The Brewings and Goings-On
So a lot has happened in the past two months. Since receiving the first box of supplies on January 8th, we've gone through two more boxes, and started no less than 5 batches. We have two containers we use for our primary fermentation, a large 5-gallon glass carboy named Carl that was once a container of Mountain Valley Spring water (btw, best bottled water available) donated to us by my mom, and a small two-gallon food grade bucket wahich we've named Tubby. Carl ferments our large beer batches and Tubby is for "experimental" batches. Below is a summary of our production to date:
Carl The Carboy:
Our first batch, the German Weizen, was a great success. We used a recipe from The Beer Recipator. The recipe called for raw wheat, which we substituted with flaked wheat, but otherwise stayed with the recipe. The end product, even after just a week of bottle conditioning was awesome.
The Hard Cider was exactly what I remembered from doing this nearly ten years ago in Reed College's dorms. Apple cider strengthened with cane sugar and fermented with champagne yeast has a very distinct taste - an acquired taste, perhaps - but one I had not had in quite a while, and the experience was nostalgic.
The Altbier came out darker, and stronger, than I had anticipated. It's very tasty, but perhaps it isn't an altbier (though I'll confess I'm not really sure what I was aiming for).
So that's that for the tasted batches - the cranberry-grape experiment is one week out till tasting time, as is the Belgian - the latter of which we are eagerly anticipating.
Carl The Carboy:
- Wheat The People - German Weizen - Started on 1/8/2011
- Altbier #1 - German Altbier - Started on 2/5/2011
- Yet Unnamed - Belgian Strong Ale - Started on 2/26/2011
- Hard Cider - Started 1/19/2011
- Cranberry-Grape - Started 2/20/2011
Our first batch, the German Weizen, was a great success. We used a recipe from The Beer Recipator. The recipe called for raw wheat, which we substituted with flaked wheat, but otherwise stayed with the recipe. The end product, even after just a week of bottle conditioning was awesome.
He's very protective of his bottles.
We sanitized them thoroughly after Domo got to them.
Siphoning the Weizen from the carboy into the bottling bucket.
The bottling process has begun!
A few weeks later and it's time to taste. W is for Weizen!
Going for the perfect pour.
Delicious success!
The Hard Cider was exactly what I remembered from doing this nearly ten years ago in Reed College's dorms. Apple cider strengthened with cane sugar and fermented with champagne yeast has a very distinct taste - an acquired taste, perhaps - but one I had not had in quite a while, and the experience was nostalgic.
Getting the yeast ready to go.
Domo seal of approval.
The Altbier came out darker, and stronger, than I had anticipated. It's very tasty, but perhaps it isn't an altbier (though I'll confess I'm not really sure what I was aiming for).
Bringing it up to a boil after the grain soaking. Almost time for the hops.
Spent grain bags. I feel a sock monkey should be made out of these. (Becky)
So that's that for the tasted batches - the cranberry-grape experiment is one week out till tasting time, as is the Belgian - the latter of which we are eagerly anticipating.
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