- El Jefe: 1 gal of hefeweizen that was extract-only
- Black Mo: 3 gal of Tumbler clone, which was our first use of specialty grains
- Bug Juice: 2 gal (which later turned into 1 gallon) of dunkelweizen
- Pumqueen: 2 gal of Pumking clone, which was our first all grain attempt
- Christmas Miracle 2014: 3 gal of Christmas beer with dried cherries, vanilla, and cinnamon
- 2 gal of oatmeal stout, with bourbon-soaked oak used in half the batch
- 3 gal of Belgian strong dark ale, our second all-grain brew
One of the fun things brewing this year was that we got to involve some of our family as well. We brewed the dunkel with Amy's Uncle Harold and the oatmeal stout with Paul's brother Craig. We also managed to get our finished beers (and sometimes our not-so-finished beers) into the hands of family and friends so that more people could share in the tasting. Amy and I are both looking forward to brewing more beers with family and friends in 2015.
Another fun thing about brewing this year was how much we're learning. It seems like there's a wealth of information out there, and it's so much fun to soak it all up - not just to apply to our brewing but also as beer lovers in general. I know so much more about brewing and beer now compared to six months ago.
The process of tweaking the brew setup with each beer has also been a lot of fun. The BeerSmith software has so many calibration options, and with each brew we get more information about how to set the numbers to get each beer closer to the desired result from the recipe. There's also a DIY aspect of home brewing that's really cool, with each person's home brew setup being slightly different. We started out with a pretty minimal setup, but have gradually worked our way up to a great set of home brew equipment for stove-top brewing up to 3-gallon all-grain batches.
As of the start of 2015, here is our current brewing equipment:
- Brew Day:
- 8-gallon MegaPot 1.2
- 5-gallon kettle
- BIAB bag from bagbrewer.com
- 5.2 mash pH stabilizer
- thermometer
- long stirring spoons
- 12" strainer
- scale (up to 11 lbs with 1g resolution)
- 2nd scale (up to 1.3 lbs with 0.1g resolution)
- irish moss
- copper immersion wort chiller
- sanitizer, bucket, and spray bottle
- auto-siphon
- hydrometer and test tube
- refractometer
- aerating stirrer
- Fermentation:
- 6.5 gallon bucket with lid
- 3-piece airlocks
- stoppers
- two 1-gallon glass carboys
- one 3-gallon glass carboy
- 5 cu. ft. chest freezer
- Johnson A419 temperature controller
- lasko personal space heater
- Bottling:
- bottle capper
- bottle washer
- bottle drying tree
- bottling bucket with valve
- spring tip bottle filler
- 12oz bottles
- 22oz bottles
- bottle caps
Here's to a fun half-year of brewing in 2014 and looking ahead to a great 2015 filled with more delicious beer!
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