Golden Ale

Winter is here and so is the time to lager great beer. I do like to lager during the winter months, due to the cooler temperatures. Making the big beers during the winter is just as much as fun as drinking them. I do however like to enjoy the traditional golden ale recipes to change it up a bit. I like to change up my golden ale recipes from time to time. I especially like adjusting the type and amounts of hops I use. Sometimes I like the hop bitter ales and then I shoot for the hop flavor without the bite. I used a Simcoe hop for the first time in this recipe and I really enjoyed the results. I had heard that Simcoe hops were full of flavor and bite and made an all around great finish no matter how you used them. This paticular ale had a honey taste with a great hop finish and low bite. This recipe has put this golden ale into my all time favorites. I will brew this quite often during the year to ensure I have plenty on tap. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. PROST!!!

Golden Ale November 2012 - Blonde Ale (6B)

Brewer:	Steve
Date	11/21/2012

Batch Size	10.500 gal	Boil Size	11.750 gal
Boil Time	60.000 min	Efficiency	80%
OG	1.063	FG	1.019
ABV	5.7%	Bitterness	29.9 IBU (Tinseth)
Color	6.4 srm (Morey)	Calories (per 12 oz.)	209

Fermentables

Total grain: 22.594 lb

Name	Type	Amount	Mashed	Late	Yield	Color
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L	Grain	16.000 oz	Yes	No	75%	10.0 srm
Honey Malt	Grain	16.000 oz	Yes	No	80%	25.0 srm
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	Grain	17.000 lb	Yes	No	79%	2.0 srm
Pilsner (2 Row) Bel	Grain	3.000 lb	Yes	No	79%	2.0 srm
Munich Malt - 20L	Grain	9.500 oz	Yes	No	75%	20.0 srm

Hops

Name	Alpha	Amount	Use	Time	Form	IBU
Cascade	6%	1.000 oz	Boil	30.000 min	Leaf	6.2
Centennial	10.5%	1.000 oz	Boil	60.000 min	Leaf	14.1
Fuggles	4.5%	1.000 oz	Boil	15.000 min	Leaf	3.0
Simcoe	13%	0.750 oz	Boil	15.000 min	Leaf	6.5

Misc

Name	Type	Use	Amount	Time
Irish Moss	Fining	Boil	2.000 tsp	15.000 min

Yeast

Name	Type	Form	Amount	Stage
Wyeast - Ringwood Ale	Ale	Liquid	0.528 cup	Primary

Mash

Name	Type	Amount	Temp	Target Temp	Time
	Temperature	---	---	152.000 F	60.000 min

Read more ...

Glühwein recipe

There are a whole lot of people missing out on the Glühwein (Mulled Wine) experience. Recipes have been passed down through generations of many families from all cultures. We developed our love for Glühwein while living in Germany, and knew we would forever make this our winter tradition. The winter festivals in Germany were awesome and full of great fun, food and drinks. We went to as many winter festivals and Christmas markets as we could; experiencing all they had to offer.

Glühwein is a great way to enjoy wine during the winter and especially during Christmas with friends, family or snuggled up with the one you love. You can flavor it to your own taste. We like ours to have an orange spice flavor that hits your nose as you raise your cup and follows across your taste buds as you enjoy that oh so great wine.

Our recipe is simple:

750ml Bottle of semi-dry red wine (one of your favorites works best)

1 Large orange (sliced or halved)

12 Whole cloves

3 Cinnamon sticks

4oz brandy (we use Paul Masson Grande Amber)

3Tbsp Sugar

The how to:
1. Pour wine into a sauce pan,

2. Cut orange in slices or halves. We like to cut them in half and squeeze the juice into the wine within the pan.

3. Add 3 cinnamon sticks, cloves (stab them into the orange to keep them out of your cup), brandy and sugar in the wine. A mulling bag can be used to keep all the spices together if desired.

4. Heat to simmer (5 minutes) and then reduce to low.

5. Serve and enjoy.

 

Read more ...

October Fest (all grain 10 gallon)

October is here and I hope you all are enjoying your October Fest beers. My wife and I both look forward to this time of year. We brew our October Fest beer, make beer brats, and enjoy some German cuisine. If you don’t have a recipe of your own, you can try ours. It is my wife’s favorite and I enjoy making it for her each year. It should be started a couple months early, but I say it’s never too late to brew and drink great beer, no matter what time of the year.

October Fest 2011 - Oktoberfest/Märzen (3B)
Brewer	Steve
Date	08/14/2011

 

Batch Size	10.500 gal	Boil Size	11.750 gal
Boil Time	60.000 min	Efficiency	77%
OG	1.067	FG	1.014
ABV	6.3%	Bitterness	28.5 IBU (Tinseth)
Color	13.9 srm (Morey)	Calories (per 12 oz.)	204

Fermentables

Total grain: 25.000 lb
Name	Type	Amount	Mashed	Late	Yield	Color
American (2 Row)	Grain	13.000 lb	Yes	No	81%	2.0 srm
Munich Malt	Grain	8.750 lb	Yes	No	80%	9.0 srm
Victory Malt	Grain	16.000 oz	Yes	No	73%	25.0 srm
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L	Grain	4.000 oz	Yes	No	72%	120.0 srm
Caramunich Malt	Grain	2.000 lb	Yes	No	72%	56.0 srm

Hops

Name	Alpha	Amount	Use	Time	Form	IBU
Hallertau	4.5%	2.500 oz	Boil	60.000 min	Pellet	17.0
Tettnang	4%	2.000 oz	Boil	30.000 min	Pellet	8.2
Tettnang	4%	2.000 oz	Boil	10.000 min	Pellet	2.2

Misc

Name	Type	Use	Amount	Time
Irish Moss	Fining	Boil	0.500 tsp	15.000 min

Yeast

Name	Type	Form	Amount	Stage
WLP820 - Oktoberfest/Märzen Lager Yeast	Lager	Liquid	2.367 tbsp	Primary

Mash

Name	Type	Amount	Temp	Target Temp	Time
	Temperature	---	---	152.000 F	60.000 min

 

 

I first substituted German 2 row PILS with American 2 Row.

I mashed for 60 minutes at 153 degrees.

Sparge at 168 degrees for 50 minutes, collecting 12.5 gallons of wort.

Boil for 60 minutes.

Primary fermentation was 2 weeks at 65 degrees

Secondary fermentation was 3 weeks at 60 degrees

I kegged the beer 5 weeks after brew and let it sit for a month in the fridge under low pressure. I would only do this for kegging, as the clearing process is not complete after 5 weeks in the carboy. I know a lot of brewers don’t like to use the lager yeast at a higher temperature but I have not had any issues doing it this way. I don’t have a cold storage set up for my brews so I ferment them in my finished basement where it is cooler. I hope you enjoy this American style October Fest as much as we do. Prost

Read more ...

Bottle beer from a keg

I found this article a little while back and knew this was right up my alley. I have a 5 keg kegerator and when I have brews ready to keg, I have to time them just right so I don’t have them stacked up waiting. I don’t bottle my beer, I prefer the keg. It seems I usually have about 1 gallon left in a couple of my kegs when it’s time to keg another beer; so I figured I would bottle that amount to free up a keg. I searched around the internet and found this article and tried it out. My only concern was how long would the beer stay in a bottle with carbonation and would the taste be off after a certain amount of time. I purchased 1 liter EZ-cap bottles and followed the guidance from the article below. I filled up 12 bottles from a few different flavors and tried the beer after a month and it was fine. I now use this method all the time to free up kegs. Thanks brew-dudes.

http://www.brew-dudes.com/bottling-beer-from-a-keg/357

There are lots of posts on the web about how to fill bottles from a keg of beer. The most popular gear heady way to do it is to buy a counter pressure bottle filler or use a beer gun. The beer gun seems a little easy to use.

However, I only bottle the occasional 6-pack or so from the keg and I’d rather spend my money on malt and hops than a beer gun. What follows is a short step-by-step of how I fill bottles from my keg with stuff I have around the brewery.

Filling from a Keg:

1. Keg of beer must be chilled and carbonated. I like to over carbonate by a few tenths (0.2) of a volume of CO2 to compensate for lost CO2. (some of that lost CO2 is a good thing as I’ll state later)
2. I use a black Cobra/Picnic tap to dispense the beer from. I modify the tap into a filler by using a piece of tubing that will stick right over the spout of the tap (usually 3/8 ID tubing). The length of the tubing need only be long enough to reach the bottle of the bottle.
3. I chill down the bottles I plan to fill. This reduces CO2 loss and foaming.
4. Right before I am ready to bottle (bottles and caps washed and sanitized), I dial down the CO2 on my regulator to zero PSI, then I burp the keg to release all the head pressure.
5. I put the tap with tubing filler into my first bottle and pull the trigger. Then I slowly dial up the regulator until I have just enough pressure to get the beer flowing at a decent rate. But not too fast to get excessive foaming. This can be a little tricky to manage the regulator and the bottle filler at the same time. But once you get the pressure set and the beer flowing; that’s it with fussing over the regulator settings.
6. Fill the rest of my bottles and cap them. Getting a little foam while filling is a good thing as it helps to purge out the ambient air and O2. This minimizes oxidation of the beer after bottling.
7. Once all the bottles are filled I reset the pressure on the regulator to my normal carbonating and dispensing pressure to keep the beer from going flat.

This method works good for all sizes of bottles just as long as your tubing reaches the bottom of the bottle. And it’s certainly cheaper than purchasing a beer gun.

Read more ...

Brewista T-shirt

What’s Your Ista? T-Shirt Review

I am always looking for unique gifts for my husband; he is an avid beer brewer and finding the perfect gift for him isn’t always easy. I recently discovered What’s Your Ista t-shirts and they just happened to have just what I was looking for. They actually have a Brewista t-shirt which is perfect for him! When I first saw it I knew he would love it. What’s Your Ista has great customer service and ships out right away. I was really surprised when I received the shirt because it arrived so quickly. When I took the shirt out of the package I couldn’t believe how soft the material was; it is made of 100% Ring Spun Cotton. It is a high quality t-shirt that is comfortable, fits great and feels fantastic!

Brewista

I am sure you can see my husband loves this shirt. What’s Your Ista offers a huge variety of shirts and truly has something for everyone. My personal shirt of choice would be the Wineista shirt. It is super cute and I just love it! Another thing I love about What’s Your Ista is shipping is always free; you can’t beat that! If you are looking for t-shirts that are comfy and unique What’s Your Ista has what you are looking for!

Read more ...

Woozie Review and Givaway

This is another great product and review from my wife's blog. Don't forget to take a chance at the giveaway. http://www.mysocalledbalancedlife.com/2012/08/woozie-review-and-giveaway.html

Woozie Review and Giveaway

Woozie

I am a big wine drinker and often give it as gifts. I love to find other unique items to pair with my wine gifts. I found a great company that offers the most unique wine themed items I have seen it is call Woozie. Here is some information about Woozie taken off of their website:

Woozie is the original wine glass sleeve made from top quality neoprene which insulates your wine glass and feels soft to the touch! It is fun, functional, and fashionable. Woozie flaunts the “cute” little drawstring that assures the perfect fit on your glass. Woozie is stretchable, washable, foldable and reusable.

No more warm wine to tolerate or wet glass to hold. The perfect answer for your white or red wine…keeps the temperature constant summer or winter, inside or outside.

I received the Perky Paisley Woozie (4 pack) and a Perky Paisley Bottle Bag. As you can imagine I was thrilled with these items. Being a wine drinker, as well as, a wine maker I love all things that are wine themed. I love these items.

Perfect fit and super cute!

The Woozie fits perfect on my wine glass and keeps it from getting warm. It is also super cute! The Bottle Bag fits perfect on my wine bottles and keeps the wine at a perfect temperature. Woozie offers an array of products such as; Napkins, Stoppers, Coasters, Bottle Bags and of course the Original Woozie to name a few. They have an array of designs and styles. I love these products! They make a perfect gift to pair with your favorite bottle of wine or a great item for yourself. You can find out about Woozie and their products here, as well as, follow them on Facebook. If you would like to enter to win a Bottle Bag and a 4 Pack in Perky Paisley Woozie enter the giveaway

Read more ...