White house beer

[Zuljin]

Gee-zam! How fast I forgot how much extract brews cost. All told, WH honey ale is a $65 brew, bought local.

 

[amandabab]

Gee-zam! How fast I forgot how much extract brews cost. All told, WH honey ale is a $65 brew, bought local.

its a $40 kit mailorder, but around $60 is what I'm seeing local also.

 

[Will319]

you didnt brew that

 

[CBXBob]

Northern Brewer has the Ale for $44.99, and the Porter for $36.99. I was going to order a simple kit the other day (19.99) but the shipping was $9. Decided to wait.

 

[Zuljin]

This is how they do it in the White House, right?

 

[Pappers_]

Colorado's governor, John Hickenlooper, founded the state's first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing, according to the Wall Street Journal. Here is his reaction to the White House Ale recipes:

When Gov. John Hickenlooper's around, it's only natural that sometimes the talk turns to his second career. Not politics -- that's his third career -- but beer.
Hickenlooper, who was a geologist before founding Denver's first brewpub, the Wynkoop Brewing Co., was sought out by The Atlantic magazine for his opinion on the home brews President Obama has been drinking at the White House.

The governor hasn't tasted the beers himself, but he looked at the recipes released by the White House and pronounced the presidential beers to be a little too heavy on the honey.

"It's none of my business and I don't want to criticize the White House chef, but I think maybe they could use a little less honey," Hickenlooper told the magazine. "One recipe I'm pretty sure would be better without the honey and the other one I think would be. A little bit less honey would be nice.

How cool is this?!?!? Again, less than a lifetime after Prohibition, we have homebrew being made in the White House and a state governor who was a professional brewer at some level. Outstanding.

 

[FryingPanda]

its a $40 kit mailorder, but around $60 is what I'm seeing local also.

For what size batch? If it is for a 5G batch then I must go hug my LHBS as I can get the ingredients for under $30.

 

[Pappers_]

Here's Wynkoop's website http://www.wynkoop.com/ and a quote from their 'history' page:

Colorado'’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Company was founded in 1988 by a group of young entrepreneurs and urban pioneers led by former Denver mayor and current Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.

Our brewpub’s hallmarks -- highly acclaimed small-batch beers, high quality food & service, the city’s best pool hall and our glorious 1888 building -- helped make us a major catalyst for the revival of Lower Downtown Denver.

Today Wynkoop Brewing Company is a beer-blessed Denver institution, a must-visit Colorado landmark and one of the nation’s most revered craft breweries.

We’re also one of the city’s best places for private and corporate events. We’ve hosted everything from Democratic National Convention parties to beer festivals, weddings and company conferences. (All with great beer and food.)

Today we'’re expanding our brewing efforts to better carry on our pioneering place in Denver and Colorado's microbrewing history. In 2010 we began hand-canning our craft beers (on a wiz-bang, table-top machine) so that we could deliver more of our ambitious, artisan-style craft beer to Denver area beer lovers. Look for our Rail Yard Ale, B3K Black Lager and Silverback Pale Ale in local stores and the area’s top bars and restaurants.

In late 2011 we expanded our brewery for the first time in nearly 15 years, by adding two 20-barrel fermenters to our brewhouse and creating a special new room for our famed open fermenters. In July of 2012 we'll add two more of these fermenters. With this new capacity we are creating a flood of rule-breaking new beers -- from barrel-aged treats to sour beers and new styles - that help us honor the work of our original brewer, the late and very great Russell Schehrer. (The Brewers Association's annual Innovation Award is named after our beloved Russell.)

Our pioneering brewpub is housed in the glorious J. S. Brown Mercantile Building, built in 1899. The Mercantile Company was a cornerstone of the young Denver economy and one of the city’s most impressive early buildings. Its hardwood floors, thick timber pillars and pressed-tin ceilings are still in place today. Miners, ranchers and city folks walked this building looking for goods to furnish their Western adventures and frontier homes.

In 1899 our main floor served as the Mercantile’s original showroom. Today it’s home to our main bar, restaurant, brewery and kitchen. On the south side of our main floor is our Mercantile Room, now a renovated banquet room replete with high ceilings and expansive arched windows. The giant metal door you see by the main bar? It was once the door to the building’s main vault. Today it holds a different sort of valuables: our brewers and their office. The second floor is the home of Wynkoop Billiards, arguably the city's most elegant pool hall. We have 22 pool tables, two private pool rooms, dart lanes and a bar serving most of the same acclaimed beers you find downstairs.

This floor also houses some of our most popular banquet rooms, and the entire floor and pool hall are available for private functions. The backbar on this floor was rescued from the original tasting room of the old Tivoli Brewery, a famed Denver brewery located at what is now the Auraria college campus. In our basement you’ll find the serving tanks for all of our beers, and we now hand can our beers down there, too. The Impulse Theater is also on our basement level and welcomes grinning crowds to its hugely popular improv-comedy shows.

 

[Pappers_]

Apparently, Hickenlooper was a recently unemployed geologist when he and four friends began Wynkoop 24 years ago. http://www.westword.com/2011-01-13/news/john-hickenlooper-wynkoop-brewing-company/

 

[Zuljin]

Starting gravity 1.07

I can see this finishing at ~7% abv

Hopville says 7.1%

Wort tastes malty sweet with a strong hops flavor.

Edited because I forg0t to add the dme in hopville, and have been drinking since this is edit 3 or 4 now

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

Did anyone convert these to a full boil extract recipe? I've never done that, I'm not sure how the hop additions change.

we just got through discussing opinions on how it shouldn't, for beers under 50ibu anyway

 

[tchamber]

Walked into my LHBS this evening to buy the ingredients for this and the owner was busy pre-packaging PM grain bills for the Honey Wheat recipe. Says he's been inundated with requests for both recipes since they were released.

 

[SouthBay]

Walked into my LHBS this evening to buy the ingredients for this and the owner was busy pre-packaging PM grain bills for the Honey Wheat recipe. Says he's been inundated with requests for both recipes since they were released.

Sounds like this is some sort of Home Brew focused stimulus plan!

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

oh, i picked up my grain for an AG ale batch yesterday. Gonna see about honey tomorrow. There's a beekeeper across my back fence but i dunno if he'll like the idea of me using his honey to make beer since he's a mormon. gonna go to the farmer's market and see if there is any local honey for sale there before giving up and going to the health food store for the darkest, murkiest wildflower honey i can find.

 

[Starderup]

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.

They will tend to fill the cells and keep honey and pollen separate. For the most part been in a single hive will work a single species of flower. They will not mix different nectars unless they are out of space, and that's when the colony usually divides. They rotate their stock, and will consume all the 2011 honey before starting to work on this years. Then, females with specific roles will move in, clean out the cell, repair it, and the next batch of nectar is processed.

 

[Brewskii]

Redacted: whoops , no fact checking. Sorry

 

[kappclark]

Has anyone finished this recipe ?? What does it taste like ??

 

[Monstar]

Has anyone finished this recipe ?? What does it taste like ??

I'll be keggin' mine on Monday. Pics soon!

Also, my OG was 7.1 as well. Should come in just under 7%.

To whoever was wondering, I did an all grain version, and did the math myself. That's how I came up with 7%.

 

[Newgene]

Don't blame him. If I were president, I would hire my own professional beer servants to provide my ale. I would even roll up my sleeves for the image while I drink it. I would also add a shooting range, but at some point taxpayers will get a little ticked. Again, I don't blame the man for living up what he can.

I'd love to try the beer. I just don't know if I like it enough to brew it myself. I'll have to keep mooching off others until I con someone into brewing it. lol

 

[BillBeer247]

i doubt they developed the recipes themselves, they purchased them as kits from somewhere (and added there own honey)

 

[WaltStarr]

So, all of the ingredients arrived yesterday except for honey. Total bill from Northern Brewer (this was ordered prior to them putting together a kit) was $47.18 + shipping. I bought a pound of locally produced honey for $7.50 from my local farmer's market this morning.

I'll have an extra 4 oz. of crystal malt, 8 oz. of biscuit malt, and 1/2 oz. each of the Fuggles and Kent Goldings hops.

Tomorrow is brew day. All of my gear was cleaned today and I've got about six gallons of water sitting in a bucket to get rid of chlorine over night. I'll sanitize tomorrow. Wish me luck, it's been a number of years since I last brewed.

 

[Brewskii]

I see NB's recipe uses 1.5 Fuggles at 15 for the honey Ale. Do we know if that is indeed where the missing oz is supposed to be?

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

I see NB's recipe uses 1.5 Fuggles at 15 for the honey Ale. Do we know if that is indeed where the missing oz is supposed to be?

that would work but we just don't know how much fuggle aroma and flavor they wanted this beer to have. Nobody proofread that recipe.

I mean, honestly, it says to add 1/2oz of fuggles at the "last minute of the boil", then add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes. wha?

 

[Zuljin]

I did 1 1/2 oz fuggles and honey both at the last 5 minutes.

 

[emjay]

I doubt I'll make the recipes, but if I do, the honey will be added after primary fermentation, unheated.

 

[Zuljin]

I know they say you shouldn't judge fermentation by air lock activety, but I think this time...

And I think I have a crack around my bung hole, but don't we all?

 

[DaBills]

I know they say you shouldn't judge fermentation by air lock activety, but I think this time...

And I think I have a crack around my bung hole, but don't we all?

Lol... yeah I think you've got some fermentation happening.

 

[Whippy]

When I watched it I said, "hey that's what it looks like when I brew." Haha needless to say I'm a noobert.

...nothing wrong with this type of brewing AT ALL! The reason I called the White House brewers newbies was mostly based on some of the terminology they used. I swear I think I heard one of them say something about distilling. lol

Anyway, this is the recipe I came up with that I will be brewing next weekend:

10.5# Maris Otter
12oz Crystal 60
8oz Victory (biscuit)
1# local honey to be added after the boil
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.5oz Kent Goldings 5.0%AA for 60min
1oz Fuggles 4.5%AA for 1min
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WLP023 Burton Ale Yeast
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mash at 152F for 60min
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Est stats:
OG-1.070
IBU-22
SRM-10.1 (mine will be higher based on my system)
ABV-My best guess will be 6.5% to 7.0% I have never used this yeast, so don't know quite what to expect.

 

[WaltStarr]

Okay, my batch of extract White House Honey Ale is in the primary fermenter and I have pitched the yeast. Hopefully it'll turn out okay.

 

[Mutilated1]

i am sure it will be great its a pretty basic recipe.

what beer do you think obama should make next ?