October 29, 2009
What a week!!!! This past weekend the pump on the boiler was having trouble. Finally got it fix so yesterday I cleaned & sanitized 2 of the serving tanks. Filled 2 casks of Warrior E.S.B. dry hopping 1 with Cascade and the other with East Kent Goldings. I also filled 1 cask with Prince of Darkness (our dark mild) dry hopping it with East Kent Goldings. I then filtered the Warrior and the P.O.D. into the serving tanks I mentioned. The P.O.D. is carbonating today and should be on tonight or Friday. Just in time for Halloween!!! The Warrior will be on as soon as I get an open line. That should be very soon since The Belgo Pale and the Oktoberfest are flying.
Also, be on the look out. The Victorian Christmas Dinner menu will be available VERY soon. The date is December 9th and you should get your tickets soon. We have already sold half of them!!!
October 22, 2009
Today seems to be a good beer day. The Dog River Organic Pumpkin Ale was filtered, carbonated and put on. Not bad for a pumpkin beer. I don’t usually like this style but I am pretty happy with the way this turned. I also put on the Pinhead Pilsner. Right know we have 9 house beers on tap. 8 on draught and one on cask. I also put on Schneider’s Wiesen Edel Weisse. This is a very tasty beer and I don’t expect that it will last very long.
October 10, 2009
Today I wet-hopped the E.S.B. with 10 pounds of Warrior. They smelled great!!!! They were also huge. Some of the cone were as big as my thumb and very sticky with luplin (the yellow resin that contains the alpha & beta acids and the oils of the hops). I can’t wait for this beer to be on tap. It should be up in 2 to 3 weeks and it will be about 7% ABV. That is a little bit higher than last years batch.
Today I also brewed the Dog River Organic Pumpkin Ale. That is a big pain in the butt to make. The mash was very thick & sticky with 95# of organic pumpkin pulp. I cut back slightly on the cloves reducing it from 3oz to 2oz. It also has 1 pound each of cinnamon & nutmeg. I will be adding vanilla beans to the serving tank. I smelled & tasted really good going into the fermentor with a starting gravity of 1.058.
The Fall & Beer
October 8, 2009
We have received our wet Warrior hops. I brewed the E.S.B. on 10/3 and primary is just about done. I will be adding the 10lbs of un-kilned Warrior hops to the E.S.B. on Saturday. This beer should be ready to tap in about 2 weeks. I will also be filling a couple of firkin for our beer engine. We have also gotten the Organic Pumpkins from Dog River Farm in Vermont. We roasted them today. Our Organic malt & hops came in yesterday. I will be brewing this on Saturday. Tony has the pumpkin seeds and he is baking them. They should be available at the bar soon and for a very limited time.