Black Dog Brewery is Once again operational!!!

Yep, that's right, the brew shed was inaugurated today with a 5 gallon batch of Belgian Wit, from this day forward to be called Wiener Dog Wit. Why, Wiener Dog Wit? Because, Chase Buddy was the Assistant brew master today.

I wanted to do a small batch of ale, one for the Camping trip, but also so I could get a list together of things I need to get the brew shed fully operational. So what did I find that topped my list? Tubing! OMG the tubing is in sad shape. Also a good folding table would be really helpful. So with those things in mind I plan on getting some tubing in stock and try to find me a good folding table to work off of. I think peg board and a little cabinet would be helpful as well, but not as necessary right now.

So what's next for the brewery? Well, actually I'm going to brew up some root beer tonight! I grabbed a root beer extract at High Gravity this morning. I've been wanting to try root beer for some time, and I think it would be great to have some root beer at the camping trip for our under age folks, well and for those root beer lovers out there.

Until next time, Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

It has been too long!

Ok, so it has been forever since I've brewed with my own equipment. The equipment has been put to good use though, my Brother-in-Law has been making sure it's all in working order as he's been using it to brew a few batches here and there.

Fear not fellow brewers, the Black Dog Brewery is once again in full swing and will be brewing up a batch or two of that liquid bread we have learned to love this weekend!

I'm planning on brewing up a Belgian Wit for an upcoming camping trip. If i get really ambitious I may even brew up an Irish red or my Quiet Storm Stout...I'm leaning towards the stout right now, need to restock the kegerator.

So until brew day, Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

The Alfster

It has been so long!

Wow,

I don't have much news, I pretty much had a brew free summer (which sucked!) It is time to rectify that.

I brewed a Breckenridge Christmas Ale clone about 3 weeks ago, I will be transferring to a keg soon and plan on letting the beer carbonate naturally and then hope to cold condition it a week or two before tapping. Should be ready by Thanksgiving...at least that's my plan.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cheers! and Hoppy Brewing

The Alfster

The Beer Gun is mine!!!

Yes that is correct! I shall no longer covet the Beer Gun! I dropped into High Gravity yesterday around six o'clock, and purchased the Blichmann Engineering Beer Gun. This tool will allow me to fill bottles from my kegs quickly and efficiently...well at least I hope it will.

Plans are to try it this weekend, I will let you know how it goes, possibly with pics.

With this tool added to my arsenal I shall rule the world!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

Is it a Quiet Storm?

Wow, just talked to Drew and he has me craving an Oatmeal stout. He said he tried our Quiet Storm Stout last night and it was awesome! Funny thing is it wasn't even chilled...haha, yeah that's right he didn't even chill the keg, just poured a storm and gave it a try...he's hardcore ya'll.

Anyway I can't wait to have one, I'm going to buy a beer gun this weekend and ship it to him so I can get some of that Quiet Storm action.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

Racking the Storm to Secondary

Well, I know it's been a while since I last posted, but there's not been too much to update on the brewery.

Drew racked the Quiet Storm stout and Apricot Wheat to secondary yesterday. I don't know if I mentioned, but I accidentally ended up with 2 different yeasts for the wheats. I got an American Wheat Yeast and a German Wheat Yeast. Don't know how the German will turn out, but hey, part of homebrewing is the experimentation.

I'm really looking forward to trying the Quiet Storm stout, waiting is the most difficult part of homebrewing.

Oh, I'm headed to Moab, UT next week with for the Easter Jeep Safari 2006, and we are going Via Aztec, NM to see my buddy and his family (Can't wait to see everyone!) While there we are hoping to visit the Ska Brewery up in Durango. I'll see if I can snap some pics.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!

A stormy day for Quiet Storm Stout

Wow!!! What a brew day. I think I am still recovering. 20 gallons are in carboys fermenting away in Drew's kitchen. We had a very successful brew day even considering the weather was quite nasty all day. Actually, we have been needing the rain so much I don't think anyone was too upset it was raining. I'm not sure if it was all the beer we were drinking, or the cigars and more beer we partook after the brewing, but whatever it was we had a good time and felt no pain...well at least until the next day...

Drew and I started the day by getting the equipment ready, thanks go out to Scot Kee for the usage of his equipment as well. Borrowing Scot's mash tun, hot liquor tank and big ass pot really helped us a bunch. Drew and I might still be at it if we hadn't had his equipment.

All in all, things went off without too much of a hitch...okay, well truthfully, we may have imbibed a bit much, as the word oops seemed to be quite prevalent for the day. We did have one mishap, we had to sacrifice a 6.5 gal glass carboy to the brewing gods...no, thank goodness we had not yet put our wort into it, but nearly seven gallons of sanitizer solution flowed into the McKinney sewers that day! Other than that, I forgot to have us check gravities...not a huge deal, but now we won't be able to know the alcohol content of our brews...oh well, no biggie.

As per our updated plan, we brewed 20 gallons of beer, 10 gallons of my new recipe Alfster's Apricot Wheat, which was a variation of my American wheat with some different grains to darken the color just a tad, as well, we will be adding apricot extract to the secondary for that extra little flavor. We also brewed 10 gallons of Quiet Storm Stout. I have to say I'm really looking forward to seeing how this brew is going to turn out. It was a recipe I found from the brew board over at Homebrew Adventures. I think it's gonna be "awesome like a hot dog."

Okay, now for pics and what not! I have my new web page updated with pics so check them out if you want: New Cool Brewing Pics

You might notice that I registered theblackdogbrewery.com, yes it is up and running. I will eventually move it to a pay to host site with GoDaddy so that the advertising won't be showing, but I hope it doesn't bother anyone too greatly right now, because I'm really cheap.

Cheers and Hoppy Brewing!