by Spence on July 18, 2010
Just a quick update on the Bitter. Due to the moderate attenuation of the London ESB yeast, we bottomed out out at around 1.025. I transferred to glass, and put into the chill chest at 46 F for a bit of lagering.
Because I used loose pellets to dry hop, there are hop particulates suspended throughout. [...]
by Spence on July 8, 2010
I finally have another beer in process. Last weekend, I brewed up an English Bitter. This one is the first crack at narrowing in on the Deschutes Pub Bitter served here in Bend. It’s so damned tasty, and will be great now that the temperatures are cracking the 90’s here in Central Oregon. I’ll get [...]
by Spence on January 11, 2010
Beer: X IPA 1 – 36/50
Tasting Date: 1/4/2010
Appearance [max 5] : 3
Solid head that keeps its form, and slowly settles into a 1/4″ blanket on the surface that slowly gets consumed through the beer.
Deep copper color. Definitely darker than what I remember West Coast IPA would have. Going to need to do a side-by-side comparison [...]
by Spence on January 8, 2010
This was the first brew session with the new equipment, so I thought I would document some of the issues that came up. Here are my brew notes.
11/23: First run with the 1 gallon immersion “mash tun”.
Added 1/4 tsp gypsum to 2 gallons of Bend, OR tap water
Mashed in, and think I hit target [...]
by Spence on December 30, 2009
Arctic Alchemy
“Arctic Alchemy, discoveries of the Red Hand ……”, a discussion on the Homebrewers Association forum kicked off by Chris Bowen talking about a documentary project he’s embarked on.
In July 2010, I am departing from Bethlehem with two friends on a 3 week journey about 2000 miles north to the Canadian Arctic. The purpose is [...]
by Spence on December 14, 2009
When I first began learning about mashing from a friend, we used his setup which employed a plastic bucket and a thick, insulated sleeve slipped over the bucket. We rarely had problems hitting our target mash temperature. Like many others making the transition to all-grain brewing, when I purchased my own equipment, I chose [...]
by Spence on December 8, 2009
X Brew Lessons Learned
Sometimes it can be a challenge to “Relax, Don’t Worry, etc…”. It has been a while since I have broken in a new mash tun, and man did I forget how frustrating that can be. Yesterday was one of those brew days where you are constantly maneuvering trying to stay on course. [...]
by Spence on December 6, 2009
Today I am embarking on the first in a (hopefully) long-running series of experimental brew days, which I plan on sharing here on brewerman.com. The inspiration for my approach is a combination of the recent revisiting of some Brew Your Own articles, and a lay-off that has given me more free time. [...]
by Spence on April 30, 2008
Another clone from Brew Your Own. This time it’s Bell’s Best Brown from Bells in Kalamazoo, MI. I have loved Bell’s ever since a buddy first brought home some of their Expedition Stout. Those guys just crank out excellent beers, and lots of them. They remind me of Rogue in that way. When another friend [...]
by Spence on September 15, 2007
Last time I went in to my local homebrew shop, they were thankfully carrying copies of the special edition of Brew Your Own magazine that contains nothing but clone recipes they have published over the years. I had seen advertisements in my subscription, but hadn’t bothered sending away for my copy. Lucky for me, my [...]