Last winter I entered a local homebrew competition put on by Short Finger Brewing.  I decided I’d enter by brewing a style I’d never heard of, Wheat Wine, which I chose because I had quite a bit of wheat malt extract I wanted to use up and I figured I’d maybe win a prize since hardly anyone would enter that category (yes, I’m kind of sneaky like that).  I couldn’t attend the awards ceremony but was very delighted later in the evening when I saw on Twitter that I’d not only won the category but also Best in Show!

That winning beer was a dark brown color, and rather cloudy (which is to be expected for a beer that is 50% wheat malt).  The aroma was mostly dried fruits and a bit of caramel.  The flavor was on the sweet side with a lot of fruitiness and there was very minimal bitterness and no hop flavor.  The beer was well carbonated, on the medium to high side, and had a nice head of very fine foam.

Fast forward 11 months and I finally got to go brew my recipe at Block 3 Brewing in St. Jacobs, the brewery that had hosted the competition.  The brew day was a lot of fun and as you can see from the pictures I got to be part of pretty much every step (including a trip to a local farm to drop off the previous day’s spent grains!).

About a month after brewing I went out to the brewery to try out the beer with Kevin, the head brewer, and take home some bottles (with labels designed by my brother-in-law!).  The final product was a beer that is a crisp and somewhat hop-forward American wheat ale.  Interestingly, in spite of using almost the exact same recipe as the one I had brewed the new beer was basically nothing like the original.

The original was much darker which I attribute to the use of local rye malt as well as some more caramelization of the wort which could have happened over my high powered propane burner.  Additionally I fermented my version with two yeasts, An English (S-04) and American (US-05) while the new one only used the American yeast.  I think this gave the original a fruitier flavour and also made it slightly less dry than the new beer.

All in all I was very pleased to get to spend a whole brew day in a real brewery and to learn so much from Kevin.  If you’re interested in trying the beer it’s possible there are still a few bottles left at the brewery.  If it’s all gone maybe we’ll have to encourage Block 3 to try brewing it again, only this time I’d ask to make some changes to the recipe to try to more closely recreate my original beer!

Here’s the link to the recipe on Brewtoad (which is the online software I use for all my recipes).

“Whatever highly honorable motives they may have—to save money or to enjoy themselves, for example—the greatest motivation for homebrewers is the opportunity to experiment and to produce beer in all the glorious varieties in which it manifests itself.”

-Michael Jackson (this MJ, not the other) in the preface to The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian (Amazon.ca and WPL)

Making beer from scratch in your own home is extremely satisfying but it can seem a bit difficult if you’ve never tried.  And if you do know a little bit about the process that most people use it can seem downright intimidating.

That’s because many homebrewers brew five gallon batches (or larger) and use all sorts of specialized equipment.  This includes pots and kettles that are 8 gallons or larger (the average “large” stockpot is around 2-3 gallons) and converted coolers with false bottoms or manifolds for straining grains.  In addition to this are all the buckets, jugs, tubes, pumps, measuring devices, and other unique items that serve very specific purposes in the brewing process.

However, it is possible to brew your own beer—truly from scratch—with limited supplies and equipment.  You just have to be willing to go a little bit smaller and then you can work with more common household items, like the pots and strainers your kitchen most likely already has.

This is where Emma Christensen has had a huge impact on my perspective towards homebrewing.  In her first book, True Brews (Amazon.ca and WPL), she taught how to make a wide variety of fermented beverages at home—kombucha, root beer, cider, mead, wine, beer, and more—and in most cases with very little specialized equipment.

I truly hadn’t considered making one gallon batches up beer until I read that book.  Although much of my brewing is still 5 gallon batches, the beauty of small batch brewing is that all aspects of the process are made more manageable by scaling down.  And just what are those aspects?  Here is an overview of brewing a small (1-2 gallons) batch of beer:

1. Heat 1 gallon of “hot liquor” to 160^◦F (“hot liquor” is just what the hot water is called)
2. Dough in (mix the hot liquor with the recipe’s crushed malts)
3. Mash for 1 hour at 148-153^◦F (basically just maintain the mixture of malts and water at this temperature for 60 minutes to create “wort” which is the sweet malty liquid that will ferment into beer).
4. Lauter and Sparge (lautering is the process of straining the wort from the grains and sparging is rinsing the grains with additional hot water).
5. Boil (the boil is when hops are added and the wort is sterilized, clarified, and concentrated through evaporation. 60 minutes is the typical length for this step).
6. Chill and pitch yeast (before the yeast can be added to the wort it must be brought down to room temperature. For a 1 gallon batch of beer this is usually done by setting the kettle in an ice bath in the sink and stirring with a sanitized spoon.  Then the wort is transferred to a sanitized bucket or jug and yeast is added).
7. Ferment (the yeast convert the wort into beer over the course of 2-3 weeks).
8. Bottle (the finished beer is mixed with a small amount of extra sugar and then put in bottles where the additional fermentation creates carbonation. Then you drink the beer!).

Looking at that list of steps I can’t say that brewing beer is “simple.”  However, if you break it down and just approach the process one step at a time there shouldn’t be a part that is overly difficult.   And once again, this is where Emma Christensen comes in!

After tackling small batch brewing in True Brews with enough detail to get people started she revisited it in full form in a second book, Brew Better Beer (Amazon.ca).  About a year and a half ago I had the opportunity to do recipe testing for a few recipes that would appear in the book (I got compensated for the ingredients and received a copy of the book once it was published).  I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of her “Riding Lawnmower Pale Ale” and one gallon batches of the “Pecan Pie Brown Ale” and “Affogato Milk Stout.”  Of those three the milk stout was my favorite and I plan to brew up a large batch of it later this summer to enjoy in the fall as the weather turns cooler.

With the arrival of Emma’s new book I decided to try out the “Smoky Chipotle Porter” recipe.  I’ve been intrigued by spicy beers for a while and had been waiting for a good opportunity to try brewing one.  Emma’s step by step instructions are clear and easy to follow. If you have a copy of her book the intro chapters go into great detail about all the steps, but if you don’t have the book I highly recommend her beer school on The Kitch’n.

And speaking of Brewing Better Beer, the publishers are going to send a copy of the book to one reader of this blog (in the US or Canada).  To enter just go to the form at the end of this post.  But if you don’t win a copy be sure to ask your local library to order one—that’s what I do every time I don’t win a book!

My plan is to follow up this post in a few weeks with a more in depth look at the equipment that I find essential for small batch homebrewing.  I’ll also include a review of how the Smoky Chipotle Porter turned out!  (And just send me an email if you’d like some ingredients to brew your own small batch of this beer for $12!)

What follows is an excerpt from Brew Better Beer, courtesy of Ten Speed Press. 

Credit: Reprinted with permission from Brew Better Beer, by Emma Christensen, copyright 2015. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Photography copyright © 2015 by Katie Newburn

Smoky Chipotle Porter

I admit it: the idea of a spicy beer is a little . . . strange. Even to me. But this smooth and smoky porter with its slight prickle of heat is worth a leap of faith. Chipotles are the smoked and dried version of jalapeños—a process that transforms the crunchy green peppers into wrinkled, deep-red husks while simultaneously tempering their quick burst of heat into something slow and smoldering. Just the thing for a moody beer like this one.

Brew Notes If you’d like the smoky flavor of chipotles without the heat, crack open the dried peppers and shake out the seeds before adding them to the beer.

Make It Yours Make a Mexican hot chocolate version! Add cinnamon sticks, cacao beans, and a split vanilla bean or two to the secondary. (Read more about adding spices on page 166.)

Beers to Try Pipeline Porter (Kona Brewing Company), Stone Smoked Porter (Stone Brewing Company), Alaskan Smoked Porter (Alaskan Brewing Company

Follow the master method for brewing 1-gallon or 5-gallon all-grain batches as described on pages 54–59 (5-gallon measurements in parentheses).

• Remove liquid yeast from the refrigerator and, if necessary, activate according to package instructions. Place on the counter to warm.
• Heat 1 gallon (or 4 gallons) of water to 160°F, then stir in the grains. Maintain a mash temperature of 148°F to 153°F for 60 minutes. Raise the temperature of the mash to 170°F, then sparge using 1 gallon (or 2½ gallons) of 170°F water to make 1½ (or 5½) gallons wort.
• Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the Magnum hops and boil vigorously for 40 minutes. Add the Mt. Hood hops for flavoring and the Irish moss and continue boiling for another 15 minutes. Add the chipotle peppers and continue boiling for another 5 minutes. Add the Mt. Hood hops for aroma and remove from the heat. (Total boil time: 60 minutes.)
• Cool to at least 75°F and transfer to a sanitized primary fermentation bucket. Add the yeast and aerate the wort.
• Let ferment for at least 1 week or up to 4 weeks at 70°F; then transfer to a sanitized jug or carboy for secondary fermentation. Continue to ferment for another 2 weeks or up to 2 months at 70°F.
• Taste the beer a few days before you plan to bottle. If you’d like a stronger, hotter flavor, chop 1 chipotle pepper (or 5 peppers) and steep in just enough vodka to cover for 15 minutes, then drain and add the peppers to the beer. Taste daily and bottle when the beer tastes good to you.
• Dissolve the sugar in ¼ (or 1) cup of boiling water and let cool. Mix with the beer, bottle, and store for 2 weeks or up to a year. Refrigerate before drinking.

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Remember that post a while back about finding the time?  Well when I added a few extra commitments (like taking two online courses to transfer my American teaching certificate to Ontario, teaching multiple Homebrew 101 workshops, selling beer-making ingredients, and working a part-time job) it turned out there was no time left for this old blog.

Such is life.  Turns out the world kept on turning without me.

Nonetheless, I’m back to share a quick post about our Christmas homebrew, called the Acorn E. KWistmas Ale.

Yes, this beer is full of extremely witty word play and references to our beloved KW.  But it’s even more full of extremely delicious malty goodness balanced with some classic holiday flavors like cinnamon and vanilla.  Add to that a bit of acorn squash and you have a totally unique, local beer to share with friends and family.

Madame helped me make this beer and the labels, which was fun and awesome because she rarely participates in brewing!  We’ll use this beer as a gift and for taking to holiday parties.  We’ve tried to focus on handmade and homemade gifts this year, at least for the bulk of what we’re giving.  In addition to that we’ve purchased locally made foods and products as stocking stuffers.   It’s more work and more money than just ordering stuff from the Amazonian behomoth, which I’ll admit is almost always cheap and easy, but it’s nice to use our own skills as well as support local artisans.

Need some local gift ideas for KW?  Here’s a few local folks we like to support:

• Seed of Life Bars – absurdly delicious raw seed bars.
• Your Time Boutique – beautiful beeswax candles.
• Sew Oiseau – handmade clothing and accessories from upcycled wool.
• Homestead Herbals – eco-friendly soaps and herbal products from Little City Farm.

Or what about buying some local craft beer or Ontario VQA wines?  Gifts of food and drink are always nice because they don’t add clutter or unnecessary gadgetry to anyone’s life and give you another way of supporting your local economy.

What about you, are you giving local or homemade gifts?  Any good ideas to share?  If you were making a holiday homebrew what special festive ingredients would you add?

Coffee is one food item that I really love and enjoy in spite of the fact that it is not, and never will be local. I recently received a bag of coffee sent by Parachute Coffee to review and I have to say that I was pretty impressed with it.  I tend to shy away from most promotions I’m contacted about, unless they are for books or cookbooks that focus on the same things I focus on here, thus this was a somewhat different reaction for me.

I was impressed with the coffee from Parachute because it is quality coffee.  I use the adjective “quality” because a good friend of mine who owns a coffee farm in the Dominican Republic and manages coffee farms in Brazil uses this word, and hey, I might as well talk like he talks.

But what exactly is quality coffee?  It is coffee that tends to meet a number of conditions in my eyes, but the first is taste.  Quality coffee tastes excellent.  Not just good, not just better than others—this coffee is so good you want to eat the beans, or at least keep your nose near the bag at all times.  Quality coffee is coffee that you savor.  You don’t have to add milk or cream to it, although it tastes excellent with those as well.  Coffee like this has a sweetness that shines through, amidst the other flavors that fill the cup.  Yes, coffee that has been grown, processed, and roasted with the attention of an expert committed to his or her craft will have a sweetness.

Yeah, that tastes good, let me have another sip….

Other conditions that define quality for me include how the coffee was grown, where and by whom.  Basically it is coffee that can be traced back to an individual farm and farmer—in this case the farm was Finca Don Chepe, run by Manuel Macho Acre.  It was grown by people who care not only about their current product but about the future sustainability of their farm and surrounding ecosystems.  It is coffee for which the growers were paid fairly.  And of course it was roasted in small batches, more on this later.

The medium-brown roast that arrived on my doorstep one day after roasting met the conditions that I seek in coffee.  The roasted beans came from Pig Iron Coffee Roasters in Mississauga.  I could smell the delicious beans through the box, but somehow couldn’t capture those cartoonish aromas on my camera.

I brewed it right away with our French press and my wife and I enjoyed ourselves a nice cup out on the back porch.  The tasting notes from Michael and Jake that accompanied the coffee mentioned Oreos and Raspberries.  I’m not the best at picking out names of smells and tastes but it definitely had a chocolatey-fruity-sweetness to its aroma and flavor.

So, all this is to say that I liked the coffee.  I liked it every way I brewed it—French press (above), aeropress (below), and simple drip, although in the end French press was my preferred method for this coffee.

In fact, I took the idea of “brewing” the coffee even further and threw a couple ounces in a “breakfast stout” that my brother-in-law and I brewed last week (below)!

Parachute Coffee is like a “coffee-of-the-month” club for craft (quality) coffee.  Every month Parachute delivers (more like rushes) a new coffee from a small-batch Canadian roaster to your door.  The cost is $25 per month, which includes shipping and tax.  Yes, this is a bit more than I am accustomed to paying for coffee, which is around $14-18 for a bag of coffee from local roasters who use organic fair trade beans.  I guess you would have to decide what value and convenience you are willing to pay for.

To answer a few of my own questions (and hopefully some of yours too), the owner and founder, Michael Potters had a little email conversation with me about Parachute, craft coffee, their selection process, and what he’s excited about.

Jon: When you talk about getting coffee from “local coffee roasters” what do you mean by that?

Michael: When we say local, we mean that the coffee you receive in the mail has been hand-roasted by a Canadian craftsperson. We think “local” captures the spirit of the craft. The roasters we partner with are authentically small-batch, with a focus on quality. We’re really proud of that.

Jon: I have my own answer to these questions, but am curious to hear yours: What makes small batch coffee so special?  Why is it important to know who grew the coffee and where it is from?

Michael: Small-batch anything is all about details. Whether it’s controlling temperature during every stage of coffee roasting, to understanding the unique story of each farm, small-batch roasters recognize their importance. The final product is a result of a ton of time, trial and error, and lots and lots love. You’ll notice the difference in your first cup.

Jon: How do you go about choosing each month’s coffee roaster and specific bean/roast?

Michael: Canada is home to a handful of truly exceptional coffee roasters. You know them based on their reputation in the coffee roasting community, and we work closely with them to feature their best coffee. We cup and evaluate at least four coffees at the featured roaster each month, and decide with the roaster which coffee best represents them.

Jon: What are you most excited about with regards to Parachute Coffee?

Michael: I’m trying to convince Jake to jump out of an airplane with a Parachute for a marketing stunt. It could totally happen.

Other than that, we’re having fun doing what we’re doing. We love it. I’m excited for more people to have some fun brewing better coffee. 

Parachute Coffee would like to offer one reader of this blog (in Canada) a free month subscription, totally awesome!

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These  photos show the racking of a previous batch of the KW SupPorter, which is now bottled and ready for drinking.  The fermentation of that batch was so vigorous that it leaked out of the fermenting bucket, leaving that nice stain around the top rings.  If you’d like a recipe kit for that beer, or any other please send me an email, and check out my recipe kits information sheet.

Surprisingly the gravity (a measurement of the amount of sugar dissolved) had dropped down to 1.016, lower than the 1.022 that was predicted by Brewtoad.  What this potentially means for the beer is that while it will be higher in alcohol than anticipated it will also have less residual sweetness.   In spite of this, it tasted great at racking, with a very classic Scotch Ale aroma – notes of toffee, caramel, and vanilla.  There was a bit more bitterness than I would like in a Wee Heavy and I’m hoping that will fade as the beer ages.

After racking I added 1 pound of Number 2 Amber maple syrup that I had briefly boiled and then cooled.  While I said in the first post that I don’t want this beer to taste like maple syrup, I do want it to have hints of maple, and I’m hoping that the added syrup will impart some maple flavor or aroma.  I chose amber as opposed to light (in the states the distinction is grade A and B) because it is known for having stronger maple flavor.   I’ve heard of people adding as much as 1 gallon of syrup to their beer, but that seems a bit much.

It took about a day before the yeast noticed the new maple syrup and it has been steadily fermenting since then, letting bubbles through the airlock about once every 30 seconds.  Yesterday, after 5 days with the maple syrup I added oak chips that had soaked for a week in Canadian Whiskey (including the whiskey).  I’m planning to let it age for three more weeks with the oak and then bottle it.  It will then age in bottles for a month before we try it, if we can wait that long!  So if you’ve entered the giveaway it will still be a little while before you get to try your prize!

In terms of aging beer, our last batch of a strong Scotch ale was drinkable after 3 weeks in bottle but didn’t really achieve its best character until after more than  2 months in the bottle!  Some members of the Spee Keasy had already drank all of theirs long before that, but those that waited were rewarded with an amazing beer.  This is the reason you brew the same styles more than once; you learn when each beer is best and can then act accordingly the next time you brew it.

Now during the waiting time we may brew again, or just work on reading more about brewing… which is what my young assistant is doing.

Oh yeah, if you haven’t entered the giveaway of a bottle of this, there’s still time!

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“Amber and malty,” I thought to myself as visions, aromas, and flavors of a Wee Heavy clouded my mind.

Lately this has been the style of beer that most appeals to me.  It’s funny because for a long time—isn’t this true for most craft beer lovers—all I would buy was IPAs, the stronger, hoppier, more bitter, the better.

That changed when  we were in Michigan a couple years ago and bought a 6-pack of Founder’s Dirty Bastard, a “Wee Heavy” Scotch Ale.  It’s rare for Madame and I to both love the same beer, but this is one of them.

What Makes a Wee Heavy?

Wee Heavy Scotch Ales are characterized by copper to brown colors, with hints of amber or ruby, malty sweetness, and complex flavors of caramel, toffee, vanilla, cherry, and oak, with minimal bitterness, and typically no flavor or aroma from the hops.  They are wonderful in the winter for the warmth given by the high alcohol content (7-11%), but really any time of year is a good time to enjoy this ale.

Jamil Zainasheff, who writes for Brew Your Own Magazine says this of Wee Heavy Ales:

A good wee heavy is sweet, but not cloying, has a complex malt character, and has a warming, yet not harsh, alcohol presence.

What’s not to like when you read that description?  He goes on to talk about how most homebrewers seem to end up chasing the ultimate, extremely bitter and hoppy IPA or the wee heavy, which is “kind of like the IPA of the malty world.”  I guess I fall into that malty camp these days.  Not that I don’t enjoy IPAs, but I find them to be so much more costly because of the absurd amounts of hops that must be employed, and more difficult to execute perfectly without a kegging setup in which to dry hop.

Making a delicious wee heavy on the other hand is not much more costly than a more standard ale, because while it uses quite a bit more malt, is quite light on the hop side of things.  When I look at the breakdown of my ingredient costs for a 5 gallon batch of the standard Spee Keasy K-Wee Heavy it’s around $22-25, assuming most malts are purchased in bulk. Another pro is that they bottle-condition quite nicely, with a great shelf life.

The Spee Keasy has brewed two Scotch Ales so far, but none like this one.  And sadly this one won’t be replicable for another year; our brewing liquor was not water, but sugar maple sap.

Working Towards Terroir…

It was the procurement of about 7 gallons of sap that had gotten me thinking of a delicious, malty, amber Scotch Ale.  I had done a bit of research to find recipes for maple sap beer, and was rather disappointed with them until finding this article.

Although I was still unimpressed with the lack of a decent recipe, the article itself was a very enjoyable and informative read.   The best piece of information I got from it was the mineral breakdown of maple sap.

This was essential in helping me choose the appropriate style of beer to brew with the sap.  It seems that softer waters are better for maltier beers.  The sap is quite soft, in spite of the sugar in it, it has very low mineral content.  Thus I arrived at the “amber and malty” description on Brewer’s Friend.

For some reason most maple syrup beers tend to be brown ales and porters.  Ah, but this isn’t a maple syrup beer, it’s a sap beer.  Tasting like maple syrup is not actually the goal of this beer.  The goal is terroir.  I want a beer that is rooted—pun intended—in Ontario.  So we shall see just what that tastes like!

Oh, and the best part of all this for local readers is I’m going to give away a 750 ml bottle in a couple months when this beer is ready!

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A couple weeks ago when the weather here briefly warmed up we chatted a bit with our neighbors about tapping a couple of their sugar maple trees.

I had dreams.  Not dreams of maple syrup, but of sap beer.

They kindly agreed and so using taps (spiles as they are called—maybe you’ve read Catching Fire?) that a friend had lent us the boys and I trotted next door on the first (and so far only) perfect day of Spring.

We tapped one tree in two places and a second tree in one place.  The first two days were when we got the most sap, close to half a gallon from the three taps.

It soon became apparent that we were losing large amounts of sap from around the spiles as I must have done a poor job drilling the holes and pounding them in.  It seems however that once you’ve made your hole there’s not much you can do to fix it and drilling a new hole means leaving a large leaking hole in the tree.

Everything I read on the internet about how to remedy the situation basically boiled down to this advice: do it right next time.  Okay, fine, but you do know that next time is a year from now, right internet advisors?  Yes, they do probably know that.  In the end we never got much more than our original half gallon of sap.

Soon after beginning the process the local ants living at the base of the tree woke up and decided to start helping themselves to our minimal drippings.  Ah well, I thought, this was still a cool, fun, and educational activity for my young assistants and me.  But my dream of having 6-7 gallons of sap with which to make an all sap beer was likely coming to an end.  I’ll come back to just what a “sap beer” is in a little while, but first a bit of a diversion.

An Easter Turkey and a Short Reflection on Ethical Eating

The sap beer dream was put on hold until my friend Jacob told me he wanted us to cook a turkey together for Easter.

Okay, this story is getting to be a bit convoluted.  First sap, now turkey?  And wait, isn’t the Local Kitchener a vegetarian blog?  Well, not exactly.  Let’s back up a bit more.

Yes, this blog is primarily vegetarian, because my family eats mostly a primarily vegetarian diet.  But we do eat meat.  Just not every day, more like once or twice a week.  No, we do not call ourselves “flexitarians” because that term sounds kind of silly to us, and is uninformative.  We just say that we eat mostly vegetarian and occasionally eat meat.   I’ve just learned that some people who eat this way call themselves Ethical Omnivores.  I guess we fit the definition, although we are unlikely to label ourselves.

Ethical Omnivores could also simply be called Responsible Eaters.  They care about where their food comes from and the impact that their eating has on the lives of other creatures, the environment, their community, and the planet.  Here is a definition from Go-EO, a website devoted to promoting this way of eating:

ethical omnivore (e-thi-kəl äm-ni-vor) : an individual committed to reducing consumption of meat and dairy products and who only consumes these products when they originate from animals fed an antibiotic- and hormone- free diet raised on non-factory farms committed to the most sustainable and humane farming practices.

Notice that the first point in that definition isn’t even about the meat, but the reduction of the amount of meat eaten!  This has always been our family’s main goal in eating a mainly vegetarian diet.  If you do a bit of easy internet research you will find that the production of meat requires vast amounts more water and resources than the production of plant-based foods.  I for one am happy to know that my eating habits are not promoting the conversion of forest to corn and soybean factory farms, but anyways, no need to be preachy….  If you eat meat every day then maybe just ask yourself what you’re meat dollars are supporting.

The farms we buy our meat from raise their animals on pasture or in the case of the turkey, grow their own GMO-free crops to feed their animals.  It is in their interest to preserve the quality of their land, keeping portions of it forested while other parts are for growing crops, to ensure that their land and animals stay healthy and their farms and lifestyles are sustainable. We buy our turkey from Snyder Heritage Farm, a fifth generation farm, just a few minutes outside of Waterloo that raises turkeys and also has a large maple syrup operation.

Sap for Beer?

Since our own maple tapping adventure had resulted in so little sap I was trying to figure out how I could get some more.  When Jacob asked me about cooking, well, actually, deep-frying a turkey for Easter (which it turns out is an excellent way to cook a Turkey, and no, this doesn’t happen if you are intelligent) I sent an email to the Snyders asking if they had any birds and then adding as an afterthought a request for sap. I got an email back saying to give a call soon because the sap was nearing the end of its flow.  Kevin Snyder invited me out that Saturday to come pick up my bird and get a bit of sap.  In exchange for the sap I told him I’d bring him some of the beer once it was done.  “Well, let’s just see how it goes,” he told me, seeming both skeptical and intrigued.

Clearly I was intrigued by the idea as well, and that idea is to make a beer with an alternative water source, in this case, sap.  Normally beer is made by steeping malted barley in hot water at specified temperatures (usually around 152^◦F) for an hour, then straining the sweetened liquid (wort) and rinsing it with more hot water to extract as much sugars possible, like steeping a bag of tea in two cups.  This hot, sweet wort is then brought to a boil, hops are added for bitterness, flavor, and aroma, the wort is cooled, and yeast is added.  The wort ferments for 1-2 weeks, after which it is bottled or kegged.

Growing up in Olympia, Washington, I was vaguely aware of water’s important role in beer production thanks to the Olympia Brewery’s slogan of “It’s the Water.”  It turns out that the water that was available in Olympia was perfect for making the crisp lagers that appealed to most Americans at that time (oh yeah, and still).

That water is a very soft water, low in mineral content, which is perfect for making the beer that Olympia was famous for… until they went out of business.  Anyways, compared to our water here in Southern Ontario it’s the opposite; our water is bursting with minerals (I definitely miss the delicious water from home!).

Now, when I found some information on the internet about making sap beer, I not only learned that it was once common in Vermont, but also that its mineral content is somewhat similar to that of soft water.  While containing a number of minerals, they are all in very low quantities. I entered the mineral content on a brewing website that helps brewers figure out what style of beer their water is best for.  The online software on that site told me it would be best for an amber, malty beer.

“Amber and malty,” I thought to myself as visions of Scotch Ale floated into my mind, the rich caramel and toffee aromas filling my nose, hints of smokiness lurking in there, making my mouth water.  Yes, this would be a delicious, malty, amber Scotch Ale, with extra hints of maple syrup.  This would be a strong ale, around 7-8% thanks to the extra sugars imparted from the sap, which is about 2% sugar, and hey, I’d probably throw in some extra maple syrup at some point in the fermentation too!

The Sugar House

Last weekend I drove out to the Snyder’s farm and found their sugar house (definitely not a sugar shack!).  It was a very nice and new wooden building with a small amount of steam coming out of a smokestack at the top.

Kevin saw me coming and met me at the large door which was open.  Inside one person was measuring the sugar content of the finishing syrup with a refractometer, while the massive machine was clearly doing the bulk of the work of boiling off the water with the goal of taking the sap to a concentration of about 67% sugar.

Kevin and I talked about their sugar bush, where the sugar maple trees grow.  He said that they usually only tap each tree once, whereas some farms tap 2-3 times on each tree.  They also work hard to keep their whole stand of trees healthy by removing unhealthy trees and keeping the trees appropriately spaced to ensure maximum production. Sap is collected with a vacuum tubing system attached to the trees, collecting at a central point.  It is then brought back to the sugar house in a large stainless steel vessel pulled by a tractor. At the sugar house it goes through reverse osmosis, which reduces the water content by 50%, meaning less energy is needed to boil off the remaining water.  The boiler is heated using firewood which is all grown on the farm.

See that local firewood burning?

The finishing syrup collects in the area on the lower right where it is boiled one last time to achieve the proper saturation.

The machine they use is so efficient that the wood is burned 100%, thanks to an ingenious method of re-igniting the smoke that leaves the initial fire, creating more heat, and ensuring that the emissions leaving are simply CO₂ and H₂O.  That’s why when I drove up I didn’t see tons of smoke! After we had talked for a good while, since I had tons of questions,  Kevin filled my two buckets with sap, got me my turkey from a freezer in another farm building, and I headed home.  The next day I brewed, but more on that later.

Conclusions

Jacob has the turkey brining right now and we will cook it this afternoon as part of an Easter feast at our house.  I think there are more than 20 people coming so it may be a bit crowded, but mostly just fun!  We’ll enjoy the locally and ethically raised meat, as well as many other local foods, including potatoes, beets, cabbage, parsnips, Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, and plenty of homebrew (but not the sap beer, it won’t be ready for over a month).  The feast will remind us of what Easter is about—life—and will hopefully be quite awesome and memorable!

I’ll share the recipe for the sap beer soon as well as a recipe for my favorite maple syrup snack, and a maple syrup coffee cake.   In the meantime, Cheers and Happy Easter!