405 replies to this topic

[DoctorShumway]

Hopefully now that my wife has a job I can start brewing again. Sucks to not have anything going right now.

[Colin]

I can't remember the last time I posted in this thread and I don't feel like looking it up, but here's a brief Colin brewing history:

Summer 05 - Chimay Red clone. I was a little sloppy with the deatils (fermented in 5 gallon carboy with no straining, no bowoff tube, and no secondary fermentation, fermented at high summer temps) but somehow it came out well. More like an Ommegang than a Chimay. Tasty and potent.

mid-late Summer 05 - A Belgian Blonde that I think was called "Double Engheim" or something. Much more hoppy than the Chimay. It was decent. Most of it was consumed at a party I had in September.

August 05 - Sam Adams Summer Ale clone. This was brewed for and almost entirely consumed at that same party in September.

September 05 - Cherry stout from a Papazian recipe. The recipe called for several pounds of fresh cherries, which are both expensive and out of season, so I used a bottle of cherry extract when I bottled. The stout is nice and thick and smooth and the cherry flavor is subtle enough that nobody has guessed what it is. It's more like a coffee type flavor. I still have quite a bit of this left. I think I bottled a bit early on this one because many of the bottles are gushers.

November 05 - Holiday ale from a Papzian recipe. This is a fairly straightforward American Ale, but with ginger, cinnamon, and orange added at the end of the boil. It's been in bottles for a little over 2 weeks and tastes pretty good. I've barely consumed any of this so far.

December 05 - La Fin Du Monde clone. You know it, you love it, I brewed it. Unfortunately I forgot to read the fine print, which calls for 6 weeks of secondary fermentation at 55 degrees and 8 weeks of bottle conditioning. It's currently hanging out in my 50 degree basement.

December 30, 2005 - Metheglin Mead. I had a kit to make a gallon of mead and Sherv and I whipped it up on Friday. It's actively fermenting in my closet. It should be great for next winter.

These have all been extract brews so far. We're planning the big switch to all grain, hopefully this weekend.

Anyone else been brewing?

[DoctorShumway]

Fuck. I want to brew so bad. I have to pay off $1000 in debt before the end of the month, so I'm guessing it's not going to happen soon enough. Fuck you christmas. Fuck you and the reindeer you rode in on.

[Shervz0r]

This weekend I hope to do an all-grain with Colin. Not sure what yet, although I have 55 pounds of American Pale Malt that I just gotta use!

I think I'll also bottle the Tripel...

[DoctorShumway]

I figured it out. I'm going to take all the St. Pauli Girl I got for christmas and put it into my homebrew bottles. Then I'm going to knock myself out. When I come to I'll think that I brewed it and give myself high fives all day.

[Colin]

Well Sherv and I did our first all-grain batch on Sunday. We finally got the last few pieces we needed and assmbled the mash tun and wort chiller. Everything went pretty well. The only issue is that the final volume that hit the fermenter is well under 5 gallons. I'm not sure where we lost the volume, but I suspect that 6.75 gallons just isn't enough to start with given how much water gets retained by the grains, evaportated off in boiling for 90 minutes, compressed down when chilled from 212 to 65, and spilled because 5 gallons in a kettle is fucking hard to pour out ( ). Nonetheless, that's what the recipe called for and we followed it. It's now bubbling like a motherfucker in primary. It should be ready for our Phx trip.

Oh, the recipe was for Rogue XS Smoke Ale. Neither of us has ever tried it, but it looked simple, tasty, and it used some of the pale malt that Sherv has in surplus.

[DoctorShumway]

I need to brew soon. I need to brew soon really, really bad.

[DoctorShumway]

So, brew! And brew really, really good.

Oh yes no doubt. There will be no risky attempts at a pumpkin ale this time around.

[Shervz0r]

That pumpkin was delicious John...mmmm

I can't believe we forgot to give you our brews when we were in PHX...too much going on at once. At least I THINK we forgot...I can't remember anymore


i need abeer

[Colin]

We left homebrews at AB's place and asked him to share if possible. There were 2 bottles of Sherv's trippel, 2 bottles of my Fin clone (which I still haven't tasted and should be just about be reaching the recommended bottle conditioning time), and 2 bottles of the all-grain smoked ale (see a few posts up). If you stay on Aaron you just might get a sample, assuming he hasn't consumed them all yet.

Nick, give us a weekend day you can come in and it's on.

[aaronburke]

i still have one of each, so i can deliver those
to john at practice tonite.

[DoctorShumway]

Let's do it the weekend after next. Next weekend I'm not going to be around and this weekend my beer money goes to putting a second car on the road.

Now to find the perfect recipe....