SpoCOOL : A Spokane Blog

The Official Tincan Committee's Hot Chocolate Porter

SpoBREW – Spokane – Jul 13, 2011

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be posting recipes for a couple of the better beers from SpoBREW. As far as Team SpoCOOL is concerned, it is hard to beat The Official Tincan Committee's Hot Chocolate Porter, and seeing how it came in as number three for both the judges and brewers, quite a few of you agreed.

The brewers, Matt and Will, have generously agreed to share their recipe, so let's kick it over to Will...

I'll reply for Matt and myself of The Official Tin Can Committee. Happy to share some details.

We brewed a marathon day of 3 ten gallon all grain batches, it was about 13 hours of brewing. Two gas burners, two heating vessels, and two 10 gallon rubbermaid coolers: one as a hot liquor tank and the other as a mash/lauter tun with a stainless braid for cheap lautering.

Being a brewer is basically a glorified janitor with all the cleaning, so rather than bottle Matt and I keg. Thus the growlers for transport.

As for recipe, it's sort of a glorified/modified popular porter clone, with additions to the secondary.

10 gallons of porter base:

Grain:

Pale Malt (2-Row) 20.5
Crystal 60L 1.2
Chocolate Malt 1.2
Black Patent 0.4

Hops:

Galena 0.5 60 mins
Cascade 1.5 30 mins
Tettnang 1.75 15 mins

Chilled with an old beat up immersion chiller -- the welding pictures were me silver soldering it back together...

We split the batch into 2 5 gallon increments, the hot chocolate was treated in the secondary with:

2 cups water
2 madagascar bourbon vanilla beans, split and seeded into the water
2 cinnamon sticks (I'd grate some on a re-do)
4 oz lactose

Simmered about 10 minutes, chilled a bit, and dumped in the secondary fermenter, which the beer was racked onto.

There is a chance Budge Brothers may be brewing a commercialized batch of this sometime this fall/winter. Perhaps either this one, or Eggnog Stout, maybe even both.

The SpoBREW wrap up: The Teams

SpoBREW – Spokane – Jul 12, 2011

Here is all the dirt we have on the teams.

Team	Name	Tasting Order	Judges	Brewers
1	Berenstain Beers	15	1	6
Sister Bear's Bad Habit Belgian IPA (submitted with a picture of the book). After several family trips to the West Coast, and despite Mama & Papa's best intentions, Sister Bear developed quite the taste for Northwest IPAs. The upfront floral, citrus & piney notes spoke perfectly to her young budding palate. Bitter was no longer just a word reserved for late night annoyances with Brother Bear. However, Sister's bad habit was quickly found out by Mama Bear and she was shipped off to boarding school in Belgium. It was here that Sister Bear spent far more time studying the ways of the brewing monks than she did her arithmetic. In the quite hills of Belgium she found her tastes had developed to include more European essences including the sweet esters of Belgian beer. She never quite lost her fondness for the bitter northwest hops & found the perfect marriage in a traditional NW IPA fermented with a Belgian yeast. Much to the Berenstain Family's shame, but our delight, some bad habits can't be broken. Brad and Joel
2	Captain Hook	13	10	10
NIPA North Idaho Pale Ale, Vital Statistics, IBUs: 45 est. , SRM: 15, OG: 1.058, FG:1.014, ABV: 5.3%, ABW 4.2%, Ingredients: Pale Malt 2 Row, Caramunich, Victory malts, 10 oz. wild hops, WLP001 (yeast) cultured 4X. James
3	Dreyerbrau	17	17	17
Chris
4	Hops R Us	8	11	8
Irish Stout – Like Hefeweisen w/ a little bite on back of tongue (on sides) 5seconds after swallowing. Rick
5	Inland Brewers Unite	14	15	16
Style: Kentucky Common Ale, dark lager like beer but light, refreshing. Named SpoCommon and it was delivered by bike! Chris
6	Luca Brasi	9	9	5
A non-pleasing stout. Erick and Scott
7	Quandary Brewing	4	6	1
Perplexity Porter – Smooth, dark, and a little sweet. Barry White would be jealous.
8	Rawr	3	16	14
A Hint of Mango – A refreshing weißbier with just a touch of mango that takes you back to a more innocent and, dare we say, better time. Nicole, Mike, Geneva, Remi
9	RCBC	11	2	2
Northwest Hops in a Scottish style 801. Jeremiah and Scott
10	SAC & SAL's Brewing	1	12	4
Czech Cab Pilsner – No exploitations of vernacular. It’s good. What more do you need to know? Lars and partner
11	Team Border War	12	5	15
Prairie Fire – An American pale ale brewed with agave nectar, and kissed just barely with chipotle and habanero. Ryan and Mike
12	Team DOMA	2	7	7
Summer Solstice Saison – Do you believe in magic? We do, and we used it to make our delicious Saison. Close your eyes, sip and enjoy the show, while this bright and crisp burst of honey and love makes your ears tingle. Keaton and Jim
13	Team SpoCOOL	5	13	13
A refreshing porter for those mild summer nights when you just want a beer to relax and caffeinate you. Remi and Geneva
14	The Official Tincan Committee	7	3	3
Hot Chocolate Porter – A porter brewed with lactose, cinnamon, and Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans. Matt and Will
15	The Power of Yeast Genetics	6	8	11
A medium-bodied porter with aromas of malt, coffee, and black licorice, this beer pours with light lacing. With flavors of espresso, milk chocolate, malt, and black licorice, this is a beer to be enjoyed by both dark and light beer connoisseurs. Ted
16	Wilktopia	10	4	12
Red Beard, Style: Old Ale, ABV: 6.8-7% Seth and Dave
17	Wubrew	16	14	9
Red Daslcer Pale Lora

The wrap up · The teams · The art

That SpoBREW art

#SpoCOOL – Spokane – Jul 12, 2011

Remember the art part of SpoBREW? Of course you do and now you can read all about it. Do it! (Do it.)

Update: We also have a dedicated page where you can read all the dirt on the teams.

The SpoBREW wrap up: The Art

#SpoCOOL – Spokane – Jul 12, 2011

The second part of SpoBREW was the art contest which turned out a surprising amount of cool pieces. I mean really. Had we known it'd be this awesome we wouldn't have slapped together our own "art" fifteen minutes before we ran out the door.

The 6pack Saddlebag

The most impressive entry by far was so impressive that people didn't actually know it was an entry at first. Lars, of LK Studios fame, designed the "6pack Saddlebag" which, long story short, is this...

... or to use the designer's own words:

The 6pack Saddlebag carries your bottled or canned six pack from your house or the store to your destination with ease and style. Designed to fit over the top tube of your bike, it attaches with 2 clip buckles underneath keeping the halves together and then straps around the seat tube with 1" webbing and adjustable ladder lock. This simple and quick attachment system keeps the saddlebag solid with no swing and almost no interference with your pedal stroke. When you arrive, simply unclip and carry your beer with the over-molded center handle to wherever you are headed. If you are in need of bottle opener, the 6pack Saddlebag has a stainless steel opener stitched on.

The 6pack Saddlebag will be produced in Spokane, WA by a locally owned Cut-and-Sew shop. Once we gather 50 or more interested buyers, low-volume production will begin and we are shooting for a $40.00 retail price (plus shipping). If you are located in Spokane, WA then it will be possible to pick up your bag and avoid shipping costs.

More details will be available including colors, accepted payment methods, and delivery dates within the next weeks ahead.

Please contact Lars Huschke via email at lars@lkstudiosinc.com if you are interested in ordering a bag or have any questions.

Attached is another pic showing an alternate position for the bag. This works well for smaller bike frames and/or zero pedaling interfence.

Consider us fans.

The Winners

1. Lars' Mullet Malt Liquor

6pack Saddlebag aside, Spokane loves its mullets and brews, and Lars took home the victory for this one.

2. Chris' Art

We don't have photos of Chris' art, but will upload them as soon as we do. (Chris, feel free to e-mail them to team@spocool.com.) We'll also have some of the coasters he made and passed out on hand for IBU's meet-up today, 6pm, Brews on Washington.