My brother and I have the pale ale all cooked up and in the fermenter. Went pretty well I'd say, although I'm still freaking out about sanitation, going back through everything we did in my mind hoping that we didnt contaminate it. We basically followed all of the kit instructions (pretty nice stuff for an extract kit), rehydrated the yeast, and pitched the yeast at about 76 degrees. No bubbling yet but its only been an hour.

Sounds like it went well good luck with the brew.

Checked the gravities of my berliner and Gumballhead clone. Gumballhead seems to be pretty much fermented out, down to 1.011, so I added 1.5 oz dryhops, hoping to bottle in a week or two. Berliner is down to 1.008, so I'm thinking of racking it onto some raspberries for a few weeks which will drop the gravity down and give me some nice flavoring.

Anybody ever add fruit? Can I just buy frozen raspberries and chuck them in without worrying about sanitizing? Also, how many lbs do I need for 2.5-3 gallons?

There's a fantastic Requiem Raspberry recipe on HBT that utilizes 3 16oz bags of frozen raspberries for a 5G batch ... just sanitize your funnel, scissors and bag before dumping them in

Edit: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/requ...spberry-56285/ OP says 40oz of organic raspberries with no sucrose ... I haven't read whole thread in a while but I've always just used 3 16oz bags of frozen and it's the best beer I make

Was going to keg my Belgian Mild tonight and surprise no CO2. Tried a quick sample and happy will see how it is carbed.

Man, I have more Lolita than I know what to do with. It took a while to put a bottle down by myself last night...

Iowa/Omaha folk: Have you tried anything from Peace Tree brewing? They are located outside of Des Moines, I believe. We only get their double IPA in Omaha, but that is okay because it's god damn amazing. It's the most-rounded double I've tried since the Myrcenary from Odell.

Rapidacid, that thread is great, thanks for the help. Have you made that beer? The people in the thread raved about it.

I ended up getting 20 oz frozen organic raspberries, adding 2 cups water and heating it up to about 150F for 10 mins. Then I cooled it and pitched it into my 2.5 gal berliner.

Here's what I ended up with:


Pink beer! O.o I will probably try to bottle in a week or two.

stella +1

Yea, I've made it 4 or 5 times, always seems to turn out great, but I suppose just like adding a lime to a Corona makes it taste delicious, so will adding 3lb of Raspberry to a batch

No matter what you add to that beer it tastes awful, I dont care what anyone says Corona is one of the nasties beers out there imo.

Hey guys, I saw this thread on BA this morning, but it was apparently nuked as advertising.

There's a site out there for buying beer online (although I think they're mainly wine, they're adding beer) called letspour.com. Here's a link to the beer part of their site. They seem to set themselves apart by upping bottle prices slightly but then offering free shipping. They also seem to rotate their selection somewhat frequently, so they've always got new stuff in. It looks like they feature mainly WC/NW brews, so those furthest away from that part of the country will see the most savings over other online retailers.

Anyways, an employee of the site was chiming in answering questions, and he offered up a coupon code for $10 off $45, so you can get six bombers of quality beer shipped for $35. I think the code was beeradvocate, but since they nuked the thread, I'm not sure. Anyways, there's also a little banner or something at the top for a "free spin" at a prize, and that seems to give a $10 coupon somewhat frequently as well.

Anyways, I can't get most of the stuff from the site in TN, and even if I could bombers are typically in the $5-10 range anyways, so it'd be a great deal for me to get them at ~$6, shipped, out-of-market brands, and thought I'd share with you guys.

Mmmmm Ninkasi. Heard tons of good things about them, never gotten to try it since I'm on the east coast though.

RDH,

Thanks very much for the link. Not ashamed to admit I've never heard of any of those beers except for the Green Flash ... I've bookmarked it and will order from them in the future

Yeah, those prices looks to be close to double (minus a buck or two for some beers) what they are on the shelf here in Oregon. Otherwise it's a decent, if small, range of NW beers.

The best beer by far on the list (imo) is the Hop Henge (although that's wider distribution then some of the others.) I don't love Ninkasi as much as others, but something from them is definitely worth trying. Both the Oatis oatmeal and the Oakshire espresso stouts are decent; both being slightly easier drinking then some bigger stouts out there.

The HUB IPA is also very solid, although again I'm not as crazy about it as many.

With all the IPAs I worry about freshness - but I'm the guy who checks dates in stores and won't buy IPAs that I'm not sure about or aren't marked with dates. I take my hops seriously.

the prices don't really seem too bad IMO. Most of the stuff is between $7-9 for a bomber. 6 btls gives you free shipping anyway. I wouldn't order from them unless I was getting about that many at a time in the first place

Yeah, and the $10 off coupon seals it for me. Got 6 bombers at $6/each, shipped. The cached thread from BA says the coupon code they added was beeradvocate at check out, good until April 8th or something, but I got the $10 from the free spin thingy.

I'm a little bit worried about freshness, but I think these guys are really a volume business, so that should help mitigate it.

"Tricerahops" Double IPA Ninkasi Brewing Company Seattle WA (22oz) 1 @ $8.50: $8.50
Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) Organic IPA Portland OR (22oz) 1 @ $8.75: $8.75
Elyian Brewing "The Immortal" IPA Seattle (22oz) 1 @ $7.00: $7.00
Laughing Dog Brewing "Alpha Dog" Imperial IPA Ponderay ID (22oz) 1 @ $7.50: $7.50
Diamond Knot Brewing Industrial IPA Camano Island WA (22oz) 1 @ $8.00: $8.00
Ninkasi Brewing Company "Believer" Double Red Ale (22oz) 1 @ $7.00: $7.00
Coupon: -$10.00
Total: $36.75

Fish tail ipa stands out to me as one of the worst beers I had in 2011. Freshness was most likely the culprit. I hope

OK, long overdue review incoming. I sat down with the three beers I got in the mail, as well as my own, and tried them all side-by-side. I had the gf pour them all out of my sight and bring them to me, leaving the bottles out so I'd know which were which later. I can't remember for the life of me who sent what bottle, though, so you'll have to chime in with which was which, if you want to. Overall, I've had enough of mine that I knew it right off, though there was another that was fairly close and made me pause for a second. Other than those two, the other two were most definitely different. On to the contenders:

#1:


When the gf brought the beers in, I just said, "Whoa!" Totally different color than what I was expecting. I took a picture with and without a flash so that's them. I got one beer in a bottle with a commercial label, so I asked her if that was it, thinking maybe that was the actual commercial beer thrown in as an extra, but it was not. Not sure what the substitution was in the recipe, but its so much darker that it isn't really a special bitter in appearance. Its porter-dark. The aroma started off with some bready malts, followed quickly by a hit of roast. Not super-strong like coffee, but just some basic roasted malt aroma. The taste was much the same, with maybe some earthy hops just showing up a bit. But it seemed there was definitely some roast in here, and it dominated. The beer overall was ok, it was interesting with that curveball thrown in there. Not what I'd like if I ordered a bitter at a bar, but if somebody told me they were playing on a variation of a bitter, it'd be interesting to try.

#2:



This one much closer to the color I was expecting, a light amber or darkish gold. The aroma was lightly malty, like some toast about halfway through toasting, and some estery aroma, maybe vaguely apples. The taste started off like the aroma, but the malty/estery was quickly followed by some bitterness that helped clean it off the palate. It finished pretty dry, with just some lingering malt flavors on the tongue. Definitely a drinker.

#3:



Darker than #2, a solid amber. The aroma reminded me more of straight up malted grain, more like sticking your head in a bag of 2-row or something. More bread dough than baking or toasting bread, if you get me. The taste had a bit of a fuller body than #2, and a little more sweetness. IT still finishes dry, but not quite as much so as #2. Slight hoppiness helps finish it off. Another drinker, and enjoyable.

#4:



Same color as #2, maybe just a tiny shade darker, or maybe its exactly the same and the light outside dropped just a bit. The aroma was very different though, and I had trouble placing it. It seemed very familiar, but I couldn't describe it. It was almost cereal-y, like maybe a non-sweetened Smacks cereal, or Corn Flakes, only not. And I don't think it was a DMS-type corn aroma, either. Maybe the hop used combined with some oxidation? Anyways, different aroma for sure. The taste followed the smell, with some background malt being pretty much overwhelmed by that cereal-type flavor. Slightly astringent. Maybe a bit more bitter/hoppy than the others.

And the reveal:



That's 1-4, with the bottles behind, and in the case of no bottle, the one off my tap. I knew pretty quickly which was mine. I also liked mine the best. I also really enjoyed #3, though, and I'm drinking that right now. #1 just wasn't a special bitter to me, and the aroma/flavor I couldn't place in #4 is currently driving me nuts, trying to figure out what it is.

This was a fun experiment. I'd love to know what the recipe for #1 was, since it was so radically different than the others. If any of you guys - or any one else - wants to try something like this again, I'd be down. The gf now knows if strange packages filled with unmarked bottles show up at the door, its from internet people swapping homebrews with me.

Thanks for the review RDH, mine came in the Pride and Joy bottle so it must be number 3 and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Would you have anything to say about the carbonation as that's one thing we struggle with most as I mentioned? I'm enjoying my keg, this wasn't a favorite style of mine prior to brewing it, but I'll be sad when the keg runs out.

My brewing partner wants to participate in the side by side with me, so we're going to brew a kolsch, likely tomorrow, but definitely by Saturday and we'll taste while brewing.

I'm pretty sure mine is was #3.

My apologies if I'm wrong, but he said the bottles were behind the glasses?

Lol, I actually posted that before you posted I wasn't trying to dispute.
My bottle was easy to spot, it had a printed white label that said Burton ESB with brew date bottle date, IBU, SRM and ABV.

Actually doing a tasting of the 2 I hadn't tried right now.

RDH I think the first beer you poured was the Black IPA that somebody sent?

The #1 was my black IPA.

You should have also gotten 2 bottles of the bitter. I think the bitter said OB and the black ipa said BI. Probably to close in lettering. The black ups was about twice the abv of the bitter.

Not that you guys care, but just checked the gravity of my first brew and it is down to right between 1.010 and 1.015 - right where it should be. Bottling a week from now.

Anyways decided my next recipe will be a honey ale based on the one a local brewery does. Even though this recipe should be pretty basic, it is the first one Ive ever created so I'm open to suggestions! I used a beer recipe calculator to help me. Here goes:

5 lbs Extra Light LME
1 lb Honey Malt (steeping)
1lb honey (pasteurized) - adding right after boil

1 oz Cascade hops 60 minutes
.5 oz Cascade hops 10 minutes

American Ale yeast

OG 1.050
FG 1.012
Color: 6L
IBU: 20
5.1% ABV

Doing a 10gal batch soon and splitting it into two separate 5 gallon batches to ferment with American Ale II and Thames Valley. Then I'll split those 5 gallon batches and put 2.5 gal of the AAII on some type of stone fruit, and 2.5gal of the TV on some Ancho and Pasilla chiles (if I can get them tomorrow at Farmers Market). Here is the recipe for the brew.