About That …

Yikes – it has been about three months since my last post.  About time I got back in the saddle.  Not much excuse for not posting – just kind of lost track of the blog for a bit and got busy with a variety of events.  Anyways, I have been keeping busy with a variety of fermentables (including my first cider and wine), so there actually is a decent amount of stuff that I want to update on.  To keep it a bit more manageable, I’m going to split it up into a few pieces (pretty much a post for each batch).  So without further mucking about ….

One of my better book purchases of the last couple years, is the book that Stone Brewing Company came out with about a year ago.  Besides giving a great history of one of my favorite breweries straight from the source, the book also has some awesome homebrew versions of a bunch of beers that they have released over their history, including a lot of rarities and one-time releases.  Among these recipes, was Lee’s Mild – a dark English mild that Stone released early in its history, that didn’t fit in with their portfolio and was never released again by the brewery.  Doesn’t change the fact that it’s a fantastic beer.  Finding myself wanting a flavorful English session beer, I decided to give this one a whirl. 

I love this beer for a variety of reasons.  One, it’s a damn tasty beer.  Two, its sessionable.  Three, it challenges peoples’ perceptions of craft beer.  Some people are convinced that all homebrews are these big, strong beers that will get you drunk after just one or two.  This beer (and the style, for that matter) is proof that even craft brewers and homebrewers enjoy being able to have a few pints without getting sloshed.  Clocking in at just 3.8% ABV, this beer has less alcohol than a Coors Light.  The other way it challenges people is that it disproves the myth that low alcohol correlates to low flavor.  Think again, buck-o; this bad boy has a surprising amount of depth and never fails to satisfy. 

I definitely recommend brewing this, or some sort of English Mild, for all your session drinking needs – whether you need a batch for a party, or just want a tasty beer to be able to drink a few of.  This is roughly the recipe from the book, although I have modified it a bit for ingredients on hand and rounding some of the weights.  This will certainly be finding its way into my regular rotation. 

A glass of Lee's Mild held up to a light. 

Lee's Mild Clone

Recipe specifics:

Style: Mild

Batch size: 5.2 gal

Boil volume: 3.5 gal

OG: 1.041

FG: 1.010

Bitterness (IBU): 24.9

Color (SRM): 18.8

ABV: 4.0%

Grain/Sugars:

4.00 lb Maris Otter Malt, 46.6%

3.15 lb NB Marris Otter LME, 36.7%

0.62 lb Brown Malt (British), 7.3%

0.56 lb Crystal 135-165L (British), 6.5%

0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt, 2.9%

Hops:

2.00 oz Sonnet (AA 4.0%, Pellet) 60 min, 23.9 IBU

1.00 oz Sonnet (AA 4.0%, Pellet) 2 min, 1.0 IBU

Yeast/Misc:

English Ale yeast, 1.0 unit(s), Yeast

Irish Moss, 1.0 unit(s), Fining 1 tsp at 15 min

Song of the Day: “Focus Shall Not Fail” by All That Remains

Beer of the Day: Iron Hill/Ithaca Dark Humor Aged in Sherry Barrels

Belgian Rhino Black IPA

Well, I’m a bit behind on a few posts, but I’m going to attempt to catch up in the next week or two.  A couple months ago I decided to bring back one of the biggest beers I’ve brewed (topped only by my recent Phantasm Imperial Stout), with a twist.  I brewed my Angry Rhino Black IPA last year for the first annual Triumph Homebrew Competition. 

I was very happy with the way it turned out, but wanted to turn up the hop profile a bit for the next version.  As an additional twist, I decided to try out Wyeast’s French Saison yeast strain instead of Wyeast American Ale II (1272), which I used for the original version.  I needed to take a little break from American and English Ale strains, and try something new.  So I found myself keeping essentially the same grain bill, amping up the hops (my hoppiest brew to date), and tossing in a yeast strain I haven’t used before.

The finished product came out great and exceeded my expectations.  The earthy saison yeast paired very nicely with the Chinook hops, with some citrus thrown in there from the Centennial.  One of my concerns with using a saison strain was that it might be too potent of a yeast flavor, in a beer that is meant to be primarily hop-driven.  However, the saison actually pushed the hops a bit and added a nice background complexity and smooth mouthfeel (despite the fact that the yeast dried out the beer very nicely).  This 10% ABV monster actually came out very smooth and was not as brutal as it may appear based on the hop bill.  It was definitely a worthwhile departure from the normal Black IPA flavor profile, although I will probably only mix this one in once in awhile.  The next Black IPA I brew will probably be a more standard reprisal of the original Angry Rhino Black IPA.

What better way to test out the new version of the recipe, than in competition?  To be honest, I timed this one to coincide with the Second Annual Triumph Brewing Competition, hosted by Triumph Brewing Company, which was held this past Saturday.  This year, the entries were split into four different categories and was held over three rounds, the first of which was a peer review.  Although the Belgian Rhino didn’t make it past the first round (in hind sight, I probably should have entered into Belgian category instead of Ales/IPAs), I did have a chance to taste a lot of interesting beers, including one made with jalapenos!  The competition was definitely a good time again this year, and was much more organized than last year.  Can’t wait until next year’s competition!

Although I didn’t make it past the first round in the Triumph Competition, I did fair a bit better with the Belgian Rhino in the Buzz Off Competition, hosted by BUZZ Homebrew Club on the same day as the Triumph Competition.  I ended up taking home second place in the Belgian Specialty category, which felt really good considering this was first time I had placed in a competition since last year’s Buzz Off competition, despite coming close on a couple other competitions (more on that in another post).  I also ended up taking second place in the Smoked Beer category for my Moment of Silence smoked porter, so it was a good night overall.  My cousin-in-law and brewing buddy, Jeremy, took home three medals for his beers in the same competition, so it was a good night for both of us!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun brewing the Belgian Rhino, and if you’re looking for a twist on a hefty black IPA, give this one a shot!  Cheers!

Belgian Rhino Black IPA

Batch size: 5.2 gal

Boil volume: 3.5 gal

OG: 1.106

FG: 1.027

Bitterness (IBU): 96.4

Color (SRM): 40.6

ABV: 10.4%

[Grains]

NB Gold LME    12.000lb    Extract    75.0%

Light DME    2.000lb    Extract    12.5%

Crystal 60L    1.000lb    Grain    6.2%

Carafa III malt    1.000lb    Grain    6.2%

[Hops]

Chinook 5.00oz 13.0% AA Pellet @ 90 min, 85.8 IBU

Centennial 2.00oz 10.0% AA Pellet @ 5 min, 4.9 IBU

Chinook 2.00oz 11.5% AA Pellet @ 5 min, 5.7 IBU

Centennial 2.00oz 10.0% AA Pellet @ Dry Hop (Split into two dry hops, a week for each)

Chinook 2.00oz 11.5% AA Pellet @ Dry Hop (Split into two dry hops, a week for each)

[Yeast/Other]

French Saison Yeast    1.0 unit(s), Yeast

Irish Moss    1.0 unit(s), Fining 1 tsp at 15 min

*Note: The saison strain actually attenuates a bit more than indicated above.  It seems to dry out a lot more than American Ale strains.

Song of the Day: “This Darkened Heart” by All That Remains

Beer of the Day: Stone Brewing Company’s Imperial Russian Stout

There Is, In Fact, Life Outside of this Blog and Beer

Sorry folks, its been awhile since I’ve had the time (or, probably more accurately, the energy) to update this blog.  Considering I’m getting married in a little over a month (very excited!), it probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you that I probably won’t have many posts in any sort of consistent frequency until December.  However, I figured I needed to throw a post up here to at least attempt to update you all on my life the last month or so. 

Life in General:

Wedding plans have been coming together well, and we are getting closer to the big day.  I’m extraordinarily excited to get married to my incredible fiancée Theresa!  I can’t wait to finally tie the knot and go on our honeymoon to San Fran!  We have heard lots of great things about San Fran, and can’t wait to get away for 10 nights just the two of us! :-) 

Other than activities for the wedding, my life has also stayed busy from work.  We just got through a “go-live” where we switched a lot of business units onto the new SAP system we have been configuring and testing.  This is always a hectic time for any IT professional.  However, overall, it has gone pretty smoothly for my team.  Last week I was down at a major plant of ours in Texas to support the users as we switched over to the new system.  Although we did have some issues, there were certainly no more than a typical go-live.  Just enough issues to keep me busy enough to not really be able to do much in Texas other than work-related activities, but not so busy that I was working crazy hours.  It was definitely nice to get through this milestone.

Homebrewing:

So I haven’t really provided much of an update on my oatmeal stout or the pair of single-hop pale ales that I did a while back.  The end results of all three beers were very good.  The two pales gave me a good idea on how the two hops that I was trying out would work.  Of the two, I like the Calypso Pale Ale better (a nose of pear and apple with solid bittering and flavor capabilities while the Sonnet gave a profile more like a UK Golding).  I will probably not use either of these hops again in a single-hop beer, but I think they would both play well with others.  In fact, I am planning on using the Calypso again in a rye amber I am planning on brewing this weekend.  In the future, I will most likely use the Calypso for bittering and dry-hopping, and the Sonnet mostly for finishing and dry-hopping. 

I was very pleased with the way the Fork ‘N Knife stout came out for a first iteration of a house oatmeal stout recipe.  The roast flavor and aroma came through very nicely, the appearance is exactly the opaque black I was looking for, the head retention is great, and the mouth feel is solid.  Definitely some room for improvement though.  I would like to see it have a bit more body with a little bit more chocolate flavor rather than the coffee-dominated roast profile that it has now.  It also seems to be missing something in the middle of the taste.  The roasty finish is about what I want but there isn’t as much of a presence in the middle of the palate.  Overall, I am very pleased with this iteration, but I think it would be even better with a little tweaking to the grain bill.

Although I haven’t had all that much time to brew lately, I have been working on several recipes.  In fact, I will be brewing my first crack at my house rye amber this weekend (named Bulldog Brew).  I’m really excited to brew this one because I’ve been craving a solid amber ale to have on hand for awhile now and this will be the first time I will be brewing with malted rye.  Should be a very tasty brew.

By piecing together spare bits of free time at home, on train rides, and on flights, I’ve also managed to develop several new recipes and concepts that are all ready to brew when I get back from the honeymoon.   I’m basically planning on doing a whole lot of brewing this winter to test out a bunch of these recipes.  Among these recipes, I am also putting together a couple new series of beers that I am very excited about.  One of these will be an annual installment series, while the other will probably be a themed release every few months.  More on those later, but for now, here are the beers that I’m most excited about that are coming up in the next few months:

·         Ruination Clone – I originally did a clone of Stone Brewery’s Ruination IPA last December.  My version of Ruination and Theresa’s Ale are the two beers that I am most proud of the outcomes.  These beers are also the ones that got the best feedback from friends and family that tasted them – by far.  I figure, that pretty much means its time to re-brew this clone and try to improve on it with new techniques and equipment that I have acquired in the last dozen or so brews that I have done since I brewed Ruination last winter.  This time around, I am also planning on doing a double dry-hopped version (probably in a Party Pig), similar to Stone’s very limited double-dry hopped releases that they have done recently.

·         Smoked Porter and Hopbursted American Pale Ale – I am planning on doing a pair of ales for one of the themed series that I mentioned earlier.  I am planning on doing a smoked porter and a hopbursted (a technique where most of the hops get packed in towards the end of the boil) American pale ale.  These beers will be meant to be themed together and, as such, I am also planning on taking half of each batch and creating a blended beer in the secondary.  The result will be each beer alone and a blended beer.  Much more on these beers to come in a couple months.

·         Imperial Stout – Imperial stout is one of my favorite styles of beer and I figure its about time I take a crack at one.  Wait, I’m doing two?  Kind of.  I’m planning on brewing a full batch of imperial stout and splitting the batch in half during the secondary fermentation.  I will ferment one half out as a standard imperial stout, and the other half will get an alternative treatment.  I haven’t landed on a specific treatment yet but I am getting closer.

·         Chipotle Ale – I have been meaning to do a beer with hot peppers for quite some time now but just haven’t had the right timing to do it yet.  This summer I managed to let some of my homegrown jalapeños stay on the plant until they were red and grilled them up to get them nice and smokey and roasty.  I have four or five of these babies in my freezer right now just waiting for a malty home.  I have a recipe together that is rough clone of Rogue’s Chipotle Ale.  I’m very interested to do this beer and can’t wait to see how it turns out.  This is definitely one of those beers that has a chance of either being great, or really terrible.

Other Beer-Related Matters

As always, I have had some great beers over the last few weeks, but the craft beer highlight for me since my last post was definitely a Stone Brewing Company event that Pinocchio’s hosted in late September.  For the event they had a bunch of Stone kegs on tap, including a couple very limited edition kegs – a double-dry hopped Ruination, and their 15^th Anniversary Ale (both of which were incredible!).  In addition to the tap take over, they had a great special where you could buy a limited edition Stone Brewing/Pinocchio’s swing-top growler filled with any of the Stone beers for $25 (except the rarities which were a little more)!  Given the quality of the growler (which on a normal day would retail for $20 empty) and the quality of the beer, this was a great deal!  I also picked up a couple bottles of the Anniversary Ale. 

To go along with these great Stone beers, I also recently got a copy of Stone’s new book The Craft of Stone Brewing Company, which was co-authored by the two main founders of Stone and one of their PR guys to celebrate their first fifteen years.  The book contains four main sections: beer basics, the history of Stone including a beerography (pretty sure that’s not a real word, but oh well) of their releases from the last fifteen years, food recipes from their bistro, and a bunch of clone recipes for some of their beers, including some limited releases and collaborations.  I am through about half of the book and am about to get into the food recipes section.  The book is very interesting and entertaining and I am very excited to read through the recipes section and give a few of the dishes a shot (the ones that I have peaked at so far sound really good!) and try out a couple of the clone recipes.  This book is definitely a must for any Stone fan – especially if you like to cook and brew.

Perfect drinking and reading pairing - both in celebration of 15 years of brewing excellance from Stone Brewing Company.

Video Games:

I have also managed to piece together some time to spend on my other major hobby – video games.  I finally finished up Mass Effect 2 just in time to start playing Gears of War 3.  I just beat the single-player campaign a week and a half ago and I was very impressed with the game.  This is easily the best of the Gears of War trilogy and is a great conclusion to the series.  The story has a great pace to it and the gameplay mechanics are very smooth.  Additionally, the multiplayer modes are all a lot of fun.  Horde mode (where you and your buddies have fend off increasingly difficult waves of Locust) makes a triumphant return, as well as a new mode called Beast mode (basically Horde mode in reverse where the player is the Locust).  Even the Versus mode (their version of standard matchmaking which I was not a big fan of in the first two games) is a lot of fun in this installment.  All in all, Epic created an incredible capstone to one of the Xbox 360’s flagship game franchises.

Well folks, that’s basically the abbreviated version of the highlights of the last few weeks in the world of John Maynard.  I don’t really expect things to slow down until about December.  So, until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Good People” by Jack Johnson

Beer of the Day: Stone Brewery’s 15^th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA

Brewing To-Do List

I’m taking a slight break from brewing to regroup, get organized, and plan out some new stuff.  Here’s a peak at what I’ll be working on for the next couple weeks on the brewing front:

New Hops: Sonnet and Calypso

In a stroke of inspiration from Stone Brewery’s blog, I decided to order some new hop varieties a week or so ago to try them out.  Sonnet hops are very new, and don’t even have an official pedigree yet over at Hops Direct.  It sounds like they are similar to a UK Golding and weigh in at around 4% Alpha.  Calypso’s aren’t quite as new but are a new-ish dual-purpose (bittering and aroma) variety of hops that weigh in around 12% Alpha.  Since I ordered from Hops Direct, I had to order in one-pound quantities so I decided to get a pound of each.  I’m pretty excited to try these two varieties out and see what I can do with them.  To start, I am going to do two small batches of standard pale ale with each hop for all additions (i.e. a pale ale with all Calypso and a pale ale with all Sonnet) to get an idea of the flavor and aroma that each impart.  From there, I should be able to tell what styles of beer I want to use the hops in. 

New residents in my freezer: a pound each of Calypso and Sonnet Hops

DIY Homebrew Equipment: Wort Chiller

One of the pieces of equipment that has been towards the top of my wish list for quite some time now is a wort chiller.  A wort chiller will help cool my wort much more efficiently than the ice bath method I have been using and will help clear up my beer also.  From what I hear, once I have a wort chiller, I should be able to substantially reduce the amount of time it takes to reduce the temperature from boiling to around the mid-60s (depending on the yeast strain) in order to pitch the yeast at the most optimum temperature.  Instead of shelling out the money to buy a pre-made chiller, I am looking into embracing the DIY nature of homebrewing and making my own chiller out of copper tubing.  This may be a project for this coming weekend. :-)

DIY Homebrew Equipment: 5 Gallon Cooler Mash Tun

Since I have been doing primarily extract batches (due to space constraints) until now, I have never really had a need for a separate mash tun.  However, I am seriously considering getting one because I have been doing more partial-mash batches (which still uses malt extract but does a mash on up to 5lb. of grain in the boil kettle) and I would like to start doing all-grain half-batches (or even full batches split into two boils).  The way I figure it, since I can pretty comfortably do a 3-gallon boil in my kettle, there is nothing to stop me from doing an all-grain batch that will yield 2.5 gallons or so (about a case of beer) of finished beer.  This will allow me to practice full mashing techniques and allow me to have more control over my beer.  However, in order for me to do this, I will need a mash tun that is better insulated and has a larger capacity than my kettle.  This will allow me to do all-grain half batches, as well as, more accurate mashes when doing partial-mash batches.  Once again embracing the homebrewing DIY spirit, I am looking into building my own mash tun, using a 5 gallon water cooler and some hardware to assemble a screen filter and valve. 

Next Full Batch: Fork ‘N Knife Oatmeal Stout

I’m also pretty excited for my next 5-gallon batch that I will probably be doing in the next couple months.  Looking back through my brew log, I realized the other day that I had not brewed a stout yet.  I was taken aback by this quite a bit since this is one of my favorite styles of beer.  Taking on the challenge to add an oatmeal stout into my annual rotation, I wrote up a partial-mash recipe to have a delicious, low-alcohol stout to enjoy on its own, or in black and tans.  Can’t wait to try this one out!

Online Recipes

As some of you may or may not have noticed, there’s a couple new tabs at the top of this page which I have added some homebrewing info to.  To start, I have added a tab for my own homebrewery (Black Walnut) and the collaboration homebrewery (Two Guys and a Barrel) that I do with my buddy Keith.  The main purpose of these tabs is to act as a mechanism for me to post my homebrew recipes online so that you fine people can use them to your hearts’ content.  The idea will be to post some notes about what worked well for each recipe, as well as what didn’t, so that others can benefit from my experiences.  I’m not exactly what you would call an expert brewer (in fact, I’m still a bit of a newbie), but I am hoping that my experiences will benefit other like-minded brewers.  As you can tell by looking at these pages, they’re a bit sparse at this point but I will be posting recipes up there very shortly.  These pages are static but I will be updating them periodically with new recipes, notes, tips, tricks, and other goodies, so check back once in awhile.  There will probably be a few more tabs to come also. 

Label Art

Like most other homebrewers, I don’t add colorful, ornate labels to my bottles that get tossed into my fridge at home; a simple numbered sticker slapped on the cap does the trick just fine for my purposes.  The reason for this is simple – I’m the one who has to de-label the empties prior to sanitizing and filling the bottles for the next batch of beer.  This is typically more hassle than it’s worth for beer that I drink at home.  However, I would like to start developing label designs for some of my beers that will be seeing their way into my regular rotation, as well as special beers that I give away as gifts around the holidays, etc.  I also think it would be fun to get some solid logos for my beers to add some depth to the story and meaning of these beers to me.  I have already been working with Theresa’s brother Harry to design a brewery logo (which is already looking pretty sweet after only a couple passes) and will be looking to do label designs for specific beers in the next few months.  Let’s be honest, I’m not exactly the best graphic designer.  In light of this, I will be looking to work with other, more artistic folks on these label designs.  More to come on this, but if you are fairly artistic and are interested in collaborating on labels for my beers, let me know (primarily looking for those of you interested in accepting homebrew as currency :-P)!

Homebrewery Organization

Each time I add a new piece of kit to my homebrewery, images of hoarders with stuff piled floor to ceiling flash through my head.  Ok, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the back corner of my second bedroom where I stash all of my gear, fermenters, and bottles is starting to get a bit cramped.  As a homebrewer living in an apartment, my biggest constraint to space.  This break from brewing will give me an opportunity to re-organize my gear a bit and figure out some ways to store everything a little more efficiently.  It will also give me a chance to do some other odds and ends while I have everything out, such as de-label some empties so that they are ready the next time I bottle.  This is by no means a fun task, but it is a necessary evil for any homebrewer that bottles using empties that once contained commercial brews.  All this organizing should make the next few brews go a bit smoother. 

Alright, less typing, more doing.  Until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Rascal King” by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Beer of the Day: Stone Brewery’s Imperial Russian Stout

Starting 2011 on the Right Foot

It probably sounds kinda cliche to say that I'm trying to get back in shape this time of year.  However, I'd really like to lose about 20 or 25 pounds over the next few months.  Trying to get back down my typical adult-life average weight.  So far, so good.  Haven't lost much weight yet but I haven't been eating as much crap and have been running and going for long walks with Theresa and Abby fairly consistently over the last couple weeks.  I have already noticed my energy climb a little.  I am trying to continue on this path and keep it up to incorporate it as my normal routine.  I'm also trying to do this by making a few compromises but still enjoy myself food-and-drink-wise.  For example, I'm not giving up beer.  Considering I don't drink mass quantities of beer (usually in the neighborhood of 2 - 3 beers in a night most weekend nights), and considering that beer-hunting and homebrewing are the hobbies that I am most passionate about, I think its a reasonable compromise.  I think I should get there slowly, but surely, over the next few months simply by exercising more consistently and eating better.

Now to the much more delicious and interesting portion of today's program ... BEER!

I'm pretty excited about my homebrew selection.  This Thursday will mark the two week mark on the bottle-conditioning of the Ruination and Ubu clones, which means this weekend is tasting time!  Both beers will probably get better over the next few weeks but I'm pretty amped to try the two new beers.  These two will also give a bit more variety to my homebrew selection; with the addition of these 5th and 6th volumes I will have three brews in bottle - the Tripel, Runiation, and Ubu.  Three brews is the most I have had in bottles at one time.  I am hoping to sustain this variety, if not increase it, as I continue brewing.  Its definately going to be nice to have a good variety of homebrew in the fridge.  I am hoping to get another brew or two in fermenters in February.  The next one will probably be a good session beer - maybe an ESB or something of that nature.  Sometime in March I want to get something in the can for the Spring.  I'm thinking of doing something like a blueberry wheat or something along those lines.

Equipment-wise, I'm thinking about getting some new gear.  Right now, I'm doing extract brews with a big stainless steel pot on an electric range with a beginners starter kit with a plastic fermentation bucket and bottling bucket.  I also picked up another plastic fermenter recently to use when I have two brews fermenting at once.  Next on the wish list is a glass carboy.  I want to get this mainly to use for secondary fermentations so I can do longer secondary fermentations with better quality.  For one, it will let me rack my beer onto other ingredients to age with, such as oak chips (I really want to do an oaked black IPA sometime soon).  Also, it should reduce some of the sediment that I get in my bottles (especially on bigger beers like Ruination).  Been looking into doing some other minor things too (like waxing or putting foil wraps on my bottles for better presentation for gifts).  However, I doubt I will do any other major upgrades at this point (like an all-grain setup) until I have house - I just don't have the space for the extra equipment right now.

On the beer-hunting/drinking front, it has also been a good start to the new year.  Among my favorites that I've picked up at Pinocchio's Beer Garden in the last week or so are Dogfish Head's Pangaea (a beer brewed with ingredients from every continent - even Antarctica (water)) and Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout.  Also had a chance to stop into the restaurant side of Pinocchio's and have a couple Lucky Bastards (which they had on draft) with my buddy Jim this past weekend.  It was good to have a couple solid beers with Jim and catch up.

Dogfish Head's Pangaea in one one of my Stone Brewery glasses.

Stone's Old Guardian Barleywine in my Vertical Epic glass.

That's all for now - hopefully I'll get in another update this weekend after tasting the new homebrews :-).

And I know you're dying for today's beer and song selections :-) .....

Song of the Day: "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3" by Coheed & Cambria
Beer of the Day: Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout

Christmas, New Years, 3 More Cases of Beer, and a Few Goodies from the Beer Garden

Christmas was a lot of fun, and very relaxing this year.  I had a great time hanging out with Theresa and her family during Christmas Eve and Christmas! :)  Although I didn't make it up to Rochester around Christmas, it was pretty nice to not have to worry about traveling all over the place during the holidays.  Got some awesome new gear this year.  I added the four Saranac pint glasses from Theresa and the three Stone glasses that I ordered to my glassware collection.  Also got a couple new scarves, a new Saranac t-shirt, the Tenacious D Complete Masterworks DVD, a pack of Omaha Steaks Filets, and lots of other goodies.  All-in-all, it was another great Christmas with Theresa!

The week after Christmas, I worked from home.  There was definitely work to do, but the pace was pretty relaxed and I was able to spend another week of quality time at home with Theresa and Abby. :)

Abby and I at the park before the snow we got a week ago melted.

Last Thursday was bottling day for the two clones (my Ruination clone, and the Ubu clone that I did with my buddy Keith).  When all was said and done, the Ruination was pretty much right on the money with the final gravity and yielded about 2 cases (one in 22oz bottles, the other in 12oz bottles) plus a 4-pack of 12oz bottles.  I also had enough to draw a little out into a tasting glass and taste the Ruination in its uncarbonated form.  It tasted about what I expected - pretty much exactly what an IPA should taste like.  I am very excited to taste the finished product and to see how it ages.  I think this one should age very well and mellow out a little with age.  The 2oz of Centennial hops that were used during dry-hopping really came through in the taste.  The Ubu ale came out pretty successful too - the FG was a little off but I think the finished product will still taste like a solid English ale.  This one yielded 3 bottles shy of 2 full cases (one case fro me and one for Keith).  After getting through these two clones, I know am out of empty beer bottles and have a little over three and half cases of home-brewed beer (2+ of Ruination, 1 of Ubu, and about a half case of Tripel) conditioning in my second bedroom.

My Ruination clone in the fermenter before I transferred it over to the bottling bucket.  Definitely had a lot of sediment with this one.

Bottling bucket and empty bottles ready to be filled.

Now, onto New Years!  This was the best New Years I've ever had!  Theresa and I had a really nice dinner at the Moshulu in Philly followed by an awesome fireworks display at Penns Landing (which could be seen from the Moshulu).  The dinner was awesome - the two best dishes in mind were the tuna tar tare that Theresa had as an appetizer and the diver scallops that we both had for an entree.  This was the first time Theresa and I had done anything like this for New Years.  It was really special to be able to just relax with Theresa and have an awesome night out just the two of us! :-)

Penns Landing fireworks on New Years Eve, as viewed from the Moshulu.

With New Years marking the end of the holiday season, I am now shifting gears and enjoying one last day off (today is the day that IBM gives off as a holiday for New Years) before heading back into the normal work routine.  I have mostly just been relaxing the last couple days and I decided to run down to Pinocchio's Beer Garden and pick up a mix-a-six pack and a 22oz-er.  My favorites from this beer run has been Stone's Lucky Bastard and Left Hand's Black Jack Porter.  

Some goodies from the Beer Garden: Acme Pale Ale, Lake Placid's Ubu Ale, Stone's Oak Aged Arrogant Bastard, Left Hand's Black Jack Porter, Victory's Hop Devil, Pilsner Urquell, and Stone's Lucky Bastard.

Song of the Day: "Tribute" by Tenacious D
Beer of the Day: Lucky Bastard by Stone Brewery

First Tasting and Two New Brews in the Can

Monday marked the brewing of the first beer I have brewed on my own and the first of two clone brews that I am doing this week.  I brewed up the Ruination IPA clone and everything went pretty smoothly.  Its sitting in my fermenter in my second bedroom bubbling away as we speak.  This was probably the smoothest brew yet (process-wise) - the final temperature was right in the proper fermentation range and the OG was right on the money at 1.075.  The one thing that I realized I have to work on is the initial steep of the grains.  I usually end up overshooting the proper steeping temperature when I am heating up the brew pot on my electric range.  If I can get the steep temperature to go smoothly, I will pretty much have the process down.  After the batch is done with the initial fermentation, I am going to dry hop it with another 2oz of Centennial hops for a few days, then bottle condition it.  All in all, I think this brew will come out very solid.

Tuesday was another brew day.  My buddy Keith and I brewed up the Ubu clone and got that into a fermenter.  Similar story - the steep temperature was a bit high but everything else was very smooth.  Should be another solid brew once we get it fermented and bottle conditioned. 

We also did our first tasting of our Tripel that we brewed up towards the end of November.  I was quite pleasantly surprised with this one.  Although it seemed more like an Abbey than a Tripel, it was still a really solid Belgian ale.  Very smooth and made you feel nice and warm inside. 

All in all, Mission: Solid Week of Beer has been a great success with two new brews in the can without a hitch, and good initial results on our first tasting of the Tripel.  All I need now is for my Stone Brewery glassware to get here tomorrow! 

Now its time to shift gears a little bit and get geared up for the holidays! :-)

Song of the Day: "Pardon Me" by Incubus (the acoustic version)
Beer of the Day: Fade to Black (Porter) by Left Hand

Let the Synapses Groove

Finally on break for the holidays!  Took Thursday and Friday off this past week and am taking all of this coming week off for vacation. :-)  I will also be working from home the week after that.  What does all this mean?  Johnny finally gets a nice 2.5 week break at home with Theresa for the holidays!

Thursday was Theresa's birthday so this weekend has been/is an awesome weekend with a good mix of hanging out just the two of us, hanging out with friends, and hanging out with her family.  Its nice to be home to celebrate with her!  Happy birthday baby girl!

Since this is also the busiest time of the year at work for Theresa, I will also have some time to kill during my time off at home.  So naturally, I'm going to fill the time with brewing a couple beers, hanging out with Abby, catching up on some stuff around home, and playing video games (mostly Halo: Reach).

I picked up the ingredients to do two new brews last weekend.  Both of them are clone recipes of existing brews - Stone Brewery's Ruination IPA and Lack Placid's Ubu Ale.  I'm really excited to try both out.  This will be my first venture away from doing brews from packaged kits where the ingredients are already paired together.  I figured doing a couple clones next would be a good stepping stone to transition to doing some original recipes.  Both brews will also get me to try out using some different techniques and ingredients that I haven't used before.  I'm planning on doing the Ruination on my own on Monday and cooking up the Ubu on Tuesday with my buddy Keith.  Tuesday will also be the day Keith and I do our first tasting of the Tripel we brewed up about a month ago.  All in all, should be an awesome week on the beer front!

This past week had a few highlights of its own on the topic of beer.  I watched a documentary on Netflix called Beer Wars - if you are into beer and have an opportunity, definitely check out this documentary.  Its about the beer industry and the struggle between the big breweries (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) and smaller craft breweries, shown from the perspective of the smaller craft breweries.  Definitely an interesting film if you are into beer and the business behind it.  In other beer highlights for the week - I picked up and ordered some solid Stone Brewery products.  Picked up a bottle of Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale and Old Guardian (Stone's barely wine) last night and drank the Sublimely.  I was really excited to drink this bottle because it was originally brewed as Stone's 11th Anniversary Ale in 2007.  I had a bottle of it about three years ago when my friends Mark and Mike came down to visit for new years.  I loved this beer then, and I loved it when I had it again last night!  To go further with the Stone Brewery kick I have been on lately, I ordered a couple sweet glasses from Stone's website - they are supposed to get here on the 23rd - just in time for a Christmas gift to myself. :-)

This is one of the glasses that I ordered.  This one was designed for Stone's Vertical Epic brews.

Really looking forward to Christmas and New Years coming up!  Not making it up to Rochester for the holidays this year, but holiday get-togethers with Theresa's side of the family are always a good time!  Can't wait to see everyone and celebrate the holidays together!  New Years is also going to be awesome this year.  This will be the first year that Theresa and I will be going to a formal event for New Years - complete with dinner, dancing, champagne, and fireworks!  Should be a really good time and I can't wait to get dressed up and celebrate the new year in style!  It will be really fun to do something special this year. :-)

Anyway, that's all for now.  I will probably post a couple more times over the next couple weeks since I will be home the whole time, but if I don't post again before the Christmas ....

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

As always....
Song of the Day: "Elias" by Dispatch (the live version from the All Points Bulletin album)
Beer of the Day: Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale by Stone Brewery

Hooray Beer!

Beer is good.  Went to Pinnochio's Beer Garden and picked up a few goodies today.  Main mission: find and purchase a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 10-10-10.  Mission status: Fail.  Apparently they will probably get it in the next couple weeks sometime.  Bunk.  Oh, well, got some other goodies, including another bottle of 09-09-09 (to age).

Theresa and I split the White Birch Tripel.  Pretty delicious - good start to the weekend :-).  Abby (my bulldog) even wanted to partake haha.

Abby loves beer ... no seriously, she does haha.

Weekend Goals:

• Relax with Theresa (In Process)
• Watch the Phils kick some ass in a couple games (Not Started)
• Play video games (mostly Halo: Reach) (Not Started)
• Make some bangin chili dogs on Saturday (Not Started)
• Organize a bit around the apartment and run errands (Not Started)

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

Song of the Day: "Beer is Good" by Psychostick