Cheers!
MT
I brewed this ale in late August 2020, using an even finer setting on my grain mill, this translated 24# of barley malt into a 7.25% abv beer. The "sparge", or "hot rinsing" process to extract the sugars from the grain, took a full hour this time, so I've created a sparging setup that allows me to let it happen without my constant presence. Brew day takes an extra half-hour as a result, but worth it.
This label photo is another slide from the 70's, taken with an SLR camera, sitting on my left shoulder while driving south on the New Jersey Turnpike, with the shutter open for a few seconds, to record the "dancing lights" of oil refineries beside the highway.
Cheers!
MT
Here's a photo of my lovely wife Jan, in the early days of our lives together, enjoying some Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs, steamed and coated with Old Bay Seasoning. When we visit her dad in Hilton Head Island SC, we go to the "Piggly Wiggly" supermarket, and order locally caught live blue crabs, for just such a feast.
This ale was brewed in late July 2020, using 2-Row and Special Roast barley malts, with US Fuggle and Cascade hops, fermented with Safale T-58 yeast, finishing with an abv of 7.5%.
Cheers!
MT
I bought a small slide-digitizer this summer, and began the long process of sorting through old photos, saving the best ones in digital format. I came across this photo from my college days in NYC, in the early 70's. At the Metropolitan Museum on Central Park, I saw these faces staring at each other across centuries of time, from the end of the display case. Hello, past! Hello, future!
This batch was brewed in July, with 2-Row and Aromatic Munich malted barleys, as well as some Munich Malt LME. it was bittered with all US Fuggle hops pellets (owing to the fact I was given a couple pounds of these pellets a couple years ago, and I'll keep using them until they're gone. I used Safale T-58 yeast to ferment this ale, and it finished with a 6.5% abv.
Cheers!
MT
Brewed in May 2020, with 2-row barley, biscuit and rye grains, along with US Fuggle pellet and Cascade leaf hops, and fermented with Safale S-33 yeast, this ale finished with a 7.0% abv. Right about this time, Comet NeoWise was making its way around the sun, and brightening our early morning sky. Here's to you, NEOWISE! I hope you've brought us some new wisdom, we can surely use it.
MT
Brewed in April 2020, this Saison marks the dark time of the world, as we all learned about the emerging and expanding coronavirus pandemic. There was much messaging confusion coming from the federal government, about masks, social distancing and other remediation strategies we the public should adopt, and the entire situation devolved into political divisiveness in the USA. In many other countries around the world, the places where the virus was least damaging, were the places where the citizenry uniformly and universally adopted the correct practices to limit the spread of the virus. In the USA, remediation strategies became completely politicized, so our infection and death toll was among the highest in the world, something we will have trouble living down.
Brewed with 2-Row and Caramel 200 malts, US Fuggle and Mt. Hood hops, and fermented with Mangrove Jack's French Saison yeast, this ale came home at 6.75% abv, with 23.5# total grain, owing to the finer grind setting on my grain mill. Sparging takes nearly an hour with this fine a grind, but I am getting the most from the grain.
Cheers!
MT
I brewed this "Wheat Porter" on March 7, 2020, after waiting three months for a sunny day just warm enough to brew a batch outside. We had no severe cold during the winter of 2019-20, but just a long, slow, undisturbed stretch of seasonably cold weather.
I would have to push harder to get more than seven or eight batches in this year, so we'll see what the weather and time allow.
2-Row Malted Barley, Munich dark malt, Chocolate wheat malt, some Wheat liquid-malt-extract, and this porter finished at 7.25% abv. Bittered with US Fuggle and Cascade hops, and fermented with Safale K-97 dry ale yeast, this porter is best enjoyed on its own, in small glasses.
Cheers! MT
