Well... we haven't updated in a while, a lot has happened since we brewed our first beer. The kolsch was great. everyone liked it, and i can not complain myself. We brewed it again for our engagement party. Yes we are engaged, which is what happened since the last post. Jason and I believe it was alot better than the 1st batch. I think we are going to brew it one more time and kind of experiment with different ingredients. Jason also brewed an IPA with our friend Joseph that was a huge hit. They put in a small keg, and it was almost finished besides 1 growler. We have made a label for each beer to include in our "sketchpad series".
Our next batch is... you guess it... has something to do with cherries. ;) we are starting tonight on a cherry stout, where we have been soaking oak chips in bourbon and some in red wine. We will be brewing the stout and put 3 gallons with the bourbon chips and 3 gallons with the red wine chips, and the remaining as a regular cherry stout. It should be interesting!
our 5-10 year plan to start our brewery in the mid west is really coming along...
until next time
-A
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Kolsch Brew - 1st brew together.
Well, the time has come to give you the next brew. Today Jason and myself (April) are brewing Kolsch style beer. This style is distinctive to Cologne, Germany. If you were to have an American beer with Kolsch style labeling, it is exactly that "Kolsch style". It is not considered to be 100% Kolsch, because of it being protected under law it must be directly from this area of Germany. It is like a Pilsner than any other beer I can think of. It is light in color, and has a less bitter kick to it than an actual pilsner, while being pleasantly smooth and refreshing. Its basically in my opinion the best beer to have on those hot summer days! One of my favorite styles of beer actually.
We actually have chosen to work with some pre-made recipes for the first couple of batchs of beer we want to do, so once we get everything down pat, we can start making our own recipes and really getting into it with the extra added ingredients. So we got the recipe from liquid brewing.
Sanitizing and cleaning everything was a very first step, so that way the beer has a less chance of getting infected. Since we only have a 5 gallon pot we have to split up the boiling process of the water to make sure that is disinfected as well. We first used 3 gallons of distilled water to boil, then after boiling took it off heat to cool down. That was a pain because this is where a wort chiller would of came in great need, but as of right now we had to make do with what we had on hand... ice packs and sink full of cold water. Once we got those 3 gallons to a lower temp. we transferred it into our fermenting bucket, so we could start with our other 2 gallons to mix in a boil with our first hop pellets ( Tettnang hops). We will bring this mixture up to a boil, then turn heat off and remove from the burner. Once done we will stir in slowly our malt extract and dry malt until it slowly dissolves, then returning it to the heat again to a boil for 30 minutes.
The smell in the house is of course the smell of wort (yum) it smells really good in our opinon. the smell of syrup is pretty much it in a nutshell, because of the malt. Now that the 30 minutes is up we have added the Hallertau hops and boiling that for 10 minutes, then adding the Saaz hops for another 5 minutes. Once that is completely done we will begin transporting the wort into our fermenting bucket, but yet again our handy dandy ice packs and our sink is going to help us get the wort from 200 degrees down to hopefully about 100 degrees before we pour the mixture through a strainer into the fermenting bucket. We had a little trouble pouring the wort into the bucket with the strainer because the strainer is completely flat, but we finally got it.
Waiting for everything to cool around 90 degrees and then we will be taking a hydrometer reading which is supposed to be at 1.050-1.055 for beginning specific gravity before we introduce the yeast into it. Gravity ranges are different based on the type and style of beer, which is also how you can read the percentage of alcohol in the beer as well.
Hydrometer reading at beginning :1.043 looks like we might be a little off. but im not too worried.
The yeast is now in the fermenting bucket and we have sealed it and stowed it away in our 2nd bathroom.
I think we are going to wait about a week to see if the fermenting has stopped and if so then bottling time!
Dont have exact name yet for this one. Because it is a recipe batch i think we will just name it recipe 1 kolsch.
Up next Jason and I will be conducting a blind taste test of other ciders and our cider. we will post the results... :\ i hope its a good result!
We actually have chosen to work with some pre-made recipes for the first couple of batchs of beer we want to do, so once we get everything down pat, we can start making our own recipes and really getting into it with the extra added ingredients. So we got the recipe from liquid brewing.
Sanitizing and cleaning everything was a very first step, so that way the beer has a less chance of getting infected. Since we only have a 5 gallon pot we have to split up the boiling process of the water to make sure that is disinfected as well. We first used 3 gallons of distilled water to boil, then after boiling took it off heat to cool down. That was a pain because this is where a wort chiller would of came in great need, but as of right now we had to make do with what we had on hand... ice packs and sink full of cold water. Once we got those 3 gallons to a lower temp. we transferred it into our fermenting bucket, so we could start with our other 2 gallons to mix in a boil with our first hop pellets ( Tettnang hops). We will bring this mixture up to a boil, then turn heat off and remove from the burner. Once done we will stir in slowly our malt extract and dry malt until it slowly dissolves, then returning it to the heat again to a boil for 30 minutes.
The smell in the house is of course the smell of wort (yum) it smells really good in our opinon. the smell of syrup is pretty much it in a nutshell, because of the malt. Now that the 30 minutes is up we have added the Hallertau hops and boiling that for 10 minutes, then adding the Saaz hops for another 5 minutes. Once that is completely done we will begin transporting the wort into our fermenting bucket, but yet again our handy dandy ice packs and our sink is going to help us get the wort from 200 degrees down to hopefully about 100 degrees before we pour the mixture through a strainer into the fermenting bucket. We had a little trouble pouring the wort into the bucket with the strainer because the strainer is completely flat, but we finally got it.
Waiting for everything to cool around 90 degrees and then we will be taking a hydrometer reading which is supposed to be at 1.050-1.055 for beginning specific gravity before we introduce the yeast into it. Gravity ranges are different based on the type and style of beer, which is also how you can read the percentage of alcohol in the beer as well.
Hydrometer reading at beginning :1.043 looks like we might be a little off. but im not too worried.
The yeast is now in the fermenting bucket and we have sealed it and stowed it away in our 2nd bathroom.
I think we are going to wait about a week to see if the fermenting has stopped and if so then bottling time!
Dont have exact name yet for this one. Because it is a recipe batch i think we will just name it recipe 1 kolsch.
Up next Jason and I will be conducting a blind taste test of other ciders and our cider. we will post the results... :\ i hope its a good result!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
A start of something new!
Jason and I (April) are very excited with our new adventure. We have started the idea of home brewing together to allow us to connect more and give us a fun activity to do together we both enjoy. Its great because we are learning so much. Jason first starting home brewing back in 2009 with a home recipe kit of an Irish stout. With being the very first try, it turned out pretty decent. we still have some to this day, and it seemed to get better with age in my opinion.
Our first time brewing together was a Hard Cider. Not exactly beer, but cider is a favorite of mine, so we started it. In 2010 we decided to put organic apple juice in the fermenting bucket mixing brown sugar and champagne yeast in as well. Jason and I actually sat the fermenting bucket with the mix in the spare closet and forgot about it for almost an entire year. (oops!) Recently, before bottling the cider, to finish we put more brown sugar, pitched another batch of champagne yeast, and acid (type has slipped our mind). We let the batch sit again in the fermenting bucket for a week. The following week we put priming sugar in the mixture and starting bottling the Cider. The Cider had to sit in the bottle two weeks to let the priming sugar mixing to allow for carbonation.
The outcome... Great! for first cider that is. I really enjoy it. We let several other family and friends try it as well and the reaction was a success!
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