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!

Kegs! Oh how sweet it is

Well so I have ventured into kegging...

5 gallon keg

I found some cheap kegs on craigslist or at least a certain craigslist sleuth I know found them for me. I picked up two pin-lock kegs for 60 bucks. The difference between the pin-lock and ball-lock or Corny kegs was the posts. As you can see the picture I posted you can see some little pins on the side and they will hold the accessories on with a simple push-and-twist.  The ball lock posts act like airhose fittings and snap on easier. The reason the two kegs have different posts is because Coke and Pepsi didn't want their kegs to be able to interact with each other. I understand why but hell, it's stupid. A keg is a keg and these pin locks will work just fine for me.


Anyways, I went to Main Street to pick up my keg set up and with it I got all the hoses, the connectors, another 5 gallon keg, a Picnic-style tap, a 5lb CO2 cylinder, regulator, and for a few extra bucks a gas manifold that will let me gasify two kegs with out having to daisy-chain the kegs together. How cool is that! It is identical to the picture below.

I am quite excited for this. Eventually I will add onto it for a 4 keg gasifier or manifold. These things aren't cheap but for now I can move back and forth between kegs. I can also use the kegs to force carbonate my beer and then see about moving to growlers for people or maybe bottling? We shall see how it turns out. All in all the investment into kegging was not as cheap as I thought it would be. The kegs were 30 bucks apiece and the manifold was 33 bucks. There are some other ones out there but they cost about 40 bucks apiece and I will eventually purchase one or build one. We shall see. The CO2 tank will only cost 12 bucks for a trade in. How awesome is that! I am pretty stoked.

Th only problem I will have with kegging is that I do not have a way to keep my kegs cool yet. I am not made of money for beer making but we shall see where this leads me. So those of you who come over for a beer and it comes from the keg, no bitching that it isn't cold. You will get either the finger or a 'bugger off.'

Well UPDATE: When I ventured into the kegs I figured that I would be able to have carbonated beer at a warmer temperature. Oh how I was wrong. It turns out that when you force carbonate the carbonation is not the same as when you use corn sugar to carbonate in bottles. SO to be able to kep the carbonation I am going to have to figure out a way to keep my damn kegs cool. I am debating if it would be cost effective to construct a Jockey Box into which my kegs can go anywhere with cold beer. PoorHouse Jockey Box  I figure I could make an even more elaborate one but I figure Ill go cheap for a while maybe even see if I could make a double jockey box with a small ice chest.

Rogue Public House and Brewery

So this is one of my favorite places to go when I am on a brewery tour or just wanting some good Oregon local food. This place also has some amazing beers. Not only do they have up to 20 beers on tap they usually have one to three rotating taps of something special they have brewed up that doesn't usually go to bottle. Also when I visit here I usually have at least one tasting flight and 3-5 pints.

Rogue Brewing Website

I always love the Dead Guys because it's light and delicious. I also have been enjoying Barley wines lately. These are usually malty and delicious with big aftertastes and lots of flavors. Usually very light on hops. I also make it a point to try something new every single time therefore I can have a great rounded view on their beers and not just a limited view. They also almost always have some sort of a seasonal beer that is just as delicious as the rest of their beers.

Another detectible fact about the Rogue is that they try to use the freshest and the most local ingredients that they can use. They use Kobe Beef and homemade cheese from the Rogue Creamery. Damn near as good as the Tillamook cheeses but the best part is this cheese is from Rogue therefore making it that much more delicious.

Bollocks! English Ale 2.0

Alright so since my Bollocks ale was liked by many and seemed to be a hit, I decided to make it again. This time with a slight adjustment to my Carastan malt. I wanted a hint more toffee flavor and kept the rest of the flavors the same. Still this beer will mimic that from something across the pond. Since I literally just pitched the yeast there will still be more to come about this Sweet Brew.

 9lbs Breiss Light Liquid Malt Extract

10oz Carasan/Carastan 30/37

4oz English Crystal 70-80L

4oz Special Roast

2.0oz Fuggles @60min (6.0 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @15min (4.1 Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @10min
.25oz Fuggles @ 7min (5.2Alpha Acids)

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @5min

.5oz Sonnet-Goldings @1min


 1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 min
1/2tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @10


WLP 005 British Ale Yeast


Just transferred to my secondary. Gravity at 1.022 Can't wait to get this one into my first keg! The beer is delicious. Toffee flavors are excellent. Has a great slight bready taste and the beer is delicious. 


Just kegged this bad boy and the final gravity came in at 1.020. So now the PSI is set to 32 and force carbonation is in effect. So tomorrow night we shall check out the progress and then Monday afternoon it should be ready for drinking!

It came out great! I am really excited as to how well balanced this beer came out to be. The toffee tones are a little more pronounced yet still subtle. Anyways the beer is delicious and as you can see it is light brown and really clear, well the lighting isn't the greatest but it is still good. So we just had a heat wave and the beer now has a delicious banana bread aroma that is so enticing I drank 2 tankards full.

Tattoo 'N Brew

So I know no one cares but since this past weekend I was at a wedding for some dear friends of mine and decided that my next blog post will focus on beer and bliss. My friends that finally got married and they had kegs of decent beer at their wedding. I think I have decided that it would be fun to have small kegs of rotating taps. This way I could have a few people bring beer that they made or smaller doses of amazing beer to drink up at my wedding. Or I could just brew the beer for my own wedding and people have to deal with whatever I make. :) A benefit of home brewing is that whoever comes over has to deal with your tastes. This is nice because you can get people to drink what you like and hopefully convert them. With the Corny kegs you could get at least 3-6 different types of beer distributed on 2 taps. With about 40 beers a keg damn, there could be one nice beer tasting event.

I also realized I have not brewed a batch of beer in almost a month. Depressing. I just have had no time with wedding activities and work. I do think I will have to make some time ad maybe do some early morning brewing. I also a going to begin kegging my beers so this should bump up production.

So this is my new tattoo. As you can see it needs some more work. Shading and some red/orange tips. This is a tattoo I designed myself.

Bailing Wire

My third beer gadget that I love that does not require batteries is bailing wire. I use bailing wire to make a handy thermometer holder to regulate the temperature during the mash, I have used it to make a third hand when I brew alone and need to strain something, or anything else that need tie together or whatever. I know some people will disagree with me, call it unsanitary, or flat out white trash but I see it as using my ingenuity and ways to find gadgets without spending a lot of money. (Check out PoorHouse Brewing for other ideas on how to make things smartly and cheaply. Hop Spider post is one that I refer to.)

Honestly, I have found that with beer brewing people use whatever they can to make their brewing experience as practical as it can be and what works for them. When it comes to the brewing process the basics are the same but what is used can be different. When it comes to the three tier systems there are many many different setups. Some people set up a linear three tier system. Some people has fully automated their brewing setup and some people have fully automated a whole set up to where they just add in the grains. Some systems have it to where even the hop schedule is automated.

What works and doesn't work for you?