My new years resolution was to sto buying beer. I hadn/t brewed anything since Labor day so that was impossible. Im revising it to buying less beer and I think I may be able to make that one work. I began brewing again several weeks ago and made a few small batches and extract batches. I got my red mosquito on tap and a toasty ale and McGrizzlys Stout coming on tap real soon. We have ingredients for a cali common and a belgian strong golden ale so they will likely be up next though I'm not sure when that might be.
Spring is right around the corner so I'll have to tend the hops as they emerge. My yeild was a bit disappointing and I'm not sure we used them correctly. I'll have to work on drying them better this year. Cheers The hops were harvested in August and dried the used for a simple pale ale. It seems that dried hops dont wiegh anything at all so we didnt have quit as much as i thought we would.
We brewed the Rye Amber and it should get kegged soon. this is the first time Ive brewed with Rye so Ill have to wait and see what I think about it after I taste it. We also brewed an Oktoberfest beer. Im fermenting it using the accelerated lager fermentation schedule I used with the vienna lager I made in the spring. About 1 week in the 40s then abouit 1 weeek in the 60s then lager for as long as I can stand it, maybe 2 weeks. The vienna turned out great and I have high hopes for this one too. Happy Independance day. Good times as always. Wendys German Lager turned out pretty good and the whole thing got drank up. Phinyweizen, while a tad light and noticable "without hefe" was still good enough to be drank up in its entireity as well. The Penelope IPA simnply didn't work out in time to serve but perhaps next year. On tap now is the Saison, a very tart one this year because we had to use a different yeast. While not out of style it is a tad too tart for my tastes but Il still manage to drink it. I also have on tap a cream ale. It's pretty good but I used cascade hops for some flavoring and found them to be a bit odd in such a beer. Next time I think Ill try to stick to a simple bittering addition and if i due use a flavor addition it will be with something less citrusy.
Up next, I'm not exactly sure but Id like to make an malty amber rye. Much to report on. Memorial Day weekend was a huge brew. I did it solo and it was tons of work but I have good feelings about the product. I brewed 10 gallons of Phinyweizen 5 gallons of Wendy's German lager and I'm giving the new baby cream ale another go. The Phinyweizen is the same recipe from last year, the lager is a pils/ vienna grain bill and the cream ale is 2 row cara Munich and flaked maize. I kegged these beers last weekend and preliminary results were very promising. I plan to tap two at my sisters July 4 party and I'll let her husband chose which he prefers. Good times I suspect The black IPA from the big brew turned out to be neither black nor and IPA. It is however very tasty just not IPA enough and citra is a weird hop to use with lots of dark malts and it's actually darker than black if such a thing is possible. I may need to revisit this In the autumn. Cherts Sat may 2 2015. We were back at mdhb for the annual national homebrew day big brew. This year we brewed a black IPA. Awesome time as always. I sampled some great brews and had a great time. Lots to report. Saison brewed. Scotch ale kegged for the big brew at MDHB on NHBD. It came out a bit lower FG than we would have hoped but the flavor is there and I think it will be nice. We also bottled the Eastvletern 10°. I named the split mash big/small beers the Eastvleter 4° and Eastvletern 10° because their Og's were close enough to 1.040 and 1.100 and it makes me feel cool. I think the experiment was a succeess. we got great efficiency and out of a single 24 lb ,mash we got about 5 gallons of a nice session belg. pale ale and a BSDA.. up next to brew is The black IPA that we are brewing at the big brew. there has recently been talk of a rye something and an imperial stout that I hope get done soon. cheers
Last evening I emptied my keg of the Belgian pale. I am very sad because presently I have no beer in my keggerator. The bourbon brown gifted from Ernie dissappeared, McGrizzly's stout paractically evaperated and now the Belgian pale that I will refere to as Eastvleteren °4.Luckily though, last weekend I had to move some couches and used that as an excuse to brew. And scince we were brewing i figured we ought to do three batches, nearly emptying a 55lb sack of marris otter, so that I wont run out of kegged beer any time soon. We'll see how that works, eh?
We brewed a ten gallon batch of what was supposed to be a SMaSH but we didn't bother to take stock on our hops and had to improvise with 4 different varieties. We used 20 lb Marris otter for a ten gallon batch bittered it with a touch of warrior hops flavored it with kent goldings and added some willamette and styrian goldings for aroma. Because it really is so damn good we brewed the bourbon brown again. And for reasons unknown we decided again to make a barleywine using the same recipe that we failed to get right years ago. and of course, again, our efficiency was terrrible. We brewed this thing a few years back and our efficiency was aweful but the beer turned out great. we tried to recreate the failed attempt and we failed and the beer was not quite as good as the first time. now we tried again. We'll see how this one comes out but perhaps this recipe on our system is just not right for us. Cheers! Its cold this morning. anyway, the dopplebock kicked last night. I was never sold on it entirely but it was coming around and I am sorry to see it go. the citra pale ale kicked and I also recently, with the help of my wife, finished a delicious maple bourbon brown ale from Ernie which was outstanding. On tap now I have McGrizzly's stout and im putting a belgian pale, from a split mash we did, on tap this weekend. A few weeks ago we brewed a strong dark ale and a pale ale from the same mash. It was a learning experience but it seemed to work out ok, although we havent bottled the strong beer yet. I,m not sure what to brew next but weve discussed it a few times and I hope to get to brewing very soon.
Good times. I kicked the kegs, one with the porter and the other with the german lager. The Citra pale ale is kegged nd ready to tap this week and the dopplebock is ready for packaging. Every year at about this time I try to brew my stout, McGrizzly's Stout. It was one of the first 5 gallon batches I made years ago and I still make it at least once a year. It is a slightly modified version of a recipe from MDHB. this picture is of course from a previous batch but looking at it makes me happy |
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