Homebrew Beer Blog

Downtown Grand Rapids has a new tap room called the HopCat. It opened earlier this year. We made a trip over there to check things out.

The place is pretty cool. Check out the . The owners obviously put a lot of work into the place. Even the bathrooms have tons detail. HopCat features 48 beers on tap, and 150 in bottles. And no, the selection isn’t dominated by light lagers. They have great selection of Michigan beers, with other domestics and international selections. I tried a bunch, and settled in on a Rodenbach. Gotta love Rodenbach on tap. I had an email that said they had also Aventinus on tap, but unfortunately they did not.

The Rodenbach was Rodenbach Klassiek, and I’ve been wondering what to do with my Flander’s Red. I think I like the Grand Cru Rodenbach much more, the Klassiek is blended with fresh beer, and it got pretty sweet half way through the pint. I like the tart refreshing Grand Cru better, so I think I’ll leave my Flanders unblended.

Anyway, they are also planning an in-house small batch brewing system for guest brewers. At the end of May they’re running a homebrew competition for a spot on their lineup. When I was there, I saw the glassed off room toward the back where I assume the brewing system will reside. This is a pretty cool feature/promotion.

They offer free tasters of beers on tap. Karl at the Red Salamander told me they offer small 4oz tasters for a fee, but only offered the free shots. The little shots are nice to pick out a pint, but I kind of like the flights of mini glasses to experience as much as I can without falling off the stool.
So yeah, HopCat is should be a stop for any beer lover.

Red’s Rye from Founder's BC in Grand Rapids is an interesting beer and one of my favorite Michigan beers. As the name suggests, it's a red beer with a big hop punch loaded with Amarillo hops. I thought I remember reading the beer is named after Red, who is pictured on the bottle, but I couldn't find a reference of this, so maybe I'm just making it up.

When I went to buy a bottle for this post, Oades was out and the guy said they've been out for a few weeks and he wasn't sure they were going to get any more in. I almost jumped across the counter, but he started talking about it being a seasonal and bla, bla, so he was just misinformed. As it turned out, they got a shipment in later that day and I got a few singles to enjoy.

Labeled as a Red Ale made with Rye, Founder’s describes the beer as Pours a spectacular crimson red with a creamy tan head. Brewed with four varieties of Belgian caramel malts imparting a sweet richness. Red's Rye is impressively balanced with its hop bitterness and huge citrus bouquet achieved from the immense amarillo dry hop. The generous amount of malted rye used accentuates a spicy crisp finish. The specs include 6.4% ABV, 68 IBUs, and cellared for 6 months. That cellaring is kind of interesting on a big hoppy beer.

In my research, Founders holds this recipe close to its vest. Doing some reading, I found it contains about 20% rye malt with Amarillo hops and that’s about all I could find. I took that, the Web description, and sat down with a pint to put together a rough recipe. I then went looking for some input from the brewery.

I got positive feedback on Magnum for bittering and Amarillo throughout for flavor/aroma. They also indicated the malts were US Pale 2-row, CaraPils, a light crystal, dark crystal, and my additions of Aromatic and CaraMunich seemed fine. They also said to scale back my rye malt from 20% overall, so I put it in at about 20% of the base malt. I figured in an OG of 1.063 with 68 IBUs, 17 SRM. They also said to ferment it a little warmer than 67, so I’ll guessed 68 with WLP001.

So, there’s info from the brewery for anyone looking to formulate something. For the heck of it, I'll post my recipe that I'm tossing in the hopper to brew some day, but just note that this is my untried guess to get you going.

OG = 1.063, 68 IBUs, 17 SRM

65.6% US Pale
15.6% Rye
06.3% CaraMunich
04.7% C40
03.1% C120
03.1% CaraPils
01.6% Aromatic

Xoz Magnum @ 60
1oz Amarillo @ 20
1oz Amarillo @ 10
1oz Amarillo @ 1
2oz Amarillo @ DH

Mash @ 154
WLP001 @ 68-degrees

What's kind of got me scratching my head is that I'm not counting four caramel malts as described on the Webpage. I don't think of Aromatic as a caramel malt, but maybe it is. Originally I had Special B in the recipe, but it was crossed out by the brewery. Home brewers may want to tinker with the rye additions, and my percentages are just guesses, so use your discretion. If I were to cellar this, I'd probably split the dry hop up to put the second half in when ready to serve. Cheers!

I think if I had to pick a desert island beer, this would be on the short list. The bottle description: "India Pale Ale style well suited for Hemingway-esque trips to the Upper Peninsula. American malts and enormous hop additions give this beer a crisp finish and incredible floral hop aroma."

On the website, it's listed as an OG of 1.058 with 7% ABV. I found that's actually not correct. It has an OG of 1.062 and an FG of 1.015, according to an email from Bells. By my calculation, that's still low by 0.75% ABV, but that's what they said, so that's what I'm running with.

I did some reading for hints on a recipe. There are a lot of clones out there, and they're all pretty different. I've always heard it's a real simple beer. I've seen recipes list many different specialty grains, but one thing is for certain, is it's an all-Centennial hopped beer. The July/August 2002 Zymurgy had a big profile of Bell's beers, and Two Hearted was there. It lists pale malt, 3# of Vienna, and a 1# of crystal. Not so sure about that. They also say mash at 150-152, which is probably about right. They list two additions at 60 and 20 minutes, then another dry hop. I'd expect some later hop additions. They also say a sub for Bell's yeast would be Irish Ale yeast, and I disagree there. My stints with Irish Ale yeast is nothing like Bell's. It may make a fine IPA, but IMO, it's not going to be Two Hearted.

I contacted Bells with this post in mind. I just asked on the ingredients, and didn't get into recipe formulation. The key point here is I'm asking what they do, and not for them to formulate a homebrew recipe. To me, that's the most valuable information since I can formulate a recipe for my system if I know the parameters. That's half the fun. ;) So, the point here is your mileage may vary because they obviously work on a different scale, but this should be a pretty solid start.

Bell's was very helpful and offered some tips. Perhaps the wisest words were that Two Hearted is really an exercise in balance and there’s no need to make it more complex than it is. They confirmed the widely known Centennial hops, and said the malt is US 2-row and and some light caramel malt. They also suggested to use a different beer to harvest Bell's yeast. THA is pretty high alcohol and that I could get a better starter from a smaller beer.

I've harvested Oberon yeast a number of times with OK results. Those beers usually seemed great at first, but then got a little funky after a few months. Either I need to drink faster or build a clean room. I'm pretty good at starting with a fresh vial, however, so that's what I've been going with. I like California Ale as a Bell's sub, and I think it would be particularly good here to showcase the hops. I've heard Wyeast's 1010 (probably WLP320 too) is a good sub, but I've never tried it in a Bell's clone. Last year I did a American Wheat with WLP029/German Ale-Kolsch yeast and turned out pretty well. That tip came from a Jamil podcast, and that could be another interesting sub.

Here's my tasting sheet:

Batch #8319, 12oz bottle.

A - Slightly darkish golden in color. Pretty clear, a little haze. Pretty good for a bottle conditioned IPA. Thinnish white head, with lacing.

A - Wonderful citrus-floral hops. Distinctly Centennial. Fruity. Some malt, maybe a hint of sweetness.

F - Assertive, clean bitterness. Good hop flavor. Lingering bitterness, finishes clean. Some alcohol warming and a little alcohol flavor. Nice fruitiness.

M - Smooth, medium body. Some mouth feel from the hops. Clean finish.

O - It's gone and my ears are warm. A great blank pallet for the hops. Nice and clean, easy drinking. Really enjoyable in its simplicity.

I hope that's some good info for others to start a recipe. Based on all that, here's what I'm putting in the recipe hopper:

OG 1.062, FG = 1.015, 62 IBUs.

95% - Pale Malt
05% - Crystal 40

X.X - Centennial @ 60 (Whatever to make the 62 IBUs)
1.0 - Centennial @ 20
1.0 - Centennial @ 10
1.0 - Centennial @ 01
1.0 - Centennial @ DH

Mash 152

WLP001

Simple!

Got your own version of THA? Post it in the comments!

I put together a mixed sixer at Oades tonight on the way to a hockey game. I don't think I've had this one before, and this was the first of the bunch.

Described as a Colorado-style IPA with Pacific NW hops. Lists as 7.1%, 15 Plato, 60 IBUs. 120C malt and no indication of base malt. Hops are Warrior, Columbus, and Golding, and dry hopped with Columbus.

Flying Dog is of course the popular Denver, Colorado-based micro, although the word is all brewing operations have moved to Maryland. This all isn't too important to guy in Michigan, except, perhaps the brand is a little easier to find. What is interesting is Flying Dog released their "house" brewing yeast to home brewers last year through a partnership with Wyeast's VSS program. I didn't try it. I've got enough exciting things going on to be satisfied with my old boring yeasts. In this vein, the yeast in this beer is thought to have an attenuation of about 70%, ferments in the typical ale ranges. No idea on flavor profile. This yeast was released without a whole lot of info.

Anyway... The beer pours a very nice creamy head and holds up well. It's very clear. It's a nice golden-orange-copper, so I'd guess not too much C120. I thought I could get some biscuit in there, maybe a hint of melanoidins with the dark fruit-ish caramel C120. I can pick up the Columbus hops pretty well. Through the powers of suggestion, I think I can pick up some earthiness from the Goldings.

The bottle description identifies the beer with a crazy, stalking, ex girlfriend -- full of bitterness, bite, and attitude that slaps you in the face. A lot of attitude from the marketing, for sure, but a decent IPA. The bitterness is assertive and lingering and melds with some modest hop flavor. It's got some malt to back up the hops, which is nice these days, but it's still a little two dimensional. No idea what a Colorado style IPA brewed in Maryland means, overall, I'd call it a decent IPA in a cool bottle.

We went to the Winter Beer fest Saturday in Grand Rapids. It was a pretty good time. The location moved from Lansing here to GR. The good part of it was there was more room, easy to get to off of the freeway, and decent parking at the site. The bad part was everything was pretty spread out, on multiple levels, and in the open. There was really one area that had tents for people, and the rest of the tents were more for serving beer. Those tents were way on one side atop a long narrow stairway, so it wasn't at all practical to grab a sample and go drink it somewhere warmer. So, most people were hanging out drinking beer in the wind and cold. Ann Arbor BC seemed to be the only smart people and brought a couple umbrella-style propane heaters. Add to that, ice wasn't really cleared out. The parking lot was all ice, and lots of ice all over the walkways and stairs. Some of the brewery booths were basically hidden with poor paths for traffic. The best description was an ice maze.

I would love it if it could come back to Lansing. I'm not thrilled with the setup in Old Town, but that's nothing another tent couldn't help fix. I really didn't like the multi-level setup in GR. Everything was laid out in sort of hubs, and there were limited space to move between hubs, plus the exposed crowds. If it was a real winter day, I think it would be pretty miserable with west Michigan wind and snow. Yeah, yeah, it's a winter beer fest, but by the end of February, I'm tired of being unnecessarily cold.

So anyway enough complaining... the beer! We got there about 11:00 and got in an hour early with the guild card. This is an awesome promotion and I'd guess there was less than 100 or so people. It was kind of like my own personal beer fest. Just walk up and get what you want, and the breweries have time to chat. We were only there a couple hours though, since we needed to go all the way across the state to Detroit later that day. In all, we put on 350 miles Saturday. It was pretty easy to get beer early on, so I had my fill. Basically I just used up my tokens and chatted for a while and we were on our way. Kellie kept track of what I had, and everything else is from memory, and that's a bit foggy.

Dark Horse Reserve Special Black Bier - When I think of DH, I think of this one and Crooked Tree. Both are excellent beers. This is something like a big Stout/Strong Ale.

Dragonmead Special IIPA - This was a beer I think they made for the fest. It was pretty good IIPA.

Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura - The beer was slush in the glass... Too cold. To me, JP's beers aren't easy to approach, and this one was OK. It was a sour stout. I really couldn't drink much of it though since it was basically a slushy.

The Livery Steep Canyon Lager - A little too buttery for me, even though it's a Bohemian Pils.

The Livery Cousin Jack IPA - A very nice IPA.

The Livery Liverator Doppelbock - I'm wondering if I've got a thing for doppelbocks right now because I seem to be really liking them. Maybe I'm just finding some excellent beer without trying. This was fantastic.

Copper Canyon Rye-PA - A rye Pale Ale with a ton of hops. This had a ridiculous amount of hops, maybe they had a randall hidden back there, if not they must have jammed a bunch of dry hops in the serving keg. Either that or they made hop soup. I'm not sure I got much more than intense hop flavor.

Founders Black IPA - I really like Founders, and this was an awesome beer. I don't think I've seen this one before. Unless it was the Black Rye beer. I don't remember that one well enough to compare, other than I remember liking it also. It was dark, malty, and very hoppy, but yet very smooth.

Michigan BC Winter Warmer - I was actually going in for the Bourbon barrel RIS, but they said they weren't tapping it until 3 PM. So I got this instead.

New Holland 2005 Black Tulip Trippel - A 2005 vintage of the popular Black Tulip. It was very nice and smooth. Makes you appreciate aging great beer.

Short's Black Cherry Porter - This was pretty good. Made with fresh Michigan cherries, the porter and cherry went well together, the head had a tint of red to it.

Short's Huma Lupa Licious - This is a great IPA. Big hops and a nice malt.

Last stop on the Detroit trip was Atwater Block BC in downtown Detroit. The brewery/restaurant/bar on the outside resembles industrial Detroit, I believe it's across the street from the old Stroh's brewery. Inside, it's a nice fusion of old painted brick walls with modern lighting and stainless. Very spacious. You could tell it's an old building by the cold weather drafts, and the server wore a winter hat. The back wall has big picture windows through the sizable brewing space.

I ordered the sampler again, had the D Light, Pilners, Hell, Rost, Salvation IPA, Vanilla Java Porter, Voodoo Vador, and Winter Bock. I think that's all of them.

The D Light is a Kolsch style, and isn't anything real special. The beer wasn't well carbonated and was getting warm, I assume because of the service, but more on that later. It was a bit flabby and lifeless, but clean. Had it been carbonated and chilled, it probably would have been more crisp and refreshing.

The Pils is a German Pilsner and was basically the same story as the Kolsch. Flabby and nothing exception. Again seemed clean, but could benefit from more carbonation and chilled.

The Hell is a Munich Helles style, and once again it was a little flabby. It did have a nice sweet and malty nose of a wonderful helles.

The Roast is listed as an amber ale. I don't really remember this well enough. I thought there was something off about it, but I don't think it was exceptional either way.

The Salvation IPA was pretty good. It was my third favorite beer, but not what I would reach for when looking for an IPA. A little tame by modern standards, but a well made, nice beer.

The Vanilla Java Porter wasn't for me. Way too much vanilla. In my book a little goes a very long way, and vanilla dominated the beer.

The Winter Bock was a very nice beer. This was my second favorite beer. A nice dark, rich bock, perfect for a cold February night.

And last was the Voodoo Vader. This is what I think of as their flagship beer. Voodoo is a doppelbock coming in at 9.5%. It's a very drinkable dopplebock, again great for a cold February night. I'm always impressed with the drinkability of this beer. It can be dangerous!

We just ordered some appetizers since I think none of us were really hungry for a meal. So, no real comments on the food. I gotta say though, the service was appalling. I don't say that lightly. They were supposedly expecting us, and other than our group, it wasn't particularly busy, so not sure what the deal was. The word from others is this isn't all that unusual, so in the future I'll be enjoying their beer at my favorite watering hole, or just in the bottle at home, rather than visiting again.

We did though get let loose in the brewery and I got some photos.

Second stop on the recent Detroit trip was Great Baraboo BC in Clinton Township. It's a nice looking building and the insides resemble a typical sports bar. Lots of TVs on the walls, keno, and Golden Tee. The actual brewery sits glassed off in the corner, and the fermenters and serving tanks are a part of the decor throughout the restaurant/bar. As odd as it sounds, the most memorable part of the trip will be the bathroom. The hand dryer is the craziest thing I've seen. It's like a super jet charged blower that doesn't dry as much as blasts water off your hands. It was pretty cool.

Anyway... the beer. I just had time for the sampler, which was $6 for 6 different beers on tap and came on a cool little flight boat. I tried the Caribou Wheat, Snake Eye Red Ale, Shark Tooth Golden Ale, Blackstone Porter, Hoppy Heartland Pale, and their monthly special, and old ale.

The Wheat came with a lemon, which got tossed to the side. This was kind of a strange beer. It had a good wheat presence, but some weird tastes and smells, plus of course lemon. Moving on...

The Golden Ale was a pretty easy drinking ale. I remember it being fairly clean, medium bodied, a little hops. Nothing to really write home about, the sample was enough.

The Red ale seemed geared towards an Irish Red/Killians style. A little roast with caramel. Some hops. Top two of the lot. I would have enjoyed a pint of this.

The Pale ale was my other favorite there. The sample boat listed it as the other monthly special, and it took a bit to figure out what it was, which doesn't say much for the hop aroma. Not an exceptional pale ale, copper colored, with modest hops, perhaps more balanced to the malt. Still a decent beer that would go well with a pepperoni pizza.

The specialty beer was listed as an old ale. I didn't really care for this one. I got heavy black liquorish, pretty cloying sweet. Trying to be special by being special, perhaps... Not my thing.

And last, the porter. Deep brown, some coffee. I wasn't really in the mood for a porter, so I kind of swigged it going out the door. It seemed respectable enough.

All, in all, a nice atmosphere, and moderately busy in the mid to late Saturday afternoon. Looks like a nice enough place to grab a pint, sandwich, and ball game. Be sure to check out the hand dryers. ;)

Our Club took a bus trip down to the Detroit area to check out some breweries, beer, and food.

First stop was Sherwood Brewing Company near Sterling Heights, Michigan. Head brewer Ray Sherwood was a great host, serving up good food and beer, and taking a few minutes to give a tour and answer questions on his 7bbl system. This is the first I've met Ray, but I was told he spent some time at local Michigan Brewing Company and Harpers.

I only had one of his beers, the Evil IPA. I read the description and jumped right in. We were board the bus before I could line up some samples of the other beers. The Evil IPA features Summit hops, and used darker Carafa malt. It was a darker brown color and had a little roast to it. With the roasted and chocolate tones, it could probably also be called an Imperial American Brown. Our table also had some of their soda, and it too was great. They had an awesome lunch special, a pint and a sandwich wrap for $4.99. A buck more got you a burger, essentially making the beer $0.97 or something like that on the receipt.

The brewery is impressively compact, showing you don't need much space to make great beer. It's right in a shopping complex, with a small area carved out by a wall for the brew system. The system has a small foot print, that frankly doesn't take up much more space than my homebrew system. He also had I think four fermenters, and a walk-in cooler where the serving tanks live. He also had an assortment of wine going along with the soda.

So, anyway... here are some pix from the trip...

Ahhh... hops. I picked this up at Odes to fill up my six pack. This seems basically a big-bad American Red/Amber. Pretty tasty, reminiscent of the Amber recipe Jamil published. Might not be a coincidence. I've kind of been liking the big complex hoppy beers lately. Maybe it's just SN Celebration season.

Anyway. Pretty bitter, caramel, lots of citrus hops. Nice red color, packs a bit of a punch. I'd order it at the bar.

Took a trip to Iron Mountain for Thanksgiving. I've heard that Keweenaw BC in Houghton is canning their beer. I went looking at Riverside Liquor just over the border in WI and found Red Jacket Amber and Pick Axe Blond ales. I picked up the Amber, which is advertised as a Oktoberfest-like ale more than an American Amber. It was a pretty good middle of the road beer. I've got another can saved for a future sit-down. They recently also started canning their brown ale. They're not distributing this far down state yet, but may get down here some day.

I was in Chicago over the weekend and tried Goose Island's 312 Urban Wheat. After Bells pulled up stakes in Illinois , I'd guess Goose Island put this out to fill the local void. The beer is a cloudy light straw, along the lines of yellow-beer. It seemed fairly dry, lightly bittered with citrus tones. The wheat was apparent, and the bitterness was fairly low, making very approachable. I enjoyed this one over a bucket of fried stuff at Bubba Gump's.

Oberon is maltier, while I'd guess 312 was straight wheat and American pale malt. Oberon also seemed more bitter, and of course has the signature Bell's funk.