Tag Archives: miscellaneous

What’s Brewing? October 2021

Posted on by

This month is a busy one, and I am taking a few weekends off from brewing. That said, I’ve been sliding a brew or two in wherever possible, because I seriously need the downtime.

Beer Batch Updates

  • I’ve moved a few beers from kegs to fermenters to keezer…these are listed below.
  • My German pils made with South Dakota hops is kegged as of last week. The initial tastings show that this will be a really nice beer, on the less hopped side of the style. The malt character is beautiful, and I get a floral hop aroma that’s also pretty nice. Right now, it’s lagering until a tap opens up. See the bottom of the post for a preview picture.
  • On October 9, I brewed a clone recipe of Ill Tempered Gnome, from Oakshire Brewing. It’s a super malty winter seasonal beer, without any spicing. My plan is to have it ready around Thanksgiving time.
  • On October 12, I brewed a 3 gallon batch of another winter ale (Winter Dream Ale). This is a bit of a kitchen sink recipe to use up some ingredients, and I am throwing in Belgian Abbaye yeast as an experiment. The intent is to have something dark and full-bodied, with an interesting malt and yeast character that is in the realm of Belgian quads.

What’s On Tap?

  • The raspberry Belgian sour is still on tap; because the weather has cooled a bit, we’re not going through it quite as quickly as before. At this point, it is ridiculously clear and has a wonderful raspberry character.
  • Turtle Toe Porter is just so enjoyable! I can’t say enough great things about the beer.
  • I recently moved a hefeweizen onto tap. It’s on the lighter side for the style, and quite drinkable.

What’s Coming Up?

A preview of my new German pils, with South Dakota hops

What’s Brewing? January 2021 Edition

Posted on by

The past month has seen some pretty steady brewing, as I push forward with recipes both new and familiar. So, here is a quick update in the waning days of January…

Beer Batch Updates

  • I brewed a Belgian IPA, intended as a clone(ish) of Houblon Chouffe, on 12 December 2020. This was a fun and challenging beer, both for its high gravity as well as managing a Belgian fermentation. It’s now kegged and conditioning; initial impressions are that it’s a really good beer, and hit my mark pretty much dead on.
  • On 28 December, I brewed a German pils with 100% Viking pilsner malt, a mix of Perle, Sterling, and Mt. Hood hops, and Imperial’s Global lager yeast. It is now cold crashing, and should be kegged this week sometime.
  • On New Year’s Day, I brewed a second version of Alstadt Alt, which was pretty tasty the first time around. The malt bill is pretty much the same, although I’ve switched up the hops and yeast slightly for what I’ve got on-hand. I should be kegging that this week, also.
  • I brewed a traditional London-style porter on 8 January 2021, modified from a Gordon Strong recipe. I kegged it on 24 January 2021, adding 3 oz. of corn sugar for priming. Interestingly, the gravity was stalled out at 1.025. I’m not sure if this is due to a high percentage of unfermentable sugars (brown malt?), or the yeast stalling.
  • Following the really tasty English IPA I made two years ago, I rebrewed the recipe on 16 January 2021. It’s pretty much identical to the last version, because it didn’t seem wise to mess with success.

What’s On Tap?

  • I’m nearly at the end of my session stout keg; it still drinks beautifully!
  • The new batch of Tremonia Lager went on tap recently, and it continues to condition a bit in the keg. It’s just now hitting the peak. I’ll sit down for a tasting with this one and write up a full report in the next week or two.
  • Aspiration Ale, patterned after a clone recipe for 90 Shilling Ale by Odell Brewing Company, is on tap and tastes so good. It has a little ways to go to clear up, but it’s pretty squarely filling the “malty but not overly alcoholic amber-ish ale” category.
  • Although my keezer only has three faucets, I’ve been running Mahajanga IPA off of a picnic tap. There’s only a little bit left, but it still is a super nice beer! Because it’s pretty high alcohol (8.5% abv), I enjoy this as an occasional one-off, so it doesn’t make sense to put it on the main serving line.

What’s Coming Up?

  • I’ve got a lot of beer in the pipeline already, so the next few weeks will focus on lagers. I’m going to repitch the yeast from the pilsner, to make a schwarzbier as well as a Munich dunkel.
  • On the lighter side, it has been a long time since I last did my orange wheat ale. I’m getting ingredients together now, and will brew this in the next few weeks.

Other Notes

  • I feel like my process with the Anvil Foundry is pretty dialed in now, and I’m consistently hitting 67 to 68% mash efficiency. I wouldn’t complain if it was a bit higher, so I might tighten the mill up just a touch. Right now I have a mill gap of 0.037″ (it was set at 0.041″ for the old mash tun), and might take it down to 0.034″ or so.
  • The cooling fan in the base of my Anvil has started acting up, with an extra bit of noise. After a bit of troubleshooting, it seems that the fan is going bad, so Anvil tech support is sending a replacement fan. I’ll note that the 18 volt, 60 mm fan type is a pretty hard one to track down otherwise!

Follow-Up: 2020’s Brew Year’s Resolutions

Posted on by

At the beginning of the past few years, I’ve set annual brewing goals. Now that we’re almost to the end of 2020, it seems like a good time to review my resolutions and see how it all went.

Alstadt Alt
  • Patience.
    • Recognizing that I often rushed my lagers into service quicker than is optimal, I planned my production so that each batch got a more extended lagering time. I did pretty well on this one. Most of my lagers got at least a month of cold conditioning before getting tapped, and in some cases even 5 or 6 weeks. I often felt another week or two of lagering might have been helpful, although the beers inevitably hit their full stride not long after going on tap. So, I count this one as a decent success.
    • Final Score: 7/10
  • Practice.
    • This was a two-part resolution.
      • Rebrew and perfect some favorites.
      • Explore North American “noble hops.”
        • I did pretty well here, also, with varieties like Crystal, Mt. Hood, Sterling, and others figuring prominently in my lagers and German ales (like the altbier depicted at right). Another succcess!
    • Final Score: 10/10
  • Prose.
    • At the start of 2020, I thought it might be fun to write another magazine article, or something similar. Then 2020 happened, and this one just had to go by the wayside. I got some good blogging in, but that’s about it.
    • Final Score: 2/10
  • Prost!
    • I had hoped to keep brewing fun…and, it really was. Even with everything else happening, brewing was a bright spot in my year. I couldn’t get together with friends in the same way, but I was able to arrange some socially distanced growler swaps for later enjoyment, and I got some good time in the early mornings while starting up brew sessions.
    • Final Score: 10/10

Brew Year’s Resolutions 2020

Posted on by

I missed doing this last year, but might as well try again for 2020.

  • Patience.
    • I often bring my lagers on-line before they are as conditioned as well as they could be. That means that the keg is okay when I start, pretty good for the middle part, and might reach fantastic only during the last third. This is often a planning issue, and sometimes a space issue. For 2020, I will try to better plan my brew cycles so that I can hold off on tapping lager kegs until they are better conditioned. A month (minimum) of lagering would be great…and if I can get to 6 or 8 weeks, even better!
  • Practice.
    • I want to rebrew a few recipes, such as my Raspberry Belgian and my Alta California Lager. I never did my oatmeal stout last year, and will try that, too.
    • 2020 will be a year to explore the world of North American “noble hops”, for purposes of pilsners and such: Crystal, Liberty, Mt. Hood, Sterling, Vanguard, and U.S. versions of Hallertau and Tettnang. In the last week of 2019, I made a German-style pils with Crystal and a red rye lager with Mt. Hood, so I’ve got a head start!
  • Prose.
    • I want to do something, either large or small, for beer communication this year. Maybe pitch a new article. Maybe just submit a small note. 2019 was fairly dormant on this front, so I want to do better in 2020. I enjoy talking and writing about beer, and would like to do more.
  • Prost!
    • I want to keep brewing fun! This means sharing more beer with friends (both at my home and by sending growlers out into the world), taking some quiet moments to truly savor a beer, and experimenting with new recipes and new-to-me styles. Small-batch (3 gallon) brews have been a good strategy in the past, and I might keep that up as a way to continue experimentation on styles and recipes of uncertain drinkability. No resolution should get in the way of my enjoyment of beer, and I’m usually pretty good at holding to this. On to 2020!

Brew Year’s Resolutions 2018

Posted on by

20170903_151314It’s a new year! Having reflected on the past year of brewing as well as how I hit my resolutions for the previous year, I’m ready to set out some goals for 2018.

  • Pitch a new article for a homebrew publication.
    • This is a holdover from last year. I had one article published in Zymurgy during 2017; now, I just have to get a pitch together for something else during 2018.
  • Perfect my oatmeal stout recipe.
    • I entered my Eagle Face Oatmeal Stout in the first-round 2017 NHC, and scored an exceptionally pleasing 40. Unfortunately, comments for improvement were pretty vague (which was a bit disappointing, given the caliber of judging there). I’m going to modify the base malt a bit, perhaps, and see if I can’t kick up the score and make it into the second round.
  • Brew some more sour beer recipes.
    • I had great success during the past two years with a Berliner Weisse and am working towards a respectable raspberry Belgian sour. I’m hoping to hone the raspberry Belgian, and brew at least one other kettle soured beer. A gose or another Berliner Weisse will hopefully be in the mix.
  • Brew a perfect IPA.
    • I feel like my IPAs are good right now, but could be better. A lot of this might be in dry-hop handling; I usually keg-hop the things, but end up with a result that can be a bit harsh. The upside of this is that loss of hop flavor from oxidation is less of an issue. It’s time to find a happy medium. For 2018, I want to experiment with different ways of hopping and transferring IPAs, to finally hit peak IPA! I’ll probably start with a return to dry-hopping in the primary…I need to first see if drop-off in hop aroma is even that big of a deal anymore given my kegging and cold storage setup. I had preliminary attempts for my Thanksgiving IPA, but it didn’t stick around long enough to verify hop longevity!
  • Hit my calculated starting gravities more consistently.
    • I’ve found that I am often 0.02 or 0.03 off my starting gravity, usually a touch on the low side. This is almost entirely a boil-off rate issue, so I want to dial that in a bit better this year.

This should be plenty to keep me busy–I’ll check in at the end of the year to see how well I did!