This is just a quick review of last years cider. I don’t make a ton of cider, I try to make a batch a year, it seems like the right thing to do living where I do. There are numerous orchards with in a short drive. You can even see quite a few wild apple trees along many of my local running routes. This is what it’s like living in converted farm county.
I got a text this past weekend letting me know a friend had some extra pear cider, asking if I was interested in coming over and helping make some. I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve never had fresh pear cider, and I never made Perry. I am a big fan of both pears and local fruit. Sunday morning I set of with my work crew and we headed to turn some pears into juice. The Cider grinder and press is a gorgeous piece that would look at home in a turn of the farm (1900’s). Osha and FDA certified it is not, with a hand crank powered toothed grinding wheel, a large open flywheel, and lots of wood.
Last year I put them in the ground in late april. This year by that time, they were starting their way up the climbing lines. Last year they did ok, but my lack of diligence watering them, and fertilizing them hindered their growth significantly. I managed to only get a few cones last year, but nothing note worthy. After last years watering struggles, I decided to get a watering setup so that I ensure they were getting regular amounts of water. It seems to have paid off. Since mid may I’ve watered 2x a day, for about 20 minutes. I made a simple drip irrigation system with a hose we were going to throw away, a hose cap, and $30 programable water timer. If you do any gardening, are forgetful, lazy, or just gone on a regular basis It’s well worth it.
I’ve taken a layoff from brewing and beer related activities which doesn’t make for a very exciting homebrewing blog. The good news is, for the first time in nearly two months, I brewed. While I did not really need beer, I’ve been feeling the pull. When I started planning I didn’t have anything specific in mind when I started eyeing recipes. Well, that’s not entirely accurate, I always have ideas, but nothing was screaming to me, brew me next. After having brewed a hoppy pale session beer, and a very hoppy double ipa, I wanted something malty, low gravity, and on the darker end of the spectrum.
I finally got to sample of Bow Bog Brewing’s version of the pales in comparison along side my version. The basic idea was for the two us to brew the same recipe, using similar ingredients. The two of us ‘designed’ recipe fairly arbitrarily. During an email exchange we agreed on a style, I picked the hop bill, and Mike picked the grain bill. I don’t think either of us has much in the way of experience making recipes, but this came together surprisingly well. We were both happy with the outcome, but I think we both have ideas on how we’d change it to fit our ideal local rye pale ale.
Here are the resulting details:
Brew Day Notes: http://thebottlefarm.com/ProjetsThoughts2/pales-in-comparision-collaboration-with-bow-bog-brewing/
Recipe: http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/94338/pale-in-comparison
Untapped Page: https://untappd.com/beer/324085
I had to get this brewing session in as I was running out of time to brew my contribution to club night for the National Homebrewers Conference. While I won’t be there, I’m really excited to be sending this beer for my peers.This beer will be one of many being poured by my club members at the Brew Free or Die (BFD) booth, just look for the drinking old man of the mountain. This is my second try at this recipe. I brewed a Bitter American clone as my first all grain batch back in mid December. That first beer was all over the place, missed mash temps, stuck sparges, and extremely low volumes to and from kettle, pretty much what you expect for a first all grain brew day. The resulting beer was well received, I enjoyed it, and I figured if it was good when i screwed it up, it might be really good if I brewed it well.
Everyone has these holiday lists of terrible ‘beer’ related gifts, so here’s…
This is the final post in the first round of the Homebrewers round table. In Part I I introduced you to the home brewers and shared how they got started. In part II they shared the gear they started with and some for advice for new brewers. In this final round of Q&A I’ve asked about their biggest mistake, what took them a while to figure out, and for a good starting recipe.
This is a simple project, the idea is to connect the beer lines to a small pump and themselves in such a fashion to recirculate beer line cleaner. After a short while you have clean beer lines. It’s also cheap to assemble, I’ve got less than $10 invested in this, but if you had to buy a pump, I would recommend a utility pump. It would add a bit more to the cost, but a utility pump is useful to have.
For someone who drinks IPA like I do, it’s a little surprising that I’ve yet to actually brew one. I’ve always felt they are hard to brew well, and I can a good example locally. I’m also intimidated by the idea of brewing one. I like my ipa’s west coast style, or better yet, northern VT style (The Alchemist, Hill Farmstead). I like them dry, lots of hop flavor, citrus aroma, medium bitterness, and balanced. So, when I found this recipe for a heady topper clone in a recent BYO, I had to brew it.