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).

Not only does this beer have me really pumped up to see how it turns out, I ALSO have two really good beers done and ready to drink. This batch of Romancing the Porter that’s a “Milk Chocolate Porter” is insanely good and every time I drink a glass, I get a smile from ear to ear. I also got Jessica’s Red Wench Irish Ale in the keg over the weekend and its very good. Its not nearly as robust or full-bodied as the Porter, but its a nice easy drinking beer. I think if I would have used a lager yeast, I probably would have created something very close to Killian’s. The Porter packs in about 6.5% ABV and the Irish Red is only 5.2%, so the Irish Red is far less hazardous to your sobriety. I plan to bottle up both beers and submit them for the GC Brew Off next month. With the Porter, I’ve struggled mightily as to what BJCP category I should use. Its not really a “robust porter” anymore even though that’s technically what the base “Powerpack Porter” kit from Midwest should be called. I think I’ve finally landed on using the “Sweet Stout” category as it makes allowances for the lactose sweetness and really, its tough to call this a “porter” anymore. With the addition of the cocoa powder, this stuff is black like motor oil. I think I’m going to bottle up some of this with raspberry extract and then enter those as a completely separate entry to the Brew Off. Probably under the “Specialty Beer” category. [Update] I tried the raspberry addition last night and its no good. Tasted almost astringent or sour. So Sweet Stout it is. Bottled up 18 bottles of it and put them in the “pile” of beer.

So now that I have my taste issue solved (I hope) I can go in to production mode in preparation for the Granite City Brew Off next month. I think I’ll have a ton of submissions based on the various batches I have bottled and/or will be bottled soon. JB and I tried a bottle of Darrel’s Nut Brown Ale the other night and it was fantastic. The DNB was the last extract batch I made and has been aging quietly in the basement since November. I’ve got the remaining bottles of it in the fridge to cold age and I plan to take a couple bottles to Iowa with me for my dad (the Darrel in question) to sample and I’ll keep the remaining bottles to submit to the Brew Off. To go along with the apparent success of these batches, I also have a tasty batch of cider in my other keg but I need to get it drained so I can get Jessica’s Red Wench kegged up. I don’t want to dump it because it’s proved tasty but I’m quickly running out of bottles. So, if anyone out there wants some Spicy Cinnamon Hard Cider, let me know and we can arrange a time to stop by and drink a few pints. That’s all from here. Brewing “Black Hops” this weekend. Its a Cascadian Dark Ale (basically an Imperial IPA that has a little bit of roasted black patent malt to turn it dark.) Expect an update on this massive and rather experimental batch. PJ out.

Right now, I have two batches in the secondary that I have REALLY high hopes for. One is the latest version of my “Romancing the Porter”. This iteration is a Milk Chocolate Porter. It has a pound of lactose and 4oz of cocoa powder added to the boil. I’ll add a bottle of raspberry extract when I keg it. I’ve also got what I hope will be the basis of a Flanders Red Sour Ale recipe that I made and fermented with a standard ale yeast to see if its even a decent Abbey Ale on its own before I go through the hassle of introducing sour bugs and waiting 12mos for a finished product. I took samples of these two batches last night to check gravities and taste. Both of them tasted good. None of the nasty off flavors that I had with the failed batch of Dead Dog IPA and the Honey Steam.  Gravities were right on where they should be. Obviously, with a pound of unfermentable sugar in it, the finishing gravity of the Porter will be relatively quite high. Forgot about that when I was taking the readings and freaked myself out. The Porter and the “Unsour Sour” (thanks for the name JB) batches will have been in the Secondary for two weeks this coming weekend. Hoping to get these two batches kegged some time on Sunday. Obviously, I have the empty keg from the Honey Steam but the second keg has hard cider in it. I’m not hugely pleased with this batch of cider. It had such promise when I kegged it too. I may just dump it and make room for the Porter. We shall see.

After a long winter here in South Dakota that involved feet of snow and some super cold temps, I’ve finally gotten back around to posting here on my site. Lots of things have happened over the last few months in regards to my brewing setup. Among the more important things is my move/upgrade to an All-Grain setup. I’ll be honest, I’m still trying to work out the kinks and learn the ins and outs of my new setup. I have to say though, I love the amount of control and variations I can create with this setup. Many thanks to Clark with Toppling Goliath Brewing in Decorah for letting me watch an All-Grain brewing session. It really demystified the entire process for me. All that said, I’m in a flurry of brewing right now for multiple reasons. Obviously I want a stockpile of brew on hand for the summer. That said, I also am scrambling to produce beer to enter in to the recently announced Granite City “Brew Off”.  On top of all that, I’m also hoping to take a variety of beer with me to Iowa in April when Jessica and I go to visit my parents. I love having friends family etc sample my brew to get general reactions. I was really hoping to give some samples to the aforementioned Clark with TGB but it sounds like he will be out of town at the Craft Brewers Convention in Chicago. Oh well, I’ll just secret shop his tasting room and drop off some bottles. Anywho, back to work. Check back as I hope I really can be diligent with posting and updating stuff here.