Mellifluous Cider

It's a good thing to be a part of a brew club. One of the first real tangible benefits I experienced being a club member was being invited to a cider pressing this last fall. I picked and pressed four 5-7 gallon buckets of perfectly ripe apples from a club member's house. He had dozens of pickers over two weekends and we had right big cider pressing on September 28th.

Holiday Joy and Templeton Rye

I'm not a big fan of the holiday season but I think this year will be a little easier with the help of my new friend, Templeton Rye. Made right here in Iowa. The below pic is of my very first full bottle. I picked it up this weekend at a big box store of all places. Until now I have relied on the kindnesses of friends and strangers for a little taste here and there.

Merry Christmas to me!

That bottle is still full...but now there's a higher percentage of air inside. We'll just call it the Christmas Angels' Share.

Yukon Cornelius's Bourbon Vanilla Porter

As I sit here sipping a Rochefort 8, I'm reminded of another strong style of beer that I love. This time from the opposite side of the English Channel, Robust Porter.

I started thinking about winter beers back in September knowing that in Iowa things can get a bit nippy come winter, and that these strong beers can take a while to hit their peak.

Remember the redheaded prospector from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stop action movie that gets played every yuletide season? That's Yukon Cornelius, photo below the break.

Abbot's Bottom Drawer (Patersbier)

The second brew day on the Labor Day weekend is one of my favorites so far. I did the extract version of Patersbier earlier in the year and couldn't wait to do an all-grain version. This is an awesome beer, enough to say it twice because it's double awesome.

The grist for this brew is all Belgian pilsner malt with a fair amount of noble hopping and it uses the catch all Westmalle yeast, Wyeast 3787. It's rather idiot proof to brew actually and makes a freaking awesome beer. 

Kristen England, the guy who came up with the original recipe, has just opened a brewery and this one will be one of his flagships. NB has a new interview with him here, just in time for this blog post. 

It's also my favorite beer to take photos of for some reason. 

It makes an excellent treat after mowing.

Here's a shot of the extract version. It was a bit cloudy I thought. It's also all gone...

This is all grain version.

It also rocks pretty hard when you are soloing a few bombers during a brew day. 

...and again when brewing

Note the huge billowy head. The carbonation was set at 2.5 volumes of CO2. After a month in the bottle the head was almost meringue-like.

It's a light and fruity Belgian single with moderate noble hop spice character. It's also awesome. Did I already say that? 

The recipe is below. I ordered from Brewmasters Warehouse. Because I don't yet have a grain mill I get the grains crushed by them. So far the crush has been excellent so no complaints there. 

OG 1.048

FG 1.007

84% measured attenuation

Grains

9 lbs Belgian Pilsner

Hops 

1.00 German Tradition 6 % AA 60 min

.50 oz Czech Saaz 4% AA 60 min 

.50 oz Czech Saaz 4% AA 10 min

I mashed nice and low at 147F for an hour to ensure an extra-fermentable wort. The extract kit has some corn sugar used in the boil to dry out the beer. I didn't use any extra sugar but this one finished nice and low at 1.007.

After chilling I pitched straight from the smack pack and fermented at ambient late summer cellar temps of 70-72F. This beer is so straightforward I didn't need to secondary at all, I just bottled straight up after 12 days. 

I have 6 more bombers left. I guess it's time to do another one soon!

Gilbert Obadiah's Thunderbrew

Labor Day weekend was one of those odd three day weekends where I tend to over extend myself. There were two brew days, a day with the smoker and a family party just for the siblings. Believe it, there was beer, fire, a little bleeding and plenty of eats.

Short Bus Bitter - Version 1.0

Moving to all grain brewing is a pretty big step for most homebrewers. I know guys who have been brewing for years and have never made the leap. The cost involved, additional equipment required, different process and the variables are just too much for some people to want to make the leap. 

August 2011 was a good month

August 2011 was a good month. I had a lot of meat up on the smoker. 

It's just the two of us. They look so lonely.

Ribs

Last long these did not.

Ribs and Turkey Legs

Me likey!

Boston Butt

...and I switched to all grain brewing. With the help of Homebrewtalk.com and their useful tutorials I made up an Igloo cooler 10 gallon mash tun with a braid to lauter and my lovely lady had purchased for my birthday an upgraded brew kettle of 7.5 gallon capacity. I love it when I get support for my hobbies!

Oh yeah, let not forget how crazy helpful having Beersmith is for all-grain brewing. It's great to be able to take notes on the fly. If I don't have something with a silicon chip around I'll totally forget. Pen and paper? Who needs em! 

Extracts!

I started homebrewing back in January 2011 after 10 years of carrying the same beer kit around from apartment to house to apartment to house to finally the home I currently enjoy with my lovely lady, Sara.


Before the year closes out I need to document the respectable rise in the volume and diversity of beers I've both made and drank in 2011. So the below list, subject to correction, documents the extract list year to date of homebrew, for better or worse.


Caveat, not all beers are ready and not all beers are left!

1. Austin Homebrew Supply- Newcastle Brown Ale brewed Jan 2011
2. Northern Brewer- Honey Weizen Extract Kit brewed in May 2011
3. Northern Brewer- Patersbier Extract Kit brewed in June 20111
4. Northern Brewer- The Innkeeper Extract Kit Brewed in June 2011
5. Northern Brewer- Belgian Dubbel Extract Kit Brewed in July 2011

Here ends the extract kits. For the most part they were at the least drinkable (Newcastle Brown Ale clone) and in some cases rather inspiring (Patersbier). All of these have been consumed except for the Dubbel which is now about 4 months old and still has a flavor profile that I really don't care for. 


August of 2011 I joined the CR Beer Nuts homebrew club and switched to all grain brewing. Lots of nice gents who I'm sure will be featured on and off on this lil' ol' blog.  


Next entry will document all-grain and more.

Gratuitous welcome!

Welcome to End of the Woad. A personal beer blog and diary. This is where I intend to map my journey down the road of fermentational experimentation and beer driven mental lucubration. Without any set schedule or expectations I'll post as I see fit and hopefully make something useful for me and my (currently non-existent) readers.


Thanks for stumbling across the End of the Woad.


FYI, Woad 


Azurecybe