Friday, November 23, 2012

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

Saturday, November 17, 2012

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.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

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!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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