Unfortunately, the full-sized version of the page is no longer available, so you can’t see the details of what this thing used to look like. I say “used to” because it is now a completely different site:

When I went in to purchase a new hydrometer, I asked Doug about his website. I figured I could help him out by spiffing it up a little. He was interested, and we’ve come up with this new site. It is still just the one page, but we have ideas about fleshing it out a little bit – not too much content, because isn’t interested in the extra work of maintaining inventory and prices. But we’ll add a little more to make customers who’ve never been in a little more familiar with the kinds of products he carries and the kinds of unique services he provides: like one of the best grain mills in the country. It turns out that in his downtime from running the store, Doug is one of the best technicians in entire Southeastern US for all sorts of big, industrial machines and saws. He made the grain mill himself, and all of his customers swear that they get better efficiency in their mash when they use his grain mill than with any other. I am one of those customers: it is a beautiful, miraculous machine. I want to get a picture of it, and add it to the store’s website.

The graphics for the new site came from a company that built an eCommerce website for Doug a few years ago. Several hurdles have prevented Doug from actually taking that store online. But he sent me links to a demo site – or “sandbox” if you will. I snagged the graphics and put them on the new face for his website. His online store had some other facets to it including additional media which I hope to incorporate into the other pages to be added.

I didn’t do all this work for personal gains. But one nice side effect is that Doug wants to pay me for the help I’ve given him (in addition to helping him re-vamp the website, I’m also saving him nearly $600 per year by switching him to new web host and domain registrar). I don’t actually want any money, but it does mean that I’ll be able to more easily snag some new equipment – particularly an 11-gallon stainless steel pot that I’ve had my eye on… I went in Thursday to get stuff for the batch I’m brewing on Sunday (Most Worthy Ale – an American IPA based heavily on a delicious recipe I made years ago named Hellishly Hopped Ale), and he even offered to let me have the ingredients. At that moment, the new website wasn’t yet up, and I insisted that he not try to give me anything until I had actually delivered something.

It is very nice of him to offer payment, but I plan on letting him have my services pretty cheap because I really like having a hand, even if a very small hand, in keeping his store up and running. It’s the best damn resource for home brewers in the area, hands down.

In any event, I’m brewing an IPA this Sunday. This past Thursday was the first time I’ve bought more than three ounces of hops for a single batch in many months. Doug repealed his three-ounce-per-batch rule quite some time ago, but I still stick to it because I would feel guilty if I raided his inventory considering there is still a real shortage. This time, however, he pointed out two alternatives for the hops I was looking for, and I simply asked if he minded if I buy them both. He was fine with that. He told me his Simcoe hops weren’t really fresh. He usually throws out stuff that isn’t really fresh, but he’s hung onto the Simcoe because they’re popular and there’s a shortage. He warns customers before they buy it that it’s probably 1/3 lower in alpha acids than the label suggests (due to age) and that it should only be used as a bittering hop (aromatic oils extracted from late hop additions are the first to go as hops deteriorate). I decided to get Nugget hops as an alternative, but Doug also recommended Summit fresh hops. He said he brewed with them recently, and they were incredibly fresh and pungently aromatic. I got an ounce of those, too. I’ve since decided to hang onto the Summit and to use only the Nugget for Sunday’s brew. Maybe I’ll use the Summit in my next batch (Foreign Extra Stout, anyone?).

The Itsy Bitsy Brown turned out very tasty. It had a good bit of diacetyl last time I tasted it, so I’m trying to vent it off. Hopefully in another week it will be tasty and will have lost the fake-butter flavor that currently tinges it.

Last Saturday I cracked open one of my last bombers of Brain Bludgeoner. It was every bit as luscious and elusive as I remember it. I still have several more bombers, but they are all spoken for. Three are for sharing (one with co-workers next week, one with my friend Jason who helped polish off the one I opened last weekend,  and one with my sister and brother-in-law next month). The last two are for me, but are waiting to be opened until their 1st and 2nd birthdays respectively. I don’t believe in hanging on to homebrew more than two years: by that time I better have brewed even more great beer and thus should have no need to reminisce nostalgicly so far back.

Tonight, I cracked open a 12 ounce bottle of Fiftieth Brew. In retrospect, it really turned out great. When it was still green it was a bit rough around the edges. Now it is quite nice: very firmly bittered but a nice hop flavor and aroma, too. The malt character is a bit heavy (it is pretty much a Barleywine after all), but flavorful with touches of caramel and toffee and perhaps a touch of chocolate. The first few ounces seemed heavy, intense, and difficult to drink. Once the palate gets acclimated however, it is drinkable. The last 6 ounces disappeared much more quickly than did the first.

In the past month Hump’s German Hefeweizen has gone the way of the do-do. I actually still have a couple of bottles of it still in the cellar, but the rest is on its journey to beer Elysium (i.e. in my septic tank or flowing through the purification mechanisms of municpal water sources – perhaps for the second, third, or even fourth time by now…).

It was a tasty beverage – wheaty and spicy. The final product had a decent bit of spice that was thankfully not overpowered by the banana esters typical of weizen yeast. I’ve read that the banana character usually comes out at higher fermentation temperature and than spices (mainly clove) comes out at lower temperatures. This actually fermented pretty warm, but it turned out good.

I still have Hump’s Bosbessenbier in a keg with a pretty decent amount of it left. It has a nice bready malt character combined with a touch of acid and berry – like a splash of blueberry wine in the beer (which is pretty much what it is…).

The newcomer to the fridge (not really that new – it hit the keg shortly after Bosbessenbier, nearly a month ago) is Hump’s Imperial ESB. I originally thought I had formulated an English India Pale Ale, but the finished character does not have enough hop flavor and aroma. It has a good earthy hop bitterness and some hop flavor, but is more of a malt-forward beer. It isn’t quite strong enough to be a barleywine, but it is close. I’m finding that strong hoppy ales, if not done right, frequently taste more like barleywines than the intended style (I guess that means that mediocre barleywines are really easy to make…). I’m finding that a shit-ton of late addition hops are needed to give a strong beer the level of in-your-face hop aroma and character that I really want. It also has a lot to do with the actual hop variety used for late addition hops – and I’ve been using a lot of English hops that are much more subtle than the likes of Cascade and Centennial. That’s a bit of a shame considering that hops are still in relatively short supply.

Doug, the owner and operator of Just Brew It!, has ended his three ounce limit of hops, but I stick to it anyway. Until his fridge is plentiful with hops, I’ll limit myself to three ounces per recipe. I have been buying more than I need whenever a recipe calls for less than three ounces though. I’m saving up for an American IPA – and this time it will have the right level of up-front hops!

In the fermentor currently is Hump’s Honey Nut Ale. I was inspired by Cheerios I suppose. The beer was made with one pound of honey (which will dry the beer out more than it will impart honey character) and 3/4 pound of chopped nuts: pine nuts, roasted pistachios, and roasted almonds. It is currently sitting on the nuts and will be ready to keg on Thursday. I’m hoping the actual nuts will strengthen the nuttiness imparted from the specialty grains – a really nutty nut brown ale if you will…

And this weekend I’ll be cooking up Hump’s Itsy Bitsy Brown. This will be a Southern English Brown Ale – full of dark malt character and flavor but low in alcohol – and will be my second all-grain batch. The recipe only needs one ounce of hops, but I’m hoping to score an additional two ounces of Centennial hops at the store this week (if Doug hasn’t sold out of Centennial – he was almost out last time).

The next batch, which I’ll cook up in September, will be the American IPA. It is a slight update to my Hellishly Hopped Ale from 2003, which turned out to be absolutely delicious. The changes are slight and are due mainly to an increase in the grain-to-extract ratio (since I now do mini-mashes, but I didn’t in 2003), an increase in batch size (last time I just brewed a half-size batch: 3 gallons), and a new yeast (since I can no longer easily get my hands on White Labs yeast). I think it will be absolutely delicious again – which is generally what I think of all of my recipes before I cook them (and, luckily, I’m sometimes, if not frequently, right).

I’m already excited to brew this next recipe. After comparing this recipe to my previous attempt at a Witbier (from 2001) and reading my tasting notes from that old recipe, I’m certain that this upcoming batch will be better. It’s going to taste great! And just in time for the warm weather, too. Although a cold front is coming in, and it is supposed to be retarded cold for the weekend… (Of course, retarded cold for Georgia is pretty mild for most places – but certainly colder than last week)

I’ve already started planning my next batch after this one: I’ll brew an IPA in May. I have some left-over hops (Cascade, East Kent Goldings, and US Goldings) that I can use in that brew. That will nearly clear out my “old hops” inventory. I’ll only have an ounce of Hallertauer left. A very old ounce at that: I received it in a mail-order kit in 2004 and tossed into the freezer for safe keeping. I plan to do a Weizen in June, so I can use those aging hops in that recipe.

Hopefully I’ll soon have some tasting notes to post for my latest batch of stout.

Speaking of stouts and tasting notes: I recently tried Sweetwater’s Happy Ending. Sweetwater is a local microbrewery here in Atlanta. Their Happy Ending is an imperial stout that absolutely wreaks of sticky hops… but in a good way! My first impression of it was that it reminded me quite a bit of my Full Moon Stout. But when I tasted them side by side, I found that theirs is way hoppier than mine. They must have used a ton of dry-hops! I think my recipe stands up pretty well to it though. After the side-by-side taste-test, I was happy with the flavor, complexity, and smoothness of my homebrew. But I still want my Evil Empire Stout recipe to be even bigger and bolder – and perhaps along the lines of Happy Ending in its hoppiness.

The story about Marietta Homebrew was even sadder: the proprietor and very friendly operator, Dennis, died of cancer in 2002. That was a very sad day. He was an awesome homebrew shop owner. He was very friendly, was great to talk to, liked to talk about beer, frequently had some of his homebrew on tap for a taste while shopping, and was knowledgeable and helpful. After he passed away, the store wasn’t the same – the folks that ran the place after that were not nearly as friendly or helpful. Apparently other customers felt the same way because the place eventually closed.

Doug is also an awesome homebrew shop owner. It will be sad to see him move on to other things. He has transformed Just Brew It! from a ‘usually adequate’ homebrew shop to a great homebrew shop. He is friendly, great to talk to, and the most knowledgeable homebrewer I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. I could ask him pretty much anything about homebrew – issues or concerns I might have about a batch, questions about upgrading equipment, or anything else. And he could invariably answer.

On top of hearing that news about Just Brew It!, my son was sick this weekend, too. So I didn’t get a chance to brew on St. Patrick’s Day. Instead, today was beer day. I kegged the Humble Hop Juice: it tastes good, so I’m eagerly awaiting it to be carbonated. I also brewed the dry stout. After brewing, I ate a lovely dinner of fish and chips (one day later than planned).

Unfortunately, the sanitizing formula I prepared for my equipment was too hot (likely > 120 degrees Fahrenheit), and I may have left the yeast package in there too long. So now I’m anxiously waiting to see if I killed the yeast. Hopefully not… But only time will tell. If I see no fermentation activity after 48 hours then I’ll have to return to the brew store to get more yeast :(