Got the maibock batch bottled back on 3/18 that I had brewed two months prior. I was able to have it sit out in the garage damn near freezing for five weeks in February and early March before a freak heat wave hit Minnesota. Look how clear this is!
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Nordeast Brewers Alliance barrel-aging sour beer project
14 members of my homebrew club, the Nordeast Brewers Alliance (NBA) threw in some cash to be part of a sour beer barrel aging project, myself included. Originally we thought the money would go to purchasing the barrel, itself. We ended up finding one for free. It had been used by Town Hall Brewery for their Eye of the Storm honeywine this past winter and before that by (I believe) a vintner for a white wine, of what type I’m not sure.
The huge 60 gallon barrel is graciously living at Nick’s place in Northeast Minneapolis. Everyone is aiming to have their 5 gallons fermented around the time of our April club meeting (4/21), at which time we’ll syphon it all in along with the bacteria to do the souring over the course of the next year or so. Man, it felt weird to brew this beer this past weekend knowing I wouldn’t be drinking any of it for over a year. Normally I figure I drink or give away most of my output between two and nine months from brew day. This one will have to pay off in time. Here is what Nick bought to be split up between 14 guys: Read the rest of this page »
Brews in-progress
I’ve got two batches in progress right now. Four days after pitch, fermentation on my Golden Gate Retriever California Common has started to visibly slow down. Also, it’s been incredibly warm in Minnesota this week (we hit a high of something like 74* today where the record was 64*!!) so after sitting in in the garage at 38* for the last five weeks, I had to pull the Maibark Maibock batch inside last night (where it had reached nearly 60* Tuesday) and drop it down into the cellar where it’ll get no warmer than 55* until I can find time to bottle it.
Golden Gate Retriever California Common (L) and Maibark Maibock (R)
Golden Gate Retriever
I’ve been wanting to brew some lighter beers for the summer, notably because of the low-gravity beers competition my brew club will be having at our summer grill-out event. Coupling that motivation with the ambient temps currently in my basement (55-60*) for fermentation and my options are limited to a select few styles. Since I’d never tried my hand at a California Common or “Steam beer” before, I decided now was the time.
This beer will definitely qualify for the aforementioned competition. With an OG of just 1.045, it’ll be one of the lightest beer I’ve ever made. Even if it ferments way down below 1.010, it’ll still struggle to come in at more than 5%. This batch was the first time I tried a true batch sparge. I don’t think it changed my efficiency much for the worse and I ended up saving at least an hour on my brew day by employing this method instead of fly sparging.
My buddy Dave was over helping on this brew day and the one to name this batch. This is the first time someone besides myself or my wife has named a batch of Barking Dog beer. Great idea Dave! Here’s the recipe: Read the rest of this page »
2012 National Homebrew Competition entries
Just as I did a year ago, I’ve again entered some of my beers into the National Homebrew Competition. Minneapolis is fortunate this year to be the judging site for one of the nine regions in the U.S. Last year, I had to make sure my first round entries got to Madison, WI to be judged (and later shipped one that got first place at regionals to nationals to San Diego, CA). With the help from a member of the St. Paul Homebrewers Club, fortunately that wasn’t a problem. Easy peasy this year. Just need to drop them off at Northern Brewer.
This year, I’m entering my In the name of doG Belgian honey ale in category 16e (Belgian Specialty ale) and 18d (Belgian Strong ale) to see where it does best, also entering CUJO SPICE v2.1 pumpkin rye ale in category 21 (spice/herb/vegetabel beer) and Snot Snout Stout, my chocolate cherry stout in category 20 (fruit beer). This will be the first competition for Snot, the second for CUJO v2.1 and the third for doG. The feedback I’m getting in competition is very informative, so I’m trying to enter my favorite batches in multiple competitions to help me refine recipes before I re-brew.
From L to R: Snot Snout chocolate cherry stout, CUJO SPICE v2.1 pumpkin rye ale, In the name of doG Belgian honey ale (x2)
Upper Mississippi Mashout results – Pumpkin rye ale
Recently I published a post dissecting feedback I received on my Belgian honey ale at the Upper Mississippi Mashout homebrew competition. That was just one of the three beers I entered. In today’s post, I will go on to detail feedback I received on another entry, CUJO SPICE v. 2.1 pumpkin rye ale (brewed July ’11), BJCP category 21A, spice/herb/vegetable beer.
This pumpkin rye ale, the better batch of the two versions I brewed last summer, scored worse than I anticipated. I received a 27 from a BJCP “certified” judge and a 32 from a BJCP “national” judge. I can at least be glad I got the higher score from the judge with more experience. None the less, my score averages to just 29.5. Yes, I think some recipe tweaks are in order but I think this batch is quite tasty and that my execution was decent. It deserves to be in the 30’s. Since this was the first competition this beer has been in, I’ve entered it in the upcoming National Homebrew Competition (NHC) to get a few more opinions before I re-brew it this summer.
Here’s the feedback recap: Read the rest of this page »
Upper Mississippi Mashout results – Belgian golden honey ale
I recently entered three of my beers in the 2012 Upper Mississippi Mashout, which this year became the second largest homebrew competition in the world right behind the National Homebrew Competition.
Here, you can find the official 2012 Upper Mississippi Mashout competition results. In forthcoming posts, I will recap feedback my three entries received from the judges, one of whom was Gordon Strong, current President of the BJCP, the organization that publishes universally accepted beer style guidelines. This was very exciting. The President of the group that literally defines beer styles tasted one of my beers, and happened to think reasonably well of it! Very cool.
In today’s post, I’ll dissect feedback received on In the name of doG (brewed Feb. ’11), BJCP category 16E, Belgian Specialty Ale. Read the rest of this page »
Great beer pairings as of late
My wife recently made a really tasty recipe for pan-fried chicken and shallot cream sauce, garlic red potatoes and asparagus. It paired really well with the kölsch I made back in April. Damn has that beer ever cleared with time. Love it! I’ll definitely brew another kölsch this year. I like how it treads the line between the fruitiness of an ale and the clean malt profile of a lager.
The night before my wife went into labor, we hit up Sawatdee downtown on Washington Ave. in attempt to ingest some spicy curry and kick things into gear. Read the rest of this page »
Fitger's brew pub
During the week between Christmas and New Years, my wife and I were up at Lutsen with some friends. On the way back, we stopped for lunch at… where else but Fitger’s Brew Pub in Duluth. I’ve been to Fitger’s a few times before, but that was years ago before my beer obsession firmly took hold. Read the rest of this page »
Old Chub Clone Recipe
In a previous post, I paired the scotch ale I brewed back in November with two other scotch ales, Old Chub and Scottie Karate. Now that my batch has been bottled and had time to condition, it’s time to pair it off against Old Chub again to see what’s up.
Notes from the tasting (Old Chub on left, Alba Dog on right in these pictures):
- Alba Dog definitely has more body than Old Chub, more carmel notes coming through
- Old Chub is thinner, drier, actually more drinkable than Alba Dog though they’re both roughly 8% ABV. Alba Dog’s OG was 1.o84, meaning that Old Chub’s must be less than that yet almost certainly is fermented out further than the hefty 1.027 FG I was left with for Alba Dog (due I believe mainly to a high mash temp of 158*)
- The hop profile of Old Chub comes across much clearer than Alba Dog’s, especially as the samples begin to warm up towards room temperature. I think this has to do with the fact that I took the extra step of boiling a few gallons of the first runnings down in my 5 gallon brew pot
before adding to the brew kettle. That really lent a carmel flavor to the batch that seems to overpower most everything else. Read the rest of this page »