Next Meeting...

After a brief hiatus Cana will be resuming again on March 3rd at 2:30pm.  We'll be brewing up something tasty and we'll have something worth drinking on tap while we do it!  Would love to see you there.

Moving forward we've been discussing how to better run Cana.  One idea we have is to brew one month, then meet the next month at a local brewpub to hangout and try some local concoctions.  This would mean that we'd meet in early April to hangout, then meet in May to brew again.  We'll see what everything is thinking when we meet on the 3rd and go from there.

Cheers!

The Second Meeting: Pumpkin Ale

So this last weekend Cana met again.  We had 6 people show up because evidently we aren't the best at getting the word out.  Sorry everyone!  We'll work on that some more.  This time we tasted the Cana Pale Ale from last time and made a Pumpkin Ale.  Weather was great for fall and we had a really good time.  Here's the details about the recipe:

Recipe:
11 Gallons

Fermentables:
12 lb GW 2-Row
2 lb Crystal 20L
1.5 lb Munich Light
1.5 lb Victory
12 oz Flaked Wheat
About 5 lb of roasted pumpkin

Anticipated OG: 1.047
Actual OG: 1.050
Anticipated FG: 1.010
Actual OG: 1.011
ABV: 5.1%
Brewhouse efficiency: 75%

Hops:
1 oz Cascade (10.2%) for 60m
1 oz Cascade (10.2%) for 30m

26 IBU

Yeasts:
Safale US-05 in one half
Safale US-04 in other half

Notes:
Brewing was really smooth.  We were worried about the mash sticking, but everything went great.  We added the pumpkin to the mash after roasting it for an hour the day before.  To roast it, cut in half, scoop out seeds, lay face down on baking sheet with 1/2 to 1 inch of water, and bake for one hour at about 400 degrees.  Then scoop out the pumpkin from the skin.  Then add to the mash!  We also added in some nutmeg and cinnamon to the boil.  We just sort of pinched some and put it in, so it wasn't much, but we don't know how much it was.  We also didn't know how much the pumpkin would add to the gravity, so we were hoping just a few points, and it added just a few points.  So that worked out pretty well.  Can't wait to taste it next month!  You should join us!
Update 10/29/12: Kegged 2 gallons yesterday and bottled 41 bottles to take home!  Come on out and grab a few to take to your Thanksgiving feast to share!  See you Saturday, November 3!

The First Gathering...

So this last weekend we started meeting as an official Homebrew club.  We had six of us, which I'd say is pretty good since we didn't do a very good job of promoting it.  Hopefully next month will be bigger and better!  Here's what we brewed...


Cana Pale Ale
Recipe:
11 gallons

Fermentables:
20.62 lb GW 2-Row
3 lb CaraHell
1.63 lb Munich Light

Anticipated OG: 1.060
Actual OG: 1.054
Anticipated FG: 1.014
Actual FG:
Final ABV%:

Hops:
2oz CTZ for 60m
1oz Cascade for 10m

4oz Mt Hood at Flameout in hopback

4oz Dryhop for 7 days (2oz in each bucket)

45 IBU's

Yeast:
WhiteLabs WLP001 California Ale Slurry in one bucket
Fermentis Safale-05 in one bucket

Notes:
Great day brewing and made a couple new friends.  Our gravity came in a little lower than expected and we had some clogging issues with the new hopback.  That was our first time using it.  Fermentation is going solidly.  We'll rack to secondary and add dryhops in about a week or so.  All in all this was a great first run and we're pretty excited about Cana!