The Great 5-Day Double IPA: Day 2

So yesterday I attempted something pretty insane.
I brewed this beer:

8 lb. canadian light malt extract
1 lb. carapils
.5 lb. caramel 40L
2 lb. corn sugar

7 oz. citra hops (added at each 10 minute interval during 60 min. boil)

irish moss @ 15 mins
yeast nutrient @ 15 mins

2x packets US-05 dry yeast

OG: 1.076
---------------

OK Dave, that's not insane, you say. Just keep reading.

The goal of this beer is to have it ready to drink by Sunday. That's FIVE DAYS AWAY. (Well, 4 days now). But I think I can do it. And here's why:

1. Corn Sugar - this shit is like crack to yeast. The yeast will chow through this without even giving it a thought and will propel the rest of fermentation to happen much faster than normal.

2. Yeast + Nutrient - Yeast Nutrient will spur fermentation much faster. Also the US-05 is a very fast acting yeast, and typically a starter isn't even needed in the case of its use. I doubled the amount added, so this should help everything along as well.

3. Heat - It's cold in Cincinnati this week. Therefore I'm using the heat in my house. The heat is set at 70* and the carboy is wrapped up and sitting right next to the main vent in the house. The heat coming out of this vent will run about 75-76*, which, I know, is a little hot for fermentation, but it will also speed up the process.

4. Kegging - Force carbonation is the main reason this will be drinkable on Sunday. A quick fermentation is very necessary, but we'll take this one out of the carboy at the last possible second, fill the keg and blast it with CO2 for a bit. That should do it.


Is this a crazy idea? Yes. Is it necessary? Not at all. But I want to have another beer ready for the Lost series finale on Sunday, and my half-keg of Mango Coconut Coffee Porter just blew on Monday night. So I figured, what the hell, right?

Since it's a Double IPA, I'm going to dry hop it as soon as these hops come in from the west coast (had to buy some at the LHBS yesterday, but sadly, ordering hops from across the country is much cheaper, to the tune of $10/lb in that light, and approx $35/lb if bought local...), and then add a monster ton of hops into the keg on Sunday. The dry-hops won't be terribly present at that point, but the keg will be in action for a month or so before it kicks, so the hops will have plenty of time to
1. do their job in the tune of hop-flavor
and 2. hopefully counteract any of the "off" practices I used during this brewing period

I'll have to keep everyone posted, but for a spur of the moment recipe... it sounds like it'll be pretty dang decent.

Until then.

MC Porter Tasting

Kegged a very small test batch last night and so far, all is well. To be honest I am not surprised at how amazing this beer turned out. The coffee and the mango are hands-down the stars in this effort, but the mango pushes through the back end as the brew warms up and adds a very nice addition to the beer. I could drink this all night. I had two glasses last night and am hosting a small tasting party today to get some outside feedback. Hopefully everything holds up on this one. In a few days (Monday, probably), I'm going to bottle some of the beer (about half), and meanwhile (maybe today) - keg the other half. I need enough of this beer to enter it in a few competitions (most notable the Sam Adams Batch 23 Longshot competition - which is coming up soon).

I'll keep everyone posted on this.

Also, God is currently at Day 15 of the freezing stage. I don't imagine this can yield any, even in the slightest, positive results, but shit, who knows? We shall see what we shall see

My Hydra, Your Hydra

In Greek mythology, the Lernaean Hydra was an ancient nameless serpent-like chthonic water beast (as its name evinces) that possessed nine heads — and for each head cut off it grew two more — and poisonous breath so virulent even her tracks were deadly. The Hydra of Lerna was killed by Heracles as one of his Twelve Labours. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, though archaeology has borne out the myth that the sacred site was older even than the Mycenaean city of Argos since Lerna was the site of the myth of the Danaids. Beneath the waters was an entrance to the Underworld, and the Hydra was its guardian.

The Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, both of whom were noisome offspring of the earth goddess Gaia.

Titan City Update

God:
20% kegged
20% coffee
60% iced
M.C. Porter:
50% coffee & toasted coconut added; secondary (champagne yeast)
50% mango puree added; secondary (belgian strong ale yeast)

Sodie Bread:
100% dry-hopped with whiskey soaked cascades; seconday

Imperial Chocolate Rasp/Blackberry Porter (NAY, stout!):
brew date 4/27

That's all for now, but as you can tell things have been picking up so there will certainly be much much more in terms of updates in the days to come!

In other news, we'll be leaving the blogosphere for a few days to head to Chicago to party down with Dave.sq1 and attend our third annual Dark Lord Day celebration:

Tits.

A Few Days Behind

Running a few days behind on the secondary transferring of the now dubbed, "M.C. Porter" We're actually racking to secondary a beer that my roommate Steve and I brewed some time back. It's been sitting in the primary for way too long so I fear it's been too long to rack it. We're adding some hops that have been soaked in Irish Whiskey for a few months and then hopefully bottling in a few weeks time.

Back to business. The M.C. Porter is going to be ready to rock and roll in a short while. The mango and coconut is ready to go and the coffee beans are in tow. Since the MC Porter was split into two primaries - one fermenting with champagne yeast, the other with belgian strong ale - we're adding the coffee and coconut to the champagne version and the mango to the belgian strong ale half. I'm really stoked about where this one is heading. Should have a full allotment of bottles on schedule around May 15. There will be a secondary for about 10 days and a tertiary (where we will combine the two) for around 5-6 to get everything working together. Very exciting batch.

Further info: for a 5-gallon batch we essentially recreated the Edmund Fitzgerald grain bill, substituted and doubled their hop bill with only Cascade, split into two with the respective yeasts and are adding 18 oz. toasted coconut with 1 lb Kona beans, plus 7 lbs of mango puree for the final additions. GET PUMPED.

God on Ice

GOI officially made its way to the freezer yesterday. With 20% of the original beer syphoned off and kegged (hence the previous posting mention of diety-consumption), yesterday we made the final call on what to do with the rest of the beer. Another 20% of the beer was racked to a final stage and pounds and pounds of coffee beans were added to the mix to set for a few weeks. The final 60% was taken to our good friend Steve's, where we were given the priviledged use of his deep freezer. So, currently, God is 20% kegged, 20% on coffee and 60% on ice. There will absolutely be blending, although at this point the best course of action will probably be to bottle each batch individually, and blend from the bottle and not IN the bottle. This way we don't end up with a very limited number of different blends that may or may not reach standards.

Best thing about this is that since God is so volatile and absurd, the beers will age extremely well. So whatever happens, happens.

I have been thinking about adding pounds of fresh fruit to the mix, but at this point I think God has gone through enough and we'll just save the fruit for the upcoming Imperial Chocolate Fruit Porter (Nay, Stout!) Series. Thoughts?

April Update

A few exciting things are happening around the brewery and here's whats what:

First, we put God in a keg. Yup. We kegged God. And to our surprise, after a brief showing at Adam's impromptu birthday party, it actually had a pretty nice turnout. Not the best beer ever brewed, (and even after we spilled some God on the floor) everyone seemed to enjoy the 18% monster at least in a touch. A few days later, Sam ended the night with one. Mistake-city population Mooninite. At this point, there's still some left in the keg and about 3.5 gallons in fermentation. I might as well just dump a bottle of whiskey in it and call it a day. WAIT A SECOND. That's EXACTLY what I should do. God is harsh enough; might as well make him an alcoholic monstrosity. <-- More details on this later.

Also, there have been so many new brews in the last few months that it's a little uncomfortable to even try to recollect. The point of the brews at this point is really to try and nail down a few recipes that we can put out as we go into actual production down the road. To be fairly candid, I'd have to say that our most successful beers have also been our biggest ones: Man, Imperial Chocolate Raspberry Porter (Nay, Stout!), Spiced Chai Milk Stout and Batch 11. There have been many many other good brews, but those have by far been the DaveDave BEST. They will certainly make the initial lineup come full production.

That being said, I am heading into "full-brew-mode" over the next few weeks. I'd like to remake and perfect those recipes as we head forward, and really work the kinks out to put down a great quality product. More info as those come forward (for today, a new carboy and a Chocolate Raspberry Imperial Porter (Nay, Stout!) brewing session. Actually if I can handle it, I'd like to brew two of these (one today, one tomorrow), and make one with blackberries instead of raspberries. These should be ready to bottle by the beginning of June (just in time to bring out on vacation! ;) )

Tonight we are going to rack the Mango Coconut Porter to secondary, adding our Mango as well as our toasted coconut. Looks like I may be making a trip out to Jungle Jim's before the end of the day to pick up the extra pieces to those puzzles. This one will be ready to drink by our May 23rd LOST finale. Exciting. We're also going to add kona coffee beans to the secondary to really shake everything up. So, now, the beer has transformed into a Belgian Style Coffee Mango Coconut Porter with Champagne yeast. High hopes here.

What's next? Well, DaveDave has recently implemented some advancements to our brewing and bottling process, and in doing so has created a higher level of quality beer over a more consistent level. Look out for this in the future. Taste the DaveDave

The Mixup

So we goofed. It was a silly mistake, I promise you. But the result is... well, mind-opening. Mind-blowing. Mind-bending. You have no idea the scale of what has occurred. You're not ready. No one is ready. The results will be posted soon though, I promise you that.

Much Love,
Daves

Icing the Beast, and Caps and Snifters

Now that school is well and over, brewing and all that aside, I have decided to take on a few "beer-centric" projects, well, just for the hell of it. The first I am going to do has some alterior motives (to be detailed in video at a later date), but it is essentially to create an "ice beer" from a dogfish head 120 minute IPA.

I don't have too much info on the process, other than freeze the beer, and skim the surface to get the alcohol-thickened portion of the beer to get the more concentrated version of the brew. I am planning on freezing 4-6 and then re-bottling in a newly labeled Iced 120 Minute IPA bottle with DaveDave caps. I am planning on having two total, maybe three to drink. If I achieve a high percent efficiency in doing so, I can effectively create a 30-38% beer from this process. sick.

here are also some pics of DaveDave caps and snifters that have been made:

these aren't exactly how they look; in fact the caps are all-black, and the snifters are etched, so the davedave logo and "screw it, let's brew it" mantra are a hazy white color. still killer.

Promoting DaveDave Synergy

It's been a while. Oh how the tides have changed!

There is a level of excitement abuzz at DaveDave that there hasn't been in a while. But this is not any level of excitement created fusing awkward potential life goals into a and followed by a "Dude, we should totally...!" No, nowhere near that. This is the kind of monumentus that allows me to create words like monumentus. Something deep from within that has been brewing (get it?) for some time.

I am currently finishing up my capstone project in school. And by finishing, I mean, I've barely started and there are only a few weeks left. However, my function in this aim is to develop and design a brewery. Unbeknown to most, I have no intentions of presenting any work nor having anything significant on D-Day. However, I do plan on having a solid document of information channeling what the brewery (or now, moreover, Brew Pub), is going to look like and effectively, live up to (although June says this will change and I am in firm belief with him that it will, however it is necessary to have a place to start), in hopes of sharing this information with potential investors in the process known as making DaveDave REAL.

It's all really exciting. So the next point is that this blog from now on (if I really even attend to it.. we will see in time), is to briefly chronicle what is happening in our world. I am a bit motivated by the outward approach that Tucker Max (Taylor Steele) has taken with the creation and release of his film, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. So in that light, I may take an active approach to regurgitating the information and events that will ultimately lead to Day 1 Opening.

Just to put this in writing (and I have no legal counsel as to if it is OK or not, but fuck it), but I have two members in mind to join the team. The first is Chris Michel, resident beer drinker/brewer/smart guy/business-savvy money man, and the second is also a Chris. This Chris is a very accomplished brewer and a good all-around guy, and if he is interested, and does well in the interview process (i.e., delivers good quality brew), this could work out nicely. I'm interested to see what actually happens on this front in the long run, so future Dave: I hope you're happy with what you've done.

Finally, DaveDave name is in jeopardy. Honestly I don't think it suits larger-scale establishment, but it could on the other hand provide a necessary "entry point" in our customers' minds in that the name is iconic and in turn, very easy to remember.

We'll see what happens, but to those out there in blogger land who may for some reason actually read this, the tide is nigh, the waves are high, and I've got a couple of surf boards to take this one down.

I have no idea where the surfing reference came from, but oh well. Screw it, Let's Brew It, right?

is this still a blog?

maybe?

What happens when you add Holy Water to your Wort?

All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment…

People! I am presently boiling a remake of our Ambermensch, an amber colored double fermented american strong ale. MMmm. It was a big hit at our homebrew party (coming in second in popularity to the Phenomagavely) so we decided to revamp the flavor profile, retain the heavy handedness of its inebriative qualities and make another batch.
This time we used almonds, rosewater and extra brown sugar to fit both the full bodied seasonal trends of winter and the strong, uber, conceptual content of its namesake. We also opted to use some roasted barley for our partial, not knowing exactly what it will do to the taste, but knowing that barley and almonds and rosewater traditionally go well together.
Half way through the boil and it looks like espresso. The color is dark dark brown and floating on top of the boil is a sandy to deep khaki colored froth that can only be described as crema. We shall see, we shall see.

And now a shameless plug:

Surly Brewery in Brooklyn Center, MN, just outside of Minneapolis, is awesome. We serve their Bender at my restaraunt and they also hosted their second "Darkness Day" this past October. This festival, much like the "Dark Lord Day" at Three Floyds, is effectively their release party for a limited edition russian imerial stout, appropriately called darkness, a limited edition special batch. Its rare and coveted. Anyway, there was a really cool turnout for the day, lots of homebrewers and beer geeks congregating in the name of brew, swapping recipes and dishing out samples of esteric and hard to find labels, bombers and swing tops. Some of us chose to camp out the night before, so there was pretty much loud and excited conversation and samplage going on all night. The owner, Omar, even brought a keg of "Coffee Bender" out into the street for us all to wake up to. The beer is good, the vibe is great. Keep it up. A+


rock it/rocket

Got Some Dave On My Wall

Last night we bottled the DaveDave Dave and had a quick tasting. WOW. This is high quality shit. I would not have been able to foresee such a success (as things have gone so far), and you can simply taste the quality. all-grain really is better. Anyhow, we only used .25 lbs chocolate malt in the whole thing on top of 12 lbs 2-row and caramel 60... and the chocolate really really comes out strong on this one - VERY surprising. Now I know when I read other recipes for things that might be thicker and heavier and folks are only using just a half pound or maybe only a pound of specialty (read: roasted barley, black patent, chocolate malts, etc.) in their brew. Now I can see why. This stuff is really potent.

Anyhow, we bottles 12 12oz bottles, 14 22oz bombers, 4 500mL bottles and another 1L swing-top. It was about 3.75-4 gallons worth, so that equates to about 38-40 beers. Not too bad for coming up short on the grain runnings. Gonna have some good samples to have at around Christmas time or possibly a few weeks earlier. Cheers!

Beer Review: Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot English Barleywine

Went with the Blithering Idiot as an Election Night starter ;)

Really great color on this one. Very minimal to no haze at all, with a fantastic hues of orange, ruby and a touch of autumn brown. Heavy two finger head dissipates quickly into a seated half finger of light bronze "nitro-like" fuzz.

Smells like a barleywine. Big malt, grapes and figs, and a nice boozy hit on the nose. Nothing to write home about, but still very pleasant and expected for the style.

Thick caramel notes on the tongue, big bubbles sticking around for quite some time, and huge malt profile that flows nicely into the boozy aftertaste that jumps from the back of the tongue and sticks around even after a minute or two. Great sticky mouthfeel, but nothing too overpowering. The booze and the caramel malt lingers on for some time, which is a non-complaint coming from my end.

For being 11.1% ABV, this one goes down really well. I was lucky enough to get this as an extra in a trade a few months ago (can't remember from whom), but I'm really enjoying this one tonight. We get Weyerbacher here in Cincinnati but I don't too often see the Blithering Idiot out - I'll certainly keep my eyes open, as this is one of the more sessionable (if that is even possible for this style) barleywines I've ever had, and I look forward to enjoying this one again in the future.

Solid B Overall

Beer Review: Founders Curmudgeon Old Ale

For quite some time in my beer loving days I had searched high and low for this beer. I worked to set up a number of trades to pick just one up to try, each inevitably falling dead in their own tracks. Then one day, as if the gods themselves had been watching my search, it just showed up. And I'm not talking about a trip to Grand Rapids I took in search of the beer (to no avail), nor stops on the same trip a handful of local Michigan beer stores (again to no avail), and I'm not even talking about a happen-chance finding of a single bottle in the back room of a store no one would have ever thought to look. No. I mean it just showed up. Seriously - right now, it's all over Cincinnati. I mean everywhere. How about that for serendipitous notion? But hey, I'm not complaining! And either way, it showed up, and then it found its way into my cellar - from the looks of it by the truckload at that.

But I digress. I poured this beer almost 10 minutes ago and my taste buds are getting impatient. It is worthy to note that I have poured my Curmudgeon at cellar temperature into a deep stemless white wine glass - my glass of choice of lately for enjoying anything as particularly malty as this.

This beer pours a beautiful, deep red mahogany, and quickly gathers a finger and a half of light brown head. The head dissipates a little too quickly, but leaves an amoeba of lacing griping tight to the glass. There is a touch of standing sediment hanging out in the beer, but nothing to frown upon for this style.

The smell! This one knocks in with some thick, boozy notes that are backed up by caramel, molasses, deep grape, and, although I can't touch what this particular flavor is, I will describe the overall smell as "burnt sticky caramel corn." I am fighting the urge to find the correct words to describe this beer with my desire to toss this one down the hatch. And in that case... bottoms up!

Burnt Sticky Caramel Corn is pretty accurate if you ask me. The Old Curmudgeon hits the tongue with a quickly waning hit of fresh hops, grazes the tongue gracefully through its candy-like mid-body and rushes down the back of the throat almost like it wasn't even there. This one sits on the tongue after finish and simply bubbles for a while, asking for another sip. The sweetness sits with a light glaze through the mouth and reaffirms my newly coined burnt sticky caramel corn flavor profile. Plus some plum... yeah, a little bit of plum. Once it goes down, though, it's like I'm breathing fire here. Not like some crazy burn-down-the-house fire; more like a sitting by the campfire making s'mores (s'more what?) fire. The booze sits nicely and keeps the warming coming quite nicely. I could take this one out in 40 degree weather in shorts and a t-shirt and keep warm. I like that.

As much as I really like this beer, I'd love to have a little more variety in flavor aside from the aforementioned notes. For what is there, however, I can certainly appreciate the flavors, and there is nothing about this one that says, you can't have just one. On a good night with some good company, I could sip on these for quite some time. Well worth the wait to finally try these, and I am more than appreciative that I had quite a few more of these in my cellar.

Overall Rating: B+

Cheers!

God Is Still In Secondary Fermentation

Really? Yep.

Got Me Some Man on My Wall

Bottled up some Batch 9.1 last night. Didn't actually go through with the Man/God Remix, but what we did was still pretty interesting. Before I get into that, let me just say that with some of the changes to this beer (including the addition of a lb and a quarter of Special B Grain, among others), something magical has happened. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I can tell you from previous "bottling tastings," that this batch will be, well, better. It just tastes like I've been brewing for longer. Even though it is an extract beer, I could just tell there was a level of improvement that I have yet to register in past brews. That being said, here's how the whole thing went down:

Since we made 4 gallons of Man, in preparation to blend with God, we didn't have a ton of beer to put into bottles, but still a sizable amount. First, in regular brewing fashion, the sugar was added (I would have loved to have put malt in at this step, but am fresh out :( ), and off the bat locked up 24 12-oz bottles. After that, I had two special yeast samples: Lacto B. and Brettamyoces, which I threw into the bottling bucket with the rest of Man - essentially creating some type of super version of Man... - did a bit of mild coaxing to get all the mini-bacteriums soaked in, and then bottled another 13 bombers of the stuff.

So the good news is that this version of Man is going to be incredible. The bad news is that the soured bombers aren't going to be ready for uhh... a few years? Shit. Brewing sucks.

Pics From Our First All-Grain Brew Session

Success! We brewed a Dave. That's about it. Check out a few pics (too busy doing shit to take many), and be amazed!

Thinking about All Grain

So in a conversation with Caspito yesterday, I mentioned that maybe we won't do all-grain next week. Well, I think I've changed my mind. And I think I'm going to buy the setup today. I've been doing some research and come across one that seems like it's in a reasonable price range, seems pretty sturdy, and allows for long-time use. Check it:

Its 35-quart capacity (which translates into roughly 8.75 gallons in math easyspeak) will be plenty big for brewing. The large top of the burner will help prevent boil-over, since it's not 10 gallons, this will be very very helpful to keep things clean. I'm waiting to hear back some info from some BA'ers, and then I'm going to go to Lowes in Pleasant Ridge tonight or tomorrow to check out the thickness and feel, and go from there to see if I should get it. If it feels good, I'm in. I'll have to keep you updated on that one.

Thoughts?

Celebratorale

So wondering what it would be like to throw a party for our friends and lovers wherein Wu and I provide our own homebrews to drink, for some time now, it has at long last transpired. My words are confounding at times today, even to myself. Drunk donkey right now.

anyway

we had this party last week: anyone who came was offered the chance to mix and match their own six pack of our brews for the low cost of eight dollars. in chicago you can't get six packs of craft or micro beer for under nine. ten and half percent sales tax and all. we didnt charge tax because we didnt profit, and even if we would have, it'd all have been bootleg cuz thats our style.

Everyone got way too drunk, especially the hosts. One of the foremost chefs at my work fell in love with our Phenomagavely, a chicago take on the DaveDave Border Jumper. We raked in almost enough to break even and immediately reinvested it all again here and here. who dey.

all in all a success. At this point we're not looking to make money, just trying to share the wealth. home made beer is the shit, point blank, and those who have not tried it wont understand. on top of that not many people realize just how creative and off the wall you can be with beer. a fucking pine nut beer? anything is possible yo. i'm sure we all just want the world to know its true. (and there is a certain satisfaction that comes with having people drink enjoy and get drunk on something you orchestrated (ie. the facilitation of yeast activity in an environment conducive to alcohol generation as well as pleasing to the human palate(ie. the brew)))

right now i am sipping off a bomber of the Ambermensch, double fermented brown sugar straddling strong amber ale. Mi piace molto.

and on and on he drones. remember kids: always have fun, even when it hurts, and never stop doing drugs. peace

(editors note: "drugs" denote all psychoactive ingredients, including the more mundane, socially sanction, more "responsible" drugs like caffeine, nicotine, tryptophan and aspirin. it is up to the individual to decide if the "harder" drugs (like alcohol, THC and cocaine) are things they want to put in their body, and even then only after careful deliberation and the weighing of benefits to detriments. in short: If it works for your life, it probably works. peace)

Incredible All-Grain Read

For us, for the Chicago Branch, and for many other home brewers around the world, making the step into brewing itself, is one thing. Making the leap into all-grain brewing is a much more daunting and oftentimes unattainable and simply out of scope based on the complex write ups that many books and websites have. After a few discussions with local home brewers, I had a small idea of what was going on, but not enough understanding to move forward. I have recently been shown a website that captures the idea of all-grain brewing in an incredibly accessible way.

You can find the link ::here

Some key things to consider is that the brewing world sometimes finds itself caught up in its process description (read, sparging, lautering, striking, pitching, primary, secondary, wort, etc.) and doesn't give the opportunity to allow outsiders to focus on the actual how and why of brewing. This link breaks a lot of those things down for you really well. For instance, Striking is based on Strike Water, which is the heated water that is mixed with the grains originally that lead to the breakdown of the sugar enzymes while in the mash tun. Striking is the action of "putting the water into the mash tun," essentially.

In other words, just read it. It's awesome and it will make you want to drive immediately to the brew store and start all-grain today.

The Mad Fermentationist

Hey Guys, I found a sweet blog documenting one mans journey through brewing. He's got some really great ideas and full recipe posts. Definitely some information for thought.

::link_the mad fermentationist

New Passion For Brewing

Boys and Girls, look forward to plenty more updates, TONS more insane beers to be made and a huge new appetite for brewing.

Check the comments section for some brewing ideas I have and feel free to add your own!

Man God Remix

This afternoon we're brewing what will be the beginnings of the official blend of Man and God. We've modified the Man recipe ever so slightly to account for both a four gallon batch and a switch to a beer closer in resemblance to a Russian Imperial Stout. Don't worry, our Man is still there, but not for long! Once we rack to primary, Man will run its usual course accompanied by WYeast 1084 for a few weeks. After that, we will blend the 4 gallons of Man with 1 gallon of God in secondary, and pitch Brett and Lactobacillus yeasts to create what will hopefully become one of the greatest and maybe even the first ever (tentatively classified) Imperial Coffee Sour Russian Barley Wine. It doesn't make much sense... yet, but it will. Oh, how it will!

Hop Harvest Season!!!!

is right about now. for a fine selection of north american hops, freshly picked from farms in the northers pacific region of the continental United States, check out this:

http://www.freshops.com/

peace