Chuck's Diversions

Off to produce a new one today...

2012-02-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have had the itch for a while... I bottled my last batch (a very nice wheat beer...mmmmm) several weeks ago and my living room is missing my favorite feature... an actively bubbling fermenter in the corner!

So I picked up some grain yesterday evening at BFD and I am going to spend this morning brewing a batch of beer.

I'm making the wheat beer again but with a tweak... The target of the last batch was 4.5 ABV. What I actually hit was 3.9 ABV. more on that later.. .

My new target is 6 ABV (yes... a stronger brew.. mohoohoohahahah). This calls for a bit more grain than the last batch. The grain bill here is going to be approximately 14 pounds..

What I am brewing up is...

7.9 pounds US 2-Row malt
4.86 pounds US White Wheat Malt
1.21 pounds US Carapils Malt

Hops are gonna be US Cascade... 2 oz total.. .5 oz at 60 min, 1oz at 15, .5 oz at 0

and half an oz of sweet orange peel.... in the fermenter.

I am such a nerd, I'm blogging about this now.. before even having breakfast... anyways..

It helps to have the right tools too. I got into a little trouble last time because I used too much water in the sparging process. I had to boil for an extra 30 min. to get the volume down and I was still a little bit over where I needed to be..

I was doing it by eyeballing the thing and that is clearly not the way to go. It helps to have a calculator that tells you exactly how much water you should use in the process. There is one in BeerAlchemy, the program I use to design my concoctions and there are several available online.. There is a rather nice one here: at brew 365.

So I punch in my figures and...

It looks like I am going to need to start getting 4.65 gallons of water heated up for the mashing.. and have the sparge on standby, 4.91 gallons.

For the non-brewer, the mashing is equivalent to when you drop your teabag in the boiling water to brew. Sparging is running more hot water through after you've drained the pot so you can get all the tea you can get out of that bag.

So now I am off to start brewing... oh, and I better grab some breakfast and all that jazz too.

My Dark ale....

2012-01-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

It came out tasting great! ...the problem is that I did not use enough dextrose to prime it before bottling. There is barely a bubble when poured. It is rather flat.

I am hoping that with age, it will be better. I need to bottle the other brew (my wheat beer) but I'm low on empties and caps. I'm going to have to let that sit in the secondary for another week or so before I bottle it.

I don't have it in my budget this week to make any more brew purchasing. Another week in the secondary fermenter can't hurt.

Well... Actually...

2011-12-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

I ended up bottling the dark ale this morning. I became tied up in a project yesterday.

So the % ABV.. half a point lower than my expectations.. was 4% ...not bad. I'd like to go stronger but this was my first brew using a mashing tun. My second brew with the tun won't be much better (recall, I used too much water, thinned it out a bit).. but hey..

It'll still taste great, which is my goal anyway.

Bottle Day...

2011-12-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

I have one brew in the primary fermenter and the other in the secondary. The secondary is going into the bottle today! ...its my normal dark ale with sweet orange peel added to it. I am looking forward to finding out how it turns out.. It needs to sit in the bottle for at least another week before I can try it out.

With that... the wheat beer I started 2 weeks ago will go into the secondary after I've cleaned and sterilized the container. I'm looking forward to that one as well. I really like wheat beer.

That is the nice thing about this hobby; You can indulge your taste without breaking the bank. Each batch costs me about $30 - $40 in materials (grain, hops, yeast, etc...) and produces about two cases of beer. I average about $35 a batch.

Your average factory-made premium beer costs about $12 for a 12 pack.. plus taxes... more if your favorite brew is not on sale (I am partial to Blue Moon).

The Dogs dig the biscuits...

2011-12-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

I made up a batch of spent-grain dog biscuits..

They were a hit..

I still have some raw material about. I may make up some more for the pups later. I also want to try out one of the various bread recipes out there that use spent grain..

I tried a Spinning class yesterday evening

2011-12-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

...and I survived to tell the tale.

It was actually pretty fun. I had to disassociate what I was doing from actual cycling. My cleats did not work with the bikes they had there. Mine are either the wrong style or (more likely) they are mated to my own bike's pedals. I used to toe straps instead.

Because of my personal geometry vs the bike, I did not do any of the standing on the pedals parts.. I just stayed in the saddle.

One.. it feels unnatural to me to stand on a bike (even my own) unless I am actually climbing a hill.. two, kept slipping out of those stupid straps.. and three, there's this object in my way.. below my chest and above my waist. ;)

But it was fun nonetheless. I had a good sweat and it was more engaging an activity in a room full of people than alone on my bike trainer in my house. On my bike trainer, it is a real struggle to get past 30 min. without getting bored to death.

So.. I'll go back and do it again and maybe some more. ...and to think, when I was in shape and on the trail every day; I used to mock people in spin classes because they were only "play-cycling" and not getting the fulfillment of being out on the open road.

Off Target

2011-12-09T12:07:00.000-08:00

I used too much water for the wheat beer.

My pre-boil gravity was pretty on target but I did that check prior to sparging.

I was shooting for an OG of 1.061 and what I got was 1.034

My other brew that is in the secondary (a dark evil brew).. had an OG of 1.040 and was 1.010 going into the secondary (that one is doing fine)

Insult to injury.. its been in the fermenter for two days now and no action. I see some sediment on the bottom but no krauzen or anything happening up top.

So.. the recipe for this disaster was:

6.5 pounds 2-row
4 pounds White Wheat malt
1 pound Carapils

half-oz US Cascade at the start of boil
1 oz US Cascade at 15 min.
half-oz US Cascade at end of boil

Half-oz sweet orange peel at 15 min.

White labs hefeweizen ale yeast

Steeped at 150 Deg. F for an hour.. boiled for 90 min.

I will have to be more mindful of how much water I am using next time.

Dog Biscuits from spent grains..

2011-12-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with the owner of BFD yesterday and he told me that he will sometimes hang onto his spent grains to either make bread or make dog biscuits..

Huh.. dog biscuits? Sounds simple enough.. and happily, the internet provides (see, there are things other than porn on the interwebs)...

First ..a video of the process.. (not sure I'd do that egg shell thing)

....and from elsewhere:

Original recipe:
4 cups spent grain
2 cups flour
1 cup peanut butter (all natural)
2 eggs

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Press down into a dense layer on a large cookie sheet. Score almost all the way through into the shapes you want. Bake for about half an hour at 350 F to solidify them. Loosen them from the sheet, break the biscuits apart and return them, loosely spread out on the cookie sheet, to the oven at 225 F for 3 to 4 hours (or until they are really dry) to prevent mold growth. Store in an airtight container to keep them dry and mold-free.

...So I guess I'll go get some PB later and try this out.

And... so I can enjoy as well, maybe I'll make some bread as well..
http://www.beeratjoes.com/index.php/beer-dinners/spent-grain-beer-bread/

k.i.s.s. .....

2011-11-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

Ferb, I know what we're gonna to today...

Well... tomorrow.. This one is simple and cheap, I'll have to go get the parts in the morning.

Mashing....

2011-11-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have been contemplating changing things around a bit. I've been mashing my grains via the brew in a bag method.

It works ok and it is pretty simple. The materials are cheap... I use paint strainer bags that barely stretch over the lip of my boiler.

The stretching and the lifting of the bag out of the boiler are the pain in the ass parts of the process.

So.. I've been contemplating the manufacture of a false bottom for my boiler. Then.. I can just set my grains directly in the thing, drain out the wort and then I can dump out the grains, rinse the boiler out and use it again.. to boil. :)

Now I shall cruise the internet for ideas. Hopefully I can find some existing materials around the house. The cheapest store-bought ones are in the $30 range and there's no guarantee they'll work in my boiler...

Some ideas from google images...

Just bottled some...

2011-11-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished bottling up my experimental brew from 10/26.. I'm happy to say that I came away with 4.5% ABV going into the bottle. That should taste alright after a week to condition in the bottle. I'm looking forward to tasting how the licorice root changes the flavor.

Experimenting.. a bit

2011-10-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

I Last Thursday, I started another baby brew.. I thought I'd experiment with the ingredients a little and ad an adjunct to the wort.. in this case, Dried licorice root.

The recipe as follows....

Mash for 1 hour @ 152 degrees....
5 pounds Maris (UK... was gonna just use 2-row but my supplier/pusher was out)
1 pound Cara Pils
.5 pound Chocolate malt
.5 pound CaraAroma (German.. crystal malt)

Start the boil for 1 hours and...
@60 min. 1 oz Fuggle hops
@30 min. half oz Cascade hops
@15 min. .5 oz Dried licorice root
@5 min. .5 oz Cascade hops and .5 oz Dried licorice root

After chilling and sticking it into the fermenter, I put it to bed with dry ale yeast.

My OG was 1.041 (about 6% sugar) ....I gotta improve on the efficiency in my system, I need to hit at least 1.050..

It bubbled away happily for a few days and then stopped. I added wheat beer yeast to kick it in again and that got it going for another day or so.

This evening, I moved it to the secondary fermenter.. The gravity now sits at 1.014. So.. I am now sitting at 4% alcohol. ..could be better, will be after a couple weeks in the secondary.

This batch, after bottle conditioning, will prolly be ready to go by Turkey day..

So I was reading a magazine

2011-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading BYO and the latest issue has an article that talks about several old school beers from days gone by and recipes to brew clones of those beers. For the most part, those companies do not exist. Their brands are owned by the big brewers.

Their names live on but they are no longer brewed by the same companies or where they originated. The entire thing is really kind of sad. Take this Wikipedia entry for Hamm's Brewery, for instance. Now they're just a fleeting memory, owned by foreign interests. All that history is ..for lack of a better word, History. If you see a can of Hamms now, it has little connection to the original.. aside from perhaps a warm memory and just maybe they got the recipe right.

At my age, I never had a can of any of the original brew, They were long gone by the time I reached 21 but I do remember the commercials. They were pretty memorable, with the cartoon bear. If I recall correctly, they used to run the commercials pretty heavily towards the end of Summer/Fall... Ahhh...nostalgia. I may try the clone brew recipe BYO published..

The following one requires you to turn up your volume:

...And one featuring a live bear..

The corn...

2011-08-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

The corn, for all its weirdness, tasted really good. As I mentioned before, it was not full of completely red kernels, just kernels with red spots on them.

I steamed them over rice and the red pigment dripped onto the rice and made the rice red. This did not affect the taste a bit.

I think I will grow some more.

The harvest...

2011-07-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

I harvested my corn... last night, I pulled two ears for dinner w/the girl. They tasted really good. Sweet corn, as advertised..

They were not really red kernels. They had red spots on them and the cornsilk was red.. maybe they cross-polinated with someone else's corn in the area.

I ended up with 16 edible ears (not including the ones from last night). Only two of them ended up being "supermarket sized." The rest were medium to small.

My broccoli is coming up weird.. just like last year. I have healthy adult plants but they are not producing heads... just these long stalks with little tiny heads on them. I am doing something wrong or I am just not cut out to grow the stuff.

I'll sow some more corn next week. I should be able to pick that by the end of September or early October.

Milk stout into the secondary

2011-07-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Its only been a week but the krausen has already fallen to the bottom of the carboy, so I went ahead and moved my brew over to the secondary fermenter.

I took a sample and the gravity was at 1.031 ... which puts this brew at about 3.5%ABV right now.

It does not taste bad at this point. It is not cloyingly sweet as advertized. It is very very smooth with barely a hint of the hops bitterness. Even if this does not ferment up to 4 or 5%, it'll still taste pretty decent. I'll leave it be for a couple weeks.

Ready to bottle...

2011-07-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am fixing to prime the beer in my secondary fermenter.. its This One that I started in June.. it has had plenty of time to do its thing and it does not taste too bad... in it's non-carbonated way.. :)

I'm moving it to the bottling bucket to prime and I'll let it sit there for a bit so any solids left over from fermentation can settle to the bottom. The FG was 1.008 and that brings my ABV to about 4.25% ...not the 5% I was shooting for but hey.. close enough.

brewing related activities....

2011-07-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

That brew that I started at the beginning of June? ... It started a second fermentation. I had left it in the carboy for longer than I usually do and off it went!... So then yesterday, I moved it over to the secondary fermenter. I'll bottle it up next week.

Yesterday I also started another batch for the primary. I thought I would stretch myself a bit and try something different.. leave the comfort zone a bit. I am brewing up a clone of this: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/8/20317

It called for way more grain than I usually handle. my brew in the bag system was nearly overwhelmed with it. Once the grains were in the water, there was not very much room at the top of my 35 qt. brewpot.

I accidentally let it boil over too. I was not counting on how fast it would heat up. I had the water at about 160 F before adding the grains but then it started to shoot up. I had turned away from the pot for a moment and then I heard it boiling over... dammit.

So I turned off the heat completely and willed it to cool down quickly. After steeping it for a while, I grabbed a spare ale pail and I emptied the wort into it (my pot has a handy spigot). Then I took the pot with the grains, set it on the floor and the ale pail on the counter.

Then I refilled the pot with the wort, making sure to fill it evenly all over the top of the grains.

I did this a few times and then I left it alone. This may have been too long but I let it mash for about two hours total.

After that, It was just the standard 90 min. boil.. adding the hops and the lactose at the indicated times. (this is a MILK stout)..

The wort is as black as my soul, I cooled it down, tossed it in the fermenter and now its bubbling away. I was able to do a full boil too.. no additional water needed to get it up to 5 gallons.

I ended up with an OG of 1.057 ...not full efficiency but close to my mark (was shooting for the 1.060-65 range)

The funny thing is... I've never actually drank a milk stout before ...so I'll have no idea if it tastes like one should taste. All I know is its supposed to be kind of sweet and... errrr... milky tasting. (the lactose does not ferment)

Baby beer bubbling....

2011-06-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

http://brewingandbiking.blogspot.com/

The OG Was

2011-06-02T07:10:00.001-07:00

1.040 .... I am going to either need to adjust my process or add more fermentables. The goal was 1.050

Brew day....

2011-06-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

....just so you know.

I am trying for a repeat of my previous brew (recipe is a few posts ago) ... but with a couple of changes..

The shop was out of Cascade hops, so I substituted that out with Columbus. aaand.. they were out of Ca ale yeast, so I am using "Pacific Ale" yeast..

This should taste pretty good, not too far off my previous. I just need to do something about all the danged solids. This brew produced a lot of them the last time around, I am gonna do my best to filter all that out this time around.

Maybe I'll drain through a filter into my bottling bucket and then filter again from there to my fermenter.

Hmmmmm

So here is the veggie garden

2011-05-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

I made the boxes out of scrap fence material from the tear down and replacement of my fence (seen in the photos below). They are both 4' X 6'.... big enough to hold some serious vegetation and yet narrow enough that the middle can be reached from both sides without having to step into the box.

Under the boxes, I lay down scrap weedblocking fabric. I ran irrigation to it by means of a buried garden hose. in the box between the two raised beds is where it terminates into the timer and the drip irrigation system.

All in all, I was pleased with it. The thing was not that hard to put together. Now I need to kill the lawn around them a bit for a border.

http://brewingandbiking.blogspot.com/

How could I have done this?

2011-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

I let an entire month go by without a new post?! I will have more later regarding my gardening efforts but for now.. what you see below is the dark brew going into the fermenter in March, from the very recipe that I posted in March. I bottled it a little over a week ago and I've enjoyed a few bottles of it the last few days..

It came out a little below my target ABV but it tastes really good. The color is still a dark root beer. I'll probably be brewing this again real soon.

Today's Recipe...

2011-03-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

I was going for a dark ale.. Here is what I put in:

US 2-row malt: 5lb 15oz
UK Light Crystal Malt: 1 lb 11oz
US Carapils Malt: 1 lb 11 oz
US Chocolate Malt: 7.35oz

Hops..
UK Fuggle 1oz @ start of boil
US Cascade .5oz @ 15 min to the end of boil
US Cascade .5oz @ end of boil

Other...
Irish Moss .25oz @ 15 min. to the end of the boil.

The goal OG was 1.050 but I hit 1.045 ...so my efficiency has improved on the mashing in the bag. I steeped it for 90 min. at 152-154 deg. F.

Cut twice and measure once... or is that the other way around?

2011-03-24T18:05:00.000-07:00

my previous measurement was wrong (using a new toy ...err.. instrument wrong). I tested my wheat beer again just prior to bottling it up and it was at 1.010 FG.. which is 1.2% alc on the meter so ..a little math and I'm actually at 3% Alcohol by volume going into the bottle.