June Update

Well the judging wasn't kind on the Irish Red. It was to style, no flaws, just didn't "blow up my skirt" as the comment read. Not sure how to take that. Anyway, I like it. The "winter weizen" also came out really well. Maybe a little under attenuated with a touch too much ginger, but still a great twist on a style. The American Browns (10 gallon) are in secondary dry hopping. Should be ready for my Dad in a few weeks. His favorite beer I make. Next up an APA for the September meeting.

OK now for the news. The Brewpub is Back. That's right. It's been 4 years but I've got the wheels a turning for a brewpub in the Roanoke area. I've met a very promising partner and Chef in Mike Bowling. I've got one solid investor without shopping around yet. We've got a couple vendors for brewing equipment and a couple possible locations. I will keep the blog updated with news at we proceed but watch for something new and exciting in Roanoke.

May Update

Had two good brews this month. I re-did the Irish Red ale for June's competition after the first one got an oversized dose of roasted barley and turned out to be a brown porter. The second time we got it right and am looking forward to a tasting in a week. The other is what I'm calling a "winter-weizen". My dunkleweizen recipe with mulling spices and ginger thrown into the boil. If this turns out well, look for it as a specialty entry at the Blackburg Brew Do event in October.

Today's Brewing Session

Quick note. The Ordinary Bitter and IPA on tap are pretty darn good. I digress

OK. Today I felt like a real brewer. 33 lbs. of grain. 70 qt mash tun at capacity. 15 gallon kettle at capacity. Why? All for a 10 gallon batch of Russian Imperial Stout for the clubs December 2010 competition.

I started by crushing the grain. Normally I fill about 3/4 of a bucket. Not this time...

After heating 12 gallons of water in the big kettle I mashed in my big 70 quart mash tun. Again, this was a test of capacity...

After sparging I had over 12 gallons of wort to boil. It took two of us, thanks Kevin, to lift the kettle onto the burner.

In the end, a potentially wonderful 1.090 beer, ready for fermentation.

CHEERS EVERYONE!!!!

Update

It's been a while since I wrote so I thought I'd throw a little something out there. Shortly after my last post we had our final Star City Brewers Guild meeting of the year where I was elected President of the club. I was very honored.

I'm still brewing too. I had a couple rough sessions. I did a vienna lager. Unfortunately it clouded up after secondary lagering but it's drinkable. I also did what should have been an Irish Red but I got distracted and added to much dark malt and ended up with a brown porter. Oh well. Still a good beer. My experimental beer, a belgian stout, turned out fairly well. It, along with a cream ale I did (and won third in the SCBG March competition with) have gone to the National Homebrewing Competition, so we'll see how that goes. Most recently I've done an ordinary bitter, which I then racked and used the yeast cake to ferment an IPA with. I'll save the yeast for the Russian Imperial Stout I plan to do in a couple weeks.

I think that's about it. I gotta get back to reading for my American Brewers Guild course.

CHEERS EVERYONE!!!!