Nobody Listens

I finally got around to bottling the wit a long time ago.  Drank it and it turned out pretty good.  I think leaving it in the secondary made it uncharacteristically clear.

I brewed another batch, I think about 2 months ago.  I’ve lost track.  It is a clone of Fat Tire.  It has set in the secondary fermentor for ages.  I’m hoping the batch isn’t a goner.  I won’t get to bottle this week because it is jammed packed.  We’re heading to the beach t his weekend and work is pretty busy.  Hopefully, next week when things settle out, I’ll have a chance to bottle.

I’m thinking of doing a winter warmer or some other celebratory ale.  Some recipes I’ve seen you need to let sit for at least 2 months, so I should get cracking soon.

Finally got around to bottling my first batch of Pale Ale. 

I soaked my bottles in OxyClean to remove them and clean them Friday night thinking I would get to bottle on Saturday night.  One thing led to another and I wasn’t able to get to it until Monday.

I can see why people Keg.  Not only is the whole process a pain, but storing all those bottles sure does take up a lot of room especially considering I’ll need to bottle batch number 2 in a few weeks.

I tasted the brew and it tasted pretty bitter.  I’m hoping the carbination will cut that a bit.

My Final gravity was 1.014 so it hadn’t changed since I racked to secondary (which is expected).  My Original Gravity was 1.056 so that puts the ABV at 5.46%.  Not bad.  My target Final ABV was 6.02%.

Now, more waiting. 

• Total time in Primary: 12 days
• Total time in secondary: 16 days

So I racked to secondary.  The kid in me won out (sorry John!).  

 I prepped all my gear and got to siphoning.  The whole process went pretty smoothly.  I did notice a Star San Snake appear out of the top of the carboy, but as I have read numerous times, “Don’t fear the foam!”

Read the rest of this entry »

In searching out when to rack to secondary, I ran across the Brew Dudes and one of their posts had me cracking up:

” I think my wife is weirded out a little when she sees me in our second bathroom, bent over and sniffing the airlock.”

Glad to know I’m not a weirdo for pressing my nose to the airlock.

Fermentation has slowed significantly. I’m getting about 3-7 bubbles per minute. I’m wondering if I should rack to secondary. I’ve actually been reading up on that. You have those for it, those against it, follow the 1-2-3 rule, or not.My recipe didn’t come with a target Final gravity but did have the ABV listed so I guess I can figure it out that way.I took a reading @ 69 degrees. The SG was 1.018 which I think is my final gravity although the ABV doesn’t add up.  OG was 1.056.

Does this look… right?

According to the recipe, I’m aiming for an ABV of 6.02%. How much will change in the SG with the secondary and how much is gained in bottling? ABV right now is at 4.92%. I don’t think bottling will take it up to that point.In googling about, I found out that my strain of yeast, WLP005, is a bottom fermenting yeast. According to their FAQ:

” We advise to keep it in the primary fermentor until fermentation is complete. You might have to shake it once in a while to rouse it back up from the bottom and make sure it finishes.”

I think I’ll take another reading tomorrow night then go from there. I’m leaning toward going ahead and racking to secondary. I might give the folks at HomeBrew USA a call to see what they recomend.

The kids and I Made spent grain bread today and man was it good.  I followed the instructions and made one big loaf.  Did I say big, I mean huge.

I checked the loaf at 30 minutes.  Inserted a long tooth pick to see if anything stuck.  Looked clean so I cut into it.  The center was still very underdone.  I shoved the loaf back together and put it back in the oven. I suspect the tooth pick method is not the way to test bread doneness.

I checked it every 5 minutes for the next 15-20.  Finally I just pulled it with it still a tad doughy in the middle.

I suspect I may have not let the dough rise enough, the loaf may have been to large, I cooked at too high a temp or all of the above.

Even though parts were still a tad underdone, it tasted great.  The crust was perfect.

I used brown sugar to make the starter and it added a good level of sweetness to the bread.

To my shock, my kids loved the bread as well.  This thing is almost straight grains.

My wife made some honey butter for dipping the bread and was the perfect topping for the bread.

Fermentation is well under way.  Bubbling like mad.  Pretty exciting stuff.  My wife is already tired of me talking homebrew.

Woke up this morning eager to see if any signs of fermentation were happening.  The lid was bulging a bit, so I pressed it slightly.  A few bubbles, but nothing spectacular.

I was being a bit impatient.  Did I aerate enough?

The temp. was around 67.  I did something (potentially) dumb: I hooked up a heater next to my bucket.  The air temp quickly rose to about 71 and the airlock began bubbling like mad.  I thought better and turned it off.  The bubbling subsided shortly there after.

The airlock seemed to be sucked all the way down and looked like it was pulling water back into the bucket.

Maybe I should just leave well enough alone.

The setup.  A perfect little spot for making beer.

The day (actually night) had arrived.

I had read around on some postings that secondary fermenters should be glass, not plastic due to the headroom and the permeability of plastic. So I decided to use the 7.5 gallon bucket I got at HomeBrew USA for my primary. I’ll pick up a carboy later. Plus the old bucket was, well… old.

I put the old bucket to good use however. I cleaned it well and mixed up 5 gallons of Star San. Overkill, yes but it should keep for a long time.

Here’s the recipe I’m making. It is a Pale Ale that HomeBrew USA calls “Cape Henry Pale Ale”

Read the rest of this entry »

I had been tossing around the idea of getting into homebrew for a while. Not wholeheartedly, just kind of a “Wouldn’t it be neat someday” thing. There is a homebrew store in Norfolk called HomeBrew USA. I got some friends, my dad and my brother together for a beer school on Saturday, March 22nd. As soon as you could smell the grains, I was hooked. This would be my new obsession.

The class was great (and I highly recommend anybody in the Hampton Roads area check it out). Our instructor, was very knowledgeable. He’s even growing his own hops. Basically, the class consists of going through the brew process all the way to pouring the wort into the fermenter. To be honest, some of the stuff the instructor told us went over my head but it was all very interesting stuff.

I already had some equipment that my brother-in-law gave me a long while back. It had a primary fermentor (bucket), bottling bucket, racking cane, bottle capper, bottle filler and probably what was 6 year old corn sugar (I threw that out). So I figured I’d use that and just pick up some additional pieces of equipment. I got another bucket for a secondary (more on that later), some caps, an auto siphon with some tubing and an air lock. Oh yeah, and a beer kit to make a pale ale.

My dad and brother picked up full equipment kits and beer kits to make a Newcastle clone (Ryan) and a blonde ale clone (dad).

Can’t wait to start.