The best money I’ve spent on homebrewing
…or the list of things I would still buy “if I had to do it all over again”
Home Brewing Starter kit
This is without a doubt the one thing every person wanting to start home brewing should buy. It seems like a no-brainer, but people ask me all the time if the kits are ‘worth it’. The basic home brewing starter kit will come with just about everything needed to brew a batch of beer, and you’ll continue to use everything in the kit, for years to come. Carboys look cool, but they aren’t necessary (hell, I still use buckets). The capper, hydrometer, and bottling wand are all super handy. And most importantly, buying a home brew kit will start you down the road of home brewing; best money I’ve spent on this hobby.
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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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We’re Moving
My Fiance and I are moving a few miles down the road, and our current condo is up for rent. We’re starting to pack things up, and that unfortunately includes all my brewing gear. I still have a few beers in the pipeline, so you’ll see a couple posts in the coming month or two. Although after that, expect a bit of a lull, as I won’t be brewing much in the next 4-6 weeks.
On the bright side, our new place has a two car garage, backyard, and back porch, so brewing will be much, much easier. I have to admit, I won’t miss brewing in this tiny condo. Anyway, stay tuned, I’ve got some fun stuff on the way.
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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East Valley IPA
After some friends and I tore through the better part of the Pliny clone I brewed, I’m short an IPA on tap. At the moment there’s still some of my Ruination 10th Anniversary clone left, but it turned out a bit sweet, and it’s a sipper for sure. I want something hoppy but drinkable, so I’m brewing a tweaked version of my Hop Knot Clone. I absolutely love the grain bill for Hop Knot, as well as the yeast character. The hop character is also fantastic, but I want to try to throw some CTZ in the recipe to see how it tastes with some of that dank/resinous quality that CTZ has.
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American Altbier
It’s been a good while since I’ve brewed anything malty. Everything I’ve made for the past five months has been pale other than the Black IPA I made. Even though it’s really hard to imagine the cooler temps of fall when it’s July in Arizona, I’m going to brew an Altbier in anticipation of the cooler fall nights. I really didn’t stick to a specific style for this one (Dusseldorf or Northern German), and I’m using decidedly American ingredients for this batch. Which makes this beer sort of an American Altbier.
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2012 Nuclear Penguin — R.I.P.
It’s finally here, time to brew my 2012 edition of Nuclear Penguin. This beer started off a little over a year ago when I brewed a clone of Dogfish 120 Minute. It turned out pretty awesome, and despite all the tedious work that batch required, it was really fun. So after the beer was done, tasting delicious, and aging gracefully in bottles, I starting thinking about brewing it again. But much like Sam and crew did on Brewmasters, I went back to the drawing board, and thought about what I wanted this beer to taste like. I didn’t necessarily want another 120 Minute clone, but rather a 15%+ ABV IPA that was more of a blend of Pliny the Younger and 120 Minute.
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Power Outage Blonde Ale
What. A. Brew. Day. Literally an hour after I was telling my fiance how much I’m enjoying brewing indoors on my new electric system, the power goes out. Fantastic. Thankfully it didn’t catch me at too inconvenient time during the brew day, but what a pain in the ass. I suppose I should talk about the beer before I get too far into my mishaps. I’m brewing a simplified version of the Honey Blonde I’ve brewed in the past. I’m switching to a single hop (Centennial), and only using a single specialty malt (C10). The one thing I always liked about that beer was the cracker-y/biscuit-y character that it had, so I changed 30% of the base malt to Marris Otter, to bring some of that character back. Other than those changes, it’s the same beer.
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2012 Hop Harvest + Storage Tricks
For those that aren’t aware, the hop harvest is here. Over the next month to month and a half, the hop farmers will be harvesting their 2012 crop. Now is the time to buy your hops for the year. I know it can be difficult to predict what you’re going to want or need for the next twelve months, but you’ll get good prices and the freshest hops right now.
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