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Cascades and Newport

Those of you who have followed my antics for the last couple of years (since before this blog) know that I include hops-growing in my hobbies, in the hopes of one day getting a harvest to use in a batch. I started out with two rhizomes of Mt Hood hops, but they mysteriously died shortly after putting out burrs. I replaced them with two Cascades rhizomes last year; I was able to harvest a few ounces from them.

One of the rhizomes sprouted this year, but it was nipped by birds (I’m assuming) before it could get more than a couple of inches long. The other one was dug up by the pup, as he went through that phase. Long story short, they both croaked. So, I ordered some more, rather late in the year (the order was placed in May, from Freshops). The rhizomes arrived on June the 12th. I ordered a new pair of Cascades, and inadvertently one Newport rhizome. They all got planted on June 13th.

The Newport was the first to sprout, but it withered and died within a week; I’m not sure what happened, exactly, but I don’t think the rhizome was in the best of shape to begin with. No harm, no foul.

What follows are some photos of what the Cascades have been up to this month…

To the left, you will see the rhizomes, with the Cascades taking pride of place…

And below, the first shoot from the Cascades, 9 days after planting.

 

 

 

 

Here they are, four days later. These things grow like crazy!

 

 

 

And here they are, as photographed this morning (5 days after the last shot).

Watching them isn’t quite as dull as watching grass grow; I’ve got nearly daily photos dating from their initial sprouting. I may be convinced to put up the series on the website (watching the daily change is interesting). Regardless, updates here in the blog will be forthcoming as the weeks go by.

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The Stirplate

As promised, here are some photos of my new stirplate:

Completed stirplate boxThis is it, in 90% of its glory. A few salient features to note: The knob on the far right controls the speed. The red switch in the center is power on/off (it lights up when on). The jack on the left-facing side is for the wall-jack.

Stirplate plugHere, you see said wall-jack. I haven’t yet firmed up the split in the cable with electrical tape, but that’s not going to be either difficult or time-consuming.

Stirplate stirringHere it is, stirring away (at some water), full-bore. Note the nice whirlpool developed in the center. You can just make out the spinning white stir-bar at the bottom of the flask. Also, note the beautifully lit power switch. 🙂

All told, I don’t think this even cost me $20 to make. The computer fan (the actual “driving force”, if you will) was salvaged from a dead desktop computer. The enclosure I had purchased for another project, but subsequently realized was too small. I had the AC adapter from my other project (the HERMs Rig Controller), and only needed a female jack. The jack, switch, potentiometer, and knob I got at Radio Shack for under $10. Simplicity, itself.

I hope this has inspired you to make your own stirplate! I’ve certainly been bit with the do-it-yourself bug, after this. There’s nothing like having a completed project, functional, made by your own hands, to make you want to create.

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Brew, BBQ, family, and friends.

If ever there was a recipe for a better Brew Day, I don’t know what it is. Had a couple of friends over (could have had more–you know who you are!), BBQ’ed some chicken, brewed up a batch of stout (to become Blackberry Stout, when all is said & done), and generally had a good time. The weather has been decent, so we spent the day outside. The yard is dirtscaped (no grass to speak of), and it’s a tad hot with no shade out there, but we all endured–copious amounts of homebrew helped, especially the wit. I’d say that a good time was had by all.

Next month will quite possibly be my last brew day until late September or early October–I’ll be off on a business trip for about two months. Much experimentation and tasting will be in order while I’m out. I’ll try to manage a brew in early July, but there’s no telling. Hopefully, I can have the majority of the HERMs system put together by then.

My Lady Wife assisted with a tasting/judging at Sapphire Joust yesterday; she’s now even more eager to bring general A&S standards to the brewing community. We (they?) have been a bit lax, or so it seems to me. I mean, the reason I didn’t enter the most recent Kingdom Brewer is that I don’t/didn’t have anything that I would enter into an SCA event–even though a couple of my brews at the time were fantastic–just not documentable. Between that and the cognitive dissonance with the standards for containers, I’m not keen on doing SCA brewing competitions, generally. Maybe in future; we’ll see.

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Time marches on

Well, the last Brew Day went remarkably well. Beer was brewed, so the important part was taken care of… Additionally, lots of people came over, and the whole event turned into a barbecue/potluck sort of thing. I’d say a good time was had by all… I was able to introduce a couple of people to mead, which is always entertaining; I’m proud to say that the response to my brews was overwhelmingly positive.

In other news, the next Brew Day will be on the 24th of May. I’ll probably be following that up in quick succession with a Brew Day early in June. I need to clear out a couple of kegs to move some of the things currently aging; I should be able to empty one or two at the Barony’s event at the end of May (On Target), so that should keep me in business for a while.

Progress on the HERMS upgrade continues. I’m waiting on some temperature sensors that I hope will work–I had absolutely no luck with the LM34’s. I’m sure they’re wonderful sensors (and I’d love to be able to get Fahrenheit temps without conversion from Celsius), but I just absolutely couldn’t get the things to work. Hopefully the DS18B20’s will do the job. I’ve got the relay working, and the LCD figured out, and I figured out the I2C interface last week for the clock and data storage. I’ve got to figure out the addressing for the EEPROM yet, but that shouldn’t be a big deal. Otherwise, it’s mostly just programming, with a little hardware to put together. Woohoo!

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Brew Day, April 2009

This Sunday, at the request (insistence?) of my Lady Wife, I will be brewing a Cherry Brown Ale. I’m basing the foundation (the Brown Ale) on the Southern English Brown Ale recipe from Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew. It looks like a solid brew, as have been every other recipe I’ve tried from the book. The plan is to let it primary as per normal, then rack it onto a can of Oregon Cherry Puree; allow it to re-ferment to completion, then keg. It should be a simple beer, and hopefully it will turn out well.

I also plan to attack the non-alcoholic brews again, trying another root beer. I believe I learned from the last root beer I tried (which ended up a case of gushers). In the grand scheme, as long as the flavor and mouthfeel are there, and there are *only* sufficient fermentables for priming the bottles, it should be OK. Or, it could end up a foul, vile brew. I’ll be boiling up the ‘regular’ ingredients, less the sugar; cooling the ‘tea’ of sassafras root, etc., then adding the entirety of a bag of Splenda. That will give it non-fermentables for sweetness and mouthfeel. Carbtabs will provide sugar for carbonation. A bold experiment? Well, an experiment, at any rate. Time will tell how it turns out. (This recipe will be #82 in Misha’s Little Black Book.)

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Successful Brew Day

Last weekend’s brewing went well. I brewed my follow-on to the French Pale Ale (this one with Carawheat), and Sorcha brewed a wit based on the last one I did. The ale came out well, but I’m concerned about the wit–I couldn’t get a gravity reading on it over 4 Plato, which is exceptionally low. I suppose about 5 lbs of DME could be added; basically a “re-do” of primary fermentation, but I don’t think it’d be the same. Ah, well…

The Perry was bottled, as well. Initial taste tests indicate that it most resembles a cheap white table wine. This is not a bad thing–just not where I had expected it to go. I meant to bottle the Lambic, but that will have to wait until next time. It’s got a lovely wood flavor (from the oak table leg) under the tartness. There’s a flavor to it that I’m not completely fond of, but it’s not off-putting, and will quite probably age out as it sits.

I’m continuing to amass parts for the HERMs build. Apparently, if you ask nicely, many electronics manufacturers will send free samples! So, a couple of parts may arrive before horribly long (I hope), and drop the cost of the build by a couple of dollars. Every little bit helps!

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Lots to do

So, the Brew Day is coming up (three days from now), and I’m only just beginning to approach being almost ready. Granted, I’ve got the grains, and specialty grains, and hops, and a nice yeast cake–so, in that sense, I’m ready. My gear is still in its latest phase (while I learn PCB design, electronics, PICAXE programming, and a host of other things); fortunately, that phase is functional. But there’s so much yet to do!

We’ve been having relatively decent weather of late, so we’ve cleaned up the back yard–but part of the assorted gardening/yard chores included splitting some spider plants. What were two large spider plants, hanging in windows in the living room, are now *four* moderately-sized spider plants, lounging in my Brewing Storage Room (avoiding a few early-spring frosts). On a somewhat related note, the hops (the ones the dog didn’t dig up) are showing signs of life–small shoots are up; I’m just waiting for them to really get going…

I’ve got electrical diagrams and parts scattered across my desk, and tons of paperwork to file, just to have room to work. I’ll probably do a bit of clearing of my Lady Wife’s sewing table–just don’t tell *her* that. And the Bar area is an unholy mess.

Why the frantic cleanup? Well, it’s spring, for one–time for cleaning. I’ve also been contacted by someone who’s interested in learning the Brewing Arts–someone from the local Barony, no less! And it’s a difficult thing to learn in a thoroughly messy environment. So, a bit of tidy-up is in order. Finally, if I’m to have *room* to brew, I’ve got to get a bunch of stuff bottled–the pyment can probably get bottled; the pear cider most likely can; the lambic should be about ready; my last two beers, the SMaSH and the Helles, are also coming ready for their containers. Egad, I’ve got to finish off a keg to have room, too… Ah, trials and tribulations…

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March Brew Day

Well, it’s around the corner. I’ll be doing the follow-up to my SMaSH brew from last month: the same basic recipe, swapping out a pound of the base malt (which was all there was, last month) for a pound of specialty malt–in this case, I’m thinking some of the Crystal Wheat that I’ve got. I’ve had it for a while, and have been wondering what to do with it; without that, I’d likely go with a dark Munich malt or something similar. I’ll be using the yeast cake from last month, as well–it seemed like a good yeast, once it finally got going.

The parts collection for the HERMS upgrade is moving along, as well. I’ve got the microcontroller, the temperature sensors, and a few other miscellaneous parts; there are a few things that I’ve ordered recently that aren’t here yet. I think the biggest part of the actual HERMS upgrade will be a second pump. Moving up to keggles will be a “3.1” upgrade somewhere further on down the line. In all, I don’t figure to have the rig switched to HERMS before August at the earliest, maybe September–although things have a tendency to leap ahead when I least expect them to.

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Rig Update Update

I’m slowly but surely getting the planning done for the HERMS update for my brewing rig. (I’ve decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that the update, when it comes, will make this Version 3.0 of the rig; I hope not to go much past about 5.0 in future.)

“Why,” you may ask, “do you want to improve on a functional system?” The answer comes in several parts, most of which have been covered in other websites and blogs about HERMS systems:
1) Greater consistency between brews (greater repeatability);
2) Greater control over mash temps and steps;
3) Increased brew efficiency (arguable);
4) Increased clarity;
5) To satisfy my fondness for tinkering.

Of these, I’m claiming that #1 and #5 are the most important (in no particular order), with #2 coming a very close second. I’ll believe #3 when I see it, and #4 hasn’t really been a problem, for the most part–I’ve been thinking about filtering some of my brews post-fermentation, anyway.

So I’m still looking at going with the PICAXE–it seems most suited to my abilities (or lack thereof). I’m mildly frustrated (as I have been in the past) with the electronics side of things. The Venerable Guild of Electrical Engineers has kept their secrets well and truly hidden from the non-initiate; I’m picking up a thing or two here and there, and may even be able to explain some of it to the layman, when I’m done. And I’m gathering parts, one by one: a heating element has been acquired, and other parts are being negotiated for.

To bring the blog back around to “touch” the SCA, which I’ve been meaning to do for some time, a brewing contest has been announced for Sapphire Joust, here in Atlantia. I’m not sure that I’ll be here for it, nor that I’m even going, but I’m contemplating entering something, just for the heck of it. Perhaps the French Pale Ale? Granted, it’s almost completely undocumentable. But even getting just the feedback can be helpful, sometimes.

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On the road

First, an update, about last weekend’s Brew Day: It was successful (perhaps predictably so), despite the weather. It went from merely cold, to cold and rainy, to sleet, to slushy snow, to cloudy, to breezy, to sunny and actually warm. I’m sure a couple of weather types were missed, but there’s only so much time in a brew day.

The beer itself shows all signs of being good. There having been nothing darker than pilsner malt in it, it’s going to be light in color. I turned the heat on the kettle before running off into it, so the heat caramelized the first bit of running as it came in. This should add a bit of color, as well as creating some melanoidins for mouthfeel. The Nugget hops had a better smell than I remember from the last time I used them; They’ll add a (hopefully) good bittering, and a nice spiciness. The French Ale yeast seemed a bit slow to take off, but it was fermenting happily as of Tuesday.

In the meantime, I’m down in Georgia with my parents, helping out with a sick relative. I brought a pile of stuff to help with research into upgrading my Brew Rig. I’ve ordered a heating element for the heat-exchanger; I think I know what I’m going to use for the exchanger. The controller is going to be the difficult part; I’ve some ideas, though. This is going to be one of the slower equipment upgrades–the expenses for some of what I want to do could become somewhat prohibitive. But, I want to do this right, so–well, perfection takes time.