The Saccharomyces brothers, Pastorianus and Cerevisiae, are recognized as being the lager and ale yeasts of beer production. While they have been doing a good job of creating dozens of different, recognized styles of beer, it seems brewers are looking to a new yeast to do their bidding.
Now it’s the Brettanomyces family of yeasts that are getting all the attention. It seems these days that if you want to stand out amongst the nearly 2,000 breweries in America, you need to either barrel age your beer, add wild yeasts to the fermentation, or both. “Brett” is the new buzzword amongst craft beer followers. There’s no limit as to what beers you can spike with Brettanomyces. Lambics, farmhouse ales, saisons, etc are the standard. But breweries like Anchorage, Jolly Pumpkin, and The Bruery are putting Brettanomyces in white ales, IPAs, and even stouts!
Flavors of Brett fermented beers range and vary depending on the strain of Brett used and whether it is used in primary fermentation or in a secondary fermentation. You may either not notice a difference in a beer with Brett, or it may be a little tart and fruity, or very funky with complex aromas and flavors of a wet horse blanket (appetizing, right?).
I am not very well versed when it comes to Brettanomyces in beers. If you want more information, I highly recommend you check out Embrace The Funk’s website.
If you want to buy a few Brett beers in Las Vegas, check out Whole Foods or Khoury’s Fine Wine. Both tend to have a very good selection of Brett fermented beers.
It is surprising to me that craft beer drinkers are too often not always craft food eaters. Craft beer drinkers are often proud of the fact that their beers do not contain the adjuncts or chemicals that the large macro brewers use. However many will happily eat low quality, mass produced food.
When Stone brewery first opened their restaurant, they created a menu that contained as much of a focus on quality ingredients, as they have on their beer. The result was their guests often complaining that they didn’t sell cheap bar food. In addition to being the largest purchaser of organic food in San Diego, the brewery even purchased a farm last year so they can even start growing their own vegetables. Stone’s World Bistro and Gardens is a great resource for how to merge craft beer with high quality food.
Here in Vegas, we have several restaurants that do focus on both craft beer and food. Public House and Todd English’s PUB immediately come to mind, along with a few others. However, it isn’t practical for anyone to solely eat at these restaurants everyday, so what can someone do at home to enjoy both craft beer and food?
The first step is to start cooking, using as few prepared meals/ingredients as possible. Buy fresh meats and vegetables and prepare it yourself. I’m not saying you have to buy organic foods, and I’m not saying that you even have to eat “healthy” foods (though both are good options), all I’m saying is that you make your own food from fresh ingredients. Write down a few of your favorite foods, and look up recipes to make it yourself. If you love pizza, buy cheese, sauce, pepperoni, dough, and make it (even better, make your own dough). Do you like hamburgers? Heat up the grill and start making your own burgers. If you want to go to the bar and eat chicken fingers, then you should make your own. I guarantee that if you buy fresh chicken and make your own beer batter, it will taste better than anything you can buy in a bar where the focus is solely on making chicken fingers as quickly, and cheaply, as possible. There are many things added to these foods when you get them at your local bar that you would never use at home. Restaurant food is known for having ridiculously higher sodium levels than the freshly homemade equivalent. The fresher your ingredients, the more flavor the food will have and you will need less salt and fat to make it palatable. Even if it’s a bacon cheeseburger, the home cooked option is more likely to taste better and be better for you (bacon is a nutrient right?).
There are two things you will learn once you start pairing great food with great beer:
1. Great food will make a great beer taste better. The rich, hearty flavors in great dishes will match the quality of the beer and increase its refreshing characteristics.
2. Great beer will make your food taste better. Because the quality of the food matches the beer, the flavors in the beer will match the flavors in your food. The caramel sweetness in a brown ale will match, and increase, the sweetness in barbecue. The light tartness in a hefeweizen will match and highlight the lemon flavors in seafoods, salads, or other dishes seasoned with lemon. Because beer and food have so many similar flavors, you will find a near infinite amount of ways to match food with beer.
I am confident that once you begin to drink your beer with better quality food, you will enjoy both even more.
If you need help with recipes (especially ones using bacon and beer as ingredients) contact Hooked on Hops’ own contributor, Goran Cvijanovic. You can view a few of his recipes here on the site as well.
Earlier I mentioned the struggles Stone had getting their guests to enjoy and appreciate high quality food. You can read more about this, and even get some recipes from the restaurant in their book.
The short article above points out that while Dogfish Head and Sam Adams may argue their “overrated” status as simply a result of their popularity, the truth is that a majority of the posts on the Beer Advocate thread that started all this, was based on the quality of product not matching the price charged for some of the more hyped beers.
I can see both sides of this argument. It is understandable that if you are going to spend more money on something, you expect it to be better than something that costs less. The other factor however, is that some beers simply cost more to make. Dogfish Head makes several seasonal beers that cost anywhere from $8-$16 for a 25 oz bottle. These beers will include ingredients that are not typically in traditional beers, causing the beer to cost more to produce and in turn, more to buy. However, most of these beers are unlike anything that costs less, both in magnitude of flavor and texture. Due to the intensity of these beers, an individual’s personal taste preferences play a much bigger role.
This leads me to believe that the reason people find Dogfish Head overrated, is because of both price and popularity. I think this is an overarching issue for craft beer in general; public interest in craft beer has grown tremendously without public knowledge of craft beer growing to match the interest. Many consumers are buying the higher end craft beers without fully understanding what it is exactly they are spending their money on, why it costs the way it does and when it would be appropriate to drink said beer.
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA costs around $8-$10 a six pack. 120 Minute IPA costs the exact same, but for only one 12 oz bottle. It has close to the same amount of ingredients as the six pack and takes much longer to produce. Economically, it makes sense why it costs what it does. However, this is not a “better” beer and it can never take the place of 60 Minute IPA in the situations where 60 Minute really shines. If you are having a barbecue on a hot summer day, I do not recommend you drink a six pack of a sweet, syrupy, 18% alcohol beer.
What is the right way to price beers? For beers brewed in America, I feel the current prices make sense. Granted, I’m comfortable enough in my knowledge to know what I’m getting into if I decide to spend a bit more on something. I’ve rarely (if ever?) spent more than $10 on a beer and didn’t like it. This isn’t to say that I have some sort if refined palate or anything, I just know what styles I appreciate and enjoy more and what styles are on the opposite end of that spectrum. There are certainly beers I would not pay more than $10 on. Not because they are bad beers, they are simply not styles that I like enough to spend that much on. I’ll happily spend more on a good barley wine or stout, but a Flanders ale? Not so much.
But what tools are available to the average consumer who may not know what their preferences are? As craft beer becomes more popular, I see the need for more professionals who have a strong knowledge of beer being needed in customer facing environments to help guide the consumers to the best choice for them. The staff at a retailer, restaurant or bar should be knowledgeable enough on their selection to help guide and educate consumers on what beers they should try and which ones they should be steering clear of. Otherwise, without these resources we are doomed to continue in the future of these polar views of what beer is good and what is overrated.
What craft beer can learn from metal
I originally sat down to write about more of my San Diego visit, but then I found inspiration from another source: Sam Calagione’s rant about overrated breweries. (which you can read here: http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/4343008)
Since I picked up …And Justice for All, I have been a metalhead. Through Metallica, I discovered Slayer, then Iron Maiden, then Testament, S.O.D., Death Angel, Sodom, and the list goes on. Next thing I know, thanks to accidentally tuning in to 91.5 college radio (back in 1994), I was plunged into a whole new world of darkness. I discovered extreme metal. Metallica, Testament, and Death Angel were replaced by Darkthrone, Cannibal Corpse and Decide. What does this have to do with beer you ask? Follow with me.
I used to hate beer…HATED it. Budweiser, Coors, Corona. I asked myself how anyone could drink this crap (Note: I still do.). One day at a wedding, my friend Jason made me reluctantly drink a beer with him. That beer was Newcastle, and a new love for beer began. From Newcastle, it was Guinness, or whatever fancy sounding beer that I could find at my local grocer. After reading an online beer blog, I went in search of Dogfish Head and Stone. My tastebuds, and my life to an extent, would be forever altered.
After my first experiences with true craft beer, I knew I could never go back. From Stone and Dogfish Head, I went on to try Rogue, Anchor, New Belgium, and the like. The more I got into beer, the more I started to seek out lesser known breweries and indulge in the fermented goodness that they had to offer. I still loved my Dogfish Head and my Stone, but I started to see them as breweries that were too well known to satisfy my palette. I made a huge mistake.
Fast forward to the early turn of the century. The bands I mentioned earlier, Darkthrone, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide were not what they used to be. People started calling them mainstream and searching for darker and more obscure music. Xasthur, Leviathan, and Pest were in, while the old guard were overrated. Metal fans became divided. Black metallers hated thrashers. Death heads hated power metallers. The Neo-Socialist black metal fans hated everyone (and everyone hated them). Words such as “trendy” were being aimed at bands that never sold more than 10K records, and the genre became more about street cred, than about the music.
I already see this happening with craft beer fans. People are turning their noses up at great breweries, because they have become “too big.” It’s becoming more about trying the most obscure ales that you can, rather than drinking the more common craft beer that you can find at your local wine shop. Stout fans talking crap about Stone. Porter fans snubbing hef lovers. Everyone still hating InBev fans. (That last one is not a bad thing.)
If you haven’t heard about the bands I listed earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised. I expect it. As metal fans became more divided we effectively killed every chance we had of the bands we love becoming big. As the scene split further and further, the originators were left behind, and new bands still have trouble gaining any following. I wish I could say there is a happy ending to this, but there isn’t.
However, there are bands that have “made it.” I’ll use the bands Enslaved and Emperor as examples. What these bands did, was refuse to rest on their laurels. They continued to experiment and to push the boundaries of what they could do. While the so-called true metalheads may shun them, they have an entire fan base that is happy to enjoy the music that they craft. Sound familiar?
Dogfish Head and Stone have never sat back and become complacent. They continually work at crafting new and interesting brews. They continue to gain new fans and continue to grow.
As craft brew fans, we need to applaud this. We need to support the breweries that are doing things to help the industry grow. When we start throwing around terms like “overrated,” we start to polarize one another, and the community begins to slowly break down. If the community breaks down, then the brewers that work so hard to produce the liquid that we love will never be able to see that work pay off.
I love Stone beer. I love Dogfish Head. I would love to see more and more beer drinkers reaching for 60 min. IPA and Arrogant Bastard than Bud Light and Coors. I myself realized that the more I searched for obscure beer, I was missing out on fantastic beer that was sitting right in front of me.
This is not to say that seeking out new brews is a bad thing. It’s just that we can never forget what got us here, and the breweries that are trying to make it better for everyone. I believe that Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head and Greg Koch from Stone want to see craft beer continue to grow. At the end of the day, they’re beer geeks, just like us. So I urge everyone to continue to spread the word about craft beer and to show respect to all craft breweries.
No one remembers great metal bands such as Manes, Death Reality and Mindset Rage. If we continue to break apart our community, the same fate may be in store for a lot of great breweries.
Trying to explain yeast and what it does is much more difficult than trying to explain the other components of beer. Because of this, I have broken up my discussion of yeast into several posts. This is the third and last post in which I describe what affects fermentation.
As previously discussed, both species of beer yeast consume sugars and leave alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste products. I also mentioned previously that the process of fermentation was seen as a gift from god by early civilizations due to their lack of knowledge in unicellular microorganisms. Even today, with this understanding, it is also understood that brewers make wort, yeast make beer. Understanding what affects the yeast to do its job is what allows us today to successfully ferment at an expected level.
It is important to remember that yeast is a living organism, just like humans. While we have human civilizations living all across the world, there are certain conditions that must be met to allow us to survive and live in extreme conditions. If our body temperature gets too cold or too hot, we die. While humans can live and grow eating poor quality, empty calories, we can grow healthier and stronger with proper nutrition. It is also important that we are protected from bacteria and toxins which harm us, even one’s that our body produces.
Each strain of yeast has a temperature range in which it prefers to exist in. In general, lagers are known for their cold fermentation temperatures, in the 40’s-60’s (fahrenheit). Ales however, are known for their warmer temperature ranges, from the 60’s-70’s. The specific range that a given strain is meant to ferment at, ensures that the yeast remain healthy and actively consuming sugars. Should the temperature get too low, the yeast goes dormant and stops fermenting. Should the yeast get too hot, it will still ferment, however it will produce off-flavors that are not ideal to the flavor of the beer. To compare it in human terms, if you get too cold, you get hypothermia and go dormant (in a sense). Or compare doing housework inside your air-conditioned home as opposed to doing yard work in the middle of summer. You won’t die working outside, but you will smell a lot worse!
While yeast consumes sugar as it’s main diet, there are important other minerals that keep the yeast healthy enough to keep consuming sugar, much like us humans need adequate amounts of the appropriate vitamins and minerals in our diet. In the case of yeast, calcium, magnesium and zinc are important. Magnesium, for example, allows for better cellular metabolism, allowing the yeast to convert energy to continue consuming as well as reproduce. Some of these nutrients come from the malt and some come from the water. The water is an area that many people do no consider enough in beer making. Purified water is not ideal in brewing as it has been cleaned of all it’s minerals. Chlorinated water affects the yeasts ability to live and properly grow. Besides affecting the yeast, water chemistry also alters the mashes conversion of starch into sugar and the affect hops have in beer.
Lastly, while we may enjoy the alcohol and carbon dioxide in beer, remember that those are waste products to yeast. Imagine for a moment if you were trapped in a jail cell with no toilet. Yeah, exactly. Different yeast strains have difference tolerance levels for alcohol. If a particular strain doesn’t have a very high tolerance, than it won’t be ideal to use when making a barley wine. Instead of a high alcohol beer, the yeast will die off as the alcohol content rises leaving you a beer that has less alcohol and tastes rather sweet. Even commercial breweries like Dogfish Head have difficulty when making their 20% 120 Minute IPA. On the TV show Brewmasters, Dogfish Head was forced to dump an entire batch due to the yeast not finishing the fermentation.
Whether you are brewing a high alcohol beer, a lower session-style beer, it is important to consider all of these facts when it comes to brewing. Use a strain that’s best suited for the style being made. Ensure that you have the means to keep the yeast at the correct temperature specified for a given strain. Most people make a yeast starter, which is essentially a small batch of beer made for the same purpose that sports teams have pre-season games. It gets the yeast started fermenting and reproducing so it can be strong and ready for the main event. The higher the alcohol the beer will be, the more yeast will need to used. Consider trying to build a house by yourself as opposed to entire team of people. Sure you might be able to finish the house alone, but it’s going to take much longer and likely be of a lesser quality than one built by 10 people.
There is still much more to be said about yeast and it’s affects on beer making. As I mentioned a few times, while there are two main species of yeast, there are over a hundred strains within those two species, each with different levels of attenuation, flocculation and alcohol tolerance. All yeast give off different levels of the off-flavors that are a part of normal fermentation. In some strains of yeast it may be more of a particular flavor, that is best suited for one style of beer, but not another. In addition to these two species of yeast, there are other wild yeast strains that are used for the affects that they have on beer. For example the brettanomyces strains can consume even more polysaccharides than ale or lager yeast can, and it also produces some tart flavors. Some brewers will add this after completing a fermentation with an ale yeast, or some may completely ferment a beer using only this yeast. There are endless possibilities. To be a great brewer, you must truly understand how to use yeast.
Trying to explain yeast and what it does is much more difficult than trying to explain the other components of beer. Because of this, I have broken up my discussion of yeast into several posts. This is the second post in which I describe what yeast does.
In the first post on yeast I described the two types of yeast, ale and lager yeast. To explain the differences, I first want to explain the purpose of yeast in the process of making beer, or any other alcohol for that matter.
Ethanol Fermentation: Ethanol is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Yeast produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as a waste product of consuming sugar. Chemically, one part glucose (a simple sugar molecule) is broken up and converted into two parts ethanol and two parts carbon dioxide. The balanced chemical equation looks like this:
C6H12O6 —> 2C2H5OH + 2CO2
In the case of bread making, the carbon dioxide is what causes the dough to rise and the ethanol gets evaporated when baked. In beer making, the ethanol and carbon dioxide stay in the beer with the carbon dioxide being the source of carbonation.
While the above equation shows the fermentation process of a simple glucose molecule, not all sugars are that simple. The above glucose molecule is called a monosaccharide. More complex sugars form compounds called disaccharides or trisaccharides. Whereas all the monosaccharides and disaccharides will be fermented, the trisaccharides and larger polysaccharides are another story.
Prior to the beginning of fermentation, brewers measure the density of the wort. It’s the sugar within the liquid that causes the wort to be denser than pure water. As the yeast consume the sugars, the density drops, though never all the way down since the complex polysaccharides are more than the yeast can handle. The amount that a strain of yeast can decrease the density of the wort is called attenuation. Lager yeast typically has a higher attenuation than ale yeast, meaning that more of the larger polysaccharides get consumed into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The result of this is that lagers are known for their dry, crisp taste and feel whereas ales leave more residual sugar behind giving them a bit more of a complex taste that is typically described as fruity.
As the yeast is actively consuming sugar, they are simultaneously multiplying as well. The amount of yeast within the vessel increases. When using ale yeast strains, the yeast all rise to the top of the wort. Lager yeast, on the other hand, sink to the bottom of the vessel. For this reason, ale yeast is often called top fermenting yeast and lager yeast is called bottom fermenting yeast.
Once fermentation is complete, any yeast suspended in the beer clumps together and sinks to the bottom as it becomes dormant. The amount that the yeast will clump together and sink is called flocculation. Many beers have a relatively high flocculation rate however the yeast strains used in wheat beers have a low flocculation rate, which is why hefeweizens are cloudy looking.
This was a long article containing lots of big words and chemistry. The next yeast article will focus on the factors that affect fermentation, primarily temperature, which is the last main difference between ale and lager yeasts.
Trying to explain yeast and what it does is much more difficult than trying to explain the other components of beer. Because of this, I have broken up my discussion of yeast into several posts. This is the first post in which I describe what yeast is.
Yeast is the unsung hero in beer making. An old brewing saying goes: “Brewers make wort, but yeast makes beer.” This quote stems from the fact that yeast has the most important job and without it, there is no fermentation and no alcohol. Prior to the discovery of what yeast is, ancient civilizations found the fermentation process to be a gift from the gods since the process was seemingly out of their control. You can’t force the yeast to ferment, it is a living organism and can at times be difficult to deal with.
So what is yeast? Yeast is a unicellular microorganism in the fungus family. While there are 1,500 different species of yeast, brewers are concerned only with 2: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces pastorianus. They are also known by their easier to pronounce nicknames: ale yeast and lager yeast.
All beers are either an ale or a lager. The differentiating factor between the two is determined by what species of yeast is used, saccharomyces cerevisiae being the ale yeast and saccharomyces pastorianus being the lager yeast. Within these two species are many strains of yeast.
To understand what the differences are between these two species of yeast are, it is best to understand what it is that yeast does to wort and what affects its ability to do so. In the next article, I’ll detail the purpose of yeast.
This article was previously posted on the Examiner as part of my Science of Beer series.
This is part two of a multi-part article on the science behind making beer.
Beer is composed of only four ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. Hops are the one ingredient that most people know the least of. Why are they added to beer? What is their purpose?
Hop plants are part of the hemp family Cannabinaceae. The Cannabinaceae family then breaks down into two genera: Cannabis, from which hemp fibers and marijuana come from, and Humulus. The Humulus genus is where hops come from. The Humulus genus breaks down into three different species, two of which are different Asian hop varieties and then there is Humulus lupulus, which containes the European and American hop varieties that are typically used in beer production.
Hop plants grow as a bine, similar to a vine however its method of climbing and attaching itself is different. The female hop plants create a flower cluster called a seed cone. This cone is similar in shape and purpose to other plant cones, like pine cones. However hop cones are green, soft and very leafy as opposed to the rigidness of the pine cone. These cones are the parts of the plant that are plucked and used in beer.
When brewing beer, malted barley is mashed in hot water to extract the sugars. The sugar water, called wort, is then drained where it moves to the next part of the process, the boil. Wort is boiled for about an hour for the purpose of both sanitizing it, and to boil off some of the water leaving the sugar concentration higher. It is during this boil that hops are added as well.
Hops serve three different purposes in beer: adding bitterness to balance out the sweetness in the wort, adding a pleasant aroma to the beer, and to prevent spoilage.
Hops contain an internal resin that contains both alpha and beta acids. Alpha acids contribute bitterness and beta acids contribute aroma. Thus the varieties of hops that contain high levels of alpha acids are called bittering hops and the varieties that contain higher levels of beta acids are called aroma hops. Bittering hops are added earlier in the boil because the alpha acids need heat to break down and be released. The earlier in the boil they are added, the more heat is added and thus the higher level of bitterness is added to the wort. Beta acids, on the otherhand, do not need heat to be released so aroma hops are added at the very end of the boil or even during the fermentation process. Adding hops during fermentation is called dry-hopping and is done regularly in many ale styles. Adding aroma hops during the end of the boil or during fermentation adds only more hop aroma without adding additional bitterness.
Lastly, hops help to prevent spoilage in beer. The alpha acids have a natural antibiotic and antibacterial quality to them. Prior to beer production, hops were used as a form of medicine because of these qualities. The antibacterialness of hops was realized when Britian began trading with India. Beer was produced and brought aboard ships for the sailers to drink during the voyage to India. By the end of the trip, most of the beer had been spoiled. However the beers that had hops used instead of other bittering herbs were not spoiled since any bacteria it came in contact with were killed by the alpha acids in the hops. Thus more hops were added to beer to ensure it would would not spoil during the trip to India; and with that the IPA, or India Pale Ale style was born!
Once the boil is complete and hops are added, the wort is then chilled and yeast is added to ferment. Yeast and fermentation will be discussed in a future article.
This article was previously posted on the Examiner as part of my Science of Beer series.
This is part one of what will become a multi-article study into the science behind making beer.
Apart from water, barley is the main ingredient in beer. The barley is what determines the color and primary taste as well as dictates how much alcohol will be present within the beer in the end.
To create malt, barley grains combine with just enough water that they begin to germinate as though they are being planted into the ground. When barley begins to germinate, it releases an enzyme called amylase. The purpose of amylase is to break down the starches within the barley into smaller carbohydrates that can be used as an energy source for the sprouting plantlet. Human saliva also contains amylase to begin breaking down the food we eat before entering the stomach. Without amylase to break down the carbohydrates, sugars cannot be extracted from the barley to later be converted into alcohol.
In order to stop the germination process, heat is applied to the barley to completely dry it out. This process can be done in a number of different ways and is what differentiates one type of malt from another. Either the heat can be slowly and gradually added to the malt, leaving the color pale with no noticeable roasted characteristics, or it can be left heated long enough that the barley darkens and turns various shades of brown or even becomes blackened. Another common method is to add a very high heat very quickly to caramelize the outer edge into a reddish color. Depending on the combination of malts used in a brewing recipe, the flavor and color of the beer can be determined.
Breweries typically purchase barley already malted and will then begin the first step of creating beer, mashing. Mashing involves milling the grain and letting it soak in hot water, typically around 150 degrees Fahrenheit, for about an hour. The ultimate goal in mashing is to release the sugars from the malt into the water creating a sweet liquid called wort. Wort is simply unfermented beer. Later when yeast is added to the wort, sugars are converted in alcohol and thus wort becomes beer.
The amount of malt used in a beer will vary from one recipe to the next. Since the purpose of malt is to release sugars that later get converted into alcohol, you would typically add more malt if you want more sugars, and in turn, more alcohol. For 5% alcohol by volume beer, you would use about one pound of malt for four pints. If this beer were to be one 15 gallon keg of beer, about 30 pounds of barley would need to be mashed.
Once the malt is mashed, the wort is drained from the grains and moved on to be boiled and have the hops added. This will be discussed further in a future article on hops.
A vast and expansive book, The Craft of Stone Brewing Company succeeds in so many levels for its varied topics and sections. You need not only be a Stone fan, or even a beer fan, to enjoy this book as it also includes various food recipes as well. Even better, the entire book is written in the same arrogant sarcasm that Stone is known for. After all, the subtitle is Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes and Unabashed Arrogance!
While the book does include other topics, the main point of the book is on the company. The history of how Greg Koch and Steve Wagner met along with how the company grew is detailed. The book is filled with side bars from each other giving different perspectives on how each felt at different stages. Also included is stories of other people involved in the history, like the illustrator for the now recognizable gargoyle motifs.
The real highlight in this section is the history of their beers. Every official beer they’ve made is listed along with a brief history or flavor profile and primary hops used. Also included are each year of their anniversary beers, each year of their Vertical Epic series and their collaborations. The only beers not listed here, are the ones released after this past spring and their beer variations (bourbon aged, double dry-hopped, chipotle pepper etc).
The other section of the book that deserves a mention is the recipes. Recipes included are from Stone’s World Bistro and Gardens restaurant as well as a few extras. Many of the recipes can be used as a starting point for your own dishes such as Arrogant Bastard batter, hop vinegarette, or barbecue sauce.
The second part of this section is the homebrewing recipes. A brief overview of how to brew beer is provided for those new to brewing. Despite the short overview, it is a very thorough guide that can definitely be used as your only source for beginning to homebrew. Recipes include a few of Stone’s year-round beers as well as some of their anniversary and collaboration beers. This chapter really highlights Stone’s open honesty, and even arrogance, in that they are giving you recipes for their beers. They even give you the water profile for their brewery so you can match their water chemistry. A few obvious beers are omitted, like Arrogant Bastard, but nonetheless, they are willing to share their secrets. It’s almost as though they are daring you to attempt to recreate their beers.
As I mentioned in the beginning, this is a very thorough, entertaining book, well worth the read for any food or beer aficionado.
The Saccharomyces brothers, Pastorianus and Cerevisiae, are recognized as being the lager and ale yeasts of beer production. While they have been doing a good job of creating dozens of different, recognized styles of beer, it seems brewers are looking to a new yeast to do their bidding.
