News & Notes

I'm sipping on the Duncan Double IPA (Blind Pig IPA clone) that I made in July. Not very good at this point. Might be infected, but maybe it's still young. Ok, so it's Day Three of being in the refrigerator. Still, I'm a bit disappointed in how it turned out. I had some trouble getting it down to pitching temperature, mostly because I didn't like MoreBeer's directions and forgot to plans things out like I normally do. This led to me making some quick decisions (like dipping a block of ice into Star San and then throwing it in the fermentor to cool the wort) and not thinking straight. I might try this again- who knows- but I'll plan better next time. Don't get me wrong- it's drinkable- just not up to a certain standard.

Smokey the Pear was another complete disaster. I added a small amount of Smoked Malt to a nice ale with Golden Promise...it was supposed to have a slight smokey flavor with pear flavor, almost like the pears were toasted/roasted/poached. I'm not really sure what I was looking for, but the ale is not really drinkable.

It's been about four months since I've made a decent beer. I won't be discouraged for long, but I must admit that it's getting me down a little bit. I have yet to make a decent IPA and my experiments this year have crashed and burned (for the most part).

I was really excited about using the Pekko hops that I got at the NHC, but the Pekko Pale Ale that I made was not very good at all. I'm not sure if the beer was infected or if one bottle was infected, but either way- the experience was not pleasant. I have 5 beers left. We'll see how it goes.

Bringing all-grain brewing into the mix has been more challenging due to my set-up. I don't have a great mash tun or HLT and I don't have a nice kettle with a valve/spigot. I've also been toying with different sparging techniques and equipment. I think I like using the blue 2-gallon Igloo cooler with my homemade false bottom and a BIAB bag as the screen. I bought this reflective material with cotton on the backside to wrap the cooler during the mash (the Lowe's in my town didn't have Reflectix)- it seems to help with the mash temps. I just need better efficiency. This transition is tough.

SO- I have decided to NOT enter into the competition in Salisbury. I'm just not making good beer right now and I don't feel like I have anything good to offer.