First State Brewers Blog

So yesterday found me brewing another batch of beer on what started out as a pretty miserable day - raining, overcast… so I did it in the garage. This time around it was a new recipe - “Hell’s Bells Belgian Pale”, which quite honestly is really just a huge 4.5 gallon starter for the upcoming “For Whom the Bell Tolls Tripel”.

It was an amazing brew session for many reasons… a couple I took pictures of. First, the sparge was pretty unique - The sparge water and wort did not mix in the mash tun, but maintained seperate layers due to density differences. If you look at the left pic, you’ll see the crystal clear water with some grain matter floating in it, and then below you’ll see another layer of a kind of ruddy red color with more - that’s not the grain bed! At that point we were still an inch or so above the grain bed… so just like a black & tan, the liquid layers chose not to mix.

Second, I only had to vourlauf about 3 quarts before the wort was coming out crystal clear - most of my batches it has been a 8-9 quart affair. The wort going into the kettle was crystal clear, as shown by the right picture - even at 8 gallons I could see all the way to the bottom of the kettle.

The yeast (WLP510 Bastogne Belgian Ale) took off 5 hours later, and this morning we are fermenting full-tilt. I got a very minimal amount of break material in the fermenter which should leave me with a pretty pure yeast cake for the tripel in 2 weeks. This is apparently the a straing of the primary yeast Orval uses in their beers… and its primary fermentation looks VERY much like a Saison… kind of a fluffy, soapy kraeusen.

Yesterday was the 2006 Buzz-Off competition. I am still anxiously awaiting the results for the two beers I entered. Keeping my fingers crossed…

EDIT:Well, I got second place for my Queen’s Darkness in the Imperial Stout category. My guess is they’ll tell me it needed more hops and alcohol, but we will see. “My Wife’s Nutty Brown Ale” didn’t place in the top 4 - They must have shelled me for some flaw that I couldn’t catch, or they just flat-out hated it. Again, I’ll have to wait to get the judge’s feedback on it. Not sure what category of brown ale it went in as… maybe that was the problem. But second place… that’s not too bad for my first competition.

The Twin Lakes Brewing Company is having its Grand Opening on

Saturday, June 3, 2006 from 12pm-4pm

Park in the field & come celebrate with us…

Fresh: Live Music from Nine Eyes Band

Local: Deerhead Hotdogs

Delicious: Brewery Tours with Brewmaster Mark Fesche

Tickets are $10 each at the door

I’ve had 3 beers over 7% ABV on tap for the past few days… ouch. I managed to kick the Oak Aged Vanilla Porter and replace it with my Black Honey Ale tonight, but that one’s no slouch either (6-6.3%). Bottom line is I like to brew heavy hitters, and now it is 30 minutes to midnight and I can feel it. Go me. My keg line-up is completely different than 3 weeks ago for our meeting. I’ve now got on tap:

• Black Honey Ale
• Nasty Habit Abbey Dubbel
• Native Rage India Red Ale

I addition to tying a good one on tonight, I also managed to:

1. Rack my Wheatopia to secondaries
2. Watch Tristan&Isolde
3. Do some significant overhauls to the the Tank class for my GUI

The wheatopia probably won’t live in a secondary for long - just long enough for some of the yeast to settle out, followed by kegging and carbonation, and will quickly be ushered on-tap. If necessary I plant to counter pressure fill the hell out of my remaining Dubbel, for competition submission and for enjoyment / dispersement. That stuff rocked… many people who have tried it have claimed it is their “new favorite”.

My programming for the GUI is definitely progressing. Every lunch hour I seem to come up with ideas or think through problems that will ultimately benefit the application and components. Today I figured out how to simplify my Tank class greatly, did some quick test programs, and then brought them home for integration.

Tristan & Isolde was an OK movie, however I have to admit that I didn’t find it nearly as “epic” as my favorites (Braveheart / LOTR) nor very romantic… something about infidelity rubs me the wrong way regardless of the “context” or the backstory. Be honest and open, do your friggin’ duty and do it with honor… What’s so hard about that? Yeah it sucks sometimes, but come on - walk away from something if it isn’t right.

Lots of stuff going on this weekend:

• Heavyweight open house
• Open house at Twin Lakes saturday for $10
• Buzz-Off competition at West Chester Iron Hill

The latter is actually my main source of concern this weekend, aside from brewing a batch of beer. I submitted two beers, “My Wife’s Nutty Brown Ale” and “Queen’s Darkness Strong Stout”. I am extremely nervous how they will do and place in the competition, and I will probably be on pins & needles until I know. Not sure I can take the blow if one or the other gets totally panned, but at the same time I am not sure I really give a flip either - I brew for the enjoyment of friends & family, and they are ultimately the judges whos opinions really matter to me. We’ll have to see what happens.