Beer Bits 2

Photo from a walk...

2009-11-22T23:56:00.001-05:00

Time to taste the Porter

2009-11-22T21:37:00.001-05:00

The almost Baltic porter smells of dried dark fruit. You can see the cloudy milkshake here with lots of yeast in suspension.

Minus the bready yeast bite it has lots of promise. Accidentally forgot the CO2 headpressure. Fixed that.

Healthy Yeast Cake + Barleywine Wort = ...

2009-11-20T20:21:00.000-05:00

Sent from my iPhone

Boiling wort...

2009-11-20T13:11:00.001-05:00

On a walk...

2009-11-20T01:20:00.000-05:00

Catching up with you...

2009-11-18T07:58:00.004-05:00

As the not quite Baltic porter ferments away next to the two batches of cider I'm anxious to taste and keg both. I think the pasteurized and non-pasteurized juice batches seem like they will indeed be different. The non-pasteurized tastes quite sour and it must be close to 1.01 sg. Haven't tasted the other yet.

On the agenda next is a big beer, perhaps a barleywine and/or an imperial stout using the yeast cakes of the two not quite Baltic porter batches.

Other than that I'm hoping to dry hop the last two batches of Garbage Pail Ale. One for Mom and one for Dad.

Still waiting for the right time for an allgrain batch. Don't forget November's Fermentation Friday is coming soon.

Split batch yeast problems...

2009-11-15T09:45:00.011-05:00

You heard about the garbage can heat shield. Worked well, not bad for ten dollars. Brewed an almost Baltic porter last night for the test run. Decided on ten gallons split between two fermenters. Maybe your brew sessions work out smoothly, but, mine always seem to wind up with a bump in the road or two.

Last night with the water ready for steeping I realized only one of my fermenters remained empty. Yikes, with two batches of cider going I'd forgotten. Wow, cider is too easy to make. Then I remembered the bottling bucket that sat soaking in iodophor from the day before. Bingo, with plastic wrap for a top an semi-open fermentation would do just fine. Some people don't like the extra hiding places for infecting agents around the spigot. Used it a few times for this before so, I went with it.

One bump in the road can generally be overcome without much cursing, however, two hiccups test my resolve. While putting up the water, gathering equipment and making last minute recipe adjustment the Belgian Abbey II Wyeast smack pack remained saggy. By now it should be bursting at the seams. I warmed it a bit thinking that might help. Brewing continued. After the wort finished cooling I transferred half to the carboy and half to the bottling bucket. Now for the yeast. Pitched the slightly puffier Belgian Abbey II in one and Safbrew s-33 dry yeast in the other. Content to see it through 'til morning I hit the sack.

Woke up to a slightly overcast sky promising a mild and sunny Autumn day. Skipped the teeth brushing walking straight to the basement to lift the cover I laid over the fermenters the night before. A puffy tan krausen pushed up toward the plastic wrap on the bottling bucket. This lessened my worries about the open fermentation. No such luck in the carboy. Deep brown wort with a few bubbles on the top laid lifeless in the glass. My mind went to work thinking of yeast. No other yeast in storage here at the house. The local homebrew store was open, just a car ride away. Wait, what if I just pitch some of the fermenting beer from the bottling bucket into the carboy? That's it. After grabbing my beer thief I realized it could be easier than that. The bucket has a spigot. No need for the thief, I'll just pour some right in. I'm already seeing signs of fermentation a couple hours later.

I'm not sure I would know what to do if a brew session went as planned.

Wort...

2009-11-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

Heat shield from garbage can...

2009-11-14T21:24:00.001-05:00

I'd had it with my Bayou Cooker. Too much clearance, too much breeze,
too long to boil....so picked up a garbage can cut the bottom out and
voilà heat shield.

Fermentation Friday November 2009: The Beer Bits 2 Homebrew Community

2009-11-12T23:36:00.010-05:00

Thanks to Just Another Booze Blog for hosting Fermentation Friday for November 2009. I know I'm early, but, with my record lately I better get it done ASAP.

Our mission...

Please tell us about your homebrew communities. Are you into the BN, BA, weblogs and other 1337 f0rm5 of 21st century brewing? Do you while away the evenings in crowded halls with you area's finest, sampling and talking homebrew into the wee hours? Does your brew crew keep you sane? Or do you get your fix sitting at the bar plotting the next move? How do you keep them all going and what does each bring to your life?

So now I have to go on about these jack asses I brew with. Well. I might as well start with Jeremy the bastard who single handedly shook me out of my brewing slumber after more than four years. Jerk. Then there's Brian who keeps drinking my beer so I have to make more, especially the malty ones. Brew your own damn beer! I can't leave out Gavin who keeps telling me I need to open a brewery and stops short of lending me the money. Can't really complain too much about him though, he's growin' some kick ass hops and even sharing. I keep asking Matt to stop by, but somehow he's too busy...whatever. Oh, and who can forget good ol' Dad. The one who answers the phone sayin', "It would be nice to have some homebrew about right now." I guess I owe the guy somethin', heheh. Ok, glad I got that off my chest. I'm just kidding of course. These guys have been very supportive and helpful over the years. They drink beer like nobody's business.

Outside of my brewing helpers, I can count several others among the influential brew-illuminati. Ted, Tom, Del, Bryan and Mike are some that come to mind. Have you ever brewed a "Dead Cat Saison" or "Liver Slayer"? How about a Flanders Red? What about a wild ale with wormwood? Did I mention that one of them owns a homebrew store? Hell, Bryan, my neighbor and good friend has his own craft beer site and brewed a saison that just keeps getting better. BTW thanks Patrick for not homebrewing.

Now it might seem like I have a vibrant community of homebrewers around me, and I do. I don't always reach out to them, though. I'm kinda one of those dudes who enjoys figuring things out for themselves. I don't want to embarrass myself I guess. Funny thing is that I have the most fun when working things out with others. Is this when we all have a group hug? Anyway, here are a few of the local influences. They are not just homebrew-centric some venture into craft beer as well.

Artisan Homebrew for being my Local Home Brew Store :-)
Sly Fox for Monday nights and fer showin' the Stillers games ;-)
Victory Brewing for inspiration and good beer.
Exton Beverage for their sixtel inventory and the people who work there.
Keystone Homebrew for supporting the homebrew community so well over the years.
Monks for the beer dinners and wonderful owners.
TJ's for their excellent beer selections. (and they link to my site)
The Drafting Room 'cause they really know how to do craft beer.
Iron Hill for sharing their yeast with me on occasion.
BUZZ homebrew club. The closest club whose meetings I've never attended. (just call me hermit)
The Brew Lounge for being the closest website to my house. I don't want to swell his head.

Mentioning TBL is a good segue to the world of blogs and all that cool stuff on the Internet. Why would I include these people? Many of whom I have never met. Well, you have to remember that I'm the guy who keeps to himself a bit. That means I need to do some research on my own. Here are some sites that stand out...gotta get a beer I'll be back...Ok, I'm back. While I've never met any of these people I would have to say they have had a significant impact on my brewing.

The place where I learned a ton about using soda kegs :-) Thanks Paul.
The Real Beer discussion community.
A recipe database called The Recipator.
Beer Smith software.
PFIFF! for existing and expressing that in words.

So there you have it. Homebrewers, stores, breweries, brewpubs, friends, relatives, neighbors and even the ones represented in bits and bytes make up my homebrewing community.

November Fermentation Friday Announced!

2009-11-12T23:15:00.004-05:00

So Just Another Booze Blog let the cat out of the bag. Yep, they're ready to go as the host of November's Fermentation Friday. This month is a bit tricky though. Why? Well, here in the States we're celebrating Thanksgiving the same week. Which means people will travel and the focus might stray from blogging. (spoken by the truely distractable, me) SO, feel free to post anytime that week.

Also, I'm not sure what a JABB care package is, but, you'll get one if your website refers the most visits to Just Another Booze Blog's site from now to the new year :-) Truth be told, these here Fermentation Friday blog carnivals are all about the referrals after all. Not that we're breakin' any records yet.

Oh yeah, the topic is all about your homebrew community. That's right, you get to write about the folks involved in yer neck of the woods. Thanks Just Another Booze Blog.

Cider: Have you made it before?

2009-11-09T20:10:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I'm taking the plunge. I have a batch fermenting right now. The details...

5 gallons of unpasteurized sweet cider from a local cidery (I guess that's what their called)
1 carboy & airlock
1 packet of Safale s.04 yeast
1 lb of locally collected honey from Exton Bee Company

Estimated O.G. at 1.050 (1.044 + .07 for the honey)

My plan is to let it ferment down to 1.015 and taste it. Once I get it where I like it I'll keg it and cold crash it. I'm thinking that might slow down the fermentation enough for me to share it with friends and family for the holiday.

Here's some good reading on the subject.

Juice, yeast and sugar experiments...
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

A thread giving nice overview of progressively more complex ways of making cider...
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/i-thought-i-would-share-some-info-139409/

Couple people stating how they do it...

http://www.brewingkb.com/brewing-cider/cider-campden-tablets-1622.html

So have you made cider?

SCAAAARY! Teach a Friend to Brew

2009-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

Well, not really. The only thing about brewing your own beer that's scary is fear of the unknown. Come on join in. Follow the link. Find a place learn about brewing beer.

Want to learn more about brewing? Oh, you already know how to brew! Well, whatever the case may be check out Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day :-)

Hey YOU! Teach a Friend to Brew

2009-10-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

Want to learn more about brewing? Oh, you already know how to brew! Well, whatever the case may be check out Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day :-)

Fermentation Friday...I'm working on my entry...

2009-10-28T06:00:00.002-04:00

Check our CNYBrew for October's topic. Do you remember why you brew? I do. I mean my story changes every time I start writing this damn thing, but, never you mind. I'll have it ready to go on Friday! (for a change)

I'm back baby!

Teach a Friend to Brew

2009-10-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

Want to learn more about brewing? Oh, you already know how to brew! Well, whatever the case may be check out Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day :-)

Teach a Friend to Brew

2009-10-27T20:14:00.001-04:00

Have you heard of Teach a Friend to Brew Day? It's November 7th this year. Hopefully you'll have an opportunity to help teach a friend to homebrew. WHAT!? You don't know how to brew? No problem go learn. I'll be over at Artisan Homebrew waiting for a big pot of water to boil so stop over. Mike will write it all up when he gets a minute.

This is right up my alley. Get together with some friends and brew some beer. Just don't all watch the pot at the same time. You know what they say about a watched pot. "It never boils."

For more information about Teach a Friend to Brew Day read Chipper Dave's excellent write up. Don't forget the AHA site too ;-) You can find a site near you and join in. Heck, you might even learn a little.

Worm Trail Wheat Ale: If you look closely...

2009-10-27T19:57:00.002-04:00

...you might see...

...yeast ;-)

Heheh, seriously though. This is the beer we brewed together at Jeremy & Jackie's. Looks good and healthy to me so far.

Homebrewing on a stormy night...

2009-10-25T00:48:00.002-04:00

The rain came down hard today. Afterwards the wind swept in to clear the skies and we were well into our brewing session over at Jackie & Jeremy's place with Mike from Artisan Homebrew. Some friends stopped by and watched the pot boil with us, added some hops, steeped some grains and had a couple beers. Hoping for a hoppy beer from the carboy. The Simcoe and Centennial should be up to the task. Mike's saving some amarillo for the dry hop. I can taste it already.

Thanks everybody. Had a wonderful night.

Dry Hop in Keg with Wire Mesh Tea Infuser Ball

2009-10-22T08:58:00.002-04:00

I bought two of these at Walmart (cause it was open) for dry hopping the Garbage Pail Ale. One keg with Simcoe the other with Centennial. We'll see how it turns out.

Fill up the ball with hops, I'm using one ounce of pellets per five gallons, and drop it in the keg. Might try to hook it to the out valve stem (or whatever you call it).

I'll try to leaving the infusers in there for about a week.

Nici the FriendFeeder exists!

2009-10-21T22:11:00.004-04:00

So, Feedburner isn't lying to me. There are people over there at FriendFeed. Nici proved it.

(Interesting, how do I know this person is real? You can't believe everything you read on the Internet. I guess she could be a bot. Nah I'm not goin' down that road. Too much thinking involved. Red pills, blue pills, Why am I here?, you know.)

Now I must study. I need to prove the theory.

They FriendFeed therefore they exist ;-)

I'll probably need some help from these guys though. Why am I doing this? Good question. Can't remember. Its just as well, the original reason was probably something lame.

If you are reading this in FriendFeed show me you exist. Click through.

2009-10-21T21:29:00.003-04:00

I'm just curious to see if anybody from FriendFeed does that type of thing.

FriendFeed people click here to leave me a comment and tell me what you think...er prove you exist.

And now back to your regularly schedule programming. Yikes, I have to send those hops out to Bard's Basement Brew. I resolve to do it tonight, now, right now, when I say now I mean now, if I say something I mean it, unless its just for effect, in that case it really isn't that I mean it so much...aaargh...

No bloggers were killed during the production of this post.

What happened to the Garbage Pail Ale?

2009-10-21T21:15:00.001-04:00

BTW Fermentation Friday is next Friday at CNY Brew.

The fate of all five of those five gallon kegs of Garbage Pail Ale.

Mom asked me to bring some beer to her holiday party and wait for it....that's right...I don't have to rush around like I do every other year and brew something. I can just save one of these. Whoohoo!
Number two will be on tap in the garage as is. Hoping to have it clear a bit.
The next one will be served this weekend at our neighborhood Fall Fest.
And then there were two, one will be dry hopped with Simcoe and the other...
...will be dry hopped and poured at Artisan Homebrew if all goes well.

Questions?

Crash cool homebrew to clear yeast.

2009-10-20T22:04:00.010-04:00

First of all, don't forget Fermentation Friday next week.

So you have some cloudy homebrew. Let's assume yeast is still in suspension. That is, yer yeast is floatin' around with a CO2 bubble caught in its gullet. (I'm makin' up the gullet part. Oh, and this is not the only cause of cloudy homebrew.) This here yeast problem recently happened to one of my homebrews.

[Time out, this isn't a big problem. If I wait, I'll bet the beer will clear, but, I don't want to wait so I'm looking to control the yeast. What is it with beer and the control we attempt to exert over it? Do you think that's where the wild yeast like brett comes in? Kind of like rebel yeast? Ok, back to how I will affect control over billions of little defenseless creatures.]

The five cornie kegs of Garbage Pail Ale just sat there in my basement while they finished fermenting. Off went the first one into a fifty five degree kegerator for a couple days. I poured some off waiting for the sediment to clear during the first couple pints. Six pints later over the next few days it still poured cloudy. Could it be that my yeast just doesn't like to flocculate? I am used to those English Ale yeasts that fall like rocks in water. What to do?

After a bit of thought something occured to me. Maybe I didn't cool it down enough. I realized that my process inadvertantly changed and affected my homebrew. Could it be this new kegerator fridge? Typically my homebrew would condition in the other "normal" fridge. I never checked it but, I have to assume it's like any other fridge and chills things to below forty degrees. This is the first beer I moved right into the kegerator which is temperature controlled by one of those simple Johnson controllers. I like my beer served around fifty five. Well that's all fine and dandy, but, I may not be cooling it down enough for the yeast to drop. After all it didn't really get much more than ten degrees colder when moved from the basement to the fridge.

In an effort to rectify the situation I will chill it to thirty seven degrees tonight and keep it there for a few days. After a few days I'll report back. If it doesn't work, there are other options. I guess there's always fish innards or stuff made from parts of other animals. I'm not picky. I only want to taste the beer without the yeast bite.

Do you use FriendFeed to track BeerBits2?

2009-10-20T20:44:00.006-04:00

So, Feedburner says I have all kinds of Friend Feed subscribers. I'm just curious to see if they're really out there. Helloooo! Anybody out there? I just signed up for a FriendFeed account.

(Could that be what they want? Is this a trick? I'm getting paranoid.) Anyway...

If you are from FriendFeed, welcome. Over there on the right you'll see what this blog is made of.

Leave a comment and say hey.

Cheers!