Today was Beer Day

I've been thoroughly enjoying this new hobby by spending many hours making different beers.  However, I didn't realize today would end up being "triple witching" Friday.  There were many things that needed to be done to put everything together.

1.  Moved bottles Honey-Orange Ale to fridge to chill.  It is ready to drink.  I had a sneak peek last night (a partially filled bottle), and I thought it was quite nice.

2.  Bottled Donut and Coffee Stout.  I brewed this two weeks ago, and it has already been in the secondary fermenter for a week.  Checked the specific gravity (SG) on this one, and it was a bit high at 1.014, but I needed the bottle soon, so I went ahead and shifted it to bottles.  I went light on the primer (table sugar), and will warm condition it an extra few days and hope the sugar level drops a bit further.

3.  Bottled Sam Adams clone, version 2.  This beer was brewed six weeks ago, and just finished a four week lager in the fridge.  This is my first batch that is bigger than a single gallon -- approximately 2.5 gallons.  It took 19 pint bottles, so it should be available to enjoy a bit longer.  SG on this brew was a low 1.004.

4.  Moved my 3 gallon Delirium Tremens clone to the secondary fermenter.  I'm quite excited about this beer, as it looked great, and smelled even better.  DT is my personal favorite brew, so I hope the clone lives up to original.  When I initially brewed this, the original SG was a bit low (1.064 versus a target of 1.072).  For it to have a chance of hitting the right ABV (Alcohol by Volume) level, I need a very complete fermentation.

And, of course, I spent most of the time actually washing and sanitizing hardware, which is pretty much par for the course when bottling or transferring.

Fun stuff.

Bad Beer

I was quick to pat myself on the back for my brewing success a few weeks ago. Now I must admit to abject failure on the second batch.

The beer was brewed from a kit, and is a "Honey-Sage". I clearly put too much priming sugar in the mix before bottling as the lids are nearly exploding off the bottles when I open then. Then I get a mountain of foam. Even though I have a huge cup I usually drink my beers out of, I can't even get the entire bottle into it because it is so foamy.

But that wasn't the only problem.

Everyone wants their beer to be clear. Unfortunately, this one is a little cloudy, with a fair amount of sediment at the bottom. At least part of that is also a result of "over-priming".

The actual taste is "okay" -- this beer had a lot of sugar added to it, so it is high alcohol content, and drinks fairly dry. All that would be good, except for the aftertaste of sage. I would have never guessed it would be so strong. And the smell -- yuck. The odor is the absolute worst part of the project.

Not quite pouring-it-down-the-sink bad, but close.

Beer update, and other stuff

The beer was actually good (at least one bottle of it!). I half-expected to encounter a heavy, sickeningly sweet, flat and hazy fluid. Instead it was clear, properly carbonated, and nutty with only a slight hint of sweetness. Kind of reminded me of Newcastle brown ale, only a little nuttier. So I can call the first brew effort a success. I have a seasonal sage bear in the fermenter right now -- it can be bottled this weekend. And a mix for an IPA to make next. When I do so, I will be trying out some new equipment, a nylon bag to hold the grains/hops, and to make the beer clearer going into fermentation. I love to experiment and try new things.

On a more sober note, the house is currently filled with the smell of burning electrical insulation. When Paula went in to wake the twins this morning, the PTAC (compact heating and air conditioning unit -- like the ones you find in some motels) that heats their room was off. She started it, and it sparked a couple times, but began running. When I went in a few minutes later, it was sparking again, and smoke was billowing out of it.

Thank God this happened in the early morning, rather than late at night -- I could easily imagine the thing starting fire.

Now the smell is everywhere.

Of course, Thomas, whose bed is forty feet away, slept through the whole thing, and had no idea what I was talking about when I ordered him out of the room in the midst of all that smoke. Man, that kid sleeps deeply.

Now awaiting the arrival of the HVAC repair people. Undoubtedly this will be expensive, but at least no one was hurt and the house is still standing.

"I Like Beer...

...it makes me a jolly good fellow."

That song still makes me laugh. So does "Beer is Good" by Psychostick.

For Christmas, I received a home brewing kit. After a couple of weeks of waiting for additional equipment and ingredients to arrive (why do kits always seem to be lacking an item or two, like a strainer?), I brewed my first home-made beer. It is a nut brown ale -- yeah, I also had to get some chestnuts and roast them for this concoction. Finding chestnuts was harder than I expected, despite their reference in a famous Christmas song.

Anyway, the brewing took about four hours from start to finish. Then the beer ferments for two weeks. Then I had to bottle it, which was a bit trickier than I expected. After bottling, it has to sit for another two weeks while the newly added sugar (in the form of honey mixed with a little water) carbonates the brew in the bottles.

Now all the required time has nearly passed, and tomorrow I am ready to sample. Wondering if it will be delicious, or will be sipped once and immediately dumped down the sink...