Dubbelweizen Disaster Death

It is done. I sit here at 12:45am staring at the final pint of my Dubbelweizen Disaster.

It is a time of reflectance and remorse – thoughts of what this batch might have been had I pitched the correct yeast, and a twisted sense of loss for what was brought into this world and never should have been – yet now is gone.

One of my cats is now circling the pint and licking the exterior. Not sure if that is a good omen or bad. Its definitely amusing, considering that they have never taken ANY interest in my beer prior to this moment.

In its wake the Dubbelweizen leaves a dark legacy – the Olde Porter v2 has been put on tap. I have tasted the warm tap samplings of what this keg brings – and it is a welcome celebration of roastiness and revelry. Not quite opaque, but the darkest shade of brown, and very full bodied – this beer is what it was intended.

RIP banana and cloves in my Abbey Dubbel recipe. May you only haunt my memory and my recipe book. We shall not meet again lest I err twice.

Duty done and reflective musings

Website has been updated with the last Wort’s Hoppening.

Today I also got confirmation that my grain mill has shipped and did a WLP002 English Ale Yeast starter for a batch I’m brewing tomorrow – My sister got me the Beer, Beer, and More Beer kit for Jim Rossi’s Honey Pale Ale. Once this Amarillo Pale Ale keg kicks I’ll be out of light stuff – Well, that’s not completely true. I’ve got a keg of Abbey Tripel sitting down there, but I don’t know that I want everything on tap to be >6% ABV. Well… there’s also that berry beer sitting in the secondary, but I’m bottling that for my sister. I won’t be kegging it.

The more time I spend thinking about this past meeting, the more I realize how eye opening it was. Found out how much everyone else sweats spending money on their homebrewing equipment and supplies. I guess I never even give it a second thought… I mean… aren’t hobbies often expensive? Also, it seems that alot of people buy cheap where as I usually buy quality… Yeah, I bought a $180 grain mill, but I’ll never ever need to replace it. I’ve got a $200 10 gallon brew pot – but it’ll last me forever. If I move up to 10 gallon batches… its the ideal size for a mash tun. C’est la vie… Some folks just prioritize differently. Not that its bad, its just not how I do.

I got into homebrewing because it is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve been a beer snob since my freshman year in college (I mean since I was 21!!!) and have always dreamed of brewing great beer. Its never been about cheap for me – its about quality, creativity, and above all enjoyment. I LOVE BEER, and I make sure mine knows it as I bring it into this world and nurture it to its fullest (alcohol?) potential. ;-)

Perhaps some other blog entry I’ll muse over why no one could ever pay me to brew… not tonight for sure. I’m cached.

Wednesday cometh…

Well, I kegged my Abbey Tripel tonight (3rd I’ve done, 1st of my own recipe). I’m so stoked. It was crystal clear even in the secondary… so of course the finish product will be crystal clear provided I don’t have a nasty lurking in the keg. I cleaned for 1 hr with PBW and sanitized for about 30 minutes with Iodophor, so I gotta believe it’ll be fine. I also have some 3 gallon cornies ready for the BEAST. That’s right – my EVIL EVIL oak-aged vanilla imperial porter will be kegged within the next week. Weep and despair world! WEEP AND DESPAIR!! MWAA AHAA HAA HAA! Ahem.

HDYB is checking on the availability of Servomyces for me. I’m dying to use this white labs yeast superfood in my next big belgian – Alucard Strong Ale. I’m hoping it’ll be black as midnight, smooth, and somewhere close to 9%ABV. That ought to be a good swift kick to the liver.

FSB.com Recipe submittal page works just fine. Oliver did submit his BeerSmith recipe in BeerXML format for his upcoming “On The Dole” Robust Porter. The gravities and %ABV are definitely wrong, but that was the output from BeerSmith, not our site.

My 3-roll grain mill from CrankAndStein.com ships on Thursday. I can’t wait to try that bad boy out. The Alucard Strong Ale will probably be its first victim.

Post meeting blues

Yeah, another month’s meeting has come & gone. I always feel kind of bummed the next day since it takes another whole month before I get to taste more homebrew creations.

Oliver makes a mean beer. I like his stuff. Scott brought his tasty Dogbolter kit beer and the Amarillo English Amber from the last meeting as well as the Pilsner – which somehow managed to escape the meeting without my tasting it… Oh well. There’s always next meeting. I brought growlers of my Dubbelweizen and Amarillo Pale Ale again (both were debuted last month).

Website recipe submittal form works. Oliver submitted a recipe for the Porter he’s got on deck, and I grabbed it from the upload directory yesterday. I’ll put it on the site soon.

I think both the Abbey Tripel and Oak-aged vanilla imperial porter are going to be kegged soon – maybe not consumed soon, but put into nice, safe, stainless steel canisters with CO2 padding so they are safe as they age. I think the imperial porter has about the right level of oakiness for this time around… and the tripel has been aging in glass for a month now – 6 weeks since I brewed it. I need the carboy space for my upcoming batches… I think they will be:

• Belgian-style strong dark ale (OG around 1.090)
• Chinook IPA (using some hops I gained from the December meeting hop swap) (OG ~1.060)
• English brown session (OG around 1.050 or so).

I’m not 100% on the english brown – I might have to do something else with it. I’ve also got a Hefeweizen kit to use up and a honey pale kit to brew…. All grain equipment is coming in May, so that should hopefully keep me busy until then.

Cheers… -VP

Herbs, Man

My new Herbal Tarot Deck arrived from Amazon.com today (it only took about six weeks :( ). Among the herbs it mentions are hops, juniper and marijuana. You can really mess up your mind and body if you don’t know what you’re doing with some of that stuff.

Jane Hautanen (Jane Doe)