...and the going. Wow.

Snow on our Yuengling keg post-Halloween party

Well my lovely SMaSH bitter kicked SUPER fast, thanks to the help of a few friends.  It really was quite good, definitely something I can see brewing (or doing a variation of) lots more.  I would do it again in its purest form when the weather is warm, just because it was so delicate, floral and thirst-quenching.  I'm pretty sure I'd want some crystal and munich in the mix for my ideal, on-tap-all-the-time beer, just to add the malty depth.  NOT that Maris Otter didn't stand up really nicely, but hey, brewing is a wonderful art that is all about fine tuning...and hey, that's me.  I like a little malt with my hops.

The coming and going of this batch made me aware of a few things (several that I had already anticipated, really).  First, I need to be brewing more often.  I knew that already...I was just without my car for so long that I fell behind.  After coming weekend's performance of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem in Philly, I'll def have some more time to brew again, particularly on Saturdays.  Also, I may really have to expand my keg system.  I've been tempted to upgrade to a two-tap tower for a while now, but the crazy thing is that, after doing a little research, I figured out that if I started from scratch and crafted my own four-tap kegerator (which was really my ultimate kegging goal and would be my ideal situation), it would actually be LESS expensive than switching to a two-tap on my existing kegerator...and I could do it gradually as I had the funds available.  Now I've really gotten an idea of my upcoming batches of brew, so here's what things are looking like:

1. Experimental smoked, malty English brown ale with one gallon of it (and maybe the whole thing) racked onto some smoky chipotle peppers

2. My own spin on a classic Steam (California Common) beer.

3. A classic, roasty historical porter recipe from 1839...from the historical archives of the town of Westminster!  Westminster porter ftw.

4. Opening the English and Belgian Christmas ales in about a month!  Aww yeah!

Whew!  Lots of good stuff.  It should be an exciting time of growth for the Rebel Opus Brewery.

The coming of Adams

So happy to have my keg system back!

And no, this isn't Sam Adams we're talking about here, it's my long-anticipated first Princeton batch of homebrew, a SMaSH Yorkshire bitter made with Maris Otter malt and Willamette hops.  Last week after cleaning and sanitizing my kegs and tap system, I finally got the beer flowing here at Yorkshire Meadows.  Even got to test it out on some friends, who officially praised it as "a great EPA"...will unleash it on a few more this weekend at the Gervin Manor Halloween extravaganza.

Here's the basic rundown so those tasting it--or those who might not get to--know what to expect from it.  As you can see from the picture, it is a nice golden beer with a brilliant white head that is rather thick and frothy.  Head dissipates into a ring of foam but leaves some de-lovely lacing.  Aroma is lovely Willamette hops...but I wish it were a little bit stronger...oh well, we'll do some dry/keg hops next time.  Flavor is earthy and floral, with the Willamette hops dominating a lot of the profile.  I really like their character; it's like if hops of the delicious East Kent Golding variety had just a touch of that American Northwest pine/citrus hop flavor and aroma, which is really quite nice.  Hop flavor gives way to a nice biscuity malt flavor that comes only from Maris Otter, no specialty malts.  Yeast profile is damn near perfect and leaves a nice residual sweetness that balances out the hop bitterness very well.  At just around 4% ABV, this is a great session beer, too.  Easy drinking for sure.  Anyway, that was just a quick rundown...I'll post a real review sometime in the near future, near because I don't see this batch lasting long.

Stairs make for great gravitational siphoning into kegs!

Back in the game!

This weekend, with my car getting fixed and WCC having a day off on Monday, I was finally able to go home to Andover, MA and get my kegerator and C02 stuff, along with my kegs.  This means that I finally get to drink up my first Princeton batch of beer, the Maris Otter/Willamette SMaSH bitter that I brewed way back in late August/early September.  It tastes great, and I originally wanted to naturally carbonate it with some malt extract for some semblance of "real ale" authenticity, but I really want to start drinking this guy now, so I'm probably going to force carbonate it.  Depending on how I like the flavor, I may throw in a bag of whole keg hops for a little English hop freshness (gotta stick with Willamette to keep this beer Single Malt and Single Hop!).  I can't wait to finally be drinking this stuff, though.  I'll probably keg it tomorrow and that will put it ready to drink this weekend!

Since I finally have my lovely car back, I'll be brewing at a much higher rate again.  I'm really liking the idea of an amber-pumpkin-spice-autumnal-Franco-Belgian-saison-thing...so that's probably what I'll go for next.  It'll be a great cold weather/Thanksgiving/etc beer!  Stay tuned!

"Adams" - (SMaSH) Yorkshire English bitter

As I sit here this evening, sipping on a Fuller's London Pride for inspiration, I reflect upon a wonderful brewday, one that will be the first of many for me here in Princeton, NJ.  Today, for my first brew up here, I decided to brew an English bitter that toes the line of ordinary bitter and best bitter--a perfect session ale for early fall.  I decided to do an interesting twist to it, one that is quite in vogue for the brewing world right now; SingleMaltandSingleHop, meaning one base malt, no specialty malts, and only one hop variety.  For the base malt I chose Maris Otter, the golden standard of base malts for British beers and my favourite base malt ever since I started brewing all-grain beers.  It has an amazing depth of flavor and I think it will do this ale loads of justice.  For the hop variety, I was conflicted for a while.  I considered East Kent Goldings because I love their character, but I realized that I had rather recently brewed a beer using solely East Kent Goldings (Belgian Table Beer), so my thoughts turned elsewhere.  After considering Styrian Goldings, Fuggles, and Willamette, I settled on the latter.  They have a wonderful aroma and flavour, are made in America and are easily and widely available, often for a slightly lower price than other hop varieties.  When I opened up the packages of hops today, I was not disappointed; the aroma was extraordinary.  Here's my recipe for today:

Batch size: 5 gallons
Anticipated OG: 1.046
Anticipated IBU: 35
Anticipated SRM: 5.3°L
Anticipated ABV: 4.1%

8 lbs Maris Otter

1 oz. Willamette (Pellets, 4.6% AA) @60 min
1 oz. Willamette @30 min
1 oz. Willamette @ 10 min
1 oz. Willamette @0 min

Wyeast 1968 London ESB (supposed to be a wonderful strain, perfect for bitters)

I am really excited about this one.  It will be the first homebrew that my new cohorts here in Princeton will get to taste, and it will be served off the faucet of my kegerator.  I am also going to naturally (rather than force) carbonate it, to give it that extra layer of English "real ale" authenticity.  This batch will be both a throwback to my first batch and a step forward with regards to experimentation with beers, so it will certainly be one for the books.

Until next time, cheers!