the cursed belgian is dead

So yesterday I had to dump the dubbel down the drain because after two weeks in the secondary there was a layer of mold across the top of it. It was doomed from the get go. I would have felt worse had nothing gone wrong during the brewing process but because all the stuff that could go wrong did, it wasn't a very big deal to dump it. We'll give it a try again some day, but for now, I'm going to stick to American and British style ales.

In the bottle- Long Pull- British Brown

Steam Boat - Cal Common

Bitter Beer Face - German Pils

Primary- I Am Hefe - American Wheat (it's on day 8 in the primary and still bubbling away, maybe the OG was higher than my initial thought of 1.050)

Next Brewday - Probably RyePA

Tasting notes

Anderson Valley Brewing Brother David's Tripel- not really a fan. I have had plenty of belgian style ales that I like, a lot. Ommegang brewery's dubbel, Russian River Brewing's Damnation. And most of the stuff Anderson Valley puts out I like. Their Hop Ottin IPA is one of my favorites, and most potent. The Tripel just didn't do it for me. Oh well.

Pilsner is tasty

It's been about ten days since the Pils was bottled and I got the all important "psssshhh" when I opened it. It's tasty, young, but tasty. It's a German pils so it has a little more bite than a Czech one. It's nice and dry and has some licorice on the back end. All in all worth the wait

Yo soy el jefe

I Am Hefe went over well last night. I have it in the primary with a blowoff tube right now. I totally screwed up and forgot to take a gravity reading, but I'm gonna assume that it was around 1.050. I ended up with a little over 3 gallons after the boil and I topped the primary up to about 5.5 gallons. This was totally a simple recipe and if it tastes good I'm doing it again this summer to have a nice session quencher

Saturday=Brewturday

The day is almost here. I can smell the malts and hops. Mainly because they are sitting in my dining room about 25 feet away from me. I am going to be brewing an American wheat that is going to be called I Am Hefe. It seems like a simple enough recipe with some very mild hop additions. They also said to use a blowoff tube which will make this two in a row for it. My goal for the new year was to keep a beer in the primary and one in the secondary with one bottled. After Saturday I will have three beers in the bottle (with two drinkable), the dubbel in the secondary and a wheat in the primary. Things are looking good. This is also going to be, hopefully, the first of many Guild meetings.

It's Tuesday which means it's a short work week which means I'm that much closer to my brew day on Saturday. I'm still torn between a Rye P.A. and some kind of wheat beer. Being from the fine city of San Francisco, a winter "warmer" beer is not really necessary. Especially since it was almost 70˚ yesterday. I'm thinking that after this session I'm going to try my hand at a porter or stout of some kind.

Put down the swill people. Spend the extra two bucks on a tasty six pack. Try something new

Pilsner is bottled

My pilsner is bottled and should be ready to drink in about two to three weeks. The tasting out of the gravity sampler was promising. Hopefully it is good so I can keep making lagers and pilsners. It is gonna be around a 5% abv with about 48 ibu. The color is a really crisp orangish yellow. SF Brewcraft people are extremely helpful and they thankfully let me know about diacytel rest which I hope I did enough of. This is the step that gets a lot of the buttery flavors out of your lager when you bring the beer fermenting back up to closer to room temp for a day or two to get the yeast working hard again. After this you transfer to your secondary fermenter and lager for about a month and a half at 38˚ F. I followed all these steps so it should turn out tasting like a pilsner but only time will tell.

So I kind of decided to do a redux of my first beer in my next brewing session but I'm thinking I might try a wheat beer this time around so that I can see if I like it and redo that for summer consumption. I have a week to decide.

Bottle day

Bottling my pilsner today. Another two weeks or so to wait. Hopefully it's worth it.

Mmmm....rueben sandwich

So I think I have my next brew figured out. I like the idea of tweaking older brews so I'm gonna make my first one again, a west coast IPA, only this time it's going to be a dry hopped ryePA. Should be tasty

My brews

This weekend I bottle my first dive into the land of lagers, a German Pilsner to be exact. Hopefully the wait will be worth it. It's been about 6 and a half weeks since I brewed it. I also have my cursed dubbel in the secondary. My EPA, English Pub Ale, which I am calling Long Pull, is delicious and completely ready to drink in 22's.

My buddy and I are going to brew next weekend, he will be doing a dunkel while I have yet to figure out what I want to do. We shall see

Til next time

Cursed Belgian

So my dubbel seems to be cursed. I was emptying the sanitizer out of my carboy and I dropped the thing onto the cement outside. SMASH... MOTHERFUCKER!!! I don't know what was louder, the glass breaking or me yelling. So I had to wait another day to transfer the cursed belgian. Yesterday I went to transfer the beer and I have my primary up on a stool, I take the airlock out of it and turn to put it in some water and I hear a sliding noise and then BAM. My primary fermenter had flipped over and onto the ground. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. Luckily only about a pint spilled. It is now transferred but what fate awaits it now?

Tasting notes

Pliny the Elder by Russian River Brewing Company- Fruity, hoppy aroma. Definitely some grapefruit taste, and the hops are more weed like than I have ever tasted in an IPA. Awesome brew that finishes clean and is way too easy to drink for an 8% beer

Belgian Dip

"I know... it's called a Belgian dip"

My first foray into Belgian beer was with a Dubbel. The recipe was from the dude at Brewcraft. It was also my first time doing an actual partial mash. I got freaked out right after I racked the wort because Griz, at Brewcraft, told me to pitch the yeast at 95 degrees. So I did, but no action for 28 hrs. I thought that with all the extra sugars to raise the gravity I would get a vigorous start. It has started though and this is also my first time using a blowoff tube. Maybe I should try to tie in the whole concept of firsts into naming this beer. What do you think?

The OG was 1.070 and I'm aiming at a 1.020-015 FG which would give me a 7% beer. The IBU's for this one are right around 75. It's in the primary going crazy right now, in about 5 days I will rack it to the secondary then 16 days later bottle it. After a nice cozy 2-3 months in the bottle, I will taste it. In the mean time and between time, I will be brewing more. Maybe another IPA? Maybe an amber? Who knows?

Until next time