Blonde Ale

It's been a long time since I posted on here and I have been pretty busy making lots of beers. I haven't really blogged about anything I've made but I am going to start on a more regular basis.

Here is my first attempt at making my own blonde ale recipe.

Batch size: 11 gallons
IBU ~ 26
OG: 1.050 (Actual 1.040)
FG 1.010 (Actual 1.010)
12.5 lb 2-row Pale Malt
4 lb Pilsner Malt
2 lb Wheat Malt
1.54 lb Honey (15 min)
1.75 oz Mt Hood [6.1%] 60 min
0.75 oz Mt Hood [6.1%] 30 min
0.50 oz Mt Hood [6.1%] 0 min
Safale US-05

Look: Beer has a very sunset blonde colour. Small pillowey head.

Taste: Little too bitter and a bite on the palate, probably due to the low OG. Crisp and slight malt finish. Little or no honey taste.

Aroma: Little to no aroma. Hints of honey and wheat.

I am on the fence about this beer. It isn't bad, but not fantastic. It was a good first shot but I think the next time around I would lower the IBU. Also I would probably increase the pilsner malt and maybe substitute or remove the wheat malt. I'd like this beer to be more of a malty blonde.

Rating: 2 / 5

Cuba + Camel In Action

Ola Amigos!

So I spent two weeks in Holguin Cuba on vacation in April. Very nice place. Even nicer when you have a brand new copy of Camel in Action by Claus Ibsen and Jon Anstey. I had the opportunity to meet both Claus and Jon in Washington, D.C. at the Camel One conference. If you haven't heard of Apache Camel or FuseSource I highly recommend you take a look.

Unfortunately the book returned to Canada with some Cuban sand embedded between some of the pages, making it a bit cumbersome for my other colleagues to read the book.

But, alas, it was a good book, and I highly recommend it to any Java developer, engineer, or integrator.

camello para siempre!

Beer cart

Built a little beer cart for my keezer.

Brew Rig (Ball Valves)

Picked up some 1/2" stainless steel ball valves and threaded nipple which will be welded to the brew/boil kettles. Cost ~$16 for the ball valve and ~$3 for the nipple. Can be purchased at TTL Supply in burnside.

Brew Rig (Temperature Guage)

For measuring the temperature of the wort and boil water that will be dropped in the mash tun I was able to pick up some temperature guages from CTH Instruments. The gentleman said they are extremely accurate and high-quality stainless steel.

Specs:

TBM30040B8

3" 1/2NPT 4" L BACK

0~250F

-20~120C

Cost was ~ $45 each after tax.

Brew Rig

Chris over at hopdawgs.ca showed me his brew rig. I've created a similar rig that is almost a clone. Well I got a family member to build it (thanks!).

I will be purchasing some supplies from hopdawgs such as the pump and propane burner but the fittings and hoses I am hoping to find a local supplier. This way I can order the parts in small batches to make sure I am not over or under-ordering. Thus, no shipping required.

The fittings will be all stainless steel (except maybe the boil pot which I might use brass) with quick disconnects for attaching to the pump.