Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

2011 Boston Homebrew Competition

On January 20, 2011

I was on wort.org today and I saw they have some updated information on the Boston Homebrewing Competition. Now in its 16th year, it appears they are only accepting online entries and the submissions need to have official labels attached to them or they won’t be accepted.

This is the first time I am submitting something to this competition. I submitted something to the New England Regional Homebrewing Competition back in late October.

I have the rauchbier and the blonde ale to submit. I will have to check with Mike to see if he has anything to put into the competition.

I am looking to get feedback on the rauchbier in particular since I don’t really know what to make of it.

Their site has more information about the competition and they have official entry rules as well.

Brew It Again

By John Krochune

On January 18, 2011

In General

A new homebrew recipe site was brought to our attention and we thought we would pass it along to you.

The name of the site is Brew It Again and can be found at http://www.brewitagain.com.

You can browse recipes that have been posted. They have a great advanced search feature.

Plus you can sign up and post your own recipes as well. If you have a chance, check it out.

California Common Recipe

By John Krochune

On January 14, 2011

In Recipes

Since my basement in the winter stays a (pretty much) consistent 60°F in the winter, I think that a California Common or Steam Beer recipe would be good to try out since I have the correct temperature for fementation.

I always imagined that this beer would be my first lager attempt, but the beer fridge changed that trajectory.

Here is a recipe that I formulated to resemble Anchor Steam.

Ingredients:

9 lbs. 2-Row Brewers Malt
1 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
.8 oz. Northern Brewer (Pellets, 8 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Northern Brewer (Pellets, 8 %AA) boiled 15 min.
.5 oz. Northern Brewer (Pellets, 8 %AA) boiled 1 min.
Yeast: WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast

Predicted Results

Original Gravity: 1.050
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 11.11 °SRM
Bitterness: 38.1 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.0 %

Notes:

I may need to recalculate the hops amounts based on the AA%. If it’s lower, I will need to buy and add more. Looking to collect enough wort for a 6 gallon boil for 60 minutes.

After the boil, I plan to chill the wort to around 58°F and let it warm up over the first few days of fermentation. Ferment for 2 weeks. Bottle after that.

Hot Scotchie

By Mike

On January 13, 2011

In Recipes

Yesterday while shoveling 20+ inches of snow here in New England, I let my mind drift to brewing to keep myself entertained. I reminded myself of a warming little beverage that Ray Daniels of Designing Great Beers fame has talked about on occasion. Its called a Hot Scotchie. The Hot Scotchie is made by combining your favorite Scotch with some warm fresh wort from your first runnings of the lauter tun during a brew session. Now don’t get your snow pants in a bunch if you don’t do all grain. You can simply pull a mug full of wort from your extract brew pre boil. Try 160-170F or so, like during a mash out. Pre-hopped I’d imagine would be best too.

Sounded like a perfect cure for a cold and over used back after shoveling. Hot Scotchies are the perfect reason to plan an outdoor brew session in the cold of winter. I’ll have to remember to give it a try on my next outdoor brew day.

Now to go pick an adequate Scotch for the occasion.

BREW ON!

Mini Mashing Strategy

By Mike

On January 11, 2011

In All Grain, Partial Mash

As I posted before I am going to attempt to make 4 or 6 one gallon batches of base malt only beer at the same time. I originally was looking to do the following: American 2-row, German Pils, English Pale Malt, Munich Malt, 50/50 Wheat/2-row and a specialty malt called ESB malt (I saw it at my LHBS and got curious).

The more I think about the process though, I think I may parse it back the first 4 instead. The main reason is that I got the green light to do this on the kitchen stove. With 4 burners and 4 stock pots I should be able to do this relatively faster than if I was to do it on my two burners in the garage. My plan is straight forward. Mash 2lbs of each malt in 2.5 qts water (164F strike temp, 1.25qt/lb). I hope to hit a mash temp somewhere in the 154F range. I’ll do the mashes simply in stock pots, and store them in a warmed oven for 60 minutes to hold the temp. This method will help ensure that they all are subject to the same general temp and temp swings for the duration of the mash.

I’ll sparge each one over a stainless steel mesh colander that I have used in the past for mini-mashing and steeping grains. I’ll rinse each mash through the colander with enough 168F water to get me to 1.5 gallons total. Then I’ll boil each one for 60 minutes with a single Magnum charge of hops. Sounds straight forward. I might use the big pot and propane cooker to fire up the strike and sparge water, just for convenience and speed. But next thing I need to do is borrow a couple 2 gallon stock pots…

BREW ON!