Specific Gravity readings...

Specific Gravity in very simple terms is the measure of sugar in a liquid. When beer is fermented, the yeast convert the sugar into alcohol and CO2. Since all beers are different there is no real number for the Final Gravity of the beer. It's only 1.000 if it's water. There is always a bit of unfermentable sugars in the brew. So the trick is you can't bottle until it's done. If it can be any number in the range of 1.005-1.015, you might ask how do you know when it's done. If you bottle before fermentation is complete it can lead to exploding bottles (which means loss of beer which is alcohol abuse).  The trick? Check your beer several times and if it remains the same gravity, it's pretty much done. You have to check it over the course of a week to be sure.  My Churchill Quencher reads 1.025 and the Darker beer which I've renamed Hob's Lick Tan Ale is reading 1.019.

Dry Hopping the Churchill

I added one ounce of Nugget hops when I racked the Churchill from the primary to the secondary fermenter.  It seems to be doing well.

Churchill going well

The lighter American ale I brewed Sunday seems to be well underway.  All looks great in brewland.

It doesn't look like I'll have beer ready for the 4th of July, but it won't be long afterwards.

Churchill Quencher

Since my awesome long-time friends, the Churchills came on brewday to
visit me, I'm calling this batch Churchill Quencher.

Ingredients:
6 # dry extra light malt extract
1 oz. U.S. Fuggles hops
1/4 tsp. Irish Moss
1 pkg. Safale-5 American Ale Yeast.

This batch was meant to be a mild summer thirst quencher.  I made some
modifications to the usual general recipe for this style which is what I always do.  The U.S. Fuggles hops are usually used to give a woody or flora aroma to your beer rather than for bittering.  I wanted mild, so I used the low IBU (International Bittering Units) hop to give the beer less of a bitter bite thinking this might appeal more to my wife (who usually likes mixed drinks or fruity wine coolers).  Usually for
this style the body would also be fairly light, but I used 6 pounds of DME (Dry Malt Extract) instead of 3 or 4 so it may prove to be a bit more full bodied than a standard light American ale.  I used dry ale yeast because the Liquor Barn I stopped at did not have liquid yeast
like I am used to getting.  I will note that for future.  I added the hops for the full boil.  I did note that I scorched the malt a little. I'm hoping it doesn't affect the flavor much.  I read a comment online which said a good practice is to get the water up to boiling and add your extract after you turn off the heat, then once it's dissolved,
you can bring it back to a boil.  I'll try this technique next time.

I have some pellet hops I'm going to drop in when I rack to secondary perhaps this weekend (this is known as dry-hopping).  I must comment again how much I love my wort chiller.  It's a great help for cooling the wort down quickly.  This batch is now resting quietly next to the
Post Brown Sludge (PBS for short).  I did not note any ~20 hour vigor from the yeast in the Churchill, but I shall peek in on it after work.

Rack to secondary

I racked my dark ale to a secondary fermentor. It looks clear and tasty.

A lighter batch

This batch brewed this morning went about like the previous one two weeks ago. This one had extra light dry malt extract as a base with U.S. Fuggles hops for bittering. Fuggles are usually used for aroma and they are not super strong for bittering. I am going for a light American ale.

I have some other pellet hops I'm going to use later when I rack it to the secondary to give the beer a mild woody and fruity aroma. This time I used safale dry ale yeast.

Fermenting vigorously

Looks like all is well so far. I'll wait until Sunday to check it and see if its ready for the secondary fermenter.

We have liftoff!

Everything is good with the ale. Fermentation is starting as of last evening and looks good.

Yeast dead?

At 8am I observed all the liquid yeast culture looking very dormant at the bottom of the carboy. In a panic, added the dry lager yeast that came with the kit. At around 10am, still no activity. Shook the carboy a little to give some aeration.

Post Brown Sludge Ale

Beer Name: Post Brown Sludge Ale
Attempted Style: Medium American Ale


Ingredients:
1 c. corn sugar
1 lb. Unhopped Extra Dark Dry Malt
3.3 lb can Munton's Hopped American Style Light Lager Extract
0.5 oz. Citra AA 13.9 Whole hops 30 minutes
0.5 oz. Citra AA 13.9 Whole hops 15 minutes
2 tsp. Irish Moss 15 minutes
1 vial Whitelabs East Coast Ale Yeast WLP008
1 packet Muntons dry lager yeast

Notes: I purchased four used glass carboys at an estate sale.  The previous owner had been making wine, but each bottle contained brown sludge that looked fairly hazardous (as well as all his fermentation locks were dry...). I cleaned out all four of them and I used one for primary fermentation.

6/8/14:
Heated 3.5 gal water to boiling.  Added Malt Extracts and corn sugar.  Boil for 60 minutes adding Citra for 30 minutes of boil time and 15 minutes of boil time.  Added Irish Moss for last 15 minutes of boil.  Strained out hops, cooled wort with chiller.  Added cooled wort to 1 gal. tap water in glass carboy. Finished filling to within 6 inches of top with cold tap water.  Added yeast straight from refrigerator to wort without bringing to room temp.
OG: 1.050.

Grumpy

Alice was grumpy today as it took several tries to fire her fuel injected v-twin up from a short winters nap. I ran an errand down to Meijer's to make a return. It was flurrying a bit but I did not have to dust off my seat before heading back. Note: last ride of the winter without my Colorado chaps to keep the wind chill off my legs.

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.