last weekend I threw together a variation of my kolsch and had a new homebrewer, BB, over to help out with his first batch.

• I recommended williams’ kolsch as a first-time brew due to its straightforward recipe and my luck brewing it in the past.
• as for my all-grain version, I changed up my standard recipe to knock out some of my hop stock:

• 0.50 lb	Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)	Adjunct	2.56 %
  14.00 lb	Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	71.79 %
  5.00 lb	Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM)	Grain	25.64 %
  ~1.00 oz each	HG Chinook, Columbus [?.00 %] (60 min)	Hops	25.8 IBU
  ~1.00 oz each	EKG, Saaz [X.00 %] (15 min)	Hops	3.6 IBU
  1.00 oz	Fuggle[X.00 %] (5 min)	Hops	1.4 IBU

• my brew setup must have been jinxed, because despite adding a healthy dose of rice hulls my mash got stuck again.  I swapped my false bottom (which I think is just too small for my mash tun) for a stainless braid, which I will keep in there for the time being while I ponder a suitable replacement (a jaybird custom false bottom? a reinforced braid setup?).
• I also found some time to keg the eventful batch of hybrid stout while waiting for my wort to cool.
• BB’s brew was smooth sailing as well, albeit with a few hiccups (a last-minute hop substitution and tossing the hops in his better bottle).  I got an excited phone message the next night describing the miracle of fermentation and a vigorously bubbling airlock.
• I wish I could say the same for my batch.  my starter smelled buttery/malty, and after two days no activity was evident.
• luckily I had a couple of packets of dry yeast (safale US-05 and S-04) that I tossed into each keg, which kicked off fermentation in a matter of hours.  I was more than a little bummed about the forced style change though…

I spied a bomber of rogue’s dry hopped st. rogue red on the shelf last week at bevmo while on a staple beer run (i.e., grabbing as many bombers of stone 13th and lagunitas little sumpin’ extra I could get my mitts on), so I figured I’d give it a shot.

• the brew had a great rocky head that lasted for quite some time, along with a strong ruby color.
• however, it had a mild, grassy hop aroma and flavor and a mediocre malt backbone (although the pacman yeast kept the overall beer pretty clean).
• I have a strong hunch this beer had been sitting around for quite some time before I got my hands on it.  I mean, a dry hopped beer with little hop aroma??
• I’ll have to try this guy again.  it was on draft at their pub last time I was there…