Monday, June 29, 2009

Brews update

Brew#2: I tasted the Jamaica Me Crazy Nut Brown and its sweet, nutty, has some coffee flavor, and overall pretty similar to the coffee. I need to let it age a bit I think to see how it changes in character, I can only expect it will mellow some and if so it will be a really good beer. With that in mind I bottled all of it instead of half kegging. The FG was 1.012, bringing the alc % to about 7.4% wowzers. It also had great clarity. This should be a great and very tasty beer.

Brew#3: I slapped The Dupont Special into the secondary, and measured the SG in process which measured out to 1.010 so its already low and pretty much ready. With the added honey it was brought up to 1.036 so this should have some alcohol, as well as be pretty light and tasty. I quickly tasted it and it had some of the bavarian hefe taste, but still needs some time. It was a little darker and heavier in taste than expected so we shall see how the secondary treats it.

Brew#1: Did another taste of this and its mellowed out a lot. It has some great qualities now. Its seems very similar to the style of Lagunitas IPA, with a great malt bed and lots of noble bittering hops, but not much on the floral, spicey, or citrus hops. It has plenty of Centennial on the nose and little taste, lots of Warrior on the taste, lots of crystal malt taste, a touch of alcohol in the mouth, its got a thick mouth feel to go with it, and its got a great flavor. Aging should only make it better. Just by how well this is coming out already I am very happy with how out brewing process is coming along.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Grey Lady Clone #1 = Brew #4

Looks like we will try to do The Grey Lady Clone, attempt #1 next week. Looking at possibly Thursday night, but not sure yet. It may even happen during the afternoon.

The Grey Lady is a Belgian Wit from Cisco Brewery with lots of chamomile, coriander, clove, and other possible spices. This is the first clone attempt we will make, brewing the basic recipe for it. I will also setup 5 growlers for secondary that will each contain a different setup of spices to add to it to experiment and see which tastes the closest. Once we narrow it down, I will tweak the recipe as needed and we can try again next summer.

Its a very light beer, with lots of spices. It clocks in at 3.9SRM (very light) with a haze and cloudiness, 14.6IBUs, an OG of 1.047 to be expected, and FG of 1.012. It should have a nice Belgian wit quality to it. More info to follow.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Jamaica Me Crazy Nut Brown = brew #3

I guess technically this was brew #2, but it was an experiment to test out some new eqp. and it was a solo project. This beer was a nut brown ale that had brown sugar, which I attempted to model after the coffee from Lala Java. I actually added a batch of the coffee right to the secondary this weekend.

Yesterday I moved it to the secondary, and it was very clear, which is a good sign. My SG was 1.068, projected at 1.070, so it started pretty good. Projected finish is 1.017 to stay a little sweet, and I measured as I was going into the secondary and got 1.014 so I'm already there. That gives it about 7% alc too, and might be a little dryer than expected. I think this will be a really interesting beer when its finished. I'll let it sit in secondary for a few more days and then bottle half for aging and keg the rest I think. It has an SRM of 19.5 with IBU of 33.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

ACBF

American Craft Beerfest was awesome! Glad I was a part of it. Got to help out lots of people, do some tastings, and even got the word out there for a few breweries/pubs about RMB! Pics to follow. Now I'm off to celebrate the ACBF and the volunteers, like me, with a big brunch at Red Bones.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Dupont Special

The Dupont Special was a Bavarian Hefe. The brew process went well except that I added too much water to the boil and ended up with a low gravity and had to add a couple growlers to hold the extra. Also did a cold break in the mash and if it affected much it seemed to be worse since the gravity was so low. I will hold off on the cold break for now. I adjusted the recipe for a 6gal batch and ended up with an expected OG of 1.036 and we ended with 1.030. I added a lb of honey to the primary and that should stabilize the gravity. It should have jumped about .006 to the grav putting our original gravity at 1.036. It was meant to be a very light beer anyways due to the projected customer for this brew.

FYI, I'm thinking of adding rendered bacon fat to a growler after its done fermenting and see how it adds to the beer. That will be an interesting experiment.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Angry Ogre Battles Warrior tasting

Its been close to a week since I bottled it so I decided to crack one, and here are my notes:

Ogre vs Warrior, 1 week, large head - finger and a half after only 1 week in bottle, semi dark amber brown color with lots of particulate, nose of centennial hops (dry hopped with it), and some sweet malt its def apparent that its an imperial IPA, taste is a little creamy and some caramel with a touch of sweet/tangy, has some strange flavors (ill have to pick out what those flavors are), very bitter and some good malt base, but I should add more malts next time. I can taste a little alcohol as well, it had 6% before the bottle fermentation but seems higher now. Its a great beer. Need to save many of these as it seems to be a really good beer and would age really well.

The cara/pils added a nice head retention, the strange flavor may be the special roast or irish moss that i added at secondary instead of boil since I forgot, the special B added that light brown sugar/caramel on the nose and slightly on the taste. Finishes a little dry but very VERY hoppy! I can't wait till you guys try this.

Brew #2

Brew #2 is slated for Sunday, June 14th. Two options for brew. The first is a donation beer in lieu of business cards, which is called "The Dupont Special" which would be a Bavarian Hefe style. The other option is an attempt at a clone of Cisco Brewery's "The Grey Lady", which is a Balgian Wit beer with citrus, camomile, clove, and corriander. Brewing starts round 1. More details to follow.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Bottled

I bottled the Angry Ogre vs. Warrior yesterday. The FG was 1.015, and with a start of 1.062 we ended with about 6% alcohol, not bad. It also is gonna be pretty dry. I tasted it and its nice and hoppy, dry, and a little malty. I also detected some off flavors, so I'll have to see how the aging process does to it. I'll keep everyone updated for when the bottles are ready for sampling and who wants some.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Ogre Vs. Warrior IPA

I think the new name will be Ogre vs. Warrior IPA. As an update, I set the beer into the secondary fermenter and dry hopped it. I also tasted it a little bit and its already pretty dry and hoppy, not as much sugar as the original recipe since we got the low gravity and it seemed to ferment well. It should sit in the secondary for another couple weeks and then we can bottle it and give out samples.