Out Of Key Brewing

Ever wanted to build a nice yeast bank at home but don’t want to keep a ton of mason jars in the old fridge. You can get 30 performs (just like what white labs uses) for about 30 bucks.  Seems like a good deal to me.

Preform Plastic Test Tubes – Science Bob.

This past weekend I harvest hops and brewed in the same day.  In total I harvested 2 lbs of Centennial hops and 1 lb of Cascade.  My Zeus rhizome took a beating from the dog again and I am honestly doubtful that it will ever produce.  With my three lb harvest I brewed the following beer:

Starting at 20 minutes I added a blend of my hops in handfuls.  In the end I added 2.5 lbs of wet hops in the final 20 minutes of brewing.  The final 20 minutes of hopping is probably best described as continual.  I grabbed a handful when I felt it was time and added them to the batch.  I reserved probably half a lb for flameout.  Nothing scientific about it, just adding a shit ton of wet hops to a batch of beer.

In a couple days I will add the final 8 ounces of wet hops to the keg as dry hops.

The beer is a rich amber and has a solid hop bitterness going into the fermenter.  She was bubbling away @ a cool 62 about 12 hours after pitching.

The black malt is there for color only.  If you can’t get your hands on Debittered, chocolate or some other black malt will suffice.  It is only 2 ounces and is not going to contribute any perceptible roastiness.

Golden promise is basically Scottish Maris Otter.  It is a touch paler and a bit less malty, but should be considered a high quality malt.

The recipe is for a seven gallon batch.  An odd size I know however when you factor in the fact that you will lose a ton of volume due to all the hops you end up with a 5.5-6 gallon batch.  Which will comfortably fill your keg.

In the next couple days I will be uploading pictures from the session

So I rolled up to the Great Taste of the Midwest ’09 two weekends ago with my boys, Nate, Mitch, and Stinky.  We had an amazing time at the fest and consumed some great beers.  Below are a few of my thoughts on them.

Shoreline Brewery – By far the best hoppy beers I had at the fest. The Rillo Rye was  a great IPA. Lots of body to go along with solid bitterness and a great nose. I could be wrong but it may have been triple hopped. The 3 sum DIPA (Chinook, Summit, Columbus) was amazing. I have driven by their billboard on i-94 over a hundred times and never stopped. I will be in the near future. Won my award for best brewery in show (my love of hops may have biased me).  Great BA Love for these guys.

Goose Island Kombucha Belgian Ale – I needed an enamel transplant after this one (If there are volunteers let me know). Quite refreshing on such a fine summer day. As sour as the day was long. Very Very good. I will be pitching some Kombucha dregs on a batch this week.

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Kriek – Well soured, with a nice cherry nose solid hints of oakiness. Amazing beer from an amazing brewery. The owner also won nicest / most tolerant brewer of the show after managing to hold a conversation with a friend of mine for upwards of 20 minutes. When we found him after 10 minutes I wholly expected to find Ron looking around for someone to rescue him, they then proceeded to talk for another 10 minutes.

Kuhnhenn’s – Waited in line for about 15 minutes to try the crème brulee stout served out of a slushee machine. The base beer was great with lots of caramel and vanilla. Quite sweet. Serving it as a beer slushy was inspired especially on a 90 deg+ day. Non-traditional but well executed. This was the longest line we waited in all day.

It was my first time at the fest. It will certainly not be the last. Great beer, great friends, great crowd, and flawless execution.

Heading up to the Great Taste of the Midwest on Saturday early. It will be a first for me. Anything not to miss?

Anyone want to hook up to talk beer?