27 Aug
Down the drain.
Bacteria hitched a ride on the ginger root.
This was supposed to be a crisp refreshing apple-ginger cider but tasted like vinegar and smelled like pig slop. Win some you lose some I guess.
17 Aug
Piper Anise Rye
Piper Anise Rye is in bottles waiting 2 more weeks for carbonation. This smelled SOOOO good when I bottled it. I can’t wait to taste
23 Jul
New Plate Chiller
New Plate chiller in the process took nearly an hour off the cooling step. Wort goes in at 200° in and out at 80°
10 Jul
Home brew VS Micro brew by the numbers
Is home brewing cheaper?
First some parameters for calculation sake
- One 16oz beer per day
- Brewing equipment and a kegerator $1000
- 10 gallon batch all grain middle of the road recipe $40 grains and misc consumables
- $4 local brew pub micro brew. (Store bought brands just don’t compare)
1st Year Costs
Micro brew. $4 X 365 = $1,460 per year
Home Brew $40 = 10 galons =80 beers
$40/80 beers = $.50 per beer X 365 days = $182 per year
+ $1000 Brewing equipment = $1182 for year 1
So the first year
$1460 – $1182 = $278 Savings
Subsequent years
$1460-$182 = $1278 Savings
29 May
Beernola bars?
Cooked up Lemon Tree Blond on Sunday at the Columbine church of the Ustick Brew. AKA Ustick Brewing.
The by-product of beer making is “Spent grain” which usually goes to the chickens, what they don’t eat goes to compost.
This week we went another route. Spent grains + peanuts + peanut butter + sunflower seeds + raisins = Beernola bars.
They were a hit at the memorial day BBQ potluck. We will be fine tuning this recepie
23 May
Accidental beer
Through a snaffoo in the process of making a cream ale (we forgot to boil the rice and had to add corn syrup after the boil to compensate). We accidentally made 10 gallons of a Coors Light clone. Tyler added Raspberry conentrate to his keg and I am leaving mine alone.
21 May
Licorice squared
Yesterday at Ustick Brewing.
We have been wanting to create a licorice rye for some time.
Black Cat Licorice Rye is an all grain concoction. Tyler found a rye recipe and we cut back on hops and added 2 pounds of liquefied licorice candy. Gravity readings predict 10% alcohol or better.
CHAT NOIR The all grain process left us with an opportunity to try a second run through the grains. another 5 gallons of water through the mash gave us a low gravity around 3 (only 2% potential alcohol) so We added a quart of corn syrup. We were out of licorice. So I hit the grocery store for a bottle of anise seed and Caraway seed. and Chat Noir was born.
Ustick Brewing 