Massive Beer Foul

Marco and I kegged our latest creation — Leap Beer (recipe to follow) — today, and let it pressurize while we went to a movie. When we got back to my place, we decided it was time to taste-test it. I attached my brand-new picnic tap to the keg, which the person at the store assured me wouldn't need any kind of clamp to keep attached, and we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a storm of dark beer. There was enough pressure in the keg that the tube was forced off the ball-lock connector, and we had to remove the connector from the lock on the keg. What followed was a lengthy clean up of my laundry room. (If you brew, you need a Swiffer.) The beer was pretty good.

Ginger Revisited

Marco and I made a second batch of Snapping Ginger Ale. We tweaked the recipe slightly, always in search of perfection. The ginger was upped to about 1.5 pounds to give a bit more bite. We also added half an ounce of Saaz hops to both the boil and the finish.

We brewed on January 20, and kegged on the 26th (this past Saturday). We're happy with this batch — there's a much more distinct hop bitterness in addition to the extra ginger. It's about as strong as the previous one, which is to say "deceptively." More hops in the finish also give it some head retention, which was lacking in the first batch.

A Quick Update

The "Phat Fired Weizenbock" is long-since kegged. It's not bad, but not as tasty as we'd hoped. Still, a solid, drinkable beer.

We also made another batch of "Danger Knows No Favorites Dunkel" (p.204), almost completely by the book, which was kegged about two weeks ago. It's delicious. I shared some with my neighbors this evening after work, since the weather was so nice everyone wanted to hang around outside.

One of my neighbors shared some homemade limoncello, which was also delicious. It was starting to rain, so we had to swig down the last of what we had in our glasses. For the record: swigging limoncello should only be attempted by trained professionals.

Apple Pie Imperial Stout

(Marco Cavagna, Christine Garnett, and Mike Marsh)

This beer is a sort of "work in progress." The idea was to have a strong, dark, malty beer with notes of apples and cinnamon, as a Winter seasonal. It hasn't worked out quite as we'd hoped, as of the pre-Thanksgiving tasting, but we'll be reporting on the progress as the batch ages. Note that this, as well as the Snapping Ginger Ale, are experiments. Some work better than others, but all are learning experiences.

9 lbs. amber DME
0.5 lbs. chocolate malt
0.5 lbs. roasted barley
1 lb. tart apples (cored, peeled, and chopped) — we used 6 Fujis
2 cinnamon sticks (boil)
5 cinnamon sticks (priming)
English ale yeast

Do the usual 30 minute steep of the grain between 150 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Strain and fill the pot to 2 gallons or more. Add the malt extract and 2 sticks of cinnamon, bring to a boil, and boil for an hour. Turn off the heat and let the wort cool to 180 degrees. Steep the apples between 150 and 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Strain out the apples and cinnamon, sparge and cool, and pitch when the wort is cool enough.

When fermentation is complete, boil 5 cinnamon sticks with the priming sugar for 10 minutes. Add the solution (with cinnamon) to the young beer (the alcohol will pull out a few more flavors). Bottle condition for at least two months.

There was a little (well under a pint) left after filling 17 1-liter bottles, so we tasted the primed young beer. Obviously, the priming sugar made it a little sweet, and it was room-temperature and flat. That being said, we could feel the cinnamon more than taste it, as a bit of tingling on the tongue and a bit of warmth. Because we used tart apples and no hops, rather than the bitterness to which we're accustomed, the beer was a bit sour. Based on this initial impression, we'd go with a less-tart apple next time.

The first tasting, at about 50 days in bottle, was better than the primed beer, but still disappointing. Without hops there's no head retention. The tartness is still present, and tends to overwhelm the other flavors (the cinnamon is basically undetectable). I'd describe the flavor as hard cider and weak coffee. Marco and I split a 1-liter bottle, but we ended up pouring out about half of it. We'll try it again in another month or two, but we don't expect it to ever taste the way we wanted. Cider takes awhile to develop its flavor, and this (inadvertently) is closer to cider than beer in character. The next time we'd use at least a little hops, and go with fewer of a sweeter variety of apple.

The second tasting, at 195 days in bottle, was considerably different. The sour flavors are essentially gone, leaving the cider and coffee flavors to dominate. While it would never be my regular beer, I found it quite drinkable, and consumed nearly the full 1-liter bottle myself. Marco still doesn't like it, but he seems not to like hard cider. The beer was at cellar temperature; another tasting with the beer chilled will be necessary.

Less than a week later (4/18), I chilled a couple of bottles and brought one out with me for my standard nice-weather sitting-on-porch-drinking-homebrew. The malt flavors were pretty thoroughly muted, leaving just the apple tartness. As the beer warmed, the coffee notes returned. I shared a bit with an intrepid neighbor, after warning him that it wasn't what we'd hoped for in terms of flavor, and he at least said he liked it. Apparently I'm not alone in considering this beer drinkable.

Brewed: 9/8/07
Racked: 9/22/07
Bottled: 9/30/07
First Tasting: 11/19/07
Second Tasting: 4/12/08

Dark Beer Season Has Arrived!

As mentioned previously, Marco and I brewed a batch of "Phat Fired Weizenbock" (p.195). We used DME instead of LME (with the proper conversion), because it's not as messy to work with, even if it does take longer to dissolve. The recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of amber DME, but since we don't buy in bulk, we went with a 2 lb bag. For the crystal malt, we used a #80 roast. The store didn't have debittered black malt, so we substituted 1/8 lbs of regular black malt instead. The hop varieties called for were only available as pellets, while we prefer to use whole hops, so we substituted 2 oz of Hallertau for the boil (again, increasing to the nearest purchaseable unit), and Tettnang for the flavor and aroma. We used a Heffeweizen liquid ale yeast.

The boil (Oct. 13) smelled fantastic, as did the ongoing fermentation. We did, however, experience blow-off in the 6.5 gal Ale Pail. Since Marco didn't have the makings of a blow-off tube (that may change with our next shopping trip), I went over with the necessary equipment, and we got it cleaned up and safely bubbling into a bucket of santizing solution. When the blow-off ceased, Marco reinserted the normal airlock. The remainder of the fermentation was (externally) uneventful.

Yesterday we transferred it to Marco's new keg. It was still bubbling just over twice a minute, but it needed to be re-racked at that point, regardless, so we decided to let the fermentation complete in the keg. For reasons that aren't important, we didn't try it last night, so it'll most likely have another full week in keg under minimal pressure (enough to seal the keg well) to ferment.

Based on the aroma, we expect this batch to be wonderful. With a two-week turnaround (kegs are so nice), we might be making more of this soon.

Brewing Update

We do, in fact, have a batch brewing at the moment. It's "Phat Fired Weizenbock" (p.195), with slight modifications. Marco has the details, as well as a story of his own.

Email Sent to Marco on Thursday the 18th at 10:46PM

[Note: One instance of bad language appears in the following. You have been warned.]

Allow me to paint a picture.

This evening, I go downstairs to start a load of laundry. There's a faint smell of beer in the laundry room. "That doesn't seem right," I remark to myself. I look at the floor, and there's a small puddle of mostly-dry beer beside the refrigerator. I open the door, to discover that beer is slowly foaming out of the ball lock of my keg. This is the old keg -- Rocky II. I, of course, immediately begin cleaning up the spill, and get my laundry in the wash.

Now, let's elaborate on the current scene. I have two kegs. One has been in the fridge for awhile, is almost empty, and has just started (based on the amount of spilled beer and the observed rate of, shall we say, foamage) to express homebrew. The other has been at cellar temperature for a little over a month, is almost empty, and is attached to a cobra tap, the only one I have. No seepage has ensued in keg number two.

The logical course of action was to fetch a fine mug with a handle, tap a beer from keg number two, consume, and repeat. The idea was to tap out the second keg, and then move the cobra tap to the first keg. It was a fool-proof plan, and I'm fool enough to prove it.

What I had not considered was that there was more Rocky III than Rocky II. After either four or five beers (I'm not actually sure which), the laundry was done, bedtime was approaching, and I was experiencing a mild case of fuckedupitude. Nothing severe, mind you -- certainly not vomitous (nor anywhere near), but enough to expect a suppression of REM sleep.

The end result stands at: Rocky III is tantalizingly close to being tapped out. There might, in fact, be comparable amounts of both batches remaining. The cobra tap has been moved to Rocky II, and Rocky III has been placed in the container I use to hold the blow-off bucket, which is identical to the container that I use to store my brewing odds and ends. That way, if there's seepage from keg number two, it will be contained in an easily cleaned vessel. Keg number one, in turn, has the cobra tap, which should provide an extra level of protection against a repeat of the leakage that prompted this whole "drinking" exercise.

Our story concludes now. I hope that it was mostly coherent, largely correct in both spelling and grammar, and at least slightly entertaining.