Happy Brew Day!

Today I woke up and started getting ready to brew. Well, it was not to be in the morning. It took until 3 to get free from other responsibilities.

As it turned out, not only did I get a couple of sweet batches made, Jeremy dropped by to join me for a couple of Hot Scotchies. Well, hot Jack-ies, but same concept :)

I'm proud to say that I did a good job of keeping records! Gravities for first runnings and OG for each batch. I also controlled the fermentation temp to be exactly where I wanted, which is tough sometimes.

The brew stand worked exactly as hoped. The only real struggle was that the second brew sparge went really slowly. I'm still not sure why, as I looked carefully at the mash tun after emptying the spent grain, and everything looked as it should. I'll take a look on the next brew and see how to adjust it.

Coffee Stout and Portly Squirrel. Woohoo!

Secondary Fermentation

This is the cream ale being introduced to grilled lemons. I think they will be good friends

Mind-Bending week

This week was incredibly busy with work- having to work every night except Thursday (which means leave the house at 8:00 AM and return around 11:00 PM) Also, our friends arrived early Tuesday Morning (around 12:30 AM) to stay with us for the week.  This left very little time for brew/beer activities.

Since I really couldn't go out on Thursday, I invited 30 MORE people to the house for happy hour/brewing.

Had a fantastic time with all the homebrew guys.  If you brew and haven't had someone oer to brew with you, you are truly missing out.  Homebrewers are all pretty humble- everyone has had a n "off" beer and certainly, I haven't meet a brewer with the attitude tat they know everything.

This being the case, there is a lot of talk around the brew-stand about alternative ways of doing things.  It's really about sharing ideas, talking about different processes, and often recalling blunders and the lessons learned.

I can't recommend more strongly, joining a homebrew club and having a guest join you on brew day.

30 people may be a bit more than you would like.  It was really hectic.  I was brewing, getting food ready for the party, and hosting the party and of course, everyone brought some pretty awesome brews to share.  My boil went long because I had other things to do, I forgot the lavender (so I guess I'm going to add it in secondary...), didn't take any readings, cooling took a while, etc etc etc.  I brewed my Rosemary IPA (an extract brew) and a Cream Ale which will be joined by a tincture of lavender and some grilled lemons in about a week.

This leaves a hole in the fermenter as I realized a third batch would have been suicide.  I do have the grains for Portly Squirrel waiting for me, and for a Coffee Stout.

I used "Mild Malt" for my base malt in the cream ale.  It is supposed to give body to the beer, we'll see.

Cheers!

Irish Bottled

Yesterday. I bottled my irish red. Here is the problem... When I got the grains, the guy at the counter said "oh my gosh, I put Special B in, instead of the Biscuit!"

I said "hey, that's ok."

¤I was in a hurry. And honestly, I think the other thing is, I was just doing a "quick" recipe I found on line. I didn't research the recipe. I didn't formulate it myself. I just needed to brew that day and I didn't have time to do the leg work. So I typed "Homebrew Irish Red" in, printed a recipe, and planned to do it.

So... They messed up the grain bill. I truly didn't care. And so, I just brewed it.

It wasn't red. Really. More... Brownish reddish. But more brown.

So I really don't know what I'm going to get. It's in the bottle now, and only time will tell.

Here is the point- I will never just do a recipe. It was the story of lazy. Rushed. Really not focused.

I will never do that again.

In just the last week, I have learned do much about recipe formulation that I can't do that. I know that I love brewing because I love chemistry.

I entered college oh so many years so as Pre-Med. Because I like science. And making people happy. Did I know that then, no. do I realize that now, yes.

So, I don't know what the person making an online recipe was thinking. What they want. If they have ever brewed that beer before.

I want my beers to be everything they can be. To reflect EXACTLY what I want to do in that bottle.

So, let's see what this thing ends up happening with this batch. I still think that it will be tasty. And there is nothing wrong with an adventure, right?!

Creme Brulee Stout

Grandma had glasses much like these. There is only one left, but I found a set of similar glasses at Goodwill one day.

I think the glass makes this beer look like a breakfast party

Brewing is so awesome!

MAN!

Brewing is so awesome.

I was listening to Brad Smith's podcast, BeerSmith, and he had Randy Mosher on discussing recipe building.  I learned a TON from it. 

Any time I learn about brewing techniques which I have not yet employed, I just think to myself- the beers have been so good thus far, and imagine how mush better it can become!  It just amps me up.

Anyways, I tasted the Gluten Free beer, and... well, I don't know.  It isn't so yummy to me right now.  I added Citra hops as a dry hopping, should be ready for bottling next week.

I am STILL out of 12 oz bottles. DANGIT!  That's going to make bottling the Klingon Grog difficult this evening.  All big bottles, for an over 8% beer? Oh me oh my...

Went to Brew Your Own and bought some caps.  Joel there was thrilled that it was --I-- who he neglected to give the handle for the grain mill to.  The other customer who it could have been, is in Israel. That would have been a big oopsie!  I now also have the instruction page, so I can adjust the rollers width.

OK, time to get back to the brewery!

I just realized it has been 24 hours since I checked on my babies in the fermenter.

I'm having withdrawl.

This is the saddest moment of my entire life :(

Bottling Joy!

Just so the world knows, 2 1/2 lbs of raspberries is plenty for 2 1/2 gallons of stout. WOAH! It's very razzy. I think after 2 weeks in the bottle, it's going to be awesome.

OxyClean is quite tasty also.

I can't wait to bottle the grog...

Thanks to Sean for bringing me some caps.

Currently I have zero 12 oz bottles to go into. Ugh.

Oh the sadness

In homebrewing, we call our planned brews and currently working brews, "the pipeline"

My pipeline is full.

My fermentation fridge is full and all my carboys (the vessels used to put the beer in while it ferments) are all full.

OxyClean is still fermenting, as are Michelle's Gluten Free, Klingon Grog, Recipe Red, and Becca's Raspberry Stout.

So I guess it is time to do some reading and planning. Happy Sunday all!

New Years Resolution Revealed!

OK, so I snuck in a brew today.  A simple extract Irish Red that I got a recipe for off of Ratebeer.com Of course, I couldn't just leave well enough alone.  The guy at the homebrew shop added one of the wrong grains which was darker than the recipe called for.  SO, instead of using the liquid extract called for (amber) I used half Amber LME and half Light DME.  This helped lighten the color, but it's not very... red.  Time will tell.  In about a week :)

That's a great part of brewing.  Everyone loves instant gratification, but brewing requires some patience.  Not an insane amount, but some.  And failure is quite apparent.  Like exploding bottles, or rank-ass beer.  I had one brew batch which did both.  I drank it.  Just to remind myself to not be a retard in the future. I named the brew "The Punisher"  and I finished every drop which was not lost to exploding bottles.  Because you follow through, assholes :)

Also bottled that Creme Brulee stout.  It is. Freaking. Delicious.

Currently consolidating my "cellar" which has a couple hundred beers in it, today.  I have packaged 15 of them to ship out tomorrow, which does actually help the storage situation. 

The Klingon Grog is rolling along great, and the Raspberry stout is fermenting the simple sugars in the raspberries.  Problem with me is, I don't really take the scientific measurements of my gravity, which is the indicator of alcohol percentage AND tells you if you are extracting the grains at an optimal level when brewing.  So THAT will be my New Year's Resolution. To take gravity readings on every batch. So it is stated, so it shall be done.

Lactose

Lactose. Milk Sugar. It's not an unusual thing. Phoenix. It's a big city. I need 2 POUNDS of lactose for the creme brulee stout. The local homebrew shops sell lactose, in 4 oz packages, for 2.50 a pack. I need 2 lbs. On line, lactose is suggested to add to kids' cereal, and other things. I cannot find it in AZ. I called 6 or 7 health food stores and organic grocery stores. No luck. 2 pounds of lactose is $3.49 from an online store. Oy. Pain in the butt.

Brew day wrap-up

Ok, it was pretty cool brewing with the stand. More smooth, organized. It was definitely worth it. The challenge today was what is known as a "stuck mash" This generally happens when the grains used are, well, sticky. Rye can do this as can oats. Several other grains can contribute to a stuck mash, too. I was using rye, but I've made this recipe with no problem 4 or 5 times before. Two things contributed to my stuck sparge- the new grain mill (though actually just a crusher, not a mill) was set too narrow. So, the grains were made too small. This makes them compact more densely than is helpful. The second thing is my filter tube. I put a new valve on my mash tun, and the stainless braid got crushed a bit when I was vigorously stirring to free the sparge. Or by the fact that I had more grain in there thean I have ever before. Or the extra 1/2 inch higher the new valve is. In any case, it was stuck. So this beer is a Frankenstein. It's a good thing haze is appropriate for the Vulcan Rye style. I added peppercorns and cararway to the boil at 15 minutes. I also added red food coloring. WHAT?!? FOOD COLORING?!?!? WTF?!?!? you might ask. I figured that the particulates were going to make it pretty funky, so I wanted to creep i up a bit. It's my beer and I'll make it how I want to! I cooled in about an hour and I pitched SO4. We'll see if the peppercorns come through. If not, I can add some to the secondary. The stout was split into 2, 3-gallon carboys- one for the Raz Stout (with over 2 lb of raspberries) and one for a creme brulee, with 2 oz of vanilla extract.

I have the HLT's full of water and ready to turn on at 2:00.  That way when I got home, they will be ready to go.

So I want to brew a "Klingon" ale.  Start with my Right Rye Red recipe and bulk up the grains to make it 8% ABV then add in caraway and black peppercorns.  I think that's today's brew.

Bought a couple of temperature controllers off of E-Bay to make temp probes for the HLT's.  Keeping a constant temperature is critical in brewing and until I have the controllers installed, it's a manual job.  Which is fine, just not as exact.

Triple Tier Brewstand

Everything works together and tidies up nicely :)

The propane burner goes on the bottom shelf to store.  The boil kettle next to the blue cooler.  I have wrapped my Hot Liquor Tanks (coffee makers) in water-heater insulation to help heat hotter.  There is a water filter I made to filter hose water into the HLT's so I don't have to lug 40 pounds of water up there. I made a wind screen out of a kick-plate for the propane burner.  There is a timer so the HLT's are ready when I want to brew.

This is going to make things WAY easier!

Happy New Year!

My intent was to brew today. I have my 2-row and specialty grains for a couple of batches. I got distracted though... I constructed a 3-tier brew stand today out of a "Metro Rack" type of shelving system. Initially I was going to make it with a couple of new burners and pots and such. However, since my existing water heaters (commercial coffee brewers)work well and are already in inventory, and because I have the lovely igloo cooler mash tun, it really seemed silly to re-invent the wheel. So it can roll into and out of the garage, and I won't have to move any liquid. The hose will filter through the in-line filter, so I won't have to go buy water and lug it to the heater. 1/2 inch threads have made the HLT compatible with hoses. I installed a "real" ball-valve instead of the Frankenstein system I had before. The boil kettle is on my existing propane burner which conveniently is 21" off the ground, perfect height for a 6 gallon Better Bottle. So really, it's a 4 tier system. I also took some water heater insulation blanket stuff and insulated the coffee makers :) I also have my grain mill to mess with, so it should be a heck of a day! Now, drinking a Right Rye Red and reading. Good times, good times.