A quick note not related to beer...

Locking one's keys in one's car is a great way to bring plans to a screeching halt...I need a homebrew!

Cloudy Scotsman

This beer won't hunt...

Really, it won't clarify. I finally gave up and carbonated 1/2 the batch and tasted last night. Not bad, but definitly not very good. Much like the NFL Colts my confidence has grown shaky. In fact, since I switched to the new pumping system I haven't brewed a truly GOOD beer*. Everything has been mediocre at best, and nasty at worst. Based on the outcome of the two beers I brewed last week I will decide whether to fall back to the original version of the RCBC.

Hopefully this will work out and it will be contamination and bad recipes instead!

* Exception being the BVIP for the BBG. I tasted while transferring to kegs this past weekend and DAMN it was GOOD!

Brew-30...

Brewing today. Irish Red Ale recipe adopted from one of my BBG peers. I hope it comes out good since I hope to have it for my holiday 4-pack. Right now:

1 - Brown Ale
2 - Irish Red Ale
3 - Scottish Ale
4 - Amber Lager

Hopefully enough goodness for the holidays!

Of Monkeys And Footballs...

Last night I helped DT(DrankTank) brew his first all-grain last night, only he didn't check is grain order before we started and ended up 4.5lbs short on base malts. We salvaged the brew by using DME to boost the gravity to a respectable level (thanks to promash!). It was my favorite brown ale recipe, but we will have to see how it does with extract and grain.

Every time I brew with him it is an adventure!

Update

You would think that I would have more time working part time, but quite the contrary...I did get the Highland amber brewed and got the O'fest lagering. Drank Tank and I transferred the mead, and it is already about 17% ABV. Still too sweet, but hopefully a little more time will yield the gravity we want.

Next Up - Highland Amber

This Friday I am brewing a Scottish Ale using a recipe I found on the net. It's called "Highland Amber" and I hope to do it justice. This winter I'm going to try and brew a number of different styles:

Belgian (Farmhouse style)
American Lager (Sam Adams)
Bock
German Pilsner
EXPERIMENTAL (Probably the chestnut brown)
Porter

We'll see how many I get through since I will be moving to part-time work and doing some home remodeling!

Pic of the day...

Here we see a nice pic of my NQG Stout (nitro) preparing to be consumed in my official BBG pint glass!

Anti-Hop

No Bitterization without Malt Representation!

The lager you wait, the better the lager.

BBG meeting last night detailed the lagering process. It's nice to hear more info about lagering, especially since it is easy to screw up. The interesting thing is that there is apparently more than one way to skin this cat. I've tried to be well read on the process and it seems the more you read the more confused you can get. Basically, here's the "process":

1. Use starter to get yeasties active, pitch and ferment at lager temps (48-56F).
2. After fermentation is complete, raise temps to 66-68F for 24-48hrs for diacetyl rest (optional).
3. Transfer to secondary/lagering vessle. Lower temps to 28-34 for at least 1 week per ABV % (5% - 5 weeks). I can suggest from experience that longer is better, and it's not unheard of lager for upwards of 5-6 months. This winter I am going to do a number of lagers, and keep them in the cave for many months. I hope to have at least 4 lagering for next year.

Some argue that the diacetyl rest is not necessary, or that temps should be higher/lower. The bottom line is that it is easy to make a good ale, and even easier to make a bad lager!

Whoops, took a week off! Light Irish Red Lives On!

Well, I guess I wrote a lot the last couple blogs anyway. You could have broken them down into daily capsules. Anyway, tis a dark day, as the O'fest is gone, the Brown ale is still a bit bitter, and the pumpkin isn't quite ready.

ON TAP - LIR, Plain Ole' Punkin Ale(green), NQG Stout (Not Quite Guiness)
KEG CONDITIONING - Brown Ale x2
FERMENTING - BVIP*, O'fest #2

The Light Irish Red...This beer has been on tap since August, yet I can't get anyone to finish it off! Funny thing is, it's still a pretty fine ale, just very weak and light for a homebrew. I've been drinking it while watching football so as to not get lit and end up in bed at 7:30 Sunday evening. I've been very successful with the stout and the O'fest so everyone's gravitated to those, leaving the Light Irish Redheaded-stepchild Ale waiting for some love. I'm even going to bottle some of it for a contest in December, just for the hell of it...

*BVIP update: It is almost done fermenting. Actually it was almost done a week ago, but it seems I am supposed to let it sit on the primary yeast cake for 10-12 days at least since it is a high-gravity brew. This is not "mine", but property of the BBG.

That's how I roll

Found this pic from two years ago. We take October seriously...Treats for the kids. Sam Adams Octoberfest for the adults.

Going Big...Too Big...

Saturday was a big day for the RCBC. In some respects, too big! As I've mentioned in previous posts, I volunteered to be one of six brewers for the BBG's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter (BVIP). This required major upgrades to the brewery to accommodate for the large grain bill (35lbs!)...The ensuing adventure, I've decided, requires being told as a story...

Chapter 1 - Too Easy
So, off I went, with DrankTank assisting. We milled the grains, and mashed, hitting our temp perfectly. While we waited I mulled some hard cider with spices and we each enjoyed a cup to warm up and mellow out. It's a good thing we did, for we quickly learned that things don't always come out as easy as we would like.

Chapter 2 - Sticky Sweet
The buzzer signaling completion of the 60 min mash came as we finished our cider. I set the pump for recirculation and the sweet wort began to flow. Then the flow slowed, with the pump getting nothing but a trickle of wort. I quickly realized, it was stuck. After stirring, restarting, and stirring for 30 mins it was obvious that desperate measures were in order. We were getting nowhere fast, and as the wort began to cool, it would just get thicker, as would the plot of this story.

Chapter 3 - Bucket Brigade
I made the decision to dump the entire mash in buckets so we could start over. That's easier said than done with 13 gallons of the stickiest 155 degree goo you've ever seen. I filled every bucket I own, covering myself and the driveway in the process. Then we added a little bit at a time until things got stuck again. Finally we used a colander to strain the grain, an inefficient but effective strategy. Finally, after an hour of struggle, we were boiling wort. That's when the struggle for sanity began.

Chapter 4 - The Antihop Strikes Back
Delirious from the sticky struggle I decided to throw out the hops in a fleeting effort to regain control of the brew. My sure-minded assistant saved me from my madness, giving me one pellet to toss out in jest and throwing the rest in the boil. With a sample of wort yielding lower gravities than expected, the future of the brew was still unknown.

Chapter 5 - Sweet Ending
As the boil completed and the wort cooled we began to hear of other brewers' struggles. They too had experienced stuck mashes and, for some, lower gravities. We drained wort to fermenters, pitched yeast, and called it a day. We had survived to brew again.

Bitter Defeat...

In my 10 months of brewing I've thrown out one 5-gallon batch. It was gross, even after sitting for a bit and carbonating. Captain Pete fondly refers to it as "Hose-Ass Beer" since it tasted like hose water.

One batch until now...although it is not quite official (I'm giving it another week to mellow, but the outlook is grim) I believe I will be tossing my second batch. This time 10-gallons of strong ale from my original recipe that we love so much. Brewing was perfect, hit mash temps and gravities spot-on, and it fermented out quickly and had an accurate final gravity. But there was one problem...tasting of the sample I took while transferring to secondary were god-awful bitter. So bitter it punched out the caramel flavors we love completely, leaving nothing but bitter agony, and frustration. I still don't know what happened. Was it the new brewery? the yeast? hops? contamination? Tonight I'm going to taste the pumpkin ale for comparison, and pray it doesn't have the same bite!

Beeracolada

A recent Miller Light commercial discussed putting fruits in beers. I've compiled a list of exceptions to the "No Fruiting Beer" Man-Law:

- Lime wedge in Dos Equis Amber Lager. I'm not sure why, but lime bits in this Vienna style lager is a tasty treat.
- Lime in Corona. Similar to above, but in this case the lime gives the beer flavor (Corona doesn't really have a lot of "flavor" of it's own.)

No-Gos:

- Orange Slice in wheat beers. Who the hell started that?

Bringing it around, stability

The upgrades to the RCBC have come out well. I've been able to stabilize my wort volumes, original gravities, and mash temps. Good thing, because I need to bring my A-game to the plate next weekend when we brew the club's bourbon vanilla porter.

RCBC v1.1 Online...

It's like seeing your child ride a bike w/o training wheels for the first time. After nearly a month of upgrading I brewed the first batch in the newly renovated brewery. Here's a list of the additions:

- 15 gallon mash tun (up from 12 gal)

- Fully automated pumping system including wort recirculation

- plumbed water delivery to HLT and wort chiller

- graduated sight tube for boil pot

Pump in action (note the clear tube for determining wort clarity)

Wort recirculation in progress

Graduated sight tube (so I start collecting the proper volumes!)

Oh yeah, I found my camera...

And...we're back...

Following a week of the plague, and vacation I am back in the saddle. Modifications on the brewery are complete, and I plan to brew a stout tomorrow, and perhaps something else Saturday. Last week Drank Tank and I brewed up some chestnut mead (custom recipe) which will be ready sometime in mid-late 2007, and I started another gallon of hard cider.

Went to Blowing Rock, Nc this past weekend and enjoyed a few more Sam Adams O'fest by the fire. Also hit the Six Pence Pub in town and had a few pints of Old Speckled Hen with some fish n chips...it was great! I can't wait to get my stout up and on tap with nitrogen!

Brewmaster Down...

Spent the weekend barfing and "blowing mud" as my buddy so eloquently puts it. Finally ate a full meal last night after 3 days of drinking gatorade. Did have a vision about our brown ale with chestnuts (actually my assistant brewmaster's idea). So I shelled a pound of nuts. It took almost two hours and my fingers still hurt! I guess an upcoming meeting will feature nut shelling...

RCBC Bi-quarterly Meeting...

Octoberfest tasting. The only survivor: Dogtoberfest from the Flying Dog Brewery. Not sure if it is a true lager/o'fest, but it was a damn good brew. Funny, it was the only one I enjoyed. Pete liked them all, but he was hammered and would have passed ram urine...

My buddy brewer from the mountains is bringing 50+ lbs of chestnuts tomorrow...Looking forward to some chetnut brown ale!

The Washington Hop Party

Anti-Hops unite against the troubling trend of maximum International Bittering Units:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/hops.fire.ap/index.html