Twenty Eleven Recap: #6 – Six Batches Brewed

I brewed up 6 different batches of beer in 2011. Home brewing is much like role playing — both require some upfront effort but the rewards are excellent. Occasionally you brew up a dud but like a bad session, you just move on to the next.

I’m in the process of setting up for all grain brewing, which will greatly expand the possibilities in 2012. A few posts will adorn these walls but are appropriately not tagged role playing and thus not aggregated by the RPGBA. You’ll have to visit often or subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to see them.

Beer

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Brewing Time & Some Miscellania

Let there be home brew. The weather has cooled off. Snow is falling. For me, that means brewing season is full swing. I could brew year around but the cooler fall and winter prompt me more than any other time of year. Perhaps the lack of daylight and looking forward to Old Guys Gaming provides the necessary spark.

I like a range of beers but for home brewing I lean toward porters and stouts. The first fall batch is an oatmeal stout. Of all stouts, oatmeal recipes make me salivate. I like the flavor profile — smooth, dark along with a shades of breakfasts from my childhood. When it comes to beer, I leave the experiments to occasional six-packs and brew masters. My recipes come in kit form from one of many home brew suppliers on the internet and local merchants. The stout is from the fine folks of Austin Homebrew Supply.

The next beers on tap for brewing is a porter. For some reason, a flavored one struck my fancy so it will be a Raspberry Porter. After reading through the reviews, the berry can be overwhelming so I will halve the contents called for the recipe. I want a hint of raspberry not a dominant presence. It still sounds tasty. Looking forward to trying it. #3 on the brewlist is a summer ale. I like the spice in Sam Adams Summer Ale. I brewed a clone last year which was pretty good. This year, I’m going for a Belgian style ale with similar highlights. Nothing crisper than a summer ale on a warm spring day.

Blog wise, I’m in the midst of cleaning out the most recent set of dead links. I’m also cleaning up a few generators which have no audience or I failed to finish. Those I purge will redirect to the original content providers, where possible. A few dangling posts associated with the same content will also be eliminated. Minor stuff but a few people may see items disappear they’ve used in the past.

Finally, I signed up for a game of ROTWORLD. The pre-generated character was targeted as a good ole boy / redneck. I modeled it after the coolest redneck I know. Ferocious attitude with a big heart. Looking forward to the game. The other players have generated great concepts as well so the party dynamic should be fantastic.

Character Portrait

That’s the “portrait” I used for Kenneth “Syrus” Halbert. If some fool snuck in my house and painted a door like that, I’d be pissed off at the world for a while. Syrus is chuck full of bad attitude but has a softer side as well. Should be entertaining to see how the gruff exterior meets the new reality… Syrus has the benefit of having some wheels. A Ford truck of unspecified nature. I picked this one.

Orange is the New Black

Too stereotyped? Could be. I’ll stick with my choices.

Bottling the Blackberry Mead

After five months, my test batch of blackberry mead has finished fermenting. One gallon batches take quite a while to bottle given the small volume of end product. Sanitizing absorbed the bulk of the time.

The mead tastes decent but is still raw. Hopefully it will mellow with age.

Preparing to Bottle

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Mead Update: Blackberry Melomel Racked Again

My latest brewing supply order arrived today. I picked up another two 1-gallon jugs, some caps, and an auto-siphon. The blackberry mead fermentation has slowed down and I wanted to do one more racking to eliminate the majority of the sediment. I’ve avoided buying an auto-siphon due to mixed reviews. Mine worked wonderfully even if it was designed for full carboys and not minimal 1 gallon batches of mead.

The blackberry mead tastes okay. Likely needs a lot more ageing. The singular task before I bottle is patience. I also spent a couple extra dollars and bought additional cheap airlocks and drilled stoppers. The happy balloons worked okay but I trust airlocks. Especially since the mead wont hit the bottles until late fall. In the spring, I can have a mead tasting / gaming session.

Cell phone images will have to suffice. The other camera batteries need charged. Again.
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