Another Successful Brew Day

Well, the Amber is bubbling away, with a vigorous fermentation that had started by 5:00pm yesterday. At last check this morning, we were getting about 2-3 bubbles per second, and the wort/beer is churning over aggressively. About three inches of krausen on the top of each carboy.

Things we learned:

1) A proper scale would be nice. I'll be curious to see how much 2-row we actually used (we can weigh the remaining grain in the bag, and back into our actual recipe). The grain mill was a success, though.

2) Carboys are a bitch, and I'm glad I still have my right index finger. I'm all the more eager to get stainless steel everything. And in the mean time we'll just remain extra careful.

3) Apparently our water/grain combo was perfect for pH without us doing anything. Good call on buying pH strips. Now lets figure out what it means, and what we should be changing.

4) Brewing still took longer than anticipated, especially with regards to sparging, and then surprisingly with chilling. The chiller took longer than last time - don't know why. On sparging, lets just assume it was more efficient. Which brings me to efficiency.

5) Why don't we know how to use a hydrometer? I'm pretty confident that the 1.075 reading pre-boil was accurate. Then we added 40% as much water over again and boiled, and had a measure of 1.020. Based on my math, and the fact that post-boil should be hire than pre-boil, it should have been around 1.06. So I don't have any idea whats happening. Seems possible it didn't mix well before we took a reading. But there is a potential solution.

6) Get a 15 gallon kettle, with gallon marks on the interior, allowing us to have a full 10 gallon boil. The kettle we have works, and the price was right, but the target should be boiling all 10 gallons. Then any sample will be a fair assessment of the gravity. No last minute water additions.

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The recipe:

16 lbs Domestic 2-Row (we think? To be verified later)

2 lbs 40L Crystal

2 lbs 120L Crystal

1 lb Aromatic

1 lb Barley Flakes

Mashed for 60 minutes at 154. Sparged over another hour at 165-170.

2 oz Centennial at 60min

1 oz Cascade at 30

1 oz Cascade at 10 (target 41 IBU)

American Ale Yeast

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All told, a pretty successful brew day, with a few minor set backs. Some time this week, the Oatmeal Stout (our last partial-mash/extract batch) should be ready for tasting, and next Saturday we can rack the Amber and bottle/keg the IPA. I was thinking, if we wanted to get even more experiment, we could half-keg, half-bottle each, and dry hop what we keg. Either way, we need a ton of bottles by next Saturday.

The IPA's moving up in the world

Literally. Too cold down in the basement given the recent weather, so I carried both carboys upstairs and put them behind the sofa. So that's three days at 50-60F, and then three more at 60-70F. They were still fermenting at 50-60, but they're really humming along at 60-70. From the White Labs webpage, both yeasts optimal fermenting temp is around 68-70, so we should get a cleaner, more fully fermented beer at this temp.

At some point in the future, we should think about creating a fermentation chamber we can accurately control the temperature of - we could probably do so for under a hundred bucks. Some plywood, foam insulation, a mini fridge (or AC unit?) off of CL, a wall heater, and a temperature controller to plug the fridge and the heater into. Plans for the temperature controller would be more or less like this. Not too hard, and only 30 bucks. Then some day, a chest freezer to lager in. Actually knowing the temperature we ferment at is sort of critical to quality control and reproducing the beer we make.

All in the future.

Update on the IPA

Alright, so we haven't posted the recipe yet, but I thought I'd add an update on the IPA brewed most recently.

We split the batch between two 6.5 gallon fermenters, and took that as an opportunity to experiment - one was pitched with White Labs California Ale Yeast 001, the other with White Labs California V Ale Yeast 051. 051 is supposed to be fruitier than 001, so it will be interesting to see what we prefer. I topped up each with some drinking water to bring them to a full 5 gallons, and they are humming along nicely (at the left).

Things we learned:

The heat sticks are working great, and keep a better rolling boil in 10gal than we used to see on the stove in 5.

The kettle is only 12.5gal - maybe we need to upgrade to a full half-barrel kettle in the near term, and use the old one as an HLT?

The mash tun worked perfectly, but we need to control PH and mineral content better to improve our efficiency. Temperature came in as expected, and held steady for the duration of the mash. Fly sparging went well - thanks Bob.

The immersion chiller actually works very well (miraculously), and brought 10 gallons to 70 degrees in about a half hour, using around 15 gallons of water from the tap. This is perfect, since we'll recycle that water for the next brew session.

Unfortunately, filling first one carboy and then the other resulted in one having significantly more trub, though on the whole we managed to leave quite a bit of the cold break and other crap behind in the kettle. Perhaps a better way to split between two carboys in the future? Or maybe upgrade to 15 gallon fermenters? (Bung-style kegs?)

Anything I missed?

Starting Back Up

And, might as well point out a few hilarious points from before:

1) I set my 28th birthday as the target for opening a brewery. 6 months and counting, guys.

2) Kevin said in 2007 that he figured we'd be up-and-running with All Grain inside of 2 years. Eh, not too far off...

The Hop Shortage Strikes Again

While we've had to deal with a general shortage of hops and an increase in hop prices, tonight was the first time they have actually prevented us from brewing exactly as intended. We haven't had an IPA in a while, so we were going to make a new batch. I decided to try to re-brew the Fool In The Rain; recipe below.

The Fool In the Rain (this shit is delicious)

8 lbs LME
1.5 lbs Domestic 2-Row
.75 lbs 40L Crystal
.5 lbs Victory
.5 lbs Barley Flakes
3 ounces Simcoe Hops (~16% AAU)
1 ounce Amarillo Hops (~6-8% AAU)
White Labs CA Ale Yeast

50 minute mash at ~155F, ounce Simcoe at 60, half ounce Simcoe at 30, ounce Amarillo at 15, ounce and a half Simcoe dry hopped. Turns out nice a balanced, with a decent bite to it, but not harsh. A lot of Hop flavor and aroma, smells delicious, an IPA with general appeal. That said, it's fairly bitter too, on account of those ounces of Simcoe, a real high alpha acid hop.

Tonight though, because Simcoe was unavailable, hops as follows: 1 ounce Summit at 60, 1 ounce Summit at 30, 1 ounce Amarillo at 15, 1 ounce Amarillo dry hopped.

While it's a bummer we couldn't do as we intended, at least we've been forced to experiment a little more. I know I like the first FR, so it'll be good to see if this version is better, worse, or just different. Summit should be a little more harsh, but since it's just for bittering, I'm not too concerned. Sticking to Amarillo for flavor and aroma should provide a citrus/apricot sort of flavor, while the Simcoe is just straight oranges. And the grist will make a moderately dark pale ale, but still definitely a pale.

In other news, we royally fucked up paying attention and let that shit boil over repeatedly. Im not looking forward to cleaning up. But that's a problem for another day. Like tomorrow.

I was gonna add some pictures, but on further review, they're all really shitty.

See Below

Not to steal Allan's thunder, but its time we get the site back up and running. Everyone should post; doesn't have to be about brewing, just beer in general, thoughts, random shit. Make it happen!

127 Bottles of Beer on the wall.

Last night Joe and I undertook the seedy underbelly of home brewing, bottling. And this was bottling to the extreme by the end of the night we had bottled 127 beers and also filled half a pony keg. The three brews in question were the Orange Honey Wheat, Chamomile Beer and a very thick Stout. We are very excited to see how they turn out, we pre-tasted each beer all seem delicious and different from what we have done before.

At the end of the night as a reward with our neighbors we opened another Barley Wine, everyone seemed to enjoy the sampling they had. This was my first time trying the Barley Wine in its current state, I must say the sweetness combined with the thickfreakness make it one of the best beers we have ever made.

Pictures to follow.

Recipes

Let's start posting recipes on here... I will post the Ruination clone I just did when I get home, and as we go I'll put all up that I've done. You guys should do the same. Besides being able to share recipes that way, we'll have an archive of them as well as reactions to them.

NOW POST!

Ok Joe did a cool fact of the day so I can't be outdone:

Fact: Joe Strauss used to give us endless shit for drinking. Look at him now!

We suck at this.

Someone needed to post but I don't feel like writing, so i'll keep this short. I'm mere weeks away from convincing bob and allan to split the cost of an all-grain brewing rig with me. Except I need a weekend or so in which to actually do it. More to follow.

Beer fact: On Led Zeppelin 4, the symbol chosen by John Bonham was a near replica of the logo for Ballantine Beer. *The More You Know*

Where my bitches is at?

So... whats goin on here? Down in SD its been slow but we just did an Oatmeal stout that should be delicious. I know you guys up there have been brewing up a storm, lets see recipes or something. Pictures? I don't care, post anything. I need something else to do at work!

Dresden Ale

The southern half of CCB has been busy, and we're subsequently broke. We do have a stand up refrigerator and three corny kegs ready to go now, and we got to pop the system's cherry with the Dresden Ale.

So titled for the late Kurt Vonnegut, the Dresden Ale is a double red that earns its name due to its fiery assault on your palate, and sobriety. We calculated it out to 11.8%, by far our highest content to date (and it makes the 8% IPA taste like Coors light). We also force carbonated this one, due to our extreme impatience at an installed kegerator with nothing to drink. We pumped the system to 30psi and shook the crap out of the keg, by the next day it was carbonated. We will probably continue to force carbonate, but with a slower less violent method.

Kegging beer is like learning to walk, it makes much more possible (including CCB's first lager, suck it nor cal!), and takes other worries away (like saving/cleaning/storing bottles in mass quantities). In the end this refrigerator should house three tapped beers and three fermenting lagers. I should be unemployed by then...

Long live CCB!

Mother FUCKING Cradle of Civilization!!

Last week was crazy we brewed 3 beers. The three beers were an Orange Porter (this beer that will change the world, more on this later)- No Name Yet, American Ale - called The Pilgrim Ale (also more on this later, THE ANTICIPATION it burns) and also a Hefweizen- called The Founders Brew (made for the founders of the company Brian and I work for)

ANYWAY, the Orange Porter was an idea I had when talking to my buddy Chris about making a San Francisco Giants themed beer. I told him I wanted something Black and Orange, then it struck me an Orange Porter. We explained this to the non-Griz (aka the guy that won't yell at you or give you snarky comments) of the Brewcraft, he explained in the years he has been working there no costumer has ever spoke of this recipe, literally his jaw was on the floor. This makes me excited because if it actually works we could be brewing something that will be a cornerstone of the CCB.

Next was the American Ale we named The Pilgrim Ale in honor of the late Kurt Vonnegut. To celebrate his life we made an all American beer. Every ingredient was grow/made in the USA. We named it The Pilgrim Ale for two reasons, Billy Pilgrim of Slaughterhouse Five and Pilgrims founded what has become America. As Joe would say THAT'S A DOUBLE WHAMMY. Don't worry though France (Joe) was not allowed to touch any of the ingredients, this of course was for fear of contamination, mainly Francium. I digress we are hoping for a smooth taste but a little bite at the end, just like works by Vonnegut. On a side note Vonnegut was a thought provoking and truthful voice that will be sorely missed, I can only hope my children will pick up Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle and be inspired to read.

Here is a random thought by Charlie Bamforth, Professor of Brewing Science at UC Davis. This man is a genius!

"Beer is the basis of modern static civ­ilization," began Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California, Davis. "Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place. And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown and sprouted and made into a bread and crumbled and converted into a liquid which gave a nice, warm, cozy feeling. So gone were the days that they followed goats around. They stayed put while the grain grew and while the beer was brewed. And they made villages out of their tents. And those villages became towns, and those towns became cities. And so here we are in New York, thanks to beer." Another syllogism ended his address: "He who drinks beer sleeps well. He who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven. The logic is impeccable."

Link to full article-
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=E699E9C7-E7F2-99DF-38A7329520CF67D6&colID=15

mmmmmmmmmm beer.

I figured there should be a picture of the kegerator somewhere on here.







yeah...

CCB Beer Flight.

Honeyed Wheat, CA Pale, Amber, IPA, Spiced Scottish, Irish Stout.

(Harvest, unnamed, Red Mosquito, Misty Mountain Hops, Drury Lane, Number 9)

forward motion.

Homebrew + Nintendo Wii = Crazy Delicious

Tonight we enjoyed a wide variety of home brew, on tap and in the bottle, and bowled on the wii all night. Matt came over to partake. On tap, we had the CA Pale (which, now that its carbonated and has mellowed a little, is one of my favorite of our past brews. Its nicely hopped but not overly bitterly, very drinkable, and good for all occasions) and the Amber, which I'm still very happy with (though I do wish it was a little more carmelly, a little more malty, and more in the AltBier style. This is what I envision for Red Mosquito Ale, a deep red with a nice balance of maltiness for the initial flavor and hop bite for the end).

By bottle we sampled the Honeyed Wheat, a new addition to the lineup, and the Drury Lane, quickly becoming a staple in small amounts. We've already spoken about the Drury, but there's much to say about the Honeyed Wheat. It's actually a very crisp beer, unlike past things we've made which kind of consume your taste buds. It tends to finish clean with little aftertaste, and is nicely carbonated. I think this is largely because its a wheat beer, and so tastes less malty than other beers. The Honey adds a nice sweetness because it isn't completely fermentable, and gives it a characteristic to set it apart from other Wheat Beers. I'm pretty sure this is the perfect ale for warm weather, just kickin it in the back yard around a barbeque, throwin horse shoes and drinking beer on a sunday. By the way, next year we should spend a solid amount of sundays just kickin it in the back yard around a barbeque, throwin horse shoes and drinking beer. MAKE IT SO!

I still need to keg the Oatmeal Stout, which I'm hoping is nicely roasted like the Irish Dry was, but with a smoothness and fullness the oatmeal should impart. Kegging beer is amazing; few things are as awesome as pulling forward on a handle and watching delicious beer you brewed yourself pour into a glass. Also, some time this weekend I'm gonna start working on CCB Tap Handles, which I envision being carved out of a relatively light but hard wood, maybe a white oak or maple. First up, the Misty Mountain Hops handle, partly because I already have a vision of it, and because an IPA should be a staple brew. Then I'll move on to a general brand handle (non-beer specific), and maybe a Number 9 Stout after that (this is where I want a dark, chocolately, and 9 % stout to head, or maybe a porter). So that's my update. As always, long winded. Life is good.

Good things from down south.

So this week has been good for brewing. I want to congratulate Bob and Kevin for their stout and, though i know it isnt their favorite, i enjoyed the honey beer as a light, easy to drink beer with a different flavor to it. Also, im interested to see how that IPA turns out since i basically made the recipe on the fly, similar to our last two batches but with variations. 7 pounds extract, 2 lbs domestic 2 row, half pound victory, quarter pound barley flakes, ounce and a half summit, two ounces cascade, california ale yeast. Rest at 154F for 45 minutes. I hope I knew what I was talking about.

Also! The Brown Ale you guys made? Excellent. I was glad I was around when Bob cracked open a few bottles for the first time. A little heavier and darker than a newcastle, good flavor, hints of molasses, I think it will become amazing with age, but its great now. Makes me excited for our brown ale, but I dont even remember when that's gonna be done. We need to start keeping better track of stuff, somewhere other than in my head. Kevin's notebook is a good idea. I started to record stuff in my laptop, but then it became a pain. We should just buy a notebook.

Also, I've chosen a target date for opening a brewery/bar/whatever, and its my 28th birthday. Now I've thought about this, and that gives us 5 solid years to get our act together after Bob (and maybe Kevin) has moved up to SF. I dont see any reason that cant happen. Next stop, all-grain.

Do you know the muffin man?

Kevin inspired me to write. I would have to concur that it is a great feeling to brew a beer that is well received and tastes great. I would also say that the Stout is brilliant. We will have to send down the recipe for the porter which is also very good.

My main reason for this post, is our latest bottled beer which was called the Scottish Spiced Ale, we have now decided to call it the Drury Lane for reasons that will soon be mentioned. The basic premise of the beer is a brown ale, with spices; nutmeg, cinnamon, zest of orange and ginger. The spices are made into a tea which is thrown into the beer when putting it in the carboy, also! we added full sticks of cinnamon and grated ginger and zest of orange before sealing the beer. That part is not an exact science and was actually done in a slightly inebriated state. I detract, when we first tried it the beer was too spiced and was not tolerable, it was also not very carbonated. About a week later I decided to try it again, and oh man does it get better with age, the beer has little to no haze and a full bodied taste that reminds one of gingerbread. The gingerbread taste is where the name Drury Lane comes from, think Shrek and The Muffin Man poem. The beer can be intimidating at first smell but the gingerbread is not overpowering and becomes complimentary to the brown ale. Like the Stout and IPA this has become a favorite of people visiting our house. The beer is not something that you down or drink massive qualities of, but with a desert it is excellent. It is also a great way to start or end your night.

This has got me very excited because though your base beers are fun to make, I really think beer should be a unique flavor and idea. I can't wait to see what the Drury Lane taste like in a month. Check back later for my newest idea an Orange Stout!

Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?
Do you know the muffin man who lives on Drury Lane?"

Our Stout is Delicious!

So far we have four beers that we have been able to drink: an Amber to start (came out weak bodied with an interesting aftertaste, after letting it sit longer it tasted better), then a Hefeweizen that was fairly good, and then a honey ale that had similar problems to the Amber (both were better after an extra week of aging).
Then along came the stout, a recipe I believe we got from the north part of CCB. It is amazingly delicious; full bodied, a wealth of flavor, and a refreshing aftertaste. At first it was fun to be brewing beer in general- its a fun hobby and you can get yourself drunk. But when you create a beer that could easily be served in any restaurant and tastes as good as any beer you've had at a bar/restaurant/liquor store/alley/park/etc. it raises the stakes. Now I know we can create marketable beer that people will enjoy.
I like the acceleration thus far; already doing partial mashes and kegging. I wouldn't be surprised to be doing full grain within two years. So raise a glass to CCB, because the future looks deliciously bright.

Hops are amazing things.

Until recently, hops were used only limitedly in the american style beers. We've all seen the sam adams commercial where they say they put a pound of hops in every batch. Personally, I'm not too impressed cause we used a fifth of a pound for 5 gallons last week, i know they're doing batches bigger than 25 gallons, and they probably arent using anything as strong as Summit. At the same time, they're doing something right, so I guess its just the style.

Regardless! Hops do more than just bitter your beer (although this is important). In addition to the alpha acids that isomerize during the boil and provide a bitter balance for the alcohol of the beer, hops also provide flavor and aroma to balance out the malty taste. These come predominantly from beta acids, and when adding hops for such things, one should add late in the boil, or dry hop, as they boil out quickly. Some hops, the 'Noble Hops' of central Europe (Tettnanger, Hallertauer, Spalter, and Saaz) are almost exclusively used for aroma and flavor and only slightly for bittering.

Beyond that, Hops also provide a stabilizing and preservative effect to the beer. In addition to balancing out the high abv of an IPA, this is the other reason they are featured heavily in it; to meet the original intention of the IPA (surviving long trips across the ocean). Lastly, hops also have an anti-biotic effect against gram-positive bacteria. If you think about it, thats pretty crazy. Hops appear perfect for brewing beer anyways, and then if thats not enough, they also provide an even better environment in the wort by preventing bacterial growth and so encourage yeast growth and alcohol production.

Lord knows they've got to be better than whatever was used for bittering before them. If we ever open up a higher-class brewpub and restaurant, I want a patio opening onto a hops garden off the back.

Today was an epic brew day. (Also, less bullshit than last time)

Today was intense. Allan knows already, but we went full bore on brewing and got all our shit done.

1) The California Pale was kegged and should be ready to drink as soon as there's room in the kegerator.
2) The Honeyed Wheat was bottled and should be ready in two weeks.
3) The carboys for both were cleaned and we racked the English Brown from last week into one. So far, looks perfect.
4) We switched up the old IPA recipe and brewed up a batch.

The IPA should be a good one. We kept the ounce of summit at the beginning as our primary bittering hop (which with 18.6% aau should make a pretty hopped up beer, even for an IPA). But then on the recommendation of the guy at Brewcraft, switched out Cascade for Amarillo. He says it has a smoother finish, losing the pine-y bite of Cascade, and has a kind of Apricot after taste. Figured it was worth experimenting with. Also, I wanted to give dry hopping a shot, and since the Amarillo's a little higher in alpha acids, we shouldn't lose any bitterness by not boiling the last ounce at all. I'm excited about this IPA.

Mid-week I plan on kegging the Oatmeal Stout, and then both the Pale and Stout should be ready by next weekend, as soon as the kegerator is empty. At the rate we're knocking back pints, that should be soon.

Also, I got a set of chisels sent back up to me from home, so i'll start carving tap handles pretty soon. You guys brew this weekend?