My First IPA Recipe

Today was a big day in the world of Sarah Stone homebrew!  I ventured off the safe path of pre-packaged recipe kits and traversed onto the uncertain road of creating and making my very own recipe.

I did have a little help, though. Back in March, the Craft Brewer's Conference was held here in Washington, DC.  The CBC is the craft beer industry's main event and I was ecstatic that it just so happened to be held here in DC just around the time that I've been brewing beer on a regular basis.  Of course I had to figure out how to weasel my way into an event of some sorts.

Thankfully, one of the local home brew clubs here hosted an event at the start of CBC featuring a lecture on IPAs by the acclaimed Mitch Steele, head Brew Master at Stone Brewery in San Diego (yeah, I know, they stole my name). This piqued my interest because I had recently visited Stone's brewery in November whilst on a business trip to San Diego. Talk about the most beautiful brewery you can imagine!  Mitch lectured on the history of Indian Pale Ales and I picked up his fascinating book on the subject.

Nerd alert! Learning about Burton's IPA

There is a whole entire book on IPAs!

duh, of course I got mine signed

This wonderful book includes several historic as well as modern day IPA recipes.  I had been wanting to brew a great IPA, and what better way than from a recipe out of a whole entire book on the subject!

I decided to brew the recipe for Stone's IPA.  The book provides the grain bill, hops and yeast strain that each recipe calls for.  It's up to the reader to figure out the math to make the amount of ingredients work for a five gallon homebrew batch.  I am fairly confident that my interpretation will work out alright. (o_O) I call mine Sarah Stone IPA!

I might sound confident now, but you should have seen me this morning. I was totally second guessing everything.  The recipe was pretty loose, so I had a lot of desicions to make about boil times for the grains/malts/hops.  Hopefully I made the right choices!

My first time using White Labs yeast

Nice mix of 10L and 20L crystal malts

LOOK MOM, A WORT CHILLER!

Chinook, Columbus, Centennial Hops

Bad boy in action

The two other milestones from today include using White Labs yeast for the first time and using my new piece of equipment, the mighty wort chiller!  Best investment I've made thus far.  Say goodbye to ice baths and say hello to easy temperature changes.

I'm pretty nervous and excited to find out how this IPA turns out. I am expecting great things!  Will let you know what happens.

Brewing for a Special Occasion

WEDDING BEER

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the wedding of Elizabeth Silver and Thomas Brown! I brewed two beers in honor of this joyous occasion, an American Amber and and a Rye Indian Pale Ale.  I have two cases left over, so please let me know if you would like some!

Rye IPA on a sunny day on the Isle of Palms

I commissioned the talented Morgan Barber to design the labels for both beers.  Morgan lithographed these labels!  I love how they turned out.


It is about an eight hour drive from Northern Virginia down to Charleston, South Carolina. Transporting beer is always tricky.  I wanted to keep the beer at room temperature before refrigerating it, so I decided to drive with it in the inside of the car with the AC instead of stowing it in the trunk.

I love driving.

Please stay at room temperature. 

Quite honestly, the Amber Ale was not/is not my favorite.  Maybe that is because I am not a huge fan or Amber Ales, or maybe that is because this one just didn't turn out right.  Despite the disappointing outcome of the Amber, I really like my Rye IPA.  

I'm actually not too sure why I chose to brew these two beers for this wedding. I think I should have brewed a more "sessionable" beer.  I am beginning to learn a lot more about what kinds of beers I like and what kinds of beers are appropriate for different occasions. I think it would have been a lot nicer to have had something like a Kolsch for this wedding. Frankly, the Amber and Rye IPA were weird choices (sorry Thomas and Elizabeth!) but I learned from this. In the end, I will be a lot more thoughtful about the next few recipes I choose to brew.

  

Best Man Danny and Groom Thomas with the wedding beer!

The Happy Couple and I! <3

VISIT TO HOLY CITY BREWERY

Somehow or another, I convinced my fellow bridesmaids as well as my friends from Virginia to make a pilgrimage to Holy City Brewery the day of the wedding!  Holy City has a special place in my heart because this is where my whole adventure really started. Thanks coming out, guys!

mmm Pilsner!

Bridesmaids Mary, Sam and Amber enjoying a tasting

Samantha and I at Holy City!

The lovely Raquel supported our adventure

Here's to you, Holy City!  Thanks for your inspiration and lovely little brewery!

ENJOYING CHARLESTON

I call Charleston "the jewel of the South" because it is historical, tropical and Southern.  What more could you ask for?

Flower boxes on Rainbow Row

Beautiful

I want to sit on that porch all day long

Bicycle ride on the beach

Enjoyed some Ranger IPA

The End.

Here's to you, Thomas and Elizabeth!  I love you both very much.  May God richly bless your marriage. 

The Past Six Brews

Since I started this blog, I have brewed six batches of beer:

1. Irish Red Ale (October 2012)
2. Brown Ale (November 2012)
3. Kolsch (December 2012 with special guest Nick as co-brewer)
4. American Amber Ale (February 2013)
5. Rye IPA (February 2013)
6. Kolsch with a twist (March 2013)

Here is the Irish Red Ale.  It turned out so well.  I recently drank this one after it had been in the bottle for about four months.  I named it TSCHR Stone (pronounced sure-stone) in honor of my siblings (and I): Timothy, Sarah, Chris, Hannah, Rebekah. 

The second brew (brown ale) I named City of David since it was a Christmas present to friends and family.  It was a little too malty-sweet for most people, but sill pretty decent.

Nicolai Kolsch was named after my co-brewer, Nick.  He came over on boxing day and we brewed this Kolsch together.  Janet and I went to Cologne, Germany together in October 2011 and that was the first time I had the delicious German beer. Nicoali Kolsch was by far the best one I have made.  This was the first time I used liquid Wyeast.

I brewed this Rye IPA/DIPA for my friends' wedding in April.  It is currently bottle conditioning, so I haven't really tasted it yet.  These were my supplies.  Will update you on how it turns out.

I don't have any pictures from the American Amber Ale (yet, soon to come!).  Here is the 2nd Kolsch fermenting quite mightily.  I changed up the recipe the second time around.  The goal is to produce a great summer beer.