) in the fermenter... It was supposed to go in August, but just now finding time to get it done. I guess I'm looking at a Februaryfest, as I'm looking at 5 or so weeks in fermenters, and then at least a few months lagering in the bottle. Used WLP833 (Ayinger), so it should be a nice clean brew...

Oktoberfest/Marzen (AG)

Type: All Grain
Date: 10/9/2011
Batch Size: 2.40 gal

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.00 %
1.25 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 25.00 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
0.60 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 26.0 IBU
1 Pkgs German Bock Lager (White Labs #WLP833) Yeast-Lager

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.057 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.08 %
Bitterness: 26.0 IBU
Calories: 231 cal/pint
Est Color: 11.7 SRM