Homebrewing

The All Grain Brewer   |   Thursday, May 17 2012
Attention to detail :  This style of beer takes extremely soft water to get the beer correct to the style.

Last week I evaluated Bohemian Pilsner recipes. This week I have picked and brewed my Bohemian Pilsner recipe. I call it Milk Carton Bottom Pilsner. We can get into the name later.

So after evaluating many recipes for Bohemian Pilsner this is the recipe that I chose:

• 9.5 lbs Pilsner Malt (Best brand)
• 1 oz Melanoidin Malt
• Saaz Hops – 1oz of 5.5% alpha acid at 60 minutes
• Saaz Hops – 1.5 oz of 5.5% alpha acid at 30 minutes
• Saaz Hops – 1oz of 3.0% alpha acid at 10 minutes
• Saaz Hops – 1oz of 3.0% alpha acid at 0 minutes
• Yeast – Wyeast – 2278 Czech Lager, made from a slant, and built up using 4 pints of DME.

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Tastings & Food Pairings

The B'Oracle   |   Wednesday, May 16 2012
Boulevard Brewing Company's Double-Wide IPA :  Just as tornadoes create the illusion of randomness, Double-Wide creates the perception of stability in the stormy, fast rising beer world.

Before humanity started blanketing the planet with his viral influence, tornadoes would troll through the countryside, bumping into a few trees along the way. These incredible forces of nature would uproot trees and fling them across the land like like an angry Charlie Sheen in a Penthouse. With no people to chase, these storms would rip across the countryside and rearrange the landscape. They were uneventful catastrophes to say the least. But as man became wussified and started building shelters to shield he and his babe from the elements, stuff started to get in the way. With roofs flying across the land like a brightly lit Gary Busey and with two by fours cutting into telephone poles, news was invented and gnashing of teeth became a pastime. But standing in the cool mountain air, looking down on the mess, one oddity became very clear.

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, May 14 2012
Green Gold :  The base of beer is the malt, while hops are revered, by the Germans, as “the soul of beer.”

She was like honey, attracting a bevy of buzzing men who seemed intrigued by the sparkle of her tiara. Maybe it was her traditional German costume and scepter, her satin green skirt swishing as she glided across the hall, or the décolletage of her dirndl bodice. Brunette locks framed her face in waves, while her full lips parted to display the pearlescent smile of a queen.

“Veronika? Veronika Springer?” men would ask as they drooled over her lovely figure.

This 2011-2012 Hallertauer Hop Queen was ingénue Veronika Springer, a 21-year-old who had grown up on a hop farm, representing the district of Freising in Germany. Working as a chemical laboratory technician at the extraction plant NATECO₂, Springer epitomizes the soul of the German Hop Growers Association, one which has endured for more than 125 years.

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Homebrewing

The All Grain Brewer   |   Thursday, May 10 2012
Color, flavor, and body :  Looking at two different recipes along with the importance of tradition and the brewing process.

I’ve been thinking about brewing some lagers. More specifically, I have been thinking about brewing a Bohemian Pilsner. Now the quintessential Bohemian Pilsner is Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Republic. I’m sure you have seen it in your local beer store. It’s a great beer, but sometimes those green bottles that the beer is packaged in do not do the beer any favors, therefore, I usually try to drink it on tap.

I have found some different thoughts on the style and a couple of different recipes that I am contemplating.

Traditional Bohemian Pilsner is made from all Pilsner malt, Saaz hops, lager yeast, and soft water. This beer is all about the "brewing process" as the recipe is generally pretty simple. Here is the first recipe that I have been scratching my head over.

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Tastings & Food Pairings

The B'Oracle   |   Wednesday, May 09 2012
Shiner Ruby Redbird :  Spoetzl Brewery's perfect summer beer, it's great for celebrating life and the seasons.

I've spent the better part of my thousands of years here pondering the essence of Nature. It's complicated at best, with the weather systems constantly battering the land, the massive continental plates shifting and exposing their patrons to dramatic changes and the simple but uncompromising method of evolution (survival of the fittest) all pitching in to make rendering a judgment all but impossible. But I am the all-knowing B'Oracle so you know a judgment is near. Are you ready? Yea? Here goes.

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Culture, Society, & Health

The Beer Fox   |   Monday, May 07 2012
Apples, avocados, and sweet potatoes :  Superfoods are magical, strengthening circulation to distribute vitamins and minerals in perfect balance throughout the body.

As the Beer Fox, I often describe beer as the personification of a Supermodel. Each style has its own appearance, with a brilliant, luminous body and head of cream lying thick and moussy on the surface. As you peer through the crystalline glass at this beauty, beads of sweat trickle down the surface.

This beauty needs a partner, one that can stand up as her personal trainer, fortified with antioxidants, monosaturated fats, and phytonutrients. Superfoods may seem simple, but they are heavyweights that can add gloss to the hair and color to the skin.

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