This is the biggest beer we've ever made. Nearly 50 pounds of grain, just over half a pound of potent hops, and a 14 hour brew day. We started at 10 AM and didn't finish until just past midnight.

(more...)

I've been wanting to start a yeast library for some time now. At first there were grand visions of dozens of different yeast strains, all available in the freezer at a moment's notice. After spending a couple of weeks researching propagation and quality control techniques, I think I scared myself out of it.  A few months passed, and I finally picked up where I left off. I realized I could step into this slowly, just like I did with homebrewing. I don't need a 400x oil immersion lens, a hemocytometer, or a -80˚C lab grade freezer yet-- just some vials, a pressure cooker, and fresh yeast (OK, and a few other things). (more...)

We just bottled our first beer for a new donation based, CSA-style San Francisco organization called Brewlab. It's a "double saison" we brewed a few months ago. Below are a few shots of the bottling process, something we haven't enjoyed for a while now since switching to kegs. Thanks to Kern, Jeremiah and Chelsea for their help! (more...)

We were planning on making a double IPA, but changed our minds at the last minute and made a porter instead. It's been a while since we made a nice roasty brew. It's still pretty young, but I think this will turn out to be the best porter we've made yet.

We also splurged this week on some yeast lab equipment and four pounds of bulk hops (Cascade, Nugget, Pacific Gem, and Styrian Golding). Stay tuned for our upcoming adventures in yeast slanting and propagation.

(more...)

We took a stab at one of our favorite tripels, using some brewer's notes found in "Brew Like a Monk" by Stan Hieronymus. The wort tasted incredible-- we've got high hopes for this one... (more...)

A bastardized British/American IPA in honor of the new royal couple. We over boiled this and ended up with a much stronger brew than we had anticipated... I suppose we could have worse problems. We also did a little experiment with our yeast pitching rates. (more...)

Well, here are. Some photos. Over the past weekend, it finally happened. We drilled the last two holes, and we now have four taps on our kegerator, and of course four different home brews.

There is nothing like having a relaxing Sunday in the back yard brewing, especially on a brand new brew stand, and with a handful of my best friends. Another thing that contributed to the wonder of the afternoon was the pale ale that was kegged recently. It wasn't all fun and games though, we had quite a piece of work to do. Especially with Matt smoking pork on the very same deck, at the very same time. (more...)