Batch Four: The Day After (And Stuff I Want To Buy)

I haven't totally given up hope on the Cerveza (Author's note: such was my mistake). When I checked this morning and there seemed to be a beautiful thick, foamy layer of yeast at the top. I think my yeast starter did the trick, even though I'll have to be a bit more careful about measuring dry malt extract and water amounts this time. I could swear I put 3 metric cups of water to 3/4 cup of DME, but all I got was 400ml... where the hell did it all go? Also, it might be an idea to obtain (or crudely fashion) a stir plate.

One thing that I did yesterday - that I think was a good move - was to do a little 'pre-straining' while I waited for the wort to hit boil. After the mashing was done and I'd added LME and raw sugar (yeah dawg!!), I did a few scoops with a fine sieve to get the last few bits of grain.

Obviously it's something you want to do before you add the hops, otherwise you'll just end up scooping them out. Speaking of hops, I did something else interesting yesterday and time will tell if this bears fruit. When it was time to add the flavouring hops, I didn't just dump them ALL in at the 15 minute mark. I kind of 'staggered' it... some at 15, some at 14, some at 13 and so on. It's a little trick I heard about somewhere on the internet and I thought "Why the hell not?" Mother always said 'Try new things.'

I'm also going to purchase a siphon and - if I can find a big enough one - a bottling bucket. I might as well try the whole 'batch carbonation thing and see how that tickles me. As an aside, it'll be a chance to decant it and remove a little sediment before bottling. But the important things I need (that will have to wait until I've got a bit more money) are the mash tun and some sort of gas cooker. If I could pony up the dough, a wort chiller would be great too.

Until then, I'm stuck with whatever I can boil in a 15L stockpot. Come to think of it, it might be a great chance to try out new recipes on a smaller scale (and on the cheap!). But if I do, I might as well go all-grain, because it's gonna be a pain in the arse to use half a can of malt, then seal it.

Batch Four - The Cerveza Nightmare

Author's Note: I struggled and fought tooth-and-nail with this batch every step of the way. While most people would take that as a bad omen and quit while they're ahead, I'm not a superstitious person. Plus I'm an idiot. That said, I did learn two important techniques during this batch that have become a mainstay of my brewing; (a) yeast starters and (b) racking the beer to a secondary fermenter.

1 x 1.7kg Mangrove Jack's Mexican Cerveza (LME)
2.5kg NZ Pale Malt
1kg Flaked Maize
25g Southern Cross Hops (30 mins)
25g Southern Cross Hops (15 mins)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 x Mangrove Jack's US West Coast Yeast (M44)
1 x Crappy 5g Yeast Sachet
10ml Clarity Fern

Made up a yeast starter last night using 3/4 cup of pale Dry Malt Extract and the yeast. It's my first time making one, so I hope I didn't screw it up too badly!

I'm super excited about this batch! It'll be my first time using (a) yeast starters, (b) the 30L stockpot and (c) more than one type of grain. I'm a little on the fence about whether or not to spike it with raw sugar. According to BeerSmith, with the amount of grain I'm using, it should come out at 5.4% (OG 1.055 - guess who finally learned how to read the hydrometer!). Raw sugar would bump it up to 6.8% (OG 1.066.)

With regard to the volatile nature of the Strontkop, it may be that the yeast hadn't stopped fermenting when I bottled it. As my hydrometer broke, I had no way of checking. I've got a better hydrometer now, so I'll make damn sure with this batch!

I've since learned that - as a general rule of thumb - the higher the alc/vol, the longer it should be left to ferment. I'm also giving some thought to getting a siphon and a bottling bucket, so I can decant it and remove some of the sediment before bottling.

---/---/---

Well, that was an ordeal. A lot of shit may potentially go wrong with this batch. And now I realise, having just added the yeast starter that I FORGOT to take a hydrometer sample! Although I thought it might be the solution to all my problems, the 30L stockpot is a gigantic pain in the arse to work with. For one thing, it takes bloody ages to heat. You really don't wat to know how long it takes to cool either.

Mashing/infusing the grain was a gigantic fucking nightmare! The strainer bag was very little help, so there goes $20 down the drain! Ironically, it was a lot easier last time when I strained a 15L stock pot into a bucket. Getting a stable temperature was damn near impossible too. There's a chance I may have bashed too low (in the low 60s), which is why the wort came out darker than I would have liked. Until I get a proper Mash Tun going, I'm just going to hold fire on brewing, because I'm sure as shit NOT doing it on a stove again! The actual boil itself went totally by the book, so nothing to report there. Once I tried to cool the wort, that's where the real problems begun...

After an hour (and three refills) in a cold water bath, I lost patience. I took everything out of my fridge, awkwardly crammed it in and left it for an hour. I should mention that somehow I still had about 20L of wort at the end of the boil with very little boiloff. For some reason, this makes me suspicious.

After an hour, I really lost patience and decided that a change of recepticle might help expediate the cooling process. So I poured it through a sieve into the fermenter... in my goddamn room. I topped it up with about 3 litres of cold water, aerated it, added Clarity Ferm, aerated some more and lugged it to Bill's car-hole. At this stage, I was beyond caring about things like 'ideal pitching temperatures', so I biffed the yeast starter in and sealed it up. True story.

All in all, I've got a bad feeling about this batch. A lot of shit went wrong, I got sloppy in a lot of places and I think I've learned a lot about how NOT to brew beer. Whatever this abomination turns out to be, it probably won't be Cerveza. Oddly enough - if it's drinkable - I may have Malt Liquor on my hands, which was next on my to-do list. And I STILL have to go to work in less than an hour! I can safely say this is the worst brewing day I've had so far...

Exploding Bottles: Prelude To The Cerveza Nightmare

Took a look at box #2 - the unrefrigerated Strontkop - this morning and the damndest thing... one of the bottles exploded! I don't know whether that's due to something I've done (or failed to do), but so much for the infalliability of carbonation drops! For the next batch, I'm going old-school and using sugar and a scoop. Well, that's what I told myself, but things turned out a little different. Stay tuned for the eventual Cerveza disaster and subsequent aftermath.

Speaking of the next batch, I stopped by the brewshop today and purchased some Mexican Cerveza LME, Southern Cross hops and Mangrove Jack's US West Coast yeast. It'll be interesting to see what kind of difference a yeast starter makes.

I also need to think of a better name for it than 'El Bandito.' That one's just really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I've got plenty of time to do that, as I'm not really able to brew anything until I move to the new flat, which is about a fortnight away, give or take. I should mention at this stage that the fancy pants mineral water I purchased didn't make a goddamn bit of difference to the taste or quality of the Strontkop. It's genuine Linwood tapwater from here on out!

Jon Gets Bukkakked In Beer, Report At 11...

Been sampling the Strontkop for the last few days. While all is mostly well, I opened a couple of bottles tonight from the second box. All have been sitting in the box - no refrigeration - since bottling day. They were absolutely volcaning, pissing and spraying foam everywhere! Although there was always a bit of foam on the first pour from refrigerated bottles, nothing quite like that! Does refrigeration help with the carbonation process?

Perhaps I opened them a little too early. Ideally, one should wait a month (30 days) before opening, but I'm a thirsty Jon and you'lll have to forgive me for having a little pride in my first REAL beer.

Drunk At Last, Hallelujah, Drunk At Last!

SUCCESS!! I may have 'accidentally' sampled some Strontkop a week early (impatience being the downfall of many a home brewer), but damned if it's not a success! Tastes damn good and - more importantly - contains booze!

I'm waiting on a 30L stockpot I've ordered to come. Today I purchased a new hydrometer and a cool 'wine thief' type thingamajig (for readings), sugar measures (which I've never goddamn USED!) and a big-ass strainer bag for when next I mash grain.I've still got to obtain a conical flash for yeast starters, but they're readily available on TradeMe. I'll get that glass carboy some day, but for now, it's not essential.

Anyway, back to the Strontkop! Because I opened it a little early, there was a difference in clarity between the first half and the second half of the bottle. Time being the clarifier of all beers, after all. Head was nice and frothy like you want. Hops - while 'there' - were a little subtle, so maybe I'll use 1oz (28g) additions next time instead of the 20g this run.

But damn if that Irish Moss don't work a trick... I'm fuckin' sold! No 'milkiness', residue, chunks or any of the other nasty shit to be found anywhere. While it's a recipe that shall be subject to refinement (as will they all be), it's a pretty damn good run for my first real beer. Third time lucky!

Never Shake A Baby, Unless It's A Yeast-Baby!

I must confess at this stage - having never brewed cider before - that I don't have a lot of (which is to say any) experience with cider yeast.

It's the small hours of the morning and I'm giving my yeast baby a bit of a shake. While it seems to be producing CO2 and that yeasty smelll, there's no milky sediment like with the beer baby. I suppose cider wort (being essentially reconstituted apple juice n' shit) is different from beer wort. Who knows how different the cider yeast strain is to what I'm used to.

I should probably take Celia's advice and stop second-guessing all this shit. I had my doubts about the last one, and that ran a goddamn freight train through the Cerveza! Hopefully this one will do a similar job on the cider.