I missed most of summer but I didn't want to miss out on brewing a good summer wheat ale. So I crafted a wheat ale and then located some flavoring to give it a nice twist. Again I found the right flavoring at the Ohio State Fair ... too bad it's only once a year ... I need to take that vendors name down.

I used a little bit of Lemon and a little bit of Lime to give the beer a nice crisp flavor. I've only had a couple so far and it's pretty good.

My friend Tony had the suggestion for the name.

I was invited to the wedding and when I looked into a gift idea for them I found out that they were really only looking for money. So I decided to gift wrap their money along with a new homebrew of mine.

I brewed a Bass clone that turned out very well ...
so I designed the special label commemorating their special day and boxed up a 12-pack. I know they were both looking forward to it once they found out what it was.

Rochelle and I used to talk about different things concerning work and other topics. We got together a couple of times to hit balls on the driving range, and have a few drinks. I think she's ended up tasting most of my homebrews.

Rochelle met a good buy and found a great job up in Michigan so she decided to move. We held a going away golf outing for her so as a little gift I gave her a six-pack of my Bass clone with the above label.

I met Bill through a HMWHC get-together and he really liked my beer. He said that he had a University of Dayton Golf Tournament that he was in charge of. It was called the JBL Golf Tournament in honor of his father.

Bill asked if I would make some beer as door prizes for the tournament. It was a chance for me to show off my brewing skills to a wider audience so I was interested. I crafted an Irish Red Ale and then started working on the label. Bill gave me an old picture of his father and the beer was complete.

I heard back from Bill a few days after the tournament, he said 'it was a huge hit and everyone liked the flavor'. He went on to say that everyone tasted it and they gave some away as prizes. The especially like the logo and was pleased with the beer.

Overall it didn't produce quite the flavor that I had envisioned, thankfully I didn't over flavor it like the Bubblegum Red Ale though :-)

So I decided to concoct my own little recipe ... after stumbling across the peanut butter flavoring at the Ohio State Fair.

I'll admit most people don't like the sound of it, but I brought a few bottles to a Super Bowl party and almost everyone liked the taste. I've gotten enough good reviews that I might even have to make another batch!

It has a pretty good porter character followed by a taste of peanut butter. I brought a bottle up to the master brewer at Thirsty Dog Brewing and he gave me a few pointers but he said for a homebrew it was good.

After studying several recipes and seeing the several different ways of preparing the brew, I settled on one and designed the rest of the ingredients on my own.

After brewing the beer and fermenting it for one week, I decided to try secondary fermenting. After a week of secondary fermenting I bottled and noticed how much cleaner my beer was. Almost all of the sediment was at the bottle of the secondary fermenter.

Two weeks later I tried my first bottle and I was shocked, my beer was flat! I did a little research, asked some people on the Internet, etc. and came to find out that since most of the yeast was settled out during the secondary fermentation that it takes more aging time to produce the carbonation, etc.

So two more week pass and I test a bottle and it was alot better. So much that I even handed a couple bottles out on Beggar's Night to some friends. Hmmm, my house might be REAL popular next year.

I've been working on my own recipe for a Nut Brown Ale ever since my first couple of beers. I've finally came up with something that I wanted to try so it was time to get to brewing.

After brewing the beer and fermenting it for a week it was time to bottle. Instead of bottling the whole batch as a Nut Brown Ale though I decided to get adventurous once again and flavored the other half the batch. See the next beer for more details.

As for the Nut Brown Ale, I think it turned out pretty good but I'm going to tweak the recipe and make a few changes. Once I finish some of my other current ideas then I'll try to improve my Nut Brown Ale . Maybe I'll come up with a better idea for a name by then also *lol.

That's the good news, as for the bad ... my next beer ended up being my first major mishap... I attempted to make a Peach Wheat and I ran into several roadblocks.

My first problem occurred after brewing the ingredients I could not find my packet of yeast anywhere, so I had to run to the store and pickup another package to add to the wort.

The next morning was the problem that ruined the batch... the fermentation was so rapid that it blew off the lid of the fermenter and spewed foam all over the basement. I attempted to reseal the fermenter but it was too late, the beer was contaminated.

A couple of days later I sampled the beer and it was oxidized so reluctantly I poured out all 5 gallons ... I fought back the urge to shed a tear.

I decided to call it Warrior Red Ale based on my alma matter. The logo is the mascot for the Wayne Warriors of Wayne High School.

After tasting my first bottle I must admit that this is probably my best brew yet. It was so good that I plan to made another batch to try to repeat the success.

On a side note:
I attended a beer tasting party that a friend was holding, he bought 12 different beers from a store, and I brought a couple of my homebrews. The response I got on a whole was great, by far everyone really liked the Warrior Red Ale. I even got questions on where someone could purchase more, etc. One guy was even interested in getting a case to use as a door prize for a golf outing that he organizes!

With this brew, I went to Belmont Party Supply and concocted the recipe while I selected items. My first true hand-crafted ale.

Now initially this was suppose to be a fruit flavored wheat, but I did not use enough flavoring (didn't want to over do it like I did with the BubbleGum).

However the end results were very pleasing, this could easily be my best brew yet. Infact my seasoned homebrew cousin John out in Oregon responded with this after tasting one ... "DAMN!". Then he said he was a little jealous that someone out East could brew a beer better than he could. Pretty good compliment coming from someone in the meca of great beers ... Oregon.

I'll try not to let it go to my head.

The topic of homebrewing came up when the boys noticed a stamp on my hand from being out the night before. They asked where I was going after the game and I said home to drink my homebrew. They were curious and asked how you go about brewing and etc.

Well the weekend of the league tournament I decided to treat the boys to homemade rootbeer [I was curious how to make it and I couldn't give them beer]. The won the league and swept through the league tournament. before the awards presentation I sat down a cooler full of iced rootbeer and said it's all yours guys. Their eyes all widen and they each grabbed bottles and started to drink. They loved it.

Why or where did I get the urge to try my hand at this style of beer you ask? Well honestly ... the name came to me first. I was sitting at home one cold snowy February weekend and I was flipping the channels on the boob tube and came across the Cartoon Network. They had a Super Chunk (marathon of the same cartoon) of Quick Draw McGraw on and I sat there and watched some of it. I remembered how I used to like El Kabong and thought to myself that a Mexican Beer named after him seemed appropriate.

Improving slowly on my craft ... this was the first beer that I filtered before fermenting and was looking forward to a cleaner brew. I sampled one early and it wasn't bad ... once I try it again I'll update this section.

My attempt to use a new tool to eliminate some of the carmelization that occurs during boiling was a failure, there was too much heat loss that prevent the wort from boiling. I scrapped that experiment and continued brewing the wort directly on the stove. Thankfully nothing was ruined during the test.

Upon drinking the first bottle I was very please with the results. With the suggestion of the title from Brian, I decided this one deserved the gold ... so the Nature Boy Pale Ale was born.

During my recent trip down to North Carolina, to visit my friend Chuck & his wife (Michele), I came up with the idea for the following brew with Chuck's help. We were sitting in the bar at Bahama Breeze waiting for our table and discussing my homebrewing, when the choice to use an Irish Red as the base was mentioned.

I decided to not risk spoiling a whole batch of brew, so after fermenting the brew for a week+, I bottled half of the batch as Red Face Ale.

Now it was time to experiment ...

Well two weeks later it was time to give this concoction a try. First I tried the Red Face Ale as a base line and was pleased with the outcome. Now it was time for the Bubblegum Red Ale ... well ... I discovered that my little .25oz bottles were a little more potent than I thought. The aroma and taste was overpowering, which made it undrinkable. But...

Talking to another veteran homebrewer, he said that as long as the beer didn't go bad that you could mix it with another to salvage it. So I tried mixing half a bottle with some Miller Lite and was pleased to find that it was drinkable. Infact, although a weird concoction it was actually not too bad.

Not being a huge stout fan, this beer still turned out pretty good, not quite Guinness but still drinkable. I don't believe I'll try making a stout float with it though. Wha Wha What!!!! Yeh you got that right, Carolina Brewery has an awesome Old North Stout float with Ben-n-Jerry's Vanilla Ice Cream. It's definitely worth trying, the sweet vanilla and the bitter stout (from chocolate barely) compliment each other.

The second logo is one of the original logos for the Four Horsemen. They are a group of Pro Wrestlers in NWA/WCW wrestling, headed up by Ric Flair and Arn Anderson.

Some people might think of the old Notre Dame running back group also known as the Four Horsemen ... well fact of the matter is Notre Lame sucks.

As for the saying at the bottom of the label, it includes a gaelic saying that I learned at a corporate all-hands meeting that seemed fitting. :-)

I joked with my sister that if this beer sucked I was going to name it after her ... well it actually turned out good, but I stuck with the name anyway.

Here is an excerpt from my first review:
"I had your beer last week. It was really very good. I have to admit, I was a little worried about being your laboratory rat for your first try as a brewer. I must say it was really good!!! I would definitely order another at a bar." - DaVE

My second brew was my first attempt at making a Wheat Beer. Upon pouring the first bottle, I noticed that something was amiss, yeh my beer was cloudy as all wheat's should be, but it was amber in color?!? Upon talking to a co-worker/part-time homebrewer, I discovered a reasonable explanation why. In my infancy stages of brewing on an electric stove, the malt was caramelized since the brew pot rest directly on the burner. I vowed to resolve this issue before I attempted another wheat ale.

Despite the color, or maybe due to the carmelization this beer still turned out pretty good.