Brew Schedule Update

This week's post will be short and sweet. We recently bottled our Russian Imperial Stout 9*8*7 to continue conditioning for a few weeks prior to the Deep Ellum Labor of Love Homebrew Competition. Just so happens that the only crowns (bottle caps) that our homebrew store had were 'Murican flags! Boom. Freedom.

9*8*7 RIS

We also transferred our wheat beer onto some fresh peaches and apricots. We read that you get better peach flavor and character using apricots instead of peaches, but we didn't really want a cloying-each-sickly-sweet flavor in the beer. We pasteurized and smasherized 1 yellow peach, 1 white peach, and 3 apricots in our 3 gallon batch of wheat beer. We still aren't sure how it will turn out, but everything was tasting right when we were mixing it all together. If it turns out well, I'll post the recipe. If it sucks, we'll just pretend it never happened.

Millions of peaches. Peaches for me.

Into the secondary

I ran out of time and didn't get to brew the Tamarindo Gose early enough so that it would be ready for Labor of Love. Major bummer. I've emailed the event coordinator to see if I can substitute something else, but if not, the RIS will be flying solo into the judges glasses. Fear not, I will try to get it brewed this weekend in time for another competition we have our eyes on, Operation Bravo at the Shannon Brewery in Keller. The competition is Saturday, November 7, and it honors our veterans with great homebrewed beer. More on that at a later date.

Our Pale Ale, which I just realized we haven't named yet...

In the meantime, the Pale Ale we brewed for a friend's bachelor party went over very well! Many of the guys that drink the big 3 said they really enjoyed it, and we floated the 5 gallon keg in just a few hours. I really did enjoy that beer both times that I've brewed it, so I may keep that in rotation for spring and hop the hell out of it at harvest time in the fall. Sadly, my 3 healthy hop vines have been scorched by the ruthless and rainless July, so now we're down to just one little plant. Stay strong little hops! I'm still hoping against hope that I get to use some homegrown hops in one of my beers.

Last but not least, we brewed up 5 gallons of last year's fan favorite (from New Main, at least) Palo Alto Wit. Last year we brewed it with orange and lemon zest, rosemary from a friend's garden, and a small bundle of sage. This time around we tweaked the recipe with the intent of guiding the crazy recipe back towards the actual beer category of Witbier. We subbed the zest for a few hops that will exhibit similar citrus characteristics. We also scaled the rosemary back a little and added coriander. So no, this isn't a thanksgiving dinner beer anymore, not that it ever was, but the weird stuff has been exchanged for better stuff. We'll see how it fares at Labor of Love.

Until next time, keep drinking homebrew and I'll keep brewing it! Also, if there's anything you'd like to read about, leave us a suggestion in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

Today's Main Break: Craft Beer continues to grow in production here in America. Do you think we are headed for a bubble, or are we building the foundation for an expanded market?