Squamy Commie Red

True, this batch is actually modeled after an IRISH Red but Communists are red too and Squamy Commie rhymes. Plus my beer is for the people, free of charge to be spread evenly amongst the working class (usually).

It's back to basics with this batch. No more weird additions of hard liquor or strange European styles. Just a standard run of the mill Communist (*irish*) Red, ready to drink in 6 weeks. Winter is approaching and with it many Zoo family members visiting every weekend looking to shred the white stuff and relax apres with a nice fire (blitz it) and some home brewed beer. Because of this I am looking to fire off a few quick batches to bump up my inventory.

Brewing went well, this batch will live upstairs in the closet for the slightly higher temps. Not sure if I will go to secondary with this batch. It will probably depend on my schedule.

I finally purchased my new 'beater' digital camera this morning. Picture quality is moderate, nothing special...but it was cheap and its a good size with a big LCD screen so I think it will work for my purposes pretty well. Plus it adds a nice golden twinge to pics when you turn the flash off...Ponyboy would be proud.

So now I will continue with the educate Jomo series so he can get Sherpa brew up to speed:

For sweet grain steepage tie the muslin bag up to the handle of the kettle. This will keep the bag from touching the bottom of the kettle (which might burn the grains) and it will allow you to spin the bag periodically to ensure more of the grains are steeped.

Also be sure to soak any malt syrup you are using in a sink of hot water. This will warm the syrup up and make it flow faster when you are adding it to the boil.

*UPDATE*: Bottled this batch this evening straight from primary. This is the first batch that I haven't transfered to secondary for a long time. From now on I think I will probably definitely stick to a stint in a secondary fermenter, even for quick batches. It really helps with the clarity of the beer and bottling goes faster when you don't have to clean all the krausen out of the fermenter at the end.

I had a fairly hilarious mishap when my hose disconnected from the spigot of my bottling bucket and beer dumped all over the kitchen floor. BIG MESS.

This batch had the characteristic red tint I was going for and the taste was decent. I think I have made better, but following what has probably been my best batch to date is no easy task.