12/22/10

the last few months have been busy, and so i have not been brewing. it has actually been over four months since i last posted anything... so what's new?

-the hops i planted have been harvested, and yielded seven ounces (around twenty dollars!). they have been vacuum sealed, and put in the freezer with the intention of using them for my first all grain batch during late spring.

-i moved to a new house that is awesome, but i will have to transplant my hops the best i can come planting season.

-my new neighbor is also a homebrewer, and just an awesome guy. his wife is nice too!

-the oatmeal coffee stout i made months ago turned out awesome, but only a few bottles remain between my residence and jerad tomasino's.

this evening, with the help of close friends, i brewed what most would classify as a winter warmer. think, dark, malty, spicy, warm your heart like a fireplace sort of beer. spices included: ginger, nutmeg, allspice, a cinnamon stick, and juniper berries. the wort had a great spice profile, and i can only hope the fermentation lives up to my high expectations. if you plan on attending my birthday party january fifteenth you will be able to try some ON TAP! as i said before my neighbor is super cool, and is going to let me use his new kegging setup to serve this beer. cheers to you brent! i feel a lot of enthusiasm for the previously mentioned event, and can only promise good things.

on a side note i ran into jason payne of the lucky bucket brewing company earlier today while at the homebrew store. the amount of times i seem to run into him and zac triemert only deepens some belief in fate. if your a lucky bucket fan, expect great things this next year. though i may not get hours working at the brewery currently, i can only wish the company the best.

happy holidays to you and yours!

cheers,
-avb

p.s. pictures of the winter will come within the next few days...

8/10/10

i've been neglecting to blog anything, because i haven't been brewing while saving money for new equipment. that doesn't mean, however, that there isn't much to discuss now. so here goes:

not long after i stopped posting i bought some hop rhizomes, which have flourished in the sunlight of the backyard. see for yourself....



not bad for the first year.

remember i had made a raspberry brown ale for mothers day? well it turned out pretty damn good... it sort of transcended what i've had for fruit beers in the past. very refreshing. regardless of the labor intense, stressful, and all together horrendous process, the beer was enjoyed by many including my mom. on a similar note that hoppy red ale also pleased a few pallets (mostly my own). as i said i haven't brewed since that stout back in may, but i just bottled it last night.



so once this heat abruptly leaves town, like it always does, i'll be ready with a hearty batch of love in a bottle. i do still plan to make something similar to the juniper lime pale ale in the near future, but probably not until after i've moved. oh by the way... i'm moving. after a star studded career at the mcgrath residence, i'll be moved out by september first. cam, his brother cody, and myself will be living about a mile farther south near belle ryan elementary. it's sad, but necessary.

all of that is well and good, but the best piece of news i have to announce would have to be the job i was recently offered at the lucky bucket brewing company. i'll soon be working full-time at night bottling some of the best beer in omaha, and i couldn't be happier about it. it's been a few years now, but things are starting to make a little more sense in the world.



cheers,
alex

5/21/10

in search of something special, i cooked up another batch of stout last night. a coffee oatmeal stout to be more specific. the fermentation is running wild right now, and the blow off smells pretty tasty. i think i pitched the yeast too hot, but it doesn't seem to care. the raspberry brown ale will probably bottled tomorrow. it's weird. i'm curious to taste it finished. hope mom likes it. the red i bottled last friday is coming along, and a few more days should do it good. friend clay staley brought over a bottle of rogue john john ale last night, but his boss called and said we couldn't drink it. bummer.



probably the only bottle in nebraska. next up is an altered version of the juniper lime pale ale which will involve moving away from the sahti style and more towards the american pale ale. although i would like to make a traditional sahti soon. after that i promised beer enthusiast katie claus a surprise batch upon her return home from spain. a surprise it shall be.

cheers,
alex

5/17/10

thanks to my new spring loaded bottling wand, i was able to bottle the red ale in no time flat! so much time in fact i was able to go to the moon with cameron. the crescent moon. later that night i began brewing the raspberry brown ale i promised my mother as a present. the state of mind i was in can only be described as mad scientist. after adding the raspberries moments ago here is how things are looking....



i am forgoing an amber ale so i can begin perfecting a coffee stout recipe. it will not be like the last one because this is homebrewing and i am trying to create an original formulation, but you'd be a fool to think i would ruin two of my greatest joys in life. the same process will be occurring with the juniper lime pale soon enough.

regards,
-alex

5/9/10

due to an overwhelming amount of misfortune this last week, i was unable to brew, or hang out with dirk. my kitchen sink is busted, the jeep is in the shop, and morale is low. all i can do is roll with the punches i suppose. the week wasn't all bad though...the lucky bucket ipa is finally in bottles and on shelves...so i bought a case.



i felt i owed zac triemert a little something as well so at the cinco de ipa party at dante pizzeria i gave him a sixer of various homebrews. hopefully he will still be into the idea of having me intern over the summer in a few weeks.

as far as brewing plans go, i need to bottle that red ale soon, then make the raspberry nut brown ale, and eventually an amber ale.

yours,
-alex

5/3/10

after thinking about it two seconds, i'm brewing up another batch of goodness friday. summer is here, and i need something sweet, refreshing.... and what will be a late mothers day present: raspberry nut brown ale. this will be made completely with scraps from the last few concoctions. should end up somewhere close to a lambic, since i plan on using about three pounds of fruit. me and dirk (seen here):



are going to have nice calm evening after a hard days work at whole foods. maybe the rothenberg's will stop by too... or maybe i'll just have work homebrew party...whatever. i'd rather make beer than study on a friday after work. just saw a squirrel with a red tail. weird. hope rudy murders it like all those bunnies. speaking of red, the homebrew day batch of red ale is looking mighty fine....

5/2/10

hope everyone had an enjoyable national hombrew day...i know i lost my mind somewhere between eleven and midnight.
to celebrate i brewed up a hoppy american red ale. i don't know if the red color will come through, but the hops will without a doubt. the only problem i ran into last night was forgetting to take a specific gravity reading, which only means i won't know the alcohol content. wouldn't bother me normally, but this was third time in a row i've made this mistake. whatever. friday night i bottled up my summer wheat ale, and even without carbonation it is a tasty batch. so currently i have a coffee stout, a juniper pale ale, and the summer wheat, all bottled up, though the latter two need more time to condition. finally establishing the pipeline. don't know what's next....i'll probably just start formulating recipes for fall and winter.

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