Taster's Choice Awards (not the coffee)

I've had a few comments lately about the homebrew and wanted to share them:
BugMan1109 wrote--"I tried your APA alongside Olde Towne, and they were surprisingly similar. The Amber was good too. It had a sweet taste in the background.
We miss you , Rosa. ;-(" --nice closing BugMan. He also took the time to look up a homebrewers association featured on the History Channel's Brewing episode, of which I have taped yet not seen (finals will be over soon).
Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society (Los Angeles Homebrewing) - Home Page
I recently gave a sixer to a prof here at school consisting of SS, IRA & EPA and he said just this Friday he went all the way down one side of it (after his hot H2O heater went out) remarking, "They were good", a man of few words, thank you Dr. Colorado;)

Brew Batch #15

Vanilla Cream Ale also went to the bottle tonight. I personally think this was the shocker batch of the year, of we are only into this year by 22 days and this is the first bottled batch, but I digress...2 clear and 48 long-neck brown with TURTLE CAPS!! I'll post a pick of them when I can figure out how to use Picassa on blogger. FG was a little discerning though (see previous post) 1.014 +0.00@66F to give us a whopping 3% abv. But I will say that it bottled as the clearest best color yet, a nice golden straw. Who knows, maybe I'll try another batch and leave it alone to see how it turns out.

Brew Batch #17

Closing in on that 8 batches before April mark in record pace, our British Bitter went to fermenter tonight. The brewing process has become definitely more stream-lined and efficient on these mundane batches. We have run into a problem with the OGs being a little lower than we would like on these session type beers but can't seem to figure that one out. Didn't do a yeast starter for this one because of the fear of yeast-bite. OG 1.024 + 0.001 @73F. This is our last ordered batch so new ones will need to be ordered ( along with some sanitizer, may try Listermann.com )

Brew Batch #16

We'll call it 42-A IPA since this is Junk's brain child. I haven't made an IPA batch since 12/2003 and it turned out okay. We had a few of them this week and I really got the taste back in my mouth. This time we put all of the LME in a hot bath in the sink which made them REALLY quick and easy to pour (and it freed up the stove). We also put a little water in each of the jugs to get that last little bit of extract out of them. Speaking of sugar did I mention that we added about 1 lb of cane sugar to this batch? Yeah, buddy! Jamie down at the AleHouse said we would be okay at about 15% but we went with 10% since it was easier to measure. It also had 4 hop additions: Nugget, Fuggle, Kent Goldings and Fuggle (which was interesting to strain out). Oh and we may dry hop with some Cascade I have laying around. It took a while for the larger boil to come down to 80F but we were jaw-jacking and smoking stogies and cleaning out the fridge for upcoming tasters. So right now it is 38F outside and 62F in our primary. I'll check it tomorrow morning to see how the starter affected it. I hope it's rolling. OG 1.062+0.00 @60F If this turn out to be a 7%er it is going to be perfect. The only problem it that we can't decide what type of bottles to use, but the crowns must be YELLOW.

Poor Richard's Ale

I haven't had the opportunity to try this as of yet but Junk may have us a line on a growler or 3 in due time. Many of you may recall that years ago I did a famous quote week in which Ben Franklin was a part of it. He was also part of a great entry I did on the American Wild Turkey (not in the bottle) after seeing a piece on the Discovery channel drunk one night in which he wanted the American bird to be the wild turkey. Other than being a great inventor, scientist, statesman, and author (Poor Richard's Almanack hence the beer's name) Ben Franklin (January 17,1706-April 17, 1790) was a beer lover. Many stories have circulated about his prowess at being able to hold intelligent discussions over several pints of beer at his local watering hole where later his smooth tongue would land him in trouble with the ladies (including his housekeepers and servants). I won't spoil the rest of the story. For a bit on the way it came to be go to this and this and for the recipe go here and the extract version here

"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." probably led to
"If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty."
Did I mention ole Ben died at the ripe old age of 84 weighing over 300lbs, with a beer in his hand? ..well maybe not that last part, but he was damn sure preserved!!

Yeast Starter

Put together a starter batch for #16 in order to see if it helps with a more complete and rapid fermentation. I took 4oz of water boiled it and combined 1/3 cup of LME from the next recipe, allowed it to cool and added the already activated smack pack to it after it reached room temp making sure to aeriate well before hand. It turned out okay and started to slightly release CO2 as evident from the bulging glove that I attached. We'll see how it does...

Update...

I realize that it has been slow reading for those of you in TnDC-land but this week will attempt to catch you up and next month will be a blow-out (your bung-hole). Tonight we started a "small batch" for the yeast starter I will attempt to pour up tonight or tomorrow morning. By the way please pick up a copy of Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition it will answer a multitude of question for all stages of brewers. I neglected to mention that we added a "tablespoonful and some change" (to an already lip-smacking batch) of some Vanilla and racked over #15 last Friday. Starting tomorrow we will begin 42 Dog Dayz to commemorate the brews that Flying Dog Brewery puts out.

Nifty Usable Brew Item

This Christmas I was given one of these as gift from my regular's Vegas mom and I'll have to admit it is swwweeetttt!! I make this post as a testament to the fact that the heavy duty neoprene will definitely hold 6 beers at or below 50F (after refrigeration or leaving them on the balcony over night when it is cold) while the girl you are with shops all the big after holiday sales at Ann Taylor's Loft, Victoria's Secret, etc as you aimlessly wander around wishing to God that there was a video arcade or sports store because you have read through all the good mags at the bookstore, so you finally ask for the keys and just go and sit out in the parking lot and drink your cool brews only breaking away to go inside and use the only redeeming quality about this POS mall...the restrooms, just to fill up again;)

Brew Batch #15

Cream Ale will be the first batch of the new year. We hope to do at least 8 batches (and doubles don't count) by the time we leave at the end of April. OG 1.034+0.001 @70F. This was a clean and easy batch and should turn out to be a helluva session beer. This was the first time I've used Mt. Hood hops and they smelled great as bittering hops. We've already started talking about the next batches.

Tonight....

I was booted from my brew apprentice's dorm room in a reluctant manner at Harper dormitory tonight. I'll have to say it was great being in an empty dorm with access to the ladies room (yep I left the seat up). Tejas beat the crap out of my Sooners this year but it was worth it to watch them humble USC on the big screen at Junk's bump palace. Junk treated me to some Yazoo Sly Rye Porter (pics to be posted at a later date) that he picked up in a Growler while in TN. I'll have to admit when he said he liked it (he doesn't currently like too much that you can't see through), I thought it was going to be a bit weak. It was awesome with a great hint of scotch in the aftertaste. Yazoo is a new brewery in Nashville that Junk turned me onto and bootlegs samples back for me. They use Maris Otter malts from England that are also used in single-malt scotch.Here are the stats on Sly Rye-- OG: 14.40 Plato FG: 3.8 Plato IBUs: 28 SRM: 29 5.7% abv

PONTIAC baby!
PS- Right now I am standing at the laptop with a smack pack warming between my legs for #15;)

Reinke's Revenge

Tried it tonight and it was disappointingly amazing. January-- month of the Dog, February-- month of Mich and March-- month of Sam, more to follow soon, we are back at work.