Tuesday, July 27, 2010

It's been awhile...

2 keggle brews from Petaluma are done. Tasted good at first but really were mediocre. Then we brewed a new IPA and discovered it was very close to the original Earthquake IPA of 2006, the 100th anniversary of The 1906 SF earthquake. So now we have a new Earthquake (or Aftershock) IPA. A later version will be brewed with wet hops from our local farms. Here's a Cascade hop that was recently grown at our Petaluma farm.



We also tried a pale ale brew from a new supplier, but done our way. It will be kegged this weekend, but probably only made once (limited release). We also made some Old Man Crandall's Apple Cider, and we're awaiting pear harvest to see if we have enough for a pear cider this year.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Update

It's been a while since an update. 2 beers brewed in the new keggle, but using Petaluma "free" tap water. Not totally impressed. Tasted ok but as it aged not as great. Decided to create a new simplified recipe and modify that with fresh wet hops later this year. The first creation with dry hops is in the fermenter now. Of course - it's an IPA. Also we have 4 hops growing at the taproom now. Cider being made soon!

Word of the day: Happoshu

"Fake beer"

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Fruit trees a plenty / ciders this year

The pear tree has been totally pruned back but now is starting to bloom. I doubt we will see many pears or much cider this year. There's plums, apples, peaches and apricots too. Hopefully our Petaluma hop garden will give us some better apples for this year's cider.

Re-engineering Tecova Brewing

Due to some uncharacteristically inadequate brews since the move, we've decided to work really hard to get our recipes accurate.

The first two brews to be refined are both IPAs, "Dominus Ominus" and "Hops Gone Wild" (the former Four Track IPA, a variation of One Track Ale).

I've personally refined the recipes and put them in digital form so that I can modify them as needed and keep them consistent.

I've ordered the ingredients for the first Dominus Ominus brew in about a year and a half. Rumor is that it will be brewed in Petaluma using Petaluma tap water, hopefully in one of our hop gardens for good karma.

The latest Hops Gone Wild is more complex and will be brewed later this year. Upon researching the last brew, I found many inconsistencies from the previous versions, perhaps contributing to the wild taste. We do have the rum barrel aged firkin from this batch, still available at the taproom.

Later this year we may work on completely new recipes for Haystack Landing Hefeweizen, RobotsOnFire Red Ale, and Professor Booty's Stormwater Stout.

Battle of the Brews 2025

We're still here. We've been doing a lot more with Cotati Home Brewer's Collective , including events and will be at Battle of t...