Back from the Dead

I'm finally at a point where I have some time to post. So here's some information.

1) It looks like a farm brewery is out of the question for me. I can't find the location that makes it doable and affordable. It's a lot of hoops to jump through. I'm not sure how the licensure works if I'm a small brewery (for instance, can I still get a "farm brewery" license?)

2) I have recipes for a brewpub together. Things like "fried melon wrapped in prosciutto crusted with panko." Yeah - it's extremely delicious (but impossibly difficult to make correctly). I'm going to get together with a few chefs and plan out the menus in more detail, as well as get a "corporate philosophy" together on how the restaurant half would run (ie: buy local+fresh, etc.)

3) New beer in the works. "Wit's End." Brewed on my 93+% brewhouse efficiency system (wow, I love saying that). 10gal batch is fermenting strong, and if all goes well, we should be done by thursday/friday. 1089 to (1022-1018) is my estimated fermentation.

2.5# White Wheat
1# Crystal 60L
2.5# Gamb. Honey
19.5# Pale Ale

Mash at 152F for 60 minutes @ 1.5qt/lb
Sparge at 1.3qt/lb

90 minute boil

1 oz Hallertau (3.8% AAU) @ 60
.5 oz Fuggles (4.5% AAU) @ 60

1 oz Hallertau (3.8% AAU) @ 10
.5 oz Fuggles (4.5% AAU) @ 10

Safbrew SB-06 (German Wheat) @ 68F for 4-6 days.

Excitement abounds!

I have an appointment next week to look at some industrial space. Wish me luck.

Quick beer shot

Here it is, the beer money-shot. Wait for it...









Check out the clarity. I don't even filter - and if you look close enough, you'll see dry-hops that are pouring out of the keg with every glass. Regardless, the beer tastes great. A strong bitter, beautiful malt. I am definitely digging it.

In other news, I received my 9 bag shipment of grain. It's amazing how delicious the Caramel Munich 120 tastes. It really does taste intensely of raisins and coffee. A beautiful combination that will no doubt make the stout I'm going to brew have great notes of fruit and coffee. I won't be adding any _real_ fruit of course - that's for cheaters :P

I've been getting differing feedback on the 'Black-Capped Brewery' name from people. Some think it sounds like pirates and illegal things. Others caught the Chickadee reference. Not sure what pirates and chickadees have in common - we'll see.

Brewery Name

I've been playing around with names, and I've gotta say, I really like "Black-Capped Brewery" as the name for my brewery. Black-Capped Chickadee is the state bird, and I have fond memories of being in the backyard of my grandparents house (which happens to be my house now) listening to them chirp in the morning. Plus, it FEELS "New England," which is important to me. I want people to know that the brewery is local - rooted in heritage (supposedly, I have ancestors who came over on the mayflower).

I dunno... maybe it's a terrible name. Would you buy a Black-Capped Brewery stout? I think so.

Bulk-Grain

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.

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.

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!