2013 Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas !

Tap List:
Frosty the Bohemian - Bohemian Pilsner
Scrooged - English Brown Ale
Sledwrecker - Russian Imperial Stout aged on Merlot Oak cubes
Sneaky Mrs. Claus - Belgian Golden Strong
Thing Red - Flanders red aged on sour cherries
Raspberry Mead - Honey wine made with copious amounts of raspberries
German Eisbock - 3 year old freeze distilled German bock

Wine list:
Jamison Merlot - California grapes
Jamison Reisling - California grapes


Appetizers:
Shrimp cocktail
Little hotdogs
Clams casino
Fried calamari
Fried shrimp - southern
Grilled Lime shrimp
Crab puffs
mushroom puffs
spinach puffs
Bacon wrapped scallops
Italian potato and tuna salad

Main course:
Grilled applewood Salmon
Puttanesca Bacalla
Pasta and anchovies
Crab ravioli's in lemon sauce

APA, Jerky, Ribs, and Ribs 6/9/13

Brewed an APA today. Smoked some Venison jerky this morning. Did beef back ribs and beef shot ribs on the smoker tonight. I was a busy boy today....
The APA was 2 row, some munich, and some English C40. I went with a new hop called Belma for bittering and hit it with a combined 84 grams of Cacade, Centennial, Chinook at flameout.
Lots of citrus, almost smells like Citra going into the fermenter.

Update on the kettle elements. HLY is showing some surface rust at the base of the element. I'll hit it with some barkeepers friend and keep an eye on it. I may have to leave the kettle lids cracked during storage.

I did find some affordable stainless steel elements, but they dod not have a grounding screw. I would prefer to weld a fitting on the kettles and use the housing that has a grounding screw. I'll have to look into the kettle fittings.

and some BBQ ....

beef short ribs

beef back ribs 

Belgian Wit 5/26/13

One last beer for the picnic, a Belgian Wit. Used grapefruit, tangerine, naval orange zest.
This brew was pretty much to schedule. I do like the new brewery, it makes processes more consistent.
As long as I pay attention... I almost forgot to pitch the spices at flameout..

Kolsch - 5/18/13

Busy brewing to prepare for the June picnic. I brewed 10gallons of Kolsch tonight, it's a family favorite. I went with Tettnang hops for a special treat.

Update on the heating elements. The kettle element is started to some build up on the base, it looks like the rust isn't taking hold. The hlt still looks fine.

Redhed on the West Coast or was it Germany ? 5/10/13

Brewed a West Coast Red with load of Amarillo and HBC 342 hops tonight. I fly sparged and used the hop back.
I used 84 g Amarillo and 56g of HBC 342 (Mosiaic).
This beer should be a fruity hoppy beer.

Dooh! The plan was to use WLP022 yeast, but I grabbed the wrong harvested yeast and pitched WLP860. I didn't notice until I went into the garage and smelled Sulfur two days later.
It looks like WLP860 was very happy to ferment and 68 but did stress it out so it threw off sulfur.


At tasting this beer isn't bad at all. The lager yeast fermented fast, cleared fast, and didn't leave off flavors. It if did leave an off flavor it complements the fruityness of these hops.
Nothing left to do but Karrie on...

Stout 4/26/13

Did a Dry stout tonight for June picnic.
No sparge added roasted barley at mash out. I double crushed roasted barley - looks a little on the red side instead of black. Need to add more roast or add earlier in the mash.

APA 4/27/13

Brewed an APA tonight hop bursted with 96g Amarillo and 96g Simcoe.
With the kettle element I had to go back to hop bags for the boil.
Had my first boil over with the new setup. What a mess to clean up.
I'll have to keep the element at 65% when I get to 208.
This should be a blond hop bomb.