Five Blades Brewing

F' Everything, We're Doing Five Blades

Recent Posts

  • Charlie is My Homeboy
  • Happy Repeal Day!
  • Ceci n’est pas une bière
  • Derek for AHA Governing Committee
  • Quaffing a Better Engineered Beer
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • BeerXML for WordPress
  • About

Level Up!

March 22, 2016 by Derek Springer 3 Comments

I’m certifiable! 🙂

certified

Filed Under: General Tagged With: bjcp, certified

Geburtstagsparty – “Traditional” Vienna

February 16, 2016 by Derek Springer 29 Comments

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.

geburtstagsparty wide

Anton Dreher has a posse.

Anton Dreher has a posse.

If you have spent even a little time reading my blog you know I am a big fan of Vienna Lager. Something about it strikes all right right chords for me: crisp, clean, full-flavored, well balanced between malt and hops, and just uncommon enough that I feel motivated to brew it consistently. Also, if you consume as much Mexican food as I do you know there are few beers that are as appropriate as a Vienna Lager to pair with a burrito. 🙂 My enthusiasm is infectious enough that now even my Internet buddies Marshall & Ray, Dan, Brian, and a few others have all jumped aboard the Vienna-train for NHC this year. I like to think I am doing my part to keep this style from getting dragged into the historical category.

The last time I wrote about Vienna Lager (Fiesta Cumpleaños) I came at it from the angle of a Mexican interpretation of the style, which tends to be a bit darker and with a lightly sweet/caramelly character. After publishing the article I got into correspondence with Andreas over at Daft Eejit Brewing (who has a great series on Vienna Lager) who convinced me to try brewing a more “traditional” version, consisting of mostly Vienna malt and just enough roasted malt for color. Well, I am convinced: I have brewed this “traditional” version a few times now and have been very pleased with how it turned out. I can hardly even think of things I would want to tweak with this recipe besides making more of it!

Read on for the recipe and some thoughts on making great Vienna lagers.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: lager, recipe, vienna

2016 Brew Years Resolutions

December 31, 2015 by Derek Springer 4 Comments

2016

Five Blades Brewing logoHoly cow, what happened to 2015, amirite!? It was a big year, but it somehow managed to zip by faster than I even noticed. Overall I am feeling pretty good with how the year turned out: I managed to hit or get close to many of my goals and even accomplished a few I had not even considered. Minus a bit of a gap during the summer (which is not prime brewing season anyway) I was able to post pretty consistently all year long–I feel like I am finally getting into the swing of things! That said, join me as I take a look at my reflections and resolutions for 2016. It is gonna be a great year! 🙂
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Five Blades Tagged With: 2016, new year, resolutions

Coolship in the Mist

December 29, 2015 by Derek Springer 9 Comments

Coolship

Trying out my first spontaneous inoculation via coolship tonight to test out a theory of mine. My hypothesis is that many primo Lambic producers have legion of good bugs living in their barrels that cleanup any bad funk from wild critters, so why not supplement with known good bugs? My goal is local flavor and a guarantee that it will turn out interesting (and not dumpworthy).

I made an extra dark golden sour base (I threw in a couple oz of Blackprinz to get closer to a darker shade of orange which I enjoy) and I will leave it out in my garden under some lime and kumquat trees and see what critters I can attract. After a day or two I will then pitch a large portion of dregs I recently harvested from a mixed ferment I had in turn pitched from the primo dregs of my clubs’ not-to-be-confused-with Lambic project.

Here goes nothing!


[Read more…]

Filed Under: Techniques Tagged With: coolship, recipe, spontaneous

Ain’t No Hallertauer Girl – IPA

December 15, 2015 by Derek Springer 5 Comments

Check out the rest of my recipes in the index.
Ain't No Hallertauer Girl wide

Bear Roots logoIt has been a little while since I have done a proper beer review, opting instead to do previews of the beers I am going to make. I was also in a bit of a rut this summer: heat, extensive travel, and brewing do not make an optimal mix for brews and reviews. Mostly, I was not super pleased with how my last few batches turned out–I will happily blame that on the goofball restrictions for the BrewUnited Challenge 🙂

Well, I am back on track! A new nano brewery/homebrew supply named Bear Roots Brewing Co has opened nearby and is issuing its first homebrew competition, focused solely on IPAs the prize is “bragging rights as the first local home brew recipe on our community tap and will also get their own customized pint glass that will sit above our bar.” As someone who 1) wants to support new and local businesses and 2) loves the idea of having my own customized pint glass above a bar I figure it is worth a shot! Entering more competitions is also the only way I can achieve my ubergoal of winning a best in show ribbon.

Read on and check out my German inspired American IPA: Ain’t No Hallertauer Girl.
(It is B-A-N-A-N-A-S)
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: ale, competition, ipa, recipe

« Previous Page
Next Page »

This Guy

Derek Springer

Derek Springer

I write code & brew beer--if you ask nice I'll share some with you :)

View Full Profile →

Top Posts & Pages

  • Lactobacillus Starter Guide
    Lactobacillus Starter Guide
  • Toasting Oats Guide
    Toasting Oats Guide
  • Guinness Secrets Revealed!
    Guinness Secrets Revealed!
  • Neomexicanus Hops: What's Available
    Neomexicanus Hops: What's Available
  • Geburtstagsparty - "Traditional" Vienna
    Geburtstagsparty - "Traditional" Vienna
My Tweets

Recommended Blogs

  • A Ph.D in Beer
    History of Fermentation – How do we know what ancient people drank?
  • Accidentalis Brewing
    Improving BJCP Tasting Exam Scores – REDUX
  • Ales of the Riverwards
  • BrewUnited
    2017 NHC Recap, Or, My Friends Are More Awesome Than Yours
  • BrĂĽlosophy
    What’s Brewing At Brülosophy? | 2022 General Homebrewer Survey, Covid-19 Updates, & More!
  • HummingBrew
  • In Bounds Brewing
    An Odyssey of Taste at L’Arôme by the Sea

Search

Categories

Archives

Subscribe via Email

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Menu

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • BeerXML for WordPress
  • About
Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Affiliate Disclosure

Five Blades Brewing participates in affiliate programs designed to provide compensation for linking to products. Compensation for product reviews will be in the form of the product itself and will be noted within the article.

Five Blades Brewing will not accept payment to complete a review.

Feeds

RSS feed RSS - Posts

RSS feed RSS - Comments

Copyright © 2022 · Five Blades Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...