Brew #26: Chile Lager 2

It’s been awhile since I’ve brewed, and this weekend was a great one for it! I got a lot of positive feedback on my chile beer and I have only a bottle or two left, so the brew choice was a piece of cake. I made this one a little darker in color, aiming for a little heavier in body, and to bump up the heat a touch.. The primary fermentation samples tasted good, its definitely a bit hotter. mmmm

This should just about do it for chiles.

Last 10 minutes of boil, just until the chiles are soft.

Chile Lager 2
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Brewer: Josh Gum
Style: California Common Beer
Batch: 5.50 gal, Mashed

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.051 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 66 IBU
Recipe Color: 17° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.013
Alcohol by Volume: 5.1%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.0%

Ingredients
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American two-row 8.00 lb, mashed
German vienna 1.25 lb, mashed
Crystal 40L 0.50 lb, mashed
Chocolate wheat 0.50 lb, mashed

Northern Brewer 1.00 oz, whole, 60 minutes
Centennial 1.00 oz, whole, 20 minutes
Kent Golding 1.00 oz, whole, 60 minutes

German Lager Yeast 1.00 unit, 2L starter, second gen of farmed lager yeast
Irish Moss 1.00 unit, clarifying
Chiles 1.00 unit, 15 serrano, 8 jalepeno , 4 pasilla, 3 anahiem diced, last 10 minutes of boil

Notes
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Recipe Notes:
A couple months ago I harvested 3 vials of lager yeast from a previous brew. Using a glycol and water solution mixed with the harvested yeast I kept the 3 samples frozen for later use. I made a starter to test if the yeast was successfully frozen and not killed..I had positive activity within hours of making the 500ml starter. Over two days I stepped the starter up to about 2L in my fermentation fridge at 62F..

Batch Notes:
Brewday went smooth, everything worked as expected.. I missed my boil volume by about 3/4gallon, easy enough to make up with added water.

8/26: Beer was a big hit this weekend, all I have left is a 6 pack. Nice and spicy, easy drinking beer with medium body and balanced hop bitterness.

Digital Painting fun!

Here’s an eye that I digitally painted, using the mouse.. it’s a crampy thing to hold on to and draw for an hour but it was a fun experiment.

My second one took a bit longer, and was lots of fun.. apparently this guy found a good seat on a mushroom.

Latest abstract

Here’s my most recent acrylic abstract.. I’m taking an oil painting class on Thursday nights for the next several weeks.. it’s been quite a bit of fun for the first two classes, and I’m finding oil paints to be so much more forgiving than acrylic. Acrylic dries out within about 10 minutes so it makes decisions much more critical throughout the process. Anyhow, take a peek, I think this one is 19×16.

25th Oregon Homebrew and Microbrew Festival

In just over two weeks, on May 19, will be the 25th annual Oregon Homebrew and Microbrew Festival at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis! I’m hosting the Oregon Spring Go Tournament on the same day, but we’re planning on attending the homebrew festival afterwards at around 6pm. We had a great time tasting brews and chatting with folks last year, and I’m sure it will be even better this year! If you’re in the area, you should go check this out as its a great collection of brews to taste for a great (cheap) price.

Whats more, this year will be my first entry to the homebrew competition. Along with getting some great feedback about my beers, its entirely possible I could win some cool shit too. Wish me luck!

I’ll list the brews I’m entering in the competition and update with my scores and some feedback afterwards:

Brew #24: Chile Beer - scored 31.3

Brew #22: Schwarzbier - scored 28.3

Brew #19: Scottish Export - scored 25

Brew #8: Barleywine - scored 30.3

edit: I got a lot of good feedback from the judges, and for the first time in competition I’m really happy with my scores (especially the two closer to 30). The scale is 0 to 50, and I’ve heard that anything above 40 is really hard to nail.