Uncategorized

Recently, a consultant buddy of mine was assigned to a project in Iowa.  I immediately told him to look for Pseudo Sue by Toppling Goliath.  He found some and raved so much about it, he muled some back for me to try.  I instantly knew what beer I would attempt to brew next.

After perusing the HomeBrewTalk forums for a clone recipe, I found a thread that had lots of input from multiple brewers.  I took what they came up with and tweaked it a little to come up with this recipe:

*Note the IBUs are probably not accurate.  It’s much less bitter than this but all the late hop additions cause Beersmith to overcalculate the IBUs. It’s probably closer to 45-50.

Since it had been 2 years since my last brew, I knew I would be a little rusty.  Also, in my attempt to gradually improve my brewing process and brew gear, I added several new facets to my brew day.

1. Inkbird 308 temperature controller for my mini-fridge fermenter
2. Counterflow Chiller to cool the wort faster after brewing
3. BIAB!! (Brew in a bag)

The last item was the biggest change for me.  In the past, I used a cooler as my mash tun with a CPVC manifold instead of a false bottom.  It worked great but transferring hot wort from the mash tun to the boil kettle was always a pain and inevitably when I would remember 3 days later that I never cleaned out the mash tun, I ended up with a nasty smelling surprise when I’d open the lid.

With BIAB, I had an inexpensive muslin/mesh bag from Amazon that I could fit over my boil kettle.  I simply mashed the crushed grains in the bag and then lifted the spent grains out like a giant tea bag afterwards.  No wort transfers as the wort was sitting in the boil kettle already!

Going forward, I bought a reusable BIAB bag (redundant?) from Wilserbrewer a very reputable bag maker in the home brewing network, so I look forward to the next batch where I can use it.

As for this beer, brew day went very smoothly, surprisingly.  I attempted a whirlpool for some aroma hops which I suppose went OK, although it was more steeping than whirlpooling as I was too busy trying to figure out the counterflow chiller on the fly.  Oh well.

The beer, although darker than I expected, turned out great.  I did fine it with gelatin, so it’s not as hazy as Pseudo Sue, but the grapefruit/citrus/mango/piney flavors and aromas are totally there!  Overall, this is one of the best beers I’ve ever brewed which I’m attributing mostly to a good recipe and temperature-controlled fermentation (~64 F).

Aside from the beer, I had a lot of fun converting the Pseudo Sue label to Pseudo Joe!  I had to watch a ton of youtube videos on GIMP techniques, but in the end, I was pretty proud of the final product.

Last August, I finally got into home brewing after 3 years of picking up and putting down John Palmer’s How to Brew.  My friend, Shaun, purchased a brewing kit and urged me to do the same time.  So, I bought a kit from my local home brew shop and followed the directions on my first kit–a IIPA from Brewer’s Best.

As informative as Palmer’s book is, sometimes you really need to just jump in with both feet and learn by experience.  After brewing my first beer, I finally understood a lot more of the book that I had previously read numerous times.  With multiple brew days under my belt, now, I feel a lot more comfortable with the terminology, calculations, procedures, equipment, expectations, and overall knowledge associated with home brewing your own beer.  But the more that I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.  It’s an ever-learning process.