Collaborate and Listen

Ice is back with my brand new invention...
yes we grew up in the 80s and 90s..

I've had a couple collaboration brews in the past month. And I am on the search for more. Kick by New Belgium was awesome. Allies win the war from 21st Amendment was also awesome, and in a can no less. Both were made with Elysian, who makes fine beers.

I actually posted on a weekend. Because searching 365 beers I found a link work must have been blocking. Maxim 365 beers in a day I'm sure there were days we had 365 beers in a day in college, or maybe even at wiffle ball all stars. And I know we have made some giant beer can pyramids. But to combine both those things, and considering the good beers in cans now, this sounds like a pretty fun thing to attempt one of these days. We would of course need Willie to help, and somewhere between 20-30 additional people, but why not?

I also had the Black Sheep Monty Python Holy grAle, which was not bad. And originally tried to post this using my ipad2. Which didn't work. Try getting with the times Blogger...

Also, this is post #400. not too shabby.

Still Tasting

That title has a double meaning. I swear I could still taste the spiciness in the Cocoa Mole from New Belgium the next day. Crazy taste explosion on that beer.

Also, I have resurrected my beer list from 07-08, and with some obvious mental lapses that I have can not add because I don't know every beer I had from 08-11, I think I have a pretty good list of most of the beers I have had and a bunch more I want to try. I have at least 624 checked off the list (including a handful of home brews) so I am back on track to try and beat Barry Bond's record of 762 home runs. I say I should have it by the end of baseball season, if not by the beginning...

Had a few Japanese/Korean beers at dinner last night for Nate's birthday. Checked off the list and go good with Asian food, but nothing to write home about. Now looking forward to a long weekend of trying some more beers and hopefully brewing up a Stout. And if Nate's keg supplies ever show up, also kegging one beer and transfering the other to keg in a few weeks.

Apfelwein

We brewed a batch of Apfelwein last night. No that's not a typo, its a German fermented apple cider. Basically Apple Juice, Sugar, Yeast, and time. Just starting to bubble a little this morning but nothing through the airlock (which is full of green apple vodka, just in case of suck back) and this takes quite a bit longer to ferment properly, so should be a good summer/fall brew for those who are beer adverse.

Nate brought over a bottle of the New Belgium Cocoa Mole, basically super potent chocolate pepper beer. Take a big drink and its actually spicy, which is a crazy change from normal stout. James also came over again, and brought some of his hard cider, which was a nice complement while we brewed our own applejuice.

P.S. Happy 35th Nate. time to start plucking grey hairs down below...

And we are also in the midst of planning a tasting party. Between trying a few 5oz glasses off Amazon.com (which are a little too big for a paddle my uncle's wood shop class made), possibly ordering some glasses from peelepaddle.com and maybe even a paddle, and of course just adding to my brewery tasting collection from Rogue in Astoria next week, somehow I will figure this out before March. Considering my collection consists of the 12 pack of 5 oz glasses, one 4 oz Rouge glass, and one 4 oz glass from disneyland back when we went to Rose Bowl, I have some work to do...

Slackers

We both failed to post yesterday. I believe Principal Strickland from Hill Valley High would refer to us as SLACKERS! But we have been busy brewing, and drinking and planning to brew, which meant somehow we both thought the other was posting yesterday.

Sorry to disappoint both our readers. Anyways, with two beers bottled, and two bubbling away in the primary and secondary, the next plan is brew an Apfelwein tonight or this weekend, and hopefully brew a stout this weekend. I also look forward to trying the New Belgium Cocoa Mole that Nate grabbed in Seattle for me.

In the meantime I tried a Sam Adams Wee Heavy on Monday night (it was 10% ABV, very nice and I would recommend trying one if you can find one). And a couple Bridgeport IPAs last night at Valentines Day dinner, followed by a can of 21st Amendment Hop Crisis when I got home. The Hop Crisis was crazy hoppy. Like I was looking in the can to see if it was dry hopped in the can. And it was 9.5% ABV or something crazy, which could be deceptive coming in a can and make for an interesting tailgate if you were down for being that guy at the football game...

Also it is Nate's birthday tomorrow. He may not even post again this week...

My closet smells hoppy

My closet is now a brewery. Or at least it smells like one with two hoppy beers in there fermenting. We brewed our fourth batch on Friday after bottling our second batch.

Here's Nate with the goodness from his Thursday night shopping Trip. And here's Nate hard at work Friday night adding said goodness to the brew.




















And for fun, all four caps we had made up for our first four batches. Coming up with the names and designs is half the fun. And brewing is half the fun. And drinking is half the fun. Hmmm, I guess brewing is 150% fun compared to just drinking at 100%. We should form a study...

We were also graced by the presence of a fellow brewer, James. He even brought beer and a wort chiller. As we lengthened out our brew by boiling before and after adding the extract, having the wort chiller was nice because we were able to finish in 3-4 hours still instead of the 4+ it would have taken using ice water to chill the outside of the kettle. Thanks James!

And lastly, here is yours truly bottling our first beer. We would frame it for a keepsake or something, but we will most likely just drink it.

The Brown is Bottled

Bottled the first batch of LTB brew last night. Even tried what was left in the secondary. Not bad. Now it remains to see whether it turns out as good as expected. I love some brown ale and I am looking forward to 3 weeks from now. We have more great pictures and will try and upload them today or tonight. Meanwhile we are bottling another tonight, and brewing batch #4 tonight hopefully too. Wish us luck.

22oz Roundup=Success

Off to Booth's last night who reportedly had a stash of 22s he has been saving. And scored a case of empty 22s, which saves us at least $20 and means we are ready for the upcoming bottling session tonight or tomorrow of the Brown and the Pale.

On top of that Booth and I tried a couple beers from 10 Barrel Brewing, the ISA and the Apocalypse IPA. They were both good, but if you were only buying one I would go for the ISA. It was a little extra better great success.

Here we have the beers put to bed for the night.




And a nice pic of the layers in the CCWA that we are dry hopping. Should be interesting when I breath deep on this and burn my nose hairs off again...

Also just found a pretty funny blog from an Australian brewer called BeerFingers while searching for a picture now located stage left. I would like to have a beer with this guy. F'in Hilarious in a Dennis Miller type way, except with Australian references I don't get instead of references to stuff too boring for me to pay attention to.

Weekly Hop N Grape Trip

The first step is admitting you have a problem. I admit it.

The second step is getting help. But I could carry the box of 22s out to my car on my own, so I didn't need help. So maybe I don't have a problem. I think the Arrogant Bastard, McMenamins Ruby and McMenamins Kris Kringle we had while working on our beer make my point a little foggy.

Before we could transfer the CCWA NWPA, I decided to see if Hop N Grape had any of the Elysian Apocalypse beers or any presidential themed beers. Yes on the Elysian, and yes they have some 21st Amendment beers which I will go back and get, but they didn't have the Yards Brewing ales of the revolution that I found online yesterday, so bummer. Also didn't have any Presidente, although I didn't expect them to have that one. My fridge was already full and I bought eight 22s instead of the one or two that I planned to buy. So maybe a small addiction. Anyone know where I can get some Yards?

Add More Hops!

We've been talking about brewing batch number four and have been throwing around a couple of ideas and this is what we've settled on.  Stormtrooper Imperial IPA will be straight up hops kicking you in your mouth.  With eight ounces of hops added throughout the boil and dry-hop this beer will be sure to please any hophead.  It should weigh in at roughly 7.6% ABV with 106 IBUs. 

Gus and I plan on brewing this batch sometime this week and kegging it after a few weeks in the fermenter.  We're also bottling our Beach Dog Brown and Sacajawea Pale this week so it should be a busy week.  I'm really looking forward to brewing the Stormtrooper just because I love the smell of hops.

In other beer news, I should have in my possession the parts for my kegerator build by the weekend.  I'm hoping to get everything put together sometime next week and having an operational kegerator filled with CCWA NWPA and Stormtrooper IIPA by the end of the month.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of the kegerator build after it's complete.    

Photo Found

Found another photo on my wife's phone I missed when uploading last week. The brewers hard at work on the CCWA NWPA.

I am so thirsty.

On a side note, I just want to say "YOU SUCK" to the NBA refs in Portland. You consistently day in and day out do a horrible job, sometimes for our team, sometimes against, but always blowing calls, being inconsistent, just overall poor showings. But to blow the final couple calls in regulation and force overtime against the Thunder was unforgivable. I hope the next time you order a beer it has gone bad. Or someone spits in it. Or the next time you buy beer the bag breaks in the parking lot. I hate you.

Also just found the motherlode online... Kegerators. Nate is building one, and I have an old bar my dad and I purchased last year and plan to finally get around to fixing it up to hold multiple beers. My garage will soon be the coolest bar on the block...

New Belgium's Cocoa Mole



Spicy sweet goodness

 I was in Seattle over the weekend visiting my girlfriend and we decided to go on a beer run.  The Top Foods near her house has an amazing selection of beers, so off to the beer aisle we went. 

A few weeks ago at Tops I stumbled across New Belgium's Grand Cru, which is another beer from the Lips of Faith series.  As I'm not really a fan of Belgian beers I was a little worried I would like it but this one was alright.  I could definitely taste the Saison yeast that was used in it but it wasn't as overpowering as some of the other Belgians I have tried.  When I heard about the Cocoa Mole it reminded me of Roots chocolate habanero stout that they had during winter and I knew that I had to try it.  Luckily the Grand Cru was all gone and had been replaced with the Cocoa Mole.

The first taste is very smooth with the chocolate flavor coming through.  As you swallow you notice the pepper flavor and a little, tiny bit of heat.  It's amazing how well the chocolate and peppers compliment each other.  I was a little concerned that at 10% ABV the alcohol taste would be overpowering but the chocolate and peppers cover it up completely.  If you have a chance to try this beer I highly suggest it.  I think I may have to grab a few more 22s of it before it's all gone. 

Super Beer

The Super Beer was this Sunday between the Patriots and the Giants. To celebrate Randy brought over a growler of Fort George bourbon barrel cavatica stout and it was outstanding. I might have missed some of the game talking beer and chasing kids around, but it didn't matter. We had food and friends and I got to drink this beer. Which made the day great. I also got to finally try a few Lindemans Lambics which I always assumed were fruity Belgian beers from the labels, and that is exactly what they were. It would almost be hard to call them beer, kind of like cider beer is beer. And they were good, I just couldn't drink a whole bottle. A couple tasters of each were plenty. All in all a good day.

good night

Yes, last night was a good night. Guinness Foreign Extra is even better than their regular stout. The Draught is a middle thickness, and the black lager is just like it sounds, closer to a lager. But all four varities are good and it was fun to try three of them back to back to back.

Then we rocked some Lego Rock Band. Because "cue the Toys R Us music" I don't wanta grow up...

Nate can belt out some Wanted Dead or Alive. Can't wait for birthday karaoke...

Also got caps ordered, which was the whole reason for getting together. That took about 5 minutes, or 2 hours if you count the rest of activities...

the Big Three Five



Cold beers on tap

 I've wanted to build my own kegerator for roughly the last five years.  With my 35th birthday quickly approaching I've decided that now is the time to make it happen.  Happy Birthday to me indeed!  

I originally wanted to set up my kegerator to hold a half-barrel keg (15-1/2 gallons) because that is how most of the breweries keg their beer.  Now that I've been bitten by the homebrew bug I plan on setting this keg up for two Cornelius kegs (5 gallons).  The benefit of the Cornelius kegs is that a single batch of homebrew will fill it completely and I could probably fit four or five of them in my fridge if needed.  Another added benefit is that bottled beer takes three weeks to condition while kegged beer only takes three days. 

Gus and I decided a while ago that we would be bottling our Beach Dog Brown and Lake Sacajawea Pale Ale.  Since I've decided to build my kegerator we agreed that we should keg our CCWA NWPA and the soon to be brewed Stormtrooper IIPA.  So instead of just having the brown and pale ale ready to go we will also have the kegged beers to enjoy.  As of right now March 3rd is going to be the glorious day that we finally get to enjoy our beers.



Mmmm, beers

 Another thing I would really like for my birthday would be more carboys.  LTB currently has two carboys and one bottling bucket that we also use for our primary fermenter.  More carboys = more beers that we can brew!  I already plan on buying another bottling bucket and would like to see us have five or six carboys total.  That way we would be able to always have a batch of our favorite beers brewing plus have the space to do some experimenting. 

These last few days I have tried my hand at constructing some recipes.  Our first two batches were recipes that we got from Erik's cousin Gunnar and Jim at Your Homebrew.  Batch three was found on the internet with some minor modifications made to it and batch four will be more of the same.  But in the next month I plan on brewing two of my original recipes, the Apocalypso and Gnate's Gnarleywine.  The Apocalypso should be ready to taste in a month to a month and a half.  Gnate's Gnarleywine won't be ready to drink til early 2013 although I'm sure Erik and I will crack one before that to taste so we could compare it to the final product.



McGuyver would be proud

 With all of these carboys that we plan on obtaining we will definitely need a way to clean them.  After some searching online I've found a pretty easy cleaner that I will be able to build with parts from work.I also found another carboy cleaner DIY project that involved a five gallon bucket, a carboy dryer, a 1/5 hp pump and some PVC piping that I may attempt down the road.  For now this easy setup should do just fine cleaning our carboys. 

With about four feet of 1/2"PVC piping, four 1/2" 90* elbows, four 1/2" tees, one 1/2" cap, one 1/2" MNPT adapter and another adapter to go from the MNPT to 3/4" garden hose thread I will be able to build the cleaner.  I'll glue it together like the picture to the right and drill 1/8" holes all the way up the stand pipe.  We should be able to hook it up at my place or in Gus's utility sink and hold our carboys upside down over it and clean away.  I've heard some horror stories about using carboy brushes and I hope that this will make the job easier. 



the Ultimate Fermenter

 I'd say the final item on my ultimate wish list would be this Oak barrel that was used to age bourbon.  Woodinville Whiskey, here in Washington state, sells these 5 gallon buckets after they use them to age bourbon.  I've seen some of the breweries sell their oak barrel aged beers in the $10-$15 range for a 22 ounce.  If we could somehow replicate that with one of these barrels that would justify it's $120 price tag, right?  If any homebrewers out there have experience with using a barrel please leave us a comment to let us know how it worked out for you.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Rubinator

Leaving the Blazer game midway through the 4th (thanks to the absolute drubbing they were putting on Charlotte) I had time to stop by McMenamin's White Eagle. There was a band playing as always and made me pine for my younger days when it used to be common to stop there or Widmer for a beer after games.

I also found a few fun facts on the McMenamin's Beer Blog like the fact that their Terminator Stout was 25 years old in 2010 and Hammerhead was 25 in 2011. We of course missed those cool anniversary parties, but I am going to have my own party. I bought a couple 22s of Ruby and Terminator and plan to make Rubinators before the Superbowl. I didn't get any hammerhead but will have to grab a few on my next trip. The reason I didn't get any is because I was able to snatch up the last two 22s of Kris Kringle they had down in the basement (okay, I was told they were the last two but I am not naive enough to believe 100% they were the last two, but I assume they are almost out) and I plan to drink one tonight while ordering our first couple batches of bottle caps.

I also had a Laurelwood Espresso Stout at the Blazer game last night. In case I haven't said it before, thank you Laurelwood for having a pub in the Rose Garden. I love Widmer, but all they serve is Hefe and Droptop, or Hefe and Drifter, and those get old, especially at $9/beer.

And lastly, thank you to the Blazers for scoring over 100 last night for more free Chalupa coupons from Taco Bell. I wonder if Charlotte does that promotion. If they do it's probably score 100 and everyone gets a free car. Because they are horrible.