IPA Clone Series: Blind Pig IPA
Just like the Ruination 10th Anniversary clone I brewed, this is a beer that I hadn’t planned on cloning. That changed when my fiance and I were back in California, and we happened upon some Pliny and Pig while we were out there. Turns out Kristen loves Blind Pig. I’m not throwing the word ‘love’ around loosely either; no, she seriously loves that beer. So I added it to my to-brew list. Clone Blind Pig we shall!
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Scottish 70/-
This is a new style for me. Most of the beers I’ve brewed lately have all been pretty high in gravity, so I want to brew something sessionable. Sessionable doesn’t have to mean flavorless, so I looked through some flavorful beer styles that were sub 1.040. Scottish 70 Shilling jumped out at me. This is also perfect, since with the holiday season fast approaching, it’s nice to be able to offer guests a beer that won’t knock them on their ass in a hurry.
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Kiernan’s Blonde Ale
Our friends Kiernan and Shannon are having a house warming party this December, and I’m brewing them a couple kegs to help celebrate. Since one of the two kegs will be half of the Pliny the Elder clone I recently brewed, we decided the second should be something with more mass-appeal. My Blonde Ale fit the bill nicely. Also, since my last two batches were big Double IPAs, this is a welcome change. As is usually the case, I’m forever tweaking my recipes, and this one is no exception.
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American Stout
It’s time for something malty, roasty, and dark. The nights are getting chiller, and I’m in the mood for a big stout. Lately, I’ve been drinking quite a bit of Sierra Nevada’s and Deschutes’ stouts, both of which are fantastic examples of an American stout with a big hop character. One thing I noticed about both recipes is that they use black barley rather than roasted barley. So I took that idea and ran with it.
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IPA Clone Series: Pliny The Elder
This beer is an interesting one. Why create a clone recipe for a beer that has possibly the most widely distributed clone recipe on the Internet? Well, from what I know, I don’t believe that clone recipe is exact. It’s really close, but we can make it perfect.
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IPA Clone Series: Firestone Walker Double Jack
Oh Double Jack… I love this beer. I feel it’s one of the best beers in the country, and happily defend that statement. =) Seriously though, when I decided to clone some of the best IPAs, Double Jack was one of the first to come to mind. Not much warms my heart more than ripping the foil off of a DJ bomber, popping the cap, and catching a whiff of what’s inside. There’s a good reason Firestone Walker manages to win brewery of the year about 50% of the time.
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American Amber Ale
I was planning on brewing a Double Jack clone this weekend (that keeps getting pushed back), but with the move looming, I never got around to making a starter this week. So on Saturday I scrapped that idea, and flipped through the future batches I have planned to see what could use dry yeast. My Amber Ale fit the bill nicely. I’ve brewed this beer a few times, and most recently back in February. The recipe is pretty close to where I want it, so I only made a few small tweaks this time around. I dropped the C60 to 14oz, and the C120 to 7oz. We added 8oz more Munich, and threw in 1oz Chocolate (up from a pinch) to make up the color difference. Finally there’s .5oz of Galaxy added to the dry hop.
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It’s the Great (Oaked) Pumpkin Ale
It’s that time of year again, time for the invasion of Pumpkin Ales. Wait? They were on the shelves in August? Ok. What. The. Fuck. Pumpkin beers remind me of Halloween, and cool Sunday afternoons in November watching football. Can someone please let the kind people at Boston Beer and BMC know that in Arizona it’s still 105* or higher in August, and the last thing on earth we want is a god damned pumpkin ale when it’s 105*? Pumpkin is a harvest ingredient. Pumpkins are harvested in the fall. Anyway, you get the idea….
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Citra Burst Pale Ale
I’ve yet to sort out my refrigerator woes from last week, but there’s still beer that needs brewed. My Crossfit box, East Valley Crossfit is hosting a huge breast-cancer fundraiser called Barbells for Boobs on October 6th. Here’s a link to the event page on Facebook if anyone is interested; it’s a pretty cool event that raises money for breast cancer exams. The event centers around the Crossfit workout ‘Grace’, which is 30 Clean and Jerks (ground-to-overhead) @ 135lbs for time. Since this is one of only 10 stops on the Pink Bra Tour, there are going to be a TON of people there, so I’m brewing 10 gallons for this, knowing even that won’t be close to enough.
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Ein Groß Bier (Helles)
After spending eleven days in Austria in April, I have been itching to brew a Munich Helles. This is the standard style of beer served all across Bavaria and Austria; if you simply order a beer, you’ll be served a Helles. My only problem brewing a lager is, my fermentation fridge sits in my garage, which is ridiculously hot during the summer. That little mini-fridge has no problem keeping my ales at 60-68* in the summer, but it really struggles to cool a fermenter down to 45-50* when the garage is 105. I found that with a fan blowing on the condenser coil the fridge was able to cool down to around 50*. With that sorted out, the brew day commenced.
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