It's been awhile

We're big slackers. On posting, not brewing.

A brief summary of today for the multitudes not in attendance: The porter is more porter-like this time. We attribute that to fresher ingredients than last time. Half of it is kegged for our next brewing session, half is bottled, a quarter of which is reserved for contest entries. We determined that the beer is pretty spot-on for style 12A - Brown Porter, per the BJCP guidelines.

We put together a holiday spice ale from a kit I had and deferred the spring herb beer to next time. We also discussed maple syrup beer, more mead, and more porter. Wii bowled.

That is all.

Some Beers

I've fallen behind a bit here, and some of this reviewage is from memory...

Superbowl Sunday I had one of our homebrew blondes and one of the jamb-ale-ayas.

The Blonde

Even last week it was heady enough to be enjoyable. It was light, crisp, and refreshing. I could easily see going through them by the dozen.

The Jamb-Ale-Aya

Was still a bit flat as of last week. I was away this weekend and so I did not get to try them again. I shall do so tonight.

Geary's London Porter

I had a Geary's Porter this weekend in Maine. It was smoky, dark, and immensely satisfying. It was really all you can hope for in a porter. I snapped a photo of it on my cell phone and will try to remember to upload it later.

Dr. Hyde's Angry Ale

This is a custom brew made by Geary Brewing for the Jameson Tavern in Freeport, Maine. Sam ordered it and I sampled from hers. A slightly sweet pale ale, nothing spectacular, but I wouldn't object to drinking it again.

The Homebrew Shuffle

So I finally got around to bottling my experimental batch of ESB. (Real ESB, not Grynch's fake ESB), and wanted to let the bottles condition indoors rather than in the garage where it's too cold for effective fermentation.

Of course that raises the question of lagering in the garage, but that is a sure way to create a warm front.

So I decided to re-arrange all of the on-hand stuff and inventoried a bit. I got 9 ESB's from the gallon, (plus the half of one that I drank this afternoon. It's good. Very hoppy. Full review to come when it's ready.) and I have 2 Novemberfests, 3 Fail Ales, and a half-dozen Gravitas's left, plus that first Belgian Hans got arrested with. I'm saving at least one Gravitas to have a black-and-tan with my ESB.

Considering what to do next, I think we might want to start planning for St. Patty's day soon and skip straight to those batches. We need to determine when a bunch of us will be available.

Deuce: Novemberfest thoughts

My thoughts on the Novemberfest are inexpressible. I'd been instructed that it was good with any kind of food and have been methodically testing that theory drinking some at Thanksgiving dinner, and with a steak dinner the other night, and with pasta, and with pizza, and with a buffalo chicken calzone. So far, it's right. This will be good with everything.

A note on the ESB referenced earlier: I have a real ESB batch going now, so ignore everything Chris said.

Recipe Formulation Thoughts & more

As Rapscallion Beermakers' unofficial recipe-master, I'm in the process of considering the next batches for this week's brew.

I'm looking forward to the ones that are in process, the Gravitas should be excellent, but for me this formulating recipes is a good time. Hans suggested this time we should do something light, for a change of pace, and I agree. We'd been discussing 10 gallon batches but I think we'll do two 5-gallon batches at once instead.

For the light, my researches led me to a Blonde Ale, since we don't have the means yet to do any lagering. Comparing recipes in three or four books and several websites I've come up with something that I think should be golden blonde, smooth and delicious. More fun was coming up with my ancient ale recipe. I thought these will be really ready to drink around Mardi Gras, so a Carniv-Ale might be appropriate. (I apologize for the continual use of puns in beer names. I can't help it.) I also thought the idea of Saturn-Ale-ia could be good, but this will hardly be fermenting by that time of year, so for this time around, it's going to be a Carniv-Ale.

I found a clone recipe for Dogfish Head's Midas Touch and worked from there and based on what we have kicking around. Sam suggested that to make it Mardi Gras-themed, it would be appropriate to have some bourbon flavor, which Hans cleverly decided means we need to ferment it on oak chips soaked in bourbon. Not sure who wants to buy the bourbon for that. It was also suggested, again by Sam (who enjoys coming up with these recipes even though she barely drinks beer), that a jambalaya would be apt. Thus, I decided we'll use what we've got, which is another option we'd discussed. It will be appropriately ancient with the presence of honey, and it'll probably be pretty dark but mild in flavor. I'll only have to buy 1 can of extract and some hops for this, so it'll be cheap too. Which is comforting, after the Gravitas.