6th Annual Pennsylvania Homebrew Open

Absolutely a well executed comp! The scores were posted before actual time and scoresheets were available the next morning. It Ain't Helen...Georgia eked out a 33 and had good feedback. Notes of sulfur and DMS were noticed but that may be becase it was still young at the time though the keg kicked quick. BUT Reinke's Revenge 2021 CoVid edition alpha variant tapped into a 34 and snagged the 🥉. My Grand Master judge said to back off the abv points a bit (tee-hee). So out of 109, I can mark PA off the map officially...finally! Sip up people, Omicron variant awaits!

Brew Batch #166 Sparkly Roo

I have quite a few recipes that I'm comfortable with and brew well even to win medals during comps but it's time to branch out and do some styles that I like and intrigue me but I'm not necessarily comfortable with. Hence Sparkly Roo, an Australian Sparking Ale. OG 1.044+0.000 @69F on a little White Labs Australian yeast and a smattering of Pride of Ringwood hops. 

FrostBalls 5K

 

In 2013 it was Gingerballs and since then any winter running has taken a slide but for good reason. I spent a year November 2021 in a soft left ankle brace and 2 new swanky orthotic inserts in my other shoes during workouts and days off to correct TTS. So, at this point I'm just thankful to be able to run this far. 38:48 was the time for 4miles and normally the winner takes a stout but it was 8am. Maybe just maybe Hotballs 10K will return this year. Funny how you take the little things you enjoy so much for granted. 

Brew Batch #165 I Like Big Oats v1.1

I mean the color is a wonderful white to light yellow opacity! FG 1.006-0.001@53F to give 6.56%. So, I missed the 7% target, but I guarantee no one will be able to tell the difference. ILBO v1.0 came in at 7.6% but was also one of the last batches done at OTB. It has a nice pineapple-y dank to it. For fun I'll be entering it into Coconut Cup in Miami fresh just to see if I can grab some bling in FL finally. 

Funk You, Funk Me. Funk it for Always...(that's the way it should be)

After pulling a long-awaited sample we have some tasting notes. It was a broad and diverse panel of palates and experience. We all agree that the tannins of the oak are coming through but we all pick up some slight differences in the aroma ranging from peach to banana to apple. There's some slight tart-ness, which our BJCP judge, identifies as acetic acid, possibly produced by acetobacter since he also picks up apple wafts. There's a miniscule pellicle at best but that's not indicative of anything as depending on whether it's Lacto, Pedio, Brett or Aceto and the temps it's been stored at since they may all vary on pellicle production. So, in the hopes of stalling ANY further aceto, if it's in there, I pitched a fresh WL Brett Claussenii. Let's let it crowd Le' Arthur a bit more and pull it again closer towards the 1-year anniversary of 3/31/22. 

Brew Batch #165 I Like Big Oats v1.1

Starting Groundhog Day off right with a slight tweak to a previous favorite. The only change here is Denali whirlpool and DDH instead of Calypso. Calypso at these levels kind of "pined" it up last time. OG 1.054+0.001@80F. Missed that one big time by night stirring as much I guess, but it should yield a solid 6 as opposed to a 7% abv. And all done before 9am. Learned that technique early on just haven't started applying it until recently.