Bock To The Future

I had the morning off work one day this week and decided to package up my Dopplebock.
The finishing gravity was a bit high at 1.023 but I hope the strength of the beer will help mask the sweetness left behind by the yeast.

I'll let it finish in the bottle for a few weeks and then lager it for a couple of months and hope that it corrects itself.
In hindsight I probably should have raised the temperature in the vault to about 70 for a few days to make sure it was done before I got so deep into the bottling process.
Not a big deal, though.  This is an educational beer. 
I can make my regular menu of Pales, Browns, Blondes and Stouts like AB can make Bud.  The same great beer every time.
But this is a new style, new yeast and a slightly different process.
I'm not at all unhappy with this beer because of the added skill it will give as I taste it and evaluate it's flaws and strengths.
As I wait to try this as a fully carbonated beer, I'll try to study this style a bit more.
Good Beer To You.

Grain Supply Is Up,... Gravity Is Down

I made a Pale on Friday and was surprised to find that I had over shot the sparge and missed my gravity target.

This beer usually comes in at 1.057-1.059 but was fairly short at 1.051.  My adjustment to the batch size by a 1/2 gallon was, I believe, where the problem arose.  I shortened the grist by the appropriate amount but fell into my regular sparge routine.  Of course I got more wort than expected but the efficiency, normally 73-75% was a dismal 67%.
This won't affect the beer that much.  In fact, the difference will probably be un-noticeable.

The weather is allowing me to ferment in the warehouse for a few weeks.

I shortened the batch size to allow myself to get an extra batch of beer from a 50 pound sack of 2-row.
I just bought a sack of Briess and poured it into storage so it will keep as I use it over the next 5 weeks.

Finally,  The Dopplebock looks pretty good.  It's been set at 51 degrees for 3 weeks now.

I think it'll be ready to be transferred next Friday into a bright tank  to lager a couple of more weeks.

After that I'll need the fermentation vault because the approaching Summer will make the brewery too warm for the wort.
Good Beer To You.

Crowded Stockroom

Well, the beer is piling up at my house.
Today I made a Dopplebock, funded by my winnings in Memphis. 
This is the biggest beer I've ever made at 1.087 and the 8th time I've brewed in as many weeks.  I mashed the 20 pounds of grain for it at 155 degrees.  I want this beer to be a thick, sipping beer to have around for a long time. The ABV I'm expecting will be at least twice that of an Ordinary Bitter so this beer will be consumed sparingly over several months.

I used the same pack of California Ale yeast for the other 7.
I made an IPA, a Pale, an American Amber, an American Brown, a different IPA, a Blonde and an Irish Red.  I know, an Irish Red with 1056?  We'll see what it tastes like when I package it this Thursday.
I harvested yeast from one beer as I brewed another and got some very fast starting fermentations.
I saved the yeast from the Red but I'll probably throw it out and reset that yeast next time I need it.
I want to make a Bitter this week but I need to get a few pounds of Maris Otter 2-row and a package of English Ale yeast.
My goal is to fill every bottle and keg I've got now and brew fewer "regular" beers during the hot months to concentrate on Belgian beers and Bohemian Pilseners.
Plus I want to finish my business plan for BCB.
Those lofty goals, along with my responsibilities as a husband and father should keep me hoppin' through the Summer and into the Fall.
Peace, Love, Beer

Reds, Browns, Blondes and Business Plans

I bottled my American Brown today.  It really tasted good so I can't wait for it to carbonate.
But the Winter conditioning room (the downstairs bath) is getting a bit crowded so I moved a Pale and an Amber to the stock room.  Right now I have an IPA in the fermenter and the Brown ale in there. Tomorrow's Blonde will join them when I make it.
I received my competition results today.

Don't get too excited, it was a mix bag.  Some scores were really good.  Others surprised me for being fairly low despite my personal assessment of the beers.  I guess you fall in love with your own work and lose your objectivity.
Oh well, I'll gladly take the prizes that came along with the medals.
Thanks to the generosity of my friends at Rebel Brewer, I'll make beer on into the Spring.  They supported the Memphis competition by providing gift certificates to all the medal winners.  Tom and his crew there do a great deal to expand and improve home brewing in Tennessee.
Finally, I think it's time to finish my business plan for Bluff City Brewing.
I'm approaching it with a casual urgency.
Don't misunderstand.  I'm as interested as ever to go pro.  I have thought about it for years.  The thing is, I meet a lot of people who like my beer.  But when I meet possible angel investors, I'm not seen as a plausible risk because I'm not ready to hand them a plan detailing a path toward successfully achieving my business objectives.
Hopefully, that will soon change.  My new project is to finish a 5-year business plan for Bluff City Brewing,... or Bellevue Brewing, or West Nashville Beer Co., or whatever it will be called as soon as possible.
Maybe I can get it finished before 5 more breweries open up in the city.
Good Beer To You.

Victories and Fresh Beer

I sent a few beers to Memphis for Homebrew Extravaganza 2013 and was surprised to win a few awards with old beer.
You can check out the full list of winners here but I managed to get a silver medal for an American Stout I made 15 months ago, a gold for a Blonde Ale I made last March and a Gold for an American Pale I made in August.
I'm not so surprised at the Pale.  I've made that beer with both Memphis and Nashville water and it has won lots of medals.
The Blonde I didn't expect to do much, though.  These lighter ales do not usually hold up for more than 6 months or so.
The Stout was a real surprise.  I don't drink these beers that much so a batch lasts quite a while.  I had some of it left and sent it to have more entries in the competition.
I did have high hopes for some other beers that didn't do anything.  American Amber, Oktoberfest, Ordinary Bitter.  I thought these would get some attention.  And they might have scored well but got out scored by other beers.  Every year there are more great brewers out there, so I'm not surprised.  I'll wait to get the score sheets to see how they were judged.

In other news, my Blonde and Pale were well received at the Mardi Gras school fundraiser, held at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, our former parish in Memphis.  Our friend Vince Higgins was one of the primary organizers and says the beer went over well.

Finally, in an effort to replenish my beer room I've brewed four Thursdays in a row.

The thing is, I don't have lots of carboys laying around and I really like a 14 day fermentation cycle.  So for 2 weeks straight I've had to bottle a beer just to free up my six gallon tank, then rack over the beer from my 6.5 gallon tank, harvest the yeast and clean the 6.5 so I had someplace to put the beer I was making that day.

These were pretty busy brew days but what I'm really trying to do is take advantage of the basement bathroom temperature.  Right now it hovers around 66 and will keep an active fermentation in the 68-70 range. 

I would use the temp controlled vault in the garage, but I want to do a Dopplebock in there for about a month.  I'll use the vault when it warms up.

Cheers

New Year, New Gear, New Methods

Regards to brewers and beer lovers everywhere this new year's day.
Since I believe well made beer is a unifying force, I hope the new year brings full flavored fellowship to everyone at your house.
At my house, though, the brewing process needs some adjustment.
I have sampled at least 3 different beers made within the last 4 months and noticed the same or similar off flavor in all of them.
My limited experience judging beer tells me the flaw is astringency.
The only major change to my process this year has been the way I handle grain.
Late this Summer I was excited to add a new mill to my brewery.  I previously had been cracking my grist at the homebrew shop.  But I wanted to expand the all-grain experience to include this step so I bought a nice mill from Rebel Brewer, a reputable homebrew shop here in Nashville.

The  mill came pre-set to a certain width so I attached it to it's base and milled an IPA grist in early September.
When the beer was finished I caught the astringent flavor out of the keg and from one of the small number of bottles I fill when I make 6 gallons.
At the time I wasn't sure what the problem was and thought I might have caught a bug in the fermenter or failed to rinse the keg well enough after I cleaned it.
I refurbished my kegs.
Then I made a Steam Beer and an Octoberfest.
The Octoberfest is good beer but the Steam Beer has something minor (I believe astringency) wrong with it.
I most recently made another IPA and an American Amber.  Both are young beers but after tasting them last night I think the same flaw is there.
Since I got the mill my efficiency has notably improved.  I used to struggle to get 74% and now I easily achieve 80%.
I'm developong a theory that the gap might be set too small and that I'm grinding some of the grain.  The finely ground barley then allows tannins and husk material to get into the beer.
I have adjusted the mill and intend to try the new setting on Thursday when I make another IPA.
But I don't think that's the end of it.
Other processes need to be looked at as well.
The occassional swirl of the carboy might excite the yeast a little bit.  But as I have read lately, it also might cause bitter compounds that are attached to the side of the carboy at the surface to be swirled back into the beer.
I also intend to review the loosness of my mash.  I normally use 1.45 quarts of water per pound of grain but I think now that I should try 1.25 or even lower to thicken the mash and to help adjust the PH.
Finally, I'll probably try a lower sparge water temperature to reduce the risk of rinsing tannins into the wort.
If the problem persists I'll start looking at the water.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, as always.

Good Beer To You.

Packaging Beer

I've had keg problems for a while now.
I would fill them with beer and force carbonate them only to find that most of the gas leaked out within 12 hours or so leaving me with well made, but flat, beer.
I have avoided doing anything about the problem and focused on bottle conditioning.
This weekend I decided to package my Octoberfest in bottles to keep from ruining it in a leaky keg.

And hey, this is a beer I want in bottles anyway.  It's a beer I like having in stock but drink only occassionally.  In fact, the 3 bottles on the right are left over from the November 2011 batch.

Anyway I googled some kegging stuff and decided to re-build my 3 Cornelius kegs.
I immediately ordered a dip tube brush, new O-rings and some Keg Lube from a reputable homebrew supply.
When the stuff got to the house I scrubbed the vessels clean with Oxy Clean.
Oxy Clean is a 2-sided coin. 
It's fairly inexpensive and does a good job but you need to rinse it off very well.  I mean really rinse it off.
I let the kegs soak overnight and took them apart before scrubbing the inside, outside, lids, dip tubes, connectors and poppets.

Then I dried everything off, put on the Keg Lube, re-assembled everything and hooked up the gas.

These kegs are holding gas well, even at a fairly low PSI.

 

I feel accomplished.

I can't wait to get some beer made so I can test my new draft skills.

Good beer to you.