The "Almost" Daily Beer and Bike Log June 26 2015

                                          
I am learning a lot through trail and error. As someone who as only started brewing beer, I have learned a lot in only a few months. You can take risks and hope for the best with recipes that you may think will knock it out of the park, and be disappointing in the final results. 

You can brew a batch that you find would have been great if maybe the carbonation was there (or a little less in some cases) or you may find that a batch of Bourbon Imperial IPA which may be too bitter alone is actually pretty good with some Orange in it. 

All in all though I think what drives at least myself is the anticipation of what that final result will be. 

I had a couple of not so good batches and was really getting disappointed, then I reached into the fridge one day and pulled out one of my (or our little brewers groups) very first big beer recipe an Imperial IPA (the actual base to that Bourbon IPA I mentioned earlier, but this had no extras in it) I poured it in a glass and said 

"Wow, that really was a great beer" in that single bottle of beer was the inspiration and confidence that had been knocked out of me in the last couple of small brews. I gathered myself up and went after it with a small batch Scotch Ale. (With it's own set of screw ups see Tales...............) I am excited again waiting for this beer to come out of secondary and into the bottles. I also just recently bottled my Cherry Wheat (not too excited with this one) and a Small batch of my Bitter Sweet IPA (very excited about this batch) And I can not wait for the next recipe to gather together and brew up another batch. The plus side of all this is I have learned that brewing these one gallon batches is a good learning experience when things go wrong and I only have about 8-10 beers. On the other hand when it hits the mark I only have 8-10 beers. But I think i am doing it the right way, the beers that work I am saving and scaling for bigger brew days. The beers that do not, I go back to the drawing board or abandon it completely and I am only out a small amount since the recipe was a gallon batch. 

A Fathers Day Bike Post

Mountain Bike Babe

Beers To Try Before you Die or the Beer Bucket 52 List 44 of 52 Urban Chestnut Hopfen

Even though I had a fridge full of beer I can not help myself when I hit the grocery store. So I picked up this pint of Urban Chestnut Hopfen to indulge in that evening. and Boy was I glad I did. Now Urban Chestnut makes one of my favorite Lagers Their Zwickel Bavarian Lager so i figured this would be equal to that..Well it was better, Really good beer with nice hop flavor, the only disappointment was I had only one...

So seeing that I gave the Zwickel a High 5 beer score I am going to have to give this the same five beers along with a shot.

 If you are around St Louis put Urban Chestnut on your list for beer.

To view what all the ratings mean go to the 52 Beers to try Before You die Bucket list page

Disclaimer I am a beer drinker and a beginner home brewer the above is only my taste buds telling me what I enjoy, it is not the law or rule of the land, these would be the beers that I am grateful to have tried before the day comes when I pass on and meet my maker.

Great Find on the Net From Esquire 10 Beers You will never taste

Found this article on Beers you will never taste..Beers that are limited and the holy grail of beer drinkers everywhere... From the Esquire website 10 Great Beers you will never taste  "No Time For Love Dr Jones...We Need Beer!!!"

Tales from the One Gallon Brew...Mocha Scotch Ale

Well over the weekend I squeezed in a brew day. I was able to make an original recipe Mocha Scotch Ale. The Brewing process is getting a bit easier but as usual there is always a slip up (I will get to that shortly) 

Got started with some Maris Otter (I think I really like the taste of this Grain and plan on using it a bit more as a base in the future)

Some Acidulated Specialty Malt

Some Crystal 60, Chocolate Malt and some Roasted Barley

I got going and everything was fine, the water was getting up to temperature then I realized I had no gallon Ziplock bags to crush my grains (Reason 1 for getting a mill when I can afford it) I found a paper bag and started crushing with a can of peaches, while trying to keep the bag from tearing and my grains going everywhere.

 The Water went over my temperature and I had to cool it down I added a half a quart of cool water (which in the end I think helped to reach my 1 gallon batch. 

Got the temp back down to 160 and finally Mashed in.

As Usual I grabbed a Beer and waited as I stirred...Since I was brewing a Scotch Ale I grabbed a Beer right out of Scotland. Belhaven 90/  

From the Belhaven Brewery in Scotland 

Anyway a Very tasty Beer that will make "The List" but that is later....

After the Mash I was able to get the grains into a Strainer and Sparge (getting better at this, but burned my arm lifting the pot high enough..Reason 1 for a ball valve...

I gathered my Gallon and a half or six quarts, and started the boil....

Once I got the boil rolling, I added a half an ounce of Fuggle Hops (saving the rest for the 10 min mark) 

And 3.5 ounces of Brown sugar

So here is where the Oh Shit moment came in.  I used a Wyeast Scottish Ale Smack pack.

 I thought I had broken the plastic activator bag inside and when it was time to pitch the yeast I cut open the bag and went "Oh Shit" as I noticed I did not crack open the inner activator bag. I sterilized my hands tried as I could to break it open but nothing, so I dropped my scissors into some Star San cut it open and dumped the bag into the beer. Now this may be a variable that fucks this beer up, but I am hopeful it will come out fine. It was bubbling which is more than I can say for my last brew. I also put the fermenter into a closet on our main floor this time hoping the warmer darker area would help the process..Well we shall see in a few days.........

It's The Weekend Go For It!!!

Beers To Try Before you Die or the Beer Bucket 52 List 43 of 52 Kirkwood Station Midnight Train

So After my Cherry Wheat Brew

 I decided to grab a beer I have had before but never in the form of THE CAN....

From Our local Kirkwood Station Brewing Company this one is my favorites. 

Midnight Train is a Dark Lager that is great for a summertime beer full of taste (dark does not always mean heavy) Now I can say it was still delicious after a long day at work and then the peaceful but long brewing process (no longer than any other but after a long day at work the brewing is great..Honestly it is the clean up that always sucks) 

Anyway I sat down and popped open a can I had picked up on the way home...YUM! I can say I do prefer it in my growler or right from the tap at the brewery, the can does give it that tin flavor (and a big reason I have almost always drank from Bottles even in my Big beer drinking days) 

Regardless this is an excellent beer and I know anyone outside of the St Louis area will have a hard time getting Midnight Train but this is my list and I got to include it. 

From the tap I give this a strong 4 beer rating 

(in the can I have to drop it to 3 beers and a shot, what can I say I like it in glass, but Either-way Great Beer)

To view what all the ratings mean go to the 52 Beers to try Before You die Bucket list page

Disclaimer I am a beer drinker and a beginner home brewer the above is only my taste buds telling me what I enjoy, it is not the law or rule of the land, these would be the beers that I am grateful to have tried before the day comes when I pass on and meet my maker.

Weekend Forecast Cycling With a Chance Of Drinking!!!! How Well does this shirt fit this site?

Found this Through Cycling Humour On Facebook but they are said to be selling fast. Either way great shirt buy here @ Teespring 

The "Almost" Daily Beer and Bike Log June 11 2015

Well do not know if it is because I over boiled and had a bit less than a full gallon fermenting in a 2 gallon bucket, 

or if I just Screwed it up but not much activity in the airlock, which has been typical of the small batches. 

I will find out in a day or two as I transfer to secondary, I may add some Yeast energizer to get it going. Also the prospect of making another small batch this time a Scotch ale .
                                              
I found some recipes on Brew Toad and went over to our local brew shop To gather the ingredients and to make it my own.

After looking over some of the ingredients and the fact I wanted an All Grain batch not a partial (or an extract batch) The lady helped me adjust to something that was not only a little less expensive but looks like it will come out great in the end product.

First I changed The Hops they had. Instead of using two different hops (and with a single batch having to buy at least an ounce of each anyway) I saved a few bucks and will just split an ounce of Fuggle Hops throughout the boil. Also Since I already have Wood chips, I am not going to purchase Wood Cubes.

Anyway Here is the Grain Bill for My Mocha Scotch Ale (kind of an Infusion of a Stout and Scotch Ale)

2 Lbs of Maris Otter as My Base
1.6 oz of Chocolate Malt
1.6 oz Roasted Barley
1.6 Peated Malt
1.6 Crystal 60

1 oz Fuggle Hops (split .5 @60 min and .5 @10 min)
3.2 oz of Brown Sugar 60 min
Tsp of Irish Moss @ 10 min
a third of a Whirlfloc tab @10 min

I am going to add the Wood Chips to the Secondary for 14 days (during primary about 3-4 days, I will soak the wood chips in Scotch)

I will start with 2.5 Quarts for the Mash
And 5 Quarts for the Sparge, hopefully collecting about a gallon and a half (or 6 Quarts to boil.) 

I lost too much on my Cherry Wheat Ale coming in under a gallon so this time I am hopeful the amounts work out to about a gallon after the boil....I will try and make this tonight or tomorrow so we will see what happens.

Biking is Fun..and a spectator sport also

 Coming or............

Going Riding is fun

...and a spectator sport also 

Tales from the One Gallon Brew MY first original Brew: Cherry Hop Wheat Beer

Well with an early and disappointing exit from my daughters softball tournament and 300 dollars in the hole with a broken bat...

I had more time on Sunday evening to brew a batch of beer. This time I was on my own, but decided to try a sparge batch since I picked up an inexpensive second pot from Wal Mart

Also this would be my first original recipe made up from pieced together ingredients. I had wanted to try a sort of Cherry beer and figured a Wheat beer would match well with it. 

So I had 2 pounds of 2 Row I grabbed from my buddy rob on our last Brew knowing it is the base for pretty much anything.

 I bought a pound of White Wheat and 2 pounds of cherries. To round it all our I had some Citra Hops left over from my last brew (dry Hopping) and got an ounce of Centennial Hops for the batch.

 Rounded that out with some Munich Wheat beer yeast and I was ready to go.

I started with 2 and a half Quarts of water and got that up to 160 degrees. Poured in my grains (after crushing them with a peach can, I think I need a mill I will see how this batch comes out but I don't think I am crushing them enough)

 Anyway I added the grains and stirred for the hour (every ten minutes not the whole hour I also needed to add heat a few times to keep it in the 144-152 range)

Yeah I bit hard to take a picture pour and stir with steam coming up

Once I was close to the hour I heated another 4 and a half quarts to 170  (next time I am going with at least 5 to 6 quarts the boil brought me under the gallon mark) and I brought the temperature on the mash to 170. 

I strained the wort into the other pot and then sparged through the strainer for just over a gallon of wort.

I got the wort up to a boil added 1/3 of the centennial hops and a third of the cherries to the boil. 

I can say pitting the fresh cherries was time consuming but I am hoping that in the end the fresh cherries will give me a better taste than frozen could have

I also made a big mistake and dropped a third of a tab of Whirlfloc (was supposed to wait till last 10 minutes that is what happens brewing beer with a toddler running around and you have to have a split attention span) 

Nothing I could do at that point so I pressed on. I added another third of the Centennial hops at 30 minutes along with another third of the fresh cherries. And finally adding the last of the Centennial and cherries at 45 minutes. I also added a half a teaspoon of Irish Moss. Then with ten minutes to go a half an ounce of Citra hops to give it a hoppy kick. (for this batch I may leave it alone or I may add another half an ounce in secondary not sure yet. 

This time I also hydrated my yeast (something I have not done with my other small batches, we use smack packs on the 5 gallon versions, but that would be too much here, I can say the last Beer I did seemed to have a dead Yeast in it (My everyday Bitter Sweet IPA, we will see in a few weeks on that one)  Well in a couple of days I will move it over to secondary and we will see how it is going. As always I finished the brew night off with a beer....A Local beer at that My favorite from Kirkwood Station..Midnight Train

Beers To Try Before you Die or the Beer Bucket 52 List 43 of 52 4 Hands Alter Ego Black IPA in a Can

Alter Ego Black IPA was a beer I had not tried yet from our local 4 Hands Brewery 

I was in the store one day and as I grabbed another six pack I looked over and saw the six pack of cans..They have always had some cool artwork for their beer

Yes Cans as craft beer has gone the way of cans for your and my convenience. Even my wife was in awe that I was drinking a beer from a can after years of never touching a canned beer. but I figured what the hell the beers I have had from 4 Hands were good beers, so why not give it a try. Now I can say I have always preferred Bottles to cans even when I drank the piss the big brands put out, just liked the taste better, of the bottled beer not the piss.

 But Alter Ego was good and it went down oh too easy as I popped two off quickly.  I can say I have had better Black IPAs and I have absolutely had worse but Alter Ego was a pretty rock solid Black IPA

I am going to give it a solid 3 beer down the middle rating, 

it was good and I look forward to trying some more beer from 4 Hands.

To view what all the ratings mean go to the 52 Beers to try Before You die Bucket list page

Disclaimer I am a beer drinker and a beginner home brewer the above is only my taste buds telling me what I enjoy, it is not the law or rule of the land, these would be the beers that I am grateful to have tried before the day comes when I pass on and meet my maker.