So we decided to make hard pear cider (perry, or poiré) this year. There are some good recipes on the web, but very little documentation on the complete process. Hopefully this log of our process will fill in the gaps for you. Before we begin, here are some of the essentials. Type of fruit: Ripe, […]

My dad and I finally made it up to the Bull of the Woods Fire tower – one of the most remote in Oregon.

The last batch of beer was really good. So good in fact that I couldn’t bring myself to throw out the dregs left in the keg after the wedding. But, what was I to do with a quart of left-over, completely flat stout? Make ice cream, of course! Stout Ice Cream Recipe based on the […]

After the success of the last stout, I decided to brew up enough to keg for my upcoming nuptials. I even added a few more adjuncts – bringing the total amount of “grains” to lucky number 13. The brew includes barely, wheat, oats, amaranth, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, rice, corn, flax, sesame, sunflower and hazelnuts. I […]

Sorry Jamie, I just couldn’t help myself:

Finished off the last of the stout and decide to make a new batch. This time, inspired by the HUB Survival Stout, a bunch of extra grains were added. None were malted and only meant to add flavor – not sugars. I also plan to add some cold-brewed espresso when racked. OG was exactly 1.050. […]

The spruce beer has been bottled and it is awesome! Jamie racked it for me last week and snuck a sip for his trouble. He immediately called and tell me how good it was. Today we bottled and it was my chance to see what had been produced.  The beer is heavenly. In the carboy […]

Note: I wrote this while in Mexico, but due to an error in the wordpress app – it was stuck on my phone. I just had a chance to  update the application, which seems to have fixed the bug. So, here we go: We spent several hours Sunday in a small cigar shop that we […]

On Friday, we brewed a batch of beer that incorporated freshly picked spruce tips. I chose a pale ale (like this recipe), but altered the hops a bit and threw in some oats and ginger for good measure. Oats in  a pale ale? Why not? Recipe 10 lb – 2 row malt 1.5 lb – […]

Last Friday, two very good friends of mine got married (to each other, no less). The ceremony was conducted on top of Rocky Butte by another friend Luke, who had gotten his reverend’s license just for the occasion. It turned out to be an extraordinary wonderfully day for the event. If they had done it […]