While brewing on the 2014 summer solstice, I cracked open last years big brew, the 2013 summer solstice blonde barleywine. SMaSH-y in recipe, the idea was to design a beer to taste the malt and fermentation characteristics from Maris Otter and Wyeast 1098 British Ale when brewed at a high gravity. The resulting brew was … Continue reading
Last week, I came across a great deal on a sack of malt. Adelbert’s, a local brewery producing a range of traditional and not-so-traditional Belgian ales, recently overstocked on Czech floor-malted pilsner malt, and offered the extra sacks at cost, about 40 bucks, to the homebrewing public. This came as exciting news as I am … Continue reading
Two years running, I’ve made a point of brewing on the summer and winter solstices. Beginning in 2012, I started this tradition by brewing on the eve of the Mayan Apocalypse, a strong ale/winter warmer of sorts, to ease the coming abyss. Although the apocalypse doesn’t seem to have come, I’ve continued brewing big beers … Continue reading
Last Summer, I was on a English-style kick. I brewed a number of English inspired beers: bitters, IPAs and barleywines. Entering the Fall, I wanted to brew a big, full-bodied dark beer and age it in preparation for the looming Winter weather. Thinking English, I brewed up this Robust Porter, and fermented it using the … Continue reading
It’s 2014, and it would seem the Mayan Apocalypse didn’t happen, or at least, it’s slow to start. Either way, the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Ale is tasting great. Malty and very smooth, this strong ale/winter warmer style was brewed on the night of the 2012 winter solstice, detailed here. This beer was first reviewed after … Continue reading
From the brew day last March, finally, here are the tasting notes to my Big Oatmeal Stout (the link to the brew day is here). This one came out great and has been folding up well with age. Coming in at 6% ABV, this beer isn’t that strong across the stout spectrum (Imperial stout, for … Continue reading
One of my first Partial-Mash homebrews was an American-style Red IPA. It was my first big beer, which I called #7, since it was 7% ABV. I was experimenting with hop blends, this one being a 50/50 mix of Centennial and Tettnang hops. The idea was to try to get a strong floral aroma by combining … Continue reading
If you haven’t noticed, I like to brew big beers to celebrate the changing of seasons. For the 2013 summer solstice, I brewed a big English-style barleywine with a twist: using only Maris Otter malt. Hence Blonde Barleywine! After aging for 6 months in bottle (fairly young for a barleywine), I gave this one a … Continue reading
Last weekend, I was hit with a craving for a big, malty stout, but had none on hand, nor had any ageing in the homebrew archives (gasp!). So, to remedy this problem, I decided to brew up what was on my mind, and came up with a recipe for a big (or big-ish, 1.060+) Oatmeal stout. … Continue reading
Nearly two months after the epic 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Brew Night, the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Ale has completed fermentation and is bottle-conditioning. Starting at 1.068, a strong ale of sorts, this puppy fermented down to 1.014 using S-04 (impressive). Fermenting around 68 F, the S-04 was quite a monster, coming to terminal gravity quite fast (high … Continue reading
The Apartment Homebrewer 