A week or two ago, we were planning out the events for the semester, and it turned out we have funding for both a “cocktail party” and a “movie night.” During the course of the discussion, I suggested that it might be interesting to brew up some beer especially for the party, and that this would be quite easy to arrange. The question was whether we could get funding for such a thing. I finally just got approval for the idea — funding for ingredients will be available, so all systems are go. But I figured I’d like to make …
Tag: BEER & HOMEBREWING
Smoky Brewday: Letters from Lichtenhain
So, I have had about 5 pounds (a couple of kilos) of smoked malt sitting around, losing their smokiness. I was kicking around the idea of trying to make some kind of experimental brew. The malt is probably six or eight months old, and so it will not be as smoky as it was when I first got it; on top of that, I only have a few kilos, so I am leery about trying to make a smoky beer unless I use 100% smoked malt. That meant a low-gravity, smaller batch, even if I do add DME. It looks …
Steamy Brewday: Wonmisan Vaporizer
I’m surely not alone in saying that Anchor Steam is the beer I associate with California, though there are, doubtless, plenty of other good beers brewed in the state. But when I first was in San Francisco, I’m pretty sure the first beer I had there was an Anchor Steam. This is fitting, since the Anchor brewery is one of the few that (re-)started production after the Prohibition. I picked it simply because the name was so unusual, which tells you something about the issue of the name of the beer. The style is one that has a long history, though …
15 Minute Hopping Challenge: A Success!
On Saturday we held the meetup for the 15-Minute Hopping Challenge, and I think it’s safe to call it a success. Most of the people who attended were either brewers, or friends/significant others of brewers. On my side, Miss Jiwaku and my friend Charles from Liminality joined in. I’d say pretty much every brew we sampled from the home-brewed stuff ranged from very good to excellent. Bill’s dark hoppy lager, Dax’s fruity Belgian pale, Rob’s “The Shit” barley wine (wasn’t it?), Rowan’s mild and easy-drinking first brew ever (an ESB!), and all kinds of other good stuff thsat may have …
Meadmaking Day: Mittelfrüh Metheglin
This mead is a shot in the dark: I screwed up when measuring the water for my pomegranate mead, and realized too late that I wouldn’t be able to add the pomegranate juice. So I scooped out a liter of the must (as we call the honey water before it is fermented) and froze it, adding more honey to the (now-smaller) must destined for the pomegranate mead. Then I wondered what to do with all that honey-water. Turned out it was about a half-kilo worth of honey, so I figured I could make something with it. 500 grams of honey …