New Lasso Activity, Basic Brewing Radio, and Kombucha!

Life is good at the Ranch!  I recently brewed a big American IPA full of Simco and Amarillo hops and lots of late additions which is somewhat out of character for my usual brewing habits.  I figured if I was going for a big classic American IPA I should use a classic yeast.  So Wyeast 1056 - American Ale into the fermenter and into the ranch.  What a great yeast, it ripped through my IPA with an 88% apparent attenuation in less than a week and that was with a pretty bad underpitch on my part.  I'm happy to have this one on hand and will probably be brewing with it frequently. 

I also lassoed a sample of Wyeast 3068 - Weihstephan Weizen from my friend before he pitched it into a weizen he brewed.  I don't brew or drink a lot of wheat beers so it is interesting getting this into the collection.  It should prove inspiration for some future brewing.

Speaking of inspiration, check out the December 17th, 2009, episode of Basic Brewing Radio.  Yours truly an some of the guys from the SouthCoast Homebrewers Association discuss our big partigyle in an episode James calls Partigyle Gone Wild.  We are now referring to the technique of combining second runnings from multiple mash tuns to build a stronger beer as "collaborative mashing"  Just about everything is fermented out now but some is waiting to get into the bottle still (I'm currently having a bottle shortage!).  Thanks James, we had a blast on the show and plan to do another collaborative mash in the spring.  This time we are talking about doing big wheat beers so that Weihstephan Weizen should come in handy!

On a side note from beer.  I recently got a Kombucha starter from my friend Scott.  I just put my first batch in the fridge tonight.  I had never heard of Kombucha until recently but I'm gain to try anything that ferments!  My first batch is tasting pretty good.  Now I just need to get a ginger beer plant....