Left Hand – Fade to Black

I had a pint of this (Volume 1: Foreign Stout) on my recent visit to Rattle N Hum.  I am completely in love with this beer.  I literally had a dream about it the other night.  Thick head, big malty front end, thick but not syrupy, and a long, boozy, peppery finish.  And peppery.  Did I mention peppery?  One of the nicest beers I have ever had.  Kudos to the folks at Left Hand.

Brew Day – Hoppy Gnome IPA – 1/9/12

Today I brewed the first version of my Hoppy Gnome IPA.  It’s a modified version of a Green Flash West Coast IPA clone that I made a few months ago (the clone was actually my first all-grain batch and was very successful).  I dropped the amount of 60L crystal to lighten the color a bit, and swapped out some of the late hops for Citra.  I hope this will give it a softer hop profile. Continue reading

A Very Beery Christmas

It was a very Beery Christmas at our house. I received a lot of beer- and brewing-related gifts: a gift card to Midwest Homebrew, enough to pay for the ingredients for the next iteration of my Gimp Biscuit ESB; carboy covers complete with “Shh.  I am Fermenting” embroidery; carboy draining and storage racks; a membership in the American Homebrewers Association, complete with a subscription to their monthly magazine Zymergy; a Christmas Story pint glass; a rare Belgian made with “wild” yeast.  Thanks to wife Olivia, mother Marsha, brother Matt, and inlaws Don and Carolyn for supporting my addiction, er, hobby. Continue reading

Equipment and Supplies Order

Did a little Black Friday shopping from home (er, in-laws home).  Finally pulled together an order for two brews and a bunch of equipment I’ve been coveting.  Here’s my shopping list:

  • ingredients for my Ghostly Juror Oatmeal Stout recipe
  • ingredients for my IPA, with tentative name of Hoppy Gnome
  • a Barley Crusher grain mill
  • tubing and hardware for racking and aerating chilled wort out of the kettle into the fermenter
  • a digital thermometer (finally!)