Alcohol

[tentacles]

The hops are presumably doing well, haven't seen them in a couple days.

 

Today was a brew day, trying my hand at another belgian wit.... using the 1214 yeast (a pack from feb27) that I forgot to smack last night/yesterday... In the 3-4 hours until I pitched it there was no discernable activity, I'm still hoping for the best there..

 

Here's the breakdown:

 

4.5lbs 2-row

1lb wheat malt

1lb flaked wheat

1lb honey malt

2.2lbs honey

.5oz hallertau 5.0% first wort/50min boil

.25oz Chinook 12.0% (same as above)

.25oz Tettnang 4.2%

.25oz Mt Hood ?%

.25oz Mt Ranier ?%

.25oz Saaz ?%

1/2tsp irish moss

1oz orange peel (dry)

.5oz lemon peel (bitter, dry)

 

Belgian Abbey 1214 (of questionable viability)

 

Only did a 40 min boil because I wanted to take my wife to lunch before work.. Also, I forgot the coriander. I suppose I could still toss in a bit. I wanted to try it with like... .1oz - the last wit tasted awful for a few weeks there with an overpowering coriander flavor. I had saved some in the growler that I started drinknig 2 days ago and it's *very* tasty now.

 

 

Did a bunch of shit in between steps while waiting.. racked off the redlagerbock which ended at 1.017 or so. Tastes great even flat, by the way.

 

Wound up a new immersion chiller out of maybe 30' of 3/8" copper tubing. With summer on it's way and the tap water getting warmer (It can hit *9*C in the summer!) I thought a bigger cooler would be worth it.. It is! Only took 10 minutes to cool down the wort. I used the "wind it around a keg" trick to make a nice neat coil, tied the in and out tubes together with stainless steel lockwire, and it looks good.

[tentacles]

Looks like that 1214 was alive and kicking, it's bubbling away with the intense banana smell. I'm fermenting it at 73F (brew temp - 70F ambient).

 

The red-ish bock is carbonating right along, there's a bit of fizz now. It has a delectable roasty flavor. I think it'd be killer with a nice fat turkey dinner.

[Mumbles]

I've had a few of the maibocks, and they are very tasty. Style or not, they're going to go fast.

 

I am also brewing that blonde ale recipe I posted a while ago. Hopefully it turns out as well as others have reported.

[Bonny]

My shiraz seems to have turned out well. I siphoned off a BIG glass last night to test and was satisfied. I'll be filtering and bottling tonight.

[Mumbles]

Turns out my blow off wasn't as bad as expected. I thought it got contaminated and killed the yeast. Turns out it just pretty much fermented out from 1.042 to 1.007 in about 36 hours. I am going to rack it tomorrow and add some gelatin, and let it sit until the end of the weekend to help clear and such before bottling it.

[tentacles]

I've had that blue moon clone brew up with that kind of speed in the past. So you use the gelatin finings after primary? How well does that work for you? I've been using irish moss since it was cheaper than the gelatin (and seemed easier since you just add it at boil).

 

That lager is pretty tasty, needs a month or two to age properly though. Hence the blue moon clone (since it's so damned fast).

[Mumbles]

I used irish moss as well. It does work pretty well. I usually have an almost disgusting amount of protein and trub at the bottom. Irish moss and gelatin work about the same. They act sort of like little fly traps. Conglomerating protein and other suspended solids into large masses that fall to the bottom easily. My thinking was that the irish moss is basically "used up" after so long. Gelatin doesn't have any taste, so at the very worst, I've noticed that beers I've used it in have a much more compact yeast sediment at the bottom after carbonation. I barely have to worry about accidentally pouring yeast out anymore.

 

I guess I'll really have to take a look at how cloudy the beer is tomorrow for a final decision.

[Mumbles]

All the time with the fermenter top off was just too much. I went to bottle tonight, and was greeted with a rather sour and acidic smell and taste. Reminds me of sour vomit. I bottled about 12 just in case by some miracle it turns out, but I don't have good hopes. The rest went down the drain.

 

In related news, I've decided to brew a series of germanic style beers, possibly culminating in a party around the first of October. I have my sights set on a Munich Helles, Hefeweizen, Kolsch, and obviously an oktoberfest. Possibly a pilsner if I am feeling up to it.

[FrankRizzo]

That sux man. I left both the Blue Moon clones I'd made a few months ago in secondary @ room temp for *way* too long and lost both to a brettanomyces infection. Pouring 10gal of beer down the drain breaks my heart a little. On a more positive note, I picked-up some grain at Midwest on my way back from a little jaunt to Iowa last weekend, so I'll be making an EPA this weekend.

 

BTW, no beer should ever drop 37pts in less than a day and a half. Your ferment temperature is much too high.

[Mumbles]

I think my problem was that I pitched the yeast while the beer was still too warm. I think it's about time to invest in a wort chiller. That or get my keg tub back. That was the original plan, but one of my roomates lent it away, and never got it back.

 

I think I might pick up a second fermenter, I was thinking better bottle, so I could have something in the primary and secondary at the same time. It will be needed if I want to brew 4 or 5 beers by the middle of august(assuming at least 6 weeks to fully carb and condition).

 

The brew shop is also selling a 4 tap keg fridge that is looking mighty enticing. I think it was $200, which is cheaper than I can get the supplies to make it.

[Swede]

I know you guys are some serious brewers, and I don't mean to distract, but this machine blows my mind:

 

http://www.efuel100.com/t-product.aspx

 

It's a unit the size of a large refrigerator that accepts sugar and yeast, and turns that into alcohol "fuel". The distillation is via "electronic membrane" maybe some sort of molecular sieve, or an RO-type system, rather than a traditional column. Strangely enough, to the best of my knowledge, there is NO built-in adulterator mechanism!

 

It's not an alternative energy device, it's a rum machine! Pretty interesting technology, at a pretty high price.

[TheSidewinder]

Oh, this is something I want to hear explained!

 

I suspect there's an osmotic migration process in there somewhere, but would love to know more.

[psyco_1322]

efuel 100 - supporting drinking and driving since 2008.

[tentacles]

Mumbles: It just so happens that I have a counterflow chiller that was given to me recently. I was going to rebuild it (and steam sanitize it) but then I got a long piece of 3/8" copper and just made a hefty immersion chiller. Interested? It will need a new garden hose jacket but there's plenty of copper there to make a chiller, counterflow or immersion. I'd be happy to clean and steam sanitize it for you but won't be able to ship it until next month (19th or so).

 

The blue moonish clone finished at 1.012, rather high but reasonable. I don't remember what the OG was, though, I'm pretty sure I have it in BeerSmith at home. It's starting to be tasty now that it's got a little carbonation. The citrusy flavors aren't overwhelming.

 

$200 for a keg fridge is a damned good deal, especially if it's got real taps (even rear sealing taps) and the keg connectors. With a regulator that's a fantastic price. Then you'd just need $100 worth of kegs to really get it going.

 

That efuel thing looks pretty cool, but I wonder how much electricity it gobbles to distill that much alcohol? It would be pretty cool to serve shots at a party from a "gas" pump though. I bet it ferments at a high enough temperature to make anyone who drinks it regret it very much.

[Mumbles]

Kegs are included AFAIK. I am going back to the shop saturday, and brewing something else on saturday, and will be checking it out. Might get it started off with the munich helles.

[tentacles]

Included?! Then it's an insane price. You need to go get that if you can scrape up the dough.

 

I just remembered, last time I was at the brew store he had some white wine sitting there he'd just finished tasting.. It was a dandelion wine, infected by some bacteria that converts alcohol into CO2 and water.... Not really what you'd want in a brew setting!

[asilentbob]

One of the hops bines looks pretty much dead... The other is doing pretty crappily... Thats what I get for being distracted with other shit and forgetting to water them...

 

The peppers are surviving though...

[Mumbles]

I knew the kegerator deal was too good to be true. I misread it last time I was in there. Not $200, but $900, and no CO2 system. They were also out of Tettnang hops, for the year. I went with Mt. Hood. The only halltauer hops they had were extremely low AA%, and I would have needed about 5-6oz. On the plus side I noticed they have plenty of some of the higher AA% hops. I've heard good things about Magnum for the noble type of flavor, but didn't want to experiment without research.

[Mumbles]

So, this is fermenting away in the basement right now. I was toying with the idea of using 1oz of hops at 60 min, and .5oz at 15 min, but thought I'd try to keep it more traditional for the first shot.

 

Munich Helles

 

8lbs Pilsner

.5lb Munich

.5lb Vienna

.5lb Carapils

1.3oz Mt Hood(4.2AA%) @ 60 min

 

 

Mash at 154 for 60 min.

1 tsp irish moss at 15 min

Boil for 90 min.

Ferment with a malt accentuating ale/lager yeast. California Lager has done me well in the past, so that is what I am using.

[Mumbles]

I just racked and bottled the munich helles. From the taste of it warm and flat, it should hopefully be delicious cold and carbonated. It finished at 1.006 from 1.048 so that puts it at around 5%ABV. I did use some gelatin for a week after 10 days in the primary at about 66F. Cleared up wonderfully. I think I boiled a bit too much off as I ended up with a shade over 4 gallons at final bottling time.

 

Looking at an oktoberfest ale for the next brew. I have some devious master plan for 4 or 5 german ales being ready around october-ish for a nice little celebration. Pilsner, Kolsch, and Hefeweizen are on deck.

[_DB_]

Looking at an oktoberfest ale for the next brew. 

Good man.

 

Brewing seems like such a cool hobby, just not practical for me to get into right now.

[Frozentech]

I just racked and bottled the munich helles. From the taste of it warm and flat, it should hopefully be delicious cold and carbonated. It finished at 1.006 from 1.048 so that puts it at around 5%ABV. I did use some gelatin for a week after 10 days in the primary at about 66F. Cleared up wonderfully. I think I boiled a bit too much off as I ended up with a shade over 4 gallons at final bottling time.

 

Looking at an oktoberfest ale for the next brew. I have some devious master plan for 4 or 5 german ales being ready around october-ish for a nice little celebration. Pilsner, Kolsch, and Hefeweizen are on deck.

Mmmmm. I would love to brew another Pilsner, I am down to 1 case of 22 oz bottles now. I really need to wait until late into the fall and winter though. I don't have a fridge dedicated to homebrew so I can't lager until the temps drop down. I've got 5 gal of raspberry ale that turned out so hoppy I'm the only one who drinks it though... that'll hold me for a little bit.

 

I also really want to make a clone of the Yuengling Lager I was drinking at my in-laws home in Pennsylvania. Good stuff, I went and toured the brewery, oldest continuously operating brewery in the U.S.

[justanotherpyro]

My dad brewed for years but got out of it when he quit drinking. He gave me all of his stuff and I have a honey wheat ale fermenting and a gallon of hard apple cider going too. I'm pretty stoked.

[Mumbles]

The pilsner was the most iffy one of them all. They use a lot of Saaz, and I also do not have traditional lagering abilities. If you look at my past lagers, they're all brewed with california lager yeast. I suppose I could try it, but they always come out a bit malty. Then again all the beers I've made with it are malt accentuated anyway. Eh, worst case scenario it tastes more like an american pilsner. If anything I'll "lager" them in the fridge for a few months after they're bottled.

 

I might also try some higher AA noble type of hops for the bittering step and leave the Saaz for the later additions.

[Mumbles]

So, it is Oktoberfest time this weekend. Assuming the weather even mildly cooperates, there should be a tasty malty amber beverage waiting for me in October.

 

In other news I had a Berliner Weisse tonight. Not a fan of it straight. It reminded me of my blonde ale that had went bad. I heard the addition of some fruit shots helped it out, so in went some strawberry daqueri mix that my mom had laying around. I think I over did it. Actually mixing in some Pomegranate juice made it pretty decent. I've only seen one picture of it, and yes, it is kind of green.

 

I also may have a fridge on my way for kegeration purposes.