Brews #15, #16

Sorry for the delay in updates, work has been kicking my butt lately. Anyways, the MexiCali TropicIPA, brew #15, went off well. The SG was a little low at 1.048 instead of 1.057, but this was my first time milling my own grain. So I think I will have to adjust my grinder. The FG ended at 1.007 bringing the abv to 5.4%. I added in the purreed fruit, 2 mangoes and a peach, and it added an interesting fruit quality, but not as much as I hoped. I also went with cognac soaked oak chips rather than the tequila, which came through really strong at first but seemed to mellow out over the past week. I entered this beer into the BeerNuts homebrew competition, so we will see how it goes.

Next brew is this Saturday, at Dr. Gonzo's Emporium in Worcester. He is hosting a homebrew day, for which I will be bringing samples and brewing on site. I'll be "contract" brewing for a friend. Ricky, formerly part of our 6-strings/Meat Robot brewing crew, will be purchasing the ingredients and assisting the brewing, then taking home most of the beer. He was not a beer fan before, and we've introduced him to beers he likes, the Grey Lady being one of them. So initially we made a clone, but if you read back in the posts you can see how bad that went (way too heavy on spices). However, he loved it this way. So we're doing it again, this Saturday about 2PM.

More updates to follow later. Still to brew this summer will be a super heavy beer for the winter, either big imperial stout, or Belgian quad. Also attempt at an ale version of an Oktoberfest.