The Beer League

us beerleague folk have been seriously lacking lately, on both brewing and posting, but most of all posting.  well, our slacking period has come to an end, at least for now.  it’s hit the time for us to prepare for the annual st paddy’s day event!  between 6 different brewers we’ve got quite a selection of beers planned out, 3 of which gerry and i will be brewing.  today we started on the blonde ale, which will eventually be dry-hopped with cascade and centennial to become another version of the “hop on your blonde” that we made last summer.  tasty stuff!

we planned to get started at 9am, that is until we went downstairs this morning to find that we were out of propane.  we had totally forgotten.  so we made a trek down the st to rocky’s to fill up both our tanks, as well as pick up an extra adapter for the water filter since the one we previously used was attached to chris’ equipment that he took home weeks ago.   so while gerry went inside to find the adapter and pay the nicy lady for the propane, i was left to deal w/ the propane filler guy.  now that was a fun experience.. kinda odd actually, but entertaining at least.  it was an older dude who was quick to tell me that it’s far too cold to be cooking outside.  to which i responded, “but we’re making beer, and it’s never too cold to brew beer outside!”  and from that point he delightfully walked me over to the filling station while regaling me with tales of his wine making experiences and how he has led a happy and fulfilled life to the point where he could die tomorrow and be happy.  good for him.  but on to our fun and happy experiences of brewing beer…

so we were only set off by a half hour, not too bad.  in fact, we’re making great time.  we popped open an aventinus eisbock to share for breakfast after we slugged down some coffee and started the boil when we returned home.

here’s gerry dumping the initial hot water to preheat the cooler.

this is me vorlaufing

and then gerry forgot to close the valve when he poured the boiling water in, so he’s trying to skim the grain out of the kettle

measuring our efficiency w/ the refractometer, pre-boil

and we’re at 12 bricks, which is 75% efficiency

oh and then there’s me vorlaufing for the second time around

our ghetto brew setup in the snow

tasting the barley juice.. fucking delicious!!

and now we’re just waiting the hour or so for it to boil.  we added the willamette hops a little while ago.   then we need to chill it to 67 degrees, rack it to a carboy, then pitch the yeast from a 2000ml starter.  yay beer!  when it’s done fermenting we’ll rack it to a keg and then dry hop for about a week.  then we’ll rack it to another keg and lager it until st. paddy’s.  this should be a good beer for folks at the party who don’t enjoy the traditional irish stout. 

and now i’m to shower while the the boiling is finishing up.  we’ve got a few beer geek friends/guests stopping by for a peek at the brew and to sample some beverages while on their way up to the noho/amherst area to some of favorite beer haunts.

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