Champagne Cider Season 2009

Cider pressed from three different trees this Autumn:

Grange Cider Apple is from Billy's front orchard, small yellow-red cider apple on the highway fence line, picked in the peak of ripeness in October;

Zordel Cider Apple is from Mary Lou Zordel's yellow delicious apple, picked and pressed in the peak of its ripeness in October;

ICE Cider was picked and pressed in late November, from Joan Remsbecher's cider apple tree in the rear yard of Butch's Seafood Bar, when the apples had frozen hard and thawed several times.  This was the sweetest cider of the season, and I hope it will be among the best champagne ciders I've ever bottled.

Cheers!

Pumpkin Ale! Happy Thanksgiving! - Batch #99

Big Kahuna Apple Ale - Batch #98

My good friend's son wanted to learn how to brew beer, so he helped me with the brewing of this Ale. As we were completing the mash and getting ready to begin the boil, I said to Tait, "Do you think we should put in some cider?"

I had been pressing cider from "Mo", my backyard apple tree, and I was thinking of saving the rest of the grain mash to regenerate a couple of yeasts I had propagated from earlier batches of Ale. The cider replacing some of the grain mash, I thought, would increase the complex sugars in the beer, resulting in a higher level of alcohol, and impart a unique background flavor.

"I don't know, I suppose so," was Tait's response, as I poured a gallon of freshly pressed apple cider into the boil. I admit to some apprehension since then, wondering if I might have made a mistake. Well, after a few weeks in the bottles, I am pleased to report that this Ale is delicious, and quite a "high-test" brew.

The "Big Kahuna" label celebrates Mo's response to my pruning and fruit-thinning regimen, resulting in some big, beautiful apples. Finishing hops are local, still growing where a prohibition-era farmer planted them 70-some years ago.

Enjoy!

Scottish Ale and Return of MUDMAN Saison - Batch #97

The MUDMAN is back, for my Saison Farmhouse Ale donation to the Homebrewers Ball Oct. 17. My Scottish Ale yeast is back to work here, brewing a classic 90-Shilling Ale in honor of one of my heroes and founder of the modern environmental movement, Scotsman John Muir.

Habanero and Heather Ales - Batch #96

Here are a pair of unlikely cousins, born from the same mash, but fermented with different yeasts and bottled with different adjunct ingredients. The Heather Ale was bottled with essence of heather flowers, an old Celtic recipe I imitated from Fraoch Heather Ale, an historic Scottish Ale. The Habanero Ale is a popular recipe I developed years ago, with just a taste of the famous Habanero Pepper, the hottest little pepper in the world. The monks on the label are from a greeting card I found. That's the Helix Nebula behind them. Where you goin', guys?

MUDMAN Dirt Brown Ale #95

Here's Mud in your Eye! An awe-inspiring image from Outside Magazine, June 2005, by Dawn Kish. Yucko!
Coming to bottles and mini-kegs in the middle of August!
Cheers!

CPR Ales #94

I confess to an "early learning curve" in my all-grain brewing process, and I failed to properly crush the grain for the primary fermentation of this ale, resulting in a very weak beer. Not to worry, I simply set aside an evening for some grain mill adjustments, and an additional mash of 12 pounds of grain. Then I removed three gallons of the primary, and replaced it with three gallons of a very rich grain mash. The yeast, which had previously eaten through the primary in a record 30 hours, as if to say, "Is that all you've got?", proceeded to chow down for another three days, and I harvested some very nice ales. Michael Moore graces this label, in honor of his ground-breaking movie, "SICKO", a seminal piece of work intended to initiate CPR on our health insurance industry.
Cheers!

Hillary's ESB #93

To the right is the Guest Label Contest Winner from the 2008 Homebrewers Ball. Agustin Goba is our lucky winner, and I'm ashamed it took so long to brew this beer, but that's another story for another time.
Cheers, Agustin!

On the left, from the same grain mash but brewed with my Saison Yeast, is a heavily-hopped Belgian. Yum!

Rosco's Nut Brown Ale #92

In an attempt to rid my garden of a family of lettuce-loving chipmunks, I built an oversized hav-a-heart trap from a trash can, a gangplank, a handful of brewing grains and a dab of peanut butter.
It worked great, but I discovered that there is no shortage of chipmunks willing to take their places! You may see the whole story on my other blog at:
mt-nest.blogspot.com

Ten-Gallon All-Grain is Here to Stay!

So this is why Homebrewers almost always evolve toward brewing with all-grain, instead of liquid malt-extract:

Half the ingredients cost, and double the amount of beer, with only about an extra two hours in brewing time.

These early Spring Bighorn Sheep held their ground and would not let me pass until they had eaten the new grasses along the narrow mountain road, then finally "levitated" up onto the rock outcropping, and into the forest.

The LAST malt extract brew!

Now that I've gone all-grain, here's to the LAST liquid-malt-extract brew, batch #90, "Canyon Sky Red Ale" - photo by March Thompson.

- cheers!

MT

HOMEBREW LABELS!

Here's to HALF the FUN of Brewing Beer!

Mini Keg in a Kitchen Fridge

Hey, it FITS!! No refrigerator shelves need be adjusted, no dedicated refrigerator in the garage, here's how you can have cold draft beer, at home, anytime. Click the photo for a closer look, then the back button to return.

CSB - Community Supported Brewing

If you are the recipient of a regular gift of my homebrewed beer, in the form of a 5-liter mini-keg that will fit in your refrigerator, you will need to buy your very own tap for my system. The best place I have found to purchase the "Party Star Deluxe CO2 Tapper" is from Midwest Homebrewing Supply in Minneapolis, MN. for $75.
I will supply the mini-kegs full of beer and labeled with my fun graphics. You will need a space in your refrigerator 7" dia. x 14" h.
Cheers!

Micro Keg System?

Is this the micro-keg system that will allow storing a 1.33-gallon keg in your regrigerator? You will need a space 7" in diameter, 14" tall.

Midwest Homebrew Supply