Tonight I’m brewing up a second attempt at an amber ale.  My first try was my third batch ever.  I wasn’t very happy with it and ended up giving most of it away.  Everyone who got some liked it, but it wasn’t up to my standards.  I hadn’t yet learned the importance of taking good notes, so I’m not sure what I did wrong.  It is very possible I racked it to the secondary too soon…but anyway, time to move on.

This amber ale is Mainstreet’s Fat Tire clone.  Not very original, I know.  Fat Tire was one of the two beers that got turned onto the craft beer scene (the other was McMenamin’s Ruby).  All I’m looking for is a very drinkable beer that I don’t have to think about too much.  I also think there’s something to be said for working on improving my consistency in brewing process.  This time around I’m using the New Belgium Fat Tire yeast (from Wyeast) and a yeast starter.  I’m also paying attention to the temperature when I pitch the yeast and getting a better cold break.

Amber Ale recipe
8lbs light malt extract
1lb CaraMunich malt
8 oz Special B malt
2oz Willamette hops (4.5% alpha) - (1oz @ 60, 1/2oz @ 15, 1/2oz @ 5)
Wyeast Fat Tire Ale

Yesterday I bottled my california common - I’m calling it “SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) Ale.”  It brings up thoughts of smooth summer lagers and warmer days ahead - but still has enough body to get us through the rest of winter.  It’s my prescription for SAD and a seemingly loooong winter.

It has a very nice pale color (not quite amber) and nice hop aroma.  I would say it is somewhere between a lightly hopped pale ale and a modest IPA.

I had the good fortune to pick up a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday.  Based on the recommendations of others, here’s what is on the way:
The Homebrewer’s Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, Brewing Herbs

Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition

Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew

Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass

I’m pretty excited about all of them.   One of the things I’m going to try this summer is growing my own hops.  From what I’ve read, they won’t produce much this first year, but it should be a fun experiment.

We tapped my Regime Change IPA this week.  It is absolutely fantastic!  It pours with a great head and a very nice amber color.  It has a little of a chill haze, but that doesn’t bother me.  I’m not willing to start messing around with filtering my beers.  The hop aroma (from dry hopping) isn’t as strong as I thought, but it is really pleasant.  This is definitely one of the best beers I’ve made.

The only bad news from this weekend is that I discovered that my other keg is leaking somewhere.  Thankfully, it was almost empty.  It’s probably just a bad o-ring.  I’ll fix it for next time.

My california common is ready to be bottled any time. This is my first beer using a yeast starter. I took a little sample tonight and it was very good. It’s been dry hopping for the last week and that has added some great hop aroma. It seems to have a nice clean taste, which I’d like to attribute to using a starter. I’d never actually had an Anchor Steam before I tried this recipe, so I didn’t know if I’d like it or not. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to getting it bottled and trying some that’s cold and carbonated.

I’ve been reading a little on the web about yeast starters and I’m amazed by the variety in information out there. A lot of the information recommended using Erlenmeyer flasks and stir plates - I’m sure that’s probably the “right” way to do it, but it seems like overkill for the average homebrewer. My process seemed to work ok.

I added about a half pound of dried malt extract to 2.5 quarts of water and boiled it for 15 minutes. I added a pinch of hops for good measure. I cooled the whole thing in an ice bath and then I poured into a gallon jug. I used a normal stopper and airlock. After about 48 hours it was bubbling along pretty nicely - I added the whole 2 quarts to my cooled wort. It started fermenting in about 8-10 hours, as opposed to 24-36 hours like it has lately.

One little mistake I made was topping my primary fermenter off to a full 5 gallons before I added my starter. That wasn’t a problem until I went to rack into the secondary and I had more liquid than I could fit in. Oops.

Otherwise the process worked really well and I’m going to make it a regular part of my brewing.

This is a great reference on uncomplicated yeast starters from Main Street Homebrew Supply.

Today both my IPA and california common were ready for their respective next steps.  I racked the IPA from the secondary to my second corny keg.  I’d dry hopped it, but that didn’t add as much aroma as I expected.  It was still fantastic!  Since I’d aged it in the secondary for about 10 days I just threw the corny straight in the fridge and started force carbonating it.  I’m really looking forward to the first pint.  The color was a little lighter than I expected, but a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

The california common was ready to be racked to the secondary and dry hoppped.  It was a little more bitter than I expected, but still good.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the secondary.  I’m going to bottle this one - I discovered that my spare fridge in the garage can only store two corny’s.  It’s a side-by-side and I don’t think I could get three in there.  But it’ll be good to have some beer than I can easily share.

I think its time to brew another dark beer.  I’m thinking about trying a nut brown ale…or maybe another stout and throwing some oak chips in.  It seems everything these days is oaked.

I had the opportunity to try the Full Sail Brewing Slipknot Imperial IPA.  It was a very nice amber with a powerful hop aroma.  It had a strong citrus aroma that was very pleasant.  The bitterness was a little too much for me.  According to the website, this one clocks in at 80 IBUs and 7.8% ABV.   All in all pleasant, but maybe a little too imperial  for a commoner like me.

I discovered these videos on youtube a while ago. This four part set is a great introduction to kegging. I thought they were very helpful and very well done. They were created by Chris Knight. I’m very impressed by the production quality of these videos.

Kegging 1 of 4
Kegging 2 of 4
Kegging 3 of 4
Kegging 4 of 4

He also has a series on all grain brewing. I haven’t watched them, but if the production quality matches the kegging videos, I’m sure they’re great.

I received my homebrew kit for Christmas in 2006.  I brewed my first batch on January 14th.  Here’s a quick rundown of my first year as a homebrewer.

• First batch - Black Butte Porter clone.  I used a primary fermenter only with a blow-off tube.  I ditched the blow-off tube after this batch.
• Favorite beer - Either the Lake Sabrina Pale Ale or the Midwinter Porter.
• Number of batches brewed - 12.
• Biggest mistake - bottling my raspberry wheat beer before it was done fermenting.  I had a foamer on my hands - it still tasted good, though.
• Biggest disappointment - West Coast Stout.  I racked it from the primary too soon (stupid mistake, boring story) which left it way too malty for my taste.
• Best inexpensive purchase - my bottle filler.  I bottled my first batch using this little clamp on the hose.  It was messy and a royal pain.  The $3.50 I spent on the bottle filler was a very good investment.
• Best expensive purchase - my cornelius keg.
• Best lesson learned - Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew!
• Goals for the next year: brew some new styles of beer, get the equipment to do full volume boils, move in the direction of all grain or partial mash brewing, and continue to have fun.

Anyway - onward!

Sarah (my wife) was kind enough to pick up bottles of The Abyss from Deschutes last night.  This beer won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival and was called the best stout in the world by Men’s Journal.  It was released in mid-January and pretty much every store in the Portland area sold out in a day or two.  The local distributors got some more in and we were lucky to find some before it sold out a second time.

I’m very excited to try it - hopefully it was worth the wait (and the price - $10 for a 22oz bottle!).