James Watson, Nobel laureate, approves DNAle!

If you're not in the sciences the name James Watson might not ring a bell. Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin published a paper back in 1953 that changed the way every biologist thinks about life, inheritance, evolution, and disease. Their contribution to science was to solve the structure of DNA, the molecule that contains almost all of the information needed to make a virus, a dinosaur, a mushroom, and you (yes, you! Awwww).

Watson came to Genentech a couple of weeks ago to give a lecture on cancer, where he presented what he thought were some overlooked remedies from his day and age. He drew a humongous crowd. The only other person that might have had the same effect would be the exhumed corpse of Darwin himself. The nerd paparazzi followed him relentlessly, snapping photos of him, or of his back, whatever they could get.

After his lecture he stuck around to do book signings. Many people had brought their beloved copies of the Double Helix (his personal and controversial account of how they cracked the DNA structure). Some were lovely vintage paperbacks, first edition. I had my copy signed, plus I brought along a printout of my DNAle beer label that Marc designed. I explained it to Watson and he got a kick out of it. His neat, modest signature is in the lower right corner. It's too bad I didn't have any beer to give him!

BREW #6: Agave Pilsener

I drank a LOT of tequila this past year (thanks to Mickey and his friends at Tommy's) and the whole experience made me curious about agave and it's properties. What sort of a beer would it make? Some of you may remember Tequiza, an agave, tequila, and lime flavored beer unveiled by Budweiser back in 1998. I was hard at work in graduate school back then and not much of a beer drinker.

The only mention of a commercial agave-spiked beer I could find is this Breckenridge Agave Wheat beer. Darn! Someone beat me to the idea! Anyway, I decided to do brew a beer that had a significant amount of agave syrup in it. I imagined it would behave much like honey. I decided to adapt a recipe from Papazian's book that contains honey called "Rocky Racoon's Honey Lager". Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

For 3 gallon batch (I know, what a pain if you're used to 5 gallon carboys... I use them because they're easier for me to lift and clean):

2 lbs Light dried malt extract
1.5 lbs (or 3 cups) Raw agave nectar (Madhava brand)

1.2 oz Saaz hops (boiling)
0.3 oz Cascade hops (finishing)

1 Smack pack of WYeast Pilsen (#0656295)

Arrowhead spring water
1/2 c. corn sugar for bottling

PROCEDURE

1. Bring water (~1.5 gallons), malt, and Saaz hops to a boil and boil for 40 minutes.
2. Add the agave syrup, boil another 15 minutes.
3. Add the Cascade hops for the last 2-4 minutes of the boil.
4. Place pot in a sinkful of cold water to chill and then transfer to carboy already containing the other half of the water.
5. Once near room temperature add the yeast.

I incubated at room temp for 2 weeks and then lagered it in my fridge for another 2 weeks.

TASTING COMMENTS

This tastes like a classic Pilsener, with just a hint of extra sweetness. More body and more filling than the average Pilsener! I can't say I taste an overt agave flavor here, but the syrup I used did not have that distinct character to begin with. I'd consider adding an agave extract if I can track one down. To make it even more like a tequila you could add some oak chips. Hmmm....

Welcome DNAle!

Well, I finally figured out a name for my line of beer, with a lot of help from friends. I took a poll using Facebook and received many suggestions. Most sounded like good names for individual brews ("The Yeast of Your Blurries" was a favorite), but not for an entire line. My friend Kerry Stamps, though, was quite inspired and came up with "DNAle". Yeah, I think that one's going to stick!

My brother Marc is a graphic artist so I put him to task designing a label. I sort of imagined two hop vines intertwined like a DNA helix, but I left it up to him. He came up with something helical, all right - look closely at the rungs. It's absolutely perfect. :)

Brew #5: Cherry Mead

This mead, which I am subtitling ("Cherry-picked, not at all like your data!") is taken from Vargas and Gulling's "Making Wild Wines and Meads". Technically this is a melomel because it is flavored with fruit. The description they give this mead in the book was mouth-watering: "...(this mead) has everything: attractive; clear red color; flavor that is a complex blend of cherries and honey; a pleasant bouquet; and a lovely, lingering aftertaste that seduces with every sip." Let's give it a try!

INGREDIENTS

For 1 gallon of mead:

3 lb. clover honey
1 lb. dark or sour cherries, halved, with pits (got mine frozen at Safeway)
1 Tbsp. acid blend
1 Tsp. pectic enzyme
1 Campden tablet (optional)
1 package of champagne yeast
1 Tsp. yeast nutrient
1 1/2 cups of orange juice (!)

PROCEDURE

1. Boil the honey and the water (1 parts honey to 2 parts water) for 10 to 20 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms. Warning here - the delicate flavors in the honey can become altered if you boil for too long, so best keep it to a minimum.

2. Pour the hot honey mix over the cherries in a bucket and let cool. Strain into your sterilized carboy.

3. Add the acid, pectic enzyme, and enough water to make 1 gallon. Add the Campden tablet if desired and let this mixture sit, well covered, for 24 hours.

4. In a jar make the yeast starter culture by combining the yeast, yeast nutrient, and OJ. Cover, shake vigorously, and let stand 1-3 hours. Then add to the must (i.e., the honey/cherry mix).

5. Apply the airlock and allow fermentation to occur for a few weeks. About an inch of yeast accumulated on the bottom during this time! Once things died down I racked to a new carboy to get it off the old yeast, and let it sit another 4 months. The book says to incubate for nearly a year with two rackings, but I'm impatient and the mead did not look very active after the first racking.

MUSINGS & MISHAPS

I had a taste when I racked this mead and was surprised at how dry it tasted relative to the Black Russian Science Mead I made long ago. Not cloying at all - much like a champagne with a hint of cherry flavor. Actually, I was disappointed that a much of the "cherri-ness" had disappeared. This turns out to be an effect of using champagne yeast rather than mead yeast. Mead yeast will leave you with much more sweetness.

For bottling I added a bit of corn sugar to make this a sparkling beverage. We'll see how well it carbonates over the next few weeks.

Brew #4: Who's in the Garden Grand Cru

This is the first time I've followed a recipe from a book. Taken from the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, the copious amounts of coriander in this beer snagged my interest. I've heard coriander is a secret ingredient in some commercial beers and have been curious to try it. Here goes!

INGREDIENTS:

5 lb light dried malt extract
2 3/4 lb orange blossom honey

1 oz. Hallertauer hops (boiling hops)
1/3 oz. Hallertauer hops (flavor hops)
1/2 oz. Hallertauer hops (aroma hops)

1 1/2 oz. freshly ground coriander seeds
1/2 oz. dried bitter orange peel, lightly crushed

35 ml White labs Belgian Saison yeast #WLP565

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil water (fill pot only halfway because the dried malt takes up a surprising amount of volume), then add honey and malt. Stir, stir, stir to keep malt from caramelizing on the bottom. Interestingly, using honey in beer gives it a lighter, drier flavor. After tasting this wort I can say it's true...

2. Bring to a boil again and add bittering hops. Continue boiling for 45 minutes.

3. Remove bittering hops and add 3/4 oz. crushed coriander plus flavor hops for 10 minutes. I crushed my coriander in our coffee grinder (cleaned it first, of course!).

4. Remove stuff from step 3. Add the rest of the crushed coriander plus orange peel for 5 minutes, and in the last 2 minutes add the aroma hops.

5. Remove stuff from step 4, cool completely, dump into carboy and pitch yeast.

MUSINGS, MISHAPS:

I have high, high hopes for this beer. The coriander and orange peel smelled glorious together. This will be a fun one to drink in the spring!

TASTING COMMENTS:

2/18/07 - We racked the beer and had a taste. This will reveal the extent of my ignorance about beer in general, but Scott just informed me this recipe is supposed to mimic a Belgian witbier called Hoegaarden. Hence the name "Who's in the Garden". I had no idea. So, we bought some Hoegaarden and compared it to my homebrew. Quite an unusual beer - very cloudy and yeasty, but not a bready yeastiness, more a yogurty/lactic flavor. The orange peel didn't come through, but people typically bring out this flavor by serving the beer with an orange slice (like Hefeweizen with lemon). I think I can taste the piquancy of the coriander. My beer is very much like the commercial brew, but a bit darker in color and a little maltier. Hmmm, this will definitely require more drinking - er, I mean research!

Brew #3: Son of Hopzilla

I goofed up big this time. But that might be a good thing - if you like hops. Which we do.

INGREDIENTS:

7.75 lb British Amber Malt Extract
8 oz Biscuit Malt (unknown Lovibond)
8 oz Crystal Malt L.60

2.5 oz Nothern Brewer Hops (6.2% AA)
5.5 oz Cascade Hops (6.5% AA)

125 ml WYeast 1098, British Ale Smak Pak

PROCEDURE:

1. Bring water and dry grains to a boil.
2. Remove dry grains and thoroughly stir in malt extract.
3. Calculate the amount of hops to make a nice IPA. Book says 30-60. OK, 30-60 homebrew units means we'll need a lot of hops.
3. Bring to a boil again and add 2.5 oz Northern Brewer hops plus 2.5 oz Cascade.
4. Boil for 40 minutes.
5. Remove bittering hops and add 1 oz Cascade to boil 20 minutes.
6. Notice that wort has a greenish tinge and tastes super-duper hoppy.
7. Review beer stats and realize that 30-60 was NOT homebrew units but International Bittering Units.
8. Quickly calculate IBU's for beer currently planned and, oops, this beer will have upwards of 130 IBU's.
9. What the heck, throw another 2 oz Cascade in the last 5 minutes for aroma.
10. Cool, add water to 5 gallons, and pitch yeast. This particular yeast is supposed to allow the malt and hop flavors shine through without adding a lot of fruity esters.

MUSINGS, MISHAPS:

I am consoling myself with the thought that a 130 IBU beer will have no chance of contamination. I just hope the yeast survive.

TASTING COMMENTS:

Wow, pretty clean. Not the tastebud-stripping I expected, but an insistent tingly hop flavor. Not as citrusy as I thought it would be, and not much floral aroma to warn you before you sip. If I had used Cascade hops this would have packed a real punch. This is sort of like a hop-flavored soda, which doesn't sound appetizing, but you really can't taste much of the malt. People who have tried this beer say it's delicious. I would shoot for more balance next time.

Brew #2: Black Russian Science Mead

It isn't often that a byproduct of our research can be used at home. There was a time I made camphor for a friend who was fond of the smell, but in general one doesn't take experiments off campus. However, our lab has been branching out over the last couple of years from fruit flies to other insects like flour beetles, mosquitos, and Apis mellifera--honeybees. Mmmm, honey... A graduate student in our lab (Jessica C.) has studied honeybee development pretty much since she joined us. As a byproduct of her research she collects lots of wonderful honey from her rooftop laboratory hives. There is an actual honeycomb centrifuge in the lab for this purpose!

There are plenty of uses for honey - I like to sweeten my tea with it - but we're talking pounds and pounds of honey. Two viable options seemed to be: make a ton of baklava and get fat, or make a ton of mead and get drunk! Here is how we brewed our mead:

INGREDIENTS:

16 lbs fresh honey from Black Russian honey bees
0.5 oz Brewer's Garden Bitter Orange Peel
4 tsp Acid Blend
0.5 oz Yeast Nutrient
35 ml White Labs Pitchable Sweet Mead Yeast WLP720

Last minute addition: 3 ripe peaches cut up but not skinned
and 1/2 stick of cinnamon

PROCEDURE:

1. Mix honey and water to about 2 or 3 gallons.
2. Bring to a boil and add orange peel and cinnamon.
3. Boil 15 min and skim scuzz off the top.
4. Turn off the heat and add acid blend, yeast nutrient, and cut up peaches in a mesh bag. Allow to steep for 15 min.
5. Cool, add sterile water to make 5 gallons, and pitch yeast.
6. Rack often and ferment for at least 4 months.

MUSINGS, MISHAPS:

This was brewed 7/2/06, left at home 2 weeks, and then moved to lab because the temperature there is cooler and more controlled.

Racked 9/1/06.

TASTING COMMENTS:

After the first rack I had a taste and, wow, it's going to be potent! Two sips and feeling relaaaaaxed. Could just barely taste the peaches and there was a little astringent flavor, possibly due to leaving the peach skins on. Maybe this will mellow out over the next few months.

Brew #1: Breakfast Brown Ale

Welcome to my blog featuring all the musings and mishaps that go into making beer at home! Brewing is something my friend Scott introduced me to. He's been making beer for more than ten years! He's constructing a site for his brand called "Ugly Mug" at this site: www.skatemonk.com, check it out! I've made three batches of beer so far, two of which were, well, a bit ambitious. The first was the infamous "64K" (64 for the batch number in Scott's system, K for Kate), which might fall into the category of Christmas beer. It was pretty malty and heavily spiced. I had made this moroccan dish the week before containing ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom, and thought, hmmm--those might go well in a beer! Scott thought I was nuts! The final beer turned out to be somewhat drinkable, highly explosive (it fermented too much after bottling), and great in chili.

The second beer I made was, again, somewhat complex. I wanted to make a fruit beer, specifically a cherry stout. When researching the quantity of cherries to add, I decided (based on my VAST experience), to go with the amount normally used in Belgian lambics. So, I ended up thawing ten 1-pound bags of frozen black cherries for this 5 gallon batch of beer! It actually tasted pretty good, if a bit heavy on the cherry flavor, for about one month after bottling. Then--this weird flavor emerged that I would describe as "rubber hose". Perhaps the cherries added a sugar that was processed differently by the yeast than malt sugar, yielding an off-tasting byproduct? In any case, we drank a few, gave a few away, and the rest went down the sink!

Now, THIS time I made a very basic brown ale. This will officially become batch Numero Uno of my own line (yet to be named). It's called "Breakfast Brown". Recipe follows:

INGREDIENTS:

8 lb British Amber malt (extract)
4 oz British Chocolate malt (whole grain)
4 oz Carafe Black malt (whole grain)
16 oz Belgian Special B malt (whole grain)

2 oz Fuggles (4.0% aa) for bittering
0.75 oz Kent Golding (6.3% aa) for aroma

125 ml #1338 European Ale yeast (smack pack)

PROCEDURE:

1. Place bag of crushed whole grain malts in large pot of water. Bring to a boil.
2. Once boiling, remove whole grains and add malt extract, stirring to dissolve.
3. Add bag of bittering hops. Boil for 45 min.
4. In the meantime, enjoy some beer.
5. Remove bittering hops and add aroma hops. Boil 15 min.
6. Remove aroma hops, cover and cool until you can touch the pot without yanking your hand away.
7. Dump pot contents into carboy, add additional sterile water to make 5 gallons. If cool enough add yeast.

MUSINGS, MISHAPS:

At some point the large airlock had to be exchanged for a smaller one. The beer was still very active and kicked some malty suds up into the small airlock. We had to switch back to the large one for a while longer, hope we didn't introduce contaminants.

TASTING COMMENTS:

1/10/06 Bottling day! Drank a small glass of this fully fermented wort and hurray, no contamination! Tastes like a typical brown--toffee up front, mild hoppiness. Has a little burnt toast flavor, probably from the Carafe malt. Doesn't have a heap of character but, eh, it's my first drinkable beer! We added 2 cups water + 1/2 cup honey for bottling. Should be carbonated in about 2 weeks.

2/1/06 Had my first taste of a fully fermented, bottle-aged beer. It's either still quite active or I added too much bottling sugar, because half the beer leaped out of the bottle as foam! Looks like we'll have to drink these quickly, otherwise we'll have to deal with exploding bottles and a sticky mess in the garage. The beer didn't taste quite like a classic brown. A lot of that nice toffee flavor doesn't come through anymore. The most apparent flavor comes from the Carafe black malt, I think--sort of a lightly burnt toast flavor. I wonder if jump-starting the yeast at bottling caused them to ferment not only the bottling sugar but also some of the residual sugars left after primary fermentation... ???