Official Shmups.com Booze Thread

[Acid King]

Brewing up my first batch of Grumblekins Session Stout. It's straightforward. Northern Brewer for bittering, Willamette for flavor, chocolate malt, roasted barley and extra light DME. It should come out to 3% when it's done. I'll see how it goes and tweak it from there.

Took my first BJCP (beer judging certification program) class. I don't have real high ambitions about passing the test, but am enjoying the class and can work toward eventually passing it. There's some 80 styles of beer, and it isn't just recognizing those styles and recognizing off flavors, its also being able to formulate recipes on the fly (for any given style) and know the history and geographic region for each style of beer. Well, after a little over a year of brewing, I'm pretty good at it. Perhaps after having taken this class, with a little more experience I might actually be ready to pass the test--then I can go judge at beer events!

If nothing else it is becoming more of an excuse in drinking diverse styles of beers.

BJCP classes would be fun. Being a judge at a fest would be cool, unless you're one of the unlucky souls who gets Macro Lager. I have to get one of those off flavor tasting kits that lets you add the chemicals responsible for off flavors to beer so you can learn to recognize them.

[CMoon]

I'm pretty much expecting to fail the BJCP test...there's so much stuff here there's really no way I'll pass it the first time. On the other hand, it will immediately put me at an apprentice standing, then I can go to some judging events and start preparing to pass it for real at a later date (like a year or so from now!) It does force you to start thinking about beer a lot more seriously.

This might sound weird, but I really lack a local friend who enjoys drinking beer, who would enjoy going through several bottles of the same style. This has never been a problem in my life, but here in LA, all my friends live a good 20 miles away or more. Bizarrely, very few of my teacher friends like beer (WTF!!??) For the BJCP, I've been going through the german styles this week and can recognize most readily--but it would be a lot easier with friends who wanted to help drink those bottles.

Oh, as far as brewing, I've been sticking to Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles lately. It was cool making all those huge beers, but once you become a better brewer it is very satisfying to make a more refined, smaller beer.

[CMoon]

Hey, this is exactly how I make my beer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNQa5HCU ... ture=share

[Acid King]

That's an awesome commercial. I'm almost out of my session stout. I think I'm either going to go with a California common or a saison next due to my apartment being way too hot for anything else.

[CMoon]

Yeah, I've got a small chest freezer so I'm about to do an Oktoberfest and a Helles. I just got my water profile back from wards and these two beers (I'm brewing both this weekend) will be my first done with water crafted for the particular beer. About time!

[Acid King]

I figured you might be interested to see this, Mr. Moon.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legisla ... B0262.html

A friend of mine and I have been discussing setting up a coop type entity where a few homebrewers chip in for a place to brew and take turns making batches.

[CMoon]

I figured you might be interested to see this, Mr. Moon.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legisla ... B0262.html

A friend of mine and I have been discussing setting up a coop type entity where a few homebrewers chip in for a place to brew and take turns making batches.

You know, it's funny, I just had a very detailed dream the other night about a friend who started a company where all he did was distribute homebrew. Of course, he demanded a certain amount of consistency and quantity, but still there's no reason why something like this couldn't be legitimate.

Let me know if you can find a way to get the coop to work. It's a good idea, and I think brewing beer is a business with a good future ahead of it.

[CMoon]

Just kegged a Helles Lager. Feel totally fucking old school!

This is a bit of a triumph because I brewed it using tap water (treated with potassium metabisulphate) and used brewing salts to adjust the water profile. The problem is my floating thermometer has been a piece of shit (wildly inconsistent) so I threw it out and got a digital thermometer.

Man, sitting on 5 gallons of Munich Helles Lager (MHL!!! MHL!!!) for summer is so fucking great! This beer makes me want to mow lawns.

[CMoon]

Took my Helles by a judging event (knew all the judges) and got nothing but praise (OK, a couple suggestions) for my beer. Pretty stoked since I was trying a lot of new things with this beer.

About to try a really wild experiment. My barleywine stalled out at 1.040. A friend suggested making it into some crazy beast by aging it on charred oak and introducing some brettanomyaces (a wild yeast used for lambics and so forth). I'm completely willing to give it a shot. Kind of bored by barleywines at this point and want to try something different.

[gameoverDude]

One mixed drink I've enjoyed lately is the Rob Roy- like a Manhattan except the bourbon whiskey is replaced by Scotch. While both are good, the taste has a little extra kick that puts it IMO a step over the regular Manhattan.

I had a bartender once who was unfamiliar with the RR. In that case just ask for a "Scotch Manhattan", I've generally had it made Perfect but may go with Dry next time for a change- and might specify Johnnie Walker Black Label instead of whatever they use by default.

Straight JWBL is also one of the best.

[CMoon]

Hahahaha, here's what I did yesterday:

Style: Imperial IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.48 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 4.75 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.083 SG
Estimated Color: 7.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 285.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 85.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 85.9 %
13.8 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.7 %
4.5 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 1.8 %
4.29 oz Magnum [10.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 133.5 IBUs
1.75 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 16 0.0 IBUs
1.75 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 17 0.0 IBUs
0.56 oz Chinook [11.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 19.2 IBUs
3.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop Hop 15 0.0 IBUs
1.80 oz Chinook [11.00 %] - Mash 60.0 min Hop 4 11.5 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 9 32.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 30. Hop 10 31.3 IBUs
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 13 0.0 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
0.30 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 11 -
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5 6.6 %
3.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 14 -
1.80 oz Chinook [11.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 57.6 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 2.2 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 18.38 qt of water at 160.9 F 150.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 5.38 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------
Accidentally added an additional 1.8 oz chinook at 60 min (this was meant to be mash hop only).

Finishing vol 4.75 instead of 5.5, resulting in significantly higher OG