Got Beef?

I smoked about 6 to 8 pounds of beefs this week to keep around for good protein rich meals. I just got the cheapest beef at the store for like $3.50 a pound or so, which means it’s real tough.

I seasoned them with a rub that contained salt, sugar, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder, and let it sit out for an hour or so with the rub on it. Then cooked it on the grill with some hickory smoke at about 250 deg F until the internal temp of the beef was 160. It’s a little tough and a little dry, but it’s edible and has some good flavor.

Here are some pics:

   

Check out that smoke ring! If you’re normal and don’t like eating beef that’s tough and dry by itself like I do, this works great for bbq sandwiches.

Belgian Tripel Brewday

Three days ago I gave my first shot at a Tripel, and it was quite a blast. Not only did I brew a lot of beer but I also drank a lot of beer. Anyway, here is the recipe I made:

Malts – 13 lb Maris Otter, 2 lb Munich, 1 lb Aromatic, 12 oz Crystal 10L

Other fermentables – 1.5 lb Turbinado Sugar (added at 30 min in boil)

60 min boil – added .6 oz Northern Brewer hops at 60 min, .4 oz bitter orange peel at 30 min, .6 oz Sterling hops at 15 min, .05 oz clove at 30 sec, .25 oz coriander at 30 sec, .2 oz Jamaica allspice at 30 sec

Yeast – WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast

Targets – 60 min mash at 152 degrees F, pre-boil gravity 1.073, original gravity 1.090

Brew day numbers – 60 min mash at 154-155 deg F, pre-boil gravity 1.073, original gravity 1.097

If anyone doesn’t know what this stuff means then let me know and I’ll explain. Moving on, here are some brew day pics:

  

After extracting 5 gallons of the tripel from the mash, we went ahead and extracted another gallon into a separate pot for a lighter beer. This one came out too light though, so we added 1.5 lbs of honey into the boil along with some Sterling and Cascade hops and a little bit of Jamaica allspice; the original gravity came out to be 1.078. We used the same yeast in this as we did for the tripel, here is a pic:

All of that sediment floating around will filter out during bottling. Thanks to Brian, Rich and Taylor for their help. Here is a picture of all the beer we were drinking while brewing, the two on the right are from our last two batches of homebrew, one is a pale ale and the other a stout:

New Fermentation Chamber

I recently ordered a Johnson Controls A419 Temperature Controller for an old fridge that I got for free from a friend that moved across the country.  I wired it up and now I’ve got a nice little fermentation chamber that I can use for either ales or lagers. Right now I’ve got it set up to not go any higher than 73 deg F, and it’s been sitting right around 71 for the most part, which is perfect for the beer I will be brewing tomorrow which is a Belgian Tripel using the WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast. Here are some pics:

        

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