berrillmaker.homebrew

BIAB round 2, Mashjacket, Startermaker

2012-02-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

tried out another brew-in-a-bag batch on friday night which went a lot smoother than the first one. I ended up tweaking the safety champ 2 recipe to only 8lbs of malt in the bag. I made up the extra gravity with 2lbs of amber DME (I picked amber instead of light to bring it up to 15srm and give a little more munich maltiness). I scaled back the hops to 1oz ea @60,10min since the leaf cascade from SCBS packed 8.9%AA. The leaf hops also helped with filtering the wort through the bazooka screen. And finally, I subbed WY1056 with WY1272 american ale 2 because they say it's a more flocculant strain making clearer beer.

bake had this brilliant idea of clipping the strainer to the kettle with a carabiner during the lauter process to keep it in place (last time the strainer, grain bag, and 9lbs of grain slipped into the hot wort and splashed all over my kitched), which worked like a charm. here's the whole brew session listed:

5gal strike water heated to 140F for dough in
5# maris otter
1#dark munich
1#crystal 60
1#biscuit
mashed @ 152F for 60min
malt bag placed in strainer over kettle
vorlauf 3gal through grain bag to help filter wort
sparged with 2gal near boiling water get to 6gal pre-boil volume
2#amber DME added @ 60min
1oz whole cascade @ 60min
wort chiller @ 20min
1 whirlfloc tablet @ 15min
1oz whole cascade @ 10min
whirlpooled and chilled to 68F
aerated and pitched WY1272 with 1qt starter
OG 16.5brix (1.063) got to use the refractometer brynne got me for my bday -nice.

it's been bubbling steady for 2 days now.

I've also been working on a couple other projects lately:

a stir plate, which I haven't used yet because SCBS didn't get their shipment of stir bars yet.

and a mashjacket for my kettle since I'm using it as a mash tun for biab's and it has a hard time keeping a steady temp. I'll post more about these on the projects page when I finish them up.

-kris

Hella Update

2012-02-11T17:15:00.001-08:00

Moved the Hella Malt Long inside for a diacetyl rest. Planning on throwing it in some carboys and then back in the fridge on Monday. Reading on the refractometer was 7 (1.008) putting it at 6.8% abv.

-bake

brew in a bag patersbier, ocho libre upgrade

2012-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

bake got me a badass blichmann brewmometer for my birthday, which showed up just in time for our brew-in-a-bag experiment. along with the ingredients for a patersbier (basically a session strength belgian style trappist ale) I picked up a few new toys from SCBS with a gift card my parents gave me: a 2L erlenmeyer flask, a plastic mini mash paddle, and an XL straining bag and strainer for the brewing in said bag.

we started with 5 gal of strike water (I'll propably up to 5.5-6 which should be fine in my 8 gal kettle). since we were mashing in my kettle on the stove, we were able to do a traditional 4-step mash with different protein and enzyme rests- which we hit for the most part.

didn't really need a starter for this beer with an OG of 1.050ish, so haven't used the flask yet. need to pick up a stir plate anyway.

the sparging process was a little difficult, brynne was kind enough to help get the strainer under the grain bag (9# of grain was definitely pushing it for this method)- I did still vorlauf several times draining the wort from the kettle valve and pouring it over the grainbag and ended up sparging 3 times with water from an electric tea kettle.

ended up with only 4 gal of wort at a gravity of 1.057 (which should've been 1.047, I think I'll sparge more next time.) as of today, we are bubbling vigorously with a good 3 inch krausen. I used NB's all grain patersbier recipe if anyone is interested.

-kris

New Toys

2012-02-02T19:17:00.001-08:00

A new toy showed up in the mail today from Blichmann. The burner is way heavier and sturdier than I could have ever imagined, props to Blichmann. Can't wait for her maiden voyage.

-bake

Sludge

2012-01-26T16:24:00.000-08:00

I did a 3rd dump on the Reindeer Slabber today. The sludge coming out was soo thick I had to grab my phone and shoot a video. Took about 5 mins until it started flowing smoothly. Also, the Hella Malt Lung is bubbling away, about a bubble every 5-8 seconds.

Hella Malt Lung

2012-01-24T21:33:00.001-08:00

We brewed up a Rye Maibock tonight, 26.5 lbs of grain and 6oz of Sterling hops. The most grain we have mashed to date. During the dough-in I inhaled a large amount of malt dust, aka Malt Lung. We also had a fairly stuck sparge likely due to the weight and mushiness of the grain. The beer had a beautiful milky carmel color and spicy/peppery/bready aroma. We just barely missed our estimated OG and clocked in at 1.059. Pitched some starters Kris had made from Wyeast's seasonal Hella Bock strain. This is our second lager, the first (Biers Of War) was a great success. With any luck well be sipping this one back around March. Calling it: Hella Malt Lung

-bake

berrill 40 hands

2012-01-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

I (Kris Merrill) hereby challenge Bake (Michael Baker) to Edward 40 hands* during our brew session tomorrow. *only 1 hand though, we still have to get work done.

Slabber Update

2012-01-13T05:01:00.000-08:00

The Reindeer Slabber fermentation appears almost complete. The blow-off tube was full of slabber, so I removed it and put on a regular airlock. I'm glad we originally decided to use the blow-off on this batch, cause the 1 gallon jug had more shit in it then I've ever seen in a blow jug.

We failed to take an OG, but based on the recipe it should have struck in around 1.052 with an FG of 1.015. Assuming we hit our OG, the refrackenomter showed a dead on 7, which currently puts it at an fg of 1.012, 5.3% abv. very nice.

-bake

Reindeer Slabber

2012-01-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

We put the finishing touch on Moustache Maker this weekend, 8oz of cacao nibs directly in the kegs. We also brewed up an american brown recipe from nb, we are calling it Reindeer Slabber (Moose Drool clone), and pitched it right onto the leftover stout cake. We got a little too thrashed during the brew session and forgot to take an og. Also, 3 days after pitching on the cake, the blow-off line is full of slabber.

XMASMAKER

2011-12-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

Bake enjoyed an Abominal3...

So did I...

My sister-in-law had these sick mugs made for me...

Brynne got me a badass brewing setup from morebeer which included the baby version of bake's kettle...hope bake will still brew with me...brewing alone is sad...

-kris

moustache maker

2011-12-16T21:51:00.001-08:00

FOAM Cup results and yeti sized attenuation

2011-12-01T18:28:00.001-08:00

So, we entered sake berrill, villain, and biers of war into the FOAM Cup (OK's home brew competion) this year. Didn't win anything, but scored pretty well: biers and sake both scored 31/50, villain scored 37/50. Got good feedback from the judges and some good advice on what to tweak on our recipes.

On another note, Bake sent this to me showing that the AbominAl3 fermented down to 1.005... a lot lower than we expected, giving us an abv of 9.2% so far. We were actually worried that the yeast cake from the mandrill wasn't going to ferment at all.

-Kris

abomin-al3

2011-11-12T16:18:00.001-08:00

we brewed up the 3rd version of abomin-ale. hit an og of 1.074 just over the estimate. mashed spot on at 152.2 for 75 mins, while only opening the valves half-way and making sure we didn't stir it. cracked the spices and tossed them in during the last few minutes of the 75 min boil. we ended up racking mandrill over to some kegs, dry hopped it, and then tossed the abomin-al3 onto the yeast cake. hopefully it starts fermenting here pretty quick, the cake was smaller than anticipated. also 3 lbs of whole hops (cascade, willamette, and columbus) showed up, just need to get them broken down into smaller vacuum packed bags.

abomin-ale

2011-11-03T05:03:00.001-07:00

ordered up the goods for this years take on the abomin-ale. we have a hidden gem of a yeast cake sitting under the mandrill, so we'll pitch right on top of it.

Batch Size: 10.00 gal

Estimated OG: 1.072 SG

Estimated FG: 1.013 SG

Estimated ABV: 7.9%

Estimated Color: 16.5 SRM

Estimated IBU: 39.7 IBUs

Ingredients:

------------

23.00 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)

2.00 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM

8.00 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)

4.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min

2.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min

1.00 oz Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 mins)

0.25 oz Anise, Star (Boil 5.0 mins)

1.00 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 mins)

1.00 lbs Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM, Boil 5.0 mins)

2.00 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)

mandrill update

2011-10-31T11:03:00.001-07:00

mandrill

2011-10-15T06:37:00.001-07:00

brewed up 10 gallons of lakefront brewery's fixed gear, we are calling it mandrill (the monkeys with the big red ass - thanks to Jimmy for that one). we were a little low on our og and ended up hitting 1.061. probably had to do with our mash ratio since it was a 26# grain bill! we pitched the yeast at around 9:30pm, and as of 7:30am this morning its bubbling like a mother trucka. we also racked our columbus pale ale to the kegs, we're calling it 1492 (5.2%).

-bake

pale ale

2011-09-19T07:38:00.001-07:00

we brewed up a columbus pale ale this past weekend. we hit our estimated og spot on at 1.048. it should be a nice session beer. i also helped pops make a 10 gallon fruit wheat. note to self, 20 gallon brew days are brutal. sorry no pics this time.

columbus pale ale:

18 lbs 2-row
2 lbs cara-munich
2oz nugget @ 60
2 oz columbus @ 5
2 oz columbus @ 0
2 oz columbus @ dry 7 days
mash @ 152

-bake

Merrill's Hard Lemonade v.02

2011-08-30T15:59:00.001-07:00

so, my first attempt at hard lemonade produced a pretty tasty (and strong) beverage...it wasn't really what I'd call hard lemonade, more like lemonpagne... champagne yeast definitely added some flavor. turned out really sour too, had to backsweeten.

anyway, I tweaked the original recipe and decided to try out this experiment using 4 different yeasts.

the updated recipe I came up with for 4 gals was:

8 cans frozen lemonade concentrate
3# light DME
1# lactose (unfermentable- hoping to keep some sweetness and mouthfeel without having to backsweeten)
1# white sugar
1/2 tsp wyeast nutrient
1/2 tsp irish moss (I had a packet that was free with something I ordered, not sure if it will do anything in this, but won't hurt)

I boiled the DME and lactose in 3 gal of water for 60min. Added the yeast nutrient, irish moss, and white sugar 10min. before the end of the boil. added the frozen lemonade at flameout. chilled and added ice and water to bring my volume to just over 4 gal.

from there I separated the "wort" into 4-1gal glass jugs and pitched 4 different yeasts:

Safale-05
Safale-04
Safbrew-T58 (2 packets because they expired in july)
Saflager-33 (2 packets becuase they expired in april)

the T58 and 33 started fermenting vigorously right away (the 58 needed a blowoff tube), the 04 followed about 1 1/2 hrs later, and the 05 took about 3 hours to really start moving. as of now they have all been steadily fermenting for 48+hrs at an ambient temp of 74F. (it's august and 101F outside, what do you do?). the T58 smells very similar to the last batch I made at this point, the 33 and 05 smell more citrusy, the 04 doesn't really have a strong smell to it yet.

I'll post more in a few days.

-kris

(oh, I have no idea what the OG was because I forgot to get the frackinometer from bake...but I'm more concerned with the flavors created by the use of different yeasts on this anyway.)

Also, I added a new addition to the keezer.

keezer update and bursting bottles

2011-08-28T08:00:00.001-07:00

we kegged up biers of war and villain yesterday afternoon. updated the keezer. got a taste of some merrills hard lemonade and must say i was pretty buzzed after a glass. very tasty stuff.

on a side note, i was watching tv this morning and heard a loud pop. it sounded like it came from the basement so i did some investigating. in the bathroom there was a pool of beer spilling out from the archive. turns out some of last years brew off entries decided to sacrifice themselves to the beer gods.

-bake

2011 Brewoff Results...and we're super gay for pumpkin ale.

2011-08-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

picked up our score sheets from the beehive brewoff today. we didn't win anything this year, which is a bummer. but brynnemaker and diplomanator scored in the "very good" range and we got some good feedback from the judges...so we'll just have to step up our game. shippenmaker scored in the "good" range- the judges said it contained too much shocker.

since I was near wasatch, I stopped in for some more pumpkin ale. I'm 2 sixpacks up on bake already. I also saw this new amber ale in the cold case and decided to give it a whirl. got to say, don't think I need to travel for fat tire if they keep this in stock. It's a full strength (5.75%abv) american amber ale that's crisp, super malty, and finishes with a nice hop bitterness that's sort of like a pale ale but more subtle. pretty tasty. really wish wasatch used pry off instead of twist off bottles though.

-kris

its back

2011-08-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

i called wasatch last week asking when pumpkin was going to be available, they said it should be around the following thursday, sure enough it was. cheap at the beer store too, only $21 for 3 6-packs.

-bake

Re-count Maker, Brewoff 2011, Hard Lemonade update

2011-08-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

So, I went back through baker's records and re-counted how many kegs I've killed. grand total since my first kegged batch, Safety Champ 2, 21 total kegs killed. I forgot to record my achievement.

Also, dropped off our entries for the brewoff: diplomanator, brynnemaker, and shippenmaker...we don't work for the beer nut though, so I don't see a gold medal in our future.

And I've had a chance to start sampling the hard lemonade I cooked up a few weeks ago. It was verrry sour and yeasty on my first sample. Earlier this week, I tried backsweetening it by cooking up a simple syrup and adding it to the keg. This has kind of helped with the sour. It definitely does have a champagne flavor to it though from the yeast, I think I'll try a more neutral flavored yeast next time...possibly a sweet mead yeast because it tends to leave around 3% residual sugar. I'll have to give it at least 1 or 2 more weeks in the keg to know for sure what it will finally taste like, so we'll see.

-kris

villain gravity check-in

2011-08-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

villain

2011-08-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

had a serious brew session yesterday, ended up moving 35 gallons of beer. racked sake maker to the kegs, biers of war and the red to glass carboys, and brewed villain, a surly cynic clone from nb. kris also somehow managed to score the last glass of brynnemaker and shippenmaker before both kegs kicked.

villain - og 1.053

biers of war - fg 1.012

also updated the logs

-bake

biers of war

2011-08-03T16:42:00.001-07:00

I made this, thought it was cool. use it as your iphone wallpaper...

-kris

Hard Lemonade Update and Some New Labels

2011-07-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

OG 14brix (1.057)
FG 6brix (1.003)
ABV 7.2%

racked it over to a keg and put in on gas on friday. still smells yeasty, that should settle out by cold crashing. tasted a small sample- it's really sour. I guess that makes sense, most of the sugar in it was fermentable which would leave basically lemon juice and alcohol after fermentation. I think next time I will use 2lbs of malt to give it a maltier profile, clear candy sugar instead of turbinado sugar to raise the gravity and not affect the color (it's more amber-yellow than I wanted) and use 1-2lbs of lactose which is largely unfermentable to leave it sweetened- more like lemonade. we'll see in 2 weeks when it's fully carbed. might have to add some sweetener to it when serving to cut back the sour. who knows? the champagne yeast was still doing work when I moved it. I really could have left it for another week and probably have gotten a 10+%abv, but that might be overkill. that yeast is alcohol tolerant up to 17% though. with the right recipe, you could end up with a very dangerous beverage.

I also whipped up a couple labels for some friends' b-days recently

sweet instagram effect on the slackermaker

super sweet design for Blake on the beer he helped brew

-kris

merrill's hard lemonade

2011-07-24T15:49:00.001-07:00

so, after the biers of war session, I decided to try making some hard lemonade...why not? bake let me borrow his little champ kettle, I had Brynne to be my awesome brewing assistant, and I used this recipe I found on one of the forums somewhere...don't really care to find it right now, but a quick google search is how I found it.

10 cans frozen lemonade concentrate (can't contain sulfites or sorbates)
1 lb. of the lightest DME you can get (salt city had briess extra light about 2plato)
2 lb. sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
1 pack champagne yeast (I used Wyeast 4021 Pasteur Champagne)
1/2 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient

boiled it all together for 60min with about 4gal water, cooled, poured onto 7lb ice in fermenter, topped with enough water to reach the 5gal mark in the fermenter, shook the shit out of the bucket to aerate, and pitched the yeast.

today the airlock is bubbling away happily. started with an og of 14brix (1.057), the guy who posted the recipe said he had a fg of 1.000... which would give him an abv of 12%?! I don't think I want it that strong, maybe around 5-6%? we'll see in a week or so. by the way, the guys at salt city brew supply are awesome, will definitely be shopping there often.

-kris

biers of war

2011-07-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

we brewed up a special batch of beer today in honor of gears of war 3, which releases in just over 8 weeks from now (sept 20). it also just so happens to be our first attempt at a lager, schwarzbier. we are calling it "biers of war".

we had a great brew session, first time doing the entire session in the garage. during the last few minutes of the boil we ran the wort through the pump and chiller to sterilize and used the hose for chilling, clean-up was a breeze.

og - 1.053

-bake

sake berrill, taps, and magnets

2011-07-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

brewed up sake berrill yesterday. ended up with an og brix of 13. also fitted the keezer with some new custom berrillmaker tap handles and magnets.

Dadmaker v2.0, Brynnemaker, and "I'd mash that"

2011-06-20T10:15:00.001-07:00

I made labels for beer I gave my dad's for father's day again this year, pretty much says it all...

Added a Brynnemaker graphic to my keezer...

and these fine items showed up on my doorstep today courtesy of High Gravity Homebrewing as a prize for the label design contest...not too shabby.

-kris

honorable mention (abomin-ale '10)

2011-06-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

kris has mad skills and has designed some super bad ass labels over the years. our '09 abomin-ale took the bronze medal from byo last year. this year he entered the abomin-ale '10 and received an honorable mention. nice work princess!

more info is on our awards page and the byo site.

-bake

Princess Cupcake's Oatmeal Stout Cupcakes

2011-06-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

3/4 Cup Vegetable oil
4 Teaspoons White Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 Cups All purpose flour
2 Cups Granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 oz Princess Cupcake Oatmeal Stout
1 1/2 Cups Water

preheat oven to 350f. combine oil, vinegar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. combine dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl. add oil mixture into dry ingredients and mix on low-med speed with electric mixer. slowly add water and beer to form batter. let rest 15min. spray cupcake wrappers with cooking spray and fill 3/4 with batter. bake for 20-25min. makes approx 30 cupcakes.

thanks to SomeDumbJerk over at HomeBrewTalk for the recipe. I used plain cream cheese frosting, not the maple kind he has in his recipe.

-kris

(p.s. Abominale Snowman's label got an honorable mention in BYO and will be shown in the July/August issue.)

diplomanator labeled

2011-06-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

amber

2011-05-29T05:43:00.001-07:00

blake was in town yesterday and kept asking if we could brew some beer. we headed off to the nut, picked up the goods, hit up the beer store for a couple growlers (jalapeno cream / full suspension) and got to work. mashed spot on at 153 and ended up with an og of 14 brix - 1.057

-bake

brynnemaker

2011-05-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

brynnemaker
-5 lbs clover honey
-1.061 (15 brix) og
-4 hours

surlymaker

2011-05-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

tapped out the cherry stout and hefe today, put the bender on gas and the oatmeal stout back on tap. up next: irish draft ale, irish blond ale, beers of war, Beehive Brewoff 2 competition, bottle the Diplominator...so much work to do...

also, check it- the finished bottles for the cherry beast.

-kris

racked

2011-05-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

racked the orange pale ale to kegs and put it on the gas last night. the trub looked crazy, white and green nastiness, probably from all the orange peel, but it smelled delicious. can't wait to tap this one.

-bake

frack

2011-04-21T06:58:00.001-07:00

bender - 1.018
orange - 1.013

pale orange and bender

2011-04-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

brewed up 20 gallons this afternoon. 10 gallons of the orange pale, clocked in at 15 brix, and 10 gal of surly bender at 13 brix. we finally got to use the pump and learned a good amount about priming and gravity. on our first attempt we ended up with a massive amount of hop sludge all over the floor. the pale orange ended up a little short, around 1 1/2 gallons short. no idea where that went unless we somehow lost it in the lines during chilling. on the bender we had a good amount of sparge water and didn't want to end up with less than 10 gallons. we were reading 15 brix about mid boil so we let a little more run-off into the kettle and ended at 13 brix, way below our expected og. with the amount of hops that went in at the last minute (5oz willamette whole) and the low og, hopefully this turns into a tasty session beer.

-bake

starter

2011-04-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

made a starter of wyeast 1335 for the weekends big brew session. here is a pic after a nice little swirl.

-bake

graduation and bender

2011-04-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

received a call from my mom last night, she is wanted kris and myself to brew up a special beer for emalee's graduation party, of coarse were in. decided on an orange pale ale recipe i found over on the homebrewtalk forums. recipe is pretty much like broadzilla but with 4oz of sweet orange peel and 2oz of coriander. i just finished placing the order with brewmasters, hopefully it will arrive soon so we can get to brewing. it needs to be ready by early june. i also decided to order some bulk cascade, willamette, and columbus hops along with our next planned brew, surly bender. recipe courtesy of northern brewer.

-bake

massive racking

2011-04-02T20:51:00.001-07:00

bottled off the rest of java maker and sid vicious. finally put princess cupcakes oatmeal stout on the gas. we racked the hefe to kegs and bottled off the cherry stout.

-bake

pump toolbox

2011-03-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

nicole gave me a pump for my bday, ever since i had been looking at the best way to mount it. putting it on a brew stand would be ideal but with brewing in the garage and storing in the basement we needed something portable, that is were the pump tool box comes in. i surfed the homebrew forums and found tons of different designs but ultimately one stood out more than the others, i liked the quality look and pump arrangement. from the info i've gathered, having a pump setup to flow water through in a vertical (bottom in, top out) position and installing a purge valve on the out is preferred. i ordered a couple disconnects from mcmaster carr #6739k59 and #6739K68, and the rest of the parts from bargain fittings. only took a couple hours to get everything drilled, mounted, and wired (thanks again for you help with the wiring steve!). still need to cut a hole for the extension cable to come out the top but other than that i think we are ready for brewing.

-bake

sample taker

2011-03-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

took a sample of the hefe, gravity was at 1.010, as soon as i cracked the valve i felt like i had been punched in the face by bananas and bread... it was amazing. easily the best tasting sample i've ever drank. i also took a sample and refractometer reading on the stout, its current at 9 brix, which translates to 1.018, out of curiosity i put the hydrometer in there as well and it read 1.024. i'm pretty sure our hydrometer is bullshit.

-bake

brutal

2011-03-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

yeast just won't stop doing work. after 6 blow-outs i decided to hook up some blow off tubes. hopefully they don't clog up and explode.

-bake

yeast work

2011-03-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

woke up this morning to the sound of yeast doing some serious work. the hefe is in the fermenator, sitting at a smooth 70 degrees and bubbling away. the stout on the other hand is being a pain in the ass. one of the buckets had a blow out. i wiped it up, cleaned and refilled the airlock. about an hour later the other bucket had the same problem. apparently kris knows how to make some kick ass yeast starters.

-bake

20 gallon brew day

2011-03-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

we brewed up 20 gallons worth of beer this afternoon. 10 gallons of a cherry stout and 10 gallons of the blood orange hefe. we also got a chance to try out some new equipment, including the mythical therminator which is fucking amazing, and a frackin' refractometer. we weren't able to use the pump, but we were able to rig an awesome gravity setup and watched 10 gallons of wort drop to 68 in less than 10 mins. amazing stuff.

cherry / cacao stout 16 brix = 1.066 og, mashed @ 149 - 60 min
blood orange hefe 13 brix = 1.053 og, mashed @ 149 - 90 min

cherry stout mash

continuous vorlauf

thru-mometer ftw

blood orange hefe

sweet orange chunks and wheat

30 seconds of pure adrenaline

merrill's personal yeast stash

-bake

Hungry yeast for saturday double session

2011-03-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Brewmaster's finally got around to sending out our order, complete with a march pump and refractometer for Bake's B-Day!

I made some starters again- the stout is getting split into 2 batches, so it gets 2 starters of Safale S-33. the hefe is going into the ferminator, so it gets one big ass starter made from 2 packs of Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen.

According to most of the things I've read about yeast starters, you shouldn't really see a lot of activity in the bottle, but check this out...

we're planning on our first double brew session on saturday, hopefully we don't get too drunk to finish the second one...

-kris

From the Archives (vol. 2)

2011-03-09T15:47:00.001-08:00

I opened an El Dorado Golden Ale today that was bottled back in september. Still good carbonation. Tasted really cidery, not good...but if I remember right, it tasted like that when it was fresh. I wouldn't say it's undrinkable...but I didn't drink it.

Blood Orange Hefeweizen/Black Cherry Stout

2011-03-04T12:03:00.001-08:00

Ordered the ingredients for a Blood Orange Hefeweizen (jefe de naranja sanguina-"the blood orange boss..." mmmaybe), and a Black Cherry Stout (la bête noire de cerise- "the black cherry beast"). Hopefully brewmaster's will get these out on time to brew next saturday...but I'm not holding my breath. If anyone reads this and is wondering, black cherries are native to Quebec- that's why it's got a french name. And "jefe" ("hefe"-weizen) is spanish for boss... though it sounded good...

Also, cupcake is turning 16 or something this month, so I might have picked up a little something for him too. exciting.

-kris

(2 posts in one day, recognize!)

From the Archives (vol.1)

2011-03-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Today, I cracked open one of the Kimosabe Red's I have archived from a little over 2 months ago. I wasn't sure how the brew was going to keep being bottled like this, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It still tastes awesome, has a good maltiness, not sweet at all, didn't pick up any rubbery flavor that we've had with some of the bottled brews, and was still plenty carbonated. I have several bottles from the last 6-7 batches left still - the oldest being the double IPA extract brewed last summer.

I also opened an Abominale's Revenge last weekend so I could send the bottle in to BYO for the label contest. It's got a lot of the butterscotch/dark chocolate flavor that the Peacemaker had, which was weird, but still nice and smooth. It didn't have any heat or off-flavor from the high alcohol content, but it was definitely still there.

It's nice to know that the brew's are holding up over time.

-kris

brewing slackers...

2011-02-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

sure wish cupcake would send me a blood orange hef recipe so we could brew again...we're really slacking...one brew session in 2 months...sad...

princess cupcakes oatmeal stout

2011-02-19T21:12:00.001-08:00

we brewed up an oatmeal stout this afternoon. mashed at 154.9. finally got a chance to try out the fermenator. we couldn't get the ventur pump to work after an hour of testing and messing around with it so the therminator was unusable. we probably could have gravity fed it, but i suppose i had one too many to think of that when put on the spot. we ended up setting the kettle at the top of the stairs and running a hose just long enough to drop the chilled wort down and into the top of the fermenator, which worked way better than trying to carry the full fermenator down the stairs. once the chilled wort sat for about 15 mins we opened the bottom dump valve and collected about a quart worth of cold break. took an original gravity of 1.055, then pumped some pure oxygen and hooked up the blow-off.

update: 02.20.11
woke up this morning to a beautiful site. the oatmeal stout is currently fermenting spot on at 68 and the 3/8" blow-off is working like a champ.

-bake

imperial stout

2011-02-05T14:17:00.001-08:00

brewed up my dads imperial stout today. hit an og of 1.088. we also tested out a bazooka screen underneath the false bottom which worked out pretty good once we realized the false bottom had to be placed in upside-down.

-bake

keezer refresh

2011-02-03T08:58:00.001-08:00

decided to give the keezer a little freshin' up today. ran some blc through the lines and chalked the top. i still have about a gallon of fang maker left, but i'm pretty sure we can knock it out during this weekends session. we're going to brew up an imperial stout with my dad, so we should have plenty of beer drinking help on hand... something that is hard to find these days.

oh yea, notice the 20 dead kegs. thats 100 gallons of beer down the hatch. couldn't have done it without the amazing beer drinking powers that kris possesses.

-bake

booyah

2011-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

the therminator showed up yesterday. and here it is, the new setup. just need to warm up some water and do a trial run. need to test for leaks, venturi pump, and chilling. we currently have a false bottom in the kettle but i'm thinking a bazooka screen underneath it would add that extra layer of protection and keep hop debris out of the chiller.

-bake

Happy Birthday to ME!

2011-01-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

I have the best friends and family ever... not only did they help me send my 20's off in style, many of them hooked up some really good beers for me to enjoy while on vacation this week.

thanks to bake for the brewdogs, and Mr. Hirase for transporting them.

thanks to CP for the uinta detour with the awesome leia bell label.

thanks to ryan for the family heirloom

thanks to mandy for the unibrou, tripel, big sky, rasputin, and acme. and rob for the big sky, new belgium, uinta, bohemian, and spaten. thanks to roberta for the dogfish, arrogant bastard, and ruination. you're all awesome! and a very special thanks to brynne for taking care of my drunk ass and cleaning up after the party.

on a related note, sid and java were big hits. and for those of you who read this, if you add berrillmaker.blogspot to your iphone homescreen, you get an awesome touch icon...do it!

-kris

supplies

2011-01-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

the fermenator leg extensions and thrumometer arrived the other day. just waiting for the therminator which is currently on backorder. brewmasters said they expect it to ship out tomorrow. can't wait to do a trial run with the new setup.

on a side note, we tried out sid vicious and javamaker last night at kris' bday bash. i was expecting sid to be a little sweet due to the higher final gravity but it was just plain ol' delicious. javamaker is easily one of the most amazing beers we've ever made and was a huge hit at the party. i think we added the perfect amount of coffee beans to really showcase the coffee flavor and aroma. all of the morning coffee drinkers want to drink it for breakfast.

-bake

beer spree

2011-01-19T11:38:00.000-08:00

just got back from california. their beer selection blows utah's out of the water. i had plenty of time to kill so i went on a beer hunting spree and hit up about 10 different liquor and beer stores. walked out with a ridiculous amount of dogfish head, maui, rogue, and a little something for kris.

here's the breakdown:
Coconut Porter - Maui Brewing Co.
Somer Orange Honey Ale - Rogue
60 Minute IPA - Dogfish Head
90 Minute IPA - Dogfish Head
Midas Touch - Dogfish Head
Paulo Santo Marron - Dogfish Head
Olde School - Dogfish Head
Chicory Stout - Dogfish Head
SahTea - Dogfish Head
Pangaea - Dogfish Head
Chateau Jiahu - Dogfish Head

-bake

New Lookmaker

2011-01-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

we got a new look for the new year, enjoy...

i designed the new logo with the idea that it could pull extra duty as a label/coaster/sticker if we wanted. the band in the middle has space for relevant info (og, fg, ibu, abv, etc...) and thanks to baker for linking the picasa album so I had plenty of photos from all the brew sessions for the web graphics.

on a related note, i finally had time to upgrade my keezer... thanks to brynne for the faucets and baker for the handles, wish i had some beer ready to dispense.

-kris

java maker and brewtal injury

2011-01-08T15:50:00.001-08:00

sharp edge of keg + stuck lid = thumb injury. on the bright side, i took out the coffee from the java maker keg and started it on co2. it's got a nose of a fresh brewed pot of coffee that fades into a smooth chocolaty porter finish. it literally made my mouth water and forget about my hacked up thumb that had bled through the band aid. this could be our most delicious porter to date.

coffee infuser from the keg

spent coffee grounds

my bloody thumb...

-kris

What we drank for xmas...

2011-01-07T12:18:00.001-08:00

abomin-ale snowman's revenge on christmas eve from my snazzy new belgium glasses

kimosabe reload with my step dad, cory, on christmas day- check out that clarity

abomin-ale snowman spotted in the wild

brynne gave me some awesome new perl faucets for christmas, and baker hooked up some pub style tap handles, so my keezer is getting a serious upgrades as soon as I have a free day.

-kris

vicious

2011-01-02T09:34:00.001-08:00

did some racking yesterday. we moved the esb "sid vicious" to a keg (1.066 - 1.018 | 6.4% abv) and we also moved java maker to a keg (1.060 - 1.014 | 6.1% abv). we dry hopped the java maker with 2oz per 5 gal of coarsely ground coffee beans, which it will sit on for about a week. the disconnects showed up last week, i can't wait to try these babies out.

disconnects!

-bake

new gear inbound!

2010-12-29T08:56:00.001-08:00

just finished placing an order for some new gear:

fermenator leg extensions
therminator
thrumometer
1/2" and 3/8" silicone tubing
quick disconnects (mcmaster-carr: 6739k59, 6739k64, 6739k68)

i've also been working on assembling a venturi pump. the local petco was blowing out their aquarium pumps for $1.99 (normally $9.99). the only downside is that the water output end was not fitted for a garden hose so i made a small modification by using some 3/4" tubing, couple worm clamps and a 3/4" barb x ght. a ght x 3/8 barb will be added to hose section as well.

-bake

xmas surprise

2010-12-25T19:20:00.000-08:00

woke up this morning to a nice and shiny blichmann conical fermenator from nicole. i'm still in awe. kris and myself will definitely put this baby to good use.

-bake

java maker

2010-12-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

brewed up our java maker this afternoon. it was a fairly long brew session due to a minor mishap. after the hour mash we went to drain the mash tun into the kettle but nothing came out. turns out, the false bottom on the mash tun lifted up while we were mashing, which resulted in about 1 lb of grain to get stuck under the back side of the false bottom, causing a brutal stuck sparge. we quicky macgyver'd our way out of it by pouring our sparge water back into the kettle, and then pouring the mash into our sparge water cooler. little did we know, we'd have to do that a second time and clear the valve of all the grains that were sucked up in it. after about 30 mins we were back on schedule.

for christmas this year, kris hooked us up with a false bottom for the 15 gallon kettle. fuckin sweet! the batch of beer we made today only had 2 oz of pellet hops in it, but it was awesome to see how much work it did.

we overshot the original gravity of 1.044 and ended up at 1.060. oops. i guess our efficiency is just that stellar. while boiling we racked our esb (1.066 - 1.019) to secondary and ended up pitching our java maker right onto the esb's yeast cake. hopefully the fermenters don't blow up.

false bottom ftw

-bake

esb

2010-12-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

brewed an esb today and we are planning to pitch a coffee porter on the left over yeast cake next week. the brew session went pretty good but we were either over efficient or condensed the wort too much. we were shooting for an og around 1.056 but ended up at 1.066. the last couple batches we've had pretty high fg's which is either related to mash temps or lack of yeast. usually when we brew we have some other beer project going on at the same time, today we were strictly focused on hitting our mash temp of 152 dead on, and we nailed it. and kris made a couple starters to make sure we had plenty of healthy yeast. we did hit one potential problem, when filling the fermentation buckets a hot pad fell into one of the buckets but with any luck it will still turn out.

esb / coffee porter

checking grain temp

checking mash temp

4oz willamette, 4oz goldings

-bake

100th post

2010-11-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

feels like it was just yesterday when we started the beer blog. pretty sure no one reads this except for kris, myself, and kyler (think i spelled his name right) i'll make sure he recieves a bottle of peacemaker this christmas as a special thanks. who knows, maybe well have two fans by our 200th post!

bottled off the rest of el dorado today to make room in the keezer for our dry hopped fang maker. took a gravity reading on kimosabe reloads which is currently sitting at 1.020. higher than were hoping for so i gave the fermenters a little swirl and with any luck the final gravity will drop lower. i built a little pump line cleaner this weekend and tested it out while bottling. i am pleased to report that it works exceptionally well. nice for cleaning the keezer and beer gun lines without needing an empty keg to push starsan or oxyclean through.

parts list:

pump garden sprayer
#4 worm clamp
3/8" - 1/4" barb
3/8" - 3/8" coupler
3/8" - 3/8" compression fitting (remove nut and ferrule)
liquid keg post (thanks kevin!)
teflon tape

- bake

fa-la-la-la-la-maker

2010-11-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

triple threat holiday cheer. abominale snowman's revenge winter spiced ale, reindeer hunter winter spiced imperial red, the peacemaker vanilla bourbon imperial porter. got a special one for the archives, of course...

big bada brew

2010-11-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

we brewed up 10 gallons of Kimosabe Reload today. decided to mash with 8 gallons instead of 7 gallons of water so we could mess around with some whirlpool effects, a bad idea as we undershot our estimated 1.061 og and ended up at 1.050. however, by doing this we got a chance to push our mash tun to its limit. during the mash we added some 5.2 buffer which is suppose to be some pretty awesome stuff.

also racked Fang Maker (7% abv) over to a keg and tossed in some dry hops.

-bake

Kimosabe Reload

2010-11-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

brewin up a re-hash of Kimosabe this weekend, we're calling it Kimosabe Reload. it's pretty much the same recipe as last time but with a slightly increased grain bill which should give it a little higher abv %.

i took a gravity reading from Fang Maker, she's sitting pretty at 1.012. we will probably rack it over to some kegs and start dry hopping on sat.

been looking at a bunch of the latest blichmann equipment lately. a good way to waste more money on some unnecessary yet awesome hardware. only problem is figuring out how to incorporate it with our current setup.

blichmann hopblocker

blichmann hoprocket

blichmann therminator

-bake

Festive Previewmaker

2010-10-30T09:29:00.001-07:00

Fang Maker

2010-10-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

we brewed up our cascadian dark ale (Fang Maker) this weekend. the hop bill in the batch included 12 oz of hops: 2 oz summit, 2 oz simcoe, 2 oz centennial, 2 oz cascade, 2 oz amarillo, 2 oz ahtanum.we hit an og of 1.065, a little lower than we were hoping for but it should still be delicious.

we also ordered a new 1/2" racking cane, some 5.2 buffer, and a little batch we like to call "kimosabe reloads". its a revision of the kimosabe recipe but with a little more base malt. we'll be brewing this fella in a couple weeks.

merrill checkin out the grains

nice boil, 10 oz of hops waiting to do work

bottled

2010-10-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

we successfully bottled and wax dipped our winter beers on saturday afternoon. ended up with (22) Peacemaker and (24) Abomin-Ale. while bottling we did some taste testing:

Peacemaker has a butterscotch aroma and tastes like sweet vanilla bean blended with rich dark chocolate. with an 8.5% abv, we guarantee it will keep you warm this winter.

Abomin-Ale has a dominant apple aroma and a complex taste. with every sip you can pick out the anise, orange, and cinnamon. clocking in at 10% abv, we recommend sharing it with a friend.

labels coming soon.

-bake

Serious Brew Day / Reindeer Session

2010-09-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

saturday 9/18 :

5gal abomin-ale snowman's revenge : kegged
10gal pumpkin maker : secondary (with pumpkin spiced rum)
10gal chupacabra orc amber : bottled and labeled
5gal reindeer hunter imperial red : brewed
5gal sanitized water : poured all over baker (thumbs down)

ended up with 90 or so chupacabras for tommy's wedding, baker has to drink at least 40 to add a hash mark to his keezer

finally using some of the whole leaf cascade we have stockpiled

picked up an 8gal fermenter from brewmaster's for this one since it should be about 1.116og, which would definitely blow the lid off the regular buckets. we couldn't get a gravity reading on it because of how much foam had formed in the wort, but if anything it will probably end up higher - giving us a 12%ish abv.

-kris

Reindeer Hunter

2010-09-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

one of my co-workers commissioned us to brew him a holiday beer that he could have for his family xmas party...but he said i could pick whatever kind i wanted to make. and i don't have the kind of restraint baker does to make a delicious beer with a reasonable abv content. so, soon we'll be brewing up the highest gravity (had to get a bigger fermenter for this one), reddest (25% of the grain bill is a mixture of cara-hell and cara-red, which also resulted in the 2nd abominale's bloody color), biggest grain bill for a 5gal batch (almost 22lbs.), and with any luck will end up being a serious 12%abv monster beer. we're calling it the reindeer hunter.

-kris

pumpkin session

2010-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

brewed up pumpkin maker this weekend. the brew session was pretty smooth and we ended up hitting an og of 1.052. hopefully it drops to around 1.014 and hits an abv of 5%. we taste tested tommy's oatmeal raisin cookie amber for his wedding, it has been on the gas for about a week and was pretty damn tasty, just needs more carbonation. should be ready for bottling in 3 weeks. we also racked peacemaker (8.5%) on top of some bourbon in a keg which tasted delicious, and moved the abomin-ale snowmans revenge (10%) to secondary. note to self, don't take a huge whiff from the primary bucket of a 10% beer ever again.

baking 60 oz pumpkin

racking the abomin-ale snowman's revenge

racking peacemaker onto bourbon

- bake

Pumpkin Maker

2010-09-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

pumpkin ale

2010-08-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

baker and i are both pretty gay for pumpkin ale. he sent me this today

i saw this at the store a few hours later and sent it to him... and took some home, of course

about an hour later i got this from him

we'll be brewing up our second pumpkin in a couple weeks... it's official, summer is over, yay! we'll be snowboarding soon.

-kris

beehive brew off results

2010-08-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

remember the 2010 beehive brew-off? hoppermaker took 2nd place in the bock category! unfortunately bier van mythische dieren and cap'n berrill's crunchmaker didn't place, but there is always next year!

a complete list of the winners may be found here:
http://www.beernut.com/beehive_winners_2010.html

on a side note, abomin-ale's revenge had a blow out. this was somewhat expected since we pitched 2 packets of s04 on it, but we were hoping for the best.

tommys orc started fermenting after adding the syrup

-bake

abomin-ale snowman returns

2010-08-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

big brew day today. brewed up the abomin-ale snowman returns, transferred tommy's orc to secondary on syrup(fg 1.019), peacemaker to secondary on vanilla (fg 1.026), and el dorado to the kegs (fg 1.023). made the spice mixture for tommy's batch which will be filtered into a keg in 10 days. we also bottled up the rest of the crunchmaker and sb's nut brown. the brew session went fairly smooth, until we ran out of propane, hooked up the backup propane tank and ran out of propane again. we were planning a 90 min boil but ended up around 60 mins. due to this we missed our estimated og of 1.112 and ended up around 1.096. still the highest og beer we've made to do. we finished up the brew session rocking horde mode in gears of war 2. speaking of, we'll need to have a 'beers of war' batch ready next april when gears 3 comes out.

vicious red hue

weighing cinnamon, anise, and orange peel

peacemaker primary aftermath

adding scraped and chopped vanilla beans to peacemaker

-bake

tommy's batch

2010-08-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

we brewed up tommy's wedding batch yesterday (bugeaters oatmeal raisin cookie). the recipe only called for 14 lbs of grain so we did the initial mash with 6 gallons of water and the sparge with 10 gallons, to give us about a 1.5 water/grain ratio. luckly we ended up hitting our estimated og spot on @ 1.049. the beer nut was all of wyeast 1968 so we had to go with white labs, hopefully those little yeast do work.

toasting flaked oats

-bake

Bugeater's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Amber

2010-08-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

Beehive Brew-off 2010

2010-08-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

Just dropped off our entries for the Beehive Brew-Off homebrew competition, I think we've got some serious contenders.

Bier Van Mythische Dieren - Belgian Specialty Ale
Hoppermaker - Maibock/Helles
Cap'n Berrill's Crunchmaker - Brown Ale

I also picked up a few new ones from Epic to enjoy: Spiral Jetty IPA, Hopulant IPA, 825 State Stout, and Pfeifferhorn Lager. I thought I grabbed a Brainless Belgian too, but grabbed a second Spiral Jetty instead...oh well.

-kris

blichmann beer gun

2010-08-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

nicole hooked me up with a sweet anniversary gift, a blichmann beer gun. kris and myself will definitely put it to good use in the next couple months (sb's nut brown, tommy's wedding batch, peacemaker, and abomin-ale snowman returns)

-bake

blow off ftw

2010-08-01T06:46:00.001-07:00

luckly we did a blow off tube on the peacemaker.

-bake

peacemaker

2010-07-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

we brewed up 5 gallons of the peacemaker this afternoon. we ended up with an og of 1.090. holy shit. luckily we came prepared and racked el dorado over to secondary, then pitched the peacemaker right on top of the yeast cake. its been about 3 hours since we pitched it and the blow off tube is already bubbling like crazy. we also bottled up the rest of the hoppermaker and bier van mythische dieren, which will both be entered in the august homebrew competition. kris is also going to bottle up some cap'n berrill's crunchmaker, netting us 3 entries in the competition. wish us luck!

Evanston Brewfest

2010-07-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

checked out the evanston brewfest yesterday, got to fill my tiny mug with all the samples i wanted... definitely took full advantage. plenty of good beer from new belgium, bohemian, deschutes brewing, and a nice surprise from odell brewing from colorado. really good extra pale ale. a little disappointed with sierra nevada, alaskan, and suds bros. who did not represent well. suds bros. did have beer battered brats which were delicious, but their beer selections were raspberry wheat and light mexican lager... fail. baker couldn't come because he was hurtling down a river elsewhere in wyoming... sad.

-kris

troubled brew

2010-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

we brewed up the berrill dorado golden ale yesterday, didn't go smoothly... mash tun had a bad leak, had to transfer water back and forth several times and finally had to reheat it when the leak was fixed. almost spilled half the grain on the garage floor... luckily, we didn't. ended up over-filling the mash tun and had to drain it off to fit all of the grain. had a couple boil overs. amazingly, we ended up finishing the session with almost exactly 10 gallons and were more efficient on our mash than planned. ended up with an OG of 1.064 and the elephant riders gave the fermentation a kick start with their rock. should end up with a tasty, slightly stronger than planned beer.

-kris

brew schedule

2010-07-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

added a brew schedule to the blog. check it out here. this should help us keep our brews nice an organized. we are currently planning out this holidays batches which should net kris and myself around 24 bottles a piece. right now were looking at doing a bourbon vanilla imperial porter and a double abominale. two high point beers that should help us stay warm this winter.

-bake

El Dorado

2010-07-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Peacemaker (Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter)

2010-07-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

now tapping

2010-07-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

bottled off the last of the mythic beast (the unofficial dadmaker ale) today, and updated my keezer. i also ordered up the berrill dorado golden ale which we'll hopefully be brewing up on saturday.

the last of the beast, except for the full keg at cupcake's.

i did my best at plagiarizing baker's hoppermaker design

-kris

discovery: brewed

2010-07-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

i was just reading online about a new discovery channel show coming this fall called "brewed". its going to feature sam calagione from dogfish head traveling the world and experiencing different cultures of beer!

------press release------------------------------------------------------
XPERIENCING THE WORLD ONE PINT AT A TIME DISCOVERY CHANNEL RAISES A GLASS FOR BREWED, NEW SERIES ON THE WORLD OF BEER ANNOUNCED FOR FALL 2010
(Silver Spring, Md.) Beer is the drink of the masses. If you look into a glass of beer you can see the past, present and future of mankind. Cicero lauded it, Genghis Khan fought for it and now Discovery Channel celebrates it with a world premiere series, BREWED, exploring the culture, history and variety of beer.

Meet Sam Calagione: maverick entrepreneur, family man and owner of Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. As an ambassador to the world of craft beer, Sam travels the world to experience what every culture brings to its own special brew.

In BREWED, Sam shows viewers the other side of the bottle, sharing the stories of beer sub-cultures as well as exploring life inside The Dogfish Head Brewery. BREWED goes behind the scenes at Dogfish Head as Sam’s merry band of creative brewmasters concoct new taste varieties.

“BREWED taps more than just kegs and barrels, it unlocks a fascinating history of beer making, showcasing the ingenuity and passion behind our love affair with those alluring suds and how it played a role in building civilizations,” said Clark Bunting, President and General Manager of Discovery Channel.

Running a successful business also requires inspiration, so BREWED hits the road for the ultimate beer tasting road trip. Along with archeologist and beer expert Pat McGovern, Sam sets out to recreate “ancient ales” that have been discovered at sites around the world from Egypt to Peru. He travels to Rome to research old world Italian beers as inspiration for a new site in New York with Mario Batali. A visit to New Zealand introduces the idea of making the “first tomato based beer.” And back home, Sam is tasked to come up with a commemorative beer called “Bitches Brew” to celebrate the 40th anniversary release of Miles Davis’ famous recording.

“Beer has always been my passion. It is so much more than what you see in the glass. I’m excited to share the diligence, daring and creativity that we pour into our work,” said Calagione.

BREWED is produced for Discovery Channel by Zero Point Zero Productions. Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia are executive producers. Tim Pastore is executive producer for Discovery Channel.

About Zero Point Zero
Zero Point Zero is a television and film production company founded in 2003 by Executive Producers Chris Collins and Lydia Tenaglia. Since its inception the company has produced over 300 hours of nationally and internationally airing television programs, including the critically acclaimed and award winning series: Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and Diary of a Foodie. In 2009 Zero Point Zero received five EMMY nominations, including a primetime nomination for Best Non-fiction Series for Anthony Bourdain No Reservations series and a win for Best Cinematography. Other recent productions include the 2009 EMMY-winning Diary of a Foodie and 2010 EMMY nominated, Adventure’s with Ruth for PBS; the 2010 series, Brewed, for Discovery and Frontierman for History Channel. This year the company will produce a landmark 100th episode of No Reservations, which features celebrity chef and New York Times best-selling author Anthony Bourdain’s travels and explorations of food and culture around the world. Specializing in distinct storytelling with a handcrafted look and feel Zero Point Zero has produced television shows in over 100 countries around the world.
------press release------------------------------------------------------

its been a while

2010-07-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

went over to princesses house the other night for a little bbq party. apparently kris has been stocking up for a while, we tried out a fairly large selection of beer including:

wasatch:
jalepeno cream ale
organic amber

dogfish head:
60 min ipa
90 min ipa
indian brown ale

berrillmaker:
bier van mythische dieren
cap'n berrill's crunchmaker

thats right, we finaly got a taste of cap'n berrill's crunchmaker. it had only been on the gas for a week but it was definitely a hit at the party. i personally couldn't taste too much peanut butter but thought it still had a great nut brown flavor, others were saying it tasted like a reeses peanutbutter cup.

about a week ago we brewed up a double ipa extract kit, a prize from brew magazine. we also racked 20 gallons of beer and had a chance to try out hoppermaker. it had only been on the gas for a week but tasted pretty good. all in all it was a very simple and straight forward brew session.

kris and his sack... of grains.

used a glass carboy for primary so we could see the magic happening. notice, we ended up a little short on volume and couldn't take a gravity reading due to using the carboy. my guess is that this over condensed double ipa is going to fuck you up.

-bake

new stand, new beer

2010-06-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

we built a new brew stand and brewed up Cap'n Berrill's Crunchmaker yesterday. the brew stand was a success and didn't topple over, however i did bump the stand with my beer sitting on the top edge and ended watching a full glass of Kimosabi explode on the garage floor. we added 2 boxes of peanut butter cap'n crunch to the 60 min mash, but by the time we were sparging all of the cap'n crunch had melted away. usually when we chill a beer we have a solid 4" of foam, with this batch, there was no foam at all. i've heard oil will have a big impact on the amount of head and i imagine there is a shit ton in this batch. when chilling you could easily smell the peanut butter over the hops.

building the brew stand 1

building the brew stand 2

brew stand fully operational

holy cap'n crunch shit!

sparging on cap'n crunch

peanut butter goodness

admiring the new brew stand

home depot doing work

chilling with no foam

pitching on a yeast cake

-bake

Cap'n Berrill's Crunchmaker

2010-06-12T08:55:00.001-07:00

byo pg. 33

2010-06-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

went to the beernut today to get some grains for tomorrow brew session. it's going to be an interesting batch. we're calling it Swamp Creature Peanut Butter Ale. essentially its a brown ale with peanut butter cap'n crunch added during the mash. it will either turn out incredibly tasty or unbelievably awful.

while i was there, i looked over and noticed they had the new byo magazines sitting out so i picked up a couple copies. by the way, byo is a great magazine with tons of tips, recipes, and beer talk. if you don't subscribe already, here's the link to get you started.

byo july-august 2010

bronze baby!

full page layout

-bake

we're on byo.com!

2010-06-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

check it out, we're on byo's website:
The Abomin-ale Snowman

view all of the byo label contest winners.

prizes we won:

25th anniversary double ipa ingredient kit from home brewery
gift certificate from bader beer & wine supply, inc.
ten sachets of safale yeast from brew-u
a carboy cleaner from carboy cleaner
gift certificate from homebrewers outpost & mail order co
gift certificate from quality wine and ale supply
gift certificate from above the rest homebrewing supplies.

-bake

recipes

2010-06-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

it took some time, but every recipe we've brewed has been updated in the batches section of our blog.

-bake