Dane dumping beer in the early days of recipe development
Locations in South Dakota and Wisconsin have started ordering kegs so they can offer Burning Brothers beer on tap. As always, you can check the “Find” link on our website to see where our beer is – The red beer stein icon is for locations with taps. Prost!
Ask the Brewer
Does every batch of beer turn out the way you want it to?
The short answer to this question is no. However, sometimes the way a beer turns out is an unexpected surprise, other times it is a huge disappointment. There are also times when you are brewing a tried and true recipe, and it just doesn’t work. Whether you are developing a new recipe, or working with one you’ve used before, there are enough variables in brewing that each batch is it’s own creation.
When creating a new recipe, you have many options in the grains, hop varieties, and flavorings that you can use. You can also vary boil times and the timing of various ingredients additions. On top of that, you can use any one of many different strains of yeast, depending on what you are creating. With all of theses different factors, you can end up with something very different from what you were trying to create, yet still delicious, something that is right on the mark, or something that is completely undrinkable – see the picture above! When the beer is undrinkable, it is always a little heartbreaking.
When you are working with a tried and true recipe, even in a commercial brewery, you can have things go wrong that cause the beer to go off. If there is an equipment malfunction, such as a chiller blockage or a fermenter thermostat failure, you can have beer that is left too hot for too long after the brewing process, or fermented at the wrong temperature, either impeding or accelerating fermentation, sometimes with poor results. Yeast, as a living organism, can be very particular about the temperatures it performs best at. While the large breweries can do much more than home brewers can to control the environment the beer is in, and replicate successful recipes exactly, there are still times when things go wrong. In those instances, the brewers grit their teeth, and send barrels of beer down the drain.
With all of this being said, we are sad to say that the initial fresh-hopped IPA made for the brewer’s choice offerings has gone to the beer trolls that live in the trench drains. While they were very happy about it, the rest of us wept a little. We have now recovered from that disappointment though, and are ready to try again.
Taproom Tidings
This third weekend of November continues our tradition of food on Fridays and Saturdays. The fine folks with the Tatanka Truck, winner of Outstanding Food Truck at this years Charlie Awards will be here on Friday. Saturday brings us something new with the arrival of the Signature on Wheels truck, bringing locally inspired chef favorites to our taproom.
The taproom is open its regular hours all weekend with growler and grumbler fills available all of the days we are open.
- Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills (Remember, St. Paul doesn’t let us fill growlers after 8pm on Thursdays, so get here early)
- Tantalize your taste buds with our seasonal offering of Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes from Groundswell. Pumpkin cake with cheesecake filling and cinnamon whipped cream
- Tap selection includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey, Cranberry Shandy and Raj-Agni IPA
Final Thoughts
Join us and sample the best that Minnesota’s local brewers and winemakers have to offer at “Raise a Glass – A Toast to PACER,” a beer and wine tasting event this Friday, Nov. 20, at 6 pm at Muse Event Center, located at 107 3rd Ave N, in Minneapolis.
As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook, Language of Flavor, Twitter or Google+.
Cheers!