Last weekend, I had some friends over and debuted my latest beer. Faithful readers will remember that I was somewhat concerned with the level of hops/bitterness not being enough to style. Ultimately, that doesn’t matter because I’m not entering in competitions so I’m not that concerned with style constraints, but I still like to my planned targets.
Recently, Sports Illustrated predicted that the Washington Nationals would win the World Series in 2013. A prediction that has given some Nats fans a bit of pause. According to the Curly W blog, the last time SI correctly predicted the World Series winner was the 1999 New York Yankees. Coupled with the legend of the “SI Cover Curse” and the superstitions that surround America’s pastime, it seems like pundits are tempting fate to take a potential World Series out of Washington’s hands.
Last evening I bottled my latest batch of homebrew. I had hoped to bottle this batch last weekend, but the universe conspired against me. C’est la vie.
Recently (and by recently, I mean since I bottled last), I purchased a couple of PVC pipe joints from Old School Hardware to make a dip tube. As I’m sure many homebrewers know, the bottling bucket has to be tipped to get the last bottle or two through the spigot. Tired of using one hand to tip the bucket and the other to fill the bottle I set out to make a dip tube. It’s simply constructed out of an L-joint and female threaded joint connected together by some PVC pipe. I hadn’t tested it before I racked the beer into the bucket, so there was some possible question that it wouldn’t work, but I am happy to report that it it worked as great as I could have hoped, sucking out 47 bottles of beer with no problem whatsoever.
The beer finished at a gravity of 1.015 (original of 1.060) resulting in an ABV of approximately 5.9%. I had drawn a sample about two weeks ago and again last night during the bottling session. Both times, the beer had wonderful citrusy aroma from the Zythos hops. There was also a good fruity hint in the flavor. However, the first sample had a beautiful hop-bitterness finish whereas the second sample did not (or it was significantly reduced). So although I started this batch with the idea of being an American style IPA, I probably ended with a simple pale ale. Either way, it will be delicious and I’m excited to try a bottle when it’s ready.
Cheers!
P.S. - For those wondering, I primed with 3.7 ounces of sugar. So this should have a bit more carbonation that my previous batches.
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It’s been over three weeks since I bottled the cider so I think it’s time to taste and give a review. Steel-trap minded readers will remember I wasn’t a big fan of the flavor of the unfermented juice and hoped it would improve once the yeast worked their magic. Long story short, the flavor profile didn’t really change. Which I shouldn’t be surprised about. I mean the yeast are great at their jobs, but they aren’t going to magically change what apples were pressed into the juice. Because I let the yeast ferment out completely, it’s reasonably strong weighing in at approximately 6.5% abv.
Overall, I wouldn’t consider this a rousing success, but it’s drinkable. Which at the most basic level, is all a homebrewer can ask for. I think next time, I will try a different juice for the base in hopes that I would like the flavor a bit more. I’m not sure if I should try to bottle sooner (and then pasturize when it’s carbed), to try and capture more sweetness. Something to think about for the future.
P.S. Unfortunately, my cinnamon tea didn’t really add anything to the cider. More research will need to be done, but one possibility would be to secondary the cider with some cinnamon sticks. I think that would work much better. Lessons learned.
A wonderful infographic about the benefits of beer. Via FrugalDad.
Yesterday, I brewed my latest batch of beer. Having gone on the malty/sweet side of the spectrum the last two brews (a White House Honey Ale and my porter), I decided to try something on the hoppy side. So American IPA?
On Super Bowl Sunday, I debuted my porter. One intrepid soul tried it and gave her approval. Although she couldn’t (wouldn’t?) give a more detailed opinion. So here I am to give some thoughts of my brew. I had one from the bottle on Super Bowl Sunday, one yesterday in a glass, and am currently drinking one as I write this review.
My first impression from the bottle was that it had a moderate bitter chocolate flavor with a bit of a coffee aftertaste. I thought it dominated the beer a bit too much and while it was decent, I thought it would benefit greatly with some aging. The tastings from yesterday and right now are much better. Here are my thoughts and critiques.
Overall, I think there is room for improvement either by toning down the black malt or hops during the brew. And despite the beer taking massive steps forward in a short week, I still think that it will benefit greatly with some aging. Further conditioning should allow the chocolate and coffee notes to meld further into the beer and hopefully assist in developing a decent head and lacing.
Even if that doesn’t happen though, I’m satisfied with how this turned out and it is certainly not something I would hesitate sharing. (Unless I’m feeling particularly greedy!)
Cheers!
If you remember, I began my first cider approximately a month ago. After taking another gravity sample, I decided that it was finished and bottled. The gravity reading was 1.006 which is much lower than the gravity reading I took a couple of weeks ago (1.020) and much drier and tart that the previous sample.
I was toying with the idea of bottling a gallon still (uncarbonated), but after drinking the sample, I decided against it. I’m hoping that some carbonation will help.
Just like when I bottle beer, I added some sugar to prime. This time however, I used apple juice to prime. After some calculations on how much juice to add to get the appropriate amount of sugar, I added 2.5 cups for the 4 gallons of cider. After mixing that in, I bottled 1 case, which is actually a little more than half of the 4 gallon batch.
For the remainder (17 bottles), I added a cinnamon tea to try and add some cinnamon flavor to the cider. To do that I boiled a couple of cinnamon sticks in some water. I tasted the tea and it seemed pretty weak so I don’t know how much flavor I’m going to get out of the effort. Depending on how it turns out, I may try alternatives.
Now that the work is done, I just have to wait for the bottles to condition.
Cheers!
P.S. - I actually had a half bottle extra (that seems to be a recurring theme) after everything was bottled. I’m chilling it in the fridge to try later. It’s one of the cinnamon bottles so I should get an idea of what happened there.
P.P.S. - I need to hit up Home Depot and get some supplies to make a dip tube to make my bottling life a bit easier.
Tonight I bottled my Pollerosa Porter. Everything went pretty smooth. I primed with 2.7 ounces of brown sugar and racked out approximately 4.5 gallons to the bottling bucket. After a bit of gentle stirring to get the sugar properly mixed (whirlpooling hasn’t been enough in my limited experience), I was able to fill 48 bottles, plus about half of a 49th. I just drank the 49th because it wasn’t enough to be worth trying to condition (and why dump perfectly good beer?). It was malty, mildly sweet, with a hint of chocolate. Much closer to my ideal than version 1’s rye explosion. Final gravity was 1.026 which computes out to approximately 5.72% abv assuming my strange gravity reading was due to lack of proper mixing.
I’m happy with how this has been turning out and in the process of bottling, I found my missing funnel! It wasn’t gremlins after all!
Cheers!
