"Deathly Hallows" Butterbeer

If you know me, you know that I am a big nerd. I can't wash a beer glass without thinking about surface chemistry, looking at carbonation in a beer reminds me of nucleation and growth. I can't be at a wedding and here "this ring" without thinking "precious!" I also own an English to Klingon dictionary. I am a big nerd.

It should not surprise you that I am also a Harry Potter fan. To get ready for the release of the next movie, "Deathly Hallows" I am working on a recipe for "Deathly Hallows Butterbeer."

I modified a recipe that is supposedly "historically accurate" (if its on the internet, it must be true!) that I found here. The beer I used was Dead Reckoning, a hoppy porter from Troegs. I thought it fit very well with the dark tone of the book as well as the name has "dead" in it. It is also a great beer by itself.

Here is what I did.

Heated up 3 bottle of the beer with the spices over medium heat (cinamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg). While that came to a boil, I beat 5 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of white sugar (big deviation from the original recipe, but I didnt have 500 g of sugar). To avoid curdling the eggs, I beat them over a double boiler and slowly added in the hot beer mixture while whisking vigorously. Continuing to whisk, I added a stick of butter, small pieces at a time, waiting for a piece to fully melt before adding the next. The internet recipe says you can cut the beer but up to half using hot milk, but I only added a little bit (not sure of the exact amount).

I really enjoyed it (a non beer drinker complained that it tasted too much like beer) but I think a better cook could play with the spicing and make it better. At any rate, it is a good, beer centered replacement for egg nog come christmas time. And don't forget, when ordering a butter beer, say "Accio Butterbeer!"

Las Cervesas de Costa Rica

Just got back from a trip down to Costa Rica for my friend's wedding. I got to see some monkeys, I learned to surf and .... I drank BEER! I didn't know much about Costa Rican beer other than there is beer brewed in Costa Rica, and the most popular one is Imperial. As long as I knew there would be beer, I was happy.Beers that I tried:

• Imperial
• Bavaria Dark
• Bavaria Gold
• Pilsen
• Bavaria 1460
• Mystery beer at wedding (maybe a bavaria beer? Can anyone tell from the picture?)

Unless the beer at the wedding was Bavaria Light, this is the only one I know of that I did not drink.


My first beer was Imperial. It had been a long travel day, it was hot and humid and I needed a beer. Fortunately, Imperial did not disappoint in its refreshment. I expected the same stale flavors that you get with mass produced beer at home, but there were none. Unfortunately, there was not much else for me to get excited about with this beer. By the end of the beer, I had no real desire to have another one.

The next day, at the bar by the pool, I found some variety. There were the Bavaria beers (Dark, Light and Gold) as well as the Pilsen. They all tasted a little different but there were no flavors that really stood out. The Gold did have a nice sweetness to it (Carolyn said it tasted like honey) but by the time I finished, I didn't feel the need to order another one. The Dark was nice, Carolyn and Mom seemed to like this one the best. Nothing exciting about it, but I would drink it over a Yuengling if I had the choice. The pilsen just tasted bad, nothing more to say about it.

Overall, there was nothing exciting about the beer. However, most of it tasted fine and were decent go to beers for the trip. I stuck with the Imperial and the Bavaria Dark. Of course the other option is to just drink pina coladas made with the incredibly ripe pineapples they have down there. I mean, thats what I have been told...there is no evidence that I would partake in that non-beer beverage...

Waiting for good results

I finally tried the red ale turned amber ale that I brewed in early October. I brewed on the 3rd and did not taste until the 30th. In this case, waiting longer to drink the beer turned out the be a good idea. Nick and Greg actually kegged the beer a week or so after brewing and panicked when they tasted it. The descriptions I got included "tastes wine-like," "over extracted grains," and "kind of funky." I was kind of bummed that it looked like a failed brew, but I thought if we waited a bit longer, the beer would figure itself out and get to tasting right. Fortunately that turned out to be the case, and from looking around on the internet and re-reading some of my old brewing notes, it seems to be the trend. The longer you let the beer sit, the better. As Alton Brown always says: Your patience will be rewarded. As far as I can tell, the more stuff you throw into a beer during brewing, the longer it takes for all the flavors to get sorted out and settle into a palatable beverage.

Anyway, I tasted the beer on Friday without making any tasting notes but here is my memory of the beer:

It poured kind of a murky brown, probably because I forgot to add the irish moss and no one wanted to experiment with using egg whites as a fining agent. Oh well. Now we know officially that it is an amber ale and not a red ale. The head was pretty creamy with small bubbles. The retention was good but not great. The smell was not very strong, I think the keggerator is a bit too cold for this dark of a beer. The taste was mostly the toasted malts and it finished with a nice bitterness. The bitterness was a cross from what you would expect from the hops plus the burnt grains. I liked it. There was not a great hop presence, but every now and then I could taste the hop pellets. The only strange thing was the smell as I drank the beer. Once the glass was about half empty, I could really get my nose in there. The smell was weird. There was a weird fruit (cherry maybe?) and a little bit of funk. Maybe this will disappear, maybe not.

Over all, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I just need to keep in mind the impatient people brewing with me. Either I need to find beers that are quick from grain to glass, or convince them to wait for the beer to be ready before drinking.

New Brewery Location

I found a place to brew in State College. My apartment is not really conducive to brewing, so I head over to my friend Greg's place. He has a keggerator and a nice flat concrete area outside for the turkey fryer. We have brewed two beers there: the first was a clone beer from a kit bought by another guy, Nick, and the second was a new take on my Mac's Irish Red recipe. The clone beer turned out well, even though Greg's house was ridiculously hot and the fermenter went a little crazy. The new irish red (which may turn out to be an amber) is fermenting now. The wort tasted great so I am pretty excited.

Nick, Greg and I funneling the beer into the carboy. Nick seems to approve.

Amber Ale/Irish Red mystery beer:
Grains Steeped @ ~165 F for about 30 minutes

• 1 lb Caramel Malt
• 1 lb US Breiss Aromatic 21 L mildly kilned (strong malt aroma +deep color)
• 1/4 lb chocolate malt
• 1/4 lb vienna malt

Malt Extract:

• 5.4 lb (a 4lb can and a 1.4 lb pound can) of Alexanders Pale Extract
• The lid from the small can (Greg was hung over and dropped it in...oops)

I also tried cold steeping about 1/4 lb of the chocolate malt in a gallon of water because someone told me it would give a nice red color. It didn't turn red, but I added this water anyway.

Hops:

• Bittering (60 minutes): 1 oz Perle (Gr) 8.3% alpha acid
• 30 minutes: 1 oz Santium (US) 6.1% alpha acid
• Aromatic (5 minutes): 1 oz Tettnang (Gr) 5.1% alpha acid

Yeast: Safale S-04 dry ale yeast (it was in a blue packet)
O.G. 1.048

I didn't add any irish moss or other fining agent, this will be a murky beer.