Archive for July, 2009
Mill your own grains?
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Curious. I’ve just started all grain, but have no interest in milling my own grain (of course, 2 years ago, I didn’t have any interesting in jumping to all-grain, now I’m addicted).
My philosophy so far has been, as long as I’m getting a consistent crush from my LHBS/online store, then I can adjust everything else accordingly.
Do you find someone else’s crush to be just not quite right?
If you do crush your own, why?
Dog Days Dunkle
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009I’m planning on brewing my first Dunkleweizen this weekend. I’m still pretty new to brewing but have read alot and want more than just an extract/steeping grains so I am going to make a go at a partial mash seeing I don’t have or have the room for a complete AG set up.
So here’s the plan on the recipe:
2lbs 2-Row Pale
2lbs Dark Wheat
1lb Carawheat
.25lbs Chocolate malt
.25lbs Roasted Barley
3lbs Wheat LME
1.5 oz Saaz (2.1%AA) 60 min
WY3068 Yeast
I am thinking to mash at 150 and then sparge at 170. But if you guys think I should do a protein rest I’d like to hear from you. Like I said this is my first attempt at the mashing process. Not to mention my first shot at coming up with my own recipe. Any advise would be great!!
Regulator screw
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009The last few times I’ve needed to adjust my regulator, the screw has been really hard to turn. I can’t tighten it past the 30 psi mark when i force carb with a screw driver and brute strength alone. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would there be anything wrong with using some wd-40 on it?
CBR 141:Australia Again
Monday, July 20th, 2009After letting them sit a few weeks, we finish off our flight of Australian beers generously brought to us by listener Geoff. As it turns out, it was mostly a Mountain Goat vertical, but Red Angus Pilsener made its presence known!
Beers:
Red Angus Pilsener
Mountian Goat Hightail Ale
Mountian Goat Ipa
Mountian Goat Surefoot Stout
Mountian Goat Pale Ale
Rankings:
- Jeff: Hightail Ale, Red Angus, Ipa, Pale Ale, Surefoot Stout
- Greg: Hightail Ale, Red Angus, Ipa, Pale Ale, Surefoot Stout
Flying Dog Brewery Tour
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009On the way to SAVOR Greg and Jeff stopped at the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick Maryland. Head Brewer Bob Malone took some time to show us around the brewery.
CBR Video Episode 8: Boulevard Two Jokers Double Wit
Saturday, July 11th, 2009Smoked Kolsch?
Thursday, July 9th, 2009This is an experiment that comes from two ideas:
1) I had a Shiner Smokehaus and while I liked it, I think I can do one better (Helles smoked with mesquite).
2) I made a pretty good kolsch a while back and I want to attempt it again.
My malt bill will look simple like this:
90% Pilsner malt
5% Munich
5% Wheat
5.5 Gallon batch. Shooting for an OG of 1.048.
Single infusion mash 150F for 60. Mash out 170F. Boil for 60.
Ferment at 55F <- not sure what strain to use - possibly WLP011 (cant remember what I used last time!! d’oh - need better notes!)
Right now, I want to see about using up some of my stores.
I have 2007 Nugget 12% and 2007 Amarillo at 9.8% in whole leaf.
And in pellet 2008, Saaz 5%, Kent Golding 4.4%, Perle 5.7%, Cascade 6.9%, Tettnang 4.8%, and Fuggles at 4.0%.
I’m going to shoot for 25 IBUs total, so I am going to tweek with time and amounts.
Obviously the Saaz, Tettnang, and Perle lend themselves to this style better than the others, but since I am going to be experimenting, would it be worthwhile to throw one of the others in? For example, would it be reasonable to use the Nugget as bittering addition (I have a TON of Nugget)? etc.
On top of that, since this is *hardly* a finished recipe, I have questions about home smoking.
Is there any general rule of thumb? Since this is not a smoked porter, I want this to be not over bearingly smokey. I was given a fairly automated Bradley smoker which gives me the ability to cold smoke stuff. I was thinking mesquite - it was what was used in the Smokehaus and I don’t want to mess with that. (Texas Baby!)
So how long should I smoke? 20 minute - 2 hours? How much malt should be smoked? Should it be the base or the specialties? Do I need to prep the malt by wetting it?
I couldn’t really find good internet answers so I was just going to do half the base malt for about 30-45, while raking at 10 minute intervals to stir the malt. If that is stupid, please let me know.
Once I figure out my first iteration of a hop schedule I will post it. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I hope this is enough information to meet the recipe swap post guidelines… 
CBR 140: Literally Blind
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Going for broke, we decide to make the blind part literal in our third blind tasting show. Former Beer Drinker of the Year Tom Schmidlin sent us a collection of Washington state beers to enjoy. Listen as we feebly try to describe what we are tasting and smelling without any visual cues.
Beer:
- Skagit River Scullers IPA
- Trade Route Pandan Brown Ale
- Silver City Fat Scotch Style Ale
- Pike XXXXX Stout
- Lazy Boy Porter
Rankings:
- No Rankings for this show.
Extras
