THB Lupulinaide and Widmer Oktoberfest

Saturday and Sunday September 10& 11, 2011

Sunday

Well I put the Tucker House Brewery (THB) Estate Hops to use.  If you don't remember I harvested 3oz (wet weight) of my very first season of the Chinook variety hop.  I dried them in our little bathroom with the wall heater on high for 3 days.  I ended up with 1 oz of dry weight hops.  Since I had only 1 oz of homegrown hops, I needed more hops for the brew.  If you know me at all, then you know that I love hops.  So I decided to add some hops that I got from hop school.  I developed a very simple, straight forward pale ale malt bill.  Then I exploded it with hops.  I used Chinook and Amarillo hops that I acquired from hop school as well as my homegrown Chinooks. 

I was shooting for a nice Pale recipe and ended up with an IPA that may have some Imperial strength!  I used my cooler tun and ended up getting 75-80% Brewhouse Efficiency. I couldn't believe it because with my Mash/Lauter Tun I usually only get about 60% efficiency. 

Go Coleman!!!

Recipe:
12# American Two-Row
1# American Munich (light)
.5# Crystal 60L
.5# Carapils

1oz Chinook  60 min
.5oz Amarillo 60 min
1oz Chinook 20 min
1oz Chinook 5 min
1oz Chinook 0 min
.5oz Amarillo 0 min

American Ale II  Yeast

First runnings: 1.078 adjusted
Preboil: 1.055 adjusted
OG: 1.070 adjusted
Projected SRM: 8
Projected IBU: 82

Looks like it may be another hoppy brew from the Tucker House!

THB Chinooks going in.

On Saturday...
Marie and I traveled down to Portland, OR for the 7th annual Widmer Brothers Oktoberfest.  It was a blast; Bratwurst, Pretzels with Cheese Fondue, Ruebens and of coarse BEER!   There was beautiul PacNW weather and great music.  The festival was held in the original part of the brewery.  Lots of fun.  We had VIP passes that were given to me from one of my beer distributors.  The pass included a mug for each, two free drink coupons and $6 worth of food tickets. 

 Look at the hops!

Yummy pretzel and cheese fondue.

1 down and 999 to go.  Cheers!