Monday, March 31, 2008

Weekend Brewing Notes

I moved my Kolsch into a keg for a cold secondary. This was my first attempt at fermenting in a real controlled chamber (converted dorm fridge) and my first lagering. No trip to the LHBS meant skipping my planned attempt at a Wit, but I have hopes for getting it done next weekend. Toped off an Apfelwein I am working on with a bit more juice as it looks like there was extra headroom in the carboy and I found that there is basically no krausen in this. That makes one week in for my traditional apfelwein, 2 weeks in for my really strong cider with 5 lbs brown sugar and a dry ale yeast, and the completion of a 2 week primary on my Kolsch. I am hoping to give the 2 week cider another 2 before racking to a keg and then starting another batch. I am hoping to get a bit ahead on my cider production so that I have a steady supply and an opportunity to age some properly, with back sweetening with a couple of cans of frozen concentrate in the keg until then. For now, I still have my great cider on keg and a pretty good beer to drink. I had a glass of each on Friday night, and continue to be happy with my progress so far and am looking forward to tasting some of my more recent work soon.

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Monday, March 17, 2008

Cider Tasting and Brewing

So I finally kegged up my cider that I brewed last Spring. The nose had a nice apple to it. The taste was dry with a very light apple flavor. There was a hint of brown sugar in the taste and the aftertaste had quite a bit of brown sugar to it. I thought this was from the addition of 2 cups of brown sugar that I used primarily to bloom the yeast rather than for taste, but...I also kegged up my test batch of Raspberry Apple cider. This was made with just under 1 gallon of unfiltered organic apple juice and about half a can of sweetened raspberry puree, no brown sugar or anything. The nose to that one has quite a bit of raspberry to it. Similar dry taste with just a hint of raspberry and...brown sugar. Not real sure what is causing this. I will do some research, but I am not complaining. They both tasted great and I started to make an altered version of apfelwein where I swapped out the corn sugar with brown sugar and used an ale yeast rather than a wine yeast. If it is as good as what I already have, I will be brewing this year round.

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Northern Brewer Kolsch

I got back into brewing this weekend. I ordered up a kolsch kit from Northern Brewer and since I solved my fermentation temperature and lagering problems I (built a keggerator and converted my dorm fridge into a fermentation chamber) I was ready to go again. This was a very easy kit to work with, and I used their instructions for a late extract addition that should help lighten up my brews (which have been real dark) and remove the homebrew tang. I have the wort fermenting at 60 degrees F in my fridge, and I plan to leave it there for 2 weeks then move it into a keg for secondary lager conditioning for 4 more weeks. Kolsch for May sounds good. I am thinking about following this up with a Wit recipe. Which could be ready for May as well. I am trying to get a supply going for a party on Memorial Day.

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Great AZ Beer Fest

Rather than reposting my comments about this festival, I am linking to my comments here on the Beer Advocate website. I also forgot my camera, so no pictures.

Boo Hoo.


Well maybe just 1.






And another.


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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

My Beer IQ

I found this "quiz" on someone elses blog. Not really a much of a beer quiz as opposed to a brand recognition quiz. Never the less:

Test Your Beer IQ

Your Score: 100%
You're a Beer Genius

You know everything there is to know about beer. All hail the Beer Genius.

Personality Test Results

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

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