I vote for pick our own yeast and brands of grain.

Probably a year ago I created a 2+2 Homebrew swap google group. Should we use that to keep the thread brew organized? It will also make it easier for people to do regular beer swaps commercial or Homebrew, I'll open it up to anyone.

PM me your email address and I'll add you to the group.

Obviously we will continue to post itt our updates on whether we brewed, how it went, photos, reviews etc.

beer closet is looking a bit thin...



Cracking this open as I type...

Tough life having 11+ bottles of Firestone on hand :P

cardsman,

I really think those two recipes are very different from the BCS recipe, especially the first one you posted. The first one has a ton more crystal character and is a much, much bigger beer. It also has a much more varied hopping schedule. The things I like about the BCS recipe is that its simple - about 11% specialty malts, the rest a single base, and I don't think I'd even miss the special roast all that much - its pale, and its single hop. I know for a fact that I can't get Northdown or Target hops, but Goldings are pretty common.

Id agree with RDH wrt to the BCS recipe, I think we keep it simple with easily attainable ingredients.

That being said I want to get your guys opinion on something. Ive been wanting to do a 100% Brett Pale Ale and wondering if this wort might be a good opportunity to test it out. Ive been doing alot of 11G batches with split fermentations, one to help me decide on certain methods/ingredients fermentation temps etc, but also to get essentially 2 beers for the price of one brewday.

So I'd do half the batch with a classis English yeast and the other half of a 100% Brett L ferment. Thoughts?

I'd like to send out some beer to have you guys try if anybody wants it. I'm getting this odd flavor in my beers and I'm wondering if anybody can identify it and maybe offer a fix.

I'd be down for the brew-off if you do it again, hopefully I can fine-tune my setup before then.

Shoot me a PM with you address if you'd like a few homebrews to try and I'll get them out next week.

You can still get in for the Big Brew, nobody has even brewed yet, so if you want in youre in. We should finalize the recipe this weekend then everyone needs to have brewed by the end of January.

I'll do a trade with you, I have a Smicoe Marris Otter SMaSH beer that is just now ready.

BCS recipe is fine by me then. I think the google group is a great idea too. I'll PM my email to Coff.

As far as the split ferm, Coff, I think it'd be a good place to do it!

I am no expert reviewer but want to say my favourite lager is Portuguese Super Bock. Absolutely delicious! When it comes to beer I've always been more into stouts or wheat beers but would drink Super Bock before any of them on a hot summer day.

Bocker bellegem's Bruin

App: hazy brown color, 1 finger tan head that dimishes fast to a thin layer that lingers slightly.

Aroma; sourness, malty, a bit of funk, green apples accompanied by roasted coffee.

Taste: thin body with sourness upfront and lingers throughout. A bit funky, no acidity just a nice sour malty brown.

A nice beer, I wish it was even more sour but this is very enjoyable almost a session sour brown, goes down smooth and quick.

3.5/5

Here's the full recipe from BCS:

6g batch
OG= 1.047
FG= 1.012
60m boil
7g pre-boil at 1.040

9.5lb British pale malt
.5 lb aromatic
.5lb C120
.25lb special roast

Mash at 151F

Or, for extract brewers:
6.8lbs English Pale Ale LME
Same specialty grains and amounts as above.

6AAU EKG 60m
2.5AAU EKG 20m
.5oz EKG 0m

Yeast: WL002, WY1968, Safale S-04


Use 9g rehydrated dry, 2 liquid yeast packs, or appropriate starter. Ferment at 68F. Carb to 1.5-2.0 volumes CO2.

Looks great, I'll grab the stuff this week and probably brew this week as well.

I used my new equipment (100qt tun, 80qt kettle)to do a brew on Friday. Did a 6.7 gallon boil for 90 minutes in the dark and a little inebriated. When I got done I had ~2.5-3 gallons of wort at 1.28og, whereas I was supposed to have 5gal at 1.099. A little confused I diluted with 2.5gal of water which brought it down to 1.12 and pitched the 1L starter of WY1272 American Ale II. It's been happily bubbling away I just hope it comes out good. I didn't have time to check the boil off rate but losing 4gal in 90 min seems ridiculous and I think I must have miscalculated something somewhere so I'll be doing a control boil of water soon.

Gonna post the recipe on the google group for reference, we a. Follow everyone's progress there.

I use an 80qt kettle, the boil off is massive.

15 mins into a 90 minute boil on my Belgian golden sour. 10 gallon batch split into 2 carboys, one with wlp550 and Brett Lambicus, the other with ECY01 Bugfarm 5.

I won't be tastings these for quite some time.

Firestone Walker Double Jack:

Poured from bomber into a tulip. Pours a medium orange color with a nice, but small head

Very hop based aromas of pine, resin, hops and a lot of citrus aromas as well. Big, but not overdone

fuller bodied with a very good feel. Polished with a real smoothness to it along with flavors of resin, oranges, hops and some bits of pine flavors as well

This is an extremely good DIPA. You don't feel any of the alcohol and while it is a very hoppy beer, it isn't in the way too much category either.

4.08/5

First blow over! Also one of the few times I haven't used a blow off tube...



My fridge smells wonderful now at least.

Hey, at least the stopper and airlock didnt shoot off.

Just had a Brooklyn Brewery Black chocolate stout last night. Delicious but a touch boozy at 10%. Will def be getting some more if I see it. 4.5 out of 5.

Local import shop gets a shipment about once every 6 months from teh west coast of the US; I went in the day after and almost cleaned them out of their once case of SN Torpedo (left just a few for others - if I was feeling more ruthless i woulda taken the lot)

Had Russian River Redemption Thursday night, here's my review:

Aroma--High citrus aroma, orange with slight lemon and something else I can't put my finger on. Pineapple maybe? No hop or alcohol aroma present, no heavy malt undertones. 9/12

Appearance--Very thin head that fades quickly and leaves little to no lace on sides of glass. Nice golden color, carb bubbles rise quickly and nicely throughout glass. but not very clear. This may be due to bottle conditioning and definitely not helped by my swirling the bottle during the pour. Even at that, the yeast does not settle to bottom of glass at all. 2/3

Flavor--Hints of pineapple, lemon, and orange, very little hop flavor but nice bite from the carbonation. Clean dry finish with no aftertaste. Malt character subdued, much like in the aroma, no bread, cracker, etc to speak of. 15/20

Mouthfeel--Medium light with high carb bite. No alcohol burn. Russian River label says "soft on the pallete" in the description and I would agree with that. Dry finish. 4/5

Overall--Very citrusy ale that is very good and enjoyable. Wasn't prepared for the the fruitiness versus the carb bite. Somewhat like a orange/pineapple blend breakfast juice mixed with club soda. Lends itself to being a refreshing summer beer, or a dessert type beer. I won't go so far as to say I was disappointed by it, but given Russian River's reputation, I expected something more from the hype. I couldn't see myself ordering more than a couple of these at a time before switching to something else, although I would go back and order a couple more again during another visit. Definitely enjoyable and drinkable, but not worth a lengthy search in my estimation. 7/10

37/50

I quite enjoy Redemption whenever I have a chance to drink it, although it gets severely overpriced in Philly. All that being said, Im a pretty big RR fanboy and my opinion might be a little bit skewed. Your review is extremely fair however and I can see how youre not wowed with Redemption.

Are you a fan of Orval? Ive never done a side by side, but Vinnie has said many times in different speeches and interviews that Orval is his favorite beer in the world so its likely that Redemption is emulated after Orval.

What other RR beers have you had? And did you find them more exciting?

Made some mead this weekend! Got married in November, the tentative plan is to try to bottle as many 12ozers as I can and drink one each anniversary. Fruit is strawberry+banana, honey is from an invasive plant called the brazillian pepper tree, and the yeast was Lavlin K1-V1116.

I've got my first (3g) batch of Apfelwein bubbling away right now, first time non-beer brewing.

I also brewed up 11g of a 1.100 barleywine today. I learned that my mashtun is not 25g as advertised, but closer to 22g.

I'm still trying to develop a taste for all the Apfelwein I have left from New Years Eve. I kind of got drunk early on and forgot to bring the bulk of it to the party. It's not bad but just not something that I am enjoying as much as others seem to enjoy.

I've not had a chance to have Orval, it would be interesting to do a side by side.

I think my review was tempered a bit by the context of my obtaining the beer. We can't get Russian River here in Indiana through distribution, I had to ship it in from the west coast. So in my mind, for the money I paid for the bottle itself, plus the wait and anticipation of the package arriving (I shipped some Pliny, Blind Pig, and a saison from Dupont in Belgium), plus the stellar reputation of RR, I expected to be blown away by the beer, and possibly had an expectation that couldn't be met. So I did think it was a very good beer. If I could get that beer at my local liquor store on a semi-regular basis, I would buy it (although I agree that it's a bit overpriced). However, if I had to ship it in from the west coast again, I didn't think it was great enough to go to those lengths to get it. Next time I have a chance to go to the west coast, I would likely get it again. So hopefully I didn't let that affect my review too much, but I definitely weigh the value (not price) of what I paid/scarcity vs the actual experience while drinking it. Somewhat like comparing steakhouses--if I'm paying $50 for a steak, I want to walk away remembering that steak for a loooooong time, and I think of that steak much differently than a steak I might get at a chain like Texas Roadhouse or the like.

As far as other RR beers I've had, I've had Pliny the Elder and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've said in this thread several times that I'm not a huge hop and IPA guy, but I think Pliny is one of the best, well balanced, and well made beers I've ever had. At the homebrewer's conference in San Diego where Vinny gave the keynote, we also had a brown ale that I can't find on his website so it might have been something they made specifically for the conference. That brown ale was also amazing.

My brewing buddy and his wife are HUGE RR fans and they talk a lot about the afternoon they spent at the brewery and bar, with 45 sample glasses in front of them. I have no doubt that if I have a chance to taste more RR beers I'll like them or maybe find a different appreciation for Redemption. I wish they would distribute closer to here. Even if they distributed in Chicago, I would be there often enough to pick up a 6 pack or two.