Lueders Haus Blog

Finally made it to the new Jolly Roger last night. The pub closed down last year when the brewery moved a few blocks away. Originally it was schedule to reopen in the fall but ended up only reopening last weekend. This was a long time for us to go without one of our favorite pubs. We tried to go to their grand reopening last Saturday but changed our mind after seeing the line out the door. The crowd was pretty intense last night as well. The new place has kept the charm, even down to the treasure map painted on the floor. Most importantly the menu hasn’t changed much.

Spent Saturday evening in Georgetown at the Belgian Beer Fest. I had not been to a beer festival in Seattle in a few years. The last beer festival I had been to must have been the one in Brussels over a year ago.

Last night’s was also Belgian themed but all the beer was from Washington breweries. We both liked the brews from the Elysian and Pike, no surprises there since we have been enjoying their brews for years. I got to try a some beer from a few breweries new to me. Both Snipes Mountain and Salmon Creek had some really good brews. The guys from Salmon Creek were dressed in camo and looked like they just gotten back from a hunting trip. A lot of the Saisons and Wits I tried tasted a bit off to me. Might not have been a good idea tasting them along side the darker Abbey and Sour styles. Also a few of the barrel aged brews tasted too strong of whiskey and completely overpowered the beer.

Afterwards we walked down the street to Georgetown Liquor Company for some non-beer calories. Pretty cool place, nice vibe. Not too many chances to order nachos when dinning with Sherry!

Harvested my first crop of hops yesterday. They were four years in the making. Last summer I barely had three little flowers. This summer I have a huge harvest. Looks like I might be two or three batches worth. I dried the harvest in my handy food dehydrator, shoved them into a ziplock, and stuck them in my freezer for now. Now I just need some free time to brew up a batch.

Used the nice weather on Sunday to brew my first beer of the year. It is another Belgian Wit since the last one turned out so good. This was also my first chance to try out my new mega brew pot. Finally have enough space to do a full boil. Plus the built in “BrewMometer” let me sit back, relax, and enjoy the sun. The beer is bubbling away in the brew closet right now.

Took advantage of the nice weather Sunday to brew. In honor of our recent trip to Belgium, I picked a nice recipe for a Witbier. Basically a Belgian style wheat beer spiced with Coriander and Sweet Orange Peel. This is my first attempt at a wheat beer so hopefully all will go well.

We did our civic duty on Saturday night and watched the presidential debate on TiVo. Our mistake was to going to Brouwer’s Cafe for hopfest beforehand. By the end of the debate it was going on midnight and we were both nearly asleep. Lets just say we both found the debates pretty boring.

Sunday was a beautiful day so we headed out on the bike trail towards Woodinville. I finally got to try Armadillo BBQ who’s smell has been tempting me for so long on my bike rides home. I was very impressed. Definitely a better pit stop then Red Hook.

Used the sunny afternoon to start a new brew. As tradition I picked up a new gadget at the homebrew shop: an immersion wort chiller (pictured next to my assistant Sherry. It is the copper coil). Sherry got a nice picture of me stirring the wort right before it boiled over the top of the kettle. There is a reason I do this outside these days. The chiller enabled me to do a larger boil (3.5 gallons instead of 1.5 or 2 gallons) but there is no way I can do a full five gallon boil with my old kettle. I guess I need to get a MegaPot.

Spent a beautiful (if chilly) Saturday afternoon outside next to the brew kettle brewing this. As usually I tried a few new things this time. Last weekend I installed a spigot onto the bottom of my kettle. This made transfer to the fermenter easier but we did have some spillage when the hose slipped off. Also I used 4oz of Magnum hops, a hop I’ve never used before. I was a little worried about the hop shortage’s affect on the homebrewer but my store was still well stocked. The shortage seems to be affecting those who have to shop online for hops the most.

We were welcomed back from the Midwest with a fresh batch of homebrew. The batch turned out respectable considering my near year long absence from homebrewing. I got to try out my new five-gallon keg and fridge setup. Had a few pints of it while watching Superbad last night. It is a nice dark winter ale.

We had our first snow of the winter here in Seattle yesterday. It even stuck to the ground here in North Seattle, but the rain today mostly washed it away. We have a few more days of rain in the forecast. Hopefully that will give us enough snow in the mountains to go skiing in a few weeks.

I made good use of the foul weather to make some beer. I haven’t brewed since last winter when I tried to master all grain brewing. This time I kept it simple and did a batch of brown ale using malt extract. I did mix things up a bit and went back to the five gallon batch size. Which means had to buy a five gallon used keg at the homebrew store and upgrade my beer fridge to one that fits the keg. My online research led me to a Sanyo compact refrigerator that seems to be perfect for homebrewers. There are even web sites detailing how to attach a tap on the top but I will leave that project for later. I used the BeerSmith software again which was really helpful to keep track of everything.

Tonight I’m making the last batch of the “Five Minute Bread” from the NY Times. We have had great results so far with this recipe. It is not all that different from actual French Bread recipes. The key step just seems to be time, letting the dough rise for 12-24 hours before baking.