First things first
I have completed construction of my first wort chiller!
For those who do not know, a wort chiller is a device that is used to rapidly decrease the temperature of boiling wort so one may pitch the yeast into it, thus beginning the fermentation process of beer. This is done for two reasons -- 1) Beginning the fermentation and sealing the tank earlier prevents other unwanted organisms (bacteria and such) from also taking hold in your sweet sweet wort juice. 2) Bringing the temperature down faster helps improve clarity. Before I had the wort chiller, I used ice in various forms (but always barriered, you cannot let foreign water into your beer). The first all-grain brew, if anyone remembers, used the snow that was still on the ground, except we ended up losing a lot to evaporation and had to re-add bottled water to bring it back up (and somehow we only ended like.1 off target gravity).
4.23.2011
4.20.2011
Knuttelbrau goes public
Ah, so it has been a week or two since I last wrote in this (I really don't know why, either) but what better way to get back into the swing of things than to talk about beer. What's better than beer? Nothing. Nothing is better than beer.
So, this past weekend was Blue and White. We tailgate every year, so what better venue to show the fruits of my homebrewing labor?
I brought down roughly 2 cases of "Spider-man" and the third case was approximately split between "Doppeldecker" and "Heart of the Sun-Ryes".
"Spider-man" is an American Amber Ale. It is brownish (amber) in color, has a sweet bready malt backbone and a strong but not too assertive hop character.
"Doppeldecker" is a doppelbock. I realize it looks like I bucked the tradition of ending doppelbocks with "-ator" but the full title has it, I assure you. At 8% ABV it can knock you on your ass. Due to the decocted mash, the malt is front and center in flavor and it has good head retention.
"Heart of the Sun-Ryes" is a roggenbier. It will be changed in future iterations due somewhat to the impossibility (both physically and willingly) of me repeating the exact circumstances of it being created and due to its overwhelming thickness (70% of the mash was flaked). The flavor is very good though, coming mostly from the rye and wheat.
Flavors were overall commended. I did well there.
The issues were bottles foaming or fizzing too much (one even ended up being a bottle rocket) and clarity. The foaming is rather inconsistent though.
Foaming could be by either over-carbing in the bottling process. I bottle condition my beers, carefully measure the right amount of sugar and mix it totally in the bottling bucket before filling the bottles, so I don't think it's that. The other cause is not sanitizing enough, and I think this could be the issue. I guess I'll find out after my next batch.
The clarity issue is due to not cooling my beer very rapidly and not letting the yeast fall from suspension. I could solve this by using a wort chiller (under construction) to cool it down faster and a bright tank in secondary fermentation to let more yeast fall from suspension. I don't really care about the clarity of the rye beer, I kind of want it to be cloudy like a hefeweissen, but the other two definitely need to be clearer (murky brown doesn't exactly have an appealing look).
So that's where I am at. I am currently making a wort chiller to fix the cooling issue, and may be in the market for a glass carboy to use as a bright tank. My next brew will either be an attempt at re-doing/fixing the rye beer or doing a saison or something else I've been working on.
-- Knuttel
So, this past weekend was Blue and White. We tailgate every year, so what better venue to show the fruits of my homebrewing labor?
I brought down roughly 2 cases of "Spider-man" and the third case was approximately split between "Doppeldecker" and "Heart of the Sun-Ryes".
"Spider-man" is an American Amber Ale. It is brownish (amber) in color, has a sweet bready malt backbone and a strong but not too assertive hop character.
"Doppeldecker" is a doppelbock. I realize it looks like I bucked the tradition of ending doppelbocks with "-ator" but the full title has it, I assure you. At 8% ABV it can knock you on your ass. Due to the decocted mash, the malt is front and center in flavor and it has good head retention.
"Heart of the Sun-Ryes" is a roggenbier. It will be changed in future iterations due somewhat to the impossibility (both physically and willingly) of me repeating the exact circumstances of it being created and due to its overwhelming thickness (70% of the mash was flaked). The flavor is very good though, coming mostly from the rye and wheat.
Flavors were overall commended. I did well there.
The issues were bottles foaming or fizzing too much (one even ended up being a bottle rocket) and clarity. The foaming is rather inconsistent though.
Foaming could be by either over-carbing in the bottling process. I bottle condition my beers, carefully measure the right amount of sugar and mix it totally in the bottling bucket before filling the bottles, so I don't think it's that. The other cause is not sanitizing enough, and I think this could be the issue. I guess I'll find out after my next batch.
The clarity issue is due to not cooling my beer very rapidly and not letting the yeast fall from suspension. I could solve this by using a wort chiller (under construction) to cool it down faster and a bright tank in secondary fermentation to let more yeast fall from suspension. I don't really care about the clarity of the rye beer, I kind of want it to be cloudy like a hefeweissen, but the other two definitely need to be clearer (murky brown doesn't exactly have an appealing look).
So that's where I am at. I am currently making a wort chiller to fix the cooling issue, and may be in the market for a glass carboy to use as a bright tank. My next brew will either be an attempt at re-doing/fixing the rye beer or doing a saison or something else I've been working on.
-- Knuttel
4.04.2011
Beer-Fest 2011
I had the pleasure of attending Atlantic City's annual Beer-Fest last Friday night, April 1st.
The beer vendors could both be described as voluminous and varied. It was mostly represented by American craft breweries, though there were some foreign brewers there (Unibroue, Spaten) and some of the bigger boys were also there (Sam Adams, Yeungling).
I was looking forward to Dogfishhead's offering, as they have often released very experimental beers (experiments which often go right), and are always pushing new stuff out. Sad to say, they only had 2 beers there, one of which I already had (raison d'etre). The beer I had was extremely thick and flavorful, though I forget its title. We were beckoned there by the man who had offered to be my host for the night, and he is an even bigger Dogfishhead fan than I, so it made for a satisfactory first beer.
I was also looking forward to Unibroue's offerings. They brought 4 kinds of beers, and I periodically kept stopping by to try more and more of them. I've already had their most famous beer "La fin du monde" (the end of the world), so I skipped that, but they also had "Trois Pistoles" (three guns) and a whitbeer whose name escapes me currently.
Flying Dog also had some excellent brews available. They perhaps are more known for their "gonzo" imagery, but it's all backed up. They had a coffee stout and a rauchbier available. Both of these beers were perfectly balanced -- the coffee stout not tasting too much like either coffee or beer, and the rauchbier not tasting like a cloud of smoke.
Of course I feel compelled to mention Yards' and Victory's excellent offerings as well, but I don't feel much need to go further than that. I did go back for a second sample in both though.
In the "ok, I'll go with it" category, I was kinda shocked to see displays of both Four Loko and Colt 45 (who wasn't showing their classic malt liquor, but rather a four loko kind of beverage). Technically they are both malted beverages, so i cannot say they couldn't be there. It was just interesting to see. I couldn't really get a straight answer from either of them about the caffeine content though. Worth mentioning is the replacement of Billy Dee "goes down smooth" Williams with Snoop Dogg as the spokesman of Colt 45.
Besides that, most of the booths were offering I guess what I'd call "an IPA plus 1". The American IPA has simply dominated the American craft brewing scene -- it's so simple yet so complicated, mess with the hops. Imperial Stouts and various Belgian styles are also starting to cut their way into the scene. What do the three have in common? They all can have really strong flavors and really high gravities (of course this doesn't apply to all the beers of Belgium, but you get my point).
I wish every day were Beer Fest
-- Knuttel
The beer vendors could both be described as voluminous and varied. It was mostly represented by American craft breweries, though there were some foreign brewers there (Unibroue, Spaten) and some of the bigger boys were also there (Sam Adams, Yeungling).
I was looking forward to Dogfishhead's offering, as they have often released very experimental beers (experiments which often go right), and are always pushing new stuff out. Sad to say, they only had 2 beers there, one of which I already had (raison d'etre). The beer I had was extremely thick and flavorful, though I forget its title. We were beckoned there by the man who had offered to be my host for the night, and he is an even bigger Dogfishhead fan than I, so it made for a satisfactory first beer.
I was also looking forward to Unibroue's offerings. They brought 4 kinds of beers, and I periodically kept stopping by to try more and more of them. I've already had their most famous beer "La fin du monde" (the end of the world), so I skipped that, but they also had "Trois Pistoles" (three guns) and a whitbeer whose name escapes me currently.
Flying Dog also had some excellent brews available. They perhaps are more known for their "gonzo" imagery, but it's all backed up. They had a coffee stout and a rauchbier available. Both of these beers were perfectly balanced -- the coffee stout not tasting too much like either coffee or beer, and the rauchbier not tasting like a cloud of smoke.
Of course I feel compelled to mention Yards' and Victory's excellent offerings as well, but I don't feel much need to go further than that. I did go back for a second sample in both though.
In the "ok, I'll go with it" category, I was kinda shocked to see displays of both Four Loko and Colt 45 (who wasn't showing their classic malt liquor, but rather a four loko kind of beverage). Technically they are both malted beverages, so i cannot say they couldn't be there. It was just interesting to see. I couldn't really get a straight answer from either of them about the caffeine content though. Worth mentioning is the replacement of Billy Dee "goes down smooth" Williams with Snoop Dogg as the spokesman of Colt 45.
Besides that, most of the booths were offering I guess what I'd call "an IPA plus 1". The American IPA has simply dominated the American craft brewing scene -- it's so simple yet so complicated, mess with the hops. Imperial Stouts and various Belgian styles are also starting to cut their way into the scene. What do the three have in common? They all can have really strong flavors and really high gravities (of course this doesn't apply to all the beers of Belgium, but you get my point).
I wish every day were Beer Fest
-- Knuttel
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