Our Tastes-- Strange Paradise

It's been a while since I posted a yummy brew taster and after a long weekend of daddy duty, I needed a light crusher. Enter Strange Paradise. An easy to destroy 5% light lager infused with lime. There too many pluses to this beer to discuss them all but, it fills an imperial pint, drinks like ice cold water, comes in a can (beach laws here have condemned bottle drinkers here to fines) and whiffs and quaffs with a touch of lime hence no need to carry one and a knife. Good good good. Such a good clean treat to myself!

Brew Batch #101 WBI

Wheat Beer Incident is my first attempt at the Weiss style in quite some time. With only 11 &1/2 pounds of grain, I hoping this one is hard to eff up or at least cheap to replicate if need be. OG 1.050 +0.00@ 65F. My plan is to let Wyeast 3068 start at 64F for 3 days then let it free rise to 72F and hold to finish. That should bring a good bit of banana to this one. Then harvest a ton of the yeast cake and make.....Banana Baltic Porter?

For What It's Wort 2018

Having lived in Rockford and dated a girl in Normal, when I saw this brew comp I had to jump on it and hope that she wasn't a judge. Put on by The ABNormal Brewers, For What It's Wort paid off with a 🥉 for Shepherd's IPA. Only the 2nd time brewed and it garnered a 32.5 (chasing the chloride helped, thanks RP). Hemerodromos a 31.5 and Smurf Whizz "petered" out a 27.5. Over at OTB, RP slid another 🥇 around his bar lamp for Poppin' Collars in the APA category. Can't wait to see the score sheets and make some tweaks maybe. That 🥈 is an elusive ole girl....for now.

Brew Batch #100 Shepherd's NEIPA

Kegged today after a mad dash to get it ready for the For What It's Wort brewcomp. Hit 1.010 -0.001@49F to shoot it over intended abv of 6.9 to 7.2%. Aroma is just what the first batch was just trying to cream it up on 40psi till bottling Wednesday morning for a fresh send off!

Brew Batch #99 Smurf Whizz

Blending was experimentally fun and scientific. So as we tried blue popsicles and blueberry Kool-Aid Jammers, we found the more intense aroma and blueberry came through ultimately on the Jammers sample at about 10ml/2oz (at 5mls/sample the popsicles were winning on both sweetness and aroma). So upon blending the keg today I went with roughly 8.8 packs and 2 ounces of the Madagascar vanilla extract that was left over from Orange Creamsicle. The sample on the left in the far right pic is final blending.

Brew Batch #100 Shepherd's IPA

An original AG recipe seemed fitting for this momentous occasion, but really I just needed something solid for the For What It's Wort competition in Normal, IL. I used to live in Rockford just north so when I found this one on the AHA website I had to get in on it, just hope one of my exes isn't judging;) Hit all of my numbers with OG 1.062+0.002 @75F which means my BE went up marginally by about 3% to 65%. If I can continue to get increase like that as I get better with my new equipment, I'll be at 72-75 in no time. 

Brew Batch #99 Smurf Whizz

My second Berliner and a funny one at that. Kegged today at FG 1.010-0.001@56F to give a nice 5.1% Berliner. Used blueberry/acai lacto which oddly enough has given it an almost translucent white, not sure if that's the white wheat interaction or what but should make for the perfect canvas to drop in blue popsicles. Had to keg it quick so I'll make color concentration determinations this weekend prior to bottling and hope for the best. The sourness seems to be softer this go around as well. Either way, I can see Lip Smackers on the horizon, limeade and triple berry puree.