Washington Beer Open House 2011

On February 26th, the Washington Beer Commission held an open house at breweries across the state. It is essentially the Washington version of Zwickelmania. The only location in Spokane participating was C.I. Shenanigan's. Shenanigan's is affiliated with The Ram and mostly brews recipes from their brewery. The brewmaster at Shenanigan's gets to experiment with some of his own recipes as well. We got to taste a handfull of beers from the zwickel (what is a zwickel?) while we were there.

The Beers:

Dark Czar Russian Imperial Stout
Unnamed Belgian Golden Ale
Big Red IPA*
Ole St. Mick's Irish Stout*

*Ram recipe

Apfelwein (1 Month)

The Apfelwein cleared up and I tapped it on 12/14. Drinkable at this point. Getting better as it carbonates. I got some more apple juice at Costco over the weekend, so I started another batch on the yeast cake of this one after I kegged it.

Apfelwein

I followed up my first brew with something a bit easier (and stronger). I tried this cider that my coworker made. It is delicious and potent. It couldn't be easier to make; sugar, apple juice, and yeast at room temperature for a couple months. I have this stored in my storage room because this one puts off a pretty nasty smell while it ferments. I've got a sleeping bag to hopefully keep it warm enough.

EdWort's Apfelwein

Brewed on 11/9/2009

The First Brew - Day 5

i removed the blowoff tube and added the airlock stopper half-filled with vodka. The foam had pretty much subsided, but was coming back before I went to bed. The gravity was 1.020 when I made the change. The next major step will be racking to the secondary.

The First Brew - Day 4

The krausen is getting pretty gunky.

The First Brew - Day 3

In the morning, there was a thin layer of bubbles. By the afternoon, bubbles were visibly coming out of the blowoff tube.