Maibock is in the fermenter

Well this weekend was beer and brat weekend. I brewed a batch of extract Maibock* and made brats...yes...ground the meat, cleaned the hog casings, stuffed the casings and poached the sausages. You may now call me Herr Volz.

The Maibock was low on the OG vs. what the package said. Mine measured a 1.058 vs. the 1.064. We'll see how it turns out. It's been 12 hours and no airlock activity but the directions say it may take 24 - 48 hours so I'm not worried yet.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/lagerkits.html

OG: 1064 / Ready: 3 months
In Germany, this sub style of the bock family is
brewed late in the year and lagered all winter; then in May, the beer is
ceremonially tapped and consumed at huge outdoor parties that have big
unpronounceable German names. Maibocks are quite strong, and are very pale
despite their high original gravities - the palest commercial examples are
barely darker than a pilsner. With a traditionally pale color and a delicate hop
aroma, the Northern Brewer Maibock is a Fruhjahrstarkbierfest in a box.

The brats turned out great. The only thing that I'm going to change next time is the first time when you grind the meat you use the 1/8" grind plate and then use the same plate to put the ground meat into the casings. This results in a fine grind brat (like a Klements) but I like the larger grind (like a Johnsonville). I poached them in 2 bottles of my American Lager and man did it smell great along with the hoppy aroma left from yesterday's batch of beer.

Well - I'm off to fire up the grill and grill these sausages.

Later and Gemutlichkeit!

Greg

Food and Froth Recap

3 floors in 3 hours with over 60 beer breweries, vendors, and distributors. Impossible to go through in it's entirety but a very fun night.

This was my 8th F&F and my wife, Karen's 5th. I had gone the inaugural year when I was with Firstar Information Services way back when it was held in the Grand Avenue Mall instead of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Be assured that the museum is a much better venue than the mall. The dimmer lighting and the walk through historic downtown Milwaukee is heads above having a nice bock next to Gamestop.

We ventured out with another couple, Dale & Tanya. I've worked with Dale for five years but this is the first F&F we've been to. It was good to have somebody with that appreciates beer and to compare tasting comments (because I was a little too tipsy to write anything).

Nothing really stood out as new and exciting this year as I'd had most of what we were tasting. I did wear my Lakefront Brewery polo and did receive two free tour tickets. If you ever come to Milwaukee the Lakefront tour is one of the best for it's value and you get to see some Milwaukee historical artifacts there as well!

Make sure to mark your calendars for next year.