The smoked rye IPA primary fermentation

This will be a fun year. We have been brewing quite often and have a lot on the agenda for the rest of the year.

We brewed three nice crowd pleaser beers for the Mayfest: a Czech Pilsner, an American Pale Ale, and a Bourbon-barrel-aged Smoked Rye IPA that was cast conditions and served on the hand pump. The party was fun and I will add a post as soon as I collect a few pictures from the event.

We have also chosen to do a ‘Big Beer’ series this winter and spring. Each of us chose a style that interested us and we went off to do some ‘research’, which simply means finding and drinking a generous sampling of that style. After finding a few winners from the research phase, we then developed a recipe that we thought would embody the basics and perhaps some of the nuanced peculiarities of that style.

We always feel responsible for our party guests, so never brew anything over about 6% alcohol by volume (ABV). That way people can have a couple of beers and know what to expect. We have brewed beers just for our personal consumption, too, but tended to keep those below about 7% ABV because they end up in kegs and become our session beers. So starting this year, we decided to try bottling again after 20 years, and also decided that we could brew some Imperial beers in the 8 – 10% range. Thus was born the Big Beer Series of 2014.

We started with Chris’ Weizenbock. Then we brewed Tom’s Barleywine followed by my Imperial Stout. Joe’s Smoked Porter is coming shortly.

We might find the time to make an entry dedicated to each beer, but will wait until each has been bottled, carbonated, and sampled.