I just today transferred Bootleg Bill's Brown Porter from the primary to a secondary and I've gotta say, I done good! It's looking and smelling a lot like Porter! Sure, maybe not as nice as my favourite go-to Porter, Boundary Road Brew's Jack The Sipper, but that's a pretty damn high bar. There's only so high you can shoot when you're brewing with Linwood tapwater and you lack a bouron (or whiskey) soaked oak barrel in which to age your beer.
That said, goddamn it smells good! I can't wait to drink it. I'm giving serious thought to just drinking it straight out of the carboy and licking the sides to get every last drop. It smells that good. But I'm getting way ahead of myself. At the moment, I lack the requisite amount of bottles in which to put said Porter. There goes a big-ass chunk of this weeks' pay. Nevertheless, there's no real urgency when it's just taking it easy in a glass carboy.
I'm going to be house-sitting for a week this week, but I'm still hoping to fire off another brew if the finances allow. I still get nostalgic about my Strontkop, so what I'd really like to try is Strontkop 2.0, the new and improved recipe, which will be the first bonafide all-grain I've had the chance to do. Besides not being hamstrung by extracts, I'll be bringing everything I've learned about brewing since the previous batch; a kick-ass yeast start (I may splurge for some fancy-pants yeast if finances permit), racking to secondary and a much clearer understanding of the brewing process in general. I can't wait!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Cider: It's Not For Everyone
I just taste-tested a bottle of Farmer Jon's Old-Fashioned Apple Cider last night and I'll put it like this; if I watch a romantic comedy movie, it really doesn't matter how good the movie is, because I will never (barring any truly outstanding movies with crossover appeal which would have to be more comedic than romantic) be a fan of the genre. And yes, while my cider ticks all the proverbial boxes and does what it does, therein lies the problem.
I hate cider.
The best way I can describe it is tasting like a very, very light (final gravity reading of 1.007!) white wine watered down and made from apples. If that makes any sense. But it's nice to know that I've really (finally) learned how to read a hydrometer and make an accurate alc/vol guess. After downing the 750ml bottle, I can attest to the 6.6% abv, double-checking for the effects of placebo drunkenness (I've been fooled before). But nope, it's the real deal!
In summary, although I done good (if I may be so bold as to blow my own horn), but now I'm stuck with bottles and bottles of cider that - quite frankly - I'd rather stick a fork in my testicles than drink. I may be a bum, but I've got standards. If I get that desperate, I can always raid the castoff $2 beer singles at work, but for now, I think I can rough it for a day or two.
In completely unrelated news, I may have found a workable solution to my bottle crisis. While I was taking out the recycling, I noticed that the Boundary Road Brew craft series 500ml bottles are almost perfect for my purposes. Proper (cappable) top and no raised watermark. That, plus the 18th Amendment, Jack The Sipper, and Stolen Base are all excellent beers. The less said about Ariba Cadabra Coffee Oatmeal Stout, the better. So if I just buy a bunch of those and drink there beer, problem solved!
I hate cider.
The best way I can describe it is tasting like a very, very light (final gravity reading of 1.007!) white wine watered down and made from apples. If that makes any sense. But it's nice to know that I've really (finally) learned how to read a hydrometer and make an accurate alc/vol guess. After downing the 750ml bottle, I can attest to the 6.6% abv, double-checking for the effects of placebo drunkenness (I've been fooled before). But nope, it's the real deal!
In summary, although I done good (if I may be so bold as to blow my own horn), but now I'm stuck with bottles and bottles of cider that - quite frankly - I'd rather stick a fork in my testicles than drink. I may be a bum, but I've got standards. If I get that desperate, I can always raid the castoff $2 beer singles at work, but for now, I think I can rough it for a day or two.
In completely unrelated news, I may have found a workable solution to my bottle crisis. While I was taking out the recycling, I noticed that the Boundary Road Brew craft series 500ml bottles are almost perfect for my purposes. Proper (cappable) top and no raised watermark. That, plus the 18th Amendment, Jack The Sipper, and Stolen Base are all excellent beers. The less said about Ariba Cadabra Coffee Oatmeal Stout, the better. So if I just buy a bunch of those and drink there beer, problem solved!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Jon Purchases Magic Beans, Considers Harvesting Yeast
I swear to god, the guy who runs the local brewshop must have seen me coming from day one. I ducked in there today - almost on a whim - to look into perhaps a heating pad. Winter is coming, after all. I'd hate for my beer to get cold before I have a chance to refrigerate it. Anywho, I was presented with two competing heat-pads, one made from plastic, the other made from wood. "What's the difference between these two?," I foolishly ask. Next thing I know, I'm being presented with a badly warped plastic pad (that just happened to be lying around) as if to say "This could happen to you!" That was enough to make me pony up the extra $20 for the wood one, so my Bootleg Bill's Brown Ale now proudly nestles on one of those. True story.
But if I may, I'd like to talk about yeast harvesting for a second. While I had previously considered yeast harvesting to be something from the deepest fathoms of Lovecraft's nightmares, it's come to my attention (on the internet - where else) that people actually do this. I've got to confess that, upon siphoning the beer from primary and being presented with a layer of curdled yeast, my first thought it usually "Yuck! This is going straight down the drain!," as opposed to "I can't wait to collect this in mason jars and use it over and over again!"
Then again, what the hell do I know? I am only - after all - a fledgeling home brewer. If it's supposed to be a cost-saving thing, I really don't see the point if all I'm using (while perfectly decent) are the $7 dried sachets of Mangrove Jack's. If I were to invest in pricier yeast, that'd be a different story. If it were something to do with cross-breeding different strains, that's definitely something I'd like to get funky with at some stage. However as tolerant as my flatmate may be, she'd be none too happy about a row of dirty-ass mason jars full of yeast taking up precious real estate in an already overcrowded fridge.
But to cut a long story short, there goes the last $60 I had for the week. Bummer. I'd hate to wager how much time and money I've sunk into this hobby, but it's been a hell of a lot for just three months. I've always maintained that it'd be cheaper just to buy beer, but if you do that, the beer barons win. And where's the bragging rights?
But if I may, I'd like to talk about yeast harvesting for a second. While I had previously considered yeast harvesting to be something from the deepest fathoms of Lovecraft's nightmares, it's come to my attention (on the internet - where else) that people actually do this. I've got to confess that, upon siphoning the beer from primary and being presented with a layer of curdled yeast, my first thought it usually "Yuck! This is going straight down the drain!," as opposed to "I can't wait to collect this in mason jars and use it over and over again!"
Then again, what the hell do I know? I am only - after all - a fledgeling home brewer. If it's supposed to be a cost-saving thing, I really don't see the point if all I'm using (while perfectly decent) are the $7 dried sachets of Mangrove Jack's. If I were to invest in pricier yeast, that'd be a different story. If it were something to do with cross-breeding different strains, that's definitely something I'd like to get funky with at some stage. However as tolerant as my flatmate may be, she'd be none too happy about a row of dirty-ass mason jars full of yeast taking up precious real estate in an already overcrowded fridge.
But to cut a long story short, there goes the last $60 I had for the week. Bummer. I'd hate to wager how much time and money I've sunk into this hobby, but it's been a hell of a lot for just three months. I've always maintained that it'd be cheaper just to buy beer, but if you do that, the beer barons win. And where's the bragging rights?
Bootleg Bill's Brown Ale - The Alpha and the Omega
Today's brew was both the end of an era (being the last partial mash I'll probably do, unless something inparticular tickles me) and the beginning of a new one, having finally gotten a mash tun. At last! No more faffing around trying to cook grains on the stove at a precise temperature, desperately fiddling with the knobs and slaving away until the only knob you want to fiddle with is your own. Nuh uh, dawg... just fill the mash tun with water of the correct temperature (using a combination of boiled and tap), dump grains and come back later!
At this stage in the game, I would have been happy with a raggedy-ass ghetto-looking Mash Tun. This is Linwood, after all. But as the guy who built it for me - my Stepfather Bill - laid down an awesome PVC-pipe and Aquairium Glue-having feat of engineering worthy of Da Vinci, I thought it fitting to name the next beer after him. Ladies and gentlemen... Bootleg Bill's Brown Ale.
Well, it was originally going to be Bootleg Bill's Brown Porter, but - although I'm partial to Boundary Road Brew's Jack The Sipper - I don't really know enough about Porters to say if it's bona-fide. I'd sure hate for online trolls here to be all like "Well, um, technically..." in their wheezy, pre-pubescent voices. So Brown Ale it is, because goddamn it, that's a sufficiently big umbrella. Anyways, here's the ingredient list of what I got jiggy with today...
1 x 1.7kg can Mangrove Jack's Tyneside Brown Ale (LME)
2kg Marris Otter Pale Malt
0.5kg Biscuit Malt
0.5kg Chocolate Malt
500g Demerara Sugar
350ml Belgian Candi Sugar
1oz Goldings (East Kent) Hops (60 Mins)
1oz Goldings (East Kent) Hops (15 Mins)
1 x Cinnamon Quill (15 Mins)
1 heaped tsp Irish Moss
Despite a little dead space in the bottom (that I'm probably going to fix using polystyrene foam as ramps), the Mash Tun worked awesomely well for mashing the grains! Sure, it was a bit of trial, error and a small pain in the ass to get an appropriate level of water to the ideal temperature of 66C, but I got there in the end. I threw in the grain, mixed it around a bit, shut the lid tight then went off to do some household chores.
An hour or so later, I came back, opened the tap and filled the stockpot with glorious, glorious wort! I heated a little extra water to 75C to do a little bit of a sparge, but nothing too heavy-duty. After about 15 minutes, I had all the wort (sans-grain) I needed and it was off to the stove.
By the time the wort was on the stove (with all the loss of heat and all), it was about 60C, so not too far to boil. On the way there, I threw in the Malt Extract, Demerara Sugar and Candi Sugar, twirling my mustache evilly in the knowledge that this shit is gonna kick like a mule. A really surly British mule with a Cockney accent.
As always, the boil went totally by the book, the additions went bang on schedule and I even through in a Cinnamon Quill (just for shits and giggles) that I had left over from the previous lot of Apple Cider I'd made. After it was boiled for an hour, it was off to the Car-Hole and into the bucket of icy water, where it sat until later in the evening.
When the wort was sufficiently cooled, I poured it through a sieve into the fermenter I'd previously sanitized. After a pre-fermentation reading (1.056, adjusted for temperature!), I threw in the yeast starter I'd made the night before, rocked it back and forth and sealed it up. We'll see what tomorrow brings for it as I take to the unenviable task of cleaning up all my shit.
But can you believe this is my sixth batch? I can't. Although it may take a while to explore the studio space of the Mash Tun (so to speak), nothing went wrong with this batch. At least to the best of my knowledge. I'm cautiously optimistic. But as I say, it's the end of an era. It's going to be weird, not using those cans of Liquid Malt Extract any more. But on the other hand, it may be incredibly liberating. I've got no idea what the hell I'm going to brew next, but I've got an inclination to try a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) brew, just to get the technique down and really get a feel for a grain and hop that floats my particular boat.
At this stage in the game, I would have been happy with a raggedy-ass ghetto-looking Mash Tun. This is Linwood, after all. But as the guy who built it for me - my Stepfather Bill - laid down an awesome PVC-pipe and Aquairium Glue-having feat of engineering worthy of Da Vinci, I thought it fitting to name the next beer after him. Ladies and gentlemen... Bootleg Bill's Brown Ale.
Well, it was originally going to be Bootleg Bill's Brown Porter, but - although I'm partial to Boundary Road Brew's Jack The Sipper - I don't really know enough about Porters to say if it's bona-fide. I'd sure hate for online trolls here to be all like "Well, um, technically..." in their wheezy, pre-pubescent voices. So Brown Ale it is, because goddamn it, that's a sufficiently big umbrella. Anyways, here's the ingredient list of what I got jiggy with today...
1 x 1.7kg can Mangrove Jack's Tyneside Brown Ale (LME)
2kg Marris Otter Pale Malt
0.5kg Biscuit Malt
0.5kg Chocolate Malt
500g Demerara Sugar
350ml Belgian Candi Sugar
1oz Goldings (East Kent) Hops (60 Mins)
1oz Goldings (East Kent) Hops (15 Mins)
1 x Cinnamon Quill (15 Mins)
1 heaped tsp Irish Moss
Despite a little dead space in the bottom (that I'm probably going to fix using polystyrene foam as ramps), the Mash Tun worked awesomely well for mashing the grains! Sure, it was a bit of trial, error and a small pain in the ass to get an appropriate level of water to the ideal temperature of 66C, but I got there in the end. I threw in the grain, mixed it around a bit, shut the lid tight then went off to do some household chores.
An hour or so later, I came back, opened the tap and filled the stockpot with glorious, glorious wort! I heated a little extra water to 75C to do a little bit of a sparge, but nothing too heavy-duty. After about 15 minutes, I had all the wort (sans-grain) I needed and it was off to the stove.
By the time the wort was on the stove (with all the loss of heat and all), it was about 60C, so not too far to boil. On the way there, I threw in the Malt Extract, Demerara Sugar and Candi Sugar, twirling my mustache evilly in the knowledge that this shit is gonna kick like a mule. A really surly British mule with a Cockney accent.
As always, the boil went totally by the book, the additions went bang on schedule and I even through in a Cinnamon Quill (just for shits and giggles) that I had left over from the previous lot of Apple Cider I'd made. After it was boiled for an hour, it was off to the Car-Hole and into the bucket of icy water, where it sat until later in the evening.
When the wort was sufficiently cooled, I poured it through a sieve into the fermenter I'd previously sanitized. After a pre-fermentation reading (1.056, adjusted for temperature!), I threw in the yeast starter I'd made the night before, rocked it back and forth and sealed it up. We'll see what tomorrow brings for it as I take to the unenviable task of cleaning up all my shit.
But can you believe this is my sixth batch? I can't. Although it may take a while to explore the studio space of the Mash Tun (so to speak), nothing went wrong with this batch. At least to the best of my knowledge. I'm cautiously optimistic. But as I say, it's the end of an era. It's going to be weird, not using those cans of Liquid Malt Extract any more. But on the other hand, it may be incredibly liberating. I've got no idea what the hell I'm going to brew next, but I've got an inclination to try a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) brew, just to get the technique down and really get a feel for a grain and hop that floats my particular boat.
If you're reading this really small tagline hoping to find something pithy or humourous, you're in for a world of disappointment. I think you'll find this tagline was nothing more than a cruel, horrible lie.
Monday, March 17, 2014
A Sober (And Very Boring) St. Paddy's Day
Once again it's St. Paddy's day and even if I had beer, I couldn't drink it because I gotta fucking work! I siphoned the cider from primary to secondary and so far, so good. It's looking like opaque fruit juice at the moment, but one would assume that it'll hopefully clear up and take on the colour of apple juice. I'll keep an eye on it.
I still need to obtain a bottling bucket, if only to prevent a repeat of the Cerveza debacle. A carboy brush would also be a good investment. Bill has promised to give me one of his work benches, so I'll have to follow up on that. Speaking of Bill, he's in the process of building me a Mash Tun and so far, it looks totally kickass! I never would have thought to use PVC pipe and food-grade aquarium sealant, but Bill's a genius and I am but a humble brewer! Obviously I'll hook him up big-time with brew, but I might have to name a beer after him too.
Celia reckons I might be able to find suitably sized (smaller) glass bottles at the Warehouse. I'm a little doubtful, but it's worth a butchers'. So far, every bottle I've come across is a screw-top, has a raised logo or both. As much as I love the 750ml flip-tops, they ain't cheap and they're a pain in the ass to deal with!
I still need to obtain a bottling bucket, if only to prevent a repeat of the Cerveza debacle. A carboy brush would also be a good investment. Bill has promised to give me one of his work benches, so I'll have to follow up on that. Speaking of Bill, he's in the process of building me a Mash Tun and so far, it looks totally kickass! I never would have thought to use PVC pipe and food-grade aquarium sealant, but Bill's a genius and I am but a humble brewer! Obviously I'll hook him up big-time with brew, but I might have to name a beer after him too.
Celia reckons I might be able to find suitably sized (smaller) glass bottles at the Warehouse. I'm a little doubtful, but it's worth a butchers'. So far, every bottle I've come across is a screw-top, has a raised logo or both. As much as I love the 750ml flip-tops, they ain't cheap and they're a pain in the ass to deal with!
Thursday, March 13, 2014
The Wreck And Ruin Of Jon's Cerveza
Last night, my Cerveza became ruined.
I foolishly thought I could bottle it from the carboy with a siphon and a bottling attachment (Author's not: BIG fucking mistake!). Long story short, after the tedious process of washing and sterilizing all the bottles and equipment, the siphon decided to play silly buggers and squirt beer every which way. Then the sediment at the bottom - which had seperated nicely, leaving clear Cerveza - became dislodged and turned the whole batch into a thick, pulpy sludge.
As if that weren't bad enough, I had noticed that a goddamn fly had flown into the carboy and landed atop the Cerveza sludge. There was nothing I could do to save it, so down the sink it all went. And with it, all the time, money and effort I've sunk into it.
It was a difficult, auspicious batch from the start, so it really doesn't surprise me that it would end up like this. I ended up having a really bad panic attack and I've been down in the dumps since. Clearly I have to make a point to never make the same mistakes again. That's the only thing I really can do.
In other news, the attachments for the Mash Tun (and the grain for the Porter) also arrived in the mail today. I might have to do a little filing to make everything fit, but as long as Bill can make a 25mm hole in the Chilly-Bin, it should be an easy task.
I foolishly thought I could bottle it from the carboy with a siphon and a bottling attachment (Author's not: BIG fucking mistake!). Long story short, after the tedious process of washing and sterilizing all the bottles and equipment, the siphon decided to play silly buggers and squirt beer every which way. Then the sediment at the bottom - which had seperated nicely, leaving clear Cerveza - became dislodged and turned the whole batch into a thick, pulpy sludge.
As if that weren't bad enough, I had noticed that a goddamn fly had flown into the carboy and landed atop the Cerveza sludge. There was nothing I could do to save it, so down the sink it all went. And with it, all the time, money and effort I've sunk into it.
It was a difficult, auspicious batch from the start, so it really doesn't surprise me that it would end up like this. I ended up having a really bad panic attack and I've been down in the dumps since. Clearly I have to make a point to never make the same mistakes again. That's the only thing I really can do.
In other news, the attachments for the Mash Tun (and the grain for the Porter) also arrived in the mail today. I might have to do a little filing to make everything fit, but as long as Bill can make a 25mm hole in the Chilly-Bin, it should be an easy task.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Farmer Jon's Old-Fashioned (Sort Of) Apple Cider
1 x 2.4kg pouch Mangrove Jack's Apple Cider Extract
1kg Dextrose
500g Demerara Sugar
Flavour and Sweetener additions
1 x Crushed Cinnamon Quill
1 x Mangrove Jack's Cider Yeast (M02) - Starter
1 x Mangrove Jack's Cider Yeast (M02) - Dry
Original Gravity: 1.054 (Adjusted for temperature)
First brew on the new stove (and first crack at making cider) and so far, so good. No glaringly obvious mistakes at this stage. To be honest, the new stove didn't do a hell of a lot better at reaching boil quickly, but a 30L stockpot is a hell of a job for any stove. At also didn't help that I started at basically room temperature.
Anyways, I dumped all the ingredients in the pot and let it boil away, adding a crushed cinnamon quil 10 minutes out for a little more flavour. Once everything was at 100C, the boil itself went without a hitch, as is the way with extract brews. However, it would have been nice to know there was a packet of yeast (among other things) inside the pouch in a partition. Never to mind. I pitched the dry yeast with the starter, so hopefully it'll go balls-deep and ferment the shit out of it!
Among other things, it was a chance to test my new cooling system; a rubbish bin with cold water into which I put two bags of ice. When I returned an hour or so later, the ice had melted and the wort had dropped to around 40C... not too damn bad! Because I'm impatient (and working tonight), I transferred it to the primary fermenter, topped it to 23L with cold water and got a good pitching temperature of 25C.
There was a little bit of overflow with the bucket, so I'll have to be a bit more careful next time. If I brew the next batch on a day off, time won't be such a concern, so I can take a little time and get the pitching temperature a little lower.
All in all, not a bad day's wort! After I'd read the hydrometer, I decided to drink the wort in the tube. It was incredibly sweet - like a really sweet wine - and I ended up spitting it out! Hopefully fermentation will turn some of the sugar to sweet, sweet booze and the taste with smooth out a bit.
Depending on what the final gravity reads, it should come out somewhere around 5.8% to 5.9% (Author's note: at the time of bottling, I got a reading of 6.6%... hell yeah! I guess I can attribute that to using two yeast sachets instead of one.), which is more or less where my mental arithmetic put it.
1kg Dextrose
500g Demerara Sugar
Flavour and Sweetener additions
1 x Crushed Cinnamon Quill
1 x Mangrove Jack's Cider Yeast (M02) - Starter
1 x Mangrove Jack's Cider Yeast (M02) - Dry
Original Gravity: 1.054 (Adjusted for temperature)
First brew on the new stove (and first crack at making cider) and so far, so good. No glaringly obvious mistakes at this stage. To be honest, the new stove didn't do a hell of a lot better at reaching boil quickly, but a 30L stockpot is a hell of a job for any stove. At also didn't help that I started at basically room temperature.
Anyways, I dumped all the ingredients in the pot and let it boil away, adding a crushed cinnamon quil 10 minutes out for a little more flavour. Once everything was at 100C, the boil itself went without a hitch, as is the way with extract brews. However, it would have been nice to know there was a packet of yeast (among other things) inside the pouch in a partition. Never to mind. I pitched the dry yeast with the starter, so hopefully it'll go balls-deep and ferment the shit out of it!
Among other things, it was a chance to test my new cooling system; a rubbish bin with cold water into which I put two bags of ice. When I returned an hour or so later, the ice had melted and the wort had dropped to around 40C... not too damn bad! Because I'm impatient (and working tonight), I transferred it to the primary fermenter, topped it to 23L with cold water and got a good pitching temperature of 25C.
There was a little bit of overflow with the bucket, so I'll have to be a bit more careful next time. If I brew the next batch on a day off, time won't be such a concern, so I can take a little time and get the pitching temperature a little lower.
All in all, not a bad day's wort! After I'd read the hydrometer, I decided to drink the wort in the tube. It was incredibly sweet - like a really sweet wine - and I ended up spitting it out! Hopefully fermentation will turn some of the sugar to sweet, sweet booze and the taste with smooth out a bit.
Depending on what the final gravity reads, it should come out somewhere around 5.8% to 5.9% (Author's note: at the time of bottling, I got a reading of 6.6%... hell yeah! I guess I can attribute that to using two yeast sachets instead of one.), which is more or less where my mental arithmetic put it.
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