White house beer
- Thread starter DaBills
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mrshort77
New Member
That said, I think it is totally cool that the White House if brewing. Yes, the recipes show that they are newbies, we all started that way. No politics, no slamming who, and who else. I might just try a grain version of the Porter just for the fun of it. Grain version, mostly because I am not too sure about their "micro mash" they seem to have going on there.
DaBills
Well-Known Member
Yeahp they've got bigger fish to fry.
I just finished cleanup on my all grain version. I didn't hit my gravity, but sure got my volume. I had a 1056 starter ready, and was going to do Beirmuncher's Three Crops, but decided at the last minute to do a Labor Day Honey Ale. Ended up with 1.048. My efficiency wasn't as good as usual for some reason, but this is not supposed to be a big beer anyway. It had really nice color and aroma, but I used my own hop schedule - Simcoe for bittering, and Palisades at 30 and 0.
DaBills
Well-Known Member
Nice, let us know how it turns out.
RockChalkBrewer
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What liquid yeast would be a good substitute in the recipes?
This might have been a 'home rolled' beer kit. Both the hops and yeast suggest an English beer. But I give them all credit for not buying BMC. I'm hoping I can crack open a few a couple months from now and enjoy them.
Any clean American Ale yeast.
Wyeast 1056, WLP 001. My favorite substitute is S-05. None of the hassle and cheaper, and it is just as good as a performer. Nottingham is another option.
Windsor is a dry English yeast. Don't know why that and the Fuggles are in there.
I'd go with a normal clean ale yest, WLP001 or Wyeast 1056. I don't think their change of yeast varieties between the light and the dark version is really necessary.
Does anybody have any information on the style of honey they are using?
They are using honey from the White House beehives. Any Grade A honey from your local supermarket is fine. The finest honey in the world is White Clover. Orange honey would also be excellent here. Get light colored honey. It tends to be more desirable.
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
Same reason the biscuit malt is in there. because it appears to be based on an english pale / english special bitter recipe.
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
more desirable in what way?
A good argument can be made for trying wildflower honey in this recipe, because of the wide variety of flowers near the whitehouse.
CastleHollow
Well-Known Member
Since theirs comes from an apiary next to the White House Garden, my guess is you'd get similar results from local wildflower honey from the DC/Maryland/Northern Virginia area.
Here's an old WP article, some of these producers may ship if you are trying for a reasonable "clone." Otherwise, something local to your area is probably just fine.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091800465.html
Here's an old WP article, some of these producers may ship if you are trying for a reasonable "clone." Otherwise, something local to your area is probably just fine.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/18/AR2007091800465.html
The lightest honeys are the highest grades. I am a beekeeper, so I know a little about it. Wildflower honey would be perfectly acceptable. You may not know this, but bees will keep the honey for different flowers separate. Watch a bee work some blossoms sometime. You'll notice she'll only go from one flower to another of the same species. Even another species of the same color will not be visited by that bee on that trip. I don't know why they do this, but that's how you can get 100% Pure Clover honey, because these little dynamos do that for us.
That is very interesting. You'd probably have to buy a few and evaluate them, but the flavor notes they talk about could make for a massively complex flavor profile in a beer if done right.
Thanks.
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
Sure, but that's like saying that Bud Light is the most desirable beer. It must be, as it holds the most market share. It's quite pure and uniform in flavor. Beer of the highest grade, certainly.
But I'm a guy who buys wildflower honey and grade B maple syrup. Because i like the flavor. And it turns out i want a little more out of my beer than Bud Light has to offer, too.
thats actually pretty cool. Never knew that before.
Yeah, when you capture a wild swarm, and watch it march into an empty hive row by row like a well disciplined army, and then open up that hive six months later and harvest 20 to 40 lbs of honey and leave them another 20 lbs to get through the winter, you learn a lot about them. They also will fly up as high as the tallest object in their path and not descend until they are at the nectar source. This is why beekeepers often build a ten foot fence between their hives and the orchards. That way, if there is a road in between, the bees are already safely high enough to not get hit by cars. It is an amazing symbiotic relationship we have with them.
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
I think homebrewtalk is a place where we can all agree that marketability and desirability for a given purpose are two completely different things.
Yes, but they will also get their sugar fix wherever they can find it
Say what? And I'm just asking here.
I can see them going to only one type of flower in a trip. Maybe in their little bee brains they figure if a red rose worked this time, a red rose will work next time too.
But when you say, "...bees will keep the honey for different flowers separate. ", what does that mean? Are honey, nectar and pollen interchangeable words? I figured once it got to the hive to be honey, it was all one mish mash of bee vomit.
Aight, grains are toasted, here's how I'm doing it:
10.5 lb Pale
12 oz toasted @350 for 1/2 hour
8 oz toasted @ 300 for 25 min (homemade biscuit essentially)
Hops and honey to the recipe, mash at 150, ferment at 63 with S05.
This might actually be kinda good!
10.5 lb Pale
12 oz toasted @350 for 1/2 hour
8 oz toasted @ 300 for 25 min (homemade biscuit essentially)
Hops and honey to the recipe, mash at 150, ferment at 63 with S05.
This might actually be kinda good!
This is why I love brewing. Inspiration can strike anywhere and you are limited by only your imagination. Less than a couple of days ago these arguably simple recipes were made available. The "young" brewers among us found something already approachable. The more adventurous have already used the recipes as a springboard to make them our own.
This is the single greatest craft on the planet.
If I didn't mind the Secret Service showing up at my door, I'd be tempted to send a couple of bottles of my planned version of the porter to the White House.
This is the single greatest craft on the planet.
If I didn't mind the Secret Service showing up at my door, I'd be tempted to send a couple of bottles of my planned version of the porter to the White House.
RobertRGeorge
Well-Known Member
I'm guessing that's because you are either an all-grain brewing snob or you don't like honey ale or honey porter, because they otherwise seem pretty inoffensive to me.
I can't tell if these posts are serious.
Obama is the president of the United States, and arguably the most influential leader on earth. I hope no one here thinks he is homebrewing himself. He can do that when he's done presidenting.
DaBills
Well-Known Member
Yes, yes, and yes. Nail on the head.
More Beer says they package their lme in foil bags. Looks like the bags in the video are clear.
William's Brewing sells in clear pouches. They also have their logo on their buckets. The video has buckets with a B on them.
Those B buckets come from brewersbestkits.com. So I went there and used their retailer locator. The retailer that came up by the zip code of the White House, 20500, is
MY LOCAL HOMEBREW SHOP
6201 Leesburg Pike #3
Falls Church, VA. 22044 US
Telephone: (703) 241-3874
Then again, they aren't the only retailer to sell Brewer's Best gear.
LD Carlson sells a lot of their products in clear bags. Given their product is everywhere, there's a good chance it's theirs.
Wait. Do they sell lme?
William's Brewing sells in clear pouches. They also have their logo on their buckets. The video has buckets with a B on them.
Those B buckets come from brewersbestkits.com. So I went there and used their retailer locator. The retailer that came up by the zip code of the White House, 20500, is
MY LOCAL HOMEBREW SHOP
6201 Leesburg Pike #3
Falls Church, VA. 22044 US
Telephone: (703) 241-3874
Then again, they aren't the only retailer to sell Brewer's Best gear.
LD Carlson sells a lot of their products in clear bags. Given their product is everywhere, there's a good chance it's theirs.
Wait. Do they sell lme?
TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
There's at least one LHBS here in Utah that sells LME in clear plastic bags. I'm sure they buy it by the barrel and fill bags from that.
I have a morebeer LME bag here. Found it at a freight salvage dealer's storefront, they had a whole bunch of 'em. I figured 11 pounds of light LME for $7 was a good deal. One of these days i need to make a bunch of canned wort from it for starters.
I wouldn't characterize their bag as foil - more metalized plastic.
I have a morebeer LME bag here. Found it at a freight salvage dealer's storefront, they had a whole bunch of 'em. I figured 11 pounds of light LME for $7 was a good deal. One of these days i need to make a bunch of canned wort from it for starters.
I wouldn't characterize their bag as foil - more metalized plastic.
bottlebomber
Well-Known Member
Zuljin said:
Nice detective work, Ace!
Starderup said:
I'll be starting bee keeping next spring. I have a local bee keeper to help me out. I've been using his honey all year in making a honey cream ale. And man do my fellow drinkers love it. The alcohol is usually around a 7.5 to 8%.
3 weeks ago i got 30 pounds of uncapped honey. I have two carboys going now using uncapped honey. It has a strong flavor to it. I got the uncapped honey for a dollar a pound because its moisture is too high for him to sell it. I'll be putting it on tap this Saturday!
With all the cherry trees/blossoms in the Washington DC area, especially around the white house. I wonder if that has any influence on the flavor of the honey they're harvesting?
Now that would make it unique! Those cherry blossom trees were gifts from the emperor of Japan a long time ago. I think.
I agree with the spirit behind this idea. I'm guessing that the White House kitchen may have already expanded past the amount of equipment shown in the video -- they must be used to anticipating all kinds of sudden unexpected demands, and don't want to be caught short if the President decides to invite 100 veterans over for beer next weekend and wants to offer the house bottle, for example. They may well be churning out a lot more than 5 gallons a month as we speak.
I think it would be great if future presidents also had their own style -- over the years, I think it would be a great way to track changing tastes and preferences, and I hope they keep the tradition growing.
I seem to remember that Reagan was a big booster of California wines and helped a bit in making them more respected internationally by serving them a lot when he was President. Maybe Obama could do just a little of that for US beer as well.
