This has absolutley nothing to do with brewing

I just wanted to have easy access to it.

Llama Brew

The Boulder Woods Country Club Fighting Llamas will host our 2008 Tag Finale tournament on Sunday November 9th at Gifford Pinchot State Park. While watching game 2 of the NLDS at my GB Craig's house (with some fellow Llamas) it struck me that brewing a beer to commemorate the tag finale would be fun times for all involved.

There would only be a little over a month between brew-day and drink-day, so I needed to brew something that would ferment quick and clean. I decided to go with an English style bitter and knew that the Fermentis Safale S-04 would do the trick. I toned down the ESB recipe that I have been working on fine-tuning and came up with something like this:

8 lbs.	Maris Otter Pale info
.5 lbs.	American Caramel 10°L info
1 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
.5 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 30 min. info
.5 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 1 min. info
Yeast :	DCL Yeast Safale S-04 Top Quality Ale Yeast info

Mash Schedule * 153° F for 60 minutes * 170° F for 10 minutes

I actually wound up brewing the beer at Ryan's during game 3 of the NLDS, and surprisingly, I did not take many pics that night (was too busy running between his garage and his bar to watch the game). Ryan brewed something that night too; an abbey style dubbel, I believe.

I bottled after two weeks in primary (that S-04 kicks ass). I came in slightly over on the ABV (4.0%) per style guidelines, but everything else was pretty much spot on... I'm not a big "style guidelines" type of guy anyway. I bottle conditioned the beers for 3 weeks and Ryan helped with some sweet labels featuring the tag artwork - the finished product looks real nice if I do say so myself.

Anyway, this beer is a keeper - I'm going to make a few modifications and add it to the arsenal... this one has "pin" written all over it.

My groin is pretty fuct after the death march I took in August, so I am sure my disc golf will suffer as a result of not playing in a few months... but I am hoping the Llama Brew will be enough to save face.

Here are some photos (click for full size)

Trubby two week sample:


Blanks:


Labels:


Progress:


Final Product:

Yay! I'm a winner! Yay!

Yeah, so my Saison de Trubbel won first place in the Saison category at the AHA/BJCP sanctioned Lancaster County Brewers Showdown which took place on October 18th at Iron Hill Lancaster. Full results here.

I've never entered a contest before, and really only entered this one because my good buddy Ryan did as well. Ryan got a first place nod in the brown ale category for his Deez Nutz Nut Brown Ale - nice job Ryan!

I actually brewed this one in Ryan's garage as part of a group brew effort the day of the Troegs fest this year. A fair amount of drinking took place during the brew, and I was not so sure that I had been paying attention to the details. Ryan actually brewed his Solstice IPA that day which we cask conditioned and served out of my pin.

Anyway, here is the Saison de Trubbel in all its glory:

Sure looks pretty, huh?

Here are some pics from the brew day:

Yeast starter in a spiffy Triumph growler


Mobile brewery in the Jeep


Heating the strike water (I'm in the middle)


Mash time @ the DubbleDachs Brewhaus (I'm in the green)


First runnings


Really, this is my first runnings


Yummy, yummy...


Second runnings (note the booze in the foreground)


Boil - I really need a new kettle :bag: (hi Edwin!)


Fighting Cock!


P.S. this whole "bolding random words" thing is fun!

I am too cheap to register a domain name...

... so, I'm gonna ride with this for a bit and see how that goes. I am also very lazy, so my hopes are low.









Yeah, so check out the logo my GB made for me.