New Stove = Fail

After a long brewing hiatus due to moving into our first house, I finally was able to brew this week. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how weak our new stove is. It took me 2.5 hours to get to a boil, and I only managed that after the folks on the HomebrewTalk forums gave me the idea to straddle the brew pot between 2 burners. It is very obvious that I need to invest in a turkey fryer or some other kind of propane burner.

The brew was the Caribou Slobber kit from Northern Brewer. I am guessing it is a clone of Moose Drool which is a great beer. Apart from the stove issues, this brew was very easy. It is also the first 5 gallon batch I have done in almost a year. Everything was 2.5 gallon batches before this one. One of the great features of the new house is a closet beneath the stairs going into the basement that maintains a steady temperature of 65 degrees. The caribou slobber is bubbling happily away in there right now.

I also have a big project coming up that will greatly improve moral around the house. Stay tuned for details.

EdWort's Haus Pale Ale

After a brewless May, I got back to it tonight with Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. At least it was close to Edwort's creation. I tweaked things due to the amount I could buy at the LHBS. For example, I tweaked the hops to use the whole ounce I bought so I didn't have to hold on to a quarter of an ounce. Here is what I ended up with for my 2.5 gallon batch:

• 3 lb golden light LME
• 1 lb munich LME
• 6 oz crystal 10 - steeped
• 0.5 oz Cascade - 60 min.
• 0.3 oz Cascade - 30 min.
• 0.1 oz Cascade - 15 min.
• 0.1 oz Cascade - 5 min.
• Nottingham yeast

I'm pretty sure that keeping the last two hop addition separate was pointless given how small they were. I have high hopes for this beer though. All told it only cost about $13 for the ingredients so it would be a welcome addition to the steady lineup. The low cost of this brew should let me get another one in this month.

Overall, the brew went very smoothly. I did forget to take an OG reading. I am really bad about that. I get so focused on having the fermenter sanitized and everything clean that I don't remember until a couple hours later. I need to mark on my fermenters to remind me to take the reading.

Bottling the Hop Hammer

Bottled a couple gallons of Hop Hammer tonight. It tasted much better than when I moved it to secondary before dry hopping. There was almost an inch and a half of hop matter in the bottom of the fermenter when I racked it into the bottling bucket. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it. I also had a final gravity reading of 1.014 which is nine points higher than the previous reading I took. I am not sure what happened last time, but I trust this reading a little more because it is close to what I expected.

Bottling is getting easier and easier the more I do it. I put a towel down to work over this time and that made clean up a breeze. I also worked to make sure the priming sugar was thoroughly mixed throughout the beer. The vanilla stout had some carbonating inconsistencies.

Dry Hopping!

The Hop Hammer was ready to be dry hopped! Tonight I transferred it to secondary and added about 3 ounces of hops (after I accidentally spilled about .5 ounce that was supposed to go in also). The trub at the bottom of the fermenter was so thick. It was just a sludge when I was pouring it out. It moved only a little bit faster than molasses. Currently some Oxi-clean is working hard on getting all the crud off the sides of the fermenter so I don't have to work as much. I do need to figure out how to get all the crap out of the inside of the blow off hose.

It may be time to test my hydrometer again. I got a reading of 1.011 after racking the beer. That would mean I've already overshot my gravity by 12 points (and this after I overshot it by 6 points). By a rough calculation in my head that would put the beer around 10% ABV. The yeast took of after I added it. I was fully expecting a slow start based on the starting gravity of the beer, but by the next morning it was bubbling like crazy.

The beer tasted very hoppy (duh). Definitely needs to mellow out some, which it should. I'm also a little worried that the beer may have fermented out too much to support the amount of hops that are present. There may not be enough residual sweetness to balance the hops, but I will just have to wait and see.

Hop Hammer!

Finally back to brewing tonight! I brewed Jamil's Hop Hammer from Brewing Classic Styles. His recipe is essentially a clone recipe for Russian River's Pliny the Elder. After a couple months of searching I got my hands on a pint of Pliny and it was amazing. That basically made the decision of my next brew for me.

Steeping the grains

The brew was pretty uneventful. I am very happy that I am not having issues with process anymore. The only real issues for this brew occurred while picking up my ingredients. I couldn't get the amber malt extract that I needed. After talking it over with the folks at the LHBS I picked up some pilsner malt extract and added some crystal 40 to make up the difference. I also couldn't get simcoe hops. I substituted chinook for these.

Boiling away

I also had a couple of firsts for this beer. I finally was able to use my wort chiller. I got the correct adapter for my kitchen faucet today. I also sliced up my hands pretty badly on the threads. Somehow I had no blood though. It did speed up my cooling! I went from boiling to pitching temps in about 20 minutes. I think next time I am going to use the water to create an ice bath with the frozen 20 oz pop bottles I made. That should speed it up even more, and I won't feel like I am wasting as much water. I also did a 90 minute boil for the first time. I managed to get my water levels correct to make up for the extra evaporation. I did overshoot my gravity slightly, but I think this is due in part to just making up the crystal 40 fix for the malt extract.

patience.... patience....

I am really looking forward to this beer. I need to dry hop this beer in a few days. I tasted the wort after the boil for the first time. It was interesting. My mouth was filled with incredible sweetness followed by an intense bitterness. I am very curious to see the changes in the taste. Hopefully I can remember what it was like at this stage.

Cost Per Pint

I have had issues with time and money for brewing lately. All that I've had going on is waiting for the Vanilla Stout to fully carbonate so we can enjoy this beer. After this weekend I should be able to brew again (PLEASE). In the meantime, I have wasted some time and come up with a new little feature for the blog.

On the left there is a new box that will now hold my current cost per pint. I will never post how much I've actually spent because that could get me in trouble down the road. I am keeping the total to myself, but sharing this will be fun. Although it isn't my focus or reason for brewing, it shouldn't be hard to stay below the $4 or $5 they charge at the bars (as long as I never buy any really big toys). It is just an interesting thing to track.

Bottle Washing... ugh

After bottling the vanilla stout, I realized I have once again accumulated a lot of bottles that need labels removed or yeast brushed out. I started by soaking all the bottles to soften up the labels and the yeast. Thankfully this soak will make the labels basically peel off without tearing or leaving behind too much glue. I don't mind the process of getting all the labels off.

Unfortunately, I still have to use my bottle brush to get all this yeast scraped out. I hate trying to get the bottle brush in and out of the bottles. It just flings water and dead yeast all over the me and the kitchen. Time to start a kegging fund...