Begin Brewing!

Back in late December, I made the first version of a beer intended to be handed out as a favor to guests at my step-son's wedding. That beer was loosely based on a New England IPA recipe I'd found, but the hops were all swapped out for those with a decidedly citrus flavor. The resulting beer turned out more like a traditional American IPA than a New England style IPA (NEIPA). The American Homebrewers Association posted a recipe for WeldWerks Brewing's Juicy Bits NEIPA that sounded much more like what I was looking for. WeldWerks uses a blend of Citra, El Dorado, and Mosaic hops. With Mosaic often used interchangeably with Citra, I decided to remove Mosaic from the equation to keep things simpler. I also decided to drop El Dorado during the boil and go with an El Dorado hop extract in the dry hop phase.  Why only use Citra? Aside from the simplicity of eliminating one hop from the ingredient list, Kegerator.com describes Citra as " The Most Citrusy Aroma Hop in the ...

Last year, I made an Irish Red Ale recipe of my own . Although it turned out fairly well and only a couple of bottles remain, when I saw Gordon Strong's Irish Red Ale recipe, I decided I'd like to try it to see how it compared with mine. I adjusted the recipe for a smaller volume batch and the efficiency of my brewing system, which results in the recipe you see here. Ingredients 2 pounds and 6 ounces of 2-row Pale Malt (Briess) 1 pound of Vienna Malt (Weyermann, I think) 8 ounces Flaked Corn 6 ounces Caramel 40L 2 ounces Roasted Barley 2 ounces Carapils/Dextrine Malt 4 handfuls of Rice Hulls in the mash 0.38 ounces East Kent Goldings hops @ 6.1% AA (60 min.) 0.13 ounces East Kent Goldings hops @ 6.1% AA (10 min.) 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the mash 1.5 tsp. pH 5.2 Stabilizer in the mash 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the boil (15 min.) 1/8 tsp. Yeast Nutrient (15 min.) 1/8 tsp. Super Irish Moss (10 min.) 2.4 gallons of Mash Water 2.0 gallons of Sparge Water BeerSmith 3....

The finished beer, one week after bottling The English Dark Mild Ale is a style I first encountered several years ago at The Winking Lizard location on Bethel Road, a location that sadly is no longer open. The one I tried back then was Cain's Dark Mild, and I found it a very enjoyable beer. In 2018, I made my first attempt to brew the style. I thought it turned out well, but wanted to try again. Jamil Zainasheff's book Brewing Classic Styles  contained a recipe for a Dark Mild Ale named "Through a Mild Darkly" that was similar to my 2018 recipe but different enough that I decided to try brewing it. My first attempt was a failure, caused by an oversight on my part that resulted in the wort being ruined and discarded. Today's attempt was more successful. Ingredients 3 pounds, 14 ounces of a mix of Simpsons Golden Promise, Swaen Pale Ale, and Rahr 2-row malts 4 ounces British Medium Crystal Malt 3 ounces Crystal 120L 2 ounces Pale Chocolate Malt 1 ounc...

I have long been a fan of the more malt-forward styles of beer, and the Scottish 80 Shilling Ale (also known as the Scottish Export Ale) is no exception. The roasty and toasty, caramel, and dark fruit flavors of the malt combine with just enough hop bitterness to bring the beer to a perfect balance. The 80 Shilling is a stronger version of the Export Ale, meant to have enough alcohol to stand transatlantic voyages. I've made three Scottish Ale versions before this. The first version fared poorly in competition, scoring an average of 27 out of 50. The second , to me, was much better. The judges disagreed, scoring it 25.5. The third never made it to competition, so I don't know how it would have scored. To me, it was the best of the three. This, the fourth version, is actually a recipe from Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer's book Brewing Classic Styles . The recipe in the book scales between a 60, 70, or 80 Shilling Ale. According to the authors, the difference betwee...

The only lager I've ever  brewed was a Ttopical Stout. Despite my best efforts with that one, it didn't do that well in competition. Judges noted yeasty notes they did not like, despite the beer never getting above the yeast's optimum temperature range. I suspect that was due to pitching only a single packet of dry lager yeast and not a large starter. I decided to start 2019 by brewing another lager, a traditional German style Pilsner. This time I'll be pitching both a 1 liter starter and some dry yeast, plus plenty of yeast nutrient to ensure a healthy yeast population. I'll also be using a good quality temperature control system to ensure a consistent temperature, Ingredients 10 pounds Swaen Pilsner Malt (the closest I had to German Pilsner) 1 pound Briess Pilsner Malt 4 ounces Cara-pils/Dextrine Malt 0.5 ounces Magnum hops @ 12.6% AA (60 min.) 0,5 ounces Hallertau hops @ 4.5% AA (10 min.) 1.0 ounces Hallertau hops @ 2.5% AA (4 min.) 1/2 tsp. Yeast Nu...

Last year , I took the time at the start of the year to review my homebrewing experiences for the prior year and reflect on what I'd like to accomplish in 2018. What Did I Accomplish in 2018? I brewed almost 50 batches of beer in 2017 (48 to be precise). That's up from 36 batches in 2017, 17 batches in 2016, and 15 batches in 2015. That's well above the supposed average of 8.3 batches per year of the hypothetical "average" homebrewer according to the AHA. I brewed approximately 25 different BJCP styles during the year, including the Tropical Stout, Belgian Single/Dubbel/Tripel/Quad, Saison, Pale Ale, IPA, Scottish 80 Shilling, ESB, Blonde Ale, Australian Sparkling, Irish Red, Cream Ale, English Brown, Dark Mild, Pumpkin Ale, and others. I entered three competitions: Rhinegeist, the Ohio State Fair, and Barley's Ale House. I didn't place at Rhinegeist. At the State Fair, I took home a fourth place ribbon for a Belgian Tripel. At Barley's ...

The finished beer - look at the carbonation! A few months ago, I placed an online order for two batches of grain. One was for an English Dark Mild Ale, the other for a Bohemian Pilsner. As it turned out, I screwed up the order and ended up with a bag of mixed German and Belgian grains. After pondering what to do about this, I decided to try turning the mix into a Trappist Dubbel. The color and malt combination wasn't too far off. I added Munich malt to sweeten it a bit, Special B to add raisin/prune/plum flavors, plus Melany (Melanoidin) and Cara-Pils for head retention. Since I had some dark candi sugar rocks I wanted to use up, I included those. I also included some chopped golden raisins and prunes to (I hoped) help punch up the dark fruit flavor - something that's been sorely lacking in my previous Dubbels. I'm not sure this will be a true Dubbel in terms of its specifications, but I'm hopeful it will still turn out to be a tasty brew. Ingredients 4.75 ...