When I was sorting through some empties to sanitize I struck gold – a 500ml bottle of Cervesa that has been aging since early May! Be cracking that tonight.
As well, I’ll be posting some commentary shortly on ANBL / Public Safety issuing a surprise rule concerning and adversely affecting craft brewers who wish to sell brew on premises to consume off premise.
Today I cleaned the pool and bbq and wetted the whistle afterwards with some great beer from PEI:
I took a few months off brewing after moving the brewery to the garage and now I need beer…
On Sunday I brewed up a Muntons light lager I got from Sean at Wine Kitz East and tonight I’m racking it to the secondary then bottling this weekend. Might crack a bottle on NB Day as I mow the lawn…
Big beer brewer Budweiser was in town to sponsor a street hockey game on the only street called “Hockey Street” in all of Canada. I didn’t know until it was over and didn’t get to see the infamous Red Zeppelin blimp either, bummer! Although we’re a Moosehead town, when it comes to macrobreweries, Budweiser probably enjoyed a good audience because they likely have a good share of the local market for North American style lagers.
In NB…
Picaroon’s hosted the Canadian Brewing Awards in Fredericton last night and brought home a bronze in the Blonde category.. I’m sure Moosehead entered some beers but not sure about our locals Big Tide Brew Pub and Hammond River Brewing.
Moosehead had 3 booths at the Atlantic Beer Festival in Moncton showcasing their line up of beers and ciders including some hoppies like Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA and HopBot IPA intended to capture the attention of craft beer drinkers.
As for me, I enjoyed the last of my Imperial Blonde Ale and didn’t do much in my brewery other than adding a food dehydrator the equipment list. This afternoon I’ll be bottling the West Coast style IPA and planning out the equipment, process and schedule for my home barley malting project.
Transferring to the secondary - don't fear the foam!
Beautiful yeast cake but not ready to learn how to make a starter 😦
All set for 4-5 days, smells delicious
The secret project...
Had an old dead refrigerator in the garage so I decided to clean it out and use it as a ferm chamber. I was using the existing light fixture but found it was a bit too slow. So when I saw a brooder lamp on the shelf at my favorite DIY supplies shop I grabbed it along with a spring form cake pan. All for $10 and it works very well with a 60 watt bulb ( I removed the red 175 W heat bulb…).
This is a pretty simple set up compared to some more geeky ones with software controlled fans etc… But overall, I now have a place to house my fermenter and sanitized equipment in my brewspace. Over the summer I’ll improve it like maybe add side wall for hooks to hang stuff and to properly mount the t-stat mid way in the chamber.
This afternoon I’m doing a Best Case DIY Craft beer kit – Cascade West Coast Pale Ale. This beer appears to be no longer listed on their site but the Noble Grape (where I bought the kit a few weeks back) still has a description:
“Crisp, clean & well balanced with lots of hops!
West Coast Pale Ale is different enough from its British cousin to have gained its own designation as a “classic style”. Golden in colour, This crisp, clean beer has a floral aroma from the distinctly North American Cascade hops. Unlike British pale ales, strong fermentation characteristics (esters) are not a hallmark of this style. Serve cold, 36-45° F.
Ingredients: Malts- Dextrine, Light Crystal Malt, Light Malt Extract. Hops- 100% Cascade. Yeast- Nottingham.”
Anyhoo, I’ll post a review when it’s done.
The set-up
Don’t hang your finishing hops like this – you’ll burn the hopsock!
I finished with the wort going into the fermenter at an OG of 1.050 which is in line with this style. According to the IBU calculator it should be about 39 IBU or so.
portcitybrewer 