Super

Keyster Ale (aka- Magic Cat #20-10)

WHAT-AH-DAY!!

Defying Rachael's expectations of my ability to get off the couch on Sunday, we managed to get another successful brew day in yesterday, despite my consumption of 31 beers the day before. (This being a great forum to declare that they were Bud Lights-- however, if they were anything more than forgiving fratboy swill, I probably would not be here to type this).

We had planned a Magic Hat #9 clone for the next beer, and in light of Kumari's 30, er, 20-10th birthday coming up in a month, as well as an amazing story involving a rectum cache and apricot jam, the #9 clone, itself already infused with an apricot essence, became Keyster Ale (aka- Magic Cat #20-10)! A special thanks to Ari for retelling the exotic escapade of European butt-travel! (Note: Ari was not the courier)

First, some updates: We racked the Carrie Nation IPA to secondary through the spigot of the ale bucket, which worked very well, I'm sure as well as using the auto-siphon. After the transfer, we shoved 2 oz. of Centennial whole-leaf hops into the carboy to dry hop in secondary. I couldn't help but think the beer had a slightly off smell (sour?), but I may just be paranoid. The mead continues to bubble in the 6.5 gallon carboy; we took a sample and measured the gravity at 1.080- about .015 under the initial gravity. Good progress, and it's still fermenting, but we purchased some yeast nutrient to add when things slow down. Next time, we'll make a starter for sure.

But back to the Keyster:

Keyster Ale (aka- Magic Cat #20-10)

8 lbs. Rahr 2-Row

1 lb. flaked wheat

10 oz. Crystal Malt (60 L)

9 oz. Simpsons CaraMalt

8 oz. Munich Malt

"I'll give you to the count of 10 to get your ugly, yellow-livered keister off my property, before I pump your keister full of apricot jam! Which this tommy gun is full of!"

Warmed 13 qts. of water to 155 degrees. Mixed with the grist to get a temperature of about 133-5 degrees. Held it there for about 25-30 minutes.

Next, added 6 qts. of water near boiling. This brought the temp to about 150 degrees, though it varied throughout the mash tun, as it often does. We held it at this temp for 60 minutes.

Then, we added ~6 qts. of water at 190 degrees to finish conversion, only it only seemed to bring the temp up to 152 degrees, so we added some more of the 190 degree water. After another 15 minutes, we did the first runnings, then added 2 gallons (8 qts) of water to sparge. We held it in there for about 15 minutes, and then sparged into the boil pot.

As we brought the wort to a boil, we added 1/4 oz. of Simcoe hops as well as 20 oz. dried apricots. After 20 minutes, we added another 10 oz. of dried apricots, this time cut in half. At 50 minutes into the boil, we added 1 tsp. Irish Moss and 1 oz. Cascade hops. At flame-out, we added another 1 oz. Cascade hops for aroma.

This time, we strained the wort while hot (also doing a "hop back" by putting about 1/2 oz. Centennial hops in the chinois. Once strained, we cooled the wort in the plastic fermentation bucket, which seemed to work just as well.

OH- We also made a yeast starter for the first time, using 4 oz. of DME to 1 liter of water. We did this about 6-8 hours before pitching, right in the 12 lb. plastic honey jug.

The gravity reading read at about 1.062, some .006 above what we measured. I put this immediately at a higher efficiency, but Rachael reminded me we did boil 30 oz of apricots in the wort. So I guess we'll never know the efficiency.

The fermentation lock is raging at this point, so the starter is definitely a great plus. The biggest concern remains the apricot taste. While we only want an essence, there wasn't much apricot taste at all in the wort. We'll see how things taste when we rack to secondary; we may want to consider either adding the rest of the apricots to the carboy, or purchasing some of the Apricot Essence from Northern Brewer. We'll see!

Some Thoughts from Yesterday

Some quick considerations and afterthoughts from the mazing-brewing session yesterday:

--Northern Brewer suggests a protein rest between 113-131 to produce proteolytic enzymes, where TCJOH, I think, says to hold it at around 133. Look into both.

--Remember that the "foundation" of the mash tun, how much area is between the false bottom and the real bottom of the cooler, is pretty great, so don't be afraid to use more water in the mash.

--On that note, the grains really do hold a lot of water. Remember that we can add more than 6 gallons of total water and still be short on the ~5.75 gallons of desired pre-boil wort. (Just looking in TCJOH now-- for every 10 lbs of grain, plan on 1 gallon of water being absorbed)

--Strain hops (ie- clarify) before cooling

An A-MAZE-Ing Brew Day

A day of firsts: Our first mead - a base of orange blossom honey complimented by dried elderflowers (Named, in honor of several talented men who were pivotal to my early development: "Your Mother Was a Hamster and Your Father Smelt of Elderflowers!"), and our first all-grain brew from a recipe completely our own: The Carrie Nation IPA.

As the brewcats looked on and the crab performed his semaphore dance, a collection of large stock-pots housing both wort and must were raised to their respective temperatures, coaxing the sugary essences of milled grain and honey into productive life.

The amount of honey used would shock even

King Arthur, and the amount of hops for the IPA

would surely bring Carrie Nation's hatchet to our door. And oh, do they taste good (even without the alcohol!).

Mead is a drink with a long and celebrated history. Essentially fermented honey-water, mead was initially a celebratory drink given to husband and wife on their wedding day to drink every

day for the following month (or MOON), to increase their chances of conceiving a boy. And thus the Honey-Moon was born. This mead combines the clean, floral spice of orange blossom honey with the citrus-tea-like flavor of dried elderflowers. A little acid blend to balance the sweetness (and total lack of acidity) of the honey, and (hopefully!), in about a year, this should be a clear semi-sweet mead worthy of a honeymoon.

Your Mother Was a Hamster, and Your Father Smelt of Elderflowers! (Maze Date: 5/9/10)

17 lbs Orange Blossom Honey

1 tbs. Gypsum

4 tsp. Acid Blend

1/4 tsp Irish Moss

2 oz. Dried Elderflowers

The honey, gypsum, acid blend, and irish moss were added to a large stock pot with 1.5 gallons of water and heated to ~120 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring until the honey was fully dissolved. At this temperature, added ~1 oz. dried elderflowers. Continued application of heat until must reached ~150 degrees, where it was held for 15 minutes. Filtered must into a 6.5 gallon glass carboy (removing elderflowers). Added 4 additional gallons of cold water, bringing the total to ~6 gallons of must. Added 1 oz. dried elderflowers to the cooled must and agitated to fully combine. Once must cooled sufficiently, added 1 package WyYeast dry mead/wine yeast, agitating again to fully combine.

OG: 1.091 (Taken at ~86F - OG Adjusted for Temperature: 1.094)

Notes: Depending on further gravity readings, we may add some additional honey to counteract the high activity of the dry mead yeast, making this more of a semi-sweet mead, and just waiting for the yeast to kill itself from alcohol poisoning.

On the beer front, we (mostly me, Alex, writing now, get over it...) wanted to brew a slightly strong-than-usual IPA. As I thrive on stupid puns and historical references fit for a dilettante, the "Carrie Nation IPA" seemed inevitable. Dubbing herself "Jesus' bulldog", Carrie Nation was a formidable temperance movement advocate who would enforce her teetotaling convictions with a hatchet aimed at barrooms. Because her moral legacy of Prohibition was clearly for naught, this hoppy 6.5-7% ABV dark copper brew seems a fitting tribute.

We started with a mash consisting mostly of Rahr 2-row purchased at Brooklyn Homebrew over on 8th St. and 3rd Ave. It'll be a nice resource to have so close, especially for larger and heavier things that would not apply to the flat shipping rate at Northern Brewer. I built the recipe using the beer calculator at hopville.com; we missed the target OG by about .005 points, owing to a lower mash efficiency than 75% I guess, but it should come out great nonetheless.

Carrie Nation IPA (Brew Date: 5/9/10)

12 lbs Rahr 2-Row

1 lb. Breiss Caramel (90 L)

1/2 lb. Simpsons Caramalt

First, brought about 13 1/2 qts. of strike water to 145 degrees and added grist, bringing the temperature down to 133-ish ("ish" because temps varied at different areas of the mash tun). We held this at this temp for 30 minutes.

Then, we brought 7 qts of water (about 1/2 qt. per pound) to 190 degrees and added it to the mash. Though we planned to keep the mash time at a lower temperature for a longer time (to encourage more fermentable sugars and less dextrins through more ideal conditions for beta amylase-- thanks Papazian!), the temperature didn't rise as much as anticipated (though I feel we need a more reliable thermometer also...). But (in some areas) the temp stood at around 148, which was right around the target.

Realizing I had already added 5 gallons of water, I thought to use the decoction method after all so we wouldn't have to add more water (which we would later found we could have). ANYWAY- took out about 10 qts of "thin mash", ie- mostly liquid, boiled it on the stove for 25 minutes, and added it back when the hour the up to finish conversion. It raised the temp to the requisite 158 (165ish in some areas it seems) so the impromptu half decoction seemed to be a success.

After taking the first runnings, and despite the fact that the mash had a total of 5 gallons of water in it, we only pulled about 3 1/2-4 gallons, really exposing the degree to which the grains soak up water. We sparged with a little more than 2 gallons to collect just under 6 gallons for the boil.

At 0 minutes, we added 1 oz. Simcoe hops for boiling. At 15 minutes, we added 1 oz. Centennial (whole hops). I should also add that during the 15 minute boiling hop addition, I spun the wort to create the "vortex" in which to pour the hops. True to some accounts, the vortex bubbled up quite a bit, spitting scalding wort on my fingers and the patio. Had to happen sometime I guess...

At 55 minutes, we added 1 tsp Irish Moss and at 67 minutes, we added 1 oz. Cascade hops for aroma. We cut the boil at 70 minutes.

After another successful chilling session, we strained the wort into the plastic bucket. After a little research it seems that plastic bucket vs carboy is much about personal preference, so I thought we could do the primary in here and the secondary in the 5-gallon carboy. I wanted to do a yeast starter, but, well, didn't, so I pitched the White Labs California V yeast directly into the exactly five gallons of wort. There should be room enough in the bucket to shoulder any potential blow-off, but if not, hey! Ceiling IPA!

Really saw the "cold break" separate some of the cloudiness from the proteins-- or thought I saw

Also, we plan to dry-hop with 1 oz each of Cascade and Centennial in secondary.

OH- so we took a gravity reading of 1.064 at 82 degrees, adjusted to 1.066 . Lower than the 1.071 in the recipe, but close enough.

05/31/10- Man oh man. After only conditioning for eight days, this beer is nearly fully carbonated and I think the best one yet. Amazing color, great clarity, and pretty solid head retention. Not as much hop aroma; I thought there was more from the bittering hops than aroma hops, but Rach insists that she would love to drink this beer, despite her general anti-hop proclivities. The carbonation waned a bit, but in another week, this should be perfect.

Also: The final gravity read out at 1.010, bringing the ABV to about 7.5%. We expected more body (somewhere in the 1.018-.1020) but the mouthfeel seems very nice. Could this have been superior attenuation? High fermentation temperatures in the bedroom? A higher release of beta-amylase due to lower mashing temperatures for a longer time?

Summer Holiday

Having a bunch of remaining malts and unopened extracts lying around, we decided to put together an impromptu partial-mash, a "California Common" or "Steam Beer" (after the Anchor Steam Brewery) where a lager yeast is used at ale fermenting temperatures. Somewhere along the line we (perhaps I, as Rachael woefully looked on with the countenance of a gentle teacher that, after so much progress, sees her developmentally-challenged student screaming and rubbing feces on the walls) decided to add some cinnamon sticks and cloves to the boiling wort. An oddly seasonal beer for May, but perhaps it can supply another WMD Half-Christmas extravaganza!

Die Rache Des Killerschneemanns! This is what happens when you get holiday festive in July!


Summer Holiday (Brew Date: 4/17/10)

3.3 lbs Sparkling Amber Malt Extract
3 lbs Amber Dry Malt Extract
1/2 lb Crystal Malt (from some time ago...)
1/2 lb Dark Crystal (80-90 L)

Steeped crystal malts in 1.5 gallons (6 qts) of 150-60 degree water for 30 min. Sparged (strained I guess) and added extracts. Boiled for 60 minutes (completely forgetting boiling hops!).

At 40 minutes, added 2 cinnamon sticks.

At 45 minutes, added 2 tsp ground cloves.

At 50 minutes, added 1 oz Saaz (German)and 1 oz Saaz (American), but between 2-3% AA. Also, 1 tsp of Irish Moss.

Pitched dry Safbrew Lager Yeast (L 34-70) into 1 liter of wort 15 minutes before pitching. Aerated and agitated to make a shotgun starter.

Siphoned to carboy, filled the remainder of five full gallons with cold water, and pitched yeast "starter" at around 72 degrees.

4/24/2010- Racked to secondary. Sweet and malty, as there are little to no hops. Way too much spice (Rach says the cinnamon is OK, but the cloves are overpowering, and I tend to agree). Hopefully will mellow somewhat with time.

5/25/2010- Bottled this on 5/2/2010. Now, three weeks later, taste is OK (though still unbalanced--with IBUs around 3.5ish) , but the biggest flaw seems to be the lack of any carbonation (and subsequent head retention). Any effervescence would really make this more drinkable. We added 3/4 cups of corn sugar, so it can't be a lack of priming sugar. Possibilities include improper dispersal (that is, we poured this directly onto the top of the beer and let it disperse for 15 minutes) or lack of yeast after second fermentation. Considering we didn't take a final gravity, maybe fermentation stuck, flocculated too much (it is pretty clear) and too little remained in the beer for bottle conditioning.

5/27/2010- Other bottles are much more carbonated. Though head retention is not great (probably due to lack of proteins in the extract-- thanks Rachael) the carbonation seems spot on. Perhaps it's because of the extra days these bottles spent bottle conditioning in a hot room.

Jason Statham in The TransPorter

The JSITT is basically a clone of Charlie Papazian's "Silver Dollar Porter" with a ridiculous name. Though in terms of base malt, where Papazian called for 8 lbs of pale malt, we used 5 lbs of Maris Otter and 3 lbs (plus 1.7 oz) of American 6-Row. A few things also went slightly awry along the way, but all in all, our first all-grain brewing session went splendidly.





The time I confronted Statham for his supporting role in London.






Jason Statham in The TransPorter (Brew Date: 4/11/2010)

5 lbs. Maris Otter
3 lbs 1.7 oz American 6-Row Pale
1 lb Munich 6-Row (10 L)
1/2 lb Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb Simpsons Dark Crystal Malt (80-90 L)
1/2 lb Simpsons Dark Patent Malt
1 tsp Gypsum

Brought 10 qts of strike water to 145-50; added to grains (next time, add water first, so I've heard) to bring mash temperature to 136. Forgot gypsum, so added all 1/2 tsp to mash after 5 minutes (Though should have added half now, and half with sparge water)

After 35 minutes, added 5 qts boiling water, stabilizing mash at 149 (Recipe called for just below 155). Hit nadir ("nadired") at 147, but rose up to 151 after stirring, then sunk back down to 149.

Added 4 qts of boiling water to finish starch conversion, bring the temperature up to 159. The thermometer went a bit crazy, but we kept it at this temp for 18 minutes.

Then, we sparged with 2 gallons (8 qts) of nearly boiling water, though "sparge" is a loose term for using the chinois in lieu of a failed false bottom. Anyway: let two quarts or so run off cloudy, for the grain bed to settle, and started running wort into boiling pot. Poured first runnings back into mash tun. The color was very dark, so it was pretty hard to identify cloudiness.

Took gravity pre-boil (how much difference would this make? If anything, less gravity before upwards towards 1 gallon lost in 60 min boil). OG: 1.065 Much higher than 1.052-56 listed in the book, but hopville brew calculator confirmed this OG.

Next, we brought the wort to a boil outside. We didn't take a measurement of total collected wort, which later resulted in less post-boil wort than desired.

Then added, at 60 minutes:

1 oz Northern Brewer (8.5% AA)
1/2 oz Mt Hood (5.55% AA)

At 50 minutes, added 1/4 tsp Irish Moss

At 58 minutes, added:

1/2 oz Mt Hood

Took off heat at 60 minutes and immediately cooled with wort chiller (next time, put wort chiller in at 10 minutes left in boil to ensure sanitation, or rub it down with Star San). Despite a little leakage, wort chiller worked great; down to 75 or so in about 12 minutes.

Siphoned cooled wort into carboy, splashing a but to encourage aeration. Pitched Wyeast American Ale (1056). Shook to aerate some more before attaching lock.

4/12/2010- Wort foaming, seems like a "clean foam". Regular burping.

4/15/2010- Racked to secondary. Gravity at 1.012. Sweet, but with burnt taste. Body is okay.

4/24/10- Bottled, adding 3/4 cup of dissolved corn sugar (adding on top and not mixing in, as opposed to adding to the bottom of bucket and siphoning wort on top). Burnt taste has mellowed a bit; body and mouthfeel seems to have improved.

4/30/10- Improved carbonation, while head retention seems better in some than others. Gravity up to 1.014. Maybe add flaked wheat or CaraFoam next time, or do a protein rest. Taste has mellowed more. Next time, use less black patent (4 oz or 6 oz, instead of 8 oz) and perhaps more chocolate or dark crystal. Otherwise, seems well-balanced. Less effervescence sort of a plus, as it goes well with the bigger-than-average body.


Final Specs (pulled from calculator at hopville.com):

6.5% ABV

42 SRM (black)

45.7 IBU

.71 BU:GU

Statham says: "A formidable porter with an agreeable burnt taste and a strong, sexy core!"

First post! Woo Hoo!

As we amp up our homebrewing, Rachael and I are going to record our exploits whilst making shitty puns! We'll include recipes, observations, thoughts, musings, and philosophies on all things beer, mead, and perhaps later wine and distilled potables (hopefully potable). There will also probably be some food interjections and a superfluous amount of pictures of Noodle and Cubbins navigating their way into small containers and making cute faces.

We'll probably throw some retroactive brews up as well as recording the beer-and-mead session scheduled for this weekend. I just read yesterday that mead-making is technically called "mazing", so perhaps we'll call tomorrow's session "marewing" (because "brazing" sounds too much like, well, browning and stewing meat). I'm also thinking about using the decoction method for the Carrie Nation Double IPA, but it may not be worth it, as it's not a beer where you really want to accentuate the malty flavors.

Anyway, until then!

PS- For posterity, I thought I would list the extract and partial-grain beers we have made up to this point. None of them really stand out, but they compose a collective experience that has brought us to this point...

NoodAle (12/2008) Straightforward amber extract beer from the Beginner's section of The Joy of Homebrewing. Used "hopped" extract, dry yeast, and an awesome label. Innocuous, light body with an ABV around 3.5%

Untitled Brown Ale- (2/2009) Extract base with some crystal malt. I think we found a bottle of this six months after making it and it didn't taste half bad.

Witbier (4/2009) Wheat extract with orange peel and coriander. Pretty good, but the wonderful summer Witbier freshness didn't really pop.

Uckleduckfay Oatmeal Stout (7/2009) Attempted Papazian clone, as we weren't really prepared for step mashing or decidedly more advanced, all-grain techniques. Botched the lactose addition by not dissolving completely in water, so came out with lactose clumps instead of fuller stout body. Finished them off at a summer party where Steve said he would "pay for one of these in a bar". Drunken kindness no doubt, but at least the evidence is gone and he remembers it that way!