On the Falls Brewing

08/31/2017

Good luck Kristina!.

07/15/2017

Ugh, total rookie mistake. Forgot to close the kettle's valve after starting to sparge. It's been a year since I've brewed, so of this is the only mistake, I'll forgive myself. 😀

08/11/2016

Well, the time is almost here. The Columbia Sportswear homebrew competition is tomorrow. Just eight days ago, I brewed a pale ale, "frantically". Fortunately, the beer seemed to ferment out okay. But I skipped some steps, like cold-crashing in primary to remove sediment. And the dry-hopping phase was a mere 48-hours. So the beer was/is far from great. But to amp up the flavor/aroma, we added the juice of two fresh-squeezed grapefruits this evening. We then transferred and filtered the beer (since the intake line was clogged) and are just finishing up conditioning. It actually smells and tastes pretty good. I've got to drop the PSI down to serving levels tomorrow morning. But it shows promise. Now it's just up to Kristina to sell the beer hard. The prior winner served a two-month old DIPA that had $180 worth of hops (umm, whatever). No, fresh is better. Fresh, fresh, FRESH. Eight days, baby!

08/03/2016

I brought the old system out of semi-retirement today and got in a quick brew day, the first in nearly a year! I just learned yesterday that the Columbia Sportwear homebrew contest is next Thursday. That gives me nine days to brew, ferment, carb and condition. Yikes!!! Well, it gives Kristina nine days.... :) So following a super early start at my real job, I kicked off the HLT around noon and brewed up Dale's Frantic Pale Ale. I based it off the tried and true Pioneer Pale recipe (sorry Oregon City Brewing, I used that name first!).

Brew day generally went okay, all things considered. I should have let the boil go another 15 minutes or so, as I ended up with a good half gallon of extra wort. And my efficiency suffered as a result. Now I just need a super quick fermentation, followed by a slightly larger than normal dry hop addition in primary and hopefully by next Tuesday everything is ready to transfer to keg. I've turned this recipe in 10 days before, so here's hoping 8 1/2 days is enough!

01/27/2016

Opened de Garde Spears from December 27, 2013 tonight. Crazy gusher!

01/07/2016

I remain in a brewing dry spell, so not much to post of late. It's partially because I need to do some much needed maintenance on my system, including a bunch of new o-rings so I don't keep draining Co2 tanks. And I have way too many bottles in my cellar, so have been trying to drink those down. I've also started a new project, drinking through my extensive collection of de Garde bottles. Check out https://thetipsycow.wordpress.com/ for details.

(by Dale)

08/22/2015

Early brew day started. Decided to brew Singer Hill CDA for the Labor Day BBQ. It's been nearly two years since I lasted brewed Singer Hill. Back when I was brewing more frequently, I was still working on tweaking the recipe. I was good about using BeerSmith to track all of the recipes. Unfortunately, I wasn't good about taking tasting notes about what I liked and didn't like on each one.

So note to self: remember to add notes to your recipes in progress, because you're not going to remember which is which the next time you brew. Especially if it's been a while.

08/14/2015

Lots of positive comments, but unfortunately those didn't translate into votes as Omni-Hop goes down in flames at the homebrew competition. At least the label looks good.

08/12/2015

OmniHop Pale (or IPA) carbed up and almost ready to go. Hoping another two days of conditioning will help with clarity and allow some hop particles to fall out. Flavor is good, although there's a little more bitterness on the finish than we were looking for. The beer will be served on Thursday at Columbia's annual homebrew competition. Results on Friday!

08/02/2015

Just finished a big upgrade to the cellar cooling system. The original AC unit I purchased was the cheapest I could find ($110) and only 4,500 BTU. I hacked out the temp control sensor and ran it off an external controller. Unfortunately, it never worked as well as hoped and I couldn't cool the room below 58 or 59 degrees. Then this summer, it kept getting worst and would ice up below 62 degrees. I was baby-sitting it constantly. The upgrade is to a 8,000 BTU LG unit that is run off a Cool Bot. They claim they can cool down a room of this size into the mid-30's with a normal A/C unit. I'll be happy with 54. Guess we'll see in the next couple hours.

07/31/2015

The last couple brew sessions haven't worked out well. Equipment issues, stuck fermentations, and resulting beer that tasted like bad homebrew. So today, back to basics. Brewed an very slightly amped up version of the good old Pioneer Pale. First time brewing in this much heat. On the plus, HLT came up to temp in record time. Negative, crashing the wort with an immersion cooler took forever. At 24 minutes it was down to 80, at 30 minutes down to 78, even with a 50-foot hose coiled in a tub of ice. Called it good there, even if it's a little higher than desired. OG came in at 1.057, a little below target. And efficiency was a disappointing 60.7, bad even for me. But a nice hoppy sessionable IPA (or hoppy pale) should be ready in 10 days or so.

05/17/2015

You know what this means! Been a while.