Tag: projects

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Barley, Round II: One-Month Check In

Okay, the winter barley has been in the ground for about a month now, and it’s time for a check-up.  They’re doing fine; I’d put overall growth at almost a foot.  I gave the growing plants a “haircut” about two weeks ago, clipping them from ~9 inches down to ~4 1/2; my reasoning for this was multifold: a) the deer did it (and more severely!) last year, and it didn’t hurt them a bit; b) I wanted to suppress any excessive tillering before the first frost, to promote having a more established root system; c) something had been sleeping in the tall, lush “grass”, and I wanted to discourage it; and d) some high winds were making things “lay down” a bit more than I liked, and I wanted to minimize whatever damage might occur.

A more experienced farmer might allow point “b” as sensible, and the rest as unnecessary/irrelevant, but there it is–I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to, and had at least 4 reasons for doing it.  Regardless, they bounced right back within about a week.  (For the curious, whatever had been laying down in the barley–possibly a rabbit, squirrel, or chipmunk–stopped.)

The deck on the Undisclosed Location has been completed–well, all the decking is down, anyway.  I’ve still got the pergola to build, as well as steps and possibly a handrail or two.  Additionally, I’m looking at a smaller stoop out of the side-door from the UDL, with a ramp down to the decking, but that will require the removal of a few trees.  I’ve also got to get moving on trash removal–the debris-pile from the various construction we’ve been doing has reached ridiculous proportions.  Still, progress has been made overall.

It is with this in mind that I’m calling for the first Brew Day at the new house: November the 16th, 2013.  I haven’t yet decided exactly what I’ll brew, or any further details than that. I’ll update as I can!

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Some observations on barley

The biggest problem with growing barley, I’m finding, is observing the progress. On the one hand, brewing is a hobby for the patient–it’s all “hurry up and wait,” after all. On the other hand, watching barley grow is rather like–well, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s like watching grass grow.  (Makes sense, really, since that’s exactly what it is…) At least with the hops you can see progress on a daily basis.

So, everything has germinated. The Maris Otter and Halcyon are nearing the tops of their “cages”. The Hana and Bere are a ways behind that. I’m disappointed with the germination rate I got from the Hana in the field–of the 30-40 seeds, I’ve got maybe ten sprouts. (All of the Hana in the planter came up–it’s likely a soil issue, rather than a seed issue.)  The Bere is happy both in the field and the planter, with its second set of leaves up and the third set looking not far behind.

In the meantime, with less than two weeks to go before their introduction, I’m feverishly going over, revising, and correcting my class notes for the Medieval German Beer classes.  There are three, tentatively titled: “Period German Brewing Practices,” “Medicinal German Beers,” and “A Period German Pub Crawl.”  Thus far, the corrections are primarily fixing typos, and making sure my facts line up.  Of the three, I’m happiest with the Pub Crawl; it’s entirely possible that in the future I’ll fold the Period Practices bit into that one for a “mega-class”.  I’m hoping to have some medicinal herb people in the Medicinal Beers class, and to make it more of a discussion group.

Part of the fun for the Pub Crawl was looking at the various local beer names–“brands,” if you will.  A friend of mine was commenting on the wide variety of beer names available at the local liquor superstore, and the humor value in many of them… Well, our ancestors were no different in that regard: Butterfly, Toad, Choir Finch, Mosquito Mustard, and Raving Man are among the less vulgar names.  Some of them describe the feeling, or aftereffect, of the beer: Body-blow, Rip-Head, Blow-the-Man-Down.  The Lubeck offering of “Israel” was so named because of its strength: “People strive with it as Jacob wrestled with the Angel.”  (“Israel” is from the Hebrew for “wrestles with God”.)

Surprisingly, only a few of the beers were familiar to me, in terms of historical offerings: Gose, Israel, Broihane, Alt Klaus, Joben, and Mumme. Of those, I have only ever tasted commercial Gose.  (Mumme has become non-alcoholic, while Broihane morphed into a Pilsner, apparently.  I have practically no information whatsoever on Alt Klaus or Joben.)  Bock was not mentioned as such, although it was present if you know where to look–it derived from the name of its town of origin, Einbeck.  Indeed, it was searching for information on period “Einbeckisch Bier” that led me to the sources for my classes.

I’ll try to update again, either as “teaching-day” approaches, or soon after… And, I promise, pictures of barley (and hops!) will be forthcoming before long.

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Not a braggart…

But a braggot, maybe. I’ve been contemplating this one for quite some time, and am still not certain exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve got the honey–a full gallon of killer-bee honey, rich and tasty. To this, I’ll add a basic beer-like concoction, and ferment. But what sort of concoction?

The grain bill is the obvious place to start. Malt will add a both color and a depth of flavor to the brew. But what to add? The BJCP guidelines seem to suggest that the braggot should be built off of a base beer style, but Ken Schramm indicates that it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. I think that my course of action will be to do a basic, mostly light malt brew. I’ll add some slightly darker grains, Special-B and/or a bit of Crystal 60L, just enough to add a reddish tint.

The hops are next on the hit parade. All of my sources call them “optional” in a braggot. I think a light hopping with something in a floral/noble bittering hop, just to cut some of the intense sweetness, is in order. Certainly nothing IPA-like; I’m thinking more the hopping levels of a mild ale, possibly even slightly less. I don’t know necessarily what type of hops; perhaps a nice Hallertau?

Finally, there’s the yeast to consider. Schramm’s samples use Lalvin D-47, which supposedly flocs well and works to 12-14%. I think a better choice would be to start with a clean, alcohol-tolerant beer yeast, then perhaps finish up with something else in the wine variety, to “clean up” some of the residual sugar. A healthy lager yeast, combined with a cold ferment, could do marvelous things. (2018 edit: or one of my new favorites, WYeast 1968) But then, perhaps going straight for a wine yeast to start would be good. I’ll have to play on Promash and look at starting gravity, attenuation, and alcohol percentages, then decide.

Lastly, while it’s likely a while off, I’ll need to consider containers. This won’t be one to keg–it’ll be far too strong for that. Small bottles will be in order. Perhaps after a light filtration and force-carbonation. The bottles I’ve got on order from Shiloh Pottery will be lovely for presentation, too. I think I’ll enjoy this process.