Endothermic Pale Ale - This was my first batch of beer. After a bit of research, I jumped straight into all-grain brewing, because extract just didn't seem like much fun. I learned a LOT on this batch. I had no concept of strike temperature, so I added the grist to the mash at 150° and attempted to maintain temp by heating the kettle. Uneven heating actually brought the temp of some portions of the mash up to 190° (hence the name). This beer had body! I also managed to bottle it before it had quite finished fermenting, resulting in the inability to extract any liquid beer from a 12 ounce bottle. Fortunately, most of the beer went in 22 ounce bottles, and with care a pint could be poured. All agreed that it was very good beer, and a valuable learning tool.

OG:	1.056	ABV:	5.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.016	IBU:	64	My Rating:

Post Patriotic Pale Ale - Lessons learned were applied here. I ended up with a big rounded malt flavor followed by ample hops. It was very good, and the malt and hops balanced well enough that the bitterness wasn't out of line. I did get a slight lactobacillus infection, but it wasn't noticeable to most who tasted it.

OG:	1.077	ABV:	7.9%	Recipe
FG:	1.017	IBU:	109	My Rating:

Old Aardvark Barleywine - I had a batch of Pale Ale fermenting, and came to the decision to reuse the yeast. What better way to reuse a large amount of yeast than to pitch it into a high gravity beer? Thus was spawned the urge to brew a Barleywine. I hit a gravity of 1.111 after a very long boil, and decided to name my Barleywine Old Aardvark since the gravity matches the numerical designator of the F-111 Aardvark. It tastes pretty good, but it is dead flat as the yeast either all flocculated out, or more likely died from alcohol poisoning. It's a bit on the sweet side, and could use more hops and a more attenuative, alcohol-tolerant yeast.

OG:	1.111	ABV:	10.6%	Recipe
FG:	1.030	IBU:	104	My Rating:

Singularity Stout - This beer was awesome. Big malty flavor with enough hops to keep the sweetness in check. For such a big beer, the flavor was extremely well balanced after only two weeks in the bottle. My friend and I drank almost the whole batch during the weekend of the Dave Matthews Band concerts at The Gorge 6-8 September, 2002. Only one 22 ounce bottle survived. The taste is somewhere between Old Rasputin and Rogue Imperial Stout. Not quite as much roast flavor as the Rogue, but the color (or lack thereof) is just as black.

OG:	1.093	ABV:	9.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.022	IBU:	79	My Rating:

Hop Festival AIPA - I like hops. A lot. I wanted to brew a serious IPA, and I think that I succeeded. This is one of, if not the, best American-style IPAs that I've ever tasted. It took three months of aging to bring out the flavors. I think the only change that I'll make in future batches is to increase the amount of dry hopping - a half ounce of Cascades wasn't enough to give a good aroma.

OG:	1.077	ABV:	8.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.014	IBU:	123	My Rating:

Multi Pale Ale - The main brew of a parti-gyle batch, with second runnings contributing to the Razbeer and a Rauchbier (which was unsuccessful). The main batch is basically the same as the Endothermic Pale Ale (my first batch), except that I controlled the mash temp a bit better. It tasted watery at first, but the flavors have since blended, with the hops dominating the malt (I made a mistake in calculating my hops... I calculated based on the full wort volume, but I split the wort). Very similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but a bit hoppier.

OG:	1.056	ABV:	5.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.016	IBU:	64	My Rating:

Razbeer - I hate berry beers, but without much extra effort I made one so that I'd have something for people who don't like real beer.

OG:	1.042	ABV:	3.9%	Recipe
FG:	1.012	IBU:	17	My Rating:

Weihnachtsabend - My Christmas beer. It's sweeter than I intended, but it was a hit at the Christmas party. Weihnachtsabend is German for "Christmas Eve".

Update: This beer scored a 35 in the English Ale category at the 2003 Oregon State Fair.

OG:	1.083	ABV:	7.6%	Recipe
FG:	1.025	IBU:	104	My Rating:

Fawkin' Ale - Brewed on Guy Fawke's Day, Fawkin' Ale is a strong Old English Ale. It's pretty good, but it tastes like nothing else that I've had. It's definitely a Winter beer, malty and with a bit of roast barley.

"Remember, remember the fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."

Update: This beer won a third place in the Specialty Beer category at the 2003 Oregon State Fair, scoring a 35.

OG:	1.072	ABV:	7.2%	Recipe
FG:	1.017	IBU:	66	My Rating:

Hoppy New Year - A special batch of Hop Festival to test my capability to brew a ten gallon batch. It didn't attenuate as well as it should have.

OG:	1.078	ABV:	7.6%	Recipe
FG:	1.020	IBU:	123	My Rating:

Hail Pale Ale - I tried to make a very light pale ale. There was a hail storm while I was brewing, so I decided, what the hail, I'll throw a few stones into the boil. Through no fault of the hail, I didn't like this beer very much. It's not bad, it's just way too light. It needed to age for a couple months before the flavors had blended, and then it passed it's prime in a hurry. I'd say the experiment was a success, it just made a beer that was not to my liking.

OG:	1.038	ABV:	4.1%	Recipe
FG:	1.007	IBU:	42	My Rating:

Post Patriotic Pale Ale II - I didn't get the big malty flavor that I got with the first batch. It was still good beer, but not like the first batch. I overhopped somehow, not paying attention to alpha % I suspect, so it was almost like an IPA at first, but it mellowed into a nice amber. The keg was empty before I realized how much of it I had been drinking.

OG:	1.077	ABV:	7.9%	Recipe
FG:	1.017	IBU:	119	My Rating:

The Neuralyzer - Basically a bigger version of the Old Aardvark. Big enough that I should have taken better care of the yeast, as I got very poor attenuation. Time will tell, but I suspect that this beer will be far too sweet to drink, although the alcohol may help in that regard.

Endothermic Pale Ale II - This was an attempt to brew the same recipe as my first batch, to see how far I had come with my technique. Tasty, but somehow the first batch seemed better. This batch was definitely not as thick or as carbonated.

OG:	1.056	ABV:	5.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.016	IBU:	53	My Rating:

Hop Festival II - A test to see what difference yeast make to a standard recipe. Several folks recommended using Wyeast 1272 for an IPA, and I have made good beer with 1272 in the past, so I decided to give it a try. Combined with the lower hopping rate (still haven't figured out how that happened), it made for a much sweeter beer. This was also the second batch of beer that I brewed that day... it was a long day.

OG:	1.077	ABV:	8.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.014	IBU:	88	My Rating:

Singularity Stout II - Minor revisions to the recipe. Not nearly as good as the original. I think that it fermented too warm.

OG:	1.093	ABV:	9.3%	Recipe
FG:	1.022	IBU:	96	My Rating:

Sister Star of the Sun - This was my first time brewing a "standard" recipe, Dave Brockington's well known IPA. It came out very good, and introduced me to British Pale malts. I got lower attenuation than I expected, but the high hopping rate made up for it! If you wish to brew this recipe, I would advise using the original recipe, rather than mine, which has been adapted for my system and using what malts were available to me.

OG:	1.067	ABV:	6.4%	Recipe
FG:	1.018	IBU:	144	My Rating:

Dave - This beer was brewed for a specific purpose: the Dave Matthews Band concerts at the Gorge. Anticipating hot weather, I decided that the most drinkable strong beer would be a really big pale ale. I bumped up the Post Patriotic recipe to get what I was after, and it worked. The result was a bit sweet, but it had the desired effect, and was quite drinkable even in the August heat of the Eastern Washington desert.

OG:	1.088	ABV:	8.9%	Recipe
FG:	1.020	IBU:	110	My Rating:

Hoppin' Armadillo - The challenge was laid. During Hop Madness 2003, a "Best Damn Hoppy Beer" contest would be held. No holds barred, I decided that I would brew a Damn Hoppy Beer. Big hops need a lot of malt to back them, so this was a big beer. I decided to go against the grain and not use any Cascade hops, which are still my favorite. Amarillo hops have a similar character, but are more lemony than the grapefruit aroma that Cascades can give. Amarillo also doesn't give any grassy notes when dry hopped, lending nothing but a great floral hop aroma and citrusy hop flavor after only a couple of days. I also tried mash hopping with this beer, which didn't seem to make any difference... perhaps I didn't use enough hops in the mash.

Update: This beer won the Damn Hoppy Beer contest at Hop Madness 2003, winning me a cheesy Heineken Bockbier glass and a bag of Cluster hops. I can't give it five stars, because I know that I can make it better.

OG:	1.080	ABV:	8.0%	Recipe
FG:	1.019	IBU:	104	My Rating: