Prohibition Visits Karnataka

The recent election in Karnataka came with a surprising twist, at least as viewed by my non-native/ expat eyes - A mandate that all establishments that sell alcohol must close for four days (except the big hotels that have a CL9 liquor license). I thought this was overreaching, unnecessarily punitive and completely ineffectual. But if I had to choose only one word it would be "absurd". At first I thought the idea was that the state wanted a sober electorate but I later learned the mandate was to prevent vote buying! Well, with a little more thought that still didn't make much sense as any would-be vote buyers could just stockpile booze before the ban or just use a different form of currency (like the petrol or groceries that I heard about). And why the single day closure several days after the elections on the day ballots were counted? To make things worse, establishments in Indiranagar, like Toit Brewery had to close an additional two days because of a local temple festival. The net result of this farce was that many thousands of small business owners and the employees that work for them lost a lot of money. The state also lost a lot of tax revenue. 

The US gave prohibition a go from 1920-1933. The "great experiment" is widely regarded now as a great failure. It didn't really stop anyone from drinking. What it did do was remove a revenue stream from the government and hand it to a bunch of thugs. The ban also made it possible for a lot of poor quality, completely unregulated and sometimes dangerous booze to get consumed. 

When it comes to alcohol sales Karnataka sure takes a back seat to anything that resembles a progressive way of doing things. Wether it's the ridiculous 11:30 PM daily closure Bangalorean's have to deal with, the dismal state-run liquor depot that we have to buy from (that keeps prices up, selection down and disrespects fragile products by storing them at improper temperatures), or the the poorly planned micro-brewery regulations and excessive taxation that goes along with them. One can only hope that the future will bring some sensible changes to Karnataka but with none of these issues decided by public vote it sure is difficult to imagine how or when such things would happen. It would seem the worlds largest democracy is sometimes not so democratic... 

Please note, the opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily shared by the management at Windmills Craftworks. Cheers...

Brewed Something New

My first attempt at a Belgian-style Blonde Ale here in Bangalore went off without a hitch yesterday. I think we'll call it Summerfest as it should be pretty refreshing and a real drinker in this hot weather. I used Weyermann Pale Ale, CaraBelge and Vienna malts from Germany and some flaked barley from England. Hops were Czech Saaz and American Centennial. But what really gives this beer the Belgian character is the special yeast strain I used (no. 3944). A new one for Craftworks that came courtesy of my friends at Toit brewery. The original gravity was a respectable 13.8° plato and the fermentation is peaking as I write. The quickest way to find out when it goes on-tap at Craftworks is to follow BangaBrew on Twitter. Cheers !

Beery Factoids

• The International Bittering Unit (I.B.U.) is a numeral rating that brewers use to indicate how much bitterness is in our beer. The figure translates to how much alpha acid (the bittering component in hops) is present. One I.B.U. is equal to one mg. of alpha acid in one liter of beer. The higher the I.B.U. number, the more bitter the beer will be. Of course the amount of residual or unfermented sugar in a beer will play a large part in how we perceive that bitterness. Industrial lagers typically have about 10 IBUs, Hefeweizen 15, Pilsners 35 and American-style India Pale Ales over 50.
• In ancient times, before brewers knew what yeast was and what it did we referred to it as “God-is-good” because of the divine things it produced.
• UK breweries still using dray horses for beer deliveries: Hook Norton, Samuel Smith and Wadworth.
• UK breweries still using wooden casks: Samuel Smith, Theakston and Wadworth.

Beer Style Spotlight ~ Hefeweizen

The most popular beer I brew at Windmills Craftworks is a German-style Hefeweizen (pronounced Hay-fah-vite-zen). This shouldn't come as much of a surprise as the refreshing nature of this beer style suits India's hot climate and spicy food very well. So I'm thinking a little more about this great beer and my interpretation of it, is in order.

Hefeweizen is an old style of beer. Most associate it with the Bavaria region in Southern Germany and rightfully so. The style was certainly popularized there and production is greater there today than anywhere else in the world. It was probably first brewed in the early 1500's in the Bavarian forrest near the Czech border. Hefe means yeast in German and weizen, wheat. All this adds up to a yeasty wheat beer. In Germany weizen beers must be made with at least 50% malted wheat by law but are usually just above 60%. They are always ales and never lagers. They should be a bit more carbonated than other beers. They are fermented warmer, quicker and to a greater degree than most other beers. They are also fermented with a special ale yeast that produces lots of phenols. Phenols are basically organic chemical compounds that are similar to alcohols but have a different molecular structure. They are volatile which means that they are easily vaporized or evaporated. The largest group of phenols are the flavonoids. They are present in many foods (citrus, berries, tea, red wine, dark chocolate, etc. ) and have names like Guaiacol, Eugenol, 4-Vinyl Syringol and Aceto Vanillone. And as the word flavonoid might suggest, they are quite distinctive on the pallete. Most tasters perceive clove, nutmeg, banana, vanilla, a slightly smokiness and medicinal flavours. Phenols are also a very big part of the flavor profile in whiskey from Islay, Scotland but I digress...

Hefeweizen came close to disappearing a few times in Germany. The first was was due to over-reaching regulations by the ruling nobility in Bavaria on just who could brew and where. Next it would be the advent of refrigeration in the 1870s. This allowed brewers to make the newly-popular, cold-fermented lagers in the warmer months that were previously the dominion of the warmer-fermenting ale strains. Last to take its toll would be changing consumer preferences post World War II. It would take until the mid 1960s for the popularity pendulum to swing the other way. These days weizenbier is more popular than ever and accounts for about 12% of beer consumed in Germany as a whole and about 35% in it's Bavarian backyard.

Wheatfield with Crows - Van Gogh had a thing for wheat fields. I like this one.

When I started brewing in the US in the late 1980s the few American brewers that made a weizen beer, myself included, tended to use what ever our house ale strain was to ferment our wheat beer. The result was generally pretty light-weight, completely devoid of phenols and not very interesting unless the brewer was a bit of a hop-head. These days I wouldn't dream of making a weizen beer without the appropriate phenol-producing yeast strain. Some excerpts from the 2012 American Association of Brewers beer style guideline for South German-style Hefeweizen are: "The aroma and flavor is decidedly fruity and phenolic; Banana-like esters should be present at low to medium-high levels; Hop flavor and aroma are absent or present at very low levels; Weissbier is well attenuated (fermented), very highly carbonated and a medium to full bodied beer; The color is very pale to pale amber; And no diacetyl (buttery flavour) should be perceived." Original Gravity is 11.8-14º Plato, Apparent Extract/Final Gravity is 2-4º Plato, Alcohol is 3.9-4.4% by Weight (4.9-5.5% by Volume), Bitterness is 10-15 IBU's, Color is 3-9 SRM (6-18 EBC). The Hefeweizen I brew at Windmills Craftworks is very much in line with these parameters. There is however one slight difference between mine and one you might sip in a Munich bier garden, I do my mashing or converting of the grains starch to sugar at a single temperature and not the multiple temperature step mash typically practiced in Germany due to the design of my brewhouse. And I do my fermenting in a more modern type of fermenter - a closed cylindroconical uni-tank that can be pressurized, compared to the traditional open-air fermenters commonly found in German weizen breweries. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. 

Fermenters at Windmills Craftworks

My American-made fermenters can be cleaned-in-place and sanitized more easily with a pump and internal spray ball. I can also cap or seal my tank when fermentation nears completion, build up pressure and carbonate the beer naturally in the same tank. That's why they are called "uni-tanks". Open fermenters give a brewer more options in choosing a yeast as some strains are reluctant to flocculate (settle out) and are more easily harvested for reuse by top skimming. But open fermenters can't hold pressure so the beer needs to be transferred to another tank that can and fed some more sugar to gain carbonation. This addition of extra priming sugar (about 9-13%) would typically be unfermented beer (wort), raise the gravity by 1-1.5° Plato and is called Speise in Germany.

I've been using 100% German ingredients in Windmills Hefeweizen. Malted barley and wheat from the Weyermann Maltings in Bamberg and Saphir hops late in the boil, however true to style the hop finish is not that perceptible. I ferment this beer a little warmer (23°C) than my other ales to coax a bit more phenolic character out of the yeast and have also found that raising the starting gravity (amount of sugar in solution before fermentation) a little goes a long way in increasing those flavours as well. 

I think the Craftworks fermenters are a bit easier to clean and sanitize than these!

Beery Factoids

• There are several types of of Weizenbiers that range from the light-weight, sour-style made in Berlin that is often served with a shot of sweetend raspberry or woodruff syrup mixed in, to those made with with smoked malt in Bamberg (Rauchweizen).
• The German beer purity law or Reinheitsgebot that stipulates beer can contain only water, barley and hops came to be in 1516 but originally it didn't contain wheat or yeast, as we humans didn't even know yeast existed back then. It would take many years and the Provisional Beer Law (Vorläufiges Biergesetz) of 1993 for yeast and wheat to be included.
• While German brewers still adhere to the Biergesetz, newer E.U. regulations supersede it and foreign brewers are now permitted to export beer to Germany that contain non-sanctioned ingredients.
• Bavarians never drink their Hefeweizen with the slice of lemon that some (foolish) Americans do.
• Gose is a style of sour wheat beer from Leipzig Germany that is made with unmalted wheat and has much in common with the spontaneously fermented lambic beers of Belgium. It can be a bit salty and is sometimes flavored with coriander.
• The deck at Windmills Craftworks is a great place to relax and chill-out with a Hefeweizen.

Prost !

Got Me A Stout

No, sadly I’m not talking about one of these cute Stout Scarabs. I’m talkin’ about the black stuff, Ireland’s national drink. This is the first Stout I’ve brewed at Craftworks and it will replace Porter temporarily. Unless of course the vast majority prefers it to the Porter and would like to see it on-tap permanently. This is, after all, the worlds largest democracy. Getting back to the beer - it’s big, black, smooth and roasty. The recipe is pretty simple and pays homage to Guinness by only using U.K. pale malt, flaked barley, roasted barley and the smallest bit of sour malt. Hops are only used at the start of the boil for bittering and are completely absent later as a finishing/aroma addition. This is quite a contrast to everything else I brew (Weizen excepted). Original gravity is 15.8° plato and the alcohol is 5.3% by volume. 

Happy St. Patrick’s day! Slainte...

Other Craftworks Beer News

• I’ve been playing around with some different yeast strains in ongoing efforts to keep improving and am happy to have my favorite London Ale strain fermenting away. 
• My first German-style Dunkelweizen is almost gone and was well received.
• My second go at a classic Extra Special Bitter, brewed with 100% English malt and hops, has recently gone on-tap. 
• The new hop crop has arrived and I was very lucky to once again score some of the most scarce and sought after IPA varieties. So our India Pale Ale will continue to have that intense hop finish and will probably remain the hoppiest beer in India.
• And remember, the quickest way to find out when something new is pouring at Craftworks is to follow @Bangabrew on Twitter.

Imbibing in Tokyo

I’ve just returned from five super weeks in Tokyo. It’s a great place to do some drinking and the Japanese are pretty sensible about it too - as long as you don't do it and drive or make a complete nuisance of yourself. The regulations for craft beer production, taxation and wholesaling are all reasonable too. It sure makes me wish that India was more progressive about such things, including consumption, but I digress...

Most of the department stores in Tokyo have a decent selection of libations (and an incredible selection of food) in their basement. Sebiu in Ikeburko, Takashimaya in Shinjku and Tokyu in Shibuya are my favourites. Hasegawa Liquors also has a great sake bar / bottle shop in Tokyo station (behind the ticket gates). 

I always seem to drink a lot of Dassai sake when I’m in Japan. Even though this can be bought in the US and might not have the exotic cache of some of the high-end brands that are not exported, it’s really tasty and very well made. Certainly the best I’ve had when it comes to value-for-money. They also make several variants that are generally not available in the US. I've never seen their 49, 45 or sparkling Nigori (unfiltered) state-side. The number refers to the amount remaining of the rice after polishing. The inner core of the rice is where all the subtle flavor is. Removing the protein-rich outer layer makes for a more delicate, refined sake. Interestingly, Dassai has a very modern approach to sake-making and is the only smallish, craft sake brewery (kura) that I know of that uses a centrifuge to clarify. This year I discovered another sake I really like, Kojima-Sohonten's Toko from Yamagata. It's a Junmai (no additives) Ginjo (less than 60% polishing to the rice by law) and is also a Hiya-oroshi (special autumn-only release). It was a very reasonable ¥1365 too. I was told that this one is made with 100% Dewano-sato rice. I think I was lucky to get a bottle. When I went back for another a few days later, it was history. Speaking of history, this type of sake has a long one and goes back to the Edo period. Back then the finished product was stored in large wooden tanks that were used for fermentation and maturation, unlike the stainless steel and enameled tanks used today. It was also only pasteurized once unlike other types of sake. This tradition of single pasteurization continues in contemporary Hiya-oroshi's. Sake that is not pasteurized at all is also made. It’s called Nama-zake or just plain ole Nama and should be stored and consumed cold.

Some interesting facts about Sake; It's an old drink. The first mention of it in Japanese written history is from 712 AD during the Nara Period. Prior to 1960, it out-sold beer in Japan, but not anymore. And while the Japanese are drinking less of it, they are drinking more of the good/hi-grade stuff. The very best sake's (Daiginjo grade) are usually served cold. Sake is also the most complex alcoholic beverage (as measured with a gas chromatograph) which means it has more organic chemical components than other alcoholic beverages. This in-turn makes it more difficult to taste subtle differences, especially when compared to beer or wine. When sake is being made, the conversion from starch to sugar and fermentation happens simultaneously, unlike beer brewing - where one precedes the other. Sake brewers use/add the Aspergillus Oryzae mold (an unwanted pest in the Western world) to convert the rice starch to sugar, unlike beer brewers that have natural enzymes contained within our malted barley to do the task for us - provided we activate them with the correct temperature. Sake yeast (kobo) produces more alcohol than any of the other yeasts that humans use to ferment things. It can easily go to 20%, while beer yeast quits at about 10%. If you are looking for more alcohol than that, a still will be necessary. Some beer makers have used sake yeast - which is really just the same Saccharomyces Cerevisiae that we use in the beer world but selectively bred for special flavour characteristics and to produce more alcohol. I'd like to give a sake strain a go in Bangalore sometime but sadly we are not allowed to brew anything stronger than 8% so I will have to be careful if I do. Sake also ferments slower and colder than beer. It's then aged for several more months prior to filtering and bottling. John Gauntner provides a lot of great information about sake Here for those that want to know more. And Here is his list of the top izakaya (cozy sake pubs) in Tokyo.

If you like whiskey you must check out Hasegawa's two other shops in Tokyo station's Yaesu shopping mall. You'll most likely be able to buy a bottle of any single-malt that you're curious about here and maybe even get to taste it first!  One of the stores offers 10ml. samples for a very reasonable fee (most are ¥100-¥200). Bottles available for tasting have the price in red on the neck. It's a great way to taste things side by side for a little palette educating but note, there is a limit of two-at-a-time and I don't think they really want to run a bar here. The idea is more, try-before-you-buy. I had a few interesting tastings, Ardbeg Uigeadail vs. Ardbeg Galileo (better but too expensive), Lagavulin 16 vs. their 1995 Distillers Edition (better but not worth the extra ¥), Suntory Yamazaki 18 (my preference) vs. Suntory Hakushu 18 and lastly, Glenfarclas 21 vs. their 25 (both very good but I bought the 21). Kurashima san at Hasegawa was very helpful with my endeavor to bring a couple of choice bottles back to Bangalore. 

Here is another excellent Tokyo drinking guide for whiskey fans. 

I was very happy to learn that my old client, Minami-Shinshu Brewery in Nagano has fired up their Mars Distillery after a nineteen year slumber and is making whiskey again!

One place I always check-out when visiting Tokyo is Ebisu. Two big reasons, the Photography Museum is there and one can grab a couple of beers at Sapporo's old brewery site/museum afterwards. It's just a short walk away. There's not much to the museum and no brewing happens there anymore but there are some great old beer posters and company history on display and you're not likely to taste a better Sapporo from their extremely clean draft beer system. I'm partial to the Cream Stout myself. It's a little on the light side but very smooth and chocolatey. They do a tour (for a small fee) but it's more of a presentation on company history and a crash course in the Sapporo way to pour a beer. Years ago the tour was a little more interesting, one could don some virtual reality glasses and walk through/tour a virtual brewery. The best part was that you could crash into a fermenter, penetrate the steel tank wall and swim around with billions of yeast cells actively doing there thing (eating sugar & fermenting).

Sapporo's Old Ebisu Brewery

I wonder if these old wooden beer storage tanks at the Ebisu brewery were lined with pitch or something else. If not the beer would have probably had a very interesting character and been something of a challenge to keep microbiologically stable. There is a type of sake made today called Taru-zake that is aged in Cryptomeria wood. It sure has a very interesting and distinctive character that I'm quite fond of.

I was very happy to find myself down at Kokugikan (the sumo stadium) three times this trip and discovered that one can get a great bowl of Chanko in the basement for next to nothing. Chanko is a super-rich soup that is much favoured by the wrestlers and if you eat enough of it you will start to look like them! The recipe is provided by a different sumo stable or wrestler group and changes each basho (tournament). Another great thing about Kokugikan is that you can bring in your own libations without being treated like a suspected terrorist. There are no pat-downs, searches or alcohol seizures - which in this day and age, is very refreshing. Many of the seats even have bottle openers dangling off the arm. It's all very civilized. There are six basho's per year and each lasts two weeks. Three are in Tokyo and the others are in Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. Each of these alternate with Tokyo. The action starts on the second Sunday in January and every other month afterwards. It's great fun and is streamed live: Here, starting at 8 AM (Tokyo time) but the heavyweights (Makuuchi division) go from 3:45 to 6 PM.

I finally made it to Swan Lake Brewery's Pub Edo (a fine name) that opened since my last visit. It was good to see my old friends again and enjoy their excellent beers on-tap. The Belgian IPA was tasting particularly good. I was also lucky to be in town for the Japan Beer Times beer festival in Yokohama. 16 Japanese craft breweries poured 36 beers and one mead. A bunch of imported beers were also on offer. Fujizakurakougen’s Hefeweizen and Rauch were tasting quite good as were the Baird beers.

The Draft Beer System at Swan Lake's Pub Edo

Windmills Craftworks Update

A new batch of Porter is on-tap. It was fermented with a different yeast strain and is a bit drier than the last batch - which also happens to make the hop character stand out a little more. Ajay and I had it side by side with the last batch and we both thought it was an improvement. Winterfest is also on-tap. It's a big (17.8° plato) amber mouthful of malt and hops that packs quite a punch. A new shipment of malt has arrived from Germany and I brewed a batch of Hefeweizen with it yesterday. And remember, the quickest way to find out when something new is pouring at Craftworks is to follow @Bangabrew on Twitter. Kanpai...

Brewed "Winterfest" Today

Brewers have been making a special, extra-strong, year end celebratory or holiday beer for longer than anyone can remember. It's our little gift to friends and patrons. And today, I made just that - a big (17.8° plato) Amber Ale brewed with Maris Otter Pale malt from England, five different kinds of German specialty malt and plenty of Centennial & Cascade hops from the U.S. The mash tun was absolutely packed with grain. It should be quite a mouthful when it finishes fermenting! It's very similar to a beer I brewed many years ago in Seattle called Yulefest.

In a couple of days I'm heading off to Japan for a holiday break. I'll be back in late January and I imagine that quite a few will get a taste of Winterfest before I do. I've done my best to head out with a bang so-to-speak and remember, the quickest way to find out when it goes on-tap is to follow @BangaBrew on Twitter.

Happy holidays and best wishes to all for the new year!

Hefeweizen No.2 is On-Tap

I transfered my second batch of Hefeweizen to the cellar today and it is pouring. It's softer, less acidic and more complex than the first batch. It's a definite improvement and goes down quite nicely. This is the best selling beer at Craftworks. I'll be brewing wheat beer number three on Wednesday and plan on making it a bit darker by adding some Crystal and Munich malt.

Beery Factoids
Hefeweizen is a wheat beer of South German origin. Hefe means yeast and weizen means wheat.
Hefeweizen is cloudy because it is always unfiltered, wheat has more protein than barley and some yeast may be present. All Hefeweizen's are ales and made with grist that is usually 60% malted wheat and 40% malted barley.
A special yeast is used to ferment this beer that produces distinctive clove, banana and phenol flavours. Hop flavor should not be present. Hefeweizen should also be a little more carbonated than most other beer. All this makes for a very refreshing drink that goes quite well with Indian food and suits our hot climate very well. Prost...