Getting Back To My "Roots"

When I started this it was meant to be a blog about My Beer Adventures and Homebrewing. While I do take note of pretty much all of my adventures; i.e. GABF, Beer At The Movies, and Almost Every Brewery Visit, there are some that I missed and this has morphed into more of a beer review blog. That is not what I wanted at all. I feel my old format was more fun and this one is becoming a bit,... routine.

I still plan to review Special Beers, anything from New Belgium, and since picking up the 1001 Beers book, that is now another part of my journey. I want to do more Side by Sides. Those are fun. I will have to figure out beers to use though. Maybe I will do some more BMC vs Craft or Clone Brews vs The Original. And of course any Random Rant that I feel to post. So here we go trying to get things back together.



In order to do that, I went out and bought a couple of Whiskey Barrels! Two Jack Daniel Half Barrels to be exact!I figured they would be the perfect planter to grow some hops! At first, I thought they were totally impractical but after looking around at the rest of the selection I found that the only comparable sized planter that I would have bought was only $10 less. It is always nice to save money but I really did not want to look at a plastic green planter in my yard everyday. These barrels are so me... Even though I do not like Jack.

I ordered Chinook and Cluster rhizomes being they are two of three key ingredients in one of my IPAs. The other being Cascade. I really want like 6 or 7 different varieties. Maybe I should go over this list and make it more practical but what can be bad about having multiple plants in my yard?

The first step to growing hops in these pots is to fill them with dirt. Crazy right?!?! But the pots do need drainage holes so I slapped a few into the bottom of each. I even made sure to coordinate my drill with my outfit. Check that out!



One thing that confused me is that the reccommendation that came from the supplier suggested planting them vertically but all of the books I own say to plant them horizontally. Hmm... What do I do?

I decided to plant one Vertically and one Horizontally! They sent me two of each. What is the worst that can happen? The bigger of the two I did horizontally and the smaller, the other. I don't think I will be able to see any notable difference without digging the two up based on their proximity but yeah. It is done.



I cannot wait for the first sprouts to break ground and I will be posting pictures of that and when I get my trellis set up. I think at first I am just going to use a tomato trellis and then maybe some string to let it run up the side of my place, but we will see. I am hoping it is not too long. It's getting pretty warm here and others have already reported growth. One of the coolest things I think about my planters, are that they are Westley Approved.



Cheers!

Pirates Booty Becomes Doggy Biscuits!

Just a few days ago I brewed one of my favorite homebrews I have ever created. Pirates Booty! This year is my second time making it and I hope that the first time was not just beginners luck. I hope that this years version, same recipe and system, can live up the previous batch being everyone loved it. This will for sure make it's way into my line up every year from here on out. After it is bottled and properly conditioned I will decide if I need to make any changes to it.



Pirates Booty is a Robust, Oaked Rum Porter. I soaked the oak cubes in Bacardi Gold. I figured it was decent enough to sanitize the cubes and being it is extremely easy to find I would not have issues with finding it in the future. Inexpensive too... When the end of the brewday came, I decided that I wanted to do something with some of the spent grain this time. Before I have tried to make some breads. Hated most of them, but really liked one... wish I knew what recipe that was. I haven't done anything else but I would not mind trying a pizza crust. I did a little googling and came across this site.

The layout is pretty crappy but it talked about spent grain flour, dog treats, waffles, and another bread. I may give all of these a shot. I try to use the spend grain from batches that have a variety of grains. Pirates Booty carried a good variety of light and dark roasted malts so this is definitely one that I would want to use. As much as I would have loved to do the bread and waffles, this time I stuck to the spent grain flour and some dog treats. I thought it would be nice to take care of the brew dog.



Making the spent grain flour took forever. It was an annoying process more than anything at the time. Very simple though, Bake for a long time, mix it up to help it dry evenly, throw it in a blender or something. Came out looking like this.



After mixing all the ingredients together it was just as simple as cookies. Take a cutter and cut out the rolled dough. Very Simple. Bake.

Spent grain dog treats

Ingredients:

4 cups spent grain
2 cups flour (can use spent grain flour here, or a blend)
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Method:

You may need to adjust the amount of flour in the recipe based on the amount of liquid left in the grains. Using your hands, mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Then shape using a cookie cutter or cut into rounds using the open end of a drinking glass with a floured rim.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes for softer, cookie-like treats (great for older dogs or puppies), or bake at 225 for 2 hours to achieve a more biscuit-like treat.

They come out looking like this... Ok, fine. They aren't really Bat Mustaches but, I had to do it! You can't tell me you would not have! It did not effect the final product.

Which is here. They look and fancy and stuff. What do they taste like you might ask? Would I taste them? HELL YEAH!!! The ingredient list did not look bad at all. If you wouldn't try at least a bite, you have issues.



They were actually pretty flavorless, I thought. I should have added twice as much peanut butter. Brew Dog didn't seem to mind though. He kept eating them until I stopped giving them to him. The recipe made a ton... Fun stuff though. Gotta love it.

Cheers!