I did a bulk grain pickup yesterday at White Birch Brewery. That place is pretty inspiring for me. The guy started on two morebeer systems, and basically worked his ass off to get where he is today (which is successful enough to hire a new head brewer, and upgrade to a 7bbl system). The shop isn't big, but it's certainly bigger than what I have.
I'll need to really push my expectations of myself and my brewing if I want this to work. After this move, I'm planning on at least 2 brews per month and using those brews to hone 5 or 6 recipes to perfection. My first will be the brown ale posted. While I like this IPA I've brewed, it's really tame compared to whats out there on the market in terms of hop flavor. I'm going to work on it to get it boosted so that it's a true Imperial IPA. I've got a stout lined up that will hopefully have some beautiful stone-fruit notes and a spicy raisin flavor throughout. Finally, I've got a recipe that I want to perfect that is something like a bold kolsch.
Those are just my year-round offerings. Clearly, I'll need some great seasonals, and special releases. I have a catalog of brews that I've done, and brews that I want to do, sitting in my recipe book. Time to get brewing.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Duh!
Yeah, there was a 4th option to the below that I completely whiffed on. Dry hopping.
Just a few days into the 3oz dry hop of the remaining 7 gallons, and the hop power is AMAZING.
Yeah, this could've probably been a twitter entry.
Just a few days into the 3oz dry hop of the remaining 7 gallons, and the hop power is AMAZING.
Yeah, this could've probably been a twitter entry.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
In short - why Amarillo hops are amazingly expensive
So, just a mere 4-weeks into the process and the IPA has lost all the great Amarillo hop flavor. This tells me a few things.
1) Perhaps I didn't treat the water correctly (I'm open to this being the big culprit)
2) Perhaps I didn't use enough hops for flavor + aroma (I'm open to this being a major factor)
3) Perhaps Amarillo hops are very volatile. (I'm not as convinced on this).
Regardless, since I know that people are getting set to consume in 2 short weeks, I need to fix it. The way I see it, I have 2 approaches. Either brew a new batch and risk not enough hops for that batch again, or try to add hop flavor to the existing batch.
I'm going to go with #2. First, because it's relatively easy for me to do. Just boom - boil up some hops for 20 minutes, cool it, and add it to the fermenters. Second - it gives me some time to re-evaluate my recipe and technique without making another mistake in that area. Third - it's a cool technique, and I'm all for cool techniques.
Good luck to me!
1) Perhaps I didn't treat the water correctly (I'm open to this being the big culprit)
2) Perhaps I didn't use enough hops for flavor + aroma (I'm open to this being a major factor)
3) Perhaps Amarillo hops are very volatile. (I'm not as convinced on this).
Regardless, since I know that people are getting set to consume in 2 short weeks, I need to fix it. The way I see it, I have 2 approaches. Either brew a new batch and risk not enough hops for that batch again, or try to add hop flavor to the existing batch.
I'm going to go with #2. First, because it's relatively easy for me to do. Just boom - boil up some hops for 20 minutes, cool it, and add it to the fermenters. Second - it gives me some time to re-evaluate my recipe and technique without making another mistake in that area. Third - it's a cool technique, and I'm all for cool techniques.
Good luck to me!
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