Homebrew Update

So I've been putting off updating on my homebrewing activities for awhile now due being busy with a bunch of other stuff, traveling, and other priorities.  But, here it is!  The long procrastinated homebrew update!!

I have actually had a very productive past few months in regards to brewing.  So far, I have brewed five batches on the year, putting my well on pace to meet, if not exceed, my goal of ten batches by the end of the year.  Here's a little recap on these beers, as well as a few from the end of last year that I have tasted again recently.

Banana Bread Ale: This was the first beer I brewed on the year, as well as the first recipe I wrote myself.  This was also the first brew that I used spices and fruit (bananas) in the brewing process.  All in all, I am very satisfied with this beer.  The banana flavor didn't come through much at all, but the spices definately came through in the flavor and aroma.  I was especially pleased with the body of the base beer - very happy I added some oats and chocolate malt in this one.  When this beer was a bit younger, I actually thought the spicing was a bit too strong, but I popped open a bottle about a week ago and was very happy with how it tasted.  The spicing mellowed a bit and balanced out nicely.

Blueberry Wheat: This one will probably be going back to the drawing board a bit.  Don't get me wrong, it is still a very drinkable beer and is light and refreshing - very nice for the warm weather.  However, this was the first attempt at standard american wheat beer with fruit flavoring in the secondary.  I ended up deciding to use a can of blueberry puree in the secondary.  The blueberry flavor definitely came through but was not too overpowering (which was one concern I had when I brewed this).  The body of the beer was very light and had very little head retention and a lot of blue haze from the puree.  Still a solid beer, but I would definitely like to improve on it.  It's not a style that I am overly concerned with (I see myself only doing one, two at the most, american wheat fruit beers per year), but I would still like to make it better.  My next step with this recipe will probably to take out the fruit and nail down a solid wheat beer recipe that I am happy with, then go back to trying the fuit in it again.

Bass Ale Clone (sort of):  I say "sort of" because Keith and I did base this recipe off a clone recipe of Bass Ale, but ended up substituting a couple of hop varieties due to lack of availability of the hops at the homebrew shop I went to.  All in all, this one came out as a very solid English pale ale.  Not quite like bass - was a bit more bitter than Bass due to the difference in hops - but certainly a solid beer.  The one thing that I wish we had done, was to put it into a secondary.  Unfortunately, Keith and I were a little crunched on time with our busy schedules, and the beer ended up sitting in the primary for a couple weeks.  Given our hectic schedules for the few weeks after that, we ended up just putting it into bottles.  I know that putting that kind of beer (with no flavor or hop additions in the secondary) into a secondary fermenter is really just to clear up the beer for aesthetic purposes, but I do take a lot of pride in the taste, smell, AND appearance of my beer, so I would have liked to see it a bit clearer.  However, overall, I was very pleased with how it came out and have been flying through my supply of it at home. :-)

Batch X (oak aged barley wine with Special B malt): I decided to do something a bit different for my tenth batch and try out a few things.  This recipe has been one that I have been working on for awhile now and has evolved quite a bit (I was originally intending this beer to be a big imperial red, but ended up with a barley wine).  I was designing this batch to be a pilot half-batch for a full batch that I am going to brew up for later this year (more on that in a few months).  I wanted it to be something that can hold up well to age, but not not be too high in alcohol content.  As a result, I ended up with a barely wine that is on the lower side of alcohol for this style (a little over 8.5%abv).  The grain bill and hop additions are pretty much in line with a typical English barley wine, with a few twists - I added in some Belgian Special B malt to give it some raison flavor, I added 2oz of medium toast American oak cubes in the secondary for two weeks, and I lightly dry-hopped it for about a week.  I was very pleased with the samples I got from this beer when I transfered it to the secondary and when I bottled it.  I was particularly please with how the oak and Special B flavors were coming through.  This brew just hit the two-week mark in its bottle conditioning (meaning it should be fully carbonated) this past weekend.  I popped a bottle open on Saturday and was very happy with how this came out - the flavor was just what I was going for (maybe a little light on the oak) and it was very well carbonated with great head retention.  It was a little cloudy, but I think that was largely due to the fact that the bottle I grabbed was the last bottle I filled and had a bit more sediment because It was from the bottom of the bottling bucket.  We will see how it tastes in the weeks to come, but I am very happy with how this came out.  I will probably be doing a full 5gal batch of this in June to condition for a few months.  I don't think I will change much with the recipe, aside from leaving it on the oak for a week or two longer to get more oak flavor. 

Sample from Batch X on the left and some hops before they went into the kettle for my Black IPA on the right.  This turned out to be a long day - I bottled the Batch X and brewed the Black IPA in the same day!

Angry Rhino Ale (Black IPA): One of my favorite beers is Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale/11th Anniversary Ale, which is a Black IPA (or American Style India Dark Ale or Cascadian Dark Ale - whatever you want to call the style).  So I figured it was about damn time that I brew a beer of my own in this style.  Should be a pretty hefty, hoppy beer, coming in around 10%abv (probably, I forgot to take a gravity reading when I transferred it to the secondary) and about 99 IBUs.  I was originally going to do this one a little later in the year, but pulled it ahead for a homebrewing competition with Triumph Brewery and the Preston and Steve Show (a local radio morning show on 93.3 WMMR).  I just dry hopped it this past weekend and will bottle it this coming weekend.  It should be ready in plenty of time for the competition in about a month.  Much more to come on this one!

Tripel Extract Kit: Keith and I brewed a batch of a Tripel extract kit that we got at our local homebrew shop back in the fall that came out very tasty.  Keith and I split my last bottle from this batch last Wednesday, and it was a nice treat.  This beer definitely stood up to the aging pretty well and was even better (in my opinion) than the earlier bottles. 

Ubu Ale Clone: Keith and I also popped open one of my last bottles of the Ubu clone last Wednesday.  Similar to the Tripel, this one was awesome!  I liked this bottle better than any of the previous bottles that I had drank.  The flavors mellowed and blended together very nicely and the malt character came through beautifully. 

Ruination Clone: Drank my second to last bottle of this one last night.  Although the hop aroma had dimished quite a bit (which is to be expected with a American-style hop-bomb IPA), I was still very impressed with this beer.  I still would like to see it more clear, however, considering, I didn't use a primary with this one, it came out awesome!  This still remains one of my favorite beers that I have brewed so far.  This one will probably find its way into my annual brewing rotation.

In other brewing news, I am entering, not one, but TWO homebrew competitions in the next month. :-)  One is a BJCP-sanctioned competition called BUZZ Off, hosted by BUZZ Homebrew Club out in West Chester, PA.  I entered three beers into this one - the Banana Bread Ale, the Bass Ale Clone, and Batch X.  The other competition was the homebrew competition at Triumph Brewery in Philly that I mentioned earlier.  This one is a bit more interesting, because the winner will get $500 cash, Triumph will brew the winner's beer and serve it at the brew pub, and they will enter the recipe in the Great American Beer Festival competition.  I entered Angry Rhino Ale in this competition.  I'm not sure how I will do in either competition but I see it as a great opportunity to get feedback on my beers from trained professionals with calabrated palates.  More on these competitions in the weeks to come!

Finally, I also had a blast at the Brandywine Valley Brewers' Festival in Media, PA on Saturday!  This festival is put on every year by Iron Hill in Media.  The festival featured about 25 local and regional breweries, as well as a couple local bands.  The cloudy weather that we had on Saturday actually made it a perfect day for tasting beers from the local breweries and brew pubs.  The stand-out beer for me was Iron Hill's Tripel Sec (their already-awesome Tripel infused with oranges if I am recalling correctly). 

Taster glass with some delicious local beer from the Brandywine Valley Craft Brewers' Festival. :-)

That's all for now - hopefully, more to come soon!!

Song of the Day: "Sunshine" by Matt Costa
Beer of the Day: Iron Hill's Tripel Sec

New Job! :)

Eeeek - it's been a month since I posted last! Believe, me its been for good reason.  The last month has been pretty hectic with work, the job search, brewing, and all sorts of other stuff.  And, to be honest, this post will probably be on the short side.  However. the really exciting news that has come up for me in the last month is that I got a new job! 

For those of you talk to me personally, you know that I have been looking for a new job pretty actively since the fall.  My main reason for this was to reduce the amount of time I spend on the road.  The concept of being gone Monday - Thursday almost every week, has been taking its toll on me lately, and I had finally made the decision to try to move out of the consultant life into something that would allow me to be home a lot more. 

After spending several months applying to all sorts of jobs on Monster, etc, I finally got an interview and job offer from Dow Chemical a few weeks ago.  I accepted the offer and will be starting my new job next week!  I will still be doing SAP work with this job, except I will be on the client-side, representing the business, rather than being a functional consultant.  This job will allow me to be home (like a normal person) a whole lot more, and I think will be a very good fit for me long term.  I am very excited to start this new phase of my career!

Other than the new job, I have actually been very busy with a lot of other stuff in my life too - especially brewing.  I think I have two more beers since my last post, and entered three of my beers (one of which was brewed in collaboration with my buddy Keith) in a local homebrewing competition!  I will be posting a much more detailed post about my brewing activities, as I have made a decent amount of progress in that area of my life in the last month.  If all goes well, that update will be coming sooner, rather than later.

Cheers!  Ruination clone in a Stone Brewing imperial pint glass :)

Song of the Day: "Centerfield" by John Fogerty
Beer of the Day: Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary Ale

Baseball is Back!!!!

Baseball is finally back!  The Phils finally back on TV, rescuing cable from its increasingly annoying mediocrity.  And to top it off, they Phillies are off to a great start! :-)  No one was really surprised that their pitching was very solid.  What really got me excited though, was the offense.  The Phils were doing great at putting the ball in play and taking smart at-bats, despite a couple key injuries.  The offense seems to be focused more so on putting the ball in play, rather than out of the park.  I hope the first three games are a good indicator how the rest of the season is going to go. :-)

In other news, I had a little break from the normal travel grind and was able to work from home last week.  It was nice to be home with Theresa and Abby for the week. :-)  It also allowed me to get a lot of stuff done around the apartment.  Among other things, Theresa and I picked out our wedding bands!  They look really nice and I can't wait to wear mine and put Theresa's on her finger. :-)

I also finally got around to getting to the eye doctor - apparently Johnny's getting glasses!  This was not exactly a surprise - my eyes haven't been very good the last year or so.  As it turns out, I have an astigmatism.  I can't wait to get my glasses and not have to strain to read text on the TV screen.

That's all for now - I'll hopefully be posting again soon on the Banana Bread Ale, Blueberry Wheat, and Bass Clone and other homebrew goodies.

Song of the Day: "Dolores" by MxPx
Beer of the Day: Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale

Continuing 2011 on the Right Foot

So, things have been pretty busy lately - been doing the normal grind for work and been trying to relax as much as I can with Theresa on the weekends.  I figured that now would be a good time to do a little gut check in regards to a few goals that I set for the year.

In the beginning of the year, I set a couple goals to try to improve my overall fitness and drop a little weight to get back to my average weight during high school/the later part of college.  So far, I've dropped around 5 pounds, which I'm pretty pleased with.  I've been eating a lot more reasonable (smaller) portions and have been trying to get more regular exercise - mostly in the form of running on an elliptical during the week and walking/running with Abby on the weekends.  I'm very happy with my progress so far and have noticed that my energy level is up and my clothes are fitting a little less snug.  Aside from a few bumps in the road in the form of a couple colds, things have been going very smoothly.  I have dropped some weight, am feeling a bit healthier, and am still enjoying beer and good food.  All in all, its been a great success so far.

Here's a little update on my brewing goals for the year:

• Brew 10 beers this year (a mixture of solo brews, and brews with Keith) - I just brewed up a small batch of a blueberry wheat this past weekend and am slated to brew a Bass clone with Keith this coming weekend.  Combining these two with my first brew of the year - the banana bread ale, my total is up to three.  So far, so good - I am very much on track to hit my goal of 10 on the year. 
• Enter some sort of brewing competition by the end of the year - Haven't entered any yet but I still have a decent amount of time this year.  I'm thinking I probably need to make this happen sometime October or earlier this year because of my wedding/honeymoon in November. 

Overall, my goals for the year seem to be progressing well.  I'll be posting again soon with some updates on the my Banana Bread Ale and the Blueberry Wheat that I'm putting into a secondary on top of some blueberry puree this weekend.  In the mean time, here's a picture of my Banana Bread Ale I took this past weekend of a new Northern Brewer glass I got.

Song of the Day: "Bubble Toes / Express Yourself" (Live in San Fransisco off the En Concert Album) by Jack Johnson
Beer of the Day: Winter White Ale from Bell's Brewery

Ummm, its the End of the February???

Right, so haven't updated in awhile.  Seems like I was just posting about brewing the Banana Bread Ale yesterday.  Then I realized that I just bottled it on Saturday after one week in a primary fermenter and two weeks in a secondary.  So here's an update on the highlights of the last few weeks:

A lot of Theresa's cousins and aunts and uncles from out of town were in town a couple weeks ago for the weekend.  It was great to see all of them again.  Friday night, we went out for dinner with her cousins to Iron Hill.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with her cousins!  The weekend was a great opportunity to see a lot of her family that aren't often in town. :-)

About two weeks ago, I finally picked up a 6 gal. glass carboy for fermenting beer.  I have been meaning to do this for awhile now and finally got around to getting one.  I debuted the carboy as a secondary fermenter for the Banana Bread Ale, after a one-week primary fermentation.  Fast forward two weeks.  I bottled up the Banana Bread Ale this past Saturday, and the secondary seemed to do a great job.  The flavor conditioned nicely and the color came out beautiful.  The secondary did a lot to clarify the beer.  The one downfall is that the banana hasn't come out much in the flavor - but the other flavors did nicely - the vanilla and cinnamon came out very well balanced.  We'll see how it tastes in a couple weeks after bottle conditioning.

On the video game front, I picked up NHL 2011 a week or so ago.  I have been meaning to pick up a solid hockey game for awhile now, and I must say, NHL 2011 is a lot of fun.  I especially like the Be-a-Pro mode, where you can create your own character.  The storyline starts with your character as a player in the junior leagues just before you get drafted into the NHL.  Rather than controlling a team through seasons in dynasty mode, you follow and control only your character.  If you do well, you earn better contracts and other honors.  If you don't do well, you get sent down to the minors until you start performing better.

This past weekend, I also borrowed Mass Effect from my buddy Jim.  I have been meaning to pick up Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, but just haven't had a lull in other games to give it the attention it deserves.  Finally started playing it, and it is an awesome game so far.  The game play mechanics are smooth and the storyline is solid.  I can't wait to see how the storyline advances.  I have heard a ton of praise for the Mass Effect series, so I'm holding it to a high standard.  So far, so good.

Another highlight from the weekend was dinner and a movie with Theresa on Friday. :-)  Went out and saw Cedar Rapids.  If you get a chance to see this movie at a theater near you, definitely do it.  Cedar Rapids is one of the funnier movies, I've seen in a long time.  John C. Reilly was absolutely hysterical!  It isn't as widely distributed as a lot of other, more mainstream movies, but is definitely worth going to see if you get a chance.  After the movie, Theresa and I went to Rock Bottom in King of Prussia, where I had a burger that pretty much sounds like a heart attack. :-)

Theresa giving the thumbs up behind my 2A.M. burger (a cheeseburger with a hash brown and a fried egg :) ).

This next picture isn't really relevant to any particular event, but Abby is pretty much the cutest dog in the world, so here's a completely off-topic bulldog picture. :-)

Loungin' pup! :)

That's all for now - hopefully the next post will come a little quicker than this one.

Song of the Day: "Modern Wolf Hair" by Chiodos
Beer of the Day: Midas Touch by Dogfish Head Brewery

Theresa and I finally got a chance to make it up to visit my parents, brothers, and a few friends a couple weekends ago and it was a great time. :-)  Had dinner with a few close friends on Friday night and hung out with my parents and  brothers and their families most of the day on Saturday.  It was really nice to catch up with everyone and to see my niece and nephew running around! :-)  My little nephew is running around on his own and apparently needs to have an eye kept on him at all times, as he is an explorer and will sneak away in no time.

Theresa and I also got a chance to squeeze in a brewery tour and tasting session at Custom BrewCrafters.  It was a lot of fun to go back to the brewery that is effectively my hometown brewery and to finally get around to doing the tour of the brewery.  For those of you how do not know about Custom BrewCrafters, they brew original, custom beers for exclusively for local bars and restaurants in the Rochester and Buffalo areas.  They also have a four year-round releases, and a couple seasonals at a given time, that are under their brand name.  Got some goodies to take back to Media with me - a few CB glasses and some solid beers.

Custom BrewCrafters' Krysztoff Baltic Porter (from their Signature Series) poured in one of my new CB glasses.

Fast forward to this past weekend.  Had a nice low key (for the most part) weekend with Theresa. :-)  Saturday, I was able to get the first brew of the year in the fermenter and I'm looking forward to tasting how this one is going to come out.  I decided to brew a concept that I have been thinking about for awhile - Banana Bread Ale.  Essentially, the base is very similar to a pumpkin ale, but is steeped with ~6 lbs. of roasted bananas instead of pumpkin, and is spiced with cinnamon and a little vanilla.  Planning on getting it into a secondary fermenter this weekend or next to let it ferment for another week or two before bottle conditioning the new brew.  I'm really hoping the flavor comes out the way I want (like banana bread) when all is said and done.  This one should come out ~5.5% ABV.  


The next brew in line will be with my buddy Keith and will probably be an ESB of some sort.  This one is his turn to choose the recipe.  We both were looking for a good session beer to brew up next.  We will probably be getting this one brewed up this weekend or next.


Been doing some thinking lately about some brewing goals for the year.  The two main ones are:

• Brew 10 beers this year (a mixture of solo brews, and brews with Keith)
• Enter some sort of brewing competition by the end of the year

The second one is a bit of a stretch goal but I think it would be a lot of fun to enter a brewing competition.  As far as beers I am planning to do this year, here a few of the highlights that I'm planning - blueberry wheat (probably brew this one in March/April timeframe), an oaked black IPA, an acorn squash beer brewed with maple syrup (planning on brewing this as a fall brew), and a couple hot pepper brews.

After brewing up the Banana Bread Ale on Saturday, Theresa and I went out with our friends Aubrey and Josh for Josh's birthday.  We both had a blast hanging out and having a few beers to celebrate! :-)

Josh and I having a couple beers at Sligo for Josh's birthday :-)

Looking forward to another pretty low key weekend this coming weekend, relaxing with Theresa! :-)


Song of the Day: "Guilty as Charged" by Gym Class Heroes (feat. Estelle)
Beer of the Day: Krysztoff Baltic Porter by Custom BrewCrafters

First Tasting: Ruination and Ubu Clones

So I got a chance to taste the Ruination and Ubu clones last night.  The ruination was pretty much exactly what I was going for - a very hoppy, bitter IPA.  Was very pleased with the way it turned out.  The Ubu was also pretty decent but was a bit on the sweet side.  I think this one just needs a few more weeks to bottle condition and age a little.  Probably gonna hold off on throwing more of them in the fridge for a couple weeks and try it again when I do.  All in all, I was very pleased with both brews. :-)

My Ruination clone in one of my Hard Rock glasses.  Very delicious! 

Song of the Day: "Caves" by Chiodos
Beer of the Day: Two Hearted Ale (American IPA) by Bell's Brewery