Brew Batch #93 Jake's Juice

I owed my building buddy for a few favors, so today Ryan at OTB helped knock out hopefully the 100% dialed in recipe for JJ's. I've put all of his batch on Wyeast 1010 the way he likes it, started fermentation at 67F and used honey from a source only 10 miles away within our home town! OG 1.050 +0.000@ 67F. Water chemistry adjusted to hopefully give a clean crisp gulper! (Actually made 9 gallons, QC Dept. needed some;)

Happy St. Patrick’s

Signaling the impending and undeniable end of winter and April showers, is the greenest day on my calendar! My children are now getting into carrying the "green" torch as long as the leprechaun continues to visit and mess up their room leaving his customary gold foil wrapped chocolates😉 I use this day to imbibe in at least one pint of Guinness and review it's history. I still love the bargain made for the original brewing property, 45IEP (now obsolete and replaced by the Euro in 1999) roughly $70 US per year for 9000 years. (Just realized I forgot to release this post, too busy drinking dark beer:)

T-minus 3 to The Green

St. Pat's has always been a celebrated holiday with me. I've cooled over the years with regards to starting celebration a month early and due to pro-creation, Braveheart doesn't play on a loop because of the violence. But, that's no excuse not to jump back into the swing of things. Let's start with some basic stuff, like the flag.

Our Tastes-- Plenty for All Pilsner

After Siebel, I tried to open my palate to other styles that maybe I had tried in the past but not really followed through on with regards to developing an opinion on. So I ordered a bunch of beer styles that I didn't readily drink with Pilsner being one of them. Plenty for All from Fall Brewing Co got put in the basket and is a great style example. A sweet malt backbone and what I imagine is a exemplary Saaz nose. This along with Pilsner Urquell was my inspiration for Pill Roller Pils. 4.9% and easy to operate heavy machinery with. 

Brew Batch #92 Orange Creamsicle

The blending of orange flavoring and my vanilla extract took place this afternoon during kegging to create my first sour. FG 1.010 +0.000@ 60F to yield hopefully a very quaffable spring brew that has a slight sweetness of an orange creamsicle on a slightly sour base. Had about 1 gallon of leftover base beer so I may conjure up some other little extremely limited test batch for my next one. Waste not want not.

Balls N Chain 15K (Leg Three)

In 2016 I had my entire "Wolf pack" married off in no less than 6 months! I completed a Beat-12 version of a 5K, 10K and planned for 15K. But alas my longest buddy's betrothal completion went unfinished, until today. So at 9.9 miles (15K being 9.3, and sponsored by East Coast Transplant) I finished with 1:37. After burning 1300kcal and praying to be able to make it to the ice bath I felt the deed had been done. The Enabler +1 that's been in the asphalt since pouring next to my house now has a name.... "Ali's Son". Now, let's see who of the Wolf Pack dies first......

Brew Batch #90 Peanut Butter NO Jelly Time

An Imperial porter with a journey into the unknown the likes of Jack Sparrow At World's End. Starting with a ton of reading and modeling after Beer Engineer's (now defunct) PB porter this one has taken it's toll on me in both the kettle clean up and patience. But today after a week on cocoa nibs and a trial run on a 2 ounce taster with only 0.2ml flavoring it went into the keg after cold crashing on the back porch at 37F. I started with 2.0 ounces of flavoring at kegging based off of that same ratio, which by the way only a gallon would properly enhance 8.5bbls! A grain bill with 10 listings, a week on nibs, thieved enough plus trub to yield only 4.75 gallons then flavoring enhanced on an FG 1.030 @50F to yield 10.6%, 0.1 higher than BE. And it smacks of liquid Reese's peanut butter cup. This will be my most limited on Untappd. Reserve your 12oz long neck today because half of this booty belongs to my family "stitcher".

Kansas City Bier Meisters 35th Annual Homebrew Competition

Entry #395 aka Southie-12 entered the field of 529 and got a 31. Bummer all around but the BJCP judge scoring it gave it an "apple and medicinal" comment in an ordinal flight 6 of 6. I understand Schu has been doing this for a while, but short of tainted bottles (which they weren't) I'm not sure where these particular notes were picked up. Also needed more carbonation and complexity, both of which I can control but even this category doesn't require high volumes of CO2. On to the next comp and chalk it up as a learning lesson.