Monday = Update Time!

18 Monday Aug 2014

Tags

Apple, beer, brewing, craft, craft beer, grain, Grove, guy, hops, mash, mash in, Porter, regular, regular guy brewing, smoked, Smokey, Smokey Grove Apple Smoked Porter

Good morning Monday! Said no one ever. At least I have a photo update to brighten your day! Friday night we got together and brewed our Smokey Grove Apple Smoked Porter. We changed the recipe slightly this time around, but only to lessen the amount of smoke flavor. As one random taster said, “it tastes like a campfire in your mouth!” Not necessarily a bad thing, but we collectively agreed that the smoke could be toned down a bit. So without further adieu, here’s our night in pictures!

The brew session is about to begin!

There’s the magical water correction ingredients to adjust the water to make a perfect porter!

Brewmaster Seth is manning the controls and regulating temperatures.

Here’s some of the grains that make up our Smokey Grove Apple Smoked Porter.

Almost time to mash in!

Brian and Seth pretending to do something important.

Brian and I mashing in. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it!

Brian loves the aroma of the grains as they mix with the water.

Here’s a closer look at the grain.

Seth checks the numbers of the first runnings.

This is the first runnings in the kettle. It’s a beautiful sight!

Brian takes a well deserved break!

The wort is starting to boil and we’re getting ready for the hot break.

Full on boil and hop additions.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, throw in some apples!

Aerate, pitch the yeast and call it a night!

There you have it, our Friday night brew session in pictures. This batch will go on to a competition, we’ll keep you posted on the results when we get them.

Hopefully the beer porn will ease you into your Monday! Until next time…

Let’s have an update!

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Justin in Brewing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ale, beer, bottle, brewhouse, brewing, Brian, concoction, drinking, drunk, efficiency, Friday, Friday night, guy, mash, night, pale, pale ale, regular, regular guy brewing, Seth, wheat

Last Friday we brewed another batch of our Pale Ale. This recipe was tweaked a little based off our impression of our last two batches and some taste changes we wanted to make. With a hops change and a new grain addition, we are hoping we found the combo we are looking for.

Now to get technical, as far as the hands on brewing stuff, that is. Friday night was a huge night for us as brewers. All of our numbers matched up, our temperatures were constant, our mash and brewhouse efficiencies were were the highest we’ve ever seen them. Seth’s ingenious plumbing set up worked beautifully, we didn’t spill a drop! And it was the fastest we’ve ever brewed beer. All in all it was an awesome night! I’m extremely proud of Seth and Brian for all of the hard work, planning, and creativity that’s gone into our beer so far. I definitely feel like we are on the right track and I can’t wait to sample the fruits of our labor.

This Friday we bottle our latest wheat concoction, wish us luck!

Until next time!

Let’s Talk Shop

12 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Seth in Brewing, Business Stuff

≈ 1 Comment

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 →

Did we turn a beer making corner?

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Justin in Brewing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ale, APA, beer, brewing, brown, confident, efficiency, excited, Friday, Friday night, guy, honey, honey brown ale, mash, mash efficiency, pale, pale ale, regular, regular guy brewing, wheat, wheat beer

Friday night we brewed for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. You see, our last three beers had some issues. We spent nearly a month brainstorming and having non-brewing meetings trying to figure out what the issues were and what we could do differently to solve these problems.

Our wheat was weak in the flavor department and WAY over carbonated.

Our APA, which is our pride and joy, had decent flavor, but was WAY under carbonated.

Our Honey Brown had a good brown ale flavor, but lacked the honey taste we are going for and was WAY under carbonated.

That being said, we brewed our third version of our wheat on Friday. We came together and knocked it out like professionals! Everything went smoothly and our mash efficiency was that of a veteran home brewer. I think we may have found our combination to brewing greatness!

After three disappointing batches in a row, this was a breath of fresh air and just what these Regular Guys needed! I know I walked away Friday night confident and excited to brew again.

We’ll keep you posted!

It’s Update Time!

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Justin in Brewing, What We're Drinking

≈ Leave a comment

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!