Welcome!

On the off chance that I get a new visitor, welcome!  It’s really great to see you after all this time.  Has it really been so long?!  Hard to believe… The things you and I have been through in the interim could fill several volumes.  I’m just glad you’re here, and doing well from what I can tell.

Anyhow, right now I have a Porter that’s ready to be bottled, and a Belgian Pale that’s just about ready for bottling, too.  I’m a bit unhappy with the Porter, though.  It look a long time to start fermenting, and never took off vigorously.  I wanted to get gravity down to about 1.014, but it’s around 1.019 now, so it’ll probably have a bit too much residual sweetness and maybe not as much boozeahol as I would have liked.  Still, I’m sure it’ll be fine.  I dub it Recuperation Porter, for reasons I shant divulge.

I recently bottled Mercy Me (Mesquite Raspberry Chipotle Melomel), and hoary crappah is that some tasty schmegma.  I should share it around, but it might be just too good for the plebes.

So next step is to determine my next brew, as well as when to cook it up.  Figuring about 6 weeks from brew to bottle, that would put me towards the end of March.  End of winter, beginning of spring.  What’s a good early spring drink?  Troegs Nugget Nectar clone would be good, otherwise a Belgian somethingorother.

eGADS!

Jeepers, it’s been a looooong time since I’ve written anything here.  Nearly two years, as a matter of fact!  So here’s a quick update.

I’m still brewing.  Thanks for asking!  Won a couple ribbons, so I guess that’s vaguely noteworthy.

Bottled a Saison last weekend.  Even though it’s only been a few days, I plan on drinking one tonight.  Looking forward to it.

Made a few meads in the interim.  I’ve got one in tertiary right now that I’m particularly excited about.

August 25, 2006

I stopped at Shoreline last night and picked up a few nice-to-haves.  First, they’ve never carried it before (that I’ve seen), but they had a few Chouffe selections on-hand.  I picked up the “Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel”, sort of a tripel married to an IPA that sounds intriguing.  Also picked up a Fantôme Saison D’Erezée – Hiver (their “winter” offering from their seasonal line… this must be close to a year old at least!) and a Reissdorf Kölsch.  Also drank the Fuller’s London Porter last night, which was exemplary.  Now I’ve never really reviewed a beer, so don’t expect me to wax prosaic along the lines of “pours a dense black liquid beneath a fluffy brown cloud” cause I didn’t take notes or anything, just drank it and enjoyed it.  A very nice porter, indeed.

August 22, 2006

Finally got around to bottling the Rye IPA the other night (Aug 20), and boy is that sucker bitter!  I’m hoping it’ll mellow out a bit over the next couple weeks.  I was lower on bottles than I thought, so I had to mix it up pretty much.  Used 8 22oz bombers, 14 of my older, heavier, nicer 12oz bottles, and the rest the newer, lighter, cheaper, not as nice 12ozers.  Oh, and it did drop a couple more points in the three week secondary, so finished at 1.020.  Target was 1.018, so it’s close but no cigar.  From a start of 1.074, that gives… 73% attenuation.

July 30, 2006

Racked the Rye IPA to secondary last night, on top of 1oz Columbus dry hops.  As with my previous IPA, I probably should have taken a gravity reading BEFORE the transfer.  From a start of 1.074, it’s currently at 1.022, where my target was 1.018.  As I’ve said before, I rarely have luck dropping any further in secondary, but we’ll see.

July 28, 2006

I may have cracked into my Weissbiers a bit early.  They have a rather tart flavor profile to them that I wasn’t intending.  It may be that they just need a bit longer conditioning time, and that I’m just too damn impatient.  It hasn’t even been two weeks since I bottled them.

The Altbier, on the other hand, is extremely tasty.  Nice and smooth with a significant maltiness and little to no hop aroma or bitterness.

July 27, 2006

I’ve been thinking of joining a homebrewing club here on Long Island, but I can’t seem to find good information on them.  I know there’s one that meets at the Blackforest Brewhaus, which isn’t too far from me, but my wife’s schedule prohibits my evening freedom (she does a lot of volunteer work).  I’ve also been thinking about starting my own club of sorts, either of brewers or people I think would enjoy it, or just as a beer appreciation thing.  I don’t have a lot of guy friends that I get together with often at all, and I think maybe I’d like to change that.

July 24, 2006

A bit of catch up. I bottled the Weissbier on July 16, using the Speise and the yeast dregs from the Blackforest Hefeweizen (decanting off the beer first). I’ve tried a couple bottles since then (one only three or four days later!), and it’s nicely carbonated (allaying my fears that the Blackforest dregs were nothing but trub or dead yeasties) and quite tasty. Very cloudy, though, if you pour the whole bottle, but then, that’s to style.

July 13, 2006

Took a gravity reading on the Weissbier.  It’s at 1.014 (with a target of 1.012, or maybe a bit lower), so I’ll give it another day or two to drop a couple-few points.  I also removed the blow-off tube and affixed an airlock.  Using the carboy brush to clean up the tube, I REALLY got it stuck, and it took me a good 20 minutes and a possible hernia to get it back out!!

July 8, 2006

Brewed up the Weissbier today.  Things went pretty well, though I think I came in a bit low on a couple of the step temperatures.  Also, the first runnings were very cloudy, but seemed to be grain-free.  The sparge was pretty sticky on the second runnings.  Note to self: use rice hulls next time (or when there is significant wheat in the grain bill… maybe rye too).  Hit the OG pretty much dead-on (measured 1.052 at about 90 degrees, which is 1.056 once temperature-corrected, and that was the target).  Fermentation started within a couple hours, and the blow-off tube was filled with gunk by the next morning.  Oh, and the yeast starter smelled just like the hefe from Blackforest.  Set aside two quarts of wort for the Speise.