Bottling Michigan Lambic Framboise

 I finally had to time to bottle my 2 gallons of Michigan Lambic that I had aging on raspberries.  In May of 2012 I brewed a Lambic and allowed it to ferment for a year.  Then in May of 2013 I put 2 gallons of it on 5lbs of wild raspberries, 2 gallons on 5 lbs sour cherries and then reserved 1 gallon for use in a gueuze blend.  5 months later it was ready to bottle the raspberry version.

Valpo Brewfest and Old Ale rebrew

I got to spend the last weekend going to Valpo Brewfest along with visiting 3 Floyds and Figure 8 Brewing with my wife, uncle and 2 friends.  Valpo and 3 Floyds was a great time, Figure 8 not so much.

Adding fruit to beer, Sour Cherry Imperial Stout

Adding fruit to beer can be difficult, when do you add, how much do you add, how do you prepare the fruit and how long do you leave the fruit in contact with the beer are all things you need to decide.

Sour Mash Wit

There are many ways to add sourness to the finished beer.  Simply adding lactic acid, long fermentation with wild yeast and bacteria, acidulated malt and the only method I have yet explored till now the sour mash.

Tasting the Berliner

I finally got around to opening my final bottle of my Berliner Weiss I brewed in 2010.

Sour Cherry Stout

My Uncle got a hold of me and said he could get a big full of fresh tart cherries if I could make something interesting with them. Who turns down an interesting ingredient to brew with when its that fresh?

Yeast Slanting

When I first started brewing I used a new package of yeast for each brew, whether it be Wyeast, White Labs or dry yeast.  I didn't take me long to start researching re-using yeast to try and save money.

Michigan Lambic

When  I started brewing I only made the basic, stouts, porters, IPA's and wheat beers. Then as I became bored with those styles I started added things to the basic beer's, 'Hazelnut Brown', 'Chocolate Stout' and so on.  But what do you do once you become bored brewing those styles?  Take a shot at sour/wild beer.

First Post

I assumed for my first post I should describe my brewing process.  I started homebrewing in 2000 with the basic extract kit on the kitchen stove.  I made enough good batches to want to upgrade to all grain brewing, mashing in coolers and boiling with a turkey fryer.  Finally this year I decided I would prefer brewing with electricity for the conveince of being able to stay inside and the consitancey of maintaining the mash temps.  Below are a few pictures of my system.