Beer Savers

So I know I have been plugging some beer gadgets but this one is another one of my top 5 gadgets so far. They are called the Beer Savers. These silicone babies act like bottle caps for those nights where you might not want to finish that 22 ouncer or 12 ounce bottle. I use them a lot when I pick up a 22 ouncer that I want to split between 2 nights.

Beer Savers come in many colors

Anyways back to my product plugging, these fellas are great. They have kept a beer fresh for me for up to 3 days! Still carbonated. The only problem I have with the damn things is my cats have turned 5 of them into chew toys. Why they decided to do that I have no clue, but for only $7.99 you can get yourself a half dozen of them and for $14.99 you can get yourself a dozen of them. I would recommend getting the half dozen.

Beer Savers Website

They come in many different colors and are dishwasher safe. These make for great stocking stuffers for when the Holiday season rolls around. These also make great gifts for the beer enthusiast, your old man, or the guy who likes to cover his beer with tin foil or saran wrap because he can never finish a beer. Well let us consider this my number 2 of Mikey T's Top 5 Beer Gadgets.

Decap-N-Catcher

So while I was at Portland's Spring Beer and Wine festival, a man was walking around with a plaque. The unique quality of this plaque was that it was a bottle opener. It mounts right onto your refrigerator and will hold a week's worth of bottle caps around 12-15 caps. Best 20 bucks I have ever spent. The mystery behind this wonderful gadget is that there are no batteries and it used powerful magnets to stay on your fridge and hold the caps.

The inventor of this device is local here in Portland and ships them all over the country. This would be great for those of you who get bottle caps all over the place or put them in drawers or like to fold them up and leave them on the floor for your fiancé to step on.

 

Here is my DeCap-n-Catcher in use. As you can see there are caps there. 

DeCap - N - Catcher

What is your favorite beer gadget?

I Bocked Mai Taxes of 2011

So I started out with a clone recipe to make the wonderful Rogue Dead Guy ale. First off, Rogue brewery makes one hell of a beer no matter what they are making. They have over a dozen or more different types of beer. I also was making this beer around Income Tax season so I figured this higher ABV beer would be a great way to celebrate the receiving a payment from Big Brother for a change.

I started out researching this clone recipe but could not fin enough consistencies so I just walked into Brew Brothers and their knowledgeable staff has a recipe that I followed to some extent. I did want some more malty character to it and a little more hop bite. Not a lot of hop bite but some. So I eventually used the following recipe:

6.5 pounds Golden Light LME
2.5 pounds Munich LME
1.25 pouns Carastans 30/37
1.6 ounces Perle @ 60
1.25 ounces Saaz @0

Mashed at 155 for 30 minutes then added the malt extract. Boiled for 60 minutes and followed the hop schedule.

I used my Wyeast 1056 slurry or Rogue Pacman in this beer and holy guacamole. This yeast is by far my favorite.

OG 1.078
FG 1.017
ABV (potential) 8.0 felt like a 7.3

After comparing the two, the clone is very very close to the brewery's Dead Guy. This beer does not have much meat to it but that's what makes it so drinkable. It goes down smooth and kicks you in the butt. I think next time this one might have some more malt. Maybe a double dead guy???


What's your favorite Rogue beer?

The coveted Blasphemy Blue Wheat

Now the most coveted of Mikey T's beers will be blogged about but unfortunately the recipe will not be shared but with only the most trustworthy people....as Stone's Arrogant Bastard's motto goes,



“You aren't worthy!”

(I am being serious)

So my inspiration for this beer which I have dubbed, the Blasphemy Blue Wheat, ABV of about 5.5%, came from the beer world's lack of blueberry flavored beers and my love for blueberry flavored things. THe blueberry ales seemed lacking so I decided to go with a blueberry wheat. People love raspberry wheats so why not a blueberry one?

I started with a German hefeweizen recipe and worked my way from there. When I first made this beer it was not blueberry season and I was not able to get fresh blueberries so I used extract. The blueberry flavor comes from tastings as the beer ferments and grows. Therefore I cannot accurately give measurements but have some idea of them on paper. (Computer stored recipes can be hacked and therefore stolen so I have coded all my recipes so that I can decipher them.) HAHA Since then the beer has just gotten better and better to where it has been described as “nectar from the gods with a hint blueberry” to just “blueberry beer deliciousness.” So I haven't decided if I want to use fresh blueberries or not yet. I cannot get the beer to turn blue it has more of a purplish/golden twinge to it. Since this beer has become more popular I will not share the recipe with you guys unless you are a professional brewer who wants to commercially produce this or you are a local brewery wanting to try something new. (10 Barrel you should attempt this one. You guys have balls the size of Jupiter and go out on a limb often with your beers. Let's make a deal for this one!)

For those who want some pointers and tips on wanting to make this beer let me know and I will glad help out. I will NOT share the recipe. If you want and I have some on hand I am more than willing to share a bottle with you!

Bollocks! It's English Ale!

So my love for the beer from across the pond has shown through. My inspiration has come from Fuller's 1845 beer which I think is one of the best beers from across the pond. My next across the pond adventure inspiration will be a hard cider.

I went into the recipe process to find out all that I could about English beer. I found out that most have pronounced bread and toffee flavors. The pronounced toffee flavors come from the Carasan/Carastan British 30/37L malt. This is a flavor I highly enjoy. To get the bready flavors I did not want them to be too pronounced but still noticeable, I used the Special Roast.

The recipe is as follows:

O/G 1.078

F/G 1.016

ABV 5.4% my scale says 8.1% but after drinking it's definitely not that high in alcohol content.

IBU: 30

SRM: 15

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

1 Whilfoc tablet at 15

½ tsp of Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @10

Since none of the malts were enzymatic, I just steeped the grains in 3 gallons of water until they hit 180°F and then added malt extract. Then when the boil started I followed the hop schedule and at the end of the boil I ice bathed the wort in 30lbs of ice water in my bath tub. After 25 minutes the wort temperature was down to 68°F and I pitched my yeast. I used the WLP 005 or London Ale yeast.

After fermentation was complete and I transferred to my secondary to let the rest of the nonsense drop, I bottled. Then I bottle conditioned the beer for two weeks at around 69°F and enjoyed. The toffee flavors after tasting are not as pronounced as I'd like but next time that will be fixed. The yeast definitely gives off a drier finish to the beer. This is consistent with most British ales. This beer when shared with people has been highly popular and everyone has loved it.

Ode to Lindsay Wheat

This wheat beer is a Belgian White Wheat style. The inspiration for this came from some of my cousins' love of Blue Moon and my family's attachment to oranges.
So add in the Orange Blossom honey and voila! delicious beer. This beer is still in the secondary  fermenter.

The recipe is as follows:
5.2 pounds of Golden Liquid Malt Extract
1.3 pounds of Wheat malt extract
1.25 pounds flaked wheat
1.0 pounds European two-row
.83 oz Hallertau Mittlefrueh @61 minutes
.83 oz Fuggles @15min
.25 Hallertau Mittlefrueh @12min
.83 oz Hallertau Mittlefrueh @ 1 minute
1.0 pounds Orange Blossom Honey @1minute
.5tsp Wyeast Nutrient @10
WLP 400

Original Gravity: 1.056
Estimated ABV: 5.4%
Mash grains for 30 minutes at 155
Add in malt extract bring to boil and follow hop schedule.
Pitched yeast at 72 degrees. Transferred to secondary after 7 days and second fermentation started. Gravity at 1.031

Still in fermenter....watching beer ferment is like watching grass grow or paint dry.

Racked the beer a second time for more stuff to fall down. When I racked it a first time a second vigorous fermentation started. SO we will see what happens now...

Well I was finally able to bottle this bad boy. 34 12 ouncers and 5 22's. Beautiful. 5.4% in the end.

It looks copper in this picture but I had some other not so great pictures and I think there is an orangeish tint to this fella. The beer turned out well. Now we will give it a few weeks to condition and crack it open and garnish with an orange slice.

First post!

The name comes from my love of Scooby Doo. Also I am an avid cartoon watcher and home brewer. 

So after talking with an old friend and figuring that I want to share my brewing experience with people and the amount of people who love my Blueberry Wheat I should blog about my brewing experiences....Well starting after 22 batches of beer.... I have made many different batches of beer but I must say that any beer I have made with the Rogue Pacman yeast is amazing. Thanks to my cousin Randy (BTW checkout his blog http://poorhousebrewing.blogspot.com) he has shared some great tips with brewing ideas. For those who are all about sustainability save some of your yeast slurry into a 1qt Mason jar and save yourself 6 bucks a batch! Anyways I have most recipes posted at hopville and you should check that site out for helping with recipe creation. I stumbled upon that site with the help of the guys at Main Street Homebrew. (Check them out)

Main Street has a great selection of ingredients and bottled and kegged beers. The staff is very knowledgeable.

Anyways let's stay tuned for more.....