2024 Learn to Homebrew Day

If you read Roll-a-Style 14 ... 16A. Sweet Stout, you know that Learn to Homebrew Day was the first Saturday in November.

I had plans to get together for a brew day with my buddies Du and Doc.

My turn to host has been overdue, and the Beer Model and I decided that we would go ahead and have Learn to Homebrew Day at our "brewery".

We also invited some non-brewers over to "Learn" on Learn to Homebrew Day. These people were also available to help us eat BBQ and drink beer.

I was a little more ambitious than I probably should have been, planning to brew two batches of beer, smoke a pork butt, and make some chicken wings.

2024 Mardi Bock (Batch 351)

I brewed in the garage this past (Super Bowl) Sunday.

We got a decent amount of snow again on Saturday, and so the back patio (where I usually like to brew) was covered, and I took advantage of the slightly warmer garage for brew day.

This is my 3rd batch of 2024. It's my 351st batch all-time. This is the 69th time I've brewed in my Anvil Foundry.

After Sunday, I've actually brewed this recipe (with minor tweaks, I'm sure) 4 times.

The day this posts will be Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Grad, aka Fat Tuesday, aka the day before Lent, and so it is an appropriate time to brew the  seasonal beer ....

Mardi Bock

Gypsy Magic, Wings and Corn

So.... I sort of had a weird issue with Gypsy Magic Bière de Garde, but I seem to have gotten past it.

The issue was that the beer was quite cloudy when I kegged it.

I'm really not sure why. It attenuated fully and I thought I had given enough time to clear up.

I thought that once it was chilled it would take a day or two to clear up, but it really stayed cloudy for longer than I expected. Eventually, I added gelatin to help settle out the "crud", and a couple days after, that seems to have done the trick.

But, I probably had almost a whole gallon of beer before it was where I thought it was finally good to drink.

I guess the good news is that the beer is exactly what I think it should be now. 

Smooth and malty with clean yeast character. Fairly strong, but dangerously drinkable. Not much hop character. Nice and dry. Beautiful dark amber / brown.

Mardi Bock and other Sunday Activities

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. 

It was also my first Brew Day after Fixing the Foundry.

And ... it was my first brew in which I'm using a new toy and trying out Pressure Fermentation.

Of course, it being Super Bowl Sunday, I had to make food for the game.

And ... it was beautiful out, so obviously I had to get a bike ride in.

It was a busy day for me.

I was up ridiculously early. Not necessarily because I wanted to be. I just couldn't sleep.

But, regardless, I woke up at 4:00am. I sort of half heartedly tried to go back to sleep, but it was not happening. I got up and started brewing ....

Mardi Bock