Autumn cleanup

Well, we have been busy, all kegs were cleaned out, dumped where beer was no longer premium fresh, few set aside for another project :-).

Brewed Rittmayer for Oktoberfest,  and we brewed our radical brew too,  Matzos beer, we did a Belgium Strong Golden ale, should be awesome.

Brewery has been tidied up too, new 4x8' shelf above garage door was put in,  to lift stuff off the floor,

Looking fwd to colder weather , so we can brew up a storm.

Time for a clean up

Need to get in and clean up old kegs, confirm what is still drinkable, what can be repurposed, and what is fertilizer.

Need to fix the lager fridge too. And get brewing for Oktoberfest

Brewing has continued this year

We have been busy brewing since beginning of the year.

Bobby and I have been active and a number of friends have joined us on Brew days, a few helped out and some enjoyed a cigar too.

On Tap :
             Double Bock
             Bourbon Barrel Porter
             Smoked Porter
             ESB
             English IPA
             Kolsch
In fermenter is Loose Canon IPA clone


The Barley Crusher mill finally wore out and bought new rollers and rebuilt it ... but settings seem to be out based on last brew, feeler gauge will have to be dug out and used again.

Hops are almost ready for picking across on the Hops Farm, so will be brewing a wet hop beer soon , obviously it will be a Cascade something IPA.


            

2012 brewing roundup

So Bobby and brewed for a wedding and a 50 th birthday between May and December....

A total of 9 brews, so a good season.  

From Helles, to Robust porter, and a bit in between too.  Kolsch, IPA, PA, Stout, including the infamous Black Knight Chocolate Vanilla Stout, all were brewed.

The hop farm produced more hops than ever before and yet no labor to pick them off the bines..... Bummer.  So all those Cascades were lost.

The new herbicide Poast worked well on grasses, with no effect on the hops.

We chose to do two more special brews , an end of the world brew on 21 Dec, a nice strong Dble Bock. And today we did an old years brew, Bourbon Robust Porter.

Happy New Year and may your glass always be full.

Brewing again

American Barley Wine - expected to be around 12% abv, when done , was brewed as part of a club project 2 weeks ago, and yesterday I brewed my summer favorite - Kolsch

Hops farm is doing wonderfully , Don has been a champion to keep everyone energized, and the main production hops are really looking good. Water system is back up and running too. Last night we had a super 1/2" of rain too, which will help the hops a lot.

Cleaned up the brewery and dumped a few older beers that were past their prime that I found hiding at back of Lager fridge. BUT also found another keg of my Fav lager - Rittmayer Helles, and while I am not drinking at present ?(weight loss thing) it tasted OK (no swallow - seriously !! )  so went back on tap.

Fixing up the inside kegerator today and cleaning up rest of garage, plus working on sunroom - no rest for the wicked.

2012 - New year

The Smoked Porter was fabulous, probably a bit young when we quaffed it, and maybe I need two lbs of Smoke Malt next time LOL. the kids also drank a lot of my Root Juice - home made Root Beer which I cannot stand as i did not grow up with it, but I do it for the kids, with a separate Keg, seperate taps , seperate everything to keep the flavors away from real beer.

I also have tapped into my South African Hopped Amber ale - hops were Experimental US38 from the SAB Hops farm in George South Africa, a super malty hoppy ale. The first keg did not last long at all.

planning is under way to brew an IPA and a BIG BREW too, ie a high alcohol beer.

Hops farm is quiet, and other than mowing the grass , nothing happening,......... mowing because we have had so many warm days this winter, typically I do nothing for almost 4 months.

Early March will see us out there cleaning up and preparing the beds for the extended Cascade expansion this year

Smoked Porter

So my brewing apprentice , wanted something special to go with an Oyster roast on boxing day.

We decided on a smoked Porter. I turned it into a boys night and Dave and Bobby came out in force, we drank a few cold ones, stood around in the cold and brewed beer.

Beer was tad stronger than planned but maybe that is a good thing.

Will be checking it tomorrow.