SB 1070 has been kegged!

Kegged the SB 1070 (Special Brew O.G. 1.070) last night. The O.G. calculated was closer to 1.085 (but the hydrometer said 1.060 - 10lbs of grain though)

Anyhoo, the leftovers from the F.G. (1.020 or so) tasted great. Can't wait to try it cold and carbonated.

The whole Arizona Senate Bill 1070 pisses me off - hence the mockery via beer -- profile this, assholes -- German style beer, American hops, Mexican agave. If you didn't know the beer was brewed in my kitchen, you may not know if it was an import or not. Well, except that it's unfiltered and has a crudely printed label. But that's just profiling.

Upcoming recipes

Unfortunately due to school, work, etc. brew days have taken a backseat. Tom and I have one planned coming up. I have a free weekend this weekend and will try something ridiculous. Tom wants to do a traditional German hefeweizen with agave. Sounds awesome. While researching recipe ideas, I came up with an idea for a Weizenbock, American style.

I'll use the German wheat extract, but use some bock style grains in the early stages. Instead of Hallertau and Tettenger hops, I'll use Amarillo. And I'll add agave syrup for flavor. The preliminary name of this beer will be Special Brew, OG 1.070, in honor of Arizona SB 1070. Yep, immigrant recipes and ingredients, made domestically (except for the agave and German grains/extracts). I'll probably go over the 1.070 OG (Original Gangsta (I'm looking at you, Sheriff Joe)) since I plan on using about 8-9 lbs. of malt extract, plus the agave syrup. It will be a dark, foreign flavored beer, that if profiled, I will remove the label.

Sorry for the delay.

January was a busy brewing month. Tom and I brewed up a double batch one weekend -- a Belgian strong ale and a cream ale using some cherry infused whiskey I found at my parent's place over the holidays. The cherry infused whiskey was a recipe they'd use with the cherries from the tree in the back yard. I believe the recipe was something like this:

1 cup whiskey
1 cup sugar
1 cup cherries

let sit for 6 months. Enjoy.

The cherries were removed about 15 years ago, and the decanter sat untouched since then. We threw a vanilla bean in while it sat in the primary and added the infused cherry vanilla whiskey to the secondary.

Both were delicious, but the crowd favorite was the Belgian. I did really enjoy the cherry cream ale though.

Next was a Maarzen recipe that was brewed at the end of February and kegged in March. Unfortunately, the carbonation was a bit off on the early attempts (after 5 hours of kegging), but mellowed over time. A nice beer that was very quaffable.

Brewing frenzy!

Busy week! Bottled the Strong Belgian Holiday ale on Tuesday -- ABV of about 9.3%

Then bottled a friend's winter beer we brewed in honor of his dog, Yukie. Announcing YUKIEBRAU! We forgot to do the original gravity reading, but we think it's about 1.060, and the FG was 1.012 probably about 6.5% ABV. We used fresh juniper berries from just outside Sedona for additional flavoring. Not too many maybe about 1/2 Tbsp crushed up. The initial tastes from the hydrometer tube were pretty good.

While bottling the Yukiebrau we brewed up an IPA - lots of hops. We'll see how that turns out. It's bubbling quite a lot right now. The air lock wasn't bubbling this morning and later in the day I noticed the lid came slightly popped. Could be good (lots of activity) could be bad (I didn't get the lid on tightly (although I agitated for quite awhile and the lid was on tight then.)

Fall brewing wrap-up

The fall season started with the Oktoberfest recipe from the Brewer's Connection in Tempe, AZ (www.brewersconnection.com). The first tasting was so good, a trip to the brew store occurred the next day. This posed a bit of a logistical problem in that the secondary fermenter carboy was in use with the pumpkin porter. Solution: an additional carboy to be used going forward as the primary fermenter.

The pumpkin porter was loosely based on the pumpkin porter recipe from the Brewer's Connection, however due to staff oversight we got the German ale yeast instead of the London ale yeast. And due to creative differences in using canned (now with more preservatives!) versus real pumpkin, we went off recipe and grilled our own pumpkins. The brew store guy gave great advice in that by freezing the pumpkin before roasting/grilling you'll break the cell walls and release more flavor. I grilled 2 pie pumpkins for little over 1 hour on the grill using pecan chips to smoke and a real vanilla extract baste with allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I added the grilled (and then mashed/enzymed) pumpkin to the boil mash and strained before pitching the yeast. So far, the end result has been delicious.

The second batch of Oktoberfest is as good as the first.

For the holidays, a strong dark Belgian ale was brewed. 9 lbs of dry malt + 2 gallons of water in a 4 gallon pot = almost a mess. Avoided the boil over and the OG = 1.090. This one may have to ferment awhile. The spices are mulling in a jar of vodka (orange peel, cinnamon, clove and ginger) and will be nice and ripe for bottling.

Stop by the brewery for free samples! Must be present to win.

Welcome

Welcome to the Saint Rasputin Brewery blog! There probably won't me much educational or informational here, but just some random stories and pictures from the on-going home brew project.