Author: Andy

First Recipe Submissions

This morning I found 2 recipes from Ian McGregor in my mailbox. It the first submission from someone besides Scott or myself, and its greatly welcomed. His Grand Cru and Hoppy Amber recipes are now available in the recipe section in QBrew format. Thanks Ian.

Thai Chilli Porter

Another home brewer that I occasionally work with promised me a sample of his wares after helping him with some online courses. There was some delay, partly due to schedule conflicts, but he did deliver. The first of the 6 beers was a thai chilli porter, which he warned wasn’t very spicy.

I tried this one out last night, and it was very good. Credit to both his brewing and creativity – it was a very good porter in its own right – nutty, malty, and satisfying. The chilli wasn’t too evident or upfront, but ws more apparent in the finish and aftertaste. It was a very complimentary flavoring, and had the added affect of suggesting to your palette that you desired more.

Thanks Jamie!

Light Beers to Surpass Normal Beer sales

From RealBeer.com:

Drinkers of beers including Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light consumed an average 5.7 beers in the past month, while consumers of regular beer drank five beers, Mintel reported.

Why do they drink more? My personal feeling is that light beer is completely unsatisfying (for starters). Light beer drinkers need to drink more to attain contentment. With less flavor, body and alcohol, you’re paying the same for less product and satisfaction.

I suppose you could argue that because the beer is “light”, you can justify drinking more of it. But by the time you’ve reached that point, you’ve consumed nearly the same number of calories.

Being a fan of ales, the calorie content isn’t the concern. Beer is part of a meal, and should be treated as such. Hell, Monks drank it instead of food during lent. (Nothing beats using Hell, Monks, and Lent in the same sentance)

So, to all the light beer drinkers out there, there’s nothing wrong with beer. Give it some consideration, drink it in moderation, a stop supporting these idiotic companies.

Amarillo Red for Joe's Wedding

Today I brewed my second batch of Amarillo Red, but decreased the bittering hops a little since its going to be for mass consumption. The final IBU was 38.8, which is still in style, and really not that much of a change. Oh well, I tried.

The boil and such all went normally, though I noticed more hot break junk than usual. I’m not sure if that is partly due to using DME or something else, but it makes me somewhat nervous. I’m also going to use Edinburgh Ale Yeast instead of Irish Ale yeast. I think it’ll be nicer, but I’ve got a scottish bent.

OG: 1.049

The Yakima IPA #6 was popular at Michelle’s Graduation party, as was Scott’s RyePA. Though I would have been happy enough to have a palatable batch after the last couple IPA disasters, I was especially pleased how it turned out. I plan on keeping the recipe. I hope this Red works the same.

Odd linking request

I received an e-mail out of the blue from the manufacturer of a fancy capping system for home fermentation. They would link to my site if I would link to theirs in return.

I checked out the site, and the product is a slightly improved moonshining operation. They don’t distill, but they give sell you a bottle cap that allows you to ferment beer or cider or whatever in 2 liter bottles. Although I’m sure you could make some palatable drinks with this system, it seems doomed to failure, like most early “brewing” attempts during prohibition.

I decided not to link to them since it had less to do with beer and more to do with bacteria farming. So I received a second e-mail a few days later notifying me that since I had not reciprocated with a returning link, they had removed me from their links page. My loss.