Smoked Amber

I was looking for a strong tasting beer -- something that fill the enormous gap that my Scotch Ale left.

And I have not been let down by this Creamy Smoked Amber.  Powerful, flavor first beer.  If you, like me, love peated scotch whisky, then this may be a beer for you :-)  The malted barley was in fact smoked, much like peated whisky from Islay or Jura.

I brewed this beer by myself, at home, on one absolutely gorgeous Austin day.  75F and sunny with a lovely breeze floating down the canyon.  Okay, so I'm never entirely alone when I brew...

I kegged my Saison, and actually put the remainder of my Scotch Ale into a real oak cask for some aging.

All in all, this was a nice, drama-free brew.  This was my first full water boil.  As an aside, I enjoyed a very nice bowl of gumbo mid boil :-)

The original gravity came in at 1.045 (target 1.052), and final at 1.012 (target 1.014).  The color (distorted by the indoor lighting) definitely checked in as a lovely, red/amber.

Recipes follow.

Cheers,
Dustin

Saison

I think this is my first beer that "might have been"...

Saison ales are brilliant beers.  Bright, light, more than a small hint of fruit.  Perfect for drinking on a warm or hot spring or summer day.  Amazingly, Saison yeasts love ferment at very hot temperatures.

Unfortunately, this particular brew fermented in my closet during an unseasonably cold couple of weeks in Austin.  The result certainly wasn't bad, per se, but I just can't help but wonder what might have been, had this beer fermented at 80F or so (on the left below).

This was the first beer I brewed on a week night.  I worked from home that day, which enabled me to be home and ready to brew by 5:30pm.  I typically allow 5 hours for a brew night, so this would ensure that I finish by 10:30pm.

Now, remarkably, we were hosting Josh and Steph, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, for their first trip back to Austin since moving to New Orleans.  Brewing is a family event around here.

It was beautiful, wonderful night :-)

The original gravity checked in at 1.059 (target: 1.057).  The final gravity was right at 1.010 (target 1.015).  The color has a classic Saison cloud, with plenty of coriander and lemon on the nose, and even more on the palate.

In retrospect, I've named this beer the "Saucy Saison" in honor of Ubuntu's new 13.10 mascot, the Saucy Salamander, and donated a growler to some good friends in the Ubuntu world a bit earlier tonight :-)

:-Dustin

White IPA

Hands down, this has been my highest quality brew to date!  I say that as I'm finishing one of my very last pints of it now (April 25, 2013).

I brewed this beer at my buddy Casey's house.  This was his second brew, and we spent a lovely afternoon making beer outdoors.

The original gravity was measured at 1.052 (target was 1.057).  The gravity was 1.019 when racking from primary to secondary, and checked in with a final gravity of 1.010 (target was 1.014).
Really, really interesting, complex beer.  The flaked wheat grains add a bit of thickness and mouth feel to a crisp, west-coast brew (Columbus, Cluster, Centennial, Cascade).

After brewing at Casey's house, I had to drive the results home.  It's technically not an open container since I hadn't yet pitched the yeast :-)

The color and clarity were near perfection.  Golden pale with a classic beer clearness.

The translucence of this beer is really visible in this shot.  The color of this beer in the carboy was ruby red, or amber.  But once decanted, the true color comes through.

Unfortunately, my non-beer-nerd friends have no idea what they're getting into when they taste this beer.  I'll pour them two tasters -- this White IPA and my Irish Stout.  Without fail, they reach for the clear, light colored one, and are met with a hop bomb (dry hopped with Cascade and Centennial).  If you're not a big beer drinker, IPAs are usually not from you.  Don't get me wrong -- I love this beer.  But this beer has taught more than a few members of my friends and family what a great beer the Irish Stout is, after getting the bitterness bomb and giving that motor-oil-black stout a shot :-)

All that said, I truly loved this beer!

Cheers,
Dustin

Sorry to see you go bro

Unfortunately, one of my best friends and my primary home brewing partner is moving from away Austin to New Orleans in a couple of weeks.  Much of what I've learned about beer I've learned from Josh.

With practicality in mind, they're downsizing a bit before packing up and heading off.  So Josh invited a small gathering of beer nerds to his places for sausage and beer yesterday.

On the menu was this spectacular arrangement (in order):

1.  Jester King Mikkeller
2. Maui Brewing Liquid Breadfruit
3. Lazy Magnolia Deep South Pale Ale
4. Lagunitas Brown Shugga
5. Russian River Pliny the Elder
6. Firestone Double Jack IPA
7. Hebrew Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA
8. Avery Brewing Maharaja Imprerial IPA (aged)
9. Avery Brewing Maharaja Imperial IPA (new)
10. Russian River Pliny the Elder
11. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

Awesome evening.  Sorry to see you go, bro.  At least we're doing it with style.  And good beer.

:-Dustin

Irish Stout

I brewed this Irish Stout in the interest of drinking a real Irish beer for St. Patrick's Day.

And I can't say I was disappointed at all.  The timing worked out very well, with my brew day on January 13th, 2013.

It was a cool day in Austin, Texas, topping out around 60F.  If you're reading this in some other locale, you may be thinking, "60F in January -- that's a cool day?"  If so, I'm sorry.  Come visit :-)

Brew day was nice and social.  Three old high school friends, from Baton Rouge, LA, who are also re-lo's to Austin, TX (Casey, Carrie, and Taylor) all dropped by for the afternoon and joined me for a bit of NFL playoffs and brewing.

I'm delighted to say that both Casey and Taylor have each bought their own brewing equipment and have since dived into their own brewing.  Both are on their 3rd or 4th brew by this point.

I had a bit of trouble during my boil.  I had recently bought a Bayou Classic banjo burner.   Unfortunately, it crapped out mid boil.  I had to run to Lowes during my boil.  The temperature of my wart dropped to about 150F over about a half hour before we got back and replaced the burner.  Since then, it's been solid.

I also used my brand new wort chiller, which is awesome, by the way :-)

Most interestingly with this brew, I actually collected and re-pitched some of the Edinburgh yeast I used in my Scotch Ale.

I only used a single stage carboy for this beer.  The fermentation was vigorous, though the chub was very easy to cull.

This beer was brewed on January 13, 2013, and kegged on February 2, 2013.  The original gravity was 1.041 (at 60F), while the target was a bit higher, at 1.050.  The final gravity was 1.013, which was dead on target.

What a delightful beer!  While the beer is of course jet black, dark in color, the flavor, specific gravity and the ABV is incredibly light.

Here, you can see a set of tasters, with the Stout in the middle.  To the left is my Extra IPA, and to the right, my Scotch Ale.

One Hoppy Set of Tasters

My mother-in-law gave me a pair of paddles and a set of mini-lager glasses, perfect for at-home beer tastings.  Kim and I hosted some friends for dinner and drinks on Sunday evening, so I broke out the tasters.

On the paddle, from left to right, is:

1. Great Divide's Hercules Double IPA
2. Boulevard's Singlewide IPA
3. New Belgium's Red Hoptober
4. My own Ubrewtu American IPA homebrew

The Hercules is simply a fantastic beer.  An ever so slight hint of Belgian sour on a terrific, imperial, hoppy body, this is a spectacular beer.

I have always really enjoyed Boulevard's Single-Wide IPA, on its own.  In fact, I think that was my first Boulevard beer ever.  A few years ago, Kim and I bought a 1968 Airstream Globetrotter.  One trip to the grocery store, Kim picked up a sixer of the Single-Wide IPA because it had an Airstream on the label.  As it turned out, I happened to really like the beer.  That was a few years before we actually visited the Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO.  In any case, stacking this IPA up against these other 3, it strangely didn't stand up.  It's still a very good, drinkable beer.  I get a light, fresh hopped taste with more than a usual amount of citrus for an IPA.  But it was a little thin.

While not an IPA, the other hoppy beer I happened to have in my fridge was my very last of the New Belgium fall seasonal, Red Hoptober.  As suggested by the name, it's something like a tightly hopped Octoberfest, but brewed as an amber ale (rather than a dark lager).  It has a toasty start with a malty, caramel finish, while leaving plenty of hops on the nose.  Certainly a good beer.

I was more than a little nervous to see how my own IPA stood up to the rest.  I quietly thought to myself as I poured the tasters for Josh and I, if all of this homebrewing is entirely in vain.  I mean, it's easy enough to run up to the corner store and pick up New Belgium and Boulevard sixers.  The Great Divide special bottling means driving a little further to specialty beer store, but still that's easier/cheaper/quicker than dedicating a half-day and a half-a-hundred-bucks to a brew day.  But I'm proud to say that I was delighted with how my IPA tasted, even along side these 80+ and 90+ BeerAdvocate pours.  My IPA is my latest brew, and I do believe it's my best.  It has a deep copper color, a fair amount of carbonation and a solid caramel-cream head.  It's sweet, but not overly so.  I has a bit of ABV, but certainly not as much as the imperial double IPA.  In fact, after the tasting was done, it was a pint of homebrew that Josh and I both opted for.  I took that as a nice compliment ;-)

Cheers,
:-Dustin

Extra IPA

So the American IPA I brewed for Tim is 2/3 gone already (lots of guests over for Christmas, and this beer was very tasty)!

I needed to get another IPA kegged and carbonated soon.  I've been eyeing this recipe from Austin Homebrew.  I particularly enjoy Sierra Nevada's Extra IPA, the Torpedo.  It's really one of the highest rated beers anywhere.  Tim likes hops in general, so I sure hope he likes this one!

Like my last beer, I used tap water for this one too.  I sure hope this works out, because it's a lot easier than exchanging and refilling 5-gallon jugs.  We'll see...

I recently upgraded my propane burner from an old (30+ years old) that I had inherited, to a nice, modern Bayou Classic KAB6.  My old burner worked okay, but the regulator assembly was a little old.  I was worried about the cracking and aging rubber line might start leaking.  This one is much nicer and does the trick.

I much prefer the "banjo" layout for the burner, rather than the "jet" layout.  It boils my stainless steel kettle much quicker, and gives very even heat which avoids burning the sugar in the middle of the pot.

That said, the regulator totally crapped out.  I had to replace it almost immediately with a new one from Lowe's.

Another new acquisition, Kim gave me a nice, big colander for Christmas.  This makes by-yourself sparging much easier.

 The obligatory brew setup picture.  Here, you can see my Scotch Ale in the carboy, about to be moved from primary to secondary fermentation while my Extra IPA wort is boiling on the burner.

And one more new acquisition for Christmas, Josh got me a 30-ft wort chiller.  This thing is absolutely awesome!  My wort chilled in well under 20 minutes.  I'm really looking forward to seeing this beer in a couple of weeks!

And now, for the first time, not one, but two fermenters going in the closet at one time!  The Extra IPA (primary) is on the left, and the Scotch Ale (secondary) is on the right.

 



:-Dustin