In spite of my ridiculous work schedule of late, I have managed to squeeze in a couple of brews for spring.

Now carbonating in the beer fridge: Steaming Pile, a California Common style (ala Anchor Steam) and “shake off the rust” brew that officially ended my 4 month brewing hiatus; and Reinvention Ale, a special brew created to commemorate an upcoming project launch.

I’m glad to get the beer fridge full again. I can’t wait for these to get carbonated!

After a serious hiatus, Sean and I are (finally!) back in the brewing groove. This morning’s early 8am start, and not having brewed for almost four months, caused for some sloppy going early on. I managed to spill grain and hops while measuring them out, and Sean almost dumped his entire bucket of crushed grain. We also had to get more propane tanks to finish the boil, so we got lucky we avoided any major delays of game.

After the success of last spring’s series of California Common brews, I decided to give another one a go today. To celebrate the sloppiness of our work today, I’ve named this brew Steaming Pile. Hopefully it won’t live up to the name!

For 5 gallons (90% efficiency):

Grain
8.00 lbs. Pale malt (Maris Otter)
1.00 lbs. CaraPils
1.00 lbs. Crystal 60 Malt

Hops
1.00 oz. Centennial (9.0%) 60 min.
0.25 oz. Centennial (9.0%) 15 min.
0.25 oz. Centennial (9.0%) knockout

Yeast
White Labs WLP810 San Francisco Lager strain

Mash grains at 151F for 60 minutes. Add first hop addition when wort begins to boil. After 45, add the second hop addition and Irish moss. At 60 minutes after boiling started, add last chunk of hops and turn off the heat. Knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. Will be in primary fermentation for up to 10 days, depending on the ambient temperature. 810 likes a cooler fermentation temperature — closer to 60 if possible. When fermentation is done, rack to a new vessel for between 3-6 weeks of secondary fermentation.

OG: 1.064
Anticipated SRM: 10.0
Anticipated IBU: 46.0

It’s getting close to dinnertime, and Phil was in charge of making dinner rolls for the meal. His recipe called for, among other things, a 12 ounce beer.

I couldn’t let him use a regular domestic lager. So I poured some “Another Tire” into the batter, and Phil got it ready for the oven.

They’re in the oven now, becoming golden, brown and delicious.

Knowing that this will be a busy week at work, I decided to put another brew into the fermenter for winter drinking. I had a full mason jar of Belgian ale yeast to work with — a dubbel sounded like it could do the trick.

We don’t have a lot of specialty malt on hand right now, so I used some malts I wouldn’t ordinarily use for a dubbel — aromatic, victory and chocolate — rather than the Special B that would usually be in there. It’ll be tasty either way.

For 5 gallons (85% efficiency):

Grain
7.50 lbs. Pale malt (Maris Otter)
1.00 lbs. CaraMunich 40
0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt
0.38 lbs. Aromatic malt
0.31 lbs. Victory malt
0.31 lbs. Chocolate malt
1.00 lbs. Light brown sugar

Hops
0.40 oz. Columbus (16.6%) 60 min.
0.25 oz. Columbus (16.6%) 10 min.
0.25 oz. Columbus (16.6%) knockout

Spices
0.15 oz. coriander
0.10 oz. cumin

Yeast
White Labs WLP500 Belgian Ale strain

Mash grains at 151F for 60 minutes. Add first hop addition when wort begins to boil. After 50, add the second hop addition, freshly ground spices and Irish moss. After 10 more minutes, add last hop charge and kill the heat. Knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. Will be in primary fermentation for up to 7 days, and then try a 1 week secondary fermentation.

OG: 1.075 (18.1P)
Anticipated SRM: 18.4
Anticipated IBU: 29.8

We just spent over an hour storing our hop stash in vacuum sealed bags — right at 10 lbs. total. We had so much to store in fact, that we burned through an entire roll of sealer bags. When all the math is done, our average spend per ounce is $.33.

The bags that are covering the countertop also filled the entire freezer drawer. It is stuffed full.

Damn, we’ve gotta make some beer.