Fat Grey Tom's Cider - The Ramblings of the Fat Grey Tom Cidery

Pipelining your homebrew

Note: This was originally posted on my blog, “Put some cilantro on it!” Since moving to New Mexico, homebrewing has taken a back seat to everything else. I have 15 gallons of cider (in three separate batches) hanging out against one wall in my kitchen, a big bottle of iodopher sitting in my cabinet and… Continue reading Pipelining your homebrew

NM AW #1 – Starting

Cider with lid in primary, above. Sani bucket below.

The Fat Grey Tom’s Cider of old, is, alas, dead. I, Wheeler, moved to New Mexico for a job. Bryce also moved away. Leo stayed in Reno. After nearly three years in New Mexico (three years in July) I’ve decided to start brewing again and the easiest place to restart is with a simple cider.… Continue reading NM AW #1 – Starting

The Experimental IPA

One can see where the foam was at the top of the mug before settling down into a manageable head.

Bryce has wanted an IPA for a long time and we have tried on multiple occasions. On these other occasions we have failed and created pale ales that were not of the India stature. This last time we tried, though, we knocked it out of the park. Well, not really. It’s really bitter though. Leo… Continue reading The Experimental IPA

The Voltron Ale

The Voltron in low light

Leo, Bryce and I are products of the late 80s and early 90s. When we were born has informed both our choices in diction and our nomenclature decisions, aka, references. The banality of evil is certainly, to a degree and extent, borne out of the History Channel of our childhood’s and its devotion to World… Continue reading The Voltron Ale

An Experiment in Cider Yeasts

Four 4-gallons and a 5-gallon, beginning to ferment.

One of our local homebrew stores was having a sale on yeasts a month, or maybe longer, ago. The yeasts were about to go out of date so they were marked down and low and behold, they were not many common yeasts. In fact, they were all White Labs vials, four of them to be… Continue reading An Experiment in Cider Yeasts

A Complete Kegerator

The completed kegerator, or keezer, with a table cloth.

After many, many hours of work between the three of us, much hand-wringing over which items to buy and many, many trips to the store to figure out the correct-sized chest freezer, the kegerator, or keezer, is complete. We’re running a four-tap system which means we have four Cornelius kegs jammed into the inside of… Continue reading A Complete Kegerator

Limeade Wine

Today, Dec. 21, marked a great day. A day on which Bryce and I sampled the fruits of our and many a chemist’s labors. They were sweet, they were sour and smelled like ham. I had limeade in the refrigerator. We calculated out the amount of sugar we needed to add to get it up… Continue reading Limeade Wine

Apfelwein #5 Secondaried

We secondaried both AW #5 and AW #5C. These two, unlike any other ciders we’d made before, were made with the Windsor ale yeast suggested to us by our LHBS (Local HomeBrew Store.) Sadly, everything tasted like salt to Bryce and I. Sadly, we’re not entirely sure why. Which means the jury’s still out. But… Continue reading Apfelwein #5 Secondaried

Wort Chiller

The chiller once it's been wrapped around the Rossi jug. Next up: attaching the tubing.

After our near-debacle with the pumpkin beer, we decided that a change was in order. And that change was a wort chiller: no more messing with huge quantities of pre-prepared water, of waiting for things to cool, of putting the glass carboy into a giant tub of water while it’s freezing outside. Eric decided we… Continue reading Wort Chiller

Secondarying Leo’s Stout #2

We secondaried Leo’s Stout, batch #2. The grains and trub settled to the bottom and the yeast settled and compacted on top of it. We used Leo’s jacket to protect the carboy from sunlight and it seemed it deserved a hat. The stout provided a problem, however: it was primaried in the garage, which gets… Continue reading Secondarying Leo’s Stout #2

Leo’s Stout Batch #2

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast. Done us well so far.

Leo’s Stout #2, has its genesis in the original stout we brewed. As you might imagine. This time, however, we boosted the batch size to around six gallons to take advantage of our 6.5 gallon glass carboy. Can you say blow-off tube? Because we have one. Oh yea. We feel pimpin’. Nay. We be pimpin’.… Continue reading Leo’s Stout Batch #2

Apfelwein #5 (AW)

AW #5 in its fermenter.

Apfelwein #5 was mixed on November 19th. (See the publish date? Regardless of when the article goes live, it’s backdated to the date of the event.) We used cups instead of grams to figure out how to get our sugar levels right. Otherwise, AW #5 is noticeable for a single reason, besides being our fifth… Continue reading Apfelwein #5 (AW)