ages this beer in oak barrels purchased from the Templeton Rye distillery - makers of a pre prohibition-style whiskey only available in Illinois, Iowa, NYC & San Francisco. A nice amber-colored American IPA on the slightly malt-sweet side, Court Ave. The recipe I offer is my effort at cloning a dangerously smooth IPA brewed by Court Avenue Brewing Company in Des Moines, Iowa: 21st Amendment IPA. doing so also takes care of sterilizing the ingredients - an essential step since since they're to be added into secondary after the yeast cells have gone mostly dormant. One can practically mimic having a liquor barrel by soaking these oak products in spirits such as rum, scotch, bourbon, wine, etc. All types of wood add a mellow smoothness that can compliment flavors contributed from caramel or roasted malts, round out hop bitterness, or blend with fruity/sour yeast characters. Escalating toast levels delivery more intense aromas. Spirals & OakBOYs are the latest evolution in wooden brewing, maximizing flavor with surface area exposure in a form that's easy to drop into a carboy. Cubes (or beans) are just as inexpensive & easy to remove from the fermentor during cleaning, but expose the beer to a slightly greater amount of the wood's surface area compared to chips. Chips are shredded wood & an economical choice. There are quite a few shapes of wood products available for homebrewers. Exposing either extract or all-grain brews to wood during secondary fermentation is a convenient way to provide the greatest impact on the flavor of the beer in your glass. Mash grains can be smoked on a mesh screen over burning wood so that the liquid malt flavor takes on the character of the wood, but such is mostly noticeable when a high enough proportion of the smoked malt makes up an all-grain recipe. Oak is generally the most available & desirable wood on which beer can be aged, though brewers are starting to experiment with Cedar, Maple, Hickory, various fruit trees and even Spruce for more exotic flavor contributions. To drink a glass of beer or wine that has spent any of its fermentable life encased or exposed to wood is to reiterate and engage yourself in blissful tasty mortality. Though its advent affords us a selection of beverages from around the world, each of us will never outlast a stainless steel keg. In awe of a fireplace, sitting on a concrete or tiled grade doesn't evoke a feeling nearly as relaxed & contented as a well-worn finished wood floor. Though it won't last as long as a cold rigid steel model, a wooden chair serves its function while continuing to age alongside its occupant. Within dozens to hundreds of years, the Earth is able to produce tall wide trees that take in the character of their parentage & landscape and ultimately provide us with materials that continue to evolve throughout their useful life. But the marvel of using wood for the crafts of our society remains to me a greater amazement. Stone & metal are great at containing our civilization, sheltering us from the elements & keeping us productively filed within our shares of landscape. The sound of acoustic blues absorbing the warmth of a softwood stage versus reflecting the walls of a subway platform. A rural wood-frame whistle-stop train station versus a metropolitan union hub with stone pillars.
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