With my commencement rolling by last week, the family celebrated and donated generously to the beer-making budget. First purchase? A 25′ copper immersion wort chiller, essential for bringing 5+ gallons down to pitching temperatures. I have been lurking homebrew forums for a while and considered scraping together my own until I saw this excellent deal [...]
Archive for June, 2009
tasting #002 simcoe circle pit
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Appearance – Look left. Crisp white head with great retention and decent lacing. Body is golden and unfiltered (it’s homebrew!) but still surprisingly clear. The ’super’ irish moss I have been using is doing an excellent job. I have been thrilled how my first two beers have looked.
Aroma – Sweet with a hoppy, citrus edge. [...]
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brew #003: convocation ipa
Friday, June 19th, 2009My buddy Chris Danzig and I threw together what I hope to be a rocking IPA on the day before my convocation ceremony at Northwestern. This third one-gallon batch rounds out the end of my inaugural ‘pale’ series as well as the end of my first batch of yeast (this is their 3 pitch). Approximately [...]
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brew #002: simcoe circle pit
Sunday, June 7th, 2009With batch #001 in bottles and ready to drink, I was anxious to get a chance to brew again and implement the lessons learned. Jim and Brian came on out (with brew beer, very important) to help with this batch. I centered #002 around Simcoe hops, known for their aggressive, citrus tones. For kicks, I [...]
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dyi stir plate
Saturday, June 6th, 2009I’ve been hearing and reading from a lot of sources that a making a yeast starter is another powerful tool to make great beer. Giving your yeast ample time to multiply and activate before you pitch is essential to meet proper pitching rates for both store-bought packs and cakes recovered from your primary of a [...]
Posted in equipment, musings | 1 Comment »
