Mad Zack Brewing
Purveyors of fine ales, ciders and meads for the discerning post-apocalyptic survivor...

Blog of Mad Zack Brewing

Keyword: brewday

Sun, 03 May 2020 06:01:01 -0700

Gear Review: Anvil Foundry 10.5

I recently got a new piece of brewing kit, an electric BiaK (brew in a kettle) system from Anvil Brewing Supplies and Blichmann Engineering called the Foundry. I purchased the 10.5-gallon unit, capable of doing full-size 5-gallon batches or homebrew. more...

kelly jacklin

Sun, 23 Sep 2018 08:46:31 -0700

Brewday: New Grain Mill, Stout and Mead...

Busy brewing day today! more...

kelly jacklin

Tue, 08 May 2018 07:40:00 -0700

New recipe: Nuclear Winter White IPA...

A couple weeks ago, I was over at a friend's house, and had a quite wonderful beer: New Belgium's Accumulation White IPA. I was taken aback by the wonderful flavour, and quite impressed. I hadn't had a white IPA before, it's actually a fairly new style. Basically it is based on a whitbier style, but with the hop-forward and dry-hopped elements of an IPA. Wonderfully refreshing and cool tasting, and quite drinkable. Probably will be a good summer beer, as most wheat-based beers are. more...

kelly jacklin

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 08:36:13 -0800

Zymatic batch of Rye IPA...

I've spent the last couple of months furiously brewing PicoPaks on my new Pico C brewing appliance, because of a time-limited unlimited subscription to PicoPaks. It's been a ton of fun, and I've brewed a large variety of brews, some far outside of my comfort zone as a brewer. While it has been a ton of fun, from a brewer's perspective, it's not nearly as satisfying as brewing my own recipes with my own ingredients. more...

kelly jacklin

Sun, 17 Dec 2017 16:37:46 -0800

Bottling two dark brews...

It was bottling day for my "two dark beers" Pico brew session. No serving kegs for these batches, bottles this time. Racked to a bucket with the priming sugar, and thence to bottles: 4 22-ounce bottles and 2 12-ounce bottles. For each, There was plenty of leftover for tasting, probably enough where I could have had two more 12-ounce bottles. more...

kelly jacklin

Sat, 09 Dec 2017 15:32:00 -0800

Two Dark Ales

Yesterday was "two dark beer" day a Mad Zack's! I brewed two PicoPak batches: Elysian's Dragontooth Stout and Flying Monkeys' awesomely-named Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale. The place still smells wonderfully of roasty, toasty, chocolatety, malty goodness! more...

kelly jacklin

Sat, 04 Nov 2017 11:32:03 -0700

Bottled Joe's Ancient Orange Mead...

OK, two months ago I started a 1-gallon batch of a mead recipe called Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. Typically one bottles after 2 months, and it also happens to be Learn How to Homebrew Day, so I decided to bottle my JAOM batch. Super easy bottling session, since it was only a 1-gallon carboy, and there was quite a bit on the lees; as a result, there were only 6 bottles, and I used up one for tasting and measuring specific gravity (1.016). more...

kelly jacklin

Mon, 04 Sep 2017 09:21:08 -0700

Brewing Mead...

Easiest brew day ever! more...

kelly jacklin

Sat, 27 May 2017 16:50:00 -0700

Brew day: Taupo Eruption...

It's brew day! The brew du jour is a second batch of Taupo Eruption Pale Ale, except all grain this time, and with purely New Zealand (erm, New Zedland?) hops. The hops came from Seven Bridges, my erstwhile brewing supply store, until they went out of business... :'( more...

kelly jacklin

Sun, 11 Dec 2016 17:10:00 -0800

Brew-day: Another Plague of Kali Batch...

It's brew day again! I was getting low on my Plague of Kali Rya IPA, so I decided to brew a new batch. My ESB is still sitting in primary fermenter, doing its diacetyl rest, but I have 2 more carboys, so I can do some batches in parallel. more...

kelly jacklin

Sun, 27 Nov 2016 14:23:00 -0800

Brewing "The Bitter End" ESB...

I've been wanting to brew an ESB for a while now. I stumbled across a recipe called that people rave about, so I thought I'd tweak it a bit and try it out. more...

kelly jacklin