2013 Recap

It was quite a busy year, and I have definitely neglected the blog lately. Here is bit of an update on the past few months at the lab.

Here are the beers I have brewed since my last blog post:

Winter Warmer (Coriander strong ale)
Wee Heavy (Split fermentation. 5 gallons fermented with Scotch Whiskey distillers yeast)
Oyster Stout (Yes, freshly shucked)
Pils IPA (IPA 85% Pilsen 15% Rye)
Wild Ale version #3 (An all brett pale ale with mosaic & azacca hops)
India Pale Lager (An IPA fermented with lager yeast)
Big Coffee Brown Ale (Inspired by Surly Coffee Bender. Aggressive coffee) 
American Special Bitter - 4% Special bitter made with a large amount of late addition American hops. Mosaic, Amarillo, Azacca, dry hopped with Antanum, and fermented with GigaYeasts Conan strain.

A quick count shows close to 30 beers brewed this year. I averaged 2 a month, but did a few extra brews here and there.

In the brewery were a couple of notable upgrades. First was the switch over to the BCS 460 brewing control unit. I had a couple of small hiccups with it at first, but it runs great now and I really enjoy using it. The other big upgrade was my ez-mash step up. It's a propane fired tankless water heater and it makes my brew day a little shorter. Most of the year I get ~170 degree water coming out of it at around 1.5 GPM. I can be mashing in with 10-15 gallons within 15 minutes of getting my brew day started.

Some other highlights of the year in brewing:

I brewed my first all brett beer. It was probably my favorite beer of the year. It also won 1st place in the specialty category of the Beehive Brewoff.  Speaking of beer competitions, I also judged in two local contests this past year. It was a lot of fun and I learned a bunch about the whole process.

This was the first full year for the Lauterday Brewers home brew club that I help run. It really took off this year! We always have a great crowd, but in the last part of 2013 we had a ton of interest. Our last few meetings have been just packed with upwards of 30 brewers attending! It's a great time that I am always looking forward to. 

The brew club did two group barrel brews to fill our Jack Daniels barrel. The first was a Russian Imperial Stout. The second, and still sitting in the barrel is a huge English style barley wine. This year we plan on two barrel brews using wine barrels! We have a lot of other great ideas that I am so excited about! I can't wait to announce some of the cool shit we will have going this year!

Here's to an amazing brewing year for all in 2014!

The Lauter Day brewers barrel aged RIS