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zaterdag 27 oktober 2012

Bottles!

Ânother giant leap forward! After two weeks of lagering-slash-dryhopping, my brew has been successfully transferred into yet another vessel: the bottle. This next-to-last recipient comes courtesy of my carefully planned consumption of numerous beers over the past couple of weeks, saving me both a trip to the local booze-mall and a lenghty explanation to the staff as to why I'd possibly be needing some empty bottles, when their entire business plan revolves around them selling me bottles which are not.

Several steps were required to separate the beer from the hops which have been saoking in it, but the end result is a suprisingly clear brew, with a big, bold, ballsy hop character. I added about 7 g /l of bottling sugar prior to the final siphoning step, to give the remaining yeast something to chew on whilst it resides in the bottle. This last bout of fermentation, while comparetively minor, is absolutely necessary unless you're brewing flat beer. The yeast will produce more carbon dioxide, which, thanks to the bottle cap, will pressurise the bottle, and become suspended into the brew. In other words: this is when the beer will become fizzy.

Hopefully not too fizzy
Another lesson about brewing I learned today was one about yield: instead of the estimated 20 l final product, I ended up with a somewhat underwhelming seven.

Seven liters of pure bliss. Count'em. Seven.
Much can be accounted for during the brew itself: I didn't use enough sparging water, resulting in a lower volume after the boil (albeit with drastically higher SG).
During the various siphoning steps between then and now, another estimated 2 liters were lost since the unwanted sediment takes up quite a bit of volume. Also, dryhopping implies that a quantity of beer will be soaked up by the hops, and will be lost as well.

So, seven liters of my first real brew. Proud? Hell yeah!
The 25cl bottles with the blue caps contain the normal version of the beer (working name BruCap) , the red ones contain the double dose of Cascade (working name RedCap).

A few more weeks of conditioning and then we're on to the real deal: the tasting.

Until then!

Greetz

Jo

PS: for those in the know, this is a Redcap.
..although I'm hoping mine will be slightly less unpleasant...

maandag 15 oktober 2012

Movin' on down

The saga continues with the ever more beerlike brew being transferred from the cozy warmth of the boiler room, to the cooler climes of the basement, where it can stare in awe at all the adult beers incarcerated there, awaiting their consumption by yours truly.

But before locking them up, I added some extra hops to both jars. Using two small batches i'd set aside during the siphoning stage last week, I did some experimating in the time since the jugs started lagering. I added 2 g/l of Cascade hops to one batch, and an exual dose of Challenger hops to the other.

Five days later, the effect is remarkable: the beer has cleared significantly, and much of the harsh resiny flavour has mellowed out. More importantly, the added hops have imbued the beer with a fresh, ethereal aroma, taking it to an entirely new level.

The comparison between both hop species is also quite revealing. The Challenger is typically used as a bittering hop, while the Cascade is mostly an aroma hop. The former, while adding some hoppy qualities, left a bit of unpleasantness behind, an earthy, almost soapy flavour. It also strongly echoed the bitter basis of the beer, empasising rather than complementing the brew.
The latter hop, the Cascade, did exactly what I wanted dryhopping to achieve: the nose exploded with green and grassy hoppy-ness, and the overall flavour and mouthfeel were much mellower and elevated.

So instead of splitting my brew in two different dry-hop brew, I've decided to stick to "just Cascade" for now. One jug I will subject to the normal dose (2 g/l), the other will take a double dose.

Because I like hops
With both jugs generously supplied with hops, I've now banished them the basement, where they will undergo lagering. In a week or so, it'll be bottling time.

Until then!

Greetz

Jo

woensdag 10 oktober 2012

Movin' on up

Nil desperandum, Constant Reader! I haven't given up on this beer thing yet. As mentioned before, a large part of brewing can be summed up as "try to forget about your developing brew while the yeast does its part". And that's precisely what I've been doing these past couple of weeks.

Careful measurement has revealed that the SG has dropped to 1004, and while the yeast might still be able to scavenge any remaining sugar from the liquid grave my beer is becoming, the presence of several billion dead yeast cells is also likely to impart a bit of an icky taste to it if I leave them there for too long.

So, on to the next stage: secondary fermentation!

Preceded by a spurt of expert siphoning
That's the boiler room there in the background, which I'm using in lieu of a temperature controlled fermentation box.
Leaving the dead yeast cells on the bottom of the primary fermentation vessel, I'm left now with two containers' worth of almost-finished beer.

Witness the birth of an awesome brew

I know, it looks kinda murky in those bottles, but when poured into a glass, it really does look a bit like proper beer.

Remembering the creed "Waste not, want not", I drank the sample from which I measured the SG, and while it is still a bit wry and harsh in the mouth, it's beginning to develop a bit more character, which I hope to enhance by dryhopping(*) with the two hops I used during the boiling phase.

(*) Dry-hopping means adding some extra hops to the beer after fermentation, imparting extra aroma, rather than bitterness

From left to right: Challenger, beer, and Cascade

I developed a tasting technique which shall henceforth be named "Slurp'n'Sniff". With a bit of beer in your mouth, you slurp in a bit of air, whilst sniffing the hops. This way, you get an idea of what the hop aroma would do to your beer when applied as a dry hop.

Sampling them side by side revealed some interesting differences as well as complementing factors. Challenger, which is this beer's bittering hop (added early during the boiling phase) has a slightly soapy character, a bit earthy and just a wee bit introspective.
Cascade, while also adding a bit to the bitterness, was added quite late during the boil, has a distinctly more uplifting aroma, slightly piney, resiny and just the thing I want to come through in the final aroma.
But as different as they are, they are also quite similar, with a common base note of solid, hoppy (duh) intangibility.

I set aside two small containers with the last clear dregs of the lot, and added 1 g/l of hops to them, one different hop to each container. While the two large jugs will undergo lagering for the next couple of days/weeks, I'll be using the smaller vessels to determine the proper dosages, combination and duration of the dry-hopping stage.

Until then!

Greetz

Jo

donderdag 4 oktober 2012

Patience. Its own reward.

Almost two weeks after B-day and the beer has finally dropped below 1010 SG.
This is what Google thinks 1080 looks like.
That means I (and inherently you, Constant Reader, too) will need to practice a little more patience. Until the SG stabilises, I can't proceed to the next level; i.e. lagering.

Was a time when their opinion mattered.
Until then!

Greetz

Jo