2013: Thoughts for the New Year

Yes, that's really me.

I've had a lot of fun writing this blog for the last eight months or so. A lot of ground has been covered, but there's much left to do. My New Year's resolution is to take my brewing to a new level (which I imagine is the goal of all homebrewers).

Drew Beechum's "Brewing on the Ones" article in the November/December 2012 issue of Zymurgy has inspired me to start experimenting with the SMaSH (Single Malt/Single Hop) brewing technique. My goal behind trying SMaSH is to get a better handle on what impact individual ingredients have on my beers. This is because it can be challenging for me to tell exactly what's doing what in a beer with six grains, six hops and a blend of yeast strains. Of course, I'll also pop out the more adventurous brews too. But my focus will definitely be on doing more with less this year.

In addition to the new beers, you can expect more brewing advice gleaned from my experiences and those of fellow brewers. I'll also be exploring more advanced yeast culturing and making my own specialty grains. Finally, my hope is to start exploring ancient brewing techniques and beer styles, so I have Sahti and Gruit in the pipeline. I also hope to take a stab at brewing Steinbier, if I can find a safe outdoor place to do it.

Here's to 2013 and many happy brews.

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In the Fermentor: Kitchen Sink Barleywine

The Leftovers It's time for a cleanup of leftover grains and partially used packets of hops from 2012. With the exception of the 2-Row base malt, everything in the recipe below has been sitting on the shelf, or in the fridge waiting to be used. I had several open hop packages, some leftover toasted malts and a half-full bottle of malt extract too. I also had yeast cultured from my White House Honey Porter . My decision was to use almost all of my leftovers and make a partial-mash Barleywine. The finished beer will be quite strong and quite bitter. A toasted malt backbone should nicely complement pine, spice and citrus hop flavors. Because of the beer's strength, it will not be ready for at least three months and should improve with age. The recipe has been scaled up to five gallons from the 2.5 gallons I actually brewed: Grains: 9 lbs Rahr 2-Row 8.5 oz Victory 7.5 oz Brown Hops: Bittering: 0.75 oz Chinook (11.1% a.a.): 60 min 0.5 oz Colum...

In the Fermentor: Flaming Pumpkin

I'll admit that I'm not a huge Pumpkin Beer fan. I didn't have one on my brewing calendar for this year and didn't have my sights set on one for next Fall either. Then my niece came along and threw down the gauntlet. She asked me to brew her a pumpkin beer and I accepted the challenge. I did a lot of reading to see how to best go about using pumpkin in beer. Some people mash it with the grains. Others add it to the brew kettle during the boil. Some add it to the primary or secondary fermentor. The consensus from professional brewers appears to be adding it to the mash, so I took the same approach. The pumpkin was cooked ahead of time by my girlfriend to soften it, convert some of the starch and help release some of its sugars. It then joined the grains in the mash. I really want the pumpkin pie effect here, so I've thrown in all of the requisite spices toward the end of the boil. I've also gone with just enough bitterness to balance the sweetness of the ...

Out of the Bottle: Flaming Pumpkin

It's Halloween night and Flaming Pumpkin is ready to frighten away the ghosts and goblins. Hopefully it won't also frighten away the people who drink it. This is my first Pumpkin Beer, so I was flying blind outside of doing research and trying commercially available brews. I basically cobbled together suggestions I thought were the best approach to the style, with a vision in my head of what the finished product should taste like. So how did it turn out? Pretty good. My goal was pumpkin pie in a bottle. What I got is more spice than sweet, but I still like it. The pie spices are right out front, with clove and cinnamon leading the way. The sweeter flavors are muted and focused toward dark sugars from the brown sugar and dark crystal malt. Bitterness is just enough, with no hop flavors competing with the spices. And what about the pumpkin? You can taste it. It's subtle. But you can definitely tell it's there. Overall? I'm quite happy and hope that my niece l...

Colorado Kitchen Brew

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