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!
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.
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
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
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 |
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
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