New Brew Club Website

Good Afternoon Beer Lovers. I started a new website for the Brew Club and all of the beery goodness. Please feel free to stop by. Thanks.

http://starsnbarsbrewing.webs.com/

Three Micks v1.2 Brew Day 08/23/2014

Hello beer lovers. We had a small brew session on Saturday (08/23/2014). Weather was great. Brew went really well. No major issues. We brewed another variation of my Three Micks Whisky Barrel Smoked Irish Red Ale. This recipe has 2 ounces of Peated Malt, which will impart a Scotch like smokiness. This been with age in the secondary fermenter for one month. They will age on one ounce of lightly toasted oak chips that have been soaking in two ounces of Jameson Irish Whisky. The oak chips and Jameson were sealed in a vacuum sealer bag to speed up the "marinating". I think we are going to brew another batch of the Panther Head Pale Ale soon. Thanks for visiting. 

All of the supplies laid out 

Oak chips and Jameson in vacuum bag

Collecting wort from the Mash Tun

Awww, is that a heart? 

The brewing command center

New timer app

The mighty brew stand

Heading towards the boil

Boiling away

Sanitizing the wort chiller

The new brew box worked awesome

Wort aerated, yeast pitched and into the fermenter 

On the board

2014 Hop Harvest

Yesterday, Aidan and I harvested the 2014 hop crop. Not too bad for 2 year old plants. The Newport and Willamette hops did produce a small amount of hops, unlike last year. The Galena plant did amazing this year. Almost two pounds of wet hops harvested. Here are some pics below. Thanks to Big Dan for letting us borrow his FoodSaver vacuum sealer to package the hops for freezing.

Wet Weights
Galena: 1 lb, 13 oz
Newport: 2.25 oz
Willamette: 0.0875 oz

Dry Weights
Galena: 13.25 oz
Newport: 1.25 oz
Willamette: 0.50 oz

Pre-harvest photo

Hops lowered for picking

Clean bines

Galena hops

Big Galena hop cone

Galena hops

Weighing the Galena

Yup

Drying the Newport and Willamette 

Clean hop bines. I might make them into a wreath.

The aftermath

Drying the Galena

Packaged Newport

Packaged Willamette 

Dryed and packaged Galena 

Dryed and packaged Galena 

Packaged and in the freezer

Hops Update - August 2014

Here is a quick post with some new photos of the hop garden. All three varieties are doing well. Galena is incredible. 

Hops

Willamette hops

Hop cones forming

Galena

Willamette

Galena I believe

Galena for sure 

More hops

Galena hops

Hop love

Pale Ale Brew times two

This past Saturday (5-10-2014) we had an impromptu brew day after a few quick discussions last week. We decided to brew a few pale ales to get ready for the warmer weather. I decided on a SMaSH ale, which stands for Single Malt and Single Hop. It's basically a simple pale ale. I found a recipe with 13 lbs of 2-row malt and Cascade hops. We tried to use our homemade hop rocket, but it didn't work as well as we planned. Oh well, back to the drawing board. We also brewed a pale ale with Mosaic hops that I'm calling Panther Head Pale Ale. Kind of a nod to my late Grampa Bob, who had a panther head tattoo on his arm. It is funny that we brewed a beer for a man who didn't drink. Not the first time and definitely not the last. 

Here's a few pics below.

Two yeast starters. #1 is Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast for the SMaSH pale ale.
#2 is White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast. 

Our homemade hop rocket

Boil kettle 

Brewing Command

New multiple timer app

Mosaic hops for the Panther Head pale ale

BK ready to boil

Boiling away

One more shot

Panther Head pale ale in the fermenter

SMaSH pale ale in the fermenter