Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale (Batch#2)

This is my second batch of this beer. The first batch only lasted about 3 weeks! It was so good I had to order another batch.

Last time I left the beer in the primary for 5 days and secondary for 10 days (i believe) with lid not sealed shut. This time around I only had it in the primary for 15 days (sealed), even thought it only asked for 10 days.

Ingredients

6.5 lbs Extra Pale LME
1.5 lbs Carapils Malt 10L (steep)
8 oz Crystal 30L (steep)

Hops

1.0 oz Cascade 7.8% at 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 5 min.

Bottling

FG 1.011 was exactly on!
1 cup of corn sugar (last time i used 3/4 cup and it didn't provide enough carbonation)

Primary 10 days

This is my second batch of this recipe and this time around the beer coming out of the primary had a very fruity smell to it. It was fantastic. I don't recall the first one having this smell.

Cleaning

I also cleaned everything with Iodopher instead of the pink stuff.

Canadian Red

erMy second attempt at making the Canadian Red recipe from Noble Grape.

Description:

This relatively new beer style has been popularized by Molson's Rickard's Red. Canadian Red beer has a depth of colour but retains the lightness of flavour and body expected from a thirst quencher.

The finished beer (with priming sugar) is about 5% alc/vol. Serve Cold.

Ingredients:

400 g Canadian 2 row pale malt (crushed)
80 g roast barley (crushed)

1.8 kg light liquid unhopped malt extract
1.36 kg high malt glucose

10g Northern Brewer (30min)
10g Northern Brewer (1min)

Nottingham Dried Yeast

1 cup corn sugar (bottle)

Primary 4 days.
Secondary 10 days.

1820 Authentic IPA

Ingredients

300 g Medium Crystal Malt
200 g Amber Malt
4.3 kg Light Malt Extract

38g Northern Brewer (30min)
14g Fuggles (8min)
42g Goldings (1min)
28g Fuggles (1min)

Nottingham Dried

Primary 4 days
Secondary 10 days

Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale

I made the extract version of this beer featured at Home Brew Talk

Ingredients

6.5# Extra Pale LME
1.5# Munich LME -> changed to Carapils
8 oz. Crystal 10L (steep) -> changed to 30 L Crystal

1.0 oz Cascade 7.8% at 60 min. (original recipe called for 6.6% but I used 7.8%)
0.5 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 30 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade 7.8% at 5 min.

3/4 Cup Corn sugar

Nottingham Dried Yeast

Primary 3 days
Secondary 1 week

Pumpkin Ale

I began making a pumpkin ale featured on this website.

Ingredients

1 lb Vienna Malt, 4L
1/2 lb Crystal Malt, 40L
1/2 lb Malted Wheat
6 lb light malt extract

1 oz Mt. Hood hops (60 min)
1/2 oz Hallertaver Hops (15 min)

Wyeast American Ale

(At end of boil)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp mace
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup corn sugar (bottling)

I bought a pumpkin below, not sure the weight. Probably 11-13 lbs and cut it up into small square-like pieces. I soaked and left a bit of the pumpkin seeds and slimy stuff in there as well. I steeped the pumpkin and grains at roughly 155 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

Afterward I removed the grains, strained the pumpkin (well most of it) and added the malt, 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of table molasses. Afterward I brought the wort to a boil (212 degrees F) and added 1oz Mt. Hood Hops. At 15 min left of the boil I added the finishing hops, 1/2oz Hallertauer.

I cooled the wort by using ice packs and water in the sink. During which I added my spices.

Below are some photos

Windows Vista Defrag - Fail

Yet another stupid user interface design by Microsoft. This time I attempted to defrag a machine. The last time I remember defragging a system was with windows 2000/XP. I recalled it would give you a screen showing you a percentage of the disk that was fragmented, so you could evidently make a smart decision on whether you need to degragment the disk.


Well unfortunately simply going to the defrag UI in Vista is not the same. When I loaded the defrag utility from the start menu (which is another pain in the ass UI I won't discuss) I was presented with the following.


Yet another User Interface designed for apes! I am really tired of Microsoft hiding advanced options to avoid confusing their users. I didn't think that a simple color chart showing the fragmentation on disk would confuse people. Hell, they went even further and took the easy route and didn't display a progress bar. Instead it simply says

"This may take from a few minutes to a few hours".

I don't know about you, but whenever I ask my computer to do something I like for it to have somewhat of an accurate time frame on when its going to complete the task.

Who is Microsoft hiring these days? Who is overlooking these design decisions? Does Microsoft even care anymore or are they more focused on making a new search engine to compete with Google (which is a total piece of crap)?

If anyone knows who the developer for the defrag UI please have them contact me. I hope to god it wasn't more than one developer, similar to the shutdown menu, if so Microsoft is in trouble.

Goodbye defrag!

Sharp's Doom Bar

Really enjoyed this beer. It is from a company in the UK.

http://www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/

Canadian Red

Purchased this kit from Noble Grape for around $30 CDN + tax.

Ingredients

?

Review

This red was incredibly tasty and had a small fruity apple after taste, but its colour was not red but rather a more golden. From my experience it didn't classify as a Canadian red from my standards of drinking Rickards Red. Perhaps they gave me the wrong kit?! I likely will have to try this kit out again to verify.

Conclusion

I am not confident this was a red kit that Noble Grape gave me. Nevertheless I am determined to find out what kit this was because it was very good. I definitely will be brewing this again for the summer months.

Festa Brew Apricot Wheat

A quick and easy way to make apricot wheat beer is using a Festa Brew Wheat kit and a can of Apricot Puree from Oregon Fruit Products.

Ingredients

Festa Brew Wheat Ale + dry yeast from kit
Oregon Apricot Puree

Review

I brewed this a few months ago and tasted it about a week after bottling. The apricot at that stage had somewhat of a plastic taste to it and really wasn't a good beer to drink.

After about 2 months the beer matured and the apricot began to blend into the beer. At this time the apricot taste was suttle and the beer was much better! The beer was a bit crisp and was best served with a strawberry added to the mix.

Conclusion

In the beginning I was not very impressed with this beer but the more the weeks pass this beer has become much better. I was also impressed t I how well it turned out considering I didn't use a WYeast but rather the dry yeast that came packaged with the kit. Definitely would make this beer again as it was very easy to make and required little or no work.

King's Royal Red Bitter

The gentleman at Noble Grape recommended making a batch of King's Royal Red Bitter. I had made three previous red's before this, a Festa Brew Red Ale, a Canadian Red and Rory's Irish Red Ale.

Review

After the first week of bottling the Royal Red I had a taste. It was not finished as the carbonation still hadn't surfaced yet, however the taste of the beer was very smooth and not too bitter.

Two weeks after the bottling I attempted another taste and the carbonation is more evident. I have a feeling in a few more weeks time that this beer will really shine. As you can see from the photo there is very little head. The beer is very smooth and bitter enough to enjoy it through the late summer and fall. It has a bit of a fruity taste to it which balances the bitterness.


Conclusion

TBD

Cascade West Coast Pale Ale

Another Noble Grape kit.

Description

West Coast Pale Ale is different enough from its British cousin to have gained its own designation as a classic style. Golden in colour, this crips, clean beer has a floral aroma from the distinctly North American Cascade hops. Unlike British pale ales, string fermentation characteristics (esters) are not a hallmark of this style. Serve cold, 36-45 deg F.

Ingredients

300 g dextrin malt (crushed)
300 g light crystal malt (crushed)

3.5 kg light liquid unhopped malt extract

54 g Cascade hops (30 min boil)
20 g Cascade hops (8 min flavour)
55 g Cascade hops (1 min finish)

WYeast American


Brewing

I steeped the grains this time for 25 min just for the hell of it. Added all the malt extract at the beginning of the boil. I followed the recipe as listed above.

Review

I was on the West Coast of British Columbia for a few weeks while this beer was sitting in the bottles back home on the East Coast. After trying numberous craft beers on the West Coast I was really excited to come home and try this out. 4 Weeks after this was bottled I finally decided to drink a bottle and it was fantastic.

Conclusion

This is my most favourite recipe I've made to date.

Rating

8/10

Chechoslovakian Pilsner

The best example of this classic is the famous Pilsner Urquell. This original style from Pilsen is golden in colour, malty, clean with the soft assertion of the famous Czech Saaz Hops (pronounced zots). It is about 4.5% alc/vol.

Ingredients

250 g dextrin (cara-pils) malt
3 kg light liquid unhopped malt extract

72 g Saaz Hops (30 min boil)
20 g Saaz Hops (8 min flavour)
60 g Saaz Hops (1 min finish)

WYeast Czech Pilsner


Brewing

This was an interesting brew. The wort smelled like tomato soup before adding the hops. After boiling the wort I racked it into the primary fermenter. As you can see the mixture is caramel in colour.



Rating

7/10

Rob & Erik's Not So Ordinary Bitter

This deliciously, lighter style British bitter took 2nd place at the 2009 Garrison Brewery Brew-Off'. This is impressive considering it is an extract based recipe competing against many all grain bitters. It is light in colour with moderate bitterness and a distinct grassy aroma. Delicious bitter to enjoy through the summer months.

Ingredients

Original Gravity 1.040.
Final Gravity 1.008

200 g light crystal malt (crushed)
270 g amber malt (crushed)
270 g flaked corn

2.9 kg light unhopped malt extract

28 g Northern Brewer Hops (30min Boiling Hops)
20 g Fuggles (8 min Flavour)
28 g East Kent Goldings (1 min Finish)

WYeast British Ale

Review

I wasn't really sure to expect from this beer as I haven't drank many bitters in the past. It was a bit too carbonated for my liking. I believe I used 3/4 cups of priming sugar but I can't remember. The beer was also a bit heavy compared to other bitters I've had, however the flavour was fantastic.

Rating

7/10

Irish Honey Red Ale

This recipe which is found on homebrewtalk.com caught my eye so I decided to try it out. The total cost was $56 + tax from Noble Grape.

Recipe Info

• Type: Partial Mash
• Batch Size: 6 gal
• Original Gravity: 1.06 (guess based on late honey add.)
• Final Gravity: 1.008
• IBU: ?
• Boil Time: 60 min
• Color: Garnet Red

Original Ingredients

• Malt 8lbs. Pale Liquid malt Extract
• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey
• Grain(s) 1.5lbs 120L Crystal
• 1.5lb Belgian Special B
• 1lb Flaked Rye
• 1oz Cluster (Boil 60 min)
• 1oz Cluster (30 min)
• 1oz Cascade, 6%, (30 min)
• 1 oz Cascade (last 10 min)
• Yeast White Labs Irish Ale Yeast
  

Actual Ingredients

Noble Grape didn't have some of the ingredients so I substituted some of them

• 2lbs Raw Clover Honey -> 2lbs Nova Scotian Non-Pasturized Honey
• 1lb Flaked Rye -> 0.3kg Malted Rye
• 2oz Cluster hops -> 2oz Galena Hops

Brewing

Brewed on August 23, 2009

Day 1

The liquid yeast manufacture date was mid June so I let the yeast prepare for a day before I did the boil. Thus the yeast was started on August 22.

Day 2

Began steeping the grains for approximately 20 minutes. Smell of the steep was very strong with a hint of chocolate smell.


After the steep was completed I brought the water to a boil while adding only 3/4 of the malted rye. Added the hops as per schedule and topped it off with the remaining 1/4 of the malted rye at the last 5 min of the boil.

At the end of the boil I cooled the pot and transfered it to the primary fermenter. The boil pot contained a significant amount of grains leftover which I dumped in the compost. This is the first recipe where it was mostly grain-based so I'm not sure if this is common or not. Hopefully dumping the grains won't affect the outcome of the beer.

After about 1.5 days I added the honey. The honey was added to 4 cups of water and pasteurize in the oven at 180 degrees for 3 hours. I didn't have a big enough casserole dish to heat 12 cups of water and I also didn't think that the primary would fit 12 cups. Hopefully it doesn't screw up the beer.



Review

I really screwed up on this recipe. Substituting the Cluster hops for Galena was a really bad decision. The Galena hops made the beer taste very grassy and there is virtually no honey taste in the beer at all. The color was really dark, almost similar to a really dark brown ale with a tint of red.

Conclusion

I am really disappointed with this beer, however I am eager to try it again with the correct ingredients. Never again will I substitute hops unless I get approval from other master brewers.

Oktoberfest Lager

Purchased an Oktoberfest Lager from The Noble Grape in Cole Harbour.

Description

This is a clean, amber lager with deceiving strength (5.5-6%). Historically, it was made in March, and drank in late September as a festbier. Cold conditioning (lagering) helps to bring out the crispness of a true lager. It has relatively how hop bitterness with a malty aroma. It should be drunk with German sausage & sauerkraut for maximum enjoyment. Serve cool. (40-50 degrees F). O.G. 1.054

Ingredients

• 50 g chocolate malt (crushed)
• 270 g light crystal malt (crushed)
• 300 g minuch malt (crushed)
• 300 g vienna malt (crushed)
• 3.3kg light liquid unhopped malt extract
• 42 g Tettnanger hops (boil 30min)
• Liquid Bavarian Strain yeast

Brewing

Should be ready for lagering in a few weeks. Once completed I will post my results.

I should mention this isn't the first kit I've made, however it is the first kit I have documented.



Review

This is the first Oktoberfest that I've brewed. This is a great fall beer that has a little malt flavour and is smooth going down. This beer really came through after about a month after it was bottled. Although it is a nice beer it wasn't very bold and had more of a lagerish style taste to it which made it seem a bit watered down.

Conclusion

I would buy this beer again however I would first like to try and make some other Oktoberfest beers to compare as this one seemed to have a bit of a watered down taste. It would be a much bolder beer if it had more malt flavour.

Windows Search 4.0 Sucks

So I downloaded Windows Search 4.0 as it promised to solve all my searching problems. Pfft, yeah right, as if Microsoft understands what its consumers problems are!

Well right from the get go the search didn't work. I was really annoyed that I couldn't simply type in the name of file I wanted to search and press "Go". Instead I am confronted with too many options which the average user like me doesn't care. Furthermore any folder I search in it requires me to index the folder!



Furthermore any folder I search in it requires me to index the folder! OK so I guess this isn't so bad. Where is the button to enable indexing? Oops! There isn't one! Instead it forces you to open another windows explorer shell and check off all the folders you want to index. But wait, what if I am just learning computers and I have no freakin' idea what indexing means. Thank god I am not!



But wait there's more!. ARGGHH that stupid dog is back. Didn't I take him out back like old yeller and annihilate him a few years back when I first installed windows XP. Looks like old yeller came back from the dead.



Good job to all those Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers who can't build a simple user interface containing a one text field search feature.

Ubuntu vs Vista driver support

Installing drivers in Vista is certainly a real pain. A prime example is older hardware. I attempted to build an HTPC using older parts on Vista Ultimate. Sure sounds like a relatively easy task, wrong!

Here are the parts I used for the HTPC.

1) Asus A8VE Deluxe motherboard.
2) Microsoft MCE Remote featured on http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=29147&vpn=GP-IR01BK&manufacture=Mediasonic

Problem #1

The Asus A8VE-Deluxe driver did not work with WPA TKIP encryption with my Linksys router. I had to refer to a 3rd party forum (http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20061113005728562&board_id=1&model=P5AD2-E+Premium&SLanguage=en-us&page=2) to find out that the driver only worked with WEP encryption. The drivers worked fine, however the card would not find an IP from the DHCP server on the router. Who woulda thought!

The funny thing is that my motherboard was only manufactured a year before Vista began development. If you look at the copyright logo for Vista from "My Computer" > "Properties" it says "Copyright 2006". One would expect that drivers from the same era would work. Heck it might even be Asus's fault, who knows?!

Problem #2

A Microsoft Vista Certified MCE remote that I purchased would not resolve the drivers in Vista. The USB receiver kept identifying the remote as the eHome Infrared device. Vista could not find the drivers for this device even if it meant curing Bill Gates from cancer. Regardless, I tried another USB receiver (Antec iMon) with the transmitter remote and things worked ok. Mind you not all the buttons are mapped correctly.

Both problems did not occur in Ubuntu 8.10. The Wireless worked perfectly both in WPA and WEP mode. The MCE remote worked flawlessly (of course with the help of LIRC).

Conclusion,

I have been using Windows since 3.11, and it has always been a real pain to find drivers. Most recently switching to Linux in the past few years I have had zero problems getting hardware to work. You would think Microsoft, who spends $8B annually on R&D, could develop a comparable system for discovering hardware drivers for their operating system family.

*Crossing fingers for the day Linux takes control of the PC market*












I am not sure how Microsoft competes with Ubuntu

More knobs!

Knobs arrived

looking good

Display panel

testing the display panel.

Rats nest of pots!

Starting to solder the wires to the pots. What a mess!

Inserting the computer

The mixer will contain a quad core computer with 4GB 1066Mhz ram.

I likely will purchase a slim optical drive and also a 2.5" hardrive. This way i dont have to purchase a laptop and lug it around

Sampling the knobs

Trying to figure out which knobs to buy.