Broken Helmet Brewing

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March 05, 2015

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It's a beginning.

It's something.

It will be real.

There will be beer.

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The IPA post

Well, it was bound to happen some time. I took a swing at an IPA...or, am taking, since there's still the fermentation and dry hopping to be done. It also helped that I was given a pound of Wakatu hops that I didn't know what else to do with...and the yeast in the fridge was older. All sorts of reasons. ;-)

I also approached this brew day knowing that it may not totally come together. We were one kid down for the weekend since my daughter was off at her Nana's. That left my boy, who hasn't been real thrilled with the idea of brewing....but when I started talking it up on Friday, he seemed interested. So, Saturday night, I brewed up a starter. It also just happened to be the hottest weekend of the year. I thought it would wise to start early...and was I ever right! We kicked things into gear by 8 am and had the whole thing wrapped up by Noon. A couple of things happened in between...

Having a relaxed attitude about the whole thing and keeping my boy going on his ow…

A long-form past due post.

Brew days can be funny things. Just when you think you have it all figured out, you're doing a recipe that you've done before, everything seems to be lined up, here comes the curve ball. In my case, my helpers bailed on shortly after the first hop addition! There were a few other things that came up, but once the kids decide they're done, it kind of complicates things.
Moving on...

The recipe was a variation on my Bell Lap Belgian pale ale. 4.5 gallons was the batch size with the goal of bottling up 4 gallons.

As mentioned at the beginning, I did have a little help. Both my son and daughter wanted to help stir the mash...

...so the mash was stirred...plenty.
After about an hour, when it was time to collect my first runnings, both my helpers called it quits. Not even the lure of throwing hops into the boil kettle could keep them out with me. But, I was allowed to soldier on, thanks to my lovely wife.
The boil and additions went as well as they could, but the timer …

...And I thought my Octoberfest was late!

It's February. I haven't brewed in months...for various reasons. I had the ingredients to do a barleywine. It appeared I had the time. It was time.

My son and I donned our Brewmaster t-shirts courtesy of my lovely wife and set to it. The idea, since weather has been a bit of an issue lately here in the Pacific NW, was to brew inside. So, the batch size was one gallon...ish.
The grains had been hanging out in the garage for over a month. But, sealed well and often near freezing, I had no doubt they'd still be viable for this brew. Not only that, when I do a one gallon batch, my efficiency has been proven to be much greater than my typical larger batch technique. Go figure!
So, heat some water, drop some grains in the water....and watch the temp stay above where I want it to. Great. So, outside the mash went.

I'm still a little surprised it took as long as it did to cool down to normal mashing temps, but that's jus the way it goes sometimes. If I were working wi…

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