Okay, so it's been a while...

...but there hasn't been that much to report.

The beer that was brewed on Sept. 28th has finally been bottled!  Today was my first day off (from one of my jobs) in a bit, where I could take the time to get it done.  I didn't end up with as much beer as the first batch, since there was a lot of sediment in the bottom of the carboy that I tried to avoid.

This beer is much darker in color (read that: copper) although I would not call it a "copper ale" by any means.  I figure I'll give it a couple of weeks before I move it to the fridge.

This is my last beer in my current apartment, and given that my fiance's place is a little too nice to make a royal mess out of with a brewing, I probably won't be brewing again until at least May, when we've moved into our new place.  So I wouldn't count on too many updates from me until that time.

Brewing Day!

Today was the official brew day, as planned.  Before we get into that, let's get into more beer -- my first batch.

We tried it again, and it hadn't changed a whole lot from the last tasting.  More malt than hops; still more sourness from the yeast.  Not a bad ale, but not an IPA.  My sister was not a big fan, but the fiance and my friend Matt seemed to like it.  I'll let it sit for a while and see how it goes in another couple of weeks.

The brewing.  Easier than last time, but not without slight complications.

I started by steeping one pound of crushed crystal malt for about half an hour in 2.5 gallons of water.  This gave the wort a nice malty smell, and once I kept the water to just under a boil, I added six pounds of Munton's Light DME.  This boiled over (hurray!  first time!) and then I let it go for about 45 minutes or so.

I added two ounces of Super Styrians at the beginning of a 60-minute countdown.  Hurray, another boilover.  This was to be the last one, thank god.

I then added one ounce of Willamettes at the 30 minute point, and one ounce of Centennials at the 10 minute point.

At the final three to five minutes, I added two good pinches of Irish Moss, and then added a half-cup of honey along with 32 ounces of Grade A maple syrup.

I was going to use liquid yeast once I cooled down the wort and added it to the carboy.  I failed to read the directions on the back of the smack pack which said to make a culture three hours in advance.  Instead, I grabbed a packet of Munton's Gold dry yeast which had been in the fridge, activated that in some hot water, and added it to the carboy.

The wort now sits in my sink.  I figure that if there's any blowover, it can go right into the sink and make cleanup slightly easier.

Pictures to come tomorrow.  It's late and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm hitting the sack.

The recipe for next Sunday.

September 28th is brewing day!  It should be a good day -- I'm off from work (as far as I know), it'll be the beginning of Autumn, and I've got a couple of friends coming over to brew.

The plan I've got for the ale I'm making:

Dissolve 6# of DME in 2 gal water and bring to a boil for 45 min.

Steep 1# crushed crystal, 30 min, bring to boil

Add Super Styrians, 1 oz, with 45 min left to go in boil

Willamettes, 1 oz, 20 min left

Centennials, 1 oz, 10 min left

Now here's where it gets interesting -- I'm thinking about adding, with 3-5 min remaining in the boil, 3 cups of maple syrup and a little honey.  That'll get strained into the carboy which has 3 gal of cold water.

I think this'll work.  I need to do more fine-tuning between now and next Sunday.

Three weeks in the bottle.

It sounds like a good album title.  Or song title.

Nevertheless, my beer has been bottled for three weeks.  Given that it's now September 16th, and it was brewed on August 8th, that's not a bad lifespan thus far.

I took a six-pack of it over to my job this morning, so a couple of co-workers could try it out.  Brendan had tried it when I'd first brought a couple of bottles over, and he instantly noticed a change in the flavor from back then.  Better, richer, "wheatier" (as he put it).  I cracked one open and noticed it myself.  Was that wheat I tasted?

I brought in the owner of the restaurant, Joe, who knows his beer pretty well.  His was an opinion I wanted.

He sampled it, and made the following observations (not verbatim):

• it had good body to it,
• it wasn't overly bitter,
• he didn't think it "wheaty" but definitely tasted malt,
• he wouldn't call it an IPA because it's too dark (but he would call it a pale ale)
• it was hoppy to his liking, but not insanely hoppy.

He suggested that next time I brew, I go easier on the crushed malt steeping at the beginning of the process.  That would alleviate some of the malt flavor (which I'd like to lessen, so that was good advice).  

It was beer well received by both co-workers, so I was happy.  I don't intend on drinking any more of it until the 28th, when I brew again.  I still have to get the DME and a nylon bag for steeping the crushed malt, but aside from that, it's all systems go.

Sixteen days in the bottle.

That's the deal.  My beer has been bottled for sixteen days now (seventeen if you're counting the date of this post) and I have put it in the fridge.  It was residing in my bathtub at my apartment, but I needed to take a shower, and you can obviously see why it needed to be moved.

I figure with a little more time, it'll be even better, so I don't intend on drinking it anytime soon.  The testers have already been drunk.  I will try cracking open another one after this weekend.

It is definitely hard to not drink your own homemade beer.

Adding to the recipe.

Went out on Saturday afternoon and picked up an ounce of Centennial hop pellets, as well as a pound of Crushed Crystal malt.  I'll have a more specific version of my recipe later this week, once I get the chance to sit down and calculate everything out.

We sampled the rest of my "sample bottles" of the first batch at my workplace yesterday.  Comments ranged from "smooth" to "not super hoppy" but everyone seemed to dig it.  One co-worker admitted that he could "drink this all afternoon."  Another thought that it almost seemed to be close to a sour ale (like in the vein of Magic Hat's 'Odd Notion') and we chalked that up to the yeast I used.

I'm not going to touch the other bottles for at least another week or so, if only to see how much better it gets.  It was brought to my attention that I actually underfilled the bottles.

Working on the recipe for the next batch.

More for my use than yours; this is the rough outline (not yet complete) for my next batch o' brew.

1# Crystal Malt 10

9# Amber DME

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Bramling Cross @ 20 min boil

1oz Willamette @ 10 min boil

Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast

I haven't determined what my finishing hops are going to be yet.  I do know that I need to buy the DME still, as well as said finishing hops, some nylon bags, and maybe a couple of decent beer mugs.  :)

I had originally shot for a Labor Day brew date on this, which didn't happen due to timing and funds.  Having planned it in advance, I'm having a "Bills and Brews" party on September 28th, where I'm brewing this beer and showing the Bills/St. Louis game.

First tasting!

Tasted one of the bottles of beer after eight days of carbonation.  Not a huge head on it, but it looked good, smelled good, and didn't taste too bad for a 70-degree ale.

I'll keep you all posted.

Check up, and pumpkins.

It's been a few days since we bottled the beer.  I checked it yesterday morning -- no sign of carbonation yet.  I know I shouldn't expect it this soon, but I figured since I'm keeping track of the batch like this, I should make a note of it.  Nothing's exploded, so I presume all is going well.

I got to thinking about future batches of beer.  My future sister-in-law has mentioned her love of Harvest Moon lately, and it got me to wondering: what are they using to impart the pumpkin flavor in there?

I suppose you could steep pumpkin in some boiling water and strain the hell out of it, and add the wort to it for primary fermentation.  My other thought was roasting pumpkin seeds and steeping those in a mesh bag during secondary, although that might give more of a nutty flavor than a pumpkin flavor.

Why I'm glad I have a 6.5 gal carboy.

A couple of my friends are brewing an ale, and have it in a five-gallon carboy.

Maybe 12 hours or so after they got the wort in the carboy, that sucker blew up.  I'd never seen an airlock full of krausen before; I suspect they also didn't strain it very well, since it seemed to be extremely green.

Seeing that makes me want to be even more meticulous with future batches.  It's kinda like hearing kids screaming in a restaurant, which becomes a quick-fire method of birth control.

Bottling Day!

The Mrs. and I got up this morning, and after reading the Sunday paper and watching some tv, we headed over to my apartment and bottled the beer.

I expected this to go fairly smooth, and it did -- though I did note a couple of issues.

1. The "spring tip" mechanism that comes with the True Brew kit SUCKS.  It's not the worst thing ever made, but due to the physical construction of it, it'll stick at an angle.  And when it does that, you had better take note and shake the bottling tube so it rights itself.  Otherwise, you have non-stop beer coming out, and you're going to have a mess.

2. Towels are essential.  

3. The grommet device that supposedly "seals" the spigot into the True Brew bucket?  It leaks.  At least mine did.  I didn't lose much beer, but still...see number 2.

4. With the kit, you have the siphoning tube (flexible), one straight (harder) tube that goes into the liquid you're siphoning, and the other straight tube with the spring tip (see number 1).  The flexible tubing does NOT WANT TO WORK with anything you're going to hook it up to.  I should have tested this before hand.  I didn't.  It sucks when you're trying to jam a piece of this tubing onto the bucket spigot and the spring-tip tube for easier bottling -- especially when...well, see number 3.

5. I have not yet learned how to completely clean a used carboy.  I can sanitize with the best of them.  However, I'm not sure how to go about cleaning the leftover crap from a carboy; I'm referring to the scum left over from the krausen.  

6. I can see why this process, overall, would be much easier in a large garage that had a sink in it.  And a floor drain.  And beer.

The Mrs. assisted with the bottling, which was great, given that it would have taken me that much longer to get everything done.  (She also went so far as to mop the kitchen floor for me post-bottling, which was huge.  It's the first time it's been mopped in probably a couple of months.)

Really, for the most part, it all went well, and we were done in about an hour and a half's time.  That's taking our time, too, so hurray for us.

Now all the bottles (42 regular size, and 4 Sierra Nevada ones that are my "testers" for the upcoming weeks) are residing in my bathtub (on the chance something goes awry and one explodes, fingers crossed). 

Next step: to finalize the recipe for my next batch, which will be brewed on Labor Day.

Changing one's mind.

I decided to wait on the bottling, given that the wort still had some bubbles on top.  I checked in again today -- not the gravity, but just the temperature/visuals.  Given that there were still some bubbles, and everything else looked good (it was reading 72 degrees), I'm waiting.  I may end up bottling it tomorrow morning -- if nothing else, I'm going to check the gravity and make a decision then.

If it ain't ready, it ain't ready.  As of tonight it'll be fourteen days of fermentation; I don't have a problem waiting a few more days.  Better safe than sorry.

Odd!

I checked up on Batch #1 today, and found it had a new bit of krausen going on!  Some bubbles along the top, with the airlock giving out the occasional CO2 bubble.  I found that rather interesting.  I took a gravity reading of 1.020 -- maybe tomorrow's not the time to bottle.  Gotta think about this one.

Further developments.

I checked the gravity of the wort yesterday: around 1.015.  This is exactly where it's supposed to be; I will be bottling it up tomorrow.

I'm debating picking up more equipment.  I found a large ultra-cheap strainer (a flat one, not a curved one like most use) at Big Lots for $3.50.  I'm thinking I might want a fermenting bucket (rather than a second carboy) so I can do dry-hopping easier for this next beer I'm contemplating.

Also, it seems that hop pellets are great to use, but for dry-hopping, I could be better off with actual hops themselves.  I may swing by another homebrew store in Rochester to see what they've got available.

***

Related but not: a friend of mine is hooking me up with a font that I need to start work on my labels/logos for my beer.  Once I get something drawn up via Photoshop, I'll post it.

Notes on the next batch.

So after doing some reading, it occurs to me that I picked some good hops out...for the aroma and dry-hopping (finishing).  My bittering hops should be something unusual, mainly because I do not want to go with something that everyone else has done.

This means I've got to buy bittering hops, as well as the malt extract and yeast.  It's going to be another ale, so I'm thinking of going with Munton liquid yeast, which I'm pretty sure is what BOTW carries.

I haven't decided on the malt yet.  This will require more research.

Checking the gravity.

I snagged some beercaps over at Beers of the World and then headed to my place to check the gravity of the wort.  It's currently around 1.015, which is where it should be.  If all goes well (meaning I'd have to check it tomorrow and/or Wednesday), I'll be bottling it on Thursday.

I also picked up some Munton's CarbTabs, which you use in place of priming sugar for bottling.  I've never used them before, but Charlie Papazian's "Joy of Homebrewing" says that you'll get a better beer by decreasing your sugar.  I've got to do more research before I get into messing with them, though.  I can always use them for a later batch.

I ALSO (since they were inexpensive) picked up two ounce-big packets of hop pellets: Willamettes and Styrians.  I'd like my next beer to be an original recipe; not that I think I'm that good at homebrewing already (I'm not), but I look at it as an experiment to get the hang of what to do/what not to do.  I have to snag malt, but I'm not going to worry about that yet.  I'm shooting for a brew date of Labor Day Weekend -- I've also gotta snag a bucket for secondary fermentation.

First Batch!

For my own personal records:

8.8.08: Brewed the first batch -- an IPA made from a True Brew Maestro kit.  Kept the oak chips out.  Didn't take the original gravity.

8.10.08: Checked the gravity and it was at 1.015.  Turns out (in hindsight) that I was too worried, and should have also removed more of the air bubbles in order to get a better reading.

8.15.08: Checked the gravity today -- 1.020.  Shooting for 1.015 before I bottle the beer and let it continue fermenting.  Tasted it -- despite the fact that it was flat and lacking the priming sugar it's going to get later on, it didn't taste all that bad.  I'm on track.