Thesis Results and More...
Well, the first order of business: Thank you everybody who came out to support my big thesis presentation, and my apologies to the few who I literally couldn't afford to invite. It was on a budget, after all. The event was a huge success, with lots of good food and good beers, and of course, good friends. And on top of it all, I get to keep the draft system! What a deal! I'll post some pictures of the event soon in a photo album; there are already a few floating around on Facebook, but I'll compile them all somewhere, as I have to make a scrapbook of the dinner for the Honors College anyway to get the last portion of my stipend.
With that off my shoulders, it's been awhile since I've actually brewed regularly, but it looks like I'm back into the swing of things. Upon a poor showing on a hearing anatomy test this morning at 8:00am, I decided to skip my following class and make some beer instead to cheer myself up. And, as yesterday was the official release day of Bell's Oberon (my first as an employee...yikes...), I whipped up my own summer wheat beer. That's right, Hannah's back. I'd like to get her in a keg as soon as possible, and start drinking her in no less than three weeks. It should be more than possible. And she's a bit of a rehashed recipe, since the last all grain version was brewed with little understanding of the process, and was pretty miserable as far as flavor (I still have some bottles sitting around, thin and overcarbonated...) but this one should be considerably more impressive.
And I'm not done yet: I think I'm shaping up to brew again tomorrow, as today's brewing session, with new burner and converted keg brew pot, was faster than previously expected. 4 hours start to finish, which is pretty incredible for an all grain batch. If I get to it, tomorrow I'll be brewing my take on a malt liquor, half as an experiment in a much snubbed beer style, and half as a personal guilty pleasure. I mean, I would love to have an official beer pong beer on draft! Dry and boozy...I'm experimenting with some new techniques, including a cereal mash (with frozen corn no less), which is a method of converting raw adjunct grains like corn and rice and such into soluble starch that can be then converted in the mash to sugars. Basically, I'll boil the smack out of the corn for 20 minutes until it turns into a mushy, starchy goo, and add it directly to the regular barley mash. The barley will work its magic over an hour, and voila, corn based sugar that is incredibly fermentable, resulting in a dry, alcohol rich beer that is super light in body and flavor. Steel Reserve! Add that to the punch of amylase enzyme (in the form of our good old friend Bean-O) directly to the primary fermentor, which will continue to break down long, unfermentable dextrins into shorter, fermentable sugars over the course of the fermentation. This, apparently, is a regular trick of the trade for malt liquor brewers. Instead of clean lager yeast, which may take several months of cold conditioning to taste even drinkable, I'll use some equally neutral ale yeast at a cool temperature, followed by some super-tolerant champagne yeast to finish it off. Also apparently a trick of the malt likka trade. I've done my research.
Other than that, I transferred Annabelle (#4!) while brewing this morning, and think I may have nailed her spot on this time. The substitute European ale yeast for my typical house yeast (Edinburgh) was a good decision: the resulting beer smells and tastes maltier, and less dried out, than have previous batches. Some very careful temperature control and a retooled recipe seem to have also paid off. That one will be sitting around for some time, but hopefully in a few months or so I'll be able to throw her in a keg (which I'm in dire need of buying more of).
On deck, certainly an old ale to add to the cellar so I'll have some monster beers for the colder months this year. The last version, my Stock Ale, was oaked for several months, but this version I'll likely make oak free, brewing it very much like Annabelle, but with less dark malt and more hops, and significantly more aging for that chewy, vinous character. In addition, I'd like to get an amber on tap soon, as my Transatlantic Amber is hanging out in secondary awaiting a free faucet.
It's warm outside, and brewing season has clearly begun! Come on by anytime and have a draft beer on me if you're in the Kalamazoo area.
Sam
With that off my shoulders, it's been awhile since I've actually brewed regularly, but it looks like I'm back into the swing of things. Upon a poor showing on a hearing anatomy test this morning at 8:00am, I decided to skip my following class and make some beer instead to cheer myself up. And, as yesterday was the official release day of Bell's Oberon (my first as an employee...yikes...), I whipped up my own summer wheat beer. That's right, Hannah's back. I'd like to get her in a keg as soon as possible, and start drinking her in no less than three weeks. It should be more than possible. And she's a bit of a rehashed recipe, since the last all grain version was brewed with little understanding of the process, and was pretty miserable as far as flavor (I still have some bottles sitting around, thin and overcarbonated...) but this one should be considerably more impressive.
And I'm not done yet: I think I'm shaping up to brew again tomorrow, as today's brewing session, with new burner and converted keg brew pot, was faster than previously expected. 4 hours start to finish, which is pretty incredible for an all grain batch. If I get to it, tomorrow I'll be brewing my take on a malt liquor, half as an experiment in a much snubbed beer style, and half as a personal guilty pleasure. I mean, I would love to have an official beer pong beer on draft! Dry and boozy...I'm experimenting with some new techniques, including a cereal mash (with frozen corn no less), which is a method of converting raw adjunct grains like corn and rice and such into soluble starch that can be then converted in the mash to sugars. Basically, I'll boil the smack out of the corn for 20 minutes until it turns into a mushy, starchy goo, and add it directly to the regular barley mash. The barley will work its magic over an hour, and voila, corn based sugar that is incredibly fermentable, resulting in a dry, alcohol rich beer that is super light in body and flavor. Steel Reserve! Add that to the punch of amylase enzyme (in the form of our good old friend Bean-O) directly to the primary fermentor, which will continue to break down long, unfermentable dextrins into shorter, fermentable sugars over the course of the fermentation. This, apparently, is a regular trick of the trade for malt liquor brewers. Instead of clean lager yeast, which may take several months of cold conditioning to taste even drinkable, I'll use some equally neutral ale yeast at a cool temperature, followed by some super-tolerant champagne yeast to finish it off. Also apparently a trick of the malt likka trade. I've done my research.
Other than that, I transferred Annabelle (#4!) while brewing this morning, and think I may have nailed her spot on this time. The substitute European ale yeast for my typical house yeast (Edinburgh) was a good decision: the resulting beer smells and tastes maltier, and less dried out, than have previous batches. Some very careful temperature control and a retooled recipe seem to have also paid off. That one will be sitting around for some time, but hopefully in a few months or so I'll be able to throw her in a keg (which I'm in dire need of buying more of).
On deck, certainly an old ale to add to the cellar so I'll have some monster beers for the colder months this year. The last version, my Stock Ale, was oaked for several months, but this version I'll likely make oak free, brewing it very much like Annabelle, but with less dark malt and more hops, and significantly more aging for that chewy, vinous character. In addition, I'd like to get an amber on tap soon, as my Transatlantic Amber is hanging out in secondary awaiting a free faucet.
It's warm outside, and brewing season has clearly begun! Come on by anytime and have a draft beer on me if you're in the Kalamazoo area.
Sam
posted by Sam Reese at 6:37 PM
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