All-Grain or Bust

It's finally winter here in Houston, and the cool weather has gotten me frisky to brew.  I have some real news for you guys, so bear with me while I give you the rundown.

First and foremost, I became a new Dad in July!  It might explain my absence in the blogospere of late.  Bennett came a little early, but he's more than made up for lost time in his first four months.  Here's the little guy on Thanksgiving.  He's not too much help on brew day yet, but we're working on that.

Next, my loving and eternally supportive wife saw fit to approve a few capital equipment expenditures for the LeGrue home brewery. Do you think I can write that off under the Obama tax plan (Branden, check that out for me)?  Regardless, we have new toys! LeGrue's is officially all systems go for ALL-GRAIN brewing, just like the big boys!  Had to do some modification, but all in all it is a killer setup for 5 gallon all-grain batches.  I'll have a post that shows the system in action at a later date.  Moving on....

We are also delving into the mysterious world of cask- aging my beer.  The little guy to the right is a stainless steel firkin, only in miniature (know as a "pin", for the beer nerds in the crowd).  It holds 5.5 US gallons and will let my serve cask ale or "Real Ale", which is defined as a beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide".^[1][2] The heart of the definition is the maturation requirements. If the beer is unfiltered, unpasteurised and still active on the yeast, it is a real beer; it is irrelevant whether the container is a cask or a bottle. If the yeast is still alive and still conditioning the beer, it is "real". 
The inaugural LeGrue's cask will be tapped at our New Years Eve party this year, and it will be a delicious Winter Warmer Ale with fresh spices and aged over toasted oak for vanilla/ honey notes.

Now on to production news.  I've got 4 batches in different stages of maturation right now. My annual Pumpkin Beer is on tap right now, and  I currently have a Weizenbock ready to bottle.  My brother in law Ryan was clutch this past weekend, helping me brew two batches in a day for the New Years Party: the Winter Warmer and a Belgian Tripel.

On a side bar, that damn belgo beer almost exploded in my kitchen!  The yeast was so active that the krausen sealed up the air vent in the top of the fermenter, and as such it began to build pressure.  When I took it outside to clean the airlock, it went off like a bottle rocket and sprayed yeast about ten feet high.  The loud "whoosh" it made when I removed the stopper was very dramatic, and it scared the dog.  I had to move it to another vessel and then put the rest in a1 gallon jar so that it would have room to expand this time.

Lastly, I made another Rye beer that I did a split fermentation with.  I did half with a Weizen yeast for a traditional German Rye beer, the other half I pitched a Farmhouse Ale yeast for different effect.  Next, I split the Farmhouse batch again and dry hopped 1 gallon and added oak to the other gallon, and bottled the rest as a control.  Did you get all of that?  In essence, I have 4 different beers from the same 5 gallon batch, with the goal of doing a side by side tasting of all 4 and comparing.  I know it's nerdy, but it should be fun!

Yes, for those who were counting, I have 25 GALLONS of fresh beer available.  Will I be able to find all of them good homes?  Only if you all do your parts!

Next up, Black Bulldozer Imperial Black Ale with a little Brettanomyces surprise, and an American Blond Ale for those who need training wheels.  I'll leave you with the newest version of my logo.  Let me know what you think! Shout out to Jeff Grant, the graphics genius that helped me to design this baby.

http://www.jeffreygrant.com/

Cheers!