The site here hasn't been updated in many months. But that definitely doesn't mean we've been away from brewing. Part of the problem has been that the info to log in was misplaced, lol. With that fixed, we get back on track.
Since we last posted in January, alot has happened and changed. In February, we got our kegerator and set it up with a temp. controller and set it up for kegging and basic cold storage. We've kegged almost all of our brews with that since then. it still needs to be finished, but at least we can keg and chill properly now.
We reproduced a few of our recipes over the months that we particularly enjoyed. Some included the Cider and the Pumpkin Ale. For the love of wheat beers, we produced many varieties of them over the year so far from German styles to Blue Moon Clones.
Since we last posted in January, alot has happened and changed. In February, we got our kegerator and set it up with a temp. controller and set it up for kegging and basic cold storage. We've kegged almost all of our brews with that since then. it still needs to be finished, but at least we can keg and chill properly now.
We reproduced a few of our recipes over the months that we particularly enjoyed. Some included the Cider and the Pumpkin Ale. For the love of wheat beers, we produced many varieties of them over the year so far from German styles to Blue Moon Clones.
By the end of January, we converted over from Extract brewing to Partial Mash brewing. While it's only a slight modification from one to the other, it's closer to the ultimate goal of being an All-grain brewer and gives more control and understanding of the brewing process. We brewed alot of different styles under this new process from Red ales to Guinness Clones.
By the spring, we decided to add the next level to our brewery and bar by adding our own hops. So we planted 3 hop rhizomes: Mt. Hood (pictured above), Centennial, and Cascade hops. Being first year hops, they are obviously mostly just setting roots and doing a bit of growth. However, the Mt. Hood definitely did alot more than a typical first year and is still performing well as of this writing. The other two are more first year growth, but still doing well. Some of the hops have already been dried and stored for future use and others are drying now.
We have also begun with a brand new start up brewers guild. It's the Staunton Hombrewers Club. It's a startup club that emerged with the opening of the new homebrew store, Shenandoah Valley Brewing Company in Staunton, Va. With a great group of people and a great new store. We hope to be able to grow the club and make it a great place to do more homebrewing with friends.
Bringing us up to date leaves one last piece. Aside from the current brews that have been made and more in planning stages. We have just today brewed our first Lager. It's an Oktoberfest Marzen. With the kegerator in place, it was decided to move to the lager phase, being as it needs to be temperature controlled. We are eager to try it and see how we did.
We will continue to move forward with the brews and continue to expand on improving the bar and brewery and improving our recipes. With luck, we will be able to enter some of our beers into some contests and see how we do. If nothing else, to learn how to improve our beers.
We have also begun with a brand new start up brewers guild. It's the Staunton Hombrewers Club. It's a startup club that emerged with the opening of the new homebrew store, Shenandoah Valley Brewing Company in Staunton, Va. With a great group of people and a great new store. We hope to be able to grow the club and make it a great place to do more homebrewing with friends.
Bringing us up to date leaves one last piece. Aside from the current brews that have been made and more in planning stages. We have just today brewed our first Lager. It's an Oktoberfest Marzen. With the kegerator in place, it was decided to move to the lager phase, being as it needs to be temperature controlled. We are eager to try it and see how we did.
We will continue to move forward with the brews and continue to expand on improving the bar and brewery and improving our recipes. With luck, we will be able to enter some of our beers into some contests and see how we do. If nothing else, to learn how to improve our beers.