Beer School

Also, I wanted to mention that I decided to go to a professional beer brewing school. I'll either be there in the fall or spring. Hopefully the fall, but I have to work a few things out as far as getting myself prepared for the course. We'll see how it all goes.

Batch #2 Tasting #3

So I had another bottle of my second batch today, and I am amazed at how much it has improved. I guess I was just a little anxious. It really cleared up a lot too. The head is nice, but not overpowering (I don't think it should be for this beer). The carbonation is really nice too, I think it just took a little longer.

It has a very good taste, nothing too complex, but it really does taste quite nice. It's very smooth.

Fermenter Pic

So I finally got my camera charger in the mail, and wanted to take a pic to post. This is my hefe in the fermenter chugging away (and a few bottles I've been saving up for when I bottle it).

Batch #4 Brewing

The other day I brewed my fourth batch. It was AHS Hefeweizen Mini-Mash kit. It was my first time doing a mini mash.

A few notes:

Towards the end of the steeping, I turned the gas back on to keep the temperature up around 155, but I turned my back and it creeped up to about 168. It was probably there for 3-5 minutes. I took it off heat immediately and let it sit and cool down. It was towards the end of it anyway, so I let it sit for the rest of the time (probably another 5 minutes), and then let the grains drip out and poured some 170 degree water through it.

It was the first time I used a yeast starter. The wort I used to make the starter was probably a lot more concentrated than it should have been (I put too much DME in). I decided to even it out with a little more water. The bottle was too small though, so it ended up over flowing when it fermented. I poured into a larger jar (got my erlenmeyer fask in the mail the next day), and it seemed to go alright, but I lost some yeast. There was still a good amount there.

To cool it down, I used a mixture of an ice water bath, and adding cold water to the wort. I was concerned I wouldn't have enough ice and would take too much time (my sink at school is smaller) which is why I did this. Hopefully it doesn't effect it much.


Target OG was 1.050
My OG ended up being around 1.045

Stir Plate

I'm using a computer fan and old cell phone charger to make a stir plate for yeast starters. I'll post pictures as soon as my camera charger comes in.


I picked up a 1000 mL Erlenmeyer flask from Edmund Scientific and a stir bar from Sciencekit. Both of them use the codeMCSCIEDGE for free shipping (they are different sites though).

White Ox Wheat Beer Tasting

I went to Friar Tuck's and got a pick-6 of a few IPAs and a few Wheat beers. Here's the first of them. Also, I'm switching to a 100 scale instead of 5.


White Ox Wheat Beer

Date: April 11th, 2008

Color: Very light, more yellowish with a hint of a sort of gold.

Clarity: A bit hazy, but not super cloudy.

Aroma: It smells a bit malty and a bit sweet.

Head: Mediocre. It didn't hang around too much.

Tasting Notes: It's interesting. You can definitely taste the wheat and sort of citrusy undertones, but it is a little sweet to me. Not so much initially on your sip, but it sort of hits you as you swallow. It's also very light. I would have preferred a little bit more body to the beer.

Rating: 65/100

Batch #4 Ordered

I just ordered the kit that is to be my next batch. It is the Bavarian Hefeweizen from Austin HomeBrew. I went with the mini-mash kit, and it will be the first time I try it out mini-mash.

If I get it in time, I'll probably start brewing next Wednesday, and if not, then probably the following Monday.

Long Hammer IPA Tasting

I picked up a six pack of this today at Schnucks, and cracked into one as I was eating a turkey sandwich and some strawberries.


Long Hammer IPA

Here's another IPA I am trying...

Date: April 9th, 2008

Color: Light, a golden color.

Clarity: Clear

Aroma: A very strong hop aroma with some citrus. Smells like cascade, but I don't know that much.

Head: Mediocre. It could have been my pouring, but there wasn't a ton.

Tasting Notes: I like it. There is a very strong hop aroma which is what I look for in a IPA. It is definitely pretty bitter, which is to be expected, but I would prefer a little less bitter, or some other flavors backing it up. On the whole though, it's a very good IPA, in my opinion.

Rating: 4/5

Hops Planting

My dad called me earlier today to let me know he had planted the hops plants he bought in our backyard. I think he bought about a half dozen plants, and several different varieties. I don't remember all of them, but I know there was a Saaz and Cascade, and I think also a Tettinger. The Saaz and one other are already about 1' tall (he planted them in pots earlier than the rest). They aren't supposed to give off much hops their first year if any, but it will be interesting to see.

Also, I just ordered a new battery charger for my digital camera so hopefully I'll be able to post some pics on here.

Sam Adams Honey Porter

I'm not going to write up a full review on this, but I tried one tonight. I actually liked it a lot, and I'm not that big of a porter guy. It had some pretty good taste, and it wasn't too strong one way or the other.

Batch #3 Tasting #1

It hasn't been that long since I bottled it, but I've been pretty impatient so I decided to crack open one of the second batch during Andy/Kitty/Emily's birthday and give it a try. Jevon and Cecilia shared the bottle with me.


Shanks' Belgian White Tasting

This batch was more my batch than anything else I've brewed so far. I took a general guideline but improvised a lot more whereas the other batches I pretty much followed a recipe kit. Because of that I was really anctious to see how everything turned out.

Date: April 5th, 2008

Time Since Bottling: ~1 week

Color: Golden with a hint of orange.

Clarity: Slightly cloudy.

Aroma: Not much of an aroma, but a kind of wheaty smell.

Head: I poured a 12oz bottle into 3 small glasses for tasting, so it is hard to build up head, but there wasn't much there. There was some, just not a lot.

Tasting Notes: This was a pretty early time to taste it, but I am pretty impatient. KNowing that, I didn't expect a whole lot going into it and I also knew that it would probably change a bit over time. To start off, it had a sort of watery taste. That is, when you first took a sip, nothing initially hit you about it. It wasn't bad or good, it just was sort of absent. Shortly after though, you start to taste it. It had a very wheaty taste to it. You could get a hint of the coriander and sweet orange peel, but not very much. It will be interesting to see in a few weeks where the taste sort of settles, but if everything were to stay the same right now I would use a little less wheat (I would throw in some other grain that is lighter in color) and quite a bit more coriander and orange peel. I didn't really taste anything that I could quite identify as the orange blossom honey, so hopefully I will be able too in a few weeks.

All in all, I think the beer tasted a lot better than my first two batches at this point in their lifespan. I don't know if that is saying much for the recipe, but I think my technique is getting better. It is definitely identifiable as a wheat beer when it hits you, but I hope that the coriander and orange peel become more evident so that it will be more distinctively a Belgian White.

Batch #2 Tasting #2

Just very briefly I wanted to comment on how I tried my second batch again (the one I thought I messed up on). It was a little bit better after sitting for a while. I tried a bottle that has been in the fridge for at least a week. It was a lot smoother and had a little more head (still not as smooth or as much head as I would like, but an improvement.) I will be interested to see where this goes in a little bit more time. Also, I think I might crack open my first beer of Batch #3 tomorrow...

Colorado Mojo IPA Tasting

I went out to Silvercreek earlier today for their Appy-Hour, and decided to try one of their drink specials:


Colorado Mojo IPA

Their specials list had a few beers I haven't heard of before, which is what I've been trying to drink lately. I went ffor this IPA pretty much because I've been into IPAs and PAs lately.

Date: April 4th, 2008

Color: It was pretty light if I remember correctly, more of a golden orangish.

Clarity: Just barely cloudy. Not entirely clear, but not much cloudiness.

Aroma: Considering it was an IPA, I was surprised at how little aroma there was. I could smell some hops, but it wasn't much of anything.

Head: It was a good head. There wasn't a solid amount to start out with, but not a ton or anything. What I was really impressed by was how long in hung around. It retained the head very well.

Tasting Notes: It was just so-so. The side of the bottle said it used Amarillo hops which I like so I was excited, but I just didn't get that much hop flavor from it. Sure it was there, but it wasn't as overpowering as I've had from other IPAs. It also had a bit of a funkiness that just sort of hung around with you after a sip. Not bad tasting or anything, but the malt just kind of hung in your mouth, and it wasn't what I really liked. I would have preferred a smoother finish.

Rating: 3/5

Schlafly Beer Tasting

Since now that I've updated a lot of my previous brewing history to this point, I won't have that much to write about. I decided to write about other beers when I have them. Today I was at Schnucks picking up some fish to cook, so I decided to get a 6 pack of a pale ale. I settled on:

Schlafly Brand Pale Ale

I went for this one because I wanted a pale ale, and I saw it had bottles I could reuse. That was pretty much the extent of what went into my decision.

Date: April 1st, 2008

Color: A light amber, almost orangish color.

Clarity: Clear

Aroma: Nothing that particularly hits you if you weren't smelling for it. There's a bit of hoppiness, but it is very subtly if there at all. A more malty smell.

Head: Pretty solid head. When I poured it I got about 1", and it sticks around a bit. It doesn't seem to go away completely either, there's a little bit left hanging round for as long as it took me to finish.

Tasting Notes: It's pretty solid. It's the kind of beer that I would enjoy anytime, but not necesarily go out of my way to drink regularly. It has a good malt flavor and a little bit of a hop kick at the end. It goes down smooth. It's a good Pale ale.

Rating: 4/5