March Competition Meeting

With what could be a record 17 entries in this quarter's competition for American Brown Ale, I'm proud to say I won second place. The reviews were interesting. I may have overheated my mash to lead to some astrigency, or so the judges say. I'll keep an eye on that. I also think it could be something from the crystal rye. All in all not a bad night. I'll need to score well on the rest of the compeitions to be in the running for Brewer of the Year. I'm already 8 points down despite the 2nd place finish. The blueberry ale met with some good response. I think it's maturing and that "grainy" taste is aging away. We'll see. Next up a review on the coffee sweet stout in a week or so, and brewing the Saison next weekend.

CHEERS!!!

Brewed this weekend/Sitr Plate is up and running

Had a beautiful 70s degree day here in Roanoke this weekend. I got started early on a sweet stout to which I'm going to add some cold brewed Chocolate Velvet coffee to at kegging time. I finished with about 6 gallons at 1.044. A noticable miss from the 1.056 I was shoting for. Perhaps a half gallon less would have put me closer. I'm still playing with my new system. But as always a fun time. I had the company of Kevin C. and we sampled some interesting spruce beers he made.

An update on the stir plate. I had to switch to a 500 Ohm pot but it looks like we're in business. As I type it has been stiring water for about 5 minutes. Quite impressive.