Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

A Chef's Beer


Chef Fowke

Recommended Posts

IMHO, the ability to do bulk aging in tap-a-drafts is what sets it apart. A wheat beer I made tasted much better a few months later, but it would have been completely impractical to have two cases of bottles tied up for those months. Similarly, I had a pale ale turn out cloudy. Doesn't really bother me, but a clear beer does look nice in the glass. Put the tap-a-draft in the back of the fridge for a few weeks and it settled out. Very nice. Third, you can have a 4 oz. beer. Lately I've had homework to do, and a 12 oz. just does not leave my head clear.

Big downside is that you can't have more than one kind of beer at a time. We do a lot of cooking, so the fridge is usually full and there isn't room for the mini-keg. That's why I like to bottle at least a 12 pack to have an assortment. Also, the first unit I had cracked badly, but Beer Beer and More Beer cheerfully replaced it and I haven't had any subsquent problems.

Walt

Walt Nissen -- Livermore, CA
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent. Thanks both. I'm thinking that for my next batch, I'll split it between tap-a-draft and bottles. Perhaps two of the big bottle (one force carbonated, one bottle conditioned) and the rest in 12 and 22 oz glass.

Question: if my current bottles don't carbonate (haven't checked them since the weekend) do you guys think there'd be a problem transferring the contents to the tap-a-draft system? I guess it might aerate on the way out of the bottles, but that's preferable to no fizz at all.

Also - what's a 4oz. beer? I've never heard of such a thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IF my bottles don't get fizzy enough for me, I'm totally going to dump them into the TAD and hit them with a couple of CO2 charges. I foresee no real issues, other than the sediment issue.. which was fine when I conditioned right in the TAD bottles. Go for it!

Christopher D. Holst aka "cdh"

Learn to brew beer with my eGCI course

Chris Holst, Attorney-at-Lunch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I've been working on drinking the beer, actually. For some reason, it never really carbonated fully. I'm thinking it was because I used those PrimeTabs instead of just using regular priming sugar or something. I'd like to hear if anyone has had a good experience with this product. Maybe the problem was somewhere else.

If anyone in NYC wants to try some of the beer, I do still have some left. We talked around doing a meetup, but nothing has come of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine took a long time to carbonate but now it's about perfect (carbonation wise at least). I suspect it was the late cold snap that slowed it down (especially as I left the heat off as I was on vacation)

I've got loads left too. I now have a closet that is entirely given over to beer (I'm in a couple of mail order clubs too, so I had Belgians all over the place too).

It's an interesting beer. I definitely overdid the hops for the style - and added a bit too much of the dark malts too so it is dark and hoppy, not a classic nut brown ale but plenty of flavour.

I saw you guys are doing a Belgian soon? (I always wanted to try and brew a Belgian style, never have) Good luck with that - I'll be watching but not brewing - I have family visiting this Summer, so I'll need to stash the stuff away for a while.

Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm nearly through my supply, which is what prompted the new brew project... Mine took about a month to carbonate fully in the bottles... which made me quite pleased I had the tap-a-draft thingy which really did carbonate the first 6L on bottling day, and provided me with a few weeks of fine beer before I started trying the bottles and finding them not quite there yet.

Was a great project, and a fun brew with you all! I'll keep everybody up to date on the progress of the Belgian Blonde that has been in my primary for a week and a half now... feel free to join in that brew too if you feel like something in the vicinity of a Duvel, or a strong Leffe Blonde.

I've not been in NYC much recently... if I find myself up there any time soon, I've still got my two give away bottles that I'd gladly tote along to swap.

Christopher D. Holst aka "cdh"

Learn to brew beer with my eGCI course

Chris Holst, Attorney-at-Lunch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...