9/23/13 Happy Fall! A harvest message...

I don't know why, but my "urge to brew" always increases during the fall. And, no, it has nothing to do with pumpkins. (Although it is always cool to field questions about or hear from folks who are brewing my pumpkin ale recipe!)

I brewed a lot in August - 25 gallons (5x 5 gallon batches). I was particularly proud of two of those: my German Pils (turned out perfect - crystal clear, grainy and dry) and my Wit (which was a first attempt at the style). Unfortunately, I did not clean/organize a lot in August, so the brew garage is a mess... and that saps my brewing motivation.

I have two fall projects in the works... One is a clone recipe, the other is a new process. I owe a 5-gallon batch of beer to a raffle winner, and he likes Iron Horse's Quilter's Irish Death. I have been meaning to clone that one since my era of closing down the Acme Grub Shack once a month... I have a couple of recipes in the pipe: one I made based on grain info from Iron Horse's brewer, and one from my LHBS. I'm hoping to get to these within the week, brewing half batches...

The other project has me very excited... I have a friend who has a house in Eastern Washington - Twisp actually. He has been growing a small patch of barley each year, and wants me to help him make it into beer! So, he gave me a very small (about 1/3 lb) jar of homegrown barley, which I am now going to try to malt. Of course, the eventual goal is to grow enough (along with our own hops) to brew our own 100% homegrown beer.

I'm working on a malting system that will be easy to scale up for when we get to that stage. From what I have read, one of the keys on the malting end is the ability to easily drain the grain periodically. It would be great to have a traditional British floor malting set-up, but that's not very practical. I'm thinking of something along the lines of Charlie Papazian's zapap system (I know, that system is actually for mashing and separating wort - but I see this as fundamentally the same process: separate he liquid from the grain)... Instead of a 5-gallon bucket, I'm looking for something wider and shallower.

I'll worry about drying and kilning after I get the malting squared up...