Beer and Bread: A Merry Christmas from C'est Bon Biere

First of all, we at C'est Bon Biere would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year.

We had a wonderful year brewing beer while learning about new beer styles and recipes. It has always been a mission of ours to create "his and her" beers, a friendly competition between beer recipes created by husband and wife. By a 3-1 decision "her" beers were the fan favorite at festivals.

Some of the "hers" fan favorites this year included Guilty Pleasure Chocolate Milk Stout, Just Peachy Sour Peach Ale, and Blueberry Bread Pudding Barleywine. Some of the "his" fan favorites included the Belgian Missile Crisis Belgian Wit, Night Shift Porter aged in a whiskey barrel, and Hakuna Mahopa Black IPA aged in a whiskey barrel.

Overall this year, we brewed about 15 different styles of beer, and have refined some of our favorite recipes. We love going to beer festivals and getting all of the positive feedback from our fans and beer enthusiasts alike.

This weekend marked the last brew of the season. We capped off a great year by brewing the Guilty Pleasure Chocolate Milk Stout and a new Pilsner-style Saison we are calling Jolie Blonde.

SPENT GRAINS

One question we have been asked at many brew days is what do we do with our spent grain? Many commercial breweries produce enough spent grain to create a partnership with local farms where the grains are used to supplement cattle feed. This is a great idea, not entirely practical for home brewers who only produce 10-20 pounds of grain with each 5 gallon batch of beer.

Spent grains from the stout.

We finally decided to do something with our spent grains (granted a small portion of them). We made our very first batch of  Pain Ordinary, or French bread. After all, beer is still referred to as "liquid bread". We added some spent grains from our chocolate stout into the dough to give the bread a touch of roasted flavor.

Two of our delicious rolls of home-made bread

Our home-made bread is delicious, and it pairs well with any of our beers on tap. Making bread from scratch is pretty time consuming, but the results are so rewarding. Beer brewing and bread making are more alike than we thought. Maybe we will start calling bread "solid beer"!

What's in a Beer Label?

Call me an engineer, call me a nerd, call me a geek, but I love beer labels and packaging produced by craft breweries. My fondness of the packaging is only second the contents of the bottle (or can). Many of them have clever names and eye catching artwork to the point where we may be running out of names for different craft beers (warning: exaggeration ahead). Part of the reason for this is creativity that is possible when producing beer at a much smaller quantity. Another reason is small breweries jockeying for a limited customer base. When more and more craft breweries begin to produce beer, that means more beers vying for very limited shelf space. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get enough beers on the shelves, and ultimately into your fridge. But I digress...

Much more colorful than the typical big Brewery's silver, white, and blue cans.

Labeling requirements vary by state, but generally what you will find on most beer labels are the name of the beer, style of beer, name of the brewery, city it was brewed in, alcohol content, and a government warning. I love creating my own labels, and you can see many of them in previous posts. I make mine in Microsoft Paint. All of the labels must get approved by the state agency, and from what I've heard, it is a difficult task.

Other items that I've seen on craft beer cans are OG, FG, IBU, and ABV. I've seen OG much more than FG, and they stand for original gravity and final gravity.

Science time (I can't help it, I'm an engineer):
The OG and FG are measurements of specific gravity of the beer before and after fermentation. Alcohol content is calculated based off of the difference between the OG and FG. Specific gravity is a measurement of density relative to liquid water. Water has a specific gravity of 1.000.  This means that a strong barleywine will have an OG of 1.120, and a light lager will have an OG of 1.028. That same barleywine may have an FG around 1.080, while the light lager will have an FG of 1.008.




Specific gravity is measured with a hydrometer

I know... too many numbers. I bore myself sometimes... What I'm getting at is you can determine how much alcohol will be in a beer based off of the OG and FG. Here is a cool chart showing OG and FG ranges for beer styles.

ABV is an easy one, alcohol by volume (that's usually how you decide between "one more" and "I should not drink a 12% English Barleywine after drinking a six pack of Natty Ice"). IBU is international battering unit, and it describes the hop bitterness in a beer. IPAs have 60-100+ IBUs while light lagers have 10-15 IBUs. Pretty straightforward, especially compared to specific gravity. Now go surprise your friends with some newfound beer knowledge. Beware, you may get called a beer nerd.

Next time you get the latest craft beer in the bar or restaurant, ask to keep the bottle, and take a look at it. The breweries put a lot of effort and creativity into them. It's worth taking a look at. In my unbiased opinion, you can get so much more flavor out of a beer when you understand what you are drinking. With a little help from the beer label, I think you can enjoy your craft beer that much more.

Now what you all came here for: to hear about where you can taste some delicious homebrew from C'est Bon Biere. Our next beer festival will be at the 3rd Annual Bayou Beer Fest in Houma, Louisiana on November 14. C'est Bon Biere is proud to be the only home brewers to be represented at all three years of the festival. Come visit us, and try one of our three beers to sample: Belgian Missile Crisis Belgian Wit, Blueberry Bread Pudding Barleywine, and Chaos Theory Vienna Lager. Since this post was about labels, here is the label for our newest beer:

Be on the lookout for some new equipment upgrades from C'est Bon Biere. Until next time, drink local, drink good beer.



Wedding Bells at C'est Bon Biere

Hey everybody! I know you haven't heard from us much since Hattiesburg, but we have had a busy couple of months at C'est Bon Biere. As many of you probably noticed on our Facebook page, we got great feedback at the Hattiesburg Craft Beer Festival, and gained a few followers as well. We hope to keep all of our fans (Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Colorado, and everywhere else) informed on our plans for brewing and growing.

The last two months we have been brewing entirely for our wedding. That's right, your two favorite home brewers are getting married! What would a wedding between the founders of C'est Bon Biere be without some original good beer from CBB? We will be serving 4 beers on tap, for a total of 25 gallons of good beer.

Belgian Missile Crisis - Our Belgian wit brewed with fresh orange zest and coriander.

Guilty Pleasure - Our chocolate stout brewed with 2 pounds of unsweetened cocoa.

Cat's Out the Bag - Our cream ale blended with a hibiscus and mixed berry tea.

Something Old/Something New - This is our original black IPA recipe (the second batch of beer we ever brewed), aged in a whiskey barrel!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

After the wedding festivities are over, we will go back to the beer festival tour. Our first stop is at NOLA on Tap, September 26 in New Orleans. We will have at least two beers served there.

The next festival of the year is our favorite, Bayou Beer Festival in Houma, Louisiana on November 14. This will be the third annual event, and our third year handing out homebrew. This year we will be serving two very popular beers, the Belgian Missile Crisis and the Blueberry Bread Pudding Barleywine.

We can't wait to see you all there. Until then: drink local, good beer!

Hattiesburg Here We Come

We have been keeping pretty busy over at C'est Bon Biere. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at Mellow Brewfest in Covington. We had a great time handing out homebrew, meeting new beer enthusiasts, and making new friends. We even took 2nd place in the People's Choice Contest with our Blueberry Bread Pudding Barleywine! We have the giant crawfish trophy to prove it. Shout Out to our friends in the Swamp Rat Homebrew Club. Beer festivals are always more fun in the club.

Everyone knows that the summer months mean festival season. Our next stop on the wonderful beer festival tour is the Hattiesburg Craft Beer Festival. There are many new breweries and many up and coming breweries in the state of Mississippi that make a great product worth trying. If you ever make the trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, you can check out Lazy Magnolia, Crooked Letter, and Mississippi Brewing Company, among others.

In Hattiesburg we will be serving three different brews including everyone's favorite Belgian Missile Crisis, a Belgian Wit brewed with coriander and orange zest. We also will début two new recipes. First, a Baltic Porter aged for three weeks in a whiskey barrel from King's County Distillery. This beer is dark, strong, with a nice whiskey aroma without the bite. The oak flavor from the barrel pairs well with the roasted flavors in the beer.

 

The second new recipe has been in the works for over a year now. We call it Operation Fortitude. It is an amber Biere de Garde, a French-style ale that is similar to the Belgian Saison style. It has a sweet malt flavor with a strong aroma of banana and clove. This beer is much different than the typical amber lagers that most are used to drinking.



 



If you are up for the road trip, you should come visit us in Hattiesburg next weekend, June 13th. We will be sure to keep you posted on how the event goes. It will be great to meet the brewers of the new Mississippi breweries that will be at the festival. We will keep you posted on brew days, so you can stop by to learn about home brewing and enjoy some good beer.

What's Happening at C'est Bon Biere (April 2015)

Hello to all of our fans and craft beer lovers. We have a lot to go over, so bear with me. There are plenty of opportunities to try some homebrewed beer from your favorite Gonzales homebrewers. There is always beer on tap at the C'est Bon Biere headquarters, and we are always welcome to entertaining guests.

If you have any questions, comments, or just want to talk beer with us, we now have a email address just for that. You can reach us at itsgoodbeer@gmail.com. Pretty simple, I know. I'm trying to keep it simple for you guys. Especially after being at a beer festival for 5 hours, you might not have the best short term memory.

MAY 9- MELLOW BREWFEST
Come and visit us at our next homebrew festival in Covington, LA at Mellow Mushroom. The event is on May 9th from 4-9pm. The theme of this year's competition is Louisiana food and ingredients. We will be serving our soon-to-be-famous Blueberry Bread Pudding Barleywine. We will also be serving our Cream Ale brewed with fresh lemon zest, basil, and lemon thyme grown in our backyard garden. Yes, I know your mouth is watering!



His and Her brews will be in a head-to-head battle again at this competition. At Bayou Beer Fest in Houma, the Guilty Pleasure Chocolate Stout was the fan favorite over the I Can't Believe It's Not Butterbeer Cream Ale. Whose brews will you choose at Mellow Brewfest this year? Come and taste for yourself.

 

BARREL AGED BEERS

As many of you are aware, we now have a 5-gallon whiskey barrel for aging beer in. The first experiment begins tomorrow, when we brew a Baltic Porter, then age it for one month in the whiskey barrel. You will be the first to hear about the flavor and aroma that we get from the barrel.

 

Thank the distillers from our neighbor to the west, King's County Distillery

 

BEER FESTIVALS IN MISSISSIPPI

More details to come soon on this front. C'est Bon Biere might be traveling to Hattiesburg in early June for a local beer festival. Beers served there will be our barrel-aged porter and a long-awaited French Saison! Stay tuned on this front.

 

All in all, it's been a great start to the year. Brewing is still a great hobby, and a ton of fun. Everyone wants friends that homebrew. If you are ever interested in learning about home brewing or want to get started, just send us an email at itsgoodbeer@gmail.com. We will be happy to talk about it. Until then, drink local... drink good beer!

Two Blondes and a Belgian Walk into a Bar...

TWO BLONDES:

Since the new year, we have kept pretty busy over at C'est Bon Biere. We collaborated with a friend, Kiel Jenkin, to brew 10 gallons of a blonde ale, which we call "The Blonde Side".

Sorry for the obvious knockoff of The Blind Side movie poster... I wasted all of my creativity on the name.

We wanted to ferment the 10-gallon batch in two 5-gallon batches each pitched with different yeast strains, American ale and Kolsch. The idea was to test the effects two yeast strains can have on the flavor of the beer. The brews have been a smash hit among us and our fellow homebrew enthusiasts.

A BELGIAN:

Call me crazy, but I decided not to brew the seasonal Irish Red Ale this year. Maybe I'm just not Irish enough...
One of our flagship beers, the Belgian Missile Crisis, has been loved by all, so I wanted to give other Belgian style ales a try. The group of Belgian style ales will be known as "Barley's Series" in honor of our golden retriever and brewing mascot, Barley. The first of the series is a Belgian Dubbel

Cute puppy pictures! You know you want to try this brew.

The beer is dark amber in color and has a rich malty sweetness to it. The specialty grains used give it a moderate dark fruit flavor including raisin, plum, and dried cherry. We will see which flavors will be noticeable in our brew.

I have been trying other Belgian Dubbels that are commercially available to do some "research". I want to recognize these different flavors that are usually found in these brews. I recommend New Belgium Abbey as a good example of the style.

I'm excited to try this beer, and I know many of you probably are too. If you want to give any of our beers a try, just let us know. We are always happy to give people a beer they can enjoy. Until then, keep drinking local! Cheers!

New Year, New Beer

Happy New Year to the great fans and followers of C'est Bon Biere! We enjoyed a great evening with friends, both old and new. Many of them got to enjoy our homebrewed beer, where we served Frostbite Winter Warmer, and Hakuna Mahopa Black IPA. I know many of you want to sample some of our delicious home brewed concoctions, so just get in touch with us. We will be more than willing to have people over to enjoy some brews.

At C'est Bon Biere, we decided to start the year off with a brew day. January 1st began with the brewing of our first attempt at a lager. We decided to brew a California Common, also known as a Steam Beer. It is very similar to Anchor Steam, from the oldest craft brewery in America (they claim since 1896)! We are calling this one Common Sense, because everyone can use a little common sense in 2015.

In order to brew a lager, we needed two vital pieces of equipment: a refrigerator and the equipment to make a yeast starter. There are two broad categories of beer, ale and lager. Ales are top fermented and ferment at warmer temperatures, while lagers are bottom fermented at colder temperatures. We are currently using our kegerator to ferment the lager, and keep a constant temperature.

Even after three days, you can already see the result of fermentation in the glass carboy

Another oddity about lagers, is that they require more active yeast cells to fully convert the sugars to alcohol. It seemed like the best time to get some equipment to make a yeast starter.

A 2L Erlenmeyer flask with a magnetic stir plate. The chemical engineer in me is excited!

Usually, we buy packages of yeast from the homebrew supply shop, and pitch those packages directly into the wort. These packages, on the manufactured date, contain 100 million yeast cells. As the package gets older, the number of active yeast cells decrease. A yeast starter is essentially a small batch of beer that is made a day or more before the scheduled brew day in order to activate the package of yeast.

After a day of refrigeration, the yeast cells rest at the bottom of the flask, ready to be pitched into our brew.

The yeast will become active and multiply in the sugary wort. After refrigeration, the yeast cells will settle to the bottom of the flask, ready to be pitched. For Common Sense, we pitched 65 million yeast cells into the starter, and two days later pitched 200 million yeast cells! The number of cells can be controlled based on the amount of starter wort made.

C'est Bon Biere is going to have a busy year, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our brews and educated on beer science and the growth of craft beer in the Louisiana. One of these days, we look forward to moving out of the garage, and become the first microbrewery in Gonzales, LA!

Coming up next, we plan on collaborating with a homebrewing friend of ours to make two beers for the upcoming homebrew competitions, a blonde ale and a saison. Our black IPA will also be entered in the competitions. More information to come when we get these recipes written, creative names are thought of, and the brew day starts.

Until then, drink local. Drink good beer. Cheers!