with both feet...
I've got a surprise evening off (my GM for the evening's events has gone camping so I don't have to be a halfling tonight!) and my husband's GM'ing his new game, so I thought I'd actually listen to the DME that's been calling for me to do something with it before summer's over...
I'm thinking with what I've got, I should be able to make two or three gallons of something. And that's about how many clean beer bottles I've got anyway. Aiming to keep it under ten percent.
Looking at Marshmallow Blue's Sign of the Bee (thank you Blue, now I've got Sign of the Cross stuck in my head) where he used approximately equal amounts of honey and light DME, I've got a kilogram of clover honey and a pound of wildflower honey... and 1.5 kg of light DME. It's a start.
I've decided that I should name my beers since they'll likely not be repeatable!
And I think I want to call it "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever" (thought I'd go with Alice Cooper since Blue's got dibs on Maiden) although I will be open to other suggestions based on ingredient suggestions...
I won't be able to get proper beer yeast though, and since I haven't started and it's going to be a while until I get this all cooled enough to pitch anyway, thought I'd list my other options and see if anyone else's bored on a Saturday night
I do have a pound of crystal malt, if I go with something fruity I will probably want a little residual sugar... it's either that or boil some of the honey and kill the botchet-brackett bird with one stone...
Yeast: I've got all the usual suspects from Lalvin. I'm tending towards K1V because it's pretty neutral, or RC 212 if I add fruit...
Hops: I've got about 4/5 of an ounce of Saaz hops, I quite liked how 1/5 oz did for dry-hopping a previous experiment. And since my brew store's closed now till Tuesday (Monday's Canada Day) it's what I've got. Presuming it still smells good. If not, it'll be a late dry-hop or hops infusion...
Spices: I really really liked Akueck's cinnamon vanilla beer, I so I can't say it's not tempting to try something like that. I've got some cinnamon sticks I keep on hand for JAO's and some vanilla beans from when epetkus divvied up a batch... On the other hand, I really liked how my last batch of lemon tea beer worked out, but I'd have to go to the 24 hour grocery store for lemons.
Fruit: Well, I've got a freezer full of random things, in some cases, not enough for wine/mead or jam.jelly. Dragonfruit. Bananas (ugh, no, not doing it, why did I even suggest that, ew, I'll make banana bread instead). Choke cherries. Wild grapes. Raspberries. Blackberries. Ground cherries. Black raspberries. Rhubarb (actually that's fresh, I didn't get to my baking this afternoon). Purple carrots. Parsnips. OK, those are vegetables from rhubarb on. But I can't say I'm not tempted by vanilla-cinnamon-parsnip )
Anyone got suggestions before I get the pot on the stove?
I'm going to go poke through all the post-it flags I've stuck all through Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing before I turn on the stove or go poking through the freezer or the spice rack.
I've got a surprise evening off (my GM for the evening's events has gone camping so I don't have to be a halfling tonight!) and my husband's GM'ing his new game, so I thought I'd actually listen to the DME that's been calling for me to do something with it before summer's over...
I'm thinking with what I've got, I should be able to make two or three gallons of something. And that's about how many clean beer bottles I've got anyway. Aiming to keep it under ten percent.
Looking at Marshmallow Blue's Sign of the Bee (thank you Blue, now I've got Sign of the Cross stuck in my head) where he used approximately equal amounts of honey and light DME, I've got a kilogram of clover honey and a pound of wildflower honey... and 1.5 kg of light DME. It's a start.
I've decided that I should name my beers since they'll likely not be repeatable!
And I think I want to call it "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever" (thought I'd go with Alice Cooper since Blue's got dibs on Maiden) although I will be open to other suggestions based on ingredient suggestions...
I won't be able to get proper beer yeast though, and since I haven't started and it's going to be a while until I get this all cooled enough to pitch anyway, thought I'd list my other options and see if anyone else's bored on a Saturday night
I do have a pound of crystal malt, if I go with something fruity I will probably want a little residual sugar... it's either that or boil some of the honey and kill the botchet-brackett bird with one stone...
Yeast: I've got all the usual suspects from Lalvin. I'm tending towards K1V because it's pretty neutral, or RC 212 if I add fruit...
Hops: I've got about 4/5 of an ounce of Saaz hops, I quite liked how 1/5 oz did for dry-hopping a previous experiment. And since my brew store's closed now till Tuesday (Monday's Canada Day) it's what I've got. Presuming it still smells good. If not, it'll be a late dry-hop or hops infusion...
Spices: I really really liked Akueck's cinnamon vanilla beer, I so I can't say it's not tempting to try something like that. I've got some cinnamon sticks I keep on hand for JAO's and some vanilla beans from when epetkus divvied up a batch... On the other hand, I really liked how my last batch of lemon tea beer worked out, but I'd have to go to the 24 hour grocery store for lemons.
Fruit: Well, I've got a freezer full of random things, in some cases, not enough for wine/mead or jam.jelly. Dragonfruit. Bananas (ugh, no, not doing it, why did I even suggest that, ew, I'll make banana bread instead). Choke cherries. Wild grapes. Raspberries. Blackberries. Ground cherries. Black raspberries. Rhubarb (actually that's fresh, I didn't get to my baking this afternoon). Purple carrots. Parsnips. OK, those are vegetables from rhubarb on. But I can't say I'm not tempted by vanilla-cinnamon-parsnip )
Anyone got suggestions before I get the pot on the stove?
I'm going to go poke through all the post-it flags I've stuck all through Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing before I turn on the stove or go poking through the freezer or the spice rack.