Homebrew: American Style IPA

A big thank you to iRob for his help with this batch. I used a clone recipe for Stone IPA as the base, but substituted the ingredients based on what I could get at the Vineyard.

Steep 6 oz. 40L crystal malt at 150 F for 30 minutes.

3.5 kg light dry matl extract

1.5 oz. Falconer's flight hop pellets @ 10.5% AA (bittering)

boil 45 minutes @ 3 gallons

.5 oz Falconer's Flight hop pellets

boil 14 minutes

1 oz. Cascade hop pellets @ 5.9% AA

pitch yeast Wyeast 1272 American Pale II (note - this was added the next day - my original yeast had turned)

1 week later: racked to carboy, added 1 oz. Cascade hop pellets (5.9% AA)

Beer in Calgary

Well, with Bottlescrew Bills, Wurst, Craft, and now Beer Revolution, a serious beer drinker in Calgary can actually find some good, non-mainstream brews on tap. Now all this city needs to do is work on the overly small number of craft breweries. I have high hopes for the Village Brewery!

I need to get this book

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/oxford-companion-beer

Wheat beer / Cherry Wheat

Making my first split batch. The base beer is a German weisse beer. The "split" will be a cherry wheat.

Wheat beer (Weissbier):

3 lbs. wheat extract (60% wheat, 40% barley)

9 oz. malt extract

2 gallons water

1 oz. Hellertau hops (2.8% AA)

boil 1 hour

add another 3 lbs. wheat extract at knockout

add water to make 5 gallons (19 litres)

yeast: Wyeast 3638 (Bavarian Wheat)

I let the batch ferment in a primary fermenter for 12 days. Today, I took 5 lbs of cherries (fresh, then I froze them, then thawed them) and put them into a 3 gallon carbuoy, and added the beer to fill. This will be the cherry wheat. The balance I bottled with 1/2 cup sugar.

Story on Belgian Beer

If you could only drink the beers from one country for the rest of your life, it would be hard to argue against picking Belgium. The festival in Grande Place (which I think is one of the great squares of Europe) sounds fantastic!

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/09/01/belgium-the-original-craft-brewing-nation/

"Insane" IPAs

As someone who has been on a major IPA kick for the past month (since finishing the book "Hops and Glory") I wish I had attended this event!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/trends/trends-features/are-you-man-enough-for-this-beer/article2138932/

Tasting Notes - Oatmeal Stout

What surprises me about this batch is that different bottles have different tastes. Some are dark and clearly stout like, while others are more akin to Newcastle Brown. Not sure why this is so. The bottles that are properly stout like have a nice flavour and a good thickness to them. The "brown" bottles are a little thin. Hmmm.