Riot Punch

If this beer was a baby, I'd have an abortion.

...and on the Seventh Gallon Jug He Rested

I don't do much on the wine side, but I love fermentation of all sorts(I just found bulk fructose at WinCo). I've had all these gallon jugs of experiments sitting around for close to 2 months now. I decided to just rack em' all at once. Daddy said, "Work smart, not hard."

B.T.W.-Fuck sulfites.


(This first jug and the little jar[the mother of vinegar] is a very delicious "Tomato Mead" that disappears after this picture.)

(Notice the explosive fermentation from the coconut and pineapple meat!)


(^From left to right: "Red Wine", "Blush", Apple Raspberry{22%abv}, "White Wine", Mini Mead, and Coconut Pineapple)

There's a Fine Line Between "Burnt", and "Carmelized"

For my second CTBB entry, "...Would You Make Her Feel at Home?", I made a Belgian dark strong ale. Scooping out wort, and burning it on the stove is always fun. If you turn your back you'll end up with crap though! I did a 3 hour boil to burn even more of those delicious sugars. 71 grams of Zeus hops, and some high krausen from the golden raspberry beer and...BOOM!

On Tap

Tomato Mead Vinegar

It's easier than cleaning bottles.

Flip Flip Flipa...

1 Dutch lager can + 3lbs. DME + 1 WLP029 + zeus hops / strawberries = FLIPCUP!!!

Cheers to Belgian Beers Indeed!

Best case scenario: Best in show = brewing @HUB. Worst case scenario: Brew an awesome fucking beer, and win nothing. Either way I'm stoked. I love the G.R.H.I.P.A. and brewing it again was a soul soothing experience. Through the wonders of craigslist I acquired 5lbs. of organic frozen golden raspberries from WA. We just got "blackberry wildflower" honey in the store, and upon tasting the yeast, raspberries, honey, and hops together I have very high hopes for this beer. It will be the first of at least two beers I'm going to brew for the competition. The name was chosen for me by the fates themselves, "If an Angel Came to See You..."
Cheers to Belgian beers indeed!

Time To Clean The Keg Fridge

Golden Raspberry Honey I.P.A.

Fuck yeah! I found an unmarked bottle of beer in my closet about 2 weeks back. It's anonymity intrigued me to the point I could no longer bear it. In preparation that it may be "Buckle"( a wild fermented beer I made a while back), I made a starter while the beer chilled in the fridge. Buckle was the only "good" wild beer I've made so far, and I was hoping to culture the yeast. Even though it wasn't Buckle, it was still delicious. The G.R.H.I.P.A. is definitely one of my favorites so far, and I can't wait for U-pick season. It was like drinking a glass of liquid spring-time.

Chocolate Bock

Chocolate Coffee Toasted Oatmeal Cream Stout

It's like a dog house. There's nothing more descriptive than the name it has. I'm gonna describe it anyway.

The last time I had one was back around thanksgiving, and the last time I brewed it was exactly a year ago today. Pretty basic stout recipe with some coffee, and a lot of hops. I added the coffee when I bottled it up so it would stay nice and fresh. This was a re-make of my first batch of beer that I had put coffee in as well. The first one received two doses of coffee beans. One hand full of beans steeped in the kettle post boil, and one hand full in secondary for 5-7 days(I don't remember, and wasn't keeping notes at the time). That first batch tasted kinda stale. Like you'd come back to your coffee from way earlier in the day. The last bottle of the new batch I tried still tasted really fresh. I was pretty surprised. The Edinburgh finished really malty so the bitterness wasn't overpowering. It had a pretty good aroma, but not as "floral" as I was looking for.

I made it a few days ago(1/26/10) so I won't be able to tell you how it tastes just yet. Until then I'll just post some pictures of how it looked in the boil, and on it's way to secondary.

#1

Hello. My name is Aaron, and I FUCKING LOVE BEER. Everything from reading about it, talking about it, brewing it, and most definitely drinking it. I'm not quite sure what this blog is going to be yet. There will be lots of pictures of all the beers I'm making, kick ass pubs, and all kinds of zymurgic rantings in general. I work at a home-brew store, and STILL don't get to talk enough about beer, so hopefully this blog will help me get my fermentation fix. I'm a terrible writer, and a bit rough around the edges. Despite the fact that I speak the English language I still suck at getting the finer points down onto paper(or in this case the interwebs). I hope this doesn't turn anyone off too much, but if it does...oh well. I've been reading a lot of some other beer blogs lately(Beervana, The Beer Here, The New School...etc.), and it seems like a lot of fun.

I hope you all enjoy listening to me ramble, and bullshit about beer!