Homebrew Journal: I'm ba-ack

[cdh]

Best of luck with the keg setup, Chris. I'm sure you'll come to appreciate the investment in no time.

Another advantage may be that a brewpub near you could sell you their beer at bulk rates. I know a guy who has two taps going constantly- I think he pays $40.00 for the fillup. I'm thinking of doing the same thing for an upcoming party myself.

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Hmmmm... Sly Fox on tap chez me.... nice thought. Will have to look into that...

[mtigges]

Start kegging Chris.  You'll never look back.  It truly is homebrewing heaven.  I have nine cornies, and a fridge which has a CO2 regulator & manifold in it such that three kegs get dispensed through the door and 1 can be carbonated and cold conditioned.  It takes only half an hour to package 10 gallons of beer.  Bottling that much would take hours.

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I've given in and ordered a reg, some lines and a couple of kegs. I've realized that I've got more brewing to do this summer than I've got room to keep it, so something needed doing. The two keg setup will cost me less than $100 before the CO2, which I hope to rent locally for a pittance, so it is even affordable.

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Renting is IMO the better way to do , you never have to worry about getting your tank checked. I use a 20lb cylinder which is about the size of a corny and it lasts me about a year.

Have you got the goods yet? What are your plans for dispensing? Don't cheap out on faucets. Trust me. I wish I'd bought SS perlicks, the regular faucets get REALLY funky inside. The perlicks (because of the way they work) reportedly are much more sanitary. And with taps that see relatively little use (a couple of pints a night) it becomes a big issue. And cleaning faucets, while it isn't difficult, is boring and a bit of PITA.

You will need more than two kegs though. I use the kegs for conditioning as well. My primary runs two weeks to a month, depending on how lazy I am. Then straight to the keg that it will eventually be served from. Rarely (Kolsch, Pils) I will rack to a new keg before serving - only where appearance really is important. The added benefit of this is that you can get rid of those glass carboys. Liabilities IMO. Alchohol and fragile heavy glass bottles don't mix too well.

[cdh]

Have you got the goods yet?  What are your plans for dispensing?  Don't cheap out on faucets.  Trust me.  I wish I'd bought SS perlicks, the regular faucets get REALLY funky inside.  The perlicks (because of the way they work) reportedly are much more sanitary.  And with taps that see relatively little use (a couple of pints a night) it becomes a big issue.  And cleaning faucets, while it isn't difficult, is boring and a bit of PITA.

My two ball-lock cornies arrived from homebrewing.org in Detroit today... looking fine. My gas hardware has yet to ship from the bev factory. All I've got coming is the basic plastic party faucet. Your insight inspires me to keep a bowl of sanitizer next to the keg in the basement and leave the faucet in it when it is not in use. That should keep the funk to a minimum. I have no plans for a kegerator or such... I have a basement that keeps a pretty constant 50-60 temperature year round. My bitters and belgians will be quite happy served at that temperature. If I brew a party batch that needs to be cold, it will live the life of a party keg, in a trash can packed with ice.

[...] The added benefit of this is that you can get rid of those glass carboys.  Liabilities IMO.  Alchohol and fragile heavy glass bottles don't mix too well.

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I don't believe in 'em anyway. Never owned 'em, never wanted 'em, never understood the appeal. I'm happy with my buckets.

[TongoRad]

So- is it soup yet?

Not yet. But here's what has been happening...

I had the keg in my basement where the temperatures are a bit more moderate than the rest of the house (I'm still not as lucky as you, Chris, I'm lucky to get temperatures lower that 70 at this time of year) with a muslin bag of dry hops for two weeks.

I figured what the hell and carbonated it at the same time. It has since been moved to the wine fridge in that shot to chill, and racked into a clean keg, leaving most of the schmutz and the hops behind. Racking carbonated beer requires that it be cold and be done under pressure, plus you have to fill the second keg through the outlet tube to avoid agitation. I drew off a glass prior to racking to check in on how it's doing:

The final beer will look a lot better than that, but it is getting there. It looks cloudy, but that is from the bottom of the first keg. What I saw in the tube was crystal clear. The issue now is the hops- the flavor and aroma are pretty raw (mostly 'fruity', actually, with just a hint of citrus and herbs in the background) as one would expect. A couple of weeks will take care of that.

At this point it reminds me of a strong ale I made a while back that was just loaded with Fuggles and Styrian Goldings. I consumed a bunch of it too soon, and I always regretted that because a month later the beer really came into its own and I only had a few bottles left. This one has the mouthfeel and bitterness just where I want it, and the 7% alcohol is pretty well hidden- it's going to be a good one!

[Audiofan2]

So- is it soup yet?

Not yet. But here's what has been happening...

How did it turn out? I am about 1 1/2 weeks into my first batch and enjoyed your post.

[TongoRad]

Thanks Audiofan2- I've been meaning to post back. It's still too coarse for my tastes so I'm going to give it a while to condition. That'll teach me to overdo it with hops that I am unfamiliar with, but I am confident that time will serve it well. Here is a shot from last night (apologies for the low-light blurriness, but the clarity and color are well represented, I think.)

Ironically, my next batch will probably be ready before this one is. I am planning a Porter, and the heat wave of the past few weeks have convinced me to put it off for a few more weeks. My issues with the heat are:

- the boil really heats and steams up the kitchen too much for comfort

- my tap water for the immersion cooler was clocking in at around 70F

- even my cellar ambient temperature was too high to ferment. This can be worked around, however by fermenting in my wine cooler with a thermostat attachment.

So that's the plan- brew a small enough batch to fit the fermenter in the cooler, probably using a keg as a fermenter. I'll be steeping some grains this time, but not doing a full mash.

Sometime in the fall I should be teaming up with another brewer who has the full 'cajun cooker' type setup. I'm really looking forward to that one.

[mtigges]

- even my cellar ambient temperature was too high to ferment. This can be worked around, however by fermenting in my wine cooler with a thermostat attachment.

To solve that problem I framed off a small section (2' x 7') of my garage and wired a ranco remote thermostat to an outlet. This allows me to plug in an AC, or a heater, set the temperature that I want and done. I'm a potter, and when the kiln is on it's gets around 40C in the garage ... with the insulation the A/C only comes on every 10 or fifteen minutes to keep it around 20C in the fermentation chamber. Plenty of room for two buckets of fermenting beer, and a bunch of conditioning kegs.

Mark.

[Audiofan2]

So I have tried a few bottles of my first batch, an IPA. It was suprisingly good, however I have no head, not even a fizz. It is not "soapy" mind you, just seems like it has been out of a bottle for 5 minutes. I transferred from one carboy to a second one week in, used 3/4 cup of sugar while bottleing. Should I have used 1 cup? Any other idas would be appreciated. I am just about ready to bottle a Belian Triple soon and do not want the same problem. Thanks!

[TongoRad]

So I have tried a few bottles of my first batch, an IPA. It was suprisingly good, however I have no head, not even a fizz. It is not "soapy" mind you, just seems like it has been out of a bottle for 5 minutes. I transferred from one carboy to a second one week in, used 3/4 cup of sugar while bottleing. Should I have used 1 cup? Any other idas would be appreciated. I am just about ready to bottle a Belian Triple soon and do not want the same problem. Thanks!

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Congratulations on a fine first batch!

3/4 cup of priming sugar should be plenty for a 5 gallon batch. The first things that pop into my head as to what could have gone wrong are : 1-not enough time allowed, 2-they were stored in too cold a spot, or 3-that the sugar wasn't well distributed before bottling. I doubt that it was the second option at this time of year- how long did you wait before popping one open? Hopefully your problem will resolve itself in a few weeks. Please post back with some more details, including how you incorporated the priming sugar before bottling.

[Audiofan2]

Congratulations on a fine first batch!

3/4 cup of priming sugar should be plenty for a 5 gallon batch. The first things that pop into my head as to what could have gone wrong are : 1-not enough time allowed, 2-they were stored in too cold a spot, or 3-that the sugar wasn't well distributed before bottling. I doubt that it was the second option at this time of year- how long did you wait before popping one open? Hopefully your problem will resolve itself in a few weeks. Please post back with some more details, including how you incorporated the priming sugar before bottling.

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[TongoRad]

Thanks for the kind words- I really appreciate it!

Thanks! OK, so now you can laugh at me.... your second guess was right. I placed the beers in the fridge (all 22oz. bottles) right after bottleing. I learned today by calling my local homebrew shop that the bottles need to sit at <70 degrees in a room for two weeks.

I will confess to letting out a bit of a chuckle, but I am glad to hear that it'll all be allright in the end. It may help if you rouse the yeast back into suspension by gently rolling the bottles on the floor- no need to shake them up or anything like that.

I prefer pre-dissolving the sugar myself, so I think your other beers will be fine... so long as you keep them out of the fridge

How far are you from Portland? Steinbart's is a pretty kickin' homebrew shop- it may be worth the trip after you get a few more batches under your belt and start experimenting. I remember finding a bunch of cool specialty grains there that I couldn't get at my local shops.

[TongoRad]

This may or may not be the last word on the Phoenix 'IPA' (depending on whether or not I take some notes and photos tomorrow, odds being at 50/50 ):

my issue with it thus far has been that I overdid it with the hops, and as of my last posting it still had an overly herbal, borderline catty, quality to it. As of last night that had begun to subside and now the beer is taking on a nice floral/fruity character. It'll probably be awesome in another month, but is quite drinkable now and since I have some friends coming over to visit tomorrow, and I very much want to share this with them, I have just put the keg in the fridge to (slightly) chill. I will try to record the unveiling for posterity, but can't promise anything once things get rolling...

Lessons learned-

- I like the Phoenix hops, especially as a dual hop, but would avoid dry-hopping with it in the future.

- I really wish this beer had dried out a touch more. The only way to control that with an all-extract batch is to add a bit of sugar, which is 100% fermentable. Next time that is what I'll do.

See ya soon for the Porter!

[mtigges]

For the sake of Audiofan 2. (And any other bottlers.)

no tears bottling

When I bottled, that is how I did it. There are two very good reasons for doing it this way, first it ensures that the distribution of the sugar solution is even, second priming the siphon hose with the sugar solution allows you to avoid less sanitary means of starting the siphon. The downside is you need a bucket which is dedicated to bottling.

Mark.

[Audiofan2]

How far are you from Portland? Steinbart's is a pretty kickin' homebrew shop- it may be worth the trip after you get a few more batches under your belt and start experimenting. I remember finding a bunch of cool specialty grains there that I couldn't get at my local shops.

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I am about two hours south, in fact I will be going up there on Sunday. We have a couple shops here in town, one which I really like. They receive their malt extract weekly, hence no cans.

I made a pale ale two nights ago and added a few extra oz's of hops. I think after my two previous beers I decided to experiment a bit.

[TongoRad]

For the sake of Audiofan 2.  (And any other bottlers.)

no tears bottling

When I bottled, that is how I did it.  There are two very good reasons for doing it this way, first it ensures that the distribution of the sugar solution is even, second priming the siphon hose with the sugar solution allows you to avoid less sanitary means of starting the siphon.  The downside is you need a bucket which is dedicated to bottling.

Mark.

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Yeah- that looks pretty fool proof. Any bottlers should definitely take a look at that.

Audiofan2:

I made a pale ale two nights ago and added a few extra oz's of hops. I think after my two previous beers I decided to experiment a bit.

That's what I'm talking 'bout! The beauty of homebrewing is that most of your experiments will at least be drinkable, plus you'll learn something at the same time. I don't regret going too far with the Phoenix hops on this beer because now I have a definite idea on how much is too much. And we did kick the keg that day, so it couldn't have been that bad

[TongoRad]

...

Ironically, my next batch will probably be ready before this one is. I am planning a Porter, and the heat wave of the past few weeks have convinced me to put it off for a few more weeks.

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Lordy, me, where does the time go? A few weeks my butt!!!

Personally it's been a crazy couple of months, and the thought of brewing just kept on getting put off and off (kind of like how I got in the position of not brewing for so many years to begin with) until last week. At our family Thanksgiving dinner one of my cousins started up a conversation about how he missed my brew at these events and was hoping I would start again. Then we found out that my Aunt and Uncle, who usually host Christmas day, are selling their house and can't do it this year. Bottom line is that the party plans have changed to the point where I can include a keg o-beer in the festivities if I so incline. And I do. And I'm going to have something ready in those three weeks or so (I already bought the stuff).

I'm definitely doing the Porter, and a 5 gallon batch at that, but I keep going back and forth on whether to spice it up or not. Among the 'pros' is, obviously, that a spiced holiday porter is a much more festive beer. Among the 'cons' is that I don't see it being much of a quaffer.

Chances are that I'll do the spices but go easy on them. Somewhere in my notes is a recipe for a Cardamom spiced porter that featured black cardamom pods that I can modify. The black cardamom pods have an amazing aroma, leathery/woody almost, that go quite well with the roasted malts. Some black peppercorns for a subtle undercurrent are also being considered, but all that strong stuff like cloves, orange peel, nutmeg et al, won't be going in this one because there just isn't enough time for it all to mellow out. But, at the very least, there shall be beer!

[mtigges]

Tongo,

If you want my input .. don't spice it. There just isn't time. No matter what you use it just won't be enough time. Spicing a beer that is lower alchohol (as this one should be given the time frame) doesn't work as well.

So, here's what I would do ... brew a good porter around 5% or so. But brew about 25 litres, or 6.5 gallons ... aiming for one more gallon than fits in the keg. Then bottle up those adding a few drops of concentrated "xmas flavouring of your choice" personally I would use vanilla and amaretto I think. Just use those little bottles of concentrated flavour extract to impart the flavour you want. And I would only put it in the bottles. That way the keg is quaffable and the bottles have the xmas flavour. Problem is that it's even a tight schedule to let the bottles prime.

But I would try and figure something out like that. Do you have a tap-a-draft? or a pig? that would be ideal.

Brew a little extra for the flavoured portion.

[FoodMan]

Personally it's been a crazy couple of months, and the thought of brewing just kept on getting put off and off

Ditto!!

I still have not gotten around to brewing that porter recipe you concoted in the eGCI class thread. Hopefully, next week before our Houston weather warms up too much ...

In the mean time I will certainly be following up on your Porter adventure.

[TongoRad]

Elie- I'll assume you mean 'Texas-warm', so, yeah- you better get crackin'! FWIW- that recipe will require a few months aging to be at its best, but it makes a hell of a beer.

mtigges- input is always appreciated, and between you and my brother (whom I just saw over lunch) I have been swayed to hold off on the spices. Actually, it was the "what in the hell would you wanna do that for?" look of panic on his face that did it. I think he plans on consuming more than one...

More details to follow!

[Audiofan2]

Funny how posts in this journal seem to come in batches....

I have been enjoying the pale ale (my third homebrew) I mentioned in my Sept. 22nd post. Also I surprised myself with a very nice Belgian Triple that I made as my second homebrew. It was suggested that I let it age for about six months and I am trying one tonight after about three 1/2 months of aging.

My fourth homebrew was a red that I left in the carboy too long. I had transferred it after a week of fermenting to a second carboy and added the dry hops. The problem was my schedule was really screwed up and it sat for three weeks. Mold formed and the batch was ruined. I am positive that the mold was not a result of poor cleaning because I always clean everything very well with the BTF iodine.

I would like to put some homebrew in a keg rather than 22 oz. bottles to make things a bit easier, but I keep buying new pony keg's from Lucky Lab up in Portland. I have a dual tap kegorator and I think my girlfriend would disown me if I made a second kegorator for homebrews. Also I have managed to collect about 80 22 oz. bottles so I guess I will keep bottling for now.

Has anyone tried getting away from using malt extract? My homebrew shop has very fresh (not canned) malt extract, however I have heard that it is more professional to not use the extract. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Malkavian]

Audiofan: Once upon a time the prevailing opinion was that you couldn't make good beer with extracts. These days however, extract recipes are beating out all grain batches in competitions with regularity.

Getting away from extract can give you more options in your beer, but it isn't going to necessarily make it superior or more 'professional'

Are you referring to liquid extract or the dried spraymalt type? Either way if they're getting in weekly it should be fine as far as freshness is concerned (not always so with the canned kind)

[Audiofan2]

Are you referring to liquid extract or the dried spraymalt type? Either way if they're getting in weekly it should be fine as far as freshness is concerned (not always so with the canned kind)

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Malkavian, thank you for the response, I am referring to the liquid extract. my homebrew shop said that they get a new batch about every week. The canned kind seemed like a bad idea. I try to avoid anything canned whenever I cook.

[TongoRad]

I brewed my beer this past Saturday, and it is fermenting away quite contentedly as I type this. Here's what I wound up with:

5 1/2 gallons in the primary of My Ever Changing Moods Porter (cuz...i kept on changing my mind about it, and it's an English Style Porter, and the Modfather (Paul Weller) is English, and...well, it's all a rich tapestry, isn't it...)

7 lbs. of Extra Light DME

1/2 lb. Corn Sugar (to hopefully dry it out a bit)

12 oz. Chocolate Malt

12 oz. Crystal 60L

(these grains were steeped for 15 minutes at 155F. I was compensating for the 'steeping' part by using more specialty grains than I would have used if this were an all-grain batch)

Here's where I experimented a bit- I did a concentrated boil, 2 gallons, and reserved 3 lb. of the DME for the end so that I would get less-than-crappy utilization from the boiling hops. I can see how this would possibly work with liquid extract, because it would dissolve much easier than the DME did. Let's just leave this part at 'I won't be doing that again'. Anyhoo- here is the hop schedule I used based on that little adventure:

Boiling hops (60 min.)- 1 3/4 oz of Target @ 10% (mid 40's IBU's, hopefully)

Aroma hops (10 min)- 1 oz. Fuggles @ 3.3%

Aroma Hops (flameout)- 1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings

I didn't take a gravity reading because I didn't think I would get an accurate one just after blending that concentrated wort into the cold water. It should be somewhere in the 1.060's, depending on the contribution of the crystal malt. Also- for whatever reason- I am approaching this batch with a very carefree frame of mind. I'm just happy to have something in the fermenter, and I'm sure it will be drinkable.

The yeast was the Nottingham dry yeast and I used two packs, and it is fermenting at 66F ambient temperature.

[TongoRad]

Audiofan: Once upon a time the prevailing opinion was that you couldn't make good beer with extracts. These days however, extract recipes are beating out all grain batches in competitions with regularity. 

Getting away from extract can give you more options in your beer, but it isn't going to necessarily make it superior or more 'professional'

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Welcome to eGullet, Malkavian.

The way I am looking at the extract/all-grain thing right now is that there are a few styles that I most likely wouldn't attempt using extract (Kolsch, Helles, Dry Stout- for example) but there is also a hell of a lot of territory in which to play. As I mentioned just above, fermentability can be an issue for me, but I hope to be able to control that with some trial and error sugar additions.

Does anybody have any experience with Munich malt based extracts, if such a thing exists? I sure would love to make a Dunkel on one of my next go-rounds.

Malkavian, thank you for the response, I am referring to the liquid extract. my homebrew shop said that they get a new batch about every week. The canned kind seemed like a bad idea. I try to avoid anything canned whenever I cook.

If you have access to very fresh bulk liquid malt extract, then that sounds like a very good option. My understanding is that the liquid stuff provides greater varieties as far as base malts go, but you will never be able to make as pale a beer as you can with DME (and even that could be a dicey proposition as compared to all-grain). The way to look at it is that both forms of extract have their own limitations as to what you can make, while going all-grain only has the limitations of time and equipment.

The Lucky Lab rocks- I heard that they were opening a second location. The last time I was out there they made the hoppiest beer that I ever had in Portland, which is really saying something.

[Malkavian]

I believe Northern Brewer stocks Munich (and maybe a few other varieties) of LME that you don't usually see.

I've had pretty good luck getting pale beers out of DME, but an important factor I feel is being able to do full-volume boils. Having your sugars spread out over 5 gallons of water instead of 2 makes for a bit less caramelized sugars, which contribute to the darkening (and keep your beer from finishing dry in some cases)

Just outta curiousity what problems did you have adding the DME late in the boil? I've done that a few times without incident, mostly as a different slant on avoiding caramelized sugars as I mentioned above.