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Brewpastor

Beer, not rocket chemistry
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
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Location
Corrales, New Mexico
I am not sure my problem (although I am sure many of you have opinions!) but I have been really amazed lately with my lack of enthusiasm around brewing and such. I need a shot in the arm or something! I am interested in the whole world of sour beers and barrel aging. Maybe that will help. It has been hotter then I care to recount and the brews are not real happy. Maybe it is time to dig a beer cellar. I don't know.

Suggestions will be appreciated.
 
It's obvious that brewing has nothing more to offer you. Just give up and send me all your stuff! I'll even come by and pick it up.

...of course, you'll have to show me how to work most of it :)
 
Sounds like the summer doldrums!! Take the rest of the summer off, enjoy those homebrews and pick it up in the fall when it cools down. Just like the old days of brewing before refrigeration.

Dr Malt
 
I have gone through this a few times. Right now I am back on my upswing and am brewing like crazy. Take some time off and submerge yourself in some other interests. Brewing will come back and even more interesting than ever!!
 
Boldly brew with ingredients that no man has brewed with before.
 
uh...

It's probably bad form for a noob to say this to an esteemed maestro such as yourself, but...

RDWHAHB?
 
Catfish said:
The Brewing Network played a great talk from Vinnie Cilurzo about sour beers, wine barrel s and Brettanomyces.
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/archive/dwnldarchive07-07-07.mp3
I just got a nice brett culture going from a bottle of Orval. I am now spiking every beer where I'm not totally satisfied.

I went to his talk at the nations in Denver and got one of his baggies of wood chips soaked in his culture. Thanks for the link. I have the power point of his talk if you are interested.
 
I haven't brewed in a while, and while I want to, the heat keeps me from missing it too much. Either make something really big and unusual, something to cellar for a while, or don't stress and just enjoy the fruits of your labors until it starts to cool off a bit.

It's also about the right time to start brewing big, sweet stuff for winter. Dude and I just brewed a Russian Imperial Stout the other weekend, I'm thinking about doing a smoked barleywine ("Bottom Of The World") once I climb back on the horse.
 
Brewpastor said:
I am not sure my problem (although I am sure many of you have opinions!) but I have been really amazed lately with my lack of enthusiasm around brewing and such. I need a shot in the arm or something! I am interested in the whole world of sour beers and barrel aging. Maybe that will help. It has been hotter then I care to recount and the brews are not real happy. Maybe it is time to dig a beer cellar. I don't know.

Suggestions will be appreciated.

The heat is starting to hit me too.

Hard to get motivated to brew when it is almost 90 (with 80% humidity) when I am ready to start, forecasted a 10% chance of rain, and it starts pouring when I am trying to sparge. Yeah thats nice. Oh well, I think I might start brewing at night, in the dark, while drinking heavily (I can't drink at 8am), and hope I don't get bug spray in the wort.
 
Make one of these only call it a beer cave:
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=17204

I'm sure the heat doesn't help. I know I probably won't brew until the heat subsides a bit.
Maybe New Belgium has an extra oak barrel they will let you have. :D
Oakagingbarrels.jpg
 
I say come up here to Seattle where it's nice and cool and help me with my cooperage. We can brew sour beers all summer long! :mug:
 
The only problem(well at least one big one for me) is that my three sour beers need 1 year for the flavor to fully develop. I don't want to brew more before I'm somewhat assured I'm doing things correctly,etc. Its a really long learning process, not super exciting and instantly gratifying. It is interesting and different though, could help get you through a low spot. How about doing experiments; yeast(mix, temp, compare 2,etc.), belgian sugar, hop character, one grain vs. another,etc.
 
Brewpastor said:
I went to his talk at the nations in Denver and got one of his baggies of wood chips soaked in his culture. Thanks for the link. I have the power point of his talk if you are interested.

I'm using a mac (with out Office) so the power point won't run, thanks though.

Brett is a lot faster and easier than sour beers, my beer started picking up distinct pineapple notes after a month or so, 4 months on its great. I just added some starter wort to a freshly emptied bottle of Orval, put on an air lock, smelled it for off-odors and pitched it into some fermented beer (the Dubble recipe from Radical Brewing, it just got a second place Best of Show:)).
 
Good question. Man, I have really slowed down myself just because I have so many other things on my plate (gardening mainly, among others). I think, fwiw, to start hitting the sour ales might be a good direction...that is if you like sour ales! Spontaneous ferments, souring the mash, things like that are hard to pull off and very hard to get some kind of consistency.
 
Brewpastor said:
I am not sure my problem (although I am sure many of you have opinions!) but I have been really amazed lately with my lack of enthusiasm around brewing and such. I need a shot in the arm or something! I am interested in the whole world of sour beers and barrel aging. Maybe that will help. It has been hotter then I care to recount and the brews are not real happy. Maybe it is time to dig a beer cellar. I don't know.

Suggestions will be appreciated.

You could start up a business brewery...oh, wait...:D
 
I do think you are on to something. Shake it up and keep it interesting. You know, I have never had a berliner. I know it is one of "those" beers, but...

Maybe the answer to my funk is to go funky!
 
*off topic!*

Catfish said:
I'm using a mac (with out Office) so the power point won't run, thanks though.
:)).


Macs run Keynote (part of the iWork family), which run PowerPoint natively... If you have the iWork suite, it'll work just fine.

BP - I'd love a copy of that PowerPoint presentation!
 
Catfish: if that doesn't work for you, check out a program suite call Open Office; it's an open source version of Office available for free and works nearly as well as the real thing. I have it running on Windows and Linux, so it should be available for Mac ;).
 
East Mountain Brewer said:
BP,
I just had some of the 1809 Berliner Wiesse and think is should be pretty easy to pull off. It is mash hopped and decocted to get some IBUs since it isn't boiled. Pretty cool process and a really nice refreshing brew.

http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/producers/historic_series/berliner_weisse/overview.php

Want to brew and split 20?
Cheers,
EMB

Let find a time and do it.

-off topic- You entering and/or judging for the State Fair? I will enter some brews and try to clear the deck for judging as well. Sundays are a bit tricky however.:D
 
I have pretty much been brewing IPA's and IIPA's and I am all IPA'ed out! So I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of a dark mexican lager styled after Negro Modelo. It has another 10 days to go before I can drink it and my curiosity is killing me, Lagers take a long time compared to IPA's! I hope it's going to be good.

I too was recently introduced to sour beers at a food and beer pairing hosted by Vinny from RR. It was awesome! I would love to try and brew a sour, but I will need to do some research and learn more about it. The thing I love about brewing is, it will never get old or boring if you don't let it. Challenge yourself with a new style or a difficult style, like something that you have tried in a bottle but didn't like. Learn the style and brew it and then do some side by side tastings with the store bought and your homebrew with a bunch of your friends.

I won't give you the advice I just got about my golf game, "Take 2 weeks off and then quit!"

Eastside
 
Brewpastor said:
I do think you are on to something. Shake it up and keep it interesting. You know, I have never had a berliner. I know it is one of "those" beers, but...

Maybe the answer to my funk is to go funky!


On a side note, I love Weizens, but I had always been a little put off by the description of a Berliner Weissbier as sour. But when Dogfish Head came out with one this year (Festina Peche), I knew I had to try it. And I liked it a lot.
 
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