So life and work has been hell and has cut into my brewing. Of course the last time I brewed was in November 2012. It makes me want to cry, seriously, this grown man will cry if he cannot brew soon. This next brew will be the famous Blueberry Wheat which I am going to rename the Baby Blues in honor of one of my best friends Randy because he is going to become a father. This recipe I will NOT share.
I will also create and and brew up a batch of the Randale Red.
6# LME
1# 2-row British
8oz Carpils
8oz English Crystal 70-80L
8oz Crystal 40L
3oz Biscuit
2oz chocolate malt
1.75oz Goldings @60
1.00oz Fuggle @30
.5oz Oerle @0min
2.5tsp Biotin
1 Tablet
Wyeast Irish Ale
Update:
Using Fresh Fruit for the first time. It has turned my beer purple. It is pretty sweet.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Saturday, November 17, 2012
First Brew of 2012
Well, this year for me has been disappointing but I have finally brewed some beer. My old man and I had a brew date the other day. We both were brewing Pale Ales. I went for a British Pale Ale, and the old man went for more American approach. Why, I have no clue because the Brits brew a much better pale ale.
9lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract
8oz Carasan/Carastan 30/37
4oz English Crystal 70-80L
4oz Special Roast
2.0oz Fuggles @60min (6.0 Alpha Acids)
.5oz Goldings @15min (5.7 Alpha Acids)
.5oz Goldings @10min
.5oz Goldings @5min
.5oz Goldings @1min
At 10 minutes I added a Whirfloc tablet.
At 10 minutes I added a Whirfloc tablet.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
2011 Recap - Looking Forward to 2012
Well I have not written here in a while and since it is 2012 I figured that I will add a resolution to my list. Brew bigger, better and blog about it!
So after I sat and went through my notes, while sipping on some of my coveted blueberry wheat, I ended up brewing 18 batches of beer this past year. Granted I had some brews I brewed a few different times but brewing this year was far better than my 2010 brew year. That said, I also upgraded some of my equipment and acquired some new stuff as well. I am working into doing small all grain test batches and practicing my all grain techniques which is definitely time consuming but produces a better, clearer beer. I have also switched from a spoon to a paddle which in my opinion is ten times better in my opinion. (I would recommend it if you do not have a paddle)
I also have upgraded to kegs, which is a lot of fun but one hell of a learning experience. I seem to keep over force carbonating my beer. Does anyone have any tips how to fix that? Kegging is fun but I do also prefer to bottle some beers because the bottle conditioning is fun and the aging is also fun to taste beers after a while.
The next and last upgrade came not in 2011 but pretty fracking early in 2012. I have acquired a Beer Meister. It is a single tap kegerator, with a stainless steel tower. It is for a Sanke tap or 15.5 gallon keg. I will need to do some converting for I figure up to 3 Cornelius Kegs. I will also be putting on a digital display temperature controller. This is my 2012 project. I will also be using it possibly for lagering.
As per the big brews, I will perfect some fruit beers, and my English ale. I will aslo brew up a few seasonals this year as well. I will also attempt a lambic and stick to brewing as often as I can. I hope to find a brewing partner that hopefully we can brew as often as possible. I will also take suggestions for beers to brew up.
I guess this sums it up for my first post of the new year. Cheers! Raise your glass and drink up!
I also have upgraded to kegs, which is a lot of fun but one hell of a learning experience. I seem to keep over force carbonating my beer. Does anyone have any tips how to fix that? Kegging is fun but I do also prefer to bottle some beers because the bottle conditioning is fun and the aging is also fun to taste beers after a while.
The next and last upgrade came not in 2011 but pretty fracking early in 2012. I have acquired a Beer Meister. It is a single tap kegerator, with a stainless steel tower. It is for a Sanke tap or 15.5 gallon keg. I will need to do some converting for I figure up to 3 Cornelius Kegs. I will also be putting on a digital display temperature controller. This is my 2012 project. I will also be using it possibly for lagering.
As per the big brews, I will perfect some fruit beers, and my English ale. I will aslo brew up a few seasonals this year as well. I will also attempt a lambic and stick to brewing as often as I can. I hope to find a brewing partner that hopefully we can brew as often as possible. I will also take suggestions for beers to brew up.
I guess this sums it up for my first post of the new year. Cheers! Raise your glass and drink up!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Weed Ales and Lagers (Mt. Shasta Brewing Company)
A few weeks ago I went on a road trip to see my grandmother for the weekend. On the way back I decided to find a brewery to stop at for a late lunch/early dinner so that I could push through the night to get home. What a better place than to combine my love of beer and food for a brand new brewery trial. I found the Mt Shasta Brewing Company, of Weed, CA. It is located right off of the I5 and you can't miss the place. It definitely has a vintage feel and is a unique place in Norther California.
At first walking in I was one of three customers in the bistro and right away I was offered a beer and the staff was very friendly. There were 9 different beers there and I tasted all but 2 of them. I must say, damn good beer.
The first one I tried was their Lemurian Lager. This beer is brewed like a Bohemian Pilsner, which I do not usually like because they all taste like straw, but this beer was one of the best lagers I have ever had.Clean, refreshing and delicious.
The next beer I tried was the hefeweizen finished with hemp seeds. First off I was skeptical of trying it but it was amazing! Light and refreshing with a strong finish. The hemp seed has a unique flavor, and the seed did not over power the wheaty lightness of a German hefeweizen. The beer was also quite clear implying that it is a filtered wheat.
I then tried the Weed Amber which is one of the best ambers I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased a 6 pack. It has a cool crisp finish, and not a lot of amber taste which I highly enjoy. It also has a great clear amber color.
The next one I had was the Weed Golden Ale. This one was delicious but I did not like the dry hopiness of the ale. Other than that it was damn delicious.
This brewery I feel is amazing and the next time I pass through Weed, California, I will stop in again.
The first one I tried was their Lemurian Lager. This beer is brewed like a Bohemian Pilsner, which I do not usually like because they all taste like straw, but this beer was one of the best lagers I have ever had.Clean, refreshing and delicious.
The next beer I tried was the hefeweizen finished with hemp seeds. First off I was skeptical of trying it but it was amazing! Light and refreshing with a strong finish. The hemp seed has a unique flavor, and the seed did not over power the wheaty lightness of a German hefeweizen. The beer was also quite clear implying that it is a filtered wheat.
I then tried the Weed Amber which is one of the best ambers I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased a 6 pack. It has a cool crisp finish, and not a lot of amber taste which I highly enjoy. It also has a great clear amber color.
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| Delivery Truck |
The next one I had was the Weed Golden Ale. This one was delicious but I did not like the dry hopiness of the ale. Other than that it was damn delicious.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
2011 Best Beers
So I just picked up the latest Zymurgy Magazine because every July/August edition has the best beers lists. How awesome is that. Well I have a few things to say about some of the lists.
The first list is the Top-Ranked Beers list
| 1. Russian River Pliny the Elder - A knock out! |
| 2. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale |
| T3. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA |
| T3. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout |
| 5. Bell’s Hopslam |
| 6. Stone Arrogant Bastard - My Favorite |
| 7. Sierra Nevada Celebration |
| T8. Sierra Nevada Torpedo |
| T8. Stone Ruination - Delicious |
| 10. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - Refreshing |
| 11. Stone Sublimely Self Righteous - No Words |
| 12. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine |
| 13. Goose Island Bourbon County Stout |
| T14. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter |
| T14. Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale |
| T16. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA - Delicious!!! |
| T16. New Glarus Belgian Red |
| 18. North Coast Old Rasputin - Great Imperial Stout |
| 19. Bell’s Expedition Stout |
| T20. Deschutes The Abyss - Chewy! |
| T20. Left Hand Milk Stout |
| T20. Odell IPA |
| T20. Samuel Adams Noble Pils |
| T20. Surly Furious |
| T20. Troegs Nugget Nectar |
| T26. Rogue Dead Guy Ale - Delicious |
| T26. Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
| 28. Anchor Steam - Great Beer |
| T29. Bear Republic Racer 5 |
| T29. Ommegang Three Philosophers |
| T29. Oskar Blues Ten Fidy |
| T29. Three Floyds Alpha King |
| T29. Three Floyds Dark Lord |
| T34. Avery Maharaja |
| T34. Dogfish Head Indian Brown |
| T34. Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron |
| T34. Three Floyds Gumballhead |
| T38. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA |
| T38. Lost Abbey Angel’s Share |
| T38. New Belgium La Folie |
| T38. New Belgium Ranger |
| T38. Oskar Blues Old Chub |
| T43. Ballast Point Sculpin IPA |
| T43. Great Divide Yeti |
| T43. New Belgium 1554 |
| T43. Russian River Blind Pig |
| T43. Ska Modus Hoperandi |
| T48. Alesmith Speedway Stout |
| T48. Dark Horse Crooked Tree |
| T48. Green Flash West Coast IPA |
| T48. Summit EPA |
| T48. Victory Prima Pils |
I must say that I was not surprised to see Pliny the Elder winning again for the third year in the row. I must say that I was not surprised to see only a few Oregon breweries on this list but I was also surprised how low some of the Oregon breweries scored. I know that Oregon has the most breweries per capita and coming in at a whopping 93 breweries in the state! One reason I believe that more beers are not on this list are because a lot of the breweries do not commercialize their beers. This I believe most of the breweries do not want to go big like Samuel Adams(Boston Brewing) who just had their microbrewery status revoked because Sam Koch got a large head like Sam Caligione that arrogant prick.
Anyways as you can see I added in a few comments of the beers I have had and I need to get my hands on the rest. The Pliny I am unable to find around Portland. Anyone know where to get it?
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The Wandering Monk
So, after a 2 month hiatus from brewing due to many a weddings and the activities that go along with weddings, I have decided to get back to brewing. During my hiatus I found a book called Beer Craft. In this book it is written by people like me who brew in an apartment. These people brew up one gallon of all grain batches and so I decided to double a recipe for a 2 gallon batch of a Belgian Abbey Ale or more commonly known as a Dubbel. These recipes are also all all grain. SO I can move on to all-grain brewing but in small batches with all the equipment that I have without buying new stuff for 5 gallon batches.
The Wandering Monk
5lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
1lb Munich malt
8oz Special B
4oz Biscuit malt
20g Fuggle Hops
8oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup
Pre-boil TG: 1.046
I am brewing this up tomorrow so I will let you all know what happens and how it turns out as the process goes on!
Well so far brewing has gone well. I mashed at 154 for 1 hour. Pre-boil gravity was 1.044 so I cannot complain with it being close to the target gravity.
The boil has started and my Fuggles have been thrown in. I have started to put everything into nylon and fine mesh bags to reduce the amount of extra nonsense that has come into my beer.
Everything went well! The beer is in the fermenter and yeast is pitched. We will give it a few weeks and see what happens! It is fermenting beautifuly. Gravity not where I want it to be so the Monk will sit for a few more days.
Well after 10 days in the secondary, the beer is delicious but it definitely needs some bottle conditioning time. The beer has a potential alcohol content of around 6.8%. At first tasting it is a little thinner than I had hoped but we shall see after about 1 month of bottle conditioning.
The Wandering Monk
5lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
1lb Munich malt
8oz Special B
4oz Biscuit malt
20g Fuggle Hops
8oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup
Pre-boil TG: 1.046
I am brewing this up tomorrow so I will let you all know what happens and how it turns out as the process goes on!
Well so far brewing has gone well. I mashed at 154 for 1 hour. Pre-boil gravity was 1.044 so I cannot complain with it being close to the target gravity.
The boil has started and my Fuggles have been thrown in. I have started to put everything into nylon and fine mesh bags to reduce the amount of extra nonsense that has come into my beer.
Everything went well! The beer is in the fermenter and yeast is pitched. We will give it a few weeks and see what happens! It is fermenting beautifuly. Gravity not where I want it to be so the Monk will sit for a few more days.
Well after 10 days in the secondary, the beer is delicious but it definitely needs some bottle conditioning time. The beer has a potential alcohol content of around 6.8%. At first tasting it is a little thinner than I had hoped but we shall see after about 1 month of bottle conditioning.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Root Colbeer
Well I know this isn't beer to go with my miniature brewery that I got going on in my small apartment, but since my lady doesn't like real beer I made root beer. So I really had no clue how to make a root beer so I went to Brew Brothers and milled around the two soda making books that exist. As it so happens that same weekend the two brewing proprietors were out of town and they had some loyal customers as helpers. I got to talking with one guy and he said that he made something closer to sarsaparilla. I ended up getting
7.8oz of sarsaparilla root
5 vanilla beans - whole
5 star anise
with the hopes of finding some sassafras root which I will have to venture to the east coast to find it. It grows naturally over there. Also apparently it is carcinogenic so it is not allowed for mass sale in the US. Anyways I ended up getting some root beer extract to cover the sassafras flavor.
After doing some research I did find that the sassafras root give root beer it's rootness. So because I had to find to go with the root beer extract I was a little disappointed in the fact I couldn't find the sassafras root.
Put 3 gallons of water into stockpot.
After steeping my stuff in around 140F degree water, for 80 minutes, at around half way I added in 2 tablespoons of the root beer extract to my root beer mash. When all that was done with the boil and all I put it in one of my beer primary buckets and added water up to 5 gallons. then transferred with my AutoSiphon into my keg. Now I am just waiting for it to cool so that I can force carbonate the bad boy!
Well after force carbonation this guy is delicious. It does not taste like commercial root beer which is fine with me. The carbonation is low which is alright with me. Now maybe I shall see what it tastes like with ice cream in it foe root beer floats!
7.8oz of sarsaparilla root
5 vanilla beans - whole
5 star anise
with the hopes of finding some sassafras root which I will have to venture to the east coast to find it. It grows naturally over there. Also apparently it is carcinogenic so it is not allowed for mass sale in the US. Anyways I ended up getting some root beer extract to cover the sassafras flavor.
After doing some research I did find that the sassafras root give root beer it's rootness. So because I had to find to go with the root beer extract I was a little disappointed in the fact I couldn't find the sassafras root.
Put 3 gallons of water into stockpot.
After steeping my stuff in around 140F degree water, for 80 minutes, at around half way I added in 2 tablespoons of the root beer extract to my root beer mash. When all that was done with the boil and all I put it in one of my beer primary buckets and added water up to 5 gallons. then transferred with my AutoSiphon into my keg. Now I am just waiting for it to cool so that I can force carbonate the bad boy!
Well after force carbonation this guy is delicious. It does not taste like commercial root beer which is fine with me. The carbonation is low which is alright with me. Now maybe I shall see what it tastes like with ice cream in it foe root beer floats!
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