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.

Built a stir plate

So I came across this blog: http://blogs.hundredmonkey.net/brewblog/?p=7

That plus an article in BYOB from July/Aug 2007 on building a stir plate resulted in this:

As you can see I've got a hard wired plug connected to and on/off switch which is then connected to a potentionmeter to control the speed of the fan. However it really doesn't control the speed well. Glued onto the fan are two magnets. And it fits into a "project box" from Radio Shack. On order are some stir bars and we'll see what happens. Wish me luck.

Welcome to Tailgate BBQ and Brewery

Welcome. My name is Will. Tailgate Brewery was founded in January 2007 as a home brewery. My first homebrew, an imperial stout kit to which I added flaked oats, was brewed on the back of my Dodge truck.

Hence the name Tailgate Brewery. Since then, this little 5 gallon system has grown into a ten gallon, all grain, RIMS (recirculating immersion mash system) operation as seen below:

To date I've brewed about 20 beers. My favorite being an American Brown Ale. A well balanced beer using my special ingredient, crystal rye, and a nice amount of hops. Other special brews included a Belgian Pale Ale for which I won a first place in the Star City Brewers Guild quarterly competition, and a pumpkin ale I was quite pleased with.

I am also the treasurer of the Star City Brewers Guild (starcitybrewers.org.). A great group of knowledgable, beer loving, fun men and women whom I came across shortly after moving to Roanoke, VA from Boston, MA.

The final piece to this site will be my love for good bbq and grilling. I have recently acquired a wonderful grill from Char-griller that is 1/2 gas grill, 1/2 charcoal grill, with a smoke box on the side (not shown).

I've only just started working with it smoking a pork butt, some ribs, and even this past Thanksgiving's turkey.

So welcome and enjoy. I'll be posting pics from my brewing experiences and grilling adventures and possibly some recepies, projects and more.

As my logo reads, "sit and have a beer with me and soon you'll see, good friends we'll surely be"