Sterling. Old world, ok I was in the neighborhood. Interesting about the 2 row as a base malt.

Low carbonation would have absolutely nothing to do with throwing up. It might taste abnormally sweet if the priming sugar failed to carbonate the beer, but that's about it. Most brewers tend to sample a little beer during the bottling process, and I've never heard of anyone getting sick from it. I can't imagine it going extremely bad in the bottle either with that ABV content. I would have been more worried about bottle bombs exploding during shipping due to the added sugar than a cloying taste.

Well sure, it wouldn't have spoiled and there'd be nothing that would make you physically ill. There's also nothing in aunt jemima maple syrup that would make you ill but I wouldn't be surprised if you felt the need to vomit if you had 750 ml of aunt jemima after drinking martinis though even though I'm sure people "sample" aunt jemima without getting sick. In summary, cause you to be ill = no, sit terribly in your stomach = probably.

No doubt, I'm just saying it isn't solely to blame and most likely wasn't even the primary reason he threw up. The flavor from the Brown sugar should have stood out if it was a culprit. It might be the reason for the low carbonation according to home brewers, but a lot of people use it to carb Porters.

Let me know how this works out. I wonder if I could do that with the capped bottle and then throw one of those stoppers on it?

Capn:
Are you reusing swing top bottles? Your carbing problem might have to deal with bad rubber gaskets. They could be slightly warped or off centered and not properly sealing the bottle cap.

I am using a mix of bottles, about half swingtops and half not. What I sent them were cappers, and the ones I've tried at home were swings.

Also, to be clear, what's in those bottles isn't "make you sick" sweet. It's a little on the sweet side but it's beer, and tastes like beer. When I say it's a little sweeter than I wanted because of the brown sugar, I mean a LITTLE. And there's some carbonation, but barely. There's no gasket leak, just used the wrong kind of sugar.

I opened my first bottle of Brown Ale after letting it carb for two weeks, and it didn't carb all that well either. It certainly doesn't have any residual priming sugar in it, and hops are more prevalent in the finish than they are up front. It isn't bad, but I certainly wouldn't remake this beer again on my own terms.
I'll definitely enjoy drinking it and sharing it with other folks.

This is pretty basic stuff that you guys probably both know (but in case you don't) how much air/space you leave at the top of the bottle will have a big effect on the level of carbonation.

Leave too much space = weak carbonation
Leave too little = overcarbonation to the point where the bottle can explode from the pressure

I didn't even fill my bottles up. My BJCP friend filled them and I capped them. I was taught to fill them with an inch or inch and half of space in the bottle.

Any rule of thumb is going to depend on the bottle size, and you wouldn't want to shoot for such a large range unless you meant depending on bottle size. It's been about 15 years since I've brewed anything so I wouldn't go by anything I say from memory but fwiw 1 inch sounds right for a 12 oz bottle and 1.5 inch sounds about right for a 750ml bottle.

I think I fill them close to the top with the bottling wand in, then when I remove it the space left over is about right, a little over an inch or so. Other batches were all fine, but it's a good thing to have in my head for the next go-round.

had one of these last night. It was pretty damn good. A milder Abbey?

I split a .750 bottle of Boulevard Love Child #2 tonight with friends, and realized that I failed to mention the Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere that I had at the home brew club meeting lasting week. The Love Child is a bit more sour and less funky than the Bam, but aged in Bourbon Barrels and a bit more complex.
The primary reason I actually went out tonight was to try the Crabtree Berliner Weisse, and then I had the Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel which I seemed to have missed last week at some point in time. I really enjoyed the Houblon Chouffe, but I thought the New Belgium Lips of Faith Imperial Berliner Weisse was a better beer than the Crabtree version, it might have been the absence of woodruff syrup.

This is the menu from a beer cellar party I went to last night:

The Bruery Imperial White Orchard
The Bruery Bierbauch
McKenzie Saison Vautour Du Bois
The Bruery Einers Folly
The Bruery/Dogfish Head Faster, Bigger, Better Bolder
Alpine Ichabod
The Bruery Tart of Darkness
Flossmoor Station Hi-Fi Rye Wine
The Bruery Snicklefritz
Surly Smoke
Captain Lawrence Rosso E Marrone
Upland Dantalion Dark Wild Ale
Cisco Dark Woods
Deschutes Jubel 2010
Firestone Walker Abacas
The Bruery Old Richard
Russian Rivers Consecration
Midnight Sun Berzerker Imperial Stout
Firestone Walker Parabola
The Bruery Papier
The Bruery Cuir
The Bruery Coton

That picture made me feel better about myself than any therapist ever could've. Holy fuck I'm in great shape.

I've totally fallen off the pace here. I feel like I've tried a good portion of the "hall of fame" beers and am now just throwing darts at stuff. Hitting and missing. Here are a few as of late:



Anderson Valley - Hop Ottin IPA

These guys stuff just recently started showing up around here the last few months and I just haven't gotten around to them. So far this is the only thing I've had and it was decent. Little more malty than I expected for a Cali IPA. One I had came in a can so for that, it gets a couple extra points but at 7% it's not sessionable. Overall: Meh




Avery Brewing - Maharaja

Big fat grapefruity citrus Imperial IPA. Easily the best beer I've had from these guys. Alcohol was still a little to present to put it above some others but it's available year round so that's nice if you're looking to scratch this particular itch. Honestly the only other things I've liked from Avery is the Brown Ale (Ellie's Dog?) and the White Rascal.




Dogfish Head - Tweason'Ale

Their gluten free offerings. BLECH. I need some gluten in my beer apparently. I couldn't finish it. FemDerris seemed to think it was okay though. Almost Champagne-y





Along with Allagash White and Victory Headwaters, these have been a staple so far this summer. Nothing mind blowing just tasty session beers. I gave some Hell or High's to some of FemDerris' friends at a wedding after party a couple weeks ago and every one of them sent me an email the following week wanting to know what the name of it was again. I've turned a big 180 on 21st Amendment.

I had this over the weekend and really liked it. Did you have it by itself or with food? I'm not sure I would have liked it as just a drinker but the herbaceous quality to it was a great complement to my lunch (Duck Sausage with Tart Cherries & Chocolate on Bread with spicy garlic butter, stone porter mustard and blueberry/shallot/wine sauce). I'm definitely going to buy some more of it.

Also had Dogfish Head's Festina Peche Berliner Weisse yesterday. Decent, light sessionable beer made with peaches. Was good beach drinking but I can't imagine enjoying it much any other time of the year.



So freaking awesome. Still my favorite beer. They released about 60 3 Liter bottles of this in their brewpub on Friday at $90/bottle and sold them all in the afternoon.

Oh, and stuff that are still Reigning Champions of the World:





That Ayinger just never disappoints, particularly on a deck somewhere in the summer.

Derris that Tweason Ale was pretty bad. The shit I'm making is better.

Just to clarify:
The beers on the shelves in the background are all empty. That is a 20yr collection of beer bottles of the host of the party. The 22 bombers on the pool table cover were brought from my friend's cellar, which I've heard looks pretty ridiculous, but not as epic as the 20yr collection of beer bottles from around the world.

Billy, I should have amended my post to say that I questioned at the time whether I had let the beer get cold enough before drinking; and I had it on its own without food.

Derris, don't sleep on regular old Avery IPA in a can. It's pretty damn good.

Jury Duty today, my first ever. Waited several hours to be told "Don't need you go home." Got a haircut, now drinking Heady Topper and homebrewing.

wOOt.

Fem G has switched to a gluten free diet with the exception of the occassional beer. I almost bought a few of those Tweason Ales the other day for her. Thanks for the heads up that they aren't any good.

I'd say this is restocking but my fridge is still pretty full. I guess I just spend money when I'm bored at work, used to be on music but now is more on wine, booze and beer.


1 Deschutes Brewery/Hair of The Dog "Conflux-Collage" Strong Ale, Oregon 12oz (1 bottle limit per customer) @ $11.99

1 Dogfish Head "Aprihop," Delaware 12oz @ $2.75

1 Mahr's Ungespundet-hefetrüb Keller Bier 500ml @ $4.49

1 Maui Brewing Company/Jolly Pumpkin "Sobrehumano Palena 'ole" Red Ale Brewed with Liliko'i and Cherries, Hawaii 12oz Can @ $2.79

1 New Belgium "Lips of Faith-Tart Lychee" Wild Ale, Colorado 22oz @ $8.49

3 Victory/Stone Brewing Company/Dogfish Head "Saison du Buff" Spiced Saison, California 12oz @ $2.99

1 Dogfish Head "Sah'tea" Sahti, Delaware 750ml @ $12.99

1 Dogfish Head "90 Minute" IPA, Delaware 12oz @ $2.75

1 Hair of the Dog "Ruth" American Ale, Oregon 12oz @ $2.49

2 Sunner Kölsch, Germany 500ml @ $3.49

Really want to know what you think of the Sunners, BG. One of favorite little beers ever. Something very meek and humble about it, but so very right.