Big Gay Oni's Big Gay Ale

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Holy nuts, there's another brewer on this site?!  W00t!

Sounds like this ale is gonna be pretty bitter. The color will be awesome though.

It's not very bitter at all, if the fact that a house full of gay dudes floated a keg in under 4 hours is any indication.  I formulated the recipe for around 18 IBU, which is pretty subdued given the actual OG of 1.047 (BU:GU=0.38). [Edit: I just thought I'd further clarify, for OniC@'s entertainment, that this recipe was originally and intentionally calculated to have a BU:GU ratio of 0.42 (18/43=0.42).  Yes, zero point forty-two.  My brewing system efficiency doesn't always cooperate, however, so the actual beer had a somewhat higher OG that lowered the BU:GU ratio to what I stated above.]  After the fruit is added and ferments out the beer turns out to be pretty sweet, which was my intention.  Oni did, after all, demand a "gay beer" from me.  

The color was a deep ruby red that would make any respectable Irish red ale jealous.

On a side note... DAMN I HATE HOW EXPENSIVE HOPS ARE THESE DAYS!

When I started brewing, hops were less than a $1 an ounce for some of the more common varieties.

I feel ya, bro.  Two words: container hops.

Oh, and T-MAK, I believe you have indavertantly solved the greatest problem I have had with my kegged beer. Thanks. ^_^

I did?  O.o;  Are you referring to the portable dispensing system I used?  I can't take credit for inventing that, I just made use of it.

[Maize]

No I was referring to blowing out oxygen with CO2 to avoid contamination.
I used to have a bit of a reputation with the Geology Club at UAF. Until I brewed a kegged version of my yearly pumpkin ale and a new recipe for a friend's wedding.
I thought perhaps the keg lube killed it. Or that I hadn't cleaned everything properly. Or any number of other scenarios could have been true.

As for the beer... how'd you get it to come out sweet while using 4 ounces of hops AND peach puree? Everything I have ever tried that has had peaches in it has been incredibly bitter. And those willamettes are usually quite bitter too, as I recall. A great bittering hop. In the 7.5 range for alphas, if I am recalling correctly.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

No I was referring to blowing out oxygen with CO2 to avoid contamination.
I used to have a bit of a reputation with the Geology Club at UAF. Until I brewed a kegged version of my yearly pumpkin ale and a new recipe for a friend's wedding.
I thought perhaps the keg lube killed it. Or that I hadn't cleaned everything properly. Or any number of other scenarios could have been true.

Flushing the keg airspace is more about avoiding oxidation than contamination, and avoiding oxidation is desirable because oxidized beer tastes like wet cardboard. 

You haven't described exactly what happened to your pumpkin ale, so I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help troubleshooting that one just yet.

As for the beer... how'd you get it to come out sweet while using 4 ounces of hops AND peach puree? Everything I have ever tried that has had peaches in it has been incredibly bitter. And those willamettes are usually quite bitter too, as I recall. A great bittering hop. In the 7.5 range for alphas, if I am recalling correctly.

The recipe only uses 1.25 oz of hops for 5 gallons of beer, dude:

Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  0.75 oz.    Willamette                        Whole    4.57  15.2  First WH
  0.50 oz.    Fuggle                              Whole    4.06   3.1  20 min.

The smallest amount that Arctic Brewing Supply sells whole hops in is 2 oz bags, therefore I have to buy 4 oz to get even the small amount of hops I need for this beer.

Hop AA% varies from year to year, crop to crop.  A few years ago, Willamette hops might have peaked at 7.5%, but last year they were only 5.4%.  Either way, the way I keep the IBU content of the beer in the range that I want it to hit is simply to recalculate the hop content based on their stated AA% when I buy the hops.  One more reason why I love my Promash.

I've never had a peach beer turn out bitter just by adding the fruit.  Peaches are usually very sweet, even after having their sugar content fermented out by the yeast.

[Maize]

Heh. I had no idea what this year's crop was at for alphas.

As for what happened to my beer, it had a skunky smell, and a taste that I can't quite describe. So, I know that its little help.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

The best thing you can ever do to improve your brewing is to take copious amounts of notes.  Brewing notes.  Tasting notes.  Notes notes notes.

I might sound like a smartass, but I'm being serious.  Taking lots of good notes is the most valuable tool a brewer has at their disposal.  Without good notes, you can't repeat a particularly successful batch.  On the flip side of that, you can't troubleshoot a bad batch of beer if you didn't take any notes.

If you need it, I have a pretty good brewing batch log worksheet that I've been refining over the last 10 years or so.  I'd be happy to e-mail you the file so you can print it out and make a few dozen photocopies.  Hole punch them and keep them in a binder and you've got your very own batch log like the pros use.

[Maize]

Actually, I already do take notes. I have a beer diary that contains all my recipes.

As for the batch sheet, I would love to see it. When I learned how to brew beer, I was only taught the cooking aspect and the art of it. Not the science.
So in many ways you have a huge leg up on me, T-MAK.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I've also been doing it for more than 10 years, man.  Plus, I'm the kind of nerd who gets excited about science , so naturally I do everything I can to learn the science behind the art of brewing.

I'll e-mail you a couple versions of it, since I don't know if you use OpenOffice or M$ Office.

[Maize]

I use MS office. Thanks again, T-MAK.
I really need to start working on the science portion as I prepare to go back to school and achieve my dream of owning my own brew pub here in fairbanks.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Let me know how useful you find it to be.  That was actually based on the batch log used by S.J. Klein (owner and brewer of a now defunct microbrewery here in Anchorage).  I've heavily modified it to be more useful in a homebrew-scale setup.