Future Brews Calendar

(Photo Compliments of Hilde and Stock.xchng)

So I read a recent article on Hop Harvesting and Storage Tricks by Scott over at Bertus Brewery and it really got me thinking about planning.  I rarely have a day where I wake up and say "I'm gonna brew!"  I am just to thorough and passionate (some may say nerdy) about this hobby to have not researched and formulated a recipe I think will be great, but I also rarely plan out more than 2 brews in advance.

The last time I tried to plan back-to-back brews, I failed miserably.  I was going to make a Helles and then use that yeast cake to make a Maibock.  Due to a series of problems (ingredients shipping delay, then shipped to my old house, then not being able to brew due to work) I just didnt get around to making that Helles until the end of February.  We had a real mild winter here in D.C. and I didn't think my ferm chamber had enough stamina to ferment at that 48-50 degree range in March, so the maibock didn't happen.  But I digress...

So I have decided I want to try and formulate a rough brew calendar for the next year.  This will hopefully give me the following benefits:

• Bulk Ingredients - I know what I will be making so I know how much and what kind of grain, hops and yeast I will need to buy.
• No Keg Left Behind - sometimes my friends get thirsty, but hopefully I will be able to keep the pipeline full
• Seasonals -  Thinking far in advance I can have seasonal beers ready when I want to consume them, rather than speed brewing to make them in time - like every march when I realize "Shoot!  I need a stout in 2 weeks"
• Productivity - If I don't have deadlines or a schedule, I tend to put things off (I still haven't bottled the small beer from the second runnings of RIS from mid july yet).  If I have a schedule I will be more likely to stick to it and be productive

So there you have it.  In the next few weeks I will be crafting a master list of beers I want to brew.  I will then narrow it down using a number of criteria and come up with a calendar for the next year.  I have found some links that will be helpful in this quest:

• Seasonal Beer Brewing from Beersmith
• When to Brew a Style
• When to Drink a Style
• HomebrewTalk - As always I will peruse HBT for some known recipes and inspiration

Sour Beer 2 - Petrus Aged Pale

Much overdue posting...

Bavik Brewery's Aged Pale is described as an uncut old beer.  From speaking with the distributor this beer was used in other beers at the brewery for blending, but it wasn't until Famous beer Guru Michael Jackson visited the brewery and tried the unblended version (and highly recommened) that it was released for consumption by itself.

Aroma: musty fruit, like a sweet champagne with slight grain smell behind

Appearance: Deep straw color, thick white head with tiny bubbles rising to the top from the sides of the glass

Flavor: Very sour and tart up front, with a fruity character in the middle

Mouthfeel: More sour than the Oud Bruin, but also less dry.  Strong carbonation compliments and helps balance things out

Overall: Great sour beer! The sour taste lingers throughout.  There is some sweet malt character in the middle mixed with some yeast esters likened to "sweet fruit."  This beer will definitely make you pucker, but more so it will creep up on you in a hurry.  I could NOT tell at all this beer was 7.3% ABV

Sour Beer 1 - Petrus Oud Bruin

Bavik Brewery's Oud Bruin is a Flanders style brown ale.  It is aged for 2 years in oak barrels and comes out about 5.5%.  Unfortunately, I didn't have an appropriate chalice/bowl type glassware, so I went with the snifter.

Aroma: A musty and champagne like smell, with a slight malt character in the background.  Possibly some spicy aroma as well

Appearance: A mahogany brown color with a light tan head which quickly dissipates.  Good Lacing on glass

Flavor:  Sourness up front, dark malt notes of chocolate and toffee are briefly detected in the middle, and a tart finish

Mouthfeel: Prickly carbonation and sourness lead to a crisp and dry finish

Overall: Overall this beer was tart, refreshing and thirst quenching.  As the beer warmed up the malt character started to come through a bit more.  This is very well balanced sour beer and one that I would recommend as a starter for someone looking to try sours.

Brewery Update 8-5-2012

RIS is most likely done fermenting (I don't like to bother it too much) and is just cleaning up after itself.  I plan to keg it in a couple of weeks.  I am considering natural carbonation in the keg as it ages another few months before I put it in the keg fridge.  Either way I don't plan on drinking it until until at least October (we'll see if I can be this patient).  I should probably bottle the small 2 gallon batch, but I haven't got around to that either!

The pipeline is on its last legs.  The pale ale is low, the mild is lucky if there is a pint left.  I will need to brew something soon, but I always have trouble making decisions!  Any suggestions are always welcome!

Since I haven't been active in the brewery, I feel the need to tell everyone that I have been doing something related to beer!  My wife's friend who works for the Washburn Wine Company, was nice enough to get me some sour beers from Belgium.  The beers are part of a sour variety pack from the Brewery Bavik (Will need to Translate, I used Google) and are distributed to the U.S. via the Global Beer Network.  I will provide further details on these beers as I write my tasting reviews, but I will leave you with these pics in the meantime.

2012 Competition Results are in

So the results are in and it looks Shegogue Brew beers have been well received.  Over the past few months I  entered a variety of beers into three BJCP recognized homebrew competitions: F.O.A.M (Frederick Original Ale Makers) Battle of the Bubbles 2, B.U.R.P (Brewer's United for Real Potables) Spirit of Free Beer, and the Delaware State Fair's Battle of the Brews.  I have compiled the chart below so you can see which beers were entered and and how they did.

I am very pleased with the results of all three of the competitions.  Its funny when results come in, often times the beer I think had the best chance of doing something didn't place at all!  For the state fair I thought the stout had the best chance but it was the Mild and the Witbier drawing the attention of the judges.  I will try and post again once I get the scoresheets back.  This is where the real learning experience from competitions comes in, the unbiased feeback!  But until then I am all smiles...

Open a Can!

When I hear the phrase "Open a Can" my mind immediately jumps to the Louisiana bayou where fictional football legend Bobby Boucher drank high-quality H2O and opened can's of "whoop-ass."  Others may associate opening a can with a Light american lager (Bud, Miller, Coors etc) or even a good old soda pop. My brother-in-law likes to associated the sound of an opening can as the "Sound of the Weekend," and I would have to agree.

Aluminum cans have been around for a long time as a packaging option to hold carbonated beverages.  In recent years, craft brewers have been turning the can, and after some quick myth debunking, it has been a great success.  If you take a look at Craftcans.com you can see that 201 breweries combine to distribute 599 different craft beers in cans.  The can is a superior packaging product as it is lighter than glass and easily recyclable.  Another advantage of the canned beer is the can is impervious to light, which can prevent skunking.

Sierra Nevada has just recently opened a canning line for their beers and will probably really help change peoples mind on having craft beer in a can.  Other breweries which have been canning their product for a while are Oskar Blues (Known for Dales Pale Ale, Old Chub, and Momma's Little Yellow Pils) and the 21st Amendment (Known for their Watermellon Wheat, Brew Free or Die IPA, and Bitter American).  Locally based Flying Dog, Frederick, MD, and DC Brau in the District are also canning some beer. I could go on an on, but I suggest you just check out the list.

So get out there, and support your local breweries that distribute in cans.  Crack one open and savor the goodness within.

Double Brew for Shegogue

Well,  I finally got my butt out of bed to embark on what was my most ambiguous day in the Brewery to date.  I made two beers, Parti-gyle style.  Parti-gyle brewing was a standard brewing procedure many years ago, and still is utilized at breweries today such as Fuller's in the UK.  The concept is to take the first runnings of a mash to obtain the highest gravity wort.  This wort will be used to brew a big beer, generally over 8% ABV.  Additional runnings are fed to other kettles.  The gravity of the wort in these kettles will be significantly less and be used to make common session beers style beers

I used the first runnings for my Russian Imperial Stout which I am predicting to be around 10% abv.  I was going to cap off the mash (add grain) so the second runnings would make a beer about 1.050, but I had an issue and we will get to that later.

Brewday started around 8am.  This was the first time I have ever tried to utilize my 52 qt Coleman Xtreme mash tun to capacity.  I usually only make 5 gallon batches, but to obtain enough wort from the first runnings the mash tun needed to be filled more as if it was a 10 gallon batch.  I weighed out my 24 lbs of malt using my sweet new Ultraship scale! And then started to hand mill... thats right hand mill :(  I unfortunately had lent my drill to a family member early this week and completely forgot about.  That was a pain in the...arm!  (Note to self, need to start hitting the gym)

I almost had a disastrous moment as I emptied my entire strike volume into my mash tun.  I was almost about to start doughing in the the grain when my brew angel started screaming "Shegogue... NOOOOO!" Quickly I realized why I could not proceed.  I had forgotten to place my manifold in the mash tun!  This could have been a horrific problem had it not been caught.  I was able to runoff all the water back into my kettle, install the manifold and only lose about 15 minutes.

I collected my first runnings of 7 gallons of about 1.077 gravity and started my boil.  I added 3 ounces of 15.8% AA Warrior hops to the kettle at 60 minutes and when about milling my additional 3lbs of grain for the second beer.  I was using a great calculator from Brukaiser's website to approximate the gravity of my remaining runnings.

Unfortunately, as I was chilling down the wort from the Imperial Stout, my mash tun decided to fall over!  Presenting hot stick wort ALL over the garage floor and my feet, ouch!  I think I see a designated brewstand build in my future as that trash can clearly isn't cutting it.  After salvaging what I could, and then cleaning up the mess, I was able to draw off about 3.5 gallons of 1.031 wort for a 2.5 gallon batch.

Anyways, it was about an 9 hour messy brew day.  but I will get two different beers out of it, so well worth it.  The two beers are happily fermenting in around 66 degrees with Safale S-05.