What's Brewing?

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, ness said:

Yep. 2004

Nice!!!!

[ness]

I always remember one guy in that group got there the following morning. He came bouncing across the field where we were camped, in a mini-van, with a joint hanging out of his mouth. And I was wondering just what have I gotten myself into  

Nobody on this forum. 

 

[Gavin]

That was total chaos! We should do it again! I do not recall the original guest list, but I guess we scared most of them away from trout fishing.

[ness]

1 hour ago, Gavin said:

That was total chaos! We should do it again! I do not recall the original guest list, but I guess we scared most of them away from trout fishing.

Matt, Craig, Brent, Norm, Tom, @ColdWaterFshr, Kip, about 3-4 more guys I don't remember.

[Gavin]

I lost track of Brent, but the rest are still kicking. We are not as active at 55+ but we can afford too blow more stuff up.

[ness]

On 10/9/2023 at 12:04 PM, ColdWaterFshr said:

No, in fact, I don't think I've brewed a batch in over 5 years.  Too much work, or I'm just too lazy.  And all-grain brewing is a whole nother level of work and equipment investment.

I have a 3-ring binder with my old brewing and winemaking notes. I looked last night and the last beer we brewed was an all-grain brown ale done in 1994. I think we did about 3 all-grains before we bailed. Two of us had young toddlers by then. It is extra work but we didn't have any fancy equipment, just big pots, cooler, thermometer and a coil of copper tubing.

We've got a great local shop that I've been going to since the early '80s. Last year I was picking up some stuff and I learned the previous owners had sold the shop to a younger guy. He was really helpful and took quite a bit of time getting me up to speed on some things.

The shop used to send out periodic mailers with recipes, coupons, specials, instructions, etc. I had saved a few in the notebook for the recipes. I was looking at them a while back and saw there was a coupon for 20% off or something. It didn't have an expiration date, so as a joke I took it in with me and presented it when I checked out. He laughed and was going to honor it but I wouldn't let him. It was dated around when he was born he said,  something like '88. 

Every time I've been in there recently he has had 2-3 homebrews on tap to try. Last week I had a Berliner Wiesse. I wasn't familiar with that style but it's a light-colored, lightly hopped sour wheat beer. It was excellent. 

It's kinda like a good, local flyshop. Always helpful, folks to chat with, etc. It's worth the few extra bucks for the extras and to help a small business out.

 

[ness]

Transferred into three 1-gallon jugs today as things had slowed down quite a bit. Interesting to see the differences in the 3 different yeasts. Each had a different specific gravity today: 0.998, 1.003 and 1.000. pH was different in one: 3.6 versus 3.8 in the other two. One was noticeably darker than the other two. And, each had a different smell ranging from fruity, to fruity and tart to kinda blah. The Nottingham ale yeast top ferments and left a thick ring around the jug. The other two sedimented out to different degrees.

[ness]

Bottling day yesterday. No bubbles going through the locks, the cider had mostly cleared and the yeast had settled.

First I took some measurements: specific gravity, pH and titratable acidity. Numbers 7 and 9 came in at 1.000. Number 8 slightly higher at 1.002. That's about what I expected given what I've read about these yeasts. All dry, with number 8 slightly sweeter. pH came in at 3.8 on 7 and 9, and 3.6 on 8. TA was about 0.5 on all three. pH is right where I wanted it, but TA was at the low end of the 0.5 to 0.7 ideal range. I know pH and TA are two different ways of measuring acid, but I don't care enough to figure it out. So, on to the tasting...

Number 7 was quite sharp on the tongue. Number 8 less so to me, but surprisingly, Kathy thought it was sharper. This isn't the first time she and I have tasted things and had very different impressions, but that's usually 'I like this better' kind of stuff. Number 9 was least sharp of all and had the most fruitiness. We both liked it best.

I added 20 grams of sugar to each gallon to encourage carbonation, then bottled. Each gallon yields ten 12 ounce bottles. I did one plastic bottle. I'll be able to judge the amount  of carbonation by how hard that is. Once carbonation is right, I'll stop it by pasteurization in a few days to a week or two. 

 

[ness]

The carbonation test bottle was firm yesterday, but I couldn't get around to it until today. I have been reading up on pasteurization and came across a guy that uses a sous vide device for it. What didn't I think of that?? After trying a couple different pots and number of bottles to get the water to the right depth both for the sous vide and for the bottles, I came up with a setup that worked. 155 degrees for 10 minutes is the target. But given the time to get the temp back up to 155 after adding the rom temperature bottles (about 15 minutes) and the lengthy cool down period (maybe 30 minutes) I'm sure I've got the yeast killed dead.

[ness]

Meanwhile, we had purchased some Old Orchard apple juice for a recipe we were doing. It was very delicious with a totally different flavor profile than the Louisburg Cider I have been using. It's pasteurized, so no preservatives to get in the way. It's from concentrate with added malic and ascorbic acid -- no biggy. It's a little less sweet, a little more tart and more full bodied. It is also noticeably darker than Louisburg. I checked and they both have the same calories and carbs, so I guessed the same amount of sugar. But it OO was just better tasting, so I fired up a 1-gallon batch using my favorite yeast from the 3-yeast test.

I took the initial specific gravity and TA and it came in about the same as Louisburg (1.048/0.3), so the same sugar and acid. Interesting, because that's not my impression tasting it. That just goes to show there's a lot more going on than the two things. I adjusted the acid up to a more tart 0.6 and added some wine tannin to get to my targets. 

I started the fermentation about a week ago, and transferred to secondary this morning. It smells absolutely fabulous at this point, so I am very optimistic.

Note color difference from previous batches with different juice: