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 4^th 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!!!