Footie, Hockey, Board Games & Beer

 Just brewed a winter seasonal dark amber beer with semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate malt, molasses, and some vanilla extract. I call it a dark amber because I predict that it will finish darker than a regular amber. Since the definition of an amber relates in some ways to its colour I wonder if a dark amber is in fact an amber at all. At any rate I am now considering whether to add any more spices. I plan to add some cacao nibs to add more depth to the chocolate flavours present, and to further holidayify the beer I may add some other traditional holiday spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice. I've had mixed results with spices in my beer so I don't want to again become over zealous with the amount used, and as a result produce an inferior brew.

 Just a short list of some of the things that I have missed, and some that I have cherished in these unsettled times.

2020 has been an interesting and challenging year...to put it mildly. Here in BC, along with most other places the number of covid cases continue to rise, and it seems that we are now fully in the second wave of the virus. We've just watched the US people vote to change their government, and in doing so voted for a change, and a different vision for the country. I know that many people, myself included, will be watching to see what that vision looks like. Couple those things with increasing evidence of climate change, the opioid overdose crisis, the shortage of affordable housing, the myriad of other challenges in our lives these days, and sometimes it almost gets too much to take.  One of the things that I do to make myself feel good is brew beer. I find that the now familiar and well defined process of taking raw materials, and using them to create a tasty beverage very satisfying, and in my humble opinion I've managed create quite a few that turned out to be excellent beers....

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...