Sunday, August 31, 2008

Let There Be Beer

I brewed for the first time in about a year today. It's been far too long. I'm still having issues with my stupid malt mill. I just can't seem to get a consistently good crush, which I'm hoping is why my efficiency sucks. It would have been nice if I had hit my target gravity because I'm making a Belgian-style Saison Wheat IPA. I'm hoping I have enough malt body now to stand up to the hops. If not, I just won't share with anyone.

That style doesn't sound familiar? Probably because I just made it up. I'm having to deal with warmer than perfect temperatures in the house (we've set the thermostat to 75 and ale yeast prefers temps under 70). Saison yeast is a little weird and it actually thrives at the higher temperatures, some strains even into the 90s. In other words, I bought the saison yeast for this batch. I have a lot of wheat malt to use up, so I used as much as I could in the mash. I also have a lot of American hops in the freezer, so I made a hoppy beer. We'll see how that turns out.

It's going to be a little weaker than expected, but if it ferments out as well as it usually does it'll still be closing in on 5% abv. At least it'll have that much in common with Budweiser. That and being Belgian.

Sorry, but this post just ain't going anywhere. I quit for today.

1 comment:

Julie said...

I doubt it will make you feel better, but I wouldn't like your beer even if it turns out awesome. I still don't drink beer. You can tell everyone I jinxed you.