Hard Way IPA Brew Day

Today was the brew day for a kegged beer to enter in the People's Choice Award contest for the Peach State Brew Off presented by the Covert Hops Society on 2/28/14.

It was a windy day, but the trusty Blichmann burner powered through.

There was a lot of steam!

After chilling, this golden beauty was racked to the carboy.

The yeast for this batch is Safale US-05 American Ale.  After it is finished fermenting and dry hopped, we will bottle a few using carbonation drops and keg the remainder.

Bluff City Extravaganza Packaging

Today, we prepared our homebrews for shipping to Memphis, TN for the Bluff City Brewers and Connoisseurs competition.  The method that has worked best for us is to rubberband the labels, Foodsaver the bottles, wrap in bubblewrap, and stuff box with paper.  The key is to eliminate the possibility of glass to glass contact and prevent as much possibility for movement as possible.

Six bottles is typically the maximum we will pack into a box, so this is two boxes worth.

Oatmeal Stout Brew Day

Saturday was the brew day for a 10 gallon batch of Oatmeal Stout with a double mash and two yeasts. We got some great shots of the action.

Grains pre-mill:

Run off from mash:

Grain in mash tun:

Heating up wort:

Boiling strong!

Two carboys:

Pitched two yeast strains:

Wyeast London Ale WY1028

White labs English Ale WL002

It will be 5% ABV or more if attenuated below 1.020.

Cheers!

Bottle-o-rama

Briarcliff Brewing's Bourbon Barrel Barleywine was bottled in the basement by us both.  Alliteration aside, this one should be a winner.  The bourbon smell permeated the room, which should play nicely in the 11% ABV beer.

Additionally, we bottled the Northern English Brown Ale.

Grain and Hops Inventory System

We have our inventory organization system up and running now. We replenished some grains from our favorite online store, Northern Brewer, to allow us to keep the brew pipeline going.

I think this is easier than my "spread on the floor" methodology and allows us to plan for future brews and supply runs based on what we have on hand.  Each time we use an ingredient, we update the amount remaining in the bins.  We will do a similar exercise with the hops that are stored in the freezer.

Pipeline Update:

Primary Fermentors:

• Northern English Brown
• Imperial IPA 
• Rye IPA
• Citra IPA

Secondary  Fermentors:

• American Amber Ale

Barrel:

• American Barleywine 

Bottling is next...

Double Batch Brew Day

Saturday was a long day of brewing. We made a Northern English Brown and a Rye IPA

The Northern English Brown had Maris Otter Malt, Vienna, Special Roast, Biscuit, Crystal 75, & Pale Chocolate Malt.  The Rye IPA was Rahr American 2-Row, Rye Malt, Wheat, Carapils, and Carastan (C-35).  The English Brown started at 1.052 and I used California Ale yeast from White Labs.  The IPA started at 1.064 and I used Nottingham yeast from Danstar.

While the Brown Ale was boiling, we milled the grains and started the mash for the IPA.

Brown Ale transfer into the carboy:

Eagle-eye view of the IPA going into the carboy:

Cheers!

Hoppy Brew Year

Today's batch is an Imperial IPA.  We used American 2-Row base malt, Munich, Crystal 35, Carapils, Torrified Wheat, and cane sugar.  The OG hit 1.077 and we pitched it on a yeast cake from an American Amber.  We decided to hop the tar out of it and used 16oz of hops.  The IBUs calculated out at 140, so we'll see how it goes!

Milling the grains:

Measured Hops:

Vigorous boil: