Brew Brain Blog

So, I’ve been drinking my latest pale ale and enjoying it, but have finally decided it is not the finished, final version of the Almaden Valley Brewing Raccoon Trail Pale Ale.  It needs work.
To start with, the carbonation did finish too light.  I cut back the priming sugar in an effort to get more beer […]

And just like that, I’m unstuck. I was really in a great groove playing the poker last night, so I just kept on playing. The tables were about as good as I’ve ever seen. When the dust settled, I had racked up just over 11 buy-ins and turned my numbers green for […]

I suppose every homebrewer toys with the idea of owning his or her own brewery in some form or another.  For me, it’s a brew pub. 
If the opportunity presents itself down the line, that’s what I’ll do with the next phase of my life.  I’m pretty locked in to what I’m doing now for the […]

A while back I brewed up a batch of a very good pale ale that used cascade hops for both bittering and flavoring.  It was a very tasty pale ale with a super simple recipe that I figured would be easily repeatable, so I decided to use it as a base recipe for trying out […]

I finally bottled up a five-gallon batch of a new pale ale recipe I put together.  I don’t have the exact date handy, but I pitched yeast on this puppy probably over two months ago - over the holidays I believe.  I’m a bit nervous about carbonation, but it should be fine.
This beer may just […]