AIGHT. Im more of a bad news first type of person... so here it goes. My beautiful wife is gone, and I won't see her again until Nov. 12th. I am sad. Also, our dog Buster is sad. My wife took the camera, so I have no way showing just how sad my canine friend really is.

THE GOOD NEWS. I'm drunk. I went to the LHBS before I got drunk, bought 2 batches worth of grain, and I'm not going to sleep until the Mack And Jack's clone (number 2) is finished. i don't care if its 11 O'clock,  I'm NOT hitting the hay until its done.

Yes, this is my serious face.

I bought shitty whiskey and Red Hook ESB. The ESB is for taste, the shitty whiskey  is to keep the buzz going and to escalate my drunkenness. I will be updating this with problems as I go along.

1. NO  PROBLEMS!!! Mash is done. Preboil gravity reading with my brand spanking new hydrometer is right on target.

2. ME BLOGGING AND DRINKING WHILE BREWING. I don't know how long this has been boiling... but its been raging for a while now. Also, I think I'm gonna hop the shit out of it. Who knows, it could be better than Mack And Jacks. It could also be much, much worse.

3. IM MORE CONCERNED ABOUT GETTING THE NEXT 30 ROCK EPISODE GOING THAN I AM ABOUT TURNING DOWN THE HEAT. Its pronounced "wiener slave."

4. I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON IN 30 ROCK. Jenna is dead but sheees not... or something. I need more whiskey.

5. Everything went fine, until I BROKE ANOTHER HYDROMETER. I don't really care. The wort is in the closet, bubbling away after less than an hour. So..

SUCCESS. I just brewed drunk. Was fun. Maybe I messed it up, maybe not. All I know is that I passed the time and it was fun.

Yesterday when I was making the dunkelweisen, I was getting all my crap ready to put the wort into my primary and I dropped my hydrometer. It shattered all over the ground.

 Frickin bummer, I don't know what the starting gravity of my beer was :(

O well, i guess this means I get to make one last trip to the brew shop before I head off for tour on Saturday. There's always a silver lining... maybe Ill even brew one last batch since I'm going there anyways!

One last note... don't try tasting your beer when its fermenting like crazy. I stuck a straw into my MNJ clone to get a taste today and basically got a tiny bit of beer along with a mouthful of krausen. Gross... I need to stop doing that.

Today I woke up at 9:30 and immediately started brewing my dunkelweisen! Awesome way to wake up, except I forgot about the coffee part of my morning routine and I am getting a headache. Anyway, while that is happily mashing away at 154 degrees

I thought I would post the recipes for this beer and the MNJ clone I did last night.

DUNKELWEISEN

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 1.25 gal     
Boil Size: 1.43 gal
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 14.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 17.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                                            Type         % or IBU     
1 lbs 9.6 oz  Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)                           Grain        60.61 %      
8.0 oz        Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                                Grain        18.94 %      
4.0 oz        Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                                 Grain        9.47 %       
2.7 oz        Caramel Wheat Malt (46.0 SRM)                  Grain        6.44 %       
1.9 oz        Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (160.0 SRM)    Grain        4.55 %       
0.30 oz       Liberty [4.30 %]  (60 min)                            Hops         17.9 IBU     


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.64 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 2 Step, Medium Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp    
30 min        Protein Rest       Add 3.30 qt of water at 129.3 F     122.0 F      
45 min        Saccharification   Heat to 154.0 F over 15 min         154.0 F      
10 min        Mash Out           Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min         168.0 F      

Mack And Jacks Clone

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 1.25 gal     
Boil Size: 1.43 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 13.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 46.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                                          Type         % or IBU     
2 lbs 4.0 oz  Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)            Grain        81.52 %      
4.0 oz        Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)                     Grain        9.06 %       
2.1 oz        Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)                     Grain        4.71 %       
2.1 oz        Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)     Grain        4.71 %       
0.10 oz       Cascade [5.50 %]  (Dry Hop 3 days)         Hops          -           
0.35 oz       Centennial [9.70 %]  (60 min)                     Hops         46.2 IBU     
0.10 oz       Cascade [5.50 %]  (2 min)                         Hops         0.6 IBU      
0.19 oz       Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 min)              Misc                      


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 2.76 lb
----------------------------
Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp    
60 min        Saccharification   Add 3.45 qt of water at 165.9 F     154.0 F      
10 min        Mash Out           Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min         168.0 F      

I have yet to taste these obviously, but they should be awesome like every other beer I make. Besides that brown ale... that damn brown ale...

Today I went to the brew store (Stomp Them Grapes in Denver), and after an HOUR AND A HALF I finally left with two fresh bags of grain, a Mac And Jack's African Amber clone and a dunkelweisen. I made the clone today...

Hope in a bottle.

...hopefully after all that mashing and sparging and boiling and hopping and funneling and yeasting and shaking, it will somewhat resemble the awesome beer I can only get when I visit my bro in Seattle.

After I finished that up, I went ahead and bottled my last cider. Its pretty tasty, but honestly I would have rather made another beer.

Tomorrow its the dunkelweisen's turn.

Those grains don't even know what they are in for...

I had never heard of this style of beer before, and I am pretty pumped on it. Its basically a dark wheat beer. Never had one before... but I love experimenting!

Tweeking a Mac and Jack's clone for my system and creating a dunkelweisen recipe. Gonna brew them tomorrow and Wednesday. PUMPED!!! Also, I have come to the conclusion that there are far too many yeast strains in the world. I wonder if there is anyone that has actually tried ALL of them. I would like to shake that persons hand, and then ask him/her if they think it is really neccessary that we have that many in the first place.

I suspect the answer would be  "no," but then again I'm a noob so what the hell do I know. Anyway, updates from the kitchen tomorrow.

SUCCESS
So I checked on the yeast I washed and harvested from my hefeweizen... and it worked!

The white stuff on the bottom is the yeast. What does this mean? I don't have to  pay for yeast when I brew my next hefeweizen batch! Hurrah!

FAILURE
So after I concluded that my yeast washing attempts had been succsessful, I was gonna post a guide on how to wash yeast... then I fricked it up royally. I didn't sanitize the jars >.< Anyway,  next time I'll do it right... I hope.

Looking to learn how to bottle beer? Well do I have good news for you... I know how and have nothing better to do then sit here and write about it!

Last night I bottled my hefeweizen and oatmeal stout, and took a bunch of pictures in the process. Its a fairly simple procedure, but can be messy, especially if you try doing it yourself. Its also important to remember that after your beer is done fermenting, you want to expose it to oxygen as little as possible. Oxygenating beer after it has fermented can lead to off flavors (AKA shitty tasting beer), so you want to make sure everything is in order before you crack open your jug.

So the first things first! Here is a list of stuff you will need to bottle.