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.