Brewnotes

Just a small note that it isn’t wise to leave a full Corny keg of sanitizing liquid outside during freezing weather.    Yeah – it’s ruined.  

If you know me, I was bound to have a GD inspired brew at some point.   This was brewed back on 3/6/2010.   This recipe is originally taken from Jamil.  To quote him, “This is how red ales are done on the West Coast.  Just about every brewery out here needs a beer on their menu that has a lot of hop flavor, and many of them turn to this style of beer.   They are big, bold statements balancing lots of citrusy hops and specialty malt.”

Ingredients (Single Infusion Mash – 152F):

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While the beer itself has great malt flavor and an appropriate amount of hops,  this beer turned out way too dark.    Turns out I missed the fact that Jamil was calling for 350L roasted barley and I used 500L.    Figured this out over here.

Next batch, I will pull back both the Crystal 120L and the roasted barley.    Lesson learned.

A malt-focused beer with an initial sweetness and a roasted dryness in the finish.  My first hoorah into the Irish Red style (BJCP 9D).  Not really my favorite but I had to brew either this style or Scotch Ale for the CRABS March monthly competition.   Calling this the “Irish Uprising” due to the yeast tricking me.   Very slow to start due to some over chilling but once it got around 65F things really took off.   This recipe is originally taken from Jamil with a few minor tweaks.

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After a long hiatus, the house beer makes a triumphant return.   This batch will be a little higher in alcohol as compared to the last few as the efficiency seems to be around 75%.    This is a straight forward American Pale Ale.   A touch of caramel ending with citrus notes from the hops.    Originally derived from Abita’s Restoration Ale.   For those of you counting, this is batch #36 on the brew rig.

Brew session went well.   Looking forward to having this on tap again!

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My American Brown Ale (10C) entry took 2nd place in the monthly competition @ CRABS last evening.    Very exciting since I brewed this beer specifically for this event and now feel competent using my counter-pressure bottle filler.   Chris G. named this beer “Brown Recluse” since it has good hop bite to it.

If I was going to make any changes to this beer, I would change the Crystal 40L to Crystal 60L to help darken up the color and provide a little more malt sweetness.

Today I fixed my counter pressure bottle filler from MoreBeer.   This is a cool piece of equipment that allows you to bottle already carbonated/kegged beer.    That was all fantastic – I commenced to fill a bottle with little to no foam, and then BAM!    I forgot to release the pressure in the bottle to atmospheric before removing the device.   You guessed it, I got a BEER SHOWER.     All over the kitchen ceiling, counter, floor and more importantly me.    Lesson Learned.

This is my entry for the CRABS Feb competition, brewed last evening.  This is a true to style English IPA (BJCP 14A).   I was careful to select malts (Thomas Fawcette) and hops that would be used in England.    

This is the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles on pg 183 with minor tweaks.   “A hoppy, moderately strong pale ale that features characteristics consistent with the use of English malt, hops & yeast.  It has less hop character and a more pronounced malt flavor than American versions.”

This batch (#35) has me very excited as the brew day went flawlessly. 

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This is my entry for the CRABS Jan competition, brewed on 1/4/2010  You can see from the stats below that this recipe pushes the boundaries of the 10C BJCP guidelines.   

This is the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles on pg 145 with minor tweaks.   If you like the west-coast style hoppy beers, this one is for you!

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I kegged the Belgian Blond Ale (BJCP: 18A) from Jamil’s Brewing Classic Styles book.    “A moderate-strength golden ale with a subtle Belgian complexity, slightly sweet flavor, and dry finish.”  Really looking forward to putting this on tap.   This was brewed on 11/07.   Still looking for a name for this batch while I’m in the process of carbonating to 3.7 volumes.

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