1 Week

Down to one more week of living in Seattle, kind of weird considering I have lived here for 7 years. I am sure I will reflect on that at some other time, but right now I am really excited to be in it 100%. Sure I have been "in it" since I quit my job, but once I am in Boise it will be much more real than right now. I just can't wait until I can write the same title in regards to the brewery opening.

I brewed up another batch of pale ale, went a little different route than the most recent one I kegged and simplified it more. I slightly regret that at this point, but it will be good to have something different than the last pale that turned into a strong ale. Here are some specs on the one I brewed last week.

Pale Ale
Malt: Pale, Crystal
Hops: Nugget (Bittering) Cascade (Aroma)
ABV: 5% (was dead nuts on my gravity for the first time on Schooner's system, only took three tries)

The thing that really concerns me is the Cascade hops. Cascade has been a staple in craft brewing since the movement started which is why I see it as concern, it is a great hop, but it is also everywhere and I don't want to have a beer that tastes just like someone else. I really shouldn't worry about it because if it is a good beer, then it is a good beer.

Knocking-out a batch of Pale Ale

I have had a chance for my first pilot to have some tastes and get some people's opinions. First of all, the alcohol content is very deceptive. It drinks like a 5% beer but hits you like the 6.8% beer it is. While I still think it is on the sweet side, others who tried it didn't find it overly sweet. This will be a future pilot, but I plan on hitting my gravities to have a true pale to taste.

I ordered some equipment for my own pilot system this week, as I get it all put together I will post some pictures.

More Brewing/Kegged Pilot

I have spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks at Schooner Exact brewing, learning and drinking. Mostly just brewing, but with brewing comes drinking when the end of a long day is near. We brewed a triple batch of their IPA between Monday and Tuesday. They have a few 30 barrel fermenters and a 10 barrel brewing system. The two batches on Monday took forever, tons of little shit went wrong, people came in to visit and we started putting back some beers a little earlier than we probably should have. 13 hours later we had 20 barrels in the tank.

Tuesday in comparison was really chill, the single batch went smoothly then I tagged along on some deliveries. We stopped at a Georgetown Brewery and Two Beer Brewery on on way out, awesome places. Georgetown has been brewing on a 60 barrel system for a year now that is awesome. Amazing to see what can be done in only 7 years as a company, if I got to that point in 15 I would be stoked. Two Beers, who I wrote about a long time ago here, has a new location. It is a 7 barrel system with a cool tasting room. Like most places, it gives me ideas, but isn't quite what I am trying to do. It amazes me how cool the whole industry, most everyone is friends and help each other out if they can. Boise doesn't have the brewing culture that Seattle has, but who knows what can happen in the next few years. The rest of the deliveries were not the norm of a delivery afternoon as we chilled at some of the stops and had pizza and a pint, then some coffee, then another pint. If all delivery days were like that I would never have time to make beer, but it was a nice treat after cranking out 3 batches in a day and a half.

I was finally able to carbonate and keg the Pale Ale pilot batch that I made a while back, also meaning I drank some. First off, this is the farthest off target I have been when making a batch of beer, not in terms of taste, but gravity etc. I attribute this to not knowing the system when I designed the beer. The beer I thought would come in at around 5.5% clocked in at 6.8%, a bit boozy for a Pale. The beer has grown on me as I had some more last night, but it is not going to be an immediate PBC offering. It is very sweet, even though it fermented to a very low terminal gravity. Combine the sweetness with the pungent aroma of the Columbus hops and you have a beer that is interesting, but probably not one for the masses. Since I have a lot of this beer, I will get as many people as possible to try it and give me feedback. Getting someones real opinion is always tough because people usually try to be nice, but I want to know if people don't like it.

Took an IPA sample, it tasted alright and I like its potential once I get some dry-hops on their for a few days.

I am making another pilot batch tomorrow I think, I just need to sort out what I am going to make. Right now I am thinking about doing another Pale Ale iteration. More to come on that front.

More Pilot Brewing

The blogging has fallen by the way side, I like to think because I am busy doing more important things, who knows. I have spent quite a bit of time at Schooner Exact helping out in a bunch of ways, which has been great. One of these days we will get around to kegging the Pale Ale that I made a few weeks back. Hopefully I have them this weekend and I will give a report back on how it turned out. I was able to make a second pilot batch this week, here is some details:

IPA
Malts: Pale, Munich, Crystal, Carahell
Hops: Amarillo, Columbus, Magnum, Simcoe, TBD (For dry-hopping, probably Citra and Cascade)
ABV: 6%

I missed the target gravity on this beer, so it wont be as strong as I planned. This is strange because I overshot the Pale Ale, which will probably have more alcohol than this one. Maybe I am labeling them wrong, but that is just semantics, this one has a shitload of hops.

Vorlaufing the IPA mash

I really hope to get back on the blog, right now I am more focused on getting a business off the ground, moving and the upcoming Dawgs season. Speaking of football, I might put up my weekly football emails up here instead of email them, remains to be seen.