White house beer

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Pasteurization is the process of killing spoiling bacteria with heat. The higher the heat, the shorter the time you need to keep the product at that temperature. Boiling is not necessary, but it's quicker.

There is a curve referred to as the pasteurization curve. Here's the curve I go by. I think the curve changes with different products, but it's a good start.

beer_pasteurization_curve-33599.jpg
 
Brundoggie said:
OK, so I brewed up a batch of the White House Honey Porter and thought I’d give a review:

Appearance – At first pour there was a lot of lively bubbling and a thick head but after a very short time it went completely flat. There was some residual bubble head but it was scattered and not coherent.

I expected a better color balance between the light malt extract and the darker grains but the brew color is definitely on the dark side. I’m sure that will appeal to some people.

Aroma – Very strong scent of Wright and Ayers hops which is very typical of the bitter Chicago-style brews. There is some masking of this bitterness with the use of government honey and Hawaiian flavors but the odor seems somewhat rotten as if something wasn’t quite right..

Taste – Despite the hype and expense there is very little taste. In addition to being flat and tasteless it is also very weak. Overall the flavor just doesn’t work.

When I contacted the White House they said that all my problems with this beer were due to the effects of the last batch I brewed (a Busch-clone). They also said I should try again and let the brew condition for 4 years to ensure full success.
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This post is amazing...
 
passedpawn said:
I add it at 5 minutes. Boiling longer and I'd guess some of the volatile compounds that give honey it's flavor and aroma are lost to steam.

I think adding it to cooled wort is a very bad idea. Honey won't support the growth of bacteria, but that doesn't mean it's sterile when you add it.
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Dammit...I just brewed the brown ale this week....did a full boil on the 1lb honey. Dammit.
 
I brewed an all-grain conversion of this on Sep 2nd. Today I needed space in my _fermentator_ (I love that video) so I had to move it to a secondary Better Bottle. I didn't taste it, but there was a healthy 3/4 in. of yeast on the bottom. Also, it smelled fairly sweet and malty, and the gravity was at 1.008 (OG was 1.065). There was still a eighth inch of krausen on there. I had pitched two packets of yeast. Beersmith tells me 7.5% ABV, :rockin:. It has a deep red brown hue.
I bottle, so in a week or two I'll let you all know how the sample is. I'm really hoping the honey dries it out, and that the IBV is strong enough to balance it out. Maybe the yeast can eek out a little more ABV, and perhaps the sweetness will balance out the heat from that.

--Jimbot
 
A friend and I brewed an all-grain version of the Honey Ale this morning. Honey sourced from hives approximately a mile from the White House (nice thing about living locally). Fermentation is in his hands. We'll see how it turns out.
 
image-2774095904.jpg

There she is! All grain. 7.1%, S05 yeast, Colorado honey, house roasted grains. I brewed this exactly one week ago today I believe. It's actually pretty damn tasty!

If I make it again, I'll definitely add more bitterness. The honey adds a really nice floral component to it. Overall, I would give it about a B+.
 
Monstar said:
There she is! All grain. 7.1%, S05 yeast, Colorado honey, house roasted grains. I brewed this exactly one week ago today I believe. It's actually pretty damn tasty!

If I make it again, I'll definitely add more bitterness. The honey adds a really nice floral component to it. Overall, I would give it about a B+.
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Could you send me your recipe for this all grain brew?
 
ktblunden said:
pretty standard extract recipes with honey added. Nothing exactly amazing or shocking about it. Hopefully now that the recipes are released everyone can calm down. Though i expect a lot of politically charged commentary to pop up.

Edit: The first political comment came while i was reading the thread and then typing.
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lmao!
 
Cajun_Tiger33 said:
Could you send me your recipe for this all grain brew?
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Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
10 lbs 8.0 oz Pale (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 82.4 %
12.0 oz House Amber (35.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.9 % (Toasted 30 min at 350)
8.0 oz House Gold (20.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.9 % (Toasted 25 min at 300)
1 lbs Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4 7.8 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 5 23.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 7 0.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 -

There ya go!

nickharbour said:
Why the rush?
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No rush... fermented quickly, then cold crashed for 3 days and kegged.
 
I got both recipes from the White House and want to try making the Honey Porter. I NEVER made beer before and I was wonder what the 10 HBUs bittering hops was. How many ounces of bittering hops would that be? If you think this is a stupid question, just consider the source. :confused:
 
oldwinemaker said:
I got both recipes from the White House and want to try making the Honey Porter. I NEVER made beer before and I was wonder what the 10 HBUs bittering hops was. How many ounces of bittering hops would that be? If you think this is a stupid question, just consider the source. :confused:
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(x ounces)*(y alpha Acid%) = 10.

So if your bittering hop had an alpha acid value of 10%, you'd use 1 oz.
 
has anyone re-created the label for the white house brews?

White-House-Honey-Ale.png


SWMBO asked me to brew this up for her election-night party (she's a policy wonk... this is DC after all) and i thought i'd go all the way and print up some labels. i could whip this up in Photoshop relatively quickly, but thought i should check first to see if anyone has already done it.

as an aside: what is that squiggly thing at the top of the label? looks like a cinderella-type horse-drawn carriage, or some sort of a family herald/coat-of-arms... maybe it's the symbol for the white house kitchen?
 
Definitely a symbol of the Illuminati... :mug:

I have actually seen that symbol before, I'm an Arlington native and can't quite recall exactly where, too much beer and cider making.
 
I brewed this 6 days ago, just pulled it out of the swamp cooler, going to rack it tomorrow for a few more days before bottling. Hoping I don't lose too much of the honey flavor by boiling the honey for 60. Brewing an extract was a really nice brewing vacation from the extra work from AG. I subbed in wlp002 because Nottingham/Windsor weren't available at my lhbs. Can't wait to drink it.
 
sweetcell said:
has anyone re-created the label for the white house brews?

White-House-Honey-Ale.png


SWMBO asked me to brew this up for her election-night party (she's a policy wonk... this is DC after all) and i thought i'd go all the way and print up some labels. i could whip this up in Photoshop relatively quickly, but thought i should check first to see if anyone has already done it.

as an aside: what is that squiggly thing at the top of the label? looks like a cinderella-type horse-drawn carriage, or some sort of a family herald/coat-of-arms... maybe it's the symbol for the white house kitchen?
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I recently decided to do two half batches of each type, but initially i was going to only do the honey porter, so i have a label created for that one..

I'm thinking of trying to port that official label over but haven't found the time, here is a very basic label I plan on using for the porter for my obama celebration party on nov 6

its also my 4th brew ever, so i have batch #004 on the bottom, which you can remove if you decide to use this label.. if i end up recreating that official label before you do ill post it for ya!

edit: looks like the attachments here converts my .png to a low quality .jpg.. if you're interested in using this label for real, shoot me an email and i can send the original .psd or .png to you, no sweat.. my email is [email protected]

004obamahoneyporter.jpg
 
LonJandis said:
if i end up recreating that official label before you do ill post it for ya!
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cool, thanks! if you, or someone else (including myself!) doesn't get around to re-creating it before early November i'll be emailing you for the PSD.

sloose said:
Hoping I don't lose too much of the honey flavor by boiling the honey for 60.
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it's very hard to get honey flavor in the beer. honey is highly fermentable (like 99% or something like that), it just doesn't leave a lot behind to add flavor and what is there is typically buried under the hops, malts, yeast, etc. so boiling 60 mins vs. 15 mins probably isn't going to make a big difference... you still won't have much, if any, actual honey flavor. as another HBT'ers once said, the main function of adding honey is to be able to call it a honey beer.

sloose said:
Brewing an extract was a really nice brewing vacation from the extra work from AG.
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i'll be brewing this weekend most likely. i suspect i'll be saying the same :mug:
 
Last night I racked off my two week old White House Honey Ale clone and sampled it when taking readings. It's come out nicely, I have to say. In my version I removed the Goldings and replaced it with Glacier, and of course no WH honey but just the local stuff, as well as using Crystal 60 instead of this "amber crystal" stuff. I think it just needs bubbles and should be good to go.

The only thing about it is that the SG at racking was at 1.020, which still seems a bit high. I'm going to let it sit in the secondary until Saturday and take another reading. If it's stable, it's going in the keg.

Too bad I took so long making another batch. I ran out of the previous brew last night!
 
We're having three family friends over on Saturday morning to brew up a batch of the White House Honey Ale. There will be eight adults and four children, including two 1 1/2 year olds - should be fun! Weather forecast looks good so the kidlets can run around in the back forty. Two of the other families are also brewers, one is not.

Edit: here's a link for with more info http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/ If you're in the Oak Lawn (IL) area and want to join us, let me know.
 
Racked to secondary today... Im down to 1.010. The beer had hints of honey, very tasty. I hope I wasn't too under pitched but we shall see. Mine has wlp002, and crystal 90 where the 'amber malt ' should be. I can't wait to try it, I'm going to secondary it just long enough to clear it up a bit, then bottles.

I liked how the wlp002 attenuated, so I'm going to harvest the cake and use it again.
 
sweetcell said:
cool, thanks! if you, or someone else (including myself!) doesn't get around to re-creating it before early November i'll be emailing you for the PSD.


it's very hard to get honey flavor in the beer. honey is highly fermentable (like 99% or something like that), it just doesn't leave a lot behind to add flavor and what is there is typically buried under the hops, malts, yeast, etc. so boiling 60 mins vs. 15 mins probably isn't going to make a big difference... you still won't have much, if any, actual honey flavor. as another HBT'ers once said, the main function of adding honey is to be able to call it a honey beer.


i'll be brewing this weekend most likely. i suspect i'll be saying the same :mug:
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Add more honey,late.Add honey malt.Drink it younger. Use good honey-Youll notice.
 
jonmohno said:
Add more honey,late.Add honey malt.Drink it younger. Use good honey-Youll notice.
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right, this is what i meant by "very hard" (note i didn't say impossible). just dumping cheap honey in to the boil isn't going to add much flavor, which is what the majority of people following this recipe will do... hence i was trying to temper their expectations.

that is all :mug:
 
I brewed my AG version last Saturday, 15 Sept. using WLP023, Maris Otter and local honey...oh, and a tsp of that "water crystals" blend from Crosby and (something) which is gypsum and magnesium sulphate.

I fermented in a bucket with the lid on loose (hole plugged up) and boy am I glad I started this technique, as the fermentation has been WOW vigorous! I have been keeping it at 65-67-ish Fahrenheit with swamp cooler. By Monday, the krausen was flowing over all sides of the bucket and the lid was floating. LOL When I peeked in there this morning there is still a thick krausen and I am anticipating having to clear it off in a week or so if it does not fall.

I have brewed with honey a few times and have learned that you only start to REALLY taste it at about the 3# per 5 gallon mark with late boil, but this is with cheap clover honey. This is the first time I have used something more flavorful, so we'll see if the flavor comes through any on my batch.
 
Am brewing this today, have four other families joining us - a total of 10 adults and 4 kids, should be a blast. www.singingboysbrewing.com

I'm doing this all-grain, using organic Kent Goldings and Challenger hops (just because I don't have any Fuggles on hand) with a standard three hop addition (just like Miller Lite!!!!) with 1 oz Kent Goldings (7% AA) at 60, 1 oz Kent Goldings at 20, and 1 oz Challenger (5% AA) at 5. Target OG is 1.053 (which is what I worked out the original extract recipe to be) and IBUs are 37.

To approximate the makeup of the extract in the recipe (extract includes more than just two-row and each brand is a little different), I'm going with a fermentables/grain bill that includes organic pale malt (70%), Munich malt (8%), wheat malt (8%), honey (8%), and caramel malt 60L (6%). Single infusion mash at 152F and batch sparge. Will use the Danstar Windsor yeast as suggested and ferment at 62F.

Its supposed to be a nice, crisp, cool autumn day here - chance of rain, though, but if that holds off it should be great.
 
Alright so this batch is my second batch and everything went pretty much perfect, save for the girl that came up from downstairs to ***** about pounding on the floor (ahh aeration).
That said, I just realized an issue that I didn't have in my first batch: I forgot to add a tsp of Irish Moss. I'm aware of what it does, but I don't know how it will affect the overall outcome of my beer after bottling? Will it just be a bit more murky when I pour it into my glass? Anyway, I will post the recipe at request if by some chance it hasn't been posted before. Its really straight forward.
 
stopped by my LHBS .. saw a sign for the whitehouse beer kits. Oddly enough- the kit was the EXACT kit that I built 2 weeks ago, and told them what I was doing. There were substitutions because of their limited stock of yeasts, etc.
 
If you really want to get the honey flavor to really come out give this a try - just don't add the honey till you've got the wort about 1/2 way cooled. it works really good
 
Mutilated1 said:
If you really want to get the honey flavor to really come out give this a try - just don't add the honey till you've got the wort about 1/2 way cooled. it works really good
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Best thing is to add it in the secondary/after primary fermentation, so that the CO2 from the primary fermentation doesn't scrub out the aroma. If you do it this way (and I really do recommend it), do not heat the honey first, even if it's unpasteurized, as it will render it all pointless... the undiluted honey is a hostile environment to microorganisms (very high osmotic pressure because of the sugar density), so infection usually isn't a concern.
 
emjay said:
Best thing is to add it in the secondary/after primary fermentation, so that the CO2 from the primary fermentation doesn't scrub out the aroma. If you do it this way (and I really do recommend it), do not heat the honey first, even if it's unpasteurized, as it will render it all pointless... the undiluted honey is a hostile environment to microorganisms (very high osmotic pressure because of the sugar density), so infection usually isn't a concern.
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+1 for honey being sterile

Honey is shelf stable, unpasteuruzed. Honey found in Egyptian tombs from 3000 years ago was edible and safe.
 
sloose said:
+1 for honey being sterile

Honey is shelf stable, unpasteuruzed. Honey found in Egyptian tombs from 3000 years ago was edible and safe.
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Due in large part to its consistency/concentration, I believe it is stable, but raw honey is not sterile.
 
Brewskii said:
Due in large part to its consistency/concentration, I believe it is stable, but raw honey is not sterile.
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This is true, and my post about using it without heating didn't mean to imply it. Bacteria and what not can't thrive in it, but it ain't sterile. Then again, neither is anything most brewers do.

But it is, for example, the largest reservoir of botulinum in our food sources. That's not to scare anyone though... our stomachs deal with it just fine, just like it does when we eat the stuff. Babies, on the other hand, are at risk. So don't give your honey beer to a baby. ;)
 
Tommy1858 said:
Has anyone tried brewing the ones released from the white house yet?
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Mine is getting bottled today...when I racked it to secondary it was delicious and still had honey notes in it, despite me boiling the honey as per the recipe (and using cheap SAMs club clover honey)... Tasting in about 2 weeks.
 
I drank my sample. I'd like to say I tasted the honey, but I know it's in there, so...

I can say it tasted sweet in a way that was more than just from malt.
 

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