Double your fun.

In my usual last minute frenzy to brew some beer for Christmas gifts, I tried a new trick to increase output. The night before, I boiled 5 gallons of water to sterilize it, then let it cool overnight. In the morning, I split it into two carboys and put them outside.

Now, for the afternoon brew session, I did a double strength five gallon batch so I could split it into the carboys of cold water, which has the added benefit and decreasing the amount of time and water I use to cool the wort. I got the wort down below 100 degrees, then poured it into the 60 degree water. In the time I usually spend making 5 gallons of beer, I made 10. Twice as much to beer to gift and/or drink.

I wouldn't recommend doing this for a high gravity beer, but for a Cascadian Pale Ale like I usually make, this experiment worked great.

Cheers

Nate

Imbibe interview

Check out my 40 min IPA recipe in Imbibe magazine. There's an interview in this month's issue as well.

579 Beers on the Wall...

...You take 36 down, then fall on the ground...

Our recent trip to the BENELUX countries was one of the most amazing beer experiences of my life. Belgians, especially, appreciate and take pride in their beer, and we were the fortunate to be able to sample many of them. Actually, between the three of us, we tasted over three dozen! One beer cafe in Brugge had a beer menu with over 500 beers in it (see above). Here's what we had:

St Feuillien tripel 7/7

duchesse de Bourgogne 7/7

Steen brugge blond 7/7

Amstel

Heineken

De konick 7/6

La trappe trippel 7/4

Rodenbach 6/30

Rochefort 10 6/30

Westmalle dubble 6/30

Cantillon gueze 7/1

Cantillon kriek 7/1

Cantillion raspberry 7/1

Rodenbach grand cru 7/1

Westmalle tripel 7/2

Orval 7/2

De dolle brouwers te esen overbear 7/7

De struise browers te veurne pannepot 7/7

Grimbergen bruin 7/7

chimay tripel 7/7

De halve maan bruges zot 7/8

De halve maan bruges zot dubbel 7/8

De halve maan straffe hendrik tripel 7/8

De halve maan straffe hendrik quadrupel 7/8

Wittekerke rose 7/9

Quintine blonde 7/9

Anker golden carolus hopsinjoor 7/9

Westvleteren donker 8 7/9

Achel brune 7/9

Delirium tremens 7/9

Petrus oud bruin 7/9

St bernardus abt 12 7/9

La chouffe blonde 7/9

Ichtegem's grand cru 7/9

Chimay quadrupel 7/10

Leffe blond 7/10

Home brewing cheat sheet

Recently, Mix Magaizine did a feature on my homebrew setup. It was flattering, and possibly overstated my expertise, but at any rate, it prompted a lot of questions from homebrewer friends. As well as a little bit of ridicule.

In response to one friend's request for advice, I sent an email with an oversimplified checklist for a brew day. This presumes that you have equipment and ingredients and are ready to go, but maybe a little nervous about where to start if it's your first time. Here goes...

1. Print your recipe out, maybe print this list, too.
2. Lay out all equipment and ingredients
3. Get your water boiling. Use 2 pots if you are going to steep grains or if your stove is slow like mine
4. Using a smack pack of yeast? Smack it.
5. Clean everything that needs to be cleaned, sanitize now.
6. Steeping grains go in when water is at 140 or so. Extract goes in when it's up to boiling
7. When extract is in and you add the first hops, write times on your recipe for hop additions, use a timer even
8. Be ready to cool your wort, get or borrow a wort chiller if you don't have one
9. When it's cooled, strain the hops out into a bucket
10. Pour into carboy
11. Aerate
12. Add yeast, put on a airlock. Check tomorrow
13. Clean up