Brew Day ahhhh

Another perfect brew day.

I had planned on an all- Centennial hopped beer for my 100th brew, instead I used Warrior for bittering and Centennial for flavor and aroma hops.  Mainly because it saved me a trip to the brew store.  I only had 2 oz of Centennial, and I wanted a 100 IBU beer, so Warrior made sense, right?

Somehow, my sparges are slow.  I don't know why.  Maybe grains are clogging up my manifold?  Maybe my crush is too small?  I'm not sure- but it's slower than it should be.  This is not a BIG deal, except for brew speed and if I'm using a "stickable" grain, it sticks immediately.  So- since I love the rye beers, I should address this.

The mash went great, the boil was 90 minutes, everything went just perfect.

So what did I learn in that brew day?  Well- let's see... It's a lot more fun if you're not rushing?  I took it slow and steady,  the brew day took about 5 hours start to finish, and it was a nice relaxing evening.

I just checked on the beer and it is not yet fermenting visibly.  That's odd to me, since I pitched it into a carboy from a prior brew which had 300 billion cells.  If I don't see anything when I get home from work tonight, I'll have to pitch a yeast packet on it.  Odd, I tell ya.

Happy Brewing!

Economies of Scale

A friend in the brew-gang organized a pallet- buy of grains from a wholesaler.

This results in about a 40% savings on grain.  I bought 7, 50-lb bags.

That's logical, right?

Also bought 5 lbs of hops from Niko Brew.

So- should be in good shape for quite some time to come :)

Now... if only I can get bulk yeast... or grow my own!

Yes, I'm still alive

It has been over a month since I brewed.  Isn't that the sadest thing you've heard?

Well clearly, I haven't gone away from brewing, I just got busy at work. And kids having concerts at school. And being sick for 4 days. And mandatory work parties.  And on and on and on.

Last night when I was packing up beers to mail to friends, I was talking with the girl child.  She said "Number 98, Daddy?  That means only 2 more brews and you are at 100!"  Which I replied "No, 99 is in the fermenter- my NEXT beer is 100!"

I know, it's just a number, but it is a milestone too.

So I'm making a 10%, all-Centennial hopped IPA as the next beer.

Another brew I have coming up is a "Game of Thrones" brew- I am House of Arryn.  Whatever that is.  I clearly need to do some research, but one of the guys said "I don't want to see a MILK chocolate stout! Ha ha ha"  If anyone can clue me in, that'd be great.

Our 12 Days of Christmas collaboration went great- we had a PERFECT get together.  So fun. I now have 21 homebrews which were crafted just for our enjoyment- pretty damn awesome.  We all had great looking labels, tasty brews- I mean- it was awesome.

Just bottled a Graf which is an 80% cider, 20% malt brew.  So the cider gets some body.  I really don't like homebrew ciders in general- too dry.  I added the malt to help bump up the boy and complexity.

Brew on my friends, and Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving of Beer

What did I do homebrew this weekend?

I brought homebrew on the trip from Chandler to Lubbock to share with the family and friends. Nice of me, right?

I picked up a few brews which we can't get in Phoenix.

Looked at a bunch of "Black Friday" sales on the internet and drooled and drooled...
At This 10 gallon Igloo mash tun
At Grogtag Gift Certificate deals 
At Hops by the pound at NikoBrew


I bought Brad Smith's Book from Amazon (using Brad's Link Here)

Now, I'm setting up my profiles in BeerSmith so I can start using the program I bought about 9 months ago.  I'm watching videos and playing with the program.

Last night I went to Lone Star Oyster Bar.  This is where I started liking Anchor Steam- they would keep one out on the back bar for me at room temp.  When poured into a cold mug, it came to about 55 degrees and bingo- love it.  Sadly, today there is no Anchor Steam.  The only "craft" beer available was Lone Star Bock.  It's not too shabby.  But there is NO APA's, only Light Lagers (Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud Light) and Lagers (Shiner Bock [in a bottle, not on draft] and Budweiser) Notably absent is Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Fat Tire, or anything resembling a micro-beer.

Sad news indeed.

Also- I made a bacon tower yesterday

Opening a Brewery

Every homebrewer dreams of opening a brewery.

The brewing process is so community oriented and positive, I just love getting other people's ideas.  Creativity. Engineering. Science.  It's perfect.

Check out this beautiful story:

Pac Brew Lab from Winnie Wong on Vimeo.

First Brew in the Brew Lab

As I have mentioned, my brewing has taken a sudden dive in frequency recently.

Of course I understand that for 99% of homebrewers, dropping from brewing every 5 days to every 14 days is somewhat difficult to see as "dropping".  One thing to understand is... I now have several "regualar" beers which I brew.  NOT having those on hand is disappointing to me.

So- I have to brew a bunch of those to "catch up" before I can get out to crazyville.

(of course you understand this is all in my head- no one else cares)

Yesterday I brewed a favorite- Zombie Grains.  It is an 8% Nelson IPA.  I also brewed what I WANTED to be my Copper Ale, but it didn't come out very copper.  Not sure what happened there.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my LHBS had C-40 in the C-60 bin, but that's neither here nor there.  So instead of being a copper ale, it's an APA.  Which is fine.  I also didn't have the same hops, so... it was destined to be different.

I bottled the stout we brewed in the Homebrew class.  It had been in the fermenter for a month.  This is SUPER unusual for me.  2 weeks is a long time in a fermenter for my beers.

Also- it's a stout.  Not a coffee stout.  Not a creme brulee stout. Not a bourbon stout.  Not a mierpoix stout.  Not even a MILK stout- just a stout.  (It feels weird)

I put some oak chips in Irish Whiskey, and took the bacon OUT of the vodka.

The first brew went perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.  It's SO convenient to have access to water and a sink in your brew house- I recommend it to everyone!

Tonight I am doing a cider with english ale yeast. Not brewing- doing.  Because... there's nothing to do to the cider but to pour it into the fermenter and sprinkle in yeast.  Upon further review, I will be doing a Graff.  This is a cider with a bit of malt added for body.  A couple of reasons for this: Ciders take from 6 months to a year to ferment. I find homebrew ciders to be lacking in body and residual sweetness and apple flavor.

Also tonight is bottling of the Maple Bacon Coffee Stout.  Using my bacon tincture, priming with maple syrup.

The fermenter will be full again.  Like it has been.

OH!  I have to start using my heater in the fermenter to keep it up to temp- it's getting cold out!

The Brew Lab

I haven't been brewing a lot lately (though I do have 4 beers going in the fermenter) for a couple of reasons:

Working 60 hour weeks catering

Creating a new Brew Lab!

Yes, I took everything out of the garage.  It was a pile of stuff.  Pretty awful, really.

Between giving stuff away, the bulk trash collection, and a run to the dump, I removed much crap.

Then I put in additional shelves.

Then I put up white wallboard to hide the shelves.

Then I installed a sink, plumbing it into the soft water loop.  Yes, I used a blow torch.

Then I ran 2 new electrical outlets.

Then I installed a new light fixture in the ceiling.

Then I bought a new fridge.

(All of this not necessarily in that order)

It's beautiful.  It's functional.

My neighbor said "OH!  It doesn't look like a meth lab any more!"

Clearly, that's a 100% Approval!

So- maybe I'll arrange all the shelves some day.  Or brew or something.

And now- the crappy picture and a link to the floorplanning site http://pl.an/s7gv5j

Beer Class Wrap-up

Beer class was awesome!

Class was structured thusly:

Week one was vocabulary, theory, and history
Week two was a brew of the White House Honey Ale (extract)
Week three was the grain and mash portion of an all-grain brew
Week four was boil and chill, emphasis on hop utilization
Week five was packaging (bottling and kegging) and sampling day

I hope my students are brewing.  As with anyone, I am always available to answer questions or make suggestions or just chat about beer or brewing.

I have been invited by a local brewery to do a series in January, and the City of Chandler needs my details for the Spring Series by... tomorrow!

So I better get to work!

Back in action

Well, maybe not so back in action actually- being in the catering and special event industry in Phoenix means Fall is where the money is.  So I'm working more than brewing these days.  I even had a week stretch where there was only ONE carboy on my fermentation cooler!

I didn't brew for 2 weeks straight- SHOCKING!

In the meantime, I did win a couple of medals at a homebrew competition.  It was sponsored by Miller Coors, and they gave out certificates instead of medals.  Really? Couldn't spring for the medals, eh?  Well, it WAS free to enter and a BJCP certified comp, so... that's cool.

Honestly, I just want Best of Show from now on.  I don't even really care about medals any more.

What a jerk ;)

So anyways- Jeremy came over and brewed ALL BY HIMSELF on my system on Saturday.  Jeremy has brewed (and made cider, mead, and kombucha, along with sauerkraut  for a while, but he's cobbling his all-grain system together and he NEEDED to brew on Saturday for the Christmas Collboration.

I was in the process of completely gutting my garage and making a nicer area for everyone in the family (brewery included)

It was so cool to see how a basis in brewing theory can translate to any system.  I answered suprisingly few questions about the system's processes- I think because Jeremy is an experienced brewer and avid learner, and because the system is so straightforward and gravity fed.

Also because Jeremy was not afraid to "make a mistake". To many homebrewers make things much more difficult by worrying about making a mistake, that they don't do anything.  Jeremy knows that even if the mash goes too long, or the sparge is off by 10 degrees, or there is too much wort at the end of the boil, as long as you record what you did, you can learn from each batch and in the end, you will still end up with good beer!

Garage pictures will be available eventually. Most likely :)

Zig, then Zag

Tonight I had another fantastic homebrew class.

Maybe I will title it "Resurrecting your brew day"

So, first- it was an... extended day at work.  Like- leaving more than half an hour late.  Also, no idea what I am brewing.  Have to stop and get grains (actually, Scott was awesome and sped me along)

I have to get home, disassemble my set-up and pack it in the Xterra.

Get there, get the water heating, realize that I forgot a few things.

Go home. Get them.

Get back to the Community center.

Realize FUCK! I forgot some other things too, but I have to figure out what to do without, because... yeah... no time.

Now 25 minutes late starting the mash

The plan was to get mash done by 6:15.  It finished at 6:55

Clearly, for a brew that had an end at 8:30, this was a bit of a challenge

OK, mash out. After 2 gallons, start the gas and get it to boil when we're through with mash out.

The propane tank is not, um- propane-ing.

I got it filled, and the guy said "I think something might be wrong, it's really hard to turn. Weird."

So yeah. No gas.

I do have a commercial stove, and that worked. Slowly-ish.

Further back in the time line.

So when all is said and done, cooling finished (Oh my god, I love ice machines) by 9:00 on the dot.

Plenty of interaction.  Requests to brew with me at home some time.  All these things are excellent.

Because there were several opportunities to TEACH how you recover and use your problem solving abilities to make a quick move and figure out problems on brew day.  

Next week is packaging and sampling.

WOOHOO!

Oktoberfest- the day of MAGIC!

Saturday was a beautiful day- perfect weather for a beer festival.

ASH had its annual Oktoberfest and it was awesome.  I spent more than half my time at the front gate scanning in members and giving wrist-bands.  My daughter made pretzel necklaces and gave them out, and my son tormented her for hours.  It was so fun!

Also, I brought radios for us to use to communicate from the front gate with the children.  My son changed his channel to the one the event organizers were using, so he could torment them too.

There is a local BBQ club who does a cook-off, and of course there is a raffle, and the awarding of medals for  the top brewers.

Yes, I won 2 medals- gold for Grilled Lemon Cream Ale in Fruit Beer, and gold in 10A American Amber for my Arizona Copper Ale.  Yay!

I head the announcement for the Amber, but I was getting my dad a beer when they announced the GLCA gold, so... I missed the jumping and screaming portion of the award ;)

WHY was I the only one jumping and screaming?  Seriously? Everyone else smiles and shakes hands... I scream and yell and jump in a circle.

So anyways, I want to thank the Event coordinator, David Schollmeyer, and the Competition coordinator, Barry Weeg, and our ASH President, Rob Fullmer OllLlo l o llo lolllo , for all the work they do. 

Check out http://www.azhomebrewers.org

Easy Brewing

Seriously, I had forgotten how EASY it is to brew an extract brew

I did the extract brew with the class on Wednesday.  It was a bit uncomfortable, tossing ice in the wort and everything. (also, the recipe from the White House was not well written...)

On Sunday I did it again. Because if I only have 50 bottles to share amongst 10 students, that's not very fulfilling for them.

It took under 2 hours.

In and out, cleaned up and done. WOW.

Basic Brewing talks about an extract pale ale that they do while mashing in an all-grain. Maybe I should give it a try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv82HsMN-hA

On the other hand, the ingredients cost $60, for what I could do as an all-grain for $20  So... there's that ;)

First Class WOOHOO!

Alrighty then! I just finished my first class for Chandler Parks and Rec.

I think it went well.  My students (most) seem to be into it.

I will admit, I have a... unique teaching style. I am not formal, I am a bit scattered.

Which is why I created THIS page, to help back up the info and handouts in class.

At first, I thought "WOAH! I'm CRUISING through the material- I'm not going to have enough to fill up the time!"

Then, as always, I started talking.

Some good questions by the students (about half had brewed) and support from Jerry and Patty, and I was rambling on like a fool.

Next week- we brew!  Yahoooooo!

Homebrewing Competitions

OK people, let's cut to the chase

I have saved 6 bottles of every beer I have brewed since mid-March.

This equates to 35 six packs in my cellar.

These bottles take a significant amount of space in my cellar.

I like shiny things.

There are two local competitions in the next month- the ASH Oktoberfest competition, and the Salt River Competition.  The Salt River Comp is sponsored by Miller/Coors, and they not only give free entry, they also give competitors free tickets to the event!  ASH entries are $7 each. Because ASH does not have the budget of Miller/Coors.

NOW- it would be great if I could unload all my beers ;)  Alas, the rules prohibit entering more than one beer in a sub-category.  For example, I can only enter one American Pale Ale in each event.

I have a lot of American Pale Ales.

I almost think of myself as more brown beer focused, however this is not the case with the beers I have available.  Because it was spring!  Yes, I have a varied number of beers but I do brew Pale ales often, because I enjoy a hoppy low alcohol beer in 100 degree weather.

More importantly, what is the value of Homebrew Competitions?

If you listen to the community, the main value is to receive unbiased reviews and technical thoughts on your beers.  Ones unlike your friends will give you.  Because your friends like to drink beer.  And you give it to them. For free.  They like that!

IMHO, there is a long way to go to implementing this in the real world.

I have drank some beers which were absolutely FANTASTIC, with no apparent technical flaws, which scored poorly.  Not just average, but POORLY. This is troubling to me.

The National Competition is daunting.  Each center has 1000 entries.  The number of entries in each category can be overwhelming.  "Palate Fatigue" can be a significant concern.  This is when judges have sampled so many beers, your taste buds deaden. It happens.

Why do I complain... it' so stupid to do so.  There are a few people who put in MANY hours of work to make comps happen, and many more who spend days and days judging.  I have received some very valuable information regarding my homebrews.

What is the GREATEST benefit of Homebrew Comps? The more BJCP judges there are in the world, the more the beer community wins.

I suppose it's like this- whenever human beings and PARTICULARLY taste buds are involved, you are dealing with an imperfect system.

Now- I have 10 beers which need to be prepared.

Also- I give this post a 100% chance of being read by someone who will be judging my beers.

Re-using bottles

When you homebrew, and bottle, you are eternally on a hunt for bottles.

Well, let's re-state that...

If you GIVE a lot of bottles away, you are on an eternal hunt for bottles.

I have very generous friends who share their bottles with me.  Many of these friends who homebrew.

Very often, these bottles are not rinsed.  I don't know why.  Bottles which are not rinsed, quickly grow mold and bacteria.  They take less than 5 days to become essentially useless.  I mean, it can be very gross trying to get mold out, to the point where I will only do it if the bottle is special in some way (a Belgian bottle, a flip-top bottle, etc)

Sometimes, bottle conditioning will result in yeast being stuck to the bottom of a bottle.  This is normal.. Typically a quick couple of rinse and shake cycles, will remove this.

Often, the sediment can be stuck on the bottom and shake-rinsing doesn't help.  For this problem, I have come up with a new solution:

Drop 6-8 washers or nuts in the bottle, add a little water, and swirl.

The nuts will scrape the sediment off the bottom of the bottle very quickly, and BINGO!  Fixed!

It's the best way I find, because I hate using a bottle brush- bottle brushes are messy, flicking water all over the place. I'm SO glad I came up with this idea today!

The Pipeline

What is the pipeline? It's your brew schedule. It's what you need to brew, in order to maintain your... whatever.  It can be brews for your friends, projects you dream about, competition beers, and such. You have to balance your lagers, the longer fermentation beers you want to make, specific styles that require different brewing or fermentation styles.

So what's in my pipeline right now?

I've got 5 batches fermenting right now, so my fermentation cooler is full.

Actually  full-plus. I don't often use the shelf with the 3 gallon fermenters, but... Maybe I should more :)

My current pipeline which needs to be brewed:

Tim's wedding brew (ready for 10/1)
Hop Head Fred's Oxy AND Oxy Guava (tbd)
Bryan's 12 Days Xmas brew (ready for 12/1)
My 12 days Xmas brew (ready for 12/1)
Extract brew with class (9/26)
All grain for class A (10/3)
All grain for class B (10/10)
Presidential Honey Blonde (ready for election day 11/6)
Presidential Honey Porter (ready for election day 11/6)
Peanut Butter Stout (Sean's is SICK awesome)

So... Looks like I have my work cut out for me! Hooray!

Collaborrative Experiment- Stone Pale Ale

WHAT WHAT?!?!?

ANOTHER experiment? 

Or, another collaboration?

Whatever...

So a few guys and I are all brewing the same recipe.  The goal is to come together and see what our individual systems and processes create, from the same ingredients.

We took the Stone Pale Ale recipe from BYO magazine in 2008 as our base.  We adjusted to Crystal 80 from Crystal 75 because we don't have access to 75 locally. 

We also agreed that the goal is to hit the NUMBERS on our system.  For example, if I have a 92% efficiency in my mash tun, I would reduce the starting ingredients to reach the outlined OG.

Also, the yeast is variable.  We are all supposed o use English Ale yeast per the recipe, but since some people use liquid and some use dry, that will be a variable.

Here is my recipe:

8.5 lb 2-row
1.25 lb C-60
.25 lb C-80
.75 oz Magnum 14% AA, 90 min
1.0 oz Ahtanum 5.7% AA, 15 min
156 deg mash temp
90 minute boil
Batch Sparge (that's new for me)
Windsor yeast

I had my grains crushed at the LHBS which I usually don't, and I paid the price.  Missed my target gravity by 2 points, 1.054 rather than the target of 1.056

I don't think any of the other guys have brewed yet, and the original goal was to have our beers all entered into the ASH Oktoberfest competition and see what the judges had to say about them.  Looks like it might just be mine.

Fun times!

Az Hops!

---MIND. BLOWN---

WOAH! There is a winery south of Tucson who is growing hops!  In Arizona!  I'm SOOOO excited!

Good reason for a road trip if I ever saw one.  Visit a couple of breweries or a beer bar in Tucson, hit the hop yards, and head home.  THAT is living!

They even have a homebrew club called "The Buffalo Club".  Apparently the name is in homage to an old west drinking game.  Everything in southern Arizona is because of something "Old West"y

"We have decided to honor Buffalo in our tasting room. What is Buffalo?  Only a life-saving, drinking game from the old west that is a life time commitment. You are only allowed to drink with your non-gun-shooting hand  (or your non-writing hand). If anyone catches you then they call “Buffalo!” and then you have to finish whatever is in your glass."

I am now dedicating my life to drinking with my left hand.

Cheers! 

Ooh! Exciting Tingz!

We have a little facebook group of people who brew here in the Easy Valley.

My friend Bryan did a homebrew trade between some of us and some homebrewers in Nebraska.

In this little exchange, we discovered that their Homebrew Club has a tradition of doing a "12 days of Christmas" series, where each person has a day of the song, then brews to whatever they interpret that to mean!

We'll each end up with the entire series of beers, have a trading party, and also send an entire series to send to the Nebraska fellas.  Fun, right?

I kicked off the challenge, and people are excited to do it!

So here is the placeholder for the brews and the people RESPONSIBLE for having them BOTTLED by DECEMBER 1ST for sharing.

Bottles will be 12 oz, 22 oz bombers, or 750 ml bottles.  Or liter flip-tops. Because DAMN!  That would be Bad ASS! But... I'd expect bombers from most participants. I mean, if it's a 15% Super Imperial Stout... maybe a 12oz would be appropriate

UPDATE: since we have 24 people in on this, it looks like the bottles should be 12 oz so 5 gallon batches can be shared without emptying the entire stock

Also, the bottles must be labeled. Not just a number, an actual label.  The best label gets... a prize. Like maybe a Tee Shirt or something. I have a bag I'm giving to Goodwill anyways.

Yes, this is the first time they have heard the deadline.

Welcome, kiddos!

SPREADSHEET!

Bonus Videos:

Stuck Sparge

So for several of my last batches, I have wrestled with a stuck mash (stuck sparge? What is the difference?)

I have had such good luck with my manifold to this point, I have a hard time believing the equipment on that side is th problem.  Possibly the grain mill?  Too fine a crush?

I have had relatively "sticky" ingredients, but I'm still surprised. Two lbs of rye malt in a 13 lb grain bill, with half a pound of rice hulls should be good, no?  Well, apparently not. 

So, children, beware of the stuck mash and be liberal with the rice hulls.  Watch that crush.

It does, however, remind me of one thing that I love about homebrewing- Problem Solving. 

What do you do when you have a stuck mash?  I used a small pitcher and scooped everything out of the mash tun into a big pot, then added rice hulls, then re-assembled the manifold and made sure that the holes were not blocked.  Added them all back in, and it worked.

Better.

Not "right" though.

But the thrill of working the solution through on site and in my head, in real time, is pretty freaking fun.

MY GOD! THE PRESSURE!

OK, so I have several projects working.

Today I brewed with my friend Bryan, to share with another friend, to share with Nebraska brewers, and just to do his first all-grain.

Bonnie is brewing a batch next week for Queen of Brews comp

Tim and Deb are getting real and making it legal, so a celebration brew for them

A friend's birthday, who I want to brew a special beer for.

Oktoberfest is imminent. Need to brew something for that.

The homebrewing classes are a series of 3 beers, a week apart each.

So- I have a super busy fermentation schedule, listed here:
HERE! CLICKY CLICKY HERE!

(Also, don't forget... that also means bottling each batch... Every time I think I have all the bottles I could possibly need, I need more...)

Back in the saddle!

PPHEW! 

After being in homebrew oblivion for the last little while, I bottled on Thursday and Monday.

Chances are I will be brewing tonight.

I've missed it!

Also, my beer supplies are dangerously low.  The word is out about how delicious my brew is, so I have been inundated with requests.  Seriously, I have less beer today than I have had in a year.

Coming soon- a post about a new toy called the OneDerBrew once I actually use it.

HALP!!!

Oy vey.

It has been oh... a month since I brewed? Ok, 19 days. STILL! That''s like a lifetime.  I have 3 brews sitting in the fermentation cooler waiting to be bottled.  I even TRIED bottling yesterday, but the childrenz and the lifes got in te way.

SO FRUSTRATING.

We'll see if today maybe I get in there. This weekend, I am taking the chillrinz camping, so no brewing time.

I've kind-of recommitted myself to the boy child surviving school, instead of brewing constantly. Also the brewery has so much stuff piled up in it, I hardly know where to begin. I have a LOT of bottles.

Maybe these guys are on to something with the whole "kegging" thing...

Brewing is FUN!

MAN, is brewing fun!

On Saturday, I brewed the base for Grilled Lemon Cream Ale.

I don't say I brewed Grilled Lemon Cream ALe (GLCA) because the highlight is in the secondary with the grilled lemons, so... I brewed a Cream Ale.

Why did I brew this?  Because my good friends LOVE this beer. And why do I brew?  To share beer with people.

I've always been the crafty one in the house- making mothers day presents with the kids, painting the kitchen just because I wanted to see what the new color would look like.  I have the Pinterest page, my wife loathes Pinterest.

Sharing beer that I have made, with equipment that I built, is about the pinnacle of manly crafting.  I don't feel the need to do scrapbooks and knitting and such- these things are mind-numbingly boring to me.  I will however encourage my children to do these things if it's something they like.

I love brewing because It is a multi-tasker's HEAVEN! I mean... you can make brewing a slow, easy day (which I do sometimes) or you can make it a frantic, have 6 irons in the fire, organizational THRILL RIDE (which I do most often)

I'll start a series of the process soon so you dedicated readers can better understand the way breing works.  I mean, this is all duplication because SHEESH!  there are a million web-pages dedicated to it, thousands of youtube videos, and many many books.  Still- I'm freaking hilarious ;)

Such a glorious day

OK, so yesterday (July 4th) I woke up around 8 AM.  I was interwebzing while the lovely and sleepy Bonnie continued her day-off slumber.  I saw a couple of homebrew tweets and thought "Let's do this!"

I already had my popcorn popped for Popcorn Pale, so BINGO!

My rig wasn't really ready to go. Typically, I 'll have the water hot and the brew day is quick.  This time, I decided to brew spontaneously.  So, I had to fill my HLT's, get the water hot, etc.  No matter, as I still had to formulate my recipe, get the grain crushed, etc etc.

Also today seemed like the perfect day to bottle the Collaboration beer which Jeremy and I brewed on the 10th of June, which I dry-hopped a week ago. BTW- it tastes absolutely AWESOME.

My little neighbor buddy, Tanner, swung by and ended up spending 4 hours hanging out with me brewing.  If only my 9 year old son had the same interest as this random 8-year old... oh well. This little punkin...
A) Sanitized all my bottles
B) Filled all my bottles
C) Capped all my bottles
D) LABELED every bottle cap
E) De-labeled some random bottles I had lying around

ALL FREE CHILD LABOR!!! SCORE!!!

When his mom came over to see where he was (after 3 hours) I showed her all the science we were accomplishing , and her reply was "If he gets to be a pest, just send him home"

Do you have any idea how much popcorn, 3 and a hlaf punds is?  It's 3 paper grocery bags full. Yes.  3.  That's a LOT of popcorn.  When I pour it into my 5 gallon mash tun, it melts of course, and it all fits with no problem.  Very interesting process though.

My hope is that this batch wil have more of the popcorn flavor in it.  The last couple of batches really didn't, so I increased the popcorn ratio on this one.  Also used some different hops.  I should have looked at some liquid yeasts which potentially highlight "malt" flavors.  Maybe next time.

The brew day went smooth as silk.

I really feel fortunate that my "rig" makes brewing so simple.  I can decide that I want to brew, and it takes less than 5 minutes to have the brew stand completely assembled and the water heating up.  I mean, that's just awesome.

Today I am working on my homebrew class syllabus.  I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to teach new brewers.

NHC Beer Scores

I had 6 beers entered in the NHC competition.  None of them moved forward into the second round.  Here are details on the beers, my impression, and the judges comments following the scores:

 **Rosemary IPA (Spice/herb beer) but I don't think it's "herbed" enough.  I probably should have put it in standard IPA
29.5 points
Judges said it had TOO MUCH Rosemary and just generally didn't like it

**Arc Porter (Robust Porter) I love this beer.  A nice, roasty porter
40.5 points and moved forward to the Mini-Best-Of-Show
"Very good example" which is a HUGE compliment
"Would gladly pay to drink this in the pub"

**Peach Pie (Fruit beer) It's an american Wheat beer with peaches.  It's not SUPER peachy, just a bit- but a delicious beer and we'll see.  I'm not super conidant in this one because the Fruit category is very very popular among homebrewers.
35.5 points
"Very tasty beer.  Peach character and choice of wheat beer base make this a very nice fruit beer"
"Well made base, fruitiness apparent but without a distinct peach character.  Non-specific pale fruitiness"

**Right Red Rye (German Roggenbier) A rye beer, but it is too hoppy to technically be in this category.  So- meh.  It has won 2 silver medals locally and it's probably my favorite beer that I brew, but it's not technically correct in any "style"
37 points, moved to Mini-BOS
"Very good example of a difficult style, believe that the hops are more appropriate to an American Style"
"Great tasting beer, very drinkable"

**Bonnie's Brown (English Brown Mild) A nice easy drinking brown ale.  This is actually an extract beer.
37.5 points, Mini-BOS
"Well made beer that fits the guidelnes well"
"Nice yeast selection and fermentation"

**Sesame Street Amber (American Amber Ale) Named for the grains being 4#, 3#, 2#, 1# the guy at the homebrew shop said "What is this, Sesame Street?"

30.5 points
"Malt presence a bit low"
"Adjust mash temp to ensure medium to full body"
"A bit one dimensional"

Must plan!

Sometimes, I get caught in a trap.

I know the beers that I like and that my friends like. So I brew those on a regular basis.

Many times, I brew "off the cuff" deciding at noon, that I want to brew in the evening.

The question becomes, WHAT I want to brew.  While working, then getting home to brew as quickly as possible, creativity tends to get dampened by time crunch.

SO- here are the brews I want to tackle soon-

Peanut Butter Cup Stout with Sean
Don't Know with Scott (HopHead Fred)
Popcorn Pale (more popcorn, and trying to get some popcorn flavor. 4% ABV) **DONE**
Larceny Lager (Uncle Bill told me a story about how he used to steal beer out of the Pabst lunch room fridge)
Peach Basil Wheat (Fresh AZ Peaches and Basil)
Grilled Pineapple Porter
Portly Squirrel (the last time was REALLY CLOSE, but not QUITE the same...)
Partigyle style beer (after I get a 10 gallon cooler)
Gluten free beer attempt #2
Ginger beer

Now I'm ready to roll :)
As soon as I get the time to do it

NHC Recap

What a great time I had at NHC.  Seattle was rainy and cold, and a welcome change from AZ.

The dinner was delicious, the people were wonderful to talk with, and the beer was fantastic!

I bottled Portly Squirrel the day before I left, along with Mr Nelson I Presume.  Drank them on Monday night, and they are GREAT!

NHC 2012

I'm all packed and ready to head to NHC tomorrow. Can't wait to see all the tingz!

The week has been homebrew free other than consumption.  I have 2 batches I hope to bottle today so it will be ready when I come home.

For club night I am Fed-Ex'ing 12, liter sized bottles to my hotel in a wine shipping box.  I'm confidant they will make it OK.

Sharing is caring!

The Empire

I have an online beer empire.

I have the Arizona Beer Events calendar hosted at http://www.malthopsyeast.com

I have an NHC info page at http://www.firstrunnings.com

I have a review site at http://www.yeastofyourproblems.com

Waiting in the wings are:
Beers For Your Ears (the podcast site)
and LiveLoveBrew (the beer crafting/paraphenelia/shop)

MWA HA HA HA HA HA!

I'm taking over the world!

I made an Android app through Andromo which is for NHC attendees.  Find it at Firstrunnings.com

A weekend tale

This weekend was AWESOME!

Bonnie and I had a chance to hang out with a couple of homebrewers on Friday.  Now, granted, we were laze-ing around in their pool for 5 hours, not brewing, but... The entire conversation revolved around beer. Of course.

Saturday we cleaned the yard (and tidied up the brewery) then headed off to a big Homebrewer BBQ.  The fella who hosted it has a completely computer controlled, 20 gallon system.  Basically, he could brew from his couch.  He also makes a SICK brisket, and some roasted chicken of the highest standard of excellence.  And a pool.  Of course.  Then we proceeded to the after-party at another homebrewer's home.

Sunday was brew day!  Jeremy came over.  He did all grain in the Brew In A Bag process, and wanted to see my all-grain process.  So from 11-12 I got the brewery ready and he arrived at noon.

ONE WOULD THINK that we would get brewing at noon, right?  Well recall the Saturday BBQ and Afterparty?  There were some lingering effects which a quart of blue Gatorade helped with.  For him.  I was a bit slow, but not hung over :) yeah, that's the ticket...

We brewed a batch and he loved the process, it's really simple on my system.  Which is sort of unfair to other brewers who plan on brewing all grain after they see my system.  Like I said, I could brew with my eyes closed, I have the system so dialed in.

After 3:00, other guys started arriving (and my mom and dad) and we got the grill fired up for some delicious dogs and burgers.  At this point, my mash-in was in process for my second brew.

Brew 2 finished, cooled, and in the fermenter.

Can you imagine a better weekend?

This is the brew day schedule:

NHC Schedule

FINALLY the NHC seminar schedule was posted.

I created a few documents


Google Calendar Link:
https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=snig8mcfmmm4e31mhi38qjgcvk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Phoenix

Google Doc (text):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oslwIkO2yuXdX4z9vHXOIW7NbccWKmyp42P-I39mHf4/edit

Google Doc (spreadsheet):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoKRRO48eB2AdG9MbzVFRVc1UldHY2lkWTZtblExQ0E

Podcasts

I listen to podcasts ALL the time.  I really loathe having to listen to the radio, and I have a 45 minute drive to work.

Now, podcasts come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Wait, let me back up again.  Podcasts are shows produced most often by the creator, and posted on web sites.  They are not reviewed, broadcast over the radio, and the user (listener) has to actually SEARCH them out and either download or stream them to listen.  Therefore, they are more free to use off-color language and discuss a FAR wider variety of topics than you will find on normal radio.

Good, now that we covered that...

They can be 5 minutes long or 4 hours long, or 75 hours long!

What I like about brewing podcasts is that there is a professional network, The Brewing Network, who produces incredibly high quality content.  There are also several excellent podcasts which I listen to- BeerSmith, and Basic Brewing are among the best.

What makes a good podcast for me? It has to have good audio quality.  It should "flow" well, and be entertaining.  For me, it also helps if there is a regular schedule of broadcast, so I know I will have something to listen to.

What makes for a bad podcast?  Poor sound quality.  Bad edits with "dead air". When 50% of the show is burp and fart jokes. BOOOOORING delivery

There are a lot of unlistenable podcasts out there, to be sure. Seriously unlistenable. (And they have "sponsors".  What the hell?  You'd put your company's name on a show of that piss-poor quality? That's about the dumbest thing I can imagine)

Another thing that has made me crazy lately is that I want to listen to a couple of podcasts whose content is only accessible through a Flash player.  I have a pretty awesome Android phone.  Still, I can't listen to these in my normal stream of podcasts because the content is not in a standard audio format.

So why am I pontificating about a subject which I know about as much about as I do brewing?  Because it's time to have a brewing and overall beer podcast coming out of the DaH house.

We've toyed with the idea for about a year, and it's time.  We will be recording a few soon, and posting before NHC.

Here's hoping people enjoy what Bonnie and I have to say about fermentation :)

Teaching others

Teaching others to brew is something I love doing. Now, it appears that I will get to teach a class for Chandler Parks and Rec in fall! Now I will develop the program. Hopefully I'll have some guest speakers too. So excited!

Triple brew day

My friend Travis and I started a beer blog a couple of years ago.  It was short lived, but when I sent Travis some of my beers, I asked him to review them.  Here is his first review:

http://yeastofyourproblems.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-new-belgian-blonde-girlfriend.html

On Tuesday, I bottled the most Recent Cake and a Card Porter.

Then I brewed a Mierpoix Brown Ale (the base recipe was Arc Squirrel)

Then I brewed a Grilled Lemon Cream Ale

Then I brewed a Pallisade Pale Ale

Then I drank a bunch of beer.

You know, not a bad day for working from home :)

Really, I am so fortunate to have a spouse who supports my hobby.  It takes a lot of time and effort and money to be this obsessed over something.  Of course, in return I share delicious homebrew with her, and we have a great time socializing with like minded people.  So- thanks Honay!

Also, our friend Becca suggested that the brewery name could be Flintlock Brewing.  I really like that name, it's the name of our street so it makes sense, too... Hmmm...

Pinterest? Yes, that.

OK, You've probably heard of Pinterest.  It's a place where essentially you post "bookmarks" to web pages, and choose a picture to represent the bookmark.  It's easier to remember something with a picture, right?

Well, you can make these categories for your bookmarks (just like if you use bookmarks in your web browser) and then other people can look at your categories (Boards) and bookmarks (Pins)

Here is my Beer Board. Enjoy!

http://pinterest.com/azbauman/beer/

Apparently I talk a LOT

Here is a link to an article about me, by The Brew Bros.  They are a national organization of beer writers who review and promote all sorts of beer related things.

http://www.thebrewbros.com/the-road-to-the-national-homebrewers-conference-interview-with-a-homebrewer/

Thanks Patrick!

More Press. Sure, why not...

James Swann, the local GOD of beer, interviewed me about homebrewing.  I'm the first of a series of 4 homebrewers he is interviewing.

He positioned me as the "CRAZY guy of homebrewing" which I (already discussed with him) don't really think I am. I mean, yes it's possible to look at my brews and say "WOAH!  HE'S CRAZY!" but I am just using ingredients which interest me and which I am familiar with.

I come from a food background, so naturally I like incorporating food items into my beer.  Grilled Lemons, Popcorn, Rosemary- these are delicious and great flavors.  Why not find a beer to carry the flavor?  I don't do it to be CRAZY, I do it because that's what I know.

The article, which is very good, and I appreciate James' offer to interview me, can be found here: http://azweeklymagazine.com/beer/home-brew-is-for-sharing/

Cheers!

So many beers!

Eeks!  Looking at my cellar, I have SO many beers!

I think I need to give some of these away again.  Also funny how I have few of certain other ones.  I guess that goes to show that there are some "crowd favorites"

4 more batches in the fermenter, 2 of them ready to bottle right now.

I am also saving 6 of each batch for competitions.  I think I may actually have 30 in the NCH next year, if I decide to.  At least my goal is to have 30 AVAILABLE to enter, if the spirit moves me.  At $10 per entry this year and likely more $ next year, it's probably not worth it, since several are not what I would consider "world class".  This competition is TOUGH! I got 3 through to the mini-BOS of the San Diego regional, but none won medals, and none advanced to the second round.

I'd like to say, and I know that it's a level playing field since all beers are treated the same... The process for NHC sucks.  They get one bottle to judge.  So, the first 2 judges get the bottle and taste it.  Say... 3 ounces each to "judge".  The other half of the bottle is reserved for the mini-BOS.  It's open (or re-capped, but re-capping a half-full bottle is pointless) for up to 2 days?  It seems that they would have a better and not drastically more beer-consuming process if there were 2 bottles per entry.  Of course, at 800 entries the storage space needed for 1600 bottles is... significant.  That's a hell of a cellar.

Sunday Fun-Day!

It was my birthday on Friday and I worked like an animal Friday and Saturday.  It's part of the "deal" with catering.  The sporadic nature of catering is also what allows me flexible time to brew a LOT, which I really do appreciate.

Sunday was brew day, I re-brewed the Sorachi Ace Belgian Blonde.  NOW- since I only bottled it on Wednesday, and haven't tasted the final product, WHY would I brew it again right away?  Well, for one thing it tasted DELICIOUS at bottling time, and 2- I wanted to re-use the yeast cake.  I kept it in the fermentation cooler at 65 degrees for those 3 days, and racked my batch Sunday, right into the same carboy.  This is not the "recommended" method.  The "right" way to do it, is to siphon the yeast out, clean it by letting it settle and striate, and taking only the living best cells.  However I have re-pitched in the past and it works just fine.  It will have dead cells and trub from the prior brew which could (and most likely does, in some fashion) affect the new batch.  It is also impossible, using my method, to exactly replicate the beer.  In 3 days though, and using the same recipe, the affect will be minimal.

I also brewed the Cake and A Card again, albeit card-free.  People keep beating me up, wanting to taste it, so - I did it again.

The homebrew club asked if I could brew a "calibration beer".  This is a beer where everyone at the meeting tastes it, and determines the style that the beer is, and compares it to the BJCP guidelines for that style.  I am going to supply 8, 1-liter bottles of the Belgian Blonde.  It should be fairly easy to determine the style, and the "flaw" would be the Sorachi Ace hops.

One of the BEST things about brewing yesterday was that my Dad came over for 4 or 5 hours, Bret and Kim and their sons dropped by for a couple of hours, and Bryan and Krista stopped by for 3 or 4 hours. We all drank homebrew and some delicious commercial beers, and bingo!  Magic Sunday Fun-Day.

Pop gave me a new immersion chiller which is critical.  It took 90 minutes to bring my beers down to 68 degrees and that SUCKS for brew-day.  Instead of being done by 9:30, it was 10:30.  Too late.

So be it.. The check on the babies this morning showed a nice start to fermentation, and they look good to go!

Big Brew Day!

Thanks to Rob, the president of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers, I have been reminded that Saturday May 5th is "Big Brew Day" in conjunction with the American Homebrewers Association.

ASH members and other brewers will be meeting at the Brewers Connection in Tempe starting around 9 AM, bringing their brew systems and making delicious delicious homebrew.  It's awesome how helpful and friendly the homebrew community is.  Everyone is there to share their knowledge, tips, stories, and very often their beer with anyone who wants to learn more.

Brewers Connection is at 1425 East University in Tempe, way in the back corner of the center.

The Arizona Homebrewers Society (ASH) is on the web at http://www.azhomebrewers.org

The American Homebrewers Association is at http://www.homebrewersassociation.org

I, unfortunately, have to work that day.  Though I do have a brew day scheduled on Sunday and a few visitors are anticipated.

Sure, you can brew!

People often have an amazed look when I tell them that I brew.

Maybe it's because I just look that dumb.

JUST KIDDING!

It is really pretty simple to do.  It just gets difficult to do it WELL>

Local homebrew stores have all the ingredients you need- and if you don't have a local store, you can go to any of the MANY online stores.  MoreBeer, Northern Brewer, Williams Brewing, The Barley Brothers, etc.  They all have low flat-rate shipping for most items.

If you have a stove, a pot, and a 5-gallon bucket with a lid, you truly have all it takes to brew beer.  If you have a funnel and some old 2-liter coke bottles, you can bottle your beer. It will be a pain in the ass, but you CAN do it.

Please learn about the proper ratio of bleach to water, to make a simple sanitizer, and you're ready to go!

Of COURSE, if you do that, it will turn out to be beer.  Not necessarily great beer, but beer.  In fact, my 51st batch is not good.  It got an infection or something.  I don't care because I make so much beer that it's a drop in the bucket.

All the other equipment I have (several hundred... um... over a thousand dollars worth, actually.  Including Christmas presents...) is an effort to make brewing more simple, and more precisely.  There is a cost savings in making beer from bulk grain and hop purchases.

If you want to get into brewing, understand that you will not realize a "savings" over cheap beer.  You CAN realize a savings over craft beer, and make beer BETTER than you buy.  It's a fact.  However, in order to brew at this level you have to have control over your fermentation temperature.  This is the MOST important "extra" step you can take to making great beer.  Your yeast will throw off funky flavors if your beer ferments over the recommended temperatures. I say "extra" step because sanitation is a BASIC step, and you CAN make decent beer without a fermentation cooler, but your brewing ability will be determined by the ambient temperature.

If you have questions, please email me at andrew__AT__dahbrew.com

http://dailyinfographic.com/how-to-brew-your-own-booze-infographic

http://fab.com/inspiration/home-brew

Birthday time

Since the reason I started this blog in the first place was to have somewhere for my Christmas list to exist, here is the birthday present list:

Immersion Chiller http://www.amazon.com/Copper-Coil-Immersion-Chiller-Length/dp/B002NZNJG2
Beer Smith 2.0 license http://www.beersmith.com/
Digital thermometer- http://www.amazon.com/RT600C-Super-fast-Water-resistant-Digital-Thermometer/dp/B002GE2XF8/
Bulk Grain http://brewyourownbrew.com/contact_byob.htm
Refractometer (Ebay search... $30)
Chugger Pump http://chuggerpumps.com/product.php?prodid=222
Blast chiller http://www.webstaurantstore.com/master-bilt-mbcf115-reach-in-blast-chiller-122-lb/560MBCF115.html?utm_source=Amazon&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Amazon+Campaign

I mean, why not- toys are fun!

It's Press Day at DaH Brew

An article by my friend Rob, in Food and Flourish magazine discussing homebrew culture and featuring my lovely label.

http://www.foodandflourish.com/guest-columns/2012/4/23/homebrew.html

Ever had a dry spell?...

Hello friends!

It has been a LONG time since I did anything "beer related".  I think it was... 6 days ago at the AZ Society of Homebrewers meeting. http://club.azhomebrewers.org/ And brewing that day before the meeting.

I haven't even rinsed bottles.

Currently in the fermenter, sitting patiently waiting for me, are an OxyClean with 2 oz of Citra dry hops, and a Belgian Blonde with Sorachi Ace hops.  I think this should be a pretty interesting beer- the lemon/dill of the Sorachi Ace with the esters of the Belgian yeast.  To be fair, I did use dry yeast, so the "Belgian" quality will not be very pronounced, and I think it will be a nice summer beer.

On the way to my 4th, 17 hour day at work I listened to this podcast.  It's my buddies at Masters of None, at the Bluepoint Cask Ale Festival in Long Island, NY.  They were pouring my Cake and a Card Porter and soliciting reviews.  Masters of None at Blue Point Cask Beer Festival

It's nice to hear how excited they are about the beer!  There are many people sampling it and some reviews are raving about it, some are more... reserved.  Essentially, it was a "Novelty" beer and I had a great time making it.  I know that Mike and Jay liked it, and I'm sure if Art ever gets to try it, he will too.

Next brew day: Sunday the 29th.  Or I may perish.

I'll get enough sleep when I'm dead

So I woke up at about 2 AM, dreaming about beer/homebrew shop.  It was a great dream, and there was even a TIGER in it! (Not sure why a tiger would be roaming the street, but the garage door closed quickly enough to keep us safe)

I laid there for an hour and decided to get up.  Bonnie gently suggested that I had a serious psychological problem ("You're fucking crazy") and I came out here to browse the brew-webs.  I got distracted into craft sites (Etsy, Pinterest, and now, I learned Art-Fire)

I AM going to make beer crafts this summer while the catering co is slow.  I also have to learn to do WordPress for work, so that will be cool.

Today I will be working from home.  You know what THAT means... Brew Day!  WOOHOO!  I am also going to use the Looxcie cam to record the day.  One of my friends suggested that he wanted to see what it entailed, so let's see what little editing skills I can come up with.

Also going to go visit a couple of homebrew shops for ingredients etc.

Medals are shiny!

I was not looking forward to this weekend.  It's 15 hour day yesterday (Thursday) 15 hour day today, 15 hour day tomorrow, then Easter running around.

I mean, I do love my job, so it's not that, and it's not the Easter run-around.  It's that there really is no down time, that's all. And no beer-time.

Well Low and Behold, my best buddy Sean texted me to let me know that I won a Silver medal for Right Red Rye and a Gold medal for Grilled Lemon Cream Ale in the Great Arizona Beer Competition.

So- that will make ANOYONE'S day better, RIGHT?

I only entered 3 beers, so that makes it even more exciting.

AND- Grilled Lemon beat Keevin's beer in Fruit Beer category. So Neener Neener :)

Never dull

Homebrewing is never dull.

There are always unexpected twists that occur.

For example, my broken capper on Monday- referred to in "Crisis!"

Broken propane regulators.

Leaking hoses.

Last night, I bottled the Popcorn Pale.  Then I used that yeast cake for Right Rye Red.

It started fermenting VERY actively in only 2 hours.  In 3 hours, it had actually blown off the blowoff tube!  This morning, it had blown off so much that there was over a gallon of beer in the blow-off bucket.  I have NEVER seen that happen before, but- there you go!  I am pretty sure when all is said and done, I will end up with beer, though less than I had planned.

Always something new- that's why I love it!

Sick Day Session Ale

I stayed home with my poor little boy who was recovering from a short bout with Strep.  He had a mild fever when we woke up (99.5) and didn't want to go to school, so I said OK.

This opened up the opportunity to brew.  I know, Shocking!

I had ingredients for Right Red Rye ready to go, so I brewed that.  Also cobbled together some ingredients for a pale session ale, dubbed Sick Day Session Ale.

Sean came by in the evening with some beer from another fellow who he got into homebrew- the guy did a Milk Chocolate Stout as his first beer- talk about Ballsy!  It was very nice.

Remember, your homebrews will be delicious when you start brewing because "WOAH!  I MADE BEER!!!!" The next steps to making truly world class brew are Full Boil and Temperature Control.

I never did partial boils.  This is a process where you get 2 gallons of water boiling, add extract and steeping grains, then when you are done boiling for an hour, you add the (slightly less than boiling) wort into 3 gallons of room temp water.  It creates nice beer (as exemplified by our first time beer last night) but it lacks a certain... something.

Fermentation temp control is essential for keeping your yeast happy.  Yeast don't like swinging around in temps.  There are methods where brewers increase temperature in the latest stages of fermentation to "clean up" the beer, but it should ferment out 90% of the way at a constant temp around 63-68 degrees.  Variation in theis temperature creates flavors which are apparent in beer when finished.  SOME times these are intentional flavors, and in most cases they are not.

SO- that's that. Oh, I also bottled Popcorn Pale, the NOT accidentally frozen version :)

Crisis!

I was bottling a couple of brews, and BOOM! CRASH! BANG!

The capper broke with quite dramatic effect.

Thankfully, I received in the mail, a 1950's era capper that I bought as a novelty off of ebay last week. It was pressed into service and came through like a champ!

We'll see if I can return the butterfly capper, I need a bench capper anyways. Truly. If you brewed as much as I do, you wouldn't have put up with a butterfly capper this long.

Such a blessing!

I feel so lucky to have found not only the great community, but the great individuals who I have met in home brewing. Definitely not boring, very giving, and simply honest.

I brewed a batch of popcorn pale with zythos flavoring and Citra aroma hops. Should be delish.

Tried the portly squirrel again and AGAIN, it is too porter-like. I've just now decided that I did something different the first time I made it, from the recorded recipe. Because I have tried 4 times to recreate it and it really does come out consistently delicious, but not the same. It's far more porter than nut brown. I need to revisit the entire recipe. To be fair, the original was in the first 10 brews I did. And it was AWESOME. I guess if I can let go of that recipe guideline, I can recreate it without the pain :)

Had a great time brewing today- many friends dropped by and we tasted some great commercial and homebrews. Many of my friends who brew, do not brew enough. It's a sad but true fact. I have been lucky to have the support of my wife, who tells me to get the F out of the house ;)

I have move quickly from brewing extract, to all-grain and extract, to all-grain only. This is because my process has been greatly simplified by the system I have created. The move to all-grain is so much more economical compared to extract that it is about half the cost. I remember that a few months ago, I was warned to not brew too much and "burn out". At the time, and now, I thought that was crazy talk. I have, in the 50 brews I have accomplished in the first year I have been brewing, proven that burnout is not an issue for me. My 1 year anniversary was March 23rd. I currently have, as of March 25th, brewed 52 batches.

I have learned so much about brewing that it really surprises me. Other than the 3 batches which froze (reviews are actually mixed, several people think they are still delicious) and exploding IPA, and the punisher, had a pretty great track record.

Many Homebrewers feel that being able to repeat a brew is the most important thing to improving your homebrew. I think if you have a decent process, you can do that quite simply. Being creative is what makes Homebrewers who they are. There is room in the hobby for ALL types of brewers, that's really what is so great. People who brew 4 batches of the same lager every year, those who brew Lemongrass Tangelo Cream Ale, and those who do mead ;)

The supply side of the craft is a field of opportunity which should be explored by crafty, dedicated, brewing individuals such as me.

Ramblings

OK, so my pipeline consists of these beers on a regular basis:

Grilled Lemon Cream Ale
Oxy Clean DIPA
Rosemary IPA
Right Red Rye
Portly Squirrel
Arc Porter

This really is a pretty extensive list of "regular" homebrews, ach will be brewed at least 3 times a year.

It is fun doing other crazy beers, but I need to get these consistent and then make slight improvements to each.  I tried this with Portly Squrrel, which then became Arc Porter and in its most recent revision, Arc Squirrel.  The Arc Porter is a true robust porter- very roasty, very dark, not quite a stout.  The Arc Squirrel is a Brown Porter, really between Portly Squirrel and Arc Porter.  Easy drinking, it's a beauty.

Beer meanderings

Last night I had the opportunity to try AZ Wilderness Pale.  AZ Wilderness is a new brewery which is trying to open in Queen Creek, about 7 miles from my house.  The brewmaster/owner, Johnathen Buford is a great guy and a SERIOUS outdoor adventurer.  He also plans on doing some "out of the box" brewing, thank goodness! This will be mostly taphouse with a few handles at local craft beer bars.  The pale was a nice easy drinker.

The Cake-And-A-Card had a little issue- what's called a stuck fermentation.  This is OK, I pitched a packet of dry ale yeast and hopefully this will get it started again.  Over the last 24 hours, it has been bubbling again, so I'm not too worried.  Apparently the fats in the ice cream can muck up the works. No worries though.  (I do have 12 liters of another porter as a backup, so... they won't be without beer :)

Looking at doing 3 all-grain batches on Sunday- I got the day all planned out in a spreadsheet, no all I have to do is make the plan work.  My only concern is water heating times.  It can take an hour for the hot-lauter tanks to heat the water to 180, so I need to have a backup to stay on schedule.  Probably keep some water simmering on the stove.

Also looking into alternative hop varieties-  I have Pallisade and Zythos in the freezer, so I want to use them correctly.  Apparently Zythos is a blend of "C" hops, which is fine.  I think after the 3 on Sunday, my next brew will be an all Zythos pale.

It IS, after all, session brew season.  Time to kick those heavy imperial IPA's to the curb. Some nice light session ales.  Right Red Rye is good at 6.5 it is a bit high though.  Portly Squirrel is a nut brown- not necessarily a summer beer, but a 5% delicious drink.  I'm also doing the Grilled Lemon Cream Ale again on Sunday which is clearly a perfect summer drink :)

Cheers!  OH!  And Happy St Paddy's Day!

Everything is more fun with friends!

Yesterday was Cake and a Card brew day. And a massive party in my driveway. What a BLAST!

ANYWAYS, here is a picture of the cake going into the boil

Homebrew WIN!

I was able to share 13 brews with 5 different people people today! Woohoo!

I worked all day from 9-9, after getting 4 hours of sleep last night. Because I woke up with brewing dreams and couldn't go back to sleep because I was too jazzed about brewing to sleep. This sounds like I am obsessing. In an unhealthy way.

There will be a few people over to brew on Saturday.

Tonight was a "rally" at Four Peaks Brewery with Charlie Papazian, which I missed. The room was emptying as I arrived after work. None the less, many friends to chat with.

I shared some beer with Chris. I turned someone on to brewing, who is a craft beer lover, twice. I shared beer with a friend who suggested to a reporter that I be the subject of an article about homebrewing in Phoenix. I shared beer with an event manager for a local brewery.

This is why I brew. To spread Joy :)

Enjoy friends.

Things I need to do

While brewing last week, it became very clear that circulating the wort while chilling with my immersion chiller, exponentially speeded up the process. So with this in mind, I needed to build a motor with a long shaft, ending in a stirring device. It needs to be able to stir gently but not aerate too much.

I need to help Sean with his ETC and build one with Ben. I also need to build my extra one. Apparently there is going to be a 3 way going down this weekend.

Also, I am brewing a beer with ice cream cake for a friend. Still mulling over the process, but... Fun challenge!

Another Saturday

So I wanted to find out- why, oh why, did the Portly Squirrel morph into the Arc Porter?  I have changed a few ingredients, but not to the extent that it should become the roasty thick porter that it is now.  Well, the most recent batch is the same.  So I'm still confused.

However, this brings me to 65 gallons brewed so far in 2012.

The legal limit is 200 gallons.

Sigh.  I think that I will now have to teach Bonnie to brew and be her "co-brewer.  That will allow me some room to brew for contests under the 200 gallon limit, in my own name.

Also on Saturday was a beer fest.  It was fine.  The Great AZ Beer Fest.  Lots of lines, however "knowing" people can relly prove a benefit to this problem.  We didn't wait in any lines.  WooHoo!

The frozen beers are fermenting again, looking no worse for the wear.  HOWEVER, this kind of temperature variation causes a lot of stress on the yeast which produces off- flavors.

Certainly there will be something different about these beers from their "normal" counterparts.  Imagine if it created the most perfect brew in the universe, and now I have to cold crash the fermentation 3 days after it starts, every time.  That would be a huge pain in the butt.

And delicious :)

NHC Entries

The National Homebrew Competition is the brewing competition part of the National Homebrewers Conference.  I got tickets to the conference, so why not pick up some medals while I'm there ;)

It's an intense competition, with over 7000 entries.  These are divided amongst 10 judging centers across the country.

I am entered into the San Diego judging center for First Round.  As I write this, I think- gosh, with all the homebrewers in California, am I putting myself into the most difficult competition center?  It really doesn't matter- there are great homebrewers everywhere entering. 

The beers are judged in the first round at the San Diego site.  Whoever wins first place in each category, at each judging center, moves on to second round.  There are now 10 beers in each category to be judged.

Can you imagine being in charge of these cellars?  SERIOUSLY, that would be a HUGE job...

I entered:

Right Red Rye
Rosemary IPA (Rosemary's IPBaby)
Sesame Street Amber
Arc Porter
Bonnie's Brown
It's A Peach (peach wheat)

The last time I made Portly Squirrel, it ended up as Arc Porter, so - no Portly Squirrel to enter :(

Our homebrew club picks up the shipping costs on sending the beer to San Diego, which is quite significant.

Thanks, world!  Send good beer thoughts!

Crisis!!!

So upon inspecting my babies yesterday morning, one of the fermenters had blown off its airlock.  You'd think that I would, at some point, learn to put a blow-off tube on all the carboys for the first few days.

I cleaned up the mess and re-adjusted everything...

And apparently did not place the temperature sensor for the controlled, back in the freezer.

Needless to say, this morning I found 3 big ice-filled containers of what I had hoped was going to be beer, sitting in my fermenter.

Not sure how this is all going to roll out- I suppose it could just warm up and keep going, I can re-pitch the yeast and let it finish off, or I can create half-fermented beer pops.  Which isn't a terrible idea, as I see it.

SUCCESS!

In the last 36 hours, I brewed 3 batches of beer.

The empty interior of a fermentation fridge, though easy to clean, is a sad, sad sight.

Let's not dwell on the past, let's embrace and celebrate the NOW!  # happy, 5-gallon carboys are basking in the glory.

Yesterday, the brew of OxyClan for the 3rd batch.  This time, Zynthos hops.  I've not quite decided whether I will dry=hop with Nelson, Citra, or Zynthos.  That's a week away, so no worries.

Today, a double batch.  First time brewing the Rosemary IPA as all grain.  It had been extract up until now, so I'm anxious to see the difference. 

Second, "Night at the Movies" Pale.  Made with popcorn.  Yes, 2 pounds of air-popped Jiffy Pop.  I heard about the Popcorn Pilsner which won Gold at GABF and thought- YES!  I LOVE popcorn.  So I gave it a try.  I could have used WAY more popcorn though.  It "melts" down in the mash water so much that I probably could have used 5 lbs.

One thing I've thought about lately is these "big" beers.  I have noticed my beers getting higher and higher in alcohol content.  This is not beneficial.  I like to drink several beers.  Having 1 or 2 is just no fun!  SO, with that in mind I'm not going to be brewing up these high alcohol beers again for a while.  OR, I'm going to adjust the recipies to lower the alcohol.  Which should work fine.

I had to brew on the back patio tonight because it was SO windy in the driveway.  Great thing is... the triple stand loaded full, will travel through the doorways with no problem.  So I loaded it up and wheeled it through the house, and it work perfectly.

Now- sleep.  Must. Sleep.

Grains

What are grains? In this case, 7lb two row and 2lb popcorn.

Let's see what happens!

Bonnie and Mindi want a shirt

Since they are NOT crafty girls, I have been given the task.

(though, I say they ARE crafty girls, they just don't want to admit it)

It's AZ Beer Week!

Last night one of the servers at my gig was a homebrewer!  We had a great time chatting, adn I gave him 4 beers to take home and drink on Saturday night.

I had stocked the trunk in the morning, so he was in LUCK!

Also gave a few to the boys at San Tan brewing- I really love giving away good beer.  Bringing joy to others is always a great way to spend an evening.

So I brewed Portly Squirrel with a slightly modified grain bill last time. It turned out to be completely different. It is the most awesome porter ever. Hooray for convenient accidents. It is toasty and delicious and awesome! So I need a name...

The name is officially Arc Porter.  Untappd it if you drink it!

Yeast interestingness

The Porter which was racked onto the huge yeast cake went CRAZY.  It finished fermentation in about 36 hours.  This is very, very fast.  It does of course concern me that I will get fusel flavors from the rapid yeast metabolization.  And I should rack it off of the dead yeast right away. Which I did not.

Right Red Rye is going along fine- the fermentation took about 30 hours to start.  That's a decent start time, though vigorous fermentation is now on day 5.  That's within the "expected" range, I suppose.

Checked the Oaked stout for oakiness, but my taste buds are shot, so no idea. I'll have to bring in an expert to taste for me.  Any takers?

Down-Time

Not feeling too well- some nasty cold.

Anyways, I took this time to look at beer labels.  I'm really struggling with a logo.

What do I want in a logo? And what about a label? I tend to mix the 2 together, so bear with me.

I want it to be able to fit onto a beer bottle CAP and still be recognizable.  I think the DaH part helps with that.

DaH Brew is about sharing, science, creating, fun, friends, and deliciousness.

I'm drawn to more industrial/scientific images than to antique/hand-crafted images

The label needs to be simple to alter in Illustrator for new brews.

Sans-serif. Stupid serifs get stuck on everything.

I definitely want a QR code on it.  I'm not a big QR'er, but I do think it is good- at least to give the drinker a potential introduction to the blog.  If I'm clever, I could link it to the "Untappd" page for the beer... hmmm...

Also the DahBrew.com web address somewhere, because when you are drinking a homebrew, you don't naturally think "oh, I should check out the website for this beer!"

Those are my thoughts at this point.  I've been pinterest-ing interesting labels for quick reference.

I also "claimed" my brewery on Untappd

Re-Using Yeast

DO NOT DO THIS!

OK, now that you read the disclaimer, let's talk about what I did.

I brewed the Cream Ale for grilled lemons, then racked off into a separate carboy for the fruit addition.

Saving the carboy, I racked a new batch (Portly Squirrel) directly into the same carboy. This, friends, is not good.

Oh sure, it worked out fine for me.  But it's ABSOLUTELY not the "right" way to do it. The right way is outlined in many places- you pour off the yeast, select the best ones, etc etc etc.

Since I KNOW it's not the right way to do it, I naturally decided to do it again.

Last night I racked a porter directly into the same carboy.

Pretty stupid, I know.  However- the carboy was already exploding out into the fermentation cooler at 7:00 AM so it seems the yeast are pretty dang active!

I am afraid of autolyzed yeast puking into this beer, so it will definitely be the last time I do this.

For Right Rye Red, I pitched the yeast from a half- gallon cream ale int it.

Because I'm cheap.  Oh, I mean- experimental

Bourbon Stout Experiment

I brewed a very tasty coffee stout.  It's the second time, and after fermenting for 10 days- it's yummy.

Can I leave it well enough alone?  Of course not.

After listening to Basic Brewing Radio podcast regarding a bourbon stout experiment, I decided that my absolute love for Full Sail Black Gold has overwhelmed my brain.

I split the coffee stout- 3 gallons in a small carboy with 2 ounces of Oak Chips to ferment for another 10 days.

I added 3 ounces of Evan Williams to the 3 gallons of Coffee Stout in the bottling bucket.  Then I bottled half.

Next, added 1 1/2 additional ounces (essentially doubling the bourbon) to the remaining gallon and a half.  Bottled that.

Looking forward to results in about a month. Or 2.

Because Sean tells me I need to learn patience.

Oh what a night....

When leaving work, I decided to go get another 50# bag of 2-row, So I made my way over to Brew Your Own.  Plenty of chatting- good times.

On the agenda for the night, I may have gotten a bit aggressive. I decided to brew 2 batches (one extract, one All-Grain), perform a bourbon stout experiment involving bottling and a secondary, bottle the Grilled Lemon Cream Ale, and bottle the Portly Squirrel.  This took 11 hours.

I started at 3:30.

I went to bed at 2:30.  I didn't even clean up all my equipment, so I have that to do today.

Kind of ridiculous.

Well, I also did homework with the kids, made dinner, etc.  And I actually started heating water at 3:30, so there was no "ahead of the game" as I typically set myself up.

I realize that I need to cut more slits in my mash manifold.  It drains continuously, but is very slow.  I cut slits for half and did drill holes for half as an experiment, and - yeah, I need to expand the drill holes into slits. Slow sparge, everything worked out fine.

Still digging the brew stand- it works so nicely.

Despite the long day, the only real problem I ran into was that I ran out of crown caps at 1 AM while bottling the 4th set of beer.  I have plenty of the larger, "champagne bottle" caps.  So I had to go through all my bottles and find all the champagne bottles which take those caps.  Many champagne bottles take regular caps.  Luckily, I had EXACTLY the right number of caps and everything is set.

Last month, I moved my bottle storage out into the garage, from the hallway.  Since brewing and seasonal beer collecting has been big this month... I have now filled up the garage storage area AND the hallway again.  This is not a good thing ;)  Though it is a good problem to have.

SO- I need to organize the entire garage this evening since I trashed it yesterday.

I think I'll brew while I'm cleaning. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Happy Brew Day!

Today I woke up and started getting ready to brew. Well, it was not to be in the morning. It took until 3 to get free from other responsibilities.

As it turned out, not only did I get a couple of sweet batches made, Jeremy dropped by to join me for a couple of Hot Scotchies. Well, hot Jack-ies, but same concept :)

I'm proud to say that I did a good job of keeping records! Gravities for first runnings and OG for each batch. I also controlled the fermentation temp to be exactly where I wanted, which is tough sometimes.

The brew stand worked exactly as hoped. The only real struggle was that the second brew sparge went really slowly. I'm still not sure why, as I looked carefully at the mash tun after emptying the spent grain, and everything looked as it should. I'll take a look on the next brew and see how to adjust it.

Coffee Stout and Portly Squirrel. Woohoo!

Secondary Fermentation

This is the cream ale being introduced to grilled lemons. I think they will be good friends

Mind-Bending week

This week was incredibly busy with work- having to work every night except Thursday (which means leave the house at 8:00 AM and return around 11:00 PM) Also, our friends arrived early Tuesday Morning (around 12:30 AM) to stay with us for the week.  This left very little time for brew/beer activities.

Since I really couldn't go out on Thursday, I invited 30 MORE people to the house for happy hour/brewing.

Had a fantastic time with all the homebrew guys.  If you brew and haven't had someone oer to brew with you, you are truly missing out.  Homebrewers are all pretty humble- everyone has had a n "off" beer and certainly, I haven't meet a brewer with the attitude tat they know everything.

This being the case, there is a lot of talk around the brew-stand about alternative ways of doing things.  It's really about sharing ideas, talking about different processes, and often recalling blunders and the lessons learned.

I can't recommend more strongly, joining a homebrew club and having a guest join you on brew day.

30 people may be a bit more than you would like.  It was really hectic.  I was brewing, getting food ready for the party, and hosting the party and of course, everyone brought some pretty awesome brews to share.  My boil went long because I had other things to do, I forgot the lavender (so I guess I'm going to add it in secondary...), didn't take any readings, cooling took a while, etc etc etc.  I brewed my Rosemary IPA (an extract brew) and a Cream Ale which will be joined by a tincture of lavender and some grilled lemons in about a week.

This leaves a hole in the fermenter as I realized a third batch would have been suicide.  I do have the grains for Portly Squirrel waiting for me, and for a Coffee Stout.

I used "Mild Malt" for my base malt in the cream ale.  It is supposed to give body to the beer, we'll see.

Cheers!

Irish Bottled

Yesterday. I bottled my irish red. Here is the problem... When I got the grains, the guy at the counter said "oh my gosh, I put Special B in, instead of the Biscuit!"

I said "hey, that's ok."

¤I was in a hurry. And honestly, I think the other thing is, I was just doing a "quick" recipe I found on line. I didn't research the recipe. I didn't formulate it myself. I just needed to brew that day and I didn't have time to do the leg work. So I typed "Homebrew Irish Red" in, printed a recipe, and planned to do it.

So... They messed up the grain bill. I truly didn't care. And so, I just brewed it.

It wasn't red. Really. More... Brownish reddish. But more brown.

So I really don't know what I'm going to get. It's in the bottle now, and only time will tell.

Here is the point- I will never just do a recipe. It was the story of lazy. Rushed. Really not focused.

I will never do that again.

In just the last week, I have learned do much about recipe formulation that I can't do that. I know that I love brewing because I love chemistry.

I entered college oh so many years so as Pre-Med. Because I like science. And making people happy. Did I know that then, no. do I realize that now, yes.

So, I don't know what the person making an online recipe was thinking. What they want. If they have ever brewed that beer before.

I want my beers to be everything they can be. To reflect EXACTLY what I want to do in that bottle.

So, let's see what this thing ends up happening with this batch. I still think that it will be tasty. And there is nothing wrong with an adventure, right?!

Creme Brulee Stout

Grandma had glasses much like these. There is only one left, but I found a set of similar glasses at Goodwill one day.

I think the glass makes this beer look like a breakfast party

Brewing is so awesome!

MAN!

Brewing is so awesome.

I was listening to Brad Smith's podcast, BeerSmith, and he had Randy Mosher on discussing recipe building.  I learned a TON from it. 

Any time I learn about brewing techniques which I have not yet employed, I just think to myself- the beers have been so good thus far, and imagine how mush better it can become!  It just amps me up.

Anyways, I tasted the Gluten Free beer, and... well, I don't know.  It isn't so yummy to me right now.  I added Citra hops as a dry hopping, should be ready for bottling next week.

I am STILL out of 12 oz bottles. DANGIT!  That's going to make bottling the Klingon Grog difficult this evening.  All big bottles, for an over 8% beer? Oh me oh my...

Went to Brew Your Own and bought some caps.  Joel there was thrilled that it was --I-- who he neglected to give the handle for the grain mill to.  The other customer who it could have been, is in Israel. That would have been a big oopsie!  I now also have the instruction page, so I can adjust the rollers width.

OK, time to get back to the brewery!

I just realized it has been 24 hours since I checked on my babies in the fermenter.

I'm having withdrawl.

This is the saddest moment of my entire life :(

Bottling Joy!

Just so the world knows, 2 1/2 lbs of raspberries is plenty for 2 1/2 gallons of stout. WOAH! It's very razzy. I think after 2 weeks in the bottle, it's going to be awesome.

OxyClean is quite tasty also.

I can't wait to bottle the grog...

Thanks to Sean for bringing me some caps.

Currently I have zero 12 oz bottles to go into. Ugh.

Oh the sadness

In homebrewing, we call our planned brews and currently working brews, "the pipeline"

My pipeline is full.

My fermentation fridge is full and all my carboys (the vessels used to put the beer in while it ferments) are all full.

OxyClean is still fermenting, as are Michelle's Gluten Free, Klingon Grog, Recipe Red, and Becca's Raspberry Stout.

So I guess it is time to do some reading and planning. Happy Sunday all!

New Years Resolution Revealed!

OK, so I snuck in a brew today.  A simple extract Irish Red that I got a recipe for off of Ratebeer.com Of course, I couldn't just leave well enough alone.  The guy at the homebrew shop added one of the wrong grains which was darker than the recipe called for.  SO, instead of using the liquid extract called for (amber) I used half Amber LME and half Light DME.  This helped lighten the color, but it's not very... red.  Time will tell.  In about a week :)

That's a great part of brewing.  Everyone loves instant gratification, but brewing requires some patience.  Not an insane amount, but some.  And failure is quite apparent.  Like exploding bottles, or rank-ass beer.  I had one brew batch which did both.  I drank it.  Just to remind myself to not be a retard in the future. I named the brew "The Punisher"  and I finished every drop which was not lost to exploding bottles.  Because you follow through, assholes :)

Also bottled that Creme Brulee stout.  It is. Freaking. Delicious.

Currently consolidating my "cellar" which has a couple hundred beers in it, today.  I have packaged 15 of them to ship out tomorrow, which does actually help the storage situation. 

The Klingon Grog is rolling along great, and the Raspberry stout is fermenting the simple sugars in the raspberries.  Problem with me is, I don't really take the scientific measurements of my gravity, which is the indicator of alcohol percentage AND tells you if you are extracting the grains at an optimal level when brewing.  So THAT will be my New Year's Resolution. To take gravity readings on every batch. So it is stated, so it shall be done.