NightWoundsTime

I've had a bottle of Terrible in my collection for a while, guessing it's a 2008. Saved it after having a tiny bit of it at a tasting and realizing that it needed some years. May be time to pop it. Just picked up a few Quelque Chose that I expect to sit on for a long while. Screw you guys with your pliny's & pizzas. I has Hellhound On My Ale & Korean BBQ.

Scotch ale brewed and bubbling nicely. Previous brew, the chocolate brown ale that I heavily hopped is now on another ounce of EK Goldings in secondary and has been dubbed Chocodile. Imperial Rye brew date set for Dec 10th, leaving a week to get a good yeast starter going. One more brewdate before the year's over, another brew destined for the bottle that we'll call Matt the Younger Tripel (sic) IPA. Belgian yeast because I want to. 11% ABV is the target, 110 IBU's or so and dry hopped with whichever hop smells most like Pliny. Ordering 8 ozs of various whole hops from Northern Brewer. Anyone who makes Hunahpus day this year will take away some goodies .

I guess my point is that I've paid more than fair respect to the gods of brewing today, I've got permission to have a cocktail. Actually now it's on to my very first pour of this year's batch of eggnog. Recipe was 4 cups of Mt Gay Eclipse and 2 cups of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 10 weeks aged as of today.

Manhattan again, but maybe Mike won't totally hate me since I prepared it with zero ritual or drama. Healthy pour of rye, 'some' shitty vermouth, liberal shaking of bitters. It's not so wrong, especially considering I just brewed for 5 hours and still haven't cleaned up.

Didn't get to the scotch ale yesterday but tomorrow it will happen. Got the notice today that my grain mill has shipped so the stout goes down next weekend. Considering getting two 3 gallon secondary fermentors, brewing one 6 gallon batch and splitting, one with oak treatment and one w/o. Big bottling day early in January and 5 cases ready to drink in February. Hope it all turns out as awesome as I'm imagining .

Ready to do something big and heavy for the first bottling project, belaying the stouts for now. Brewing a Scotch Ale on Turkeyday, heavily adapted recipe from the webs. Got all the stuff today, it's going to be quite complex. 12# Golden Promise 13oz Special Roast 13oz Munich 20L 13oz Crystal 60L 8oz Peat Smoked Malt (The kicker, hopefully) 2oz Roasted Barley 1oz Chocolate Malt 2# Jaggery in boil (love this fucking stuff, don't care if it's incredibly inauthentic) 1oz E.K. Golding pellets 60 min 1oz E.K. Golding whole 15 minutes 1oz E.K. Golding liberally strewn about thereafter until flameout. White Labs Edinburgh Ale Yeast OG 1.085 FG 1.023 IBU 30 ABV ~8% And of course this will get some Oak love.

Nearing the end of my Sweetwater Crank Tank Rye reserves. So tasty. Why can southeast breweries (Cigar City, Terrapin) only brew limited editions of west-coast-competitive IPA's? Only really decent IPA's Terrapin has put out is the Rye Squared, which is once a year, and one of their side-projects whose name has escaped into the vapor, along with any chance that they'll ever brew it again, apparently. Grrr. Granted, they're facing the same fresh hop supply chain problem that I have as a southeastern homebrewer, and fresh hopses are all that matter in an IPA. Damn you Californians and your perfect climates.

Hey Al, you got a few hundred bucks lying around to spend on half a gallon of beer to share with me? http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_1385wt_1074 http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_1309wt_1074 http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_1434wt_1074 Getting inspired to try a clone, but it involves cooking plain white sugar till it is incredibly dark. When I get there I'll get a fresh bottle to cultivate the yeast from.

Dogfish Hellhound On My Ale. Very nice.

Sure, quick attempt.

Oh youtube, you never fail.

Hit the brewshop today and broke down on getting the immersion chiller. Had other cooling plans but can't quite DIY, more like Make My Friends Do It. Problem is all they do is argue or try to improve things in elaborate but wholly unnecessary ways, leading to much yelling and frustration. Original plan was to DIY a copper chiller to save a few dollars. At this point it's worth the money to end the ongoing overly repetitive discussion that never leads to any action. Got ingredients for tomorrow's brew, a second similar take on the chocolate brown ale that was the favorite so far. Don't have the grain mill yet but all this new equipment and a decent amount of experience now has me dreaming about the big badass imperial stout that will surely be coming soon. Just put together a nice plan of action. 16# 6-Row 1# flaked oats 2# flaked rye 12oz cara-pils 12oz chocolate rye 8oz roasted barley 2oz chinook 90min White Labs California Ale Yeast OG 1.100, FG 1.023, ABV 10.0 Doing a cereal mash alongside the main mash. Involves throwing part of the 6-row base malt in the brewpot with the oats and rye, heating it and resting several times allowing the enzymes from the malt to convert the ummalted grains. Then boil quickly to push for a that heavy oily rye mouthfeel in the finished product. I'll probably do several decoctions from the main mash while I'm at it to get full efficiency. Will spend several months in secondary with carefully monitored oak spiral additions.

I was going to say that no-one could possibly resist a beefcake covered in bacon, then was repulsed by the thought.

Got the little guy on the left. Been brewing all-grain from the start and it's time to get a fresher grind than having them do it in the store, usually a day or two before brewing. That's without mentioning the quality of the grind from their well-used device. Also a variety of these guys, oak infusion spirals. Apparently has the same effect as a barrel and completes its work in 6 weeks. Picked up some french and american sticks with different toast levels. Lots of options.

Because some people I know are partying without me, I tore into a Jolly Pumpkin Fuego Del Otono, 2009. Love this beer.

I liked them for a minute when I started digging through the prog bargain bin. Metropolis Pt 2 was I guess the favorite, had some pretty decent jams and remains one of the more coherent concept albums I've heard. Quickly burned out on them though, I think Six Degrees was the last album I heard and I thought the music was awful.

Absolutely. The chocolate rye malt is killer, wish I'd doubled up on it. This was a test run for a big bad imperial oatmeal rye stout that will spend several months in secondary, possibly with a rye treated french oak spiral.

Actually now that the rye protein and whatnot has dropped out it's quite dark and porter-like. Pulled a sample today and it did not suck.

Mikey, is that your own usage? Have they ever contacted you? In their FAQ it says they evaluate based on your area and if you're affecting other users. Not to hate on my 'hood but I'm on the end of a fairly short line that I'm doubting is packed with power users (considering my connection never slows down). We'll see how they play it.

OH damn, I just blew over the 250GB Comcast monthly limit. 262 GB's. I think what I do now is go on a total rampage and get another 200GB's or so on there by Tuesday.

Fermenting now: Chocolate rye brown ale (aimed for a porter but missed. Doh). Who knows what the hell this thing will taste like at the end but I loves me some rye beer and I used all my favorite hopses so I don't think it will totally suck.

A martini with scotch? Should that be The Connery?

What you need is a cocktail for 'Octopussy'.

I don't know how many of you can get Sweetwater beers but they've been cranking out a few interesting new brews in their Dank Tank series. Popped a Crank Tank Rye'd Ale last night. Awesome west coast style IPA, very comparable to Hop Rod. Picked up a bomber for $6, I think I'm going back soon to work out a deal on a case.

That's why I went dry. The only other options I've ever seen in Florida are Gallo and M&R and I know they make terrible Manhattans. Mike, does it help that I was drinking that while brewing? Or that I was double-fisting a Hellhound On My Ale?