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!
Tonight the Glen Ridge Home Brewers Association had a meeting at Fitzgerald’s 1928. A lot of very good homebrews were sampled, including several meads (the first time I’ve every had the pleasure).
Michael Kane, owner of Kane Brewing, gave a fantastic talk. He talked mainly about the process of moving from homebrewing to Continue reading
I finally feel healthy enough (after 2+ months of limited smell and taste ability) to open a Christmas gift from my wife Olivia: a bottle of De Proef’s Flemish Primitive Wild Ale (Surly Bird). As the name implies, it is a light Belgian-style ale (close to a Dubbel, perhaps), fermented with wild yeast and other critters.
Wow.
It pours with a nice, pillowy head. The first sense is aroma, of a strong smelly cheese. Like a Bleu, Stilton maybe, but smoother. More like a very soft, runny cheese, but way more pungent than Continue reading
Today 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