Brewing Activities (2023)

Brewing a German cold IPA. All German ingredients: 50/50ish blend of pale malt and Munich I, and a little Carafoam. Hopped with Mandarina Bavaria, Hallertau blanc, and Ariana. Fermented with 34/70.

 

Well that sux. You couldn't enlist anyone to tote the kettle and/or fermentor?

 

Finally had a chance to brew this past weekend.

Bottled some sours from my two soleras.
Made wort from a turbid mash to top them off.
Brewed a version of Anchor Steam (out of nostalgia). I remember brewing a version of this way back, when I just started brewing. I'm looking forward to it.

I plan to use the yeast cake from the Steam (Omega Bayern) to brew a fest beer next weekend. A little late for a fest but it should be ready by Oct.

 

California Common is an under appreciated style in my opinion.

 

You know how it is, everybody busy. But I’m reteaching myself to b left handed, sort of. It’s working good enough.

 

Ouch. I messed up a rotator cuff moving firewood logs about 7-8 years ago and it occasionally comes back to haunt me for a few days. The rehab exercises that pitchers do are helpful but healing is often slow for us old folk. Hope you can still raise a pint to your lips without pain.

 

Hahahahaha ohhh yeah I can, and, it seems after a doc visit, I’m doin the pitcher routine as well. I was told not to work with the shoulder for a month, so, no liftin fermenters. I get thru it sooner or later.

 

I had shoulder surgery last December, laid off brewing for about 3 months.
Goods news is after I hand crank the grain, the workout is good therapy for the shoulder.

 

Thanks, I’m still going slow, but did manage to brew yet another Irish stout. Seeing that it’s mrs gorms favorite,,,, she was a great help. Now if I can just convince her to assist with every brew day.
Work is never done on da farm. Hahahahahaha

 

Gonna bottle this tomorrow. Maybe a dark mild next, and revisit the wee heavy this fall.

 

Making the bad ass burton ale for Christmas

 

Trying out some Czech budejovice lager yeast for the first time on a festbier this week. Looking for a new lager strain to save as a house yeast, any good reports?

 

Brewed a pretty simple Bitter a few days back.

100% Golden Promise
CTZ for bittering
EKG and Styrian Goldings 10, 5 and Whirlpool
Wyeast 1469

Will see how it comes out, seems promising so far. Really thinking about making and using some invert sugar next time around.

 

This beer went over well (4.2 untappd avg) at a county brewfest. I used (more or less) a British Brown Ale recipe that I've had competition success with before. Added Lactose, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger, Allspice, Nutmeg, Clove, Indian Coriander, and Black Pepper late in the boil. Dry beaned with Jittery Joe's Wake-n-Bake Coffee Blend.

Actually, I guess I'd say all the beers went over well. A couple friends and I had just started a new homebrew club, and this was our first public event. There was a "favorite brewery" (aka people's choice) award, and we managed to win, with 31% of the votes, among 20 commercial breweries and 3 homebrew clubs.

A couple pics of our jockey box... (Yes, it's a coffin, and no, that's not me pouring in the first pic.)

 

Brewed up my 3rd iteration of what I named Barelywine- Barleywine this morning. Started at 4am and got finished a little after 1pm. 28LBS of grain and 6LBS of DME went into a 5 gallon batch. Bonkers hard to do. Ended up with O.G. of 1.160. Pitching 2 packets of Windsor. The yeast pictures are 30min after getting the starter going, it was insane yeast.

 

Stupid how you can only post 2 pics at a time now! What gives?

 

It's been a while since I last posted, too many projects going on at home. Late last year I attempted a Trippel, but as usual with my Trippel attempts, things went sideways and I wound up with "A Beer Has No Name". Belgian character, a little darker than planned, missed my OG (10 points under) and just under 8% ABV. Could not really think of a Belgian category... but then again, if it's Belgian, does it really need one??

So I drank some of it after letting it age a little, and I thought it was decent. Some phenolic spiciness, a little alcoholic nose, a little bitterness, and some fruitiness. So what to do with it (besides drinking it of course)?

I entered it into my local homebrew shop competition... my first ever foray. I had no expectations of winning and really only wanted the tasting notes from the certified beer judges to guide my future endeavors. I was secretly hoping I didn't win, because winning gave you the chance to brew it with a local brewpub on their gear... and I knew damn well I could never repeat the series of errors that made this beer what it was.

The categories were very broad, and I entered in the Belgian category. I was later shocked to learn that I was a finalist, finishing second to a barrel-aged quad (this quad won best of show, BTW) in my category. The tasting notes were surprising to me. There were two judges, and I scored a 42 and a 43 out of 50. Both noted a grape fruitiness and boozy warmth and being clove-forward. One comment said they would buy it from a shop or at a brewery. The other said that it revealed nice brewing and fermenting technique.

Not too shabby for a "broken" beer. There is truth in the saying that pretty much no matter what happens, in the end, it will be beer!

I think I'm still in a state of shock... LOL, but very happy that I was able to get opinions from a third party. Going to try this again next year!

 

Nice and congrats.

 

Brewing more Irish stout tomorrow, Sunday hole hop ipa

 

Transferred Barleywine #2 out of the barrel yesterday and transferred #3 into the barrel. Can wait for #2 to carb so I can wet my chops with it!