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.