Pilsener and Paddle to the Cream

Yesterday Evan and I headed up to Castle Danger Brewery where we used some of the equipment to do two back-to-back home brew batches!

It was a great day indeed.

The first batch was a Pilsener style beer that is actually an ale. Funky eh? This batch had a few minor malfunctions, but will definitely turn out great! How embarrassing for my first time brewing with Evan.

The second batch was a slightly modified version of my Paddle to the Cream Ale recipe. Hoping the changes made it taste even better! (It is already delicious!) Here's an overview of some of the ingredients:

Pilsen liquid malt extract - flavor, body, base, fermentable sugars
Carapils Malt - mostly provides body
Caramel Malt - Provides delicious malty flavor and body
Gambrinus Honey Malt - Contributes sweet malty flavor, honey flavor, residual sweetness
Maize - flaked dry corn contributes flavor, some fermentable sugar, lends sweet corn flavor
Hallertau hops - traditionally a German noble hop, fruity and spicy
Tettnang hops - German noble hop, used for aroma, pure and refined


Here are some pictures of our day. I hope you enjoy them! They were taken on my phone, so I'm sorry to those who thought they would not have to deal with the phone pictures any more.

Evan really enjoys brewing.

Delicious aerated worty goodness.

Those lab skills are practical after all, huh Evan?

That is all for now, I hope you all have a wonderful Friday.

What are you drinking today?

Logo Ideas!

Check out these awesome logo options that my sister Jessi and her friend Steph made for the blog! I am still waiting on some options from some other people too. I am going to have a hard time picking one to use. I will probably just end up having to cycle through all of them.

Let me know which ones are your favorites!

A New Look for a Not-So-Old Blog/Norm's

So the few of you who actually read this will probably notice that I changed up the look of things a bit. I really wanted to get rid of the ugly beer background. I am still not content with the appearance, but I definitely think it's an upgrade. I designed the title logo myself. I don't really like it, and would love it if someone decided to be awesome enough to make me something!

In the case that you are actually following my blog postings, you are probably wondering why I didn't post anything yesterday. To be honest I simply didn't have any time. I was busy all day, and then spent some time with some friends last night.

I do, however, have a recommendation to make for people who may find themselves at some point in Superior, WI. I know Superior as a great place to find little hole in the wall bars that have yummy food (my favorite is The Anchor Bar). Well last night we experienced Norm's Beer and Brats for the first time. Apparently, Norm's has special food deals almost every night of the week, and they even have dancing on Fridays! I cannot say that Norm's is in any way shape or form a fancy bar. It is in the basement of a building, it is small, and a little dingy. The bar is not fancy, the food is not fancy, the people are not fancy. But hey, who needs fancy anyways? Especially when you can $0.25 tacos on Tuesdays, and wash them down with $4 pitchers of beer (we had Premium.....at least the price was right). The tacos were assembled from your classic grocery store hard corn shells, meat from a crock pot, some lettuce and cheese. They were not the best tacos I have had by a long shot, but superior quality is probably not why one purchases $0.25 tacos. I had mine with hot sauce, which I recommend over the mild.

Norm's honestly seems like a fun place to go with a few friends and hang out. They have a pool and ping pong table, and some arcade games. I think the next time I go back I may have to visit on a Wednesday when they have $1 burgers, and $5 pitchers of beer.

Cheers!