The Hiatus Is Over - Lucky 13

It's been an uneventful couple of months on the brew front. Batches will be coming in bunches this summer to keep up with days at the pool, beach vacations and cook outs!

Batch 13, called Lucky 13, was brewed a couple of weeks ago and is currently dry hopping in the secondary fermenter. This was brewed to be ready for the celebration of my brother in law Matt's graduation from Clemson. (I call it "Lucky" with Matt's parents in mind as this signals their riddance of one of two out of state college tuitions!!) Lucky 13 is a simple pale ale similar to Bass. I'm hoping for a lighter, easy drinking brew to share at graduation. It should also be well suited for warm days by the water to kick off pool season!!

Speaking of pool season, batch 14 will be brewed with Memorial Day in mind. A long weekend at the beach will require a couple mini kegs of another light, session beer. 4 Summer Ale was a good brew, perhaps my first repeat recipe is in store!

Whatever is brewed next is likely the last homebrew without fresh grown hops from my back yard. I planted a couple of varieties of hops two weeks ago which will hopefully be climbing the trellises and giving hops to pick and add flavor and aroma to future brews. The vines haven't even come out of the ground yet so at this point, that's wishful thinking. If they grow, we'll have homegrown hops for homebrew!!

Cheers to Matty D and the summer days ahead!!

Luke's Brews Labels

A buddy of mine put this label together for me. Kind of freaky looking but I like it! Thanks Bmoe!!

Golf Trip '12

I am brewing this beer to serve at the 2012 annual golf trip at Myrtle Beach. Not being able to think of something I thought everyone would really enjoy, I decided instead to brew something that would get everyone drunk. This is a very robust porter that should turn in at around 7% ABV. The chocolate, honey and molasses used in the brew should give it a sweetness most will be able to at least suffer through if not really enjoy.

If the beer is not drinkable, it was still an exciting experiment. Not having brewed a beer this high in gravity, I was not prepared for the vigorous fermentation about to take place. I have read about "blow off tubes", which alleviate overpressure in fermentation tanks when dealing with high gravity beers. Well, about 5:30 AM two days after brew night, I am awakened by a loud hissing sound coming from my closet. As soon as I realize it is something to do with my beer, I jump out of bed, into the closet to see "krausen" (the foam/bubbles created during fermentation) spewing from the air lock on my ferment bucket. This is in my closet, so several shirts now have black sleeves! (of course I'd be brewing a dark porter not just some light brew) I check it out a little closer and the lid to this bucket is bowed up like the Superdome roof, getting ready to blow off!! Luckily, I store my brewing equipment in my closet with the fermenters and had some siphon tubing handy. Remembering the "blow off" method I'd read about, I removed the air lock (which spews this $hit all over me and the closet) and stick the tube in the lid of the bucket to relieve pressure. This worked, but dude, it was close to disaster! A few minutes more and that bucket lid would have blown, painting my closet in beer. Needless to say, that could have been the end of my homebrewing days as the wifey would mos def have cut me off!!

Anyway, the beer made it through fermentation without any other hiccups. I am moving it to the secondary fermenter Saturday, 1/21, dry hopping it 1/24 and bottling/kegging it 1/28. This will give it 6 weeks to condition prior to being tapped at the 2012 annual golf trip. Hopefully it is palatable. If it is, look out Dirty Myrtle, Golf Trip '12 will be creating quite a "buzz"!!

Cheers!

Batch #11

It's been a while! between my last post and now, a lot of home brew has been consumed. 9us and Lucy's Great Pumpkin Ale was, well GREAT! I also brewed a light wheat beer in the mold of Blue Moon for Fusion's Christmas party. With that came the purchase of mini kegs and a tap. It was a hit! The beer was stellar and two of the kegs were tapped at the Fusion's Christmas party. Many said it was just as good or better than Blue Moon! The mini kegs are the bomb! They save a lot of time when bottling, 4 kegs vs 48 bottles.

Tonight I brewed batch number 11. It's a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA clone. This brew was cooked with 8 additions of hops, added continually throughout the boil. It is called....Continua11y! Continua11y is going to be good, guaranteed. Cannot wait to put it into the bottle/mini kegs!

Cheers to batch 11...Continua11y!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

Cheers!

9us & Lucy's Great Pumpkin Ale

OK, I struggled with a name for this. I'm thinking I might need to give that piece of brewing up, it is taxing the creative side of me! Nicole encourages it, that means I'll keep reaching for names. Anyway, even if it's a stretch, the name is appropriate. With Fall two days away and pumpkin ales filling the shelves, I wanted to try one of my own. I had planned on brewing this past weekend but didn't get to it until last night. Bad mistake! I started at 8:00 and finished after midnight. I knew preparing the pumpkin would take a little work but damn, I could have carved jack o'lanterns for the neighborhood in the time it took me to brew this! The beer smells amazing and was already bubbling this morning. I'm thinking the late night will be well worth it. I'm gonna try to have this ready to taste on Halloween. If I'm buzzed when you knock on my door for candy, you'll know why!

Cheers!

Celebr8 Ale Brewed

This is the most planning/scheduling I have put into a beer I have brewed. My eighth batch, Celebr8 Ale, won't be ready for two months after brewing 8/21/11. The ready date for Celebr8 will coincide with the release of my number one most favorite beer, Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale, which goes out to stores around 10/15 each year. Hopefully my version is enjoyable and can be used to help celebrate the holiday season! Writing this I am realizing that if Celebr8 is any good, it will likely be gone long before the holidays get here. Crap! Well, if it's good enough to polish off in 4-6 weeks, I won't be disappointed! No plans yet for batch 9, maybe a second batch of Celebr8! Thinking way too far ahead. I think I need to relax, don't worry and have a homebrew!

Cheers!

Seven Dwarfs Dunkel

I brewed batch seven last night, a dunklweizen, which is a dark, German wheat beer. It should be similar to 2wheat but carry a little more body. This is another of Nicole's favs so hopefully she will enjoy it, allowing me to continue brewing without her getting fed up with it!
Hop Head Porter is in the secondary fermenter and should get bottled in a week or so. Batches 1-4 are gone and have been enjoyed by many!
Stone Clone 5 is the only homebrew I have available and it is going fast. It is very good and has actually been favored by a few over Arrogant Bastard in side by side tastings.
Looking forward to getting Hop Head Porter and 7 Dwarfs Dunkel in the bottle!
Cheers!

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