4/24/10

a great evening involves: a porch, a record player, a cigar, anchor liberty ale, glenlivet twelve year, and amazing company.

just had a coffee stout last night, and as suspected the overwhelming coffee flavors are toning down with age. it's becoming quite the complex little beer. pale ale with juniper and lime is bottled (i stayed up until four a.m. to do so on wednesday night). summer wheat might need another week to ferment, but i guess i'll just have to check the gravity when i get home from kansas city. if not it should be bottled and conditioning within the week. next up is american red ale. brewing will most likely occur on may first, national homebrewer's day! i may even get WILD and make two or even three batches that day!

-alex

4/21/10

here is the status of each beer i have going individually:

coffee stout - this has been bottled since april ninth. i've opened a few to share with good company, and to see how it is conditioning the bottle. so far the coffee is absolutely dominating the other flavors. now... this may be seen as undesirable by some looking for a balanced dark stout with hints of coffee, but i was never really going for that. i steeped a pound of whole foods extra dark french roast for fifteen minutes after boiling. my coffee can never be black enough. this beer is a dark coffee lovers dream. i imagine the coffee flavor mellowing as it ages the next few weeks, just creating an even more complex brew.

pale ale with juniper and kaffir lime - i had a terrible time brewing this. i added my finishing hops when i intended to add the juniper and lime, i dropped many items in the wort, and it took me over eight hours to cool the wort. in addition to that in my rush to pitch the yeast at a bearable temperature, i forgot to take a specific gravity reading (meaning i will not know the abv). all and all i was pissed, and worried. this last saturday i moved it into a glass carboy and took a sample to see how fermentation was coming. the specific gravity was very low (meaning it is as good as done), and it tasted approximately as i originally intended! hopefully bottling tomorrow! very excited!

summer wheat ale - this was brewed just last evening (4/19). everything went smooth for the most part. this is my first recipe completely created on my own (with the help of a few similar ideas). i didn't use enough water with my grains or in my wort, but it wasn't a big deal. when i ended up having to add water to fill the carboy to five gallons i forgot to mix the wort so i ended up with a dark brown mixture on the bottom with light sugary water on top, meaning i again do not have an initial specific gravity reading, and will not know the true abv of this beer. checking up on it today the yeast evened out the color and is just raging up a storm. except some bright flavors from this. i used probably close to a quarter of a pound of various zest....

i am trying to figure out what to make next. two front runners are a hoppy red (think odell's red), or another batch of juniper lime pale ale. thoughts? suggestions? thanks...

-alex

brewing

from here on out i will be posting all of my brewing related business in this blog.

yesterday annie, cameron, and myself finally met the neighbors (across the street) who would not stop shoving homebrews in our faces. they couldn't have been nicer. i opened a bottle of coffee stout for them although its only been in the bottle a week now. they seemed pleasantly surprised, as was i, but i know this brew will just get better the age.

i moved the pale ale i cooked up monday into a secondary for no reason really. i just wanted to try it. had a terrible time making and cooling it, but things are looking pretty solid. i will not being using a bucket as a fermentor ever again. the juniper comes out exactly the way i wanted it to, and i think the kaffir lime is a nice touch as well. hopefully bottling before i head down to lawrence/kansas city on thursday.

coming next is a summery wheat ale (think sam adams summer ale). should be brewing tomorrow, so join me in the evening if you are so inclined.

cheers!

-alex