Bottling & Siphoning

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This weekend was yet another chapter in our homebrewing… and we start off with bottling our Quick Mead recipe. We started this batch back in early November and it has been sitting in the secondary carboy for about two of those months clearing up. Now, just to remind you, Mead is basically Honey Wine. You take a few pounds of honey, dilute it in a few gallons of water, and then add yeast… and wait for a pretty long time while the yeast turns the honey sugars into alcohol & such. This is a “quick” mead recipe because we’ve added a few nutrients for the yeast, diluted the amount of honey from a traditional mead a little bit, and it’s allegedly ready in about 3-4 months’ time… but like most mead, gets better with age.

 

Here's our mead in the carboy... how clear is it?

This clear... Deuces...

Swing top bottles

We put the mead into a case of Belgian swing top bottles that we’ve collected the past few months and another case of swing top bottles that we’ve bought on Saturday. The swing tops are supposed to be a little better for long term bottling as they form a better oxygen-tight seal than standard caps. What we plan to do… is try out a bottle around Valentine’s Day… but then probably store the rest for a few months to see how they taste in summer… and then maybe a few months more to see how it does on 9-12 months… or maybe even longer. That’s the plan anyway. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Next, we transferred our Winter Warmer from its primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter carboy. This was basically just a quick siphoning to a clean 5 gallon carboy, followed by cleaning up the 6.5 gallon primary. Real easy… but short cuts are when accidents & contamination happen, so be weary of that. Here are some pictures of the transfer…

 

Our slightly disappointing yield...

... and then cleaning the primary carboy

Next up, we had some plans later in the day on Saturday… so on Sunday, before the Super Bowl (sucked) we bottled our Bourbon Barrel Porter too. Thanks to our Beer& Bacon Day and some time since our last bottling (back with the Nut Brown Ale during the holidays) we had collected plenty of bottles to scrub, sanitize & utilize. Remember, this porter was our first all-grain recipe that we tried… and it also had the additives of the Maker’s Mark whiskey & the toasted oak cubes… so we’re excited to see how this one turns out in two weeks when it’s had time to properly mature & carbonate. Here are some pictures…

 

Mmm... black gold... Texas tea...

 Ready in the bottling bucket...

... and left over wood chips... See?

I told you that you wouldn't be drinking them

The Brewmistress at work...

That’s really about it for this entry… but coming up this weekend is the start of SF Beer Week… and we still have the Oktoberfest all-grain recipe to make… and we’re always busy… but especially since we have a few parties coming up with the SF Homebrewers Guild… oh just so much going on… but perhaps I’ve already teased you too much… have a great day everybody!!! SEE YOU AT BEER WEEK!!!

Logo & Mead Transferring

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

This is just a quick entry... but Saturday, we transferred our Quick Mead from the primary to secondary fermenter...

And I've been working on a few different logo ideas, just doodling...

And then this Saturday, we'll have brewery tours with the SF Homebrewers Guild to three different locations across the Bay... but I'll elaborate on the come this weekend... and then on Sunday, we should be starting our first all-grain batch... a Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter. Yum yum...

Have a great day everybody!!! Keep drinkin' responsibly!!!

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!!!