4th Generation Brewery

You may have noticed the name of my brewery has changed. That's with good reason. The original brewery name was rooted in the elements of my family genealogy, as is the new brewery name. The roots of my family reach to the Scottish Highlands and Clan Donald in particular. My great grandfather's last name is Cooley and he was a brewer of bier during prohibition, thusly my brewery was named Clan McCooley paying homage to both my Scottish roots and my more recent family history of brewing. I decided to change the brewery name to take it more away from the "Clan/Scottish" influence and more versatile. Thusly I've embraced 4th Generation Brewery as the new name. That's not all, I've embraced a brewery motto.... Brew Free or Die! Read more below in a statement I made to my local brewing community.

I'm 35, have a mortgage, amazing wife, 2 awesome kids, am in a mentoring program for ministry, work hard 5 days a week. I'm obsessive about a few things like educating my children, family, faith, college football, and homebrewing! But all the things that are truely important too me I can count on one hand without using all my fingers! The fact is I find being honest with myself about who and what I am is far more important than concerns which arise from promoting, consuming, or creating homemade malt beverages. My great grandfather and grandfather brewed beer in rural Clarke Co. MS during prohibition and BEYOND! My father ran shine during the 60's and his father before him cooked it. Me I'm the 4th Generation and my son and daughter will be the 5th Generation. That's who I am, that's why I promote homebrewing... oh yea and I like good beer!
I like the founders of this great nation believe every man has the right to choose for himself what is right and wrong too a point. I just believe that point stretches beyond the limits currently imposed by the laws of this great state! It is with this in mind that I proudly proclaim... BREW FREE OR DIE as the motto of 4th Generation Brewery, formerly known as Clan McCooley Brewery, both names deriving from my proud brewing heritage.

Smashing Blonde Ale

In certain circles of the homebrew community the idea of brewing a SMaSH ale is embraced as a means to experiment with grains and hops to develop an understanding of the properties unique to those ingredients. A SMaSH is any bier brewed with one grain, usually a base grain, and one hop. For my first SMaSH I decided to use Am. 2 Row (Rahr) and German Tradition hops. This bier turned out to be really good, much better than I thought for such a simple recipe. When tasting this bier you get a grainy underpinning with candy sweetness and earthy spice notes. The hops really shine in the flavor. Also this is the first all-grain, my 4th AG batch overall, bier that has had excellent head and lacing. The pictures below tell the story, though the full glass is of the bier at 1 week in the bottle and isn't fully carbed so the head is suffering.

Recipe:
11 lbs. Am. 2 Row (Rahr)
1 oz. German Tradition Hops @ 60 mins.
.33 oz. German Tradition Hops @ 22 mins.
.33 oz. German Tradition Hops @ 8 mins.
.33 oz. German Tradition Hops dry hopped
Yeast US-05
Mash Temp 151-152
OG 1.056 (this is a guess as I didn't take an OG reading)
FG 1.008
IBUs 27
SRM 6
Carbed with 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon of corn sugar


Label

The bier!

The bier almost gone with very nice lacing!

Sloppy Drunk Mild Ale

This is my label for my most recent creation, a British style Mild Ale brewed while listening to Big Joe Williams and dedicated to this legendary bluesman.  Before posting the recipe I'd like to say a few more words about Joe Williams than can be reasonably fit onto a bier label.  Big Joe was a bluesman in every way.  Bigger than life vocals, song writer, amazingly delicate guitar work delivered with force, sometime talent scout for a couple of record labels, and overall lover of life.  For some time I've kept a running tally of what I think are the greatest songs ever.  'Baby Please Don't Go' makes my top 3.  For posterity sake, 'Redemption Song' is number 2 and 'Strange Fruit' comes in at number one.  Far and away my favorite version of Baby Please don't go is sung by Big Joe Williams, though BB King performs one of the more rollicking versions.  Anyone who's a fan of the blues should give Big Joe's work a listen, you will be impressed!

Now for the recipe.  The recipe is simple enough. It's Jamil's recipe with 1/2 lb carapils added.
Fermentables:
5# Marris Otter (Any British Pale Malt will do)
.75# Crystal 60
.5# Crystal 120
.375# Chocolate Malt
.5# CaraPils
Hops:
.75 oz. Kent Goldings - 60 Mins.
.5 oz. Fuggles - 20 Mins.
.5 oz. Fuggles - 0 Mins.
Your IBU target is 17-20. Also if you want to keep it in style eleminate both late boil additions.
Yeast:
Safale S-04 (pitched on approx 1 qt of yeast cake from Irish Red Ale)

Mash @ 158 degrees
Brewhouse Eff. 71%
O.G. 1.036
target F.G. 1.011

Crimson Ale, Official Ale of the 2008 Univ. of Alabama Football Season

     This is the label for an Irish Red Ale I brewed on July 16th. This bier is designed to be another low alcohol session brew. What makes this one special though is it's intended purpose. I intend to drink this bier throughout the upcoming 2008 college football season when watching Alabama games. I'm sure I'll have one while watching other games, but that could lead to a problem!  If it's as quaffable as it should be the real challenge will be making it last for three and a half months... or hey I could brew more... problem solved! I'm currently planning my next batches to be a partial mash Hobgobblin clone and another session brew, probably a mild, also for football season.
     This is the recipe for a 5 gallon batch:
7 # Marris Otter
.5 # Carapils
.375 # Caramel 60
.25 # Caramel 120
.25 # British Roasted Barley
1.08 oz. Kent Golding hops with 4.8 AAU
Mash 1.3 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 154 degrees f.
Sparge with close to 2 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 178 degrees f.
Safale S-04 yeast pitched onto approx. 2-3 cups of slurry from Breakfast Stout (see below)
Ferment at 60-65 degrees f.

SG 1.042 estimated FG 1.011 estimated abv 4%
IBUs 20 SRM 18

I almost forgot... Roll Tide!

(click on the label to enlarge)

Rotund Breakfast Stout

Above is the label for my Rotund Breakfast Stout.  This is an original creation and my first all-grain homebrewed bier.  This is an excellent session bier, and a fine example that shows off the versatility of the Oatmeal Stout style.

Here's the Recipe

5# Marris Otter

.8# Quaker Whole Oats, toasted to the color of Caramel 60 malt

.625# American Chocolate Malt

.5# British Roasted Barley

.5# Caramel 60

.5# Carmel 120

Mash at 155 degrees F. 

1.2 oz Kent Golding hops boiled for 72 mins.

Pitch 1 packet Safale S-04

IBUs 26

SRM 40

S.G. 1.039

F.G. 1.015

ABV 3.3%

Fermentation of this low alc. bier only took about 4 days.  My final gravity finished a little high, but I'm hoping it'll drop a couple of points in the secondary.  This is the clearest bier I've brewed thus far, the yeast accounts for that.  The Hydrometer sample tasted great, lots of roasted coffee flavors!

Old Peculiar Ale Label

Above is an Old Peculiar bier label I designed for my clone homebrew of the original Old Peculier bier.  The back ground is distressed metal.  The character is Gabby Hayes the old western movie actor.  Always enjoyed the peculiar characters he played.