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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Chapter 9: Nut Brown Ale Tasting & Guild Meeting

November 19, 2013

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
This was a pretty busy weekend… but first, let’s start with a Nut Brown Ale Tasting. This batch was original cooked up four weeks ago… and we were really excited since it kinda smelled like chocolate. Unfortunately I was a little under the weather this weekend (thanks to a coworker, but she took it worse than I did) but we still tasted it at the four week mark… and it was REALLY good. It had a nutty, full flavored taste to it similar to Rogue’s Hazelnut Nectar Brown Ale… but again, didn’t quite have the lingering taste, which I believe comes with a little more aging… so I’ll have to fill you in on that in a few weeks (probably during Thanksgiving dinner).
Summary
Nut Brown Ale
Malt Extract Kit
5 gallons
Ingredients
Fermentables
6 lbs
Maris Otter Malt Syrup
Specialty Grains
1/4 lb
English Chocolate Malt
1/4 lb
Belgian Special B
1/4 lb
Belgian Biscuit
1/4 lb
Briess Special Roast
Hops
1 oz
Fuggle (60 mins)
Yeast
Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast
Cook Date/Primary Ferm
10/20/2013
Secondary Ferm
Not needed
Bottled
11/3/2013
2 weeks
First Taste
11/17/2013
4 weeks
Reaction
Delicious, great nutty flavor
Hints of chocolate & roasted nuts
Aging may help even more
Adjustments?
Great recipe really
 Perhaps maple brown?
Saturday, I took Dizzy to a wonderful place that some friends from SLC referred to me from their visit last week, Harley Farms Goat Diary in Pescadero, about an hour south of the City. About twenty years ago, a British lady named Dee Harley came out to the beautiful coastal town and got some property… and basically slowly but surely went from a few acres of overgrowth in her property… to a fully functional goat dairy with some serious award-winning cheeses. Of course, Dizzy is a HUGE fan of goats & worked on a dairy in Sacramento… and these were some of the nicest goats (and llamas) that you could even imagine. Hell, they’re so pampered that if I’m reincarnated, I wanna come back as one of Dee’s goats. Seriously… they’re a masseuse away from living YOUR dream too. Anyway, here are some pictures…









After the tour, we headed to Half Moon Bay Brewery in time for the sunset… and to try their beers & sliders. All of which were pretty good… some more pictures…


Tuesday, we took part in the meeting of the SF Homebrewers Guild at Anchor Steam… with special guests SF Mead Company!!! As mentioned in our last post, we're making a mead of our own... so it was great to pick their brain & make contacts with them in case they'd be interested in any future collaborations... and they were surprising open to the idea... but there's a LOT of experience in the guild when it comes to Homebrewing & making great beer. The meetings with the guild are fantastic... and the beer is free, though you have to drink responsibly to pay attention to those around you & their wisdom... and also to drive home safely.

Damn… it’s just a good time to be me… and I’m incredibly thankful for it!!! Have a great thankful day everybody!!!

Chapter 8: Bavarian Hefeweizen Tasting & Quick Mead

November 3rd, 2013

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 
 
Bavarian Hefeweizen Tasting
 
We actually tested the Hef on Friday night, which was probably a few days earlier than we should have (damn impatience) but it was still pretty good. Great body & flavor, but there was a little bit of sourness that will probably mellow out with a little more aging. Hefeweizen is among my favorites as it’s a light yet flavorful beverage and if with its quick brewing time & susceptibility to experimentation with other flavors, you may see a few variations of this recipe in the coming months. I already have some ideas for summertime beverages that might work well.
 
Anyway, here’s a brief summary of this first, traditional, Bavarian, malt extract kit Hefeweizen:
 
Summary
Bavarian Hefeweizen
 
 
Malt Extract Kit
5 gallons
Ingredients
Fermentables
6 lbs
Wheat Malt Syrup (split 60 & 15 mins)
 
1 lbs
Wheat Dry Malt extract (15 mins)
Hops
1 oz
German Tettnang (60 mins)
Yeast
Danstar Munich Wheat Beer Yeast
 
Cook Date/Primary Ferm
10/5/2013
Secondary Ferm
Not needed
Bottled
10/19/2013
2 weeks
First Taste
11/1/2013
4 weeks
Reaction
May require some aging but still decent
 
Citrusy, almost sour notes
Adjustments?
Extra aging?
 
Possible fruit accents in future batches
 
 
 
Nut Brown Ale Bottling
 
Sunday morning, Dizzy & I bottled our Nut Brown Ale so that should be ready for tasting in about two weeks. A few weeks ago, this was the wort that kinda smelled like chocolate… and is supposed to have nutty flavors as well, so we’re really excited about this one. Here are a few pictures that… may not be completely appetizing… but still kinda cool…
 
Bubbles in the bottles


The crud left after primary fermentation...
mostly used yeast, grain husk particles, etc...

Quick Mead Making
 
Next up was making our first batch of mead (honey wine). Now typically, meads take a looooong time to ferment and reach proper peak flavor. You make the mixture of honey & water, warm it to get it a proper consistency and so the honey is uniformly mixed… then you add the yeast… and basically lock it away for a year or decade while the yeast transforms the sugar in the honey to alcohol and you get a pretty amazing sweet honey wine with double digit alcohol content. However, we did some research & asked around the brewshop… and were given a recipe for “Mini-Mead” that the fellow brewers recommended that will produce similarly tasting mead with a lower alcohol content (about 5-6%) but will be ready to go in a matter of like… two months, that we can then also stash some away for a full year or whatever to get some more intense flavors. The main difference is that it’s a little less honey per volume so less syrupy… and you add a few yeast additives & other ingredients that’ll help the yeast to do its thing quicker & easier. We figured that it’s worth a shot… and so here are some pictures of the preparation…
 




Gotta get every last drop...

Now, during the primary fermentation stage, I’ll be shaking the carboy around daily so that the yeast & other additives get to all of the honey inside, which is very different from the beer recipes in the past which was basically just set it in a dark place & don’t wake it up… but that’s perfectly fine because I’ll get a little bit of a workout with it too… and then after about three weeks of daily stranglings of carboys… then we transfer the wine to some proper vessels… and let them sit & do their thing in a cool, dark place for another few months… and then by about Valentine’s Day, I may be able to get my lady liquored up on some sweet mead while we watch romantic flicks like “Cannibal: The Musical” and then wait a few more months so maybe I can enjoy some further fermented vintage for 4th of July weekend or something. I’ll keep you posted on this adventure of course.
  
Anyway, that should wrap it up for today… join us next time when… well, it’s a surprise! Okay, I really have no idea what it’s going to be… but definitely worth what you paid for. Have a great day everybody!!!

Chapter 7: Pumpkin Ale Tasting

October 27, 2013

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 
Friday was the big day… yes… the day that we were finally able to try our Pumpkin Ale for the first time, fully carbonated & ready for drinking… and it certainly did not disappoint. That night we were invited to a Halloween party by one of Dizzy’s coworkers… and after driving around the neighborhood trying to find a parking spot for about a half-hour, we decided to just get some grub (Subway) and head home to watch movies… and of course, drink our beer.
 


Basically it tastes like liquid pumpkin pie… only obviously not as sweet… and I loves me some pumpkin pie… so this stuff was dangerous. Because it was aged the full six weeks as well, it had a better aftertaste than our original Red Ale tasting two weeks ago… so yeah, it was pretty fantastic. I highly recommend that you find a way to try it.
 
Summary
Pumpkin Ale
 
 
Malt Extract Kit
5 gallons
Ingredients
Fermentables
3.15 lbs
Amber Malt Syrup (60 mins)
 
1.0 lb
Pilsen dried malt extract (60 mins)
 
3.15 lbs
Amber Malt Syrup (15 mins)
Specialty Grains
0.5 lbs
Briess Caramel 40
Hops
1 oz
Cluster (60 mins)
 
1 tsp
Pumpkin Pie Spice (0 mins)
Yeast
Safale US-05 Ale Yeast
 
Cook Date/Primary Ferm
9/14/2013
Secondary Ferm
9/28/2013
2 weeks
Bottled
10/12/2013
4 weeks
First Taste
10/27/2013
6 weeks
Reaction
FANTASTIC!!!
Like liquid pumpkin pie
Adjustments?
Make MORE!!!
 
So when Sunday rolled around for football watching… this ale called for… DAS BOOT!!!
 


 
Another thing that you'll see on this blog soon... are some of my designs for various things associated with our Homebrewing... and our beer in general. Just to give you an idea of the extreme amount of skill that I possess in these designs... BEHOLD!!!
 
Something I drew when I was bored one night...
 

 

What I made at work with 30 minutes &
three sheets of construction paper...
take that 3rd grade crafts!!!
 
 
Anyway, that’s what I’ve got for this entry. Hope you enjoyed it… next time… we’ll probably be talking about Halloween antics, tasting Hefeweizen, bottling Nut Brown Ale, possibly making Mead… and whatever else happens along the way. Have a great day everybody!!!

Chapter 6: Bottling Hef & Nut Brown Ale

October 20th , 2013

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 
Welcome to another stunning & thrilling chapter in the Homebrewing Adventure!!! This week… we start off with…
 
Bottling the Hefeweizen!!! It seems like just the other week that we were cooking up the wort (because we were) and already to bottling day. If we had a kegging system in place, we’d basically be drinking it now… but alas, we’ll let it age a bit in the two week bottling phase with priming sugar. We bottled pretty late in the evening (more on that later) but during the whole process, the Hef mixture looked a LOT darker than one might expect after drinking the typically light, golden ales bearing that name… but we shall see once the process is complete if that’s the case. Here are some pictures…
 
 
Dizzy drowning a cat... oh wait...
this one is sanitizing bottles

See? That's pretty dark for a Hef, right?





Cleaning the carboy for the next batch...

By the way, magnet on our dishwasher...
I really enjoy my roommates...


Sunday night, we started our new batch… Nut Brown Ale, from a malt extract kit. While cooking this bad boy, there was a scent of chocolate in the air… kind of like smelling a batch of chocolate chip cookies… so yeah, pretty excited about this one too. It’s also another one of the fairly quick turnover brews like the Hefeweizen, where we will be bottling it after two weeks of fermenting… and then two weeks after that, we have brown ale along with our three other brews by that point. Anyway, here are some pictures of the Nut Brown Ale’s preparation…
 
 
Mmm... steeping a hefty sack of chocolately goodness...



Then chill as quickly as possible for fermentation...

Load some cold water in the carboy first...

Then mix in the wort...


Top it off & place it in a cool, dark place...
Don't forget to take a picture with FLASH!!!

BIG NEWS!!! Earlier Saturday, we also went on a bit of a shopping spree for our Homebrewing enterprise. A few weeks ago, my lovely mother asked me what I wanted for Christmas… so being a grown ass man who takes care of himself, I replied “Money’s cool… but you don’t have to get me anything. I’m a grown up.” I’ve chatted with her about the Homebrewing though… and she knows that Dizzy & I really enjoy it… so she gave us some cash for some additional equipment, because she’s the greatest!
 
We went to the Oak Barrel in El Cerrito and thanks to a discount with being new members to the SF Homebrewers Guild… we walked out with:
 
  • 10 Gallon Mash-Tun – For brewing all-grain brew recipes, which is the next step in devising our own unique recipes
  • Stainless Steel Wort Chiller – To cool the boiling wort as quickly as possible before fermentation to cut down in any possible contamination. Before we were just using the bags of ice in the sink, now… probably both?
  • Eight pounds of Wildflower Honey & Yeast - For making Mead & they gave us a recipe for quick mead (a few months as opposed to a year plus)
  • Five gallon glass carboy – A second secondary fermentation carboys so that we can have multiple batches fermentation at the same time, since a few of our upcoming recipes requires a longer secondary… we won’t have to wait until it’s done to start on a quicker batch
  • Another case of 22 ounce bottles – This may be the top reasoning for considering a kegging system in the next few months. We have a LOT of bottles in the apartment now, which is okay as long as we’re recycling & saving them… but can easily be replaced with a few 5 gallon kegs. One keg = about 2 cases... and this was my living room BEFORE we bottled the Hef... Don't worry though, the boxes on top are empty... roommates just may be moving out so I saved them.

 
  • One pound of Bottle Caps – So about 200 or so… again for the bottles
  • A few other odds & ends – Cleaner, replacement bubble chambers, etc.
 
We also picked the brains of some of the workers at Oak Barrel & they lent their expertise on a variety of subjects from mash-tunning to mead recipes to some of their favorite beers to their own batch routines and so on… really nice guys. I highly recommend that if you’re looking for any beer, wine or cheese making apparatus, consider the Oak Barrel on San Pablo Drive in El Cerrito. Tell them $teve sent ya… “Who?” “The tall guy with the hot chick who were asking a bunch of questions a few weeks ago… he wore a Dee’s Nuts T-Shirt.” “OH! $TEVE! Yeah… hahaha…”
 
Anyway, that’s pretty much the adventure this week… next week, Pumpkin Ale Tasting… and of course we always have a few other surprises. Have a great day everybody!!!