Brew Batch # 190 HOLD FAST!

FG 1.008 +0.001 @78F to give it a solid 5.5%. Color and nose seem about right, just gotta let it sit on gas for a bit and get the carbonation and head right plus a pinch of lagering. Need to get the Untappd graphic just right too since I think this will be a recipe in my war chest so to speak. May feel cocky enough to enter it this summer. Let the quaffing begin!

Brew Batch #190 HOLD FAST!

Never before brewed this style but I can't let Anchor go gentle into that good night! Loads of reading have my recipe hopefully dialed in. Anchor was always good about helping homebrewers get recipes right, so I feel relatively good on this one. Biggest things are Northern Brewer hops and California Common 2112 yeast. OG 1.050 +0.001@ 72F. 

Seventeenth Annual Virginia Beer Blitz (2024)

 

354 entries and two were represented by Beat-12 Brewing Co. No Taters and Wallaby Water (pronounced Wa-duh). A masterful and well-run comp where Bryan Flaherty kept all the entrants up to date and made sure entries arrived alive. Wallaby garnered a 34 and No Taters a 38 and 🥉! These scores are roughly 10 points higher than what they got in AL Brewer's Cup?! Wallaby was said to be a touch iron-like (this is from the Pride of Ringwood hops, I'm sure) and No Taters split a 35 and a 40 between a non-BJCP and certified judge. These entries were literally bottled, boxed and shipped the same day as the AL entries and even sampled 2 weeks later but received higher scores? After asking an old brew buddy his explanation as a former National is that the bigger more established events typically have more experienced judges and the scores seem to be more quantitative across the board. Regardless, the state for Lovers is checked off the list!

AL Brewer's Cup 2024

 

Scott Joines and the Carboy Junkies of Hoover, AL run one smooth well attentive to detail comp. I can see now why there's such a concerted effort for comps of this size and larger to get judges (that's an entry in and of itself). They had 3 tasting sessions over 2 days and results were posted that night. Unfortunately, Wallaby Water (pronounced Wa-duh) and No Taters didn't fair very well. A whopping 28 for both. There were 3 judges on the IRA flight, which was appreciated since there were 12 or so in it.  They wanted it to be sweeter and a little darker. For my 12B, the pear and apple esters were picked up but they wanted more effervescence. It's only the 2^nd year for this comp and it was already up to 200 (from 111 last year), I'll keep trying. 

Brew Batch #189 That Effing Hairpiece in your Bathroom

Into the keg today with a healthy FG 1.010+0.000 @65F to give it a smooth 7.35%. I like to try the swill and it seems to be fine, but some gas should let me know if I'm on the right track. My gut tells me there may be a need for a touch more body which means higher mash temps, or perhaps some oats. 

Brew Batch #188 No Taters

What's become an "iffy" release has become a personal vendetta! FG 1.002-0.001 @56F gives it a healthy 4.7%. So, we kept the overall grain bill then went Nottingham on the yeast, that pretty much finished the beer in 2 days. Should have good caramel notes and maybe a pinch of ester from the English yeast.

Brew Batch #189 That Effing Hairpiece in your Bathroom

I wanted to be able to compare the BA and regular version of this, so OG 1.066+0.000 @71F keeps it pretty close to the barrel batch.