Jessica Simpson to sell Stampede Light

Jessica Simpson, who is "always looking for ways to diversify my portfolio with good ideas and good people," will become the face of Stampede Light Plus, brewed for the Stampede Brewing Company in Dallas. Simpson, a native of Dallas, will appear in in-store ads in exchange for a 15% stake in the company.

What's Old is New Again.

Milwaukee has fallen in love with the beer that put it on the map: Schlitz. Pabst Brewing Company recently broke out the old recipe book and started brewing Schlitz again. Stores in Milwaukee, Chicago and in Florida can barely keep up with demand, taking waiting lists and limiting purchases. And according to this story, it is being brewed to the original 19th century recipe.

23 Arrested in El Paso Beer Run

Zachary Rajaniemi stole two 30-packs of beer from aa El Paso 7-11 convenience store. The clerk called the cops who caught up with Rajaniemi at his apartment where there were 22 underage drinkers present. All 23 were arrested and taken to jail.

Choose the final paragraph you like best:

#1 - Wow! I didn't know the El Paso PD was using clown cars.

#2 - Let that be a lesson to you: If you want to impress underage drinkers, always pay for their beer.

#3 - Amateurs! Two thirty packs is less that three beers apiece. Should have gone for four!

Rahr & Sons News

Rahr & Sons Brewery recently announced their redesigned website. It's a cleaner design, and I think it looks great.

In other news, there is a big change in their tour policy. "Starting . . . Saturday Aug 16 Rahr will start charging all attendees to our Saturday Tour a $5 glass/tour charge. As always the beer will be no charge. Each participant will receive a Rahr pint glass of their choice to use during the tasting and keep as a souvenir." However, if you have 15 gently used 6-pack carriers, you receive five "Rahr Bucks" that you can apply to your admission!

ACCF Results - It's official: I Suck

Got my Alamo City Cerveza Fest scores back on August 20. The ACCF was Saturday, August 16. The Kiwit (sour as hell) scored 24 points. Everyone agreed I had sanitation issues. They did praise me for the orange flavor, though! (I didn't call it a Kiwi wit, just a wit.)

Brown ale scored a 13. I didn't even read the sheets. I knew it sucked.

The smoke APA, you ask?

16 points. Both judges said it was phenolic and astringent. I thought it tasted like band aids. I passed the beer around and not one other person said they could taste it. Now I have proof that I was right. Although it is a Pyrrhic victory.

I am actually surprised the Kiwit did as well as it did. I was expecting 15s all around, and a Fifty dollar bill to stop brewing and take up another hobby.

The shirt is cool, though. Should have just bought that. . .

I expect similar scores from the Cactus Challenge in Lubbock for the Smoked APA. I didn't send the others, though in retrospect, I should have sent the wit.

Sam Adams News

A busy week for Boston Beer Company, and it seems to dominate the beer news.

First, with the buyout of Anheiser-Busch, Sam Adams becomes the largest independent, publicly traded American brewery. How long till InBev sets their sights on it, I wonder?

One of the directors of the company, Jay Margolis, spent $208,125 to buy 5,000 shares of the company’s stock on the open market, according to the SEC. Nice to see a board member believe in his own company's product.

In response, Claymore Advisors LLC sold all 7 of their shares of the company's stock.

Knot Stock Ale Clone Kinda Update

Well, the nephew and I brewed the clone of Knot Stock Ale, and we got the following numbers:

OG: 1045. I collected about eight gallons of wort, and wasn't paying attention. I should have boiled for an hour and then started the hour long hop additions. As it is, I left about a gallon in the kettle. According to Pro Mash, the predicted OG would have been 1049 with 8 gallons.

We pitched yeast at 2 pm, and by 10 pm, the brew was fermenting along very nicely, thank you very much.

But I think our next batch will be an extract beer.

Teach a Nephew to Brew Day

My nephew asked me to teach him to brew. So we are going to brew today.

A month or two ago, The Brewing Network interviewed the head brewer at Furthermore Beer, and in the course of the interview, their Knot Stock Ale was discussed. They add 40 pounds of cracked black pepper to the kettle when they brew this amber ale. I scaled it down and determined that it would take about 1.5 ounces for 5 gallons. On the BN forums, several of us hashed out a basic recipe. One of us was brave enough to brew it, and reported good results. So, I thought I would try it too, and see if I could break this brewing slump.

Furthermore Knot Stock Clone Kinda

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
-------------------------------
06-A American Pale Ales, American Pale Ale
(Amber Ale)
Min OG: 1.045 Max OG: 1.056
Min IBU: 20 Max IBU: 40
Min Clr: 4 Max Clr: 11 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics

---------------- Batch Size (GAL): 5.00
Total Grain (LBS): 12.50
Anticipated OG: 1.067
Anticipated SRM: 11.1
Anticipated IBU: 65.1
System Efficiency: 75
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
% Amount Name Origin Gravity SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
80.0 10.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
12.0 1.50 lbs. Crystal 40L America 1.034 40
4.0 0.50 lbs. Munich Malt(2-row) America 1.035 6
4.0 0.50 lbs. Victory Malt America 1.034 25

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 9.00 40.9 60 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.75 13.3 30 min.
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer Pellet 9.00 10.9 15 min.

Extras
Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.50 Oz Cracked Peppercorn Spice 5 Min.(boil)

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Mash Schedule
-------------
Mash Type: Single Step

Qts Water Per LBS Grain: 1.20 Total Qts: 15.00

Saccharification Rest Temp : 154 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp : 170 Time: 0
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 30

Planning for the next few brews

As fall approaches, it is time to think about what to brew, assuming the long brewing slump I seem to be in is over.

I am going to brew this weekend, more on that later. But it will be the last brew until September. In September I plan to brew another Wheat Porter, which turned out good last time, and a Christmas stout from The Master's book, Microbrewed Adventures.

In October, I want to brew another West Texas Wheat and Bub's Imperial Hefeweiss.

In November, another barley wine, Peppercorn Rye Bock, with a revised recipe, and a saison.

I haven't figured out December yet, but probably another wheat porter and a West Texas Wheat.

Aud's No Scufflin' Ale Update

I drew off some yeast from the barley wine last week, and took a sample to measure. If you will remember, the original gravity was 1.122. The gravity was 1.056, making it about 8% abv. It looked like there was some yeast still in suspension. Ithad a nice hoppy aroma with some malt in the background. But it's still too sweet. It is supposed to finish around 1.025.

After consulting with Satan, and Bugeater in the BN forums, I decided to let the barley wine sit for six weeks, or August 24. But here's the question: pitch another vial of yeast to help dry that sucker out?

Bugeater cautioned me that I might be sacrificing good yeast, because the alcohol content of the beer may kill them before they can acclimatize and start fermenting. He also said that I should put this into secondary for several months, because there is a lot of sugar that the yeast have to eat through. He predicted it would be ready for Thanksgiving 2009.

So I will make a 500ml starter, let it sit until it starts to kick the airlock and pitch the yeast into the barley wine and see what happens.

But so far, I like the flavor. Maybe the slump is over?

More disappointment

Well, I tapped the wheat beer. It is still muddy yellow colored, smells okay, and has an odd bitterness that I can only assume comes from the Sorachi Ace. I can't rule out contamination, though.

Now I don't know what to think

At our family reunion, I passed some of the smoked APA around to various family members--beer geeks and regular old BMC drinkers. The general consensus was that the smoked APA was pretty good and not "band-aidy" at all.

So I tried a bottle.

I still taste plastic, but not so much as from the keg. So I will submit this to the Cactus Challenge coming up in Lubbock. Stay tuned!

Whew!

I just got back from a grueling family reunion.

No, the family wasn't the problem. I had volunteered to do all the cooking, and for three days, I was running a little restaurant.

I'm back home now, and just about recovered. So I will be posting again on the usual schedule.

Sorry for the interruption!