Category: home brew

Holiday Cheer – Batch 33

It’s that time of year again!  Time to make some good holiday beer!  I wanted to start this one sooner, but given I didn’t have any money until recently I couldn’t exactly buy my supplies. For this years batch I did a few things different.  First, I used the actual Saaz finishing hops, as opposed …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=477

Bottled My Oatmeal Stout and Pilsener- Batch 32 and 31

Tonight I decided to bottle all my beer, which is my Pilsener I’ve had in my fridge for 2 months, and the Oatmeal Stout I did a week and a half ago with my friend Mike. Bottled the Pilsener first, getting 46 out of it.  Final gravity came out to be 1.012, giving me an …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=468

Oatmeal Stout – Batch 32

Last week my friend Mike and I went to Steinbart’s to check it out, as he’s never been there before.  Of course, I can’t walk in there without getting something, so we left there with ingredients to make an oatmeal stout. Now, I’ve made this particular stout before, and it turned out awesome!  This time, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=453

Tracy’s Framboise- Batch 24 Bottled (Finally!)

Tonight we bottled Tracy’s Framboise that’s been sitting in the fermenter since March 1st.  All that time sitting there had me extremely curious as to how it would turn out, especially since the trub in the fermenter looked nasty. Siphoned the beer into my bottling bucket, then took the final gravity, which came to 1.004.  …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=440

Batch 31 Update- Top Drop Pilsener

According to Papazian, this wonderful beer should be transferred to a secondary fermenter after 2 weeks of lagering.  Given that it’s 2-1/2 weeks (roughly), it was time to do the transfer. I desperately wanted to keep using the same fermenter that it was currently in, so I transferred it to my bottling bucket, cleaned and …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=438

Craving a Pilsener- Batch 31

Yep.  I was craving a Pilsener.  But, rather than spending money buying beer, I decided to spend money to make beer.  And with an extra fridge to lager in, I decided it’s time to break it in. Did Papazian’s recipe for Top Drop Pilsener, settling for a White Labs WPL800, given that I went to …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=436

Pale Ale and a Hefeweizen- Batch 29 and 30

Today had some friends over and we brewed two beers simultaneously.  Been thinking about what to brew for a few days, knowing today was coming, and was having my normal difficulties of deciding.  I knew I wanted a pale ale but didn’t care for the recipes I’ve seen, and I wanted to use my Liberty …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=425

Bottled Weizenbeir- Batch 28

After re-reading my last blog, I realized I omitted some very important notes.  First, I failed to list the initial gravity (1.044), and I also failed to note my accident with the water. Normally, after your wort is finished and in your fermenter, you top it off with water to the mark specified by your …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=422

Weizenbeir Redux- Batch 28

Redid my Weizenbeir I recently did (since it all got consumed).  This time, instead of just randomly adding corn sugar to it, I added 1/2 lb exactly.  Other than that, brewed identically to my previous batch. Also tasted my IPA, which was a bit premature (not done bottle fermenting).  Not bad.  My guesstimate is the …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=420

East India IPA- Batch 27 Bottled

I finally had time to bottle my IPA I made two weeks ago.  Let’s just say that my sample of this tasted as good if not better than most commercial IPA’s I’ve tried.  It was darn good. Final gravity turned out to be 1.012, giving me a 7.09% alcohol by volume.  The bitterness from the …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=417