Sunday, July 20, 2014

Ordinary Bitter. The Working Man's Beer.

Today I made and English Pale called Ordinary Bitter.  This is one of my favorite beers because it is so flavorful while delivering a lot less alcohol.
The grist barely filled the hopper on my mill.  Most of my beers use more grain.
 The base grain is the Maris Otter variety.  This grain really makes the difference in the flavor of this pale.  And don't assume this beer is bitter like an IPA.  The IBUs in this beer are lower than my regular American Pale Ale.  I'm really into this beer.  My wife loves it too.
I cleaned more of those 1/2 liter bottles yesterday.
They were really dirty.  But a little OxyClean and new gaskets will revive them.
I also needed to clean the fermentation vault. A dash of bleach and some elbow grease gave it a new look.
I'm not sure if I'm more impressed with the fact that this old fridge still works or that the 10-year-old temperature controller still works.
Good Beer To You.

Friday, July 18, 2014

New Blonde and an IPA

I did not win the competition at Tennessee Brew Works last month.
I was happy for the people who did, though. They had all sorts of issues that day. Their burner caught fire in the wrong place and they had to use a camping stove to finish an extract boil. I never did get the chance to find out what the judges liked or disliked about my entry.
I put a new Blonde on tap yesterday. This beer will get our house through a few weeks of evening beers until I can get a Fall beer made.
 Today I bottled an IPA.
I had prepared a case of 22oz bombers and a case of regular 12oz bottles when I realized I only have 20 caps in the house.
So I decided it was time to start using some of these beautiful 1/2 liter flip-tops me neighbor gave me earlier this year.
They came to me in nice wooden cases with a package of new gaskets.
I hope the beer I put in them tastes as good as these Euro-bottles look.
Good Beer To You