Rocky Raccoon's Crystal Honey Lager - Part 3

Rocky Raccoon's Crystal Honey Lager

A variation of a Lager from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
O.G.:  1.084
F.G.:  1.000
Estimated ABV: ~11.13%

Buster soon after his sabotage attempt

I can barely contain my excitement at the potential of this batch - tasting it tonight and revealed several similarities to the We're In The Garden Belgian White brewed about this time last year. We'll see what happens while it bottle conditions, but I have high hopes for the Rocky Raccoon. The tasting also confirms the high alcohol content indicated by the OG and FG readings. I drank the leftovers from the sample taken to read the FG and had a definitely felt the alcohol's effect after a few minutes.

Tonight I was flying solo while bottling, though Ramius was there to provide his own form of help - mostly sniffing each bottle before I could cap it. The bottling process took about 2 hours total and I was able to get a yield of 45 bottles (~4.22 gallons). The only difficulties in the bottling process were my folks' cat knocking my siphoning equipment onto the kitchen floor, causing me to have to re-sterilize it, and the heather tips blocking up the final siphoning of the beer into the bottle. The auto-siphon was able to filter out quite a bit of the heather, but some of the smaller particles found their way through it and into the beer. I don't anticipate it adding anything but a more robust heather flavoring - a flavor that is naturally subtle and was added to this mild brew so that its character could be featured.

Prepping for the bottling process with bottles provided by David Collins

Palace Bitter - Part 3

Palace Bitter
A variation of a Bitter from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
O.G.: 1.101
F.G.: 1.02
Estimated ABV: ~10.68%

Let's start this off with some applause: I remembered to take both the original and final gravity readings! Huzzah!

Chris' new 'best brewers face'

So we get a final estimated ABV of ~10.68%, which seemed high to me considering Charlie's original estimated ABV of ~5%. But when one recalls all of the changes to the recipe provided by Charlie and my addition of dry hopping the secondary, it seems more probable that such a large increase could occur. Final judgment will be reserved until the tasting of this batch.

44 bottles ~ 4.125 gallons

Chris returned to help out with the bottling process - I'd like to think that was because he wanted to see the whole process through, but it might have been out of a feeling of obligation or guilt (since he didn't help with the transfer to secondary). In either case, he was a great help and worked the bottle-capper like a pro. We wrapped up the entire bottling process (sterilization, gravity reading, bottling, and capping) in a little under 2 hours and were able to drink a few Single Peak Brown Ales along the way. The total yield was 44 bottles, which is quite good considering the amount of the beer absorbed by the dry hopping process.

I'd like to thank Dave Collins for supplying 120 bottles for this and future brews - he's a helluva guy.

To wrap up this entry, I'd like to encourage you to support your local microbreweries - the people who work there are always pretty damned awesome.

Palilalia India Pale Ale - Parts 1-3

As noted in my previous post, my time has been spread among a number of projects recently and I've failed to keep up with posting as much as I should. It is for that reason this post is an amalgam of what would normally be three posts on this blog: brewing, transferring to a secondary fermenter, and bottling. My apologies for failing to keep up with the blog and for what is sure to be a longer than normal post. 

Enjoying a White Rascal soon after graduation

I've mentioned a couple of times now that I graduated from my graduate program in May of this year. It is increasingly looking like I will end up moving away from Colorado and the beer Mecca that I've been so lucky to grow up in (yes, I'm a Colorado Native). Thus, I think it is quite fitting that what may be one of my last beers brewed in Colorado is an IPA. For those who don't follow the craft brewing scene or are unfamiliar with the booming one in Colorado, nearly every brewery here has a signature IPA (a notable exception is the Dillon Dam Brewery). One of my favorite things about these strongly hopped pale ales is their variability in style. While some variations are rather dry and make a point of highlighting the malt flavors and bittering hops that go into their creation, others add less common ingredients such as citrus, pine, and vanilla to their IPAs to give them a unique character all of their own. Ultimately, there's something for everybody here and I'm happy that I can share my take on one of Charlie's IPAs.


So, without further ado, here is everything I've done with the Palilalia IPA thus far:


A variation of an India Pale Ale from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
O.G.: Unknown - whoops!
F.G.: Unknown - whoops!

Ingredients:

• 5.5 pounds Munton's Amber Dry Malt
• 1.0 pound Medium Crystal Malt
• 0.5 pound  Roasted Malt Barley
• 2.0 oz Northern Brewer Hops (boiling, fresh)
• 1.0 oz Cascade Hops (finishing, fresh)
• 0.25 oz Sweet Orange Peel
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 3 oz Hungarian Oak Cubes
• Yeast: WYEAST 1056 American Ale
• 0.75 cup Corn Sugar
• for bottling

Two-Stage Fermentation

I brewed the Palalia IPA with the help of my friend Elyse on July 15 partially because she offered me a kitchen in which to work and partially because she'd never brewed beer before. I did very little in the way of preparation and brewing so that she could get the best and worst of the brewing experience and, I must say, she handled everything like an old pro - I'm always impressed at the reactions people have when brewing for the first time, which seem to range from complete and utter boredom/disgust to ardent enthusiasm. 

Adding dry malt

The brewing process went smoothly with no hiccups in terms of sterilization, forgotten/mismeasured ingredients, or general calamity (although, we did forget to take the OG before adding the yeast). As with most of my previous brews, I wasn't able to get the exact ingredients called for in the recipe and had to substitute a few. Perhaps the only notable substitution is the roasted malt barley that I had to use rather than toasting my own (am expecting more of a roasty flavor than a nutty one). Unfortunately, my local homebrew store was out of every other ideal type of barley at that time. In contrast to most of my previous brews, I made additions to this recipe. Originally, Papazian's instructions called for slightly fewer hops and no orange peel. I added both simply because I had them lying around. In retrospect, I wish I'd had some bitter orange peel to accentuate that character in the brew, but alas I did not and am hopeful that this batch will exude a unique bit of citrus. The Hungarian oak cubes were added on a whim as well. I've had a fair number of beers with a pleasant hint of oak left over from fermenting in oaken barrels and I wanted to see if I could add that character to what I'm hopeful will be a deliciously unique IPA. 

The carboy was stored in my friends' basement, which kept it at a nearly constant 75 degrees Fahrenheit for the entirety of the time the brew underwent fermentation. The typically violent first stages of fermentation were expelled by means of a fermentation cap and hose during the initial 36 hours or so, after which we transferred the fermenting wort and oak cubes into a secondary fermenter. When doing this we sterilized the oak cubes by placing them in a vegetable steamer for 15+ minutes. 

It wasn't until this past weekend that I racked the beer into bottles. My buddy SteveDave and I each had a batch to bottle and decided to help each other out - while drinking a few beers, of course (Chainbreaker White IPA and Eclipse Black IPA were among them). To do this, we had to transfer his carboy across town to our mutual buddy's house where we planned to go through the bottling process. Once there it was only a matter of time before my IPA and his apricot-laden summer ale (at least I think it was an ale) were safely and securely in their bottles. 

The IPA yielded a total of 44 12-oz bottles, equating to about 4.125 gallons total. I'm rather impressed by this amount as I was more conservative than normal in terms of leaving plenty of beer at the bottom of carboys when racking between them (to prevent dead yeast cells from affecting the flavor of the final product) and because the initial bout of fermentation spewed out nearly a half gallon of liquid by my estimate. 

I plan to allow the IPA 3-4 weeks to bottle condition before cracking any open. It's been difficult recently to find the time, motivation, and inspiration to update the blog, but I'm confident that I'll want to get the tasting review up as soon as I open it - this batch should be very unique!

Elbro Nerkte Brown Ale - Part 2

A take on a Brown Ale from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
O.G.: 1.04
F.G.: 1.01
ABV: ~3%

About 2 dozen done, 2 dozen to go!

It has been only seven days since Ramius and I started this brew, and we've just bottled it. I cannot get over just how fast this beer fermented - definitely have a feeling that this will be a go-to brew in the future depending on how it turns out.

I've noted several times in the past how it takes a long time to bottle by one's self, and that held true today. Luckily, it has been quite gloomy out and I didn't allow myself very many distractions during the sanitizing and bottling processes. I managed to bottle everything within about a half-hour period, which is a new record bottling time. Perhaps things went by so quickly because I finally put all the bottles at arms reach rather than all across the apartment (I know this should have been done earlier, but what are you gonna do?).

The final bottle count was four dozen. I changed the amount of beer that I siphoned out of the carboy in an attempt to minimize the amount of extraneous yeast in the final product.

Be sure to check back in about 7-10 days for a description of the final product of this and the Belgian White!

Running out of storage space!

We're in the Garden - Part 3

An impromptu take on a Belgian white from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
ABV: Unknown
IBU: Unknown

Ramius and the brew!

Well, we finally got together to bottle our Belgian White. Hilary, Ramius, and I ran to HopToIt! and picked up some corn sugar for bottling before heading back to my place to get down to business. The bottling process went much more quickly than the Primal Porter since two sets of hands were working, and I was greatly pleased with the pace we made. Really, the only tedious/time-consuming portion of the bottling process was (as always) sanitizing everything. I really need to invest in a bottle tree, as you can clearly see...

Anyhow, we ended up coming out with a final product of 49 bottles, which is consistent with the average of four dozen bottles per 5-gallon brew. We took Charlie's advice this time and put a coriander seed in each bottle to enhance its flavor. I should also be noted that I put the coriander seeds in the microwave for ~20 seconds to kill anything on them to prevent any bacterial contamination. Needless to say, both Hilary and I are extraordinarily excited to taste this brew. The smell itself was intoxicating and quite a tease during the entire bottling process.

The day of bottling. Note the deep amber coloration.

Goat Scrotum Ale - Part 2

A porter from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
ABV: Unknown
IBU: Unknown

Bottling the Primal went swimmingly with no problems encountered other than a bit of a sugar snafoo, but it was sorted out without much incident. Total yield was 48 bottles, roughly equivalent to 4.5 gallons of brew. Due to the sugar snafoo, I placed the bottles in a covered plastic tub so that, if there were to be any carbonation disasters, the ensuing explosions can be handled whether or not I am present.

I should note a couple of things. First is that we let the porter remain in the fermentation carboy for about two weeks longer than was necessary. The brew should still be good despite this, but I was uneasy leaving it so long.

The second thing that needs mentioning is how long it took to bottle this without a helping hand. I had a movie running during the bottling process and was only able to watch the last ten minutes of it. Charlie was definitely right when he said you should get a friend or two together when bottling.

Gravity Readings

• Starting Gravity: ~1.48, 07/07/2011
• Final Gravity: ~1.11, 08/01/2011

Rampart Red Ale - Part 3

An Irish Red Ale from Hop To It! Homebrew
ABV 5.0%
IBU 28

After 18 days of secondary fermentation, Hilary was back to help bottle the beer. We did this with little incident, however we did run out of bottles after the first 29 12 oz bottles and one 16 oz bottle. We simply ran to the store and bought 12 additional bottles. Thus, our total output was 41 12 oz bottles and one 16 oz bottle. This is the equivalent of just under 4 gallons. I should note that the plastic carboy is less than ideal. It allowed a considerable amount of the beer to evaporate due to a poor seal between the carboy's opening and the drilled stopper. I am seriously considering retiring the plastic carboy and purchasing a second glass carboy.

Our 42 Bottles

Despite worries about the quality of the beer due to our hop-related mix up, we didn't notice anything unexpected or unpleasant when we sampled it during the bottling process. There was no excess hoppiness or skunkiness, and the beer was actually quite flavorful.



Gravity Readings

• Expected Values
• Original Gravity: 1.051
• Final Gravity: 1.013
• Actual Values
• Starting Gravity: 1.03-1.05, 06/12/2011
• Between Fermentations: 1.01-1.02, 06/21/2011
• Final Gravity: 1.01, 07/08/2011