Finally brewing again!

I finally brewed a batch of beer on Sunday 11/5. The last batch of beer I brewed before that was July 27th. I have just been really busy with work, and the twins started kindergarden. But my Dad purchased a Mr. Beer kit and has been going crazy. I talked to him about maybe going to the LHBS and he said he wanted to go, so that made me get a recipe together.
I decided on a Chocolate Milk Stout which is a recipe I have been wanted to mess with for a while. I started with the Milk Stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and then looked at the Chocolate Milk Stout recipe on www.northernbrewer.com and I made my own. I wanted to do extract for the ease, this time.
I wanted to use cocoa nibs since that is what the northern brewer recipe used. They used to include chocolate extract in that kit but it got lots of negative reviews for tasting like fake chocolate.

Here is the recipe from Beersmith. This was a five gallon batch with about a starting boil of 3 gallons.

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs DME Dark Traditional (Briess) (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 80.0 %
4.0 oz Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.3 %
12.0 oz Pale Chocolate (200.0 SRM) Grain 1 10.0 %
8.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.7 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 26.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) [124.21 ml] Yeast 7 -
1.00 lb Lactose (Boil 0.0 mins) Flavor 6 -

My OG was high at 1.072 but I attribute that to the lactose and it should be right around 5% ABV. I let this ferment a week and then added 4 oz of cocoa nibs in a hop sack. I'm not going to transfer to a secondary but I will leave it in the primary for three weeks total. Two of those with the cocoa nibs.
I also want to make a Jalapeno beer. My dad made the Fire in the Hole Mr. Beer recipe and it got me thinking about the all grain Jalapeno Cream Ale I did last year that was awesome. I also want to do another batch of the Amarillo Face.

It would be nice to get the pipeline going again but with money and time, I don't know if that is going to be possible.

Sun King Barleywine

The other day I got an interesting opportunity to try a local beer. Sun King Brewery which is about 10 minutes from where I work, cans their beer. One of the first beers they brewed when they started production was a Barleywine called Johan the Barleywine. They served this mostly on tap, but they did release a limited number of cans and I was lucky enough to get one. It was actually given to me by a guy that I work with who got two cans and didn't like it. So I lucked out.

Im not good at describing what I smell and taste so if you interested in that I will let you read the reviews on Beer Advocate. I will say that I'm not a huge fan of barleywines, being that I am a hophead, but I did find the complexity of the beer nice. I'm not one to let a beer reach room temp before I drink it. I like to pour it cold right out of the fridge and be amazed at how the beer totally changes its flavors as it warms up.

What I think is particularly cool about this beer is the fact that it's a barleywine in a can. Probably one of the first of its style to be canned, if not the first. It's not just any can, but a can that Sun King has made for limited run brews. I guess when they order from the Ball can factory they have to order a ridiculous amount of each can design. So for the smaller batches they had a generic can made and they place a sticker on each can to identify the beer. I find that pretty cool.

So here are some pictures of the can.

BP ale spill label

I don't usually make labels for my beer because they seem like a waste of time but I thought this was a funny name that I came up with today as I was bottling this beer. So I made a label using Gimp. If you have not heard of gimp then you should check it out. I found it today as I was searching for alternatives to expensive photoshop. I use photoshop a lot at work and I find this software very much like photoshop but it's free so that's very nice. So anyways here is the label I made.

BP Ale Spill

From Instant Upload

BP Ale Spill Sample at bottling.


I don't like Belgian Beers. But for some reason I decided I wanted to make one. I think I was inspired by one of my beer buddies Esheppy, who says one of his favorite homebrewed beer is his Buckwheat Belgian Pale Ale. I have never made a Belgian, but always wanted to, so I picked up a kit from my LHBS Great Fermentations. I am calling this BP Ale Spill.
I bottled this today and I was completely surprised by the smell. I don't know why, because it smelled exactly like a Belgian beer should. It was kind of meaty, spicy and farmish. I used Wyeast Belgian Ardennes. I don't know exactly how to describe it but it doesn't make me excited for this beer. We will see in 2 weeks when I give this one a taste test.

From Instant Upload

BPA in the bottle.

From Instant Upload

Amarillo Face

I just finished the best batch of beer I have made to date. It was the Amarillo Face, which is another kit I picked up from the LHBS. The thing that this beer and the Belgian have in common is that I used liquid yeast.

New LHBS in Indy.

Somehow a new Local Homebrew Shop called the Tuxedo Park Brewers opened just a few minutes from where I work and I had no idea. I haven't been there yet since I just found out it was open last night. I plan on going and browsing later this week and checking the place out.

There is also a winery downtown that's pretty close to my work. It carries a few homebrew supplies but their stuff is always prepackaged grains and hops which I am a little leary of because I'm not sure of the age. It's a good place to go and pick up a hydrometer or a quick pack of yeast if I'm in a pinch.

I love my normal LHBS which is called Great Fermentations, but the problem is the location. I live on the southwest side of town and it is located on the north east side of town. It takes me about 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes back. But the customer service and brewing knowledge are impressive. One of the guys that used to work there even opened a brewery in the same building a few months ago. I also have done a couple of the in house kits that Great Fermentations puts together, and they have been complete, easy to use and so far very tasty.

AHHHH crap!!!

I brewed an APA that just had a 15 minute boil and then a 5 minute addition of amarillo. It was supposed to be dry hopped with another .25 oz of amarillo hops but I FORGOT! I bottled it yesterday and was inputting the FG into beersmith today and realized what I had done. This was a recipe created to use up the .5 oz of amarillo I had left but now I still have .25 oz. Oh well it will still be a good beer but I love dry hopping especially with amarillo.
Heres how it looked after my mistake.

Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 75.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 12.5 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.5 %
0.50 oz Apollo [18.60 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 4 36.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 6 -
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 3.0 IBUs

Belgian Pale Ale

I just started the boil on my Belgian Pale Ale. I'm a little worried because in 6 hrs my Wyeast pouch is barely swollen. But I imagine that any swelling is a good sign. I have also heard that if you shake it and you hear fizzing then that is a good sign as well.
This is my first attempt at this style of beer. I love the smell of the Tettnang hops. This recipe is once again from my LHBS. I am going to do it as they recommend and then make some changes if I decide I want to brew this beer again. Or maybe I wont make changes if its really good.

Here is the recipe for the BPA.

Boil Size: 3.50 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
End of Boil Volume 3.21 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 5 74.0 %
8.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 1 7.4 %
6.1 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.6 %
8.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 7.4 %
6.1 oz Carapils (Briess) (1.5 SRM) Grain 4 5.6 %
0.75 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 11.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 8.5 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast Labs #3522) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -

I also have been drinking the Amarillo Face recipe I did a few weeks ago. It's really good. My only problem is the yeast dregs in the bottle are nasty. I try not to pour it into the glass but I always seem to get some. It has a nasty bitter taste. I doesn't ruin the beer, but it doesn't do it any favors either.