Bottling Over the Weekend!

Seems like a good time for an an update.

We bottled on Saturday night, managing to get a case of the Hibernation clone (recipe #3) and about forty-eight 12 oz servings of the Winter Belgian into their own drinking vessels.

Things generally went smoothly during the process. Oxyclean was a big help in de-labeling the empty bottles, and I went through a soak and scrape process Friday and Saturday to prep enough bottles. We are already ahead of the game for the next bottling; I'd say there are about 20-30 bottles ready to go.

We tasted the Hibernation the other day, and thought it was a nice compliment, if maybe lighter bodied, to it's cousin. I'll be very curious to see them side by side, but we need to wait for carbonation.

The Winter Belgian was very pungent on the nose, but was surprised that the spice smell didn't really hit the flavor of the beer. It's a meaty style, I'd say, and probably not session-able, but I think it's going to be a big winner. Very impressed with how that one is going.

We need to get some things on the calendar...the Saison and the Pumpkin porter deserve to be racked this week, and we have all the ingredients to brew the small batch rye. That needs to happen this week.

Current Status - Recipes #2-5

It's a damn beautiful sight, seeing four carboys going at the same time.

Recipe #2 - Belgian Winter - This guy will be ready to bottle come the weekend. It's in the plastic secondary.

Recipe #3 - Hibernation Clone - I noticed some slight roiling in the carboy, so there could still be some fermentation going. The krausen is all but gone, and the airlock activity seems to have slowed to a stop. I believe we are leaning towards bottle conditioning, instead of racking into a secondary. We need that small carboy for the Rye Ale!

Recipe #4 - Saison - No activity noticeable in the carboy yet. LOTS of trub, though. Aerated a second time yesterday, so hopefully it'll jumpstart. This is our second batch that is out of the gates slow, and both times it was a Belgian yeast strain. Might want to double that up, or use a starter process.

Recipe #5 - Pumpin Porter - Heavy activity in the airlock. Big foam head, that seems to have peaked already, and is starting to retract. Looks like a black hole, it's so dark. Heavy, almost fruity, aromas out of the airlock.

Recipe #3 - Update

Our little carboy that could was just bubbling away, when I checked on it. The krausen has dropped, maybe a little bit. Not sure what we did to that first batch, to make it foam so much, but these other two have not climbed the side of the vessel that much.

There is a pungent, citrus hop aroma coming out of the top of this guy. I will be very curious to see how close to Hibernation this will turn out. Maybe we should sample some Hibernation this weekend, in anticipation?

Recipe #3 - Hibernation Ale Clone

Recipe #3 - Hibernation Ale Clone - 11/4/09

8.4 lbs Vienna Malt
0.9 lb Flaked Oats
0.45 lb Caramunich Malt
0.30 Biscuit Malt
0.30 Special Roast
0.23 Chocolate Malt
1 oz Centennial Hops (75 minutes)
1 oz Northern Brewer (15 minutes) (fresh hops)
0.5 oz Magnum Hops (15 minutes)
0.5 oz Magnum Hops (5 minutes)
1 oz Northern Brewer (5 minutes)(fresh hops)
British Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1098)

Recipe yields 3 Gallons!

This was our first All Grain attempt. We brought 3 gallons of water to the mid 160's, and mashed the grain in a large pot. Boil in a bag method. We had to top up with just a little boiling water to get back to temperature. This steeped for an hour, and held it's temperature upon completion. We collected roughly 1.67 gallons of wort from the mash. That wort was stored in a sanitized carboy, until we could add it back to the boil pot.

We then sparged, by bringing another 3 gallons of water just over 170 degrees into the grain, and steeped that for 15 minutes. We collected roughly 2.5 gallons of wort from the sparge, yielding us a total of just over 4 gallons of wort in the pot.

That was then brought to a boil, with hops added. Initial plan was 65 minute boil, but we added the hops before boiling was reached, and ended up adding 10 minutes to the overall boil. That means the Centennial spent 75 minutes in the boil.

At 15 minutes, we hopped with the Norther Brewer (fresh) and Magnum (pellet) hops.

At 5 minutes hopped the remaining Norther Brewer and Magnum hops, for aroma.

We had very little boil off in the pot, resulting in approximately 4 gallons of wort in the pot. Since we were planning a 'half batch', in the smaller carboy, we poured off approximately 2.5 gallons into a smaller pot, and chilled it in an ice bath. Chilling to < 80 degrees took approximately 35 minutes (stirring helped). That was then transferred to the carboy, at approximately 75 degrees. We were a little short of our desired volume, so we quickly chilled another half gallon or so (took 5 minutes), and topped up to right around 2.5-2.75 gallons in the carboy.

Hydrometer reading at 75 degrees was 1.060. Adjusting for temperature, that puts us right at 1.062 for the batch.

We pitched the yeast, aerated, and capped the airlock.

Wednesday Night Session?

Looks like the Wednesday Night's brew session (the Hibernation clone, all grain attempt) is going to hinge on the procurement of a large cooking vessel.  It is a significant investment...if we were to go 32 quarts (8 gallons), we're probably looking at a 50+ dollar investment.  Probably high of that estimate, unless we find a great deal. 

Obviously, we need high quality materials, which means stainless steel, at the minimum.  Aluminum imparts bad flavors to the batch, and is substandard.  Copper is a good option, but I'm sure those are very expensive...I can't even find one quickly online that is below a couple hundred bucks.  Time to scour the discount stores like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, or maybe hit the restaurant supply stores. 

Recipe #3 - Initial Thoughts

So, the small batch should be on our To-Do List, now that the hops are in. Those hops would be Northern Brewer Hops, mentioned here.

I've been trolling through some recipes around and about. I'm curious what input the rest of the crew has, though. It might be nice to ramp up the sugar, and try to make this bad boy an Imperial style Pumpkin Porter. We might, however, need to learn a little bit about starter yeast, which is recommended for higher gravity beers, so that the little animals eat their weight in sugar.

Ryan also shot me a text this morning, asking if we should brew something special for Leah's wedding (Dec 5th). I wonder if smaller batches ferment faster? We'd have to get the batch into the carboy soon, if we were going to try to do that. If that's the case, should we get hers or Jon's input on what they might like?

Sampling the homebrew while we cook 70 pounds of pork butt in the cold mountain air might be the highlight of the year...