Brew Day:1, Pumpking! Ale clone??

so i had my first brew day yesterday, and it didn't go quite as smoothly as i would have hoped.
Thermometer issues, and a  massive stuck  sparge.. thus, a super cloudy wort.
but it was fun!
8 hours from start to the finish of clean up..
i'll be making a manifold for the mash tun, and hopefully that will help!
and i am looking forward to my next brew day where i am planning on a chocolate stout!

Mike's Beer Review: Samuel Adams Octoberfest

ok.. i should start with this.. this is actually the first beer that i actually liked about 5years ago, when i started drinking beer..

with that said, it was also the ONLY beer that i drank for a while.. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall..

until, about 6months ago.. since then i've learned to expand my beer pallet
Now, to the reveiw..
Sam Adams says: "  Samuel Adams® Octoberfest has a rich, deep reddish amber hue which itself is reflective of the season. Samuel Adams Octoberfest masterfully blends together five roasts of malt to create a delicious harmony of sweet flavors including caramel and toffee. The malt is complimented by the elegant bitterness imparted by the Bavarian Noble hops."

i do get the sweet flavors, a nice maltiness.. not overly bitter , which is a nice change from the IPA's we've been having all summer..
there is a live roundness of the flavors.. somewhat "earthy" ..
they were right when they said:"Samuel Adams Octoberfest provides a wonderful transition from the lighter beers of summer to the heartier brews of winter."

while i would drink this again, i doubt i would actually buy it again.. so if ya'll invite me over, and you have some to offer, i will gladly accept!

Overall i'd say a 75/100

Sam's Beer Review: Sierra Navada 2012 Tumbler

Name: Sierra Navada 2012 Tumbler 
Type: Autumn brown ale. 
Abv 5.5%
Review: The ale is a little carbonated. It almost reminds me of a soda. Bland with a hint of chocolate and leaves from the ground.. It goes along the label saying "roasted malt straight from the kiln." 

Rating: 72/100 for original flavor and crisp taste.

.. i'll be doing some reviews myself too!

My equipment thus far!

so.. i found this cabinet off of freecycle, so i got it! clean'd it up.. and here it is!

here's a picture of the inside

it has a lot of tube and stuff hanging in it, i normally keep the glass carboys in there, i'll finish cleaning the "wine" fermenting bucket and get it in there too, this is my "beer' fermenting bucket and some random pitchers and stuff.. 

This is my turkey fryer, with my brew-pot it's 7.5gal .. also you can see my bottle tree to drain my bottles .. and it's sitting on top of my (still unfinished) Mash tun/cooler

these are the shelves that are on the inside, they hold randomness that i have, corker, capper, bottle brushes, bottling wands, airlocks, thermometers, hydrometers.. 









and the second one mostly chemicals that has to do with brewing.. i still need to add the spigots to my brew buckets.. oxyclean, PBW, B-brite, the rubbermade tube has random wine chemicals in it, campden, yeast nutrient,  petic enzyme, some 1step, Meta K, and Meta Na, etc..

that just about does it.. ohh .. wait.. bottles.. i have bottles...LOTS of bottles..beer bottles in the milk crates, wine bottles in the others, and a few growlers and such.. 

And a "freezer" i use the term loosely.. 

the "freezer" , can go as high as 45* as low as 20*.. Right now it just has 2 bottles of Kombucha in it.. and i'm keeping an eye of the temputure inside of it..
eventually i'll need to "make' a "lid" for it.. when i get to kegging my homebrew!

Pumpkin Pie Wine: In Secondary

so today i stopped and looked at the fermenting bucket, and noticed the airlock slowed down, so i transferred it  to the glass carboy to settle out for a while.. it's a dark amber color right now.. but i do believe a lot of sediment got mixed up.. i have yet to master the art siphoning ..

i'll be tasting it again in a month or so..
if it just mellow's out it's nicely spiced, and pumpkin'y!
but it still has about 5% sugars left in it right now, should be down to 4-3% so time will tell!

Pumpkin Ale (4 lot) tastings

So, on Saturday my Father-in-law surprised us by having us over, and we tasted 4 different pumpkin ales..
Shock Top
Smutty Nose
Blue Moon
one more, i can't remember <<-- Gary, can you help?

the Shock top, and the one i can't remember the name of, we're ok.. nothing great about them, couldn't really taste the pumpkin in them... but still drinkable, but really just a few brown ales..

the Smutty Nose pumpkin ale had so much hoppiness in it, it tasted more like a IPA than a pumpkin ale, again not bad, just couldn't get the pumpkin flavor in it..

and finally the Blue Moon, had a lite pumpkin flavor to it.. but more than any of the others.. if i were judging this solely on the pumpkin flavor this would win hands down..  i was shock'd that blue moon "won" this taste test..

On a side note, now i know that i'll probably want to double the ammount of pumpkin i add to my homebrew'd pumpkin ale on the 22nd of September.. i still need to research a little bit more, but i have the time to do it

Kombucha #1 ...

Apparently i did not add enough sugar to the first batch, so it is fairly weak, but it's ok.. i can still taste the tea, the slightly sour/vinegar flavor is an acquired  taste, but good..
i got about 3 liters of it out of the batch,
i did add about 3T sugar to each bottle and put them in the fridge ..

next batch  is

5x tea bags
2x herbal tea (cherry berry(no "tea"))
1c sugar
1c kombutcha from first batch
and almost a gal of water

i'll let ya'll know about it next week!

Sept. 22 Brew day, and beer review : An open invite!

so this is an open invitation for anyone that wants to come and help with my first 5gal batch of homebrew, on September 22nd, around noon -6 is the goal, we'll have some tastes of some commercial brews during the down times .. maybe we'll tape it and throw it up on youtube?

Bring some brew's to share, and a chair! i'll probably have the grill crank'd

any how, you have been invited! (warned!)

ConAgra SC-142 Keezer project

so i've acquired a refrigerator / freezer from craigslist, and i got it for next to nothing..
i know that right now i'll just use it as a "beer fridge" .. but eventually will want to put a few kegs in it.. (it can hold 3 Corny kegs..)

to problem is i don't know how to make a new lid for it, and if i wanted to make it hold 3 kegs, it would need to have a collar of 14-16" on it to make the inside of it taller,
 i'm not a great builder or any of the handyman type of stuff..
it was used as a "Reddi Whip" cooler in a store.. and i can set it in the right temp range, but with the reach in lid i'm just stumped..
HELP!

the dimensions are

SC142
Capacity: 5.0 cu. ft.
Exterior: 28.9” W x 21.3” D x 33.8” H
Interior: 23.9” W x 16.0” D x 18.0” H

Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipe | The White House

Ale to the Chief: White House Beer Recipe | The White House:

YES

'via Blog this'

"Hard Tea"

so  last night we went to an event at our friends house.. and they had the last bottle of my hard tea.. it was yummy.. so i'd figure i'd tell ya'll how i made it.. (i didn't ferment it, just "made" it)

one bottle of grain alcohol
tea leaves or bags
(flavorings)  i used fresh mint

add all to glass jar.
let sit for 2 days
mix with equal parts simple syrup

serve over ice while sitting on the front porch!