The Homebrewing Q & A site has gotten me worried my batch 1 "Squito" light ale in growlers could explode from over-carbonation. A couple of commenters reported on growler bottoms bursting and sending shards of glass flying - not to mention the loss of sixty-four ounces of beer! The thin walled screw top growlers are prone to failing under excessive pressure. And another downside is the wide yeast cake that forms at the bottom of a growler. The cake makes the final pour murky unless you put the entire contents into a pitcher. On the other hand, one commenter says the half-growlers with Grolsch-style seals have worked for him without incident.
I moved all five growlers into a cooler to lessen the chances of beer spilling all over the place in the event of an incident. Now I wonder if I shouldn't wear safety goggles when I pull those growlers from the cellar. Time to clean some more bottles for the next batch.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Roiling Flocculation
The funny thing about what you read in brewing guidebooks and advice from other home brewers is that everybody has a different take on what the "right" way to brew is. Before I could even begin to understand how important some of the best tips are to my brewing process, I'm quickly realizing I need to have made a few batches of beer and tasted the end product.
As an example, my first batch of Light Ale had so little trub after racking to the primary fermenter I didn't notice it much as the yeast started doing their thing. But the organic Double IPA settled with an inch thick layer of tan blobs an hour after pitching the yeast. Then, after 24 hours of quiet buildup, bubbles are now popping out of the airlock at two per second. The trub layer has gotten churned up by the active yeast till there's almost none left on the bottom of the primary fermenter. Aside from the color and the fantastic smell, the churn reminds me of how cream erupts in tea with a little lemon. (How I know what this looks like is another story having to do with an interstate road trip and sleep deprivation.) The contents of the fermenter could not be mistaken for anything but living and very vigorous organisms.
John Palmer's advice in "How To Brew" is that I should have let the wort settle for a couple of hours in a five gallon carboy or bucket then racked to the six and a half gallon carboy before pitching the yeast. Hopefully I won't see too much of an off flavor once the primary fermentation has finished and all the particles have resettled into a fresh trub layer.
Another tip from Palmer that is worth trying is to add some of the kit's liquid malt extract at the last ten minutes of the main boil, heating it only long enough to pasteurize.
The third thing I've been doing wrong, according to Palmer, is using too much water to steep the specialty grains. Instead of steeping in a full-boil five gallons of water, he suggests the best ratio is one gallon of water per one pound of grain, adding water to the mash to top up for the main boil. While this advice is contrary to the two kit recipes I've brewed so far, it seems worth trying on my next batch.
As an example, my first batch of Light Ale had so little trub after racking to the primary fermenter I didn't notice it much as the yeast started doing their thing. But the organic Double IPA settled with an inch thick layer of tan blobs an hour after pitching the yeast. Then, after 24 hours of quiet buildup, bubbles are now popping out of the airlock at two per second. The trub layer has gotten churned up by the active yeast till there's almost none left on the bottom of the primary fermenter. Aside from the color and the fantastic smell, the churn reminds me of how cream erupts in tea with a little lemon. (How I know what this looks like is another story having to do with an interstate road trip and sleep deprivation.) The contents of the fermenter could not be mistaken for anything but living and very vigorous organisms.
John Palmer's advice in "How To Brew" is that I should have let the wort settle for a couple of hours in a five gallon carboy or bucket then racked to the six and a half gallon carboy before pitching the yeast. Hopefully I won't see too much of an off flavor once the primary fermentation has finished and all the particles have resettled into a fresh trub layer.
Another tip from Palmer that is worth trying is to add some of the kit's liquid malt extract at the last ten minutes of the main boil, heating it only long enough to pasteurize.
The third thing I've been doing wrong, according to Palmer, is using too much water to steep the specialty grains. Instead of steeping in a full-boil five gallons of water, he suggests the best ratio is one gallon of water per one pound of grain, adding water to the mash to top up for the main boil. While this advice is contrary to the two kit recipes I've brewed so far, it seems worth trying on my next batch.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Brew Day 2: Organic Legacy Double IPA Kit
Lessons Learned: In hindsight, I'm really glad I brewed the newbie Light Ale kit from More Beer before jumping into this massive Double IPA from 7 Bridges Cooperative. In a definite case of learning from my mistakes, this brew came right within the target original gravity range at 1.072.
The D-IPA kit's recipe and instructions are also much more clearly written and focused. Twenty-one steps to drinking a strong, malty American style IPA.
Yeast: Since I made the slight mistake of buying this kit two months ago, I feared the yeast might be getting old, so I bought an extra bottle of liquid White Labs California Ale yeast from Mountain Homebrew in order to double my chances of a good fermentation. Note to self: a yeast starter flask has to be one of my next acquisitions. After a few hours at 75º resting atop our toaster-oven, the old yeast was pretty stable, but the newer-fresher bottle was about to blow. As soon as I cracked the seal, foam began to erupt out of the top of the bottle. At least I had the foresight to have it above the carboy so that only a few million yeast cells were lost.
Just as I was running out the door to begin the sparge, two of the neighborhood Mormon Church evangelists came knocking at the door to spread the gospel. I had to tell them I was in a crucial stage brewing a batch of beer. "Is there a better time we should come back?" they asked. Since my love of beer far overrides any inclination I might have in chatting about a religion that bans beer, I told them a simple, "No." Which my wife considers rude, but I figure, why waste their time and mine?
7 Bridges calls the recipe a mash-extract kit. What this means is that you steep a 3.5 lb. mixture of specialty grains 40 to 60 minutes at 150º and then you do a makeshift sparge. Since my brew kettle holds 8 gallons, I steeped in 5 gallons of water, then had my wife pour another 1.5 gallons of 170º water through the grain steeping bags as I held them open. I managed to get only slightly burned in the operation. And the mash smelled amazing! Note 2 to self: either splurge on a larger grain steeping bag, or dive right in to all-grain brewing and get proper mash and sparge equipment.
Hop Schedule: This being a Double IPA, the recipe calls for six different hop additions. The second of my mesh bags came undone and spilled Belgian Admiral pellets into the mash, but they pretty much settled to the bottom and weren't a problem. At the 40 minute mark I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Irish Moss to the kettle. It smells like kelp that has dried on the beach. Very much like the sea. And I noticed the beer in the carboy clearing almost instantly after pitching the yeast. Very visible light brown particles formed a distillate that quickly sank, making a thick layer on the bottom.
The OG test sample I pulled also settled and cleared as it rested on our kitchen counter. Even in this pre-fermented state, the beer tastes pretty good; rich and malty but brimming with all manner of bitter hops. The hop aroma doesn't yet jump right out and grab your nostrils, but I have a plan to fix that.
Dry Hopping: In about a week I plan to rack to a secondary 5 gallon fermenter and try my hand at dry hopping. I enhanced the kit with 2 oz. of American Summit hop pellets for a grapefruit nose.
The D-IPA kit's recipe and instructions are also much more clearly written and focused. Twenty-one steps to drinking a strong, malty American style IPA.
Yeast: Since I made the slight mistake of buying this kit two months ago, I feared the yeast might be getting old, so I bought an extra bottle of liquid White Labs California Ale yeast from Mountain Homebrew in order to double my chances of a good fermentation. Note to self: a yeast starter flask has to be one of my next acquisitions. After a few hours at 75º resting atop our toaster-oven, the old yeast was pretty stable, but the newer-fresher bottle was about to blow. As soon as I cracked the seal, foam began to erupt out of the top of the bottle. At least I had the foresight to have it above the carboy so that only a few million yeast cells were lost.
Just as I was running out the door to begin the sparge, two of the neighborhood Mormon Church evangelists came knocking at the door to spread the gospel. I had to tell them I was in a crucial stage brewing a batch of beer. "Is there a better time we should come back?" they asked. Since my love of beer far overrides any inclination I might have in chatting about a religion that bans beer, I told them a simple, "No." Which my wife considers rude, but I figure, why waste their time and mine?
7 Bridges calls the recipe a mash-extract kit. What this means is that you steep a 3.5 lb. mixture of specialty grains 40 to 60 minutes at 150º and then you do a makeshift sparge. Since my brew kettle holds 8 gallons, I steeped in 5 gallons of water, then had my wife pour another 1.5 gallons of 170º water through the grain steeping bags as I held them open. I managed to get only slightly burned in the operation. And the mash smelled amazing! Note 2 to self: either splurge on a larger grain steeping bag, or dive right in to all-grain brewing and get proper mash and sparge equipment.
Hop Schedule: This being a Double IPA, the recipe calls for six different hop additions. The second of my mesh bags came undone and spilled Belgian Admiral pellets into the mash, but they pretty much settled to the bottom and weren't a problem. At the 40 minute mark I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Irish Moss to the kettle. It smells like kelp that has dried on the beach. Very much like the sea. And I noticed the beer in the carboy clearing almost instantly after pitching the yeast. Very visible light brown particles formed a distillate that quickly sank, making a thick layer on the bottom.
The OG test sample I pulled also settled and cleared as it rested on our kitchen counter. Even in this pre-fermented state, the beer tastes pretty good; rich and malty but brimming with all manner of bitter hops. The hop aroma doesn't yet jump right out and grab your nostrils, but I have a plan to fix that.
Dry Hopping: In about a week I plan to rack to a secondary 5 gallon fermenter and try my hand at dry hopping. I enhanced the kit with 2 oz. of American Summit hop pellets for a grapefruit nose.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Bottling Day Arrives
Total output: Five 64 oz growlers, one 32 oz 1/2 growler, and six 22 oz bombers.
Before bottling even began, I figured out I would need a second bucket for sanitizing bottles and equipment. I mean, if you are going to use the bottling bucket to hold the beer you've racked from the secondary fermenter, that leaves only the brew kettle as a sanitizer reservoir while you're bottling. Note to self: always make sure the kettle's spigot is closed before starting to fill with six gallons of sanitizer solution.
The brew tastes like a flat, but very hoppy session beer at this stage. If it carbonates properly in the bottles, I'm confident this will be quite drinkable. Maybe not the most complex brew ever made, but it will be actual beer that I made. How cool is that?!
On the minus side, I'm pretty sure this beer will be hazy/cloudy. I was late to add the Whirlfloc pellet (related to Irish Moss) during the boil to draw out proteins that cause haze. To try and make up for that omission, I used isinglass forty-eight hours before bottling, with the beer well-chilled in the garage. Maybe some of the haze will settle out as the bottles condition.
I lost about three quarts in the boil, racking to secondary, and testing for specific gravity. From an initial six gallon boil, I ended up with just over four gallons for bottling. This discovery backs my earlier suspicion about boil off. And it has given me a good reason to mark my carboys all at the 5 gallon mark.
My choosing mixed sizes for bottling is an experiment to see how the different vessels support carbonation. I'm curious to see if the size of the bottle has any affect on the beer's taste. Plus, carrying a growler to share with a friends is easier than dealing with several bottles.
Before bottling even began, I figured out I would need a second bucket for sanitizing bottles and equipment. I mean, if you are going to use the bottling bucket to hold the beer you've racked from the secondary fermenter, that leaves only the brew kettle as a sanitizer reservoir while you're bottling. Note to self: always make sure the kettle's spigot is closed before starting to fill with six gallons of sanitizer solution.
The brew tastes like a flat, but very hoppy session beer at this stage. If it carbonates properly in the bottles, I'm confident this will be quite drinkable. Maybe not the most complex brew ever made, but it will be actual beer that I made. How cool is that?!
On the minus side, I'm pretty sure this beer will be hazy/cloudy. I was late to add the Whirlfloc pellet (related to Irish Moss) during the boil to draw out proteins that cause haze. To try and make up for that omission, I used isinglass forty-eight hours before bottling, with the beer well-chilled in the garage. Maybe some of the haze will settle out as the bottles condition.
I lost about three quarts in the boil, racking to secondary, and testing for specific gravity. From an initial six gallon boil, I ended up with just over four gallons for bottling. This discovery backs my earlier suspicion about boil off. And it has given me a good reason to mark my carboys all at the 5 gallon mark.
My choosing mixed sizes for bottling is an experiment to see how the different vessels support carbonation. I'm curious to see if the size of the bottle has any affect on the beer's taste. Plus, carrying a growler to share with a friends is easier than dealing with several bottles.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Racking to Secondary
Day 5: Racking the beer to a secondary five gallon carboy took about an hour, cleanup included. Note to self: Racking with the kit's fancy racking cane is really a two person operation unless you find some sanitary way to straighten and clamp the siphon hose to the secondary. The racking cane has a sort of cover/gasket designed to fit snugly onto a wide mouth plastic carboy. Unfortunately, it has a bit of slop in the fit of my 6.5 gallon glass primary carboy. Which means you have to use one hand to apply even pressure to the seal.
At the same time you've got to guide and maintain the sanitized siphon hose down into the secondary without contaminating things. Your feet end up doing this task.
In order to activate the siphon, you have a tiny air filter you blow through while crimping the hose with your other hand. Then you release the crimp when the beer starts to flow.
This is the point where the hose will pop out of the secondary and douse the floor, the inside of the closet, the insulating blanket on a chair nearby, and any paper products within a yard radius.
Well, at least I know the brew smells like good beer!
Final gravity has dropped to 1.014 at 68º from an OG of 1.052 at 60º, so the alcohol content seems a touch higher (6.1%) than the recipe predicted (3.8%). My guess is I got more boil-off than predicted. Need to calibrate the carboy to a five gallon mark.
The specific gravity sample tastes beer-like, but very bitter, with a butterscotch malt aroma. And very, very yeasty. This must be the definition of green.
Respiration is still building pressure inside the secondary. I haven't yet observed any bubbles passing through the airlock. But the dark brown kraeusen scum was left on the walls of the primary, along with a solid quarter inch of pale yeast cake.
I'm hopeful that in a few weeks this will be a pretty decent beer.
At the same time you've got to guide and maintain the sanitized siphon hose down into the secondary without contaminating things. Your feet end up doing this task.
In order to activate the siphon, you have a tiny air filter you blow through while crimping the hose with your other hand. Then you release the crimp when the beer starts to flow.
This is the point where the hose will pop out of the secondary and douse the floor, the inside of the closet, the insulating blanket on a chair nearby, and any paper products within a yard radius.
Well, at least I know the brew smells like good beer!
Final gravity has dropped to 1.014 at 68º from an OG of 1.052 at 60º, so the alcohol content seems a touch higher (6.1%) than the recipe predicted (3.8%). My guess is I got more boil-off than predicted. Need to calibrate the carboy to a five gallon mark.
The specific gravity sample tastes beer-like, but very bitter, with a butterscotch malt aroma. And very, very yeasty. This must be the definition of green.
Respiration is still building pressure inside the secondary. I haven't yet observed any bubbles passing through the airlock. But the dark brown kraeusen scum was left on the walls of the primary, along with a solid quarter inch of pale yeast cake.
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| A bit more air space than expected in the 5 gallon plastic carboy. |
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Mosquito in the Kraeusen
In spite of careful attention to sanitization, this morning I found a tiny mosquito floating atop the foam in my fermenter! Best guess is she flew into the kettle during the boil or after cooling. It was well after sunset by the time I finished cooling the wort. The garage lights would have attracted any mosquitos out braving the cold.
I used a bamboo cake probe, about as big around as a toothpick, to fish the insect out through the top of the carboy. Boy, if a bug as big as a mosquito can get in so easily, what else might have drifted into the mix? Hopefully, the action of the yeast will kill off anything ugly.
There's about an inch of kraeusen foam after twelve hours in the fermenter. And I've built a reinforced shelf twenty inches off the floor of the standing Ikea closet that is my fermenting booth. This way I won't have to disturb the fermenter when I rack to the secondary.
I used a bamboo cake probe, about as big around as a toothpick, to fish the insect out through the top of the carboy. Boy, if a bug as big as a mosquito can get in so easily, what else might have drifted into the mix? Hopefully, the action of the yeast will kill off anything ugly.
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| Fermenter porn. |
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Finally, I'm a Home Brewer!
My brother-in-law loaned me his propane burner this afternoon to boil my first batch of beer. He had planned on staying for the proceedings, but lost patience after half an hour and headed back home.
I really wanted a 6 1/2 gallon carboy for my primary fermentation vessel, so I took a short drive to Mountain Homebrew to pick one up. Also got a brush for cleaning the carboy, a bottle washer (that somehow doesn't fit my kitchen sink, even with the adapter), some DME for bottling time, and some one step cleaner/sanitizer.
My wife was on a rampage when I got home. Something about other chores that I should be doing instead of spending money and making beer. I ignored her tirade, for obvious reasons.
I had no disasters in brewing the "More Beer" LIght Ale mash extract kit that came with the brew equipment set. I'm lovin' the heavy duty brew pot. The eight gallon kettle meant I got to do a full boil starting with six gallons of water. For a little extra character, I put the grains into the toaster oven for a few minutes to get them just a little more brown. Started the bittering hops early in the mash steep per a tip from John Palmer's book, "How To Brew".
The wort chiller worked perfectly after a wee bit of spraying water from a loose clamp. It brought the temperature down to sixty degrees in about fifteen minutes. A heavy-duty drain spout on the kettle made the transfer to my new carboy a snap. The only thing a little off was what seems to be a high original gravity reading of 1.51instead of the estimated 1.038 to 42. Should have measured for the five gallon mark on the carboy. My guess is more water boiled off than is the norm.
Would love to get a side mounted thermometer for the kettle's second threaded fitting.
Now begins primary fermentation. Hopefully the yeast are happy. I primed them in 4 oz of warm water, and they seemed to be alive and active. The unfermented beer tasted mildly sweet, but also quite bitter from the relatively small amount of hops. Decided to use a fermentation lock on the 6 1/2 gallon carboy instead of a blow-off hose. The guy at the shop said he gets good results without the hose.
I'm already thinking the recipe could take a bit of dry hopping to really boost the floral notes in the aroma.
I really wanted a 6 1/2 gallon carboy for my primary fermentation vessel, so I took a short drive to Mountain Homebrew to pick one up. Also got a brush for cleaning the carboy, a bottle washer (that somehow doesn't fit my kitchen sink, even with the adapter), some DME for bottling time, and some one step cleaner/sanitizer.
My wife was on a rampage when I got home. Something about other chores that I should be doing instead of spending money and making beer. I ignored her tirade, for obvious reasons.
 |
| No boil-over! Full Steam ahead. |
I had no disasters in brewing the "More Beer" LIght Ale mash extract kit that came with the brew equipment set. I'm lovin' the heavy duty brew pot. The eight gallon kettle meant I got to do a full boil starting with six gallons of water. For a little extra character, I put the grains into the toaster oven for a few minutes to get them just a little more brown. Started the bittering hops early in the mash steep per a tip from John Palmer's book, "How To Brew".
The wort chiller worked perfectly after a wee bit of spraying water from a loose clamp. It brought the temperature down to sixty degrees in about fifteen minutes. A heavy-duty drain spout on the kettle made the transfer to my new carboy a snap. The only thing a little off was what seems to be a high original gravity reading of 1.51instead of the estimated 1.038 to 42. Should have measured for the five gallon mark on the carboy. My guess is more water boiled off than is the norm.
Would love to get a side mounted thermometer for the kettle's second threaded fitting.
Now begins primary fermentation. Hopefully the yeast are happy. I primed them in 4 oz of warm water, and they seemed to be alive and active. The unfermented beer tasted mildly sweet, but also quite bitter from the relatively small amount of hops. Decided to use a fermentation lock on the 6 1/2 gallon carboy instead of a blow-off hose. The guy at the shop said he gets good results without the hose.
I'm already thinking the recipe could take a bit of dry hopping to really boost the floral notes in the aroma.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
It Arrives!
My homebrew kit arrived today from More Beer, and the stuff looks great. The eight gallon should be an amazing tool. I'll be able to do a full boil on five gallon recipes with a bit of care against boil overs. The clear plastic carboy is interesting. I think it will be my primary fermenter, set up for blow-off.
I still need to get a few more items to do the brewing: another carboy for secondary fermentation, and a good angled brush for cleaning it. And the burner, which, not unexpectedly, my wife is already complaining about the cost of.
The included light ale kit looks so thin compared to the Organic Imperial IPA kit I've been holding. Two little foil bags of hop pellets compared to seven big bags of whole and pellets!
If I get my bathroom tile setting completed on Saturday, I could be brewing batch #1on Sunday.
I still need to get a few more items to do the brewing: another carboy for secondary fermentation, and a good angled brush for cleaning it. And the burner, which, not unexpectedly, my wife is already complaining about the cost of.
The included light ale kit looks so thin compared to the Organic Imperial IPA kit I've been holding. Two little foil bags of hop pellets compared to seven big bags of whole and pellets!
If I get my bathroom tile setting completed on Saturday, I could be brewing batch #1on Sunday.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Homebrewing Kit Purchased
Just put in my equipment order with More Brew out of Concord, California for a brewing kit with a copper coil wort chiller and one of the nicest eight gallon brew kettles I've seen for the price. Overall price for the package seems reasonable, plus there's no sales tax, and free shipping. I'll still need to get a burner and secondary fermenter carboy from my local shop.
BRKIT4 Check List This kit includes the following:
Bottle of Star San Sanitizer (4oz)
Plastic Bottle Filler
Bag of Bottle Caps (1/4lb)
Bottle Capper
Reusable Mesh Steeping Bag
Reusable Mesh Hop Bag
Plastic Spoon
Funnel
Home Beermaking Book
Bottle Brush
Plastic Carboy
Package of Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW)
Plastic Bottling/Sanitation Bucket with Spigot
Airlock
Rubber Stopper with Hole
Hydrometer
Hydrometer Jar
5ft Vinyl Transfer Tubing
Sterile Siphon Starter (Contains Racking Cane with Tubing, Air Filter and Carboy Hood)
5 inch long dial thermometer
Light Ale Ingredient Kit with Brewing Instructions
Dry Brewers Ale Yeast
2 Cases of (12) 22oz Bottles
8-Gallon Heavy Duty Kettle with Ball Valve, Barb and Notched Lid
Copper Wort Chiller with Tubing
Bottle of Star San Sanitizer (4oz)
Plastic Bottle Filler
Bag of Bottle Caps (1/4lb)
Bottle Capper
Reusable Mesh Steeping Bag
Reusable Mesh Hop Bag
Plastic Spoon
Funnel
Home Beermaking Book
Bottle Brush
Plastic Carboy
Package of Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW)
Plastic Bottling/Sanitation Bucket with Spigot
Airlock
Rubber Stopper with Hole
Hydrometer
Hydrometer Jar
5ft Vinyl Transfer Tubing
Sterile Siphon Starter (Contains Racking Cane with Tubing, Air Filter and Carboy Hood)
5 inch long dial thermometer
Light Ale Ingredient Kit with Brewing Instructions
Dry Brewers Ale Yeast
2 Cases of (12) 22oz Bottles
8-Gallon Heavy Duty Kettle with Ball Valve, Barb and Notched Lid
Copper Wort Chiller with Tubing
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Ordering Organic From Santa Cruz
After reading Charlie Papazian's entire book, "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing", and finally almost catching up on my backlog of home repair projects, I've decided my first batch of beer will be one of my favorite styles, Imperial India Pale Ale, made with all organic ingredients. Seven Bridges Cooperative website had been at the top of my list for ingredients, and their intermediate mash extract kit looks almost fool-proof. Plus, their newsletter had a ten percent off coupon.
Item Number: OBK25A
Organic Legacy Double IPA Mash-Extract
DME For Bottling
White Labs 051 California V Ale liquid yeast
Dry Hops: American Summit hops pellets
The kit looks like this before going into the kettle:
My Cascadian Black IPA will just have to wait for another batch.
I'm still shopping around for my brewing equipment. Mountain Home Brew has the best propane burner and brew pot I've seen, plus, being local means no shipping charges on the larger and heavier items. Too bad they don't have organic ingredient kits, too. And I just missed what looked like a decent second hand system on Craigslist this weekend: two carboys, all the spoons and funnels you'd need, and some kegs. The search will continue. With luck, I will be brewing next Saturday after my son's soccer match.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Extract Plus Grains Demo Brew at MHBWS
Kevin, from Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply gave a demonstration today, start to finish, of brewing a batch of their Bumberblonde Ale recipe using malt extract plus grains. This was a great chance to learn from someone who has been brewing for over sixteen years. And also an opportunity to see some state-of-the-art beginner/intermediate equipment in use. The end product was a real batch of beer, once fermented, and I'm betting it will be quite tasty. The aroma of malt and fresh hops boiling in the finished wort was a nice sensation on a Saturday afternoon. The taste of the cooled brew from the initial gravity measurement was a bit bitter, a bit green, and a touch sweet. Just the right combination for some hard working yeasts.
Photos of the demo from my iPhone:
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| A very slick propane burner and kettle from Blichmann Engineering that got the initial six gallons of steeping water to 150º in about twenty minutes. The connector to the propane tank has a very fine adjustment handle, which we managed to turn the wrong way at just the wrong stage of the full boil. Result: small boil over. |
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| Back of the burner. Note the dozens of individual flames. Very even heat. |
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| The finished wort with the chiller running. A side mounted thermometer was very helpful in monitoring the boil stages. The welded on spigot would have been useful if Kevin hadn't accidentally thrown in the fresh loose hops without a screen filter. In the end, he poured the wort through a "sock" over a funnel into the fermenter. |
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| After chilling down to 80ºF, the beer is ready to have yeast added. |
Now I'm nearly ready to begin brewing!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
My Brewing Education Starts
Last Sunday I visited the nearest homebrew shop, Mountain Homebrew and Wine Supply of Kirkland, WA, to get a couple of brewing books for the beginner. Half an hour before closing time, the small shop was plenty busy with customers. The website shows most of the items in the physical store: brewing equipment kits from basic to advanced, malt extracts, whole grain, yeasts, and a fair variety of hops. A couple of customers were milling grain as they filled their latest ingredient lists. On the counter, I was encouraged to see cards from three great East Side establishments: Black Raven Brewing Company, the Malt and Vine bottle shop, and Mac and Jack's Brewing Company.
There are a few things in my mind that have been blocking me from making my first batch of delicious home made beer.
With both books in hand, I returned home to begin reading and to figure out a plan for buying the right gear for my first batch of beer. My wife, Lynne, ever the bargain hunter, yelled at me as I came in the door, "I hope you didn't pay full price for those books! - You could have gotten them for 30% off at Borders with my coupons."
There are a few things in my mind that have been blocking me from making my first batch of delicious home made beer.
- We have a very small galley style kitchen, and a stove that I don't trust to heat the beer ingredients to high enough temperatures. I have made homemade blackberry jam on this stove, and it took a loooooong time to get the stuff up to jelling heat. I've also canned pickles, and found the cramped space very limiting.
- Money is tight for buying a bunch of brewing equipment.
- I'm not entirely sure how much gear I'll need to brew that first batch, and I want the gear to be an investment that I can expand from my first basic batch as I become a (hopefully) more accomplished brewer.
- With no tasting experience, I don't know if an initial batch will meet my bar for flavor.
- Our garage is probably the perfect place to brew, it is sheltered from the elements and our continual fir tree organic material droppings. But, with a bathroom remodel now way behind schedule, I'll need to do some cleaning before the garage is a comfortable place to brew.
With both books in hand, I returned home to begin reading and to figure out a plan for buying the right gear for my first batch of beer. My wife, Lynne, ever the bargain hunter, yelled at me as I came in the door, "I hope you didn't pay full price for those books! - You could have gotten them for 30% off at Borders with my coupons."
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A Little (Personal) History of Beer
The first taste was a stolen swig from my dad's can of Blue Ribbon out back of the house while he was absorbed in the workings of his Pontiac's engine. It wasn't awful, but fell way below my expectations after years of watching my him consume his beers so protectively.
A dozen years later, the first experiences with local beers came on a bicycle tour across New York State. This was the early 1980s, an era of cheap factory lagers. In order to truly experience each place I visited by bike, I decided, what better way than to seek out unfamiliar local beers?
Somewhere between Rochester, NY and the Finger Lakes, I pulled over for refreshment at a small roadside general store and discovered a local New York State beer way back in the cooler. Can't remember the brewery, but I remember the that the beer was fresh, moderately flavorful, and just different enough from the Miller/Strohs/Pabst clones of central Michigan that it made me realize there were good things happening in local brewing.
To be truthful, in those years attending the University of Michigan, my friends and I mainly drank beer in mass quantities. Dime beer night at Dooley's Tavern was always popular. In the dormitory, we would take up a collection, then someone with a car would make the road trip across the river from Detroit, to Windsor, Canada, for the rare higher alcohol Molson and Labatts beers. Campus Corner carried Chimay, but the beer was so rich compared to anything else we were used to drinking we rarely tried it.
After graduation I discovered Anchor in San Francisco, then Boston and Brooklyn Lagers in New York City. Finally, in 1990, I ended up in Seattle, where Thomas Kemper was brewing a nice selection of local beers out on Bainbridge Island and Redhook's Trolleyman Pub was a popular watering hole in the Freemont neighborhood.
Not long after, craft brewing in the Northwest caught my attention.
A dozen years later, the first experiences with local beers came on a bicycle tour across New York State. This was the early 1980s, an era of cheap factory lagers. In order to truly experience each place I visited by bike, I decided, what better way than to seek out unfamiliar local beers?
Somewhere between Rochester, NY and the Finger Lakes, I pulled over for refreshment at a small roadside general store and discovered a local New York State beer way back in the cooler. Can't remember the brewery, but I remember the that the beer was fresh, moderately flavorful, and just different enough from the Miller/Strohs/Pabst clones of central Michigan that it made me realize there were good things happening in local brewing.
To be truthful, in those years attending the University of Michigan, my friends and I mainly drank beer in mass quantities. Dime beer night at Dooley's Tavern was always popular. In the dormitory, we would take up a collection, then someone with a car would make the road trip across the river from Detroit, to Windsor, Canada, for the rare higher alcohol Molson and Labatts beers. Campus Corner carried Chimay, but the beer was so rich compared to anything else we were used to drinking we rarely tried it.
After graduation I discovered Anchor in San Francisco, then Boston and Brooklyn Lagers in New York City. Finally, in 1990, I ended up in Seattle, where Thomas Kemper was brewing a nice selection of local beers out on Bainbridge Island and Redhook's Trolleyman Pub was a popular watering hole in the Freemont neighborhood.
Not long after, craft brewing in the Northwest caught my attention.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Preparing for the First Brewing
Yet another nighttime spring rain taps across our metal roof and drains, gurgling into the downspouts. The sounds make me think about beer. My goal, my obsession, is to actually brew my own good beer. The many excellent products of the modern craft brewing movement have, over the past few years, opened my imagination to the possibility that simple beer is just a starting point.
Or maybe it's that coming up with a simple recipe that is also perfect will be the trickier challenge.
Or maybe it's that coming up with a simple recipe that is also perfect will be the trickier challenge.
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