Our minds cannot repel logic of that magnitude!
Beer Making
Lots of changes in the pipe, LANRails on github!
Aug 3rd
WOw, so it has been quite a long time since I’ve done anything here – I guess I should probably get off my butt and do something. Well, I am, in fact. Coming up soon there will be a new theme, as well as all of the subdomains using the same WordPress install – you know what that means: unified logins! Yay! So keep your eyes peeled for a new look for the site, as well as a special look for all of those of you who like to follow the cult favorite RicePaddy.org. I will be resurrecting the old RicePaddy theme, though the content will still be the same!
In other news, for LAN party management website software solutions, there’s another player in town – LANRails, your Ruby On Rails solution for managing a LAN party! Visit my LANRails project on github.com if you are interested in it.
And also in other news – there’s a new beer in the primary as of yesterday – a Chocolate Coffee Stout! Keep your eyes peeled on the site for recipes!
Last of the Newcastle Clone is gone
Aug 25th
So it just occured to me that there was no follow-up done with the Newcastle Brown Ale Clone that I created way back in April. Well, I should start off by saying that the entire 5.5 gallon batch of beer was drank and gone within a month and a half of opening the first bottle. There was only one bottle of it that managed to sneak past the radar, but that too has matched fate with its brethren. So here we go with the final result of the clone.
First and foremost, the clone did not come out exactly as I anticipated. The ale was darker than I felt it should be, and fermented a lot more than it should have. The flavor, however, was relatively close to that of Newcastle Brown Ale, with the exception that the clone came out a little bit more chocolatey than it should have. All of the above I am going to blame on there being too much fermentables in the beer, and the flavor on there being too much of the darker malts in the beer. As a result, the next time I try this recipe, I am going to cut back on the amount of grain, and definately cut back on the amount of the Crystal and Black Patent malts.
The Brew Place begins to take shape
Jul 16th
You read it correctly – one of my projects is actually starting to take shape. This one is my own home-rolled brewing community website, The Brew Place (available at www.thebrewplace.com). Although the website is not completed entirely, you can still go to it, see what it’s going to look like, and get a general feel for everything. If you even want to, you can register on the forums (under Community) and you can be one of the first to get your own account on The Brew Place. As the project continues and gets closer and closer to total completion, check back here for updates…I’ll be making a post each time a new section of the website, or major feature, gets added.
Revisiting Newcastle – (So far) a success!
Apr 8th
So today we revisit the Newcastle Brown Ale clone recipe from Saturday’s brewing session. Short of the fact that it took nearly an hour to grind almost 13 pounds of malt, the brew seems to be a success – so far. Within 10 minutes of pitching the yeast, fermentation already began. The next day, the airlock would not stop spurting out gas. So we seem to be doing well so far, although I am slightly concerned at how fast it is fermenting. Here is how the recipe turned out:
The Malt:
- 9lb. Marris Otter Ale Malt
- 8oz. Chocolate Malt
- 8oz. Crystal Malt
- 4oz. Black Patent Malt
The Hops:
- 0.5oz. Willamette Whole Leaf (bittering)
- 1oz. East Kent Goldings (finishing)
We will revisit the brew in approximately two weeks when it is taken in for bottling.
Newcastle Brown Ale Clone
Mar 31st
So after a great success with my first successful solo brew – an Irish Red Ale – and a second brew in the secondary fermenter – a Boston Lager – I have decided to move on to my third installment of the JonnyFunFun homebrew. This time: an all-grain clone of Newcastle Brown Ale, my personal favorite store-bought beer.
Now for those of you unfamiliar with Newcastle Brown Ale, or those of you who are not heavy beer connosieurs, Newcastle is technically a blend of two brewed beers, one light ale and one dark ale, which brings forth a very distinct taste. Newcastle itself is a very rich English ale, darker in color, with a very sweet and malty flavor. To me, Newcastle is one of the smoothest and richest ales that one can buy – and goes down very easy.
So the recipe that I am going with is a general approximation and guess of what Newcastle Brown Ale should be, so throughout the brewing process, I am going to end up doing a lot of tweaking to the recipe in order to get it to where I believe it should be. So for those of you who want the details, here it is:
The Grains (Total 9.5 lbs):
- Marris Otter 2-row Malt – 9lbs.
- Chocolate Malt – 3oz.
- Crystal Malt (50L) – 3oz.
- Black Patent Malt – 2oz.
The Hops (Total 1oz., approximately 30 IBU):
- East Kent Goldings (UK) – 0.5oz. – Finishing
- Willamette or Target – 0.5oz. – Bittering
The Yeast (Total 1800ml):
- British Ale Yeast
Now for the hops, due to the recent hop shortage, I was forced to go with Willamette hops instead of the Target hops – a substitution which I believe should turn out alright. All of the ingredients are UK imports, so nothing is a domestic variety. The exact yeast I chose to go with was the Wyeast 1098 British Ale liquid yeast and accompanying 1090XL activator. All grain are coming to me whole grain, and will be dealt with on the day of the brewing.
The only problem I have with the above recipe, which seems to be an adaptation of a similar recipe I found on brew365.com, is the somewhat skewed malt-to-hop ratio, so the final brewing of this particular batch of beer is going to be adapted on-the-fly.
The scheduled date for this brewing session is going to be this Saturday, April 5th, provided that all necessary supplies come in before then. Anybody who knows me personally is invited to attend and lend a helping hand if they so desire. More details on this brewing endeavour will come soon!
