Poochie Porter

2012 Batch #01 - Robust Porter (brewed 01/29/2012)

I brewed 8 gallons at Ryan's house; 5g for me, and 3g for the BWCC Ice Bowl. I am going to have to come up with a "Llama" name for that one... Llama Squirts is the current leader in the clubhouse.

Had a brief issue with the rubber gasket on the propane regulator, but Ryan had a spare.  I still nailed both my OG and volume so that was nice.

I milled @ Scotzins and used nylon bags for the hops

16 lbs	Maris Otter Pale info
1.375 lbs	Crystal Malt 60°L info
0.5 lbs	American Black Patent info
0.4 lbs	American Chocolate Malt info
0.3 lbs	Cara-Pils® Malt; Briess info
1 oz	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 6.7 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1.5 oz	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 6.7 %AA) boiled 20 min. info
1.5 oz	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 6.7 %AA) boiled 5 min. info
Yeast :	2 packs of Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04 info

Mash: 155 for 45mins 170 for 10 mins Split into 5g and 3g batches: 1 yeast pkg each.

	Predicted	Robust Porter	Compliance
Original Gravity	1.057	1.048 - 1.065	100 %
Terminal Gravity	1.014	1.012 - 1.016	100 %
Color	23.15 °SRM	22.00 - 35.00 °SRM	100 %
Bitterness	35.3 IBU	25.00 - 50.00 IBU	100 %
Alcohol (%volume)	5.7 %	4.80 - 6.50 %	100 %
			100 % overall

I am messing around with Google+ and have not figured out the best way to share photos with it yet, so let's try this:

Picasaweb link
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UPDATE: Llama Bitter 3

2010 Batch #8 - Llama Bitter 3 (keg008)
Brewed: 10/24 OG: 1.039
Kegged: 11/6 FG: 1.002
ABV: 4.9%
Efficiency: TBD
Force carbed @ 30psi for ~24 hours
Served @ ~8psi

This was on tap at home for two weeks for quality control purposes before being served at the 2010 Tag Finale on 11/21.

Llama Bitter 3

2010 Batch #8 - Ordinary Bitter
(brewed 10/24)

UPDATE: It was a successful brewday! I've got high hopes for this one.




The tradition continues... this will be the third iteration of Llama Piss (as it has affectionately come to be known). This year's tag finale is on November 21st... and the beer shall be kegged.

I went to Scotzin's with two different Haus Pale Ale recipes in hand, but decided to roll with something I know... and winged a bitter recipe from memory. I shorted myself by about a pound of base grain. Lucky for me though, I still have a pound of LuWest Turbinado sugar laying around that will fill the void nicely (thanks Team!) Off we go...

	5.5 lbs.	Maris Otter Pale info
	0.5 lbs.	Crystal Malt 60°L info
	1.0 lbs.	Turbinado Sugar info
	1.0 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 4.5 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
	0.5 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 4.5 %AA) boiled 30 min. info
	0.5 oz.	East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 4.5 %AA) boiled 5 min. info
	2 tsp.	Irish Moss (15 mins)
	2 tsp.	Yeast Nutrient (15 mins)
	Yeast :	Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04 info

Mash: 45 mins @ 151 w/ 2 gallons (the temp dropped into the 140's) 10 mins @ 170 w/2.5 gallons 10 mins @ 170 w/3 gallons

Creekwater 2010

2010 Batch #1 - Porter
(brewed 01/02)



Got the first batch of the brew year under my belt today - it was supposed to be batch #11 of 2009, but mean ol' Jack Frost had other ideas. Today was essentially a re-brew of the Poochie Porter but with Willamette as opposed to East Kent Golding hops. I plan to use this batch as a fundraiser for the 2010 Creekside Chiller.

Brew day at Ryan's was, well... unique. I am not so sure the temps were above 25 all morning. Things were freezing on us; I'm not just talking about noses and fingers either. There was actual ice. If water got on anything, it froze... including the driveway. On the plus side, the immersion chiller was as efficient as ever, and the garage beers were nice and cold. Good times!!

It looks like I may have overshot my OG again, but it also looks like I may have a hydrometer issue. I'll have to remember to look into that.

No pics today; here are the vitals:

10 lbs.	Maris Otter Pale info
.5 lbs.	Crystal Malt 120°L info
.5 lbs.	American Black Patent info
0.3125 lbs.	American Chocolate Malt info
1 oz.	Willamette (Pellets, 5.3 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1 oz.	Willamette (Pellets, 5.3 %AA) boiled 30 min. info
1 oz.	Willamette (Pellets, 5.3 %AA) boiled 5 min. info
Yeast :	Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04 info

Mash Schedule * 156° F for ~45 minutes * 170° F for ~10 minutes

The wort was a bit cooler then planned when I pitched the yeast, so I've got my primary bucket on the kitchen counter right now - Mel loves that.

I brewed a mild last weekend...

... and I transfered it to my pin tonight. Yay!

We had a group brew day that had 7 dudes brew 35 gallons of beer, we may have drank about 15 that day too... good times. We are going to have a SOGO beer fest at the end of February- most everyone brewed a bigger beer of some sort, but I've been on a session beer kick and was itching to try out a dark mild.

Anyway, this is a ~4% beer that I figure will be best in about 3-4 weeks, so I decided to go ahead, and transfer it to my pin for cask conditioning... then brew it again next weekend for the fest - that one will be cask conditioned in my pin as well, as I just so happen to have one shive one keystone left - thanks Nick!!!!

I am going to the Creekside Chiller disc golf fund raiser tourney on the 31st, and am hoping to figure out a creative way to use the pin to raise some $$$ for the Central PA Food Bank.

Ok, so enough with the babbling, here are a few pics.

The bottles are for a winter ale that I should have bottled weeks ago:


Running the sanitizer out of the pin:


I'm classy - I use buckets! I'm ghetto too... note the labels on the bottles :


Opps, that is a little lower than I was aiming for:


Money shot:


I really could not get a good photo of the head space in the pin, but there is a solid inch or so on top:


You like that stillage? Homemade, can you tell?


That Safale S-04 dry yeast is a freak, and finishes with one heck of a compact sediment:


I take me some fancy notes when I brew:


Creekwater:


That it's - GB my GB Old Weller... I love that guy. He made this drunken rant possible.

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: