Home brew journal
Ever since we decided to invest in the equipment to start kegging, we’ve had a lot more homemade beer around the house. The beer has gotten better with each keg and and is now running clear and consistently carbonated (homebrewers call this how the beer is ‘conditioned’). Re-doing the kitchen a while back forced the relocation of the old fridge into the garage and immediately made lots of artificially cooled space available for the two Cornelius kegs we had aquired.So far since the spring we’ve gone through three kegs. The first, a pale ale, debuted at our spring party which also featured Pink Floyd at Pompeii projected on the wall at an amazing 70+ inch wide screen. It wasn’t until well into the third Music movie that we realized the image, which was being projected onto the front window drapes, was very visible from outside. Taking a peek out front late at night, it was apparant that we were basically running a free drive in theatre for neighborhood kids.
The next keg, a honey lager, took a lot longer to brew (and to clear) and we had some trouble finding the best spot to set the carboy to ferment - the temperatures were getting warmer and things were slowing down. Setting the keg in the fridge cleared it up really quick but I finished most of it by myself.
The last one (still on tap :), is a nut brown ale and tastes alot like NewCastle Brown ale, only better! Cathy took the liquid line off about mid-week and hid it so there would be something left for the weekend. We had hoped to have a neighbor over who is interested in starting to brew, but he went upstate - so we’ll just be having a small get together with the lady across the street. My parents used to go over there to drink with her aunt, now it’s my turn to keep up the tradition!
Hopefully we’ll be starting a double bock this weekend too - more on that later!
Comment posted on 8-2-2005
"Drink up, happy hour is now enforced by law!"
Comment posted on 10-9-2005
I think we’re on the 4th keg this summer - Cathy’s got a Doppelbock brewing which a beer kit from our beer supply place Arbor Beer & Wine (they’re really nice and knowledgeable) called “FIRE ISLAND BOCK II (Dopple Bock)” This is the first beer where she actually strained the ‘trub’ (that sludgy nasty stuff which is sort of a left over mess from the hops and grains). We think that it sped up the process a bit - the beer completely fermented in under a week and a half and clarified really well. It’s waiting to be transferred to the keg now, I’m salivating over it daily: it’s really dark, you can’t see through it in the glass carboy even with one of those 4D Maglite flashlights
set on full spot! It should be ready to drink by next weekend I’m hoping. Then to get the Pale Ale brewin!
Comment posted on 11-5-2005
Happy to report that I am finally well enough to start drinking some of
this wonderful stuff! I’ve been ill for a week and a half and haven’t had
the constitution for drinking, but decided tonight that I should sample
the stuff again. We had tapped the keg for Emily’s birthday (not for
*her* of course ;), but I fell ill the following evening. The double bock
is awesome, it’s so tasty and sweet. We think we found a sweet spot at
5psi for the CO2. The only problem is that it looks like I never
shortened the draw tube in this keg, so once you’ve left it sit for a few
days, the first beer you draw you get some nasty sediment ;p
Cathy started another one today: a Bass ale kit. She’s not going to
strain this one, it’s all an all extract recipee - maybe she’ll be kind
enough to post the initial specific gravity later tonight? She also picked
up another kit at Arbor today - a porter - more on that when it comes
time.
We’ve been reviewing finances a bit lately (who hasn’t?) and it really
seems that brewing our own is the way to go. Why waste $8 for a 6-
pack (ok, I have expensive taste) when you can brew superior beer for
about $5 a 6-pack (including all the cleaning stuff and CO2 refills - note:
we haven’t had to refill in at least 6 kegs)?
Comment posted on 11-10-2005
Ok, well the initial at 1.038 SG was a little lower than the 1.040 the accompanying instructions predicted, but that seems to be typical of how my batches go. I have to look into that a bit I think. Today was transfer day and the SG was 1.014 - close to the 1.010 bottling trigger for this batch. I am going to age it in the secondary for another 10 days, then keg it. Once kegged, it has 3-4 weeks more aging before it is optimal. This brew was excellent last time, and if today’s sip was any indication this one will be too - tastes like Bass to my untrained palate. Anyway by my estimate this should be ready for tapping a week before Christmas.
Comment posted on 11-10-2005
In related news… I started two 1 gallon batches of hard cider about 2 weeks ago. They are purely experimental right now. I got some recipies off the net and set to work on the cider quickly. Maybe too quickly. I did a lot more research when things still weren’t bubbling a few days in and discovered a mistake or two, but they hopefully aren’t enough to doom the endeavor. My recipe was basically add honey to cider, pitch yeast and wait. Well, I found out about the time that I pitched the yeast that maybe some heating of the cider and honey would help since I had a thick layer of honey sitting on the bottom of the jug. Oh well, the honey is still slowly going into solution on its own. I did heat the second batch and that looked better inititally. Bubbling is still very slow in both jugs and a sg reading on the “warm” jug today is higher than the initial sg. That is theoretically impossible, but then you should ask my Organic Chem professor just how many theoretically impossible things I managed in one semester….Anyway, my only guess is that even the warm jug was not as homogenous as it seemed to start off with. Which leads to a better understanding of why things are going slow. The yeast I used (a champagne variety) is tolerant of high sugar content and thus capable of producing a highly alcoholic end product (say 15% or so), but not that tolerant. Even now after two weeks of fermentation we are slightly above the max tolerance of the yeast. I am going to give it another week, and hope the sg drops enough to kick start fermentation again. If not (and if it still isn’t vinegar either) its back to the home brew shop for more yeast and possibly to the store for more cider to cut this with.
Comment posted on 1-14-2006
The Bass ale keg is officially killed, it was meant for the New Years GMT party, but poor (drinker) turn-out for that event left it nearly full. I’ve been working on it ever since, and it was really quite good. The keg of porter which was *almost* ready for New Years is now next in line, but with sickness in the house, it will probably be a little while till it gets tapped. Cathy started a batch on WINE, but I’ll let her comment on that if she wants.