Put a cap on it

It has been just over 2 weeks since we brewed our latest attempt at making our signarture IPA: Graffiti Alley IPA. As we mentioned before our last attempt was a bit off the mark and many of our friends who tasted it compared it to a stout!  And if you know your beers, a stout is quit different from an IPA!

We tweaked our recipe and procedure so that we would lose the dark & sweet characteristics to bring out a more bitter & hoppy beer. After tasting the beer we were relieved that our changes had an effect in the right direction. The beer is lighter in color, bitter and hoppy just like an IPA should be. However, we may have over shot the mark a bit, but we'll allow our friends be the final judges when we start sharing the beer in another 2 weeks.

Ingredients

• 1 cup for Toronto tap water.
• 60 grams of corn sugar

Directions

1. Measure out 60 grams of corn sugar.

2. Bring 1 cup of Toronto tap water to a boil and add the corn sugar. Let boil for 5 minutes.
3. Take a hydrometer reading of the beer.

4. Place the fermenter onto a counter top and the bottling bucket on a chair so that it is below.
5. Fill a siphon hose with the sugar water and add any remaining to the bottom of the bottling bucket. At the same time place one end of the siphon into the fermenter and the other into the bottling bucket. Be sure to keep the end in the fermenter off of the yeast cake at the bottom.
6. Fill each bottle from the bottling bucket, cap them and then store for 2 weeks to allow the carbonation to occur.

Notes

• Final gravity: 1.008 (~ 6.8 ABV)
• Quantity made: 24 x 355ml   (8.52 liters)

What's that noise?

Over the past couple of months we have been sucked in by the highly addictive hobby of homebrewing. It has everything that makes for a rewarding experience: The careful planning of the recipe, the meticulous execution of brew day and a touch of randomness when the yeast does its work in the fermenter. The only thing that can make it even better is to name our endeavour.

Welcome to Rowdy Raccoon Brews!

When coming up with the name we wanted something that reflects our attitude with this hobby and we felt that it captured our light-hearted, fun and urban experience with brewing. We also wanted to create a mascot that encompasses the essence of this project. We have sketched out a few ideas above, but would love some more. If you are an artist, or designer, in the Toronto area with an interest in homebrewing, or maybe just beer in general, please get in contact. Bonus points if you can tie in our current brew Graffiti Alley IPA.

Previously we have been logging our brews at David's personal blog, but from now on we'll be documenting our experience here. So sit back, open a cold tasty beverage, get inspired and enjoy!