Non-Brewing Brew Weekend

Summer is a busy time with my children on swim teams, but now that the summer swim season is over, I’m finally getting the chance to get back into the swing of things. The wife and kids were out of town this weekend so I thought I was going to have the opportunity to brew. I’m planning to brew a Flanders Red, but I couldn’t get my hands on Wyeast’sRoselaire blend, so I decided to postpone that brew session until a later date.

Although I didn’t brew, I did a number of brewing related activities that I had been putting off.

I bottled my saison that I brewed back in April (yes, the summer is busy). My original plan was to bottle half of the batch straight and add some Brett C to the other half, but when I took a gravity ready it had attenuated all the way down to 1.000. I’ve had meads do that, but I had never had a beer get that low, and with a notoriously lazy saison yeast too. Needless to say there aren’t many sugars for the Brett to chew on, so I called an audible and decided to bottle the entire batch straight.

I kegged my Hopslam inspired IPA (brewed the same day as the saison). Even after 4 months, that thing is super hoppy. I can’t wait to keg hop that bad boy once it is ready to serve. My yield ended up being 5.75 gallons, so I racked the extra into a growler and added a slurry of Brett C. Hops and funk – yum!

I also had a small batch of Citra pale ale that was fermented with Brett C. I went ahead and bottled that this weekend too. It was a lot more funky than I thought it would be, but I think I like it.

I’ve had a lambic sitting in the fermenter that I brewed 10 months ago and I wanted to get a gravity reading and sample it. It has attenuated down to 1.001 but still not very complex. It is a lot more sour than it was a few months ago but the funk really hasn’t taken off. I pitched a few ounces of Brett C slurry into it to try to funkify it a bit.

I also did some kegerator cleaning, and this is where I shed some tears. I had some liquid down in the bottom of my chest freezer so I pulled all of the kegs out to clean it. Among the kegs was a hefeweizen that I kegged about a month ago that I had drank 1 pint. When I heaved the keg it was completely empty. It had emptied onto the floor of the kegerator. Needless to say several 4 letter words were uttered. I can’t understand how the keg could have drained but my bottle of CO2 didn’t keep pushing gas until it emptied. Once I dry my eyes, I’ll post the tasting notes from that one pint. I did the tasting alongside a bottle of Weihenstephaner and the homebrew compared very favorably.

More bottling

I hope to at least bottle the Belgo-American Pale Ale (that’s my standard APA with the Duvel yeast strain) this week, with an eye toward also bottling the ‘a little less than ordinary bitter’. I was cleaning bottles yesterday in preparation for bottling and discovered I was going to be short. That’s when I came across a case and a half of Corona bottles. Into the oxy-clean solution they went. Like most people, I’m not a big fan of clear or green bottles, but they’ll do in a pinch. Thankfully my fermentation room stays dark and cool and I keep black trash bags over the bottles and carboys to ensure that any stray light does no harm. So if you see a dork pouring an amber colored beer from a Corona bottle, stop by and say “hello”.

Amarillo Pale Ale Bottling

I bottled the American Pale Ale portion of my first 10 gallon batch over the weekend. Surprisingly it went rather smoothly. I actually ended up with more than I thought – I estimated 4.75 gallons and ended up with an even 5 gallons. That extra 2 ½ beers could make the difference!

I also bought a hydrometer last week and finally got around to checking my original gravities (On brew day I broke my hydrometer so I collected samples and put them in the refrigerator). The APA/Belgo-American Pale Ale came in at 1.055, which is much higher than I was expecting considering my mashing difficulties. Final gravity dropped to 1.011 and the hydrometer sample was out of this world. Of course Murphy’s Law, a brewing-related day is never allowed to go perfectly. I went to check the original gravity of the second runnings that I am tentatively calling an ordinary bitter. I didn’t collect enough. So, I proceeded to collect an equal amount of tap water (which I checked to ensure was 1.000), mixed the two together and took the hydrometer reading of the mixture. I’m not sure this is right, but if the 50% wort 50% water mixture measures 1.0125, can I presume that the specific gravity of the wort alone is 1.025? I’m no chemist, but that’s what I’m going to go with. Unfortunately this is a little low for an ordinary bitter (BJCP minimum OG is 1.032) so it is probably going to seem a bit light and overly bitter. Hopefully it’ll make a good lawnmower beer at about 3% ABV.

Cleaning Bottles

Last night while watching my Redskins get shellacked I cleaned and sanitized approximately 60 bottles in preparation for bottling an Alt that I brewed a couple of months ago. I'm about a month past due for bottling, but I've been putting it off because I hate bottling. Hopefully I'll have a kegerator in the next few months - I already have a one keg system, but nowhere to keep it cold. Does anyone else hate bottling as much as I do?