Brew Brain Blog

I tasted the half-carbed base recipe for my grain school batches last night.  As expected, it is a very good beer.  It’ll be a pleasure trying to drain that keg quickly to make room for batch #4.

I haven’t decided what Batch #4 should be yet.  While the brewing in the immediate future is primarily for educational purposes, I want to also have more than one style available on tap at all times.  This may require some non-school batches from time-to-time, such as the amber I’ve got in the fermenting chest right now.

Speaking of that amber ale, I tasted it today while taking a gravity sample.  It’s a weird duck, but pretty tasty.  I think it will be a hit.

At the last second, I decided to use S-04 yeast instead of my standard American Ale yeast - S-05 so I could save all of that for grain school batches.  It’s definitely got that English Ale fruitiness about it mingling with the Centennial and Amarillo hops, which are covered up somewhat by residual sweetness than I expected due to a hotter than planned first 15 minutes of the mash.  Somehow I managed to get the mash up to 156 for a while.  I thought it would cool down quickly by stirring it, but it took 15 minutes or so to get back down to 154.  I just closed the lid at that point and decided to take what I get.  Sure enough, my FG reading was 1.019 instead of the expected 1.016.  Not horrible, but not exactly dry either.

One thing is for sure - it’s a smooth beer.  It tastes ready to drink already, but isn’t scheduled for crash cooling for another week.  I’m still three weeks from drinking it.

I put the Munich Grain School batch in the crash cooling fridge today.  I’ll keg it next week, making room for a new brew day.

I love playing with my beer:)

I’m starting anew with Grain School!  I attempted grain school around a year ago with small one-gallon batches, but for various reasons, I gave up quickly.

I’ve been throwing recipes together and generally having success. The beers I’ve been serving up are usually very good. That said, when I throw Pale Chocolate and Crystal 120 in the same Amber recipe, I can’t tell you for sure which flavors I can confidently attribute to which grain. This is what Grain School should teach me.

I’m back at it now, but this time with full five-gallon batches of beer.  Here’s what I’m doing:

I started out with my first - and base - recipe.  It’s a simple pale ale very similar to one I’ve done a few times now:

8lbs US 2-row
1.5lbs Vienna
1lbs Crystal 40
.25lbs Flaked Barley
Centennial .8oz FWH
Centennial .7oz 20min
Centennial .5ox 3 min

I’ve done this same recipe, with minor variations on several occasions. It’s always been a very good beer and I’m confident I can make single ingredient changes to it and end up with five gallons of beer I’m very happy with. I could have made the base recipe very simple and left out the Vienna and flaked barley, but I’m not so sure I’d REALLY enjoy the beer the way I want to.

The grains I’m interested in are:
Munich
Vienna
Victory
Chocolate
Pale Chocolate
Black Patent
Roasted Barley
Honey Malt
Melanoidin
Crystal 60
Crystal 75
Crystal 120
Special B

I’ll likely add others once I’m finished with these, but I figure I can brew about any style I’m interested in and have a very good idea what I’ll end up with while formulating my recipes once I’ve got good notes on these.

So far I’ve got three batches in various stages of completion:

The base recipe has been in a keg gassing at 12psi for almost a week.

The Munich batch is ready to hit the crash cooling fridge over the weekend. I substituted 4 lbs of Munich for 4 lbs of 2-row in that one. It will be kegged next weekend.

I brewed the Chocolate batch last weekend. I added 1/2 pound of Chocolate Malt to the base recipe, making it an American Brown Ale. It will be kegged in three weeks. I’ll not only know exactly what Chocolate Malt brings to the party, I’ll also know generally how much is needed in a recipe. I’m willing to add just a little too much in order to really taste the flavors added by the new grain. I’ve always used Choco in conjunction with Roasted Barley in stout recipes. Neither grain has been used without the other.

Between those, I brewed a version of my last American Amber that was a huge hit at a poker party I threw a few weeks ago. That keg was tapped during the party and only had a couple pints left in it by the end. This new recipe was basically a “leftovers” beer. I had a bunch of crushed grains left from previous batches and/or trips to the LHBS and I wanted to use them up. So, I’ve got a bigger version of the hit Amber now in the bucket. It’ll be kegged in two weeks. It’s 9 lbs US 2-row, 1.5ish lbs Munich, about 1.5 total lbs of Crystal (60 and 120 in combo), Centennial and Amarillo hops added at several stages throughout the boil. We’ll see what happens.

Yes, I am reviewing a BMC.   I will type my brew review as I suck down a Miller Genuine Draft.

I had what I believe was a Bud Light at a baseball game two years ago.  I hated it, especially as it warmed up.  Prior to that, I can’t remember the last time I tasted BMC.  However, MGD was my beer of choice when my friends who could grow beards got us beer.  I’m giddy with excitement.  I’m looking forward to renewing this acquaintance, although I can’t imagine I’ll like it given what I remember thinking when I tasted my first craft beer.

I bought a 24-pack for a poker game I hosted, not knowing how many BMC-only drinkers there’s be.  I knew one for sure.  I don’t think he trusted me as he brought Boddingtons.  I hated that too.  Not sure if it counts as BMC, but it should.  Nobody drank the MGD.  We went through a keg of my House Amber instead.

And now, my review: Miller Genuine Draft from the can:

The pour form the aluminum can straight from the refrigerator into my Pilsner glass is crystal clear pale gold.  I could watch Big Love through my glass and know Margine is the hot one.  It’s got a thin pure white head that dissipates almost immediately to a ring around the top of the glass.  It is obviously well carbonated and the bubble show is non-stop.

The scent right after the pour is actually quite pleasant with floral scents dominating.  It smells almost like real hops.  Somehow, like magic, it disappears after about 7 seconds and is replaced by a distinctly oiled steel smell.

The flavor is where things begin to really fall apart.  You know when you go out for pizza like you never do any more since the kids started showing up?  And you have full access to the all-you-can-drink soda fountain (pop where I come from)?  And you get all excited because you haven’t tasted Mountain Dew since that weekend job at Dairy Queen and you just can’t wait for the sweet stickiness to light your tastebuds on fire?  Forget it.  The syrup is about out and you got a glass of retched soda water with slightly gross sweet flavor in the background.  You now have the flavor of freshly lubed car parts on the back of your tongue.

You’re not sure if you are really supposed to dump it out into that tray, and it is possible it will overflow, but you do it anyway very quickly and go for the coke.

This tastes exactly like that bad Mountain Dew pour.  Arrogant Bastard beckons.  I think I heard him laughing at me when I reached over his head and pulled the MGD out.

Mouthfeel:  It’s not as light as I was expecting because of the very heavy carbonation.  I dunno….at the moment, I feel like my stomach has expanded and I may hurl.  I should have thought about mouthfeel earlier.  I still have half a glass and I am completely filled up.  I don’t know if I can finish.

Comments as the beer warms and I try my best to work to the bottom of the glass:

Oh, holy hell this isn’t easy.  I think I smell boiled corn now as the beer warms up a bit.  It even tastes a little like old boiled corn now, but the water the corn was boiled in was thrown out, replaced and reboiled.  I’m now drinking the reboiled corn water.  Twice boiled corn soup?  sort of.  Mixed with soda water.

I swirled the beer in my glass to try and build the head back up and get a fresh wiff of the floral scents, but no dice.  It only builds a thin layer of bubbles.  It sounds like rice krispies as they pop off and go away.  No floral scents, just twice boiled corn.

I’m going to let the last bit warm up to the temp I drink my craft beers.  I need to vent sometime soon.  Good Lord the carbonation in this thing is enough to power a small city.  I feel like I swallowed a box of pop rocks.

OK, warmth has set in.  I sniffed the glass and can’t equate the scent to anything that makes me happy.  It’s sort of boiled corn still I guess.  It’s not a pleasant scent at all, really.  Sort of like spilled beer smells the next day.

The flavor has really changed and flattened out into a bland indescribableness.  I really can’t say what it tastes like.  Saltless sweat maybe?  Yick, I just poured the last big gulp into my pie hole and about couldn’t swallow it.  I started to gag, but this is science.  I got it down.

Overview:  That was positively disgusting.  I cannot imagine a setting where SNPA wouldn’t be a better, more refreshing choice by one point seven billion miles.  If this was my lawnmower beer I’d be growing monkeys in my front yard by now.  Why the hell would anybody drink this crap over straight tap water?  I’m completely stumped.

OK, so the Boston Lager I think was one of the first reviews I did on my blog.  Tonight I tackle the Boston Ale.

The pour is crystal clear pale yellow/orange with a moderate/smallish white head that lasts sufficiently.  It leaves plenty of lacing down the glass.

The scents are mostly floral, slightly piny hops with some light caramel undertones.  Nice.

The flavors are clean and pleasant.  Biscuit/bready malts with just a bit of light caramel are allowed to sit up front with subdued bitterness and earthy hops flavors.  There is just the slightest hint of citrus under my tongue.

Mouthfeel is as it should be for a pale ale - solid medium to light, but far from slippery.  Carbonation is spot on.

Overall, this is a pleasant session ale.  Nothing wows me, but nothing turns me off either.  I’d drink it again, but probably wouldn’t put it towards the top of my personal favorites list.  Granted, this is far from a West Coast style hoppy pale ale, and that’s what I prefer.  I think this one leans towards a British style pale ale and, frankly, I prefer those flavors in a heavier Amber or Brown style ale.  That’s just me.

Another year, another BCS flop.  They got it wrong again.

Two (or is it three?  I don’t know since I’ve been boycotting) years after Boise State defeated Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl to win the BrewBrain Official National Championship (BONC), it has happened again.  A non-BCS conference team has earned the honor.

I hereby officially congratulate the Utah Utes for winning the 2009 BONC!  I just voted a few minutes ago and they came out the winner!  Good work, boys!

It occurs to me that this BCS nonsense makes the former 1A division of college football the Olympic figure skating of college athletics.  I don’t mean to offend figure skating - I actually look forward to watching the skating every Olympics.  I’m amazed at the talents displayed every four years.  Skaters and gymnasts are some of the most athletic people in all of sports, and I, for one, enjoy watching them do their thing.  The fact is, they are judged events.  As such, I couldn’t give two craps who wins the medals.  I assign my own.  Who’s to say some biased judge isn’t throwing the event?

The only sports where I care who is crowned champion are events where there is a clear winner decided by the rules of the game, not by some subjective voodoo.  The 100 meter champion - we know who the winner is as soon as the race is over.  You get my point.

BCS College football is a judged event.  The champion may be decided on the field, but judges decide who is eligible to take the field to play the game.  So, who cares who wins the medal?  I don’t.  I’ve already crowned my champion.

If you haven’t tried the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, do your taste buds a favor and go getcha some.  I maintain that this is the finest session IPA available on the market.  There are IPA’s I find more interesting, or more of a treat, but there are none I’d rather sit down with for an evening of effort.  It’s crisp and clean and leaves a lasting bitterness that hits the spot just right.  It’s not an “in your face” hop bomb, just a nice, refreshing, hoppy beer experience that I guarantee you’ll love.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever properly reviewed this beer.  I’ll check it out and add one if not.

It’s in the stores now and seems to have a bit wider distribution than it used to.  I saw it on the shelf of my local grocer tonight.  I didn’t see it there last year.

Wow!  Now I know what those emailers were talking about.  It seems I haven’t blogged for a while and left some loose ends, well, loose.  I apologize, and I’ll try to keep on top of things a bit better.

The fact of the matter is, I haven’t been brewing lately.  Not because I haven’t wanted to, but because i don’t have anywhere to put it!  I’m chalk full in the keezer with two kegs full and waiting for a spot.  I’ve had friends over a couple times to help me plow through the inventory, but still the old beer flows.

This is not all bad, mind you.  I happen to thing three of the four beers on tap are excellent to extremely excellent.  The other, a stout, is too sweet because I mashed way too high.  Lesson learned, the next one will be much better - same recipe, different mash temp.  The flavor is still fine, just too sweet and not roasty enough.

I’ve also been drinking a bit less beer lately because I’ve been working on my horse racing project.  I’ve managed to automate as much of the handicapping process as possible and have been testing my approach at Golden Gate fields for the past month.  The result is a +37%  ROI over the month.  This is more than excellent.  I wish it was sustainable, but I have serious doubts.  I was hoping against hope for 10%.  37% makes no sense at all to me.  Who knows, maybe I’m on to something:)

I managed to finish up the keezer Friday night!  Woot Woot!  My home brewery is now complete with one small piece of equipment left to purchase.  I still need a heat source for fermenting in low ambient temperatures.

Here’s a photo of the thing:

From left to right is my beer fridge, fermentation freezer and keezer.

Here’s a close-up of the keezer:

Believe me, I’m not Mr. Toolbelt. This thing is not completely pretty up close, but beer does pour forth when the handle is pulled. I ask little more.

It occurs to me that I should have done a step-by-step photo session for the blog, but I didn’t. There really isn’t much to the build, really. I removed the lid. I cut 1×8 boards and screwed them together to make a box that sits on top of the freezer. I cut holes for the shanks. I painted it white. I used adhesive caulk to attach it to the freezer. I attached the lid to the collar. Done.

Why it doesn’t look as good as it could have: I used a circular saw instead of a table saw to cut the boards. As a result, I didn’t have perfect edges to fit together. I filled gaps the best I could with foam insulation. I should have sanded the boards down completely. I couldn’t tell until after painting, but there are rough spots that stick out now. Finally, my caulking leaves a bit to be desired. I’ve never been good at getting a clean bead smoothed over.

It works, and it holds temperature. I’m a happy camper:) Now I just need more beer to put in the thing.

I have the stout on the gas right now. It should be drinkable, but won’t be an award winner by any stretch. still, I look forward to pulling that first carbonated pint.

Not long ago, I bought a six-pack of North Coast Brewing’s Old Stock Ale - the 2008 vintage of their Barley Wine.  I’m drinking sipping the first one now.  The remaining five bottles are sitting pretty in my fermentation chamber at 64 degrees.  Too warm?  I hate to refrigerate them and stunt the growth, so this is my other below room temperature option.  We’ll see.

The beer pours a lovely deep copper color with very little head.

The scents are pure malt goodness with ripe dark fruit.  A hint of alcohol is in there.  No surprise as the ABV is 12.5%.

The beer tastes much like it smells.  Deep, rich mapel syrup, ripe dark fruite - raisin, dates, some plum, molasses and some brown sugar.  It is very rich and quite tasty.  It finishes with just a bit of bitterness.

The mouthfeel is thick, not much caronation.  Very barley wine.

Overall, I like it.  I think it should age nicely and develop the flavors a bit.  While I was pulling flavors out, it is still a bit “muddy”.  It’s a winner for sure, and should only get better.  I’ll give it a half a year or so before the next tasting.

I really like Alton’s show on Food Network.  He’s fun to watch and quite informative.  He did an episode on beer brewing - extract with either a partial mash or steeping grains. I can’t tell which without seeing the rest of the episode, which I haven’t seen. I’ve only seen the video below.  <<edit - I’ve learned the grain he “mashes and boils” is Crystal, which means this should have been an extract with steeping grains beer>>

The video is generally pretty much beaten up by experienced homebrewers, and with good reason.  It has a few pretty basic mistakes in it.  That said, his way will make beer, and if it gets new people interested in brewing, it can’t be all bad - so long as they learn not to boil their grain early in their brewing careers:)

I now have all the equipment I need on order.  The keezer build will be completed very soon.  Once I receive everything, all I’ll have to do is sand the collar, drill the tap holes, attach the collar to the freezer and attach everything.  Oh, and of course I’ll need to go get the CO2 tank filled.  Finally, I’ll leak test the first keg and get that stout that’s been hanging out for a few months chilled and gassed.  Walla!  Kegged beer.

After that, I should be only a couple weeks from getting the other beers gassed up.  I have at least one - the Raccoon Trail Pale Ale - that I know will be good since I made only small tweaks from the last brew, which was awesome.  I have high hopes for my American Amber from last weekend, and the IPA I’ll brew this weekend isn’t a huge departure from my last IPA, which got rave reviews.  So, I’ll definitely be drinking good beer out of the thing.

I feel like I should be taking a couple weeks off from work to celebrate and break this thing in when I get it finished!

That’s right, I’m now the happy owner of a second deep-freeze that I converted into a fermentation cabinet.  Actually, there is no real conversion.  I’ve simply plugged the freezer into a temperature controller that’s keeping the temperature at a steady 65 degrees, give or take a degree or so.  And, I’m making good use of it already.

Saturday, I brewed up another batch of Raccoon Trail Pale Ale.  I tweaked things just a bit to make some subtle improvements.  We’ll see how that goes.    Sunday, I brewed up another shot at an American Amber.  I learned a thing or two from the last one I brewed (don’t over-do the Crystal) and I’m really looking forward to this one.  Again, as I finalize and get really happy with the recipes, I’ll start a recipe page on the brewbrain site.

Next up for me will be an IPA, again with smallish tweaks to the last version.  The last IPA I brewed turned out to be a big hit with everybody who tried it.  I really liked it too, but there are some areas I want to improve.

After that I’ll make some other variations on my basic pale ale.  I should be able to brew beers I really like to drink while learning from substituting grains in and out.  Since the 1-gallon test batches proved to be such a pain in the ass, this is how I’ll conduct “grain school”.

The news is not so wonderful on the keezer front.  The LHBS guy didn’t get my order in for whatever reason, and so I still don’t have my equipment.  This really sucks since the only reason I went through him is to give him the business since I rather appreciate having a store I can walk into if I need something sooner than UPS can deliver.  So, I’m paying a premium, getting shoddy service and waiting longer for my gear than if I had just ordered online.  Not good.  Lesson learned on that one.  The only positive is I don’t have much ready for kegging anyway.  I do have a stout waiting, so it would have been nice to get that one serving in the next week, but no luck there.

This is making me consider buying bulk grains on-line and gettinga barley crusher.  I really want to do as much of the work as I can myself anyway since I enjoy it.  This would allow me to crush grains the way I want and will probably result in better efficiency.  I ran numbers on a single recipe, and after shipping, my LHBS is slightly less expensive.  If I order bulk, I’m sure I can do much better online.

I am happy to report positive keezer progress.  Yesterday, I ran an errand to the homebrew shop and ordered most of the hardware I’ll need.  I’ve got the CO2 tank, shanks, etc. ordered and made it home with two kegs.  I’ll pick up some other things, including some good faucets online.  By next weekend, I should have everything I need to finish the job.

Last night I filled in the gaps in the collar with that spray insulation foam.  I’m not sure it did much good, but I’ll be caulking the thing anyway.  Tonight, I sanded it down and put some screws through the front and back into the sides to solidify the thing.  It’s pretty stable now.  The back is very slightly shorter than the front, so it sits almost un-noticeably sideways, but I’m in this for substance over form.  I’m no wizard with the toolbelt, that’s for sure.  It looks like it will work fine.

I’ve decided to somehow sacrifice a 12-oz bottle just after my first successful pour from my new rig.  I’m damn giddy.

Two major events in my brewing life took place over the weekend.

First, several people have sampled my latest Pale Ale and all have really liked it.  Personally, I love it.  It matured and filled out perfectly in cold storage over the past month and it is an excellent beer.  I hereby dub it Raccoon Trail Pale Ale.  It is the first of my standard offerings I’ll try to always have available.

Second, I have a new deep freeze with the top sitting atop a wooden collar!  Yes, the kegging project began over the weekend.  I still need to drill tap holes, fill in the gaps and paint the thing.  Tomorrow, I hope to take a lunch break over to my LHBS and measure their kegs.  If they have the under-9 inch diameter version, I’ll take four.  I’ll need more than that, but I’ll scale in.  I’ll also order the gas and tubing supplies I’ll need.  I have a target completion date of September 7th.  On that date, I should be cold crashing the iffy stout I have had sitting in a carboy for two months.  It will be my first kegged beer.  I’ll also be brewing up the Raccoon Trail Pale Ale again for my next batch.

In other news, the Amber Ale is being cold conditioned now.  After a week, it is still quite cloudy and needs more time.  The flavor is good, so I am happy with this effort.  It is not the finished product, however.  I have several changes in mind for it.

I’m back home with two workdays under my belt after a two-week vacation to Montana.  ‘Twas a good trip and I’d be lying if I said I was glad to be back in California.  I guess Montana will always feel like home.  Plus, it turns out sitting on top of a mountain with a fishing pole and no cell signal is better than working after all.  Who knew?

I did manage some beer tastings in Montana.  First up was bud light lime from Dad’s fridge.  As the saying goes, if you don’t have anything nice to say, shut the hell up.

Next up was the Pale Ale and Glacier Ale from Red Lodge Brewing.  The Glacier is the better of the two in my opinion, but both were quite tasty.

In Billings, I made a stroll through town to three different breweries.  The IPA at Angry Hanks is fairly mild and quite drinkable.  I liked it a lot.  The IPA at Carters packs quite a bit more hops punch.  It was more woody and smelled like a pine Forest.  My brother thought possibly Pine-Sol, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  It was a quality brew.  Finally, we stopped in at Montana Brewing Company and I screwed up and ordered a black and tan with everybody else.  I wish I could report on a particular beer, but I can’t.  I should have stuck to the stout or the bitter.  Oh well.  It was good for what it was.

As luck would have it, our flight home took us through Portland.  The layover allowed me to sample the Red Ale at Laurelwood Brewing.  It was quite good.

We took Frontier Airlines home and I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a craft beer on the flight.  It was a Drop Top Amber from Widmer Brothers.  It wasn’t all that wonderful, in my opinion - a bit thin and possibly too fruity if I remember - but it was a complimentary craft beer on an airplane, so what the hell.

Upon returning home, I quickly popped a bottle of my homebrewed Amber Ale  in the fridge and chilled it down.  I was greeted a few hours later with a satisfying pfft and a quick pull on the glass.  Not bad if I do say so.  It should chill down and clear to a great beer in a couple weeks.  It will be a very enjoyable first attempt.  We’ll see how much tweaking I want to do to it.  I put 12 of the bottles in the fridge and the rest will follow once I thin the pale ale population a bit.

The latest pale ale is just about the finished product.  It is very close to being my standard Raccoon Trail Pale Ale.  I just want to increase the body and mouthfeel/head retention/lacing side of the equation a bit.  The flavors are quite good.  Simple, but good.  I’m going to try monkeying with the next one just to see what happens, but I have a good beer if the monkeying doesn’t result in improvement.

Finally, I have a few of my latest IPA’s remaining.  They have matured nicely in the refrigerator over the past month and are quite good.  I would be perfectly happy if I was served this in a pub.  That said, it isn’t what I want in a stock IPA.  I’ll modify things for next time.

The garage is almost ready to host a freezer conversion.  This will happen in the next few weeks.  I just can’t wait to pull that handle for the very first time.

I’ll tell you what’s going on.  I’m drinking some good beer, that’s what.

In my glass right now is a beer I’ll do a formal review on soon - another from Kona Brewing, the Fire Rock Pale Ale.  Spoiler:  I love this stuff.  Kona seems to think flavor belongs in beer.  I happen to agree.  Entirely possible I’ve already reviewed it and forgot, but that’s fine.  I hope I gave it a good review if so.

Stuff I’ve been enjoying recently:  Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale.  Buy this one immediately.  I can’t remember what I’ve reviewed and what I haven’t.  I’m getting lazy.  If I haven’t reviewed this one, I will because it means I have to drink another.  It is AWESOME!

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - an old standby, but how can you argue with perfection?  It’s one of the very best pale ales available on the open market, and it - along with the SHHA mentioned above - come in these wonderful 24 oz. bottles.  These are going to be great for bottling lower alcohol homebrews - maybe a nice stout or a little Nut Brown Ale I have in mind at about 4.5%.  These would be good candidates for a “double” bottle.  This, and they are short and squatty bottles that fit great on the shelves of the fridge.  Those taller and more common 22 oz. bottles don’t fit so well when the eight six packs of homebrew start to sag the shelf above.

I really need to purposely seek out more SN beers.  That is one quality brewery.  The Pale Ale is awesome.  The S. Hemisphere Harvest Ale is better.  And the Celebration Ale is probably the finest IPA I’ve ever tasted.  I’ll put Sierra Nevada, Stone and Anderson Valley Brewing up against any other state’s three best breweries.  Say what you want about California - and I have plenty negative to say - we do have some great brewers.

Drake’s Amber Ale - a different sort of take on the amber.  I’ve got notes taken and a review is coming.  It is roastier/nuttier than most, and I find it interesting and tasty.

Speakeasy IPA - a brew from a San Francisco brewer.  A sweet take on the IPA style focused on flavor hops additions vs. the bittering.

Hoegaarden Wit from Belgium.  I’m not huge on wheat varieties, but this one is certainly growing on me.  Plus, they are brewed by the same folks who will soon be brewing Budweiser, so how can you go wrong?

I am currently cold conditioning my latest pale ale, which I like so far.  I bottled my first real shot at an amber just this morning.  I’ll give it a try after returning from vacation.

I think I will keep the stout in the secondary carboy until I keg sometime soon after vacation.  Tomorrow, I’ll have to bottle up my first two grain school batches.  I’ll use big bottles for all of these.

Last I chimed in on my pale ale, I expressed concerns that the light malt bill may not be sturdy enough to prop up the healthy helping of Centennial hops in the recipe.  Well, I just popped the top on a test bottle 14 days after bottling. (I know, I know.  But I just can’t help it.  I get very excited about new beer still!)  The result?  Yum City!  It is truly awesome.  It actually turned out exactly like I imagined it when I put the recipe together.  I just cannot wait for another week or so of carbing and conditioning.  It’s already pretty damn good - it is pretty smooth already and needs just a week more of carbonation.  This may be the final Raccoon Trail Pale Ale recipe.  That said, I can’t help but tweak, so who knows.

I also said I was going to let my amber ale sit until I could keg it.  I’m doubting I’ll be able to resist bottling it next week so it can sit over my vacation and be ready to drink upon my return.  I’m very excited to have that one under my belt as well.

The Oatmeal Stout I have in the carboy will sit until kegging if for no other reason than I’m afraid of bottle bombs with that one.  I’m suspicious of a stuck fermentation on that one.  Plus, I’m not as excited about it.

I leave for a little vacation at the beginning of next month, so I’m putting all brewing activities on hold until I return.  My weekends are pretty packed until then anyway.  I’ll be doing nothing with the amber ale and stout I have in secondary until I return.  And when I do get back, I’ve decided they will not go into bottles.  They’ll be nicely aged and ready for…..KEGS!  Yep, I’m putting my foot down and not allowing myself to do any more bottling, unless of course I specifically design a beer for bottles.  Plus, my grain school beers will also be bottled.  Other than that, I will plan to keg everything.

To get this done, I need to withdraw money from my poker account, clean the garage out to make room, get a freezer and convert it, and finally, get the kegging gear.  My amber will be nicely aged by then and should be very good.  The stout will be good if it is ever going to be good.  I have far more hope for the amber.

I hope to have the project completed by September 1st.  We’ll see how it goes.

I moved my amber ale from primary to secondary over the weekend.  It tasted great and looked awesome.  I can’t wait until that one is ready.

The oatmeal stout was supposed to be moved as well, but when I checked the gravity, the attenuation was only at about 47%!  I thought that was strange.  I decided to pitch another package of yeast just to make sure things get cleaned up, but I haven’t seen any airlock activity.  It sure seems done, but it definitely shouldn’t be.  It should get down to around 73% or so.  I guess I’ll move it this coming weekend into secondary and see what happens.  If I bottle it at this gravity, I’ll be storing the bottles in a rubbermade tote that should contain the glass shards when the bottles explode:)  I really don’t know what to think about this.  It was the first time using the Safale -04.

I think I’ve decided to try to nail the oatmeal stout recipe down for my next recipe.  Next time, I’ll leave the mash working for an extra half hour or so.  My initial gravity reading was very low, and then I get no attenuation.  I just don’t know what to think.  Can I have a conversion issue?  I don’t know.  There was a very high percentage of specialty grains that can’t convert themselves in this recipe. 

Another late night bottling beer.  This time, it was my latest attempt at a pale ale.

The tasting was interesting.  I may be too far out of balance with this one.  I put just over 40 IBU’s of Centennial hops into a very light malt grainbill with an SRM of 5.0.  For those not familiar with the color chart, 5.0 is about as light in color as you can go without being a budweiser.  The hops were fairly harsh at the tasting, but they’ll calm down some.  I do suspect it won’t have the malt backbone to handle the hops.  We’ll see.  The gears are already grinding on my next pale ale recipe.  I’ll get all the components figured out just right one of these days.

I’ve sampled the IPA the past several days and stuck the entire batch in the fridge last night.  It is carbonated and ready for cold conditioning for a week.  It is tasty and quite drinkable, but not what I want for my Quicksilver IPA.  It’s probably a bit too rich with caramel flavors and the hops are not really popping the way I’d like.  It is going to be good and very drinkable, but not “it”.

I took a carb check sample of the first stout yesterday.  It was carbonated more fully than I expected.  The flavors, as expected, were too light for a stout.  It needs more “stuff” in there.  The flavor that was there was pleasant enough, and it will be a keeper.  A good start with stouts actually.  It smelled awesome with chocolate and coffee notes.  I look forward to the next one.

Today I’ll rack my latest amber ale and oatmeal stout to secondary.  I’ll bottle them the week before leaving for vacation for a couple weeks.

I’ve decided not to brew any more full batches until I get further into my Grain School batches and am set for kegging.  I hate bottling so much I would rather run out of beer than bottle beyond what I’ve got now.  Of course, I’ve strategically made this decision at a point where I have plenty of beer coming on line to last a good long time.