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.

You're Killing Me Smalls!

Fans of one of the best coming-of-age movies produced in the '90s will instantly recognize the title of this post.  Those who don't should navigate away from this blog, somehow get a hold of "The Sandlot," and watch it.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish you grew up in the Valley in the 1960s, but most importantly you'll understand the plight of newcomer Scotty Smalls when asked if he wants a s'more.  For those of who will always answer the question, "Do you want s'mores?" with a resounding, "yes please!" then this beer might be the one for you.

Milled malted grains, cocoa nibs, hops, yeast... BEER!

Spicy Beer?! Yes!

So this post's title isn't the punniest I've come up with, but that's ok because the batch of homebrew written about isn't that original.  This is the second time I've repeated a recipe and this time it was because I really enjoyed the beer the first time I brewed it.  The beer in question is a Saison, a continental beer brewed during the winter from the leftovers of the harvest and let condition until the summer.  Saisons are traditionally low in alcohol and light of body and were drunk by the fieldhands during their working hours to quench their thirst and keep them hydrated.  This recipe ups the alcohol content by adding Clear Belgian Candi Sugar and Agave Nectar at the end of the boil.  This additional sugar is more food for the yeast to ferment without adding more body, keeping the beer light but increasing the kick.  And this recipe has another strength: jalapeno!

Hops, Agave Nectar, more hope, yeast, jalapeno, clear Belgian Candi sugar.  All this make a mighty fine brew.

If You've Been Worried About Me...

Worry not!  I haven't fallen into a well, just live a busy life and haven't put time into beer writing.  But I have been beer making since posting last on Feb 7.  Here's what I've been up to:

• The Winter Wheat has been tested and is... alright. I think it's a bit sour, but my neighbor and fellow brewer liked it.  
• The PB & Porter has been tasted with several bottles drunk and is a success!  The mouthfeel has the texture of peanut butter, and the aroma is there, but the flavor doesn't have any PB in it, which is strange but ok.  Overall, I think that beer turned out well and I like it!
• I have a goal to have three different batches of homebrew ready for grilling season starting Memorial Day.  For that I brewed two 1-gal batches back-to-back in two days.  I brewed the Jalapeno Saison again and then a S'Mores Beer the next day, and three weeks later I brewed a BBQ Beer, all of which will have their own posts soon enough.  The first two have fermented and have been bottled, the third is still fermenting.
• I've been planning my next brews and they will both be IPAs.  One will be a black IPA based on a recipe a former roommate gave me that's similar to Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale.  The other will be an IPA that uses only Zythos hops, a Hopunion homemade hop strain, from a recipe found at Hopunion.com.  The first will be brewed sometime in April.

So with the winter winding down, although Cleveland just got hit with a couple inches of snow, I'm looking toward the summer and am even planning for the fall.  Expect two pumpkin beers by Halloween, the porter again and a brown ale this year, and I hope to get a good stout going for next winter.  My beer efforts continue even if I don't dedicate much time to documenting my exploits here.

Until next time friends, happy brewing!

A Hipster in Winter Wheat

Grains (mostly malted wheat this time), hops, yeast, plus water, give us beer!

And again it's been a while since my last brew post.  I've brewed, fermented, racked, settled, and bottled my latest batch, a darker wheat, and now I find time to write about it.  Now the only update will be the first tasting by the end of February.  I used the Brooklyn BrewShop's Winter Wheat recipe, with some slight modifications, of course, and I hope it turns out well.  Fermenting conditions went a bit haywire toward the end so who knows how that affected the batch.

I'll Have a PB&J and a Beer, Minus the J

Happy New Year fair readers!  How were your holidays?  Do anything fun for Christmas and/or New Years?  My wife and I went to Poland, and we came back!  Had a local beer there, Zywiec, which is a lager and so wasn't my favorite, but my foray into beers this past year has taught me to respect the styles I don't normally drink, and I enjoyed tasting a local 1/2-L of cold-fermented gold.  But I'm back now and have some time to spend crafting a post about the batch I brewed back in December, before things got crazy trying to tie things up and prepare for our 10 days in Eastern Europe.

Milled grains, hops, PB, and yeast: Together they form yummy beer!

My Church's Unofficial Beer

Time for another beer tastings review.  This time it's St. Peter's IPA, my church's (un)official beer.  That's a joke because I attend St. Peter's Lutheran Church, and Lutherans, being German, have no qualms about (responsible) alcohol consumption.  My friend Whit and I have talked about this beer, wanting to try it just because the name matches our church's name, and when I took a trip into the local grocery store's walk-in beer fridge, I found this and decided to give it a shot.

It came in a green flask-shaped bottle.