Category Archives: Brew

Troubles in Kegland (or how I met the basement floor)

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icycle

So.  You keg an IPA and a cider you have recently brewed, and place them neatly in your fancy kegerator.  You hook up the kegs to the system and the close the door, trusting your fancy CO2 canister and regulator to faithfully carbonate your beverages according to the precise pressure you have dialed up.  These things probably work best in the dark anyway, unwatched and untroubled by brewer’s eyes and hands.

After a few days of patient waiting, you grab a glass, pull the tap handle, and…. nothing. Continue reading →

Back On the Horse

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Somebody bet on the bay

Somebody bet on the bay

This is the only website on the internet featuring a picture of a horse that does not contain a discussion of Transylvanian horsemeat.    You’re welcome.

Once again, I have gone for an extended time without blogging.  However, this time I have also gone for a long time without brewing, a sorry state of affairs, to be sure.  Things have gone so far that I have nothing planned or near readiness for the National Homebrew Competition, which starts accepting entries today.  Bummer. Continue reading →

Mmhhah! An Inadvertent Steelers Beer

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Audacity of CopeThis past summer, I brewed a concept beer known as a SMaSH: Single Malt and Single Hop.  Turned out pretty well.  I called it Pale Ale #2.  Won 3rd place in a local SMaSH competition.

A few brews later, I have an assortment of bits of leftover hops, a few ounces of miscellaneous malts.  I decided to make a “potluck” beer to get rid of these odds and ends.   I stumbled on the name “Many Malts and Hops I Have At Home” or “MmHhah!”

If you don’t understand the significance of the expression “Mmm Hah,” I say “Yoi!  Double Yoi!”  Please educate yourself.  Continue reading →

Stir Starter

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I recently bought a stir plate to aid with my yeast starters.  Using a stir plate can increase your yeast cell count considerably, resulting in quicker fermentation starts and less chance of off-flavors (specifically those that come from unwanted organisms beating the yeast to the yummy sugary nourishment of the wort).

The combined use of a yeast starter and stir plate can also make each batch of beer consierably cheaper, since you won’t need to pitch two (or even three) tubes of yeast to Continue reading →

Brewday: Düsseldorf Altbier

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DusseldorfI currently have three beers in “regular” production.   I brew each of these beers regularly, with small tweaks each time, with the goals of really learning my brew system, tweaking my process, focusing my brewing math, and refining the recipes.  The beers are Gimp Biscuit E.S.B., Hoppy Gnome I.P.A., and Ghostly Juror Oatmeal Stout.  My goal is to brew each of these beers four times this year.  Continue reading →

Bottled: Gimp Biscuit

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Today I bottled v2 of my Gimp Biscuit E.S.B.  Still maybe a touch too dark, at roughly 11 SRM (thanks BrewMath app!).  Still don’t have a great handle on water volumes with my brew system- I ended up with only 4.25 G Total.  Apparent attenuation 81.6%.   6.8% ABV.   Measured mash efficiency is good, though, at 80.0%.

I have high hopes for this one.  Must wait three weeks before trying!

Bottled: Hoppy Gnome

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Oliver the CatToday I bottled the first installment of my Hoppy Gnome IPA.  It’s a touch darker than I expected, but it smells and tastes great.  The Citra hop is definitely featured, as was the plan, with no hints of the “catty” aroma (cat piss) that sometime is associated with Citra.

I managed a solid 81.8% mash efficiency, with my starting and final gravities hitting within a measurement error of the targets.  At 7% ABV, it’ll pack a wallop, but it should be nicely balanced out by the 90.2 IBU’s of hops, plus a lot more aroma and dry hops that should make this a true hop bomb.   Continue reading →