Dayton Road Brewing

So long 2010!

2010-12-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

So, I've been using this to log all of the beers I brew, and as you'll see, I've been slacking on documenting. I keep great records in my brew program, but finding time to do a blog post has been rough. So, here's a pile of them all lumped into one blog post (I just brewed 3 more batches today, so I figure it's time to catch up!)

8.6.10 - Double IPA
1076 OG - This was a hop bomb. It also was when I realized I had a bad batch of Cascades from Hops Direct. The beer was drank, and tasted ok, but it had this burnt hop taste to it, overly bitter. The odd thing is, the other beers I used those same cascades in tasted similar. Will try this one again in the future - was nice having a big IPA sipper on tap.

8.27.10 - Oktoberfest Ale
1064 OG - Yes, you heard it right. An Oktoberfest Ale - and probably one of the most popular beers on tap in the DRB in 2010. I'll definitely be making this one again. Fan-freaking tastic. Pilsner, Vienna, Munich and a few other grains make up this beer. Small bittering hop at 60 min., and fermented with Saf 04.

9.15.10 - Pumpkin Pie Ale
1055 OG - Same recipe as last year only I used canned pumpkin in the mash. Did that make a difference? No. Spices are what come through in this beer. Won 2nd place in the Muskrat Mashers Pumpkin Fest competition - the winner was a clovey based pumpkin ale, which was fantastic. Next year.... add some cloves? .. Tried Saf 04 this year also, will probably go back to 05 or something different next year. Seemed to have lost some of the sweet character I felt it should have..

10.11.10 - Thanksgiving Porter
1058 OG - Same recipe as last years only I dialed it down a bit on the grains. Last years came out a bit too high, this years was perfect, very drinkable. In fact I'm enjoying one right now. :)

10.11.10 - Halloween IPA
1055 OG - Same recipe out of Jamil's book (Hopiness is an IPA) - Great recipe. I made this for a party and couldn't end up making the party so I brought the whole keg out to the campfire, along with the TV, invited some friends over and we watched UM lose a football game... but damn, the beer was great!

11.4.10 - American Stout
1068OG - Same recipe as my "West Coast Stout" .. only, I don't know, better this year. I brewed this early to take to the UM vs. MSU outdoor hockey game. It was a hit. Way less "hoppy" than last year.. Last year I brewed it a few weeks before drinking and the hops didn't have time to settle out. This time it sat for over a month and tasted great. So good I had one for breakfast this morning.

11.4.10 - Amarillo Pale Ale
1051OG - This was a simple yet awesome pale ale that I made for the UM vs. OSU football game party. It was a hit, very tasty and very easy to brew. In fact, I'm brewing the same recipe now, but with Citra hops in place of Amarillo's. 9.50 lb. 2-row, 1 lb. C-20. Nugget hops at 60, then a 1 minute, turn off and dh.

12.30.10 - Citra Pale Ale
1042OG - Again, same as the Amarillo Pale, just mixed up the hop additions. Did 1.5 oz of nugget at 60, an ounce at 10, an ounce at 5, an ounce at knock out and will DH an ounce. Should be awesome - anything citra hops touches is awesome.

12.30.10 - Southern English Brown Ale
1044OG - Recipe straight out of Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles. Come to find out, I did a Southern English Brown before, only I used a different recipe. This one I'm a little concerned about the color, it seems really dark but smells awesome. Saf 04 yeast.

12.30.10 - Belgian Wit
1043OG - I'm excited about this one. I brew Belgian Wits often, as they're always a crowd pleaser, only this time I"m using T-58 SafBrew yeast. I've never used it but have heard great things about it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it does, I'm really looking forward to the fermentation, I read some reviews saying it goes crazy... Gotta love a yeast eating sugar party!

Ok folks, that concludes my posts for 2010. If you want more info on any of these recipes, just shoot me an email or leave a comment. If I get time, I'll go through and actually post the recipes with each, but with two kids under 2, getting on a computer for personal usage is tough!

Happy New Year brewers! See you next year.

DRB Weizen

2010-09-01T18:33:00.001-07:00

I wanted a plain ol' wheat beer for some end of summer sipping. This is a really basic recipe, and I used the dry wheat yeast for the first time, which I was impressed with. Great tasting beer, very light, refreshing, clove/banana flavors come through, but aren't too big. Easy, shmeasy, excellent beer.

Fermentables
6 lb. Pilsner
5.25 lb. Wheat

Hops
1.20 oz. Willamette - 4.8% - 60 min.

Yeast
WB-O6 Safbrew

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.4%

RobSlam - Imperial IPA

2010-09-01T18:09:00.001-07:00

I've definitely been on a hop kick this year. I've pretty much had something hoppy on tap non stop in my garage. And with the 3 hour disappearance of the last keg of 60 minute IPA clone, I had already prepared another beer to replace it.
I'd been wanting to do an Imperial IPA for quite some time, and just never had a big enough hop selection on hand to do one. I had accumulated hops I traded for, hops from previous batches, etc., and finally had enough on hand to make a good beer.
The base grain for this recipe is straight out of Brewing Classic Styles. The hop addition, I borrowed from a Pliney the Elder clone. I used different hops, but was pretty aggressive in the styles I chose. Most I researched went well together, so I didn't go too crazy on mixing them up.
I kegged this last night and took a sip from the racking cane, and wow, it about hurt my tongue it was so hoppy. Today, I carbonated it, poured some off and tasted it again. A beautiful white froth head sat on the top of the glass the duration of my sampling. What a fantastic floral citrusy smell this beer has. And the taste is amazing. It reminded me of hopslam, with every sip I took (thus the name), although, that wasn't really what I was going for - but the reason I mention it, is hopslam is one of those double (imperial) IPA's that has an overwhelming hop presence to it, with a minimal malt background. I imagine this is going to settle into a nice beer, but I wouldn't mind if it stayed just how it is now! It's truly a fantastic beer, and one glass is about all you need for an evening. :)

RobSlam - Brewed August 6th, 2010 (no, it's not a Hopslam Clone)
Fermented @ 63-65 degrees
Dryhopped in the primary

Fermentables
15.00 lb - US 2-Row Malt
1/2 lb. Crystal 40
1 lb. Corn Sugar (flame out)

Hops
2 oz. US Nugget 13.0 % - 90 min.
1 oz. Chinook 11.5% - 90 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 8% - 90 min.
1 oz. Simcoe 12.4% - 45 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 8% - 30 min.
1 oz. Cascade 5.4% - 15 min.
1 oz. Cascade 5.4% - 10 min.
1 oz. Cascade 5.4% - 5 min.
1 oz. Nugget 13% - 0 min.
1 oz. Amarillo, 1/2 oz. Chinook, 1/2 Nugget - Dryhop

Yeast
US-O5 SafAle

OG: 1.076
FG: 1.009
ABV: 9%

Amarilla Thrilla!

2010-08-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

Thought I would do a quick post to keep documented the brews I've done this summer. I made a 10 gallon batch of the Three Floyds Gumball Head clone again, and am pretty much through the second keg already. This beer is a great summer beer. For whatever reason, this seasons didn't seem as "hoppy" to me. Probably because I had an IPA on tap at the same time.
I did something a little odd this time. I didn't quite hit my volume and drained a bit too much into a carboy, so I added about a gallon of water to one of the carboys to dilute it some. The diluted batch ended up around 4.5% and actually came out quite light and tasty. I think if I do this one again, I'm going to add more hops so the Amarillo really shines through, and I might just try to make this a little lighter, as the light version this year was so well received.

Click here for the recipe - Three Floyds Gumbal Head Clone.

Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA clone

2010-08-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

I don't drink DFH very often, but if I do, it's usually the 60 minute IPA. Not my favorite IPA, but it's definitely a great example of the style. I had always been intrigued by the labor intensive hop additions in this beer and wanted to try it for myself. I had to make my annual IPA for a friends bday party, so I opted for this clone.

After this was done, I did a side by side comparison. I honestly would say that the two really don't match up. Maybe the bottle of DFH lost it's hop "pop" or something, but the comparison wasn't really close. Mine had a citrus hop burst right up front, with a bitter back end. The malts really didn't shine through. The DFH version had a huge malt up front with a bit of a bitterness at the end. This clone recipe sworn by in the brewing community, so who knows. Maybe the commercial example needs to be fresher for a better comparison. Either way, it's a kick ass IPA, one I'd definitely make again, maybe... The hop additions can get a little repetitious, and for someone like me that has a tough time paying attention longer than 5 minutes.... this brew took some serious concentration. What didn't help was two highschool buddies I hadn't seen in ages, showing up to drink beer in the middle of the brew session.. All was good, I kept setting the timer and kept adding the hops! Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
2-Row - 13 lb.
C-60 - 2 lb.

Hops:
Amarillo, Nugget and Simcoe - .10 oz. each, added: 60, 55, 45, 35, 25, 15, 10, 5. 0 min. was a 1/2 oz of Amarillo.
Dry Hopped with: 1 oz. Amarillo, 1/2 oz. Simcoe

Yeast:
SafAle-05

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.010
ABV: 6%

DRB Cream Ale

2010-08-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make a beer for a work function and actually made this a month or so ago, in preparation for the mid-August party. I made 10 gallons of it and tested the first 5 gallons out at a friends party. 5 gallons were gone in about 3 hours. My test worked! I figured if I could make a craft beer, that wasn't dark, hoppy or thick, people that drink regular beer might dig it. This will especially hold true for the "Bud" drinkers I work with. I was quite impressed with the second round of this beer. The first I had served right off the yeast only 2 weeks after being brewed. It still had a bit of a freshness to it. This second round has a lighter flavor to it and looks beautiful. The head on it is light, white and bubbly. It's a very refreshing beer, oh and by the way, I made this before using all 2-row, I'd definitely suggesting the split with pilsner, it lightened it up quite a bit. Here's the recipe:

Cream Ale (10 gallons)

2-Row - 8 lb.
Pilsner - 8lb.
Flaked Rice - 1.70 lb. (mash)
Corn Sugar - .84 lb. (end of boil)

Hops
Willamette - 4.8AA - 1.60 oz. 60 min.
Willamette - 4.8AA - .80 oz. 1 mins.

Yeast
SafAle US-05 - 2 packets

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.4%

Smokin' Brown Ale

2010-06-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

If I'm not brewing, I'm barbecuing (smoking meat using a smoker). I just love the smoked flavor that comes from the wood used in the smoking process. A while ago, I made a smoked porter, and although it was good, it didn't quite have the level of smokiness I desired.
While shopping at Titgemeiers a while back, I stumbled on some Briess Cherry Smoked malt. I picked up a few pounds for an eventual smoked beer. I finally constructed the recipe using a basic American Brown Ale. I took out some of the 2-Row and replaced it with 3lbs. of the smoked grain. Here's the recipe:

Smokin' Brown Ale

Fermentables:
8 lb. 2-Row
3 lb. Briess Cherry Smoked Malt
.50 lb. C-40
.50 lb. Biscuit
.50 lb. Wheat
.25 lb. CaraMunich 60
.25 lb. Chocolate

Hops:
1.10 oz. Goldings - 5.0% AA

Yeast:
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale (starter from Fred)

OG: 1.059
FG: 1.007
ABV: 6.9%

The beer came out pretty good. It has a really nice level of smokiness to it, probably just a tad too much, but it's still very drinkable. If I were to make it in the future, I might cut back a pound of it for more of a subtle smoke flavor, this recipe is more of an in your face smoke smell and taste, but again, it's a really unique style and I've really been enjoying a pint here and there. From what I'm told, the smoke flavor level in my version is not even close to that of a German Rauchbier.. I've gotta try one of those someday..

One more thing to add, the yeast used in this beer came from Brad @ Original Gravity. He had a couple leftover packs of Wyeast. Fred on our club was gracious enough to build a 5 gallon starter which we all split up. Thanks everyone.

Oh yeah, pictured is my new smoker, which, has nothing to do with this batch of beer, I'm just proud of it. I do plan on smoking some grains with it in the future for another smoked recipe. I did however enjoy some smoked ribs from this smoker, with the smoked Brown Ale, and the match was perfect!

Citra-Rillo IPA (AHA Big Brew Day Batch)

2010-06-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Edit: adding to this post that, this is by far one of the very best beers I've ever made. Save this recipe, it's freaking amazing! Great citrus burst of hops with a refreshing low malt finish. WOW. (6.30.10)

A couple posts back, I posted on an IPA I made for the new kids arrival. During the process of making that beer, I screwed up a bit. I had wrote down the wrong grain bill and ended up replacing honey malt grains for Munich. Once I figured out what I did, I re-ground grains for that batch, and set the honey malt grains aside thinking I'd give the bag of grains away or toss them.

After a lot of research, everyone (of course) told me to "Relax, have a homebrew and brew it anyway.." Since I didn't have anything else prepared for Big Brew Day, I decided on using these grains for an IPA. I've been loving the Citra hops lately, so I picked some up along with some Amarrillo's and brewed this IPA on the lawn of Harbor Inn & Ale. For those of you that weren't there, this beer was chilled and carboy'd in about 15 minutes, as I had received "THE" phone call that my wife was in labor!

Citra-Rillo India Pale Ale

Fermentables:
11 lb. 2-Row
2 lb. Honey Malt
.50 lb. C-40
.50 lb. Wheat

Hops:
1 oz. Magnum 12.2% - 60 min.
1 oz. Citra 11.1% - 30 min.
1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.6% - 10 min.
1/2 oz. Citra 11.1% - 10 min.
1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.6 % - 5 min.
1/2 oz. Citra 11.1% - 5 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 8.6% - 0 min.
1/2 oz. Citra 11.1% - 0 min.
1 oz. Citra 11.1% - Dry Hopped
1 oz. Amarillo 8.6% - Dry Hopped

Yeast:
WLP001 - California Ale (starter)

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.008
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 103.2

This beer is a hop bomb. I've kegged it but have only tasted it during transfer and as you can imagine, it tastes amazing. All the worrying I did about the honey malt making this too sweet - not even a problem. Looking forward to sitting down to a cold carbonated pint. Once some space in the fridge clears, I'll be putting this one on tap.. hopefully soon!!

Belgian Summer Ale

2010-05-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

I saved the yeast from my Belgian Pale, made a starter with it and decided to make a light Belgian White ale with it. Typically, white's use a "wit" yeast, but i really liked the flavor of the pale, and thought it would work well in a wit. It fermented out well and tastes wonderful. I probably could have upped the spices just a bit, but it's nice and light and has some nice light citrus spice flavors to it. I dug around and sort of used most of the ingredients in an Alligash White clone. I'm debating on when to put this on tap, it's ready, I just have run out of keg space.. a great problem to have! :)

Fermentables
6.75 lb. German Pilsner
4.25 lb. Wheat
.75 lb. Cara Vienna

Hops
1 oz. Golding 5.5% - 60 min
1/2 oz. Willamette - 4.5% - 60 min
1/2 oz. Willamette - 4.5% - 1 min

Spices
.30 oz - Coriander
.30 oz. Ginger
.30 oz. Orange peel
(all added at knock out)

Yeast
Wyeast 3655 Belgian Schelde

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.007
ABV: 6.4%

NKOTB IPA

2010-05-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

I brewed this beer with intentions on having it ready by the time the new kid arrived home, but I got busy and haven't started the dry hopping yet, plus this sucker bubbled well over two weeks. I plan to do the dry hopping today. I did this IPA more to use up some hops I had in the freezer. I tasted it, and so far it tastes awesome. The dry hops should finish this off to make it perfect. I have a similar recipe that I brewed on Big Brew Day that I'll be posting later, I think it's destined I tweak this recipe to perfection and name it after the new kid on the block!

NKOTB IPA

US 2-Row Malt - 11.00 lb
US Munich 10L Malt - 2.00 lb
Crystal 20L Malt - 0.50 lb
US White Wheat Malt - 0.50 lb

60 Min - US Magnum - 12.1 % - 1.00 oz
20 Min - US Cascade - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
20 Min - US Willamette - 4.5 % - 0.50 oz
10 Min - US Cascade - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
10 Min - US Willamette - 4.5 % - 0.50 oz
5 Min - US Cascade - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
5 Min - US Willamette - 4.5 % - 0.50 oz
0 Min - US Cascade - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
0 Min - US Willamette - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
DH - US Cascade - 4.5 % - 1.00 oz
DH - US Centennial - 8.5% - 1.00 oz

Yeast - SafAle 05

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.008
ABV: 6.9%

Hop Head Fireman Red

2010-04-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Quick post on a beer I did a few weeks back. My buddy Aaron needed a beer for his Firefighter graduation party in May. I planned on making one as a test, then making his later on, but I ended up having other plans for summer beers, and didn't get around to making a second - or even putting this one on tap. It's sitting in a secondary smelling and tasting awesome.
The recipe is actually a "West Coast" Amber Ale from Jamil's book, tweaked a bit, but pretty similar. Here's the lowdown:

Hop Head Fireman Red

Fermentables
8.15 lb. British Pale
.67 lb. Crystal 40
.67 lb. Munich
.33 lb. Crystal 90
.33 lb. Victory
.13 lb. Chocolate

Hops
1 oz. Magnum - 60 min.
1 oz. Cascade - 10 min.
1 oz. Centennial - 10 min.
1 oz. Cascade - 0 min.
1 oz. Centennial - 0 min.

Yeast
US-05 - SafAle

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.8%

Again, tastes awesome. I'm planning on kegging it a week or so before I hand it over, and pulling a couple pints off it, so at least I get to taste some of it before it's consumed in a few hours by a pile of Toledo Firefighters.. Ah well, at least it's going to a good cause.

Why don't you just make a regular beer dude?! - DRB American Lager

2010-03-31T17:30:00.000-07:00

I get this question every so often from friends who really aren't huge craft beer fans. Not very often, because most of my friends are pretty open minded and are willing to try anything. But, you get a few that just want a straight up "beer"... Since I now have a temperature controlled lager freezer (I'll do a post on it at some point soon).., I can now ferment at any temperature I need to. I decided to do an American Lager just about the time the Maibock was finishing up. This beer is pretty much your basic beer, I hate to say it, but, well, like a Budweiser.
Now, before you think it's going to taste or even be comparable to a Bud, let me explain how I "DRB'd" it.. :)

The recipe is pretty much a 2-row and corn flake based beer, with a lager yeast. I ended up making the beer just a little bit bigger than your basic "beer".. I'm shooting for around a high 6%. Definitely not your off the shelf beer, but it should have a real neutral flavor to it. Maybe I should call this an "Imperial Bud?!" .. Anyhow, here's the recipe:

American Lager

Fermentables:
11.60 lb US 2-Row Malt
1.00 lb US Flaked Corn/Maize

Hops:
1 oz. Magnum 12.1 % - 60 min. (90 minute mash, 90 minute boil)

Yeast: WLP840 - American Lager

OG: 1.068
FG: 1.009
ABV: 7.9%

- A little high for an American Lager, but it tastes pretty good. In the lager freezer it went tonight (in a secondary carboy) where it will sit for a month. I'll keg it and let that settle for a while before tapping. I would have kegged it right away, but I'm out of kegs... a great problem to have! :)

*Edit to add: I kegged this beer finally (May 6, 2010) and am amazed at how clear it is. It's looking like a coors light or something like that. Very light, and no real noticeable off tastes. I was afraid there would be a corn taste, but its really very basic and will be a dangerous one with it being so high. The gravity dropped a bit more since lagering. Very good, I'll be enjoying a pint of it tonight.

Belgian Pale Ale 2010

2010-03-31T17:14:00.000-07:00

I made a Belgian Pale Ale last year and really loved it. It's basically a Pilsner grain based beer, lightly hopped, with a nice Belgian yeast flavor to it. I put together a different recipe this year. I think I do like last years better, but wow this is good. A pretty well balanced beer with just the right amount of hops and that familiar Belgian sweet fruity taste to it that I love so much this time of year. I ended up saving the yeast from this, and will be using it again to possibly make the same beer or make a variation of the same recipe.

Belgian Pale Ale 2010
Fermentables
11.20 lb German Pilsner Malt
0.75 lb US Caramel Munich 60L Malt
0.25 lb Belgian Biscuit Malt

Hops
1.33 oz. - Kent Golding 4.5% - 60 min
.30 oz. - Kent Golding 4.5% - 0 min (turn off)

Yeast
Wyeast 3255 Belgian Ardennes

OG: 1.068
FG: 1.009
ABV: 7.9%

Again, I can't say enough about this beer. Love it. I have a feeling this beer will go pretty quick, though I'm going to try to pace myself with it. The DRB is a bit low on beers right now, so this one has to last a little while!!

DRB Scottish Export 80/-

2010-03-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

I really try to blog my beers before they are gone, but this one was kind of a surprising exception. I made this beer, along with the West Coast Stout for St. Pat's day. The last 3 St. Pats days, I made a Scottish, an Amber and a Red.. I decided this year I'd go back to a Scottish Ale, only this would be my first all grain.. (yes, I understand Scottish Ale's aren't exactly St. Pat style beers.. but come on, it's kind of close!)...

After this beer was finished, I was a bit disappointed. I tasted the West Coast Stout first, and really enjoyed the big hop presence it had. Then, tasting the Scottish Ale, it was a real big malt bomb.

Come the Sunday before St. Pats, after the Detroit Parade, some friends stopped by and guess what beer went first? Within a few hours, 5 gallons of the Scottish Ale had disappeared. Rave reviews! I think I'll be making this one again next year.

Scottish Export 80/-

Fermentables
9.50 lb UK Pale Ale Malt
0.75 lb US Caramel 40L Malt
0.50 lb US Munich 10L Malt
0.50 lb Canadian Honey Malt (Gambrinus)
0.50 lb German Wheat Malt
0.25 lb US Caramel 90L Malt
0.19 lb US Chocolate Malt

Hops
1.3 oz. Kent Golding - 60 min.

Yeast - SafAle05 (dry)

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.009
ABV: 6.1%

Oh yeah, and the picture of the dogs? Who knows. I was downtown Detroit after running a 5k and visiting Slows BBQ for a pint or two, and thought the dogs were picture worth.

Maibock 2010

2010-03-02T02:45:00.000-08:00

Did a Maibock on Friday (02.26.10). Check out the crazy fermentation in this.

18 lb. Pilsner, 8 lb. Munich. 1 oz. Magnum @ 60 min. 90 min. boil. Yeast: WLP 833. Ferment for at least 4 weeks. Diacetyl rest for a couple of days, then into the lager for a month. Hope to be tapping this one around May 1st.

Starkbier - Dopplebock Lager

2010-02-23T16:19:00.000-08:00

I decided over the winter to give a try at my second lager. I'm pretty inexperienced with them, but have slowly been learning how to properly lager. I decided on a dopplebock, partially due to the ingredients I had on hand back in January when I brewed this. I am not even sure where I got the recipe, I know I fudged a lot of it.. I thought the 1/2 lb. of chocolate grains was too much after brewing - it actually turned out to be pretty damn good.
I thought I would call this Starkbier, based on the post lent happenings in Germany right now (that I only learned about this year). After the long winter, Germans will make Starkbier (strong beer). This Starkbier is a stronger bock (Dopplebock) and is served at the Starkbierzeit events in Munich. This is becoming one of Germany's bigger festivals, as it's not over run by tourists like the Oktoberfest has become.

Stakrbier - Dopplebock Lager (I'll probably rename it once it goes on tap)

Fermentables
6.00 lb German Munich Malt
4.00 lb German Pilsner Malt
4.00 lb US Caramel Munich 60L Malt
0.50 lb US Chocolate Malt
0.25 lb US Caramel 120L Malt

Hops
1.00 oz US Willamette 4.5 % - 60 mins.
1.00 oz US Willamette 4.5 % - 30 Min

Yeast
DCL W-34/70 Saflager

OG: 1.076 SG
FG: 1.023 SG
ABV: 7.1%

I fermented this for over a month, and did a 2 day diasetyl rest at around 64 degrees. I kegged it and will be lagering at 34 degrees for 30 days, maybe longer. They say the higher the ABV the longer to lager. I did taste it between transitions and it came out pretty awesome. I grabbed some commercial examples this weekend, and I may have hit mine a bit richer with more chocolate and caramel tones, but I came pretty close. Can't wait to try this one when it's finished!

West Coast Stout

2010-02-16T03:41:00.000-08:00

Since I started brewing, I have been doing a stout every January to put on tap for St. Patrick's Day. Last year I did a Milk Stout (sweet). The year before I did an Oatmeal Stout. This year, since I've been blessed with a mother load of hops at a cheap price (hopsdirect.com), I decided to make a hoppier version of a stout - an American Stout.
Several years ago, I was sitting in Fort Wayne Indiana at Mad Anthony brew pub, drinking a hoppy stout they called "West Coast Stout." I was loving the beer and always thought it would be great to brew something similar. After researching a bit, I found there isn't an exact "West Coast" specific recipe; most refer to anything with more hops as "West Coast," since apparently, the west coast of the US is hoppier than Michigan. Hmm.. Anyhow, it's basically an American Stout. There really isn't a huge hop addition, just a bitter and some Centennial at the end. Anyhow, here's the recipe (mainly from Jamil/Palmer, tweaked a bit - as most all my recipes are!):

Dayton Road Brewing West Coast Stout

Fermentables:
US 2-Row Malt 11.50 lb
UK Black Malt 0.69 lb
UK Chocolate Malt 0.50 lb
US Caramel 40L Malt 0.50 lb
UK Wheat Malt 0.50 lb (head retention)

Hops
S Magnum 12.1 % 1.50 oz - 60 Min From End
US Centennial 8.7 % 1.00 oz - 5 Min From End

Yeast
SafAle US-05 (Starter)

OG: 1.060
ABV: 6.9% - tasted it while testing the gravity and WOW. Tastes awesome!

Brew session went pretty well. I was brewing another batch at the same time, and made a yeast starter for both of them. This Stout took off fermenting in about 5 hours. I plan to rack it to a secondary after a couple of weeks and tap it closer to St. Pat's day. I'll post back how it is.. I'm really looking forward to a pint of this beer. :)

DRBPA - Dayton Road Brewing Pale Ale

2010-02-15T17:50:00.000-08:00

One thing I've learned about brewing is not to rush things. When I first started, I would brew, then literally sit and stare at the carboy day after day. Since, I just brew a bunch more, so I don't really mind some taking longer than others. Plus, as the saying goes... good things come to those who wait.

For kicks, I thought I would try a quick turn around beer, just to see if it was possible. I picked a fairly easy recipe and opted for a packet of dry yeast. This beer took a total of about 2 weeks or about 12 days.
DRBPA (Dayton Road Brewing Pale Ale)

Fermentables
10.90 lb - US 2-Row Malt
0.75 lb - Belgian Caramel Munich Malt 40
0.50 lb - US Caramel 40L Malt
0.50 lb - US Caramel 20L Malt
0.50 lb - German Wheat Malt

Hops
1 oz. - US Magnum - 60 min.
.50 oz. - US Centennial - 10 min.
.50 oz. - US Cascade -10 min.
2 oz. - US Cascade - 0 min.
.50 oz. - US Centennial - 0 min.

Yeast
Safe-ale US05

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.011

I should have made a starter, because this took a bit to start. But it did ferment out in about a week and a half. I put this right in the keg, and chilled it. Carb'd it the next day and we were enjoying it the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Right now, it's a bit too sweet for me and unbalanced. I'm letting it sit for a bit and will go back to it another day. It's not bad, just like I said, pretty sweet. I'm thinking due to all the caramel malts I used.
The picture above is a growler full of it at a Super Bowl party. The color was gorgeous, I just had to take a picture. :)

Happy Holidays from Dayton Road Brewing

2009-12-22T03:08:00.000-08:00

Since Dayton Road Brewing didn't send out Christmas cards this year, I wanted to take a moment to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dayton Road Brewing had a very successful year. Over 100 gallons of beer was brewed this year, and most of that you all assisted in drinking. Sure we had a couple odd batches, but for the most part, some decent drinking beer was made and enjoyed. I learned a lot (thanks to the Muskrat Mashers) and am ready for another year of brewing.

Some of my favorites this year included:
- Maibock (gone in less than 2 weeks)
- Bourbon Brown Ale
- Belgian Pale (another that didn't last long)
- Gumball Head Clone
- Blonde Ale
- 36th Anniv. IPA
- Hoppy Brown Ale
- Holiday Old Ale
- Hefe

I did learn a real obvious one this year; the more you do it, the better you get at it. Sure, it's an old saying, but it really holds true in this hobby. You learn from mistakes, drink them, and keep on forging forward correcting, learning, brewing and enjoying the results.

Thanks to all of my loyal DRB patrons and to those I've bugged this last year for advice. Special thanks to my wife for tasting every single batch I've ever made. The faces she makes on the hop bomb beers is priceless.

Again, happy holidays and happy brewing in 2010!
www.daytonroadbrewing.com

Weekend brewday - 2 batches

2009-12-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

My goal today was to finish two batches of beer by Noon-1PM so my wife could go shopping. I didn't even set my alarm, but was up by 5AM. Some coffee and by 6AM I was out running a 12 miler in some glorius 15 degree weather. I finished up around 7:30AM, hung out with the kid for a while, and around 8:30AM got started. It was still pretty cold out, so I heated up the garage and got moving with the brewday.
I have a bunch of German Wheat grains left, and had some 2-Row, so I decided to make another Gumball Head clone. I only did a 5 gallon batch, so I split the recipe listed on this blog here (click here). The only difference this time was, I used US-05 Saf Ale dry yeast. I didn't feel like going shopping at all for these batches, so I just used what I had around.

The second batch, is kind of a hodge podge. I've been trying to use up some hops, as well as use a free pack of yeast Adventures in Homebrewing gave me on the Teach a Friend to Brew day. It's a year old Euro Ale Wyeast. I made a starter, and it was a bit slow to take off, but eventually it did and went nuts. Some of my brew friends have been making English Milds lately, so I've kind of been craving it. I liked the mild I made last year, but it was a pretty basic plain beer. I wondered what a mild would taste like, with a heavy IPA hop schedule to it. Well, I'm going to find out! Here's the recipe:

Mild Pale Ale
7lb. American 2-Row
3 lb. Maris Otter (had some to use up)
.41 lb. Crystal 80
.38 lb. Crystal 120
.25 lb. Chocolate
.10 lb. Black

Hops:
60 min. 1.25 oz. Magnum 12.1%
10 min. 1 oz. Cascade 5.4%
10 min. 1 oz. Centennial 8.7%
0 min. .50 oz. Cascade 5.4%
0 min. .50 oz. Centennial - 8.7%

Yeast: Wyeast 1338 Euro Ale
OG: 1.064
FG: ??
Estimated ABV: 5.4%

I finished shortly after 1PM and am now officially whooped! I also racked the barley wine to a carboy and put it to bed for a year. I can see activity in both of the beers already. Am looking forward to both of them!

Brown Shugga Barley Wine

2009-12-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

This has got to be one of my favorite beers. Beer Advocate calls this beer an American Strong Ale. I sat there sipping one a month or so ago, and decided I HAD to brew this one, or at least something similar.
I can't even remember now where I got the recipe, but I compared it to others, and it kind of fits into the barley wine category, even by BJCP style standards. Regardless, I decided to brew it - but gear mine more toward a huge barley wine. Here's the recipe:

16 lb. American 2-Row
3.80 lb. American Wheat
1 lb. Munich
1/2 lb. Crystal 80
.30 lb. Crystal 120
.32 lb. dark brown sugar

Hops:
90 min - 1.55 oz. Willamette 4.8%
45 min - 1.40 oz. Willamette 4.8%
45 min - .40 oz. Magnum 12.1%
1 min. - .80 oz. Centennial 8.7%
1 min. - .40 oz. Cascade 5.4%
1 min. - .20 oz. Magnum 12.1%
DH - - .75 oz. Cascade 5.4%
DH - .75 oz. Centennial 8.7%
DH - .75 oz. Willamette 4.8%

Yeast: 1028 London Ale
OG: 1.107
FG: 1.018
ABV: 12.1%

The beer tastes pretty awesome. I had planned on throwing it on tap right away, but instead am going to age it for quite sometime. Maybe, if I can do it, until next holiday season. I'll keep you posted if I can last that long. :)

The tale of two Old Ales

2009-12-12T14:33:00.001-08:00

I have been thinking about doing an old ale for quite some time. I finally had the opportunity when I offered to make a beer for a friend who will be serving it at his holiday party. He chose a spiced old ale.
Rather than making one huge batch, I decided to do two. I would make mine with molasses and his with spices. Here they are:

Old Ale (with molasses)
19 1/2 lb. Maris Otter
1 lb. Crystal 80
.20 lb. Black Patent
1/2 lb. molasses
-------------------------------------
Hops: 1.50 oz. Magnum - 12.1%
Yeast: 1028 London Ale
OG: 1.091
FG: 1.022
ABV: 9.3%

Holiday Spiced Old Ale
12 lb. Maris Otter
5 lb. American 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 80
.20 lb. Black Patent
-------------------------------------
Hops: 1.00 oz. Magnum - 12.1%
Yeast: 1028 London Ale
OG: 1.076
FG: 1.010
ABV: 8.8%
Spices: Cinnamon 1 min. (boil) 1/2 tsp., Ginger 1 min. 1/4 tsp., Nutmeg 1 min. 1/8 tsp., Allspice 1 min. 1/8 tsp.

I kegged my old ale, and the other is still aging. Mine is really good, and probably could have (or should have) aged, but it is good. I noticed the temperature makes a huge difference. When cold, the alcohol really comes out. Warmer, the beer is really rich and complex - very, very good.

Cherry Blonde

2009-11-18T02:41:00.001-08:00

Took 5 gallons of the Blonde ale and put it on 5 lbs. of canned cherries in cherry syrup. Going to let it sit for 10 days and rack it to a keg. Should be a nice dessert beer to go with my turkey dinner. :)

M-Go-Blonde Ale!

2009-11-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

I just realized I'm several batches behind on this blog. I'll try to catch up. :)
The latest beer to go on tap is my M-Go-Blonde Ale, that I brewed a couple of weeks ago. It's basically an American Blonde Ale. I decided to have a chili cook-off with a few friends for the UM vs. OSU game, and thought the Blonde would be go very nice with chili. I had a sample last night, and it came out fantastic. Very light, thin body, easy drinking.

Here's the recipe -

Fermentables:
18.50 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 10

Hops:
2 oz. Willamette

Yeast:
Wyeast American ale 1056
OG: 1053
FG: ?? - My hydrometer broke! I am going to figure it out with my refractometer, but until then.. I actually brought the grains down on this to keep it right @ 5%. I'd say it turned out right around there. I'll post back when I get an actual reading.

It's hoppy Charlie! - Brown Ale

2009-10-19T16:19:00.001-07:00

This is my second brew for one of Aaron's parties and it came out wonderful. I racked it to a secondary tonight and dry hopped. I wondered how the chocolate-ness of a brown ale and the hops of an IPA would merge.. let me just say, it's fantastic. The aroma already is good, but the dry hopping will top it off. I'm going to dry hop it until next Tuesday or Wednesday, then keg it and have it ready for Aaron to take home on Friday, to settle before the party.

Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
7 lb. Maris Otter
1 lb. Crystal 40
1 lb. Wheat
1 lb. Belgian Biscuit
1/2 lb. Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb. Caramunich

Hops:
2 oz. Kent Golding 4.5% AA - 60 min.
1 oz. Kent Golding 4.5% AA - 15 min.
1.5 oz. Cascade 5.4% AA - 10 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - 10 min.
1.5 oz. Cascade 5.4% AA - Turn off
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - Turn off
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - Dry hop
.70 oz. Centennial 8.5% AA - Dry hop

Yeast: Wyeast London Ale (yeast cake - 3rd generation)

IBU: 60.2%
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.8%

15 gallons = Bottled!

2009-10-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

I took the day off today with plans to bottle 3 beers: Belgian Dubble, Belgian Sour Brown and a Smoked Porter. I set up last night, and couldn't resist starting the project. Well, I'm not one to leave a project halfway through, so I ended up blasting through all 15 gallons of beer. I finsihed around 2:30 a.m. Oops.
I hate bottling, but I had a reason to bottle all of these. Both Belgians are pretty high in gravity. The Dubble is around 10%, and should age nicely.
The Sour, hasn't even "soured" yet. I'm hoping it will, but it came out to around 9%. It wasn't intended to be that high, but, I did make this in early spring, when I wasn't as knowledgeable about controlling my alcohol levels. Lessons learned, but, this beer is going to sit another year before I try one. I've read online, that White Labs Belgian Sour yeast can take some time to actually sour. It's still drinkable though, I'm just hoping it sours up more.
The Porter, came out awesome tasting. I read that it ages very well too, and to save a bunch for a year or so later. The flavors will blend even more and that subtle smokey flavor will really blend in nicely. I will crack some of these out around Halloween though, I'm anxious to try it. This one came out to 7.9%. Big, but I tasted the finish product and it's amazing. Can't wait for this fall sippin' beer. :)

I might add, the two big Belgians, I added dry yeast (thanks Nate!) to them both a few days ago, since they've been aging for 6 months or so. Got the tip from Beer Advocate folks that have bottled aged beer before. Hopefully it helps in the carbonation process.

Oh yeah, I also waxed the tops on the Belgians. I had only planned on doing the Dubble, but I had so much wax made, I did the Sours' too. That was fun. The wax took a while to heat up (I put it in a jar, then put the jar in a pot of medium high heat water. After it heated, I started dipping. I learned if I flipped the bottle up right away, it dripped down some, which gives it a cool looking effect. I don't think I'll wax tops too often, only on beers I plan on aging a long time - heck, for that matter, that's about the only time I'm going to bottle. Bottling sucks, but when it's all said and done, it's kind of nice having all that beer bottled.

Speaking of, I found two 12 packs of homebrew stashed away yesteday. Some of my old Weizenbock, which I was just wishing I had saved some for this Halloween, some IPA's I bottled last year, and a Christmas Ale that came out kind of off tasting, so I figured I would age it some. We'll see how that tastes this Christmas! I also found some other bottles that I have no clue what they are. I almost think they're a Kolsch that I did over a year ago, as well as some, potential Apricot Wheats. I'm saving those to test out on DRB customers.. :p

Pumpkin Ale 090409

2009-09-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin ales, but I was feeling festive this year, and thought I would try one. 5 gallons of pumpkin beer... what on earth have I done?! Honestly, it tastes pretty good. The way I did it, I spiced it very lightly in the boil, and added a bit more in the secondary. I plan to keg/carbonate in the next few days.

Dayton Road Brewing Pumpkin Ale

Fermentables:
11 lb. Maris Otter
.50 lb. Aromatic
.50 lb. Crystal 40
.50 lb. Crystal 120
.50 lb. Special Roast

Hops:
Kent Golding 4.5% - 1.65 oz. 60 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1968 London Ale (yeast cake from an IPA)

Spices:
Cinnamon 1 min. 1/2 tsp.
Ginger 1 min. 1/4 tsp.
Nutmeg 1 min. 1/8 tsp.
Allspice 1 min. 1/8 tsp.
- Added these to the boil with 1 minute left.

Made another bag of the spices above, same amount, and added it to the secondary. The spices sit softly in the background and aren't over powering. It tastes pretty good, I'm looking forward to tasting it carbonated.

3.90 (4) gallons of strike water

DRB Smoked Porter 090409

2009-09-28T17:34:00.001-07:00

I had originally planned on making this earlier in the year, but the store I went to didn't have any Rauch Malt at the time, so I waited until it came in stock. This is a pretty close example to Alaska Smoked Porter. A well balanced Porter, with a very mellow smoke flavor in the background.

Robust Smoked Porter (Got the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, and tweaked it according to what I had available)

Fermentables:
8.5 lb. Maris Otter
3 lb. Smoked Rauch Malt
1 lb. Crystal 40
1 lb. Crystal 80
.75 lb. Chocolate Malt
.50 lb. Black Malt

Hops:
Kent Golding 4.5% - 1.30 oz. 60 min.
Willamette 4.8% - .75 oz. 30 min.
Willamette 4.8% - .75 oz. 15 min.
Kent Golding 4.5% - .5 oz. Turn off
Willamette 4.8% - .40 oz. Turn off

Yeast:
WLP001 - Cal Ale (yeast cake from the IPA)

Fermented for a few weeks - FG: 1.012 - 7.9%

The taste is wonderful. I had originally planned on kegging this batch, but instead I think I'm going to bottle the whole 5 gallons. I've heard these smoked porters are better a year later, so I'm going to put a bunch up for a year and crack them out next fall to see how good they age.

IPA / Wit update

2009-09-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of an issue with the IPA. The cal ale yeast batch, came out around 8%, a little higher than expected. I kegged it and dry hopped right in the keg with about an ounce of hops. After a couple weeks, I removed the hop bag and tried the beer. It tasted like a good IPA base, but no big hop flavor to it. A caramel beer I was calling it. So, after several discussion on Beer Advocate forums, I decided to dry hop the hell out of it. I added 5 oz. more of Cascades and Amarillo. After just 3 days, the beer was tasting like a hop bomb. Amazing what dry hopping can do. After about 5 or 6 days, I removed the hop bag. The beer is pretty good right now, though I'm going to let it settle for about a week. Hopefully all the hops that escaped the bag will settle to the bottom and shoot out on the first pour. I'm pretty happy with the taste now though.
The second 5 gallon of this tasted pretty good, pre dry hopped. It was the London Ale yeast, and fermented out clean - the beer was pretty clear too, compared to the other. I ended up dry hopping with 6 oz. of hops on this one, and plan to keg it this week at some point. I have a feeling this one is going to be much better than the last, but should also be a hop bomb. Looking forward to it!

Belgian Wit: Not much on this one, it turned out perfect. Color, taste, everything. Very refreshing. This was a pretty simple recipe, I plan to keep it around and make a batch each summer.

Autumn IPA & Belgian Wit

2009-08-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got off my arse after almost a month of not brewing and did a few batches. My 36th anniversary IPA turned out so good, I wanted to try another IPA. I researched for a couple of weeks, reading about various forums of base grains and hop schedules for IPA's. I finally settled on the grains and hops. Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
17 lb. 2-Row
3 lb. Marris Otter (did this just to use it up)
6 lb. Munich
2 lb. Caramel 20
1 lb. Wheat (head retention)

Hops:
2 oz. Simcoe - 60 min.
1 oz. Amarillo - 30 min.
1 oz. Simcoe - 20 min.
1 oz. Amarillo - dry hop
1 oz. Simcoe - dry hop

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 London Ale
WLP001 - California ale

OG: 1.070
Expected ABV: 7.5% (or higher, not above 8)

- I split this up into two 5 gallon batches. The Wyeast took off within hours. I did not make a starter on either of these. The WLP001, took almost two days to start fermenting. I started freaking out, but just as I did, it took off and is still going strong. They both smell fantastic. I'm going to secondary them both for a week or two and keg one of them just in time for University of Michigan football. :)

Belgian Wit

Fermentables:
6 lb. 2-Row
6 lb. German Wheat

Hops:
1 oz. Kent Goldings - 60 min.

Yeast:
White Labs Belgian Wit

Others:
1 oz. Orange peel
1 oz. Coriander

OG: 1.050

Not much to this one. My sister had an extract version I did last year and flipped over it. This batch is basically for her. It better turn out good! So far it smells excellent. Might take this one right to the keg, and let it settle there for a week or two before tapping. Oh yeah, I had a bit of a boil over or two, because I had to use my turkey fryer to boil this one. I ended up adding some water to top off the 5 gal. mark. I wasn't too concerned about it dropping the ABV some, it was looking to be around 5-6%.. this should be a pretty low gravity, easy drinking beer anyhow.

I'll post some comments on how these turn out!

El Hefe & Inventory time

2009-07-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm kicking back in the DRB enjoying the newest beer on tap I'm calling "El Hefe" in honor of the guitarist in one of my favorite bands NOFX. The beer came out to a pleasant 6.4% ABV. The smell is very faint, but I'm picking up slight citrus, banana and spice from the hops. The taste is pretty light. A faint hop taste, but a very refreshing and light citrus spice. I was expecting more out of this, I've read hefes can have a stronger citrus, or banana presence, and I've actually had some that tasted like this, but, everything is pretty faint in this beer. Don't get me wrong though, this beer tastes great. The german hops are definitely present in the background, and the malts from the two-row really come out. I can see this as a nice refreshing session beer as we play cornhole in the back yard. I've never been much of a fruit person in my beer, but for kicks I'm going to set out some oranges or lemons for this beer when I have friends over. It might give it that extra citrus perk that I'm looking for.

I've been mulling through recipes the past week, trying to decide what to make next. Well, let me correct that - what to make after this Belgian Wit I'm making for my sister. Basic Belgian Wit - I compared most of the all grain recipes, all are pretty much the same - half 2-row, half wheat, oz. of hops, coriander, orange peel, wit yeast.. BUT, after that beer, I need to find something to make. Here's what I have left:

I'll probably still have a lot of Wheat and 2-Row left after this Wit, as base grains.

12 lb. of German Pilsner
7 1/2 lb. Cara Munich
1 1/2 lb. Special B
1 lb. Rye
3 lb. Crystal 40
9 lb. Munich
2 1/2 lb. Aromatic
2 lb. Crystal 10
1/4 lb. Crystal 20
2 1/2 lb. Maris Otter
1 1/2 lb. Caravienna
1/2 lb. Biscuit

If I only had a ton of hops laying around! Any ideas on what to make with any of this? Nice to just have them on hand. I haven't had to buy specialty grains in quite a while, I just dip into my stash. I'll come up with something I'm sure. It's not too late to make another summertime session beer before I make a couple biggies for winter!
*Thought I would also add, the 36th Anniversary IPA turned out awesome and was a big hit. Everyone drank it up, and I came home that night with an empty keg. Woohoo!

Hefeweizen and other brew work

2009-07-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

I decided at the last minute this week, to do a week night brew session. I've been leery of doing one, since I assumed it would take me all night. I set up some things last night and was pretty prepared. I managed to get everything done in just about 4 hours. I was sweating and the bugs were driving me nuts, but I got done before dark, so that's a good thing.

Hefeweizen (Rye)
- Still haven't decided what to call this beer. It's semi in BJCP range for the style, a tad bit over on the IBU's, perfect on the SRM's and, we'll see on the ABV's.. I got the recipe from Jamil's book, but changed it up a bit with the hops.

Fermentables:

6 lb. American 2-row
3 lb. German Wheat
3.75 lb. Rye

Hops:

1 oz. Hallertau (60 min.)
.70 oz. (0 min.)

Yeast:
WLP 320 (reusing yeast from my American Wheat - raspberry)

Brew went well, target OG was 1.068, I ended at 1.059 - so I think this kind of puts it back into style range - 1.068 is a bit too high for this style. Regardless, it went smooth and I'm using a blow-off tube for this one - just to be on the safe side!

Other brew work tonight: I racked my wheat onto 5 lbs. of raspberry puree. The wheat by itself came out to 5.5% ABV. I'm going to do another reading after about 10 days when I keg it, but this is about what I was shooting for. The wheat before the raspberry tasted pretty good. Very clean and a nice clear looking beer.
I also racked the 36th anniversary IPA tonight. This beer came to a 6.3% ABV and looks and tastes excellent. This is going to be a nice light IPA, perfect for a party. I'm pretty excited this turned out so well, I've never made a batch of beer specifically for a party, so I'm happy this tastes and looks so great.

All that in 4 hours! I'm getting pretty good at staying one step ahead of everything while I brew. I guess tonight proves I can brew during a week night! Honestly, it helps when I don't turn brewing into a party (which is fun sometimes!) and only have a beer or two while I brew. Makes things go much faster/smoother when I keep focused.

Last week I also kegged the second batch of the Gumball Head clone. I'm going to take it easy on this keg and try to enjoy it for another month. I'd like to have it on tap at the same time I have the Raspberry Wheat, and maybe even the hefe. Be a nice line up of beers to choose from @ The DRB. :)

The rest of my week is booked up solid, but I realized I do have some time Saturday morning. If I can get my wife to stop at Adventures in Homebrewing for me, I'm going to make a Belgian Wit for my sister. She's been bugging me to make another one since last year, so, this one will be dedicated to her. I'll post the recipe if nothing else comes up and I can squeeze in a brew session.

36th Anniversary IPA

2009-06-22T18:18:00.001-07:00

This year, our good friend Aaron turns 36 years old. His favorite beer is a hoppy beer. He has a summer party every year around his birthday, so we chatted and decided Dayton Road Brewing would supply 5 gallons of a hop bomb for the festivities.

Here's the recipe:

12.75 lb. American 2-row
1 lb. Crystal 10
1/2 lb. German Wheat (head retention)
.25 lb. Crystal 40

Hops:
1. Magnum 14% - 60 min.
2. Centenial 7% - 10 min.
3. Simcoe - 12% - 5 min.
4. Amarillo - 9% - flame out

Yeast: Reusing the yeast cake from the Gumball Head - California Ale White Labs

OG: 1.057 - this should work out to my advantage. The expected OG for this beer was around 1.073, which was guessing this beer would turn out around a 7%. I wanted a lower ABV than that, so I'm hoping we get around the low 6 range.

The brew session went well. I did this the same time as I did the wheat. I really don't like doing two beers at once. It reminds me of having to watch two kids at once who are running around getting into things. I was sparging the grains, and forgot to close the faucet on the keg.. so I look over and wort is leaking all over my driveway. I fixed that, then I realized, I forgot to put my bazooka screen tube in, to keep the hops from siphoning into the carboy. A few other things went wrong this brew session, but overall, it went OK. The best part - the beer is fermenting like crazy and smells awesome. I plan to rack this beer to a secondary, where it will sit until I keg it - probably a week before the party. If you know me, and are reading this.. and you ask nicely, you may get to sample this prior to the party. Just, whatever you do, do NOT tell Aaron. Luckily, he doesn't read this blog. :) We'll be sure to save enough for his party.. but come on, we've gotta sample it!!

So, happy birthday in advance AJ. In celebration of your 36th year on this planet, this beers for you!

Blowin' Raspberries Wheat

2009-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

My daughter Madalyn, started this thing we call "blowin' raspberries" a few weeks ago. She sticks her tongue out, clenches her lips tight and blows as hard as she can, spraying spit all over anyone close to her. I don't think there's any harm in it, and at 5 months old, I guess it can be considered cute. Anyhow, we've been saying it so much, it inspired the name for my next beer.

Now, a lot of guys say "Oh, fruit beers are ok, but I can't drink a lot of them." I used to say that myself, not wanting to sound like a sissy. Last week, I went to Andersons and picked out a few Raspberry Wheat beers to try. I chilled them all, only planning on tasting one. I admit, I loved them so much, I drank all of them that night. They are a perfect beer for a hot summers day.

I bought a 55 lb. bag of wheat in spring proclaiming this to be the "Summer of Wheats." I've done a few recipes using wheat now, and there's still a huge bag left, so I need to get brewing and do more of them! I took the base of this recipe from Jamil/Palmers Brewing Classic Styles book. Here's the quick run down:

5.6 lb. German Wheat
5.6 lb. American 2-Row
1/2 lb. Crystal 10

Hops: 1 oz. Willamette 5% AA
Yeast: White Labs WLP 320 - American Hefeweizen Ale
Expected ABV 5.8%

I've done wheat type beers before, and I know they ferment like crazy. Like an idiot, I didn't use a blowoff tube, and came home to a mess. Luckily, the airlock stayed somewhat intact and I think the beer is salvageable. It's still fermenting like mad and smells great.

Post fermentation, I'm going to rack it to a secondary, where I'll be adding 5 lbs. of Oregon Raspberry Puree. I'll let that sit for 7-10 days. I'll probably strain that to a keg and let it carbonate from there.

When we tap this beer, I'm have Madalyn lead the DRB in a chorus of "Blowin' Raspberries" the entire evening.. or, at least until bed time. :)

Gumball Head Clone

2009-06-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

If you ever get a chance to pick one of these beers up, I'd strongly suggest it. Gumball Head is an American Wheat recipe, loaded with hops and fermented with California Ale yeast. It has a smooth crisp hop bite to it, but it goes down like a summer wheat beer. A fantastic summer beer for the hop head. I made this beer a few weeks back. I kegged the first 5 gallons and dry hopped right in the keg, by tying a string onto a hop bag and letting it sit for a week. The beer smells and tastes fantastic. As I write this, I'm drooling for a pint. :)

Anyhow, here's the recipe. This is a 10 gallon batch, which I'd suggest making because the first 5 gallons is going to be gone before you know it. The next 5, I plan on keeping to myself!

Three Floyds Gumball Head Clone (Hopped up Wheat Ale)

US White Wheat Malt - 13.50 lb
US 2-Row Malt - 8.50 lb
US Caramel Vienne 20L Malt - 1.50 lb

US Amarillo 9.4 % 1.50 oz - First Wort Hopped
US Amarillo 9.4 % 1.50 oz - 30 Min From End
US Amarillo 9.4 % 1.50 oz - 15 Min From End
US Amarillo 9.4 % 1.50 oz - 5 Min From End
US Amarillo 9.4 % 2.00 oz - Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP051-California Ale V

OG: 1.062 - 6.6% ABV.

Belgian Dubbel

2009-05-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

Brewed this last Saturday May 2nd. I started with the recipe from Jamil/Palmers book and just kind of built on that. The recent edition of Zymurgy has a really nice write up on Belgian dubbels, so I picked up some tips from that. I changed things up a bit, but kept it pretty basic. Most dubbel recipes that I found were all fairly similar. The yeast differs, but ranges between a few of them. After brewing this, I racked it right on top of the yeast cake from my Belgian Pale. I love doing that, fermentation started in 3 hours. :)

Here's the recipe:

Fementables:
10.60 lbs. German Pilsnger
1 lb. Belgian Munich
.50 lb. Belgian Aromatic
.50 lb. Belgian Cara 60
.50 lb. Crystal 120
.50 lb. Wheat malt (head retention)
1 lb. Dark rock candy (last 10 mins. of boil)
.50 lb corn sugar (drying) - end of boil

Hops:
1.5 oz. Tettnang 4.5% - 60 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Trappist Ale (from Belgian Pale)

OG/FG - OG was: 1.080, final is expected to be around 1.013, bringing this to a whopping 9.3% abv's.

90 min. boil (Pilsner). Everything else went great with this brew. I just checked it, and it looks like there is still some airlock activity. I'm going to let this one age in a secondary, maybe until fall or winter.

Belgian Pale Ale

2009-05-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

I often hear Jamil talk about some of the best beers he's made, comes from re-using yeast. Often in Belgian beers, he mentions what yeast to use, and suggests building off the yeast used from another batch. I decided to do just that with this batch. I did a regular Belgain Pale and used WLP500 - Belgian Trappist blend. This is one of the few people use in Belgian Pales, probably not as popular as others, but my goal was to reuse the yeast in a Dubble recipe.
I actually brewed this on April 17th (yeah I'm getting lazy about blogging). The brew went well. I racked this to a secondary last week when I did the Dubble and had a taste.. it tastes fantastic. It has that "Belgian" taste to it from the yeast, and I can tell it's going to be very drinkable. I'm a bit unsure of the gravity reading, I'll take another when I keg it this weekend. My reading I logged said 1.008, with a OG of 1.066. I'm thinking I typed this in wrong, it probably should be 1.018 - which would bring it to the 6-7% abv range, which is what I was shooting for. Gravity readings and a few beers never mix!

Anyhow, here's the recipe - it's out of Jamils book, but I changed some things up a bit and used a different yeast. I think his is called something Antwerp Ale..

Fermentables
10lb. German Pilsner
.75lb. Belgian Cara 60
.25lb. Biscuit
.50 lb. Corn sugar (drying) - end of boil

Hops:
1 oz. Golding 4.5% - 60 min.
1oz. Golding 4.5% - 20 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 3.0% - 15 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 3.0% - 0 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 - Trappist Ale

90 minute boil (reduce DMS from Pilsner grains). Fermented good for about a week, then I let it sit another week. I was fairly close to a BJCP style on this one, my IBU's are a couple points higher as is the ABV. SRM's are right in line. Can't wait to try this one!!

The picture? I have no idea. I just googled Belgium and she came up.. I figured what the hell. I'll toast to her when I tap this beer. :)

Beer report - Maibock gone!

2009-05-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, my very first lager was a huge success. It was very drinkable and had a very nice kick to it. Maibocks are generally high in alcohol, up to 8% for the style.. mine came in between 8 and 10. I say that because I really didn't taste a strong "alcohol-ness" to it. My readings had it coming in at 10.2%. I question it, because it was so drinkable. So much so, that it lasted 6 days. Drinkable yes, kicked me in the arse = FOR SURE. So, it very well could of been that high, it had a powerful kick to it after just a few of them. I didn't secondary this one, I just threw it in the keg and let it sit for a week. Upon first tasting it had a bit of a yeast taste to it. After the week of sitting, it was pretty awesome. We finished it off last night. I sure had my share of it! I will probably repeat this same recipe for next year. The lagering went very well in my garage, the temp of the carboy stayed in the high 30's to 40's.

The photo shown is the Maibock tapping day, which happened to be a Sunday Redwing playoff party. I enjoyed so many Maibocks, it took me until Wednesday until I was feeling better. :p

#27 and counting...

2009-04-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Someone recently asked me how many batches of beers I've brewed. I never actually counted. So I went through all of my blog posts and tallied them up. 27 I just did last week, and have yet to blog on it. It seems like more. Probably because some of those batches lasted a lot longer than normal, because they were 10 gallon batches. Anyhow, I thought that was interesting. Here's the list with a note by each:

Porter - first batch. Brewers Best kit. Yuck.
ESB - Awesome. We drank this fast.
Christmas Ale - Excellent. Two bottles left.
Wheat - Good. Gone quick.
Cherry Wheat - Even better. Very cherry.
Oatmeal Stout - Good. Few bottles left.
IPA - Two Hearted clone. Gone quick.
80 Shilling Scottish Ale - For St. Pats last year. Was very good.
PBR Clone - Crap. What the hell was I thinking?!
Cream Ale - First all grain. Very good. 10 gallon batch went very fast.
Saison - Excellent. Still have some bottles I'm aging.
Weizenbock - Good. Too strong, but good.
Cherry Dunkel - Crap. Though people drank it. Dumped 1 gallon.
Apricot Wheat - Awesome. Bottled half, kegged half, everyone gobbled this up.
IPA - Awesome on tap, bottles had something funk happen to them. Still good both ways.
Pale Ale - Experiment using fresh hops. Didn't work, but beer was good.
Blonde Ale - Awesome.
Porter - Awesome.
Christmas Ale 2008 - Blah. Bottles seem to be tasting better over time.
Mild - Awesome. Went really fast over the winter.
Bourbon Brown Oak Aged - Awesome. Best beer so far. Lots of bottles left - saving for a competition or two.
Sweet Stout - Excellent, still on tap.
Irish Red - Very good, very malty - best Irish Red I've ever had I'd have to say.
Sour Beer - Aging for a long time.
ESB - A little less on the "B" but pretty good. My favorite on tap now.
Maibock - Be done by May 1st-ish.
Belgian Pale Ale - Freshly brewed and bubbling! More to come on this batch.

We got the funk - DRB experimental batch #1: Sour Beer

2009-03-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Almost two weeks ago now, I brewed my first experimentation beer. Sure, I've done partial experimental batches in the past, where I've upped a recipes grains or hops, but this batch, I made up completely. Here's the recipe and following are my thoughts on it:

OG: 1.076
31.5 IBU
16.0 SRM

German Pilsner Malt 10.00 lb
UK Pale Ale Malt 2.00 lb
Belgian Caramel Munich Malt 120 0.69 lb
German Munich Malt 0.62 lb
UK Black Malt 0.13 lb

My grain bill started off as an altbier type recipe, but I didn't have enough Munich to balance things out. To replace the Munich, I added a couple pounds of maris otter. The crystal 120 will give the beer a thicker caramel like character and the black I just added for color.

1/2 oz. Magnum 13% hops - I had this leftover from the Maibock batch. I didn't want a huge hop characteristic coming through on this beer, just something subtle in the background.

Yeast: recycled London Ale yeast (from the bitter) - made a starter with 4 oz. of DME - added the yeast cake from the bitter.

Also added Irish moss with 15 mins. left in the boil - as well as Yeast nutrient.

Now, the crazy part. After primary (it's been 10 days and there is still airlock activity), when I transfer to the secondary, I'm going to add a vile of White Labs Belgian Sour yeast (WLP655). This yeast includes Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, and the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. All bugs that will add some "funk" to my beer. The taste should be a slight acidic sour taste, and potentially over time, will add a stronger sourness to the beer. I'm not sure how long I'm going to let it age, I'll probably let it sit over the summer and check on it once a month to see how the taste is developing. My plan then will probably be to bottle the whole batch, drink a few here and there, but mainly sit on them even longer, to see what happens in the bottle after a year or so.

So that's that! One thing I heard about using these type of yeasts is, to keep equipment separate, otherwise all of my future beers will come out tasting like it. Glass shouldn't be an issue, but anything plastic could pick up the bugs. Luckily, i just scored a bunch of extra equipment from my neighbor, so I'll be able to mark these off and use them just for funk beers.

I'll post back on how this turns out. I'm pretty excited to see what will happen.

Maibock - my first lager

2009-03-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

DRB Maibock
10.5 lbs. German Pilsner
5.5 lbs. Munich
Hops: 1/2 oz. Magnum 14.4% AA
Yeast: Yyeast 2206 - Bavarian Lager

Got this recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. This is my first lager beer. The difference between lager and ales are, lagers need to be cold fermented. They ferment anywhere from 40-50 degrees. And they ferment for at least a month. This Maibock (May Bock) should be ready by May 2009. It's already started fermenting, I'm pretty excited about that. The brewday went pretty well, besides i came out a little high on my mash temps and my OG was off at the end (which I don't quite get, because my pre-boil gravity was perfect. I did lose a lot of wort on the boil, so a day later after much contemplating, I added about a 1/2 gallon of water (per BA's suggestions).
So, I guess we'll see how this turns out. I wanted to do a lager, since this is the perfect time of year to do one. My garage has been holding a steady 40ish degree temp and with the carboy blanket around the carboy, the wort is chilling at a pleasant 45 degrees. I'm not super concerned about holding 45 the whole time, I think I'll have a good couple of weeks to keep it at that temp, and if it warms up a bit, it shouldn't affect it too much.

Updates on St. Pats beer & Imperial Bitter

2009-03-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

Been a bit since I posted and I have a few notes to add:

Dry Stout & Irish Red were a hit on St. Pats. Both sat for around a month and carbonated on their own with a small amount of co2 pumped into them. The bit of aging was good for both of them. The color came out awesome on the red - probably a tad on the darker side, but when held up to the sun, it was a deep copper color (I'll try and take a pic and add it to this post later today). The stout turned out a creamy chocolaty flavor with a nice balanced sweet end to it. Very good and at just less than 5%, very drinkable. The head is the most impressive thing - it pours a deep tan caramel looking color that just makes you want to eat the foam off the top. Very good, once again I impressed myself.

Imperial Bitter (or a jacked up English Special Bitter) came out to a 7.2% beer and tastes great. I'm racking it to a secondary now after sitting on the yeast for over 2 weeks. I took a reading early last week and wanted to wait to see if it was going to drop anymore. Same reading today - FG: 1.0260, so it's getting racked and going out to the garage where I'm hoping to cold condition it for a week or two before I keg it.

Another post to come at some point today, it's another brewday, so I've got a recipe to post and maybe even a brewcast.. if I can clean my garage - it's literally trashed!!

Brewday Saturday, March 7th @ 9 a.m. - Watch Live!

2009-03-05T03:15:00.001-08:00

Live Saturday March 7th @ 9 a.m.
Brewing: English Special Bitter
Web Link: http://www.justin.tv/daytonroadbrewing

Recipe: Imperial English Special Bitter (still tweaking, but so far this is the basis)

15 lbs. Maris Otter
.63 lb. Crystal 20
.30 lb. Crystal 120
Hops: Kent Goldings - 2 oz. 60 min / 1 oz. 0 min. (may dry hop too)
Yeast: WL London Ale (made a starter last night)
OG: 1.083 (should turn out to be right around 8% abv.)

See you on brewday!

Eggs for homebrew

2009-02-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

There it is folks. The first payment of any kind I've received for my homebrew. 2 dozen freshly laid local farm eggs will get you a bomber of Bourbon oaked Brown Ale and a bomber of DRB Summer Saison. The eggs are awesome by the way.. I think I could even feed my family on them.. :)

St. Patrick's Day Beers - Sweet Stout & Irish Red

2009-02-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

I'm a nut for St. Patrick's day. Every year I begin anticipating it as soon as Christmas is over. I think about it even more now that I'm a homebrewer. Last year, I was new to brewing, but whipped up a couple of nice styles. I made an Oatmeal Stout and a 80 Shilling Scottish Ale. Both were awesome and went quick.
This year, I figured I would go for similar styles. For the stout, I decided on a sweet stout. I dug around through recipes and the sweet stout sounded like a really good one. Sweet stouts are fairly basic stout recipes. There's some crystal 80 for that nutty taste, chocolate malt, black patent and the most important ingredient - 1 lb. of lactose sugar. Lactose sugar is unfermentable sugar, which adds a bit of a sweetness to the beer as well as a nice creamier mouth feel. Here's the recipe:

10 lb. Maris Oter
1 lb. Black Patent
3/4 lb. Crystal 80
1/2 lb. Chocolate
1 lb. Lactose Sugar (added on knock out)
1 1/2 oz. Kent Golding 5% AA's
Yeast: Safale 04 (dry)

I mashed in at 152 degrees for 1 hour. I had some issues with my mash tun - a stuck sparge. I did probably what I shouldn't have done, and blew through the opening to unstick the sparge. I think when I mashed in, I was sloppy about stirring in the grains. Gotta be more careful next time! The other thing that happened with this was a hose busted off my wort chiller squirting hose water all over. I don't think any got in the beer, but it got all over me and the garage. Fun, fun. OG: 1.068 - FG: 1.038 = 4% ABV. A bit lower than I planned, but it tastes fantastic.

Irish Red: This is pretty similar to the scottish ale I made last year, both are pretty close in style. This one went surprisingly good, mashed in at 152 for 1 hour. Sparge went good, boil good - fermentation is still going! Here's the recipe:

11 lb. Maris Oter
.38 lb. Crystal 40
.38 lb. Crystal 120
.38 lb. Roasted Barley
1 1/4 oz. Kent Golding
Yeast: SafeAle 05 (dry)

I don't know why the stout went nuts right away and fermented out so quick.. but this red just keeps on going! I'm going to check it out in the next day or so and report the gravity.
OG: 1.068 - this one should turn out a bit higher than the stout. We'll see.

I plan to take both of these and rack them to secondaries to sit until the week before St. Patty's. From what I heard, the red will age nicely and be tastier letting it sit for a while. Most stouts I've had mellow out a bit too after a month or so.

That's that! I'll report back when these finish up. Off to the kitchen to finish the sample of stout I pulled for gravity reading.. I always know the beers going to be good when I end up drinking the whole gravity reading sample. :)

*Note: Both recipes came from Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles" book.

Update - Bourbon Oaked Brown Ale

2009-01-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

This beer turned out fantastic. I had one a week ago, and it wasn't carbonated enough. It had been about 4 weeks, I assumed it would be done.. but it wasn't. Tonight I cracked one open and poured it into a glass sample glass. A nice creamy vanilla ice cream looking head on top. I smell caramel and bourbon right up front. The mouth feel is smooth and light, with moderate carbonation. The taste is awesome. A great blend of bourbon and chocolate with a wonderful nutty finish.

I started sipping on this and had a great idea. Earlier when I was on a shopping trip, I picked up a couple of those chocolate cadbury eggs. I cracked one open while I was drinking this and sure enough, they go perfect together. I don't often eat chocolate while I drink beer, but the two of these go so well together, I might actually tape up a cadbury egg to each bottle I give out it's so darn good of a combo. I bottled up a ton of these and plan to enter a few into contests this summer.

Cow Tongue Taco's - Part 2

2009-01-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

It's not every day a friend lets you know he has a big cow tongue sitting in his refrigerator. But when it happens, it's a party waiting to happen.
Chef Nick (his mom) will be serving up fresh cow tongue taco's this Friday night @ the DRB. Since we're all on vacation, we're starting the party early - 6 p.m. If you've never had cow tongue taco's, you're missing out! Come out, try one and hang out with us. If you can't make it, keep an eye on the DRB-Cam, we might just have it on. Taco's will go quick, show up early!

The DRB is Open!

2008-12-27T13:44:00.001-08:00

Whenever the DRB opens for an evening, quite a few of my friends receive the text message "the drb is open!".. This usually leads to people coming by throughout the evening sampling whatever beer is on tap that night. Thanks to my neighbor, the DRB now has an open sign. It's almost like my garage is an official bar now.. haha. I'm really anxious for it to get dark. I'm kind of hoping you can't see the sign from the street..that's all I need is for strangers to start showing up!

For the record, tonight is the first ever UFC pay-per-view event in the DRB. The English Mild is now on tap, which turned out pretty good. It's a low 4% with a mellow nutty flavor to it. Turned out pretty perfect, and right close to the style guidelines for this beer. I think it's time for another! I made venison sliders for tonight and breaded venison steak bites. We have a handful of people coming over, so it should be a good time. It's an awesome 63 degrees out right now, I'm not even sure we'll need heat out there tonight! See you @ the DRB!

Winter Classic 2009 @ The DRB

2008-12-25T20:09:00.001-08:00

Yes folks, the first ever, outdoor Detroit Redwings hockey game in Chicago will be live (on t.v.) @ Dayton Road Brewing. There should be a couple good beers on tap and some snacks. This is the first and probably last in our lifetime Wing fans get to enjoy this unique hockey event. Be there!!

Weather report: A mild day

2008-12-15T01:43:00.000-08:00

I thought it was funny the weather reporter kept saying Sunday, December 14th is going to be a "Mild" day. Funny because I brewed my first English Mild yesterday, along with the brown. I always figure, if I'm going to brew a batch of beer, I may as well do two - since I'm dirtying everything up and going through all the work. I actually planned to do 10 gallons of the brown ale, and use 5 for the bourbon oak batch, but I kind of f'd up the recipe and only bought enough for a 5 gallon. doh!

So, here's the recipe for this one:

7 lb. Maris Otter
2 lb. 2-row (toasted in oven)
1/4 lb. chocolate
1/4 lb. crystal 120
.10 lb. black patent (darken the color up some)
hops: 1.2 oz of Kent Golding 5% AA - this actually brings it just out of the BJCP style of this beer, being it's over the alpha acid range for this style, but, I figured I was already over in the gravity - so I tossed them in. :)
OG: 1.051

I also used dry yeast on this one, the DCL S-04 Safeale. I thought I'd give it a try, it's amazingly cheap @ 1.99 a pack. I just checked on both beers and they're starting to ferment - no bubbles yet, but the brown ale has a foam formed on top of it, which is always the start of fermentation. Had I done the starter with liquid yeast, this sucker would be rolling fermenting by now.

I also kegged the christmas ale yesterday. I had like 2 1/2 gallons left in a carboy sitting there chilling out waiting for the holidays to come. And, with my new 3rd keg, I kegged the remaining 5 gallons of the Blonde ale. We have a work party on the 19th, which every year usually spills over to the DRB - I plan to give out samples of the Christmas ale, and pints of the blonde. :) Thankfully, no one reads this blog from work, so I'm sure people won't come specifically to get their pint of blonde ale. haha.

Anyhow, it was a good day for brewing. It was surprisingly warm, which made it much easier running back and forth to the house for water or whatever. Oh yeah, and in case you're wondering - English milds are typically a very low ABV beer, they range from 2.5 to 3.5 abv. Here's a brief history on the style:

--Mild Ales originated in coal mining regions of England and Wales. Mild Ale was intended as a low alcohol beer for heavy consumption by miners and as a harvest time drink for farm workers. They are often the least expensive beers available. Mild Ale is sweeter and lighter colored than Porter. It is as malty as possible in a low gravity beer. This style is most common in the West Midlands of Great Britain. It had been declining as a style due to a perception as old-fashioned. It now seems to be making a comeback. Mild refers to bitterness not flavor. They can be full of flavor whether light or dark. English Light Mild Ales range from light amber to light brown in color. Malty sweet tones dominate the flavor profile with a little hop bitterness or flavor. Hop aroma can be light. Very low diacetyl flavors may be appropriate in this low-alcohol beer. Fruity ester level is very low. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. --

So I decided to bump the gravity a bit. The extra base grain brings this mild up to a 4.9 to 5%. The final gravity actually is in the range of this beer style. I was right on with the color, as far as the style goes.. so, it'll be a good close example to what the miner folks drank.

Bourbon oak english brown

2008-12-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a crazy one here folks. This is a southern english brown ale style. My original plan was to do 10 gallons of brown, and split it up. Keg one as a brown ale, and rack the second to sit with some bourbon soaked oak chips. Only, my brain wasn't working right this morning, and I planned out the perfect 5 gallon recipe - but was thinking it was a 10! Oops. So, life goes on - I'll just have to whip up another batch soon, to keep the beer flowing in the D.R.B. :)

8lb maris
4 lb victory
.50 crystal 40
.50 crystal 120
.50 biscuit
.50 chocolate

.87 oz. kent goldings - 5% (20 IBU's)

OG: 1.062 (a bit high for this style, but I want it up there a bit more since I'm adding the oak/bourbon).

Yeast: This'll be my first time trying dry yeast. I'm going to use Safeale S-04. Also soaking oak chips in bourbon for a bit to add to the secondary. Can't wait to see how this one comes out. I'll report back in the comment section on how this went. I think I'm going to brew on Sunday (tomorrow).

Snow Shovel Blonde

2008-11-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, someone asked me "have you ever brewed a normal beer?".. I had to sit back and think about what they meant by "normal".. To me, an IPA is pretty normal, or the Porter I just put on tap. Those are about as normal to me as beer gets. But I thought about it, and a "session" type beer came to mind. I read through some books and dug around on the internet and found Blonde Ales to be one of those more normal type beers. Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Blonde ales, also called golden ales range in color from that of straw to golden blond(e). They are clear, crisp, and dry, with low-to-medium bitterness and aroma from hops, and some sweetness from malt. Fruitiness from esters may be perceived but do not dominate the flavour or aroma. A lighter body from higher carbonation may be noticed. The lightness in the use of hops and malt can make blonde ales a good introduction to craft industry beers for consumers only familiar with mass-marketed beers.

So basically, I'm making a lawn mower beer in the middle of winter! I figure by the time this is on tap, I'll be shoveling snow. My thoughts drifted back to last winter. I woke up on a Saturday morning to about a foot of snow. I threw on some boots (and clothes if I remember right), and first things first, stomped through the snow to the garage (DRB) and turned on the heat. I knew after shoveling, I was going to need a day of r&r. I spent a couple hours shoveling. My neighbor was out supervising his kids shoveling, which also wore him out. We retired to the garage where we enjoy a few (several) pints of homebrew and played a couple rounds of chess.

By the time we get hit with a big snow, I'll be ready. I don't plan on bottling this one, I think it'll all go straight to keg. Here's the recipe:

23 lb. American 2-row
1 lb. Crystal 20
2 oz. Willamette 5% AA (beginning of boil)
Yeast: White Labs California Ale (starter)
OG: 1.050 / FG: 1.011 - 5.2% (though my program has me coming in at a 1.060 OG, 6%)

Can't get any easier than that. I did some preparing last night. I made my starter with DME this time (I had been using LME), and boy what a difference that made. I didn't get any boil overs. I just checked it and there's already activity starting.
I also milled the grains last night and brought my hot liquor tank in as well as my mash tun, to keep them at room temp. Not much else to do but fire up the strike water and get this brewday going!

Porter & Christmas Ale

2008-11-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

Porter:
11.75 lb. 2-row
1.5 lb munich malt (only I didn't use munich - see below)
1 lb. crystal
.75 lb chocolate malt
.5 lb black patent

Hops:
60 minute Kent Golding 5%AA - 1.75 oz.
15 minute Fuggles 5%AA - .75 oz.
0 minute Kent Golding - 5%AA - .75 oz.

Yeast:
White Labs London Ale (starter)

I realized last night that I didn't have any Munich grains. I forgot to get them last time I was at the homebrew store. I did a post on Beer Advocate asking for advice. Some said to just up the 2-row, the Munich isn't necessary. One guy, at like 3 in the morning posted, saying to try toasting the 2-row to make something a bit similar to a Munich. I'm not sure if he was right or wrong, but I didn't feel like driving to Dundee. I threw a couple pounds onto a cookie sheet and put them into the pre-heated oven for 15 mins, more like 20. I stirred them every few minutes. My house smelled amazing. When they were done, I tasted them then tasted the regular non-toasted. Big difference. I hope it adds a nice toasty flavor to the beer.. we'll see!
The base for this recipe came from Brewing Classic Styles book.
OG: 1.072

========================================
Christmas Ale
12 lb. two row
1 lb. crystal
.25 lb. black malt

Hops - 1 oz. Horizon - 13%AA 60 min.

Yeast:
White Labs London Ale (starter)

The grain and hops are pretty close to the same as the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles. I used my smaller mash tun for this one and it worked well. The beer came out looking like a brown ale and smelling sweet.
OG: 1.074

(spices to come later)
========================================

The day went pretty well. Jason at Adventures in Homebrewing suggested trying to keep a layer of water on the grains when you sparge at all times. I had previously been draining the wort all out - then sparging. He explained when you do that, the water doesn't get to travel through all of the grains, it creates almost like tunnels for the water to travel down, since the grains became so compacted from the first sparge out. So, I did it that way this time and it seemed to go well. I ended up with about 7 gallons of Porter (pre-boil) and about 6 gallons of the Christmas Ale. The boil went well, a couple of boil overs on the Christmas Ale (I need another keg boil tank!).
Excellent day for brewing too, 74 degrees today!! Aaron stopped by and supervised brewing for a while.
After I was finished brewing I kegged and bottled my Hop Head IPA. So far it tastes wonderful, nice and hoppy. By Saturday I should be able to kick back and have a pint to see how it is cold and carbonated.

Extract efficiency calculations

2008-10-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

I've always been curious about my extract efficiency. I dug around and read several articles about it. A lot of them are just flat out confusing. I found a pretty basic one, that explains the breakdown like this:

1. Multiply the amount of grains you used by the potential maximum extract from your grain. You can find them online, here's a list of some popular grains (click here), I didn't see my Maris Otter on there, so I just googled "maris otter extract potential" and several sites came up.

2. Once you have these numbers, multiply them by the amount of grains you used. So, with my most recent IPA i brewed, here's the breakdown:
20 lb Maris Otter x 38 = 760
4 lb Munich x 37 = 148
2 lb Crystal x 34 = 68
===============================
976

3. Take this final number, and divide it by the number of gallons of wort you collected, in my case, I collected exactly 12 gallons. 12/976 = 81.3 points

4. Next, and this part is tricky, but bear with me: Take your specific, pre-boil gravity number, mine, was 1.072. Take the last two numbers, and and divide your total points from step 3 by this. So: 81/72 = 88%

I'm guessing this is how it's done. After reading several articles, I think I have this all together right. Correct me anyone, if this is wrong.

But 88% sounds pretty good to me. I was wondering how I was doing in this area. I know there are a lot of factors that can effect the efficiency. Using a refractometer, crushing the grain better, proper sparging temperatures, etc. Here's a thread with some interesting tips on boosting your extract efficiency - (click here).

Finally, my first all grain IPA

2008-10-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I took a vacation day and brewed a 10 gallon batch of IPA. I split the batch in two - here's what I did:

20lbs Marris Otter
4 lbs Munich Malt
2 lbs British Crystal

I split the batch because I wanted to try out some homegrown hops I received (Willamette I believe). In the first batch, I added 1 oz. Summit (60), 1 oz. Ahtanum (15), 1 oz. Simcoe (5), and will be dry hopping with 1 oz. of Argentine Cascades. The other 5 gallons, I added 1 oz. of Summit (60) and a bunch of the fresh dried home grown hops (15).

California Ale yeast - starter made a couple days before.

This brew went surprisingly well. I started at 5 a.m. and things went like clockwork. My mash tun was filled to the top when I put the lid on. This time I put towels over the top of it, thanks to a tip from a Beer Advocate member - it really helped keep the heat in. After an hour I started draining the wort into the split batches.

I boiled and followed the hop additions as seen above. I really need to get something for my keg boil kettle, a screen or something at the bottom, because the whole leaf hops got all stuck when syphoning the wort out.
Anyhow, I'm going to dedicate the fresh hops batch to Leon Blackburn, who's wife donated a bunch of their hops to us. Leon passed away in June of 2007. He grew some amazing hop vines a while back and this year the crop was huge! I'll be doing a post on the MiBeerBuzz.com blog when the beer is finished.

Hoppy Fall IPA: Pre boil gravity - 1.072
Post boil gravity - 1.082

Blackburn IPA - Pre boil gravity - 1.076
Post boil gravity - 1.084

The difference in the gravity between the two was a mistake on my part. I was doing one pitcher in one boil pot, then another in the second boil pot. Well, I did two in a row in the Blackburn IPA.. oops! My other mistake was coming out a bit under 5 gallons on both of them. The Hoppy Fall IPA came in around 4.5 gallons, the Blackburn IPA was just under 5. I didn't top them off with water, I feel that kind of messes with the whole batch by doing that - but I did learn, a 6 gallon boil will reduce to a 4.5 gallon wort after an hour - so, I'll probably shoot for 6.5 gallons of wort to boil next time.

Anyhow, the room these carboys are in smell freaking awesome. I can't stop walking in there every few hours and smelling them. I'll be racking the Blackburn IPA to a secondary for a week or two of settling and the same with the Hoppy, but I'll be dry hopping that one at some point. mmm. Hops. Oh yeah, the odd hops I used were the ones free from the AHA rally I went to. Somehow I wound up with 3 bags of hops. The Summit hops were the only ones I had to purchase. This whole batch cost about $55.00.

Hops

2008-10-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

I just inherited some hops and they smell awesome. I can't stop playing with them. Anyhow, tomorrow I'm going to begin sealing them up for freezing and giving away. Here's a pic of them.. they smell wonderful, I wish I could blog smells, but, Google hasn't invented that yet. I should register googlesmells.com so when they invent that technology, they'll be able to buy the domain off me for TONS of $$ .. :)

Oktoberfest @ The DRB

2008-09-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

The DRB is about the size of one of those tables.. haha. But yeah, we are having an Oktoberfest bash on Sept. 20th. The weizenbock came out to a solid 10% abv. The dunkel was alright, but I decided to add cherries to it. I had originally planned on having both on tap at once, and didn't want two similar styles on tap at the same time. It turns out I will only have the cherry on tap. The weizenbock I ended up bottling, but will be doing a tasting of it around 8pm the night of the party. I plan on getting a regular beer for the masses. I was going to spring for a german keg, but holy wow are they spendy. I just got word too, we'll have live music, in the form of an accordion player! Crazy fun will be had next weekend. :)

Weizenbock and it's dark offspring..

2008-08-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I got up pretty early and began brewing a weizenbock. Here's the recipe:

10 lb. wheat
5 lb. pilsner
2 lb. munich
.5 lb. special B
.5 lb. crystal
.25 lb. chocolate malt

1/2 oz 6.2% Hallertau
WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale

Mashed in @ 152 degrees. Boiled for 90 minutes.

I had read several things about people brewing this style and quite often they commented on how active the fermentation was - some joked about the airlock blowing off. I ignored the stories and stuck with an airlock.. sure enough, Sunday morning the airlock was filled with fermenting beer and was hissing. I ran to the hardware store and picked up some tubing and quickly made a blow-off tube. Here's the video:

So - let me back up a bit. After I had about 7 gallons of run off from the mash tun, I threw some dark carafa grains into the mash tun and continued sparging. The carafa added some darker color to the wort. I managed to get another 5 gallon @ 1.016 pre-boil gravity. I added 3 lbs. of wheat DME to the boil, and a 1/2 oz of 6.2 hallertau hops. After boil, I ended up with about 4.5 gallons of wort and pitched a basic wheat yeast into it. The fermentation hasn't been as crazy as the weizenbock, but still took off that evening.

I also bottled 5 gallons of saison and 3 gallons of the apricot wheat. Was a busy day at the DRB!

Apricot Wheat

2008-08-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

7 lbs of Bavarian Wheat DME and 1 oz. of Saaz hops.

This recipe is as basic as you can get, and makes for a great base for doing a summer fruit beer. I was ready to rack to the secondary, and needed some quick fruit. I was looking for raspberries, but the local grocery store didn't have them in the form I was looking for (in heavy syrup - canned). I studied the fruit for a while and thought about doing a blackberry, however it was like $4 a can! I found apricots, which were like a $1 a can, and ended up with them. 2 lbs of Apricots in heavy syrup dumped in the bottom of a bucket. Wheat transferred on top of it to sit two weeks.

Original gravity was 1.062, final ended up at 1.018: 5.9% abv. The fruit bumped it up just a bit. I noticed more activity in the airlock shortly after adding the fruit.

I ended up bottling half of this batch and kegging the other half. When I did my gravity reading, I tasted it.. and didn't taste much of an apricot taste. Maybe after it's cold and carbonated it'll come out more.. we'll see! Speaking of.. I'm going to go carb that keg now, maybe have a pint later today. :)

Dayton Road Brewing's logo

2008-08-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

I used to have an eagle on my garage, before the siding was redone. When Dayton Road Brewing came about, I thought about putting a big ol' star on the front - since the eagle disappeared when the new siding went up (I bet the siding guys stole it - it was sweet). Anyhow, a star is better than an eagle. The idea behind the star is more for the "image" of the DRB. Every bottle will look the same, but different colors. There will be a star in the middle of each bottle - with Dayton Road Brewing at the top - and the kind of beer below the star. If I ever make labels that is.. for now, at least we have a logo or mascot, or whatever it may be. :)

Dayton Road Brewing Saison

2008-07-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

I think I've lost count of how many brews the DRB has had on tap, but I can start counting the all-grain batches. Above is a photo of my first Saison. I blogged about the brewing process a few weeks ago. This was my second all-grain batch, and it went even smoother than the first one. The gravity dropped to 1.011, and because I was so busy this past week, I ended up kegging one of the carboys and brewing a wheat that I've re-used the Saison yeast with. The Saison turned out wonderful. It's cloudy, but has a wonderful orange hue to it. The taste is awesome, a bit of an orange sweetness to it, with a pepper type spice and other flavors whirling around. Every time I drink some, I find a different flavor.

Here's the Wheat recipe - it's an extract batch, and let me tell you, extract was so easy after doing all grain, I feel like I could do a batch in my sleep, or when I get up in the morning before work.. haha. But, this was probably even easier than other extract batches I've done:

7 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
1 oz. Saaz Hops (full boil)
1/2 oz. Orange Peel (final 15 mins.)
1/2 oz. Crushed Coriander (final 15 mins.)

I transferred the Saison to a keg and immediately pitched the cool wort on top of the yeast cake. Within 5 hours activity started and continued for 3 straight days. It's slowed down now, and I've wrapped it in an electric blanket to get it a little warmer. I'll probably take a reading this weekend to see how the gravity is doing.
I'm also going to rack my second Saison to a secondary for a clearing stage before I bottle it. I still need to get some bottles for the Saison, I'm going to put them in bombers instead of smaller bottles, and will probably let them sit for quite a while before cracking into them.

What's next? Well, I think the DRB has seen enough of summer beers, we're ready to move on to maybe something hoppy or dark. I might do a quick 5 gals of a Pale Ale and am eventually going to do a weizenbock for my autumn beer. After that, who knows! I probably need to work on consuming the product before I think about brewing more.. I'm eventually going to run out of carboys! A good problem to have.. :)

A pint of homebrew on a warm summers day

2008-07-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

Nothing much about this post, just that I still think it's pretty awesome that I can skip the bar (where good beer is $4.75 a pint) and come home to a great homebrewed beer. This is my Cream Ale. Very refreshing on a hot summers day.

Saison brew day

2008-06-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

I became interested in the Saison style recently when investigating summer style beers. Saisons ferment at a high temperature (80-85F), so its a perfect time of year to brew one. Here's some Saison history:
Saison is a French word for season, because it was originally brewed in the winter, and enjoyed throughout the summer months. The name was given to the style in Wallonia, which is the French-speaking region of Belgium. They are considered to be a farmhouse ale because it was originaly brewed in farmhouses for farm workers who drank up to 5 liters a day (that's over a gallon!) during harvest work days. Back in the day, this style was less than 3% abv.
At one time, Saison was described as an endangered style, but in recent years has made a come back. Modern day Saison is a complex style with a fruit aroma, earthy yeast tones, mild to moderate tartness. Some Saison styles have been described to have light an orange, coriander and peppery taste to them. The modern day Saison ranges from 5-8% abv.

The recipe I used is mostly from the book "Brewing Classic Styles." I used different and less hops than suggested.

DRB Saison:

21 lbs. Pilsner
1.5 lbs. Belgian Wheat
1.5 lbs. Munich
2 lbs. Corn Sugar
2 oz. Hallertau G. Tradition (6.2%AA)
1 oz. Hallertau Select (1.5%AA)
Yeast: 565 White Labs Belgian Saison Ale (starter made a couple days in advance)
------------------------------------
Mashed for 90 mins. at 148F. Sparged at around 160F. Pre-boil gravity was 1.055. Original gravity ended up at 1.074. Fermentation started last night.

The brew went good. I started at around 6 a.m. and finished up (cleaning and everything) around 2 p.m. I can't really see how I could reduce the time any, especially since this beer took a bit longer than normal. It rained a bit during the brew too, but luckily I was partially under the garage so everything stayed dry. Later in the boil, I enjoyed a Le Merle Saison from North Coast Brewing Co. This has been my favorite Saison style yet, high carbonation very light and refreshing. I can only hope mine turns out this good!
I moved the fermenters to the second floor of my house, where it's warmer. I almost was going to move them to the attic, but I'm going to monitor the temps up there for now, the attic might be too warm. I seem to remember fermenting one of my first beers last year, and worrying about the 80 degree temps.. so it shouldn't be a problem reaching that temp upstairs. I plan to bottle 5 gallons of this, which was my plan for the cream ale, but it was just so darn good, I ended up kegging the second 5 gallons. We'll see how this one goes. I want to brew a 5 gallon all-grain batch sometime soon, so the DRB kegs are full, but I'm not sure what to make... I'm thinking of making another wheat style, and re-using some of the yeast from the Saison. Anyhow, that's the latest from the DRB! Here's a slide show of the Saison brew day.

Beats The Heat Cream Ale

2008-06-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

Well folks, I did it. I can honestly say, that my first all-grain beer has turned out awesome. We all sat on the porch yesterday afternoon and had a few pints of it. Man it's good. I completely forgot to take a final gravity reading, so I can't tell you the abv's - I have another 5 gallons that I'll test later on. I think I'm going to bottle the other half of it. It's a very light tasting beer with mild hop taste. A perfect summer brew that I'll for sure do again someday.

The DRB Goes All-Grain!

2008-05-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

I started brewing partial extract recipes around August of 2007. I've been very pleased with almost all of my batches, and doing 10 or more of them really taught me about the process of brewing. I kept hearing about this "all-grain" method, and began hanging around anyone that was doing it. I watched several people do it and researched it as much as I could. I finally became comfortable enough to make a plan to start getting equipment.. (the George Bush check came at the right time too!).
I'm using one keg as my hot liquor tank (water), an orange rubbermaid cylinder cooler for my mash-tun and another keg for my brew kettle.
I started getting things prepared around 8 a.m. this morning. Cleaning, sanitizing, getting the water heated, etc. I think I finally started mashing around 10 a.m. - that water took quite a while to heat up. In the mean time, I installed another television in the DRB - the old one finally died (I think my family got that t.v. when I was like 10 years old).

I also did my first yeast starter.. hoping that turns out ok! I hung out this past week at Adventures in Homebrewing. Jason was a huge help, schooling me in the odds and ends that I wasn't aware of yet. The main thing he said was: "Don't make it more complicated than it really is." Which is helpful advice. I think I've read so many different things about all-grain brewing, that I wanted to try every technique on this first batch and get things perfect.

One last thing I did, was research and purchase beer brewing software. I ended up with Beer Alchemy - a program designed specifically for Macintosh computers. The software is pretty sweet, it acts as a journal for keeping track of batches. It has several recipes already built into it. It has a nice selection of calculators - one I've been using to calculate my refractometer readings to try and hit my 1.044 to 1.055 gravity, and a ton of other cool features.

I think between the beer store and craigslist, I've probably spent about $250.00 on all of the equipment I have that took me to all-grain. And, since George sent me $600.00, I have some left for a couple future batches.. :) http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Well, to sum this post up - it's 2:30 p.m., and the wort is about to boil. This definitely is a much longer process than extract brewing, but it's been fun. I think I did everything right, so I'm going to be extra anxious to see how this batch turns out. I don't think I mentioned it either, I brewed a cream ale - should be a good kick-back summer beer. :)

Almost forgot to thank Brian @ HomebrewingAdventures for letting me pick his brain about all-grain. I feel like I owe him some consulting fees!

Brews and news

2008-05-06T19:23:00.001-07:00

Well, if judging by my blog posts, it would appear that the DRB has been on vacation. Just the opposite, but I have been busy with work, well, and brewing.
A few weeks back I brewed a Amarillo Ale. A pale ale with 4 oz of amarillo hops. One of the ounces was dry hopped.
Not even a week later, I brewed a Belgian Wit, which fermented like a son-of-a-gun, and just stopped, I swear it was a two solid week ferment, that thing bubbled forever.
Next up, we had a guest brewer, actually someone who kind of got me started in brewing.. a buddy that nudged me into it with the ol "just do it, it's easy dude" comment, and I thank him for it. Bryan, brewed the Kolsch recipe from Adventures in Homebrewing. We've heard it is some awesome beer. Our plan is to bottle it up in the next couple of weeks.

New equipment: I have a few RSS feeds set up on Craigslist for homebrew equipment. One came across last week with some stuff I was looking for in Ferndale, MI. I couldn't make the trip there, so I kind of gave up on it. Tuesday, I shot the guy an email asking if he sold the equipment. A speedy reply said no, it's mostly all still there. I made plans to head up and meet him tonight (Tuesday). Here's what I ended up with (photo above): 1 10 gallon mash tun cooler with false bottom. Another smaller mash tun, false bottom cooler. A plastic fermenter, a bunch of odds and ends.. like cleaning solutions, wood chips, bottling wand, sanky tap (score!), other things I can't even remember right now.. a 5 gallon glass carboy.. and best of all, a grain mill, a really nice big one that looks pretty solid; all of this, for $80 bucks. I planned on spending a hundred, or possibly going back to the bank for more if needed, but the dude selling the stuff didn't have any idea what the stuff was worth, and got what he needed out of it, so we both walked away happy... maybe me happier, but, what the heck, he wasn't using it all!

And so begins.. the DRB is about to go all grain.... to be continued. :)

FREE BEER

2008-04-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

No, for real. Free beer @ the DRB. :)

I never thought I'd have 10 gallons of beer that I just don't think I'll drink. The DRB PBR experimentation..well, didn't go so well. It's not that the beer is rotten, infected or anything like that. It just doesn't taste all that great. Most of the beers I've had out there have been pretty good, and I would wrestle with the thought of.. "well, should I put my slippers on and trudge through the snow for another pint?!".. (usually I did). But, most of my beers have been beers that have been really tasty, and you crave another after the first. I'm going to let my friends try it and see what they think. Maybe someone will absolutely love it, and go nuts on it - more power to you whoever that may be! In the mean time, I've been doing a pint or two here and there, just to help put a dent in it. I think I'm going to stay away from straight up extracts until someone can prove me otherwise on the taste.. worth a try I guess. I'm only out $24.00 and time.

The second keg is a Munich. I inherited the wort from the homebrew shop in Dundee to make up for the Imperial Stout that they ran out of - this Munich was free to make up for it (which, by the way, those guys rule for doing that - they could of just given me my $ back, but instead they gave me a free 5 gallons of wort). This was my first lager I ever fermented, it sat in the garage bubbling away for quite sometime.. 4 weeks I'd say. I ran it straight to the keg, there was a very small yeast cake on the bottom. The beer is an amberish color and smells just like a german style lager. I remembered after sipping my first pint, that I'm just not fond of this style of beer. It's o.k., but I'm just not a huge fan of it. I had a few pints last night, and that was about all I could handle.

To make up for these two odd selections at the DRB, I'm brewing an Amarillo Pale Ale - complete with 4 oz. of Amarillo Hops tomorrow night (wednesday). If you're in the hood -swing on by and help yourself to a pint, or three.

p.s. I think I'm on to something.. this DRB Pale Blue Ribbon isn't so bad with salted sesame sticks. Maybe it'll go quicker than I thought. :)

Dayton Road Brewing Pale Blue Ribbon

2008-03-31T16:18:00.001-07:00

The past couple times I've picked up batches from the homebrew shop, the price has been more than I expected. Hop prices have gone up, as well as grain. Since I started brewing partial extract, I decided maybe it's time I brew up an all extract session beer. I'm going for a light pale ale. These two cans of extract cost me a total of $24 bucks. The yeast is a dry one. I'm not expecting much, but, who knows, maybe I'll be surprised. This is going to be my lawn mower beer, my "PBR".. I was talking with some friends about it, and they said I ought to call it DRB PBR, I changed it up a bit to "pale blue ribbon." I'm almost thinking of trying this again, yet with some hops, but we'll see. Maybe this'll be a one time experiment, and i'll go back to partial..or, if all goes well, my George Bush tax refund All Grain set up :)

I'll post back later on how this turns out.

St. Patrick's Day done right.

2008-03-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

This year, a few of us are taking a vacation day on St. Pat's day to celebrate good beer. We'll start off the morning with a hardy DRB breakfast (corned beef hash, eggs, hashbrowns, toast and lots of hot sauce) and two special brews I've been aging for a while.

Tonight I pulled out both carboys that have been stuffed away resting. The first: my 80 shilling Scottish Ale. I siphoned it to the keg, and I always like to pull a sample that I try and make Jen try. I was really surprised. It turned out amazing. A lighter beer with a smooth crisp finish. There's even some slight carbonation already forming in the beer. Jen said she tasted a slight hop bite, but I couldn't. Probably one of the lighter beers I've made, but definitely one of my best.
Next up, the oatmeal stout. This is the first stout I've ever made, and to be honest, I was more nervous about this than any other beer style I've brewed. Well, it turned out just as good as the 80 shilling. It's amazing. A nice nutty full bodied stout. I can't believe I made it, but then again, once you start brewing, you'll surprise yourself, because there really isn't much to it. And my results have been excellent each time.

After breakfast, we're heading to Corner Brewery in Ypsi. Corner has a bus traveling back and forth to Arbor Brewing all day, so we're going to hike around town and enjoy some good beer. On my list: Arbor Brewing, Grizzly Peaks, Ashley's and maybe Conner O'Neal's. Should be a great day. I'm sure I'll be posting some pictures after, so keep an eye on the blog. :)

Tasting picture..

2008-02-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last night was probably a bit too many beers to taste, but we did have fun. Here's us trying out one of the beers.

Thursday night beer tasting in the DRB

2008-02-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

Me and the dudes are going to do a beer tasting tonight in the DRB.. Here's the line up!

Beer Tasting @ Dayton Road Brewing
February 28, 2008

1. Old Boys' Brewhouse - Brewhouse Bock
Style: German style bock
ABV: 5.5-7.0% ?
Description: Bock Beer was originally brewed in Germany to herald the coming of Spring or, a sign of better things to come. Bock beer in general is stronger than your typical lager, more of a robust malt character with a dark amber to brown hue. Hop bitterness can be assertive enough to balance though must not get in the way of the malt flavor, most are only lightly hopped.

2. Old Boys' Brewhouse - Brewhouse Brown
Style: American Brown Ale
ABV: 5.2%
Description: Medium in body and unique in its flavor complexity. We use a combination of caramel, victory and chocolate malts to give this tasty brew a toasted, nutty flavor which would have made Old Boy himself howl in approval.

3. Bells Best Brown
Style: English Brown Ale
ABV: 6.60%
Description: Rich brown ale perfect for the fall and winter. Plenty of malt character and smooth sweet finish give this brown ale its distinct character.

4. Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire
Style: Saison / Farmhouse Ale
ABV: 4.3%
Description: Dark, smooth, delicious. Aromas of worn leather and cool autumn nights. Notes of sweet plum and toasted raisin, hints of coffee and cacao. Lingering tart and refreshing finish. Only available for a few short months. Not to be missed.
(Open or Wild fermentation - re-usage of yeasts - aged in oak casks)

5. Great Lakes Conways Irish Ale
Style: Irish Red Ale
ABV: 6.5%
Description: A malty Irish Ale with a notable toasty flavor derived from lightly roasted malt. Second to Dry Stout, this style of ale is Ireland's other most distinctive brew. Named after Patrick Conway, the grandfather of co-owners Patrick and Daniel Conway and a Cleveland policeman who directed traffic for 25 years near the brewery.

6. Goose Island Demolition 2007
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
ABV: 8.0%
Description: Brewed with Saaz and Styrian Golding Hops for a grassy citrus aroma and lots of the finest pale malt for a "honey" malt middle and intense flavor.

7. Michigan Brewing Company Celis Grand Cru
Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale
ABV: 8.0%
Description: Brewed according to a traditional recipe and uses pale barley malts, Saaz, and Cascade hops, Curacao orange peel and select spices. The combination produces an ale strong in character with a subtle fruitiness and complex flavors.

8. Sierra Nevada 2008 ESB
Style: Extra Special / Strong Bitter
ABV: 5.9%
Description: Combines the best of English tradition with West Coast style. A blend of malts featuring British-grown Maris Otter is balanced with the earthy spiciness of hand-selected English and US hops. The ale is left unfiltered, which enhances mouthfeel and hop aroma creating a slightly reddish-copper hue.

9. Bells Lager
Style: American All-Malt Lager
ABV: 4.5%
Description: As refreshingly crisp as a morning swim in a Great Lake, this brew is crafted with Pils and Munich malts. The pronounced hop character of this golden lager sparks thoughts of sandy beaches and rocky islands.

10. Siera Nevada Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 5.6%
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a delightful example of the classic pale ale style. It has a deep amber color and a exceptionally full-bodied, complex character. The fragrant bouquet and spicy flavor are the results of the generous use of the best Cascade hops. Bittering Hops: Magnum & Perle. Finishing Hops: Cascade

11. Michigan Brewing Company High Seas India Pale Ale
Style: American IPA
ABV: 7.2%
Description: Assertively hoppy and dangerously seductive. A skillful blend of three premium barley malts with generous amounts of Northern Brewer and Cascade Hops creates a special ale to satisfy even the most demanding palate.

12. Sierra Nevada 2008 Bigfoot
Style: American Barley Wine
ABV: 9.6%
Description: Our award-winning barleywine boasts a dense, fruity bouquet, an intense flavor palate and a deep reddish-brown color. Its big maltiness is superbly balanced by a wonderfully bittersweet hoppiness. Chinook Hops with Cascade and Centennial finishing hops.

13. Stone Brewing Co. Ruination
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 7.7%
Description: This massive hop monster has a wonderfully delicious and intensely bitter flavor on a refreshing malt base. ONe taste and you can esily see why we call this brew "a liquid poem to the glory of hop!"

14. Stoudts Double IPA
Style: American Double (Imperial) IPA
ABV: 10%
Stoudt's Double IPA is a strong, full-bodied ale with an intense hop character and deep golden color. This unusual brew is characteristic of the newly recognized style of extremely hoppy and malty ales of American origin. The Double IPA is our strongest beer with an alcohol of over 10% abv and bitterness of more than 75 IBU's. Multiple kettle hop additions and generous dry hopping contribute to the powerful yet smooth and fragrant hop character of this beer.

15. Bells Hopslam
Style: American Double (Imperial) IPA
ABV: 10%
Description: A biting, bitter, tongue bruiser of an ale. With a name like Hopslam, what did you expect? A great example of what it might be like to eat a handful of hops with a big alcohol warming finish.

DRB events!

2008-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

For some reason, it didn't cross my mind that I should post events on the DRB page. We have something happening every month, mostly low key hang out parties, but we have a lot of fun. There's usually a chess match that breaks out mid-way through the night, and the broom is always handy if an empty pint hits the floor. We always have good snacks on hand too, from pirogi's, chips and salsa, taco's and always peanuts (shells on the floor!).
Anyhow, I'll start posting pictures of the events.. here are a couple of recent ones.

Bryan and Aaron are making me a frame with a mirror in it, to go behind the bar. I acquired a 5 gal. korny of bells best brown, so we're going to enjoy some of that after the mirror is hung.

Cow tongue provided by Nick from work. It was awesome. The pico salsa was amazing.

Cow tongue night - the gang.

The Two Hearted Challenge

2008-02-09T16:44:00.001-08:00

My favorite beer is an India Pale Ale. I can't get enough of them. I brewed several batches before trying one. The batch I picked up was a Bells Two Hearted clone. I had heard that it's a pretty close comparison. I like Two Hearted, so I figured I would give it a shot. The beer turned out fabulous.
I was at 129 in Monroe the other night, drinking a Two Hearted, and thought, wow, this kind of tastes like my beer.. kind of forgetting that mine was a clone. Gave me an idea.. next time I'm at the grocery store, I'll pick up a sixer of Two Hearted, and put them up against each other. This is live blogging at it's finest.. here goes:

Both beers poured at the same time. DRB IPA - Keg / Two Hearted - Bottle

Appearance:
DRB IPA - More amber in color, yet really close to the bells. A little thicker too. A small white head sits on the top, maybe an 1/8th inch.
Two Hearted - Orange in color and clear. A creamy color head, not as big as the DRB's.

Aroma:
DRB IPA - A definite malt smell comes through with a slight hop smell.
Two Hearted - Larger hop smell, malt is definitely in the background of this. The hops really shine in this beer.

Palate:
DRB IPA - Smooth creamy mouth feel. Medium body. Finishes smooth.
Two Hearted - Crisp thin mouth feel. Medium to light body. Finishes smooth.

Taste:
DRB IPA - A creamy malty flavor starts out with a big mild hop bite. Grapefruit like flavors really come out in this beer. Very well balanced flavor.
Two Hearted - Thinner in comparison, lighter. Much less malt flavor and more immediate hoppiness.

Overall: Boy. Let me have another sip of each.. I'd definitely have to vote for mine. Maybe that's just me being partial to my own beer, but I think if I was blind tasting this, I'd go for the fuller bodied creamy IPA. I can totally see the similarities between the two, which explains why whoever made this recipe up, would call it a clone. But yeah, I'll take the DRB IPA!

80 Shilling Scottish Ale

2008-02-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

Had another brew day today. This recipe was quite simple. Grains, malt extract and an ounce of Kent Goldings hops. The brew went well - the thermometer I tried out this time was one of those that you set the temperature, and an alarm goes off when it hits it. Worked pretty good - but it went kind of crazy when I was chilling the beer. I had to resort to my back up thermometer. I probably chilled the beer a little too much, but it ended up being around 172 in the carboy - which is perfect for pitching the yeast.
The original gravity came out at 1.040. The recipe says it's supposed to be at 1.045 - so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll be kicking back on the sofa hearing the bubbling action from the kitchen.

6lb. liquid malt extract
10 oz 60 L Crystal, 1 oz Roasted Barley, 4 oz Aromatic
1 oz Kent Goldings (bittering)

I put the grain bag in a pot on my garage kerosene heater.. it's kind of like potpourri beer style.. haha. The only mistake I made today was knocking my empty glass off the table as I was filling my carboy - crash! oops. Lord knows I have enough of them. :)

Rackin the oatmeal

2008-02-05T03:53:00.001-08:00

I woke up really early today for some reason, and decided to do some beer work. I cleaned up the bar some (lot's of empties and empty glasses from this past wknd). I also racked the oatmeal. The yeast cake on the bottom was probably the biggest I've ever seen.. it was hard getting out of the carboy! Pretty weird looking too, if you can imagine how that looked dumping it in the toilet. :p I gave the beer a taste, and I think it's going to be a good one. I'm going to let it sit for a week or two, then bottle most of the batch. I haven't decided how much I'm going to bottle, possibly all of them. Opening day will be St. Patricks weekend.

Oatmeal Stout brewed, racked the IPA

2008-01-28T03:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a busy one for the DRB. I started by racking the IPA. It's looking really good and tastes pretty awesome. I used my own unfiltered tap water for this batch. I've heard the argument go both ways on this issue, I may be taking a gamble doing it - but so far it tastes as it should, so I guess we'll see how things go.
I cleaned up after that, and then cleaned out both of the empty kegs, sanitizing and purged with co2. Next I started getting everything together for the evenings brew. Both Kevin and I were brewing stouts. Kevin is making a bourbon oaked stout (mmm!) and I made a pretty common oatmeal stout. There were so many grains I had to use two muslin bags to put them all in. Getting them out was a pain - I think I need to get some beer brewing tongs! I went with the liquid extract and had to add 8 oz of malto dextrin. This beer has an ounce of Willamette hops and an ounce of Cascade.. both smelled soooo good as i put them in.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to bottle or keg this. I had planned on bottling an Imperial Stout I was going to get from the local homebrew shop, but they ran out before filling my bucket!.. so, I may just bottle a small amount of these, and keg the rest. I'll have to see how my keg situation is then.
I decided to try keeping this fermenter out in a room, that is relatively warmer than the closet. The IPA took a couple days to start fermenting, then did for two weeks! This one started the very next day and has been crazy active since. Keeping a steady temperature around 70 degrees. It's kind of cool having it sit in the kitchen (covered), I can hear the bubbling action from here.
One last thing - I've been reading about "cold clearing" a beer. I'm going to try putting my carboy of IPA out in the garage this week for it to clear through the weekend. It's going to be above freezing all week, into the 40's, so It should be just fine covered up out there. I'll keep a close eye on it. Not sure if it'll work any faster, but it's worth the experimentation I suppose.

IPA - Two Hearted Clone

2008-01-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 7th I brewed a Bells Two Hearted clone (in honor of the great hop shortage of 2008). One thing I've always heard about clones, is that they usually don't match up as good as one would think. This really wasn't my goal here, I just like Two Hearted, and the recipe was pretty basic, so I picked up the goods at Adventures in Homebrewing. The brew went pretty well, I used my new 25ft. wort chiller. Fermentation started probably Tuesday evening, maybe sooner. I'm going to rack this into a 5 gallon carboy and dry hop with 2 oz. of hop pellets (I think centennial). Maybe by next weekend or a bit later, it should be ready to keg.
IPA's are one of my favorite beers ever. I have a feeling I'll be doing more, so I thought I'd start off with something pretty basic.
I got my name on the list at Dundee Brewing for their Imperial Stout. Dundee brews some fantastic beers, so I'm really looking forward to this. I think I'm going to bottle the entire batch - I have a couple dozen or so Grolsch bottles I'll be filling them with, and letting them sit for St. Patricks day.
My neighbor has a light pilsner extract he'll be bottling up soon, and I think he's on the list for the Dundee Red. Right now, I'm not really sure what's on the horizon for my next batch - I'll probably wait and see how things go, and come up with an idea later on. The Porter in the DRB right now is fantastic - and my cherry wheat has been getting some rave reviews - I think the longer it sits, the better it is. Yay Beer! :)

More than beer in the DRB!

2007-12-31T07:33:00.000-08:00

Whenever I go to Adventures in Homebrewing, I like to look at the soda syrup aisle. There's several flavors and instructions on how to make your own soda. Because I don't have the keg capacity right now to hold a root beer or other kind of soda, I decided to try a small batch. I googled around, and sure enough found a really easy recipe, that anyone can do from things around the house.
Here's the recipe:

Take an empty 2 liter bottle (they say to avoid glass) and a funnel. Fill the bottle with 1 cup of sugar, and a 1/4 tsp of baking yeast. Shake this around.
Add your extract. You'll see the right kind of root beer extract to use on the link at the end of this post. I used orange extract - 1 tbs. of it.

Next, you half fill up the 2 liter with water, and shake it around to mix up all of the sugar/yeast/extract.

I filled up the rest of the 2 liter with water, then added some food coloring to make it orange, and a small cap full of vanilla extract to add (hopefully) a creamy flavor to the orange.

Next, they suggest letting the soda sit for a few days, until the bottle feels hard. Refrigerate and serve after chilling one night. I'll post back how this turns out. The only drawback, from what I've read, is the chance of an explosion from possibly adding too much yeast/sugar. I'm going to move this to my brew box (a plastic tub I keep in my den with beer bottles in it - just in case of a mishap - less mess!).
How to brew your own root beer - link here (very detailed instructions with pictures).

End of the year updates

2007-12-30T10:26:00.000-08:00

I kegged up the Cherry Wheat. I think the cherry flavor somehow disappeared after I moved it to the second then keg. Great tasting red wheat! I think if I do it again, I'm going to look up the recipe or add some additional cherry flavoring. Beautiful looking beer though.
I also kegged my neighbors porter that he picked up from Dundee Brewing. This turned out amazing. A jet black beer, nice head with a nutty caramel flavor. A perfect porter.
I have the makings for a Bells Two Hearted clone. Roger from the brew club said he made it and it turned out great. I wanted to brew an IPA, and figured this would be a good one to start with. I'll probably bottle some of them and keg the rest. Waiting on my new wort chiller to arrive in the mail to make this batch.

Christmas Ales - labeled!

2007-12-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

I didn't feel the need to get crazy with the labels. I'm not sure I ever will. It's really what's inside that counts. I tested the bottled beer last night, and it carbonated perfect. I noticed the flavor came out more as it sat in the glass some - temperature is definitely a factor in this beer. Less cold = better. When it was very cold, I tasted a huge alcohol front.. as it warmed, the spices really came out.

The list

2007-12-17T03:46:00.001-08:00

So if I were a real brew pub, I'd have a chalk board with the beers available listed. I picked this Guiness sign up at the Steins and Stuff barn in Fowlerville, MI. Works great!

Wheat!

2007-12-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

I just finished bringing my wheat over into secondaries. I racked half of it to a bucket and added 4 cans of black pitted cherries in syrup (not pie filling). The other half I brought to a carboy. I'm curious to see what the cherry does, I am imagining the sugars in the cherries are going to reactivate the yeast, and I'll see some more activity. I'm going to let that bucket sit for a while, maybe another couple of weeks, before I do anything with it. The wheat, I may put on tap once my MBC IPA is gone.
I tasted the wheat and it is going to taste pretty good. Right now it's still yeasty tasting, but it's going to have a very light, slightly sweet taste to it.. right now I'll call it a light wheat. Can't wait for both of them! The good thing is, this batch I purchased from Things Beer in Webberville, it cost a whopping $21.00. So, if I botch up the cherry, I'm not out all that much. Pretty cool - 5 gallons of beer for just over twenty bucks! I'll post the results later.

Dayton Road Brewing Christmas Ale

2007-12-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

I decided to force carbonate my Christmas Ale and sample it. I'll attempt to do an unbiased review with this sample. I think most brewers will love their beer no matter what, so, I'll do my best to take a step back while judging this.
Some of this may change I suppose, because of the immaturity of the beer. It was only kegged on Sunday, so there is obviously more settling that has to be done.

Dayton Road Brewing - Christmas Ale - Release Date: 12.21.07

The immediate appearance of the beer is a deep golden copper color, a bit cloudy but gives the appearance of a good hardy beer. A very nice solid 1/4 inch head (still working on the keg pressure), creamy off white in color that has sustained it's shape for quite a while.
The aroma is tough to guess right now. I can smell a creamy spicy ginger/cinnamon smell, with a hint of orange.
This beer has a creamy feel, and a bit of a warming finish, like sipping a brandy.
A very spicy tasting beer, almost desert like. Has a bit of a sweetness to it, but definitely not overwhelming. A light hop finish to it, again, a definite winter-spice warmer.
Overall, and like I said, I brewed it, but, I really honestly like it. When I tasted it during kegging/bottling, my first comment was - oh man, this will be a one glass a night beer. But, since it's settled some and is carbonated, I've changed my mind. I'm thoroughly pleased with the outcome of this, and I know from past experience, it will only get better.
Now.., throw out a plate of sugar cookies (no frosting), and Santa and I are going to have a good ol' time in the D.R.B Christmas Eve. :)

Special thanks to Michigan Brewing Company - Things Beer for the recipe/ingredients. Thanks to Trent (my boss) for the awesome Tecumseh, MI honey used in the batch.

My road, my house, my garage.. the brewery

2007-12-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well, as fictitious and as fun as it sounds, we technically have a brewery. My neighbor and I, new to making our own beer, have been exploring the vast world of ideas with home brewing beer.

My first beer was a Brewers Best Robust Porter. I had some issues with the kegs I was using, but the beer brewed up decent. It tasted a bit syrupy and bitey. Not bad though. Could have used some time to age I think.
Scotts first beer was a Double Hopped Pilsner. Scott brewed it and we bottled the whole batch. It turned out great.
I hosted a batch of the Sept/Oct batch of the Double IPA from River Raisin Brewing in Dundee, MI. They supply the 5 gallon batch of wort. Great stuff.
My next beer, or first real beer was an E.S.B. Bryan and Jackson helped me brew this batch. It came out tasting wonderful. So good, I'd almost brew it again as a session beer. A bit thick, malty and a good solid bite to the finish. Awesome.
Scott and I made it up to the Dearborns Adventures in Homebrewings "teach a friend to brew day". We hung out with guys doing the "all grain" process of brewing. We were amazed and began tallying up the new items we needed to purchase. haha - we're saving our pennies.
Scott decided to brew up the Cream Orange beer AHB made last summer. This is one of the best beers ever, we're considering a 10 gallon batch for August.
I brewed up and have been aging a Christmas Ale. Spicey and very tasty with cinnamon, clove, orange and other spices.
Today we bottled both. The Orange to sit for a couple of weeks, the Christmas to sit for a month.
The same Sunday evening (12/2/07) we brewed a Webberville Wheat from Things Beer. We met some guys at the register, who told us to consider adding cherries to the wheat. They twisted my arm, so we discussed the recipe. By new years, the DRB will have a Cherry Wheat on tap.

That's a quick run down on the beginnings and current news of Dayton Road Brewing. We're really just learning and experimenting with beer brewing at this point. Having a good time doing it too. We figured we would have a little more fun by naming our beer and making a bar for our friends to taste the experiments.

Keep an eye on the blog. We have some good ideas and will be having various gatherings as beers are complete or hosted.

DRB Quote: "There is beer after Bud Light." -Scott, Dayton Rd.