Jan 082016
 
Small Batch Brewing

I never really questioned the 5-gallon standard prevalent among homebrewers.  That’s the size of the first kit I bought, and beyond doubling to 10 gallons every once in a while, I never tried out different batch sizes.  The 5-gallon standard is a standard for a reason.  The volume fits in readily available 6.5 gallon food-grade […]

Apr 262013
 

I’m starting to get geared up for the National Homebrewers Conference.  I’ve got my ticket, I’ve got the hotel reservation, the baby sitters are lined up.  Now I just need to get the beer ready.  I’m providing 2 kegs for my homebrew club, and time’s starting to run out.  I had better get brewing.  I […]

Mar 082013
 
My Introduction To Lagering

Since I acquired a refrigerator from a neighbor I had been meaning to finally brew a lager. I had been putting off making one for some time, as brewing one can make brewer feel very vulnerable. There is your beer with nothing to hide any flaws. No roasted barely to counter balance any residual sweetness. […]

Nov 302012
 
An alternative starter...

I decided to be a little creative when making my most recent lager yeast starter. I am going to be co-brewing an 11 gallon batch of German pils, and this requires a 2 gallon starter using my starter system. It seems like a waste of beer to just dump 2 gallons of starter down the […]

Oct 112012
 

So I decided to try my hand at a partigyle brew, and I figured what better style to do this with than an English brown ale and a mild ale. I’ve been meaning to do this for a few years now, but never sat down to actually calculate a recipe. I sat down with my […]

May 112011
 

I’m always behind on my entries, so here’s a wrap up of the sour cherry ale. I named it Elysian Cherry Ale, and technically it’s a soured cherry Belgian pale ale. After primary fermentation (which was quite vigorous), the final gravity was 1.014.  I added 1 Lb of cherry juice concentration, which brought it up […]

Mar 162011
 

I got my wort for the Iron Brewer from Iron Hill on Friday Mar 11.  The SG was 1.058, and it was all domestic 2-row. In short, here’s the recipe: Grains: Iron Hill Wort (2 row)   5 gallons CaraMunich I 1lb 5oz Aromatic Malt 11 oz Hops:2.5 oz East Kent Goldings (4.8% AA) – […]

Feb 052011
 

Today, I’m going to start a Cherry Melomel. I’ll first ferment 5 gallons of orange blossom honey. Then I’ll rack it to secondary with cherry juice concentrate. Pretty simple – here’s the recipe. 15 lb Dutch Gold orange blossom honey Dissolve in water to yield 5 gallons total. Pitch 1.75 packs of D47 yeast.

Aug 212010
 

Wow, I’m actually caught up on my notes.  Last night I brewed “Nutty Brown Dog”.  It’s been over two years since I made that.  I’ve been disappointed in the beer for a while.  I really liked the first recipe I came up with for it, so I’m going back to that one.  The only changes […]

Aug 212010
 

I had Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam Bier a bit ago, and I loved it.  It’s a great low-alcohol beer with tons of flavor, and a nice subtle sourness.  I highly recommend buying this if you ever see it.  So, I was inspired to try something similar.  The style is along the lines of a low gravity […]