On Tap (Mar 22nd 2010)
It has been a wonderful weekend and a great first day of spring. We had clear blue skies and temps in the 70s. Pretty lite beer weekend due to the great weather, I even had a Saison on deck ready to brew. But the weather came as such a surprise we just had to get outside and prep the garden and prepare the planting beds ready for the veggies. It was also a weekend to meet up with homebrew friends (and readers of this blog) to discuss and more importantly drink homebrew. Thanks to Kurt and Kristen for a wonderful afternoon and your IPA was really worth the wait. I love the burner setup outside and now I have to get myself a similar rig as the weather gets warmer. Who knew the uses for an old bilge pump would include bottle sanitation.
I did get some beer time in but only to move brews around. I also kicked off research into my next recipe, a Fullers Vintage Ale, a classic and probably my favorite Old Ale. Its taking a while to piece together as there is very little data out there. Any help on resources to figure out hop and malt mix greatly appreciated. On that note here is the On Tap Update.
Primary
- Nothing going right now but have a NB Petite Saison d’Ete (translate as little summer season) ready to go and am working on a Fullers Vintage Clone
Secondary
- Old Speckled Hen clone ( 1 week (p) 1 day (s) ) – The Thames Valley yeast went nuts, and came in a whopping 82% attenuation (expected 77%), the rough sample appears good and the colour seemed to work though maybe a little lighter than the burnt gold I was shooting for.
- 115th Dream Imperial IPA ( 2 wks (p) 1 week (s) ) – A rather extreme IPA, high in ABV and a whopping 120 IBUs with over a 1 lb of hops using a technique called Hop Bursting I covered a few weeks back. It came out of the primary a whopping 1015 FG, almost 83% attenuation from the mighty American Ale yeast and checking in at over 10% ABV, now on week 2 of its 6 week rest.
Bottle/Keg Conditioning
- Olde Luddite English Strong Ale (1 wk(p) 3 wks (s), 1 day (b) ) – A new Old Ale kit from Northern Brewer, thought I would add some Old Ale kits to my current Old’s and Browns series. Came out of the secondary a beautiful deep copper, crystal clear and tasting great. So begins week 1 of a 4 week rest before drinking.
- Theakston Old Peculier Clone (1 wk(p) 3 wks(s) 1 wk (b)) – My first pass at this classic old ale, FG came out in range along with the colour, that is all we can ask. Week 2 of a 6 week rest before drinking.
- Twelfth Night Stout (2 wk (p), 2 wks (s), 3 wks (k) ) – A new extract clone recipe of Rogues Shakespeare Stout from Northern Brewer featuring the PacMan Ale yeast strain from Rogue. This one is an ass-kicking 70 IBU stout sitting in the keg and in its 4th and final weeks rest.
- Lord Fatbottom Ale (1 mth (p), 3 mths 2 wks (s)) –well into the second half of its 6 months rest.
Drinking
- Fullers London Pride clone (1 wk (p), 1 wk (s), 5 wks 3 days (b) ) – came out crystal clear from the primary with the FG exactly on target. Tasting great and promoted to the permanent recipes page. See review from earlier in the week. We have been hitting this mini batch a little hard and only have a 6 pack left.
- Spitfire Premium Ale clone (1 wk (p), 2wks (s), 6 wks, 3 days (b)) – my 2nd pass at Spitfire Ale, the Shepherd Neame classic from Kent UK. Only a couple left 🙁
- Grateful Dead Guy Ale (1wk (p), 2wks (s), 6 wks 3 days (b)) – another special edition kit from Northern Brewer featuring the newly released PacMan Ale yeast strain from Wyeast/Rogue Breweries, this one is a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone. I did a side by side taste test with an actual Rogue Dead Guy Ale, colour and flavour are so close its hard to tell which one was which. Good job NB.
- Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone (1 wk (p), 3 wks (s), 4 mths 1 wk (b) ) – Continues to mature with age. Cracked a couple open this weekend and this ale continues to improve with age.
