Designing labels

I met with Tomas Dahlgren, our graphics designer last night at the Green Lion Pub to discuss text and design for labels. He designed the labels you saw on the previous blog. Of course, all of these things are always changing, but right now we are planning to start with five ales and do a occasional lager that changes.



Tomas Dahlgren's Windmill

 Each bottle will be similar in design with the logo of the windmill and farm at the bottom of the bottle, next to it is alcohol volume and size, ex. 33cl, then on the top is a logo to represent each beer, the name of the beer and then I have to write a brief description/story about the beer. This is still a work in progress, but here's what I've come up with so far:

Bohemian Pilsner

This classic style of beer comes from Bohemia, once the crossroads of medieval Europe. A pale golden color, the distinctive flavor comes from the noble Saaz hops which gives it a pronounced floral boquet and a lingering rounded bitterness, with a dense, long lasting creamy white head. We salute Josef Groll for creating this golden lager in 1842.





Bohemian Coat of Arms from the 1912 Olympics

 



logo-something to represent Bohemia...perhaps the coat of arms like historic lion with crown banner

Black Sheep Porter

A dark & malty ale with characteristics of molasses & coffee, this ale was made famous in the 1700's by the workers who carried baggage to the ships in London and would bring a fresh pint to the sailors, hence the name 'Porter'.

logo- the black sheep

Post Colonial IPA

For beer warriors who accept the challenge,this highly hopped amber ale will assault your tastebuds on the very first sip, and persist in hoppiness to the bitter end. This style was made famous when the English ships transporting kegs of ale to the colony of India, the beer would always go sour. So they tripled the hops, raising the acidity, hence the name 'India Pale Ale'

logo- a english cutter ship or clipper

South Plains Pale Ale

Brewed in the style of California artisan Pale Ale, the color is darkish yellow to copper tinge, this is a moderately bitter ale and has a strong hoppy floral boquet, with hints of citrus and melon.

logo- a sachet of grains, or a raised hand holding the grains

TLB Golden Bitter

Rich in color of straw to light gold, this very bitter ale gets it's unusual flavor from a blend of the highly acidic 'Pacific Gem Hop' (15.1% alpha acids) and the mild Noble German hop, Spalter, giving this bitter a complex wood or oak flavor with hints of blackberries.

logo- something to imply clean like snow or waterfall, maybe the pond

Altbier

A copper colored, cool fermented, cold conditioned, clean tasting, with a mild hop presence, a firm creamy head, a medium body and a slightly sweet-dry finish. Alt means old, an allusion to the old style of brewing, in contrast to the new beer, the lager style which was invented in Bavaria in the 16th century, which is now the most popular brew in the world. Before that, Altbier was just 'bier'.

logo-something old, perhaps a monestary

Red Sky Marzen

This lager is the historic forerunner to the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich. A rich German malty aroma and flavor, but the finish is relativly dry. The color is a dark gold to orange and red hues. Our Marzen is cold conditioned for a minimum of 60 days, creating a smooth, clean and rather rich malty lager.

logo-red sunset?

Fridhem Gaard's Doppelbock

A extremley strong malty dark lager with a very low hop aroma and bitterness, the color ranges from medium to dark brown with ruby highlights. A bavarian speciality, there is evidence that it was first brewed illegally by the Paulaner monks on April 2nd, 1751, the names day of their patron saint, St. Francis of Paula.

logo- Monks?, big fat or ugly monks

Dutch Lager??(name)

I need a name for this one, it's kind of like a Grolsh or Heineken

 

Then on the back label we have 'My Story'...thats a tough one to write third person, but I'm working on it.Also I put a little on the quality control with this..

 

'A hand crafted ale, brewed in the tradition of the Reinheitsgebot, or German Beer Purity Law of  1487 in which we only use water, barley, hops & yeast and are completly organic and natural, free of any additives'

Then at the bottom of the bottle there is a batch number I fill in and a place I sign it...........approved by me.

 

Overall it was a good night with Tomas, he liked the things I had written and we talked about many possibilities. We talked about a great many thing, tasting different ales, surprised by how expensive they were...95 kr. (about$14) for a 33cl beer and wondering what I should price mine at. So now I'm struggling with labels & names & descriptions, Funny how life changes!

South Plains Organic Brewing Company

For those of you that don't know, I am in the midst of opening a micro-brewery. You may remember one year ago I posted a recipe for a English ale. Well my friend Anders Paulsson, who owns the Fridhem Gaard farm that the restaurant 'Three Lily Buds' is located, that I write so much about, thought my beer was absolutly fantastic, thought I should enter it in competitions and ultimately convinced me to open this brewery to sell to restaurants, bars, pubs, and the state run alcohol store, Systembolaget. We felt we had a niche by brewing organic since that is so popular here and there is almost no organic beer for sale here. Also there are so many Ecological/Organic restaurants here that can't find organic beers, at least not locally, so that means they have a carbon footprint which kind of defeats the whole purpose. So we started talking to the authorites last summer to determine what it would take to open and start selling & serving. A woman flew down from the Swedish Public Heath and we met, she had a great many questions and inside I expected to run up against a wall of bureaucracy, but to my complete surprise, she gave us her blessing. She had a list of things we needed to do, and we were able to complete that list and to make a long story short, we got final approval and can now (after we get all the tax regulations in order) brew beer in the restaurant, sell it on tap in the restaurant, and I can sell it to other places. Of course, I still have to order grains & hops..brew it...bottle it...so it may be some time until it actually happens, but at least I feel like were there! Where I can make the beer, Anders is connected and networked. He can make things happen while I would struggle with them. A example is the labels. He had a graphic designer named Tomas Dalgren create them, I think they are absolutly wonderful! To date I have made about 20 experimental batches, 15 of them excellent so we plan to open with six. That will be...

                           Bohemian Pilsner

                           Pale Ale

                           Golden Bitter

                           IPA

                           Altbier

                           Porter

   We plan on starting small and buying some larger equipment in the spring. At first we thought we would name it 'Paulson & Brown Organic Brewing Company' but now have thought to have it be 'South Plains Organic Brewing Company' and P&B will be one of several labels under it. The area we are in is called south plains (söderslätt in swedish). Thats my update on the microbrewery for now....chao!   

Photos by Alex Wayne from our opening night

            The Amuse Bouche was a caramelized fig, filled with a fresh fois gras terrine, drizzled with a port wine reduction.

            The Seared Yellowfin Tuna is quite colorful as it sits on the  root salad.

For the 'Carribe au Chocolat', I drizzled it with a mirror chocolate glaze and served it with candied fennel, a raspberry coulis and caramel decor.

The charming ambiance of 'Three Lily Buds', a restored Swedish farmhouse filled with South African art.

Exquisite artworks fill the restaurant, as you dine on a table made in a mosaic of broken ostrich shells.

I pull out every other bone on the rack to create a double lamb chop that stands up on the plate.

 

The Bleu d'Auvergne tart is a perfect marriage of the salty cheese, crunchy pear, tangy vinaigrette & baby greens.

The Black Truffle Custard was cooked in a eggshell and served in a egg cup with a potato-green onion chip.

 

 

The service, the wines, the menu, the ambiance, everything was perfect!

Three Lily Buds

On November 20th, 2010, we finally opened 'Three Lily Buds' as a regular restaurant.It was a very exciting evening and everything was perfect!I prepared a menu and as one guest told me it was 'beyond fantastic!' This menu went for 995 kr/$150 per person and we were fully booked!

Menu from our opening night

Apérifif

Amuse Bouche

Black Truffle Custard with Shallot Confit

Seared Yellowfin Tuna with a five peppercorn crust, Lemongrass Sauce

Medley of Shellfish in a Miso Consomme

Bleu d 'Auvergne Tart, Pear & Baby Greens

Sorbet

Irish Lamb Chop, Ratatouille, Pomme Dauphine Gratin

Chef's Selection of French Cheeses & Fruit

Carribe au Chocolat,

a Dark Chocolate-Ganache Mousse, Raspberry Coulis, Almond Genoise

Artisan Candies & Chocolates

Recipe: English Red Ale

               I have been brewing my own beers for about 20 years now. I brew every lind of beer you can think of, and many you could never imagine. For my first recipe, we're going to do a simple Ale. In Sweden I ordered my supplies from            http://www.humle.se/ 

The recipe goes as follows,

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f

100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

100 g/ 3.5oz Goldings hops

Wyeast #1099 Whitbread Ale Yeast

I'll walk you through the steps,

                           

Step 1-Mash

5 kilos/11 lbs cracked pale 2-row malt

1 kilo/2.2 lbs cracked crystal malt

12 liters/3.2 gallons water, heated to 75*c/167*f

               Take a ice chest and lay a 1 m/3 ft square pc of cheesecloth in it then put your grains in and add your heated water. Stir well and you want to stabilize your temp at 68-70'c/155-158*f. Close tight, lay a blanket over it and let set 1½ hours. During this process you will convert the malt starch to malt sugar.

Note* The range for converting malt is between 65-71*c/150-160*f. At 65*c/150*f you convert more fermentable sugars which give you a lighter beer, like a pilsner, and converting at 71*c/160*f you get more fermentable sugars and some unfermentable sugars which add to a slight sweetness and more body, like a amber-dark ale.

                            

Step 2-Sparge

               Take hold of the cheesecloth and slowly lift it up, letting all the sweet malty liquid drain off, this is called wort. Put something under the grainsack, a rack or a colander to support it while the grains drip. Take a syphon hose and siphon the wort into a large pot ( by large I mean 30 l/ 6 gal.)

*Note: I have seen some people take a old keg and cut the top off to use as a pot and boil it on a gas burner in the backyard.

Take a additional 10 l/2½ gal. water heated to 75*c/167*f and pour this onto the grainsack in the ice chest again to rinse off all the sugars. This process is called a sparge. Let set 5 minutes, stirring, and then siphon off the remaining wort.

Step 3-Boil

Bring all the wort to a boil and add: 100 g/ 3.5 oz Fuggles hops

                                                      60 g/ 2 oz goldings hops

Let this continue on a full boil for 1 hour.

Turn off the heat and..      then add: 30 g/ 1 oz. goldings hops

Let it set in a cool place for 1 hour to cool down. Keep it far away from any vinegar or fruit that could bring in a wild yeast and sour your beer.

Step 4-Fermentation

              Make a solution of 4 l/1 gal water with 4 tbsp household beach. From now on, rinse everything you use with this, and then with clean water, just to keep things sanitary. Siphon your wort, through a screen, into a 30 L/6 gal glass, plastic or ceramic container.
Note: For our recipe, our goal is to make 25 l/5 gal so add some water to bring it up to the right volume.
 Toss in your remaining 20 g/3/4 oz golding hops for a floral aroma. Pitch in Wyeast #1099, Whitbread Ale Yeast after the wort has cooled to at least 20-24*c/70-75*f. Cover with a top & clean towel or fit a rubber stopper with a 1/4 inch line that seals the vessel and goes to a small bucket of the water-bleach solution. As the beer ferments, the sugar will ferment to alcohol, releasing gasses, and if you have the rubber stopper it will continue to bubble until fermentation is complete. Fermentation at room temperature should take 4-6 days.

Step 5-Bottling

Siphon off the liquid through a screen and a cotton towel, being careful to leave the sediment behind.

Note: The sediment you leave behind is a active yeast culture and perfect to pour anther batch of wort on to start another batch. Or you can take a small amount in a jar and save it, up to a month in your refrigerater

Note: Some people use Irish moss or gelatine to clarify bthe beer, I leave it natural, it's a little cloudy in the beginning, but it will clarify after a few weeks, leaving a little sediment in the bottom. 

Take 1 cup brown sugar & 1 cup water, bring to a boil and cool. Mix this in your uncarbonated beer. Mix it very well and siphon into bottles and cap, being as clean as possible. I buy 1 liter bottles at Ikea with self locking swing top (Grolsch style). Let the bottle set in room temperature for 10 days before opening. The brown sugar will produce a secondary fermentation in the bottle but now the gasses can't escape, thus your beer is carbonated. Enjoy!

         

Backaskolan Christmas Buffet Menu

Nouveau Waldorf Salad with Apples, Walnuts & Gorgonzola

Nouveau Waldorf Sallad med Äpplen, Valnötter & Gorgonzola

Tiger Prawns, Baby Octopus, Crayfish marinated with Ginger & Lavender, Baby Greens

Tigerräkor, Bläckfisk, Kräftor marinerad med Ingefära & Lavendel med Fyra Olika Sallader

Coquilles St Jacques Florentine

Pilgrimsmusslor med Spinat Florentine

Cranberry-Pecan Chutney

Tranbär-Pecan Chutney

Lemon-Caper Sauce

Citron-Caper Sås

Millefeuille of Smoked Trout

Millefeuille av Rökt Forell

Slaney Farms, Fresh Irish Lamb Chops, Fresh Herbs

Slaney Farms, Färska Irländska Lammkotletter, Färska Örter

Thyme Roasted Potatoes with Feta, Turkish Olives, Cucumber & Olive Oil

Timjan Rostad Potatis med Fetaost,Turkiska Oliver, Gurka och Olivolja

Fresh Norwegian Salmon Filet, Oven Baked

Färsk Norsk Lax Filet, Ugnsbakat

Pappardelle Alfredo with Winter Vegetables

Pappardelle Alfredo med Vinter Grönsaker

Range Free Fresh French Turkey

Ekologisk Färsk Fransk Kalkon

Black Truffle Risotto

Svart Tryffel Risotto

Gateau Basque, (a rich cherry-rum filling with vanilla bean crust)

Gateau Basque (rik körsbär-rom fyllning med vaniljstång deg)

Autueil,
(white chocolate, star anise mousse, filled with raspberry jam, an almond genoise, cognac syrup)

Autueil,
(vit choklad-star anis mousse, fylld med hallonsylt, en mandel genoise, cognac sirap)