Had a fairly productive year brewing, I figured it was a good time for a year in review of what I brewed in 2011.
Oh My Darlin Clementine Wit, 5.5 gallons
6-row, oats, wheat, acidulated malt, Belgian Pale malt, Northern Brewer hops, Saaz hops, clementine peels, clementines, coriander, and chamomile flowers. Acid rest, decoction, step mash.
LOVED this beer, soooo much clementine flavor. Would like to do again.
Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead, JAOM, 1 gallon
Honey, oranges, raisins, cinnamon, clove, bread yeast.
Recently sampled, still a bit hot/harsh, I’ll be giving it time but it is pretty tasty.
Vienna Centennial SMaSH, 5.25 gallons
Vienna malt, acidulated malt, Centennial hops. First wort hop.
Pretty decent beer, not earth shattering. I’d try a different hop with this malt though, perhaps in the spice vein instead.
Minute Man Red Lager, 5.5 gallons
Pale malt, vienna malt, white wheat, Carafa III, Munich, acidulated malt, Hallertauer Hersbrucker.
AWESOME beer, I need to make this one again but the time it ties up my fermentation chamber is tough to deal with.
SCHBA Warrior IPA, 5 gallons
Caramel malt, Special B, pale LME, Warrior hops, Centennial hops, Cascade hops, piloncillo sugar. Late malt addition to the boil.
Not very good. We made the first Warrior group brew that was awesome but have fallen short on the next two. Out of all the shares there was one good one by Mark Coogan which used Citra dry hopped. I think it covered the shortcomings of this beer as the others had this similar flavor. I am attributing it to the piloncillo sugar as I have heard others comment on the flavor of brown sugar in beer. My beer has that sugar’s smell to it. I’m also wondering if while we portioned off the wort could it have become stratified so some got more of the sugar than others? Will have to get this brew done again but get it like it was the first time which was COMMERCIAL GOOD!
AHS Anniversary Kolsch, 7.5 gallons
German pilsner, red wheat, acidulated malt, Perle hops, Vanguard hops. The recipe was a mess, I fixed it by changing around the hop schedule and increased the volume due to my higher efficiency.
AWESOME, love Kolsch beer. The only complaint I have is I had to use gelatin to clear and some of the bottles got gelatin boogers in them. Need to do cold crashes instead and perhaps add back dry yeast to bottle condition. This wasn’t Reisdorf, but close.
Dampfbier, 5.5 gallons
Belgian 2 row, Munich, Caramunich, Vanguard hops, Hallertauer Herbrucker hops. Wheat yeast at high temps on a barley beer.
Very interesting beer, big banana flavor but the barley background sets it apart from wheat beers. Decent summer refresher, I’ll probably do this again.
Roggenbier, 6 gallons
Rye, Munich, Pilsner, Caramunich, Carafa II, Tettnanger hops, Saaz hops. Overpitched Weihenstephaner yeast in an effort to cancel the banana esters.
Not bad, but not to good. It came out thick and syrupy with little head or carbonation. It may have to do with splitting the batch between two fermenters or just too much overpitch. I wouldn’t mind trying it again, but would start from scratch with a new recipe and plan.
AHS Anniversary IPA, 5.25 gallons
Crystal malt, Extra Pale LME, Magnum hops, Falconer’s Flight hops blend.
Meh. Not sure what went wrong with this one but it has an off flavor. It was at this point that I decided my autosiphon may be contaminated so I replaced it. There were shadowy blotches inside near the bottom where it is difficult to reach to clean. Beers after this came out ok, so I am going with that. The Falconer’s Flight hop blend did smell pretty good, I’d like to try it again.
Skeeter Pee, 6 gallons
Lemon concentrate and lots of sugar and nutrients.
WOW. Love this stuff. Takes a very long time to make, I plan on starting early spring for summer consumption and may try some of the flavorings some people add to it. Would like to try it carbonated.
Dandelion Wine, 1 gallon
Dandelions, sugar, raisins.
Still in tertiary aging.
Dandelion Mead, 1 gallon
Dandelions, honey, raisins.
Still in tertiary aging.
Blessed Bitter, 5.5 gallons
Pilsner malt, crystal malt, Vienna malt, Special B, acidulated malt, Goldings hops (homegrown), Goldings hops (commercial). Long mash when I went to church.
Pretty basic bitter leaning towards ESB. If I do again, I would add more IBUs but that was hard to judge with homegrown hops for Joe. The hops came out smooth, just not enough of them.
Boumpy’s Beer, IPA, 5.5 gallons
Maris Otter malt, Caramel malt, Munich II, Victory malt, White wheat, Columbus hops, Cascade hops.
COMMERCIAL GOOD BEER! Will make this one again, as good as those big buck West Coast IPAs. Too bad I bottled it in bombers, it is going quickly!
Biermuncher’s Centennial Blond, 11 gallons
Caramel malt, cara-pils, 2 row, Vienna malt, Centennial hops, Cascade hops.
Very good quaffer. Drink this instead of a macro yellow fizzy water. A decent gateway to craft beers and a great beer when you just want a refreshing beer with some flavor. A bit of hop bursting next time I think though.
Apfelwein, 5 gallons
Apple juice, sugar.
Always have some of this stuff on hand, nice dry and light wine. Still in secondary, may try to carbonate this batch.
Graff, 5 gallons
Apple juice, crystal malt, torrified wheat, amber DME, light DME, any low AA hops.
Always have some of this stuff on hand. Appley and beery. Refreshing and strong.
Angel Over My Shoulder Sassafras Spruce Porter, 5.5 gallons
2 row, caramel malt, torrified wheat, chocolate malt, Columbus hops, Northern Brewer hops, sassafras root bark, spruce tips.
Still in primary.
Total Brew Sessions: 18
Total gallons brewed: 92 gallons
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