How to Brew Series

In the coming weeks and months you'll be seeing more info on how to brew, convert kegs, and other general information appearing here.  My buddy Scott and I were thinking about how there's a lot of info on detailed brewing and info on extract brewing, but not as much easily accessible info on how to switch to all grain brewing or how to do basic DIY projects that will save you hundreds of dollars.

There are some websites and books out there that give great detailed info about what happens during the brewing process (chemistry) as well as recipe creation and how to brew (brewing).  We'll try to review some of those for you and post our thoughts on them.

So basically, expect a much wider variety of articles and information to come soon on this blog.  Hopefully we can turn this into a great free place to get down to earth info on brewing as well as recipes, ideas, and other various tidbits.

Cheers!

(Also, if you're looking, here's a couple classic brewing books that are indepth and incredible useful).

Resurrection IPA

Finally, another post about an IPA.  This is going to be my first time brewing with Citra, which seems kind of crazy since it's supposedly such a great IPA hop.  I guess I'll be the judge of that once it's all ready to be tasted.  I'm tempted to wait for Easter to tap this, hence the name.  If this is as good as I hope it is, then what better way to enjoy it than to celebrate the Resurrection!  The citrus-floral aroma while brewing will hopefully highlight the greatest holiday we have.  So here's the details...

Here's a 6 second clip of brewing this...
(if this doesn't play, sorry!)
Recipe:
11 Gallons

Fermentables:
17lb GW 2-Row
7lb Simpsons Golden Promise
3lb Carapils
2lb Crystal 40L

Anticipated OG: 1.068
Actual OG: 1.066
Anticipated FG: 1.017
Actual FG:
Anticipated ABV: 6.6%
Actual ABV:

Hops:
4oz Summit for 90m
2oz Summit for 30m
2oz Citra for 30m
2oz Summit at flameout
2oz Citra at flameout
2oz Amarillo at flameout

2oz Amarillo for 7 days dryhop
2oz Citra for 7 days dryhop

IBU's: 148

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale in both buckets

Notes:
Smooth brewing.  Finished in a little over 5 hours, which is pretty good for an 11 gallon batch.  Half the batch is for my buddy Randy who is preparing to head to the Dominican Republic to start a baseball ministry to tell kids about Jesus.  You should check it out and support them here.  He's the one who got me into brewing and helped me out early on.

Behind the ball...

Man, I've been behind on this blog.  I've brewed a couple times since my last post.  I think I've made the Drop Top Amber clone again (for my sister-in-laws wedding which I also performed; I know, I'm a modern Friar Tuck), a ten gallon of a Total Domination variation, and my Black Eye PA.  The recipes can be accessed by following the links as they were remakes of prior brews.

I have a couple new beers I'm working on.  One is going to be a hopped up IPA (so unlike me, huh?) with Summit, Citra, and Amarillo.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll post the recipe once I brew it.  The other one is going to be a Westveleteren XII clone.  That one I found online and I'll probably brew at Bean's Brewhouse.  He's got a crazy electric system with super good efficiency and better temp control.  I'll post that as well once I brew it.

Anyways, thanks for being patient and I'll be back in the saddle here shortly.