Footie, Hockey, Board Games & Beer

Not a trip tp Belgium but rather my experimentations with brewing Belgian beers. If you read my last post you would know that I've had some challenges, and disappointments with the results of those experiments. As I noted then I entered my Belgian Tripel in the local home brew club's annual competition, and as I predicted my beer scored very low. Both judges made similar comments regarding how my tripel was not a good representation of the style which ultimately led to it's low score. One thing that I am pleased about is that their comments about where my tripel fell short were exactly the same shortcomings that I noticed when I first tried the beer. At least I had judged it correctly. One of the things I learnt from the experience is that I need to do more research to find a recipe that truly represents the style I am trying to re-create, especially if I intend to enter the beer into a competition. My other lamentation from my earlier post was a recently brewed but over-s...

Wow almost 4 1/2 years since my last post. I think I obsess too much about making each post the perfect post and as a result end up not posting at all. So for the first time I entered one of my beers into a home brewing competition. I am a member of a Vancouver home brewing club called Vanbrewers and their annual competition happens each year in early May. This being my 2nd year as a member I decided to enter my latest beer, a Belgian Tripel, into the competition, and figured that even if I didn't win I would at least get some constructive feedback on how to improve my brew . However upon personally tasting and assessing the beer I entered I don't believe that I will win anything and in fact I believe the beer will score very low. While I don't think that the beer tastes bad it just doesn't have a number of things that a Tripel should have, and in the way beer competitions are scored that is a bad thing. In competitions you enter your beers into a particular style cat...

So since my post in January I have brewed a further four (4) batches all of which turned out quite well, but before I get to those I wanted to hearken back to last Christmas, or actually in late January , when I first sampled my home brewed "Groundhog's Shadow" Spiced Christmas Ale. I spoke about this beer in my January post where I list the spices used (Cinnamon, ginger, All spice, Nutmeg) and some details about the process, but since I had not sampled the beer at that time there was no review. So to remedy that I'll start with that beer and then continue on to the 4 newest batches.   "Groundhog's Shadow" Spiced Christmas Ale - I poured my first sample after the beer had bottle conditioned for 4 weeks. It came out a deep amber colour with a thick rich head and plenty of carbonation. Had a nice flavour with a slightly bitter edge with hints of the spices used...not over powering or over obvious but certainly there. My second sample came after the bee...

So it's been quite some time since I last posted and during that time I have managed to brew a further 10 batches of beer which brings my total up to 14 batches. At an average of 20 litres per batch it amounts to about 280 litres of brew...sounds quite a lot when put that way. All the batches were brewed the same way from start to finish with the only differences being the amount and type of malt extract, grains, and hops used. There are even  a few recipes with additional special ingredients that were added to impart a certain quality to the finished product. So with that said here is a list of the batches, in order, that I have produced since my attempt at a Porter(my last post). Honey Pale Ale - Honey is added to the boil, and is used as the priming sugar which is added to the beer just prior to bottling to help the beer carbonate. Light bodied ale, quite fizzy, with a big head, and noticeable honey flavours. Good but a bit too light & fizzy for me. *** 4.5% ABV Grape...

For my next foray into the world of home brewing I chose to try a Porter which is not a beer that I've had much experience with other than drinking the odd Guiness; which was originally named Guiness Extra Superior Porter it's name only later changed from that to Guiness Extra Stout. In some ways the name Porter and Stout are interchangeable as both represent dark beers with strong malt flavours and a rich thick head. Incidentally it's name was first used in the 18th century due to it's popularity with the street and river porters of London. The recipe I used was once again one that I got from Dan's Homebrewing Supplies and their handy binder full of recipes. The one I chose was called Strathcona Porter #1 and unfortunately I've misplaced the exact ingredient list but I hope to have that available soon. Results This porter recipe used hops only in the boil with no finishing hops which should result in a beer where the flavours of the dark roasted malt are more p...

Onto batch #3...one of my favorite types of beer is the India Pale Ale or IPA. Originally brewed in the eighteenth century as a beer for the English officers stationed in India at the time. It was higher in alcohol and heavily hopped, both preservatives, to make sure that it didn't spoil on the long outward journey. I thought that since it's one of my favorite types to drink I should give brewing it a go and so I went to my local brewing supply shop, Dan's Homebrewing Supplies, and picked up the ingredients for an IPA. The recipe that I used was off of Dan's website and was for a traditional English IPA. Malt 8.5 lb Pale Malt Extract Grain 10 oz Carastan malt Hops 15 AAU - Centennial bittering hops .75 oz Willamette finishing hops .75 oz Centennial or Cascade finishing hops 1 oz Willamette/centennial or Cascade dry hops Yeast Ale yeast - Nottingham Brewing yeast (Danstar) The brewing process was exactly the same as my last batch. See the post for Batch #2, Nut Brown Al...

Onto batch #2. The basic kit that I used in my first batch was just that...basic, and so for batch number 2 I decided to move straight up to intermediate brewing. Which as I mentioned in an earlier post is unhopped malt extract plus hops and in most cases some grains. So what kind of beer to make was the next question. My local brewing supply store Dan's has a book full of recipes for all of the main beer types and I chose their Shirley's Nut Brown Ale recipe as my first venture into the world of intermediate brewing. The recipe called for the following ingredients: Malt Extract 8 lb pale Grains 8 oz British crystal malt 8 oz chocolate malt 2 oz roast barley 8 oz wheat Hops 6.3 AAU Goldings .4 oz Goldings (finishing) Yeast Ale yeast - Nottingham Brewing yeast (Danstar) ...and on to the process. First off I heated up about a litre of water in a medium saucepan to around 75 degrees C, about 170 F, and then poured in all the grains, covered the pot and set it as...