3/24/04 - It's been more than a month since I've brewed, bottled or tapped a batch of beer and I'm not sure when I'm going to be making make next batch; there's just too much other stuff going on right now. I'm lucky that the Red Rover Ale is still around, so is some of my Cherry Stout and I've barely tapped into the Tripel -- it's just too early. I want to give the Tripel at least three months conditioning. My next batch, when I get around to it, will probably be a Belgian Pale Ale or a Saison.
2/28/04 - Last night I tapped the mini-keg I filled with the Red Rover Ale. I used an air pump instead of carbon dioxide, so I invited my friend Ryan over to help drain the little barrel. I decided to dust off my half yard glass for the little tapping party since the beer we were drinking was an English-style pale ale. I'm pretty happy with how this beer turned out. It was a remarkably drinkable brew, but a little strong at 5.5 percent alcohol, or at least it seemed strong after drinking a couple yards of it. I experienced a slightly better mash efficency with this batch than I had anticipated and the actual was around 1.056. The next time I brew this recipe, I will add a little more bittering hops (maybe 5 IBUs more) and I would also take the advice of a fellow Urban Knaves of Grain member and add a little bit of wheat to the mash. I usually add wheat to my pale ales, but for whatever reason, I didn't do it this time and seems to be missed.
2/18/04 - Bottled the Red Rover Ale yesterday. I racked part of the beer directly out of the secondary and into a mini-keg. The rest of the batch went into my bottling bucket (with priming sugar and water) and then into 12 22-ounce and 12 12-ounce bottles. This beer tastes a little thinner in body than I had planned. I didn't detect any off-flavors. I picked up some fruitiness from the yeast and some of the different malts. I would compare this beer to Honker's Ale, only with less hops up front. Should be a good session ale, as it was easy to drink and didn't seem to go my head.
2/7/04 - Today I brewed what I hope will turn out to be an Irish Red Ale. It's a mini-mash recipe again, but this time I'm using Maris Otter pale ale malt, English Challenger and Fuggles hops and the London Ale yeast from Wyeast. I think I've finally settled on a method for making a partial mash. I think this will turn out to be a good batch. I'm calling it Red Rover Ale.
I ended up bottling the Tripel a few days ago, on Jan. 26. It tasted great at bottling time. Lots of sugary flavors laced with a bit of vanilla and rather strong. I filled about 38 bottles that will sit for at least a couple months.
Most of my all-grain experiment ended up getting consumed by some friends that I had over a couple weeks ago. The mini-keg didn't carbonate, which I attribute to not adding enough priming sugar, and possibly my impatience. I probably should have let it sit for more than 10 days. The beer tasted pretty good, very hoppy (spicy) and very dry and a bit thin bodied. My finishing gravity was 1.005, which is quite low, and could explain the almost watery character. About a week after the little get together, I bottled the remnants of my all-grain experiment (see below) which, when tasted, seemed to have gone weird. First I noticed some odd bits of material (yeast?) floating on top of the beer. When I opened the bottle and poured the beer I noticed an odd aroma sort of like pickles. Yup, pickles. I was a bit disappointed. I tried another a bottle a few days later. Nothing floating this time, but the odd aroma was there, and the beer had some astringent flavors when tasted. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing some kind of contamination at bottling, or a slowly working infection. Oh, well. Bad things sometimes happen, and it was only a couple gallons of beer. I will try all-grain brewing again, but probably not until I have the ability to boil a whole five gallon batch.
1/5/04 - I ended up racking my little batch of all-grain homebrew into a 1.3 gallon mini-keg. The remaining half gallon or so I siphoned into a glass growler -- at some point I will probably bottle its contents. I plan on tapping the mini-keg in a couple days. I tasted the beer when I racked it and it tasted light and a bit a grainy with a fairly sharp bitterness.
Meanwhile, on Sunday I managed to brew 4.5 gallons of Tripel, a Belgian-style strong golden ale. For this batch I decided to mash four pounds of grain with six pounds of malt extract and nearly two pounds of candy sugar. Should be a fairly strong and flavorful beer.
12/26/03 - Okay...so I've tried partial mash or mini-mash brewing, but I've never made an all-grain batch of beer until now. On Dec. 17 I brewed my first all-grain batch of beer. It's a half batch (half of five gallons) because I can only boil three to four gallons on my electric stove and that's the most liquid any of my pots can hold. I made this batch by mashing 7 pounds of grain with about two gallons of water. I used six pounds of American two-row barley, a half pound of CaraPils and a half pound of flaked barley. Now here's the interesting part: I don't have any real sophisticated system for mashing and sparging grain. My mashing and sparging equipment consisted of a two and a half gallon stainless steel pot, a hand strainer and two buckets with spigots. I started the infusion mash by adding two gallons of 170 deg. F. water to the grain. I covered the pot and put in the my oven to keep it warm. (I pre-heated the oven at the "warm" setting for about five minutes.) After 45 minutes I sparged with 175 deg. F. water using my bottling bucket (with spigot) as a hot liquor tank. I attached a piece of hose to the spigot and rinsed the grain about three cups at time in the hand strainer, with the runnings dripping down into another bucket. (This probably qualifies at hot side aeration, but I'm not sure, someone could help on this if they know better.) I sparged with about three gallons of water and siphoned out of my sparge bucket into the brewpot, netting about three gallons of wort. About a half gallon of liquid was boiled off during the hour-long boil. The result was about 2.5 gallons of 1.040 wort. I cooled with wort with my immersion chiller and added 125 ml of slurry from my previous batch. Fermentation was active in about six hours. I haven't checked the gravity of the beer yet or tasted it. I plan to put this batch into two mini-kegs, and serve at least one of them at a party, assuming the beer is drinkable! I'll know soon as I plan to take a gravity reading of the beer tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've checked the Cherry Stout and it's coming along nicely, but is rather flat. The last batch of cherry stout I made back in August was over-carbonated. It seems I over-compensated in cutting back the priming sugar for this batch. It's still good beer and almost drinks like a cherry wine at room temperature! 12/15/03 - Bottled Cherry Stout II last night and netted 44.5 bottles of the stuff. Tasted out of the bottling bucket, this batch had a much more of a roasted coffee aroma with chocolate and roasted coffee flavors. Next up: my first all-grain batch. It'll be a half batch, because that's all my equipment can handle -- details will be forthcoming.
11/30/03 - Racked Cherry Stout II tonight. Fermentation is still very active with the airlock bubbling away. The Bell's yeast is working slowly, but chugging away, and I'm willing to let it go as long as it wants. This second version of cherry stout tasted much more, well,...stout! Much more chocolate malt flavor which seemed to mix very well with the tart cherry flavor. The cherry flavor seems a little green. This batch will need to sit for a couple months. 11/23/03 - STILL haven't bottled the Two Fishes IPA, but I did brew another version of the cherry stout. This time I added a quarter pound of roasted and a pound each of flaked barley, chocolate malt and two-row pale malt. It was an uneventful brew session. I did a mini-mash using two muslin bags placed in a large pot with a little more than a gallon of water heated up to 155 deg. F. After the temperature stabilized at about 148 deg. F., I placed the covered pot into the oven (turned off) for 45 minutes. I sparged with another gallon of water and topped up the kettle with another half gallon. Seemed to work pretty well. I then added the malt extract and bittering hops. Here's the recipe for more details. 11/18/03 - Haven't had time to rack the Two Fishes (see below), but I've had some of my homebrew lately and I'm quite pleased. The Cherry Stouthas mellowed quite a bit. It's still way overcarbonated, but once it settles down it is very smooth with a pronounced cherry flavor. Very tasty. I'm planning on brewing another version of the cherry stout this weekend. 11/12/03 - Racked the Two Fishes IPA. (Yeah, I know it's not proper English.) Tasted out of the primary fermenter this beer was ridiculously bitter (and yeasty.) I mean, just dastardly bitter. Not much otherwise as far as hop flavor, although I think that will change in time. The Bell's yeast seems to have worked out again and I really like using it. It's a great excuse to buy Bell's beer -- like anybody should need an excuse -- it's great stuff when fresh! 11/2/03 - I brewed an attempt at a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale that I'm calling Two Fishes. I can't do five gallon all-grain batches on my electric stove, so I did the next best thing, a partial mash. I used a grain bag this time, which put in a pot with a little more than one gallon of water heated to 170. After I stablized the temp. at about 150, I placed the covered pot in my oven (turned OFF) and waited 45 minutes. I sparged with one gallon of 180 degree water and transferred the wort to my brew kettle where I added malt extract and hops. I think I prefer using a grain bag over adding the grains loose and straining them out, which is what I've been doing up until now.
10/14/03 - Bottled the Northern Alt yesterday. I netted 36 12-ounce bottles and two 22-ounce bottles. Bottling went smoothly. Some of my bottles were a bit dirty, so I rinsed them with the jet washer, then soaked them in Straight-A cleaner and scrubbed them with my bottle brush before santizing with iodophor. I think I might have used a bit too much corn sugar to prime -- a half cup for 4.5 gallons -- so I'm going to check carbonation in 7 days. If I have enough carbonation at that time, I plan on moving as many bottles as possible to the refridgerator for cold conditioning. 9/29/03
- They say better late than never...10 days ago I brewed a German Alt bier
using a kit from Northern Brewer.
The kit included Wyeast German Ale yeast. So far, this batch has had its
problems, including a boil over. I recovered pretty well from the boilover,
but the next near catastrophe came during fermentation. I started the fermentation
in a plastic bucket and it seems that the yeasties tried to escape on or
about day four of fermentation. Fermenting beer came up through the airlock
and broke the seal between the lid and the bucket. There was a foamy mess,
but everything seemed fine (the beer smelled okay) and I simply cleaned and
sanitized the fermentation lock and replaced it on the fermenter. The next
day I racked the beer into a carboy. There was so much yeast in the sample
I took that I decided to wait on taking a gravity reading. I plan to take
a reading tomorrow and then another one the next day and if they match I'll
probably bottle by the weekend. Here's the details
for this recipe. 9/13/03
- It's been about four weeks since I brewed my cherry stout. I brewed this stout using roasted
barley and dark malt extract for color and at first it seemed that the roasted
barley didn't give the beer the color I wanted, now it seems a bit darker
in color and more like a stout than a brown ale. I've dubbed this beer Fargo's
Special Stout. I came up with name as I boiled the ingredients for this brew.
As I was brewing I noticed a thick gray foam form on top of the wort just
before it started boiling and this foam reminded me of the color of our cat,
Fargo. After two weeks, this stout has a fairly strong cherry aroma with
a hint of dark chocolate aroma. The color is sort of a very dark brown to
dark ruby. The tart cherry flavor is very much present and mixes well with
the hops, roasted coffee and chocolate malt flavors. The finish is modestly
bitter and tart at the same time. There's also a bit of alcoholic kick. I
have to say that I'm pretty happy with it so far. 8/11/03 - Still haven't
found time to brew, but my class is finished, so I should be able to fire
up the kettle soon. In the meantime, there's plenty of homebrew to drink,
including my Saison. After about four months
of bottle conditioning, this summer's batch of Saison is very carbonated,
a bit tart, with a burst of orange and spicy hops. The finish is quite bitter
and dry. The strenght is evident and the lasting finish is full of alcohol
and hops. I'm not exactly sure what the alcohol content is for this beer,
but based on my calculations, it should be in the ballpark of 7.5 to 8 percent.
Compared to earlier tastings, this this beer seems to be a little more attenuated
and fruity, missingsome of the earthiness I was hoping to get. The aroma
is not very complex with mostly fruit -- orange and maybe mango -- and the
color is a very hazy orange. I'm happy with the color, although I wish there
was more hop aroma. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it. 7/9/03 - Taking a study
break. I've been busy taking some computer classes, but I thought I'd take
a few minutes to briefly update what's been going on at the Lone Tooth Brewery.
I just tasted my Belgian Wit and it's a bit out
of style, at least as far the color is concerned. It is what I'm calling
an Amber Wit. I'm wondering if I bought the Northwestern wheat extract I
bought was mixed with a darker amber barley malt extract. There might have
also been a lot of carmelization in the kettle. Does anybody have experience
with Northwestern wheat malt extract? The spices are also a bit muted and
the carbonation a bit low. Despite these flaws this beer is a very enjoyable
light bodied ale and the carbonation may increase as time goes on. 6/24/03 - I got the chance
to bottle my Belgian Wit. This batch netted 46
12-ounce bottles of very cloudy, rather dark Wit. I'm counting on the carbonation
to clear up the beer somewhat and force some of the yeast out of suspension.
The beer was 74 percent attenuated. This figure seemed about right for the
yeast I used, which was the Belgian Wit strain from White Labs. Everything else about this
batch seems fine. I could detect the wheat and the spices, especially the
orange peel. I was little suprised with the lack of hoppines, but that's
okay for this style. 6/23/03 - I've been busy.
Unfortunately, I haven't been busy making beer, or even having the chance
to bottle it. I've got a little less than 5 gallons of Belgian-style wheat
beer that needs to get bottled. Hopefully I will get to it tonight. I'm a
little concerned because the beer has been in a plastic fermenter for more
than 20 days. I know, I know...I will try and relax and have a homebrew! 6/1/03 - Brewed a summer
beer, in this case, in the style of a Belgian Wit.
Had a minor boil over. I got too entranced in the aroma of the coriander
I used and forgot about the brewpot on the stove. I guess I shouldn't have
ground the spices until after boil got rolling. Still waiting on the Saison
(see below.) 4/27/03 - Bottled the
Saison. Got a little sloppy and a bottle
slid off the counter, hit the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.
Other than that the bottling session was without incident. 4/20/03 - Racked the
Saison I brewed on April 12. Didn't mention
it here, but yes, I brewed a Saison. I'm trying to get in the habit of brewing
a batch a month so that when one batch is gone there's another one coming
along. I also bottled my "quick batch" of pale ale.
Just a bit of advice: don't try and reuse Bitburger bottles for homebrewing.
The crowns don't fit. 3/23/03 - Fired off a
quick batch of pale ale yesterday. Needed something
to quaff this spring. Being lazy, and knowing quite what I wanted to brew,
I picked up a Brewer's Best brand Pale Ale kit from the St. Charles Home
Brew Shop. It's a fairly simple kit that comes with two cans of English light
malt extract, some crystal malt, hops and dry yeast. What's nice about these
kits as they also include bottle caps and priming sugar. I modified the recipe
somewhat by replacing the Hallertauer hops with Amarillo and pitched White
Labs liquid yeast instead of using the dry. I'll keep the dry yeast around
for emergencies. 3/10/03 - Bottled my Wee Heavy
tonight and I'm quite happy with it. Very malty and a bit rummy with burnt
caramel notes and perhaps a hint of currants. Very tasty! Filled 42 bottles.
Final gravity 1.021 and about 7.7 percent ABV. Also tasted a bottle of Near
Wild Heaven which was very phenolic. Vry bubblegummmy with a hint band aids.
A little over the top. We'll see how it matures. 2/27/03 - Racked my Wee Heavy
tonight. It seems like this one needs to ferment quite a bit more as the
gravity was 1.022, which seems a bit high. It works out to 59.8 percent attenuated
which is low for the yeast that I used, Wyeast 1728, Scottish Ale. I'll probably
take another reading in about a week. 2/26/03 - Finally bottled
Near Wild Heaven tonight. I took
the advice of my fellow Urban Knaves of Grain
member John Mains and moved the carboy of this beer to a warmer environment.
I had positioned the carboy up against our patio door which kept the temperature
in the mid to low 60s. When I took a sample two weeks ago (while the beer
was still near the door) the gravity hadn't changed and it tasted very clean,
despite my adding Wyeast's five strain lambic blend. Tonight, at bottling,
this beer was quite phenolic (especially in the aroma) with bubblegum and
"band aid" like flavors. I was hoping for a little more sourness and not
so much phenolics, but the beer could change once again after several weeks
in the bottle due to the evolutionary nature of the yeasts. I kept this one
in the secondary for 30 days. The last couple weeks it fermented warmer than
the first couple at about 70 degrees F. I don't plan on opening a bottle
for at least a month. Tomorrow night I will rack the Wee Heavy into the secondary
(carboy) and keep it there until I have more bottles. 2/15/03 - Brewed a Wee Heavy
the other day. Being a bit disappointed with my Old Frightful -- at least
as a barleywine or old ale -- I decided to brew a malt-accented strong ale
in it's place as this year's vintage ale. The recipe is based on a kit from
Northern Brewer. I added some
Belgian aromatic malt for additional complexity and malt flavor. Fermentation
has taken off and the airlock is bubbling away. Hope to rack by mid-week
to the secondary where the beer will stay until I can acquire more bottles.
1/23/03 - Tasted my Old
Frightful and it is quite hugely hoppy! The body is thin, however, so there's
not much malt flavor. The color is red, but the caramel malts just aren't
coming through the huge amount of hops. I don't know that I've brewed a barleywine,
I think instead I have a really good "imperial" IPA. 1/20/03 - I just realized
I never added an update on how my stout
turned out! It came quite tasty, but I think I used way too much gypsum.
I noticed a ring in my bottles at the fill level, which I'm going to attribute
to either poor santitation, or too much gypsum. I couldn't detect any off
flavors so I don't think the batch that severely contaminated, unless the
beer was infected withe some sort of non-spoiling bacteria. The color of
this beer could have been darker. Turned out a dark brown. The roasted malt
flavor and bitterness are the most notable flavors in this beer. Very tasty,
low gravity stout. Ryan thought it tasted like more
English then Irish, but I'll still take that as a compliment.
I also brewed a couple new batches
of beer. The first is a highly hopped light
brown ale. It turned out to be a little bit lighter bodied than I had
hoped, but it still seems pretty tasty. I brewed this beer about a week ago
and have since racked it to the secondary. It didn't seem fully attenuated,
based on my hydrometer readings, so I expect the yeast have some work left
to do. I racked on Sunday and today there is a collar of foam around the top
of the beer and bubbles in the airlock. I'm going to assume that the yeasties
are still working. The second beer is going to be
interesting project. My idea was to brew a clone of Orval. This is one of my favorite
Belgian beers. In the interest of a quick fermentation I racked the beer
on top of the brown ale. Fermentation was noticeable in about four hours.
I brewed this beer on Sunday (same day I racked the brown ale) and today
I found the lid had been partially blown off by the force of the fermentation.
Foam had leaked out the fermenter and dripped down one side and onto the
floor. A bit of a mess, but the beer seemed okay, and smelled good. I cleaned
up and fastened the lid. I also replaced the airlock as some of the krausen
had polluted it. I still plan to do something that will make this beer very
interesting. I plan on adding a second yeast strain when I rack the beer
to the secondary fermenter. This yeast is a WYeast straub, a special blend
of yeasts that includes a couple Brettamyces (wild) strains and a sherry
yeast. I plan on keeping the secondary at 60 deg. F. or cooler, which I believe
will keep the Brett. yeasts from getting too crazy. I also figure that most
of the sugars will be eaten up by this time and there won't be that much
food for the yeast. What I'm hoping for is just slightly "wild" flavor. The
same esters, that I think, can be detected in Orval. I plan on keeping the
beer cold by covering the fermenter with a carboard box and placing up against
my sliding glass door that leads to my balcony. I may open the door slightly
to let some cold air into the box. I've run tests with a carboy full of water
and I believe this will keep the beer between 60 and 65 degrees. We'll see
what happens. Here is the recipe for what I'm
calling Near Wild Heaven.
FINALLY bottled the Two Fishes IPA last Monday. The beer was very well attenuated. I compared starting and ending gravities and came up with close to 80 percent apparent attenuation. Tasted out of the secondary, this beer had a big hop aroma and a nice malt accented start...innocent enough...and then BOOM -- the hops explosion and a very bitter, very spicy looooonnng finish. Very nice! I suspect the hops'll fade out over time, or at least I hope they do!
The other beer I'm enjoying this evening is my Wee Heavy. It's 9 months old and is very smooth with a strong caramel flavor and just a little tawny towards the finish. That's another I'm going to have try again, too. It's also a kit from Northern Brewer.
1/9/03 - Racked and bottled my last batch of beer brewed in November and I have to say I'm quite pleased with it. Bottled about 3.7 gallons into 36 12 and 16-ounce bottles. This beer fermented very well as my final gravity reading was a whopping 67 points below my original gravity of 1.077! Straight out of the secondary fermenter, this beer had a huge hop aroma and huge Cascade hop flavor. Absolutely huge, as big as some of the hoppiest IPAs I've had, which I know is bit strange seeing that I was setting out to brew a barleywine. However, in a year I expect the hops to have mellowed substantially, and the malt character to come forward. It will just take some time for this to happen.
11/2/02 - Hmmm...how time gets away from me! I've brewed once again, this time my vintage ale that I've been making for the last three years. I brewed last Sunday and racked yesterday to the secondary. Here's the recipe for this year's model in the form of Promash printout. My SG actually came in a little lower than I expected, about 1.077 instead of 1.080, but it's still one heck of a beer. At racking time the hops tasted not just "green" but "hot." This is not too appealing, but in about a year it will be very complex. My 2001 batch, which I'm sipping right now, has some very complex almost sherry-like flavors. The best comparison to a commercial beer that I can make is probably Anchor Brewing Old Foghorn with just a bit more hops.
Here's the recipe for Old Frightful.
10/27/02 - Hoo boy...I've been busy lately with lots of things. Among them brewing another batch of beer. This time it's stout. I'll put the recipe up a bit later, but for now I'll just say I used about 1 1/2 pounds of roasted barley for a five gallon batch. That seemed like a lot and from what I tasted at bottling there was a good roasted, coffee flavor. I cold steeped the malt at room temperature for two hours and then applied heat for about 10 minutes before straining the solution into my brewpot. Seemed to work pretty well. The hopping rate rate might seem a bit extreme for the original gravity of this beer but I think it will work out okay.
10/10/02 - Well this 'alt bier' turned out a bit closer in gravity to an 'English Mild', but it's still good. I think the lesson learned is to properly crush my grain. I used a rolling pin to crush my two-row barley and it didn't do a good enough job. My starting gravity was much too low. I suspect that this occurred because there weren't enough starches extracted from the malt to make enough sugar for a proper fermentation. To add insult to injury my ending gravity was rather high (1.018) which had me a bit worried about stuck fermentation. All of my worries have been put to rest, however, as the beer is carbonated and tastes fine!
9/15/02 - I've returned to brewing after a couple months off. Today I brewed what should end up as a light-bodied and bitter version of a German Alt bier.
Here's the partial mash recipe.
7/15/02 - Brewed a new batch of beer yesterday. I wasn't sure what I wanted to brew, but I knew I wanted to brew. I ended up making another Saison-style ale. It's not going to be a very strong saison, but I gave it a heathly dose (about an ounce) of fresh ground coriander seeds from my garden. (The garden and the heat keep me from brewing more in the summer.) Anyhow, I decided to give it a go, and I think it went pretty well. Probably will turn out a bit darker than the last batch.
Here's the five-gallon partial mash recipe.
6/11/02 - Tasted my Saison the other day and it's finally getting drier
and less hoppy. A few more weeks and it should be perfect. Lots of my wheat
ale left, too, another beer that is maturing very nicely. I'm not sure when
I'm going to brew next. I've been thinking of brewing another batch of the
wheat ale. Also, I"m thinking about making the leap to a draft system with
5-gallon cornelius kegs. I'd also have to buy a second refridgerator.
5/28/02 - The wheat
ale I brewed is going down easy -- to easy. I'm thinking that I'm going to
brew another batch of it. This is a very tasty summer beer! If you're interested
check out the recipe below. Bottles of the pale ale
I brewed are pretty good. I bit more bitterness is needed. Most of the hops
are spicy and up front when tasting this beer. Needs more of a backbone.
Still letting the Saison condition -- it's been
about six weeks now -- but the hops are still pretty assertive and green.
5/12/02 - Bottled a very hazy wheat ale. This should go down pretty easy later this summer. I am sort of surprised at how hazy the beer looks and I wonder if it has something to do with how I mashed the grains. (I'm open to suggestions.) The beer tasted fine. There's a little bit of bitterness and the beer finishes somewhat dry, but the over-riding flavor component is the wheat and the oats.
I've been using what I call the "oven method" for mashing my grains. I heat up my mash water with my grain to about 160 degrees F., then I cover the pot and put it in the oven. I put the oven on the "warm" setting for just five minutes, because I figure that the insulating characteristics of the appliance will help keep the temperature steady, and it seems like it works. For this beer, the Oatzen, I recorded a temp. of 148 degrees F., when the beer came out of the oven, which I think is a good all around mash temp. I'd like to hear if anybody else is using this method for a partial mash and how it has worked for them. Don't be afraid to send me an email.
Tapped the Party Pig of pale ale. I had to know what could happen! I tapped it at room temperature and it foamed up excessively. After letting a glass of the beer sit for few minutes the foam subsided and the beer tasted okay. There's a slight aftertaste that can't quite pinpoint, but it's sort of bad tasting bitterness, perhaps from using too much iodophor?
5/5/02 - It's Cinco de Mayo ale! Bottled the pale ale and it went fairly well, except for leaving the restrictor valve on the counter, instead of installing it in the Party Pig. I'm told the beer will pour very quickly and consist mostly of foam. I'm a little worried, but I think I'll relax and have a homebrew....
...oh, and to whom it may concern -- yes, I am back dating my content...I occasionally make spelling and grammatical errors, too.
4/29/02 - I brewed a tribute
to the old Hopcats brewpub the other day. It's what some brewers have
called an "Oatzen." Basically, an American-style wheat beer that is fairly
highly hopped and made with oats.
Everything is boiled for 60 minutes after mashing the the pale ale malt and flaked oats. I mashed the grains with a little more than three quarts of bottled water. I mash by bringing the temperature of the water and grains up to about 160 degrees F., and then covering the pot and placing it in the oven for about 40 minutes. I've used this method several times so far and I've just about nailed my projected gravity.4 lbs munton's weizen dry malt extract
2 lbs pale ale malt (mashed)
1 lb of flaked oats (mashed)
1.5 oz of Perle hops (pellets)
1 tsp Irish moss
1 pkg White Labs East Coast Ale yeast
original gravity: 1.048
expected final gravity: 1.012
4/21/02 - Racked the pale ale I brewed last week to a carboy for secondary fermentation with dry hops. This beer is my sort of my attempt at a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale type of beer and I think I got pretty close. Pretty clean with a nice medium to light body and a good hoppiness. Not too bitter. Dry hopped with Cascades and just about a half ounce of Northern Brewer. Needs more of a hop nose so I decided to add the little bit of Northern brewer pellets for extra oomph. I'm going to try and let this sit in the carboy for two weeks. My O.G. at racking was 1.011 which is little low -- but I'd rather have that with this beer than a high ending gravity.
4/13/02 - Brewed a Sierra
Nevada-like pale ale today. Here's the recipe I used:
We'll see what the actuals are in a few more days. I'll probably rack to the secondary (with the dry hops) on Wednesday. This beer should be pretty darn hoppy!.5 lb of CaraPils malt
.5 lb of wheat
1.75 lb pale ale malt
1 lb of light dry malt extract
4 lbs of light liquid malt extract
1 oz. Centennial hops (boil 50 mins)
1 oz. Cascade hops (boil 45 mins)
1 oz. Cascade hops (boil 7 mins)
1 oz. Cascade hops (dry, in secondary)
White Labs California Ale yeastoriginal gravity: 1.053
predicted final gravity: 1.013
bitterness: 45 IBUs
4/14/02 - Bottled the Saison. All went fairly well. Beer tastes great. A lot of complex flavors, different fruits, even a hint of smoke from phenols. Nice hoppy dryness with a good spicy character from bright hops and the spices I added. I have a lot of hope for this batch. The only mistake I made was that I primed with dark malt extract instead of light. This darkened the beer somewhat, but I don't think it will influence the flavor too much.
4/1/02 - I think my mash temperature (150 to 160 degrees F.) might have been a bit too high (again) for my current batch, a Saison. Racked to the secondary (carboy) with dry hops (Saaz) and noticed that the gravity was 1.020 -- which is a little high for a finishing gravity -- but of course the beer may drop a few points; that's the idea of having a secondary fermentation. The secondary ferment is probably going to be a bit warmer -- 70 degrees instead of 66 degrees F. Perhaps the warmer temperature will get the yeast active? How does the beer taste? Lots of esters, fruity, spices, a bit of pepper, hoppiness, sweet malt. Coriander? (I know I put some in.) Very green. This of course will sit in the secondary for about two weeks, then I'll bottle and let it set for at least 8 to 10 weeks. Hopefully just in time for sittin' out on the balcony.
By the way here the specs on this one:
6.6 lbs of Bierkeller liquid malt extract
2 lbs of pilsner malt
.5 lb of wheat malt (German)
.5 lbs of Belgian CaraMunich malt
.5 lb of candy sugar (light)
2 oz of Styrian Goldings hops - (60 min. boil)
1 oz of Saaz - (boil 20 mins.)
1 oz of Saaz - (dry hop in secondary)...plus this year's secret spices. Any questions about how I do a partial mash, email me. Everything except the Saaz hops and spices go into the pot at the start of the boil. About 90 percent of the time I use White Labs yeast. For this batch I used the Saison strain.
3/23/02 - Brewed
my Saison today. Mashed about three pounds of malt including two-row pilsner,
German wheat and CaraMunichTM. I also added some candy sugar,
noble hops and my secret blend of spices. (Sounds like a Sam Adams ad doesn't
it?) I pitched two vials of White Labs yeast (one was past due) and the beer
took off in about 10 to 12 hours. Fermentation is at a nice 68 degrees F.
2/20/02 - Back in January I brewed a batch of my Old Frightful and it didn't quite turn out right. I finally bottled a case of the Old Frightful. It's not quite the same as the last batch from two years ago, but it'll do. The beer is very sweet and has a high original gravity. The beer is only 56 percent attenuated. I've let it sit for six weeks and the yeast just won't ferment those sugars. I've gone ahead and bottled, hoping for the best. Perhaps if I let this batch sit for a few months it will improve and be less sweet. There's plenty of hops, just not enough bitterness to counteract all that malt sweetness. I'm not sure what happened but I think I mashed my grain at too high of a temperature.
1/13/02 - Just brewed another batch of the West Coast Porter, (I can't get enough of this stuff!!) this time substituting some of the malt extract for two-row Pale Malt. I did a mini-mash of four pounds of malt including the pale, Belgian chocolate, black and 'Special-B' which is pretty much the secret ingredient.
12/10/01 - This (older) batch of West Coast Porter has been bottled for almost two weeks now. Upon tasting I notice that the hops are very bright (to put it modestly) almost blowing away any recognition that you're drinking a dark beer. It's a good thing I used the black malt. It's the only thing that cuts through the hops. I would like to take the hops down a notch with the next batch and perhaps add some molasses, like in the Three Floyds Alpha Klaus.
11/28/01 - Bottled
the entire batch instead of using the Party Pig.
Out of the fermenter
the beer tasted less bitter, more malty than last batch of West Coast
Porter. Not quite the same hop character. Perhaps a bit more muddy and
brown in appearance. Bottled 11 22-oz bottles, 18 12-oz bottles,
1-25 oz and a couple 16s. I have to get used to this new version of my brewing
software, Suds
6.0.
12/9/01 - I decided to brew today so I made an old recipe from years ago that I call Bass Drum Brown Ale. It's an all-extract brew that is easy to make. No muss, no fuss and five gallons of good beer. I think this batch might be a little hoppier than I used to make it, just because I used higher alpha acid hops than I did the last time I made it. I used Kent-Goldings that had an alpha acid content of 6.1 percent, which seemed sort of high for that type of hop
12/7/01
- I sampled a bottle of the second batch of porter (I'm calling it West
Coast Porter) and it was pretty durned hoppy. I think it's a bit hoppier
than the last batch, but it's only been two weeks. The hops should mellow
out after a couple more weeks. I just need to practice some restraint.
11/27/01 - Bottled the second batch of porter today. The
beer tasted pretty good, of course a lot of green hop and malt flavors, but
it was very lively. I don't think I have to worry about a lack of carbonation
with this batch. Now I just have to worry about things being sanitary.
11/18/01 - The porter ended up staying flat. I'm not sure
what happened, but it's probably one of two things: either I added the priming
solution to the Pig while still too hot or I didn't use enough priming solution.
I primed with malt extract because I was out of corn sugar. I don't think
I'll do that again. Seeing that this last batch didn't turn out, I'm brewing
another batch of porter, this time with a pound more malt. The original gravity
was 1.060 and the beer should have around 50 units of bitterness which is
about that of a bottled Guinness. We'll what happens this time.
10/30/01
- Tapped my Party Pig of my porter I brewed a couple of weeks ago now. It
was flat. So I took it out of the fridge and shook it up to let the yeast
work its magic for a bit longer. I'll cool it down again in a couple days
and if still doesn't have any pressure, I add some yeast and re-pressurize
it. I did try a bottle and one was carbonated; another wasn't. I just think
the beer needs some more time -- mostly because I primed with malt extract.
10/22/01 - The "pale ale" I brewed ended having a low O.G., so I'm calling it a bitter -- and ordinary bitter -- to be precise. Precision is what I'm hoping for as I've entered this beer into a homebrew competition It my first competition and I'm a little nervous what the judges will think of my beer. My friends think it's great, but what will a certified beer judge think? I guess I'll find out next week. The "Spooky Brew" comptition is at Flatlander's Brewpub in Lincolnshire, IL. I entered my "pale ale" as an ordinary bitter, calling it Autumn on the Horizon,and my Old Frightful barleywine from last year as my "spooky brew." I tasted a bottle of the Frightful last night and it was pretty damn good. The hop flavor had almost totally faded, but the bittering hops were still putting up a fight against the more dominant malt and yeast flavors. It almost tasted like port!.
While the bitter was conditioning in bottles and being consumed
out of my party pig, I decided to brew a porter/stout. Okay, I originally
intended to brew a Sierra Nevada
Stout clone, but the beer came out much lighter. It is still good, however,
and very hoppy. I used Horizon hops for bittering and Cascades for flavor
and aroma. No dry hopping this time, but it's hard to believe that's not
the case! The apparent attenuation of this batch was 65 percent, which leaves
the beer with a little less alcohol but more body, which I happen to like
in this case. I fermented this beer (which is currently called no-name porter)
with White
Labs California Ale yeast.
9/18/01
- I just racked and bottled a pale ale I made with some extra extract and
specialty grains I had leftover from other batches. The beer actually tasted
really good out of the fermenter, but a bit a light, at about 3.2 percent
alcohol. It should actually turn out to be a nice "session" beer, something
low in alcohol that facilitates conversation, but does not get you too drunk.
The beer is pretty much amber colored with a nice malt sweetness and a bit
of flowery Santiam hops in the aroma. The bitter character which pretty
much is in balance with the malt is provided by Horizon
hops. The Horizon hops were pelletized and the Santiam were whole hops. I'm
starting to think that whole hops in the kettle (especially if they are low
alpha acid) are the way to go for the right amount of fresh hop flavor and
aroma. As always, if you'd like the recipe, send me an email.
9/10/01
- Whoo Hoo! My "Belgian" Octoberfest turned out to be a very smooth
dark beer.Almost the color and taste of brown ale, this beer turned better
than I thought. I think using the artesian water improved the taste of this
brew. Sned me an email if you want
the recipe.
8/23/01
- I brewed a new recipe last week which is sort of hybrid of a German Octoberfest
and a Belgian Pale Ale. I used White
Labs Belgian Ale strain because it ferments at warmer temperatures (up
to 78 degrees F.) You have to think of these things when brewing in hot weather
and my fermentation space is 74 degrees F. Anyhow, the brew went like this:
I didn't add Irish moss for clarity. Oops. Boiled for at least
45 minutes closer, to 50 minutes. Used old, old fermenter. Also used artestian
water from Jewel. We'll
see if there's any difference, although I should have used a more neutral
yeast for such a test.
This batch is going to be all in bottles. I figure it will last
longer that way.
Initial tasting after one week: a lot of phenols, but that's to
be expected with the yeast strain I used. I just wonder if the phenolic character
will decrease over time? Otherwise a nice beer with a good body and smooth
carbonation.
Apparent attenuation: 72 percent.
7/14/01
- I've almost depleted my Party Pig(TM) of my last batch, a hoppy read ale,
(which was supposed to be paler.) I'm not sure what I'm going to brew next,
but I'm getting the itch. I probably should make an Octoberfest, but it's
been pretty warm in the brewery lately!
6/4/01
- Did I say that I brewed another pale ale? I don't think so. I used a quick
mini-mash of a pound of Carapils
malt in this recipie with 6.5 pounds of Northwestern
Gold malt extract and some Cascade hops. So far, at bottling time this
beer was nice and spicy with a dark gold appearance, although it's hard to
tell sometimes out of the fermenter. As always send me email if you want the recipe.
5/31/01
- The bottling of the Saison has taken place and it is good!
5/21/01
- Still waiting to bottle Saison Morency. Maybe by the end of the
week it'll get done. Meanwhile, the Pale Ale I made has matured quite well
after about a month of conditioning. I'm still not sure I like the Zeus
and Horizon
hops. I don't know exactly what it is that I don't like but I think the hops
taste a bit woody. (Yes, woody, as in like wood.)
5/6/01
- The Pale Ale that I brewed about a month ago now has finally shed
itself of its very green hop flavors. It is still quite hoppy and came out
much darker than expected, almost sort of a dark red beer. Anyhow, I've almost
finished the Party Pig of this batch and will now move on to drinking the
bottles.
I've also started fermenting another batch
of my summer beer, Saison Morency. For the uninitiated Saison is light, crisp
and dry ale made at just a handful of breweries in Belgium. I used mostly
light malt extract, pilsner malt and wheat with traditional German hops such
as Saaz.
There's also a few secret spices I like to add. I'm thinking about posting
some of my recipes online soon, so watch this space! The beer will be racked
to a secondary fermenter tomorrow night after a full 14 days of fermentation.
4/11/01
- Scottish Ale turned out pretty good, but I think there's a bit of
excess diacetyl (read: butter flavor) that I don't like too much. Otherwise
this was a very tasty beer. I've drained the Party Pig and I am looking
forward to bottling the next batch. Yes, the next batch. It seems I've been
a bit derelict in keeping this column updated. I've since brewed a batch
of Pale Ale. I used some interesting hops that I found on the Net at Brewsource. The hops I
used were Horizon (10.5% AA) and Zeus
(14.5% AA.) I used the Horizon for flavor and the Zeus for aroma. I'll let
you know how it comes out!
3/7/01
- I've got Scottish Ale fermenting. Very unique Scottish Ale, I might add,
mashed with about a pound of smoked two-row pale ale malt. As I continue
to try partial mashing I begin to realize that I'm not doing things quite
right. The kitchen strainer I've been using to sparge hasn't been cutting
it, so I'm thinking of making a lauter-tun based of Charlie Papazian's Complete
Joy of Homebrewing. If you're looking to try mashing your own grain to
make beer I suggest this book, which can be found at Barnes & Noble. If you're looking to buy mashing
equipment, I would highly recommend Willams
Brewing in California. (Don't worry, they ship nationwide.)
P.S. Party Pig(TM) update: I bought parts from Quoin the other day and resurrected
my pig. It simply needs new screws and a new collar (after about six uses.)
2/10/01
- I just realized the other day that I haven't commented on the O'Marcobrau
Stout since I bottled it. It's been a few weeks now and the beer tastes
great. I really believe that flaked barley can a lot of body to a stout.
If you brew and like fuller-bodied stouts, I would definitely recommend trying
flaked barley. I used a whole pound and it made for a nice sippin' stout.
I should also say that flaked barley merely adds body. It will not increase
the alcohol content of the beer.
2/2/01 - Well the Party Pig(TM) finally bought the farm. The screws on the collar stripped and with use the collar itself seems to have been bent. The result was a pressurized pig that eventually leaked and then instantly sprayed its contents over a third of the kitchen!
1/27/01
- Okay. This time I used whole hops at the end of the boil only, but I still
came up with a final volume of only 4.5 gallons with an OG of 1.060. I wanted
more beer than that, so I added water to bring the volume up to 5 gallons,
which brought me to an OG of 1.044, much less than the predicted OG of 1063.
The result? Probably a lighter beer with a a lot hoppiness, perhaps not so
much in balance as I had thought. I did notice a significant evaporation
of water, probably at least a half gallon. I will have to either anticipate
by adjusting my recipies and/or keeping the lid on the brewpot.
1/9/01 - Okay, I haven't kept good notes, lately. I just
bottled this batch that I brewed about a week ago. This was going to be an
Alt Bier, but it most closey resembles a light mild. I used what seemed like
a lot of hops, so I've decided to call it Hop-de-Light-ful. The estimated
bitterness was 52 IBUs, but I don't think I'm even close to 40 IBUs with
this beer. This was a really freakish batch that came out much, much lighter
than expected. My only guess as to what happened is that the whole hops I
used absorbed too much liquid and lightened the concentrated wort in the
kettle. I don't know that I'm going to use whole hops for the entire batch
again if I don't figure out a remedy to this problem. Any ideas? Email me. The result is a beer that
is sort of like a darker Kolsch Bier, but a bit more like a hoppy English
Light Mild. Oh, well.
1/12/00
- This beer tastes just fine for a stout. Nice yield into the carboy. Took
the cover off the siphon starter and it seemed to work better. Had to move
fermenter around and move the carboy from a chair to the floor to keep the
siphon going.
1/5/00
- Brewing day for my O'Marcobrau Stout. Did a partial mash and sparged
without using grain bags for the first time. Not bad, but it would be better
if I had a lauter tun. It would be even better if I had control the temperature
of my stove! I don't know that I'll mash this way again. It's just a lot
of work. One thing I will do again is set the brew kettle on two burners.
Seems like the malt didn't scorch as much. If do a partial mash like this
again, this is how I did it: a) I heated 1.5 gallons of water in my old brewpot
with all the grains and 1.5 gallons in the big brew kettle. b) Sparged
grains into fermenter using strainer and rinsing with hot (170 degree F.)
water from brew kettle. c)Transferred the whole mess into the brew kettle,
heated to boiling, tra la la. Everything else is the same as extract brewing.
1/2/00
- Whoo Hoo!! Success! Tasted the Best Bitter out of the fermenter,
not much aroma, maybe a little bit of malt aroma. Starts sweet and
ends a bit sweet. Not much hop flavor,but a good amount bitterness. Nice
amber/red color. Very drinkable.
1/18/00
- Just a few things to note about this batch of Best Bitter. I had
the lid on the kettle covered about 3/5 of the way over the pot. Steeped
grains in a separate pot with about one gallon of water; by the time I was
done steeping the crystal malt the water left in the kettle was boiling.
1/9/00
- Yeeeha! Success once again with my Old Frightful IPA. Bottling went
smoothly and yielded a case and a half of brew in 12-oz. bottles. This is
the batch that will help us through winter
1/3/00
- Racking and bottling time for Mud in the Snow. Filled the
party pig first as usual. Heated water in teapot and poured into pint glass
for bottles and into the pig. Put sugar in pint glass and pig measuring
the sugar. Put about 1/3 cup for bottles and a 1/4 for the pig. Used
priming sugar this time instead of malt. Covered bottling bucket and pig
with foil. Pig sprung an air leak at first. Took two attempts to pressurize.
Brew tastes chocolately, but almost more roasty and coffee-like.Certainly
more so than the last brown ale. Roast malt aroma. Nice dark malt taste,
a bit bitter, but that will mellow. A tad bit of hop spice. The spices also
come through from the tea. If this turns out, I'm gonna wish I had more of
it!
1/27/00
- The Mud-in-the-Snow brown ale I made on Saturday finally started
up with a “frenzy” sometime Tuesday. (I really need to make a starter unless
I know my yeast is fresh.) The great experiment, also known as my 120
IBU Trappist-IPA, is still sitting in the secondary waiting for two ounces
of dry Cascade hop pellets to settle out. As soon as they do I’ll put “Old
Frightful” in 12-oz. bottles and wait, and wait, and wait. And, hope the
hops mellow a little bit. (For you novices, IBU is an abbreviation of International
Bittering Unit.)
1/12/00
- For the second time this year I've decided to brew a brown ale, but not
just any brown, I had to make my version of Charlie Papazian's (see above)
Roastaroma Deadline Delight. I won't divulge all of may secrets
but recipies is basically 7.3 pounds of light malt extract, 1 pound of chocolate
malt, a half-pound of black malt, and a full pound of 40L crystal malt. For
hops I used an ounce of Centennial for bitterness and an ounce of Willamette
for flavor (about 15 minutes from the end of the boil.) Anyway, here is how
it's goin.' I've called this one Mud in the Snow Brown Ale and here are my
notes.
Brewing Day. I think the problem I had with my other brown
ale (which was supposed to be a porter) was due to the fact that the grains
weren't properly crushed. I'm pretty sure I bought the specialty grain for
the porter at Prestige, (a liquor store by my house) which is where I bought
the grain for this batch, too. If I ever replicate this beer using properly
crushed malt, I should probably cut back on the amounts of grain. I
also reduced the amount of hops by one ounce than what I originally
planned to do. (I didn't add the hops at 30 mins., only one ounce at 45 mins.
into the boil.) The lesson to be learned here is that you should make sure
you by your crushed malt from someone who knows what they're doing. The grains
should have their husks broken open, but should not be reduced to powder.
If you want to crack them yourself you're on your own because I don't have
any milling experience
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