Random thoughts the return...

Not sure why I didn't talk about this when I had it but...

Recently I had a bottle of Delerium Tremens. Very good beer. It was one I thought I had sampled in the past but the one I had sampled was the Delerium Nocturnum. Upon some research I found out that Delerium Tremens is the name of the shakes a person gets when they are detoxing from alcohol addiction. Funny that a Belgian brewery would name a beer thusly. Because of this they were not originally able to sell the beer in the US under its true name. Let's hear it for the beer morality police. Back on point. DT is a fantastic example of a Belgian strong pale ale (possibly considered as a Belgian Triple). Of course in online research on beer, especially Belgian beers, no one can quite agree on the style that the beer follows.

My personal view is to call it a Belgian Triple. As a typical Belgian beer the yeast is what plays the primary role in the flavor of the finished beer. Malt and hops take a back seat to the flavors the Belgian yeast strain bring to the beer. Fermentation conditions play a major role in developing the yeasty characters that define the style. Wow, I so still want to spend time in Belgium, drinking and brewing.

My next brew day will involve the creation of a dopplebock. I have loved that style since the first time I sampled a Paulaner Salvator. For those who don't think that beer is godliness, I must say that name is so true, Salvator is salvation in a bottle. The fact that monasteries and monks have brewed beer for many generations is all we need to know that beer truely is a holy beverage.

Lukas brought up a German style tonight that I have not heard of, granted most of my brewing has revolved around British and some Belgian styles. If I remember right the style was called crystal weis, basically a wheat beer that has no haze and is force carbonated. I do want to do some research on it and see what I might create from the research.

After Germany I will be returning to Belgian styles again. There really is just to many to stay away. I have been wanting to brew a Belgian Triple for quite some time. I believe I will end up using candi sugar that I make myself for the triple when I finally get to it.

My current motto "I haven't met a beer I didn't like." When you can say you enjoy pretty much every style the world becomes incredibly huge and there really just isn't enough time in the day to sample every style you want to.

Now, its time for me to find the bottom of a pint. I hope you find joy in finding the bottom of your own pint.

Busy day...

I have pretty much been on the run since I woke up this morning. The day started with registering contest beers and mead online for the W.E.B. home brew contest. I had forgotten how much info they liked to have about the beers. Of course, as soon as I got the beers registered I realized I couldn't use my printer to print the contest labels. A quick text to Pat and I have a printer lined up but I still have to make a trip out to Kalamazoo before I can head up to Grand Rapids and Sicilianos.

So I get to GR only to find that Pat and Sarah don't use real computers. No they use the devil Mac. So now I have to figure out a whole new system to find and print my labels. While there its a scramble to find rubberbands. Contest labels have to be easily removed so no tape or glue is allowed. They don't have any so its a trip to the store. Luckily, the store was across the street from Sicilianos.

While in Sicilianos I finally pick up my score sheets from their home brew contest last year (wow, only close to a year to finally get em). The judges for my beer at that time were brewers from Founders. The beer itself didn't score well (I submitted the beer too soon, it really wasn't ready)in that contest but their feedback on the scoresheets was very informative.

After we left Sicilianos we headed over to one of my favorite beer bars, the Hopcat. The Hopcat is probably one of the best in the country. Not only do they have a large selection of craft beers on tap, they also brew their own beer. I went a little crazy today and went with an outside brewery. I had some Backbreaker ale from Brooklyn brewery. This beer is part of their brewmaster reserve series and only available on draft. The guys over at Brooklyn call it an English ale. I was pretty happy with it. Its the kind of beer you want when you just want to sit back and have a few pints.

After dropping Pat and Sarah off at their apartment it was time for the long trip back home. You would think arriving home would end our tale of the day, but wait there's more. Shortly after getting home I started getting everything together for the pilsner brew tonight.

I made a realization while grinding grain tonight. It seems I have to spill a bit of unground grain on the floor everytime I brew as a sacrifice to the malt gods. Crazy but true. Or maybe I am just good at spilling stuff.

I am finally in the wort boil stage. At this point I am spending a bit more time in the kitchen watching whats going on and getting everything in place for my final stages of the night (chill and then pitching the yeast). Only a few more hours left tonight before this brew day is done.

With that in mind I think its time for a pint.

Bottling

The dunkelweizen is officially in conditioning stage. Just finished bottling it tonight. I am pretty happy with how it has turned out so far, can't wait to see how it finishes. Its sitting at about 5% alcohol. Oddly this is kinda low for what I have been brewing for a while now. Usually my lowest is around 6%. After my next two German styles I am going to be pushing for some lower alcohol session beers. I have been thinking of doing a British mild ale for quite some time now. But of course, bigger beers always seem to come out ahead.

The starter that has plagued me for the past few days finally get moving today. Was a shock really. With that revelation I don't think the yeast vials themselves were dead, they just had a super low viability count. Hopefully when this starter reaches full potency it won't be nearly as sluggish when I use it for the fermentation on the pilsner. Although, lagers tend to be slower fermentations anyway, part of the activity at lower temperatures. Lager yeast is active but sluggish, whereas ale yeast tends to go completely dorment.

In the next few days I will be setting the recipe for the marzen. I will brew it in a couple weeks and bottle it sometime around late March/ early April. The pilsner will be bottled around the middle to the end of Febuary. This is the benefit of having a decent amount of fermentation space currently. I can brew some beers that can take their time conditioning in the secondary. Mind you, I am getting ready to do some more meads so my fermentation space may be completely filled shortly. Meads can spend 6 months or more conditioning before I even think of bottling them. Even in a small brewery you need to plan out your schedule a little bit.

Annoyances...

Around noon today I found that the starter that wasn't working yesterday still wasn't going today. As a brewer this can be quite frustrating. My plans for brewing on Saturday rely on this starter being ready to jumpstart the process quickly when I am ready to begin fermentation. Aside from that, it makes you start to question your practices. What did I do wrong? Was it something that I did that either slowed the yeast growth or worse killed the yeast?

Choices needed to be made. Make a new starter or attempt to revive this one. My personal choice in this instance was to accept that I possibly misjudged something I did and it woud be better to cut my losses and make an entirely new starter. So I made a trip back in to Bell's general store. Luckily when I got there my friend and brewing answer man, Trevor, was working. Passing by him I mentioned I needed some help when he had a second and I headed straight to the yeast cooler.

I explained the situation, only to find I wasn't the first person to encounter this problem today. Add to that he was about also planning to brew the same style on Saturday that I was planning, using the same yeast strain. And of course, his starter wasn't doing what it was supposed to either. He ended up giving me the new vial to replace the other one. My hope right now is that this strain isn't a completely bad strain.

The usual belief with fermentation errors is that the problem you run into is user created. Most often this is true; under pitching causes slow starts, pitching with too cold a wort can cause slow starts, poor sanitation causes way too many problems to list. But there are times when you run across a problem that is beyond your control, times when the same problem happens to too many people that do everything right, that it is the fault of the product itself. The best part of that happening, at least you know it wasn't you. Mind you this still pushes my brew day out a few days, but at least I don't feel quite so bad about my starter not going right.

The other thing to think about, at least it is only a starter that is going to be washed down my sink drain. It could be an entire batch wasted because it doesn't want to ferment. Alcohol abuse is never a good thing.

With that I leave you with the frosty pint of your choice, I am off in search of my own.

Gary is an evil bastage...

For those who don't know him, he is one of the guys I work with. For those who do, I'm sorry. Actually, Gary and I many times have some good conversations about fermented beverages. (Here comes the background stuff cause I can't seem to tell a story without it). Gary and his brother have been vintners for a bit now. He is also as much a vinophile as I am a cervasiphile. My knowledge of wines in general really is only enough to know I don't really know anything important. "Where is all this leading?" you now ask me. And why am I calling Gary and evil bastage?

Because of a conversation he and I had the other night I really began thinking of wine. This is never a good place for me. Once I start thinking about something I begin to make plans. My only saving grace on this one, I really don't have the time to start dabbling in making wine. Beer and mead already consume quite a bit of my life.

Some of the random thoughts I had because of all this...

Grapes as well as fruits in general, really are the perfect choice for fermentation. They exist ready to be turned into fermented juice. Grapes in particular naturally carried the yeasts needed to turn them into wine. Long ago before the existance of yeast was even known it would not have been as much work to make wine as is needed for other beverages. Grains on the other hand have to go through a process that turns their starches into sugars. Honey is a sugar, but until you add water to it, it is not a drinkable beverage. Yeast spores need water as well as other nutrients (including oxygen) to multiply and grow.

On to other stuff...

I set up the starter for the steam pils today. I'm getting a little worried, I came home from work and don't see any activity. This could be a bad sign. I may need to get a new vial of yeast and start over, not my best option. The good news is, its my starter and not the actual brew itself. There really isn't much worse than going through hours of work mashing and boiling wort only to fail at the start of fermentation. The good news is, I won't lose a bunch of time and money with a bad fermentation. The bad news is, this could push back my brew day to Monday or Tuesday. Thats kinda like saying you can't open your Christmas presents on Christmas morning. I have all my stuff to do the brew and everything already.

At some point on Friday (well, later today at this point) I will be bottling the dunkelweizen. I am anxious to see how this one turned out. This is one of the darkest beers I have ever done. Mind you, the wheat will soften it a bit, but there is still quite a bit of dark malt character in it.

On that note I will leave you all to your own brews. I am almost finished with a Hot Summer Night and I think its time to go pour another.

The feeling of things undone

It seems like forever since the last time I brewed. Mind you I am brewing this weekend and bottling the dunkelweizen, but still it seems so long ago. Mayhaps (such a fun word) my weeks are blending together currently. Its possible.

I should go through the recipes I have stashed away on promash and get rid of the ones I will never brew again (mainly the extract recipes). The main reason is, even if I were to do some extract based brews again, I would not follow those same recipes I cut my teeth on. The beers I am brewing now are much more complex and rich now by comparison. I guess its part of the aging process we all go through in the things we do.

Its funny, with cooking its almost the opposite. When you are first learning to cook, you spend most of your time trying to create the most complex and difficult dishes. But as you become seasoned (no pun intended) and your skills increase, you realize that the better sign of skill is being able to coax the flavors from simple and less complex dishes.

Thinking like that maybe it is very similar. When you leave extract brewing for all grain, you take ownership for the flavor of your brews final form. In that ownership you have the power to make simple ingredients complex. The German beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot, really shows this. Following this law, the only things allowed in beer are water, malt, hops, and yeast (although yeast wasn't known at the time of this laws creation). But, from these four ingredients a vast multitude of flavors are created within the brews we enjoy.

Wow, this is a bit of a digression from where I was originally going with this writing today. But then I don't think I had any objective in mind. At this point I think its time for a beer. I think I may just pop the top of an Emo IPA and see how the conditioning has gone.

Preparing for the brew ahead

Stopped into Bell's general store today to pick up the yeast I need for this weeks starter (the plan is to brew pilsner on Saturday, starter will get to work on Thursday). Spent probably a good half hour in the store getting some decent information in preparation of this beer. Pilsners can be a very difficult beer to get just right so I want as much info as I can get with this being my first one.

I know what you're thinking "There are already so many pilsners out there, why bother?" Really its a test. A very well done pilsner is a test of the brewers art. Sugar caramelizes when you heat it. Considering wort (unfermented beer) is pretty much nothing but sugar and water (well proteins and so much more too, but I digress) when you go to boil the wort you tend to dance a very close dance. How long should you boil it so you don't add too much color? At the same time, if you don't boil it long enough will you draw out enough of the malty sweetness and bitterness from the hopes that you expect to find in this style.

Honestly, I think this is why I enjoy brewing so much more than making wine or mead. Although, there is quite a bit of skill for the vintner and mayzor within their craft, wine and mead quite often let nature do the job of creating their flavors. With beer nature has a part, but at the same time it is the brewers skill that gives nature gentle nudges in the direction you want the brew to go.

About the brew...

Based on the conversation I had earlier today, there is a couple of things I will be doing that I have not really had to do in the past. Well, one thing is something I have been wanting to do but hadn't been to the point where I am willing to work with it.

First thing is working with water chemistry. Up until now this hasn't really been an issue. The beers I have been brewing so far have not really needed the level of softness that a pilsner needs. So for this brew I will be doing something I really never thought I would do... I am going to buy some distilled water. By mixing the distilled water with my boiled and then decanted tap water I will reach the level of softness I need and also retain the minerals the yeast need to brew properly. It is with the softer water that the maltiness of the pilsner will be able to shine through.

The next thing I will be doing, will be essentially propogating my own yeast. Well sorta anyway. From the starter I make today I will hopefully be able to ferment at least 2 to 3 more beers. Basically, I will be reusing the yeast from my primary fermentation of the pilsner to ferment my next batch (which will be either a doplebock or a marzen. If it all goes well I will probably do the marzen first then use the yeast from that to ferment the doplebock. This is a big step in bringing down the costs I accrue on a regular basis in the brewery. The best part is those savings will over time allow me to expand the brewery. My list of projects remains ever increasing.

competition enemies...

I ran across another blog post by Desiree from High Gravity Homebrewing today. In this post she talks about an Oklahoma home brew club. I won't mention their names because I really don't mean them ill will but baaaahhhhhhhh!!!! They be enemies to me when it comes to competitions. There is another group that I place into this category as well, though again I won't mention the groups name. One of the last contests I was in, these two groups had a bunch of members with brew entries.

Honestly, a little competition is great, but sheesh I am only one person. I can't always be trying to overcome the sheer numbers of some of these clubs. Maybe when I have the time to join a club again I won't feel so alone when running across these other clubs. But for now its really one group after another that I have to strive to be better than.

On a different note, I really like the flavor of the Irish Rye. I am still working on the formulation, so it doesn't get an official name yet. But, the flavor itself is pretty good. Maybe when I get an idea for the label for it I will find the right name for it. But then, only two of my brews actually have official names so far. Most of my other recipes are simply a variation of a previous recipe and no official name can be found for them yet.

Middle of the night...

Its 4 am, I watched 7 Pounds after I got out of work, and now I am finishing up The Last Dragon. This movie is probably one of my all time favorite kung fu theater movies. Instead of asians, it is a blacksploitation flick. Main character is Bruce Leroy and his nemesis is Shogun Sho Nuff. Classic movie, came out around the time that rap and break dancing were in their infancy. Course, break dancing has all but disappeared and rap has gone the direction we know it to be now.

The thought this brings about is the life of beer styles. They are constantly evolving. Sure we have the styles that fall into one of my earlier rants (just because we can make it bigger doesn't mean we should). Something of note though, IPAs as a style have come to stylistically use American Hops no matter where the beer falls in the BJCP style guidelines. So a British IPA now normally uses American hops to stay within style just as an American IPA does. This is kinda odd when you consider the Bitter and ESB retain their British heritage. These beers are part of the same family.

Commercial beers still kinda follow their own patterns. The brewery can claim to follow a style, but the reality is, most only loosely follow the style. This does not hold true for the competitive brewer. For the competitive brewer, we are rated based on how closely we can follow the guidelines set before us. Heaven forbid we place a sample into the wrong style category.

Where was I going with this? Or was I just aimlessly rambling?

No matter...

I will be bottling the dunkelweizen on Friday this coming week and I will brew the pilsner variation on Saturday. For the pilsner I will be using both Hallertaur and Saaz hops. Other than that I am not yet certain how I will tackle this ugly beast.

I have been considering doing a Marzen next. That could be a fun one to try out. Although, I have been a fan of Paulaner's Salvator for quite some time. A good Doplebock could be a nice addition to my stocks. Plus, a doplebock would age quite well.

pic posting test

ch ch ch changes....

I got home from work tonight to find that my bedroom had been rearranged. My wife was making room in the space next to my aging room so I can expand the brewery. In this she is in the process of moving the gym into our bedroom (which is ok because we have a pretty big bedroom anyway). The bonus part of this, with the current brew schedule I am keeping to, I will soon need the space for cases of beer. I honestly don't think I can drink all I am working on by myself, faster than I am brewing it.

I need to spend some time brewing up some big beers, stuff that can use some aging. Probably once I get my hands on some more honey I will have some stuff to start playing with and aging.

Lukas and I had an interesting conversation about pilsners tonight. It turns out that he shares my tastes in light struck pilsners. Those who know pilsners before the beer revolution we are currently living in will know what I am talking about. A good example of a light struck beer is the old Grolsch beers that had that distinct skunky flavor to them. Before most places knew how to handle beers they would let sunlight and flourescent light damage the beers they kept in their coolers and on their shelves. Basically, beer is very sensitive to light and green bottles do not help protect the beer. Certain wavelengths of light will cause a chemical reaction in the beer changing its flavor profile. Some people (like me) learned to like this skunky flavor. The sad part of this, the breweries did not intend for this flavor to come about. Now that distributors and vendors are taking better care of their beers, we don't run into skunked beer as often (unless you take the time to skunk the beer yourself).

Brewing books

Based on the books I already own, buying new books has become extremely expensive. Finally, I am now using the Michigan loan network to find obscure books from libraries all over the state. This is very handy when you consider the books I am looking for now cost anywhere from 50 to 150 dollars new and used. Its like buying scientific text books (and since I do not sell booze, its still just a hobby).

I pulled another sample from the Irish Rye keg tonight. Its pretty tasty I must say. Right now I won't really go into the flavor too much (working my way through a Hot Summer Night now).

Upcoming projects...

I did find a wine rack set up like what I am planning to build for the mead wall. The idea behind the set up I want to put in place is, I will be able to seperate by brew date and by type. The next step in that will be to have beer shelves put in so that I can keep track of beers by style and brew dates.

Of course the beer gun and bottling station are still working around in my mind. I so need a large chest freezer for conditioning.

The list goes on and on...

Interesting reading...

Desiree over at Highgravity Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies posed an interesting challenge in her current blog. She challenges the ladies who claim they don't like beer to try a different style at least once a month if not once a week. She makes a very good point, there are so many different styles of beer that to claim you do not like beer is like saying you don't like bread.

Sadly, as a nation we are still mired in the belief that beer is solely what the big three mega breweries have been feeding us for so many years now. The world of beer is varied and multifaceted. Even beers of the same style can have flavor differences that they do not taste exactly the same.

I pose Desiree's challenge to more than just the ladies out there. I give everyone the challenge to explore the world of beer. Perhaps in the journey you will find something unexpected.

Desiree's original blog can be found here...http://blog.highgravitybrew.com/?p=106

Next brew planning...

After a bit of thought, I am thinking I may attempt a variation on a traditional pilsner. I am looking at a German style pils but it will have a twist (basically I don't have a space cold enough for true lager yeast). My plan is to use as traditional ingredients as possible but I will be replacing the lager yeast normal used with a strain of San Francisco ale yeast (the yeast I normally use for my steam beer variations).

Essentially this beer would end up being a steam pils, but it is the closest I can currently get to a true pilsner. I have been looking at doing a decoction mash instead of my normal infusion. This will add to the authenticity of the finished beer. But, the malts produced now do not really need that much work to convert their starches.

Basically, this brew will be a sampling test to see if it will be possible for me to make some proximity to real lagers. If it works I will be able to move into more interesting varieties like bocks and Oktoberfest.

I bottled/kegged Emo IPA earlier today. I am really happy with it so far. It will be really interesting to see how the final flavor comes out (final flavor happens when the beer is fully carbonated and served at proper temperature).

Dunkelweizen is fermenting nicely. Currently the wort has so much krausen that it tends to plug the blow off hose a little. Every once in a while the bubbles stop and then about 30 seconds later there is an explosion of bubbles as the blockage is blown through. This beer goes into secondary next weekend and then will be bottled the weekend after that. I plan to completely bottle this beer, its just the way I prefer to handle wheat beers. I feel that kegging tends to take away the cloudy haze that a good traditional wheat should have.

Brew day update

Looking at the Dunkelweizen, this is the darkest brew I have ever done. Mind you I did make some modifications to the original recipe. One change was adding a few ounces of roasted barley.

The wort at this point is quite nice. Their is a strong smell of french roast coffee in the air. To me this is always the hardest part of brewing, the patience of waiting till it is done. I can't wait to see how my newest child turns out. I know the flavors of the various components, I taste the grain before I convert it. I taste the wort at each stage of its evolution. The transformation of the sugary wort to the beautiful liquid nectar at the end is a process I enjoy every moment of. Mind you the waiting will always be the hardest part.

Brew day

I am now working on the Dunkelweizen. Course, in honor of the new brew I have been toasting with previous brew. The Irish Rye is pretty good, although, not quite fully carbonated yet. And Hot Summer Night (the steam beer) is still quite tasty.

For this brew I started using my digital thermometor for keeping track of liquor (brewing water) temp. I do like this as being much more accurate than the thermometor I was using before now. And the alarm on this one makes it much easier, I don't have to go back and forth checking temps constantly.

I played with Beersmith a bit more today. There are a few features that I really like. One is a calander that I can plan not only brew days on but other important dates (like the day I plan to drop off beers to contests and such). The one part I don't really like (although I may just not have figured it out yet) is that I have to either change the date on a recipe or simply reinput the recipe when I am working on a new brewing session. With Promash the brewing session and recipe are two different entries. I can enter a recipe that stays constant unless I change it and then open a new brew session that uses that recipe. That functionality alone is a major point in Promash's favor for me. I have not only the original recipe I started with but also the recipes I have made modifications with and the brew sessions that give the info I did on that specific brew day.

Something I noticed today. I really need to find a way to motorize my malt mill. I have been milling around 12 to 14 pounds of grain for my 5.5 gallon batches, but when I move into much larger batches that is gonna be a major pain to hand crank. I did hook up a drill to the mill tonight but this drill did not have enough horse power to turn the crank when the wheat grains came to bear. The other problem I run into with hand cranking the grain... time. It takes way too long to grind out 12 pounds of grain by hand. And this isn't enough a large amount of grain!

Brewing software

I am debating on the direction I want to go with this. I have been using ProMash almost entirely since I began brewing a few years ago. The software itself is easy to work with and even without actually reading a manual I have figured out quite a bit of how it works. At the same time I have been looking at figuring out how to do the calculations myself using excell or brewing sheets. The problem with that is, the amount of work involved in this is quite a bit more than I actually have the time for.

A while ago I downloaded Beer Smith but never used it because I didn't want to waste the time of the free trial. Out of curiousity I opened it just a few minutes ago. The interface itself is quite different than Promash. I find it to be slightly easier to work with right off the bat. The interface itself actually shows a bit more information right on the main window. I also like that I can put tasting notes right into the info page.

I will be working a bit more indepth with this program to see how I feel about it over the longhaul. But then that is what trial periods are for. As it is right now I have several different written as well as computer records for every recipe I have been working on lately.

Meads and other thoughts

I picked up a good lead on some varietal honeys today. While I was at the Farmer's market at Bronson Hospital earlier today I came across some honey from a local apiary (honey farm for those who don't know). Aside from the normal wildflower honey that most have, this farm also carries buckwheat and alfalfa honey. I will be making some calls within the next few days in preperation for this years meads. Along with the varietal meads this year I do have some ideas for some melomels (honey and fruit meads). As it is now with the brewing schedule I am attempting to hold myself to, I may have to get more fermentation space to keep up with the meads I would like to add to the list.

In the long run the expansion I make now will help when I make the transition into full time brewing. This really is full time brewing on a budget. One of my current big steps right now is setting up my bottling station. I have a plan formulated in my head that involves using a Blichman beer gun and a few modifications to my current kegerator. Really, at this point its mostly just being annoyed with the inconsistancy of natural carbonation. In the end it all comes down to the beer itself. My choice will always be to bottle only when I feel the beer is absolutely ready.

Not sure if anyone else remembers these old commercials, but I keep having the old Paul Mason (at least I think this was the winery) commercials with Orson Wells saying the slogan "We will sell no wine, before its time." As corny as that sounds, I really find the integrity behind that statement important. When the time comes, I want to be known for the integrity of what I brew, not simply because I have a great marketing concept (we all know the breweries that have great marketing concepts).

Why do I need a title?

I picked up the stuff I need for the dunkelweizen today. (learning tip of the day) I have never used rice hulls before. One of the guys at Bell's general store suggested I soak them for a little bit first. It seems they tend to soak up a ton of liquor so with a presoak you won't lose as much of your brewing liquor when you go to sparge.

Did the first bottle testing for Hot Summer Night last night. Reactions were very good to it. I am quite pleased with this steam recipe so it will probably stick around. I am anxious to see how this one places in competition.

Back to the Dunkel. Based on availability I had to make some minor recipe changes. For the most part these shouldn't really affect too much. Mind you, I have never really been one for following other people's recipes in anything. I was debating on stepping out and using a California Common yeast strain instead of a hefeweizen strain. The advantage would be that this would give the beer more of a lagerish profile. I did end up going with the hefeweizen yeast strain instead. This will make the finished beer a bit more true to style, with clove and banana notes in the flavor profile.

The dunkel at this time is being brewed solely for personal enjoyment, but it will be bottled in entirety. This will give me the flexibility to use it for competition if I find another one some time soon after the W.E.B.

Somewhere in the near future I will be brewing a British mild ale. I think it will be nice to have a good session beer on tap instead of these larger beers I have had on lately. Even with the bitters I end up brewing. I tend to move toward ESBs instead of the lesser bitters and always end up with a brew that has a decent amount of alcohol in it. Nothing I can just drink and enjoy without over doing it.

I am also thinking of getting pics posted within these posts at some point as well. Will probably be a good thing to have some visual aids. And now I think with all that I am done for the evening.

Contemplation

I have been thinking lately about our need for excess. As a cook and a brewer I see it on a regular basis in both booze and food. By excess I do not mean over consumption, I am referring to our need to go to huge extremes in creation. Examples include IPAs that are so incredibly hoppy that its more a glass of hop flavor than anything even close to beer. Granted I love beers like Ruination Ale from Stone Brewing, but at the same time what ever happened to that perfect pint of well rounded beer. So often we try more to one up our competition that we forget what made great food and great beer well, great.

Or is it more that we try so hard to push away from the corporate greed motto of bland is best that we don't really know when to stop. Its a juxtaposition conundrum. We only know the extreme of super bland, that anyone can drink or super flavored that blows away the taste buds of lesser creatures. Where is the perfect median that truely defines style and flavor?

Planning ahead

While watching Big Bang Theory earlier I looked at my nightstand. The most recent issue of Brew was on the second shelf. Dunkelweizen happened to be one of the featured styles in this issue. Following the trend I have lately of maltier beers it seems appropriate to brew up a malty wheat beer to add to my stocks.

There is a good possibility that my kegs will still be full by the time this one is ready to bottle, so the entire batch will end up being bottled (course I decided a while ago that I prefer to solely bottle my wheats anyway).

In preperation for the W.E.B. (World Expo of Beer) home brew contest that is happening in early Febuary, my Ginger Mead is ready and delicious, the Steam beer I am pulling off the tap is fantastic, and the Irish Rye is now bottled and getting ready. Hopefully the Rye turns out great once it carbs up. I am not certain that leaving it in the Irish Red category is the right spot for it.

The sample I had of the Emo IPA when I went to secondary earlier today was quite tasty. It is possible that it might replace the Rye as a contest beer if I can't figure out the right placement before I need to drop off samples.

The Beginning

I have been thinking of setting up a blog for some time now. Until this time I have only been able to give limited info on facebook on the brews I am currently working on.

Today, I kegged and bottled the Irish Rye. I will also be taking the Emo IPA to secondary. So far I am keeping to a fairly decent schedule of brewing every two weeks. My next brew date will be next week. At that time I will keg and bottle the Emo. Right now I am not sure what I will brew at that time though.

I guess this is all I have for now.