October 15, 2006

It was a beautiful day for brewing this afternoon, probably one of the last before I'm brewing in the snow. I need to put up a canopy and somehow freeze-proof the hose outside before too long.

The good news is that I seem to be stocking up for the winter months, with every carboy and bucket filled with beer. As of tonight, I have both the new Big Sky IPA (I'll get to that in a bit) and Bastogne Tripel #2 in primary, as well as the original Ella, Fair Trade Stout (already on the coffee), and my Champagne Lager in a cold secondary. Also there's a four-gallon batch of hard apple cider in primary in my closet that just finished fermenting on wine yeast. A quick treatment of potassium sorbate (to kill the yeast), some extra sugar for sweetening, and some glycerin for mouthfeel (maybe), as well as a quick degassing (so it's not semi-carbonated in the bottle), I'll throw it in some bottles to drink up immediately. Lastly, Annabelle is in the bottle (too soon, but I had to make space for the Lager's secondary), getting carbonated then being put on ice for a few months (maybe under a snowbank, who knows).

Last week's brewing was spectacular: the Tripel mashed, brewed, and fermented perfectly. A quick secondary and she'll be into the bottles in no time.

Things were similar today, except for the perfectly brewed IPA turned into a whole other monster at the last second. A leak in my immersion chiller hose diluted the five gallons to just over 6 gallons while cooling...whoops. On the bright side, the IPA was of modest gravity and relatively lightly hopped, so the new beer is a typical gravity, moderately to highly-hopped American pale ale, which I had on deck to make in a few batches anyway, so I'm bummed that I won't be getting the beer I was planning on, but thankful that such an ideal brew day wasn't a waste of time and money as well. The good news is that I made all my volumes and measurements spot on (otherwise) and my efficiency was a more than respectable 74%, which means I'm doing everything right (again, otherwise).

Next Sunday is my birthday, and though I'd like to brew a batch on my 21st, I'll just be getting back from Ball State's homecoming with Molly's family and will be hitting the bar and B-Dubs immediately thereafter. So in two weeks time (which is like brewing withdrawal for me) I'll be back at the burner with my Stock Ale, an experiment of 20 pounds of Munich malt, 4 ounces of British Challenger hops, and Hungarian oak shavings, simple with 3 ingredients and 11% alcohol strong. It's based off old historical stock ales made to be blended with lighter beers to increase alcohol, generally brewed with the strong first runnings of other beers and aged for a long time in oak casks. Who knows what it will be like, but I'm looking forward to it.

Until then, I'll be drinking Mikaelas.

The Calm Before the Storm

Yesterday, my long overdue financial aid arrived in the mail to the tune of just under $1500. Of course, financial aid doesn't immediately equal a green light to go brewing crazy, since I had to apply for it in the first place to pay for auto insurance. But I figure that a few hundred dollars belong to me, since for the last several months I've been paying out of pocket for expenses that should have been covered by the student loan, money I would have otherwise probably been spending at my leisure. So, sure, I'm not going to go blow it all, but I've got four brewing sessions in mind within the next 2 or 3 weeks, especially because as soon as winter comes, it's going to be a lot more difficult convincing myself to brew in freezing temperatures. So I'm stockpiling.

First on the agenda (for this Sunday) is a complete renewal of my IPA that I haven't been completely satified with. I'm tossing the single-hop idea altogether for a unique blend of four tradional American IPA hops (Centennial, Cascade, Columbus, and Chinook, AKA C-Hops). The problem is that Amarillos, though interesting, aren't harsh enough or citrusy enough for my preferences; they are honestly just too smooth for that good bite I really require in a quality India Pale Ale. In fact, Rachel has more attitude than my IPA, and since she's an Amber Ale, that's pretty ridiculous. In addition, being lazy and using Kalamazoo tap water last time contributed too much chlorine to my beer, which makes hops taste somewhat like soap. Now, I'm back in the habit of buying Culligan charcoal-filtered and treated water before every brew day (at .29 cents a gallon it's not exactly busting my balls), which has only trace amounts of chlorine and is as close to distilled water as financially feasible, allowing for a good "blank slate" water content to easily treat myself with the minerals/additives I have on hand. So this time, no soap.

So that's the new IPA. I'm considering naming it "Big Sky IPA" because something about the explosion of hops in it reminds me of the natural beauty of Carpenter Lake, Ontario, where our family's cabin is called Big Sky. Perhaps Christmas gifts will be necessary.

Immediately thereafter (and possibly on the same brew day...who knows), I'd like to get started on another batch of my Bastogne Tripel, because I am both running out of the previous batch and my seasonal Bastogne yeast (that I won't be able to buy again until March of 2007) culture is probably actively waning in viability. Too much longer and I'll have wasted a big, healthy population of one of my favorite yeasts and have to reculture again in March, which is just a pain in the ass to do. So look for that soon. Yum.

On deck after that should be another new recipe: a stock ale, which is an old, massively high gravity style of beer that was used as a blending alcohol way back when. Usually it was simple and well-hopped, and quite sweet and full of body, as well as alcoholic and warming. I'm approaching this beer from one standpoint: simplicity. Basically, it's 20 pounds of a single malt (light Munich) and 4 ounces of a single hop (Challenger), both European, fermented on a large cake of Edinburgh yeast. The result should be a beautiful light ruby beer that is deceptive in every dimention: massively malty, hoppy, and strong. So it's more of an experiment than anything, and doesn't fall into one particular official beer style.

Finally, I'll finish up this storm of brewing with whatever I'm having a shortage of out of the lineup, which will probably be Rachel, or possibly an improved version of Hannah. But that's far enough in the future to talk about at another time.

As for current projects:

Annabelle (Scotch Rye) is hanging out in a cool secondary mellowing out. It's taking a good amount of patience to keep from bottling her weekend after weekend. Probably another month in secondary, and a month in bottles, and she'll be ready.

Molly's Mikaela Irish Red was first sampled last night. I'll let her brag about it herself, but personally, I think it's excellent, not even just for a first attempt. Really excellently malty and caramelly and straightforward, and I can't wait to watch it evolve for 2 or 3 months.

The Champagne Lager is still in primary because, until last night, it wouldn't truly stop bubbling. It's trying my patience, but I just jacked up the temperature last night to give it few day's diacetyl rest at a warm temperature, then I'll zap it down and cold condition it shortly.

And the Fair Trade Stout is coming along nicely. She was my first beer to literally explode out of the fermenter (high gravity ale plus lots of recultured yeast), and it literally got beer all over my closet, but no worries. I'll be adding coffee beans to it soon enough, give it probably 2 weeks on the beans, and bottle it up, letting it age for as long as I can hold out.

Anyway, off to OIT to see why I can't post anymore pictures on my Western site, then it's lunchtime and back to class.

Sam