My busy summer has turned into a busy fall. Although I have not had much time to update the website, we have still be brewing. No plans for this month, but we did brew back in October. We brewed the imperial stout and the EPA using the hops from Hamiltons the boiling hops for each. We brewed back on the 19th and transferred them both on the 30th. They are both going to be good.

My maple porter ran out Saturday, and I have a feeling the chipotle is close to gone as well. The stout and EPA are ready to keg, so once Marc and I both have time they will get kegged. Marc is starting work in his basement so it looks like the brewing will start happening over here for a while. I need to figure out how we will set things up. Our next session is scheduled for Dec 7th.

Well, the EPA and ESB were a big hit a Derek and Sandy's wedding (September 6th). I received comments from a number of people expressing how much the liked it. The EPA ran out and there was a keg of the ESB left, so I gave it to Marc and Tina, since it is one of Tina's favorites... it did not last long in their house either.

I have beer on tap again! We kegged the maple porter and the chipotle on the 7th (shortly after Danika and I got back from Croatia). Both turned out great. The chipotle is a little spicy this time, last time I do not remember it being spicy. We will be brewing the imperial stout and the EPA this weekend using the hops we got from Hamiltons.

We brewed last weekend on the 17th. We brewed the chipotle and the maple porter. We used maple syrup that my dad sent that he made from the sap from the tree in his front yard. Both beers had nice starting gravities and are progressing well.

We transferred the beers for Derek and Sandy's wedding back in July on the 29th. Both beers are still on track to turn out very nicely.

We also kegged the blonde and the pilsner in July on the 29th. We (Danika and I) had a party (to celebrate getting re-married), and the pilsner and birches were a pretty big hit and ran out at the party. The blonde was almost gone, and is gone now, so currently I do not have anything on tap! Since the next two beers are ones we brewed for Derek and Sandy's wedding, it will be a while before I have anything on tap again. At least I will have time to defrost and clean the kegarator. Marc is gone to burning man right now, and Danika and I will be going to Croatia in September, so we have not picked out a date for our next brewing session, but it looks like it will not be before October.

Due to the hop shortage, we have asked any friends who are growing hops if we can harvest them. So far, we have harvested two plants, both courtesy of the Hamiltons (there is a new link to the hops page at the bottom of the photos page). We got about 3 pounds of hops from the two plants. Marc found a place that has removed their limits on the amount of hops you can buy, so we decided to by 6 sessions worth of hops. We should not have to worry about getting hops for a while now. Of course, if anyone offers us their hops to harvest, we will not pass them up.

We brewed back on the 19th. We brewed the EPA and the ESB which will be served at Derek and Sandy's wedding. Both beers turned out well, and Marc says primary fermentation also went well. During the brew session I managed to drop a full (of water) 6.5 gallon carboy in Marc's basement. I flooded everything and there was glass everywhere. It really sucked, but looking back, I was lucky I did not get hurt and that it was not full of wort or beer. I went to the homebrew store to get another one, but the place in Mexico that makes them has gone out of business, so no one has them. I got a 6 gallon one instead.

My keg of Belgian Black ran out, so I currently just have Where My Birches At? on tap. Marc and I hope to keg the blonde and the pilsner this week some time.

It is been a while since the last entry. We decided to take June off, since we had quite a few fermenters in wait. Since the last post, the Rainy Day Summer Rye ran out, the EPA was kegged, tapped and also ran out and we kegged and tapped the Birches. Currently I have the Belgian Black and Where My Birches At? on tap. Chris was out so I made sure he got the first glass of Birches. We still have another two beers (Pilsner Raquel and Concrete Blonde) fermenting in Marc's basement. We plan to brew again on the 19th.

Well, quite a bit has happened since the last post. We transferred the blonde and EPA back on May 10th. We brewed the birches (with birch syrup Chris sent) and Pilsner Raquel on May 18th. Both beers had really good extraction again. We have been oxygenating the wort once it is cooled and is in the primaries, it seems like it may be helping. The little bottles of oxygen have not been lasting very long (I think we had them turned up too high), so I got a oxygen tank off eBay. It was a medical oxygen tank with a regulator, that would have worked fine, but I no one would fill it without a prescription. I was able to exchange it for an industrial tank and got a regulator for it off of eBay. It is a huge tank, so I hope it lasts a couple of years before we have to refill it again.

My kegs of Sol-toberfest, EPA and maple porter recently ran out. I now have the Belgian Black and the Rainy Day Summer Rye on tap. We have another four beers (Pilsner Raquel, EPA, Where My Birches At? and Concrete Blonde) fermenting in Marc's basement.

We brewed the EPA and Concrete Blonde yesterday. We used the base malt (Gambrinus pale) we got in bulk, the Barley Barley Crusher malt mill to mill it and Marc's pump to recirculate the wort at the end of the mash as we heated it. I think it is a winning combination, since we had great extraction again and our initial gravity readings were higher than the last time we brewed either of the beers.

We kegged the Sol-toberfest, the rye and the Belgian last night. All three turned out very nice. I have one vacant spot in my kegerator and decided the Sol-toberfest will be the next beer tapped.

We also bought grain, hops and yeast yesterday for our brew session that will be happening on Saturday. We will be brewing the EPA (requested by Tina) as well as our Concrete Blonde. I just got done milling all the grain, it sure results in a nice crush. I am curious to see of we can get close to the same level of extraction as last time.

It looks like I forgot to make a log for back when we transferred the rye and Belgian. Both were transferred back on the March 25th. They both fermented well and as mentioned above turned out very nice. The Belgian took a while to start fermenting, but once it did, it went fairly quickly and ended up at over 6%.

We kegged the maple porter and the EPA today. Both turned very good. So, brewing yesterday and kegging today, it was a busy weekend. I plan to tap my kegs this week some time, perhaps tomorrow. We also checked the rye and the Belgian. The rye seems to be fermenting just fine, but the Belgian has not really started yet. Hopefully it will start sometime tomorrow, otherwise we may have to put some more yeast in it.

We brewed a Belgian black ale and the summer rye today (we still need a name for the Belgian). This was the first session where we used the mash tun jacket I made (I will try to get a photo of it up at some point) and the new Barley Crusher malt mill. We bought our base malt (Gambrinus pale) in bulk from Larry's Brewing Supply in Kent. The mill worked great, it had a very nice crush at the default setting. We had great extraction with both beers. Our initial gravity readings were higher than they have been in quite some time. When the mash was finished, we used Marc's pump to recirculate the wort while we heated it. We are not sure if it was the new mill, a different brand of base malt, recirculating the wort, or something else that boosted our extraction, but we plan to do as much as we can the same the next time.

We plan to keg the EPA and the maple porter tomorrow.

We kegged the oatmeal stout today. It did not ferment any more in the secondary and still has a bit of an odd flavor. It is not bad, just not as good as last time. Once it is chilled and carbonated it will be quite drinkable, just not very potent.

We also transferred the maple porter and an extra pale ale today (both still remain nameless). They fermented pretty well, not much better than usual, so adding oxygen to the wort may not have made much difference. Marc did not get a chance to check them until a couple days after brewing so we are not sure if fermentation happened any faster. The extra pale ale turned out very nice as did the porter. I am looking forward to kegging and tapping them both.

The (closer) local homebrew store has been having fewer and fewer supplies of late and not just hops (they are in short supply everywhere), but malt and yeast too. We decided to start going to the homebrew store on the other side of town. The owner keeps the place extremely well stocked, but the cost of ingredients is about twice as much. I did a bit of searching and found a place in Kent that sells malt in bulk (50/55 lb bags) at a great price. Since we always brew two batches we use about 35-40 lb of base malt in each session, so nearly a full bag. The price does not include milling, so buying in bulk would mean getting a mill. I checked the price of a few mills and if we were to keep getting malt at the store across town it would only take 6 sessions to recoup the cost of the mill, so we decided to get one. I ended up selecting the Barley Crusher. It seemed to be the best quality for the price. It should arrive on Tuesday. I also just won a 50 lb postal scale of eBay so we have a way to measure the malt. All we need now is a scoop!

It looks like I forgot to mention the other equipment we got a while back. Our newer hydrometer broke and we have been meaning to get a new one and finally did. When it arrived I calibrated it. It was fairly accurate, but off by 0.002 at a SG of 1.000 and 0.001 at 1.100. We can now adjust our measurements and get fairly accurate readings. The stone and oxygen regulator (mentioned in the previous post) also arrived with this order.

We brewed the maple porter and an extra pale ale today (neither have a name yet). They both ended up with pretty decent gravity readings. We also bought a stone and oxygen regulator to enject the wort with oxygen before adding the yeast. We hope it will help our fermentation and drop our final gravities a few points.

We transferred the oatmeal stout and oktoberfest back on Jan 28th. The stout did not fermented that well and has a bit of an odd flavor. We will see how it conditions in the secondary. The Sol-toberfest is coming along very nicely and is a pretty good beer... for a lager.

I tapped my stout a while back and it is already out. Like I have said before, it is a damn fine beer.

Our second brewing session for 2008 which was scheduled for Saturday (the 9th) will be moved to Sunday (the 10th). We will be brewing the maple porter and a new recipe I put together for an extra pale ale.

We kegged the Blacked Out & Bitter and stout on the 9th. Marc tapped his today. The stout is very good and the bitter is good. The bitter tastes mostly like an ESB. My keg of Half-Hearted McHopperson ran dry last night, so I will try to keg either the bitter or stout this weekend. I think my other kegs are almost dry too, so I may be able to tap both.

We had our first brew session for 2008 today. We made an Oktoberfest and an oatmeal stout. In honor of my one week old nephew's birth the Oktoberfest was named Sol-toberfest, the stout was named Quaker This Oatmeal Stout. It was a pretty nice day, it rained a bit and the sun came out for part of the day. Not a bad January day for Seattle. The gravities were okay, but a little low again, so I would still like to figure out what is causing them to be low.