Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Good News and Bad News

Well so far the only bad thing I've heard about the Vanilla Porter and Bourbon Vanilla Porter is that they are over carbonated. That I can live with. I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that I used regular sugar instead of the corn sugar I used on all my other batches. Some like the plain vanilla one better, some liked the bourbon one better but they all liked them both. This is one recipe I will make again and hopefully it will improve every time.

The bad news is that my Imperial Stout flopped. It didn't carbonate at all and I had to throw it all out. The only thing I can think of is that when I boiled the sugar in water to dissolve it I didn't cool it down enough before I added it to the batch and it killed all the yeast.

My next batch is going to be a Barleywine. Keep you updated on how it turns out. Email or message me on FB if you want some of the beers I've been talking about or that I have coming up and I will try to save some for you.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Brew

I bottled the Vanilla Porter and Bourbon Vanilla Porter. Smelled very strong so I hope they turn out OK. Two more weeks until I can pop one of those open so I'll let you know.

Since summer is coming up soon, I decided to try and brew some hard lemonades and such. I looked online for some recipes and decided to try some smaller batches. I bought three Carlo Rossi 4L wine jugs, chucked the wine and brewed three one gallon batches. I'll have one hard lemonade, one hard pink lemonade, and one hard orange(ade). Should end up with around 5-6% alcohol. Sounds good to me! I also think I want to freeze some into hard lemonade pops for hot summer days....

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Bottling

Ok, well the gravity isn't exactly where I want it to be on my Vanilla Porter but it will have to do. I really want this thing off my kitchen counter and into some bottles. Still have to wait another few weeks until it is drinkable.

I'll check my Old Rasputin clone tomorrow to see where it's at. I may be bottling two beers tomorrow!

Keep you guys posted!

Monday, March 7, 2011

(Bourbon) Vanilla Bean Porter

Brewed a new batch of brew!! Per Jeff's request I found a recipe for a Vanilla Bean Porter. This one has a bit of a twist as they add bourbon too which sounds amazing! Made up a 5 gallon batch and will bottle half, then add the bourbon and bottle the other half. I'll let you all know how it turns out and I'm sure some of you will be trying it :)

Recipe:

9.0# Light Liquid Malt Extract
1.5# Munich Malt
1.0# Caramel 120L
0.5# Caramel 40L
1.0# Pale Chocolate Malt

1.0 OZ Magnum (60 min)
0.5 OZ E.K. Golding (10 min)

American Ale Yeast

Vanilla Bean (Secondary)
Bourbon (Just before bottling)

Measured OG 1.082 giving me a potential % alcohol 8-9%! Whoohoo!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Tour of the Brewery

Here are some pictures of my brewery and bottling line in action! (aka my closet and kitchen counter)





My Fermentation Room:



Storage Room and Carbonation Room:



Some Brews Bottle Conditioning:



One of my Assistant Brewers, Ringo!



Bottling Line:



Bottling at work!



Capping Machine:


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Links

Here are a few of my favorite homebrewing related links:

http://www.homebrewing.com/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/
http://www.homebrewing.org/
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/
http://hopville.com/

Welcome!!

I started homebrewing around April 2010 in my last year as an undergrad. My operation has expanded a bit but I am still limited in my space so far and haven't ventured into all grain yet. Once I get a house I will construct my brewing sculpture.

I will be posting news and other updates about my brewing here so if you want to keep up to date check back every now and again!!