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A day late

But, I survived. Brewday went fairly well, considering–torrential downpours during the first half, with rather strong gusts of wind afterward. Probably burned through more of the ‘main burner’ propane tank than I really like. First experience with the new mash-tun, too; it’s nice, for being able to hold much more grain, but it’ll take some adjusting to. Efficiencies were somewhat low for what I’m used to (I was typically hitting around 80%; the 70/- got 70% efficiency). Didn’t hurt anything–the recipes were geared for 70%, so everything came out ‘as planned,’ sorta.

There ended up being three of us. My ‘usual’ partner-in-crime, my friend doing the barleywine, and my friend learning how to do all of this. All in all, I’d say the whole thing went fairly well. My next planned brew day will be the second weekend of October, I believe; I’ll have to re-set the countdown.

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Brewday, September 2008

Okay, so I’m all prepped (pretty much) for the brewday tomorrow. The plan, for me at least, is to brew up a nice Scottish 70/-; I’m aiming for an OG of about 1.038, but will probably go over. The plan is to go with Golden Promise for the base malt (a Scottish malt for a Scottish ale), and add a bit of roast malt (ground really fine) at the end of the mash–just in time for sparging. That should provide color, without adding a lot of roasty bitterness/astringency. We’ll see how that goes. Not much in the way of hops–3/4 ounce of Kent Goldings at 60 minutes, just for bitterness. Finally, I’ll ferment as cool as I can arrange (I may even empty out the lagering chest)–probably around 60F–with the Edinborough strain of yeast.

Then there’s the second batch: a nice Barleywine. This one looks to be interesting–it’s a ‘guest brew,’ being brewed by/with a friend of mine. The recipe itself is from a friend of hers, and it will be a real test of the new mash tun–it takes a whole lot of grain. It should be interesting.

Also, I’m expecting a couple of friends to show up (other than the Barleywine Brewer mentioned above)–one of whom *may* brew something; he might even be bringing someone new to watch. The other one is interested in beginning to brew himself; I’ve been trying to drag him to a brewing session for about 2 years or so now. Finally, success! My evil plan comes to fruition! (heh heh)

I’ll post more on this tomorrow, after brewing a bit.

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Two memes

So, I’ve noticed two memes of sorts, lately, in the news. The most recent is an interest in things Belgian, particularly the Lambic variety. I can’t complain, really–maybe it will spur others who otherwise wouldn’t stray from the Bud-Miller-Coors ‘herd.’ The overall view has been positive, although some of it has been a little backhanded. All the same, I’ll admit that the Belgian brews aren’t for everyone: the most well-known are either strong and/or sour; nearly all the brews from that particular area of the world are a bit ‘odd’ by most standards. I personally think that they’re all good, particularly taken at the right time and place–but then, that can be said of nearly anything.

The other big meme going around, and one that I’ve been seeing for a little while now, is a renewed interest in ‘smaller’ beers. Not ‘lite’ beers, but the classic ‘session’ beers–going no stronger, generally, than about 4.5% alcohol by volume, generally hovering around 3.5%. They’re certainly just as flavorful as their ‘bigger’ brethren; but for as ‘normal’ as they are, they seem to be tougher to brew. At the very least, tougher to brew well, particularly by homebrewers–we tend to go for the big beers, the ‘Imperial’ versions of whatever. Even going for the Scottish 70/- I’m planning for this weekend is a bit out of the ordinary; I don’t know the last time I brewed something that was under about a 5% abv. Here again, I can’t really complain–such things will typically only stretch the brewers’ skills.

But given the penchant most folks have for “the biggest (strongest) beer you’ve got!”, this one I really must applaud. If all you want is to get completely plastered, well, Everclear will do that for you, faster and cheaper. Beer, on the other hand, is really meant to be a social drink. And if you’re so blitzed you can’t speak clearly, to say nothing of standing or walking, well… You’re not being all that social.

So here’s to the session beers! May we brew (and drink) more of them!

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Holy Foam, Beerman!

So, last night I ‘floated’ my keg of Pilsner. Not a problem–I happen to have another one that’s been aging for a while.

I decided, though, to tap (briefly) the Irish Red Ale I did back in April (at Night On The Town). I intend to serve it (officially) at the Baronial Birthday, at the end of the month, and I wanted to check on it–make sure it’s worthy, as it were. The beer has been kegged for quite some time, and the keg has been sitting under the stairs in my basement, nice and cool, since shortly after it was kegged (about 2 months, if memory serves).

A comedy of errors ensued.

First, I broke one of my cardinal rules: Always connect the beer-out line first, bleed some pressure, and pour a pint (clear the lines, let off excess CO2, etc). Then, when all seems OK, hook up the gas-in line.

A stream of swear-words later, and after disconnecting the gas-in line (and doing what I could to clear the backed-up beer from it), I set about clearing up some of the sprayed beer from the floor and side of the fridge under the stairs. Remembering the above rule, I connected the beer-out line, and went to pour myself a glass.

It would seem that beer under great pressure can jet out of the tap, redirect itself off the bottom of the glass, and fling itself across the hand pulling the tap, across the tap tower, and against the facing wall… A few more swear-words later, and a bit of mopping up with a bar-towel, and I eased up the pressure relief valve to bleed some of the CO2.

A final, careful pull on the tap, and: foam comes pouring out, rather milkshake-like in density and flow. Well, at least a huge mess wasn’t made. After allowing the foam to settle and dissipate a bit into beer (only about a quarter of a glass), I took a sip… It’s not bad, allowing that most of the bitterness is from carbonic acid, caused by excess CO2. So, I’m slowly bleeding pressure off, a little at a time, and hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be able to draw a regular pint of the ale and check its actual quality. Even if it’s not good (which I think would require a thorough cleaning of the keg, and probably a replacement of the gaskets), at the least I’ve still got several other brews that are kegged and can be brought as backup.

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Dry run of the new Mash Tun

So, I got everything assembled last night, and filled the tun with a bunch o’ water. This was both to make sure that the spigot’s gaskets were holding (no leaking around the edges), and to check that the laws of physics weren’t being broken inside–that it would indeed draw the water all the way down to the tops of the manifold slots.

Worked pretty well, except for some slight air leakage around the connection between the manifold and the inside end of the spigot–the blame for which I could easily lay at the feet of a lack of teflon tape to really seal it in there. So, not normally a problem–I’ve got a roll of teflon tape for just such situations…

Which led to my cleaning & straightening about 80% of my brewing storage area, looking for the !*@&%^* teflon tape. Not a bad idea, in and of itself, as I really needed to do such a cleaning (and now I really need to actually finish the cleaning), but not exactly how I had intended to spend my holiday. Anyway, long about noon, I finally broke down and asked my Dear Lady Wife whether she had seen my teflon tape–and, as such things are wont to work out, she had. (For the curious, it was in my truck, in a ‘tool kit’ she had put together to go help out a friend.)

Long story even longer, I managed to clean out a bunch of crap I didn’t remember that I had (and that I didn’t need), providing me with space in the storage area to clear off a bit of the bar, which is always a good thing. Now, to get my Dear Lady Wife to stop piling books & such on the comfy chair down here, so I might be able to relax in the quiet with a pint & a nice book…

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More toys!

This is my new lautering manifold. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do, I hope–its inaugural run will be on the 6 September Brew Day. The whole thing is of a piece, except for the connection to the drain fitting (the uppermost bit of copper, in the picture). So, it’ll just pull out for cleaning. I started with a hacksaw yesterday putting in the slots (on the underside, not visible in the picture), but got smart today & pulled out the jigsaw with a metal blade. The whole thing, when attached in my new mash tun (a 70-qt Ice Cube cooler), sits evenly along the bottom. I’m probably going to get a bit of fluid loss with the design (it has to angle up to get to the drain), but as long as my grasp of fluid dynamics is good, I figure it’ll be the same as or less than my fluid losses in the cylindrical cooler using the Bazooka screen.

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My birthday haul…

Yes, today is my birthday. Woohoo! 37 grand years. Anyway, I thought I’d show off a bit of the ‘goodies’ I’ve picked up today…

This would be from my mother-in-law… A bench-top bottle-capper, two (!) siphon starters, an assortment of in-line valves, some hose clamps, a hose cutter, and a ‘sure-screen’. It’s all got its use, but some of it will admittedly be staying in the plastic for now…

I also swung an Igloo Ice Cube cooler (70 qt) to replace my 10-gallon Gott-style cooler for the mash tun, and made some new liquid pick-ups based on this month’s Brew Your Own! magazine. The latter were a necessity–the HLT didn’t have any sort of pick-up at all, so I was losing about a half gallon of hot water per pot; the mash-tun was marginally better, but its pick-up was in the center of the pot (which sucks when a whirlpool is your primary ‘filtration’). Moving the pick-up to the edge of the pot will help immensely, I think.

Then there was the sack of Golden Promise malt–but I was going to get that, anyway. 🙂

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What’s On Tap, 24 August

OK, here’s what I have tapped, kegged, and in various stages of fermenting/aging:

On Tap:
Pils-style Lager
Northern English Brown Ale

Kegged:
Pils-style Lager
Irish Red Ale

To Be Kegged Today:
Kolsch
Sweet Stout
Belgian Dubbel
Dunkelweizen
Pumpkin Pie Spice Ale

Fermenting:
Lambic
Foxglove Chardonnay Pyment
Radish Mead
Cherry Wine

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What’s coming up…

I’ve been asked to do a 1-2 hour class on all-grain brewing for the Atlantian Fall University in October. Shouldn’t be a problem, beyond deciding how basic to make it. Do I go as elementary as explaining that ‘beer is made (broadly) from malt, hops, water, and yeast,’ or take that as a known? I’ve got ideas; and whatever level I decide to take it, I can always ‘ad-lib’ it at other levels of detail.

I’m also looking at a Brewing Day on the 6th of September. I haven’t decided yet what to brew; I’m leaning towards a Scottish Ale, probably something in the 50/- range. I’m not certain if I’ll try for a second brew. I’m open to suggestions… I’ll have room in the lagering chest, so maybe a bock or a helles.