Short Batch - Smutt-a-Roni

Smutt-a-Roni (first sampled summer'07)
Smutt-a-Roni is a wild rice beer, the recipe of which we stole from the Portsmouth Brewery, which in turn stole from Mike Luparello. Mike is the finest brewer I know currently living in a yurt. He's also a veteran of the Baja 1000. I don't know how that's relevant, but I think it's cool. Anyway, he used to brew at the Portsmouth Brewery and remains both an inspiration and a good sounding board for my own efforts.

The wild rice needs to go through a separate gelatinization than the barley malt, so we took advantage of our decoction capabilities and were able to boil the rice before mixing into the main mash. I used 125 lbs of 100% wild rice, I'm assuming it was Northern wild rice (Zizania palustris.) The typical wild rice package at the supermarket is a blend of wild and white rice. This ended up being about 7% of the grain bill. If I brew this beer again I'll end up bumping up this percentage. The base of this beer is meant to be a real pleasant and somewhat hoppy pale ale. We used Sterling for all the hop additions. Such a nice hop. It adds a really noticeable cherry character to the beer. The wild rice contributes a nutty flavor as well as an earthiness to the flavor.

Malt:
Weyermann Pilsner Malt
Caramel Wheat
Munich
Carafoam
Wild Rice

OG - 14° p
TG - 3.0° p

Hops:
IBU 35

ABV 5.5%

Short Batch - Brett & I

Brett and I (first sampled late '07)
"Brett and I" is a beer brewed in homage to the great Down East humorists Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan (with Tim Sample getting the honorable mention.) If you haven't listened to the "Bert and I" tapes, go ahead and call LL Bean for your copy. They'll give you a good idea of the daily insanity of living in Northern New England. Of course that begs the question of exactly what I'm doing here. But, oh well, it's a great place to drink beer at least. And Brett and I is hopefully a great beer to drink while talking socialism over the back fence with your neighbor Enoch.

Brett and I is obviously brewed with Brettanomyces. We used Brettanomyces claussenii and in our case we used it for secondary conditioning. The original beer was a Belgian strong ale brewed with the Chimay yeast cropped from The Gnome. Still gave us that nice fruity character and still hasn't dropped bright. We ended up kegging the beer after six months of conditioning, but the brett character is still developing. It gives off an interested pineapple aroma and flavor, which I hope will continue to evolve.

Malt:
Weyermann Pilsner Malt
Munich
Wheat
Acidulated Malt

OG - 16° p
TG - 3.5° p*

*This will drop as the brett continues doing its thing.

Hops:
IBU 35

Bittering - Magnum
Flavoring - Liberty
Flavoring - Saaz
Aroma - Santiam

Really Old Brown Dog - First Edition

7/26/07 - Really Old Brown Dog - As many of you know by now, our friend Olive Francis, the Old Brown Dog, passed this winter. The original photo for our brown ale label was taken when Olive was quite young and so last fall Peter and Joanne had some new pictures commissioned. The photos were taken out on one of Olive's favorite beaches and with her favorite easy chair. The desire to use one of these images for a new Big Beer was the inspiration for our Really Old Brown Dog Ale. Usually the style of beer is decided before Joanne works on the label design, but in this case the tail was wagging the dog. Since the name was already decided we figured that something in the Old Ale / Double Brown Ale realm would be interesting. The one definite ingredient I wanted to play with was Brown Malt. I've always really liked the fudge brownie character derived from it. I feel we slightly overdid the addition, as that flavor tends to dominate the beer. For the most part though I was quite pleased with this beer as a nice tribute to our faithful friend and Head Squirrel Wrangler.

Malt:
Pilsner Malt
Pale Ale Malt
Crystal 60L
Brown Malt
Special B

OG - 18° p
TG - 4.5° p; ABV - 7.0%

Hops:
IBU 40

Bittering - Liberty
Flavoring & Aroma - Crystal

Short Batch - The Gnome

THE GNOME (first sampled in early '07)
In the fall of '06 I met Chris Bauweraerts from the Brasserie d'Achouffe at an MBAA meeting in Brooklyn. Having seen one of possibly many Smuttynose logos that are generally strewn throughout my attire, he thanked me for advertising his brewery. After bemusingly accepting his thanks, I had to inquire if he had mistaken me for someone else. But he said no, the IPA we make has two old men sitting next to a "chouffe." I had to laugh. I then asked him if he was taking credit for every gnome in the US. With a quick nod, he curtly and somberly replied, "Yes." So, I figured if Chris could steal credit for all gnomes he certainly wouldn't mind if I poached on the name.

The Gnome was brewed in homage to the recent arrivals of hoppy Belgian beers that we're starting to see here in the US. I was really shooting for that beautifully soft hopping that's found in the Houblon Chouffe, however, the Gnome has developed its own unique characteristics and flavor profile. The base beer is a Belgian triple brewed with White Labs Chimay-style yeast. I really liked the fruit character from this yeast, but man, that stuff still hasn't dropped bright. The hopping was done with Vanguard, Sterling and East Kent Goldings. I think this beer has a lot of potential, though I'd like another shot at brewing the style. There is a very limited amount of this beer, so if you happen to see it on tap, go ahead and share a pint with your gnomies! (Dan Schubert made me put that in. Really. I know it's corny. You gotta blame him. Really: dan@smuttynose.com)

Malt:
Weyermann Pilsner Malt
CaraHell
Cane Sugar

OG - 20° p
TG - 4.2° p

Hops:
IBU 75
Vanguard Bittering Hops
Sterling Flavor Additions
East Kent Goldings Dry Hop

Wheat Wine

12/29/06 - Wheat Wine - The word for this year's Wheat Wine is smooth. Smoother than butter on a baby. Smoother than Reagan in a scandal. Smoother than Charlie in a camel hair coat in Jimmy LaPanza's Lounge. Well, maybe not that smooth.

Of course, last year's Wheat Wine certainly received much attention and seemed to be well regarded. Perhaps it was the 4 month delay in release which built up expectation? After it took a gold medal in Denver it's a bit presumptuous to say we're going to improve upon the recipe, so my focus switched to the process and trying to smooth out some of the heat and other rough edges from last year. We did this by backing off the cane sugar a bit and controlling fermentation temperatures better. At this point it seems like our efforts have paid off. The beer is certainly recognizable from last year, but will hopefully be more approachable in its pre-aged form. Enjoy.

Malt:
Pilsner
Golden Promise
CaraWheat
Wheat Malt
CaraHell
Cane Sugar

OG - 23° p
TG - 4.0° p; ABV - 11%

Hops:
IBU 70
Bittering - Warrior
Flavoring & Aroma - Liberty
Dry hops - Horizon (as well as medium toast oak chips)

Big A IPA - 2006 Edition

7/18/06 - Big A IPA - It's the Return of the Son of the Killer Kielbasa. That's right, Stash Wojciechowski is back from winter training and ready to compete in the Alpha King Challenge. After working with our Lucha Libre friends in Oaxaca he meandered north to sample the great west coast hop offerings. Ever alert, looking for the edge, that minute detail that'll set him apart. How will he fare? We'll see in September.

Stash's judicious study has led him to feel it's all in the late hop additions, the dank aromas. We've been playing with our dry hop technique all winter and now feel we're close. By adding pellets into the fermentor after primary and then transferring onto whole flowers in the bright tank I think we've achieve the quality of aroma we've been searching for. The rest of the beer hasn't changed since last year. Still a very simple grist bill of Pilsner and Pale Ale malt. Bittering hops are the same with Warrior and Cascade. The flavoring and aroma hops are making all the difference. Centennial, Crystal, Amarillo and Ahtanum, can't ask and any better than that. Hopefully you'll enjoy this beer as much as we do. Cheers.

Malt:
Pale ale malt
Pilsner malt

OG - 21° p
TG - 4.2° p

Hops:
IBU 120
Bittering - Warrior, Cascade
Flavoring - Horizon, Centennial
Aroma - Crystal
Dry hops - Amarillo, Crystal, Ahtanum

Farmhouse Ale - First Edition

4/1/06 - Farmhouse Ale - Like almost every other brewer who read Phil Markowski's book "Farmhouse Ales" last year I decided that it was time for Smuttynose to try its hand at a saison. An interesting style considering that in reality the guidelines are so broad. There are some classic examples, as well as some interpretations that are becoming so. We began, as all good brewing should, with tasting. Luckily for us our good friend Lindsey Altshul, who runs a beautiful café in South Berwick (SoBo to those in the know) called "Pepperland," has a cellar full of Belgian beers the likes of which would make a grown brewer cry. He brought a dozen or so varieties of saisons including a vertical tasting of Saison De Pipaix, from La Brasserie a Vapeur of which we tried 3, 9 and an 18 year old examples (if my foggy memory serves). If you have the chance to try an 18 year old Pipaix please do, fantastic.

We decided that it was all about the yeast so we had White Labs send us a pitch of their saison yeast, which I believe is in the Dupont vein. Dr. White suggested that we ferment the beer without cooling and let the temperature rise to wherever it wants to go. Easier said than done, believe me.

The grain bill was very straightforward with a bit of Wheat and Aromatic malts for some subtle character and 6% sugar to lighten the body. We used Sterling throughout the hopping. Once fermentation commenced the temperature went up to 92° F or so. The beer itself fermented very quickly but finished around 4° P. I was really hoping for a dryer finish, and will be looking to correct this for next year. We actually brewed this beer in August of 2005, but are releasing it now because we were unsure if the yeast would continue to drop the gravity and cause gushing. No worries, but it ended up a tad sweeter with a fuller body than I was hoping. There's a gorgeous nose from the yeast. No spices added and yet there's a real nice complexity in the aroma.

Malt:
Pilsner Malt
Aromatic Malt
Wheat Malt
Cane Sugar

OG - 17° P
TG - 3.5° P, ABV - 7.4%

Hops:
IBU 25
Sterling - Bittering
Sterling - Flavoring
Sterling - Aroma

Imperial Stout Returns

3/15/06 - Imperial Stout - After a one year hiatus the Imperial Stout is back in action. We figured that after catching a bit of flack for its absence we'd have it return with a bang. We bumped up the starting gravity from 20° P to 24° P. This allowed the beer to finish just over 10% ABV. Like this year's Barleywine, we've decided to play with the hop character, specifically the dry hop presence. Trying to avoid the fiasco of my previous attempt at adding pellets to the fermentor, I did what any good manager would do: I made Charlie add them. He had the advantage of being able to add the hops directly through a top manway and so his besting me in this challenge is not necessarily a sign of his superior brewing skills but more a reflection of my adventurous, try anything spirit (or at least that's the story I'm stickin' to). The Charles added 44 lbs of Cascade, split evenly between two batches, or about half a pound per barrel. We then transferred the beer onto seventy-eight pounds of an even mixture of Centennial and Columbus whole flowers, about one pound per barrel. The beer is a little top heavy in terms of the hopping but it seems to be smoothing out a bit as it's aging. I'd give it six months or so, if you can wait that long. If not, hey, enjoy it anyway.

Malt:
Pilsner Malt
Munich Malt
Crystal 120L
Carastan 35L
Chocolate Malt
Roasted Barley
Cane Sugar

OG - 24° P
TG - 6.3° P

Hops:
IBU 90
Magnum - Bittering
Cascade & Crystal - Flavoring
Cascade - Aroma
Cascade - Dry Hop in Fermentor
Centennial & Columbus - Dry Hop in Bright Tank