GP Cream Ale

We just brewed a Cream Ale and are waiting for the primary fermentation to kick off. We used just under two pounds of rice flakes in this recipe. After mashing, the transfer became difficult towards the end.  The rice flake seemed to clog up the the grain strainer in the mash tun thus making for a slow transfer. We might have to use a false bottom in the future. This recipe seemed to call for a lot of Hops so we decided to pitch the

original hops schedule but with about an ounce less than what was called for. We used Liberty [4.30%] and pitched 60min and at 1min. The boil was at 90 minutes. Based on our calculations the OG would be 1.044 but surprisingly we ended with an OG of 1.060 so we should end up with a 6.52% ABV. Seems kind of high for such a light bodied beer. Will see how it goes with fermentation. It should be ready for tapping about the first week of August. Will post tasting notes as well as the recipe once we get the opportunity to taste and evaluate it. We haven't really posted any

 of our recipes yet but will start posting the good ones. In the mean time, don't forget to check back with us and watch for new posts. Cheers!

6/29/11 I took a gravity reading and this beer is already down to 1.020 in 4 days so it seems to be "working" very well!

08/09/11: We now have the Cream Ale online! Very light in body, nice creamy head! There is hints of cream along with a smooth fruity, bittery, well balanced finish! ! Great summer beer with a bit of a bite at around 6% ABV! I'm looking forward to having some friends sample it to get feedback!

Growing your own Hops

Here is a little information from Hops Direct about growing Hops. We are looking forward to a trip up to Yakima one of these days to check out the hop farms. We buy some of our hopes from Hops Direct and though you would enjoy their news as well. In the mean time while we figure out what to brew next, we are stocking up on ingredients for the next few batches of brews to come.

Growing your own Hops

Brewing grain substitution chart

For those hard to find grains that all you Grain Brewers use out there, here is a useful grain substitution chart. This is helpful when you gotta fill a grain bill and your local store doesn't have what you need but you want  to Brew right away. This happens to us more often than not so we came up with this solution.

Brewing grain substitution chart link

Wisconsin Legislater Attacks craft breweries!

Stick to cheese Wisconsin! It's not going away! http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/wisconsin-legislature-attacks-craft-brewers/

IRISH RED

Racked the Irish Red yesterday. The beer came out great so far. I was hoping for a little bit better color but we can adjust that! The OG was 1.062 and the exit gravity is 1.020. This was off from our target gravity of 1.013. The beer seemed to of finished dropping gravity so I went ahead and racked it. The estimated ABV is 5.76% with 25.5IBUs. It tasted great but had some residual yeast aroma to it. I think once it is aged, it promises to be a good beer. This was our first full boil batch in the new brew kettle and mash tun. We are excited to see how it comes out! It should be ready about the first week of July!

07/02/11: I tapped this beer last night! We were surprised how good it turned out! Full bodied, great aroma, mellow finish with hints of caramel. This recipe will be brewed in our next brew session as "Death Row Red" with a higher ABV and the 20L will be substituted with Carared (Weyermann). That should give it the deep red color we are looking for. This was our first full boil batch and we really noticed the difference in quality! I will post this recipe in xml and bsm formats here as soon as we tighten it up and brew the final batch so be sure to check back! Cheers for now!

Draining off dead yeast

The cool thing about using a conical fermenter is that we don't have to transfer the wort into a secondary vessel! We can drain off dead yeast cells off the bottom of the batch while not disturbing the Beer! This allows the "active" cells to work harder at what they need to be doing, making Alcohol! More on the conical fermenter later. The drained yeast is like a muddy sludge. We strain off a small amount each day during the secondary fermentation period.  The Beer shown here is our Irish Red!