Twas the day before the night before Christmas.. Bubba's Brew

A few months ago my friend Lauren asked me to do some work on her car. She offered to pay but I gave her the standard friend price of "just buy me some beer". Being the bitch she is, she also got me a gift card to Midwest Supplies. Her request was to brew a beer "with a kick ass name". After a few ideas, I came up with Bubba's Brew. My typical recipe design process goes: Style of beer to make, Name, Research and build the recipe. Let's go back to the beginning of August.

The place that changed it all

Back in August Erin and I did our East Coast Invasion to visit our friends Bobby and Heather for their wedding. Part of the east coast trip was to go up to Maine to visit a large amount of breweries. As many of you know, I hate(d) Belgium beers. I think it was the fact that I never found one that I actually liked. I also really didn't care for the after-taste of most Belgium beers (called "spicy"). When the four of us walked into Allagash Brewing I quickly noticed all the beers were Belgium style beers. Shit. It was our first brewery of three for the day. I always try to go into new foods and beer with an open mind. Even though I thought I'd hate the beers, I tried them anyways. Allagash's staple beer is called "Allagash White". That beer changed my beer life. Seriously, no shit. I finally found a Belgium I liked. Hell, I loved it. It was love at first sip. The more and more I had that beer, the more and more I loved it. By the time we left our vacation I was on a mission to find something like Allagash out here in Minnesota. Nothing quite like Allagash White, but I've found a few good brews (Avery White Rascal is up there).

Allagash Test Brewery and where it all started for them. Looks like my buddy Ted's setup. 

Fast forward to now. So, Bubba's Brew. First off, let's have a look at that big boy. 

Bubba and Lauren aka Mom

Bubba is a white miniature bulldog. Being an all white dog, it made it easy for me to decide to make a Belgium White with Allagash White as my inspiration. Now, if I thought that Allagash White was a tasty beer, I got a lot more respect for it when I started researching and figured out how tricky it is to make a quality Belgium beer. I'll tell you this much, to do it right this shit is not easy. Longer mash times, longer batch times, longer boil times. Everything just takes longer. So after googling around I found a thread on some forum where someone actually contacted one of the Allagash brewers to find out the grain bill for their white. Awesome! Now I have a great plan of attack for making mine. Some of the other tricks to a quality Belgium is using ingredients I've never used before such as bitter orange peel and coriander seed. Before starting any of this, I need to make a yeast starter. 

Yeah... dirty desk. 

I made the yeast starter 2 days before. I started the brew day knowing that things would be longer. With some changes to the brewing setup to fix my thermometer issues, I found that I'm actually able to heat up my strike and batch water quicker. I was very happy to see everything moving smoothly. I also ran with two thermometers to make sure everything was correct temp wise. I was very happy to see everything was spot on. 

Temp Gauge mounted to side of the kettle. I should have done this a long time ago

Brew day setup. Hot Liquid tank on the burner, Mash tun (orange cooler) and the boil kettle on the ground

Items used on Bubba's Brew. White bag is Belgium Rock Candi

Inside the mash tun. Smells great

First run off of the mash

Another shot of the first run off of the mash

The boil

Now, from my last entry you all read about how I was happy I was finally able to hit my numbers again. Well everyone, for this brew not only did I hit my numbers but I actually did better then I expected. I pulled more sugars off the grains then I expected. There's something called brewing efficiency which I believe I've talked about before. I have my brewing software setup for a 70% efficiency. I actually hit 75% which made me happy. With hitting the better numbers, Bubba's brew is looking to be a strong beer. I had an original gravity (O.G.) of 1.064. Depending on how the beer finish out, I'm look at what could be a 7% abv beer. Damn. Strongest beer made by me yet if it does hit that number. 

I think your beer will taste better ;)

Prost!

-Ryan

Back in Business

Greetings All

So after taking a year and a half off, I've once again brewed a helle. I finally got off my ass and brewed my "What the Helle". I designed this recipe shortly after switching to all grain, yet never got around to brewing it. I do want to dive in a little deeper why. I'm going to apologize now for going emo on you all. 

As I may have explained in some of my past posts along with emails to brewing friends and talking to others, I've been having major temperature issues. Why this is such a big issue is because temperature of the grain during the mash process allows the grain to convert to sugars. Too high temp or too low temp and the sugar conversion either won't happen or won't have as much sugar converted. Sugar conversion is measured in what's called gravity. The brewing software I use will give me an estimated original (beginning) gravity. It's not a big deal to be plus or minus say 5 points or so, but I've been low. I'm not talking 5, 10, or even 15 points low, I'm talking 20 to 40 points low. This is just horrible. Honestly this issue has been playing games with my head and been kind of bumming me out on my brewing ability. What is causing this temperature issue is my thermostats keep crapping out on me.

I went a little overboard to compensate for my problem. I installed Blichmann Brewmometers in my hot liquid tank and brew kettle. Along with that I've been running two thermometers while mashing. 

Shitty cellphone picture. Up yours broken thermometers

Well, that fixed my issue. "What the Helle" had an est original gravity of 1.056, I hit 1.054. You have no clue how good that makes me feel. I actually have a new found urge to brew more. I'm actually pretty excited. 

On a side note I just kegged up the Sophie Stout. Should be interesting to see how it tastes. I'll do another later this winter that isn't messed up. 

Prost!

-Ryan

Movember Wrap-up

Greetings,

While readers, I made it. I wanted to shave off that stash a few different times but Erin was always supportive and told me to remember why I'm doing it. In the end I raised $195. I want to personally thank my brother Scott, Brian G, and Nuong. Also I'd like to thank my coworker Emilo who grew a stash with me. While I know mine isn't very noticeable, I can't help I have blonde hair. Enjoy some pictures.

On a brewing update. I brewed Sophie stout again. Of course the thermometer gods once again were pissed off at me. I had yet another one break on me and I didn't notice until too late. Totally missed my numbers. Fool me once, shame on you.. Fool me twice, shame on me. Time to start running multiple thermometers. I can understand why people drop big cash on nice digital ones. Think I might have to ask for something like this for Christmas, or the Thermapen that I know lots of people run. 

Prost!

-Ryan