Homebrew on the Hill - Majestic Sea Cow - Galaxy Hopped American Pale Ale

UPDATE - We won Best of Show!

We found some perfect art from Sloe Gin Fizz.
Thanks to Nicole for letting us use the image for our shirts!

Earlier this year, I joined a great new group of coworkers on Capitol Hill. Within weeks, we had made plans to enter into the Capitol Hill Home-brew Competition, but weren't sure what to brew. In true democratic fashion, we setup to do an extensive tasting of styles to choose one that truly represents the people - or at least the handful of us in the office. While not unanimous, the group enjoyed citrusy new American hops and session strength. The natural choice was obvious - American Pale Ale. 

But - what to call this concoction? In a stroke of genius, we combined our Florida district connection (Manatees) with our committee assignments (Space) and voila The Majestic Sea Cow - Galaxy Hopped Pale Ale!

Also available here: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/majestic-sea-cow/ 

Two Beers - One Boil: Spring 2019 Editions Ace in the Hole Double Kolsch & Slackline Saison

Brewing on a time budget can be tough, especially if you want to explore new ingredients and unique ingredients and styles. My favorite way to save time is to intentionally produce two different beers from the same mash and/or the same boil. This batch resulted in two very different beers solely based on the yeast and fermentation character - both absolutely delicious. 

The inspiring for this recipe came from my friend Brian who is just getting back into the Homebrew hobby. He wanted to brew something that was special but not terribly weird. I thought Saison would be a great platform to experiment. Given his desire for some citrusy character, it reminded me of a brew back in 2015 with my friend Ryan. A simple recipe but delicious and complex - Super Saison strength with Sorachi Ace Hops. This go around we mixed it up with some toasted and crushed Indian Coriander but we kept the classic yet temperamental Dupont Yeast WLP565 strain - if you have the fermentation time, it cant be beat. 

For the second brew - Ace in the Hole Double Kolsch -I chose an underrated yeast - German Ale WLP029 - typically reserved for Kolsch and Alt. It's super smooth and thought it might provide a great baseline to compare the recipes. I think we may have found our new Super Summer ale...

Guzzle Bunny Pale Ale 2019

As our time in South Carolina draws to a close later this summer, we revisit an old classic - the venerable American Pale Ale. This is our go-to recipe, and we've brewed dozens of variations over the years - it never disappoints. You might notice it shares a similar malt profile to the Pops Hops IPA, but keeps things a bit more balanced in terms of bitterness and alcohol. New American hops work very well, but so do some old school favorites such as Willamette and Cascade.

We also chose to commemorate the close of another tour of brewing by making some custom tshirts (logo above) - the mountains and pale ale are favorites of my wife - Rachel. Cheers!