Author Archive
I promised some pictures…
Well, I’ve gone from humble beginnings to a pretty sweet setup over the last year. I wanted to show off a bit of what I have now. Lots of pictures of what I spend all of my free time creating after the break.
From Virtual to Material
The Beer Sculpture is now nearly complete. All of my beer funds and energy have gone into this project for a couple of months now. I picked up the metal at my local hardware store and welded it at my parent’s house. My dad just recently bought a Oxy Acetylene torch and we decided that this would be a glorious first project. And it was! It has gone wonderfully. Pictures to follow, but it is mostly put together now with only a propane regulator to wait for before the initial brew on the new system can commence!
A Virtual BrewSculpture Emurges
Here is what I have been working on lately:
I’m hoping to start construction on this in the next couple of weeks. I’d like to see it in operation by June 1st.
Like this:
Crooked Scottsman
I am kind of attached to the whole “crooked” angle for naming beer. I’ve made a Crooked Rooster Ale, and now on to the Crooked Scottsman. This one is a Scottish style export ale, weighing in at ~1.052, I used the following for my grain bill:
7.5lb Pale Malt
.75lb Wheat Malt
.5lb Crystal 40ºL
.25lb Roasted Barley
I mashed at 158° for 45 min and sparged to give me around 7.5 gallons in the boil kettle. I decided to do a 90 min boil, and as for the hops, I threw in:
1oz Chinook @ 60 min
because I didn’t have any english style hops. On a sidenote, this is the first brew where I didn’t have to go to my LHBS to get supplies. With the grain mill and yeast in stock, I just ground the grain, made a yeast starter, and now I’m brewing! It’s pretty sweet!
Irish Immigrant Stout
Well, there it is! My first home-crushed grains! I just bought a grain mill (from Monster) and I really love the versatility it gives me! As long as I am stocked up on yeast and have grains on hand, I no longer need to take a trip to the brew store to make a batch of beer! After you mill grains, they are only good for about a week, and so being able to mill them at home is a big advantage for me.
Today I am brewing Dry Stout. I started with a Guinness clone and sort-of made it my own. So it’s an americanized Dry stout, hence the name, Irish Immigrant Stout. I can’t wait to give it a try in a few weeks! It’s been too long since I brewed. This whole job-thing really cuts into my free time.
2010 Is Off to a Good Start
I finally got a chance to check on my hops today, and they are looking very nice indeed. They all have three or four shoots coming up. I need to build them a terrace in the next couple of weeks so that they will have something to climb, because it had to be dismantled last fall. I’m just hoping that the winter/spring stays mild without too much frost so that these guys get an epic start this year!
Pike Brewing is Awesome!
My brothers and I went to the tasting, and it was great. The ’97 and ’98 were like a fine brandy, very raisiny and just generally delicious. The ’07 was actually particularly delightful, a bit sweeter than the others, but well balanced. We also got to talk to the owners of Pike Brewing (Charles and Rose Ann), which was very enlightening. I had no idea of Pike’s history. Until I learned it, I didn’t know why Pike wasn’t really on my radar of spectacular Seattle breweries. It turns out that back in ’98, they sold off the brewery (along with some attached companies) to a bigger company and Pike really took a turn for the worst. It was a scummy bar with not much going for it. Fast forward to 2006 when they decided to buy it back. So for the last 4 years, the original owners have been working to get back what was lost while they were gone – one of those things being Old Bawdy. The atmosphere was very nice there and I loved the experience. I look forward to going there more often in the future, because it’s a great venue with a lot of awesome beer! If you haven’t been there in a while, I encourage you to check it out! Pike Brewing is on the rise, and quickly too!
VIP Tasting
I just secured tickets for a VIP (Very Important Pike) Tasting. It’s a vertical of their Old Bawdy Barleywine. They have 2009-2006 Varieties, and then for the VIP part, they found some properly cellared 1997 and 1998 Vintages! I’m pretty stoked to give them all a try, especially the 11 and 12 year old variety. That should be right around the aging sweetspot and will hopefully make for a very smooth and malty experience.
It’s tastings like this that make me want to keep on growing my cellar. I currently have around 30 commercial bottles in there, but it needs to keep on growing so that it will become somewhat sustainable over time.
Mmm, I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it.
The Littlest Brewmeister
He’s standing in front of my current system, ready to throw on some more hops. A real hophead, this one is…
