Brewed Today...

I set out to recreate the Belgian inspired APA from last year's special ingredient competition. I hadn't remembered it being this big, but since I used the same recipe, I guess it is. I ran into a couple problems. Seems as though I was a little short on the sparge water and had to add about 2/3 gallons to the boil, and I was still a little short. I'm sparging way too quick with the pump. Thinking of switching the HLT and Mash Tun locations next time and using gravity to sparge. All in all I think it'll be good. Hit my OG of 1.066. I think it might be a shade darker than last time. Little worried about putting a big beer not really light into the light catagory of Blacksburg Brew Do. Maybe it'll be better as a specialty after all.

No report on the Roggenbier. Needs another week or so to bottle condition. Oatmeal stout still a little flat, but tasty.

Had a wonderful day today with friends. did up a wonderful pork butt with a rub from Beer Advocate and some wings.

Nailed it...

Well, had a great brewing day. Today's brew was a Roggenbier, a German rye ale, similar to a Hefeweizen, with rye in place of the wheat in the grain bill. Of course I had worries with that much rye, 6 lbs. plus a pound of crystal rye, and no husks. So I used rice hulls for the first time. Everything went great. Hit my target gravity and quantity. Just cooling it down before I pitch an American Hefe yeast.

The red lager turned out well after all. Nice session ale. The Oatmeal stout is very decent. Slightest alcohol aftertaste, probably due to a slightly high starting fermentation temperature. Should be a contender in the September club competition.

Other than that all is well. Good selection of beer available. Having people over tomorrow to hopefully renew some people's interest in my brewing and possibly turn a couple new people to the beer side of the force.

Where've I been...Slackin'

OK, so the Saison was a bust. Since then though, we've had a 10 gallon red beer split in two with one Irish Ale Yeast and one German Lager that needed help (thank you dry lager yeast), an Imperial Pilsner, and thanks to Carol S. for winning the auction to brew with me, what will be a fine oak IPA.

The Red Ale is pretty good. Clean, most importantly, but it's lacking some character. A fine session ale perhaps. The Red Lager will be kegged tomorrow, stay tuned. The IPA will go on the oak chips tomorrow too hopefully.

Next up, the Sept. competition beer, Oatmeal Stout.

I was having a terrible time with my efficiency on 5 gallon batches with the big blue cooler/mash tun set up. Down around 50%. Funny thing was on 10 gallons I was hitting 75%, easy. A case study in grain depth and efficiency if I do say so myself. Anyway, the previous mash tun set up was a Rubbermaid 10 gallon cylindrical orange cooler with a s/s false bottom. Well I sold it to Kevin. (Dumb). But I know it works, so I built a new one. I know I can get 75% out of it. That's how I justify the expense. 25% efficiency worth of grain for each 5 gallon batch. That's a few pounds of grain. About $5 a batch worth of savings. So now we will use the orange for 5 gallons and big blue for 10.

Last up, I was bored at work so I made a logo.

Not sure what to do with it yet. Might through it on a T-shirt like my Tailgate logo. Might start a new group in Roanoke with it. Not a homebrew club, just a fans of craft beer group of some sort. Maybe meet at a different bar once a month and rate there taps/bottles. Should Microfestivus fail, as some have foreseen this year, perhaps a new festival could be started called the Craft B.E.E.R. Festival. Like I need more work.

As always "eat, drink and be merry my friend; for tomorrow may be the end".

Haven't posted in a while so here we go. The Saison was a failure. Tastes great, but it clearly was bottled before it was done fermenting and now all the bottles are bombs essentially. As soon as you pop the cap it overflows. Lesson learned. I brewed my next beer today, an Imperial Pilsner. Went with the double decoction. Hopefully it turns out well. I'm still not hitting my target gravity. But a good brew day none the less.

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.