White Heat 2.0

Very excited to brew up another batch of this beer because people really liked it. A family friend proclaimed it was like an "Explosion!" of flavor. A group of chefs tried this beer and really enjoyed the heat and were excited to cook Mussels with it. I first brewed White Heat in November 2009 in great esteem for chefs worldwide and Marco Pierre White in particular. Many of my beers are inspired by different chefs cooking styles and flavors from around the world. Where I try to blend unique spices into complementary beer styles to create new beer and food pairings. This beer is perfect for seafood and tacos, and I wouldn't even be offended if someone asked for a lime with it.

A Double White Beer brewed with Habanero Chiles, Coriander, Orange Peel, Lemon Peel, and Red Peppercorns. Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, Torrified Wheat, and Flaked Oats. First wort hopped with Hallertau Hersbrucker. Fermented with Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit yeast strain.

Lemon Pepper HefeWeizen(s)

A traditional style German Hefeweizen, brewed with Lemongrass, Bay Leaves, Black Peppercorns, and Lemon peel. Based off two similar beer I did last year. One in March 09, and other in July 09' (which I just realized I didn't blog about last summer). I enjoyed how the banana/clove flavors from the yeast played off the earthy lemongrass, green tea flavor of bay leaves and subtle pepper spice undertones. I'm adding fresh lemon peel to bounce off the earthiness of lemongrass with the acidity of fresh lemons. Also added 1/2 cup lemon juice at end of boil for some dry, tart, sour background to the overall brew. Brewing two batches of the same recipe so I can blend together in newly made 10 gallon bottling bucket.

Grist: Wheat malt, Pale two row, English pale malt, Flaked Wheat, and Flaked Oats. Hopped with Hallertau Hersbrucker. Spiced with Lemongrass, Bay leaves, Black Peppercorns, and Lemon Peel.

White Heat

The idea for this beer has been swirling my mind for quite some time. Brewed with great esteem for the world famous chef Marco Pierre White and his classic 1990 cookbook titled White Heat. Called the first celebrity chef, Marco Pierre rose to fame in the 80's. As famous for terrines as kicking out customers. When he recieved three Michelin stars he was the youngest ever to recieve three Michelin stars. Then made history by giving them all back. Wikipedia describes his career, "On completion of his training in 1987, White opened Harveys in Wandsworth Common, London, where he won his first Michelin star almost immediately and was awarded his second in 1988, before moving on to become chef-patron of The Restaurant Marco Pierre White in the dining-room at the former Hyde Park Hotel now Mandarin Oriental, (where he won the third Michelin star) and then moved to the Oak Room at Le Meridien Piccadilly. By the age of 33, Marco Pierre White had become - at the time - the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars (This record is now held by the Italian Massimiliano Alajmo, who won three stars at the age of 28 in 2002). During these years White had working for him Gordon Ramsay, Eric Chavot (The Capital), Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), Bryn Williams(Odette's), Matt Tebbutt (The Foxhunter), Robert Reid, Thierry Busset, Jason Atherton and in front of house Max Palmer, Claude Douart, Philippe Messy and Chris Jones. Although White worked relentlessly for 17 years to pursue his ambition, he ultimately found that in spite of his accomplishments, recognition and fame, his career did not provide him with adequate returns in his personal life. So in 1999, he retired and returned his Michelin stars. I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove, spend time with my children and re-invent myself. During his early career in the kitchen, White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offence at their comments. When a customer asked if he could have a side order of chips with his lunch, White hand-cut and personally cooked the chips but charged the customer £25 for his time."

The brew is a Belgian style Double White brewed with Hot Chilis, Coriander, Oranges, Lemon peel, and Red pepper berries. Get it, White Heat. Never homebrewed with chilis but have had a few beers brewed with this ingredient. Interested to see how and where it burns through this beer. Simple grist bill: pale malt, wheat malt, and flaked oats. Step mash, mashed in at 145 degrees and rest for fifteen minutes. Raise temp to 156 degrees and rested for thirty minutes. Finally mashed out to 168 degrees. Adding all the spices, chilis, and citrus with five minutes left in the boil. The yeast will be 2nd generation from the Tangerine Wit I brewed recently. The yeast was a blend of White labs Wit WLP400 and Safbrew T-58. It was a great brew day.

Le Noir Petit Mort

A black white beer. The idea of the beer doesn't make sense, but Quebec brewery's and the Bruery out of Orange County, CA have made sense of what this style can be. To the eye the beer in the glass appears to be a porter or stout, until the aroma surrounds you with the Belgian citrus and coriander. Some confusion and intrigue the first time you try this beer. The taste is dry like the whiter version but with some more body. The dark malts don't overpower this style but play a supporting role to the lead roles of citrus and coriander of the classic white beer. The crystal and dark malts create a chocolate covered orange effect. In this batch we used pale and wheat malt. As well as crystal, aromatic, and dark munich. The color was achieved with debittered belgian black malt and chocolate wheat. Some molasses was added for color and flavor. Lightly hopped to not overtake the spices and malts. A great summer beer that doesn't look like a summer beer. A collaborative recipe between myself and fellow brewer and master mead maker Jon Talkington of Brimming Horn Meadery. We used lots of spices and added more as we tasted the wort during the process. Both being surprised by how much the darker malts masked the normally poignant flavor of white beer, citrus and coriander. Cooled to 70 degrees in thirty five minutes and pitched Fermentis Safbrew T-58 dry yeast.

'My Darling Clementine' Wit

Last year I brewed a Wit beer with coriander, lemon, and whole kumquats. The grocery store was out of kumquats. So there I stand, wondering if I should still try and brew a wit today. The store had all the usual citrus fruits on hand. I didn't want any of that. Thankfully I stumbled on boxes of clementines. Never used that in brewing I thought. Using a variety of grains today. Pale malt, wheat malt, flaked oats and wheat, and some Belgian aromatic for some color and english muffin flavor. Mashed in at one hundred fifty two degrees, and rested forty five minutes. Of course some coriander was thrown into the kettle.

Of course a little something from wikipedia for a brief word about ingredients and style history. "Witbier, White beer, (French: bière blanche), or simply Witte is a barley/wheat, top-fermented beer brewed mainly in Belgium, although there are also examples in the Netherlands and elsewhere. It gets its name due to suspended yeast and wheat proteins which cause the beer to look hazy, or white, when cold. It is a descendant from those Medieval beers which were not brewed with hops, but instead flavoured and preserved with a blend of spices and other plants referred to as gruit. It therefore still uses gruit, although nowadays the gruit consists mainly of coriander, orange, bitter orange, and hops. The taste is therefore only slightly hoppish, and is very refreshing in summer. The beers have a somewhat sour taste due to the presence of lactic acid. The suspended yeast in the beer causes some continuing fermentation in the bottle. Witbier differs from other varieties of wheat beer in the use of gruit herbs. French laws (the territory

was French in the 14th century) prohibited the use of hops in gruit. Witbier can be made with raw wheat, in addition to wheat malt. Coriander grows wild over a wide area of the Near East and southern Europe, which forced Zohary and Hopf to admit that "it is hard to define exactly where this plant is wild and where it only recently established itself." Fifteen desiccated mericarps were found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B level of the Nahal Hemel Cave in Israel, which may be the oldest archaeological find of coriander. About half a litre of coriander mericarps were recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamun, and because this plant does not grow wild in Egypt, Zohary and Hopf interpret this find as proof that coriander was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. The Bible mentions coriander in Exodus 16:31: "And the house of Israel began to call its name Manna: and it was round like coriander seed, and its taste was like that of flat cakes made with honey." Coriander seems to have been cultivated in Greece since at least the second millennium BC.

One of the Linear B tablets recovered from Pylos refers to the species as being cultivated for the manufacture of perfumes, and it appears that it was used in two forms: as a spice for its seeds and as a herb for the flavor of its leaves. This appears to be confirmed by archaeological evidence from the same period: the large quantities of the species retrieved from an Early Bronze Age layer at Sitagroi in Macedonia could point to cultivation of the species at that time. Coriander seed and leaf was very widely used in medieval cuisine. Even today, coriander seed is an important ingredient in many sausage products. Coriander was brought to the British colonies in North America in 1670 and was one of the first spices cultivated by early settlers."

As a side note to today's brew day. My friend and I built the tiered system you are looking at to the left this afternoon. Got started brewing very late. Running off at nine in the evening, nice night though. The setup is working well so far. Planning on putting burners on each stand, as well as heat/wind shields around the stands. Now just need another kettle and I can start heat up while running off. Producing faster start to finish brew day's. In the end really it equals more brewing, and isn't that what we all want. This beer turned out very well and needs to be brewed again.