Brewery Update!!

Wednesday I brewed another blueberry wheat beer, seeing if I could improve the previous recipe.




Here is the old one.
"First of the Season" Blueberry Wheat
5.5 lbs American 2-row
5 lbs wheat
1/2 lb Crystal 15
1 oz Willamette (5.1% AA) 60 min
2 pks Wyeast 2565 Kolsch
2 cans Oregon Blueberry puree
5 oz blueberry flavoring
Mash at 152 for 90 minutes

The New One.
The 2 row and wheat malt stayed the same. I switched out the crystal 15 for a whole lb of caramel 10. I tried to mash at 154, and will only use 1 can of the puree and half the flavoring addition. I used a pack of Wyeast American ale and a pack of Wyeast American wheat. The reason for this is to build up a culture for my the next brew session. I also used .75 oz. of Cluster instead of the Willamette.

Hops Update!!
The hops look great. The chinook has really taken off, with the centennial and cascades not far behind. I installed some support for the vines to grow up on, and did a little trimming.


I don't expect a huge harvest, I just hope I get enough for one batch.


Q.C. Report on the 18 hole kolsch
This beer turned out great!! It has a clean spritzy, mouth feel, smooth hop flavor, malty aroma, and a slightly bitter finish. I can't wait to brew it again. I rigged up a fermentation chamber to my A.C. unit with a thermostat, so I can control fermentation temp and keep it at exactly 60 degrees.
Q.C.R. Grade = A

Centennial Pale Ale V2.0 Tasting Notes

This was a good beer. Nice and Hoppy!
Not to be over critical but it was a little too caramel candy sweet, but in reality it was not cloying and pleasant to the palate. I'll tweek that down a bit next time. Nice white to off white head. Very "drinkable". This stuff was gone fast.



In other news.....



I finally scored a sanyo 4912 mini fridge for a kegerator!!!!!
Thank you Craigslist!
I took it off this guys hands for a mere 100 bucks.
I got the tubes and fittings coming from the always reliable Northern Brewer, and a dual regulator from Midwest Supplies for $99. All I have to do now is pick up the co2 from the gas store, Suburban Carbonics.

GRAND TASTING SESSION!

My good friend Dave McCarthy is back from Alaska, so I thought it would be a good time to do a grand tasting session with a bunch of new beer and some old batches that have been in the cellar for six months.
First we tasted the kolsch I made with 100% Czech Saaz. I thought it was nice. The yeast used was the limited edition Wyeast kolsch strain. It was slightly fruity with that saaz spiciness's. The yeast flocculates very poorly so it still was hazy after 6 weeks in the fridge. Dave thought it had a slight chalky feel. I wasn't getting that at all. I liked the beer very much.
Next we tasted his chocolate raspberry porter, an extract beer. This was a Dave creation and not a memorable one. The beer had an alkaline taste from the chocolate that gave it a huge bite, despite the great raspberry flavor. Almost undrinkable!
Moving on we tasted the blueberry wheat. Dave really enjoyed this one, and said it was good. I still feel it needed more sweetness and body.
After that we tasted the two Fat Tire clones, neither tasted anything like Fat Tire. The oldest batch was based on the NB Phat Tyre kit. It was gross. Too much extract flavor. It was like drinking molasses. The other batch was an exact copy of the Beer Captured recipe for Fat Tire. I thought it tasted like a Newcastle Brown Ale. Dave liked it but said it was too malty. I agreed.
On to the IPA and Pale Ale, both of which I think are excellent batches. Dave really liked the IPA, said he could see it being commercially sold. I would have to agree. It has a great balance between hop aroma, bitterness and overall malt character. After tasting the Pale Ale Dave again said it had a chalky taste. I thought he was on crack! By far this is one of my favorites. It was made with all centennial. You get huge grapefruit notes that is balanced with the sweet malt character. These will be the first recipes I will try to duplicate.