Though today is typically the spot for a rundown of the beer news for the week, I think there is one story out there that deserves an entire post focused on it.  Now what might that exclusive story for the beer news this week be?  Oh yes . . .

Today marks the one year anniversary of me starting this site!

I actually had to go back and do a little research because the date stamp on the very first post is a few days off what I remember it being (there were some issues early on).  After posting something on this site every day for the entire year, today marks the first day of the second year.  Since I enjoy it and am still having fun, I hope to continue my consecutive days posting streak throughout this year as well.

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This will make sense after you read on.

In looking back over the last year I noticed a few things that I might not have guessed would happen going in:

  • Home brewing became a bit of an obsession.  After failing miserably with my first batch, I was able to successfully brew 12 different beers.  That is not as many as I might have liked to brew, but still something I am quite pleased with.
  • 113 beer reviews were posted on this site over the course of the year.  That is an impressive number to me, though I could have done more as I have 41 (yes I counted) still sitting in my binder ready to post.  Those numbers also don’t account for the ones consumed for a side project and those I never bothered formally evaluating at all.
  • Though I might have neglected to write about a few of them, I have been to a fair number of breweries, participated (on both sides of the table) in beer festivals, and have done quite a bit of travelling as well over the last year.
  • I walked away from my cubicle life to pursue other interests and possibilities.  That just might be the most shocking of all to me.

So you might ask how one celebrates a blogiversary (or you might ask if that is an actual word).  Well, The Wife made a trio of desserts for enjoyment this evening (and beyond) using my home brewed beer as an ingredient in each.  How awesome is that?!  You can check out the recipes here, then drool over . . .

A beer cake with bourbon-soaked raisins that is now my breakfast for the near future.

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She even got me a candle.

A stout ice cream that is incredibly tasty.

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Perhaps to serve with/on the cake?

The sweet and salty goodness of pale ale pretzel caramels.

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Very addicting

If you don’t hear from me for a while, it will be because I am in sugar and butter shock.

In the excitement of finishing up the first year, I have come up worth a few things I would like to do for the next year on this site.  I reserve the right to add to this list, but I would be very happy if I just got to all of these.  This list is site specific as I will surely continue with the festival and brewery visits anyway and would, of course, enjoy having some steady employment again sometime soon :) .

Here we go and in no particular order . . .

  1. As hinted at a few days ago I would like to start doing my beer evaluations closer to the BJCP guidelines.  I already use their beer score sheet to keep my notes on and use their style guidelines as reference, so it is time to start grading by points and leave the letter grading behind.  Letter grades were a fine way to start for me, but using their grading system will allow more specific evaluation and will certainly help me prepare to take the BJCP exam someday.  I might even revisit some of the beers that I have already evaluated using the new method.
  2. It would be pretty neat to write something that will be published elsewhere.  I will start with guest posting on another site or sites and go from there.  Getting others to guest post on my site is another effort that I would like to make.
  3. Evolve from mini/partial mash to all grain brewing.  Surely The Wife is excited to hear this one as it would take my brewing operation (almost entirely) out of the kitchen.  I have an excellent reference in my friend Mike and I think it is a very realistic brewing goal.  Of course I would like very much to have a kegging and draft set up to limit my future bottling efforts as well.  That will likely be first, but I want to do both.  It would also be great to get one of my friends hooked on brewing, at least so I have an extra set of hands for my all grain efforts!
  4. Do many, many more videos (reviews and otherwise) for the site.  I have the equipment to do so and if I keep practicing I might actually become competent at editing what I shoot.  I can start by posting some of the video footage that I have already.
  5. Focus on beer and food pairing if only because the relationship is interesting to me.  That topic will be on my mind all year and it would be nice to host some sort of beer pairing themed type event (desserts, cheeses, etc.) at our house before the next anniversary comes.

Five is probably a good number to stop at for now, though I also have ambitions to do more giveaways this year and to better utilize/organize/evolve my site among other things.  I did say that I would likely add to the list in the future and it probably will not take me long to do so.

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Bourbon soaked raisins leaves raisin infused bourbon.

In closing, I would like to thank The Wife for her support and an infinite list of other things, my various content contributors across the country, the people who have been keeping up with me since the beginning, and those who have just started to follow along.  You are all entitled to have a good beer tonight (as if you needed my go ahead) in celebration.

Cheers to a great last year and to an even better year to come!

Rainy days where I am stuck inside only give my mind more time to wander.  Actually this time of year, scorching hot days really accomplish the same thing.  Either way if you take my wandering mind and combine it with my brewing books or, in this case, a book that The Wife brought home from the library and the wheels really start spinning.  If I carry through with what I am thinking about at any level she may never bring me a book again.

What I am referring to this time is that I am in the early stages of pondering the possibilities of growing my own hops.  Hey, if I ever make myself a randalizer, I would love to fill it with hops from my back yard.

4632713212 38f4def866 Stuck Inside Pondering

Peppers are great, but . . .

Before moving along too far with this thought I would like to make it known that I realized it is at least a moderately crazy idea if only because Florida is not exactly the greatest situation for hop growing.  With that said, it is not impossible.

From my (admittedly limited) understanding, hops generally grow best between roughly 35 to 55 degrees of latitude.  My location (at about 28 degrees latitude) does not meet that basic requirement.  Though I don’t know that it is true, I have read that hops have been grown in Hawaii, so I should have a shot.  For this argument I will still say that my geographic location is strike one.  With that as the first I can list some of the other hurdles I might have:

  • Soil – my sandy soil is not exactly the desired nutrient-rich mix.  That would likely affect the yield at minimum.  Maybe if I mix enough of my spent grains into the compost I can better that situation?
  • Height – The plants can grow up to 30 feet (or so).  I assume The Wife and all of my neighbors could do without that sight.  They may not grow that high, but they would certainly end up taller than our fence.  Then again, I could train them to grow horizontally along the fence.
  • Pests – Judging by the various bugs that we had in trying to grow a pesticide free vegetable garden this might be the toughest issue to overcome.  Florida may also bring some different plant diseases that the hop vines would have to deal with.
  • Me – Have I mentioned that I don’t exactly have the best record of keeping plants alive?  My thumb is not even close to a shade of green.
  • Whatever else I am not aware of at the moment.

So instead of giving up maybe I should just expect to fail many, many times before getting some variety to grow for me?  Of course I could also turn my garage into a growing room of sorts (reference the close cousin of hops) and take all of these variables out of play.  I think it would be far less expensive and intrusive to my home to just fail a bunch of times though.

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Why use these when I could have fresh?

Or maybe should forget hops and just turn my entire lawn into a barley field?  I don’t like mowing that much anyway!

This is another of those posts where I am thinking as I write, so I have much more research to do before becoming legitimately serious about taking a shot at this.  The concept of having (essentially) a proprietary variety of hops that only I will brew with sounds pretty cool to me (similar to my pint glass).

Then if I could get Seattle Jeff and Syracuse Rob to grow some as well exclusively for my brewing we would have infinite brewing options via geographically remote and unique hops.

That’s enough of my hop growing train of thought for today . . . to be revisited at a later time.

What to brew, what to brew?  That question has been floating around my mind a lot lately as the itch to dive back into some home brewing has grown in the last few weeks.  The thought of brewing when it is so hot out does make me pause, but it does not stop me from thinking of what I can possibly brew next.

4252708084 b1de5da242 What to Brew?

I miss the aroma of pellet hops.

Since I am making a lot of small lists lately, I will use that format to get my thoughts organized here.  Welcome again to the inner workings of my mind.

  • Should I bother with any sort of beer style that would be nice for summer?  I know it will be warm here far after summer ends in other places, but even if I order my supplies now my beer would probably not be ready before seeing fall seasonals on the shelves here.  I am leaning toward focusing my efforts on some brews more appropriate for fall.
  • Even had I not been leaning that way, revisiting my pumpkin ale was already in my head.  In fact I plan on brewing two batches of that this year, though I may play around with one of them.  However since I don’t expect to see any pumpkins in the grocery store anytime soon, I probably should focus on other things first.
  • There are other ways to go (other than fall appropriate) as well.  I could revisit some of the other recipes that I have used previously to see if I can improve the end product.  I could also just continue to try brewing styles that I have never tried before.  Then there is always the option of just focusing on the styles that I enjoy drinking the most.  Decisions, decisions.
  • Is it time to take a step up and try to brew an “Imperial” something?  Maybe that is for winter?
  • Then, of course, I could say why choose one option when you could do them all?
4554033353 8d7f046f81 What to Brew?

I need more spent grains for dog treats.

Do you see how after all that I really just ended up back at the beginning?  I do have a few options that I am thinking about doing (as of today):

  • Bière de Garde – since I have tried a Saison already, perhaps its sister deserves a chance.
  • A Dubbel or maybe a Tripel – sticking with the whole Belgian theme for a moment.
  • Brown Ale – not really one of my favorite styles, but one worth a shot.  The same could be said for a Red Ale
  • Kölsch – this would be for the warmer weather.  A Cream Ale would also be an option.
  • IPA – This deserves a revisit that is not split for experimentation purposes.
  • Rye Ale of some sort – Perhaps even a Rye IPA?
  • A Stout or Porter is always a good option as far as I am concerned.
4290099405 45184252ce What to Brew?

My employees have been waiting for something to do.

If it really doesn’t look like I have made a decision it is because I haven’t even come close to picking one, let alone two or three.  Like I said, what to brew, wheat to brew?

Any suggestions based on my short list or something completely different?

There are a few things that have surprised me lately in the way that they can incorporate beer or brewing.  It is not so much that I never thought it was possible to include brewing ingredients into these items, it is just that I never really thought about them within the worlds of beer and brewing much at all.  However, now I know that candies and dog treats are card carrying members of the beer and brewing club.

It is probably a good idea to get the more unique one out of the way first, so I will start with the beer candy.  Well, at least I think that the package says beer candy.  It actually says “Sapporo Beer Drops” on the container, so maybe they are supposed to be cough drops.  Perhaps one of you out there that can interpret Japanese can help me out with this one.

4706135274 ac4414f754 Candies and Dog Treats

Beer in candy form.

The Expat Ken recently gave me a tin of these candies that he brought back from Tokyo not really knowing if they would be any good or not.  Though I did not exactly have high expectations going in, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they taste pretty good.  Apparently when you add a little sugar to what the bottom of a glass of Sapporo tastes like, you end up with a decent hard candy.

4706135138 470d403fc9 Candies and Dog Treats

It cures what ails you!

Not as much of a surprise is that my spent grains from brewing at home can turn into a good treat for the dogs.  On top of that Ian and I have both tasted them with no apparent side effects, so those same dog treats can be a little snack in a pinch.  I think in the future some sort of baked goods will be made from spent grains as a treat just for me.

The ingredients and method for the dog biscuits was easy:

  • 4 cups spent grain (that has not been in contact with any hops)
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 cup  peanut butter
  • 2 eggs

The ratio of the grain and flour can be adjusted and I have seen recipes where the amount of grain is double the flour.  You mix all of the ingredients together (I used my hands) until everything comes together.  I have made this recipe a few times (the pictures are from the first batch) and found the initial mix to be quite dry (I allow my grains to dry before using), so I mix near the sink so I can easy add a bit of water even with my hands covered in peanut butter and flour.

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A very simple list of ingredients.

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Scored before going into the oven.

Then you spread the mixture out evenly on a cookie sheet and score it into the sizes you want.  I used a pizza cutter to divide it up.  It all then goes into the oven at 350 degrees for roughly a half hour or until they are pretty much firm.  After that take them out and break them into the individual pieces that you scored before going in.  Then spread those pieces out around them pan.

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Back into the oven.

After that most recipes I have seen say to drop the temperature down to 200-225 degrees and let them go for hours and hours (8-10) to dry them out so they will not mold during storage.  I do let them go for a while in the oven, but I store them in the refrigerator in a partially open Ziploc bag so mold is not as much of a concern to me.  Besides the dogs like them so much they don’t last all that long anyway!  

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Ready to eat.

Now I really have to get brewing again to come up with some more spent grains for future experimentation.

So I have bottled the last of the beer that I had fermenting in the house.  Sure I am happy to have the process over with and be that much closer to enjoying the final product, but I suspect that the itch to brew some more will come along pretty soon.  After splitting the original batch as I racked it to secondary, I let the unaltered half sit for about ten days before bottling and let this half continue to sit.  After sitting in secondary for about three and a half weeks (a record for me), it was time to go into bottles.

Now on to the bottling details for the bourbon vanilla half . . .

As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially since these few bottles went smoothly), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of the excitement that is bottling.

4655838069 7a12427675 Closer to Enjoying

The evidence left behind by the vanilla bean.

Since it was only half of a batch, I boiled a light ½ cup (rather than ¾ cup) of corn sugar in 1 cup of water (instead of 2), cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.  For this one I used a handful of 22 ounce bottles and the remainder went into the 12 ouncers.  This felt like a good one to go into the larger bottles and it ultimately made for fewer bottles to fill (which is always good).

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Taking the final reading

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.015 which was a bit higher than I was hoping for and gave it a final ABV of roughly 4.94%.  If those numbers are still accurate with the inclusion of bourbon into the mix I don’t know, but I would expect that it changes the game a bit.  Something to do research on for the next time.

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Not technically black, but very tasty!

The aroma was lightly earthy and sweet with slight bourbon warmth and a faint bit of vanilla (as expected).  After drinking the sample I was impressed how the flavors blended smoothly with some light dryness and bitterness at the finish.  It seems to be a good variation on the control half of the batch. 

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Now comes the waiting

Now comes the difficult part as I have to wait for it to condition and become carbonated.  I will definitely be sampling this one in a week just to check in on the progress.  If it goes well I think a full batch of this (with the appropriate tweaks) will be in my brewing future. 

Stay tuned for the official review!

Though bottling is never my favorite part of the home brewing process, at least I know that I am only a short time away from having the chance to enjoy my creation.  The one good thing about this particular bottling session was that I only had a half batch to get through on this day.  After splitting the original batch as I racked it to secondary, I let the unaltered half sit for about ten days before bottling and let the other half continue to sit.  That other half will have to wait for another post.

Now on to the bottling details for the unaltered half . . .

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This is the easy part.

As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially since this session went smoothly), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of it.

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Still not exactly black

Since it was a half batch, I only boiled a light ½ cup (rather than ¾ cup) of corn sugar in 1 cup of water (instead of 2), cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.  I only used the 12 ounce bottles for this one as I am saving the 22 ouncers I have for the bourbon-vanilla half.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.0172 which was a bit higher than I was hoping for and gave it a final ABV of roughly 4.65%.  That number was very slightly down from when it was racked to secondary fermentation, but I never consider my readings that exact anyway.

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The packaging has to be checked for weight capacity.

The taste and aroma did not change much from the sample I tried before racking to secondary.  The low, roasted aroma and light spiciness was there and it was still very much like drinking a nice porter to me.  The coffee-like, chocolately flavors and low bitterness were a bit more prominent than before.

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Mission accomplished

I have high hopes for this one and think that it will be really nice after carbonated and conditioning for some weeks.  Stay tuned for the official review!

In the past I have said that if I had to pick one of the three segments of my brewing posts as the least interesting it would probably be the racking done in part two.  Unlike the process for the Saison, I had some plans to make the Black Ale a little more interesting.  It still was not at all complicated but there are a few additional details with this batch that I have to share to keep you up to date on the progress.

As always (or until I do some more video), if you are interested in a visual example of the racking process take a look at Part 2 of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen or maybe go way back to Part 2 of the Pumpkin Ale.

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Not exactly black

The decision was made even before brewing this one that I would split the batch in two at some point.   I have split batches in the past by dividing the brewing ingredients and brewing two batches separately from the same recipe.  That method was not a complete disaster, but I did not love how the final product(s) turned out.  So for this one I waited until primary fermentation was over before splitting the batch. 

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First time for everything

Before racking it into separate carboys for secondary, the specific gravity was determined to be about 1.0169 and a bit higher than what I wanted to see.  With that, the ABV was somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.69% with the likelihood of at least one of the two split batches ending up higher in the end.

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The fun part of racking

The sample (that I always look forward to drinking after the hydrometer reading is done) had a low roasted aroma with what seemed to be a bit of spice.  The flavor had nice notes of roasted malt with a bit of chocolate and drank very much like a porter in body.  It should be quite good when finally carbonated and ready to drink.

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One of the additions

Then the batch was split with one half staying as it was and simply racked to another fermentation vessel.  Before the other half went through the same process I added 1 cup of a bourbon based liqueur (with honey) and a 6.5-7” vanilla bean that was split and roughed up a bit.  Some of you will have a pretty good guess as to the liqueur added, but I will keep the identity hidden in case it turns out to be a good secret to have.  However, if the end product is terrible I will share it for sure!

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A little visual hint

So both carboys went back to the bathtub to sit for a while longer.  The half that was left alone will sit for another week and the other half (which I labeled “bounilla”) will sit for a few weeks, if not more.  I have yet to let something sit in secondary for that long, but this seemed like a good one to let go for a while longer.

Until bottling . . .

After the frustration that was bottling my Pomegranate Hefeweizen, I was not exactly looking forward to doing the same with the Saison so soon after.  The good thing was that even though I was not equipped to keg it just yet, I did save quite a few of the 22 ounce bottles for the occasion.  Filling fewer bottles is at least one step in the right direction for this part of the process.  That and it seemed that a Saison deserved something more than a plain old 12 once bottle to live in.

4554036649 3848ec62a1 Saison Bottling

More large bottles makes for less work.

Now on to the bottling details of this one . . .

As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially when nothing goes wrong), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of it.

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Always seems to be a different color coming through the siphon.

As usual I boiled ¾ cup of corn sugar in 2 cups of water, cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.  Having more 22 ounce bottles in the mix made for fewer bottles overall and therefore slightly less work this time.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.0132 which was just about spot on to where it should have been and gave it a final ABV of roughly 5.92%.  That number was very slightly down from when it was racked to secondary fermentation, but I never consider my readings exact.

4554669852 aa82e8a08c Saison Bottling

Starting to learn from previous messes.

The taste and aroma did not change much from the sample I tried before racking to secondary.  It had some banana in the aroma with just a bit of spice.  It was light and incredibly easy drinking with some notes of lemon and some slight bitterness toward the finish.  I am pretty confident that this will turn out very well when finally carbonated.

Next up as I wait to sample this one will be racking and eventually bottling the Black Ale that has already been brewed.

4554669902 29de1a1aa4 Saison Bottling

Nothing to do now but wait.

Cousin Adam got a bottle of the Saison before its official release and I think that he will get to it before I actually review it.  Regardless, stay tuned for the official review!

The last of the trio of brews that I have done in the last few weeks (or so) is a Black Ale that was at least somewhat inspired by a sample of the Southern Tier Iniquity that I had for the first time at the FBG Beerfest.  Now it really won’t be the same since (among other things) the Iniquity is an Imperial Black Ale and I will likely be adding some extra ingredients to secondary that will bring an entirely different flavor profile (stay tuned).  That and mine will almost surely not be as good as Southern Tier’s version, though I will enjoy it all the same!

The video from the first part of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen is still a good reference (as it was with the Belgian Saison) since the initial setup was much the same.  Not that the Saison was difficult, but this one was an incredibly simple brewing process.

4554666168 aae5e02ab0 Time for the Black Ale

Grains before

As with every batch, I do my very best to ensure that everything used for my brewing has been sanitized to the best of my ability before getting started.  With that, I again brought 2.5 gallons of water to about 160 degrees, turned off the burner, and put the following into the grain bag:

  • 2.5 lb 2-Row Malt
  • .5 lb De-Bittered Black Malt
  • .5 lb Crystal 90L Malt
4554033353 8d7f046f81 Time for the Black Ale

Grains after

The grains were then soaked for 45 minutes while maintaining the temperature at about 155 degrees.  I have made notes as to how I can better control that temperature which involves turning the burner off short of the 160 degrees as I typically do.  My process becomes more refined each time and I am looking forward to testing the altered method on the next batch.  With that, the grain bag was then pulled out and I poured 2 quarts of 170 degree water over it to ensure all of the grainy goodness was not lost. I removed the pot from the heat and then added:

  • 5 lb Amber Extract
4554666342 5d657b4afb Time for the Black Ale

Bringing it up to a boil.

Once the malt extract was stirred in, the pot went back on the heat until there was a good rolling (controlled) boil.  I set the timer for 60 minutes and then it was time for:

  • Bittering hops – .75 oz Galena
  • Flavoring hops – .25 oz Galena (last 15 minutes of the boil).
  • Aroma hops – None this time
4554666300 44697684a5 Time for the Black Ale

Green nuggets of goodness

After the 60 minutes of boiling I was able to get everything pretty quickly down to below 80 degrees and without any difficulty this time.  After all of these batches maybe I have figured out what can work well for me and I will see how the flavor of the beer turns out as a result.  Perhaps I can continue to put off building that wort chiller after all?

When the temperature was at roughly 77 degrees (with water added to about 5.25 gallons) I pitched in the bloomed Windsor Ale dry yeast that I was using for the recipe.  The yeast was bloomed by adding the contents of the packet to 2 cups of warm water and letting it sit for 15 minutes.  Using two cups was actually a mistake, as I must have had the method used for the Saison still in my head.  Regardless, I then boiled 2 tsp. of sugar in a small amount of water, cooled the mixture, added it to the yeast, and again covered it as I continued with the boiling step of brewing.  The yeast was not as obviously bloomed as it has been in the past, likely a result of my water volume mistake.  Even with that, the airlock was bubbling away in a relatively short time, so all should be well.

4554033559 ce5743b413 Time for the Black Ale

It certainly turned out to be black.

The original specific gravity came in at approximately 1.0527, which was only slightly lower than expected.  Maybe I actually am getting close to getting the final volume closer to being correct?  I will let this one sit for about a week before racking it to secondary with the additional ingredients.

Stay tuned . . .

If I had to pick one of the three segments of my brewing posts as the least interesting it would probably be the racking done in part two.  Now I say that since there is not too much to share with it being a pretty simple and quick process, especially when there are no additions to be made.  With that said, it is more interesting to me since it is the first taste I get after the yeast has done work for a week.  Until I figure out a way to better share that part of the experience you will just have to settle for a few of the details of this batch to keep you up to date on the progress.

4540096367 a6844d6f41 Racking A Belgian

The hard work is done.

If you are interested in a visual example of the racking process take a look at Part 2 of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen or maybe go way back to Part 2 of the Pumpkin Ale.

So the (in progress) Belgian Saison came in with a specific gravity of about 1.013 at the time of transfer that, for once in my relatively short brewing career, was spot on to what was expected of the recipe.  With a current ABV of approximately 5.95% it is slightly lower than originally desired though as expected with a slightly low original gravity.

4540729262 c8ba829e6f Racking A Belgian

Time to just sit back and watch.

4540729364 d2bc429632 Racking A Belgian

Back to the bathtub.

The sample (that I always drink after the hydrometer reading is done) had a bit of a banana aroma with a hint of spice.  It was light and incredibly easy drinking with notes of lemon and some bitterness towards the finish.  I thought it was quite nice overall (even at room temperature and flat) and cannot wait to taste it when carbonated.

4540729188 76a91dc81d Racking A Belgian

A beautiful sight.

So now it is back in the bathtub to clarify in secondary for a week or so before bottling (for which I have saved a bunch of 22 oz bottles).

Until then . . .

As an appropriate topic sandwiched between the Big Brew a few days ago and National Homebrew Day coming up this Friday, I will continue with brewing posts (after the one posted on Saturday) with one today and more to come later this week.  I will even throw in a few of my own beer reviews this week for good measure.  Of course it would have been a more proper homage to the Big Brew to actually participate, but I did not plan well enough to have my equipment not already occupied by other batches.  There is always next year!

Now on to bottling the Pomegranate Hefeweizen . . .

4534775792 df424d792f Bottling Difficulties

Interesting color

There are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process, but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling.  Of course this time there was no (blueberry) favoring added since the POM had already been incorporated.

As usual I boiled ¾ cup of corn sugar in 2 cups of water, cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over.  This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit.

4534142753 a36d43e772 Bottling Difficulties

Waiting for water to boil is exciting.

The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.013, giving the beer approximately 4.34% ABV.  That number did come up a bit since the POM was added going into secondary fermentation.

4534776088 b9c77f4d5f Bottling Difficulties

A bit of quality control.

After tasting the sample that was pulled off for the hydrometer, the aroma was a bit fruity and sweet with some yeasty notes.  It was very smooth with some light tartness and I think it may be somewhat cider-like when carbonated.  I will be sampling again in the very near future (quality control you know).

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It was more work than usual.

As my closing note to this entry I will complain about my new automatic bottling apparatus.  My concerns were spot on and calling it a worthless piece of garbage may be too kind.  I became so frustrated with how it was working that I went back to my bottling wand, knowing that it has issues as well.  The thing that the new automatic bottle filler did best was leak beer all over the floor on the way to the bottles.  The way that the tubing is attached to it does not function well at all and I will need to do some work to it before ever giving it another chance.  I should have purchased another handful of bottling wands rather than pay the $13 for that thing.  Lesson learned I guess.

4534775954 be1e032d48 Bottling Difficulties

My new paperweight.

I suppose that is just another reason to move in the direction of kegging.

Stay tuned for the official review!

The intensity of my home brewing seems to be at one end of the spectrum or the other, with no real middle ground.  When I take a break from it I do not brew at all for months, but when I decide to brew I do a handful of brews in a relatively short period of time.  As I continued with the run of new styles for me, the next one up was a Belgian Saison, which should be a nice beer to have around for the upcoming summer season.

The video from the first part of the Pomegranate Hefeweizen is a good reference for this one as well since the initial setup is much the same.  Even though I am doing a different style, the actual brewing process really does not change a lot.

4523207470 87be68cba6 Brewing A Belgian

The grains as they come.

As with every batch, I do my very best to ensure that everything used for my brewing has been sanitized to the best of my ability before getting started.  With that, I again brought 2.5 gallons of water to about 160 degrees and put the following into the grain bag:

  • 1.75 lb Belgian Pilsner Malt
  • .5 lb White Wheat
  • .5 lb Flaked Wheat
  • .5 lb Aromatic Malt

The grains were then soaked for 45 minutes while maintaining the temperature at about 155 degrees.  I need to refine my methods a bit to better maintain that temperature, but I am generally close enough to not lose too much sleep over it.  The grain bag was then pulled out and I poured 2 quarts of 170 degree water over it to ensure all of the grainy goodness was not lost. I removed the pot from the heat and then added:

  • 3.5 lb Wheat Extract
  • 3.5 lb Extra Pale Extract
4523207610 0088781d03 Brewing A Belgian

Little green nuggets

Once the malt extract was stirred in, the pot went back on the heat until there was a good rolling (controlled) boil.  I set the timer for 60 minutes and then it was time for:

  • Bittering hops – 2 oz Tradition
  • Flavoring hops – No hops this time, though 2 Tbls. (+/-) Fresh Lemon Zest and .5 oz Crushed Paradise Seeds were added (last 15 minutes of the boil).
  • Aroma hops – 1 oz Crystal (last 5 minutes)
4522572903 fd2d1177fc Brewing A Belgian

Adding lemon zest was new for me.

4523207280 9b988ebfc3 Brewing A Belgian

As was adding Paradise Seeds

After the 60 minutes of boiling I was able to get everything pretty quickly down close to 80 degrees, though I again struggled with the last few degrees.  The room temperature in my house this time of year hovers around 80 as the windows are open to the outdoor air and breeze quite a bit, so getting liquid cooled to below that is a bit of a struggle sometimes.  Even with that I think that I have all of the bugs worked out of my method, so it should not be a problem next time.  That or I could build the wort chiller instead of continuing to put it off.  I think if I keep writing it down maybe I will eventually get to it.

4523207128 41914fbdd3 Brewing A Belgian

Some of what is left after straining.

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Throwing in some extra beasties this time.

When the temperature was at roughly 84 degrees (with water added to about 5.25 gallons) I pitched in the bloomed SafBrew T58 dry yeast that I was using for the recipe.  Since the specific gravity was to be pretty high (and higher than I have ever brewed), I went with the two packets of yeast that were recommended in the recipe.  The yeast was bloomed by adding both packets to 2 cups of warm water and letting it sit for 15 minutes.  I then boiled 2 tsp. of sugar in a small amount of water, cooled the mixture, added it to the yeast, and again covered it as I continued with the boiling step of brewing.  The airlock was bubbling away within hours, so all should be well.

The original specific gravity came in at approximately 1.0584, which was a bit lower than expected.  That is typical for me and I suspect maybe I am topping it off to a bit more than the 5.25 gallons that I am aiming for which would water down the mix some.  I will let this one sit for a bit more than a week to let all of that yeast do its work before racking it to secondary.

Stay tuned . . .

After a few thoughts of doing so in the past, I have finally remembered to do another video for racking my beer to the secondary fermentation vessel.  This was in part as a thank you to Jeff Rushton for sending me the POM (that you will see added below) and also because I had a lovely assistant nearby for the occasion.  Though I think that I cover most of the specifics in the short video, I will still highlight the details of this batch in text to keep you up to date on the progress.

First take a look at the clip showing the 64 ounces of POM joining the party:

As mentioned the (soon to be) Pomegranate Hefeweizen came in with a specific gravity of about 1.0152 at the time of transfer.  That leaves it with a current ABV of approximately 4.05% though this reading was before adding the POM and I expect that the addition of so much sugar at the point in the process will bring that number up a bit by the time I go to bottle.

4511118122 4fcda2ffe4 Bring on the POM

As always, the Director of Sanitation is nearby.

The sample (which did not yet have the POM added) had a bit of a yeasty aroma with a mild, sweet flavor.  I think that existing profile will accept the flavors of the POM pretty well.  As mentioned in the video, the POM went in right out of the bottles after allowing it to come to room temperature.  Since it was already pasteurized I did not see the need to add any more steps to the otherwise very simple process.

4511117868 e08de8d70c Bring on the POM

The color will surely be interesting.

So now I can share the part that quickly helped me remember something learned long ago.  Actually I suppose there were two options available, but did not go with either.

After adding that much fresh sugar to the mix, I knew that the remaining yeast would take off and active fermentation would be strong for at least the short term.  So, since I racked everything into a carboy without much headspace I should have capped it with a blow off tube to prevent a potential mess.  The other option was to rack everything into another bucket with plenty of extra space and just go with an airlock.  As mentioned, I did not go with either option and this is what happened within hours . . .

4510478267 d3eeb637f3 Bring on the POM

Lesson learned . . . . again.

That is at least part of the reason why my beer ferments in the bathtub!  Shortly after that I swapped the plug and airlock to a blow off tube until the action slowed significantly.  All is now well.

Until bottling . . .

Since I had quite an inventory of home brewed beer built up a break from brewing was in order, though I did not know that time off would turn into three months!  So when I decided to start up again, I had to (in my mind) make up for lost time and brew frequently in the month of April.  It also made for a good opportunity to try brewing a few styles that I have not attempted to tackle to this point.  After (too) much thought, a Hefeweizen was first in line to go as a fairly simple recipe to ease back into things with.

This is the Hefeweizen that will be getting the infusion of POM that was provided to me free of charge via the generosity of Jeff Rushton.  That process will happen as I rack the beer to secondary fermentation.

Now to get the first step out of the way, check out this short video of the set up before the start of brewing.

As always, I do my very best to ensure that everything used for my brewing has been sanitized to the best of my ability before getting started.  With that, I again brought 2.5 gallons of water to about 160 degrees and put the following into the grain bag:

  • 1.25 lb German Pilsner Malt
  • 8 oz Cara Pils Malt
  • 1.25 lb Red Wheat
4497360059 99c7eb4aec Starting Up Again

Grains taking a bath

The grains were then soaked for 45 minutes while maintaining the temperature at about 155 degrees.  The grain bag was then pulled out and I poured 2 quarts of 170 degree water over it to ensure all of the grainy goodness was not lost. I removed the pot from the heat and then added:

  • 5 lb Wheat Extract

Once the malt extract was stirred in, the pot went back on the heat until there was a good rolling (controlled) boil.  I set the timer for 60 minutes and then it was time for:

  • Bittering hops – .75 oz Hallertau
  • Flavoring hops – None this time
  • Aroma hops – .25 oz Hallertau
4497360199 0fa9ac491a Starting Up Again

Weighing out the hops

After the 60 minutes of boiling I was able to get everything pretty quickly down close to 80 degrees, though struggled with the last few degrees.  Room temperature in my house this time of year hovers around 80 as the windows are open to the outdoor air quite a bit, so getting liquid cooled to below that is a bit of a struggle.  I have continued to put off building a proper wort chiller, so I only have myself to blame until taking the time to do so.  I have learned not to stress over those last few degrees though.

When the temperature was at roughly 84 degrees (with water added to about 5.25 gallons) I pitched in the bloomed Munich German Wheat dry yeast that I was using for the recipe.  It was bloomed by adding the dry yeast to 1 cup of warm water and letting it sit for 15 minutes.  I then boiled 1 tsp. in a small amount of water, cooled the mixture, added it to the yeast, and again covered it as I continued with the boiling step of brewing.  All is well as fermentation was going strong by the time that I checked on it early the next morning and I expect a bit more of a banana profile resulting from the higher fermentation temperatures.

4497360343 f875af4c03 Starting Up Again

They are alive!

The original specific gravity came in at approximately 1.0461, which was a bit lower than expected (as usual for me).  I will let it sit for a week or so before racking to secondary and adding the POM to the equation.

Stay tuned . . .

In case there are any worries among my family and friends over my evolving beer drinking palate or any significant alteration in my diet, I recently spent Easter Sunday in a way that should put all of that to rest.  Thanks to Meghann, Kelly, and their family I was able to balance out the vegan dinner that The Wife and I attended a few weeks earlier all while living the High Life.  After viewing some of the pictures below I suspect that there will a single tear shed by at least a few folks in the central and northern New York areas.

On to a beautiful Easter afternoon . . .

4497996390 8e555b5ec5 In Case of Worries

The guest of honor on that day

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Starting the deconstruction

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Seeking out some of the crispy skin

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Mission accomplished . . . living the High Life

If anyone remembers when I was pondering the order of my brewing over the course of this month and whether or not the fruit component would arrive in time, the puzzle is coming together quickly.  Thanks to Jeff at POM (via conversation with The Wife in Baltimore), I received that new type of fruit that I have been hoping to use in a beer.  The first to be infused with the POM Wonderful goodness will be the Hefeweizen, but there are at least tentative plans to add it to one other beer and another beverage that I have never tried making before.

4497998000 f0d4da2e3b In Case of Worries

Wait for the magic trick

4497998168 eec4b9d067 In Case of Worries

POM box to cat right in front of your eyes!

A big thank you again to Jeff for setting me up with a product that should help make for some good (and interesting) home brewed beer.

4497362587 ddd7cd6284 In Case of Worries

Staying cool until the weekend

Updates on the brewing process will be on the way soon!

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