Alaskan amber is dead, so it's again time to brew alaskan amber. Grawk Alt brew day tomorrow or sunday.

I am experimenting this week

I started with my normal imperial stout recipe, only I made it with almost twice as much water. I added 2 cups of malto dextrin for a thicker mouth feel, and 2 cups of honey. I split it into 2 carbouys, and am using the wyeast dry english yeast for 1/2 and the wyeast belgian strong ale yeast for half. I'm trying for a slightly lower calorie beer, and figured I'd experiment on how yeasts affect the flavor at the same time.

on the left - dry English yeast

on the right - Belgian strong ale yeast

Just transferred 3 gallons of my alaskan amber clone to a smaller keg to take to pittsburgh for this weekend's hockey tournament. This is a much better solution than using the big ones. Transferring the beer is REALLY easy, too. Just put together a cable with 2 of the black "output" connectors on it, lightly pressurized the small keg, and then hooked up full pressure to the big keg. As it filled, just purged the gas occassionally until it was full. Then pressurize the keg and boom, done.

I begin brewing next week. Started ordering some of my supplies already, planning the big trip to the homebrew store on Friday. First beer out will be a light IPA, India inspired with jaggery used as an adjunct to bring the grain bill down to 10 lbs and maybe a few spices just to keep the theme (have Tellicherry peppercorns, cardamom pods, and black cumin in the house.) Plan is to have beer kegged for the first three FSU home games, which are the first 3 weekends of September. If the beer sucks it can go to my friend's condo 2 blocks from the stadium and we'll have no problem getting rid of it.

Edited August 1, 201115 yr by NightWoundsTime

Brewing update! Kicked out two batches in the beginning of August, finally got ready to keg one up on the 9th. The first brewed son, an IPA made with Indian jaggery and not nearly enough medium (crystal) malts, suffered from many brew-day errors and calamities. I built the brewery on the fly, while attempting an all-grain batch the first time out. Ambitious, but rubbish. Turned out too weak and bitter.

But, all was saved in the second batch. Made a medium bodied very dark brown ale (1 lb of chocolate malt!). Beatiful beer, kegged on Friday and force pressurized for enjoyment on Saturday. The keg will last through this weekends epic FSU homegame vs. Oklahoma. Biggest game in Tallahassee in many years, full ESPN game-day coverage, hotels sold out for 80 miles. Should be a good time.

Next up, Belgian Spiced Wit for my sister who's about to not be pregnant anymore (as in she's having a baby the first of Oct, I suppose I should clarify) and requested a homebrew. The sticky mash scares me but I'm not using a false bottom so all should work out fine.

dan, plz forward alaskan amber recipe.

Edited September 13, 201115 yr by NightWoundsTime

Sounds good Young BrewMattster!

This is what I'm going to brew next I think:

Alaskan Amber Clone

(5 gallons, extract with grains)

OG = 1.054 FG = 1.015 Bitterness = 20 IBUs

Ingredients

1 lb. two-row pale malt

1/2 lb. medium crystal malt ( 60L )

1/2 lb. light crystal malt ( 20L )

5 lbs. Munton's unhopped light dried malt extract (DME) (7 lbs liquid )

4 AAU Cascade hops (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)

4 AAU Saaz hops (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)

1 tsp. Irish moss (last 15 minutes of the boil)

German ale yeast slurry (Wyeast 1007, White Labs WLP-029 or equivalent)

7/8 cups light DME for priming

Step by Step

Crush pale and crystal malts. Steep in 2.5 gallons water at 150� F for 45 minutes. Remove grains, add DME and stir well. Bring to a boil, add Cascade hops. Boil 45 minutes, add Saaz hops, boil additional 15 minutes.

Remove from heat, cool. Add to fermenter along with enough chilled, pre-boiled water to make up 5.25 gallons.

When cooled to 68� F or so, aerate well and pitch yeast. Ferment at 68� F for ten days. Rack to secondary, condition cold (40� F) for fifteen days. Prime with DME. Bottle and condition at a cool cellar temperature (50� F) for two weeks. Serve at 50� F in a straight-sided altbier glass.

That one?

Brew porn. Arrived this morning after sequences of delays.

that's a lot of kit

BrewDoug is in effect! Best of luck with your endeavors.

A buddy of mine from high school and his wife each won blue ribbons at the state fair for their home brews and invited me to come over and see their process last weekend. He did his own grind and wort for a 10G batch of porter. It was very interesting and we had a great time. Itching to finally try to brew a batch myself.

Yes he's wearing a kilt.

Edited September 19, 201114 yr by MoonShine

Wow Doug -- looks like you are ready for full production.

Edited September 19, 201114 yr by mikeymad

Looks adequately-badass doug. Best of luck with the start of the venture!

Switched my sister's beer to a Saison but then it turned out she didn't need it, loaded into the keg yesterday. Made it extremely light, probably 3.7%, very pils-like but with quick easy French saison yeast that's happy at 70-80 degrees F. This beer found itself a name.

Phrague.

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.

Edited October 26, 201114 yr by NightWoundsTime

Mike won't like it because you were drinking a cocktail while brewing it. In fact, I bet he'll blame the porter fail on the cocktail too.

Mike won't like it because you were drinking a cocktail while brewing it. In fact, I bet he'll blame the porter fail on the cocktail too.

This^^^

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.

Nice, Young Matt. Does the rye-ness come through?

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.

Cool beans.

Dang Matt that sounds tasty

It sure does, wow!

For those who choose to brew their own, why not start your own brand...........

http://labeley.com/