Beer Name: Equinox IPA
Notes:

The starter was good, took off in the fermenter within 6-8 hrs
Gotta remember that 10gals of IPA needs 15+lbs of extract if using all LME.

Dry hopped by dumping in the pellets directly - immediately after which I remembered I wanted to put them into a bag and hang them. Oh well, next time.

Yep - wasted at least 2/3 gallon to the hops - next time bag'em and weight them down w/marbles.

Also - yah, min 15lbs extract (LME) ...  it's waaaayyy to light bodied

Beer Name: Wheet not Weed
Notes:

Nice flavor at pitching time, might have wanted more honey, we'll see!

Yes more honey next time - I don't want mead, but I'd like the honey flavor to be at least present.

I think I'd like to try this with a better german hefewiezen yeast too - I recently tried a new one (for me) at Barclays and it had the most wonderful clove flavors. Hmmm honey and cloves - sounds like a baklava beer :-)

Beer Name: Independence IPA
Notes:

First batch in the new Blickmann Conical Fermenter!

Definitely a change in procedure!  Once I get it down & get used to it, I'm sure it'll be much nicer than using carboys for primary. For now, I'll just deal with the 2 gals of sanitizer soaking in the rug, and hoses & parts everywhere.

Doing the no-rinse thing with the carefully-meausured iodophor, trusting all the ppl on the web who say that yes, its all cool.

The pump is cool - not using a hose clamp on the kettle fitting allows a tiny bit of air into the line, which the pump happily disperses in the filter, giving good aeration - just gotta be careful not to let it do that the whole time, it foams up a lot as it goes into the fermenter. (yes, I'm aware of the debate about using unfiltered room-air for aerating wort. I've been doing it for over 16 years when shaking in the carboy and I've never had a problem, so until I do, I don't feel the need to worry)

Slightly lower OG than the previous brew of this recipe (a 5 gal batch)  is caused by less evaporation than I expected. Started with 12.5 gal of wort, 75 min boil only reduced it by about 1 gallon, maybe 1.5, so 11-11.5gal in the fermenter.

I think next time it'll be easier, especually when I'm not making duck confit, & stock from 6 ducks at the same time.

Racking:  I decided to rack & dry hop into carboy-secondaries because I plan to brew next weekend, and dryhopping is 3 weeks or so. (Nice to have the option!) Some day I'll do both primary and secondary in the conical, when I'm not brewing as often. The actual racking was simple, just open the valve and rotate. Next time I'll dump the trub earlier, give it at least 3 days to settle, so that I can get better yeast harvest.

After 4 weeks dry-hopping in the basement, very nice and yummy. I love simcoe hops!

One keg is destined for the Olde Snot Otter in a week or three.

You might have noticed a couple of beer recipes being posted lately! Among the changes made during recent upgrades to my server, I've created a pretty simple way to store beer recipes for all the batches I brew.  While I've been brewing for about 16 years now, I don't think I'll post all the recipes from all the way back.

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Hi Everyone!

You may have noticed a few things are looking different on the site - indeed its true! As I mentioned in a post about a year ago, I was eventually going to upgrade my server in many ways. Its been happening slowly, and finally the visible changes are underway. I've upgraded the server itself to the latest OS and gotten all the services working decently, and just recently I took the plunge and upgraded Drupal, the software that runs the whole site, to the latest release. 

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Beer Name: Shakey Visions
Notes:

Started boil at 24qts (6 gals) for better hop utilization. Should do this more often, but requires boil-over diligence.

This was going to be a Kölsch, but  the wyeast kolsch yeast was kinda old - pkg'd in july 08. In fact, it was dead - transforming this beer into a belgian golden by adding 1 lb boiled candi sugar (in a 1/2c water) and pitching Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale yeast #1388. This raises the OG from 1.046 to about 1.055

Beer Name: Lights Out
Notes:

Very dark at brew time, nice molasses overtones, but just a hint.

Beer Name: Rufous
Notes:

very deep red color (hence the name)
Peppery hops, not as floral as the others

Beer Name: Devil Dog
Notes:

3 weeks in primary, and still very cloudy, and fermenting slowly. But, so tasty at racking - very fruity, with some tartness, and a hint of hop bitterness. Spicey tones. MMMmmm

After three fun but too-short days in Adelaide, it was off to Brisbane to meet up with my friend Oliver.

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