Wide-Eyed Cowboy Ale

UPDATE:
So, after sitting in bottles for 2 weeks, we opened up a bottle of the Wide-Eyed Cowboy. The anticipation is pretty daunting. I mean, you hope it's tasty, right? That's the idea anyway. The reaction was pretty positive. I think I am pleasantly surprised, and maybe even pleased, maybe. It has a nice bitterness on the palate up front. It settles out toward the end, but leaves a pretty okay finish. All in all, not too shabby.
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12.29.2010
We brewed a half-batch of Wide-Eyed Cowboy Ale. It was an extract from Midwest Supplies out of Minnesota. We made very few adjustments to the original recipe for the Superior Strong Ale. This one should come out as a nice sipping, bittery, hoppy treat. That's the idea anyway. Biggest change to the recipe was using the entirety of the Mt Hood hops (2 oz) at 60 minutes, adding a nice bitter deliciousness. At 3 minutes, we threw in an ounce of Tettnang hops for a bit of aromatic decadence. The recipe called for an SG of 1.063. Ours came in at a tidy 1.062. Not too shabby. My hope is that the extra bittering hops increases the IBU above the anticipated 52%, maybe closer to the 60 range. Our abv should come in around 6.4ish%. Ideally, if this one turns out as expected, I'd like to get the abv up about 1%, in the neighborhood of 7.5%. When steeping the grains, we allowed them to nestle at about 160 degrees for a half hour, a bit higher than the 155 we were aiming for. We didn't tea bag them as we have in the past however (hat tip).

When we get this one bottled, it's going to sit in the primary for about 3 weeks, we're going to pitch the 2nd half of the batch onto the yeast cake in the glass carboy. We'll also use a few, maybe 4, ounces of Chinook to make it especially hoppy and bitter. Yummy. Maybe we'll add a jar of honey to the boil to catapult the abv above the 7 range.

I had heard somewhere, I can't quite remember where or when, but I did hear that for whatever reason, dogs are prone to not especially enjoy the fermenting stage. I have no idea why that's the case, but my lab certainly didn't take too kindly to the explosive reaction once it took hold. Hmmm. Weird, don't you think? Anyway, let's hope this one turns out a winner.

Licking Retriever Brewery (subject to change).