So yesterday was my birthday and a couple of interesting things happened. First of all, I received my next batch of ingredients via UPS. I’ll be making a “Peat-smoked Porter.” I can’t wait! It’ll give me a chance to use my new kegging system!

Second, I found out I did not have to report in for jury duty today! I don’t mind jury duty. I’ve done it before and it lasted about a week. However, this just feels like a bad time for it. I doubt they’d excuse me for “just not feeling like it.” But, that’s irrelevant because there was no court.

Third, my wife cooked up some top sirloin and dressed it with a green peppercorn sauce. It was fantastic.

Lastly, the Sabres dominated the Boston Bruins. I like it when my team wins games. This makes it 9/10 possible points over the last 5 games on the road. Not bad for a team that just came off a 12 road-game win-less skid.  I’ll be at the game against New Jersey this evening. Hopefully the guys can manage a win this time against a team they’ve lost to in the shoot-out thrice this year.

Until next time,
Lot, of Snow

So, I waited a couple of weeks extra before bottling my witbier in the hopes that it would clear out a bit and lighten in color. No such luck. Saturday, I bottled it. Heh, I need to get a kegging system. Santa baby?

Everything went well if you don’t include the fact that I forgot to add the priming sugar until after siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket. I added the sugar mixture to the beer slowly, stirring a bit to get it nice and dispersed. We’ll know in a couple of weeks if I’m getting carbonation. I figure the ABV about 5%, which is right where I want it. My wife tried a bit and really enjoyed it, so that’s something.

I decided on “Rusty Bucket” for the name of my homebrewery. I’m sure that someone somewhere talks about the human preference for naming things; how giving something a name makes it more official, more real. My first brew I called “Don’t Not Drink Ale,” mostly because with all of these other great beers available in my area, it could be easy to forget about the mass amounts of homebrew sitting in my basement.

Well, that’s all I have time to write today. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I can give you a rundown about how it tastes

Until next time,

Lot, of Snow

Hi! Remember me? This is my blog. I write here sometimes. Miss me?

Anyway, I recently responded to a thread on BeerAdvocate.com titled “Your Brewery of the Year and why?” I just wanted to repost my response here:

Southern Tier. They have no offerings that I will refuse outright. Their seasonals are solid offerings, and their new options are mighty tasty, too.

As they’ve expanded, a lot of smaller bars around here are carrying their IPA as an “import”, “gourmet”, or whatever. It easily qualifies as a great standby beer that I can’t drink too much of. Also, local grocery stores have started carrying their bomber-sized brews, so the ability to slip a bottle of Unearthly into the cart when my wife isn’t looking is fantastic. I mean, how great is it that I can just snag a top ten beer (on my list) for $5 after grabbing some shampoo and a dozen eggs? Pretty great, in my opinion.

So, yeah. Southern Tier. A great brewery with what seems like some really cool people working for it. I really need to find the time to get down there and pay a visit.

Why don’t you pay a visit to that thread on BeerAdvocate and post what’s your Brewery of the Year?

As I mentioned previously here, my wife requested I brew something she’d drink. Witbier it is.

On Sunday afternoon, I brewed it up. Last time I brewed, it was at midnight, after my wife and daughter had retired. This time, I was curious to see how my wife felt about the smell of boiling malt and hops. To my great pleasure, she didn’t mind it much at all. Me, I love it, but sometimes our tastes differ.

So, the witbier. If I thought brewing the first time was easy, the second time was a walk in the park. One thing I will change the next time I brew a wit or other pale beer (and I didn’t learn this until after I brewed), I’ll add a lesser amount (say a third) of the LME during the beginning of the boil and the rest toward the end. From what I understand, that helps create a much paler beer. Currently, bubbling away in its fermenter, my witbier is much darker than I’d wish. However, since I’m not entering it into any sort of competition, it is the flavor that counts the most.

It looks beautiful though, sitting there gurgling, its off-white krausen standing proud. The coriander smells fantastic when I stick my nose up to the airlock. I can’t wait until it is ready to drink. I foresee it being much better than my last beer.

I also can’t wait because, once it is done, I can start brewing my stout. Or maybe a baltic porter. I’m not sure which way I want to go.

So, yes, I’ve caught the brewing bug. I was warned, but I ignored those warnings. I even have a kegging system on my Christmas list.

On a beer-related note, the family went out to the Sterling Place Tavern last night. If you’re ever in Buffalo and want good beer plus some of the best food (probably the best burger you’ve ever had), check it out. So, yes, went to the Sterling Place last night and had John, the owner, pull me a tall glass of the Franziskaner Dunkel. What an easy drinking beer that is. In my opinion, the best from that brewery.

Well, that’s a lot of incoherent rambling. Until next time…

Lot, of Snow

So, Monday night was it: my homebrew had been bottled for a day shy of two weeks. Unable to hold out any longer, I cracked open a bottle. Tst. Ahhh… the lovely sound of carbonation. Usually a good sign, right?

A vigorous pour into one of my over-sized wine glass yielded a pillowy 3/4 inch head which stayed and stayed and stayed until the beer was about half gone! Beautiful. The color is a cloudy red/orange. The nose is delicious hops with a bit of bread smell lingering. The taste is all hops, too bitter for my wife still. The carbonation is just right to create a pretty satisfying mouth feel. The bitterness lingers after the swallow, but, somehow, it is complimented with the slight taste of vanilla.

All in all, pretty good. After my second bottle, I wasn’t so sure, but I gave it 24 more hours and last night the glasses I poured were gone before I knew it. I’m really happy with my first attempt. I made a reasonably tasty, very drinkable beverage.

Now, I have an empty fermenter calling my name and the ingredients for a witbier lounging on the table next to me. “If you brew it, they will come…” Damn, I guess that means I need to clean the house.

Until next time,

Lot, of Snow

What’s that, another beer hual? Nope! It’s the  results of the project I’ve had in the works for the last month. It’s my homebrew!

Finally I’ve done it! Actually, I intended to bottle this weekend, but there just weren’t enough hours in a day. I started today at approximately 4:30pm and finished at about 6:45pm. All in all, not too bad. From what I hear, kegging is much easier and better though. Guess I’ll have to put a draught system and kegerator on my Christmas list this year.

Now I get to wait again for a few more weeks. I hope I don’t get any broken bottles…

On Thursday, I noticed the krausen had fallen on my homebrew, so I decided Friday would be the day to siphon it into the secondary. I didn’t take a gravity reading due to my first one being off (I didn’t mix the wort with the added water prior to taking my reading, so my OG is not reliable). I did try the beer though. It is comfortably bitter and still a bit yeasty. I’m looking forward to the dry hops adding a bit more nose.

I was pretty obsessed with avoiding oxygenating the beer as much as possible, so it took me a while to get going. I left a ton of sediment in the bottom of the primary. Unfortunately, it was soggy sediment. Dumping that meant dumping potential beer! Oh well. I suppose it is for the good of the batch. It is nice, the occasional gurgle of my airlock drawing my attention to my developing baby brew in the corner. I can’t help but stick my nose up to it in order to take in the wonderful scent of hops. I have a feeling these next few weeks are going to go by pretty slowly.

To kill the time, I’ve started thinking about my next homebrew. My original intent was to brew an Imperial Stout. However, my wife made a good point:

“Why won’t you brew something that I’d drink?”

So, it looks like I’m brewing a witbier. Probably the most satisfying feeling about brewing your own Belgian White (other than the satisfaction gleaned from brewing a great beer) is the knowledge that no lemon or orange will ever tarnish your effort.

Here’s a picture of some beer:

Later.

Back in April, my wife and I took a trip to Belgium. One last hurrah before the baby comes, knowwhatimean?

Anyway, we both had a great time. I drank a lot of good beer, we both consumed many amazingly good waffles.

One day, for lunch, we ended up in this place right on the Grand Place called “Cave du Roy.” In a place where every single restaurant was packed, we were the only people in Cave, the entrance of which was on a little stairway right next to a larger restaurant. I remember being really skeptical. Was the food really that bad? Was it all really horse meat? What don’t we know about this place?

Anyway, it was cozy, so we grabbed a seat. Both my wife and I ordered the Belgian traditional dish “stoemp.” I also ordered a Duvel. What a simple yet tasty dish. I don’t care if it was really horse meat (I don’t really think it was horse, the menu said bacon and sausage), it was very good.

A few months later, we looked up a recipe for stompe, made it, and then jotted down some changes so we could recreate our fantastic dish.

Here, my friends, is that dish:

Essentially, what we have here is mashed potatoes (with butter and heavy cream), sauteed shallots, bacon (Yum, I know, right?), parsley, and a sweet Italian sausage. Incredibly tasty and it went fantastic with the Rodenbach Grand Cru sitting there as well.

Is that my autosiphon and bottle brush in the background? Oops. I’m such a slob.

Try the Grand Cru, it was really good. Very tart with a distinct oak (it is oak aged) and sour cherry flavor. All in all, a fantastic meal.

Bye for now.

Edit: I forgot to mention the nutmeg in the stoemp. It’s gotta have nutmeg!

Edit2: The full recipe is in the comments.

So, Friday night, after my wife and daughter were asleep, I began my first ever attempt to brew my own beer. Overall, the experience went well, I think. Well, I’ll know for sure in about 5 weeks.

Turns out, I killed off the yeast when sanitizing the package. Word to the wise, don’t use hot water to sanitize yeast packages.

That’s fine though, ’cause it gave me the opportunity to pay a visit to the local homebrew store, Niagara Traditions. I pitched my new yeast package and things seem to be going very well now.

Here’s some pics for your viewing pleasure:

Until next time…

Howdy,

For dinner tonight, I decided to take some chicken & apple sausage I had lying around and combine it with some of the contents of the growler of Stone Arrogant Bastard sitting in my fridge. For fun, I tossed in some peppers and onions.

Mmmm… the trace of hops really brings out the apple flavor in the sausage. I’ll definitely have to make that again. Next time, I won’t reduce the beer quite so much.

Later.