Blackstrap Brown Label

Yeast Activity

This is a sort of test movie to see if I can figure out this Google Video thing with my digital camera's video function. Ideally, I'd like to post short clips of homebrewing related stuff just as I have occasionally with pictures. This clip shows the yeast activity in my Blackstrap Brown Ale. All those blobs of yeast will fall out of suspension as soon as there are no more sugars to be converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide, but right now, as you can see, they're healthily chugging away.

Blackstrap Brown Ale

Indeed, at least for the summer months, my operation and setup has moved outside! Tired of boilovers on the stove and turning our apartment into a beer steamed sauna, I bought my own propane tank today (so as not to use up the grill propane that we all share) and broke out the remaining parts of my turkey fryer set to take advantage of the calm and beautiful day outside.



By wrapping some aluminum foil around the base of the stand, I made a fairly windproof stand for my burner, which pumps out (according to the Chinese manufacturers) 165,000 BTUs of heat. Skeptical at first, I just had to adjust the flame to find a good middle road between heat and fuel economy, and this sucker proved to be able to bring my beer to a boil in about 25% of the time it has previously taken on my stovetop, which made my brew day nice and short by cutting it down by about an hour and a half...



Lots of homebrewers do exactly this, especially those who do large batches, because a household stove just isn't strong enough to bring that much liquid to a boil. It is generally agreed upon that a good, vigorous, rolling boil is necessary for brewing the best beer possible, as it releases harmful compounds (like DMS -- dimethyl sulfate, for one) that will negatively effect the taste of your finished product. My stove, the hoss that it is, boiled 6 or 7 gallons, but barely, and the boil could hardly be considered "rolling." This setup, however, proved to be much stronger and time efficient, and when necessary, I was able to crank up the heat to bring colder liquid to a boil incredibly fast (at the waste, of course, of more than the necessary amount of propane), which was very nice to have in a pinch.

Beyond the new experience of outdoor brewing, I am proud to say that, though it has taken me batch after batch after batch, I have finally figured out my own personal brewing system. In previous posts, I have had complaints about my low efficiencies, which refers merely to how many sugars I extract from my grain in comparison to the amount of sugars possible to extract. No brewer ever extracts 100%, but most homebrewers have efficiencies of about 70 to 80 percent. Previously mine have been far too low, sometimes below 50% but more often between 50% and 60%, and efforts to improve that number had failed time and time again. I did some serious reading on the topic, took some good notes, and stuck to what I knew today when mashing, instead of my occasional "fuck it" comment when things don't go according to plan. Mainly by paying close attention to water volume variables, including the thickness of the mash and by carefully maintaining exact volumes in the mash and sparge (mash=sugar extraction and sparge=grain rinsing to extract more sugars), I hit a better than expected efficiency of 75%.



Now that I can maintain such an efficiency, I can finally call myself an all grain brewer. That liquid pouring out is wort, a syrupy sugar liquid extracted directly from barley when it "cooks" in a solution at the right temperature. And I'm proud to say that I finally made it myself correctly.

The beer itself is a mild ale style, an old English session beer of relatively low alcohol and great drinkability. Most commercial examples are burnt orange to medium brown, and about 3 to 4 percent alcohol, about the strength of a light beer today. Expecting a low effieciency once again, I scaled up the recipe with some extra grain, hoping to, in the worst case scenario, screw up my mash once again and still end up with the correct beer strength. As it turns out, the beer is about 5 percent, which expressly places it outside the range of a typical mild ale, so it may have to be considered a brown ale instead, even if I've made already. But instead of being very roasty and carmelly like Eva, this beer (as of yet unnamed) should have the body of an Irish ale, being very dry and exceptionally light in body for its color, with a kick of richness due to an addition of one cup of blackstrap molasses. If the character of the molasses fails to shine through after fermentation, I will add an extra dose upon carbonating the beer (about 3 weeks from now, likely) so that flavor is recognizable. Ultimately, this beer should end up much like Bass Ale, yet slightly darker and a bit more flavorful, but not like your typical brown.

In other news, Annabelle is in the secondary. She fermented out very cleanly, and a preliminary taste exhibits a very strong alcoholic presense, much like the first tastes of her first batch. Strangely enough, the dark malts failed to turn this beer completely black, but the flavor shouldn't suffer. I may try to fix the color issue with the addition of some adjunct grains, but more likely, I'll just settle with a dark brown beer that tastes like the familiar Annabelle I love and say screw it. I wouldn't want to ruin it for something as insignificant as color.

Lastly, I officially declined the job I was offered at Arcadia. To make a long story short, I was unable to work for both Bell's and Arcadia simultaneously, as it was a conflict of business interests. I am anticipating my current job at Bell's will place me in good stead to work in the Bell's plant in the near future, and my employers are aware and cognizant of my interest. I'd be happy to talk about the whole situation in detail, but this isn't the place to do so.

Anyway, looking for a name for the new beer, as well as the Kolsch. Ella, by the way, is excellent, if not a bit strong, and will do well to age for several more months, and even years. Thanks to Rachel and Brandon for enjoying one with Molly and I on our six month.

Cheers,
Sam

Arcadia & Annabelle

As we speak, I'm brewing up another batch of my favorite homebrew, Annabelle Scotch Rye, only this time, instead of using extract, this baby is 100% all grain, which may be a chore considering her high alcohol volume (10%). But so far, things are going smoothly.

Big news: Yesterday I was offered the Cellarman position at Arcadia Brewing Company in Battle Creek, AKA my dream job. That means I'll be working in the homebrew store at Bell's this summer while spending Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings (about 20 to 25 hours a week) getting paid to brew beer! The job is an Assistant Brewer position, which means I'll get to brew a batch once a week or so, but as Cellarman, I'll be in charge of everything beer-related after brewing and before packaging, including controlling and monitoring fermentation, transferring, clarifying, conditioning, aging, and carbonating, all very integral parts of the brewing process. Arcadia is a respectable distributing Michigan brewery, about the fifth largest in the state, with an attached restaurant and a distribution area spanning the midwest. They brew British style ales in particular, with open top fermentations and all UK ingredients. I enjoy their beers pretty frequently.

I'll post more about the job as I work, starting this coming Tuesday. I'm definately excited to get this opportunity to explore the brewing business, especially since this job allowed me to end my ice cream related servitude at Cold Stone, my employer of one year.

Back to the brew.

Sam