Not such a good blogger, am I?

I have been brewing more than I've been blogging.  Since the last post, I've brewed an American Brown ale, a Rye Amber ale and a pre-prohibition pilsner.  Yum...

The pre-pro is actually a bit of a tradition here.  The basement is still in the 60's, not quite cold enough to lager.  But if I'm careful I can ferment in the 50's by using either the garage or my deck. 

Just got a ribbon for my last German pilsner from last spring, 40 points, not bad. 

Time to start planning my holiday ale.  Taking into account the crisis of hops prices/availability, I'm thinking it might be time to rediscover "session" ales from England.  So I think I'll do a hearty Strong Dark Mild ale. 

Saison update

Still fermenting............down to 1.018ish. Hard to read cause there is still some krausen on top. Still bubbling and it smells good.

Redemption Beer

Well, I never thought it could happen to me.................but two tries to sparge an overnight sour mashed beers (with flaked maize) were totally and completely stuck solid: looked like glue, unbelieveably frustrating and it made me very determined to brew again. So with the beautiful American Wheat #1010 ready, I brewed this one yesterday. A copper colored American wheat: UK pale, US white wheat, and cara-wheat. I used some leftover No. Brewer, Cascade, Simcoe and Columbus, in that order. Didn't bother to calculate the IBU's. But, thankfully, a smooth mash and an easy sparge. Probably helped by spending an hour with a toothpick to poke out the goo from the holes in my false bottom. But this is the next morning and the yeast is really going crazy. It's the kind of floculation that can keep a brewster entertained for..............minutes at a time. Like little meteors hurtling through space. Tried to post a movie but it's not as bright as the picture. And Blogger, despite it's claims that we can post video, tried and failed three times to do so.

But, we will return after Labor Day, for another sour beer. Maybe a smaller sour mash and/or souring the wort overnight. We'll have to think about this (we, as in me and my brew buddy T.H., not just me speaking royally).

Tis the Saison..................

After a very long brewing hiatus, I'm back. Just bottled and kegged the last of the lagers: schwartzbier, vienna and a pils. It's hot out and according to Wyeast, here's a yeast that can take it: Saison. I'm having a little nosh here, Saison Dupont and a Vermont camenbert style cheese. And the wort is chilling as I write. I went with a 60/40 blend of Belgian pilsner and Vienna malt for a base. Some acidulated malt and white wheat from Briess. 1/2 lb. of cara-red. I think I nailed the orange color pretty well. This Dupont is a little more golden/orange than I think mine will be. I hopped it with all East Kent Goldings. 4 ounces got me to 42 IBU's. Starting gravity should be about 1.063. I had a pound of light candi to throw in, but the gravity is high enough. I mashed @ 149/150 so I hope this ferments down nice and low.

It feels good to be brewing again....even though it's a hot day. And I'm planning the next brew. It's going to be a repeat of a 10 gallon partial mash Flanders red ale. We'll do a sour mash all night and hopefully get it good and sour. The last time I did this, about 3 years ago (maybe longer?????) it came out great. We added peach influences to one batch and blackberry to the other. We are still playing around with ideas for this one.

Getting a little behind here............

This is about one of my newer favorite beers. When we go on vacation we drink vast amounts of Heineken. Not because I'm such a fan, but it's the cheapest good beer, in a can, that we can find. It's a wonderful beer on a very hot day, when it's very cold. It's good in the morning with pb & j, it's good sitting on a floatie at lunch time, and really, until it's time to fire up the gin & tonics, good anytime. So I asked myself, how would I change it to make it better.....well, more hops and alcohol would be a start. So, My Big Heine was born.

It's about 1.058-60 OG. Pilsner malt, flaked rice and rice syrup solids, a pound each of the last two. I get the IBU's over 50 and pitch a good, clean lager yeast. In the past that was often Danish, but this year I used my new favorite, Budvar. All in all, something to look forward to when summer finally gets here.

100 bottles of beer on the floor.........

Well, it's easy to put off, but if you want to drink your homebrew, then you have to bottle/keg it. So Sunday was designated as bottling day. 20 gallons were processed: the rye lager, the Budvar lager, the oatmeal stout and the American pale ale. A combination of bottle sizes hopefully gives me the right size to share/drink at home. Everything tasted good. So now I can start brewing again. The basement is still 52F but it will start creeping up now. I have an "imperial" dutch lager and a 10 gallon partial mash Vienna/Oktoberfest planned.

This picture is Ninkasi, the Sumerian Goddess of Brewing. She is clearly in shape for hefting up 5 gallon carboys.

Fun week in politics..............great picture online of Karl "turdblossom" Rove with a folder from the RNC website host under his arm. That would be the outlet used by White House staffers to avoid using the official email server, you know, the one that has to be preserved. Rove and co. were using RNC email addresses to conduct official business. Sounds shady to me.

Sap's running!

Lot's of brewing this week. I brewed an ESB over the weekend. Finally used the Yorshire yeast in something that I'll be able to taste it in. Then on Sunday I got 5 gallons of sap. So today's brew is a traditional bock with the sap. Starting gravity is 1.071. I also did a "mash-out" decoction for 15 minutes. Oh boy, does the house smell good when I do that. It's so cool to see the different color of the decocted grains when they get mixed back into the main mash. Recipe was: dark Munich, German pale ale, pilsner, dark wheat, caramunich III, melanoidin and 2 ounces of dehusked Carafa I. Looks like a nice rich, dark copper, almost brown. Just two and a half ounces of German Hallertau pellets, a 500 ml starter of Bavarian and at the last minute a half cup of Urquell slurry. Chilled it right down to 52F and down to the same temp in the cellar. This should be a nice bock. I don't really expect any maple character since sap is so watery. And with the starting gravity I didn't bother to add any syryp to the boil.
So lager season is almost over and still, no rauch or Vienna or Dunkel. Oh well.

More pilsner

Because the days are getting longer and the basement is going to start getting warmer, the dilemma on each brew day becomes: should I brew a pilsner or should I make something that I haven't brewed yet this year. Like a bock, Vienna/Octoberfest, Dunkel or Rauch.....or should I just keep making Pilsner. So with an aging jar of Urquel slurry in the fridge, Pilsner won. Basic simple grain bill: Bohemian malt and white wheat. Hops are more fun: Saaz, Hallertau, Magnum, Tettnang and Spalt (still cleaning out the fridge). Starting gravity andIBU's are both 57. Yum. Can't wait.

The picture is of what I think is a pretty cool way to get your kegs delivered. I really like Venice.

No stout for St. Patrick's day....

It's my Sunday brewday, and today's homebrew is an oatmeal stout. I'm doing pretty good on my efficiency so instead of a regular dry stout, I've got a foreign export stout. With oats. But not a lot so I don't think that will change the beer and cause me to label it that way. Got a little crazy with the grain & hops, so for better or worse, here's the recipe:

Munton's 2 row, chocolate, black, roasted barley, crystal 60, dark wheat, US 6 row, oats, Munich, Target, UK Goldings, Challenger, Northdown and W. Yorkshire ale yeast. Whew....not my usual recipe, but I had a odd assortment of grain and hops to use up, so there it is. Too bad it won't be ready for St. Patty's but a nice stout in April will still be just fine.

Headslapper of the day (so far, but it's still early): Russert talking to Doris Kearns Goodwin and Maureen Dowd: "so who could have predicted 9-11?" And NOBODY corrects him!!!!!!!!!! WTF? Yo, Punkin' Head, have you ever heard of the August 6 pdb, Osama Bin Laden determined to attack the US? Maybe Rudy Giuliani, since the World Trade Towers had already been attacked, maybe he had a guess about that. Why don't you ask him? Although, since he had his emergency ops in the WTC, maybe not..............

I bottled my witbier this week. Did a little bottling day tinkering with it. It's very good, but maybe too clear. Very low final gravity, had to check it twice: 1.008 Nice delicate orange nose, very crisp and dry. I liked it quite a bit.

Now for something I haven't done here before. A beer tasting. A good friend was in Long Island and brought me back some Uerige Altbier. Just the regular, not the sticke or dubbelsticke. Which I've had and didn't really think much of. I like to brew/drink Dusseldorf style altbier and I've won a lot of ribbons for it, but other than a Diebels once, I've never had the real thing. So I'll think I'll open one up and taste it with an eye towards brewing one....

It's 4.5% alc/vol and a light/medium copper color. So, don't think you'd want to go over 1.048 OG. The color suggests a fair amount of Munich malt. The bottle says: wasser, Gerstenmalz, Caramelmalz, Rostmalz, Dolenhopfen, Uerige-hefe. So looks a little translation is necessary. I think that a blend of Munich/Pilsner malt, a fair bit of cara-red, maybe an ounce of carafa (the rostmalz) would get you there. It smells a bit long in the tooth, somewhat oxidized, but there is no hop aroma to speak of. Maltiness dominates the nose. There is just a bit of residual bitterness, more hop flavor in the mouth while I drink. So don't think I'd want to go over 40-45 IBU's. Of course, the color will be darkened by a decoction so I might instead go with a light Munich/pilsner/cara-hell/pinch of carafa blend and then do a 20 minute decoction for the extra intensity of maltiness/copper color. This is a tasty beer and I bet it goes down amazingly smooth in Dusseldorf. Gotta get there.......................

Tuesday dog blogging

My favorite blog and commenters are discussing the virtues of dogs vs. cats....so I offer you my buddy, Tito, the giant shrimp. He's a 20 lb "Chihuahua" we rescued. Although I have never owned a cat, I think Tito is more like a cat than any other dog I've seen. But, he is a dog and has disgusting dog habits, but for all that, I love him and I think the feeling is mutual.

On other matters, the pale ale from Sunday is in high krausen right now. Up to 65F but I don't think I'll need the blow-off. So it will probably be a huge mess when I get home tonight. Planning the next brew....have crushed up an oatmeal stout and I'll use the W. Yorkshire yeast for that. Should get the witbier bottled this week if time permits.

As for brewing liberally, take a minute to check out this page http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/Transcript_Page.aspx?ContentGuid=d7f52e21-cf46-4115-b397-ed1dc70fcdab

that was graciously shared by WoodyG'sGuitar, rogue scholar. Why isn't there more of this? Why are the politcal shows dominated by right wing pundits and asshats? There need to be more smackdowns like this. Which is one reason I like to listen to Randi Rhodes, love her!

Digging out..............

It's been a loooong week here at the brewery. By the time you start digging out from 2 feet of snow and figure out where to put it, a nice Sunday brew starts to look pretty good. Just racked the Budvar pilsner. It already tastes pretty good and isn't that cloudy either. A new brewer might consider it ready to bottle now, but patience will really pay off. The cellar is hovering just above 50F, so I will probably lager this pilsner for at least 4 weeks. I could go longer but that will work, then another couple of weeks to carbonate, so it's still going to be some time before it's in my glass.
Today's brew is an American pale ale. I have been storing a Rogue "pacman" yeast since the end of December. So I'm making a very hoppy, light orange pale ale. The starting gravity looks like it's coming in at 1.060 so it'll take plenty of Sorachi Ace and Amarillo and a little leftover Columbus for the aroma.

Rye & lies

Another Sunday brew day. Wasn't sure all week if I'd have the time to brew today, but the slurry of Urquell in the fridge wasn't going to last forever. And it's 48F in the basement. I decided yesterday I'd brew either a Munich Dunkel or a Schwartzbier since I now have 15 gallons of pilsner going. But I changed my mind and today's brew is a Red Rye Pilsner. Still can't get past the current pilsner theme....this is a beer I've done a couple of times. A nice dark red, pretty bitter, and the added twist of rye. It's a classic homebrew, totally invented & no official style of beer. I usually try to mix it up when I'm brewing. So in anticpation of lots of classic German/Czech pilsners on the way, this will be a nice change.

Recipe: German pilsner malt, dark munich malt, rye malt, flaked rye, caramunich I, and a pinch of chocolate rye to redden it up. Hopping is Northern Brewer for bittering, Spalt, Centennial, Liberty and Tettnang.

Now for the liberal part:

I'm watching the political shows this a.m. as I brew. Can't believe Douglas Feith has the cohones to say that the whole WMD scam was legit. Bastard. Wish he'd go over and prove it.....

Anyway, the Scooter Libby trial has been interesting...I hope Big Dick gets called to testify. Inquiring minds want to know.

Too much fun.................

Not posting in as timely a manner as I meant to, but I have an excellent excuse. Last weekend I spent the day with a bus full of my friends and set off to New Hampshire and beyond. New Hampshire stops were at Moat Mountain and Tuckerman Brewing. Brewer Will at Moat shared his beers, fine lagers, and gave us a tour. The tour at Tuckerman was interupted by periodic visits to the shop for tastes, a fine altbier and a pale ale. The altbier in particular was very good. But the "beyond" of our tour was Ebenezer's pub in the middle of some woods on a long stretch of Maine highway. I was on a bus so I didn't really need to know where I was....so I didn't. This is the beer Chris opened for us................and the hospitality and great beers just went wild from there. By the way, this is a BIG bottle. A magnum perhaps. I remember having a wonderful Cantillion Iris and a lot of fun. Oh yeah, I was celebrating the day before my birthday too. Too bad I was having so much fun I forgot to eat anything. It was a hungry ride home.

But I did get some brew jobs done this week. The witbier was racked (pretty tasty, but I might still jazz it up a bit) and I kegged an altbier (the one I made on New Year's Day). I know, I'm rushing it (I never even moved it down to the cellar to lager) but we are out of keg beer.

Starting to plan the next brew........I have a Rogue yeast and an English yeast, the West Yorkshire ale. So it'll be an American pale or brown or maybe an ESB. Not sure but I have till Saturday to decide.

The Budvar lager is still fermenting, it's 48F in the cellar.

If it's Sunday it must be meet the pilsner...........

Sunday is brew day. When my kids were little I used to brew during the week when they were in school. Now it's less of an issue and I don't care if they don't like the smell.
This is the brewery. Not very fancy. A 5 gallon brewpot is my mash tun. I can do infusions in the stove, step and decoctions on the stove. I use an old bottling bucket and a false bottom for sparging. Not very complicated. I can fit #13 of grain in the pot. For stronger brews I'll make 3 gallons or add some malt extract. I brew more often than my fellow brewers making 10-15 gallons, but I have more variety in the cellar.
Today's brew is a German Pilsner. It's a simple beer, just two grains today. Bohemian lager malt and white wheat. With a high mash temp I can forgo the crystal malts. German Perle, Hallertau Traditon, and lots of German Hallertau. I used a slurry of Budvar yeast that I had saved from last week.
Pilsner gets a bad rap. I don't make North American cat piss. This is real beer.
Sunshine in a glass.......crisp and dry. Bitter and aromatic. Refreshing. Good with all kinds of food. A show off beer for a brewer. If you mess up: too dark, too harsh, too malty, out of balance: you missed it. I watch the thermometer in the basement all fall, waiting to see it drop below 60F. My cellar is cold and dark. It is a keller, a cellar for brewing lager beers. I have till late April to take advantage of it.

Slurry: it's a beautiful thing

The witbier is going crazy.........I've washed out the airlock twice, but it looks like it's settled down a bit so I won't bother with the blow-off stuff. It's been a pretty steady 66F. Time to plan for tomorrow's brew. I have a slurry of Budvar yeast in the fridge. Just used it for the first time in a 10 gallon partial mash brew. I split the pilsner into two fermenters and pitched the Budvar in one and the Urquel in the other. Both are fairly recent additions to the Wyeast line up. Side by side, at 53F in the basement, the Budvar finished first. Tasted very promising when I racked it and it has already started to clear. I'll move these two pilsners along pretty quickly since I'll need to get some beer in kegs soon. The all grain brew tomorrow will be given a little more respect.....

It's five below....I think I'll brew a witbier

A very cold day, and I need to brew a witbier. My homebrew club has a little competition on the night of the NCAA finals and this year it's about wit. So be it.

My recipe:

Organic pale ale
white wheat

flaked oats

sweet orange peel

bitter orange peel

mystery herb

Did an infusion mash at 150-152F for an hour. Kind of soupy but the oats did suck up quite of bit of the excess

It's cuddled up next to the coal stove.....the warmest place in the house.

So goes this, my first post as a blogger. I meant to get started on New Year's Day when I brewed my first recipe of 2007, but I never got around to it.