IXNAY's Stryker IPA, ver. 3.0 Mod 0

[IXNAYXJ]

I went over to GI-John's place with Slacker87XJ (Ian) on Sunday to brew, as the title suggests, IXNAY's Stryker IPA, ver. 3.0 Mod 0. And of course, eat some of John's food. :D

The first IXNAY's IPA was one of John's early brewing projects (about four months ago), meant to be a super-hoppy Mirror Pond-ish IPA, patterned off of a Deschutes limited run called "Hop Henge." It was a huge success, especially considering John pretty much winged it. We drank the 5 gallons that night at what has come to be known as "Drunkfest 1."
http://smiley.onegreatguy.net/drink.gif

Ver 2.0 is still conditioning, but we went ahead with a further refinement. When we weren't brewing the new beer, we were trying John's latest brew, a Mirror Pond clone. He came very close to nailing it dead-on! We did a side-by-side comparison between that and the genuine article: The color was a dead ringer. Perfect. The taste was a little bitterer, it seemed to me, and not quite as crisp and clear. That being said, I think it has about double the alcohol content! Very, very tasty beer!!!

Anyway, here are some pics of the brewing process:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00224.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00225.jpg

Doesn't look like much, but the smell was great, and made me very hopeful for the finished product:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00227.jpg

Those are Chinook hops that I picked out for their super-hoppy smell that characterized both the Hop Henge and ver. 1.0 of IXNAY's. And there's a helocopter named Chinook. Which is cool.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00229.jpg

John doing some laundry. Or cooling down the wort (see, John? I was listening!).

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00235.jpg

John's lovely and talented wife, Lonnie, in the process of telling me "Not to look, and damn sure not to take a picture." Oops.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00237.jpg

Rebecca the Terrible, cutting off John's arms.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00242.jpg

John saying "You'd better not take a picture of this and post in NAXJA!" Oops.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00243.jpg

Huddling in the shade, trying (in vain) to stay cool:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Brewing/DSC00221.jpg

Anyway, I'll let you know how IXNAY's Stryker IPA Ver. 3.0 Mod 0 tastes in about a month! Thanks again, John!

-----Matt-----

[sams88]

Heh! :) Whatta kick! Took me back a few years when I was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island. Had a few friends that were also in to the brewing kick. We had a lot of fun at that. But we didn't have all the goodies available then that there are now. Was pretty rudimentary.... the classic crock, canned Pabst malt, etc. We still managed to make some pretty potent stuff, a little yeasty maybe, but after a couple a pints, who cared! :)

One of the guys even got into making Champagne. Was going pretty good until one batch corked off and embeded glass shards in the ceiling in his washing room. His wife put a quick kabosh on it after that. She was a pretty good lady, had more of a problem raising her husband than any of their three children! LOL She definitely paid her dues in this world!

[PDeeXJ]

So are you guys coming to Hop Madness (http://hopmadness.com/)?

[CanMan]

Looks like fun times had by all. I bet the beer will be very tasty when done. :thumbup:

[XJCasper]

John, do you live on base?

What's going on next weekend.

I am supposed to continue what I didn't get started this weekend, but I really want to get together with everyone, on, or off the trail.

Jason

[Sniggs]

Two city type chaps were having a sly pint during lunchtime one afternoon but after a while it got a bit out of control booze-wise and they were both rapidly getting spannered.

Suddenly and without warning one of the chaps thew up down the front of his suit. "I think I'd better go home" he said, but his buddy replied "No need my friend, just do what I always do in this position, put a $10 note in your breast pocket, and when your lovely wife asks you about the puke stain all down the front of your suit, say that a bloke in the pub did it and if you don't believe me theres the $10 that he gave me for the dry cleaning in my top pocket"

"Brilliant".

So the binge carried on until closing, by which time the two of them were TOTALLY wasted. On getting home the chap with the puke problem was confronted in his hallway by his wife...

"Look at the state of you, you are despicable, disgusting, vile"
"It's not what it seems to be" he replied, and continued to tell the lie about the chap in the pub "and if you don't believe me there's the $10 he gave me for the dry cleaning in my breast pocket" he said.

His wife, being a suspicious type, reached into his pocket. "Hang on" she said, "there's $20 in here"

To which the drunk replied "He also shat my pants".

[IXNAYXJ]

To which the drunk replied "He also shat my pants".That's classic! Luckily we didn't have to get any money for dry-cleaning on Sunday.... ;)

-----Matt-----

[PDeeXJ]

Bump!

The wort boiled over, eh? I didn't see that the first time around.

Brewed last night with some folks. Only one boil over.

[IXNAYXJ]

Bump!

The wort boiled over, eh? I didn't see that the first time around.

Brewed last night with some folks. Only one boil over.Blame me. Or John's "magic flower marbles" which were supposed to keep that from happening....

We caught it pretty quick.

-----Matt-----