Brewing, Thoughts, and other rubbish...

IBU Madness!

2012-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

I've done it! I've reached unthinkable heights in bitterness! At least that's what the calculations tell me.

Just made a massive IPA. I'm not gonna call it an imperial, or a double, or triple, or even quad. I'm thinking Hyper IPA would be an appropriate name. People who talk to me on a regular basis wouldn't be surprised. They know I love the word "hyper". Nobody uses it, that's why. Anyways, I wanted to make something that would knock even my own socks off. So, I calculated what I would need to do to reach 140ish IBU, then I multiplied that by 0.85 (my own accomodation for what I believe to be overzealous calculations) and came up with 120ish IBU in the recipe I was designing. The only thing is, once I actually bought the hops, they had a higher reported alpha acid content than I had planned on. Oh well, just go with it, I thought. So I went with it, and reached, according to Palmer (who I believe uses Tinseth) 153.77 IBU. Multiply that by my magical 0.85, and you get 130.7 IBU. Not too shabby, I'd say. On to the recipe:

11 lbs pale 2-row
1.0 lb C20
0.5 lb munich

3 oz Columbus @ 60 min (14.4% aa)
0.95 oz Centennial @ 45 min (8.7% aa)
0.20 oz Summit @ 45 min (16.7% aa)
1 oz Amarillo @15 min (10.3% aa)

OG 1.060
WLP-001 California Ale Yeast

If you're wondering about the summit addition, it's because the 1 oz pack of Centennial I bought wasn't actually 1 oz. And, on a whim, I decided to add more than I needed to make up for it. Tasting it now, from my hydrometer test jar, it's barely got a hint of sweet caramel malt, and an already tongue-scraping bitterness.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna dry hop in the keg with two more ounces of Centennial. Boom.

Cheers, everyone, and happy beering.

Shameless Plug!

2012-01-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Because shame is for losers! If any of you out there are interested, I've got a separate blog going about liquor and such. The focus: experimentation and home-made ingredients. Give it a try, subscribe if you like it. You can find it at alchemyandalcohol.blogspot.com

And don't worry, I'm still actively brewing. Updates to come soon, I think.

Cheers

Return!

2011-09-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

I have returned to brewing! Actually, about two weeks ago I returned to brewing. Just moved a pale ale into the fridge for some cold crashing before kegging. I realized, when planning this batch, that in more than five years of brewing I've never done a standard pale ale. I went from ambers to porters and stouts, with various lager attempts like California commons and maibocks, straight into the world of IPAs. No pale. No need, really, since hop bombs were what I was going for. Now, having become a little tired of high alcohol IPAs, and doubles/imperials, I've made a pale that's sitting right around 5.5%abv, with just about 67 IBU's. A little high for a pale, but hey, I like hops. The real point was to get something that I could drink a few of without getting drunk.

On a separate note, I'm sick of Black IPAs! Seriously, they aren't that interesting. You could make the argument that the astringency of the dark malts would help accentuate the hop character. I would counter and say the astringency serves to accentuate...nothing but itself. Great experiment, glad everyone gave it a try, but lets move on to something else. Something that doesn't have a roasty flavor, sometimes bordering on acrid, as a substitute for making a solid IPA.

For those who might be interested, the recipe for the pale was as follows:

7 lbs (3.18kg) Pale 2 row
1/2 lb (227g) C20
1/4 lb (113g) Munich

1.25 oz Summit @ 60 min
1.0 oz Crystal @ 10 min
.25 oz Summit @ 10 min

WLP-001 California Ale Yeast
OG 1.047
FG 1.006 (might have finished a bit drier than expected due to high fermentation temps)

In case you were trying to do the math in your head, that's roughly an 82% efficiency of extraction during the mash and lauter. Not bad on a homebrewing scale.

Oh, and one last thing. Found a guy who will do a free acid analysis for my mystery hops, so I can better utilize them for hopping. The only drawback is the sample size he needs is roughly half my crop, which wouldn't leave me enough to do a whole batch.

Cheers, and happy beering.

HIATUS!

2011-07-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

Everything is on hiatus. I'd like to brew for an upcoming trip to a festival, Hops in Humbholdt, but moving to a new house, or apartment, or my car seat, has that idea on hold for now. Dammit! I'd really like to do a double IPA like I planned for this fest, but current situations may not permit it. Oh well. A temporary stay at the parents' house will give me a chance to brew a beer for fun, and a new apartment, once found, will give me all the room I need to brew whatever the hell I want, when I want. Only stipulations: garage, below the unit, or attached to. And no stupid regualtions against gas burners. Stupid cheap-ass apartment managers not wanting to pay fire insurance. Go to hell.

On another note, Green Flash West Coast IPA is officially one of my all-time favorite IPAs. Dank, wet hops, with just a tinge of malt in the background. Not terribly expensive, but at roughly $8 per 4-pack, it's enough to make me stick with one per night.

All in all, things can only get better from here. More brewing, more fixing and tinkering with things. More freedom.

The time is, Rye-p?

2011-01-18T22:40:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist the terrible pun. But I won't apologize, either. I'm taking a breather from the brewery idea. Time to regroup. I put all my eggs in one basket, mentally, that it is, and that basket never really materialized. No worries. Learning is necessary.

On to the main point. Next brew is gonna be a Rye IPA. I've been on a bit of a bourbon kick recently, having tried some bourbons with high rye content, as well as having a delicious Rye Double IPA, namely Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA. Life changing, and the hebrew in me loves me some spiciness. So, without further rambling, the RIPA recipe:

8.5 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lb Munich
0.5 lb C20 (or similar)
1 lb Rye malt
0.5 lb Cane sugar

2.5 oz Columbus or Northern Brewer @ 60min
0.5 oz Cascade @45
1.5 oz Cascade @15
1.0 oz Citra or Amarillo (or split) @ 5min
1.0 oz Dry hop Cascade + Amarillo or Citra mix

WLP-001 California Ale Yeast

Target 1.070 OG, target 1.012 FG, 7 %abv, ish.

Cane sugar is to dry out the beer, not necessarily to add alcohol. I actually removed some pale malt to accomodate the sugar without increasing alcohol.

Revitalization my ass!

2010-12-10T16:42:00.000-08:00

Congratulations, Downtown Revitalization Committee, you've done it again. What have you done? Well, you've given a fairly sure impression that you are actually working to revitalize downtown Fresno (my current residence, in California). However, the case is not so. Prohibitive rents and lack of usable space will leave downtown wanting and barren. Why? Because every space is an office! How many independent consulting services can we really need? Every space that is not an office is a retail outlet! People only have so much money to spend. How about: 1)Subsidizing rent for businesses, especially emerging ones, 2)Encouraging development of spaces that could be used for purposes other than offices, like, maybe a brewery! Seriously, how am I supposed to bring my business downtown if I can't even afford the rent to live near a workplace. Forget the fact that I would have to make initial and ongoing investments to keep up a business; I need a place to sleep, first. I have no problem fitting a very small capacity brewery into a small space, I'm only 5'7" and lean, after all. But getting a permit to brew, not to mention proper sewage and disposal facilities, in the midst of a bunch of suits and cellphones, will not just be next to impossible, it'll be almost overlapping impossible.

I'm glad that developers are putting some effort into making downtown nice again, but their heads aren't in the right places. They still need grocers, restaurants, and better breweries. There is only one brewery that actually is downtown, the other is slightly north, and the former has very mixed reviews, mostly of the bad kind. How about a theater, too? I mean, like a regular movie theater, not a performing arts theater.

In case you couldn't guess from the previous two paragraphs of rant, I'm looking into starting a brewery. Most likely, it would be of "nano" capacity, but I don't mind starting small. However, it's extremely disappointing to find that the downtown revitalization effort has little to no bite. It's all bark. My dad told me they've been trying to revitalize that place for the past 30 some-odd years.

On another note, tasted the brew club's coffee porter just before bottling. Once it conditions, it's gonna be real nice.

Newscastle Summer Ale, and a bombardment of Torpedoes

2010-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Tried Newcastle Summer Ale last night. Not bad, and I'm glad Newcastle finally put something in a brown bottle, not one of those light-inflicted clear ones. Honestly, can't really say I'd buy it again, except that it was 4.99 for the six pack. Refreshing, light bodied, almost a citrus zest quality to it. Basically, everything you'd expect from a summer ale, but still with a weird hint of their standard brown in there. Maybe it has something to do with the malt, or the yeast strain.

After the Newcastle, moved on to a few Sierra Nevada Torpedoes. For a long time I've been saying they are my go-to IPA, and they still are, but you gotta be real careful with them. Dangerously delicious, at 7% abv they can sneak up on you. Oh well, I think without a few of these the new Clash of the Titans may not have been as bearable.

Next on the table, brewing club-brewed coffee porter (my recipe), and maybe I'll finally get off my ass and brew something for myself!

Citralicious

2010-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Citra hops are my new favorite. What flavors and aromas did I get from the IPA I just tapped? Well, the list goes something like: Pineapple, mango, lychee, citrus (lemon and orange). Yep. It's very nice, honestly. Not quite what I was going for, but I learned some things along the way.

The good: Great aroma, very fresh/wet hoppy in flavor. Light-med body, very drinkable.

The bad: Not as dry as I was going for. Not as bitter as I was going for. A lot of perceived hoppiness due to generous dry hopping, but bitterness in the taste is not as high as I would like. I think I need a different calculation for estimating IBUs.

It's all about learning, anyway. Now I know. If I could only change one thing I would add another hal ounce of bittering hops. Next one I brew is gonna kill.

Cheers

America is the Berst

2010-10-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yep, berst. I meant best, but decided I liked how it sounded. Why is America the Berst? Because we know how to use, and sometimes lovingly and tastily abuse, hops. Some might say my palate has been indoctrinated. To them I say, at least they did it deliciously.

So what's the occasion? Well, glad you asked. My IPA is cold crashing right now, soon to be kegged and carbed, then tapped. Calculations say it should be in the vicinity of 90 IBU, and with plenty of Citra hops and generous dry hopping it should be a hop bomb of delicious proportions. Excited, I sure am.

Cheers, beery siblings, and good luck finding the Great Pumpkin.

P.S. If you want to read some interesting stuff, check out a separate, and unrelated, post I've started. Just a warning: most people probably won't understand. If you do, then subscribe, comment, or just enjoy.

Boring, boring, boring

2010-07-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

Everything is boring. I'm a hop-head, and almost every "IPA" I try is boring. Not hoppy. Maybe a hint of bitterness, maybe even 70-80 something IBU's, but way too much malt to balance it. Come on! This isn't England brewing for Imperial India, this is the West Coast brewing for...their own taste buds. And I am disappointed. What happened to aggressively hopped beers? Did you all get too old to recognize that you still love those things that push the boundaries? I haven't. That's why my new IPA recipe, if it doesn't change, is as follows:

10 lbs 2 row pale
1.0 lb Munich
0.5 lb Crystal 20

1.10 oz Columbus @60
0.5 oz Centennial @45
1.5 oz Centennial @15
1.0 or 1.5 oz Citra @5
0.5 oz Centennial dry-hopped
0.5 oz Citra dry-hopped

Beer Alchemy predicts a OG of 1.060 and FG 1.014 with ABV 6.2%, and 107 IBU.

I think that's hoppy enough. Screw balance.

The World is MY apple

2010-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe not. But it almost feels like it. I was called by a classmate of mine last night. His name is Chris. He heads up the Enology Society at California State University, Fresno. According to Chris, there is sufficient interest to start a Brewing Club. Guess who he called first to head the brewing club? Damn Straight! Me! To be honest, I was caught off guard. Up until now there has only been a muddled, beaten down, inexplicably hopeful interest in a brewing club. And thanks to Chris, it may happen. I am now in the process of brainstorming with a personally nominated co-head as to what exactly we will do. And, to top things off, Tioga-Sequioa Brewing Company, formerly just Sequioa, is willing to work with us and potentially let us USE THEIR EQUIPMENT! Seriously. Professional brewery. That thing I want to own/run some day. Me. Pressing buttons, boiling stuff. Making stuff. With super awesome equipment. If I weren't so skeptical of everything, I'd probably crap my pants. Just got to work out the details. It's a good thing I didn't quit school just yet.

Other than that, some other friends from school liked my Maibock (take that, Germany!) and I like Port Brewing's Wipeout IPA.

Cheers, and don't give up, friends.

Money grubbing bastards!

2010-05-29T23:43:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what kind of ass puts on a beer event with unlimited pours? They must just be trying to steal my money, because, wait...unlimited pours? Oh. Well...

Let's just say I'm glad I went to Sudz in the City, Fresno's only beer event (at least that I know of). As with limited pour events, I suspected it of being all about making money and very little to do with beer. I was very, very skeptical. As my sister told me, last year the entrance fee garnered eight tickets, and that's all. None available for purchase after that. Eight pours. At least twenty brewers. Eight pours. Are you kidding? I was so reluctant I almost didn't go. But this year they changed to unlimited pours, and had at least thirty brewers signed up. I'd say twenty showed up, but hey, thirty confirmed isn't half bad. And the music was worth is. Motel Drive, a favorite of ours, kicked off the event, and we celebrated with some OK beers after that.

Highlights of Sudz were...well...Orcutt Brewing Co Pale Ale. Just kinda nice, in a well balanced, unoffensively hoppy sort of way(for a normal pale, that is). Mostly 2 row pale with a little C40 for slight color and body. I'd actually like to see more pale-colored pales out there. It leaves room for the hops to shine without outshining the malt, if you do it right. The guy currently brews with a homebrew system on steroids. I can definately appreciate that. And, he uses White Labs yeast, so I actually know what the heck he's talking about when he says WLP-001.

Other highlight includes discovering a great eats place downtown. Austins. Phenomenal food. Slow service, but worth every penny. Burger cooked medium-rare, as ordered, and smothered with a house-made bleu cheese dressing almost worth dying for. And sweet potato fries, shoestring cut, crispy and sweet to boot. No dressing or sauce necessary.

All in all, a great night. Had some decent beers, heard some good music, ate some good food, and made some new friends.

In all its glory

2010-04-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the maibock, in all its tasty goodness, becoming...tastier. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised wen I racked it into the keg. Not saying it could win awards. Doubt it really qualifies as a maibock, either, but I don't give a damn. It's gonna provide a few great hours of refreshment when the time comes. That time being the 14th AVBC beer festival. Gonna be epic. Always is. In case you're wondering: Secondary conditioning in the keg, gonna re-keg into the 3 gallon and take that to the fest, bottling the remainder.

Also, just in case you're especially curious, that's a bottle of Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary Stout. Waiting for a decently special occasion to open that one. And a glass of Nikansi Total Domination IPA. Very nice, with a bit of the citrusy aromas that I love so dearly, and just enough caramel malts.

P.S. I love my fridge...when it's not icing up on the ceiling, that is. Next step is to tap the door and put a pretty faucet on it.

Q&A

2010-03-09T17:27:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit bored. And a bit needy. Also a bit full of myself when it comes to beer knowledge. So I pose this Q&A session.

Q1: Is IPA, in it's current incarnations (American West Coast, American East Coast, English, etc) better than the "original"? Or has it's multifaceted glory become an abomination to the style, and should subsequently be renamed?

Homework: Ask me a question. Anything semi beer related. I have the ability to talk for hours about this stuff, if I have an interested party, which has led myself to believe I am very knowledgeable. So test me. Anything piquing you're curiosity right now? I will help you solve it.

Maibock here I come!

2010-03-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Finally, I've gotten a fridge so I can do cold fermentation and extended cold conditioning. Just bought it, and it will hold two of my 5 gallon cornies. That means up to two beers on tap. Or three, if I utilize the 3 gallon cornie. Stoked? You bet.

Also, just opened a Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. Had to stop pouring it to check the label. The stuff looked like syrup, and with good reason. You gotta have a REAL strong malt profile to back up a 10%abv beer. Smell: Roasted barley, all the way. Taste: Chocolate, and a little figgy, plummy, deep dark fruit. Pure deliciousness. It's amazing how drinking nothing but IPA's for the past couple weeks can make you appreciate something like a stout so much more.

Now all that's left to do is get off my ass and brew. Got AVBC's festival coming up, and I need that Maibock ready to rock. No time, no time. Maybe I'll just skip class. It would be for "research" purposes anyway, right? Right?

Cheers, brothers and sisters, and happy beering!

A New Adventure!

2010-02-03T23:16:00.000-08:00

As of Feb. 18th, I will officially live in a new location. A location that does not allow barbeques, except in designated areas, which suck. Add to this the fact that my brewing system has a way higher output than a normal bbq, and also a small leakage/backdraft/blowup problem, and you have eviction. So, what's the solution? Brew at mom and dad's house, of course! But that's 20 minutes away...well, I'll do one batch over there. An American take on Maibock. It's for AVBC's festival. Then, if that turns out to be too much of a pain in my ass, I'll just hold off for the term of the six month lease. And in the meantime...Sake!!! That's right, sake. Rice "wine". Delicious stuff. And surprisingly easy to make, in theory. I'll give it a go, because I love sake, and it requires no distillation, which scares me to the point of interest.

Cheers, and say hello to your mothers for me.

What Happened to Hip-Hops?

2010-01-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I liked what they wrote, and the places/beers they wrote about. They haven't written since August 13th. Anyone know what's going on? Did they switch to a new site, or just quit?

Oh, and on a disappointing side note, I bottled my Winter Warmer. Didn't turn out as I had hoped. A little too sweet, not spicy enough. Next time maybe no cinnamon. And no chocolate malt; that stuff is powerful in the color department. Went from an amber in my mind to a brown in reality. Alright to drink, but nothing special. Bottled about 18 twelve ouncers, dumped the rest. Gonna see how it does with some age, but not expecting much.

On a much happier side note, I got a 3 gallon keg! I'm super stoked, cause now I can keg most of a batch, and bottle the rest to see how it ages. Man, I love aging! Of beers, that is. Aging of myself just sucks. I'm already sure I won't be able to move my knee within the next year. I need a robot joint.

Next up: An American Maibock In...America!

Cheers, everyone, and hoppy brewing(I made a pun!)

P.S. If you know what happened to Hip-Hops, or just want to share another worthy blog, leave a comment. I like comments, they make me feel good.

Of new years, great beer, and the "R" word.

2010-01-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

First beers of 2010: Sierra Nevada Torpedo (last night), and Green Flash West Coast IPA (today). A good start, I'd say. The GFWCIPA (nice initials, huh?) is very nice; substantial bitterness, with a nice pungency to it, and a great floral nose.

I'd like to say I have some major resoultions. In fact, I do. Are they appropriate for this atmoshpere? The only one I can think of is to brew more often. But that started last year, really. So, I'm already on track, right? Time to celebrate.

Maibock scheduled to start as soon as I finish the Winter Ale and get the Porter moved through. Couple months of conditioning, with a nice little yeast strain called WLP-810, San Francisco Lager yeast. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be delicious. A bit of an American take on Maibock, with less Munich malt and more hops than normal.

One last thing: Winemaking sucks. Boring, uninteresting, and the industry is just barely starting to get rid of its snobbery. Do you know how much it sucks to go to school for something you never plan on doing? It blows. Jesus, it blows so much...well, you know.

Cheers, brothers, and maybe sisters, say hi to your mother for me, and happy beering!

Desolation

2009-11-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

Fresno is beer desolation capital. Very few places to get good beer around here. Out in public that is. Sure, we have a local brewing company, Sequioa, but they are, well, only all right. Their actual brewing location smells like fish, and their northern location is in the ritzy part of town. An area where smugness wafts from the people as they amble by. In general, this place has a lack of exposure to good beer, I'd say. Why that is, I can't say. Lack of income? Although Fresno has its nicer areas, in general I would guess that incomes are not exactly high here. But are they really that high anywhere else? Is it lack of interest? That I see as the more plausible of the two. I do know quite a few people who are interested in tasty, quality beverages, but being an enology major, you'd come to suspect that. All I can really do is sit back, brew something to my liking, and wait. Will I do anything to help the Fresno beer scene? Absolutely not. I won't be settling here, no sirree. Too hot. And flat. Give me somewhere coastal, or at least somewhere in the mountains. And some damn cold weather, while you're at it. I'll take ice over heat any day.

P.S. There is one establishment that does justice to beer. BC's Pizza and Beer has a great selection of bottles, and pretty good pizza too. If you can afford the bottles, that is. 8$ for a bomber of Stone Ruination. Damn! It's worth it, though.

A Monster Load of Crap

2009-10-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hansen Beverage company, owners of the trademarked Monster energy drink, are currently threatening a very one-sided war of attrition against Vermont-based Rock Art Brewery. Rock Art makes a beer called The Vermonster, which Hansen claims is an infringement upon their trademark of the Monster name. It's ridiculous. No person is going to mistake a can of Monster for a bottle of The Vermonster. Yet, Hansen claims consumers could mistake the two. Or, is it because Hansen wants to enter the alcoholic beverage industry? Could be both. Different sources say different things. Check out Rock Art's website, and check other blogs (I follow Starting A Brewery and A Good Beer Blog) to see what you can find.

It seems to me that Hansen doesn't really have a case. They are two easily distinguishable products. Also, there are dozens of beers with the word monster in their name, most, if not all, of which Hansen has not contacted. The problem arises, however, when you take into account Hansen's ability to throw loads of money at court hearings and lawyers. It's doubtful that Rock Art has the money to fight more than one or two court cases. Who does? But Hansen can keep suing if they choose, and financially run Rock Art into the ground, unless they give in.

No worries as of yet, Hansen sent a "cease and desist" letter to the brewery. The brewery's response is on their website, and as far as I know Hansen has not taken any other action. Shit like this show's a huge problem with our legal system: frivolous lawsuits. I don't like your face, so I'm suing. If Hansen does potentially want to enter the alcoholic beverage market, would it really be wise to retain the Monster name? Monster Long Island Iced Tea, anyone? Much less distinguishable from an energy drink since they would both likely come in cans. Let's hope they don't try to enter the beer market. Thinking of the possible monsters (ha!) they could create makes me shudder.

Who cares about the damn Russians, anyway?

2009-10-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sampled the RIS a few days ago. Figgy, oaky, with a very slight chocolate aftertaste. Pretty much what I was going for, but a little strong on the oak, and this was the blended bottle, mind you. I'm not sure what'll happen when I open the barrel-only bottle. For those who don't know, I made three separate bottle groups. No-oak, all-oak, and some no-oak/all-oak blend. Very roughly blended on a one-to-one ratio. Honestly, not something I would drink more than two of in a night. It's also around 8% ABW, so it's not like I could drink much more anyway. I've been a bit of a lightweight recently.

Had a barrel scare when I opened up the barrel recently. Smelled strongly of sulfur(from the storage solution), but had a weird white, moldy-looking film on top. Rinsed multiple times, and scrubbed as best I could. Currently, it's soaking with a star san solution. Will run a test batch to see if there are any spoilage type flavors in there.

Finally, planning a winter ale and some ciders. Winter ale will be chocolaty and spicy, from the spices (duh). Ciders will be dry and sweet. One gallon with cider yeast, another gallon with ale yeast. I'm thinking of lightly spicing them with cloves and cinnamon. Had a two year old cider I made the other night, the cinnamon and cloves really mellow out over time and provide a very pleasant aroma. Yay me! I made something good!

Cheers brothers, and happy drinking!

And for those who care...

2009-09-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

Mainly myself, I think. I haven't brewed in more than a month. My IPA is still on tap. It went on hiatus until I got my new tap handle, which works beautifully. Gonna be a hop harvest ale next. Low yield from the yard this year, though, so I'll use them as an accent towards the end.

Bottled the RIS, now just gotta wait a few months for full maturity. Only broke one bottle and spilled two in the process! Not bad, huh? I was pissed.

Making wine now. Calm down. I'll never love anything more than beer. I have to do this for school. BS in wine, brewing school after that. Why? Two birds with one very large, drawn-out stone. Grapes were free, too. Used a two-by-four to crush the grapes. Gonna call him "Ol' Mashy".

Cheers, brothers, Le'Chaim!

Dear God, calm down already!

2009-08-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

Is it me, or does the beer world seem situated to forever be at war? I admit, I am part of the problem, but, it seems to me that everybody has a negative opinion of some other countries beer styles. I know we all have our preferences, but damn! Calm down! Someone else's favorite style may not match up with your own. Deal with it. Don't insult them. Don't go on about how their beer sucks, attributing it to their country. Honestly, every country has their divisions, and they should be accepted. I don't like particular beers, but that doesn't mean those beers suck. I prefer my beers "a little colder than they should be served", but who gives a damn? There is no one right way to brew, and no one right way to do much else. If you think I'm wrong, you can burn in hell.

I realize I may be a hypocrite (sometimes I complain about certain countrie's beer styles), but the things we hate in others are the things we hate in ourselves.

A true interest?

2009-06-25T00:46:00.000-07:00

"Dude, I wanna drink some of your beer!"

"You mean, like, beer I bought or beer I made?"

"Haha, beer you made."

"Do you like stouts?"

"Yeah, I had Guinness Extra Stout the other day. It was awesome."

"Well, mine's like ten times better than that. I normally don't say that. And stupid question anyways, cause it's not a stout. It's a porter. A coffee porter. You'll like it"

Finally, I think someone may have more than a feigning interest in my beer. Feigning interest is exactly what friends are for. Although he's a friend, he may be genuinely interested. I wasn't even talking about beer when he brought it up.

Updates, updates...

2009-06-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

RIS is doing well in the barrel, gonna leave it for another month or so.

IPA is being dry hopped with Columbus and Cascade(no Amarillo at the store).

Thinking about ditching the cooler system and investing in a stainless, heatable mash tun. Expensive, but it allows for multi step mashes, which could mean increased efficiency.

Something for Adeptus

2009-05-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

And for anyone else who might be interested. It took me a while, but my lazy ass finally got a picture of the barrel. On it's right you'll see a small starter (today is brewday), and behind that the remainder of the RIS, in a jug and some bottles even further back.

Busy busy busy, not really

2009-05-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

But kinda busy. Transferred the RIS to the barrel around a week ago, been tasting it as I go along. Convenient little thing, that pour spout. The majority of what I can say is "woody". Is it a good thing? I think so. It's what a pretentious person would call "sophisticated", which really just means you have to take time and effort to appreciate it. After the initial oak shock, normal-ish flavors resume. My worry is that is will get too woody, over-oaked, and undrinkable. Unless you're the kind of person who enjoys drinking a whole pint of whiskey. So far, no problems, but I like to worry.

Moving on, Sunday is IPA day. Stupid me, I forgot to buy an IPA at the store today. I like to drink something when brewing, and an IPA sounded perfect; out with the old, in with the new sort of thing. Oh well, there's some interesting looking pales in the build-you-own six pack, so I'm content. In case anyone's interested, here's the recipe:

10 lbs Pale 2-row
.5 lb Caramel 20
.5 lb Vienna (store was out of munich)

1.25 oz Columbus @ 60 min
1.25 oz Centennial @ 15 min
2.00 oz Amarillo @ 5 min

WLP-001 California Ale Yeast

Not sure about the dry hopping yet. More to come. I'm going for something floral and citrusy in the nose, to balance out that "I'm an IPA brewer and I want to punch you in the face with bitterness" feel of many out there. Gotta clean out the keg too, that thing's been sitting for like two months with nothing but sediment in it.

Cheers, brothers, and happy beering!

I've got wood!

2009-05-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

It finally arrived. The barrel. Now it's happily soaking in hot water in the shade on the side of my house. He was thirsty, let me tell you. I never realized until now just how much oak affects the flavor of whiskey. As I was filling the barrel, I questioned whether it was really new or not. Maybe it had been used for whiskey? But no, it was new. It's not that it smelled like whiskey; it's whiskey that smells like the barrel.

Three days from now, the RIS is going in, and there's no turning back from that point.

Wish me luck, brothers, and happy beering.

IPA overload, and rain.

2009-05-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

It dumped rain the whole day of the Boonville Beerfest, but that didn't stop us. As long as you have a jacket, which I did, it was pretty much the same as drinking in the sunshine.

Over 40 brewers. Some dude said 70. I think he's a liar. He also said Pliny the Elder has some ingredients that make beer ferment a second time in your stomach, evoking a halucinogenic-seeming drunk fest that could last, if proper amounts were consumed, for days. Liar, and probably a thief. I digress. Over 40 brewers, and everbody and their damn mother had an IPA. I like IPA's, but this was ridiculous. If I was on a quest to discover which variety of hops I like best in an IPA, regardless of malt, I would have been in the right place. However, as always, there were a few saving graces (not that very many were bad). My favorites:

Orange Blossom IPA(forgot the brewery)-I know I might have gotten sick of them, but this one was worth buying. Made with real orange blossoms, it literally smelled like a very floral IPA with, you guessed it, orange blossoms! I happen to love oranges, and orange blossoms. Poured, surprisingly, from a can, it was well balanced, probably low on the IBU range for IPA's.

Vanilla Wheat and Chocolate Porter(or stout?)- A delicious blend, weighted more towards the vanilla wheat. Had to have been real vanilla, nothing artificial about it. Also probably the only wheat beer I've come across that I would willingly buy.

Despite the rain, and the annoyingly overabundant IPA's, it was a great festival. Camping in the rain is kinda fun. I could show you pictures, but I won't. I don't even have a picture of the plastered guy on drugs who fell down the embankment into the creek. Classic.

Cheers, brothers, and happy everything.

Tomorrow!

2009-04-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

That's the day I leave for Anderson Valley's festival. I've been looking forward to this since, well, the minute I left last year's festival. Super stoked, and to think I almost missed it because I got pharyngitis. Not swine flu. I swear. But drugs and sleep have given me a near full recovery; tomorrow I should be more than ready.

I haven't had any beer since Saturday night. Damn. That's a recent record for me. I might just wait until Saturday, for the fest. Gotta start drinking again on a good note, right?

Homebrewing side note: Don't let a dirty carboy sit for two or three weeks in your bathtub. It wasn't all that hard to clean up, but it sure did stink somethin fierce.

Last thing. My barrel got delayed. Wrong shipping address. How did they not catch it? They tried to send it to a postal code that doesn't exist in the particular state they tried to send it to!

Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing!

Less than a month, now.

2009-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

In less than a month, I get to be one of the luckiest people around. I'm going to Anderson Valley Brewing Company's beer fest, and it's gonna be amazing. Gonna try to brew a quick batch before we go, something pale or maybe a little orangy/amber colored, depending on how much crystal malt I have left.

Highlights from last year include: chili beer, captain and vanille (a porter mixed with a vanilla cream ale, or something to that effect), some really great IPA's (including Pliny the Elder), and more. This year's gonna be even better. Contemplating picking up a whole case of Pliny from RRBC, if they'll let me.

Overall, I'd say I'm hella excited. Yeah, I said hella, don't judge me.

I just heard thunder clap

2009-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously, it was so close that it actually "clapped". Now I know where the term "thunder clap" came from. So close it could have struck me. But I'm too pretty for that.

Gonna test the RIS tomorrow, see where the gravity stands. I lost almost a half gallon of liquid during primary fermentation because the damn thing overflowed. Good, healthy yeast starter combined with more yeast nutrient in the boil and almost six gallons of wort (as opposed to my usual 4.5 or 5) spelled disaster for the cleanliness aspect of my pantry. And I got sprayed in the face when I removed the airlock. That was actually kind of funny.

Here's the plan: If the beer is underattenuated, I'm gonna steal some yeast from the trub, make a "restarter", and see what few extra gravity points I can whittle away from it. Worked well for the coffee porter I did a while back, why not for the RIS?

Ordering my barrel today, too. I'm excited. Two and a half gallons of oak-aged, delicious (hopefully) Russian Imperial Stout await. In about three or four months, that is. The rest will be bottled, with some of those bottles more than likely being used to top up the barrel.

This stuff is getting heavy, and it's only the beginning. And I'm loving every minute of it.

Cheers, brothers.

It Is Done!

2009-03-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, not really. Done being brewed, at least. The RIS. All went well, I bumped up my efficiency from 67% on my last batch to 73%. Stoked? You bet. Also, I discovered brewing nap time. I was tired, so I sat down next to the boiling pot, arguably not the best place, and dozed for a few seconds. Now I know as a professional brewer(someday...) I'll be able to take naps all over the place. Sweet.

Also, I was thinking about a real name for the beer. I consider it more of an American interpretation of a Russian Imperial Stout, so why not something American, something imperial, or royal? Rockefeller Imperial Stout, anybody? They are said to be "American royalty", or at least the closest thing we had. Let me know what you think.

And, on a completely unrelated side note, Anderson Valley's 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA is amazing. Well balanced, not overwhelmingly bitter in the taste, and a great citrusy hop aroma.

Cheers, brothers, and cheers to AVBC.

Ready, set, Barrel!

2009-03-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

That's right, I'm gonna buy a barrel. American white oak, brand spankin new. And guess what's gonna go in it? A Russian Imperial Stout. Yep. Gonna brew the hell out of some RIS this weekend, and when it's mostly done, I'm gonna throw a few gallons in the barrel. Haven't decided whether I should get the 2.5 gallon or 3 gallon. Big dilemma, I know. I pieced the recipe together from a few different sources, and modified a bit to fit my current inventory. Here it is:

15 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lb C60
1 lb Roasted Barley
.75 lb Black Patent
.75 lb Chocolate Malt

1 oz Warrior @ 90 min
.25 oz Perle @ 60 min
.75 oz Perle @ 20 min
1 oz Glacier @ 10 min

WLP-004 Irish Ale Yeast

Scheduled single temp infusion mash for 1 hour @ 154 F.
Second, smaller, single temp infusion, 15 min @ 170 F.

90 min boil

<1000 mL starter

Any homebrewers have questions, comments, or anyone else qualified to comment, feel free.

Cheers, brothers!

Delivery!

2009-03-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Delivered the coffee porter to my manager the other night. He was stoked. Later on that night, when he handed me the money, I couldn't help but feel just a bit like a real brewer. Before you jump to any conclusions, he only paid for the ingredients, so it's legal...I think. I've got to be legit about this thing, and from what I've heard it's okay to brew for people as long as you don't turn a profit. Long story short, I gave him a prorated price since I kept a few bottles to see how it ages.

Also thinking about trying to get a contract brewing license, or just a small brewery license. Mostly just for kicks, but also so I could theoretically brew for someone and legally charge a profit. Anyone out there well versed in California and US brewing regulations? Wonder if I could pass the health inspection...

Cheers brothers, and happy brewing!

Just a quick note

2009-03-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

Many recent tastings of my California UNcommon have been, well, semi-lackluster. Yesterday I discovered that I left the kegerator open all night. Great. CO2, welcome to your new home, i.e. the head space in the keg, not in the beer where you once resided. So today, I jumped up the pressure for a few little while, and now I'm gonna let it sit until later tonight, when I'll taste it again. The only actual problem so far is that it pours with a nice, creamy head, but no residual carbonation. It's been like drinking cold, flat beer.

On a more taste related note, here's what I scribbled down earlier:

crisp, but not dry
definite hop bitterness right away, followed by a light caramel, almost honey sweetness
slightly grassy hop aroma and taste in the finish
could be a little drier or, for the style, i think a little less hoppy
definite hint of "lager" but a highly bearable amount.
deep golden, but not amber colored, and very clear
white, creamy, head that last

Overall, I'm actually pretty satisfied. Is it good? I'd say so. Is it a good session beer (something I've been looking for recently)? Not so much. If I remember correctly, it's clocking in at or around 6% abw.

Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing, drinking, or whatever it is you do for fun.

P.S. I'll be brewing a maibock next, I think. Still working on the recipe though.

Different.

2009-02-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

As I sat drinking a pint of Fuller's ESB last night, I couldn't help but notice the difference between it and what I might consider an American version of the same. What came to mind was Anderson Valley's ESB (although it stands for extra special beer, if I remember correctly). But it's not just ESB, it happens with everything else too. There's just a different taste. This doesn't surprise me at all, it just makes me curious. Why are they different? Is it the malt? Is it the hops? The yeast? What is it that makes beers with similar names and classifications such different animals?

If anyone could shed light on this, it would be amazing.

Poo!

2009-02-15T16:12:00.000-08:00

That's all I could think of when cleaning the carboy the other day. I had just finished racking the coffee porter into secondary, and was trying to get the yeast cake out of the bottom to harvest (or attempt to harvest) some of the yeast. But the damn thing was stuck. Really stuck. I had to shake it for a good couple of minutes to get the cake to slide slothily down the wall and towards the mouth. Then it hit me, that overwhelming smell of coffee found only in a young coffee infused beer. It made me kinda nautious. After the immediate coffee shock, I smelled a very nutty aroma, which inevitably led my thoughts down the path of poo, sliding down the walls and out the bung hole of the carboy. Sliding, glopping, plopping, reeking of nuts and looking like something that might come out of a 70 year-old man (don't ask me how I know). I actually laughed a bit, after being grossed out. In the end, I dumped (haha, dumped) it all down the drain. Why would I want to harvest yeast that have been tainted by coffee? And possibly developed a caffeine dependency? "If you don't give us coffee by twelve, we won't be able to finish the workday!" Lazy drugged up bastards. Chip off the old block, I see.

On a less anal and much more delicious note, I also racked the California UNcommon into second/third-ary. It tasted like God sent it down from heaven, so I'm guessing the conditioning time in the cold garage helped a lot. If you're curious as to what I mean by "second/third-ary", check out the miniscule problem I had. Since I repitched some yeast, I decided to rack a third time to ensure clarity and tastiness.

Cheers, Brothers, and happy brewing!

P.S. Since I plan on going to school to learn all about professional brewing, I have come to the realization that every beer I drink can be written off as "research". Take that, society. I don't have a drinking problem, I have a research problem.

Waiting...

2009-02-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

I don't like waiting. That's all I seem to be doing right now. Waiting for conditioning time to be adequate. Waiting for primary fermentation to be complete. Waiting for free time to actually do anything beer related. I barely have any time to be wrtiting this right now. I should be sleeping. Oh well. I'll sleep when I'm dead. Or in about 10 minutes, either way.

A quick thought:
I had Chimay Blue for the second time the other night, and for the first time as my first beer of the night. No tainted taste buds or dulled senses here. In a word: complex. Also, elegant, subtle, slightly spicy, and a little too mellow for me. I like the way it looks, smells, and feels. The taste, however, is something I'm a bit undecided on. It's definately something to appreciate, to take your time with. But the flavors are so subtle that you really have to search for them. I'm sure a huge difference would have been made if it had been paired with food. Hovever, it was a simply a taster of the new beers at the restaurant, Chimay Blue and Red.

A quick update:
California UNcommon is coming along quite nicely, albeit slowly. I want to do this one right, so I'm letting it cold condition for a while. After the small problem I had, I siphoned off some yeast, made a "re-starter" and pitched it back in. Fermentation seems to have finished out, and the problem is now non-existent.

Coffee Porter, as brewed by request, is also doing well. Fermentation went hella quick, so I'm letting it sit for at least a week in primary just to be sure. I don't want to repeat my mistake with the above mentioned beer.

Oh, and I'm buying up bottles of belgian and belgian-style stuff like crazy. Don't ask me why, but I've had a sudden craving for bottle conditioned, spicy beers, and big, strong, brewed-by-monks-who-know-their-beer kinds of beers. Maybe I'm just attracted by big fancy bottles with champagne corks. Who knows?

Not Success!

2009-01-29T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just when I open my mouth (see previous post), I go and screw something up. The California Common I brewed is in no great danger, but I made a little mistake. In my great excitement at anything related to brewing, I transferred it to the secondary fermentor a little too early. I transferred after ten days, a pretty normal times for ales. This, however, was not an ale. It was a lager. Looking back at the original recipe, I should have given it at least 14 days, if not longer. I brewed using the same recipe a while back, and I gave that one 18 days in primary.

Now, you might be asking yourself, what's the problem? Well...under attenuation? If that means nothing to you, how about less alcohol and more residual sweetness? Incomplete fermentation. Not to worry, though. As it turns out, the yeast were just moving a little slower because the fermentation temperature was around 50 F, and that whole transferring too early thing. There are still yeast, and they are still working, but slowly. I was planning on 2 weeks in secondary. It may be three now. Which is fine. Conditioning time never hurt anybody, or any beer, for that matter.

So why the hell did I write all this if there's no real problem?! Cause I felt kinda dumb, and I wanted everybody to know.

Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing!

Success!

2009-01-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

03/06/2008: History is made. For me at least. This was the day I bottled a coffee porter I brewed, thinking myself a veritable genius. Well, it turns out that everyone and their mother has brewed a coffee porter, or coffee stout-people always bring up the other when in the presence of either-and I ran the risk of being just another homebrewer. Then, over continuous and consecutive months later, it occurred to me that mine was the best. Ever. Why? Because I'm awesome, and decent looking, and a nice guy(for the most part). I'm pretty sure, once again, that I can do no wrong.

XX/XX/2008: Numerous praises for my coffee porter, and from people who don't even like porters, nonetheless.

XX/XX/2009: Manager at my employing restaurant, after much hounding, gets to try the coffee porter. He approves, and suggests I leave a bottle for the head chef, who presides over the two different locations and works in the corporate office.

01/27/2009: Head chef takes the beer home. Says he really liked it, and he's someone who only drinks darker styles, at least on a regular basis. How stoked am I? I swear I'm gonna get a license to be a contract brewer.

So, I know I've tooted my horn a lot here, but I feel I should at least be a little proud of myself. I have yet to hear anything negative, except for one suggestion to use a bit less coffee, or maybe some more chocolate malt.

P.S. HUGE thanks to Palmer, for providing me with a recipe that I would modify slightly. I'm such a cheater.

What's with the pale ale thing, anyway?

2009-01-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

Something's been bugging me a bit recently. Bugging me a lot, actually. What constitutes a Pale Ale? I have a general idea in my mind, but half of the pales I try shoot down my preconceptions. With a 10 gauge.

Anyone out there have any ideas? I want to know if there are certain guidelines to be met, or can, as it seems, thirty hundred vastly different beers be lumped into one category? If not based on color, is it based on malt used? I don't think this is likely, since even the darker styles still use a majority of pale malt. I have this inkling that it may have more to do with hops than with the color itself. If a pale blurs into the amber color range, are hops the remaining determinant? Does gravity have anything to do with it?

Somebody please answer me. At least lie to me, and make up some entertaining history lesson of how the name came to be.

California UNcommon

2009-01-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

I brewed a California Common, but with different hops than I was supposed to use. That's why I came up with the name. Clever, ain't it? The store was out of Northern Brewer, so they recommended Centennial instead. We'll see how it turns out.

Brewing day went off without a hitch, despite the fact that I completely forgot to measure the amount of water for the initial mash. No measuring, just a lot of dumping hot water, and me realizing my potenital mistake, and then damning it all to hell and going with it. All I had to do was adjust the amount of sparge water, no big deal.

This is why I love winter. It's cold enough that I can do a lager in the garage, without proper cooling equipment. The yeast for this batch is specifically bred to be able to ferment a little higher than lager yeast usually does, so it can handle the 60 degrees during the day, and the super cold nights.

The recipe, in case anyone is interested, is as follows:

8.5 lbs Pale two row
.75 lb Caramel 40
.5 lb Carapils

1 oz Centennial @ 60 min
1 oz Centennial @ 15 min

WLP-810 San Francisco Lager Yeast

Cheers, brothers, and Happy Brewing!

Adventure Time!

2009-01-02T00:56:00.000-08:00

With the long-awaited Christmas money lingering in my account, I've decided to go out and, hopefully, buy a kegging setup tomorrow. Goodbye, tedious bottling of beer. Goodbye, two week waiting period for carbonation. However, as with everything I encounter, I have found a dilemma. Specifically, should I purchase a 3 gallon keg or a 5 gallon keg? My typical batch size is around five gallons, so the 5 gal keg would seem perfect. However, I want to do a few bottles of each batch, to see how it ages over time, and to take places a keg should not, or cannot, go. If I bottle part of the batch, I have excess head space, and might need more gas. I know nothing about the subject, however, so this could be a negligable amount. And if I force myself into the 3 gal keg, I also force myself to bottle 2 gal of each batch, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.

Maybe I'll just buy both sizes. I could use the 3 gal for small experimental batches. Thanks for the help, bloggy thing! Writing this just helped me solve the enigma that was my situation.

Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing!

P.S. Hanukkah was great.

Super P.S. Try not to set unrealistic resolutions for the new year, if you're into that sort of thing. We don't all want to be disappointed, now, do we?

A New Era in Brewing

2008-12-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

School's out, for the witner break, at least. Now I have nothing to do. When not working, and between episodes of Arrested Developement, I've been thinking about the Christmas present I'm going to buy for myself: A 5 gallon soda keg! With all the trimmings, of course. No more tedious bottling of beers. No more tedious sanitation of each individual bottle. No sir, I will be kegging from now on, except for bottling a few beers from each batch, for aging purposes. Someday, if I'm feeling ambitious enough and the wallet allows, I may try aging beer in oak barrels. Although expensive, it seems like it would be a really interesting, and hopefully rewarding, experience.

On a somewhat irrelevant side note, I'm thinking about celebrating Hanukkah this year. Seems like it would be fun, but I've got no idea where to start. And I want to try not to offend anybody or blaspheme anything. I do enough of that already.

Damn you, ever-changing ale!

2008-12-16T15:10:00.000-08:00

The budget ale I last wrote of is toying with my emotions. After sitting in my room for over a month, the flavor profile has changed yet again. The honey malt is definately there. The hops, luckily, have been toned down a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love hops, but they seemed to be too much for the malt profile of this one. Not so, it seems. I was just getting ready to dump it, too. Maybe not.

This is learning. This is also great. If this turns out to be even the tiniest bit drinkable, I may not have to buy any beer for the week! Although, I like to experiment and may have to pick up something new anyways. I say "if" because I am currently drinking it at room temperature, which is probably somewhere around 70 degrees. I put one in the fridge, so when I get home from work tonight, we'll see how things go.

Cheers, and happy brewing!

Just a little off...

2008-11-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Finally opened the budget ale. I shouldn't have expected much, and didn't get much, satisfaction. Oh well, it only cost me three bucks. The honey, malty flavor described before has nearly disappeared, replaced by a hop bitterness. I like hops. I love hops. The problem is that there isn't enough of a malt backbone to it. Very dry in the initial taste, as well as in the finish. A bit of an aftertaste of honey, but not much.

Why, you ask? Here's what I think:
The less-than-specified amount of priming sugar I added was good for the first few days or week. After that, the yeast having been given a kick start and sugar high, went to work on the remaining malt. Maybe they weren't done in the first place. After all, it's been colder here recently so they may have slowed down. For the two or so weeks they lived in the bottles, they gobbled up the priming sugar and then gobbled up remaining fermentables. Damn, yeast, you are greedy. And probably fat.

So, the obvious solution is to blame it on the yeast. None of it was my fault, and I can do nothing wrong. The yeast, however, can cause me to fail. But me, I'm perfect...

There's always next time.
Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing!

A belated (but delicious) update

2008-11-10T20:42:00.000-08:00

Bottled the budget brew a few days ago. This is true budget status. I was a little short on priming sugar, so I just used what I had and said "oh well". Give it two or three weeks, I'm sure it'll come out fine.

The biggest piece of news, however, is a very distinct change in flavor. In a previous post, I had mentioned a nice, malty character present in the beer. At bottling time, the honey malt was really showing through. And it was good. Very interesting to note the change; it happened so quickly that I was not expecting anything different. I have seen hop profile change quickly, but this is a first for malt profile changing on short notice (at least for me). Oh, learning, you are glorious. At least when I don't have to learn the hard way, that is.

Cheers, happy brewing...Le Chaim!

A New Brew

2008-10-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

In secondary right now I have a cleanup/leftover/budget brew. At racking time it had a nice, malty flavor, with a bready, biscuity goodness. If I dare say so, it had a bit of the malty, biscuity flavor that is common in beers from New Belgium, especially Fat Tire. Is the secret in their malt? I don't know. One more week and it will be ready for bottling. We'll see what flavors come through at that time.

The "recipe" is as follows:

2-3 lbs Amber LME
.5 lbs Munich
.5 lbs Vitory(amber)
.5 lbs Honey malt

45 minute boil
.5 oz Cascade @ 45 min
.25 oz Cascade @ 30 min
.25 oz Amarillo @ 30 min
.25 oz Amarillo @ 15 min

~2.5 gallons of 1.040 wort
WLP-011 European Ale Yeast, past date, from the bargain bin.

Besides the cost of propane, and the malts, which I accounted for in other batches, this batch cost me 3 bucks, plus a little gas. Not bad, eh? That's what happens when you're strapped for cash and have an insatiable urge to brew.

Cheers, brothers, and happy brewing.

please allow me to introduce myself...

2008-10-26T17:27:00.001-07:00

To begin with, I'm not really Jewish, unless heritage counts. I do, however, brew....beer, that is. I brew at home for enjoyment and practice in the pursuit of experience and knowledge to someday aid me in my quest to open my own brewery. If for nothing else, I would keep doing it because I enjoy the hands-on aspect and the freedom to create virtually any style that I want.

A few more things about myself:
I enjoy nearly all styles of beer, with tastes that often change with the seasons.
Right now, my preference lies with malty, full bodied beers. Hops are always welcome, but lots of aroma or bitterness is not necessary. When spring rolls around, hops will most likely come to the forefront of my cravings.
I advocate responsible drinking, while at the same time realizing that, sometimes, it's nice to cut loose.

Cheers, brothers.