Jensen Haus Home Brewing

With the final results back, I did better than I could have possibly hoped in the Granite City Brew Off competition. I placed 3rd in the Fruit Beer category with my Chocolate Raspberry Porter and I placed 3rd in English Brown Ale Category with my English “Mild” Brown Ale. I should get all of my score sheets back in the next week or so. That’s really what I’m looking forward to after this contest. Reading through all the comments will be awesome.

Speaking of beer, I have been enjoying my batches of English Bitter and this years Slammin’ Shandy. I have a batch of Mocktoberfest going currently. Its a pretty big experiment as I’m using “steam” yeast to get lager flavor without the cold fermentation. If it turns out, I hope to brew a large quantity of it for this fall. I also have a basic porter going that will have jalepenos added to it during the secondary fermentation. Yes, a Jalepeno Porter. Tentatively called Fire in Your Hole. Next up on the brew list is to see if I can duplicate the success of my extract version of Dead Dog IPA with an All-Grain batch. I also want to do another batch of Saison this summer. Such an amazing beer.

Hey all, I know you’ve seen me link to Toppling Goliath Brewing and its Proprietor, Clark Lewey. I’m a HUGE fan of what Clark is doing and I want you to go drink his beer the next time you are in Decorah. DO IT. DO IT NOW. I’m headed to Decorah the weekend after Easter and plan to do exactly that (and hopefully bring back a few Growlers of TGBrew for Sioux Falls folks to try).

It was a most glorious event. Sitting in a camp chair in the garage, drinking a tall glass of Jessica’s Red Wench Irish Ale while waiting for the strike water to get hot to brew a batch of beer. Plus, the sun was out and bathing us in a much missed warmth. I always say I like Winter until I feel that bright sunshine on me come Spring. Anyway, with my waxing lyrically aside, it was a great day to drink good beer and brew good beer. JB and I made a highly experimental batch that I’ve dubbed “Black Hops”. Its a “Cascadian Dark Ale” aka a “Black IPA” and at its core in grain bill not unlike an Imperial IPA. I modeled it after the grain bill for Midwest’s Furious clone kit but I added about a half pound of de-bittered black patent malt and its a very dark brown/red color. This sucker is also loaded up with hoppy goodness. With a total of 7oz of hops and an estimated 80IBU, this is for all you hopheads out there. 2oz of Ahntanum Hops at the beginning of the boil and then 1oz of Amarillo at 20mins left, 15mins left, 10mins left, 1/2oz at 5 and 1/2oz at 2mins left. Once the beer goes to the secondary, it will be dry-hopped for two weeks with 2oz of Willamette pellets, 1oz of Tettnang and an oak stick for oaky goodness. I used a Wyeast smackpack of London Ale #1028 and it was bubbling away merrily this morning.

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Well, I think I’ve “hit my stride” so to speak in dialing in my upgraded All-Grain Rig, my water treatments and my cleaning/sanitization. My first batch to come out of my new rig was a Flanders Sour Ale test batch that was honestly really bland BUT it didn’t have that awful nasty flavor that I have been dealing with. I expected it to be bland. My hop additions were very minimal and the yeast was a really bland yeast. It really was a way to prove that I’ve fixed my issues. Last night, I kegged my most recent version of my Romancing the Porter. This time it was a “Milk” chocolate porter that had 4oz of cocoa powder and a pound of lactose added. Tasted great and again didn’t have the nasty flavor so I’m tentatively optimistic that I’ve solved that problem. The real test will be the much “lighter” Saison that I transferred to the secondary last night. Dark, robust beer will some times hide water problems that will show up in paler styles. I think I’m going to bottle the Porter half with Raspberry Extract and half without and then submit it as two different beers to the contest. One a Robust Porter and the Raspberry version as a “Specialty Beer”.

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I apologize for the sudden flurry of updates. I’d saved a bunch of posts and forgotten and to publish them. Its been a crazy busy summer so far and I hope I can keep this site better updated.

Well I have survived BockFest in New Ulm, MN. What an awesome time. I’m amazed at how little stupidity there was at an event like this. Its clear this event attracts the non-stupid drinkers. Clearly, I need to talk to my Father-in-Law about some deer skins and antlers. Check out the Flickr Gallery here.

I’d like to personally welcome you to my shiny new website. I’m a rookie (my 4th batch has just been bottled) Home Brewer and to feed my other hobby of being a nerd, a website such as this seemed like a fantastic idea. So there you have it. If you are a fellow brewer, check back once I’ve got some photos up and running.