Sunday, March 13, 2011

But wait...there's more!

The following are actual posts from FaceBook and Twitter.
"thesulk" is a writer for Family Guy.

Peace, Love, and Save the Whales

 Just when you think the world pulls together in times of tragedy, the internet provides a medium for the mentally disabled. 
Wow, just wow.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

18 Rad Rye IPA - The Creation

Grab your paddles and pints it's brew day! Chris and I are doing a partigyle, a first for me (and Chris) but with any luck this'll create a double batch of rye ipa. I was trying to base this off Cromwell's IPA but the hops I needed just aren't available. I'm using Citra and Magnum in place of the Horizon and Centennial. Citra's a fairly new hop with lots of fruity flavors so this should be pretty cool to do. There's a lot of 1st's in this brew but with any luck it'll be a kick ass ale. As always I try to share my recipes for everyone to look at and tweak. I can't wait to make some bread out of this grain bed. I love rye bread. What's in the name? 18 is from the percentage of rye. Rad is a unit of radiation measurement. I always try to input something "submarine-like" into my names. After all it's Fairwater Brewing. We'll be outside most of the afternoon so come on by and grab a seat. I have plenty on tap and if the weathers nice I'll grill up some doggies.


Grain Bill
15lbs Pale
3.75lbs Rye Malt
18oz Crystal 80
4oz Roasted Malt


Hops
Magnum - 1.5oz @60
Citra - 1oz @60
Simcoe - 1.5oz @5
Amarillo - 1.5oz @0
Citra - .5oz @0

Yeast
For the yeast I'm using the Wyeast 1056 American Ale I harvested from the last Eric Stout I made. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about adding a harvested yeast from a stout but I'll throw caution to the wind today. It seemed to work well with my HoneyBell Hefe (to be blogged later).

According to Beer Smith I should have an OG of 1.089 which should be plenty for second runnings.

Now what am I doing and what's a partigyle? I'm running hot water (approximately 167 degrees) over the grains a second time to collect more wort. I'll collect 7.25 gallons of wort off the grain bed for my 1st batch. After I get that I'll continue to collect  6.5 gallons of wort for a second batch of weaker wort. Basically it's like running water over a tea bag a second time for another cup of tea. It'll be weaker but it'll still be tea.
After the initial fermentation of both batches I'll mix both together to create more even keeled ale. I'll have no idea of what the alcohol will be but I'll take an average measurement from both batches. Should be fun!

Dogfish Head Brewing is Leaving!

It's unfortunate but it seems the residents of Tennessee, Indiana, Wisconsin and Rhode Island will no longer be able to grab a pint of Dogfish Head at their local pub or even store. According to the Dogfish blog it seems as though the expansion has gotten ahead of production. Canada and the UK will also be suffering. Why those specific states? I don't know but I'm wondering if Ohio will be next.