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.
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.
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.
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 |
 |
| Seven liters of pure bliss. Count'em. Seven. |
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...
1 opmerking:
wooohoooo the end is near.
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