More Pumpkin, Please!
I’ve recently decided to promote fall to my favorite season. It’s not necessarily the weather, maybe a bit to do with the colors: but mostly it’s about the beer. I simply love a good Octoberfest beer and wait anxiously for their return each September. But even more so, I await the arrival of the pumpkin beers. There is something magical about throwing a little pumpkin in the mash, or boil, or just dumping a fresh wort right into a pumpkin!
That last point is my mission for this year. I have a lone pumpkin growing out in my garden, destined for greatness. The goal is to set this baby on my thanksgiving table, full of beer, and perhaps even a tad carbonated (if I get so lucky).
Update
So if you haven’t checked it out, drop by Hoppybrewing.com and check out the progress. I’m slowly getting the database set up so that I will have a fully searchable database of batches and all the pertinent data surrounding them. I’m also working on getting the css set up so that it will look good. But function over form for now, I want to get things working before I make them beautiful.
I have this weekend to work on the new site and get it going. I’ll leave this sit up for now, at least until we can import everything over to there from here.
Cheers!
I tried to get all fancy and have come back for some good, old-fashioned blogging. Maybe this way I’ll post instead of coding.
Nightengale Honey Ale – Batch 010
Well, this is batch number 10. It’s hard to believe it’s only been that many. So in my quest for a light yet flavorful honey lager, I’ve changed names from SB² to Nightengale Honey Ale. I think that the name needed to reflect the presence of honey, and a reference to a visionary leader, Florence Nightengale, to truly shine.
Here’s the recipe:
Date: Mar 27
5 lbs 2-row Malt
1 lb Crystal-10 Malt
1/2 lb Honey Malt
3 1/2 lbs Clover Honey
2 oz. Cascade Plug hops @ 60 min
1/2 oz. dried sweet orange peel @ 15 min
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
San Fran Lager Yeast (Steam Beer Yeast) (Wyeast liquid yeast)
I did a single step mash because I did this batch after work and didn’t have a bunch of time to get it done: 75 min at 155°. I sparged with 175 degree water (5 gallons). I boiled in the keggle for 60 minutes, adding the hops and orange in there, and then cooled it and pitched the yeast at 70 degrees.
It was a real pain draining the keg after boiling – I forgot to put in the copper mesh strainer on the inside, and so the drain got plugged by hops and I had to just dump the liquid out the top, which made a wonderful mess. I won’t forget that again. But at least this time I did end up with 6 gallons after my boil, a little more than I needed, which was perfect.
The OG was 1045, which is exactly what SB² was – I’m excited to give it a month and see how it tastes!
Better SB Squared
Next up in the beer arena is going to be SB² again. This time I am dropping the ginger and hoping to pick up more of the orange peel flavor. In addition, I am planning to use Steam Beer yeast. This yeast is actually a lager yeast, but you ferment it between 60º-68º instead of colder temps. This is what Anchor Steam Beer is famous for. The other change I am going to make is I am going to add some wheat. I’m not sure quite how it will work out yet as far as proportions, but I’ll figure it out and I plan on brewing tomorrow since I am gone this weekend to Mt. Rushmore and I need to crank some beer out before then!
Orange Ginger Mead – Batch 009
So I caught the brew bug last night at about 4:30pm, right before I left the office. I had some honey and yeast already sitting at home, so tonight was a mead night. I had been looking for something interesting to make and had decided a few days ago that a ginger mead needed to be attempted. So I swung by the local Food Co-op, picked up some ginger, and headed home.
Not being a simple man, I knew I needed one more ingredient to make the mead really shine. I was searching the cupboards when I noticed the fruit basket out of the corner of my eye. A lone orange was calling to me. My quest was complete. Here, then, is the recipe:
7 ½ lbs Colorado Wildflower Honey
½ lb fresh thin-sliced Ginger
Zest of one medium-sized orange
Additives:
1 ½ tsp Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp Yeast Energizer
Lalvin K1-V1116 re-hydrated in 105º water for 15 minutes
I brought 2 gallons of water up to about 178º and then removed it from the burner (to avoid scorching the honey) and added the wildflower honey. At the same time, I added the orange peel and the sliced ginger. I let that sit at 155º for 30 minutes. Then I cooled it down to 70º and transferred it into my 3 gallon carboy, ginger and all.
The OG was 1.084.
I’ll let it go for a month, then rack it off the ginger and orange peel. It sure does smell amazing though! I can’t wait for this one to age a bit! I now have 8 gallons of mead either in the primary or secondary, plus about ten 12 oz bottles left from batch 001. I should have a decent supply now, as soon as some of those in the carboys get settled and then bottled.
Hoppybrewing.com
It’s official! I just bought hoppybrewing.com and the blog will be moving there shortly. Until then, check here and I will work out the rest when the time comes!
New Domain
With any luck, I’ll be moving the blog by this weekend to a new domain. I’m looking around for some good ones. Too bad brewbeer.com is not available – it’s a lame site too, I wish I could have it. Anyway, be looking forward to that and a decent looking blog in the upcoming weeks.
Clementine’s Molasses Porter – Bottling 007
Happy Easter! I am celebrating by breaking out a bottle of homebrew and getting down to business.
I’m bottling Clementine’s Porter today. I’ve decided to do 3 gallons with the normal proportion of dextrose sugar, but for the other 2 gallons I am priming with molasses (at the rate of 1 cup per 5 gallons). I’m only doing two gallons of the molasses-primed stuff because I think it may overpower the beer. But it may be perfect – who knows…
I also have planned a ginger mead with a hint of orange. I am really trying to stockpile my mead and keep up with production so that I don’t have to ration so carefully and can feel free to drink it when I have the urge to do so.
FG 1.011
I’ll go ahead and stick this with the 007 post.
New Look
I’ve gotten annoyed with the terribly narrow format of the blog, and so I am testing out some new looks. I may break down and pay the $15 for custom CSS so I can make it how I want it. It’ll look better soon, I promise…
Update: How to Use Your Newly Converted Keg Brewpot
APPENDIX – Using Your Brewpot:
Supplies:
- a copper dish scrubber (find it at the grocery store)
- teflon tape (in the plumbing section of the hardware store for a buck)
- a stainless steel spoon, around 2 feet. Find a cheap one here.
After making the brewpot, you want to prep all the threads by putting teflon tape on all male threads ($0.99 at hardware stores). This will keep the threads from leaking: then put it all together in this order:
The spigot goes handle-side outside the brewpot, the threaded end through the hole in the keg (if you can’t figure that much out, you’re in trouble). On the inside, you’ll put on the O-ring, then the stainless steel washer, and finally the female threaded coupler. Coming out from that you will want the copper fitting you have soldered together screwed on, ending up facing down toward the bottom of the keg. It will look like this:
Inside:
Outside:
Next time you’re at the store, pick up a copper dish scrubber. This will act as a screen for all the hops and trub (sidenote: it is pronounced ‘troob’) at the end of the boil. put this around the bottom of the copper ‘L’ fitting. When you get the scrubber, it has a hole right in the middle that is not very conducive to this project. Simply unroll the mesh and you will get something that looks like this and can be folded up and used as an effective screen:
Next you’ll want to test the setup for leaks, and while doing it, mark gallons as follows. Add water 1 gallon at a time (or 1/2 gallon at a time if you want to be more precise). At each point, mark on your metal spoon at the water level. This allows you to measure how much liquid you have left, allowing you to know when you get to your 5.5 gallon mark or whatever you are aiming for.
Now you’re ready to boil the beer! After the beer has boiled it’s course (60-180 minutes), you need to drain it out and cool it down before you pitch the yeast. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put your immersion chiller in the wort for the last 15-20 minutes of the boil to sanitize it, then chill it right in the brewpot. But, if you can’t get a water source to your propane setup like me, you’ll have to drain it into a bucket, take the bucket to where you have water access and then cool it there. If you are going to cool it in the brewpot, do that. If not, just keep reading.
Now before you drain the beer, it is best to create a whirlpool to get all of the hops and trub (sidenote – it’s pronounced ‘troob’) to the middle of the brewpot. Simply stir the wort in a circular motion getting it going as fast as you can, then let it sit for 10-15 minutes. After that, drain it through your already installed copper screen, and you will minimize the sediment that gets to the primary. This is why you put the copper ‘L’ drain on the side, and not into the middle. You won’t need to siphon because all that’ll be left is sediment. You’ll lose a little liquid, but not enough to make a fuss over. Just make sure to boil a little extra to make up for it. After you drain it, if you have not done so, cool it to yeast temperatures and pitch your yeast. If you are draining the beer while it is still hot (without cooling to yeast temperatures), you will need to use special heat resistant tubing, not just the nylon stuff you use for syphoning. You’re local homebrew store should have it.
There you are! Enjoy using your brew pot (or as the cool people say, your keggle).
I also posted this comment with the keg conversion howto.
