Road to 1,000 - Number 900

Hit number 900 tonight beer fans. Wild Rose Altbier - one of the seasonals by the always good Wild Rose Brewery

"Using a multi-step mash process, our brewers have created a mahogany coloured beer with amazing body and mouthfeel. This brew is cool fermented and cold conditioned resulting in a refreshing, clean tasting ale."

http://www.wildrosebrewery.com/beer/canadian-beer.html

I expect to hit 1,000 sometime this year. Stay tuned!

Homebrewing tips

Thanks to iRob for spotting this one:

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/02/homebrewing-tips-tricks-how-to-pick-a-homebrew-recipe.html

Stout story from the National Post

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/02/27/hapy-hour-stout-to-tail/

Molson M - a Canadian by any other name...

Molson M won the Canadian Brewing Awards 2010 gold medal for "North American Style Premium Lager". Now I have to admit, upon reading this I was sceptical that any big brewery beer could win gold.

My scepticism was well founded. I saw M available for the first time in my local liquor store this afternoon, so I picked up a can. Are you seriously trying to tell me this isn't just Canadian in a new can and twice the price? If so, I don't believe you. How this typical, mass produced, nothing-to-write-home about brew won anything is beyond me. Try it if you must, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Globe and Mail guide to winter beers

Amazingly, I have not tried most of these. I better get on it!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/beppi-crosariol/think-beer-is-just-for-summer-try-these-winter-picks/article1846210/

Brew #2, 7 months later

I notice that as my bitter ages, the hops become far more pronounced. It is starting to taste more like an IPA than a bitter at this point. Interesting.

Batch #6 - American Pale Ale

A few new things with this batch. Number 1 - this is the first recipe I have used from How to Brew by John Palmer (although I could not follow it exactly - some of my ingredients are slightly different). Number 2- this is my first time using liquid yeast.

Here goes:

steeped crystal 70/80 malt (recipe called for 60 but I had 70/80 on hand)
1.5 kg light liquid malt extract at boil

1.5 kg light liquid malt extract at knockout (after boil)

Hops:

.6 oz Northern Brewer (9.6%) (recipe called for .5 oz 11%, so I improvised here somewhat) 60 minutes

.5 oz Cascade ( 5.4%) 30 minutes (recipe called for 6%)

.5 oz Cascade 15 minutes

1 package Wyeast Activator 1056 American Ale liquid yeast

I have about 2oz of the Cascade left which I will use to dry hop the beer

On the whole, it should turn out pretty close, but slightly darker and a little less bitter.