The Beer Genome Project Podcast

This week, the guys bring a review of one of Shawn’s favorite breweries from the Land of the Rising Sun. Hitachino Nest is a brewery within a brewery; its parent company Kiuchi, has been brewing saké for nearly 200 years. These intriguing ales have been making their way into upscale Asian fusion restaurants, craft beer stores, and larger beer bars throughout the Twin Cities for about two years. Coming from a land of adjunct rice lagers, the folks at Hitachino ferment an amazing, refreshing oddity, seemingly a frontrunner in the Japanese craft beer revolution. Our friends Stephen and John from New Brew Thursday recently visited Koji Nomura, owner of Craftheads in Shibuya, Japan, while John was on tour with his punk band, Better Luck Next Time. If you happen to see a curious-looking bottle with a red owl on the center of the label during your next visit to the local craft store, take a few home and let us know what you think! Hitachino NestComing from a land of adjunct rice lagers, the folks at Hitachino ferment an amazing, refreshing oddity, seemingly a frontrunner in the Japanese craft beer revolution. Our friends Stephen and John from New Brew Thursday recently visited Koji Nomura, owner of Craftheads in Shibuya, Japan, while John was on tour with his punk band, Better Luck Next Time.If you happen to see a curious-looking bottle with a red owl on the center of the label during your next visit to the local craft store, take a few home and let us know what you think! The Beer Genome Project Happy Hour #10 Show Notes 0:00-0:22 - Introduction 0:22-14:25 – Red Rice Ale by Hitachino Nest 14:25-15:22 – Conclusion

Are you a big fan of bitter beers and Tyranena Brewing (@Tyranena) of Wisconsin? Then you might think that this episode was crafted especially for you. Shawn and I take some time to review two "out there" beers from our midwest sustenance provider. From their "Brewer's Gone Wild" series, we have the Bitter Woman in the Rye, an India Pale Ale brewed with rye malt, and Hop Whore, an Imperial IPA. The Beer Genome Project #26 Show Notes 0:00-0:59- Introduction 0:59-16:29 - Bitter Woman in the Rye by Tyranena Brewing 16:29-24:28 - Hop Whore by Tyranena Brewing 24:28 -53:20 - News and Events 53:20-56:53 - Conclusion Peace Tree Brewing in Iowa http://peacetreebrewing.wordpress.com/, @peacetreebrew on Twitter Blue Moon Brewing celebrates rare coincidence this Dec. 31st with new beer [http://news.draftmag.com] You Know What Would Make For An Interesting Beer Festival… [http://www.beerscribe.com/] Schells Hopfenmalz arrives in bottles early 2010 [http://beernews.org]

In recent months, Shawn and I have been trying to learn about homebrewing with our friends and via the web. I must say that Twitter has been awesome to do some quick crowd-sourcing to get some different perspectives on a question I had. One source of help has been homebrewer and gent Stephen Freshnock, aka @slovakbrewer on Twitter. Shawn was able to meet up with Stephen when he made his trip to Chicago earlier this year. Then, sometime this fall, Shawn was also able to score a few bottles of Stephen's homebrew. This week we're releasing a Happy Hour episode in which Shawn and I were able to get together and share one of those homebrews, an Imperial Brown Ale. I asked Stephen to share a little backstory on his beer to offer context for myself, Shawn and you (the reader/listener). Feel free to read his commentary now, but definitely make sure to come back after you hear the show. Thanks Stephen for letting us try your homebrew and discuss it here on our show; I look forward to future tastings and learning more as both Shawn and I begin our foray into homebrewing. From Stephen: Like many recipes this one came to me while in a drinking session. I was at a local pub enjoying the Imperial version of the Brown Ale. It was much drier and had cascade as the featured hop. I often think about what I would change not to improve the beer but to make it my own. In the winter I enjoy the thick tongue depressor beers like "Expedition", "Darkness" etc.. I wanted to bring out those flavors without breaching the session-ability of the brown ale style. Being a home brewer gives me license to batter styles, so I hopped it like an IPA with Columbus. This gives it a resiny piney aroma that is so inviting and then you get his with a mouth full of malt to sits hand and hand with the hop flavor. It think the bitterness helps push the maltiness through and guide you to your next sip. The deep dark color is due to my process. Before I rinsing the grain bed, I do an extended recirculation of wort to improve clarity and set the grain bed. This means I am running wort through wort which darkens the color. I am willing to sacrifice color in order to improve the quality/stability of my beer. I also reduce the first gallon wort to 1/2 a gallon. This creates a super sweet unfermentable base to the beer. This also deepens the color further. This wort reduction also impacts flavor tremendously. The rich caramel and toffee flavors are a result of this. I layered a two different types of chocolate malt and 3 different low lovibond caramel malts to add complexity. There is a small bitterness charge at 90 minutes, a small flavor charge at 30. Then I pack in 3 ounces of Columbus in the last 15 minutes. There are 2 ounces at 1 minute, this results in the big hoppy aroma. This beer is meant to have more malt flavor and more hop aroma. The Beer Genome Project Happy Hour #9 Show Notes 0:00-1:49 - Introduction 1:49-16:05 – American Brown Ale from @SlovakBrewer 16:05-17:46 – Conclusion