When good brewing goes bad...Xmas beer test run.

Well brew day is in the books...what a cluster bomb...

Planned a great recipe for my christmas beer, a ginger-molasses imperial stout.

Planning is but a small part of a project. For some reason I chose to forgo adding Munich malt, why I don't know. Then my mash temp was low by 3 degrees (not too big a deal). Then my gravity was off by 10 points, as seems the standard for any high gravity beer even though I continue to lower the projected efficieny. And finally I can no longer get the wort below 78-80 now that the water is getting to that temp. I even had a pre-chiller going with ice and salt...still no dice after over 30mins of chilling, stirring, swirling, etc.I guess I'll have to start freezing some water bottles or move to Alaska in the summer! Days like this make me feel like a rookie!

Contest Blues

Well I went to contest to see with my own eyes how they work, especially since I am working logistics for our club contest. It was an interesting process, but I don't think I'll be wasting my time with entering beers in the future...Frankly I don't brew the kind of beer that wins contests, but I like to enter them to gain feedback from certified judges. Well this time I entered "The Belgian" to see how it stacked up, and here's the feedback I got:

"No Belgian flavors, not to style"

Well thanks for nothing! How about explaining to me how a beer brewed with belgian yeast has no belgian flavors? Usually I get so critical feedback that suggests possible solutions to the problem. Not this time, in fact all I got was the critical part.

I forgot to mention that the contest included a 45min ribbon ceremony that ended with 5 brewers taking 75-80% of the ribbons. Really was discouraging to see the slanted distribution. Well, I will participate in my club's contest, maybe even send a beer to contest again, but the desire to get more involved with the "contest brewing" community was sapped from my soul. And that's all I got to say about that.

Double Bock (or not)

Drank Tank and I brewed a Dopple(double) Bock Sunday but it didn't quite come out that way...we were shooting for an OG of 1.077 but only made it to 1.060. So we ended up with what is barely a bock. No worries. DT wanted to use the 13gal fermentor he brought back from Tennessee, so that's what we did. It is fermenting away at 52F...

Beer Brewing in Space.

You can't make this up, beer brewing in the absence of gravity. If that was an elective in college it wouldn't have taken me 11 years to graduate!

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast21sep%5F1.htm

Tax dollars well spent, IMHO.

Brown Ale Redux

Brewed a new version of brown ale yesterday after researching the style using Designing Great Beers, a book I got for Christmas. Brewing went fine...we will see how it tastes!

Brew-30...

Brewing today. Irish Red Ale recipe adopted from one of my BBG peers. I hope it comes out good since I hope to have it for my holiday 4-pack. Right now:

1 - Brown Ale
2 - Irish Red Ale
3 - Scottish Ale
4 - Amber Lager

Hopefully enough goodness for the holidays!

Whoops, took a week off! Light Irish Red Lives On!

Well, I guess I wrote a lot the last couple blogs anyway. You could have broken them down into daily capsules. Anyway, tis a dark day, as the O'fest is gone, the Brown ale is still a bit bitter, and the pumpkin isn't quite ready.

ON TAP - LIR, Plain Ole' Punkin Ale(green), NQG Stout (Not Quite Guiness)
KEG CONDITIONING - Brown Ale x2
FERMENTING - BVIP*, O'fest #2

The Light Irish Red...This beer has been on tap since August, yet I can't get anyone to finish it off! Funny thing is, it's still a pretty fine ale, just very weak and light for a homebrew. I've been drinking it while watching football so as to not get lit and end up in bed at 7:30 Sunday evening. I've been very successful with the stout and the O'fest so everyone's gravitated to those, leaving the Light Irish Redheaded-stepchild Ale waiting for some love. I'm even going to bottle some of it for a contest in December, just for the hell of it...

*BVIP update: It is almost done fermenting. Actually it was almost done a week ago, but it seems I am supposed to let it sit on the primary yeast cake for 10-12 days at least since it is a high-gravity brew. This is not "mine", but property of the BBG.

Pumping and Stout

As my quest towards overdoing my brewing hobby continues I've begun slowly upgrading to a RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) brewing system. Basically, that means I am installing a pump that recirculates the mash, adding to efficiency and clarity of the wort. I mounted a "pumphouse" on the back of the brewery with valves and a recirculation loop to allow me to draw wort from the mash tun and pump it back over the top of the system. I'm also considering change the mash tun to a 15gal one I found at Wally World for $20. It would allow for more wort volume...

The nice thing is that most of these things are freebies (pump, valves). So the upgrade is mostly labor and design. I can't find my digital camera, which is why there are still no pics!

Why am I working on upgrades? I've volunteered to participate in the BBG Bourbon barrel stout project, and the grain bill is pretty tall!

RCBC Board Meeting Notes

Review of the Rusty Cutlass Brewing Co. Board of Trustee meeting on 9/12/06:

Members in attendence - Das Brewmeister, Captain Pete, Irish Jim

1. Motion from Irish Jim that any member wishing to speak should have first consumed or be consuming a cold beer. Approved 3-0.
2. Acorn Amber Lager (Red Oak Clone) tasting. Approved and excited about 2nd, uncarbonated keg as well.
3. Motion from Das Brewmeister that meeting not adjourn until 7-day ale keg was emptied. Approved 3-0.
4. Transferred 10gal of Brown Ale to secondary. Debated need to clean "krausen ring" from fermentors when transferring same batch. Brewmeister does not (only cleans trub from bottom before transferring 1st half of the same batch to the 1st half's fermentor). Vote to clean was 2-1 in favor of cleaning, but vetoed by Brewmeister. Final decision was that it is up to the person doing the work.
5. 7-Day Ale keg emptied.
6. Beer-related stories narrated by Cpt. Pete and Irish Jim, details of which are classified but involve kegs, beer balls, $1 six-packs, 2x4's, and rope.

Meeting ajourned.