Been a while...exciting updates!

I will categorize my updates into categories for easy reading :)

Longshot Contest Entry:
My specialty beer, an all-original recipe brewed last night, is fermenting away in the carboy. I am very excited about the recipe, which I will of course not share it its entirety, but which is something along the lines of a Thai-spice coconut honey ale. Awesome, right? Yeah, you know it. I did a partial mash for this brew, which is a stepping stone for all grain brewing (meaning no malt extract, just malt from which one creates one's own extract). So, I used a manageable amount of malted grains and a much smaller amount of malt extract in this brew. This will make the brew even more "homemade" and make it taste even better and more refined. I ended up hitting my Original Gravity (OG) on the nose, so I know that I didn't screw anything up. After mashing in, I started the normal boiling process as usual, enhancing the beer with coconut, honey, and Thai spices including (but not limited to) basil and hot pepper. Mmmm did this stuff smell delicious. I used cascade hops to add a citrusy character akin to the lime accents that one often tastes in Thai food. I used a White Labs California Ale yeast culture for this one, just to pay a little more homage to the Pacific. After smelling this and tasting the unfermented wort, I think (hope) this will really be a winner! My only minor concern is with the temperature here in Andover, which seems to be fluctuating a lot but staying within range. I also took much longer to cool the wort this time because the boil volume was greater, so I definitely need to invest in a chiller. I think all of this will still be fine, as long as fermentation doesn't stop prematurely. The beer seems to be kraeusening just fine. I also NEED A CLEVER NAME FOR THE BREW, so I'm open to ideas.

Pictures from brewing:


Spent grains (left) and boiling wort (right)

Mmmm...Thai...

Hop Growing:
I now have three plants of Kent Goldings Hops and two of Cascade hops in my possession, thanks to a great afternoon with horticulturist and fellow homebrew enthusiast Peter Konjoian. On Saturday, I will prepare the patch of my yard for growing and make a trip to the Home Depot for trellis supplies. I plan on doing a tent-pole trellis, which should be very effective. It will definitely be a great construction project for Saturday. If anyone else wants to help me with edging, tearing up sod, digging holes, burying poles, doing geometry, and tensioning guy lines, you are more than welcome to join me in a fun and rewarding day. Currently, Peter's hops are almost all ready to put in the ground, and mine are still about ten days to two weeks away. His plants look beautiful, and mine are just today showing signs of sprouting. Hopefully some good weather will bring these babies out. Peter's have even grown since I brought them home on Sunday...that bodes well. Here's a photo of my beautiful flora, still in pots:


I promise to post trellis pictures this weekend.

-Your favorite homebrewdude

Hop Planting Day!

Today was a wonderfully exciting day in brewing progress for me! I made a visit to a new (new to me, anyway) homebrewing store in Woburn and stocked up on ingredients for my recipe that I plan to enter into the Sam Adams Longshot competition...more to come on that soon. I was pleased to see the selection at this place. They seem to have lots of stuff, especially in the equipment department. They have loads of ingredients and seem to be slightly more all-grain friendly than Jasper's but didn't necessarily have the yeast selection that I would prefer. It was definitely acceptable, but Jasper's is definitely much better, particularly in their Wyeast selection. Nonetheless, I modified my original and picked up a White Labs California Ale culture, which I think will go very well with my current plan for a "Pacific" Ale (I'll explain my methodology on the name and style later). Once again, the people that owned the store were wonderfully helpful and friendly, and I will definitely be back.

After my trip to Beer & Wine Hobby, I ventured to the hardware store for some pots and hyper-nutritious soil with which to get my hop rhizomes started growing. Once they have developed their root systems and I have fully planned and plotted my hop garden and trellis system for the vines, I will transplant them into the ground. This Saturday, I am meeting up with Peter to discuss hop growing and see his own system. Can't wait for all of this to happen! It is really very exciting.

A sad bit of news came today when I visited a restaurant that has no tap system and therefore goes through bottles extensively to inquire as to whether they would be willing to sell me some of their bottles. The manager who dealt with me was REALLY weird about it and had no good explanation to offer me other than that they had a contract with the recycling company. Would the recycling company realize it if this week, the restaurant had a couple dozen fewer bottles? Methinks not. Whatever, they're assholes, and it's more incentive for me to go draught with my homebrew sometime this summer. I'm trying to think positively. Meanwhile, everyone should SEND ME BROWN BOTTLES WITH PAPER LABELS THAT DON'T HAVE SCREW CAPS!!!

Love,
The Ever-Obsessed Brewer

Birthday Wit!

The witbier is done, and it is just fabulous. The result of my efforts was an amazingly refreshing, flavorful brew. The color is a gorgeous wheat gold, and the mouthfeel is just wonderful. Thanks to some oatmeal in the grist, a somewhat unconventional ingredient in witbiers, the beer has nice head retention, excellent lacing, and a creamy yet crisply dry and refreshing mouthfeel. The carbonation is wonderful, for the beer is wholly effervescent but the bubbles are finer and incredibly pleasant. As for flavor, this guy is delish. It carries all of the usual notes of a witbier, a nice subtle fruity profile with clove and banana esters complimented by coriander and fresh citrus. The ginger added more depth to the flavor, with a dry, unsweetened ginger ale-like finish. So, while this beer is definitely totally within the conventions of witbiers, it offers lots of interest to the palate, much of which is reminiscent of more complex Belgian-style ales. The particular strain of Wyeast that I used for the recipe may have something to do with this as well, as it is often used for Belgian specialty ales. I am so proud right now, for this is my FIRST ORIGINAL RECIPE. Come by and taste some, and if you don't catch it now, it is VERY likely that I will be brewing it again this summer.

As for a couple of other quick updates, the lager has now been cold conditioning for about 3 weeks, and I feel I might need to do something about that. I need only to acquire some more bottles and get that thing carbonated and ready for drinking. It will certainly be refreshing and offer an option to those who care more about carbs than they do about living life...but I digest. Right now, my next adventure is to develop a recipe for the Sam Adams Longshot competition. The category for is specialty beers, so I will really be able to get those creative juices flowing! More to come on that soon...I keep that contest in mind as I look forward to my next trip to the homebrew store. It's going to be about time to make the trip soon! I already have a shopping list going for it. Perhaps I will venture there tomorrow, since I am off work :)

Prost. Sunny's Ginger Wit (aka Jeff's Birthday Wit) ftw.