Fall is finally here!

     Today being the first Sunday of the NFL regular season means that fall has officially arrived.  To commemorate we cracked open a very special brew, the first ever Double Hump all grain recipe of our Oktoberfest beer.  With Pilsner, Munich and Vienna malts with a mix of Hallertauer and Tettnanger hops this is a very traditional marzen beer (not those extra hopped American versions of Oktoberfest).  It came out at about 5% alcohol and was very tasty.  The picture below is of this wonderful beer with a picture of the Berlin Cathedral Church that I took while in Germany this summer (to my severe disappointment I did not make it to Bavaria where Oktoberfest was invented, but had to drown my sorrows in the beers of 5 other German cities).

We're Back!

     There has been a lot going on at Double Hump Brewery since last I posted.  First off I have been lazy and we brewed and drank three batches of beer without me posting anything (sorry).  Second, we decided to go ahead with our second major overhaul of the brewery and can now brew all grain batches up to ten gallons at a time!  Third, two batches have been brewed on the new set up but have not been drank yet, so I will post about those as we drink them.

Scotch Ale
     By far my least favorite beer that we have brewed.  We attempted a partial mash with this one including Pale, Caramel, Roasted and Peet malts but being our first time there were issues with holding temperatures steady from the beginning.  We were shooting for a 5% Scottish Export using the above grains and exclusively British East Kent Goldings hops.  We then finished the beer using Oak wood chips in the secondary fermenter to try and add some "scotch" like flavoring.  For many reasons all this did not work out, but it is a style we hope to return to in the next year.

English Pale Ale
     A return to the first beer style we ever brewed.  This time we have formulated our own recipe for an English Style Pale Ale that uses Pale, Honey and Amber malts and British East Kent Golding hops.  compared to our first "kit" beer this was a lot better, but issues with the water we used gave this beer an undesirable aftertaste.  Why does one thing always have to go wrong?

Belgian Wit
     Back to a tried and true recipe!  Other than some minor tweaking of the recipe we used last summer this imperial wit used the same ingredients.  We had to find a new kind of honey when the old one was not for sale, and we added oats to a grain bill of pilsner and wheat.  With corriander, orange peel and hallertauer hops this 6.5% wit beer was gone pretty quick.

Below are some of the pictures of the new brewery.  I will post about the beers we have been brewing with it as soon as we start drink them.

It was Christmas but now its February

so... I had hoped to brew a Christmas beer but I ran out of time, so I am releasing my Christmas beer in February.  This beer owes much to Matt as we were at his house smelling every spice in his cabinet just brainstorming.  He then came up with the idea to use Jamaican allspice in a beer.  I loved the smell but had no idea what I was going to do to create a beer.  What I came up with was an amalgam of a British Winter Warmer and a Belgian Spiced Beer.  This Ale comes in at a whopping 9% ABV and uses Pale, Crystal, Munich, and Carapils malts.  With the hops I wanted to try something with higher AA values to offset some of the spices so I went with Chinook for bittering and Northern Brewer for Aroma.  Finally this brew uses turbinado sugar, molasses, Jamaican allspice, sweet orange peel, and cinnamon to create hopefully a layered flavor.  For the finishing touches I used a yeast blend of 3 Belgian and trappist yeasts.  I have no idea if people are gonna love or hate this beer, but I certainly channeled my mad scientist side in coming up with this one.

Pumpkin Ale

We have fallen behind on our brewing and I wish this ale had been ready for Thanksgiving, but better late than never.  I hope that this beer, with some minor changes, will become a seasonal brew for us for years to come (sorry Rob).  This year we decided upon a Pumpkin Ale that would be a sort of session beer to drink all day long over a holiday.  At 4% alcohol I think that goal was achieved.  While no actual pumpkins were harmed in the making of this beer, a mixture of allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon were used to create a pumpkin flavor.  The use of Willamette and German Hallertauer hops were a pretty good compliment to the spices, but the Double Hump twist was the use of home roasted pumpkin seeds used during fermentation. 

Oktoberfest

Probably my favorite beer style so I didn't want to get this one wrong.  We went with a traditional recipe without any frills or special ingredients.  The hard part was that a traditional Marzen  (Munich style Oktoberfest beer) is a lager and this is our first lager.  55 degree fermentation, really long primary fermentation times, diacetyl rests, and the lagering process were all a new experience for us.  We were up for the challenge and the only thing to probably fix would be to just lager longer and start earlier so that the beer is actually ready by October.  Pilsner, Munich, and Crystal malt were used with Hallertauer and Tettnanger hops in this beer to create an OG of 1.052 and it has 21 IBUs.

Amber with Spearmint

I don't know why I was obsessed with using spearmint in a beer, but I was and this is the result.  I am also a fan of amber ales and was disappointed with our first amber attempt, so I combined my need for a better amber ale with the need to put spearmint in a beer.  We also had to move our brewing location due to unforeseen  difficulties, so this is the first beer brewed at the new location.  I also want to thank my friend Rob (not the one in our little beer club) for donating a refrigerator so that I now have complete control over fermentation temperatures.  I will let you know how I think that effected the beer in my tasting comment.  Finally I experimented with large amounts of steeping grains.  I steeped 4.5 lbs of Honey, Crystal 30, and Cara-Pils grains.  This beer used Galena and Liberty hops, Spearmint in the secondary fermentor, had an OG of 1.046, and 22 IBUs. 

Here are some pictures of the new brewery.

Belgian Wit

After the Asian Wit we thought we would try our hands at a traditional Belgian Wit style ale using hallertauer hops, coriander seeds, and bitter orange peel.  The Beer had an OG of 1.060 and about 16 IBUs.  The experiment with this brew was to almost over carbonate the beer to see what the effects would be. 

I don't currently have any pictures, but with a couple bottles left I will take some next time I drink this beer and then post them.