It has been a while since we have brewed. An English Pale Ale is on the menu for the day. A few problems to start, but over all a good day. Took some video of the final boil.
RIP Beer Fridge
We are sad to say goodbye to the beer fridge. It died during hurricane Sandy.
A new one will arrive soon.
Beamish Irish Stout
Our brew equipment is all working after Hurricane Sandy. This brew day was unique. This was the first time we used someone else’s recipe in a long time. Tim (fellow brewer and brother inlaw) provided the recipe. We scaled the recipe to our equipment and Tim joined us during the brew. Brewed 15 gallons of a very dark Irish Stout. Good tasting. In exchange for the recipe we provided Tim with about 4 gallons of beer to ferment and bottle at a later date. We kept 10 gallons to keg. We are looking forward to comparing the two, bottle vs keg.
Hurricane Sandy Damage
The brewery escaped major damage from the flooding waters of Long Island Sound. Hurricane Sandy did manage to put about a foot of water into the brewery, but very little damage. All brewing equipment, keg and fermentor refrigerators survived the water. The big refrigerator we use to store bottle beers and supplies didn’t make it, we needed a new one anyway. Everything else was on high selves, good thinking on Pito’s part.
Update: After a nice fellow from the insurance company visited, that water was not a foot, it was 22 inches.
Bulldog Porter
Great brew day. We brewed an older recipe from last year, a porter. With a new name, Bulldog Porter. About halfway we decided (help from consuming a Dogfish 120 Minute Ale) it need to have a higher ABV (orig. 5.6%), we bumped it up to 7.8%. From the sampling, it should turn out to be a very good porter. A little darker than we planned.
Oktoberfest
It is that time of the year again, time to brew the Oktoberfest. If it all works out well, we will have 20 gallons for our Oktoberfest party this fall. It is the third time we have used this recipe (Cos Cob Brewery’s own). The first year was perfect, second we had some problems with the fermentation process.
It has been a while since we have done a full 20 gallons, we had a few challenges on temperature control on the mash. But we hit all of our gravity readings. We will have a better idea after 2 months of fermentation, these lagers are a bit tricky.
New approach.
Trying something new. Smaller batches with experiential recipes. Today we tried a new English Pale Ale. This is our third English Pale Ale recipe, the first two, good, but not great. We will let you know how it taste in few weeks.
The Wedding
Best wishes to Caroline and Tim. The beer was a great success at the wedding. We served 10 gallons of the Wit and 15 gallons of the Pale Ale. Everyone loved the beer. If you notice in the photo Tim is holding a cup of the Wit.