Kevin B Hawkins » Brewing http://www.kevinbhawkins.com Discussions about Career Sites, SEO/SEM, Recruitment, Random Discoveries, Pop Culture Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:43:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Brewing up a blonde http://www.kevinbhawkins.com/2008/10/24/brewing-up-a-blonde/ http://www.kevinbhawkins.com/2008/10/24/brewing-up-a-blonde/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:10:15 +0000 kevinbhawkins http://kevinbhawkins.wordpress.com/?p=36  It was possibly the last nice day of the summer (or the first nice weekend of the fall) and I had to brew SOMETHING since the Double Chocolate Raspberry Cream Stout had to be put on hold due to raspberry-related issues — It’s technical. So I looked at my in-house stock of grains, extracts and other fun fermentables to see what I could brew with the ingredients at hand. I wanted to brew something without too much prep time and that wouldn’t take over my entire day — an off-the-cuff, seat-of-the-pants creation.
I had some grains: Belgian Special B, Crystal Malt and Roasted Barley but I wanted to brew something light — I turned to an extract-only solution, a modified PIlsner was the initial idea but I think it’s style is more like a Blonde with very mild use of hops and some orange peel and coriander to give it a Belgian twist. The beer is in the bottle and should be ready in about a week or two — I think this batch yielded 48 12 oz bottles and 3 or 4 20 oz ‘bombers’.

Keeping an eye on the wort to stop boil over requires cold beer and a Cohiba Corona.

 Keeping an eye on the wort to stop boil over requires cold beer and a Cohiba Corona.
]]> http://www.kevinbhawkins.com/2008/10/24/brewing-up-a-blonde/feed/ 0 Beer Blocked http://www.kevinbhawkins.com/2008/09/29/beer-blocked/ http://www.kevinbhawkins.com/2008/09/29/beer-blocked/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:30:01 +0000 kevinbhawkins http://kevinbhawkins.wordpress.com/?p=20 I was getting ready to start a new batch today: Double Chocolate Raspberry Cream Stout version 2.0 when I got Beer Blocked hard. My brewing supply store, Warehouse Beverage was closed. I know this seems like a minor detail — I shouldn’t have even considered letting it stop me. But I decided to stop short of committing a crime, even for the righteous cause of brewing.

Anyways, I was playing with new ways of calculating a grain bill to take this to the next level. A little wine and beer bar in the area wants to put it on tap. I am hoping to have it fermented and conditioned in time for January — this is one stout whose flavors need a little time to blend before the raspberrys mellow out. The downside? I’m going to have to brew two batches if I want to bottle any for sharing around the casa through the upcoming deep, dark winter months that just seem to be made for stouts.

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