Brewer's Log - 5/09/2014

The Orange Belgian and the Neapolitan Ice Cream Stout have been bottled and carbed.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how the Belgian turned out. It tastes a LOT like Blue Moon, which I guess was kind of the goal. A friend's brother likes mine better than Blue Moon, and while I appreciate the praise, I realize it just comes down to opinion. The style is there and that's what counts. This is also the first batch that doesn't have that "made from extract" taste to it. I hope that's more a testament to my abilities than to the kit I used.

The Neapolitan Ice Cream Stout... didn't turn out as expected. The strawberry flavor is barely there at all, and the vanilla is, as far as I can tell, nonexistent. However, in spite of all this, it is still a really good chocolate stout. If you concentrate on strawberries you can get a hint of them, which is nice. Almost like eating just the chocolate off of a chocolate covered strawberry. I think the vanilla is probably imparting a smoothness of flavor overall, but you would never be able to point out the vanilla itself.

I've also been reminded why I switched to kegging. Bottling is a stressful pain in the ass. BUT! It has been very convenient for giving it away to friends, which for me balances the whole thing out.

Nothing currently brewing right now since I've been caught up in other things. I have some raspberries in the freezer, so it might be a good time to make up a batch of the Raspberry Hefe everyone seems to love so much. I have zero time this weekend to brew it though, and I really wanted to try my hand at all-grain via BIAB (brew in a bag). Perhaps I'll grab an extract kit and whip it up after work and save the BIAB adventure for something like a cream ale.

Brewer's Log - 3/28/2014

Primary
     None
Secondary
     Neapolitan Ice Cream Stout
          A chocolate milk stout extract kit steeped with chocolate malt grains and cocoa nibs. My plan is to also add strawberries tomorrow after letting the cocoa nibs sit for a week. At bottling I'll add vanilla extract. The idea is to replicate Saugatuck Brewery's Neapolitan Milk Stout.
     Orange Belgian
          A simple Belgian extract kit. I added orange zest and coriander at flameout.
Bottle/Keg Conditioning
     None
Drinkable
     Pumpkin Ale
          This is from Christmas time, and I personally didn't find it all that great. Others did. It's at the end of its life and should be finished off soon.
In Planning
     Cream Ale
          Just a simple all-grain recipe used as an into to all-grain via BIAB. Perhaps an IPA would be a better choice to get my feet wet due to the hops hiding the defects. I think I'd rather notice the defects so I know where I went wrong. I also like adding adjuncts, and cream ales are nice for additions like fruit.
     Raspberry Hefeweizen
          Probably from extract. This is the beer everyone seems to get excited about. Perhaps I should make a double batch? 5 gallons in keg, 5 gallons in bottles?

Rebirth!

I've decided to give life once more to this blog. I went through and deleted anything that wasn't really worth anything, which was most of it. Overall the whole thing felt more like a collection of uninteresting Facebook statuses or Tweets. I'm hoping the years that have passed have matured me a bit and that my writing, both content and style, reflect that.

Less stupid crap, more of the interesting! Tech stuff! Gaming stuff! Brewing stuff! I'll keep away from the political crap!

Creepy Doll

Just uploaded my music video for my English class onto YouTube. I feel like I could have done a little better of a job if I wasn't so pressed for time. Only had 3 days at home to do the filming, and for the last few scenes I was working with a low battery on my camera since, of course, I forgot to bring the charger home with me. But all-in-all, I'm actually pretty proud of it.

What's a Libram?

It occurred to me after talking with my English professor that most people probably don't know what a libram is. It has no real definition being an imaginary item. One might assume it is Latin, coming from liber 'book', but it is not a valid declination. Some digging around the internet has revealed that the word traces back to 1950 in Jack Vance's collection of stories, The Dying Earth. The word 'libram' occurs several times in the fantasy novel, The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) by Vance. From then on I assume Dungeons and Dragons made the word more mainstream, and has since appeared in many video games (mostly MMO's of the fantasy genre).

Thank You

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to David Williams (waxinggibbous on flickr) for allowing me to use his photos to create my banner. I would also like to encourage anyone who reads this to check out his work, he has a LOT of amazing photos that I recommend taking a look at.


Again, thank you Mr. Williams.