What the blog?

So here I am, two years and some change later, still writing on this brew blog. I constantly have to ask myself "why do this?" and after the last few weeks, I am reminded of the answer.

I started this blog in late 2005 after reading Blog! By David Kline (and a whole host of other authors) and wanting to understand what this whole "blogging" thing was all about. As I began to explore blogs, I was also really starting to enjoy homebrewing and was making some very good beer (extract). It suddenly dawned on me; what a perfect medium for a brew journal! A place where your readers can critique your methods, recipes and overall brewing. Because the author is accessible, the comments are conversation instead of static feedback and visitors can review the evolution and eventual conclusion of an issue. Brilliant!

In the processes of doing this, I have learned about many other bloggers out there, some of whom are the commenter's on this blog. I have exchanged beers with other bloggers and written about beers I have tried.

So why is this better than a BA forum? Well in short, it's community. While yes, you can get answers quickly in a forum, no one is following your body of work. No one can note long-term trends in your methods of why you brew how you brew. No one notices if you haven't posted in a long time (I noticed Grove had gone dark for a while and realized he's a Dad now). It's the quality and source of the feedback that makes the blogging community different.

I bring this up because this past weekend, things really came full circle for me in my original objective for this blog. I took a recipe for an ESB I had done previously and made adjustments that were suggested to me by Bad Ben, commenter and fellow blogger, to make a second iteration of my ESB. In the comments for this brew, I had some very good observations where Glibbidy and Kevin where they noted the process of running off my mash was potentially going to give me a hot aeration. This led me to revisit the question of hot aeration and decide to make a slight adjustment on my process to avoid this potentially problematic step. Simple and was made possible my blog.

Further, these past few weeks have allowed me to have my beer tasted internationally! Alan, Ted and Brad were all part of the first (and not last)beer blog off. This one was for the ages. The battle over the Mason Dixon line was had between yours truly and the fellas at Monday Night Brewery. While both Alan and Brad gave the edge to MNB, Ted gave me a glimmer of hope with a single win. The guys at MNB even made a video of the tasting:

The point of this post is to thank everyone that has made this blog work. It's been a pleasure getting comments and feedback. The exciting thing is that most of the comments have blogs themselves so I can in turn comment on what they do. I would also like to extend a big thank you to everyone that participated in the brew off, even the bane of my existence; MNB.

I hope you keep reading. Cheers!

What beer pairs with humble pie?

As many of you know, I have been at war with the guys at Monday Night Brewery (or MNB as they are now officially called) and like all wars, it hasn't been pretty. I would like to begin by putting to rest the rumor that Bryan Adams is a member of Hezbollah. While his lyrics certainly raise the question of his commitment to the United States and it's war on terror, there is no physical evidence that links him to the leadership of Hezbollah.

I've come to this bit of a humble ending to my war with MNB due to the taste off we had. While MNB tried to butter us up with beer glasses and an awesome stout to go with the Swashchuckler IPA they sent us, I have to admit that without a doubt, (gulp) their beer was better.

Nick and I started off with the Swashchuckler and poured it into a pint glass. It poured a deep gold color with an off white head. IT started with two fingers of head and kept it's head for a good amount of time. I got a nice smell of pine and citrus on the nose, the pine sets in before the citrus, but it rounds out to a great aroma.

Once the head settled, it left a healthy amount of lacing in the glass. The taste was really dominated by the bittering hops bite. It finished clean and didn't linger, which was nice, but the hops were a dominant player in the mix.

Overall this was a great experience and if I were to make any recommendations, I would say to dial down the hops a little to let the malt profile stand out a little more.

With our Lagunitas clone there was a melon smell on the nose, a lighter color, more of a straw than a gold, and a white head. The problem came in the taste. There was a distinct metallic flavor that we picked up in the brew.

Bottling has been a loosing battle with me as of late, but I hope that this is not the case with all of the beers I sent out. In the end, the metallic flavor died down a little bit, but never enough to make the beer really appealing.

The Swashchuckler IPA took us hands down. I am now looking for recommendations on what beer pairs with crow for the main course and humble pie for desert. I am guessing that a nice Double IPA might wash down the crow and perhaps a barley wine for the humble pie?

Seriously though, they have a great start to a beer there, it could use a little fine tuning, but the malt profile was great (when I got into the beer a little more) and the nose it awesome. Congratulations from the Nick and I go out to the MNB crew. Cheers!

The CNYBrew Center For Kids Who Can't Brew Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too

I present to you the "CNYBrew Center for Kids Who Can't Brew Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too". Who is invited to attend? The guys over at Monday Night Brewery cause we're about to take them to school!

It seems as though the boys at MNB want a brew off to settle once and for all who the really, really, really ridiculously good brewer is. We at CNYBrew accept the challenge and will be mailing a sample out to Brad, Ted and Alen. Between the three of them, we'll finally know how much better beer brewed in New York is than beer brewed in Georgia.

CNYBrew Undercover - Bryan Adams leader of Hezbollah?

In this exclusive photo obtained by CNYBrew, it has been confirmed that Bryan Adams is an active member of Hezbollah. Pictured here with Hussan Nasrallah, Hezbollah head, Bryan Adams is clearly embracing the terrorist leader.

While little has been written of Adams connection to the terrorist organization, the evidence of his long standing relationship with Hezbollah is staggering.

As early as 1983 when Adams released "Cuts like a knife". In the same year, Hezbollah were responsible for a rash of bombings including the bombing of a US Embassy and attacks in Beirut. It became clear to CNYBrew that the song "Let him know" was a reference to Hezbollah letting Uncle Sam know they were going to destroy the US. This line in the song led CNYBrew to this shocking revelation:

"The news is out I guess you heard I shouldn't breathe a single word The bottom line is nothing's gonna stop you now You gotta let him know..."

Startling, I know. But there is more.

In 1992, the release of "Waking up the Neighbors" was eerily coupled with the Hezbollah attack on an Isaeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. The song in question is "Everything I do" which is an obvious pledge by Adams of his allegiance to Hezbollah:

"Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for You know it's true Everything I do - I do it for you"

While there was no direct correlation between the influence of Bryan Adams anti-American rhetoric and Monday Night Brewery, CNYBrew continues to search for the connection. While CNYBrew has in the past thought that the MNB crew were a group of harmless Civil War Reenactment buddies, it's now apparent that this might be a much larger and more deep rooted militia fueled by the rantings of Bryan Adams...

More to come as information becomes available...

MNB - Name your kid after brew? Sure!

In yet another exclusive piece of undercover reporting from CNYBrew.com, I have blown the cover on Monday Night Brewery's publicity stunt. No more will they be able to destroy the lives of children by the ridicule for having a wacky name.

ajc.com with it's list of Georgia names allowed me to search and discover yet another shocking revelation about Monday Night Brewery. They have named a girl Monday in an attempt to build free publicity and drive their southern countrymen to drink their beer.

As crazy as this sounds, please think about the evidence and ask yourself, could this be a coincidence? I think not.

To make matters worse, in an attempt to head off the controversial attention this move would create for MNB other breweries have jumped on board as well:

Miller - 98 boys and 24 girls

Bud - 7 boys

Natural - 1boy and 2 girls

Genesy - 1 girl (poor masking of Genesee brand beer)

Brewing is a hobby of humility, patience and pleasure. The guys of MNB have taken that to a whole new low with their shameless marketing and exploitation of children. When will it stop guys? When will it ever be enough?

Some other highlights from the Georgia name bot are:

TIN - Boy 8

QUEEN BATH SHEBA - Girl 1

TACO - Boy 1

ESPN - Boy 1

SEXLY - Girl 1

There are countless other wonderful uses of that database. Please feel free to post your favorites.

Cheers!

Samuel L. Jackson Beer

Sunday was back to brewing for Nick and I in the face of REALLY cold conditions. A few weeks back I did a post about our attempt at making a Samuel Adams Lager clone but due to some unforeseen circumstances, that brew went on hold and I brewed my Tripel Nipple. Well this past Sunday we got back on track.

This brew came out really well and due to an increased efficiency (and the resulting increase in potency of this brew) we decided to change the name to Samuel L. Jackson Beer because this stuff will get ya drunk! I also made some adjustments to the recipe, this is what we ended up brewing:

Samuel L. Jackson Beer

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
21.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.5 %
2.32 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.9 %
2.25 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.6 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 24.3 IBU
1.25 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (30 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
0.53 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Munich Lager (Wyeast Labs #2308) Yeast-Lager

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 26.07 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 8.08 gal of water at 162.6 F151.0 F 75 min
Mash Out Add 5.21 gal of water at 198.2 F168.0 F 10 min

Brew Notes

Despite some snow up Nick's way, we were still able to get started with a striking at 7:30am. We struck with about 155f as the temp. I was going for 151f to give this a little lighter body, but not a bog deal. Because this was a big recipe and we were working at the capacity of the mash tun, we ran off three gallons of the wort into a pot so that we could add it to the sparge water (this was Nick's idea and may have contributed to the name of the brew).

We hit our mash out temp of 168f on the nose and let it sit for 10 min. After this we added the sparge water and let the sparge happen for about 30 to 45 min. In the end our pre-boil gravity was 14.75brix or 1.058 gravity, a little more than a point above the projected 1.047.

Our yield was about 1/2 gallon lower than it should have been when things were all said and done and our gravity was 1.060, four above where we were aiming giving us the new name - Samuel Jackson Lager - due to the increase in potency.

In the end our efficiency was about 70% and we need to figure out if it was the recirculation of the wort or hitting the mash out temp that caused the spike.

In other news

I had a little stall in the fermentation of my Tripel Nipple that was solved by taking the bucket upstairs into the bathroom where it could sit at 72f. I have since racked it over and have the 5 gallon carboy on my bench where it's a consistent 68f. Contrary to rumors on the Internets, I don't think that a Tripel is equal portions Bud Lite, Miller Lite and Coors.

On that note, Southern Culture on the Skidz has decided to take some pot shots at my over carbonated (and very over oaked) stout. I didn't get a chance to respond because I was watching the NEW YORK Giants make it to the Super Bowl and I was basking in the light of an all north eastern Super Bowl. While I do sometimes have hiccups in my brewing operation, at least what I do to my beer is legal in all 50 states, unlike the boys at MNB:

CNYBrew Undercover - MNB Exposed!

Bloggers by weekday - Southern pride by weekend!

After some investigation, I discovered the dark secret behind Monday Night Brewery and why they brew on Mondays when the rest of the free world brews on the weekend.

It all started while I was researching the phenomenon known as "Civil War Reenactment" that is a regular fixture in the south. While much of the north does participate in local civil war reenactment, the enigma of the south, reenacting a war that they lost has always been fascinating to me and I have been on a mission to understand why.

During my research I came across the picture above. At first I thought nothing of it, but upon closer inspection, I discovered that the guys of MNB and all of their MNB buddies (I can only assume) took the day off from brewing and "cornholing" to reenact the civil war!

Suddenly it all because very clear; this was why they could not brew on the weekend, they were busy replaying a war that was lost by the south! It all came full circle, the nonsense about Syracuse and upstate New York, they were trying to win the war!

Well my tooth deprived brew buddies from the south, let the brew war begin!

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".

Kegging and bottling the cream ale

So last night I went ahead and kegged/bottled the cream ale. It's been in secondary for about 2 weeks and I decided it was time to do the deed.

Now for this project, I bottle up about a case of the cream ale for some of my "brew bartering" because my brother-in-law offered me his old 5lb CO2 tank for 1 case of cream ale. I was sold on that deal!

I think it's going to need to be inspected and filled, but its well worth it just the same. Now with the 2 tap jockey box Nick and I built (I will put up some pics pretty soon), I will have a travel tank!

Back to the beer at hand; the cream ale. This brew finished off at 1.011 and has a nice sweet flavor to it. It's a really good session beer and I would like to think that its a good example of the style. It needs a little cold store to properly clear out, but in the end, it should be pretty clear.

For bottling, instead of using my bottling bucket, I tried something a guy in my brew club told me about. I primed the whole batch as if I was going to bottle it and put it in the keg. From here I put enough pressure on the keg from the CO2 to seal the keg properly and shook it to mix it.

I turned the keg down to about 4 or 5 PSI and used my party tap with my bottling wand on the end (without the spring loaded tip) and proceeded to fill bottles from the keg. This was a pretty good way to do this I must say. It was not perfect, but it was a nice alternative and allowed me to bottle and keg in two steps.

I also racked over the Harry Porter which should be a very good brew. I took a taste and the anise in it was good. Not a lot of nose or flavor, but there was a bite. Interesting because there was still a very distinct "porter" flavor to the brew that I was concerned the anise might overwhelm.

This is most likely my last post before x-mas so to all you out there; good night now!

To Cletus and the rest of the guys at Monday Night Brewery - Merry Christmas!

Another big brew weekend

After the fiasco that was our first attempt at brewing two beers in a single brew session, we decided to go at it more more time. This time we are taking on a Lagunitas IPA clone and a robust porter I am calling Porterhouse.

Now for those of you that don't know, those of us who live north of the Mason-Dixon Line and don't have to plan our brew days around the Sunday NASCAR race like Jonathan (pictured below) and his buddies at Monday Night Brewery, we like to brew on weekends.

This weekend we will be taking on a 10 gallon Lagunitas IPA clone:

Recipe: Lagunitas IPA Clone
Brewer: Travis and Nick
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.20 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 66.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
23.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.2 %
1.55 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
1.35 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 4.9 %
1.15 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
2.00 oz Horizon [12.00%] (60 min) Hops 43.3 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 15.3 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 7.6 IBU
5.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 27.30 lb
----------------------------
Name Description
Mash In Add 8.53 gal of water at 170.5 F158.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 3.41 gal of water at 196.6 F168.0 F 10 min
----------------------------
We will also be doing a 6 gallon batch of porter:

Recipe: Porterhouse
Brewer: Nick and Travis
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (40.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.80 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 48.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 35.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.2 SRM) Grain 70.0 %
1.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 11.7 %
1.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
0.75 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 26.7 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00%] (30 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 oz Anise, Star (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
10.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 15.00 lb
----------------------------
Name Description
Mash In Add 4.69 gal of water at 174.5 F 158.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 1.88 gal of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F 10 min
----------------------------

This is going to be a pretty busy brew day, but should be a lot of fun. The Lagunitas IPA should be a nice and hoppy beer. It uses a pretty crazy amount of hops. With the porter we are going to use the anise sparingly until we get a feel for how strong it will work with the recipe. I learned my lesson with the oak chips on that one.

Cheers!