Before I get onto the meat of my post, I just wanted to put out there at Flying Bison's Chilly Fest will be happening this Saturday 1/28 at noon until 4 pm. Unfortunately, the health department shut down the chili part of it, so there will no longer be a chili cookoff, but there will be live music and beer a plenty.
In other news, the Niagara Association of Homebrewers has announced its 16th annual Amber Waves of Grain homebrew competition. The deadline for the competition is March 10th and judging will take place on March 23rd and 24th. And, like always, the Brewers Night Out will be held on the 24th.
I am really looking forward to entering this competition. I'm hoping to get some great feedback from the judges and hopefully some good will come out of it.
On Deck: Dark American Lager
Primary: German Pilsner
Secondary: Light American Lager, Vienna Lager
Total for 2012: 5 Gallons
Showing posts with label Competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Competition. Show all posts
Friday, January 27, 2012
Monday, June 13, 2011
Congratulations Rusty Zymurgy!
Just wanted to say congratulations to Jay over at Rusty Zymurgy for taking the gold in the Light Hybrid/Amber Hybrid category of the New York State Fair Homebrew Competition!
Friday, May 20, 2011
New Labels and Brewing Competitions
Before I get onto the post, I figured I would post about a nice offer that is available today. Moolala is offering a year long subscription for Beer Connoisseur for only $8. The normal subscription price is $21 for the four issues, so this is a pretty good deal especially since I've been wanting to get myself a subscription for a while now. The one issue that I had picked up was excellent. There were reviews of over 20 different beers, an article about Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery, and my favorite part, an article about some of the breweries in the Czech Republic. There are also some great looking recipes and pairing suggestions, although I have not had a chance to try any of them yet. All in all it is a good deal and highly recommended for only $8.
Now onto the real post. Nate has been at it again and has drawn up a couple more labels for my beers. They are both for the Cinco de Mayo series of beers that were recently brewed, the Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier and the Chili Lime Pilsner.
Here's the exciting part of this blog post. There are two homebrew competitions coming up that will have entries from Lake Effect. The first I was caught completely off guard by since I didn't know it would be this early. It is the New York State Fair Homebrew Competition hosted by the Salt City Brew Club. I plan on entering my Elder Ale, Belgian Blonde (might be entered as a Biere de Garde), and Irish Red Ale. I am also going to be entering Jay and my Dunkelweisen (hopefully it will do a little better this time) and for Jay, I will be entering his Kitchen Sink California Pale Ale. Niagara Tradition is a drop off point for this competition and entries are due by May 30th (actually May 28th since the 30th is a holiday and the 29th is a Sunday). Entries are $6 each and judging takes place on June 10th-11th.
The next competition coming up is the Pearl Street Brew Master's Challenge - Honey Brown Lager/Ale. It may be the fact that I have been eating Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast recently but I think what this competition needs is a Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale. I plan on using Maris Otter as the base malt with English Amber, Crystal, German Carafa, and Honey Malt making appearances. I wanted to try something that I haven't done before, and that would be using toasted oats. I believe that this with the late addition honey will give the beer a nice smooth finish and help provide a nice full body. I plan on using Tettnanger and Northern Brewer hops and an American Ale yeast. I will be brewing this on 5/21 and the submission date is 6/30.
On Deck: Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale (5/21)
Primary: Hefeweisen 2
Secondary: Hefeweisen (dry hopped with Sorachi Ace), Traditional Pilsner
Total for 2011: 44 Gallons
Now onto the real post. Nate has been at it again and has drawn up a couple more labels for my beers. They are both for the Cinco de Mayo series of beers that were recently brewed, the Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier and the Chili Lime Pilsner.
Here's the exciting part of this blog post. There are two homebrew competitions coming up that will have entries from Lake Effect. The first I was caught completely off guard by since I didn't know it would be this early. It is the New York State Fair Homebrew Competition hosted by the Salt City Brew Club. I plan on entering my Elder Ale, Belgian Blonde (might be entered as a Biere de Garde), and Irish Red Ale. I am also going to be entering Jay and my Dunkelweisen (hopefully it will do a little better this time) and for Jay, I will be entering his Kitchen Sink California Pale Ale. Niagara Tradition is a drop off point for this competition and entries are due by May 30th (actually May 28th since the 30th is a holiday and the 29th is a Sunday). Entries are $6 each and judging takes place on June 10th-11th.
The next competition coming up is the Pearl Street Brew Master's Challenge - Honey Brown Lager/Ale. It may be the fact that I have been eating Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast recently but I think what this competition needs is a Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale. I plan on using Maris Otter as the base malt with English Amber, Crystal, German Carafa, and Honey Malt making appearances. I wanted to try something that I haven't done before, and that would be using toasted oats. I believe that this with the late addition honey will give the beer a nice smooth finish and help provide a nice full body. I plan on using Tettnanger and Northern Brewer hops and an American Ale yeast. I will be brewing this on 5/21 and the submission date is 6/30.
On Deck: Honey Toasted Oat Brown Ale (5/21)
Primary: Hefeweisen 2
Secondary: Hefeweisen (dry hopped with Sorachi Ace), Traditional Pilsner
Total for 2011: 44 Gallons
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Imperial India Pale Ale
Jay and I won first place in Amber Waves of Grain Homebrewing Competition's Holiday Beer with our Fruitcake/Holiday Spice Ale. I think I have some ideas about why the other beers were not selected in their categories, but I will have to wait to get the results in the mail to know for sure. Congratulations to all other winners in the competition.
I brewed the Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier today, and all I can say at this point is that it was interesting. It tasted great as I put it into primary, but I was disappointed with the low amount of spiciness, however that and the chocolate may come out a bit more over time. It was my first time using either in a beer, so we shall see.
I am a bit reluctant about he next beer that I will be brewing. That's because it is one of my least favorite beers due to the culture surrounding it of loading as many hops into it as possible and then on top of that occasionally passing it through a Randall. I prefer my beers with a nice balance between the malt and hops of the beer. I take on this challenge as I plan to brew this beer.
This is going to be another partial mash brew with a base of 2-row and light malt extract. I am going to use a plethora of specialty malts in order to balance out the hops. I will us a 60L crystal malt to give some nice color and a light biscuit flavor, American caramel again for color and a slight malty caramel flavor, Marris Otter for some smoothness, and some Munich malt in order to build the body of the beer. I will try to build the hop flavors in a similar fashion. I will use Cascade which is typical for a it more or a sharp and citrus flavor and use Centennial and Simco to boost the overall bitterness. I will finish this off with a California Ale yeast. I am aiming for about 7.7% with this beer.
On Deck: Chili Lime Pilsner (3/6), Imperial IPA (3/13)
Primary: Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier, Belgian Blonde
Secondary: Elder Ale
Conditioning: Irish Red
Volume Brewed in 2011: 25 Gallons
I brewed the Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier today, and all I can say at this point is that it was interesting. It tasted great as I put it into primary, but I was disappointed with the low amount of spiciness, however that and the chocolate may come out a bit more over time. It was my first time using either in a beer, so we shall see.
I am a bit reluctant about he next beer that I will be brewing. That's because it is one of my least favorite beers due to the culture surrounding it of loading as many hops into it as possible and then on top of that occasionally passing it through a Randall. I prefer my beers with a nice balance between the malt and hops of the beer. I take on this challenge as I plan to brew this beer.
This is going to be another partial mash brew with a base of 2-row and light malt extract. I am going to use a plethora of specialty malts in order to balance out the hops. I will us a 60L crystal malt to give some nice color and a light biscuit flavor, American caramel again for color and a slight malty caramel flavor, Marris Otter for some smoothness, and some Munich malt in order to build the body of the beer. I will try to build the hop flavors in a similar fashion. I will use Cascade which is typical for a it more or a sharp and citrus flavor and use Centennial and Simco to boost the overall bitterness. I will finish this off with a California Ale yeast. I am aiming for about 7.7% with this beer.
On Deck: Chili Lime Pilsner (3/6), Imperial IPA (3/13)
Primary: Chocolate Chipotle Rauchbier, Belgian Blonde
Secondary: Elder Ale
Conditioning: Irish Red
Volume Brewed in 2011: 25 Gallons
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Irish Red - Pearl Street Comptition
So last year, Jay and I looked into the quarterly competitions that Pearl Street Grill & Brewery in Buffalo holds. We even developed a recipe for the pumpkin ale competition and brewed it. Unfortunately early summer activities got the best of us and we never were able to enter it into the competition. I finally decided that enough was enough and that I would enter the Irish Style Red Ale competition and see how my own beer holds up.
Irish reds are numerous, especially around St. Patrick's Day, and I felt like I had to make my own version stand out a bit and encourage myself to try new things when homebrewing. When trying to think of something a bit more unusual, for some reason the one thing that first popped into my head was rye bread. Maybe I just eat too many rubens and diner breakfasts and so when I think of Irish, corned beef comes to mind, then the rye bread that comes with it. So, I just rolled with it and brewed a Rye-rish Red Ale. Using rye in a beer also allowed me to try a new technique since the rye I had available was raw rye which requires a separate cereal mash before normal mashing (to be discussed in another post). I have this in secondary fermentation right now and will be bottling it next week, but I figured I would also make a traditional Irish red, since I have quite a bit of time until the due date of March 31, 2011. I'll try and compare both, and whatever tickles my fancy the most will be entered into the competition.
So at the end of it all, I will have about 80+ bottles of Irish Red ale. Anyone having a St. Patrick's Day party?
Primary: American Pale Ale
Secondary: Rye-rish Red Ale
Irish reds are numerous, especially around St. Patrick's Day, and I felt like I had to make my own version stand out a bit and encourage myself to try new things when homebrewing. When trying to think of something a bit more unusual, for some reason the one thing that first popped into my head was rye bread. Maybe I just eat too many rubens and diner breakfasts and so when I think of Irish, corned beef comes to mind, then the rye bread that comes with it. So, I just rolled with it and brewed a Rye-rish Red Ale. Using rye in a beer also allowed me to try a new technique since the rye I had available was raw rye which requires a separate cereal mash before normal mashing (to be discussed in another post). I have this in secondary fermentation right now and will be bottling it next week, but I figured I would also make a traditional Irish red, since I have quite a bit of time until the due date of March 31, 2011. I'll try and compare both, and whatever tickles my fancy the most will be entered into the competition.
So at the end of it all, I will have about 80+ bottles of Irish Red ale. Anyone having a St. Patrick's Day party?
Primary: American Pale Ale
Secondary: Rye-rish Red Ale
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