Mellow Brewfest Results

It's a good time of the year. The weather is getting warmer, vacations are on the horizon, and craft beer is gaining momentum across the state of Louisiana. Sam and I would like to say happy graduation to all of our friends at CSM, LSU, ULL, and all schools in between. Best of luck to all of you in searching for jobs, grad school, or whatever you choose to do next.

A couple of weeks ago, C'est Bon Biere showed up at Mellow Brewfest in Covington, LA with nothing more than an ice chest of beer and the shirts on our back. We must have looked ragged because they gave us some good looking festival t-shirts.

Now we look like professionals!

Plenty of homebrew clubs were there in full force, each with 6-10 beers of their own on tap. Not being a part of these groups was intimidating when we first got there, but everyone there was very friendly and willing to go out of their way and talk to us. Since then, we have made it to our first homebrew club meeting with the club Brasseurs a la Maison.

We made many friends at the festival, including a group from Metairie who served a delicious Lemongrass wheat beer. Surprisingly, our Chai dark ale actually mixed well with the lemongrass (All of the beers in the competition had some sort of spice or herb incorporated into the brewing process).

I know what many of you are thinking right now...

Don't worry, there were no "Bratwurst beers" or "Secret ingredient beers" there. The vast majority of the beers were very creative and delicious too. Who would have thought that out of 50 entries, C'est Bon Biere would come in 2nd place in the "Best of Show"!

Look who made it on the big stage!

We had a great time at the festival, made some new friends, and tried some unique beers that will only be brewed by homebrewers. As for what we have on tap the rest of the summer: the Belgian Missile Crisis will be ready in time for the summer months. The Guilty Pleasure Milk Stout will be brewed soon (it takes a while to condition and get its full flavor), and a new recipe for a Cream Ale is in the works.

Thanks to everyone who has been following our blog. It's a lot of fun to write about our hobby, and add some creativity to the mix. All you engineers out there, know that creativity is not our forte! I hope everyone enjoys their summer. Buy local beers, and try out some homebrewed beer too if you get the chance. Cheers!

Officially "Home"brewers!

I'm sure many of you have noticed that we have not posted to the blog in a while. There has been a lot going on for Sam and I in the past two months. I guess it's time to get you all up to speed. We have not had much time to brew since the Chai Dark Ale in the last blog post.

Since February, we have been tirelessly studying for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. For most of those who have not heard of the FE, it is a 6-hour exam that engineers take after graduating with an engineering degree.

 

We both took the Chemical Engineering specific exam. Both of us passed! It would have been awkward if one of us passed and the other did not. I'm glad all of that studying paid off. For the next four years we are Engineering Interns, working under Professional Engineers. After the four years of interning, we can take the Professional Engineering exam (PE).

We also bought a house in Gonzales, LA, removed 1200 square feet of tile flooring, replaced it with hardwood, painted the walls, and moved our belongings to our new house. Now that all of the hard work is done, the place turned out great.

We even have space for our beer tap and pint glasses.

As for our brewing adventures, we will soon brew the Second Line Black IPA. A slightly bitter, dark ale with coffee flavors and a hint of chocolate.

This will be on tap at our home along with the Blarney Stone Irish Red Ale. Let us know if you want to try one of our homebrew.

On May 10th, C'est Bon Biere will attend Mellow Brewfest in Covington, LA. We have three beers entered in the competition, and one beer in the People's Choice competition. Once those results are in, you will be the first to find out. Hopefully we can come home with another medal. If not, at least we can spread the word about Gonzales's newest homebrewers.

Craft Beer is Gaining Momentum

Homebrewing is not a common hobby in the southern states, especially Louisiana. It wasn't that long ago that it was illegal to homebrew beer in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama! What I am glad to see is the growth of homebrewed beer and craft breweries near our home.

The American Brewers Association released the numbers for 2013 craft beer sales. Craft brewing is a growing industry nationwide.


Soon C'est Bon Biere will add to these numbers.

This growth is becoming evident in southern states too. New Belgium Brewing (Fort Collins, CO) is building a new production facility in Ashville, NC. Abita Brewing Company recently completed an expansion that doubles their brewing capacity. Lazy Magnolia Brewing (Kiln, MS) is in the process of an expansion that will extend their distribution footprint well beyond the Gulf coast.

Stone Brewing Company out of California is also looking to begin constructing a brewery east of the Mississippi River. One of the states considered was Alabama. An editorial from the Anniston Star explains how the state has handled the situation.

The three-tiered distributing system is also the law in Louisiana among other states. Here is an over-simplified explanation of how it works (because simple is how I operate).

Currently in states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama there is no "Brand Owner" selling to "Retail Stores". There is no "Brand Owner" selling where the "Brand Owner" brews. States like Colorado, California, and Pennsylvania do not have these systems in place, and they have more craft breweries than most states (especially Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama).

The message that Stone sent to the state of Alabama was clear. Construct your laws to be fair to breweries of all size, especially the home-grown local businesses. I am glad to see the growth that craft beer has realized over the past year, and I can only hope that this trend continues in 2014 as well.

At C'est Bon Biere, we bottled the Shiva Blast Spiced Ale, and we are gearing up for our next homebrew competition. Happy Spring everybody, enjoy a craft beer (spring seasonal beers are coming out), and enjoy a homebrew if you can. Until Next time, Cheers!

Brewing Beer Like the Pros (Shiva Blast Spiced Ale)

There are many ways to brew beer. Most homebrewers begin by purchasing brewing kits, then making beer on the stove. These kits have either dry or liquid sugar extract which had been removed from the grains and condensed.

Sam and I brewed all of our batches up to this point by steeping some grains for color and flavor, then getting most of the sugars from sugar extract. Since we were actually using less grains, less water was needed when boiling the worth. This process is called partial-mash brewing.

After finally upgrading our equipment, we have finally converted to all-grain brewing. No more sugar extract for C'est Bon Biere! Our new system has the capacity to brew up to 10 gallon batches. It includes a 10-gallon hot liquor tank, a 10-gallon mash/lauter tun, and a 15-gallon stainless steel brew kettle. Here is a picture of the entire setup.

Looks like a real brewery now.

It was exciting to brew our first all-grain batch of beer. Once we got all of the valves and hoses leak-free, it was a breeze. It was much different brewing with 14 pounds of grain and 8 gallons of water.



A full mash. This is where the magic happens.

Another interesting thing about this batch of beer was the way we designed the recipe. A very easy to use computer program called BeerSmith allowed us to fine tune the recipe to specific color, alcohol content, color, and bitterness.

This beer was brewed specifically for an upcoming homebrew competition. The only beer category allowed is "Spiced, Herb, and Vegetable Beer". The recipe that we designed is a strong, bitter, German ale infused with freshly brewed chai tea, or as we like to call it, the Shiva Blast! To all of my friends who enjoy watching The League, you're welcome.



We wanted to have some fun creating this beer. It will have a wonderful aroma, mixing chai tea with the hop bitterness. Alcohol will be present in the flavor, with somewhere between 6-9% alcohol by volume.

In the end, I hope our first all-grain batch of beer will be as good as some of our previous batches. With this upcoming completion, the Shiva Blast will be competing head-to-head against the Belgian Missile Crisis. Fingers crossed for some positive feedback from there. Until then, cheers!

Shaping America's Youth, One Beer at a Time (Blarney Stone Irish Red Ale)

In preparation for St. Patrick's Day, Sam made a recipe for an Irish Red Ale. The goal was to create a red ale that was out of the ordinary. It still has the amber color found in most red ales, but with a little twist. It will be more hoppy than a traditional Irish beer. Irish ales are normally very crisp with very little bitterness. It also will have a hint of honey. Honey malt is used to flavor the beer, and honey is used to increase the alcohol content of the beer.

Naturally, we had a name picked out and a label designed before brewing this batch. The idea for this brew is to have our second rotating seasonal beer (after Wreck the Halls Christmas Ale). I present to you the Blarney Stone Irish Red Ale:

Last week, a student worker at the company where Sam and I work asked a favor of us. Her Process Design class at LSU had to write a report on an industrial process. Of all the processes to chose, what are the odds they chose beer? We were more than happy to invite them over while we brewed. They took notes, asked questions, and sampled some great homebrew. Along with the report, they produced a video documenting the beer making process. With their permission, here is the video:

Click our logo to view the video

They had a great time spending the afternoon brewing with us, even if we had a few hiccups (like running out of propane and boiling on the stove). We had some other friends spending the weekend with us who got to see the brewing process in action. They have enjoyed our beers for sometime, and they were glad to get the chance to brew with us.

Personally, these guys are the smartest in their class for choosing a fun process to write their report on. If I was grading their report, I would probably give them an A+. If you are ever in the Baton Rouge area, stop by and visit us. We always have beer on tap, and who knows, we might even be brewing a beer that weekend.

If you want to talk beer recipes, or stop by and learn about homebrewing. Give us a call or leave a comment. Cheers!

Bataille des Bieres Results

Recently, the Lafayette homebrew club, Dead Yeast Society, put on a homebrew competition. There were 4 categories of beer: Light Hybrid Beer, American Ale, Stout, and India Pale Ale.

Sam and I decided to enter our Guilty Pleasure Milk Stout. There were 19 entries in the stout category. Here are the results:

Pretty good for our first competition!

SILVER MEDAL!!! We are both very excited about the results. The stout had the most entries in it of the four categories. So to those of you who have tried this beer, thank you for your positive feedback. For those of you who have not yet tried this brew, don't worry, we will definitely be making it again.

You will notice there are three styles of stout listed here. If you want to read more about different styles of beer, mead, and cider, here is a good link explaining all of them:  http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/catdex.php

On another exciting note, we are finally engaged!

She almost cried!

For the wedding, we will be serving our homebrewed beer. Hopefully by then we have a few more award winners. Until then, Cheers!

Consistency is Key (Belgian Missile Crisis II)

When people ask me about homebrewing, I usually say the same thing. "It's easy to make beer, but it's hard to make good beer". I would like to add to this quote right now. I also believe that it is difficult to replicate good beer.

Sam and I cracked open our old recipe book and brought back the Belgian Missile Crisis. We brewed this Belgian wheat ale earlier this summer. In fact, it was the first batch we brewed in Louisiana, and it was a huge hit among friends, family, and beer lovers alike. You might remember reading a previous post about the response we got from this beer at Bayou Beer Fest.

C'est Bon Biere presents the new Belgian Missile Crisis:


Here is a rough sketch of the new label.

 The second batch of this beer has the same aroma with a hint of orange. It is very light, and easy to drink. It has very little hop bittering. The most noticeable difference between the two batches turned out to be the color. The new batch is significantly lighter than the first one.

Beer color can be estimated using a scale known as Lovibond units. The chart below explains:

The original Belgian Missile Crisis had a color around 7.5-8.0. The second batch is closer to 6.0. Now I know this may seem miniscule, but color plays a major role in matching the style, clarity, and whether or not people are willing to try your new beer.

One of the main causes of the color change was the amount of time it took to cool the wort down after the boil was complete. Previously, we immersed the boil pot in our bathtub filled with ice and water. It took about 45 minutes. The second time we used a wort chiller (25 foot copper coil with a hose attachment), which took only 10 minutes! The result is a clearer, lighter colored beer.

 

Think about the last couple of beers that you drank. Where do they fall on the color scale? Now take a look at the website of a local craft brewery. Where do their 5-7 beers fall on the scale? C'est Bon Biere will brew beers ranging from 5-30+.

As always, feel free to comment, share recipes, or talk beer with us. Currently on tap along with the Belgian Missile Crisis is the Double Fault American Pale Ale. Next in line to brew is an Irish Red Ale.

Cheers!