My latest homebrew batch is now ready to enjoy. After the big brew day a few weeks back, the beer sat in the fermentation bucket for about two weeks before I added my dry hoping dose of simcoe hops and let that sit for another ten days or so. I then used a spare chest freezer with a temperature regulator to cold crash the beer down to roughly 37 degrees. I was hoping this would help filter the beer a bit since I didn’t have the right equipment for a secondary fermentation, but as you can see from the photo below, the beer is still really cloudy.

Hiss Hiss

I force carbonated the keg of beer for a few days and have enjoyed a couple of glasses recently. Despite the less than stellar look of the beer, the taste is easily my best homebrew yet. I’m attributing the pleasing results to my growing collection of brewing equipment as well as my increased experience with brewing techniques. Stop over for a pint sometime soon or else I’ll have to drink it all myself.

I’ve chronicled my adventures with homebrewing before, and I am ready to get back into it after taking more than a year off! Over the last year I’ve accumulated all sorts of new equipment to help with the brewing process. My family also got me a brewing kit from Listermann to really get me motivated.

This past Saturday I brewed a batch of American IPA using my new ten gallon “turkey fryer” setup. I thought for sure it would be impossible to boil over with this setup but I almost did the unthinkable. Luckily I was able to throttle down the burner and barely avoid disaster.

Outdoor Brewery

I also used my new wort chiller for the first time, and I must say that this should be at the top of every new homebrewer’s list. I was able to cool 5 gallons of boiling water to 70 degrees in twenty minutes or so. I don’t know for sure how long it took as my digital thermometer ended up breaking or at least in need of a re-calibration.

Overall it was a successful and fun day of brewing and the beer is now busy fermenting in the closet. Next up, besides brewing more regularly, would be to create a fermentation chamber out of an extra chest freezer.

After loaning my kegerator to my parents months ago, I finally have it back at my house and full of my latest batch of homebrew, the Hop Head Double IPA from Midwest Supplies.

Ingredients

Hops, Hops, Hops

Brew day for this batch was back on December 8 and everything went as expected for the most part. As I normally do, I started off with as much water in my kettle as I could leaving just enough space to avoid a boil-over. Unfortunately there was so much malt extract to add that I actually had to split the wort into another pot.

Brewing

The beer sat in the primary fermenter until December 15, at which time it was racked into a secondary and 2 ounces of cascade leaf hops were added for a dry hop finish.

Dry Hop

Out Of Primary

Into Secondary

The beer was in secondary until I kegged it on December 26. Now that the beer is fully carbonated I must admit that this has to be my best homebrew yet. Of course my love for this style of beer doesn’t hurt.

Yum!

For the first time in a while I brewed a batch of beer this past Friday. Since my in-laws were going to be out-of-town the rest of the weekend, we had them over to our house for an early father’s day celebration. My father-in-law, Chuck, has dabbled a bit with homebrewing and wanted to brew an Irish Red Ale recipe kit that he had lying around, so that’s what we did.

I considered getting a propane burner so we could brew outside, but the one I saw in the store was a little too much for me to purchase on a whim. This would have allowed for more participation from the family, but I still had my youngest brother-in-law inside and helping nearly the entire time. It never hurts to start them young, right? Nick will turn twelve later this year.

Brewmaster Nick

The entire brewing process went very smoothly. I don’t think I made one mistake the whole way, which could be a first for me. With that said it is always reassuring to wake up the next morning to find the airlock bubbling away, meaning that the beer is fermenting! I plan to try a secondary fermentation for the first time and hopefully have it bottled and ready for Chuck’s 60th birthday in about a months time.

I brewed my latest batch of beer on January 2nd.  My friend Rob came over to learn all about brewing, and I actually helped him bottle his first batch this past Sunday.  I took home a bomber bottle of his American IPA that I hope to sample in a few weeks after I give it some time to carbonate.  Anyway, back to my own batch of beer, the third Pale Ale in a row.  I’d like to think that I’m slowly perfecting the style, but the truth is that I still have some ways to go.

Things started off well with a perfect 20 minute steeping of grains at 165 degrees.  That led to the hop boil, 40 minutes with both the 1 ounce of hops from the kit, plus another ounce of cascade hops that I added in.  Unfortunately we turned our attention away from the kettle for a few minutes, and bam!  Boil over.  Not only is this messy on the stove, it also hurts the starting gravity of the batch.  The recipe said that the beginning gravity should be 1.043 to 1.045, but mine was at 1.037.  Basically this means a lower alcohol content when it is all done.  I did hit the final gravity right on the money at 1.010, so at least that part went well.  The result is only 3.5% alcohol.

After I let it sit connected to CO2 for a couple of weeks, I have had a few small samples and I’m actually happy with the way the hops came through.  However, I am not happy with the maltiness.  I’m not sure if this can also be attributed to my boil over, or maybe the fact that I bought the grains for the recipe and maybe I made a bad decision.  Perhaps the beer will grow on me, after all I do have an entire keg of it to drink now.  I’m also curious to see what other people think of it.

Over the weekend, I poured a couple of glasses of my latest homebrew for myself and a few friends.  Overall, the reactions were mixed, but I think the majority thought that it still needed more carbonation.  So we only had a glass or two that day, but over the last couple of days I’ve tried it again and I think it is much better than before.  The carbonation really helps bring out the bitterness of the Pale Ale style and gives it a nice crisp taste.  I’m the only one who has tried it again, so I may be a bit biased, but I’m sure it won’t be long before Kim or some friends decide to give it another try.  Cheers!

I recently kegged my third batch of homebrew.  This is an American style Pale Ale that I brewed on March 14th.  I then let it ferment from that day all the way until this past Saturday, April 17th.  So it sat for over a month, which may have helped increase the alcohol content.  In the past, I’ve struggled to get the final gravity as low as they recipe said it should be.  However, this time it started at 1.051 and went all the way down to 1.012.  That equates to 5.11% ABV making it my strongest beer yet!

I poured a small sample of the beer last night, and it tasted a little bitter but overall pretty mellow.  It definitely still needs some carbonation, so I’ll continue rocking the keg and letting it sit connected to the CO2 tank and hopefully it will be tasting great by this coming weekend.  I would have liked for it to be ready for a gathering at our house tonight, but I don’t think it’s quite there yet.  Though I may dish out a few samples anyway.  Since the kegging day was the day between my dad and my brother’s birthdays I am calling it Fabro Pale Ale, the combination of Father and Brother.

Well my second batch of homebrew is more or less complete. I kegged it a week ago and have had it hooked up to my CO2 tank since. I probably could have had it ready a little earlier had I rocked it more than the half dozen or so times that I did. We tried it this past Sunday evening, and it had a long way to go still. Our neighbors joined us for this tasting, and since it was a bust, I had them try my first batch of homebrew that I bottled awhile back.

Upon opening up a couple of the first batch bottles, I was surprised to see how carbonated the beer was. Both of our neighbors immediately said that it wasn’t too bad after their first few sips. I was shocked! So I tried it once more and I had to agree with them. It appears that it might have aged a bit since my last tasting. Maybe I won’t have to settle for using this in my cooking only. I threw a couple more bottles into the refrigerator and I hope to give it another try after work today.

I did try the second batch again last night and it was much more carbonated. It still tasted a bit fruity to me, which I’m not expecting from a Pale Ale. I’ll pour another one of these today as well so that I can compare and contrast it with the first batch. Should make for an interesting tasting session.

Update: Taste test has begun. Pictured below is batch 1 (autumn amber ale) on the left and batch 2 (english style pale ale) on the right.

In a couple hours from now I’m hoping to have my second batch of homebrew successfully kegged and then I will start the carbonation and cooling process. I just popped open the fermenter and took a specific gravity reading of 1.018. This isn’t much lower than the first batch (1.020), but the difference this time is that I started at a higher starting gravity of 1.050 (vs 1.045). This should equal out to a nice beer at 4.3% alcohol by volume.

Earlier today I made some modifications to the lines in the kegerator using this quick disconnect set, so that I can now easily switch from the lines needed for the Cornelius keg for homebrewing to the other lines and tap needed for a standard keg of beer, the Sanke keg. I also took apart my Cornerlius keg for cleaning and sanitizing. In a little bit I am going to put it all back together, finish the sanitizing and pressurization checks, and then I will move the beer from the fermenter to the keg. I’m hoping that by the end of the weekend I’ll be able to pour my first glass of Big Willie Pale Ale.

With mixed results from my first homebrew, I’ve decided to move on and start on my second batch. My parents sent a kit for Big Ben Pale Ale for my birthday a couple of months ago. I cracked open this box and finally got around to brewing it a couple of Saturdays ago. I followed pretty much the same system as I used the first time in the brew process. Once again I was happy to find some bubbling in the airlock the day after brewing, so at least the fermentation started alright. I hope it does a little better this time around, and I’m thinking it should since the fermenter is at a slightly higher temperature than the first time.

I’m hoping the fermentation will be finished this coming weekend, and then this time I will transferring it all into a Cornelius keg (also a birthday gift) instead of bottling it all. This is supposed to be much easier than bottling, and I should be able to carbonate the beer really quickly with some forced CO2. I still have to make some modifications to my lines in the kegorator, but eventually that’s exactly where this brew is going. I can’t wait to have my own beer ready and waiting on tap at all times. I just hope I enjoy this batch a little more than the last, which I’ve started using in some of my cooking. I used a bottle of the beer in place of water in a recent batch of turkey chili. I think this really added to the flavor of the food, and I’m happy I’ve found a use for it!