CItra Hops

My friend Steph got ahold of about 4 oz of Citra Hops, so for Big Brew, we combined making her 1st All Grain batch with about 2 oz of these hops. Made a simple IPA, but did Citra as the last hop addition a few minutes before flameout and then dryhopped with some.

Best. IPA. EVAR.

This beer was sooooooooooooooo good, I can't even begin to explain it. It's like getting hit in the head with a grapefruit... so citrusy and tropical, but still bitter and thirst quenching.

I really hope I can pick up some of these in the fall. If I knew where the fields were, they would be in danger of having "Migrating Rhizome Disease"..

'I'm sorry officer, I have no idea where these hops came from, they just spontaneously sprouted here! All 12 of them! Honest!'

Ramblings

That dry hopping idea didn't turn out well at all.. in fact, I think it tasted worse after the dry hopping, alot like drinking liquid grass - I dumped that beer and picked up my 7.5 gallons of Brandy Barrel Tripel. I've heard we're getting a fresh barrel, and might be doing a belgian golden strong next, which sounds great!

1st PDX meeting of the year was last night. I look forward to what's going to be happening with the club this year, the new board seems to have everything well in hand. I'll probably end up doing some helping out this year, but I'm not sure I'll be in a full-fledged committe position. I kind of want to just kick back and brew, submit to comps, perfect techniques... we'll see what happens

1st Brew of the year and other bits

Made my first brew of the year on Sunday, a nice hoppy red ale.

I am a little concerned that there was no fermentation activity this morning. If it's not fermenting tonight, I'm going to have to pop and pitch that Pacman yeast; I don't want to wait too long and waste it.

I also got sick of the caramel flavor in that Blonde Ale I butchered, so I put 2 oz of dry hops into the keg. I'll try that after I get the BW gone and see if it helped. If not, I believe it's off to the flavoring factory.

In bonus news - I forgot about the Tripel at Garrett's place. That is a damn fine beer, and I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it!! I should have it between this weekend and next, which means I have to finish off my Barleywine keg :)

The next 2 items on the agenda are to get the top cut off the keg, and get the tap put through the fridge door and ready to serve

PDXBrewers Holiday party

The PDXBrewers holiday party was last night, and I think it went quite well. It was my last act as a board member for PDXBrewers, but as last acts go, it was pretty good. I think the new board members have it all in hand and will do a far better job than we did, though I think they should consider the following for next year:

* Rent a room someplace that is open later: Maybe we should go back to Lucky Lab for the party next year, but anyplace that is open later than 9pm would be great. I actually felt like MFC was angry we were there so late.

* No beer judging: No more judging at the party - it was too confusing and people were distracted from other things we were trying to get done at the party, not to mention the fact that we had to vote twice.

* More varied centerpieces: I thought we did a good thing by getting the Unibroue beers for centerpieces, but everybody and their mother brought the same beers, which made it kind of suck

Overall, it turned out OK, and I'm going to go borrow Ron's mill all the time :P

Keg Secured and other items of note

So I picked up a keg to be converted, the next step is going to be cutting the top out of it. Not sure when I am going to get around to that, but I will do that eventually. Probably after it warms up.

OBC Holiday Party was last Saturday. Though I didn't get much in the way of beer from the Ring Toss, I did get 20# of 2 row and 4 oz of hops. There was some talk of making a collaborative beer with Yvette (who won another 10#), but I might just use it to make a pale ale for Ron, since I owe him a batch of beer for the fridge. It would make a decent Pale Ale, I think.

I need to get ahold of Kipp and see if he has any good cornies that came in over the past month or so. If so maybe I can pick up a few more kegs for a steal. :)

I need to rack a beer tonight and get it into a keg, so it can start carbing up. I'd like to have the Blonde Ale on tap for Christmas. I'm going to put the Yeast Cake into a jar, and use it to ferment Ron's beer. I think I'll keep this cake around for 5-6 generations, then start with a new one.

And that's all the news that fit to print for the moment! Have a happy holiday and we'll see you next year!

A pleasent surprize

So I'm watering the roses this morning before we take off, and the neighbor comes out to his car to leave for work. He asked me if I still wanted that keg his friend had offered me when they were moving in, and I said 'Sure!', so he's going to work on that for me today.

Looks like I may be getting a keg for conversion after all, and for free as well!

Just another nail in the coffin for making 10 gallon batches.

Kegerator works great!

Kegerator is chillin away in the basement, seems to work very well and chills down fast. Gave it a good cleaning, and will be getting ready to punch the first tap through the door this weekend. I am so excited! Now I *really* have to get to work refurbishing those kegs! ;-)