Cider and Pumpkin Spice Ale

So I made a pumpkin spice ale as I had planned. Going into the fermentor/throughout fermentation it smelled wonderful. When I bottled it, the beer smelled fine not the original pumpkin crazy smell as it was before fermenting but it still smelled good. I decided to taste my hydrometer sample to see how the beer was coming along and I wasn't happy. I don't know if I just don't like it or if I made a bad tasting batch of beer. It has a really funky taste that I can't figure out the cause of. I think it could be a couple of things: 1) not balanced enough, or 2) spicing was wrong/out of proportion or something. I might not have used enough bittering hops making it cloyingly sweet. I don't know what the deal is but I am going to let it age for a couple more months tasting a bottle every couple of weeks to see if it gets any better if its not good by 6 months I'll just dump it.

The cider however is a different story. It tastes smells and tastes good. Not overwhelmingly appley but more like a dry white wine. I enjoy it, but it still needs time to carbonate more thoroughly. The yeast I used seems to attenuate well but it still needs time to get the carbonation up to where it should be. Meanwhile I will be drinking the remaining case and a half of Dunkelweizen so I can make room for another batch. I do not know however what I will be brewing. I think I'm going to go with a kit to keep it simple and not mess with tweaking recipes.

Good News!

I decided to bottle that possibly contaminated beer today and when I opened my fermentor all I smelled were the telltale banana esters created during fermentation. As it turns out the yeast strain I used produces a significant amount of sulfur when fermented at low temperatures. I came out a bit low on the final volume of beer. I only ended up with about 4.25-4.5 gallons of beer after loss to trub, sedimented yeast and hop sludge. I could have probably siphoned more off the stuff but I'd rather have less, cleaner beer than more, dirty-ish beer. With that bottled I have room for another batch...or two.

For one I am going to make a pumpkin ale or an ale with spices to give the flavor usually associated with pumpkin. My other thought is a Belgian beer of some type. As I've said before my mind is always subject to change when it comes to brewing. I am definitely going to brew the pumpkin style ale for Thanksgiving. I guess I'll do some research and figure out the best way to do a pumpkin beer for the holiday.

Dunkelweizen Part 2

Well last Saturday I brewed a Dunkelweizen, partial mash and I think it may have been contaminated. I have an immersion wort chiller which is basically a copper tube that is coiled and you run cold water through it to cool your wort down really quickly. Well mine sprung a leak and shot some water into my cooling wort. Clean tap water has a low chance of contamination but it was going through tubes that probably had some mold or other funk in them due the impossibility of getting all of the water out of the coils. My fermentor was giving of heavy sulfuric odors once it really started bubbling. In about another week when I will normally bottle I am going to give it a good smell and taste and if its fine I will bottle as usual if not...I will dump it. It may not sound like a big deal but thats like flushing $30 and 6 hours of work down the toilet. On the other hand it will give me an excuse to brew a regular weizen instead or maybe pumpkin ale.

Also on Saturday I racked my cider into secondary. Most of the sugar fermented out leaving a final gravity of 1.000 which means it has the same density of water which means there is no apparent sugar left. I also tasted it. It was very tart but still tasted like apples. I plan to bottle it in about 2 months and let it carb up and age another month before I taste the final product.

Cider!

Well I've decided to make the leap into making hard cider. As I have found out from research its a remarkably simple process. Basically put the cider in the fermentor, add yeast and ferment. You cannot just buy regular apple juice and throw in some yeast though. The cider needs to be preservative free. I will be starting out with a sparkling dry cider, since sweet cider involves stopping fermentation early so there are enough residual sugars left behind to have a nice sweet flavor. It will just be way easier to start with dry. The hardest part about cider is letting it age long enough. I plan this taking a good six months to finish. A huge reason as to why I am starting now. I hope it will be good by the time Christmas rolls around. I will probably do another batch in October when the local apple festival is in full swing and I can get cheaper, fresh, and, most importantly, preservative free cider. Thanks for reading!

The Next Step...

So I've decided to take the next step on my journey to all grain: Partial Mash. I've been wanting to get a bit more customization in my brewing lately and this is the only way how to do that with out some how going all grain. A partial mash is done by replacing a portion of your extract with grains. I've decided to make a Belgian Witbier, because of its quick turn around and it will be a good summer beer.

My recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:
3.3# Pils Extract
4# White Wheat Malt
.5# American 6 Row malt
.5# Carapils
.75oz Sterling (6.0%AA) pellets @60 minutes
.64oz Sterling (6.0%AA) pellets flame-out
Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat

Spices:
Bitter Orange Peel 1oz 5 minutes
Coriander Seed, crushed 15 minutes

First of all mashing is the process of converting starches from grain into fermentable sugars. To mash you bring 1-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain you have to a temperature of 170°F then add the grain you wish to mash. Adding the grain drops the temperature of the water significantly. Once you have the grain in you want the mash temp to be between 154 and 158 depending on the recipe. With a partial mash you can adjust the temp if it gets too low. It takes about an hour to convert the starches to sugars. After the mash you have to drain the water from the grain, which can be done using a mesh grain bag or stainer. Once separated you need to sparge, or rinse the left over sugars off the grains with hot water. The amount of water used for sparging doesn't seem to matter as much with a partial mash than it does with all grain. How much sparge water I will use I will figure out later. All of the runnings are collected in the brewpot and then you add extract then bring to a boil as normal with extract brewing.

Cannibalism

Well I took my Amber Ale and cannibalized it to make a full on brown ale. Basically I uppped the Special B to the full 8 oz thus resulting in a darker beer. I am brewing it for my best friend's birthday. Hopefully he will enjoy it. It will be sufficiently malty, but it should have good balance.

17 days later...

Well I finally brewed another batch today. It was a kit beer from Midwestsupplies.com. Its called Amarillo Pale Ale. It seems like its gonna be a hoppier beer, which I like. Now just two weeks until I brew the recipe I posted below but tweaked a bit I am thinking about turning it into a porter of sorts for my friend's 22nd birthday...Who knows i might change my mind between now and then. Not a long post today but thanks for reading anyway.

Next Brew

Since I decided on American Amber Ale its been tough trying to formulate something that I think will be really tasty but also fit the style. It took me a few days and a guy with some know how to help me out. I've decided to go as dark as I can with it still being an amber ale. I also designed it around having a toasty flavor with a lot of caramel notes. I am going to use a good amount of caramel malts to really hit that flavor profile I'm looking for. It will also contain a bit of roasted malt for extra toast and to balance with the sweeter specialty grains. As for hops I've decided not to go the traditional route and only use American hops with a citrusy profile. In stead I am using Czech Saaz, a Noble hop that you would find in pilsners and Sterling which shares some characteristics of Saaz. Both hops have a spicy, cinnamon-like flavor profile. As far as yeast goes I'm using a strain called Denny's Favorite. It is a Wyeast strain noted for bringing out caramel notes but still having good attenuation. This means the beer will have the flavor I want with out being cloyingly sweet. The recipe is this:

6lbs. Gold Liquid Malt Extract
8oz CaraMunich II
8oz Caramel Malt 80L
8oz Special Roast
2oz Special B Malt
2oz Roasted Barley

1.5oz Sterling (6%AA) pellet hops for 60 minutes
1oz Czech Saaz (3.1%AA) pellet hops for 5 minutes
.5oz Sterling (6%AA) pellet hops for 5 minutes

I think I will throw in some Irish Moss or Whirfloc tablets to make sure it clears properly. I will primary this for 2 weeks another 2 weeks in secondary and 3 weeks in bottle. Hopefully it will be as amazing as I am planning if not you live, you learn and such.

Well thanks for reading. Again any questions/comments/feedback you may inquire at firestone2489@gmail.com

Brewing Up Some Joy

Since most of the people reading this probably don't know much about the process I figured I'd go over it quickly. This set up is for 5 gallons extract brews.

On brew day you want to make sure you have the following:

Stock pot/kettle at least 20 quart/19L
6.5 gallon fermentation bucket w/lid or Carboy/6 gallon better bottle w/stopper
Bottling bucket
Racking cane
Siphon tube
Airlock
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Bottling bucket
Capper
Bottles(Pry-Off)
Bottling tube
Sanitizer
Ingredients:
Most full boil kits include malt extract, specialty grains, bittering hops, finishing/aroma/flavor hops, yeast, and priming sugar.

When it comes to brewing sanitation is key. So before you even start boiling water it is good practice to get out everything you need and clean it so it is ready for sanitation. Once you brew a couple of times you will get into a routine and it will be easier to make sure everything is done.

Once you are ready to boil you fill your brew pot with 3 gallons of water. Usually ingredient kits have a specialty grain or two to steep in in 155 degree water for 15-30 minutes. After the steep you remove the grains, and take off the heat and stir in the malt extract it may be liquid(syrup-like) or dry(powder)being careful not to scorch it. Once all of the extract is stirred in you bring it up to a boil and as soon as you see a roiling boil you add your bittering hops. Usual boil time is 1 hour. During this hour stay close to avoid boil-overs. Close to the end of the boil you can sanitize your fermenter, siphon hose, racking cane and airlock, stopper and fermenter lid or stopper. I recommend using no rinse sanitizer. Sometime at or after 5 minutes to end you would add your finishing hops. Once you have finished the boil you need to chill the wort(unfermented beer) as quickly as possible in order to avoid bacterial contamination. You can use an ice bath it cool but I would recommend buying a wort chiller to get it down to temp quickly. In the fermenter it is good to put in 2 gallons of cool water to help cooling. Once the wort is cooled you siphon it into the fermenter and bring up to a full 5 gallons with cold water. At this point it is a good idea to take a hydrometer reading to find the Original Gravity of the beer. The OG tells us how much dissolved sugar is in the solution. It is a good idea to use a whisk or pour wort back and forth between two sanitized buckets to aerate the cooled wort so the yeast get a good start. Once aerated you pour in the yeast. Put the lid on the bucket. Put the airlock with stopper attached in the hole in the lid and make sure you fill the airlock halfway up with water, sanitizer or vodka. After that you wait to see bubbles issue from the airlock. When you no longer see any bubbles take a hydrometer reading again. If you get the same reading 3 days in a row its ready to bottle.

When you bottle you need to sanitize your bottling bucket, bottles, bottle filler, caps and siphon/racking equipment. Boil the priming sugar with a cup of water and add to the bottling bucket. Transfer the beer off the sediment in the fermenter, leaving all of the crud at the bottom behind. Then you attach the siphon hose to the spigot on the bottling bucket and attach the bottle filler to the other end if the siphon tube. You then proceed to fill the sanitized bottles and cap them. From there its about a two week wait for the beer to be sufficiently carbonated and ready to drink. I bottled Saturday so in about a week and a half I will try a bottle to see how it is. If you have any specific questions email me at firestone2489@gmail.com, or just leave a comment on here.

Sorry it was such a long post but I feel it should give some insight on how to homebrew.

Procrastination

Because of the time element of brewing, it is very easy to procrastinate. 2 days ago I planned on bottling my beer, but my friend called me up and asked if I wanted to go grab some food and a couple of beers. I couldn't turn down a meal and some beer with friends so here I sit killing time before work. I have a short shift today so as soon as I get done I will be coming home and bottling some beer. Then as I said its just a waiting game again.

Bottling Day.

Well today is bottling day. I will be transferring my beer from my fermenter into my bottling bucket. The bottling process is kind of a pain in the ass but its worth it about 2-4 weeks later when the beer is carb'ed and ready to drink. When you bottle you have to add a bit more sugar to the situation because when ready to bottle there isn't enough fermentable sugar left to carbonate the beer. I just use corn sugar because it doesn't impact the flavor and ferments cleanly. I all I have to do for bottling is sanitize about 40 bottles, fill them, cap them and let them sit at room temp for 2-4 weeks. Now since this is a Wheat I want a lot of carbonation. I'll be letting the beer sit at room temp for 4 weeks to make sure its good and carb'ed.

I ultimately plan on switching to all grain and kegging, but right now I have limited space. Extract brewing is just too convenient for apartment brewing to switch. When I move out I will probably start going all grain. All-grain brewing is a bit more advanced than extract. You have to do a mash and then sparge to get the necessary sugars needed to produce the finished beer. Mashing is using very hot water to cause the starches in the grains to convert to fermentable sugars. Sparging is then the act of rinsing all of the sugars off the grains. With all grain you are able to get better tasting beer. Its said that extract beer has a twang to it that all grain does not.

Kegging involves the use of Cornelius kegs which are the stainless steel cylinders that Pepsi used to put their fountain pop in. With kegging you use CO2 to dispense and/or carbonate. I would like to keg because it gets rid of all of those bottles. I would only have to sanitize a keg instead of 40 bottles. Also with force carbonation you don't have to wait as long to drink the finished product. Its a long way away but I still like to have the knowledge ready for when I get ready to make those leaps.

Homebrew

The first time I homebrewed was February 2009. It took me a year to get back in the game. Right now I have 5 gallons of Durd's Dunkelweizen sitting in my fermenter waiting to be primed and bottled. A dunkelweizen is a dark wheat beer. I was going for a classical style and as far as I know it has not been contaminated with bacteria. Bottling is a pain in the ass but I don't want to make the leap to kegging just yet. The beer is probably darker than normal. When I developed the recipe I was set to use only 4-6oz of Chocolate wheat malt, but since I don't have a scale I had to go with a full 8oz. Wheats by nature are usually on the less hoppy side so this beer will be very malty. I really like wheats because of the banana like flavors the yeast imparts. For yeast I chose the Weihenstephaner wheat strain. When it was fermenting the smell coming from the fermenter was amazing. The only problem I have is deciding what I want to brew next. I plan on keeping about a case around at all times. So that will mean brewing every couple of months.

This next beer I want to do a kit just to see how much more convenient it is compared to using a recipe I personally formulated. I buy my supplies from Midwest Supplies. They have really good prices and are reliable. I need to figure out which kit I want to brew. I'm torn between the Irish Red Ale, Amarillo Pale Ale, Black Dog Ale, Porter and Hex Nut Brown Ale. If anyone is reading this and wants to throw in their two cents go right ahead.

Keep your empties.

TTL: 2 Weeks(Most Likely)

So as with all of my other blogs I have started this one will probably only last 2 weeks. What do you think of when someone says the word beer? If the answer is Bud, Miller or Coors this is not the blog you are looking for. Those beers have their place but they are made with only one thing in mind: Profit. For Anheiser-Busch InBev and SABMiller its all about the money. Am I saying profit is a bad thing? No. If it weren't for profit the craft brewers that I enjoy buying from would not exist.

I am a homebrewer and maybe a beer snob. Now don't jump to the conclusion that I'm some crazed drunk that homebrews so I can have all the beer I could ever want. I homebrew because I believe in flavor. Yes you can buy great beers in liquor stores, but I like to create when it comes to beer. For some reason I lack passion for anything but craft beer. Maybe I should think about it seriously as a career option. The great thing about homebrewing is that I can do what ever I want. I can cater to my own style. Hell, I can make one of a kind beers. For those that say beer is gross: Yes the complete shite that gets passed off as beer these days is. All you have to do is find the beer that suits you. Read a book or go to a store with knowledgeable staff; just find something that sounds good and try it. Not every style will be right for you. I personally am not a hop head. I like IPA but ask me to drink a I/DIPA and I will say no thanks. Well thats all I have for now.

Remember keep those empty pry-offs!