Brew Batch #134 KeeWeePee

Batch #3 is where I basically wanted to give some of the judges shut up juice and took the whirlpool additions and simply made them dry-hopping additions. Now I must say on the initial whiff it's a totally different beer to me but the base pils lager profile is still spot on. FG 1.000-0.001 @50F to give us a nice 5.2% crusher.

Brew Batch #136 Squeeze (beta)

Hoping to dial in a beta-beta batch for an undisclosed Sabco system at a local brewery, RP@OTB and I embarked on an American Wheat with "lemon notes". So 10 gallons, half base beer and the other half whirl-pooled on 2 ounces of freshly ground lemongrass currently sits on some good Safale 05. The base beer will also later be blended with some Amoretti lemon flavoring OR some Soda Stream lemon essence to see which of the 3 lemon-esque beers is both the best and easiest to brew on let's say a 15 or 30 barrel system. OG 1.054+0.001 @80F, which way over shot the 1.045 expected in part due to the overnight mashing.

Brew Batch #135 Melted Chocolate Bars v1.1

So the first batch was sooooo roasty astringent that I actually just poured it out after handing off a few growlers to Gold Truck and sampling a few pints. Out with the black patent and in with the oats for a softer mouthfeel. Nibs in the mash and 2 ounces of grated high percentage cocoa in the boil gets this revamped version. Had to really do a lot of reading to make this one doable again for me. Thanks to Chris Maybe at Northshire Brewery for sharing some tips. OG 1.054+0.000 @62F

2019 Blue Ox Brew Off

In a field of 52, KeeWeePee took gold for "lights" with a 42 (even beat out another PRX5) and Taking a Dunkels struggled with 28 in it's final comp. However, in L'Étoile du Nord where the days are rarely getting above freezing, I feel thankful to have marked MN off the list and snagged a sweet ass medal. I would've pegged that group more along the lines of stout only this time of year. Thanks to Patrick Sundberg at Jack Pine Brewery for hosting!

Turkeyshoot 2019

153 entries from the MD/VA area and with KeeWeePee and Jake's Juice v2.2 in the pack, I wound up with nothing to show for it. As of yet both scored a 26 with no sheets posted, so I'm not really sure where these recipes went wrong. And KWP was on a 2 for 3 gold streak? Alas, the Maryland medal didn't come in but it took three attempts in Pennsylvania too. I will say this, the communication by the comp coordinator was great and the scores were posted as the tastings took place so well before the expected 7pm CST. 

Brew Batch #115 Rum Barrel Project

Yep, roughly 9&1/2 months and 100 gallons of beer ago RP@OTB and I embarked on this journey that culminated this evening, like giving birth! Let's relive this tale in more detail, shall we? A whiskey barrel from Corsair, made it's way to MTG Country Club at which point John Emerald Distillery filled it with rum for 2 years for them. Having fantastic connections at the #1 bottle shoppe in AL afforded us the opportunity to do something special and outside my comfort zone. A kindred beer to Reinke's without the lactose made to roughly 18 or so gallons (that's where 3 gallons of Saban Spit was born) overfilled this wooden beauty (named Le' Arthur after Pat's gay barber) on 3/15/19, got "beaned" on 8/5/19 and ended up at FG 1.032 to yield 10.24 but closer to 11% I bet with "spirit" character. Now the fun part, being an FBC venture, all variants will be listed on Untappd as such but unfortunately taproom only (well, more of a beer trail since it's splitting to 3 different houses). Corey (barrel backer) has gone the route of all 5 gallons on a blend of toasted/untoasted coconut, Ceylon cinnamon and an added tincture of Tahitian vanilla beans made with the aforementioned rum. RP@OTB went with a cinnamon stick tincture made with John Emerald rum. And myself being in part a naturalist went for the split, original untouched from the barrel (2.5 gallons) and a toasted mallow and chocolate rendition. All names are pending, but I'll post them once they're on Untappd. Now to hot water treat it and refill it? 

Brew Batch #134 KeeWeePee

As batch 2 begins to lighten too much for my liking, and I have come accustomed to having lagers around now. I embark on b3. (Or v1.2, I can't decide). So on numero 2 the only thing I did was bump up the pils and subtract some 2 row. For this one I kept the grain bill the same but instead of whirlpooling the last additions, I'm simply going to use the same charges to dry-hop. Hopefully those looking for more "hop bite" will find it and I don't seem to have any complaints on the malt backbone so here's to hoping. Then again I need to remember this is a relatively unknown style for the judges and truly an unknown for me as I have never actually had one and just read about them. My only complaint is that I get folks writing about green apple and with a 2 quart pitch on this thing it's not from the yeast. Are they sensing the Nelson Sauvin and not identifying it as such? OG 1.040+0.000@69F should be just about perfect if it drops the way the last batch did.

2019 SCH ABC 12

A well run and efficiently posted comp put on by the SCH with 240 entries. Within that field were 2 of my own, End Chapter (11A) and KeeWeePee b2 (PRX5). All I can say is PA medal complete! EC wasn't bitter enough scoring 27 and KWP needs more bitter and malt backbone but was good enough for a 38 and gold. I've got to go back and check but KeeWeePee may be my workhorse on medals now. 3 golds if memory serves. Which is funny because b3 will take a tweak and hopefully begin to simply crush the judges minds.

2019 Badger Brewoff

Believing my talent had become substantially better, I revisited this one in WI to get that cheese medal. Looks like it'll be another year. Hadn't entered since 2017 but even KeeWeePee (33) and Taking a Dunkels (22) didn't fare well. Which oddly got great scores at a comp 2.5 times bigger. Maybe it was packaging but at this point when I look at the winner's list, the term "homered" comes to mind. But I will say scores were up quickly, just waiting for sheets for better understanding.

Brew Batch #133 Ikigai

As the window begins to close on Batch #115 (RBP), what better way to put that lovely wooden body to use than rebrew the one that started the medal craze to begin with 2 years ago. It's first all grain attempt with my BE set at a whopping 55%, I hit my numbers spot on. (with an overnight mash) OG 1.122 +0.000@69F. Just need to brew about 15 gallons more to fill Le' ARTHUR and the rest can be winter sippage. RP@OTB will be helping there then I may hit a buddy that owns a brewery for his Sabco system to brew the other 10.