Robot Monkey Brewery

Brews 21 and 22; The Fallout

2011-09-06T13:52:00.004-04:00

Brew #21 came out OK so far. It's in the keg with a FG of 1.010. Still gotta add some rye whiskey soaked in caraway seeds and it'll be finished to bring up to the Homebrewer's Jamboree this weekend. Also bringing the peach saison which came out wicked awesome!

Brew #22 went well as well, a "Mocktoberfest" or mock version of a German Oktoberfest. Instead of lagering it, which I don't have the time or equipment to do so, it uses a very dry American ale style yeast that should give it close enough crisp flavors of a good lager. It's an interesting experiment to see how it comes out. The name is Spocktoberfest. I also used the hops I harvested from an acquaintance in Worcester, and no idea on the strain of hops so that should also be very interesting.

Also big news, if all goes as planned I'll doing a brewing demo for The Fallout art festival at Scandinavian Athletic Club in Shrewsbury on October 1st. I'll be brewing Wormtown's Pumpkin ale, with supplies provided thanks to Wormtown and Ben, for which I get to keep the brewed beer. Most likely I'll share it with everyone. So the spectators will be able to see how the beer is brewed essentially then go get a pint inside. Should be a lot of fun. More info here:
http://www.artattackentertainment.com/

Brews 20 and 21

2011-08-08T08:53:00.005-04:00

Brew #20
Sorry for the late update again, busy summer. So brew #20 was a second version of Saison of the Witch, but with a whole different witch. The first one I used Brett, and originally I was expecting to use the same yeast cake to redo with more Brett, but due to complications I will explain in a minute, I had to change things up. After not being able to use the same yeast cake, I had to use regular Saison Yeast. It went for the SSBC annual competition at the pig roast, got a couple votes but not a winner. Anyways, now with what's left, I decided to witch it up a bit, but instead of the Wicked Witch of the North Brettanomyces, I decided to use the Good Witch of the East Peaches. Sliced up 10 fresh ripe peaches, skin and all, and threw them in. After about a week I'll taste and see how it is. Should be interesting to say the least.

So the reason it went bad... so the original Saison of the Witch for which I added Brett, in order to prevent contaminating my normal fermentation eqp with Brett, I decided to use a Poland Spring 5 gal water bottle. At first as it was fermenting it started to taste good, with hints of Brett. But it was going slow. So to speed up the process I added more sugar and boy did it ferment. A big rolling new fermentation went, and when it was done I decided to bottle it and let it continue to bottle condition. At bottling time, which happened to be when I was brewing this batch for brew #20, I opened it and smelled polyurethane, paint thinner, and acid. Sure enough a slight tongue burning taste confirmed it. After much searching and forum posting, the best conclusion I found is due to oxygen. Poland Springs bottles are apparently very porous, which is why they are approved for water use only. Also something I learned, when Brett is fed lots of oxygen, it creates lots and lots of acids and acetic like flavors and aromas. SO I ruined the batch, but learned a lot. I bought a new fermenter specifically for bugs for the next attempt.

Brew #21
Next I needed to brew a beer for the Homebrewers' Jamboree in September. I decided to do something interesting and unique. While I was thinking about it I happened to be eating some dark rye toast, so I thought why not do the same in a beer. It is a play on the words India Pale Ale (IPA), but as it's no longer pale, pumpernickel replaced it well. It is a Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA, American Dark Ale, whatever you want to call it). Basically hopped very well, with Chinook for bittering, then Centennial for some flavor and aroma as well as some Cascade to finish it off. It will then be dry hopped with Simcoe, and most likely polished with some Rye Whiskey oak chips. On top of that, added a bit of rye, some bready malty and biscuit grains, a bit of flaked oats for body, and some nice dark malts. It rings in at an estimated 62 IBUs, and SG of 1.070.

Another update to come hopefully when both of these beers are finished.

Cheers!

Brew #19 Iced Coffee Cream Ale

2011-06-20T09:29:00.003-04:00

The next beer in the coffee infusion series, I wanted to replicate a nice refreshing iced coffee for the summer. I created a light malty and aromatic cream ale, toasty and refreshing. I brewed the original beer a few weeks ago and went to LalaJava and talked to the owners about coffee that would work well. They gave me two different coffee options, so I split the finished beer into two 2.5 gallon batches and added the cold extracted coffee. THe flavor of the coffee was light (as I only made a little of each cold extraction), so I'm making another round of the coffee and pitching soon. The FG reaching a dry 1.006, 21.4 IBUs, and 5.1% abv, not to mention some nice subtle coffee flavors. It should be a nice tasting beer, and drinkable for the summer.

Next beer, saison of the witch #2, using the same yeast cake as the previous fermentation. This will contain both the original Belgian Saison yeast as well as Brettanomyces already in it. This should give the Brett an extra kick to get more wild flavors in it from the beginning. THis will be brought to the South Shore Brew Club annual Summer Pigroast Brew competition.

Brew # 18 Saison of the Witch

2011-04-28T13:56:00.002-04:00

Brew #18 went off well, a Belgian style Saison, which was brewed and kegged a few weeks ago. It came out VERY good, maybe the best beer to date. "Saison of the Witch". It clocked in at 6.5%abv, 35 IBUs, and FG of 1.009. Half of this went right into the keg, and the other half went into another fermenter with Brettanomyces! My first experiment with Brett, so it should be interesting. I'll continue to sample that and see how it's coming along, and add more sugar if needed to bring more of the Brett funky flavors out. That will be bottled so it can continue to develop.

Next up for brewing will probably be Memorial Day. It will be either a light amber ale for summer with some nice hop additions and light spices maybe, or the first of the winter beers with a big heavy oatmeal stout with coffee which will get bourbon oak chips, similar to Kentucky Breakfast Stout.

Cheers!

Central NE BA Meetup Feb 19, 2011

2011-02-27T21:46:00.004-05:00

Another successful meetup. We did have a slight incident with the Skillebrau, but that will be explained later. If I screwed up on who brought what beer I apologize, please let me know and I will correct it, and hopefully remember to record it next time.

To get things started we cracked a growler of Kern River Citra DIPA, very fresh, tons of delicious musty fresh hops, plenty of citrus and tropical fruits, etc.

From there we settled in and started the real tasting, beginning with Rock Art Infusco, from Melissa's cellar from 2007 I believe. It was labelled as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, bringing some chocolate covered raisins, licorice, candi sugar, some booze, smoked apple and cherry wood, caramel, toffee, very complex.

After that we took on our first compare and contrast with Berkshire's two Bourbon Barrel Scotch Ales, the Julios release from 2 years ago, and the latest Gude Greg. I believe Chris V. brought the Julios BB Scotch Ale, and I offered up the Gude Greg for comparison. We came to the conclusion that they were different recipes, and very different beers. The Julios one is now about 2 years old or so, and definitely has lost its edge. Most of the bourbon and oak, and nice scotch ale flavors have subdued to the point it's not that great anymore. The Gude Greg is just average overall, some bourbon and oak but not a lot, and the base beer is not the greatest.

Next on the list was Element's Dark Element versus the Double Dark Element, thanks to Chris H. The regular is a nice beer, some raisin and dark fruits, dark malts, a bit sweet, but the double was almost literally doubled that. Very sweet and heavy, lots of dark fruits and raisin, some bit of earthy hops, some booze, etc. Both great beers.

We then moved onto the Imperial Stout Trooper vertical, '08, '09, and '10, thanks to Andrew P. The '08 brought some woody esters, dark fruits, aged malts, a little smoked, and a nice aged flavor. The '09 seemed the most bland overall, a bit more chocolate but just seemed to be missing something. THe '10 was really tasty, lots of fresh hops, earthy, dark malts, fairly luscious.

Sorry for a quick break, Lucic just started the THIRD fight of the Bruins game tonight, damn!

TO change the pace we moved into Trinity Old Growth thanks to Phil. THis was crazy sour, some dour dark malts, malt vinegar, mouth and even eye watering puckering sourness, some acetic acid, solventy, but interesting.

Then we moved into the Surly Smoke Lager '09, also brought by Phil. This brought a nice smoked malt and campfire, some woody esters, a bit chalky with chewy malts, roast, creamy, but all that on the foundation of a crisp lager flavor. Very interesting.

After that I offered up a Gumballhead as a quick palate cleanser, before we moved onto the Abyss vertical. Evan brought the three initial bottles, '08, '09, and '10. The '09 ended up being VERY sour, so we tasted it quickly and I brought one up from my cellar, which also ended up being infected, but was much less infected just in the early stages. The '08 actually brought a fresh wort taste with some hops and bitterness, dark chocolate, black patent malt, dark fruits, and nice and roasty, tasty! The '09s speak for themselves, and offered an interesting drink when blended. The '10 was fresh and a bit boozy, a bit of fluffy nougat, fresh hops, and more bitter.

Next was the Great Skittlebrau Incident of 2011! As a joke I suggested some Skittlebrau, a reference from The Simpsons, and Phil immediately jumped on it, so I had to deliver. We decided to drop the skittles in the Bud Light tall boy can and let them settle and dissolve a bit. However, we were all apparently unaware that skittles have the same properties as Mentos, and dropping them into the Bud Light caused a big eruption of Bud Light all over the place. EEEEwwwwww!!!! After we cleaned up, it tasted like Leinenkugels fruity sugary cheap crappy beer.

After that we needed something with meat! Ivan the Terrible! Also thanks to Xenon I believe. This was all i had hoped it would be, dark and roasty, heavy but light and fluffy, caramel, vanilla, oak, plenty of oats, light earthy hops, smooth and creamy, a bit of booze but drinks well.

Then we raided my cellar and stood around in the cold cellar for about an hour just talking, and eventually came up with Zapata bot and Alpine Duet, and probably some other beers I didn't record.

Thanks to Evan for some great photos again, our unnoficial photographer.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2323070&id=42407965

Not sure when the next event will be, but shouldn't be too long. Theme is also open, any suggestions welcome. See you next time.

Cheers!
-Jared

New Location and Brew

2011-02-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this. With the move and winter and new house and all, it's been busy. SO the new house in Spencer is setup for the most part, with the brewery built into the garage now. All fancy, much easier to brew than at the shed in Milford.

The first brew at the new place was a success as well. It was a DIPA cleaning out some old hops. Theoretical 120 IBUs, SG of 1.068 and abv of 7.6%. The hops were continuously hopped every 5 minutes, spreading it out, with a 2oz dry hop of Simcoe in the keg. I don't have the recipe in front of me, so if I remember later I'll update teh hop schedule. It was brewed on Jan 15th, and kegged on Feb 5th to be on tap for the super bowl. It has a really nice taste, the hops and bitterness build, but are not too much, and a nice malty backbone with a decent balance. A really nice beer.

So more updates to come hopefully. I think I'll start trying to brew more often. Next up will probably be my first attempt at a sour/lambic style, when I have a weekend to do it. I'll sour the mash, and add some fresh fruits to the fermenter with some lacto.

Brews #15, #16

2010-08-19T12:44:00.003-04:00

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.

Updates and Brew # 15

2010-07-22T15:03:00.002-04:00

Kegged the Ayaz Ayaz Heart-y Hopemeal Stout, and blended 2/3 with the Bourbon Goatmeal Stout, so it has a slight bourbon flavor, and tasty, and the other 1/3 by itself. It racked at 1.015 bringing the abv to 5%, so it's really drinkable. Lighter in color than I expected, but a nice creamy oatmeal body and taste.

Next up is Brew #15, soon to be called MexiCali TropicIPA. It will be a tropical fruit IPA, with a touch of mango in the secondary, and tequila soaked oak chips, as well as some agave nectar, etc. The hops list includes Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Williamette, and Citra... all the citrus fruity hop varieties I can pack into it. It should weigh in around 1.065 for about 7% abv, and 75 IBUs. Should be a really interesting beer. Brew happens this coming Saturday, July 24 around 1-2PM.

More brewing updates

2010-06-11T10:43:00.002-04:00

From Alpha to Wazoo was kegged yesterday, it racked in at 1.017, adding just a touch of sweetness and bringing the abv to around 7%. The addition of the bottle of Wazoo in the secondary really added a huge Wazoo kick, with more lime and ginger coming out, and a lot more heat. Still get the coconut flavor. The addition of fresh Cascade hops in the secondary added some hop flavor as well, but that and the bitterness are overshadowed by the Wazoo and heat, so it's hard to tell how it will taste after carbonation and chilling. We shall find out on Sunday when it gets brought to Dr. Gonzo's cookoff.

The next update includes the next beer that will be brewed on Saturday. It is dedicated to the memory of Behrooz Ayaz, who left us unexpectedly last Sunday, to a heart attack at the age of 51. He was healthy and fit, but due to heart clogging genetics he Aorta was completely clogged. With this, I decided to make an oatmeal stout, for oatmeal to help with cholesterol, low abv and low calories, but nice and hearty body and taste. It will be called Ayaz Heart-y Hopemeal Stout. It will ring in at an estimated SG=1.053 and abv of 5%, with 43IBUs.

Brew Updates

2010-05-25T08:11:00.002-04:00

The Alpha to Wazoo brewed really well, assistance thanks to Pemmet. We hit our target gravity of 1.071, which is a little above expected. It's fermenting away nicely now. The plan for Wazoo juice was adding 1.5 bottles in the boil (1 at 30min and 1/2 at 5 min), as a similar plan for hops, let some parts boil down, some just hit flame, and I'll then add 1-1.5 bottles into the secondary to flavor to taste.

Jamaica Me Crazy was bottled, and hit a final FG of 1.009, which is good. I was worried about it as it still tasted very sweet when I racked it to the secondary and added the coffee, but now it tastes great. We'll see how the bottle conditioning does. The final abv is about 7.4%.

More brews coming up in the coming weeks. Soon to come: Grey Lady Clone #2 (gonna rename it now that it's not really a clone anymore), Smoked Rauchbier, Tropical IPA, Monster Mash heavy stout.

Brew #13 From Alpha to Wazoo

2010-05-20T12:30:00.002-04:00

I promised Dr Gonzo that I would brew up a special beer with some Gonzo product by the next event, which happens on June 13th. So I am limited in time to do so, so decided to brew today. Brewing will commence around 4:30-4:45 when I get home from work. Brewing will be my own design called From Alpha to Wazoo, alpha being alpha acid of lots of hops, and Wazoo being Dr. Gonzo's own Wazoo juice. It'll be a big IPA brewed with Wazoo juice. The Wazoo has lots of ginger, pineapple, citrus, and heat. I've blended it before with commercial IPAs, and it seems to blend well with a big IPA, so this is an experiment to see how it brews with it.

Also, at the same time I'll be bottling the Jamaica Me Crazy Nut Brown #2. So come by if you are free.

National Homebrew Day, Brew #12

2010-05-07T11:04:00.002-04:00

So National Homebrew Day was last Saturday, and it included a brew on site day at Strange Brew in Marlborough. I re-brewed the Jamaica Me Crazy Coffee Nut Brown. A couple minor issues occurred, first the stainless ball valve on the mash tun somehow cracked... so I duct-taped it for the time being and caught all the leaky wort and I'll have to replace that before the next brew session. Next the digital thermometer on the same mash tun ran out of battery, so I had to use the manual temp measurement. At the end we brewed a good beer though. It got to 1.065 OG which is pretty good for our shot at 1.070. It's fermenting away now. I'll cold infuse the coffee into the secondary again and bottle condition it. Once done I'll drop a few bottles off at Strange Brew.

I also had some help thanks to Chris Haskell. I'll give him a 6-pack or something of the finished beer too. Next up, bringing the rig to the South Shore Brew Club club brew-off, which we are all sharing the load to brew a 55gal batch of a Kate the Great clone and throw in a commercial 55gal bourbon barrel. Can't wait.

Brew #11 - Pollenized Belgian Pale

2010-04-14T13:48:00.002-04:00

So Brew #11 is done fermenting, the Pollenized Belgian Pale. I actually ended up dry hopping it with fresh hops in the secondary, using 1oz of Cascade. It has an awesome hop profile and overall taste, this beer is friggen delicious. It finished at 1.006 so nice and low, dry, but doesn't taste too dry. It also brought the beer up to 6% abv, so pretty much session-able. Not the clarity I wanted, but I think the dry hop and mash profile overall didn't let that really happen, plus Belgian yeast doesn't help. This might be the best beer I've done yet, it is really tasty. Missed my South Shore Brew Club brew off date with this one, but should be able to make it into the Wizard's brew off. I'll have to see how it fares.

Brew #11 - Pollenized Belgian Pale

2010-03-24T11:01:00.004-04:00

So last Saturday was the first brew of the new year. A few minor issues to start, like broken hose, lost razor, gunked up tubes, etc. However, nothing major so we were able to brew. The brew itself went pretty well with thanks to Evan. The taste of the grains were completely unsweet, but I still missed my target OG, which should have been 1.052 but was actually 1.042. I did mash a little high, but lowered it halfway through. I'm still leaning towards the grain crush, and I'll be getting a crusher soon so that should solve that issue, or at least eliminate that as a possibility for low yield. I added a little over 1 lb of sugar to the primary, so that should help take care of it and bring it up to 1.051 or so. It's fermenting well for now. More info on the brew to follow, and another one coming up in the next couple weeks hopefully.

Central New England Meetup #2

2010-03-21T14:11:00.003-04:00

The meetup went well again, but again the abv of the beers took it's toll quickly and we were limited in the number of samples. Next time we will have lower abv beers.

Photos of the event, thanks to Evan Worona for taking the time to take the quality pictures amid drinking all these awesome beers.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jlindros/CentralNEBAMeetup2#

Here's a summary of the tasting.

BBC Holidale started us off. Boozy with lots of malts, fruits, some chewy malts a slight bitter hop flavor. A little rye adds some more spicy fruit character.

Smuttynose Barleywine was next. This was a hop monster. Hops all over the aroma and palate. Some sweetness and chewy malts. Very bitter, with some pine, citrus, and chewy hops. Some tangerine and orange peel flavors decorate it as well.

Next up was Mikkeller Big Worse. This was also pretty malty and was very sweet, with absolutely no carbonation. More caramel and brown sugar flavors, molasses, and a slight boozy taste and heat, but drinks much easier than 12%. Despite the sweetness it wasn't too syrupy and dried off well on the finish.

White Birch Barrel Aged Barleywine was next, and was very different. It started with a nice head. It was semi sweet, with a nice malt profile, but what made it different was the creamy malt flavor and body. A little oak and vanilla and some bourbon flavors all came out, and it had quite a bit of smoke, which also set this one out. Great beer though.

Then we got into the verticals, starting with the Three Floyds Behemoth. We compared '07, '08, and '09. A lot of parallels to Big Foot, you either like it fresh, or aged. Almost everyone liked it better fresh. The '09 fresh one had a lot of hop character, and pretty bitter, as well as a really nice clarity, some sweet malts, brighter tastes, and some heat and boozy taste. The '08 had much less hop character, more pronounced malty flavors, was pretty hazy, a little lighter on the heat and booze, some chewy malt flavors, and little caramel and brown sugar. The '07 was actually not very tasty. It had no hop characters to speak of, with mostly just a mash of malts and sweet caramels, very hazy and ugly looking, and a distinct dirt flavor, like you get from a pocket of dirt in a potato. Fresh this beer is delicious, but doesn't age as well as I expected.

Next so called vertical was the Great Divide Old Ruffian. Since there is no dating effect on the bottles, there was no way to really tell. But they were both acquired in different years and already aged on the shelves. It had a slight purplish color to it with the dark brown. The supposed younger one had some nice creamy malts, thick chewy malts, brown sugar, molasses, some sweetness, and a slight spicy chewy hop character. The older one seemed to have less of a hop profile, was a little more subtle on the heat, and dulled a little on the malts as well.

We started winding down a bit with more snacks, water, and breaks. But next on the list was Pennichuck Pompier '08. It was also pretty sweet with lots of malts and fruit. Some brown sugar and chewy malts, as well as some roasted and toasty malt flavors. A little spicy hop presence was also there.

Next was a horizontal of Shipyard Pugsley Series Barleywine, with the regular and "aged" versions. It had some sweetness and fruit flavors, raisin, black cherry, tangy, malty, some caramel, a little juicy, and a touch of smoke. The aged one add a lot more maltiness, more subtle flavors, less hop and fruit and blended the flavors a lot more.

Last but not least was the Nøgne Ø Andhrímnir Barley Wine. The malt also shined through in this one, but it wasn't as sweet. A slight spicy hop character with some aged subtle flavors. It had a slight heat but hid the booze well. It also had good carbonation and finished with some smoke, molasses, and a little bitterness.

Thanks again to everyone who came and brought beer or food. We had a lot more beer in line but couldn't get to it as the alcohol got on top of us fast. Next meetup will be in another month or two, and we already decided the theme would be lower abv Belgians, such as goldens, pales, lower abv dubbels or triples, etc.

Season 2, Brew #11

2010-03-17T13:04:00.002-04:00

Welp, it's finally here. Spring is in the air, bees and birds are sleeping with whomever they can... know what, that gives me a good idea for the new beer name.

Speaking of which, this Saturday March 20, right before the BA Meetup, will be Brew #11, first of the year. I'll start setting up, sanitizing, cleaning, etc, around 10AM, and hope to start the brewing around 11. The style, Belgian Pale, with some nice hop additions hopefully. I got a bunch of free Celeia hops, a low 2.8% alpha with lots of lemony citrus and floral aromatics. It should work perfectly in a Belgian Pale. I was gonna call it Belgian Pale for lack of creativity at the moment, but now I think I'll call it "Pollenized Belgian Pale".

Central New England Beer Meetup #2

2010-03-10T10:24:00.003-05:00

So the date is set for the Central New England BA meetup and tasting event #2. Saturday, March 20th at 4PM. Theme is Barleywines. For more info see the BA event here:

http://beeradvocate.com/events/info/32287

I was also thinking of brewing before it, but I probably won't now as I have the Brew Club Scotch Night the night before and brewing the next day and finishing before 4PM probably won't happen. First brew will be soon though.

Kate the Great Day

2010-02-23T09:27:00.003-05:00

A little less than a week away now, is Kate the Great Day 2010. It's a crazy day, setup to get one of, if not THE, most sought after beer in the country. We're planning to get in line in Portsmouth around 5-5:30. Tickets for the beers will be handed out around 7ish, so once we get those we can go off to get some breakfast and warm up a bit. From there we go back to the brewery and get out bottles, and perhaps stay for a beer on draft (depending on the line and wait).

Once we're done with Kate, we plan to head off over to White Birch and help Bill do some brewing and sampling (quality control is VERY important). Anyone interested in coming up with us is welcome.

Here's a cool little video to tide us over while we wait the last 7 days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Skik1vyPA

Central New England Beer Meetup #1

2010-02-08T09:13:00.004-05:00

So the first Central New England BA Meetup went well. There were 10 people with quite a few beers. The early folks got to sample the Goatmeal Stout, the bourbon oaked oatmeal stout. Anyways, here is the list of beers we did with a few quick notes. Pictures are here if you want to follow along with the beer lineup.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jlindros/Central_NE_BA_Meetup_02_06_10#

First up was Frau Brothers Rainwater VSOB. It had quite a bit of chocolate and roast, lots of coffee, fruit, pretty dry and a little boozy. Also had some malty flavors, a little bourbon and oak flavors, and was pretty thick and chewy. Although the body was a little lacking and the fruit was a little to heavy for the style.

Next up we did a side by side comparison of Berkshire Imperial Stout to the Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout. The regulat imp stout had some traditional stout flavors with some roast, black patent malt, some bitter chocolate, some light noble grassy hop flavors and bitterness, with a lighter mouth feel. The Bourbon Barrel one had taken away all the hop characteristics as well as the chocolate. The oak added a heavy tangy fruit flavor and obvious bourbon. It was sweeter and smoother actually, but added a little bit higher boozy flavor and rich creamy quality. The two were completely different beers.

We had a quick break for pizza, for which we added a nice palate cleanser of Central City Red Racer IPA, until moving onto dessert, which was Woodstock Maple Porter. This one had quite a bit of maple flavor, some fruit, it was pretty bright tasting, some creme brulee flavors and roasted qualities. A little smoke and hints of coffee finished it off. It had a lighter body too.

Next we broke into the prize beers, starting with 2008 Deschutes Abyss. This one had a dark thick creamy head, darker and thicker than used motor oil with thick long legs. It was loaded with roast and bakers chocolate, coffee, tobacco, toast, and had a slight boozy quality, but hid the abv well. A slight sweetness came through, but it was extremely smooth and very enjoyable. It finished with a slightly sweet bakers chocolate with a chewy character and some bitterness. It was at this point we added a couple pastries to have side by side with the beers, Abyss was first which went well with the chocolate espresso pastry (correct me if I'm wrong on the type).

Next up was the 2009 Three Floyds Dark Lord. This was was even heavier than the Abyss, but had no head at all. It was darker than hell itself, with lots of raisin and sweet molasses, brown sugar, lots of roast, a little chocolate, very sweet, some bourbon, boozy, and a little creamy. Very complex, and reminded me a lot of Black Tuesday, just a little less booze, sweetness and bourbon. It leaves a thick layer on the mouth long after the swallow, with more raisin, molasses, and some bitter chocolate. A slice of cake was added to a food pairing with this one, which was also delicious.

From here we let our palates dry up for a few minutes, added some water, and moved onto East End Brewing Smokestack Porter. This one was a very dark brown color with enough smoke to make a Texas smoked rib cooker blush. It had tons of smoke, in both aroma and taste, leather, chewy roast, and even a smoked meat flavor. Memories were brought back of smoked gouda, smoked cured meats, lox, and the leather I used to chew on as a kid (just kidding). It had a creamy porter like finish.

We then moved onto Brewdog Riptide. This also had no head, with a dark brown color. Some notes of sweet malts, molasses, maple, roast, a little smoke and fruit. Hints of dark chocolate break through. It was very smooth though with a little smoke, fruit, and oak on the finish.

Next up was Avery Black Tot, which I didn't really write any notes down. The palate was getting a little overwhelmed at this point. The only comments I have are that it had a nice sweet malt flavor, some boozy tastes with oak, obvious rum, and even a little bourbon like flavors. I'll have to review that one myself from my collection later.

After a nice long 30 minute or so rest with lots of water and snacks we attempted to finish up. Last on the night before we finally threw in the towel, was a Dogfish Head World Wide Stout vertical between the 2008 and 2005 versions. The '08 version had lots of malts, like crazy ridiculous malts, dark fruits, pretty hot and boozy, lots of roast, caramel malts, some rum and oak flavors, it was heavier than the bottle itself I think. It was very hot and thick and hard to drink. The '05 version was quite nicer. It actually had a fizzy surprisingly. It was creamy, surprisingly smooth, lots of raisin and fruit, easier on the maltiness and heaviness, and much easier on the heat and boozy tastes. It also added a little juiciness and toasty flavors. The moral of this story is aging on these types of beers really does go a long way! Age your World Wide Stout a few years!

I also forgot to mention, in the middle we threw in a Harpoon Leviathan Baltic Porter since we were talking about it mid discussion and decided to just try it and I had it sitting in the cellar. Then after most people had left, we cracked a Founders Breakfast Stout since Chris had never tried it before, so why the hell not.

It was a great time, thanks to everyone who came and brought something interested to add to the show. There were still quite a few beers we never even touched. Next meetup will probably be in a month or two, with the theme of either Belgian Tripels, Barleywines, or perhaps something spring related. We can discuss that further when the time comes closer.

Central New England Beer Meetup #1

2010-02-03T11:05:00.002-05:00

The first Central New England/MA BA meetup and tasting event is only a few days away. We currently have about 7-8 definites and 5-6 more maybes. Should be a great event. Saturday Feb 6th @ 4PM. There may be snow so drive carefully and it's OK if you are a little late. Any questions or issues you can email me at RobotMonkeyBrewery@gmail.com. Here is the current list of beers for the tasting so far:

Lineup (we can choose from the following):
The Abyss '09
Berkshire Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout
Victory at Sea
Bells Expedition Stout
Shipyard - Pugsly Porter
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout '05
Dogfish Head World Wide Stout '08
Smokestack Heritage Porter
DarkLord '09
Diamond Brewing Paradise Porter

Possible shows:
Rainwater Oak-Aged Stout
Wachusett's Milk Stout
Dogfather
Barrel Aged Dogfather
B.O.R.I.S.
Barrel Aged B.O.R.I.S.
Bourbon County Stout '09/'08
KBS '09
FBS '09/'08
Speedway Stout
Ten FIDY
Babayaga
And many others from my cellar

Central New England Beer Meetup

2010-01-18T14:49:00.002-05:00

Saturday, Feb 6th will be the first Central MA/New England Beer Advocate meetup/tasting event. It will take place at my house (brewery) and open to all BA members or beer drinkers alike. The only stipulation is that you have to contribute. The theme is stouts, so bring some stout, commercial, homebrew, or some good food pairing etc. Let me know if you are coming and what you are bringing. RSVP to jlindros@gmail.com. Hope to see you all there.

Bitches Brew

2009-12-21T16:12:00.002-05:00

Forgot to update this brew. Kegged it last weekend, with a FG of 1.020 bringing the abv up to 9.5%. I def tastes boozy and semi sweet. It's also pretty hoppy. It turned out to be a good hybrid of English and American style barleywines. So far it tastes pretty good.

The second half of the batch went into a different Corny Keg and will get oak chips to sit until April when it will be unveiled as the real Bitches Brew in honor of the 40th anniversary of the original album release.

Beer Measurements

2009-12-01T10:55:00.002-05:00

Goatmeal Stout
So the FG of the Goatmeal Stout was 1.010, and by my estimations of adding the brown sugar brought it up to 1.061 which would give it an abv of 6.7% before the bourbon/oak infusion. So the bourbon soaked oak chips added a really big bourbon flavor to the beer, and a touch of oak. I don't think it helped that I used Wild Turkey 101 and some Old Weller, which are both strong flavored bourbons. It still tastes great if you like bourbons, which I do, and I'm pretty sure it upped the abv a bit. I wonder how the bourbon flavor will settle with carbonation and age. Being a full 5 gal batch too, this should last me for a while.

Bitches Brew
The brew went well. Started with about 6 gallons or so in the kettle. However, when boiling, I'm assuming do to the high sugar/protein content, it kept boiling over, even before the hops were added. So I had to keep the cover off partway. With the 90min boil, cold weather, and hop absorbtion, I think I lost quite a bit of beer and ended with a 3 gallon batch. I also forgot to add the maple syrup, so the SG was at 1.092 instead of the 1.100. I pitched most of the yeast starter but saved a bit and made another starter to help as the yeast start getting killed off. In order to add the maple syrup and increase the yield, I decided to add 1 gal of water to the secondary, as well as 1 qt of the maple syrup and pitch the second round of yeast. This will give some more kick to the beer and add volume. The color and taste were good to start as well.

Also, I think this is the last brew for the winter. I'll post updates here and there. See you in the spring.

New Brew Planned: Bitches Brew

2009-11-25T11:57:00.002-05:00

This Saturday Nov. 28th will be brew #10. For the 10th beer brewed at Robot Monkey Brewery it will be another crazy one. A possible 10% abv Barleywine. The est SG=1.100, with est IBU=57.6. The grain bill on this beast is 18.75lbs for a 5 gal batch! Crossing my fingers to not get a stuck mash. It will also require extra mash and boil time. This new beast of a brew will be called Bitches Brew in honor of 40th anniversary of Miles Davis's crazy awesome album, which was released in April of 1970. When this beer is done in the secondary after a month or so, I will keg half to drink through the winter, and throw the second half in a tertiary fermenter with some oak and "release" that beer in April.

Also on Saturday, I will keg the Goatmeal Stout and get the final measurements etc. A good day for beer.

Goatmeal Stout update

2009-11-23T10:24:00.002-05:00

This time was my first attempt with dry yeast, since they were out of the regular. After a week nothing had even started, so I gave up on that and bought a regular Irish ale yeast, and things got kickin! I also decided at that point to make a heavier beer for the winter, so I added 2 lbs of light brown sugar right to the primary fermenter. It was bubbling there for almost 2 weeks! A quick estimate brought the OG up to 1.061, which is a nice start. Friday night I put it into a secondary, just so I could add some oak chips. I measured it to be 1.012 at this point, so a good finish as well. I wonder how the brown sugar in fermenter will affect the flavor. I also soaked a bag of oakchips in bourbon and threw them in, so that should be a nice experiment as well.

I have noticed a theme as well. The beers that I brew with grains from one brew store always seem to have a much lower OG than expected. The color is usually fine, as well as taste. And this specific brew shop, all the specialty grains are crushed on site, but the pale malt comes pre-crushed in big bags. If their crush isn't up to snuff, that would give me a much lower yield. I wonder if this is throwing me off. I'm going to do the same steps next brew with same temps/times, etc, and see how my yield is with grains from the other brew shop.

Speaking of which, this coming Saturday right after Thanksgiving should be the next brew. Not sure what will be brewin, but an announcement should come later.

Goatmeal Stout

2009-11-02T12:01:00.002-05:00

So I was bored this weekend, and decided to whip together some beer. I needed something that would hold up to winter, and fill out my kegger for a while. "How about an oatmeal stout," I thought to myself. So here it is. A lighter version. OG was 1.045. Brewing went well, although the color could have been a little darker. It's in the fermenter now. And when I grabbed the ingredients, he only had dry yeast for Irish Ale, so this will be my first experiment with dry yeast. I'll see how it goes.

Pliny the Elder Clone

2009-10-20T13:12:00.004-04:00

Bottled/kegged the Pliny clone. Pete took his half in bottle form, so I was able to brush up on the bottling technique. I kegged my half. It finished with a FG of 1.016 giving it a slight sweetness as Pliny typically has, and 9% alcohol. Russian River claims they started at 1.071OG and 8% abv, so I'm not too far off. The original recipe was designed by Tasty McDole from the Brewing Network, but I had to tweak it a bit to equal the hops I currently had. Either way without carbonation it tasted amazing!

Next brew probably in a month or so and will probably be the last one of the winter. Planning on a Westy 12/St Bernardus 12 clone.

Brew #8 Pliny the Elder Clone

2009-10-05T10:07:00.002-04:00

So as it rained this weekend, I had some last minute free time. I stopped at the brew shop Saturday and decided to pick up some supplies and make a clone of one of my favorite beers, Pliny the Elder. This is also helpful as it's not available around here and I have to trade for it. The brew went pretty smoothly and I ended up with an SG of 1.085 and my goal was 1.084 so that's great. It already fermenting like crazy, so it should be good. Oh yeah, this has an estimated 196.7 IBUs, yeah that's correct it's not a typo! And being dry hopped with 4 more oz of hops for 5 gal batch. Pliny is a crazy bad ass West Coast style Imperial IPA and it shows. This will also help me clear out some of my hops to make room for the new batch I just received. Can't wait to try it.

Beervana

2009-10-05T09:59:00.002-04:00

Last Friday night I helped volunteer at Beervana. It was a great time. Lots of great beers, good people, very well organized, and best of all I made out like a bandit with beer. Not only did I get to sample everything I wanted for free (including some very rare beers) I also got to take home about 10 great beers (Duvel, Ommegang, St Fuellien, and more) and I got a growler of Smuttynose Big-A IPA cask and DFH 75min IPA dry hopped with Vanguard. I also got to sample the other two Johnny Cask 75min IPA dry hops which were Warrior and I forgot the third one. I then listed to interesting speeches by Rob Todd of Allagash, and Sam Calagione from DFH. At the end of the night I helped Rob pour his awesome Allagash beers while he did an interview, and then accidentally broke hit tap handle while I was taking it off the keg at the end. He was a great guy and just told me to take it home as a souvenir! I'll def be going back next year.

Ash-hole Hop Stout Finished

2009-09-29T11:13:00.002-04:00

Ash-hole hop stout is now in the keggerator, and has been for about a week now. It finished with a FG of 1.013, giving it an abv of 4.2%. It's a pretty low alc but thick taste. It's extremely dark and stout like, some oatmeal taste, but all that is overpowered by the huge hop taste. The nice bitterness of the Warrior hops, and a strong cascade fresh hop taste with some hop spiciness. I think the dry hop may have been a little too much for this one to redo next time.

On a side note, I also put 1.5L of the beer into my little whisky cask to season the cask and that came out with a HUUUUUUUGE whisky and oak overtones. I bottled that yesterday after 2 weeks in the mini cask. I got about 5 bottles that will make an interesting beer.

Ash-hole Hop Stout

2009-09-10T16:09:00.002-04:00

So the brew went off pretty well. I tried two new things for water control. First I added an extra gallon to the sparge process, then added another gallon to the boil and ended up with almost 6 gallons, and much lower SG than expected at 1.045 (expected 1.060). Next time I'll try just the extra gallon at sparge.

It's still very dark and ominous looking, and should be pretty good. We almost had an issue with the yeast, as the yeast bag didn't inflate, and the starter didn't really catch until a couple days later. I ended up throwing the yeast in on Wednesday morning after it finally started taking. It seems to be fermenting up well now.

The other small mistake was a little carelessness on my part, when I measured out 2 oz of Warrior hops, and I was supposed to had .5 oz at 30 min, and .5 oz at 5 min, then dry hop with the other oz. Instead I added 1 oz at each step, and I'll still dry hop. This thing is going to be a hop monster!

Brew # 7 is Ash-hole Hop stout Labor Day

2009-08-31T16:07:00.002-04:00

Hi All,
Next Monday will be Labor Day, Sept 7th. I actually have a day off from work, so why not spend it brewing beer. Brew #7 the Ash-hole hop stout is officially set for this date, first boil set for 2pm. Hope you can all make it. We will also be filming more scenes for the premiere episode of the brewing show, name yet to be determined. It will cover the brewing process etc.

Bourbon Drunken Irishman

2009-08-29T21:25:00.003-04:00

The Champagne yeast seemed to start fermenting but didn't do much. I threw in the oak char from Buffalo trace casks that were soaked in bourbon. Let that sit for a week or so and finally decided to bottle/keg it. When sucking it out of the secondary the cloth that was holding the charred wood chips was sucked into the sucker and ripped open, spilling the chips all over the beer. I also measured a FG of 1.027, or about 9% alcohol BEFORE adding all the bourbon. With that I added some water to bring it down to about 1.020 and produce more product.

At the same time I figured that since the conditions in the beer were too crazy for the yeast to survive, I wouldn't be able to bottle condition it. I decided to keg it and use the keg to carbonate it, then bottle half of it from the keg after it was carbonated, a new experiment. I filtered it through a mesh screen as I poured it into the keg to remove all the oak chips, but lots of very small cloudy particulate got in, giving it a cloudy and charred wood taste. Which I also tasted it, its got a shitton of alcohol, lots of bourbon and charred wood, still pretty sweet, a strong ale like taste, I can't get much rye yet, but it tastes great! Can't wait to try it when it's carbonated tomorrow. I'm estimating that the total alcohol is around 11-12% or so. It's pretty crazy!

Brew # 7?

2009-08-26T13:43:00.003-04:00

Perhaps brew #7 will be shortly. I'm looking at Labor day, Monday Sept 6th or possibly this coming weekend (this weekend would be tough). The beer will be called Ash-hole Hop Stout. Its basically an Imperial Oatmeal stout. I'm trying to keep the alcohol down a bit in this one, starting the SG at 1.060, with a couple pounds of oats, plenty of roasted and chocolate malts, and lots of hops at 73IBUs. Bittering hops are Warrior and Columbus, and dry hopped with more Warrior, and Irish Ale yeast to give it a dry, slightly fruity and stouty quality. More details will be posted when they are known.

Bourbon Drunken Irishman

2009-08-24T12:25:00.002-04:00

The fermentation had completely stopped for the Scottish ale yeast in the primary, so I moved it to the secondary. And just as I thought, there is too much alcohol and too high a starting gravity for the Scottish Ale yeast to completely ferment. It finished at 1.030 already at 8.5% alcohol and a little more to go. So I added some Champagne yeast and that seems to be fermenting its way towards the finish. If I can catch it in time I will stop it around 1.018 and leave it with a touch of sweetness. The final est alc would be about 10.25% (before adding the bourbon soaked oak chips, which already started). Can't wait to try it.

Brew Updates

2009-08-10T11:15:00.002-04:00

Updates on the last two brews and general news.

Info: I did a full cleaning of the brewery last week and it looked great when we brewed on Saturday. My sister Jen also unveiled the Black and White version of the new RMB logo, it looks awesome! I can't wait to get the color and post it. She also showed a couple concepts of Angry Ogre vs Warrior, and Mostquito Trapped in Amber.

Brew #5: was the Mosquito Trapped in Amber was put into the keg for the BrewBQ this weekend. It weighed out at 1.011 grav giving it an alcohol of about 7.6%, another big one. I'm all about the big beers btw. It went over well for the guests at the BrewBQ. Still needs a little more carbonation though.

Brew#6: Bourbon Drunken Irishman went well despite the hosting duties I did (with thanks to Andy for cooking, and Pemmet and Danielle for some brewing help). At first there wasn't enough water to cover the massive grain bill, so I had to add more, and it ended up mashing at 158 deg F, which is higher than normal for me, but many other brewers use this temp.

There were two issues at hand, first the yeast starter didn't seem to take, I'm not sure if I got a bad yeast package or what but if it doesn't start fermenting by tonight I'll have to pickup another package tomorrow.

The other issue is the same continuing one of low yield. Ended up with 3.5 gallons again and I'm sure I started the boil with around 5.5 gallons. This makes me believe that I have to cover the boil and only remove the cover after adding hops since it boils up with the hops. I'll try a simple beer next time and see if I can get a good yield out of it. Since i already got a good gravity of 1.096 to the expected 1.095 I'm not going to add water and sugar and throw off this and the flavor. Instead I'll have a smaller batch and if it's good I'll do it again next time with a bigger yield.

Depending on how the yeast situation goes I'm planning to soak some oak chips in bourbon and throw them into the secondary. Not sure which bourbon to use yet, probably a Four Roses since they have a high rye bill and I have a bunch of their bourbons (and its delicious).

Next brew will probably be an Octoberfest that I can use to see if i can get a better yield. Date TBD.

Brew #6 Bourbon Drunk Irishman date set, Brew #5 updates

2009-08-01T21:37:00.004-04:00

So brew #6 will be called "Bourbon Drunk Irishman", it starts with an Irish Red ale, the adding 15% rye, upping the malts to bring it to 1.095 or so SG, and adding a Scottish ale yeast to kill the high gravity, then adding bourbon soaked oak chips to top it off. A crazy beer. The date is set for next Saturday, August 8th at 2pm, accompanied by a big BBQ.

I will also be putting the Brew #5 Mosquito Stuck in Amber into the secondary tomorrow and kegging it Friday night hopefully. At the same time I will do a full cleaning of the brewery.

Brew #5 Mosquito Trapped in Amber

2009-07-27T11:11:00.002-04:00

I started creating a few recipes at a time and buying a couple when I go to the brew store so I can save the number of trips there. Had nothing going on Friday so I brewed up this little gem. I wanted a lighter but hoppy amber ale, and wanted a slight kick to it so it has some slight dark malts, giving the name Mosquito Trapped in Amber. I also gave it a decent hop at 44.5 IBUs, and wanted to try out the "Evil Twin" method of lots of late hop additions. For a 5 gal batch the est SG was 1.055, but again I brewed too little and ended with 4 gallons, bringing the est SG to 1.069. The measured SG was 1.068 so that's right on the button. Looks really interesting and should be a great drinkable beer.

The biggest problem I'm having now is amount of wort achieved. I think I need to mark off the brew kettle at 5 gal and account for 20% boil off instead of 10% now, see if that helps.

I also bottled the spicey Grey Lady Clone #1 to see how the spice settles as it ages. It could be a good Christmas style beer if it mellows for the next 6 months. The FG was 1.010 bringing the alcohol to about 5.7% or so. Its not exact since i had to add the water and 1lb of honey, which was hopefully neutral.

Plan to do a big cleaning and sterilizing session this week at some point to completely clean the brewery before the next big brew on the 8th.

Updates

2009-07-20T11:03:00.004-04:00

It's been a couple weeks since I updated as I was on vacation and busy with work.

The Grey Lady Clone that had way too much spice and was small, I added a gallon of water and 1lb of honey (to counter the added gallon of water). When I did this I put it in the secondary. After another week of fermenting the new sugars here I added it to the tertiary fermenter (another secondary) where it currently sits. Sometime this week I will bottle/keg it and check the final grav. My calculations for actual SG work out to be 1.061.

The Dupont Special turned out to be 5% alc and tastes pretty light but has some slight Bavarian qualities. I also noticed some strage off flavors, as I did with the Angry Ogre vs Warrior so I will have to see if the off flavors disappear with age like the AOvW.

I also created the recipe for the next planned brew, which is the Bourbon Drunken Irishman. It will be an Irish Red and Scotch Ale hybrid with 15% Rye added to it, then bourbon soaked oak chips added to the secondary. It has an SG of 1.091 so I had to use Scottish Ale yeast with the Irish Ale, so 2 packs of yeast! It should be VERY complex and interesting tasting. Can't wait for it to age. This brew is planned for August 8th.

Also, found out about this video today and its a great watch. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwy6XMN30CA

Brew #4 - The Grey Lady Clone #1

2009-07-03T12:33:00.002-04:00

Well the brew went well, but I was too wrapped up in other things and didn't account for boil off, and adding more water, etc. We ended up with 3.5 gallons instead of 5, and the spices should have only been there 10 minutes but I couldn't fish them out so they stayed the whole boil. Next time need to use string or something... but we live and learn and this is what brewing is all about. It came out really spicey, but other than the spices it seemed to be tasty. The SG was 1.054.

The Dupont Special was also bottled and finished with a FG of 1.010.

Brew #4 happening at 4PM today July 2nd.

2009-07-02T14:30:00.001-04:00

Read the title. Questions call the phone in contact info.

Brew #4 Update

2009-07-02T07:47:00.001-04:00

Brew #4 is planned for this afternoon. It will be The Grey Lady clone. Est brew time is around 4PM, but will update more info later when I know better.

Brews update

2009-06-29T10:55:00.004-04:00

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.

The Grey Lady Clone #1 = Brew #4

2009-06-25T13:05:00.002-04:00

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.

Jamaica Me Crazy Nut Brown = brew #3

2009-06-22T10:06:00.004-04:00

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.

ACBF

2009-06-21T10:52:00.003-04:00

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.

The Dupont Special

2009-06-16T11:22:00.002-04:00

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.

Angry Ogre Battles Warrior tasting

2009-06-12T23:59:00.000-04:00

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

2009-06-12T10:23:00.003-04:00

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.

Bottled

2009-06-08T13:57:00.002-04:00

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.

Ogre Vs. Warrior IPA

2009-06-02T08:54:00.002-04:00

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.

Pictures from Inaugural Brew

2009-05-27T09:29:00.001-04:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/jlindros/RobotMonkeyBreweryInauguralBrew#

Quest for Grilling Enlightenment

2009-05-27T09:06:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sP6nsgky-8

Pretty awesome, just like his products.

Inaugural Brew Update

2009-05-26T11:43:00.000-04:00

First of all, great BrewBQ, lots of good food and great times, and beer. The equipment seems to work well, so that is a good sign. As for the beer, it went pretty well. The grains that were pre-milled seem to ball up in the mash (like flour in water) and I spent some time trying to break up all the balls. In doing so the temp of the mash went down too much and I added some more hotwater. So between the three issues (balled up grains and less exposure to the water, lower mash temp of 151degF, and more water added) the starting gravity was 1.062 instead of the 1.075 expected. This will give it less alcohol and probably taste less malty and more of a basic IPA. The color looked good. I'll have to update on how the fermentation is going.

Official Inaugural Brew

2009-05-20T10:48:00.002-04:00

Its official. This Monday, Memorial Day, May 25th will be the inaugural brew of Robot Monkey Brewery. The brewing itself will start around 2pm and will be paralleled by a BBQ. We will be brewing "Angry Warrior Ogre IPA" which is a spin from the original Angry Ogre Ale from Beersmith which was one of the first great beers we brewed with Meat Robot Brewery. Its a monster of a brew, with a whopping 93.6 IBUs, Est OG: 1.075, Est FG: 1.020, Est color: 18SRM, Est Alc = 7.3%. I will post the notes we get when we finish, including issues, measurements, possibly pictures, etc. Hope to see everyone there.

Julios Spring Beerfest Sunday

2009-05-13T12:52:00.003-04:00

This coming Sunday, May 17th is Julios annual Spring Beerfest. Plan to get there around 12:45-1. Doors open at 1. They are said to have somewhere in the ballpark of 250 beers.

Inaugural Brew

2009-05-12T10:35:00.003-04:00

The inaugural brew of Robot Monkey Brewery will happen on Monday, May 25th (Memorial Day). This event will be paralleled with a BBQ. See the Central Mass Homebrewers group on Facebook for more info. The type of beer is not yet decided.

Welcome!

2009-05-12T10:10:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the official Robot Monkey Brewery. A subsidiary of Robot Monkey Films, and a sister brewery of Meat Robot Brewery (aka 6-String Brewery). You can also find us on Facebook, a group called "Central Mass Homebrewers".

This is a blog created for the brewery so we can share ideas, recipes, stories, pictures, and talk about our brews. I will publish notes, recipes and pictures from the brews we make, when possible. So relax and have a homebrew.