Interesting article on homebrew set up

Thanks to iRob for this one:

http://gizmodo.com/5900668/the-home-brewing-laboratory-of-every-beer-drinkers-dreams/gallery/1

Kolsch update and Beer o' the Day

Bottled the Kolsch today (added 2/3rds cup dextrose to the 4 gallons). Will let youk now how it is in a few weeks.

Beer o' the Day: Cascadia Dark Ale by Banff Ave. Brewing Co. Finally, an exciting beer from this brewery. A nice, hoppy dark ale. Next time you are in Banff - give it a try!

Globe article - Toronto's craft brewing

More and more reasons to visit the Big Smoke. Now if only Calgary would get on board...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/globe-to/torontos-craft-brew-scene-hops-to-life/article2402063/

Beer o' the day - Pizza Beer

Today's Beer o' the Day is Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer by Sprecher Brewing Co. This beer actually tastes like pizza - sort of. It reminds you of pizza, no doubt, but I couldn't quite place it. Until iRob pointed it out, that is - it doesn't taste like pizza, so much as pizza burp. As in, the taste of your burps if you eat too much pizza. It is certainly an interesting beer, I will give it that. Not sure I would recommend more than one.

Also, pizza beer burps do not taste like fresh pizza, sadly.

Homebrew - Belgian Dubbel

Today I am trying my hand at a dark Belgian dubbel style beer. I am using as my base recipe the clone recipe for Chimay Red in Clone Brews by Szamatulski, with substitutions where I couldn't find the precise ingredients. Wish me luck!

Steep for 30 minutes @ 150F (in .5 gallon):
- 4oz special aromatic biscuit malt
- 8oz Caramunich type 3 (60L)
- 1 oz chocolate malt
sparge with .5 gallon at 150

Bring it to a boil plus another .5 gallons (1.5 total). Add:

4 lbs DME
400g DME (didn't have enough LME)
3 lbs LME
1.5 lbs Belgian Candi sugar (amber)
.5 oz Northern Brewer at 10.3% AA
.4 oz Tettnanger (US) Hops at 3.9% AA
(both pellets) (again, had to use substitutes / left over hops)

Boil for 45 minutes. Add:

.25oz German Hallertau hops (4.3%AA)
.25oz US Fuggles hops (4.2%AA)

After 5 minutes, add:

1tsp Irish Moss

After 1 hour, cool, add to cold water in fermenter to make 5 gallons. When room temperature, pitch Wyeast Belgian Abbey II liquid yeast.

(I just realized I was supposed to boil 3 gallons by the recipe, not 1.5. Oh well, it made preventing boil overs that much easier. Hopefully it has no real impact)

OG: 1.061

Home brewing - Kolsch

In an effort to make Sith@Heart happy, I have decided to try and brew a light beer that is not very hoppy. After our trip to Cologne last year, Kolsch seemed just the thing! I am using the recipe for Itsok Kolsch in Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing. However, his recipe does not call for any specialty malts, which seems just wrong to me. So I am making a few tweaks of my own.

Steep 4oz Pale Crystal Malt (20/24L) and 3oz Caramunich Type 3 @ 140-150 degrees for 30 minutes

Add 1.5 kg liquid wheat malt extract (60% wheat, 40% barley) and 2.5 lbs light dry malt extract
1 oz Saaz hops (2.8% AA)
Boil for 30 minutes. Add 1/2 oz Tettnanger Hops (3.9% AA).
Boil for 15 minutes. Add 1 tsp Irish Moss

Fill to 5 gallons. Pitch Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch)


Next week: a Belgian dubbel!