Those Beer Monkeys

Here’s the latest on our beer pipeline:
1) Triple Dog Dare Holiday Ale: carbonating in bottles now and will be ready on Nov. 13th.

2) Blended Elf 2.0 Pumpkin Ale: bottled on Nov. 8th and will be ready on Nov. 22nd.

3) Trappist Ale: brewed on Oct. 30th, put into the carboy on Nov. 9th, and ready around Dec. 13th.

Here’s some pictures of our Trappist Ale going from the primary fermentation bucket into the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. As we mentioned before, This batch was furiously fermenting in the primary bucket and kicked off a wicked sulfur smell for a couple of days. As you’ll notice in the first picture there is a layer of sediment (hops mostly) at the top of the bucket that came from the furious fermentation process.

Yesterday we bottled our batch of Pumpkin Ale, named “Blended Elf 2.0.” During the fermentation process (primary and secondary in the carboy) the initial 5 gallons of liquid ended up yielding 3.26 gallons in the end. The 73 ounces of pumpkin puree created a thick layer of sediment that stayed behind.

This batch also marks the first time we’ve taken hydrometer readings. A hydrometer measures the amount of sugar. By taking an original (OG) reading and a final (FG) reading, we can calculate the alcohol by volume (ABV). Here’s what we got for this batch:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.64%

The ABV ended up exactly as planned, so we’re happy. The yeasties did their work and made us beer

Blended Elf 2.0 will be ready on Nov. 22nd, just in time for when our family visits for Thanksgiving. Based on how it tasted at bottling time, we’re optimistic this year’s version is greatly improved from version 1.0. You live and learn!

Happy belated Halloween TBM readers! Tis the fall season and a great time of the year for good beer. We’re big fans of Octoberfest, Pumpkin, Holiday, and Winter Warmer beer styles. Bring on the strong malt flavors – the more the merrier!

Let’s get everyone up to speed on our beer pipeline:
1) Triple Dog Dare Holiday Ale: this is aBrewer’s Best Holiday Ale extract kit. We spiced up the name in homage to the awesome movie A Christmas Story. This 5 gallon batch is carbonating in bottles now and will be ready just before Thanksgiving. This one will pack a punch with it’s 7-8% ABV.

2. Blended Elf 2.0 Pumpkin Ale: this is an extract kit from Midwest Supplies. The instructions recommending using 15oz or 30oz of pumpkin, but I used 73oz to try and get a solid pumpkin flavor in the beer. This one is named after lasts year’s pumpkin ale that turned out bad and described as tasting like “a blended elf” (in reference to the excellent Mad Elf by Troegs). Let’s hope version 2.0 is much improved. This batch is in secondary fermentation now, will be bottled on 11/8, and ready to drink just before Thanksgiving. If my gravity readings remain unchanged this will have a 5.6% ABV.

3. Noble Trappist Ale: this is also a kit from Midwest Supplies. We followed the instructions exactly. In the future, as our brewing skills continue to improve, it’ll be fun to culture yeast from a bottle of Chimay as suggested. This batch has been furiously fermenting in the primary bucket for the past few days and kicking off a wicked sulfur smell as the yeast does it’s work. It will go into the carboy on 11/8, into bottles on 11/22, and ready to drink around 12/6. For Christmas I am wishing for a Trappist Monk’s robe. I think it’ll help brew fantastic beer in the future.

Enjoy the fall and winter seasons and the beers they bring!

Okay so our last post was a while ago….we left off with an update on our First Pitch Pilsner. Sadly to say that this batch of beer only marginally improved. Overall it was a stinker. Probably an “F” rating. The sour apple flavors (acetaldehyde) never died out. I’m still not certain what caused it but maybe if we continued to let it bottle condition longer (months?) it would have improved. We’re too impatient for that though. Move on to the next batch!

Luckily a bad batch has rarely occurred for us — knock on wood that this continues to be the case.

For us the hardest part of homebrewing is the waiting: waiting for the beers to carbonate (10-14 days)…waiting for the beers to lager/condition (anywhere from a few days to several months). Our patience gets strained, our impulses tested, and often we fail to wait sufficient time before popping open a bottle and sampling the goods. But each taste along the way teaches us a lesson and works our homebrewing muscles.

We currently have a First Pitch Pilsner –brewed over a month ago– that is bottle conditioning and potentially ready to drink July 4th. The recipe calls for one to two months of conditioning time (July 4th will be one month). In the hopes that it would be ready to drink sooner, today we decided to open a bottle and see how it tastes. It definitely smelled and tasted like beer (always good!) but it also tasted like green apples (not so good!). Well maybe this could be a breakfast beer…nah probably not. Our initial worry was that the bottles wouldn’t get better, which would be okay because they are drinkable. So to find out if there is hope for the remaining bottles, we consulted our trusted homebrewing guide “How to Brew” by John J. Palmer. It turns out green apple flavor is called:

Acetaldehyde
“Some yeast strains produce more than others, but generally its presence indicates that the beer is too young and needs more time to condition.”

So there is hope! Palmer also suggests “using a warmer conditioning temperature.” Ahhhh ha! Thus far the bottles have been conditioning in our refrigerator, so we have removed them and placed out at room temperature. We’ll see if this does the trick and kicks acetaldehyde to the curb *BOOM!* *POW!* (to give this blog some classic Batman flavor).

It’s brew day again! Summertime is here and the weather is heating up. It’s been in the upper 80s and low 90s here! Time to make up a batch of beer that’s nice, refreshing, and of course tasty. A Witbier fit the bill and has excellent fruity flavors (check out the characteristics of a Witbier here.

My master plan was to brew a double batch (twice of everything and use my 5 gallon plastic bucket for fermentation), however after I had the double batch idea much self congratulations ensued which blinded me to the fact that I have only one airlock, which is currently being used for an IPA that is conditioning in its carboy. I would need another airlock…which I didn’t realize until I got home. So rather than hop in the car, drive the homebrew supply store, and purchase an airlock (WAY to much work), I decided to get to brewing and make a 2 gallon batch now and the other batch in a few days when my second 2 gallon fermenter will be free to use (bottling day for my Mocha Cherry Stout). The biggest positive of brewing a double batch is the time saved––but whatever, brewing is fun so why not do it again in a couple of days?!

Here is the recipe:
2 Cans Witty Monk Witbier
1/2 pack of Belgian Wit Liquid Yeast

My amended preparations (Bolded text differs from the Mr. Beer instructions:
1) Boiled 4 cups of water, HME for 30 minutes to create the wort
2) Chilled the wort in an ice bath to 70 degrees
3) Pitched 1/2 pack of Belgian Wit Liquid Yeast

I decided to use only 1/2 of the pack of yeast because the package says it contains enough yeast to make 5 gallons of beer, and my batch will be 2 gallons. I’m going to use the other 1/2 pack to make this same recipe again in a couple of days.

As I mentioned, the weather has been hot. The ideal temperature to ferment this beer is between 68-76 degrees––fermenting above these temperatures can produce some undesired flavors. I think I’ll be safe by keeping the house thermostat at 75, but if our back room (beer room) gets above 75, then I may have to move the fermenter to the basement where it’s probably 65-70 degrees.