Monday, May 28, 2012

Vacation IPA and Packaging Ruby

We have been looking forward to going on vacation at our house for a while.  Memorial day weekend marks the end of our first year in Nashville and with me working weekends we are ready to be playing together as a family for once.
So as I began to bottle a delicious IPA a couple of weeks ago, I decided to package some of it in plastic soda bottles I've recycled.
These containers can be taken to the pool at Disney without getting the evil eye from the staff and travel well in the car on the way to Orlando. 
Plus I can save my glass bottles for home.


I have put beer in these before for canoe trips and they work well.
The bottles aren't very attractive with amber colored IPA in them but so far the beer has poured out splendidly with no off flavors from the previous soda.
Anyway, I only make note of it as encouragement to anybody out there who's wondering if it can or should be done.

On another note I bottled an Irish Red on Thursday that I'd made 12 days earlier. 
I called it Ruby.
The beer tasted pretty good as I took a gravity reading but, to me, looks too dark and isn't red enough. 

This isn't my recipe.   And I'm sort of bummed about the color since I got the recipe from a reputable book written by a couple of brewers considered to be among the best.
That's not to say their formula is bad.  I may simply have bought the wrong grain for this beer.
I guess we'll see what the color looks like after Ruby carbonates and I get her into a tasting glass.
Good Beer To You.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Memphis Pro Am Winner Announced

I just got word that one of my friends at FuzzyBrew just won the Memphis Pro Am Competition.  It's a contest to see who can make the beer that will best represent Bosco's at the Great American Beer Festival held in Denver this Fall.
Congratulations to Mike Erskine for his Red Ale.
Bosco's will now scale up Mike's recipe and make a batch that will go on tap at the brewpub later this Summer.  A sample will go into the National Pro Am competition at GABF where I think Mike will be on hand to serve it.
Nice brewing Mike.
I can't wait to try your beer.