April 2011
1 post
February 2011
3 posts
January 2011
9 posts
#INBeer Winterfest 2011 - Top 13
Here are my Top 13 beers I am looking forward to this year at Winterfest. I was shooting for Top 10 but there is just so many interesting offerings that I just pulled a Big 10 and kept going.
Barley Island Barrel-Aged Muscles From Brussels | Belgian Black IPA 12.0% ABV 80 IBU firkin tent A strong Belgian dark ale with a mix of dark malts and Belgian candi sugar in the kettle. 4...
From Grain to Keg
I just finished putting my first keg to rest in the new keezer. This will also be my first successful all-grain batch. Let me backup.
This past November, I set out to produce my first all-grain batch. I came up with a recipe for an English Northern Brown Ale. My first of many problems occured when I purchased my cooler that would become my mash/lauter tun.
The problem was simple. The...
December 2010
2 posts
Went from having a mash tun that had 1+ gallons of dead space and dropped 14 degrees in one hour to having a mash tun with 0.2 gallons of dead space and heat loss of 4 degrees over 3 hours. Can’t wait to make my pale ale. Hopefully this time I can get a respectable efficiency.
October 2010
5 posts
Four Years
callofthehills:
Happy anniversary to my incredible husband — the best partner I could ever have imagined to share this adventure with.
I love you so much.
September 2010
10 posts
Mash Tun Build - Parts
The lure of all grain brewing was just too great, and so, with only three batches under my belt, I am making the jump. A while ago I acquired a 48 quart cooler that would serve as my mash/lauter tun. It has sat, waiting, for its turn to transform into a beautiful butterfly. I finally gathered all the parts I would need and started measuring.
I knew I wanted to use a four drain design because...
Update on Vanilla Porter
I racked the Vanilla Porter over to my five gallon Better Bottle last night. First, I opened up two vanilla beans, scraped the seeds out, and put them in the secondary. I made sure to sanitize the cutting board and knife just in case. Then I racked the beer on top of the beans.
I had also wanted to collect the yeast I used for the porter. The strain was White Labs WLP005, British Ale...
Yeast Washing →
Great how-to on yeast washing. Definitely want to give this a shot with the White Labs WLP005 I have in the porter.
Costco's take on craft beer →
Kind of an interesting read. I think they make some audacious claims, such as “the most famous brew master in the country” which is highly debatable. They also don’t pull any punches at some of the bigger breweries, which I thought they carried in their stores, but I am not a CostCo member. I definitely have my doubts about the quality of the beer and was also surprised at how...
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Group Brew
Through my endless perusing of various home brew related websites, I noticed that people occasionally get together and share in the joy of brewing. This sounded like a fantastic idea and so, I invited my good friends Andrew and Jordan over during Labor Day weekend to brew up a nice Vanilla Porter. We discussed the various options we could pursue as far as recipes were concerned and settled on a...
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Thunderstruck Pumpkin Ale Brew Day
Last night I undertook my second brew day. I am in love with Autumn. The cooler temperatures, the food, the color of the trees; amazing. Knowing that October is just around the corner, I decided I would brew up a Pumpkin Ale to celebrate the greatest season of them all.
The recipe I was using came from Yuri_Rage on homebrewtalk.com. I went with the extract version because I am not even...
August 2010
15 posts
StackExchange comes to Homebrewing →
I know I have mentioned this a couple of times, but wanted to post it up here. StackExchange has opened their doors to any subject people are willing to commit to and Homebrewing is one of the purposed subjects. StackExchange is a great way to ask questions and get the best possible answer. Give it a look and I hope you will commit.
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Hoosier Beer Geek 4
I had been on the fence about attending HBG4 this past Saturday. I couldn’t find anyone to go with, and I had never been to Sun King Brewery, so I wasn’t sure where I was even going. Thankfully, my friends Jon and Brian, who also play in the Tyler Bender Band with me, stepped up and so we set off Saturday evening to see what we had gotten ourselves into.
First, a little...
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First Brew Day Story
I don’t think I could have ever estimated how disoriented I was going to feel on brew day. I was so excited to get started and take the plunge that I didn’t take the time I should to get everything set out and make sure I had a plan. However, I am getting ahead of myself.
First, things that worked how I thought they would. The keggle and burner were excellent. I had plenty of room...
First Brew Day →
Some sights and sounds from my first day of brewing. When the chaos started the video stopped.
Pre-brew day
Cleaned everything last night in preparation for brew day. Used some OxyClean Free to clean the kettle, bucket, all the tubing, the airlock, and my hydrometer. I will sanitize it all tonight when I get back from the Home Brew Shop with some StarSan in the fermenting bucket.
Debating whether to go ahead and get a glass carboy or just stick with the bucket for now. Have to see when I get...
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New place to post thoughts
I decided to give tumblr a try because it seems to fit more with how I prefer to share thoughts, short and simple.
Look for some homebrew action soon