Transfer and Brew

So last night I finally found time to transfer the IIIPA into the secondary for some dry hopping.  I sure hope this turns out as spectacular as it is supposed to.  I forgot to taste a sample and measure gravity so I am pretty much just wishing and hoping.  And drinking.

Tonight I help Shaun brew a batch of pale ale, and with the copious amounts of yeast I saved from the IIIPA we should be bubbling about 15 minutes after we start fermentation.

The summer of brewing is here.

Also, a pic of my main job at the brewery, Head of Sanitation.

And my new brewers shirt from the good people at Full Sail.

Hop Cast

Found a mention of this site Hop Cast, like pod casts but about beer, on the untapped badge list.  Pretty cool.  We are hoping to transfer the IIIPA tonight and add another giant bunch of hops, so it is an appropriate link I think.

I was beer tasting on the way to and from a family reunion this weekend.  I got to hit up Laht Neppur in Waitsburg, then Skye Book & Brew in Dayton, then Full Sail in Hood River on the way home.  Between those and some other beers last week, I am at 844.  And the fergieweizen was a big hit at the reunion (dubbed Fergie Fest, hence the name) and tonight the Abby's Hefeweizen and NWWPA that I put on tap last week should be ready.  Plus Shaun wants to brew a SNPA tomorrow.  If not for having to go to work every week, life would be perfect.

imperial tasting

We tasted some beers, or to be specific, some imperial IPAs.  Pliny, Hoptimum, Dick's Imperial, Dogfish Head 90 Min and Widmer Nelson Imperial.  I guess technically Pliny doesn't list itself as an imperial, but all these beers were 8% or more ABV, and its spendy and hard to find, so its basically an imperial in my book.

These beers are outstanding.  If you haven't had all of them, you need to go to the store right now and make that happen.  You might want to buy two.  I'm just saying.

Is July Here Yet?

Head on over to OregonCraftBeerMonth.com and start planning your vacation calender.  Besides BrewFest of course, I really want to hit up PuckerFest this year and finally go to Belmont Station as well as By The Bottle in Vancouver on the way down or back, or sometime this month at least.  I still have hundreds of beers to try at Hop N Grape of course, but it is fun to check out other places and maybe catch a few brews from some breweries Dave doesn't stock.  I am up to about 812 beers on my list or so with an IPA tasting planned for tonight during the next game of the NBA finals.  So should probably hit 816 or more tonight.

That would put me about 438th on the Career RBIs list, but the top of the list is unreachable up over 3000.  About 240th on the Career BBs list, but again, the top is unreachable.  Career doubles I have already taken 1st, amazingly the leader had 792, not too many more than Barry's home runs.  I also looked up career hits in the MLB, but that is out of reach.  (It was interesting to find though that Ichiro is 1st, 10th & 18th on the single season records.  That's like coming in first, second and fifth in a jack off contest, but with less mess.  Impressive to say the least.)

So I settled on Stolen Bases, because as it turns out I just passed Tim Raines at 5th and can get to 4th if I catch Ty Cobb at 897.  So I think 900 is my next mark to go for.  I was always fast in baseball and still am kind of fast in softball.  As well as tied for first in the wiffle ball league for SBs.  Henderson is in 1st with over 1400, so getting to the top will take awhile, but I am committed to excellence and will persevere and put in the hours, so I should get there.

all grain vs extract

I don't know which is better yet, but there are definitely a lot of differences in the two styles of brewing.  I thought it was just brew more for less and it takes a little longer.  But there are so many differences I can't even list them all.  Apparently our first batch was already ready, not three weeks like extract would have taken.  And the IIIPA will likely only take a week or two also since I think we didn't get the temperature high enough in the mash.  So it may not be as strong as hoped, but will be sweet and hoppy and probably still amazing.  We had two buckets of hops.  Crazy hops.

Regardless, our first batch from a couple weeks ago is now in kegs, because it was already ready.  And although not carbonated yet, the Abby's Hefeweizen tastes awesome.  Plus we kegged the Mystery GYO NWWPA, so in a week we should get to taste both those.  I kind of forgot to taste the second one because cleaning and filling three kegs took way longer than anticipated with distractions like the NBA finals and drinking a couple Sam Adams beers.  Griffen's Bow is not bad and is a 10% blonde barleywine ale.  I didn't know such a thing existed, but if you want to sleep good tonight you should try one.  Also had their Tasman Red, a Red IPA, and that was good.  I would buy it again.

A couple weeks off from brewing, but we will keep you posted on the results of drinking over that time.  And if we slip in a brew we will be sure to report it so both of you can read about it.

806, tasting, and all grain

We brewed another batch of all grain, this time The Judge GYO IPA.  I think its a triple, since we had a couple buckets of hops we added over 90 minutes.  We got two carboys full of hoppy sweet goodness.  So my closet is happy again with 5 carboys full right now.  The keg fridge was a success with three beers on tap and more in bottles we had at least 5-10 visitors while brewing Sunday.  And everyone is nice enough to say they like all the beer so far, which is awesome.

And to top it off, we cracked a bottle of Fergieweizen and Apocaweizen (a blend of the Fergie and Apoc) and it tasted like Apocalypso.  No surprise since that's the stronger beer.  But it's cool we have a handful of bottles of the Apoc so I can take them along to fergie fest.  But between those and the Grain Belt Premium, I hit 806 yesterday.  I am moving up that Tennis career win ladder.

And if you haven't heard of that last beer, that is because my neighbor brought it over when he heard I was keeping a list of different beers.  It's a midwest staple, probably similar to a Schahfer or something like that.  The August Schell Brewery has a ton of what appear to be micros, but they are multi state and the bottles just look like they are all cheap beer.  But the beer wasn't that bad, and they may actually be one of those rare big breweries that actually does more than just lager.  If anyone has a multipack of their beers I would love to trade for something in our area.  Cheers!

800 and counting

Thanks to a tasty tray of beers from Hop N Grape on Friday while planning out the first all grain batch with the Judge, and a couple new beers this weekend while brewing and then in between wiffleball and softball, and lastly the consumption of an excellent Rouge Double Mocha Porter last night, I am officially at 800.  It will take me weeks to get them all into untapped (cool app by the way, thanks Nate) and I should be a master or whatever badge they give you when you pass 500...

Ninkasi and Fort George and Rogue and Southern Tier and Southern Oregon and Widmer and Pyramid and Fat Tire and oh my oh my, this has been a good month already...

The Cowlitz Black Bears have their home opener tonight, so probably some stadium beers so no new beers, but maybe one when I get home.  It's so good, once it hits the lips...

trial all grain batch

Thanks to the Judge, we have brewed up a first trial batch using the all grain set up.  Not to hard, kind of like extract brewing it seemed a lot harder until you do it yourself.  I am too tired to upload photos twice, but there are bunch on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/eriknabby.guttormsen

I'm about 80% sure that I didn't screw something up.  Because 60% of the time it works every time.  Just like Sex Panther Cologne.  Couple weeks we shall see.  As long as the Abby's Hefeweizen doesn't explode all over my closet....