I'm kind of shocked some southern brewery hasn't come out with a Duct Tape IPA.

Or Carolina Chrome Stout.

Shit leaves a serious residue. Fuck that.

You saw what I did with Batch One...

Blue painters tape and a sharpie?

Or you could print a label on an Avery address label like i used to do with my hot sauce and pickles. New batch? Just put another label over the old one.

Avery labels, huh? And then, what, a Word template?

Yeah. Whatever you like.

I actually use some Laser printer ones now at work for these magnet boards I built (to keep track of dat container inventory) that are like "weather resistant" or whatever. They're tough as shit. I think 3M makes them but they are sold at office depot.

Will investigate.

All I can do not to skip out early and start brewing this thing.

I used to just write it on the caps. or print out avery label dots and stick those on the caps.

I tried Dupont Posca Rustica, a Scottish Gruit/Ancient Herbed Ale last night. I thought it was outstanding, but I don't think the traditional Dupont yeast works with the style. It still seemed like a Saison or a mild sour.

I had Rogue XS Imperial Stout and Weyerbacher Uniform today, since the Nebraska Spring game was cancelled today due to Thunderstorms and Tornado activity.

So I brewed the hoppy tripel friday night. I had a nice boil schedule all mapped out including hops, and I followed everything except that when I smelled the cascade hops, I doubled them and went for a continuous addition for 45 minutes straight, sprinkling a little in every 2 or 3 minutes. Shit smells so good, I couldn't resist. So instead of the planned 8 ounces total hops, it was 12, including an ounce of Simcoe whole-cone at the end for dry hopping.

Then it wouldn't cool down fast enough... I need a wort chiller. You need a nice fast cool-down to prevent off flavors, and to get it down around 80F where the yeast are happy. I finally ran out of time and pitched that Wyeast brand belgian delicious stuff when it was like 90... stupid, but I needed to go to bed. Usually it takes about 12 hours to see some bubbling in the air lock, which is how you know the yeast are working and all's well. 24 hours later I had nothing, and started to get worried. Then around midnight Saturday it stated slowly bubbling, so I relaxed.

Sunday morning I checked again, and that fucker is in HIGH gear. It blew foam out the airlock. I had to pull the air lock off and rig up a blow-off hose system into a pint glass of water. And it's still going like a motherfucker at 11:20, WAY too fast to put the airlock back on. If you were to take a full breath and then blow it all out through a "big gulp" straw into a cup in about 4 seconds, that's how fast the gas is coming out. Before the yeast started, the beer was this beautiful clear ruby red color. And it smells... like heaven.

I cannot wait.

For Derris, I guess, who is thinking about one day brewing, I present a quick look at the birth of the hoppy tripel.


Steeping the specialty grains, which will add color and flavor, along with some of the alcohol...

Belgian Biscuit and Belgian Special B, along with Carapils (which really just adds head retention). You heat water up to about 155F, put the grain sack in, and try to keep at that temp for 40 minutes. Meant a low flame every 5 or 10 minutes for me, just for about 30 seconds. You just hang out and watch the thermometer, not a lot of work. I need a lid for that pot.


The extract portion of the wort:

9 lb's of Pilsner Malt, plus 2 pounds of belgian beet sugar - in this case one blonde and one amber. This and those steeped grains should net somewhere over 8% ABV for 5 gallons... we shall see.


Where I boil:

Only trick is keeping any spruce tree bits from falling in.


The finished product:

This is later on Saturday night when it had exploded through the air lock. It did NOTHING for so long, then finally those belgian yeast got happy, and got they asses busy. I went from worrying about having to pitch Californian Ale yeast in there (because I have them on hand, but it would mean a very non-belgian tasting beer... better than 5 gallons of bacteria water) to worrying about getting beer foam all over my coats. Kept having to change out the glass every hour.


Blowing hard

A blow-off hose rig is Plan B, when you put too much high-gravity beer in too small a container like I did... I used a 5 gallon secondary fermentor by mistake, instead of the normal 6 gallon. So I had no head room left, and when the yeast got active the foam came up.

Some hipster/beer dork somewhere will pay double to be the first of his friends to drink some "Spruce Tree Tripel".

I say go for it!

I didn't see any bits in the wort, and I kept it 90% covered, but hey if some fell in, it fell in. All part of the magic.

A new brewery is about to open in Lincoln, which means I will soon have four craft breweries to support. It's kind of crazy, since Omaha only has three, and a fellow home brew club member is planning to open up another one here within the next year. I don't know anything about this one, except that it is called Zipline Brewery and that some of the home brew club know one of the owners. They seem to be into hoppy Belgian style beers, which could be a welcome change if they choose to distribute their products in bottles/cans.

Was over at T's yesterday trying out his new summer beer/Oberon clone (very nice btw) and shooting the shit and he mentioned you saying that your wife would kill you because of the amount of water waste involved in a wort chiller--we both disagree for the following reasons: A. you can reclaim that water and use it for lots of other things and B. you could get your wife involved in the project: she loves designing things that are sustainable? Perfect opportunity.

You can save quite a bit of water by recycling it using a fountain pump and/or just placing all of the water used to chill the wort in a rain barrel.
Plus, a device like the Therminator from Northern Brewing may only take five minutes/25 gallons of water to cool 10 gallons of wort if the cooling water is 58 degrees.

So yeah I began talking about that with her, and the first thing she said was "rain barrel." Sounds like she's on board, which is great news, because fuuuuck all that waiting 2 hours and ice and shit. With the big pot and the propane burner, it's already so much less work than it used to be. If I could get the chilling done quick too, I would be so very happy.


Need a rain barrel.

There's companies that sell those (typically blue) plastic barrels a hell of a lot cheaper than the 100 odd dollars you will spend buying a "real" rain barrel.

If you spend a $100 on a rain barrel, I'm going to leave the shower running for an extra half hour just on general principles.

Cool pictorial, Cap. Thanks for sharing. Wish I could taste some when it's ready.

I tried Big Sky Bobos Robust Porter tonight after spending an evening at Modern Monk Breweries Pint Night.
It got decent ratings for Big Sky Brewery from Rate Beer, and is a delicious beer.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/big-sky-bo ... ter/98126/

Any plans to go to Redlands between 4 weeks and 3 months from now? I can send an extra.


edit: Also, the beer finally calmed down enough last night to put the regular air lock back on. That yeast is giving it hell in there, sweet jesus. IT'S NOT A RACE, GUYS. Well it is, but still, you already won, take a victory lap and towel off.

yeah no shit.

You want a big blue barrel? $25. Oh wait - you're an upwardly mobile, eco-conscious 30-something with more money and guilt than sense? $105.50.

What Loog said dude. I love seeing the process. You are so surgical with your brewing. I feel like I'd try and end up with food poisoning. Still, will try it when I get a new place.

Oh, and FYI, Loog and I both will be at Redlands about 4 weeks from now but I doubt the Tripel would be ready by then.

It only has to be bottled (and have time to get there) by 4 weeks. That actually should be doable. You would then have to wait for another month or so to drink it while it finished bottle conditioning. It's been in the primary for 4 days already, so I will probably transfer to the secondary (and what the fuck dry hop it again) a week from now, which gives it another 2+ weeks in the secondary, which is plenty. Then I just bottle it, box up 4 or 5 and send them down.