Sunday, November 15, 2015

Homebrew - Irish Red, with Darren Reed

The second batch from the Barley Legal Brewing Company / Brothers From Different Mothers Brewing Co.  We decided to prepare for fall with an Irish Red.  After we brewed it I was worried I have once again made a brown ale instead of a red, but it turned out a nice, deep copper colour.  Dry tasting and slightly creamy with a nice finish.

Steep for 30 minutes at 150:

11oz Crystal Malt
1.5oz Black Malt
1oz Roasted Barley
2.5oz Pale Malt

Bring to a boil
1.5kg Pale Malt Extract
1kg Amber Malt Extract
1oz East Kent Golding hops (5.7%AA)

Boil for 50 minutes, then add:
1oz East Kent Golding hops (5.7%AA)
1tsp Irish Moss

Fill to 5 gallons in the fermenter.  Pitched White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast.

Due to schedule issues it was racked after a week to the carbuoy, but not bottled for about a month.  The ageing didn't seem to cause any problems.


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Whale - found!


Dogfish Head 120 IPA.  Not what I expected - far richer and less hoppy than I thought it would be.  We put a couple in the cellar to see how they age.  I will let you know in a few years.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Beer Apps!

Good find by Sith@Heart

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/5-best-beer-apps-1.3274706


Saturday, September 26, 2015

Achievement Unlocked: Beer 2000!

As luck would have it, pulled a great beer for #2000, without really planning it in advance.  I was on the boys annual NFL trip to Cincinnati.  After a great time at Oktoberfest (largest in the U.S.?) we visited the Rhinegeist Brewery.  Great space - think empty warehouse on the 3rd floor of a building.  The first beer we tried, which happened to be #2000, was the Truth.  A West Coast style IPA, it was replete with pine and citrus notes (interestingly it doesn't use Cascade hops, rather a blend of Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, Centennial).  A very well balanced and tasty IPA.  Great find for #2000.




Monday, May 18, 2015

Grandma Tobias' Back Door Lager

Tonight I joined forces with Darren Reed to try our hand at re-creating his great grandmother's prohibition era "back door lager".  "Back door" as in that's where it was sold from at her farm.  Her recipe is here:


We made some selective changes.  First despite its name, this was clearly an ale, not a lager.  We upped the malt and reduced the sugar, on the assumption she was using so much sugar because it was cheap and malt expensive.  We couldn't figure out how much "35 cents" of hops was, so we used a hop bill that would fit a light German ale.  We steeped some grains and also used a proper brewing yeast as opposed to "Fleischmans".  I hope it tastes good, and will do Darren's grandmother proud.

Recipe:

Steeped at 150 degrees for 30 minutes:

3oz 40 L crystal malt
5 oz pale malt

Brought to a boil and added:

1 oz bittering hops (likely Cascade - grown at Michelle's parents)
2.5 kg light malt extract (dry)
250g brown sugar

After 45 minutes added 1 tsp. Irish Moss
After 55 minutes added 1 oz. Saaz hop pellets (2.6% AA)

Filled to 21 litres.  Pitch Wyeast 1007 German Ale.

After about 5 days I will rack to a carboy, and bottle after about two weeks.  Prosit!

Here is Darren stirring the fine brew: