January Recap

January has been a month for me personally. Polar Vortex anyone? sheeeesh. Hard to home brew when you can't go out for supplies.

I'm preparing to start cheese making. I use a lot of cheese in my cooking because I love it and I'd love to learn to make it! To that end instead of reading a beer book this month I've been reading about how to make cheese. A more detailed post on that is coming.

I ordered my 2014 supply of East Coast Yeast from Solar Home Brew. 2x Bugfarms, a Flemish Ale, and a Saison Brett. It came and everything looks right.

I'll be making my starter for my 2014 IPA soon. I can't wait to have fresh IPA on tap again. A post incoming soon.

This weekend I will blend my first Lambic & or Flanders Beer. I am doing this for the AHA Competition. I haven't been selected yet but I want to be ready; if I am not selected then I'll find somewhere else to enter it. Lambic and Flanders are amazing styles and if I can brew good ones I want people to try them. A recap of the blending session is coming soon.

I think that's it. As far as updates go. Stay Warm.

2013 Recap 2014 Resolutions

Thank you to anyone reading this blog.

2013 was a crazy year for me personally. Many changes have come about in my personal lives and 2014 looks just as volatile. This impacted my brewing schedule as much as the realities of the beers I brewed; by that I mean that some one has to drink all this beer. There is so much beer. In 2011 through 2013 I joined a few national reserve societies. I sampled some rare and often expensive brews from across the fruited plains. This has eaten up a bunch of funds, and sadly those funds had to come from my brewing funds. I missed almost every single one of my 2013 resolutions.

So what's left? 2014 goals? I guess.

I want to hit my 2013 goal of 6 posts a month but I am going to aim for 4 as to not overshoot.
I want to brew once a month and brew 12 new beers in 2014.
I want to finish my tap handle project and get some tap handles done.
I want to enter a home brewing competition.

That's it. Aim low. Deliver above expectations.

Thanks again if you read my blog. I'll be attempting to get to 60+ posts in 2014 to keep content up and prove 2013 was the aberration.

Review: Imperial Doppelweizenbock

Imperial Doppelweizenbock

This beer was dynamite at kegging. An unkegged sample had loads of chocolate and toffee waiting for me. I liked it. kegging made the beer different but better? You'll remember this bee is inspired by, a beer inspired by a tripple weizen bock. I brewed it over a year ago and let it age. Fermentation blew the bung off and I can report no infections took hold because of that.

Appearance: (B+) it looks dark but clears up when held to the light. The picture at right doesn't do it justice showing just how beautifully brown this beer is.

Aroma: (A-) Dark fruity malts are pushed up by the carbonation, they are active where as scents reminiscent of chocolate and toffee are lost somewhere under the alcohol and fruits.

Flavor: (A) Dark fruit, sweet caramelly toffee and subtle hints of darker chocolate. No roastiness meant that the sweet flavors were not checked by that harsh coffee char flavor roasted malts can have. The beer wasn't sweet persay because of sugar but it had a sweet flavor.

Mouthfeel: (B-) Perhaps I over carbonated it but it feels thin, it's either over attenuated, which I'll check, or over carbonated which I'll fix.

Overall: (A-) One of my best efforts. of the Imperial beers I've made I think this one is a keeper while the other two might see revisions.

Improvements: I might try this as a wheat wine with an English yeast strain.

Easy Cleaning a Keg Line

So the ideal way for many to clean a keg line is to take an empty keg filled with cleaner and flush the lines. Step 1 is repeated with sanitizer. I meant to do this prior to filling my brand new keg with Imperial DoppelWeizen Bock but the timing didn't work out. What's a man to do? I could clean out a keg of old IPA or Black IPA in my tiny apartment but that seems a touch on the difficult side given a lack of space. Instead I am going to improvise using an old empty two liter bottle and a device I made myself. For my results read past the break!

(Please read more after the break.)