Pretty nice Sunday. Took the dog to the bark park and she's been sleeping for three hours, perfect. That gave me some quiet time to subscribe to Brew Your Own magazine. I've been wanting to subscribe to one of those magazines for a while now. I'm also thinking of getting a subscription to Zymurgy too. Does anybody know of any other good homebrew mags out there?

There's a pretty nice article in Brew Your Own about the 2008 hop harvest. The future of hops is looking fairly good. A lot of new acerage was planted this year and I'm hopeful that the price of hops will fall a little. There was also a pretty cool article about priming. It was pretty timely because I had to bottle my Octoberfest (I know, its November) today.

It went pretty well, no major hangups and took less than an hour. Hopefully the priming sugar got a little more evenly distributed this time. My last batch was a little uneven from bottle to bottle. Some were awesome with a massive head that lasted the whole brew, and others fizzeled out before I was done drinking it. Here's hopin'.

Ah, First Ascent Ale, my first attempt at my own beer formulation. This is going to be a amber colored primarily wheat ale with some warm, buiscuity malts. I used a healthy dose of Cascade hops, and threw in some Gelder-hops just for fun and aroma. I really didn't want my beer to turn out too sweet, so I tried not to use too much malt and start with a lower gravity. The OG was 1.040, and right now with a week to go in the secondary fermenter it's gravity is at about 1.012 and it tastes mild, hoppy and great.

I think the next thing I need to work on is my yeasts. I seem to be brewing a lot of fruity beers. The last three batches or so have been a little bananaish. Not sure whats going on, but I'm going to be keeping close track of what I'm using each time, and noting the differences. I also hate to say it, but I should start watching my sanitation a little more. I had pretty relaxed sanitation and pitching standards as far as yeast goes. I feel like this step has more effect on beer than it seems like it does. It seems like it's the finer, more delicate side of brewing.

This time I used Belgian Abbey II Wyeast. We'll see what happens...

Oh pumpkin ale why won't you get crackin'! I brewed you on Sunday night and its now Friday.  You still aren't being all happy and churning yourself into a frenzy, you're just sitting there like a carboy full of lame ol' water. What the heck dude?

You know how I said I need to work on my yeasts? Yeah, that's an understatement apparently. the yeast didn't take. Were you still too warm when I pitched? Did my wort chiller not work as awesomely as I was hoping? I was feeling a little impatient I guess. I couldn't help it, I felt like it was a massive waste of water! Maybe I didn't shake you up enough, not enough oxygen in there for the yeast. I guess, looking back I did kind of mess up my pitch. I forgot to smack the pack before I opened it (I buy Wyeast with the smack-a-pack nutrient pouch inside). Oops. Rookie mistake? Maybe. It could have been all those things. Crumbs!

After longing to see a nice foamy, comforting, pumpkiny chaos inside my carboy for a few days I decided to shake it up and add some yeast nutrient. Now its Friday and I've still got nothin'. What the heck, man? Why? So now the question is is it too late to add more yeast and try again? My guess is probably not. I don't see why it would be a lost cause just from sitting for a while. So I'm off to the brew store after work. Come on pumpkin ale don't fail me now!

 --

Okay (Some time later), so I went to the brew store and got some things cleared up. You mess up to learn, right? I probably did a lot of things that weren't quite right in making this brew, but I did learn one thing: if your beer isn't foaming up, don't just let it sit there – it molds. This is probably a well known fact to most brewers, but man I thought it could last at least a little while. So anyway, the yeast didn't take. Thats a new one for me. I took a hydrometer reading and there was no change in gravity – bad sign, no alcohol was being made, which meant there was no protection against other airborne nasties. I really couldn't see any change in the liquid itself so I didn't think anything of it, until I examined it more closely. There was a sparse, thin layer of mold. Dammit. The smell and taste confirmed it. It was gone.

Well, I've never lost a batch before. And losing a real special batch hits ya right where you need to be hit. I learned my lesson, but hey, that just means my next batch will be that much better! It's all part of the journey. I bet moldy barley/pumpkin water is pretty good for the compost though!

In mourning, I'm having an Octoberfest lager. At least there's still homebrew on tap!






 

Some people might wonder why I haven't really been talking much about homebrew and haven't been putting much in the actual brew log. I know it's been a little slow on the ol' site. I've actually been trying to save a little money for a trip to D.C. to visit my sister and haven't been brewing.

Don't worry though. We'll be brewing something awesome soon enough! I'm still keeping it real and drinking plenty of good brew and visiting plenty of the local craft breweries. Just went to a new one a little while ago in fact, the Blacksmith Brewery in Stevensville. (I should see if I could redo their website for free beer!) They had some damn fine beer down there. Perfect end for an afternoon of hiking in the Bitterroots.

Anyway, stay tuned. The money is keeping my brewing down! I won't let it happen for long.

Alright! I got something a-brewin'! I wanted to do something nice and summery and just got the latest Zymurgy all about the heavenly brews of Belgium, so I figured I'd whip up a nice and light, sweet and spicy  Belgian blonde Ale - more about that in a minute.

I also have a cool photo of the dog through a glass of the Irish Red. I was actually most worried about attaining the right color with this beer while brewing it. I think I got it!

This was the first time I attempted a mini-mash due to the pilsner and Munich malts, which I believe need to have their starches converted unlike most of the other specialty grains. It was relatively painless and only took an extra hour. I anticipated a little trouble maintaining temperature which turned out to be true. It was a little too hot in the beginning of the mash, then mellowed out and was right around target (152 degrees F) for most of it and then I think got a little cool at the end.

Anybody have any tips for maintaining temperature? I'm just on a stove top range with a basic brew pot and a simple thermometer. What kind of thermometers and setup do you use?

So the mash went off so-so, and the rest of the process went fine. I added a little cardamom and some coriander for spice, and hopped it with Magnum and Saaz hops. I hope it turns out alright. The last three brews have been pretty good, and two of those brews have been winners in my book, so I'm on a pretty good streak. Hope we can keep it up!

Ever get your wort too cold? Mine is right at the bottom temperature for my yeast and I'm afraid that I'm not getting any fermentation going. I'd like to see some action going on in there by now anyway even though it has only been about 48 hours.

Anyway, I know the wort could use a little warmth. What do you do to warm your wart up if this happens? I put my carboy or bucket in a sink full of hot water for a while until I get within the range that I want.  I've tried a lot of different things to keep it warm after that. I've moved it to warmer rooms, kept a heater on it when I could, wrapped it in towels and this latest time I tried an old sleeping bag to lock in the warmth. I'd love to hear what you all do.

Wish this beer luck, I'd hate to lose it! Thanks.

It's been a great week this past week for my yeast. I re-racked my two carboys and had a little tasting session out on the sunny Porch. The first beer was the Belgian blonde, and the other was the pale ale.

Both beers seem to have attenuated well so far. I think The Belgian blonde is currently at right around 1.010. It started out at 1.042. It's a great unfiltered golden yellow color. But oh man the smell and taste - I used way to much cardamom. If you like cardamom you'd probably love this, but it is definitely not the subtle spicyness I was going for. Woops. So I changed the name from Northwest Belgian Blonde to The Unholy Cardamom Belgian Blonde. What can I say, I'm hoping this flavor dies down as it ages.

The pale ale however, totally lifted my spirits. Aside from being quite cloudy, this is (so far) the best tasting, most drinkable beer I've ever made. I have a feeling I will be doing mini-mashes (at least) every brew day from now on. There is a perfect balance of malt and hop, and no off flavors. It has also attenuated quite a bit more than the blonde ale. It is sitting at about 1.007 from 1.041.

I probably tasted a little too much of it the other day and was starting to feel a little buzzed from a couple fills of my little 7 oz. tasting glass! Anyway, I've been thinking on a name for this brew and decided on Pothole Pale Ale. It's a beer that I'm pretty excited about.

Cheers!

Son of a Biscuit! So I had a very long story about how my buddy Elliott and I spiffily and speedily brewed up this Dunkel Bock several nights ago, and how the lager yeast I was using didn't appear to be working, and coming off of that pumpkin ale catastrophie made me scared, and I knew I had to leave town so I threw the only yeast I had on hand (a Belgian Ale yeast) into it, but I hit submit and for some reason lost the whole thing! So after finishing my Samuel Adams and grabbing a Moose Drool I've calmed myself, but I'm not going to rewrite that. I did have some questions though that I did want to throw out there just in case someone reading can help me out with them.

#1 - What's the deal with lager yeast? What temperature are you supposed to pitch it at? 50? 60? 70 degrees? None of my books specify. I know it ferments at a much lower temperature than ale yeast but the package it came in said to pitch it at 75 degrees. I was thinking more along the lines of "it's a lager yeast so pitch it around 58 degrees and keep it that way." So that's what I did. Was that right or wrong?

#2 - Does lager yeast take longer to start fermenting? I feel like I've started to vaguely come across that in my reading. If that's true, I may not have waited long enough. I think I waited for about three days before I started freaking out. What's going on here?

Anyway, I hope the new D.E. Ale turns out, it doesn't quite have the ring that D.E Dunkel Bock has. It should be quite the grainy, malty brew.

Hey! This is my first "in brew" brew log entry! I am currently doing a partial mash pale ale on this fine Friday evening. Tomorrow (May 2nd) is National Homebrew Day, and seeing as how I'll be busy with the first farmer's market of the summer and the local Garden City Brew Fest with more than 50 beers on tap, I figured I'd better do my part for "The Big Brew" today.

Okay, so back to the mash. I've got a lot of different sources of info and it's impossible for me to remember everything and get it all straightened out. So I'm just kind of going for it with this partial mash process to further along my homebrewing journey. So I found some recipes to get a general idea for the proper grain bill in a partial mash brew and after choosing a little bit from what grain I had and getting some other grain, here's what I'm going with:

• 2 1/2 lbs. 2 Row Malt


• 1 1/2 lbs. Wheat Malt


• 1/4 lb. Munich Pils


• 1/4 lb. Honey Malt


• 1/2 lb. Flaked Wheat

I'll mash that all for an hour in about 5 and a half quarts of water at 150 degrees. I had heard that the ratio you get when you divide the pounds of grain by 1.33 is a pretty good one for the amount of quarts of water to do your mash in. When that's done I'll strain out the grains and start my usual hour boil with 3 lbs. light DME and 2 lbs. light ME. I've also got a whole bunch of leftover hops that I'm planning on using. Here's my hop bill:

• 1 oz. Willamette (Boil 60 min)


• 1/2 oz. Magnum (Boil 45 min)


• 1/2 oz. Fuggles (Boil 45 min)


• 1/2 oz. Saaz (Finishing)


• 1/2 oz Tettnanger (Finishing)

I'm hoping for a pretty nice Pale Ale with this recipe. If anyone sees any fault with that please let me know. I'd love to hear what you have to say. As for a yeast I'll be using the Safale us-05. Sounds good! I'll let you know what happens.

Happy Homebrew Day!