Beer Reviews
Beer reviews
Simple Beer Yeast Starters and how to maintain them long term cheaply
Simple Beer Yeast Starters and how to maintain them long term. Keeping it simple with yeast, DME (Dry Malt Extract), Spring Water, and a little yeast nutrient.
Other items used:
Whisk, scale to weight DME, measuring cups, pot, mason jars, tin foil, and stir bar. Also home made stir plates using cigar boxes, 120 mm computer fan, earth magnets, and old 12v power adapters.
In this video I simply show you how to make wort for a yeast starter and I use about 0.67 ounces by weight of DME per 6 ounces of water. Heat, stir, cool, and pitch with a stir bar of course. After 24 to 36 hours I simply put the jars in a fridge to cold crash before pouring off excess malt and pouring the yeast with some malt back into a smaller mason jar for long term storage in the bottom drawers of my beer fridge. I repeat this process about every 4 months for all of the yeasts I maintain.
Chocolate Bock – Simple Brew Day for Beginners – Super Easy – Part 1 of 2
Chocolate Bock – Simple Brew Day for Beginners – Super Easy – Part 1 of 2
I made this to show the first time brewer just how easy a brew day can be with very little equipment purchases. This was very inexpensive and the tools needed are inexpensive too.
What was actually needed to make this all extract Bock Beer?
Bock Extract with corn sugar and priming sugar for bottling https://www.homebrewing.org/Muntons-B…
A couple decent sized pots (source of heat of course) Or one large pot like this https://www.homebrewing.org/8-Gallon-…
Large Spoon or a nice paddle like this https://www.homebrewing.org/24-Plasti…
Accurate Thermometer https://www.homebrewing.org/Lab-Therm…
6 Gallon Carboy with either a rubber stopper or carboy cap and airlock/bubbler
https://www.homebrewing.org/6-Gallon-… https://www.homebrewing.org/Orange-Un… https://www.homebrewing.org/3-Piece-A…
Auto-siphon with tubing and bottler wand https://amzn.to/3fW53gp
About 50 empty and sterile 12 oz beer bottles for bottling 50 Bottle Caps (cheap) https://www.homebrewing.org/Cold-Acti…
Bottle capper (inexpensive) https://www.homebrewing.org/Red-Rocke…
Nice things to have beyond this: Great Hydrometer kit https://amzn.to/31ecJ9x
Hop socks and some pre-milled specialty grains if you want to modify the flavor a bit like I did with the chocolate malts. Funnel with filter https://www.homebrewing.org/10-Funnel…
Bottling Bucket https://www.homebrewing.org/65-Gallon…
Flying Dog – Raging Bitch Belgian IPA
I haven’t had one of these Belgian IPA Craft beers in years as they are no longer available in my neck of the woods but after scoring one on a recent trip to North Carolina I grabbed one and now wish I had grabbed a full 6 pack! If you like Belgian beers and IPA beers you must try this. Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA is an amazing beer coming in a 8.3% abv with a nice caramel malt backbone it is very smooth for a Belgian but doesn’t lack on flavor in both the malts and hops areas. I would assume that the Warrior hops are used for bittering as they are great bittering hop and the Columbus and Amarillo compliment the aromatics and flavors given off by the Belgian “El Diablo” yeast and coming in at a conservative 60 IBU this is an amazing IPA and the Belgian yeast simply adds to it, help it to stand out from the crowd. If you have been hesitant in trying this you are missing out and should grab a 6 pack the next time you see this great craft beer. Maybe grab 2 – 6 packs and send me one.
Flying Dog Raging Bitch Belgian IPA
Mango Crush Session Sour Ale by Southern Tier Brewing Company
I am not a big mango fan or sour fan, I must say this is an amazing brew and would buy another 6 pack in a heartbeat as the mango was nice and the sour was mild. This lighter Gose style ale coming in at 4% abv is brewed with mango puree and lactose. As you can see in the photo in comes in a very transparent golden hue with a nice mild sweetness and no real bitterness to take note of. I was amazed at how smooth and pleasant the ripe mango flavors came across. According to Southern Tier this is a limited release from April to August for availability. I would say this would be a first round for the evening or even a great session beer for the hotter days of Spring and early Summer with lots of flavor without being overpowering.
Mango Crush by Southern Tier
Hefeweizen – Grain to Glass brewed on a Grainfather – Part 1 of 2
Hefeweizen / Weissbier – Grain to Glass brewed on a Grainfather – Part 1 of 2 This was the last time my Grainfather actually worked without issues before deciding to replace it with an Anvil Foundry. I had to use up 3 lbs of Wheat extract I got for cheap during the holidays.
Hefee Recipe: – 5.1 % abv – (1.052 OG (What I hit was OG of 1.049 with an FG of 1.010)) – 14.4 IBU
3 Lbs Wheat LME 2 3/4 lbs Pilsner
12 oz Cra-Pils
8 oz Carahell
6 oz Acid Malt
4 oz Honey Malt
1 oz Hallertauer Hops 3.8% alpha acid at 90 mins
Whitelabs WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale yeast
0.8 tsp of Amylase to help the LME
0.5 tsp of Wyeast yeast nutrient
Mash steps (I treated it like real wheat so the 112 could be skipped and the 122 F if you don't like your beer as dry as I do but your abv might end up closer to 4.5%)
112 F for 20 mins
122 F for 20 mins
148 F for 20 mins
Mash out at 168 F for 10 mins