First Brew in the Brew Lab

As I have mentioned, my brewing has taken a sudden dive in frequency recently.

Of course I understand that for 99% of homebrewers, dropping from brewing every 5 days to every 14 days is somewhat difficult to see as "dropping".  One thing to understand is... I now have several "regualar" beers which I brew.  NOT having those on hand is disappointing to me.

So- I have to brew a bunch of those to "catch up" before I can get out to crazyville.

(of course you understand this is all in my head- no one else cares)

Yesterday I brewed a favorite- Zombie Grains.  It is an 8% Nelson IPA.  I also brewed what I WANTED to be my Copper Ale, but it didn't come out very copper.  Not sure what happened there.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my LHBS had C-40 in the C-60 bin, but that's neither here nor there.  So instead of being a copper ale, it's an APA.  Which is fine.  I also didn't have the same hops, so... it was destined to be different.

I bottled the stout we brewed in the Homebrew class.  It had been in the fermenter for a month.  This is SUPER unusual for me.  2 weeks is a long time in a fermenter for my beers.

Also- it's a stout.  Not a coffee stout.  Not a creme brulee stout. Not a bourbon stout.  Not a mierpoix stout.  Not even a MILK stout- just a stout.  (It feels weird)

I put some oak chips in Irish Whiskey, and took the bacon OUT of the vodka.

The first brew went perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.  It's SO convenient to have access to water and a sink in your brew house- I recommend it to everyone!

Tonight I am doing a cider with english ale yeast. Not brewing- doing.  Because... there's nothing to do to the cider but to pour it into the fermenter and sprinkle in yeast.  Upon further review, I will be doing a Graff.  This is a cider with a bit of malt added for body.  A couple of reasons for this: Ciders take from 6 months to a year to ferment. I find homebrew ciders to be lacking in body and residual sweetness and apple flavor.

Also tonight is bottling of the Maple Bacon Coffee Stout.  Using my bacon tincture, priming with maple syrup.

The fermenter will be full again.  Like it has been.

OH!  I have to start using my heater in the fermenter to keep it up to temp- it's getting cold out!

The Brew Lab

I haven't been brewing a lot lately (though I do have 4 beers going in the fermenter) for a couple of reasons:

Working 60 hour weeks catering

Creating a new Brew Lab!

Yes, I took everything out of the garage.  It was a pile of stuff.  Pretty awful, really.

Between giving stuff away, the bulk trash collection, and a run to the dump, I removed much crap.

Then I put in additional shelves.

Then I put up white wallboard to hide the shelves.

Then I installed a sink, plumbing it into the soft water loop.  Yes, I used a blow torch.

Then I ran 2 new electrical outlets.

Then I installed a new light fixture in the ceiling.

Then I bought a new fridge.

(All of this not necessarily in that order)

It's beautiful.  It's functional.

My neighbor said "OH!  It doesn't look like a meth lab any more!"

Clearly, that's a 100% Approval!

So- maybe I'll arrange all the shelves some day.  Or brew or something.

And now- the crappy picture and a link to the floorplanning site http://pl.an/s7gv5j

Beer Class Wrap-up

Beer class was awesome!

Class was structured thusly:

Week one was vocabulary, theory, and history
Week two was a brew of the White House Honey Ale (extract)
Week three was the grain and mash portion of an all-grain brew
Week four was boil and chill, emphasis on hop utilization
Week five was packaging (bottling and kegging) and sampling day

I hope my students are brewing.  As with anyone, I am always available to answer questions or make suggestions or just chat about beer or brewing.

I have been invited by a local brewery to do a series in January, and the City of Chandler needs my details for the Spring Series by... tomorrow!

So I better get to work!

Back in action

Well, maybe not so back in action actually- being in the catering and special event industry in Phoenix means Fall is where the money is.  So I'm working more than brewing these days.  I even had a week stretch where there was only ONE carboy on my fermentation cooler!

I didn't brew for 2 weeks straight- SHOCKING!

In the meantime, I did win a couple of medals at a homebrew competition.  It was sponsored by Miller Coors, and they gave out certificates instead of medals.  Really? Couldn't spring for the medals, eh?  Well, it WAS free to enter and a BJCP certified comp, so... that's cool.

Honestly, I just want Best of Show from now on.  I don't even really care about medals any more.

What a jerk ;)

So anyways- Jeremy came over and brewed ALL BY HIMSELF on my system on Saturday.  Jeremy has brewed (and made cider, mead, and kombucha, along with sauerkraut  for a while, but he's cobbling his all-grain system together and he NEEDED to brew on Saturday for the Christmas Collboration.

I was in the process of completely gutting my garage and making a nicer area for everyone in the family (brewery included)

It was so cool to see how a basis in brewing theory can translate to any system.  I answered suprisingly few questions about the system's processes- I think because Jeremy is an experienced brewer and avid learner, and because the system is so straightforward and gravity fed.

Also because Jeremy was not afraid to "make a mistake". To many homebrewers make things much more difficult by worrying about making a mistake, that they don't do anything.  Jeremy knows that even if the mash goes too long, or the sparge is off by 10 degrees, or there is too much wort at the end of the boil, as long as you record what you did, you can learn from each batch and in the end, you will still end up with good beer!

Garage pictures will be available eventually. Most likely :)

Zig, then Zag

Tonight I had another fantastic homebrew class.

Maybe I will title it "Resurrecting your brew day"

So, first- it was an... extended day at work.  Like- leaving more than half an hour late.  Also, no idea what I am brewing.  Have to stop and get grains (actually, Scott was awesome and sped me along)

I have to get home, disassemble my set-up and pack it in the Xterra.

Get there, get the water heating, realize that I forgot a few things.

Go home. Get them.

Get back to the Community center.

Realize FUCK! I forgot some other things too, but I have to figure out what to do without, because... yeah... no time.

Now 25 minutes late starting the mash

The plan was to get mash done by 6:15.  It finished at 6:55

Clearly, for a brew that had an end at 8:30, this was a bit of a challenge

OK, mash out. After 2 gallons, start the gas and get it to boil when we're through with mash out.

The propane tank is not, um- propane-ing.

I got it filled, and the guy said "I think something might be wrong, it's really hard to turn. Weird."

So yeah. No gas.

I do have a commercial stove, and that worked. Slowly-ish.

Further back in the time line.

So when all is said and done, cooling finished (Oh my god, I love ice machines) by 9:00 on the dot.

Plenty of interaction.  Requests to brew with me at home some time.  All these things are excellent.

Because there were several opportunities to TEACH how you recover and use your problem solving abilities to make a quick move and figure out problems on brew day.  

Next week is packaging and sampling.

WOOHOO!

Oktoberfest- the day of MAGIC!

Saturday was a beautiful day- perfect weather for a beer festival.

ASH had its annual Oktoberfest and it was awesome.  I spent more than half my time at the front gate scanning in members and giving wrist-bands.  My daughter made pretzel necklaces and gave them out, and my son tormented her for hours.  It was so fun!

Also, I brought radios for us to use to communicate from the front gate with the children.  My son changed his channel to the one the event organizers were using, so he could torment them too.

There is a local BBQ club who does a cook-off, and of course there is a raffle, and the awarding of medals for  the top brewers.

Yes, I won 2 medals- gold for Grilled Lemon Cream Ale in Fruit Beer, and gold in 10A American Amber for my Arizona Copper Ale.  Yay!

I head the announcement for the Amber, but I was getting my dad a beer when they announced the GLCA gold, so... I missed the jumping and screaming portion of the award ;)

WHY was I the only one jumping and screaming?  Seriously? Everyone else smiles and shakes hands... I scream and yell and jump in a circle.

So anyways, I want to thank the Event coordinator, David Schollmeyer, and the Competition coordinator, Barry Weeg, and our ASH President, Rob Fullmer OllLlo l o llo lolllo , for all the work they do. 

Check out http://www.azhomebrewers.org

Easy Brewing

Seriously, I had forgotten how EASY it is to brew an extract brew

I did the extract brew with the class on Wednesday.  It was a bit uncomfortable, tossing ice in the wort and everything. (also, the recipe from the White House was not well written...)

On Sunday I did it again. Because if I only have 50 bottles to share amongst 10 students, that's not very fulfilling for them.

It took under 2 hours.

In and out, cleaned up and done. WOW.

Basic Brewing talks about an extract pale ale that they do while mashing in an all-grain. Maybe I should give it a try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv82HsMN-hA

On the other hand, the ingredients cost $60, for what I could do as an all-grain for $20  So... there's that ;)