March 2012

Hey guys, thanks for checking back!

Wow, it's been an eventful month!  Not only did we submit Ryder's Rye IPA for the Battle of the Brews Craft Cup competition, we WON!  That's right, Ryder's Rye IPA took home our very first Gold Medal (1st Place!) for the Specialty Beer category!  This came as a huge surprise, considering it was the first competition I've ever entered!

But wait, there's more!  After being called up and receiving my first place gold medal, I stood up in front of everyone at the Battle of the Brews and waited for them to announce the Best of Show winner.  My heart STOPPED when I heard them announce the Best of Show winner was DAVID WELLS for RYDER'S RYE IPA!  I'm still pinching myself thinking I'm going to wake up at any minute!  It was completely unexpected! There were a lot of great and experienced brewers up there and for the award to go to me was just absolutely astounding!

I am so thankful and appreciative to everyone who made this experience possible.  All of the people who put on the Battle of the Brews, The Beverage People, The Sonoma Beerocrats, and the BJCP Judges!  Thank you all so much.  I also want to thank my assistant brewer on this beer, Kelli H from MadeInSonoma for giving me the idea to brew a Rye IPA and helping out during the process.  Also, my new assistant brewer Kyle Castillo, for giving me such amazing initial feedback on the beer and pushing my ass to enter this beer in the Battle.  Without all of you, none of this would be possible, so I just wanted to give my thanks and show my appreciation for all of you.  :)

Next on the list of news for March, is new beer!  My new brew buddy Kyle has been an awesome new addition to the Bennett Valley Brewing family.  He's constantly pushing forward and coming up with new ideas for recipes!  And with that being said, I can introduce you to not one, not two, but THREE new beers that have been brewed with Kyle's assistance:

Hoppy Amber Ale- aka "Red Dog Amber Ale"

·       First up is a new Amber Ale.  We're thinking of calling it Red Dog Amber Ale.  It's an extra hoppy Amber Ale with a smooth malt backbone.  

·       Second is a beer that is destined to be our next contest beer, Koda Bear Porter.  Named after Kyle's black lab puppy, Koda.  This beer was originally intended to be a Black IPA, but for whatever reason has turned out to be an amazing Porter!  It's very malty and smooth with a great chocolate finish. The aftertaste is all chocolate and goodness.  This is the perfect dessert beer.

·       The third new beer was designed to be a wheat beer, but we decided to put a twist on it and use a Belgian Yeast!  We also used Honey Malt and added fresh orange zest.  Currently the beer is quite funky due to the Belgian Yeast so we've decided to let it mature a little bit before putting out the final verdict. We're going to brew this one again using American Wheat yeast next time to compare the difference and decide which one we like better.  Whichever version is chosen will be the featured beer at Kyle's wedding this summer!

That's all for now!  Thanks again for checking back.  We've got more brewing to come in April, including another batch of Ryder's Rye IPA so that everybody can taste it!

-David

February 2012

Hello everybody!  
In the past month I made what I think is going to be my best brew yet.  This is the first recipe I have designed completely 100% from scratch, and it's the first recipe I have done that is all-grain.  (In the past I adapted recipes and used malt extract.)  This new beer is called "Ryder's Rye IPA" and it's named after none other than the puppy-boy himself!  

We brewed the beer on January 14th, 2012.  It had an original gravity of 1.077, with an estimated 82 IBU's.  
I let it sit in the primary to ferment for exactly 2 weeks, and transferred it over to the secondary vessel on January 28th.  The final gravity of this beer turned out exactly where it was supposed to be at 1.019.  My initial reaction to the fermented beer was that it turned out EXCELLENT!  And the more I sipped on my sample of the brew the more I loved it!  So, at this point I want to say that Ryder's Rye IPA is a success!  


I added 3 ounces of Cascade Hops to the secondary for dry hopping, and I plan on leaving it in there for at least a week or two before I put the beer in bottles.  I am opting for bottles as opposed to my homebrew keg merely because it's a lot easier to share the beer with people when it's in bottles, and this is definitely one I want to share with friends and family!


I'm very happy how this is going, and I plan on brewing strictly all-grain from now on!


Thanks for checking in!  I'll have more to come soon.


-David

DECEMBER 2011 UPDATES:

We love IPA's here at Bennett Valley Brewing! In fact, that is currently my main brewing focus. I'm working on formulating the perfect IPA recipe to represent Bennett Valley Brewing, and to possibly take to some local brew events.  My goal is  to create something bold and unique... something I can be proud to enter into local brew contests. 

So, to accomplish this task, I'm starting to get more serious about things. I've accumulated quite a few books on brewing and designing recipes.  Some of the must-haves, including John Palmer's "How to Brew", Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers", and of course Charlie Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" just to name a few.  I also finally picked up the BeerSmith brewing program which has just been amazing!  I honestly can't imagine designing a beer without this tool.

I'll be brewing up a new batch in the coming weeks so please check back for updates. 

Thanks!
-David