Its still pretty quite here on the Western front. The weather is not quite so jealousy inducing (only mid 60s°F). I just haven't had the motivation to post some older, but fun, camera trap images, bird images, or very recent Spring herp images.
So if you don't mind a quick brew day post of cell phone cam pictures here you go. Two of us (re)submitted manuscripts and none of the three of us felt like working on our dissertations.
The goal was pretty simple: two beers
6 gallons of a coffee porter. We stole the idea from a local brewer at
Sante Adarius Rustic Ales, made with locally roasted
Verve Coffee. The SA version of this porter was one of the best beers, let alone porters, I have had in a long time. The trick is an overnight cold brew with much less coffee grounds than you might expect in the keg when the beer is mature.
The second brew changed mid-brew when yours truly did some bad simple arithmetic and added too much volume for the boil, but didn't realize the mistake until afterwards. So 6 gallons of a double Red Ale (~9%ABV) became a heavily hopped Red Ale (~6%ABV).
 |
| A few of the beers sampled during the day |
 |
| A wonderful tart wheat from Rustic Ales that was bottled with a wine yeast if I remember correctly |
 |
| The tower of power |
 |
| Not my foot in a sandle. I learned my lesson once before |
 |
| I'm too lazy to switch the order of these two photos so the finished product comes first |
 |
| Grilling Fajita fixin's: Skirt steak, Pork ribs, onions and bell peppers |
 |
| So we had a really good yeast starter going and carboys a little too full. Finished brewing and this was how our ferment was going the next morning. Made a mess, but those were some happy yeast. We are not too worried about any contamination here. The yeast will win any evolutionary arms race inside these brews. |
Going to have to get the burner going and Tower of Power assembled in a couple of weeks to ensure that the current tragedy of an empty kegerator doesn't hit us again. I think I am going to have to try my hand at a Saison which will make a great Mojave Desert beer.
Ummm...I'd say that everything a bout that post was "jealousy-inducing"! Well, with the possible exception of the dissertation-writting...I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore :) To put it into context....my daughter and I were excited to play outside in sunny mid-40s weather! 60s would feel like the panhandle of Florida to us!
ReplyDeleteDon't think I've had a coffee porter before....but a local brewery here produces a coffee stout, that is one of my favorite beers of all time.
http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/index.cfm/beers/OurBeers/Beer/coffee-stout
I'd love to try some of your homebrews!! I was thinking that some grilled meat and beer would taste good this evening....
I like porters a little more than stouts personally, but we also turned down the really smoky flavor you might find in an imperial porter. I have never had the beer you linked to, but next time I am in the mid-west I will have to go looking for it. There is homebrew with your name on it if you make it out to CA anytime.
Delete