News & Notes

A lot has happened at West Oak Brewery since releasing the Gumption porter. Here's a run-down:

BREWING BEER!

Of course I'd be churning out some brews in my brewhouse, right?!

After Gumption, I decided to make a small batch saison that I designed myself (with help from the internet, a guy from the local homebrew shop and my own twist on what a saison should be). Tis the Saison was brewed on August 30, 2015 (OG: 1.062, FG: 1.011, IBU: 25, ABV: 6.7%, SRM: 7). It's gotten a litle better with age. I was hoping to keep this beer until the Spring, but it's almost gone. I'm saving 2 beers just in case I want to enter them into a competition.

Tis the Saison, just starting to show some action in the blow-off tube...

I then brewed Pumpkin Patch Ale, a small batch kit from Northern Brewer, on September 6, 2015. It was ok, but I wasn't a big fan of the flavors. I don't think it had the right spices in it for a pumpkin ale. I think I used Fizz Drops in this beer but for some reason it was way too carbonated (most of the time, one fizz drop is fine).

Just brewed- Pumpkin Patch Ale...already showing its colors!

Next up was Easy Wheat American Wheat Ale (brewed on September 6th), loosely based on the small batch extract kit from Northern Brewer. Even though their recipes don't always come out great, I still like using them as a good base. I used Sorachi Ace hops to kick it up a notch but it might have cancelled out any real flavor because I had no idea what style it was when I drank it! It was a drinkable beer, but very unremarkable. I gave it a score of 3 out of 10.

On September 7th,  brewed an Imperial IPA called Easy Chinook, named after the hops I used. This beer was 8.9%! This beer had that homebrew tatse and sweetness that can come from using DME. I noted this and did some more research online about using DME...I decided to add the DME in increment throughout the boil the next time I used a lot of DME in a recipe. This beer eventually mellowed and became a bit more drinkable, although it never had that great hoppy aroma that I have been looking for. When it pours, there's still a nice head on it and I can see some lace left in the glass with that little dollop-looking thing in the center (it looks almost like a half-melted scoop of ice cream). At this point, I have one left...I'll update the score if I remember...

At this point, I was on a roll when it came to brewing beer...a quick turn-around. I had heard about brewers pouring "fresh" wort over a yeast cake from a previous batch and thought that might be something I could do. SO, I tried it.

The first experimental (technique) batch I tried was using the yeast cake from my saison. On September 20th, I made Saison de Autumne, a darker fall saison. The beer has been ok each time I've tasted it, but I have decided to let it age a little more before I try it again.

On September 21st, I brewed Easy Peasy American Wheat Ale. This beer went right on top of the yeast cake from my Easy Wheat Beer. I was disappointed in my earlier attempt at a wheat beer, but this one took the (yeast) cake- pun intended. It didn't make me vomit, but then again- I didn't drink enough of it to churn my stomach.

I took a break from my experiment to brew my first Belgian ale- a dubbel based on a recipe I found on love2brew. Brewed on September 25th, Dubbel Dually never really got off the ground, either. Although I haven't tasted the last one and I've let it sit for a while now, my earlier tasting sessions were not very pleasant. I had no idea what kind of beer it was!

Steering clear of yeast cakes for now, I decided to create my own chocolate pumpkin stout- El Gourdo. It was brewed on October 3rd. I've had a chocolate pumpkin pie so why not a beer that tasted like that, right? I did some research on using pumpkins and pumpkin spices and making stouts (Basic Brewing Recipes book) and came up with my own all-grain recipe. I was really excited to use some chocolate in a beer. This time, I used 100% cacao powder made by Hershey's. It smelled yeasty when I bottled it and a few of the first beers I had were yeasty too, but in November, the flavors started to come out a little. I might let this one sit for a while and come back to it.

Chocolate Pumpkin Stout...my first stout recipe and first time trying these two flavors together...

So of course I had to put a fresh Belgian-style wort on top of the Dubbel Dually yeast cake, right? Of course! I did some more research into Belgian ales and changed up the recipe a bit (added specialty grains, changed the hops, etc. etc.). Plunder was brewed on October 15th. It was very estery- some fruit, banana, a little spicy and sweet, slightly malty. I liked it so much that I thought about entering it into a competition. I drank all but to of them! I think I have to brew another batch first. I'll try to perfect it next time...

The "yeast cake experiment" continued on October 18th with the creation of El Guapo Pumpkin Porter. Unfortunately, these beers were all bottlebombs. Too much carbonation and/or infection.

Next, I tried to brew a rye IPA from Brooklyn Brewery. RIPA ended up being a bust as well. Every beer was a bottle bomb. I even tried to slow the carbonation by placing a bunch of them in the frige. Maybe there was another infection.

On November 22, 2015, I brewed Christmas-ish Ale, a Belgian-style ale that was basically Plunder with clementine peels and coriander seed. I used three 22 oz. bottles and a few regualr 12 oz. bottles. I drank one for the holidays, drank one on Christmas Day, and gave one to my dad. I have one 22 oz. left, which I am saving for NEXT Christmas.

My first but hopefully not last Christmas beer (the yellow-white patch in the picture was just glare from my iPhone camera)

 On December 3, 2015, I brewed Beachcomber cream ale again. This time, I used White Labs Cream Ale Yeast Blend (WLP080). I was really excited about it because I loved it the first time; however, I didn't like the first taste after a week in the bottle (compared to the first batch, which was actually good after a week). It was too sweet and flat. The jury is still out...I hope it's good!

Transparency IPA was my response to a few failed attempts at an decent IPA. Brewed on December 3rd, I studied an imperial IPA recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and combined it with my earlier recipe, Easy Chinook. This beer was dry hopped- something I have never done up until now. AND- I did it with my very own homegrown Centennial hops! After a few weeks in the bottle, the beer tasted very sweet and homebrew-y still. I'll let it sit for a while.

Dry hopping the Transparency IPA- with my own HOMEGROWN Centennial hops!

I brewed a wheat beer on December 10th. I wanted to strip everything down and make it easy so I made an easy extract batch. I had one shortly after a week and it was pretty good. I have about 6 left and I think they'll be good.

I wanted to brew two different types of porters, but I didn't feel like having 2 brew days. SO- I brewed a 2-gallon porter recipe. One porter will be CocoNutz, a beer with- you guessed it- coconut. Right now, it's still fermenting. The other porter, Rise & Shine, will feature locally brewed cold brew coffee from Rise Up Coffee. The 2-gallon batch was brewed on January 2, 2016. My first brew(s) of 2016!

The holidays didn't slow me down. On January 7th, I brewed a clone of Surly's Bender brown ale called Ardent. January 7th was probably the worst brew day of my "career". Everything that could've spilled SPILLED. Grains. Wort. Ice for the ice bath. I miscalculated the water volume so that mistake (AND water addition) cost me several OG and ABV points. The mash schedule was so off due to the lag time (cleaning/picking up/fixing)...I didn't do an iodine test but I should've. Who knows how this beer will turn out. It's going to be March before I drink this beer...