Happy Fridge

The Pennant Porter is ready for the New Year. Should be plenty of excellent quaffing in the offing!! Now I'll have to get to work on a World Series Stout. The 2012 San Francisco Giants are the World Champs. That's a better reason for partying than 1999 or the goddamn Mayan Calendar cluster-fuck, don't you think? I certainly do.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

a.d. III Kal. Ian.

Pennant Porter II

The beer fermented out quickly as I used two fresh packs of yeast. It never got below 1.020 and showed no more signs of fermentation so I decided to keg it up. I primed the two 2-1/2 gallon corny kegs with about 50 grams of dextrose each and filled them both with plenty left over. There was a lot of volume in this batch! I figure they'll need at least a week of conditioning, maybe more like ten days as the closet temperature hovers around 65 ºF. Then a week or two in the fridge and Pennant Porter should be ready by New Year's Eve.


a.d. V Id. Dec.

Pennant Porter

After the deluge of the past few days the sun came out here at French Street Brewery in the State of Jefferson. It was a fine day to brew. Continuing the world champions theme for the 2012 San Francisco Giants is Pennant Porter. The Giants won the National League pennant in stirring fashion by defeating the defending champions on the 22nd of October, which also happened to be my beloved bride's birthday. A fine present, indeed. Today's brew was a simple extract--8 pounds of dark syrup and an ounce of Centennial hops. I used two packs of Safale-04 so the fermentation would be vigorous and complete. The OG reading on my refractometer was 1.048 (12 ºP) so it is a little bigger than the Championship Ale which was more of a light session beer. Looking forward to quaffing many pints over the holidays!

Championship Ale, part II

The Giants emerged victorious from the League Division Series and now advance to the League Championship Series. The Ale emerged from its carboy slumber into a five-gallon keg, primed and ready. It's a light-colored session beer that I hope has a full hop flavor. I've made one or another version of Championship Ale since 1988, the year I started brewing. The Giants were the NL West champs in 1987. This one is will be ready by the time October baseball is over, and we can drink it to celebrate the exciting 2012 season. The NLCS will likely be very close--the Cardinals are, after all, last year's World Series winners. I expect the games to be close and the competition to be intense. And it starts tonight in San Francisco! Man, I'm thirsty already.


prid. Id. Oct.

Championship Ale

In celebration of my favorite ballclub winning the NL West, I cooked up a batch after a long hiatus. It was a relaxed day as I kept it simple and used malt extract. You can make excellent beer with extracts, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I haven't hopped on the homebrew hobby horse in a while, and it felt good to break out the kettle and fire up the stove. We had lovely weather in the State of Jefferson, and the Giants came from behind to beat the Padres. What could be bad?

I used six pounds of extract, two ounces of Centennial hops, a pound of 40ºL crystal, and Safale-05 yeast. I'm imagining myself drinking it now, thinking back on the wonderful 2012 baseball season. Way to go, Giants! Keep it rolling!


prid. Kal. Oct.