I (Ryan) have a week off from work, and since I didn’t really get a chance to go anywhere, I’m dubbing it my Beercation. Let me be clear, that is a vacation WITH beer, not a vacation FROM beer! A good friend from high school (in Germany!), Chris, came to town as well. Chris has recently started brewing himself, so we decided that one of the activities while he was here is that we would do his first all-grain brew day, and I decided that I’d try my updated malt bill for Monogamous. This time it’s Monogamous: Citra.
Our nice digital thermometer broke, so we had to use the manual one (which means sitting over a hot pot in a hot garage…)
Chris stirring the mash
I built a yeast starter a few days earlier of Conan aka Vermont Ale yeast (aka the yeast that is in Heady Topper), and on Wednesday we got to it. This was a pretty uneventful brew day… no major spillage, no major accidents, and the drinking was a bit more reserved on this one. That is partially because of past experience, and partially because it was hot as hell in the garage.
Mmmmmmmm… Citra!
…and Turbinado!
We ended up getting a little lower volume than expected from the mash/sparge, and it ended up boiling a bit longer than expected, so the overall volume of beer was a bit diminished. The OG ended up a tiny bit lower than was anticipated as well, but not significantly so. I have high hopes that M:C is going to be a much better IPA than Monogamous: Simcoe was. Once I get the malt bill dialed in to exactly what I want, I will eventually re-visit Simcoe hops and see the difference.
In goes Conan, the beer barbarian!
Fermenting away!
And you can come out and try our beers… SOON! Really! It’s official!!! Wednesday, July 1st, BBxB will be pouring FREE BEER and selling glasses at Home Brew Party Bandera (8407 Bandera Rd, Ste 103) from 5-8 https://www.facebook.com/events/411086812419558/ and on Saturday, July 18th, at Boardwalk on Bulverde food truck park (14732 Bulverde Rd) from 3 – ??? https://www.facebook.com/events/1622071531394881/ Hope to see you there!
Brew Day Playlist:
Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Uplift Mofo Party Plan
Soul Coughing – Ruby Vroom
Reel Big Fish – Turn the Radio Off
Saul Williams – The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Brazen BeXar Brewing 