Never Be Late for a BBQ

I see that I haven't posted anything since April 2.  That's nearly two months.  When I started this blog I thought I'd post every week, then it became every month, and even that has not necessarily been the case.  I still brew, and still enjoy new beers, and still try to visit breweries and dine at brewpubs.  I still talk to my friend Pete about homebrewing and read as much as I can about techniques new to me and ingredients.  I just haven't bothered to take the time to write about it all.

"Why?" you ask.

I'm busy.  I'm trying to finish my PhD by November.  When I get to the lab I aim to spend most of my time working and the few times I screw around to unwind my head before I dive back into my work I try not to get too distracted by a blog post which will occupy me until it's finished.  But now I'm in a phone meeting starting this blog post instead of paying attention because I'm unable to do the work I've been focusing on today.

So what's this post going to be about?  Brewing!  The title points to a recent batch I brewed on St. Pat's back in March, nearly two months ago.  I won't go through all the detail of the brewing since nothing of note happened (and anything that did has been long forgotten), but will talk about it generally.  I've brewed it, racked it, bottled it, conditioned it, and have tried two bottles.  It's good.  Not my best, but good.

All the basics for a solid brew.

"What did I brew?" you ask.

I brewed another Hipster Recipe Book beer, which they simply call BBQ Beer, but I named it Smokey BBQ.  It's an ale, copper in color, and contained 0.8 lb smoked malt in the recipe, which I'll post at the end.  If I had named it after I tasted it it would've been named Smokey Sweet BBQ, since there's a sweetness to the smokey-ness.  It's in the summer section of the recipe book, and so I wanted to brew this to take to grill-outs this summer, and with the super warm weather we've had recently I hope friends of mine host and invite me to such affairs.

So it's ready to share and if you invite me to a BBQ this summer I'll bring a bottle or two.  I don't have a photo of it in a pint glass to share here, but it does look good and has good head formation.  It's a bit lighter in body and alcohol than I expected and what the recipe predicts, so maybe that's my fault from the mash.  My remote probe thermometer reads improperly since brewing the Jalapeno Saison in late February, so during the oven mash I have to pull it out every 15 minutes to check the temperature manually, and I give it a good stir.  The S'More of What? beer also turned out lower in alcohol than expected, and that was the first batch after the thermometer broke, so maybe oven mashing without it isn't working well.  We'll see after the current batch I have fermenting is ready to drink.

And now the recipe.  I don't think I varied from the given recipe, and learned that Caramunich and Carapils have newer names, so I list those malts with them.

Smokey Sweet BBQ
Grain Bill:
0.8 lb Smoked Malt
0.7 lb German Pilsner Malt
0.4 lb Munich Malt
0.25 lb Cara-45 Malt (formerly Caramunich)
0.1 lb Cara-8 Malt (formerly Carapils)

Strike 2.8 qt H2O to 164°F.  Mash in oven for 60 min at 154°F.  Sparge with 5 qt H2O at 170°F.

60-min Boil:
0.25 oz. Tettnang hops 4.5 AA% at 60 min.
0.25 oz. Tettnang hops 4.5 AA% at 30 min.
0.20 oz. Hallertau hops 4.3 AA% at 15 min.
0.20 oz. Hallertau hops 4.3 AA% at 5 min.
0.20 oz. Hallertau hops 4.3 AA% at flameout.

Cool to 65°F in ice bath. Hydrate and pitch 1/2 packet Safale US-05 yeast. Bottle with 22.5 gm priming sugar.

And that's that batch.  As I said, I've got another one fermenting now, so I'll write that up either after I bottle it or whenever I feel like it.

OG of 1.052, FG of 1.018.

The Smokey BBQ came to 4.6% ABV, a little shy of the projected 5.5%, but that's ok.  It's a nice light beer for the summer, and with only 8 bottles from this brewing you better get some while the getting's good!  A full gallery of photos can be found here.

Until next time friends, happy brewing!

8 bottles capped, a hot commodity, indeed.