Time to go back to the last few beers and give some up dates.

Back in May I made a lower gravity Honey ale

This beer really came out spectacular. Did have a bit of a hiccup with carbonation. I left it hooked to 40psi for about 5 days. Ah yep. took a while to gas off. Took a big hunk of the aromatics with it as well, but it still was great. As expected though, no real honey characteristics from the honey. But not sure I would just take the honey out. With that small grainbill, I’m sure it affected the body somehow. I would give it a 4/5

Also in May was the mini extract batch of Brown ale.

I was really hoping for this beer to shine, as I have been having some great extract beers lately. This one however is not one of those. First extract beer in a long time that had the extract taste. But even today as I’m having one, I’m not entirely sure its the extract. I thought then, and now that the heavy hand on the 80L may be whats going on here. Its far far better now in September than it was in June or July. And I really don’t recall the extract taste fading before,, at least not as dramatically. Everything else I love about the beer. The color, the aromas, the feel.. need to revisit this one again. 2/5

The last one here the Zerg the Pines Amber  is really one of my favorites. Though I gotta say its nothing like what I wanted or expected. I wanted the real piney, dank stuff like the Titletown Eureka beer.

It did have some of that sure, but not as much as I hoped. It was more grapefruity, and the yeast really stood out in this. And while its been a while, its really reminded me of Alaskan Alt Amber. I’m still gonna pick up some to do a side by side. Its probably way off, but at least I can nudge it one way or another then.  Definitely going to make this again. 4.5/5

(next up,, time for some stouts)

Been doing a little more brewing lately since it’s cooling off. And since I like the morning brews, I’ve been out there 5am.

First was the Memorial Mild. As the name suggests, it used to be my Memorial Day beer. Small, easy going. I think it’s not quite a Porter, but not a Brown either. And brewed it Labor day weekend.

It will be getting served at an upcoming event in October.

Then we finally got to the annual fresh backyard hop brew.

This year I went with a Kentucky Common. A rustic kind of beer that more or less a darker cream ale. Doesn’t really use that much hops. Except almost everything was  Britishy..

While I do have tons of hops back there, this recipe let me get away with only picking for 1/2 hour.

2017 Backyard Hillbilly Amber 5 gal.

• 7 lbs Maris otter
• 12oz flaked corn
• 4oz instant rice
• 2oz midnight wheat
• 1oz cluster to bitter @60
• 1/3 bucket of fresh picked hops @5 min.
• Nottingham yeast
• Mashed at 152