Brooke's First Beer

Well, today, Brooke made her first all grain beer. While I did help out and let her know what to do, she did all of the work to make the wonderful creation. She decided to make a robust porter. I bet that it is going to turn out very well and I am excited to hear the wonderful bubbling coming from the airlock in a few hours. Sorry, but this is going to be a short post. Later everyone

Barley Wine and New Equipment

So I said that I was going to show the new brewing equipment and here is a new picture of the chilling setup. I have to say that it chilled everything very quickly and without any problems. I found that my tap water is not even close enough to being cold to chill a full pot of hot wort. Now I run a primary chiller through ice water and then put it through the chiller in the wort.

Anyway, it was exciting yesterday, I was able to bottle my Barleywine that has been sitting in the carboy for many months. I did the math and the ABV is just over 11%. It will be very good once it starts to get colder outside. I am really proud of this beer because there is only 1 pound of DME in it and the rest is all grain.

Beer Stock and New Batch

Beer Stock 5060 was completely amazing. Mark and Alison put on an amazing event. I am proud of my club because we had so many different kinds of beer and were represented well. Here are some photos of the event.







I was inspired to make a new batch today as well. I picked up a wort chiller for cheap at Beerstock and I now can super chill my water with an ice bath. Hopefully it will turn out great.

Well, I will have to update the pictures later.

New Equipment

It has been a while since I have posted. I guess that is what a busy summer brings. Since my last post, I have now gotten my own kegging system. I also converted my mini fridge into a keg fridge.

As far as the beers that I have made, I have made 2 batches of my 47.7 degrees N. pale ale. I changed up the hop bill on this and I now use only Amarillo hops. It gives it a great citrus flavor. Yesterday, I made a dry stout in honor of Brooke getting her new place. I hope that it turns out ok because of the heat we have been getting here. I am sure that it will be doing alright. Of course I forgot to take pictures when I was brewing, but what else is new.

Happy brewing and until next time, keep it hoppy.

Decent Results

I got the scores for my beers that I entered in the Pro Am. I must say that I was surprised with my 47.7 degree N. pale ale. I got a 34 on it and ended up getting 6th out of 15 entries. I am interested in my actual score sheets to I can see what they have to say. I think that I will have to work with my recepie to see what I can change with the hops. I am just not super happy with the hops combo that I used. It should end up being an all Armarillo hopped pale. The Blonde didnt fair so well, but I was expecting that. It was very out of style.

I opened my Stalingrad Red Ale and it is very tasty. I think that there is something special about this one.

Sharing the Brew

I took down some beer to Gilligans and was completely shocked with the crowd that was down there. They sold all of their beer within an hour and I am very happy for them. After the crowd dispersed, we cracked some home brew. Greg was there as well and I am glad that he is getting to start a new position in the brewing field.

I will probably go down on Sunday to see what it takes to brew a large amount of beer and possibly get some pointers on making the brew, mashing, and getting better efficiency. Well, it is getting late and I need to get to sleep. I will update when I rack my Hef.

El Hefe is back

I am now trying to get my summer beer collection going. I know that I am not going to make too much this summer. I decided to make a Strawberry Hef. I absolutely love the simple grain bill for these types of beers. I also tried to do a 2 step infusion mash and I really dont like that process. I feel that the single infusion mash is definitely better. I am thinking of having another beer release party for my 47.7 Degree Pale. I a hope that Tweak wants to bring a mini keg of his Woodsman Coffee IPA so we can both have the release party together. I visited Gilligans on my way to the UW and he wants to try my latest beers so I am pretty excited about having a professional opinion of my brew.

I entered 2 beers into the pro am and hopefully I will do well at least on my Pale Ale.

Competitions and New Beers

This weekend was a busy beer weekend. I started the weekend by bottling a 5 gallon batch of my 47.7 Degree N Pale Ale, named for the . Then on Saturday, I bottled up another 5 gallon batch of my Mismatched Blonde. This is one beer that just would not clear up, I thought I would have to call it the Dirty Blonde, but I needed to get it bottled so I can get it entered into the Pro Am in a few weeks. Hopefully, I can get a beer selected by a brewery to be put into the Great American Beer Festival in the Pro Am Competition.

I also decided to make Sunday into a brew day after making a beer that I didn't get to keep last weekend. I decided to make an Irish Red which I think I may call the Firecrotch Red Ale, but it will probably be changed. I thought it was a funny name at the time, but probably not something great to enter if I entered a competition. This was the first time that I did a straight full body mash with no mash out. The color on this beer is a nice tone of red and has a few hop additions within the boil. It is now sitting in the primary and hasnt started bubbling yet, but it should start soon.

I cant wait to try my new beers I bottled and should be able to soon.

New Recruits

So I finally had a new recruit to the homebrew army. Tweak came up to make his first batch. I think that I may have spoiled him by doing an all grain batch, but it is my obsession now. We decided to make a coffee IPA which from the first tasting will be a good bitter brew. It was the first time that I had seen Columbus hops in leaf form. They were actually higher is alpha acid than the pellet variety. It was very sad to see those 5 gallons of wort leaving with someone else.

I am really excited to bottle my pale that is almost ready to be bottled. Not quite sure what the next batch will be but I am sure it will be something interesting.

Till next time.

29 Wit Salute

So I finally bottled the Wit that I made for Brooke's birthday. I was a bit nervous because I pulled the recipe out of my ass as well as the spices. I must say that I have very high hopes for this one. Upon my tasting in my final gravity testing, this brew will be perfect for the summer time. Now I must wait a few weeks so I can taste it fully carbonated.

Since I last posted, I have gotten the results from my competition. My highest score was a 30. I think that the bottles I submitted had some contamination. Oh well, live and learn.

I have also brewed a blonde ale and a pale ale with Armiretto and Cascade hops. The brew shop was saying that it will be a good combination of hops and I have been hearing it bubble for the past few days.

My second round of black IPA is now going to be called a dark ale due to way to many esthers and too fast fermintation. I also used the wrong yeast for the job. Irish Ale is not the choice for my tasty brew.

Tweak has been inspired to make a batch of brew soon. He is talking about making a coffee IPA and it will be coming soon.

Competition Blues

So I went to results festival for my beer that I submitted and I didnt even place top three in my category. I must say that I was a little bit bummed but I guess that the free Irish Red that I got from Micah was more than tasty. God I live Big Al's beer. In the crushing defeat that I had on Saturday, I decided that I want to get back to the basics and brew a basic blonde. These big beers provide me with to much opportunity to cover up my mistakes.

I also get to try my new sparge arm. I am excited to see if it makes a difference in my efficiency. I definately need to bring that up if I ever want to open my own brewery.

Birthday Wit

I decided to make a Belgin Wit for Brooke's Birthday. I havent had much luck in the past with this style, but I thought I would give it another shot. My Black IPA is also being judged today. I am looking forward for the feedback in that beer. It turned out very well.

More pictures from brew day coming soon.

Cranberry Blonde

So we are on the second day of my brew log. I decided to bottle my Sour Bastard Cranberry Blonde.
One thing that I like about making my own beer is that I have the chance to create something from a bunch of grain. I have always loved creating things, but with making beer, I get to make something that brings people together. I cant wait to get to try my first fruit beer.

Black IPA Take 2

Kyle and I worked on a second round of Black IPA on Friday. I think that I am going to take his philosophy that I cannot drink until I get into the boil. Nevertheless, I somehow was able to get my highest efficiency since I switched to all grain.

I entered the Cascade Brewer's Cup and hopefully will be able to get some positive feedback on my entry. Next on schedule is to make a nice birthday beer for Brooke.