I have registered a domain and I invite you to tune into the brewblog at my new location http://blog.brewerscache.com.
Tomorrow is a blogging milestone
October 22, 2007 at 7:17 pm (Brewer's Post)
Tomorrow is a big day for brewbaron.wordpress.com. It is the day that, if things go as planned, I will break 10,000 hits. Thanks for tuning in to the blog; the positive daily traffic is what keeps this interesting. I always love to hear from you; keep the comments and questions coming.
At this point in my brewing hobby, I have brewed 60 gallons of beer, a meager number compared to some in the same time frame, and have attempted a dozen or so styles. Before I started homebrewing, I really only took the time to enjoy a small subset of the many, many varieties of beer. Now, I always have two examples of good beer on tap!
If you are just starting out, stick with it, try new things, and RDWHAHB.
10/17/2007 – Company Cream Ale – taste with age
October 17, 2007 at 7:46 am (Cream Ale)
My batch of Company Cream ale is aging nicely and is becoming more drinkable. The almost-overpowering ester profile has faded considerably and the corn-like flavor (style characteristic) is starting to come through. Also, the beer has marginally cleared; it is still hazy but not embarrassingly hazy. The hop bitterness is spot-on; I wouldn’t change a thing.
If you attempt this one, be sure to keg it and forget about it; come back to it in six months and I bet that you will be pleased.
10/17/2007 – Step Ladder Stout : Kegged and on tap
October 17, 2007 at 7:39 am (Brewer's Post, Dry Stout)
Yesterday evening I finally got around to transferring the Step Ladder Stout from the primary into its keg. I don’t much like waiting this long before racking it off, but I have been very busy lately getting Brutus, the brew dog, acclimated and trained–getting used to morning walks has been a bit of a shock to the system!
The step ladder stout terminated with a final gravity of 1.014 which is a little higher than expected–I had trouble with the mash temperature control and ended up mashing at a low temp. I took a little taste and the roasted barely comes through in a huge way, maybe too huge. The color is lovely ink.
I am going to carbonate this one just using CO2 because I don’t have the nitrogen kegging equipment. Based on my past results, this one will be carbonated nicely in about a week or so ( sitting at 12-15 Psi and 45 degrees ).
10/1/07 – Company Cream Ale – Early Observations
October 1, 2007 at 7:05 pm (Cream Ale)
This batch of company cream ale is finally carbonated enough to issue some early observations. The color of this beer is a very nice straw yellow color but is quite hazy. I recommend that a flocculant be used to create a beautifully clear beer. This beer has a strong flavor profile with very apparant ester notes of bananna and pear. I can also detect some cider notes in this one, which would likely be due to the extra table sugar added. I recommend that a Californa Ale Yeast be used to clean up the profile a bit and be sure to keep control of your fermentation temperatures. There is little or no hop flavor and the nose is all esters. For a cream ale, I would have perfered a more noticable DMS character, which I am sure is present but masked by the strong ester profile.
This beer has a very nice mouthfeel, very drinkable. I need to fine tune the carbonation before I can give a full report.
Overall, this is going to be a fine beer, just not the beer that I had intended ( we will see ). To find the right balance in this recipe, next time around I am going to experiment with first using a cleaner yeast and keeping very close attention to the fermentation temperature, and then if that doesn’t get me where I want to be, I am going to cut almost all of the table sugar out of the recipe.
[Edit] This beer is improving every day with age and improved carbonation.
If you attempt this recipe, let me know. I always love to hear feedback from the readers.
New brewer added to the staff
September 28, 2007 at 7:22 am (Brewer's Post)
Today I will be adopting a new brewing helper, a boxer-mastif pup named Brutus. Having a curious dog in the house should provide a little more excitment during the brew day. I will finally have someone to help clean up those sweet wort spills. 
I will post some pictures of the new brewer in action as soon as I teach him how to stir with the mash paddle.
Update: Brutus is no boxer/mastif; he is really more of a boxer/pit.
Brutus somehow conned me into letting him on the couch. He’s good. He’s real good.
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| From Puppy |
Brutus can’t help with the brewing yet but is a big help when it comes to sorting laundry.
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| From Puppy |
In this picture, Brutus has somehow manage to get a leaf glued to his nose. I wonder where he has been sniffing?
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| From Puppy |
9/21/07 – Now on tap: Company cream ale
September 21, 2007 at 9:01 pm (Beer, Brewer's Post, Cream Ale)
I just tapped my recipe, Company Cream Ale, brewed some weeks ago. Though it is quite early to offer my my early observations, I can say that I nailed the color that I was shooting for. This beer pours crystal clear with a beautiful straw yellow color–it was my first attempt at a light-lovibond beer. The first pour was relatively free of any “gunk;” I chose to secondary this beer, a practice that has significantly waned now that I keg my beers.
At this point, the flavor is pretty strong; the DMS that is characterisitic of the cream ale style does come through. The pilsen malts and a boil limited to 70 minutes contributed the DMS. The alcohol warmth is certainly present ( 7+%). I expect that this beer will be a nice counterpoint to my lastest batch of brew, the Step Ladder Foreign Stout, which will take its place on tap in a couple of weeks. I hope that the difference in final gravity of the cream ale will be different enough from the stout that I will be able to pour a black and tan, where one beer “sits” on the other in the glass.
More updates to follow when this golden beauty is fully carbonated ( and further aged ).
9/15/2007 – Step Ladder Foreign Stout
September 16, 2007 at 11:43 am (Dry Stout, Homebrew, Recipe, all-grain)
Step Ladder Foreign Stout
A dry, intensly dark, foreign stout that should go nicely on a cool fall day.
OG 1.050
IBU 50
Bu/Gu: 1.0
Grain Bill
.75 lbs Roasted Barely 300 L
.75 lbs Roasted Barley 650 L
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
7.6 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lbs Wheat Malt
.50 lbs Dextrine Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 6L
Mash
Single Infusion mash @ 152 with a R = 1.2. I had a hard time holding on the to temperature this time around. My mash actually dipped to 149F before the end of the mash. I had too little remaining capactiy in the tun to adjust. This will lead to a very fermentable, albeit lighter beer–I normally perfer my stouts pretty thick. I batch sparged and got about a 70% efficiency.
Hop Schedule ( 90 minute boil )
2.38 oz Amarillo @ 60 minutes.
I had a boilover at around T-50 minutes. This will likely affect the overall bitterness of this brew. I couldn’t guess how much hop matter was ejected during the boilover so I didn’t attempt to correct for it.
Yeast
1 pk Danstar Windsor English Ale yeast ( properly rehydrated )
Notes:
I had about 5-6 gal of wort after the boil @ 1.050 OG. This was the first brew that I have brewed that required a blowoff hose. I just used my syphon hose which is a little on the long side; it generates too much resistence when it gets gunked up with krausen. When the hose if full, the fermenter pressure really builds up; I can hear the fermenter whistling. I am going to have to keep a close eye on this one.
8-30-07: Sim City IPA, a beautiful thing
August 30, 2007 at 8:21 pm (Beer, Brewer's Post, India Pale Ale, all-grain)
This is a pull of Sim City IPA in a Samuel Adams glass ( courtesy of AHA )
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| From Sim City IPA |
August 13, 2007: Company Cream Ale
August 13, 2007 at 8:30 am (Cream Ale, Homebrew, Recipe, all-grain)
Company Cream Ale
This a light-bodied cream ale ( ale-equivilent to light American lager ). A full description will be added after tasting. I am shooting for a crisp, clean finish with a light mouthfeel–something that is easy drinking. This beer should turn out like a big version of Rolling Rock. I have never brewed a beer that is this high in gravity or mashed at such a low temperature. I hope that the desired balance comes out. The color is very, very light, around 3-4 SRM.
In this beer, one of the key flavors is DMS. The boil length was reduced to allow for some DMS to remaining the wort. DMS has a half-life of 40 minutes.
Grain Bill
6 lbs Pale 2-row
6 lbs Pilsen ( 2-row) malt
1 lbs Flaked Corn ( maize )
1 lbs 2 oz Table Sugar
OG: 1.066 @ 70% efficiency
Mash: Multi-step
A multistep mash is required because a large portion of the grist is pilsen malt, a moderately modified malt. With a 5-gal capacity igloo-style cooler, multi-rest mashing can be a challenge. If I had more space, I would have conducted the first step with a greater water to grist ratio. After about 40 minutes, I had to draw off one quart of wort from the mash and heat it up to 190 degrees to adjust the mash temperature. I performed a batch sparge and collected seven gallons of wort in total. Be sure to exclude the table sugar from all of your mash calculations.
25 minutes @ 120F R = .8
90 minutes @ 149F ( for conversion ) R = 1.3
Hop Schedule: 75 minute Boil
1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ 70 minutes
1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ flameout
Yeast and Fermentation
I just used a pack of Munton’s Ale yeast that I rehydrated for 30 minutes before adding to the wort. Visible activity in the airlock was apparent in about three hours ( not bad for dry yeast!) I am going to ferment this as close to 65F as I can, which is some temperature around 70F–It’s in a cold water bath.
Additional Notes:
Due to the capacity of my brewpot, I had withhold about 2 gallons of the wort until after the hot break. The extra wort was added back in at 70 minutes.
