Hibiscus anyone?

Man, I'm so behind. I'd love to update this blog often but just don't get the time I wish I had. So here I am.... rambling.
Firing up the kettle once again this week, this time attempting to use dried Hibiscus to give a basic Pale Ale an extra shot of something different and interesting. The inspiration came from the wonderful Rosée d'hibiscus from Dieu de Ciel brewery located in St. Jermoe, Quebec.
I really like fudging with recipes and homebrewers are at a great advantage when gambling on a 5 gallon batch of beer. My thinking is to brew a tea using dried Hibiscus ahead of time and add it to the primary rather than pitch the dried hibiscus directly into the brew kettle.Providing all goes well this will be a re-do soon.

As for the brewery, I'm finally getting into the garage and beginning the spring cleaning and making room for a semi-permanent set up for all my brew gear. Lugging my mash tun and brew pots up from the basement to the garage each brew day is a pain the ass but the only solution at this time. Fortunately my wonderful better half puts up with a lot of my crap and is all for giving me a designated area to do my brewing.

Mindless Ramblings

First batch of the year is kegged, on tap, and going down fine. I brewed an English bitter, leaning towards ESB. I hit about 4.5% which makes for a great session beer and this is going down easy.
The magic ingredient in this batch was 1.5 cups of Golden Grahams cereal. Not sure how much it may or may not have added but after listing to Basic Brewing Podcast on using cereal grains I wanted to try something different for myself.

Next up, my go-to Weizen recipe. Not sure where I first started with this recipe but I've tweaked it slightly over the last 3 or 4 batches and I'm very satisfied with where the recipe now sits.

Did I mention how much I'm diggin' my kegerator? I was a little worried about blowing the house up when I started but now it seems so simple. I highly recommend kegging when you're ready for the next level. Cleaning and sanitizing one container is a helluva lot easier than cleaning and sanitizing 4 dozen containers.

2011

6 months since I've last posted with only 2 brews since then. Nothing I'm proud of but c'est la vie. We don't always get what we want. Yes, I finally got my hands on a new kegerator and tapped my first batch of delicious Dry Stout, but a spiffy double-tap kegerator is nothing but an expensive beer fridge if you ain't pouring a dam thing.

I have no plans to set a New Year's resolution to diet, lose weight, or exercise more. Why bother? Ok, maybe I'll cycle more to keep my prettier, better half happy.

What I really want to do in 2011 is brew more of my own beer, drink more of my own beer, and improve on my own beer. There's a certain pride that comes from serving your own ale. Seeing someone smile and give you an honest, "this is really good" response to a sample of something you dedicated your time, energy, and patience to is quite a feeling.

It's not always easy for me to make time and give my undivided attention to a day of brewing, as easy as that may sound. Everyone wants a piece of the Broke Brewer. My brew day usually consists of 4 to 5 hours, preparing, heating, pouring, boiling, cooling. But I also take that time to really think about I want the beer to taste, look, smell. How can I make a better beer? How can I improve my skills? What can I do in my brew day to be consistent from batch to batch.

I know there's always room for improvement. Hey, that's why I'm the Broke Brewer.


So, no gym memberships to buy. No smoking to quit. It's time to just put that recipe together and fire up the brew kettle.