Decembeer Ambeer

After class today, I brewed an amber ale.  Well, that's what I was shooting for.  I had several goals I wanted to accomplish with this last batch of the year.

• use my new wort chiller
• use a large amount of flavor and aroma hops
• use a Belgian yeast strain.

I started with 4 gallons of water in my brew pot and these two specialty grains:

• 1 .0 # crystal malt (40L)
• 0.5 # wheat flakes

After the wort came close to a boil, I strained out the grains and added the following at 4:10pm:

• 3.0 # amber DME
• 3.0 # light DME
• 1.0 oz. Columbus Whole Hops (13.0 AA)

In the last 15 minutes at 4:55pm I added:

• 1.0 oz. Columbus Whole Hops
• 1.5 tsp. Irish moss

In the last 10 minutes of the boil, at 5pm I added:

• 1.0 oz. Columbus Whole Hops

In the last 5 minutes of boil time, at 5:05pm I added:

• 1.0 oz. Fuggles Pellet Hops (3.5 AA)

In the final minute of boil, at 5:09pm I added:

• 1.0 oz. Columbus Whole Hops

I stuck the wort chiller into the brew pot and transferred brewpot to the sink.  I started the wort chiller and to my observation it took very little time to cool down the wort.  After it was cool, I removed the wort chiller and began the process of sparging out all those hops.  After removing half the hops, my strainer was full and I had nowhere to put the remaining hops so I trashed them.  After sparging the second half of the hopped wort I noted that the hops had absorbed quite a large amount of the liquid.  It was alarming how much liquid was absorbed, and how much tap water I had to sparge into the fermenter in order to fill it to the proper level.

Next time I may use a hop bag so I can squeeze out the water with sanitized hands.

After getting all the wort into the fermenter I looked at the temp and it was 76 degrees, so I pitched the yeast immediately.  The yeast I used was:

• White Labs WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale Yeast

I cleaned up and the entire process took me approximately 2.5 hours.  I also did some video this time and should have that uploaded to Youtube in the near future.

In a couple days after primary fermentation (estimate 12/11 or 12/12), I'm gonna add:

• 1 oz. of Spalt hop pellets.

A couple days before bottling (estimate 12/25 or 12/26), I'm gonna add:

• 1 oz. of Spalt hop pellets.

Belboh Hybrid Ale...first tasting

I tried a bottle of the Belboh last night.  It was pretty good.  Its still a bit hazy and needs to condition some more, but it should finish up nicely!

I may be brewing an amber in a couple days.  I am dying to try out the new wort chiller!

I couldn't really think up a great label for this beer because it's style is kinda strange, so I just picked some graphics and winged it.  Like I did with the brewing of this beer!

For that person who's expressed disappointment that this blog is all about me, my family, my life, and what I'm doing, please feel more than free to not visit.  I'm not holding a gun to your head.  We don't want you here anyway. Hahahahahaha!!!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days (original from 1998)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

My birthday present came today!

I am so excited!  I was ready to take a month or so off from brewing.  You know, just chill and enjoy the fruits of my labors up to this point so far.  After all, I still have some Brett's Beard Bitter Ale, some New Steel Pale Ale, some Nut Up or Shut Up Brown Ale, and just bottled my BelBoh Ale which is not even ready to drink!  But now that the wort chiller that Kathy got me for my birthday has come in the mail, I am dying to try it out!

The motivation behind any brewing process or ingredient is flavor (or sometimes aroma, or being pleasing to the eye, but mainly flavor).  In The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd Edition, it states:  "After the hot wort has been put into your fermenter, you may have to wait many hours, perhaps overnight, before the wort drops to temperatures suitable for pitching yeast.  Be forewarned that this procedure can result in beers that have a flavor character reminiscent of sweet corn (really dimethyl-sulfide).  It is best to chill as quickly as possible." (Papazian, 2003).

The wort chiller sends a flow of cold water (contained within this copper slinky) spiraling through your 212°F wort which will cool it down below 78°F--the proper temperature for pitching yeast.  This can be done in 15 to 30 minutes now!  I'm ready to brew again!

Very pretty!

Nut Up or Shut Up Brown Ale...in a PBR glass.

The brown ale I bottled earlier this month is pretty tasty, but I am also very impressed on how nice a head it has!  This is one 12oz bottle in a pint glass.

When I brew, I don't usually just throw out the last bit that won't fit into a full 12oz bottle.  I always bottle this amount too with the idea that I will try it after a couple days before it has time to oxidize or spoil in any way.  I tried the Belboh last night that I had bottled just recently.  It was already lightly carbonated.  I really enjoyed the hop flavor that seemed to pervade the beer well.  It wasn't overly bitter, but this was my first batch since I started brewing again that I dropped in late-boil hops.

I had been using hops for bitterness, then dry-hopping, but putting some hops in the last 10-20 minutes of the boil really does fantastic things to your beer!  I won't brew without some finishing and dry hops from this point forward.

This is for that one special person...

Usually, I don't think of you.  When I do, it doesn't last long because it's painful.  You have accused me of many things, and even though you did not use my name, it still hurts.  And all this because I did not kowtow to you last time we met and rush right over to give you a hug?  I'm sorry, but I don't worship fellow human beings.  You acted like a queen who homage must be paid to.  I'm not into that.  


You didn't ask or care that I had been driving a while with a car full of kids, who were arguing, plus people trying to give me conflicting directions.  You didn't care that minutes before I got so frustrated I said "hell with it" and let someone else drive.  You didn't care that I had then fallen asleep on the way over and was just waking up and still groggy.


Then, when you wanted your precious display of affection, and I was awake, recovered, and I finally found a moment when you didn't have a cancer-stick hanging out of your mouth--you snubbed me with "how about a hand shake...".  You call me an asshat and that's fine.  I don't care.


You say I am a rude person who only visited when it was my advantage to do so.  That is complete BS.  The reason I know is because you made it so uncomfortable to come over and visit the ex-father-in-law who I looked up to, admired, and thought of as a father that I just didn't come visit.  You were the one who I tried to be pleasant to, and you returned that by being mean and snide.  You were the one who said bad things about my daughter and said "she's going to be just like her mother and grandmother."  You were the one who made such an issue over money and made me feel so uncomfortable that I had  to fight and argue with my ex-father-in-law when I wanted to pay my bill at restaurants.


You call me insensitive and tell everyone I am the "asshat took my very fine blog and did what he does best: ruin things for everyone while yelling 'karma will get them!'."  I really appreciate the technical credit you've given me.  Perhaps I should put it on my resume "able to hack into Google accounts", but I won't do that.  Why?  Because I don't know how!


I'm happy for you that you're living a wonderful and stress free life down in Florida. But if you're so contented with your life, why do you keep bringing me up in your blog?  I check in once every three months or so, just to see what new nasty thing you're saying.  Do you notice (this sole example being the exception) that I don't mention anything about you?  It's because I don't think of you ever.  I miss my ex-dad, but thanks to you, I have had to write him off as a loss.  Hell, if he's happy in Florida and doesn't need me in his life then I guess that's what I should do anyway.  I very much want him to be happy, even if that means I still can't have any sort of relationship with him.  I continue to focus on the people around me who are good, and have the ability to care, forgive, and love.  I see you hate the word "Karma" so we'll just boil it down to this:  I am going to worry about myself, my family and my loved ones and concern myself as little as possible about you and ex-dad.  I hope he'll be happy, and if that means you being happy too, well then I hope you're happy as well.


With that said, please make the recent cards and phone calls the last contact you have with my children.  I do not feel that I can trust you to keep your snide remarks and crappy attitude toward me and the other people who love them to yourself.  Kids are hard enough to raise without bad influences, which at this point, you most definitely are.  I hate to apply this ban to ex-dad also, but I truly believe he would do anything for you.  That would be admirable to most people, but it pains me to say it is not to me.  I told my daughter the other night when we were having an argument that she and I will always be there for each other.  Even though I was mad as hell at her for a minute, I made sure she knew that I would always, unconditionally love her and that I would never turn my back on her as her grandpa did to his daughter.  I understand there are reasons that I might not be old enough to understand and that not having been through that experience, I cannot judge, so I will not.  I can only say that I love him, but I can not at this point in my life ever conceive of a reason why a parent could turn their back on their child.


Try us back when the kids are over 18 years old.  By then, hopefully, they will be able to judge you by the content of your character.  I know their mother and I do not speak badly of you, but a lot of times, you really make me want to.  I don't though, because I think "what kind of parent would I be to them if I did that?"  Whyn't you try to learn that lesson?  


My wonderful fiancee (you know the one you say is a person like that is in charge of manners and kindness) has some really great parents and step-parents who will be good examples for the kids.  I know they need to have that in order to grow up and understand how families are supposed to be, and with my parents having passed away before they were old enough to remember them much--I am so thankful for her wonderful family.  So don't worry about not being around.  I will make polite and evasive excuses for you so they don't think bad about you.  The pressure is off you there.  Have a nice life.


Note: stuff in red is quoted from you.  I guess you'll go change your wonderful popular amazing blog now.  You know--the one you made after I hacked the old one.  Sheesh.  

Belboh Hybrid Ale

The labels I ordered for my bottle caps will not easily take the name 0.5Wit Newfangled Bohemian.  When I explained this to Kathy, she gave me that look that (since we can read each other's minds) says "The name is too long, honey."  I told her that I conceived the name because it has the wheat content of a BELgian Witbier, and the Saaz hops of a BOHemian (what is now known as  Czech Republic) lager.  She quickly quipped "What about Belboh..."

So, the ale I bottled yesterday shall from this point further be known as BelBoh Hybrid Ale....  It's not ready to drink, but I am in the process of labeling the bottle caps so I can easily tell it from the other beers in my collection.    The original gravity just before pitching the yeast was 1.066.  The final last night before adding bottling sugar was 1.006.  I added some water when I boiled the bottling sugar.  I estimate the final alcohol content between 5.0 and 6.0 percent by volume.  Here's the specs:


BelBoh Ale
=============================
Brewed on: 11/5/11 with OG of 1.066
Bottled on 11/28/11 with FG of 1.006
Volume: ~6.5 Gallons
Ingredients:

• 3.0 lbs. light DME
• 3.0 lbs. extra light DME
• 2.0 lbs. 55% wheat / 45% barley DME
• 0.5 lbs. crystal malt (80L)
• 0.5 lbs. toasted malt
• 1.0 lbs. flaked wheat
• 1.0 oz. Centennial leaf hops boiled 60 mins
• 1.0 oz. Saaz pellet hops boiled 10 mins.
• 1.0 oz. Saaz pellet hops boiled 3 mins.
• White Labs German Kolsch liquid yeast (WPL029)

Shopping with Kat and her Mom

Kathy and her mom do the Black Friday shopping. Everything is very tactical and planned out.

First we spent the day having Thanksgiving with her family. I don't know most of them that well, so it's nice to get the opportunity to spend more time with them. We did a name draw then pretty much split for the start of this shopping odyssey.

Its Thanksgiving day at 4:30pm. We are currently at Michael's Craft Store.

Michael's didn't last too long. Walmart was crazy and we picked up several of the door buster items that people on our shopping lists had asked for. It is now "black friday" by a half hour.

To my understanding it's called black Friday because stores draw you in with specially priced items that they are willing to take a loss on then make their money when you pick up other items that are not on sale. I think that Wally world lost their butts on us. Besides door buster items we picked up a paper towel roll holder for $2.98 and a can of cream of chicken soup at a whopping $1.25. We even got one item for $25 less than it should have been because of a typo in the sale ad. It would have been like $50.00.

Next is Meijers, Target, Sams Club, and Menards. 5 hour energy is good food.

5am and we are waiting in line to enter Menards. technically it is a hardware store but they have some crazy stuff for a nut and bolt shop: toys, clothes, candy, electronics... Kat is such a sweetheart. Some lady in line is talking to us "The only thing I couldn't find was that tea kettle on sale...". Kathy tells her that she will look for it because she has to go find some other things too. Kat comes back with two colors for the lady to choose from right as she's checking out.

We finished off the day with Sams club, target, and meijer. Do not have the strength to blog further.

Grandpa's Blue Dog Lunches

As I prepare to break out my mom's old roaster, start cutting up apples to make her fresh apple cake recipe, and boil potatoes in the old metal pot she used for the same task, I am reminded of family again this holiday.  I miss my mom, sometimes more often than others.  Since I was too busy to take a lunch, and I forgot to grab something while I was out doing the grocery shopping, I decided a quick snack was in order.  I got the hunk of bologna out of the fridge.  Its the kind that is not cut and comes in a huge log.

"blue dog"

I am reminded of how my grandpa would get busy working on things in his wood shop and come in for something to eat when he finally realized he was hungry.  If he had time, he would fix a pan full of fried potatoes and onions.  I still love them to this day.  I think fried potatoes were a staple for grandma and grandpa, and that was passed down to my mom.  The only difference is now days I usually use a coated skillet and olive oil.

If grandpa just wanted something quick, nine times out of ten it was a saltine cracker and one of two ingredients.  To make things simple, grandma would keep him stocked with "blue dog" or sardines in mustard sauce.  Blue dog, as he called it, must have been a brand name for his bologna back in those days, or maybe days past even then.  He would slice off a hunk of bologna.  I have never been able to do it as evenly as he did.  It was pretty thick, and always without cheese.  If for some reason there was no blue dog to be had, he would go with some sardines in mustard sauce--again--on a cracker.

The other thing grandpa lived on was the 16oz returnable bottles of Pepsi.  He drank maybe three or four of them a day until the doctor told him he had to give up the sugar due to his diabetes.  Then he switched over to diet Pepsi.  I never once heard him complain about how they were different, not as good, or that he didn't care for them.  I think that's kind of neat.

So I sit here, taking a break, grabbing a bite of blue dog on crackers.  Kathy likes 'em too.  Maybe, with me at least, it's genetic.  I miss mom, but right now, I miss grandpa too.

Louisville Area Grain and Extract Research Society

Last night, Kat and I went to our first L.A.G.E.R.S. meeting and joined up.  Ostensibly I wanted to be able to use the 10% discount on home brewing stuff, but we really had a good time.  The hold the meetings once per month at the Bluegrass Brewing Company Taproom.  There were a bunch of people last night and we talked with several of them.  I met two guys who, like us, had just joined.

One was named Chris and he brought his own beer that he recently made.  It was a pale ale and Kathy really enjoyed it, so I gave him my email address and I hope he sends me the recipe.  They were doing a tasting of this Belgian beer which had all the same ingredients but was pitched with six different types of yeast.  I was amazed that even my blunt palette could distinguish differences between the batches.  Kat also tried some of the BBC Bourbon Barrel Stout and really liked it!

We had a really good time.

Bottled "Nut Up or Shut Up" Brown Ale

Tonight, Kat and I bottled the Brown Ale.  No mishaps and everything looks good!  I sampled what would not come out of the bottling bucket easily (about 2oz) and it is pretty tasty stuff!  It did still have some hop residue, but I am trying really hard to RDWHH*





*Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!

Half-Wit Newfangled Boh

Floating Hops

According to BeerAdvocate, A Witbier is: "A Belgian Style ale that's very pale and cloudy in appearance due to it being unfiltered and the high level of wheat, and sometimes oats, that's used in the mash. Always spiced, generally with coriander, orange peel and other oddball spices or herbs in the back ground. The crispness and slight twang comes from the wheat and the lively level of carbonation."

Although my new beer is unfiltered and will have a relatively high level of wheat.  I cannot speak to the crispness or twang yet....

Regarding Bohemian style beers, (from Wikipedia) "Until the mid-1840s, most Bohemian beers were top-fermented. The taste and standards of quality often varied widely, and in 1838, consumers dumped whole barrels to show their dissatisfaction. The officials of Pilsen founded a city-owned brewery in 1839, called Bürger Brauerei (Citizens' Brewery - now Plzeňský Prazdroj), brewing beer according to the Bavarian style of brewing.  Bavarian brewers had begun experiments with the storage (German: 'Lager') of beer in cool caves using bottom-fermenting yeasts (i.e.German: 'gelagert') , which improved the beer's clarity and shelf-life."  

Hops--now boiling!

Also, The History of Beer states: "The Czech beer industry's worldwide fame dates from the Renaissance, as does the Bohemian tavern which is famous throughout Europe.  Beer is still brewed in Rakovnik today. In the early 16th century, the Czech beer industry contributed as much as 87% of total municipal income to city coffers. Czech hops were being shipped up the Elbe to the special Hamburg hops market from 1101, and the Germans still prize Bohemian Saaz hops from Zatec today. The Czechs were even exporting their beer at this time, most notably the beer they brewed in the town of Ceske Budejovice in south Bohemia. The Bavarians who were importing this beer understandably had a hard time pronouncing the name of the town, and so they referred to it as "Budweis," a place name that is still associated with great beer today - as is Pilsner, which is derived from the place name of the west Bohemian town of Plzen."

My beer will be an ale, thus, top-fermented.  I will not dump my beer.  Quality should not vary from bottle to bottle.  There should be little dissatisfaction to speak of.  It will not be stored in cool caves...

As you can see, this ale will be a creative bastardization between two dissimilar styles of ale.  It is boiling as I type this.  All of life is an experiment, and brewing is part of life...

Wheat malt extract

I am looking forward to trying this beer.  It holds several firsts for me:

• First time using Irish moss.
• First time using toasted barley
• First time brewing with wheat adjuncts.

Typical for Boh beers (or any Czech beer) are the Saaz hops which I am using for flavoring.  I hope it comes off as well as planned.

New Steel Pale Ale

New Steel Pale Ale - The Excalibur of Beers!

I had my first half glass of New Steel this evening.  It was pretty tasty.  Really hoppy, though I have tasted hoppier brews.  I might try to reach the limit on hop bitterness, but I did not do so with this brew.

Here is my representation of the label for New Steel Pale Ale's label, had I been graced with a large brewing company and been in complete control of the graphic design and marketing departments.  Well, you know...with the limitations of picnic and picasa...

I should be able to enjoy fully carbonated New Steel this weekend in between 23 hour sessions of trying to complete my 15 page paper for my English composition class...  In the meantime, I have been slumming with some Upland Brewing Co. Wheat Ale.  It's really pretty good for some Indiana-University-Bloomington-Hoosier-swill. *grins*.

Upland Wheat Ale-Nummy Stuff

Observations on Yeast

Here you can see Nut Up or Shut Up Brown Ale in the carboy fermenting vigorously. My complete observations thus far:

Dry yeast costs around $4.00 for a packet which will be enough for a 5 gallon batch of beer. It begins fermenting in an hour or less.

Liquid yeast costs around $7.00 for a vial enough for a 5 gallon batch of homebrew. It takes 12 hours to start fermenting.

As soon as I am able to brew two batches of identical beer with the two types of yeast, I will make further observations.

Nut Up or Shut Up Brown Ale

I started brewing my next batch last night.  Ingredients are as follows:

• 3.3 # liquid unhopped amber extract
• 1.5 # amber DME
• 1.0 # corn sugar
• 0.5 # crystal malt
• 0.5 # black patent malt
• 0.5 # chocolate malt
• 1.0 oz Cascade leaf hops, boiling
• 1.0 oz Warrior pellet hops, boiling
• 1.0 oz Saaz pellet hops, boiling
• harvest spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, mace)
• White Labs London Ale Yeast WLP013

I started the boil with cold water and the grains (crystal, black pat, and chocolate) floating around.  I set out my liquid yeast to warm up to room temp like the instructions and the brewdude at MOKHB instructed.  I will admit to some concern about using liquid yeast for the first time.  Close to boiling, I began to remove the grains.  It did take a long time because my wire strainer is small, and my larger strainer is silicone and not really ideal--holes are too big.  I finally got most all the grains out.  Man, this wort is darker than I expected.  Sparging, mainly due to the less than ideal strainers was slow and tricky.  Kat was again, a huge help.  I think there ended up being quite a bit of grain and hop pellet sludge. I'll rack it to a secondary so that it's not in contact with the wort for too long.  I capped the carboy and put it outside to cool.  Since it was after midnight I set the timer for three hours and took a nap.  At about 2 or 3am (depending on how you want to look at it since it was daylight savings time to set clocks back) which was about three hours setting outdoors, the temperature still read pretty warm (too warm to register) but it felt like it was cool to the touch.  Since body temp is 98.6 and it reads up to 70 degrees, I am assuming it was around 80 degrees.

Spent grains

hops boiling

   

I set the carboy in the kitchen and uncapped it.  I shook the White Labs liquid yeast one more time and poured it into the carboy.  Some got on the inside neck, so I capped it again and agitated it a little to make sure the yeast got down into the wort.  It did not look like a whole lot of yeast.  At about 9am I got up and checked on the beer.  Had this been dry yeast it probably would have been foaming all over the place.  It appeared dead to me.  At about 1pm, there are slow bubbles (one every 10 minutes?) so I believe either the yeast is starting to do it's job, or it's contaminated.

Nut Up or Shut Up Brown Ale

Bottling New Steel Pale Ale

New Steel Pale Ale-Nice color!

Last night Kat (my little alewife) and I bottled the New Steel Pale Ale.  I had gotten a new bottling bucket from My Old Kentucky Homebrew.  It holds 7.9 gallons which is just perfect for my 6.5 gallon batches.  With Brett's Beard Bitter I got two full cases of brew (12 ounce bottles) plus some strays.  I added a little more water when boiling the bottling sugar this time.  We started the priming solution to boil while rinsing and sanitizing bottles.  I had recently found a bloke on Craigslist who had a bunch of old bottles, many of which are from dead breweries.  I got them for $6 per case, and have enough to spare if I find somebody who wants into homebrewing.  I have been cleaning them up.  I decided to try and save labels from at least one of each of the different kinds:

• Oertel's 92 from Oertel Brewing Co. (Louisville, KY)
• Wiedemann Bohemian Special Brew from Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co. (Newport, KY)
• Falls City Beer from Falls City Brewing Co (Louisville, KY)
• Fehr's Draught Beer from Frank Fehr Brewing Co. (Louisville, KY)
• Sterling Premium Pilsner Beer from Sterling Brewers, Inc. (Evansville, KY)
• Heilman's Old Style Light Lager from G. Heilman Brg. Co. (Newport, KY/Evansville, IN)
• Old Milwaukee Beer from Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Schlitz Beer from Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. (Milwaukee, WI)
• Black Label Beer from Carling Brewing Co. (Bellville, IL/Frankenmuth, MI)
• Real Draft Beer by Oertel from Oertel Brewing Co. (Louisville, KY)
• Genuine Wiedemann Draft Beer from Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co. (Newport, KY)
• Royal Amber Beer from Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co. (Newport, KY)
• Falstaff Beer from Falstaff Brewing Co. (St. Louis, MO)
• Kentucky Malt Liquor from Frank Fehr Brewing Co. (Louisville, KY)

Raise your hand if you've ever seen the Oertel, or Fehr breweries!  I know Falls City beer has just began being produced again and you can get it in growlers at Liquor Barn locations.  I do not know if it's the same or similar to the original.  I've had it, and it's not bad.  As soon as I can scan my vintage labels, I will post them.  They are kinda cool.  This is beer and brewing history.

So the bottles were already scrubbed and ready to go, just needed sanitized.  Kat is a huge help and we knocked out bottling in fairly short order with only one mishap.  At one point Kat pulled too much on the siphon hose and it pulled out of the bottling bucket.  We probably only lost about 24 ounces between what was on the floor and in the hose which had to be discarded so I could re-sanitize everything.  Should be ready to drink in 8-10 days.

First impressions

The first person (besides me) drank some of my beer. Regarding Brett's Beard Bitter, my friend Jeremy says "It's pretty good. Mild bitter taste. Easy drinking."

That's cool with me. It's about what I was going for! New Steel Pale Ale should be getting about ready to bottle!

My birthday!

When I got home from school, Kat had a couple presents for me! 

Toblerone!

Bacardi Oakheart!

Logan gave me a t-shirt, and a subscription to Rider magazine.  He also made me a "Super Dad" card and a wooden helicopter from a kit, which he is still going to paint for me!

Shirt Logan got me

Lexie also got me a tshirt, and a subscription to Cycle magazine.

Shirt from Lexie (glows in the dark!)

Kat got me a tshirt also, a subscription to PC World, and has ordered some brewing equipment for me!

Kat "popped" on an American Pickers shirt!

Wort Chiller from Kat--cools your brewed beer quickly!

 Then, Kathy and the kids took me out to dinner for my birthday at Outback!  It has literally years since I've been to Outback.  It was sooooooo good!

Mmmmm....Bloomin' Onion!

I finished out the day with some Brett's Beard Bitter Ale, which has turned out rather nicely!

Brett's Beard Bitter

New Steel Pale Ale: racked to secondary

Isn't it pretty???

A word about bottles

 

In order to brew beer, you need ingredients, and equipment.  In order to bottle and store your beer, you need either kegging equipment, or bottles.  I live in an apartment with a wonderful woman, two awesome kids, and a defective dog.  I do not have room in our single refrigerator, nor access to a second refrigerator.  This limits me (generally) to using ale yeast instead of lager, and using bottles instead of kegs.  I have no problem with using bottles, but I have asked several people to save them for me.  There are generally two types of bottles commonly available.  The twist-off, and the pop-top.  If you have to use a bottle opener on your bottles and the glass has a rounded lip, that's the only kind that can be used for re-filling.  The capper mechanism will not work with twist-offs.  It will break them.  Some of the reliable brewers such as Samuel Adams, Schafley, and Sheltowee made by Bluegrass Brewing, as well as most import beers use "the good kind" of bottles.  My advice is to drink good beer: and save me your rinsed-out bottles!

Dry hopping New Steel Pale Ale

I talked to the bloke at "My Old Kentucky Homebrew" today about dry hopping.  I did not do anything wrong last time and he seemed to think that a little bit of hop debris in the sediment of my bottles was nothing at all to get uptight about.  He said if it was bothering me, I might try racking my beer a third time before bottling...

This time I chose an ounce of Mount Hood for my dry hops.  I was thinking Cascade, but then I figured "Why should I use all hops beginning with the letter C?"  I added the pellets to the sanitized secondary fermenter and then proceeded to siphon all my beer from the primary over.  I am always amazed how much yeasty gunk is left over in the trub.  When I put a little water into the primary to rinse it out, my hand was partially over the opening when I dumped it out.  It gave me a flashback to those days in the mid seventies...warm Papier-mâché. It was not really what I could describe as pleasant.

Here's another reason I hate Insight...

These guys just act like they own the place.  We have people struggling to find a place to park some days and here this guy pulls up and just sucks up like eight spots.  It really irritates me.

Microeconomics

The libation for this evening will be Samuel Adams Rustic Saison.  I am supposed to be studying for a 40+ question test tomorrow in Microeconomics...and I truly DID do some studying for it, but now it's after 9pm, and I am not mentally up for it any longer.

You know I finished my assignment for Web Design first.  That's pretty-much a given. :)

So now, we have a couple beers, drift off to slumber, and hit the Micro book early in the morning.  That is a figure of speech...I do not hit the Microeconomics book.  The instructor, Mr. Huntley, tests from lecture, not from the text.  Thank goodness I take good notes.  Now, what was all that about supply and demand?

Caramel ale?

This stuff looks like Brachs caramels! Both are the same color, but my beer is big and round instead of small and square. Hey, I wonder if I could make caramel apples with it! Seriously, I could not wait to try a small sample so I had a swallow of the overflow. Yeasty and flat as it was, I suspect I have a good and very hoppy brew working in progress. I cleaned out a couple Sam Adams tonight; still saving bottles for New Steel. I'd appreciate it if you did the same.

New Steel Initial Fermentation

The initial fermentation is as vigorous as last time. I lost around six cups of beer overnight and it made a slight mess as the foam escaped the overflow container. This Safale yeast is pretty good stuff if you don't want to worry about stuck fermentations. I'm going to try and keep track of how much beer I lose, not that it's a worry. I can make it up when I bottle with a little extra water in with my bottling sugar. It appears a bit darker than what I had hoped but as long at it tastes good, I'll be fine. Kat said "your beer needs to learn some manners!" this morning while she was in the kitchen making us waffles for breakfast. The beer going into the overflow sounds a bit like passing gas (which it should, because it is...).

First glass of BBB

I tried my first glass of Brett's Beard Bitter. Although it was not completely cleared yet it still had a great flavor to it. I hope the New Steel Pale Ale turns out much lighter and hoppier. I did use lighter extracts and more hops. It might have an IBU closer to an India Pale Ale though.

Hops taking a soak

New Steel Pale Ale?

Here's a picture of the brewpot just starting to return to a boil.  I love the smell of hops.  Something you might ask is "If you just got done making a batch which is still bottle conditioning and not even ready to drink, why are you already making another batch of beer?"

That's a pretty good question.  Obviously, it's a matter of variety.  Those of us who truly enjoy beer, are not happy with a Pabst Blue Ribbon, and nothing else.  Frequently we enjoy those premium styles brewed by the smaller non-commercial breweries.  Well, last night, in lieu of having any of my recently brewed Brett's Beard Bitter, and seeing as how I had run out of ready to drink brewed beverage, I picked up a variety pack of Sam Adams at Sam's club.  It has four bottles each of six different summer styles of beer.  That runs you right at $26.50 with tax.  This brings us to my other reason (besides variety) for brewing another batch.  That makes it about $1.10 per bottle.  If you get something nice at your liquor store or well stocked grocery, it's likely to cost you $9-12 for a six pack of good brew including tax.  That's $1.50 - $2 for a bottle.  This is low to middling beer.  If you like some really nice imported stuff, you pay $4-8 or more for a bottle.  That Belgian lambic is really nice stuff, but you need to treat it like champagne on my budget!  A typical batch of better homebrew will run you around $25 with some extract, specialty grains, and boiling and finishing hops.  That makes me six and a half gallons of tasty brewed beverage, which is all said and done about 65 bottles of beer.  That costs me under $0.40 per bottle of beer.  And Uncle Sam doesn't tax me on the back end either.

A lot of it is about taking something that is generally only available for you to buy from a large brewing company, and doing it yourself.  Its something to be able to take a little pride in, in a world where sometimes pride is often hard to come by.  So if you're a beer drinker and ever in my neck of the woods, plan to stay for a little while so you can enjoy a bottle with me.

Next Beer...shooting for a Pale Ale

     
I started with some Munton's hopped light liquid malt extract, added some DME extra light, a little corn sugar, and the  the Columbus and Citra hops.  I'm hoping the one hour boil will bring out all the bitterness of the hops, and the liquid hopped extract will only add to it.   I am boiling this batch in the new brewpot that Kat got for me.  I plan to add another ounce of hops in a couple days to the secondary fermenter for some additional finishing.  This time, I am going to employ some sort of hop bag so I don't have so much hanging around in the secondary.  Since my beloved was kind enough to buy me this new pot, I may dub this beer "New Steel Pale Ale".  So far, it's been boiling for about thirty minutes.  To get a fairly precise measurement of how much cold water to leave in the fermenter, I decided to fill the entire carboy with water and pour from there into the brewpot.  I had forgotten the amount of other ingredients would take up space as well, so I will have to top off...something I don't usually like to do.  I'm going to continue a rolling boil for another thirty minutes, then sparge it into my carboy, topping off with cold tap water if necessary.  After the last batch, when I was at "My Old Kentucky Homebrew" shop, I picked up a couple stick-on thermometers for my carboys.  This will let me know more accurately when the wort has cooled enough to pitch my yeast.  As last time, I am again using the Safale yeast.  It fermented fairly quickly and vigorously.

New Brewpot

This is a present from Kat!  She totally rocks!  It's a new brew pot.  My old enamel pot is getting pretty dinged up, has a few chips, plus it is really wide and short.  The problem with that is it takes longer to heat up on the burner.  This one is more narrow and tall, plus since it is steel, the heat may distribute better.  It needs a lid, so I am on the lookout, but this is a really nice upgrade from the old pot, and a really nice gift.  Also note in the background (right) the candy jar (full of dog treats) and the cookie jar (holding dog food).

Corona Bottles

the handy Corona bottle

You wouldn't think that Corona bottles would be ideal for homebrewing, would you?  First of all, they are clear.  Every homebrewer knows that if you expose bottle-conditioned beer to bright sunlight it can skunk the beer.  That's why the majority of beer bottles are made from either green or brown glass.


Secondly, it has that damn painted-on label.  No way you're getting that off.  "You say this is your beer, but it looks just like Corona to me..."  Whatever...you know what I mean.  When bottling, I seek to have at least one Corona (or otherwise clear) bottle with my brew in it.  You might ask why...  You see, when you bottle the beer, you mix in between three quarters and one cup of corn sugar, or you can use light DME (dry malt extract) in a bit of water and boil it.  This gives you sterile water with some sugar.  You put this in a 6-10 gallon food grade clean bucket.  Once it's in there, you siphon in your beer.  Although you leave a lot of yeast sediment behind in your fermenter, there will be enough yeast left to eat up this last bit of sugar.  This is what carbonates your beer--it's called bottle conditioning.  Mass-produced beers do not do it like this.  They brew the beer, let it ferment, then pasturize or otherwise filter the hell out of it which removes all the yeasties.  Then they (what I like to think of as) artificially inject carbon dioxide into the beer during the bottling process--just like they do Coke and Pepsi.

ale yeast

So...still you are wondering why the Corona bottle?  Well, dear reader, we have finally arrived.  You see, as the little yeast friends are in there swimming around eating that last bit of sugar, the beer appears cloudy.  When they are finished--either when the pressure is too great from the natural CO2, or all the edible sugars are gone..they go dormant and, just like in your fermenter, they return to the bottom.  It's like after a big meal...all you want to do is go nap.  It is at this point that your beer is crystal clear (or at the very least a lot more noticeably clear) and its ready to chill and drink!  This process usually takes 7-10 days.  Today----is day four.

Shermageddon!

Shirt from harvest homecoming. Photo by Kat!

Bottled the beer...

Brett's Beard has been bottled. I boiled one cup of priming sugar in about two quarts of water on the stove and added this to my beer. Afterwards I bottled the beer in sixty one 12 ounce bottles and one 24 ouncer. I noted there was some sediment from the hop pellets that I dry-hopped with. Nextime I do that, I think I will place them in a mesh hop bag in order to keep it a little more under control. I'm pretty sure a few hop pellet flakes made its way into some of the bottles. I know this will not bother the flavor of the brew but it may look a little odd if it doesnt settle down into the bottom of the bottle. I'm going to try s bottle in a week or so and see how it does.

Kat and the shampoo dude

GLUG...Glug....glug...

Tonight I took another reading of Brett's Beard Bitter and it again read 1.010.  I still see the fermentation lock (pictured here in it's p'shop'd glory) glugging along every so often.  According to the wiki: "The fermentation lock or airlock is a device used in beer brewing and wine making that allows carbon dioxide released by the beer to escape the fermenter, while not allowing air to enter the fermenter, thus avoiding oxidation."  Also, notably, it helps avoid contamination.  Given that it has been the same reading both times, I can (most likely) safely say that the beer is done, and ready to bottle.  I will have to get some more bottles this weekend, as I have not been able to accumulate enough with my own solid efforts.  If it remains FG of 1.010, that should give my beer an overall approximate 3.95% alcohol by weight, or 5.0% alcohol by volume.  According to a web article published by the University of California Long Beach, "As a guideline, typical American beers (lagers) are generally 3.6 to 3.8% by weight (approx. 4.5 to 4.7 by volume)."  It's not overpowering or heavy handed.  It's just about exactly how I wanted it to turn out.  Despite my need to classify and categorize my brews, I am generally quite happy with however they turn out, statistically speaking.  I care much more about the flavor.

Now, if I was a true microbrewery, and had a nice budget to label all my brews individually, I would make a label to do honor to what has been called Brett's "Epic" beard.  Since I cannot, let me do homage with a little photo editing wizardry.  I might print one out for Brett, but the rest of you can do with plain brown bottles, or generic labels.  I present to you, the bottle deco for Brett's Beard Bitter (or an approximation thereof):
This is not a picture of Brett's actual beard, but it was every bit as 'epic' as this one, without being the least bit ostentatious.

Brett's Beard Bitter

Hey, if THE MAN made you shave off your beard, you'd be a little bitter too...just like this ale!

Second hydrometer reading

I took my second hydrometer reading last night. It read clearly 1.010 so I should be pretty good to bottle by this weekend. I drew out a little of the fine amber colored liquid and tested it. The best way I have found to avoid false readings due to bubbles clinging on the side of the hydrometer is to spin it in the beer. The batch still has a small amount of hop pellet muck floating about the top, but most of it has sunk to the bottom. The beer, although currently flat, did taste rather good.

After tasting, I have decided to name it after a good friend. I will call it "Brett Beard Bitter Ale" in memorial to the awesome red beard that Brett was required to eradicate recently due to silly job restrictions.