Breathing new life into the old blog. I'm updating the layout to loook more like one of my favorite homebrewing blogs: www.Brulosophy.com
Simplified the color scheme, trying to get a working navigation bar with major subject areas and dropdowns.
Subjects should be something like:
Homebrew - self explanatory
DIY - random how to projects either mine or others
Horticulture - I love plants, gardening, foraging, pland breeding, etc.
"Drinks" - Some catch all for talk about commercial beer, spirits, etc industry and product reviews
Winemaking - Either its own category or mixed in with home brewing.
Social Commentary - I'm a social science nerd at heart, so I can't help but comment on social issues, international affairs, religion, that sort of thing.
LOL - Funny stuff, because every blog needs off topic cat pictures.
CRUNKONAUT
Fermenting the Unthinkable
26 June 2015
30 March 2012
Glacier Pale
Glacier is one of the most recent releases from the Washington State hop breeding program (2000). In small additions I've found it pretty forgettable and figured that it was only released for its high yields, low co-humulone content and disease resistance. I'm very glad that I gave it a second chance.
I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel in my hop freezer, brewing through my inventory before making a big buy from hops direct, and it's been warm so light pale ales have been a hot commodity. Getting to the point: Glacier has an awesome aroma and flavor if you use enough of it. I get a lot of apricots and floral/roses from this beer. Totally unlike other American hops, and there's a tart/quenching quality that's hard to describe and fairly unique.
I've read that hop flavors change with age, many noble hops actually get better or take on a different but still interesting character after a few months, while most citrusy American varieties get funky or unpleasant. The Glacier I'm brewing with is 2010 crop, so I posit that the hop aroma has evolved due to age. (though the hops are in cold storage, shouldn't this be minimal?)
If you're looking for a great summer session beer to please your friends who haven't embraced IPA yet, this is a winner:
See the recipe with calculations on BeerCalculus
Malt bill:
10lb American 2-row (Rahr Harrington)
1lb Crystal 60
2lb Flaked quick oats
Hop additions: (All whole cone)
0.5 oz Millennium 15%AA at 60
1 oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 20
1 oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 15
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 10
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 5
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 0
I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel in my hop freezer, brewing through my inventory before making a big buy from hops direct, and it's been warm so light pale ales have been a hot commodity. Getting to the point: Glacier has an awesome aroma and flavor if you use enough of it. I get a lot of apricots and floral/roses from this beer. Totally unlike other American hops, and there's a tart/quenching quality that's hard to describe and fairly unique.
I've read that hop flavors change with age, many noble hops actually get better or take on a different but still interesting character after a few months, while most citrusy American varieties get funky or unpleasant. The Glacier I'm brewing with is 2010 crop, so I posit that the hop aroma has evolved due to age. (though the hops are in cold storage, shouldn't this be minimal?)
If you're looking for a great summer session beer to please your friends who haven't embraced IPA yet, this is a winner:
See the recipe with calculations on BeerCalculus
Malt bill:
10lb American 2-row (Rahr Harrington)
1lb Crystal 60
2lb Flaked quick oats
Hop additions: (All whole cone)
0.5 oz Millennium 15%AA at 60
1 oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 20
1 oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 15
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 10
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 5
1oz Glacier 5.6%AA at 0
23 March 2012
Buckwheat Trio: Belgian, British, and crazy Gose-IPA
Buckwheat Trio update:
The Belgian T-58 and British Windsor yeasted buckwheat beers came out lovely and sessionable. (more on the gose after the break) I brought the belgian version to the KC Biermeisters competition last month and got some positive comments. My memory of the night is predictably foggy, but I think our guest of honor Stan Hieronymous liked it A few observations:
The Belgian T-58 and British Windsor yeasted buckwheat beers came out lovely and sessionable. (more on the gose after the break) I brought the belgian version to the KC Biermeisters competition last month and got some positive comments. My memory of the night is predictably foggy, but I think our guest of honor Stan Hieronymous liked it A few observations:
10 February 2012
Buckwheat Kombucha Sour
Short post-
Just brewed 3 session beers with a healthy dose of buckwheat and brown malt.
3 gal of first runnings were boiled for 15 min with no hops, then diluted and chilled for a Buckweat Gose/Berliner weisse. Inoculated with White Labs Berliner Weiss blend, a bottle of GTs Kombucha (bacillus coagulans & S. boulardii) and some water kefir grains that I had lying around. Debating the salt addition, I'll play that by ear, but leaning towards it.
Just brewed 3 session beers with a healthy dose of buckwheat and brown malt.
3 gal of first runnings were boiled for 15 min with no hops, then diluted and chilled for a Buckweat Gose/Berliner weisse. Inoculated with White Labs Berliner Weiss blend, a bottle of GTs Kombucha (bacillus coagulans & S. boulardii) and some water kefir grains that I had lying around. Debating the salt addition, I'll play that by ear, but leaning towards it.
The rest of the mash became two 1.050 beers, hopped with glacier, delta, and sonnet goldings. One fermented with Windsor, the other with T-58 (Chimay strain?)
Experimenting with turnaround time after reading the Express Brewing article in Zymurgy a few months back - the T-58 beer was pitched on a full yeast cake, so I'm going to see if I can complete primary, cold crash, dry hop and force carb to be drinkable next weekend.
06 February 2012
Local Sahti Adventure Part 1
So one Saturday morning after my daily devotional reading of Randy Mosher's "Radical Brewing", I called my buddy Cole to inform him that we would be making an archaic Viking brew, still known to the Finns as "Sahti"....
26 June 2006
New Flavors for 2006:
1. Strawbullion: a salty strawberry soup-stock
2. Beefmint: beef infused with mint essence
3. Clamocha
4. Lemon Brine
2. Beefmint: beef infused with mint essence
3. Clamocha
4. Lemon Brine
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