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.

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

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:

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.

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. 

Local Sahti Adventure Part 1

There are many ways to judge a friendship: by the ability to keep a secret, demonstrated loyalty, or some kind of convoluted ROI analysis. But for me what carries the most weight is how they respond to my schemes. When inspiration claws its way out over the face, posture tightens and the madness settles in, that's when you know who your real partners in crime are.

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"....

New Flavors for 2006:

1. Strawbullion: a salty strawberry soup-stock

2. Beefmint: beef infused with mint essence

3. Clamocha

4. Lemon Brine