EPA brew session, take three!

30 Monday Jun 2014

Tags

ale, beer, brewing, cleaning corny kegs, corny keg, craft, craft beer, diaper rash, dough in, extra, extra pale ale, guy, keg, mash tun, pale, regular, regular guy brewing

Friday night we got together to brew our EPA for the third time. To recap our first two sessions, the first had perfect bitterness, but was lacking the intense hop aroma and flavor we were looking for. Not bad for our first time brewing a new recipe. The second had a sweetness that masked pretty much all flavors and aroma. We pinned it down to our new/used corny keg that I didn’t properly clean. I solved this problem right away.

There’s two of our kegs soaking, the third which is also soaking is not pictured. All components were disassembled, scrubbed and soaked in Oxyclean Free. A thorough rinse and sanitize and I surely will redeem myself!
Anyway, here is a pictorial of our evening. I know how much you like pictures!

A big ol bag of grain ready to be crushed.

Brian and “El Crushinator” crushing the grain.

Doughing in.

Reverse angle, close up shot doughing in.

Dough in complete. Let’s give it 60 minutes.

The first runnings. Because of the movie Cool Runnings, when I say first runnings I have to say it with a Jamaican accent.

Check the first runnings once…

Twice…

Three times the laaaadaaaay! Sorry.

TIM doing what TIM does best. On a side note, Seth’s latest add on to TIM, the one that involves diaper rash cream, worked beautifully.

A closer shot of TIM’s handy work.

The boiled and chilled wort filling the fermentation bucket. She’s pretty!

Check the temperature, aerate, pitch the yeast and call it a night!

All in all it was another successful brew night. We hit all of our expected numbers and our efficiency was 85%. Not too shabby!

Until next time…

Shall we update? We shall! With pictures!

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Justin in Brewing

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Tags

ale, beer, brewing, craft, craft beer, dough in, extra, extra pale ale, guy, HLT, hot liquor tank, mash tun, pale, regular, regular guy brewing

Friday night the Regular Guys got together to brew a five gallon test batch of our unnamed EPA. This was our second time brewing this recipe. The first time we brewed it, she turned out great. The bitterness was spot on, but the hops aroma and flavor were lacking just a bit. So with a few minor adjustments we set out to brew this awesome beer again. I’m really looking forward to tasting this version as the EPA has become my favorite beer that we’ve brewed.

Friday I promised you pictures of our brewing session and while I forgot my nice camera, I did have my phone with me so I was able to snap some shots.

Enjoy!

Getting our things in order. Measuring hops and such.

Pellet hops looks like rabbit food! This is the 60 minute addition, we chose Warrior.

A big ol bag of grain freshly crushed.

There’s the kettle heating up, the grant to the left and the hot liquor tank in the back.

That’s the innards of the HLT.

Dough in!

The first runnings after an hour in the mash tun.

The brain of the whole operation, keeping us in check!

Kettle is all filled up and ready to boil!

It’s almost boiling! I tried to get a picture of the full rolling boil, but my camera wouldn’t cooperate.

The wort is being pumped into the fermentation bucket. Pitch the yeast and let it roll!

Well, there you have it, our Friday night brew session in pictures. I hope everyone has a great abbreviated work week!

Until next time…

Let’s Talk Shop

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Seth in Brewing, Business Stuff

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Tags

brewery, brewhouse, brewing, cooler, enzymes, HERMS, march pump, mash, mash tun, zymurgy

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything, and I’ve been meaning to get to this particular topic for a while, but life, work, life, and more work have been getting in the way of my intermittent blogging as of late. And while I have certainly enjoyed Justin’s esoteric, and very random observations, I thought it was high time to get down to brass tacks and break down the the Regular Guy Brewery. Prepare yourself to be blown away.

Are you prepared?

Are you sure?

Double check yourself.

Okay then. Let’s proceed. Continue reading →

It’s Update Time!

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Justin in Brewing, What We're Drinking

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Tags

all, all grain, all grain brewing, beer, brewing, corn sugar, grain, guy, heffeweizen, learned, lesson, lesson learned, mash, mash tun, regular, regular guy brewing, revamped, sexy, tun, wheat, wheat beer

Last night we cracked open our second attempt at our wheat beer. While this was our second attempt, it was our first attempt at all grain brewing and Seth’s revamped recipe.

While it was leaps and bounds above our first wheat beer, it’s not quite there yet. First of all, it was WAY to effervescent. Actually, when Brian left last night he thanked me for having him over for soda! We ran out of corn sugar when bottling this batch and had to use table sugar instead, and apparently, too much. How do you fix this problem? You buy a big ass bag of corn sugar, problem solved! The flavor is right on, but a little on the weak side. We ran in to some speed bumps while brewing this batch, but have since ironed out the issues while brewing other batches. Give us a break! It was our first all grain!

The most important lesson learned, if you’re the guy pouring the grains into the mash tun, make sure more grains get into the tun than get onto the floor…my bad.

Anyway we are extremely confident that our next wheat will be right where we want it to be. Seth’s recipe is amazing (as always), Brian’s going to be all sexy (as always) and I’ve been practicing pouring things into other things.

Brewing resumes on October 26th!