The might gods of the iron realms recently gathered in Washington, DC. I brought homemade brew. For those interested in brewing, here are the recipes for the brews I brought.


Superiority Ale (actually it's a clone of Stone's Ruination, an American style double IPA)
• 14 1/8 lb US 2-row pale malt
• 14 oz caramel or crystal malt - 20L
• 2.55 oz magnum hops @ 14.1% alpha - 90 minutes
• 1.8 oz centennial hops @ 8.9% alpha - 15 minutes
• 1 tsp Irish moss - 15 minutes
• Safale US-05 yeast, though can also use White Labs' WLP-001
• 2 oz centennial hops @ 8.9% alpha - dry hop for a week

Mash at 149 F for 90 minutes. Sparge for another 60 minutes then boil for another 90 minutes using the above hop schedule. Use a brew calculator to figure out how much water is needed for 5 gallons with adjustments specific to your equipment and elevation.


Oaked Superiority
Same as the above, but add 1 oz medium toast oak cubes during the week of dry hopping.


Award Winning Maple Brew
• 7.25 parts real maple syrup, 8.75 parts water
• Add yeast energizer and yeast nutrient per instructions on their bottles
• Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

Age as long as you can stand it. Rack it a few times. Serve at room temperature. Do not use fake "syrup" that is just flavored corn syrup. Use the real stuff.

I suggest grade B syrup (using the American grading system), or the darkest you can find. Fermenting kills much of the maple flavor, so you want it to start with a strong maply flavor that only dark syrup can offer.

This is not a cheap brew. You can save money by tapping your own maple tree. Freeze the sap and throw out the ice. The sugar stays in the unfrozen part. Then boil it to a specific gravity of around 1.156. This should be about the same as 7.25 parts real maple syrup, 8.75 parts water, no need to dillute.

This brew won two awards. It came in second place in the local newspaper's maple recipe contest. It also won the award of Estarra's Favorite Brew during the Washington meet.


Sickeningly Sweet Ambrosia of Roark Mead
• Enough honey to get a 1.13 specific gravity when mixed with water, maybe about 3.5 pounds per gallon?
• Add yeast energizer and yeast nutrient per instructions on their bottles
• Lalvin D47 yeast

Age as long as you can go. Rack it a few times. Serve at room temperature or heated.


Fruity Mead
• 3 lb honey mixed with enough water to make a gallon
• 25 raisins
• An orange cut into slices
• Add pectic enzyme, yeast energizer, and yeast nutrient per instructions on their bottles
• Lalvin D47 yeast

Age as long as you can go. Rack it a few times. Serve at room temperature or heated. Might need to use bentonite to make it clear. Might also want to use a campden tablet to sanitize the brew before adding the yeast, but I didn't and it worked fine.


Vino Bianco di Congelato Concentrato
• 3 cans of frozen concentrated white grape juice (I used Welch's) with enough water topped off to make a gallon
• 1/2 lb sugar
• Add pectic enzyme, acid blend, and yeast nutrient per instructions on their bottles
• Probably Lalvin D47 yeast, but maybe it was Lalvin EC-1118

The most important ingredient here is the acid blend. It's nasty without that. Probably is drinkable after 3 months. Also note that the amount of water added to reconcentrate is not the same as the can's instructions. Ignore the can.

Some of those actually sound pretty nice. Pity that homebrew gear is so expensive here...

The Maple Brew was definitely my favorite.

Oooo, looks tasty! Love craft/homebrew :) Melomels and mead especially.

Homebrew gear is cheap if you shop right. I got an all-grain beer kit for <$100 on Craig's List. If you are handy, it's not too hard to make one yourself from used coolers from a flea market.

Beer is difficult to make, but you really don't need special equipment for wine, mead, and maple brew. If you want to do 1 gallon batches, you can find a cheap 1 gallon glass jug. There's a junk shop nearby my house that sells them for $1. Just leftover bottles that once held 1 gallon of wine to buy at a grocery store. That's how I did all the non-beer brews.

Or if you want to go really cheap, a 1 gallon milk jug, then a balloon on top with a hole punched in it. I don't recommend it, but it's what my grandma did years back.

I'd probably have to resort to making my own gear, I don't think many people on craigslist would be keen on shipping stuff all the way to New Zealand.

Sounds like some nifty ideas for some Lusternia ales that do godly things :) Wheee! Go Roark, Lord of the Brewmiesters!!!

The Maple Brew was definitely my favorite.


I forgot which ones I had but they were all tasty.

Thanks Roark!

This setup looks pretty spiffy HS Microbrewery.

Thought I'd link to this. He's like the Funranium Labs of brewer's yeast right now: East Coast Yeast

Al B, microbiologist and avid homebrewer has been making and sharing brewing cultures for years both locally (Central Jersey) and across the US. He's now making some cultures available through Princeton Homebrew and through special projects.