This beer was brewed originally to work with the thanksgiving season. The season from my perspective, falling between the Canadian and United States thanksgiving holidays. What I think was nailed in this recipe was the apple cinnamon flavour. The pie crust flavour needs a little work, but it is almost there. Not far at all from being perfect.

As usual, the base malts involved was provided by Canada Malting Company, which included both their Superior Pale Ale malt, and their Wheat malt. The wheat beer format was chosen because wheat flour tends to be used in pie crust. To accent that flavour a bit more, I decided to introduce some Dingemans Biscuit malt. As a bit of a signature that I tend to do with most of my beers, I added honey malt and a touch of honey to the recipe to add some nice body and honey flavour into the beer.

Finally, the apples and seasonings. Typically when I brew with cinnamon, I add it as cinnamon sticks and treat them like hops. You can boil them or you can “dry hop” them. But since you aren’t going to get much bitterness from cinnamon, add it close enough to the end of the boil to extract flavour, but not so close that there is minimal contribution. In this case, I added spices in the last 5 minutes. I also added cinnamon to secondary. The apples were golden delicious, and in this recipe, I will point out the weight of them after roasting, since the weight dropped by quite a bit. I went with these apples because I didn’t want the apples to contribute any tartness in the beer.

I did have fairly bad efficiencies in this recipe (little over 50% instead of 68%), so I’ll post what the OG should have been and what the FG was.

Brew Stats

Original Gravity: 1.056
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV: 5.6%
SRM: 8.5 (estimated)
IBUs: 22 (calculated)

Recipe

5 lbs (45.5%) – Canada Malting Superior Pale Ale
3.5 lbs (31.8%) – Canada Malting Wheat Malt
1.25 lbs (11.4%) – Dingemans Biscuit Malt
0.75 lbs (6.1%) – Gambrinus Honey Malt

0.5 lbs (4.5%) – Honey

1 oz – Sterling hops (6.7% A/A) (60 minutes)

1 stick – Cinnamon (5 minutes boil)
0.5 tsp – Nutmeg (5 minutes boil)
2 sticks – Cinnamon (secondary)
1.5 lbs – Golden Delicious apples (secondary)

Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

194.7 billion yeast cells estimated minimum requirement

Mashing

Grains should be mashed in a single infusion mash at 152ºF. Add an ample amount of rice hulls into the mash as well to aid in lautering. Do some googling and you’re likely to find a lot of stories of stuck sparges involving wheat malt. Add rice hulls. Lots of them. helps efficiencies too. Let mash for about 60 minutes. Sparge according to your equipment setup.

Boiling

Bring wort to a boil. Add your hops at the beginning just to add a touch of bitterness. At 5 minutes remaining, throw in your cinnamon and nutmeg. At flame-out, or immediately prior to chilling, add honey if it is solid honey. Add honey to the fermenter with wort if it is in liquid form. My honey was in solid form so I added it at flame out, which was also immediately prior to immersion chilling.

Fermentation and Finishing

Pitch your yeast or yeast starter, then aerate or oxygenate your wort. Room temperature is ideal for fermentation. I was around 65ºF for fermentation. It may finish fermenting for a few days, but let it sit for about 2 weeks. Be weary of exploding yeast. Wheat beers with wheat yeast, especially if you pitch a lot of it, will develop a massive krausen. I didn’t use a blowoff tube and had the biggest mess in my cabinet on the first day of fermentation.

Week 3, prepare your apples. Buy lots of them. I bought 8 lbs of apples, cut out the core and sliced them into thin and small slices. The apples were baked on a clean cookie sheet at 400ºF for about 15 minutes. You will most likely have to do this multiple times as that is a lot of apple. By the time roasting was done, I had about 1.5 lbs of soggy apple. Stuff all this apple into your secondary carboy with 2 sticks of cinnamon, then rack your beer on top. Let that sit for a week.

After this is complete, bottle or keg, carbonate, and enjoy a good thanksgiving beer!

Part of what went into the making of this recipe started with my love of Gambrinus Honey Malt. I have used it in many different beers, and one of the most noticeable contributions was in my pale ale. As a matter of fact, the concept of this recipe stemmed almost exactly from what I did in my pale ale, but I took some lessons from my use of Weyermann’s CharaMunich III malt in a caramel pilsner, and included it in this recipe. It did leave a beautiful caramel like flavour. Almost candy like. I figured that candy like carmel flavour when combined with wildflower honey, and one of the ultimate in northwestern hops would probably lead to something amazing.

The methodology of hopping I used isn’t something new. The concept was essentially pioneered by Sam Calagione , using continuous hopping during the boil. Though I didn’t really have a device to do it, I just worked it out to 0.2 ounces of hops every 5 minutes from 60 minutes to 0. Then of course later dry hopping. The hop variety I used in the boil is Falconer’s Flight, a fairly new pellet hop that combines a number of northwestern hop varieties into a single pellet. Some say that it includes hops like Amarillo, Cascade and Simcoe. Dry hopping was later done with Citra.

The goal was to make a very west coast style IPA, but play with things a little bit on the malt side of the equation. The Honey Malt and CaraMunich III malt do make a huge impact on the recipe, but as usual, my base malt of choice for almost everything is Canada Malting Company’s Superior Pale Ale malt.

Brew Stats

Original Gravity: 1.063
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV: 6.6%
SRM: 14 (estimated)
IBUs: 68 (calculated)
Volume: 5 US Gallons (19 Litres)

Recipe

Quantities based on 68% efficiency. Percentages based on amount of sugars contributed.

7 lbs (61%) – Canada Malting Superior Pale Ale
1.5 lbs (12.2%) – Gambrinus Honey Malt
1 lbs (8.2%) – Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt I
0.75 lbs (6.1%) – Weyermann CaraMunich III

2 lbs (16.3%) – Honey

2.8 oz – Falconer’s Flight hops (10.5% A/A) (continuously hopped)
1 oz – Citra hops (13.4% A/A) (Dry hopped 7 days)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale or White Labs 001 California Ale or Safale US-05 yeast
214.3 billion yeast cells estimated minimum requirement

Mashing

Grains should be mashed in a single infusion mash at 152ºF. Feel free to experiment with lower temps to make a slightly drier beer, but 152ºF is ideal for most beers in a single infusion mash. Let mash for about 60 minutes. Sparge according to your equipment setup.

Boiling

Bring wort to a boil. Begin adding Falconer’s Flight hops in 0.2 ounce increments every 5 minutes in the boil. At flame-out, or immediately prior to chilling, add honey if it is solid honey. Add honey to the fermenter with wort if it is in liquid form. My honey was in solid form so I added it at flame out, which was also immediately prior to immersion chilling.

Fermentation and Finishing

Pitch your yeast or yeast starter, then aerate or oxygenate your wort. Room temperature is ideal for fermentation. I was around 65ºF to 72ºF for fermentation. It may finish fermenting for a few days, but let it sit for about 2 weeks. Week 3, begin the dry hopping. The method I used was to put 1 ounce of Citra leaf hops into a hop sock and chuck it into a keg. I racked the beer from the carboy into the keg, put the lid on, purged the oxygen with CO2, lightly shook the keg then let it sit at room temperature for a week.

After dry hopping, bottle or keg, carbonate, and drink up!

Big Rock produces over 20,000,000 litres of beer per year. In Alberta, their most well known products are Traditional, an english style brown ale, and Grasshopper, an American style wheat beer. Their best selling products, however, don’t belong to any of their craft beer offerings. What some people don’t realize is that Big Rock also happens to produce adjunct lagers in the form of Alberta Genuine Draught, Co-Op Gold, Bow Valley Lager and other contract beers. These beers account for nearly half of their production volume.

Some make the argument that Big Rock is not a craft brewery simply because of their size. If that were the case, companies like Dogfish Head, Boston Beer Company (NASDAQ: SAM) and Sierra Nevada would no longer be considered craft breweries. As a matter of fact, it is thanks to Boston Beer that the Brewers Association now accepts the idea of breweries producing as much as 6 million barrels of beer (over 35 times more than Big Rock’s production), craft brewers.

From that standpoint, Big Rock produces great craft beers, and they also put out seasonal beers frequently. Whether people like them or not is another story, but you can’t say they don’t try being a little creative here and there. To be honest, with my experience brewing beer, having brewed nearly 40 batches of beer from scratch, there are only a small handful of recipes that I consider to be exceptional (A or A+ rated), and a larger number that I could consider sellable (B or C rated). Not every craft brewery will put out world class ales and lagers, and no craft brewery is an exception to this.

Where the waters get a bit muddy is in the manner that a significant portion of their beer is produced.

A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

- Brewers Association

This caveat is included primarily because of how larger macro breweries produce their beers, and for what reason. Adjuncts such as rice or corn sugar are typically added to beers not only to lighten the flavour, but to reduce the overall cost of brewing, without regard to enhancing the beers flavour. This is also a typical strategy being employed in markets trying to sell beer as cheaply as possible. It isn’t necessarily a bad business model.

Mountain Crest made millions on buck-a-beer product. Drummond brewery used the busk-a-beer market to push their production volume to 10,000 hectolitres per year within a couple years. It isn’t bad business, but are you a craft brewer for it? No. This principle applies specifically to adjuncts, and it is usually a fair assumption that cheap beer uses adjuncts like corn sugar, because it costs less than malted barley.

Is Big Rock a craft brewery? Yes, and here is why:

• They still produces mostly craft beer and generates more of their revenue from craft beer than adjunct beers.
• They still focus their primary public relations and marketing towards their craft lineup of beers.
• Even as a public company, their annual reports put a major focus on their top craft brands.
• They put effort into creating new brands and flavours to increase the impact of craft beer in Alberta.
• They want to increase awareness of craft beer in Canada as much as any other craft brewery as more of their profit per unit of work is still within craft beer.

Some may disagree with me on this conclusion, but right now, we have decided that a brewery can either be a craft brewery or not. We haven’t really discussed or accounted for craft breweries who may either contract out, or brew cheap adjunct beers as part of their overall production volume. It isn’t mentioned in the definition set out by the Brewers Association. Beers like Alberta Genuine Draught and Bow Valley Lager may be cheap beers, but they aren’t branded as Big Rock beers, even though they are, which tells me that there is a huge value to the company to maintain the perception to the public as a craft brewer.

The caveat that I would put in place here is that a majority of a brewery’s revenue should come from craft beers, and that at least 80% of their marketing budgets are used to promote their craft beer related products and services to the public. This I think Big Rock falls within, and therefore should still be considered a craft brewery.

That being said, I would still like to see some collaboration beers come out of Big Rock that have been brewed with other Alberta based craft breweries.

There are those in Alberta that when they think Drummond Brewery, at least those who have heard of them… they think cheap swill brewed cheaply. Recently, they hired David Neilly, former brewmaster for Wild Rose Brewery in Calgary, and he has since been changing that perception, and recently, I’ve had the opportunity to see for myself first hand the work that goes into not only converting an adjunct lager into craft beer, but the process of taking my knowledge from the home brew scale to the commercial scale.

First, a little bit on Drummond. The brewery as it exists today is only a few years old, however, the Drummond name lives on for much longer than that. Drummond existed in the 1990′s, going out of business in 1995. Sleeman had purchased the assets and let the trademark on the Drummond name expire. A couple budding entrepreneurs decided to bring the brewery back to life in 2009, and since then, have been selling beer like hotcakes.

That being the long and short of it, they do have a really cool brewery. Since David Neilly has been brought in, he has since removed corn sugar from their premium lager by improving mash efficiency to around 85% (though I think they could hit just north of 90%), and added more flavour and aroma hops. A glass of Drummond Premium lager now has a nice light flavour with noticeable hop aroma and bitterness.

My experience at Drummond was my first experience being involved in the brewing process at a commercial scale, from mash in to transfer to the fermenter, and reloading the malt hopper above the mill. A special thanks for David Neilly for inviting me out to enjoy the experience.

The start of the day began with preparing the mash, as it usually does. In this case, we were mashing in 900 KG of malted 2-row barley to kick out about 5000 litres of wort. This is a lot of malt, and it did take a lot of time to fill the mash tun with both water and malt. During this time, we had filled the kettle with water to mix a caustic solution. Heck, because of how long it took to fill the mash tun, we got a fermenter cleaned up as well to be ready to take in some fresh wort.

The caustic cleaner was heated up in the kettle, then pumped through some of the pipes near the kettle and throughout the brewery to sanitize everything that was going to touch the beer. It was at this point that I finally got to see how fermenters were sanitized given their large scale. This was through a CIP (clean in place) process. It worked in this case by pumping about 1000 litres of caustic into the fermenter. A pump inlet was attached to the bottom of the cone on the fermenter, while the output was attached to the CIP. This allowed the caustic to be circulated through the fermenter, sanitizing everything thoroughly. We had let this run for a few hours.

Of course, during the CIP cycle on the fermenter, we did spend time keeping an eye on the mash. Once the mash tun was full, we had let the mash sit for a bit. Do to the size of the tun though, I’m pretty sure we could have began lautering the moment it was full, but we let it sit another 45 minutes, probably to let some enzymes work to avoid the dreaded protein rest.

As you can see if you are a home brewer, there isn’t really anything out of the ordinary. As a matter of fact, the entire brewing process doesn’t change from the home brew scale to the commercial scale. The main concerns end up being methodologies of moving liquid from point A to point B, the heating of water and the boiling of wort. Typically, water is heated in a hot liquor tank then used for doing the mash infusion. In the case at Drummond, there was a hot and cold liquor tank. This equipment varies from brewery to brewery, but the process is largely the same.

As we were sparging, we were draining the mash tun directly into the kettle. As the kettle was filling, we had the steam jacket on the lower half of the kettle on, heating wort as we fill the kettle. If this wasn’t done, it could have taken hours to get a boil going. Even when running the steam jackets, it still took a while to bring the wort to a boil. The steam jacket is essentially piping within the walls of the boil kettle that carries steam. Some kettles can still be direct fired, but in this case, steam is pushed through to heat the wort.

It took about 20 minutes once the kettle was full before it finally started to boil. This was when we added a kilogram of hops. One thing I will note next that home brewers tend to have a good idea of… boil overs. While there didn’t seem to be an imminent boil over in this case, it did happen about 15 minutes into the boil. Unfortunately, neither David or I were paying attention, and one of the packaging staff ended up finding me. The boil over essentially looked like a foam waterfall coming from the opening of the top of the kettle. Nothing a little spray of water couldn’t take care of. After this, the boil was relatively uneventful.

Like some people do for home brewing, kettle finings were used and yeast nutrient was added. This was in between a couple additions of finishing hops. As the boil was finished, we began to pump the wort into the fermentor.

The process involved with pumping the wort involved two parts. The first was the chilling of the wort down to fermentation temps. The second was infusing oxygen in line, into the wort to aid in effective fermentation. Oxygen is typically a better bet than aeration when it comes to yeast health, and can help the beer ferment to a lower final gravity.

Finally… fermentation. We essentially had a keg ful of yeast ready to pump into the fermentor. Once the wort was in the fermentor, the yeast wasn’t far behind.

It was an interesting experience, and I had the opportunity to kick out about 10,000 litres of beer. It is an experience that does help me out as I continue to study the brewing process, and refine some of my own processes, and maybe someday soon… start a brewery of my own.

It does seem kind of odd that I say it is indispensable, yet say you don’t need it. You can still make beer without it. Pitch yeast and away you go. But like any tool, it is about information, and what that information can do for you. Never before could one simple tool tell you so much about what you are doing that it must be indispensable, especially when you are doing all grain. Lets break down the brewing process.

We weigh out our grains to try and match a certain beer style including alcohol content. Well, if you have all your grain specs, you might have a dry extract CG (course grain) of 80%, which would give you a theoretical yield of 37 (out of 46)  gravity points per gallon per pound of malt used. This means that if you were going to use 10 lbs of base malt for a 5 gallon batch, quick math in the head would dictate that at 2 lbs of malt per gallon, you would have an original gravity of 1.074.

Great, now we have a high alcohol beer, this is going to be great! But wait, you finish your beer fermentation and it still takes 3 pints to get a decent buzz instead of 2. Dummy! You forgot to measure what your actual original gravity was. For that, you need a hydrometer. So lets do that batch again. 10 lbs for 5 gallons. We do our mash, then boil to 5 gallons and measure our gravity again and realize that we didn’t get 1.074, we got something around 1.054. Nearly 20 points off the estimated mark.

This is where being able to measure your gravity can actually tell you what your brewhouse efficiency is. You know that mathematically, based on the malt analysis, you should have 1.074 but got 1.054. By simple math, 54 / 74 = 72.9% efficiency. So you need to look back at what you are doing in your mash to be able to bring that number higher. I personally get about 74% to 76% brewhouse efficiency, but on a homebrew scale, the cost of additional malts to meet my original gravity estimate is only about $1.  Professional breweries can get 82% to 92% efficiency.

Without a hydrometer to take these kinds of measurements, you are going in blind and know nothing about what your brewhouse is doing for you, other than that it is converting starches into sugars. How much of those sugars you are getting will be unknown.

The next process once you are done with brewing your wort is actually fermenting it into beer. I’m guessing that if you don’t have a hydrometer, you are probably going to judge whether your beer is done fermenting or not by airlock activity. It’s a great quick and dirty way to tell if the yeast are slowing down, but it won’t tell you that fermentation is done. Heck, there might be more to it than your yeast. What if you have wild yeast drying out your beer and you don’t know it? There are ways to stop fermentation using either cold temps or sodium metabisulfite in an emergency.

Airlock activity is a great way to see if the yeast is highly active. It is also a way to see if your beer is degassing as well. The only way to really tell when fermentation is done is by taking hydrometer readings periodically. You will also discover whether you have a stuck fermentation this way as well.

Let’s say we are looking at that 1.054 OG beer that we just imagined we brewed. We used a yeast strain that at proper pitching rates and a decent medium to light body mash temp should get us down to 1.010 to 1.012. It is easy enough to see hyper yeast activity in those early stages, but once it settles, the yeast may still be slowly working away around 1.020 or slightly lower. Best way to tell if your beer is done fermenting is to take hydrometer readings periodically. If you have readings that are identical when a few days apart, your fermentation is probably done.

Likewise, if you were targeting 1.010 as a minimum and your gravity is dropping below that, review your equipment and sanitation procedures because there is a chance of wild yeast infection. They enjoy complex sugars and will dry the beer out quite substantially. Best bet is to halt fermentation. Sodium metabisulfite will kill yeast in the beer. It is safe to use as it can also be used to get rid of chlorine  in tap water. Without the hydrometer reading, taking a step like this would probably not have crossed your mind.

I did mention stuck fermentations earlier. Let’s say that the 1.054 beer we brewed stalled at 1.023 or something like that for a few days. Fermentation is probably not done, but the yeast aren’t working. Why? Chances are you may not have pitched enough yeast. Maybe even pitched stressed or unhealthy yeast and it doesn’t feel like working for you. Maybe you inadvertently mashed your beer at too high of a temperature and extracted too much complex sugars for your yeast to handle. Either way, using the hydrometer to determine what is going on is the first step to really solving what problems you may have.

Finally, and this happens to be the main reason most people use a hydrometer, determining the alcohol content of your beer. This one is easy enough with a gravity calculator. You need your original and final gravity. If you want to do it by paper, well, here is a formula for you to get you what you need: ((OG – FG) * 105) * 1.25 = Alcohol by volume. In our case, ((1.054 – 1.010) * 105) * 1.25 = 5.775, or for the sake of simplicity, 5.8% ABV.

Lastly, don’t forget that hydrometer readings are temperature sensitive. Most hydrometers are calibrated to about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temp is higher, the gravity will under read. If the temp is lower, it will over read. It isn’t as critical if you are fermenting around 65 to 70F as you may only be one point off, but when you are determining your original gravity after your boil, and your wort is still hot, account for it because at near boiling temperatures, the hydrometer will under read by up to 40 points. I find when I’m checking pre-boil gravities, at around 150F (post mash), gravities will be nearly 15 points out. By not calculating for temps, chances are you may thing you are drinking a 5% ABV beer, but realistically, it is closer to 7%.

Like I said earlier, the hydrometer is an indispensable tool, but you don’t need it. If you are a true hobbyist, or a professional brewer, that simple little instrument can give you key bits of information to tell you more about your beer and equipment than you might have originally though. Don’t just think of the hydrometer as a way to measure alcohol. While ultimately, that is what it is primary use will be, it will help you start troubleshooting nearly all of your major brewing issues.

Fair enough, it is illegal to drink in a public place according to the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Act, unless of course it is a licensed public facility, like a sports arena or any other venue that sports a special events license. It isn’t really enforced often, but the bottom line is that it is against the law. Reasonable enough unless you look at what constitutes drinking in public, but somewhat reasonable if you look at why.

It is hard to table thoughts just based on public opinion because that tends to be very polarized. You are either a neo-prohibitionist, or you believe nobody should limit personal freedoms. Fair enough. I agree with points that both sides tend to make. People against alcohol in general tend to have a point in that it is dangerous when people are irresponsible with it, however, the extreme in which they would like alcohol controlled can, in and of itself, be irresponsible as it leaves responsible people like myself stuck in the debris trail of neo-prohibitionism. It curbs irresponsible use of alcohol to a certain extent, but we saw what happened during prohibition.

I am kind of mixed on what the law should look like. I think there is a bottom line to this in that alcohol is a drug to be respected in general and can be dangerous. Beer itself dates back over 10,000 years as a social lubricant in society, but certainly isn’t immune to its fair share of abuse (possibly less so than spirits but I would reserve that discussion for another day). The reality is that beer has been part of society for longer than society as we know it, and there is a mature flavor and an element of refreshment that it can bring (depending on the style).

Personally, I am a big fan of beer, more-so than many other drinks, not because of alcohol, but because if the diverse flavors in beer, and I do like the taste of fermented malted grains and hops over a sugar loaded iced tea, lemon water or cola any day of the week. I would have no problem with people drinking in public, but like anything, I don’t like to see it abused.

To many, regardless of my thoughts on beer as a whole, others just see it as a vessel for alcohol. This thought is evident in both alcohol abusers, as well as the neo-prohibitionists that simply want to see alcohol banned. I only wish that weren’t the case because it breeds all-around irresponsibility. I don’t really have an answer to what some peoples concerns are with drinking in public other than to understand that not all of us wish to abuse alcohol in public, urinate on the sidewalk and fornicate in the bushes. I would be happy to enjoy a couple pints in a park with friends, enjoy a beer league game or relax on the lake with a few beers, but I am responsible, know my limits and am courteous to those around me.

I wish the same could be said for others, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it.

I don’t have any issues with adults drinking beer around kids, as long as they are doing it responsibly. I don’t have any problems with anyone drinking beer anywhere period, as long as it is done in a responsible manner. I will admit that the idea of drinking in public while in Japan felt odd, but nobody has a problem with someone buying a beer from a vending machine and drinking it on their way home. Drinking box wine in Yoyogi park with thousands of other including children enjoying the atmosphere? Not a big deal. Crazy, I know, but the onus always fall on the individual to be responsible.

Being responsible is the key. Like many things, those of us who are responsible are penalized because of those who aren’t.

One area that I’ve found the scale to be of critical importance, is when it comes to doing yeast starters accurately. There are a couple resources you can use for creating your yeast starter. One great place to start it the Mr. Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator, where you will get information as to what you need to pitch into your beer, but when it comes to creating the recommended starter for one pack of yeast, it helps to know how much dry malt extract (DME) you need to make that starter beer with.

I found a great homebrew starter wort calculator that allows you to calculate the amount of DME you need at a certain liquid volume to achieve your desired starter gravity. The amount of DME required is measured in weight instead of volume like many yeast starter tutorials tend to do. In my case, 1.5L of wort with a gravity of 1.040 required 5.51 oz of DME. Since my scale is only accurate to 0.05 oz, I had no problems with being potentially a few hundredths of an ounce off of my target. Other factors like how much water will be boiled off would become a bigger factor.

The scale has also become a crucial tool for me when packaging hops. In order to save on money, I had purchased my hops in bulk, so I ended up with 1 pound bags of leaf and pellet hops to work with. I ended up weighing them into 1 and 2 oz packages to keep individually, since most beer recipes only call for a few ounces in a batch. By keeping the measurements accurate, I reduce the potential hop spoilage, and I’m working with individual volumes of hops, which can then be further weighed for my beer to get accurate bitterness levels in my beers.

Of course, one of the most critical thing a home brewer will be using their scale for is for weighing their malts for making the wort. In my case, I used it to also create an accurate inventory of mine before doing any brews. This is another area where setting up your recipes, the ingredients are measured in pounds instead of some measure of volume, therefore, being able to get an accurate calculation of the grain weight required will be critical, as alterations, especially with smaller amounts of darker specialty malts, can make a major impact on the overall color and flavor of your beer.

Make sure that whatever scale you get, it has the ability to zero the weight of whatever container is on it. This way, you can get the scale to read zero, even if you have a measuring cup on it. This way, you are getting the measurement of just your ingredient weight only. Most scales will have a feature like this. Mine will automatically give you a zero weight if you turn it on with something on it.

Bottom line, that scale is a piece of equipment you should not put off. You will find it to be very helpful in your brewing life. If you happen to like to cook and bake as well, many ingredient ratios are best measured by weight instead of volume as well.

The Miyako Odori (都をどり), we had initially discovered later March during a YouTube Hanami party.  A late arriver to the party was RoninDave. He already has a video on his YouTube channel regarding the Miyako Odori, although what he talked more about was the tea ceremony that was to precede the actual show. The ceremony was only allowed if you had a Special Class Ticket.

It was time to continue on our day, taking care of laundry and cleaning the dishes, and of course, generally getting ready to make our way to Gion. It was a video camera day for me, so I made sure that I had whatever gear was necessary to get some nice high definition footage of things that day. Come to find out, I didn’t really need it much since the Miyako Odori organizers didn’t allow video taping of the show. It was to be expected.

We made our way out of the house and walked up north towards Gion. It was located a 20 minute walk from where we were staying, but was a relatively easy walk. As usual, I made sure to consult with my GPS to make sure we were taking the right roads. Once we crossed Goji Dori, the streets tended to be busier than those by our house. The streets as usual were quite narrow. We had to watch our step along the way as there would be cars and vans trying to squeak their way by.

It was a bit of a walk, but we finally managed to get to an intersection where we’re going to be heading east. This road was short as it hit a ‘T’ intersection, but along the south end of the road was a temple hidden in a bunch of trees. We didn’t get a chance to see the temple as we were passing by on the way to the Kaburenjo Theater anyways. There was a gate on the road that you could enter the grounds.

Gion is generally a busy area. Local tourists as well as foreign tourists frequent the area since it is one of the more well known Geisha districts in Japan. The main street, known as Hanamikoji Dori, was very busy that day. Before the show, we decided to just browse the street for a while as there was still a few hours until the show began.

Along the sides of the streets, there were generally the odd restaurant here and there, although on the street itself, the restaurants were generally in the range of upper class. Everything from high quality beef to some killer lobster dishes. Unlike most tourist friendly restaurants that we would see, you didn’t see the plastic food displays. Just a menu with prices. Some of the menus we saw had pictures, and some didn’t, but my limited knowledge of kanji had allowed me to see what was on some of the menus.

I am thinking that one of these days, I may have to come back to Kyoto, if anything, to try some of the meals at these restaurants. Normally, they would look like any other building in the area, so as a tourist, you had to keep your eye open. Along Hanamikoji Dori were a number of smaller side streets. In general, these streets were much quieter then the main street. There were many establishments along these streets, but tourists seemed to be primarily fixated along Hanamikoji Dori.

I had veered off on one of the side streets, fixated on some of the simpler wooden architectures. While they were simple, they had an air of elegance about them. The doorways in most of these places had a fine slatted wooden door. They were sliding doorways, unlike the doorway at our house, which while wooden, swung towards the alley. Almost every doorway had a distinct red, semi spherical lantern hanging by the entrance way. It wasn’t difficult to tell that, aside from there being less foot traffic, these side streets weren’t designed for foreign tourists. No English or romanized Japanese to be seen anywhere. Unless you could read Japanese well, you couldn’t point out what any of these places were unless you had a chance to look inside. Some places you could, and the ones that I was able to see inside looked like restaurants, in addition to those on Hanamikoji Dori.

I was thinking that it might be really cool to stop by one of these restaurants later for supper, but just as we were contemplating that, my cell phone rang. It was Avi Lugasi, the manager of our Kyoto home. He had confirmed that he had talked to the people at the Iso-Ya restaurant and let them know that we would be there at 6pm. Confirming whether we were still interested in going, I let him know we would after quickly discussing it with the wife. It was done, we were booked, and we just needed to find something to eat for lunch.

Keeping budget in mind, we figured getting away from Hanamikoji Dori would probably be a good idea if we wanted to find food at a decent price. We did just that. While we thought that street was busy, we had made our way towards Shijo dori. As we arrived at Shijo Dori, we were met with a large gate that announced the nature of the street, primarily that it was the main entrance to Gion. At this time though, it was advertising the Miyako Odori.

The sidewalks on Shijo Dori were decently wide. The width didn’t make the sidewalk any less busy. It was crowded, and the people made it difficult to cross towards the stores, or even stop to take a look inside of stores. We shouldn’t have been surprised at this, but we didn’t expect the street to be a major one. We never did end up going east of Hanamikoji Dori, as we eventually found a spot to eat on the west side.

The time was ticking closer to 3:00 pm. Our show started at 3:30 pm. We wanted to make sure we had the time to at least check out the tea ceremony. I was looking forward to this event since I was told about it back in Tokyo. We had walked back down Hanamikoji Dori to the Kaburenjo Theatre. Out in the open, just past the parking lot was the reservation window.

There was a decent lineup at the window, and we were trying to figure out which window we should be waiting at. The line for the reservations seemed to be fitting, but as anyone who has been to Japan may know, some subtleties in the English language can be lost when the Japanese try to make English signage. It took us a little bit to realize which line we needed to be in.

As I was waiting in line, I was trying to think of what I need to say. Something basic. I had time to think as we probably had another 10 minutes till we got to the window. “I have a reservation” I thought would be a good start and we will go from there. But how do I say it? At this point, I had to try and figure out how to construct a sentence in Japanese. On my iPhone, I had an application called “Japanese”. It is really a fitting name for the app since it is a Japanese dictionary. The first thing I ended up doing was looking up the word “reservation”.

“Yoyaku” was one of the first words I saw, and the examples made sense. I remembered back home when I was at a sushi restaurant, I had asked the owner, Kaz Kobayashi, if they still had the Unagi Don. Essentially a grilled eel on rice. He went to the kitchen to check, but I recalled hearing him say, “Unagi ga arimasu ka?”. I remembered that the word “arimasu”was literally “to exist”. I made the assumption that if I removed the particle “ka”, which made the sentence a question, the sentence would essentially state that unagi simply exists. So I replaced the word unagi with yoyaku. In Japanese, it literally meant, “reservation exists”, but I would assumed that in an English translation, you would say it in the proper context as, “I have a reservation.”

I was constantly thinking in my head, “Yoyaku ga arimasu… yoyaku ga arimasu.” It kept popping in my head until I felt I could recall it with ease when I got to the window. Then other questions popped up. What will they say after? Will I understand them? I figured I would do what I normally do in these situations. Do what I need to do and hope for the best. This didn’t work to well later in our trip to Japan, but today, it did.

I got to the window. “Yoyaku ga arimasu.”

“Namae?”

I gave her my name, but the issue arose of pronunciation. I did what I could to pronounce my name for her, but the lady ended up getting the lady that took our reservation to begin with. We had received our tickets and continued towards the tea ceremony. The entrance almost reminded me of a small community church. There was a small ramp and staircase that took us to the ticket entrance. We had two tickets each. At this entrance, they took a piece off of only one of our tickets. The tea ceremony admission.

I wasn’t sure what to expect leading up to the ceremony. It started to get really busy in the hallways. There were shops here and there where you could purchase all sorts of memorabilia and incense. The hallway had opened up to a large room that had chairs and furniture in little ailes. The furniture had two purposes in this case. One was to efficiently herd us like cattle in a swerving line leading up to the room where the tea ceremony was held. The other was so that people who got tired of standing and waiting in line could have a place to sit. The room was not too big, but big enough to fit a large number of people as we waited for the group ahead of us to exit the tea ceremony.

After about five minutes of waiting in line, we had started to move. The line didn’t move too quickly, but as we approached the room, it was easy to see why. There were helpers guiding large amounts of people to ensure they had a place to sit. This took a bit of time, but as we arrived, the only thing I could focus on was the front of the room. A Geisha and her Maiko apprentice preparing tea. While this wasn’t the first time we have been to Japan, this was the first time I have ever seen a Geisha in person. It was also the closest I would knowingly get to one. The back of the room.

Like the room we were previously waiting in, it wasn’t too big, but slightly larger. Large enough to accomodate most of the people that were waiting in their own seats with small tables in front of them. The helpers had made their way to each of the tables offering a small saucer with a pastry in the middle. The pastry was bite sized, but you wouldn’t dare try to eat the entire thing in one shot. It contained some kind of bean paste in the middle, but the combined bean paste and pastry were both extremely sweet. Too sweet to try and eat all in one go. The tea came not long afterwards. Rotating the large ceramic teacup multiple times, one of the helpers then handed me the cup directly into my cuped hands.

The cup was quite large, and could almost be considered a bowl. Some kind of ceramic material with a rough texture. In the bottom was a small amount of tea. The tea was not necessarily brewed or steeped by the Geisha. The tea was mixed from a powdered form. This is generally known as Matcha. The green tea powder is mixed in warm water using a small bamboo whisk. The tea itself isn’t clear like is normally expected from typical steeped teas. This tea was a solid green with a thicker consistency due to the tea powder being absorbed into the water, rather than simply flavouring it.

The tea had a bit of a bitter taste to it, but it tasted very smooth. Much nicer than any matcha that I’ve made at home. There wasn’t much tea in the cup, but it was a flavour I won’t forget. It was a simple bitter flavour, but combined with the pastry I had only moments previous, it had a sweetness to it that made the flavour of the tea more complex. It was just the right amount of bitterness with just the right amount of sweetness, combined with the smooth texture of the warm tea. It tasted great. We had to move on though.

We had paper that we could use to wrap our dish that the sweet pastry came on. That was ours to keep. We had wrapped up both of our dishes and tried to find a place to store it in our camera bag. The helpers began directing the people in the tea room to the exit. The next group of people behind us were about to get their opportunity to enjoy.

The walk towards the theater was somewhat long, but the views were great. There was a hallway we passed through that had an opening on one side, providing views to the garden below. The garden was a beautiful combination of trees, flowers and cherry blossoms, with stone walk ways. There was an area where we could head down but we continued on towards the theatre. Approaching the theater, there was another set of hostesses checking tickets. We had shown our tickets and found our ways to our seats. We were on the floor level, and our seats were only a couple rows away from the entrance.

The theater is not a large theater, with most of its seating on the floor level. There are two balcony levels, one which has tatami floor seating only. The lights were already dimmed, but the performance wasn’t to begin for another fifteen minutes. As people were packing into the theater, we couldn’t help but take notice at the large number of other foreigners that were making their way into their seats. Some sitting next to us. I believe they were from the Netherlands.

A hostess was making her way around the theater with program guides. Six hundred Yen. I picked up a copy. They were quite thick and came in their own envelope. The envelope being made of a durable fabric like paper, with the words 都をどり (Miyako Odori) written on the front and elegant decorations. The program guide itself was quite thick. I looked through it to find mostly advertisements. Most of the content was in Japanese. I then got close to half way through the guide when I finally saw the program for the show. Each page was a separate act, and each act had a picture with the scene description written underneath in both Japanese and English. We had quickly skimmed through it until we reached the cast list. I had put the guide away and sat patiently waiting for the show.

3:30 pm. Not a moment later did the lights begin to dim. The music began to play. Traditional Japanese percussions echoing through the theater. No amplification, no speakers, just the natural sound of the instruments. The stage sat up front with wings coming up on either side along side of some of the audience seating. In the wall of these wings were box seats that were part of the stage. It was in these boxes that the instruments were being played. The left wing primarily consisted of the percussion instruments with strings with vocals mainly occupying the box in the right wing. Further yet from the stage, next to the boxes, were doorways leading onto the wings.

As the music began playing, the doors on the wings opened. Geisha had begun to file out of the doors in a synchronized dance in unison. They slowly made their way in front of the boxes, pausing for a moment while still dancing, then continuing directly onto the stage later in the act. I sat back and watched, almsot emotional. I was not sure what to feel, but I had an overwhelming sense of joy just minutes into the show. I couldn’t help but realize that I’m actually sitting in this theater, watching Geisha perform, listening to the beauty of traditional Japanese music. It was not something I thought would happen before we even went to Japan. It was only a couple days before arriving in Kyoto that we realized that this event was going on, and that it would be starting while we were in Kyoto. From the beginning of the show to the end, I had a huge smile on my face.

The show was about an hour long, and ended with all of the Geisha dancing on the stage in the various outfits worn during the performance. Each act told a unique story, and had significantly different costume sets. It was a fitting end to a show that I only wished would go longer, but, it was only the 3rd show of the second day that it was on. With 4 shows a day for a full month, they would have their hands full with performances. It is an event that I would highly recommend for anyone in Kyoto during April to check out.

We had left the theatre after being funneled through the exits with the hundreds of other people, back to Hanamikoji Dori. It was still early for our 6:00pm reservation at Iso-Ya, but I figured we should make our way there anyways. Firing up the GPS, I started to look for a route to take. The route that we had pointed out to take was slightly different than the route we actually took. We decided to cross the river early instead of walking along side it a ways. It didn’t really matter. I had it saved in OffMaps where we were going, so as long as roads connected to where I wanted to go, I was good.

It has come to my attention on Monday, November 29th, 2010, that a fax had been sent to liquor stores and media outlets across Alberta, halting the purchase or import of beers with an ABV content greater than 11.9%, due to the risk of binge drinking. We believe that this attempt at alcohol control is highly misguided and should be repealed for reasons discussed below.

As beer is a widely varied drink in terms of market diversity, and styles, more so than most wines and spirits, it isn’t fair to lump beer into any particular legislation that can have far reaching negative effects on beer as a whole. Extreme examples of this would be the style of a light American lager compared to a Belgian dark strong ale. The former being a typical drink for social gatherings and parties, the latter being the typical drink for enjoyment sessions, not unlike those of a fine wine.

The elimination of beers above 11.9% is not going to prevent or deter binge drinking. It will eliminate a small but growing market in Alberta of craft beer drinkers who like to enjoy specialty beers that typically have high alcohol content. These are beers that provide a flavour profile that is both strong and complex, and they cost significantly more in cost and manufacturing than lagers that are purchased for parties and binge drinking.

When it comes to alcohols in general, the elimination of beers above 11.9% ABV seems arbitrary compared to the other options available. An example of this is wine, which in general has ABV rates of between 10% and 15%, which can be had for prices cheaper by volume than many beers of equal or lesser ABV rates, and have a higher level of drinkability (the “I’ll have another” factor) than those beers. Since drinkability is an important issue in binging, lets look at some of the alternative binge examples.

Highballs. Essentially mixing spirits of 40% ABV, give or take, with other non alcoholic ingredients, significantly increasing the drinkability of the beverage, while decreasing the ABV to a level still 3 to 6 times that of a typical lager. This is done both in private residences, and at Class A licensed establishments. In many cases, it is already being done by manufacturers, not necessarily within province, but imported from out of province manufacturers.

Liqueurs. Typically with an ABV of 15% to 30%, these have added flavourings and sugars to sweeten or create a more pleasing taste, enhancing the drinkability to, in many cases, a level greater than some wines. This type of flavouring is generally in the opposite direction of strong ales, which have a tendency of being very strong flavoured through specialty malts with a high level of hop bitterness and aromatics. While taste can be a personal preference, sweetness is generally accepted to be a desirable flavour over bitterness.

From a business perspective, or even the perspective of an aspiring brewer, this is now an imposed limitation that will eliminate certain beer styles almost completely. Brewing is an art, and the ABV is only one of many factors that play into the final product. While the majority of the market does indeed lie within lighter beers, there is a distinct subset of the market that truly does appreciate the finer side of beers, including the heavier beers brewed in or inspired by Belgium. There is a long rich history that goes into many of these strong beers that many of us appreciate.

Looking at this issue from a dollars perspective, it is probably best to break things down to how much per mL of alcohol you would be paying for a bottle of beer. For example, a $2 355ml bottle of beer at 4.5% ABV will have a cost of about $0.125 per mL of alcohol. An $8 650ml Belgian at 13% ABV would net you around $0.095 per mL of alcohol. Keeping in mind this is a niche product versus a typically premium product. Take it even further and compare to leading national and international brands of low cost American lager at about $1.25 for a 355ml can of beer at 5% ABV, and you are down to $0.071 per mL of alcohol. Using these metrics, the Belgian and lager have a difference in cost per unit of alcohol that favours the mainstream lager by 25%. Because of this, it makes even less sense that beer above 11.9% are being banned from sales in Alberta.

These are important factors to note when it comes to defining what it means to be a binge drinker, as costs and drinkability both are key factors in this. I have defined for you the differences between drinkability of lighter mainstream lagers and typical strong ales, and while both are called beer, they have different markets. Banning high alcohol beers because of the possibility of binge drinking is without merit because those beers are too expensive to appeal to binge drinkers. It is a danger to the craft beer market, to free enterprise, and to personal freedoms.

It is the opinion of myself and craft beer drinkers across the province of Alberta, that the ban on beer with an alcohol content greater than 11.9% should be lifted immediately. We would also like to have greater transparency and consultation in the decisions made by the AGLC that may affect beer, whether adversely and positively.

Sincerely yours,

Chris Heier

I can honestly say that I was never usually among that crowd, although my fight to find a good tasting beer generally left me trying other less mainstream brews, only to try and fight to find a difference in flavour between one brew and another. I have always had a love for beer, but I have never had the opportunity to experience true craft beers. That was until I had the opportunity to enjoy the ‘Dark Ale’ at the Wildwood Restaurant and Brew Pub (which is unfortunately closed today). It was my first experience drinking something truly unique, and since that first drink, I’ve been on the hunt high and low for beers that could come even close in terms of flavour and quality.

I would generally broaden my horizons trying imported beers, and varieties of different beers from some of the smaller breweries in Canada. Doing this, I had discovered a whole new world of flavours. Strong ales which were hard to drink as quickly as a light lager simply because the flavour was too bold, and well rounded beers that contained a nice amount of maltiness and bitterness. Most recently, two Calgary based breweries have come to the forefront for store bought beers in my mind. Big Rock Brewery, and Wild Rose Brewery.

Big Rock had become very profitable, crafting many different kinds of brews with distinctly different flavours. Grasshopper for those who want a lighter beer, Traditional Ale for those that wanted something that embodied a nice easy drinking flavour without being too strong, and for those wanting bold and bitter, there was Warthog. All different beers, and all distinctly different flavours. This goes for Wild Rose Brewery as well. they brew 6 different beers in active circulation throughout the year, with an India Pale Ale that makes Alexander Kieths IPA seem like a light lager, and a Wraspberry Ale that has proven to be one of their more popular brews with a distinctly fruity flavour, with a medium to dark body and easy drinking taste. Wild Rose is proving that they have what it takes to be a craft micro brewery in an Alberta market that is sorely lacking in local breweries and brew pubs.

More and more people I talk to are buying into the idea of better beers, and not treating it as much like a party beverage and more as a beverage of a civilized society, in the same manner that beverages like wine and scotch have found their place among the dinner tables of the savvy and social drinkers.

My hunt for great beer started many years ago with that first trip to the Wildwood. My hunt has now brought me down to the level of brewing my own. While I haven’t crafted my own beer yet, I have now undertaken the journey of becoming my own brew master. In search of a great flavour, I want to be able to brew beer of any style, with a distinct difference between styles, and between other beers in the same style. Beer has ceased to become simply an opportunity to load up on alcohol, and more to enjoy the variety and richness of such a fundamentally down to earth beverage.

Beer is a unique and complex beverage in its own right. A beverage that starts from the basic grains that come from the local farmers field. Grains that can can come in many varieties, then malted, and further diversified by kilning or roasting processes to invoke more unique flavours into the brew. These malty flavours are bittered and balanced by the floral aromas of the many varieties of hops. Some brewers will even season the brew with spices that can be found in most peoples kitchens to add another level of complexity to the flavour.

My experience to date has not begun with the fundamental ingredients, but with wort (pronounced “wert”) kits. These kits involve no mashing or boiling so it allows you to cost effectively star brewing your first beers. Most importantly, it teaches you three fundamental golden rules.

1. Sanitize everything that touches your beer
2. Patience
3. Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew

The process of fermentation will tax you on rules one and two, especially if you don’t already have a home brew completed, in which case, rule three doesn’t apply, but it makes rule two oh so difficult. Getting into brewing beer this way is a great way to start home brewing as it gets you right into one of the most important parts of the brew process. Pitching the yeast to convert all of those fermentable sugars from the malts into alcohol, and to allow yeast to impart their natural flavours into the brew. For the home brewer, yeast will most likely play two roles. Fermentation of course being primary, but if you are bottling your brew, you will be adding sugar to the brew after fermentation is complete. Without extra sugar, the yeast would have nothing to feed on to carbonate your beer in the bottles.

I am not involved in the whole process of brewing as of yet, but in order to continue my hunt for great brews, I will have to begin the process of building them from the grains. It may not be today, or may not be tomorrow, but soon, I will be among those who can confidently say, “I am a Canadian craft brewer.”