[ja]cobdavis

I’ve been quiet here because I’ve been swamp and the blog quickly became a lower priority than even my wiener blog. I’ve brewed though, keeping kegs full (or at least attempting to).

Sat – 8.31.13 – I brewed an ESB (of sorts) with hops grown at my father-in-law’s (pictured above). They had a decent amount of lupulin under the petals but next to no aroma unless provoked (crushed/rubbed) so I’m wary about the amount of ‘hops’ it’ll even have. None the less. It’s his favorite type of beer so I gave the malt profile it’s go, we’ll see how the cascade play and make it NOT a Pale Ale.

Sat – 9.7.13 – Pitched the meads at 1.057. Made a big 8 gallon batch and am splitting it down to a number of things. Yeasts are 5 gallons Red Star Champagne & 1118, 1 gallon Red Star, 1 gallon 1118, 1 gallon “blonde blend”. Will likely dose the blonde with cherries, fruit a gallon or so of the 5, bottle a couple of the single strain for comparison’s sake, dose a mead with lavender,  dose another with ‘herbs’, etc etc.

I also pulled 4 different grains for a lacto growth session for SPG. Seeing if rye, wheat malt, unmalted wheat, and pilsner malt have slightly different microbes on them and/or slightly different flavor profiles.

Up next will be my first real big bear: Fallen Dekkera, a oaked/brett-secondaried quad/Belgian strong for the long winter months as well as those winter months of next year. This one will be sitting for some time. Slated to pick up another 10 gallons of apple cider as well while in Michigan. This year: standard ale yeast (for a more ‘standard’ cider) as well as letting one just ‘go wild’ (for a dry and funky cider). No molasses this year.

More soon.