Category: Homebrew

I brewed this batch with my dad on 6/18 in the new place the day after StringSummit. The recipe was my own design. Sadly, because we hadn’t fully moved in, I didn’t give the wort the attention it deserved through fermentation. 3 weeks later I kegged the batch without moving it to secondary. Fortunately, it tastes pretty dern good. Very dark black color with a nice, persistent head. Aroma is slightly peaty, but somewhat malt extractish smell. The flavor carries some of the extract sweetness, but the combination of the dark malts give it a nice toffee chocolate taste. I think maybe the grain had been milled too far ahead of time and was somewhat dusty. Still, cheers.

Mark your calendars for Hop Madness this year. It looks like another cool event, and could really be a lot of fun. I need to brew another IPA, so maybe its a possible entrant.

Well, I kegged my robust porter on Sunday which I am calling Porter’s Porter after the dog. I tried it last night, and it still needs to carbonate a little more but other than that I thought it was pretty good. Not as hoppy as I expected, which is good cause I think it has a nice balance of maltiness and hops. Its a nice dark brown color from the chocolate and other roasted malts. I wish it had a little more body so next time I think I will add a little bit of Munich malt.

I also have a Kolsch lagering away which will be ready mid August. Its not my recipe but I thought I would give it a shot. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Also, look for some new recipes that I will be adding soon for the Porter and Czech Pilsner.

I brewed the first batch in our new place yesterday. My dad joined me for the brewing, and got a more intimate feel for beer in its process. Partly because I had the ingredients on hand, and partly because I’ve been hankering the batch was Blackbeard Flaked-Barley Stout. Its a variation on the oatmeal stout with the key difference of using flaked barley instead of oatmeal.

With the abundant counter tops, brewing went pretty well. There were a few difficulties, but they were mostly due to trying to multi-task. I’m a bit concerned by the lack of closet space and the high temp in the house (up to 80F). I’ve wrapped the carboy, and now wait to see if it turns out ok. Krausen started in less than 24 hours.

I’ve added the recipe in QBrew format in the recipe section.

Persuasion Pale has been racked to primary, and is waiting for krausen. It should be good. It had a very nice flavor, etc. OG was a little lower than expected, at 1.048 – not bad though, and well within the pale ale range. The recipe is on the recipes page if you’re curious.

You know those dirty boogers you get when you work outside, or around sawdust? Well, I have those right now from grain dust. I milled a bunch of grain on Saturday morning, and am still working it out of my system.

Oh, but it was worth it though. I bought 25lbs of grain, 2 vials of yeast, and a bottle drying rack for $26. The bottle rack is for Scott. I’ve nearly forgotten what bottles do 🙂

Nev Okyay’s lease is up and he’s “liquidating” his inventory. The extract, grains and hops are going for 1/2 price, and there’s more! Sad to see him move, but maybe the new place will be even better. Anyway, here’s the list:
http://www.atomiqbrewing.com/list.htm

I moved my Yakima IPA 3 from secondary into the keg today. I’m quite concerned because it tastes pretty bad. I think maybe it got a bug in it. The final gravity was perfect, 1.011, but tastes is meaty, but not it an ammerilo hop kind of way. Damn. I haven’t brewed a bad batch for a long time. We don’t count that cider, of course 🙂

So a month ago I finally tried the Stout that I made in December, and I thought it was great. I was a little worried that the flavor of the beer would be over powered by the espresso, so I let it sit in secondary longer than usual to mellow the taste. I bottle conditioned it and after about 4 weeks in the bottle I thought it tasted great. I got the recipe from BYO and made a few modifications but kept it pretty close to that recipe. Here it is:

• 8 # Dark malt extract
• 0.5 # Crystal malt 20L
• 0.5 # Chocolate malt
• 0.5 # Roasted Barley
• 1 # Ghirardelli Premium Sweet Ground Chocolate
• 2 oz Northern Brewer 7.4% AA
  • 1.5 oz @ 60 min
  • 0.5 oz @ 15 min
• 0.5 # espresso ground espresso beans
• 1 pkg. White Labs Irish Ale Yeast WLP004
• 1 tsp heading powder (for head retention when bottle conditioning)

Procedure:

1. Steap grains @ 150F for 30 min.
2. Heat to 17F and add extract
3. Add hops at designated times and add chocolate at begining of boil
4. Add yeast and ferment and water to make 4 gallons in primary.
5. At secondary add espresso that has been brewed to a gallon of coffee

OG-1.072, FG-1.020, ABV-5%, IBU-56