Ded Rater Hefeweizen

That's what I decided to call that hefeweizen I screwed up (Ded Rater is retarded backwards).

Since I started kegging, I haven't figured out how to keep a couple bottles of whatever I make to set aside, or to take with me, like to a party or something. So this time I thought I'd try these carbonation drops. They're like little cough drops of priming sugar. The directions say to use one per 12oz bottle and two per 750ml bottle. I had 500ml flip tops. I tried to break them in half, but those things are really hard and not brittle at all. So I used two per bottle, and I'm hoping I don't have any bottle bombs. That'd suck. (Incidentally, I saw an episode of Basic Brewing Video where they accidentally put 2 drops in a 12oz bottle. It didn't explode; it wasn't even overcarbonated).

I kegged the rest of it. I'm trying to accelerate the force-carbonation process, so hopefully it'll be ready to drink in the next few days. Better yet, hopefully it'll be ready to drink tomorrow. I have some dudes coming over for a Manfest. BBQ, beer, bourbon, cigars, and video games.

Good Friday = Good Brewday

In an unforseen act of compassion, my boss let us out early today. So instead of doing any of the millions of other things I could/should have been doing, I brewed.

This is going to be pretty much the same as the bachelor party IPA, except, because I'm retarded, I didn't have the pound of crushed Crystal 20 BD's recipe calls for. So here's what I had:

6.6 lbs Muntons light syrup
3 oz whole Amarillo hops (bittering)
1 oz " (flavor)
White Labs British Ale yeast (WL005)

I'll give it a week or so in the primary, rack to the secondary, and dryhop with 4 oz whole Amarillo hops, and let it sit there until I have an open keg. As I write this, though, I'm thinking I might want to use 2 oz hops in the secondary, and save the last 2 oz for the keg. I kind of liked having the beer constantly in contact with the hops. We'll see.

This was probably my fastest brew ever. From start through cleanup, it was about 2 hours even.

Mmmmmm...

...affordable kegging equipment. $165 isn't bad. Also, with the secondhand CO2 tank, you won't have to worry about using an exchange to get it filled. Food for thought.

Incidentally, this shop is owned by the authors of Clone Brews and Beer Captured.

On the website, they have the recipes from both those books in the form of prepackaged kits. No more multistate, 3 hour goosechases for goddamn invert sugar and Belgian candi.

I've found some of these interesting...

...if not helpful and informative.

This is the site for a podcast that I listen to once in a while. These guys are kind of doofy, advocate some questionable techniques, and sometimes lack the vocabulary to effectively describe what they're doing or tasting, but they like to experiment, and they like good beer, and good food, and it's always good to hear how other people approach the brewing. It's easy to pick and choose which episode you might want to hear. Also, they're just getting rolling on a Basic Brewing Video podcast. Their first few episodes give good tips for a 6 pack experimental batch.

This website has another podcast. These guys are more of the fratboy idiot types, with weird top-40 radio voice distortions, and top 10 lists from email forwards I first got in 1997. If you skip ahead through that first hour of crap (it's often a 3 hour show), you can get to some high-quality content. They got Charlie Papazian on the show for a 2 hour interview back in December. If you're iTunes savvy, it's easy to find this (and the show above) in the podcast directory. Otherwise, you can weed through the archives for the Sunday Live Show.

A New Recruit

Fellahs, we have a new recruit. Sherman is getting into brewing, now we have our financing for the brew pub...some one that is already making money...

In a word...

...I'm retarded. I guess that's two words. But they're true nonetheless.

So I went to the beer store today and got ingredients for a hefeweizen, and the ingredients for another hoppy huskie IPA in an effort to plan ahead and save a trip to the store. Even as of the ride home, I was unsure of what I was actually going to brew. After consulting with Paul, I was set to go with the IPA. This is where I went mental. I was all relaxed, havin' a homebrew, getting my boil on, and what do I do? I load up my brewpot with the wheat extract. Damn. Guess I'll have the hef instead of the IPA.

My thought was to keg whatever batch I brewed today, but upon further consideration, I think I'll bottle the hef once it's done. I think wheat beers are much more pleasant out of the bottle than on tap anyway. And hopefully I'll have the chance to brew one night this week or this coming weekend at the latest.

I have some ideas for how I want the IPA to go. It'll be my frist attmept in a while at finetuning a recipe. Looking forward to a discussion on hopping options and perhaps some additions/substitutions in the specialty grains. I have a couple I ideas I want to check with you dudes.

I should mention...

If there are other links you want me to add to the right hand side of the blog, let me know and I'll put them up. Paul, I kind of like that beer ratings website you put linked to in your last post. BD, maybe we could put up a Things Beer or Northern Brewer Link? Keep an eye out for other sites you want to share with the rest of us.

DC's new beer place

A new beer place just opened in Georgetown. It's in the basement of a sweet pizzeria. I'm looking forward to testing it out. 100 beers, 17 on tap. Sounds like something I could get into.

Pictures

I got the pictures back from Snapfish. I'll email the link in the morning.

Katie needs a draught system

BD, that's how you have to couch your arguments. This is in Katie's best interests that you get a draught system. Just remind her how much worse it could be. You could be trying to buy, I dunno, drugs, or a stripper or PEZ dispensers on Ebay or something like that.

That said, it's time to get you as informed as possible on this kegging stuff as soon as possible. This is the guy from whom I purchased my kegging gear. Because I had a good experience with him, I took the liberty of requesting one of his catalogs on your behalf. You should get it in about a week or so. He's got all sorts of setups for sale, with any combination of kegs, tanks, lines, couplers, and faucets you could want.

You mentioned how you were thinking about going with this kind of setup, which I think is an excellent idea. It's expandable, and versatile. If there's one regret I have about my system, it is that I can only fit corny kegs in there; no commercial beers (that's where the financial benefits of a draught system really kick in).

Lastly, if you do end up buying a house with a large pantry off the kitchen, check the pics at the end of this post on the Northern Brewer forum. That, would be awesome....

Draft Systems

So, I'm pondering my impending decision to install a draft system whereever I move next year. It's going to be done I'm sure, but I don't know exactly what kind I'll be installing. I'm leaning toward a chest freezer style keggerator for the obvious benefits of being able to house several kegs, and large comercial kegs. Let me know if any of you has any advice/finds anything interesting out there in this regard.

Good day, relax and have a homebrew.

Bachelor Party Postmortem

5 lbs of Gummy Bears and 5 Gallons of Hoppy Huskie hombrew later, everyone spent the day of his arrival home recovering from the weekend - unpacking, sleeping, and pooping. Twice. I'm led to believe that pictures from BDfest will be done and available online in the next 24 hours. I'll be sure to post as soon as I get them.

For those of you who may be interested, here's the recipe I used for the batch of beer we spent most of our time drinking (credit to BD for the basis of this recipe) -

1lb Crystal 20 (crushed)
8lbs Montmellick Light Syrup Extract
4oz Amarillo Hops Plugs (bittering)
2oz Amarillo Whole Hops (dryhopping)
WhiteLabs London Ale yeast

Steeped crushed grain at 155° for 30 mins; sparged. Added water to make 3.5 gallons, boiled, added extract, brought to boil again, added 4oz hop plugs, and boiled 60 minutes. Cooled and strained to plastic fermentor. Increased volume to 5 gallons, pitched yeast, aerated, and fermented 10 days.

I didn’t have an available secondary carboy, so I dryhopped in the keg. I tied a grainbag full of the whole hops to the diptube before I racked over to the keg, sealed, pressurized, and left the keg at room temperature for about 18 days before I moved it to the kegerator for carbonation.

It was a doggone tasty beer, if you ask me. If I were to modify it, I may either add more hops at different points during the boil, or spread that 4oz over a more diverse schedule.

Also, I’m afraid I may not have gotten full fermentation, which I suspect may explain the vociferous volleys of man-scent mortars that set the tone for much of the weekend’s conversation. I’ll be sure to pay better attention to the gravity readings next time I make it – which I suspect will be soon.

Good Day, Eh?

Good day, eh? And welcome to our blog.

Here, we will be discussing some of our favorite topics: back bacon, and beer. Well, maybe not so much the back bacon. But definitely the beer. We're beer enthusiasts and avid, but far from expert, homebrewers. We'll use this space to convey our impressions, experiences, and thoughtful, if not coherent, malted barley-induced musings. But right now, we're still working out what it is that we want to say.

So grab a six a' your favorite col' ones, eh, and come back when we've actually got something to talk about.