What's up? Well Steve and I are sitting on our balcony watching the waves come in so I figured I would just give you an update on what's going on. Well yesterday we stopped at Dogfish and checked out their brew pub and tried something so f'n awesome I can't really describe it. I will post a pic of this contraption they had that made hoppiness happiness! Anyway just wanted to say hi from Ocean City Maryland and I will upload pics when I get the chance. By the way Dogfish has a 75 minute IPA that we are going to try on Thursday so it should be pretty sweet! Til then....surfs up!

Ok so it's been about a week now so Steve and I decided we are going to take the next step in our beer process. After we sterilized our fermenter and siphon, we took some Simcoe and more Warrior hops and put them in the secondary fermenter. Then we siphoned the beer out of the primary and off into the the secondary it went! Oh how exciting. Dry hopping at it's best!!! I'm glad we used the Simcoe and Warrior because they are high alpha acidic hops so they should give it a great hoppy aroma/taste. Anyway, we are leaving it in the secondary for two weeks so when we get back from the beach it should be time to bottle it! Til then....

Next up was the Founder's 6.6% Red Rye PA. This one was a particularly interesting one as the taste is a little on the hoppy side. I get citrusy notes from the smell and taste. Almost like a well balanced Pale Ale. It has a decent body, little carbonation and could honestly pass for a pale ale except it has something that just sticks out when I taste it. I read up on it and apparantly it was dry hopped which gives it that floral aroma/taste. It has such a hoppy taste but it has something bread like in it. I dunno...but for a rye ale this would be a definite purchase. 4 out of 5.

Next up was a brew from Founder's Brewing Company. This was the Dirty Bastard scotch ale. This one I was quite impressed with. It has been awhile since I have tasted a good scotch ale. This Grand Rapids, MI scotch ale clocks in at 8.3% abv. It had a very dark color and was loaded with nice malty tastes. Toffee and caramel tastes, a little sweet. Good body and good carbonation to this one. Man how I have really grown to enjoy a good scotch ale. This one gets a 4 out of 5!

OK so Steve and I were sitting outside watching the Yanks sweep the Red Sox tonight so we decided to try some beers tonight. First up was the Victory Helios which is a 9.5% abv Saison. This one was not impressive as far as Saisons are concerned. It actually smelled like a hefeweizen but when I tasted it, it had some sweet and sour notes to it. The aftertaste was not pleasant at all. Took Steve about 20 minutes to finish it lol. It was a little fuller bodied saison than most I have had. Little pepper type flavor, spicy I guess. 2 out of 5. :(

update:

Ok so we started with 3 gallons of water that we started to heat...then we steeped the Victory Malt and the Crystal 60L malt for about 25 minutes. Then we heated it up to a boil for another 25 minutes. After that we then took the Cascade hops and added them to it for about 10 minutes. Then we took the Warrior hops and put them in and boiled for another 10 then added that last of the Cascade hops for another 15 minutes. ( I plan on using more Warrior hops to dry hop it once it goes in the secondary fermenter) After the boil we put it in my bathtub filled with cold water to cool it. Once it was down to about 70 degrees, we topped it off with 2 more gallons of warm water. Then we siphoned it into the primary fermenter...added some yeast making sure it was stirred well then stored it. It has been about 24 hours now and their is some bubbling action already which is cool. I'm gonna let it sit for about 5-7 days then put it into the secondary fermenter to get some clarity and dry hop it. So we shall see!

S&M IPA

Ok so me and my buddy Steve decided it was time to start brewing again. So I finally got my shit together...ordered supplies and well, I have the Saturday afternoon off so why not brew?!
Anyway here is the recipe I'm using for the S&M IPA.

H2O (thank you captain obvious!)
8oz. Crushed Victory Malt
1lb of Crushed Crystal 60L Malt
6.6lbs. of Plain Light Malt Extract
1oz. Cascade Bittering Hops
1oz. Cascade Finishing Hops
4oz. Warrior Hops
Muntons yeast

I will keep you updated on how everything goes!