Category: Beer

Welcome to the Rockhouse!

posted by under Beer, Climbing


Dear fellow Awsomites,

I need to tell you something. Something wonderful. Next March 2011, Awesometown will be relocating to Kentucky. In Kentucky, as your Mayor, I will be serving up breakfast and brewing beer for a brand new restaurant called the Red River Rockhouse. This has been a dream of mine for a long while. Well, not the restaurant part, but the Kentucky part.

I’ll be living in one of the premier climbing areas in the United States, climbing, cooking, and brewing. Don’t worry, I will still be your faithful Mayor of Awesometown. I’ll just have a different side job. Instead of being a software engineer, I’ll be a cook/climber/brewer. My good friends, and citizens of Awesometown, are venturing towards a brave new adventure in the hospitality business. I will be joining them in this Grand Adventure. Of course, the real reason we’re doing this is so we can climb every day and still have enough money to feed ourselves.

There are over 1,000,000 tourists that come to the Red River Valley and there is really only 1 other restaurant (Miguel’s pizza, which has awesome pizza. And frankly Miguel himself is awesome as well) in the area to feed these hungry climbers, hikers, and nature lovers. The Rockhouse will be the second. The difference being we’ll have a liquor licence (as we’re not in a dry county). :D So check out the new site for the Red River Rockhouse, and check in once in a while to see our updates. Wonderful things are about to happen.

Beer Batch #2: Imperial Ass Ale

posted by under Beer

#2 Imperial Ass Imperial IPA
Imperial IPA

Type:
Partial Mash

 Date: 1/18/2010

Batch Size:
5.00 gal

 Brewer:
Mayor Awesome
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes: On 1/26/2010, when I moved it to the secondary, it tasted like ASS (hence the name). When I opened it on 2/6/2010, it tasted awesome. Aaron liked this beer the best (so far) and better than #1
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 9.66 %
6.60 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 63.77 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 9.66 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.83 %
0.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.42 %
2.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.20 %] (40 min) Hops 75.1 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.20 %] (15 min) Hops 21.2 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.20 %] (5 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 9.66 %
1 Pkgs Safale US-05 (American) – Dry Yeast (11.5 gram) (Safale) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile

Est Original
Gravity:
1.074 SG

 Measured Original Gravity:
1.063 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.021 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.008 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.93 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.18 %
Bitterness: 104.9 IBU Calories: 279 cal/pint
Est Color: 15.6 SRM Color:

Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name:
My Mash		 Total Grain Weight:
1.75 lb
Sparge Water:
5.93 gal		 Grain Temperature:
72.0 F
Sparge Temperature:
168.0 F		 TunTemperature:
72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
FALSE		 Mash PH:
5.4 PH
Mash Notes:
Carbonation and
Storage
Carbonation Type:
Corn Sugar		 Volumes of CO2:
2.4
Pressure/Weight:
3.8 oz		 Carbonation Used:
-
Keg/Bottling Temperature:
60.0 F		 Age for:
28.0 days
Storage Temperature:
52.0 F
Notes
1/26/2010 Racked to secondary
- Tasted like ASS (hecnce the name), I can’t even swallow it (that’s what she said?)
- Not sure of the flavor. Maybe astringent. (Later on, I’m guessing it’s fusel alchol)
- Very strong flavor. Offensive. God have mercy on my soul.

2/12/2010 Bottling Day
- The beer has calmed down quite a bit. It might actually be drinkable.
- 17 days in the secondary probably did it some good.

3/5/2010 Open first bottle
- Tastes great. Good candidate for re-creating
- The aftertaste is a little bitter, but otherwise not to shabby.
Created with
BeerSmith

First Batch of Beer: #1 The Hairy Arm Brew

posted by under Beer

#1 Hairy Arm IPA
American IPA

Type:
Partial Mash

 Date: 1/10/2010

Batch Size:
5.00 gal

 Brewer:
Mayor Awesome
Boil Size: 5.72 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes: Tasted good. Sweet. Not sure which hops I added because I failed to write it down. I’ll have to call Homebrew LTD in St. Charles, IL to find out, or contact Brewers Best.
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 10.99 %
6.60 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 72.53 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 10.99 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.49 %
3.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (55 min) Hops 134.3 IBU
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (5 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
5.00 gal Chicago, IL Water
1 Pkgs Safale US-05 (American) – Dry Yeast (11.5 gram) (Safale) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile

Est Original
Gravity:
1.064 SG

 Measured Original Gravity:
1.057 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.93 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.8 %
Bitterness: 143.5 IBU Calories: 259 cal/pint
Est Color: 12.7 SRM Color:

Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name:
My Mash		 Total Grain Weight:
1.50 lb
Sparge Water:
3.40 gal		 Grain Temperature:
72.0 F
Sparge Temperature:
168.0 F		 TunTemperature:
72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
FALSE		 Mash PH:
5.4 PH
My Mash
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
20 min Step Add 10.00 qt of water and heat to 155.0 F over 2 min 155.0 F
Mash Notes:
Carbonation and
Storage
Carbonation Type:
Corn Sugar		 Volumes of CO2:
2.4
Pressure/Weight:
3.8 oz		 Carbonation Used:
-
Keg/Bottling Temperature:
60.0 F		 Age for:
22.0 days
Storage Temperature:
52.0 F
Notes
This is my first batch of beer I ever made. I started brewing it on 1/10/2010 and I finally got to taste it for the very first time on 2/6/2010. I made quite a few mistakes on this batch, which I suppose is to be expected for a first time brew. But it ended up tasting pretty good. This was a great lesion in the home brew golden rule: Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew. So here’s a rundown of the mistakes I made:
  1. When steeping the grains (this is a partial mash recipe), I let the temperature get up to 175° – 180°. This can cause the grains to release their tannins and will make the beer bitter.
  2. I was using a dry yeast: Safale US-05 (American) – Dry Yeast (11.5 gram). I didn’t make a starter culture for the yeast. Instead I just poured the dry yeast into the wort. This ended up being okay, but not doing so can cause the yeast to have a hard time getting started and can allow bacteria to take hold. Once the yeast gets going, bacteria competes with the yeast and eventually (hopefully) the yeast will win out. Luckily, I properly sanitized my equipment, so no there wasn’t any indication of a bacterial presence in the beer.
  3. I forgot to agitate the wort and introduce Oxygen into it right away. I did do it 24 hours later, after the yeast had been pitched into the fermenter. At the end of the day, everything ended up okay though. Introducing Oxygen (at this stage) is important for the yeast to start doing their thing.
  4. I didn’t filter out any of the trub from the boil. I just poured the whole thing in there. This means that all of the hops and grains that were in the boil were also in the fermenter. This can lead to bittering of the beer.
  5. After putting the lid on my 5 gallon plastic bucket, I popped in airlock and the rubber gasket. I accidentally pushed the rubber gasket into the wort. I only had one so I had to retrieve it. I sanitized the crap out of my hand and arm with bleach. I was already worried about bacterial contamination and this didn’t help anything. After fishing around the wort for a few seconds, I found the gasket, re-sanitized it and put the airlock in. Again, everything turned out okay, but this probably isn’t the best way to keep your wort bacteria free.
  6. I also took horrible notes. I didn’t write down what kind of hops I used, and other things that’ll make this recipe hard to re-create. Later on, I refined my note taking skills.

On 1/17/2010, I bottled the beer. At this point the beer is pretty much done fermenting. A little fermenting will happen in the bottle, but nothing appreciable.

On 2/16/2010, I opened up my first bottle of home brew and was pleasantly surprised at the taste. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but for my first go, it wasn’t half bad.
Created with
BeerSmith

We’re goin beer blog suckers (Rock climbing too)

posted by under Beer
image

Hey kids, how are ya? Let’s sit down for a second here. Pull up a chair. We need to talk.

Ya, sure, this “blog” thing is going alright. It’s cute. Every once in a while, you’ll see some kitten videos or some deal about facial hair. You get the idea.

But I think it’s time we got serious about what we’re doing here. We gotta quit fuckin’ around (Don’t tell your mother I swore in front of you).  Sure we can still do the stupid dog videos and videos of people gettin’ hit in the crotch. I mean, come on, that’s our bread and butter. But what we really need to concentrate on are the two things you love the most. Namely beer and rock climbing. I know, I know what you’re going to say. “But Mayor Awesome” that sounds like you’re actually going to have to update your blag once in a while.” Well yeah, no shit Einstein. You think you’re so smart ’cause you went to college? Psh.

We’ve been doing this blogging thing for a long ass time. Before there even was an Awesometown. That’s right kid. This ain’t my first rodeo. If you wanna hit the big time, you gotta cut the crap and start producing some damn content. So let’s get on it kid. Alright? Alright. Now get me a beer outta the fridge.

That’s a good kid.