Poor Yield on Small Batch

Well, I bottled up Dad's stout.  It's very sweet, but it does taste like beer going into the bottle, so that's good.  Horrible horrible yield. If I am going to continue to do small batches I'm going to have to start with a smaller fermenter.

I used the 5 gallon fermenter for this batch and it's so wide that even leaving just 1/4" of beer in the bottom probably cost me a bottle of beer.  I had a lot of trub from all the oatmeal and grain, and I'm sure that sucked up some liquid as well.

15 bottles though and my first experience with a bottle capper.  My boss loaned me her's and it seemed to work pretty well.  That will give us 3 bottles to experiment with when Dad visits and if he likes it a 12 pack to take home to Oregon.  He thinks that will last him a year. Personally, I think he could drink beer a little more often than that.

Dad's Stout

Well, it had been 2 weeks, so I thought it should be time to bottle up dad's stout.  I got everything sanitized and the bottles ready to fill.  I brewed a new batch of breakfast stout for myself and got everything ready to put on the lees of the milk stout.

Disaster, the milk stout wasn't finished fermenting.  I checked the gravity and it still needs to drop at least another 10 points.  Here I am, everything ready to go and no place to put all the new beer.

Luckily I had another carboy (fermenter) that I was able to get cleaned and sanitized.  I got the milk stout transferred and a new airlock put on it.  I let the new beer slow cool and then here on Wednesday I'm going to check the gravity again and see if I got those final 10 points.

The new beer I brewed for myself came in @ 1.070 which is pretty heavy.  Lots of oatmeal.  It did however start fermenting quite quickly when I threw it on the old yeast cake from dad's stout.

Gluten Free? New Planet Pale Ale

Since both Mom and Uncle John are gluten free for medical reasons, it's time to explore some gluten free or GF beers.  Uncle John's favorite is Bard's Gold.  I haven't found it locally, but he says it's "drinkable".  Not good, but drinkable.

Since I haven't found it, I thought I'd look around and see what I could find.  At my local store, I did find New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale.  I brought it home cold on a Saturday afternoon and decided no point in waiting around.  Poured it right into my glass and gave it a shot.

My notes - Consistent with Pale Ale style. Clean,crisp and hoppy.  Good nose, poor head and slightly grapefruity. Color is too dark for a "pale ale" but the taste is fine. I'd be hard pressed to pick it out from a regular pale ale.

Overall I thought it was pretty good.  Price was a little high @ nearly $2.50 a bottle.  I'm not into the pale ale style in general, but I thought it was a pretty good example.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5, pretty middle of the road.  However, if one is limited to GF beer, it's probably pretty good because it tastes like regular beer.

Brewday - Feb 25th

Plowed Snow – half batch Feb 25 2012

Brew Notes – 2.5 gallon batch for Papa – Widmer Snow Plow clone.  Found recipe via homebrewtalk.com and web search.

Batch size 2.5 Gal

Boil – 40 mins (treat as 1 hour because no ice bath cooling)

Sweet Milk Stout

Techniques new to this batch, small scale and weighing my own ingredients.  Also substituting hops and using brewtarget free software.

Grains – 2.5lb Light DME, .75lb crystal 60L, .5lb wheat DME, .5lbs cara-pils, .5lb flaked barley, .5lb lactose, .375lb flaked oats, .375lb black roast barley,  .1875lb black patent malt

Hops - .3 oz Chinook – 12.2% aa bittering (40 mins), .25 oz EKG – 4.9% aa aroma (15 mins)

Yeast – washed Scottish ale from the 80\= a month ago –

Starter – 2 cups water – 1 cup DME

Misc notes:  About 40 outside and windy.  It took a lot of time to get everything to a boil.  Used the scale for the first time and it certainly adds a lot of planning time to measure everything.  I should have taken an OG and a final volume reading.  I probably should have topped it up.  Also the first time making a starter.  I should have used twice as much DME, but fermentation seemed to have taken off fine in the back.  Also I cooled it in the brew kettle out on the porch since it was cold out.  This gave me time to get the starter ready. Certainly easier just to seal it up in foil and wait.  It’s harder because it takes more time.  I used a strainer when it was going into the fermenter this time.  Boy that clogged up fast.  I’d better set up a 2 strainer system for next time.

Triton Brewing

Visit them here :

http://tritonbrewing.com/

What a fun place.  Staff was wonderful and a rotating selection of food trucks out front means you shouldn’t ever be bored.  Even dogs are welcome.

Triton is a fun little brewery that’s been open for less than a year.  Decent beer selection and locally owned.  It was a fun evening there after the Monarch beverage tour.  Our tour leader Bob Mack was able to arrange things for us and Triton was kind enough to buy the first round of beer so we could try their products.

The staff at Triton was very accommodating.  They gave us a tour of their brew area and moved tables around so that our group of nearly 20 could all sit together.  I ordered the Four Barrel Brown so I could review it.  I also had a sampler just so I could enjoy all their various styles. (I liked the IPA the best)

Triton Brewing Four Barrel Brown

According to the menu- Four Barrel Brown - “A fun and nuanced brown, our Four Barrel offers a very earthy, malty nose with light hop overtones. You’ll taste nuttiness, caramel and even coffee that we’ve finished with some light hops for a very nice balance”   - 5.2% ABV, 25 IBU, 21 SRM

My tasting notes – Lots of aroma hops, nice fruity nose. Good clarity – medium brown. Some lacing and head retention even after 30 minutes.  Malty but not sweet. 

That was the end of my notes, we were there with a group and I had a great time meeting people and talking with the other co-op parents.  Yes this was a preschool function minus the preschoolers. For more information about the co-op visit them here http://www.necoop.org/

Tour of Monarch Beverage – Hosted by Bob Mack of World Class Beer

Monarch beverage is an Indiana owned family business. They moved to a new facility on the east side of Indianapolis about 3 years ago.  Monarch sells over 17 million cases of beer and wine annually.  As a wholesaler and distributor, they handle beer and wine only – No liquor. 

Since the 21^st amendment – states all regulate alcohol independently. In Indiana there is a three tier system.  Breweries sell to distributors who then sell to the retail stores.  The distributor takes care of all transportation, most shelf stocking and paying the alcohol taxes on everything that is sold. Monarch represents approximately ¼ of all the beer tax revenue in the state of Indiana.

In 1970 there were roughly 40 breweries operating nationwide. Today that number is close to 2000. There are almost different breweries that have products available in Indiana.  Everything that is not a Budweiser product is handled through Monarch beverage.  Even with the large number of breweries that are now available beer consumption is actually down slightly over the last 5 years.  That said, on the day of our tour Monarch had 1.4 million cases of beer in stock.

Monarch has several innovative systems to help them manage their 900 – 1000 daily stops. The entire system is computer controlled, and many items go from the loading dock to the shipping dock without ever being touched by a human hand. They have 2 beer robots that tear down full pallets and load them into the automated system. They also have 4 robots that palletize orders. These robots are part of the vertique system. Everything is loaded so it comes of the truck in the correct order based on when each stop is scheduled throughout the day. 

Beer Tasting

Very excited, I get to enjoy 2 separate beer tastings tonight. One tasting is at Monarch Brewing as a fundraiser for Lucy's preschool. The other at is at Triton brewing in Indianapolis. I'll try and take good notes and post them in the upcoming days.


Oh and happy valentines to me from my lovely wife.  Is this a great present or what !

Jon Saffen's Ale

This one was a gift from my next door neighbor's brother.  I gave him a bottle of my pumpkin ale and he returned the bottle full of one of his brews.  What a nice guy !

Mmm lots of hop aroma, very clear with a nice amber gold color and foamy head. Pretty hoppy, I didn't get to ask what style it was supposed to be, so I'm going to go with IPA or APA.  The hops aroma is very telling and it reminds me of the IPA that cousin Ben brewed.  Probably over 60 IBU.  I'm going to guess some galaxy hops in this one.  Totally enjoyable.  Perfect partner for a hot rich soup, grilled sandwich or hamburger, - Yum.

Beer review - Sam Adams Wee Heavy

From the Sam Adams imperial line this is a big beer with big flavor. First impression was yum. Second impression was wow that's some alcohol. 10% abv doesn't kid around. The flavor is wonderfully malty with just enough hops to even of out.
The beer pours a deep brown with a tan head. Head retention was pretty good, still showing traces after 10 minutes. The body and mouthfeel are actually a bit thin. It must be the alcohol.
Its a little pricey at nearly $3 a bottle but worth it as a treat. Crisp and clean enough that is could be paired with a crusty sandwich or even a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.
9/10 only because its too strong to drink everyday.

Snow Day

New Belgium brewery Snow Day. Thanks to Tammy we had the chance to try this American Black ale today. It was a very enjoyable beer. First impression,  it was fresh and very crisp. Lots of greatt hop aroma and flavor. A little malt sweetness and a little spice.  Almost a touch of cinnamon with its gentle warmth.
Color was a dark caramel brown with great clarity. We were consuming from the bottle so no reports on head.
Some other reviewers have referred to it as a black IPA. I'd have to disagree. At 55 IBU and 6.2% abv. It doesn't have enough bitterness to really fit the IPA profile.  I'm not much of a hop head so this was a little bitter for me. It had a pretty good balance though and I'd probably drink another if I had a chance. I probably wouldn't enjoy a 3 in a row.

80/- bottling day

1/22/2012. No signs of fermentation for a week now. It must be ready. Also, my autosiphon is here and I want to play with my new toy. Susie wanted to be my helper today. She did a very good job. She was very diligent about not touching anything after she sanitized her hands. She also brought the flashlight when we needed it and put the caps on the bottles.  She also learned to read the hydrometer.  We had a final gravity of 1.011 which is a touch lower than expected, but very close.
We netted 36 of the 16 oz ez-cap bottles. The color is beautiful and the aroma is malty. The clarity is a bit lacking.  It probably could have used more time in primary but I wanted to get it bottled. There was just enough left for a sample for me. It tastes a little thin and young.  I hope it improves with its time in the bottle.
Another update about it in a few weeks when we see ifit carbonated.

Brew the 3rd, Scottish 80/

Another kit form Great Fermentations.  I’m getting better at deciphering their instructions into the real instructions.  They only have 10 steps from start to finish and for me it’s closer to 40 steps.  There is a lot of assumed knowledge that I’m sure is just rote for the more experience brewer, but I still have to make an expanded checklist.

The brewing itself went just fine.  I was very happy for the sunny morning and relatively low wind.  This batch was in done in the driveway again after the hop smell almost drove Julie out of the house last time.  One nice thing about the cooler temps is it makes chilling the wort go much more quickly.

Today was my first time using a dry malt extract instead of the liquid or syrup version.  I think I actually like it better.  It’s hard adding a powder to hot liquid, it always clumps.  However, it clumps on the top instead of settling to the bottom like the denser liquid extract.  I like this because it’s much less likely to scorch on the bottom of the pot.  Depending on the final result, I may switch to dry extract for future batches because it was that much easier for me to use.  I also suspect that it is more viable in long term storage which would allow me to stock up if I ever found a sale.

I had one minor misstep today.  I must have hit the stop/start button on the timer twice when I started my boil.  I looked up after a little reading in my book to see how much time was left and I saw the timer wasn’t running. At that point I just had to guess how much time had passed and hope I wasn’t too far off.  There shouldn’t be too much difference even if I was off by as much as ten minutes. 

Sanitation and cleanup went fairly well.  I’m getting more comfortable with my processes and workspaces.  By using the washer and dryer as a table top and the deep sink as my sanitation station I can do most of my work without messing up the kitchen and wrecking the house with my projects.

Everything looked and smelled great as it went into the fermenter.   Ben gave me a tip that I can actually get my yeast started a day or two ahead.  I’m going to have to remember that because it was a big help to me today.  I was getting carbon dioxide bubbles out of the fermenter less than 8 hours after I put the yeast in. 

The temperature in the part of the basement that I have set aside for the project seems to be sitting right around 68 degrees. It just so happens the thermostat for the house is set to 68 and it seems to be pretty consistent.  At least that new furnace is good for something.

Pictures of my fancy outdoor brewing station ;-)

Original Gravity - 1.050
Expected final Gravity - 1.014
Est ABV, 4.8%
Est IBU, 19.8

Review : Unibroue - Trois Pistoles

I have no idea what I want to say about this one. Its almost rum like. Fruity tones as well. Plum maybe.  It's slightly sweet but not in what I perceive as traditional malt flavors. I need to try this again with some food perhaps.

I just reread the above and it's not really a review. Oh well I guess its one of those nights.

Next beer

I've been researching my next beer to make and it looks like a Scottish Ale may be the thing.  I top out being able to enjoy beer around 25 IBU.  Beyond that I say too bitter for me.  Thus I needed a tool to help me evaluate potential bitterness in my brews.  Lo and behold someone already wrote the tool I needed and posted it on the internet.

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/ibu.php  I don't know a thing about these guys, but based on this tool better believe I'll be checking out the rest of the site.

Oh, and my pumpkin ale - very sweet and almost no hops at 4.5 IBU according to the calculator.

Brew 2 - Pumpkin - It fizzes

Well, after another week in the bottle it shows traces of carbonation.  The lid popped a little when I opened it.  The bottle I had last night was certainly very yummy.  The cloying sweetness has faded a little.  I think if it carbonates the rest of the way it should be up to a 8.5 out of 10.  I still thinks it needs just a touch more hops.  If you are in the neighborhood come by for a sample.