Reservoir Brewing

And bottled!

2010-05-02T17:38:00.002-05:00

Catherine's UnCommon was successfully bottled today. The brew checked in at a FG of 1.014 for a nice 72% attenuation and 4.8% ABV. The taste profile was a little more bitter than I was hoping for, but I would not be surprised if it mellowed a little bit in bottle. The beer will be making its public debut on May 15 at the Benz Beer Festival in Cedar Rapids as part of the CR Beer Nuts Homebrew Club table.

On a Beer Nuts note, Saturday was, of course, Big Brew Day and like last year, Little T (Travis Schidecker) was kind enough to provide the ingredients and the 3rd Base Brewhouse to crank up this Octoberfest beauty. I provided the hop addition measuring and hoed out about 350 lbs of mash grain. For some strange, strange reason, I actually enjoy hoeing out a mash tun. Don't ask why, but it just feels so......good. We also were able to crack open the one of the two bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin the club ordered from Brew Dog (www.brewdog.com).

TNP, at 32% ABV is one of the strongest beers known to man and a damn fine ice distilled Imperial Stout to boot. You would think that at that high of alcohol content, the alcohol would be extremely overpowering and out of place (see: Rouge Imperial Stout). Alas, TNP does not fall victim to this. You can smell the warming vapors, but they are not unlike a 10% Imperial Stout. The taste is a very well balanced Imperial Stout with a nice little burn as it goes down. Take a little too much of a slug and it will kick your butt. I would love to try this beer again (and the 41% Sink the Bismarck), but at $60/12 oz bottle plus shipping, this isn't an everyday beer.

Hope everyone's weekend went well and I will keep you informed as to when Reservoir Brewing will be making Smoke on the Res and Dave's Black IPA (Reservoir name to come later).

The Uncommon Common

2010-04-11T17:15:00.005-05:00

The California Common (also referred to as Steam Beer) is a truly unique American beer style and, most likely, the first original American beer style dating back to the Gold Rush days of California and specifically San Francisco. It is malty with the aroma of Northern Brewer hops, fermented at 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit using a lager yeast. If you wanted to try the best modern-day example, you would reach for a bottle of the American classic, Anchor Steam. Anchor Brewing, rescued from the abyss of bankruptcy by Fritz Maytag (of the Iowa and appliance Maytag family) is a San Francisco icon and was the driving force for me to try to replicate this beer.

So, this afternoon, I dusted off the kit that was only about eight months old and cranked it up. But being Reservoir Brewing, I said "To Hell!" with convention and went the Reservoir way. Instead of the classic California Lager yeast, I instead used the standard Wyeast 1056 American Ale. Instead of using an ounce of Cluster hops at 60 minutes for bittering, I used the Reservoir standard Warrior with one-third ounce additions at 60, 45, and 30 minutes.

After two hours of work (it is easy to get sidetracked while watching the Masters), five gallons of delicious 1050 are sitting in Optimus Primary ready to be converted into Uncommon Catherine, a beer dedicated to my loyal wife. She may roll her eyes every time I dig the brewing gear out of the closet and push back against every attempt I make to keep a cabinet in the kitchen for my "hot" equipment, but she unconditionally loves my beer and for that, I had to make a brew that I knew she would like.

This will also be my first "exhibition" beer in over a year, with a couple of bombers going to the Benz Beer Fest on May 15. Stay tuned for updates on Uncommon and hopefully I will update this blog a little more.

Till then, Prost!

New Brew

2009-08-15T17:20:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I said that I would be brewing up an Anchor Steam clone on the 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately, my yeast was a tad old and did not puff up as needed when I smacked it open to make the starter. So, I was delayed for a few weeks. The Anchor Steam clone is coming, probably mid-to late September. But today was all about Lot 46 Pale Ale.

Since Iowa football kicks off in 21 days, I figured it was time to get a beer made for the annual Iowa vs. Iowa State game. I re-ordered my house Pale Ale yeast (Northwest Ale from Wyeast) this week and with its arrival on Friday, Saturday was looking good to brew. In the previous post, I had said I would be reprising my exceptional (3rd place) Bike Path Pale Ale. That was put on hold with the discovery that an ounce of Cascade hops in my freezer had split open and oxidized. So, using the hops on hand, I had to develop a hop bill using (no more than two ounces) Summit, Warrior, Simcoe, and/or one ounce of Cascade. With this whole Iron Brewer thing in mind, I chose to use one ounce of Warrior, two ounces of Simcoe, and my one remaining ounce of Cascade. The Warrior was split into two half ounce measures for bittering and flavor (45 and 5 minute additions). One ounce of the Simcoe was reserved for dry hopping while the second ounce was, like the Warrior, split into two half-ounce measures for flavor (10 and 1 minute additions). The beer is happily resting in the downstairs closet for seven to ten days until it gets pulled to secondary and will hopefully be ready for the Iowa State game. If not, no big deal.

The name of this beer comes from the traditional tailgating lot for my family, Lot 46. This beer was brewed specifically with tailgating in mind. I needed a good, lightly bitter, strong hop flavored session beer for the upcoming warm months of the football season. When the weather turns cold I will have a nice Rauchbier to curl up with.

On Iowa! Go Hawks!

At Last An Update

2009-07-02T13:49:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted to Reservoir Brewing blog, but things have been busy. In the interim, I have gotten married, maintained employment and brewed some more beer. Freshly ready to drink is our Irish Wedding Ale, an Irish Red Ale that used an additional 1/16 pound of black patent to give it a little more roasty flavor.

Brews on the calendar are an Anchor Steam clone which is getting brewed up this weekend for the 4th of July and a remake of my Bike Path Pale Ale coming in two weeks. I will probably hit an Octoberfest here within a month to have some for tailgating come this fall.

My Four Lane Double IPA has started to slide from a DIPA into a Barleywine and will probably get entered in the THIRSTY competition this year as an American-style BW. The Fireside Stout came out well and has a few dedicated fans, myself not included.

I will try to post more often and keep all informed on my progress from homebrewer to commercial brewer. Prost!

Bottle and Secondary

2008-12-28T10:06:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the delay in updating, I have been extremely busy with the holidays.

The Four Lane is in bottle and is nicely carbonating. It finished up at 1.031 FG so we have a beer around 11.3%. It did miss the 12% target, but I am very happy with the flavor, body and color.

The Fireside is coming along nicely and will be racked into secondary this afternoon with another four ounces of bittersweet (70% cacao) and six pounds of raspberry puree. I plan on leaving it in secondary for two weeks and then check the flavor. Hopefully I can have it up and bottled by the first of February so it will be ready by Valentine's Day.

Until later, happy brewing and happy drinking!

New Brew

2008-12-07T19:41:00.003-06:00

Today was brew day for Reservoir Brewing's newest brew, Fireside Stout. This brew is uses the Northern Brewer Sweet Stout kit as the base with 10 ounces of chocolate thrown in for good measure. I am planning on racking it onto six pounds of raspberry puree in secondary. The OG came out to 1.052, higher than the designed 1.042 of the kit, but I think it was due to the sugar in the four ounces of bittersweet baking chocolate I used in the boil.

As of a couple of hours after pitching, I am still waiting on fermentation to begin, but I think it was delayed due to a significantly cool wort temperature (58-62F).

I will keep updates coming on the Fireside as it progress. Next week is bottling day for the Four Lane DIPA!

Another Win

2008-11-23T18:17:00.002-06:00

Howdy everybody,
Just got back from a trip to Minneapolis to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. As luck would have it, Iowa didn't too bad; they managed a 55-0 win over their traditional end-of-season opponent. While I was up there, I made it a point to try some of the offerings from Surly Brewing. I had both their Furious (IPA) and their Bender (Brown Ale). Both were tasty with the Furious being my favorite of the two. I have made it a point to try to get some Darkness the next time I am up in the Twin Cities.

On the homebrew front, the Cedar Rapids Beer Nuts had their monthly meeting this past Thursday night. The contest theme for the evening was Christmas/Spiced beers. I had a bomber of Christmas and Spice from last year that I entered. With four judges, it scored a 167 out of 200 for a 21 point win. I think the intense cinnamon/clove action wrecked the taste buds of the judges as none of the entries after mine had higher than a 120. So for the next year, I have bragging rights over spice beers and will have to make it a point to brew up a new one for next year.

Getting There

2008-11-10T20:49:00.002-06:00

Howdy everybody. I know it has been a while, but I have been pretty busy with my real job and with celebrating the Iowa Hawkeyes win over the (formerly) #3 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions.

Things have been going pretty well with Four Lane since the first night. I am still getting a bubble every 15-20 seconds; much less frequently than last week. I took a gravity reading tonight and was pleased that the bad boy is at 1.038. This gives an inital alcohol by volume measurement of 10.5%. With fermentation still going, plus secondary and bottling left, I think 1.030 is possible for a grand total of 11% ABV. The taste of it is absolutely delicious. It is full-bodied, hoppy, with enough of an alcohol taste that you won't forget that this is a big beer.

Nothing big going on this weekend, but I do have a chocolate cherry bock in the plans that I might get started on around Thanksgiving.

Till later!

THIRSTY Homebrew Contest

2008-11-05T19:16:00.004-06:00

This past weekend was the annual THIRSTY Homebrew Contest held at Millstream Brewery in Amana, Iowa. I entered three beers, Kickin' Back Koelsch, Bike Path Pale Ale, and Irish Dragoon Heavy Irish Red (entered as an English-style Barleywine, previously discussed on October 21). I picked up my judging sheets last night as much to my surprise, I actually placed......twice!

My third place ribbon was for my Bike Path Pale Ale with a 33.5/50 score. The judging sheets were very helpful and I am confident that I will be able to improve upon this beer and hopefully boost it to a second place or first place in the years to come.

My first place ribbon was for my Barleywine. As I had talked about a couple of weeks back, I was impressed at how well it aged. I entered it in the competition out of curiosity to see if it would do well. With a 40/50, I am very very pleased with this outcome and I will have to go into my notes to see if I can replicate this beer for next year.

Four Lane DIPA Brew Day!

2008-11-02T13:41:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Guest Brewer Mike and I whipped up a batch of Four Lane Double IPA. This beast was 15 lbs. of malt extract and six ounces of hops in the boil (two more ounces are on reserve for dry hop duty). We made a slight change from our original recipe, using an ounce of Cascade at 1 minute rather than Centennial, since I had screwed up the ingredient order and didn't have enough Centennial. This bad boy came out to be OG 1.118 (slightly higher than our target, but who's counting?). We pitched in a 1300 ml starter of Wyeast Northwest Ale which resulted in fermentation starting within four hours. Approximately eight hours after pitching, the beer went el nutso and blew the fermentation lock out of the carboy and all over the pantry. We quickly got the mess contained and we are now using a blow off tube into a five gallon bucket (the two quart pickle jar typically used wasn't looking up to the challenge). I plan on taking a gravity reading in a couple of days and see how things are going. I will probably repitch if the gravity isn't below 1.070.

So 4L DIPA is off to an explosive start and I am definitely looking forward to getting this puppy into secondary with two more ounces of hops.

Pictures from the Great American Beer Festival

2008-10-29T20:12:00.002-05:00

Here is a picture from the Great American Beer Festival of yours truly meeting the great Sam Calagione, Owner and Founder of Dogfish Head Brewery. DFH is one of America's great craft breweries and a personal favorite.

Presently On Tap

2008-10-23T19:51:00.002-05:00

For those curious, Reservoir has the following ready to drink:
Kick, Down, Freeze (aka T-Ale-Gate) ESB
Christmas and Spice Ale
Barleywine (aka Irish Dragoon Red, Heavy Irish Red)
Bike Path Pale Ale
MyBock
Kickin' Back Koelsch
Two Lane IPA
Flood Water Brown Ale

In two weeks (November 1st), we will be brewing up Four Lane Double IPA. This brew is being done for Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day. Our guest brewer will be Mike Yocius, a friend of mine from college.

The brew will be estimated at 10.7% ABV with 100 IBUs (minimum!!). We are using twelve pounds of liquid malt extract and three pounds of amber dry malt extract. We are planning on using a 1/2 pound of Crystal 60L and a 1/2 pound of Carapils for our speciality grains. The hop bill is two ounces of Warrior, three ounces of Centennial, one ounce of Cascade (dry hop), and one ounce of Crystal (dry hop). We will be using Wyeast's Northwest Ale yeast. This yeast was also featured in the Bike Path Pale Ale and Two Lane IPA.

We will be posting pictures from the brew day as well as comments from Mike on his first brewing experience.

Until later, keep your beer cool and pint full.

Aging. Such a sweet thing.

2008-10-21T20:28:00.003-05:00

Last February, I made an Imperial Irish Red Ale for St. Patty's Day. The beer was based off of Northern Brewer's Irish Red Ale kit, with an additionalsix pounds of malt (Three pounds of LME, three pounds of DME) and an additional one ounce of Cascade to dry hop. The OG turned out to be 1094 which attenuated down to a disappointing 1032. After a month in glass secondary and a month in bottle, the beer had a distinct "green apple" aroma typical of incomplete fermentation. The beer tasted ok, but was far from good. In truth, I was disappointed that my first attempt at a high-gravity beer failed so miserably. Don't get me wrong, 8.5% ABV tastes pretty good, but when you aren't really enjoying it, it tends to sit awhile on the beer shelf. Which leads us to tonight....

A couple of weeks ago, I threw a couple of bottles of some of my older brews (Kick Down Freeze ESB, Christmas and Spice, MyBock, Heavy Irish) into the fridge to chill. I had decided that I needed to suck it up and suck them down to free up the bottles and to get some of my least favorite beers drank up. Tonight, I decided to take a crack at the Heavy Irish. I poured it from a bomber into a pilsner glass (all pints were dirty). The head looked a little darker than usual (medium tan compared to light tan) and the beer seemed to have darkened a shade or two. I swirled the beer a little and stuck my nose in it. Oak, faint alcohol, and faint Cascade come into play. The first sip was heaven. The oak was back along with currant, biscuit, chocolate, slight alcohol warming, and very little bitterness. It was delicately sweet and exhibited none of the green apple that had plagued the young beer.

Age does this beer well. Luckily, I still have a couple of bottles left over that are going to be entered in the THIRSTY competition on November 1st at Millstream in Amana, Iowa. Hopefully the judges will think the same.

Welcome to Reservoir Brewing

2008-10-20T20:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome one and all to the online home of Reservoir Brewing of North Liberty, Iowa.

Who we are: We are a small homebrewing operation consisting of me (Bill), my lovely fiance (Catherine), and the occasional guest brewer.

We look forward to keeping you up to date on our progress from a small homebrewing operation to a large homebrewing operation and hopefully, one day, to a commercial brewery!

Prost!