I bottled up the Hefeweisen on Saturday, and after cleaning everything up, the carboy looked so empty and alone. So, Sunday night, I brewed up a batch of Northern Brewer‘s Lefse Blonde (equiv. to a Belgian Abbey Blonde Ale yummmm).

Watching the fermenters boil (6lbs of Bliess Pilsen malt extract and 1lb of soft Blond candi sugar) was the most entrancing thing I’ve seen since iTunes introduced visualizations.

Everything went according to the instructions, down to cutting the heat to prevent a boil over when I threw in the ounce and a half of hops. Gradually bringing the heat back while stirring comfortingly brought everything under control.

I’m already enjoying this batch more than the Hefeweizen, just look at how rich the color and density of this fermentation.

Update July 18, 2008
I popped open the first bottle of the Lefse Blonde tonight. It was very close to exactly what I was hoping for. I would like it to be just a bit crisper. That may mean more hops next time around. Either way, this one was far more enjoyable and ‘on style’ than the Hefe Weizen.

Due to a number of factors: drought, increased corn production, increased demand – there’s a serious hops shortage going on.

If you’re unfamiliar with hops, it’s overly-pronounced flavor in Imperial IPAs like Surly’s Furious, Bell’s HopSlam.

The most approachable and comprehensive article I’ve found on the subject is from Chris Colby’s “The Bitter End: The Great 2008 Hop Shortage.”

NPR covered the story last November^[1] and the Chao Xiong re-wrote the story MadLibs style (swapped in MN breweries) for the Star Tribune today^[2].

Thankfully, Xiong also covered the market equilibrium aspect of the story: brewers (and conceivably drinkers) want to keep the same recipe, so they pay more for less of the same agricultural product. Thus increased prices at the check out as they pick up what hops they can and explore modifications to recipes.

Tim would know better, but I suspect this type of crisis rarely happens in the wine world. Why? One word: vintages.

As in, “1974 was a very good year for Bordeau.”

Inconsistency is baked into the expectation.

Same is true in the extra-specialty coffee world. Beans age (Aged Sumatra) from the moment they’re processed.

Whether grapes, coffee, hops, or barley, agricultural conditions change harvest to harvest, place to place.

Terrior

Consistency is rare in nature. Even rarer in people.

Seems odd that beer should taste exactly the same year over year when everything around it changes, especially for beers that don’t age well (almost all of them).

What if we, as beer drinkers, expected greater variations in the year over year recipes of a given brew while the general feel remained consistent.

Or, I could be completely under-appreciating hops. I do that.

1. Hops Shortage Likely to Boost Price of Beer
2. That cold one is going to cost you more (If you’re looking for a reason to pull commenting from your blog, read the comments on this article).

This weekend, I invited Christopher, the Master in Fermentation Sciences, over to walk me through brewing up a batch of Bavarian Hefe Weizen from Northern Brewer. While I’m sure the extract kit didn’t take full advantage of his expertise, we had an excellent time and I picked up a few tips¹ and got a better understanding of the chemistry behind the instruction sheet.

Here’s some shots of the initial fermentation:

1. Question: How much of the kitchen I can expect the wort to cover if it boils over?
Answer: All of it.

Update July 18 2008.
I haven’t written about this batch. It wasn’t anywhere near what I expected in a Hefe Weizen. It was full with just a hint of the banana-y flavor I expected. I would have preferred the other way around. Unless you knew it was supposed to be a Hefe Weizen, you’d would have been able to identify it. Not good. Glad there’s only a few bottles left.

On the tail of a Twitter conversation on Wisconsin beers and a renewed interest in homebrewing seemed like a perfect time to write up my favorite beers.

My Homebrew Favorites

1. Owd Potters Field Ale
2. Sour Cider – Mach II
3. Sour Cider – Mach I
4. Aloysius Amber Rye – 2011

Top 5 Anytime, Anywhere Beers

1. Rush River Unforgiven
2. Rush River ÜberAlt
3. North Coast Brewing Red Seal Ale
4. Affligem Abbey Blond
5. Two Brothers Brewing’s Cane and Ebel

Special Occasion Beers
One beer at the end of a great day:

• Bockor’s Cuvée des Jacobins Rouge – the fullest, most complex example of a spontaneous fermented Flanders Red I’ve enjoyed to date.
• Samuel Adams’ Wee Heavy
• Staples Mill Brewing Co’s Stout of Morning Destruction
• Barley John‘s The Dark Knight Returns
• Founders Brewing’s Reds’ Rye Ale
• New Holland’s Rye Hatter
• New Belgium’s Trippel
• Two Brothers Brewing’s Oh Brother! Tripel

Killing time on a beautiful spring afternoon at the train station near Hannover:

• Einbecker Mai-Ur-Bock

In Belgium on vacation:

• Westmalle Tripel
• Palm Speciale

Weekend on the river in northern Wisconsin:

• Leinenkugels Red
• Leinenkugels Creamy Dark (after sunset with a campfire)

In Minneapolis (or Portland), watching a local bike derby under pouring rain in October with empties as the course marker:

• PBR

Reading William Gibson

• Tsingtao

(more later)