Left Side Lager

I decided it was time to make a beer to honor the place of my birth, San Francisco. I picked up some San Francisco Lager yeast (Anchor Steam) , got a recipe, changed it a bit and then brewed a beer. I let it lager for quite a while... over 4 weeks... and at higher temperatures than normal lagering. I think it turned out nicely, it has a nice cascade aroma, and ABV is around 4.8.
I also added a little bit of rye to the recipe to add a different taste. We'll see how it turns out. I just kegged it today, so in about a week It'll be good and carbonated.

The Golden Ale turned out very well, surprisingly. I was worried that just using dry muntons yeast wouldn't create the flavors i was after, and it didn't. However the beer is very drinkable, a nice light ale with decent flavors. Next time i'll keep the recipe mostly the same, but i'll change the hops to saaz and make sure i use a belgium yeast. I really think that makes a big (huge) difference.

Now.... what to make next. I'm reading a book on farmhouse ales (naturally fermented) but i haven't gotten up enough speed to go into a brettanomyces beer or something naturally fermented. However, the latest zymurgy magazine ran this article about making saisons.... and that has peaked some interest. The last saison i enjoyed very much... Victory makes a saison, part of its V series... and its fantastic. The flavors are amazing and the yeast presence is so forward....
So perhaps a saison, or maybe a wheat beer. Something to bring in spring.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:
The hop plants from last year are growing nicely. Out of the five plants i planted, three have come back, and stronger than ever. This year i got 5 rhizomes again, and planted them in various places around the house. They say that it takes three years to get a decent harvest, and while i don't really plan to make too many beers from them, it might be nice to make a beer with local hops.

DoppleBliss

Well it didn't take 4 weeks, more like 11 days... and this is one of the best beers i've brewed. I let this age for a little longer in the secondary, and i think that made a big difference. This dopplebock has molasses in it, and it came through very nicely. There is a definite alcohol warmth.... i think i calculated alcohol to be around 8 percent. I got the recipe from The Homebrewer's recipe guide, modified it slightly and i think it came out very well. Winter is always a good time to make lagers since our cold room in the basement averages in the 40-50s...
Molasses, Caramel, Dextrine malts, light hops... mmmm... beautiful tan head... stays for as long as you drink the beer... excellent excellent head.

Bottled Doppelbock

I am looking forward to this one. Last Sunday I bottled my Dopplebock. While I swore i would never go back to bottling after kegging... i decided this beer deserved a bottle. Actually... i'm out of kegs in my fridge (can anyone say expansion?) so i decided to bottle instead. I still have the pumpkin ale and stout on tap, so i've been making some pumpkin java black and tans.

So in about 4 weeks the dopplebock will be ready to drink.. stay tuned

Another thing i thought about: my other beer that is currently lagering is a Belgium Blonde, high gravity... perhaps I should bottle this one as well...

Kegged Vanilla Java Stout

Today I kegged the Vanilla Java Stout. Final Gravity was 1.015, So ABV is going to be about 5%. In a couple days the beer will be nicely carbonated and ready to consume.
So on tap now have a pumpkin spice ale and soon to be a stout. I bottled the apricot ale, so that is also available. I need to throw a party...
Currently lagering is a Dopplebock and a Strong Golden Ale.

Strong Golden racked

Racked the Belgium Strong Golden today. SG. of 1.017, just what i was expecting. oh yeah, i sampled some before i put it in the cold room to clear. Not bad... at all. actually rather tasty.
now for 4 weeks in the cold room before i keg it...

Dopplebock racked

Today racked the dopplebock to secondary fermentation carboy. It smelled loverly. Took a gravity reading and at 1.025 we are looking good. A couple weeks more in the cold room and i'll have a nice beer. Saved some of the yeast cake...the rest i scooped out and added to the compost bin.

Reclaiming CO2 from Brewing process

Thought this was a neat way to use all that CO2 put off by the yeast:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/02/15/colorado-brewery-turning-waste-co2-from-beer-into-biodiesel/

Sustainable HomeBrewing

In this day and age its tough not to be conscientious of sustainable and eco friendly life choices. Its really not difficult to make minor modifications to the way you live you life. The human race is increasing in population and increasing in waste production every single day. I feel that as responsible humans we have a duty to make as little of an impact to the environment as possible.
I think its rather funny that as humans we have not learned from the most basic of life forms...
yeast. Yeast are simple one-celled organisms that have two purposes in their short life. Eat and Multiply. Thats it... nothing fancy at all. Yeast eat sugars and convert them to CO2 and Alcohol. To yeast, the alcohol and Co2 are waste products. To humans, the CO2 is gas and the alcohol is the end product we seek. The yeast will continue to ferment as long as there is an ample food supply and as long as the waste product is limited. Once the food supply is exhausted the yeast will die (go dormant). Once the alcohol percentage is too high, the yeast will die. Yeast will multiply so fast that usually one of the other will happen. Luckily for us, yeast don't spend too much time thinking about sustainability or conservation.

That's where my thoughts on sustainability come in. If we act like the yeast and consume and generate so much waste, we'll destroy our environment. We need to make as small of a footprint in our world as possible.

Ways to make your Homebrewing more sustainable:
1. Compost your grains, spent hops and yeast sludge if you aren't reusing it. I've got a great deal of great compost that i use for my hops plants that i grow in my backyard.
2. reuse your yeast. save some packaging. Share the yeast with other homebrewing friends.
3. Reuse (and recycle) bottles.
4. reclaim water used for chilling wort for watering plants.. or for the next brew.
5. Buy in Bulk. you'll save some money and use less packaging.
6. minimize water use in cleaning. this isn't easy... especially if you are kegging.
7. Buy locally...
8. Buy Used. Craigslist is great.
9. Make your own equipment. mash tuns, boil pots wort chillers can all be made yourself.

Fermentation Chamber woes

Bugger. So after work today i went to check on my strong golden ale, and i found that the temperature of the fermentation chamber was at 62 F. Apparently my temperature control was broken... crap double crap...
So i jerry-rigged some wiring and got the light (my heater) to go back on.

Too low of a fermentation temperature when fermenting a strong ale like this could cause:
1. a Stuck Fermentation (doesn't ferment all the way down)
2. too much estery flavors in the beer. which, might be OK, depending upon the result.

Other Ferments: Saurkraut

Saurkraut... yep. i like it... Most people i know don't... but that's OK. more for me.
First attempt at making it was initiated yesterday.
I took 1 head of cabbage, chopped it up and salted it with some kosher salt. Then i added some dill weed and some other spices, and then added to a bean pot. I packed it down and put a plate with a weight on top to compact it and release the water from the cabbage. This is an anerobic fermentation, so the idea is to keep the cabbage underneath the briney water and in a couple days (or weeks) it will be fresh saurkraut....

Brew Day (Super Bowl Sunday)

Strong Belgium Ale.
Today i decided on a whim to brew a strong belgium ale. I hadn't prepared a yeast starter so i decided to go with some Munton's yeast packets i had. OK... so this might be a different Strong ale... but that is why i started brewing... to experiment.

10 pounds of Belgium pale malt (3 lovibond) mashed at 158 degrees F for 45 minutes. After sparging i added 2 pounds of organic white sugar (sucrose) and some Magnum and Goldings Hops and boiled for 1 hour.
O.G of 1.070

pitched yeast and set temp of fermentation chamber to around 78.

Brew House setup

Currently by all grain brewing setup is as follows:

Grinding of the grain is accomplished by a Corona grain mill. I've "motorized" it using a drill attached to a nut with the head chopped off. It works great... unless i need to grind anything more than 7 pounds.....My cordless drill runs out of juice... So after that i have to grind by hand.

Mashing takes place in a converted 48 quart cooler. i've added a drain spout and connected it to a modified washer hose to provide a drainage mechanism. It works surprisingly well. Here is where the inspiration came from. Thanks to YellowDog brewery. Also, thanks to Chris Fennimore for the cooler.

I boil in a converted 7 gallon turkey fryer. I added a drain spout and bazooka screen to provide filtration. I also added a Brewmometer to determine the temperature of the water...

A recent purchase I made was to get a counter flow wort chiller. This has been one of my best purchases since moving to all grain. Now instead of having to wait hours and hours... my wort will chill in about 10-15 minutes. I think it would chill faster if i was able to get the wort through faster, but its still better than what i was used to.

Fermentation is accomplished in a number of different carboys and buckets. I also built a fermentation chamber (ok... its a plywood box) that allows me to keep a warmer temperature in my cold basement, especially in the colder months of the year.

I keg in 5 gallon soda pop canisters. Sometimes i bottle, but bottling can be a sanitation/cleaning pain...
I also built a kegerator to store my wares...