Brewing recap, one day late. Just shut up already.
Yes, yes, we know. You’ve been sitting at your computer for 48 hours now, wondering how brewing went Monday. “Were they close to their final gravity?” Yes. 1.068 on a targeted 1.069. “Did anything get blown up?” Yes. The last shred of our respect for Joel, who didn’t show up due to a little itty bitty flu bug. That should answer your major questions, so go ahead and get some food and take a shower.
We had some new people this week, so Jeff felt obligated to give the tour. If this whole brewery thing doesn’t pan out, I’m fairly confident he could find a job in the tour-giving field. He can even walk backwards while talking. AND drinking.
We’re excited about this beer, a red ale fashioned after the Highland Gaelic Ale. In a few weeks we’ll have a better idea of how it will be, but first indications are good.
Since this recap is a day late (and maybe even a dollar short), we feel compelled to wish you a safe and happy New Year! Whatever you do, make sure that good beer is in some way involved. And get better Joel. There, we said it.
We’re brewing, with or without Joel
Yes, after taking no days off for the holidays, we’re back at it. This week we’re going to play around a little bit with a new beer ? something similar to the Highland Gaelic Ale. This beer is one of Jeff’s all-time favorites. In fact, if you’re ever looking for a boring, one-sided conversation with Jeff, in which you have to do literally no work, just bring up the Gaelic Ale.
Joel “I’m sick all the time but only on Mondays” Iverson will probably not be joining us tonight. Keeping your sniffles under control and whining about not having enough quilts is a full-time job.
We have IPA and milk stout on tap ? and feel free to come a little earlier than usual, as we will probably wrap up a little earlier as well. Let’s say 7pm? Sound good?
Ok, BREAK!
It’s a well-known fact that smiling can postpone frostbite
Last night was definitely the coldest weather we’ve brewed in. Cleaning was particularly problematic, as our implements started to freeze as we were scrubbing them. (That’s what she said.) I don’t remember what I actually said last night, but I do remember my internal monologue: “Dear God Dear God Dear God.” And I also remember resorting to wearing Hannah’s small girly mittens.
Surprisingly we had around 20 people last night, hanging out in below freezing weather. Which means one of two things:
- We’re doing something right
- We have really stupid supporters
The brewing itself went well. The only hiccup was the cooling process, which took awhile since we weren’t able to use the immersion chiller due to frozen hoses. I would like to show off Joel’s new sparging system. It didn’t fit so nicely over our mashing setup, so Joel went MacGyver on us and bought a bunch of elbow joints. We still have a little bit of work to do on the top to prevent the hose from kinking. For now we threaded it through the hole in an adjustable wrench, which was clamped on to the sparge arm. I doubt even the great MacGyver could have come up with THAT solution.
Look out for the bourbon oak stout in 4-5 weeks. We’re excited about this one.
Braving the cold and brewing a stout
Wow. So it was cold outside this morning. My tongue almost froze to my steering wheel. Nonetheless, we will be brewing tonight. Joel is out of town on a mysterious last-minute “business trip,” which means we expect things to run very smoothly this evening. Tonight we’re brewing another batch of our bourbon oak stout. The last one disappeared pretty quickly. A good sign. And we will have scotch ale, IPA and milk stout on tap for your winter warming pleasure.
And for those of you who need that little extra encouragement to come because of the cold, I’m going to stop by on the way over to pick up a starter log so that we can ensure the fire (AKA party) is going for as long as possible.
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Spent grain beer bread, Monday Night style
Mmmm. There isn’t much better than warm bread, especially when someone else makes it. Matt and Kate took some of our spent grain home awhile ago and last night they offered up the fruits (or carbohydrates) of their labor: some delicious spent grain beer bread, made with grains from either our scotch ale or our stout (I forget).
There is also actual beer in the bread, though Monday Night beer didn’t make it into this batch, as we haven’t been bottling much recently. I’ve been instructed by Joel that I am not to share the recipe yet. He is “still tweaking it.” Yes, Joel is our resident baker. Even though Baker is MY last name. It’s ironic.
We came. We brewed a scotch ale. We conquered.
Last night was unseasonably warm, so any of you no-shows whining about the cold better sack up. We brewed a revised (beefed-up) version of our scotch ale last night. We also had some on tap, which was good, but perhaps not as full-bodied as we’re shooting for. This was also the first week for our new sparge arm:
I like this picture because it shows me in a saint-like glow. Then Jeff is cleaning a keg (which is almost impossible to catch on film), Colin is getting paid in free beer to lift a hose, and Nathan is trying to figure out a way to get our new sparge arm to work correctly using nothing but cardboard and masking tape. And Garrett looks on awkwardly. The sparge arm is a little different from our last one ? it doesn’t spin, but instead creates a circular spray of water. It’s going to take a little work to get it to fit within our existing system, but Joel is on the job. And if all else fails, we’ll just get Colin to hold it again next week.
We had milk stout, scotch ale and IPA on tap last night. The milk stout actually turned out very well, and we’re excited to see how the second batch turns out. Interesting note on the IPA: we had two versions of it on tap, one with a Briess base malt and one with Marris Otter base malt and a different yeast. The two beers were like night and day. Marris Otter was much fuller and maltier tasting, the Briess had some strong grapefruit notes, probably brought out by the yeast. Both were good, but in different ways.
Thanks to everyone who came out last night! We had a lot of new faces, including the celebrity namer of our Eye Patch Ale.
Brewing is on like Donkey Kong
After taking a week off to let Jeff and Joel’s fragile bodies heal, we’re ready to brew another batch of our scotch ale tonight. “But it might be too cold,” you’re thinking. To which I respond, “We will have a crackling fire on the deck. Man up.” Or maybe you’re thinking, “But I don’t really like beer.” To which I respond, “Uh… then why are you reading our blog? And also, man up.”
Hope to see ya’ll tonight. Be sure you sign up to receive text message alerts about brewing every Monday.