06.05.2010
The rye and pale we brewed in March got tapped for Graham's birthday party.
Both are good beers. The rye is hoppy than normal (which is good), so I
think the Hamilton hops have a fairly high alpha acid percentage. Neither
had a very high alcohol content. I am still blaming the adjustments we made
to the mill, since neither had their "normal" starting gravities. We have
not scheduled are next brewing session, and since we both have three beers on
tap right now, I am not sure when it will get scheduled.
04.15.2010
Well, first log entry for the year... and it is already April. I just tapped
the IPA and stout we brewed back in February. Both are great. They are a
little flat so I turned up the CO2. When I
went to get a second glass, it was barely coming out. I checked the CO2 tank and it was empty. I love it when I get
everything all set up and then a tank runs out. I have a few tanks now, so I
swapped a full one for the empty one and everything is groovy again.
We have had two brewing sessions so far this year. The mill quit working
during the first session. Normally I try to get the grain milled before
brewing day, but I ran out of time and we milled it on brewing day. I
started it up, dumped the first round of grain in, and the grain just stayed
in the hopper. We took it apart and put some oil on the bushings and tried
it again, still nothing. We ended up adjusting the rollers to be further
apart and then the grain started feeding through the mill again. Our
conversions seem to be a bit down since then, so I am going to adjust the
mill again to see if we can get it to work closer to the old setting.
Last year was a pretty good year for brewing. We did not brew as much as
2008, but about the same as most of our other previous years. Plus, Danika
and I have a new addition to the family, so I am glad we were able to brew as
much as we did.