Happy Monk Belgium Pale Ale

Most commonly found in the Flemish provinces of Antwerp and Brabant. Considered a “everyday” beer when compared to their higher alcohol cousins, they are Belgian “session beers” for ease of drinking. 

The Happy Monk is well carbonated, effervescent,  with a soft amber color and off white fluffy head.  One the first draw you’ll notice the clove nose followed by sweet malt.  The beer is of medium body, with a light floral hop finish some residual sweetness.  This highly drinkable  session beer goes well with light summer fare.

The Happy Monk malt bill uses traditional malts from Germany including Pilsner Malt, Munich Malt, Caravienne Malt, and a touch of biscuit malt.  For this version I choose a traditional Trappist Ale yeast fermented at a temperature to balance the spiciness of the yeast phenols, with the sweet malt, and Fuggles and Amarillo hops.

Vital Statistics:

OG: 1.049

FG: 1.008

IBU: 25

Calories: 162

ABV: 4.7%

Outsourced IPA

Outsourced IPA is a traditional English India Pale Ale in the Burton on the Trent style.  Water from the Trent River is known for its high mineral content which served to accentuate the hop characteristics of Pale Ales in that time.  In the mid to late 18^th century Burton brewers succeeded in replicating the pale ale produced in London, the advantage of the water’s qualities allowed the development of the trade of Burton India Pale Ale (an ale specially brewed to keep during the long sea voyage to India).  Today the breweries of Burton (including Bass) are mainly owned by the large conglomerates on InBev and Molson Coors,  however several microbreweries remain.

Mill Road Craft Brewing, and its Outsourced IPA, pays tribute to the traditional breweries on the Trent with its version of the standard English India Pale Ale.  Outsourced IPA is a medium body ale with an off-white, creamy, tan head with a moderate lasting lace.  The Ale is cloudy from the dry hop addition of English Willamette hops.  Upon tasting you can notice the mineral additions that simulate the hard water of the Trent river.  These additions helps to accent the hops and lend a somewhat metallic or mineral like flavor.  Use your senses to experience the dry hop nose with caramel and toast hints up front, with a hint of raisin in the middle, dry and slightly bitter finish.

Vital Stats:

• 55 IBU’s
• OG 1.066, FG 1.016
• 6.1% ABV
• 223 calories

Custom Fermentation Chamber

After searching for the perfect freezer to convert to a fermentation chamber, I decided to build my own, to my specifications. My requirements are simple

1) Allow for fermenting and conditioning of Ales and Lagers
2) Have two temperature zones, independently controlled
3) Hold 2 - 15 gallon Sabco Fermenters, and 4 - 5 gallon cornies.


The result is a 6 foot tall, by 2 foor square chamber. I framed it with 1.5 inch slotted steel, using 1/2 plywood panels. FInally, it will be lined with rigid foam insulation.

For cooling I purchased the smallest window A/C unit I could find, a 4500 BTU Frigidaire for $99 from Lowe's. Using a standard window A/C unit required me to hot wire the unit to bypass the temperature sensor in order to get a temp down to 50F. The unit is mounted above the chambers and blows down into the unit. The coldest section is the middle chamber, the warmer being on the bottom.

I can control the lower temperature by two means, one is to restrict the downward the cool air flow, and the other is to heat the chamber or single fermenter using the second Love Controller. The picture to the right, is the first test. Power for the entire unit is controlled via the center switch.

Key Parts:
(2) Dywer Instruments TS2-010 with a TS-21 Probe
(1) Frigidaire A/C unit at Lowes
(8) 6 foot by 1.25 Slotted Steel
(6) 2 foot by 4 foot 1/2 inch sanded plywood panels
(4) 6 foot #1 Pine 1 by 4s
(2) 18 by 28 Plexiglass panels for the door
Lots of assorted screws, washers, wiring, wire screws

A finished photo is below. the rough dimensions are 76 * 24 *24 and can hold 4 cornies below in the Ale chamber and 4 cornies or 2 15 gallon Sabco Fermenters in the upper lager chamber.

MRCB Base Recipes

It’s been a few weeks and I’ve realized that I haven’t updated the blog. I’ve slowed down the business planning for now and have switched over to perfecting my recipes. I have close to 30 different recipes that I’ve brewed in the past 18 months. Some of those have turned out pretty good, and others not so good and some I can’t brew enough of as my friends quickly drink it and want more. I’ve come up a list of core offerings and now I want to refine and perfect them.

• Irish Red Ale, this will be my flagship beer. I can’t brew enough of it.
• California Common Ale
• Belgium Wit Ale or American Wheat Ale; I can’t decide which one yet.
• Bohemian Pilsner
• Raspberry Kolsch
• American Stout
• English IPA
• American Imperial IPA
• American Stout

Since early January I have been able to brew a 5 gallon batch of the first 4 listed above. For the Red Ale and Common Ale, I’ve split the batches into two and used different yeasts to better compare the flavor and what each accentuates. Yeast planning is also important in regards to cost. In a small nano, yeast gets to be very expensive if you don’t repitch / reuse yeast. Since you can’t let cropped yeast sit indefinitely, its best to decide upon a core set of yeast and plan accordingly. You can see some of the results of the yeast trails in an earlier blog entry.

To help get the word out, I’m brewing the Pilsner and another batch of Red Ale for our neighborhood picnic of close to 100 households, brewing for our summer community center pool party, and scheduling a tasting in the late spring and my annual, but larger, Oktoberfest later this year.

First steps on a long Journey

The month of January brought a significant milestone for me.  Mill Road Craft Brewing is now a licensed LLC in the state of Virginia.  Virginia actually makes this step pretty easy and its all on-line at the State Corporation website.  For $100 you can apply for licensing and get your Articles of Organization and LLC Certificate at the end of the process. As of January 10, 2012, Mill Road Craft Brewing LLC is official.

Since I was on a roll, I went to the Department of Treasury website (located here) to file for by EIN online; a few clicks and minutes later I had an EIN and now can pay taxes (YIPEEE) and open a small business bank account.

So now Mill Road Craft Brewing (MRCB) has a domain name, facebook presence, drink coasters (from Canada Coaster), Articles of Organization, EIN, and Bank Account.  In the next couple months I will be ordering new brewing equipment for my pilot system, updating my fermentation chamber and start brewing and giving away some beer to build up the buzz.

In the meantime I continue to Home Brew, share with my friends, and submit my favorites to competitions all across the US.  I've had a few judging successes and am learning from the feedback.  I'd also like to thank the many home and nano-brewers across the country that have shared information through boards, blogs, and websites, especially Hess Brewing.

Our first draft of bottle labels

This is the first cut at a set of labels for our core set of beer offerings

Starting a nano-brewery. It’s a lot of work.

One thing for sure, brewing beer may be the easiest part (and the most fun). There is a lot that goes into starting a brewery, in fact part of it is determining if its even feasible for you to start one. In my case I’ve started a feasibility study; call it a pre-business plan. A good study will provide you with that gut check so you can evaluate a decision to move ahead or not.

I’ve spent about 6-8 weeks on my study so far and I have looked at many topics which I will enumerate below. I’ve gone down a few rabbit holes (too much detail in some cases), but my study is a reflection of me, I like to know the details and be as informed as possible before making a decision such as this. Even with all the numbers and information there are some questions that you have to answer for yourself.
1) How will this impact my family?
2) How will this impact my current job?
3) Do I have the time and capital to invest in this?
4) Can I afford to operate at a loss for an extended period of time?
5) How much money can I pump into this to make it successful?
6) Do I need partners to help with this?

So what is in my study….. here is my list
1) Mission statement, vision, goals, and objectives
2) Legal Structure (Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, etc)
3) Legal requirements at the federal, state, and local level
4) Zoning and permit requirements
5) ABC licensing
6) Brewing

• a. Hardware and sizing (how many bbls, number of fermenters required, etc)
• b. Gas, electric, steam, RIMS, HERMS
• c. Cooling and Filtering
• d. Keg options and requirements (rent or buy)

7) Product mix and pricing
8) Cost and Revenue estimation and break even analysis
9) Distribution
10) Promotion and Brand
11) Suppliers
12) Trademarks
13) Packaging
14) Financing and Fundraising

Perhaps this is too much detail, but its helped me to understand the complexity of starting a brewery and how to make decisions and the impact of one decision upon another. Much of this information will serve as input into a longer range business plan. In my case phase 1 is the nano, phase 2 is a much larger 30-30 bbl capacity system. This is likely enough of a post for today, going forward I'll dig into some of these aspects in more detail along with my successes, pains, and learnings,

Experiments in Yeast - last update

This past week I brewed up a batch of Sam’s Red Ale, an Irish Red ale, and a batch of Uncommon Ale, a California Steam ale. In both instances I split the batches into half and used style specific yeast in one fermenter and a standard yeast in another. Very early on there were noticeable differences. Here are the specifics;

Batch 1: Uncommon Ale
Brew Date: 12/27/2011
OG into primary: 1.052
Strike Temp: 69.5f
Ferm temp: 67.5f plus/minus 1.5f
Volume: 2.5 gallons into each fermenter
Fermenter 1: Fermentis US-05 America Ale Dry Yeast; FG 1.012
Fermenter 2: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V, FG 1.015

Results: US-05 started fermentation sooner (4 hours versus 7 hours) and was consistently more vigorous through out the first several days and completed fermentation sooner. Upon racking to secondary the US-05 SG was 1.012 and had less esters, but was noticeable cloudy (lower flocculation than the WLP051). Conversely WLP051 was much more clear (very clear in fact) and reached a SG of 1.016 which aligns with its documented attenuation range. I did notice more sulfur like odors from the WLP051 batch. Tasting results will be posted at 4 weeks and final results at 6 weeks.

Batch 2: Sam’s Red Ale
Brew Date: 12/30/2011
OG into primary: 1.054
Strike Temp: 70f
Ferm temp: 67.5f plus/minus 1.5f
Volume: 2.5 gallons into each fermenter
Fermenter 1: Danstar Nottingham Dry Yeast (re-pitched first generation) FG 1.017
Fermenter 2: Wyeast 1046 Irish Ale FG 1.015

Initial Results: Wyeast started fermentation sooner (6 hours versus 18 hours) and was consistently more vigorous through out the first several days. The Wyeast batch completed active fermentation on 1/3/12 as was moved to secondary at a SG of 1.016; estimated FG is 1.013. Danstar batch still showing some activity in the ferm lock. Additional results will be posted at transfer to secondary and 4 weeks and final results at 6 weeks.

Update 1/9/11:  Bottled uncommon ale.    US05 1.012, Cali V 1.015.   Both were very clear.  Cali slightly more clear.  The lower attenuation gave more malt flavor leaving the malt and caramel notes that US05 mostly wiped out.  US 05 with the higher attenuation really accentuated the hops with a bit of warmth. Cali V has more balance also noticed it was more carbonated out of the fermenter

Update 1/23/11: Bottled Irish Ale last week and took final readings.  The Wyeast Irish Ale finished at 1.015, 2 points more than the Nottingham.  The Wyeast was less clear than Nottinghan and more grainy with less malt flavor.  Medium-light body feel and a bit dryer.  Nottingham at 1.017 was more clear, balanced, little hop bitterness or dryness.  Medium body feel.  While there was a difference in clarity, it was barely noticable.

Below are side by side images of the two versions on Uncommon Ale.  For my purposes I prefer the WLP051 and Nottingham varieties.  I can see the US-05 used for American Pale Ale where a higher attenuation is preferred

WLP051 - US-05