On Sunday, I planned to brew.
Surprisingly, I did not.
Let me explain...
Friday I mashed in the 2 Berlinner Weiss brews. I can't really consider it a "brew day" if it's not the whole thing.
This was Sunday:
Cleaned and delabelled about 50 bottles of various size
Bottled Right Red Rye (5 gallons)
Bottled Cinnamon Apricot Ale (5 gallons)
Bottled Nut Brown (5 gallons)
Bottled Ginger Beer (1 gallon)
Sparged, boiled, chilled and racked Berlinner Smoke
Sparged, boiled, chilled and racked Berlinner Rye
People say I need to start kegging. To these people, I say: Oh HELL NO!
Just kidding, I am going to purchase a Danby Kegerator this week from a buddy.
Good Brew to You!
Monday, July 15, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Berlinner - why- not?
So, I have wanted to do a sour mash Berlinner Weiss for a while. A bunch of my brew buddies have brought the style to the table recently, so in my over-the-top typical style, I mashed in two yesterday.
The first is a Rye Berlinner Weiss, the second is a Smoked Berlinner Weiss.
The smoked beer was inspired by Blind Bat Brewing's "Vlad the Inhaler" which is an oaked smoked wheat beer in the Grodziskie style. I have wanted to get smoked wheat malt, but it is quite rare and certainly not available in the LHBS. Yes, I could smoke my own wheat malt- and I may just do that. In this case, I used all the smoked barley I had on my shelf (1.33 lb) with Pale Ale malt and Wheat.
These little punkins are lacto-bubbling away in 5-gallon buckets right now. I decided that doing a brew-in-the-bag would be a great way to get a berlinnerweiss going. At the end, sparge through with some hot water, then throw the paint strainer bag out. Less messy than using my Igloo cooler mash tun.
My saison turned into a belgian blonde. It's super belgiany and I can NOT call it a saison, despite the 1.003 FG. SUPER estery.
Latest Grilled Lemon Cream Ale is tasty.
The Summit Pale al is delicious. I dropped an ounce of summit in the wort when it had cooled to 170 degrees and let it sit for 15 minutes, then continued cooling. Nice flavor on that one.
This weekend I will be bottling Right Red Rye, Martell Apricot Cinnamon, and Nut Brown. The berlinnerweiss pair will have to be boiled and put in the fermenter, and who knows- maybe another brew? It would be stretch, but it is possible.
Good day and good brewing, my friends!
The first is a Rye Berlinner Weiss, the second is a Smoked Berlinner Weiss.
The smoked beer was inspired by Blind Bat Brewing's "Vlad the Inhaler" which is an oaked smoked wheat beer in the Grodziskie style. I have wanted to get smoked wheat malt, but it is quite rare and certainly not available in the LHBS. Yes, I could smoke my own wheat malt- and I may just do that. In this case, I used all the smoked barley I had on my shelf (1.33 lb) with Pale Ale malt and Wheat.
These little punkins are lacto-bubbling away in 5-gallon buckets right now. I decided that doing a brew-in-the-bag would be a great way to get a berlinnerweiss going. At the end, sparge through with some hot water, then throw the paint strainer bag out. Less messy than using my Igloo cooler mash tun.
My saison turned into a belgian blonde. It's super belgiany and I can NOT call it a saison, despite the 1.003 FG. SUPER estery.
Latest Grilled Lemon Cream Ale is tasty.
The Summit Pale al is delicious. I dropped an ounce of summit in the wort when it had cooled to 170 degrees and let it sit for 15 minutes, then continued cooling. Nice flavor on that one.
This weekend I will be bottling Right Red Rye, Martell Apricot Cinnamon, and Nut Brown. The berlinnerweiss pair will have to be boiled and put in the fermenter, and who knows- maybe another brew? It would be stretch, but it is possible.
Good day and good brewing, my friends!
Beer or Coffee?
It's something I struggle with every day. Now I know- Beer for breakfast, Coffee at lunch. Problem solved!
from: http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=77707
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Beer nerd-ery. It strikes 1 out of 10 relationships. Probably more.
This should make you laugh.
Unless you have had this exact conversation.
Several times.
This week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5L2DgKRLC8
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Owl's Orchard Brewery
Owl's Orchard Brewery is HILARIOUS!
OK, that sounds mean, but it was not intended to be.
Last week Friday I was really really bored at work. It was 117 degrees out, I was the only one at the office, and the phones were doing absolutely nothing.
The catering company I am working for, is opening a restaurant which will serve liquor. Therefore, I am getting a liquor license application going. It's quite a process.
Naturally, this led me to the DLLC (ABC, Liquor Board, whatever...) and my mind wandered to beer.
There are 58 Microbrewery licenses in Arizona, which is pretty awesome. I looked at the list and found a couple which I had never heard of, including Owl's Orchard which is a 20 minute drive from my house. I live pretty far south, but this was further.
Owl's Orchard has been open for several months, but I haven't really heard much about it.
SOOOO... I left work. Because I mean really, why not.
I grabbed my POSSE (I'm a bawler, y'all) and we headed out.
GPS was not incredibly helpful in finding Owl's Orchard, but I did have a phone number and Martin answered the phone:
Martin: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi, um... I was calling for Owl's Orchard?"
Martin: "Oh, cool! Yeah, that's me"
Me: "I wanted to visit the brewery, do you have hours you're open?"
Martin: "I'm pretty much always here. What we do is people call me and let me know they are coming over and I fill growlers"
Me: "Oh, cool! I'm heading over there in like an hour, so will you be around?"
Martin: "Yeah, if you're coming over, I'll hang out and wait for you"
Me: "Great, thanks! See you shortly!"
It was a bit odd- I mean, call when you want to come get beer. Ok then.
So it's in the guy's garage.
I'm not kidding. He has a "designated area" caged off with a fence inside his garage, where he brews. The fence is a Federal requirement.
Martin took about... an hour and a half talking with me and my buddies.
He lives on a County Island so there are no city zoning issues, and his neighbors are cool. The State issued his license, then he got his Federal license. He has his own septic system for waste water, so that's not a problem. He is feeding the spent grains to his chickens and horses.
Martin brews 10 gallon batches on a Sabco system. He has a 14 gallon jacketed fermenter. He has 2, kitchen refrigerators for keg storage, and 10 corny kegs.
This is commercial homebrewing at its finest. Seriously.
Every 2 weeks, he is required to send in the tax forms to the state and feds. Typically, that amounts to reporting 10 gallons of beer being brewed and a check for less than $3 in taxes.
The Beer:
Available beers when we were there included a Rye Pale (though he only had 16 oz left- half of a half growler, which he gave me as a "sample"...), a Stout (nice, easy drinking stout) and a Wheat which I liked very much. I'm typically not a fan of wheats, but this was light and not full of hef flavors.
Martin has also planted some hop bines around his property, as an experiment to find where the sun is the best, with hopes of growing an increased amount next year.
Overall- what an inspiring guy. He gave us over an hour of his time, showed us all around the brewery, the yard, and really bent over backwards to welcome us.
find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/OwlsOrchardBrewery
My friend Whitney went there and has a better story than I do. She used her "camera" while there. What a concept! http://suburbansudsbeertography.blogspot.com/2013/04/new-brewery.html
OK, that sounds mean, but it was not intended to be.
Last week Friday I was really really bored at work. It was 117 degrees out, I was the only one at the office, and the phones were doing absolutely nothing.
The catering company I am working for, is opening a restaurant which will serve liquor. Therefore, I am getting a liquor license application going. It's quite a process.
Naturally, this led me to the DLLC (ABC, Liquor Board, whatever...) and my mind wandered to beer.
There are 58 Microbrewery licenses in Arizona, which is pretty awesome. I looked at the list and found a couple which I had never heard of, including Owl's Orchard which is a 20 minute drive from my house. I live pretty far south, but this was further.
Owl's Orchard has been open for several months, but I haven't really heard much about it.
SOOOO... I left work. Because I mean really, why not.
I grabbed my POSSE (I'm a bawler, y'all) and we headed out.
GPS was not incredibly helpful in finding Owl's Orchard, but I did have a phone number and Martin answered the phone:
Martin: "Hello?"
Me: "Hi, um... I was calling for Owl's Orchard?"
Martin: "Oh, cool! Yeah, that's me"
Me: "I wanted to visit the brewery, do you have hours you're open?"
Martin: "I'm pretty much always here. What we do is people call me and let me know they are coming over and I fill growlers"
Me: "Oh, cool! I'm heading over there in like an hour, so will you be around?"
Martin: "Yeah, if you're coming over, I'll hang out and wait for you"
Me: "Great, thanks! See you shortly!"
It was a bit odd- I mean, call when you want to come get beer. Ok then.
So it's in the guy's garage.
I'm not kidding. He has a "designated area" caged off with a fence inside his garage, where he brews. The fence is a Federal requirement.
Martin took about... an hour and a half talking with me and my buddies.
He lives on a County Island so there are no city zoning issues, and his neighbors are cool. The State issued his license, then he got his Federal license. He has his own septic system for waste water, so that's not a problem. He is feeding the spent grains to his chickens and horses.
Martin brews 10 gallon batches on a Sabco system. He has a 14 gallon jacketed fermenter. He has 2, kitchen refrigerators for keg storage, and 10 corny kegs.
This is commercial homebrewing at its finest. Seriously.
Every 2 weeks, he is required to send in the tax forms to the state and feds. Typically, that amounts to reporting 10 gallons of beer being brewed and a check for less than $3 in taxes.
The Beer:
Available beers when we were there included a Rye Pale (though he only had 16 oz left- half of a half growler, which he gave me as a "sample"...), a Stout (nice, easy drinking stout) and a Wheat which I liked very much. I'm typically not a fan of wheats, but this was light and not full of hef flavors.
Martin has also planted some hop bines around his property, as an experiment to find where the sun is the best, with hopes of growing an increased amount next year.
Overall- what an inspiring guy. He gave us over an hour of his time, showed us all around the brewery, the yard, and really bent over backwards to welcome us.
find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/OwlsOrchardBrewery
My friend Whitney went there and has a better story than I do. She used her "camera" while there. What a concept! http://suburbansudsbeertography.blogspot.com/2013/04/new-brewery.html
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