Messages

1006

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: July 03, 2012, 08:04:30 PM »

Silent Scream - Slayer

1007

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: July 03, 2012, 07:44:15 PM »

Steel That Sleeps the Eye - Baroness

1008

Beer Recipes / Re: Strawberry Blonde

« on: July 03, 2012, 07:13:56 PM »

Not to thread hijack, but are the olive nation extracts a similar potency of other brands. I.e., is 2-4oz the general ballpark for a fair amount of fruit flavor in a 5-gallon batch of something light like an American Wheat?

The prices look pretty good, and I wouldn't mind snagging some just to have on hand in case I decide to get creative on a whim.

1009

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Dealing with trub

« on: July 03, 2012, 06:26:28 PM »

Anyone ever try cheesecloth? I generally do 3 gallon batches and just pour the whole thing through my carboy funnel that has a very fine mesh screen. The problem is that the screen becomes seriously clogged quick and it ends up taking forever to get all my wort into the fermenter. I was thinking of pouring through a strainer lined with cheesecloth in the future, but I'm not sure if that is either too fine or too coarse.

1010

Other Fermentables / Archer Farms - Raw Organic Wildflower Honey

« on: July 03, 2012, 06:18:22 PM »

I was just in my local Target and saw that their store-brand organic wildflower honey is on sale for #3.49/12oz (works out to $4.65/lb). I pay around $7 a pound for local wildflower honey, so this is a pretty decent price. Anyone ever use this for mead? Most of their Archer Farms products are pretty good, so I'm thinking of springing for some to try it out.

1011

Beer Recipes / Re: Strawberry Blonde

« on: July 03, 2012, 11:55:04 AM »

Depending on the strawberry season in your area, you may be able to snap up some super-ripe strawberries from a local farm or farmers market. There is a huge difference in flavor with strawberries once they have gotten nice and ripe, and that will carry through to your beer. If you're using frozen strawberries from the grocery store I would really be afraid that 1 lb/gal won't be enough.

1012

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

« on: July 02, 2012, 07:40:07 PM »

I'm still not sure how I stand on sour beers in general, but I just cracked into this and it's a really nice beer. I'm impressed by how much malt I can still get through the sourness. There's a nice pretzely note in there that comes through the tartness. I think I dig the Rodenbach a bit more, but this is still a damn fine beer. Mouthwatering, that's for damn sure 

1013

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: July 02, 2012, 05:03:01 PM »

Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World - U2

1014

The Pub / Re: Samuel Adams sharing hops again

« on: July 02, 2012, 05:01:28 PM »

Damn, I just had visions of an IIPA with 10 pounds of Citra and 20 pounds of Simcoe just for the sheer outlandishness of it. Either that or turning my entire bottling bucket into a giant Randall...

1015

Beer Recipes / Re: Hoptoberfest?

« on: July 02, 2012, 02:03:46 PM »

I love a good malty lager as well. I'm thinking more along the lines of adding malty lager characteristics to a pale ale, as opposed to hopping-up an easy-drinking lager.

1016

All Things Food / Re: Foie Gras in California

« on: July 02, 2012, 10:10:06 AM »

Euge, you should try this place.
http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/
check out the foie gras section on the menu.

I'm not a huge foie gras fan (not for any reason other than I've tried it a few times and it really didn't do much for me), but "Poutine au foie gras" totally has my interest piqued. (As does the duck carpaccio and the bison tartare, but that's a bit off-topic)

1017

Beer Recipes / Re: What makes a good Saison?

« on: July 02, 2012, 05:08:04 AM »

On the high temp thing, don't over do that either. I pitched at 68 and let it rise up to 72 by the end but it is a very clean flavour even while having lots of nice aroma and spice.

This is good to hear. This is the one thing that's been keeping me waffling on doing a saison. I doubt I can get stable ferm temps much higher than the mid-70's even with my brew belt.

1018

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

« on: July 01, 2012, 08:58:38 PM »

What a coincidence. I just made a beer pilgrimage today to stock up on some brews. I ended up going all-Belgian style. I haven't experienced much sour beer, so I grabbed a couple to get my feet wet. The Monk's Cafe Sour was one of them, and I'm really enjoying a Rodenbach as we speak. I'm digging it so much, that the Monk's Cafe is going in the fridge for tomorrow night as soon as I'm done typing this.    Can't wait to try it.

Here's a pic of my haul from today:

1019

Beer Recipes / Hoptoberfest?

« on: July 01, 2012, 08:39:28 PM »

I just tried Stoudt's Smooth Hoperator today and I really liked the combo of malty lager with a nice hoppiness to it. Sort of like the advanced-class version of Sam Boston Lager. It instantly got me thinking of how I'd want to approach that style. I was thinking of doing a Maerzen hopped to roughly the level of an APA and possibly with some dry hopping as well. Does anyone have any experience/recipes for something like this? Would it be as simple as taking a basic Ofest recipe and applying my standard APA hopping regime to it?

1020

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Re: Yeast recommendations for hoppy pale ale split-batch

« on: June 30, 2012, 05:22:32 AM »

i'm doing a 100% brett b apricot pale ale right now.  i'll let you know how it turns out.  i brewed it this past sunday and it's still going right along.

One reason I'm on the fence about using Brett is that I want to taste all the beers side by side and I want to dry hop them all. If the Brett beer takes much longer to ferment than the other yeasts then it might be tough to time so I get a true apples-to-apples comparison. I'll be curious to see when your brett PA hits its final gravity.