Updates and Brew # 15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.