Peach Pale Ale Bottled

Wheat-Pale Ale with 7 pounds of GA peaches added to the secondary fermentor.

45 bottles + 2 to Chattanooga for the Fugetaboutit! competition in the Fruit Beer category.

Looking forward to this batch!

San Diego National Homebrew Competition Entry

We packed and shipped the IPA to the National Homebrew Competition Finals! Judging is 6/11 and the awards ceremony is 6/13. We are hopeful for the best!



The IPA has Rahr 2-Row Pale, German Cara-Red (20L), Crystal 10, and Carapils malts with Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus, Centennial, Citra, Chinook, and Crystal hops.  We were pleased with the batch that used GigaYeast GY054 Vermont Ale yeast as it had less attenuation, but gave a brighter color and aroma than the Safale US-05 American Ale and White Labs 001 California Ale yeasts.

AHA National Homebrew Competition 2015

We were fortunate enough to advance an American IPA in the Nashville first round of the 2015 American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition!

Since we floated the keg of that batch at a local homebrew competition, we got a chance to rebrew it with a few tweaks based on tastings and feedback.

It is a San Diego style IPA with plenty of Pacific Northwest hops.

The final round with entries placing 1, 2, & 3 in each category from each of 12 regional sites will be judged in June in San Diego at the National Homebrewers Conference.

The grains are:
US Pale, UK Pearl, Crystal 10, Cara-Red (20), & Carapils

The hops are a mix of:
Amarillo, Columbus, Chinook, Centennial, Ahtanum, Simcoe, Citra, & Crystal

Fermentors were 64 and got good attenuation. Bottled.

War of the Wort Entries

We are entered in an AHA/BJCP competition in Starkville, Mississippi on May 16.  I packed some of my entries for shipping and have one more batch to bottle to complete the box.  The competition name is the War of the Wort and is sponsored by the Golden Triangle Homebrewers. I cut the entry labels out, secured them to the bottles with a rubber band, sealed each in gallon ziploc bags, and wrapped them with bubble wrap.  I use 12" x 10" x 8" dimension boxes and 12" width bubble wrap and can fit up to 8 bottles securely.

Portable CO2 Keg Dispensor

We had a trial run with the new keg portable draft dispensing system. It looks like 1 or 2 co2 cartridges will dispense 5 gallons. The beer should be good and carbonated in the fridge first on the big tank as this is for serving only.

Safety Disclaimer: Do not attach charger to post unless it is already attached to the keg. Do not squeeze trigger unless picnic tap is pressed open.

You attach the empty gas post first, which depressurizes the keg, then screw on the loaded charger, then open the picnic tap and pull charger trigger to re-pressurize. If it runs out, simply unscrew the cartridge holder, replace the co2 cartridge, screw it back on and tap/charge again.

This will surely beat hauling the co2 tank, regulator, distributor, and the tubing. We will probably set the keg in a 5 gallon bucket with ice.  Get ready Peach State Brew Off!

Oatmeal Stout Bottling Day

The Oatmeal Stout came out to 55 bottles worth. Bottling stouts is remarkably easier than dry-hopped IPAs due to the sludge called trub.

First, we racked sanitizer to the bottling bucket:

Then racked the sanitizer back into carboy:

Now the beer was transferred from the carboy to the bucket with some Dixie Crystal simple syrup. The Hydrometer reading was 1.018 from 1.058.

Add the bottling wand and fill some bottles:

Crown and crimp:

This will be a good batch. It smelled and tasted Choco- roasty. Cheers!

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.

Citra IPA Brew Day

Today, we brewed an all Citra Hop American IPA. This is batch 9 of this recipe, with small tweaks along the way.  The last batch scored second place for American style IPAs at the Music City Brew Off AHA BJCP homebrew competition in Nashville on 11/8/14.

The malt in the recipe was American 2-row Pale Malt as the base with Munich for breadiness/maltiness, Crystal 10L for light sweetness, Carafoam for body & head, & Melanoidin for sweet toastiness.  The hops were of course all Citra added as First Wort Hops, then 60, 15, 10, 5, 0, & Dry Hops.  The mash was a single infusion which rested at 152F.  We did a single batch sparge and 60 minute boil.  After chilling and racking to the carboy, we pitched Safale S-04 English yeast at 9pm into the 1.062 original gravity (OG) wort.