We have moved to all grain brewing

Well, we are one step closer to professional brewing - we are now brewing all grain (no malt extract). We have made two beers now and both mashes have proven extremely efficient. We are still getting the specific gravity we want and they are delicious beers! We brewed a honey wheat that was excellent. And of course, we used organic honey as well so our beer was made using 100% organic ingredients. Great mouthfeel, good light body. You could just taste that honey sweetness on the finish. It was slightly fruity, I think because we used a tropical blossom honey. I may try different honeys just to compare, there is a spicy mountain fireweed honey that I LOVE... All in all an excellent beer we plan to make again and again.

We also brewed our Doctor's Note Pale Ale as an all grain recipe. I will tell you more about that after our BBQ...

WE ARE NOW AWARD WINNING!

We took 2 bronze medals, one for our Hefeweizen and one for our IPA. We also received a SILVER MEDAL for our red ale!

The Hefe that won was right before our adjustments for mouthfeel, so I think it is MUCH better even now. Here's hoping we can make it to the awards ceremony!

We've been busy!

So we brewed some hefeweizen about a month ago. It turned out fantastic! My only tweek may be to come up with a richer mouthfeel, although my husband (and brewer) was pretty happy with it as was. The yeast we propagated was perfect, just the right balance of banana and cloves. And our entire 5 gallon keg was polished off in a week! (We had a little help from our friends.)

After Hefe, we brewed our pale ale. We have pretty much had that recipe developed for some time now, and boy is it yummy! We will be tapping that keg this coming weekend. Can't wait! It will be memorable!

And just yesterday we brewed another batch of hefe for a friends upcoming housewarming party. I am both really excited and really sad since I know it won't be around the house for too long. If I can come up with a little bit of money though, we may be brewing again for a party in late June. We are going to have to keep brewing that hefe to keep around all summer! I LOVE it!

Sunshine!

Wow, this beautiful, sunshine'y' beach weather is making me crave our hefeweizen! I don't think we can brew it for a few weeks yet... If anyone wants some hefe in the Santa Cruz sunshine, plan a trip next month!

Currently

We have both a red ale and a strong ale/IPA keg conditioning. The red ale is yet unnamed, but our IPA is named Feathers and Talons. I think that recipe will become a permanent part of our rotation. The Red ale needs only a few minor tweeks. I will describe them fully in a couple of weeks when we tap that keg. Also in a few weeks we will brew our SunSparkle Hefeweizen. We plan to have that on draft all spring and summer. Yay Beer!

A Beer Resume

I hated beer. I was one of those girls who knew that I was not a beer girl, and I would tell people that frequently. But my early experiences with beer were stealing cans of Coor's Light from the fridge and attempting to drink it in the backyard. I always spit it out and could not get through it. So I must not like beer, right? I would find out just how wrong I was when I met my future husband when I was 18. Unlike me, he had grown up with a mom who had a passion for local microbrews, and he and his Uncle dabbled in homebrew for a time. When we met, they were no longer homebrewing, but his passion for beer remained. He would tell me of Sacramento Brewing Company's Pharaoh's Liquid Gold (an IPA) with such adoration, how could I not love it? I was willing to try anything, since it obviously meant so much to him, and so he and his best friend brought home a one gallon cube of this elixir for our consumption. Ack! Talk about bitter. What on earth was he referring to when he described it as floral? And malty? All I got was bitter. But alas, start a non beer drinker on IPA and many may fare the same. But I wasn't ready to give up and over the next few months started to discover beers I really did like. And one day I tasted the flower. I had been building up my beer experiences and trying to figure out what flavors I did like when my husband offered me some Red Horse Ale (Also from SBC). And it tasted exactly as I picture a flower would, one with a stem of malted barley. And my love of hops was born. Yes, I came to love the Pharaoh's Liquid Gold. And I fell in love with husband. Once we were both of legal drinking age, we spent one weekend a month exploring the breweries of Northern California. (And of course, countless hours in SBC savoring our local brews.) And our beer travels inspired my husband to try homebrewing again, a love that has permeated our lives ever since.

Although I appreciate all styles, my favorites tend to be Pacific Northwest Red Ales (Ninkasi Imperial Red anyone?) and spicy Belgian's (not so much Lambics, although I am coming around). My favorite BBQ spring afternoon beer (sometimes known as a session brew) is hefeweizen. Currently, besides me husband's hefe of course, my favorite has been Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis. LOVE it. My husband and I have developed several of what will be our standard recipes, the first was an imperial stout named "The Mighty Kieran". THIS STOUT HAS NOW WON AN HONORABLE MENTION AT THE CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR HOMEBREW COMPETITION TWICE! For our wedding we brewed both the Stout and a Belgian Trippel (named enlightenment.) We are currently perfecting a red ale and a strong ale/ipa. My husband is finishing his PhD in chemistry and has an amazing ability to compile beer recipes in his head. His thoughts and tweeks are usually dead on.

Following my bliss...

I LOVE BEER! Most any occasion deserves a fresh pint.  The realm of beer is so diverse, and the possibilities endless. I would love to educate people about the world of beer, not only limited to styles, but also to the nutritional value. Beer is good for you (in moderation of course). I wish more people knew that and passed on that knowledge. I believe that most people who say they do not like beer have never even tried the vast array of styles and flavor profiles available. Beer is far more than your domestic lager. In fact, I would hardly categorize that as beer. (Did you know Budweiser uses corn in their recipe?)  Beer is an artisan craft industry, one that has thrived throughout history and geography. I just so happen to be a married to an exceptional homebrewer, one whom I know would and will make an excellent brewmaster one day. And so I begin my journey towards owning my very own brewery. I am sure it will be filled with many ups and downs, and may take many years to flourish as I am also (happily) struggling with the chaos of raising two very stubborn, assertive, and confident children. At first this blog may center around our homebrewing rather than my ventures into the business and legal aspects of brewery ownership. But with beer as my passion I will follow my bliss into the brewing industry.