Maple Tree Brewery

I’ve wanted to brew my own beer since I worked at Sears (in the “Home Fashions” department) in High School, where we sold starter kits. For years I had been bugging Christi to buy me one of those and, for Christmas in 2007, she finally budged and bought me a Mr.Beer® Deluxe Edition Beer Kit. I had so much fun with that kit that, when Dennis and Lisa bought me a 6 gallon glass carboy for my 30th birthday a few months later, I upgraded to a MoreBeer Deluxe Starter System.

Later on in 2008 I scaled up yet again to a 15g kettle and a propane-fired burner, so I now brew full-boil extract recipes outside.  I’m currently working on a temperature-controlled fermentation chamber and setting up my kegging system, which was purchased in December of 2008.  Next up, in the spring of 2009, is making the final leap to all-grain brewing!

I’ll try to keep this page as up to date as possible. You can see miscellaneous pictures of my brews and gear over at my .Mac Gallery.

Extract Brews

I brewed my first “real” extract beer on March 30, 2008 and made the jump from the stovetop outside in September of 2008.  I currently brew in a 15 gallon modified kettle and on a 60,000 BTU propane burner.  This setup is Maple Tree Brewery 3.0.

Below are the Full-Boil Extract beers I’ve brewed, in reverse-chronological order:
NO-PICTURE-YET Catbird Tail 60
This beer is an attempted clone of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, made specifically for me.  Not sure how close I got since I haven’t tasted it yet, but it sure is hoppy!  This was my first time dry hopping and I had a great time doing it.  Brewed February 1, 2009 and kegged on February 15th after 4 days of dry hopping with 2oz of hops.
OG: 1.055, FG: 1.013, 51 IBU, ABV: 5.48%
NO-PICTURE-YET Franzie
This beer is an attempted clone of Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, made specifically for Christi.  From the samples we’ve tasted it is close, but it’s not going to be dead-on as I messed up how much aromatic malt was supposed to go in and accidentally added 1oz instead of .13oz!  Brewed on January 31, 2009 as a partial-mash and kegged on February 15th.
OG: 1.054, FG: 1.017, 18 IBU, ABV: 4.82%
Oatmeal Stout #002-01
My first partial-mash brew, and my best beer to date by far.  Great flavor and mouthfeel, with hints of chocolate and coffee as the oatmeal blends with the dark crystal malts.  I beer I certainly plan on brewing, and tweaking, again and turning into a house beer!
OG: 1.060, FG: 1.020, 19 IBU, ABV: 5.22%
NO-PICTURE-YET Irish Red Ale #004-02
Second brew of the B3 Irish Red kit, scaled up to 10g. Brew day was fun since I had some boilovers in my 15g kettle, and I missed my OG by .008, but it was a learning experience! Pitched 1 cup of WLP004 slurry into each carboy.
OG: 1.043, FG: 1.013, 27 IBU, ABV: 3.90%
Extra Special Bitter
Last brew before the end of the season, using up my supplies.  Brew day had problems (my tank ran out), so I didn’t boil off as much fluid as I was expecting, impacting my gravity.  Brewed on 11/22 and feremented with a 1500ml WLP002 starter.
OG: 1.040, FG: 1.013, 44 IBU, ABV: 3.51%
Altbier
Brewed on November 1st with Jason and Dennis as part of Teach a Friend How To Homebrew Day.  2000ml starter of WLP011 yeast.  Fermentation went very well, and this beer may very well be my best brew yet (we’ll see once I taste it).  Bottled on 11/14, and cracked the first bottle on 12/3.
OG: 1.054, FG: 1.011, 40 IBU, ABV: 5.61%
Chocolate Imperial Stout
Brewed on October 11th with a 3000ml starter.  Took the B3 Imperial Stout recipe and added 4oz of unsweetened bakers chocolate to the boil with the extracts.  Fermentation went very well as I paid closer attention than usual to temperature, using my Ghetto Fabulous chamber.
OG: 1.078, FG: 1.021, 80 IBU, ABV: 7.46%
Belgian Ale
Brewed on September 21 and fermenting with WPL500 yeast, in a 1000ml starter. Second time I’ve brewed this kit and the brew went off without a hitch, though my OG was lower than I was expecting. Bottled on October 12th.
OG: 1.040, FG: 1.008, 20 IBU, ABV: 4.16%
American IPA
First beer brewed on the Maple Tree Brewery 3.0 setup so I had some problems making it. I learned a lot for the next time but am not expecting this one to be a knockout. Brewed on September 7th, transferred to secondary on September 21st to clear a bit, and bottled on September 27th.
OG: 1.061, FG: 1.017, 100 IBU, ABV: 5.74%
Below are the Partial-Boil Extract beers I’ve brewed, in reverse-chronological order:
Jim Rossi’s Honey Pale Ale
Brewed on Sunday August 3rd and bottled on August 30th, after spending two weeks in a secondary carboy. Not bitter at all, very dry with a clean and honey-flavored finish. A pretty good session beer and a beer which should be drinkable by everybody.
OG: 1.053, FG: 1.009, 10 IBU, ABV: 5.74%
Wreski Porter #002-01
This is the first beer brewed in the house. It was brewed on July 20th (3.5G boil) and was bottled on Sunday August 3rd. Pretty good porter flavor but the bottles ended up way overcarbonated, making it a real pain to serve. A nice hint of chocolate and good underlying bitterness.
OG: 1.052, FG: 1.017, 19 IBU, ABV: 4.56%
Irish Red Ale
This was the last beer that I brewed in our apartment, I brewed it on May 28th and bottled it on June 11th. This beer also had a pretty violent ferment so, to avoid any problems, I swapped out the airlock with a blowoff system. I have a really cool video of the CO2 bubbling away in my .Mac Gallery. I had a little snaffu at bottling (the gasket on my bucket blew), so I only got about 2/3′s of it bottled. The other 1/3 ended up on my kitchen floor. So far everybody who has tasted it has loved it.
OG: 1.059, FG: 1.014, 32 IBU, ABV: 5.9%
Raspberry Wheat
This, my second “real” brew, turned out really well. To make this beer I added 4oz of Raspberry flavoring to the American Wheat beer at bottling. I saved this beer for the move and everybody who helped (and tried the beer) seemed to like it. The end-result had just a hint of raspberry, but was a bit more bitter/hoppy than I would have hoped.
OG: 1.045, FG: 1.008, 8 IBU, 4.8% ABV
Belgian Ale
This beer, my first “real” brew, was put into fermentation on March 30, 2008. The WPL530 had a field day and the ferment was so violent, that my airlock blew clean off! In the process of cleaning things up I accidentally shoved a solid stopper into the wort… and this imparted a slight rubber off-flavor to the batch. Lagering a few extra weeks in the fridge seemed to help.
OG: 1.056, FG: 1.019, 11 IBU, 4.9% ABV

Mr. Beer Brews

I brewed my first Mr. Beer kit in January of 2007 and used it until April. The retired PET “keg” is now used for water storage and transport with my larger system. For posterity, below is a quick summary of the four beers I made in this kit:

A common theme across all these kits was the very strong “cider” flavors, caused by the massive amounts of sugar (aka, “Booster”) that you add for fermentation. All in all these beers were not too bad and I highly suggest this kit for anybody interested in getting started: it’s cheap, and gives you an easy introduction to extract brewing with quick results.