Beer Diary...

I'll be participating in the 'Big Brew' event this coming weekend of May 2 nd along with several other Zymurgeek club members http://www.zymurgeeks.org/ We'll be setting up our rigs in the parking lot of one of the micro- breweries here, the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Co. http://www.santacruzmountainbrewing.com/ at 9am. I decided to brew the recommended Saison recipe that is posted at the Brewers Association web site http://beertown.org/events/bigbrew/ but with a few modifications to suit a couple needs. One being a personality traits that can only be described as 'cheap', the other is th e need to use the materials that I have on hand. For the cheap part, I have decided to just get some oatmeal and puffed wheat from the grocery store instead of paying more for flaked oats and flaked wheat at the local home brew store. Secondly, and this may also fall into the cheap category , I don't have any 'Vienna' grain and can't get it before Satur...

It was necessary to substitute some hops in my Double India Pale Ale recipe and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome using the hops with the lemony flavor. Normally, I use a lot of Warrior, Simcoe and Columbus in this brew but I had a difficult time finding any Warrior or Simcoe this time around so I had to come up with an alternative plan. I had heard a lot about the new Sorachi Ace hop that claims to have a distinct lemon flavor and aroma and d ecided to give it a try along with some reliable standards (Cascade and Amarillo) to formulate a strong IPA recipe. Well, this is a great beer and it is true that the Sorachi imparts a serious dose of lemony goodness. I also used the 'Wet' dry hopping schedule on this beer with excellent results. For 10 gallons of beer: Mash 23lbs. 2-row 1.5lbs. Carapils .5lbs. Cry #60 3 ozs . Sorachi Ace hops (in mash) in 7.5 gals. H2O @ 152f. with 2 tsp. gypsum for 60 mins . 85% efficiency Boil for 90 mins (180 IBU's ) 1oz. Cascade ...

In an effort to create community and to support a local business, the Zymurgeek homebrew club http://www.zymurgeeks.org/ gave a presentation Wednesday night at the Capitola Book Cafe http://www.capitolabookcafe.com/ drawing a large and supportive crowd. With the rapid expansion of on-line book sales through businesses like Amazon and mega retail ers like Borders, the small local book stores are fighting an up hill battle to keep their customer loyalty and entice new patrons. As unfortunate as this is, it is becoming the norm regarding small, independent retailers of all kinds and can be seen in every town in America. It seems the days of small town America are over. I'm not going to belabor a point that has been hashed and re-hashed in the daily news and blog forums and is obvious to most but, I will point out that when a person buys goods on line or from a gianormous box store, the money spent leaves the community, etching away at the local commerce. This erosion of the loca...

Just a short note for all of the readers that are living in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay area. The 5 day intensive home brewing classes will begin the last weekend of May and I would encourage those of you that missed the deadline last September, to sign up early. Go here http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/extension/culinary.html to register. I hope to see you there.

Hello, my name is Mark and I'm a 'hop head'. I have to admit, when it concerns my pale ales, a serious charge of late addition hops is a flavor I relish in my west coast style ales. I really enjoy my India Pale Ales and double IPA's and sometimes (depending on the recipe) my pale ales with an addition of hops in the keg after carbonation. My dry hopping proce dures have gone through an evolution over the years and for the moment, I believe I have reach the apex of my late hopping success. As I consider my earlier brewing experiences, I recall my original technique was to place a fist full of pellet hops in a hop bag, drop in a kitchen utensil like a table knife (don't tell my wife) to weight it down and wedge the bag into the carboy I used as my secondary fermenter . At the time, it served me relatively well. That was during the short and painful period that I bottled my beer. As time went on, the kegerator pushed bottling out of the equation and I opted for going...

The Zymurgeeks homebrew club http://www.zymurgeeks.org/ met at my house a couple of weeks ago and afterwords it got me thinking about the value and importance of brewing clubs and why I think a homebrewer should join their local brew club. When I first started brewing beer at home I heard through the local homebrew store that a homebrewers group existed in the area. I'm not much of a joiner and tend to be suspicious of the idea that groups of people are able to collectively accomplish anything of value. I tend to be of the opinion that the larger and more urgent the group, the more adverse the impact on the rest of us. So of course I didn't see the point in participating at the time. I'm not sure what compelled me to go to that first meeting, it most likely was cautious curiosity. Whatever the reason, I showed up and let down my guard. In retrospect I now see the importance of involving myself with my fellow homebrewers . A large part of the development of my homebre...

(You can appreciate this page by going to the advertisers. Thanks you for your support.) With some simple tools and a little basic understanding any one can make a sight glass for their keggle or pot in a couple hours time. Below are pictured the parts (sorry about the pic quality) that are available at the local hardware store with the exception of the clear plastic tube which can be found at a plastics place. 3/8" compression 1/2" compression with plastic sleeve and nut 15" of copper pipe 1/2" with 1/2" cap (grind to within 1" at each end) 14 3/4" plastic tubing 1/2" outside dimension 1/2" x 1/2" female elbow 1/2" male pipe thread x 1/2" compression adapter 1/2" male pipe thread x 3/8" compression adapter 1/2" o-ring or similar washer 3/16" eye bolt with 2 nuts The first step is to cut a length of 1/2" copper pipe to 15" and grind the copper down the length so that you go through the pipe leav...