Scapegoats Home Brewery

Sunday, Art and I were set to brew up a batch of pale ale, but he got called away for a family emergency.  Since the yeast had been started on Friday night and I had just finished crushing the grain, I went ahead and brewed on my own, keeping myself company by listening to brewing podcasts and sampling the pineapple beer I made last week (which is more potent than you would expect…)

My mash temperature was low again, about 148, but I forgot to warm the mash tun up prior to putting the grains in.  This was also the first time crushing our own grain, using the grain mill that Art purchased.

Here are the podcasts that I listen to regularly:

 Basic Brewing Radio — James Spencer is a great guy and the show is always interesting.  Highly recommended.

Final Gravity Podcast — If dick jokes make you giggle, this is the show for you.  But don’t let that fool you.  These guys know what they are talking about and have some really interesting interviews.

  The Jamil Show — Jamil Zainasheff, Jon Plise, and sometimes John Palmer on The Brewing Network. Home of Can You Brew It?

GONZO Brewing meeting, tonight at Fat Fish Pub in Galesburg, 6:30pm

Agenda via Brad Sturgeon:

1) have a summary of the Raoul Duke comp.
2) quick discussion about our involvement in the Red Cross tasting event at G&M last month.
3) Did Sam Fisk and Chris Sweborg re-evaluate the comp beers?
4) Brad Sturgeon will present the recent Zymurgy rankings of the “best beers” and “best breweries” in America.

Gonzo Brewers Website

GONZO Facebook page

From ratebeer.com

Last Ditch Wit

Here is our Nottingham yeast, spinning away and reproducing in preparation for a Sunday brew session.  This is another cream ale, but from extract. I started the yeast on Saturday morning in 1000mL of Briess dry malt extract.  It took longer to cool then I figured and all the yeast fell to the bottom and the stir rod didn’t want to start spinning until I gave it a good shake to get everything suspended again.  This was the first use of the stir-plate and I’m happy with it, seeing as it was all parts I had laying around, save the stir rod and the potentiometer.