Brewing Thieving Bastard Ale

Ever looking to expand the beer and brewing section of my home library, I was perusing the web for some books that were mentioned in “Secrets of the Master Brewers,” which I read while camping last weekend. As my cart began to fill up, I decided to check my bank account to determine how much I could comfortably spend. To my surprise and dismay, there was a lot less in my account than I had anticipated and, upon closer inspection, I discovered that there were two large and fraudulent charges. Apparently there is a good concert coming up in Dublin that someone wants to look their best for because there was a $300 charge to Ticketmaster Ireland and a $400 charge to a weight loss supplement website based in the UK.

I phoned my bank and after spending the obligatory time on hold, I was able to sort out the charges and begin the investigation process. However, with a now useless debit card and only twelve dollars in my pocket, a trip to the physical bank for some cash to tide me over until my new card arrives was in order.

After leaving the bank, I headed to the homebrew shop to get supplies for our next batch. We had discussed two or three different styles that Carl wants to try (which we will get to, eventually), but given my morning, I thought it would be appropriate to do some identity theft of my own and brew a favorite clone recipe; Stone’s Arrogant Bastard. As the shop owner and his employee filled the order, I shared my tale of woe and they had a couple of their own. In the end, it seemed they appreciated the good humor in brewing a clone recipe after the experience.

After some work the next morning, I headed over to Carl’s and he had once again gotten a jump on setting up the patio and kitchen for brewing. Some cleaning and then we were getting our water up to temperature, mashing in quickly thereafter. I set to work cleaning a Corny keg that the Budge Brothers lent us that would soon be housing the Mother Night ASIBA we brewed a couple weeks ago while Carl cleaned a carboy and got ready to rack, all the while taking turns to stir the grains in the mash tun.

After a good sparge, we left the burner to get to a boil and turned to racking the Mother Night first into a clean carboy and then into the cleaned Corny keg and four 22oz bottles (for sharing). That is when the trouble with the propane burner started. The wind was warm, but with strong gusts that would at the very least carry a fair amount of the heat away from our brew pot and occasionally blow out the stove altogether. Trips to hardware stores have proven fruitless in procuring a ring big enough and durable enough to act as a windscreen, so we made do with what Carl had in his garage. But to no avail; our grain tea was having a hard time getting up to boil so the decision was made to move the madness to the stove inside, despite the heat it would generate in the house on an already warm day. The boil came this time, and we added some malt extracts and first wort hops. We held the boil for thirty minutes before beginning the hop additions based on recommendations that I read in “Secrets of the Master Brewers.” If you want a good protein break, they almost all recommend at least a 90 minute boil.

As the hop additions moved along, Brad Budge stopped by to bring us a gas line valve fitting for our expanding keg collection (now at two) and we were finally able to meet. We all spoke the language of the beer geek while standing around the kettle, smelling the hops before we added them to the brew. Basically, everything was right in the world. Brad had to get going and we were nearing the point of pulling the brew kettle off the stove and plunging it into our super high-tech ice bath (aka a bag of ice and water in the sink accompanied by lots of stirring). Down near pitching temperature, we added some cold water to the carboy, followed by the wort which we filtered as we poured. Topping off with cold water, the yeast food was ready to be consumed so we transported the carboy to the fermentation room and pitched the yeast into their happy new home.

A high original gravity prompted a familiar run to the homebrew shop for a second packet of yeast. I am reading up on predicting original gravity so that I will know to get two vials or packets when I first purchase the ingredients. I returned to Carl’s and pitched the second packet within an hour of the first. Carl had done most of the final clean up, so after a long brew day (thanks to the troublesome burner), I headed home.