i casked the northern english brown ale. i dry hopped it with 2 oz. of 7.8% 2008 cascade hops. i am hoping the spout i fashioned out of a whittled dowel and a spare spout from a cooler will hold under the pressure of the corn sugar primed beer. right now it is in the shower just in case it blows.

ahhh, tube clamps...a homebrewers best friend!

at first i thought i was going to try and condition the cask of primed beer at 50-55 degrees. after this debacle, i decided against it:

the messes that are made quickly and without apparent thought are amazing:

sheldon jackson brew comp, 80/-, mild, SEBA, NEBA, winterfest 2011 brewing competition in conjunstion with tanaya creek brewing pro am comp.

competition date: 12/8/10

hello reader and baby jesus in swaddling clothes, suckling on a plump, milk filled breast:

in the sheldon jackson memorial competition, a local brewing contest in las vegas, sponsored by the local homebrew club, i entered six (6) beers. seven dollars an entry, thats 42 dollars- the cost to voluntarily bring judgement upon ones self here in the las vegas valley. funny considering usually that comes free. but, for some reason, us humans love to judge and be judged- and then charge for it. hence my entry into beer making contests.

here is a list of the beers (all previously mentioned in this blog) i entered into the sheldon jackson memorial homebrew competition:

standard/ordinary bitter
special/best/premium bitter
extra special/strong bitter
scottish light 60/-
scottish heavy 70/-
irish red ale

the standard/ordinary bitter got a 36/50, getting a second place ribbon. the scottish light 60/- also placed second with a score of 40/50 and received a coinciding ribbon. my extra special/strong bitter scored 35/50, giving me an additional ribbon, this time a third place. over all, i'd say that's a good showing.

the irish red, although at first promising, turned out to be shit. it had some sort of infection and became profusely carbonated. too bad, otherwise it was pretty tasty brew. the special/best/premium bitter had been mediocre at best- i wasn't surprised it didn't place. the scottish seventy also had some taste/quality issues. nothing to write home about. i had started to get lazy with those two beers and it definately showed.

my scottish export 80 was brewed a little late to make it the sheldon jackson competition. here is the recipe:

scottish export 80/- (lil wee wee)

12/3/10

11 lbs english two row
4 oz. black malt (500-600L)
1.5 oz kent golding (60 minutes)
pitch onto yeast cake of 70/- (wyeast 1768, 3rd go-around)

pre-boil gravity: 1.050
OG: 1.063
FG: 1.013

the OG for this scottish is a little high. that being said though, there is a no-man's land of sorts between the upper limit of the lower gravity scottish ales (1.054) and the lower limit of a strong scotch ale (1.070). i am citing, of course, the 2008 bjcp style guidelines. my efficiency is running about 10% higher than that of the recipe formulations in 80 classic stlyes, so like i said, my OG for this scottish 80/- is a little high. and no, not on weed, on sugar man!

strong scotch ales are nothing more than a scottish barley wine, really, and are traditionally called a "wee heavy." so my 80/-, stuck in between styles with an OG of 1.063, was christened "lil wee wee."

dude, i'm SOOO fucking clever.

lil wee wee finished rather quickly, in about a day or two. that worked out well for me cause i wanted to get one more batch in before i went home for christmas. i went ahead and bottled after two weeks on the trub instead of my usual three. it hasnt seemed to bother the final product.

NEXT!

man, i must say i have been getting tempted to break away from my established plan of brewing through 80 classic styles, easiest to hardest, in alphabetical order. after getting through the english bitters series and now being done with the scottish ales, i find myself getting a little bored with east kent goldings and english two row. but never mind that. the show must go on. it builds character and all that, eh? stiff upperlip jeeves.

besides, there are still three english brown ale varieties that need to be addressed before i can say i've covered the united kingdom. not to mention stouts and porters. but i digress (or not). let me tell you about the english mild i brewed before i left for home and the christmas break.

english mild

12/18/10

7 lbs english two row
9 oz caramel 40
7 oz caramel 120
2 oz chocolate (340-450L)
1 oz black malt (500-600L)
1.25 oz kent goldings
white labs WLP002 english ale (1/2 qt. starter)

pre-boil gravity: 1.043
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.015

there isnt any more information to be found for this brew in my notes. i am sad to say that nothing about the process of creating this beer even stands out in my head. that is what i the writer, and you the reader (baby jesus suckling on a virgins tit too), get for me not taking very good notes. i will blame it once again on laziness.

NEXT!

HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR 1/8/2011

southern english brown

1.25 oz caramel 40
9 oz caramel 60
3.25 oz caramel 120
2.5 oz dark crystal (135-165L)
2 oz chocolate (338- 432L)
10 oz chocolate (375- 450L)
1.25 oz east kent goldings, 60 minutes
yeast cake from english mild

pre-boil gravity: 1.042
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013

i dont really have much to say about this beer either, except that after an initial taste, it is quite tasty. i fermented at 66 degrees F. i am starting to get decent at mashing in. i used to go with the mash-in equation given by palmer in how to brew and i was always frustrated, no matter how hard i tried to be accurate. lately i have been shooting at 175 degrees for strike water and calling it a day. i have been getting my mash dialed in to within a degree every time. so much for science. actually, so much for my lab conditions and procedures, they are shit. but hey, even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while, as they say.

NEXT!

2/5/11

northern english brown

9.75 lbs english two row
.75 lbs special roast (50L)
.50 victory (28L)
.50 crystal 40
.25 pale chocolate (200L)
1.5 oz east kent goldings, 60 min.
0.5 oz east kent goldings, 5 min.
white labs WLP013, london ale yeast

OG: 1.063
FG: not yet measured

i am very interested to try this beer. it is not very dark in color, had a short vigorous fermentation, and is going to have much more hop presence than i am used to of late. using a fresh yeast, i also cleaned and sanitized my carboy thoroughly after bottling the SEBA. when re-using yeast i am forced to hope for the best. between the mild and SEBA batches i had been suspectful that i might have had an infection. it was nice to start fresh. i also cleaned and STERILIZED all my bottles. by putting the bottles in the oven for an hour at 340 degrees F, i can be sure there is nothing living in them before i package a fresh batch of beer.

NEXT!

winterfest 2011, tenaya creek pro am competition

this past saturday (2/13/11) our local beer club had its annual winterfest competition. i entered the scottish 80/-, english mild, and southern english brown.

tenaya creek, a local brewery, held its pro am competition in conjunction with the winterfest competition. the winner of the pro am comp will get her/his winning beer brewed on a commercial scale. i assume it would be available to the public at the brewery on draft, and wherever else tenaya creek brewery sells their beer. it would be cool to win that. public distribution? sweet...

so, while silent on the blog front i have not been sitting idle on the beer front. until next time,

cheers