Two Hearted - Tie your flies

Centennial, Centennial and more Centennial. There's no real secret to this clone. The only formula to making this a good clone is to not drink so much of the clone's inspiration on brew day and don't make the rookie mistakes that I did.

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.