Sunday, March 22, 2020

Somewhat Sequestered

Not quarantined, thank God.  I love being at home but I couldn't stay here for weeks on end.
But life as I know it has been altered for a while.
Many of my co-workers and I have been doing the job out of our cars for a week now but today, the city is shutting all non-essential businesses down.  I work in TV news and I'm told that we are essential and may continue to do our best to serve the community.
We do not enter the building for any reason.  Equipment and instructions are ferried out to us in the parking lot.  There are Porta-Potties for us to use just outside the door.
Although I used lavaliere mics a few times last week I'll be taping a stick mic to a stick starting tomorrow.  We edit video outdoors on a laptop.
Still, I am thankful.
I am working.
Others are not.  I worry and pray for them all.
Nashville has many restaurants, hair salons, tattoo parlors and retail of every kind.
This kind of economic catastrophe will close many of these businesses for good.
Many will have life turned upside down.
We are doing what we can at our house.
Today, though, I really needed something normal.  I needed to check out for a while and just do something outside the coverage of this world calamity.

So I made beer.
I had just enough roasted and chocolate malts to make a Stout.
I don't drink this beer that much but Jenny likes it so we need to keep some in the beer room for her to have occasionally.
I recently finished a Dopplebock and a second batch of Celebration Clone.  The Dopplebock finished fairly sweet so I'll let it sit in the bottle for a couple of months to see if it comes in line with what I think it should taste like.
The Clone beer does not taste particularly similar to Sierra Celebration, but it is a good beer.
Double Heart will be packaged next.

I think this beer will be a good one.
The mash, boil, chill and pitch all went well.
In a few weeks maybe I'll be able to find somebody who needs a few bottles of this beer to ease the considerable burden that Coronavirus has thrust upon us all.

Good Beer To You, and prayers for you and your family too.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

A Clone For The Keg

As I mentioned in my last post we vacationed at Disney for a couple of days last month.
I found a beer stand at Disney Springs selling Sierra Nevada Celebration.  As I walked and sipped that day I wondered why I've ever drank anything else.  Perhaps it was the right beer at the right time for just the right frame of mind.  Maybe I was influenced by the fact that I was having a beer on vacation, which always makes it better.  But in my home brewer arrogance, I resolved to try to make it.
I found an old recipe online and started adding ingredients to the recipe formulation portion of Promash, which I have used for 15 years.  After adding a handful of acidulated malt and subbing a couple of ounces of C60 to make up a shortfall of C40, I'm mashing the following:
The mash looked good but the strike temperature came in short.  Really short.
I was shooting for 154 but hit it at 148 degrees.  The starting grav was long at 1.070 so this will be strong.
The lower mash temp might thin this beer out so I hope the Carapils Dextrine malt does it's job and keeps this one thick.
As I brewed I shot a little video and mashed it up with some I already had and added a bit of free music I found earlier on YouTube to commemorate the day.
My assistant was no help.  She just sat at the table as if she expected me to put a plate in front of her.
I'll evaluate the resulting beer in a few weeks.

Good Beer To You