English Barley Wine – 2023
I took a couple of years off from brewing a barley wine. Mostly to drink what I had. There was getting to be quite a stockpile. I now have a larger mash tun so I could do this on one mash rather than an iterative mash. I also mashed lower and attempted to step the temperature up after an hour at the lower temperature. Boiled for 2.5 hours.

T’is the Saison
A dark saison inspired by gingerbread cookies. Spiced with Allspice, Cloves, dried ginger, and cinnamon. Molasses was added as that is a typical ingredient in gingerbread.

Old Bessy – Amber Lager
Using up some bits of malt I had hanging around. Also propagating the GoldRush lager yeast to use over the next few months.

SMaSH Vienna/Chinook
A SMaSH to get a taste of the Chinook hops this year. Also, using this to propagate the Hydra yeast from Escarpment Labs

At My Wit’s End
I haven’t brewed a Wit for a few years. The Wyeast 3463 – Forbidden Fruit was available this fall at the local home brew shop – Defalco’s. I used ray wheat in the brew. So, the process included a cereal mash. The brewing software I use doesn’t really have a process for a cereal mash. I used a spreadsheet for calculating the mash. I know the spreadsheet isn’t accurate and I ended up missing my mash temperatures. It will make beer in the end though.

Bay Brew – Gruit
An annual gruit I brew on Manitoulin Island. This makes use of juniper, bog wort, & wormwood growing wild in the area. This year I tried adding more of the juniper to the mash. There wasn’t enough pine last year.

Scavenger Ale
Just an ale using up various bits of malt and hops I have laying around. In this case, trying to use up last years’ hops

Lemon Dill Ale
An attempt at using dill from the garden in a beer. A bit of a work in progress. I’ll have to taste it and see if it needs more dill or lemon

Up the Line – IPA
First attempt at mash hopping. Trying to use up last years hops. There will be a whole new crop in a few weeks.

Summer Brown Ale
A basic brown ale to have on tap over the summer

DMASH – Honey Oat/Heidleberg
Trying out a new malt from Gambrinus – Honey Malted Oats. A nice sweet tast and good colour from the malt.

Raspberry Wheat
I called it a wheat beer but it contains no wheat. Using a new grain from Breiss – Blonde Roast Oat. I left the valve open on the brew kettle by accident. Lost a good portion of the wort to the ground. It ended up being about a 3% beer. Very refreshing on a hot day.

Raspberry/Chocolate Porter
I was a bit on the fence about it being either a porter or a stout. Hence the inconsistent style. I used a low level of roasted grain to get more from the chocolate. There is cocoa powder in the mash as well as cocoa nibs in the secondary. Made use of frozen raspberries from last year.

The Bitter End
This is a Best Bitter I used to brew quite often. The recipe is quite good, I have a chance to use the Maker’s Malt English malt and Escaprment Labs English II yeast. It came out a bit drier than I was hoping. Still refreshing and crisp with a nice nutty/toasty flavour & aroma.

Rhubarb Wheat
This year’s edition of a rhubarb wheat beer. I tried using some old oak smoked wheat malt. The smokiness has faded and isn’t really apparent in the porter I brewed with it last year. However, the smoke flavour does come through here.

Trap Door – IPL
It’s the coldest day of the season so it seemed appropriate to brew an India Pale Lager. I re-pitched Escarpment Labs Isar Lager yeast collected from the Clap for the Wolfman brewed at the end of 2022. The hops are wet hops harvested in the fall of 2022 and frozen fresh. The malt bill is a nod to the recipes I used 10 years ago. I liked the taste of Weyermann’s Munich II in my IPLs. The strong malty flavour of the Munich balances nicely with the hops.

Sin Bin 2023
A re-brew of the Dubbel I brewed last fall. That batch developed an infection and had to be disposed of. I adjusted the recipe a bit. I swapped the Gambrinus ESB malt for the Maker’s Malt English malt. I changed the Munich to specifically Weyermann’s Munich II. I like the taste of the dark munich but I haven’t brewed much with it lately. I also added a bit of raw wheat to help with head retention.

Roast Oat Brown
A recipe featuring a new malt from Breiss – Blonde RoastOat Malt. I haven’t made many brown ales American or English. The recipe seems overly complex for what I usually create.

DMaSH – Heidelberg & Blonde RoastOat & Chinook
A recipe featuring a new malt from Breiss – Blonde RoastOat Malt. With a DMaSH hopefully I can get a real sense of the flavour of the RoastOat malt. The Chinook are wet hops harvested in fall 2022.