Brewing Beer on the Ranch

Well, the frost is on the pumpkin and the hay is in the barn ...and the Yanq now longs to ramble along, stumbling 'round drunk down on the farm.

After the historically hot summer, agrarian work is ending and temps have cooled to beer brewing temperatures ...and I aims to make the most of it.

It is rustic, I must say ...but since beer has been brewed cheerfully for about 4000 years in all weathers and conditions, I think that we'll be able to churn-out a brew acceptable to any working man or woman.  I do believe my brewhouse could use a good old-fashioned scrub-down, however.  I'll get to it.

This time out, I'll be giving a couple of relatively new methods a try ...both, strangely enough, originating on this South Side of the Planet.  Australia, specifically.

First, in order of battle, is the BIAB (brew in a bag) method ...and many thanks to the world-wide community devoted to exploring this time and work-saving method, not the least of whom are the BIAB facebook group.

Those of you who know how to take malted barley grains and turn it into beer won't fail to appreciate how this method simplifies the process ...athough it is still new enough to engender controversy.  Those of you who have no idea how yer cold one gets from feed-sack to frosty glass will just have to trust that there is something new and magical.

And time and effort saving!  Yea!  This new method saves hours and days and has been producing award-winning beers.  Those savings free the mind from drudgery towards more creativity ...and making more beer!

Another VERY Australian method, is to cool the pre-fermented beer in a food-grade jerry-can instead of using a radiator of cold water or dunking in ice ...more inside baseball, I know, but another antipodal and extraordinary innovation for folks that like to make beer for themselves.  "Oztrayan as a shit sammich," an Aussie friend once described it to me ...and perfectly suited to our lack of serious refrigeration on our un-electrified ranch.

Why make beer for yourself?  Good question, if I do say so myself.  Well, it's better ...and it can be tailored to your preferences ...it dovetails so very nicely into self-sufficiency ...and can be cheaper, although beer is about the last cheap thing here in the Argentine peso economy.  As a dirt-ranchin' resident deep in the recesses of the mighty Pampas, I can also tell you that it saves me a rediculously wasteful trip into town ...when all I need is a few cold ones.

Another good reason to brew beer in Argentina is: this is not a great beer drinking country.  Things have changed substantially over the past 10 years but, the general rule is still, "if it's good, it's hard to find and expensive ...and if it's easy to find and affordable, it's not very good."  Making your own beer changes all of that ...and could save you a 25km dirt road trip into town for a Quilmes.

But here's another REALLY good reason to brew beer in Argentina: great barley and barley malt ...and we owe it all to one man and his sons:

Otto Bemberg

The Bembergs systematically made Argentina into the beer barley powerhouse that it is today.  Other than the cultural preference for wine and a general prejudice against public drunkeness ...there is no substantive reason for Argentina not being a beer powerhouse, as well.

If you've read this far, I'll give you the recipe for what got into my fermenter right now:

I started with a 50 liter kettle of 41 liters of water (10.83 US gallons) heated to 72°C/160°F

Then dumped into it a mesh bag containing:
4.66 kilos of pale malt (10.27 lbs)
2.68 kilos of pilsner malt (5.91 lbs)
0.66 kilos of melanoidin malt (1.46 lbs)

Mashed at 66°C - 67°C (152°F - 154°F) for 90 minutes

Boiled for 90 minutes,
adding 15 grams of Cascade at 60 minutes,
adding 15 grams of Goldings at 45 minutes,
adding 5 grams of Cascade at 15 minutes,
adding 5 grams of Goldings at flame out.

Adding 1 whirlfloc tablet at 5 minutes.

Yielding: about 29 liters (7.66 US gals) of extract.

No chill 14.5 liters each in two 20 liter (5.28 US gals) cubes.

Fermenting each 14.5 liter (3.83 US gallons) batch in 20 liter (5.28 US gals) plastic buckets with airlocks using 1½ packets of dry SAF-05 each.

Too much inside baseball, once again.  However, if you know how to brew, it's informative ...and if you are interested in brewing, even in tight city situations, there might be a few cues for you within the recipe as you find your way through your first few batches.  This method has allowed people in cramped urban situations to brew batches as small as one-gallon.

The frost on my pumpkins is both a blessing and a curse, however.  Not only do I lack modern refrigeration, I lack central heating back at the ranch. Chilly temps are good and preferable for fermenting beer ...but they extend the time necessary to bring grain to glass.

I'll update you in about 3 weeks and ...if you care to venture to Barrio Retiro, I'll do my best to serve you a glass and take notes from your critique.

Na Zdrowie,
Mike

Back to Paradise (garden update)

Finally, the weather is back to what I have called normal for the last 10 years.  What a (insert your favorite profane term here) relief.

I can make excuses as good or better than anyone ...but my main and only excuse for not blogging over the past few months is the weather.

I know that you folks up north still shaking-off (or still shaking FROM) the polar vortex and Mega-Storm Pax, etc. don't wanna hear about record heat waves ...but that's what we've been having down here while youse guys have been making all the news.

Argentina broke a 40 year record for heat this summer.  Brazil is getting pounded with both drought and heat ...when the Amazon is dry, you know it's dry.

I always say that I come from a place (Chicago) that has the worst weather of anywhere in the world that has all 4 seasons ...and that I now live in a place that has the best weather of anywhere that has all four seasons.

But this year has been different, shall we say.

Most of my friends and relatives think (or thought) that living here meant living in a jungle ...monkeys, toucans, the works.  When they heard that the temperature here never gets to 100ºF and rarely hits freezing, almost everyone started to adjust their mental picture of my chosen land.  I really got to brag a lot about how sweet the weather was.

WAS.  I hope it's not permanent but this year was scary to both me and my wife who has lived here most of her life.

It always gets to almost 100ºF (38ºC) in the big city but in out in the country it almost never does.  Heat waves have always been easier to handle in the campo for lots of reasons: it cools down at night better than Capital and there is very little to obtruct breezes coming across the pampas.

This year, however, it was just as hot in the countryside as in Buenos Aires.  Brutal.

Our big old ranch house, with its big ol' thick walls, did all it could to keep the overnight cool throughout the day.

The poor ol' ranch house could not keep-up this year.

We closed all the doors and windows and shutters at the first sign of warmth in the morning ...and just hibernated for weeks.

Refreshing cold showers that we actually look forward to each summer ...could not cut the mustard.  We sat in the dark (or as dark as possible!) and read by kindle or napped or just plain stewed in our own juices.

Siesta expanded from 2 or 3 hours every mid-day to 5 or 6 hours.  In order to work, you had to get up before dawn, wait for enough daylight to see what you were doing, and start to quit about 10:30 ...or risk your health and/or the health of your horse.  Thank the good lord that we did not lose any cattle from the heat ...we heard some bad stories about neighboring ranches.

It was like being sick in bed for weeks ...except that we weren't sick!

That came later.

After all that "enforced bed rest" and brutal temps, my dear missus and I felt cooked.  We're just now starting for feel better.  At least for me, that kinda prolonged heat makes me feel like my guts are cooked.  Plus, some of the most active weeks/months of the year became the most inactive!  My winter waistline did not contract this summer!

We don't know how the people in the big city of Buenos Aires survived this year ...especially with all the inevitable power outages for many neighborhoods.

I think we've only started to feel better within the past few days.

We got a break about the 1st of February ...but it came with a pounding!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryhR3kcGEMY&feature=youtu.be)

The big heat wave, however, was GREAT for our garden's melons!

These melons are of two great open-pollenated varieties: Petit Gris de Rennes and Charantais.

Smallish French melons that are famous for their melony perfume and intense flavor.

My Missus and I had a hard time deciding which melons were the more delicious.  As expected, we disagreed ...at least a little.

I found the Petit Gris to be a little more refreshing and juicy ...but, still, the second-best melon I've ever tasted.

The BEST melon I've ever tasted has to be the Charantais.  It wasn't an easy decision.

In the end, my criterion was, "which melon would you garnish a glass of champagne with?"

Charantais ...at least from this year's crop.

The flavor was as intense as a garden-ripe strawberry.

It was a tough call, though.

They even survived the hail without too much damage!

Lots of big beautiful green leafy plants got machine-gunned by the hail, tho.

It's still a little bit too early for reviews on the pelted tomato plants...

...but the very first examples of our "Paul Robesons" are exciting!

Along with the classic Brandywine and Tennessee Green, I wanted to plant the Black Krim tomatoes again this year ...but, sadly, the seeds weren't available ...so I went with the Paul Robeson as a second choice.

 It turns out that, among the cognoscenti, the Paul Robeson is considered maybe the most delicious in the world!  Who knew?

The melons are all gone ...we ate them all and adored them!  Of course, we saved seeds for all of you in Argentina, where heirloom garden seeds are difficult to find.

The watermelons are still ripening, however ...and we have a few Moon & Stars which are incredible.

Chicago - Buenos Aires Connection

During the past holidays, My Missus and I spelled our gauchos so they could spend time with their families.  That meant that we would have to assume a few of their duties ...one of which was to ride the range and ensure that all the cowies had lots of water to drink during the worst heat wave in 40 years.

While making our rounds, I grabbed the binoculars and looked up at one of our OLD Aermotor windmills to read some 100 year old lettering on the vane (the flag-like tail of the beast.)

It said, "AGAR, CROSS & CO., LTD."

I thought that was kinda weird because on the other side I knew that it said "The Aermotor Co., Chicago."  So I punched "agar cross" into my smartphone.  As there was no internet in that section, I left it until we got back to el casco (the ranch house.)

Once I got my connectivity juju back, I read an astonishing story about my Chicago windmills and how they got to Argentina ...and how they got BACK to the good ol' USofA.

"Honey, have you ever heard of Agar, Cross & Co.?"

"O!  Por supuesto!  Agar Cross!  It was the deluxe provider of any kind of agricultural machinery.  I remember it from when I was a kid with my mom."

"Well, listen to this," and I began to read from the results of my Google search.

"In 1892, only four years after the establishment of the Aermotor Company in Chicago, the American Firm had begun exporting its products to Argentina, one of the largest windmill makers in the world. In that year, the Aermotor firm signed an agreement with Agar, Cross and Company of Buenos Aires to become exclusive agents in the South American country for the sale of the Chicago made mills. Founded in 1884, Agar, Cross and Company became one of the most important distributors of farm and ranch equipment in Argentina, a distinction which it held for many years.

During the peak of export trade, one to three railway car loads of Aermotor windmills left the Chicago factory each week bound for Argentina."

Wow.  This was great stuff on a number of levels.

One, all of this was occurring at a time when the US and Argentina were roughly considered equal economic power houses.

Two, this was a time in which the US domestic market was so huge that there weren't a lot of technological exports (strange to think of windmills as high-tech ...but they were then!)

Three, the British during this time agressively dominated South American trade and yanqui salesmen here in Argentina were derided for their "take it or leave it" attitude toward customers.  The Brits were much more established and more culturally sensitive to the market.

Aparently though, in the case of Chicago windmills, the US tech could not be beat at that time.

Also at that time, Argentina was a British colony in everything but name.  Agar, Cross & Co. were basically a company of Brits and famous for selling their empire's manufactures all over the world but especially in Argentina.  Their headquarters here was awsome...

...and still is:

Even as late as 1964, the Glasgow Herald was complimenting them on their merchandising efforts deep in the Argentine:

Knowing a little bit about the commercial climate of the early 20th century here, I could imagine that an established British retailer in Argentina with unequaled yanqui techno could be a match made in heaven.

Little did I know how right I was.

From their spacious building on Paseo Colon in downtown Buenos Aires, Agar, Cross & Co. Ltd. sold the shit out of the Chicago windmills.  They dot the landscape here to this day.

In fact, once Aermotor Co. had saturated the North American market...

"In 1958, the turned over their licensed manufacture to another firm, Metalurgica Tandil S.A., and the mills were sold under several trade names. Tandil made the mills until its acquisition by Fiat, the Italian auto maker, in 1962, and then Fiat sold the entire windmill manufacturing facility to yet another firm, Fabrica de Implementos Agricolas S.A. (FIASA)."

...and you can buy the original Model 702 to this day ...from FIASA ...even in the US.

Yep.  The original Model 702 is still selling strong in the US (if windmills can be considered strong sellers) and in Argentina.

In fact, although Aermotor Co. morphed it's way from Chicago to Broken Arrow OK, to Conway, AR, to San Angelo, TX ...and eventually developed a Model 802 which is made in the US ...you can still buy both models in the US.  The "original" comes from Argentina, that's all.

 Also a fact, Aermotor AND Fiasa are the last manufacturers of windmills in the New World.

Wow.  Chicago to Buenos Aires and back again ...over 100 years later.

Although they seem to work forever, my molinero (windmill expert) tells me that mine are all so worn-out that I shouldn't allow anyone to touch them.  "They could work for another 100 years or they could breakdown tomorrow," he says.

If money was no object, I think it would be cool to bring an 802 from The States, in that case.

But what's really cool is that I can get an "original" right here.

The Week that Was

Today begins our second week at the ranch and, man, whadda week ...especially as concerns La Quinta (the garden.)  I'm not sure how all of you will feel about a gardening blog just as autumn is settling upon the Northern Hemisphere, but it crunch time here for getting everything into place for the "last frost date" of November 1st.

Gardeners, both active and wannabe, should dig it, I think.  Maybe you missed your chance to garden this year ...or maybe you were so wonderfully successful that the autumn colors are giving you the blues right now.  Then again, your garden may have failed miserably and these posts could have you cheering me on ...or laughing hysterically at my doomed attempts and wasted efforts.

See!  Something for everybody!

The ranching goes on, of course, and this is actually a very busy part of the year for that.  Our gaucho Cristian and I and both of our wives are on 24 hour call as 400 mommy cows give birth all over our spread.  Usually, there is nothing more to that than watching the miracle of birth and oooohing and awwwing at the baby animals.

Occasionally, however, a first-time mommy will have trouble and need assistance.  Sometimes a newborn will be rejected by the mother and we'll all be in for a shift of bottle feeding if we can't find another mother to take him in (rare, but it happens!)  There are as well, caesarian sections that must be performed by our vet ...and he tells me that for some strange reason he has never performed so many as he has this year.

There is also general maintenance and improvements that pop-up and must be performed right away ...but mostly, this time of year is for gardening and helping mommies give birth.

As gauchos generally loathe gardening (Cristian has already referred to my works as "prison labor,") my time will be devoted more to the garden.

And what a monster.  Inside a beautifully constructed Argentine cattle fence, is a plantable area of 45 x 78 feet. About half was under cultivation last year ...and we did pretty well with okra and greens and eeespecially tomatoes!  The other stuff ...not so much.  Weeds and bugs and neglect on our part when we were called away to Buenos Aires City for a couple of prolonged periods.

So this year, we're taking what we learned, stuff that I've read about, and trying to get a jump on spring so as to have a longer growing season.

I even invented a thing or two that you may enjoy.

Long days of lots of work are putting a crimp in my blogging ...but it's spring, after all, and rainy days like today will allow me to put my new communications rig through its paces.  I'll probably write a little about that, too.  It's a little on the laughable side ...but as you can see, it makes possible blogging from the old ranch house with no electricity and no internet!

More to come,
Mike

Doc Hatfield has died

Doc Hatfield, who co-founded a ranching cooperative in Brothers in 1986 that helped create the natural-beef market, died Tuesday night at his family's loft in Sisters. He was 74.
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