Our cask-conditioned Copper Ale is now on tap through the beer engine. Each cask is dry hopped (extra hops added in the keg) and naturally carbonated with brown sugar. These casks are then hand pulled from the keg to give a smooth creamy head and a wonderfully hoppy finish.

Our half gallon and gallon jugs are back in stock so you can pick up a jug of your favorite Ballast Point beer to go! Bring in a jug from another brewery and we will happily trade you for one of ours. Refill prices are $7.00 for a half-gallon and only $11.00 for the full gallon! T-Shirts and Hats are back as well so get your BPBC gear or put it on your Christmas list!

If you want to reserve a keg for a Halloween, please call in advance at 298-2337 so that we can have it ready to go for you. Kegs are available in 5 and 15 gallon sizes. The 5 gallon kegs serve about 55 - 12oz beers and cost $40. The 15 gallon kegs serve about 165 - 12 oz beers and cost $105. Kegs are available in either Copper Ale or Belgian White.

NEW MILL

We now have a new Schmidling hand mill at the Linda Vista store. This is the same mill that some of you are familiar with at the Solana Beach store. This will help aleviate waiting to mill small amounts of grain. Check it out next time you are in the store.

WHITE LABS YEAST

Background:

White Labs is a full service laboratory specializing in pitchable quantities of pure brewers' yeast. We currently supply pure liquid yeast cultures to major breweries, brewpubs, BOPs and homebrew stores.
White Labs was started in 1993 by Chris White, Ph.D., when he realized working with craft breweries and brewers' yeast was more enjoyable than working with research institutions and industrial yeast. Applying a combination of yeast genetics and sterile high cell density yeast propagation techniques, Chris was able to grow and concentrate large volumes of yeast cultures.

Why Pitchable Liquid Yeast?

Liquid yeasts produce consistent, predictable flavors in your beer. Often times, beer styles will require a particular yeast, or a particular type of yeast. Belgian Ales and Wheat beers are just two examples of beers that are defined by their yeast flavors. Dry yeasts are usually blended and do not offer homebrewers control over the finished product the way pure liquid cultures do. White Labs yeast are ready to pitch into your beer, just like dry yeast. They require no additional activation like Wyeast packets.

Liquid yeasts also offer the possibility of being repitched. Because these are pure cultures you can save the slurry from the bottom of your fermentor and reuse it in your next batch. The best way to do this is to save about 8 oz of slurry and keep it refrigerated in a sanitized beer bottle with an airlock. The slurry is good for about two weeks at a time. After that you should do a starter for it to make sure the yeast is fresh and active. So if you are looking to really perfect that favorite recipe, try it with a liquid yeast and taste the difference. There is a strain well suited to almost every style. We even have style suitability charts posted at the store!

Yeast Descriptions:

Standard Available Yeast Strains (Year Round)

WLP001 - California Ale Yeast: Our best selling strain. This yeast is famous for its clean flavors, balance and ability to be used in almost any style ale. Attenuation is 73-80% Flocculation is Medium. Optimum fermentation temperature is 68-73 degrees.

WLP002 - English Ale Yeast: A classic ESB strain from one of England's largest breweries. This yeast is best suited for English style ales including milds, bitters, porters, and English style stouts. Attenuation is 63-70% which leaves behind some residual sweetness not found in our California Ale Yeast. Flocculation is Very High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 65-68 degrees.

WLP004 - Irish Stout Yeast: This is the yeast from one of the oldest stout producing breweries in the world. It produces a slight hint of diacetyl, balanced by a light fruitiness. Great for Irish ales, stouts, porters, browns, reds and a very interesting pale ale. Attenuation is 69-74%. Flocculation is Medium to High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 65-68 degrees.

WLP008 - East Coast/Alt Ale Yeast: Our "Brewer Patriot" strain can be used to reproduce many of the American versions of classic beer styles. Similar neutral character of WLP001, but less attenuation, less accentuation of hop bitterness, increased flocculation, and a little tartness. Very clean and low esters. Great yeast for golden, blonde, honey, and German alt style ales. Attenuation is 70-75%. Flocculation is Medium to High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 68-73 degrees.

WLP300 - Hefeweizen Ale Yeast: This infamous German yeast is a strain used in the production of traditional, authentic wheat beers. It produces the banana and clove nose traditionally associated with German wheat beers. Attenuation is 72-76% Flocculation is low which leaves the desired cloudy look of traditional German wheat beers. Optimum fermentation temperature is 68-72 degrees.

WLP810 - San Francisco Lager Yeast: This yeast used is used to produce the "California Common" style beer. A unique lager strain which has the ability to ferment up to 65 degrees while retaining lager characteristics. Attenuation is 65-70% Flocculation is High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 58-65 degrees. Can also be fermented down to 50 degrees for production of marzens, pilsners and other style lagers .

Seasonal Yeast Strains (Availability Varies)

WLP005 - British Ale Yeast: Used by several of our breweries, this yeast is a little more attenuative than WLP002. Like most English strains, this yeast produces malty beers. Excellent for all English style ales including bitter, pale ale, porter, and brown ale. Attenuation is 67-74%. Flocculation is High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 65-70 degrees. (Won 2 Gold Medals at the GABF)

WLP320 - American Hefeweizen Ale Yeast: This yeast is used to produce the Oregon style. American Hefeweizen. Unlike WLP030, this yeast does not produce the banana and clove notes. It produces some sulfur, but is otherwise a clean fermenting yeast which does not Flocculate well, producing a cloudy beer. Attenuation is 70-75% Flocculation is Low. Optimum fermentation is 65-69 degrees.

WLP400 - Belgian Wit Ale Yeast: Slightly phenolic and tart, this is the yeast used to produce Wit in Belgium. Attenuation is 74-78% Flocculation is Low to Medium. Optimm fermentation temperature is 67-74 degrees. (Same yeast we use at Ballast Point for our Belgian White!)

WLP500 - Trappist Ale Yeast: From one of the six Trappist breweries remaining in the world, this yeast produces the distinctive fruitiness and plum characteristics. Excellent yeast for high gravity beers, Belgian ales, dubbels and trippels. Attenuation is 73-78% Flocculation is Medium. Fermentation should be held below 65 degrees for best results. (Great for spiced holiday beers!)

WLP800 - Pilsner Lager Yeast: Classic pilsner strain from the premier Pilsner producer in the Czech Republic. Somewhat dry with a malty finish, this yeast is best suited for European pilsner production. Attenuation is 72-77% Flocculation is Medium to High. Optimum fermentation temperature is 50-55 degrees.

WLP830 - German Lager Yeast: This yeast is one of the most widely used lager yeast in the world. Very malty and clean, great for all German lagers, pilsner, oktoberfest, and marzen. Attenuation is 74-79%. Flocculation is Medium. Optimum fermentation temperature is 50-55 degrees.
And brand new:

WLP023 - Burton Ale Yeast: From the famous brewing town of Burton upon Trent, England, this yeast is packed with character. It provides delicious subtle fruity flavors like green apple, clover honey and pear. Great for all English styles, IPA's bitters, pales. Excellent in porters and stouts. Attenuation is 69-75%. Flocculation is Medium. Optimum fermentation temperature is 68-73 degrees.
Technical Information:

Dissolved Oxygen in Brewers Wort

The level of dissolved oxygen in brewers' wort is critical for proper fermentation. Many fermentation problems (long lag times, stuck fermentation, and off-flavors in finished beer) can be attributed to low oxygen levels in wort.

Low oxygenation-Low growth! This is mainly due to the inability of yeast to manufacture sterols and unsaturated fatty acids when oxygen is not present. In air-depleted wort, yeast will reproduce to approximately half the number of total cells possible. This has vast implications on fermentation profile, length, and resulting beer flavor. Flocculation rate is also reduced with lower oxygen wort.
Optimum amount of air-

Optimum oxygen levels desired in wort is 5-10 ppm. High gravity beers require higher levels of oxygen, because O2 is less soluble in high gravity worts. Any wort above 18 Plato requires double the normal oxygenation levels.
In the way of praise for White Labs Yeast:

"The results (on WLP001) were very positive, so much so I am now using the yeast for all my own ales. On the basis of our tests, the different versions did differ in nontrivial ways, and WLP001 had the best overall marks for both flavor and functional characteristics." George Fix, Ph.D. Author of Principles of Brewing Science

And if you flip through the latest Zymurgy you will notice that three of the Gold Medal Recipes from the Great American Beer Festival used White Labs yeast including our own Jim Weiner who used the British Ale yeast in his robust porter.

Home Brew Mart's take on it:

My personal favorite right now is the Burton Ale yeast for anything British. I just used it on a Scottish ale and it produced a wonderful butterscotch flavor that blends perfectly with the malty flavor of the beer. Paul is a big fan of the Irish Ale in Pale Ales and Yuseff stands by the California Ale Yeast for just about everything. If you can brew in some cooler temperatures this Winter try the San Francisco Lager. With a bit of age, this yeast makes great beers. And to help mock those lager beers at Ale temperatures try the East Coast Ale yeast. Its clean finish makes it great to achieve a smooth finish.
Visit White Labs on the Web at:

www.whitelab.com

PUB UPDATES

Tuesday, November 4th will be cask ale night at San Diego Brewing Company featuring their Admiral Baker Bitter. This is the original bitter recipe before they toned down the bitterness and renamed Admiral Baker's Best. Look for the dry-hopped, hand-drawn cask to kick by 9 pm. Get there early. Look for an Imperial Stout at the Brew Co. this Winter that should also be on tap at Callahans (which just finsihed massive renovations)

Pizza Port Solana Beach has a new Autumn Ale on tap. Its a dark, malty brown brew that sounds like a hybrid between an Octoberfest and an English Brown Ale. The O.G. was 1.062 so it packs some punch. Brewer Tomme Arthur used all English hops--Challenger and East Kent Goldings. Check out the "special" yeast strain he used from a former brew pub. The Carlsbad Brewery will be doing a spiced Christmas ale while Solana Beach will be debuting an Imperial Stout of their own.

San Diego's newest brewpub is Hang Ten Downtown. This is the new name for the old Hops! locations across from the Old Spaghetti Factory. New look, new beers, new yeast strain. The pub opens tonight so go check it out.

Looking for a good spot for Octoberfest beers? Try Kaiserhof in Ocean Beach. They always have a nice selection of German beers on tap. Bring in your own liter mug during happy hour and get it filled for only $4.75! Note: Kaiserhof does not serve liter mugs unless you bring in your own.

Looking for a good watering hole? Stop by Porter's Pub on the UCSD campus in the price center. They feature a $2 pint every day of the week--all day long! This is another good spot for seasonal beers. check out pints of the Anchor Foghorn for only $3.50. Also look for the Port's Autumn Ale!

STRONG BEER FESTIVAL

The 1st Annual San Diego County Strong Beer Festival will be happening Thursday, December 18th at the Carlsbad Pizza Port from 6:00pm till 10:00 pm. We have nearly 10 beers confirmed including two Imperial Stouts, three Barleywines and two Belgain Ales. Tasting glass will cost $1 and 4 oz samples of the brews will also be $1. Commerative T-shirts will be available and there will be a raffle featuring items from the participating breweries. Pizza Port will have its regular complement of beers (and sodas and water for any designated drivers) and pizzas. Make plans to be there!

RECIPES

I made a Partial Mash ESB several weeks ago and it turned out very well, so I'm passing along the recipe. It drinks like a hoppy version of Bass. Its similar in its grain bill to my last English Pale Ale recipe, but the hops are way different.

Sara's VIP ESB:

6.5# Pale Malt Extract

Mini-Mash
2# Great Western 2-Row
.5# Caramunich
.5# Caravienne
.25# Special Roast

1 oz Chinook Pellets - 12%AA - Boil 1 hour
1 oz Cascade - Finish
.5 oz Chinook - Finish

White Labs Burton Ale Yeast

To pull off the mini-mash steep the grains at 152F for 45 minutes in 1 gallon of water and then rinse the grains until you've collected 1.5 gallons total. Add your extract and the rest stays the same. For complete mini-mash instructions just ur web site or ask for a copy at either store.
Tom's Kitchen Sink Christmas Beer

You can throw just about anything into this one and make it come out right. I switch it up every year so here are some options on how to make that special brew for the season. These are all suggestions. Do not try to add all of these ingredients together, please. Just use this as a template and create your own unique brew!

8# Pale Malt Extract

1# Honey OR 12 oz Pure Maple Syrup OR .5 gallons Raw Apple Cider OR 1 pound Dark Belgian Candi Sugar OR 1 medium pot of strong coffee OR some kind of fruit, 2# Cranberries works really well --- any one at the end of boil--DO NOT BOIL! Just let whatever you add steep for a few minutes until it is fully dissolved in your beer.
Steep:

.5# Caramunich
.5# Dark Carastan
.5# Special B

1.5 oz hops from the back of the fridge - ??AA% -- Boil 1 hour (Around 7-9 HBUs) No finishing hops needed. Maybe try some Crystal or Challenger or Chinook if you must though.

For Spices:
Add some of the following about 3 minutes before the end of the boil:

1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Allspice
.25 tsp Cloves
.25 tsp Nutmeg
2 oz Ginger
2 tbsp Mulling Spices
.5 tsp Cardamom
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 stick Brewers Licorice
Small dash of Spruce Essence
1 oz Coriander
.5 oz Orange or Tangerine Peel
1 tsp anise
1 vanilla bean or whatever else you can come up with!

California Ale Yeast is always a good default on this one. The Trappist yeast works well with the Maple syrup, sugar or honey along with cinnamon, nutmeg, etc...

The English Ale leaves it fruity and malty and the British or Irish would work well in any coffee beer.
I've never lagered this one, but that might be interesting.....

Thats all folks!