all you ever wanted to know from Ambiguously Disgruntled Brewery... and More

 
So I had decided recently that I was going to go the Barley Wine route in the great internal Barley Wine vs, Lambic debate I had going on in my head. Either choice is a step up in beer-brewing technique, and they both require long conditioning periods (3-6 months, in addition to typical 6+ week fermenting) but it just seemed like Barley Wine would be a lot... simpler. Either way, I wanted it out by Halloween, so I needed to act

Confident in my decision, I threw together an idea, and decided I would make it "soon" so it could have a full 6 months. Then the doubt started to hit. I was being a wuss. If I had any sack at all I would have made the Kriek (Cranberry Lambic). Barley Wine is the easy way out. Okay brain, I don't like you and you don't like me... oh wait, that's Homer's internal dialogue.

So I did something... different. While running errands today, i found myself at Fred Meyer buying two cans of Cranberry sauce (the kind with the whole cranberries). Haunted by the spectre of being intimidated by the Lambic brewing process (which truthfully isn't all THAT complicated, but that's another story for another day) I was going to put cranberries in the Barley Wine.

And I did. 2 quarts of water in a seperate saucepan, added a quart of the pre-boil mash, simmered for 60 minutes (simultaneous to hop boil) and added it back to wort (through strainer -- didn't want cranberry bits in fermentor) after boil. We'll see what happens.
BTW, I used Chinook hops for bittering and Willamette's for aroma/flavor -- dry-hopping half of it. Got an original gravity of 1.070 and a potential alcohol of 9.2%. I used American Ale yeast (at the recomendation of Bob at the store) and will add Champagne yeast when the American Ale yeast peters out.

Expect to see it for Halloween!

And now I have an idea for a cranberry holiday (Thanksgiving specifically) beer. Maybe a wheat with lots of biscuit malt for a "bready" feel.
posted by Jake Reeder at 01:07

 
Ryaturo Murai came by this evening from his compound on Pineapple Island and helped me prepare the Pineapple Island Ale. I'm sure some will be available for distribution through Ambiguously Disgruntled Brewery in early-mid July, but most will be available through Atomic Wang Industries.
posted by Jake Reeder at 21:19

 
Ok, the pineapple sounds somewhat wrong. I think that it migth work in a wheat, or maybe a pilsner. Think of how an lime seems to work so well in a corona. I tried the Blond last nigth, and had some of the scotch. My brother tried the IPA and the blond. the results were as follows. Pete thought that the IPA was the best work so far from our brewery. My dad liked the scotch. My grandmother liked the scotch ale and said that it reminded her of the beer my grandfather used to make. All in all everyone was pleased. Oh and my sister in law Amy commented that the Blond label was "such a boy thing"
greg
posted by g s at 15:03

 
No less than 4 (four!) batches of fine Ambiguously Disgruntled Beer will be produced for Jonekke Fest (a.k.a. "The Wedding") this August.
posted by Jake Reeder at 01:00