Taking a cue from Dogfish Head’s playbook, I have had this idea to create a series of beers that have are dedicated to, and themed after, musicians and bands that have been influential to me throughout my life. Each beer will be themed after a specific (one of my favorite) song(s) from the band. I started developing the first few recipes for the series (which will be brewed intermittently – probably around two or three releases per year) in the summer and fall, but just haven’t had the time and energy to put into these beers that are very meaningful to me. Well, the time finally came that I had the opportunity to the do the first installment (I guess more accurately, three installments).
Streetlight Manifesto, a Jersey based ska-punk band, is one of my favorite bands of all time. (Side note: in my opinion, they also have the best horn section for a modern ska band, aside from maybe the Mighty Mighty Bosstones - so if you’re into ska, check them out.) Their album Everything Goes Numb is certainly not your run-of-the-mill ska album, dealing with much more serious and heavy subject matter than your average light-hearted ska album. This album is also my favorite from the band, and one of my favorite overall albums of all time.
So why does Streetlight Manifesto get three volumes in the series? Well, one of my favorite songs from them, is actually two tracks – one a faster continuation of the first. “Moment of Silence” is a mellow, moody, slow paced track that transitions into the much faster, harder, and more energetic “Moment of Violence”. What’s the third beer for? Since the beers transition into each other, I decided to do a 50/50 blend the two beers.
Volume I: Moment of Silence
For the first track, I wanted to do something dark and rich to match the moody tone of “Moment of Silence”, so I went with a smoked porter – a style I have been wanting to do for quite some time. Rich malt character is definitely meant to be the main source of the character of this beer. This beer tastes somewhat akin to a slightly smoked dark chocolate, in liquid form – one of my favorite malt bills that I have brewed to date. Here’s the recipe:
Batch size: 5.2 gal
Boil volume: 3.5 gal
OG: 1.069
FG: 1.017
Bitterness (IBU): 35.8
Color (SRM): 34.9
ABV: 6.8%
[Grains]
NB Gold LME 6.000lb Extract 50.0%
Smoked Malt 2.000lb Grain 16.7%
Maris Otter Malt 2.000lb Grain 16.7%
Chocolate Malt (US) 1.000lb Grain 8.3%
Crystal 120L 1.000lb Grain 8.3%
[Hops]
Calypso 1.00oz 12.0% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 24.3 IBU
Willamette 1.00oz 4.5% AA Pellet @ 30 min, 7.0 IBU
Willamette 1.00oz 4.5% AA Pellet @ 15 min, 4.5 IBU
[Yeast/Other]
Irish Moss 1.0 unit(s), Fining 1 tsp at 15 min
English Ale yeast (White Labs 002) 1.0 unit(s), Yeast
Volume II: Moment of Violence
The first drum line in the song quickly morphs the more mellow “Moment of Silence” into the fast, energetic track “Moment of Violence”, taking the same musical patterns and speeding them up substantially into a heavy punk-ska beat. For this one, I wanted a bright, somewhat bitter, very hoppy ale. I decided to do a hop-bursted American Pale Ale with lots of Amarillo and Cascade hops. Hop-bursting is a technique where a substantial amount of the bitterness comes from late additions of hops, rather than the traditional large bittering charge in the beginning of the boil. The result is that you get heavier amounts of hop flavor and aroma for the same amount of bitterness. You also use a whole lot more hops in the process. So far, this one seems to be about what I expected – a tasty pale ale with lots of hop flavor and aroma, without being overpoweringly bitter. The bottles aren’t fully carbonated and conditioned yet, so I am guessing the hop aroma will increase a bit as the carbonation goes up. Here’s the recipe:
Batch size: 5.2 gal
Boil volume: 3.5 gal
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
Bitterness (IBU): 49.4
Color (SRM): 8.9
ABV: 6.4%
[Grains]
NB Gold LME 6.000lb Extract 54.5%
Two-row (US) 4.000lb Grain 36.4%
Crystal 40L 1.000lb Grain 9.1%
[Hops]
Cluster 1.00oz 7.7% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 16.4 IBU
Cascade 1.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ 15 min, 7.0 IBU
Amarillo 1.00oz 8.0% AA Pellet @ 15 min, 8.5 IBU
Amarillo 1.00oz 8.0% AA Pellet @ 10 min, 6.2 IBU
Cascade 1.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ 10 min, 5.1 IBU
Cascade 1.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ 5 min, 2.8 IBU
Amarillo 1.00oz 8.0% AA Pellet @ 5 min, 3.4 IBU
Cascade 1.00oz 6.6% AA Pellet @ 0 min, 0.0 IBU
Amarillo 1.00oz 8.0% AA Pellet @ 0 min, 0.0 IBU
[Yeast/Other]
Irish Moss 1.0 unit(s), Fining 1 tsp at 15 min
American Ale yeast (White Labs 001 yeast cake from my latest batch of Ruination) 1.0 unit(s), Yeast
Volume III: Moment of Silence / Moment of Violence Blend
After both beers went through their primary fermentation, I racked half of each beer into the same carboy and let the beers play with each other for a couple weeks before bottling. The result so far is a nice, complex beer with smoky chocolate notes, with a nice hop character. The smoked porter seems to be the slightly more dominant of the two beers, but overall, this beer came out like a delicious, pre-blended black and tan. I am very interested to see how this bad boy turns out when it is fully carbonated and conditioned.
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| Left to right: Moment of Violence, Moment of Silence / Moment of Violence Blend, and Moment of Silence. |
This project was probably my most ambitious project to date, and one of the most fun! Most of the future installments of my Liquid Music series, will most likely be individual beers, but this project was definitely a fun way to kick of the series. It is still a little early to completely judge these beers, but so far, so good. I can’t wait until they are fully conditioned!
Alright folks, less typing, more brewing. Cheers!
Song of the Day: “Point/Counterpoint” by Streetlight Manifesto
Beer of the Day: Fire Rock Pale from Kona Brewing Co.
