Brewing Warsh Pail
Today we are brewing up a 20bbl batch of Warsh Pail Ale. This is the first batch we’ve made soley for ourselves (and not a beer club) this year. We will be making it again for another beer club in May! So I’m planning on keeping this yeast going to make all of that beer. This is the first batch we’ve made with the American Ale II strain, we’ll see how it turns out. I expect the fruitiness will be reduced, but whether that will be detectable beneath the massive hop aroma remains to be seen. Thats a tradeoff i’m willing to make in order to produce a slightly drier beer.
Right now we have 40bbl batch of John’s Generations White ale fermenting away at 75 degree’s in the fermentation room. I love the smell of that beer when it ferments… The whole cellar smells like oranges! This beer is really moving in Kegs… It really has me thinking hard on how we can keep up the production!
Last night I had a couple Cask Conditioned ales at the Old Capitol Publick House Brewery. Paul, the brewer there, has been tapping a cask every Thursday at 5:30. I think this is the greatest thing ever to happen in this area when it comes to beer! If you have never had a Cask Conditioned Ale.. you don’t know what your are missing!
In the lab here I am bringing up a strain of La Chouffe Yeast for this Saison we are planning to make in the first week of April. This is for the Belgian Beer fest that will be held at The Old Capitol Pub in conjuction with John’s Grocery in May. I talk to Paul, and he has his own belgian Saison planned. It will be interesting to compare the two.
For those non-beer geeks reading this, a Saison is a type of Belgian beer. It is characterized as being very dry with many interesting esters cause by the bizzare yeast strain used to ferment it. The grain bill for ours will be nothing but Briess Pils Malt. Fermentation tempertures are high, in the 80’s. This produces a very drinkable, zesty beer with an intensely spicey flavor (although no spices are used!)
In other news, In talking to my Iowa City distributor I learned that we have two new tap accounts in town. We are now on tap at the Boxcar (formerly known as Mike’s Tap) and at Speakeasy (formerly Big Ten Towing). I haven’t made it to either venue, but gee I guess now I have no excuse not to stop by and have a drink!
March 26th, 2005 at 3:00 am
Yes it is a fine day for it. I was planning on making the ride myself, but I had to come into work to do a tour, and to check and make sure the Pail ale and White Ale were fermenting at the proper temperatures… such is work!
March 26th, 2005 at 9:24 am
Aaron, saw you at Firkin Thursday this week. It really is quite an event they have going at Old Cap and that keg seems to go quicker every week. Their dry hopped rye pale ale a couple Thursdays back was spectacular.
Great news on getting into Speakeasy - its actually the closest bar to my office.
Sent a note to Dvorsky on the beer tax, as I do live in Coralville. Have yet to hear back. One of my good friends is a contract lobbyist in DM and his take was the bill didnt have the legs to get far. Lets hope, but the more noise we make, the better…
March 26th, 2005 at 9:35 am
PS: Old Cap Brewing hosts a tune up ride today from the brewery to Hills and back, noon’ish start time. Imagine the sight of a pack of well-tuned Team Millstreamers lead the peloton in their blazing Millstream jerseys. Oh, what could be…
March 29th, 2005 at 9:29 am
Aaron, the keg of WPA that I have on tap at home is mighty tasty. But, I’m always up for experimentation, so I’ll be interested to try it with the new yeast.
As for the bike ride, it looks like Team Fez successfully transplanted the old Stone City ride to Iowa City. Good, now I can pretty much forget about doing anything toward planning it and turn it over to Old Capitol.
Oh, and I got the e-mail about upcoming events. I’ve mentioned to a few folks about coming up with a clever name for the Iowa Brew Fest. So far, I think we’re stuck on “Native Iowa Brewfest (aka NIB)” just because it gives us a nice acronym to play with. I think more discussion is in order.