The Secret Recipe Is...

Uncle Tyler's
Reddy's I.P.A.

This recipe belongs to my Uncle Ty who, years ago, gave a copy to my mother in a letter (yes - a snail mail letter). She held on to the letter for a long time and recently passed it on to me.

This is a true India Pale Ale that is both hoppy and malty. In the early 1800s, I.P.A.s were 'amped up' pale ales that contained more alcohol and hops (both natural preservatives) so that the beer could survive the long trips by ship from England to the colonies in India.

Highlights of this recipe include over 4 ounces of hops (in a 5 gallon batch) and Oak wood chips in the primary and secondary to impart that barrel-aged taste.

Ty's letter to my mother states that this recipe was originally brewed on March 3, 1989 - almost 20 years ago! It was brewed for a friend named Reddy who was from India and missed the strong beers from home. These were the days before the microbrewery explosion in the U.S. and finding anything other than Bud/Miller/Coors was nearly impossible, so Ty created this beer to fill the gap.

I will see my Uncle Ty over Thanksgiving weekend and I hope this batch of beer will be a nice surprise for him.

Moving Towards All Grain

Not much action here as we are still collecting the equipment needed to brew All Grain batches.

The SECRET RECIPE batch has been kegged and will be ready to sample around Thanksgiving.

I finally actually dumped the bad batch of Kolsch. It was sad, but it still tasted very bad and I needed the keg.

I'll have some equipment updates and pics soon.

I just can't do it!

I still haven't dumped the Kolsch. I just can't bring myself to do it. I suppose I'll hang on to it until I absolutely need the keg and hope some magic happens.

The worst side effect of not being able to drink the Kolsch is that I have no homebrew to drink at the moment. Again. I'm thinking of starting a petition to have myself removed as brewmaster. I clearly lack the level of responsibility that I demand from myself. How can I be trusted when I have failed so many times in the short period that I have been responsible for making beer for me? Ridiculous.

The English Bitter was great. Lots of people liked it and it went over well at Rod's Octoberfest. It's not going to win the Clone Wars, but we'll probably make it again.

The SUPER SECRET RECIPE is coming along. It is in secondary in the carboy and I just dry-hopped it today. I tasted it when I moved it to the carboy and it is wonderful so far. I can't wait for it to be ready.

Batch #15 - Super Secret Recipe

Brew Date: 9/27/08

OG: 1072

That's all I'm saying for now.