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.