Tonight I bottled one batch and kegged another. So I now have no beer fermenting in the closet.
The bottled beer is the Doble Doble I brewed on Christmas day. As of today, it is showing about 9.5% alcohol. I think that a few months of bottle conditioning will be good for that one, so I may wait to try my first bottle around my birthday (early June). It is a good, strong Double bitter beer. It should be good for drinking for at least the next couple of years.
The kegged beer is a Cappuccino Stout. I brewed it 12 days ago. It is a milk stout that I added some espresso concentrate to. For those interested, a milk stout, also known as a 'Sweet Stout', gets its sweetness from Lactose (milk) sugar that is added to the boil. Lasctose is an unfermentable sugar, so it remains in the final product, giving the beer that milky taste. Because of the large amounts of sugars in the wort, the initial gravity was a little higher than most regular-strength beers (1.070), but the final gravity is also higher (1.034). The alcohol level in this beer is therefore around 4.5%. That is not a precise number (since my hydrometer and personal measurement technique are likewise not very precise) but a good ballpark.
Site changes (yes, again):
If you visit www.mybrewing.com, you will quickly find that it directs you back here. I grew tired of (not) updating the other pages, so I removed them. The kegerator write-up is still out there and the myBrewing link on the right now simply points to that page. I moved the beer legend onto this page for ease of updating and lookup.
Cheers.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Filtering into a keg (or bottling bucket)
So my first keg of beer has come and gone. With some help from some friends and some holiday days around the house, I was able to cycle through 5 gallons without much trouble. This morning, I put the last of the keg into a growler (about half full) and cleaned out the keg. One thing I was very curious about was the effectiveness of a new (for me) beer filtering technique. Here's the history...
Last June, I was back home in Pennsylvania visiting my folks and spending some time with my little sis who is spending a year in South Korea. While there, my sister and I visited a few different breweries, one of which is a small farmhouse brewery, Twin Lakes Brewery, in Northern DE. This was a pretty small brewery operation, even compared to other microbreweries, but they had some tasty beers and had a cool little place to hang out and drink some of their offerings. The owner/brewer is still an avid homebrewer; he uses his homebrewing to experiment for future batches at the brewery. So he and I got into a conversation about homebrewing. Most homebrewers are very open about techniques and very willing to talk at length about their brewing. This gentleman was no exception.
One question I posed him was about straining beer from the hops when moving from the secondary of a dry-hopped beer. The problem is that if one uses hop pellets, there wasn't a great way to strain since running the beer through a strainer like when tranferring from the brewpot will tend to aerate the beer, which is something one doesn't want at that stage of brewing, just before bottling or kegging. If using whole hops in the secondary, the problem was the inability to fully drain the beer from the hops, leaving more beer in the secondary than I care to waste. So this fellow suggested using panty hose and a clamp on the end of my siphon tube. So that's what I tried.
I cut the end off of a new pair of pantyhose, attached it to the end of my siphon tube with a clamp, and sanitized them with the tube prior to siphoning my beer. When I finished my kegging, there was still a good bit of trub at the bottom of the secondary, which is usual, and there was also some in the panty-hose, but I wasn't sure how successful I was at catching it since I had expected more to have been caught. So I would have to judge the effectiveness by how much sediment there was in my beer at serving time as well as what was left in my keg when the beer was finished.
Well, the beer was essentially sediment free in the glass, and then when I cleaned my emptied keg, there was virtually no sediment present there, either. I must say I am very pleased with the technique, and will certainly recommend it to others in the future.
I should probably also mention that kegging does seem to be worth the price of admission (especially so for me, whose admission was paid for by others). I do find myself more willing to pour myself another glass than to open another bottle; I think having two kegs pouring should mean that each one will last longer than the 2 weeks required to finish off my first.
Cheers.
Last June, I was back home in Pennsylvania visiting my folks and spending some time with my little sis who is spending a year in South Korea. While there, my sister and I visited a few different breweries, one of which is a small farmhouse brewery, Twin Lakes Brewery, in Northern DE. This was a pretty small brewery operation, even compared to other microbreweries, but they had some tasty beers and had a cool little place to hang out and drink some of their offerings. The owner/brewer is still an avid homebrewer; he uses his homebrewing to experiment for future batches at the brewery. So he and I got into a conversation about homebrewing. Most homebrewers are very open about techniques and very willing to talk at length about their brewing. This gentleman was no exception.
One question I posed him was about straining beer from the hops when moving from the secondary of a dry-hopped beer. The problem is that if one uses hop pellets, there wasn't a great way to strain since running the beer through a strainer like when tranferring from the brewpot will tend to aerate the beer, which is something one doesn't want at that stage of brewing, just before bottling or kegging. If using whole hops in the secondary, the problem was the inability to fully drain the beer from the hops, leaving more beer in the secondary than I care to waste. So this fellow suggested using panty hose and a clamp on the end of my siphon tube. So that's what I tried.
I cut the end off of a new pair of pantyhose, attached it to the end of my siphon tube with a clamp, and sanitized them with the tube prior to siphoning my beer. When I finished my kegging, there was still a good bit of trub at the bottom of the secondary, which is usual, and there was also some in the panty-hose, but I wasn't sure how successful I was at catching it since I had expected more to have been caught. So I would have to judge the effectiveness by how much sediment there was in my beer at serving time as well as what was left in my keg when the beer was finished.
Well, the beer was essentially sediment free in the glass, and then when I cleaned my emptied keg, there was virtually no sediment present there, either. I must say I am very pleased with the technique, and will certainly recommend it to others in the future.
I should probably also mention that kegging does seem to be worth the price of admission (especially so for me, whose admission was paid for by others). I do find myself more willing to pour myself another glass than to open another bottle; I think having two kegs pouring should mean that each one will last longer than the 2 weeks required to finish off my first.
Cheers.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Big changes afoot...
First bit of news... I will now be kegging most of my beers in the future. The occasional beer will still be bottled, like the holiday beer I am brewing this x-mas day to be enjoyed over next year's holiday(more on that another time)... or if my kegs are nowhere near finished and I am itching to brew another batch and so have no where to put it.... but other than situations like those, future batches will go directly into the keg from the secondary. This will speed up the time-to-consumption by removing the 2+ week conditioning period usually required. So no more priming sugars and no more month-long waits from brew day to drink day. Also, if you are a regular recipient of my brews, then you can expect growlers instead if bottles.
My first beer to be poured from the kegerator is a dry-hopped American Brown Ale styled beer. This is very much like batch 11, but this one contains all Cascade hops. I brewed it a little over a week ago and plan to move it from the secondary to the keg tomorrow.. assuming it is ready. If all goes to plan, I will be making my first pull from the kegerator on x-mas eve.
To see more about the creation of the kegerator, visit the new page I created to document the process. And speaking of mybrewing, there are other changes made, as well. So check it out.... (nothing overly exciting and no huge amounts of content... but a little more to look at.. a little change.)
And stay tuned to learn more about the 2 batches I have planned for christmas day brewing...
Cheers...
My first beer to be poured from the kegerator is a dry-hopped American Brown Ale styled beer. This is very much like batch 11, but this one contains all Cascade hops. I brewed it a little over a week ago and plan to move it from the secondary to the keg tomorrow.. assuming it is ready. If all goes to plan, I will be making my first pull from the kegerator on x-mas eve.
To see more about the creation of the kegerator, visit the new page I created to document the process. And speaking of mybrewing, there are other changes made, as well. So check it out.... (nothing overly exciting and no huge amounts of content... but a little more to look at.. a little change.)
And stay tuned to learn more about the 2 batches I have planned for christmas day brewing...
Cheers...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Bottled #13
Narrowly escaping catastrophe, I bottled the special bitter yesterday with 1/3 cup of corn sugar into 50 12oz bottles. The taste is good, but it should be even better with a few bubbles and a bit of a chill.
The catastrophe that almost was involved my bottling bucket toppling over as I was about to start siphoning the beer out of the secondary. Luckily, I was able to stop the beer from starting it's movement, I sealed the fermenter back up, and I re-sanitized everything and dissolved a new batch of sugar for the bottles. The remainder of bottling was without incident.
I look forward to trying this beer in a week, but it will more likely be ready in 2.
The final gravity was 1.016, bringing the abv content to around 5.8%.
The catastrophe that almost was involved my bottling bucket toppling over as I was about to start siphoning the beer out of the secondary. Luckily, I was able to stop the beer from starting it's movement, I sealed the fermenter back up, and I re-sanitized everything and dissolved a new batch of sugar for the bottles. The remainder of bottling was without incident.
I look forward to trying this beer in a week, but it will more likely be ready in 2.
The final gravity was 1.016, bringing the abv content to around 5.8%.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Rack #13
Tonight I racked #13, the Daily Bitter. The gravity had dropped nicely about .04 units, which translates to about 5.2% alcohol so far. It could drop a little more in the next week before bottling. The taste was good. It is amazing (but probably shouldn't be) how much of a positive difference Maris Otter malt makes in the flavor compared to the amber or light extract I was using before. The beer does need a little more time to smooth out, but I expect this to be an awesome beer... maybe I will need to brew another batch of this before too long.
Another brew activity for tonight has been related to yeast. From the beginning, I have been picky about the yeast I choose to brew with... meaning I have paid more than necessary in order to get premium liquid yeast cultures for my beer. In the past, I have spread this cost out among several batches by brewing several beers in a row, pouring the new wort on top of the yeast left over from the last batch. With this batch, I once again bought the good yeast, but I only brewed one batch. So in order to maximize the value of my yeast, I am attempting to save the yeast from the primary fermenter for future batches. My methods are less than spectacular, but I am trying to at least keep things sanitized so that in a few weeks, when I brew again, I can try to use the yeast again. My method has been to pour the yeast into sanitized vessels and refridgerating. In a couple of weeks, I will add my yeast to a starter to re-vitalize and hopefully keep healthy for another go-round. We'll see how it goes.
Another brew activity for tonight has been related to yeast. From the beginning, I have been picky about the yeast I choose to brew with... meaning I have paid more than necessary in order to get premium liquid yeast cultures for my beer. In the past, I have spread this cost out among several batches by brewing several beers in a row, pouring the new wort on top of the yeast left over from the last batch. With this batch, I once again bought the good yeast, but I only brewed one batch. So in order to maximize the value of my yeast, I am attempting to save the yeast from the primary fermenter for future batches. My methods are less than spectacular, but I am trying to at least keep things sanitized so that in a few weeks, when I brew again, I can try to use the yeast again. My method has been to pour the yeast into sanitized vessels and refridgerating. In a couple of weeks, I will add my yeast to a starter to re-vitalize and hopefully keep healthy for another go-round. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
HOPS!!
A quick note on what I found at my local homebrew store.... Hops... and plenty of them. Evidently (and I did ask about it) the Hops availability crunch is on the way out. There are plenty of hops available, and the prices are lowering slightly again... The Hops fridge at the store was packed full of hops of many different varieties and they are no longer limiting purchase quantities... Sweet. They even had 4oz packages of whole Amarillo and Cascade hops available. There may be a hopped up IPA in my future.... or maybe another hopped up Brown Ale.
This is reason to celebrate.
Cheers...
This is reason to celebrate.
Cheers...
Daily Bitter
Today I am brewing again after a couple months. I am thinking that by the time this one has conditioned, I should have some room in my fridge for it.
This is my first all-grain recipe for what is designed to be an ESB-style beer. This happens to be my favorite style these days which I would be happy to grab on a daily basis to drink... hence the name "Daily Bitter". I have brewed beers in the past that I called ESB's (or TSB's), but my previous brews were extract brews, which limited the ingredient options drastically. This one is different. My primary grain is Maris Otter, one of the quintessential malts used to brew the special bitters that represent the style. Additionally, I am using high-alpha Magnum hops for bittering and some smooth Challenger Hops for added aroma. I look forward to drinking this one.
This is my first all-grain recipe for what is designed to be an ESB-style beer. This happens to be my favorite style these days which I would be happy to grab on a daily basis to drink... hence the name "Daily Bitter". I have brewed beers in the past that I called ESB's (or TSB's), but my previous brews were extract brews, which limited the ingredient options drastically. This one is different. My primary grain is Maris Otter, one of the quintessential malts used to brew the special bitters that represent the style. Additionally, I am using high-alpha Magnum hops for bittering and some smooth Challenger Hops for added aroma. I look forward to drinking this one.
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