Recent content by small_b_brewing

1401 + 2.5 gallons of Irish Red = 1403.5

I went on a tour of Admiral Malting in Alameda CA (San Francisco Bay Area). Learning the history of malting was fascinating. Especially how they are working with local universities to promote sustainable farming practices with barley growing! Loved the process so much I wrote my first blog...

For me, the best moment is pulling my first pint from a keg. The apprehension that maybe this one suddenly didn't turn out, is it what I hoped (hopped? lol) it would be.... Yes, its great!

https://www.topekabrewers.com/2019/01/26/hop-water/ Found the link for advice on hopped fizzy water. TLDR: - Steep hops in 160˚ water for 20 minutes, then dry hop over night - Filter and top up with water in 2 litre plastic pop bottle & cool - use a carbonation cap to quick carb the 2 litre...

I bottled after 10 or so batches of kegging. It was a Pumpkin Spices Latte Porter- A very flavourful beer I like to have in small amounts infrequently. Bottling made sense so I didn't want to: 1)Tie up a keg forever; 2)'Contaminate' my keg lines with PSL flavours. It took forever, was messy...

I agree with the Nelson Sauvin suggestion- It goes really smoothly with the clean crispness of the saison!

I haven't downsized, but I have resisted pronounced pressure to upsize! I love my 2.5 gallon stove top batches. But I'm part of a pretty competitive, passionate homebrew club, every time I am with those folks, someone is suggesting how I can upscale my process. I DON'T WANNA! This system...

I think I can be hard on myself, since I tend to have a specific 'vision' for my beer. Even if the finished beer is without major flaws, if it doesn't match how I've conceived of it, I'm critical.

I hope to be brewing a long time!

I've kept track: $2200 on gear, kegging and consumables.... I've made 13 batches of 2.5 gallon beers. That amounts to 325 12-oz bottles of beer. So I'm at $6.75 per bottle of beer- ie. it would almost be roughly equivalent to going to the bar!!!! That said- worth every cent! I've loved the...

I got into brewing this year, so it was a pricey year ETA: Specifics $530 on start up equipment $1100 on Kegging setup $560 on ingredients and other consumables (Starsan, PBW etc)

Working on my yeast collection in the fridge. I have some tubes I've saved that are getting closed to 6 months old. Brewed a bunch of wort using DME and tossed my remaining tube in so revitalize it! Seems like a lot of work, but with smaller batches buying yeast every time was a significant...

Had a lemon wheat ale I brewed that was so-so. I've been mixing it with fizzy lemonade to make a radler-ish drink. Its quiet nice for a sipper-beer as I am trying to get other things done around the house.

I am doing a deep clean of my stuff, PBWing almost all of my brewing equipment in sequence, my gear is going to be sooooooo shiny!

Bottled a Pumpkin Spice Latte Stout. Yes, I'm a basic white girl. First time I've bottled since I got a kegging set up, I forgot how time consuming it is.....