Saturday morning bad weather Brew Day!

This rainy Saturday morning, the Fluke Crew brewed up a batch of their Black Rye IPA summer seasonal.  The wind was not cooperating with us today and we ended up having to brew in the garage with the door open.  Anyways here are some pictures from this mornings shenanigans.

Windy Rainy Brew Day

Black Rye IPA

Black Rye IPA

American IPA

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/27/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal	Brewer: Fluke Brewing
Boil Size: 7.28 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 69 min	Equipment: Fluke Brewing 10 Gal - All Grain
End of Boil Volume 5.98 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal	Est Mash Efficiency 75.3 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 50.0
Taste Notes:

Almost ready to move outside!

Getting used to the great outdoors.

With the weather finally starting to stay a bit warmer it is starting to get close to time to move the Cascades and Centennials outside to their real home in the ground. The plants are well on there way and some are already too tall for the 3 foot stakes I put in the pots to train them a bit. Overall I am very satisfied with the rhizomes I received from Northwest Hops. All the trellis supports have been constructed and we are basically just waiting on the weather to get them outside to really start growing. At this point we are shooting for somewhere around the first week of May, which is why I am getting them acclimated to the outdoors a bit prior to the transition.

NEW TAP HANDLES!!!!

I want to thank John and Allisson from Best Brew Tap for everything! I had an absolutely astonishing experience working with you. Every step of the process was a joy and I could not be a more satisfied customer. I look forward to working with you in the future, hopefully the near future. Thank you so much!!!

Simply the BEST!

Survey Results

The results are in! Thank you for everyone who took the time to complete our survey. After analyzing the results we came up with the following seasonal beer schedule:

Spring Seasonals:

• Pilsner 
• Red Ale 
• Scottish Ale 

Fluke Homebrewing Seasonal Survey

Hey Fluke Brewing fans!  Now is your chance to have you input on what will become our seasonal beer lineup.  Please take the survey below. We will take results and formulate our season beer lineup.

Cheers,

Philip

Hop Yard Build 2012 - Part 1

This past winter, the idea of growing our own hops to use in our home brew recipes came up several times. We were debating on where and what we could plant and whether or not it would be successful in a place like Minnesota.

My main resource for planning the hop yard

After a substantial amount of time and effort put into researching and reading up on methods and tips for growing hops at home, it turns out Minnesota is in fact a great place to grow many common hop varieties available to the public. We came across a family-owned and operated hop farm by the name of Northwest Hops located in Hubbard, Oregon, "Home of the Hubbard Hop Festival". They are a great resource for the home brewer or anyone looking to start planting and growing their own hops. Some of their strains of rhizomes have been said to be traced back over 80+ years so you know you are receiving quality product from them and the knowledge that comes with generations of farmers.
I borrowed a book from Philip which does a great job of outlining everything needed to successfully grow your own hops at home. It is called The Homebrewer's Garden, which can be purchased from Amazon as well as other bookstores. It has been a great resource for planning the hop yard.
I chose to start with Cascade and Centennial rhizomes. My reasoning for this was they are relatively resilient strains and do well in most climates. They are also fairly resistant against diseases like powdery mildew, downy mildew and some common virus strains that can affect hop plants as they grow.

Illuminated Bar Signs for your man cave

Best Brew Taps prototype Sign

John from Best Brew Taps came up with a new prototype illuminated bar sign.  He liked Fluke Homebrew's logo so much he used it to make the first one. Check out the sign HERE!  Make sure to go and order some custom wood tap handles from him at bestbrewtap.com

Cheers,

DangerRoss