First State Brewers' Blog

My all-grain brewing equipment has finally arrived... along with my counter-pressure bottling stuff. I can't wait to use it - I've got one more batch of extract before I use it though - My dad wanted me to make him a batch of the Black Honey Ale. He loves it and has been rationing his last 6-pack for over a month now. Time to let him relax that a little bit. My first AG batch will be the Amarillo Pale Ale - I can never seem to have enough pale ale around, particularly with my best friend down in Dover - He loves the stuff. If only I had a 14 gallon brewpot, I'd actually brew a 10 gallon batch...

Today I'm kegging my lastest IPA (although it may be closer to just an APA) and racking the strong dark belgian to a secondary. I have a feeling that belgian will take a while to settle and smooth out - It was a really big beer. My brown ale will probably hit a secondary soon too - And from the sample I tasted, it is probably waaaaaay too hoppy to be a "Nut Brown". Its probably closer to an american brown brewed with mostly English ingredients. C'est la vie... it'll be drank anyways.

All of the cascade rhizomes survived. I've got shoots from all of them - one is already over an inch high, although most are just now poking out of the ground. No sign of the Nugget, Magnum, or Liberty yet - but they're working their way up from a depth of 6 inches, so I'm not suprised. Now that I've done a little more reading on the subject, this year we'll actually do what is recommended around trimming all but one or two shoots and stripping leaves below 3' once the vines are big enough. Hopefully we'll get a much bigger harvest than last year.