Snowblower de Saison
At the rate we keep getting snow (in frickin’ April!), I should be calling this batch “Snowblower de Saison”. Craig and I brewed up the Lawnmower de Saison kit from Midwest last night. I opted for the White Labs liquid option. (Belgian Wit Ale WLP400). This is, hands down, one of the most involved boils I’ve done. Two kinds of LME, a 1lb package of Candi Sugar, Three Hop additions, Grains of Paradise, Whole Coriander and Bitter Orange Peel. As a note to anyone else who wants to brew this beer. This batch will clog your strainer! With all the hops and the huge pieces of orange peel, I had to stop and start the straining process twice. In future batches, I plan to use a colander and a mesh strainer for this batch so I can filter out the large chunks first. Either that or siphon it from the boil pot in to the fermenter so I can keep all the gunk in the pot. This batch smelled fantastic and it started bubblin’ in the fermenter in about 12hrs. Its batches like this that make me want a kegging set up so I can taste this beer in 3 weeks instead of 5.



Jessica, the Brew Mistress of Jensen Haus, and I brewed up the
Officially opened a bottle of the Copper Ale tonight. I had strategically put a single bottle in the fridge before I left for work yesterday so I could let it chill all day. Other than the inevitable chill haze, this stuff is awesome. I’m struggling to find a good comparison in a commercial brew but it reminds me of Sam Adams Winter Ale but not as dark. The closest comparison I’ve thought of would be an Oktoberfest. As the single bottle was successful, I put the whole batch in the fridge to halt the priming. It should have close to 36hrs to settle the yeast and chill haze out. This should be an excellent drinking this stuff while waiting in line for Bockfest on Saturday morning. Hopefully I can keep myself from drinking all of it before I got to visit my parents in March. That’s the best part of Home Brewing. When you have a successful batch and you can share it with other people and get to say, “I made this.” Check out my Flickr Gallery of the Copper Ale 



