Brew Dudes

I’m feeling punchy this morning, so the bullets are gonna fly.  The title of this post should be Make Red Beer, Not War.

• I was rereading Mike’s post about his Irish Ale Recipe.
• From Mike’s post, the key to getting a red color is adding a bit of roasted barley to the grist (~2 ounces for 5 gal. batch).
• BJCP guidelines agree.
• I have reading more about specialty malts and the type of colors they impart.
• Many of the descriptions of lower Lovibond crystal malts like Weyermann CaraRed state that they give a beer a red color.
• The outcome of beers I have brewed with caramel/crystal malts have always been in the “shades of brown” arena.
• Since the SRM scale is limited, and what our eyes see can be much different when it comes to picking up color subtleties, are all these descriptions sorta bunk any way?
• Is this another experiment we should run?
• End of bullets.  You can lift your head up now.

P.S. I have been getting into the color of beers lately.  The appearance/presentation never mattered to me before.  Now it’s something I focus on before I take a sip.  I guess it is another step in the progression of beer geekdom…

Speaking of Giving the Gift of Brewing in a recent post, what’s on your personal “want” list for this Holiday season?  We all have big dreams of stainless steel, copper, and bubbling wort.  I was thinking about what items would I need to make the biggest impact in my brewing for the new year.  What equipment or other brewing aid would assist me in taking my brewing to the next level in 2009.
Here is my short list:

1. Temp Control:  I have been too long without an operable beer fridge.  While I would like to get back into kegging, I miss the temperature control I used to have with brewing.  Seeing how I would still like to get lagering, I guess I would rather get a small chest freezer than a new fermenting fridge….but I’d still need a new fridge for dispensing beer from the keg.  I can dream right?
2. I also really need a new wort chiller.  In the summer-time, wort chilling has been tough with just my small 20 foot immersion chiller.  I’d like to invest in a new 50 foot chiller and then I can use the current one as a prechiller.
3. It’s not secret that I use a Corona Grain Mill for my grain prep.  I really like it and I have no issues with the quality and consistency of the crush.  With that said, in order to brew more often and brew bigger batches I’d really like to step up to a faster mill like a Barley Crusher.  That way I can use a drill and crush more grain in a shorter period.

So what’s on your list?!?