A loaf of bread using some of the spent grains from my last beer.

Beer recipe

Beer # 75
Date May 9, 2015

Description Hopefully a traditional Saison. Same as #73. One of my favorites of all time!!!

Yeast WLP #565 White Labs Belgium Saison Ale Liquid Yeast with yeast starter

Grain Bill Quantity Grain
12 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt (1.5L)
10 lbs German Vienna Malt (4L)
3 lbs German Wheat Malt (2L)

Hop Schedule Quantity Hop Schedule
1 oz Golding Mash out
1 oz Golding 60 min
1 oz Golding 15 min
1 oz Styrian Golding 15 min
1 oz Golding Dry hop
1 oz Styrian Golding Dry hop

Alcohol % OG FG %
1.060
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

An IPA on our day off.

Beer # 74
Date Apr 25, 2016

Description Same as #71

Yeast White labs CA ale Yeast

Grain Bill Quantity Grain
30 lbs American 2 row
1 lbs Carapils
1 lbs Caramel Malt 40L
3 lbs Corn Sugar

Hop Schedule Quantity Hop Schedule
1 oz Amarillo Mash out
1 oz Columbus Mash out
1 oz Simcoe Mash out
1 oz Amarillo 45m
1 oz Columbus Flame out
1 oz Simcoe flame out
1 oz Amarillo Flame out
1 oz Amarillo Dry hop
2 oz Columbus Dry hop
2 oz Simcoe Dry hop
2 oz Centennial Dry hop

Alcohol % OG FG %
1.074

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We are taking some time off from the shop, so I took advantage of one of our days to make a couple of batches of beer.  These were #64 and #65.

#64 was a black IPA, which I have never attempted before.  I basically used some of my favorite traditional hops, but added some nice dark malt and the rye malt.  I usually do a yeast starter for my beers, but for some reason, I was feeling lazy and just bought a couple of vials of WLP #001 (California Ale Yeast).  With the yeast starter, my beer usually starts fermentation after about 4 hours or so, now, 16 hours later I am still waiting for some bubbling on both brews.  I’m not worried, but I like the faster starts.

The biggest problem with the first batch was the amount of grain.  It was too much for my mash tun.  I was pretty sure I got it up to the correct temperature, maybe even a little on the high side, but it was way too thick.  This caused a stuck mash, so I wasn’t getting any wort out of the mash tun.  This was a first for me, so I took my garden hose and shot it back up through the bottom of my mash tun and cleaned out the insides enough for a little more than a trickle.

I’ve also got to do something about straining the hops before transferring to the primary.  I have been thinking about making some kind of screen that would go around the outflow, but I haven’t figured anything out yet.  Right now I end up with lots of crud going into the carboys.  It is no big deal, since it cleans itself out during the transfer to the secondary, but it would be nice to not have it figure in the amount of beer I have in the carboy.

I was shooting for a specific gravity of around 1.070, but only got a 1.060.

My gravity feed system

 
 My second batch of the day was one of my old standbys.  It was an English ESB.  It went quite smoothly except for the yeast not getting going as quickly as I would like it to.  I also used whole leaf hops with bags, so it was much cleaner at the end.  I don’t think the hops are as efficient, but they don’t leave much of a mess.  I came out with a specific gravity of 1.044, which was perfect.

On a different note, I wanted to put in a photo of our Christmas present from Aaron and Melinda.  They had these top caps custom made for all the employees at the shop.  If you look closely, you can see it is made with the “hub of Cotati” in the center.

New top cap.

After a morning of cleaning the chimneys and the gutters, I dove into making an IPA for Claire. Since it has been a pretty busy summer at the shop, I hadn’t made beer for quite a while. A good customer of ours at the shop brought me some Cascade hops he had grown himself. After drying them, I ended up with 8 ounces. I used it all. Using fresh hops is always a little bit of a chore since you end up with “volleyball” size bags of hops floating around in your beer.

Beer # 61
Date Oct 14, 2014

Description A good old fashioned IPA using the Cascade hops from Craig.

Yeast White Labs #001 California Ale (with yeast starter)

Grain Bill Quantity Grain
28 lbs Northwest 2-row
1 lbs Caramel malt (20L)
1 lbs Carapils
1 lbs Corn sugar

Hop Schedule Quantity Hop Schedule
2 oz Magnum Mashout
2 oz Magnum 60 min
3 oz Cascade 45 min
2 oz Cascade 30 min
3 oz Cascade 10 min
2 oz Simcoe 10 min
4 oz Dry hop

– Posted by Chaz

Thanks again to Craig who brought by some of his Cascade hops that he had just picked the day before. I was hoping to do a beer with the “wet” hops, but since I won’t be brewing for at least a week, I have them drying in the basement.

– Posted by Chaz

Well, Claire and I have spent the last three days down in Southern California checking out the new 2015 line of Giant Bicycles and gear. It is always an exciting time of the year for us. Even though it is hard to get away from the shop during this busy time, it does give us a little boost and a chance to demo some incredible bikes.

The first evening Claire and I both chose to take out Giant’s newest carbon endurance bike. I was on a Defy Advanced and Claire was on the Avail Advanced. Both bikes were equipped with hydraulic road brakes from Shimano. We did a challenging ride out to the beach for a BBQ set up by the folks at Giant.

Later in the evening I got a little crazy on a Giant Reign.

– Posted by Chaz

It has been a busy couple of months with the move of the bike shop, so I have not had the chance to make any beer since September.  In fact, except for some chocolate stout, we have run out of beer for the first time in 4 years.  Since Monday and Tuesday were our first multi-days off since the middle of November, I dedicated Monday to making two batches of IPA.

For the most part it went very smoothly.  I did have to chase down a Fed Ex driver who had driven over the top of my wort cooler.  That caused a little excitement during the second batch.

Checking the mash temp

Where it all happens

Chasing the FedEx Van

Aaron and I met up for an early morning single speed ride thru Annadel. Thankfully, Aaron took it pretty easy so we got to enjoy the ride together. It was perfect timing, since as we were finishing up coming down Canyon Trail, the masses were just heading up. There were lots and lots of tree limbs and bigger stuff scattered across the trail from the windstorms the few nights before.

Here is a picture of Aaron climbing over a fallen tree on Ridge Trail.

Here is a link to our loop.

– Posted by Chaz