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Backwardgate........ Beer 100 (birthday beer)

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Owly055

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I got home from celebrating the big 60 a few hours ago.....After working on a Perkins engine in an excavator.....My birthday present (to myself) was a new pressure switch which I had to install in my pump house ;-) Actually I do not celebrate birthdays, and I had a quiet evening at the local watering hole ......the Grand Hotel in Big Timber, Montana, which has been my "office" since about 1984, when it re-opened. One Prickley Pear Pale ale, and a coconut panko fried shrimp with Thai hot sweet and sour sauce (in house recipe). I didn't have time for the house smoked prime rib..... it was a one beer evening..... water has the priority over beer here!!
After listening to a voice mail from my mother lamenting that having a 60 year old son made her feel old...... I decided that the proper way to celebrate was to brew!! Instead of grabbing a recipe book like many folks do, I went out and ground about the right amount of grain, choosing grains from my inventory, and deciding how much of each to use... This while the strike water was heating. Hit mash temp dead nuts!! Ground the grain and came in and the water hit strike temp within about 5 min. Doughed in, and quick sat down with Brewer's Friend and entered the pounds and ounces before CRS deleted it. Oldtimers disease......what a difference a day makes! looked at my hop list, and decided what to include from my inventory.

Backwardgate ........ That's what I call my beer.... does anybody else brew this way? I've found that if you know your malt and your hops....... and your yeast, it's hard to brew a bad beer..... I know what I like. I know what the grains are going to give me, and what each of my hops contributes.......... I still brew the occasional "dumper", but those are wildly experimental, and I can count the "dumpers" on the fingers of one hand and have fingers left over....... If you never have a failure, I would say you are not being very creative.

I ran off the page for my log.... punched it with my 3 hole punch, and dropped it in the log............ I hadn't numbered brews for a month or so, and so brought my numbering up to date......... Brew 100.... 100 brews since a year ago February....... I didn't plan it this way........... BIAB without the bag during the mash, the technique I now use exclusively. The bag is just a filter. It may not work for you.....but it works for me!

More and more I find myself beginning a brew before I have the recipe worked out. I bitter with Summit or Magnum...... everything else is usually late addition, so I may not have settled the hops bill until the boil is more than half over.... backwardgate.

H.W.
 
Happy Birthday! :mug: :rockin:

Love the Backwardgate name and concept. I must say I'm not so bold yet as to brew without a recipe, but maybe someday...
 
Happy Birthday! :mug: :rockin:

Love the Backwardgate name and concept. I must say I'm not so bold yet as to brew without a recipe, but maybe someday...

Thanks............ I've nearly always brewed without an official "recipe"........ I sit down with Brewer's Friend and craft a recipe to utilize what I have......... My typical methodology. I first brewed long before it was legal.... 1969 It wasn't for another 9 years that home brewing was legalized. I look at recipes for ideas but rarely ever duplicate anything exactly.

H.W.
 
Thanks............ I've nearly always brewed without an official "recipe"........ I sit down with Brewer's Friend and craft a recipe to utilize what I have......... My typical methodology. I first brewed long before it was legal.... 1969 It wasn't for another 9 years that home brewing was legalized. I look at recipes for ideas but rarely ever duplicate anything exactly.

H.W.

Nice. Actually, as far as approach, I guess these days I operate much the same here. Get an idea, maybe look at a few recipes for inspiration, then use Brewer's Friend to craft my own version. Although it depends on my familiarity with the style, I suppose.

Congrats on the long-term brewing! :mug: I first picked it up in 1995, then picked it BACK up in 2008, and gradually have amped up my technique, equipment, and game overall.
 
Oh, and I'm very interested to hear how your no-recipe Backwardgate #100 turns out! So keep us apprised please!

Backwardgate is a 3 gallon brew with various grains... two row, munich, and CR 150... and a pound of sugar. OG measured was 1.078, SRM 9.4.. IBUs 50.33. Half an ounce of Challenger at 60, half an ounce each of Cascade, Amarillo and Motueka, all at one minute. The idea was "fruit and spice" without being a major "citrus bomb". What I do not want is a classic triple digit "American IPA". It may not be technically "hop bursted", but 2.5 ounces of hops in 3 gallons, mostly at the end of boil will give me a major hop presence, and a beer with a serious "whoop ass" kick with fairly high IBUs and a LOT of flavor, not to mention ABV of around 7%........ It should as my friend Wayne (who died two years ago used to say), make your "sticker peck out" (cancer at 82). When I visited Wayne at Loon Lake, Wa, several times a year (500 miles from home), he was horrified that I would go to the local watering hole for breakfast and drink an IPA from Deschutes..........with a full breakfast. Breakfast beer is not socially acceptable.........

H.W.
 
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