A call for clones

Without access to the same quality of fruit as their professional counterparts, home winermakers have trouble replicating the greatest examples of a given style (think First Growth Bordeaux). The same is not true for homebrewers, who can and often do produce excellent clones of their favorite beers. If that sounds like you, we want your recipe.

By Steve Siciliano

A Beringer’s Nights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was the first wine I fell in love with. I remember how I was intrigued by its deep red color, by the aromas of oak, vanilla and cedar and the flavors of black cherry, licorice and tobacco. Because I was captivated by that wine I wanted to know everything about the grape that produced it. I learned that cabernet sauvignon is the main component of the great wines of Bordeaux and that some vintages of the incomparable First Growths from that famous region can age gracefully for over a hundred years. I read how wines made from cabernet sauvignon put California on the winemaking map. I read about the early efforts of California vintners such as Robert Mondavi and Warren Winiarski, and how Winiarski’s cabernet from his Stag’s Leap Winery beat Bordeaux’s First Growths in a 1976 blind tasting. Over the years I have drunk some great cabs including a beautiful Mondavi Reserve and a bottle of Cask 23 from Stag’s Leap.

Since I’m a home winemaker who loves cabs it’s only natural that I have a desire to produce them in my home winery. While I have made some very good wines from cabernet grapes grown in California’s Lodi region, there’s no way I could ever make a wine that exactly replicates the quality of a Beringer’s Knights Valley, a First Growth Bordeaux, a Mondavi Reserve or a Stag’s Leap Cask 23. The reason is simple—incredible wines come from incredible fruit, and the fruit that is available to the home winemaker never comes from the top-notch vineyards. Despite the skills set of a home winemaker, he or she will never be able to clone a specific wine produced by a professional vintner.

That certainly is not the case for the homebrewer who wants to clone beers made by professional brewers. Long gone are the days when the only ingredients available to a beer making hobbyist were cans of stale hopped extract, a few varieties of grains and hops and a couple strains of generic dry yeast. Today’s homebrewers have such a wide range of ingredients available to them that they can, with the appropriate skills and a good clone recipe, replicate almost any beer made by the professionals.

It’s no mystery why homebrewers love to clone professionally brewed beers, even ones that are easily obtainable. For one thing it is a good test of skill. If you are able to approximate the flavors, aromas and colors of an Oberon or Centennial IPA it is tangible proof that you are doing things right. And then there are the beers that are not easily obtained—the ones with limited distribution, the rare one-offs, and the push-the-envelope offerings produced in miniscule quantities by innovative brewers. If you can’t buy these beers you might as well make them.

I’m constantly amazed at how sophisticated the hobby of homebrewing is becoming. Select customers have acquired the know-how to make stellar sours and some are brewing with wooden barrels. I have tasted many excellent examples of hard-to-brew styles such as lambics, Bavarian Weises and Czech pilsners, which is concrete evidence that all homebrewers have the potential to replicate just about any beer produced by the professionals. The only problem that remains is getting ahold of a good clone recipe.

Of course there are books that focus on clone recipes (like this one or this one), and an internet search will usually provide you with dozens more. Helpful though the books may be, they can be dated and seldom include recipes from small, regional breweries. What if you want to replicate a Founders Canadian Breakfast, a Dark Horse Scotty Karate or a Michigan Brewing Screaming Pumpkin? You might be able to find recipes for these beers on the internet but it has been our experience that some online recipes are just plain awful.

In response to this I would like to begin a file of clone recipes formulated by Siciliano’s customers. If you have a tried-and-true recipe, one that you formulated after picking the brain of a professional brewer or one that you perfected after trial and error, bring it in or send it via email and we’ll include it in the file. We’ll give you full credit for the recipe and in return you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the fruits of your labor are contributing to the growing pool of knowledge of the local homebrew community.

New Beer Friday - October 28 Edition

Last week we dedicated NBF to the Michigan Hop Alliance in appreciation of their hard work over harvest time. This week they respond by filling our coolers with ounce after ounce of Michigan's finest hops. Eleven total varieties arrived on Wednesday, everything from Cascade to Magnum to Willamette hops, some organic, some available only in pellets, and some available in both pellet form and leaf.

Scroll down to see the full list of Michigan hop varieties currently in stock. You'll pass on your way the names and descriptions of the seven newcomers to Siciliano's beer department, a group that happens to include one of most "celebrated" winter seasonals in the craft beer world.

New (and Returning) Beer

• Sierra Nevada Celebration Fresh Hop Ale, $1.59/12oz - This beer is "wonderfully robust and rich...dry-hopped for a lively, intense aroma...brewed especially for the holidays...perfect for a festive gathering or for a quiet evening at home" (source).
• Left Hand Fade to Black Volume 3, $1.99/12oz - This beer showcases "dried fruit flavors entwined with smoky pepper and licorice." The heat from the chilis "creeps up on your tongue and throat, finishing in an herbal smoke ring flourish" (source).
• Arbor Brewing Jackhammer English Style Old Ale, $2.29/12oz - "This strong ale has a clear alcohol presence, a complex fruity palate, and a dry, spicy, rather assertive hop counterbalance in the finish. The Michigan Microbrewery and Brewpub Guide calls it, 'an excellent, true-to-style beer with a subtle yet distinct chocolate covered cherry quality'" (source).
• Arbor Brewing Phat Abbot Dubbel, $2.29/12oz - "A dark, rich Belgian abbey style ale made with Trappist yeast and dark Belgian candy sugar for a more traditional, malty trappist character." The taste is "deep mahogany with a rich, complex palate. Toffee, toasted malts, dried dark fruits, and sweet candy sugar balanced by a subtle earthy, woodsy quality and spicy hops" (source).
• New Holland Cabin Fever Brown Ale, $1.79/12oz - "Robust in character yet smooth in delivery, Cabin Fever is a roasty brown ale and a hearty, comforting companion for long, mind-bending winters. Its rye, roast and raisin notes play off a subtle caramel sweetness and culminate in a dry finish. Excellent with roasts, stews, caramelized onions and snowfall" (source).
• Big Sky Powder Hound Winter Ale, $1.69/12oz - "At 7.2% ABV, Powder Hound Winter Ale gives just the right amount of warmth, balanced by its rich taste and generous dose of Hallertau, Palisade, and Amarillo hops" (source).
• Brau Brothers Hundred Yard Dash Fresh Hop Ale, $2.59/12oz - Bunches and bunches of wet hops are added at first wort, through the brewing process, and finally at conditioning through dry-hopping. Brau Brothers boasts Minnesota's largest hopyard, with eleven varieties spread out over the eastern acreage. Harvested only minutes before use, multiple hop varieties contribute a complex blend of hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma. Our unique soil and terrain produce unequaled hops and contribute to a one-of-a-kind ale. Notes of grass, herbs, and green tea are evident and are indicative of a truly authentic wet-hopped beer" (source).

MI Hops Now In Stock

• Organic Brewers Gold Leaf, $2.69/1oz
• Organic Cascade Leaf, $2.69/1oz
• Organic Nugget Leaf, $4.89/1oz
• Organic Brewers Gold Pellets, $3.59/2oz
• Organic Cascade Pellets, $3.59/2oz
• Organic Centennial Pellets, $5.69/2oz
• Organic Chinook Pellets, $4.89/2oz
• Organic Galena Pellets, $5.69/2oz
• Chinook Leaf, $1.79/1oz
• Magnum Leaf, $2.69/1oz
• Willamette Leaf, $1.79/1oz
• Brewers Gold Pellets, $3.99/2oz
• Cascade Pellets, $3.59/2oz
• Chinook Pellets, $3.99/2oz
• Crystal Pellets, $4.89/2oz
• Fuggle Pellets, $4.89/2oz
• Magnum Pellets, $4.89/2oz
• Willamette Pellets, $3.99/2oz

Picture of the Week

Behind the scenes at Siciliano's

Salud y amor y tiempo para disfrutarlo

Recipe: No-knead olive bread

File this in the category of special-occasion breads along with Red Cheddar Flake and Roasted Garlic No-Knead.

By Chris Siciliano

Few things in life go together so well as bread and olives. While some familiar combinations might be their equal--wine & cheese, beer & brats, Hall & Oates--there is little that outshines a crust of good bread and a few ripe kalamatas. Fact is, one of the best meals of my life consisted of little more than these two ingredients, a bit of cheese, and good company.

It makes perfect sense then that the addition of olives to the standard no-knead bread recipe would result in a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Of course, that's just my opinion. I suggest you test the hypothesis yourself. For the recipe, see below.

• 454g (1 lb) white flour
• 340g (12oz) water
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 9-12g (1.5-2 tsp) salt
• 5.75oz jar manzanilla olives, drained, sliced or chopped

Tips & Tricks

• To learn the no-knead method, click here. Or, watch these two short videos, here and here.
• I use manzanilla olives with pimentos because we usually have an unopened jar in the pantry for pizza and bloody marys. Any other olive will taste just as good, and maybe better. Double-check though that the olives are without pits. Nothing ruins a good meal faster than a mouthful of broken teeth.
• Remember, olives are salty. Depending on your tastes and diet, you might want to back off on the total amount of salt you add. Sometimes I back off by about half a teaspoon for a total of 1.5 tsps, that's 9 grams if you're measuring by weight. Then again, sometimes I just use the full amount of salt (2 tsp), blood pressure be damned. It's up to you the route you want to go. You can get away with 1 tsp or even a little less.
• Usually I start slicing the olives in meticulous and uniform fashion. Halfway through I grow impatient and begin chopping indiscriminately. I find this strategy suits me. Add the sliced/chopped olives directly to the dry ingredients before you add the water.

The lunacy of rare beer releases - A retailer's perspective

The high demand for limited-release beer means good sales, unique challenges for retailers.

By Steve Siciliano

Perhaps lunacy is too strong a word, but the recent release of Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout certainly had an unprecedented degree of madness associated with it.

The phone started ringing a half hour before we opened (we open at 8am) and the calls continued throughout the day. When would we be getting CBS? How much would we be getting? Would it be possible to reserve a bottle? Do we have any left? Any idea where to find more? When one early caller asked if our three cases had arrived yet I asked him how he could possibly know that we were getting three cases.

“I called the distributor,” he answered matter-of-factly.

Our store’s allocation, hand delivered by our harried Kent Beverage salesman, showed up about mid-morning. Three hours later it was gone.

I have varied emotions about these rare beer releases. On the one hand they’re a retailer’s dream—sell merchandise and reap profits almost before the ink dries on the check that was written to pay for it. And these rare beer releases certainly contribute to the over-all excitement surrounding craft beer. We are, after all, in the business to sell and promote craft beer, and whatever generates interest and keeps people talking can only be a good thing.

At the same time there’s an unsavory element simmering just beneath the surface of these releases. I have a feeling that there are people out there who took the day off from work or school to get their hands on as many bottles as they could—and not to have a cellar full of beer either, but for the express purpose of turning an extraordinary profit on the black market. On the same day CBS was released it began showing up on Ebay for $100.00 a bottle, more than five times what we sold it for at Siciliano's.

There’s not a good way for retailers to handle rare beer releases. We would love to see these beers end up in the hands of our regular customers and purchased by people who simply want to drink it. But how do you do that? For better or worse, our policy has been and will continue to be announcing the arrival of the shipments on our Facebook page and selling the bottles on a first-come, first-serve basis, with a certain bottle limit per customer. Unfortunately there are no easy answers.

It is my hope that as breweries like Founders expand their production the unsavory elements of these rare beer releases will be mitigated. Time will tell. I have a feeling, though, that we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the lunacy.

New Beer Friday - October 21 Edition

Cascades

This week we dedicate New Beer Friday to Michigan's emerging hop industry and to the Michigan Hop Alliance in particular. Because of all their hard work this fall, enthusiasts across the Mighty Mitten can enjoy their state in its purest, most aromatic form: wet-hopped harvest ales.

Doubtless many of you have have already sipped and supped on one or two of these fine brews, Founders Harvest Ale for example (which came and went in bottle form far too quickly). Today we're pleased to bring you two more in the category, Short's Kind Ale and New Holland Hopivore, write-ups for which you'll find below, alongside descriptions of the several other beers returning this week to Siciliano's shelves.

PS. For a wood time call Vivant. Better yet, just stop by the brewery this Saturday, Oct 22, for their first-ever wood-aged beer celebration.

New (and Returning) Beer

• Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout, $1.99/12oz - "Number one in a series of five stouts produced to help ease you through the cold and grey midwestern winters. This beer is full bodied with hints of chocolate, roasted barley, coffee flavors and a nice creamy head" (source).
• Dark Horse Perkulator Coffee Doppelbock, $1.99/12oz - "This is a true dopplebock and Dark Horse Brewing's only publicly distributed lager;" brewed with "fare trade organic coffee from...The Ugly Mug Cafe in Ypsilanti, MI" (source).
• New Holland Hopivore Michigan Wet-Hopped Harvest Ale, $2.39/12oz - "Michigan-grown hops are the story in this seasonal harvest ale. Hopivore is wet-hopped, with hops added to the brew just hours after harvest, creating rare, fresh flavors" (source).
• Short's Kind Ale, $1.99/12oz - "A seasonal beer made each fall to celebrate a successful growing season. True to tradition, [Short's] commemorates the earth’s agricultural environment by using freshly picked hops to 'wet hop' this brew. Straight from the fields on Old Mission Peninsula to the kettle, local hops impart a mellow earthiness to this ale that lead to moderate bitter tones and a subtle sweetness in the finish" (source).
• Victory Headwaters Pale Ale, $1.79/12oz - The Citra harvest is in and that means Victory is brewing Headwaters again, a beer the brewers call "crisp and aromatically arousing" (source).
• Unity Vibration Raspberry or Ginger Kombucha Beer, $3.59/12oz - Ya'll know what Kombucha is, right? Well, Unity Vibration takes it to the next level: "Our Kombucha Beer is something we never imagined we would be making--a wonderful evolution of our traditional Kombucha. 'Triple Goddess' is a marriage of our 30-day brewed Kombucha, organic dried hops and either organic raw ginger root or organic fresh Raspberries aged and open-air-fermented in oak barrels and then bottle conditioned. The combination creates exquisite flavors that have depth and complexity. Like our organic Kombucha, it is raw, all organic, gluten free, vegan and bottle conditioned and lends itself to healthy and beneficial bacteria" (source).

Picture of the Week

Nine gallons of Petite Syrah

Na zdravi!

History of my world, part wine

At the ripe old age of nine, Siciliano's perennial employee Sarah "The Cheetah" Derylo had her first-ever encounter with the art of winemaking. Here, in her first-ever blog post, she recounts the details of that fateful meeting. 

By Sarah Derylo

It’s hard to forget the first time I crept down the stairs of my great grandmother’s house and saw those musty old wine barrels. I had faked sick from school that day. Sacred Heart’s history lessons, although fascinating, could not fulfill my need for the personal timeline I was longing to discover. I knew my Grandma Boom-Boom could. Her stories and recounted memories allowed me to hear the “history” of me. Who I was, where and who I came from, why I was here. Every stomach ache was the promise of a new lesson in the subject of the past I didn't know.

I looked forward to the time I spent at the house on Butterworth Street where my great grandmother raised four children, more grandchildren and even more great-grandchildren. Later in life she proved to be a master gardener, chef, philosopher, soap-opera watcher, and most importantly to me, an expert storyteller. Little did I know that when my ma unloaded me that day onto the worn-out steps of her front porch I was going to receive an education in something I would carry with me into my adult life, something that would eventually become a passion of my own.

The morning was typical. I asked Grandma Boom-Boom to tell me the story of how she came to America, the boat she was on, her first sight of the Statue of Liberty, and if she was scared coming all the way from Italy as a little girl with no one but her younger brother. She patiently retold the stories as if it wasn't the hundredth time I had asked to hear them. I listened to her mini-dramas until lunch time, when we went to the kitchen to prep for my favorite dish: spaghetti. Most Italian Americans will tell you their grandparents made the best sauce on the planet and I am no exception. I began lining the uncooked pasta neatly on the table. Grandma Boom-Boom gathered her ingredients--garlic, onions, basil and so on--and then she asked me, "Sarah Beth, can you go in the basement and bring me up some tomatoes?"

I had never been in the basement but she assured me she would wait right at the top of the stairs. She opened the door and instructed me to the back wall where the jars of the previous summer's harvest were stored. I crept down the creaky steps just knowing that at any moment a monster would reach out and grab my ankle. Any seven- or eight-year-old that has been in a Michigan basement will tell you that some monsters are real and can absolutely smell the fear of a child. I looked back at Grandma Boom-Boom as if for the last time. She assured me she would not let anything come to get me. "I will go boom boom on that monster's head!" This was a promise given previously to my older brother through broken English, thus coining the name "Grandma Boom-Boom", and comforting me even now as I stood in the darkness of her basement. I continued on.

Soon enough, under the watchful eye of a single lightbulb, I saw the barrels. I stood for a moment mesmerized, overwhelmed by curiosity at what seemed like something from the middle ages. The wooden vats seemed giant to a nine-year-old; they towered over me, each with its own face lined with history and a different kind of wisdom. I ran to grab the jar of tomatoes and raced back up the steps.

“What were those?”

"Oh. Those are your great grandpa’s wine barrels”

“Grandpa made wine?”

“Oh yes, everyone did back then. How else could you get it?”

The lesson ensued. My great grandfather Enrico Fulvi became a winemaker during prohibition. In many cultures wine is an essential part of the meal and to Italians in particular it is an essential part of life. The law that took effect in 1919 almost seemed cruel to a population of immigrants who worked hard to better the lives of their families. In the final years of prohibition, Enrico's daughter Anita and her sisters as small children would peek out the front windows and watch for the cops during "production". They didn't view it as breaking the law, not exactly. It was a cultural right and simply a part of life. And since wild grapes were so abundant in Grand Rapids, Enrico perfected his craft and continued thousands of years of artistry. I realize now the wonderful responsibility I have, to pass down not only the stories of that time but also the craft and art of winemaking, borne of necessity, linking my generation to the countless generations that came before.

My Grandma Anita grew up and married another winemaker, Sam. Pressing grapes and sharing wine with him are some of my most precious memories. Our family doesn't have your typical family tree. Proudly, ours is a grapevine.

Bottling day with Grandpa Sam

Michigan's new keg tag law

If you have a keg at home, return it to your local retailer by November 1st, 2011 or else forfeit your $30.00 deposit.

By Steve Siciliano

Kafkaesque: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially: having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality (source).

I’m not sure about “nightmarishly complex” or “bizarre” but what I’m about to address certainly has a somewhat illogical quality to it. Last year the Michigan Legislature passed a law (Public Act 344) which requires that retailers attach an identification tag bearing a buyer’s signature to a keg and not refund the deposit if the keg is returned without the identification tag attached. The intended purpose of this law, which goes into effect November 1, 2011, is to give officials another tool to deal with underage consumption of alcohol—if police crash a keg party where minors are drinking, they will be able to, in theory anyway, identify the person who purchased the beer.

I don’t have a problem with the intent of the law nor do I have a problem with the additional paperwork that will go along with it. What I have a problem with--and this is the Kafkaesque part--is the fact that in two weeks retailers will be required to implement something that they may know nothing about.

I didn’t hear about Public Act 344 until I got a call from Chris Knape from the Grand Rapids Press last Friday.

“What are your thoughts about the new keg tag law?” Chris asked.

“What new keg tag law,” I answered.

My first thought was that I had somehow missed whatever communication it was that the Michigan Liquor Control Commission had sent out to retailers. However, Chris informed me that there was no such communication and that the MLCC is, according to their website, “working with industry groups, social media and news outlets to get the word out on these new requirements” (source).

Okay. As it turns out I was, in effect, informed of the keg tag law through the media. But what if I wasn’t? I’m sure I would have eventually found out through some other source. But wouldn’t it have been logical for the MLCC to send out some sort of mass communication directly to the retailers?

Obviously what we are dealing with here is our state’s poor economic health. Apparently there are no funds for a state agency, in this case the MLCC, to send out a mass mailing and there is no time for an overworked and depleted staff to send out emails. I guess I’ll just have to make a habit in the future of periodically going to the MLCC’s website. Better yet, I should probably make that website my home page.

So how is all this going to impact consumers? Well if you have an untagged keg in your possession you MUST return it before November 1st or else forfeit your $30.00 deposit. Again, according to the MLCC website: “This new requirement was passed and signed into law by Governor Jennifer Granholm, and the requirement says that kegs sold to customers on November 1 and after must have tags on them. In order to return a keg deposit to a customer that returns a keg without a tag, the keg must be returned before November 1, 2011. If you know you have customers who wait to return kegs until they need one, you may wish to notify them of this practice so as to avoid the unpleasant situation of not getting a deposit back” (source).

On second thought, this whole thing might end up having some nightmarishly complex qualities to it after all.

To read Chris Knape's Mlive.com article on Michigan's new keg tag law, please click here.