Thirsty Mallard Brewing Blog

Well, not too much to report on the brewing front, but I figured I would update anyways. 

 Yesterday I kegged my small batch of Belgian Pale Ale.  This batch was thrown together for the hell of it… and screwed up because I’m an idiot.  I had a number input incorrectly in BeerSmith so I used a little too much water.  I was shooting for an OG in the 1.060’s and ended up in the low 1.040’s.  I decided to add some corn sugar at day 3 of fermentation to up the alcohol.  According to my calculations, I should have brought it up to the mid 1.050’s.  It didn’t taste all that special at kegging, so I’m hoping some time and carbonation help it out.  I may end up dumping it…

I’ve been rather lax in my brewing and brewing practices lately, but I attribute that to not having a proper brewing location or setup.  As soon as I get my new house and can get all my brew gear organized, I really want to try and dial in and fix alot of the problems I have been noticing lately.  So having said that, I decided I’m not brewing until I get into the new house (hopefully I can have my inagural brew in early November).

What else… oh, my hops weren’t growing well at all, so when hurricane Ike came in, I decided that deconstructing the trellace and cancelling the hop growing project was prudent.  So, no more homegrown hops.

That’s all for now…

Cheers!

I haven’t been doing well in competitions lately, and it’s really starting to drain my confidence and irritate me. I like my beer, my friends (including homebrewers) like my beer, my family likes my beer… the only people that don’t seem to like my beer are beer judges.

In my most recent competition, the Lunar Rendezbrew, My weizenbock scored a 23, my Scottish 80/- got a 26, my Wee Heavy (that I am pretty damn proud of) got a 28, and my Scottish 70/- got a 32 (my only decent score).

In looking through my scoresheets, I had some major deductions, but almost nothing to tell me what was wrong. For example, my weizenbock got 8 out of 20 on flavor and all the judge wrote was “Some malt and bread with hints of bock.” WHAT WAS WRONG THAT YOU TOOK OF 12 POINTS??? I’m fairly confident that malt, bread and bock flavors are acceptable in a weizenbock…

Here’s another gem… my Scottish 70/- ale had 3 scoresheets. In the Aroma column, Judge #1 wrote, “Good malt aroma”, judge #2 wrote, “Slight malt aroma”, and Judge #3 wrote, “Almost no malt aroma.” WTF?!?!

When I enter competitions I don’t expect to medal every time. Half the reason I enter is for feedback. Instead I get this load of useless crap.

I’m done wasting homebrew on competitions…

With my wedding looming on the horizon and with plenty of family due in town in about 4 weeks, I needed to make sure all my kegs were full of some good beer that non-beer geeks would appreciate (my family is a bunch of Bud Light drinkers).

 So I decided to brew an Ordinary Bitter and a Cream Ale.  Here are my recipies:

It’s Not Ordinary Or Bitter (All Grain)
5.5 Gallons - 60 Min. Boil
Grain:
9.5 Lbs. - Maris Otter
0.5 Lb. - Aromatic Malt (20L)
0.5 Lb. - Crystal 120
0.25 Lb. - Special Roast (50L)
Hops:
1.2 oz. - East Kent Goldings - 4.8%AA - 60 min.
0.5 oz. - EKG - 4.8% AA - 20 min.
0.3 oz. - EKG - 4.8% AA - 1 min.
Yeast:
White Labs WLP002 - English Ale

And the Cream Ale:

Cream Ale (Extract)
5 Gallons, 60 Min Boil
Extract:
6.6 lbs - Pale LME
Hops:
1.0 oz. - Liberty - 4.3%AA - 60 Min.
0.5 oz. - Liberty - 4.3%AA - 1 Min.
Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 - California Ale

I think both of those beer are tame enough that everyone should enjoy them.  I’ll save brewing up an IPA or RIS for some other time!

Prost!

So on Saturday I dropped off beer and entered in the annual Big Batch Brew Bash.  This year’s style was Weizenbock, and I think I made a KILLER one!  I will probably enter this beer into one more competition and then jelously guard the rest! 

The only problem I can forsee is that it was undercarbonated when I bottled it (I forgot to connect CO2 early enough).

This Sunday is the BBBB (5/18) and I will be attending for the fun and festivities.  I hope to make it to the second round at least, but it would be something to win it!  If I did,, I would get to brew my recipe on a large scale with Saint Arnold Brewing Company and the beer would be released and sold to the public as one of their special releases!

Like I said, I just hope to make it to the second round and I would be happy.  Either way, wish me luck!  If you want to try a pint, come on over!

So I joined the local homebrew club (CIA - Cane Island Alers) this last weekend for a big brew and thought I would share my experience.

We decided to brew 30 gallons of dopplebock (~1.098 OG) and 20 gallons of traditional bock from later runnings (ended up low… 1.053 OG). The fun part was that we did this the only really good way to do a dopplebock… TRIPLE DECOCTION!

We started at about 5:15AM crushing the grain and mashing in for our protien rest. Then we pulled out a third of the mash and brought it to a kettle to raise temp. Well… about 5 hours later we were just reaching boiling for our FIRST decoction. Eventually got it boiling, then added it back. Did I mention we took turns stirring the heated mash. For 5 hours…

Ok, second decoction, we decide to split it up into 3 pots. Worked much better. Only about an hour or so.

Third decoction, same thing.

Add back to mash… rest at sacc rest temps… alright, let’s sparge… uh oh, stuck sparge.

We finally got it going at a trickle, but at that point we just let it trickle away. I think it was 2 or 3 hours later we had collected about 25 gallons. So we started boiling while more ran off.

We boiled and transferred and all was well after that (aside from the low OG of the traditional). I got home at about 1:00AM.

Lesson learned? Probably will never want to do another big batch triple decoction ever again.

Due to some housework I had to help my dad with last weekend, I wasn’t able to brew… so I decided that on Monday I would brew rather than go to the gym!

I am going to be making a Weizenbock for the upcoming Big Batch Brew Bash, so I wanted to have a starter batch of Wheat Ale to use the yeast slurry for the Weizenbock… so I decided to make a heffe, and while I was at it, I decided to do my first fruit ale!  (Side note:  One can of Oregon Puree cost me about $17… that’s an extra $34 to add Raspberries… ouch.)

Ok, so I decided to do extract since it would be easier… and it was.  Some boiling water and 6.86 lbs of extract later, I was cooking up some beer!  Everything came out perfectly and I only had a 5 hour brew day… so can’t complain!  As of Tuesday it was happily fermenting along.

 I also decided to go ahead and keg the mysterious IDK Ale.  I was a bit afraid… but it wasn’t bad at all!  I really enjoyed it actually!  The malt was definitely complex and the hops were prominent, but right on!  I think this is definitely going to be a Brewer’s Reserve that I don’t put on a main tap!  I may try it in competition, but I have no idea what category to enter it.  It’s bitter like an APA or IPA, but I don’t think there is enough hop complexity or aroma to do well.

I am going to sit down with a pint this weekend (after it is carbonated) with the BJCP guidelines in front of me and see what i think. 

 All in all, I’m pretty happy with the outcome!

 Until next time… Cheers!

So the 2008 brew-season is finally upon me!  I made a porter and everything went perfectly.  I even hit every number EXACTLY!  Now THAT’S a good way to start the ‘08 brewing season!  Here is the recipe (its from the Dec. 07 BYO)

Fourth Quarter Porter
Est OG - 1.044
Est FG - 1.009

Grain:
4.0 lbs - 2-Row
3.0 lbs - Munich 10L (I am using 6L)
0.5 lb - Crystal 40
6 oz - Chocolate Malt
2 oz - Black Patent
1 oz - Roast Barley 500L
0.75 lbs - Cane Sugar - 15 minutes

Hops:
1.6 oz - Willamette - 5% - 60 min

Yeast: Cal Ale

Mash: 149F for 60 min.

 ———–

 I look forward to having another easy drinking dark beer on tap.  My Scottish 75/- is a hit with everyone who tries it so I am running out of beer faster these days!

Cheers and here’s to a brewing up a great 2008!

I’m enjoying a few pints of my Scottish 75/- and I have to say it is damn tasty and one of the easiest drinking beers I have ever made!  I really like this beer for it’s simplicity, yet it still has a distinct flavor from the process and the Scottish yeast.

I think this is the perfect beer for people who aren’t beer geeks.  It is nice and malty with only enough hops to balance it out, but not be noticeable and overly bitter.  I think this is going to become one of my flagship beers that I will try to always keep on tap. 

I think I may also try making a batch of this and aging it on oak or adding some smoked malt.  Either way… this one is definitely enjoyable!

What a title for a blog…

 Anyways, the Scottish 75/- was ready to drink tonight.  It tasted great!  It was simple and clean with a malt forward flavor profile that I think will be very enjoyable even to non-beer geeks. 

The only problem is that there seems to be a “house flavor” that I taste in all my beers.  It’s not a terrible flavor, but it is something I don’t find desireable.  I really think it has to do with my brewing water.  I brew at my parent’s house (no room for brewing equipment in my apartment) and they have some very interesting water.  They are on land so it is pumped from a private well which means it is unfiltered and quite full of minerals and whatnot.  The filtered water in the house is so soft that it would make for poor brewing water… so I am at a crossroads.  I buy water know and then, but it is a hassle.  I am looking forward to moving into my new house with city municipal water where the biggest problem is getting rid of chlorine.

In other news (since water chemistry isn’t quite riveting enough), my Wee Heavy is coming along nicely.  After a  week it has already dropped from 1.089 to 1.030 and it tastes pretty good.  I am hoping it drops about another 10 or so points.  I have decided to secondary it for a week, then bottle it and age it until my wedding day (July 13th) where I will open the first bottle!  I will post the recipe at some point just in case anyone is looking for a recipe.  I do plan to archive a few for about 2-3 years for my enjoyment and for competition.

Other than that all I have to say is it’s probably not a good idea to drink two bombers of Imperial Stout and then think you can play Halo 3. 

Well, I went to my first official homebrew club meeting today with the Cane Island Alers!  It was a brew-in meeting, so we spent the day brewing beer.  It was pretty interesting, as we brewed about 70 gallons (yes, that is over TWO barrels of beer) of Scottish Ale of different strenghts… all from one mash.

 It was a beautiful thing… and I have never seen so much beer come from a single mash.   I had a good time, and the people were really friendly, so that’s a plus.  (I’m already looking forward to the next meeting!)

 The only mishap (and it was a doozy) was on the way home I had 2 carboys full of wort sitting next to each other (bad idea).  We took a turn and the two clanged against one another, shattering one of them and spilling 5 gallons of beer in the back of my girlfriend’s Xterra.  Not pretty.  I scrubbed and vaccumed for hours, but it still smells like wort!

But hey, lesson learned, and I still have 5 gallons of Scottish 60/- in the fermentation cooler!  I can’t wait to try this one… the wort alone smelled great!  I will be entering this one in the Dixie Cup (Houston homebrew competition) under the CIA, so hopefully we can win some awards!

I’ll keep you all posted…. cheers!