The Binford brew day had finally happen at Mike Ward's home brewery this Sunday.

It all start pretty smoothly at first with reviewing the recipe and starting to weight the grain. While I was at this task, Mike begin having problem with the propane burner system. It turned out the regular was faulty. We gave the regulator a ride in the car (Mike's Jaguar) and, along with that, a little hand massage, some shaking, some swearing... the regulator manage to work properly when we tried it again back at Mike's brewery. At least an hour lost...

Here:
http://montrealers.ca/mim2008.html

Today, I finally got around to buying a copy of BeerAlchemy. I've been using it for about 6 months, and their registration algorithm finally stopped letting me play for free (I guess there was a bug in it until about 30 days ago (-; ).

Welly welly well... it appears I still know how to brew. After much agonizing about doing a lager, and stressing out about the long lagtime associated with such a beast, I decided to get back to basics and brew a nice British Ale with my new yeast - WY 005.

Getting the brew kit together after a long year and a move was painful, but I made a 1 liter starter, gave it 2 days to fully ferment, and brewed on the 13th of March 08. Used some old Centennial and EKG hops to 40 IBU and had a grain bill of 6 kg M.O. 2 row, 2 kg Munich and .367 60/70 Crystal. Don't ask why! ;-)

March in Montreal 2008 has (finally) been officially announced.

The event information is available in this flyer, and you can also reserve your spot online (via Paypal).

Don't forget that the MiM competition deadline is March 9!

After the successful addition of a pump to my brewery, it got me thinking that I'm experienced enough now to be able to pipeline my brewing day and speed it up significantly. So I made a plan:

0:00

- assemble HLT (add easymasher in advance!)
- fill HLT and begin heating mash water to 170f
- assemble mash tun (don't forget easymasher!)
- mill grains (base malt last!)
- stir grains to distribute evenly
- clean mill

0:30

- water ready @ ~172f (depending on grain and mash temp)
- dough in (either using 1/2 gallon jug, small pots or pump)
- cover mash tun with towel

We are going west. We had such a great time last year, we decided to explore the wild west yet again.

The tour will start at the Rhino with coffee and doughnuts to get our energy up. Then off to Grand River Brewing for a tour and samples of thier newest beers. After that we are off to the Woolwich Arms for the AGM and Homebrew awards (Lunch is not included but can be purchased). Back on the bus to Great Lakes Brewery for more insight into beer and brewing, perhaps a sample or two. Last but not least Cool Brewing has a brand new facility that they would love to show us.

Tonight was a busy night;

Karl (my friend) and I bottled his Northern brown. It's nice and roasty.. can't wait until it's ready.

I also kegged my oatmeal stout. It's young, but it's tasting good, so I racked it from a 4-day secondary into a keg, and it's carbing right now.

The first batch of cider is fermenting nicely (my basement smells like a sulfurous toilet) and the saison yeast starter is .... starting. I think apple juice + saison yeast will make for an interesting cider.

Long time no post. I've brewed 7 or 8 more batches of all-grain since that last post. I really should keep this updated, a little better.

Anyway, I got ahold of some apple juice. I don't really know what I'm doing, but here are my current plans:

1 batch fortified (with white table sugar–somewhere around 6-8% ABV (1.050-55), I think) apple cider with a neutral yeast like WY1056. I don't mind a bit of beer profile from the yeast on this once, but I want to keep it pretty clean.

Awoke to a beautiful September morning, not a cloud in the sky, temps
going up to 27 degrees today, and I find out our new clubsite is up and running !

Wow, great stuff, and a great beginning to the day.