At AHS, we picked up some supplies for my next two batches. After asking for the wisdom of my Facebook friends in helping me come up with the next beer to be brewed, I settled on an Imperial IPA (also known as a Double IPA). I did some googling on IIPA recipes, and found this article by Vinnie Cilurzo on brewing Double IPAs. Vinnie is the owner of the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA, the makers of the Pliny the Elder Double IPA, which has the top ranking on Beer Advocate. So, a good guy to get beer brewing advice from. In that article is his all-grain recipe for a 5-gallon batch of Pliny the Elder. I decided that I'd start with that recipe and tweak it some, to reflect my own hop preferences. First, I had to convert it to extract, since I haven't gone to all-grain yet. With the help of Beersmith 2, I came up with this:
Grain Bill
11lbs Extra Pale LME
10oz Crystal Malt 20L
10oz Carapils Malt
3/4lb corn sugar
Hop Schedule
4oz Chinook - 90min
.75oz Chinook - 45min
1.25oz Simcoe - 30min
.75oz Centennial - 0min
2.5oz Simcoe - 0min
1oz Chinook, 1oz Simcoe, 1oz Centennial dry hopped for 12-14 days
.25oz Chinook, .25oz Simcoe, .25oz Centennial dry hopped for the last 5 days
Yeast
While Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast
Basically, I substituted Chinook for Columbus and messed with the amounts to come out with even numbers, so I wouldn't be short or over by getting 1oz bags of hops at AHS. I'll be sure to report back once it's ready to drink in a couple of months.
We also got AHS's Magic Hat #9 clone kit, since that's my wife's favorite beer. Hopefully it turns out good!
After the homebrew store, we met my parents at their house and headed out to the Jester King Brewery. It was not at all what I expected. I've been to several small breweries for tours, and I was expecting more of what I had seen at those. 50 people at most, more there for the free (or cheap) beer at the end of the tour than the tour itself. At Jester King, there were a few hundred people out there. It must be the "in" place to go for Austin-area hipsters, because I was surrounded by them! For as many people there were, though, the people pouring did a great job cycling everyone through the tap room. We were in line for maybe 15 minutes before we walked away with 10 different beers between the four of us. You can get anything from a 4oz sample all the way to a 175ml bottle. They also had an outdoor pouring station with a smaller selection of their beers. The outside area has a bunch of picnic tables, and it was a beautiful day, so we found an empty one and started testing out beers.
Now, not only is it not your normal brewery as far as tours go. They are a farmhouse brewery, and their beers are not your normal everyday beers, even for craft beer lovers. They ferment with farmhouse and wild yeast strains, as well as souring bacteria in many of their beers. They also use local well water and all organic grains and hops. The result is a wide spectrum of flavors, many not found in more "traditional" beers. Some of their beers can be quite sour. You really need to go in with an open mind! I liked pretty much everything I tasted. The Noble King, Black Metal, and RU55 were my favorites. My parents and wife all liked Mad Meg. They also sell bottles to go, so if you find something you like, you can pick up some to take home!
Once we got back to my in-laws' house Saturday evening, I started playing around with beer labels on http://www.grogtag.com/. Erin had seen a display setup for them at AHS, and grabbed a card that had a code for a 10% discount. They produce custom, reusable beer bottle labels. You can pick from any of their pre-made labels, or design your own. I used one of their pre-made labels where you can upload your own background and came up with this for my IIPA:
Charge Eight refers to the max charge on a M119A2 howitzer. I thought it was a fitting name for an in-your-face Imperial IPA.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Super Bowl weekend. Is baseball season here yet?
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