1 Year Anniversary!

This is a tad belated, but 2/8/10 was our 1 year anniversary!


2009 was a solid year. We brewed around 55 gallons of quality home brewed beer! We expect bigger and better in 2010! Cheers.

Amarillo IPA Photos

Photos from the Amarillo IPA brew day. As you can see from the first picture, it was a great day! We will be holding a contest to name this beer. Keep your names coming!

Nutsacks anyone?

Wort boiling

Party like a rock star!

Fermenting Fun!

(partial) Sunday Brewing Co.

Yes, Ladies... He is single.

Oatmeal Stout Photos

Just some photos of the Oatmeal Stout... nothing too exciting here. I figured i'll post some photos of what I have on hand..

Fermenting

Cooling down wort in 20+ inches of snow.

Steeping grains

It's Been A Long Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely.. Time!

Wow, last post was from May... I apologize for the lack of updates... Here has what has happened since May:

Good News:
- Brewed Amarillo IPA (1st Sunday Brewing Co. recipe)
- Brewed Oatmeal Stout

Bad (Sad) News:
- Brewed, bottled and drank a Porter
- Brewed, bottled and drank an Octoberfest
- Bottled and drank Dunkelweizen
- Bottled and drank Summer Ale Clone
- Bottled and drank Sierra Nevada IPA Clone
- Bottled and partially drank Farmhouse Ale

Medium News:
- Bottle Conditioning Belgian Dubbel

Weekend Aftermath

The weekend bottling process turned out good and bad.

First off, the good...

Bottled the dunkelweizen with no problems. The stockpile of beer is increasing. The Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone is the best beer we've made to date..

Stockpile!

Now the bad...

Bottling the Belgian Dubbel this weekend turned out to be one gigantic clusterfuck. Where to begin...

1. Short on bottles
2. Siphon tube was fucked up
3. Some bottles got fucked up (see pictures)
4. The capper makes sounds of glass crunching
5. Broke another siphon tube (which has been repaired..)
6. Broke the necks off some of the bottles

Broken bottles full of Dubbel

A sad, sad picture

Yes, the capper was literally cutting the neck of the bottles completely off. In the first picture, you can see two bottle caps still sealed on the broken neck (Yes, I saved them as keepsakes)

So yeah, the Belgian Dubbel didn't go as smooth as expected, but there is enough there to get hammered. There are 13 bottles of Belgian Dubbel that are 22oz. So no worries! More to come with the Memorial Day weekend ahead.

Iron Hill Brewery

Today, I had the opportunity to visit the Iron Hill Brewery for lunch while I am out in West Chester (work related off-site testing). The brewery / restaurant was excellent! Great food and even better beer. While being a weirdo and taking pictures of the brewery, one of the brew masters inside asked me if I wanted to come in. So, I chatted with the 2 brew masters at Iron Hill for about 20 minutes. They were making a special spicy Wheat beer concoction that contained Grains of Paradise (also used in my Sam Adams Summer Ale clone recipie). I mentioned to them about the beers I have fermenting in my basement and said I used the Grains of Paradise for the Summer Ale. This was the first time the guys at Iron Hill were using them, so they were curious how much I used and how the batch tasted. Sadly, I could only comment on the raw taste (which was awesome) because the beer is still young (1 week into bottle conditioning). Below are some pictures of the Iron Hill brewery...

Belgian Wit

Brew Kettle

Mash/Lauter Tun
Cleaning Grains from the MLT

Fermenters and Brew Master

Fermenters 4 and 5

Fermenter 1

Iron Hill Brewery... a wonderful place to eat lunch and their beer is excellent!

Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates... More will be coming soon, but for now here is a brief overview:

Weekend update
1.) Bottling Belgian Dubbel
2.) Bottling Dunkelweizen

Other updates
1.) Brewed an IPA (Sierra Nevada Clone with some tweaks)
2.) Brewed a Belgian Farmhouse Ale (Saison) - Fermenting around 70-75 degrees, soon up to 85 degrees - to get those sour Saison type flavors.
3.) Apfelwein should be ready to be bottled next week.
4.) Sam Adams Summer Ale clone is bottled and conditioning.

What does this all mean?? STOCKPILE!!! A lot of beer to drink in the near future! Stay tuned.