My Hobble Dobble in Draft Mag

Well, I'm tickled pink. I recently subscribed to the new magazine, "Draft". It's a pretty good magazine focusing on beer and beer culture, and strikes a nice balance to the ultra geek-a-fide homebrew journal "Zymurgy". It's the kind of mag that'll entertain your football buddies and still keep the interest of a die hard homebrew nut. So, I've had the magazine for a few days now and I just noticed a picture toward the back of the issue covering nearly half of a page... does it look familiar? Take a look at my post from back in December.

Apparently someone at Draft magazine had purchased rights to a photo that my father and I took over Christmas of my IPA and a plate of food. My dad is an amatuer photographer who makes a little money on the side by selling photos online. The idea is that people can browse through a bunch of photos, find one they like and purchase a license to it for a nominal fee. That way they don't have to worry about a law suit for using something they found on google images.

So, how much does a photographer make from getting a half page glossy image published in a medium to small distribution magazine? a whopping 30¢. Although, if they use the image more than 250,000 times, either in print or online, then he'd make $20. My dad hasn't quit his day job yet. But if you want to check out some of his photos, just click on over to his gallery or his blog.

A Wedding "Wit" the Harringtons

My good friends Mark Harrington and Asha soon-to-be-Harrington are gettin' hitched. They asked me to brew a few beers for their rehersal dinner coming up in a few weeks so I think I'm going to bring the IPA I brewed previously and Asha requested a wit. So, this is my first attempt at a wit, but I think it'll turn out nice.

I did as much quick reading on wits as I could. I asked around, posted on a few forums and newsgroups and then I put together this recipe based on all the advice. I also picked a sort of "middle of the road" as far as spicing goes. From what I could tell, the coriander can range from about 0.25 oz. to 1.00 oz. for a 5 gal batch. It also really depends on how fresh the spice is. I like coriander, but I know it can get overwhelming. Since I'm using regular old grocery store spices, and I'd rather err on the side of having too little spice rather than too much, I chose 0.5 oz. We'll see how she turns out... cross your fingers.

Grain:
4.50 lbs. Belgian Pilsner Malt(2-row)
4.50 lbs. White Wheat
1.00 lbs. Rice Hulls
0.50 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.16 lbs. Acidulated Malt

Single Decoction Mash:
125 degrees for 15 min.
148 degrees for 45 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
6.8 gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon and change and end up with 5.5 gal
90 min. boil

Hops and Spices:
30 min:
1.10 oz. Saaz (4.3%AA)
0 min:
0.5 oz. Ground Coriander
0.2 oz. Chamomile
1 cup Clementine Zest
1/2 a Grapefruit Zested (Eat the rest of the grapefruit and a few clementines for breakfast)

Yeast:
A 1 day starter of 1 vial of White Labs "Platinum Wit II" yeast (WLP410) pitched into a carboy with 5.5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.047 at 75% efficiency

Notes:
Ferment at 62 degrees.

Columbus IPA

When a lot of people start brewing they quickly become overwhelmed with the complexity of the process, ingredients, and all the nuances of making a balanced, drinkable beer. One thing that may surprise a lot of new brewers is the diversity of hop varieties available to the homebrewer. It can actually be a bit daunting, and short of doing a lot of reading there's really no easy way to know how much of what hop is going to taste good in your next beer.

A few months ago a friend of mine brewed an all summit hopped IPA. It was really something different. The summit hops gave a unique skunky/garlic coarseness to the beer. I really enjoyed the summit IPA all on its own but that beer got me curious about the rest of the world of hops. I've done my share of reading and I know a bit about humulenes, lupulones and cohumulones, but you just can't replace a good hands on experiment to really teach your palate what an ingredient tastes like. When you brew an entire beer with one variety of hops you can really get a sense of everything that hop can contribute to a beer. So, I think I may just set out on an endless journey of single hopped IPAs. This will be the first - my favorite hop - COLUMBUS!

Grain:
14.20 lbs. American Pale Malt(2-row)
0.5 lbs. Crystal 60L
0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt

Single Decoction Mash:
152 degrees for 45 min.
Sparge at 170 degrees.

Boil:
6-ish gal beginning volume and we should boil off a gallon or so
90 min. boil

Hops:
60 min:
0.10 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
30 min:
0.50 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
15 min:
2.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
0 min:
2.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)
Dry:
2.00 oz. Columbus (15%AA)

Yeast:
A 1 day starter of 2 vials of White Labs "California Ale" yeast (WLP001) pitched into a carboy with 5.5 gallons of wort.

Predicted Original Specific Gravity:
1.070 at 75% efficiency

Notes:
I will ferment at 65 degrees.