Farraigi Dorcha 12/21/12

Dark Seas
What a better way to welcome the winter solstice ( or the end of the Mayan calender) than brewing a stout. A belgian stout. Maybe with some funk later on...
If the wind dies down, I'm going to give it a shot later.

I see a little lunchmeat is on the menu...
It must be a sign from the ancient Mayans to brew.

Evil Dawson lives!

Just found the beer engine blog a few nights ago.
Evil Dawson lives!

Belgian Tripel - 12/16/12

I brewed a belgian tripel last night. The grain bill consisted of 99% pilsener and  1% aromatic malt. Pitched a nice fresh slurry of wlp530, and it was fermenting when I woke up this morning. Pitched at 64F and I'm letting it free rise.
OG was 1.072, so it's a big beer but on the low side for a Belgian tripel.
While I was brewing I decided to brew one more Belgian in this series. I'm going to brew something for the Dark Irish.

Starting to read an old book on my family's history. Turns out my family surname is from a long line kings/chiefs/warlords in ancient Ireland.  Huh, my wife or mother wouldn't be surprised.  My mother has been calling me Lord Muck for a long time and my wife has to live with me ;).

Belgian Blonde - 12/8/12

I harvested some yeast from my Consecration brew day last week (prior to brett) and brewed a Belgian blonde. I bumped the gravity down for the style, so we can have more than one.
Normal brew day- except for a little rain when I was racking.
I pitched a big yeast pitch and it was fermenting in a few hours. Pitched at 64 and I'm capping to 72 for the first two days - then I'll let it free rise.

Russian River Consecration - 12/1/2012

Morebeer is selling Russian River Consecration kits. I usually don't by kits, but this kit includes some pieces of old Russian River Consecration barrels. Normal brew day, first time using a Blichmann pot as a brew kettle. I like the pot, a lot lighter than my current kettles. I'll have to make a stand modification to proper fit the kettle, but for now I used a couple bricks to support the kettle since my stand openings are a little too big to support the kettle. Back to the kit - pretty basic grain bill.

White labs 530 to 1.016 and then pitch Roselare with Consecration chunks.

Fermented for two days and then to secondary.

Smoke em if you got em.

I harvested the yeast cakes (830,835) from my Swartzbier and continued the yeast experiment with a Rauchbier. The grain bill is 48% smoked malt.

I always enjoy a beer with smoke malt but never have gone this high of a percentage of smoked malt.
Both are fermenting away nicely after a strong healthy pitch.

Doing it in the Dark

I had a bunch of lager yeast *830, 835) left from my Lady Luck Lager, so I made an over the top Swartzbier from Jamil Zainasheff called "Doing it in the Dark". It's supposed to be an over the top for the style, but I'm expecting good things.

Normal brew day 11/4/12 - no issues.
Split fermentation 830 and 835.

Hmm... what to do with lager yeast with roasty overtones?
I smell something smokey coming...