Cider Beer and Brown Ale Update

Happy Halloween everyone! I've got some extra time waiting for the trick or treaters so I thought I would post a quick update as to what is happening with the brews. Last Sunday (October 25, 2009) I moved the Cider Beer and Brown Ale over to their secondary carboys. Here is an update on each beer:

Brown Ale: The Brown Ale is the free wort I got from Surly on October 10. Fermentation is still pretty active with beer, likely due to the high gravity their is a lot of sugar for the yeast to get after. Once I transferred to the secondary I also added the whiskey soaked oak cubes to the beer. Here is a picture of the oak cubes sitting in the carboy:

At some point I need to decide on a name for this beer. My brother-in-law James and were discussing it the other day and he came up with "Whisky Richard's Brown Ale". I think it may stick. I have no idea when I will bottle this one due to the on-going fermentation. I may let this one may ferment for months.

Cider Beer: As for the Cider Beer, fermentation has slowed considerably since racking to the secondary. I did add three cinnamon sticks to the carboy as well. This cider is looking pretty murky at this point, most ciders are near clear or light bodied but this is looking like sludge at this point. The cider I bought wasn't light or clear and was near this color, so I'm not too worried at this point. I intend on bottling this one sometime next week. Any thoughts on a name for the cider beer?

Here is a pic of the Whisky Richard's Brown Ale on the left and the Cider Beer on the right.

Darkness Day

On Saturday I attended Darkness Day at the Surly Brewing Company. Darkness is the name of Surly's Russian Imperial Stout beer. A Russian Imperial Stout is a very strong dark ale which alcohol by volume often in excess of 10%. The history of Russian Imperial Stouts can be traced back to 1796 and Catherine the Great of Russia's fondness for the beer style. Catherine had contracted directly with the Courage Anchor Brewery and John Courage Brewery of England to produce the beer style directly for her and her court.

Russian Imperial Stouts are somewhat unique in the time that they take to ferment and condition. Most beers will ferment and condition in a matter of weeks. Imperial stouts can take up to a year to ferment and years to condition. Like a good wine, Russian Imperial Stouts get better with age.

Surly's Darkness is released one day per year at a special event at the brewery. The first 800 people were given a wrist band that allowed you to buy up to 6 bottles at $18 each. This year they are also releasing 2500 bottles to the local liquor stores next week. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. and were able to get wrist bands but I was told that they ran out of wristbands before the doors even opened at 12:00 p.m.! Here's a picture of the line going for as far as you can see at about 11:00 a.m.

I would imagine that for many the Russian Imperial Stout is an acquired taste as it is the antithesis of the traditional American lager. The taste of Russian Imperials is heavy on chocolate, coffee, and roasted malt flavors. Some Russian Imperials do not manage to hide the alcohol content and have a slight alcohol burn to them. Often Russian Imperials will also ferment in fruit, wood, or some other flavor to help balance it out. The good ones, such as Surly's Darkness, balance the sweetness, bitterness, and mask the alcohol content so well that it tastes more like a dessert than a beer. The longer that these bottles sit, the better that the flavors balance out. I plan to cellar these beers for as long as possible but I don't know how long I will be able to hold out!

Cider Beer Brew Day

After the Vikings game yesterday (go Vikes 6-0!) I brewed a batch of cider beer. This is my first attempt at a cider beer so I am really looking forward to how it turns out. I enjoy cider beers in the fall, especially now that apples are in season and the cider is fresh. Most ciders that I have had are sweet, light bodied, and finish somewhat dry. I want to make a cider that was more like drinking a beer in that it was light-medium bodied with a sweeter finish. In essence, I want to try making a cider that tastes like caramel apple pie. Here is the recipe that I tried:

4 gallons of fresh pressed cider

1 gallon of water

1 lb Light Malt Extract

1 lb Amber Malt Extract

8 oz Caramel 60 Malt

4 oz Flaked Oats

1 oz Torrified Wheat

8 oz Fuggle Hops

Wyeast Apple Cider Yeast

I also plan on adding some cinnamon sticks during the secondary fermentation process. I was thinking I would add between 2-5 sticks, but I don't want it to be overpowered with cinnamon. either. Original Gravity was 1.060, so depending on how well it ferments it will finish around 5.5%-6.5% alcohol by volume. Most cider recipes call for extended fermentation over several months, but I intend on letting it ferment for less than one month. I also don't want to wait several months to give this a try!

Surly Wort Update

The blow off tube worked wonders during the fermentation process. The wort has been fermenting for seven days today and is down to the occasional bubble in the airlock. I replaced the blow off tube for the airlock again because I need the tube for siphoning. I plan to bottle "Blue Moonish" American Wheat Ale later today.

The oak cubes are soaking in whisky right now. I ended up getting Windsor Canadian Whisky, primarily because it was $3.50 for a fifth of a pint. I'm a bit skeptical as to how the whisky oak barrel aging will work, but since this is free wort I thought I would give it a shot.

P.S. Did anyone know there is a difference between "whisky" and "whiskey"? Apparently whiskey is used primarily in Canada, Ireland, and Scotland, while "whiskey" is used in most other locations including the United States.

Fermentation Gone Wild!

Lately I have been monitoring the fermentation progress with the free wort that I got from Surly this past weekend. You can usually notice the fermentation process within 24 hours, but this one didn't become active until yesterday evening (48 hours later). Since then it has been fermenting like crazy!

Fermenation in beer is the process of the yeast converting the glucose (sugar) into alcohol and carbon dioxide (C02). As the fermentation process takes course, the C02 needs to escape the fermentation vessel or your risk having it explode! That is where an airlock comes into place.

An airlock is a small device attached to the fermentation vessel that is filled with water to create a water trap. The airlock allows the C02 to escape through the water without exposing the fermenting wort to outside air. This prevents outside contamination from outside bacteria and wild yeasts.

As you can see in the above picture, the fermentation process on this wort is very active. In fact it was too active. One problem with rapid fermentation is that it can produce bubbles that eventually creep up the vessel and clog the airlock. That is what happened repeatedly when I check on it last night before bed. I then decided to take the airlock off and this is what happened:

The C02 bubbles were out of control! It was like I was in the middle of a high school chemistry experiment gone wrong. I tried cleaning the airlock twice but it got clogged with bubbles again within minutes. So I had to solve this dilemma as I didn't want to leave it off and risk exposure (and a basement full of beer bubbles). I also didn't want to leave the airlock on with it getting clogged and risk it being shot off like a champagne cork or having the vessel explode!

I then remembered the fermentation vessels at Surly Brewing Company. Next to each tank was a garbage can sized plastic bucket filled with water with a tube leading into it from the vessel. This is called a blow off tube. The C02 escapes the fermentation vessel through the tube and is blown into the bucket, again without exposing the beer to outside air. The one thing I remembered about Surly's blow off tubes is that the buckets were bubbling like it was a hot tub!

I then decided that I would need to hone my MacGyver skills and create my own blow off tube. I happened to have a rubber tube laying around that I use for siphoning in an out of the fermentation vessels. I then grabbed a pitcher and filled it with sanitized water and was set. Here is the blow off tube in action:

24 hours later, the pitcher is bubbling, and fermentation is still very active. I guarantee that if I wouldn't have done anything last night I would of had a heck of a mess to clean up.

Crisis averted!

Look at all the pretty colors - American Wheat Ale vs. Coffee Stout

I had taken this picture last week of my two carboys in the "brewery" aka my basement. I know the cell phone camera doesn't take the best pictures, but notice the difference in colors from the amercian wheat ale (Blue Moon clone) on the left and the coffee stout on the right. The wheat ale has a nice orange/brown color to it and the coffee stout is just like how most people like their coffee... black.

The coffee stout was bottled Friday night (October 9th), expect it to be ready to drink in approximately 6 weeks. The wheat ale has another week in the carboy before it is ready to be bottled/kegged.

American Homebrewers Association Rally at Surly Brewing Company

Yesterday @RealBigHuge and I attended the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Rally at the Surly Brewing Company in Brooklyn Center, MN. I got a discounted membership into the AHA for $33 and best of all was the free wort!

For those who don't know what "wort" is, wort is a sweet liquid made from mashing hot water with malt and hops. In other words, wort is unfermented beer. Thank you to the folks at Surly, Mid Country Malts, and Northern Brewer for supplying the wort for us homebrewers!

Here is the wort recipe from Surly:

Surly / AHA Rally Beer Recipe
82% Canada Malting Pale Ale Malt
10.8% Fawcett Brown Malt
3.6% Dark Candi Syrup
1.8% Fawcett Crystal 85L
1.8% Fawcett Dark Crystal 120L
Bittering Hops - Columbus
Whirlpool/Aroma Hops -Willamette
OG 21 ~ 1.087 gravity
IBU 64

So all I needed to do was pitch a yeast into my carboy. I decided to go with a Wyeast Burton Ale yeast. Here is a description of Burton Ale yeast:

WL023 Burton Ale Yeast: From the famous brewing town of Burton upon Trent, England, this yeast is packed with character. It provides delicious subtle fruity flavors like green apple, clover honey and pear. Great for all English styles, IPA’s bitters, pales. Excellent in porters and stouts.

I wanted a yeast with a complex flavor profile to balance out how sweet this beer is likely going to be. Depending on how well the fermentation process goes, this beer should finish at approximately 8.5% alcohol content by volume!

I also bought oak cubes at Midwest Homebrewing yesterday and plan on soaking these in whiskey or bourbon. I will then place the soaked oak cubes in the secondary fermenation vessels for the last two weeks or so.

A beer with subtle hints of Jack Daniels perhaps? Say it isn't so... Pictures to follow as the fermentation process begins.

So far, so good

Here is a list of what I have brewed so far. I hope to eventually post recipes of those that I made myself vs. recipe kits.

Sweet Stout

Java Stout

American Wheat Ale - Gumballhead Clone

Amber Ale - "Angry Red"

Cream Ale

Coffee Stout - Wake and Bake Clone

India Pale Ale - "Rainy Day"

Chocolate Stout

Double India Pale Ale

Honey Amber Ale

Honey Porter

Blonde/Cream Ale - "Lot Lizard"

American Wheat Ale - Blue Moon Clone

Hello World!

I have decided to create a space online to document my home brewing efforts, beer reviews, tours, etc. Hopefully this site will be of interest to you as you join me in all things beer related. Feel free to join in and post your questions. If you have tried one of the beers I appreciate the feedback as well.

Cheers!