Cutting Edge Beer Reviews

Well folks, it's time for some incredible news! Greg and I (Clubby) have decided to start writing reviews of the BEST beverage on the face of the planet...the milkshake! Just tuggin' your chain, BEER, of course.
Starting this Wednesday (12-19), the Campfire Brewing boys will choose a new brew to review, including commercial beers as well as our own homebrewed creations. That is 2 reviews every week!
I told you the news was incredible. So grab yourself a drink savor the flavor and enjoy.

Chocolate Raspberry Stout Has a New Home

Well, today we moved our stout from primary to secondary. We racked on top of 12 oz of raspberries. The gravity reading before the move was 1.021. Our target gravity is 1.014. We used Dole frozen raspberries. They were nuked in the microwave for 3 minutes to thaw and sanitize, then crushed quickly with a fork, then plopped into the carboy. There was about 1 inch of trub at the bottom of the bucket. Pretty funky looking, mixture of hops, yeast, and chocolate. Kinda looked like....Well, you get the picture. Dammit, we should have taken a picture. So the Stout is now currently wrapped in a blanket in the bedroom, where it will remain cozy for the next 2 weeks, until tertiary time.

Chocolate Raspberry Stout

Our latest batch which is still fermenting is a chocolate raspberry stout. While Clubby isn't really a fan of heavy beers, we decided to make this beer to try something new and "daring". We have absolutely no idea how this will come out, it's more of an experiment to see if we can come up with some "extreme" beers that taste good. Here's the recipe:
Brewed 12/1/07
6.6 lbs Munton's Liquid Light Extract
1 lbs 2-Row Black Malt
1 lbs 2-Row Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Roasted Barley
3 oz Mt. Hood (4.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
10 oz Chocolate (unsweetened) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 oz Fuggle (3.8%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
12 oz Raspberries (fresh) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1 ea White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout

The grains were steeped in 1.5 gallons of water at 150-160 degrees for 30 minutes. We then sparged them with approximately 1 gallon of hot water. We then added the extract and brought the wort to a boil. The Mt. Hood hops were added for the rest of the 60 minute boil. We used Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder with 15 minutes left in the boil. We dumped the whole thing in. Was that too much? We'll find out. Everyone loves chocolate anyways, right? The Fuggles were added in the last 5 minutes. We moved the wort to the tub so it could cool down. The tub works great if you have less then 3 gallons of wort. When the wort cooled we strained into the plastic 6.5 gallon bucket. 4 oz of hops is a lot. Took forever to pour, the strainer kept clogging with hops and chocolate. We took a gravity reading, and got a SG of 1.057, we were aiming for 1.059. Pretty damn close. We pitched the yeast, and moved the fermenter to the bedroom where it is warmer than the basement. the next day some vigorous fermentation was going on, with the airlock bubbling 26-30 times per minute. It has since subsided, but the temperature has also dropped. The bucket is now wrapped with a blanket to keep it warm. On 12/9/07 we will take a gravity reading, if it is 5-8 points from our FG, we will rack to secondary on top of the raspberries.

Beers We Have Made So Far

Our brewing career began with a kit from Beer and Wine Hobby (kudos to them for being awesome with their service so far). It was an amber ale that came with all the equipment. It came out decent, we made some mistakes. In the end it tasted like beer. A tip for all newcomers to homebrewing: When using a plastic fermentation bucket, apply the airlock to the lid before placing the lid on the bucket. The grommet easily falls in your beer if you push too hard, then you have to have Bujer sanitize his arm and stick it in wort to fish it out.
Our second batch was using a Coopers IPA kit. The extract comes pre-hopped so all you have to do is boil. Not difficult at all. Here's another tip: When using the IPA kit, don't use 2 cans. Use 1 can of the IPA, 1 can light malt extract. 2 cans make for extremely bitter beer. After about 4 months we still have 1 bottle left, it might have mellowed out by now.
Our third batch was our own recipe for an India Pale Ale. We believe it came out fairly awesome, good balance between hops and malt. We were quite pleased with it, so we don't have any tips.
The next batch was a Belgian Witbier. Great flavor, balance, too dark. Definitely the best one and most popular to date according to all of our friends. A tip: When using White Labs WLP400 yeast, keep the temperature between 75-85 degrees when fermenting. Our yeast went dormant in the basement because the temperature was 65-68 degrees. Took an extra week or two to finish fermenting.
Stick around for our current beer that was started yesterday...

Welcome

Thank you for visiting the blog of the Campfire Brewery. We are made up of four friends; Greg, Clubby, Bujer, and Dave, who decided earlier this year to start making our own beer. Not quite sure why, but we did, and now we're hooked. Right now we are still using extracts, but soon we will be venturing into all grain territory. Stay tuned for more posts on beers we are making, drinking, talking about, and other random crap.