Beer, Brewing and Hobby Farming in Maine

This is a blog that I'm putting together to document my brewing and growing experiences in Maine.  We live on a small (4 acre) plot in Southern Maine and aside from brewing beer, I've been trying to grow some of my own ingredients.

Additionally, Maine is one of the most exciting places in the country now for beer, so drinking and sharing some of the great brews I run across will show up from time to time.

Thanks for reading

Sean

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brewing A Bissell Bothers Substance Clone - The Product

Image
Bissell Brothers "The Substance" is the first IPA that really made me taste hops (more then just the bitterness in a West Coast style IPA) and is still one of my favorite beers of all time.  Luckily, the fact that I live near Portland,  Maine means that it is pretty easy for me to get a hold of. A couple weeks ago, I saw a reddit post on /r/homebrewing about beer recipes from each state and The Substance was one of the recipes .  While I couldn't get every ingredient, I made some substitutions and brewed up a batch during our most recent snowstorm. Here is the Beersmith BeerXML file if you are interested.  You'll note that this is not 100% dead on, but I think it should be close. I ended up buying most of the ingredients from MoreBeer. I ground all my grain using my Corona style mill pretty fine.  Since I BIAB (brew in a bag), I tend to crush things a bit finer since I feel it helps with my efficiency. Per Beer Smith, I heated the water to 158...
Read more

Tasting : Broad Cove Irish Red

Image
Well, you win some, you lose some.  This beer came out OK.  It's drinkable, but feels thin.  Also, I think getting the color from the roasted barley was a mistake (or at least I used to much).  There is a distinct burnt taste.  Also, the hops don't really come through as I hoped they would. The color is not, bad, but it is not as clear as I would like for this one. On the plus side, it is an easy drinking beer.  It feels light and clean. I may or may not brew this again in the future.
Read more

Broad Cove Irish Red

Image
Earlier this week, I picked up a mixed pack of beer from Harpoon.  One of the beers in it was the Craic, an Irish Red style IPA.  I really liked this beer and thought I would brew something similar since I had most of the ingredients on hand. The Craic is definitely not a traditional Irish Red and I was looking to brew something a little less hoppy, since I've already got an IPA on tap (My Bissell Brothers Clone, which I will be following up on shortly).  I wanted to make a more traditional red, so I set to work in BeerSmith and gave it a shot. This one was definitely easier then my last brew, with less ingredients. I chose East Kent Goldings, since I had a couple ounces on hand, but limited my hop additions to a First Wort Hop, a Whirlpool, and eventually a dry hop. I mashed in at 150 for 75 minutes. Weirdly enough, my preboil gravity was WAY higher then it should have been at 10 Brix (1.040 SG) even after I topped up the water preboil. I added the F...
Read more