I am moving my blog to my own domain, and restructuring it quite a bit. Go ahead and check it out at http://bordertownbrewer.com/ I hope you enjoy the new direction I decided to go.
Thanks

Forgotten, but not gone....???

I actually forgot that I had this blog. Life has gotten very busy, as I am just to the completion stage of a paramedic certification class. I haven't been brewing much lately, my last batch was a delicious Oatmeal Stout. Right now I am sipping on an American Brown Ale I brewed a long while ago. Currently, I have a cider in the fermenter, which should be ready to move to a secondary in a week, bottled two weeks later. Next up could be one of three options. I have an Irish Red and a Spiced Winter Ale ready to make, but I also have a wine kit coming in the mail, hopefully soon. But, I do have the supplies to do the wine as well as one of the beer options.

Either way, once I pass my upcoming tests, I will be ramping up my brewing efforts again, and sharing the joy.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and have fun. Here is a recent video of my cider fermenting away...

~Nick

Bottled, Again!

Last night (July 31st 2011) we bottled our second brew, the Caribou Slobber Extract Kit w/ Specialty Grains from Northern Brewer. We brewed this one up on June 19th. I had more patience with this batch, and I waited an extra week in primary to let the fermentation settle down completely. When I moved it into secondary it had a gravity reading of about 1.011, and after doing the math my best guess put the alcohol content in the 5.5-5.9% range. Once it was in the secondary the fermentation was pretty active again for about a week. Not sure if it was just from me moving it around or what, but then it took about a week and a half to stop fermenting completely. I let it sit a few extra days, and after three weeks in primary, followed by three weeks in secondary, we bottled.

We got 50 12oz bottles. I did not taste it this time, but it smelled pretty good, and was a nice rich dark color. I think  am going to let this one sit for three weeks in the bottle before trying it. I got a little anxious with the Hefeweizen, and I think right now I am just getting into the best of that batch.

I am looking forward to the Chocolate Milk Stout, which is still bubbling away in primary. Not a lot of croisan on this one, but it has been fermenting longer than any of my brews so far while in primary. The rest settled down much sooner.

I am now in the process of trying to find a brew kit for my wife to do. I think she is getting tired of being the cleaning/sanitizing person. So I am going to find a kit that I think she may like and make her do all the other work. I don't mind cleaning and sanitizing at all. And who knows, if she wants to keep doing it, I may end up with a larger capacity out of it. I have one primary and two secondary carboys now... Maybe another of each will be in order soon.

It's a tasty Bavarian!!

As I type this I am sipping on my third glass (not all in one night, mind you. I have had one every few nights) of my very first home brew ever. It's the Bavarian Hefeweizen, from my first post. It was ready to drink about a week ago, and I must say, every bottle gets a little better. It turned out a little darker than I was expecting when purchasing the kit, but a lot lighter than I thought it was going to be after seeing it in the carboys. For my first ever brew, I think it's pretty darn good. Carbonation is great, clarity is what you would expect from a Hefeweizen. Taste is pretty good too, decent hops, the kind of banana-fruity tones with a nice bready-wheaty aftertaste. Definitely refreshing on a hot day, and we have had plenty of those around my parts lately.

I have about a week left on my American Brown Ale (the Caribou Slobber from Northern Brewer) before I need to bottle it. And it looks like I will be going to have to get some more bottles to do it. Maybe a trip to Northern Brewer this weekend is in store. Or just a online order. Not sure yet.


Up next, we take a shot at the Chocolate Milk Stout, hopefully to be brewed in the next few days.

Second Brew Day - Caribou Slobber from Northern Brewer

So last night (June 19th) I decided to try my second brew, the Caribou Slobber Extract Kit with Specialty Grains from Northern Brewer. I figured it was a good time to start a second batch as I recently emptied my primary fermenting carboy when I transferred my Bavarian Hefeweizen to its secondary fermentation home (transferred on June 15th, and I will post about that later). Not a lot to say on this one, I got it all done in 3 hours this time. Now that I have a better idea of what I am doing I find it easier to manage my time, and get everything done in a much more efficient manner. It also helps to get most of the equipment sanitized while the bringing the water to a boil, and while the chill is happening. This was my first time with specialty grains, and that part was a lot of fun. The grains have a great aroma, and it was a lot like making a big pot of tea, there was little to do besides let it steep. It was a lot of fun altogether, and it just reassured me I need to get a wort chiller soon. The chill process is one of the longest parts. But the best part is now I have 10 gallons of beer, 5 in primary, 5 in secondary, and I will get to start bottling in a few weeks. I would like to keep this pattern going, so I can be bottling every 2-3 weeks.

Cheers!

The Brewing Process

So, here is a summary on how my brew day went. I tried to take step by step pictures, and keep a mental documentation of everything I was learning and any surprises I found during the process.

First step was opening the beer kit, and going over the contents.

 

The yeast I chose, I went with the smack pack instead of the dry yeast, as it was recommended to me by my friend. This picture was right after activating the inner pouch. This was 8pm.

Here you see my brew kettle setup. I just went with the Wal-Mart special, as I want to save up a bit and buy a nice quality big one. I figured this one would work for now, and it really did. Heat distribution was nice, only once did I near a boil over but I solved that with heat adjusting. The thermometer on the pan was extra, and nice to have. I read in a few places that multiple thermometers are good to have, so I  ended up with a few for different stages of the process.

Ahh, this was my first surprise.  Measuring the gallon increments and marking them on my carboys was something I didn't realize I should do, and took a lot longer than I had realized. From now on any time I get a new carboy I will do this before a brew day. On the bright side, I combined this task with sanitizing them, so I may have saved a few minutes.

Once I got most of my items sanitized, I started to boil my water. I wanted to wait until most of my equipment was sanitized as I was not sure how much time it was going to take to sanitize everything and how long it would take to boil that much water. I timed it pretty well, and I didn't realize the amount of time it was going to take to sanitize everything. 

Here I have everything in the bucket of sanitizer. I think I may try to keep a bucket of this pre-mixed from now on, for smaller items. It seems handy to be able to do a quick sanitize on items on short notice.

So after about 40 minutes or so I finally got to a rolling boil, and added my malt extract syrup first. I had removed it from the burner for this process.

After the syrup was mixed in well, I added the bag of malt powder, stirring until absorbed well. 

And back on the heat again.

 After longer than I was expecting, we got back to a rolling boil, so it was time to add the hops. I think the malts cooled it off more than I was expecting, so maybe next time I reduce the heat instead or removing it.

Time to start the 60 minute timer.

At the half hour point, the temperature is holding steady at about 220 or so.  

 At the 60 minute mark, you can see the hot break happened, the temperature is still up there but the foam is all but gone.

Into the ice bath. I used a lot less ice than I though, only a 20lb bag. I had bought 60lbs thinking I was going to need to keep adding more to the bath. But the ice held up, and the temp dropped very fast, until it got to about 110. Then it stalled pretty bad, but I was expecting that as I have read several articles about the cooling process. Soon I hope to invest in a chiller of some sort.

Here we are just barely under the 100 degree mark.

Finally to the 80 degree range, so I pour it into my 6.5 gallon glass carboy and add water up to the 5 gallon mark. Got lots of foam doing this, and I also shook it up as best as I could to aerate it as well as I could. 

 I took a hydrometer reading, and it came up in the 1.050 area, hard to read because of the foam on the top. The kit instructions indicate an OG of 1.049, so I figured I was pretty close.

Just a picture I took while taking the hydrometer reading.

I meant to take a picture of the fully inflated yeast pack, and it was fully inflated. But here I am pitching it into the carboy.

I took the bung and the airlock out of the sanitizer bucket I had everything soaking in and put them in place.  At this point I was pretty excited about how well things had been going. I was also tired. It was 1am.

In the basement closet where the carboy will spend its time waiting, I have a thermometer hung. 67 degrees in there, which is a good temperature for this yeast. 

I also have a temperature strip on the side of the carboy, it was showing 68 degrees when I put it in its resting place. 

All in all, I had a blast. My wife helped me out as well, and both of us can't wait until we get the the next stage so we can free up our fermenting carboy and brew another batch up. It will be 6 weeks or more until we get to taste our product. I am looking forward to more brew days and more tasting days. But if we do it right, this 6 week period will be the only long wait we will have, as long as we keep a rotation brewing. Things I learned, cleanliness is everything, and time consuming. I knew there was going to be a lot of time cleaning and sanitizing, but it doesn't really hit you until you get there yourself. All in all, it was about a 6 hour job, but with planning, I think I can get the process down to 4 hours or so. But we'll see. It's not like its a tedious process, and was a lot of fun.

I just hope it tastes as good as I imagine.

Happy Brewing!

An Introduction

Hello to anyone who decides to read this blog. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Nick, and this is going to be my Home Brewing Blog. I will be posting here about my experiences as I start my new hobby.

You see, I love craft beer, and I live in an area where it is not the easiest thing to find. One of my good friends turned me on to the idea of Home Brewing, and after numerous hours spent on websites like Northernbrewer.com I ended up ordering my Deluxe Starter Kit.

Upon the advice of the same friend, I also picked up a book, How to Brew, and started reading that. It was very informative, and I am still working my way through the book, learning more and more about the intricacies of brewing.

After some more looking online, I decided to order two beer kits from Northern Brewer; the Bavarian Hefeweizen Extract Kit and the Caribou Slobber Extract Kit w/ Specialty Grains Kit.

On May 31st 2011, I had my first ever Brew Day. I decided to go with the Bavarian Hefeweizen Extract Kit as my first batch. Details to follow in my next entry.