CNYBrew.com: Back to the brewing

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Back to the brewing

It's not been an easy past week. I am ready to do some brewing to take my mind off of everything.

This weekend we will be brewing a Hopped Bohemian Lager in the spirit of Boston Brewing Company's Samuel Adams Lager. If you don't know about this brew, I tell ya what. If you don't know about Sam Adams, just raise your hand and I'll have Tommy Boy here come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer because you're a RETARD.

I am calling this "Bogan's Bohemian Lager" after my professional mentor and close friend Ed Bogan. Ed's wisdom is the reason I am where I am today and I cannot thank him enough. I am going to miss you Ed.

The brew is going to be lagered at 48-50f (depending on how the weather cooperates) and should finish at about 4.5% ABV. Some of the recipes I saw used a decoction so we are going to be decocting this one. I think that it brings a lot of nice flavors and smells out of the malt so I am going to be pushing for us to do that.

Bogan's Bohemian Lager
Brewer: Travis & Nick
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: Hopped Bohemian Lager
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.50 gal
Boil Size: 13.12 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 13.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
16.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.2 %
5.32 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 23.6 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.2 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 26.6 IBU
1.25 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (30 min) Hops 8.0 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
1 Pkgs Munich Lager (Wyeast Labs #2308) Yeast-Lager

Mash Schedule: Decoction Mash, Single
Total Grain Weight: 22.57 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Protein Rest Add 11.29 gal of water at 126.6 122.0 F 35 min
Saccharification Decoct 4.78 gal of mash and boil155.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min


Initially the plan was to take advantage of the cold weather for lagerning, but since it's been a heat wave here in Syracuse, I am not sure that's going to workout for us. Hopefully things cool down this weekend and we can shut that damn Al Gore up.

Happenings on the Internets

Freak Brothers were nice enough to include me in on a beer exchange that they are proposing through out the beer blogs. The bros have one of the best homebrew setups I have ever seen.

Last weekend Alan from A Good Beer Blog published my post about Ubu Ale on his blog. I am going to be contributing to that blog in the future, up next will be an interview with Tim from Empire Brewing Company and hopefully Kiernan from Landmark Brewing Company.

Finally, congratulations to the fellas from Monday Night Brewery, they have found the bond that connects them is more than beer, it's a game called "Cornhole". God only knows what those guys are up to with their "cornholes".

2 comments:

Ted Danyluk said...

We had that heat wave here in Chicago. So I postponed the brew day a couple days. It finally cooled down just enough to keep the fermenter at a consistent 50*F. And it will only be getting colder. Woohoo! You should be getting back to normal temps very soon.

Warm swells in the middle of winter are the most frustrating, and uncontrollable variables. I get a little heated up, as does my Bavarian yeast colony. Boohoo!

Unknown said...

Hey Travis,

Freak Brothers have some beers bottled and will be ready for shipment soon. Prior to this trade idea we were only bottling for competition so we didn't bottle much. (only 6 bottles per batch and we need to save them) Now we are putting quit a bit more into bottles (24+ bottles per batch) and intend to send you some. The first one we have ready is an IPA that had an OG of 1.075. We dry hopped it and what I have had from the keg is really good. The next step is to arrange a trade. Let us know what you want to swap. By the way, I have not had time to look for shipping containers. Do you have any suggestions? Can't wait to try your beer.

Freak