Brewing Bonanza!

Welcome back, beer lovers! On Sunday, Spargemeister Tron (as he now prefers to be called) and I brewed up a batch of what we're calling Arthel Watson's Blinding Light Pale Ale, after another bluegrass giant who passed on this year, Doc Watson. If my first name was Arthel I'd come up with some awesome nickname like 'Doc', too. It's an American Pale Ale that I've done before with a couple of alterations. The brew went really well but I was housesitting that night and when I got back home the following day, the fermentation was vigorous enough that it had started to bubble beer out of the airlock. When I pulled out the bung to put in the blow off tube, the pressure inside shot this wad of hops and yeast out of the carboy and right into my face!


Today, the Spargemeister, his twin brother, and I brewed up gallons 11 through 15 of our Hardly Strictly Brews, a yet-to-be-named amber ale styled after Boont Amber Ale. The name will be Warren Hellman-centric but we haven't yet come up with the right one... This beer's creation marks a Barely Brewers first: three beers fermenting simultaneously! As a result, however, we have to ferment this one in a 6.5 gallon bottling bucket because we only have one 6.5 gallon glass carboy. This shouldn't be a problem but we've never used it before so we will see...

Until next time! Cheers!

Rye-P-Update!

Well, after less than 24 hours of fermentation, the Scruggs-style Rye-PA is going nuts! I just had to put in a blow-off tube! You can hear how fast carbon dioxide is being forced out of the carboy in this video.

Scruggs-style Rye-PA

Wow- It's been a long time... Barely Brewers is back and we are crafting beer for the fall and winter right now. We bottled our second batch of our highly successful mocha stout last week and this week we had a guest brewer in the brewhouse – uh, I mean – kitchen! Sam and I had the idea to brew up a beer (maybe three, even) for the wonderful, marvelous, one-of-a-kind Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in October. This year was a sad year for the genre of bluegrass and the Festival with the passing of some of the bluegrass greats - Hazel Dickens, Doc Watson, and Earl Scruggs – and one of its greatest supporters, Warren Hellman.
Sam, not really a brewer, asked me if it would be possible to incorporate rye whiskey into a beer and, of course, I did a bit of research and decided not only is it possible but awesome! So yesterday Sam and I brewed up batch #1 of what we are calling Scruggs-style Rye-PA.

It's a malty IPA base with some rye grains that we will add some rye whiskey to in the secondary. Grizz, owner and head recipe-maker at SF Brewcraft, recommended we use oak chips soaked in whiskey to get the flavor we wanted but I'm pretty sure he misunderstood our intentions and gave us a recipe for simulating aging the beer in an oak former whiskey barrel.

The recipe is below:

6.5# Malt Extract
1.5# Marris Otter
3/4# Rye
1/2# 30-37 Crystal
1/2# Oats

1 oz. Centennial @60min
1 oz. Cascade @30 min
1/2 oz. Cascade @ 15 min
1/2 Cascade @5 min

London Ale Yeast

The brew is fermenting away in the living room with a huge krausen and plenty of activity! Check it out here!

We are going to dry hop it with 1 oz. Centennial hops and add a yet-to-be-determined quantity of rye whiskey to the secondary. I'm super excited about this beer! Stay tuned for the second installment of our Hardly Strictly brews in the coming weeks...