Brewing Notes // All-Nighter Coffee Porter

Chad, my brother-in-law, and I, often put together a brew when our little family visits Meagan's parents down in the Columbia Gorge. We haven't brewed any type of porter before, so we both quickly agreed on putting together a coffee porter. We've never used coffee as an additive, so we did some research and decided to mess with the coffee in the secondary. We figured the brew part would be no problemo, easy breezy bright and beautiful.

We steeped a pound of Chocolate Malt and a pound of Roasted Barley for 30 minutes starting it at 170; it cooled to about 155 by the time it was done. Chad's new Turkey burner boiled the now-black water in no time at all. We added 8 pounds of Pilsner Light Extract, shooting for an original gravity of 1.060. We added an ounce of Centennial Hops for bittering and decided not to use any flavoring hops for this batch.

Boil went well, no boil over, no accidental flame outs, and if it weren't for the fact that it was 40 degrees and pouring rain it would have been quite awesome.  We figured it would be a quick cool, considering the outside temperature, but, we were wrong, it took a solid 45 minutes to cool the yeast food. Oh well, so it goes.  We were out of beer and it was getting cold without our heat source, but at least we were almost done! We dumped the brew into the pail and....we were short a gallon of liquid!

So into the kitchen to boil another gallon, let it cool, and add it to the wort. Another hour later and we were finally done with All-Nighter Coffee Porter.

Brewing Notes // Pussed-Out Pumpkin Ale

The name? Last year it was called Stolen Pumpkin Ale, but the hard line of morality bit me in the ass and I couldn't get myself to steal one this year. I pussed out.

So this year I decided to go a slightly different route. I purchased some actual Pie Pumpkin, sometimes called sugar pumpkins, and I guess in some circles they are known as cheese pumpkins. No, I don't know why.

This beer starts with oven-roasted pumpkins, steeped with a pound of Chrystal malt and a pound of Carapils. The Chrystal malt gives it some color and the Carapils some body. I steeped this in my giant steeping bag (no, really, a medium sized dog could be tied up and carried over your shoulder in this grain bag) for about 30 minutes. I went with an ounce of Fuggles and 1/2 ounce of Mt. Hood hops for bittering. Around 15 minutes left I added 1/2 cup each of Molasses and Brown Sugar. I scattered a few pellets of the Mt. Hood here and there over the last 15 minutes as well. They are supposed to be spicy, so we'll see if they just get in the way, or if they add another dimension. Most pumpkin beers don't get a flavor addition. But I like hops. I threw in cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger with about 5 minutes left. Forgot about the vanilla, so I dropped some in at blowout.

Brewing Notes // Bottled: Agave Barleywine

Just busted open the first bottle of the new Agave Barleywine...and promptly moved twenty bombers to the basement. Harsh! Definitely needs some aging, I'll check again from time to time.

Next up: Blackberry Wheat.

Let the Bottling Begin!

That's right folks, you're looking at the flagship label for Red Beard Brewing Company and their first brews, Naked Mole Rat IPA and Prairie Doggin' Brown Ale (which still remains to be finished.)

Brewing Notes // The Trials...

After the wildly successful Prairie Doggin' Brown Ale (tm), the clamor for their next brew had to be met. After much discussion, and many suggestions, we with an English-style ESB, something that the crew hadn't brewed yet.

Everything was going smoothly (including the drinking) until it was time to cool the boiling wort. Instead of cooling the wort down like one is supposed to (ice bath/copper coil), Josh decided to poor the wort right into the carboy...while Chad overlooked. The wort splashed right off the funnel and straight into Chad's eye. Needless to say they figured out their error instantly. After some swearing, and apologizing, the wort managed to get cooled and the fermentation started.

After a few weeks of worrying that the beer was going to taste like something out of Belgium instead of England, (perhaps sour, yeasty or fruity) Chad took the first swath and deemed it: OK. So he slipped a little DME into the mix to give it some carbonation, bottled it up and prayed it wouldn't get any worse.

He brought 7 - 22 oz bombers to Daroga State Park for Memorial Day and popped them in the cooler overnight. Josh was so excited to try the brew he busted one open at 10 AM. (He claims to have broken no rules, as it was over 70 degrees by then [the noon/70 degree rule]). Just as Chad said, it was: OK. Nothing wrong with it, really, just not much to it. It was pretty smooth and drinkable though, so the suspicion is that the recipe just wasn't up to par for the bolder IPA-normalized gullet. Yes, gullet. Not pallet. That would suggest these drinkers have a discerning pallet, which, Josh readily admits he does not.

With two brews down, let's hope the third time's the charm and a true winner is crafted, if not for the fans - then for their dwindling pride.