Life Barrels On Brewing

bottling and more bottling

2012-01-25T14:56:00.005-05:00

Later today I will be bottling three different beers into 12 oz bottles for this weekend's celebration of my grandfather's 90th birthday. The three beers to be bottled are an American Amber Ale, a Belgian Christmas Ale (sort of a clone of Affligem Noel) and a Sweet Stout. All of which will be labeled with the label I got made especially for the celebration of his 90th birthday. I'll mark the crowns with a marker so they guests will know what beer is in what bottle. A = American Amber, X= Christmas Ale, S = Stout. I'll upload an image of the bottling and the label as soon as I get a chance. I should mention the original intention was to just bottle the American Amber Ale, but I decided it might be nice to provide my guests with a choice, which makes it a good thing I didn't but a style on the label.

Prost!

UPDATE 1/26/2012: Added picture of beer label, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during bottling, but from the picture above you get the general idea.

STOP SOPA

2012-01-18T08:42:00.005-05:00

I removed the SOPA image I had created for the 24 hour blackout of the blog.
Luckily for now, SOPA and PIPA have been blocked for now.

beer labels arrived!

2012-01-14T15:21:00.005-05:00

About 2 months ago I brewed an American Amber Ale for the celebration of my grandfather's 90th birthday coming up at the end of this month. The beer labels that I got from an Australian beer label company, arrived the other day and boy do they look great! I plan on bottling forty-eight 12 oz bottles, I'll use my Blichmann beer gun..which I love by the way, and will label and give out to the guests. What remains in the keg after the bottling will be served in my four tap home built kegerator. Also available for the party will be the Belgian Christmas Ale and hopefully the Milk Stout should I think it's ready..although if guests ask to try it, I may let them take a sample even if I think the beer is still a little green. "green" is a term us brewers use to describe young beer that still needs to mature.

UPDATE 1/16/2011: I got the bright idea to take one of the beer labels and stick it on a square of cardstock that I cut to the size of my tap handle then taped that to the tap itself. So now I have a tap handle with the specialized label that I made for this batch of beer that I especially made for my grandfather's 90th birthday which is at the end of the month

Sweet Stout brew day is on!

2011-12-15T08:48:00.004-05:00

In an earlier post I mentioned I planned to brew a Sweet Stout sometimes referred to as a "Milk" Stout because of the lactose in this beer. Well I will be brewing this beer this Sunday.

UPDATE 01/14/2012: Measured the FG at 1020...perfect! Kegged the beer and pressurized with C02 to force carbonate. Took a small taste when I took a sample to measure the gravity, it tasted good but it seems to be missing some complexity, hopefully once it's fully carbonated, some of the flavors will come out.

American Amber Ale

2011-12-10T17:25:00.004-05:00

Going to be brewing an American Amber Ale tomorrow. This is sort of a special beer, as I will be brewing this for my grandfather's 90th birthday bash at the end of January. Still trying to come up with a name for this beer. I originally planned on brewing a Belgian style ale, but time got away from me, so I'm brewing this instead. I plan on serving this from the keg and bottling a few to give to guests to take home.

UPDATE: 11/15/2011 - Has been Fermenting well for four days, it is about time to move into the secondary.

Thanksgiving Beer

2011-11-23T16:11:00.002-05:00

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to drinking a bottle of 2010 Southern Tier Pumking that I got at the brewery last year with my Thanksgiving Dinner and family.

Hot Blonde!

2011-11-23T15:49:00.002-05:00

Just took a taste of my Jalapeno Blonde Ale and its got a good amount of heat at the end...
just the way I like it! I bottled it today from the Mr. Beer Kit so its been primed in the bottle and in 3 weeks I'll move the bottles to the fridge and 3 weeks after that it should be ready to drink.

NYC Beer Spots

2011-11-15T16:24:00.007-05:00

This Thursday I'll be going to New York City with my parents to visit my sister and my brother-in-law for a long weekend before they move back down to Jacksonville. While I'm there I hope to be able to hit a few hot beer bars near my sibling's apartment. I'm hoping to make it to at least the Amsterdam Ale House and Valhalla -Hell's Kitchen. I'll be sure to do an update when I return. Also I'm on Untappd so if you want you can friend me on there. I'll be using Untappd to log the beers that I drink while I'm enjoying the brews the Big Apple has to offer. I'm hoping to enjoy some of the local brews such as Six Point Craft Ales, Captain Lawrence Brewing Co and of course Brooklyn Brewery.

Next Brew

2011-11-12T09:24:00.004-05:00

I was hoping to brew a Sweet Stout sometimes referred to as a "Milk" stout this weekend, but then I had to get one of my wisdom tooth extracted and I've been a little under the weather since (it was just yesterday that I had it done).

But you don't want to hear about the gross details of that..you wanna hear about the beer I'm hoping to brew soon. After going back and forth between recipes for a Belgian Pale, IPA and being really undecided..I started looking through my copies of BYO. During my search I found my copy of the Brew Your Own Jan-Feb 2011 issue on stouts and decided what the heck..I haven't brewed a stout yet..I've brewed an IPA and a Pale here and there..why not do something new.

I'm definitely looking forward to brewing this, and perhaps this will be the reason I put a nitro tap into my kegerator..or maybe this will be the reason I take my current kegerator and turn it into a fermentation chamber and build a new and larger and bigger kegerator..hey a guy can dream.

Anyway onto the recipe:

I'll be brewing a standard 5 gallon batch. I'm aiming for a FG of 1.023, an IBU of 26, SRM (color) of 44. This beer should be about 4% ABV so a nice beer I can have a few pints of and not get hammered.

1 pound of lactose is used in this recipe, Lactose is the ingredient that gives this style of stout its name of "Milk"stout. I've never used Lactose before so this will be another first for me.

I'll be using UK Pale Ale malt as the base malt, and chocolate, roasted barley, and crystal 90L as the specialties. The hops will be Kent Goldings and I'll be using Wyeast 1968 (London ESB)

Mr Beer Blonde...

2011-10-15T13:18:00.007-04:00

The Blonde Ale that I made using the Mr. Beer Kit is about ready to be moved into the secondary at which point I will add a fruit or fruits/peppers..I've been thinking possibly trying Jalapeno with Raspberries, but Raspberries are pretty expensive right now at $5.99 for only 12 oz. Any suggestions? Also possibly trying mango..haven't decided yet.

UPDATE 12/10/11:

Just put the bottles into the fridge, will open
one later to see how it has finished.

UPDATE 11/15/11:

I took a sample of the Jalapeno Blonde using
my thief and tasted it. The color is nice, a bit
cloudy but I"m hoping that will clear up once
the beer has carbonation. The 2lbs of peppers
that I used gave a good amount of heat, and you
get a bit of the Jalapeno in the aroma. As I don't have the time to bottle, due to
a trip to NYC to visit with family, I will hope to bottle this before Thanksgiving,
and in a few short weeks it should be ready to drink. Cheers!

UPDATE 11/12/11:

I decided to just do a Jalapeno blonde.
The raspberries were to expensive and I
didn't think the mangos @ the store looked all
that good. I added the peppers about 5 days ago.

Joys of Bottling..oh wait I have a beer gun

2011-10-15T13:14:00.005-04:00

Bottling the Marzen and the English Bitter today to enter into the 2011 Sunshine Challenge which is held every November and put on by the Central Florida Home Brewers brew club. I'm bottling these beers straight from their kegs using the Blichmann Beer Gun (pictured). Oh and I should mention this is my first attempt at using the Blichmann Beer Gun. I'll be sure to let you know how it works out.

Halloween!

2011-10-14T09:40:00.002-04:00

What would be a cooler to pour a pumpkin beer out of than this Devil Maiden tap?...well ok.. the only thing cooler would be to pour it out of a pumpkin. But this is still a pretty cool tap handle.

Victory!

2011-09-23T19:51:00.006-04:00

Great news today! I've been invited up to Victory Brewing Company for an interview! I'm both extremely excited and nervous. I'll probably be headed up there the first week in October. Cheers!

UPDATE: 11/22/2011: I heard from Victory Brewing yesterday and unfortunately they have decided to go in another direction :(

UPDATE: 11/5/2011: Still waiting...hopefully I'll hear the yay or nah soon.

UPDATE: 10/16/2011:
Just got word that they are getting in touch with my references and that unless there's any negative feed back from my references that
a job offer will becoming. I'm extremely excited!

UPDATE 10/14/2011:

Believe my interview went extremely well...just waiting to get the
word.

Brewer's Pizza

2011-09-21T10:55:00.005-04:00

My Dad and I went out to Brewer's Pizza for dinner last night. I've frequented this place ever since they've opened. And the good news is that they now and have been for sometime brewing their own beers. My dad ordered Black Ops, their version of a Black IPA and I ordered Pinglehead Imperial Red. If you are ever in Orange Park, Florida you have to visit Brewers Pizza, not only is the food awesome, their beers are fantastic!

Black Ops, is a well balanced Black IPA, great hop aroma and bite, this is probably one of the best, if not the best Black IPA's I've ever had, I would have no problem drinking this beer all night long!

Pinglehead is described an an Imperial Red Ale, and it's a great beer, and unlike most imperial beers, it does not taste like it has a lot of alcohol. This beer is awesome! It has a nice balance between the malt and hops. The hop aroma is great as they dry hop this beer.

I've had all of the beers here and they are all great. I'll be sure to do a more in depth review of the beers in the future.

til then Cheers!

Colorado Road Trip Part Deux!

2011-09-21T10:42:00.002-04:00

Day One - July 3rd, 2011 (continued)

6:35 am Baton Rouge entered into the GPS.

6:48 am Start of the License Plate Game - spotted Georgia first

6:54 am Getting on I-10 West Mile 22.8

6:56 am Spotted Wyoming plate, ruining my theory that Wyoming doesnt' exist as I've never met someone from Wyoming.

7:30 am - Saw bad accident, car upside down along treeline of I-10 Eastbound, prayed for people involved and first responders and safe travel.

Session

2011-09-21T10:37:00.003-04:00

My dad brought home a bottle of Session brewed by Full Sail.

Session is a dark lager. I wish I had taken notes while enjoying this beer.
Dark lagers are actually my favorite style of lagers. This one was especially
enjoyable. It looked as dark as a stout, but had none of the chocolate or coffee
notes that you often find in the stout style. It had a nice head and good retention,
it was smooth, and not to heavy of a body. This is a dark beer I could enjoy on a
hot summer day in Florida.

Prost!

Colorado Road Trip

2011-09-15T11:02:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to decide if I should post the entire log from my road trip to
Silverton, CO or just the exciting parts...hmmm..ok I don't want to make the few people who read this blog to fall asleep or else they'll never come back..so I'll just include the exciting parts, and I'll distribute the trip details throughout this post and future posts.

DAY ONE - JULY 3RD

- 5:56 am Left house, MILE ZERO
-6:03 am 1st stop Mile 3.7
-6:10 am Turning around for pillows left @ house
-6:17 am Arrived at home, retrieved pillows left behind
-6:32 am On the road again Mile 6.3 (MILE ZERO # 2)

Only 1, 955 miles to go!! and already not a good start to the trip...but this was the worst to happen.

more from the road trip log in future posts!

the perks

2011-09-14T18:52:00.006-04:00

As the title of this post says, there are some great perks of looking for work as a brewer.
Last week I interviewed at Sly Fox Brewery in Royersford, PA (they also have a location in Phoenixville, PA) and they gave me almost 10 cases of canned beer! plus four 750ml bottles!! That's a lot of beer, so much in fact I couldn't fit it all in my fridge.

UPDATE: 9/21/11

Ok so it took me a while to add the pictures but here they are!

UPDATE: 9/15/11

I realized I didn't mention what beers they gave me. The canned beers I received are:

Phoenix Pale Ale
113 IPA
Pikeland Pils

The bottled beers I was given are:

Saison Vos
Black Raspberry Reserve (fruit wheat ale)
Incubus (abbey style Tripel)
Ichor (abbey style Quadruple)

These beers I will include in future Old Barrel Beer Reviews. Note: the Saison Vos review will be from notes that I make from what I can remember, as I foolishly didnt' take notes while I was drinking this beer..for shame. I will try and add pictures today (Thurs 9/15)

Slainte!

Shakleford Tire Biter Bitter

2011-09-14T09:51:00.003-04:00

Here is a review of another home brew I made, this time it's an English Bitter. I named the beer after my aunt Kathy's boxer named Shakleford who for some reason doesn't like tires on cars and tries to bite them. He's a good boy though. Anyway he's another 'bias' review of my own beer:

Aroma: Low to mid earthy hop aroma, low biscuit malt aroma.

Taste: Nice biscuit malt flavor with a good hop bite, no astringent after taste.

Color/Carbonation: Good head with good retention, nice amber-red color, great clarity.

Mouthfeel: Slightly puckering, nice light to medium body

Overall: Good English Bitter, very drinkable. The astringent after taste that was present after moving into the keg, has gone away. This is a very drinkable session beer.

I believe this beer should do very well in a BJCP competition, but then again that's up for others to decide.

Cheers!

Matt's Mad Marchers Marzen

2011-09-14T09:41:00.002-04:00

Here is my review of my Marzen, granted it's probably a bit bias, but I tried to be as honest as possible. here it is:

Aroma: Malty and sweet aroma, with a slight honey, hop aroma is not noticeable.

Taste: Overall very malty, but too much residual sweetness is present, should have allowed to continue to ferment in the secondary, hopefull this will subdue with aging.

Color/Carbornation: Good carbonation, decent head retention, good appropriate amber color

Mouthfeel: Good medium body, slight pucker in the finish

Overall: Good, but the residual sweetness made this difficult to drink a full pint. This should be a good Marzen if the sweetness subdues.

I believe I would it would not fair well in a BJCP competition as the sweetness is great enough that it lose a good number of points. Hopefully with time this beer will be a good example of the Marzen style.

Prost!

One Keg, Two Kegs, Three Kegs A...

2011-09-14T09:26:00.004-04:00

It's been about two weeks or so since my last post. I was busy traveling between North Carolina and Pennsylvania for job interviews at Duck Rabbit Brewery and Sly Fox Brewery, which I'm still waiting to hear back from. Anyway...both my Marzen (center keg) and my English Bitter (left) are kegged and hooked up and ready to drink! I also have a keg of Bold City Brewery's Rhino Rye Pale Ale (right) hooked up as well. MMM Beer!

Fermenting - Check

2011-08-29T17:14:00.005-04:00

I checked on the Saison I brewed yesterday and it's fermenting nicely. I also moved the English Bitter into a corny keg and I'm trying my hand at force carbonating it. The keg is in the kegerator hooked up to the CO2 @ around 4psi, so hopefully by Wed it will be ready to try.

Calibration

2011-08-27T22:11:00.004-04:00

After milling the malt today, I also calibrated my 6 gallon primary carboy using a black sharpie paint pen. I filled my Northern Brewer bucket to the 5 gal mark, I then attached a small piece of tubing to the spick-it on the bucket and put the other end in the carboy. I let a gallon of water out of the bucket and into the carboy at a time, each time marking the level of the water on the glass of the carboy, I did this until I had marks for 5 gallons. I then poured in a quart to get a mark for 5 and a quarter gallons and then another quart to make a mark for 5 and half gallons. I decided to calibrate my carboy, cause on several brews I have come up a good, bit short of a complete 5 gallon batch of finished beer. I'm hoping this will help give me a better idea on future brews whether or not I need to increase the water I start out with or just top off the wort with a some dissolved malt extract.

Malt and Milling

2011-08-27T21:42:00.006-04:00

Today I milled the malt for the Saison I'll be brewing tomorrow. I usually do this the night before just so I can start my mashing right away in the morning when I start my brew day. Three malts are being used in the Saison: malted wheat, Munich malt, and the base malt- Belgian Pilsner.
I also purchased the water for the brew and the ice used for the cool down after the boil today, along with a six pack to drink tomorrow.

Brewmaster's Choice

2011-08-27T14:49:00.003-04:00

I picked up a "Mix-A-Six" Brewmaster's Choice six pack @ Publix today, so I've got some beers to try and out and review and drink while I'm brewing my Saison tomorrow. Also the beers pictured are not the beers I got..just grabbed this image from a Google search. The beers I grabbed are:

2 bottles of Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA
2 bottles of Abita's Restoration Pale Ale
and 2 bottles of Dundee's Kolsch-Style Ale

so I have 3 different beers I will review, I promise to have these reviews up soon.

Brewing on Sunday!

2011-08-26T17:42:00.003-04:00

Here in Clay County, Orange Park, Florida you can't purchase beer until after 2pm on Sunday but that doesn't mean I can't brew some. Tomorrow I'll be picking up gallons of Zephyrhills Spring water, bags of ice and getting my propane tanks refilled in preparation for the brew day, as well as picking up some brews to drink while I brew. I'll be brewing a Saison, I've tweaked the recipe a bit and I'm using fresh ground Indian corriandor that I grind myself with a coffee grinder, and jaggary. I also make my own zest out of an orange and grapefruit. Kicking off my brew day at 9am.

Conditioning

2011-08-26T16:54:00.003-04:00

The Marzen that I brewed back in March has finished lagering and it's now conditioning in a corny keg at around 72 degree F. Marzen is a beer similar in style to an Oktoberfest, it's called a Marzen cause traditionally this German beer was brewed in March (Marzen in German) and allowed to 'lager' which in German means to "store " which in the 1800's was done in caves or cellars built into hillsides. It should be ready to drink in late September - early October in time for Oktoberfest.

Secondary

2011-08-26T16:51:00.000-04:00

Currently I have two beers that are in their secondaries. The first is an English Bitter (left) that is just about ready to be moved into a keg for conditioning. The second is my award winning Belgian Christmas Ale -2011 (right)

doh!

2011-08-26T15:45:00.002-04:00

Just spent about 2 hours preping and painting the wood collar on my quad kegerator with Kilz
to protect against the mold that had grown...arrggghhh why didnt' I do this when I built the dang thing! and tomorrow I get to put on a white enamel coat..oh well, time for a beer.

2011-08-26T13:59:00.000-04:00

Life Barrels On now has the capablity for me to make posts on the go using my HTC Aria (shameless plug)
and via email!!

So hopefully you'll see a post from me while I'm
sitting in a brewery (hopefully next to a beautiful lady)!

Old Barrel Beer Review

2011-08-26T12:25:00.001-04:00

Every so often I will be doing beer reviews. I'll hope to eventually have reviewed at least one beer and one cider from every BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) category plus more! I'll also include a little bit of information about the brewery itself. If it's a brewery I've been lucky enough to visit I'll include pictures as well. Coming soon Old Barrel Beer Review # 1 !

Welcome to Life Barrels On

2011-08-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

I love beer, and not just the beer itself, but I love the science that makes the production of beer possible, and the creativity it allows me to express. I love educating people about craft beer and I love being around those that love it as much as I do. I am a brewer, both amateur and professional but further more I am an artisan. I consider myself an artist, but instead of paint or clay I express my creativity through malt, hops and yeast. I hope that you will not only learn and discover what the great world of craft beer has to offer but you'll have tremendous fun along the way..come take the journey...one sip and one pint at a time.